Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 1
by Edward Gibbon
Hypertext Meanings and Commentaries
from the Encyclopedia of the Self
by Mark Zimmerman
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     M. St. Martin has a learned note (to Le Beau, v. 261) on the
origin of the Vandals. The difficulty appears to be in rejecting
the close analogy of the name with the Vend or Wendish race, who
were of Sclavonian, not of Suevian or German, origin. M. St.
Martin supposes that the different races spread from the head of
the Adriatic to the Baltic, and even the Veneti, on the shores of
the Adriatic, the Vindelici, the tribes which gave their name to
Vindobena, Vindoduna, Vindonissa, were branches of the same stock
with the Sclavonian Venedi, who at one time gave their name to
the Baltic; that they all spoke dialects of the Wendish language,
which still prevails in Carinthia, Carniola, part of Bohemia, and
Lusatia, and is hardly extinct in Mecklenburgh and Pomerania.
The Vandal race, once so fearfully celebrated in the annals of
mankind, has so utterly perished from the face of the earth, that
we are not aware that any vestiges of their language can be
traced, so as to throw light on the disputed question of their
German, their Sclavonian, or independent origin. The weight of
ancient authority seems against M. St. Martin's opinion.
Compare, on the Vandals, Malte Brun. 394. Also Gibbon's note, c.
xli. n. 38. - M.]

     In the age of the Antonines, the Goths were still seated in
Prussia. About the reign of Alexander Severus, the Roman province
of Dacia had already experienced their proximity by frequent and
destructive inroads. ^19 In this interval, therefore, of about
seventy years, we must place the second migration of about
seventy years, we must place the second migration of the Goths
from the Baltic to the Euxine; but the cause that produced it
lies concealed among the various motives which actuate the
conduct of unsettled barbarians. Either a pestilence or a
famine, a victory or a defeat, an oracle of the gods or the
eloquence of a daring leader, were sufficient to impel the Gothic
arms on the milder climates of the south. Besides the influence
of a martial religion, the numbers and spirit of the Goths were
equal to the most dangerous adventures. The use of round
bucklers and short swords rendered them formidable in a close
engagement; the manly obedience which they yielded to hereditary
kings, gave uncommon union and stability to their councils; ^20
and the renowned Amala, the hero of that age, and the tenth
ancestor of Theodoric, king of Italy, enforced, by the ascendant
of personal merit, the prerogative of his birth, which he derived
from the Anses, or demi gods of the Gothic nation. ^21

[Footnote 19: See a fragment of Peter Patricius in the Excerpta
Legationum and with regard to its probable date, see Tillemont,
Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 346.]

[Footnote 20: Omnium harum gentium insigne, rotunda scuta, breves
gladii, et erga rages obsequium. Tacit. Germania, c. 43. The
Goths probably acquired their iron by the commerce of amber.]

[Footnote 21: Jornandes, c. 13, 14.]

     The fame of a great enterprise excited the bravest warriors
from all the Vandalic states of Germany, many of whom are seen a
few years afterwards combating under the common standard of the
Goths. ^22 The first motions of the emigrants carried them to the
banks of the Prypec, a river universally conceived by the
ancients to be the southern branch of the Borysthenes. ^23 The
windings of that great stream through the plains of Poland and
Russia gave a direction to their line of march, and a constant
supply of fresh water and pasturage to their numerous herds of
cattle. They followed the unknown course of the river, confident
in their valor, and careless of whatever power might oppose their
progress. The Bastarnae and the Venedi were the first who
presented themselves; and the flower of their youth, either from
choice or compulsion, increased the Gothic army. The Bastarnae
dwelt on the northern side of the Carpathian Mountains: the
immense tract of land that separated the Bastarnae from the
savages of Finland was possessed, or rather wasted, by the
Venedi; ^24 we have some reason to believe that the first of
these nations, which distinguished itself in the Macedonian war,
^25 and was afterwards divided into the formidable tribes of the
Peucini, the Borani, the Carpi, &c., derived its origin from the
Germans. ^* With better authority, a Sarmatian extraction may be
assigned to the Venedi, who rendered themselves so famous in the
middle ages. ^26 But the confusion of blood and manners on that
doubtful frontier often perplexed the most accurate observers.
^27 As the Goths advanced near the Euxine Sea, they encountered a
purer race of Sarmatians, the Jazyges, the Alani, ^!! and the
Roxolani; and they were probably the first Germans who saw the
mouths of the Borysthenes, and of the Tanais. If we inquire into
the characteristic marks of the people of Germany and of
Sarmatia, we shall discover that those two great portions of
human kind were principally distinguished by fixed huts or
movable tents, by a close dress or flowing garments, by the
marriage of one or of several wives, by a military force,
consisting, for the most part, either of infantry or cavalry; and
above all, by the use of the Teutonic, or of the Sclavonian
language; the last of which has been diffused by conquest, from
the confines of Italy to the neighborhood of Japan.

[Footnote 22: The Heruli, and the Uregundi or Burgundi, are
particularly mentioned. See Mascou's History of the Germans, l.
v. A passage in the Augustan History, p. 28, seems to allude to
this great emigration. The Marcomannic war was partly occasioned
by the pressure of barbarous tribes, who fled before the arms of
more northern barbarians.]

[Footnote 23: D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, and the third part
of his incomparable map of Europe.]

[Footnote 24: Tacit. Germania, c. 46.]

[Footnote 25: Cluver. Germ. Antiqua, l. iii. c. 43.]

[Footnote *: The Bastarnae cannot be considered original
inhabitants of Germany Strabo and Tacitus appear to doubt it;
Pliny alone calls them Germans: Ptolemy and Dion treat them as
Scythians, a vague appellation at this period of history; Livy,
Plutarch, and Diodorus Siculus, call them Gauls, and this is the
most probable opinion. They descended from the Gauls who entered
Germany under Signoesus. They are always found associated with
other Gaulish tribes, such as the Boll, the Taurisci, &c., and
not to the German tribes. The names of their chiefs or princes,
Chlonix, Chlondicus. Deldon, are not German names. Those who
were settled in the island of Peuce in the Danube, took the name
of Peucini.

     The Carpi appear in 237 as a Suevian tribe who had made an
irruption into Maesia. Afterwards they reappear under the
Ostrogoths, with whom they were probably blended. Adelung, p.
236, 278. - G.]

[Footnote 26: The Venedi, the Slavi, and the Antes, were the
three great tribes of the same people. Jornandes, 24.

     Note Dagger: They formed the great Sclavonian nation. - G.]
[Footnote 27: Tacitus most assuredly deserves that title, and
even his cautious suspense is a proof of his diligent inquiries.]

[Footnote !!: Jac. Reineggs supposed that he had found, in the
mountains of Caucasus, some descendants of the Alani. The
Tartars call them Edeki-Alan: they speak a peculiar dialect of
the ancient language of the Tartars of Caucasus. See J.
Reineggs' Descr. of Caucasus, p. 11, 13. - G.
     According to Klaproth, they are the Ossetes of the present
day in Mount Caucasus and were the same with the Albanians of
antiquity. Klaproth, Hist. de l'Asie, p. 180. - M.]

Chapter X: Emperors Decius, Gallus, Aemilianus, Valerian And
Gallienus.

Part II.

     The Goths were now in possession of the Ukraine, a country
of considerable extent and uncommon fertility, intersected with
navigable rivers, which, from either side, discharge themselves
into the Borysthenes; and interspersed with large and leafy
forests of oaks. The plenty of game and fish, the innumerable
bee-hives deposited in the hollow of old trees, and in the
cavities of rocks, and forming, even in that rude age, a valuable
branch of commerce, the size of the cattle, the temperature of
the air, the aptness of the soil for every species of gain, and
the luxuriancy of the vegetation, all displayed the liberality of
Nature, and tempted the industry of man. ^28 But the Goths
withstood all these temptations, and still adhered to a life of
idleness, of poverty, and of rapine.

[Footnote 28: Genealogical History of the Tartars, p. 593. Mr.
Bell (vol. ii. p 379) traversed the Ukraine, in his journey from
Petersburgh to Constantinople. The modern face of the country is
a just representation of the ancient, since, in the hands of the
Cossacks, it still remains in a state of nature.]

     The Scythian hordes, which, towards the east, bordered on
the new settlements of the Goths, presented nothing to their
arms, except the doubtful chance of an unprofitable victory. But
the prospect of the Roman territories was far more alluring; and
the fields of Dacia were covered with rich harvests, sown by the
hands of an industrious, and exposed to be gathered by those of a
warlike, people. It is probable that the conquests of Trajan,
maintained by his successors, less for any real advantage than
for ideal dignity, had contributed to weaken the empire on that
side. The new and unsettled province of Dacia was neither strong
enough to resist, nor rich enough to satiate, the rapaciousness
of the barbarians. As long as the remote banks of the Niester
were considered as the boundary of the Roman power, the
fortifications of the Lower Danube were more carelessly guarded,
and the inhabitants of Maesia lived in supine security, fondly
conceiving themselves at an inaccessible distance from any
barbarian invaders. The irruptions of the Goths, under the reign
of Philip, fatally convinced them of their mistake. The king, or
leader, of that fierce nation, traversed with contempt the
province of Dacia, and passed both the Niester and the Danube
without encountering any opposition capable of retarding his
progress. The relaxed discipline of the Roman troops betrayed
the most important posts, where they were stationed, and the fear
of deserved punishment induced great numbers of them to enlist
under the Gothic standard. The various multitude of barbarians
appeared, at length, under the walls of Marcianopolis, a city
built by Trajan in honor of his sister, and at that time the
capital of the second Maesia. ^29 The inhabitants consented to
ransom their lives and property by the payment of a large sum of
money, and the invaders retreated back into their deserts,
animated, rather than satisfied, with the first success of their
arms against an opulent but feeble country. Intelligence was
soon transmitted to the emperor Decius, that Cniva, king of the
Goths, had passed the Danube a second time, with more
considerable forces; that his numerous detachments scattered
devastation over the province of Maesia, whilst the main body of
the army, consisting of seventy thousand Germans and Sarmatians,
a force equal to the most daring achievements, required the
presence of the Roman monarch, and the exertion of his military
power.
[Footnote 29: In the sixteenth chapter of Jornandes, instead of
secundo Maesiam we may venture to substitute secundam, the second
Maesia, of which Marcianopolis was certainly the capital. (See
Hierocles de Provinciis, and Wesseling ad locum, p. 636.
Itinerar.) It is surprising how this palpable error of the scribe
should escape the judicious correction of Grotius.
     Note: Luden has observed that Jornandes mentions two
passages over the Danube; this relates to the second irruption
into Maesia. Geschichte des T V. ii. p. 448. - M.]

     Decius found the Goths engaged before Nicopolis, one of the
many monuments of Trajan's victories. ^30 On his approach they
raised the siege, but with a design only of marching away to a
conquest of greater importance, the siege of Philippopolis, a
city of Thrace, founded by the father of Alexander, near the foot
of Mount Haemus. ^31 Decius followed them through a difficult
country, and by forced marches; but when he imagined himself at a
considerable distance from the rear of the Goths, Cniva turned
with rapid fury on his pursuers. The camp of the Romans was
surprised and pillaged, and, for the first time, their emperor
fled in disorder before a troop of half-armed barbarians. After
a long resistance, Philoppopolis, destitute of succor, was taken
by storm. A hundred thousand persons are reported to have been
massacred in the sack of that great city. ^32 Many prisoners of
consequence became a valuable accession to the spoil; and
Priscus, a brother of the late emperor Philip, blushed not to
assume the purple, under the protection of the barbarous enemies
of Rome. ^33 The time, however, consumed in that tedious siege,
enabled Decius to revive the courage, restore the discipline, and
recruit the numbers of his troops. He intercepted several
parties of Carpi, and other Germans, who were hastening to share
the victory of their countrymen, ^34 intrusted the passes of the
mountains to officers of approved valor and fidelity, ^35
repaired and strengthened the fortifications of the Danube, and
exerted his utmost vigilance to oppose either the progress or the
retreat of the Goths. Encouraged by the return of fortune, he
anxiously waited for an opportunity to retrieve, by a great and
decisive blow, his own glory, and that of the Roman arms. ^36

[Footnote 30: The place is still called Nicop. D'Anville,
Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 307. The little stream, on whose
banks it stood, falls into the Danube.]

[Footnote 31: Stephan. Byzant. de Urbibus, p. 740. Wesseling,
Itinerar. p. 136. Zonaras, by an odd mistake, ascribes the
foundation of Philippopolis to the immediate predecessor of
Decius.

     Note: Now Philippopolis or Philiba; its situation among the
hills caused it to be also called Trimontium. D'Anville, Geog.
Anc. i. 295. - G.]
[Footnote 32: Ammian. xxxi. 5.]

[Footnote 33: Aurel. Victor. c. 29.]

[Footnote 34: Victorioe Carpicoe, on some medals of Decius,
insinuate these advantages.]

[Footnote 35: Claudius (who afterwards reigned with so much
glory) was posted in the pass of Thermopylae with 200 Dardanians,
100 heavy and 160 light horse, 60 Cretan archers, and 1000
well-armed recruits. See an original letter from the emperor to
his officer, in the Augustan History, p. 200.]
[Footnote 36: Jornandes, c. 16 - 18. Zosimus, l. i. p. 22. In
the general account of this war, it is easy to discover the
opposite prejudices of the Gothic and the Grecian writer. In
carelessness alone they are alike.]
     At the same time when Decius was struggling with the
violence of the tempest, his mind, calm and deliberate amidst the
tumult of war, investigated the more general causes, that, since
the age of the Antonines, had so impetuously urged the decline of
the Roman greatness. He soon discovered that it was impossible
to replace that greatness on a permanent basis, without restoring
public virtue, ancient principles and manners, and the oppressed
majesty of the laws. To execute this noble but arduous design,
he first resolved to revive the obsolete office of censor; an
office which, as long as it had subsisted in its pristine
integrity, had so much contributed to the perpetuity of the
state, ^37 till it was usurped and gradually neglected by the
Caesars. ^38 Conscious that the favor of the sovereign may confer
power, but that the esteem of the people can alone bestow
authority, he submitted the choice of the censor to the unbiased
voice of the senate. By their unanimous votes, or rather
acclamations, Valerian, who was afterwards emperor, and who then
served with distinction in the army of Decius, was declared the
most worthy of that exalted honor. As soon as the decree of the
senate was transmitted to the emperor, he assembled a great
council in his camp, and before the investiture of the censor
elect, he apprised him of the difficulty and importance of his
great office. "Happy Valerian," said the prince to his
distinguished subject, "happy in the general approbation of the
senate and of the Roman republic! Accept the censorship of
mankind; and judge of our manners. You will select those who
deserve to continue members of the senate; you will restore the
equestrian order to its ancient splendor; you will improve the
revenue, yet moderate the public burdens. You will distinguish
into regular classes the various and infinite multitude of
citizens, and accurately view the military strength, the wealth,
the virtue, and the resources of Rome. Your decisions shall
obtain the force of laws. The army, the palace, the ministers of
justice, and the great officers of the empire, are all subject to
your tribunal. None are exempted, excepting only the ordinary
consuls, ^39 the praefect of the city, the king of the
sacrifices, and (as long as she preserves her chastity inviolate)
the eldest of the vestal virgins. Even these few, who may not
dread the severity, will anxiously solicit the esteem, of the
Roman censor." ^40

[Footnote 37: Montesquieu, Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, c.
viii. He illustrates the nature and use of the censorship with
his usual ingenuity, and with uncommon precision.]

[Footnote 38: Vespasian and Titus were the last censors, (Pliny,
Hist. Natur vii. 49. Censorinus de Die Natali.) The modesty of
Trajan refused an honor which he deserved, and his example became
a law to the Antonines. See Pliny's Panegyric, c. 45 and 60.]

[Footnote 39: Yet in spite of his exemption, Pompey appeared
before that tribunal during his consulship. The occasion,
indeed, was equally singular and honorable. Plutarch in Pomp. p.
630.]

[Footnote 40: See the original speech in the Augustan Hist. p.
173-174.]
     A magistrate, invested with such extensive powers, would
have appeared not so much the minister, as the colleague of his
sovereign. ^41 Valerian justly dreaded an elevation so full of
envy and of suspicion. He modestly argued the alarming greatness
of the trust, his own insufficiency, and the incurable corruption
of the times. He artfully insinuated, that the office of censor
was inseparable from the Imperial dignity, and that the feeble
hands of a subject were unequal to the support of such an immense
weight of cares and of power. ^42 The approaching event of war
soon put an end to the prosecution of a project so specious, but
so impracticable; and whilst it preserved Valerian from the
danger, saved the emperor Decius from the disappointment, which
would most probably have attended it. A censor may maintain, he
can never restore, the morals of a state. It is impossible for
such a magistrate to exert his authority with benefit, or even
with effect, unless he is supported by a quick sense of honor and
virtue in the minds of the people, by a decent reverence for the
public opinion, and by a train of useful prejudices combating on
the side of national manners. In a period when these principles
are annihilated, the censorial jurisdiction must either sink into
empty pageantry, or be converted into a partial instrument of
vexatious oppression. ^43 It was easier to vanquish the Goths
than to eradicate the public vices; yet even in the first of
these enterprises, Decius lost his army and his life.

[Footnote 41: This transaction might deceive Zonaras, who
supposes that Valerian was actually declared the colleague of
Decius, l. xii. p. 625.]
[Footnote 42: Hist. August. p. 174. The emperor's reply is
omitted.]
[Footnote 43: Such as the attempts of Augustus towards a
reformation of manness. Tacit. Annal. iii. 24.]

     The Goths were now, on every side, surrounded and pursued by
the Roman arms. The flower of their troops had perished in the
long siege of Philippopolis, and the exhausted country could no
longer afford subsistence for the remaining multitude of
licentious barbarians. Reduced to this extremity, the Goths
would gladly have purchased, by the surrender of all their booty
and prisoners, the permission of an undisturbed retreat. But the
emperor, confident of victory, and resolving, by the chastisement
of these invaders, to strike a salutary terror into the nations
of the North, refused to listen to any terms of accommodation.
The high-spirited barbarians preferred death to slavery. An
obscure town of Maesia, called Forum Terebronii, ^44 was the
scene of the battle. The Gothic army was drawn up in three
lines, and either from choice or accident, the front of the third
line was covered by a morass. In the beginning of the action,
the son of Decius, a youth of the fairest hopes, and already
associated to the honors of the purple, was slain by an arrow, in
the sight of his afflicted father; who, summoning all his
fortitude, admonished the dismayed troops, that the loss of a
single soldier was of little importance to the republic. ^45 The
conflict was terrible; it was the combat of despair against grief
and rage. The first line of the Goths at length gave way in
disorder; the second, advancing to sustain it, shared its fate;
and the third only remained entire, prepared to dispute the
passage of the morass, which was imprudently attempted by the
presumption of the enemy. "Here the fortune of the day turned,
and all things became adverse to the Romans; the place deep with
ooze, sinking under those who stood, slippery to such as
advanced; their armor heavy, the waters deep; nor could they
wield, in that uneasy situation, their weighty javelins. The
barbarians, on the contrary, were inured to encounter in the
bogs, their persons tall, their spears long, such as could wound
at a distance." ^46 In this morass the Roman army, after an
ineffectual struggle, was irrecoverably lost; nor could the body
of the emperor ever be found. ^47 Such was the fate of Decius, in
the fiftieth year of his age; an accomplished prince, active in
war and affable in peace; ^48 who, together with his son, has
deserved to be compared, both in life and death, with the
brightest examples of ancient virtue. ^49

[Footnote 44: Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, tom. iii. p.
598. As Zosimus and some of his followers mistake the Danube for
the Tanais, they place the field of battle in the plains of
Scythia.]

[Footnote 45: Aurelius Victor allows two distinct actions for the
deaths of the two Decii; but I have preferred the account of
Jornandes.]
[Footnote 46: I have ventured to copy from Tacitus (Annal. i. 64)
the picture of a similar engagement between a Roman army and a
German tribe.]
[Footnote 47: Jornandes, c. 18. Zosimus, l. i. p. 22, [c. 23.]
Zonaras, l. xii. p. 627. Aurelius Victor.]

[Footnote 48: The Decii were killed before the end of the year
two hundred and fifty-one, since the new princes took possession
of the consulship on the ensuing calends of January.]

[Footnote 49: Hist. August. p. 223, gives them a very honorable
place among the small number of good emperors who reigned between
Augustus and Diocletian.]

     This fatal blow humbled, for a very little time, she
insolence of the legions. They appeared to have patiently
expected, and submissively obeyed, the decree of the senate which
regulated the succession to the throne. From a just regard for
the memory of Decius, the Imperial title was conferred on
Hostilianus, his only surviving son; but an equal rank, with more
effectual power, was granted to Gallus, whose experience and
ability seemed equal to the great trust of guardian to the young
prince and the distressed empire. ^50 The first care of the new
emperor was to deliver the Illyrian provinces from the
intolerable weight of the victorious Goths. He consented to
leave in their hands the rich fruits of their invasion, an
immense booty, and what was still more disgraceful, a great
number of prisoners of the highest merit and quality. He
plentifully supplied their camp with every conveniency that could
assuage their angry spirits or facilitate their so much
wished-for departure; and he even promised to pay them annually a
large sum of gold, on condition they should never afterwards
infest the Roman territories by their incursions. ^51

[Footnote 50: Haec ubi Patres comperere . . . . decernunt.
Victor in Caesaribus.]

[Footnote 51: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 628.]

     In the age of the Scipios, the most opulent kings of the
earth, who courted the protection of the victorious commonwealth,
were gratified with such trifling presents as could only derive a
value from the hand that bestowed them; an ivory chair, a coarse
garment of purple, an inconsiderable piece of plate, or a
quantity of copper coin. ^52 After the wealth of nations had
centred in Rome, the emperors displayed their greatness, and even
their policy, by the regular exercise of a steady and moderate
liberality towards the allies of the state. They relieved the
poverty of the barbarians, honored their merit, and recompensed
their fidelity. These voluntary marks of bounty were understood
to flow, not from the fears, but merely from the generosity or
the gratitude of the Romans; and whilst presents and subsidies
were liberally distributed among friends and suppliants, they
were sternly refused to such as claimed them as a debt. ^53 But
this stipulation, of an annual payment to a victorious enemy,
appeared without disguise in the light of an ignominious tribute;
the minds of the Romans were not yet accustomed to accept such
unequal laws from a tribe of barbarians; and the prince, who by a
necessary concession had probably saved his country, became the
object of the general contempt and aversion. The death of
Hostiliamus, though it happened in the midst of a raging
pestilence, was interpreted as the personal crime of Gallus; ^54
and even the defeat of the later emperor was ascribed by the
voice of suspicion to the perfidious counsels of his hated
successor. ^55 The tranquillity which the empire enjoyed during
the first year of his administration, ^56 served rather to
inflame than to appease the public discontent; and as soon as the
apprehensions of war were removed, the infamy of the peace was
more deeply and more sensibly felt.

[Footnote 52: A Sella, a Toga, and a golden Patera of five pounds
weight, were accepted with joy and gratitude by the wealthy king
of Egypt. (Livy, xxvii. 4.) Quina millia Aeris, a weight of
copper, in value about eighteen pounds sterling, was the usual
present made to foreign are ambassadors. (Livy, xxxi. 9.)]

[Footnote 53: See the firmness of a Roman general so late as the
time of Alexander Severus, in the Excerpta Legationum, p. 25,
edit. Louvre.]
[Footnote 54: For the plague, see Jornandes, c. 19, and Victor in
Caesaribus.]

[Footnote 55: These improbable accusations are alleged by
Zosimus, l. i. p. 28, 24.]

[Footnote 56: Jornandes, c. 19. The Gothic writer at least
observed the peace which his victorious countrymen had sworn to
Gallus.]
     But the Romans were irritated to a still higher degree, when
they discovered that they had not even secured their repose,
though at the expense of their honor. The dangerous secret of
the wealth and weakness of the empire had been revealed to the
world. New swarms of barbarians, encouraged by the success, and
not conceiving themselves bound by the obligation of their
brethren, spread devastation though the Illyrian provinces, and
terror as far as the gates of Rome. The defence of the monarchy,
which seemed abandoned by the pusillanimous emperor, was assumed
by Aemilianus, governor of Pannonia and Maesia; who rallied the
scattered forces, and revived the fainting spirits of the troops.

The barbarians were unexpectedly attacked, routed, chased, and
pursued beyond the Danube. The victorious leader distributed as
a donative the money collected for the tribute, and the
acclamations of the soldiers proclaimed him emperor on the field
of battle. ^57 Gallus, who, careless of the general welfare,
indulged himself in the pleasures of Italy, was almost in the
same instant informed of the success, of the revolt, and of the
rapid approach of his aspiring lieutenant. He advanced to meet
him as far as the plains of Spoleto. When the armies came in
right of each other, the soldiers of Gallus compared the
ignominious conduct of their sovereign with the glory of his
rival. They admired the valor of Aemilianus; they were attracted
by his liberality, for he offered a considerable increase of pay
to all deserters. ^58 The murder of Gallus, and of his son
Volusianus, put an end to the civil war; and the senate gave a
legal sanction to the rights of conquest. The letters of
Aemilianus to that assembly displayed a mixture of moderation and
vanity. He assured them, that he should resign to their wisdom
the civil administration; and, contenting himself with the
quality of their general, would in a short time assert the glory
of Rome, and deliver the empire from all the barbarians both of
the North and of the East. ^59 His pride was flattered by the
applause of the senate; and medals are still extant, representing
him with the name and attributes of Hercules the Victor, and Mars
the Avenger. ^60
[Footnote 57: Zosimus, l. i. p. 25, 26.]

[Footnote 58: Victor in Caesaribus.]

[Footnote 59: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 628.]

[Footnote 60: Banduri Numismata, p. 94.]

     If the new monarch possessed the abilities, he wanted the
time, necessary to fulfil these splendid promises. Less than
four months intervened between his victory and his fall. ^61 He
had vanquished Gallus: he sunk under the weight of a competitor
more formidable than Gallus. That unfortunate prince had sent
Valerian, already distinguished by the honorable title of censor,
to bring the legions of Gaul and Germany ^62 to his aid. Valerian
executed that commission with zeal and fidelity; and as he
arrived too late to save his sovereign, he resolved to revenge
him. The troops of Aemilianus, who still lay encamped in the
plains of Spoleto, were awed by the sanctity of his character,
but much more by the superior strength of his army; and as they
were now become as incapable of personal attachment as they had
always been of constitutional principle, they readily imbrued
their hands in the blood of a prince who so lately had been the
object of their partial choice. The guilt was theirs, ^* but the
advantage of it was Valerian's; who obtained the possession of
the throne by the means indeed of a civil war, but with a degree
of innocence singular in that age of revolutions; since he owed
neither gratitude nor allegiance to his predecessor, whom he
dethroned.
[Footnote 61: Eutropius, l. ix. c. 6, says tertio mense. Eusebio
this emperor.]

[Footnote 62: Zosimus, l. i. p. 28. Eutropius and Victor station
Valerian's army in Rhaetia.]

[Footnote *: Aurelius Victor says that Aemilianus died of a
natural disorder. Tropius, in speaking of his death, does not say
that he was assassinated - G.]
     Valerian was about sixty years of age ^63 when he was
invested with the purple, not by the caprice of the populace, or
the clamors of the army, but by the unanimous voice of the Roman
world. In his gradual ascent through the honors of the state, he
had deserved the favor of virtuous princes, and had declared
himself the enemy of tyrants. ^64 His noble birth, his mild but
unblemished manners, his learning, prudence, and experience, were
revered by the senate and people; and if mankind (according to
the observation of an ancient writer) had been left at liberty to
choose a master, their choice would most assuredly have fallen on
Valerian. ^65 Perhaps the merit of this emperor was inadequate to
his reputation; perhaps his abilities, or at least his spirit,
were affected by the languor and coldness of old age. The
consciousness of his decline engaged him to share the throne with
a younger and more active associate; ^66 the emergency of the
times demanded a general no less than a prince; and the
experience of the Roman censor might have directed him where to
bestow the Imperial purple, as the reward of military merit. But
instead of making a judicious choice, which would have confirmed
his reign and endeared his memory, Valerian, consulting only the
dictates of affection or vanity, immediately invested with the
supreme honors his son Gallienus, a youth whose effeminate vices
had been hitherto concealed by the obscurity of a private
station. The joint government of the father and the son
subsisted about seven, and the sole administration of Gallien
continued about eight, years. But the whole period was one
uninterrupted series of confusion and calamity. As the Roman
empire was at the same time, and on every side, attacked by the
blind fury of foreign invaders, and the wild ambition of domestic
usurpers, we shall consult order and perspicuity, by pursuing,
not so much the doubtful arrangement of dates, as the more
natural distribution of subjects. The most dangerous enemies of
Rome, during the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, were, 1. The
Franks; 2. The Alemanni; 3. The Goths; and, 4. The Persians.
Under these general appellations, we may comprehend the
adventures of less considerable tribes, whose obscure and uncouth
names would only serve to oppress the memory and perplex the
attention of the reader.
[Footnote 63: He was about seventy at the time of his accession,
or, as it is more probable, of his death. Hist. August. p. 173.
Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 893, note 1.]

[Footnote 64: Inimicus tyrannorum. Hist. August. p. 173. In the
glorious struggle of the senate against Maximin, Valerian acted a
very spirited part. Hist. August. p. 156.]

[Footnote 65: According to the distinction of Victor, he seems to
have received the title of Imperator from the army, and that of
Augustus from the senate.]

[Footnote 66: From Victor and from the medals, Tillemont (tom.
iii. p. 710) very justly infers, that Gallienus was associated to
the empire about the month of August of the year 253.]

     I. As the posterity of the Franks compose one of the
greatest and most enlightened nations of Europe, the powers of
learning and ingenuity have been exhausted in the discovery of
their unlettered ancestors. To the tales of credulity have
succeeded the systems of fancy. Every passage has been sifted,
every spot has been surveyed, that might possibly reveal some
faint traces of their origin. It has been supposed that
Pannonia, ^67 that Gaul, that the northern parts of Germany, ^68
gave birth to that celebrated colony of warriors. At length the
most rational critics, rejecting the fictitious emigrations of
ideal conquerors, have acquiesced in a sentiment whose simplicity
persuades us of its truth. ^69 They suppose, that about the year
two hundred and forty, ^70 a new confederacy was formed under the
name of Franks, by the old inhabitants of the Lower Rhine and the
Weser. ^* The present circle of Westphalia, the Landgraviate of
Hesse, and the duchies of Brunswick and Luneburg, were the
ancient of the Chauci who, in their inaccessible morasses, defied
the Roman arms; ^71 of the Cherusci, proud of the fame of
Arminius; of the Catti, formidable by their firm and intrepid
infantry; and of several other tribes of inferior power and
renown. ^72 The love of liberty was the ruling passion of these
Germans; the enjoyment of it their best treasure; the word that
expressed that enjoyment, the most pleasing to their ear. They
deserved, they assumed, they maintained the honorable appellation
of Franks, or Freemen; which concealed, though it did not
extinguish, the peculiar names of the several states of the
confederacy. ^73 Tacit consent, and mutual advantage, dictated
the first laws of the union; it was gradually cemented by habit
and experience. The league of the Franks may admit of some
comparison with the Helvetic body; in which every canton,
retaining its independent sovereignty, consults with its brethren
in the common cause, without acknowledging the authority of any
supreme head, or representative assembly. ^74 But the principle
of the two confederacies was extremely different. A peace of two
hundred years has rewarded the wise and honest policy of the
Swiss. An inconstant spirit, the thirst of rapine, and a
disregard to the most solemn treaties, disgraced the character of
the Franks.
[Footnote 67: Various systems have been formed to explain a
difficult passage in Gregory of Tours, l. ii. c. 9.]

[Footnote 68: The Geographer of Ravenna, i. 11, by mentioning
Mauringania, on the confines of Denmark, as the ancient seat of
the Franks, gave birth to an ingenious system of Leibritz.]

[Footnote 69: See Cluver. Germania Antiqua, l. iii. c. 20. M.
Freret, in the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom.
xviii.]

[Footnote 70: Most probably under the reign of Gordian, from an
accidental circumstance fully canvassed by Tillemont, tom. iii.
p. 710, 1181.]
[Footnote *: The confederation of the Franks appears to have been
formed, 1. Of the Chauci. 2. Of the Sicambri, the inhabitants of
the duchy of Berg. 3. Of the Attuarii, to the north of the
Sicambri, in the principality of Waldeck, between the Dimel and
the Eder. 4. Of the Bructeri, on the banks of the Lippe, and in
the Hartz. 5. Of the Chamavii, the Gambrivii of Tacitua, who were
established, at the time of the Frankish confederation, in the
country of the Bructeri. 6. Of the Catti, in Hessia. - G. The
Salii and Cherasci are added. Greenwood's Hist. of Germans, i
193. - M.]
[Footnote 71: Plin. Hist. Natur. xvi. l. The Panegyrists
frequently allude to the morasses of the Franks.]

[Footnote 72: Tacit. Germania, c. 30, 37.]

[Footnote 73: In a subsequent period, most of those old names are
occasionally mentioned. See some vestiges of them in Cluver.
Germ. Antiq. l. iii.]

[Footnote 74: Simler de Republica Helvet. cum notis Fuselin.]

Chapter X: Emperors Decius, Gallus, Aemilianus, Valerian And
Gallienus.

Part III.

     The Romans had long experienced the daring valor of the
people of Lower Germany. The union of their strength threatened
Gaul with a more formidable invasion, and required the presence
of Gallienus, the heir and colleague of Imperial power. ^75
Whilst that prince, and his infant son Salonius, displayed, in
the court of Treves, the majesty of the empire its armies were
ably conducted by their general, Posthumus, who, though he
afterwards betrayed the family of Valerian, was ever faithful to
the great interests of the monarchy. The treacherous language of
panegyrics and medals darkly announces a long series of
victories. Trophies and titles attest (if such evidence can
attest) the fame of Posthumus, who is repeatedly styled the
Conqueror of the Germans, and the Savior of Gaul. ^76

[Footnote 75: Zosimus, l. i. p. 27.]

[Footnote 76: M. de Brequigny (in the Memoires de l'Academie,
tom. xxx.) has given us a very curious life of Posthumus. A
series of the Augustan History from Medals and Inscriptions has
been more than once planned, and is still much wanted.

     Note: M. Eckhel, Keeper of the Cabinet of Medals, and
Professor of Antiquities at Vienna, lately deceased, has supplied
this want by his excellent work, Doctrina veterum Nummorum,
conscripta a Jos. Eckhel, 8 vol. in 4to Vindobona, 1797. - G.
Captain Smyth has likewise printed (privately) a valuable
Descriptive Catologue of a series of Large Brass Medals of this
period Bedford, 1834. - M. 1845.]

     But a single fact, the only one indeed of which we have any
distinct knowledge, erases, in a great measure, these monuments
of vanity and adulation. The Rhine, though dignified with the
title of Safeguard of the provinces, was an imperfect barrier
against the daring spirit of enterprise with which the Franks
were actuated. Their rapid devastations stretched from the river
to the foot of the Pyrenees; nor were they stopped by those
mountains. Spain, which had never dreaded, was unable to resist,
the inroads of the Germans. During twelve years, the greatest
part of the reign of Gallie nus, that opulent country was the
theatre of unequal and destructive hostilities. Tarragona, the
flourishing capital of a peaceful province, was sacked and almost
destroyed; ^77 and so late as the days of Orosius, who wrote in
the fifth century, wretched cottages, scattered amidst the ruins
of magnificent cities, still recorded the rage of the barbarians.
^78 When the exhausted country no longer supplied a variety of
plunder, the Franks seized on some vessels in the ports of Spain,
^79 and transported themselves into Mauritania. The distant
province was astonished with the fury of these barbarians, who
seemed to fall from a new world, as their name, manners, and
complexion, were equally unknown on the coast of Africa. ^80
[Footnote 77: Aurel. Victor, c. 33. Instead of Poene direpto,
both the sense and the expression require deleto; though indeed,
for different reasons, it is alike difficult to correct the text
of the best, and of the worst, writers.]

[Footnote 78: In the time of Ausonius (the end of the fourth
century) Ilerda or Lerida was in a very ruinous state, (Auson.
Epist. xxv. 58,) which probably was the consequence of this
invasion.]

[Footnote 79: Valesius is therefore mistaken in supposing that
the Franks had invaded Spain by sea.]

[Footnote 80: Aurel. Victor. Eutrop. ix. 6.]

     II. In that part of Upper Saxony, beyond the Elbe, which is
at present called the Marquisate of Lusace, there existed, in
ancient times, a sacred wood, the awful seat of the superstition
of the Suevi. None were permitted to enter the holy precincts,
without confessing, by their servile bonds and suppliant posture,
the immediate presence of the sovereign Deity. ^81 Patriotism
contributed, as well as devotion, to consecrate the Sonnenwald,
or wood of the Semnones. ^82 It was universally believed, that
the nation had received its first existence on that sacred spot.
At stated periods, the numerous tribes who gloried in the Suevic
blood, resorted thither by their ambassadors; and the memory of
their common extraction was perpetrated by barbaric rites and
human sacrifices. The wide-extended name of Suevi filled the
interior countries of Germany, from the banks of the Oder to
those of the Danube. They were distinguished from the other
Germans by their peculiar mode of dressing their long hair, which
they gathered into a rude knot on the crown of the head; and they
delighted in an ornament that showed their ranks more lofty and
terrible in the eyes of the enemy. ^83 Jealous as the Germans
were of military renown, they all confessed the superior valor of
the Suevi; and the tribes of the Usipetes and Tencteri, who, with
a vast army, encountered the dictator Caesar, declared that they
esteemed it not a disgrace to have fled before a people to whose
arms the immortal gods themselves were unequal. ^84
[Footnote 81: Tacit. Germania, 38.]

[Footnote 82: Cluver. Germ. Antiq. iii. 25.]

[Footnote 83: Sic Suevi a ceteris Germanis, sic Suerorum ingenui
a servis separantur. A proud separation!]

[Footnote 84: Caesar in Bello Gallico, iv. 7.]

     In the reign of the emperor Caracalla, an innumerable swarm
of Suevi appeared on the banks of the Mein, and in the
neighborhood of the Roman provinces, in quest either of food, of
plunder, or of glory. ^85 The hasty army of volunteers gradually
coalesced into a great and permanent nation, and as it was
composed from so many different tribes, assumed the name of
Alemanni, ^* or Allmen; to denote at once their various lineage
and their common bravery. ^86 The latter was soon felt by the
Romans in many a hostile inroad. The Alemanni fought chiefly on
horseback; but their cavalry was rendered still more formidable
by a mixture of light infantry, selected from the bravest and
most active of the youth, whom frequent exercise had inured to
accompany the horsemen in the longest march, the most rapid
charge, or the most precipitate retreat. ^87

[Footnote 85: Victor in Caracal. Dion Cassius, lxvii. p. 1350.]
[Footnote *: The nation of the Alemanni was not originally formed
by the Suavi properly so called; these have always preserved
their own name. Shortly afterwards they made (A. D. 357) an
irruption into Rhaetia, and it was not long after that they were
reunited with the Alemanni. Still they have always been a
distinct people; at the present day, the people who inhabit the
north-west of the Black Forest call themselves Schwaben,
Suabians, Sueves, while those who inhabit near the Rhine, in
Ortenau, the Brisgaw, the Margraviate of Baden, do not consider
themselves Suabians, and are by origin Alemanni.

     The Teucteri and the Usipetae, inhabitants of the interior
and of the north of Westphalia, formed, says Gatterer, the
nucleus of the Alemannic nation; they occupied the country where
the name of the Alemanni first appears, as conquered in 213, by
Caracalla. They were well trained to fight on horseback,
(according to Tacitus, Germ. c. 32;) and Aurelius Victor gives
the same praise to the Alemanni: finally, they never made part of
the Frankish league. The Alemanni became subsequently a centre
round which gathered a multitude of German tribes, See Eumen.
Panegyr. c. 2. Amm. Marc. xviii. 2, xxix. 4. - G.

     The question whether the Suevi was a generic name
comprehending the clans which peopled central Germany, is rather
hastily decided by M. Guizot Mr. Greenwood, who has studied the
modern German writers on their own origin, supposes the Suevi,
Alemanni, and Marcomanni, one people, under different
appellations. History of Germany, vol i. - M.]

[Footnote 86: This etymology (far different from those which
amuse the fancy of the learned) is preserved by Asinius
Quadratus, an original historian, quoted by Agathias, i. c. 5.]

[Footnote 87: The Suevi engaged Caesar in this manner, and the
manoeuvre deserved the approbation of the conqueror, (in Bello
Gallico, i. 48.)]
     This warlike people of Germans had been astonished by the
immense preparations of Alexander Severus; they were dismayed by
the arms of his successor, a barbarian equal in valor and
fierceness to themselves. But still hovering on the frontiers of
the empire, they increased the general disorder that ensued after
the death of Decius. They inflicted severe wounds on the rich
provinces of Gaul; they were the first who removed the veil that
covered the feeble majesty of Italy. A numerous body of the
Alemanni penetrated across the Danube and through the Rhaetian
Alps into the plains of Lombardy, advanced as far as Ravenna, and
displayed the victorious banners of barbarians almost in sight of
Rome. ^88

[Footnote 88: Hist. August. p. 215, 216. Dexippus in the
Excerpts. Legationam, p. 8. Hieronym. Chron. Orosius, vii. 22.]

     The insult and the danger rekindled in the senate some
sparks of their ancient virtue. Both the emperors were engaged
in far distant wars, Valerian in the East, and Gallienus on the
Rhine. All the hopes and resources of the Romans were in
themselves. In this emergency, the senators resumed he defence
of the republic, drew out the Praetorian guards, who had been
left to garrison the capital, and filled up their numbers, by
enlisting into the public service the stoutest and most willing
of the Plebeians. The Alemanni, astonished with the sudden
appearance of an army more numerous than their own, retired into
Germany, laden with spoil; and their retreat was esteemed as a
victory by the unwarlike Romans. ^89

[Footnote 89: Zosimus, l. i. p. 34.]

     When Gallienus received the intelligence that his capital
was delivered from the barbarians, he was much less delighted
than alarmed with the courage of the senate, since it might one
day prompt them to rescue the public from domestic tyranny as
well as from foreign invasion. His timid ingratitude was
published to his subjects, in an edict which prohibited the
senators from exercising any military employment, and even from
approaching the camps of the legions. But his fears were
groundless. The rich and luxurious nobles, sinking into their
natural character, accepted, as a favor, this disgraceful
exemption from military service; and as long as they were
indulged in the enjoyment of their baths, their theatres, and
their villas, they cheerfully resigned the more dangerous cares
of empire to the rough hands of peasants and soldiers. ^90

[Footnote 90: Aurel. Victor, in Gallieno et Probo. His
complaints breathe as uncommon spirit of freedom.]

     Another invasion of the Alemanni, of a more formidable
aspect, but more glorious event, is mentioned by a writer of the
lower empire. Three hundred thousand are said to have been
vanquished, in a battle near Milan, by Gallienus in person, at
the head of only ten thousand Romans. ^91 We may, however, with
great probability, ascribe this incredible victory either to the
credulity of the historian, or to some exaggerated exploits of
one of the emperor's lieutenants. It was by arms of a very
different nature, that Gallienus endeavored to protect Italy from
the fury of the Germans. He espoused Pipa, the daughter of a
king of the Marcomanni, a Suevic tribe, which was often
confounded with the Alemanni in their wars and conquests. ^92 To
the father, as the price of his alliance, he granted an ample
settlement in Pannonia. The native charms of unpolished beauty
seem to have fixed the daughter in the affections of the
inconstant emperor, and the bands of policy were more firmly
connected by those of love. But the haughty prejudice of Rome
still refused the name of marriage to the profane mixture of a
citizen and a barbarian; and has stigmatized the German princess
with the opprobrious title of concubine of Gallienus. ^93

[Footnote 91: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 631.]

[Footnote 92: One of the Victors calls him king of the
Marcomanni; the other of the Germans.]

[Footnote 93: See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iii. p.
398, &c.]
     III. We have already traced the emigration of the Goths
from Scandinavia, or at least from Prussia, to the mouth of the
Borysthenes, and have followed their victorious arms from the
Borysthenes to the Danube. Under the reigns of Valerian and
Gallienus, the frontier of the last- mentioned river was
perpetually infested by the inroads of Germans and Sarmatians;
but it was defended by the Romans with more than usual firmness
and success. The provinces that were the seat of war, recruited
the armies of Rome with an inexhaustible supply of hardy
soldiers; and more than one of these Illyrian peasants attained
the station, and displayed the abilities, of a general. Though
flying parties of the barbarians, who incessantly hovered on the
banks of the Danube, penetrated sometimes to the confines of
Italy and Macedonia, their progress was commonly checked, or
their return intercepted, by the Imperial lieutenants. ^94 But
the great stream of the Gothic hostilities was diverted into a
very different channel. The Goths, in their new settlement of
the Ukraine, soon became masters of the northern coast of the
Euxine: to the south of that inland sea were situated the soft
and wealthy provinces of Asia Minor, which possessed all that
could attract, and nothing that could resist, a barbarian
conqueror.

[Footnote 94: See the lives of Claudius, Aurelian, and Probus, in
the Augustan History.]

     The banks of the Borysthenes are only sixty miles distant
from the narrow entrance ^95 of the peninsula of Crim Tartary,
known to the ancients under the name of Chersonesus Taurica. ^96
On that inhospitable shore, Euripides, embellishing with
exquisite art the tales of antiquity, has placed the scene of one
of his most affecting tragedies. ^97 The bloody sacrifices of
Diana, the arrival of Orestes and Pylades, and the triumph of
virtue and religion over savage fierceness, serve to represent an
historical truth, that the Tauri, the original inhabitants of the
peninsula, were, in some degree, reclaimed from their brutal
manners by a gradual intercourse with the Grecian colonies, which
settled along the maritime coast. The little kingdom of
Bosphorus, whose capital was situated on the Straits, through
which the Maeotis communicates itself to the Euxine, was composed
of degenerate Greeks and half-civilized barbarians. It
subsisted, as an independent state, from the time of the
Peloponnesian war, ^98 was at last swallowed up by the ambition
of Mithridates, ^99 and, with the rest of his dominions, sunk
under the weight of the Roman arms. From the reign of Augustus,
^100 the kings of Bosphorus were the humble, but not useless,
allies of the empire. By presents, by arms, and by a slight
fortification drawn across the Isthmus, they effectually guarded
against the roving plunderers of Sarmatia, the access of a
country, which, from its peculiar situation and convenient
harbors, commanded the Euxine Sea and Asia Minor. ^101 As long as
the sceptre was possessed by a lineal succession of kings, they
acquitted themselves of their important charge with vigilance and
success. Domestic factions, and the fears, or private interest,
of obscure usurpers, who seized on the vacant throne, admitted
the Goths into the heart of Bosphorus. With the acquisition of a
superfluous waste of fertile soil, the conquerors obtained the
command of a naval force, sufficient to transport their armies to
the coast of Asia. ^102 This ships used in the navigation of the
Euxine were of a very singular construction. They were slight
flat-bottomed barks framed of timber only, without the least
mixture of iron, and occasionally covered with a shelving roof,
on the appearance of a tempest. ^103 In these floating houses,
the Goths carelessly trusted themselves to the mercy of an
unknown sea, under the conduct of sailors pressed into the
service, and whose skill and fidelity were equally suspicious.
But the hopes of plunder had banished every idea of danger, and a
natural fearlessness of temper supplied in their minds the more
rational confidence, which is the just result of knowledge and
experience. Warriors of such a daring spirit must have often
murmured against the cowardice of their guides, who required the
strongest assurances of a settled calm before they would venture
to embark; and would scarcely ever be tempted to lose sight of
the land. Such, at least, is the practice of the modern Turks;
^104 and they are probably not inferior, in the art of
navigation, to the ancient inhabitants of Bosphorus.

[Footnote 95: It is about half a league in breadth. Genealogical
History of the Tartars, p 598.]

[Footnote 96: M. de Peyssonel, who had been French Consul at
Caffa, in his Observations sur les Peuples Barbares, que ont
habite les bords du Danube]
[Footnote 97: Eeripides in Iphigenia in Taurid.]

[Footnote 98: Strabo, l. vii. p. 309. The first kings of
Bosphorus were the allies of Athens.]

[Footnote 99: Appian in Mithridat.]

[Footnote 100: It was reduced by the arms of Agrippa. Orosius,
vi. 21. Eu tropius, vii. 9. The Romans once advanced within
three days' march of the Tanais. Tacit. Annal. xii. 17.]

[Footnote 101: See the Toxaris of Lucian, if we credit the
sincerity and the virtues of the Scythian, who relates a great
war of his nation against the kings of Bosphorus.]

[Footnote 102: Zosimus, l. i. p. 28.]

[Footnote 103: Strabo, l. xi. Tacit. Hist. iii. 47. They were
called Camaroe.]

[Footnote 104: See a very natural picture of the Euxine
navigation, in the xvith letter of Tournefort.]

     The fleet of the Goths, leaving the coast of Circassia on
the left hand, first appeared before Pityus, ^105 the utmost
limits of the Roman provinces; a city provided with a convenient
port, and fortified with a strong wall. Here they met with a
resistance more obstinate than they had reason to expect from the
feeble garrison of a distant fortress. They were repulsed; and
their disappointment seemed to diminish the terror of the Gothic
name. As long as Successianus, an officer of superior rank and
merit, defended that frontier, all their efforts were
ineffectual; but as soon as he was removed by Valerian to a more
honorable but less important station, they resumed the attack of
Pityus; and by the destruction of that city, obliterated the
memory of their former disgrace. ^106

[Footnote 105: Arrian places the frontier garrison at Dioscurias,
or Sebastopolis, forty-four miles to the east of Pityus. The
garrison of Phasis consisted in his time of only four hundred
foot. See the Periplus of the Euxine.

     Note: Pityus is Pitchinda, according to D'Anville, ii. 115.
- G. Rather Boukoun. - M. Dioscurias is Iskuriah. - G.]

[Footnote 106: Zosimus, l. i. p. 30.]

     Circling round the eastern extremity of the Euxine Sea, the
navigation from Pityus to Trebizond is about three hundred miles.
^107 The course of the Goths carried them in sight of the country
of Colchis, so famous by the expedition of the Argonauts; and
they even attempted, though without success, to pillage a rich
temple at the mouth of the River Phasis. Trebizond, celebrated
in the retreat of the ten thousand as an ancient colony of
Greeks, ^108 derived its wealth and splendor from the
magnificence of the emperor Hadrian, who had constructed an
artificial port on a coast left destitute by nature of secure
harbors. ^109 The city was large and populous; a double enclosure
of walls seemed to defy the fury of the Goths, and the usual
garrison had been strengthened by a reenforcement of ten thousand
men. But there are not any advantages capable of supplying the
absence of discipline and vigilance. The numerous garrison of
Trebizond, dissolved in riot and luxury, disdained to guard their
impregnable fortifications. The Goths soon discovered the supine
negligence of the besieged, erected a lofty pile of fascines,
ascended the walls in the silence of the night, and entered the
defenceless city sword in hand. A general massacre of the people
ensued, whilst the affrighted soldiers escaped through the
opposite gates of the town. The most holy temples, and the most
splendid edifices, were involved in a common destruction. The
booty that fell into the hands of the Goths was immense: the
wealth of the adjacent countries had been deposited in Trebizond,
as in a secure place of refuge. The number of captives was
incredible, as the victorious barbarians ranged without
opposition through the extensive province of Pontus. ^110 The
rich spoils of Trebizond filled a great fleet of ships that had
been found in the port. The robust youth of the sea-coast were
chained to the oar; and the Goths, satisfied with the success of
their first naval expedition, returned in triumph to their new
establishment in the kingdom of Bosphorus. ^111

[Footnote 107: Arrian (in Periplo Maris Euxine, p. 130) calls the
distance 2610 stadia.]

[Footnote 108: Xenophon, Anabasis, l. iv. p. 348, edit.
Hutchinson.
     Note: Fallmerayer (Geschichte des Kaiserthums von Trapezunt,
p. 6, &c) assigns a very ancient date to the first (Pelasgic)
foundation of Trapezun (Trebizond) - M.]

[Footnote 109: Arrian, p. 129. The general observation is
Tournefort's.]
[Footnote 110: See an epistle of Gregory Thaumaturgus, bishop of
Neo- Caeoarea, quoted by Mascou, v. 37.]

[Footnote 111: Zosimus, l. i. p. 32, 33.]

     The second expedition of the Goths was undertaken with
greater powers of men and ships; but they steered a different
course, and, disdaining the exhausted provinces of Pontus,
followed the western coast of the Euxine, passed before the wide
mouths of the Borysthenes, the Niester, and the Danube, and
increasing their fleet by the capture of a great number of
fishing barks, they approached the narrow outlet through which
the Euxine Sea pours its waters into the Mediterranean, and
divides the continents of Europe and Asia. The garrison of
Chalcedon was encamped near the temple of Jupiter Urius, on a
promontory that commanded the entrance of the Strait; and so
inconsiderable were the dreaded invasions of the barbarians that
this body of troops surpassed in number the Gothic army. But it
was in numbers alone that they surpassed it. They deserted with
precipitation their advantageous post, and abandoned the town of
Chalcedon, most plentifully stored with arms and money, to the
discretion of the conquerors. Whilst they hesitated whether they
should prefer the sea or land Europe or Asia, for the scene of
their hostilities, a perfidious fugitive pointed out Nicomedia,
^* once the capital of the kings of Bithynia, as a rich and easy
conquest. He guided the march which was only sixty miles from
the camp of Chalcedon, ^112 directed the resistless attack, and
partook of the booty; for the Goths had learned sufficient policy
to reward the traitor whom they detested. Nice, Prusa, Apamaea,
Cius, ^! cities that had sometimes rivalled, or imitated, the
splendor of Nicomedia, were involved in the same calamity, which,
in a few weeks, raged without control through the whole province
of Bithynia. Three hundred years of peace, enjoyed by the soft
inhabitants of Asia, had abolished the exercise of arms, and
removed the apprehension of danger. The ancient walls were
suffered to moulder away, and all the revenue of the most opulent
cities was reserved for the construction of baths, temples, and
theatres. ^113
[Footnote *: It has preserved its name, joined to the preposition
of place in that of Nikmid. D'Anv. Geog. Anc. ii. 28. - G.]

[Footnote 112: Itiner. Hierosolym. p. 572. Wesseling.]

[Footnote !: Now Isnik, Bursa, Mondania Ghio or Kemlik D'Anv. ii.
23. - G.]
[Footnote 113: Zosimus, l. . p. 32, 33.]

     When the city of Cyzicus withstood the utmost effort of
Mithridates, ^114 it was distinguished by wise laws, a nava power
of two hundred galleys, and three arsenals, of arms, of military
engines, and of corn. ^115 It was still the seat of wealth and
luxury; but of its ancient strength, nothing remained except the
situation, in a little island of the Propontis, connected with
the continent of Asia only by two bridges. From the recent sack
of Prusa, the Goths advanced within eighteen miles. ^116 of the
city, which they had devoted to destruction; but the ruin of
Cyzicus was delayed by a fortunate accident. The season was
rainy, and the Lake Apolloniates, the reservoir of all the
springs of Mount Olympus, rose to an uncommon height. The little
river of Rhyndacus, which issues from the lake, swelled into a
broad and rapid stream, and stopped the progress of the Goths.
Their retreat to the maritime city of Heraclea, where the fleet
had probably been stationed, was attended by a long train of
wagons, laden with the spoils of Bithynia, and was marked by the
flames of Nico and Nicomedia, which they wantonly burnt. ^117
Some obscure hints are mentioned of a doubtful combat that
secured their retreat. ^118 But even a complete victory would
have been of little moment, as the approach of the autumnal
equinox summoned them to hasten their return. To navigate the
Euxine before the month of May, or after that of September, is
esteemed by the modern Turks the most unquestionable instance of
rashness and folly. ^119

[Footnote 114: He besieged the place with 400 galleys, 150,000
foot, and a numerous cavalry. See Plutarch in Lucul. Appian in
Mithridat Cicero pro Lege Manilia, c. 8.]

[Footnote 115: Strabo, l. xii. p. 573.]

[Footnote 116: Pocock's Description of the East, l. ii. c. 23,
24.]
[Footnote 117: Zosimus, l. i. p. 33.]

[Footnote 118: Syncellus tells an unintelligible story of Prince
Odenathus, who defeated the Goths, and who was killed by Prince
Odenathus.]
[Footnote 119: Voyages de Chardin, tom. i. p. 45. He sailed with
the Turks from Constantinople to Caffa.]

     When we are informed that the third fleet, equipped by the
Goths in the ports of Bosphorus, consisted of five hundred sails
of ships, ^120 our ready imagination instantly computes and
multiplies the formidable armament; but, as we are assured by the
judicious Strabo, ^121 that the piratical vessels used by the
barbarians of Pontus and the Lesser Scythia, were not capable of
containing more than twenty-five or thirty men we may safely
affirm, that fifteen thousand warriors, at the most, embarked in
this great expedition. Impatient of the limits of the Euxine,
they steered their destructive course from the Cimmerian to the
Thracian Bosphorus. When they had almost gained the middle of
the Straits, they were suddenly driven back to the entrance of
them; till a favorable wind, springing up the next day, carried
them in a few hours into the placid sea, or rather lake, of the
Propontis. Their landing on the little island of Cyzicus was
attended with the ruin of that ancient and noble city. From
thence issuing again through the narrow passage of the
Hellespont, they pursued their winding navigation amidst the
numerous islands scattered over the Archipelago, or the Aegean
Sea. The assistance of captives and deserters must have been
very necessary to pilot their vessels, and to direct their
various incursions, as well on the coast of Greece as on that of
Asia. At length the Gothic fleet anchored in the port of
Piraeus, five miles distant from Athens, ^122 which had attempted
to make some preparations for a vigorous defence. Cleodamus, one
of the engineers employed by the emperor's orders to fortify the
maritime cities against the Goths, had already begun to repair
the ancient walls, fallen to decay since the time of Scylla. The
efforts of his skill were ineffectual, and the barbarians became
masters of the native seat of the muses and the arts. But while
the conquerors abandoned themselves to the license of plunder and
intemperance, their fleet, that lay with a slender guard in the
harbor of Piraeus, was unexpectedly attacked by the brave
Dexippus, who, flying with the engineer Cleodamus from the sack
of Athens, collected a hasty band of volunteers, peasants as well
as soldiers, and in some measure avenged the calamities of his
country. ^123

[Footnote 120: Syncellus (p. 382) speaks of this expedition, as
undertaken by the Heruli.]

[Footnote 121: Strabo, l. xi. p. 495.]

[Footnote 122: Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 7.]

[Footnote 123: Hist. August. p. 181. Victor, c. 33. Orosius,
vii. 42. Zosimus, l. i. p. 35. Zonaras, l. xii. 635. Syncellus,
p. 382. It is not without some attention, that we can explain
and conciliate their imperfect hints. We can still discover some
traces of the partiality of Dexippus, in the relation of his own
and his countrymen's exploits.

     Note: According to a new fragment of Dexippus, published by
Mai, he 2000 men. He took up a strong position in a mountainous
and woods district, and kept up a harassing warfare. He
expresses a hope of being speedily joined by the Imperial fleet.
Dexippus in rov. Byzantinorum Collect a Niebuhr, p. 26, 8 - M.]

     But this exploit, whatever lustre it might shed on the
declining age of Athens, served rather to irritate than to subdue
the undaunted spirit of the northern invaders. A general
conflagration blazed out at the same time in every district of
Greece. Thebes and Argos, Corinth and Sparta, which had formerly
waged such memorable wars against each other, were now unable to
bring an army into the field, or even to defend their ruined
fortifications. The rage of war, both by land and by sea, spread
from the eastern point of Sunium to the western coast of Epirus.
The Goths had already advanced within sight of Italy, when the
approach of such imminent danger awakened the indolent Gallienus
from his dream of pleasure. The emperor appeared in arms; and
his presence seems to have checked the ardor, and to have divided
the strength, of the enemy. Naulobatus, a chief of the Heruli,
accepted an honorable capitulation, entered with a large body of
his countrymen into the service of Rome, and was invested with
the ornaments of the consular dignity, which had never before
been profaned by the hands of a barbarian. ^124 Great numbers of
the Goths, disgusted with the perils and hardships of a tedious
voyage, broke into Maesia, with a design of forcing their way
over the Danube to their settlements in the Ukraine. The wild
attempt would have proved inevitable destruction, if the discord
of the Roman generals had not opened to the barbarians the means
of an escape. ^125 The small remainder of this destroying host
returned on board their vessels; and measuring back their way
through the Hellespont and the Bosphorus, ravaged in their
passage the shores of Troy, whose fame, immortalized by Homer,
will probably survive the memory of the Gothic conquests. As
soon as they found themselves in safety within the basin of the
Euxine, they landed at Anchialus in Thrace, near the foot of
Mount Haemus; and, after all their toils, indulged themselves in
the use of those pleasant and salutary hot baths. What remained
of the voyage was a short and easy navigation. ^126 Such was the
various fate of this third and greatest of their naval
enterprises. It may seem difficult to conceive how the original
body of fifteen thousand warriors could sustain the losses and
divisions of so bold an adventure. But as their numbers were
gradually wasted by the sword, by shipwrecks, and by the
influence of a warm climate, they were perpetually renewed by
troops of banditti and deserters, who flocked to the standard of
plunder, and by a crowd of fugitive slaves, often of German or
Sarmatian extraction, who eagerly seized the glorious opportunity
of freedom and revenge. In these expeditions, the Gothic nation
claimed a superior share of honor and danger; but the tribes that
fought under the Gothic banners are sometimes distinguished and
sometimes confounded in the imperfect histories of that age; and
as the barbarian fleets seemed to issue from the mouth of the
Tanais, the vague but familiar appellation of Scythians was
frequently bestowed on the mixed multitude. ^127
[Footnote 124: Syncellus, p. 382. This body of Heruli was for a
long time faithful and famous.]

[Footnote 125: Claudius, who commanded on the Danube, thought
with propriety and acted with spirit. His colleague was jealous
of his fame Hist. August. p. 181.]

[Footnote 126: Jornandes, c. 20.]

[Footnote 127: Zosimus and the Greeks (as the author of the
Philopatris) give the name of Scythians to those whom Jornandes,
and the Latin writers, constantly represent as Goths.]

Chapter X: Emperors Decius, Gallus, Aemilianus, Valerian And
Gallienus.

Part IV.

     In the general calamities of mankind, the death of an
individual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice, however
famous, are passed over with careless inattention. Yet we cannot
forget that the temple of Diana at Ephesus, after having risen
with increasing splendor from seven repeated misfortunes, ^128
was finally burnt by the Goths in their third naval invasion.
The arts of Greece, and the wealth of Asia, had conspired to
erect that sacred and magnificent structure. It was supported by
a hundred and twenty-seven marble columns of the Ionic order.
They were the gifts of devout monarchs, and each was sixty feet
high. The altar was adorned with the masterly sculptures of
Praxiteles, who had, perhaps, selected from the favorite legends
of the place the birth of the divine children of Latona, the
concealment of Apollo after the slaughter of the Cyclops, and the
clemency of Bacchus to the vanquished Amazons. ^129 Yet the
length of the temple of Ephesus was only four hundred and
twenty-five feet, about two thirds of the measure of the church
of St. Peter's at Rome. ^130 In the other dimensions, it was
still more inferior to that sublime production of modern
architecture. The spreading arms of a Christian cross require a
much greater breadth than the oblong temples of the Pagans; and
the boldest artists of antiquity would have been startled at the
proposal of raising in the air a dome of the size and proportions
of the Pantheon. The temple of Diana was, however, admired as
one of the wonders of the world. Successive empires, the
Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman, had revered its sanctity
and enriched its splendor. ^131 But the rude savages of the
Baltic were destitute of a taste for the elegant arts, and they
despised the ideal terrors of a foreign superstition. ^132

[Footnote 128: Hist. Aug. p. 178. Jornandes, c. 20.]

[Footnote 129: Strabo, l. xiv. p. 640. Vitruvius, l. i. c. i.
praefat l vii. Tacit Annal. iii. 61. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvi.
14.]

[Footnote 130: The length of St. Peter's is 840 Roman palms; each
palm is very little short of nine English inches. See Greaves's
Miscellanies vol. i. p. 233; on the Roman Foot.

     Note: St. Paul's Cathedral is 500 feet. Dallaway on
Architecture - M.]
[Footnote 131: The policy, however, of the Romans induced them to
abridge the extent of the sanctuary or asylum, which by
successive privileges had spread itself two stadia round the
temple. Strabo, l. xiv. p. 641. Tacit. Annal. iii. 60, &c.]

[Footnote 132: They offered no sacrifices to the Grecian gods.
See Epistol Gregor. Thaumat.]

     Another circumstance is related of these invasions, which
might deserve our notice, were it not justly to be suspected as
the fanciful conceit of a recent sophist. We are told, that in
the sack of Athens the Goths had collected all the libraries, and
were on the point of setting fire to this funeral pile of Grecian
learning, had not one of their chiefs, of more refined policy
than his brethren, dissuaded them from the design; by the
profound observation, that as long as the Greeks were addicted to
the study of books, they would never apply themselves to the
exercise of arms. ^133 The sagacious counsellor (should the truth
of the fact be admitted) reasoned like an ignorant barbarian. In
the most polite and powerful nations, genius of every kind has
displayed itself about the same period; and the age of science
has generally been the age of military virtue and success.
[Footnote 133: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 635. Such an anecdote was
perfectly suited to the taste of Montaigne. He makes use of it
in his agreeable Essay on Pedantry, l. i. c. 24.]

     IV. The new sovereign of Persia, Artaxerxes and his son
Sapor, had triumphed (as we have already seen) over the house of
Arsaces. Of the many princes of that ancient race. Chosroes,
king of Armenia, had alone preserved both his life and his
independence. He defended himself by the natural strength of his
country; by the perpetual resort of fugitives and malecontents;
by the alliance of the Romans, and above all, by his own courage.

Invincible in arms, during a thirty years' war, he was at length
assassinated by the emissaries of Sapor, king of Persia. The
patriotic satraps of Armenia, who asserted the freedom and
dignity of the crown, implored the protection of Rome in favor of
Tiridates, the lawful heir. But the son of Chosroes was an
infant, the allies were at a distance, and the Persian monarch
advanced towards the frontier at the head of an irresistible
force. Young Tiridates, the future hope of his country, was
saved by the fidelity of a servant, and Armenia continued above
twenty-seven years a reluctant province of the great monarchy of
Persia. ^134 Elated with this easy conquest, and presuming on the
distresses or the degeneracy of the Romans, Sapor obliged the
strong garrisons of Carrhae and Nisibis ^* to surrender, and
spread devastation and terror on either side of the Euphrates.
[Footnote 134: Moses Chorenensis, l. ii. c. 71, 73, 74. Zonaras,
l. xii. p. 628. The anthentic relation of the Armenian historian
serves to rectify the confused account of the Greek. The latter
talks of the children of Tiridates, who at that time was himself
an infant. (Compare St Martin Memoires sur l'Armenie, i. p. 301.
- M.)]

[Footnote *: Nisibis, according to Persian authors, was taken by
a miracle, the wall fell, in compliance with the prayers of the
army. Malcolm's Persia, l. 76. - M]

     The loss of an important frontier, the ruin of a faithful
and natural ally, and the rapid success of Sapor's ambition,
affected Rome with a deep sense of the insult as well as of the
danger. Valerian flattered himself, that the vigilance of his
lieutenants would sufficiently provide for the safety of the
Rhine and of the Danube; but he resolved, notwithstanding his
advanced age, to march in person to the defence of the Euphrates.

During his progress through Asia Minor, the naval enterprises of
the Goths were suspended, and the afflicted province enjoyed a
transient and fallacious calm. He passed the Euphrates,
encountered the Persian monarch near the walls of Edessa, was
vanquished, and taken prisoner by Sapor. The particulars of this
great event are darkly and imperfectly represented; yet, by the
glimmering light which is afforded us, we may discover a long
series of imprudence, of error, and of deserved misfortunes on
the side of the Roman emperor. He reposed an implicit confidence
in Macrianus, his Praetorian praefect. ^135 That worthless
minister rendered his master formidable only to the oppressed
subjects, and contemptible to the enemies of Rome. ^136 By his
weak or wicked counsels, the Imperial army was betrayed into a
situation where valor and military skill were equally unavailing.
^137 The vigorous attempt of the Romans to cut their way through
the Persian host was repulsed with great slaughter; ^138 and
Sapor, who encompassed the camp with superior numbers, patiently
waited till the increasing rage of famine and pestilence had
insured his victory. The licentious murmurs of the legions soon
accused Valerian as the cause of their calamities; their
seditious clamors demanded an instant capitulation. An immense
sum of gold was offered to purchase the permission of a
disgraceful retreat. But the Persian, conscious of his
superiority, refused the money with disdain; and detaining the
deputies, advanced in order of battle to the foot of the Roman
rampart, and insisted on a personal conference with the emperor.
Valerian was reduced to the necessity of intrusting his life and
dignity to the faith of an enemy. The interview ended as it was
natural to expect. The emperor was made a prisoner, and his
astonished troops laid down their arms. ^139 In such a moment of
triumph, the pride and policy of Sapor prompted him to fill the
vacant throne with a successor entirely dependent on his
pleasure. Cyriades, an obscure fugitive of Antioch, stained with
every vice, was chosen to dishonor the Roman purple; and the will
of the Persian victor could not fail of being ratified by the
acclamations, however reluctant, of the captive army. ^140

[Footnote 135: Hist. Aug. p. 191. As Macrianus was an enemy to
the Christians, they charged him with being a magician.]

[Footnote 136: Zosimus, l. i. p. 33.]

[Footnote 137: Hist. Aug. p. 174.]

[Footnote 138: Victor in Caesar. Eutropius, ix. 7.]

[Footnote 139: Zosimus, l. i. p. 33. Zonaras, l. xii. p. 630.
Peter Patricius, in the Excerpta Legat. p. 29.]

[Footnote 140: Hist. August. p. 185. The reign of Cyriades
appears in that collection prior to the death of Valerian; but I
have preferred a probable series of events to the doubtful
chronology of a most inaccurate writer]
     The Imperial slave was eager to secure the favor of his
master by an act of treason to his native country. He conducted
Sapor over the Euphrates, and, by the way of Chalcis, to the
metropolis of the East. So rapid were the motions of the Persian
cavalry, that, if we may credit a very judicious historian, ^141
the city of Antioch was surprised when the idle multitude was
fondly gazing on the amusements of the theatre. The splendid
buildings of Antioch, private as well as public, were either
pillaged or destroyed; and the numerous inhabitants were put to
the sword, or led away into captivity. ^142 The tide of
devastation was stopped for a moment by the resolution of the
high priest of Emesa. Arrayed in his sacerdotal robes, he
appeared at the head of a great body of fanatic peasants, armed
only with slings, and defended his god and his property from the
sacrilegious hands of the followers of Zoroaster. ^143 But the
ruin of Tarsus, and of many other cities, furnishes a melancholy
proof that, except in this singular instance, the conquest of
Syria and Cilicia scarcely interrupted the progress of the
Persian arms. The advantages of the narrow passes of Mount
Taurus were abandoned, in which an invader, whose principal force
consisted in his cavalry, would have been engaged in a very
unequal combat: and Sapor was permitted to form the siege of
Caesarea, the capital of Cappadocia; a city, though of the second
rank, which was supposed to contain four hundred thousand
inhabitants. Demosthenes commanded in the place, not so much by
the commission of the emperor, as in the voluntary defence of his
country. For a long time he deferred its fate; and when at last
Caesarea was betrayed by the perfidy of a physician, he cut his
way through the Persians, who had been ordered to exert their
utmost diligence to take him alive. This heroic chief escaped
the power of a foe who might either have honored or punished his
obstinate valor; but many thousands of his fellow-citizens were
involved in a general massacre, and Sapor is accused of treating
his prisoners with wanton and unrelenting cruelty. ^144 Much
should undoubtedly be allowed for national animosity, much for
humbled pride and impotent revenge; yet, upon the whole, it is
certain, that the same prince, who, in Armenia, had displayed the
mild aspect of a legislator, showed himself to the Romans under
the stern features of a conqueror. He despaired of making any
permanent establishment in the empire, and sought only to leave
behind him a wasted desert, whilst he transported into Persia the
people and the treasures of the provinces. ^145

[Footnote 141: The sack of Antioch, anticipated by some
historians, is assigned, by the decisive testimony of Ammianus
Marcellinus, to the reign of Gallienus, xxiii. 5.

     Note: Heyne, in his note on Zosimus, contests this opinion
of Gibbon and observes, that the testimony of Ammianus is in fact
by no means clear, decisive. Gallienus and Valerian reigned
together. Zosimus, in a passage, l. iiii. 32, 8, distinctly
places this event before the capture of Valerian. - M.]

[Footnote 142: Zosimus, l. i. p. 35.]

[Footnote 143: John Malala, tom. i. p. 391. He corrupts this
probable event by some fabulous circumstances.]

[Footnote 144: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 630. Deep valleys were filled
up with the slain. Crowds of prisoners were driven to water like
beasts, and many perished for want of food.]

[Footnote 145: Zosimus, l. i. p. 25 asserts, that Sapor, had he
not preferred spoil to conquest, might have remained master of
Asia.]

     At the time when the East trembled at the name of Sapor, he
received a present not unworthy of the greatest kings; a long
train of camels, laden with the most rare and valuable
merchandises. The rich offering was accompanied with an epistle,
respectful, but not servile, from Odenathus, one of the noblest
and most opulent senators of Palmyra. "Who is this Odenathus,"
(said the haughty victor, and he commanded that the present
should be cast into the Euphrates,) "that he thus insolently
presumes to write to his lord? If he entertains a hope of
mitigating his punishment, let him fall prostrate before the foot
of our throne, with his hands bound behind his back. Should he
hesitate, swift destruction shall be poured on his head, on his
whole race, and on his country." ^146 The desperate extremity to
which the Palmyrenian was reduced, called into action all the
latent powers of his soul. He met Sapor; but he met him in arms.

Infusing his own spirit into a little army collected from the
villages of Syria ^147 and the tents of the desert, ^148 he
hovered round the Persian host, harassed their retreat, carried
off part of the treasure, and, what was dearer than any treasure,
several of the women of the great king; who was at last obliged
to repass the Euphrates with some marks of haste and confusion.
^149 By this exploit, Odenathus laid the foundations of his
future fame and fortunes. The majesty of Rome, oppressed by a
Persian, was protected by a Syrian or Arab of Palmyra.

[Footnote 146: Peter Patricius in Excerpt. Leg. p. 29.]

[Footnote 147: Syrorum agrestium manu. Sextus Rufus, c. 23.
Rufus Victor the Augustan History, (p. 192,) and several
inscriptions, agree in making Odenathus a citizen of Palmyra.]

[Footnote 148: He possessed so powerful an interest among the
wandering tribes, that Procopius (Bell. Persic. l. ii. c. 5) and
John Malala, (tom. i. p. 391) style him Prince of the Saracens.]

[Footnote 149: Peter Patricius, p. 25.]

     The voice of history, which is often little more than the
organ of hatred or flattery, reproaches Sapor with a proud abuse
of the rights of conquest. We are told that Valerian, in chains,
but invested with the Imperial purple, was exposed to the
multitude, a constant spectacle of fallen greatness; and that
whenever the Persian monarch mounted on horseback, he placed his
foot on the neck of a Roman emperor. Notwithstanding all the
remonstrances of his allies, who repeatedly advised him to
remember the vicissitudes of fortune, to dread the returning
power of Rome, and to make his illustrious captive the pledge of
peace, not the object of insult, Sapor still remained inflexible.
When Valerian sunk under the weight of shame and grief, his skin,
stuffed with straw, and formed into the likeness of a human
figure, was preserved for ages in the most celebrated temple of
Persia; a more real monument of triumph, than the fancied
trophies of brass and marble so often erected by Roman vanity.
^150 The tale is moral and pathetic, but the truth ^! of it may
very fairly be called in question. The letters still extant from
the princes of the East to Sapor are manifest forgeries; ^151 nor
is it natural to suppose that a jealous monarch should, even in
the person of a rival, thus publicly degrade the majesty of
kings. Whatever treatment the unfortunate Valerian might
experience in Persia, it is at least certain that the only
emperor of Rome who had ever fallen into the hands of the enemy,
languished away his life in hopeless captivity.

[Footnote 150: The Pagan writers lament, the Christian insult,
the misfortunes of Valerian. Their various testimonies are
accurately collected by Tillemont, tom. iii. p. 739, &c. So
little has been preserved of eastern history before Mahomet, that
the modern Persians are totally ignorant of the victory Sapor, an
event so glorious to their nation. See Bibliotheque Orientale.

     Note: Malcolm appears to write from Persian authorities, i.
76. -  M.]
[Footnote !: Yet Gibbon himself records a speech of the emperor
Galerius, which alludes to the cruelties exercised against the
living, and the indignities to which they exposed the dead
Valerian, vol. ii. ch. 13. Respect for the kingly character would
by no means prevent an eastern monarch from ratifying his pride
and his vengeance on a fallen foe. - M.]
[Footnote 151: One of these epistles is from Artavasdes, king of
Armenia; since Armenia was then a province of Persia, the king,
the kingdom, and the epistle must be fictitious.]

     The emperor Gallienus, who had long supported with
impatience the censorial severity of his father and colleague,
received the intelligence of his misfortunes with secret pleasure
and avowed indifference. "I knew that my father was a mortal,"
said he; "and since he has acted as it becomes a brave man, I am
satisfied." Whilst Rome lamented the fate of her sovereign, the
savage coldness of his son was extolled by the servile courtiers
as the perfect firmness of a hero and a stoic. ^152 It is
difficult to paint the light, the various, the inconstant
character of Gallienus, which he displayed without constraint, as
soon as he became sole possessor of the empire. In every art
that he attempted, his lively genius enabled him to succeed; and
as his genius was destitute of judgment, he attempted every art,
except the important ones of war and government. He was a master
of several curious, but useless sciences, a ready orator, an
elegant poet, ^153 a skilful gardener, an excellent cook, and
most contemptible prince. When the great emergencies of the
state required his presence and attention, he was engaged in
conversation with the philosopher Plotinus, ^154 wasting his time
in trifling or licentious pleasures, preparing his initiation to
the Grecian mysteries, or soliciting a place in the Arcopagus of
Athens. His profuse magnificence insulted the general poverty;
the solemn ridicule of his triumphs impressed a deeper sense of
the public disgrace. ^155 The repeated intelligence of invasions,
defeats, and rebellions, he received with a careless smile; and
singling out, with affected contempt, some particular production
of the lost province, he carelessly asked, whether Rome must be
ruined, unless it was supplied with linen from Egypt, and arras
cloth from Gaul. There were, however, a few short moments in the
life of Gallienus, when, exasperated by some recent injury, he
suddenly appeared the intrepid soldier and the cruel tyrant;
till, satiated with blood, or fatigued by resistance, he
insensibly sunk into the natural mildness and indolence of his
character. ^156

[Footnote 152: See his life in the Augustan History.]

[Footnote 153: There is still extant a very pretty Epithalamium,
composed by Gallienus for the nuptials of his nephews: -

     "Ite ait, O juvenes, pariter sudate medullis
     Omnibus, inter vos: non murmura vestra columbae,
     Brachia non hederae, non vincant oscula conchae."]

[Footnote 154: He was on the point of giving Plotinus a ruined
city of Campania to try the experiment of realizing Plato's
Republic. See the Life of Plotinus, by Porphyry, in Fabricius's
Biblioth. Graec. l. iv.]
[Footnote 155: A medal which bears the head of Gallienus has
perplexed the antiquarians by its legend and reverse; the former
Gallienoe Augustoe, the latter Ubique Pax. M. Spanheim supposes
that the coin was struck by some of the enemies of Gallienus, and
was designed as a severe satire on that effeminate prince. But
as the use of irony may seem unworthy of the gravity of the Roman
mint, M. de Vallemont has deduced from a passage of Trebellius
Pollio (Hist. Aug. p. 198) an ingenious and natural solution.
Galliena was first cousin to the emperor. By delivering Africa
from the usurper Celsus, she deserved the title of Augusta. On a
medal in the French king's collection, we read a similar
inscription of Faustina Augusta round the head of Marcus
Aurelius. With regard to the Ubique Pax, it is easily explained
by the vanity of Gallienus, who seized, perhaps, the occasion of
some momentary calm. See Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres,
Janvier, 1700, p. 21 - 34.]

[Footnote 156: This singular character has, I believe, been
fairly transmitted to us. The reign of his immediate successor
was short and busy; and the historians who wrote before the
elevation of the family of Constantine could not have the most
remote interest to misrepresent the character of Gallienus.]

     At the time when the reins of government were held with so
loose a hand, it is not surprising, that a crowd of usurpers
should start up in every province of the empire against the son
of Valerian. It was probably some ingenious fancy, of comparing
the thirty tyrants of Rome with the thirty tyrants of Athens,
that induced the writers of the Augustan History to select that
celebrated number, which has been gradually received into a
popular appellation. ^157 But in every light the parallel is idle
and defective. What resemblance can we discover between a council
of thirty persons, the united oppressors of a single city, and an
uncertain list of independent rivals, who rose and fell in
irregular succession through the extent of a vast empire? Nor
can the number of thirty be completed, unless we include in the
account the women and children who were honored with the Imperial
title. The reign of Gallienus, distracted as it was, produced
only nineteen pretenders to the throne: Cyriades, Macrianus,
Balista, Odenathus, and Zenobia, in the East; in Gaul, and the
western provinces, Posthumus, Lollianus, Victorinus, and his
mother Victoria, Marius, and Tetricus; in Illyricum and the
confines of the Danube, Ingenuus, Regillianus, and Aureolus; in
Pontus, ^158 Saturninus; in Isauria, Trebellianus; Piso in
Thessaly; Valens in Achaia; Aemilianus in Egypt; and Celsus in
Africa. ^* To illustrate the obscure monuments of the life and
death of each individual, would prove a laborious task, alike
barren of instruction and of amusement. We may content ourselves
with investigating some general characters, that most strongly
mark the condition of the times, and the manners of the men,
their pretensions, their motives, their fate, and their
destructive consequences of their usurpation. ^159

[Footnote 157: Pollio expresses the most minute anxiety to
complete the number.

     Note: Compare a dissertation of Manso on the thirty tyrants
at the end of his Leben Constantius des Grossen. Breslau, 1817.
- M.]

[Footnote 158: The place of his reign is somewhat doubtful; but
there was a tyrant in Pontus, and we are acquainted with the seat
of all the others.]
[Footnote *: Captain Smyth, in his "Catalogue of Medals," p. 307,
substitutes two new names to make up the number of nineteen, for
those of Odenathus and Zenobia. He subjoins this list: -
         1.                         2.                 3.  Of
those whose coins        Those whose coins     Those of whom no  
are undoubtedly true.       are suspected.       coins are
known. Posthumus.                    Cyriades.           
Valens. Laelianus, (Lollianus, G.)     Ingenuus.           
Balista Victorinus                     Celsus.             
Saturninus. Marius.                       Piso Frugi.        
Trebellianus. Tetricus.                                         

  - M. 1815 Macrianus.
Quietus.
Regalianus (Regillianus, G.)
Alex. Aemilianus.
Aureolus.
Sulpicius Antoninus]

[Footnote 159: Tillemont, tom. iii. p. 1163, reckons them
somewhat differently.]

     It is sufficiently known, that the odious appellation of
Tyrant was often employed by the ancients to express the illegal
seizure of supreme power, without any reference to the abuse of
it. Several of the pretenders, who raised the standard of
rebellion against the emperor Gallienus, were shining models of
virtue, and almost all possessed a considerable share of vigor
and ability. Their merit had recommended them to the favor of
Valerian, and gradually promoted them to the most important
commands of the empire. The generals, who assumed the title of
Augustus, were either respected by their troops for their able
conduct and severe discipline, or admired for valor and success
in war, or beloved for frankness and generosity. The field of
victory was often the scene of their election; and even the
armorer Marius, the most contemptible of all the candidates for
the purple, was distinguished, however by intrepid courage,
matchless strength, and blunt honesty. ^160 His mean and recent
trade cast, indeed, an air of ridicule on his elevation; ^* but
his birth could not be more obscure than was that of the greater
part of his rivals, who were born of peasants, and enlisted in
the army as private soldiers. In times of confusion, every
active genius finds the place assigned him by nature: in a
general state of war, military merit is the road to glory and to
greatness. Of the nineteen tyrants Tetricus only was a senator;
Piso alone was a noble. The blood of Numa, through twenty-eight
successive generations, ran in the veins of Calphurnius Piso,
^161 who, by female alliances, claimed a right of exhibiting, in
his house, the images of Crassus and of the great Pompey. ^162
His ancestors had been repeatedly dignified with all the honors
which the commonwealth could bestow; and of all the ancient
families of Rome, the Calphurnian alone had survived the tyranny
of the Caesars. The personal qualities of Piso added new lustre
to his race. The usurper Valens, by whose order he was killed,
confessed, with deep remorse, that even an enemy ought to have
respected the sanctity of Piso; and although he died in arms
against Gallienus, the senate, with the emperor's generous
permission, decreed the triumphal ornaments to the memory of so
virtuous a rebel. ^163
[See Roman Coins: From The British Museum. Number four depicts
Crassus.]
[Footnote 160: See the speech of Marius in the Augustan History,
p. 197. The accidental identity of names was the only
circumstance that could tempt Pollio to imitate Sallust.]

[Footnote *: Marius was killed by a soldier, who had formerly
served as a workman in his shop, and who exclaimed, as he struck,
"Behold the sword which thyself hast forged." Trob vita. - G.]

[Footnote 161: "Vos, O Pompilius sanguis!" is Horace's address to
the Pisos See Art. Poet. v. 292, with Dacier's and Sanadon's
notes.]
[Footnote 162: Tacit. Annal. xv. 48. Hist. i. 15. In the former
of these passages we may venture to change paterna into materna.
In every generation from Augustus to Alexander Severus, one or
more Pisos appear as consuls. A Piso was deemed worthy of the
throne by Augustus, (Tacit. Annal. i. 13;) a second headed a
formidable conspiracy against Nero; and a third was adopted, and
declared Caesar, by Galba.]

[Footnote 163: Hist. August. p. 195. The senate, in a moment of
enthusiasm, seems to have presumed on the approbation of
Gallienus.]

     The lieutenants of Valerian were grateful to the father,
whom they esteemed. They disdained to serve the luxurious
indolence of his unworthy son. The throne of the Roman world was
unsupported by any principle of loyalty; and treason against such
a prince might easily be considered as patriotism to the state.
Yet if we examine with candor the conduct of these usurpers, it
will appear, that they were much oftener driven into rebellion by
their fears, than urged to it by their ambition. They dreaded
the cruel suspicions of Gallienus; they equally dreaded the
capricious violence of their troops. If the dangerous favor of
the army had imprudently declared them deserving of the purple,
they were marked for sure destruction; and even prudence would
counsel them to secure a short enjoyment of empire, and rather to
try the fortune of war than to expect the hand of an executioner.

When the clamor of the soldiers invested the reluctant victims
with the ensigns of sovereign authority, they sometimes mourned
in secret their approaching fate. "You have lost," said
Saturninus, on the day of his elevation, "you have lost a useful
commander, and you have made a very wretched emperor." ^164
[Footnote 164: Hist. August p. 196.]

     The apprehensions of Saturninus were justified by the
repeated experience of revolutions. Of the nineteen tyrants who
started up under the reign of Gallienus, there was not one who
enjoyed a life of peace, or a natural death. As soon as they
were invested with the bloody purple, they inspired their
adherents with the same fears and ambition which had occasioned
their own revolt. Encompassed with domestic conspiracy, military
sedition, and civil war, they trembled on the edge of precipices,
in which, after a longer or shorter term of anxiety, they were
inevitably lost. These precarious monarchs received, however,
such honors as the flattery of their respective armies and
provinces could bestow; but their claim, founded on rebellion,
could never obtain the sanction of law or history. Italy, Rome,
and the senate, constantly adhered to the cause of Gallienus, and
he alone was considered as the sovereign of the empire. That
prince condescended, indeed, to acknowledge the victorious arms
of Odenathus, who deserved the honorable distinction, by the
respectful conduct which he always maintained towards the son of
Valerian. With the general applause of the Romans, and the
consent of Gallienus, the senate conferred the title of Augustus
on the brave Palmyrenian; and seemed to intrust him with the
government of the East, which he already possessed, in so
independent a manner, that, like a private succession, he
bequeathed it to his illustrious widow, Zenobia. ^165
[Footnote 165: The association of the brave Palmyrenian was the
most popular act of the whole reign of Gallienus. Hist. August.
p. 180.]
     The rapid and perpetual transitions from the cottage to the
throne, and from the throne to the grave, might have amused an
indifferent philosopher; were it possible for a philosopher to
remain indifferent amidst the general calamities of human kind.
The election of these precarious emperors, their power and their
death, were equally destructive to their subjects and adherents.
The price of their fatal elevation was instantly discharged to
the troops by an immense donative, drawn from the bowels of the
exhausted people. However virtuous was their character, however
pure their intentions, they found themselves reduced to the hard
necessity of supporting their usurpation by frequent acts of
rapine and cruelty. When they fell, they involved armies and
provinces in their fall. There is still extant a most savage
mandate from Gallienus to one of his ministers, after the
suppression of Ingenuus, who had assumed the purple in Illyricum.

"It is not enough," says that soft but inhuman prince, "that you
exterminate such as have appeared in arms; the chance of battle
might have served me as effectually. The male sex of every age
must be extirpated; provided that, in the execution of the
children and old men, you can contrive means to save our
reputation. Let every one die who has dropped an expression, who
has entertained a thought against me, against me, the son of
Valerian, the father and brother of so many princes. ^166
Remember that Ingenuus was made emperor: tear, kill, hew in
pieces. I write to you with my own hand, and would inspire you
with my own feelings." ^167 Whilst the public forces of the state
were dissipated in private quarrels, the defenceless provinces
lay exposed to every invader. The bravest usurpers were
compelled, by the perplexity of their situation, to conclude
ignominious treaties with the common enemy, to purchase with
oppressive tributes the neutrality or services of the Barbarians,
and to introduce hostile and independent nations into the heart
of the Roman monarchy. ^168

[Footnote 166: Gallienus had given the titles of Caesar and
Augustus to his son Saloninus, slain at Cologne by the usurper
Posthumus. A second son of Gallienus succeeded to the name and
rank of his elder brother Valerian, the brother of Gallienus, was
also associated to the empire: several other brothers, sisters,
nephews, and nieces of the emperor formed a very numerous royal
family. See Tillemont, tom iii, and M. de Brequigny in the
Memoires de l'Academie, tom xxxii p. 262.]

[Footnote 167: Hist. August. p. 188.]

[Footnote 168: Regillianus had some bands of Roxolani in his
service; Posthumus a body of Franks. It was, perhaps, in the
character of auxiliaries that the latter introduced themselves
into Spain.]

     Such were the barbarians, and such the tyrants, who, under
the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, dismembered the provinces,
and reduced the empire to the lowest pitch of disgrace and ruin,
from whence it seemed impossible that it should ever emerge. As
far as the barrenness of materials would permit, we have
attempted to trace, with order and perspicuity, the general
events of that calamitous period. There still remain some
particular facts; I. The disorders of Sicily; II. The tumults
of Alexandria; and, III. The rebellion of the Isaurians, which
may serve to reflect a strong light on the horrid picture.

     I. Whenever numerous troops of banditti, multiplied by
success and impunity, publicly defy, instead of eluding the
justice of their country, we may safely infer, that the excessive
weakness of the government is felt and abused by the lowest ranks
of the community. The situation of Sicily preserved it from the
Barbarians; nor could the disarmed province have supported a
usurper. The sufferings of that once flourishing and still
fertile island were inflicted by baser hands. A licentious crowd
of slaves and peasants reigned for a while over the plundered
country, and renewed the memory of the servile wars of more
ancient times. ^169 Devastations, of which the husbandman was
either the victim or the accomplice, must have ruined the
agriculture of Sicily; and as the principal estates were the
property of the opulent senators of Rome, who often enclosed
within a farm the territory of an old republic, it is not
improbable, that this private injury might affect the capital
more deeply, than all the conquests of the Goths or the Persians.

[Footnote 169: The Augustan History, p. 177. See Diodor. Sicul.
l. xxxiv.]
     II. The foundation of Alexandria was a noble design, at
once conceived and executed by the son of Philip. The beautiful
and regular form of that great city, second only to Rome itself,
comprehended a circumference of fifteen miles; ^170 it was
peopled by three hundred thousand free inhabitants, besides at
least an equal number of slaves. ^171 The lucrative trade of
Arabia and India flowed through the port of Alexandria, to the
capital and provinces of the empire. ^* Idleness was unknown.
Some were employed in blowing of glass, others in weaving of
linen, others again manufacturing the papyrus. Either sex, and
every age, was engaged in the pursuits of industry, nor did even
the blind or the lame want occupations suited to their condition.
^172 But the people of Alexandria, a various mixture of nations,
united the vanity and inconstancy of the Greeks with the
superstition and obstinacy of the Egyptians. The most trifling
occasion, a transient scarcity of flesh or lentils, the neglect
of an accustomed salutation, a mistake of precedency in the
public baths, or even a religious dispute, ^173 were at any time
sufficient to kindle a sedition among that vast multitude, whose
resentments were furious and implacable. ^174 After the captivity
of Valerian and the insolence of his son had relaxed the
authority of the laws, the Alexandrians abandoned themselves to
the ungoverned rage of their passions, and their unhappy country
was the theatre of a civil war, which continued (with a few short
and suspicious truces) above twelve years. ^175 All intercourse
was cut off between the several quarters of the afflicted city,
every street was polluted with blood, every building of strength
converted into a citadel; nor did the tumults subside till a
considerable part of Alexandria was irretrievably ruined. The
spacious and magnificent district of Bruchion, ^* with its
palaces and musaeum, the residence of the kings and philosophers
of Egypt, is described above a century afterwards, as already
reduced to its present state of dreary solitude. ^176

[Footnote 170: Plin. Hist. Natur. v. 10.]

[Footnote 171: Diodor. Sicul. l. xvii. p. 590, edit. Wesseling.]

[Footnote *: Berenice, or Myos-Hormos, on the Red Sea, received
the eastern commodities. From thence they were transported to
the Nile, and down the Nile to Alexandria. - M.]

[Footnote 172: See a very curious letter of Hadrian, in the
Augustan History, p. 245.]

[Footnote 173: Such as the sacrilegious murder of a divine cat.
See Diodor. Sicul. l. i.

     Note: The hostility between the Jewish and Grecian part of
the population afterwards between the two former and the
Christian, were unfailing causes of tumult, sedition, and
massacre. In no place were the religious disputes, after the
establishment of Christianity, more frequent or more sanguinary.
See Philo. de Legat. Hist. of Jews, ii. 171, iii. 111, 198.
Gibbon, iii c. xxi. viii. c. xlvii. - M.]

[Footnote 174: Hist. August. p. 195. This long and terrible
sedition was first occasioned by a dispute between a soldier and
a townsman about a pair of shoes.]

[Footnote 175: Dionysius apud. Euses. Hist. Eccles. vii. p. 21.
Ammian xxii. 16.]

[Footnote *: The Bruchion was a quarter of Alexandria which
extended along the largest of the two ports, and contained many
palaces, inhabited by the Ptolemies. D'Anv. Geogr. Anc. iii. 10.
- G.]

[Footnote 176: Scaliger. Animadver. ad Euseb. Chron. p. 258.
Three dissertations of M. Bonamy, in the Mem. de l'Academie, tom.
ix.]
     III. The obscure rebellion of Trebellianus, who assumed the
purple in Isauria, a petty province of Asia Minor, was attended
with strange and memorable consequences. The pageant of royalty
was soon destroyed by an officer of Gallienus; but his followers,
despairing of mercy, resolved to shake off their allegiance, not
only to the emperor, but to the empire, and suddenly returned to
the savage manners from which they had never perfectly been
reclaimed. Their craggy rocks, a branch of the wide-extended
Taurus, protected their inaccessible retreat. The tillage of
some fertile valleys ^177 supplied them with necessaries, and a
habit of rapine with the luxuries of life. In the heart of the
Roman monarchy, the Isaurians long continued a nation of wild
barbarians. Succeeding princes, unable to reduce them to
obedience, either by arms or policy, were compelled to
acknowledge their weakness, by surrounding the hostile and
independent spot with a strong chain of fortifications, ^178
which often proved insufficient to restrain the incursions of
these domestic foes. The Isaurians, gradually extending their
territory to the sea-coast, subdued the western and mountainous
part of Cilicia, formerly the nest of those daring pirates,
against whom the republic had once been obliged to exert its
utmost force, under the conduct of the great Pompey. ^179

[Footnote 177: Strabo, l. xiii. p. 569.]

[Footnote 178: Hist. August. p. 197.]

[Footnote 179: See Cellarius, Geogr Antiq. tom. ii. p. 137, upon
the limits of Isauria.]

     Our habits of thinking so fondly connect the order of the
universe with the fate of man, that this gloomy period of history
has been decorated with inundations, earthquakes, uncommon
meteors, preternatural darkness, and a crowd of prodigies
fictitious or exaggerated. ^180 But a long and general famine was
a calamity of a more serious kind. It was the inevitable
consequence of rapine and oppression, which extirpated the
produce of the present, and the hope of future harvests. Famine
is almost always followed by epidemical diseases, the effect of
scanty and unwholesome food. Other causes must, however, have
contributed to the furious plague, which, from the year two
hundred and fifty to the year two hundred and sixty-five, raged
without interruption in every province, every city, and almost
every family, of the Roman empire. During some time five
thousand persons died daily in Rome; and many towns, that had
escaped the hands of the Barbarians, were entirely depopulated.
^181

[Footnote 180: Hist August p 177.]

[Footnote 181: Hist. August. p. 177. Zosimus, l. i. p. 24.
Zonaras, l. xii. p. 623. Euseb. Chronicon. Victor in Epitom.
Victor in Caesar. Eutropius, ix. 5. Orosius, vii. 21.]

     We have the knowledge of a very curious circumstance, of
some use perhaps in the melancholy calculation of human
calamities. An exact register was kept at Alexandria of all the
citizens entitled to receive the distribution of corn. It was
found, that the ancient number of those comprised between the
ages of forty and seventy, had been equal to the whole sum of
claimants, from fourteen to fourscore years of age, who remained
alive after the reign of Gallienus. ^182 Applying this authentic
fact to the most correct tables of mortality, it evidently
proves, that above half the people of Alexandria had perished;
and could we venture to extend the analogy to the other
provinces, we might suspect, that war, pestilence, and famine,
had consumed, in a few years, the moiety of the human species.
^183
[Footnote 182: Euseb. Hist. Eccles. vii. 21. The fact is taken
from the Letters of Dionysius, who, in the time of those
troubles, was bishop of Alexandria.]

[Footnote 183: In a great number of parishes, 11,000 persons were
found between fourteen and eighty; 5365 between forty and
seventy. See Buffon, Histoire Naturelle, tom. ii. p. 590.]

Chapter XI: Reign Of Claudius, Defeat Of The Goths.

Part I.

Reign Of Claudius. - Defeat Of The Goths. - Victories, Triumph,
And Death Of Aurelian.

     Under the deplorable reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, the
empire was oppressed and almost destroyed by the soldiers, the
tyrants, and the barbarians. It was saved by a series of great
princes, who derived their obscure origin from the martial
provinces of Illyricum. Within a period of about thirty years,
Claudius, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian and his colleagues,
triumphed over the foreign and domestic enemies of the state,
reestablished, with the military discipline, the strength of the
frontiers, and deserved the glorious title of Restorers of the
Roman world.
     The removal of an effeminate tyrant made way for a
succession of heroes. The indignation of the people imputed all
their calamities to Gallienus, and the far greater part were
indeed, the consequence of his dissolute manners and careless
administration. He was even destitute of a sense of honor, which
so frequently supplies the absence of public virtue; and as long
as he was permitted to enjoy the possession of Italy, a victory
of the barbarians, the loss of a province, or the rebellion of a
general, seldom disturbed the tranquil course of his pleasures.
At length, a considerable army, stationed on the Upper Danube,
invested with the Imperial purple their leader Aureolus; who,
disdaining a confined and barren reign over the mountains of
Rhaetia, passed the Alps, occupied Milan, threatened Rome, and
challenged Gallienus to dispute in the field the sovereignty of
Italy. The emperor, provoked by the insult, and alarmed by the
instant danger, suddenly exerted that latent vigor which
sometimes broke through the indolence of his temper. Forcing
himself from the luxury of the palace, he appeared in arms at the
head of his legions, and advanced beyond the Po to encounter his
competitor. The corrupted name of Pontirolo ^1 still preserves
the memory of a bridge over the Adda, which, during the action,
must have proved an object of the utmost importance to both
armies. The Rhaetian usurper, after receiving a total defeat and
a dangerous wound, retired into Milan. The siege of that great
city was immediately formed; the walls were battered with every
engine in use among the ancients; and Aureolus, doubtful of his
internal strength, and hopeless of foreign succors already
anticipated the fatal consequences of unsuccessful rebellion.

[Footnote 1: Pons Aureoli, thirteen miles from Bergamo, and
thirty-two from Milan. See Cluver. Italia, Antiq. tom. i. p.
245. Near this place, in the year 1703, the obstinate battle of
Cassano was fought between the French and Austrians. The
excellent relation of the Chevalier de Folard, who was present,
gives a very distinct idea of the ground. See Polybe de Folard,
tom. iii. p. 233-248.]

     His last resource was an attempt to seduce the loyalty of
the besiegers. He scattered libels through the camp, inviting the
troops to desert an unworthy master, who sacrificed the public
happiness to his luxury, and the lives of his most valuable
subjects to the slightest suspicions. The arts of Aureolus
diffused fears and discontent among the principal officers of his
rival. A conspiracy was formed by Heraclianus the Praetorian
praefect, by Marcian, a general of rank and reputation, and by
Cecrops, who commanded a numerous body of Dalmatian guards. The
death of Gallienus was resolved; and notwithstanding their desire
of first terminating the siege of Milan, the extreme danger which
accompanied every moment's delay obliged them to hasten the
execution of their daring purpose. At a late hour of the night,
but while the emperor still protracted the pleasures of the
table, an alarm was suddenly given, that Aureolus, at the head of
all his forces, had made a desperate sally from the town;
Gallienus, who was never deficient in personal bravery, started
from his silken couch, and without allowing himself time either
to put on his armor, or to assemble his guards, he mounted on
horseback, and rode full speed towards the supposed place of the
attack. Encompassed by his declared or concealed enemies, he
soon, amidst the nocturnal tumult, received a mortal dart from an
uncertain hand. Before he expired, a patriotic sentiment using
in the mind of Gallienus, induced him to name a deserving
successor; and it was his last request, that the Imperial
ornaments should be delivered to Claudius, who then commanded a
detached army in the neighborhood of Pavia. The report at least
was diligently propagated, and the order cheerfully obeyed by the
conspirators, who had already agreed to place Claudius on the
throne. On the first news of the emperor's death, the troops
expressed some suspicion and resentment, till the one was
removed, and the other assuaged, by a donative of twenty pieces
of gold to each soldier. They then ratified the election, and
acknowledged the merit of their new sovereign. ^2

[Footnote 2: On the death of Gallienus, see Trebellius Pollio in
Hist. August. p. 181. Zosimus, l. i. p. 37. Zonaras, l. xii. p.
634. Eutrop. ix. ll. Aurelius Victor in Epitom. Victor in
Caesar. I have compared and blended them all, but have chiefly
followed Aurelius Victor, who seems to have had the best
memoirs.]

     The obscurity which covered the origin of Claudius, though
it was afterwards embellished by some flattering fictions, ^3
sufficiently betrays the meanness of his birth. We can only
discover that he was a native of one of the provinces bordering
on the Danube; that his youth was spent in arms, and that his
modest valor attracted the favor and confidence of Decius. The
senate and people already considered him as an excellent officer,
equal to the most important trusts; and censured the inattention
of Valerian, who suffered him to remain in the subordinate
station of a tribune. But it was not long before that emperor
distinguished the merit of Claudius, by declaring him general and
chief of the Illyrian frontier, with the command of all the
troops in Thrace, Maesia, Dacia, Pannonia, and Dalmatia, the
appointments of the praefect of Egypt, the establishment of the
proconsul of Africa, and the sure prospect of the consulship. By
his victories over the Goths, he deserved from the senate the
honor of a statue, and excited the jealous apprehensions of
Gallienus. It was impossible that a soldier could esteem so
dissolute a sovereign, nor is it easy to conceal a just contempt.
Some unguarded expressions which dropped from Claudius were
officiously transmitted to the royal ear. The emperor's answer
to an officer of confidence describes in very lively colors his
own character, and that of the times. "There is not any thing
capable of giving me more serious concern, than the intelligence
contained in your last despatch; ^4 that some malicious
suggestions have indisposed towards us the mind of our friend and
parent Claudius. As you regard your allegiance, use every means
to appease his resentment, but conduct your negotiation with
secrecy; let it not reach the knowledge of the Dacian troops;
they are already provoked, and it might inflame their fury. I
myself have sent him some presents: be it your care that he
accept them with pleasure. Above all, let him not suspect that I
am made acquainted with his imprudence. The fear of my anger
might urge him to desperate counsels." ^5 The presents which
accompanied this humble epistle, in which the monarch solicited a
reconciliation with his discontented subject, consisted of a
considerable sum of money, a splendid wardrobe, and a valuable
service of silver and gold plate. By such arts Gallienus
softened the indignation and dispelled the fears of his Illyrian
general; and during the remainder of that reign, the formidable
sword of Claudius was always drawn in the cause of a master whom
he despised. At last, indeed, he received from the conspirators
the bloody purple of Gallienus: but he had been absent from their
camp and counsels; and however he might applaud the deed, we may
candidly presume that he was innocent of the knowledge of it. ^6
When Claudius ascended the throne, he was about fifty-four years
of age.
[Footnote 3: Some supposed him, oddly enough, to be a bastard of
the younger Gordian. Others took advantage of the province of
Dardania, to deduce his origin from Dardanus, and the ancient
kings of Troy.]

[Footnote 4: Notoria, a periodical and official despatch which
the emperor received from the frumentarii, or agents dispersed
through the provinces. Of these we may speak hereafter.]

[Footnote 5: Hist. August. p. 208. Gallienus describes the
plate, vestments, etc., like a man who loved and understood those
splendid trifles.]
[Footnote 6: Julian (Orat. i. p. 6) affirms that Claudius
acquired the empire in a just and even holy manner. But we may
distrust the partiality of a kinsman.]

     The siege of Milan was still continued, and Aureolus soon
discovered that the success of his artifices had only raised up a
more determined adversary. He attempted to negotiate with
Claudius a treaty of alliance and partition. "Tell him," replied
the intrepid emperor, "that such proposals should have been made
to Gallienus; he, perhaps, might have listened to them with
patience, and accepted a colleague as despicable as himself." ^7
This stern refusal, and a last unsuccessful effort, obliged
Aureolus to yield the city and himself to the discretion of the
conqueror. The judgment of the army pronounced him worthy of
death; and Claudius, after a feeble resistance, consented to the
execution of the sentence. Nor was the zeal of the senate less
ardent in the cause of their new sovereign. They ratified,
perhaps with a sincere transport of zeal, the election of
Claudius; and, as his predecessor had shown himself the personal
enemy of their order, they exercised, under the name of justice,
a severe revenge against his friends and family. The senate was
permitted to discharge the ungrateful office of punishment, and
the emperor reserved for himself the pleasure and merit of
obtaining by his intercession a general act of indemnity. ^8
[Footnote 7: Hist. August. p. 203. There are some trifling
differences concerning the circumstances of the last defeat and
death of Aureolus]
[Footnote 8: Aurelius Victor in Gallien. The people loudly
prayed for the damnation of Gallienus. The senate decreed that
his relations and servants should be thrown down headlong from
the Gemonian stairs. An obnoxious officer of the revenue had his
eyes torn out whilst under examination.
     Note: The expression is curious, "terram matrem deosque
inferos impias uti Gallieno darent." - M.]

     Such ostentatious clemency discovers less of the real
character of Claudius, than a trifling circumstance in which he
seems to have consulted only the dictates of his heart. The
frequent rebellions of the provinces had involved almost every
person in the guilt of treason, almost every estate in the case
of confiscation; and Gallienus often displayed his liberality by
distributing among his officers the property of his subjects. On
the accession of Claudius, an old woman threw herself at his
feet, and complained that a general of the late emperor had
obtained an arbitrary grant of her patrimony. This general was
Claudius himself, who had not entirely escaped the contagion of
the times. The emperor blushed at the reproach, but deserved the
confidence which she had reposed in his equity. The confession
of his fault was accompanied with immediate and ample
restitution. ^9
[Footnote 9: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 137.]

     In the arduous task which Claudius had undertaken, of
restoring the empire to its ancient splendor, it was first
necessary to revive among his troops a sense of order and
obedience. With the authority of a veteran commander, he
represented to them that the relaxation of discipline had
introduced a long train of disorders, the effects of which were
at length experienced by the soldiers themselves; that a people
ruined by oppression, and indolent from despair, could no longer
supply a numerous army with the means of luxury, or even of
subsistence; that the danger of each individual had increased
with the despotism of the military order, since princes who
tremble on the throne will guard their safety by the instant
sacrifice of every obnoxious subject. The emperor expiated on
the mischiefs of a lawless caprice, which the soldiers could only
gratify at the expense of their own blood; as their seditious
elections had so frequently been followed by civil wars, which
consumed the flower of the legions either in the field of battle,
or in the cruel abuse of victory. He painted in the most lively
colors the exhausted state of the treasury, the desolation of the
provinces, the disgrace of the Roman name, and the insolent
triumph of rapacious barbarians. It was against those barbarians,
he declared, that he intended to point the first effort of their
arms. Tetricus might reign for a while over the West, and even
Zenobia might preserve the dominion of the East. ^10 These
usurpers were his personal adversaries; nor could he think of
indulging any private resentment till he had saved an empire,
whose impending ruin would, unless it was timely prevented, crush
both the army and the people.

[Footnote 10: Zonaras on this occasion mentions Posthumus but the
registers of the senate (Hist. August. p. 203) prove that
Tetricus was already emperor of the western provinces.]

     The various nations of Germany and Sarmatia, who fought
under the Gothic standard, had already collected an armament more
formidable than any which had yet issued from the Euxine. On the
banks of the Niester, one of the great rivers that discharge
themselves into that sea, they constructed a fleet of two
thousand, or even of six thousand vessels; ^11 numbers which,
however incredible they may seem, would have been insufficient to
transport their pretended army of three hundred and twenty
thousand barbarians. Whatever might be the real strength of the
Goths, the vigor and success of the expedition were not adequate
to the greatness of the preparations. In their passage through
the Bosphorus, the unskilful pilots were overpowered by the
violence of the current; and while the multitude of their ships
were crowded in a narrow channel, many were dashed against each
other, or against the shore. The barbarians made several
descents on the coasts both of Europe and Asia; but the open
country was already plundered, and they were repulsed with shame
and loss from the fortified cities which they assaulted. A
spirit of discouragement and division arose in the fleet, and
some of their chiefs sailed away towards the islands of Crete and
Cyprus; but the main body, pursuing a more steady course,
anchored at length near the foot of Mount Athos, and assaulted
the city of Thessalonica, the wealthy capital of all the
Macedonian provinces. Their attacks, in which they displayed a
fierce but artless bravery, were soon interrupted by the rapid
approach of Claudius, hastening to a scene of action that
deserved the presence of a warlike prince at the head of the
remaining powers of the empire. Impatient for battle, the Goths
immediately broke up their camp, relinquished the siege of
Thessalonica, left their navy at the foot of Mount Athos,
traversed the hills of Macedonia, and pressed forwards to engage
the last defence of Italy.
[Footnote 11: The Augustan History mentions the smaller, Zonaras
the larger number; the lively fancy of Montesquieu induced him to
prefer the latter.]
     We still posses an original letter addressed by Claudius to
the senate and people on this memorable occasion. "Conscript
fathers," says the emperor, "know that three hundred and twenty
thousand Goths have invaded the Roman territory. If I vanquish
them, your gratitude will reward my services. Should I fall,
remember that I am the successor of Gallienus. The whole
republic is fatigued and exhausted. We shall fight after
Valerian, after Ingenuus, Regillianus, Lollianus, Posthumus,
Celsus, and a thousand others, whom a just contempt for Gallienus
provoked into rebellion. We are in want of darts, of spears, and
of shields. The strength of the empire, Gaul, and Spain, are
usurped by Tetricus, and we blush to acknowledge that the archers
of the East serve under the banners of Zenobia. Whatever we
shall perform will be sufficiently great." ^12 The melancholy
firmness of this epistle announces a hero careless of his fate,
conscious of his danger, but still deriving a well-grounded hope
from the resources of his own mind.
[Footnote 12: Trebell. Pollio in Hist. August. p. 204.]

     The event surpassed his own expectations and those of the
world. By the most signal victories he delivered the empire from
this host of barbarians, and was distinguished by posterity under
the glorious appellation of the Gothic Claudius. The imperfect
historians of an irregular war ^13 do not enable as to describe
the order and circumstances of his exploits; but, if we could be
indulged in the allusion, we might distribute into three acts
this memorable tragedy. I. The decisive battle was fought near
Naissus, a city of Dardania. The legions at first gave way,
oppressed by numbers, and dismayed by misfortunes. Their ruin
was inevitable, had not the abilities of their emperor prepared a
seasonable relief. A large detachment, rising out of the secret
and difficult passes of the mountains, which, by his order, they
had occupied, suddenly assailed the rear of the victorious Goths.

The favorable instant was improved by the activity of Claudius.
He revived the courage of his troops, restored their ranks, and
pressed the barbarians on every side. Fifty thousand men are
reported to have been slain in the battle of Naissus. Several
large bodies of barbarians, covering their retreat with a movable
fortification of wagons, retired, or rather escaped, from the
field of slaughter. II. We may presume that some insurmountable
difficulty, the fatigue, perhaps, or the disobedience, of the
conquerors, prevented Claudius from completing in one day the
destruction of the Goths. The war was diffused over the province
of Maesia, Thrace, and Macedonia, and its operations drawn out
into a variety of marches, surprises, and tumultuary engagements,
as well by sea as by land. When the Romans suffered any loss, it
was commonly occasioned by their own cowardice or rashness; but
the superior talents of the emperor, his perfect knowledge of the
country, and his judicious choice of measures as well as
officers, assured on most occasions the success of his arms. The
immense booty, the fruit of so many victories, consisted for the
greater part of cattle and slaves. A select body of the Gothic
youth was received among the Imperial troops; the remainder was
sold into servitude; and so considerable was the number of female
captives, that every soldier obtained to his share two or three
women. A circumstance from which we may conclude, that the
invaders entertained some designs of settlement as well as of
plunder; since even in a naval expedition, they were accompanied
by their families. III. The loss of their fleet, which was
either taken or sunk, had intercepted the retreat of the Goths.
A vast circle of Roman posts, distributed with skill, supported
with firmness, and gradually closing towards a common centre,
forced the barbarians into the most inaccessible parts of Mount
Haemus, where they found a safe refuge, but a very scanty
subsistence. During the course of a rigorous winter in which
they were besieged by the emperor's troops, famine and
pestilence, desertion and the sword, continually diminished the
imprisoned multitude. On the return of spring, nothing appeared
in arms except a hardy and desperate band, the remnant of that
mighty host which had embarked at the mouth of the Niester.

[Footnote 13: Hist. August. in Claud. Aurelian. et Prob.
Zosimus, l. i. p. 38-42. Zonaras, l. xii. p. 638. Aurel. Victor
in Epitom. Victor Junior in Caesar. Eutrop. ix ll. Euseb. in
Chron.]

     The pestilence which swept away such numbers of the
barbarians, at length proved fatal to their conqueror. After a
short but glorious reign of two years, Claudius expired at
Sirmium, amidst the tears and acclamations of his subjects. In
his last illness, he convened the principal officers of the state
and army, and in their presence recommended Aurelian, ^14 one of
his generals, as the most deserving of the throne, and the best
qualified to execute the great design which he himself had been
permitted only to undertake. The virtues of Claudius, his valor,
affability, justice, and temperance, his love of fame and of his
country, place him in that short list of emperors who added
lustre to the Roman purple. Those virtues, however, were
celebrated with peculiar zeal and complacency by the courtly
writers of the age of Constantine, who was the great grandson of
Crispus, the elder brother of Claudius. The voice of flattery
was soon taught to repeat, that gods, who so hastily had snatched
Claudius from the earth, rewarded his merit and piety by the
perpetual establishment of the empire in his family. ^15
[Footnote 14: According to Zonaras, (l. xii. p. 638,) Claudius,
before his death, invested him with the purple; but this singular
fact is rather contradicted than confirmed by other writers.]

[Footnote 15: See the Life of Claudius by Pollio, and the
Orations of Mamertinus, Eumenius, and Julian. See likewise the
Caesars of Julian p. 318. In Julian it was not adulation, but
superstition and vanity.]
     Notwithstanding these oracles, the greatness of the Flavian
family (a name which it had pleased them to assume) was deferred
above twenty years, and the elevation of Claudius occasioned the
immediate ruin of his brother Quintilius, who possessed not
sufficient moderation or courage to descend into the private
station to which the patriotism of the late emperor had condemned
him. Without delay or reflection, he assumed the purple at
Aquileia, where he commanded a considerable force; and though his
reign lasted only seventeen days, ^* he had time to obtain the
sanction of the senate, and to experience a mutiny of the troops.

As soon as he was informed that the great army of the Danube had
invested the well-known valor of Aurelian with Imperial power, he
sunk under the fame and merit of his rival; and ordering his
veins to be opened, prudently withdrew himself from the unequal
contest. ^16

[Footnote *: Such is the narrative of the greater part of the
older historians; but the number and the variety of his medals
seem to require more time, and give probability to the report of
Zosimus, who makes him reign some months. - G.]

[Footnote 16: Zosimus, l. i. p. 42. Pollio (Hist. August. p.
107) allows him virtues, and says, that, like Pertinax, he was
killed by the licentious soldiers. According to Dexippus, he
died of a disease.]

     The general design of this work will not permit us minutely
to relate the actions of every emperor after he ascended the
throne, much less to deduce the various fortunes of his private
life. We shall only observe, that the father of Aurelian was a
peasant of the territory of Sirmium, who occupied a small farm,
the property of Aurelius, a rich senator. His warlike son
enlisted in the troops as a common soldier, successively rose to
the rank of a centurion, a tribune, the praefect of a legion, the
inspector of the camp, the general, or, as it was then called,
the duke, of a frontier; and at length, during the Gothic war,
exercised the important office of commander- in-chief of the
cavalry. In every station he distinguished himself by matchless
valor, ^17 rigid discipline, and successful conduct. He was
invested with the consulship by the emperor Valerian, who styles
him, in the pompous language of that age, the deliverer of
Illyricum, the restorer of Gaul, and the rival of the Scipios.
At the recommendation of Valerian, a senator of the highest rank
and merit, Ulpius Crinitus, whose blood was derived from the same
source as that of Trajan, adopted the Pannonian peasant, gave him
his daughter in marriage, and relieved with his ample fortune the
honorable poverty which Aurelian had preserved inviolate. ^18
[Footnote 17: Theoclius (as quoted in the Augustan History, p.
211) affirms that in one day he killed with his own hand
forty-eight Sarmatians, and in several subsequent engagements
nine hundred and fifty. This heroic valor was admired by the
soldiers, and celebrated in their rude songs, the burden of which
was, mille, mile, mille, occidit.]

[Footnote 18: Acholius (ap. Hist. August. p. 213) describes the
ceremony of the adoption, as it was performed at Byzantium, in
the presence of the emperor and his great officers.]

     The reign of Aurelian lasted only four years and about nine
months; but every instant of that short period was filled by some
memorable achievement. He put an end to the Gothic war, chastised
the Germans who invaded Italy, recovered Gaul, Spain, and Britain
out of the hands of Tetricus, and destroyed the proud monarchy
which Zenobia had erected in the East on the ruins of the
afflicted empire.

     It was the rigid attention of Aurelian, even to the minutest
articles of discipline, which bestowed such uninterrupted success
on his arms. His military regulations are contained in a very
concise epistle to one of his inferior officers, who is commanded
to enforce them, as he wishes to become a tribune, or as he is
desirous to live. Gaming, drinking, and the arts of divination,
were severely prohibited. Aurelian expected that his soldiers
should be modest, frugal, and laborous; that their armor should
be constantly kept bright, their weapons sharp, their clothing
and horses ready for immediate service; that they should live in
their quarters with chastity and sobriety, without damaging the
cornfields, without stealing even a sheep, a fowl, or a bunch of
grapes, without exacting from their landlords, either salt, or
oil, or wood. "The public allowance," continues the emperor, "is
sufficient for their support; their wealth should be collected
from the spoils of the enemy, not from the tears of the
provincials." ^19 A single instance will serve to display the
rigor, and even cruelty, of Aurelian. One of the soldiers had
seduced the wife of his host. The guilty wretch was fastened to
two trees forcibly drawn towards each other, and his limbs were
torn asunder by their sudden separation. A few such examples
impressed a salutary consternation. The punishments of Aurelian
were terrible; but he had seldom occasion to punish more than
once the same offence. His own conduct gave a sanction to his
laws, and the seditious legions dreaded a chief who had learned
to obey, and who was worthy to command.
[Footnote 19: Hist. August, p. 211  This laconic epistle is truly
the work of a soldier; it abounds with military phrases and
words, some of which cannot be understood without difficulty.
Ferramenta samiata is well explained by Salmasius. The former of
the words means all weapons of offence, and is contrasted with
Arma, defensive armor  The latter signifies keen and well
sharpened.]

Chapter XI: Reign Of Claudius, Defeat Of The Goths.

Part II.

     The death of Claudius had revived the fainting spirit of the
Goths. The troops which guarded the passes of Mount Haemus, and
the banks of the Danube, had been drawn away by the apprehension
of a civil war; and it seems probable that the remaining body of
the Gothic and Vandalic tribes embraced the favorable
opportunity, abandoned their settlements of the Ukraine,
traversed the rivers, and swelled with new multitudes the
destroying host of their countrymen. Their united numbers were
at length encountered by Aurelian, and the bloody and doubtful
conflict ended only with the approach of night. ^20 Exhausted by
so many calamities, which they had mutually endured and inflicted
during a twenty years' war, the Goths and the Romans consented to
a lasting and beneficial treaty. It was earnestly solicited by
the barbarians, and cheerfully ratified by the legions, to whose
suffrage the prudence of Aurelian referred the decision of that
important question. The Gothic nation engaged to supply the
armies of Rome with a body of two thousand auxiliaries,
consisting entirely of cavalry, and stipulated in return an
undisturbed retreat, with a regular market as far as the Danube,
provided by the emperor's care, but at their own expense. The
treaty was observed with such religious fidelity, that when a
party of five hundred men straggled from the camp in quest of
plunder, the king or general of the barbarians commanded that the
guilty leader should be apprehended and shot to death with darts,
as a victim devoted to the sanctity of their engagements. ^* It
is, however, not unlikely, that the precaution of Aurelian, who
had exacted as hostages the sons and daughters of the Gothic
chiefs, contributed something to this pacific temper. The youths
he trained in the exercise of arms, and near his own person: to
the damsels he gave a liberal and Roman education, and by
bestowing them in marriage on some of his principal officers,
gradually introduced between the two nations the closest and most
endearing connections. ^21
[Footnote 20: Zosimus, l. i. p. 45.]

[Footnote *: The five hundred stragglers were all slain. - M.]
[Footnote 21: Dexipphus (ap. Excerpta Legat. p. 12) relates the
whole transaction under the name of Vandals. Aurelian married
one of the Gothic ladies to his general Bonosus, who was able to
drink with the Goths and discover their secrets. Hist. August.
p. 247.]

     But the most important condition of peace was understood
rather than expressed in the treaty. Aurelian withdrew the Roman
forces from Dacia, and tacitly relinquished that great province
to the Goths and Vandals. ^22 His manly judgment convinced him of
the solid advantages, and taught him to despise the seeming
disgrace, of thus contracting the frontiers of the monarchy. The
Dacian subjects, removed from those distant possessions which
they were unable to cultivate or defend, added strength and
populousness to the southern side of the Danube. A fertile
territory, which the repetition of barbarous inroads had changed
into a desert, was yielded to their industry, and a new province
of Dacia still preserved the memory of Trajan's conquests. The
old country of that name detained, however, a considerable number
of its inhabitants, who dreaded exile more than a Gothic master.
^23 These degenerate Romans continued to serve the empire, whose
allegiance they had renounced, by introducing among their
conquerors the first notions of agriculture, the useful arts, and
the conveniences of civilized life. An intercourse of commerce
and language was gradually established between the opposite banks
of the Danube; and after Dacia became an independent state, it
often proved the firmest barrier of the empire against the
invasions of the savages of the North. A sense of interest
attached these more settled barbarians to the alliance of Rome,
and a permanent interest very frequently ripens into sincere and
useful friendship. This various colony, which filled the ancient
province, and was insensibly blended into one great people, still
acknowledged the superior renown and authority of the Gothic
tribe, and claimed the fancied honor of a Scandinavian origin.
At the same time, the lucky though accidental resemblance of the
name of Getae, ^* infused among the credulous Goths a vain
persuasion, that in a remote age, their own ancestors, already
seated in the Dacian provinces, had received the instructions of
Zamolxis, and checked the victorious arms of Sesostris and
Darius. ^24

[Footnote 22: Hist. August. p. 222. Eutrop. ix. 15. Sextus
Rufus, c. 9. de Mortibus Persecutorum, c. 9.]

[Footnote 23: The Walachians still preserve many traces of the
Latin language and have boasted, in every age, of their Roman
descent. They are surrounded by, but not mixed with, the
barbarians. See a Memoir of M. d'Anville on ancient Dacia, in
the Academy of Inscriptions, tom. xxx.]

[Footnote *: The connection between the Getae and the Goths is
still in my opinion incorrectly maintained by some learned
writers - M.]
[Footnote 24: See the first chapter of Jornandes. The Vandals,
however, (c. 22,) maintained a short independence between the
Rivers Marisia and Crissia, (Maros and Keres,) which fell into
the Teiss.]

     While the vigorous and moderate conduct of Aurelian restored
the Illyrian frontier, the nation of the Alemanni ^25 violated
the conditions of peace, which either Gallienus had purchased, or
Claudius had imposed, and, inflamed by their impatient youth,
suddenly flew to arms. Forty thousand horse appeared in the
field, ^26 and the numbers of the infantry doubled those of the
cavalry. ^27 The first objects of their avarice were a few cities
of the Rhaetian frontier; but their hopes soon rising with
success, the rapid march of the Alemanni traced a line of
devastation from the Danube to the Po. ^28

[Footnote 25: Dexippus, p. 7 - 12. Zosimus, l. i. p. 43.
Vopiscus in Aurelian in Hist. August. However these historians
differ in names,) Alemanni Juthungi, and Marcomanni,) it is
evident that they mean the same people, and the same war; but it
requires some care to conciliate and explain them.]

[Footnote 26: Cantoclarus, with his usual accuracy, chooses to
translate three hundred thousand: his version is equally
repugnant to sense and to grammar.]

[Footnote 27: We may remark, as an instance of bad taste, that
Dexippus applies to the light infantry of the Alemanni the
technical terms proper only to the Grecian phalanx.]

[Footnote 28: In Dexippus, we at present read Rhodanus: M. de
Valois very judiciously alters the word to Eridanus.]

     The emperor was almost at the same time informed of the
irruption, and of the retreat, of the barbarians. Collecting an
active body of troops, he marched with silence and celerity along
the skirts of the Hercynian forest; and the Alemanni, laden with
the spoils of Italy, arrived at the Danube, without suspecting,
that on the opposite bank, and in an advantageous post, a Roman
army lay concealed and prepared to intercept their return.
Aurelian indulged the fatal security of the barbarians, and
permitted about half their forces to pass the river without
disturbance and without precaution. Their situation and
astonishment gave him an easy victory; his skilful conduct
improved the advantage. Disposing the legions in a semicircular
form, he advanced the two horns of the crescent across the
Danube, and wheeling them on a sudden towards the centre,
enclosed the rear of the German host. The dismayed barbarians,
on whatsoever side they cast their eyes, beheld, with despair, a
wasted country, a deep and rapid stream, a victorious and
implacable enemy.

     Reduced to this distressed condition, the Alemanni no longer
disdained to sue for peace. Aurelian received their ambassadors
at the head of his camp, and with every circumstance of martial
pomp that could display the greatness and discipline of Rome.
The legions stood to their arms in well- ordered ranks and awful
silence. The principal commanders, distinguished by the ensigns
of their rank, appeared on horseback on either side of the
Imperial throne. Behind the throne the consecrated images of the
emperor, and his predecessors, ^29 the golden eagles, and the
various titles of the legions, engraved in letters of gold, were
exalted in the air on lofty pikes covered with silver. When
Aurelian assumed his seat, his manly grace and majestic figure
^30 taught the barbarians to revere the person as well as the
purple of their conqueror. The ambassadors fell prostrate on the
ground in silence. They were commanded to rise, and permitted to
speak. By the assistance of interpreters they extenuated their
perfidy, magnified their exploits, expatiated on the vicissitudes
of fortune and the advantages of peace, and, with an ill-timed
confidence, demanded a large subsidy, as the price of the
alliance which they offered to the Romans. The answer of the
emperor was stern and imperious. He treated their offer with
contempt, and their demand with indignation, reproached the
barbarians, that they were as ignorant of the arts of war as of
the laws of peace, and finally dismissed them with the choice
only of submitting to this unconditional mercy, or awaiting the
utmost severity of his resentment. ^31 Aurelian had resigned a
distant province to the Goths; but it was dangerous to trust or
to pardon these perfidious barbarians, whose formidable power
kept Italy itself in perpetual alarms.

[Footnote 29: The emperor Claudius was certainly of the number;
but we are ignorant how far this mark of respect was extended; if
to Caesar and Augustus, it must have produced a very awful
spectacle; a long line of the masters of the world.]

[Footnote 30: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 210.]

[Footnote 31: Dexippus gives them a subtle and prolix oration,
worthy of a Grecian sophist.]

     Immediately after this conference, it should seem that some
unexpected emergency required the emperor's presence in Pannonia.

He devolved on his lieutenants the care of finishing the
destruction of the Alemanni, either by the sword, or by the surer
operation of famine. But an active despair has often triumphed
over the indolent assurance of success. The barbarians, finding
it impossible to traverse the Danube and the Roman camp, broke
through the posts in their rear, which were more feebly or less
carefully guarded; and with incredible diligence, but by a
different road, returned towards the mountains of Italy. ^32
Aurelian, who considered the war as totally extinguished,
received the mortifying intelligence of the escape of the
Alemanni, and of the ravage which they already committed in the
territory of Milan. The legions were commanded to follow, with
as much expedition as those heavy bodies were capable of
exerting, the rapid flight of an enemy whose infantry and cavalry
moved with almost equal swiftness. A few days afterwards, the
emperor himself marched to the relief of Italy, at the head of a
chosen body of auxiliaries, (among whom were the hostages and
cavalry of the Vandals,) and of all the Praetorian guards who had
served in the wars on the Danube. ^33

[Footnote 32: Hist. August. p. 215.]

[Footnote 33: Dexippus, p. 12.]

     As the light troops of the Alemanni had spread themselves
from the Alps to the Apennine, the incessant vigilance of
Aurelian and his officers was exercised in the discovery, the
attack, and the pursuit of the numerous detachments.
Notwithstanding this desultory war, three considerable battles
are mentioned, in which the principal force of both armies was
obstinately engaged. ^34 The success was various. In the first,
fought near Placentia, the Romans received so severe a blow,
that, according to the expression of a writer extremely partial
to Aurelian, the immediate dissolution of the empire was
apprehended. ^35 The crafty barbarians, who had lined the woods,
suddenly attacked the legions in the dusk of the evening, and, it
is most probable, after the fatigue and disorder of a long march.

The fury of their charge was irresistible; but, at length, after
a dreadful slaughter, the patient firmness of the emperor rallied
his troops, and restored, in some degree, the honor of his arms.
The second battle was fought near Fano in Umbria; on the spot
which, five hundred years before, had been fatal to the brother
of Hannibal. ^36 Thus far the successful Germans had advanced
along the Aemilian and Flaminian way, with a design of sacking
the defenceless mistress of the world. But Aurelian, who,
watchful for the safety of Rome, still hung on their rear, found
in this place the decisive moment of giving them a total and
irretrievable defeat. ^37 The flying remnant of their host was
exterminated in a third and last battle near Pavia; and Italy was
delivered from the inroads of the Alemanni.

[Footnote 34: Victor Junior in Aurelian.]

[Footnote 35: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 216.]

[Footnote 36: The little river, or rather torrent, of, Metaurus,
near Fano, has been immortalized, by finding such an historian as
Livy, and such a poet as Horace.]

[Footnote 37: It is recorded by an inscription found at Pesaro.
See Gruter cclxxvi. 3.]

     Fear has been the original parent of superstition, and every
new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of
their invisible enemies. Though the best hope of the republic
was in the valor and conduct of Aurelian, yet such was the public
consternation, when the barbarians were hourly expected at the
gates of Rome, that, by a decree of the senate the Sibylline
books were consulted. Even the emperor himself from a motive
either of religion or of policy, recommended this salutary
measure, chided the tardiness of the senate, ^38 and offered to
supply whatever expense, whatever animals, whatever captives of
any nation, the gods should require. Notwithstanding this liberal
offer, it does not appear, that any human victims expiated with
their blood the sins of the Roman people. The Sibylline books
enjoined ceremonies of a more harmless nature, processions of
priests in white robes, attended by a chorus of youths and
virgins; lustrations of the city and adjacent country; and
sacrifices, whose powerful influence disabled the barbarians from
passing the mystic ground on which they had been celebrated.
However puerile in themselves, these superstitious arts were
subservient to the success of the war; and if, in the decisive
battle of Fano, the Alemanni fancied they saw an army of spectres
combating on the side of Aurelian, he received a real and
effectual aid from this imaginary reenforcement. ^39

[Footnote 38: One should imagine, he said, that you were
assembled in a Christian church, not in the temple of all the
gods.]

[Footnote 39: Vopiscus, in Hist. August. p. 215, 216, gives a
long account of these ceremonies from the Registers of the
senate.]

     But whatever confidence might be placed in ideal ramparts,
the experience of the past, and the dread of the future, induced
the Romans to construct fortifications of a grosser and more
substantial kind. The seven hills of Rome had been surrounded,
by the successors of Romulus, with an ancient wall of more than
thirteen miles. ^40 The vast enclosure may seem disproportioned
to the strength and numbers of the infant state. But it was
necessary to secure an ample extent of pasture and arable land,
against the frequent and sudden incursions of the tribes of
Latium, the perpetual enemies of the republic. With the progress
of Roman greatness, the city and its inhabitants gradually
increased, filled up the vacant space, pierced through the
useless walls, covered the field of Mars, and, on every side,
followed the public highways in long and beautiful suburbs. ^41
The extent of the new walls, erected by Aurelian, and finished in
the reign of Probus, was magnified by popular estimation to near
fifty, ^42 but is reduced by accurate measurement to about
twenty-one miles. ^43 It was a great but a melancholy labor,
since the defence of the capital betrayed the decline of the
monarchy. The Romans of a more prosperous age, who trusted to the
arms of the legions the safety of the frontier camps, ^44 were
very far from entertaining a suspicion, that it would ever become
necessary to fortify the seat of empire against the inroads of
the barbarians. ^45

[Footnote 40: Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. To confirm our idea, we
may observe, that for a long time Mount Caelius was a grove of
oaks, and Mount Viminal was overrun with osiers; that, in the
fourth century, the Aventine was a vacant and solitary
retirement; that, till the time of Augustus, the Esquiline was an
unwholesome burying-ground; and that the numerous inequalities,
remarked by the ancients in the Quirinal, sufficiently prove that
it was not covered with buildings. Of the seven hills, the
Capitoline and Palatine only, with the adjacent valleys, were the
primitive habitations of the Roman people. But this subject
would require a dissertation.]
[Footnote 41: Exspatiantia tecta multas addidere urbes, is the
expression of Pliny.]

[Footnote 42: Hist. August. p. 222. Both Lipsius and Isaac
Vossius have eagerly embraced this measure.]

[Footnote 43: See Nardini, Roman Antica, l. i. c. 8.

     Note: But compare Gibbon, ch. xli. note 77. - M.]

[Footnote 44: Tacit. Hist. iv. 23.]

[Footnote 45: For Aurelian's walls, see Vopiscus in Hist. August.
p. 216, 222. Zosimus, l. i. p. 43. Eutropius, ix. 15. Aurel.
Victor in Aurelian Victor Junior in Aurelian. Euseb. Hieronym.
et Idatius in Chronic]
     The victory of Claudius over the Goths, and the success of
Aurelian against the Alemanni, had already restored to the arms
of Rome their ancient superiority over the barbarous nations of
the North. To chastise domestic tyrants, and to reunite the
dismembered parts of the empire, was a task reserved for the
second of those warlike emperors. Though he was acknowledged by
the senate and people, the frontiers of Italy, Africa, Illyricum,
and Thrace, confined the limits of his reign. Gaul, Spain, and
Britain, Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, were still possessed by
two rebels, who alone, out of so numerous a list, had hitherto
escaped the dangers of their situation; and to complete the
ignominy of Rome, these rival thrones had been usurped by women.

     A rapid succession of monarchs had arisen and fallen in the
provinces of Gaul. The rigid virtues of Posthumus served only to
hasten his destruction. After suppressing a competitor, who had
assumed the purple at Mentz, he refused to gratify his troops
with the plunder of the rebellious city; and in the seventh year
of his reign, became the victim of their disappointed avarice.
^46 The death of Victorinus, his friend and associate, was
occasioned by a less worthy cause. The shining accomplishments
^47 of that prince were stained by a licentious passion, which he
indulged in acts of violence, with too little regard to the laws
of society, or even to those of love. ^48 He was slain at
Cologne, by a conspiracy of jealous husbands, whose revenge would
have appeared more justifiable, had they spared the innocence of
his son. After the murder of so many valiant princes, it is
somewhat remarkable, that a female for a long time controlled the
fierce legions of Gaul, and still more singular, that she was the
mother of the unfortunate Victorinus. The arts and treasures of
Victoria enabled her successively to place Marius and Tetricus on
the throne, and to reign with a manly vigor under the name of
those dependent emperors. Money of copper, of silver, and of
gold, was coined in her name; she assumed the titles of Augusta
and Mother of the Camps: her power ended only with her life; but
her life was perhaps shortened by the ingratitude of Tetricus.
^49

[Footnote 46: His competitor was Lollianus, or Aelianus, if,
indeed, these names mean the same person. See Tillemont, tom.
iii. p. 1177.
     Note: The medals which bear the name of Lollianus are
considered forgeries except one in the museum of the Prince of
Waldeck there are many extent bearing the name of Laelianus,
which appears to have been that of the competitor of Posthumus.
Eckhel. Doct. Num. t. vi. 149 - G.]
[Footnote 47: The character of this prince by Julius Aterianus
(ap. Hist. August. p. 187) is worth transcribing, as it seems
fair and impartial Victorino qui Post Junium Posthumium Gallias
rexit neminem existemo praeferendum; non in virtute Trajanum; non
Antoninum in clementia; non in gravitate Nervam; non in
gubernando aerario Vespasianum; non in Censura totius vitae ac
severitate militari Pertinacem vel Severum. Sed omnia haec
libido et cupiditas voluptatis mulierriae sic perdidit, ut nemo
audeat virtutes ejus in literas mittere quem constat omnium
judicio meruisse puniri.]

[Footnote 48: He ravished the wife of Attitianus, an actuary, or
army agent, Hist. August. p. 186. Aurel. Victor in Aurelian.]

[Footnote 49: Pollio assigns her an article among the thirty
tyrants. Hist. August. p. 200.]

     When, at the instigation of his ambitious patroness,
Tetricus assumed the ensigns of royalty, he was governor of the
peaceful province of Aquitaine, an employment suited to his
character and education. He reigned four or five years over
Gaul, Spain, and Britain, the slave and sovereign of a licentious
army, whom he dreaded, and by whom he was despised. The valor
and fortune of Aurelian at length opened the prospect of a
deliverance. He ventured to disclose his melancholy situation,
and conjured the emperor to hasten to the relief of his unhappy
rival. Had this secret correspondence reached the ears of the
soldiers, it would most probably have cost Tetricus his life; nor
could he resign the sceptre of the West without committing an act
of treason against himself. He affected the appearances of a
civil war, led his forces into the field, against Aurelian,
posted them in the most disadvantageous manner, betrayed his own
counsels to his enemy, and with a few chosen friends deserted in
the beginning of the action. The rebel legions, though
disordered and dismayed by the unexpected treachery of their
chief, defended themselves with desperate valor, till they were
cut in pieces almost to a man, in this bloody and memorable
battle, which was fought near Chalons in Champagne. ^50 The
retreat of the irregular auxiliaries, Franks and Batavians, ^51
whom the conqueror soon compelled or persuaded to repass the
Rhine, restored the general tranquillity, and the power of
Aurelian was acknowledged from the wall of Antoninus to the
columns of Hercules.
[Footnote 50: Pollio in Hist. August. p. 196. Vopiscus in Hist.
August. p. 220. The two Victors, in the lives of Gallienus and
Aurelian. Eutrop. ix. 13. Euseb. in Chron. Of all these
writers, only the two last (but with strong probability) place
the fall of Tetricus before that of Zenobia. M. de Boze (in the
Academy of Inscriptions, tom. xxx.) does not wish, and Tillemont
(tom. iii. p. 1189) does not dare to follow them. I have been
fairer than the one, and bolder than the other.]

[Footnote 51: Victor Junior in Aurelian. Eumenius mentions
Batavicoe; some critics, without any reason, would fain alter the
word to Bagandicoe.]
     As early as the reign of Claudius, the city of Autun, alone
and unassisted, had ventured to declare against the legions of
Gaul. After a siege of seven months, they stormed and plundered
that unfortunate city, already wasted by famine. ^52 Lyons, on
the contrary, had resisted with obstinate disaffection the arms
of Aurelian. We read of the punishment of Lyons, ^53 but there
is not any mention of the rewards of Autun. Such, indeed, is the
policy of civil war; severely to remember injuries, and to forget
the most important services. Revenge is profitable, gratitude is
expensive.

[Footnote 52: Eumen. in Vet. Panegyr. iv. 8.]

[Footnote 53: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 246. Autun was not
restored till the reign of Diocletian. See Eumenius de
restaurandis scholis.]
     Aurelian had no sooner secured the person and provinces of
Tetricus, than he turned his arms against Zenobia, the celebrated
queen of Palmyra and the East. Modern Europe has produced
several illustrious women who have sustained with glory the
weight of empire; nor is our own age destitute of such
distinguished characters. But if we except the doubtful
achievements of Semiramis, Zenobia is perhaps the only female
whose superior genius broke through the servile indolence imposed
on her sex by the climate and manners of Asia. ^54 She claimed
her descent from the Macedonian kings of Egypt, ^* equalled in
beauty her ancestor Cleopatra, and far surpassed that princess in
chastity ^55 and valor. Zenobia was esteemed the most lovely as
well as the most heroic of her sex. She was of a dark
complexion, (for in speaking of a lady these trifles become
important.) Her teeth were of a pearly whiteness, and her large
black eyes sparkled with uncommon fire, tempered by the most
attractive sweetness. Her voice was strong and harmonious. Her
manly understanding was strengthened and adorned by study. She
was not ignorant of the Latin tongue, but possessed in equal
perfection the Greek, the Syriac, and the Egyptian languages.
She had drawn up for her own use an epitome of oriental history,
and familiarly compared the beauties of Homer and Plato under the
tuition of the sublime Longinus.

[Footnote 54: Almost everything that is said of the manners of
Odenathus and Zenobia is taken from their lives in the Augustan
History, by Trebeljus Pollio; see p. 192, 198.]

[Footnote *: According to some Christian writers, Zenobia was a
Jewess. (Jost Geschichte der Israel. iv. 16. Hist. of Jews, iii.
175.) - M.]
[Footnote 55: She never admitted her husband's embraces but for
the sake of posterity. If her hopes were baffled, in the ensuing
month she reiterated the experiment.]

     This accomplished woman gave her hand to Odenathus, ^! who,
from a private station, raised himself to the dominion of the
East. She soon became the friend and companion of a hero. In
the intervals of war, Odenathus passionately delighted in the
exercise of hunting; he pursued with ardor the wild beasts of the
desert, lions, panthers, and bears; and the ardor of Zenobia in
that dangerous amusement was not inferior to his own. She had
inured her constitution to fatigue, disdained the use of a
covered carriage, generally appeared on horseback in a military
habit, and sometimes marched several miles on foot at the head of
the troops. The success of Odenathus was in a great measure
ascribed to her incomparable prudence and fortitude. Their
splendid victories over the Great King, whom they twice pursued
as far as the gates of Ctesiphon, laid the foundations of their
united fame and power. The armies which they commanded, and the
provinces which they had saved, acknowledged not any other
sovereigns than their invincible chiefs. The senate and people of
Rome revered a stranger who had avenged their captive emperor,
and even the insensible son of Valerian accepted Odenathus for
his legitimate colleague.

[Footnote !: According to Zosimus, Odenathus was of a noble
family in Palmyra and according to Procopius, he was prince of
the Saracens, who inhabit the ranks of the Euphrates. Echhel.
Doct. Num. vii. 489. - G.]

Chapter XI: Reign Of Claudius, Defeat Of The Goths.

Part III.

     After a successful expedition against the Gothic plunderers
of Asia, the Palmyrenian prince returned to the city of Emesa in
Syria. Invincible in war, he was there cut off by domestic
treason, and his favorite amusement of hunting was the cause, or
at least the occasion, of his death. ^56 His nephew Maeonius
presumed to dart his javelin before that of his uncle; and though
admonished of his error, repeated the same insolence. As a
monarch, and as a sportsman, Odenathus was provoked, took away
his horse, a mark of ignominy among the barbarians, and chastised
the rash youth by a short confinement. The offence was soon
forgot, but the punishment was remembered; and Maeonius, with a
few daring associates, assassinated his uncle in the midst of a
great entertainment. Herod, the son of Odenathus, though not of
Zenobia, a young man of a soft and effeminate temper, ^57 was
killed with his father. But Maeonius obtained only the pleasure
of revenge by this bloody deed. He had scarcely time to assume
the title of Augustus, before he was sacrificed by Zenobia to the
memory of her husband. ^58

[Footnote 56: Hist. August. p. 192, 193. Zosimus, l. i. p. 36.
Zonaras, l. xii p. 633. The last is clear and probable, the
others confused and inconsistent. The text of Syncellus, if not
corrupt, is absolute nonsense.]
[Footnote 57: Odenathus and Zenobia often sent him, from the
spoils of the enemy, presents of gems and toys, which he received
with infinite delight.]
[Footnote 58: Some very unjust suspicions have been cast on
Zenobia, as if she was accessory to her husband's death.]

     With the assistance of his most faithful friends, she
immediately filled the vacant throne, and governed with manly
counsels Palmyra, Syria, and the East, above five years. By the
death of Odenathus, that authority was at an end which the senate
had granted him only as a personal distinction; but his martial
widow, disdaining both the senate and Gallienus, obliged one of
the Roman generals, who was sent against her, to retreat into
Europe, with the loss of his army and his reputation. ^59 Instead
of the little passions which so frequently perplex a female
reign, the steady administration of Zenobia was guided by the
most judicious maxims of policy. If it was expedient to pardon,
she could calm her resentment; if it was necessary to punish, she
could impose silence on the voice of pity. Her strict economy
was accused of avarice; yet on every proper occasion she appeared
magnificent and liberal. The neighboring states of Arabia,
Armenia, and Persia, dreaded her enmity, and solicited her
alliance. To the dominions of Odenathus, which extended from the
Euphrates to the frontiers of Bithynia, his widow added the
inheritance of her ancestors, the populous and fertile kingdom of
Egypt. ^60 ^* The emperor Claudius acknowledged her merit, and
was content, that, while he pursued the Gothic war, she should
assert the dignity of the empire in the East. ^61 The conduct,
however, of Zenobia, was attended with some ambiguity; not is it
unlikely that she had conceived the design of erecting an
independent and hostile monarchy. She blended with the popular
manners of Roman princes the stately pomp of the courts of Asia,
and exacted from her subjects the same adoration that was paid to
the successor of Cyrus. She bestowed on her three sons ^61 a
Latin education, and often showed them to the troops adorned with
the Imperial purple. For herself she reserved the diadem, with
the splendid but doubtful title of Queen of the East.
[Footnote 59: Hist. August. p. 180, 181.]

[Footnote 60: See, in Hist. August. p. 198, Aurelian's testimony
to her merit; and for the conquest of Egypt, Zosimus, l. i. p.
39, 40.]
[Footnote *: This seems very doubtful. Claudius, during all his
reign, is represented as emperor on the medals of Alexandria,
which are very numerous. If Zenobia possessed any power in Egypt,
it could only have been at the beginning of the reign of
Aurelian. The same circumstance throws great improbability on
her conquests in Galatia. Perhaps Zenobia administered Egypt in
the name of Claudius, and emboldened by the death of that prince,
subjected it to her own power. - G.]

[Footnote 61: Timolaus, Herennianus, and Vaballathus. It is
supposed that the two former were already dead before the war.
On the last, Aurelian bestowed a small province of Armenia, with
the title of King; several of his medals are still extant. See
Tillemont, tom. 3, p. 1190.]
     When Aurelian passed over into Asia, against an adversary
whose sex alone could render her an object of contempt, his
presence restored obedience to the province of Bithynia, already
shaken by the arms and intrigues of Zenobia. ^62 Advancing at the
head of his legions, he accepted the submission of Ancyra, and
was admitted into Tyana, after an obstinate siege, by the help of
a perfidious citizen. The generous though fierce temper of
Aurelian abandoned the traitor to the rage of the soldiers; a
superstitious reverence induced him to treat with lenity the
countrymen of Apollonius the philosopher. ^63 Antioch was
deserted on his approach, till the emperor, by his salutary
edicts, recalled the fugitives, and granted a general pardon to
all, who, from necessity rather than choice, had been engaged in
the service of the Palmyrenian Queen. The unexpected mildness of
such a conduct reconciled the minds of the Syrians, and as far as
the gates of Emesa, the wishes of the people seconded the terror
of his arms. ^64

[Footnote 62: Zosimus, l. i. p. 44.]

[Footnote 63: Vopiscus (in Hist. August. p. 217) gives us an
authentic letter and a doubtful vision, of Aurelian. Apollonius
of Tyana was born about the same time as Jesus Christ. His life
(that of the former) is related in so fabulous a manner by his
disciples, that we are at a loss to discover whether he was a
sage, an impostor, or a fanatic.]

[Footnote 64: Zosimus, l. i. p. 46.]

     Zenobia would have ill deserved her reputation, had she
indolently permitted the emperor of the West to approach within a
hundred miles of her capital. The fate of the East was decided
in two great battles; so similar in almost every circumstance,
that we can scarcely distinguish them from each other, except by
observing that the first was fought near Antioch, ^65 and the
second near Emesa. ^66 In both the queen of Palmyra animated the
armies by her presence, and devolved the execution of her orders
on Zabdas, who had already signalized his military talents by the
conquest of Egypt. The numerous forces of Zenobia consisted for
the most part of light archers, and of heavy cavalry clothed in
complete steel. The Moorish and Illyrian horse of Aurelian were
unable to sustain the ponderous charge of their antagonists. They
fled in real or affected disorder, engaged the Palmyrenians in a
laborious pursuit, harassed them by a desultory combat, and at
length discomfited this impenetrable but unwieldy body of
cavalry. The light infantry, in the mean time, when they had
exhausted their quivers, remaining without protection against a
closer onset, exposed their naked sides to the swords of the
legions. Aurelian had chosen these veteran troops, who were
usually stationed on the Upper Danube, and whose valor had been
severely tried in the Alemannic war. ^67 After the defeat of
Emesa, Zenobia found it impossible to collect a third army. As
far as the frontier of Egypt, the nations subject to her empire
had joined the standard of the conqueror, who detached Probus,
the bravest of his generals, to possess himself of the Egyptian
provinces. Palmyra was the last resource of the widow of
Odenathus. She retired within the walls of her capital, made
every preparation for a vigorous resistance, and declared, with
the intrepidity of a heroine, that the last moment of her reign
and of her life should be the same.
[Footnote 65: At a place called Immae. Eutropius, Sextus Rufus,
and Jerome, mention only this first battle.]

[Footnote 66: Vopiscus (in Hist. August. p. 217) mentions only
the second.]
[Footnote 67: Zosimus, l. i. p. 44 - 48. His account of the two
battles is clear and circumstantial.]

     Amid the barren deserts of Arabia, a few cultivated spots
rise like islands out of the sandy ocean. Even the name of
Tadmor, or Palmyra, by its signification in the Syriac as well as
in the Latin language, denoted the multitude of palm-trees which
afforded shade and verdure to that temperate region. The air was
pure, and the soil, watered by some invaluable springs, was
capable of producing fruits as well as corn. A place possessed
of such singular advantages, and situated at a convenient
distance ^68 between the Gulf of Persia and the Mediterranean,
was soon frequented by the caravans which conveyed to the nations
of Europe a considerable part of the rich commodities of India.
Palmyra insensibly increased into an opulent and independent
city, and connecting the Roman and the Parthian monarchies by the
mutual benefits of commerce, was suffered to observe an humble
neutrality, till at length, after the victories of Trajan, the
little republic sunk into the bosom of Rome, and flourished more
than one hundred and fifty years in the subordinate though
honorable rank of a colony. It was during that peaceful period,
if we may judge from a few remaining inscriptions, that the
wealthy Palmyrenians constructed those temples, palaces, and
porticos of Grecian architecture, whose ruins, scattered over an
extent of several miles, have deserved the curiosity of our
travellers. The elevation of Odenathus and Zenobia appeared to
reflect new splendor on their country, and Palmyra, for a while,
stood forth the rival of Rome: but the competition was fatal, and
ages of prosperity were sacrificed to a moment of glory. ^69
[Footnote 68: It was five hundred and thirty-seven miles from
Seleucia, and two hundred and three from the nearest coast of
Syria, according to the reckoning of Pliny, who, in a few words,
(Hist. Natur. v. 21,) gives an excellent description of Palmyra.

     Note: Talmor, or Palmyra, was probably at a very early
period the connecting link between the commerce of Tyre and
Babylon. Heeren, Ideen, v. i. p. ii. p. 125. Tadmor was
probably built by Solomon as a commercial station. Hist. of
Jews, v. p. 271 - M.]

[Footnote 69: Some English travellers from Aleppo discovered the
ruins of Palmyra about the end of the last century. Our
curiosity has since been gratified in a more splendid manner by
Messieurs Wood and Dawkins. For the history of Palmyra, we may
consult the masterly dissertation of Dr. Halley in the
Philosophical Transactions: Lowthorp's Abridgment, vol. iii. p.
518.]
     In his march over the sandy desert between Emesa and
Palmyra, the emperor Aurelian was perpetually harassed by the
Arabs; nor could he always defend his army, and especially his
baggage, from those flying troops of active and daring robbers,
who watched the moment of surprise, and eluded the slow pursuit
of the legions. The siege of Palmyra was an object far more
difficult and important, and the emperor, who, with incessant
vigor, pressed the attacks in person, was himself wounded with a
dart. "The Roman people," says Aurelian, in an original letter,
"speak with contempt of the war which I am waging against a
woman. They are ignorant both of the character and of the power
of Zenobia. It is impossible to enumerate her warlike
preparations, of stones, of arrows, and of every species of
missile weapons. Every part of the walls is provided with two or
three balistoe and artificial fires are thrown from her military
engines. The fear of punishment has armed her with a desperate
courage. Yet still I trust in the protecting deities of Rome,
who have hitherto been favorable to all my undertakings." ^70
Doubtful, however, of the protection of the gods, and of the
event of the siege, Aurelian judged it more prudent to offer
terms of an advantageous capitulation; to the queen, a splendid
retreat; to the citizens, their ancient privileges. His
proposals were obstinately rejected, and the refusal was
accompanied with insult.

[Footnote 70: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 218.]

     The firmness of Zenobia was supported by the hope, that in a
very short time famine would compel the Roman army to repass the
desert; and by the reasonable expectation that the kings of the
East, and particularly the Persian monarch, would arm in the
defence of their most natural ally. But fortune, and the
perseverance of Aurelian, overcame every obstacle. The death of
Sapor, which happened about this time, ^71 distracted the
councils of Persia, and the inconsiderable succors that attempted
to relieve Palmyra, were easily intercepted either by the arms or
the liberality of the emperor. From every part of Syria, a
regular succession of convoys safely arrived in the camp, which
was increased by the return of Probus with his victorious troops
from the conquest of Egypt. It was then that Zenobia resolved to
fly. She mounted the fleetest of her dromedaries, ^72 and had
already reached the banks of the Euphrates, about sixty miles
from Palmyra, when she was overtaken by the pursuit of Aurelian's
light horse, seized, and brought back a captive to the feet of
the emperor. Her capital soon afterwards surrendered, and was
treated with unexpected lenity. The arms, horses, and camels,
with an immense treasure of gold, silver, silk, and precious
stones, were all delivered to the conqueror, who, leaving only a
garrison of six hundred archers, returned to Emesa, and employed
some time in the distribution of rewards and punishments at the
end of so memorable a war, which restored to the obedience of
Rome those provinces that had renounced their allegiance since
the captivity of Valerian.

[Footnote 71: From a very doubtful chronology I have endeavored
to extract the most probable date.]

[Footnote 72: Hist. August. p. 218. Zosimus, l. i. p. 50.
Though the camel is a heavy beast of burden, the dromedary, which
is either of the same or of a kindred species, is used by the
natives of Asia and Africa on all occasions which require
celerity. The Arabs affirm, that he will run over as much ground
in one day as their fleetest horses can perform in eight or ten.
See Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. xi. p. 222, and Shaw's Travels
p. 167]
     When the Syrian queen was brought into the presence of
Aurelian, he sternly asked her, How she had presumed to rise in
arms against the emperors of Rome! The answer of Zenobia was a
prudent mixture of respect and firmness. "Because I disdained to
consider as Roman emperors an Aureolus or a Gallienus. You alone
I acknowledge as my conqueror and my sovereign." ^73 But as
female fortitude is commonly artificial, so it is seldom steady
or consistent. The courage of Zenobia deserted her in the hour
of trial; she trembled at the angry clamors of the soldiers, who
called aloud for her immediate execution, forgot the generous
despair of Cleopatra, which she had proposed as her model, and
ignominiously purchased life by the sacrifice of her fame and her
friends. It was to their counsels, which governed the weakness
of her sex, that she imputed the guilt of her obstinate
resistance; it was on their heads that she directed the vengeance
of the cruel Aurelian. The fame of Longinus, who was included
among the numerous and perhaps innocent victims of her fear, will
survive that of the queen who betrayed, or the tyrant who
condemned him. Genius and learning were incapable of moving a
fierce unlettered soldier, but they had served to elevate and
harmonize the soul of Longinus. Without uttering a complaint, he
calmly followed the executioner, pitying his unhappy mistress,
and bestowing comfort on his afflicted friends. ^74

[Footnote 73: Pollio in Hist. August. p. 199.]

[Footnote 74: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 219. Zosimus, l. i.
p. 51.]
     Returning from the conquest of the East, Aurelian had
already crossed the Straits which divided Europe from Asia, when
he was provoked by the intelligence that the Palmyrenians had
massacred the governor and garrison which he had left among them,
and again erected the standard of revolt. Without a moment's
deliberation, he once more turned his face towards Syria. Antioch
was alarmed by his rapid approach, and the helpless city of
Palmyra felt the irresistible weight of his resentment. We have
a letter of Aurelian himself, in which he acknowledges, ^75 that
old men, women, children, and peasants, had been involved in that
dreadful execution, which should have been confined to armed
rebellion; and although his principal concern seems directed to
the reestablishment of a temple of the Sun, he discovers some
pity for the remnant of the Palmyrenians, to whom he grants the
permission of rebuilding and inhabiting their city. But it is
easier to destroy than to restore. The seat of commerce, of
arts, and of Zenobia, gradually sunk into an obscure town, a
trifling fortress, and at length a miserable village. The
present citizens of Palmyra, consisting of thirty or forty
families, have erected their mud cottages within the spacious
court of a magnificent temple.
[Footnote 75: Hist. August. p. 219.]

     Another and a last labor still awaited the indefatigable
Aurelian; to suppress a dangerous though obscure rebel, who,
during the revolt of Palmyra, had arisen on the banks of the
Nile. Firmus, the friend and ally, as he proudly styled himself,
of Odenathus and Zenobia, was no more than a wealthy merchant of
Egypt. In the course of his trade to India, he had formed very
intimate connections with the Saracens and the Blemmyes, whose
situation on either coast of the Red Sea gave them an easy
introduction into the Upper Egypt. The Egyptians he inflamed
with the hope of freedom, and, at the head of their furious
multitude, broke into the city of Alexandria, where he assumed
the Imperial purple, coined money, published edicts, and raised
an army, which, as he vainly boasted, he was capable of
maintaining from the sole profits of his paper trade. Such
troops were a feeble defence against the approach of Aurelian;
and it seems almost unnecessary to relate, that Firmus was
routed, taken, tortured, and put to death. ^76 Aurelian might now
congratulate the senate, the people, and himself, that in little
more than three years, he had restored universal peace and order
to the Roman world.
[Footnote 76: See Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 220, 242. As an
instance of luxury, it is observed, that he had glass windows.
He was remarkable for his strength and appetite, his courage and
dexterity. From the letter of Aurelian, we may justly infer,
that Firmus was the last of the rebels, and consequently that
Tetricus was already suppressed.]

     Since the foundation of Rome, no general had more nobly
deserved a triumph than Aurelian; nor was a triumph ever
celebrated with superior pride and magnificence. ^77 The pomp was
opened by twenty elephants, four royal tigers, and above two
hundred of the most curious animals from every climate of the
North, the East, and the South. They were followed by sixteen
hundred gladiators, devoted to the cruel amusement of the
amphitheatre. The wealth of Asia, the arms and ensigns of so
many conquered nations, and the magnificent plate and wardrobe of
the Syrian queen, were disposed in exact symmetry or artful
disorder. The ambassadors of the most remote parts of the earth,
of Aethiopia, Arabia, Persia, Bactriana, India, and China, all
remarkable by their rich or singular dresses, displayed the fame
and power of the Roman emperor, who exposed likewise to the
public view the presents that he had received, and particularly a
great number of crowns of gold, the offerings of grateful cities.

The victories of Aurelian were attested by the long train of
captives who reluctantly attended his triumph, Goths, Vandals,
Sarmatians, Alemanni, Franks, Gauls, Syrians, and Egyptians.
Each people was distinguished by its peculiar inscription, and
the title of Amazons was bestowed on ten martial heroines of the
Gothie nation who had been taken in arms. ^78 But every eye,
disregarding the crowd of captives, was fixed on the emperor
Tetricus and the queen of the East. The former, as well as his
son, whom he had created Augustus, was dressed in Gallic
trousers, ^79 a saffron tunic, and a robe of purple. The
beauteous figure of Zenobia was confined by fetters of gold; a
slave supported the gold chain which encircled her neck, and she
almost fainted under the intolerable weight of jewels. She
preceded on foot the magnificent chariot, in which she once hoped
to enter the gates of Rome. It was followed by two other
chariots, still more sumptuous, of Odenathus and of the Persian
monarch. The triumphal car of Aurelian (it had formerly been
used by a Gothic king) was drawn, on this memorable occasion,
either by four stags or by four elephants. ^80 The most
illustrious of the senate, the people, and the army closed the
solemn procession. Unfeigned joy, wonder, and gratitude, swelled
the acclamations of the multitude; but the satisfaction of the
senate was clouded by the appearance of Tetricus; nor could they
suppress a rising murmur, that the haughty emperor should thus
expose to public ignominy the person of a Roman and a magistrate.
^81
[Footnote 77: See the triumph of Aurelian, described by Vopiscus.

He relates the particulars with his usual minuteness; and, on
this occasion, they happen to be interesting. Hist. August. p.
220.]

[Footnote 78: Among barbarous nations, women have often combated
by the side of their husbands. But it is almost impossible that
a society of Amazons should ever have existed either in the old
or new world.

     Note: Klaproth's theory on the origin of such traditions is
at least recommended by its ingenuity. The males of a tribe
having gone out on a marauding expedition, and having been cut
off to a man, the females may have endeavored, for a time, to
maintain their independence in their camp village, till their
children grew up. Travels, ch. xxx. Eng. Trans - M.]
[Footnote 79: The use of braccoe, breeches, or trousers, was
still considered in Italy as a Gallic and barbarian fashion. The
Romans, however, had made great advances towards it. To encircle
the legs and thighs with fascioe, or bands, was understood, in
the time of Pompey and Horace, to be a proof of ill health or
effeminacy. In the age of Trajan, the custom was confined to the
rich and luxurious. It gradually was adopted by the meanest of
the people. See a very curious note of Casaubon, ad Sueton. in
August. c. 82.]
[Footnote 80: Most probably the former; the latter seen on the
medals of Aurelian, only denote (according to the learned
Cardinal Norris) an oriental victory.]

[Footnote 81: The expression of Calphurnius, (Eclog. i. 50)
Nullos decet captiva triumphos, as applied to Rome, contains a
very manifest allusion and censure.]

     But however, in the treatment of his unfortunate rivals,
Aurelian might indulge his pride, he behaved towards them with a
generous clemency, which was seldom exercised by the ancient
conquerors. Princes who, without success, had defended their
throne or freedom, were frequently strangled in prison, as soon
as the triumphal pomp ascended the Capitol. These usurpers, whom
their defeat had convicted of the crime of treason, were
permitted to spend their lives in affluence and honorable repose.

The emperor presented Zenobia with an elegant villa at Tibur, or
Tivoli, about twenty miles from the capital; the Syrian queen
insensibly sunk into a Roman matron, her daughters married into
noble families, and her race was not yet extinct in the fifth
century. ^82 Tetricus and his son were reinstated in their rank
and fortunes. They erected on the Caelian hill a magnificent
palace, and as soon as it was finished, invited Aurelian to
supper. On his entrance, he was agreeably surprised with a
picture which represented their singular history. They were
delineated offering to the emperor a civic crown and the sceptre
of Gaul, and again receiving at his hands the ornaments of the
senatorial dignity. The father was afterwards invested with the
government of Lucania, ^83 and Aurelian, who soon admitted the
abdicated monarch to his friendship and conversation, familiarly
asked him, Whether it were not more desirable to administer a
province of Italy, than to reign beyond the Alps. The son long
continued a respectable member of the senate; nor was there any
one of the Roman nobility more esteemed by Aurelian, as well as
by his successors. ^84
[Footnote 82: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 199. Hieronym. in
Chron. Prosper in Chron. Baronius supposes that Zenobius,
bishop of Florence in the time of St. Ambrose, was of her
family.]

[Footnote 83: Vopisc. in Hist. August. p. 222. Eutropius, ix.
13. Victor Junior. But Pollio, in Hist. August. p. 196, says,
that Tetricus was made corrector of all Italy.]

[Footnote 84: Hist. August. p. 197.]

     So long and so various was the pomp of Aurelian's triumph,
that although it opened with the dawn of day, the slow majesty of
the procession ascended not the Capitol before the ninth hour;
and it was already dark when the emperor returned to the palace.
The festival was protracted by theatrical representations, the
games of the circus, the hunting of wild beasts, combats of
gladiators, and naval engagements. Liberal donatives were
distributed to the army and people, and several institutions,
agreeable or beneficial to the city, contributed to perpetuate
the glory of Aurelian. A considerable portion of his oriental
spoils was consecrated to the gods of Rome; the Capitol, and
every other temple, glittered with the offerings of his
ostentatious piety; and the temple of the Sun alone received
above fifteen thousand pounds of gold. ^85 This last was a
magnificent structure, erected by the emperor on the side of the
Quirinal hill, and dedicated, soon after the triumph, to that
deity whom Aurelian adored as the parent of his life and
fortunes. His mother had been an inferior priestess in a chapel
of the Sun; a peculiar devotion to the god of Light was a
sentiment which the fortunate peasant imbibed in his infancy; and
every step of his elevation, every victory of his reign,
fortified superstition by gratitude. ^86
[Footnote 85: Vopiscus in Hist. August. 222. Zosimus, l. i. p.
56. He placed in it the images of Belus and of the Sun, which he
had brought from Palmyra. It was dedicated in the fourth year of
his reign, (Euseb in Chron.,) but was most assuredly begun
immediately on his accession.]
[Footnote 86: See, in the Augustan History, p. 210, the omens of
his fortune. His devotion to the Sun appears in his letters, on
his medals, and is mentioned in the Caesars of Julian.
Commentaire de Spanheim, p. 109.]
     The arms of Aurelian had vanquished the foreign and domestic
foes of the republic. We are assured, that, by his salutary
rigor, crimes and factions, mischievous arts and pernicious
connivance, the luxurious growth of a feeble and oppressive
government, were eradicated throughout the Roman world. ^87 But
if we attentively reflect how much swifter is the progress of
corruption than its cure, and if we remember that the years
abandoned to public disorders exceeded the months allotted to the
martial reign of Aurelian, we must confess that a few short
intervals of peace were insufficient for the arduous work of
reformation. Even his attempt to restore the integrity of the
coin was opposed by a formidable insurrection. The emperor's
vexation breaks out in one of his private letters. "Surely,"
says he, "the gods have decreed that my life should be a
perpetual warfare. A sedition within the walls has just now
given birth to a very serious civil war. The workmen of the
mint, at the instigation of Felicissimus, a slave to whom I had
intrusted an employment in the finances, have risen in rebellion.

They are at length suppressed; but seven thousand of my soldiers
have been slain in the contest, of those troops whose ordinary
station is in Dacia, and the camps along the Danube." ^88 Other
writers, who confirm the same fact, add likewise, that it
happened soon after Aurelian's triumph; that the decisive
engagement was fought on the Caelian hill; that the workmen of
the mint had adulterated the coin; and that the emperor restored
the public credit, by delivering out good money in exchange for
the bad, which the people was commanded to bring into the
treasury. ^89

[Footnote 87: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 221.]

[Footnote 88: Hist. August. p. 222. Aurelian calls these
soldiers Hiberi Riporiences Castriani, and Dacisci.]

[Footnote 89: Zosimus, l. i. p. 56. Eutropius, ix. 14. Aurel
Victor.]
     We might content ourselves with relating this extraordinary
transaction, but we cannot dissemble how much in its present form
it appears to us inconsistent and incredible. The debasement of
the coin is indeed well suited to the administration of
Gallienus; nor is it unlikely that the instruments of the
corruption might dread the inflexible justice of Aurelian. But
the guilt, as well as the profit, must have been confined to a
very few; nor is it easy to conceive by what arts they could arm
a people whom they had injured, against a monarch whom they had
betrayed. We might naturally expect that such miscreants should
have shared the public detestation with the informers and the
other ministers of oppression; and that the reformation of the
coin should have been an action equally popular with the
destruction of those obsolete accounts, which by the emperor's
order were burnt in the forum of Trajan. ^90 In an age when the
principles of commerce were so imperfectly understood, the most
desirable end might perhaps be effected by harsh and injudicious
means; but a temporary grievance of such a nature can scarcely
excite and support a serious civil war. The repetition of
intolerable taxes, imposed either on the land or on the
necessaries of life, may at last provoke those who will not, or
who cannot, relinquish their country. But the case is far
otherwise in every operation which, by whatsoever expedients,
restores the just value of money. The transient evil is soon
obliterated by the permanent benefit, the loss is divided among
multitudes; and if a few wealthy individuals experience a
sensible diminution of treasure, with their riches, they at the
same time lose the degree of weight and importance which they
derived from the possession of them. However Aurelian might
choose to disguise the real cause of the insurrection, his
reformation of the coin could furnish only a faint pretence to a
party already powerful and discontented. Rome, though deprived
of freedom, was distracted by faction. The people, towards whom
the emperor, himself a plebeian, always expressed a peculiar
fondness, lived in perpetual dissension with the senate, the
equestrian order, and the Praetorian guards. ^91 Nothing less
than the firm though secret conspiracy of those orders, of the
authority of the first, the wealth of the second, and the arms of
the third, could have displayed a strength capable of contending
in battle with the veteran legions of the Danube, which, under
the conduct of a martial sovereign, had achieved the conquest of
the West and of the East.

[Footnote 90: Hist. August. p. 222. Aurel Victor.]

[Footnote 91: It already raged before Aurelian's return from
Egypt. See Vipiscus, who quotes an original letter. Hist.
August. p. 244.]
     Whatever was the cause or the object of this rebellion,
imputed with so little probability to the workmen of the mint,
Aurelian used his victory with unrelenting rigor. ^92 He was
naturally of a severe disposition. A peasant and a soldier, his
nerves yielded not easily to the impressions of sympathy, and he
could sustain without emotion the sight of tortures and death.
Trained from his earliest youth in the exercise of arms, he set
too small a value on the life of a citizen, chastised by military
execution the slightest offences, and transferred the stern
discipline of the camp into the civil administration of the laws.

His love of justice often became a blind and furious passion and
whenever he deemed his own or the public safety endangered, he
disregarded the rules of evidence, and the proportion of
punishments. The unprovoked rebellion with which the Romans
rewarded his services, exasperated his haughty spirit. The
noblest families of the capital were involved in the guilt or
suspicion of this dark conspiracy. A nasty spirit of revenge
urged the bloody prosecution, and it proved fatal to one of the
nephews of the emperor. The the executioners (if we may use the
expression of a contemporary poet) were fatigued, the prisons
were crowded, and the unhappy senate lamented the death or
absence of its most illustrious members. ^93 Nor was the pride of
Aurelian less offensive to that assembly than his cruelty.
Ignorant or impatient of the restraints of civil institutions, he
disdained to hold his power by any other title than that of the
sword, and governed by right of conquest an empire which he had
saved and subdued. ^94

[Footnote 92: Vopiscus in Hist. August p. 222. The two Victors.
Eutropius ix. 14. Zosimus (l. i. p. 43) mentions only three
senators, and placed their death before the eastern war.]

[Footnote 93: Nulla catenati feralis pompa senatus
     Carnificum lassabit opus; nec carcere pleno
     Infelix raros numerabit curia Patres.

     Calphurn. Eclog. i. 60.]

[Footnote 94: According to the younger Victor, he sometimes wore
the diadem, Deus and Dominus appear on his medals.]

     It was observed by one of the most sagacious of the Roman
princes, that the talents of his predecessor Aurelian were better
suited to the command of an army, than to the government of an
empire. ^95 Conscious of the character in which nature and
experience had enabled him to excel, he again took the field a
few months after his triumph. It was expedient to exercise the
restless temper of the legions in some foreign war, and the
Persian monarch, exulting in the shame of Valerian, still braved
with impunity the offended majesty of Rome. At the head of an
army, less formidable by its numbers than by its discipline and
valor, the emperor advanced as far as the Straits which divide
Europe from Asia. He there experienced that the most absolute
power is a weak defence against the effects of despair. He had
threatened one of his secretaries who was accused of extortion;
and it was known that he seldom threatened in vain. The last
hope which remained for the criminal, was to involve some of the
principal officers of the army in his danger, or at least in his
fears. Artfully counterfeiting his master's hand, he showed
them, in a long and bloody list, their own names devoted to
death. Without suspecting or examining the fraud, they resolved
to secure their lives by the murder of the emperor. On his
march, between Byzanthium and Heraclea, Aurelian was suddenly
attacked by the conspirators, whose stations gave them a right to
surround his person, and after a short resistance, fell by the
hand of Mucapor, a general whom he had always loved and trusted.
He died regretted by the army, detested by the senate, but
universally acknowledged as a warlike and fortunate prince, the
useful, though severe reformer of a degenerate state. ^96

[Footnote 95: It was the observation of Dioclatian. See Vopiscus
in Hist. August. p. 224.]

[Footnote 96: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 221. Zosimus, l. i.
p. 57. Eutrop ix. 15. The two Victors.]

Chapter XII: Reigns Of Tacitus, Probus, Carus And His Sons.

Part I.

Conduct Of The Army And Senate After The Death Of Aurelian. -
Reigns Of Tacitus, Probus, Carus, And His Sons.

     Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, that,
whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the
same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness, of
indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and almost
every reign is closed by the same disgusting repetition of
treason and murder. The death of Aurelian, however, is
remarkable by its extraordinary consequences. The legions
admired, lamented, and revenged their victorious chief. The
artifice of his perfidious secretary was discovered and punished.

The deluded conspirators attended the funeral of their injured
sovereign, with sincere or well-feigned contrition, and submitted
to the unanimous resolution of the military order, which was
signified by the following epistle: "The brave and fortunate
armies to the senate and people of Rome. - The crime of one man,
and the error of many, have deprived us of the late emperor
Aurelian. May it please you, venerable lords and fathers! to
place him in the number of the gods, and to appoint a successor
whom your judgment shall declare worthy of the Imperial purple!
None of those whose guilt or misfortune have contributed to our
loss, shall ever reign over us." ^1 The Roman senators heard,
without surprise, that another emperor had been assassinated in
his camp; they secretly rejoiced in the fall of Aurelian; and,
besides the recent notoriety of the facts, constantly draws his
materials from the Journals of the Senate, and the but the modest
and dutiful address of the legions, when it was communicated in
full assembly by the consul, diffused the most pleasing
astonishment. Such honors as fear and perhaps esteem could
extort, they liberally poured forth on the memory of their
deceased sovereign. Such acknowledgments as gratitude could
inspire, they returned to the faithful armies of the republic,
who entertained so just a sense of the legal authority of the
senate in the choice of an emperor. Yet, notwithstanding this
flattering appeal, the most prudent of the assembly declined
exposing their safety and dignity to the caprice of an armed
multitude. The strength of the legions was, indeed, a pledge of
their sincerity, since those who may command are seldom reduced
to the necessity of dissembling; but could it naturally be
expected, that a hasty repentance would correct the inveterate
habits of fourscore years? Should the soldiers relapse into their
accustomed seditions, their insolence might disgrace the majesty
of the senate, and prove fatal to the object of its choice.
Motives like these dictated a decree, by which the election of a
new emperor was referred to the suffrage of the military order.
[Footnote 1: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 222. Aurelius Victor
mentions a formal deputation from the troops to the senate.]

     The contention that ensued is one of the best attested, but
most improbable events in the history of mankind. ^2 The troops,
as if satiated with the exercise of power, again conjured the
senate to invest one of its own body with the Imperial purple.
The senate still persisted in its refusal; the army in its
request. The reciprocal offer was pressed and rejected at least
three times, and, whilst the obstinate modesty of either party
was resolved to receive a master from the hands of the other,
eight months insensibly elapsed; an amazing period of tranquil
anarchy, during which the Roman world remained without a
sovereign, without a usurper, and without a sedition. ^* The
generals and magistrates appointed by Aurelian continued to
execute their ordinary functions; and it is observed, that a
proconsul of Asia was the only considerable person removed from
his office in the whole course of the interregnum.

[Footnote 2: Vopiscus, our principal authority, wrote at Rome,
sixteen years only after the death of Aurelian; and, besides the
recent notoriety of the facts, constantly draws his materials
from the Journals of the Senate, and the original papers of the
Ulpian library. Zosimus and Zonaras appear as ignorant of this
transaction as they were in general of the Roman constitution.]

[Footnote *: The interregnum could not be more than seven months;
Aurelian was assassinated in the middle of March, the year of
Rome 1028. Tacitus was elected the 25th September in the same
year. - G.]

     An event somewhat similar, but much less authentic, is
supposed to have happened after the death of Romulus, who, in his
life and character, bore some affinity with Aurelian. The throne
was vacant during twelve months, till the election of a Sabine
philosopher, and the public peace was guarded in the same manner,
by the union of the several orders of the state. But, in the
time of Numa and Romulus, the arms of the people were controlled
by the authority of the Patricians; and the balance of freedom
was easily preserved in a small and virtuous community. ^3 The
decline of the Roman state, far different from its infancy, was
attended with every circumstance that could banish from an
interregnum the prospect of obedience and harmony: an immense and
tumultuous capital, a wide extent of empire, the servile equality
of despotism, an army of four hundred thousand mercenaries, and
the experience of frequent revolutions. Yet, notwithstanding all
these temptations, the discipline and memory of Aurelian still
restrained the seditious temper of the troops, as well as the
fatal ambition of their leaders. The flower of the legions
maintained their stations on the banks of the Bosphorus, and the
Imperial standard awed the less powerful camps of Rome and of the
provinces. A generous though transient enthusiasm seemed to
animate the military order; and we may hope that a few real
patriots cultivated the returning friendship of the army and the
senate, as the only expedient capable of restoring the republic
to its ancient beauty and vigor.

[Footnote 3: Liv. i. 17 Dionys. Halicarn. l. ii. p. 115.
Plutarch in Numa, p. 60. The first of these writers relates the
story like an orator, the second like a lawyer, and the third
like a moralist, and none of them probably without some
intermixture of fable.]

     On the twenty-fifth of September, near eight months after
the murder of Aurelian, the consul convoked an assembly of the
senate, and reported the doubtful and dangerous situation of the
empire. He slightly insinuated, that the precarious loyalty of
the soldiers depended on the chance of every hour, and of every
accident; but he represented, with the most convincing eloquence,
the various dangers that might attend any further delay in the
choice of an emperor. Intelligence, he said, was already
received, that the Germans had passed the Rhine, and occupied
some of the strongest and most opulent cities of Gaul. The
ambition of the Persian king kept the East in perpetual alarms;
Egypt, Africa, and Illyricum, were exposed to foreign and
domestic arms, and the levity of Syria would prefer even a female
sceptre to the sanctity of the Roman laws. The consul, then
addressing himself to Tacitus, the first of the senators, ^4
required his opinion on the important subject of a proper
candidate for the vacant throne.

[Footnote 4: Vopiscus (in Hist. August p. 227) calls him "primae
sententia consularis;" and soon afterwards Princeps senatus. It
is natural to suppose, that the monarchs of Rome, disdaining that
humble title, resigned it to the most ancient of the senators.]

     If we can prefer personal merit to accidental greatness, we
shall esteem the birth of Tacitus more truly noble than that of
kings. He claimed his descent from the philosophic historian,
whose writings will instruct the last generations of mankind. ^5
The senator Tacitus was then seventy-five years of age. ^6 The
long period of his innocent life was adorned with wealth and
honors. He had twice been invested with the consular dignity, ^7
and enjoyed with elegance and sobriety his ample patrimony of
between two and three millions sterling. ^8 The experience of so
many princes, whom he had esteemed or endured, from the vain
follies of Elagabalus to the useful rigor of Aurelian, taught him
to form a just estimate of the duties, the dangers, and the
temptations of their sublime station. From the assiduous study
of his immortal ancestor, he derived the knowledge of the Roman
constitution, and of human nature. ^9 The voice of the people had
already named Tacitus as the citizen the most worthy of empire.
The ungrateful rumor reached his ears, and induced him to seek
the retirement of one of his villas in Campania. He had passed
two months in the delightful privacy of Baiae, when he
reluctantly obeyed the summons of the consul to resume his
honorable place in the senate, and to assist the republic with
his counsels on this important occasion.
[Footnote 5: The only objection to this genealogy is, that the
historian was named Cornelius, the emperor, Claudius. But under
the lower empire, surnames were extremely various and uncertain.]

[Footnote 6: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 637. The Alexandrian Chronicle,
by an obvious mistake, transfers that age to Aurelian.]

[Footnote 7: In the year 273, he was ordinary consul. But he
must have been Suffectus many years before, and most probably
under Valerian.]
[Footnote 8: Bis millies octingenties. Vopiscus in Hist. August
p. 229. This sum, according to the old standard, was equivalent
to eight hundred and forty thousand Roman pounds of silver, each
of the value of three pounds sterling. But in the age of
Tacitus, the coin had lost much of its weight and purity.]

[Footnote 9: After his accession, he gave orders that ten copies
of the historian should be annually transcribed and placed in the
public libraries. The Roman libraries have long since perished,
and the most valuable part of Tacitus was preserved in a single
Ms., and discovered in a monastery of Westphalia. See Bayle,
Dictionnaire, Art. Tacite, and Lipsius ad Annal. ii. 9.]

     He arose to speak, when from every quarter of the house, he
was saluted with the names of Augustus and emperor. "Tacitus
Augustus, the gods preserve thee! we choose thee for our
sovereign; to thy care we intrust the republic and the world.
Accept the empire from the authority of the senate. It is due to
thy rank, to thy conduct, to thy manners." As soon as the tumult
of acclamations subsided, Tacitus attempted to decline the
dangerous honor, and to express his wonder, that they should
elect his age and infirmities to succeed the martial vigor of
Aurelian. "Are these limbs, conscript fathers! fitted to sustain
the weight of armor, or to practise the exercises of the camp?
The variety of climates, and the hardships of a military life,
would soon oppress a feeble constitution, which subsists only by
the most tender management. My exhausted strength scarcely
enables me to discharge the duty of a senator; how insufficient
would it prove to the arduous labors of war and government! Can
you hope, that the legions will respect a weak old man, whose
days have been spent in the shade of peace and retirement? Can
you desire that I should ever find reason to regret the favorable
opinion of the senate?" ^10

[Footnote 10: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 227.]

     The reluctance of Tacitus (and it might possibly be sincere)
was encountered by the affectionate obstinacy of the senate.
Five hundred voices repeated at once, in eloquent confusion, that
the greatest of the Roman princes, Numa, Trajan, Hadrian, and the
Antonines, had ascended the throne in a very advanced season of
life; that the mind, not the body, a sovereign, not a soldier,
was the object of their choice; and that they expected from him
no more than to guide by his wisdom the valor of the legions.
These pressing though tumultuary instances were seconded by a
more regular oration of Metius Falconius, the next on the
consular bench to Tacitus himself. He reminded the assembly of
the evils which Rome had endured from the vices of headstrong and
capricious youths, congratulated them on the election of a
virtuous and experienced senator, and, with a manly, though
perhaps a selfish, freedom, exhorted Tacitus to remember the
reasons of his elevation, and to seek a successor, not in his own
family, but in the republic. The speech of Falconius was
enforced by a general acclamation. The emperor elect submitted
to the authority of his country, and received the voluntary
homage of his equals. The judgment of the senate was confirmed
by the consent of the Roman people, and of the Praetorian guards.
^11

[Footnote 11: Hist. August. p. 228. Tacitus addressed the
Praetorians by the appellation of sanctissimi milites, and the
people by that of sacratissim. Quirites.]

     The administration of Tacitus was not unworthy of his life
and principles. A grateful servant of the senate, he considered
that national council as the author, and himself as the subject,
of the laws. ^12 He studied to heal the wounds which Imperial
pride, civil discord, and military violence, had inflicted on the
constitution, and to restore, at least, the image of the ancient
republic, as it had been preserved by the policy of Augustus, and
the virtues of Trajan and the Antonines. It may not be useless
to recapitulate some of the most important prerogatives which the
senate appeared to have regained by the election of Tacitus. ^13
1. To invest one of their body, under the title of emperor, with
the general command of the armies, and the government of the
frontier provinces. 2. To determine the list, or, as it was then
styled, the College of Consuls. They were twelve in number, who,
in successive pairs, each, during the space of two months, filled
the year, and represented the dignity of that ancient office.
The authority of the senate, in the nomination of the consuls,
was exercised with such independent freedom, that no regard was
paid to an irregular request of the emperor in favor of his
brother Florianus. "The senate," exclaimed Tacitus, with the
honest transport of a patriot, "understand the character of a
prince whom they have chosen." 3. To appoint the proconsuls and
presidents of the provinces, and to confer on all the magistrates
their civil jurisdiction. 4. To receive appeals through the
intermediate office of the praefect of the city from all the
tribunals of the empire. 5. To give force and validity, by their
decrees, to such as they should approve of the emperor's edicts.
6. To these several branches of authority we may add some
inspection over the finances, since, even in the stern reign of
Aurelian, it was in their power to divert a part of the revenue
from the public service. ^14

[Footnote 12: In his manumissions he never exceeded the number of
a hundred, as limited by the Caninian law, which was enacted
under Augustus, and at length repealed by Justinian. See
Casaubon ad locum Vopisci.]
[Footnote 13: See the lives of Tacitus, Florianus, and Probus, in
the Augustan History; we may be well assured, that whatever the
soldier gave the senator had already given.]

[Footnote 14: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 216. The passage is
perfectly clear, both Casaubon and Salmasius wish to correct it.]

     Circular epistles were sent, without delay, to all the
principal cities of the empire, Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Thessalo
nica, Corinth, Athens, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage, to
claim their obedience, and to inform them of the happy
revolution, which had restored the Roman senate to its ancient
dignity. Two of these epistles are still extant. We likewise
possess two very singular fragments of the private correspondence
of the senators on this occasion. They discover the most
excessive joy, and the most unbounded hopes. "Cast away your
indolence," it is thus that one of the senators addresses his
friend, "emerge from your retirements of Baiae and Puteoli. Give
yourself to the city, to the senate. Rome flourishes, the whole
republic flourishes. Thanks to the Roman army, to an army truly
Roman; at length we have recovered our just authority, the end of
all our desires. We hear appeals, we appoint proconsuls, we
create emperors; perhaps too we may restrain them - to the wise a
word is sufficient." ^15 These lofty expectations were, however,
soon disappointed; nor, indeed, was it possible that the armies
and the provinces should long obey the luxurious and unwarlike
nobles of Rome. On the slightest touch, the unsupported fabric
of their pride and power fell to the ground. The expiring senate
displayed a sudden lustre, blazed for a moment and was
extinguished forever.
[Footnote 15: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 230, 232, 233. The
senators celebrated the happy restoration with hecatombs and
public rejoicings.]
     All that had yet passed at Rome was no more than a
theatrical representation, unless it was ratified by the more
substantial power of the legions. Leaving the senators to enjoy
their dream of freedom and ambition, Tacitus proceeded to the
Thracian camp, and was there, by the Praetorian praefect,
presented to the assembled troops, as the prince whom they
themselves had demanded, and whom the senate had bestowed. As
soon as the praefect was silent, the emperor addressed himself to
the soldiers with eloquence and propriety. He gratified their
avarice by a liberal distribution of treasure, under the names of
pay and donative. He engaged their esteem by a spirited
declaration, that although his age might disable him from the
performance of military exploits, his counsels should never be
unworthy of a Roman general, the successor of the brave Aurelian.
^16
[Footnote 16: Hist. August. p. 228.]

     Whilst the deceased emperor was making preparations for a
second expedition into the East, he had negotiated with the
Alani, ^* a Scythian people, who pitched their tents in the
neighborhood of the Lake Moeotis. Those barbarians, allured by
presents and subsidies, had promised to invade Persia with a
numerous body of light cavalry. They were faithful to their
engagements; but when they arrived on the Roman frontier,
Aurelian was already dead, the design of the Persian war was at
least suspended, and the generals, who, during the interregnum,
exercised a doubtful authority, were unprepared either to receive
or to oppose them. Provoked by such treatment, which they
considered as trifling and perfidious, the Alani had recourse to
their own valor for their payment and revenge; and as they moved
with the usual swiftness of Tartars, they had soon spread
themselves over the provinces of Pontus, Cappadocia, Cilicia, and
Galatia. The legions, who from the opposite shores of the
Bosphorus could almost distinguish the flames of the cities and
villages, impatiently urged their general to lead them against
the invaders. The conduct of Tacitus was suitable to his age and
station. He convinced the barbarians of the faith, as well as the
power, of the empire. Great numbers of the Alani, appeased by
the punctual discharge of the engagements which Aurelian had
contracted with them, relinquished their booty and captives, and
quietly retreated to their own deserts, beyond the Phasis.
Against the remainder, who refused peace, the Roman emperor
waged, in person, a successful war. Seconded by an army of brave
and experienced veterans, in a few weeks he delivered the
provinces of Asia from the terror of the Scythian invasion. ^17

[Footnote *: On the Alani, see ch. xxvi. note 55. - M.]

[Footnote 17: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 230. Zosimus, l. i.
p. 57. Zonaras, l. xii. p. 637. Two passages in the life of
Probus (p. 236, 238) convince me, that these Scythian invaders of
Pontus were Alani. If we may believe Zosimus, (l. i. p. 58,)
Florianus pursued them as far as the Cimmerian Bosphorus. But he
had scarcely time for so long and difficult an expedition.]

     But the glory and life of Tacitus were of short duration.
Transported, in the depth of winter, from the soft retirement of
Campania to the foot of Mount Caucasus, he sunk under the
unaccustomed hardships of a military life. The fatigues of the
body were aggravated by the cares of the mind. For a while, the
angry and selfish passions of the soldiers had been suspended by
the enthusiasm of public virtue. They soon broke out with
redoubled violence, and raged in the camp, and even in the tent
of the aged emperor. His mild and amiable character served only
to inspire contempt, and he was incessantly tormented with
factions which he could not assuage, and by demands which it was
impossible to satisfy. Whatever flattering expectations he had
conceived of reconciling the public disorders, Tacitus soon was
convinced that the licentiousness of the army disdained the
feeble restraint of laws, and his last hour was hastened by
anguish and disappointment. It may be doubtful whether the
soldiers imbrued their hands in the blood of this innocent
prince. ^18 It is certain that their insolences was the cause of
his death. He expired at Tyana in Cappadocia, after a reign of
only six months and about twenty days. ^19

[Footnote 18: Eutropius and Aurelius Victor only say that he
died; Victor Junior adds, that it was of a fever. Zosimus and
Zonaras affirm, that he was killed by the soldiers. Vopiscus
mentions both accounts, and seems to hesitate. Yet surely these
jarring opinions are easily reconciled.]
[Footnote 19: According to the two Victors, he reigned exactly
two hundred days.]

     The eyes of Tacitus were scarcely closed, before his brother
Florianus showed himself unworthy to reign, by the hasty
usurpation of the purple, without expecting the approbation of
the senate. The reverence for the Roman constitution, which yet
influenced the camp and the provinces, was sufficiently strong to
dispose them to censure, but not to provoke them to oppose, the
precipitate ambition of Florianus. The discontent would have
evaporated in idle murmurs, had not the general of the East, the
heroic Probus, boldly declared himself the avenger of the senate.

The contest, however, was still unequal; nor could the most able
leader, at the head of the effeminate troops of Egypt and Syria,
encounter, with any hopes of victory, the legions of Europe,
whose irresistible strength appeared to support the brother of
Tacitus. But the fortune and activity of Probus triumphed over
every obstacle. The hardy veterans of his rival, accustomed to
cold climates, sickened and consumed away in the sultry heats of
Cilicia, where the summer proved remarkably unwholesome. Their
numbers were diminished by frequent desertion; the passes of the
mountains were feebly defended; Tarsus opened its gates; and the
soldiers of Florianus, when they had permitted him to enjoy the
Imperial title about three months, delivered the empire from
civil war by the easy sacrifice of a prince whom they despised.
^20

[Footnote 20: Hist. August, p. 231. Zosimus, l. i. p. 58, 59.
Zonaras, l. xii. p. 637. Aurelius Victor says, that Probus
assumed the empire in Illyricum; an opinion which (though adopted
by a very learned man) would throw that period of history into
inextricable confusion.]
     The perpetual revolutions of the throne had so perfectly
erased every notion of hereditary title, that the family of an
unfortunate emperor was incapable of exciting the jealousy of his
successors. The children of Tacitus and Florianus were permitted
to descend into a private station, and to mingle with the general
mass of the people. Their poverty indeed became an additional
safeguard to their innocence. When Tacitus was elected by the
senate, he resigned his ample patrimony to the public service;
^21 an act of generosity specious in appearance, but which
evidently disclosed his intention of transmitting the empire to
his descendants. The only consolation of their fallen state was
the remembrance of transient greatness, and a distant hope, the
child of a flattering prophecy, that at the end of a thousand
years, a monarch of the race of Tacitus should arise, the
protector of the senate, the restorer of Rome, and the conqueror
of the whole earth. ^22

[Footnote 21: Hist. August. p. 229]

[Footnote 22: He was to send judges to the Parthians, Persians,
and Sarmatians, a president to Taprobani, and a proconsul to the
Roman island, (supposed by Casaubon and Salmasius to mean
Britain.) Such a history as mine (says Vopiscus with proper
modesty) will not subsist a thousand years, to expose or justify
the prediction.]

     The peasants of Illyricum, who had already given Claudius
and Aurelian to the sinking empire, had an equal right to glory
in the elevation of Probus. ^23 Above twenty years before, the
emperor Valerian, with his usual penetration, had discovered the
rising merit of the young soldier, on whom he conferred the rank
of tribune, long before the age prescribed by the military
regulations. The tribune soon justified his choice, by a victory
over a great body of Sarmatians, in which he saved the life of a
near relation of Valerian; and deserved to receive from the
emperor's hand the collars, bracelets, spears, and banners, the
mural and the civic crown, and all the honorable rewards reserved
by ancient Rome for successful valor. The third, and afterwards
the tenth, legion were intrusted to the command of Probus, who,
in every step of his promotion, showed himself superior to the
station which he filled. Africa and Pontus, the Rhine, the
Danube, the Euphrates, and the Nile, by turns afforded him the
most splendid occasions of displaying his personal prowess and
his conduct in war. Aurelian was indebted for the honest courage
with which he often checked the cruelty of his master. Tacitus,
who desired by the abilities of his generals to supply his own
deficiency of military talents, named him commander-in-chief of
all the eastern provinces, with five times the usual salary, the
promise of the consulship, and the hope of a triumph. When
Probus ascended the Imperial throne, he was about forty-four
years of age; ^24 in the full possession of his fame, of the love
of the army, and of a mature vigor of mind and body.
[Footnote 23: For the private life of Probus, see Vopiscus in
Hist. August p. 234 - 237]

[Footnote 24: According to the Alexandrian chronicle, he was
fifty at the time of his death.]

     His acknowledge merit, and the success of his arms against
Florianus, left him without an enemy or a competitor. Yet, if we
may credit his own professions, very far from being desirous of
the empire, he had accepted it with the most sincere reluctance.
"But it is no longer in my power," says Probus, in a private
letter, "to lay down a title so full of envy and of danger. I
must continue to personate the character which the soldiers have
imposed upon me." ^25 His dutiful address to the senate displayed
the sentiments, or at least the language, of a Roman patriot:
"When you elected one of your order, conscript fathers! to
succeed the emperor Aurelian, you acted in a manner suitable to
your justice and wisdom. For you are the legal sovereigns of the
world, and the power which you derive from your ancestors will
descend to your posterity. Happy would it have been, if
Florianus, instead of usurping the purple of his brother, like a
private inheritance, had expected what your majesty might
determine, either in his favor, or in that of other person. The
prudent soldiers have punished his rashness. To me they have
offered the title of Augustus. But I submit to your clemency my
pretensions and my merits." ^26 When this respectful epistle was
read by the consul, the senators were unable to disguise their
satisfaction, that Probus should condescend thus numbly to
solicit a sceptre which he already possessed. They celebrated
with the warmest gratitude his virtues, his exploits, and above
all his moderation. A decree immediately passed, without a
dissenting voice, to ratify the election of the eastern armies,
and to confer on their chief all the several branches of the
Imperial dignity: the names of Caesar and Augustus, the title of
Father of his country, the right of making in the same day three
motions in the senate, ^27 the office of Pontifex, Maximus, the
tribunitian power, and the proconsular command; a mode of
investiture, which, though it seemed to multiply the authority of
the emperor, expressed the constitution of the ancient republic.
The reign of Probus corresponded with this fair beginning. The
senate was permitted to direct the civil administration of the
empire. Their faithful general asserted the honor of the Roman
arms, and often laid at their feet crowns of gold and barbaric
trophies, the fruits of his numerous victories. ^28 Yet, whilst
he gratified their vanity, he must secretly have despised their
indolence and weakness. Though it was every moment in their
power to repeal the disgraceful edict of Gallienus, the proud
successors of the Scipios patiently acquiesced in their exclusion
from all military employments. They soon experienced, that those
who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre.
[Footnote 25: This letter was addressed to the Praetorian
praefect, whom (on condition of his good behavior) he promised to
continue in his great office. See Hist. August. p. 237.]

[Footnote 26: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 237. The date of the
letter is assuredly faulty. Instead of Nen. Februar. we may read
Non August.]
[Footnote 27: Hist. August. p. 238. It is odd that the senate
should treat Probus less favorably than Marcus Antoninus. That
prince had received, even before the death of Pius, Jus quintoe
relationis. See Capitolin. in Hist. August. p. 24.]

[Footnote 28: See the dutiful letter of Probus to the senate,
after his German victories. Hist. August. p. 239.]

Chapter XII: Reigns Of Tacitus, Probus, Carus And His Sons.

Part II.

     The strength of Aurelian had crushed on every side the
enemies of Rome. After his death they seemed to revive with an
increase of fury and of numbers. They were again vanquished by
the active vigor of Probus, who, in a short reign of about six
years, ^29 equalled the fame of ancient heroes, and restored
peace and order to every province of the Roman world. The
dangerous frontier of Rhaetia he so firmly secured, that he left
it without the suspicion of an enemy. He broke the wandering
power of the Sarmatian tribes, and by the terror of his arms
compelled those barbarians to relinquish their spoil. The Gothic
nation courted the alliance of so warlike an emperor. ^30 He
attacked the Isaurians in their mountains, besieged and took
several of their strongest castles, ^31 and flattered himself
that he had forever suppressed a domestic foe, whose independence
so deeply wounded the majesty of the empire. The troubles
excited by the usurper Firmus in the Upper Egypt had never been
perfectly appeased, and the cities of Ptolemais and Coptos,
fortified by the alliance of the Blemmyes, still maintained an
obscure rebellion. The chastisement of those cities, and of
their auxiliaries the savages of the South, is said to have
alarmed the court of Persia, ^32 and the Great King sued in vain
for the friendship of Probus. Most of the exploits which
distinguished his reign were achieved by the personal valor and
conduct of the emperor, insomuch that the writer of his life
expresses some amazement how, in so short a time, a single man
could be present in so many distant wars. The remaining actions
he intrusted to the care of his lieutenants, the judicious choice
of whom forms no inconsiderable part of his glory. Carus,
Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, Galerius, Asclepiodatus,
Annibalianus, and a crowd of other chiefs, who afterwards
ascended or supported the throne, were trained to arms in the
severe school of Aurelian and Probus. ^33

[Footnote 29: The date and duration of the reign of Probus are
very correctly ascertained by Cardinal Noris in his learned work,
De Epochis Syro-Macedonum, p. 96 - 105. A passage of Eusebius
connects the second year of Probus with the aeras of several of
the Syrian cities.]

[Footnote 30: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 239.]

[Footnote 31: Zosimus (l. i. p. 62 - 65) tells us a very long and
trifling story of Lycius, the Isaurian robber.]

[Footnote 32: Zosim. l. i. p. 65. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p.
239, 240. But it seems incredible that the defeat of the savages
of Aethiopia could affect the Persian monarch.]

[Footnote 33: Besides these well-known chiefs, several others are
named by Vopiscus, (Hist. August. p. 241,) whose actions have not
reached knowledge.]
     But the most important service which Probus rendered to the
republic was the deliverance of Gaul, and the recovery of seventy
flourishing cities oppressed by the barbarians of Germany, who,
since the death of Aurelian, had ravaged that great province with
impunity. ^34 Among the various multitude of those fierce
invaders we may distinguish, with some degree of clearness, three
great armies, or rather nations, successively vanquished by the
valor of Probus. He drove back the Franks into their morasses; a
descriptive circumstance from whence we may infer, that the
confederacy known by the manly appellation of Free, already
occupied the flat maritime country, intersected and almost
overflown by the stagnating waters of the Rhine, and that several
tribes of the Frisians and Batavians had acceded to their
alliance. He vanquished the Burgundians, a considerable people
of the Vandalic race. ^* They had wandered in quest of booty from
the banks of the Oder to those of the Seine. They esteemed
themselves sufficiently fortunate to purchase, by the restitution
of all their booty, the permission of an undisturbed retreat.
They attempted to elude that article of the treaty. Their
punishment was immediate and terrible. ^35 But of all the
invaders of Gaul, the most formidable were the Lygians, a distant
people, who reigned over a wide domain on the frontiers of Poland
and Silesia. ^36 In the Lygian nation, the Arii held the first
rank by their numbers and fierceness. "The Arii" (it is thus
that they are described by the energy of Tacitus) "study to
improve by art and circumstances the innate terrors of their
barbarism. Their shields are black, their bodies are painted
black. They choose for the combat the darkest hour of the night.

Their host advances, covered as it were with a funeral shade; ^37
nor do they often find an enemy capable of sustaining so strange
and infernal an aspect. Of all our senses, the eyes are the
first vanquished in battle." ^38 Yet the arms and discipline of
the Romans easily discomfited these horrid phantoms. The Lygii
were defeated in a general engagement, and Semno, the most
renowned of their chiefs, fell alive into the hands of Probus.
That prudent emperor, unwilling to reduce a brave people to
despair, granted them an honorable capitulation, and permitted
them to return in safety to their native country. But the losses
which they suffered in the march, the battle, and the retreat,
broke the power of the nation: nor is the Lygian name ever
repeated in the history either of Germany or of the empire. The
deliverance of Gaul is reported to have cost the lives of four
hundred thousand of the invaders; a work of labor to the Romans,
and of expense to the emperor, who gave a piece of gold for the
head of every barbarian. ^39 But as the fame of warriors is built
on the destruction of human kind, we may naturally suspect, that
the sanguinary account was multiplied by the avarice of the
soldiers, and accepted without any very severe examination by the
liberal vanity of Probus.
[Footnote 34: See the Caesars of Julian, and Hist. August. p.
238, 240, 241.]
[Footnote *: It was only under the emperors Diocletian and
Maximian, that the Burgundians, in concert with the Alemanni,
invaded the interior of Gaul; under the reign of Probus, they did
no more than pass the river which separated them from the Roman
Empire: they were repelled. Gatterer presumes that this river
was the Danube; a passage in Zosimus appears to me rather to
indicate the Rhine. Zos. l. i. p. 37, edit H. Etienne, 1581. -
G.
     On the origin of the Burgundians may be consulted Malte
Brun, Geogr vi. p. 396, (edit. 1831,) who observes that all the
remains of the Burgundian language indicate that they spoke a
Gothic dialect. - M.]
[Footnote 35: Zosimus, l. i. p. 62. Hist. August. p. 240. But
the latter supposes the punishment inflicted with the consent of
their kings: if so, it was partial, like the offence.]

[Footnote 36: See Cluver. Germania Antiqua, l. iii. Ptolemy
places in their country the city of Calisia, probably Calish in
Silesia.

     Note: Luden (vol ii. 501) supposes that these have been
erroneously identified with the Lygii of Tacitus. Perhaps one
fertile source of mistakes has been, that the Romans have turned
appellations into national names. Malte Brun observes of the
Lygii, "that their name appears Sclavonian, and signifies
'inhabitants of plains;' they are probably the Lieches of the
middle ages, and the ancestors of the Poles. We find among the
Arii the worship of the two twin gods known in the Sclavian
mythology." Malte Brun, vol. i. p. 278, (edit. 1831.) - M.

     But compare Schafarik, Slawische Alterthumer, 1, p. 406.
They were of German or Keltish descent, occupying the Wendish (or
Slavian) district, Luhy. - M. 1845.]

[Footnote 37: Feralis umbra, is the expression of Tacitus: it is
surely a very bold one.]

[Footnote 38: Tacit. Germania, (c. 43.)]

[Footnote 39: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 238]

     Since the expedition of Maximin, the Roman generals had
confined their ambition to a defensive war against the nations of
Germany, who perpetually pressed on the frontiers of the empire.
The more daring Probus pursued his Gallic victories, passed the
Rhine, and displayed his invincible eagles on the banks of the
Elbe and the Necker. He was fully convinced that nothing could
reconcile the minds of the barbarians to peace, unless they
experienced, in their own country, the calamities of war.
Germany, exhausted by the ill success of the last emigration, was
astonished by his presence. Nine of the most considerable princes
repaired to his camp, and fell prostrate at his feet. Such a
treaty was humbly received by the Germans, as it pleased the
conqueror to dictate. He exacted a strict restitution of the
effects and captives which they had carried away from the
provinces; and obliged their own magistrates to punish the more
obstinate robbers who presumed to detain any part of the spoil.
A considerable tribute of corn, cattle, and horses, the only
wealth of barbarians, was reserved for the use of the garrisons
which Probus established on the limits of their territory. He
even entertained some thoughts of compelling the Germans to
relinquish the exercise of arms, and to trust their differences
to the justice, their safety to the power, of Rome. To
accomplish these salutary ends, the constant residence of an
Imperial governor, supported by a numerous army, was
indispensably requisite. Probus therefore judged it more
expedient to defer the execution of so great a design; which was
indeed rather of specious than solid utility. ^40 Had Germany
been reduced into the state of a province, the Romans, with
immense labor and expense, would have acquired only a more
extensive boundary to defend against the fiercer and more active
barbarians of Scythia.

[Footnote 40: Hist. August. 238, 239. Vopiscus quotes a letter
from the emperor to the senate, in which he mentions his design
of reducing Germany into a province.]

     Instead of reducing the warlike natives of Germany to the
condition of subjects, Probus contented himself with the humble
expedient of raising a bulwark against their inroads. The
country which now forms the circle of Swabia had been left desert
in the age of Augustus by the emigration of its ancient
inhabitants. ^41 The fertility of the soil soon attracted a new
colony from the adjacent provinces of Gaul. Crowds of
adventurers, of a roving temper and of desperate fortunes,
occupied the doubtful possession, and acknowledged, by the
payment of tithes the majesty of the empire. ^42 To protect these
new subjects, a line of frontier garrisons was gradually extended
from the Rhine to the Danube. About the reign of Hadrian, when
that mode of defence began to be practised, these garrisons were
connected and covered by a strong intrenchment of trees and
palisades. In the place of so rude a bulwark, the emperor Probus
constructed a stone wall of a considerable height, and
strengthened it by towers at convenient distances. From the
neighborhood of Newstadt and Ratisbon on the Danube, it stretched
across hills, valleys, rivers, and morasses, as far as Wimpfen on
the Necker, and at length terminated on the banks of the Rhine,
after a winding course of near two hundred miles. ^43 This
important barrier, uniting the two mighty streams that protected
the provinces of Europe, seemed to fill up the vacant space
through which the barbarians, and particularly the Alemanni,
could penetrate with the greatest facility into the heart of the
empire. But the experience of the world, from China to Britain,
has exposed the vain attempt of fortifying any extensive tract of
country. ^44 An active enemy, who can select and vary his points
of attack, must, in the end, discover some feeble spot, on some
unguarded moment. The strength, as well as the attention, of the
defenders is divided; and such are the blind effects of terror on
the firmest troops, that a line broken in a single place is
almost instantly deserted. The fate of the wall which Probus
erected may confirm the general observation. Within a few years
after his death, it was overthrown by the Alemanni. Its
scattered ruins, universally ascribed to the power of the Daemon,
now serve only to excite the wonder of the Swabian peasant.
[Footnote 41: Strabo, l. vii. According to Valleius Paterculus,
(ii. 108,) Maroboduus led his Marcomanni into Bohemia; Cluverius
(German. Antiq. iii. 8) proves that it was from Swabia.]

[Footnote 42: These settlers, from the payment of tithes, were
denominated Decunates. Tacit. Germania, c. 29]

[Footnote 43: See notes de l'Abbe de la Bleterie a la Germanie de
Tacite, p. 183. His account of the wall is chiefly borrowed (as
he says himself) from the Alsatia Illustrata of Schoepflin.]

[Footnote 44: See Recherches sur les Chinois et les Egyptiens,
tom. ii. p. 81 - 102. The anonymous author is well acquainted
with the globe in general, and with Germany in particular: with
regard to the latter, he quotes a work of M. Hanselman; but he
seems to confound the wall of Probus, designed against the
Alemanni, with the fortification of the Mattiaci, constructed in
the neighborhood of Frankfort against the Catti.

     Note: De Pauw is well known to have been the author of this
work, as of the Recherches sur les Americains before quoted. The
judgment of M. Remusat on this writer is in a very different, I
fear a juster tone. Quand au lieu de rechercher, d'examiner,
d'etudier, on se borne, comme cet ecrivain, a juger a prononcer,
a decider, sans connoitre ni l'histoire. ni les langues, sans
recourir aux sources, sans meme se douter de leur existence, on
peut en imposer pendant quelque temps a des lecteurs prevenus ou
peu instruits; mais le mepris qui ne manque guere de succeder a
cet engouement fait bientot justice de ces assertions hazardees,
et elles retombent dans l'oubli d'autant plus promptement,
qu'elles ont ete posees avec plus de confiance. Sur les l angues
Tartares, p. 231. - M.]

     Among the useful conditions of peace imposed by Probus on
the vanquished nations of Germany, was the obligation of
supplying the Roman army with sixteen thousand recruits, the
bravest and most robust of their youth. The emperor dispersed
them through all the provinces, and distributed this dangerous
reenforcement, in small bands of fifty or sixty each, among the
national troops; judiciously observing, that the aid which the
republic derived from the barbarians should be felt but not seen.
^45 Their aid was now become necessary. The feeble elegance of
Italy and the internal provinces could no longer support the
weight of arms. The hardy frontiers of the Rhine and Danube
still produced minds and bodies equal to the labors of the camp;
but a perpetual series of wars had gradually diminished their
numbers. The infrequency of marriage, and the ruin of
agriculture, affected the principles of population, and not only
destroyed the strength of the present, but intercepted the hope
of future, generations. The wisdom of Probus embraced a great
and beneficial plan of replenishing the exhausted frontiers, by
new colonies of captive or fugitive barbarians, on whom he
bestowed lands, cattle, instruments of husbandry, and every
encouragement that might engage them to educate a race of
soldiers for the service of the republic. Into Britain, and most
probably into Cambridgeshire, ^46 he transported a considerable
body of Vandals. The impossibility of an escape reconciled them
to their situation, and in the subsequent troubles of that
island, they approved themselves the most faithful servants of
the state. ^47 Great numbers of Franks and Gepidae were settled
on the banks of the Danube and the Rhine. A hundred thousand
Bastarnae, expelled from their own country, cheerfully accepted
an establishment in Thrace, and soon imbibed the manners and
sentiments of Roman subjects. ^48 But the expectations of Probus
were too often disappointed. The impatience and idleness of the
barbarians could ill brook the slow labors of agriculture. Their
unconquerable love of freedom, rising against despotism, provoked
them into hasty rebellions, alike fatal to themselves and to the
provinces; ^49 nor could these artificial supplies, however
repeated by succeeding emperors, restore the important limit of
Gaul and Illyricum to its ancient and native vigor.
[Footnote 45: He distributed about fifty or sixty barbarians to a
Numerus, as it was then called, a corps with whose established
number we are not exactly acquainted.]

[Footnote 46: Camden's Britannia, Introduction, p. 136; but he
speaks from a very doubtful conjecture.]

[Footnote 47: Zosimus, l. i. p. 62. According to Vopiscus,
another body of Vandals was less faithful.]
[Footnote 48: Hist. August. p. 240. They were probably expelled
by the Goths. Zosim. l. i. p. 66.]

[Footnote 49: Hist. August. p. 240.]

     Of all the barbarians who abandoned their new settlements,
and disturbed the public tranquillity, a very small number
returned to their own country. For a short season they might
wander in arms through the empire; but in the end they were
surely destroyed by the power of a warlike emperor. The
successful rashness of a party of Franks was attended, however,
with such memorable consequences, that it ought not to be passed
unnoticed. They had been established by Probus, on the sea-coast
of Pontus, with a view of strengthening the frontier against the
inroads of the Alani. A fleet stationed in one of the harbors of
the Euxine fell into the hands of the Franks; and they resolved,
through unknown seas, to explore their way from the mouth of the
Phasis to that of the Rhine. They easily escaped through the
Bosphorus and the Hellespont, and cruising along the
Mediterranean, indulged their appetite for revenge and plunder by
frequent descents on the unsuspecting shores of Asia, Greece, and
Africa. The opulent city of Syracuse, in whose port the natives
of Athens and Carthage had formerly been sunk, was sacked by a
handful of barbarians, who massacred the greatest part of the
trembling inhabitants. From the Island of Sicily, the Franks
proceeded to the columns of Hercules, trusted themselves to the
ocean, coasted round Spain and Gaul, and steering their
triumphant course through the British Channel, at length finished
their surprising voyage, by landing in safety on the Batavian or
Frisian shores. ^50 The example of their success, instructing
their countrymen to conceive the advantages and to despise the
dangers of the sea, pointed out to their enterprising spirit a
new road to wealth and glory.

[Footnote 50: Panegyr. Vet. v. 18. Zosimus, l. i. p. 66.]
     Notwithstanding the vigilance and activity of Probus, it was
almost impossible that he could at once contain in obedience
every part of his wide- extended dominions. The barbarians, who
broke their chains, had seized the favorable opportunity of a
domestic war. When the emperor marched to the relief of Gaul, he
devolved the command of the East on Saturninus. That general, a
man of merit and experience, was driven into rebellion by the
absence of his sovereign, the levity of the Alexandrian people,
the pressing instances of his friends, and his own fears; but
from the moment of his elevation, he never entertained a hope of
empire, or even of life. "Alas!" he said, "the republic has lost
a useful servant, and the rashness of an hour has destroyed the
services of many years. You know not," continued he, "the misery
of sovereign power; a sword is perpetually suspended over our
head. We dread our very guards, we distrust our companions. The
choice of action or of repose is no longer in our disposition,
nor is there any age, or character, or conduct, that can protect
us from the censure of envy. In thus exalting me to the throne,
you have doomed me to a life of cares, and to an untimely fate.
The only consolation which remains is, the assurance that I shall
not fall alone." ^51 But as the former part of his prediction was
verified by the victory, so the latter was disappointed by the
clemency of Probus. That amiable prince attempted even to save
the unhappy Saturninus from the fury of the soldiers. He had
more than once solicited the usurper himself to place some
confidence in the mercy of a sovereign who so highly esteemed his
character, that he had punished, as a malicious informer, the
first who related the improbable news of his disaffection. ^52
Saturninus might, perhaps, have embraced the generous offer, had
he not been restrained by the obstinate distrust of his
adherents. Their guilt was deeper, and their hopes more
sanguine, than those of their experienced leader.
[Footnote 51: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 245, 246. The
unfortunate orator had studied rhetoric at Carthage; and was
therefore more probably a Moor (Zosim. l. i. p. 60) than a Gaul,
as Vopiscus calls him.]

[Footnote 52: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 638.]

     The revolt of Saturninus was scarcely extinguished in the
East, before new troubles were excited in the West, by the
rebellion of Bonosus and Proculus, in Gaul. The most
distinguished merit of those two officers was their respective
prowess, of the one in the combats of Bacchus, of the other in
those of Venus, ^53 yet neither of them was destitute of courage
and capacity, and both sustained, with honor, the august
character which the fear of punishment had engaged them to
assume, till they sunk at length beneath the superior genius of
Probus. He used the victory with his accustomed moderation, and
spared the fortune, as well as the lives of their innocent
families. ^54

[Footnote 53: A very surprising instance is recorded of the
prowess of Procufus. He had taken one hundred Sarmatian virgins.

The rest of the story he must relate in his own language: "Ex his
una necte decem inivi; omnes tamen, quod in me erat, mulieres
intra dies quindecim reddidi. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 246.]

[Footnote 54: Proculus, who was a native of Albengue, on the
Genoese coast armed two thousand of his own slaves. His riches
were great, but they were acquired by robbery. It was afterwards
a saying of his family, sibi non placere esse vel principes vel
latrones. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 247.]
     The arms of Probus had now suppressed all the foreign and
domestic enemies of the state. His mild but steady
administration confirmed the reestablishment of the public
tranquillity; nor was there left in the provinces a hostile
barbarian, a tyrant, or even a robber, to revive the memory of
past disorders. It was time that the emperor should revisit
Rome, and celebrate his own glory and the general happiness. The
triumph due to the valor of Probus was conducted with a
magnificence suitable to his fortune, and the people who had so
lately admired the trophies of Aurelian, gazed with equal
pleasure on those of his heroic successor. ^55 We cannot, on this
occasion, forget the desperate courage of about fourscore
gladiators, reserved, with near six hundred others, for the
inhuman sports of the amphitheatre. Disdaining to shed their
blood for the amusement of the populace, they killed their
keepers, broke from the place of their confinement, and filled
the streets of Rome with blood and confusion. After an obstinate
resistance, they were overpowered and cut in pieces by the
regular forces; but they obtained at least an honorable death,
and the satisfaction of a just revenge. ^56

[Footnote 55: Hist. August. p. 240.]

[Footnote 56: Zosim. l. i. p. 66.]

     The military discipline which reigned in the camps of Probus
was less cruel than that of Aurelian, but it was equally rigid
and exact. The latter had punished the irregularities of the
soldiers with unrelenting severity, the former prevented them by
employing the legions in constant and useful labors. When Probus
commanded in Egypt, he executed many considerable works for the
splendor and benefit of that rich country. The navigation of the
Nile, so important to Rome itself, was improved; and temples,
buildings, porticos, and palaces were constructed by the hands of
the soldiers, who acted by turns as architects, as engineers, and
as husbandmen. ^57 It was reported of Hannibal, that in order to
preserve his troops from the dangerous temptations of idleness,
he had obliged them to form large plantations of olive-trees
along the coast of Africa. ^58 From a similar principle, Probus
exercised his legions in covering with rich vineyards the hills
of Gaul and Pannonia, and two considerable spots are described,
which were entirely dug and planted by military labor. ^59 One of
these, known under the name of Mount Almo, was situated near
Sirmium, the country where Probus was born, for which he ever
retained a partial affection, and whose gratitude he endeavored
to secure, by converting into tillage a large and unhealthy tract
of marshy ground. An army thus employed constituted perhaps the
most useful, as well as the bravest, portion of Roman subjects.

[Footnote 57: Hist. August. p. 236.]

[Footnote 58: Aurel. Victor. in Prob. But the policy of
Hannibal, unnoticed by any more ancient writer, is irreconcilable
with the history of his life. He left Africa when he was nine
years old, returned to it when he was forty- five, and
immediately lost his army in the decisive battle of Zama.
Livilus, xxx. 37.]

[Footnote 59: Hist. August. p. 240. Eutrop. ix. 17. Aurel.
Victor. in Prob. Victor Junior. He revoked the prohibition of
Domitian, and granted a general permission of planting vines to
the Gauls, the Britons, and the Pannonians.]
     But in the prosecution of a favorite scheme, the best of
men, satisfied with the rectitude of their intentions, are
subject to forget the bounds of moderation; nor did Probus
himself sufficiently consult the patience and disposition of his
fierce legionaries. ^60 The dangers of the military profession
seem only to be compensated by a life of pleasure and idleness;
but if the duties of the soldier are incessantly aggravated by
the labors of the peasant, he will at last sink under the
intolerable burden, or shake it off with indignation. The
imprudence of Probus is said to have inflamed the discontent of
his troops. More attentive to the interests of mankind than to
those of the army, he expressed the vain hope, that, by the
establishment of universal peace, he should soon abolish the
necessity of a standing and mercenary force. ^61 The unguarded
expression proved fatal to him. In one of the hottest days of
summer, as he severely urged the unwholesome labor of draining
the marshes of Sirmium, the soldiers, impatient of fatigue, on a
sudden threw down their tools, grasped their arms, and broke out
into a furious mutiny. The emperor, conscious of his danger,
took refuge in a lofty tower, constructed for the purpose of
surveying the progress of the work. ^62 The tower was instantly
forced, and a thousand swords were plunged at once into the bosom
of the unfortunate Probus. The rage of the troops subsided as
soon as it had been gratified. They then lamented their fatal
rashness, forgot the severity of the emperor, whom they had
massacred, and hastened to perpetuate, by an honorable monument,
the memory of his virtues and victories. ^63

[Footnote 60: Julian bestows a severe, and indeed excessive,
censure on the rigor of Probus, who, as he thinks, almost
deserved his fate.]
[Footnote 61: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 241. He lavishes on
this idle hope a large stock of very foolish eloquence.]

[Footnote 62: Turris ferrata. It seems to have been a movable
tower, and cased with iron.]

[Footnote 63: Probus, et vere probus situs est; Victor omnium
gentium Barbararum; victor etiam tyrannorum.]

     When the legions had indulged their grief and repentance for
the death of Probus, their unanimous consent declared Carus, his
Praetorian praefect, the most deserving of the Imperial throne.
Every circumstance that relates to this prince appears of a mixed
and doubtful nature. He gloried in the title of Roman Citizen;
and affected to compare the purity of his blood with the foreign
and even barbarous origin of the preceding emperors; yet the most
inquisitive of his contemporaries, very far from admitting his
claim, have variously deduced his own birth, or that of his
parents, from Illyricum, from Gaul, or from Africa. ^64 Though a
soldier, he had received a learned education; though a senator,
he was invested with the first dignity of the army; and in an age
when the civil and military professions began to be irrecoverably
separated from each other, they were united in the person of
Carus. Notwithstanding the severe justice which he exercised
against the assassins of Probus, to whose favor and esteem he was
highly indebted, he could not escape the suspicion of being
accessory to a deed from whence he derived the principal
advantage. He enjoyed, at least, before his elevation, an
acknowledged character of virtue and abilities; ^65 but his
austere temper insensibly degenerated into moroseness and
cruelty; and the imperfect writers of his life almost hesitate
whether they shall not rank him in the number of Roman tyrants.
^66 When Carus assumed the purple, he was about sixty years of
age, and his two sons, Carinus and Numerian had already attained
the season of manhood. ^67

[Footnote 64: Yet all this may be conciliated. He was born at
Narbonne in Illyricum, confounded by Eutropius with the more
famous city of that name in Gaul. His father might be an
African, and his mother a noble Roman. Carus himself was
educated in the capital. See Scaliger Animadversion. ad Euseb.
Chron. p. 241.]

[Footnote 65: Probus had requested of the senate an equestrian
statue and a marble palace, at the public expense, as a just
recompense of the singular merit of Carus. Vopiscus in Hist.
August. p. 249.]

[Footnote 66: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 242, 249. Julian
excludes the emperor Carus and both his sons from the banquet of
the Caesars.]
[Footnote 67: John Malala, tom. i. p. 401. But the authority of
that ignorant Greek is very slight. He ridiculously derives from
Carus the city of Carrhae, and the province of Caria, the latter
of which is mentioned by Homer.]

     The authority of the senate expired with Probus; nor was the
repentance of the soldiers displayed by the same dutiful regard
for the civil power, which they had testified after the
unfortunate death of Aurelian. The election of Carus was decided
without expecting the approbation of the senate, and the new
emperor contented himself with announcing, in a cold and stately
epistle, that he had ascended the vacant throne. ^68 A behavior
so very opposite to that of his amiable predecessor afforded no
favorable presage of the new reign: and the Romans, deprived of
power and freedom, asserted their privilege of licentious
murmurs. ^69 The voice of congratulation and flattery was not,
however, silent; and we may still peruse, with pleasure and
contempt, an eclogue, which was composed on the accession of the
emperor Carus. Two shepherds, avoiding the noontide heat, retire
into the cave of Faunus. On a spreading beech they discover some
recent characters. The rural deity had described, in prophetic
verses, the felicity promised to the empire under the reign of so
great a prince. Faunus hails the approach of that hero, who,
receiving on his shoulders the sinking weight of the Roman world,
shall extinguish war and faction, and once again restore the
innocence and security of the golden age. ^70

[Footnote 68: Hist. August. p. 249. Carus congratulated the
senate, that one of their own order was made emperor.]

[Footnote 69: Hist. August. p. 242.]

[Footnote 70: See the first eclogue of Calphurnius. The design
of it is preferes by Fontenelle to that of Virgil's Pollio. See
tom. iii. p. 148.]
     It is more than probable, that these elegant trifles never
reached the ears of a veteran general, who, with the consent of
the legions, was preparing to execute the long-suspended design
of the Persian war. Before his departure for this distant
expedition, Carus conferred on his two sons, Carinus and
Numerian, the title of Caesar, and investing the former with
almost an equal share of the Imperial power, directed the young
prince, first to suppress some troubles which had arisen in Gaul,
and afterwards to fix the seat of his residence at Rome, and to
assume the government of the Western provinces. ^71 The safety of
Illyricum was confirmed by a memorable defeat of the Sarmatians;
sixteen thousand of those barbarians remained on the field of
battle, and the number of captives amounted to twenty thousand.
The old emperor, animated with the fame and prospect of victory,
pursued his march, in the midst of winter, through the countries
of Thrace and Asia Minor, and at length, with his younger son,
Numerian, arrived on the confines of the Persian monarchy.
There, encamping on the summit of a lofty mountain, he pointed
out to his troops the opulence and luxury of the enemy whom they
were about to invade.

[Footnote 71: Hist. August. p. 353. Eutropius, ix. 18. Pagi.
Annal.]
     The successor of Artaxerxes, ^* Varanes, or Bahram, though
he had subdued the Segestans, one of the most warlike nations of
Upper Asia, ^72 was alarmed at the approach of the Romans, and
endeavored to retard their progress by a negotiation of peace. ^!

His ambassadors entered the camp about sunset, at the time when
the troops were satisfying their hunger with a frugal repast. The
Persians expressed their desire of being introduced to the
presence of the Roman emperor. They were at length conducted to
a soldier, who was seated on the grass. A piece of stale bacon
and a few hard peas composed his supper. A coarse woollen
garment of purple was the only circumstance that announced his
dignity. The conference was conducted with the same disregard of
courtly elegance. Carus, taking off a cap which he wore to
conceal his baldness, assured the ambassadors, that, unless their
master acknowledged the superiority of Rome, he would speedily
render Persia as naked of trees as his own head was destitute of
hair. ^73 Notwithstanding some traces of art and preparation, we
may discover in this scene the manners of Carus, and the severe
simplicity which the martial princes, who succeeded Gallienus,
had already restored in the Roman camps. The ministers of the
Great King trembled and retired.

[Footnote *: Three monarchs had intervened, Sapor, (Shahpour,)
Hormisdas, (Hormooz,) Varanes; Baharam the First. - M.]

[Footnote 72: Agathias, l. iv. p. 135. We find one of his
sayings in the Bibliotheque Orientale of M. d'Herbelot. "The
definition of humanity includes all other virtues."]

[Footnote !: The manner in which his life was saved by the Chief
Pontiff from a conspiracy of his nobles, is as remarkable as his
saying. "By the advice (of the Pontiff) all the nobles absented
themselves from court. The king wandered through his palace
alone. He saw no one; all was silence around. He became alarmed
and distressed. At last the Chief Pontiff appeared, and bowed
his head in apparent misery, but spoke not a word. The king
entreated him to declare what had happened. The virtuous man
boldly related all that had passed, and conjured Bahram, in the
name of his glorious ancestors, to change his conduct and save
himself from destruction. The king was much moved, professed
himself most penitent, and said he was resolved his future life
should prove his sincerity. The overjoyed High Priest, delighted
at this success, made a signal, at which all the nobles and
attendants were in an instant, as if by magic, in their usual
places. The monarch now perceived that only one opinion
prevailed on his past conduct. He repeated therefore to his
nobles all he had said to the Chief Pontiff, and his future reign
was unstained by cruelty or oppression." Malcolm's Persia, - M.]
[Footnote 73: Synesius tells this story of Carinus; and it is
much more natural to understand it of Carus, than (as Petavius
and Tillemont choose to do) of Probus.]

     The threats of Carus were not without effect. He ravaged
Mesopotamia, cut in pieces whatever opposed his passage, made
himself master of the great cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon,
(which seemed to have surrendered without resistance,) and
carried his victorious arms beyond the Tigris. ^74 He had seized
the favorable moment for an invasion. The Persian councils were
distracted by domestic factions, and the greater part of their
forces were detained on the frontiers of India. Rome and the
East received with transports the news of such important
advantages. Flattery and hope painted, in the most lively
colors, the fall of Persia, the conquest of Arabia, the
submission of Egypt, and a lasting deliverance from the inroads
of the Scythian nations. ^75 But the reign of Carus was destined
to expose the vanity of predictions. They were scarcely uttered
before they were contradicted by his death; an event attended
with such ambiguous circumstances, that it may be related in a
letter from his own secretary to the praefect of the city.
"Carus," says he, "our dearest emperor, was confined by sickness
to his bed, when a furious tempest arose in the camp. The
darkness which overspread the sky was so thick, that we could no
longer distinguish each other; and the incessant flashes of
lightning took from us the knowledge of all that passed in the
general confusion. Immediately after the most violent clap of
thunder, we heard a sudden cry that the emperor was dead; and it
soon appeared, that his chamberlains, in a rage of grief, had set
fire to the royal pavilion; a circumstance which gave rise to the
report that Carus was killed by lightning. But, as far as we
have been able to investigate the truth, his death was the
natural effect of his disorder." ^76
[Footnote 74: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 250. Eutropius, ix.
18. The two Victors.]

[Footnote 75: To the Persian victory of Carus I refer the
dialogue of the Philopatris, which has so long been an object of
dispute among the learned. But to explain and justify my opinion,
would require a dissertation. ^
     Note: Niebuhr, in the new edition of the Byzantine
Historians, (vol. x.) has boldly assigned the Philopatris to the
tenth century, and to the reign of Nicephorus Phocas. An opinion
so decisively pronounced by Niebuhr and favorably received by
Hase, the learned editor of Leo Diaconus, commands respectful
consideration. But the whole tone of the work appears to me
altogether inconsistent with any period in which philosophy did
not stand, as it were, on some ground of equality with
Christianity. The doctrine of the Trinity is sarcastically
introduced rather as the strange doctrine of a new religion, than
the established tenet of a faith universally prevalent. The
argument, adopted from Solanus, concerning the formula of the
procession of the Holy Ghost, is utterly worthless, as it is a
mere quotation in the words of the Gospel of St. John, xv. 26.
The only argument of any value is the historic one, from the
allusion to the recent violation of many virgins in the Island of
Crete. But neither is the language of Niebuhr quite accurate,
nor his reference to the Acroases of Theodosius satisfactory.
When, then, could this occurrence take place? Why not in the
devastation of the island by the Gothic pirates, during the reign
of Claudius. Hist. Aug. in Claud. p. 814. edit. Var. Lugd. Bat
1661. - M.]

[Footnote 76: Hist. August. p. 250. Yet Eutropius, Festus,
Rufus, the two Victors, Jerome, Sidonius Apollinaris, Syncellus,
and Zonaras, all ascribe the death of Carus to lightning.]

Chapter XII: Reigns Of Tacitus, Probus, Carus And His Sons.

Part III.

     The vacancy of the throne was not productive of any
disturbance. The ambition of the aspiring generals was checked
by their natural fears, and young Numerian, with his absent
brother Carinus, were unanimously acknowledged as Roman emperors.

The public expected that the successor of Carus would pursue his
father's footsteps, and, without allowing the Persians to recover
from their consternation, would advance sword in hand to the
palaces of Susa and Ecbatana. ^77 But the legions, however strong
in numbers and discipline, were dismayed by the most abject
superstition. Notwithstanding all the arts that were practised to
disguise the manner of the late emperor's death, it was found
impossible to remove the opinion of the multitude, and the power
of opinion is irresistible. Places or persons struck with
lightning were considered by the ancients with pious horror, as
singularly devoted to the wrath of Heaven. ^78 An oracle was
remembered, which marked the River Tigris as the fatal boundary
of the Roman arms. The troops, terrified with the fate of Carus
and with their own danger, called aloud on young Numerian to obey
the will of the gods, and to lead them away from this
inauspicious scene of war. The feeble emperor was unable to
subdue their obstinate prejudice, and the Persians wondered at
the unexpected retreat of a victorious enemy. ^79
[Footnote 77: See Nemesian. Cynegeticon, v. 71, &c.]

[Footnote 78: See Festus and his commentators on the word
Scribonianum. Places struck by lightning were surrounded with a
wall; things were buried with mysterious ceremony.]

[Footnote 79: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 250. Aurelius Victor
seems to believe the prediction, and to approve the retreat.]

     The intelligence of the mysterious fate of the late emperor
was soon carried from the frontiers of Persia to Rome; and the
senate, as well as the provinces, congratulated the accession of
the sons of Carus. These fortunate youths were strangers,
however, to that conscious superiority, either of birth or of
merit, which can alone render the possession of a throne easy,
and as it were natural. Born and educated in a private station,
the election of their father raised them at once to the rank of
princes; and his death, which happened about sixteen months
afterwards, left them the unexpected legacy of a vast empire. To
sustain with temper this rapid elevation, an uncommon share of
virtue and prudence was requisite; and Carinus, the elder of the
brothers, was more than commonly deficient in those qualities.
In the Gallic war he discovered some degree of personal courage;
^80 but from the moment of his arrival at Rome, he abandoned
himself to the luxury of the capital, and to the abuse of his
fortune. He was soft, yet cruel; devoted to pleasure, but
destitute of taste; and though exquisitely susceptible of vanity,
indifferent to the public esteem. In the course of a few months,
he successively married and divorced nine wives, most of whom he
left pregnant; and notwithstanding this legal inconstancy, found
time to indulge such a variety of irregular appetites, as brought
dishonor on himself and on the noblest houses of Rome. He beheld
with inveterate hatred all those who might remember his former
obscurity, or censure his present conduct. He banished, or put
to death, the friends and counsellors whom his father had placed
about him, to guide his inexperienced youth; and he persecuted
with the meanest revenge his school-fellows and companions who
had not sufficiently respected the latent majesty of the emperor.

With the senators, Carinus affected a lofty and regal demeanor,
frequently declaring, that he designed to distribute their
estates among the populace of Rome. From the dregs of that
populace he selected his favorites, and even his ministers. The
palace, and even the Imperial table, were filled with singers,
dancers, prostitutes, and all the various retinue of vice and
folly. One of his doorkeepers ^81 he intrusted with the
government of the city. In the room of the Praetorian praefect,
whom he put to death, Carinus substituted one of the ministers of
his looser pleasures. Another, who possessed the same, or even a
more infamous, title to favor, was invested with the consulship.
A confidential secretary, who had acquired uncommon skill in the
art of forgery, delivered the indolent emperor, with his own
consent from the irksome duty of signing his name.

[Footnote 80: Nemesian. Cynegeticon, v 69. He was a
contemporary, but a poet.]

[Footnote 81: Cancellarius. This word, so humble in its origin,
has, by a singular fortune, risen into the title of the first
great office of state in the monarchies of Europe. See Casaubon
and Salmasius, ad Hist. August, p. 253.]

     When the emperor Carus undertook the Persian war, he was
induced, by motives of affection as well as policy, to secure the
fortunes of his family, by leaving in the hands of his eldest son
the armies and provinces of the West. The intelligence which he
soon received of the conduct of Carinus filled him with shame and
regret; nor had he concealed his resolution of satisfying the
republic by a severe act of justice, and of adopting, in the
place of an unworthy son, the brave and virtuous Constantius, who
at that time was governor of Dalmatia. But the elevation of
Constantius was for a while deferred; and as soon as the father's
death had released Carinus from the control of fear or decency,
he displayed to the Romans the extravagancies of Elagabalus,
aggravated by the cruelty of Domitian. ^82

[Footnote 82: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 253, 254. Eutropius,
x. 19. Vic to Junior. The reign of Diocletian indeed was so
long and prosperous, that it must have been very unfavorable to
the reputation of Carinus.]
     The only merit of the administration of Carinus that history
could record, or poetry celebrate, was the uncommon splendor with
which, in his own and his brother's name, he exhibited the Roman
games of the theatre, the circus, and the amphitheatre. More
than twenty years afterwards, when the courtiers of Diocletian
represented to their frugal sovereign the fame and popularity of
his munificent predecessor, he acknowledged that the reign of
Carinus had indeed been a reign of pleasure. ^83 But this vain
prodigality, which the prudence of Diocletian might justly
despise, was enjoyed with surprise and transport by the Roman
people. The oldest of the citizens, recollecting the spectacles
of former days, the triumphal pomp of Probus or Aurelian, and the
secular games of the emperor Philip, acknowledged that they were
all surpassed by the superior magnificence of Carinus. ^84
[Footnote 83: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 254. He calls him
Carus, but the sense is sufficiently obvious, and the words were
often confounded.]
[Footnote 84: See Calphurnius, Eclog. vii. 43. We may observe,
that the spectacles of Probus were still recent, and that the
poet is seconded by the historian.]

     The spectacles of Carinus may therefore be best illustrated
by the observation of some particulars, which history has
condescended to relate concerning those of his predecessors. If
we confine ourselves solely to the hunting of wild beasts,
however we may censure the vanity of the design or the cruelty of
the execution, we are obliged to confess that neither before nor
since the time of the Romans so much art and expense have ever
been lavished for the amusement of the people. ^85 By the order
of Probus, a great quantity of large trees, torn up by the roots,
were transplanted into the midst of the circus. The spacious and
shady forest was immediately filled with a thousand ostriches, a
thousand stags, a thousand fallow deer, and a thousand wild
boars; and all this variety of game was abandoned to the riotous
impetuosity of the multitude. The tragedy of the succeeding day
consisted in the massacre of a hundred lions, an equal number of
lionesses, two hundred leopards, and three hundred bears. ^86 The
collection prepared by the younger Gordian for his triumph, and
which his successor exhibited in the secular games, was less
remarkable by the number than by the singularity of the animals.
Twenty zebras displayed their elegant forms and variegated beauty
to the eyes of the Roman people. ^87 Ten elks, and as many
camelopards, the loftiest and most harmless creatures that wander
over the plains of Sarmatia and Aethiopia, were contrasted with
thirty African hyaenas and ten Indian tigers, the most implacable
savages of the torrid zone. The unoffending strength with which
Nature has endowed the greater quadrupeds was admired in the
rhinoceros, the hippopotamus of the Nile, ^88 and a majestic
troop of thirty-two elephants. ^89 While the populace gazed with
stupid wonder on the splendid show, the naturalist might indeed
observe the figure and properties of so many different species,
transported from every part of the ancient world into the
amphitheatre of Rome. But this accidental benefit, which science
might derive from folly, is surely insufficient to justify such a
wanton abuse of the public riches. There occurs, however, a
single instance in the first Punic war, in which the senate
wisely connected this amusement of the multitude with the
interest of the state. A considerable number of elephants, taken
in the defeat of the Carthaginian army, were driven through the
circus by a few slaves, armed only with blunt javelins. ^90 The
useful spectacle served to impress the Roman soldier with a just
contempt for those unwieldy animals; and he no longer dreaded to
encounter them in the ranks of war.

[Footnote 85: The philosopher Montaigne (Essais, l. iii. 6) gives
a very just and lively view of Roman magnificence in these
spectacles.]
[Footnote 86: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 240.]

[Footnote 87: They are called Onagri; but the number is too
inconsiderable for mere wild asses. Cuper (de Elephantis
Exercitat. ii. 7) has proved from Oppian, Dion, and an anonymous
Greek, that zebras had been seen at Rome. They were brought from
some island of the ocean, perhaps Madagascar.]
[Footnote 88: Carinus gave a hippopotamus, (see Calphurn. Eclog.
vi. 66.) In the latter spectacles, I do not recollect any
crocodiles, of which Augustus once exhibited thirty-six. Dion
Cassius, l. lv. p. 781.]

[Footnote 89: Capitolin. in Hist. August. p. 164, 165. We are
not acquainted with the animals which he calls archeleontes; some
read argoleontes others agrioleontes: both corrections are very
nugatory]

[Footnote 90: Plin. Hist. Natur. viii. 6, from the annals of
Piso.]
     The hunting or exhibition of wild beasts was conducted with
a magnificence suitable to a people who styled themselves the
masters of the world; nor was the edifice appropriated to that
entertainment less expressive of Roman greatness. Posterity
admires, and will long admire, the awful remains of the
amphitheatre of Titus, which so well deserved the epithet of
Colossal. ^91 It was a building of an elliptic figure, five
hundred and sixty-four feet in length, and four hundred and
sixty-seven in breadth, founded on fourscore arches, and rising,
with four successive orders of architecture, to the height of one
hundred and forty feet. ^92 The outside of the edifice was
encrusted with marble, and decorated with statues. The slopes of
the vast concave, which formed the inside, were filled and
surrounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats of marble likewise,
covered with cushions, and capable of receiving with ease about
fourscore thousand spectators. ^93 Sixty-four vomitories (for by
that name the doors were very aptly distinguished) poured forth
the immense multitude; and the entrances, passages, and
staircases were contrived with such exquisite skill, that each
person, whether of the senatorial, the equestrian, or the
plebeian order, arrived at his destined place without trouble or
confusion. ^94 Nothing was omitted, which, in any respect, could
be subservient to the convenience and pleasure of the spectators.

They were protected from the sun and rain by an ample canopy,
occasionally drawn over their heads. The air was continally
refreshed by the playing of fountains, and profusely impregnated
by the grateful scent of aromatics. In the centre of the
edifice, the arena, or stage, was strewed with the finest sand,
and successively assumed the most different forms. At one moment
it seemed to rise out of the earth, like the garden of the
Hesperides, and was afterwards broken into the rocks and caverns
of Thrace. The subterraneous pipes conveyed an inexhaustible
supply of water; and what had just before appeared a level plain,
might be suddenly converted into a wide lake, covered with armed
vessels, and replenished with the monsters of the deep. ^95 In
the decoration of these scenes, the Roman emperors displayed
their wealth and liberality; and we read on various occasions
that the whole furniture of the amphitheatre consisted either of
silver, or of gold, or of amber. ^96 The poet who describes the
games of Carinus, in the character of a shepherd, attracted to
the capital by the fame of their magnificence, affirms that the
nets designed as a defence against the wild beasts, were of gold
wire; that the porticos were gilded; and that the belt or circle
which divided the several ranks of spectators from each other was
studded with a precious mosaic of beautiful stones. ^97
[Footnote 91: See Maffei, Verona Illustrata, p. iv. l. i. c. 2.]
[Footnote 92: Maffei, l. ii. c. 2. The height was very much
exaggerated by the ancients. It reached almost to the heavens,
according to Calphurnius, (Eclog. vii. 23,) and surpassed the ken
of human sight, according to Ammianus Marcellinus (xvi. 10.) Yet
how trifling to the great pyramid of Egypt, which rises 500 feet
perpendicular]

[Footnote 93: According to different copies of Victor, we read
77,000, or 87,000 spectators; but Maffei (l. ii. c. 12) finds
room on the open seats for no more than 34,000. The remainder
were contained in the upper covered galleries.]

[Footnote 94: See Maffei, l. ii. c. 5 - 12. He treats the very
difficult subject with all possible clearness, and like an
architect, as well as an antiquarian.]

[Footnote 95: Calphurn. Eclog vii. 64, 73. These lines are
curious, and the whole eclogue has been of infinite use to
Maffei. Calphurnius, as well as Martial, (see his first book,)
was a poet; but when they described the amphitheatre, they both
wrote from their own senses, and to those of the Romans.]

[Footnote 96: Consult Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 16, xxxvii. 11.]

[Footnote 97: Balteus en gemmis, en inlita porticus auro
     Certatim radiant, &c. Calphurn. vii.]

     In the midst of this glittering pageantry, the emperor
Carinus, secure of his fortune, enjoyed the acclamations of the
people, the flattery of his courtiers, and the songs of the
poets, who, for want of a more essential merit, were reduced to
celebrate the divine graces of his person. ^98 In the same hour,
but at the distance of nine hundred miles from Rome, his brother
expired; and a sudden revolution transferred into the hands of a
stranger the sceptre of the house of Carus. ^99

[Footnote 98: Et Martis vultus et Apollinis esse putavi, says
Calphurnius; but John Malala, who had perhaps seen pictures of
Carinus, describes him as thick, short, and white, tom. i. p.
403.]

[Footnote 99: With regard to the time when these Roman games were
celebrated, Scaliger, Salmasius, and Cuper have given themselves
a great deal of trouble to perplex a very clear subject.]

     The sons of Carus never saw each other after their father's
death. The arrangements which their new situation required were
probably deferred till the return of the younger brother to Rome,
where a triumph was decreed to the young emperors for the
glorious success of the Persian war. ^100 It is uncertain whether
they intended to divide between them the administration, or the
provinces, of the empire; but it is very unlikely that their
union would have proved of any long duration. The jealousy of
power must have been inflamed by the opposition of characters.
In the most corrupt of times, Carinus was unworthy to live:
Numerian deserved to reign in a happier period. His affable
manners and gentle virtues secured him, as soon as they became
known, the regard and affections of the public. He possessed the
elegant accomplishments of a poet and orator, which dignify as
well as adorn the humblest and the most exalted station. His
eloquence, however it was applauded by the senate, was formed not
so much on the model of Cicero, as on that of the modern
declaimers; but in an age very far from being destitute of
poetical merit, he contended for the prize with the most
celebrated of his contemporaries, and still remained the friend
of his rivals; a circumstance which evinces either the goodness
of his heart, or the superiority of his genius. ^101 But the
talents of Numerian were rather of the contemplative than of the
active kind. When his father's elevation reluctantly forced him
from the shade of retirement, neither his temper nor his pursuits
had qualified him for the command of armies. His constitution
was destroyed by the hardships of the Persian war; and he had
contracted, from the heat of the climate, ^102 such a weakness in
his eyes, as obliged him, in the course of a long retreat, to
confine himself to the solitude and darkness of a tent or litter.

The administration of all affairs, civil as well as military, was
devolved on Arrius Aper, the Praetorian praefect, who to the
power of his important office added the honor of being
father-in-law to Numerian. The Imperial pavilion was strictly
guarded by his most trusty adherents; and during many days, Aper
delivered to the army the supposed mandates of their invisible
sovereign. ^103

[Footnote 100: Nemesianus (in the Cynegeticon) seems to
anticipate in his fancy that auspicious day.]

[Footnote 101: He won all the crowns from Nemesianus, with whom
he vied in didactic poetry. The senate erected a statue to the
son of Carus, with a very ambiguous inscription, "To the most
powerful of orators." See Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 251.]

[Footnote 102: A more natural cause, at least, than that assigned
by Vopiscus, (Hist. August. p. 251,) incessantly weeping for his
father's death.]

[Footnote 103: In the Persian war, Aper was suspected of a design
to betray Carus. Hist. August. p. 250.]

     It was not till eight months after the death of Carus, that
the Roman army, returning by slow marches from the banks of the
Tigris, arrived on those of the Thracian Bosphorus. The legions
halted at Chalcedon in Asia, while the court passed over to
Heraclea, on the European side of the Propontis. ^104 But a
report soon circulated through the camp, at first in secret
whispers, and at length in loud clamors, of the emperor's death,
and of the presumption of his ambitious minister, who still
exercised the sovereign power in the name of a prince who was no
more. The impatience of the soldiers could not long support a
state of suspense. With rude curiosity they broke into the
Imperial tent, and discovered only the corpse of Numerian. ^105
The gradual decline of his health might have induced them to
believe that his death was natural; but the concealment was
interpreted as an evidence of guilt, and the measures which Aper
had taken to secure his election became the immediate occasion of
his ruin Yet, even in the transport of their rage and grief, the
troops observed a regular proceeding, which proves how firmly
discipline had been reestablished by the martial successors of
Gallienus. A general assembly of the army was appointed to be
held at Chalcedon, whither Aper was transported in chains, as a
prisoner and a criminal. A vacant tribunal was erected in the
midst of the camp, and the generals and tribunes formed a great
military council. They soon announced to the multitude that
their choice had fallen on Diocletian, commander of the domestics
or body-guards, as the person the most capable of revenging and
succeeding their beloved emperor. The future fortunes of the
candidate depended on the chance or conduct of the present hour.
Conscious that the station which he had filled exposed him to
some suspicions, Diocletian ascended the tribunal, and raising
his eyes towards the Sun, made a solemn profession of his own
innocence, in the presence of that all-seeing Deity. ^106 Then,
assuming the tone of a sovereign and a judge, he commanded that
Aper should be brought in chains to the foot of the tribunal.
"This man," said he, "is the murderer of Numerian;" and without
giving him time to enter on a dangerous justification, drew his
sword, and buried it in the breast of the unfortunate praefect.
A charge supported by such decisive proof was admitted without
contradiction, and the legions, with repeated acclamations,
acknowledged the justice and authority of the emperor Diocletian.
^107 [Footnote 104: We are obliged to the Alexandrian Chronicle,
p. 274, for the knowledge of the time and place where Diocletian
was elected emperor.]
[Footnote 105: Hist. August. p. 251. Eutrop. ix. 88. Hieronym.
in Chron. According to these judicious writers, the death of
Numerian was discovered by the stench of his dead body. Could no
aromatics be found in the Imperial household?]

[Footnote 106: Aurel. Victor. Eutropius, ix. 20. Hieronym. in
Chron.]
[Footnote 107: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 252. The reason why
Diocletian killed Aper, (a wild boar,) was founded on a prophecy
and a pun, as foolish as they are well known.]

     Before we enter upon the memorable reign of that prince, it
will be proper to punish and dismiss the unworthy brother of
Numerian. Carinus possessed arms and treasures sufficient to
support his legal title to the empire. But his personal vices
overbalanced every advantage of birth and situation. The most
faithful servants of the father despised the incapacity, and
dreaded the cruel arrogance, of the son. The hearts of the
people were engaged in favor of his rival, and even the senate
was inclined to prefer a usurper to a tyrant. The arts of
Diocletian inflamed the general discontent; and the winter was
employed in secret intrigues, and open preparations for a civil
war. In the spring, the forces of the East and of the West
encountered each other in the plains of Margus, a small city of
Maesia, in the neighborhood of the Danube. ^108 The troops, so
lately returned from the Persian war, had acquired their glory at
the expense of health and numbers; nor were they in a condition
to contend with the unexhausted strength of the legions of
Europe. Their ranks were broken, and, for a moment, Diocletian
despaired of the purple and of life. But the advantage which
Carinus had obtained by the valor of his soldiers, he quickly
lost by the infidelity of his officers. A tribune, whose wife he
had seduced, seized the opportunity of revenge, and, by a single
blow, extinguished civil discord in the blood of the adulterer.
^109

[Footnote 108: Eutropius marks its situation very accurately; it
was between the Mons Aureus and Viminiacum. M. d'Anville
(Geographic Ancienne, tom. i. p. 304) places Margus at Kastolatz
in Servia, a little below Belgrade and Semendria.

     Not: Kullieza - Eton Atlas - M.]

[Footnote 109: Hist. August. p. 254. Eutropius, ix. 20.
Aurelius Victor et Epitome]

Chapter XIII: Reign Of Diocletian And This Three Associates.

Part I.

The Reign Of Diocletian And His Three Associates, Maximian,
Galerius, And Constantius. - General Reestablishment Of Order And
Tranquillity. - The Persian War, Victory, And Triumph. - The New
Form Of Administration. - Abdication And Retirement Of Diocletian
And Maximian.

     As the reign of Diocletian was more illustrious than that of
any of his predecessors, so was his birth more abject and
obscure. The strong claims of merit and of violence had
frequently superseded the ideal prerogatives of nobility; but a
distinct line of separation was hitherto preserved between the
free and the servile part of mankind. The parents of Diocletian
had been slaves in the house of Anulinus, a Roman senator; nor
was he himself distinguished by any other name than that which he
derived from a small town in Dalmatia, from whence his mother
deduced her origin. ^1 It is, however, probable that his father
obtained the freedom of the family, and that he soon acquired an
office of scribe, which was commonly exercised by persons of his
condition. ^2 Favorable oracles, or rather the consciousness of
superior merit, prompted his aspiring son to pursue the
profession of arms and the hopes of fortune; and it would be
extremely curious to observe the gradation of arts and accidents
which enabled him in the end to fulfil those oracles, and to
display that merit to the world. Diocletian was successively
promoted to the government of Maesia, the honors of the
consulship, and the important command of the guards of the
palace. He distinguished his abilities in the Persian war; and
after the death of Numerian, the slave, by the confession and
judgment of his rivals, was declared the most worthy of the
Imperial throne. The malice of religious zeal, whilst it
arraigns the savage fierceness of his colleague Maximian, has
affected to cast suspicions on the personal courage of the
emperor Diocletian. ^3 It would not be easy to persuade us of the
cowardice of a soldier of fortune, who acquired and preserved the
esteem of the legions as well as the favor of so many warlike
princes. Yet even calumny is sagacious enough to discover and to
attack the most vulnerable part. The valor of Diocletian was
never found inadequate to his duty, or to the occasion; but he
appears not to have possessed the daring and generous spirit of a
hero, who courts danger and fame, disdains artifice, and boldly
challenges the allegiance of his equals. His abilities were
useful rather than splendid; a vigorous mind, improved by the
experience and study of mankind; dexterity and application in
business; a judicious mixture of liberality and economy, of
mildness and rigor; profound dissimulation, under the disguise of
military frankness; steadiness to pursue his ends; flexibility to
vary his means; and, above all, the great art of submitting his
own passions, as well as those of others, to the interest of his
ambition, and of coloring his ambition with the most specious
pretences of justice and public utility. Like Augustus,
Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a new empire.
Like the adopted son of Caesar, he was distinguished as a
statesman rather than as a warrior; nor did either of those
princes employ force, whenever their purpose could be effected by
policy.

[Footnote 1: Eutrop. ix. 19. Victor in Epitome. The town seems
to have been properly called Doclia, from a small tribe of
Illyrians, (see Cellarius, Geograph. Antiqua, tom. i. p. 393;)
and the original name of the fortunate slave was probably Docles;
he first lengthened it to the Grecian harmony of Diocles, and at
length to the Roman majesty of Diocletianus. He likewise assumed
the Patrician name of Valerius and it is usually given him by
Aurelius Victor.]

[Footnote 2: See Dacier on the sixth satire of the second book of
Horace Cornel. Nepos, 'n Vit. Eumen. c. l.]

[Footnote 3: Lactantius (or whoever was the author of the little
treatise De Mortibus Persecutorum) accuses Diocletian of timidity
in two places, c. 7. 8. In chap. 9 he says of him, "erat in omni
tumultu meticulosu et animi disjectus."]

     The victory of Diocletian was remarkable for its singular
mildness. A people accustomed to applaud the clemency of the
conqueror, if the usual punishments of death, exile, and
confiscation, were inflicted with any degree of temper and
equity, beheld, with the most pleasing astonishment, a civil war,
the flames of which were extinguished in the field of battle.
Diocletian received into his confidence Aristobulus, the
principal minister of the house of Carus, respected the lives,
the fortunes, and the dignity, of his adversaries, and even
continued in their respective stations the greater number of the
servants of Carinus. ^4 It is not improbable that motives of
prudence might assist the humanity of the artful Dalmatian; of
these servants, many had purchased his favor by secret treachery;
in others, he esteemed their grateful fidelity to an unfortunate
master. The discerning judgment of Aurelian, of Probus, and of
Carus, had filled the several departments of the state and army
with officers of approved merit, whose removal would have injured
the public service, without promoting the interest of his
successor. Such a conduct, however, displayed to the Roman world
the fairest prospect of the new reign, and the emperor affected
to confirm this favorable prepossession, by declaring, that,
among all the virtues of his predecessors, he was the most
ambitious of imitating the humane philosophy of Marcus Antoninus.
^5

[Footnote 4: In this encomium, Aurelius Victor seems to convey a
just, though indirect, censure of the cruelty of Constantius. It
appears from the Fasti, that Aristobulus remained praefect of the
city, and that he ended with Diocletian the consulship which he
had commenced with Carinus.]
[Footnote 5: Aurelius Victor styles Diocletian, "Parentum potius
quam Dominum." See Hist. August. p. 30.]

     The first considerable action of his reign seemed to evince
his sincerity as well as his moderation. After the example of
Marcus, he gave himself a colleague in the person of Maximian, on
whom he bestowed at first the title of Caesar, and afterwards
that of Augustus. ^6 But the motives of his conduct, as well as
the object of his choice, were of a very different nature from
those of his admired predecessor. By investing a luxurious youth
with the honors of the purple, Marcus had discharged a debt of
private gratitude, at the expense, indeed, of the happiness of
the state. By associating a friend and a fellow-soldier to the
labors of government, Diocletian, in a time of public danger,
provided for the defence both of the East and of the West.
Maximian was born a peasant, and, like Aurelian, in the territory
of Sirmium. Ignorant of letters, ^7 careless of laws, the
rusticity of his appearance and manners still betrayed in the
most elevated fortune the meanness of his extraction. War was
the only art which he professed. In a long course of service, he
had distinguished himself on every frontier of the empire; and
though his military talents were formed to obey rather than to
command, though, perhaps, he never attained the skill of a
consummate general, he was capable, by his valor, constancy, and
experience, of executing the most arduous undertakings. Nor were
the vices of Maximian less useful to his benefactor. Insensible
to pity, and fearless of consequences, he was the ready
instrument of every act of cruelty which the policy of that
artful prince might at once suggest and disclaim. As soon as a
bloody sacrifice had been offered to prudence or to revenge,
Diocletian, by his seasonable intercession, saved the remaining
few whom he had never designed to punish, gently censured the
severity of his stern colleague, and enjoyed the comparison of a
golden and an iron age, which was universally applied to their
opposite maxims of government. Notwithstanding the difference of
their characters, the two emperors maintained, on the throne,
that friendship which they had contracted in a private station.
The haughty, turbulent spirit of Maximian, so fatal, afterwards,
to himself and to the public peace, was accustomed to respect the
genius of Diocletian, and confessed the ascendant of reason over
brutal violence. ^8 From a motive either of pride or
superstition, the two emperors assumed the titles, the one of
Jovius, the other of Herculius. Whilst the motion of the world
(such was the language of their venal orators) was maintained by
the all-seeing wisdom of Jupiter, the invincible arm of Hercules
purged the earth from monsters and tyrants. ^9

[Footnote 6: The question of the time when Maximian received the
honors of Caesar and Augustus has divided modern critics, and
given occasion to a great deal of learned wrangling. I have
followed M. de Tillemont, (Histoire des Empereurs, tom. iv. p.
500-505,) who has weighed the several reasons and difficulties
with his scrupulous accuracy.

     Note: Eckbel concurs in this view, viii p. 15. - M.]

[Footnote 7: In an oration delivered before him, (Panegyr. Vet.
ii. 8,) Mamertinus expresses a doubt, whether his hero, in
imitating the conduct of Hannibal and Scipio, had ever heard of
their names. From thence we may fairly infer, that Maximian was
more desirous of being considered as a soldier than as a man of
letters; and it is in this manner that we can often translate the
language of flattery into that of truth.]

[Footnote 8: Lactantius de M. P. c. 8. Aurelius Victor. As
among the Panegyrics, we find orations pronounced in praise of
Maximian, and others which flatter his adversaries at his
expense, we derive some knowledge from the contrast.]

[Footnote 9: See the second and third Panegyrics, particularly
iii. 3, 10, 14 but it would be tedious to copy the diffuse and
affected expressions of their false eloquence. With regard to
the titles, consult Aurel. Victor Lactantius de M. P. c. 52.
Spanheim de Usu Numismatum, &c. xii 8.]

     But even the omnipotence of Jovius and Herculius was
insufficient to sustain the weight of the public administration.
The prudence of Diocletian discovered that the empire, assailed
on every side by the barbarians, required on every side the
presence of a great army, and of an emperor. With this view, he
resolved once more to divide his unwieldy power, and with the
inferior title of Caesars, ^* to confer on two generals of
approved merit an unequal share of the sovereign authority. ^10
Galerius, surnamed Armentarius, from his original profession of a
herdsman, and Constantius, who from his pale complexion had
acquired the denomination of Chlorus, ^11 were the two persons
invested with the second honors of the Imperial purple. In
describing the country, extraction, and manners of Herculius, we
have already delineated those of Galerius, who was often, and not
improperly, styled the younger Maximian, though, in many
instances both of virtue and ability, he appears to have
possessed a manifest superiority over the elder. The birth of
Constantius was less obscure than that of his colleagues.
Eutropius, his father, was one of the most considerable nobles of
Dardania, and his mother was the niece of the emperor Claudius.
^12 Although the youth of Constantius had been spent in arms, he
was endowed with a mild and amiable disposition, and the popular
voice had long since acknowledged him worthy of the rank which he
at last attained. To strengthen the bonds of political, by those
of domestic, union, each of the emperors assumed the character of
a father to one of the Caesars, Diocletian to Galerius, and
Maximian to Constantius; and each, obliging them to repudiate
their former wives, bestowed his daughter in marriage or his
adopted son. ^13 These four princes distributed among themselves
the wide extent of the Roman empire. The defence of Gaul, Spain,
^14 and Britain, was intrusted to Constantius: Galerius was
stationed on the banks of the Danube, as the safeguard of the
Illyrian provinces. Italy and Africa were considered as the
department of Maximian; and for his peculiar portion, Diocletian
reserved Thrace, Egypt, and the rich countries of Asia. Every one
was sovereign with his own jurisdiction; but their united
authority extended over the whole monarchy, and each of them was
prepared to assist his colleagues with his counsels or presence.
The Caesars, in their exalted rank, revered the majesty of the
emperors, and the three younger princes invariably acknowledged,
by their gratitude and obedience, the common parent of their
fortunes. The suspicious jealousy of power found not any place
among them; and the singular happiness of their union has been
compared to a chorus of music, whose harmony was regulated and
maintained by the skilful hand of the first artist. ^15

[Footnote *: On the relative power of the Augusti and the
Caesars, consult a dissertation at the end of Manso's Leben
Constantius des Grossen - M.]
[Footnote 10: Aurelius Victor. Victor in Epitome. Eutrop. ix.
22. Lactant de M. P. c. 8. Hieronym. in Chron.]

[Footnote 11: It is only among the modern Greeks that Tillemont
can discover his appellation of Chlorus. Any remarkable degree
of paleness seems inconsistent with the rubor mentioned in
Panegyric, v. 19.]
[Footnote 12: Julian, the grandson of Constantius, boasts that
his family was derived from the warlike Maesians. Misopogon, p.
348. The Dardanians dwelt on the edge of Maesia.]

[Footnote 13: Galerius married Valeria, the daughter of
Diocletian; if we speak with strictness, Theodora, the wife of
Constantius, was daughter only to the wife of Maximian.
Spanheim, Dissertat, xi. 2.]

[Footnote 14: This division agrees with that of the four
praefectures; yet there is some reason to doubt whether Spain was
not a province of Maximian. See Tillemont, tom. iv. p. 517.

     Note: According to Aurelius Victor and other authorities,
Thrace belonged to the division of Galerius. See Tillemont, iv.
36. But the laws of Diocletian are in general dated in Illyria
or Thrace. - M.]
[Footnote 15: Julian in Caesarib. p. 315. Spanheim's notes to
the French translation, p. 122.]

     This important measure was not carried into execution till
about six years after the association of Maximian, and that
interval of time had not been destitute of memorable incidents.
But we have preferred, for the sake of perspicuity, first to
describe the more perfect form of Diocletian's government, and
afterwards to relate the actions of his reign, following rather
the natural order of the events, than the dates of a very
doubtful chronology.

     The first exploit of Maximian, though it is mentioned in a
few words by our imperfect writers, deserves, from its
singularity, to be recorded in a history of human manners. He
suppressed the peasants of Gaul, who, under the appellation of
Bagaudae, ^16 had risen in a general insurrection; very similar
to those which in the fourteenth century successively afflicted
both France and England. ^17 It should seem that very many of
those institutions, referred by an easy solution to the feudal
system, are derived from the Celtic barbarians. When Caesar
subdued the Gauls, that great nation was already divided into
three orders of men; the clergy, the nobility, and the common
people. The first governed by superstition, the second by arms,
but the third and last was not of any weight or account in their
public councils. It was very natural for the plebeians, oppressed
by debt, or apprehensive of injuries, to implore the protection
of some powerful chief, who acquired over their persons and
property the same absolute right as, among the Greeks and Romans,
a master exercised over his slaves. ^18 The greatest part of the
nation was gradually reduced into a state of servitude; compelled
to perpetual labor on the estates of the Gallic nobles, and
confined to the soil, either by the real weight of fetters, or by
the no less cruel and forcible restraints of the laws. During
the long series of troubles which agitated Gaul, from the reign
of Gallienus to that of Diocletian, the condition of these
servile peasants was peculiarly miserable; and they experienced
at once the complicated tyranny of their masters, of the
barbarians, of the soldiers, and of the officers of the revenue.
^19
[Footnote 16: The general name of Bagaudoe (in the signification
of rebels) continued till the fifth century in Gaul. Some
critics derive it from a Celtic word Bagad, a tumultuous
assembly. Scaliger ad Euseb. Du Cange Glossar. (Compare S.
Turner, Anglo-Sax. History, i. 214. - M.)]
[Footnote 17: Chronique de Froissart, vol. i. c. 182, ii. 73, 79.

The naivete of his story is lost in our best modern writers.]

[Footnote 18: Caesar de Bell. Gallic. vi. 13. Orgetorix, the
Helvetian, could arm for his defence a body of ten thousand
slaves.]

[Footnote 19: Their oppression and misery are acknowledged by
Eumenius (Panegyr. vi. 8,) Gallias efferatas injuriis.]

     Their patience was at last provoked into despair. On every
side they rose in multitudes, armed with rustic weapons, and with
irresistible fury. The ploughman became a foot soldier, the
shepherd mounted on horseback, the deserted villages and open
towns were abandoned to the flames, and the ravages of the
peasants equalled those of the fiercest barbarians. ^20 They
asserted the natural rights of men, but they asserted those
rights with the most savage cruelty. The Gallic nobles, justly
dreading their revenge, either took refuge in the fortified
cities, or fled from the wild scene of anarchy. The peasants
reigned without control; and two of their most daring leaders had
the folly and rashness to assume the Imperial ornaments. ^21
Their power soon expired at the approach of the legions. The
strength of union and discipline obtained an easy victory over a
licentious and divided multitude. ^22 A severe retaliation was
inflicted on the peasants who were found in arms; the affrighted
remnant returned to their respective habitations, and their
unsuccessful effort for freedom served only to confirm their
slavery. So strong and uniform is the current of popular
passions, that we might almost venture, from very scanty
materials, to relate the particulars of this war; but we are not
disposed to believe that the principal leaders, Aelianus and
Amandus, were Christians, ^23 or to insinuate, that the
rebellion, as it happened in the time of Luther, was occasioned
by the abuse of those benevolent principles of Christianity,
which inculcate the natural freedom of mankind.

[Footnote 20: Panegyr. Vet. ii. 4. Aurelius Victor.]

[Footnote 21: Aelianus and Amandus. We have medals coined by
them Goltzius in Thes. R. A. p. 117, 121.]

[Footnote 22: Levibus proeliis domuit. Eutrop. ix. 20.]

[Footnote 23: The fact rests indeed on very slight authority, a
life of St. Babolinus, which is probably of the seventh century.
See Duchesne Scriptores Rer. Francicar. tom. i. p. 662.]

     Maximian had no sooner recovered Gaul from the hands of the
peasants, than he lost Britain by the usurpation of Carausius.
Ever since the rash but successful enterprise of the Franks under
the reign of Probus, their daring countrymen had constructed
squadrons of light brigantines, in which they incessantly ravaged
the provinces adjacent to the ocean. ^24 To repel their desultory
incursions, it was found necessary to create a naval power; and
the judicious measure was prosecuted with prudence and vigor.
Gessoriacum, or Boulogne, in the straits of the British Channel,
was chosen by the emperor for the station of the Roman fleet; and
the command of it was intrusted to Carausius, a Menapian of the
meanest origin, ^25 but who had long signalized his skill as a
pilot, and his valor as a soldier. The integrity of the new
admiral corresponded not with his abilities. When the German
pirates sailed from their own harbors, he connived at their
passage, but he diligently intercepted their return, and
appropriated to his own use an ample share of the spoil which
they had acquired. The wealth of Carausius was, on this
occasion, very justly considered as an evidence of his guilt; and
Maximian had already given orders for his death. But the crafty
Menapian foresaw and prevented the severity of the emperor. By
his liberality he had attached to his fortunes the fleet which he
commanded, and secured the barbarians in his interest. From the
port of Boulogne he sailed over to Britain, persuaded the legion,
and the auxiliaries which guarded that island, to embrace his
party, and boldly assuming, with the Imperial purple, the title
of Augustus defied the justice and the arms of his injured
sovereign. ^26

[Footnote 24: Aurelius Victor calls them Germans. Eutropius (ix.
21) gives them the name of Saxons. But Eutropius lived in the
ensuing century, and seems to use the language of his own times.]

[Footnote 25: The three expressions of Eutropius, Aurelius
Victor, and Eumenius, "vilissime natus," "Bataviae alumnus," and
"Menapiae civis," give us a very doubtful account of the birth of
Carausius. Dr. Stukely, however, (Hist. of Carausius, p. 62,)
chooses to make him a native of St. David's and a prince of the
blood royal of Britain. The former idea he had found in Richard
of Cirencester, p. 44.

     Note: The Menapians were settled between the Scheldt and the
Meuse, is the northern part of Brabant. D'Anville, Geogr. Anc.
i. 93. - G.]
[Footnote 26: Panegyr. v. 12. Britain at this time was secure,
and slightly guarded.]

     When Britain was thus dismembered from the empire, its
importance was sensibly felt, and its loss sincerely lamented.
The Romans celebrated, and perhaps magnified, the extent of that
noble island, provided on every side with convenient harbors; the
temperature of the climate, and the fertility of the soil, alike
adapted for the production of corn or of vines; the valuable
minerals with which it abounded; its rich pastures covered with
innumerable flocks, and its woods free from wild beasts or
venomous serpents. Above all, they regretted the large amount of
the revenue of Britain, whilst they confessed, that such a
province well deserved to become the seat of an independent
monarchy. ^27 During the space of seven years it was possessed by
Carausius; and fortune continued propitious to a rebellion
supported with courage and ability. The British emperor defended
the frontiers of his dominions against the Caledonians of the
North, invited, from the continent, a great number of skilful
artists, and displayed, on a variety of coins that are still
extant, his taste and opulence. Born on the confines of the
Franks, he courted the friendship of that formidable people, by
the flattering imitation of their dress and manners. The bravest
of their youth he enlisted among his land or sea forces; and, in
return for their useful alliance, he communicated to the
barbarians the dangerous knowledge of military and naval arts.
Carausius still preserved the possession of Boulogne and the
adjacent country. His fleets rode triumphant in the channel,
commanded the mouths of the Seine and of the Rhine, ravaged the
coasts of the ocean, and diffused beyond the columns of Hercules
the terror of his name. Under his command, Britain, destined in
a future age to obtain the empire of the sea, already assumed its
natural and respectable station of a maritime power. ^28

[Footnote 27: Panegyr. Vet v 11, vii. 9. The orator Eumenius
wished to exalt the glory of the hero (Constantius) with the
importance of the conquest. Notwithstanding our laudable
partiality for our native country, it is difficult to conceive,
that, in the beginning of the fourth century England deserved all
these commendations. A century and a half before, it hardly paid
its own establishment.]

[Footnote 28: As a great number of medals of Carausius are still
preserved, he is become a very favorite object of antiquarian
curiosity, and every circumstance of his life and actions has
been investigated with sagacious accuracy. Dr. Stukely, in
particular, has devoted a large volume to the British emperor. I
have used his materials, and rejected most of his fanciful
conjectures.]

     By seizing the fleet of Boulogne, Carausius had deprived his
master of the means of pursuit and revenge. And when, after a
vast expense of time and labor, a new armament was launched into
the water, ^29 the Imperial troops, unaccustomed to that element,
were easily baffled and defeated by the veteran sailors of the
usurper. This disappointed effort was soon productive of a
treaty of peace. Diocletian and his colleague, who justly
dreaded the enterprising spirit of Carausius, resigned to him the
sovereignty of Britain, and reluctantly admitted their perfidious
servant to a participation of the Imperial honors. ^30 But the
adoption of the two Caesars restored new vigor to the Romans
arms; and while the Rhine was guarded by the presence of
Maximian, his brave associate Constantius assumed the conduct of
the British war. His first enterprise was against the important
place of Boulogne. A stupendous mole, raised across the entrance
of the harbor, intercepted all hopes of relief. The town
surrendered after an obstinate defence; and a considerable part
of the naval strength of Carausius fell into the hands of the
besiegers. During the three years which Constantius employed in
preparing a fleet adequate to the conquest of Britain, he secured
the coast of Gaul, invaded the country of the Franks, and
deprived the usurper of the assistance of those powerful allies.

[Footnote 29: When Mamertinus pronounced his first panegyric, the
naval preparations of Maximian were completed; and the orator
presaged an assured victory. His silence in the second panegyric
might alone inform us that the expedition had not succeeded.]

[Footnote 30: Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, and the medals, (Pax
Augg.) inform us of this temporary reconciliation; though I will
not presume (as Dr. Stukely has done, Medallic History of
Carausius, p. 86, &c) to insert the identical articles of the
treaty.]

     Before the preparations were finished, Constantius received
the intelligence of the tyrant's death, and it was considered as
a sure presage of the approaching victory. The servants of
Carausius imitated the example of treason which he had given. He
was murdered by his first minister, Allectus, and the assassin
succeeded to his power and to his danger. But he possessed not
equal abilities either to exercise the one or to repel the other.

He beheld, with anxious terror, the opposite shores of the
continent already filled with arms, with troops, and with
vessels; for Constantius had very prudently divided his forces,
that he might likewise divide the attention and resistance of the
enemy. The attack was at length made by the principal squadron,
which, under the command of the praefect Asclepiodatus, an
officer of distinguished merit, had been assembled in the north
of the Seine. So imperfect in those times was the art of
navigation, that orators have celebrated the daring courage of
the Romans, who ventured to set sail with a side-wind, and on a
stormy day. The weather proved favorable to their enterprise.
Under the cover of a thick fog, they escaped the fleet of
Allectus, which had been stationed off the Isle of Wight to
receive them, landed in safety on some part of the western coast,
and convinced the Britons, that a superiority of naval strength
will not always protect their country from a foreign invasion.
Asclepiodatus had no sooner disembarked the imperial troops, then
he set fire to his ships; and, as the expedition proved
fortunate, his heroic conduct was universally admired. The
usurper had posted himself near London, to expect the formidable
attack of Constantius, who commanded in person the fleet of
Boulogne; but the descent of a new enemy required his immediate
presence in the West. He performed this long march in so
precipitate a manner, that he encountered the whole force of the
praefect with a small body of harassed and disheartened troops.
The engagement was soon terminated by the total defeat and death
of Allectus; a single battle, as it has often happened, decided
the fate of this great island; and when Constantius landed on the
shores of Kent, he found them covered with obedient subjects.
Their acclamations were loud and unanimous; and the virtues of
the conqueror may induce us to believe, that they sincerely
rejoiced in a revolution, which, after a separation of ten years,
restored Britain to the body of the Roman empire. ^31

[Footnote 31: With regard to the recovery of Britain, we obtain a
few hints from Aurelius Victor and Eutropius.]

Chapter XIII: Reign Of Diocletian And This Three Associates.

Part II.

     Britain had none but domestic enemies to dread; and as long
as the governors preserved their fidelity, and the troops their
discipline, the incursions of the naked savages of Scotland or
Ireland could never materially affect the safety of the province.

The peace of the continent, and the defence of the principal
rivers which bounded the empire, were objects of far greater
difficulty and importance. The policy of Diocletian, which
inspired the councils of his associates, provided for the public
tranquility, by encouraging a spirit of dissension among the
barbarians, and by strengthening the fortifications of the Roman
limit. In the East he fixed a line of camps from Egypt to the
Persian dominions, and for every camp, he instituted an adequate
number of stationary troops, commanded by their respective
officers, and supplied with every kind of arms, from the new
arsenals which he had formed at Antioch, Emesa, and Damascus. ^32
Nor was the precaution of the emperor less watchful against the
well-known valor of the barbarians of Europe. From the mouth of
the Rhine to that of the Danube, the ancient camps, towns, and
citidels, were diligently reestablished, and, in the most exposed
places, new ones were skilfully constructed: the strictest
vigilance was introduced among the garrisons of the frontier, and
every expedient was practised that could render the long chain of
fortifications firm and impenetrable. ^33 A barrier so
respectable was seldom violated, and the barbarians often turned
against each other their disappointed rage. The Goths, the
Vandals, the Gepidae, the Burgundians, the Alemanni, wasted each
other's strength by destructive hostilities: and whosoever
vanquished, they vanquished the enemies of Rome. The subjects of
Diocletian enjoyed the bloody spectacle, and congratulated each
other, that the mischiefs of civil war were now experienced only
by the barbarians. ^34

[Footnote 32: John Malala, in Chron, Antiochen. tom. i. p. 408,
409.]
[Footnote 33: Zosim. l. i. p. 3. That partial historian seems to
celebrate the vigilance of Diocletian with a design of exposing
the negligence of Constantine; we may, however, listen to an
orator: "Nam quid ego alarum et cohortium castra percenseam, toto
Rheni et Istri et Euphraus limite restituta." Panegyr. Vet. iv.
18.]

[Footnote 34: Ruunt omnes in sanguinem suum populi, quibus ron
contigilesse Romanis, obstinataeque feritatis poenas nunc sponte
persolvunt. Panegyr. Vet. iii. 16. Mamertinus illustrates the
fact by the example of almost all the nations in the world.]

     Notwithstanding the policy of Diocletian, it was impossible
to maintain an equal and undisturbed tranquillity during a reign
of twenty years, and along a frontier of many hundred miles.
Sometimes the barbarians suspended their domestic animosities,
and the relaxed vigilance of the garrisons sometimes gave a
passage to their strength or dexterity. Whenever the provinces
were invaded, Diocletian conducted himself with that calm dignity
which he always affected or possessed; reserved his presence for
such occasions as were worthy of his interposition, never exposed
his person or reputation to any unnecessary danger, insured his
success by every means that prudence could suggest, and
displayed, with ostentation, the consequences of his victory. In
wars of a more difficult nature, and more doubtful event, he
employed the rough valor of Maximian; and that faithful soldier
was content to ascribe his own victories to the wise counsels and
auspicious influence of his benefactor. But after the adoption
of the two Caesars, the emperors themselves, retiring to a less
laborious scene of action, devolved on their adopted sons the
defence of the Danube and of the Rhine. The vigilant Galerius
was never reduced to the necessity of vanquishing an army of
barbarians on the Roman territory. ^35 The brave and active
Contsantius delivered Gaul from a very furious inroad of the
Alemanni; and his victories of Langres and Vindonissa appear to
have been actions of considerable danger and merit. As he
traversed the open country with a feeble guard, he was
encompassed on a sudden by the superior multitude of the enemy.
He retreated with difficulty towards Langres; but, in the general
consternation, the citizens refused to open their gates, and the
wounded prince was drawn up the wall by the means of a rope.
But, on the news of his distress, the Roman troops hastened from
all sides to his relief, and before the evening he had satisfied
his honor and revenge by the slaughter of six thousand Alemanni.
^36 From the monuments of those times, the obscure traces of
several other victories over the barbarians of Sarmatia and
Germany might possibly be collected; but the tedious search would
not be rewarded either with amusement or with instruction.

[Footnote 35: He complained, though not with the strictest truth,
"Jam fluxisse annos quindecim in quibus, in Illyrico, ad ripam
Danubii relegatus cum gentibus barbaris luctaret." Lactant. de M.
P. c. 18.]
[Footnote 36: In the Greek text of Eusebius, we read six
thousand, a number which I have preferred to the sixty thousand
of Jerome, Orosius Eutropius, and his Greek translator Paeanius.]

     The conduct which the emperor Probus had adopted in the
disposal of the vanquished, was imitated by Diocletian and his
associates. The captive barbarians, exchanging death for
slavery, were distributed among the provincials, and assigned to
those districts (in Gaul, the territories of Amiens, Beauvais,
Cambray, Treves, Langres, and Troyes, are particularly specified
^37) which had been depopulated by the calamities of war. They
were usefully employed as shepherds and husbandmen, but were
denied the exercise of arms, except when it was found expedient
to enroll them in the military service. Nor did the emperors
refuse the property of lands, with a less servile tenure, to such
of the barbarians as solicited the protection of Rome. They
granted a settlement to several colonies of the Carpi, the
Bastarnae, and the Sarmatians; and, by a dangerous indulgence,
permitted them in some measure to retain their national manners
and independence. ^38 Among the provincials, it was a subject of
flattering exultation, that the barbarian, so lately an object of
terror, now cultivated their lands, drove their cattle to the
neighboring fair, and contributed by his labor to the public
plenty. They congratulated their masters on the powerful
accession of subjects and soldiers; but they forgot to observe,
that multitudes of secret enemies, insolent from favor, or
desperate from oppression, were introduced into the heart of the
empire. ^39

[Footnote 37: Panegyr. Vet. vii. 21.]

[Footnote 38: There was a settlement of the Sarmatians in the
neighborhood of Treves, which seems to have been deserted by
those lazy barbarians. Ausonius speaks of them in his Mosella: -

     "Unde iter ingrediens nemorosa per avia solum,
     Et nulla humani spectans vestigia cultus;
     . . . . . . . .
     Arvaque Sauromatum nuper metata colonis.]

[Footnote 39: There was a town of the Carpi in the Lower Maesia.
See the rhetorical exultation of Eumenius.]

     While the Caesars exercised their valor on the banks of the
Rhine and Danube, the presence of the emperors was required on
the southern confines of the Roman world. From the Nile to Mount
Atlas Africa was in arms. A confederacy of five Moorish nations
issued from their deserts to invade the peaceful provinces. ^40
Julian had assumed the purple at Carthage. ^41 Achilleus at
Alexandria, and even the Blemmyes, renewed, or rather continued,
their incursions into the Upper Egypt. Scarcely any
circumstances have been preserved of the exploits of Maximian in
the western parts of Africa; but it appears, by the event, that
the progress of his arms was rapid and decisive, that he
vanquished the fiercest barbarians of Mauritania, and that he
removed them from the mountains, whose inaccessible strength had
inspired their inhabitants with a lawless confidence, and
habituated them to a life of rapine and violence. ^42 Diocletian,
on his side, opened the campaign in Egypt by the siege of
Alexandria, cut off the aqueducts which conveyed the waters of
the Nile into every quarter of that immense city, ^43 and
rendering his camp impregnable to the sallies of the besieged
multitude, he pushed his reiterated attacks with caution and
vigor. After a siege of eight months, Alexandria, wasted by the
sword and by fire, implored the clemency of the conqueror, but it
experienced the full extent of his severity. Many thousands of
the citizens perished in a promiscuous slaughter, and there were
few obnoxious persons in Egypt who escaped a sentence either of
death or at least of exile. ^44 The fate of Busiris and of Coptos
was still more melancholy than that of Alexandria: those proud
cities, the former distinguished by its antiquity, the latter
enriched by the passage of the Indian trade, were utterly
destroyed by the arms and by the severe order of Diocletian. ^45
The character of the Egyptian nation, insensible to kindness, but
extremely susceptible of fear, could alone justify this excessive
rigor. The seditions of Alexandria had often affected the
tranquillity and subsistence of Rome itself. Since the
usurpation of Firmus, the province of Upper Egypt, incessantly
relapsing into rebellion, had embraced the alliance of the
savages of Aethiopia. The number of the Blemmyes, scattered
between the Island of Meroe and the Red Sea, was very
inconsiderable, their disposition was unwarlike, their weapons
rude and inoffensive. ^46 Yet in the public disorders, these
barbarians, whom antiquity, shocked with the deformity of their
figure, had almost excluded from the human species, presumed to
rank themselves among the enemies of Rome. ^47 Such had been the
unworthy allies of the Egyptians; and while the attention of the
state was engaged in more serious wars, their vexations inroads
might again harass the repose of the province. With a view of
opposing to the Blemmyes a suitable adversary, Diocletian
persuaded the Nobatae, or people of Nubia, to remove from their
ancient habitations in the deserts of Libya, and resigned to them
an extensive but unprofitable territory above Syene and the
cataracts of the Nile, with the stipulation, that they should
ever respect and guard the frontier of the empire. The treaty
long subsisted; and till the establishment of Christianity
introduced stricter notions of religious worship, it was annually
ratified by a solemn sacrifice in the Isle of Elephantine, in
which the Romans, as well as the barbarians, adored the same
visible or invisible powers of the universe. ^48

[Footnote 40: Scaliger (Animadvers. ad Euseb. p. 243) decides, in
his usual manner, that the Quinque gentiani, or five African
nations, were the five great cities, the Pentapolis of the
inoffensive province of Cyrene.]
[Foot]note 41: After his defeat, Julian stabbed himself with a
dagger, and immediately leaped into the flames. Victor in
Epitome.]

[Footnote 42: Tu ferocissimos Mauritaniae populos inaccessis
montium jugis et naturali munitione fidentes, expugnasti,
recepisti, transtulisti. Panegyr Vet. vi. 8.]

[Footnote 43: See the description of Alexandria, in Hirtius de
Bel. Alexandrin c. 5.]

[Footnote 44: Eutrop. ix. 24. Orosius, vii. 25. John Malala in
Chron. Antioch. p. 409, 410. Yet Eumenius assures us, that Egypt
was pacified by the clemency of Diocletian.]

[Footnote 45: Eusebius (in Chron.) places their destruction
several years sooner and at a time when Egypt itself was in a
state of rebellion against the Romans.]

[Footnote 46: Strabo, l. xvii. p. 172. Pomponius Mela, l. i. c.
4. His words are curious: "Intra, si credere libet vix, homines
magisque semiferi Aegipanes, et Blemmyes, et Satyri."]

[Footnote 47: Ausus sese inserere fortunae et provocare arma
Romana.]
[Footnote 48: See Procopius de Bell. Persic. l. i. c. 19.
     Note: Compare, on the epoch of the final extirpation of the
rites of Paganism from the Isle of Philae, (Elephantine,) which
subsisted till the edict of Theodosius, in the sixth century, a
dissertation of M. Letronne, on certain Greek inscriptions. The
dissertation contains some very interesting observations on the
conduct and policy of Diocletian in Egypt. Mater pour l'Hist. du
Christianisme en Egypte, Nubie et Abyssinie, Paris 1817 - M.]
     At the same time that Diocletian chastised the past crimes
of the Egyptians, he provided for their future safety and
happiness by many wise regulations, which were confirmed and
enforced under the succeeding reigns. ^49 One very remarkable
edict which he published, instead of being condemned as the
effect of jealous tyranny, deserves to be applauded as an act of
prudence and humanity. He caused a diligent inquiry to be made
"for all the ancient books which treated of the admirable art of
making gold and silver, and without pity, committed them to the
flames; apprehensive, as we are assumed, lest the opulence of the
Egyptians should inspire them with confidence to rebel against
the empire." ^50 But if Diocletian had been convinced of the
reality of that valuable art, far from extinguishing the memory,
he would have converted the operation of it to the benefit of the
public revenue. It is much more likely, that his good sense
discovered to him the folly of such magnificent pretensions, and
that he was desirous of preserving the reason and fortunes of his
subjects from the mischievous pursuit. It may be remarked, that
these ancient books, so liberally ascribed to Pythagoras, to
Solomon, or to Hermes, were the pious frauds of more recent
adepts. The Greeks were inattentive either to the use or to the
abuse of chemistry. In that immense register, where Pliny has
deposited the discoveries, the arts, and the errors of mankind,
there is not the least mention of the transmutation of metals;
and the persecution of Diocletian is the first authentic event in
the history of alchemy. The conquest of Egypt by the Arabs
diffused that vain science over the globe. Congenial to the
avarice of the human heart, it was studied in China as in Europe,
with equal eagerness, and with equal success. The darkness of
the middle ages insured a favorable reception to every tale of
wonder, and the revival of learning gave new vigor to hope, and
suggested more specious arts of deception. Philosophy, with the
aid of experience, has at length banished the study of alchemy;
and the present age, however desirous of riches, is content to
seek them by the humbler means of commerce and industry. ^51

[Footnote 49: He fixed the public allowance of corn, for the
people of Alexandria, at two millions of medimni; about four
hundred thousand quarters. Chron. Paschal. p. 276 Procop. Hist.
Arcan. c. 26.]

[Footnote 50: John Antioch, in Excerp. Valesian. p. 834. Suidas
in Diocletian.]

[Footnote 51: See a short history and confutation of Alchemy, in
the works of that philosophical compiler, La Mothe le Vayer, tom.

i. p. 32 - 353.]
     The reduction of Egypt was immediately followed by the
Persian war. It was reserved for the reign of Diocletian to
vanquish that powerful nation, and to extort a confession from
the successors of Artaxerxes, of the superior majesty of the
Roman empire.

     We have observed, under the reign of Valerian, that Armenia
was subdued by the perfidy and the arms of the Persians, and
that, after the assassination of Chosroes, his son Tiridates, the
infant heir of the monarchy, was saved by the fidelity of his
friends, and educated under the protection of the emperors.
Tiridates derived from his exile such advantages as he could
never have obtained on the throne of Armenia; the early knowledge
of adversity, of mankind, and of the Roman discipline. He
signalized his youth by deeds of valor, and displayed a matchless
dexterity, as well as strength, in every martial exercise, and
even in the less honorable contests of the Olympian games. ^52
Those qualities were more nobly exerted in the defence of his
benefactor Licinius. ^53 That officer, in the sedition which
occasioned the death of Probus, was exposed to the most imminent
danger, and the enraged soldiers were forcing their way into his
tent, when they were checked by the single arm of the Armenian
prince. The gratitude of Tiridates contributed soon afterwards
to his restoration. Licinius was in every station the friend and
companion of Galerius, and the merit of Galerius, long before he
was raised to the dignity of Caesar, had been known and esteemed
by Diocletian. In the third year of that emperor's reign
Tiridates was invested with the kingdom of Armenia. The justice
of the measure was not less evident than its expediency. It was
time to rescue from the usurpation of the Persian monarch an
important territory, which, since the reign of Nero, had been
always granted under the protection of the empire to a younger
branch of the house of Arsaces. ^54

[Footnote 52: See the education and strength of Tiridates in the
Armenian history of Moses of Chorene, l. ii. c. 76. He could
seize two wild bulls by the horns, and break them off with his
hands.]

[Footnote 53: If we give credit to the younger Victor, who
supposes that in the year 323 Licinius was only sixty years of
age, he could scarcely be the same person as the patron of
Tiridates; but we know from much better authority, (Euseb. Hist.
Ecclesiast. l. x. c. 8,) that Licinius was at that time in the
last period of old age: sixteen years before, he is represented
with gray hairs, and as the contemporary of Galerius. See
Lactant. c. 32. Licinius was probably born about the year 250.]

[Footnote 54: See the sixty-second and sixty-third books of Dion
Cassius.]
     When Tiridates appeared on the frontiers of Armenia, he was
received with an unfeigned transport of joy and loyalty. During
twenty-six years, the country had experienced the real and
imaginary hardships of a foreign yoke. The Persian monarchs
adorned their new conquest with magnificent buildings; but those
monuments had been erected at the expense of the people, and were
abhorred as badges of slavery. The apprehension of a revolt had
inspired the most rigorous precautions: oppression had been
aggravated by insult, and the consciousness of the public hatred
had been productive of every measure that could render it still
more implacable. We have already remarked the intolerant spirit
of the Magian religion. The statues of the deified kings of
Armenia, and the sacred images of the sun and moon, were broke in
pieces by the zeal of the conqueror; and the perpetual fire of
Ormuzd was kindled and preserved upon an altar erected on the
summit of Mount Bagavan. ^55 It was natural, that a people
exasperated by so many injuries, should arm with zeal in the
cause of their independence, their religion, and their hereditary
sovereign. The torrent bore down every obstacle, and the Persian
garrisons retreated before its fury. The nobles of Armenia flew
to the standard of Tiridates, all alleging their past merit,
offering their future service, and soliciting from the new king
those honors and rewards from which they had been excluded with
disdain under the foreign government. ^56 The command of the army
was bestowed on Artavasdes, whose father had saved the infancy of
Tiridates, and whose family had been massacred for that generous
action. The brother of Artavasdes obtained the government of a
province. One of the first military dignities was conferred on
the satrap Otas, a man of singular temperance and fortitude, who
presented to the king his sister ^57 and a considerable treasure,
both of which, in a sequestered fortress, Otas had preserved from
violation. Among the Armenian nobles appeared an ally, whose
fortunes are too remarkable to pass unnoticed. His name was
Mamgo, ^! his origin was Scythian, and the horde which
acknowledge his authority had encamped a very few years before on
the skirts of the Chinese empire, ^58 which at that time extended
as far as the neighborhood of Sogdiana. ^59 Having incurred the
displeasure of his master, Mamgo, with his followers, retired to
the banks of the Oxus, and implored the protection of Sapor. The
emperor of China claimed the fugitive, and alleged the rights of
sovereignty. The Persian monarch pleaded the laws of hospitality,
and with some difficulty avoided a war, by the promise that he
would banish Mamgo to the uttermost parts of the West, a
punishment, as he described it, not less dreadful than death
itself. Armenia was chosen for the place of exile, and a large
district was assigned to the Scythian horde, on which they might
feed their flocks and herds, and remove their encampment from one
place to another, according to the different seasons of the year.

They were employed to repel the invasion of Tiridates; but their
leader, after weighing the obligations and injuries which he had
received from the Persian monarch, resolved to abandon his party.

The Armenian prince, who was well acquainted with this merit as
well as power of Mamgo, treated him with distinguished respect;
and, by admitting him into his confidence, acquired a brave and
faithful servant, who contributed very effectually to his
restoration. ^60

[Footnote 55: Moses of Chorene. Hist. Armen. l. ii. c. 74. The
statues had been erected by Valarsaces, who reigned in Armenia
about 130 years before Christ, and was the first king of the
family of Arsaces, (see Moses, Hist. Armen. l. ii. 2, 3.) The
deification of the Arsacides is mentioned by Justin, (xli. 5,)
and by Ammianus Marcellinus, (xxiii. 6.)]

[Footnote 56: The Armenian nobility was numerous and powerful.
Moses mentions many families which were distinguished under the
reign of Valarsaces, (l. ii. 7,) and which still subsisted in his
own time, about the middle of the fifth century. See the preface
of his Editors.]
[Footnote 57: She was named Chosroiduchta, and had not the os
patulum like other women. (Hist. Armen. l. ii. c. 79.) I do not
understand the expression.

     Note: Os patulum signifies merely a large and widely opening
mouth. Ovid (Metam. xv. 513) says, speaking of the monster who
attacked Hippolytus, patulo partem maris evomit ore. Probably a
wide mouth was a common defect among the Armenian women. - G.]

[Footnote !: Mamgo (according to M. St. Martin, note to Le Beau.
ii. 213) belonged to the imperial race of Hon, who had filled the
throne of China for four hundred years. Dethroned by the
usurping race of Wei, Mamgo found a hospitable reception in
Persia in the reign of Ardeschir. The emperor of china having
demanded the surrender of the fugitive and his partisans, Sapor,
then king, threatened with war both by Rome and China, counselled
Mamgo to retire into Armenia. "I have expelled him from my
dominions, (he answered the Chinese ambassador;) I have banished
him to the extremity of the earth, where the sun sets; I have
dismissed him to certain death." Compare Mem. sur l'Armenie, ii.
25. - M.]

[Footnote 58: In the Armenian history, (l. ii. 78,) as well as in
the Geography, (p. 367,) China is called Zenia, or Zenastan. It
is characterized by the production of silk, by the opulence of
the natives, and by their love of peace, above all the other
nations of the earth.

     Note: See St. Martin, Mem. sur l'Armenie, i. 304.]

[Footnote 59: Vou-ti, the first emperor of the seventh dynasty,
who then reigned in China, had political transactions with
Fergana, a province of Sogdiana, and is said to have received a
Roman embassy, (Histoire des Huns, tom. i. p. 38.) In those ages
the Chinese kept a garrison at Kashgar, and one of their
generals, about the time of Trajan, marched as far as the Caspian
Sea. With regard to the intercourse between China and the
Western countries, a curious memoir of M. de Guignes may be
consulted, in the Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxii. p. 355.

     Note: The Chinese Annals mention, under the ninth year of
Yan-hi, which corresponds with the year 166 J. C., an embassy
which arrived from Tathsin, and was sent by a prince called
An-thun, who can be no other than Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who
then ruled over the Romans. St. Martin, Mem. sur l'Armaenic. ii.
30. See also Klaproth, Tableaux Historiques de l'Asie, p. 69.
The embassy came by Jy-nan, Tonquin. - M.]

[Footnote 60: See Hist. Armen. l. ii. c. 81.]

     For a while, fortune appeared to favor the enterprising
valor of Tiridates. He not only expelled the enemies of his
family and country from the whole extent of Armenia, but in the
prosecution of his revenge he carried his arms, or at least his
incursions, into the heart of Assyria. The historian, who has
preserved the name of Tiridates from oblivion, celebrates, with a
degree of national enthusiasm, his personal prowess: and, in the
true spirit of eastern romance, describes the giants and the
elephants that fell beneath his invincible arm. It is from other
information that we discover the distracted state of the Persian
monarchy, to which the king of Armenia was indebted for some part
of his advantages. The throne was disputed by the ambition of
contending brothers; and Hormuz, after exerting without success
the strength of his own party, had recourse to the dangerous
assistance of the barbarians who inhabited the banks of the
Caspian Sea. ^61 The civil war was, however, soon terminated,
either by a victor or by a reconciliation; and Narses, who was
universally acknowledged as king of Persia, directed his whole
force against the foreign enemy. The contest then became too
unequal; nor was the valor of the hero able to withstand the
power of the monarch, Tiridates, a second time expelled from the
throne of Armenia, once more took refuge in the court of the
emperors. ^* Narses soon reestablished his authority over the
revolted province; and loudly complaining of the protection
afforded by the Romans to rebels and fugitives, aspired to the
conquest of the East. ^62

[Footnote 61: Ipsos Persas ipsumque Regem ascitis Saccis, et
Russis, et Gellis, petit frater Ormies. Panegyric. Vet. iii. 1.
The Saccae were a nation of wandering Scythians, who encamped
towards the sources of the Oxus and the Jaxartes. The Gelli
where the inhabitants of Ghilan, along the Caspian Sea, and who
so long, under the name of Dilemines, infested the Persian
monarchy. See d'Herbelot, Bibliotheque]

[Footnote *: M St. Martin represents this differently. Le roi de
Perse * * * profits d'un voyage que Tiridate avoit fait a Rome
pour attaquer ce royaume. This reads like the evasion of the
national historians to disguise the fact discreditable to their
hero. See Mem. sur l'Armenie, i. 304. - M.]
[Footnote 62: Moses of Chorene takes no notice of this second
revolution, which I have been obliged to collect from a passage
of Ammianus Marcellinus, (l. xxiii. c. 5.) Lactantius speaks of
the ambition of Narses: "Concitatus domesticis exemplis avi sui
Saporis ad occupandum orientem magnis copiis inhiabat." De Mort.
Persecut. c. 9.]

     Neither prudence nor honor could permit the emperors to
forsake the cause of the Armenian king, and it was resolved to
exert the force of the empire in the Persian war. Diocletian,
with the calm dignity which he constantly assumed, fixed his own
station in the city of Antioch, from whence he prepared and
directed the military operations. ^63 The conduct of the legions
was intrusted to the intrepid valor of Galerius, who, for that
important purpose, was removed from the banks of the Danube to
those of the Euphrates. The armies soon encountered each other
in the plains of Mesopotamia, and two battles were fought with
various and doubtful success; but the third engagement was of a
more decisive nature; and the Roman army received a total
overthrow, which is attributed to the rashness of Galerius, who,
with an inconsiderable body of troops, attacked the innumerable
host of the Persians. ^64 But the consideration of the country
that was the scene of action, may suggest another reason for his
defeat. The same ground on which Galerius was vanquished, had
been rendered memorable by the death of Crassus, and the
slaughter of ten legions. It was a plain of more than sixty
miles, which extended from the hills of Carrhae to the Euphrates;
a smooth and barren surface of sandy desert, without a hillock,
without a tree, and without a spring of fresh water. ^65 The
steady infantry of the Romans, fainting with heat and thirst,
could neither hope for victory if they preserved their ranks, nor
break their ranks without exposing themselves to the most
imminent danger. In this situation they were gradually
encompassed by the superior numbers, harassed by the rapid
evolutions, and destroyed by the arrows of the barbarian cavalry.

The king of Armenia had signalized his valor in the battle, and
acquired personal glory by the public misfortune. He was pursued
as far as the Euphrates; his horse was wounded, and it appeared
impossible for him to escape the victorious enemy. In this
extremity Tiridates embraced the only refuge which appeared
before him: he dismounted and plunged into the stream. His armor
was heavy, the river very deep, and at those parts at least half
a mile in breadth; ^66 yet such was his strength and dexterity,
that he reached in safety the opposite bank. ^67 With regard to
the Roman general, we are ignorant of the circumstances of his
escape; but when he returned to Antioch, Diocletian received him,
not with the tenderness of a friend and colleague, but with the
indignation of an offended sovereign. The haughtiest of men,
clothed in his purple, but humbled by the sense of his fault and
misfortune, was obliged to follow the emperor's chariot above a
mile on foot, and to exhibit, before the whole court, the
spectacle of his disgrace. ^68

[Footnote 63: We may readily believe, that Lactantius ascribes to
cowardice the conduct of Diocletian. Julian, in his oration,
says, that he remained with all the forces of the empire; a very
hyperbolical expression.]
[Footnote 64: Our five abbreviators, Eutropius, Festus, the two
Victors, and Orosius, all relate the last and great battle; but
Orosius is the only one who speaks of the two former.]

[Footnote 65: The nature of the country is finely described by
Plutarch, in the life of Crassus; and by Xenophon, in the first
book of the Anabasis]
[Footnote 66: See Foster's Dissertation in the second volume of
the translation of the Anabasis by Spelman; which I will venture
to recommend as one of the best versions extant.]

[Footnote 67: Hist. Armen. l. ii. c. 76. I have transferred this
exploit of Tiridates from an imaginary defeat to the real one of
Galerius.]
[Footnote 68: Ammian. Marcellin. l. xiv. The mile, in the hands
of Eutropoius, (ix. 24,) of Festus (c. 25,) and of Orosius, (vii
25), easily increased to several miles]

     As soon as Diocletian had indulged his private resentment,
and asserted the majesty of supreme power, he yielded to the
submissive entreaties of the Caesar, and permitted him to
retrieve his own honor, as well as that of the Roman arms. In
the room of the unwarlike troops of Asia, which had most probably
served in the first expedition, a second army was drawn from the
veterans and new levies of the Illyrian frontier, and a
considerable body of Gothic auxiliaries were taken into the
Imperial pay. ^69 At the head of a chosen army of twenty-five
thousand men, Galerius again passed the Euphrates; but, instead
of exposing his legions in the open plains of Mesopotamia he
advanced through the mountains of Armenia, where he found the
inhabitants devoted to his cause, and the country as favorable to
the operations of infantry as it was inconvenient for the motions
of cavalry. ^70 Adversity had confirmed the Roman discipline,
while the barbarians, elated by success, were become so negligent
and remiss, that in the moment when they least expected it, they
were surprised by the active conduct of Galerius, who, attended
only by two horsemen, had with his own eyes secretly examined the
state and position of their camp. A surprise, especially in the
night time, was for the most part fatal to a Persian army.
"Their horses were tied, and generally shackled, to prevent their
running away; and if an alarm happened, a Persian had his housing
to fix, his horse to bridle, and his corselet to put on, before
he could mount." ^71 On this occasion, the impetuous attack of
Galerius spread disorder and dismay over the camp of the
barbarians. A slight resistance was followed by a dreadful
carnage, and, in the general confusion, the wounded monarch (for
Narses commanded his armies in person) fled towards the deserts
of Media. His sumptuous tents, and those of his satraps,
afforded an immense booty to the conqueror; and an incident is
mentioned, which proves the rustic but martial ignorance of the
legions in the elegant superfluities of life. A bag of shining
leather, filled with pearls, fell into the hands of a private
soldier; he carefully preserved the bag, but he threw away its
contents, judging that whatever was of no use could not possibly
be of any value. ^72 The principal loss of Narses was of a much
more affecting nature. Several of his wives, his sisters, and
children, who had attended the army, were made captives in the
defeat. But though the character of Galerius had in general very
little affinity with that of Alexander, he imitated, after his
victory, the amiable behavior of the Macedonian towards the
family of Darius. The wives and children of Narses were
protected from violence and rapine, conveyed to a place of
safety, and treated with every mark of respect and tenderness,
that was due from a generous enemy to their age, their sex, and
their royal dignity. ^73
[Footnote 69: Aurelius Victor. Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c.
21.]
[Footnote 70: Aurelius Victor says, "Per Armeniam in hostes
contendit, quae fermo sola, seu facilior vincendi via est." He
followed the conduct of Trajan, and the idea of Julius Caesar.]

[Footnote 71: Xenophon's Anabasis, l. iii. For that reason the
Persian cavalry encamped sixty stadia from the enemy.]

[Footnote 72: The story is told by Ammianus, l. xxii. Instead of
saccum, some read scutum.]

[Footnote 73: The Persians confessed the Roman superiority in
morals as well as in arms. Eutrop. ix. 24. But this respect and
gratitude of enemies is very seldom to be found in their own
accounts.]

Chapter XIII: Reign Of Diocletian And This Three Associates.

Part III.

     While the East anxiously expected the decision of this great
contest, the emperor Diocletian, having assembled in Syria a
strong army of observation, displayed from a distance the
resources of the Roman power, and reserved himself for any future
emergency of the war. On the intelligence of the victory he
condescended to advance towards the frontier, with a view of
moderating, by his presence and counsels, the pride of Galerius.
The interview of the Roman princes at Nisibis was accompanied
with every expression of respect on one side, and of esteem on
the other. It was in that city that they soon afterwards gave
audience to the ambassador of the Great King. ^74 The power, or
at least the spirit, of Narses, had been broken by his last
defeat; and he considered an immediate peace as the only means
that could stop the progress of the Roman arms. He despatched
Apharban, a servant who possessed his favor and confidence, with
a commission to negotiate a treaty, or rather to receive whatever
conditions the conqueror should impose. Apharban opened the
conference by expressing his master's gratitude for the generous
treatment of his family, and by soliciting the liberty of those
illustrious captives. He celebrated the valor of Galerius,
without degrading the reputation of Narses, and thought it no
dishonor to confess the superiority of the victorious Caesar,
over a monarch who had surpassed in glory all the princes of his
race. Notwithstanding the justice of the Persian cause, he was
empowered to submit the present differences to the decision of
the emperors themselves; convinced as he was, that, in the midst
of prosperity, they would not be unmindful of the vicissitudes of
fortune. Apharban concluded his discourse in the style of
eastern allegory, by observing that the Roman and Persian
monarchies were the two eyes of the world, which would remain
imperfect and mutilated if either of them should be put out.

[Footnote 74: The account of the negotiation is taken from the
fragments of Peter the Patrician, in the Excerpta Legationum,
published in the Byzantine Collection. Peter lived under
Justinian; but it is very evident, by the nature of his
materials, that they are drawn from the most authentic and
respectable writers.]

     "It well becomes the Persians," replied Galerius, with a
transport of fury, which seemed to convulse his whole frame, "it
well becomes the Persians to expatiate on the vicissitudes of
fortune, and calmly to read us lectures on the virtues of
moderation. Let them remember their own moderation, towards the
unhappy Valerian. They vanquished him by fraud, they treated him
with indignity. They detained him till the last moment of his
life in shameful captivity, and after his death they exposed his
body to perpetual ignominy." Softening, however, his tone,
Galerius insinuated to the ambassador, that it had never been the
practice of the Romans to trample on a prostrate enemy; and that,
on this occasion, they should consult their own dignity rather
than the Persian merit. He dismissed Apharban with a hope that
Narses would soon be informed on what conditions he might obtain,
from the clemency of the emperors, a lasting peace, and the
restoration of his wives and children. In this conference we may
discover the fierce passions of Galerius, as well as his
deference to the superior wisdom and authority of Diocletian.
The ambition of the former grasped at the conquest of the East,
and had proposed to reduce Persia into the state of a province.
The prudence of the latter, who adhered to the moderate policy of
Augustus and the Antonines, embraced the favorable opportunity of
terminating a successful war by an honorable and advantageous
peace. ^75

[Footnote 75: Adeo victor (says Aurelius) ut ni Valerius, cujus
nutu omnis gerebantur, abnuisset, Romani fasces in provinciam
novam ferrentur Verum pars terrarum tamen nobis utilior
quaesita.]

     In pursuance of their promise, the emperors soon afterwards
appointed Sicorius Probus, one of their secretaries, to acquaint
the Persian court with their final resolution. As the minister
of peace, he was received with every mark of politeness and
friendship; but, under the pretence of allowing him the necessary
repose after so long a journey, the audience of Probus was
deferred from day to day; and he attended the slow motions of the
king, till at length he was admitted to his presence, near the
River Asprudus in Media. The secret motive of Narses, in this
delay, had been to collect such a military force as might enable
him, though sincerely desirous of peace, to negotiate with the
greater weight and dignity. Three persons only assisted at this
important conference, the minister Apharban, the praefect of the
guards, and an officer who had commanded on the Armenian
frontier. ^76 The first condition proposed by the ambassador is
not at present of a very intelligible nature; that the city of
Nisibis might be established for the place of mutual exchange,
or, as we should formerly have termed it, for the staple of
trade, between the two empires. There is no difficulty in
conceiving the intention of the Roman princes to improve their
revenue by some restraints upon commerce; but as Nisibis was
situated within their own dominions, and as they were masters
both of the imports and exports, it should seem that such
restraints were the objects of an internal law, rather than of a
foreign treaty. To render them more effectual, some stipulations
were probably required on the side of the king of Persia, which
appeared so very repugnant either to his interest or to his
dignity, that Narses could not be persuaded to subscribe them.
As this was the only article to which he refused his consent, it
was no longer insisted on; and the emperors either suffered the
trade to flow in its natural channels, or contented themselves
with such restrictions, as it depended on their own authority to
establish.
[Footnote 76: He had been governor of Sumium, (Pot. Patricius in
Excerpt. Legat. p. 30.) This province seems to be mentioned by
Moses of Chorene, (Geograph. p. 360,) and lay to the east of
Mount Ararat.

     Note: The Siounikh of the Armenian writers St. Martin i.
142. - M.]
     As soon as this difficulty was removed, a solemn peace was
concluded and ratified between the two nations. The conditions
of a treaty so glorious to the empire, and so necessary to Persia
Persian, may deserve a more peculiar attention, as the history of
Rome presents very few transactions of a similar nature; most of
her wars having either been terminated by absolute conquest, or
waged against barbarians ignorant of the use of letters. I. The
Aboras, or, as it is called by Xenophon, the Araxes, was fixed as
the boundary between the two monarchies. ^77 That river, which
rose near the Tigris, was increased, a few miles below Nisibis,
by the little stream of the Mygdonius, passed under the walls of
Singara, and fell into the Euphrates at Circesium, a frontier
town, which, by the care of Diocletian, was very strongly
fortified. ^78 Mesopotomia, the object of so many wars, was ceded
to the empire; and the Persians, by this treaty, renounced all
pretensions to that great province. II. They relinquished to the
Romans five provinces beyond the Tigris. ^79 Their situation
formed a very useful barrier, and their natural strength was soon
improved by art and military skill. Four of these, to the north
of the river, were districts of obscure fame and inconsiderable
extent; Intiline, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and Moxoene; ^! but on the
east of the Tigris, the empire acquired the large and mountainous
territory of Carduene, the ancient seat of the Carduchians, who
preserved for many ages their manly freedom in the heart of the
despotic monarchies of Asia. The ten thousand Greeks traversed
their country, after a painful march, or rather engagement, of
seven days; and it is confessed by their leader, in his
incomparable relation of the retreat, that they suffered more
from the arrows of the Carduchians, than from the power of the
Great King. ^80 Their posterity, the Curds, with very little
alteration either of name or manners, ^* acknowledged the nominal
sovereignty of the Turkish sultan. III. It is almost needless
to observe, that Tiridates, the faithful ally of Rome, was
restored to the throne of his fathers, and that the rights of the
Imperial supremacy were fully asserted and secured. The limits
of Armenia were extended as far as the fortress of Sintha in
Media, and this increase of dominion was not so much an act of
liberality as of justice. Of the provinces already mentioned
beyond the Tigris, the four first had been dismembered by the
Parthians from the crown of Armenia; ^81 and when the Romans
acquired the possession of them, they stipulated, at the expense
of the usurpers, an ample compensation, which invested their ally
with the extensive and fertile country of Atropatene. Its
principal city, in the same situation perhaps as the modern
Tauris, was frequently honored by the residence of Tiridates; and
as it sometimes bore the name of Ecbatana, he imitated, in the
buildings and fortifications, the splendid capital of the Medes.
^82 IV. The country of Iberia was barren, its inhabitants rude
and savage. But they were accustomed to the use of arms, and
they separated from the empire barbarians much fiercer and more
formidable than themselves. The narrow defiles of Mount Caucasus
were in their hands, and it was in their choice, either to admit
or to exclude the wandering tribes of Sarmatia, whenever a
rapacious spirit urged them to penetrate into the richer climes
of the South. ^83 The nomination of the kings of Iberia, which
was resigned by the Persian monarch to the emperors, contributed
to the strength and security of the Roman power in Asia. ^84 The
East enjoyed a profound tranquillity during forty years; and the
treaty between the rival monarchies was strictly observed till
the death of Tiridates; when a new generation, animated with
different views and different passions, succeeded to the
government of the world; and the grandson of Narses undertook a
long and memorable war against the princes of the house of
Constantine.

[Footnote 77: By an error of the geographer Ptolemy, the position
of Singara is removed from the Aboras to the Tigris, which may
have produced the mistake of Peter, in assigning the latter river
for the boundary, instead of the former. The line of the Roman
frontier traversed, but never followed, the course of the Tigris.

     Note: There are here several errors. Gibbon has confounded
the streams, and the towns which they pass. The Aboras, or
rather the Chaboras, the Araxes of Xenophon, has its source above
Ras-Ain or Re-Saina, (Theodosiopolis,) about twenty-seven leagues
from the Tigris; it receives the waters of the Mygdonius, or
Saocoras, about thirty-three leagues below Nisibis. at a town now
called Al Nahraim; it does not pass under the walls of Singara;
it is the Saocoras that washes the walls of that town: the latter
river has its source near Nisibis. at five leagues from the
Tigris. See D'Anv. l'Euphrate et le Tigre, 46, 49, 50, and the
map.

     To the east of the Tigris is another less considerable
river, named also the Chaboras, which D'Anville calls the
Centrites, Khabour, Nicephorius, without quoting the authorities
on which he gives those names. Gibbon did not mean to speak of
this river, which does not pass by Singara, and does not fall
into the Euphrates. See Michaelis, Supp. ad Lex. Hebraica. 3d
part, p. 664, 665. - G.]

[Footnote 78: Procopius de Edificiis, l. ii. c. 6.]

[Footnote 79: Three of the provinces, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and
Carduene, are allowed on all sides. But instead of the other
two, Peter (in Excerpt. Leg. p. 30) inserts Rehimene and Sophene.

I have preferred Ammianus, (l. xxv. 7,) because it might be
proved that Sophene was never in the hands of the Persians,
either before the reign of Diocletian, or after that of Jovian.
For want of correct maps, like those of M. d'Anville, almost all
the moderns, with Tillemont and Valesius at their head, have
imagined, that it was in respect to Persia, and not to Rome, that
the five provinces were situate beyond the Tigris.]

[Footnote !: See St. Martin, note on Le Beau, i. 380. He would
read, for Intiline, Ingeleme, the name of a small province of
Armenia, near the sources of the Tigris, mentioned by St.
Epiphanius, (Haeres, 60;) for the unknown name Arzacene, with
Gibbon, Arzanene. These provinces do not appear to have made an
integral part of the Roman empire; Roman garrisons replaced those
of Persia, but the sovereignty remained in the hands of the
feudatory princes of Armenia. A prince of Carduene, ally or
dependent on the empire, with the Roman name of Jovianus, occurs
in the reign of Julian. - M.]
[Footnote 80: Xenophon's Anabasis, l. iv. Their bows were three
cubits in length, their arrows two; they rolled down stones that
were each a wagon load. The Greeks found a great many villages
in that rude country.] [Footnote *: I travelled through this
country in 1810, and should judge, from what I have read and seen
of its inhabitants, that they have remained unchanged in their
appearance and character for more than twenty centuries Malcolm,
note to Hist. of Persia, vol. i. p. 82. - M.]

[Footnote 81: According to Eutropius, (vi. 9, as the text is
represented by the best Mss.,) the city of Tigranocerta was in
Arzanene. The names and situation of the other three may be
faintly traced.]

[Footnote 82: Compare Herodotus, l. i. c. 97, with Moses
Choronens. Hist Armen. l. ii. c. 84, and the map of Armenia
given by his editors.]
[Footnote 83: Hiberi, locorum potentes, Caspia via Sarmatam in
Armenios raptim effundunt. Tacit. Annal. vi. 34. See Strabon.
Geograph. l. xi. p. 764, [edit. Casaub.]

[Footnote 84: Peter Patricius (in Excerpt. Leg. p. 30) is the
only writer who mentions the Iberian article of the treaty.]

     The arduous work of rescuing the distressed empire from
tyrants and barbarians had now been completely achieved by a
succession of Illyrian peasants. As soon as Diocletian entered
into the twentieth year of his reign, he celebrated that
memorable aera, as well as the success of his arms, by the pomp
of a Roman triumph. ^85 Maximian, the equal partner of his power,
was his only companion in the glory of that day. The two Caesars
had fought and conquered, but the merit of their exploits was
ascribed, according to the rigor of ancient maxims, to the
auspicious influence of their fathers and emperors. ^86 The
triumph of Diocletian and Maximian was less magnificent, perhaps,
than those of Aurelian and Probus, but it was dignified by
several circumstances of superior fame and good fortune. Africa
and Britain, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Nile, furnished their
respective trophies; but the most distinguished ornament was of a
more singular nature, a Persian victory followed by an important
conquest. The representations of rivers, mountains, and
provinces, were carried before the Imperial car. The images of
the captive wives, the sisters, and the children of the Great
King, afforded a new and grateful spectacle to the vanity of the
people. ^87 In the eyes of posterity, this triumph is remarkable,
by a distinction of a less honorable kind. It was the last that
Rome ever beheld. Soon after this period, the emperors ceased to
vanquish, and Rome ceased to be the capital of the empire.
[Footnote 85: Euseb. in Chron. Pagi ad annum. Till the discovery
of the treatise De Mortibus Persecutorum, it was not certain that
the triumph and the Vicennalia was celebrated at the same time.]

[Footnote 86: At the time of the Vicennalia, Galerius seems to
have kept station on the Danube. See Lactant. de M. P. c. 38.]

[Footnote 87: Eutropius (ix. 27) mentions them as a part of the
triumph. As the persons had been restored to Narses, nothing
more than their images could be exhibited.]

     The spot on which Rome was founded had been consecrated by
ancient ceremonies and imaginary miracles. The presence of some
god, or the memory of some hero, seemed to animate every part of
the city, and the empire of the world had been promised to the
Capitol. ^88 The native Romans felt and confessed the power of
this agreeable illusion. It was derived from their ancestors,
had grown up with their earliest habits of life, and was
protected, in some measure, by the opinion of political utility.
The form and the seat of government were intimately blended
together, nor was it esteemed possible to transport the one
without destroying the other. ^89 But the sovereignty of the
capital was gradually annihilated in the extent of conquest; the
provinces rose to the same level, and the vanquished nations
acquired the name and privileges, without imbibing the partial
affections, of Romans. During a long period, however, the
remains of the ancient constitution, and the influence of custom,
preserved the dignity of Rome. The emperors, though perhaps of
African or Illyrian extraction, respected their adopted country,
as the seat of their power, and the centre of their extensive
dominions. The emergencies of war very frequently required their
presence on the frontiers; but Diocletian and Maximian were the
first Roman princes who fixed, in time of peace, their ordinary
residence in the provinces; and their conduct, however it might
be suggested by private motives, was justified by very specious
considerations of policy. The court of the emperor of the West
was, for the most part, established at Milan, whose situation, at
the foot of the Alps, appeared far more convenient than that of
Rome, for the important purpose of watching the motions of the
barbarians of Germany. Milan soon assumed the splendor of an
Imperial city. The houses are described as numerous and well
built; the manners of the people as polished and liberal. A
circus, a theatre, a mint, a palace, baths, which bore the name
of their founder Maximian; porticos adorned with statues, and a
double circumference of walls, contributed to the beauty of the
new capital; nor did it seem oppressed even by the proximity of
Rome. ^90 To rival the majesty of Rome was the ambition likewise
of Diocletian, who employed his leisure, and the wealth of the
East, in the embellishment of Nicomedia, a city placed on the
verge of Europe and Asia, almost at an equal distance between the
Danube and the Euphrates. By the taste of the monarch, and at
the expense of the people, Nicomedia acquired, in the space of a
few years, a degree of magnificence which might appear to have
required the labor of ages, and became inferior only to Rome,
Alexandria, and Antioch, in extent of populousness. ^91 The life
of Diocletian and Maximian was a life of action, and a
considerable portion of it was spent in camps, or in the long and
frequent marches; but whenever the public business allowed them
any relaxation, they seemed to have retired with pleasure to
their favorite residences of Nicomedia and Milan. Till
Diocletian, in the twentieth year of his reign, celebrated his
Roman triumph, it is extremely doubtful whether he ever visited
the ancient capital of the empire. Even on that memorable
occasion his stay did not exceed two months. Disgusted with the
licentious familiarity of the people, he quitted Rome with
precipitation thirteen days before it was expected that he should
have appeared in the senate, invested with the ensigns of the
consular dignity. ^92

[Footnote 88: Livy gives us a speech of Camillus on that subject,
(v. 51 - 55,) full of eloquence and sensibility, in opposition to
a design of removing the seat of government from Rome to the
neighboring city of Veii.]
[Footnote 89: Julius Caesar was reproached with the intention of
removing the empire to Ilium or Alexandria. See Sueton. in
Caesar. c. 79. According to the ingenious conjecture of Le Fevre
and Dacier, the ode of the third book of Horace was intended to
divert from the execution of a similar design.]
[Footnote 90: See Aurelius Victor, who likewise mentions the
buildings erected by Maximian at Carthage, probably during the
Moorish war. We shall insert some verses of Ausonius de Clar.
Urb. v.

     Et Mediolani miraeomnia: copia rerum;
     Innumerae cultaeque domus; facunda virorum
     Ingenia, et mores laeti: tum duplice muro
     Amplificata loci species; populique voluptas
     Circus; et inclusi moles cuneata Theatri;
     Templa, Palatinaeque arces, opulensque Moneta,
     Et regio Herculei celebris sub honore lavacri.
     Cunctaque marmoreis ornata Peristyla signis;
     Moeniaque in valli formam circumdata labro,
     Omnia quae magnis operum velut aemula formis
     Excellunt: nec juncta premit vicinia Romae.]

[Footnote 91: Lactant. de M. P. c. 17. Libanius, Orat. viii. p.
203.]
[Footnote 92: Lactant. de M. P. c. 17. On a similar occasion,
Ammianus mentions the dicacitas plebis, as not very agreeable to
an Imperial ear. (See l. xvi. c. 10.)]

     The dislike expressed by Diocletian towards Rome and Roman
freedom, was not the effect of momentary caprice, but the result
of the most artful policy. That crafty prince had framed a new
system of Imperial government, which was afterwards completed by
the family of Constantine; and as the image of the old
constitution was religiously preserved in the senate, he resolved
to deprive that order of its small remains of power and
consideration. We may recollect, about eight years before the
elevation, of Diocletian the transient greatness, and the
ambitious hopes, of the Roman senate. As long as that enthusiasm
prevailed, many of the nobles imprudently displayed their zeal in
the cause of freedom; and after the successes of Probus had
withdrawn their countenance from the republican party, the
senators were unable to disguise their impotent resentment. As
the sovereign of Italy, Maximian was intrusted with the care of
extinguishing this troublesome, rather than dangerous spirit, and
the task was perfectly suited to his cruel temper. The most
illustrious members of the senate, whom Diocletian always
affected to esteem, were involved, by his colleague, in the
accusation of imaginary plots; and the possession of an elegant
villa, or a well-cultivated estate, was interpreted as a
convincing evidence of guilt. ^93 The camp of the Praetorians,
which had so long oppressed, began to protect, the majesty of
Rome; and as those haughty troops were conscious of the decline
of their power, they were naturally disposed to unite their
strength with the authority of the senate. By the prudent
measures of Diocletian, the numbers of the Praetorians were
insensibly reduced, their privileges abolished, ^94 and their
place supplied by two faithful legions of Illyricum, who, under
the new titles of Jovians and Herculians, were appointed to
perform the service of the Imperial guards. ^95 But the most
fatal though secret wound, which the senate received from the
hands of Diocletian and Maximian, was inflicted by the inevitable
operation of their absence. As long as the emperors resided at
Rome, that assembly might be oppressed, but it could scarcely be
neglected. The successors of Augustus exercised the power of
dictating whatever laws their wisdom or caprice might suggest;
but those laws were ratified by the sanction of the senate. The
model of ancient freedom was preserved in its deliberations and
decrees; and wise princes, who respected the prejudices of the
Roman people, were in some measure obliged to assume the language
and behavior suitable to the general and first magistrate of the
republic. In the armies and in the provinces, they displayed the
dignity of monarchs; and when they fixed their residence at a
distance from the capital, they forever laid aside the
dissimulation which Augustus had recommended to his successors.
In the exercise of the legislative as well as the executive
power, the sovereign advised with his ministers, instead of
consulting the great council of the nation. The name of the
senate was mentioned with honor till the last period of the
empire; the vanity of its members was still flattered with
honorary distinctions; ^96 but the assembly which had so long
been the source, and so long the instrument of power, was
respectfully suffered to sink into oblivion. The senate of Rome,
losing all connection with the Imperial court and the actual
constitution, was left a venerable but useless monument of
antiquity on the Capitoline hill.

[Footnote 93: Lactantius accuses Maximian of destroying fictis
criminationibus lumina senatus, (De M. P. c. 8.) Aurelius Victor
speaks very doubtfully of the faith of Diocletian towards his
friends.]
[Footnote 94: Truncatae vires urbis, imminuto praetoriarum
cohortium atque in armis vulgi numero. Aurelius Victor.
Lactantius attributes to Galerius the prosecution of the same
plan, (c. 26.)]

[Footnote 95: They were old corps stationed in Illyricum; and
according to the ancient establishment, they each consisted of
six thousand men. They had acquired much reputation by the use
of the plumbatoe, or darts loaded with lead. Each soldier
carried five of these, which he darted from a considerable
distance, with great strength and dexterity. See Vegetius, i.
17.]

[Footnote 96: See the Theodosian Code, l. vi. tit. ii. with
Godefroy's commentary.]

Chapter XIII: Reign Of Diocletian And This Three Associates.

Part IV.

     When the Roman princes had lost sight of the senate and of
their ancient capital, they easily forgot the origin and nature
of their legal power. The civil offices of consul, of proconsul,
of censor, and of tribune, by the union of which it had been
formed, betrayed to the people its republican extraction. Those
modest titles were laid aside; ^97 and if they still
distinguished their high station by the appellation of Emperor,
or Imperator, that word was understood in a new and more
dignified sense, and no longer denoted the general of the Roman
armies, but the sovereign of the Roman world. The name of
Emperor, which was at first of a military nature, was associated
with another of a more servile kind. The epithet of Dominus, or
Lord, in its primitive signification, was expressive, not of the
authority of a prince over his subjects, or of a commander over
his soldiers, but of the despotic power of a master over his
domestic slaves. ^98 Viewing it in that odious light, it had been
rejected with abhorrence by the first Caesars. Their resistance
insensibly became more feeble, and the name less odious; till at
length the style of our Lord and Emperor was not only bestowed by
flattery, but was regularly admitted into the laws and public
monuments. Such lofty epithets were sufficient to elate and
satisfy the most excessive vanity; and if the successors of
Diocletian still declined the title of King, it seems to have
been the effect not so much of their moderation as of their
delicacy. Wherever the Latin tongue was in use, (and it was the
language of government throughout the empire,) the Imperial
title, as it was peculiar to themselves, conveyed a more
respectable idea than the name of king, which they must have
shared with a hundred barbarian chieftains; or which, at the
best, they could derive only from Romulus, or from Tarquin. But
the sentiments of the East were very different from those of the
West. From the earliest period of history, the sovereigns of
Asia had been celebrated in the Greek language by the title of
Basileus, or King; and since it was considered as the first
distinction among men, it was soon employed by the servile
provincials of the East, in their humble addresses to the Roman
throne. ^99 Even the attributes, or at least the titles, of the
Divinity, were usurped by Diocletian and Maximian, who
transmitted them to a succession of Christian emperors. ^100 Such
extravagant compliments, however, soon lose their impiety by
losing their meaning; and when the ear is once accustomed to the
sound, they are heard with indifference, as vague though
excessive professions of respect.

[Footnote 97: See the 12th dissertation in Spanheim's excellent
work de Usu Numismatum. From medals, inscriptions, and
historians, he examines every title separately, and traces it
from Augustus to the moment of its disappearing.]

[Footnote 98: Pliny (in Panegyr. c. 3, 55, &c.) speaks of Dominus
with execration, as synonymous to Tyrant, and opposite to Prince.

And the same Pliny regularly gives that title (in the tenth book
of the epistles) to his friend rather than master, the virtuous
Trajan. This strange contradiction puzzles the commentators, who
think, and the translators, who can write.]
[Footnote 99: Synesius de Regno, edit. Petav. p. 15. I am
indebted for this quotation to the Abbe de la Bleterie.]

[Footnote 100: Soe Vandale de Consecratione, p. 354, &c. It was
customary for the emperors to mention (in the preamble of laws)
their numen, sacreo majesty, divine oracles, &c. According to
Tillemont, Gregory Nazianzen complains most bitterly of the
profanation, especially when it was practised by an Arian
emperor.

     Note: In the time of the republic, says Hegewisch, when the
consuls, the praetors, and the other magistrates appeared in
public, to perform the functions of their office, their dignity
was announced both by the symbols which use had consecrated, and
the brilliant cortege by which they were accompanied. But this
dignity belonged to the office, not to the individual; this pomp
belonged to the magistrate, not to the man. * * The consul,
followed, in the comitia, by all the senate, the praetors, the
quaestors, the aediles, the lictors, the apparitors, and the
heralds, on reentering his house, was served only by freedmen and
by his slaves. The first emperors went no further. Tiberius
had, for his personal attendance, only a moderate number of
slaves, and a few freedmen. (Tacit. Ann. iv. 7.) But in
proportion as the republican forms disappeared, one after
another, the inclination of the emperors to environ themselves
with personal pomp, displayed itself more and more. * * The
magnificence and the ceremonial of the East were entirely
introduced by Diocletian, and were consecrated by Constantine to
the Imperial use. Thenceforth the palace, the court, the table,
all the personal attendance, distinguished the emperor from his
subjects, still more than his superior dignity. The organization
which Diocletian gave to his new court, attached less honor and
distinction to rank than to services performed towards the
members of the Imperial family. Hegewisch, Essai, Hist. sur les
Finances Romains.

     Few historians have characterized, in a more philosophic
manner, the influence of a new institution. - G.

     It is singular that the son of a slave reduced the haughty
aristocracy of Home to the offices of servitude. - M.]

     From the time of Augustus to that of Diocletian, the Roman
princes, conversing in a familiar manner among their
fellow-citizens, were saluted only with the same respect that was
usually paid to senators and magistrates. Their principal
distinction was the Imperial or military robe of purple; whilst
the senatorial garment was marked by a broad, and the equestrian
by a narrow, band or stripe of the same honorable color. The
pride, or rather the policy, of Diocletian, engaged that artful
prince to introduce the stately magnificence of the court of
Persia. ^101 He ventured to assume the diadem, an ornament
detested by the Romans as the odious ensign of royalty, and the
use of which had been considered as the most desperate act of the
madness of Caligula. It was no more than a broad white fillet
set with pearls, which encircled the emperor's head. The
sumptuous robes of Diocletian and his successors were of silk and
gold; and it is remarked with indignation, that even their shoes
were studded with the most precious gems. The access to their
sacred person was every day rendered more difficult by the
institution of new forms and ceremonies. The avenues of the
palace were strictly guarded by the various schools, as they
began to be called, of domestic officers. The interior apartments
were intrusted to the jealous vigilance of the eunuchs, the
increase of whose numbers and influence was the most infallible
symptom of the progress of despotism. When a subject was at
length admitted to the Imperial presence, he was obliged,
whatever might be his rank, to fall prostrate on the ground, and
to adore, according to the eastern fashion, the divinity of his
lord and master. ^102 Diocletian was a man of sense, who, in the
course of private as well as public life, had formed a just
estimate both of himself and of mankind: nor is it easy to
conceive, that in substituting the manners of Persia to those of
Rome, he was seriously actuated by so mean a principle as that of
vanity. He flattered himself, that an ostentation of splendor
and luxury would subdue the imagination of the multitude; that
the monarch would be less exposed to the rude license of the
people and the soldiers, as his person was secluded from the
public view; and that habits of submission would insensibly be
productive of sentiments of veneration. Like the modesty
affected by Augustus, the state maintained by Diocletian was a
theatrical representation; but it must be confessed, that of the
two comedies, the former was of a much more liberal and manly
character than the latter. It was the aim of the one to
disguise, and the object of the other to display, the unbounded
power which the emperors possessed over the Roman world.

[Footnote 101: See Spanheim de Usu Numismat. Dissert. xii.]
[Footnote 102: Aurelius Victor. Eutropius, ix. 26. It appears
by the Panegyrists, that the Romans were soon reconciled to the
name and ceremony of adoration.]

     Ostentation was the first principle of the new system
instituted by Diocletian. The second was division. He divided
the empire, the provinces, and every branch of the civil as well
as military administration. He multiplied the wheels of the
machine of government, and rendered its operations less rapid,
but more secure. Whatever advantages and whatever defects might
attend these innovations, they must be ascribed in a very great
degree to the first inventor; but as the new frame of policy was
gradually improved and completed by succeeding princes, it will
be more satisfactory to delay the consideration of it till the
season of its full maturity and perfection. ^103 Reserving,
therefore, for the reign of Constantine a more exact picture of
the new empire, we shall content ourselves with describing the
principal and decisive outline, as it was traced by the hand of
Diocletian. He had associated three colleagues in the exercise
of the supreme power; and as he was convinced that the abilities
of a single man were inadequate to the public defence, he
considered the joint administration of four princes not as a
temporary expedient, but as a fundamental law of the
constitution. It was his intention, that the two elder princes
should be distinguished by the use of the diadem, and the title
of Augusti; that, as affection or esteem might direct their
choice, they should regularly call to their assistance two
subordinate colleagues; and that the Coesars, rising in their
turn to the first rank, should supply an uninterrupted succession
of emperors. The empire was divided into four parts. The East
and Italy were the most honorable, the Danube and the Rhine the
most laborious stations. The former claimed the presence of the
Augusti, the latter were intrusted to the administration of the
Coesars. The strength of the legions was in the hands of the
four partners of sovereignty, and the despair of successively
vanquishing four formidable rivals might intimidate the ambition
of an aspiring general. In their civil government, the emperors
were supposed to exercise the undivided power of the monarch, and
their edicts, inscribed with their joint names, were received in
all the provinces, as promulgated by their mutual councils and
authority. Notwithstanding these precautions, the political
union of the Roman world was gradually dissolved, and a principle
of division was introduced, which, in the course of a few years,
occasioned the perpetual separation of the Eastern and Western
Empires.
[Footnote 103: The innovations introduced by Diocletian are
chiefly deduced, 1st, from some very strong passages in
Lactantius; and, 2dly, from the new and various offices which, in
the Theodosian code, appear already established in the beginning
of the reign of Constantine.]

     The system of Diocletian was accompanied with another very
material disadvantage, which cannot even at present be totally
overlooked; a more expensive establishment, and consequently an
increase of taxes, and the oppression of the people. Instead of
a modest family of slaves and freedmen, such as had contented the
simple greatness of Augustus and Trajan, three or four
magnificent courts were established in the various parts of the
empire, and as many Roman kings contended with each other and
with the Persian monarch for the vain superiority of pomp and
luxury. The number of ministers, of magistrates, of officers,
and of servants, who filled the different departments of the
state, was multiplied beyond the example of former times; and (if
we may borrow the warm expression of a contemporary) "when the
proportion of those who received, exceeded the proportion of
those who contributed, the provinces were oppressed by the weight
of tributes." ^104 From this period to the extinction of the
empire, it would be easy to deduce an uninterrupted series of
clamors and complaints. According to his religion and situation,
each writer chooses either Diocletian, or Constantine, or Valens,
or Theodosius, for the object of his invectives; but they
unanimously agree in representing the burden of the public
impositions, and particularly the land tax and capitation, as the
intolerable and increasing grievance of their own times. From
such a concurrence, an impartial historian, who is obliged to
extract truth from satire, as well as from panegyric, will be
inclined to divide the blame among the princes whom they accuse,
and to ascribe their exactions much less to their personal vices,
than to the uniform system of their administration. ^* The
emperor Diocletian was indeed the author of that system; but
during his reign, the growing evil was confined within the bounds
of modesty and discretion, and he deserves the reproach of
establishing pernicious precedents, rather than of exercising
actual oppression. ^105 It may be added, that his revenues were
managed with prudent economy; and that after all the current
expenses were discharged, there still remained in the Imperial
treasury an ample provision either for judicious liberality or
for any emergency of the state.
[Footnote 104: Lactant. de M. P. c. 7.]

[Footnote *: The most curious document which has come to light
since the publication of Gibbon's History, is the edict of
Diocletian, published from an inscription found at Eskihissar,
(Stratoniccia,) by Col. Leake. This inscription was first copied
by Sherard, afterwards much more completely by Mr. Bankes. It is
confirmed and illustrated by a more imperfect copy of the same
edict, found in the Levant by a gentleman of Aix, and brought to
this country by M. Vescovali. This edict was issued in the name
of the four Caesars, Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, and
Galerius. It fixed a maximum of prices throughout the empire,
for all the necessaries and commodities of life. The preamble
insists, with great vehemence on the extortion and inhumanity of
the venders and merchants. Quis enim adeo obtunisi (obtusi)
pectores (is) et a sensu inhumanitatis extorris est qui ignorare
potest immo non senserit in venalibus rebus quaevel in
mercimoniis aguntur vel diurna urbium conversatione tractantur,
in tantum se licen liam defusisse, ut effraenata libido rapien -
rum copia nec annorum ubertatibus mitigaretur. The edict, as Col.
Leake clearly shows, was issued A. C. 303. Among the articles of
which the maximum value is assessed, are oil, salt, honey,
butchers' meat, poultry, game, fish, vegetables, fruit the wages
of laborers and artisans, schoolmasters and skins, boots and
shoes, harness, timber, corn, wine, and beer, (zythus.) The
depreciation in the value of money, or the rise in the price of
commodities, had been so great during the past century, that
butchers' meat, which, in the second century of the empire, was
in Rome about two denaril the pound, was now fixed at a maximum
of eight. Col. Leake supposes the average price could not be
less than four: at the same time the maximum of the wages of the
agricultural laborers was twenty-five. The whole edict is,
perhaps, the most gigantic effort of a blind though
well-intentioned despotism, to control that which is, and ought
to be, beyond the regulation of the government. See an Edict of
Diocletian, by Col. Leake, London, 1826.
     Col. Leake has not observed that this Edict is expressly
named in the treatise de Mort. Persecut. ch. vii. Idem cum
variis iniquitatibus immensam faceret caritatem, legem pretiis
rerum venalium statuere conatus. - M]
[Footnote 105: Indicta lex nova quae sane illorum temporum
modestia tolerabilis, in perniciem processit. Aurel. Victor.,
who has treated the character of Diocletian with good sense,
though in bad Latin.]
     It was in the twenty first year of his reign that Diocletian
executed his memorable resolution of abdicating the empire; an
action more naturally to have been expected from the elder or the
younger Antoninus, than from a prince who had never practised the
lessons of philosophy either in the attainment or in the use of
supreme power. Diocletian acquired the glory of giving to the
world the first example of a resignation, ^106 which has not been
very frequently imitated by succeeding monarchs. The parallel of
Charles the Fifth, however, will naturally offer itself to our
mind, not only since the eloquence of a modern historian has
rendered that name so familiar to an English reader, but from the
very striking resemblance between the characters of the two
emperors, whose political abilities were superior to their
military genius, and whose specious virtues were much less the
effect of nature than of art. The abdication of Charles appears
to have been hastened by the vicissitude of fortune; and the
disappointment of his favorite schemes urged him to relinquish a
power which he found inadequate to his ambition. But the reign
of Diocletian had flowed with a tide of uninterrupted success;
nor was it till after he had vanquished all his enemies, and
accomplished all his designs, that he seems to have entertained
any serious thoughts of resigning the empire. Neither Charles
nor Diocletian were arrived at a very advanced period of life;
since the one was only fifty- five, and the other was no more
than fifty-nine years of age; but the active life of those
princes, their wars and journeys, the cares of royalty, and their
application to business, had already impaired their constitution,
and brought on the infirmities of a premature old age. ^107

[Footnote 106: Solus omnium post conditum Romanum Imperium, qui
extanto fastigio sponte ad privatae vitae statum civilitatemque
remearet, Eutrop. ix. 28.]

[Footnote 107: The particulars of the journey and illness are
taken from Laclantius, c. 17,) who may sometimes be admitted as
an evidence of public facts, though very seldom of private
anecdotes.]

     Notwithstanding the severity of a very cold and rainy
winter, Diocletian left Italy soon after the ceremony of his
triumph, and began his progress towards the East round the
circuit of the Illyrian provinces. From the inclemency of the
weather, and the fatigue of the journey, he soon contracted a
slow illness; and though he made easy marches, and was generally
carried in a close litter, his disorder, before he arrived at
Nicomedia, about the end of the summer, was become very serious
and alarming. During the whole winter he was confined to his
palace: his danger inspired a general and unaffected concern; but
the people could only judge of the various alterations of his
health, from the joy or consternation which they discovered in
the countenances and behavior of his attendants. The rumor of
his death was for some time universally believed, and it was
supposed to be concealed with a view to prevent the troubles that
might have happened during the absence of the Caesar Galerius.
At length, however, on the first of March, Diocletian once more
appeared in public, but so pale and emaciated, that he could
scarcely have been recognized by those to whom his person was the
most familiar. It was time to put an end to the painful
struggle, which he had sustained during more than a year, between
the care of his health and that of his dignity. The former
required indulgence and relaxation, the latter compelled him to
direct, from the bed of sickness, the administration of a great
empire. He resolved to pass the remainder of his days in
honorable repose, to place his glory beyond the reach of fortune,
and to relinquish the theatre of the world to his younger and
more active associates. ^108
[Footnote 108: Aurelius Victor ascribes the abdication, which had
been so variously accounted for, to two causes: 1st, Diocletian's
contempt of ambition; and 2dly, His apprehension of impending
troubles. One of the panegyrists (vi. 9) ment