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THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OP  THE 

ROMAN  EMPIRE 

VOL.  I. 


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THE    HISTORY 

OF    THE 

DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  THE 
ROMAN  EMPIRE 

BY 

EDWARD    GIBBON 

EDITED    IN    SEVEN    VOLUMES 

WITH    INTRODUCTION,    NOTES,    APPENDICES,    AND    INDEX 

BY 

J.    B.    BURY,    M.A. 

HON.    LITT.D.    OF  DURHAM 

FKLLOW    AND    TUTOR    OF    TRINITY    COLLEGE,    DUBLIN' 

PR07K88OR    OF    MODERN    HISTORY    IX    DU11LIN    UNIVERSITY 


VOL.    I. 


METHUEN     &     CO. 

36  ESSEX  STREET,  W.C. 

LONDON 

1897 

Nexv  Edition 


PREFACE  OF  THE  AUTHOR 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  detain  the  reader  by  expatiating 
on  the  variety,  or  the  importance  of  the  subject,  which  I 
have  undertaken  to  treat;  since  the  merit  of  the  choice 
would  serve  to  render  the  weakness  of  the  execution  still  more 
apparent,  and  still  less  excusable.  But,  as  I  have  presumed 
to  lay  before  the  Public  a.  first  volume  only  x  of  the  History 
of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  it  will  perhaps 
be  expected  that  I  should  explain,  in  a  few  words,  the  nature 
and  limits  of  my  general  plan. 

The  memorable  series  of  revolutions,  which,  in  the  course 
of  about  thirteen  centuries,  gradually  undermined,  and  at 
length  destroyed,  the  solid  fabric  of  human  greatness,  may, 
with  some  propriety,  be  divided  into  the  three  following 
periods : 

I.  The  first  of  these  periods  may  be  traced  from  the  age 
of  Trajan  and  the  Antonines,  when  the  Roman  monarchy, 
having  attained  its  full  strength  and  maturity,  began  to 
verge  towards  its  decline ;  and  will  extend  to  the  subver- 
sion of  the  Western  Empire,  by  the  barbarians  of  Germany 
and  Scythia,  the  rude  ancestors  of  the  most  polished  nations 
of  modern  Europe.  This  extraordinary  revolution,  which 
subjected  Rome  to  the  power  of  a  Gothic  conqueror,  was 
completed  about  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century. 

1  The  first  volume  of  the  quarto,  which  is  now  contained  in  the  two  first 
volumes  of  the  octavo,  edition. 


vi  PREFACE 

II.  The  second  period  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  Rome, 
may  be  supposed  to  commence  with  the  reign  of  Justinian, 
who  by  his  laws,  as  well  as  by  his  victories,  restored  a 
transient  splendour  to  the  Eastern  Empire.  It  will  compre- 
hend the  invasion  of  Italy  by  the  Lombards ;  the  conquest 
of  the  Asiatic  and  African  provinces  by  the  Arabs,  who 
embraced  the  religion  of  Mahomet ;  the  revolt  of  the  Roman 
people  against  the  feeble  princes  of  Constantinople ;  and  the 
elevation  of  Charlemagne,  who,  in  the  year  800,  established 
the  second,  or  German  Empire  of  the  West. 

III.  The  last  and  longest  of  these  periods  includes  about 
six  centuries  and  a  half;  from  the  revival  of  the  Western 
Empire  till  the  taking  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks  and 
the  extinction  of  a  degenerate  race  of  princes,  who  continued 
to  assume  the  titles  of  Caesar  and  Augustus,  after  their 
dominions  were  contracted  to  the  limits  of  a  single  city ;  in 
which  the  language,  as  well  as  manners,  of  the  ancient 
Romans  had  been  long  since  forgotten.  The  writer  who 
should  undertake  to  relate  the  events  of  this  period  would 
find  himself  obliged  to  enter  into  the  general  history  of  the 
Crusades,  as  far  as  they  contributed  to  the  ruin  of  the  Greek 
Empire ;  and  he  would  scarcely  be  able  to  restrain  his  curio- 
sity from  making  some  enquiry  into  the  state  of  the  city  of 
Rome  during  the  darkness  and  confusion  of  the  middle  ages. 

As  I  have  ventured,  perhaps  too  hastily,  to  commit  to 
the  press  a  work,  which,  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  deserves 
the  epithet  of  imperfect,  I  consider  myself  as  contracting  an 
engagement  to  finish,  most  probably  in  a  second  volume,1  the 

The  Author,  as  it  requently  happens,  took  an  inadequate  measure  ot 
his  growing  work.  The  remainder  of  the  first  period  has  filled  two  volumes 
in  quarto,  being  the  third,  fourth,  fifth  and  sixth  volumes  of  the  octavo 
edition. 


PREFACE  vii 

first  of  these  memorable  periods ;  and  to  deliver  to  the 
Public  the  complete  History  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of 
Rome,  from  the  age  of  the  Antonines  to  the  subversion  of 
the  Western  Empire.  With  regard  to  the  subsequent 
periods,  though  I  may  entertain  some  hopes,  I  dare  not 
presume  to  give  any  assurances.  The  execution  of  the 
extensive  plan  which  I  have  described  would  connect  the 
ancient  and  modern  history  of  the  World ;  but  it  would 
require  many  years  of  health,  of  leisure,  and  of  perseverance. 

Bentinck  Street, 
February  i,  1776. 

P.S. — The  entire  History,  which  is  now  published,  of  the 
Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the  West  abun- 
dantly discharges  my  engagements  with  the  Public.  Per- 
haps their  favourable  opinion  may  encourage  me  to  prosecute 
a  work,  which,  however  laborious  it  may  seem,  is  the  most 
agreeable  occupation  of  my  leisure  hours. 

Bentinck  Street, 
March  1,  1781. 

An  Author  easily  persuades  himself  that  the  public 
opinion  is  still  favourable  to  his  labours;  and  I  have  now 
embraced  the  serious  resolution  of  proceeding  to  the  last 
period  of  my  original  design,  and  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
the  taking  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks,  in  the  year  one 
thousand  four  hundred  and  fifty-three.  The  most  patient 
reader,  who  computes  that  three  ponderous  volumes1  have 
been  already  employed  on  the  events  of  four  centuries,  may, 
perhaps,  be  alarmed  at  the  long  prospect  of  nine  hundred 
years.      But  it  is  not  my  intention  to  expatiate  with  the 

1  Containing  chaps,  i.  to  xxxviii.J 


viii  PREFACE 

same  minuteness  on  the  whole  series  of  the  Byzantine  history. 
At  our  entrance  into  this  period,  the  reign  of  Justinian  and 
the  conquests  of  the  Mahometans  will  deserve  and  detain 
our  attention,  and  the  last  age  of  Constantinople  (the  Cru- 
sades and  the  Turks)  is  connected  with  the  revolutions  of 
Modern  Europe.  From  the  seventh  to  the  eleventh  century, 
the  obscure  interval  will  be  supplied  by  a  concise  narrative  of 
such  facts  as  may  still  appear  either  interesting  or  important. 

Bentinck  Street, 
March  I,  1782. 


ADVERTISEMENT  TO  THE  NOTES1 

Diligence  and  accuracy  are  the  only  merits  which  an  histori- 
cal writer  may  ascribe  to  himself ;  if  any  merit  indeed  can  be 
assumed  from  the  performance  of  an  indispensable  duty.  I 
may  therefore  be  allowed  to  say  that  I  have  carefully  ex- 
amined all  the  original  materials  that  could  illustrate  the 
subject  which  I  had  undertaken  to  treat.  Should  I  ever 
complete  the  extensive  design  which  has  been  sketched  out 
in  the  preface,  I  might  perhaps  conclude  it  with  a  critical 
account  of  the  authors  consulted  during  the  progress  of  the 
whole  work ;  and,  however  such  an  attempt  might  incur  the 
censure  of  ostentation,  I  am  persuaded  that  it  would  be  sus- 
ceptible of  entertainment  as  well  as  information. 

At  present  I  shall  content  myself  with  a  single  observa- 
tion. The  Biographers,  who,  under  the  reigns  of  Diocletian 
and  Constantine,  composed  or  rather  compiled,  the  lives  of 
the  emperors,  from  Hadrian  to  the  sons  of  Carus,  are  usually 
mentioned  under  the  names  of  vElius  Spartianus,  Julius  Capi- 
tolinus,  iElius  Lampridius,  Vulcatius  Gallicanus,  Trebellius 
Pol  Ho,  and  Flavius  Vopiscus.  But  there  is  so  much  perplexity 
in  the  titles  of  the  MSS.,  and  so  many  disputes  have  arisen 
among  the  critics  (see  Fabricius  Biblioth.  Latin.  1.  iii.  c.  6) 
concerning  their  number,  their  names  and  their  respective 
property,  that  for  the  most  part  I  have  quoted  them  without 
distinction,  under  the  general  and  well-known  title  of  the 
Augustan  History. 

1  [Which  in  the  first  quarto  edition  of  vol.  i.  were  printed  at  the  end  of 
the  volume.] 


ADVERTISEMENT   TO   THE   FIRST   OCTAVO 
EDITION 

The  History  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire 
is  now  delivered  to  the  public  in  a  more  convenient  form. 
Some  alterations  and  improvements  had  presented  themselves 
to  my  mind,  but  I  was  unwilling  to  injure  or  offend  the  pur 
chasers  of  the  preceding  editions.  The  accuracy  of  the  cor- 
rector of  the  press  has  been  already  tried  and  approved ;  and 
perhaps  I  may  stand  excused  if,  amidst  the  avocations  of  a 
busy  writer,  I  have  preferred  the  pleasures  of  composition 
and  study  to  the  minute  diligence  of  revising  a  former  pub- 
lication. 

Bentinck  Street, 
April  20,  1783. 


XI 


PREFACE   TO   THE    FOURTH    VOLUME    OF   THE 
QUARTO  EDITION 

I  now  discharge  my  promise,  and  complete  my  design,  of 
writing  the  History  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  both  in  the  West  and  the  East.  The  whole  period 
extends  from  the  age  of  Trajan  and  the  Antonines  to  the 
taking  of  Constantinople  by  Mahomet  the  Second;  and 
includes  a  review  of  the  Crusades  and  the  state  of  Rome  during 
the  middle  ages.  Since  the  publication  of  the  first  volume, 
twelve  years  have  elapsed ;  twelve  years,  according  to  my 
wish,  "  of  health,  of  leisure  and  of  perseverance1'.  I  may  now 
congratulate  my  deliverance  from  a  long  and  laborious  service, 
and  my  satisfaction  will  be  pure  and  perfect,  if  the  public 
favour  should  be  extended  to  the  conclusion  of  my  work. 

It  was  my  first  intention  to  have  collected  under  one  view 
the  numerous  authors,  of  every  age  and  language,  from  whom 
I  have  derived  the  materials  of  this  history ;  and  I  am  still 
convinced  that  the  apparent  ostentation  would  be  more  than 
compensated  by  real  use.  If  I  have  renounced  this  idea,  if  I 
have  declined  an  undertaking  which  had  obtained  the  appro- 
bation of  a  master-artist,1  my  excuse  may  be  found  in  the 
extreme  difficulty  of  assigning  a  proper  measure  to  such  a 
catalogue.  A  naked  list  of  names  and  editions  would  not  be 
satisfactory  either  to  myself  or  my  readers  :  the  characters  of 
the  principal  Authors  of  the  Roman  and  Byzantine  History 
have  been  occasionally  connected  with  the  events  which  they 

1  See  Dr.  Robertson's  Preface  to  his  History  of  America. 


xii  PKEFACE 

describe ;  a  more  copious  and  critical  enquiry  might  indeed 
deserve,  but  it  would  demand,  an  elaborate  volume,  which 
might  swell  by  degrees  into  a  general  library  of  historical 
writers.  For  the  present  I  shall  content  myself  with  renewing 
my  serious  protestation,  that  I  have  always  endeavoured  to 
draw  from  the  fountain-head ;  that  my  curiosity,  as  well  as  a 
sense  of  duty,  has  always  urged  me  to  study  the  originals ; 
and  that,  if  they  have  sometimes  eluded  my  search,  I  have 
carefully  marked  the  secondary  evidence,  on  whose  faith  a 
passage  or  a  fact  were  reduced  to  depend. 

I  shall  soon  visit  the  banks  of  the  lake  of  Lausanne,  a 
country  which  I  have  known  and  loved  from  my  early  youth. 
Under  a  mild  government,  amidst  a  beauteous  landskip,  in  a 
life  of  leisure  and  independence,  and  among  a  people  of  easy 
and  elegant  manners,  I  have  enjoyed,  and  may  again  hope  to 
enjoy,  the  varied  pleasures  of  retirement  and  society.  But  I 
shall  ever  glory  in  the  name  and  character  of  an  Englishman  : 
I  am  proud  of  my  birth  in  a  free  and  enlightened  country ; 
and  the  approbation  of  that  country  is  the  best  and  most 
honourable  reward  for  my  labours.  Were  I  ambitious  of  any 
other  Patron  than  the  Public,  I  would  inscribe  this  work  to  a 
Statesman,  who,  in  a  long,  a  stormy,  and  at  length  an  unfor- 
tunate administration,  had  many  political  opponents,  almost 
without  a  personal  enemy  :  who  has  retained,  in  his  fall  from 
power,  many  faithful  and  disinterested  friends;  and  who, 
under  the  pressure  of  severe  infirmity,  enjoys  the  lively  vigour 
of  his  mind,  and  the  felicity  of  his  incomparable  temper. 
Lord  North  will  permit  me  to  express  the  feelings  of  friend- 
ship in  the  language  of  truth:  but  even  truth  and  friendship 
should  be  silent,  if  he  still  dispensed  the  favours  of  the  crown. 

In  a  remote  solitude,  vanity  may  still  whisper  in  my  ear 
that  my  readers,  perhaps,  may  enquire  whether,  in  the  con- 
clusion of  the  present  work,  I  am  now  taking  an  everlasting 
farewell.     They  shall  hear  all  that  I  know  myself,  all  that  I 


PKEFACE  xiii 

could  reveal  to  the  most  intimate  friend.  The  motives  of 
action  or  silence  are  now  equally  balanced ;  nor  can  I  pro- 
nounce, in  my  most  secret  thoughts,  on  which  side  the  scale 
will  preponderate.  I  cannot  dissemble  that  twelve  ample 
octavos  must  have  tried,  and  may  have  exhausted,  the  indul- 
gence of  the  Public;  that,  in  the  repetition  of  similar  attempts, 
a  successful  Author  has  much  more  to  lose,  than  he  can  hope 
to  gain ;  that  I  am  now  descending  into  the  vale  of  years ; 
and  that  the  most  respectable  of  my  countrymen,  the  men 
whom  I  aspire  to  imitate,  have  resigned  the  pen  of  history 
about  the  same  period  of  their  lives.  Yet  I  consider  that  the 
annals  of  ancient  and  modern  times  may  afford  many  rich  and 
interesting  subjects ;  that  I  am  still  possessed  of  health  and 
leisure;  that  by  the  practice  of  writing  some  skill  and  facility 
must  be  acquired ;  and  that  in  the  ardent  pursuit  of  truth 
and  knowledge  I  am  not  conscious  of  decay.  To  an  active 
mind,  indolence  is  more  painful  than  labour;  and  the  first 
months  of  my  liberty  will  be  occupied  and  amused  in  the  ex- 
cursions of  curiosity  and  taste.  By  such  temptations  I  have 
been  sometimes  seduced  from  the  rigid  duty  even  of  a  pleasing 
and  voluntary  task  :  but  my  time  will  now  be  my  own  ;  and 
in  the  use  or  abuse  of  independence  I  shall  no  longer  fear  my 
own  reproaches  or  those  of  my  friends.  I  am  fairly  entitled 
to  a  year  of  jubilee:  next  summer  and  the  following  winter 
will  rapidly  pass  away ;  and  experience  only  can  determine 
whether  I  shall  still  prefer  the  freedom  and  variety  of  study 
to  the  design  and  composition  of  a  regular  work,  which  ani- 
mates, while  it  confines,  the  daily  application  of  the  Author. 
Caprice  and  accident  may  influence  my  choice ;  but  the 
dexterity  of  self-love  will  contrive  to  applaud  either  active 
industry  or  philosophic  repose. 

Downing  Street, 
May  i,  1788. 

P-.S. — I  shall  embrace  this  opportunity  of  introducing  two 


XIV 


PKEFACE 


verbal  remarks,  which  have  not  conveniently  offered  themselves 
to  my  notice.  1.  As  often  as  I  use  the  definitions  of  beyond 
the  Alps,  the  Rhine,  the  Danube,  &c,  I  generally  suppose 
myself  at  Rome,  and  afterwards  at  Constantinople :  without 
observing  whether  this  relative  geography  may  agree  with  the 
local,  but  variable,  situation  of  the  reader  or  the  historian. 
2.  In  proper  names  of  foreign,  and  especially  of  Oriental, 
origin,  it  should  be  always  our  aim  to  express  in  our  English 
version  a  faithful  copy  of  the  original.  But  this  rule,  which 
is  founded  on  a  just  regard  to  uniformity  and  truth,  must 
often  be  relaxed ;  and  the  exceptions  will  be  limited  or  en- 
larged by  the  custom  of  the  language  and  the  taste  of  the 
interpreter.  Our  alphabets  may  be  often  defective :  a  harsh 
sound,  an  uncouth  spelling,  might  offend  the  ear  or  the  eye 
of  our  countrymen ;  and  some  words,  notoriously  corrupt,  are 
fixed,  and,  as  it  were,  naturalized  in  the  vulgar  tongue.  The 
prophet  Mohammed  can  no  longer  be  stripped  of  the  famous, 
though  improper  appellation  of  Mahomet:  the  well-known 
cities  of  Aleppo,  Damascus  and  Cairo,  would  almost  be  lost 
in  the  strange  descriptions  of  Haleb,  Demashk  and  A I  Cahira: 
the  titles  and  offices  of  the  Ottoman  empire  are  fashioned  by 
the  practice  of  three  hundred  years ;  and  we  are  pleased  to 
blend  the  three  Chinese  monosyllables  Con-fii-tzee  in  the 
respectable  name  of  Confucius,  or  even  to  adopt  the  Portu- 
guese corruption  of  Mandarin.  But  I  would  vary  the  use  of 
Zoroaster  and  Zerdusht,  as  I  drew  my  information  from  Greece 
or  Persia :  since  our  connexion  with  India,  the  genuine  Tim- 
our  is  restored  to  the  throne  of  Tamerlane :  our  most  correct 
writers  have  retrenched  the  Al,  the  superfluous  article,  from 
the  Koran;  and  we  escape  an  ambiguous  termination  by 
adopting  Moslem  instead  of  Musulman,  in  the  plural  number. 
In  these,  and  in  a  thousand  examples,  the  shades  of  distinc- 
tion are  often  minute;  and  I  can  feel,  where  I  cannot  explain 
the  motives  of  my  choice. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  FIRST  VOLUME 


CHAPTER   I 

The    Extent    and    Military    Force    of   the    Empire,    in    the    Age    of   the 

Antonines 

A.D.  PAQE 

Introduction     I 

Moderation  of  Augustus       ...         ...         ...         ...         i 

Imitated  by  his  Successors   ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  3 

Conquest  of  Britain,  the  First  Exception  to  it      3 

Conquest  of  Dacia,  the  Second  Exception  to  it    ...         ...         ...  5 

Conquests  of  Trajan  in  the  East      6 

Resigned  by  his  Successor  Hadrian            ...         ...         ...         ...  7 

Contrast  of  Hadrian  and  Antoninus  Pius  ...         ...  7 

Pacific  System  of  Hadrian  and  the  two  Antonines          ...         ...  8 

Defensive  Wars  of  Marcus  Antoninus        ...         ...         ...         ...  8 

Military  Establishment  of  the  Roman  Emperors  ...         ...         ...  9 

Discipline         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  10 

Exercises          ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  11 

The  Legions  under  the  Emperors   ...         ...         ...  12 

Arms     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  12 

Cavalry             ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  13 

Auxiliaries        ...         ...         ...         ...  14 

Artillery            15 

Encampment   ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  15 

March 16 

Number  and  Disposition  of  the  Legions ...  16 

Navy     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  17 

Amount  of  the  whole  Establishment          ...         ...         ...         ...  18 

View  of  the  Provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire       ....         ...         ...  18 

Spain 19 

Gaul      19 

Britain 20 

Italy      20 

The  Danube  and  Illyrian  Frontier 21 

Rhastia 22 

Noricum  and  Pannonia         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  22 

Dalmatia          22 

Maesia  and  Dacia        ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  22 

Thrace,  Macedonia,  and  Greece      ...         ...         23 

Asia  Minor       ...         ..           ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         •••  23 

Syria,  Phoenicia,  and  Palestine       «  24 


XVI 


CONTENTS 


Egypt    ...         .„         

Africa 

The  Mediterranean  with  its  Islands 
General  idea  ot  the  Roman  Empire 


PAGE 

25 
25 
26 
26 


CHAPTER   II 

Of  the  Union  and  Internal  Prosperity  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the  Age  of 
the  Antonines 


Principles  of  Government     

Universal  Spirit  ol  Toleration 

Of  the  People 

Of  Philosophers  

Of  the  Magistrates     

In  the  Provinces 

At  Rome  

Freedom  of  Rome      

Italy     

The  Provinces  

Colonies,  and  Municipal  Towns 
Division  of  the  Latin  and  the  Greek  Provinces    ... 
General  Use  of  both  the  Greek  and  Latin  Languages 
Slaves  

Their  Treatment 

Enfranchisement 

Numbers  ... 

Populousness  of  the  Roman  Empire  

Obedience  and  Union 

Roman  Monuments    ... 

Many  of  them  erected  at  Private  Expense 

Example  of  Herodes  Atticus  

His  Reputation 

Most  of  the  Roman  Monuments  for  Public  Use  ... 

Temples,  Theatres,  Aqueducts        

Number  and  Greatness  of  the  Cities  of  the  Empire 

In  Italy 

Gaul  and  Spain  

Africa 

Asia      

Roman  Roads.. 

Posts 

Navigation       

Improvement  of  Agriculture  in  the  Western  Countries 

Empire 
Introduction  of  Fruits,  &c 

The  Vine 

The  Olive  

Flax  

Artificial  Grass 

General  Plenty  

Arts  of  Luxury  


of  the 


28 
28 
28 
30 
3i 
32 
32 
33 
34 
35 
35 
37 
39 
39 
39 
40 

41 
42 

43 
43 
43 

45 
45 
46 
46 
48 


49 
49 
50 
50 
5i 

5i 
52 
52 
52 
53 
53 
53 
53 


A.D. 


CONTENTS  xvii 


Foreign  Trade  .,         ...  54, 

Gold  and  Silver 55 

General  Felicity         56 

Decline  of  Courage 56 


of  Genius 


57 


Degeneracy     ...         .„         t„  58 

CHAPTER  III 

Of  the  Constitution  of  the  Roman  Empire,  in  the  Age  of  the  Antonines 

Idea  of  a  Monarchy    ...         ...  59 

Situation  of  Augustus  ...         ...         59 

He  reforms  the  Senate  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  60 

Resigns  his  usurped  Power  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  60 

Is  prevailed  upon  to  resume  it  under  the  Title  of  Emperor  or 

General     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  61 

Power  of  the  Roman  Generals        62 

Lieutenants  of  the  Emperor...         ...         ...         63 

Division  of  the  Provinces  between  the  Emperor  and  the  Senate  63 
The  former  preserves  his  Military  Commands,  and  Guards,  in 

Rome  itself  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  64 

Consular  and  Tribunitian  powers   ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  64 

Imperial  Prerogatives  65 

The  Magistrates         66 

The  Senate      ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  67 

General  Idea  of  the  Imperial  System         68 

Court  of  the  Emperors  68 

Deification       ...  68 

Titles  of  Augustus  and  Caesar         ...         ...         70 

Character  and  Policy  of  Augustus  ...         ...  70 

Image  of  Liberty  for  the  People      ...         ...         ...         71 

Attempts  of  the  Senate  after  the  Death  of  Caligula         ...         ...  71 

Image  of  Government  for  the  Armies        ...         ...         ...         ...  72 

Their  Obedience         ...         72 

Designation  of  a  Successor 73 

OfTiberius      ...         ...         ...         73 

OfTitus  73 

The  Race  of  the  Caesars,  and  Flavian  Family     ...         74 

96  Adoption  and  Character  of  Trajan  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  74 

117  Of  Hadrian      ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         75 

Adoption  of  the  elder  and  younger  Verus 75 

138-180  Adoption  of  the  two  Antonines  ...  76 

Character  and  Reign  of  Pius  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  76 

of  Marcus        ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  77 

Happiness  of  the  Romans ...  78 

Its  precarious  Nature...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  78 

Memory  of  Tiberius,  Caligula,  Nero,  and  Domitian      ...         ...  79 

Peculiar  Misery  of  the  Romans  under  their  Tyrants       79 

Insensibility  of  the  Orientals  79 

Knowledge  and  free  Spirit  of  the  Romans  80 

Extent  of  their  Empire  left  them  no  Place  of  Refuge     ...  ..  81 

b  VOL.   I. 


xvm 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  IV 

The  Cruelty,  Follies,  and  Murder  of  Commodus — Election  of  Pertinax — 
His  attempts  to  reform  the  State — His  Assassination  by  the  Praetorian 
Guards 


Indulgence  of  Marcus  

To  his  wife  Faustina     

To  his  son  Commodus 

180  Accession  of  the  Emperor  Commodus 

Character  of  Commodus       

His  Return  to  Rome 

183  Is  wounded  by  an  Assassin  ... 

Hatred  and  cruelty  of  Commodus  towards  the  Senate 

The  Quintilian  Brothers        

186  The  Minister  Perennis  

Revolt  of  Maternus    ... 

The  Minister  Cleander  

His  Avarice  and  Cruelty 
189  Sedition  and  Death  of  Cleander 

Dissolute  Pleasures  of  Commodus  ... 

His  Ignorance  and  low  Sports 

Hunting  of  Wild  Beasts 

Commodus  Displays  his  skill  in  the  Amphitheatre 

Acts  as  a  Gladiator    ... 

His  Infamy  and  Extravagance 

Conspiracy  of  his  Domestics 

192  Death  of  Commodus  ... 
Choice  of  Pertinax  for  Emperor 
He  is  acknowledged  by  the  Praetorian  Guards 

193  And  by  the  Senate      ...         

The  Memory  of  Commodus  declared  infamous 
Legal  Jurisdiction  of  the  Senate  over  the  Emperors 
Virtues  of  Pertinax     ... 
He  endeavours  to  Reform  the  State 
His  Regulations 
His  Popularity 
Discontent  of  the  Praetorians 
A  Conspiracy  Prevented 
193  Murder  of  Pertinax  by  the  Praetorians 


83 
83 
84 
84 

85 
85 
86 
87 
87 
88 
89 
89 
90 

9i 
92 
92 
93 
93 
94 
95 
96 
96 
96 

97 

98 

98 

99 

99 

100 

100 

101 

101 

IOI 

102 


CHAPTER  V 

Public  Sale  of  the  Empire  to  Didius  Juliamis  by  the  Prcetorian  Guards 
— Clodius  Albinus  in  Britain,  Pesccnnius  Niger  in  Syria,  and 
Septimius  Severus  in  Pannonia,  declare  against  the  Murderers  of 
Pertinax — Civil  Wars  and  Victory  of  Severus  over  his  three  Rivals — 
Relaxation  of  discipline — New  Maxims  of  Government 

Proportion   of    the    Military    Force    to    the    Number    of  the 

People       103 

The  Praetorian  Guards  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  103 

Their  Institution         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  103 

Their  Camp     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  104 


CONTENTS 


xix 


L.D.  PAGE 

Strength  and  Confidence      ..        ...        ...  104 

Their  specious  Claims           105 

They  offer  the  Empire  to  Sale         105 

193  It  is  purchased  by  Julian       106 

Julian  is  acknowledged  by  the  Senate        ...         ...         ...         ...  106 

Takes  possession  of  the  Palace       ...         ...         ...  107 

The  public  Discontent          ...  107 

The  Armies  of  Britain,   Syria,  and  Pannonia,  declare  against 

Julian        ...         ...         ...         ...  108 

Clodius  Albinus  in  Britain    108 

Pescennius  Niger  in  Syria ...  109 

Pannonia  and  Dalmatia        ...  111 

193  Septimius  Severus      ...         in 

Declared  Emperor  by  the  Pannonian  Legions     in 

Marches  into  Italy      ...         112 

Advances  towards  Rome       112 

Distress  of  Julian        113 

His  uncertain  Conduct          113 

Is  deserted  by  the  Praetorians          ...         ...         ...  113 

Is  condemned  and  executed  by  Order  of  the  Senate       114 

Disgrace  of  the  Praetorian  Guards  ...         114 

Funeral  and  Apotheosis  of  Pertinax           ...         ..  115 

193_I97  Success  of  Severus  against  Niger  and  against  Albinus       ...  115 

Conduct  of  the  two  Civil  Wars       ...         ...  116 

Arts  of  Severus           ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  116 

Towards  Niger  ...         116 

Towards  Albinus           117 

Event  of  the  Civil  Wars       118 

Decided  by  one  or  two  Battles        ...  118 

Siege  of  Byzantium  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  119 

Death  of  Niger  and  Albinus 120 

Cruel  Consequences  of  the  Civil  Wars       ...  120 

Animosity  of  Severus  against  the  Senate  ...         ...         ...         ...  120 

The  Wisdom  and  Justice  of  his  Government        121 

General  Peace  and  Prosperity         ...         ...         ...  121 

Relaxation  of  Military  Discipline ...         122 

New  Establishment  of  the  Praetorian  Guards       122 

The  Office  of  Praetorian  Praefect     123 

The  Senate  oppressed  by  Military  Despotism      124 

New  Maxims  of  the  Imperial  Prerogative 124 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  Death  of  Severus — Tyranny  of  Caracalla — Usurpation  of  Macrinus 
— Follies  of  Elagabalus — Virtues  of  Alexander  Severus— Licentiousness 
of  the  Army — General  State  of  the  Roman  Finances 


Greatness  and  Discontent  of  Severus 
His  wife  the  Empress  Julia  ... 
Their  two  sons,  Caracalla  and  Geta 
Their  mutual  Aversion  to  each  other 
Three  Emperors         ...         .„         ... 


126 

126 

127 

127 

—    ...  128 


XX 


A.D. 


COSTENTb 


208  The  Caledonian  War  

Fingal  and  his  Heroes  

Contrast  of  the  Caledonians  and  the  Romans       

Ambition  of  Caracalla  

211  Death  of  Severus,  and  Accession  of  his  two  sons  

Jealousy  and  Hatred  of  the  two  Emperors  

Fruitless  Negotiation  for  dividing  the  Empire  between  them  ... 

212  Murder  of  Geta  ...         

Remorse  and  Cruelty  of  Caracalla 

Death  of  Papinian      

213  His  Tyranny  extended  over  the  whole  Empire 

Relaxation  of  Discipline        

217  Murder  of  Caracalla 

Imitation  of  Alexander  

Election  and  Character  of  Macrinus  

Discontent  of  the  Senate      ...         ...         

of  the  Army        ...         

Macrinus  attempts  a  Reformation  of  the  Army 

Death  of  the  Empress  Julia 

Education,  Pretensions,  and   Revolt  of  Elagabalus,   called    at 

first  Bassianus  and  Antoninus  ... 

218  Defeat  and  Death  of  Macrinus         

Elagabalus  writes  to  the  Senate       

2ig  Picture  of  Elagabalus 
His  Superstition 

His  profligate  and  effeminate  Luxury         

Contempt  of  Decency,  which  distinguished  the  Roman  Tyrants 
Discontents  of  the  Army       ...         

221  Alexander  Severus  declared  Caesar ... 

222  Sedition  of  the  Guards,  and  Murder  of  Elagabalus 
Accession  of  Alexander  Severus 

Power  of  his  Mother  Mamaea 
His  wise  and  moderate  Administration 
Education  and  Virtuous  Temper  of  Alexander     ... 
Journal  of  his  Ordinary  Life 
222-235  General  happiness  of  the  Roman  World 

Alexander  refuses  the  name  of  Antoninus  

He  attempts  to  reform  the  Army    ... 

Seditions  of  the  Prsetorian  Guards,  and  Murder  of  Ulpian 

Danger  of  Dion  Cassius 

Tumults  of  the  Legions 

Firmness  of  the  Emperor 

Defects  of  his  Reign  and  Character  

Digression  on  the  Finances  of  the  Empire 

Establishment  of  the  Tribute  on  Roman  Citizens  

Abolition  of  the  Tribute        

Tributes  of  the  Provinces     ... 

of  Asia 

of  Egypt,  Gaul,  Africa  and  Spain 

of  the  Isle  of  Gyar us 

Amount  of  the  Revenue        

Taxes  on  Roman  Citizens  instituted  by  Augustus 

I.  The  Customs  


CONTENTS  xxi 

A.D.  PAQE 

II.  The  Excise 162 

III.  Tax  on  Legacies  and  Inheritances           ...         ...         ...  162 

Suited  to  the  Laws  and  Manners    ...         ...         ...         163 

Regulations  of  the  Emperors            ...         ...          ..         ...         ...  164 

Edict  of  Caracalla       ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  164 

The  Freedom  of  the  City  given  to  all  Provincials,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  Taxation            ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  164 

Temporary  Reduction  of  the  Tribute         ...         ...         ...         ...  165 

Consequences  of  the  universal  Freedom  of  Rome           165 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  Elevation  and   Tyranny  of  Maximin — Rebellion  in  Africa  and  Italy, 
under  the  Authority  of  the  Senate — Civil  Wars  and  Seditions— Violent 

Deaths  of  Maximin  and  his  Son,  of  Maximus  and  Balbinus,  and  of  the 
three  Gordians — Usurpation  and  Secular  Games  of  Philip 

The  apparent  Ridicule  and  solid  Advantages  of  hereditary  Suc- 
cession     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  167 

Want  of  it  in  the  Roman  Empire   productive  of  the  greatest 

Calamities           ...         ...         ...         ...          ..  168 

Birth  and  Fortunes  of  Maximin      ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  169 

His  Military  Service  and  Honours  ...         ...         ...  169 

235  Conspiracy  of  Maximin         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  170 

Murder  of  Alexander  Severus          ...  170 

Tyranny  of  Maximin             ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  171 

Oppression  of  the  Provinces            ...         ...         ..,         ...         ...  173 

237  Revolt  in  Africa          ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  174 

Character  and  Elevation  of  the  two  Gordians      ...         ...         ...  175 

They  solicit  the  Confirmation  of  their  Authority              176 

The  Senate  ratifies  the  Election  of  the  Gordians             ...         ...  177 

Declares  Maximin  a  public  Enemy             ...         ...  178 

Assumes  the  Command  of  Rome  and  Italy           ...         ...         ...  178 

Prepares  for  a  Civil  War       ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  178 

237  Defeat  and  Death  of  the  two  Gordians      ...         ...         179 

Election  of  Maximus  and  Balbinus  by  the  Senate           180 

Their  Characters         ...         ...         180 

Tumult  at  Rome         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  181 

The  younger  Gordian  is  declared  Caesar ...  181 

Maximin  prepares  to  attack  the  Senate  and  their  Emperors      ...  182 

238  Marches  into  Italy      183 

Siege  of  Aquileia        ...         ...         ...  183 

Conduct  of  Maximus ...         ...         ...  184 

238  Murder  of  Maximin  and  his  son      ...         ...  185 

His  Portrait 185 

Joy  of  the  Roman  World      ...         186 

Sedition  at  Rome        ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  186 

Discontent  of  the  Praetorian  Guards           187 

238  Massacre  of  Maximus  and  Balbinus           ...         ...         188 

The  third  Gordian  remains  sole  Emperor  ...         ...         ...         ...  189 

Innocence  and  Virtues  of  Gordian  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  189 

240  Administration  of  Misitheus            190 


xxii  CONTENTS 

A.D.  PAOE 

242  The  Persian  War       190 

243  The  Arts  of  Philip      191 

244  Murder  of  Gordian 191 

Form  of  a  Military  Republic             192 

Reign  of  Philip           193 

248  Secular  Games            193 

Decline  of  the  Roman  Empire         193 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Of  the  State  0/  Persia  after  the  Restoration  of  the  Monarchy  by  Artaxerxes 

The  Barbarians  of  the  East  and  of  the  North       195 

Revolutions  of  Asia 195 

The  Persian  Monarchy  restored  by  Artaxerxes    ...         ...         ...  196 

Reformation  of  the  Magian  Religion          197 

Persian  Theology,  two  Principles 198 

Religious  Worship      200 

Ceremonies  and  moral  Precepts      ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  200 

Encouragement  of  Agriculture         201 

Power  of  the  Magi     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  201 

Spirit  of  Persecution  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  203 

Establishment  of  the  Royal  Authority  in  the  Provinces             ...  203 

Extent  and  Population  of  Persia     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  204 

Recapitulation  of  the  War  between  the  Parthian  and  Roman 

Empires ...         ...  205 

165  Cities  of  Seleucia  and  Ctesiphon     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  205 

216  Conquest  of  Osrhoene  by  the  Romans       ...         ...         ...         ...  207 

230  Artaxerxes  claims  the  Provinces  of  Asia,  and   declares   War 

against  the  Romans       ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  208 

233  Pretended  Victory  of  Alexander  Severus    ...         ...         ...         ...  208 

More  probable  Account  of  the  War            ...         ...         ...         ...  209 

240  Character  and  Maxims  of  Artaxerxes         ...         ...         ...         ...  211 

Military  Power  ofthe  Persians        ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  211 

Their  Infantry  contemptible             ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  211 

Their  Cavalry  excellent         212 

CHAPTER  IX 

The  State  of  Germany  till  the  Invasion  of  the  Barbarians,  in  the  Time  of 
the  Emperor  Decius 

Extent  of  Germany 213 

Climate             ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  214 

Its  Effects  on  the  Natives 215 

Origin  of  the  Germans          216 

Fables  and  Conjectures         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  217 

The  Germans  ignorant  of  Letters               218 

of  Arts  and  Agriculture            ...         ...  218 

; ofthe  Use  of  Metals       220 

Their  Indolence          ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  221 

Their  Taste  for  Strong  Liquors       222 

State  of  Population ...         ...         ...         ...  222 


CONTENTS 


xxm 


German  Freedom 

Assemblies  of  the  People 

Authority  of  the  Princes  and  Magistrates 

More  Absolute   over   the    Property,    than    over    the   Persons 

of  the  Germans 
Voluntary  Engagements 
German  Chastity 

Its  Probable  Causes  

Religion  ...         ...         ...         

Its  Effects  in  Peace 

in  War 

The  Bards        

Causes  which  checked  the  Progress  of  the  Germans 

Want  of  Arms  ...         

Discipline  ... 

Civil  Dissensions  of  Germany 
Fomented  by  the  Policy  of  Rome 
Transient  Union  against  Marcus  Antoninus 

Distinction  of  the  German  Tribes  

Numbers  


PAGE 
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225 
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230 
230 
231 
231 
232 

233 
233 
234 
235 
236 


CHAPTER  X 

The  Emperors  Decius,  Gallus,  JEmilianus,   Valerian,  and  Gallicnus- 
General  Irruption  of  the  Barbarians — The  Thirty  Tyrants 

248-268  The  Nature  of  the  Subject        

The  Emperor  Philip  ... 

249  Services,  Revolt,  Victory,  and  Reign  of  the  Emperor  Decius 

250  He  marches  against  the  Goths 
Origin  of  the  Goths  from  Scandinavia 

Religion  of  the  Goths  ...         

Institutions  and  Death  of  Odin 

Agreeable,  but  uncertain  Hypothesis  concerning  Odin  ... 

Emigration  of  the  Goths  from  Scandinavia  into  Prussia 

from  Prussia  to  the  Ukraine  ... 

The  Gothic  Nation  increases  in  its  March  

Distinction  of  the  Germans  and  Sarmatians         

Description  of  the  Ukraine  ... 

The  Goths  invade  the  Roman  Provinces 

Various  Events  of  the  Gothic  War 

Decius  revives  the  office  of  Censor  in  the  Person  of  Valerian 
The  Design  Impracticable,  and  without  Effect     ... 
Defeat  and  Death  of  Decius  and  his  Son  ... 

251  Election  of  Gallus      ...         ...         

252  Retreat  of  the  Goths  ... 
Gallus  purchases  Peace  by  the  Payment  of  an  annual  Tribute 
Popular  Discontent    ... 

253  Victory  and  Revolt  of  ^Emilianus  ... 
Gallus  abandoned  and  slain  ... 
Valerian  revenges  the  Death  of  Gallus 

Is  acknowledged  Emperor    ...         

Character  of  Valerian  ...         


250 
251 


-The 


237 
237 
238 

239 
239 
240 
240 
241 
241 
242 
243 
244 
244 
245 
246 

247 
248 

249 
250 
250 
250 
251 
251 
252 
252 
252 
253 


XXIV 


CONTENTS 


A.D. 
253 


268  General  Misfortunes  Of  the  Reigns  of  Valerian  and  Gallienus 

Inroads  of  the  Barbarians 

Origin  and  Confederacy  of  the  Franks 

They  invade  Gaul      

Ravage  Spain  

Pass  over  into  Africa... 

Origin  and  Renown  of  the  Suevi 

A  mixed  body  of  Suevi  assume  the  name  of  Alemanni  ... 

Invade  Gaul  and  Italy  

Are  repulsed  from  Rome  by  the  Senate  and  People 

The  Senators  excluded  by  Gallienus  from  the  Military  Service 

Gallienus  contracts  an  Alliance  with  the  Alemanni         

Inroads  of  the  Goths 

Conquest  of  the  Bosphorus  by  the  Goths 

The  Goths  acquire  a  Naval  Force 

First  Naval  Expedition  of  the  Goths  

The  Goths  besiege  and  take  Trebizond     ... 
The  Second  Expedition  of  the  Goths 

They  plunder  the  Cities  of  Bithynia  ...         

Retreat  of  the  Goths 

Third  Naval  Expedition  of  the  Goths        

They  pass  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Hellespont 
Ravage  Greece,  and  threaten  Italy 
Their  Divisions  and  Retreat... 
Ruin  of  the  Temple  of  Ephesus 

Conduct  of  the  Goths  at  Athens     

Conquest  of  Armenia  by  the  Persians 

Valerian  marches  into  the  East       '. 

260  Is  defeated  and  taken  prisoner  by  Sapor.  King  of  Persia 

Sapor  overruns  Syria,  Cilicia,  and  Cappadocia 

Boldness  and  Success  of  Odenathus  against  Sapor 

Treatment  of  Valerian  

Character  and  Administration  of  Gallienus  

The  Thirty  Tyrants  ... 

Their  real  Number  not  more  than  nineteen 

Character  and  Merit  of  the  Tyrants  

Their  obscure  Birth 

The  Causes  of  their  Rebellion  

Their  violent  Deaths 

Fatal  Consequences  of  these  Usurpations... 

Disorders  of  Sicily 

Tumults  of  Alexandria 

Rebellion  of  the  Isaurians 

Famine  and  Pestilence 

Diminution  of  the  Human  Species 


PAGE 

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254 
254 

255 
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256 
257 
257 
258 
258 
258 
259 
259 
260 
261 
262 
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263 
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265 
265 
265 
266 
266 
267 
268 
268 
269 
269 
270 
272 
272 
273 
274 
275 
275 
276 
276 
277 
277 

279 
279 
280 
281 
281 


CHAPTER  XI 

Reign  of  Claudius— Defeat  of  the  Goths— Victories,  Triumph  and  Death  of 

Aurelian 


?68  Aureolus  invades  Italy,  is  defeated,  and  besieged  at  Milan 
Death  of  Gallienus     „,        .,.        ...        ...        ._ 


283 
284 


CONTENTS 


XXV 


Character  and  Elevation  of  the  Emperor  Claudius 

268  Death  of  Aureolus      ...         ...         

Clemency  and  Justice  of  Claudius 

He  undertakes  the  Reformation  of  the  Army 

269  The  Goths  invade  the  Empire  ...         

Distress  and  Firmness  of  Claudius  ...         

His  Victory  over  the  Goths  ... 

270  Death   of  the   Emperor,   who    Recommends   Aurelian 

Successor... 

The  Attempt  and  Fall  of  Quintilius  

Origin  and  Services  of  Aurelian       

Aurelian's  successful  Reign  ... 

His  Severe  Discipline  

He  concludes  a  Treaty  with  the  Goths 
He  resigns  to  them  the  Province  of  Dacia 

270  The  Alemannic  War  ... 
The  Alemanni  invade  Italy  ... 
They  are  at  last  vanquished  by  Aurelian 

271  Superstitious  Ceremonies 
Fortifications  at  Rome 

271  Aurelian  suppresses  the  two  Usurpers 
Succession  of  Usurpers  in  Gaul 

271  The  Reign  and  Defeat  of  Tetricus 

272  Character  of  Zenobia 

Her  Beauty  and  Learning    ... 

Her  Valour       ...         ...         

She  revenges  her  Husband's  Death 

She  reigns  over  the  East  and  Egypt  

272  The  Expedition  of  Aurelian  ... 
The  Emperor  defeats  the  Palmyrenians  in  the  Battles  of 

and  Emesa  

The  State  of  Palmyra  

It  is  besieged  by  Aurelian     ... 

273  Aurelian  becomes  Master  of  Zenobia  and  of  the  City 

Behaviour  of  Zenobia  ...         

Rebellion  and  ruin  of  Palmyra 

Aurelian  suppresses  the  Rebellion  of  Firmus  in  Egypt 

274  Triumph  of  Aurelian  ... 

His  Treatment  of  Tetricus  and  Zenobia    ... 
His  Magnificence  and  Devotion 

He  suppresses  a  Sedition  at  Rome 

Observations  upon  it  ... 

Cruelty  of  Aurelian     ...         

275  He  marches  into  the  East,  and  is  Assassinated   ... 


for  h 


Antioch 


285 
286 
287 
287 
288 
289 
289 

290 
291 
291 
292 
292 

293 
294 
295 
297 
297 
298 
299 
300 
300 

3°i 
302 
302 
303 
303 
304 
305 

305 

306 

307 

307 
308 

309 
3°9 
310 

3ii 
312 

3i3 
313 
3H 
315 


CHAPTER  XII 

Conduct  of  the  Army  and  Senate  after  the  Death  of  Aurelian. — Reigns  of 
Tacitus,  Probus,  Cams  and  his  Sons 

Extraordinary  Contest  between  the  Army  and  the  Senate  for 

the  Choice  of  an  Emperor         317 

275  A  peaceful  Interregnum  of  Eight  Months...         ...         „.         .,,       318 


xxvi  CONTENTS 

A.P.  PA0E 

The  Consul  assembles  the  Senate 3J9 

Character  of  Tacitus 3*9 

He  is  elected  Emperor           32° 

He  accepts  the  Purple           321 

Authority  of  the  Senate        321 

Their  Joy  and  Confidence 322 

276  Tacitus  is  acknowleged  by  the  Army         323 

The  Alani  invade  Asia  and  are  repulsed  by  Tacitus        323 

276  Death  of  the  Emperor  Tacitus         324 

Usurpation  and  Death  of  his  Brother  Florianus 324 

Their  Family  Subsists  in  Obscurity            325 

Character  and  Elevation  of  the  Emperor  Probus             326 

His  Respectful  Conduct  towards  the  Senate         326 

Victories  of  Probus  over  the  Barbarians 32% 

277  He  delivers  Gaul  from  the  Invasion  of  the  Germans      329 

He  carries  his  Arms  into  Germany             33° 

He  builds  a  Wall  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Danube 331 

Introduction  and  Settlement  of  the  Barbarians 332 

Daring  Enterprise  of  the  Franks     ...         333 

279  Revolt  of  Saturninus  in  the  East     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  334 

280  of  Bonosus~and  Proculus  in  Gaul 335 

281  Triumph  of  the  Emperor  Probus 335 

His  Discipline             ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         •••         •••  33*> 

282  His  Death        33& 

Election  and  Character  of  Carus     337 

The  Sentiments  of  the  Senate  and  People            338 

Carus  defeats  the  Sarmatians  and  marches  into  the  East           ...  339 

283  He  gives  Audience  to  the  Persian  Ambassadors              339 

283  His  victories  and  extraordinary  Death       ...         ...         ...         ...  34° 

He  is  succeeded  by  his  two  Sons,  Carinus  and  Numerian         ...  341 

284  Vices  of  Carinus         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         •••         •••  341 

He  celebrates  the  Roman  Games 343 

Spectacles  of  Rome    ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         •••         •••  343 

The  Amphitheatre      ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ••■  344 

Return  of  Numerian  with  the  Army  from  Persia              34^ 

Death  of  Numerian    ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  347 

284  Election  of  the  Emperor  Diocletian            ...         ...         34$ 

285  Defeat  and  Death  of  Carinus           349 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Reign  of  Diocletian  and  his  three  Associates,  Maximian,  Galerius,  and 
Constantius — General  Re-establishment  of  Order  and  Tranquillity — The 
Persian  War,  Victory,  and  Triumph — The  New  Form  of  Administra- 
tion— Abdication  and  Retirement  of  Diocletian  and  Maximian 

285  Elevation  and  Character  of  Diocletian        ...         ...         ...         ...       350 

His  Clemency  in  Victory      ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...       351 

286  Association  and  Character  of  Maximian    ...         ...         ...         ...       352 

292  Association  of  two  Csesars,  Galerius  and  Constantius     ...         ...       353 

[293]  Departments  and  Harmony  of  the  four  Princes  354 

Series  of  Events         355 


CONTENTS  xxvii 

4.D.  PAGE 

287  State  of  the  Peasants  of  Gaul         355 

Their  Rebellion           „         356 

And  Chastisement      ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ..,  356 

287  Revolt  of  Carausius  in  Britain          ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  357 

[286]  Importance  of  Britain         ...         ...         357 

Power  of  Carausius    ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  358 

289  Acknowledged  by  the  other  Emperors        ...         ...         ...         ...  358 

294  [293]  His  Death          ...         ...         359 

296  Recovery  of  Britain  by  Constantius            359 

Defence  of  the  Frontiers       ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  360 

Fortifications  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  360 

Dissensions  of  the  Barbarians          ...         361 

Conduct  of  the  Emperors      ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  361 

Valour  of  the  Caesars             ...         ...         361 

Treatment  of  the  Barbarians           ...         ...         ...          362 

Wars  of  Africa  and  Egypt    ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  363 

296  Conduct  of  Diocletian  in  Egypt       ...         363 

[295]  He  suppresses  Books  of  Alchymy            ...         ...         365 

Novelty  and  Progress  of  that  Art    ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  365 

The  Persian  War       ...         ...         ...  366 

282  Tiridates  the  Armenian         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  366 

286  His  Restoration  to  the  Throne  of  Armenia           367 

State  of  the  Country 367 

Revolt  of  the  People  and  Nobles     367 

Story  of  Mamgo          ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  368 

The  Persians  recover  Armenia        ...         ...         368 

296  War  between  the  Persians  and  the  Romans        ...         ...         ...  369 

Defeat  of  Galerius      ...         ...         ...         369 

His  Reception  by  Diocletian            ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  370 

297  Second  Campaign  of  Galerius          ...  371 

His  Victory      371 

His  Behaviour  to  his  Royal  Captives         ...         371 

Negotiation  for  Peace            ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  372 

Speech  of  the  Persian  Ambassador            372 

Answer  of  Galerius     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  373 

Moderation  of  Diocletian      373 

Conclusion  of  a  Treaty  of  Peace      ...  373 

Articles  of  the  Treaty            ...         ...         374 

The  Aboras  fixed  as  the  Limits  between  the  Empires 374 

Cession  of  five  Provinces  beyond  the  Tigris          ...         ...         ...  375 

Armenia           375 

Iberia 376 

303  Triumph  of  Diocletian  and  Maximian        ...         ...         376 

Long  Absence  of  the  Emperors  from  Rome        ...         ...         ...  377 

Their  Residence  at  Milan      ...         ...         ...         ...         378 

at  Nicomedia          ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  378 

Debasement  of  Rome  and  of  the  Senate    ...         ...         379 

New  Bodies  of  Guards,  Jovians  and  Herculians  ...         ...         ...  379 

Civil  Magistracies  laid  aside             ...         380 

Imperial  Dignity  and  Titles             ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  381 

Diocletian  assumes  the  Diadem,  and   introduces   the  Persian 

Ceremonial           ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  382 

New  Form  of  Administration,  two  Augusti  and  two  Caesars     ...  383 


xxvm 


CONTENTS 


Increase  of  Taxes       

Abdication  of  Diocletian  and  Maximian    ... 

Resemblance  to  Charles  V 

304  Long  Illness  of  Diocletian    ... 

His  Prudence  ... 

Compliance  of  Maximian 

Retirement  of  Diocletian  at  Salona 

His  Philosophy  

313  His  Death        

Description  of  Salona  and  the  adjacent  Country 

Of  Diocletian's  Palace  

Decline  of  the  Arts 

of  Letters 

The  new  Platonists 


PAGE 

3*4 
385 
385 
386 
386 
387 
387 
388 

389 
389 
39o 
391 
391 
392 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Troubles  after  the  abdication  of  Diocletian — Death  of  Constantius — 
Elevation  of  Constantine  and  Maxentius — Six  Emperors  at  the  same 
time — Death  of  Maximian  and  Galerius — Victories  of  Constantine 
over  Maxentius  and  Licinius — Reunion  of  the  Empire  under  the 
Authority  of  Constantine 

394 
394 
395 
395 
397 
397 
399 


305-323  Period  of  Civil  Wars  and  Confusion   ... 

Character  and  Situation  of  Constantius 

Of  Galerius      

The  two  Cassars,  Severus  and  Maximin 

Ambition  of  Galerius  disappointed  by  two  Revolutions  . 
274  Birth,  Education,  and  Escapa  of  Constantine 
306  Death  of  Constantius   and  Elevation  of  Constantine 

He  is  acknowledged  by  Galerius,  who  gives  him  only  the 
Caesar,  and  that  of  Augustus  to  Severus 

The  Brothers  and  Sisters  of  Constantine 

Discontent  of  the  Romans  at  the  Apprehension  of  Taxe 

306  Maxentius  declared  Emperor  at  Rome       

Maximian  reassumes  the  Purple 

397  Defeat  and  Death  of  Severus  

Maximian  gives  his  daughter  Fausta,  and  the  Title  of  Au 

to  Constantine     ... 
Galerius  invades  Italy 
His  Retreat      

307  Elevation  of  Licinius  to  the  Rank  of  Augustus    ... 
Elevation  of  Maximin  

308  Six  Emperors 
Misfortunes  of  Maximian      

310  His  Death        

[311]  Death  of  Galerius 

His  Dominion  shared  between  Maximin  and  Licinius 
306-312  Administration  of  Constantine  in  Gaul 

Tyranny  of  Maxentius  in  Italy  and  Africa 
312  Civil  War  between  Constantine  and  Maxentius  ... 

Preparations     ... 

Constantine  passes  the  Alps  


title  of 


gustus, 


400 
400 
401 
402 
4°3 
403 

404 
405 
407 
407 
40S 
408 
408 
410 
410 
411 
412 
412 
414 
415 
4J7 


CONTENTS 


XXIX 


■  Battle  of  Turin  

Siege  and  Battle  of  Verona 
Indolence  and  Fears  of  Maxentius  ... 

312  Victory  of  Constantine  near  Rome... 
His  Reception 
His  Conduct  at  Rome 

313  His  Alliance  with  Licinius   ... 
War  between  Maximin  and  Licinius 
The  Defeat  of  Maximin 

His  Death        

Cruelty  of  Licinius 

Unfortunate  Fate  of  the  Empress  Valeria  and  her  Mother 

314  Quarrel  between  Constantine  and  Licinius 
First  Civil  War  between  them 

314  Battle  of  Cibalis  

Battle  of  Mardia         

Treaty  of  Peace  ...         

315-323  General  Peace  and  Laws  of  Constantine 

322  The  Gothic  War         

323  Second  Civil  War  between  Constantine  and  Licinius 

Battle  of  Hadrianople  ...         ...         

Siege  of  Byzantium  and  Naval  Victory  of  Crispus 
Battle  of  Chrysopolis 
Submission  and  Death  of  Licinius 

324  Reunion  of  the  Empire         


4i7 
418 
420 
421 

423 
424 

425 
425 

426 
426 
426 
427 
429 
430 
43° 
43i 
432 
432 
435 
436 
437 
438 
439 
440 
441 


INTRODUCTION 

BY  THE  EDITOR 

Gibbon  is  one  of  those  few  writers  who  hold  as  high  a  place 
in  the  history  of  literature  as  in  the  roll  of  great  historians. 
He  concerns  us  here  as  an  historian ;  our  business  is  to  con- 
sider how^far  the  view  which  he  has  presented  of  the  decline 
and  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  can  be  accepted  as  faithful  to 
the  facts,  and  in  what  respects  it  needs  correction  in  the 
light  of  discoveries  which  have  been  made  since  he  wrote. 
But  the  fact  that  his  work,  composed  more  than  a  hundred 
years  ago,  is  still  successful  with  the  general  circle  of  educated 
people,  and  has  not  gone  the  way  of  Hume  and  Robertson, 
whom  we  laud  as  "  classics  "  and  leave  on  the  cold  shelves,  is 
due  to  the  singularly  happy  union  of  the  historian  and  the 
man  of  letters.  Gibbon  thus  ranks  with  Thucydides  and 
Tacitus,  and  is  perhaps  the  clearest  example  that  brilliance  of 
style  and  accuracy  of  statement — in  Livy's  case  conspicuously 
divorced — are  perfectly  compatible  in  an  historian. 

His  position  among  men  of  letters  depends  both  on  the 
fact  that  he  was  an  exponent  of  important  ideas  and  on  his 
style.  The  appreciation  of  his  style  devolves  upon  the 
history  of  literature ;  but  it  may  be  interesting  to  illustrate 
how  much  attention  he  paid  to  it,  by  alterations  which  he 
made  in  his  text.  The  first  volume  was  published,  in  quarto 
form,  in  1776,  and  the  second  quarto  edition  of  this  volume, 
which  appeared  in  1782,  exhibits  a  considerable  number  of 


xxxil 


INTRODUCTION 


Changes  in 
the  second 


variants.  Having  carefully  collated  the  two  editions  through- 
nmvoiSn^e116  out  the  first  fourteen  chapters,  I  have  observed  that,  in  most 
cases,  the  changes  were  made  for  the  sake  not  of  correcting 
mis-statements  of  fact,  but  of  improving  the  turn  of  a  sentence, 
rearranging  the  dactyls  and  cretics,  or  securing  greater  accuracy 
of  expression.     Some  instances  may  be  interesting. 


P.  2. 


P.  10. 


P.  5*. 


P.  59- 


P.  62. 


First  edition. 

Instead  of  exposing  his 
person  and  his  legions  to 
the  arrows  of  the  Par- 
thians,  he  satisfied  himself 
ivith  the  restitution  of  the 
standards  and  prisoners 
which  were  taken  in  the 
defeat  of  Crassus. 


The  peasant  or  me- 
chanic, imbibed  the  useful 
prejudice  .  .  .  that,  al- 
though the  prowess  of  a 
private  soldier,  might  es- 
cape the  notice  of  fame, 
it  would  be  in  his  power  to 
confer  glory  or  disgrace 
on  the  company,  the 
legion,  or  even  the  army, 
to  whose  honours  he  was 
associated. 

The  olive,  in  the  western 
world,  was  the  companion  as 
well  as  the  symbol  of  peace. 


The  general  definition  of 
a  monarchy  seems  to  be 
that  of  a  state,  &c. 

On  the  most  important 
occasions,  peace  and  war 
were  seriously  debated  in 
the  senate. 


Second  edition. 

Instead  of  exposing  his 
person  and  his  legions  to 
the  arrows  of  the  Parthians 
he  obtained,  by  an  honour- 
able treaty,  the  restitution 
of  the  standards  and 
prisoners  which  had  been 
taken  in  the  defeat  of 
Crassus. 

The  peasant,  or  me- 
chanic imbibed  the  useful 
prejudice  .  .  .  that  al- 
though the  prowess  of  a 
private  soldier  must  often 
escape  the  notice  of  fame, 
his  own  behaviour  might 
sometimes  confer  glory  or 
disgrace  on  the  company, 
the  legion,  or  even  the 
army,  to  whose  honours  he 
was  associated. 

The  olive,  in  the  western 
world,  followed  the  progress 
of  peace  of  which  it  was 
considered  as  the  symbol. 

The  obvious  definition 
of  a  monarchy  seems  to  be 
that  of  a  state,  &c. 

The  most  important  resolu- 
tions of  peace  and  war 
were  seriously  debated  in 
the  senate. 


INTRODUCTION 


XXXlll 


p.  87. 


p.  70. 


P-73- 


P.  106. 


P.  no. 


First  edition. 

The  present  greatness 
of  the  Roman  state,  the 
corruption  of  manners, 
and  the  licence  of  the 
soldiers,  added  new  weight 
to  the  advocates  of 
monarchy. 

However  the  latter  [i.e. 
the  name  Caesar],  was 
diffused  by  adoption  and 
female  alliance,  Nero  was 
the  last  prince  who  could 
claim  so  noble  an  extraction. 


Which  . . .  had  just  finish- 
ed the  conquest  of  Judaea. 


To  ascend  a  throne 
streaming  with  the  blood 
of  so  near  a  relation. 

Severus,  who  had  suf- 
ficient greatness  of  mind 
to  adopt  several  useful 
institutions  from  a  van- 
quished enemy. 


Second  edition. 

The  present  greatness 
of  the  Roman  state,  the 
corruption  of  manners, 
and  the  licence  of  the 
soldiers  supplied  new  argu- 
ments to  the  advocates  of 
monarchy. 

However  the  latter  was 
diffused  by  adoption  and 
female  alliance,  Nero  was 
the  last  prince  who  could 
allege  any  hereditary  claim 
to  the  honours  of  the  Julian 
line. 

Which  .  .  .  had  recently 
achieved  the  conquest  of 
Judaea. 

To  ascend  a  throne 
polluted  with  the  recent 
blood  of  so  near  a  relation. 

Severus,  who  afterwards 
displayed  the  greatness  of  his 
mind  by  adopting  several 
useful  institutions  from  a 
vanquished  enemy. 


These  are  a  few  specimens  of  the  numerous  cases  in  which 
alterations  have  been  made  for  the  purpose  of  improving 
the  language.  Sometimes,  in  the  new  edition,  statements 
are  couched  in  a  less  positive  form.     For  example : — 


P  9. 


77- 


The  legions  themselves 
consisted  of  Roman  citizens. 


And  he  even  conde- 
scended to  give  lessons  of 
philosophy  in  a  more 
public  manner  than  suited 
the  modesty  of  a  sage  or 
the  dignity  of  an  emperor. 


The  legions  themselves 
were  supposed  to  consist  of 
Roman  citizens. 

And  he  even  conde- 
scended to  give  lessons  of 
philosophy  in  a  more 
public  manner  than  was 
perhaps  consistent  with  the 
modesty  of  a  sage  or  the 
dignity  of  an  emperor. 
VOL.  I. 


XXXIV 


INTRODUCTION 


There  are  also  cases,  where  something  is  added  which, 
without  changing  the  general  sense,  renders  a  statement  fuller, 
more  picturesque,  or  more  vivid.     Thus  : — 


P.  24. 


P.  48. 


P.  57- 


Second  edition. 

A  sandy  desert,  alike 
destitute  of  wood  and  water, 
skirts  along  the  doubtful 
confine  of  Syria,  from  the 
Euphrates  to  the  Red  Sea. 

The  spirit  of  improve- 
ment had  passed  the  Alps 
and  been  felt  even  in  the 
woods  of  Britain,  which 
were  gradually  cleared  away 
to  open  a  free  space  for 
convenient  and  elegant  habita- 
tions. 

The  sciences  of  physic 
and  astronomy  were  suc- 
cessfully cultivated  by  the 
Greeks;  the  observations  of 
Ptolemy  and  the  writings  of 
Galen  are  studied  by  those 
who  have  improved  their 
discoveries  and  corrected 
their  errors;  but  if  we 
except  the  inimitable 
Lucian,  this  age  of  indo- 
lence passed  away  without 
having  produced  a  single 
writer  of  original  genius, 
or  who  excelled  in  the  arts  of 
elegant  composition. 

|aKn^:     Jt   may   be   noticed    in   this   connexion   that   at   a   later 
fr-Tchapter    period    Gibbon   set  to  work   to   revise  the  second  edition, 

of  his  work       ,  -i.  i  />        i 

but  did  not  get  further  than  p.  32  of  the  first  volume.1 
His  own  copy  with  autograph  marginal  notes  was  exhibited 
last  year,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Gibbon  Centenary,  by  the 


First  edition. 

A  sandy  desert  skirted 
along  the  doubtful  confine 
of  Syria,  from  the  Eu- 
phrates to  the  Red  Sea. 


The  spirit  of  improve- 
ment had  passed  the  Alps 
and  been  felt  even  in  the 
woods  of  Britain. 


The  sciences  of  physic 
and  astronomy  were  culti- 
vated with  some  degree  of 
reputation  ;  but  if  we  ex- 
cept the  inimitable  Lucian, 
an  age  of  indolence  passed 
away  without  producing  a 
single  writer  of  genius, 
who  deserved  the  attention 
of  posterity. 


1  It  is  stated  that  there  are  also  unimportant  annotations  in  vols.  iv. 
and  vi, 


INTRODUCTION  xxxv 

Royal  Historical  Society,  and  is  to  be  seen  in  the  British 
Museum.     The  corrections  and  annotations  are  as  follows  : — 

"  To  describe  the  prosperous  condition  of  their  empire.'1"'  g^1^* 
Read  times  for  empire. 

"  And  afterwards  from  the  death  of  Marcus  Antoninus.'" 
The  following  note  is  entered  :  "  Should  I  not  have  given  the 
history  of  that  fortunate  period  which  was  interposed  between 
two  iron  ages  ?  Should  I  not  have  deduced  the  decline  of 
the  Empire  from  the  Civil  Wars  that  ensued  after  the  Fall  of 
Nero,  or  even  from  the  tyranny  which  succeeded  the  reign  of 
Augustus  ?  Alas  !  I  should  :  but  of  what  avail  is  this  tardy 
knowledge  ?  Where  error  is  irreparable,  repentance  is  use- 
less:1 

"To  deduce  the  most  important  circumstances  of  itsP2=1 
decline  and  fall :  a  revolution  which  will  ever  be  remembered, 
and  is  still  felt  by  the  nations  of  the  earth."  These  words 
are  erased  and  the  following  are  substituted  :  "  To  prosecute 
the  decline  and  fall  of  the  empire  of  Rome :  of  whose 
language,  religion  and  laws  the  impression  will  be  long  pre- 
served in  our  own  and  the  neighbouring  countries  of  Europe". 
To  which  an  observation  is  appended  :  "  N.B.  Mr.  Hume 
told  me  that,  in  correcting  his  history,  he  always  laboured 
to  reduce  superlative^,  and  soften  positives.  Have  Asia  and 
Africa,  from  Japan  to  Morocco,  any  feeling  or  memory  of  the 
Roman  Empire  ? " 

On  the  words  "  rapid  succession  of  triumphs,"  note : 
"  Excursion  I.  on  the  succession  of  'Roman  triumphs  ". 

On  "bulwarks  and  boundaries,"  note:  "  Incertum  metu?.3=:3 
an  per  invidiam  (Tacit.  Annal.  i.  11).  Why  must  rational 
advice  be  imputed  to  a  base  or  foolish  motive  ?  To  what 
cause,  error,  malevolence,  or  flattery  shall  I  ascribe  the  un- 
worthy alternative  ?  Was  the  historian  dazzled  by  Trajan's 
conquests  ?  " 

"On  the  immortality  and  transmigration  of  soul"  (compare p. e  =  5 


xxxvi  INTRODUCTION 

footnote).  Note  :  "  Julian  assigns  this  Theological  cause,  of 
whose  power  he  himself  might  be  conscious  (Cccsares,  p.  327). 
Yet  I  am  not  assured  that  the  religion  of  Zamolxis  subsisted 
in  the  time  of  Trajan  ;  or  that  his  Dacians  were  the  same 
people  with  the  Getae  of  Herodotus.  The  transmigration 
of  the  soul  has  been  believed  by  many  nations,  warlike  as  the 
Celts,  or  pusillanimous  like  the  Hindoos.  When  speculative 
opinion  is  kindled  into  practical  enthusiasm,  its  operation 
will  be  determined  by  the  praevious  character  of  the  man  or 
the  nation." 

p.  7  =  c  "On  their  destroyers  than  on  their  benefactors.''''     Note  : 

"  The  first  place  in  the  temple  of  fame  is  due  and  is  assigned 
to  the  successful  heroes  who  had  struggled  with  adversity ; 
who,  after  signalizing  their  valour  in  the  deliverance  of  their 
country,  have  displayed  their  wisdom  and  virtue  in  foundation 
or  government  of  a  flourishing  state.  Such  men  as  Moses, 
Cyrus,  Alfred,  Gustavus  Vasa,  Henry  IV.  of  France,  &c." 

"  The  thirst  of  military  glory  will  ever  be  the  vice  of  the 
most  exalted  [characters  .  .  .  but  he]  lamented  with  a  sigh 
that  his  advanced  age,  &c."  All  included  within  the  brackets 
is  erased,  and  the  following  substituted :  "  the  most  exalted 
minds.  Late  generations  and  far  distant  climates  may  im- 
pute their  calamities  to  the  immortal  author  of  the  Iliad. 
The  spirit  of  Alexander  was  inflamed  by  the  praises  of 
Achilles :  and  succeeding  Heroes  have  been  ambitious  to 
tread  in  the  footsteps  of  Alexander.  Like  him  the  Emperor 
Trajan  aspired  to  the  conquest  of  the  East;  but  the  Roman 
lamented  with  a  sigh,"  &c. 

P11__9  "A  just  preference  was  given  to  the  climates  of  the  north 
over  those  of  the  south."'''  Note  :  "  The  distinction  of  North 
and  South  is  real  and  intelligible ;  and  our  pursuit  is  termin- 
ated on  either  side  by  the  poles  of  the  Earth.  But  the 
difference  of  East  and  West  is  arbitrary  and  shifts  round  the 
globe.     As   the  men  of  the  North,  not  of  the  West,  the 


INTRODUCTION  xxxvh 

legions  of  Gaul  and  Germany  were  superior  to  the  South- 
Eastern  natives  of  Asia  and  Egypt.  It  is  the  triumph  of 
cold  over  heat ;  which  may,  however,  and  has  been  sur- 
mounted by  moral  causes.11 

"A  correspondent  number  of  tribunes  and  centurions.11  P15  =  12 
Note :  "  The  composition  of  the  Roman  officers  was  very  faulty. 
1.  It  was  late  before  a  Tribune  was  fixed  to  each  cohort. 
Six  tribunes  were  chosen  for  the  entire  legion  which  two  of 
them  commanded  by  turns  (Polyt.  1.  vi.  p.  526,  edit.  Schweig- 
haeuser),  for  the  space  of  two  months.  2.  One  long  sub- 
ordination from  the  Colonel  to  the  Corporal  was  unknown. 
I  cannot  discover  any  intermediate  ranks  between  the  Tribune 
and  the  Centurion,  the  Centurion  and  the  manipularis  or 
private  leginary  [sic] .  3.  As  the  tribunes  were  often 
without  experience,  the  centurions  were  often  without  educa- 
tion, mere  soldiers  of  fortune  who  had  risen  from  the  ranks 
(eo  immitior  quia  toleraverat,  Tacit.  Annal.  i.  20).  A  body 
equal  to  eight  or  nine  of  our  batallions  might  be  commanded 
by  half  a  dozen  young  gentlemen  and  fifty  or  sixty  old 
sergeants.  Like  the  legions,  our  great  ships  of  war  may 
seem  ill  provided  with  officers  :  but  in  both  cases  the  deficiency 
is  corrected  by  strong  principles  of  discipline  and  rigour." 

"As  in  the   instance    of  Horace  and    Agricola.11     These  p.  n,  foot- 

O  note  53  = 

words  are  erased.  Note:  "quod  mihi  pareret  legio  Romana If footaoto 
Tribuno  (Horat.  Serm.  1.  i.  vi.  45),  a  worthy  commander  of 
three  and  twenty  from  the  school  of  Athens !  Augustus 
was  indulgent  to  Roman  birth,  liberis  Senatorum  .  .  .  militiam. 
auspicantes  non  tribunatum  modo  legionum  sed  et  praefecturas 
alarum  dedit  (Sueton.  c.  38)  .11 

"  A  league  and  a  half  above  the  surface  of  the  sea.11    Note  :  p  32  foot 
"  More   correctly,    according   to   Mr.    Bouguer,   2500  toises  26°  footnote 
(Buffon,  Supplement,  torn.  v.  p.  304).     The  height  of  Mont 
Blanc  is  now  fixed  to  2416  toises  (Saussure,  Voyage  dans  les 
Alpes,  torn.  i.  p.  495) :  but  the  lowest  ground  from  whence 


xxxviii  INTRODUCTION 

it  can  be  seen  is  itself  greatly  elevated  above  the  level  of  the 
sea.  He  who  sails  by  the  isle  of  Teneriff,  contemplates  the 
entire  Pike,  from  the  foot  to  the  summit." 

jje  moral  of      But  Gibbon  has  his  place  in  literature  not  only   as  the 

the  Decline  -T  J 

and  Faii  stylist,  who  never  lays  aside  his  toga  when  he  takes  up  his 
pen,  but  as  the  expounder  of  a  large  and  striking  idea  in  a 
sphere  of  intense  interest  to  mankind,  and  as  a  powerful 
representative  of  certain  tendencies  of  his  age.  The  guid- 
ing idea  or  "  moral "  of  his  history  is  briefly  stated  in  his 
epigram  :  "  I  have  described  the  triumph  of  barbarism  and 
religion ".  In  other  words,  the  historical  development  of 
human  societies,  since  the  second  century  after  Christ,  was  a 
retrogression  (according  to  ordinary  views  of  "progress11  ), 
for  which  Christianity  was  mainly  to  blame.  This  conclusion 
of  Gibbon  tended  in  the  same  direction  as  the  theories  of 
Rousseau  ;  only,  while  Rousseau  dated  the  decline  from  the 
day  when  men  left  Arcadia,  Gibbon's  era  was  the  death  of 
Marcus  Aurelius. 

its  contri-         We  are  thus  taken  into  a  region  of  speculation  where  every 

bution  to  o     •  x  J 

sophy^f0"  traveller  must  make  his  own  chart.  But  to  attempt  to  deny  a 
general  truth  in  Gibbon's  point  of  view  is  vain  ;  and  it  is  feeble 
to  deprecate  his  sneer.  We  may  spare  more  sympathy  than 
he  for  the  warriors  and  the  churchmen  ;  but  all  that  has  since 
been  added  to  his  knowledge  of  facts  has  neither  reversed  nor 
blunted  the  point  of  the  "  Decline  and  Fall 11.  Optimism  of 
temperament  may  shut  the  eyes ;  faith,  wedded  to  some  "one  in- 
creasing purpose  "  which  it  shrinks  from  grasping,  may  divert 
from  the  path  of  facts.  But  for  an  inquirer  not  blinded  by 
religious  prepossessions,  or  misled  by  comfortable  sophistries, 
Gibbon  really  expounded  one  of  the  chief  data  with  which  the 
philosophy  of  history  has  to  reckon.  How  are  we  to  define 
progress  ?  how  recognize  retrogression  ?  What  is  the  end  in 
relation  to  which  such   words   have  their  meaning,  and    is 


INTRODUCTION  xxxix 

there  a  law  which  will  explain  "  the  triumph  of  barbarism 
and  religion""  as  a  necessary  moment  in  a  reasonable 
process  towards  that  end,  whatever  it  may  be?  Answers 
have  been  given  since  Gibbon's  day,  engaging  to  the  intellect, 
but  always  making  some  demand  on  the  faith — answers 
for  which  he  would  have  the  same  smile  as  for  Leo's 
Dogmatic  Epistle.  There  is  certainly  some  reason  for 
thinking  these  questions  insoluble.  We  may  say  at  least  that 
the  meaning  of  the  philosophy  of  history  is  misapprehended 
until  it  is  recognized  that  its  function  is  not  to  solve  problems 
but  to  transform  them. 

But,  though  the  moral  of  Gibbon's  work  has  not  lost  its  onion's 

.  .  .  treatmen 

meaning  yet,  it  is  otherwise  with  the  particular  treatment  of  °fa^E 
Christian  theology  and  Christian  institutions.  Our  point 
of  view  has  altered,  and,  if  Gibbon  were  writing  now,  the  tone 
of  his  "  candid  and  rational  inquiry "  would  certainly  be 
different.  His  manner  would  not  be  that  of  sometimes  open, 
sometimes  transparently  veiled,  dislike ;  he  would  rather  assume 
an  attitude  of  detachment.  He  would  be  affected  by  that 
merely  historical  point  of  view,  which  is  a  note  of  the  present 
century  and  its  larger  tolerances ;  and  more  than  half  disarmed 
by  that  wide  diffusion  of  unobtrusive  scepticism  among  educated 
people,  which  seems  to  render  offensive  warfare  superfluous. 
The  man  of  letters  admires  the  fine  edge  of  subtle  sarcasm, 
wielded  by  Gibbon  with  such  skill  and  effect  ;  while  the 
historian  is  interested  in  an  historical  standpoint  of  the  last 
century.  Neither  the  historian  nor  the  man  of  letters  will 
any  longer  subscribe,  without  a  thousand  reserves,  to  the 
theological  chapters  of  the  "Decline  and  Fall,"  and  no 
discreet  inquirer  would  go  there  for  his  ecclesiastical  history. 
Yet  we  need  not  hide  the  fact  that  Gibbon's  success  has  in  a 
large  measure  been  due  to  his  scorn  for  the  Church ;  which, 
most  emphatically  expressed  in  the  theological  chapters,  has, 
as  one  might  say,  spiced   his  book.     The  attack  of  a  man, 


xl 


INTRODUCTION 


to  be  partly 
explained  by 
his  tempera- 
ment 


.118  reason- 
aole  scepti- 
cism 


Milman's 
libel 


equipped  with  erudition,  and  of  perfectly  sober  judgment, 
on  cherished  beliefs  and  revered  institutions,  must  always 
excite  the  interest,  by  irritating  the  passions,  of  men.  Gibbon's 
classical  moderation  of  judgment,  his  temperate  mood,  was 
responsible,  as  well  as  foreign  education  and  the  influence 
of  French  thought,  for  his  attitude  to  Christianity  and  to 
Mahometanism.  He  hated  excess,  and  the  immoderation 
of  the  multitude.  He  could  suffer  the  tolerant  piety  of 
a  learned  abbe  or  "  the  fat  slumbers  of  the  Church " ;  but 
with  the  religious  faith  of  a  fanatical  populace  or  the  ardour 
of  its  demagogues  his  reason  was  unable  to  sympathize.  In  the 
spirit  of  Cicero  or  Tacitus  he  despised  the  superstitions  of  the 
vulgar,  and  regarded  the  unmeasured  enthusiasm  of  the 
early  Christians  as  many  sober  Churchmen  regard  the 
fanaticism  of  Islam.  He  dealt  out  the  same  measure  to  the 
opposite  enthusiasm  of  Julian  the  Apostate.2  His  work 
was  all  the  more  effective,  because  he  was  never  dogmatic 
himself.  His  irony  should  not  be  construed  as  insincerity, 
but  rather  as  showing  that  he  was  profoundly — one 
might  say,  constitutionally — convinced  of  the  truth  of  that 
sceptical  conclusion  which  has  been,  in  a  different  spirit, 
formulated  precisely  by  the  Bishop  of  Oxford  ;  "  there  is  no 
room  for  sweeping  denunciations  or  trenchant  criticisms  in 
the  dealings  of  a  world  whose  falsehoods  and  veracities  are 
separated  by  so  very  thin  a  barrier  ". 

Thus  Gibbon's  attitude  to  religion,  while  it  was  conditioned 
by  the  intellectual  atmosphere  of  Europe  in  that  age,  was 
also  the  expression  of  the  man.  When  Dean  Milman  spoke 
of  his  "  bold  and  disingenuous  attack  on  Christianity ,"  3  he 
made  one  of  those  futile  charges  which  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  prove  and  impossible  to  disprove ;  such  imputa- 

2  The  influence  of  Gibbon's  picture  of  Julian  can  be  discerned  in  Ibsen's 
"  Emperor  and  Galilaean  ". 

3  In  a  footnote  to  the  Autobiography. 


INTRODUCTION  xli 

tions  as  are  characteristic  of  theologians  in  the  heat  of  con- 
troversy and  may  be  condoned  to  politicians  in  the  heat  of 
electioneering,  but  in  an  historical  critic  are  merely  an  im- 
pertinence. 

It  has  sometimes  been  remarked  that  those  histories  are  most  ulterior 

purposes  and 

readable  which  are  written  to  prove  a  thesis.  The  indict-  spirit  in 
ment  of  the  Empire  by  Tacitus,  the  defence  of  Cassarianism  oratory 
by  Mommsen,  Grote's  vindication  of  democracy,  Droysen's 
advocacy  of  monarchy,  might  be  cited  as  examples.  All  these 
writers  intended  to  present  the  facts  as  they  took  place,  but 
all  wrote  with  prepossessions  and  opinions,  in  the  light  of 
which   they    interpreted    the    events    of    history.       Arnold  Arnold's 

J  L  ,  J  view 

deliberately  advocated  such  partiality  on  the  ground  that  "  the 
past  is  reflected  to  us  by  the  present  and  the  partyman  feels  the 
present  most-".  Another  Oxford  Regius  Professor  remarked 
that  "  without  some  infusion  of  spite  it  seems  as  if  history 
could  not  be  written 11.  On  the  other  side  stands  the  formula 
of  Ranke  as  to  the  true  task  of  the  historian  :  "  Ich  will  bloss  Banked  view 
sagen  wie  es  eigentlich  gewesen  ist ".  The  Greek  History  of 
Bishop  Thirlwall,  the  English  Constitutional  History  of 
Bishop  Stubbs  himself,  were  written  in  this  spirit.  But  the 
most  striking  instances  perhaps,  because  they  tread  with  such 
light  feet  on  the  treacherous  ashes  of  more  recent  history, 
are  Ranke  and  Bishop  Creighton.  Thucydides  is  the  most 
ancient  example  of  this  historical  reserve.     It  cannot  be  said  Gibbon's  Pre- 

1  m  possessions 

that  Gibbon  sat  down  to  write  with  any  ulterior  purpose,  but, 
as  we  have  seen,  he  allowed  his  temperament  to  colour  his 
history,  and  used  it  to  prove  a  congenial  thesis.  But,  while 
he  put  things  in  the  light  demanded  by  this  thesis,  he 
related  his  facts  accurately.  If  we  take  into  account  the  vast 
range  of  his  work,  his  accuracy  is  amazing.  He  laboured  and  accuracy 
under  some  disadvantages,  which  are  set  forth  in  his  own 
Memoirs.  He  had  not  enjoyed  that  school  and  university 
training   in   the  languages   and    literatures    of    Greece   and 


Gibbon's  text 


xlii  INTRODUCTION 

Rome  which  is  probably  the  best  preparation  for  historical 
imperfect      research.     His  knowledge  of  Greek  was  imperfect;   he  was 

knowledge  of  ° 

Greek  very  far  from  having  the  "  scrupulous  ear  of  the  well-flogged 

critic".  He  has  committed  errors  of  translation,  and  was 
capable  of  writing  "  Gregory  of  Nazianzen  ".  But  such  slips 
are  singularly  few.  Nor  is  he  accustomed  to  take  lightly 
quotations  at  second  hand ;  like  that  famous  passage  of 
Eligius  of  Noyon — held  up  by  Arnold  as  a  warning — which 
Robertson  and  Hallam  successively  copied  from  Mosheim, 
where  it  had  appeared  in  a  garbled  form,  to  prove  exactly  the 
opposite  of  its  true  meaning. 

«o1neinenda'  From  one  curious  inaccuracy,  which  neither  critics  nor 
editors  seem  to  have  observed,  he  must  I  think  be  acquitted. 
In  his  account  of  the  disturbances  in  Africa  and  Egypt  in  the 
reign  of  Diocletian,  we  meet  the  following  passage  (chap, 
xiii.,  p.  363) : — 

"  Julian  had  assumed  the  purple  at  Carthage.  Achilleus 
at  Alexandria,  and  even  the  Blemmyes,  renewed,  or 
rather  continued  their  incursions  into  the  Upper 
Egypt." 

Achilleus  arose  at  this  time  (295-6  a.d.)  as  a  tyrant  at 
Alexandria  ;  but  that  he  made  either  at  this  date  or  at  any 
previous  date  an  incursion  into  the  Upper  Egypt,  there  is 
not  a  trace  of  evidence  in  our  authorities.  I  am  convinced 
however  that  this  error  was  not  originally  due  to  the  author, 
but  merely  a  treacherous  misprint,  which  was  overlooked  by 
him  in  correcting  the  proof  sheets,  and  has  also  escaped 
the  notice  of  his  editors.  By  a  slight  change  in  punctua- 
tion we  obtain  a  perfectly  correct  statement  of  the  situation : — 

"  Julian  had  assumed  the  purple  at  Carthage,  Achilleus 
at  Alexandria  ;  and  even  the  Blemmyes  renewed,  or 
rather  continued,  their  incursions  into  the  Upper 
Egypt". 


to  Tillemont 


INTRODUCTION  xliii 

I  have  no  doubts  that  this  was  the  sentence  originally  meant 
and  probably  written  by  Gibbon,  and  have  felt  no  scruple 
in  extirpating  the  inveterate  error  from  the  text.4 

Gibbon's  diligent  accuracy  in  the  use  of  his  materials  Gibbon's  debt 
cannot  be  over-praised,  and  it  will  not  be  diminished  by 
giving  the  due  credit  to  his  French  predecessor  Tillemont. 
The  Histoire  des  Empereurs  and  the  Meinoires  eccUsiastiques, 
laborious  and  exhaustive  collections  of  material,  were 
addressed  to  the  special  student  and  not  to  the  general 
reader,  but  scholars  may  still  consult  them  with  profit.  It 
is  interesting  to  find  Mommsen  in  his  later  years  retracting 
one  of  his  earlier  judgments  and  reverting  to  a  conclusion  of 
Tillemont.  In  his  recent  edition 5  of  the  Laterculus  of 
Polemius  Silvius,  he  writes  thus  : — 

"ITauteur  de  la  Notice — peritissimi  Tillemontii  verba 
sunt  (hist.  5,  699) — vivoit  en  Occident  et  ne  savoit 
pas  trop  letat  ou  estoit  TOrient ;  ei  iuvenis  contra- 
ction, hodie  subscribo  ". 

It  is  one  of  Gibbon's  merits  that  he  made  full  use  of  Tille- 
mont, "whose  inimitable  accuracy  almost  assumes  the 
character  of  genius,"  as  far  as  Tillemont  guided  him,  up  to 
the  reign  of  Anastasius  I. ;  and  it  is  only  just  to  the 
mighty  work  of  the  Frenchman  to  impute  to  him  a 
large  share  in  the  accuracy  which  the  Englishman  achieved. 
From  the  historical,  though  not  from  the  literary,  point  of 

4  In  some  other  cases  I  have  corrected  the  text  in  this  volume,  (i).  p.  55, 
n.  109  ;  Sumelpur  for  Jumelpur,  see  Appendix  9.  (2).  p.  259,  1.  2  from  top ; 
the  reading  of  the  received  text  "  public  "  is  surely  a  printer's  error,  which 
escaped  detection,  for  "  republic,"  which  I  have  ventured  to  restore.  (3).  p. 
279, 1.  5  from  foot,  I  have  assumed  an  instance  of  "  lipography  ".  (4).  p.  328, 
n.  35,  "  Lycius  "  had  been  already  corrected  (see  Smith's  ed.)  to  "  Lydius  ". 
Probably  Gibbon  had  his  Zosimus  open  before  him  when  he  wrote  this  note, 
and  his  pen  traced  Lycius  because  Lycia  happened  to  occur  in  the  very  next  line 
of  his  authority.  I  have  followed  Sir  William  Smith's  precedent  in  dealing 
freely  with  the  punctuation,  and  in  modernizing  the  spelling  of  a  few  words. 

8  In  the  Chronica  Minora  (M.  G.  H.),  vol.  i.,  512  sqq.     See  p.  533. 


xliv  INTRODUCTION 

view,    Gibbon,    deserted    by    Tillemont,    distinctly    declines, 
though  he  is  well  sustained  through  the  wars  of  Justinian  by 
the  clear  narrative  of  Procopius. 
his  necessary      Recognizing  that  Gibbon  was  accurate,  we  do  not  acknow- 

limitations       ,-,,.,.. 

ledge  by  implication  that  he  was  always  right ;  for 
accuracy  is  relative  to  opportunities.  The  discovery  of 
new  materials,  the  researches  of  numerous  scholars,  in  the 
course  of  a  hundred  years,  have  not  only  added  to  our  know- 
ledge of  facts,  but  have  modified  and  upset  conclusions  which 
Gibbon  with  his  materials  was  justified  in  drawing.  Compare 
a  chapter  or  two  of  Mr.  HodgkhVs  Italy  and  her  Invaders 
with  the  corresponding  episode  in  Gibbon,  and  many  minor 
points  will  appear  in  which  correction  has  been  needful.  If 
Gibbon  were  alive  and  writing  now,  his  history  would  be  very 
different.  Affected  by  the  intellectual  experiences  of  the  past 
century  he  could  not  adopt  quite  the  same  historical  attitude ; 
and  we  should  consequently  lose  the  colouring  of  his  brilliant 
attack  on  Christianity.  Again,  he  would  have  found  it  an 
absolute  necessity  to  learn  what  he  insolently  called  that 
"  barbarous  idiom,11  the  German  language ;  and  this  might 
have  affected  his  style  as  it  would  certainly  have  affected  his 
matter.  We  dare  not  deplore  Gibbon's  limitations,  for  they 
were  the  conditions  of  his  great  achievement. 
thl  unity  oi  Not  the  least  important  aspect  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  is 
its  lesson  in  the  unity  of  history,  the  favourite  theme  of  Mr. 
Freeman.  The  title  displays  the  cardinal  fact  that  the 
Empire  founded  by  Augustus  fell  in  1461  ;  that  all  the 
changes  which  transformed  the  Europe  of  Marcus  Aurelius 
into  the  Europe  of  Erasmus  had  not  abolished  the  name 
and  memory  of  the  Empire.  And  whatever  names 
of  contempt — in  harmony  with  his  thesis — Gibbon  might 
apply  to  the  institution  in  the  period  of  its  later  decline, 
such  as  the  "Lower  Empire,11  or  "Greek  Empire,11  his  title 
rectified    any    false    impressions    that    such    language    might 


history 


INTRODUCTION  xlv 

cause.  On  the  continuity  of  the  Roman  Empire  depended 
the  unity  of  his  work.  By  the  emphasis  laid  on  this  fact  he 
did  the  same  kind  of  service  to  the  study  of  history  in  England, 
that  Mr.  Bryce  has  done  in  his  Holy  Roman  Empire  by 
tracing  the  thread  which  connects  the  Europe  of  Francis  the 
Second  with  the  Europe  of  Charles  the  Great. 

Gibbon  read  widely,  and  had  a  large  general  knowledge  of 
history,  which  supplied  him  with  many  happy  illustrations. 
It  is  worth  pointing  out  that  the  gap  in  his  knowledge  of 
ancient  history  was  the  period  of  the  Diadochi  and  Epigoni. 
If  he  had  been  familiar  with  that  period,  he  would  not  have 
said  that  Diocletian  was  the  first  to  give  to  the  world  the 
example  of  a  resignation  of  sovereignty.  He  would  have 
referred  to  the  conspicuous  case  of  Ptolemy  Soter  ;  Mr.  Free- 
man would  have  added  Lydiadas,  the  tyrant  of  Megalopolis. 
Of  the  earlier  example  of  Asarhaddon  Gibbon  could  not  have 
known. 

To    pass    from    scope   and    spirit   to    method,    Gibbon's  New  method 

.  .  .......  .   ,      .   .     °f  research 

historical  sense  kept  him  constantly  right  in  dealing  with  his 
sources,  but  he  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  treated  them 
methodically.  The  growth  of  German  erudition  is  one  of  the 
leading  features  of  the  intellectual  history  of  the  nineteenth 
century  ;  and  one  of  its  most  important  contributions  to 
historical  method  lies  in  the  investigation  of  sources.  German 
scholars  have   indeed  pressed   this  "  Quellenkunde "  further » Queiien. 

.  .  .    kritik " 

than  it  can  safely  be  pressed.  A  philologist,  writing  his 
doctoral  dissertation,  will  bring  plausible  reasons  to  prove 
where  exactly  Diodorus  ceased  to  "write  out'1''  Ephorus, 
whose  work  Ave  do  not  possess,  and  began  to  write  out  some- 
body else,  whose  work  is  also  lost  to  us.  But,  though  the 
method  lends  itself  to  the  multiplication  of  vain  subtleties, 
it  is  absolutely  indispensable  for  scientific  historiography.  It 
is  in  fact  part  of  the  science  of  evidence.  The  distinction 
of  primary  and  derivative  authorities  might  be  used  as  a  test. 


xlvi  INTRODUCTION 

The  untrained  historian  fails  to  recognize  that  nothing  is 
added  to  the  value  of  a  statement  of  Widukind  by  its 
repetition  by  Thietmar  or  Ekkehard,  and  that  a  record  in  the 
Continuation  of  Theophanes  gains  no  further  credibility  from 
the  fact  that  it  likewise  occurs  in  Cedrenus,  Zonaras  or 
Glycas. 

While  evidence  is  more  systematically  arranged,  greater 
care  is  bestowed  on  sifting  and  probing  what  our  authorities 
say,  and  in  distinguishing  contemporary  from  later  witnesses. 
Not  a  few  important  results  have  been  derived  from  such 
methods  ;  they  enable  us  to  trace  the  growth  of  stories.  The 
evidence  against  Faustina  shrinks  into  nothing  ;  the  existence 
of  Pope  Joan  is  exploded.  It  is  irrelevant  to  condemn  a 
statement  of  Zonaras  as  made  by  a  "  modern  Greek  ".  The 
question  is,  where  did  he  get  it  ?  c 

The  difficult  questions  connected  with  the  authorship  and 
compilation  of  the  Historia  Augusta  have  produced  a  chest- 
ful  of  German  pamphlets,  but  they  did  not  trouble  Gibbon. 
The  relationships  of  the  later  Greek  chronicles  and  histories 
are  more  difficult  and  intricate  even  than  the  questions 
raised  by  the  Historia  Augusta,  but  he  did  not  even  formu- 
late a  prudent  interrogation.  Ferdinand  Hirsch,  twenty 
years  ago,  cleared  new  roads  through  this  forest,  in  which 
George  the  Monk  and  the  Logothete  who  continued  him, 
Leo  Grammaticus  and  Simeon  Magister,  John  Scylitzes, 
George  Cedrenus  and  Zonaras  lived  in  promiscuous  obscurity. 
Biittner-Wobst  on  one  side,  C.  de  Boor  on  the  other,  have 
been  working  effectually  on  the  same  lines,  clearing  up  the 
haze  which  surrounds  George  the  Monk — the  time  has  gone 
by  for  calling  him  George  Hamartolus.  Another  formidable 
problem,  that  of  John  Malalas — with  his  namesake  John  of 

6  Gibbon  had  a  notion  of  this,  but  did  not  apply  it  methodically.  See  in 
this  vol.,  p.  415,  note  59  :  "  but  those  modern  Greeks  had  the  opportunity  of 
consulting  many  writers  which  have  since  been  lost  ".  And  sge,  in  general, 
his  Preface  to  the  fourth  volume  of  the  quarto  ed. 


INTRODUCTION  xlvii 

Antioch,  so  hard  to  catch, — having  been  grappled  with  by 
Jeep,  Sotiriades  and  others,  is  now  being  more  effectively 
treated  by  Patzig. 

Criticism,  too,  has  reiected  some  sources  from  which  Gibbon  Example  01 

77  •*  use  of  un- 

drew  without  suspicion.  In  the  interest  of  literature  weJ™*2"rH,y 
may  perhaps  be  glad  that  like  Ockley  he  used  with  confidence 
the  now  discredited  Al  Wakidi.  Before  such  maintained 
perfection  of  manner,  to  choose  is  hard ;  but  the  chapters  on 
the  origin  of  Mahometanism  and  its  first  triumphs  against 
the  Empire  would  alone  be  enough  to  win  perpetual  literary 
fame.  Without  Al  Wakidi's  romance  they  would  not  have 
been  written  ;  and  the  historian,  compelled  to  regard  Gibbon's 
description  as  he  would  a  Life  of  Charles  the  Great  based  on 
the  monk  of  St.  Gall,  must  refer  the  inquirer  after  facts  to 
Sprenger's  Life  of  Mahomet  and  Weil's  History  of  the 
Caliphs.7 

In  connexion  with  the  use  of  materials,  reference  may  be  Error  of 
made  to  a  mode  of  proceeding  which  Gibbon  has  sometimes  ^^tof 
adopted  and   which    modern  method  condemns.     It  is  notperiod* 
legitimate  to  blend  the  evidence  of  two  different  periods  in 
order  to  paint  a  complete  picture  of  an  institution.     Great 
caution,  for  example,   is  needed  in   using  the  Greek  epics, 
of  which  the  earliest  and  latest  parts  differ  by  a  long  interval, 
for   the    purpose    of   pourtraying    a   so-called    Homeric    or 
heroic  age.     A  notice  of  Fredegarius  will  not  be  necessarily 
applicable  to  the  age  of  the  sons  and  grandsons  of  Chlodwig, 
and  a  custom  which  was  familiar  to  Gregory  or  Venantius 

7  In  Mahometan  history  in  general,  it  may  be  added,  not  only  has  advance 
been  made  by  access  to  new  literary  oriental  documents,  but  its  foundations 
have  been  more  surely  grounded  by  numismatic  researches,  especially  those 
of  Mr.  Stanley  Lane-Poole.  This  scholar's  recently  published  handbook  con- 
taining tables  and  lists  of  the  "  Mohammadan  "  Dynasties  is  a  guerdon  for 
which  students  of  history  must  be  most  deeply  grateful.  The  special  histories 
of  Mahometan  Sicily  and  Spain  have  been  worked  out  by  Amari  and  Dozy. 
For  the  Mongols  we  have  the  overwhelming  results  of  Sir  Henry  Howorth's 
learning  and  devotion  to  his  "vasty"  subject. 


xlviii  INTRODUCTION 

may  have  become  obsolete  before  the  days  of  the  last  Mer- 
wings.  It  is  instructive  to  compare  Gibbon's  description  of 
the  social  and  political  institutions  of  our  Teutonic  forefathers 
with  that  of  Bishop  Stubbs.  Gibbon  blends  together  with 
dexterity  the  evidence  of  Caesar  and  Tacitus,  between  whom 
a  century  had  elapsed,  and  composes  a  single  picture  ;  whereas 
Bishop  Stubbs  keeps  the  statements  of  the  two  Romans  care- 
fully apart,  and  by  comparing  them  is  able  to  show  that  in 
certain  respects  the  Germans  had  developed  in  the  interval. 
Gibbon's  account  of  the  military  establishment  of  the  Empire, 
in  the  first  chapter  of  his  work,  is  open  to  a  like  objection. 
He  has  blended,  without  due  criticism,  the  evidence  of 
Vegetius  with  that  of  earlier  writers.8 
progress  of  In  the  study  of  sources,  then,  our  advance  has  been  great, 
criticism  while  the  labours  of  an  historian  have  become  more  arduous. 
It  leads  us  to  another  advance  of  the  highest  importance. 
To  use  historical  documents  with  confidence,  an  assurance 
that  the  words  of  the  writer  have  been  correctly  transmitted 
is  manifestly  indispensable.  It  generally  happens  that  our  texts 
have  come  down  in  several  MSS.,  of  different  ages,  and  there 
are  often  various  discrepancies.  We  have  then  to  determine 
the  relations  of  the  MSS.  to  each  other  and  their  comparative 
values.  To  the  pure  philologist  this  is  part  of  the  alphabet 
of  his  profession  ;  but  the  pure  historian  takes  time  to  realize 
it,  and  it  was  not  realized  in  the  age  of  Gibbon  as  it  is  to-day. 
Nothing  forces  upon  the  historian  the  necessity  of  having  a 
sound  text  so  impressively  as  the  process  of  comparing 
different  documents  in  order  to  determine  whether  one  was 
dependent  on  another, — the  process  of  investigating  sources. 


8  It  may  be  said  for  Gibbon,  however,  that  even  Mommsen,  in  his  volume 
on  the  Provinces,  has  adopted  this  practice  of  blending  evidence  of  different 
dates.  For  the  historical  artist,  it  is  very  tempting,  when  the  evidence  for 
any  particular  period  is  scanty ;  but  in  the  eyes  of  the  scientific  historian  it 
is  indefensible. 


INTRODUCTION  xlix 

In  tliis  respect  we  have  now  to  be  thankful  for  many  blessings 
denied  to  Gibbon  and — so  recent  is  our  progress — denied  to 
Milman  and  Finlay.  We  have  Mommsen's  editions  of  improve! 
Jordanes  and  the  Variae  of  Cassiodorius,  his  Chronica  Minora 
(still  incomplete),  including,  for  instance,  Idatius,  the  Prospers, 
Count  Marcellinus ;  we  have  Peter's  Historia  Augusta, 
Gardthausen's  Ammianus,  Luetjohann's  Sidonius  Apolli- 
naris ;  Du  Chesne's  Liber  Pontificalis ;  and  a  large  number 
of  critical  texts  of  ecclesiastical  writers  might  be  mentioned.9 
The  Greek  historians  have  been  less  fortunate.  The  Bonn  Defective 
edition  of  the  "Byzantine  Writers,"  issued  under  the 
auspices  of  Niebuhr  and  Bekker  in  the  early  part  of 
this  century,  was  the  most  lamentably  feeble  production 
ever  given  to  the  world  by  German  scholars  of  great  reputa- 
tion. It  marked  no  advance  on  the  older  folio  edi- 
tion, except  that  it  was  cheaper,  and  that  one  or  two 
new  documents  were  included.  But  there  is  now  a  reason- 
able prospect  that  we  shall  by  degrees  have  a  complete  series 
of  trustworthy   texts.     De   Boor   showed    the    way   by   his  and  improved 

•>  J         J  Greek  texts 

splendid  edition  of  Theophanes  and  his  smaller  texts  of 
Theophylactus  Simocatta  and  the  Patriarch  Nicephorus. 
Mendelssohn's  Zosimus,  and  Reifferscheid's  Anna  Comnena 
stand  beside  them.  Haury  promises  a  Procopius,  and  we 
are  expecting  from  Seger  a  long  desired  John  Scylitzes,  the 
greater  part  of  whose  text,  though  existing  in  a  MS.  at 
Paris,  has  never  been  printed  and  can  only  be  inferred  by  a 
comparison  of  the  Latin  translation  of  Gabius  with  the 
chronicle  of  Cedrenus  who  copied  him  with  faithful  servility. 

The   legends  of  the  Saints,  though  properly    outside  the  ^e1sfcffnu1aery 
domain  of  the  historian  proper,  often  supply  him  with  valu- Samta 
able  help.     For  "  Culturgeschichte  "  they  are  a  direct  source. 
Finlay  observed  that  the  Acta  Sanctorum   contain  an   un- 

9  Especially  the  Corpus  Ecclesiasticorum  Latinorum. 

d  VOL     I. 


1 


INTRODUCTION 


New 

Material. 
Examples : 
(1)  Numis- 
matics 


tional 

history 


explored  mine  for  the  social  life  of  the  Eastern  Empire. 
But  before  they  can  be  confidently  dealt  with,  trained 
criticism  must  do  its  will  on  the  texts  ;  the  relations  between 
the  various  versions  of  each  legend  must  be  defined  and  the 
tradition  in  each  case  made  clear.  The  task  is  huge  ;  the 
libraries  of  Europe  and  Hither  Asia  are  full  of  these  holy 
tales.  But  Usener  has  made  a  good  beginning  and  Krumbacher 
has  rendered  the  immense  service  of  pointing  out  precisely 
what  the  problems  are.10 

Besides  improved  methods  of  dealing  with  the  old  material, 
much  new  material  of  various  kinds  has  been  discovered, 
since  the  work  of  Gibbon.  To  take  one  department,  our 
coins  have  increased  in  number.  It  seems  a  pity  that  he 
who  worked  at  his  Spanheim  with  such  diligence  was  not 
able  to  make  use  of  Eckhel's  great  work  on  Imperial 
coinage  which  began  to  appear  in  1792  and  was  completed 
in  1798.  Since  then  we  have  had  Cohen,  and  the  special 
works  of  Saulcy  and  Sabatier.  M.  Schlumberger's  splendid 
study  of  Byzantine  sigillography  must  be  mentioned  in  the 
same  connexion.11 

The  constitution  and  history  of  the  Principate,  and  the 
provincial   government   of  the  early   Emperors,   have   been 


10  Usener,  Der  heilige  Theodosios,  1890.  Krumbacher,  Studien  zu  den 
Legenden  des  heiligen  Theodosios,  1892.  It  is  worth  while  to  state  briefly 
what  the  chief  problem  is.  The  legends  of  the  Saints  were  collected, 
rehandled,  cleansed  of  casual  heresy,  and  put  into  literary  form  in  the  tenth 
century  (towards  its  close  according  to  Vasilievski)  by  Symeon  Metaphrastes. 
Most  of  our  MSS.  are  derived  from  the  edition  of  Symeon  ;  but  there  are 
also  extant,  some,  comparatively  few,  containing  the  original  pre-Symeonic 
versions,  which  formed  the  chief  literary  recreation  of  ordinary  men  and 
women  before  the  tenth  century.  The  problem  is  to  collect  the  materials 
for  a  critical  edition  of  as  many  legends  as  have  been  preserved  in  their 
original  form.  When  that  is  done,  we  shall  have  the  data  for  fully  appreciat- 
ing the  methods  of  Symeon.  As  for  the  text  Krumbacher  points  out  that 
what  we  want  is  a  thoroughgoing  study  of  the  Grammar  of  the  MSS. 

11  M.  Schlumberger  followed  up  this  work  by  an  admirable  monograph  on 
Nicephorus  Phocas,  luxuriously  illustrated ;  and  we  are  looking  forward  to 
the  appearance  of  a  companion  work  on  Basil  II. 


INTRODUCTION  li 

placed  on  an  entirely  new  basis  by  Mommsen  and  his  school.12 
The  Romisches  Staatsrecht  is  a  fabric  for  whose  rearing  was 
needed   not   only   improved    scholarship    but   an    extensive 
collection    of  epigraphic   material.      The    Corpus   of  Latin  Epigraphy 
Inscriptions  is  the  keystone  of  the  work. 

Hence  Gibbon's  first  chapters  are  somewhat  "  out  of  date  ". 
But  on  the  other  hand  his  admirable  description  of  the 
change  from  the  Principate  to  absolute  Monarchy,  and  the 
system  of  Diocletian  and  Constantine,  is  still  most  valuable. 
Here  inscriptions  are  less  illustrative,  and  he  disposed  of  much 
the  same  material  as  we,  especially  the  Codex  Theodosianus. 
New  light  is  badly  wanted,  and  has  not  been  to  any  extent 
forthcoming,  on  the  respective  contributions  of  Diocletian 
and  Constantine  to  the  organization  of  the  new  monarchy. 
As  to  the  arrangement  of  the  provinces  we  have  indeed  a  yeronaListo. 

o  i  Provinces 

precious  document  in  the  Verona  List  (published  by  Mommsen), 
which,  dating  from  297  a.d.,  shows  Diocletian's  reorganiza- 
tion. The  modifications  which  were  made  between  this  year 
and  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  when  the  Notitia 
Dignitatum  was  drawn  up,  can  be  largely  determined  not 
only  by  lists  in  Rufus  and  Ammianus,  but,  as  far  as  the 
eastern  provinces  are  concerned,  by  the  Laterculus  of 
Polemius  Silvius.  Thus,  partly  by  critical  method  applied 
to  Polemius,  partly  by  the  discovery  of  a  new  document,  we 
are  enabled  to  rectify  the  list  of  Gibbon,  who  adopted  the 
simple  plan  of  ascribing  to  Diocletian  and  Constantine  the 
detailed  organization  of  the  Notitia.  Otherwise  our  know- 
ledge of  the  changes  of  Diocletian  has  not  been  greatly 
augmented  ;  but  our  clearer  conception  of  the  Principate  and 
its  steady  development  towards  pure  monarchy  has  reflected 

12  The  first  volume  of  Mr.  Pelham's  history  of  the  Empire,  which  is  ex- 
pected shortly,  will  show,  when  compared  with  Menvale,  how  completely 
our  knowledge  of  Roman  institutions  has  been  transformed  within  a  very 
recent  period. 


lii  INTRODUCTION 

light  on  Diocletian's  system ;  and  the  tendencies  of  the 
third  century,  though  still  obscure  at  many  points,  have 
been  made  more  distinct.  The  year  of  the  Gordians  is  still 
as  great  a  puzzle  as  ever ;  but  the  dates  of  Alexandrine 
coins  with  the  tribunician  years  give  us  here,  as  elsewhere, 
limits  of  which  Gibbon  was  ignorant.  While  speaking  of  the 
third  century,  I  may  add  that  Calpurnius  Siculus,  whom 
Gibbon  claimed  as  a  contemporary  of  Carinus,  has  been 
restored  by  modern  criticism  to  the  reign  of  Nero,  and  this 
error  has  vitiated  some  of  Gibbon's  pages. 

The  constitutional  history  of  the  Empire  from  Diocletian 
forward  has  still  to  be  written  systematically.     Some  note- 
worthy  contributions  to  this    subject   have   been   made  by 
Russian  scholars. 
O)  Law  Gibbon's  forty-first  chapter  is  still  not  only  famous,  but 

admired  by  jurists  as  a  brief  and  brilliant  exposition  of  the 
principles  of  Roman  law.  To  say  that  it  is  worthy  of  the 
subject  is  the  best  tribute  that  can  be  paid  to  it.  A  series 
of  foreign  scholars  of  acute  legal  ability  has  elaborated  the 
study  of  the  science  in  the  present  century ;  I  need  only 
refer  to  such  names  as  Savigny  and  Jhering.  A  critical 
edition  of  the  Corpus  juris  Romani  by  Mommsen  himself  has 
Gains  been  one  of  the  chief  contributions.  The  manuscript  of 
Gaius  is  the  new  discovery  to  be  recorded  ;  and  we  can 
imagine  with  what  interest  Gibbon,  were  he  restored  to 
earth,  would  compare  in  Gneist's  parallel  columns  the  Institu- 
tions with  the  elder  treatise. 

But  whoever  takes  up   Gibbon's  theme  now  will  not  be 

content  with  an  exposition  of  the  Justinianean  Law.     He 

must   go   on   to   its    later   development   in   the   subsequent 

Graco         centuries,  in  the  company  of  Zacharia  von  Lingenthal  and 

Roman  law  J  , 

Heimbach.      Such    a   study   has   been   made    possible   and 

comparatively  easy  by  the  magnificent  works  of  Zacharia ; 

Eoioga         among  whose  achievements  I  may  single  out  his  restoration  of 


INTRODUCTION  liii 

the  Ecloga,  which  used  to  be  ascribed  to  Leo  VI.,  to  its  true 
author  Leo  III. ;  a  discovery  which  illuminated  in  a  most  wel- 
come manner  the  Isaurian  reformation.  It  is  interesting  to 
observe  that  the  last  work  which  engaged  him  even  on  his 
death-bed  was  an  attempt  to  prove  exactly  the  same  thing  for 
the  military  treatise  known  as  the  Tactics  of  Leo  VI.  Here 
too  Zacharia  thinks  that  Leo  was  the  Isaurian,  while  the 
received  view  is  that  he  was  the  "  Philosopher  ". 

Having  illustrated  by  examples  the  advantages  open  to  an 
historian  of  the  present  day,  which  were  not  open  to  Gibbon, 
for  dealing  with  Gibbon's  theme, — improved  and  refined 
methods,  a  closer  union  of  philology  with  history,  and 
ampler  material — we  may  go  on  to  consider  a  general  defect 
in  his  treatment  of  the  Later  Empire,  and  here  too  exhibit, 
by  a  few  instances,  progress  made  in  particular  departments. 

Gibbon  ended  the  first  half  of  his  work  with  the  so-called  Gibbons 

treatment  o 

fall  of  the  Western  Empire  in  476  a.d. — a  date  which  has  Imp^" 
been  fixed  out  of  regard  for  Italy  and  Rome,  and  should 
strictly  be  480  a.d.  in  consideration  of  Julius  Nepos.  Thus 
the  same  space  is  devoted  to  the  first  three  hundred  years 
which  is  allowed  to  the  remaining  nine  hundred  and  eighty. 
Nor  does  the  inequality  end  here.  More  than  a  quarter  of 
the  second  half  of  the  work  deals  with  the  first  two  of  these 
ten  centuries.  The  mere  statement  of  the  fact  shows  that 
the  history  of  the  Empire  from  Heraclius  to  the  last  Grand 
Comnenus  of  Trebizond  is  merely  a  sketch  with  certain 
episodes  more  fully  treated.  The  personal  history  and 
domestic  policy  of  all  the  Emperors,  from  the  son  of  Heraclius 
to  Isaac  Angelus,  are  compressed  into  one  chapter.  This  mode 
of  dealing  with  the  subject  is  in  harmony  with  the  author's  con- 
temptuous attitude  to  the  "  Byzantine  "  or  "  Lower  "  Empire. 

But    Gibbon's    account    of    the    internal    history    of   the  False  im- 
pression as  to 

Empire  after  Heraclius  is  not  only  superficial ;  it  gives  an  ^S^fy cf 


liv  INTRODUCTION 

entirely  false  impression  of  the  facts.  If  the  materials  had 
been  then  as  well  sifted  and  studied  as  they  are  even  to-day, 
he  could  not  have  failed  to  see  that  beneath  the  intrigues 
and  crimes  of  the  Palace  there  were  deeper  causes  at  work, 
and  beyond  the  revolutions  of  the  Capital  City  wider  issues 
implied.  The  cause  for  which  the  Iconoclasts  contended 
involved  far  more  than  an  ecclesiastical  rule  or  usage  ;  it 
meant,  and  they  realized,  the  regeneration  of  the  Empire. 
Or,  to  take  another  instance  :  the  key  to  the  history  of  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  is  the  struggle  between  the 
Imperial  throne  and  the  great  landed  interest  of  Asia  Minor ; 13 
the  accession  of  Alexius  Commenus  marked  the  final  victory 
of  the  latter.  Nor  had  Gibbon  any  conception  of  the  great 
ability  of  most  of  the  Emperors  from  Leo  the  Isaurian  to 
Basil  II.,  or,  we  might  say,  to  Constantine  the  conqueror 
of  Armenia.  The  designation  of  the  story  of  the  later 
Empire  as  a  "  uniform  tale  of  weakness  and  misery ,1  u  is  one 
and  as  to  it-,  of  the  most  untrue,  and  most  effective,  judgments  ever  uttered 

weakness 

by  a  thoughtful  historian.  Before  the  outrage  of  1204,  the 
Empire  was  the  bulwark  of  the  West.15 

Reaction  Against   Gibbon's  point  of  view  there  has  been  a  gradual 

reaction  which   may   be  said  to  have  culminated  within  the 

Finiay's  last  ten  years.  It  was  begun  by  Finlay,  whose  unprosperous 
speculations  in  Greece  after  the  Revolution  prompted  him  to 
seek  for  the  causes  of  the  insecurity  of  investments  in  land, 
and,  leading  him  back  to  the  year  146  B.C.,  involved  him  in 


13  This  has  been  best  pointed  out  by  C.  Neumann. 

14  Chap,  xlviii.  ad  init.,  where  a  full  statement  of  his  view  of  the  later 
Empire  will  be  found. 

15  I  need  not  repeat  here  what  I  have  said  elsewhere,  and  what  many 
others  have  said  (recently  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison  in  two  essays  in  his  %'olume 
entitled  The  Meaning  of  History)  as  to  the  various  services  of  the  Empire  to 
Europe.  They  are  beginning  to  be  generally  recognized  and  they  have  been 
brought  out  in  Mr.  C.  VV.  Oman's  brief  and  skilful  sketch  of  the  "  Byzantine 
Empire  "  (1S92). 


History 


searches 


INTRODUCTION  lv 

a  history  of  the  "Byzantine  Empire"  which  embedded  a 
history  of  Greece.16  The  great  value  of  Finlay's  work  lies  not 
only  in  its  impartiality  and  in  his  trained  discernment  of  the 
commercial  and  financial  facts  underlying  the  superficial  history 
of  the  chronicles,  but  in  its  full  and  trustworthy  narration  of 
the  events.  By  the  time  that  Mr.  Tozer's  edition  appeared 
in  1876,  it  was  being  recognized  that  Gibbon's  word  on  the 
later  Empire  was  not  the  last.  Meanwhile  Hertzberg  was  other 
going  over  the  ground  in  Germany,  and  Gfrorer,  whose 
ecclesiastical  studies  had  taken  him  into  those  regions,  had 
written  a  good  deal  of  various  value.  Hirsch's  Byzantinische 
Studien  had  j  ust  appeared,  and  Rambaud's  V Empire  grec  au 
a'"1'-'  siecle.  M.  Sathas  was  bringing  out  his  Bibliotheca  Grseca 
medii  aevi — including  two  volumes  of  Psellus — and  was  begin- 
ning his  Documents  inedits.  Professor  Lambros  was  working 
at  his  Athens  in  the  Twelfth  Century  and  preparing  his  editio 
princeps  of  the  great  Archbishop  Akominatos.  Hopf  had 
collected  a  mass  of  new  materials  from  the  archives  of  southern 
cities.  In  England,  Freeman  was  pointing  out  the  true  position 
of  New  Rome  and  her  Emperors  in  the  history  of  Europe. 

These  tendencies  have  increased  in  volume  and  velocity 
within  the  last  twenty  years.  They  may  be  said  to  have 
reached  their  culminating  point  in  the  publication  of  Professor 
Krumbacher's  History  of  Byzantine  Literature.17  The  im-  Krumtaciie 
portance  of  this  work,  of  vast  scope  and  extraordinary  accuracy, 
can  only  be  fully  understood  by  the  specialist.  It  has  already 
promoted  and  facilitated  the  progress  of  the  study  in  an  in- 
calculable measure  ;  and  it  was  soon  followed  by  the  inaugura- 


16  Since  then  a  Greek  scholar,  K.  Papai  rigopulos,  has  covered  the  whole  his- 
tory of  Greece  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  present  century,  in  his  'la-ropia 
rov  'EWtivlkov  iQvovs.  The  same  gigantic  task,  but  in  a  more  popular  form, 
has  been  undertaken  and  begun  by  Professor  Lambros,  but  is  not  yet  finished. 

17  Geschichte  der  byzantinischen  Litteratur  (565-1453),  1891. 


lvi 


INTRODUCTION 


tion  of  a  journal,  entirely  devoted  to  works  on  "  Byzantine "" 
subjects,  by  the  same  scholar.  The  Byzantinische  Zeitschrift 
would  have  been  impossible  twenty-five  years  ago  and  nothing 
shows  more  surely  the  turn  of  the  tide.  Professor  Krum- 
bacher's  work  seems  likely  to  form  as  important  an  epoch  as 
that  of  Ducange. 


Russian 
school  of 
Byzantine 
students 


Meanwhile  in  a  part  of  Europe  which  deems  itself  to  have 
received  the  torch  from  the  Emperors  as  it  has  received  their 
torch  from  the  Patriarchs,  and  which  has  always  had  a  special 
regard  for  the  city  of  Constantine,  some  excellent  work  was 
being  done.  In  Russia,  Muralt  edited  the  chronicle  of 
George  the  monk  and  his  Continuers,  and  compiled  Byzantine 
Fasti.  The  Journal  of  the  Ministry  of  Public  Instruction  is 
the  storehouse  of  a  long  series  of  most  valuable  articles 
dealing,  from  various  sides,  with  the  history  of  the  later 
Empire,  by  those  indefatigable  workers  Uspenski  and  Vasi- 
lievski.  At  length,  in  1894,  Krumbacher's  lead  has  been 
followed,  and  the  Vizantiski  Vremennik,  a  Russian  counter- 
part of  the  Byzantinische  Zeitschrift,  has  been  started  under 
the  joint  editorship  of  Vasilievski  and  Regel,  and  is  clearly 
destined,  with  the  help  of  Veselovski,  Kondakov,  Bieliaiev  and 
the  rest  of  a  goodly  fellowship,  to  make  its  mark. 


Progress  of 
research 
since  Gibbon 
Examples : 


After  this  general  sketch  of  the  new  prospects  of  later 
Imperial  history,  it  will  be  useful  to  show  by  some  examples 
what  sort  of  progress  is  being  made,  and  what  kind  of  work 
has  to  be  done.  I  will  first  take  some  special  points  of 
interest  connected  with  Justinian.  My  second  example  shall 
be  the  topography  of  Constantinople  ;  and  my  third  the  large 
field  of  literature  composed  in  colloquial  Greek.  Lastly,  the 
capital  defect  of  the  second  half  of  Gibbon's  work,  his  in- 
adequate treatment,  or  rather  his  neglect,  of  the  Slavs,  wil 
serve  to  illustrate  our  historical  progress. 


INTRODUCTION  lvii 

New  lio-ht  has  been  cast,  from  more  than  one  side,  on  the  w  Justinian. 

&  '    '  '  (a)  Procopius 

reign  of  Justinian  where  there  are  so  many  uncertain  and  |?crete 
interesting  places.  The  first  step  that  methodical  history 
had  to  take  was  a  thoroughgoing  criticism  of  Procopius,  and 
this  was  more  than  half  done  by  Dahn  in  his  elaborate 
monograph.  The  double  problem  of  the  "  Secret  History  " 
has  stimulated  the  curiosity  of  the  historian  and  the  critic. 
Was  Procopius  the  author  ?  and  in  any  case,  are  the  state- 
ments credible  ?  Gibbon  has  inserted  in  his  notes  the  worst 
bits  of  the  scandals  which  far  outdid  the  convivium  quinqua- 
ginta  meretricum  described  by  Burchard,  or  the  feast  of 
Sophonius  Tigellinus ;  and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  believe  them. 
Their  credibility  is  now  generally  questioned,  but  the  historian 
of  Caesarea  is  a  much  more  interesting  figure  if  it  can  be 
shown  that  he  was  the  author.  From  a  careful  comparison 
of  the  Secret  History  with  the  works  of  Procopian  authorship, 
in  point  of  style,  Dahn  concluded  that  Procopius  wrote  it. 
Ranke  argued  against  this  view  and  maintained  that  it  was 
the  work  of  a  malcontent  who  had  obtained  possession  of  a 
private  diary  of  Procopius,  on  which  framework  he  constructed 
the  scandalous  chronicle,  imitating  successfully  the  Procopian 
style.18 

The  question  has  been  placed  on  a  new  footing  by  Haury ; 10  -n,,  discovery 
and  it  is  very  interesting  to  find  that  the  solution  depends  on 
the   right   determination   of  certain   dates.      The   result   is 
briefly  as  follows  : — 

Procopius  was  a  malcontent  who  hated  Justinian  and  all 
his  works.  He  set  himself  the  task  of  writing  a  history  of 
his  time,  which,  as  the  secretary  of  Belisarius,  he  had  good 
opportunities  of  observing.  He  composed  a  narrative  of 
the  military  events,  in  which  he  abstained  from  committing 

18  I  was  seduced  by  this  hypothesis  of  Ranke  (Later  Roman  Empire,  i- 
363),  but  no  longer  believe  in  it. 

19  Procopiana.  1891, 


lviii  INTRODUCTION 

himself,  so  that  it  could  be  safely  published  in  his  own  life- 
time. Even  here  his  critical  attitude  to  the  government  is 
sometimes  clear.  He  allows  it  to  be  read  between  the  lines 
that  he  regarded  the  reconquest  of  Africa  and  Italy  as 
calamities  for  those  countries  ;  which  thus  came  under  an 
oppressor,  to  be  stripped  by  his  governors  and  tax  gatherers. 
But  the  domestic  administration  was  more  dangerous  ground, 
on  which  Procopius  could  not  tread  without  raising  a  voice 
of  bitter  indignation  and  hatred.  So  he  dealt  with  this  in  a 
book  which  was  to  be  kept  secret  during  his  own  life  and 
bequeathed  to  friends  who  might  be  trusted  to  give  it  to  the 
world  at  a  suitable  time.  The  greater  part  of  the  Military 
History,  which  treated  in  seven  Books  the  Persian,  Vandalic, 
and  Gothic  wars,  was  finished  in  545  a.d.,  and  perhaps  read 
to  a  select  circle  of  friends ;  at  a  later  time  some  additions 
were  made,  but  no  changes  in  what  had  been  already  Avritten. 
The  Secret  History,  as  Haury  has  proved  from  internal 
evidence,  was  written  in  550.20  About  three  years  later  the 
Military  History  received  an  eighth  Book,  bringing  the  story 
down  to  the  end  of  the  Gothic  war.  Then  the  work  came 
under  the  notice  of  Justinian,  who  saw  that  a  great  historian 
had  arisen  ;  and  Procopius,  who  had  certainly  not  described 
the  wars  for  the  purpose  of  pleasing  the  Emperor,  but  had 
sailed  as  close  to  the  wind  as  he  dared,  was  called  upon  to 
undertake  the  disagreeable  task  of  lauding  the  oppressor.  An 
Imperial  command  was  clearly  the  origin  of  the  De  Aedi- 
ficiis  (560  a.d.),  in  which  the  reluctant  writer  adopted  the 
plan  of  making  adulation  so  fulsome,  that,  except  to 
Justinian's  vanity,  he   might  appear  to  be  laughing  in  his 

20  One  of  the  author's  points  is  that  Justinian  was  the  real  ruler  during  the 
nominal  reign  of  Justin,  who  was  an  "  ass  ".  Hence  he  dates  Justinian's 
administration  (not  of  course  his  Imperial  years)  from  518.  The  conse- 
quence of  this  important  discovery  of  Haury,  which  he  has  proved  up  to  the 
hilt,  is  that  the  work  was  written  in  550  (not,  as  before  believed,  in  559) — 
the  thirty-second  year  of  Justinian's  administration. 


INTRODUCTION  lix 

sleeve.  At  the  very  beginning  of  the  treatise  he  has  a  sly 
allusion  to  the  explosives  which  were  lying  in  his  desk,  un- 
known to  the  Imperial  spies. 

Such  is  the  outline  of  the  literary  motives  of  Procopius  as 
we  must  conceive  them,  now  that  we  have  a  practical  certainty 
that  he,  and  no  other,  wrote  the  Secret  History.  For 
Haury's  dates  enable  us,  as  he  points  out,  to  argue  as  follows  : 
If  Procopius  did  not  write  the  book,  it  was  obviously  written 
by  a  forger,  who  wished  it  to  pass  as  a  Procopian  work.  But 
in  550  no  forger  could  have  had  the  close  acquaintance  with 
the  Military  History  which  is  exhibited  by  the  author  of  the 
Anecdota.  And  moreover  the  identity  of  the  introduction 
of  the  eighth  Book  of  the  Military  History  with  that  of 
the  Secret  History,  which  was  urged  by  Ranke  as  an  objection 
to  the  genuineness  of  the  latter  work,  now  tells  decisively 
in  favour  of  it.  For  if  Procopius  composed  it  in  553,  how 
could  a  forger,  writing  in  550,  have  anticipated  it  ?  And  if 
the  forger  composed  it  in  550,  how  are  we  to  explain  its 
appearances  in  a  later  work  of  Procopius  himself?  These 
considerations  put  it  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt  that 
Procopius  was  the  author  of  the  Secret  History  ;  for  this 
assumption  is  the  only  one  which  supplies  an  intelligible 
explanation  of  the  facts. 

Another  puzzle  in  connexion  with  Justinian  lay  in  certain  w  Theo- 

1  *  philus'  Life  of 

biographical  details  relating  to  that  emperor  and  his  family, Justirjan 
which  Alemanni,  in  his  commentary  on  the  Secret  History, 
quoted  on  the  authority  of  a  Life  of  Justinian  by  a  certain 
Abbot  Theophilus,  said  to  have  been  the  Emperor's  preceptor. 
Of  these  biographical  notices,  and  of  Justinian's  preceptor 
Theophilus,  we  otherwise  knew  nothing ;  nor  had  any  one, 
since  Alemanni,  seen  the  Biography.  Gibbon  and  other 
historians  accepted  without  question  the  statements  quoted 
by  Alemanni ;  though  it  would  have  been  wiser  to  treat  them 
with    more    reserve,    until    some    data    for   criticizing   them 


Ix  INTRODUCTION 

were  discovered.  The  puzzle  of  Alemannrs  source,  the 
2?  1£?b™7  Li^  °f  Theophilus,  was  solved  by  Mr.  Bryce,  who  dis- 
covered in  the  library  of  the  Barbarini  palace  at  Rome  the 
original  text  from  which  Alemanni  drew  his  information.21 
It  professes  to  be  an  extract  from  a  Slavonic  work,  containing 
the  Life  of  Justinian  up  to  the  thirtieth  year  of  his  reign, 
composed  by  Bogomil,  abbot  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Alexander 
in  Dardania.  This  extract  was  translated  by  Marnavich, 
Canon  of  Sebenico  (afterwards  Bishop  of  Bosnia,  1631-1639), 
a  friend  of  Alemanni,  and  some  notes  were  appended  by  the 
same  scholar.  Bogomil  is  the  Slavonic  equivalent  of  the 
Greek  Theophilus,  which  was  accordingly  adopted  by 
Alemanni  in  his  references.  Mr.  Bryce  has  shown  clearly 
that  this  document,  interesting  as  it  is  in  illustrating  how 
Slavonic  legends  had  grown  up  round  the  name  of  Justinian, 
is  worthless  as  history,  and  that  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  sucli  a  person  as  the  Dardanian  Bogomil  ever  existed. 
We  are  indeed  met  by  a  new  problem,  which,  however,  is  of 
no  serious  concern  to  the  practical  purposes  of  history.  How 
did  Marnavich  obtain  a  copy  of  the  original  Life,  from  which 
he  made  the  extract,  and  which  he  declares  to  be  preserved  in 
the  library  of  the  monks  who  profess  the  rule  of  St.  Basil  on 
Mount  Athos  ?  Does  the  original  still  exist,  on  Mount 
Athos  or  elsewhere  ?  or  did  it  ever  exist  ? 

The  wars  of  Justinian 22  in  the  west  have  been  fully  and 
admirably  related  by  Mr.  Hodgkin,  with  the  exception  of  the 
obscure  conquest  of  Spain,  on  which  there  is  too  little  to  be 
said  and  nothing  further  seems  likely  to  come  to  light.  In 
regard  to  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  Justinian  there  is  still  a 
field  for  research. 

21  The  Life  of  Justinian  by  Theophilus,  in  the  English  Historical  Review. 
Vasil'ev  has  given  an  account  of  Mr.  Bryce's  article  in  the  Vizantiski  Vrem- 
ennik,  i.,  469  sqq. 

23  The  Persian  and  Lazic  Wars  have  been  related  in  detail  in  my  Later 
Roman  Empire,  vol.  i. 


INTRODUCTION  lxi 

As  for  the  study  of  the  great  work  of  Anthemius,  which  (c)  sanct* 

J  °r  Sophia,  ana 

brings  us  to  the  general  subject  of  Byzantine  art,  much  has^zantine 
been  done  within  the  last  half  century.  Gibbon  had  nothing 
to  help  him  for  the  buildings  of  Constantinople  that  could 
compare  with  Adam's  splendid  work  which  he  consulted  for 
the  buildings  of  Spalato.  We  have  now  Salzenberg's  luxuri- 
ous work,  Alt-christliche  Baudenkmale  von  Constantinopel, 
published  just  fifty  years  ago  by  the  Prussian  government, 
with  plates  which  enable  us  to  make  a  full  study  of  the 
architecture  of  St.  Sophia.  A  few  months  ago  a  complete 
and  scholarly  English  study  of  this  church  by  Messrs.  Lethaby 
and  Swainson  appeared.  Other  churches,  too,  especially 
those  at  Ravenna,  have  received  careful  attention  ;  De  Vogue's 
admirable  work  on  the  architecture  of  Syria  is  well  known ; 
but  Strzygovski  has  only  too  good  reason  for  complaining 
that  the  study  of  Byzantine  architecture,  as  a  whole,  has  not 
yet  properly  begun.  A  large  work  on  the  churches  of  Greece, 
which  two  English  scholars  are  preparing,  ought  to  do  much 
to  further  the  cause  which  Strzygovski  has  at  heart,  and  to 
which  he  has  made  valuable  contributions  himself.23  More 
progress  is  perhaps  being  made  in  the  study  of  miniature 
painting  and  iconography ;  and  in  this  field  the  work  of  the 
Russian  student  Kondakov  is  the  most  noteworthy. 

The  study  of  works  of  architecture  in  ancient  cities,  like  <£>a££»  £p°- 
Athens,  Rome,  or  Constantinople,  naturally  entails  a  study  of  Sopieaa  " 
the  topography  of  the  town ;  and  in  the  case  of  Constanti- 
nople this  study  is  equally  important  for  the  historian. 
Little  progress  of  a  satisfactory  kind  can  be  made  until  either 
Constantinople  passes  under  a  European  government,  or  a 
complete  change  comes  over  the  spirit  of  Turkish  administra- 
tion.    The  region  of  the  Imperial  Palace  and  the  ground 

23  His  new  work  on  the  reservoirs  of  Constantinople  may  be  specially 
mentioned. 


lxii  INTRODUCTION 

between  the  Hippodrome  and  St.  Sophia  must  be  excavated 
before  certainty  on  the  main  points  can  be  attained.  Labarte's 
a  priori  reconstruction  of  the  plan  of  the  palace,  on  the 
basis  of  the  Cerimonies  of  Constantine  Porphyrogennetos  and 
scattered  notices  in  other  Greek  writers,  was  wonderfully  in- 
genious and  a  certain  part  of  it  is  manifestly  right,  though 
there  is  much  which  is  not  borne  out  by  a  more  careful 
examination  of  the  sources.  The  next  step  was  taken  by  a 
Russian  scholar  Bieliaiev  who  has  recently  published  a  most 
valuable  study  on  the  Cerimonies,24  in  which  he  has  tested  the 
reconstruction  of  Labarte  and  shown  us  exactly  where  we 
are, — what  we  know,  and  what  with  our  present  materials 
we  cannot  possibly  know.  Between  Labarte  and  Bieliaiev  the 
whole  problem  was  obscured  by  the  unscholarly  work  of 
Paspates,  the  Greek  antiquarian ;  whose  sole  merit  was  that 
he  kept  the  subject  before  the  world.  As  the  acropolis  is 
the  scene  of  so  many  great  events  in  the  history  which  Gibbon 
recorded,  it  is  well  to  warn  the  reader  that  our  sources  make 
it  absolutely  certain  that  the  Hippodrome  adjoined  the 
Palace;  there  was  no  public  space  between  them.  The 
Augusteum  did  not  lie,  as  Paspates  asserted,  between  the 
Palace  and  the  Hippodrome,25  but  between  the  north  side  of 
the  Hippodrome  and  St.  Sophia. 

24  Byzantina.  Ocherki,  materialy,  i  zamietki  po  Vizantiskim  drevnostiam, 
1891-3.  I  must  not  omit  to  mention  Dr.  Mordtmann's  valuable  Esquisse 
topographique  (1892),  and  N.  Destunis  has  made  noteworthy  contributions 
to  the  subject. 

25  With  blameworthy  indiscretion  I  accepted  this  false  view  of  Paspates, 
in  my  Later  Roman  Empire,  without  having  gone  methodically  into  the 
sources.  I  was  misled  by  the  fame  won  by  the  supposed  "  topographical 
discoveries "  of  this  diligent  antiquarian  and  by  his  undeservedly  high 
reputation ;  this,  however,  is  no  excuse,  and  unfortunately  the  error  has 
vitiated  my  account  of  the  Nika  revolt.  I  have  gone  into  the  theory  of 
Paspates  in  the  Scottish  Review  (April,  1894),  where  he  is  treated  too  leniently. 
His  misuse  of  authorities  is  simply  astounding.  I  may  take  the  opportunity 
of  saying  that  I  hope  to  rewrite  the  two  volumes  of  my  Later  Roman 
Empire  and  correct,  so  far  as  I  may  be  able,  its  many  faults.  A  third  volume, 
dealing  with  the  ninth  century,  will,  I  hope,  appear  at  a  not  too  distant  date. 


INTRODUCTION  Ixiii 

On  the  trades  and  industries  of  the  Imperial  City,  on   the  The  Book  of 

i      ,i  i  .the  Prefect 

trade  corporations  and  the  minute  control  exercised  over 
them  by  the  government,  new  light  has  been  thrown  by  M. 
Nicole's  discovery  and  publication  of  the  Prefect's  Book,  a 
code  of  regulations  drawn  up  by  Leo  VI.  The  demes  of 
Constantinople  are  a  subject  which  needs  investigation. 
They  are  certainly  not  to  be  regarded  as  Gibbon  and  his 
successors  have  regarded  them,  as  mere  circus  parties.  They 
must  represent,  as  Uspenski  points  out  in  the  opening  number 
of  the  new  Vizantiski  Vremennik,  organized  divisions  of  the 
population. 

A  field  in  which  the  historian  must  wander  to  breathe  theor-vuigar- 

griechische 

spirit  and  learn  the  manner  of  the  mediaeval  Greek  world  jsLitteratur" 
that  of  the  romance,  both  prose  and  verse,  written  in  the 
vulgar  tongue.  This  field  was  closed  to  Gibbon,  but  the 
labours  of  many  scholars,  above  all  Legrand,  have  rendered  it 
now  easily  accessible.  Out  of  a  large  number  of  interesting 
things  I  may  refer  especially  to  two.  One  is  the  epic  of 
Digenes  Akritas,  the  Roland  or  Cid  of  the  Later  Empire,  a  Digenes 
poem  of  the  tenth  century,  which  illustrates  the  life  of 
Armatoli  and  the  border  warfare  against  the  Saracens  in  the 
Cilician  mountains.  The  other  is  the  Book  of  the  Conquest 
of  the  Morea,2*3  a  mixture  of  fiction  and  fact,  but  invaluable  The  chronicle 

7  of  Morea 

for  realizing  the  fascinating  though  complicated  history  of 
the  "  Latin ,1  settlements  in  Greece.  That  history  was  set 
aside  by  Gibbon,  with  the  phrase,  "  I  shall  not  pursue  the  History  of 

•>  '  L  *  1  Greece  after 

obscure   and    various  dynasties   that   rose   and   fell   on   the  conquest 
continent  or  in  the  isles,"  though  he  deigns  to  give  a  page  or 
two  to  Athens.27    But  it  is  a  subject  with  unusual  possibilities 


26  The  Greek  and  the  French  versions  were  published  by  Buchon,  un- 
critically.   A  new  edition  of  the  Greek  text  is  promised  by  Dr.  John  Schmitt. 

27  The  history  of  mediaeval  Athens  has  been  recorded  at  length  in  an 
attractive  work  by  Gregorovius,  the  counterpart  of  his  great  history  of 
mediaeval  Rome. 


lxiv  INTRODUCTION 

for  picturesque  treatment,  and  out  of  which,  Gibbon,  if  lie 
had  apprehended  the  opportunity,  and  had  possessed  the 
materials,  would  have  made  a  brilliant  chapter.  Since 
Finlay,  who  entered  into  this  episode  of  Greek  history 
with  great  fulness,  the  material  has  been  largely  increased 
by  the  researches  of  Hopf.28 
i4)  The  siava       As  I  have  already  observed,  it  is  perhaps  on  the  Slavonic 

and  their  .  „ 

u^Laterwltl1  side  of  the  history  of  the  Empire  that  Gibbon  is  most 
conspicuously  inadequate.  Since  he  wrote,  various  causes 
have  combined  to  increase  our  knowledge  of  Slavonic  antiquity. 
The  Slavs  themselves  have  engaged  in  methodical  investiga- 
tion of  their  own  past;  and,  since  the  entire  or  partial 
emancipations  of  the  southern  Slavs  from  Asiatic  rule,  a 
general  interest  in  Slavonic  things  has  grown  up  throughout 
Europe.  Gibbon  dismissed  the  history  of  the  First  Bulgarian 
Kingdom,  from  its  foundation  in  the  reign  of  Constantine 
Pogonatus  to  its  overthrow  by  the  second  Basil,  in  two 
pages.  To-day  the  author  of  a  history  of  the  Empire  on  the 
same  scale  would  find  two  hundred  a  strict  limit.  Gibbon 
tells  us  nothing  of  the  Slavonic  missionaries,  Cyril  and 
Methodius,  round  whose  names  an  extensive  literature  has 
been  formed.  It  is  only  in  recent  years  that  the  geography 
of  the  Illyrian  peninsula  has  become  an  accessible  subject  of 
study. 

^fn^contro.  The  investigation  of  the  history  of  the  northern  peoples 
who  came  under  the  influence  of  the  Empire  has  been 
stimulated  by  controversy,  and  controversy  has  been  animated 

Hi  siavs  m    and    even    embittered    by  national   pride.     The  question  of 

Greece  mi 

Slavonic  settlements  in  Greece  has  been  thoroughly  ventilated, 

28  For  a  full  account  of  Vulgar-griechische  Litteratur,  I  may  refer  to 
Krumbacher's  Gesch.  der  Byz.  Litt.  Here  it  is  unnecessary  to  do  more 
than  indicate  its  existence  and  importance.  I  may  add  that  the  historian 
cannot  neglect  the  development  of  the  language,  for  which  these  romances 
(and  other  documents)  furnish  ample  data.  Here  the  Greeks  themselves 
have  an  advantage,  and  scholars  like  Hatzidakes,  Psichares,  and  Jannares 
are  in  this  field  doing  work  of  the  best  kind. 


INTRODUCTION  lxv 

because  Fallmerayer  excited  the  scholarship  of  Hellenes  and 
Philhellenes  to  refute  what  they  regarded  as  an  insulting 
paradox.29  So,  too,  the  pride  of  the  Roumanians  was  irritated 
by  Roesler,  who  denied  that  they  were  descended  from  the  wonginof. 

J  '  J  the  Rou- 

inhabitants  of  Trajan's  Dacia  and  described  them  as  later  manlan8 
immigrants  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Pic*  arose  against 
him ;  then  Hermuzaki  argued  for  an  intermediate  date. 
The  best  Hungarian  scholar  of  the  day  joined  the  fray,  on 
the  other  side;  and  the  contention  became  bitter  between 
Vlach  and  Magyar,  the  Roumanian  pretensions  to  Sieben- 
biirgen — "Dacia  irredenta-11 — sharpening  the  lances  of  the 
foes.  The  Roumanians  have  not  come  out  of  their  "  question  " 
as  well  as  the  Hellenes.     Hungary  too  has  its  own  question.  <3)ugro- 

o       J  i  Finnic  or 

Are  the  Magyars  to  be  ethnically  associated  with  the  Finns  or  ^nieshorlgin 
given  over  to  the  family  of  the  Turks,  whom  as  champions 
of  Christendom  they  had  opposed  at  Mohacz  and  Varna? 
It  was  a  matter  of  pride  for  the  Hungarian  to  detach  him- 
self from  the  Turk ;  and  the  evidence  is  certainly  on  his 
side.  Hunfalvy's  conclusions  have  successfully  defied  the 
assaults  of  Vambery.30     Again  in  Russia  there  has  been  a  <« origin  of 

J  D  the  Russian 

long  and  vigorous  contest, — the  so-called  Norman  or  No^nknmc 
Varangian  question.  No  doubt  is  felt  now  by  the  impartial 
judge  as  to  the  Scandinavian  origin  of  the  princes  of  Kiev, 
and  that  the  making  of  Russia  was  due  to  Northmen  or 
Varangians.  Kunik  and  Pogodin  were  reinforced  by 
Thomsen  of  Denmark  ;  and  the  pure  Slavism  of  Ilovaiski 31 

29  Fallmerayer's  thesis  that  there  was  no  pure  Hellenic  blood  in  Greece  was 
triumphantly  refuted.  No  one  denies  that  there  was  a  large  Slavonic 
element  in  the  country  parts,  especially  of  the  Peloponnesus. 

30  In  a  paper  entitled,  The  Coming  of  the  Hungarians,  in  the  Scottish 
Review  of  July,  1892,  I  have  discussed  the  questions  connected  with  early 
Magyar  history,  and  criticized  Hunfalvy's  Magyarorszag  Ethnographiaja 
(1876)  and  Vambery's  A  magyarok  eredete  (1882).  One  of  the  best  works 
dealing  with  the  subject  has  been  written  by  a  Slav  (C.  Grot). 

31  Ilovaiski's  work  Istorija  Rossii,  vol.  i.  (Kiev  period),  is,  though  his  main 
thesis  is  a  mistake,  most  instructive. 

e  VOL.    I. 


lxvi  INTRODUCTION 

and  Gedeonov,  though  its  champions  were  certainly  able,  is  a 
lost  cause, 
progress  in         From  such  collisions    sparks  have  flown  and  illuminated 

Slavonic  JT 

EdMitory  dark  corners.  For  the  Slavs  the  road  was  first  cleared  by 
Safarik.  The  development  of  the  comparative  philology  of 
the  Indo-Germanic  tongues  has  had  its  effect ;  the  Slavonic 
languages  have  been  brought  into  line,  chiefly  by  the  life- 
work  of  Miklosich ;  and  the  science  is  being  developed  by 
such  scholars  as  Jagic  and  Leskien.  The  several  countries 
of  the  Balkan  lands  have  their  archaeologists  and  archaeological 
journals;  and  the  difficulty  which  now  meets  the  historian 
is  not  the  absence  but  the  plenitude  of  philological  and 
historical  literature. 

me  early  A  word  may  be  added  about  the  Hungarians,  who  have 

history  of  J  m  . 

the  Magyars  no|.  been  so  successful  with  their  early  history  as  the  Slavs. 
Until  the  appearance  of  Ffunfalvy,  their  methods  were  ante- 
diluvian, and  their  temper  credulous.  The  special  work  of 
Jaszay,  and  the  first  chapters  of  Szalay's  great  History  of 
Hungary,  showed  no  advance  on  Katdna  and  Pray,  who  were 
consulted  by  Gibbon.  All  believed  in  the  Anonymous 
Scribe  of  King  Bela ;  Jaszay  simply  transcribed  him.  Then 
Roesler  came  and  dispelled  the  illusion.  Our  main  sources 
now  are  Constantine  Porphyrogennetos,  and  the  earlier 
Asiatic  traveller  Ibn  Dasta,  who  has  been  rendered  accessible 
by  Chwolson.32  The  linguistic  researches  of  Ahlquist, 
Hunfalvy  and  others  into  Vogul,  Ostjak  and  the  rest  of  the 
Ugro-Finnic  kindred,  must  be  taken  into  account  by  the 
critic  who  is  dealing  with  those  main  sources.  The  Chazars, 
to  whom  the  Hungarians  were  once  subject,  the  Patzinaks, 
who  drove  the  Magyars  from  "  Lebedia  "  to  "  Atelkuzu  "  and 


52  Chwolson,  Izviestiia  o  Chozarach,  Burtasach,  Bolgaracb,  Madiarach, 
Slavaniacb,  i  Rusach. 


INTRODUCTION  lxvii 

from   "Atelkuzu"  to  Pannonia,  and    other   peoples  of  the 
same  kind,  have  profited  by  these  investigations. 

The  foregoing  instances  will  serve  to  give  a  general  idea  of 
the  respects  in  which  Gibbon's  history  might  be  described  as 
behind  date.  To  follow  out  all  the  highways  and  byways  of 
progress  would  mean  the  usurpation  of  at  least  a  volume  by 
the  editor.  What  more  has  to  be  said,  must  be  said  briefly 
in  notes  and  appendices.  That  Gibbon  is  behind  date  in 
many  details,  and  in  some  departments  of  importance,  simply 
signifies  that  we  and  our  fathers  have  not  lived  in  an 
absolutely  incompetent  world.  But  in  the  main  things  he  is 
still  our  master,  above  and  beyond  "  date ".  It  is  needless 
to  dwell  on  the  obvious  qualities  which  secure  to  him  im- 
munity from  the  common  lot  of  historical  writers, — such  as 
the  bold  and  certain  measure  of  his  progress  through  the  ages ; 
his  accurate  vision,  and  his  tact  in  managing  perspective;  his 
discreet  reserves  of  judgment  and  timely  scepticism;  the 
immortal  affectation  of  his  unique  manner.  By  virtue  of 
these  superiorities  he  can  defy  the  danger  with  which  the 
activity  of  successors  must  always  threaten  the  worthies  of 
the  past.  But  there  is  another  point  which  was  touched  on  in 
an  earlier  page  and  to  which  here,  in  a  different  connexion, 
we  may  briefly  revert.  It  is  well  to  realize  that  the  greatest 
history  of  modern  times  was  written  by  one  in  whom  a  dis- 
trust of  enthusiasm  was  deeply  rooted.33  This  cynicism  was 
not  inconsistent  with  partiality,  with  definite  prepossessions, 
with  a  certain  spite.  In  fact  it  supplied  the  antipathy 
which  the  artist  infused  when  he  mixed  his  most  effective 
colours.  The  conviction  that  enthusiasm  is  inconsistent  with 
intellectual   balance   was  engrained  in  his  mental   constitu- 


33  And  who  regarded  history  as  "little  more  than  the  register  of  the  crimes, 
follies  and  misfortunes  of  mankind  "  (see  below,  p.  77). 


lxviii  INTRODUCTION 

tion,  and  confirmed  by  study  and  experience.  It  might  be 
reasonably  maintained  that  zeal  for  men  or  causes  is  an 
historian's  marring,  and  that  "  reserve  sympathy " — the 
principle  of  Thucydides — is  the  first  lesson  he  has  to  learn. 
But  without  venturing  on  any  generalization  we  must 
consider  Gibbon's  zealous  distrust  of  zeal  as  an  essential 
and  most  suggestive  characteristic  of  the  "  Decline  and 
Fair. 


THE  HISTORY 

OF    THE 

DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE 

CHAPTEE  I 

The  Extent  and  Military  Force  of  the  Empire  in  the  Age  of  the 

Antonines 

In  the  second  century  of  the  Christian  ./Era,  the  empire  of  Rome  introduction 
comprehended  the  fairest  part  of  the  earth,  and  the  most 
civilized  portion  of  mankind.  The  frontiers  of  that  extensive 
monarchy  were  guarded  by  ancient  renown  and  disciplined 
valour.  The  gentle,  but  powerful,  influence  of  laws  and  manners 
had  gradually  cemented  the  union  of  the  provinces.  Their 
peaceful  inhabitants  enjoyed  and  abused  the  advantages  of 
wealth  and  luxury.  The  image  of  a  free  constitution  was 
preserved  with  decent  reverence.  The  Roman  senate  appeared 
to  possess  the  sovereign  authority,  and  devolved  on  the  em- 
perors all  the  executive  powers  of  government.  During  a 
happy  period  of  more  than  fourscore  years,  the  public  adminis-  a.d.  9&.180 
tration  was  conducted  by  the  virtue  and  abilities  of  Nerva, 
Trajan,  Hadrian,  and  the  two  Antonines.  It  is  the  design  of 
this  and  of  the  two  succeeding  chapters,  to  describe  the  prosper- 
ous condition  of  their  empire  ;  and  afterwards,  from  the  death 
of  Marcus  Antoninus,  to  deduce  the  most  important  circum- 
stances of  its  decline  and  fall :  a  revolution  which  will  ever  be 
remembered,  and  is  still  felt  by  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

The  principal  conquests  of  the  Romans  were  achieved  under  Moderation 
the  republic  ;  and  the  emperors,  for  the  most  part,  were  satisfied  o1  **** 
with  preserving  those  dominions  which  had  been  acquired  by 
the  policy  of  the  senate,  the  active  emulation  of  the  consuls,  and 
the  martial  enthusiasm  of  the  people.  The  seven  first  centuries 
were  filled  with  a  rapid  succession  of  triumphs  ;  but  it  was 
reserved    for   Augustus  to  relinquish    the   ambitious  design  of 

1  VOL.  I. 


2  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

subduing  the  whole  earth,  and  to  introduce  a  spirit  of  moderation 
into  the  public  councils.  Inclined  to  peace  by  his  temper  and 
situation,  it  was  easy  for  him  to  discover  that  Rome,  in  her 
present  exalted  situation,  had  much  less  to  hope  than  to  fear 
from  the  chance  of  arms  ;  and  that,  in  the  prosecution  of  remote 
wars,  the  undertaking  became  every  day  more  difficult,  the 
event  more  doubtful,  and  the  possession  more  precarious  and 
less  beneficial.  The  experience  of  Augustus  added  weight  to 
these  salutary  reflections,  and  effectually  convinced  him  that,  by 
the  prudent  vigour  of  his  counsels,  it  would  be  easy  to  secure 
every  concession  which  the  safety  or  the  dignity  of  Rome  might 
require  from  the  most  formidable  barbarians.  Instead  of  expos- 
ing his  person  and  his  legions  to  the  arrows  of  the  Parthians, 
he  obtained,  by  an  honourable  treaty,  the  restitution  of  the 
standards  and  prisoners  which  had  been  taken  in  the  defeat 
of  Crassus.1 

His  generals,  in  the  early  part  of  his  reign,  attempted  the 
reduction  of  ^Ethiopia  and  Arabia  Felix.  They  marched  near 
a  thousand  miles  to  the  south  of  the  tropic  ;  but  the  heat  of  the 
climate  soon  repelled  the  invaders  and  protected  the  unwarlike 
natives  of  those  sequestered  regions.2  The  northern  countries 
of  Europe  scarcely  deserved  the  expense  and  labour  of  conquest. 
The  forests  and  morasses  of  Germany  were  filled  with  a  hardy 
race  of  barbarians,  who  despised  life  when  it  was  separated  from 
freedom  ;  and  though,  on  the  first  attack,  they  seemed  to  yield 
to  the  weight  of  the  Roman  power,  they  soon,  by  a  signal  act  of 
despair,  regained  their  independence,  and  reminded  Augustus  of 
the  vicissitude  of  fortune.3  On  the  death  of  that  emperor  his 
testament  was  publicly  read  in  the  senate.  He  bequeathed,  as 
a  valuable  legacy  to  his  successors,  the  advice  of  confining  the 
empire  within  those  limits  which  nature  seemed  to  have  placed 

1Dion  Cassius  (1.  liv.  p.  736  [8])  with  the  annotations  of  Reimar,  who  as 
collected  all  that  Roman  vanity  has  left  upon  the  subject.  The  marble  of  Ancyra, 
on  which  Augustus  recorded  his  own  exploits,  asserts  that  he  compelled  the  Parthians 
to  restore  the  ensigns  of  Crassus. 

2Strabo  (1.  xvi.  p.  780),  Pliny  the  elder  (Hist.  Natur.  1.  vi.  32,  35  [28,  29]) 
and  Dion  Cassius  (1.  liii.  p.  723  [29],  and  1.  liv.  p.  734  [6] )  have  left  us  very 
curious  details  concerning  these  wars.  The  Romans  made  themselves  masters  of 
Mariaba,  or  Merab,  a  city  of  Arabia  Felix,  well  known  to  the  Orientals  (see 
Abulfeda  and  the  Nubian  geography,  p.  52).  They  were  arrived  within  three 
clays'  journey  of  the  Spice  country,  the  rich  object  of  their  invasion.  [See  Momm- 
sen,  Romische  Geschichte,  v.  p.  608  sqq.~\ 

3  By  the  slaughter  of  Varus  and  his  three  legions.  See  the  first  book  of  the 
Annals  of  Tacitus.  Sueton.  in  August,  c.  23,  and  Velleius  Paterculus,  1.  ii.  c. 
117,  &c.  Augustus  did  not  receive  the  melancholy  news  with  all  the  temper  and 
firmness  that  might  have  been  expected  from  his  character. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  3 

as  its  permanent  bulwarks  and  boundaries  ;  on  the  west  the 
Atlantic  ocean ;  the  Rhine  and  Danube  on  the  north ;  the 
Euphrates  on  the  east ;  and  towards  the  south  the  sandy  deserts 
of  Arabia  and  Africa.4 

Happily  for  the  repose  of  mankind,  the  moderate  system  imitated 
recommended  by  the  wisdom  of  Augustus  was  adopted  by  the  cessd™"0" 
fears  and  vices  of  his  immediate  successors.  Engaged  in  the 
pursuit  of  pleasure  or  in  the  exercise  of  tyranny,  the  first  Caesars 
seldom  showed  themselves  to  the  armies,  or  to  the  provinces  ; 
nor  were  they  disposed  to  suffer  that  those  triumphs  which  their 
indolence  neglected  should  be  usurped  by  the  conduct  and 
valour  of  their  lieutenants.  The  military  fame  of  a  subject  was 
considered  as  an  insolent  invasion  of  the  Imperial  prerogative ; 
and  it  became  the  duty,  as  well  as  interest,  of  every  Roman 
general,  to  guard  the  frontiers  intrusted  to  his  care,  without  as- 
piring to  conquests  which  might  have  proved  no  less  fatal  to 
himself  than  to  the  vanquished  barbarians.5 

The  only  accession  which  the  Roman  empire  received  during  conquest 
the  first  century  of  the  Christian  sera  was  the  province  of  Britain.  wasrtne 
In  this   single  instance  the  successors  of  Caesar  and  Augustus  tion  to"1' 
were  persuaded  to  follow  the  example  of  the  former,  rather  than 
the  precept  of  the  latter.      The  proximity  of  its  situation  to  the 
coast  of  Gaul  seemed  to  invite  their  arms  ;  the  pleasing,  though 
doubtful,  intelligence  of  a  peai-1  fishery  attracted  their  avarice  ; 6 
and  as  Britain  was  viewed  in  the  light  of  a  distinct  and  insulated 
world,  the  conquest  scarcely  formed  any  exception  to  the  general 
system  of  continental  measures.     After  a  war  of  about   forty 
years,  undertaken  by  the  most  stupid,7  maintained  by  the  most 
dissolute,  and  terminated  by  the  most  timid  of  all  the  emperors, 


*  Tacit.  Annal.  1.  ii.  [i.  n],  Dion  Cassius,  1.  lvi.  p.  832  [33],  and  the  speech  of 
Augustus  himself,  in  Julian's  Caesars.  It  receives  great  light  from  the  learned 
notes  of  his  French  translator,  M.  Spanheim. 

'Germanicus,  Suetonius  Paulinus,  and  Agricola  were  checked  and  recalled 
in  the  course  of  their  victories.  Corbulo  was  put  to  death.  Military  merit,  as  it 
is  admirably  expressed  by  Tacitus,  was,  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word, 
imperatoria  virtus. 

6  Caesar  himself  conceals  that  ignoble  motive  ;  but  it  is  mentioned  by  Suetonius, 
c.  47.  The  British  pearls  proved,  however,  of  little  value,  on  account  of  their 
dark  and  livid  colour.  Tacitus  observes,  with  reason  (in  Agricola,  c.  12),  that  it 
was  an  inherent  defect.  "  Ego  facilius  crediderim,  naturam  margaritis  deesse 
quam  nobis  avaritiam." 

7  Claudius,  Nero,  and  Domitian.  A  hope  is  expressed  by  Pomponius  Mela,  1. 
iii.  c.  6  (he  wrote  under  Claudius),  that,  by  the  success  of  the  Roman  arms,  the 
island  and  its  savage  inhabitants  would  soon  be  better  known.  It  is  amusing 
enough  to  peruse  such  passages  in  thu  midst  of  London. 


4  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

the  far  greater  part  of  the  island  submitted  to  the  Roman  yoke.8 
The  various  tribes  of  Britons  possessed  valour  without  conduct, 
and  the  love  of  freedom  without  the  spirit  of  union.  They  took  up 
arms  with  savage  fierceness,  they  laid  them  down,  or  turned 
them  against  each  other  with  wild  inconstancy  ;  and  while  they 
fought  singly,  they  were  successively  subdued.  Neither  the 
fortitude  of  Caractacus,  nor  the  despair  of  Boadicea,  nor  the 
fanaticism  of  the  Druids,  could  avert  the  slavery  of  their  country, 
or  resist  the  steady  progress  of  the  Imperial  generals,  who 
maintained  the  national  glory,  when  the  throne  was  disgraced 
by  the  weakest  or  the  most  vicious  of  mankind.  At  the  very 
time  when  Domitian,  confined  to  his  palace,  felt  the  terrors 
which  he  inspired,  his  legions,  under  the  command  of  the 
virtuous  Agricola,  defeated  the  collected  force  of  the  Caledonians 
at  the  foot  of  the  Grampian  hills  ;  9  and  his  fleets,  venturing  to 
explore  an  unknown  and  dangerous  navigation,  displayed  the 
Roman  arms  round  every  part  of  the  island.  The  conquest 
of  Britain  was  considered  as  already  achieved  ;  and  it  was  the 
design  of  Agricola  to  complete  and  ensure  his  success  by  the 
easy  reduction  of  Ireland,  for  which,  in  his  opinion,  one  legion 
and  a  few  auxiliaries  were  sufficient.10  The  western  isle  might 
be  improved  into  a  valuable  possession,  and  the  Britons  would 
wear  their  chains  with  the  less  reluctance,  if  the  prospect  and 
example  of  freedom  was  on  every  side  removed  from  before 
their  eyes. 

But  the  superior  merit  of  Agricola  soon  occasioned  his  removal 
from  the  government  of  Britain  ;  and  for  ever  disappointed  this 
rational,  though  extensive,  scheme  of  conquest.  Before  his 
departure  the  prudent  general  had  provided  for  security  as  well 
as  for  dominion.  He  had  observed  that  the  island  is  almost 
divided  into  two  unequal  parts  by  the  opposite  gulfs  or,  as  they 
are  now  called,  the  Friths  of  Scotland.  Across  the  narrow  interval 
of  about  forty  miles  he  had  drawn  a  line  of  military  stations, 
which  was  afterwards  fortified,  in  the  reign  of  Antoninus  Pius,  by 
a  turf  rampart,  erected  on  foundations  of  stone.11     This  wall 

8  See  the  admirable  abridgment,  given  by  Tacitus,  in  the  Life  of  Agricola,  and 
copiously,  though  perhaps  not  completely,  illustrated  by  our  own  antiquarians, 
Camden  and  Horsley.     [See  Appendix  2.] 

9  [There  is  no  good  ground  for  the  identification  of  mons  Graupius  with  the 
Grampian  hills.  The  date  of  the  battle  was  84  or  85  A.D. ;  the  place  is  quite 
uncertain.] 

10  The  Irish  writers,  jealous  of  their  national  honour,  are  extremely  provoked  on 
this  occasion,  both  with  Tacitus  and  with  Agricola.  [Agricola's  design  was  not 
carried  out  because  Domitian  refused  to  send  the  additional  legion.] 

11  See  Horsley's  Britannia  Romana.  1.  i.  c.  10. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  5 

of  Antoninus,  at  a  small  distance  beyond  the  modern  cities  of 
Edinburgh  and  Glasgow,  was  fixed  as  the  limit  of  the  Roman 
province.  The  native  Caledonians  preserved,  in  the  northern  ex- 
tremity of  the  island,  their  wild  independence,  for  which  they 
were  not  less  indebted  to  their  poverty  than  to  their  valour. 
Their  incursions  were  frequently  repelled  and  chastised;  but 
their  country  was  never  subdued.12  The  masters  of  the  fairest 
and  most  wealthy  climates  of  the  globe  turned  with  contempt 
from  gloomy  hills  assailed  by  the  winter  tempest,  from  lakes 
concealed  in  a  blue  mist,  and  from  cold  and  lonely  heaths,  over 
which  the  deer  of  the  forest  were  chased  by  a  troop  of  naked 
barbarians.13 

Such  was  the  state  of  the  Roman  frontiers,  and  such  the  conquest,  of 
maxims  of  Imperial  policy,  from  the  death  of  Augustus  to  the  second  Ci-e 
accession  of  Trajan.  That  virtuous  and  active  prince  had  re- fiVTc.vicc] 
ceived  the  education  of  a  soldier,  and  possessed  the  talents  of  a 
general.14  The  peaceful  system  of  his  predecessors  was  inter- 
rupted by  scenes  of  war  and  conquest ;  and  the  legions,  after  a 
long  interval,  beheld  a  military  emperor  at  their  head.  The  first 
exploits  of  Trajan  were  aga'nst  the  Dacians.  the  most  warlike  of 
men,  who  dwelt  beyond  the  Danube,  and  who,  during  the  reign 
of  Domitian,  had  insulted,  with  impunity,  the  majesty  of  Rome.15 
To  the  strength  and  fierceness  of  barbarians  they  added  a  con- 
tempt for  life,  which  was  derived  from  a  warm  persuasion  of  the 
immortality  and  ti-ansmigration  of  the  soul.16  Decebalus,  the 
Dacian  king,  approved  himself  a  rival  not  unworthy  of  Trajan ; 
nor  did  he  despair  of  his  own  and  the  public  fortune,  till,  by  the 
confession  of  his  enemies,  he  had  exhausted  every  resource  both 
of  valour  and  policy.17  This  memorable  war,  with  a  very  short 
suspension  of  hostilities,  lasted  five  years  ;  and  as  the  emperor 
could  exert,  without  control,  the  whole  force  of  the  state,  it  was 
terminated  by  the  absolute  submission  of  the  barbarians. 1S  The 
new  province  of  Dacia,  which  formed  a  second  exception  to  the 

12 The  poet  Buchanan  celebrates,  with  elegance  and  spirit  (see  his  Sylvae,  v.), 
the  unviolated  independence  of  his  native  country.  But,  if  the  single  testimony  of 
Richard  of  Cirencester  was  sufficient  to  create  a  Roman  province  of  Vespasiana  to 
the  north  of  the  wall,  that  independence  would  be  reduced  within  very  narrow  limits. 

13  See  Appian  (in  Procem.  [5])  and  the  uniform  imagery  of  Ossian's  poems, 
which,  according  to  every  hypothesis,  were  composed  by  a  native  Caledonian. 

14  See  Pliny's  Panegyric,  which  seems  founded  on  facts. 

15  Dion  Cassius,  1.  lxvii.  [6  et  sqq.]. 

18  Herodotus,  1.  iv.  c.  94.     Julian  in  the  Caesars,  with  Spanheim's  observations. 

17  Plin.  Epist.  viii.  9. 

18  Dion  Cassius,  1.  lxviii.  p.1  1123,  1131  [6  and  14].  Julian,  in  Csesaribus. 
Eutropius,  viii.  2,  6.    Aurelius  Victor  in  Epitome.     [See  Appendix  3.] 


6  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

precept  of  Augustus,  was  about  thirteen  hundred  miles  in  cir- 
cumference. Its  natural  boundaries  were  the  Dniester,  the 
Theiss,  or  Tibiscus,  the  Lower  Danube,  and  the  Euxine  Sea. 
The  vestiges  of  a  military  road  may  still  be  traced  from  the 
banks  of  the  Danube  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Bender,  a  place 
famous  in  modem  history,  and  the  actual  frontier  of  the  Turkish 
and  Russian  empires.19 
oenqneati of  Trajan  was  ambitious  of  fame  ;  and  as  long  as  mankind  shall 
cut  '  continue  to  bestow  more  liberal  applause  on  their  destroyers  than 

on  their  benefactors,  the  thirst  of  military  glory  will  ever  be  the 
vice  of  the  most  exalted  characters.  The  praises  of  Alexander, 
transmitted  by  a  succession  of  poets  and  historians,  had  kindled 
a  dangerous  emulation  in  the  mind  of  Trajan.  Like  him,  the 
Roman  emperor  undertook  an  expedition  against  the  nations 
of  the  east,  but  he  lamented  with  a  sigh  that  his  advanced  age 
scarcely  left  him  any  hopes  of  equalling  the  renown  of  the  son 
of  Philip.20  Yet  the  success  of  Trajan,  however  transient, 
was  rapid  and  specious.  The  degenerate  Parthians,  broken  by 
intestine  discord,  fled  before  his  arms.  He  descended  the 
river  Tigris  in  triumph,  from  the  mountains  of  Armenia  to  the 
Persian  gulf.  He  enjoyed  the  honour  of  being  the  first,  as  he 
was  the  last,  of  the  Roman  generals,  who  ever  navigated  that 
remote  sea.  His  fleets  ravished  the  coasts  of  Arabia ;  and 
Trajan  vainly  flattered  himself  that  he  was  approaching  towards 
the  confines  of  India. a  Every  day  the  astonished  senate 
received  the  intelligence  of  new  names  and  new  nations  that 
acknowledged  his  sway.  They  were  informed  that  the  kings 
of  Bosphorus,  Colchos,  Iberia,  Albania,  Osrhoene,  and  even  the 
Parthian  monarch  himself,  had  accepted  their  diadems  from 
the  hands  of  the  emperor ;  that  the  independent  tribes  of  the 
Median  and  Carduchian  hills  had  implored  his  protection  ;  and 
that  the  rich  countries  of  Armenia,  Mesopotamia,  and  Assyria, 
were  reduced  into  the  state  of  provinces.22  But  the  death 
of  Trajan  soon   clouded  the  splendid   prospect ; 23  and   it   was 

19  See  a  Memoir  of  M.  d'Anville,  on  the  Province  ofDacia,  in  the  Acad£mie 
des  Inscriptions,  torn,  xxviii.  ;  p.  444-468. 

20  Trajan's  sentiments  are  represented  in  a  very  just  and  lively  manner  in  the 
Caesars  of  Julian.     [The  date  of  the  beginning  of  the  Parthian  War  is  114  a.d.] 

21  Eutropius  and  Sextus  Rufus  have  endeavoured  to  perpetuate  the  illusion. 
See  a  very  sensible  dissertation  of  M.  Freret,  in  the  Acad^mie  des  Inscriptions, 
torn.  xxi.  p.  55. 

22  Dion  Cassius,  1.  lxviii.  [18  et  sqq.~\  ;  and  the  Abbreviators. 

23  [117  A.D.  A  triumph  in  honour  of  this  eastern  expedition  was  celebrated 
after  the  emperor's  death.  On  inscriptions  he  is  called  Divus  Traianus  Parthicus, 
instead  of  Divus  Traianus  (Schiller,  Gesch.  dtr  rum.  Kaiscrzeit,  i.  563).] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  7 

justly  to  be  dreaded  that  so  many  distant  nations  would  throw 
off  the  unaccustomed  yoke,  when  they  were  no  longer  restrained 
by  the  powerful  hand  which  had  imposed  it. 

It  was  an  ancient  tradition  that,  when  the  Capitol  was  founded  Resigned  by 
by  one  of  the  Roman  kings,  the  god  Terminus  (who  presided  Hadrian0*80' 
over  boundaries,  and  was  represented  according  to  the  fashion  of 
that  age  by  a  large  stone)  alone,  among  all  the  inferior  deities, 
refused  to  yield  his  place  to  Jupiter  himself.  A  favourable  in- 
ference was  drawn  from  his  obstinacy,  which  was  interpreted  by 
the  augurs  as  a  sure  presage  that  the  boundaries  of  the  Roman 
power  would  never  recede.24  During  many  ages,  the  predic- 
tion, as  it  is  usual,  contributed  to  its  own  accomplishment.  But 
though  Terminus  had  resisted  the  majesty  of  Jupiter,  he  sub- 
mitted to  the  authority  of  the  emperor  Hadrian.25  The  re- 
signation of  all  the  eastern  conquests  of  Trajan  was  the  first 
measure  of  his  reign.  He  restored  to  the  Parthians  the  election 
of  an  independent  sovereign ;  withdrew  the  Roman  garrisons  from 
the  provinces  of  Armenia,  Mesopotamia,  and  Assyria  ;  and,  in 
compliance  with  the  precepts  of  Augustus,  once  more  established 
the  Euphrates  as  the  frontier  of  the  empire.26  Censure,  which 
arraigns  the  public  actions  and  the  private  motives  of  princes, 
has  ascribed  to  envy  a  conduct  which  might  be  attributed  to  the 
prudence  and  moderation  of  Hadrian.  The  various  character  of 
that" emperor,  capable,  by  turns,  of  the  meanest  and  the  most 
generous  sentiments,  may  afford  some  colour  to  the  suspicion.  It 
was,  however,  scarcely  in  his  power  to  place  the  superiority  of 
his  predecessor  in  a  more  conspicuous  light,  than  by  thus  con- 
fessing himself  unequal  to  the  task  of  defending  the  conquests 
of  Trajan. 

The  martial  and  ambitious  spirit  of  Trajan  formed  a  very  sin-  contrast  of 
gular  contrast  with  the  moderation  of  his  successor.  The  restless  Antoninus 
activity  of  Hadrian  was  not  less  remarkable  when  compared  with 
the  gentle  repose  of  Antoninus  Pius.  The  life  of  the  former 
was  almost  a  perpetual  journey  ;  and  as  he  possessed  the  various 
talents  of  the  soldier,  the  statesman,  and  the  scholar,  he  gratified 
his  curiosity  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty.     Careless  of  the  dif- 

24  Ovid  Fast.  1.  ii.  ver.  667.  See  Livy  [i.  55] ,  and  Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus, 
under  the  reign  of  Tarquin. 

25  St.  Augustin  is  highly  delighted  with  the  proof  of  the  weakness  of  Terminus, 
and  the  vanity  of  the  Augurs.  See  De  Civitate  Dei,  iv.  29.  [The  loss  of  trans- 
Rhenane  Germany  was  a  previous  instance  of  the  retreat  of  Terminus.] 

26  See  the  Augustan  History,  p.  5  [i.  9].  Jerome's  Chronicle,  and  all  the 
Epitomisers.  It  is  somewhat  surprising,  that  this  memorable  event  should  be 
omitted  by  Dion,  or  rather  by  Xiphilin.    [See  Appendix  3. 


Pica 


8  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

ference  of  seasons  and  of  climates,  he  marched  on  foot,  and  bare- 
headed, over  the  snows  of  Caledonia,  and  the  sultry  plains  of  the 
Upper  Egypt ;  nor  was  there  a  province  of  the  empire  which,  in 
the  course  of  his  reign,  was  not  honoured  with  the  presence  of 
the  monarch.27  But  the  tranquil  life  of  Antoninus  Pius  was  spent 
in  the  bosom  of  Italy  ;  and,  during  the  twenty-three  years  that 
he  directed  the  public  administration,  the  longest  journeys  of 
that  amiable  prince  extended  no  farther  than  from  his  palace 
in  Rome  to  the  retirement  of  his  Lanuvian  villa.28 
Padiicjys-  Notwithstanding  this  difference  in  their  personal  conduct,  the 

drtan  aDd  the  general  system  of  Augustus  was  equally  adopted  and  uniformly 
luces  *  pursued  by  Hadrian  and  by  the  two  Antonines.  They  persisted 
in  the  design  of  maintaining  the  dignity  of  the  empire,  without 
attempting  to  enlarge  its  limits.  By  every  honourable  expedient 
they  invited  the  friendship  of  the  barbarians  ;  and  endeavoured 
to  convince  mankind  that  the  Roman  power,  raised  above  the 
temptation  of  conquest,  was  actuated  only  by  the  love  of  order 
and  justice.  During  a  long  period  of  forty-three  years  their 
virtuous  labours  were  crowned  with  success  ;  and,  if  we  except  a 
few  slight  hostilities  that  served  to  exercise  the  legions  of  the 
frontier,  the  reigns  of  Hadrian  and  Antoninus  Pius  offer  the  fair 
prospect  of  universal  peace.29  The  Roman  name  was  revered 
among  the  most  remote  nations  of  the  earth.  The  fiercest 
barbarians  frequently  submitted  their  differences  to  the  arbitra- 
tion of  the  emperor  ;  and  we  are  informed  by  a  contemporary 
historian  that  he  had  seen  ambassadors  who  were  refused  the 
honour  which  they  came  to  solicit,  of  being  admitted  into  the 
rank  of  subjects.30 
Defensive  The  terror  of  the  Roman  arms  added  weight  and  dignity  to 

MarensAn-  the  moderation  of  the  emperors.  They  preserved  peace  by  a 
constant  preparation  for  war  ;  and  while  justice  regulated  their 
conduct,  they  announced  to  the  nations  on  their  confines  that 

27  Dion,  1.  Ixix.  p.  115  [9].  Hist.  August,  p.  5,  8  [i.  10  and  16].  If  all  our 
historians  were  lost,  medals,  inscriptions,  and  other  monuments,  would  be 
sufficient  to  record  the  travels  of  Hadrian.  [See  Diirr,  Die  Reisen  des  Kaisers 
Hadrian,  1881.] 

28  See  the  Augustan  History  and  the  Epitomes.     [Date  :  138-161  A.D.] 

29  We  must,  however,  remember  that,  in  the  time  of  Hadrian,  a  rebellion  of 
the  Jews  raged  with  religious  fury,  though  only  in  a  single  province.  Pausanias 
(1.  viii.  c.  43),  mentions  two  necessary  and  successful  wars,  conducted  by  the 
generals  of  Pius.  1st,  Against  the  wandering  Moors,  who  were  driven  into  the 
solitudes  of  Atlas.  2d,  Against  the  Brigantes  of  Britain,  who  had  invaded  the 
Roman  province.  Both  these  wars  (with  several  other  hostilities)  are  mentioned 
in  the  Augustan  History,  p.  19  [ii.  5} 

30  Appian  of  Alexandria,  in  the  preface  to  his  History  of  the  Roman  Wars  [7] . 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  9 

they  were  as  little  disposed  to  endure  as  to  offer  an  injury.  The 
military  strength,  which  it  had  been  sufficient  for  Hadrian  and 
the  elder  Antoninus  to  display,  was  exerted  against  the  Parthians 
and  the  Germans  by  the  emperor  Marcus.  The  hostilities  of 
the  barbarians  provoked  the  resentment  of  that  philosophic 
monarch,  and,  in  the  prosecution  of  a  just  defence,  Marcus  and 
his  generals  obtained  many  signal  victories,  both  on  the  Euphrates 
and  on  the  Danube.31  The  military  establishment  of  the  Roman 
empire,  which  thus  assured  either  its  tranquillity  or  success,  will 
now  become  the  proper  and  important  object  of  our  attention. 

In  the  purer  ages  of  the  commonwealth,  the  use  of  arms  was  Military 
reserved  for  those  ranks  of  citizens  who  had  a  country  to  love,  a  *'  the  Bomu 
property  to  defend,  and  some  share  in  enacting  those  laws  which  empero^, 
it  was  their  interest,  as  well  as  duty,  to  maintain.  But  in 
proportion  as  the  public  freedom  was  lost  in  extent  of  conquest, 
war  was  gradually  improved  into  an  art,  and  degraded  into 
a  trade.32  The  legions  themselves,  even  at  the  time  when  they 
were  recruited  in  the  most  distant  provinces,  were  supposed 
to  consist  of  Roman  citizens.  That  distinction  was  generally 
considered  either  as  a  legal  qualification  or  as  a  proper  recom- 
pense for  the  soldier  ;  but  a  more  serious  regard  was  paid  to  the 
essential  merit  of  age,  strength,  and  military  stature.33  In 
all  levies,  a  just  preference  was  given  to  the  climates  of  the 
north  over  those  of  the  south  ;  the  race  of  men  born  to  the 
exercise  of  arms  was  sought  for  in  the  country  rather  than  in 
cities,  and  it  was  very  reasonably  presumed  that  the  hardy 
occupations  of  smiths,  carpenters,  and  huntsmen  would  supply 
more  vigour  and  resolution  than  the  sedentaiy  trades  which  are 
employed  in  the  service  of  luxury.34  After  every  qualification  of 
property  had  been  laid  aside,  the  armies  of  the  Roman  emperors 
were  still  commanded,  for  the  most  part,  by  officers  of  a  liberal 
birth  and  education;  but  the  common  soldiers,  like  the  mercenary 

31  Dion,  1.  lxxi.  Hist.  August,  in  Marco  [iv.  9,  12, 17,  20,  22,  &c.].  The  Parthian 
victories  gave  birth  to  a  crowd  of  contemptible  historians,  whose  memory  has  been 
rescued  from  oblivion,  and  exposed  to  ridicule,  in  a  very  lively  piece  of  criticism  of 
Lucian. 

32  The  poorest  rank  of  soldiers  possessed  above  forty  pounds  sterling  (Dionys. 
Halicarn.  iv.  17),  a  very  high  qualification,  at  a  time  when  money  was  so  scarce, 
that  an  ounce  of  silver  was  equivalent  to  seventy  pound  weight  of  brass.  The 
populace,  excluded  by  the  ancient  constitution,  were  indiscriminately  admitted 
by  Marius.     See  Sallust.  de  Bell.  Jugurth.  c.  91  [86]. 

33  Caesar  formed  his  legion  Alauda  of  Gauls  and  strangers ;  but  it  was  during 
the  licence  of  civil  war ;  and  after  the  victory  he  gave  them  the  freedom  of  the 
city,  for  their  reward.     [It  was  really  formed,  B.C.  55 ;  Suetonius,  Jul.  24.] 

81  See  Vegetius  de  Re  Militari,  1.  i.  c.  2-7. 


10  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

troops  of  modern  Europe,  were  drawn  from  the  meanest,  and 
very  frequently  from  the  most  profligate,  of  mankind. 
Difdpiiiu  That  public  virtue,  which  among  the  ancients  was  denominated 

patriotism,  is  derived  from  a  strong  sense  of  our  own  interest  in 
the  preservation  and  prosperity  of  the  free  government  of  which 
we  are  members.  Such  a  sentiment,  which  had  rendered  the 
legions  of  the  republic  almost  invincible,  could  make  but  a 
very  feeble  impression  on  the  mercenary  servants  of  a  despotic 
prince ;  and  it  became  necessary  to  supply  that  defect  by  other 
motives,  of  a  different,  but  not  less  forcible  nature, — honour 
and  religion.  The  peasant,  or  mechanic,  imbibed  the  useful 
prejudice  that  he  was  advanced  to  the  more  dignified  profession 
of  arms,  in  which  his  rank  and  reputation  would  depend  on  his 
own  valour  ;  and  that,  although  the  prowess  of  a  private  soldier 
must  often  escape  the  notice  of  fame,  his  own  behaviour  might 
sometimes  confer  glory  or  disgrace  on  the  company,  the  legion, 
or  even  the  army,  to  whose  honours  he  was  associated.  On  his 
first  entrance  into  the  service,  an  oath  was  administered  to  him 
with  every  circumstance  of  solemnity.  He  promised  never  to 
desert  his  standard,  to  submit  his  own  will  to  the  commands  of 
his  leaders,  and  to  sacrifice  his  life  for  the  safety  of  the  emperor 
and  the  empire.35  The  attachment  of  the  Roman  troops  to 
their  standards  was  inspired  by  the  united  influence  of  religion 
and  of  honour.  The  golden  eagle,  which  glittered  in  the  front 
of  the  legion,  was  the  object  of  their  fondest  devotion  ;  nor  was 
it  esteemed  less  impious  than  it  was  ignominious,  to  abandon 
that  sacred  ensign  in  the  hour  of  danger.36  These  motives, 
which  derived  their  strength  from  the  imagination,  were  en- 
forced by  fears  and  hopes  of  a  more  substantial  kind.  Regular 
pay,  occasional  donatives,  and  a  stated  recompense,  after  the 
appointed  term  of  service,  alleviated  the  hardships  of  the 
military  life,37  whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  impossible  for 

3' The  oath  of  service  and  fidelity  to  the  emperor  was  annually  renewed  by 
the  troops,  on  the  first  of  January. 

36  Tacitus  calls  the  Roman  Eagles,  Bellorum  Deos.  They  were  placed  in  a 
chapel  in  the  camp,  and  with  the  other  deities  received  the  religious  worship  of 
the  troops. 

37  See  Gronovius  de  Pecunia  vetere,  1.  iii.  p.  120,  &c.  The  emperor  Domitian 
raised  the  annual  stipend  of  the  legionaries  to  twelve  pieces  of  gold,  which,  in 
his  time,  was  equivalent  to  about  ten  of  our  guineas.  This  pay,  somewhat 
higher  than  our  own,  had  been,  and  was  afterwards,  gradually  increased,  accord- 
ing to  the  progress  of  wealth  and  military  government.  After  twenty  years' 
service,  the  veteran  received  three  thousand  denarii  (about  one  hundred  pounds 
sterling),  or  a  proportionable  allowance  of  land.  The  pay  and  advani^cs  oi  the 
guards  were,  in  general,  about  double  those  of  the  legions. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  11 

cowardice  or  disobedience  to  escape  the  severest  punishment. 
The  centurions  were  authorized  to  chastise  with  blows,  the 
generals  had  a  right  to  punish  with  death  ;  and  it  was  an  inflex- 
ible maxim  of  Roman  discipline,  that  a  good  soldier  should 
dread  his  officers  far  more  than  the  enemy.  From  such  laudable 
arts  did  the  valour  of  the  Imperial  troops  receive  a  degree  of 
firmness  and  docility,  unattainable  by  the  impetuous  and  ir- 
regular passions  of  barbarians. 

And  yet  so  sensible  were  the  Romans  of  the  imperfection  of  Exercises 
valour  without  skill  and  practice,  that,  in  their  language,  the 
name  of  an  army  was  borrowed  from  the  word  which  signified 
exercise. 3S  Military  exercises  were  the  important  and  unre- 
mitted object  of  their  discipline.  The  recruits  and  young- 
soldiers  were  constantly  trained,  both  in  the  morning  and  m 
the  evening,  nor  was  age  or  knowledge  allowed  to  excuse  the 
veterans  from  the  daily  repetition  of  what  they  had  completely 
learnt.  Large  sheds  were  erected  in  the  winter-quarters  of  the 
troops,  that  their  useful  labours  might  not  receive  any  interrup- 
tion from  the  most  tempestuous  weather;  and  it  was  carefully 
observed,  that  the  arms  destined  to  this  imitation  of  war  should 
be  of  double  the  weight  which  was  required  in  real  action.39 
It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  work  to  enter  into  any  minute 
description  of  the  Roman  exercises.  We  shall  only  remark  that 
they  comprehended  whatever  could  add  strength  to  the  body, 
activity  to  the  limbs,  or  grace  to  the  motions.  The  soldiers 
were  diligently  instructed  to  march,  to  run,  to  leap,  to  swim, 
to  carry  heavy  burdens,  to  handle  every  species  of  arms  that 
was  used  either  for  offence  or  for  defence,  either  in  distant 
engagement  or  in  a  closer  onset ;  to  form  a  variety  of  evolutions; 
and  to  move  to  the  sound  of  flutes  in  the  Pyrrhic  or  martial  dance.40 
In  the  midst  of  peace,  the  Roman  troops  familiarised  themselves 
with  the  practice  of  war ;  and  it  is  prettily  remarked  by  an 
ancient  historian  who  had  fought  against  them,  that  the 
effusion  of  blood  was  the  only  circumstance  which  distinguished 
a  field  of  battle   from  a  field   of  exercise.41     It  was  the  policy 

38  Exercitus  ab  exercitando,  Varro  de  Lingua  Latina,  1.  iv.  [v  87  ed.  L.  Miiller]. 
Cicero  in  Tusculan,  1.  ii.  37.  There  is  room  for  a  very  interesting  work,  which 
should  lay  open  the  connexion  between  the  languages  and  manners  of  nations. 

39  Vegetius,  1.  i.  c.  u,  and  the  rest  of  his  first  book. 

40  The  Pyrrhic  Dance  is  extremely  well  illustrated  by  M.  le  Beau,  in  the 
Acad^mie  des  Inscriptions,  torn.  xxxv.  p.  262,  &c.  That  learned  academician, 
in  a  series  of  memoirs,  has  collected  all  the  passages  of  the  ancients  that  relate 
to  the  Roman  legion. 

4:1  Joseph,  de  Bell.  Judaico,  1.  iii.  c.  5.  We  are  indebted  to  this  Jew  for  some 
very  curious  details  01  Roman  discipline. 


12  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

of  the  ablest  generals,  and  even  of  the  emperors  themselves,  to 
encourage  these  military  studies  by  their  presence  and  example  ; 
and  we  are  informed  that  Hadrian,  as  well  as  Trajan,  frequently 
condescended  to  instruct  the  inexperienced  soldiers,  to  reward 
the  diligent,  and  sometimes  to  dispute  with  them  the  prize  of 
superior  strength  or  dexterity.42  Under  the  reigns  of  those 
princes,  the  science  of  tactics  was  cultivated  with  success  ;  and 
as  long  as  the  empire  retained  any  vigour,  their  military 
instructions  were  respected  as  the  most  perfect  model  of  Roman 
discipline. 
Thciegiom  Nine  centuries  of  war  had  gradually  introduced  into  the  service 
amporon  man}'  alterations  and  improvements.  The  legions,  as  they  are 
described  by  Polybius,43  in  the  time  of  the  Punic  wars,  differed 
very  materially  from  those  which  achieved  the  victories  of 
Caesar,  or  defended  the  monarchy  of  Hadrian  and  the  Antonines. 
The  constitution  of  the  Imperial  legion  may  be  described  in  a 
few  words. 44  The  heavy  armed  infantry,  which  composed 
its  principal  strength,45  was  divided  into  ten  cohorts,  and 
fifty-five  companies,  under  the  orders  of  a  correspondent  number 
of  tribunes  and  centurions.  The  first  cohort,  which  always 
claimed  the  post  of  honour  and  the  custody  of  the  eagle, 
was  formed  of  eleven  hundred  and  five  soldiers,  the  most  ap- 
proved for  valour  and  fidelity.  The  remaining  nine  cohorts 
consisted  each  of  five  hundred  and  fifty-five ;  and  the  whole 
body  of  legionary  infantry  amounted  to  six  thousand  one  hundred 
Ami  men.     Their  arms  were  uniform,  and  admirably  adapted  to  the 

nature  of  their  service :  an  open  helmet,  with  a  lofty  crest ;  a 
breast-plate,  or  coat  of  mail ;  greaves  on  their  legs,  and  an 
ample  buckler  on  their  left  arm.  The  buckler  was  of  an  oblong 
and  concave  figure,  four  feet  in  length,  and  two  and  a  half  in 
breadth,  framed  of  a  light  wood,  covered  with  a  bull's  hide,  and 
strongly  guarded  with  plates  of  brass.  Besides  a  lighter  spear, 
the  legionary  soldier  grasped  in  his  right  hand  the  formidable 
pilum,  a  ponderous  javelin,  whose  utmost  length  was  about  six 

42  Plin.  Panegyr.  c.  13.     Life  of  Hadrian,  in  the  Augustan  History  [i.  14]. 

43  See  an  admirable  digression  on  the  Roman  discipline,  in  the  sixth  book  of 
his  history  [19-42]. 

44  Vegetius  de  Re  Militari,  1.  ii.  c.  5,  &c.  Considerable  part  of  his  very  perplexed 
abridgment  was  taken  from  the  regulations  of  Trajan  and  Hadrian  ;  and  the 
legion,  as  he  describes  it,  cannot  suit  any  other  age  of  the  Roman  empire. 

45  Vegetius  de  Re  Militari,  1.  ii.  c.  1.  In  the  purer  age  of  Caesar  and  Cicero, 
the  word  miles  was  almost  confined  to  the  infantry.  Under  the  Lower  Empire, 
and  in  the  times  of  chivalry,  it  was  appropriated  almost  as  exclusively  to  the  men 
at  arms,  who  fought  on  horseback.  [This  account  of  the  army  demands  some 
corrections.     See  Appendix  4.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  13 

feet,  and  which  was  terminated  by  a  massy  triangular  point  of 
steel  of  eighteen  inches.  46  This  instrument  was  indeed  much 
inferior  to  our  modern  fire-arms ;  since  it  was  exhausted  by  a 
single  discharge,  at  the  distance  of  only  ten  or  twelve  paces. 
Yet,  when  it  was  launched  by  a  firm  and  skilful  hand,  there  was 
not  any  cavalry  that  durst  venture  within  its  reach,  nor  any 
shield  or  corslet  that  could  sustain  the  impetuosity  of  its  weight. 
As  soon  as  the  Roman  had  darted  his  pilum,  he  drew  his  sword, 
and  rushed  forwards  to  close  with  the  enemy.  It  was  a  short 
well-tempered  Spanish  blade,  that  carried  a  double  edge,  and 
was  alike  suited  to  the  purpose  of  striking  or  of  pushing  ;  but 
the  soldier  was  always  instructed  to  prefer  the  latter  use  of  his 
weapon,  as  his  own  body  remained  less  exposed,  whilst  he 
inflicted  a  more  dangerous  wound  on  his  adversary.47  The 
legion  was  usually  drawn  up  eight  deep  ;  and  the  regular  dis- 
tance of  three  feet  was  left  between  the  files  as  well  as  ranks.48 
A  body  of  troops,  habituated  to  preserve  this  open  order,  in  a 
long  front  and  a  rapid  charge,  found  themselves  prepared  to 
execute  every  disposition  which  the  circumstances  of  war,  or  the 
skill  of  their  leader,  might  suggest.  The  soldier  possessed  a  free 
space  for  his  arms  and  motions,  and  sufficient  intervals  were 
allowed,  through  which  seasonable  reinforcements  might  be 
introduced  to  the  relief  of  the  exhausted  combatants.49  The 
tactics  of  the  Greeks  and  Macedonians  were  formed  on  very 
different  principles.  The  strength  of  the  phalanx  depended  on 
sixteen  ranks  of  long  pikes,  wedged  together  in  the  closest 
array.50  But  it  was  soon  discovered,  by  reflection  as  well  as  by 
the  event,  that  the  strength  of  the  phalanx  was  unable  to 
contend  with  the  activity  of  the  legion.51 

The  cavalry,  without  which  the  force  of  the  legion  would  have  cavalry 
remained  imperfect,  was  divided  into  ten  troops  or  squadrons  ; 
the  first,  as  the  companion  of  the  first  cohort,  consisted  of  an 
hundred  and   thirty-two   men  ;  whilst  each  of  the    other  nine 
amounted  only  to  sixty-six.     The  entire  establishment  formed  a 

46  In  the  time  of  Polybius  and  Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus  (1.  v.  c.  45)  the  steel 
point  of  the  pilum  seems  to  have  been  much  longer.  In  the  time  of  Yegetius 
it  was  reduced  to  a  foot  or  even  nine  inches.     I  have  chosen  a  medium. 

47  For  the  legionary  arms,  see  Lipsius  de  Militia  Romana.,  1.  iii.  c.  2-7. 

48  See  the  beautiful  comparison  of  Virgil,  Georgic.  ii.  v.  279. 

49  M.  Guichard,  Mdmoires  Militaires,  torn.  i.  c.  4,  and  Nouveaux  M^moires, 
torn.  i.  p.  293-311,  has  treated  the.  subject  like  a  scholar  and  an  officer. 

50  See  Arrian's  Tactics  [12].  With  the  true  partiality  of  a  Greek,  Arrian  rather 
chose  to  describe  the  phalanx  of  which  he  had  read,  than  the  legions  which  he 
had  commanded. 

51  Polyb.  1.  xvii.  [xviii.  15]. 


U  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

regiment,  if  we  may  use  the  modem  expression,  of  seven  hundred 
and  twenty-six  horse,  naturally  connected  with  its  respective 
legion,  but  occasionally  separated  to  act  in  the  line,  and  to  com- 
pose a  part  of  the  wings  of  the  army.52  The  cavalry  of  the  emperors 
was  no  longer  composed,  like  that  of  the  ancient  republic,  of  the 
noblest  youths  of  Rome  and  Italy,  who,  by  performing  their  mili- 
tary service  on  horseback,  prepared  themselves  for  the  offices  of 
senator  and  consul  ;  and  solicited,  by  deeds  of  valour,  the  future 
suiTrages  of  their  countrymen.53  Since  the  alteration  of  manners 
and  government,  the  most  wealthy  of  the  equestrian  order  were 
engaged  in  the  administration  of  justice,  and  of  the  revenue  ; 64 
and  whenever  they  embraced  the  profession  of  arms,  they  were 
immediately  intrusted  with  a  troop  of  horse,  or  a  cohort  of  foot.55 
Trajan  and  Hadrian  formed  their  cavalry  from  the  same  pro- 
vinces, and  the  same  class  of  their  subjects,  which  recruited  the 
ranks  of  the  legion.  The  horses  were  bred,  for  the  most  part,  in 
Spain  or  Cappadocia.  The  Roman  troopers  despised  the  complete 
armour  with  which  the  cavalry  of  the  East  was  encumbered. 
Their  more  useful  arms  consisted  in  a  helmet,  an  oblong  shield, 
light  boots,  and  a  coat  of  mail.  A  javelin,  and  a  long  broad 
sword,  were  their  principal  weapons  of  offence.  The  use  of 
lances  and  of  iron  maces  they  seemed  to  have  borrowed  from 
the  barbarians.56 

The  safety  and  honour  of  the  empire  was  principally  intrusted 
to  the  legions,  bat  the  policy  of  Rome  condescended  to  adopt 
every  useful  instrument  of  war.  Considerable  levies  were  regu- 
larly made  among  the  provincials,  who  had  not  yet  deserved  the 
honourable  distinction  of  Romans.  Many  dependent  princes 
and  communities,  dispersed  round  the  frontiers,  were  permitted, 
for  a  while,  to  hold  their  freedom  and  security  by  the  tenure  of 
military  service.57     Even  select  troops  of  hostile  barbarians  were 


B2Veget.  de  Re  Militari,  1.  ii.  c.  6.  His  positive  testimony,  which  might  be 
supported  by  circumstantial  evidence,  ought  surely  to  silence  those  critics  who 
refuse  the  Imperial  legion  its  proper  body  of  cavalry.  [But  his  testimony  must 
be  treated  with  great  caution.] 

53  See  Livy  almost  throughout,  particularly  xlii.  6r. 

64  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  xxxiii.  2.  The  true  sense  of  that  very  curious  passage 
was  first  discovered  and  illustrated  by  M.  de  Beaufort,  Republique  Romaine,  1. 
ii.  c.  2. 

35  As  in  the  instance  of  Horace  and  Agricola,  This  appears  to  have  been  a 
defect  in  the  Roman  discipline;  which  Hadrian  endeavoured  to  remedy  by 
ascertaining  the  legal  age  of  a  tribune.  [For  the  equites,  compare  Mommsen,  Staats- 
recht,  iii.  476-569.] 

66  See  Arrian's  Tactics  [4]. 

67  Such,  in  particular,  was  the  state  of  the  Batavians.     Tacit.  Germania,  c.  29. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  15 

frequently  compelled  or  persuaded  to  consume  their  dangerous 
valour  in  remote  climates,  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  state.58  All 
these  were  included  under  the  general  name  of  auxiliaries ;  and 
howsoever  they  might  vary  according  to  the  difference  of  times 
and  circumstances,  then-  numbers  were  seldom  much  inferior  to 
those  of  the  legions  themselves.59  Among  the  auxiliaries,  the 
bravest  and  most  faithful  bands  were  placed  under  the  command 
of  praefects  and  centurions,  and  severely  trained  in  the  arts  of 
Roman  discipline  ;  but  the  far  greater  part  retained  those  arms, 
to  which  the  nature  of  their  country,  or  their  early  habits  of  life, 
more  peculiarly  adapted  them.  By  this  institution,  each  legion, 
to  whom  a  certain  proportion  of  auxiliaries  was  allotted,  contained 
within  itself  every  species  of  lighter  troops,  and  of  missile 
weapons  ;  and  was  capable  of  encountering  every  nation  with 
the  advantages  of  its  respective  arms  and  discipline.00  Nor  was 
the  legion  destitute  of  what,  in  modern  language,  would  be 
styled  a  train  of  artillery.  It  consisted  in  ten  military  engines  Artillery 
of  the  largest,  and  fifty-five  of  a  smaller  size  ;  but  all  of  which, 
either  in  an  oblique  or  horizontal  manner,  discharged  stones  and 
darts  with  irresistible  violence.61 

The  camp  of  a  Roman  legion  presented  the  appearance  of  a  Encampment 
fortified  city.62  As  soon  as  the  space  was  marked  out,  the 
pioneers  carefully  levelled  the  ground,  and  removed  every  im- 
pediment that  might  interrupt  its  perfect  regularity.  Its  form 
was  an  exact  quadrangle  ;  and  we  may  calculate,  that  a  square 
of  about  seven  hundred  yards  was  sufficient  for  the  encampment 
of  twenty  thousand  Romans  ;  though  a  similar  number  of  our 
own  troops  would  expose  to  the  enemy  a  front  of  more  than 
treble  that  extent.     In  the  midst  of  the  camp,  the  praetorium, 

58  Marcus  Antoninus  obliged  the  vanquished  Quadi  and  Marcomanni  to 
supply  him  with  a  large  body  of  troops,  which  he  immediately  sent  into  Britain. 
Dion  Cassius,  1.  lxxi.  [16]. 

69  Tacit.  Annal.  iv.  5.  Those  who  fix  a  regular  proportion  of  as  many  loot, 
and  twice  as  many  horse,  confound  the  auxiliaries  of  the  emperors  with  the  Italian 
allies  of  the  republic.     [See  Appendix  4.] 

60  Vegetius,  ii.  2.     Arrian,  in  his  order  of  march  and  battle  against  the  Alani. 

61  The  subject  of  the  ancient  machines  is  treated  with  great  knowledge  and 
ingenuity  by  the  Chevalier  Folard  (Polybe,  torn.  ii.  p.  233-290).  He  prefers  them 
in  many  respects  to  our  modern  cannon  and  mortars.  We  may  observe  that 
the  use  of  them  in  the  field  gradually  became  more  prevalent,  in  proportion  as 
personal  valour  and  military  skill  declined  with  the  Roman  empire.  When  men 
were  no  longer  found,  their  place  was  supplied  by  machines.  See  Vegetius,  ii.  25. 
Arrian. 

62  Vegetius  finishes  his  second  book,  and  the  description  of  the  legion,  with 
the  following  emphatic  words:  "  Universa  quag  in  quoque  belli  genere  necessaria 
esse  creduntur,  secum  legio  debet  ubique  portare,  ut  in  quovis  loco  fixerit  castra, 
armatam  faciat  civitatem". 


16  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

or  general's  quarters,  rose  above  the  others  ;  the  cavalry,  the 
infantry,  and  the  auxiliaries  occupied  their  respective  stations  ; 
the  streets  were  broad  and  perfectly  straight,  and  a  vacant  space 
of  two  hundred  feet  was  left  on  all  sides,  between  the  tents  and 
the  rampart.  The  rampart  itself  was  usually  twelve  feet  high, 
armed  with  a  line  of  strong  and  intricate  palisades,  and  defended 
by  a  ditch  of  twelve  feet  in  depth  as  well  as  in  breadth.  This 
important  labour  was  performed  by  the  hands  of  the  legionaries 
themselves  ;  to  whom  the  use  of  the  spade  and  the  pick-axe  was 
no  less  familiar  than  that  of  the  sword  or  pilum.  Active  valour 
may  often  be  the  present  of  nature  ;  but  such  patient  diligence 
can  be  the  fruit  only  of  habit  and  discipline.63 
M«xch;  Whenever  the  trumpet  gave  the  signal  of  departure,  the  camp 

was  almost  instantly  broken  up,  and  the  troops  fell  into  their 
ranks  without  delay  or  confusion.  Besides  their  arms,  which 
the  legionaries  scarcely  considered  as  an  encumbrance,  they 
were  laden  with  their  kitchen  furniture,  the  instruments  of 
fortification,  and  the  provision  of  many  days.64  Under  this 
weight,  which  would  oppress  the  delicacy  of  a  modern  soldier, 
they  were  trained  by  a  regular  step  to  advance,  in  about  six 
hours,  near  twenty  miles.65  On  the  appearance  of  an  enemy, 
they  threw  aside  their  baggage,  and,  by  easy  and  rapid  evolu- 
tions, converted  the  column  of  march  into  an  order  of  battle.66 
The  slingers  and  archers  skirmished  in  the  front ;  the  auxiliaries 
formed  the  first  line,  and  were  seconded  or  sustained  by  the 
strength  of  the  legions ;  the  cavalry  covered  the  flanks,  and 
the  military  engines  were  placed  in  the  rear. 
Number  &nd  Such  were  the  arts  of  war,  by  which  the  Roman  emperors 
0/&"iegionj  defended  their  extensive  conquests,  and  preserved  a  military 
spirit,  at  a  time  when  every  other  virtue  was  oppressed  by  luxury 
and  despotism.  If,  in  the  consideration  of  their  armies,  we 
pass  from  their  discipline  to  their  numbers,  we  shall  not  find  it 
easy  to  define  them  with  any  tolerable  accuracy.  We  may 
compute,  however,  that  the  legion,  which  was  itself  a  body  of  six 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty-one  Romans,  might,  with  its 
attendant  auxiliaries,    amount  to   about   twelve   thousand    five 

83  For  the  Roman  Castrametation,  see  Polybius,  1.  vi.  [27  et  sqq.~\  with  Lipsius 
de  Militia  Romana,  Joseph,  de  Bell.  Jud.  1.  iii.  c.  5.  Vegetius,  i.  21-25,  "'•  9>  an^ 
Ivlgmoires  de  Guichard,  torn.  i.  c.  1. 

M  Cicero  in  Tusculan,  ii.  37  [16]. — Joseph,  de  Bell.  Jud.  1.  iii.  5.  Frontinus,  iv.  1. 

ffi  Vegetius,  i.  9.  See  Me'moires  de  l'Acadgmie  des  Inscriptions,  torn.  xxv.  p. 
187. 

66  See  those  evolutions  admirably  well  explained  by  M,  Guichard,  Nouveau* 
Memoires,  torn.  i.  p.  141-234. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  17 

hundred  men.  The  peace  establishment  of  Hadrian  and  his 
successors  was  composed  of  no  less  than  thirty  of  these  formidable 
brigades  ;  and  most  probably  formed  a  standing  force  of  three 
hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  men.  Instead  of  being 
confined  within  the  walls  of  fortified  cities,  which  the  Romans 
considered  as  the  refuge  of  weakness  or  pusillanimity,  the  legions 
were  encamped  on  the  banks  of  the  great  rivers,  and  along  the 
frontiers  of  the  barbarians.  As  their  stations,  for  the  most  part, 
remained  fixed  and  permanent,  we  may  venture  to  describe  the 
distribution  of  the  troops.  Three  legions  were  sufficient  for 
Britain.  The  principal  strength  lay  upon  the  Rhine  and 
Danube,  and  consisted  of  sixteen  legions,  in  the  following  pro- 
portions ;  two  in  the  Lower,  and  three  in  the  Upper  Germany  ; 
one  in  Rhaetia,  one  in  Noricum,  four  in  Pannonia,  three  in  Maesia, 
and  two  in  Dacia.  The  defence  of  the  Euphrates  was  intrusted 
to  eight  legions,  six  of  whom  were  planted  in  Syria,  and  the  other 
two  in  Cappadocia.  With  regard  to  Egypt,  Africa  and  Spain,  as 
they  were  far  removed  from  any  important  scene  of  war,  a  single 
legion  maintained  the  domestic  tranquillity  of  each  of  those 
great  pi'ovinces.  Even  Italy  was  not  left  destitute  of  a  military 
force.  Above  twenty  thousand  chosen  soldiers,  distinguished 
by  the  titles  of  City  Cohorts  and  Praetorian  Guards,  watched 
over  the  safety  of  the  monarch  and  the  capital.  As  the  authors 
of  almost  every  revolution  that  distracted  the  empire,  the 
Praetorians  will  very  soon  and  very  loudly  demand  our  attention  ; 
but,  in  their  arms  and  institutions,  we  cannot  find  any  circum- 
stance which  discriminated  them  from  the  legions,  unless  it 
were  a  more  splendid  appearance,  and  a  less  rigid  discipline.67 

The  navy  maintained  by  the  emperors  might  seem  inadequate  Navy 
to  their  greatness  ;  but  it  was  fully  sufficient  for  every  useful 
purpose  of  government.  The  ambition  of  the  Romans  was  con- 
fined to  the  land  ;  nor  was  that  warlike  people  ever  actuated 
by  the  enterprising  spirit  which  had  prompted  the  navigators  of 
Tyre,  of  Carthage,  and  even  of  Marseilles,  to  enlarge  the  bounds 
of  the  world,  and  to  explore  the  most  remote  coasts  of  the  ocean. 
To  the  Romans  the  ocean  remained  an  object  of  terror  rather 
than  of  curiosity ; 6S  the  whole    extent   of  the    Mediterranean, 

67 Tacitus  (Annal.  iv.  5)  has  given  us  a  state  of  the  legions  under  Tiberius; 
and   Dion  Cassius  (1.   Iv.    p.   794   [23] )  under  Alexander  Severus.     I  have  en- 
deavoured to  fix  on  the  proper  medium  between  these  two  periods.     See  likewise 
.  Lipsius  do  Magnitudine  Romana,  1.  i.  c.  4,  5.     [On  the  author's  procedure  here, 
see  Appendix  4.    On  the  Praetorian  Guards  see  below,  p.  104.] 

68  The  Romans  tried  to  disguise,   by  the   pretence  of   religious  awe,  their 
,  ignorance  and  terror.     See  Tacit.  Germania,  c.  34. 

2  VOL.  I. 


18 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Amount  of 
the  whole 
establish- 
ment 


View  of  the 
provinces  of 

the  Ho  man 
empire 


after  the  destruction  of  Carthage  and  the  extirpation  of  the 
pirates,  was  included  within  their  provinces.  The  policy  of  the 
emperors  was  directed  only  to  preserve  the  peaceful  dominion  of 
that  sea,  and  to  protect  the  commerce  of  their  subjects.  With 
these  moderate  views,  Augustus  stationed  two  permanent  fleets 
In  the  most  convenient  ports  of  Italy,  the  one  at  Ravenna,  on  the 
Adriatic,  the  other  at  Misenum,  in  the  bay  of  Naples.  Experi- 
ence seems  at  length  to  have  convinced  the  ancients  that, 
as  soon  as  their  galleys  exceeded  two,  or  at  the  most  three 
ranks  of  oars,  they  were  suited  rather  for  vain  pomp  than  for 
real  service.  Augustus  himself,  in  the  victory  of  Actium,  had 
seen  the  superiority  of  his  own  light  frigates  (they  were  called 
Liburnians)  over  the  lofty  but  unwieldy  castles  of  his  rival.69 
Of  these  Liburnians  he  composed  the  two  fleets  of  Ravenna  and 
Misenum,  destined  to  command,  the  one  the  eastern,  the  other 
the  western  division  of  the  Mediterranean  ;  and  to  each  of  the 
squadrons  he  attached  a  body  of  several  thousand  marines. 
Besides  these  two  ports,  which  may  be  considered  as  the  prin- 
cipal seats  of  the  Roman  navy,  a  very  considerable  force  was 
stationed  at  Frejus,  on  the  coast  of  Provence,  and  the  Euxine 
was  guarded  by  forty  ships,  and  three  thousand  soldiers.  To  all 
these  we  add  the  fleet  which  preserved  the  communication  be- 
tween Gaul  and  Britain,  and  a  great  number  of  vessels  con- 
stantly maintained  on  the  Rhine  and  Danube,  to  harass  the 
countiy,  or  to  intercept  the  passage  of  the  barbarians.70  If  we 
review  this  general  state  of  the  Imperial  forces,  of  the  cavalry  as 
well  as  infantry,  of  the  legions,  the  auxiliaries,  the  guards, 
and  the  navy,  the  most  liberal  computation  will  not  allow  us  to 
fix  the  entire  establishment  by  sea  and  by  land  at  more  than 
four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  :  a  military  power  which, 
however  formidable  it  may  seem,  was  equalled  by  a  monarch  of 
the  last  century,  v/hose  kingdom  was  confined  within  a  single 
province  of  the  Roman  empire.71 

We  have  attempted  to  explain  the  spirit  which  moderated, 
and  the  strength  which  supported,  the  power  of  Hadrian  and 
the  Antonines.  We  shall  now  endeavour,  with  clearness  and 
precision,    to   describe  the  provinces  once  united  under  their 


09  Plutarch,  in  Marc.  Anton  [66] .  And  yet  if  we  may  credit  Orosius,  these 
monstrous  castles  were  no  more  than  ten  feet  above  the  water,  vi.  19.  [They  had 
two  ranks  of  oars.] 

70  See  Lipsius,  de  Magnitud.  Rom.  1.  i.  c.  5.  The  sixteen  last  chapters  of 
Vegetius  relate  to  naval  affairs.     [See  Appendix  5.] 

71  Voltaire,  Siecle  de  Louis  XIV.  c.  29.  It  must,  however,  be  remembered, 
that  France  still  feels  that  extraordinary  effort. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  19 

sway,  but,  at  present,  divided   into  so  many  independent   and 
hostile  states.72 

Spain,  the  western  extremity  of  the  empire,  of  Europe,  and  span. 
of  the  ancient  world,  has,  in  every  age,  invariably  preserved 
the  same  natural  limits  ;  the  Pyrenean  mountains,  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  That  great  peninsula,  at 
present  so  unequally  divided  between  two  sovereigns,  was 
distributed  by  Augustus  into  three  provinces,  Lusitania,  Baetica, 
and  Tarraconensis.73  The  kingdom  of  Portugal  now  fills  the  place 
of  the  warlike  country  of  the  Lusitanians;  and  the  loss  sustained 
by  the  former,  on  the  side  of  the  East,  is  compensated  by  an 
accession  of  territory  towards  the  North.  The  confines  of 
Grenada  and  Andalusia  correspond  with  those  of  ancient  Baetica. 
The  remainder  of  Spain — Gallicia,  and  the  Asturias,  Biscay,  and 
Navarre,  Leon,  and  the  two  Castilles,  Murcia,  Valencia,  Catalonia, 
and  Arragon, — all  contributed  to  form  the  third  and  most  con- 
siderable of  the  Roman  governments,  which,  from  the  name  of 
its  capital,  was  styled  the  province  of  Tarragona.74  Of  the 
native  barbarians,  the  Celtiberians  were  the  most  powerful,  as 
the  Cantabrians  and  Asturians  proved  the  most  obstinate.  Con- 
fident in  the  strength  of  their  mountains,  they  were  the  last  who 
submitted  to  the  arms  of  Rome,  and  the  first  who  threw  off  the 
yoke  of  the  Arabs. 

Ancient  Gaul,  as  it  contained  the  whole  country  between  theGani 
Pyrenees,  the  Alps,  the  Rhine,  and  the  Ocean,  was  of  greater 
extent  than  modern  France.  To  the  dominions  of  that  powerful 
monarchy,  with  its  recent  acquisitions  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine, 
we  must  add  the  duchy  of  Savoy,  the  cantons  of  Switzerland,  the 
four  electorates  of  the  Rhine,  and  the  territories  of  Liege,  Lux- 
emburg, Hainault,  Flanders  and  Brabant.  When  Augustus  gave 
laws  to  the  conquests  of  his  father,  he  introduced  a  division  of 
Gaul  equally  adapted  to  the  progress  of  the  legions,  to  the 
course  of  the  rivers,  and  to  the  principal  national  distinctions, 
which  had  comprehended  above  an  hundred  independent  states.75 

73  [This  list  of  the  provinces  is  incomplete.     For  full  list  see  Appendix  6.] 

73  [Baetica  was  divided  from  Tarraconensis  by  the  saltus  Castutonensis.] 

74  See  Strabo,  1.  ii.  [Rather  iii.  p.  166.]  It  is  natural  enough  to  suppose,  that 
Arragon  is  derived  from  Tarraconensis,  and  several  moderns  who  have  written  in 
Latin  use  those  words  as  synonymous.  It  is,  however,  certain,  that  the  Arragon, 
a  little  stream  which  falls  from  the  Pyrenees  into  the  Ebro,  first  gave  its  name  to 
a  country,  and  gradually  to  a  kingdom.  See  dAnville,  Geographie  du  Moyen 
Age,  p.  181. 

76  One  hundred  and  fifteen  cities  appear  in  the  Notitia  of  Gaul ;  and  it  is  well 
known  that  this  appellation  was  applied  not  only  to  the  capital  town,  but  to  the 
whole  territory  of  each  state.  But  Plutarch  and  Appian  increase  the  number  of 
tribes  to  three  or  four  hundred. 


20  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

The  sea-coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  Languedoc,  Provence,  and 
Dauphine,  received  their  provincial  appellation  from  the  colony 
of  Narbonne.  The  government  of  Aquitaine  was  extended  from 
the  Pyrenees  to  the  Loire.  The  country  between  the  Loire  and 
the  Seine  was  styled  the  Celtic  Gaul,  and  soon  borrowed  a  new 
denomination  from  the  celebrated  colony  of  Lugdunum,  or  Lyons. 
The  Belgic  lay  beyond  the  Seine,  and  in  more  ancient  times  had 
been  bounded  only  by  the  Rhine ;  but  a  little  before  the  age  of 
Caesar,  the  Germans,  abusing  their  superiority  of  valour,  had 
occupied  a  considerable  portion  of  the  Belgic  territory.  The 
Roman  conquerors  very  eagerly  embraced  so  flattering  a  circum- 
stance, and  the  Gallic  frontier  of  the  Rhine,  from  Basil  to 
Leyden,  received  the  pompous  names  of  the  Upper  and  the 
Lower  Germany.76  Such,  under  the  reign  of  the  Antonines, 
were  the  six  provinces  of  Gaul  ;  the  Narbonnese,  Aquitaine, 
the  Celtic,  or  Lyonnese,  the  Belgic,  and  the  two  Germanies. 

We  have  already  had  occasion  to  mention  the  conquest  of 
Britain,  and  to  fix  the  boundary  of  the  Roman  province  in  this 
island.  It  comprehended  all  England,  Wales,  and  the  Lowlands 
of  Scotland,  as  far  as  the  Friths  of  Dumbarton  and  Edinburgh. 
Before  Britain  lost  her  freedom,  the  country  was  irregularly 
divided  between  thirty  tribes  of  barbarians,  of  whom  the  most 
considerable  were  the  Belgae  in  the  West,  the  Brigantes  in  the 
North,  the  Silures  in  South  Wales,  and  the  Iceni  in  Norfolk  and 
Suffolk.77  As  far  as  we  can  either  trace  or  credit  the  resemblance 
of  manners  and  language,  Spain,  Gaul  and  Britain  were  peopled 
by  the  same  hardy  race  of  savages.  Before  they  yielded  to  the 
Roman  arms,  they  often  disputed  the  field,  and  often  renewed 
the  contest.  After  their  submission  they  constituted  the 
western  division  of  the  European  provinces,  which  extended 
from  the  columns  of  Hercules  to  the  wall  of  Antoninus, 7S  and 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Tagus  to  the  sources  of  the  Rhine  and 
Danube. 

Before  the  Roman  conquest,  the  country  which  is  now  called 
Lombardy  was  not  considered  as  a  part  of  Italy.  It  had  been 
occupied  by  a  powerful  colony  of  Gauls,  who,  settling  them- 
selves along  the  banks  of  the  Po,  from  Piedmont  to  Romagna, 
carried  their  arms  and  diffused  their  name  from  the  Alps  to  the 

76  D'Anville,  Notice  de  l'Ancienne  Gaule.  [These  frontier  districts  received 
their  names  when  the  true  province  of  Germany,  between  Rhine  and  Elbe,  which 
had  been  won  by  Drusus,  was  lost  by  the  defeat  of  Varus  in  9  A.D.] 

77  Whitaker's  History  of  Manchester,  vol.  i.  c.  3. 

78  [A  rampart  from  the  Clyde  to  the  Forth  built  in  the  reign  of  Antoninus 
Pius  by  the  prefect  Lollius  Urbicus.     For  this  wall  see  Stuart's  Caledonia.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  21 

Apennine.  The  Ligurians  dwelt  on  the  rocky  coast,  which  now 
forms  the  republic  of  Genoa.79  Venice  was  yet  unborn  ;  but  the 
territories  of  that  state,  which  lie  to  the  east  of  the  Adige,  were 
inhabited  by  the  Venetians.80  The  middle  part  of  the  peninsula, 
that  now  composes  the  duchy  of  Tuscany  and  the  ecclesiastical 
state,  was  the  ancient  seat  of  the  Etruscans  and  Umbrians  ;  to 
the  former  of  whom  Italy  was  indebted  for  the  first  rudiments 
of  a  civilized  life.81  The  Tiber  rolled  at  the  foot  of  the  seven 
hills  of  Rome,  and  the  country  of  the  Sabines,  the  Latins,  and 
the  Volsci,  from  that  river  to  the  frontiers  of  Naples,  was  the 
theatre  of  her  infant  victories.  On  that  celebrated  ground  the 
first  consuls  deserved  triumphs,  their  successors  adorned  villas, 
and  their  posterity  have  erected  convents.82  Capua  and  Cam- 
pania possessed  the  immediate  territory  of  Naples  ;  the  rest  of 
the  kingdom  was  inhabited  by  many  warlike  nations,  the  Marsi, 
the  Samnites,  the  Apulians,  and  the  Lucanians  ;  and  the  sea- 
coasts  had  been  covered  by  the  flourishing  colonies  of  the  Greeks. 
We  may  remark,  that  when  Augustus  divided  Italy  into  eleven 
regions,  the  little  province  of  Istria  was  annexed  to  that  seat  of 
Roman  sovereignty.83 

The  European  provinces  of  Rome  were  protected  by  the  course  rae  Danube 
of  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube.  The  latter  of  those  mighty  frontier 
streams,  which  rises  at  the  distance  of  only  thirty  miles  from  the 
former,  flows  above  thirteen  hundred  miles,  for  the  most  part  to 
the  south-east,  collects  the  tribute  of  sixty  navigable  rivers,  and 
is,  at  length,  through  six  mouths,  received  into  the  Euxine, 
which  appears  scarcely  equal  to  such  an  accession  of  waters.84 
The  provinces  of  the  Danube  soon  acquired  the  general  appella- 
tion of  Illyricum,  or  the  Illyrian  frontier,85  and  were  esteemed 
the  most  warlike  of  the  empire  ;  but  they  deserve  to  be  more 
particularly  considered   under  the  names  of  Rhaetia,  Noricum, 

79  [We  shall  find  late  Greek  historians  calling  the  Genoese  Ligurians  (Aiyoupiot). 
It  sounds  odd,  but  serves  to  remind  us  that  the  great  city  of  Liguria  did  not 
preserve  the  ancient  name  of  the  territory  like  her  eastern  rival,  the  great  city  of 
Venetia.] 

80  The  Italian  Vencti,  though  often  confounded  with  the  Gauls,  were  more 
probably  of  Illyrian  origin.  See  M.  Freret,  M6moires  de  l'Acad6mie  des  In- 
scriptions, torn,  xviii. 

81  See  Maffei  Verona  illustrata,  1.    . 

82  The  first  contrast  was  observed  by  the  ancients.  See  Florus,  1.  n.  The 
second  must  strike  every  modern  traveller. 

83  Pliny  (Hist.  Natur.  1.  iii.  [6])  follows  the  division  of  Italy,  by  Augustus. 
M  Tournefort,  Voyages  en  Grece  et  Asie  Mineure,  lettre  xviii. 

85  The  name  of  Illyricum  originally  belonged  to  the  sea-coast  of  the  Adriatic, 
and  was  gradually  extended  by  the  Romans  from  the  Alps  to  the  Euxine  Sea. 
See  Severini  Pannonia,  1.  i.  c.  a. 


22 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Noricum  and 
Fanncsia 


JIfflsia  and 
Dacia 


Pannonia,  Dalmatia,  Dacia,  Maesia,  Thrace,  Macedonia,  and 
Greece. 

The  province  of  Rhsetia,  which  soon  extinguished  the  name 
of  the  Vindelicians,  extended  from  the  summit  of  the  Alps  to 
the  banks  of  the  Danube  ;  from  its  source,  as  far  as  its  conflux 
with  the  Inn.  The  greatest  part  of  the  flat  country  is  subject 
to  the  elector  of  Bavaria  ;  the  city  of  Augsburg  is  protected  by 
the  constitution  of  the  German  empire  ;  the  Grisons  are  safe  in 
their  mountains  ;  and  the  country  of  Tyrol  is  ranked  among  the 
numerous  provinces  of  the  house  of  Austria. 

The  wide  extent  of  territory  which  is  included  between  the 
Inn,  the  Danube,  and  the  Save, — Austria,  Styria,  Carinthia, 
Carniola,  the  Lower  Hungary  and  Sclavonia, — was  known  to  the 
ancients  under  the  names  of  Noricum  and  Pannonia.  In  their 
original  state  of  independence  their  fierce  inhabitants  were  in- 
timately connected.  Under  the  Roman  government  they  were 
frequently  united,  and  they  still  remain  the  patrimony  of  a 
single  family.  They  now  contain  the  residence  of  a  German 
prince,  who  styles  himself  Emperor  of  the  Romans,  and  form 
the  centre,  as  well  as  strength,  of  the  Austrian  power.  It  may 
not  be  improper  to  observe,  that,  if  we  except  Bohemia,  Moravia, 
the  northern  sknts  of  Austria,  and  a  part  of  Hungary,  between 
the  Theiss  and  the  Danube,  all  the  other  dominions  of  the  house 
of  Austria  were"  comprised  within  the  limits  of  the  Roman 
empire. 

Dalmatia,  to  which  the  name  of  Illyricum  more  properly  be- 
longed, was  a  long,  but  narrow  tract,  between  the  Save  and  the 
Adriatic.  The  best  part  of  the  sea-coast,  which  still  retains  its 
ancient  appellation,  is  a  province  of  the  Venetian  state,  and  the 
seat  of  the  little  republic  of  Ragusa.  The  inland  parts  have 
assumed  the  Sclavonian  names  of  Croatia  and  Bosnia  ;  the  former 
obeys  an  Austrian  governor,  the  latter  a  Turkish  pasha  ;  but  the 
whole  country  is  still  infested  by  tribes  of  barbarians,  whose 
savage  independence  irregularly  marks  the  doubtful  limit  of  the 
Christian  and  Mahometan  power.SG 

After  the  Danube  had  received  the  waters  of  the  Theiss  and 
the  Save,  it  acquired,  at  least  among  the  Greeks,  the  name  of 
Ister.S7     It   formerly  divided    Maesia   and   Dacia,  the  latter  of 

86  A  Venetian  traveller,  the  Abbate  Fortis,  has  lately  given  us  some  account  of 
those  very  obscure  countries.  But  the  geography  and  antiquities  of  the  western 
Illyricum  can  be  expected  only  from  the  munificence  of  the  emperor,  its  sovereign. 
[See  Mr.  Jackson's  work  entitled  Dalmatia,  the  Quarnero,  and  Istria.] 

87  The  Save  rises  near  the  confines  of  Istria,  and  was  considered  by  the  more 
early  Greeks  as  the  principal  stream  of  the  Danube, 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  23 

which,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  a  conquest  of  Trajan,  and 
the  only  province  beyond  the  river.  If  we  inquire  into  the 
present  state  of  those  countries,  we  shall  find  that,  on  the  left 
hand  of  the  Danube,  Temeswar  and  Transylvania  have  been 
annexed,  after  many  revolutions,  to  the  crown  of  Hungary ; 
whilst  the  principalities  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia  acknowledge 
the  supremacy  of  the  Ottoman  Porte.  On  the  right  hand  of  the 
Danube,  Maesia,  which  during  the  middle  ages  was  broken  into 
the  barbarian  kingdoms  of  Servia  and  Bulgaria,  is  again  united 
in  Turkish  slavery. 

The  appellation  of  Roumelia,  which  is  still  bestowed  by  the  Thrace  msc<v 
Turks  on  the  extensive  countries  of  Thrace,  Macedonia,  andcr^c**" 
Greece,  preserves  the  memory  of  their  ancient  state  under  the 
Roman  empire.88  In  the  time  of  the  Antonines,  the  martial 
regions  of  Thrace,  from  the  mountains  of  Haemus  and  Rhodope 
to  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Hellespont,  had  assumed  the  form  of 
a  province.  Notwithstanding  the  change  of  masters  and  of 
religion,  the  new  city  of  Rome,  founded  by  Constantine  on  the 
banks  of  the  Bosphorus,  has  ever  since  remained  the  capital  of  a 
great  monarchy.  The  kingdom  of  Macedonia,  which,  under  the 
reign  of  Alexander,  gave  laws  to  Asia,  derived  more  solid 
advantages  from  the  policy  of  the  two  Philips ;  and,  with  its 
dependencies  of  Epirus  and  Thessaly,  extended  from  the  iEgean 
to  the  Ionian  sea.  When  we  reflect  on  the  fame  of  Thebes  and 
Argos,  of  Sparta  and  Athens,  we  can  scarcely  persuade  ourselves 
that  so  many  immortal  republics  of  ancient  Greece  were  lost  in 
a  single  province  of  the  Roman  empire,  which,  from  the  superior 
influence  of  the  Achaean  league,  was  usually  denominated  the 
province  of  Achaia. 

Such  was  the  state  of  Europe  under  the  Roman  emperors.  Asia  Minor 
The  provinces  of  Asia,  without  excepting  the  transient  conquests 
of  Trajan,  are  ail  comprehended  within  the  limits  of  the  Turkish 
power.  But  instead  of  following  the  arbitrary  divisions  of 
despotism  and  ignorance,  it  will  be  safer  for  us,  as  well  as  more 
agreeable,  to  observe  the  indelible  characters  of  nature.  The 
name  of  Asia  Minor  is  attributed,  with  some  propriety,  to  the 
peninsula  which,  confined  between  the  Euxine  and  the  Medi- 
terranean, advances  from  the  Euphrates  towards  Europe.  The 
most  extensive  and  flourishing  district  westward  of  Mount  Taurus 

88  [Thrace  is  Eastern  Roumelia ;  Macedonia  and  Greece,  Western  Roumelia. 
Since  Greece  became  independent,  one  hears  less  of  Western  Roumelia,  but  the 
name  is  still  applicable  to  Macedonia ;  Greece  has  severed  her  connexion  with  the 
usurped  inheritance  of  New  Rome.  Only  the  Eastern  Roumelia  wiil  as  a  rule  be 
fouud  marked  on  maps.     See  Appendix  7.] 


24  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

and  the  river  Halys,  was  dignified  by  the  Romans  with  the 
exclusive  title  of  Asia.  The  jurisdiction  of  that  province 
extended  over  the  ancient  monarchies  of  Troy,  Lydia,  and 
Phrygia,  the  maritime  countries  of  the  Pamphylians,  Lycians, 
and  Carians,  and  the  Grecian  colonies  of  Ionia,  which  equalled 
in  arts,  though  not  in  arms,  the  glory  of  their  parent.  The 
kingdoms  of  Bithynia  and  Pontus  possessed  the  northern  side  of 
the  peninsula  from  Constantinople  to  Trebizond.  On  the  op- 
posite side  the  province  of  Cilicia  was  terminated  by  the 
mountains  of  Syria :  the  inland  country,  separated  from  the 
Roman  Asia  by  the  river  Halys,  and  from  Armenia  by  the 
Euphrates,  had  once  formed  the  independent  kingdom  of 
Cappadocia.  In  this  place  we  may  observe  that  the  northern 
shores  of  the  Euxine,  beyond  Trebizond  in  Asia  and  beyond  the 
Danube  in  Europe,  acknowledged  the  sovereignty  of  the  em- 
perors, and  received  at  their  hands  either  tributary  princes  or 
Roman  garrisons.  Budzak,  Crim  Tartary,  Circassia,  and  Min- 
grelia,  are  the  modern  appellations  of  those  savage  countries.89 
sjrria,  pha  Under  the  successors  of  Alexander,  Syria  was  the  seat  of  the 
Palestine  Seleucidae,  who  reigned  over  Upper  Asia,  till  the  successful  re- 
volt of  the  Parthians  confined  their  dominions  between  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Mediterranean.  When  Syria  became  sub- 
ject to  the  Romans,  it  formed  the  eastern  frontier  of  their 
empire  ;  nor  did  that  province,  in  its  utmost  latitude,  know  any 
other  bounds  than  the  mountains  of  Cappadocia  to  the  north, 
and,  towards  the  south,  the  confines  of  Egypt  and  the  Red  Sea. 
Phoenicia  and  Palestine  were  sometimes  annexed  to,  and  some- 
times separated  from,  the  jurisdiction  of  Syria.  The  former  of 
these  was  a  narrow  and  rocky  coast ;  the  latter  was  a  territory 
scarcely  superior  to  Wales,  either  in  fertility  or  extent.  Yet 
Phoenicia  and  Palestine  will  for  ever  live  in  the  memory  of  man- 
kind ;  since  America,  as  well  as  Europe,  has  received  letters 
from  the  one,  and  religion  from  the  other.90     A  sandy  desert, 

89  See  the  Periplus  of  Arrian.  He  examined  the  coasts  of  the  Euxine,  when  he 
was  governor  of  Cappadocia. 

90  The  progress  of  religion  is  well  known.  The  use  of  letters  was  introduced 
among  the  savages  of  Europe  about  fifteen  hundred  years  before  Christ;  and 
the  Europeans  carried  them  to  America,  about  fifteen  centuries  after  the  Christian 
Eera.  Bat  in  a  period  of  three  thousand  years,  the  Phoenician  alphabet  received 
considerable  alterations,  as  it  passed  through  the  bands  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans.  [The  date  here  given  for  the  introduction  of  the  Phoenician  alphabet 
to  Europe,  that  is,  among  the  Greeks,  is  much  too  early.  The  earliest  date  that 
can  be  plausibly  maintained  is  the  tenth  century,  the  latest,  the  eighth.  But 
there  are  traces  of  hieroglyphic  writing  at  Mycenae,  and  Mr.  Arthur  Evans's 
discoveries  in  Crete  point  to  the  use  not  only  of  hieroglyphics,  but  a  syllabary 
(like  the  Cyprian)  centuries  before  the  introduction  of  the  Phoenician  letters.] 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  25 

alike  destitute  of  wood  and  water,  skirts  along  the  doubtful 
confine  of  Syria,  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Red  Sea.  The 
wandering  life  of  the  Arabs  was  inseparably  connected  with 
their  independence,  and  wherever,  on  some  spots  less  barren  than 
the  rest,  they  ventured  to  form  any  settled  habitations,  they  soon 
became  subjects  to  the  Roman  empire.91 

The  geographers  of  antiquity  have  frequently  hesitated  to  Egypt 
what  portion  of  the  globe  they  should  ascribe  Egypt.92  By  its 
situation  that  celebrated  kingdom  is  included  within  the 
immense  peninsula  of  Africa  ;  but  it  is  accessible  only  on  the 
side  of  Asia,  whose  revolutions,  in  almost  every  period  of  history, 
Egypt  has  humbly  obeyed.  A  Roman  praefect  was  seated  on 
the  splendid  throne  of  the  Ptolemies  ;  and  the  iron  sceptre  of  the 
Mamalukes  is  now  in  the  hands  of  a  Tui'kish  pasha.  The  Nile 
flows  down  the  country,  above  five  hundred  miles  from  the  tropic 
of  Cancer  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  marks,  on  either  side,  the 
extent  of  fertility  by  the  measure  of  its  inundations.  Cyrene, 
situated  towards  the  west  and  along  the  sea-coast,  was  first  a 
Greek  colony,  afterwards  a  province  of  Egypt,  and  is  now  lost 
in  the  desert  of  Barca. 

From  Cyrene  to  the  ocean,  the  coast  of  Africa  extends  above  Africa 
fifteen  hundred  miles  ;  yet  so  closely  is  it  pressed  between  the 
Mediterranean  and  the  Sahara,  or  sandy  desert,  that  its  breadth 
seldom  exceeds  fowscore  or  an  hundred  miles.  The  eastern 
division  was  considered  by  the  Romans  as  the  more  peculiar  and 
proper  province  of  Africa.  Till  the  arrival  of  the  Phoenician 
colonies,  that  fertile  country  was  inhabited  by  the  Libyans,  the 
most  savage  of  mankind.  Under  the  immediate  jurisdiction  of 
Carthage  it  became  the  centre  of  commerce  and  empire;  but  the 
republic  of  Carthage  is  now  degenerated  into  the  feeble  and 
disorderly  states  of  Tripoli  and  Tunis.  The  military  government 
of  Algiers  oppresses  the  wide  extent  of  Numidia,  as  it  was  once 
united  under  Massinissa  and  Jugurtha :  but  in  the  time  of 
Augustus  the  limits  of  Numidia  were  contracted  ;  and  at  least 
two-thirds  of  the  country  acquiesced  in  the  name  of  Mauritania, 
with  the  epithet  of  Canadensis.93     The  genuine  Mauritania,  or 

91  Dion  Cassius,  lxviii.  p.  1131  [14]. 

92  Ptolemy  and  Strabo,  with  the  modern  geographers,  fix  the  Isthmus  of  Suez 
as  the  boundary  of  Asia  and  Africa.  Dionysius,  Mela,  Pliny,  Sallust,  Hirtius,  and 
Solinus,  have  preferred  for  that  purpose  the  western  branch  of  the  Nile,  or  even 
the  great  Catabathmus,  or  descent,  which  last  would  assign  to  Asia  not  only  Egypt, 
but  part  of  Libya. 

93  [The  boundary  between  Maur.  Caes.  and  Maur.  Ting,  was  the  river 
Mulucha.J 


26  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

country  of  the  Moors,  which,  from  the  ancient  city  of  Tingi,  or 
Tangier,  was  distinguished  by  the  appellation  of  Tingitana,  is 
represented  by  the  modern  kingdom  of  Fez.  Salle,  on  the  Ocean, 
so  infamous  at  present  for  its  piratical  depredations,  was  noticed 
by  the  Romans,  as  the  extreme  object  of  their  power,  and  almost 
of  their  geography.  A  city  of  their  foundation  may  still  be 
discovered  near  Mequinez,  the  residence  of  the  barbarian  whom 
we  condescend  to  style  the  Emperor  of  Morocco  ;  but  it  does  not 
appear  that  his  more  southern  dominions,  Morocco  itself,  and 
Segelmessa,  were  ever  comprehended  within  the  Roman 
province.  The  western  parts  of  Africa  are  intersected  by  the 
branches  of  Mount  Atlas,  a  name  so  idly  celebrated  by  the  fancy 
of  poets;94  but  which  is  now  diffused  over  the  immense  ocean 
that  rolls  between  the  ancient  and  the  new  continent.95 
The  Mediter.       Having  now  finished  the  circuit  of  the  Roman  empire,  we  may 

r**ne&n  with.  ™  * 

its  uiands  observe  that  Africa  is  divided  from  Spain  by  a  narrow  strait  of 
about  twelve  miles,  through  which  the  Atlantic  flows  into  the 
Mediterranean.  The  columns  of  Hercules,  so  famous  among 
the  ancients,  were  two  mountains  which  seemed  to  have  been 
torn  asunder  by  some  convulsion  of  the  elements  ;  and  at  the 
foot  of  the  European  mountain  the  fortress  of  Gibraltar  is 
now  seated.  The  whole  extent  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  its 
coasts  and  its  islands,  were  comprised  within  the  Roman 
dominion.  Of  the  larger  islands,  the  two  Baleares,  which 
derive  their  names  of  Majorca  and  Minorca  from  their  respective 
size,  are  subject  at  present,  the  former  to  Spain,  the  latter  to 
Great  Britain.  It  is  easier  to  deplore  the  fate  than  to  describe 
the  actual  condition  of  Corsica.  Two  Italian  sovereigns  assume 
a  regal  title  from  Sardinia  and  Sicily.  Crete,  or  Candia,  with 
Cyprus,  and  most  of  the  smaller  islands  of  Greece  and  Asia,  have 
been  subdued  by  the  Turkish  arms  ;  whilst  the  little  rock  of 
Malta  defies  their  power,  and  has  emerged,  under  the  govern- 
ment of  its  military  Order,  into  fame  and  opulence. 
Generaiidea  This  long  enumeration  of  provinces,  whose  broken  fragments 
eLtp'i?eRoman  have  formed  so  many  powerful  kingdoms,  might  almost  induce 
us  to  forgive  the  vanity  or  ignorance  of  the  ancients.       Dazzled 

M  The  long  range,  moderate  height,  and  gentle  declivity  of  Mount  Atlas  (see 
Shaw's  Travels,  p.  5)  are  very  unlike  a  solitary  mountain  which  rears  its  head  into 
the  clouds,  and  seems  to  support  the  heavens.  The  peak  of  Teneriff,  on  the 
contrary,  rises  a  league  and  a  half  above  the  surface  of  the  sea,  and,  as  it  was 
frequently  visited  by  the  Phoenicians,  might  engage  the  notice  of  the  Greek  poets. 
See  Buffon,  Histoire  Naturelle,  torn.  i.  p.  312.     Histoire  des  Voyages,  torn.  ii. 

95  M.  de  Voltaire,  torn.  xiv.  p.  297,  unsupported  by  either  fact  or  probability, 
has  generously  bestowed  the  Canary  Islands  on  ths  Roman  empire. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  27 

with  the  extensive  sway,  the  irresistible  strength,  and  the  real 
or  affected  moderation  of  the  emperors,  they  permitted  them- 
selves to  despise,  and  sometimes  to  forget,  the  outlying  coun- 
tries which  had  been  left  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  barbarous 
independence ;  and  they  gradually  assumed  the  licence  of 
confounding  the  Roman  monarchy  with  the  globe  of  the 
earth.96  But  the  temper,  as  well  as  knowledge,  of  a  modern 
historian  require  a  more  sober  and  accurate  language.  He 
may  impress  a  juster  image  of  the  greatness  of  Rome  by  observ- 
ing that  the  empire  was  above  two  thousand  miles  in  breadth, 
from  the  wall  of  Antoninus  and  the  northern  limits  of  Dacia  to 
Mount  Atlas  and  the  tropic  of  Cancer ;  that  it  extended  in 
length  more  than  three  thousand  miles,  from  the  Western  Ocean 
to  the  Euphrates  ;  that  it  was  situated  in  the  finest  part  of  the 
Temperate  Zone,  between  the  twenty-fourth  and  fifty-sixth 
degrees  of  northern  latitude ;  and  that  it  was  supposed  to  con- 
tain above  sixteen  hundred  thousand  square  miles,  for  the  most 
part  of  fertile  and  well-cultivated  land.97 

96  Bergier,  Hist,  des  Grands  Chemins,  1.  iii.  c.  i,  2,  3.  4:  a  very  useful  collec- 
tion. 

97  See  Templeman's   Survey  of  the  Globe ;   but  I  distrust  both  the  doctor's 
learning  and  his  maps. 


28 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


CHAPTER  II 

Of  the  Union  and  Internal  Prosperity  of  the  Roman  Empire,  in  the 
Age  of  the  Antonines 

It  is  not  alone  by  the  rapidity  or  extent  of  conquest  that  we 
should  estimate  the  greatness  of  Rome.  The  sovereign  of  the 
Russian  deserts  commands  a  larger  portion  of  the  globe.  In 
the  seventh  summer  after  his  passage  of  the  Hellespont, 
Alexander  erected  the  Macedonian  trophies  on  the  banks  of 
the  Hyphasis. x  Within  less  than  a  century,  the  irresistible 
Zingis,  and  the  Mogul  princes  of  his  race,  spread  their  cruel 
devastations  and  transient  empire  from  the  sea  of  China  to  the 
confines  of  Egypt  and  Germany.2  But  the  firm  edifice  of 
Roman  power  was  raised  and  preserved  by  the  wisdom  of  ages. 
The  obedient  provinces  of  Trajan  and  the  Antonines  were 
united  by  laws  and  adorned  by  arts.  They  might  occasionally 
suffer  from  the  partial  abuse  of  delegated  authority ;  but  the 
general  principle  of  government  was  wise,  simple,  and  bene- 
ficent. They  enjoyed  the  l'eligion  of  their  ancestors,  whilst  in 
civil  honours  and  advantages  they  were  exalted,  by  just  degrees, 
to  an  equality  with  their  conquerors. 

I.  The  policy  of  the  emperors  and  the  senate,  as  far  as  it 
concerned  religion,  was  happily  seconded  by  the  reflections  of 
the  enlightened,  and  by  the  habits  of  the  superstitious,  part  of 
their  subjects.  The  various  modes  of  worship  which  prevailed 
in  the  Roman  world  were  all  considered  by  the  people  as  equally 
true  ;  by  the  philosopher  as  equally  false ;  and  by  the  magis- 
trate as  equally  useful.  And  thus  toleration  produced  not  only 
mutual  indulgence,  but  even  religious  concord. 

The  superstition  of  the  people  was  not  embittered  by  any 
mixture  of  theological  rancour ;  nor  was  it  confined  by  the 
chains  of  any  speculative  system.  The  devout  polytheist,  though 
fondly   attached  to   his  national   rites,   admitted   with    implicit 

1  They  were  erected  about  the  midway  between  Labor  and  Dehli.  The  con- 
quests of  Alexander  in  Hindostan  were  confined  to  the  Punjab,  a  country  watered 
by  the  five  great  streams  of  the  Indus. 

3  See  M.  de  Guignes  Histoire  des  Huns,  1.  xv.  xvi.  and  xvii. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  29 

faith  the  different  religions  of  the  earth.3  Fear,  gratitude,  and 
curiosity,  a  dream  or  an  omen,  a  singular  disorder,  or  a  distant 
journey,  perpetually  disposed  him  to  multiply  the  articles  of  his 
belief,  and  to  enlarge  the  list  of  his  protectors.  The  thin 
texture  of  the  pagan  mythology  was  interwoven  with  various 
but  not  discordant  materials.  As  soon  as  it  was  allowed  that 
sages  and  heroes,  who  had  lived  or  who  had  died  for  the  benefit 
of  their  country,  were  exalted  to  a  state  of  power  and  immortal- 
ity, it  was  universally  confessed  that  they  deserved,  if  not  the 
adoration,  at  least  the  reverence  of  all  mankind.  The  deities 
of  a  thousand  groves  and  a  thousand  streams  possessed  in  peace 
their  local  and  respective  influence ;  nor  could  the  Roman  who 
deprecated  the  wrath  of  the  Tiber  deride  the  Egyptian  who 
presented  his  offering  to  the  beneficent  genius  of  the  Nile. 
The  visible  powers  of  Nature,  the  planets,  and  the  elements, 
were  the  same  throughout  the  universe.  The  invisible  governors 
of  the  moral  world  were  inevitably  cast  in  a  similar  mould  of 
fiction  and  allegory.  Every  virtue,  and  even  vice,  acquired  its 
divine  representative  ;  every  art  and  profession  its  patron,  whose 
attributes  in  the  most  distant  ages  and  countries  were  uniformly 
derived  from  the  character  of  their  peculiar  votaries.  A  republic 
of  gods  of  such  opposite  tempers  and  interests  required,  in 
every  system,  the  moderating  hand  of  a  supreme  magistrate, 
who,  by  the  progress  of  knowledge  and  of  flattery,  was  gradually 
invested  with  the  sublime  perfections  of  an  Eternal  Parent  and 
an  Omnipotent  Monarch.4  Such  was  the  mild  spirit  of  anti- 
quity, that  the  nations  were  less  attentive  to  the  difference 
than  to  the  resemblance  of  their  religious  worship.  The  Greek, 
the  Roman,  and  the  Barbarian,  as  they  met  before  their  inspec- 
tion altars,  easily  persuaded  themselves  that,  under  various 
names  and  with  various  ceremonies,  they  adored  the  same 
deities.  The  elegant  mythology  of  Homer  gave  a  beautiful 
and  almost  a  regular  form  to  the  polytheism  of  the  ancient 
world.5 

3  There  is  not  any  writer  who  describes  in  so  lively  a  manner  as  Herodotus, 
the  true  genius  of  Polytheism.  The  best  commentary  may  be  found  in  Mr.  Hume's 
Natural  History  of  Religion  ;  and  the  best  contrast  in  Bossuet's  Universal  History. 
Some  obscure  traces  of  an  intolerant  spirit  appear  in  the  conduct  of  the  Egyptians 
(see  Juvenal,  Sat.  xv. ) ;  and  the  Christians  as  well  as  Jews,  who  lived  under  the 
Roman  empire,  formed  a  very  important  exception:  so  important  indeed,  that 
the  discussion  will  require  a  distinct  chapter  of  this  work. 

*  The  rights,  power,  and  pretensions  of  the  sovereign  of  Olympus  are  very 
clearly  described  in  the  xvth  book  of  the  Illiad  :  in  the  Greek  original,  I  mean  ; 
for  Mr.  Pope,  without  perceiving  it,  has  improved  the  theology  of  Homer. 

5  See  for  instance,  Caesar  de  Bell.  Gall.  vi.  17.  Within  a  century  or  two  the 
Gauls  themselves  applied  to  their  gods  the  names  of  Mercury,  Mars,  Apollo,  &c. 


30  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

ofphiio-  The  philosophers  of  Greece  deduced  their  morals  from  the 

nature  of  man  rather  than  from  that  of  God.  They  meditated, 
however,  on  the  Divine  Nature  as  a  very  curious  and  important 
speculation,  and  in  the  profound  inquiry  they  displayed  the 
strength  and  weakness  of  the  human  understanding.6  Of  the 
four  most  celebrated  schools,  the  Stoics  and  the  Platonists  en- 
deavoured to  reconcile  the  jarring  interests  of  reason  and  piety. 
They  have  left  us  the  most  sublime  proofs  of  the  existence  and 
perfections  of  the  first  cause  ;  but,  as  it  was  impossible  for  them 
to  conceive  the  creation  of  matter,  the  workman  in  the  Stoic 
philosophy  was  not  sufficiently  distinguished  from  the  work  ; 
whilst,  on  the  contrary,  the  spiritual  God  of  Plato  and  his 
disciples  resembled  an  idea  rather  than  a  substance.  The 
opinions  of  the  Academics  and  Epicureans  were  of  a  less  re- 
ligious cast;  but,  whilst  the  modest  science  of  the  former  induced 
therto  to  doubt,  the  positive  ignorance  of  the  latter  urged  them 
to  deny,  the  providence  of  a  Supreme  Ruler.  The  spirit  of 
inquiry,  prompted  by  emulation  and  supported  by  freedom,  had 
divided  the  public  teachers  of  philosophy  into  a  variety  of 
contending  sects ;  but  the  ingenuous  youth,  who  from  eveiy 
part  resorted  to  Athens  and  the  other  seats  of  learning  in  the 
Roman  empire,  were  alike  instructed  in  every  school  to  reject 
and  to  despise  the  religion  of  the  multitude.  How,  indeed, 
was  it  possible  that  a  philosopher  should  accept  as  divine  truths 
the  idle  tales  of  the  poets,  and  the  incoherent  traditions  of 
antiquity;  or  that  he  should  adore,  as  gods,  those  imperfect  beings 
whom  he  must  have  despised,  as  men  !  Against  such  unworthy 
adversaries,  Cicero  condescended  to  employ  the  arms  of  reason 
and  eloquence  ;  but  the  satire  of  Lucian  was  a  much  more 
adequate  as  well  as  more  efficacious  weapon.  We  may  be  well 
assured  that  a  writer  conversant  with  the  world  would  never 
have  ventured  to  expose  the  gods  of  his  country  to  public 
ridicule,  had  they  not  already  been  the  objects  of  secret  con- 
tempt among  the  polished  and  enlightened  orders  of  society.7 

Notwithstanding  the  fashionable  irreligion  which  prevailed  in 
the  age  of  the  Antonines,  both  the  interests  of  the  priests  and 
the  credulity  of  the  people  were  sufficiently  respected.  In  their 
writings  and  conversation  the  philosophers  of  antiquity  asserted 

6  The  admirable  work  of  Cicero  de  Natura  Deorum,  is  the  best  clue  we  have  to 
guide  us  through  the  dark  and  profound  abyss.  He  represents  with  candour,  and 
confutes  with  subtlety,  the  opinions  of  the  philosophers. 

7  I  do  not  pretend  to  assert  that,  in  this  irreligious  age,  the  natural  terrors  of 
superstition,  dreams,  omens,  apparitions,  &c,  had  lost  their  efficacy. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  31 

the  independent  dignity  of  reason;  but  they  resigned  their  actions 
to  the  commands  of  law  and  of  custom.  Viewing  with  a  smile  of 
pity  and  indulgence  the  various  errors  of  the  vulgar,  they  diligently 
practised  the  ceremonies  of  their  fathers,  devoutly  frequented 
the  temples  of  the  gods  ;  and,  sometimes  condescending  to  act  a 
part  on  the  theatre  of  superstition,  they  concealed  the  sentiments 
of  an  Atheist  under  the  sacerdotal  robes.  Reasoners  of  such  a 
temper  were  scarcely  inclined  to  wrangle  about  their  respective 
modes  of  faith  or  of  worship.  It  was  indifferent  to  them  what 
shape  the  folly  of  the  multitude  might  choose  to  assume  ;  and 
they  approached,  with  the  same  inward  contempt  and  the  same 
external  reverence,  the  altars  of  the  Libyan,  the  Olympian,  or 
the  Capitoline  Jupiter.8 

It  is  not  easy  to  conceive  from  what  motives  a  spirit  of  per-  °fa^e  ma«lB 
secution  could  introduce  itself  into  the  Roman  councils.  The 
magistrates  could  not  be  actuated  by  a  blind  though  honest 
bigotry,  since  the  magistrates  were  themselves  philosophers  ;  and 
the  schools  of  Athens  had  given  laws  to  the  senate.  They  could 
not  be  impelled  by  ambition  or  avarice,  as  the  temporal  and 
ecclesiastical  powers  were  united  in  the  same  hands.  The 
pontiffs  were  chosen  among  the  most  illustrious  of  the  senators ; 
and  the  office  of  Supreme  Pontiff  was  constantly  exercised  by 
the  emperors  themselves.  They  knew  and  valued  the  advan- 
tages of  religion,  as  it  is  connected  with  civil  government.  They 
encouraged  the  public  festivals  which  humanize  the  manners  of 
the  people.  They  managed  the  arts  of  divination  as  a  con- 
venient instrument  of  policy ;  and  they  respected,  as  the  firmest 
bond  of  society,  the  useful  persuasion  that,  either  in  this  or  in  a 
future  life,  the  crime  of  perjury  is  most  assuredly  punished  by 
the  avenging  gods.9  But,  whilst  they  acknowledged  the  general 
advantages  of  religion,  they  were  convinced  that  the  various 
modes  of  worship  contributed  alike  to  the  same  salutary  purposes ; 
and  that,  in  every  country,  the  form  of  superstition  which  had 
received  the  sanction  of  time  and  experience  was  the  best 
adapted  to  the  climate  and  to  its  inhabitants.  Avarice  and  taste 
very  frequently  despoiled  the  vanquished  nations  of  the  elegant 

8  Socrates,  Epicurus,  Cicero,  and  Plutarch,  always  inculcated  a  decent  reverence 
for  the  religion  of  their  own  country,  and  of  mankind.  The  devotion  of  Epicurus 
was  assiduous  and  exemplary.  Diogen.  Laert.  x.  10.  [In  this  passage  nothing  is  said 
of  the  devotion  of  Epicurus,  rij?  ixiv  yap  irp'os  Stovs  6o-iot7)tos  .  .  .  aAtKTOS  i]  5ia0e<ris 
seems  to  have  been  mistranslated.  ] 

9Polybius,  1.  vi.  c.  56.  Juvenal,  Sat.  xiK.,  laments  that  in  his  time  this 
apprehension  had  lost  much  of  its  effect. 


32 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


statues  of  their  gods  and  the  rich  ornaments  of  their  temples  ; 10 
but,  in  the  exercise  of  the  religion  which  they  derived  from 
their  ancestors,  they  uniformly  experienced  the  indulgence,  and 
even  protection,  of  the  Roman  conquerors.  The  province  of 
Gaul  seems,  and  indeed  only  seems,  an  exception  to  this  universal 
toleration.  Under  the  specious  pretext  of  abolishing  human 
sacrifices,  the  emperors  Tiberius  and  Claudius  suppressed  the 
dangerous  power  of  the  Druids  ; u  but  the  priests  themselves, 
their  gods,  and  their  altars,  subsisted  in  peaceful  obscurity  till 
the  final  destruction  of  Paganism.12 

Rome,  the  capital  of  a  great  monarchy,  was  incessantly  filled 
with  subjects  and  strangers  from  every  part  of  the  world,13  who 
all  introduced  and  enjoyed  the  favourite  superstitions  of  their 
native  country.14  Every  city  in  the  empire  was  justified  in 
maintaining  the  purity  of  its  ancient  ceremonies ;  and  the  Roman 
senate,  using  the  common  privilege,  sometimes  interposed  to 
check  this  inundation  of  foreign  rites.  The  Egyptian  supersti- 
tion, of  all  the  most  contemptible  and  abject,  was  frequently 
prohibited ;  the  temples  of  Serapis  and  Isis  demolished,  and 
their  worshippers  banished  from  Rome  and  Italy.15  But  the 
zeal  of  fanaticism  prevailed  over  the  cold  and  feeble  efforts  of 
policy.  The  exiles  returned,  the  proselytes  multiplied,  the 
temples  were  restored  with  increasing  splendour,  and  Isis  and 
Serapis  at  length  assumed  their  place  among  the  Roman  deities.16 
Nor  was  this  indulgence  a  departure  from  the  old  maxims  of 
government.     In  the  purest  ages  of  the  commonwealth,  Cybele 


i°See  the  fate  of  Syracuse,  Tarentum,  Ambracia,  Corinth,  &c.,  the  conduct  of 
Verres,  in  Cicero  (Actio  ii.  Orat.  4),  and  the  usual  practice  of  governors,  in  the 
viiith  Satire  of  Juvenal. 

"Sueton.  in  Claud.  [25]— Plin.  Hist.  Nat.  xxx.  i. 

12  Pelloutier  Histoire  des  Celtes,  torn.  vi.  p.  230-252. 

is  Seneca  Consolat.  ad  Helviam,  p.  74  [6].     Edit.  Lips. 

"Dionysius  Halicarn.  Antiquitat.  Roman.,  1.  ii.  [i.  p.  275,  Reiske]. 

"  In  the  year  of  Rome  701,  the  temple  of  Isis  and  Serapis  was  demolished  by 
the  order  of  the  senate  (Dion  Cassius,  I.  xl.  p.  252  [47] ),  and  even  by  the  hands  of 
the  consul  (Valerius  Maximus,  1,  3).  [But  this  passage  in  Valerius  refers  to  the  first 
demolition  in  B.C.  219.]  After  the  death  of  Caesar,  it  was  restored  at  the  public  ex- 
pense (Dion,  1.  xlvii.  p.  501  [15]).  When  Augustus  was  in  Egypt,  he  revered  the 
majesty  of  Serapis  (Dion,  1.  Ii.  p.  647  [16]) ;  but  in  the  Pomaerium  of  Rome,  and 
a  mile  round  it,  he  prohibited  the  worship  of  the  Egyptian  gods  (Dion,  1.  liii.  p. 
697  [2],  1.  liv.  p.  735  [6]).  They  remained,  however,  very  fashionable  under  his 
reign  (Ovid,  de  Art.  Amand.  1.  i.  [77])  and  that  of  his  successor,  till  the  justice  of 
Tiberius  was  provoked  to  some  acts  of  severity.  (See  Tacit.  Annal.  ii.  85,  Joseph. 
Antiquit.  1.  xviii.  c.  3.) 

16  Tertullian  in  Apologetic,  c.  6,  p.  74.  Edit.  Havercamp.  I  am  inclined  to 
attribute  their  establishment  to  the  devotion  of  the  Flavian  family. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  33 

and  iEsculapius  had  been  invited  by  solemn  embassies  ;17  and  it 
was  customary  to  tempt  the  protectors  of  besieged  cities  by  the 
promise  of  more  distinguished  honours  than  they  possessed  in 
their  native  country.ls  Rome  gradually  became  the  common 
temple  of  her  subjects;  and  the  freedom  of  the  city  was  be- 
stowed on  all  the  gods  of  mankind.19 

II.  The  narrow  policy  of  preserving  without  any  foreign  Freedom  of 
mixture  the  pure  blood  of  the  ancient  citizens,  had  checked  °me 
the  fortune,  and  hastened  the  ruin,  of  Athens  and  Sparta.  The 
aspiring  genius  of  Rome  sacrificed  vanity  to  ambition,  and 
deemed  it  more  prudent,  as  well  as  honourable,  to  adopt  virtue 
and  merit  for  her  own  wheresoever  they  were  found,  among 
slaves  or  strangers,  enemies  or  barbarians.20  During  the 
most  flourishing  sera  of  the  Athenian  commonwealth  the  number 
of  citizens  gradually  decreased  from  about  thirty  21  to  twenty- 
one  thousand.22  If,  on  the  contrary,  we  study  the  growth  of 
the  Roman  republic,  we  may  discover  that,  notwithstanding  the 
incessant  demands  of  wars  and  colonies,  the  citizens,  who,  in 
the  first  census  of  Servius  Tullius,  amounted  to  no  more  than 
eighty-three  thousand, 23  were  multiplied,  before  the  com 
mencement  of  the  social  war,  to  the  number  of  four  hundred  and 
sixty-three  thousand  men  able  to  bear  arms  in  the  service  of  their 
country.24  When  the  allies  of  Rome  claimed  an  equal  share  of 
honours  and  privileges,  the  senate  indeed  preferred  the  chance  of 
arms  to  an  ignominious  concession.  The  Samnites  and  the 
Lucanians  paid  the  severe  penalty  of  their  rashness;  but  the  rest 
of  the  Italian  states,  as  they  successively  returned  to  their  duty, 
were  admitted  into  the  bosom  of  the  republic,25  and  soon  con- 
tributed to  the  ruin  of  public   freedom.     Under  a  democratical 

17 See  Livy,  1.  xi.  [12]  and  xxix.  [11]. 

18  Macrob.  Saturnalia,  1.  Hi.  c.  9.     He  gives  us  a  form  ">f  evocation. 

19  Minucius  Felix  in  Octavio,  p.  54.     Arnobius,  1.  vi.  p.   115. 

20  Tacit.  Annal.  xi.  24.  The  Orbis  Romanus  of  the  learned  Spanheim  is  a 
complete  history  of  the  progressive  admission  of  Latium,  Italy,  and  the  provinces 
to  the  freedom  of  Rome. 

21  Herodotus,  v.  97.  It  should  seem,  however,  that  he  followed  a  large  and 
popular  estimation. 

22  Athenaeus  Deipnosophist,  1.  vi.  p.  272,  Edit.  Casaubon.  Meursius  de  Fortuna 
Attica,  c.  4.  [For  the  population  of  Athens,  see  Clinton's  Fasti  Hellenici,  vol.  i. 
p.  381,  and  Boeckh's  Staatshaushaltung  der  Athener.  But  new  light  has  been 
thrown  on  the  Athenian  as  on  other  ancient  populations  by  Beloch,  He  estimates 
the  population  of  Athens  c.  431  B.C.  at  35,000.] 

23  [Perhaps  about  20,000.     See  Mommsen,  Hist,  of  Rome,  i.  436,  Eng.  Tr.] 

24  See  a  very  accurate  collection  of  the  numbers  of  each  Lustrum  in  M.  de  Beau- 
fort, Republique  Romaine,  1.  iv.  c.  4. 

25  Appian  de  Bell,  civil.  1.  i.  [53] .     Velleius  Paterculus,  1.  ii.  c.  15,  16,  17. 

3  VOL.  I. 


34  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

government  the  citizens  exercise  the  powers  of  sovereignty ; 
and  those  powers  will  be  first  abused,  and  afterwards  lost,  if 
they  are  committed  to  an  unwieldy  multitude.  But,  when  the 
popular  assemblies  had  been  suppressed  by  the  administration 
of  the  emperors,  the  conquerors  were  distinguished  from  the 
vanquished  nations  only  as  the  first  and  most  honourable  order 
of  subjects;  and  their  increase,  however  rapid,  was  no  longer 
exposed  to  the  same  dangers.  Yet  the  wisest  princes  who 
adopted  the  maxims  of  Augustus  guarded  with  the  strictest 
care  the  dignity  of  the  Roman  name,  and  diffused  the  freedom 
of  the  city  with  a  prudent  liberality.26 
Italy  Till  the  privileges  of  Romans  had  been  progressively  extended 

to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  empire,  an  important  distinction 
was  preserved  between  Italy  and  the  provinces.  The  former 
was  esteemed  the  centre  of  public  unity,  and  the  firm  basis  of 
the  constitution.  Italy  claimed  the  birth,  or  at  least  the  re- 
sidence, of  the  emperors  and  the  senate.27  The  estates  of 
the  Italians  were  exempt  from  taxes,  their  persons  from  the 
arbitrary  jurisdiction  of  governors.  Their  municipal  corpora- 
tions, formed  after  the  perfect  model  of  the  capital,28  were 
intrusted,  under  the  immediate  eye  of  the  supreme  power,  with 
the  execution  of  the  laws.  From  the  foot  of  the  Alps  to  the  ' 
extremity  of  Calabria,  all  the  natives  of  Italy  were  born  citizens 
of  Rome.  Their  partial  distinctions  were  obliterated,  and  they 
insensibly  coalesced  into  one  great  nation,  united  by  language, 
manners,  and  civil  institutions,  and  equal  to  the  weight  of  a 
powerful  empire.  The  republic  gloried  in  her  generous  policy,  i 
and  was  frequently  rewarded  by  the  merit  and  services  of  her  ' 
adopted  sons.  Had  she  always  confined  the  distinction  of 
Romans  to  the  ancient  families  within  the  walls  of  the  city, 
that  immortal  name  would  have  been  deprived  of  some  of  its 
noblest  ornaments.  Virgil  was  a  native  of  Mantua ;  Horace 
was  inclined  to  doubt  whether  he  should  call  himself  an  Apulian 
or  a  Lucanian ;  it  was  in    Padua  that  an    historian   was   found   ! 


26  Maecenas  had  advised  him  to  declare,  by  one  edict,  all  his  subjects  citizens. 
But  we  may  justly  suspect  that  the  Historian  Dion  was  the  author  of  a  counsel,  so 
much  adapted  to  the  practice  of  his  own  age,  and  so  little  to  that  of  Augustus. 

27  The  senators  were  obliged  to  have  one-third  of  their  own  landed  property  in 
Italy.  See  Plin.  1.  vi.  ep.  19.  The  qualification  was  reduced  by  Marcus  to  one- 
fourth.  Since  the  reign  of  Trajan,  Italy  had  sunk  nearer  to  the  level  of  the 
provinces. 

28  [This  statement  is  too  strong.  The  municipal  constitutions  of  the  Italian 
towns  were  hardly  created  in  a  day.  The  old  constitutions  were  modified  by  the 
new  relation  with  Rome,  but  not  abolished.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  35 

worthy  to  record  the  majestic  series  of  Roman  victories.  The 
patriot  family  of  the  Catos  emerged  from  Tusculum ;  and  the 
little  town  of  Arpinum  claimed  the  double  honour  of  producing 
Marius  and  Cicero,  the  former  of  whom  deserved,  after  Romulus 
and  Camillus,  to  be  styled  the  Third  Founder  of  Rome  ;  and 
the  latter,  after  saving  his  country  from  the  designs  of  Catiline, 
enabled  her  to  contend  with  Athens  for  the  palm  of  elo- 
quence.29 

The  provinces  of  the  empire  (as  they  have  been  described  in  The  Pro- 
the  preceding  chapter)  were  destitute  of  any  public  force  or 
constitutional  freedom.  In  Etruria,  in  Greece, 30  and  in 
Gaul,31  it  was  the  first  care  of  the  senate  to  dissolve  those 
dangerous  confederacies  which  taught  mankind  that,  as  the 
Roman  arms  prevailed  by  division,  they  might  be  resisted  by 
union.  Those  princes  whom  the  ostentation  of  gratitude  or 
generosity  permitted  for  a  while  to  hold  a  precarious  sceptre 
were  dismissed  from  their  thrones,  as  soon  as  they  had  per- 
formed their  appointed  task  of  fashioning  to  the  yoke  the 
vanquished  nations.  The  free  states  and  cities  which  had 
embraced  the  cause  of  Rome  were  rewarded  with  a  nominal 
alliance,  and  insensibly  sunk  into  real  servitude.  The  public 
authority  was  everywhere  exercised  by  the  ministers  of  the 
senate  and  of  the  emperors,  and  that  authority  was  absolute 
and  without  control.  But  the  same  salutary  maxims  of  govern- 
ment, which  had  secured  the  peace  and  obedience  of  Italy, 
were  extended  to  the  most  distant  conquests.  A  nation  of 
Romans  was  gradually  formed  in  the  provinces,  by  the  double 
expedient  of  introducing  colonies,  and  of  admitting  the  most 
faithful  and  deserving  of  the  provincials  to  the  freedom  of 
Rome. 

"  Wheresoever  the  Roman  conquers,  he  inhabits,"  is  a  very  colonies  and 
just  observation  of  Seneca,32  confirmed  by  history  and  experi- towns 
ence.     The  natives  of  Italy,  allured  by  pleasure  or  by  interest, 
hastened   to   enjoy   the   advantages   of  victory ;   and   we  may 
remark   that,    about  forty   years   after   the   reduction  of  Asia, 
eighty  thousand   Romans  were  massacred  in  one  day  by  the 

29  The  first  part  of  the  Verona  Illustrata  of  the  Marquis  Maffei  gives  the 
clearest  and  most  comprehensive  view  of  the  state  of  Italy  under  the  Caesars. 

30  See  Pausanias,  1.  vii.  [16].  The  Romans  condescended  to  restore  the 
names  of  those  assemblies,  when  they  could  no  longer  be  dangerous. 

31  They  are  frequently  mentioned  by  Caesar.  The  Abbe  Dubos  attempts,  with 
very  little  success,  to  prove  that  the  assemblies  of  Gaul  were  continued  under  the 
emperors.     Histoire  de  l'Etablissement  de  la  Monarchic  Francoise,  1.  i.  c.  4. 

33  Seneca  in  Consolat.  ad  Helviam,  c.  6. 


36  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

cruel  orders  of  Mithridates.33  These  voluntary  exiles  were  en- 
gaged for  the  most  part  in  the  occupations  of  commerce,  agri- 
culture, and  the  farm  of  the  revenue.  But  after  the  legions 
were  rendered  permanent  by  the  emperors,  the  provinces  were 
peopled  bjr  a  race  of  soldiers  ;  and  the  veterans,  whether  they 
received  the  reward  of  their  service  in  land  or  in  money,  usually 
settled  with  their  families  in  the  country  where  they  had  honour- 
ably spent  their  youth.  Throughout  the  emph*e,  but  more  parti- 
cularly in  the  western  parts,  the  most  fertile  districts  and  the 
most  convenient  situations  were  reserved  for  the  establishment 
of  colonies ;  some  of  which  were  of  a  civil  and  others  of  a 
military  nature.  In  their  manners  and  internal  policy,  the 
colonies  formed  a  perfect  representation  of  their  great  parent ; 
and  [as]  they  were  soon  endeared  to  the  natives  by  the  ties  of 
friendship  and  alliance,  they  effectually  diffused  a  reverence 
for  the  Roman  name,  and  a  desire  which  was  seldom  disap- 
pointed of  sharing,  in  due  time,  its  honours  and  advantages.34 
The  municipal  cities  insensibly  equalled  the  rank  and  splendour 
of  the  colonies ;  and  in  the  reign  of  Hadrian  it  was  disputed 
which  was  the  preferable  condition,  of  those  societies  which  had 
issued  from,  or  those  which  had  been  received  into,  the  bosom 
of  Rome.35  The  right  of  Latium,  as  it  was  called,  conferred  on 
the  cities .  to  which  it  had  been  granted  a  more  partial  favour. 
The  magistrates  only,  at  the  expiration  of  their  office,  assumed 
the  quality  of  Roman  citizens  ;  but  as  those  offices  were  annual, 
in  a  few  years  they  circulated  round  the  principal  families.36 
Those  of  the  provincials  who  were  permitted  to  bear  arms  in  the 
legions ;  3~  those  who  exercised  any  civil  employment ;  all,  in  a 
word,  who  performed  any  public  service,  or  displayed  any  personal 

33Memnon  apud  Photium,  c.  33  [c.  31;  Miiller,  F.  H.  G. ,  iii.  p.  542].  Valer. 
Maxim,  ix.  2.  Plutarch  [Sulla,  24.J  and  Dion  Cassius  [fr.  99 ;  vol.  i.  p.  342,  ed. 
Melber]  swell  the  massacre  to  150,000  citizens  ;  but  I  should  esteem  the  smaller 
number  to  be  more  than  sufficient. 

34  Tw enty-five  colonies  were  settled  in  Spain  (see  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  iii.  3,  4,  iv. 
35) :  and  nine  in  Britain,  of  which  London,  Colchester,  Lincoln,  Chester,  Gloucester, 
and  Bath,  still  remain  considerable  cities  (see  Richard  of  Cirencester,  p.  36,  and 
Whitaker's  History  of  Manchester,  1.  i.  c.  3).  rThe  authority  of  Richard  of 
Cirencester  on  Roman  Britain  is  of  no  value.     See  Appendix  2.] 

35Aul.  Gell.  Noctes  Atticae,  xvi.  13.  The  Emperor  Hadrian  expressed  his 
surprise  that  the  cities  of  Utica,  Gades,  and  Italica,  which  already  enjoyed  the 
rights  of  Municipia,  should  solicit  the  title  of  colonies.  Their  example,  however, 
became  fashionable,  and  the  empire  was  filled  with  honorary  colonies.  See 
Spanheim,  de  Usu  Numismatum.  Dissertat.  xiii.  [For  colonies,  municipal  tewns 
and  the  right  of  Latium,  see  Appendix  8.] 

36  Spanheim,  Orbis  Roman,  c.  8.  p.  62. 

s^Aristid.  in  Romae  Encomio,  torn.  i.  p.  218.     Edit.  Jebb. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  37 

talents,  were  rewarded  with  a  present,  whose  value  was  continu- 
ally diminished  hy  the  increasing  liberality  of  the  emperors. 
Yet  even  in  the  age  of  the  Antonines,  when  the  freedom  of  the 
city  had  been  bestowed  on  the  greater  number  of  their  subjects, 
it  was  still  accompanied  with  very  solid  advantages.  The  bulk 
of  the  people  acquired,  with  that  title,  the  benefit  of  the  Roman 
laws,  particularly  in  the  interesting  articles  of  marriage,  testa- 
ments, and  inheritances ;  and  the  road  of  fortune  was  open  to 
those  whose  pretensions  were  seconded  by  favour  or  merit.  The 
grandsons  of  the  Gauls  who  had  besieged  Julius  Csesar  in  Alesia 
commanded  legions,  governed  provinces,  and  were  admitted  into 
the  senate  of  Rome.38  Their  ambition,  instead  of  disturbing  the 
tranquillity  of  the  state,  was  intimately  connected  with  its  safety 
and  greatness. 

So  sensible  were  the  Romans  of  the  influence  of  language  over  Division  of 
national  manners,  that  it  was  their  most  serious  care  to  extend,  the  Greet 
with  the  progress  of  their  arms,  the  use  of  the  Latin  tongue.  39  provulces 
The  ancient  dialects  of  Italy,  the  Sabine,  the  Etruscan,  and  the 
Venetian,  sunk  into  oblivion  ;  but  in  the  provinces,  the  east  was 
less  docile  than  the  west  to  the  voice  of  its  victorious  preceptors. 
This  obvious  difference  marked  the  two  portions  of  the  empire 
with  a  distinction  of  colours,  which,  though  it  was  in  some  degree 
concealed  during  the  meridian  splendour  of  prosperity,  became 
gradually  more  visible  as  the  shades  of  night  descended  upon 
the  Roman  world.  The  western  countries  were  civilized  by  the 
same  hands  which  subdued  them.  As  soon  as  the  barbarians 
were  reconciled  to  obedience,  their  minds  were  opened  to  any 
new  impressions  of  knowledge  and  politeness.  The  language  of 
Virgil  and  Cicero,  though  with  some  inevitable  mixture  of  cor- 
ruption, was  so  universally  adopted  in  Africa,  Spain,  Gaul, 
Britain,  and  Pannonia, 40  that  the  faint  traces  of  the  Punic  or 
Celtic  idioms  were  preserved  only  in  the  mountains,  or  among 
the  peasants.  41       Education  and  study  insensibly  inspired   the 

38  Tacit.  Annal.  xi.  23,  24.     Hist.  iv.  74. 

39 See  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  iii.  5.  Augustin.  de  Civitate  Dei,  xix.  7.  Lipsius  de 
pronunciatione  Lingure  Latinse,  c.  3. 

40  Apuleius  and  Augustin  will  answer  for  Africa;  Strabo  for  Spain  and  Gaul; 
Tacitus,  in  the  life  of  Agricola,  for  Britain  ;  and  Velleius  Paterculus,  for  Pannonia. 
To  them  we  may  add  the  language  of  the  Inscriptions.  [The  statement  in  the 
text  needs  modification  especially  in  regard  to  Britain.] 

41  The  Celtic  was  preserved  in  the  mountains  of  Wales,  Cornwall,  and  Armories 
We  may  observe  that  Apuleius  reproaches  an  African  youth,  who  lived  among  the 
populace,  with  the  use  of  the  Punic;  whilst  he  had  almost  forgot  Greek,   and 
neither  could  nor  would  speak  Latin.  (Apolog.  p.  596.)     The  greater  part  of  St. 
Austin's  congregations  were  strangers  to  the  Punic, 


38  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

natives  of  those  countries  with  the  sentiments  of  Romans ;  and 
Italy  gave  fashions,  as  well  as  laws,  to  her  Latin  provincials. 
They  solicited  with  more  ardour,  and  obtained  with  more  facility, 
the  freedom  and  honours  of  the  state ;  supported  the  national 
dignity  in  letters42  and  in  arms  ;  and,  at  length,  in  the  person  of 
Trajan,  produced  an  emperor  whom  the  Scipios  would  not  have 
disowned  for  their  countryman.  The  situation  of  the  Greeks 
was  very  different  from  that  of  the  barbarians.  The  former  had 
been  long  since  civilized  and  corrupted.  They  had  too  much 
taste  to  relinquish  their  language,  and  too  much  vanity  to  adopt 
any  foreign  institutions.  Still  preserving  the  prejudices,  after 
they  had  lost  the  virtues,  of  their  ancestors,  they  affected  to 
despise  the  unpolished  manners  of  the  Roman  conquerors,  whilst 
they  were  compelled  to  respect  their  superior  wisdom  and 
power.43  Nor  was  the  influence  of  the  Grecian  language  and 
sentiments  confined  to  the  narrow  limits  of  that  once  celebrated 
country.  Their  empire,  by  the  progress  of  colonies  and  con- 
quest, had  been  diffused  from  the  Hadriatic  to  the  Euphrates  and 
the  Nile.  Asia  was  covered  with  Greek  cities,  and  the  long 
reign  of  the  Macedonian  kings  had  introduced  a  silent  revolution 
into  Syria  and  Egypt.  In  their  pompous  courts  those  princes 
united  the  elegance  of  Athens  with  the  luxury  of  the  East,  and 
the  example  of  the  court  was  imitated,  at  an  humble  distance, 
by  the  higher  ranks  of  their  subjects.  Such  was  the  general 
division  of  the  Roman  empire  into  the  Latin  and  Greek  lan- 
guages. To  these  we  may  add  a  third  distinction  for  the  body 
of  the  natives  in  Syria,  and  especially  in  Egypt.  The  use  of 
their  ancient  dialects,  by  secluding  them  from  the  commerce  of 
mankind,  checked  the  improvements  of  those  barbarians.44  The 
slothful  effeminacy  of  the  former  exposed  them  to  the  contempt, 
the  sullen  ferociousness  of  the  latter  excited  the  aversion,  of  the 
conquerors.45  Those  nations  had  submitted  to  the  Roman 
power,  but  they  seldom  desired  or  deserved  the  freedom  of  the 
city ;    and   it  was  remarked  that  more  than  two  hundred  and 


42  Spain  alone  produced  Columella,  the  Senecas,  Lucan,  Martial,  and  Qulntiliar 
[but  not,  as  far  as  we  know,  Silius  Italicus,  who,  if  his  name  really  connected  him 
with  Italica,  must  have  been  Italicanus] . 

43  There  is  not,  I  believe,  from  Dionysius  to  Libanius,  a  single  Greek  critic  who 
mentions  Virgil  or  Horace.  They  seem  ignorant  that  the  Romans  had  any  good 
writers. 

44  The  curious  reader  may  see  in  Dupin  (Bibliotheque  Ecctesiastique,  torn.  xix. 
p.  i,  c.  8),  how  much  the  use  of  the  Syriac  and  Egyptian  languages  was  still 
preserved. 

48  See  Juvenal,  Sat.  iii.  and  xv.     Ammian.  Marcellin.  xxii.  16. 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIRE  39 

thirty  years  elapsed  after  the  ruin  of  the  Ptolemies,  before  an 
Egyptian  was  admitted  into  the  senate  of  Rome. 46 

It  is  a  just  though  trite  observation,  that  victorious  Rome  was  General  use 
herself  subdued  by  the  arts  of  Greece.  Those  immortal  writers  |ua£es lan" 
who  still  command  the  admiration  of  modern  Europe  soon  be- 
came the  favourite  object  of  study  and  imitation  in  Italy  and  the 
western  provinces.  But  the  elegant  amusements  of  the  Romans 
were  not  suffered  to  interfere  with  their  sound  maxims  of  policy. 
Whilst  they  acknowledged  the  charms  of  the  Greek,  they  asserted 
the  dignity  of  the  Latin,  tongue,  and  the  exclusive  use  of  the 
latter  was  inflexibly  maintained  in  the  administration  of  civil  as 
well  as  military  government.47  The  two  languages  exercised  at 
the  same  time  their  separate  jurisdiction  throughout  the  empire: 
the  former,  as  the  natural  idiom  of  science ;  the  latter,  as  the 
legal  dialect  of  public  transactions.  Those  who  united  letters 
with  business  were  equally  conversant  with  both ;  and  it  was 
almost  impossible,  in  any  province,  to  find  a  Roman  subject, 
of  a  liberal  education,  who  was  at  once  a  stranger  to  the  Greek 
and  to  the  Latin  language. 

It  was  by  such  institutions  that  the  nations  of  the  empire  in- slaves 
sensibly  melted  away  into  the  Roman  name  and  people.  But 
there  still  remained,  in  the  centre  of  every  province  and  of  every 
family,  an  unhappy  condition  of  men  who  endured  the  weight, 
without  sharing  the  benefits,  of  society.  In  the  free  states  of 
antiquity  the  domestic  slaves  were  exposed  to  the  wanton  rigour  Their  treat 
of  despotism.  The  perfect  settlement  of  the  Roman  empire  was  ment 
preceded  by  ages  of  violence  and  rapine.  The  slaves  consisted, 
for  the  most  part,  of  barbarian  captives,  taken  in  thousands  by 
the  chance  of  war,  purchased  at  a  vile  price,48  accustomed  to  a 
life  of  independence,  and  impatient  to  break  and  to  revenge  their 
fetters.  Against  such  internal  enemies,  whose  desperate  in- 
surrections had  more  than  once  reduced  the  republic  to  the  brink 
of  destruction,49  the  most  severe  regulations  50  and  the  most  cruel 
treatment  seemed  almost  justified  by  the  great  law  of  self- 
preservation.     But  when  the  principal  nations  of  Europe,  Asia, 

46  Dion  Cassius,  1.  lxxvi,  p.  1275  [5].  The  first  instance  happened  under  the 
reign  of  Septimius  Severus. 

47  See  Valerius  Maximus,  1.  ii.  c.  2,  n.  2.  The  Emperor  Claudius  disfranchised 
an  eminent  Grecian  for  not  understanding  Latin.  He  was  probably  in  some 
public  office.     Suetonius  in  Claud,  c.  16. 

48  In  the  camp  of  Lucullus,  an  ox  sold  for  a  drachma,  and  a  slave  for  four 
drachmae,  or  about  three  shillings.  Plutarch,  in  Lucull.  p.  580  [14].  [Compare 
Dureau  de  la  Malle,  Econ.  Pol.  des  Romains,  i.  15.] 

49  Diodorus  Siculus  in  Eclog.  Hist.  1.  xxxiv.  and  xxxvi.  Florus,  iii.  19,  20. 
60  See  a  remarkable  instance  of  severity,  in  Cicero  in  Verrem,  v.  3. 


40  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

and  Africa  were  united  under  the  laws  of  one  sovereign,  the 
source  of  foreign  supplies  flowed  with  much  less  abundance,  and 
the  Romans  were  reduced  to  the  milder  but  more  tedious  method 
of  propagation.  In  their  numerous  families,  and  particularly  in 
their  country  estates,  they  encouraged  the  marriage  of  their 
slaves.  The  sentiments  of  nature,  the  habits  of  education,  and 
the  possession  of  a  dependent  species  of  property,  contributed 
to  alleviate  the  hardships  of  servitude.51  The  existence  of  a 
slave  became  an  object  of  greater  value,  and  though  his  happi- 
ness still  depended  on  the  temper  and  circumstances  of  the 
master,  the  humanity  of  the  latter,  instead  of  being  restrained  by 
fear,  was  encouraged  by  the  sense  of  his  own  interest.  The 
progress  of  manners  was  accelerated  by  the  virtue  or  policy  of 
the  emperors  ;  and  by  the  edicts  of  Hadrian  and  the  Antonines 
the  protection  of  the  laws  was  extended  to  the  most  abject  part 
of  mankind.  The  jurisdiction  of  life  and  death  over  the  slaves, 
a  power  long  exercised  and  often  abused,  was  taken  out  of 
private  hands,  and  reserved  to  the  magistrates  alone.  The  sub- 
terraneous prisons  were  abolished  ;  and,  upon  a  just  complaint  of 
intolerable  treatment,  the  injured  slave  obtained  either  his 
deliverance  or  a  less  cruel  master.52 
Enfranchise-  Hope,  the  best  comfort  of  our  imperfect  condition,  was 
not  denied  to  the  Roman  slave  ;  and,  if  he  had  any  opportunity 
of  making  himself  either  useful  or  agreeable,  he  might  very 
naturally  expect  that  the  diligence  and  fidelity  of  a  few  years 
would  be  rewarded  with  the  inestimable  gift  of  freedom.  The 
benevolence  of  the  master  was  so  frequently  prompted  by  the 
meaner  suggestions  of  vanity  and  avarice,  that  the  laws  found 
it  more  necessary  to  restrain  than  to  encourage  a  profuse  and 
undistinguishing  liberality,  which  might  degenerate  into  a  very 
dangerous  abuse.53  It  was  a  maxim  of  ancient  jurisprudence, 
that  a  slave  had  not  any  country  of  his  own  ;  he  acquired  with 
his  liberty  an  admission  into  the  political  society  of  which  his 
patron  was  a  member.  The  consequences  of  this  maxim  would 
have  prostituted  the  privileges  of  the  Roman  city  to  a  mean 
and  promiscuous  multitude.  Some  seasonable  exceptions  were 
therefore  provided ;  and  the  honourable  distinction  was  confined 

51  See  in  Grater,  and  the  other  collectors,  a  great  number  of  inscriptions 
addressed  by  slaves  to  their  wives,  children,  fellow-servants,  masters,  ike.  They 
are  all  most  probably  of  the  Imperial  age. 

62  See  the  Augustan  History  [i,  18],  and  a  dissertation  of  M.  de  Burigny,  in 
the  xxxvth  volume  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions,  upon  the  Roman  slaves. 

53  See  another  dissertation  of  M.  de  Burigny  in  the  xxxviith  volume,  on  the 
Roman  freedmen. 


ment 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  41 

to  such  slaves  only  as,  for  just  causes,  and  with  the  approbation 
of  the  magistrate,  should  receive  a  solemn  and  legal  manumis- 
sion. Even  these  chosen  freedmen  obtained  no  more  than  the 
private  rights  of  citizens,  and  were  rigorously  excluded  from 
civil  or  military  honours.  Whatever  might  be  the  merit 
or  fortune  of  their  sons,  they  likewise  were  esteemed  unworthy 
of  a  seat  in  the  senate ;  nor  were  the  traces  of  a  servile 
origin  allowed  to  be  completely  obliterated  till  the  third 
or  fourth  generation.54  Without  destroying  the  distinction 
of  ranks,  a  distant  prospect  of  freedom  and  honours  was  pre- 
sented, even  to  those  whom  pride  and  prejudice  almost  dis- 
dained to  number  among  the  human  species. 

It  was  once  proposed  to  discriminate  the  slaves  by  a  peculiar  Numbers 
habit,  but  it  was  justly  apprehended  that  there  might  be  some 
danger  in  acquainting  them  with  their  own  numbers.55  Without 
interpreting,  in  their  utmost  strictness,  the  liberal  appellations  of 
legions  and  myriads,  56  we  may  venture  to  pronounce  that  the 
proportion  of  slaves,  who  were  valued  as  property,  was  more  con- 
siderable than  that  of  servants,  who  can  be  computed  only  as  an 
expense.57  The  youths  of  a  promising  genius  were  instructed  in 
the  arts  and  sciences,  and  their  price  was  ascertained  by  the 
degree  of  their  skill  and  talents.58  Almost  every  profession, 
either  liberal 59  or  mechanical,  might  be  found  in  the  household 
of  an  opulent  senator.  The  ministers  of  pomp  and  sensuality 
were  multiplied  beyond  the  conception  of  modern  luxury.60  It 
was  more  for  the  interest  of  the  merchant  or  manufacturer  to 
purchase  than  to  hire  his  workmen  ;  and  in  the  country  slaves 
were  employed  as  the  cheapest  and  most  laborious  instruments 
of  agriculture.  To  confirm  the  general  observation,  and  to  dis- 
play the  multitude  of  slaves,  we  might  allege  a  variety  of  par- 
ticular instances.  It  was  discovered,  on  a  very  melancholy 
occasion,  that  four  hundred  slaves  were  maintained  ina  single  palace 

B4Spanheim.  Orbis  Roman.  1.  i.  c.  16.  p.  124,  &c. 

55 Seneca  de  Clementia,  1.  i.  c.  24.  The  original  is  much  stronger,  "Quantum 
periculum  immineret  si  servi  nostri  numerare  nos  coepissent ''. 

56  See  Pliny  (Hist.  Natur.  1.  xxxiii.)  and  Athenceus  (Deipnosophist,  I.  vi.  p.  272K 
The  latter  boldly  asserts  that  he  knew  very  many  (jra/xiroAAot)  Romans  who 
possessed,  not  for  use,  but  ostentation,  ten  and  even  twenty  thousand  slaves. 

57  In  Paris  there  are  not  more  than  43,700  domestics  of  every  sort,  and  not  a 
twelfth  part  of  the  inhabitants.     Messange,  Recherches  sur  la  Population,  p.  186. 

5S  A  learned  slave  sold  for  many  hundred  pounds  sterling ;  Atticus  always  bred 
and  taught  them  himself.    Cornel.  Nepos  in  Vit.  c.  13. 

69  Many  of  the  Roman  physicians  were  slaves.  See  Dr.  Middleton's  Disserta- 
tion and  Defence.      [On  the  state  of  Physicians  among  the  Old  Romans,  1734.] 

60  Their  ranks  and  offices  are  very  copiously  enumerated  by  Pignprius  de 
Servis.     [For  whole  subject  cp.  Wallcn,  Hist,  de  l'Esclavage.] 


42  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

of  Rome.61  The  same  number  of  four  hundred  belonged  to  an 
estate,  which  an  African  widow,  of  a  very  private  condition,  re- 
signed to  her  son,  whilst  she  reserved  for  herself  a  much  larger 
share  of  her  property.62  A  freedman,  under  the  reign  of  Augustus, 
though  his  fortune  had  suffered  great  losses  in  the  civil  wars,  left 
behind  him  three  thousand  six  hundred  yoke  of  oxen,  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  head  of  smaller  cattle,  and,  what  was  almost 
included  in  the  description  of  cattle,  four  thousand  one  hundred 
and  sixteen  slaves.63 
Populously  The  number  of  subjects  who  acknowledged  the  laws  of  Rome, 
empire  of  citizens,  of  provincials,  and  of  slaves,  cannot  now  be  fixed  with 
such  a  degree  of  accuracy  as  the  importance  of  the  object  would 
deserve.64  We  are  informed  that,  when  the  emperor  Claudius 
exercised  the  office  of  censor,  he  took  an  account  of  six  millions 
nine  hundred  and  forty-five  thousand  Roman  citizens,  who,  with 
the  proportion  of  women  and  children,  must  have  amounted  to 
about  twenty  millions  of  souls.  The  multitude  of  subjects  of  an 
inferior  rank  was  uncertain  and  fluctuating.  But,  after  weighing 
with  attention  every  circumstance  which  could  influence  the 
balance,  it  seems  probable  that  there  existed,  in  the  time  of 
Claudius,  about  twice  as  many  provincials  as  there  were  citizens, 
of  either  sex  and  of  eveiy  age  ;  and  that  the  slaves  were  at  least 
equal  in  number  to  the  free  inhabitants  of  the  Roman  world. 
The  total  amount  of  this  imperfect  calculation  would  rise  to 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty  millions  of  persons :  a  degree  of 
population  which  possibly  exceeds  that  of  modern  Europe,  65  and 
forms  the  most  numerous  society  that  has  ever  been  united 
under  the  same  system  of  government. 

61  Tacit.  Annal.  xiv.  43.  They  all  were  executed  for  not  preventing  their  master's 
murder. 

62  Apuleius  in  Apolog.  p.  548.     Edit.  Delphin. 

63  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  1.  xxxiii.  47. 

64  [The  subject  of  the  population  of  the  Roman  empire  has  been  discussed  in 
detail  in  Dureau  de  la  Malle's  Economie  Politique,  on  which  work  Merivale's 
investigation  is  based  (History  of  the  Romans  under  the  Empire,  chap.  39). 
Merivale  reckons  the  entire  population  under  Augustus,  "including  both  sexes, 
all  ages  and  every  class  of  inhabitants,"  at  eighty-five  millions,  of  which  forty  fall 
to  the  European,  forty-five  to  the  Asiatic  provinces.  In  the  present  day  the  total 
population  of  these  European  lands  is  two  and  a  half  times  as  great.  Gibbon's 
calculation  is,  on  any  theory,  far  too  large.] 

65  Compute  twenty  millions  in  France,  twenty-two  in  Germany,  four  in 
Hungary,  ten  in  Italy  with  its  islands,  eight  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  eight 
'n  Spain  and  Portugal,  ten  or  twelve  in  the  European  Russia,  six  in  Poland,  six 
in  Greece  and  Turkey,  four  in  Sweden,  three  in  Denmark  and  Norway,  four  in 
the  Low  Countries.  The  whole  would  amount  to  one  hundred  and  five,  or  one 
hundred  and  seven  millions.  See  Voltaire,  de  l'Histoire  Ge'neYale.  [The  present 
population  of  Europe  is  somewhat  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  millions.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  43 

Domestic  peace  and  union  were  the  natural  consequences  of  obedience  and 
the  moderate  and  comprehensive  policy  embraced  by  the 
Romans.  If  we  turn  our  eyes  towards  the  monarchies  of  Asia, 
we  shall  behold  despotism  in  the  centre  and  weakness  in  the 
extremities  ;  the  collection  of  the  revenue,  or  the  administration 
of  justice,  enforced  by  the  presence  of  an  army;  hostile  bar- 
barians, established  in  the  heart  of  the  country,  hereditary 
satraps  usurping  the  dominion  of  the  provinces  and  subjects, 
inclined  to  rebellion,  though  incapable  of  freedom.  But  the 
obedience  of  the  Roman  world  was  uniform,  voluntary,  and 
permanent.  The  vanquished  nations,  blended  into  one  great 
people,  resigned  the  hope,  nay  even  the  wish,  of  resuming  their 
independence,  and  scarcely  considered  their  own  existence  as 
distinct  from  the  existence  of  Rome.  The  established  authority 
of  the  emperors  pervaded  without  an  effort  the  wide  extent  of 
their  dominions,  and  was  exercised  with  the  same  facility  on 
the  banks  of  the  Thames,  or  of  the  Nile,  as  on  those  of  the 
Tiber.  The  legions  were  destined  to  serve  against  the  public 
enemy,  and  the  civil  magistrate  seldom  required  the  aid  of  a 
military  force.66  In  this  state  of  general  security,  the  leisure 
as  well  as  opulence  both  of  the  prince  and  people  were  devoted  to 
improve  and  to  adorn  the  Roman  empire. 

Among  the  innumerable  monuments  of  architecture  con-  Koman  monu- 
structed  by  the  Romans,  how  many  have  escaped  the  notice  of 
history,  how  few  have  resisted  the  ravages  of  time  and  bar- 
barism !  And  yet  even  the  majestic  ruins  that  are  still  scattered 
over  Italy  and  the  provinces  would  be  sufficient  to  prove  that 
those  countries  were  once  the  seat  of  a  polite  and  powerful 
empire.  Their  greatness  alone,  or  their  beauty,  might  deserve 
our  attention ;  but  they  are  rendered  more  interesting  by  two 
important  circumstances,  which  connect  the  agreeable  history 
of  the  arts  with  the  more  useful  history  of  human  manners. 
Many  of  those  works  were  erected  at  private  expense,  and 
almost  all  were  intended  for  public  benefit. 

It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  the  greatest  number,  as  well  as  Many  of  them 

*>  *■  ™  erected  at 

the  most  considerable  of  the  Roman  edifices,  were  raised  by  the  private  ex- 
emperors,  who  possessed  so  unbounded  a  command  both  of  men 
and  money.     Augustus  was  accustomed   to  boast  that  he  had 
found  his  capital  of  brick,  and  that  he  had   left  it  of  marble.67 

68  Joseph  de  Bell.  Judaico.  1.  ii.  c.  16.  The  oration  of  Agrippa,  or  rather  of 
the  historian,  is  a  fine  picture  of  the  Roman  empire. 

•^Sueton.  in  August,  c.  28.  Augustus  built  in  Rome  the  temple  and  forum 
of   Mars   the  Avenger  ;  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Tonans  in  the  capitol ;  that  of 


44  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

The  strict  economy  of  Vespasian  was  the  source  of  his  magnifi- 
cence. The  works  of  Trajan  bear  the  stamp  of  his  genius. 
The  public  monuments  with  which  Hadrian  adorned  every 
province  of  the  empire  were  executed  not  only  by  his  orders, 
but  under  his  immediate  inspection.  He  was  himself  an  artist; 
and  he  loved  the  arts,  as  they  conduced  to  the  glory  of  the 
monarch.  They  were  encouraged  by  the  Antonines,  as  they 
contributed  to  the  happiness  of  the  people.  But  if  the  emperors 
were  the  first,  they  were  not  the  only  architects  of  their 
dominions.  Their  example  was  universally  imitated  by  their 
principal  subjects,  who  were  not  afraid  of  declaring  that  they 
had  spirit  to  conceive,  and  wealth  to  accomplish,  the  noblest 
undertakings.  Scarcely  had  the  proud  structure  of  the  Coli- 
seum been  dedicated  at  Rome,  before  the  edifices  of  a  smaller  scale 
indeed,  but  of  the  same  design  and  materials,  were  erected  for 
the  use,  and  at  the  expense,  of  the  cities  of  Capua  and 
Verona.68  The  inscription  of  the  stupendous  bridge  of  Alcantara 
attests  that  it  was  thrown  over  the  Tagus  by  the  contribution 
of  a  few  Lusitanian  communities.  When  Pliny  was  intrusted 
with  the  government  of  Bithynia  and  Pontus,  provinces  by  no 
means  the  richest  or  most  considerable  of  the  empire,  he  found 
the  cities  within  his  jurisdiction  striving  with  each  other  in 
every  useful  and  ornamental  work  that  might  deserve  the 
curiosity  of  strangers  or  the  gratitude  of  their  citizens.  It  was 
the  duty  of  the  Proconsul  to  supply  their  deficiencies,  to  direct 
their  taste,  and  sometimes  to  moderate  their  emulation.  69 
The  opulent  senators  of  Rome  and  the  provinces  esteemed  it 
an  honour,  and  almost  an  obligation,  to  adorn  the  splendour  of 
their  age  and  country ;  and  the  influence  of  fashion  very  fre- 
quently supplied  the  want  of  taste  or  generosity.  Among  a 
crowd  of  these  private  benefactors,  we  may  select  H erodes 
Atticus,  an  Athenian  citizen,  who  lived  in  the  age  of  the 
Antonines.  Whatever  might  be  the  motive  of  his  conduct, 
his  magnificence  would  have  been  worthy  of  the  greatest 
kings. 

Apollo  Palatine,  with  publi~  libraries  ;  the  portico  and  basilica  of  Caius  and 
Lucius  ;  the  porticoes  of  Livia  and  Octavia,  and  the  theatre  of  Marcellus.  The 
example  of  the  sovereign  was  imitated  by  his  ministers  and  generals  ;  and  his 
friend  Agrippa  left  behind  him  the  immortal  monument  of  the  Pantheon. 

68  See  Maffei,  Verona illustrata,    .  iv.  p.  68. 

B9See  the  xth  book  of  Pliny's  Epistles.  He  mentions  the  following  works, 
carried  on  at  the  expense  of  the  cities.  At  Nicomedia,  a  new  forum,  an  aqueduct, 
and  a  canal,  left  unfinished  by  a  king ;  at  Nice,  a  Gymnasium  and  a  theatre, 
which  had  already  cost  near  ninety  thousand  pounds  ;  baths  at  Prusa  and 
C.laudiopolis  ;  and  an  aqueduct  of  sixteen  miles  in  length  for  the  use  of  Sinope. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  45 

The  family  of  Herod,  at  least  after  it  had  been  favoured  by  Example  of 
fortune,  was  lineally  descended  from  Cimon  and  Miltiades,  Atticus" 
Theseus  and  Cecrops,  /Eacus  and  J  upiter.  But  the  posterity  of 
so  many  gods  and  heroes  was  fallen  into  the  most  abject  state. 
His  grandfather  had  suffered  by  the  hands  of  justice,  and  Julius 
Atticus,  his  father,  must  have  ended  his  life  in  poverty  and 
contempt,  had  he  not  discovered  an  immense  treasure  buried 
under  an  old  house,  the  l&st  remains  of  his  patrimony.  According 
to  the  rigour  of  law,  the  emperor  might  have  asserted  his  claim ; 
and  the  prudent  Atticus  prevented,  by  a  frank  confession,  the 
officiousness  of  informers.  But  the  equitable  Nerva,  who  then 
filled  the  throne,  refused  to  accept  any  part  of  it,  and  commanded 
him  to  use,  without  scruple,  the  present  of  fortune.  The  cautious 
Athenian  still  insisted  that  the  treasure  was  too  considerable  for 
a  subject,  and  that  he  knew  not  how  to  use  it.  Abuse  it  then, 
replied  the  monarch,  with  a  good-natured  peevishness ;  for  it  is 
your  own.70  Many  will  be  of  opinion  that  Atticus  literally 
obeyed  the  emperor's  last  instructions,  since  he  expended  the 
greatest  part  of  his  fortune,  which  was  much  increased  by  an 
advantageous  marriage,  in  the  service  of  the  Public.  He  had 
obtained  for  his  son  Herod  the  prefecture  of  the  free  cities  of 
Asia;  and  the  young  magistrate,  observing  that  the  town  of 
Troas  was  indifferently  supplied  with  water,  obtained  from  the 
munificence  of  Hadrian  three  hundred  myriads  of  drachms  (about 
a  hundred  thousand  pounds)  for  the  construction  of  a  new  aque- 
duct. But  in  the  execution  of  the  work  the  charge  amounted  to 
more  than  double  the  estimate,  and  the  officers  of  the  revenue  be- 
gan to  murmur,  till  the  generous  Atticus  silenced  their  complaints 
by  requesting  that  he  might  be  permitted  to  take  upon  himself 
the  whole  additional  expense. 71 

The  ablest  preceptors  of  Greece  and  Asia  had  been  invited  by  Hisreputa- 
liberal  rewards  to  direct  the  education  of  young  Herod.  Their 
pupil  soon  became  a  celebrated  orator  in  the  useless  rhetoric  of 
that  age,  which,  confining  itself  to  the  schools,  disdained  to  visit 
either  the  Forum  or  the  Senate.  He  was  honoured  with  the 
consulship  at  Rome  ;  but  the  greatest  part  of  his  life  Avas  spent  in 
a  philosophic   retirement  at  Athens,   and  his    adjacent  villas ; 

70  Hadrian  afterwards  made  a  very  equitable  regulation,  which  divided  all 
treasure  trove  between  the  right  of  property  and  that  of  discovery.  Hist.  August, 
p.  9[i.  18]. 

71  Philostrat.  in  Vit.  Sophist.  I.  ii.  p.  548.  [We  cannot  implicitly  trust  the 
statements  of  Philostratus,  the  biographer  of  Herodes,  for  he  was  also  the 
biographer  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana.] 


46  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

perpetually  surrounded  by  sophists,  who  acknowledged,  without 
reluctance,  the  superiority  of  a  rich  and  generous  rival.72  The 
monuments  of  his  genius  have  perished  ;  some  remains  still  pre- 
serve the  fame  of  his  taste  and  munificence :  modern  travellers 
have  measured  the  remains  of  the  stadium  which  he  constructed 
at  Athens.  It  was  six  hundred  feet  in  length,  built  entirely  of 
white  marble,  capable  of  admitting  the  whole  body  of  the  people, 
and  finished  in  four  years,  whilst  Herod  was  president  of  the 
Athenian  games.  To  the  memory  of  his  wife  Regilla  he  dedi- 
cated a  theatre,  scarcely  to  be  paralleled  in  the  empire :  no  wood 
except  cedar  very  curiously  carved,  was  employed  in  any  part  of 
the  building.  The  Odeum,  designed  by  Pericles  for  musical  per- 
formances and  the  rehearsal  of  new  tragedies,  had  been  a  trophy  of 
the  victory  of  the  arts  over  Barbaric  greatness  ;  as  the  timbers 
employed  in  the  construction  consisted  chiefly  of  the  masts  of 
the  Persian  vessels.  Notwithstanding  the  repairs  bestowed  on 
that  ancient  edifice  by  a  king  of  Cappadocia,  it  was  again  fallen 
to  decay.  Herod  restored  its  ancient  beauty  and  magnificence.73 
Nor  was  the  liberality  of  that  illustrious  citizen  confined  to 
the  walls  of  Athens.  The  most  splendid  ornaments  bestowed 
on  the  temple  of  Neptune  in  the  Isthmus,  a  theatre  at  Corinth, 
a  stadium  at  Delphi,  a  bath  at  Thermopylae,  and  an  aqueduct 
at  Canusium  in  Italy,  were  insufficient  to  exhaust  his  treasures. 
The  people  of  Epirus,  Thessaly,  Euboea,  Boeotia,  and  Peloponnesus, 
experienced  his  favours ;  and  many  inscriptions  of  the  cities  of 
Greece  and  Asia  gratefully  style  Herodes  Atticus  their  patron 
and  benefactor.74 
Most  of  the  In  the  commonwealths  of  Athens  and  Rome,  the  modest 
m°entasnfo?onu'  simplicity  of  private  houses  announced  the  equal  condition  of 
tampie™8 :  freedom  ;  whilst  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  was  represented 
a&uktwk  in  the  majestic  edifices  destined  to  the  public  use:75  nor  was 
this  republican  spirit  totally  extinguished  by  the  introduction  of 
wealth  and  monarchy.  It  was  in  works  of  national  honour  and 
benefit  that  the  most  virtuous  of  the  emperors  affected  to  dis- 
play their  magnificence.     The  golden  palace  of  Nero  excited  a 

?2Aulus  Gellius,  in  Noct.  Attic,  i.  2,  ix.  2,  xviii.  10,  xix.  12.  Phitostrat.  p. 
564  [ii.  14]. 

73  [The  Odeum  of  Herodes  is  here  wrongly  distinguished  from  his  theatre 
and  confounded  with  the  Odeum  of  Pericles.  The  latter,  which  has  disappeared, 
was  close  to  the  Theatre  of  Dionysus,  but  on  the  east  side ;  that  of  Herodes,  of 
which  there  are  still  ample  remains,  was  on  the  west  (S.  W.  of  the  Acropolis).] 

74  See  Philostrat.  1.  ii.  p.  548,  560  [3  sqq.~\ .  Pausanias  1.  i.  [19]  and  vii.  20.  The  life 
of  Herodes,  in  the  xxxth  volume  of  the  Memoirs  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions. 

78  It  is  particularly  remarked  of  Athens  by  Dicaearchus,  de  Statu  Graeciae,  p.  8, 
nter  Geographos  Minores,  edit.  Hudson. 


etc 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  47 

just  indignation,  but  the  vast  extent  of  ground  which  had  been 
usurped  by  his  selfish  luxury  was  more  nobly  filled  under  the 
succeeding  reigns  by  the  Coliseum,  the  baths  of  Titus,  the 
Claudian  portico,  and  the  temples  dedicated  to  the  goddess  of 
Peace  and  to  the  genius  of  Rome. 76  These  monuments  of 
architecture,  the  property  of  the  Roman  people,  were  adorned 
with  the  most  beautiful  productions  of  Grecian  painting  and 
sculpture ;  and  in  the  temple  of  Peace  a  very  curious  library 
was  open  to  the  curiosity  of  the  learned.  At  a  small  distance 
from  thence  was  situated  the  Forum  of  Trajan.  It  was  sur- 
rounded with  a  lofty  portico  in  the  form  of  a  quadrangle,  into 
which  four  triumphal  arches  opened  a  noble  and  spacious  en- 
trance :  in  the  centre  arose  a  column  of  marble,  whose  height 
of  one  hundred  and  ten  feet  denoted  the  elevation  of  the  hill  that 
had  been  cut  away.  This  column,  which  still  subsists  in  its 
ancient  beauty,  exhibited  an  exact  representation  of  the  Dacian 
victories  of  its  founder.  The  veteran  soldier  contemplated  the 
story  of  his  own  campaigns,  and,  by  an  easy  illusion  of  national 
vanity,  the  peaceful  citizen  associated  himself  to  the  honours  of 
the  triumph.  All  the  other  quarters  of  the  capital,  and  all  the 
provinces  of  the  empire,  were  embellished  by  the  same  liberal 
spirit  of  public  magnificence,  and  were  filled  with  amphitheatres, 
theatres,  temples,  porticos,  triumphal  arches,  baths  and  aqueducts, 
all  variously  conducive  to  the  health,  the  devotion,  and  the 
pleasures  of  the  meanest  citizen.  The  last  mentioned  of  those 
edifices  deserve  our  peculiar  attention.  The  boldness  of  the  en- 
terprise, the  solidity  of  the  execution,  and  the  uses  to  which  they 
were  subservient,  rank  the  aqueducts  among  the  noblest  monu- 
ments of  Roman  genius  and  power.  The  aqueducts  of  the  capital 
claim  a  just  pre-eminence;  but  the  curious  traveller,  who,  without 
the  light  of  history,  should  examine  those  of  Spoleto,  of  Metz,  or 
of  Segovia,  would  veiy  naturally  conclude  that  those  provincial 
towns  had  formerly  been  the  residence  of  some  potent  monarch. 
The  solitudes  of  Asia  and  Africa  were  once  covered  with  flourish- 
ing cities,  whose  populousness,  and  even  whose  existence,  was 
derived  from  such  artificial  supplies  of  a  perennial  stream  of 
fresh  water.  77 

76Donatus  de  Roma  Vetere,  1.  iii.  c.  4,  5,  6,  Nardini  Roma  Antica,  1.  iii.  n, 
12,  13,  and  an  MS.  description  of  ancient  Rome,  by  Bernardus  Oricellarius,  or 
Rucellas,  of  which  I  obtained  a  copy  from  the  library  of  the  Canon  Ricardi  at 
Florence.  Two  celebrated  pictures  of  Timanthes  and  of  Protogenes  are  men- 
tioned by  Pliny  [xxxv.  36]  as  in  the  Temple  of  Peace  ;  and  the  Laocoon  was 
found  in  the  baths  of  Titus.     [The  Temple  of  Peace  was  erected  by  Vespasian.] 

77  Montfaucon,  l'Antiquite'  Expliquee,  torn.  iv.  p.  2.  1.  i.  c.  9.  Fabretti  has 
composed  a  very  learned  treatise  on  the  aqueducts  of  Roro- 


i*e  empire 


48  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

Number  and  We  have  computed  the  inhabitants,  and  contemplated  the 
theacitiesof  public  works,  of  the  Roman  empire.  The  observation  of  the 
number  and  greatness  of  its  cities  will  serve  to  confirm  the 
former  and  to  multiply  the  latter.  It  may  not  be  unpleasing  to 
collect  a  few  scattered  instances  relative  to  that  subject,  without 
forgetting,  however,  that,  from  the  vanity  of  nations  and  the 
poverty  of  language,  the  vague  appellation  of  city  has  been 
indifferently  bestowed  on  Rome  and  upon  Laurentum.  I. 
.indent  Italy  is  said  to  have  contained  eleven  hundred  and  ninety- 
seven  cities ;  and,  for  whatsoever  aera  of  antiquity  the  expression 
might  be  intended, 7S  there  is  not  any  reason  to  believe  the  country 
less  populous  in  the  age  of  the  Antonines,  than  in  that  of  Romu- 
lus. The  petty  states  of  Latium  were  contained  within  the  metro- 
polis of  the  empire,  by  whose  superior  influence  they  had  been 
attracted.  Those  parts  of  Italy  which  have  so  long  languished 
under  the  lazy  tyranny  of  priests  and  viceroys  had  been  afflicted 
only  by  the  more  tolerable  calamities  of  war;  and  the  first  symp- 
toms of  decay  which  they  experienced  were  amply  compensated  by 
the  rapid  improvements  of  the  Cisalpine  Gaul.  The  splendour  of 
Verona  may  be  traced  in  its  remains  :  yet  Verona  was  less  cele- 
brated than  Aquileia  or  Padua,  Milan  or  Ravenna.  II.  The 
spirit  of  improvement  had  passed  the  Alps,  and  been  felt  even 
in  the  woods  of  Britain,  which  were  gradually  cleared  away  to 
open  a  free  space  for  convenient  and  elegant  habitations.  York 
was  the  seat  of  government  ;  London  was  already  enriched  by 
commerce ;  and  Bath  was  celebrated  for  the  salutary  effects  of 
its  medicinal  waters.  Gaul  could  boast  of  her  twelve  hundred 
cities  ; 79  and,  though,  in  the  northern  parts,  many  of  them,  without 
excepting  Paris  itself,  were  little  more  than  the  rude  and  imper- 
fect townships  of  a  rising  people,  the  southern  provinces  imitated 
the  wealth  and  elegance  of  Italy.80  Many  were  the  cities  of 
Gaul,  Marseilles,  Aries,  Nismes,  Narbonne,  Toulouse,  Bor- 
deaux, Autun,  Vienne,  Lyons,  Langres,  and  Treves,  whose 
ancient  condition  might  sustain  an  equal,  and  perhaps  advan- 
tageous, comparison  with  their  present  state.  With  regard  to 
Spain,  that  country  flourished  as  a  province,  and  has  declined  as  a 
kingdom.  Exhausted  by  the  abuse  of  her  strength,  by  America, 
and  by  superstition,  her  pride  might  possibly  be  confounded,  if 

78  Lilian  Hist.  Var.  1.  ix"  c.  16.     He  lived  in  the  time  of  Alexander  Severus. 
See  Fabricius,  Biblioth.     Grasca,  1.  iv.  c.  21. 

79  Joseph  de  Bell.  Jud.  ii.  16.     The  number,  however,  is  mentioned  and  should 
be  received  with  a  degree  of  latitude. 

so  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  iii.  5. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  49 

we  required  such  a  list  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  cities  as  Pliny 
has  exhibited  under  the  reign  of  Vespasian. 81  III.  Three  hun- Africa 
dred  African  cities  had  once  acknowledged  the  authority  of  Car- 
thage, 82  nor  is  it  likely  that  their  numbers  diminished  under  the 
administration  of  the  emperors :  Carthage  itself  rose  with  new 
splendour  from  its  ashes ;  and  that  capital,  as  well  as  Capua  and 
Corinth,  soon  recovered  all  the  advantages  which  can  be  separated 
from  independent  sovereignty.  IV.  The  provinces  of  the  east 
present  the  contrast  of  Roman  magnificence  with  Turkish  barbar-  Asia 
ism.  The  ruins  of  antiquity,  scattered  over  uncultivated  fields,  and 
ascribed  by  ignorance  to  the  power  of  magic,  scarcely  afford  a 
shelter  to  the  oppressed  peasant  or  wandering  Arab.  Under  the 
reign  of  the  Caesars,  the  proper  Asia  alone  contained  five  hundred 
populous  cities, 83  enriched  with  all  the  gifts  of  nature,  and 
adorned  with  all  the  refinements  of  art.  Eleven  cities  of  Asia 
had  once  disputed  the  honour  of  dedicating  a  temple  to  Tiberius, 
and  their  respective  merits  were  examined  by  the  senate.84 
Four  of  them  were  immediately  rejected  as  unequal  to  the  bur- 
den ;  and  among  these  was  Laodicea,  whose  splendour  is  still 
displayed  in  its  ruins.85  Laodicea  collected  a  very  considerable 
revenue  from  its  flocks  of  sheep,  celebrated  for  the  fineness  of 
their  wool,  and  had  received,  a  little  before  the  contest,  a  legacy  . 
of  above  four  hundred  thousand  pounds  by  the  testament  of  a 
generous  citizen.86  If  such  was  the  poverty  of  Laodicea,  what 
must  have  been  the  wealth  of  those  cities,  whose  claim  appeared  \ 
preferable,  and  particularly  of  Pergamus,  of  Smyrna,  and  of  Ephe- 
sus,  who  so  long  disputed  with  each  other  the  titular  primacy  of 
Asia  ?87    The  capitals  of  Syria  and  Egypt  held  a  still  superior  rank 

81  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  iii.  3,  4.  iv.  35.  The  list  seems  authentic  and  accurate: 
the  division  of  the  provinces  and  the  different  condition  of  the  cities  are  minutely 
distinguished. 

82Strabon.     Geograph.  1.  xvii.  p.  n  89. 

83  Joseph,  de  Bell.  Jud.  ii.  16.  Philostrat.  in  Vit.  Sophist.  1.  ii.  p.  548.  Edit. 
Olear.     [Life  of  Herodes,  3.] 

84  Tacit.  Annal.  iv.  55.  I  have  taken  some  pains  in  consulting  and  comparing 
modern  travellers,  with  regard  to  the  fate  of  those  eleven  cities  of  Asia  ;  seven 
or  eight  are  totally  destroyed,  Hypsepe,  Tralles,  Laodicea,  Ilium,  Halicarnassus, 
Miletus,  Ephesus,  and  we  may  add  Sardis.  Of  the  remaining  three,  Pergamus 
is  a  straggling  village  of  two  or  three  thousand  inhabitants  ;  Magnesia,  under 
the  name  of  Guzel-hissar,  a  town  of  some  consequence  ;  and  Smyrna,  a  great 
city,  peopled  by  a  hundred  thousand  souls.  But  even  at  Smyrna,  while  the  Franks 
have  maintained  commerce,  the  Turks  have  ruined  the  arts. 

85  See  a  very  exact  and  pleasing  description  of  the  ruins  of  Laodicea,  in 
Chandler's  Travels  through  Asia  Minor,  p.  225,  &c. 

86  Strabo,  1.  xii.  p.  866.     He  had  studied  at  Tralles. 

87  See  a  dissertation  of  M.  de  Bose,  Mem.  de  l'Acad^mie,  torn,  xviii.  Aristides 
pronounced  an  oration  which  is  still  extant,  to  recommend  concord  to  the  rival  cities. 

4  VOL.  I. 


50  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

in  the  empire:  Antioch  and  Alexandria  looked  down  with  disdain 
on  a  crowd  of  dependent  cities, ss  and  yielded  with  reluctance  to 
the  majesty  of  Rome  itself. 

Eoman  roads  All  these  cities  were  connected  with  each  other,  and  with  the 
capital,  by  the  public  highways,  which,  issuing  from  the  Forum 
of  Rome,  traversed  Italy,  pervaded  the  provinces,  and  were  ter- 
minated only  by  the  frontiers  of  the  empire.  If  we  carefully 
trace  the  distance  from  the  wall  of  Antoninus  to  Rome,  and  from 
thence  to  Jerusalem,  it  will  be  found  that  the  great  chain  of 
communication,  from  the  north-west  to  the  south-east  point  of 
the  empire,  was  drawn  out  to  the  length  of  four  thousand  and 
eighty  Roman  miles.89  The  public  roads  were  accurately 
divided  by  milestones,  and  ran  in  a  direct  line  from  one 
city  to  another,  with  very  little  respect  for  the  obstacles 
either  of  nature  or  private  property.  Mountains  were  per- 
forated, and  bold  arches  thrown  over  the  broadest  and  most 
rapid  streams.90  The  middle  part  of  the  road  was  raised 
into  a  terrace  which  commanded  the  adjacent  country,  consisted 
of  several  strata  of  sand,  gravel,  and  cement  and  was  paved  with 
large  stones,  or,  in  some  places  near  the  capital,  with  granite.91 
Such  was  the  solid  construction  of  the  Roman  highways,  whose 
firmness  has  not  entirely  yielded  to  the  effort  of  fiiteen  centuries. 
They  united  the  subjects  of  the  most  distant  provinces  by  an  easy 
and  familiar  intercourse  ;  but  their  primary  object  had  been  to 
facilitate  the  marches  of  the  legions  ;  nor  was  any  country  con- 
sidered  as  completely  subdued,  till  it  had  been  rendered,  in  all 
its  parts,  pervious  to  the  arms  and  authority  of  the  conqueror. 

posts  The  advantage  of  receiving  the  earliest  intelligence,  and  of  con- 

veying their  orders  with  celerity,  induced  the  emperors  to  estab- 
lish, throughout  their  extensive  dominions,  the  regular  institution 

88  The  inhabitants  of  Egypt,  exclusive  of  Alexandria,  amounted  to  seven 
millions  and  a  half  (Joseph,  de  Bell.  Jud.  ii.  16).  Under  the  military  government 
of  the  Mamalukes,  Syria  was  supposed  to  contain  sixty  thousand  villages  (Histoire 
de  Timur  Bee,  1.  v.  c.  20). 

89  The  following  Itinerary  may  serve  to  convey  some  idea  of  the  direction  of 
the  road,  and  of  the  distance  between  the  principal  towns.  I.  From  the  wall  of 
Antoninus  to  York,  222  Roman  miles.  II.  London  227.  III.  Rhutupiae  or 
Sandwich  67.  IV.  The  navigation  to  Boulogne  45.  V.  Rheims  174.  VI.  Lyons 
330.  VII.  Milan  324.  VIII.  Rome  426.  IX.  Brundusium  360.  X.  The 
navigation  to  Dyrrachium  40.  XL  Byzantium  711.  XII.  Ancyra  283.  XIII. 
Tarsus  301.  XIV.  Antioch  141.  XV.  Tyre  252.  XVI.  Jerusalem  168.  In  all 
4080  Roman,  or  3740  English  miles.  See  the  Itineraries  published  by  Wesseling, 
his  annotations;  Gale  and  Stukeley  for  Britain,  and  M.  d'Anville  for  Gaul  and  Italy. 

90  Montfaucon  (lAntiquitii  Expliqu^e,  torn.  iv.  p.  2.  1.  i.  c.  5.)  has  described 
the  bridges  of  Narni,  Alcantara,  Nismes,  &c. 

91Bergicr.     Histoire  des  grands  Chemins  de  l'Empire  Romain,  1.  ii.  c.  1-28. 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  51 

of  posts.92  Houses  were  everywhere  erected  at  the  distance  only 
of  five  or  six  miles  ;  each  of  them  was  constantly  provided  with 
forty  horses,  and,  by  the  help  of  these  relays,  it  was  easy  to 
travel  an  hundred  miles  in  a  day  along  the  Roman  roads.93  The 
use  of  the  posts  was  allowed  to  those  who  claimed  it  by  an  Im- 
perial mandate;  but,  though  originally  intended  for  the  public 
service,  it  was  sometimes  indulged  to  the  business  or  conveniency 
of  private  citizens.94  Nor  was  the  communication  of  the  Roman  Navigation 
empire  less  free  and  open  by  sea  than  it  was  by  land.  The 
provinces  surrounded  and  enclosed  the  Mediterranean  ;  and  Italy, 
in  the  shape  of  an  immense  promontory,  advanced  into  the  midst 
of  that  great  lake.  The  coasts  of  Italy  are,  in  general,  destitute 
of  safe  harbours  ;  but  human  industry  had  corrected  the  defici- 
encies of  nature  ;  and  the  artificial  port  of  Ostia,  in  particular, 
situate  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  and  formed  by  the  Emperor 
Claudius,  was  an  useful  monument  of  Roman  greatness.05  From 
this  port,  which  was  only  sixteen  miles  from  the  capital,  a  favour- 
able breeze  frequently  carried  vessels  in  seven  days  to  the 
columns  of  Hercules,  and  in  nine  or  ten  to  Alexandria  in  Egypt.96 

Whatever  evils  either  reason  or  declamation  have  imputed  improvement 
to  extensive   empire,   the   power  of  Rome  was  attended  with  in  tL 
some  beneficial  consequences  to  mankind ;  and  the  same  free-  countries 
dom  of  intercourse  which  extended  the  vices,  diffused  likewise 
the  improvements,  of  social  life.     In  the  more  remote  ages  of 
antiquity,  the  world  was  unequally  divided.      The  east  was  in 
the  immemorial  possession  of  arts  and  luxury ;  whilst  the  west 
was  inhabited  by  rude  and  warlike  barbarians,  who  either  dis- 
dained agriculture,  or  to  whom  it  was  totally  unknown.     Under 
the  protection  of  an  established  government,  the  productions  of 
happier  climates   and    the    industry  of  more   civilized    nations  . 

were  gradually  introduced  into  the  western  countries  of  Europe; 

92  Procopius  in  Hist.  Arcana,  c.  30,  Bergier  Hist,  des  grands  Chemins,  1. 
iv.  Codex  Theodosian,  1.  viii.  tit.  v.  vol.  ii.  p.  506-563,  with  Godefroy's  learned 
commentary. 

93  In  the  time  of  Theodosius,  Cresarius,  a  magistrate  of  high  rank,  went  post 
from  Antioch  to  Constantinople.  He  began  his  journey  at  night,  was  in  Cappa- 
docia  (165  miles  from  Antioch)  the  ensuing  evening,  and  arrived  at  Constantinople 
the  sixth  day  about  noon.  The  whole  distance  was  725  Roman,  or  665  English 
miles.  See  Libanius  Orat.  xxii.  and  the  Itineraria,  p.  572-581.  [For  the  post- 
system  or  cursus  publicus  see  the  article  under  this  title  in  Smith's  Diet,  of  Anti- 
quities ;  and  Hudemann's  Gesch.  des  rom.  Postwesens.] 

94  Pliny,  though  a  favourite  and  a  minister,  made  an  apology  for  granting 
post  horses  to  his  wife  on  the  most  urgent  business,  Epist.  x.  121,  122. 

95  Bergier  Hist,  des  grands  Chemins,  1.  iv.  c.  49. 

96  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  xix  1.     [From  Puteoli,  Pliny  says.] 


52 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


and  the  natives  were  encouraged,  by  an  open  and  profitable 
commerce,  to  multiply  the  former  as  well  as  to  improve  the 
latter.  It  would  be  almost  impossible  to  enumerate  all  the 
articles,  either  of  the  animal  or  the  vegetable  reign,  which  were 
successively  imported  into  Europe  from  Asia  and  Egypt : 97  but 
it  will  not  be  unworthy  of  the  dignity,  and  much  less  of  the 
utility,  of  an  historical  work,  slightly  to  touch  on  a  few  of  the 

introduction  principal  heads.  1.  Almost  all  the  flowers,  the  herbs,  and  the 
'  c  fruits  that  grow  in  our  European  gardens  are  of  foreign  ex- 
traction, which,  in  many  cases,  is  betrayed  even  by  their 
names :  the  apple  was  a  native  of  Italy,  and,  when  the 
Romans  had  tasted  the  richer  flavour  of  the  apricot,  the  peach, 
the  pomegranate,  the  citron,  and  the  orange,  they  contented 
themselves  with  applying  to  all  these  new  fruits  the  common 
denomination  of  apple,  discriminating  them  from  each  other 
by  the  additional  epithet  of  their  country.     2.   In  the  time  of 

The  vine  Homer,  the  vine  grew  wild  in  the  island  of  Sicily  and  most 
probably  in  the  adjacent  continent ;  but  it  was  not  improved 
by  the  skill,  nor  did  it  afford  a  liquor  grateful  to  the  taste,  of 
the  savage  inhabitants.98  A  thousand  years  afterwards,  Italy 
could  boast  that,  of  the  fourscore  most  generous  and  celebrated 
wines,  more  than  two-thirds  were  produced  from  her  soil. " 
The  blessing  was  soon  communicated  to  the  Narbonnese  pro- 
vince of  Gaul ;  but  so  intense  was  the  cold  to  the  north  of  the 
Cevennes,  that,  in  the  time  of  Strabo,  it  was  thought  impossible 
to  ripen  the  grapes  in  those  parts  of  Gaul.  10°  This  difficulty, 
however,  was  gradually  vanquished  ;  and  there  is  some  reason 
to  believe  that  the  vineyards  of  Burgundy  are  as  old  as  the  age 

The  olive  of  the  Antonines. 101  3.  The  olive,  in  the  western  world, 
followed  the  progress  of  peace,  of  which  it  was  considered  as 
the  symbol.  Two  centuries  after  the  foundation  of  Rome, 
both  Italy  and  Africa  were  strangers  to  that  useful  plant ;  it 
was  naturalized  in  those  countries ;  and  at  length  carried  into 


97  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  Greeks  and  Phoenicians  introduced  some  new 
arts  and  productions  into  the  neighbourhood  of  Marseilles  and  Gades. 
93  See  Homer  Odyss.  I.  ix.  v.  358. 

99  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  1.  xiv.  [11]. 

100  Strab.  Geograph.  1.  iv.  p.  223.  The  intense  cold  of  a  Gallic  winter  was  al- 
most proverbial  among  the  ancients.      [Compare  Cicero,  de  Rep.,  iii.  o.] 

101  In  the  beginning  of  the  ivth  century,  the  orator  Eumenius  (Panegyric.  Veter. 
viii.  6.  edit.  Delphin.  [Incerti,  Graf.  Actio  Constantino  Aug.,  viii.  6  ed.  Bahrens]) 
speaks  of  the  vines  in  the  territory  of  Autun,  which  were  decayed  through  age,  and 
the  first  plantation  of  which  was  totally  unknown.  The  Pagus  Arebrignus  is  sup- 
posed by  M.  d'Anville  to  be  the  district  of  Beaune,  celebrated,  even  at  present, 
for  one  of  the  first  growths  of  Burgundy. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  53 

the  heart  of  Spain  and  Gaul.  The  timid  errors  of  the  ancients, 
that  it  required  a  certain  degree  of  heat,  and  could  only  flourish 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  sea,  were  insensibly  exploded  by 
industry  and  experience. 102  4.  The  cultivation  of  flax  was  riax 
transported  from  Egypt  to  Gaul,  and  enriched  the  whole 
country,  however  it  might  impoverish  the  particular  lands  on 
which  it  was  sown. 103  5.  The  use  of  artificial  grasses  became  Artificial 
familiar  to  the  farmers  both  of  Italy  and  the  provinces,  parti- 
cularly the  Lucerne,  which  derived  its  name  and  origin  from 
Media. 104  The  assured  supply  of  wholesome  and  plentiful 
food  for  the  cattle  during  winter  multiplied  the  number  of  the 
flocks  and  herds,  which  in  their  turn  contributed  to  the  fertility 
of  the  soil.  To  all  these  improvements  may  be  added  an 
assiduous  attention  to  mines  and  fisheries,  which,  by  employing 
a  multitude  of  laborious  hands,  serve  to  increase  the  pleasures 
of  the  rich  and  the  subsistence  of  the  poor.  The  elegant  General 
treatise  of  Columella  describes  the  advanced  state  of  the plenty 
Spanish  husbandry,  under  the  reign  of  Tiberius  ;  and  it  may 
be  observed  that  those  famines  which  so  frequently  afflicted 
the  infant  republic  were  seldom  or  never  experienced  by  the 
extensive  empire  of  Rome.  The  accidental  scarcity,  in  any 
single  province,  was  immediately  relieved  by  the  plenty  of  its 
more  fortunate  neighbours. 

Agriculture  is  the  foundation  of  manufactures  ;  since  the  Arts  of 
productions  of  nature  are  the  materials  of  art.  Under  the lnxury 
Roman  empire,  the  labour  of  an  industrious  and  ingenious 
people  was  variously,  but  incessantly,  employed  in  the  service  of 
the  rich.  In  their  dress,  their  table,  their  houses,  and  their 
furniture,  the  favourites  of  fortune  united  every  refinement  of 
conveniency,  of  elegance,  and  of  splendour,  whatever  could 
soothe  their  pride  or  gratify  their  sensuality.  Such  refinements, 
under  the  odious  name  of  luxury,  have  been  severely  arraigned 
by  the  moralists  of  every  age  ;  and  it  might  perhaps  be  more 
conducive  to  the  virtue,  as  well  as  happiness,  of  mankind,  if  all 
possessed  the  necessaries,  and  none  the  superfluities,  of  life.  But 
in  the  present  imperfect  condition  of  society,  luxury,  though  it 
may  proceed  from  vice  or  folly,  seems  to  be  the  only  means  that 
can  correct  the  unequal  distribution  of  property.  The  diligent 
mechanic,  and  the  skilful  artist,  who  have  obtained  no  share  in 

wpiin.  Hist.  Natur.  1.  xv.  [i]. 
103Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  1.  xix.   [i,  2]. 

1MSee  the  agreeable   Essays  on  Agriculture  by  Mr.  Harte,  in  which  he  has 
collected  all  that  the  ancients  and  rnoderns  have  said  of  lucerne. 


trade 


54  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

the  division  of  the  earth,  receive  a  voluntary  tax  from  the 
possessors  of  land ;  and  the  latter  are  prompted,  by  a  sense  of 
interest,  to  improve  those  estates,  with  whose  produce  they  may 
purchase  additional  pleasures.  This  operation,  the  particular 
effects  of  which  are  felt  in  every  society,  acted  with  much  more 
diffusive  energy  in  the  Roman  world.  The  provinces  would  soon 
have  been  exhausted  of  their  wealth,  if  the  manufactures  and 
commerce  of  luxury  had  not  insensibly  restored  to  the  industrious 
subjects  the  sums  which  were  exacted  from  them  by  the  arms 
and  authority  of  Rome.  As  long  as  the  circulation  was  confined 
within  the  bounds  of  the  empire,  it  impressed  the  political 
machine  with  a  new  degree  of  activity,  and  its  consequences, 
sometimes  beneficial,  could  never  become  pernicious. 
Foreign  But  it  is  no  easv  task  to  confine  luxury  within  the  limits  of  an 

empire.  The  most  remote  countries  of  the  ancient  world  were 
ransacked  to  supply  the  pomp  and  delicacy  of  Rome.  The 
forest  of  Scythia  afforded  some  valuable  furs.  Amber  was 
brought  over  land  from  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  to  the  Danube  ; 
and  the  barbarians  were  astonished  at  the  price  which  they 
received  in  exchange  for  so  useless  a  commodity.105  There  was 
a  considerable  demand  for  Babylonian  carpets,  and  other  manu- 
factures of  the  East ;  but  the  most  important  and  unpopular 
branch  of  foreign  trade  was  carried  on  with  Arabia  and  India. 
Every  year,  about  the  time  of  the  summer  solstice,  a  fleet  of  an 
hundred  and  twenty  vessels  sailed  from  Myos-hormos,  a  port  of 
Egypt,  on  the  Red  Sea.  By  the  periodical  assistance  of  the 
monsoons,  they  traversed  the  ocean  in  about  forty  days.  The 
coast  of  Malabar,  or  the  island  of  Ceylon,100  was  the  usual  term 
of  their  navigation,  and  it  was  in  those  markets  that  the 
merchants  from  the  more  remote  countries  of  Asia  expected 
their  arrival.  The  return  of  the  fleet  of  Egypt  was  fixed  to  the 
months  of  December  or  January;  and  as  soon  as  their  rich  cargo 
had  been  transported  on  the  backs  of  camels  from  the  Red  Sea 
to  the  Nile,  and  had  descended  that  river  as  far  as  Alexandria, 
it  was  poured,  without  delay,  into  the  capital  of  the  empire.107 
The  objects  of  oriental  traffic  were  splendid  and  trifling  :  silk,  a 

105  Tacit.  Germania,  c.  45.  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  xxxvii.  11  [7].  The  latter  observed, 
with  some  humour,  that  even  fashion  had  not  yet  found  out  the  use  of  amber. 
Nero  sent  a  Roman  knight  to  purchase  great  quantities  on  the  spot,  where  it  was 
produced  ;  the  coast  of  modern  Prussia. 

106  Called  Taprobana  by  the  Romans,  and  Screndib  by  the  AraDs.  It  was  dis- 
covered under  the  reign  of  Claudius,  and  gradually  became  the  principal  mart  of 
the  east. 

'07  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  1.  vi.  [23].     Strabo.  1.  xvii.  [p.  798]. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  55 

pound  of  which  was  esteemed  not  inferior  in  value  to  a  pound 
of  gold  ; 108  precious  stones,  among  which  the  pearl  claimed  the 
first  rank  after  the  diamond  ; 109  and  a  variety  of  aromatics,  that 
were  consumed  in  religious  worship  and  the  pomp  of  funerals.110 
The  labour  and  risk  of  the  voyage  was  rewarded  with  almost  in- 
credible profit ;  but  the  profit  was  made  upon  Roman  subjects, 
and  a  few  individuals  were  enriched  at  the  expense  of  the  Public. 
As  the  natives  of  Arabia  and  India  were  contented  with  the  pro- 
ductions and  manufactures  of  their  own  country,  silver,  on  the  Gold  and 
side  of  the  Romans,  was  the  principal,  if  not  the  only,  instrument Sllver 
of  commerce.  It  was  a  complaint  worthy  of  the  gravity  of  the 
senate,  that,  in  the  purchase  of  female  ornaments,  the  wealth  of 
the  state  was  irrecoverably  given  away  to  foreign  and  hostile 
nations.111  The  annual  loss  is  computed,  by  a  writer  of  an 
inquisitive  but  censorious  temper,  at  upwards  of  eight  hundred 
thousand  pounds  sterling.112  Such  was  the  style  of  discontent, 
brooding  over  the  dark  prospect  of  approaching  poverty.  And 
yet,  if  we  compare  the  proportion  between  gold  and  silver,  as  it 
stood  in  the  time  of  Pliny,  and  as  it  was  fixed  in  the  reign  of 
Constantine,  we  shall  discover  within  that  period  a  very  con- 
siderable increase.113  There  is  not  the  least  reason  to  suppose 
that  gold  was  become  more  scarce ;  it  is  therefore  evident  that 

i°8  Hist.  August,  p.  224  [xxvi.  45] .  A  silk  garment  was  considered  as  an 
ornament  to  a  woman,  but  as  a  disgrace  to  a  man. 

109  The  two  great  pearl  fisheries  were  the  same  as  at  present,  Ormuz  and  Cape 
Comorin.  As  well  as  we  can  compare  ancient  with  modern  geography,  Rome 
was  supplied  with  diamonds  from  the  mine  of  Sumelpur,  in  Bengal,  which  is 
described  in  the  Voyages  de  Ta vernier,  torn.  ii.  p.  281.     [See  Appendix  9.] 

110  [But  the  use  of  aromatic  spices  among  the  Romans  was  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  these  purposes.] 

111  Tacit.  Annal.  iii.  53.  In  a  speech  of  Tiberius.  [The  statement  in  the 
text  is  an  exaggeration  and  must  be  considerably  modified,  as  also  the  subsequent 
remark  about  the  plentifulness  of  the  precious  metals.  Silver  was  not  the  only, 
though  it  seems  to  have  been  the  chief,  commodity  sent  to  the  east ;  and  there 
was  certainly,  as  Merivale  admits,  a  distinct  though  gradual  diminution  in  the 
amount  of  gold  and  silver  in  circulation  in  the  second  century.  Yet  in  regard  to 
the  first  question,  Gibbon  had  grasped  facts  ;  the  spirit  of  his  observation  is 
right.  "  Two  texts  of  Pliny  assert  the  constant  drain  of  specie  to  the  East ;  and 
the  assertion  is  confirmed  by  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  for  the  Indians  and 
the  nations  beyond  India,  who  transmitted  to  the  West  their  silks  and  spices, 
cared  little  for  the  wines  and  oils  of  Europe,  still  less  for  the  manufactures  in 
wool  and  leather  which  formed  the  staples  of  commerce  in  the  Mediterranean.  .  .  . 
The  difficulty  of  maintaining  the  yield  of  the  precious  metals  is  marked  in  the 
severe  regulations  of  the  late  emperors,  and  is  further  attested  by  the  progressive 
debasement  of  the  currency."  (Merivale,  Hist,  of  the  Romans,  cap.  68,  vol.  viii. 
p.  352).      Cp.   Finlay,  History  of  Greece,  i.  49,  50.] 

112  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  xii.  18.  In  another  place  he  computes  half  that  sum; 
Quingenties  H.  S.  for  India  exclusive  of  Arabia. 

113  Tne  proportion  which  was  1  to  10,  and  12^,  rose  to  14^,  the  legal  regulation 
Df  Constantine.     See  Arbuthnot's  Table  of  ancient  Coins,  c.  v. 


56 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Genfiral 
feUclty 


Decline  of 
courage ; 


silver  was  grown  more  common ;  that  whatever  might  be  the 
amount  of  the  Indian  and  Arabian  exports,  they  were  far  from 
exhausting  the  wealth  of  the  Roman  world ;  and  that  the  pro- 
duce of  the  mines  abundantly  supplied  the  demands  of  commerce. 

Notwithstanding  the  propensity  of  mankind  to  exalt  the  past, 
and  to  depreciate  the  present,  the  tranquil  and  prosperous  state 
of  the  empire  was  warmly  felt,  and  honestly  confessed,  by  the 
provincials  as  well  as  Romans.  "  They  acknowledged  that  the 
true  principles  of  social  life,  laws,  agriculture,  and  science,  which 
had  been  first  invented  by  the  wisdom  of  Athens,  were  now 
firmly  established  by  the  power  of  Rome,  under  whose  auspicious 
influence  the  fiercest  barbarians  were  united  by  an  equal  govern- 
ment and  common  language.  They  affirm  that,  with  the 
improvement  of  arts,  the  human  species  was  visibly  multiplied. 
They  celebrate  the  increasing  splendour  of  the  cities,  the 
beautiful  face  of  the  country,  cultivated  and  adorned  like  an 
immense  garden  ;  and  the  long  festival  of  peace,  which  was  en- 
joyed by  so  many  nations,  forgetful  of  their  ancient  animosities, 
and  delivered  from  the  apprehension  of  future  danger."  114 
Whatever  suspicions  may  be  suggested  by  the  air  of  rhetoric  and 
declamation  which  seems  to  prevail  in  these  passages,  the 
substance  of  them  is  perfectly  agreeable  to  historic  truth. 

It  was  scarcely  possible  that  the  eyes  of  contemporaries  should 
discover  in  the  public  felicity  the  latent  causes  of  decay  and 
corruption.  This  long  peace,  and  the  uniform  government  of 
the  Romans,  introduced  a  slow  and  secret  poison  into  the  vitals 
of  the  empire.  The  minds  of  men  were  gradually  reduced  to  the 
same  level,  the  fire  of  genius  was  extinguished,  and  even  the 
military  spirit  evaporated.  The  natives  of  Europe  were  brave 
and  robust.  Spain,  Gaul,  Britain,  and  Illyricum  supplied  the 
legions  with  excellent  soldiers,  and  constituted  the  real  strength 
of  the  monarchy.  Their  personal  valour  remained,  but  they  no 
longer  possessed  that  public  courage  which  is  nourished  by  the 
love  of  independence,  the  sense  of  national  honour,  the  presence 
of  danger,  and  the  habit  of  command.  They  received  laws  and 
governors  from  the  will  of  their  sovereign,  and  trusted  for  their 
defence  to  a  mercenary  army.  The  posterity  of  their  boldest 
leaders  was  contented  with  the  rank  of  citizens  and  subjects. 
The  most  aspiring  spirits  resorted  to  the  court  or  standard  of  the 
emperors ;  and    the    deserted    provinces,    deprived    of  political 


U4  Among  many  other  passages,  see  Pliny  (Hist.  Natur.  iii.   5.),  Aristides  (de 
Urbe  Roma)  and  Tertullian  (de  Anima,  c.  30.). 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  57 

strength  or  union,  insensibly  sunk  into  the  languid  indifference 
of  private  life. 

The  love  of  letters,  almost  inseparable  from  peace  and  refine- otgenins 
ment,  was  fashionable  among  the  subjects  of  Hadrian  and  the 
Antonines,  who  were  themselves  men  of  learning  and  curiosity. 
It  was  diffused  over  the  whole  extent  of  their  empire  ;  the  most 
northern  tribes  of  Britons  had  acquu-ed  a  taste  for  rhetoric  ; 
Homer  as  well  as  Virgil  were  transcribed  and  studied  on  the 
banks  of  the  Rhine  and  Danube ;  and  the  most  liberal  rewards 
sought  out  the  faintest  glimmerings  of  literary  merit.115  The 
sciences  of  physic  and  astronomy  were  successfully  cultivated  by 
the  Greeks ;  the  observations  of  Ptolemy  and  the  writings  of 
Galen  are  studied  by  those  who  have  improved  their  discoveries 
and  corrected  their  errors  ;  but,  if  we  except  the  inimitable 
Lucian,  this  age  of  indolence  passed  away  without  having  pro- 
duced a  single  writer  of  original  genius  or  who  excelled  in  the 
arts  of  elegant  composition.  The  authority  of  Plato  and  Aristotle, 
of  Zeno  and  Epicurus,  still  reigned  in  the  schools,  and  their  sys- 
tems, transmitted  with  blind  deference  from  one  generation  of 
disciples  to  another,  precluded  every  generous  attempt  to  exer- 
cise the  powers,  or  enlarge  the  limits,  of  the  human  mind.  The 
beauties  of  the  poets  and  orators,  instead  of  kindling  a  fire  like 
their  own,  inspired  only  cold  and  servile  imitations :  or,  if  any 
ventured  to  deviate  from  those  models,  they  deviated  at  the  same 
time  from  good  sense  and  propriety.  On  the  revival  of  letters, 
the  youthful  vigour  of  the  imagination  after  a  long  repose, 
national  emulation,  a  new  religion,  new  languages,  and  a  new 
world,  called  forth  the  genius  of  Europe.  But  the  provincials  of 
Rome,  trained  by  a  uniform  artificial  foreign  education,  were  en- 
gaged in  a  very  unequal  competition  with  those  bold  ancients, 
who,  by  expresssing  their  genuine  feelings  in  their  native  tongue, 
had  already  occupied  every  place  of  honour.     The  name  of  Poet 

115  Herodes  Atticus  gave  the  sophist  Polemo  above  eight  thousand  pounds  for 
three  declamations.  See  Philostrat.  1.  i.  p.  558  [Life  of  Herodes,  7].  The  An- 
tonines founded  a  school  at  Athens,  in  which  professors  of  grammar,  rhetoric, 
politics,  and  the  four  great  sects  of  philosophy,  were  maintained  at  the  public  ex- 
pense for  the  instruction  of  youth.  The  salary  of  a  philosopher  was  ten  thousand 
drachmae,  between  three  and  four  hundred  pounds  a  year.  Similar  establishments 
were  formed  in  the  other  great  cities  of  the  empire.  See  Lucian  in  Eunuch,  torn. 
ii.  p.  353.  edit.  Reitz.  Philostrat.  1.  ii.  p.  566.  Hist.  August,  p.  21  [iii.,  11].  Dion 
Cassius,  1.  lxxxi.  p.  1195  [31] .  Juvenal  himself,  in  a  morose  satire,  which  in  every  line 
betrays  his  own  disappointment  and  envy,  is  obliged,  however,  to  say — O  Juvenes, 
circumspicit  et  agitat  [leg.  stimulat]  vos,  Materiamque  sibi  Duds  indulgentia 
quaerit. — Satlr.  vii.  20.  [Vespasian  was  the  first  to  appoint  salaried  professors  in 
Home  ;  Suetonius,  in  Vespas.  18.] 


58  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

was  almost  forgotten  ;  that  of  Orator  was  usurped  by  the  sophists. 
A  cloud  of  critics,  of  compilers,  of  commentators,  darkened  the 
face  of  learning,  and  the  decline  of  genius  was  soon  followed  by 
the  corruption  of  taste. 
Degeneracy  The  sublime  Longinus,  who  in  somewhat  a  later  period,  and 
in  the  court  of  a  Syrian  queen,  preseiwed  the  spirit  of  ancient 
Athens,  observes  and  laments  this  degeneracy  of  his  contem- 
poraries, which  debased  their  sentiments,  enervated  their 
courage,  and  depressed  their  talents.  "  In  the  same  manner," 
says  he,  "  as  some  children  always  remain  pigmies,  whose  infant 
limbs  have  been  too  closely  confined ;  thus  our  tender  minds, 
fettered  by  the  prejudices  and  habits  of  a  just  servitude,  are 
unable  to  expand  themselves,  or  to  attain  that  well-proportioned 
greatness  which  we  admire  in  the  ancients,  who,  living  under  a 
popular  government,  wrote  with  the  same  freedom  as  they 
acted."  ne  This  diminutive  stature  of  mankind,  if  we  pursue 
the  metaphor,  was  daily  sinking  below  the  old  standard,  and 
the  Roman  world  was  indeed  peopled  by  a  race  of  pigmies, 
when  the  fierce  giants  of  the  north  broke  in  and  mended  the 
puny  breed.  They  restored  a  manly  spirit  of  freedom  ;  and, 
after  the  revolution  of  ten  centuries,  freedom  became  the  happy 
parent  of  taste  and  science. 

116  Longin.  de  Sublim.  c.  43,  p.  229  edit.  Toll.  Here  too  we  may  say  of 
Longinus,  "his  own  example  strengthens  all  his  laws''.  Instead  of  proposing 
his  sentiments  with  a  manly  boldness,  he  insinuates  them  with  the  most  guarded 
caution,  puts  them  into  the  mouth  of  a  friend,  and,  as  far  as  we  can  collect  from 
a  corrupted  text,  makes  a  show  of  refuting  them  himself.  [The  author  calls  him 
"sublime"  in  allusion  to  the  work  On  Sublimity,  irepi  v^/ovs.  But  the  author- 
ship of  this  able  and  striking  treatise  is  very  doubtful ;  it  is  certain  that  it  was  nc-" 
written  by  Zenobia's  Longinus.] 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIRE  59 


CHAPTER  III 

Of  the    Constitution    of  the    Roman    Empire,    in    the    Age    of  the 

Antonines 

The  obvious  definition  of  a  monarchy  seems  to  be  that  of  a  state,  idea  of  a 
in  which  a  single  person,  by  whatsoever  name  he  may  be  dis- 
tinguished, is  intrusted  with  the  execution  of  the  laws,  the 
management  of  the  revenue,  and  the  command  of  the  army. 
But  unless  public  liberty  is  protected  by  intrepid  and  vigilant 
guardians,  the  authority  of  so  formidable  a  magistrate  will  soon 
degenerate  into  despotism.  The  influence  of  the  clergy,  in  an 
age  of  superstition,  might  be  usefully  employed  to  assert  the 
rights  of  mankind ;  but  so  intimate  is  the  connexion  between 
the  throne  and  the  altar,  that  the  banner  of  the  church  has  very 
seldom  been  seen  on  the  side  of  the  people.  A  martial  nobility 
and  stubborn  commons,  possessed  of  arms,  tenacious  of  property, 
and  collected  into  constitutional  assemblies,  form  the  only 
balance  capable  of  preserving  a  free  constitution  against  enter- 
prises of  an  aspiring  prince. 

Every  barrier  of  the  Roman  constitution  had  been  levelled  situation  of 
by  the  vast  ambition  of  the  dictator  ;  every  fence  had  been 
extirpated  by  the  cruel  hand  of  the  triumvir.  After  the  victory 
of  Actium,  the  fate  of  the  Roman  world  depended  on  the  will 
of  Octavianus,  surnamed  Caesar  by  his  uncle's  adoption,  and 
afterwards  Augustus,  by  the  flattery  of  the  senate.1  The 
conqueror  was  at  the  head  of  forty-four  veteran  legions,2  con- 
scious of  their  own  strength  and  of  the  weakness  of  the  con- 
stitution, habituated  during  twenty  years'  civil  war  to  eveiy  act 
of  blood  and  violence,  and  passionately  devoted  to  the  house 
of  Caesar,  from  whence  alone  they  had  received  and  expected 
the  most  lavish  rewards.  The  provinces  long  oppressed  by  the 
ministers  of  the  republic,  sighed  for  the  government  of  a  single 

1  [His  original  name  was  C.  Octavius,  hence  Merivale  usually  (incorrectly) 
speaks  of  him  as  Octavius.  For  he  ceased  to  be  an  Octavius,  and  became  a 
Julius,  by  his  uncle's  adoption;  his  full  name  in  44  B.C.  was  C.  Julius  Caesar 
Octavianus.    The  title  Augustus  was  conferred  Jan.  16,  27  B.C.] 

2  Orosius,  vi.  18. 


60 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


He  reforms 
the  senate 


Resigns  his 

usurped 

power 


person,  who  would  be  the  master,  not  the  accomplice,  of  those 
petty  tyrants.  The  people  of  Rome,  viewing  with  a  secret 
pleasure  the  humiliation  of  the  aristocracy,  demanded  only 
bread  and  public  shows,  and  were  supplied  with  both  by  the  liberal 
hand  of  Augustus.  The  rich  and  polite  Italians,  who  had 
almost  universally  embraced  the  philosophy  of  Epicurus,  enjoyed 
the  present  blessings  of  ease  and  tranquillity,  and  suffered  not 
the  pleasing  dream  to  be  interrupted  by  the  memory  of  their 
old  tumultuous  freedom.  With  its  power,  the  senate  had  lost 
its  dignity  ;  many  of  the  most  noble  families  were  extinct. 
The  republicans  of  spirit  and  ability  had  perished  in  the  field 
of  battle,  or  in  the  proscription.  The  door  of  the  assembly 
had  been  designedly  left  open  for  a  mixed  multitude  of  more 
than  a  thousand  persons,  who  reflected  disgrace  upon  their  rank, 
instead  of  deriving  honour  from  it.3 

The  reformation  of  the  senate,  was  one  of  the  first  steps  in 
which  Augustus  laid  aside  the  tyrant,  and  professed  himself  the 
father  of  his  country.  He  was  elected  censor  ;  and,  in  concert 
with  his  faithful  Agrippa,  he  examined  the  list  of  the  senators, 
expelled  a  few  members,4  whose  vices  or  whose  obstinacy  re- 
quired a  public  example,  persuaded  near  two  hundred  to  prevent 
the  shame  of  an  expulsion  by  a  voluntary  retreat,  raised  the 
qualification  of  a  senator  to  about  ten  thousand  pounds,  created 
a  sufficient  number  of  patrician  families,  and  accepted  for  himself 
the  honourable  title  of  Prince  of  the  Senate,  which  had  always 
been  bestowed  by  the  censors  on  the  citizen  the  most  eminent 
for  his  honours  and  services.5  But,  whilst  he  thus  restored  the 
dignity,  he  destroyed  the  independence  of  the  senate.  The 
principles  of  a  free  constitution  are  irrecoverably  lost,  when  the 
legislative  power  is  nominated  by  the  executive. 

Before  an  assembly  thus  modelled  and  prepared,  Augustus  pro- 
nounced a  studied  oration,  which  displayed  his  patriotism,  and 
disguised  his  ambition.  "  He  lamented,  yet  excused,  his  past 
conduct.  Filial  piety  had  required  at  his  hands  the  revenge  of 
his  father's  murder ;  the  humanity  of  his  own  nature  had  some- 
times given  way  to  the  stern  laws  of  necessity,  and  to  a  forced 
connexion  with   two  unworthy  colleagues :   as  long  as  Antony 

8  Julius  Caesar  introduced  soldiers,  strangers  and  half-barbarians,  into  the  senate. 
(Sueton.  in  Caesar,  c.  80.)  The  abuse  became  still  more  scandalous  after  his 
death. 

*  [But  Dion,  as  Milman  pointed  out,  says  that  he  erased  no  senator's  name 
from  the  list ;  see  next  note.] 

5  Dion  Cassius,  1.  iii.  p.  693  [42],  Suetonjus  in  August,  c.  35.  [But  see  Appen- 
dix 10. ) 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  61 

lived,  the  republic  forbad  him  to  abandon  her  to  a  degenerate 
Roman  and  a  barbarian  queen.  He  was  now  at  liberty  to  satisfy 
his  duty  and  his  inclination.  He  solemnly  restored  the  senate 
and  people  to  all  their  ancient  rights ;  and  wished  only  to  mingle 
with  the  crowd  of  his  fellow-citizens,  and  to  share  the  blessings 
which  he  had  obtained  for  his  country."  6 

It  would  require  the  pen  of  Tacitus  (if  Tacitus  had  assisted  at  is  prevailed 
this  assembly)  to  describe  the  various  emotions  of  the  senate  ;  SSSe  it  uSdei 
those  that  were  suppressed,  and  those  that  were  affected.  It  emperor oV 
was  dangerous  to  trust  the  sincerity  of  Augustus  ;  to  seem  to general 
distrust  it  was  still  more  dangerous.  The  respective  advantages 
of  monarchy  and  a  republic  have  often  divided  speculative 
inquirers  ;  the  present  greatness  of  the  Roman  state,  the  corrup- 
tion of  manners,  and  the  licence  of  the  soldiers,  supplied  new 
arguments  to  the  advocates  of  monarchy  ;  and  these  general 
views  of  government  were  again  warped  by  the  hopes  and  fears 
of  each  individual.  Amidst  this  confusion  of  sentiments,  the 
answer  of  the  senate  was  unanimous  and  decisive.  They 
refused  to  accept  the  resignation  of  Augustus  ;  they  conjured 
liim  not  to  desert  the  republic  which  he  had  saved.  After  a 
decent  resistance  the  crafty  tyrant  submitted  to  the  orders  of 
the  senate  ;  and  consented  to  receive  the  government  of  the 
provinces,  and  the  general  command  of  the  Roman  armies,  under 
the  well-knownnamesof  PROcoNSULandlMPERATOR.7  But  he  would 
receive  them  only  for  ten  years.  Even  before  the  expiration  of 
that  period,  he  hoped  that  the  wounds  of  civil  discord  would  be 
completely  healed,  and  that  the  republic,  restored  to  its  pristine 
health  and  vigour,  would  no  longer  require  the  dangerous  inter- 
position of  so  extraordinary  a  magistrate.  The  memory  of  this 
comedy,  repeated  several  times  during  the  life  of  Augustus,  was 
preserved  to  the  last  ages  of  the  empire  by  the  peculiar  pomp 
with  which  the  perpetual  monarchs  of  Rome  always  solemnized 
the  tenth  years  of  their  reign.8 

aDion,  1.  liii.  p.  6983  [3],  gives  us  a  prolix  and  bombastic  speech  on  this  great 
occasion.  I  have  borrowed  from  Suetonius  and  Tacitus  the  general  language  of 
Augustus 

7  Imperator  (from  which  we  have  derived  emperor)  signified  under  the  republic 
no  more  than  general,  and  was  emphatically  bestowed  by  the  soldiers,  when  on 
the  field  of  battle  they  proclaimed  their  victorious  leader  worthy  of  that  title. 
When  the  Roman  emperors  assumed  it  in  that  sense,  they  placed  it  after  their  name, 
and  marked  how  often  they  had  taken  it.  [Thus,  as  an  imperial  title,  imperator 
preceded  the  emperor's  name,  but  Imp.  Hi.  after  his  name  meant  that  he  was 
saluted  Imperator  by  his  troops  for  the  third  time,  on  the  occasion  of  his  second 
victory  after  his  accession.] 

8  Dion,  1.  liii.  p.  703,  etc.  [11,  cp.  16.] 


62  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

power  or  the  Without  any  violation  of  the  principles  of  the  constitution 
ijeoerau  the  general  of  the  Roman  armies  might  receive  and  exercise  an 
authority  almost  despotic  over  the  soldiers,  the  enemies,  and  the 
subjects  of  the  republic.  With  regard  to  the  soldiers,  the 
jealousy  of  freedom  had,  even  from  the  earliest  ages  of  Rome, 
given  way  to  the  hopes  of  conquest,  and  a  just  sense  of  military 
discipline.  The  dictator,  or  consul,  had  a  right  to  command  the 
service  of  the  Roman  youth,  and  to  punish  an  obstinate  or 
cowardly  disobedience  by  the  most  severe  and  ignominious 
penalties,  by  striking  the  offender  out  of  the  list  of  citizens,  by 
confiscating  his  property,  and  by  selling  his  person  into  slavery.9 
The  most  sacred  rights  of  freedom,  confirmed  by  the  Porcian  and 
Sempronian  laws,  were  suspended  by  the  military  engagement. 
In  his  camp  the  general  exercised  an  absolute  power  of  life  and 
death  ;  his  jurisdiction  was  not  confined  by  any  forms  of  trial  or 
rules  of  proceeding,  and  the  execution  of  the  sentence  was 
immediate  and  without  appeal.10  The  choice  of  the  enemies  of 
Rome  was  regularly  decided  by  the  legislative  authority.  The 
most  important  resolutions  of  peace  and  war  were  seriously 
debated  in  the  senate,  and  solemnly  ratified  by  the  people.  But 
when  the  arms  of  the  legions  were  carried  to  a  great  distance 
from  Italy,  the  generals  assumed  the  liberty  of  directing  them 
against  whatever  people,  and  in  whatever  manner,  they  judged 
most  advantageous  for  the  public  service.  It  was  from  the 
success,  not  from  the  justice,  of  their  enterprises,  that  they 
expected  the  honours  of  a  triumph.  In  the  use  of  victory, 
especially  after  they  were  no  longer  controlled  by  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  senate,  they  exercised  the  most  unbounded 
despotism.  When  Pompey  commanded  in  the  East,  he  rewarded 
his  soldiers  and  allies,  dethroned  princes,  divided  kingdoms, 
founded  colonies,  and  distributed  the  treasures  of  Mithridates. 
On  his  return  to  Rome  he  obtained,  by  a  single  act  of  the  senate 
and   people,  the  universal    ratification  of  all  his  proceedings.11 

yLiv.  Epitom.  1.  xiv.     Valer.  Maxim,  vi.  3. 

10  See  in  the  viiith  book  of  Livy,  the  conduct  of  Manlius  Torquatus  and  Papi- 
rius  Cursor.  They  violated  the  laws  of  nature  and  humanity,  but  they  asserted 
those  of  military  discipline  ;  and  the  people,  who  abhorred  the  action,  were  obliged 
to  respect  the  principle. 

u  By  the  lavish  but  unconstrained  suffrages  of  the  people,  Pompey  had  ob- 
tained a  military  command  scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  Augustus.  Among  the 
extraordinary  acts  of  power  executed  by  the  former,  we  may  remark  the  founda- 
tion of  twenty-nine  cities,  and  the  distribution  of  three  or  four  millions  sterling 
to  his  troops.  The  ratification  of  his  acts  met  with  some  opposition  and  delays 
in  the  senate.  See  Plutarch,  Appian,  Dion  Cassius,  and  the  first  book  of  the 
epist.es  to  Atticus. 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIRE  63 

Such  was  the  power  over  the  soldiers,  and  over  the  enemies  of 
Rome,  which  was  either  granted  to,  or  assumed  by,  the  generals 
of  the  republic.  They  were,  at  the  same  time,  the  governors,  or 
rather  monarchs,  of  the  conquered  provinces,  united  the  civil 
with  the  military  character,  administered  justice  as  well  as  the 
finances,  and  exercised  both  the  executive  and  legislative  power 
of  the  state. 

From  what  has  been  already  observed  in  the  first  chapter  of  Lieutenants 
this  work,  some  notion  may  be  formed  of  the  armies  and  pro-  peror  em~ 
vinces  thus  intrusted  to  the  ruling  hand  of  Augustus.  But,  as  it 
was  impossible  that  he  could  personally  command  the  legions  of 
so  many  distant  frontiers,  he  was  indulged  by  the  senate,  as 
Pompey  had  already  been,  in  the  permission  of  devolving  the 
execution  of  his  great  office  on  a  sufficient  number  of  lieutenants. 
In  rank  and  authority  these  officers  seemed  not  inferior  to  the 
ancient  proconsuls  ;  but  their  station  was  dependent  and  pre- 
carious. They  received  and  held  their  commissions  at  the  will 
of  a  superior,  to  whose  auspicious  influence  the  merit  of  their 
action  was  legally  attributed.12  They  were  the  representatives 
of  the  emperor.  The  emperor  alone  was  the  general  of  the 
republic,  and  his  jurisdiction,  civil  as  well  as  military,  extended 
over  all  the  conquests  of  Rome.  It  was  some  satisfaction,  how- 
ever, to  the  senate  that  he  always  delegated  his  power  to  the 
members  of  their  body.  The  imperial  lieutenants  were  of  con- 
sular or  praetorian  dignity  ;  the  legions  were  commanded  by 
senators,  and  the  prefecture  of  Egypt  was  the  only  important 
trust  committed  to  a  Roman  knight. 

Within  six  days  after  Augustus  had  been  compelled  to  accept  Division  of 
so  very  liberal  a  grant,  he  resolved  to  gratify  the  pride  of  the  between  the" 
senate  by  an  easy  sacrifice.     He  represented  to  them  that  they  thePsernaten 
had  enlarged  his  powers,  even  beyond  that  degree  which  might 
be  required  by  the  melancholy  condition  of  the  times.     They 
had  not  permitted  him  to  refuse  the  laborious  command  of  the 
armies  and  the  frontiers  ;  but  he  must  insist  on  being  allowed 
to  restore  the  more  peaceful  and  secure  provinces  to  the  mild 
administration  of  the  civil  magistrate.      In  the  division  of  the 
provinces  Augustus  provided  for  his  own  power  and  for  the  dignity 
of  the  republic.     The  proconsuls  of  the  senate,  particularly  those 

12  Under  the  commonwealth,  a  triumph  could  only  be  claimed  by  the  general, 
who  was  authorized  to  take  the  Auspices  in  the  name  of  the  people.  By  an  exact 
consequence,  drawn  from  this  principle  of  policy  and  religion,  the  triumph  was 
reserved  to  the  emperor,  and  his  most  successful  lieutenants  were  satisfied  with 
some  marks  of  distinction,  which,  under  the  name  of  triumphal  honours,  were 
invented  in  their  favour.      [On  the  provincial  governors  see  Appendix  10.] 


64  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

of  Asia,  Greece,  and  Africa,  enjoyed  a  more  honourable  char- 
acter than  the  lieutenants  of  the  emperor,  who  commanded  in 
Gaul  or  Syria.  The  former  were  attended  by  lictors,  the  latter 
by  soldiers.  A  law  was  passed  that,  wherever  the  emperor  was 
present,  his  extraordinary  commission  should  supersede  the  or- 
dinary jurisdiction  of  the  governor;  a  custom  was  introduced, 
that  the  new  conquests  belonged  to  the  imperial  portion  ;  and 
it  was  soon  discovered  that  the  authority  of  the  Prince,  the 
favourite  epithet  of  Augustus,  was  the  same  in  every  part  of  the 
empire. 
The  former  In  return  for  this  imaginary  concession,  Augustus  obtained  an 
EL  military  important  privilege,  which  rendered  him  master  of  Rome  and 
iuardsDin  Italy.  By  a  dangerous  exception  to  the  ancient  maxims,  he  was 
authorized  to  preserve  his  military  command,  supported  by  a 
numerous  body  of  guards,  even  in  time  of  peace,  and  in  the  heart 
of  the  capital.13  His  command,  indeed,  was  confined  to  those 
citizens  who  were  engaged  in  the  service  by  the  military  oath  ; 
but  such  was  the  propensity  of  the  Romans  to  servitude,  that  the 
oath  was  voluntarily  taken  by  the  magistrates,  the  senators,  and 
the  equestrian  order,  till  the  homage  of  flattery  was  insensibly 
converted  into  an  annual  and  solemn  protestation  of  fidelity. 
consular  and  Although  Augustus  considered  a  military  force  as  the  firmest 
powers  foundation,  he  wisely  rejected  it  as  a  very  odious  instrument,  of 
government.  It  was  more  agreeable  to  his  temper,  as  well  as  to 
his  policy,  to  reign  under  the  venerable  names  of  ancient  magis- 
tracy, and  artfully  to  collect  in  his  own  person  all  the  scattered 
rays  of  civil  jurisdiction.  With  this  view,  he  permitted  the  senate 
to  confer  upon  him,  for  his  life,  the  powers  of  the  consular 14  and 
tribunitian  offices,15  which  were,  in  the  same  manner,  continued 
to  all  his  successors.  The  consuls  had  succeeded  to  the  kings  of 
Rome,  and  represented  the  dignity  of  the  state.  They  superin- 
tended the  ceremonies  of  religion,  levied  and  commanded  the 
legions,  gave  audience  to  foreign  ambassadors,  and  presided  in 
the  assemblies   both   of  the  senate  and  people.     The  general 

13  [The  praetorian  guards  and  the  fleets  (at  Ravenna  and  Misenum)  were  the 
two  exceptions  to  the  principle  that  Italy  was  outside  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Im- 
perator] . 

M  Cicero  (de  Legibus,  iii.  3.)  gives  the  consular  office  the  name  of  Regia  potestas  : 
and  Polybius  (1.  vi.  c.  3.)  observes  three  powers  in  the  Roman  constitution.  The 
monarchical  was  represented  and  exercised  by  the  consuls.     [But  see  Appendix  10.  ] 

15  As  the  tribunitian  power  (distinct  from  the  annual  office)  was  first  invented 
for  the  dictator  Caesar  (Dion,  1.  xliv.  p.  384  [5]),  we  may  easily  conceive,  that  it 
was  given  as  a  reward  for  having  so  nobly  asserted,  by  arms,  the  sacred  rights  of 
the  tribunes  and  people.     See  his  own  commentaries,  de  Bell.  Civil.  1.  i. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  65 

control  of  the  finances  was  intrusted  to  their  care  and,  though 
they  seldom  had  leisure  to  administer  justice  in  person,  they 
were  considered  as  the  supreme  guardians  of  law,  equity,  and  the 
public  peace.  Such  was  their  ordinary  jurisdiction  ;  but  when- 
ever the  senate  empowered  the  first  magistrate  to  consult  the 
safety  of  the  commonwealth,  he  was  raised  by  that  degree  above 
the  laws,  and  exercised,  in  the  defence  of  liberty,  a  temporary 
despotism.16  The  character  of  the  tribunes  was,  in  every  respect, 
different  from  that  of  the  consuls.  The  appearance  of  the  former 
was  modest  and  humble  ;  but  their  persons  were  sacred  and  in- 
violable. Their  force  was  suited  rather  for  opposition  than  for 
action.  They  were  instituted  to  defend  the  oppressed,  to  pardon 
offences,  to  arraign  the  enemies  of  the  people,  and,  when  they 
judged  it  necessary,  to  stop,  by  a  single  word,  the  whole  machine 
of  government.  As  long  as  the  republic  subsisted,  the  dangerous 
influence  which  either  the  consul  or  the  tribune  might  derive 
from  their  respective  jurisdiction  was  diminished  by  several  im- 
portant restrictions.  Their  authority  expired  with  the  year  in 
which  they  were  elected  ;  the  former  office  was  divided  between 
two,  the  latter  among  ten  persons ;  and,  as  both  in  their  private 
and  public  interest  they  were  adverse  to  each  other,  their  mutual 
conflicts  contributed,  for  the  most  part,  to  strengthen  rather  than 
to  destroy  the  balance  of  the  constitution.  But  when  the  con- 
sular and  tribunitian  powers  were  united,1"  when  they  were  vested 
for  life  in  a  single  person,  when  the  general  of  the  army  was,  at  the 
same  time,  the  minister  of  the  senate  and  the  representative  of 
the  Roman  people,  it  was  impossible  to  resist  the  exercise,  nor 
was  it  easy  to  define  the  limits,  of  his  imperial  prerogative. 

To  these  accumulated  honours  the  policy  of  Augustus  soon  imperial  pn- 
added  the  splendid  as  well  as  important  dignities  of  supreme roi 
pontiff,  and  of  censor.18  By  the  former  he  acquired  the  manage- 
ment of  the  religion,  and  by  the  latter  a  legal  inspection  over 
the  manners  and  fortunes,  of  the  Roman  people.  If  so  many 
distinct  and  independent  powers  did  not  exactly  unite  with 
each  other,   the   complaisance  of  the   senate  was  prepared  to 

16  Augustus  exercised  nine  annual  consulships  without  interruption.  He  then 
most  artfully  refused  that  magistracy  as  well  as  the  dictatorship,  absented  himself 
from  Rome,  and  waited  till  the  fatal  effects  of  tumult  and  faction  forced  the  senate 
to  invest  him  with  a  perpetual  consulship.  Augustus,  as  well  as  his  successors, 
affected,  however,  to  conceal  so  invidious  a  title. 

17  [But  observe  that  the  tribunate  (as  the  author  afterwards  points  out)  was  not 
discontinued,  though,  overshadowed  by  the  tribunicia  potestas  of  the  emperor, 
It  lost  all  political  significance.] 

18  [See  Appendix  10.] 

5  VOL.   I. 


66  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

supply  every  deficiency  by  the  most  ample  and  extraordinary 
concessions.  The  emperors,  as  the  first  ministers  of  the  republic, 
were  exempted  from  the  obligation  and  penalty  of  many  incon- 
venient laws  :  they  were  authorized  to  convoke  the  senate,  to 
make  several  motions  in  the  same  day,  to  recommend  candidates 
for  the  honours  of  the  state,  to  enlarge  the  bounds  of  the  city, 
to  employ  the  revenue  at  their  discretion,  to  declare  peace  and 
war,  to  ratify  treaties ;  and  by  a  most  comprehensive  clause, 
they  were  empowered  to  execute  whatsoever  they  should  judge 
advantageous  to  the  empire,  and  agreeable  to  the  majesty  of 
things  private  or  public,  human  or  divine. 19 

When  all  the  various  powers  of  executive  government  were 
committed  to  the  Imperial  magistrate,  the  ordinary  magistrates  of 
the  commonwealth  languished  in  obscurity,  without  vigour,  and 
almost  without  business.  The  names  and  forms  of  the  ancient 
administration  were  preserved  by  Augustus  with  the  most  anxious 
care.  The  usual  number  of  consuls,  praetors,  and  tribunes 20 
were  annually  invested  with  their  respective  ensigns  of  office, 
and  continued  to  discharge  some  of  their  least  important  func- 
tions. Those  honours  still  attracted  the  vain  ambition  of  the 
Romans  ;  and  the  emperors  themselves,  though  invested  for  life 
with  the  powers  of  the  consulship,  21  frequently  aspired  to  the 
title  of  that  annual  dignity,  which  they  condescended  to  share 
with  the  most  illustrious  of  their  fellow-citizens.  22  In  the  elec- 
tion of  these  magistrates,  the  people,  during  the  reign  of 
Augustus,  were  permitted  to  expose  all  the  inconveniences  of  a 
wild  democracy.     That  artful  prince,  instead  of  discovering  the 

19  See  a  fragment  of  a  Decree  of  the  Senate,  conferring  on  the  Emperor 
Vespasian  all  the  powers  granted  to  his  predecessors,  Augustus,  Tiberius,  and 
Claudius.  This  curious  and  important  monument  is  published  in  Gutter's 
Inscriptions,  No.  ccxlii.  [Corp.  Insc.  Lat.  vi.  930.  This  document  is  known  as 
the  lex  de  imperio  Vespasiani.~) 

20  Two  consuls  were  created  on  the  Calends  of  January ;  but  in  the  course  of 
the  year  others  were  substituted  in  their  places,  till  the  annual  number  seems  to 
have  amounted  to  no  less  than  twelve.  The  praetors  were  usually  sixteen  or 
eighteen  (Lipsius  in  Excurs.  D.  ad.  Tacit.  Annal.  1.  i.).  I  have  not  mentioned 
the  iEdiles  or  Quaestors.  Officers  of  the  police  or  revenue  easily  adapt  themselves 
to  any  form  of  government.  In  the  time  of  Nero  the  tribunes  legally  possessed 
the  right  of  intercession,  though  it  might  be  dangerous  to  exercise  it  (Tacit.  Annal. 
xvi.  26).  In  the  time  of  Trajan,  it  was  doubtful  whether  the  tribuneship  was  an 
office  or  a  name  (Plin.  Epist.  123)  [But  it  still  existed  in  the  5th  century,  being 
mentioned  in  the  Theodosian  Code.] 

21  [See  above  note  n.] 

22  The  tyrants  themselves  were  ambitious  of  the  consulship.  The  virtuous  princes 
were  moderate  in  the  pursuit,  and  exact  in  the  discharge,  of  it.  Trajan  revived 
the  ancient  oath,  and  swore  before  the  consul's  tribunal  that  he  would  observe  the 
laws  (Plin.  Panegyric,  c.  64). 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  67 

least  symptom  of  impatience,  humbly  solicited  their  suffrages 
for  himself  or  his  friends,  and  scrupulously  practised  all  the 
duties  of  an  ordinary  candidate.  23  But  we  may  venture  to  as- 
cribe to  his  councils  the  first  measure  of  the  succeeding  reign, 
by  which  the  elections  were  transferred  to  the  senate.  2i  The 
assemblies  of  the  people  were  for  ever  abolished,  and  the  em- 
perors were  delivered  from  a  dangerous  multitude,  who,  without 
restoring  liberty,  might  have  disturbed,  and  perhaps  endangered, 
the  established  government. 

By  declaring  themselves  the  protectors  of  the  people,  Marius  The  senate 
and  Caesar  had  subverted  the  constitution  of  their  country.  But 
as  soon  as  the  senate  had  been  humbled  and  disarmed,  such 
an  assembly,  consisting  of  five  or  six  hundred  persons,  was  found 
a  much  more  tractable  and  useful  instrument  of  dominion.  It 
was  on  the  dignity  of  the  senate  that  Augustus  and  his  suc- 
cessors founded  their  new  empire ;  and  they  affected,  on  every 
occasion,  to  adopt  the  language  and  principles  of  Patricians.  In 
the  administration  of  their  own  powers,  they  frequently  con- 
sulted the  great  national  council,  and  seemed  to  refer  to  its  decision 
the  most  important  concerns  of  peace  and  war.  Rome,  Italy, 
and  the  internal  provinces  were  subject  to  the  immediate 
jurisdiction  of  the  senate.  With  regard  to  civil  objects,  it  was 
the  supreme  court  of  appeal ;  with  regard  to  criminal  matters,  a 
tribunal,  constituted  for  the  trial  of  all  offences  that  were  com- 
mitted by  men  in  any  public  station,  or  that  affected  the  peace 
and  majesty  of  the  Roman  people.  The  exercise  of  the  judicial 
power  became  the  most  frequent  and  serious  occupation  of  the 
senate  ;  and  the  important  causes  that  were  pleaded  before  them 
afforded  a  last  refuge  to  the  spirit  of  ancient  eloquence.  As  a 
council  of  state,  and  as  a  court  of  justice,  the  senate  possessed 
very  considerable  prerogatives  ;  but  in  its  legislative  capacity,  in 
which  it  was  supposed  virtually  to  represent  the  people,  the 
rights  of  sovereignty  were  acknowledged  to  reside  in  that 
assembly.  Every  power  was  derived  from  their  authority,  every 
law  was  ratified  by  their  sanction.  Their  regular  meetings  were 
held  on  three  stated  days   in   every  month,   the   Calends,   the 

^Quoties  Magistratuum  Comitiis  interesset,  tribus  cum  candidatis  suis  circui- 
bat ;  supplicabatque  more  solemni.  Ferebat  et  ipse  suffragium  in  tribubus,  ut 
unus  e  populo.     Suetonius  in  August,  c.  56. 

24  Turn  primum  Comitia  e  campo  ad  patres  translata  sunt.  Tacit.  Annal.  i.  15. 
The  word  primum  seems  to  allude  to  some  faint  and  unsuccessful  efforts,  which 
were  made  towards  restoring  them  to  the  people.  [One  formality  was  still  left  to 
the  popular  assembly — the  renuntiatio  of  the  elected  candidates.  Gibbon's  infer- 
ence from  primum  is  hardly  tenable  ;  but  he  is  right  in  so  far  that  Augustus  had 
prepared  the  way  for  the  change  of  Tiberius.] 


68 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


General  idea 
of  the  Impert 
al  system 


Court  of  the 
emperors 


Nones,  and  the  Ides.  The  debates  were  conducted  with  decent 
freedom ;  and  the  emperors  themselves,  who  gloried  in  the 
name  of  senators,  sat,  voted,  and  divided  with  their  equals. 

To  resume,  in  a  few  words,  the  system  of  the  Imperial  govern- 
ment, as  it  was  instituted  by  Augustus,  and  maintained  by  those 
princes  who  understood  their  own  interest  and  that  of  the 
neople,  it  may  be  defined  an  absolute  monarchy  disguised  by 
the  forms  of  a  commonwealth.  The  masters  of  the  Roman  world 
surrounded  their  throne  with  darkness,  concealed  their  irresistible 
strength,  and  humbly  professed  themselves  the  accountable 
ministers  of  the  senate,  whose  supreme  decrees  they  dictated  and 
obeyed.25 

The  face  of  the  court  corresponded  with  the  forms  of  the 
administration.  The  emperors,  if  we  except  those  tyrants  whose 
capricious  folly  violated  every  law  of  nature  and  decency,  dis- 
dained that  pomp  and  ceremony  which  might  offend  their 
countrymen,  but  could  add  nothing  to  their  real  power.  In 
all  the  offices  of  life,  they  affected  to  confound  themselves 
with  their  subjects,  and  maintained  with  them  an  equal  inter- 
course of  visits  and  entertainments.  Their  habit,  their  palace, 
their  table,  were  suited  only  to  the  rank  of  an  opulent 
senator.  Their  family,  however  numerous  or  splendid,  was 
composed  entirely  of  their  domestic  slaves  and  freedmen.26 
Augustus  or  Trajan  would  have  blushed  at  employing  the 
meanest  of  the  Romans  in  those  menial  offices  which,  in  the 
household  and  bedchamber  of  a  limited  monarch,  are  so  eagerly 
solicited  by  the  proudest  nobles  of  Britain. 

The  deification  of  the  emperors27  is  the  only  instance  in 
which  they  departed  from  their  accustomed  prudence  and 
modesty.  The  Asiatic  Greeks  were  the  first  inventors,  the 
successors  of  Alexander  28  the  first  objects,  of  this  servile  and 


25  Dion  Cassius  (1.  liii.  p.  703-714  Ti2-i8] )  has  given  a  very  loose  and  partial 
sketch  of  the  Imperial  system.  To  illustrate  and  often  to  correct  him,  I  have 
mentioned  Tacitus,  examined  Suetonius,  and  consulted  the  following  moderns  : 
the  Abb£  de  la  Ble'terie  in  the  M^moires  de  l'AcadeVnie  des  Inscriptions,  torn, 
xix.  xxi.  xxiv.  xxv.  xxvii.  Beaufort,  Republique  Romaine,  torn.  i.  p.  255-275. 
The  dissertations  of  Noodt  and  Gronovius,  de  lege  Regia  :  printed  at  Leyden, 
in  the  year  1731.  Gravina  de  Imperio  Romano,  p.  479-544  of  his  Opuscula. 
Maffei   Verona  Illustrata,  p.  i.  p.  245,  &c. 

26  A  weak  prince  will  always  be  governed  by  his  domestics.  The  power  of 
slaves  aggravated  the  shame  of  the  Romans  ;  and  the  senate  paid  court  to  a 
Pallas  or  a  Narcissus.  There  is  a  chance  that  a  modern  favourite  may  be  a 
gentleman. 

27  See  a  treatise  of  Van  Dale  de  Consecratione  Principum.  It  would  be  easier 
for  me  to  copy,  than  it  has  been  to  verify,  the  quotations  of  that  learned  Dutch- 
man. 

28  [And  Alexander  himself.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  69 

impious  mode  of  adulation.  It  was  easily  transferred  from  the 
kings  to  the  governors  of  Asia ;  and  the  Roman  magistrates 
very  frequently  were  adored  as  provincial  deities,  with  the 
pomp  of  altars  and  temples,  of  festivals  and  sacrifices.  29  It  was 
natural  that  the  emperors  should  not  refuse  what  the  proconsuls 
had  accepted  ;  and  the  divine  honours  which  both  the  one  and 
the  other  received  from  the  provinces  attested  rather  the 
despotism  than  the  servitude  of  Rome.  But  the  conquerors 
soon  imitated  the  vanquished  nations  in  the  arts  of  flattery ; 
and  the  imperious  spirit  of  the  first  Caesar  too  easily  consented 
to  assume,  during  his  life  time,  a  place  among  the  tutelar  deities 
of  Rome.  The  milder  temper  of  his  successor  declined  so 
dangerous  an  ambition,  which  was  never  afterwards  revived, 
except  by  the  madness  of  Caligula  and  Domitian.  Augustus 
permitted  indeed  some  of  the  provincial  cities  to  erect  temples 
to  his  honour,  on  condition  that  they  should  associate  the 
worship  of  Rome  with  that  of  the  sovereign ;  he  tolerated 
private  superstition,  of  which  he  might  be  the  object;30  but  he 
contented  himself  with  being  revered  by  the  senate  and  people 
in  his  human  character,  and  wisely  left  to  his  successor 
the  care  of  his  public  deification.  A  regular  custom  was  in- 
troduced, that,  on  the  decease  of  every  emperor  who  had 
neither  lived  nor  died  like  a  tyrant,  the  senate  by  a  solemn 
decree  should  place  him  in  the  number  of  the  gods :  and  the 
ceremonies  of  his  apotheosis  were  blended  with  those  of  his 
funeral.  This  legal,  and,  as  it  should  seem,  injudicious  pro- 
fanation, so  abhorrent  to  our  stricter  principles,  was  received 
with  a  very  faint  murmur31  by  the  easy  nature  of  Polytheism  ; 
but  it  was  received  as  an  institution,  not  of  religion,  but  of 
policy.  We  should  disgrace  the  virtues  of  the  Antonines  by 
comparing  them  with  the  vices  of  Hercules  or  Jupiter.  Even 
the  characters  of  Caesar  or  Augustus  were  far  superior  to  those 
of  the  popular  deities.  But  it  was  the  misfortune  of  the  former 
to  live  in  an  enlightened  age,  and  their  actions  were  too  faith- 
fully recorded  to  admit  of  such  a  mixture  of  fable  and  mystery 
as   the    devotion   of  the    vulgar    requires.     As   soon    as    their 

29  See  a  dissertation  of  the  Abbe"  Mongault  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Academy 
of  Inscriptions.  [For  the  whole  subject  see  the  admirable  article  of  Mr.  Purser 
on  Apotheosis,  in  thenewedit.  of  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities.] 

30  Jurandasque  tuum  per  nomen  ponimus  aras,  says  Horace  to  the  emperor 
himself,  and  Horace  was  well  acquainted  with  the  court  of  Augustus. 

31  See  Cicero  in  Philippic,  i.  6.  Julian  in  Cassaribus,  Inque  Deum  templis 
jurabit  Roma  per  umbras,  is  the  indignant  expression  of  Lucan  ;  but  it  is  a 
patriotic  rather  than  a  devout  indignation. 


70  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

divinity  was  established  by  law,  it  sunk  into  oblivion,  without 
contributing    either   to   their   own  fame    or  to  the   dignity  of 
succeeding  princes. 
Titus  of  In  the  consideration  of  the   Imperial  government,   we   have 

cZiZ?'" and  frequently  mentioned  the  artful  founder,  under  his  well-known 
title  of  Augustus,  which  was  not  however  conferred  upon  him 
till  the  edifice  was  almost  completed.  The  obscure  name  of 
Octavianus  he  derived  from  a  mean  family  in  the  little  town  of 
Aricia.  It  was  stained  with  the  blood  of  the  proscriptions  ; 
and  he  was  desirous,  had  it  been  possible,  to  erase  all  memory 
of  his  former  life.  The  illustrious  surname  of  Csesar  he  had 
assumed,  as  the  adopted  son  of  the  dictator  ;  but  he  had  too 
much  good  sense  either  to  hope  to  be  confounded,  or  to  wish  to 
be  compared,  with  that  extraordinary  man.  It  was  proposed 
[27B.O.]  in  the  senate  to  dignify  their  minister  with  a  new  appel- 
lation ;  and  after  a  very  serious  discussion,  that  of  Augustus 
was  chosen,  among  several  others,  as  being  the  most  expressive 
of  the  character  of  peace  and  sanctity  which  he  uniformly 
affected.32  Augustus  was  therefore  a  personal,  Ccesar  a  family 
distinction.  The  former  should  naturally  have  expired  with  the 
prince  on  whom  it  was  bestowed ;  and  however  the  latter  Avas 
diffused  by  adoption  and  female  alliance,  Nero  was  the  last 
prince  who  could  allege  any  hereditary  claim  to  the  honours  of 
the  Julian  line.  But,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  the  practice  of 
a  century  had  inseparably  connected  those  appellations  with  the 
Imperial  dignity,  and  they  have  been  preserved  by  a  long  suc- 
cession of  emperors, — Romans,  Greeks,  Franks,  and  Germans, — 
from  the  fall  of  the  republic  to  the  present  time.  A  distinction 
was,  however,  soon  introduced.  The  sacred  title  of  Augustus 
was  always  reserved  for  the  monarch,  whilst  the  name  of  Caesar 
was  more  freely  communicated  to  his  relations ;  and,  from  the 
reign  of  Hadrian  at  least,  was  appropriated  to  the  second 
person  in  the  state,  who  was  considered  as  the  presumptive  heir 
of  the  empire. 
character  and  The  tender  respect  of  Augustus  for  a  free  constitution  which 
AusTuitas  he  had  destroyed  can  only  be  explained  by  an  attentive  con- 
sideration of  the  character  of  that  subtle  tyrant.  A  cool  head, 
an  unfeeling  heart,  and  a  cowardly  disposition,  prompted  him 
at  the  age  of  nineteen  to  assume  the  mask  of  hypocrisy,  which 
he  never  afterwards  laid  aside.     With  the  same  hand,  and  pro- 

32  Dion  Cassius,  1.  liii.  p.  710  [16]  with  the  curious  Annotations  of  Reimar. 
[Augustus,  rendered  in  Greek  by  2e/3ao-Tds,  cast  a  certain  religious  halo  over  the 
head  of  the  emperor,  cp.  Dion  loc.  cit.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  71 

bably  with  the  same  temper,  he  signed  the  proscription  of 
Cicero  and  the  pardon  of  Cinna.  His  virtues,  and  even  his 
vices,  were  artificial  ;  and  according  to  the  various  dictates  of 
his  interest,  he  was  at  first  the  enemy,  and  at  last  the  father,  of 
the  Roman  world.33  When  he  framed  the  artful  system  of  the 
Imperial  authority,  his  moderation  was  inspired  by  his  fears. 
He  wished  to  deceive  the  people  by  an  image  of  civil  liberty, 
and  the  armies  by  an  image  of  civil  government. 

I.  The  death  of  Csesar  was  ever  before  his  eyes.  He  had  image  of 
lavished  wealth  and  honours  on  his  adherents  ;  but  the  most  me  people 
favoured  friends  of  his  uncle  were  in  the  number  of  the  con- 
spirators. The  fidelity  of  the  legions  might  defend  his  authority 
against  open  rebellion,  but  their  vigilance  could  not  secure  his 
person  from  the  dagger  of  a  determined  republican  ;  and  the 
Romans,  who  revered  the  memory  of  Brutus,34  would  applaud  the 
imitation  of  his  virtue.  Caesar  had  provoked  his  fate  as  much 
by  the  ostentation  of  his  power  as  by  his  power  itself.  The 
consul  or  the  tribune  might  have  reigned  in  peace.  The  title 
of  king  had  armed  the  Romans  against  his  life.  Augustus  was 
sensible  that  mankind  is  governed  by  names  ;  nor  was  he  de- 
ceived in  his  expectation  that  the  senate  and  people  would  sub- 
mit to  slavery,  provided  they  were  respectfully  assured  that  they 
still  enjoyed  their  ancient  freedom.  A  feeble  senate  and  ener- 
vated people  cheerfully  acquiesced  in  the  pleasing  illusion,  as 
long  as  it  was  supported  by  the  virtue,  or  by  even  the  prudence, 
of  the  successors  of  Augustus.  It  was  a  motive  of  self-preserva- 
tion, not  a  principle  of  liberty,  that  animated  the  conspirators 
against  Caligula,  Nero,  and  Domitian.  They  attacked  the  per- 
son of  the  tyrant,  without  aiming  their  blow  at  the  authority  of 
the  emperor. 

There  appears,  indeed,  one  memorable  occasion,  in  which  the  Attempt  oi 
senate,   after   seventy   years   of  patience,   made  an    ineffectual  after  aw 9 
attempt  to  reassume  its  long-forgotten  rights.     When  the  throne  oaUgoU 
was   vacant   by  the  murder  of  Caligula,  the  consuls  convoked 
that  assembly   in  the  Capitol,  condemned  the  memory  of  the 
Caesars,  gave    the  watchword   liberty  to  the    few    cohorts   who 

33  As  Octavianus  advanced  to  the  banquet  of  the  Caesars,  his  colour  changed 
like  that  of  the  chameleon ;  pale  at  first,  then  red,  afterwards  black,  he  at  last 
assumed  the  mild  livery  of  Venus  and  the  Graces  (Caesars,  p.  309).  This  image, 
employed  by  Julian  in  his  ingenious  fiction,  is  just  and  elegant;  but,  when  he  con- 
siders this  change  of  character  as  real,  and  ascribes  it  to  the  power  of  philosophy, 
he  does  too  much  honour  to  philosophy  and  to  Octavianus. 

34  Two  centuries  after  the  establishment  of  monarchy,  the  emperor  Marcus 
Antoninus  recommends  the  character  of  Brutus  as  a  perfect  model  of  Roman  virtue. 


72 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Image  of 
government 
for  the 
armies 


faintly  adhered  to  their  standard,  and  during  eight  and  forty 
hours,  acted  as  the  independent  chiefs  of  a  free  commonwealth. 
But  while  they  deliberated,  the  praetorian  guards  had  resolved. 
The  stupid  Claudius,  brother  of  Germanicus,  was  already  in  their 
camp,  invested  with  the  Imperial  purple,  and  prepared  to  sup- 
port his  election  by  arms.  The  dream  of  liberty  was  at  an  end  ; 
and  the  senate  awoke  to  all  the  horrors  of  inevitable  servitude. 
Deserted  by  the  people,  and  threatened  by  a  military  force,  that 
feeble  assembly  was  compelled  to  ratify  the  choice  of  the  prae- 
torians, and  to  embrace  the  benefit  of  an  amnesty,  which 
Claudius  had  the  prudence  to  offer,  and  the  generosity  to  ob- 
serve.35 

II.  The  insolence  of  the  armies  inspired  Augustus  with  fears 
of  a  still  more  alarming  nature.  The  despair  of  the  citizens 
could  only  attempt  what  the  power  of  the  soldiers  was,  at  any 
time,  able  to  execute.  How  precarious  was  his  own  authority 
over  men  whom  he  had  taught  to  violate  every  social  duty  !  He 
had  heard  their  seditious  clamours  ;  he  dreaded  their  calmer 
moments  of  reflection.  One  revolution  had  been  purchased  by 
immense  rewards  ;  but  a  second  revolution  might  double  those 
rewards.  The  troops  professed  the  fondest  attachment  to  the 
house  of  Caesar ;  but  the  attachments  of  the  multitude  are 
capricious  and  inconstant.  Augustus  summoned  to  his  aid 
whatever  remained  in  those  fierce  minds  of  Roman  prejudices  ; 
enforced  the  rigour  of  discipline  by  the  sanction  of  law ;  and, 
interposing  the  majesty  of  the  senate  between  the  emperor  and 
the  army,  boldly  claimed  their  allegiance  as  the  first  magistrate 
of  the  republic-36 

During  a  long  period  of  two  hundred  and  twenty  years,  from 
the  establishment  of  this  artful  system  to  the  death  of  Com- 
modus,  the  dangers  inherent  to  a  military  government  were,  in 
a  great  measure,  suspended.  The  soldiers  were  seldom  roused  to 
that  fatal  sense  of  their  own  strength,  and  of  the  weakness  of 
the  civil  authority,  which  was,  before  and  afterwards,  productive 
of  such  dreadful  calamities.  Caligula  and  Domitian  were  assas- 
sinated in  their  palace  by  their  own  domestics  : 37  the  convul- 


se It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  we  have  lost  the  part  of  Tacitus  which  treated 
of  that  transaction.  We  are  forced  to  content  ourselves  with  the  popular  rumours 
of  Josephus,  and  the  imperfect  hints  of  Dion  and  Suetonius. 

36  Augustus  restored  the  ancient  severity  of  discipline.  After  the  civil  wars, 
he  dropped  the  endearing  name  of  Fellow-Soldiers,  and  called  them  only  Soldiers 
(Sueton.  in  August,  c.  25).  See  the  use  Tiberius  made  of  the  senate  in  the 
mutiny  of  the  Pannonian  legions  (Tacit.  Annal.  i.  [25]). 

37  [Caligula  was  slain  by  officers  of  the  praetorian  guards.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  73 

sions  which  agitated  Rome  on  the  death  of  the  former  were 
confined  to  the  walls  of  the  city.  But  Nero  involved  the  whole 
empire  in  his  ruin.  In  the  space  of  eighteen  months  four 
princes  perished  by  the  sword  ;  and  the  Roman  world  was 
shaken  by  the  fury  of  the  contending  armies.  Excepting  only 
this  short,  though  violent,  eruption  of  military  licence,  the  two 
centuries  from  Augustus  to  Commodus  passed  away,  unstained 
with  civil  blood,  and  undisturbed  by  revolutions.  The  emperor 
was  elected  by  the  authority  of  the  senate  and  the  consent  of  the 
soldiers.^  The  legions  respected  their  oath  of  fidelity  ;  and  it 
requires  a  minute  inspection  of  the  Roman  annals  to  discover 
three  inconsiderable  rebellions,  which  were  all  suppressed  in  a 
few  months,  and  without  even  the  hazard  of  a  battle.39 

In  elective  monarchies,  the  vacancy  of  the  throne  is  a  moment  Designation  of 
big  with  danger  and  mischief.  The  Roman  emperors,  desirous 
to  spare  the  legions  that  interval  of  suspense,  and  the  temptation 
of  an  irregular  choice,  invested  their  designed  successor  with  so 
large  a  share  of  present  power,  as  should  enable  him,  after  their 
decease,  to  assume  the  remainder  without  suffering  the  empire 
to  perceive  the  change  of  masters.  Thus  Augustus,  after  all  hiso/Tiberiua 
fairer  prospects  had  been  snatched  from  him  by  untimely  deaths, 
rested  his  last  hopes  on  Tiberius,  obtained  for  his  adopted  son 
the  censorial  and  tribunitian  powers,  and  dictated  a  law,  by 
which  the  future  prince  was  invested  with  an  authority  equal  to 
his  own  over  the  provinces  and  the  armies.40  Thus  Vespasian 
subdued  the  generous  mind  of  his  eldest  son.  Titus  was  adored  of  Titus 
by  the  eastern  legions,  which,  under  his  command,  had  recently 
achieved  the  conquest  of  Judea.  His  power  was  dreaded,  and, 
as  his  virtues  were  clouded  by  the  intemperance  of  youth,  his 
designs  were  suspected.  Instead  of  listening  to  such  unworthy 
suspicions,  the  prudent  monarch  associated  Titus  to  the  full 
powers  of  the  Imperial  dignity ;  and  the  grateful  son  ever 
approved  himself  the  humble  and  faithful  minister  of  so  indulgent 
a  father.41 

38  These  words  seem  to  have  been  the  constitutional  language.  See  Tacit. 
Annal.  xiii.  4. 

39  The  first  was  Camillus  Scribonianus,  who  took  up  arms  in  Dalmatia  against 
Claudius,  and  was  deserted  by  his  own  troops  in  five  days  ;  the  second,  L. 
Antonius,  in  Germany,  who  rebelled  against  Domitian  ;  and  the  third,  Avidius 
Cassius,  in  the  reign  of  M.  Antoninus.  The  two  last  reigned  but  a  few  months 
and  were  cut  off  by  their  own  adherents.  We  may  observe,  that  both  Camillu 
and  Cassius  coloured  their  ambition  with  the  design  of  restoring  the  republic 
a  task,  said  Cassius,  peculiarly  reserved  for  his  name  and  family. 

40  Velleius  Paterculus,  l.ii  c.  121.     Sueton.  in  Tiber,  c.  20. 

41  Sueton.  in  Tit.  c.  6.     Plin.  in  Praefat.  Hist.  Natur. 


74  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

The  race  of         The  good  sense  of  Vespasian  engaged  him  indeed  to  embrace 

the  Caesars  ^  j.  o    o 

and  the         every  measure   that    might    confirm   his   recent   and  precarious 

Flavian  *  cj  j. 

family  elevation.     The  military  oath,  and  the  fidelity  of  the  troops,  had 

been  consecrated,  by  the  habits  of  an  hundred  years,  to  the 
name  and  family  of  the  Caesars  ;  and,  although  that  family  had 
been  continued  only  by  the  fictitious  rite  of  adoption,  the  Romans 
still  revered,  in  the  person  of  Nero,  the  grandson  of  Germanicus, 
and  the  lineal  successor  of  Augustus.  It  was  not  without  re- 
luctance and  remorse  that  the  praetorian  guards  had  been  per- 
suaded to  abandon  the  cause  of  the  tyrant.42  The  rapid  down- 
fall of  Galba,  Otho,  and  Vitellius,  taught  the  armies  to  consider 
the  emperors  as  the  creatures  of  their  will,  and  the  instruments 
of  their  licence.  The  birth  of  Vespasian  was  mean ;  his  grand- 
father had  been  a  private  soldier,  his  father  a  petty  officer  of  the 
revenue,43  his  own  merit  had  raised  him,  in  an  advanced  age,  to 
the  empire  ;  but  his  merit  was  rather  useful  than  shining,  and 
his  virtues  were  disgraced  by  a  strict  and  even  sordid  parsimony. 
Such  a  prince  consulted  his  true  interest  by  the  association  of  a 
son  whose  more  splendid  and  amiable  character  might  turn  the 
public  attention  from  the  obscure  origin  to  the  future  glories  of 
the  Flavian  house.  Under  the  mild  administration  of  Titus,  the 
Roman  world  enjoyed  a  transient  felicity,  and  his  beloved 
memory  served  to  protect,  above  fifteen  years,  the  vices  of  his 
brother  Domitian. 

ad. 96.  Nerva  had  scarcely  accepted  the  purple  from  the  assassins  of 

character*"  Domitian  before  he  discovered  that  his  feeble  age  was  unable  to 
stem  the  torrent  of  public  disorders  which  had  multiplied  under 
the  long  tyranny  of  his  predecessor.  His  mild  disposition  was 
respected  by  the  good  ;  but  the  degenerate  Romans  required  a 
more  vigorous  character,  Avhose  justice  should  strike  terror  into 
the  guilty.  Though  he  had  several  relations,  he  fixed  his  choice 
on  a  stranger.  He  adopted  Trajan,  then  about  forty  years  of 
age,  and  who  commanded  a  powerful  arcny  in  the  Lower 
Germany  ;  and  immediately,  by  a  decree  of  the  senate,  declared 

a.d.  98  him  his  colleague  and  successor  in  the  empire.44  It  is  sincerely 
to  be  lamented,  that,  whilst  we  are  fatigued  with  the  disgustful 
relation  of  Nero's  crimes  and  follies,  we  are  reduced  to  collect 
the  actions  of  Trajan  from  the  glimmerings  of  an  abridgment,  or 

42  This  idea  is  frequently  and  strongly  inculcated  by  Tacitus.  See  Hist.  i.  5.  16. 
ii.  76. 

4:!The  emperor  Vespasian,  with  his  usual  good  sense,  laughed  at  the  Genealo- 
gists, who  deduced  his  family  from  Flavius,  the  founder  of  Reate  (his  native 
country),  and  one  of  the  companions  of  Hercules.    Sueton.  in  Vespasian,  i.  12. 

44Dio.  1.  lxviii.  p.  1121  [3].     Plin.  Secund.  in  Panegyric.     [7] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  75 

the  doubtful  light  of  a  panegyric.  There  remains,  however,  one 
panegyric  far  removed  beyond  the  suspicion  of  flattery.  Above 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  death  of  Trajan,  the  senate, 
in  pouring  out  the  customary  acclamations  on  the  accession  of  a 
new  emperor,  wished  that  he  might  surpass  the  felicity  of 
Augustus,  and  the  virtue  of  Trajan.45 

We  may  readily  believe  that  the  father  of  his  country  hesitated  ad.  m. 
whether  he  ought  to  intrust  the  various  and  doubtful  character 
of  his  kinsman  Hadrian  with  sovereign  power.  In  his  last 
moments,  the  arts  of  the  empress  Plotina  either  fixed  the 
irresolution  of  Trajan,  or  boldly  supposed  a  fictitious  adoption,  46 
the  truth  of  which  could  not  be  safely  disputed ;  and  Hadrian 
was  peaceably  acknowledged  as  his  lawful  successor.  Under 
his  reign,  as  has  been  already  mentioned,  the  empire  flourished 
in  peace  and  prosperity.  He  encouraged  the  arts,  reformed  the 
laws,  asserted  military  discipline,  and  visited  all  his  provinces  in 
person.  His  vast  and  active  genius  was  equally  suited  to  the 
most  enlarged  views  and  the  minute  details  of  civil  policy.  But 
the  ruling  passions  of  his  soul  were  curiosity  and  vanity.  As 
they  prevailed,  and  as  they  were  attracted  by  different  objects, 
Hadrian  was,  by  turns,  an  excellent  prince,  a  ridiculous  sophist, 
and  a  jealous  tyrant.  The  general  tenor  of  his  conduct  deserved 
praise  for  its  equity  and  moderation.  Yet,  in  the  first  days  of  his 
reign,  he  put  to  death  four  consular  senators,  his  personal 
enemies,  and  men  who  had  been  judged  worthy  of  empire  ;  and 
the  tediousness  of  a  painful  illness  rendered  him,  at  last,  peevish 
and  cruel.  The  senate  doubted  whether  they  should  pronounce 
him  a  god  or  a  tyrant ;  and  the  honours  decreed  to  his  memory 
were  granted  to  the  prayers  of  the  pious  Antoninus.47 

The  caprice  of  Hadrian  influenced  his  choice  of  a  successor.  Adoption  of 
After  revolving  in  his  mind  several  men  of  distinguished  merit,  younger 
whom  he  esteemed  and  hated,  he  adopted  iElius  Verus,  a  gay 
and  voluptuous  nobleman,  recommended  by  uncommon  beauty 
to  the  lover  of  Antinous.48     But  whilst  Hadrian  was  delighting 

*5  Felicior  Augusto,  melior  Trajano.     Eutrop.  viii.  5. 

46  Dion  (1.  lxix.  p.  1249  [1] )  affirms  the  whole  to  have  been  a  fiction,  on  the 
authority  of  his  father,  who  being  governor  of  the  province  where  Trajan  died, 
had  very  good  opportunities  of  sifting  this  mysterious  transaction.  Yet  Dodwell 
(Praglect.  Camden,  xvii.)  has  maintained,  that  Hadrian  was  called  to  the  certain 
hope  of  the  empire  during  the  life-time  of  Trajan. 

47  Dion,  1.  lxx.  p.  1 171  [1] .    Aurel.  Victor  [13]. 

■)s  The  deification  of  Antinous,  his  medals,  statutes,  temples,  city,  oracles,  and 
constellation,  are  well  known,  and  still  dishonour  the  memory  of  Hadrian.  Yet 
we  may  remark,  that  of  the  first  fifteen  emperors  Claudius  was  the  only  one  whose 
taste  in  love  was  entirely  correct.  For  the  honours  of  Antinous,  see  Spanheim, 
Commentaires  sur  les  Caesars  de  Julien,  p.  80. 


76  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

himself  with  his  own  applause,  and  the  acclamations  of  the 
soldiers,  whose  consent  had  been  secured  by  an  immense  donative, 
the  new  Caesar  49  was  ravished  from  his  embraces  by  an  untimely 
death.  He  left  only  one  son.  Hadrian  commended  the  boy  to 
the  gratitude  of  the  Antonines.  He  was  adopted  by  Pius;  and, 
on  the  accession  of  Marcus,  was  invested  with  an  equal  share  of 
sovereign  power.  Among  the  many  vices  of  this  younger  Verus, 
he  possessed  one  virtue — a  dutiful  reverencefor  his  wiser  colleague, 
to  whom  he  willingly  abandoned  the  ruder  cares  of  empire. 
The  philosophic  emperor  dissembled  his  follies,  lamented  his 
early  death,  and  cast  a  decent  veil  over  his  memory. 

Adoption  of        As    soon    as   Hadrian's    passion    was   either    gratified    or  dis- 

Antoninea  appointed,  he  resolved  to  deserve  the  thanks  of  posterity  by 
placing  the  most  exalted  merit  on  the  Roman  throne.  His  dis- 
cerning eye  easily  discovered  a  senator  about  fifty  years  of  age, 
blameless  in  all  the  offices  of  life;  and  a  youth  of  about  seventeen, 
whose  riper  years  opened  the  fair  prospect  of  every  virtue  :  the 
elder  of  these  was  declared  the  son  and  successor  of  Hadrian,  on 
condition,  however,  that  he  himself  should  immediately  adopt 
the  younger.  The  two  Antonines  (for  it  is  of  them  that  we  are  now 
speaking)  governed  the  Roman  world  forty-two  years  with  the 

a.d.  138-180  same  invariable  spirit  of  wisdom  and  virtue.  Although  Pius 
had  two  sons, 50  he  preferred  the  welfare  of  Rome  to  the  interest 
of  his  family,  gave  his  daughter  Faustina  in  marriage  to  young 
Marcus,  obtained  from  the  senate  the  tribunitian  and  proconsular 
powers,  and,  with  a  noble  disdain,  or  rather  ignorance,  of  jealousy, 
associated  him  to  all  the  labours  of  government.  Marcus,  on  the 
other  hand,  revered  the  character  of  his  benefactor,  loved  him 
as  a  parent,  obeyed  him  as  his  sovereign,  51  and,  after  he  was  no 
more,  regulated  his  own  administration  by  the  example  and 
maxims  of  his  predecessor.  Their  united  reigns  are  possibly  the 
only  period  of  history  in  which  the  happiness  of  a  great  people 
was  the  sole  object  of  government. 

characterand  Titus  Antoninus  Pius  had  been  justly  denominated  a  second 
Numa.  The  same  love  of  religion,  justice,  and  peace,  was  the 
distinguishing  characteristic  of  both  princes.  But  the  situation 
of  the  latter  opened  a  much  larger  field  for  the  exercise  of  those 

*•  Hist.  August,  p.  13  [ii.  1].     Aurelius  Victor  in  Epitom.  [9]. 

50  Without  the  help  of  medals  and  inscriptions,  we  should  be  ignorant  of  this 
fact,  so  honourable  to  the  memory  of  Pius.  [But  see  Hist.  Aug.  iii.  i.  7.  We 
have  their  names  from  coins.] 

61  During  the  twenty-three  years  of  Pius's  reign,  Marcus  was  only  two  nights 
absent  from  the  palace,  and  even  those  were  at  different  times.  Hist.  August,  p.  25. 
[iv.  7.] 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  77 

virtues.  Numa  could  only  prevent  a  few  neighbouring  villages 
from  plundering  each  other's  harvests.  Antoninus  diffused 
order  and  tranquillity  over  the  greatest  part  of  the  earth.  His 
reign  is  marked  by  the  rare  advantage  of  furnishing  veiy  few 
materials  for  history  ;  which  is,  indeed,  little  more  than  the 
register  of  the  crimes,  follies,  and  misfortunes  of  mankind.  In 
private  life  he  was  an  amiable  as  well  as  a  good  man.  The 
native  simplicity  of  his  virtue  was  a  stranger  to  vanity  or  affec- 
tation. He  enjoyed  with  moderation  the  conveniences  of  his 
fortune,  and  the  innocent  pleasures  of  society  ;  52  and  the  bene- 
volence of  his  soul  displayed  itself  in  a  cheerful  serenity  of 
temper. 

The  virtue  of  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus  was  of  a  severer  or  Marcus 
and  more  laborious  kind. 53  It  was  the  well-earned  harvest  of 
many  a  learned  conference,  of  many  a  patient  lecture,  and  many 
a  midnight  lucubration.  At  the  age  of  twelve  years  he  em- 
braced the  rigid  system  of  the  Stoics,  which  taught  him  to 
submit  his  body  to  his  mind,  his  passions  to  his  reason  ;  to  con- 
sider virtue  as  the  only  good,  vice  as  the  only  evil,  all  things 
external  as  things  indifferent. 5i  His  Meditations,  composed  in 
the  tumult  of  a  camp,  are  still  extant ;  and  he  even  condescended 
to  give  lessons  on  philosophy,  in  a  more  public  manner  than  was 
perhaps  consistent  with  the  modesty  of  a  sage  or  the  dignity 
of  an  emperor.  55  But  his  life  was  the  noblest  commentary  on 
the  precepts  of  Zeno.  He  was  severe  to  himself,  indulgent  to 
the  imperfection  of  others,  just  and  beneficent  to  all  man- 
kind. He  regretted  that  Avidius  Cassius,  who  excited  a  rebellion 
in  Syria,  had   disappointed  him,  by  a  voluntary  death,  of  the 

52  He  was  fond  of  the  theatre  and  rot  insensible  to  the  charms  of  the  fair  sex. 
Marcus  Antoninus,  i.  16.  Hist.  August,  p.  20.  21  [iii.  8  and  11].  Julian  in 
Caesar. 

53  The  enemies  of  Marcus  charged  him  with  hypocrisy  and  with  a  want  of  that 
simplicity  which  distinguished  Pius  and  even  Verus  (Hist.  Aug.  p.  34  [iii.  29]). 
This  suspicion,  unjust  as  it  was,  may  serve  to  account  for  the  superior  applause 
bestowed  upon  personal  qualifications,  in  preference  to  the  social  virtues.  Even 
Marcus  Antoninus  has  been  called  a  hypocrite ;  but  the  wildest  scepticism  never 
insinuated  that  Caesar  might  possibly  be  a  coward,  or  Tully  a  fool.  Wit  and  val- 
our are  qualifications  more  easily  ascertained  than  humanity  or  the  love  of  jus- 
tice. 

54 Tacitus  has  characterized,  in  a  few  words,  the  principles  of  the  Portico: 
Doctores  sapientiae  secutus  est,  qui  sola  bona  quae  honesta,  mala  tantum  quse 
turpia  ;  potentiam,  nobilitatem,  caeteraque  extra  animum,  neque  bonis  neque 
malis  adnumerant.     Tacit.  Hist.  iv.  5. 

56  Before  he  went  on  the  second  expedition  against  the  Germans,  he  read 
lectures  of  philosophy  to  the  Roman  people,  during  three  days.  He  had  already 
done  the  same  in  the  cities  of  Greece  and  Asia.  Hist.  August,  p.  41,  in  Cassio, 
c-  3- 


78  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

pleasure  of  converting  an  enemy  into  a  friend  ;  and  he  justified 
the  sincerity  of  that  sentiment,  by  moderating  the  zeal  of  the 
senate  against  the  adherents  of  the  traitor.  56  War  he  detested, 
as  the  disgrace  and  calamity  of  human  nature ;  but  when  the 
necessity  of  a  just  defence  called  upon  him  to  take  up  arms,  he 
readily  exposed  his  person  to  eight  winter  campaigns  on  the 
frozen  banks  of  the  Danube,  the  severity  of  which  was  at  last 
fatal  to  the  weakness  of  his  constitution.  His  memory  was 
revered  by  a  grateful  posterity,  and  above  a  century  after  his 
death  many  persons  preserved  the  image  of  Marcus  Antoninus 
among  those  of  their  household  gods.  57 

Happiness  of  If  a  man  were  called  to  fix  the  period  in  the  history  of  the 
world  during  which  the  condition  of  the  human  race  was  most 
happy  and  prosperous,  he  would,  without  hesitation,  name  that 
which  elapsed  from  the  death  of  Domitian  to  the  accession  of 
Commodus.  The  vast  extent  of  the  Roman  empire  was 
governed  by  absolute  power,  under  the  guidance  of  vir- 
tue and  wisdom.  The  armies  were  restrained  by  the  firm  but 
gentle  hand  of  four  successive  emperors,  whose  characters  and 
authority  commanded  involuntary  respect.  The  forms  of  the 
civil  administration  were  carefully  preserved  by  Nerva,  Trajan, 
Hadrian,  and  the  Antonines,  who  delighted  in  the  image  of 
liberty,  and  were  pleased  with  considering  themselves  as  the  ac- 
countable ministers  of  the  laws.  Such  princes  deserved  the  honour 
of  restoring  the  republic,  had  the  Romans  of  their  days  been 
capable  of  enjoying  a  rational  freedom. 

its  precarious  The  labours  of  these  monarchs  were  over-paid  by  the  immense 
reward  that  inseparably  waited  on  their  success  ;  by  the  honest 
pride  of  virtue,  and  by  the  exquisite  delight  of  beholding  the 
general  happiness  of  which  they  were  the  authors.  A  just  but 
melancholy  reflection  embittered,  however,  the  noblest  of  human 
enjoyments.  They  must  often  have  recollected  the  instability 
of  a  happiness  which  depended  on  the  character  of  a  single  man. 
The  fatal  moment  was  perhaps  approaching,  when  some  licentious 
youth,  or  some  jealous  tyrant,  would  abuse,  to  the  destruction, 
that  absolute  power  which  they  had  exerted  for  the  benefit  of 
their  people.  The  ideal  restraints  of  the  senate  and  the  laws 
might  serve  to  display  the  virtues,  but  could  never  correct  the 
vices,  of  the  empei-or.  The  military  force  was  a  blind  and  irre- 
sistible instrument  of  oppression  ;  and  the  corruption  of  Roman 
manners  would  always  supply  flatterers  eager  to  applaud,  and 

•^Dio.  1.  lxxi.  p.  1190  [23],     Hist.  August,  in  Avid.  Cassio  [8]. 
W  Hist.  August,  in  Marc.  Antonin.  c.  18. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  79 

ministers  prepared  to  serve,  the  fear  or  the  avarice,  the  lust  or 
the  cruelty,  of  their  masters. 

These  gloomy  apprehensions  had  been  already  justified  by  Memory  of 
the  experience  of  the  Romans.  The  annals  of  the  emperors  caiigtua] 
exhibit  a  strong  and  various  picture  of  human  nature,  which  we  Domi'tian 
should  vainly  seek  among  the  mixed  and  doubtful  characters  of 
modern  history.  In  the  conduct  of  those  monarchs  we  may 
trace  the  utmost  lines  of  vice  and  virtue  ;  the  most  exalted  per- 
fection and  the  meanest  degeneracy  of  our  own  species.  The 
golden  age  of  Trajan  and  the  Antonines  had  been  preceded  by 
an  age  of  iron.  It  is  almost  superfluous  to  enumerate  the  un- 
worthy successoi's  of  Augustus.  Their  unparalleled  vices,  and 
the  splendid  theatre  on  which  they  were  acted,  have  saved 
them  from  oblivion.  The  dark  unrelenting  Tiberius,  the  furious 
Caligula,  the  stupid  Claudius,  the  profligate  and  cruel  Nero,  the 
beastly  Vitellius,58  and  the  timid  inhuman  Domitian,  are  con- 
demned to  everlasting  infamy.  During  fourscore  years  (ex- 
cepting only  the  short  and  doubtful  respite  of  Vespasian's 
reign),59  Rome  groaned  beneath  an  unremitting  tyranny,  which 
exterminated  the  ancient  families  of  the  republic,  and  was 
fatal  to  almost  every  virtue  and  every  talent  that  arose  in  that 
unhappy  period. 

Under  the  reign  of  these  monsters60  the  slavery  of  the  Romans  pecuiiar 
was   accompanied    with    two    peculiar   circumstances,    the    one  the  Romans 
occasioned  by  their  former  liberty,  the  other  by  their  extensive  Rants'1611 
conquests,  which  rendered  their  condition  more  wretched  than 
that  of  the  victims  of  tyranny  in  any  other  age  or  country. 
From  these  causes  were  derived,   1.  The  exquisite  sensibility  of 
the   sufferers ;    and   2.    The  impossibility  of  escaping  from  the 
hand  of  the  oppressor. 

I.  When  Persia  was  governed  by  the  descendants  of  Sefi,  a  insensibility 
race  of  princes  whose  wanton  cruelty  often  stained  their  divan,  orientals 
their  table,  and  their  bed  with  the  blood  of  their  favourites, 
there  is  a  saying  recorded  of  a  young  nobleman,  That  he  never 

ss  Vitellius  consumed  in  mere  eating  at  least  six  millions  of  our  money,  in 
about  seven  months.  It  is  not  easy  to  express  his  vices  with  dignity,  or  even 
decency.  Tacitus  fairly  calls  him  a  hog  ;  but  it  is  by  substituting  for  a  coarse 
word  a  very  fine  image.  "At  Vitellius,  umbraculis  hortorum  abditus,  ut  ignava 
animalia,  quibus  si  cibum  suggeras  jacent  torpentque,  praeterita,  instantia,  futura, 
pari  oblivione  dimiserat.  Atque  il!um  nemore  Aricino  desidem  et  marcentem,"  &c. 
Tacit.  Hist.  iii.  36,  ii.  95.  Sueton.  in  Vitell.  c.  13.  Dio.  Cassius,  1.  lxv.  p.  1062  [3]. 

09  The  execution  of  Helvidius  Priscus  and  of  the  virtuous  Eponina  disgraced 
the  reign  of  Vespasian. 

60  [But  there  is  another  side  to  this  picture,  which  may  be  seen  by  studying 
Mommsen's  volume  on  the  provinces]. 


80  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

departed  from  the  sultan's  presence  without  satisfying  himself 
whether  his  head  was  still  on  his  shoulders.  The  experience  of 
every  day  might  almost  justify  the  scepticism  of  Rustan.61  Yet 
the  fatal  sword,  suspended  above  him  by  a  single  thread,  seems 
not  to  have  disturbed  the  slumbers,  or  interrupted  the  tran- 
quillity, of  the  Persian.  The  monarch's  frown,  he  well  knew, 
could  level  him  with  the  dust ;  but  the  stroke  of  lightning  or 
apoplexy  might  be  equally  fatal ;  and  it  was  the  part  of  a  wise 
man  to  forget  the  inevitable  calamities  of  human  life  in  the  en- 
joyment of  the  fleeting  hour.  He  was  dignified  with  the  appel- 
lation of  the  king's  slave ;  had,  perhaps,  been  purchased  from 
obscure  parents,  in  a  country  which  he  had  never  known  ;  and 
was  trained  up  from  his  infancy  in  the  severe  discipline  of  the 
seraglio.62  His  name,  his  wealth,  his  honours,  were  the  gift  of 
a  master,  who  might,  without  injustice,  resume  what  he  had 
bestowed.  Rustan's  knowledge,  if  he  possessed  any,  could  only 
serve  to  confirm  his  habits  by  prejudices.  His  language  afforded 
not  words  for  any  form  of  government,  except  absolute  mon- 
archy. The  history  of  the  East  informed  him  that  such  had 
ever  been  the  condition  of  mankind.63  The  Koran,  and  the 
interpreters  of  that  divine  book,  inculcated  to  him  that  the 
sultan  was  the  descendant  of  the  prophet,  and  the  vicegerent  of 
heaven  ;  that  patience  was  the  first  virtue  of  a  Mussulman,  and 
unlimited  obedience  the  great  duty  of  a  subject. 
Knowledge  The  minds  of  the  Romans  were  veiy  differently  prepared  for 
spirit  of  the  slavery.  Oppressed  beneath  the  weight  of  their  own  corruption 
and  of  military  violence,  they  for  a  long  while  preserved  the  sen- 
timents, or  at  least  the  ideas,  of  their  freeborn  ancestors.  The 
education  of  Helvklius  and  Thrasea,  of  Tacitus  and  Pliny,  was 
the  same  as  that  of  Cato  and  Cicero.  From  Grecian  philosophy 
they  had  imbibed  the  justest  and  most  liberal  notions  of  the  dignity 
of  human  nature  and  the  origin  of  civil  society.  The  history  of 
their  own  country  had  taught  them  to  revere  a  free,  a  virtuous, 
and  a  victorious  commonwealth  ;  to  abhor  the  successful  crimes 
of  Caesar  and  Augustus  ;  and  inwardly  to  despise  those  tyrants 
whom  they  adored  with  the  most  abject  flattery.  As  magistrates 
and  senators,  they  were  admitted  into  the  great  council  which 

61  Voyage  de  Chardin  en  Perse,  vol.  iii.  p.  293. 

62  The  practice  of  raising  slaves  to  the  great  offices  of  state  is  still  more 
common  among  the  Turks  than  among  the  Persians.  The  miserable  countries 
of  Georgia  and  Circassia  supply  rulers  to  the  greatest  part  of  the  East. 

63  Chardin  says  that  European  travellers  have  diffused  among  the  Persians 
some  ideas  of  the  freedom  and  mildness  of  our  governments.  They  have  done 
them  a  very  ill  office. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  81 

had  once  dictated  laws  to  the  earth,  whose  name  gave  still  a 
sanction  to  the  acts  of  the  monarch,  and  whose  authority  was  so 
often  prostituted  to  the  vilest  purposes  of  tyranny.  Tiberius, 
and  those  emperors  who  adopted  his  maxims,  attempted  to  dis- 
guise their  murders  by  the  formalities  of  justice,  and  perhaps 
enjoyed  a  secret  pleasure  in  rendering  the  senate  their  accomplice 
as  well  as  their  victim.  By  this  assembly  the  last  of  the  Romans 
were  condemned  for  imaginary  crimes  and  real  virtues.  Their 
infamous  accusers  assumed  the  language  of  independent  patriots, 
who  arraigned  a  dangerous  citizen  before  the  tribunal  of  his 
country  ;  and  the  public  service  was  rewarded  by  riches  and 
honours.04  The  servile  judges  professed  to  assert  the  majesty  of 
the  commonwealth,  violated  in  the  person  of  its  first  magistrate,65 
whose  clemency  they  most  applauded  when  they  trembled  the 
most  at  his  inexorable  and  impending  cruelty.66  The  tyrant 
beheld  their  baseness  with  just  contempt,  and  encountered  their 
secret  sentiments  of  detestation  with  sincere  and  avowed  hatred 
for  the  whole  body  of  the  senate. 

II.  The    division  of  Europe    into  a  number   of  independent  Extent  of 
states,  connected,  however,  Avith  each  other,  by  the  general  re- left  them  no 
semblance  of  religion,  language  and  manners,  is  productive  of  refuge 
the  most  beneficial  consequences  to  the  liberty  of  mankind.     A 
modern  tyrant,  who  should  find  no  resistance  either  in  his  own 
breast  or  in  his  people,  would  soon  experience  a  gentle  restraint 
from  the  example  of  his  equals,  the  dread  of  present  censure, 
the  advice  of  his  allies,  and  the  apprehension  of  his  enemies. 
The  object  of  his  displeasure,  escaping  from  the  narrow  limits  of 
his  dominions,  would  easily  obtain,  in  a  happier  climate,  a  secure 
refuge,  a  new  fortune  adequate  to  his    merit,  the   freedom   of 
complaint,  and  perhaps  the  means  of  revenge.     But  the  empire 
of  the  Romans  filled  the  world,  and,  when  that  empire  fell  into 
the  hands  of  a  single  person,   the   world   became   a   safe  and 

64  They  alleged  the  example  of  Scipio  and  Cato  (Tacit.  Annal.  iii.  66.) 
Marcellus  Eprius  and  Crispius  Vibius  had  acquired  two  millions  and  a  half  under 
Nero.  Their  wealth,  which  aggravated  their  crimes,  protected  them  under 
Vespasian.  See  Tacit.  Hist.  iv.  43.  Dialog,  de  Orator,  c.  8.  For  one  accusation, 
Regulus,  the  just  object  of  Pliny's  satire,  received  from  the  senate  the  consular 
ornaments,  and  a  present  of  sixty  thousand  pounds. 

68  The  crime  of  majesty  was  formerly  a  treasonable  offence  against  the  Roman 
people.  As  tribunes  of  the  people,  Augustus  and  Tiberius  applied  it  to  their  own 
persons,  and  extended  it  to  an  infinite  latitude. 

66  After  the  virtuous  and  unfortunate  widow  of  Germanicus  had  been  put  to 
death,  Tiberius  received  the  thanks  of  the  senate  for  his  clemency.  She  had 
not  been  publicly  strangled  ;  nor  was  the  body  drawn  with  a  hook  to  the  Gemonias, 
where  those  of  common  malefactors  were  exposed.  See  Tacit.  Annal.  vi.  25. 
Sueton.  in  Tiberio.  c.  53. 

6  VOL.   I. 


82  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

dreary  prison  for  his  enemies.  The  slave  of  Imperial  despotism, 
whether  he  was  condemned  to  drag  his  gilded  chain  in  Rome 
and  the  senate,  or  to  wear  out  a  life  of  exile  on  the  barren  rock 
of  Seriphus,  or  the  frozen  banks  of  the  Danube,  expected  his 
fate  in  silent  despair.67  To  resist  was  fatal,  and  it  was  impos- 
sible to  fly.  On  every  side  he  was  encompassed  with  a  vast 
extent  of  sea  and  land,  which  he  could  never  hope  to  traverse 
without  being  discovered,  seized,  and  restored  to  his  irritated 
master.  Beyond  the  frontiers,  his  anxious  view  could  discover 
nothing,  except  the  ocean,  inhospitable  deserts,  hostile  tribes  of 
barbarians,  of  fierce  manners  and  unknown  language,  or  de- 
pendent kings,  who  would  gladly  purchase  the  emperor's  pro- 
tection by  the  sacrifice  of  an  obnoxious  fugitive. 6S  "  Wherever 
you  are,"  said  Cicero  to  the  exiled  Marcellus,  "  remember  that 
you  are  equally  within  the  power  of  the  conqueror."  G9 

67  Seriphus  was  a  small  rocky  island  in  the  JEgean  Sea,  the  inhabitants  of  which 
were  despised  for  their  ignorance  and  obscurity.  The  place  of  Ovid's  exile  is  well 
known  by  his  just  but  unmanly  lamentations.  It  should  seem  that  he  only  re- 
ceived an  order  to  leave  Rome  in  so  many  days,  and  to  transport  himself  to  Tomi. 
Guards  and  gaolers  were  unnecessary. 

68  Under  Tiberius,  a  Roman  knight  attempted  to  flv  to  the  Parthians.  He  was 
stopt  in  the  straits  of  Sicily ;  but  so  little  danger  did  there  appear  in  the  example, 
that  the  most  jealous  of  tyrants  disdained  to  punish  it.     Tacit.  Annal.  vi.  14. 

69  Cicero  ad  Familiares,  iv.  7. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  83 


CHAPTER  IV 

The  cruelty,  follies,  and  murder  of  Commodus — Election  of  Perlinax 
— his  attempts  to  reform  the  State — his  assassination  by  the  Pre- 
toria)/ Guards 

The  mildness  of  Marcus,  which  the  rigid  discipline  of  the  Stoics  indulgence  of 
was  unable  to  eradicate,  formed,  at  the  same  time,  the  most 
amiable,  and  the  only  defective,  part  of  his  character.  His 
excellent  understanding  was  often  deceived  by  the  unsuspect- 
ing goodness  of  his  heart.  Artful  men,  who  study  the  passions 
of  princes  and  conceal  their  own,  approached  his  person  in  the 
disguise  of  philosophic  sanctity,  and  acquired  riches  and  honours 
by  affecting  to  despise  them. 1  His  excessive  indulgence  to  his 
brother,2  his  wife,  and  his  son,  exceeded  the  bounds  of  private 
virtue,  and  became  a  public  injury,  by  the  example  and  con- 
sequences of  their  vices. 

Faustina,  the  daughter  of  Pius   and   the  wife  of  Marcus,  has  t°  ws  wife 

7  O  Faustina ; 

been  as  much  celebrated  for  her  gallantries  as  for  her  beauty. 
The  grave  simplicity  of  the  philosopher  was  ill  calculated  to 
engage  her  wanton  levity,  or  to  fix  that  unbounded  passion  for 
variety  which  often  discovered  personal  merit  in  the  meanest 
of  mankind.3  The  Cupid  of  the  ancients  was,  in  general,  a 
veiy  sensual  deity ;  and  the  amours  of  an  empress,  as  they  exact 
on  her  side  the  plainest  advances,  are  seldom  susceptible  of 
much  sentimental  delicacy.  Marcus  was  the  only  man  in  the 
empire  who  seemed  ignorant  or  insensible  of  the  irregularities 
of  Faustina;  which,  according  to  the  prejudices  of  every  age, 
reflected  some  disgrace  on  the  injured  husband.     He  promoted 

1  See  the  complaints  of  Avidius  Cassius.  Hist.  August,  p.  45  [vi.  14].  These 
are,  it  is  true,  the  complaints  of  faction  ;  but  even  faction  exaggerates,  rather 
than  invents. 

2  [L.  Verus,  his  brother  by  adoption.] 

3[Siquidem]  Faustinam  satis  constat  [constetjapud  Cayetam,  conditiones  sibi  et 
nauticas  et  gladiatorias  elegisse.  Hist.  August,  p.  30  [iv.  19].  Lampridius  explains 
the  sort  of  merit  which  Faustina  chose,  and  the  conditions  which  she  exacted.  Hist. 
August,  p.  102  [xvii,  5  ].  [There  is  no  trustworthy  evidence  for  the  truth  of  these 
charges] . 


84 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Accession  of 
the  emperor 
Commodu3 


several  of  her  lovers  to  posts  of  honour  and  profit/  and,  during 
a  connexion  of  thirty  years,  invariably  gave  her  proofs  of  the 
most  tender  confidence,  and  of  a  respect  which  ended  not  with 
her  life.  In  his  Meditations  he  thanks  the  gods,  who  had  be- 
stowed on  him  a  wife  so  faithful,  so  gentle,  and  of  such  a 
wonderful  simplicity  of  manners.5  The  obsequious  senate,  at  his 
earnest  request,  declared  her  a  goddess.  She  was  represented 
in  her  temples,  with  the  attributes  of  Juno,  Venus,  and  Ceres  ; 
and  it  was  decreed  that,  on  the  day  of  their  nuptials,  the  youth 
of  either  sex  should  pay  their  vows  before  the  altar  of  their 
chaste  patroness.6 

The  monstrous  vices  of  the  son  have  cast  a  shade  on  the  purity 
of  the  father's  virtues.  It  has  been  objected  to  Marcus,  that  he 
sacrificed  the  happiness  of  millions  to  a  fond  partiality  for  a 
worthless  boy ;  and  that  he  chose  a  successor  in  his  own  family 
rather  than  in  the  republic.  Nothing,  however,  was  neglected 
by  the  anxious  father,  and  by  the  men  of  virtue  and  learning 
whom  he  summoned  to  his  assistance,  to  expand  the  narrow 
mind  of  young  Commodus,  to  correct  his  growing  vices,  and  to 
render  him  worthy  of  the  throne  for  which  he  was  designed. 
Cut  the  power  of  instruction  is  seldom  of  much  efficacy,  except 
in  those  happy  dispositions  where  it  is  almost  superfluous.  The 
distasteful  lesson  of  a  grave  philosopher  was,  in  a  moment, 
obliterated  by  the  whisper  of  a  profligate  favourite  ;  and  Marcus 
himself  blasted  the  fruits  of  this  laboured  education,  by  admitting 
his  son,  at  the  age  of  fourteen  or  fifteen,  to  a  full  participation  of 
the  Imperial  power.  He  lived  but  four  years  afterwards;  but  he 
lived  long  enough  to  repent  a  rash  measure,  which  raised  the 
impetuous  youth  above  the  restraint  of  reason  and  authority. 

Most  of  the  crimes  which  disturb  the  internal  peace  of  society 
are  produced  by  the  restraints  which  the  necessary,  but  unequal, 
laws  of  property  have  imposed  on  the  appetites  of  mankind,  by 
confining  to  a  few  the  possession  of  those  objects  that  are  coveted 
by  many.  Of  all  our  passions  and  appetites,  the  love  of  power 
is  of  the  most  imperious  and  unsociable  nature,  since  the  pride 
of  one  man  requires  the  submission  of  the  multitude.     In  the 


4  Hist.  August,  p.  34  fiv.  29]. 

"Meditat.  1.  i.  [17].  The  world  has  laughed  at  the  credulity  of  Marcus;  but 
Madame  Dacier  assures  us  (and  we  may  credit  a  lady)  that  the  husband  will 
always  be  deceived,  if  the  wife  condescends  to  dissemble. 

6  Dio.  Cassius,  1.  lxxi.  p.  1195  [31].  Hist.  August,  p.  33.  [iv.  26].  Coni- 
mentaire  de  Spanheim  sur  les  Ccesars  de  Julien,  p.  289.  The  deification  of 
Faustina  is  the  only  defect  which  Julian's  ciiticism  is  able  to  discover  in  the  all- 
accomplished  character  of  Marcus. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  85 

tumult  of  civil  discord  the  laws  of  society  lose  their  force,  and 
their  place  is  seldom  supplied  by  those  of  humanity.  The 
ardour  of  contention,  the  pride  of  victory,  the  despair  of  success, 
the  memory  of  past  injuries,  and  the  fear  of  future  dangers,  all 
contribute  to  inflame  the  mind,  and  to  silence  the  voice  of  pity. 
From  such  motives  almost  every  page  of  history  has  been 
stained  with  civil  blood  ;  but  these  motives  will  not  account  for 
the  unprovoked  cruelties  of  Commodus,  who  had  nothing  to 
wish,  and  everything  to  enjoy.  The  beloved  son  of  Marcus  a.  d.  iso 
succeeded  to  his  father,  amidst  the  acclamations  of  the  senate 
and  armies ; 7  and  when  he  ascended  the  throne,  the  happy 
youth  saw  round  him  neither  competitor  to  remove,  nor  enemies 
to  punish.  In  this  calm  elevated  station  it  was  surely  natural 
that  he  should  prefer  the  love  of  mankind  to  their  detestation, 
the  mild  glories  of  his  five  predecessors  to  the  ignominious  fate 
of  Nero  and  Domitian. 

Yet  Commodus  was  not,  as  he  has  been  represented,  a  tiger  character  of 
born  with  an  insatiate  thirst  of  human  blood,  and  capable,  from 
his  infancy,  of  the  most  inhuman  actions. s  Nature  had  formed 
him  of  a  weak,  rather  than  a  wicked,  disposition.  His  simpli- 
city and  timidity  rendered  him  the  slave  of  his  attendants,  who 
gradually  corrupted  his  mind.  His  cruelty,  which  at  first 
obeyed  the  dictates  of  others,  degenerated  into  habit,  and  at 
length  became  the  ruling  passion  of  his  soul.9 

Upon  the  death  of  his  father  Commodus  found  himself  em-  He  returns  to 
barrassed  with  the  command  of  a  great  army,  and  the  conduct 
of  a  difficult  war  against  the  Quadi  and  Marcomanni.10  The 
servile  and  profligate  youths  whom  Marcus  had  banished  soon 
regained  their  station  and  influence  about  the  new  emperor. 
They  exaggerated  the  hardships  and  dangers  of  a  campaign  in 
the  wild  countries  beyond  the  Danube ;  and  they  assured  the 


7  Commodus  was  the  first  Porfhyrogenitus  (born  since  his  father's  accession 
to  the  throne).  By  a  new  strain  of  flattery,  the  Egyptian  medals  date  by  the  years 
of  his  life  ;  as  if  they  werj  synonymous  to  those  of  his  reign.  Tillemont.  Hist, 
des  Empereurs,  torn.  ii.  p.  752.  [The  claim  of  Commodus  to  be  nobilissimus 
omnium  principum  (Corp.  Insc.  Lat.  v.  4867)  was  well  grounded.  He  could 
point  to  five  emperors  as  his  ancestors.  His  imperial  name  was  M.  Aurelius 
Commodus  Antoninus.  He  had  been  made  a  Ccesar  in  166,  and  Imperator  in  176 
A.D.  at  the  age  of  15.] 

8  Hist.  August,  p.  46  [vii.  1]. 

9  Dion  Cassius,  1.  lxxii.  p.  1203  [i], 

10  According  to  Tertullian  (Apolog.  c.  25.)  he  died  at  Sirmium.  But  the  situation 
of  Vindobona,  or  Vienna,  where  both  the  Victors  place  his  death,  is  better  adapted 
to  the  operations  of  the  war  against  the  Marcomanni  and  Quadi.  [Date  17th 
March,  180  a.d.J 


86  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

indolent  prince  that  the  terror  of  his  name  and  the  arms  of 
his  lieutenants  would  be  sufficient  to  complete  the  conquest  of 
the  dismayed  barbarians,  or  to  impose  such  conditions  as  were 
more  advantageous  than  any  conquest.  By  a  dexterous  applica- 
tion to  his  sensual  appetites,  they  compared  the  tranquillity,  the 
splendour,  the  refined  pleasures  of  Rome  with  the  tumult  of  a 
Pannonian  camp,  which  afforded  neither  leisure  nor  materials 
for  luxury.11  Commodus  listened  to  the  pleasing  advice ;  but 
whilst  he  hesitated  between  his  own  inclination  and  the  awe 
which  he  still  retained  for  his  father's  counsellors,  the  summer 
insensibly  elapsed,  and  his  triumphal  entry  into  the  capital  was 
deferred  till  the  autumn.  His  gi'aceful  person,12  popular  address, 
and  imagined  virtues  attracted  the  public  favour ;  the  honour- 
able peace  which  he  had  recently  granted  to  the  barbarians 
diffused  an  universal  joy  ; 13  his  impatience  to  revisit  Rome  was 
fondly  ascribed  to  the  love  of  his  country  ;  and  his  dissolute 
course  of  amusements  was  faintly  condemned  in  a  prince  of 
nineteen  years  of  age. 

During  the  three  first  years  of  his  reign,  the  forms,  and  even 
the  spirit,  of  the  old  administration  were  maintained  by  those 
faithful  counsellors,  to  whom  Marcus  had  recomended  his  son, 
and  for  whose  wisdom  and  integritv  Commodus  still  entertained 
a  reluctant  esteem.  The  young  prince  and  his  profligate  fa- 
vourites reveled  in  all  the  license  of  sovereign  power ;  but  his 
hands  were  yet  unstained  with  blood  ;  and  he  had  even  displayed 
a  generosity  of  sentiment,  which  might  perhaps  have  ripened 
into  solid  virtue.14  A  fatal  incident  decided  his  fluctuating 
character. 
is  wounded  One  evening,  as  the  emperor  was  returning  to  the  palace 
assassin        through  a  dark   and  narrow  portico  in  the  amphitheatre,15  an 

A.D.  183  &  r  f  > 

11  Herodian,  1.  i.  p.  12  [6]. 

12  Herodian,  1.  i.  p.  16  [7]. 

13  This  universal  joy  is  well  described  (from  the  medals  as  well  as  historians) 
by  Mr.  Wotton,  Hist,  of  Rome,  p.  192,  193.  [The  terms  of  the  peace  were  that 
the  Marcomanni  and  Quadi  should  not  approach  nearer  than  150  Roman  miles  to 
the  Danube,  should  pay  a  tribute  of  corn,  and  furnish  a  contingent  of  recruits, 
and  should  not  make  war  on  the  Vandals,  Buri,  and  Jazygcs,  who  were  Roman 
subjects.  The  treaty  was  a  good  one  if  Commodus  had  been  strong  enough  to 
insist  on  its  execution.  Its  articles  were  not  carried  out,  yet  the  peace  was 
not  disturbed.] 

M  Manilius,  the  confidential  secretary  qfAvidius  Cassius,  was  discovered  after 
he  had  lain  concealed  for  several  years.  The  emperor  nobly  relieved  the  public 
anxiety  by  refusing  to  see  him,  and  burning  his  papers  without  opening  them, 
Dion  Cassius,  1.  lxxii.  p.  1209. 

15  See  Maffei  degli  Amphitheatri,  p.  126, 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  87 

assassin,  who  waited  his  passage,  rushed  upon  him  with  a  drawn 
sword,  loudly  exclaiming,  The  senate  sends  you  this.  The  menace 
prevented  the  deed ;  the  assassin  was  seized  by  the  guards, 
and  immediately  revealed  the  authors  of  the  conspiracy.  It  had 
been  formed,  not  in  the  state,  but  within  the  walls  of  the  palace. 
Lucilla,  the  emperor's  sister,  and  widow  of  Lucius  Verus,  im- 
patient of  the  second  rank,  and  jealous  of  the  reigning  empress, 
had  armed  the  murderer  against  her  brother's  life.  She  had 
not  ventured  to  communicate  the  black  design  to  her  second 
husband,  Claudius  Pompeianus,  a  senator  of  distinguished  merit 
and  unshaken  loyalty ;  but  among  the  crowd  of  her  lovers  (for 
she  imitated  the  manners  of  Faustina)  she  found  men  of  despe- 
rate fortunes  and  wild  ambition,  who  were  prepared  to  serve  her 
more  violent  as  well  as  her  tender  passions.  The  conspirators 
experienced  the  rigour  of  justice,  and  the  abandoned  princess 
was  punished,  first  with  exile,  and  afterwards  with  death.16 

But  the  words  of  the  assassin  sunk  deep  into  the  mind  of  Hatred  ana 
Commodus,  and  left  an  indelible  impression  of  fear  and  hatred  c^nUodiL 
against  the  whole  body  of  the  senate.  Those  whom  he  had  senate 
dreaded  as  importunate  ministers,  he  now  suspected  as  secret 
enemies.  The  Delators,  a  race  of  men  discouraged,  and  almost 
extinguished,  under  the  former  reigns,  again  became  formidable 
as  soon  as  they  discovered  that  the  emperor  was  desirous  of  find- 
ing disaffection  and  treason  in  the  senate.  That  assembly,  whom 
Marcus  had  ever  considered  as  the  great  council  of  the  nation, 
was  composed  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  Romans ;  and 
distinction  of  every  kind  soon  became  criminal.  The  possession 
of  wealth  stimulated  the  diligence  of  the  informers  ;  rigid  virtue 
implied  a  tacit  censure  of  the  irregularities  of  Commodus ;  im- 
portant services  implied  a  dangerous  superiority  of  merit,  and 
the  friendship  of  the  father  always  insured  the  aversion  of  the 
son.  Suspicion  was  equivalent  to  proof ;  trial  to  condemnation. 
The  execution  of  a  considerable  senator  was  attended  with  the 
death  of  all  who  might  lament  or  revenge  his  fate ;  and  when 
Commodus  had  once  tasted  human  blood,  he  became  incap- 
able of  pity  or  remorse. 

Of  these  innocent  victims  of  tyranny,  none  died  more  lamented  TneQuintman 
than  the  two  brothers  of  the  Quintilian  family,  Maximus  and 
Condianus,  whose  fraternal  love    has  saved  their  names   from 
oblivion,  and  endeared  their  memory  to  posterity.     Their  studies 
and  their  occupations,  their  pursuits  and  their  pleasures,  were 

16  Dio.  1.  lxxii.  p.  1205  [4]   Herodian,  1.  i.  p.  16  [8]  Hist.  August,  p.  46  [vii.  4.] 
[The  would-be  assassin  was  Claudius  Pompeianus  Quintianus,  T^ucilla's  stepson.] 


88  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

still  the  same.  In  the  enjoyment  of  a  great  estate,  they  never 
admitted  the  idea  of  a  separate  interest  :  some  fragments  are 
now  extant  of  a  treatise  17  which  they  composed  in  common  ;  and 
in  every  action  of  life  it  was  observed  that  their  two  bodies  were 
animated  by  one  soul.  The  Anton  ines,  who  valued  their  virtues 
and  delighted  in  their  union,  raised  them,  in  the  same  year,  to 
the  consulship  ;  and  Marcus  afterwards  intrusted  to  their  joint 
care  the  civil  administration  of  Greece,  and  a  great  military 
command,  in  which  they  obtained  a  signal  victory  over  the 
Germans.  The  kind  cruelty  of  Commodus  united  them  in 
death.18 
ThB  minister  The  tyrant's  rage,  after  having  shed  the  noblest  blood  of  the 
Peremus  senate,  at  length  recoiled  on  the  principal  instrument  of  his 
cruelty.  Whilst  Commodus  was  immersed  in  blood  and  luxury, 
he  devolved  the  detail  of  the  public  business  on  Perennis  ;  a 
servile  and  ambitious  minister,  who  had  obtained  his  post  by 
the  murder  of  his  predecessor,  but  who  possessed  a  considerable 
share  of  vigour  and  ability.  By  acts  of  extortion,  and  the  for- 
feited estates  of  the  nobles  sacrificed  to  his  avarice,  he  had 
accumulated  an  immense  treasure.  The  Praetorian  guards  were 
under  his  immediate  command  ;  and  his  son,  who  already  dis- 
covered a  military  genius,  was  at  the  head  of  the  Illvrian 
legions.  Perennis  aspired  to  the  empire  ;  or  what,  in  the  eyes 
of  Commodus,  amounted  to  the  same  crime,  he  was  capable  of 
aspiring  to  it,  had  he  not  been  prevented,  surprised,  and  put  to 
a.d.  i8G  death.  The  fall  of  a  minister  is  a  very  trifling  incident  in  the 
L18il  general    history   of  the  empire  ;     but  it  was   hastened   by   an 

extraordinary  circumstance,  which  proved  how  much  the  nerves 
of  discipline  were  already  relaxed.  The  legions  of  Britain,  dis- 
contented with  the  administration  of  Perennis,  formed  a  deputa- 
tion of  fifteen  hundred  select  men,  with  instructions  to  march  to 
Rome,  and  lay  their  complaints  before  the  emperor.  These 
military  petitioners,  by  their  own  determined  behaviour,  by  in- 
flaming the  divisions  of  the  guards,  by  exaggerating  the  strength 
of  the  British  army,  and  by  alarming  the  fears  of  Commodus,  ex- 
acted and  obtained  the  minister's  death,  as  the  only  redress  of 
their   grievances.19     This  presumption   of  a  distant   army,  and 

17  [On  agriculture.] 

18  In  a  note  upon  the  Augustan  History,  Casaubon  has  collected  a  number  of 
particulars  concerning  these  celebrated  brothers.  See  p.  94  of  his  learned  com- 
mentary. 

19  Dio.  1.  lxxii.  p.  1210  [9].  Herodian,  1.  i.  p.  22  [9].  Hist.  August,  p.  48 
[vij.  6.  1-5] .     Dion    gives  a  much   less  odious  character  of  Perennis,   than  the 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  89 

their  discovery  of  the  weakness  of  government,  was  a  sure 
presage  of  the  most  dreadful  convulsions. 

The   neidiffence   of  the   public   administration   was   betrayed  Kevoit  of 

Mittrnufi 

soon  afterwards  by  a  new  disorder,  which  arose  from  the  smallest 
beginnings.  A  spirit  of  desertion  began  to  prevail  among  the 
troops,  and  the  deserters,  instead  of  seeking  their  safety  in  flight 
or  concealment,  infested  the  highways.  Maternus,  a  private 
soldier,  of  a  daring  boldness  above  his  station,  collected  these 
bands  of  robbers  into  a  little  army,  set  open  the  prisons,  invited 
the  slaves  to  assert  their  freedom,  and  plundered  with  impunity 
the  rich  and  defenceless  cities  of  Gaul  and  Spain.  The  governors 
of  the  provinces,  who  had  long  been  the  spectators,  and  perhaps 
the  partners,  of  his  depredations,  were,  at  length,  roused  from 
their  supine  indolence  by  the  threatening  commands  of  the 
emperor.  Maternus  found  that  he  was  encompassed,  and  fore- 
saw that  he  must  be  overpowered.  A  great  effort  of  despair 
was  his  last  resource.  He  ordered  his  followers  to  disperse,  to 
pass  the  Alps  in  small  parties  and  various  disguises,  and  to 
assemble  at  Rome,  during  the  licentious  tumult  of  the  festival 
of  Cybele.20  To  murder  Commodus,  and  to  ascend  the  vacant 
throne,  was  the  ambition  of  no  vulgar  robber.  His  measures 
were  so  ably  concerted  that  his  concealed  troops  already  filled 
the  streets  of  Rome.  The  envy  of  an  accomplice  discovered  [i87  ad.] 
and  ruined  this  singular  enterprise  in  the  moment  when  it  was 
ripe  for  execution.21 

Suspicious  princes  often  promote  the  last  of  mankind,  from  a  The  minister 
vain  persuasion  that  those  who  have  no  dependence  except  on 
their  favour  will  have  no  attachment  except  to  the  person  of 
their  benefactor.  Cleander,  the  successor  of  Perennis,  was  a 
Phrygian  by  birth ;  of  a  nation,  over  whose  stubborn  but 
servile  temper  blows  only  could  prevail.22  He  had  been  sent 
from  his  native  country  to  Rome,  in  the  capacity  of  a  slave.  As 
a  slave  he  entered  the  imperial  palace,  rendered  himself  useful 

other  historians.  His  moderation  is  almost  a  pledge  of  his  veracity.  [The  policy 
of  Perennis,  which  caused  his  fall,  aimed  at  ousting  the  senators  from  military 
appointments  and  substituting  men  of  the  Equestrian  order.  The  intervention  of 
the  Britannic  legions  rests  on  Dion.     Date  185,  cp.  Miiller,  Hermes,  18,  p.  623  sqq.] 

20  During  the  second  Punic  war,  the  Romans  imported  from  Asia  the  worship  of 
the  mother  of  the  gods.  Her  festival,  the  Megalesia,  began  on  the  fourth  of  April, 
and  lasted  six  days.  The  streets  were  crowded  with  mad  processions,  the  theatres 
with  spectators,  and  the  public  tables  with  unbidden  guests.  Order  and  police 
were  suspended,  and  pleasure  was  the  only  serious  business  of  the  city.  See  Ovid 
de  Fastis,  1.  iv.  189,  &c. 

21Herodian,  1.  i.  p.  23,  28  [10]. 

23  Cicero  pro  Flacco,  c.  27 


and  cruelty 


90  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

to  his  master's  passions,  and  rapidly  ascended  to  the  most  exalted 
station  which  a  subject  could  enjoy.  His  influence  over  the 
mind  of  Commodus  was  much  greater  than  that  of  his  predecessor  ; 
His  avarice  for  Cleander  was  devoid  of  any  ability  or  virtue  which  could 
inspire  the  emperor  with  envy  or  distrust.  Avarice  was  the 
reigning  passion  of  his  soul,  and  the  great  principle  of  his 
administration.  The  rank  of  consul,  of  Patrician,  of  senator,  was 
exposed  to  public  sale  ;  and  it  would  have  been  considered  as 
disaffection  if  any  one  had  refused  to  purchase  these  empty 
and  disgraceful  honours  with  the  greatest  part  of  his  fortune.23 
In  the  lucrative  provincial  employments  the  minister  shared  with 
the  governor  the  spoils  of  the  people.  The  execution  of  the  laws 
was  venal  and  arbitrary.  A  wealthy  criminal  might  obtain  not 
only  the  reversal  of  the  sentence  by  which  he  was  justly  con- 
demned ;  but  might  likewise  inflict  whatever  punishment  he 
pleased  on  the  accuser,  the  witnesses,  and  the  judge. 

By  these  means  Cleander,  in  the  space  of  three  years,  had 
accumulated  more  wealth  than  had  ever  yet  been  possessed  by 
any  freedman.'24  Commodus  was  perfectly  satisfied  with  the 
magnificent  presents  which  the  artful  courtier  laid  at  his  feet  in 
the  most  seasonable  moments.  To  divert  the  public  envy, 
Cleander,  under  the  emperor's  name,  erected  baths,  porticos, 
and  places  of  exercise,  for  the  use  of  the  people.25  He  flattered 
himself  that  the  Romans,  dazzled  and  amused  by  this  apparent 
liberality,  would  be  less  affected  by  the  bloody  scenes  which 
were  daily  exhibited ;  that  they  would  forget  the  death  of 
Byrrhus,  a  senator  to  whose  superior  merit  the  late  emperor 
had  granted  one  of  his  daughters ;  and  that  they  would  for- 
give the  execution  of  Arrius  Antoninus,  the  last  representative 
of  the  name  and  virtues  of  the  Antonines.  The  former,  with 
more  integrity  than  prudence,  had  attempted  to  disclose  to  his 
brother-in-law  the  true  character  of  Cleander.  An  equitable 
sentence  pronounced  by  the  latter,  when  proconsul  of  Asia, 
against  a  worthless   creature  of  the   favourite,   proved   fatal   to 


23  One  of  these  dear-bought  promotions  occasioned  a  current  bon  mot,  that 
Julius  Solon  was  banished  into  the  senate.  [In  one  year  there  were  no  less  than 
twenty-five  consuls.] 

24  Dion  (1.  lxxii.  p.  1213  [12])  observes  that  no  freedman  had  possessed  riches 
equal  to  those  of  Cleander.  The  fortune  of  Pallas  amounted,  however,  to  upwards 
of  five  and  twenty  hundred  thousand  pounds — ter  millies. 

25  Dion,  1.  lxxii.  p.  1213  [12].  Herodian,  1.  i.  p.  29  [12].  Hist.  August,  p. 
52  [vii.  17] .  These  baths  were  situated  near  the  Porta  Capena.  See  Nardini 
Roma  Antica,  p.  79. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  91 

him.26  After  the  fall  of  Perennis  the  teiTors  of  Commodus  had, 
for  a  short  time,  assumed  the  appearance  of  a  return  to  virtue. 
He  repealed  the  most  odious  of  his  acts,  loaded  his  memory 
with  the  public  execration,  and  ascribed  to  the  pernicious 
counsels  of  that  wicked  minister  all  the  errors  of  his  inex- 
perienced youth.  But  his  repentance  lasted  only  thirty  days ; 
and,  under  Oleander's  tyranny,  the  administration  of  Pei'ennis 
was  often  regretted. 

Pestilence  and  famine  contributed  to  fill  up  the  measure  of  sedition;  and 

,  Till  i  death  of 

the  calamities  of  Rome.-7  I  he  first  could  only  be  imputed  tocieander 
the  just  indignation  of  the  gods  ;  but  a  monopoly  of  corn,  sup- 
ported by  the  riches  and  power  of  the  minister,  was  considered 
as  the  immediate  cause  of  the  second.  The  popular  discontent, 
after  it  had  long  circulated  in  whispers,  broke  out  in  the  as- 
sembled circus.  The  people  quitted  their  favourite  amusements 
for  the  more  delicious  pleasure  of  revenge,  rushed  in  crowds 
towards  a  palace  in  the  suburbs,  one  of  the  emperor's  retire- 
ments, and  demanded,  with  angry  clamours,  the  head  of  the 
public  enemy.  Cleander,  who  commanded  the  Praetorian 
guards,28  ordered  a  body  of  cavalry  to  sally  forth  and  disperse 
the  seditious  multitude.  The  multitude  fled  with  precipitation 
towards  the  city ;  several  were  slain,  and  many  more  were 
trampled  to  death  ;  but,  when  the  cavalry  entered  the  streets 
their  pursuit  was  checked  by  a  shower  of  stones  and  darts  from 
the  roofs  and  windows  of  the  houses.  The  foot  guards,29  who 
had  been  long  jealous  of  the  prerogatives  and  insolence  of  the 
Praetorian  cavalry,  embraced  the  party  of  the  people.  The 
tumult  became  a  regular  engagement,  and  threatened  a  general 
massacre.  The  Praetorians  at  length  gave  way,  oppressed  with 
numbers  ;  and  the  tide  of  popular  fury  returned  with  redoubled 

26  Hist.  August,  p.  48. 

27  Herodian,  1.  i.  p.  28  [12].  Dion,  1.  lxxii.  p.  1215  [14].  The  latter  says, 
that  two  thousand  persons  died  every  day  at  Rome,  during  a  considerable  length 
of  time.  [The  pestilence  was  probably  a  new  outbreak  of  the  same  plague 
which  had  ravaged  the  Empire  under  Marcus.] 

28  Tuncque  primum  tres  prsefecti  praetorio  mere  :  inter  quos  libertinus.  From 
some  remains  of  modesty,  Cleander  declined  the  title,  whilst  he  assumed  the 
powers,  of  Praetorian  Prefect.  As  the  other  freedmen  were  styled,  from  their 
several  departments,  a  rationibus,  ab  epistolis  ;  Cleander  called  himself  a  pugione, 
as  intrusted  with  the  defence  of  his  master's  person.  Salmasius  and  Casaubon 
seem  to  have  talked  very  idly  upon  this  passage. 

29  Oi  tt)5  n-dAew;  -e'c,"ot  crrpaTLUTai.         Herodian,    1.    i.    p.  31    [12]  .         It    IS    doubtful 

whether  he  means  the  Praetorian  infantry,  or  the  cohortes  urbanse,  a  body  of  six 
thousand  men,  but  whose  rank  and  discipline  were  not  equal  to  their  numbers. 
Neither  Tillemont  nor  Wotton  choose  to  decide  this  question.  [Doubtless  th? 
cphortes  urbana.") 


92  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

violence  against  the  gates  of  the  palace,  where  Commodus  lay 
dissolved  in  luxury,  and  alone  unconscious  of  the  civil  war.  It 
was  death  to  approach  his  person  with  the  unwelcome  news. 
He  would  have  perished  in  this  supine  security  had  not  two  women, 
his  eldest  sister  Fadilla,  and  Marcia  the  most  favoured  of  his 
concubines,  ventured  to  break  into  his  presence.  Bathed  in 
tears,  and  with  dishevelled  hair,  they  threw  themselves  at  his 
feet,  and,  with  all  the  pressing  eloquence  of  fear,  discovered  to 
the  affrighted  emperor  the  crimes  of  the  minister,  the  rage  of 
the  people,  and  the  impending  ruin  which  in  a  few  minutes 
would  burst  over  his  palace  and  person.  Commodus  started 
from  his  dream  of  pleasure,  and  commanded  that  the  head  of 
Cleander  should  be  thrown  out  to  the  people.  The  desired 
spectacle  instantly  appeased  the  tumult ;  and  the  son  of  Marcus 
might  even  yet  have  regained  the  affection  and  confidence  of 
his  subjects.30 
Dissolute  But  every  sentiment  of  virtue  and  humanity  was  extinct  in  the 

Commodus0  mind  of  Commodus.  Whilst  he  thus  abandoned  the  reins  of 
empire  to  these  unworthy  favourites,  he  valued  nothing  in 
sovereign  power  except  the  unbounded  licence  of  indulging  his 
sensual  appetites.  His  hours  were  spent  in  a  seraglio  of  three 
hundred  beautiful  women  and  as  many  boys,  of  eveiy  rank  and 
of  every  province  ;  and,  wherever  the  arts  of  seduction  proved 
ineffectual,  the  brutal  lover  had  recourse  to  violence.  The 
ancient  historians  31  have  expatiated  on  these  abandoned  scenes 
of  prostitution,  which  scorned  every  restraint  of  nature  or 
modesty  ;  but  it  would  not  be  easy  to  translate  their  too  faithful 
descriptions  into  the  decency  of  modern  language.  The  intervals 
Hisiporance  of  lust  were  filled  up  with  the  basest  amusements.  The  in- 
sports  fluence  of  a  polite  age  and  the  labour  of  an  attentive  education 

had  never  been  able  to  infuse  into  his  rude  and  brutish  mind 
the  least  tinctm*e  of  learning ;  and  he  was  the  first  of  the  Roman 
emperors  totally  devoid  of  taste  for  the  pleasures  of  the  under- 
standing. Nero  himself  excelled,  or  affected  to  excel,  in  the 
elegant  arts  of  music  and  poetry ;  nor  should  we  despise  his 
pursuits,  had  he  not  converted  the  pleasing  relaxation  of  a 
leisure  hour  into  the  serious  business  and  ambition  of  his  life. 
But  Commodus,  from  his  earliest  infancy,  discovered  an  aversion 
to  whatever  was  rational  or  liberal,  and  a  fond  attachment  to 

so  Dion  Cassius,  1.  lxxii.  p.  1215  [13].  Herodian,  1.  i,  p.  32  [13]  Hist.  August, 
p.  48  [vii.  7].  .,,... 

81  Sororibus  suis  constupratis.  Ipsas  concubinas  suas  sub  oculis  suis  stupran 
jubebat.  Nee  irruentium  in  se  juvenum  carebat  infamia,  omni  parte  corporis 
atque  ore  in  sexum  utrumque  pollutus.     Hist.  August,  p.  47  [vii.  5], 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  93 

the  amusements  of  the  populace, — the  sports  of  the  circus  and 
amphitheatre,  the  combats  of  gladiators,  and  the  hunting  of 
wild  beasts.  The  masters  in  every  branch  of  learning,  whom 
Marcus  provided  for  his  son,  were  heard  with  inattention  and 
disgust ;  whilst  the  Moors  and  Parthians,  who  taught  him  to 
dart  the  javelin  and  to  shoot  with  the  bow,  found  a  disciple 
who  delighted  in  his  application,  and  soon  equaled  the  most 
skilful  of  his  instructors  in  the  steadiness  of  the  eye  and  the 
dexterity  of  the  hand. 

The  servile  crowd,  whose  fortune  depended  on  their  master's  Hunting  of 
vices,  applauded  these  ignoble  pursuits.  The  perfidious  voice  of w 
flattery  reminded  him  that,  by  exploits  of  the  same  nature,  by 
the  defeat  of  the  Nemean  lion,  and  the  slaughter  of  the  wild 
boar  of  Erymanthus,  the  Grecian  Hercules  had  acquired  a  place 
among  the  gods,  and  an  immortal  memory  among  men.  They 
only  forgot  to  observe  that,  in  the  first  ages  of  society,  when  the 
fiercer  animals  often  dispute  with  man  the  possession  of  an  un- 
settled country,  a  successful  war  against  those  savages  is  one  of 
the  most  innocent  and  beneficial  labours  of  heroism.  In  the 
civilized  state  of  the  Roman  empire  the  wild  beasts  had  long 
since  retired  from  the  face  of  man  and  the  neighbourhood  of 
populous  cities.  To  surprise  them  in  their  solitary  haunts,  and 
to  transport  them  to  Rome,  that  they  might  be  slain  in  pomp  by 
the  hand  of  an  emperor,  was  an  enterprise  equally  ridiculous  for 
the  prince  and  oppressive  for  the  people.32  Ignorant  of  these 
distinctions,  Commodus  eagerly  embraced  the  glorious  resem- 
blance, and  styled  himself  (as  we  still  read  on  his  medals)  33  the 
Roman  Hercules.  The  club  and  the  lion's  hide  were  placed  by 
the  side  of  the  throne  amongst  the  ensigns  of  sovereignty  ;  and 
statues  were  erected,  in  which  Commodus  was  represented  in 
the  character  and  with  the  attributes  of  the  God  whose  valour 
and  dexterity  he  endeavoured  to  emulate  in  the  daily  course  of 
his  ferocious  amusements.34 

Elated  with  these  praises,  which  gradually  extinguished  the  commodus 
innate  sense  of  shame,  Commodus  resolved  to  exhibit,  before  thesu&uitae 
eyes  of  the  Roman  people,  those  exercises  which  till  then  he  had  theatre 

32  The  African  lions,  when  pressed  by  hunger,  infested  the  open  villages  and 
cultivated  country  ;  and  they  infested  them  with  impunity.  The  royal  beast  was 
reserved  for  the  pleasures  of  the  emperor  and  the  capital;  and  the  unfortunate 
peasant,  who  killed  one  of  them,  though  in  his  own  defence,  incurred  a  very  heavy 
penalty.  This  extraordinary  game  law  was  mitigated  by  Honorius,  and  finally 
repealed  by  Justinian.     Codex  Theodos.  torn.  v.  p.  92,  et  Comment.  Gothofred. 

33Spanheim  de  Numismat.  Dissertat.  xii.  torn.  ii.  493.  [Here.  Comm.,  and  on 
Alexandrine  coins  'Po^aToi-  'Hpa/cAe a] . 

34  Dion,  1.  lxxii.  p.  1216  [15].     Hist.  August,  p.  49  [vii.  8], 


94  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

decently  confined  within  the  walls  of  his  palace  and  to  the  pre- 
sence of  a  few  favourites.  On  the  appointed  day  the  various 
motives  of  flattery,  fear,  and  curiosity,  attracted  to  the  amphi- 
theatre an  innumerable  multitude  of  spectators ;  and  some 
degree  of  applause  was  deservedly  bestowed  on  the  uncommon  skill 
of  the  Imperial  performer.  Whether  he  aimed  at  the  head  or  heart 
of  the  animal,  the  wound  was  alike  certain  and  mortal.  With 
arrows,  whose  point  was  shaped  into  the  form  of  a  crescent, 
Commodus  often  intercepted  the  rapid  career  and  cut  asunder 
the  long-  bony  neck  of  the  ostrich.35  A  panther  was  let  loose  ; 
and  the  archer  Avaited  till  he  had  leaped  upon  a  trembling  male- 
factor. In  the  same  instant  the  shaft  flew,  the  beast  dropt  dead, 
and  the  man  remained  unhurt.  The  dens  of  the  amphitheatre 
disgorged  at  once  a  hundred  lions  ;  a  hundred  darts  from  the 
unerring  hand  of  Commodus  laid  them  dead  as  they  ran  raging 
round  the  Arena.  Neither  the  huge  bulk  of  the  elephant  nor 
the  scaly  hide  of  the  rhinoceros  could  defend  them  from  his 
stroke.  ^Ethiopia  and  India  yielded  their  most  extraordinary 
productions ;  and  several  animals  were  slain  in  the  amphitheatre 
which  had  been  seen  only  in  the  representations  of  art,  or  per- 
haps of  fancy.36  In  all  these  exhibitions,  the  surest  precautions 
were  used  to  protect  the  person  of  the  Roman  Hercules  from  the 
desperate  spring  of  any  savage  who  might  possibly  disregard  the 
dignity  of  the  emperor  and  the  sanctity  of  the  god.37 
Acts  as  a  But  the  meanest  of  the  populace  were  affected  with  shame 

and  indignation,  when  they  beheld  their  sovereign  enter  the 
lists  as  a  gladiator,  and  glory  in  a  profession  which  the  laws  and 
manners  of  the  Romans  had  branded  with  the  justest  note  of 
infamy.3S  He  chose  the  habit  and  arms  of  the  Secutor,  whose 
combat  with  the  Reliarius  formed  one  of  the  most  lively  scenes 
in  the  bloody  sports  of  the  amphitheatre.     The  Secutor  was  armed 

35  The  ostrich's  neck  is  three  feet  long,  and  composed  of  seventeen  vertebrae. 
See  Buffon  Hist.  Naturelle. 

•^Commodus  killed  a  camelopardalis  or  giraffe  (Dion,  1.  lxxii  p.  1211  [10]) 
the  tallest,  the  most  gentle,  and  the  most  useless  of  the  large  quadrupeds.  This 
singular  animal,  a  native  only  of  the  interior  parts  of  Africa,  has  not  been  seen  in 
Europe  since  the  revival  of  letters,  and  though  M.  de  Buffon  (Hist.  Naturelle. 
torn,  xiii.)  has  endeavoured  to  describe,  he  has  not  ventured  to  delineate,  the 
giraffe. 

37  Herodian,  1,  i.  p.  37  [15] .     Hist.  August,  p.  50  [vii.  11]. 

38  The  virtuous,  and  even  the  wise,  princes  forbade  the  senators  and  knights  to 
embrace  this  scandalous  profession,  under  pain  of  infamy,  or  what  was  more 
dreaded  by  those  profligate  wretches,  of  exile.  The  tyrants  allured  them  to  dis- 
honour by  threats  and  rewards.  Nero  once  produced,  in  the  arena,  forty 
senators  and  sixty  knights.  See  Lipsius,  Saturnalia,  1.  ii.  c.  2.  He  has  happily 
corrected  a  passage  of  Suetonius,  in  Nerone,  c.  12. 


gladiator 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIEE  95 

with  an  helmet,  sword,  and  buckler ;  his  naked  antagonist  had 
only  a  large  net  and  a  trident ;  with  the  one  he  endeavoured  to 
entangle,  with  the  other  to  dispatch,  his  enemy.  If  he  missed 
the  first  throw  he  was  obliged  to  fly  from  the  pursuit  of  the 
Secutor  till  he  had  prepared  his  net  for  a  second  cast.39  The 
emperor  fought  in  this  character  seven  hundred  and  thirty-five 
several  times.  These  glorious  achievements  were  carefully  re- 
corded in  the  public  acts  of  the  empire ;  and,  that  he  might 
omit  no  circumstance  of  infamy,  he  received  from  the  common 
fund  of  gladiators  a  stipend  so  exorbitant  that  it  became  a  new 
and  most  ignominious  tax  upon  the  Roman  people.40  It  may 
be  easily  supposed  that  in  these  engagements  the  master  of  the 
world  was  always  successful  :  in  the  amphitheatre  his  victories 
were  not  often  sanguinary  ;  but  when  he  exercised  his  skill  in 
the  school  of  gladiators,  or  his  own  palace,  his  wretched 
antagonists  were  frequently  honoured  with  a  mortal  wound  from 
the  hand  of  Commodus,  and  obliged  to  seal  their  flattery  with 
their  blood.41  He  now  disdained  the  appellation  of  Hercules,  his  infamy 
The  name  of  Paulus,  a  celebrated  Secutor,  was  the  only  one  ganco 
which  delighted  his  ear.  It  was  inscribed  on  his  colossal  statues, 
and  repeated  in  the  redoubled  acclamations 42  of  the  mournful 
and  applauding  senate.43  Claudius  Pompeianus,  the  virtuous 
husband  of  Lucilla,  was  the  only  senator  who  asserted  the  honour 
of  his  rank.  As  a  father  he  permitted  his  sons  to  consult  their 
safety  by  attending  the  amphitheatre.  As  a  Roman  he  declared 
that  his  own  life  was  in  the  emperor's  hands,  but  that  he  would 
never  behold  the  son  of  Marcus  prostituting  his  person  and 
dignity.  Notwithstanding  his  manly  resolution,  Pompeianus 
escaped  the  resentment  of  the  tyrant,  and,  with  his  honour,  had 
the  good  fortune  to  preserve  his  life.44 

Commodus  had  now  attained  the  summit  of  vice  and  infamy. 

39  Lipsius,  1.  ii.  c.  7,  8.  Juvenal  in  the  eighth  satire  gives  a  picturesque  de- 
scription of  this  combat. 

40  Hist.  August,  p.  5o[vii.  n~|.  Dion,  1.  lxxii.  p.  1220  [19].  He  received,  for 
each  time,  decies,  about  ,££000  pounds  sterling. 

41  Victor  tells  us  that  Commodus  only  allowed  his  antagonists  a  leaden  weapon, 
dreading  most  probably  the  consequences  of  their  despair.      [Cezsar. ,  4.] 

42  They  were  obliged  to  repeat  six  hundred  and  twenty-six  times,  Paulus,  first 
of  the  Secutors,  &c. 

43  Dion,  1.  lxxii.  p.  1221  [20].     He  speaks  of  his  own  baseness  and  danger. 

44  He  mixed  however  some  prudence  with  his  courage,  and  passed  the  greatest 
part  of  his  time  in  a  country  retirement ;  alleging  his  advanced  age,  and  the 
weakness  of  his  eyes.  "  I  never  saw  him  in  the  senate,"  says  Dion,  "  except  during 
the  short  reign  of  Pertinax."  All  his  infirmities  had  suddenly  left  him,  and  they 
returned  as  suddenly  upon  the  murder  of  that  excellent  prince.  Dion,  1.  lxxiii.  p. 
1227  [3]. 


96 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


his  domestics 


Amidst  the  acclamations  of  a  flattering  court,  he  was  unable  to 
disguise  from  himself  that  he  had  deserved  the  contempt  and 
hatred  of  eveiy  man  of  sense  and  virtue  in  his  empire.  His 
ferocious  spirit  was  irritated  by  the  consciousness  of  that  hatred, 
by  the  envy  of  every  kind  of  merit,  by  the  just  apprehension  of 
danger,  and  by  the  habit  of  slaughter  which  he  contracted  in  his 
conspiracy  of  daily  amusements.  History  has  preserved  a  long  list  of  consular 
senators  sacrificed  to  his  wanton  suspicion,  which  sought  out, 
with  peculiar  anxiety,  those  unfortunate  persons  connected, 
however  remotely,  with  the  family  of  the  Antonines,  without 
sparing  even  the  ministers  of  his  crimes  or  pleasures.45  His 
cruelty  proved  at  last  fatal  to  himself.  He  had  shed  with  im- 
punity the  noblest  blood  of  Rome :  he  perished  as  soon  as  he 
was  dreaded  by  his  own  domestics.  Marcia,  his  favourite  con- 
cubine, Eclectus,  his  chamberlain,  and  Lsetus,  his  Praetorian 
praefect,  alarmed  by  the  fate  of  their  companions  and  predecessors, 
resolved  to  prevent  the  destruction  which  eveiy  hour  hung  over 
their  heads,  either  from  the  mad  caprice  of  the  tyrant,  or  thesudden 
indignation  of  the  people.  Marcia  seized  the  occasion  of  presenting 
a  draught  of  wine  to  her  lover,  after  he  had  fatigued  himself 
with  hunting  some  wild  beasts.  Commodus  retired  to  sleep  ;  but 
whilst  he  was  labouring  with  the  effects  of  poison  and  drunken- 
ness, a  robust  youth,  by  profession  a  wrestler,  entered  his 
chamber,  and  strangled  him  without  resistance.  The  body  was 
secretly  conveyed  out  of  the  palace,  before  the  least  suspicion 
was  entertained  in  the  city,  or  even  in  the  court,  of  the  emperor's 
death.  Such  was  the  fate  of  the  son  of  Marcus,  and  so  easy  was 
it  to  destroy  a  hated  tyrant,  who,  by  the  artificial  powers  of 
government,  had  oppressed,  during  thh'teen  years,  so  many 
millions  of  subjects,  every  one  of  whom  was  equal  to  their 
master  in  personal  strength  and  personal  abilities.46 

The  measures  of  the  conspirators  were  conducted  with  the 
deliberate  coolness  and  celerity  which  the  greatness  of  the 
occasion  required.  They  resolved  instantly  to  fill  the  vacant 
throne   with   an  emperor   whose    character   would  justify   and 

45  The  prasfects  were  changed  almost  hourly  or  daily  ;  and  the  caprice  of 
Commodus  was  often  fatal  to  his  most  favoured  chamberlains.  Hist.  August.  46, 
51  [vii.  14  and  15]. 

^Dion,  1.  lxxii.  p.  1222  [22].  Herodian,  1.  i.  p.  43.  Hist.  August,  p.  52.  [vii. 
17].  [The  situation  on  the  death  of  Commodus  has  been  well  compared  with  the 
situation  on  the  death  of  Nero.  The  general  joy  at  deliverance  from  tyranny, 
the  measures  taken  by  the  senate  in  branding  the  memory  of  the  fallen  tyrant, 
were  alike  ;  and  Pertinax,  the  successor  of  Commodus,  closely  resemblol  Galba, 
the  successor  of  Nero,  in  age,  respectability,  good  intentions,  and  unfitness  for 
the  imperial  power  (Schiller,  i.  668).] 


Death  of 
Commodus 
AD.  192. 


Choice  of 
Pertinax 
for  emperor 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  97 

maintain  the  action  that  had  been  committed.  They  fixed  on 
Pertinax,  prefect  of  the  city,  an  ancient  senator  of  consular  rank, 
whose  conspicuous  merit  had  broke  through  the  obscurity  of  his 
birth,  and  raised  him  to  the  first  honours  of  the  state.  He  had 
successively  governed  most  of  the  provinces  of  the  empire  ;  and 
in  all  his  great  employments,  military  as  well  as  civil,  he  had 
uniformly  distinguished  himself,  by  the  firmness,  the  prudence, 
and  the  integrity  of  his  conduct.47  He  now  remained  almost 
alone  of  the  friends  and  ministers  of  Marcus  ;  and,  when,  at  a 
late  hour  of  the  night,  he  was  awakened  with  the  news  that  the 
chamberlain  and  the  prsefect  were  at  his  door,  he  received  them 
with  intrepid  resignation,  and  desired  they  would  execute  their 
master's  orders.  Instead  of  death,  they  offered  him  the  throne 
of  the  Roman  world.  During  some  moments  he  distrusted  their 
intentions  and  assurances.  Convinced  at  length  of  the  death  of 
Commodus,  he  accepted  the  purple  with  a  sincere  reluctance, 
the  natural  effect  of  his  knowledge  both  of  the  duties  and  of 
the  dangers  of  the  supreme  rank.48 

Laetus  conducted  without  delay  his  new  emperor  to  the  camp  He  u  acknow. 
of  the  Praetorians,  diffusing  at  the  same  time  through  the  city  aKribaynthe 
seasonable  report  that  Commodus  died  suddenly  of  an  apoplexy  ; gUMtU 
and  that  the  virtuous  Pertinax   had  already  succeeded  to  the 
throne.     The  guards  were  rather  surprised  than  pleased  with 
the  suspicious  death  of  a  prince  whose  indulgence  and  liberality 
they  alone  had  experienced;  but  the  emergency  of  the  occasion 
the  authority  of  their  prefect,  the  reputation  of  Pertinax,  and 
the  clamours  of  the  people,  obliged  them  to  stifle  their  secret 

me!chan!iDaThV,aS ^*Tt{7w  Alba,  PomPeiV"  Piedmont,  and  son  of  a  timber 
merchant      The  order  of  his  employments    it  is   marked  by   Capitolinus)  well 

0  ZVfe        "V.Zir  eXF?SSiVe  °f  %"  ^  °f  ^r/ment'and  "' 

01  the  age.     i.   He  was  a  centurion.     2.   Praefect  of  a  cohort  in  Syria    in  the 

EST  rHe'wl111  Bmain-  3r  Hc  0btained  an  Ab>  or  squadron  o?  horse  in 
™     a  *  Jt  a  commissary  of  provisions  on  the  ^milian  way.     c   He  com- 

manded the  fleet  upon  the  Rhine.  6.  He  was  procurator  of  Daciatwitrfa  salary^ 
about    1600/.    a   year       7.  He  commanded   the   Veterans  of  a  legion       8    He 

firsi Terio, in  tt°f  SeT£-  >  °f  Pr^r-  la  With  the  c™d  of  £ 
hTJhhu  and  Nor'cum-  "•  H"  was  consul  about  the  year  175. 
Danule  T,HPrCUS  mt?  ^  ^  ,  J*  He  commanded  an  army  on  the 
17  Of  Briain  TrHCT^Klegate?f,Ma2Sia-  ^  Of  Dacia.  16.  Of  Syria. 
17.  Ut  Britain.  i3.  He  had  the  care  of  the  public  provisions  at  Rome  to  He 
was  proconsul  of  Africa.  20.  Prsefect  of  the  city.  Herod  an  (1  id  a*  Hi'  il\ 
doeS  Justlce  t  his  d  interested  s  in  but  CapitoLus  X  col  ected^vfryt^u 
ar  rumour,  charges  him  with  a  great  fortune  acquired  by  briber! 'and  coirupdCn 

SSinix  a^he'  7^  -^P"  DV°n  CaSS^  His  ful1  name  was  P  Helens 
i  trunax,  and  he  was  born  in  126  A.D.] 

CommodS.  ^  thC  C3SSarS'   taXCS    h'm  Whh  bdng   acce:*ary  to  the  death  of 

7  VOL.  L 


98  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

discontents,  to  accept  the  donative  promised  by  the  new 
emperor,  to  swear  allegiance  to  him,  and,  with  joyful  acclama- 
tions and  laurels  in  their  hands,  to  conduct  him  to  the  senate- 
house,  that  the  military  consent  might  be  ratified  by  the  civil 
authority, 
and  by  the  This  important  night  was  now  far  spent ;  with  the  dawn  of  day, 
193,  ut  jii^>  and  the  commencement  of  the  new  year,  the  senators  expected  a 
summons  to  attend  an  ignominious  ceremony.  In  spite  of  all 
remonstrances,  even  of  those  of  his  creatures  who  yet  preserved 
any  regard  for  prudence  or  decency,  Commodus  had  resolved  to 
pass  the  night  in  the  gladiators'  school,  and  from  thence  to  take 
possession  of  the  consulship,  in  the  habit  and  with  the  attendance 
of  that  infamous  crew.  On  a  sudden,  before  the  break  of  day, 
the  senate  was  called  together  in  the  temple  of  Concord,  to 
meet  the  guards,  and  to  ratify  the  election  of  a  new  emperor. 
For  a  few  minutes  they  sat  in  silent  suspense,  doubtful  of 
their  unexpected  deliverance,  and  suspicious  of  the  cruel  artifices 
of  Commodus  :  but,  when  at  length  they  were  assured  that  the 
tyrant  was  no  more,  they  resigned  themselves  to  all  the  trans- 
ports of  joy  and  indignation.  Pertinax,  who  modestly  repre- 
sented the  meanness  of  his  extraction,  and  pointed  out  several 
noble  senators  more  deserving  than  himself  of  the  empire,  was 
constrained  by  their  dutiful  violence  to  ascend  the  throne,  and 
received  all  the  titles  of  Imperial  power,  confirmed  by  the  most 
The  memory  sincere  vows  of  fidelity.  The  memory  of  Commodus  was  branded 
declared  in  with  eternal  infamy.  The  names  of  tyrant,  of  gladiator,  of 
public  enemy,  resounded  in  every  corner  of  the  house.  They 
decreed  in  tumultuous49  votes,  that  his  honours  should  be  reversed, 
his  titles  erased  from  the  public  monuments,  his  statues  thrown 
down,  his  body  dragged  with  a  hook  into  the  stripping-room  of 
the  gladiators,  to  satiate  the  public  fury ;  and  they  expressed 
some  indignation  against  those  officious  servants  who  had  already 
presumed  to  screen  his  remains  from  the  justice  of  the  senate. 
But  Pertinax  could  not  refuse  those  last  rites  to  the  memory  of 
Marcus  and  the  tears  of  his  first  protector  Claudius  Pompeianus, 
who  lamented  the  cruel  fate  of  his  brother-in-law,  and  lamented 
still  more  that  he  had  deserved  it.50 


49  [By  this  epithet  Gibbon  alludes  to  the  rhythmical  acclamations  which  were  the 
usage  in  the  proceedings  of  the  senate.  In  the  adclamationes graves  recorded  here 
by  Lampridius,  the  words  hostis  and  parricide  recur  as  a  sort  of  refrain.] 

50  Capitolinus  gives  us  the  particulars  of  these  tumultuary  votes,  which  were 
moved  by  one  senator,  and  repeated,  or  rather  chaunted,  by  the  whole  body. 
Hist.  August,  p.  52.  [vii.  18]. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  99 

These  effusions  of  impotent  rage  against  a  dead  emperor,  Legal  juris- 
whom  the  senate  had  flattered  when  alive  with  the  most  abject  senate  over 
servility,  betrayed  a  just  but  ungenerous  spirit  of  revenge.  The 
legality  of  these  decrees  was,  however,  supported  by  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Imperial  constitution.  To  censure,  to  depose,  or 
to  punish  with  death,  the  first  magistrate  of  the  republic  who 
had  abused  his  delegated  trust,  was  the  ancient  and  undoubted 
prerogative  of  the  Roman  senate  ; 51  but  that  feeble  assembly 
was  obliged  to  content  itself  with  inflicting  on  a  fallen  tyrant 
that  public  justice  from  which,  during  his  life  and  reign,  he  had 
been  shielded  by  the  strong  arm  of  military  despotism. 

Pertinax  found  a  nobler  way  of  condemning  his  predecessor's  virtues  of 

Pflrtluftx 

memory, — by  the  contrast  of  his  own  virtues  with  the  vices  of 
Commodus.  On  the  day  of  his  accession  he  resigned  over  to 
his  wife  and  son  his  whole  private  fortune  ; 52  that  they  might 
have  no  pretence  to  solicit  favours  at  the  expense  of  the  state. 
He  refused  to  flatter  the  vanity  of  the  former  with  the  title  of 
Augusta,  or  to  corrupt  the  inexperienced  youth  of  the  latter  by 
the  rank  of  Caesar.  Accurately  distinguishing  between  the 
duties  of  a  parent  and  those  of  a  sovereign,  he  educated  his  son 
with  a  severe  simplicity,  which,  while  it  gave  him  no  assured 
prospect  of  the  throne,  might  in  time  have  rendered  him  worthy 
of  it.  In  public  the  behaviour  of  Pertinax  was  grave  and  affable. 
He  lived  with  the  virtuous  part  of  the  senate  53  (and,  in  a  private 
station,  he  had  been  acquainted  with  the  true  character  of  each 
individual),  without  either  pride  or  jealousy  ;  considered  them  as 
friends  and  companions,  Avith  whom  he  had  shared  the  dangers 
of  the  tyranny,  and  with  whom  he  wished  to  enjoy  the  security  of 
the  present  time.  He  very  frequently  invited  them  to  familiar 
entertainments,  the  frugality  of  which  was  ridiculed  by  those 
who  remembered  and  regretted  the  luxurious  prodigality  of 
Commodus.54 

51  The  senate  condemned  Nero  to  be  put  to  death  more  majorum.    Sueton.  c.  49. 

52  [This  act  has  considerable  significance  in  the  history  of  the  exchequer  of 
the  Roman  Empire.  Antoninus  Pius  had  already  acted  in  the  same  way,  making 
over  his  private  property  to  his  daughter  Faustina.  The  principle  involved  was 
the  separation  of  the  Emperor's  private  purse  from  ihefiscus,  or  public  money 
which  came  to  him  as  Emperor.  This  separation  was  systematically  carried  out 
by  Septimius  Severus.] 

53  [The  note  of  the  policy  of  Pertinax  was  the  restoration  of  the  authority  of 
the  senate,  which,  during  the  preceding  century,  had  been  gradually  becoming  less 
and  less.  He  assumed  the  title  princeps  senatus,  and  things  looked  like  a  return 
of  the  system  of  Augustus.  ] 

54  Dion  (1.  lxxiii.  p.  122  [3])  speaks  of  these  entertainments,  as  a  senator  who 
had  supped  with  the  emperor;  Capitolinus  (Hist.  August,  p.  58  [viii.  12])  like 
a  slave  who  had  received  his  intelligence  from  one  of  the  scullions. 


100 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


He  en- 
deavours to 
reform  the 

state 


His  regul 
tiona 


To  heal,  as  far  as  it  was  possible,  the  wounds  inflicted  by  the 
hand  of  tyranny,  was  the  pleasing,  but  melancholy,  task  of  Per- 
tinax.  The  innocent  victims  who  yet  survived  were  recalled  from 
exile,  released  from  prison,  and  restored  to  the  full  possession 
of  their  honours  and  fortunes.  The  unburied  bodies  of  murdered 
senators  (for  the  cruelty  of  Commodus  endeavoured  to  extend 
itself  beyond  death)  were  deposited  in  the  sepulchres  of  their 
ancestors  ;  their  memory  was  justified  ;  and  every  consolation 
was  bestowed  on  their  ruined  and  afflicted  families.  Among 
these  consolations,  one  of  the  most  grateful  was  the  punishment 
of  the  Delators,  the  common  enemies  of  their  master,  of  virtue, 
and  of  their  country.  Yet,  even  in  the  inquisition  of  these  legal 
assassins,  Pertinax  proceeded  with  a  steady  temper,  which  gave 
everything  to  justice,  and  nothing  to  popular  prejudice  and 
resentment. 

The  finances  of  the  state  demanded  the  most  vigilant  care  oi 
the  emperor.  Though  every  measure  of  injustice  and  extortion 
had  been  adopted  which  could  collect  the  property  of  the  sub- 
ject into  the  coffers  of  the  prince^  the  rapaciousness  of  Com- 
modus had  been  so  very  inadequate  to  his  extravagance  that, 
upon  his  death,  no  more  than  eight  thousand  pounds  were  found 
in  the  exhausted  treasury,65  to  defray  the  current  expenses  of 
government,  and  to  discharge  the  pressing  demand  of  a  liberal 
donative,  which  the  new  emperor  had  been  obliged  to  promise  to 
the  Praetorian  guards.  Yet,  under  these  distressed  circumstances, 
Pertinax  had  the  generous  firmness  to  remit  all  the  oppressive 
taxes  invented  by  Commodus,  and  to  cancel  all  the  unjust  claims 
of  the  treasury  ;  declaring,  in  a  decree  of  the  senate,  "  that  he 
was  better  satisfied  to  administer  a  poor  republic  with  innocence, 
than  to  acquire  riches  by  the  ways  of  tyranny  and  dishonour". 
Economy  and  industry  he  considered  as  the  pure  and  genuine 
sources  of  wealth  ;  and  from  them  he  soon  derived  a  copious 
supply  for  the  public  necessities.  The  expense  of  the  house- 
hold was  immediately  reduced  to  one  half.  All  the  instruments 
of  luxury  Pertinax  exposed  to  public  auction,56  gold  and  silvei 
plate,  chariots  of  a  singular  construction,  a  superfluous  wardrobe 
of  silk  and  embroidery,  and  a  great  number  of  beautiful  slaves 

55  Decies.  The  blameless  economy  of  Pius,  left  his  successors  a  treasure  of 
vicies  septies  viiliies,  above  two  and  twenty  millions  sterling.     Dion,  1.  lxxiii.  p. 

I23I[8J. 

56  Besides  the  design  of  converting  these  useless  ornaments  into  money.  Dion 
(1.  lxxiii.  p.  1229  [5])  assigns  two  secret  motives  of  Pertinax.  He  wished  to  expose 
the  vices  of  Commodus,  and  to  discover  by  the  purchasers  those  who  most  re- 
sembled him. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  101 

of  both  sexes;  excepting  only,  with  attentive  humanity,  those 
who  were  bom  in  a  state  of  freedom,  and  had  been  ravished 
from  the  arms  of  their  weeping  parents.  At  the  same  time 
that  he  obliged  the  worthless  favourites  of  the  tyrant  to  resign 
a  part  of  their  ill-gotten  wealth,  he  satisfied  the  just  creditors  of 
the  state,  and  unexpectedly  discharged  the  long  arrears  of  honest 
services.  He  removed  the  oppressive  restrictions  which  had  been 
laid  upon  commerce,  and  granted  all  the  uncultivated  lands  in 
Italy  and  the  provinces  to  those  who  would  improve  them ;  with 
an  exemption  from  tribute  during  the  term  of  ten  years.57 

Such  an  uniform  conduct  had  already  secured  to  Pei'tinax  theandpopu- 
noblest  reward  of  a  sovereign,  the  love  and  esteem  of  his  people.  y 
Those  who  remembered  the  virtues  of  Marcus  were  happy  to 
contemplate  in  their  new  emperor  the  features  of  that  bright 
original,  and  flattered  themselves  that  they  should  long  enjoy 
the  benign  influence  of  his  administration.  A  hasty  zeal  to 
reform  the  corrupted  state,  accompanied  with  less  prudence 
than  might  have  been  expected  from  the  years  and  experience 
of  Pertinax,  proved  fatal  to  himself  and  to  his  country.  His 
honest  indiscretion  united  against  him  the  servile  crowd,  who 
found  their  private  benefit  in  the  public  disorders,  and  who  pre- 
ferred the  favour  of  a  tyrant  to  the  inexorable  equality  of  the 
laws.58 

Amidst  the  general  joy  the  sullen  and  angry  countenance  of  Discontent  of 
the  Praetorian  guards  betrayed  their  inward  dissatisfaction.  They  torianT 
had  reluctantly  submitted  to  Pertinax  ;  they  dreaded  the  strict- 
ness of  the  ancient  discipline,  which  he  was  preparing  to  restore  ; 
and  they  regretted  the  licence  of  the  former  reign.     Their  dis- 
contents were  secretly  fomented  by  Laetus,  their  praefect,  who 
found,  when  it  was  too  late,  that  his  new  emperor  would  reward 
a  servant,  but  would  not  be  ruled  by  a  favourite.     On  the  third 
day  of  his  reign,  the  soldiers  seized  on  a  noble  senator,  with  a 
design  to   carry  him  to   the  camp,  and   to  invest  him   with  the 
imperial    purple.     Instead  of  being    dazzled  by  the   dangerous 
honour,  the  affrighted  victim  escaped  from  their  violence,  and 
took  refuge  at  the  feet  of  Pertinax.     A  short  time  afterwards  a  conspiracy 
Sosius  Falco,  one  of  the  consuls  of  the  year,  a  rash  youth,59  but prevented 

57  Though  Capitolinus  has  picked  up  many  idle  tales  of  the  private  life  of  Per- 
tinax, he  joins  with  Dion  and  Herodian  in  admiring  his  public  conduct  [viii.  13]. 

58  Leges,  rem  surdam,  inexorabilem  esse.     T.  Liv.  ii.  3. 

59  If  we  credit  Capitolinus  (which  is  rather  difficult)  Falco  behaved  with  the 
most  petulant  indecency  to  Pertinax  on  the  day  of  his  accession.  The  wise 
emperor  only  admonished  him  of  his  youth  and  inexperience.  Hist.  August,  p.  55 
[viii.  5]. 


102  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

of  an  ancient  and  opulent  family,  listened  to  the  voice  of 
ambition  ;  and  a  conspiracy  was  formed  during  a  short  absence 
of  Pertinax,  which  was  crushed  by  his  sudden  return  to  Rome 
and  his  resolute  behaviour.  Falco  was  on  the  point  of  being 
justly  condemned  to  death  as  a  public  enemy,  had  he  not  been 
saved  by  the  earnest  and  sincere  entreaties  of  the  injured 
emperor  ;  who  conjured  the  senate  that  the  purity  of  his  reign 
might  not  be  stained  by  the  blood  even  of  a  guilty  senator. 
Murder  of  These  disappointments  served  only  to  irritate  the  rage  of  the 

them*  y  Praetorian  guards.  On  the  twenty-eight  of  March,  eighty-six  days 
193,'Mai-ch  28  only  after  the  death  of  Commodus,  a  general  sedition  broke  out 
in  the  camp,  which  the  officers  wanted  either  power  or  inclination 
to  suppress.  Two  or  three  hundred  of  the  most  desperate 
soldiers  marched  at  noon-day,  with  arms  in  their  hands  and  fury 
in  their  looks,  towards  the  Imperial  palace.  The  gates  were 
thrown  open  by  their  companions  upon  guard  ;  and  by  the 
domestics  of  the  old  court,  who  had  already  formed  a  secret 
conspiracy  against  the  life  of  the  too  virtuous  emperor.  On  the 
news  of  their  approach,  Pertinax,  disdaining  either  flight  or  con- 
cealment, advanced  to  meet  his  assassins  ;  and  recalled  to  their 
minds  his  own  innocence,  and  the  sanctity  of  their  recent  oath. 
For  a  few  moments  they  stood  in  silent  suspense,  ashamed  of 
their  atrocious  design,  and  awed  by  the  venerable  aspect  and 
majestic  firmness  of  their  sovereign,  till  at  length,  the  despair  of 
pardon  reviving  their  fury,  a  barbarian  of  the  country  of 
Tongres 60  levelled  the  first  blow  against  Pertinax,  who  was 
instantly  dispatched  with  a  multitude  of  wounds.  His  head, 
separated  from  his  body,  and  placed  on  a  lance,  was  carried  in 
triumph  to  the  Praetorian  camp,  in  the  sight  of  a  mournful  and 
indignant  people,  who  lamented  the  unworthy  fate  of  that 
excellent  prince,  and  the  transient  blessings  of  a  reign,  the 
memory  of  which  could  serve  only  to  aggravate  their  approaching 
misfortunes.61 

60  The  modern  bishopric  of  Liege.  This  soldier  probably  belonged  to  the  Bata- 
vian  horse-guards,  who  were  mostly  raised  in  the  Duchy  of  Gueldres  and  the 
neighbourhood,  and  were  distinguished  by  their  valour,  and  by  the  boldness  with 
which  they  swam  their  horses  across  the  broadest  and  most  rapid  rivers.  Tacit. 
Hist.  iv.  12.  Dion,  1.  lv.  p.  797  [24].  Lipsius  de  magnituchne  Romani,  L  i. 
c.  4. 

61  Dion,  1.  brxiii.  p.  1232  [10].  Herodian,  1.  ii.  p.  60.  [5].  Hist.  August,  p. 
58  [viii.  11].    Victor  in  Epitom.,  and  in  Ca^saiib.     Eutropius,  viii.  >6. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  103 


CHAPTER  V 

Public  sale  of  the  empire  to  Didius  Julianas  by  the  Prcelorian 
Guards — Clodius  Albums  in  Britain,  Pescennius  Niger  in  Syria, 
and  Septimius  Severus  in  Pannonia,  declare  against  the  mur- 
derers of  Pertinax — Civil  wars,  and  victory  of  Severus  over  his 
three  rivals— Relaxation  of  discipline — New  maxims  of  govern- 
ment 

The  power  of  the  sword  is  more  sensibly  felt  in  an  extensive  Proportion  of 
monarchy  than  in  a  small  community.  It  has  been  calculated  force^totiie 
by  the  ablest  politicians  that  no  state,  without  being  soon  ex-p5ro 
hausted,  can  maintain  above  the  hundredth  part  of  its  members 
in  arms  and  idleness.  But,  although  this  relative  proportion 
may  be  uniform,  its  influence  over  the  rest  of  the  society  will  vary 
according  to  the  degree  of  its  positive  strength.  The  advan- 
tages of  military  science  and  discipline  cannot  be  exerted,  unless 
a  proper  number  of  soldiers  are  united  into  one  body,  and 
actuated  by  one  soul.  With  a  handful  of  men,  such  an  union 
would  be  ineffectual ;  with  an  unwieldy  host,  it  would  be  im- 
practicable ;  and  the  powers  of  the  machine  would  be  alike 
destroyed  by  the  extreme  minuteness,  or  the  excessive  weight, 
of  its  springs.  To  illustrate  this  observation  we  need  only  re- 
flect that  there  is  no  superiority  of  natural  strength,  artificial 
weapons,  or  acquired  skill,  which  could  enable  one  man  to  keep 
in  constant  subjection  one  hundred  of  his  fellow-creatures  :  the 
tyrant  of  a  single  town,  or  a  small  district,  would  soon  discover 
that  an  hundred  armed  followers  were  a  weak  defence  against 
ten  thousand  peasants  or  citizens  ;  but  an  hundred  thousand  well- 
disciplined  soldiers  will  command,  with  despotic  sway,  ten 
millions  of  subjects ;  and  a  body  of  ten  or  fifteen  thousand 
guards  will  strike  terror  into  the  most  numerous  populace  that 
ever  crowded  the  streets  of  an  immense  capital. 

The    Praetorian   bands,    whose   licentious    fury    was  the  first  The Pra>toriao 
symptom    and    cause    of  the    decline   of    the    Roman    empire, gUir 
scarcely  amounted  to  the  last  mentioned  number.1     They  de- Their  in»utn- 

xThey  were  originally  nine  or  ten  thousand  men  (for  Tacitus  and  Dion  are  not 
agreed  upon  the  subject),  divided  into  as  many  cohorts.     Vitellius  increased  them 


104 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Their  camp 


Their 
strength  and 

confidence 


rived  their  institution  from  Augustus.  That  crafty  tyrant, 
sensible  that  laws  might  colour,  but  that  arms  alone  could 
maintain,  his  usurped  dominion,  had  gradually  formed  this 
powerful  body  of  guards,  in  constant  readiness  to  protect  his 
person,  to  awe  the  senate,  and  either  to  prevent  or  to  crush  the 
first  motions  of  rebellion.  He  distinguished  these  favoured 
troops  by  a  double  pay,  and  superior  privileges  ;  but,  as  their 
formidable  aspect  would  at  once  have  alarmed  and  irritated  the 
Roman  people,  three  cohorts  only  were  stationed  in  the  capital  ; 
whilst  the  remainder  was  dispersed  in  the  adjacent  towns  of 
Italy.2  But  after  fifty  years  of  peace  and  servitude,  Tiberius 
ventured  on  a  decisive  measure,  which  for  ever  riveted  the 
fetters  of  his  country.  Under  the  fair  pretences  of  relieving 
Italy  from  the  heavy  burden  of  military  quarters,  and  of  intro- 
ducing a  stricter  discipline  among  the  guards,  he  assembled 
them  at  Rome,  in  a  permanent  camp,3  which  was  fortified  with 
skilful  care,4  and  placed  on  a  commanding  situation.5 

Such  formidable  servants  are  always  necessary,  but  often 
fatal,  to  the  throne  of  despotism.  By  thus  introducing  the 
Praetorian  guards,  as  it  were,  into  the  palace  and  the  senate,  the 
emperors  taught  them  to  perceive  their  own  strength,  and  the 
weakness  of  the  civil  government ;  to  view  the  vices  of  their 
masters  with  familiar  contempt,  and  to  lay  aside  that  reveren- 
tial awe  which  distance  only,  and  mystery,  can  preserve  towards 
an  imaginary  power.  In  the  luxurious  idleness  of  an  opulent 
city,  their  pride  was  nourished  by  the  sense  of  their  irresistible 
weight ;  nor  was  it  possible  to  conceal  from  them  that  the 
person  of  the  sovereign,  the  authority  of  the  senate,  the  public 


to  sixteen  thousand,  and,  as  far  as  we  can  learn  from  inscriptions,  they  never  after- 
wards sunk  much  below  that  number.  See  Lipsius  de  magnitudine  Romani,  i.  4. 
[The  last  statement  must  be  modified.  The  Praetorian  guard  was  a  reorganisation 
of  the  bodyguard  of  the  generals  of  the  republic.  Augustus  fixed  the  Prastorium 
in  Rome,  and  determined,  as  the  number  of  the  guard,  nine  cohorts,  each  cohort 
consisting  of  a  thousand  men.  A  tenth  cohort  was  subsequently  added,  but  the 
exact  date  of  this  addition  is  not  clear.  Vitellius,  as  Gibbon  says  (Tacitus,  Hist, 
ii.  93),  increased  the  number  to  sixteen  ;  but  Vespasian  restored  theoriginal  nine 
(Aurelius  Victor,  Caes.  40,  24,  cp.  Zosimus  ii.  17).  There  is  some  evidence  in  in- 
scriptions suggesting  that  there  were  twelve  cohorts  between  the  reign  of  Gaius 
and  that  of  Vitellius.     For  number  of  prasfects,  see  Appendix  11.] 

2Sueton.  in  August,  c.  49. 

■»  Tacit.  Annal.  iv.  2.     Suet,  in  Tiber,  c.  37.     Dion  Cassius,  1.  lvii.  p.  867  [19]. 

4  In  the  civil  war  between  Vitellius  and  Vespasian,  the  Praetorian  camp  was 
attacked  and  defended  with  all  the  machines  used  in  the  siege  of  the  best  fortified 
cities.     Tacit.  Hist.  iii.  84. 

5  Close  to  the  walls  of  the  city,  on  the  broad  summit  of  the  Quirinal  and  Vimi- 
nal  hills.  See  Nardini,  Roma  Antica,  p.  174.  Donatus  de  Roma  Antiqua,  p.  46 
[Not  on  the  hills,  but  to  the  east  of  them.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  105 

treasure,  and  the  seat  of  empire,  were  all  in  their  hands. 
To  divert  the  Praetorian  bands  from  these  dangerous  reflections 
the  firmest  and  best  established  princes  were  obliged  to  mix 
blandishments  with  commands,  rewards  with  punishments,  to 
flatter  their  pride,  indulge  their  pleasures,  connive  at  their 
irregularities,  and  to  purchase  their  precarious  faith  by  a  liberal 
donative  ;  which,  since  the  elevation  of  Claudius,  was  exacted 
as  a  legal  claim  on  the  accession  of  every  new  emperor.6 

The  advocates  of  the  guards  endeavoured  to  justify  by  argu-  Their  specio«s 
ments  the  power  which  they  asserted  by  arms  ;  and  to  maintain  claim8 
that,  according  to  the  purest  principles  of  the  constitution,  their 
consent  was  essentially  necessary  in  the  appointment  of  an 
emperor.  The  election  of  consuls,  of  generals,  and  of  magistrates, 
however  it  had  been  recently  usurped  by  the  senate,  was  the 
ancient  and  undoubted  right  of  the  Roman  people.7  But  where 
was  the  Roman  people  to  be  found  ?  Not  surely  amongst  the 
mixed  multitude  of  slaves  and  strangers  that  filled  the  streets  of 
Rome  ;  a  servile  populace,  as  devoid  of  spirit  as  destitute  of  pro- 
perty. The  defenders  of  the  state,  selected  from  the  flower  of 
Italian  youth,8  and  trained  in  the  exercise  of  arms  and  virtue, 
were  the  genuine  representatives  of  the  people,  and  the  best 
entitled  to  elect  the  military  chief  of  the  republic.  These  asser- 
tions, however  defective  in  reason,  became  unanswerable,  when 
the  fierce  Praetorians  increased  their  weight,  by  throwing,  like 
the  barbarian  conqueror  of  Rome,  their  swords  into  the  scale  9 

The  Praetorians  had  violated  the  sanctity  of  the  throne,  by  the  They  ofler  the 
atrocious  murder  of  Pertinax  ;  they  dishonoured  the  majesty  of  3fIroto 
it,    by    their  subsequent  conduct.       The   camp  was  without  a 
leader,  for  even  the  praefect  Laetus,  who  had  excited  the  tempest, 
prudently  declined  the  public  indignation.       Amidst  the  wild 
disorder,  Sulpicianus,  the  emperor's  father-in-law,  and  governor 

6  Claudius,  raised  by  the  soldiers  to  the  empire,  was  the  first  who  rave  a  dona- 
tive. He  gave  quina  dena,  120/.  (Sueton  in  Claud,  c.  10) :  when  Marcus,  with  his 
colleague  Lucius  Verus,  took  quiet  possession  of  the  throne,  he  gave  vicena,  160/ 
to  each  of  the  guards  Hist.  August,  p.  25  [iv.  7] .  (Dion,  lxxiii.  p.  1231  18]  ) 
,hZTY  m  s.omefidea  of  the  amount  of  these  sums,  by  Hadrian's  complaint 
sterling  prom0tl0n  °f  a  Csesar  had  cost  him  ter  billies,  two  millions  and  a  half 

\ "Cicero  de  Legibus,  in.  3.  The  first  book  of  Livy,  and  the  second  of  Dionysius 
kings         rnaSSUS'  authority  of  the  people,  even  in  the  election  of  the 

An8Jihey  WT  0Xiginally  recruited  in  Latium,  Etruria,  and  the  old  colonies  (Tacit. 
title fnfTf"  r5''  J  emPeror  °th0  compliments  their  vanity,  with  the  flattering 
titles  of  Italic  Alumni,  Romana  vere  juventus.     Tacit.  Hist   i   84 

'43  [i]       S,egC  °f  R°me  ^  the  Ga"1S'     SeC  LJVy'  V"  48'     1>luta^ch-  in  CamilL  P- 


106  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

of  the  city,  who  had  been  sent  to  the  camp  on  the  first  alarm  ot 
mutiny,  was  endeavouring  to  calm  the  fury  of  the  multitude,  when 
he  was  silenced  by  the  clamorous  return  of  the  murderers,  bearing 
on  a  lance  the  head  of  Pertinax.  Though  history  has  accus- 
tomed us  to  observe  every  principle  and  every  passion  yielding 
to  the  imperious  dictates  of  ambition,  it  is  scarcely  credible  that, 
in  these  moments  of  horror,  Sulpicianus  should  have  aspired  to 
ascend  a  throne  polluted  with  the  recent  blood  of  so  near  a 
relation,  and  so  excellent  a  prince.  He  had  already  begun  to 
use  the  only  effectual  argument,  and  to  treat  for  the  Imperial 
dignity ;  but  the  more  prudent  of  the  Praetorians,  apprehensive 
that,  in  this  private  contract,  they  should  not  obtain  a  just  price 
for  so  valuable  a  commodity,  ran  out  upon  the  ramparts  ;  and, 
with  a  loud  voice,  proclaimed  that  the  Roman  world  was  to  be 
disposed  of  to  the  best  bidder  by  public  auction.10 
it  is  This  infamous  offer,  the  most  insolent  excess  of  military  licence, 

SSEan!*i.D.7  diffused  an  universal  grief,  shame,  and  indignation  throughout 
28 '  the  city.     It  reached  at  length  the  ears  of  Didius  Julianus,  a 

wealthy  senator,  who,  regardless  of  the  public  calamities,  was 
indulging  himself  in  the  luxury  of  the  table.11  His  wife  and  his 
daughter,  his  freedmen  and  his  parasites,  easily  convinced  him 
that  he  deserved  the  throne,  and  earnestly  conjured  him  to  em- 
brace so  fortunate  an  opportunity.  The  vain  old  man  hastened 
to  the  Praetorian  camp,  where  Sulpicianus  was  still  in  treaty  with 
the  guards  ;  and  began  to  bid  against  him  from  the  foot  of  the 
rampart.  The  unworthy  negotiation  was  transacted  by  faithful 
emissaries,  who  passed  alternately  from  one  candidate  to  the 
other,  and  acquainted  each  of  them  with  the  offers  of  his  rival. 
Sulpicianus  had  already  promised  a  donative  of  five  thousand 
drachms  (above  one  hundred  and  sixty  pounds)  to  each  soldier  ; 
when  Julian,  eager  for  the  prize,  rose  at  once  to  the  sum  of  six  thou- 
sand two  hundred  and  fifty  drachms,  or  upwards  of  two  hundred 
pounds  sterling.  The  gates  of  the  camp  were  instantly  thrown 
open  to  the  purchaser ;  he  was  declared  emperor,  and  received 
an  oath  of  allegiance  from  the  soldiers,  who  retained  humanity 
enough  to  stipulate  that  he  should  pardon  and  forget  the  com- 
petition of  Sulpicianus. 
J^»»»  It  was  now  incumbent  on  the  Praetorians  to  fulfil  the  condi- 

uy  tii»  senate   tions  of  the  sale.     They  placed  their  new  sovereign,  whom  they 

"Dion,  1.  lxxiii.  p.  1234  [11].  Herodian,  1.  ii.  p.  63  [6].  Hist.  August,  p.  60 
[ix.  2].  Though  the  three  historians  agree  that  it  was  in  fact  an  auction,  Hero- 
dian alone  affirms  that  it  was  proclaimed  as  such  by  the  soldiers. 

11  Spartianus  softens  the  most  odious  parts  of  the  character  and  elevation  of  Julian. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  107 

served  and  despised,  in  the  centre  of  their  ranks,  surrounded 
him  on  every  side  with  their  shields,  and  conducted  him  in  close 
order  of  battle  through  the  deserted  streets  of  the  city.  The 
senate  was  commanded  to  assemble,  and  those  who  had  been  the 
distinguished  friends  of  Pertinax,  or  the  personal  enemies  of 
Julian,  found  it  necessary  to  affect  a  more  than  common  share  of 
satisfaction  at  this  happy  revolution.1'-  After  Julian  had  filled 
the  senate  house  with  armed  soldiers,  he  expatiated  on  the 
freedom  of  his  election,  his  own  eminent  virtues,  and  his  full 
assurance  of  the  affections  of  the  senate.  The  obsequious 
assembly  congratulated  their  own  and  the  public  felicity  ; 
engaged  their  allegiance,  and  conferred  on  him  all  the  several 
branches  of  the  Imperial  power.13  From  the  senate  Julian  was  Takes 
conducted  by  the  same  military  procession,  to  take  possession  of  Sie  palace oi 
the  palace.  The  first  objects  which  struck  his  eyes  were  the 
abandoned  trunk  of  Pertinax,  and  the  frugal  entertainment 
prepared  for  his  supper.  The  one  he  viewed  with  indifference  ; 
the  other  with  contempt.  A  magnificent  feast  was  prepared  by 
his  order,  and  he  amused  himself  till  a  very  late  hour,  with  dice, 
and  the  performances  of  Pylades,  a  celebrated  dancer.  Yet  it 
was  observed  that,  after  the  crowd  of  flatterers  dispersed,  and 
left  him  to  darkness,  solitude,  and  terrible  reflection,  he  passed 
a  sleepless  night ;  revolving  most  probably  in  his  mind  his  own 
rash  folly,  the  fate  of  his  virtuous  predecessor,  and  the  doubtful 
and  dangerous  tenure  of  an  empire,  which  had  not  been  ac- 
quired by  merit,  but  purchased  by  money.14 

He  had  reason  to  tremble.  On  the  throne  of  the  world  he  The  public 
found  himself  without  a  friend,  and  even  without  an  adherent. (JSCOnteIlt 
The  guards  themselves  were  ashamed  of  the  prince  whom  their 
avarice  had  persuaded  them  to  accept ;  nor  was  there  a  citizen 
who  did  not  consider  his  elevation  with  horror,  as  the  last 
insult  on  the  Roman  name.  The  nobility,  whose  conspicuous 
station  and  ample  possessions  exacted  the  strictest  caution,  dis- 
sembled their  sentiments,  and  met  the  affected  civility  of  the 

12  Dion  Cassius,  at  that  time  praetor,  had  been  a  personal  enemy  to  Julian, 
1.  lxxiii.  p.  1235  [12]. 

13  Hist.  August,  p.  61  [ix.  3,  3].  We  learn  from  thence  one  curious  circum- 
stance, that  the  new  emperor,  whatever  had  been  his  birth,  was  immediately 
aggregated  to  the  number  of  Patrician  families.  [His  imperial  name  was  M. 
Didius  Severus  Julianus.  His  wife,  Mallia  Scanilla,  and  his  daughter,  Didia  Clara, 
received  the  title  of  Augusta  (Hist.  Aug.  ix.  3).  Pertinax  had  declined  that 
honour  for  his  consort.] 

14  Dion,  1.  lxxiii.  p.  1235  [13].  Hist.  August,  p.  61  fix.  3, 10] .  I  have  endeavoured 
to  blend  into  one  consistent  story,  the  seeming  contradictions  of  the  two  writers. 


108 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


The  armies  of 

Britain, 

Syria,  and 

Fannonia 

declare 

against 

Julian 


Albinus  in 
Britain 


emperor  with  smiles  of  complacency  and  professions  of  duty. 
But  the  people,  secure  hi  their  numbers  and  obscurity,  gave  a 
free  vent  to  their  passions.  The  streets  and  public  places  of 
Rome  resounded  with  clamours  and  imprecations.  The  enraged 
multitude  affronted  the  person  of  Julian,  rejected  his  liberality, 
and,  conscious  of  the  impotence  of  their  own  resentment,  they 
called  aloud  on  the  legions  of  the  frontiers  to  assert  the  violated 
majesty  of  the  Roman  empire. 

The  public  discontent  was  soon  diffused  from  the  centre  to 
the  frontiers  of  the  empire.  The  armies  of  Britain,  of  S)rria,  and 
of  Illyricum,  lamented  the  death  of  Pertinax,  in  whose  company, 
or  under  whose  command,  they  had  so  often  fought  and  con- 
quered. They  received  with  surprise,  with  indignation,  and 
perhaps  with  envy,  the  extraordinary  intelligence  that  the 
Praetorians  had  disposed  of  the  empire  by  public  auction  ;  and 
they  sternly  refused  to  l-atify  the  ignominious  bargain.  Their 
immediate  and  unanimous  revolt  wa!s  fatal  to  Julian,  but  it  was 
fatal  at  the  same  time  to  the  public  peace ;  as  the  generals  of 
the  respective  armies,  Clodius  Albinus,  Pescennius  Niger,  and 
Septimius  Severus,  were  still  more  anxious  to  succeed  than  to 
revenge  the  murdered  Pertinax.  Their  forces  were  exactly 
balanced.  Each  of  them  was  at  the  head  of  three  legions,15 
with  a  numerous  train  of  auxiliaries  ;  and,  however  different  in 
their  characters,  they  were  all  soldiers  of  experience  and  capa- 
city. 

Clodius  Albinus,10  governor  of  Britain,  surpassed  both  his 
competitors  in  the  nobility  of  his  extraction,  which  he  derived 
from  some  of  the  most  illustrious  names  of  the  old  republic.17 
But  the  branch,  from  whence  he  claimed  his  descent,  was  sunk 
into  mean  circumstances,  and  transplanted  into  a  remote  pro- 
vince. It  is  difficult  to  form  a  just  idea  of  his  true  character. 
Under  the  philosophic  cloak  of  austerity,  he  stands  accused  of 
concealing  most  of  the  vices  which  degrade  human  nature.18 
But  his  accusers  are  those  venal  writers  who  adored  the  fortune 
of  Severus,  and  trampled  on  the  ashes  of  an  unsuccessful  rival. 
Virtue,  or  the  appearances  of  virtue,  recommended  Albinus  to 
the  confidence  and  good  opinion  of  Marcus  ;  and  his  preserving 

15  Dion,  1.  lxxiii.  p.  1235  [14]. 

16  TD-  Clodius  Septimus  Albinus.] 

17  The  Postumian  and  the  Cejonian  ;  the  former  of  whom  was  raised  to  the 
consulship  in  the  fifth  year  after  its  institution. 

18  Spartianus  in  his  undigested  collections,  mixes  up  all  the  virtues  and  all  the 
vices  that  enter  into  the  human  composition,  and  bestows  them  on  the  same 
object.     Such,  indeed,  are  many  of  the  characters  in  the  Augustan  history. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  109 

with  the  son  the  same  interest  which  he  had  acquired  with 
the  father  is  a  proof  at  least  that  he  was  possessed  of  a  very 
flexible  disposition.  The  favour  of  a  tyrant  does  not  always 
suppose  a  want  of  merit  in  the  object  of  it;  he  may,  without 
intending  it,  reward  a  man  of  worth  and  ability,  or  he  may  find 
such  a  man  useful  to  his  own  service.  It  does  not  appear  that 
Albinus  served  the  son  of  Marcus,  either  as  the  minister  of  his 
cruelties,  or  even  as  the  associate  of  his  pleasures.  He  was  em- 
ployed in  a  distant  honourable  command,  when  he  received  a 
confidential  letter  from  the  emperor,  acquainting  him  of  the 
treasonable  designs  of  some  discontented  generals,  and  authoriz- 
ing him  to  declare  himself  the  guardian  and  successor  of  the 
throne,  by  assuming  the  title  and  ensigns  of  Caesar.19  The 
governor  of  Britain  wisely  declined  the  dangerous  honour,  which 
would  have  marked  him  for  the  jealousy,  or  involved  him  in  the 
approaching  ruin,  of  Commodus.  He  courted  power  by  nobler, 
or,  at  least,  by  more  specious,  arts.  On  a  premature  report  of 
the  death  of  the  emperor,  he  assembled  his  troops ;  and,  in  an 
eloquent  discourse,  deplored  the  inevitable  mischiefs  of  des- 
potism, described  the  happiness  and  glory  which  their  ancestors 
had  enjoyed  under  the  consular  government,  and  declared  his 
firm  resolution  to  reinstate  the  senate  and  people  in  their  legal 
authority.  This  popular  harangue  was  answered  by  the  loud 
acclamations  of  the  British  legions,  and  received  at  Rome  with 
a  secret  murmur  of  applause.  Safe  in  the  possession  of  his  little 
world,  and  in  the  command  of  an  army  less  distinguished  indeed 
for  discipline  than  for  numbers  and  valour,20  Albinus  braved  the 
menaces  of  Commodus,  maintained  towards  Pertinax  a  stately 
ambiguous  reserve,  and  instantly  declared  against  the  usurpation 
of  Julian.  The  convulsions  of  the  capital  added  new  weight  to 
his  sentiments,  or  rather  to  his  professions,  of  patriotism.  A 
regard  to  decency  induced  him  to  decline  the  lofty  titles  of 
Augustus  and  Emperor,  and  he  imitated  perhaps  the  example  of 
Galba,  who,  on  a  similar  occasion,  had  styled  himself  the 
Lieutenant  of  the  senate  and  people.21 

Personal  merit  alone  had  raised  Pescennius  Niger  -'-  from  an  pesceunius 
obscure  birth  and  station  to  the  government  of  Syria  ;  a  lucra- Syria*0 

10  Hist.  August,  p.  So,  84  [xii.  2,  and  6,  4,  5]. 

20  Pertinax,  who  governed  Britain  a  few  years  before,  had  been  left  for  dead 
in  a  mutiny  of  the  soldiers.  Hist.  August,  p.  54  [viii.  3].  Yet  they  loved  and 
regretted  liim ;  admirantibus  earn  virtutem  cui  irascebnntur. 

21  Sueton.  in  Galb.  c.  10.      [Legatum  se  seuatus  ac  pop.  R.  professus  est.] 

22  [C.  Pescennius  Niger  Justus.] 


110  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

tive  and  important  command,  which  in  times  of  civil  confusion 
gave  him  a  near  prospect  of  the  throne.  Yet  his  parts  seem  to 
have  been  better  suited  to  the  second  than  to  the  first  rank  ;  he 
was  an  unequal  rival,  though  he  might  have  approved  himself  an 
excellent  lieutenant,  to  Severus,  who  afterwards  displayed  the 
greatness  of  his  mind  by  adopting  several  useful  institutions 
from  a  vanquished  enemy. 2:i  In  his  government,  Niger  ac- 
quired the  esteem  of  the  soldiers  and  the  love  of  the  provincials. 
His  rigid  discipline  fortified  the  valour  and  confirmed  the 
obedience  of  the  former,  whilst  the  voluptuous  Syrians  were  less 
delighted  with  the  mild  firmness  of  his  administration  than  with 
the  affability  of  his  manners  and  the  apparent  pleasure  with 
which  he  attended  their  frequent  and  pompous  festivals.24  As 
soon  as  the  intelligence  of  the  atrocious  murder  of  Pertinax  had 
reached  Antioch,  the  wishes  of  Asia  invited  Niger  to  assume  the 
Imperial  purple  and  revenge  his  death.  The  legions  of  the 
eastern  frontier  embraced  his  cause ;  the  opulent  but  unarmed 
provinces,  from  the  frontiers  of  ^Ethiopia 25  to  the  Hadriatic, 
cheerfully  submitted  to  his  power  ;  and  the  kings  beyond  the 
Tigris  and  the  Euphrates  congratulated  his  election,  and  offered 
him  their  homage  and  services.  The  mind  of  Niger  was  not 
capable  of  receiving  this  sudden  tide  of  fortune  ;  he  flattered 
himself  that  his  accession  would  be  undisturbed  by  competition, 
and  unstained  by  civil  blood  ;  and  whilst  he  enjoyed  the  vain 
pomp  of  triumph,  he  neglected  to  secure  the  means  of  victory. 
Instead  of  entering  into  an  effectual  negotiation  with  the 
powerful  armies  of  the  West,  whose  resolution  might  decide,  or 
at  least  must  balance,  the  mighty  contest ;  instead  of  advancing 
without  delay  towards  Rome  and  Italy,  where  his  presence  was 
impatiently  expected,26  Niger  trifled  away  in  the  luxury  of 
Antioch  those  irretrievable  moments  which  were  diligently 
improved  by  the  decisive  activity  of  Severus.27 

23  Hist.  August,  p.  76  [xi.  7] . 

24  Herod.  1.  ii.  p.  68  [7].  The  Chronicle  of  John  Malala,  of  Antioch,  shows  the 
zealous  attachment  of  his  countrymen  to  these  festivals,  which  at  once  gratified 
their  superstition,  and  their  love  of  pleasure. 

25  A  king  of  Thebes,  in  Egypt,  is  mentioned  in  the  Augustan  History,  as  an  ally, 
and,  indeed,  as  a  personal  friend  of  Niger.  If  Spartianus  is  not,  as  I  strongly 
suspect,  mistaken,  he  has  brought  to  light  a  dynasty  of  tributary  princes  totally 
unknown  to  history. 

26  Dion,  1.  lxxiii.  p.  1238  [15].  Herod,  1.  ii.  p.  67  [7].  Averse  in  everyone's 
mouth  at  that  time,  seems  to  express  the  general  opinion  of  the  three  rivals; 
Optimus  est  Niger,  bonus  Afer.  pessimus  Albus.  Hist.  August,  p.  75  [xi.  8].  [The 
verse  was  originally  in  Greek,  but  the  Latin  of  Spartianus  was  innocent  of  the 
false  quantity  which  Gibbon  ascribes  to  it.     It  ran  optimus  est  Fuscus,  &c] 

^Herodian,  1.  ii.  p.  71  [8]. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  111 

The  country  of  Pannonia  and  Dalmatia,  which  occupied  the  Pumoma  and 
space  between  the  Danube  and  the  Hadriatic,  was  one  of  the Dahnatia 
last  and  most  difficult  conquests  of  the  Romans.  In  the  defence 
of  national  freedom,  two  hundred  thousand  of  these  barbarians 
had  once  appeared  in  the  field,  alarmed  the  declining  age  of 
Augustus,  and  exercised  the  vigilant  prudence  of  Tiberius  at 
the  head  of  the  collected  force  of  the  empire.28  The  Pannonians 
yielded  at  length  to  the  arms  and  institutions  of  Rome.  Their 
recent  subjection,  however,  the  neighbourhood,  and  even  the 
mixture  of  the  unconquered  tribes,  and  perhaps  the  climate, 
adapted,  as  it  has  been  observed,  to  the  production  of  great 
bodies  and  slow  minds,29  all  contributed  to  preserve  some  remains 
of  their  original  ferocity,  and,  under  the  tame  resemblance  of 
Roman  provincials,  the  hardy  features  of  the  natives  were  still 
to  be  discerned.  Their  warlike  youth  afforded  an  inexhaustible 
supply  of  recruits  to  the  legions  stationed  on  the  banks  of  the 
Danube,  and  which,  from  a  perpetual  warfare  against  the 
Germans  and  Sarmatians,  were  deservedly  esteemed  the  best 
troops  in  the  service. 

The  Pannonian  army  was  at  this  time  commanded  by  Septimius  septtmnu 
Severus,  a  native  of  Africa,  who,  in  the  gradual  ascent  of  private  Bevenu 
honours,  had   concealed  his  daring  ambition,  which  was  never 
diverted  from  its  steady  course  by  the  allurements  of  pleasure, 
the    apprehension   of  danger,    or    the    feelings   of  humanity.30" 
On  the  first  news  of  the  murder  of  Pertinax,  he  assembled  his 
troops,  painted  in  the  most  lively  colours  the  crime,  the  insolence, 
and  the  weakness  of  the  Praetorian  guards,  and  animated  the 
legions  to  arms  and  to  revenge.     He  concluded  (and  the  perora- 
tion was    thought    extremely   eloquent)   with   promising   every 
soldier  about   four  hundred  pounds;    an  honourable  donative, 
double  in  value   to  the  infamous  bribe  with  which  Julian  had  declared 
purchased    the   empire.3*     The  acclamations   of  the    army  im-  SKS by 
mediately  saluted  Severus  with  the  names  of  Augustus,  Pertinax  £#£, 
and  Emperor ;  and  he  thus  attained  the  lofty  station  to  which  SuS" 

28  See  an  account  of  that  memorable  war  in  Velleius  Paterculus,  ii  no  &e  who 
served  in  the  army  of  Tiberius.  ''       " 

allo^e^nfltuheence?Cti0n  °f  Her°dian'  L  *  P'  74  ^    Wi"  the  m°dern  Austrians 
*> In  the  letter  to  Albinus,  already  mentioned,  Commodus  accuses  Severus  as 
one  of  the  ambitious  generals  who  censured  his  conduct,  and  wished  to  occupy  his 
place.     Hist.  August,  p.  80  [xii.  2].  " 

Si  Pannonia  was  too  poor  to  supply  such  a  sum.  It  was  probably  promised  in 
he  camp,  and  paid  at  Rome,  after  the  victory.  In  fixing  the  sum,  I  have  adopted 
the  conjecture  of  Casaubon.     See  Hist.  August,  p.  65  [x  5].     Comment,  p.  115 


112  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

he  was  invited  by  conscious  merit  and  a  long  train  of  dreams 
and  omens,  the  fruitful  offspring  either  of  his  superstition  or 
policy.32 

The  new  candidate  for  empire  saw  and  improved  the  peculiar 
advantage  of  his  situation.  His  province  extended  to  the 
Julian  Alps,  which  gave  an  easy  access  into  Italy;  and  he 
remembered  the  saying  of  Augustus,  That  a  Pannonian  army 
Manhesinto  might  in  ten  days  appear  in  sight  of  Rome.33  By  a  celerity 
proportioned  to  the  greatness  of  the  occasion,  he  might  reason- 
ably hope  to  revenge  Pertinax,  punish  Julian,  and  receive  the 
homage  of  the  senate  and  people,  as  their  lawful  emperor, 
before  his  competitors,  separated  from  Italy  by  an  immense 
tract  of  sea  and  land,  were  apprized  of  his  success,  or  even  of 
his  election.  During  the  whole  expedition,  he  scarcely  allowed 
himself  any  moments  for  sleep  or  food  ;  marching  on  foot,  and 
in  complete  armour,  at  the  head  of  his  columns,  he  insinuated 
himself  into  the  confidence  and  affection  of  his  troops,  pressed 
their  diligence,  revived  their  spirits,  animated  their  hopes,  and 
was  well  satisfied  to  share  the  hardships  of  the  meanest  soldier, 
whilst  he  kept  in  view  the  infinite  superiority  of  his  reward. 
Advances  The    wretched    Julian    had    expected,    and    thought    himself 

Rome  s  prepared,  to  dispute  the  empire  with  the  governor  of  Syria ; 
but  in  the  invincible  and  rapid  approach  of  the  Pannonian 
legions,  he  saw  his  inevitable  ruin.34  The  hasty  arrival  of 
every  messenger  increased  his  just  apprehensions.  He  was 
successively  informed  that  Severus  had  passed  the  Alps ;  that 
the  Italian  cities,  unwilling  or  unable  to  oppose  his  progress, 
had  received  him  with  the  warmest  professions  of  joy  and  duty  ; 
that  the  important  place  of  Ravenna  had  surrendered  without 
resistance,  and  that  the  Hadriatic  fleet  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
conqueror.     The  enemy  was  now  within  two  hundred  and  fifty 

33  Herodian,  1.  ii.  p.  78  [11].  Severus  was  declared  emperor  on  the  banks  of 
the  Danube,  either  at  Carnuntum,  according  to  Spartianus  (Hist.  August,  p.  65 
[x.  5] )  or  else  at  Sabaria,  according  to  Victor  [Cses.  xx.  1] .  Mr.  Hume,  in  supposing 
that  the  birth  and  dignity  of  Severus  were  too  much  inferior  to  the  Imperial  crown, 
and  that  he  marched  into  Italy  as  general  only,  has  not  considered  this  transaction 
with  his  usual  accuracy.  (Essay  on  the  original  contract.)  [The  date  in  Hist.  Aug. 
is  idibus  Augustis,  but  Baronius  (followed  by  Pagi,  Gibbon,  Clinton  and  De 
Ouleneer)  amended  idibus  April.,  13th  April.] 

83  Velleius  Paterculus,  1.  ii.  c.  111.  We  must  reckon  the  march  from  the 
nearest  verge  of  Pannonia,  and  extend  the  sight  of  the  city,  as  far  as  two  hundred 
miles. 

34  [Schiller  remarks  that  the  events  which  attended  the  elevation  of  Vespasian 
repeat  themselves  in  that  of  Severus.  His  march  recalls  the  march  of  Antonius 
Primus  with  the  Pannonian  legions.  Julianus  neglected  to  occupy  the  Alpine 
passes.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  113 

miles  of  Rome  ;  and  every  moment  diminished  the  narrow  span 
oi  life  and  empire  allotted  to  Julian  "drrow  span 

n,       -j.        x^c  ""piuieu  tne  venal  faith  of  the  Pr£ptoviin«   filial  Julian 
he  crty  w,th  unavailing  preparations  for  w£  SfcfS 

paiace ,  as  it  those  last  mtrenchments  could  be  defended 
without  hope  of  relief,  against  a  vietorious  invader  Fear  and 
lianrn  prevented  the  guards  from  deserting  his ;  standard  •  but 

the  pleasures  of  the  baths  and  theatres  IE  '  "'  "  t'gh' 
use  th  had  almost  **£?£?£&  "theT^h  7f 
vhmh  they  were  oppressed.  The  unpractised  elephants  whose 
uncouth  appearance,  it  was  hoped,  would  strike  terror  into  the 
army  of  he  north,  threw  their  unskilful  riders  and  the  awt 
ward  evolnt  ons  of  the  marines,  drawn  from  tL  fet  of  Mise,  mm" 
were  an  object  of  ridicule  to  the  populace;  St  the  se^te 
:r^r>WIth  SeCrCt  P'— ,the  duress  and  weakness  oTtt 

the  senate.     He  entr^^e PtSL'gS2  oe 
JhBSS-f^ts^^t^ 

^oniXontri;  at  •£■=.«? ^"M 
S^  S^'  «»  ^  *  -4"P  ceremoni™  and" 


°  VOL.    I. 


114  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

course,  he  passed,  without  difficulty,  the  defiles  of  the  Apennine, 
received  into  his  party  the  troops  and  ambassadors  sent  to  retard 
his  progress,  and  made  a  short  halt  at  Interamna,  about  seventy 
miles  from  Rome.  His  victory  was  already  secure ;  but  the 
despair  of  the  Praetorians  might  have  rendered  it  bloody  ;  and 
Severus  had  the  laudable  ambition  of  ascending  the  throne 
without  drawing  the  sword.38  His  emissaries,  dispersed  in  the 
capital,  assured  the  guards  that,  provided  they  would  abandon 
their  worthless  prince,  and  the  perpetrators  of  the  murder  of 
Pertinax,  to  the  justice  of  the  conqueror,  he  would  no  longer 
consider  that  melancholy  event  as  the  act  of  the  whole  body. 
The  faithless  Praetorians,  whose  resistance  was  supported  only 
by  sullen  obstinacy,  gladly  complied  with  the  easy  conditions, 
seized  the  greatest  part  of  the  assassins,  and  signified  to  the 
senate  that  they  no  longer  defended  the  cause  of  Julian.  That 
assembly,  convoked  by  the  consul,  unanimously  acknowledged 
Severus  as  lawful  emperor,  decreed  divine  honours  to  Pertinax, 
and  pronounced  a  sentence  of  deposition  and  death  against  his 
and  con-  unfortunate  successor.  Julian  was  conducted  into  a  private 
execntecfby  apartment  of  the  baths  of  the  palace,  and  beheaded  as  a  common 
ilnate!  a!d  criminal,  after  having  purchased,  with  an  immense  treasure,  an 
183,  Juno  2  anxious  ancl  precarious  reign  of  only  sixty-six  days.39  The 
almost  incredible  expedition  of  Severus,  who,  in  so  short  a  space 
of  time,  conducted  a  numerous  army  from  the  banks  of  the 
Danube  to  those  of  the  Tiber,  proves  at  once  the  plenty  of 
provisions  produced  by  agriculture  and  commerce,  the  goodness 
of  the  roads,  the  discipline  of  the  legions,  and  the  indolent 
subdued  temper  of  the  provinces.40 
Disgrace  of  The  first  cares  of  Severus  were  bestowed  on  two  measures,  the 
guard*  °r  an  one  dictated  by  policy,  the  other  by  decency  ;  the  revenge,  and 
the  honours  due  to  the  memory  of  Pertinax.  Before  the  new 
emperor   entered    Rome,  he  issued  his  commands  to  the  Prae- 

38  Victor  [Caes.  19]  and  Eutropius,  viii.  17,  mention  a  combat  near  the 
Milvian  Bridge,  the  Ponte  Molle,  unknown  to  the  better  and  more  ancient 
writers. 

39  Dion,  1.  lxxiii.  p.  1240  [17].  Herodian,  1.  ii.  p.  83  [12].  Hist.  August,  p. 
63  [ix.  9]. 

40  From  these  sixty -six  days,  we  must  first  deduct  sixteen,  as  Pertinax  was 
murdered  on  the  28th  of  March,  and  Severus  most  probably  elected  on  the  13th  of 
April.  (See  Hist.  August,  p.  65,  and  Tillemont  Hist,  des  Empereurs,  torn.  iii.  p. 
393,  Note  7.)  We  cannot  allow  less  than  ten  days  after  his  election,  to  put  a 
numerous  army  in  motion.  Forty  days  remain  for  this  rapid  march,  and,  as  we 
may  compute  about  eight  hundred  miles  from  Rome  to  the  neighbourhood  of 
Vienna,  the  army  of  Severus  marched  twenty  miles  every  day,  without  halt  or  inter- 
mission. 


OF  THE  liOMAN  EMPIKE  115 

torian  guards,  directing  them  to  wait  his  arrival  on  a  large  plain 
near  the  city,  without  arms,  but  in  the  habits  of  ceremony  in 
which  they  were  accustomed  to  attend  their  sovereign.  He  was 
obeyed  by  those  haughty  troops,  whose  contrition  was  the  effect 
of  their  just  terrors.  A  chosen  part  of  the  Illyrian  army  en- 
compassed them  with  leveled  spears.  Incapable  of  flight  or 
resistance,  they  expected  their  fate  in  silent  consternation. 
Severus  mounted  the  tribunal,  sternly  reproached  them  with 
perfidy  and  cowardice,  dismissed  them  with  ignominy  from  the 
trust  which  they  had  betrayed,  despoiled  them  of  their  splendid 
ornaments,  and  banished  them,  on  pain  of  death,  to  the  distance 
of  an  hundred  miles  from  the  capital.  During  the  transaction, 
another  detachment  had  been  sent  to  seize  their  arms,  occupy 
their  camp,  and  prevent  the  hasty  consequences  of  their  despair.41 

The  funeral  and  consecration  of  Pertinax  was  next  solemnized 
with  every  circumstance  of  sad  magnificence.42  The  senate,  Funeral  and 
with  a  melancholy  pleasure,  performed  the  last  rites  to  that  Pertinax13  01 
excellent  prince,  whom  they  had  loved  and  still  regretted.  The 
concern  of  his  successor  was  probably  less  sincere.  He  esteemed 
the  virtues  of  Pertinax,  but  those  virtues  would  for  ever  have 
confined  his  ambition  to  a  private  station.  Severus  pronounced 
his  funeral  oration  with  studied  eloquence,  inward  satisfaction, 
and  well-acted  sorrow ;  and  by  this  pious  regard  to  his  memory, 
convinced  the  credulous  multitude  that  he  alone  was  worthy  to 
snpply  his  place.  Sensible,  however,  that  arms,  not  ceremonies, 
must  assert  his  claim  to  the  empire,  he  left  Rome  at  the  end 
of  thirty  days,  and,  without  suffering  himself  to  be  elated  by  this 
easy  victory,  prepared  to  encounter  his  more  formidable  rivals. 

The  uncommon  abilities  and  fortune  of  Severus  have  induced  success  of 
an  elegant  historian  to  compare  him  with  the  first  and  greatest  against  Niger 
of  the  Csesars.43     The  parallel  is,  at   least,   imperfect.     Where  Aibinus'1"' 
shall  we  find,   in    the   character   of  Severus,  the    commanding 
superiority  of  soul,    the    generous    clemency,  and    the   various 
genius,  which   could  reconcile  and   unite  the   love  of  pleasure, 
the  thirst  of  knowledge,  and  the  fire  of  ambition  ? 44      In  one 

41  Dion,  1.  lxxiv.  p.  124.1  [1].     Herodian,  1.  ii.  p.  84  [13]. 

42  Dion,  1.  lxxiv.  p.  1244  [4] ,  who  assisted  at  the  ceremony  as  a  senator,  gives 
a  most  pompous  description  of  it. 

43  Herodian,  1,  iii.  p.  112  [7,  7]. 

44  Though  it  is  not,  most  assuredly,  the  intention  of  Lucan  to  exalt  the 
character  of  Caesar,  yet  the  idea  he  gives  of  that  hero,  in  the  tenth  book  of  the  Phar- 
salia,  where  he  describes  him,  at  the  same  time,  making  love  to  Cleopatra, 
sustaining  a  siege  against  the  power  of  Egypt,  and  conversing  with  the  sages  of 
the  country,  is,  in  reality,  the  noblest  panegyric. 


116 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Conduct  of 
the  two 
civil  wars. 
Arts  of 
Severus 


toward 
Niger 


instance  only,  they  may  be  compared,  with  some  degree  of  pro 
priety,  in  the  celerity  of  their  motion,  and  their  civil  victories. 
In  less  than  four  years,45  Severus  subdued  the  riches  of  the  east, 
and  the  valour  of  the  west.  He  vanquished  two  competitors  of 
reputation  and  ability,  and  defeated  numerous  armies,  provided 
with  weapons  and  discipline  equal  to  his  own.  In  that  age,  the 
art  of  fortification  and  the  principles  of  tactics,  were  well  under- 
stood by  all  the  Roman  generals ;  and  the  constant  superiority 
of  Severus  was  that  of  an  artist,  who  uses  the  same  instruments 
with  more  skill  and  industry  than  his  rivals.  I  shall  not,  how- 
ever, enter  into  a  minute  narrative  of  these  military  operations  ; 
but  as  the  two  civil  wars  against  Niger  and  against  Albinus, 
were  almost  the  same  in  their  conduct,  event,  and  consequences, 
I  shall  collect  into  one  point  of  view  the  most  striking  circum- 
stances, tending  to  develop  the  character  of  the  conqueror,  and 
the  state  of  the  empire.  , 

Falsehood  and  insincerity,  unsuitable  as  they  seem  to  the 
dignity  of  public  transactions,  offend  us  with  a  less  degrading 
idea  of  meanness  than  when  they  are  found  in  the  intercourse 
of  private  life.  In  the  latter,  they  discover  a  want  of  courage  ; 
in  the  other,  only  a  defect  of  power ;  and,  as  it  is  impossible  for 
the  most  able  statesmen  to  subdue  millions  of  followers  and 
enemies  by  their  own  personal  strength,  the  world,  under  the 
name  of  policy,  seems  to  have  granted  them  a  very  liberal  in- 
dulgence of  craft  and  dissimulation.  Yet  the  arts  of  Severus 
cannot  be  justified  by  the  most  ample  privileges  of  state-reason. 
He  promised  only  to  betray,  he  flattered  only  to  ruin  ;  and 
however  he  might  occasionally  bind  himself  by  oaths  and 
treaties,  his  conscience,  obsequious  to  his  interest,  always  re- 
leased him  from  the  inconvenient  obligation.46 

If  his  two  competitors,  reconciled  by  their  common  danger, 
had  advanced  upon  him  without  delay,  perhaps  Severus  would 
have  sunk  under  their  united  effort.  Had  they  even  attacked 
him  at  the  same  time,  with  separate  views  and  separate  armies, 
the  contest  might  have  been  long  and  doubtful.  But  they  fell, 
singly  and  successively,  an  easy  prey  to  the  arts  as  well  as  arms 
of  their  subtle  enemy,  lulled  into  security  by  the  moderation  of 
his  professions,  and  overwhelmed  by  the  rapidity  of  his  action. 
He  first  marched  against  Niger,  whose  reputation  and  power  he 
the  most  dreaded  :   but  he   declined   any   hostile   declarations, 

45  Reckoning  from  his  election,  April  13.  193,  to  the  death  of  Albinus.  February 
19,  197.     See  Tillemont's  Chronology. 

46  Herodian,  1.  ii.  p.  85  [13]. 


OF  TPIE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  117 

suppressed  the  name  of  his  antagonist,  and  only  signified  to 
the  senate  and  people  his  intention  of  regulating  the  eastern 
provinces.  In  private  he  spoke  of  Niger,  his  old  friend  and 
intended  successor,47  with  the  most  affectionate  regard,  and 
highly  applauded  his  generous  design  of  revenging  the  murder 
of  Pertinax.  To  punish  the  vile  usurper  of  the  throne  was  the 
duty  of  every  Roman  general.  To  persevere  in  arms,  and  to 
resist  a  lawful  emperor,  acknowledged  by  the  senate,  would 
alone  render  him  criminal.48  The  sons  of  Niger  had  fallen  into 
his  hands  among  the  children  of  the  provincial  governors,  de- 
tained at  Rome  as  pledges  for  the  loyalty  of  their  parents.49  As 
long  as  the  power  of  Niger  inspired  terror,  or  even  respect,  they 
were  educated  with  the  most  tender  care,  with  the  children  of 
Severus  himself;  but  they  were  soon  involved  in  their  father's 
ruin,  and  removed,  first  by  exile,  and  afterwards  by  death,  from 
the  eye  of  public  compassion.511 

Whilst  Severus  was  ene;ao-ed  in  his  eastern  war,  he  had  reason  towards 

o    o  *  Albinus 

to  apprehend  that  the  governor  of  Britain  might  pass  the  sea 
and  the  Alps,  occupy  the  vacant  seat  of  empire,  and  oppose 
his  return  with  the  authority  of  the  senate  and  the  forces  of  the 
West.  The  ambiguous  conduct  of  Albinus,  in  not  assuming  the 
Imperial  title,  left  room  for  negotiation.  Forgetting  at  once 
Ills  professions  of  patriotism  and  the  jealousy  of  sovereign  power, 
he  accepted  the  precarious  rank  of  Csesar,  as  a  reward  for  his 
fatal  neutrality.  Till  the  first  contest  was  decided,  Severus 
treated  the  man  whom  he  had  doomed  to  destruction  with 
every  mark  of  esteem  and  regard.  Even  in  the  letter  in  which 
he  announced  his  victory  over  Niger  he  styles  Albinus  the 
brother  of  his  soul  and  empire,  sends  him  the  affectionate  saluta- 
tions of  his  wife  Julia,  and  his  young  family,  and  entreats  him  to 
preserve  the  armies  and  the  republic  faithful  to  their  common 
interest.  The  messengers  charged  with  this  letter  were  in- 
structed to  accost  the  Caesar  with  respect,  to  desire  a  private 
audience,  and  to  plunge   their  daggers  into  his  heart.51     The 

47  Whilst  Severus  was  very  dangerously  ill,  it  was  industriously  given  out  that  he 
intended  to  appoint  Niger  and  Albinus  his  successors.  As  he  could  not  be  sincere 
with  respect  to  both,  be  might  not  be  so  with  regard  to  either.  Yet  Severus  carried 
his  hypocrisy  so  far  as  to  profess  that  intention  in  the  memoirs  of  his  own  life. 

43  Hist.  August,  p.  65  [x.  8,  7  ;  and  cp.  6]. 

49  This  practice,  invented  by  Commodus,  proved  very  useful  to  Severus.  He 
found,  at  Rome,  the  children  of  many  of  the  principal  adherents  of  his  rivals; 
and  he  employed  them  more  than  once  to  intimidate,  or  seduce,  the  parents. 

60  Herodian.  1.  iii.  p.  06.     Hist.  August,  p.  67,  63  [x.  8,  9]. 

01  Hist.  August,  p.  81  [xii.  7].  Spartianus  lias  inserted  this  curious  letter  at  full 
length 


118  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

conspiracy  was  discovered,  and  the  too  credulous  Albinus  at 
length  passed  over  to  the  continent,  and  prepared  for  an  unequal 
contest  with  his  rival,  who  rushed  upon  him  at  the  head  of  a 
veteran  and  victorious  army. 

Events  of  the  The  military  labours  of  Severus  seem  inadequate  to  the  im- 
portance of  his  conquests.  Two  engagements,  the  one  near 
the  Hellespont,  the  other  in  the  narrow  defiles  of  Cilicia,  de- 

[194  a.d.]  cided  the  fate  of  his  Syrian  competitor  ;  and  the  troops  of  Europe 
asserted  their  usual  ascendant  over  the  effeminate  natives  of 
Asia.5-  The  battle  of  Lyons,  where  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand Romans  53  were  engaged,  was  equally  fatal  to  Albinus.    The 

[197  a.d.|  valour  of  the  British  army  maintained,  indeed,  a  sharp  and  doubt- 
ful contest  with  the  hardy  discipline  of  the  Illyrian  legions. 
The  fame  and  person  of  Severus  appeared,  during  a  few  moments, 
irrecoverably  lost,  till  that  warlike  prince  rallied  his  fainting 
troops,  and  led  them  on  to  a  decisive  victory.54  The  war  was 
finished  by  that  memorable  day. 

decided  by  The  civil  wars  of  modern  Europe  have  been  distinguished,  not 

one  or  two  l  o  ' 

battles  only  by  the  fierce  animosity,  but  likewise  by  the  obstinate  per- 
severance, of  the  contending  factions.  They  have  generally 
been  justified  by  some  principle,  or,  at  least,  coloured  by  some 
pretext,  of  religion,  freedom,  or  loyalty.  The  leaders  were 
nobles  of  independent  property  and  hereditary  influence.  The 
troops  fought  like  men  interested  in  the  decision  of  the  quarrel ; 
and  as  military  spirit  and  party  zeal  were  strongly  diffused 
throughout  the  whole  community,  a  vanquished  chief  was  im- 
mediately supplied  with  new  adherents,  eager  to  shed  their 
blood  in  the  same  cause.  But  the  Romans,  after  the  fall  of  the 
republic,  combated  only  for  the  choice  of  masters.  Under  the 
standard  of  a  popular  candidate  for  empire,  a  few  enlisted 
from  affection,  some  from  fear,  many  from  interest,  none  from 
principle.  The  legions,  uninflamed  by  party  zeal,  were  allured 
into  civil  war  by  liberal  donatives,  and  still  more  liberal  promises. 
A  defeat,  by  disabling  the  chief  from  the  performance  of  his 
engagements,  dissolved  the  mercenary  allegiance  of  his  followers, 
and  left  them  to  consult  their  own  safety  by  a  timely  deser- 
tion of  an  unsuccessful  cause.  It  was  of  little  moment  to  the 
provinces  under  whose  name  they  were  oppressed  or  governed  ; 

62  Consult  the  third  book  of  Herodian,  and  the  seventy-fourth  book  of  Dion 
Cassius. 

53  Dion,  1.  lxxv.  p.  1260  [6]. 

54  Dion,  1.  lxxv.  p.  1261  [6].  Herodian,  1.  iii.  p.  no  [7].  Hist.  August,  p. 
68  [x.  11].  The  battle  was  fought  in  the  plain  of  Trevoux,  three  or  four  leagues 
from  Lyons.     See  Tillemont,  torn.  iii.  p.  406,  note  18. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  119 

they  were  driven  by  the  impulsion  of  the  present  power,  and  as 
soon  as  that  power  yielded  to  a  superior  force,  they  hastened  to 
implore  the  clemency  of  the  conqueror,  who,  as  he  had  an 
immense  debt  to  discharge,  was  obliged  to  sacrifice  the  most 
guilty  countries  to  the  avarice  of  his  soldiers.  In  the  vast  ex- 
tent of  the  Roman  empire  there  were  few  fortified  cities 
capable  of  protecting  a  routed  army  ;  nor  was  there  any  person, 
or  family,  or  order  of  men,  whose  natural  interest,  unsupported 
by  the  powers  of  government,  was  capable  of  restoring  the  cause 
of  a  sinking  party.55 

Yet,  in  the  contest  between  Niger  and  Severus,  a  single  city  siege  of 
deserves  an  honourable  exception.  As  Byzantium  was  one  of  yzul  n™ 
the  greatest  passages  from  Europe  into  Asia,  it  had  been 
provided  with  a  strong  garrison,  and  a  fleet  of  five  hundred 
vessels  was  anchored  in  the  harbour.56  The  impetuosity  of 
Severus  disappointed  this  prudent  scheme  of  defence ;  he  left 
to  his  generals  the  siege  of  Byzantium,  forced  the  less  guarded 
passage  of  the  Hellespont,  and,  impatient  of  a  meaner  enemy, 
pressed  forward  to  encounter  his  rival.  Byzantium,  attacked  by 
a  numerous  and  increasing  army,  and  afterwards  by  the  whole 
naval  power  of  the  empire,  sustained  a  siege  of  three  years,  and 
remained  faithful  to  the  name  and  memory  of  Niger.  The 
citizens  and  soldiers  (we  know  not  from  what  cause)  were 
animated  with  equal  fury ;  several  of  the  principal  officers  of 
Niger,  who  despaired  of,  or  who  disdained  a  pardon,  had  thrown 
themselves  into  this  last  refuge  ;  the  fortifications  were  esteemed 
impregnable,  and,  in  the  defence  of  the  place,  a  celebrated 
engineer  displayed  all  the  mechanic  powers  known  to  the 
ancients.57  Byzantium,  at  length,  surrendered  to  famine.  The  a.d.196] 
magistrates  and  soldiers  were  put  to  the  sword,  the  walls 
demolished,  the  privileges  suppressed,  and  the  destined  capital 
of  the  East  subsisted  only  as  an  open  village,  subject  to  the 
insulting  jurisdiction  of  Perinthus.  The  historian  Dion,  who  had 
admired  the  flourishing,  and  lamented  the  desolate,  state  of 
Byzantium,  accused  the  revenge   of  Severus  for  depriving  the 

56  Montesquieu,  Considerations  sur  la  Grandeur  et  la  Decadence  des  Romains, 
c.  xii. 

56  Most  of  these,  as  may  be  supposed,  were  small  open  vessels  ;  some,  howerer, 
were  galleys  of  two,  and  a  few  of  three,  ranks  of  oars. 

87  The  engineer's  name  was  Priscus.  His  skill  saved  his  life,  and  he  was  taken 
into  the  service  of  the  conqueror.  For  the  particular  facts  of  the  siege  consult 
Dion  Cassius  (1.  lxxfijv.  p.  1251  [n-i3])and  Herodian  (1.  iii.  p.  95  [6]):  for  the 
theory  of  it,  the  fanciful  Chevalier  de  Folard  may  be  looked  into.  See  Poiybe, 
torn.  i.  p.  76. 


120 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Death  of 
Niger  and 
Albinus. 
Cruel  conse- 
quences of 
the  ciTil 
wars 


Animosity  oi 
Severus 
against  the 


Roman  people  of  the  strongest  bulwark  against  the  barbarians 
of  Pontus  and  Asia.58  The  truth  of  this  observation  was  but  too 
well  justified  in  the  succeeding  age,  when  the  Gothic  fleets 
covered  the  Euxine,  and  passed  through  the  undefended 
Bosphorus  into  the  centre  of  the  Mediterranean. 

Both  Niger  and  Albinus  were  discovered  and  put  to  death  in 
their  flight  from  the  field  of  battle.  Their  fate  excited  neither 
surprise  nor  compassion.  They  had  staked  their  lives  against 
the  chance  of  empire,  and  suffered  what  they  would  have 
inflicted  ;  nor  did  Severus  claim  the  arrogant  superiority  of 
suffering  his  rivals  to  live  in  a  private  station.  But  his  un- 
forgiving temper,  stimulated  by  avarice,  indulged  a  spirit  of 
revenge,  where  there  was  no  room  for  apprehension.  The  most 
considerable  of  the  provincials,  who,  without  any  dislike  to  the 
fortunate  candidate,  had  obeyed  the  governor  under  whose 
authority  they  were  accidentally  placed,  were  punished  by 
death,  exile,  and  especially  by  the  confiscation  of  their  estates. 
Many  cities  of  the  East  were  stript  of  their  ancient  honours,  and 
obliged  to  pay,  into  the  treasury  of  Severus,  four  times  the 
amount  of  the  sums  contributed  by  them  for  the  service  of  Niger.59 

Till  the  final  decision  of  the  war,  the  cruelty  of  Severus  was, 
in  some  measure,  restrained  by  the  uncertainty  of  the  event  and 
his  pretended  reverence  for  the  senate.  The  head  of  Albinus, 
accompanied  with  a  menacing  letter,  announced  to  the  Romans 
that  he  was  resolved  to  spare  none  of  the  adherents  of  his  un- 
fortunate competitors.  He  was  irritated  by  the  just  suspicion 
that  he  had  never  possessed  the  affections  of  the  senate,  and 
he  concealed  his  old  malevolence  under  the  recent  discovery  of 
some  treasonable  correspondencies.  Thirty-five  senators,  how- 
ever, accused  of  having  favoured  the  party  of  Albinus,  he  freely 
pardoned ;  and,  by  his  subsequent  behaviour,  endeavoured  to 
convince  them  that  he  had  forgotten,  as  well  as  forgiven,  their 
supposed  offences.  But,  at  the  same  time,  he  condemned 
forty-one 60  other  senators,  whose  names  history  has  recorded  ; 

58  Notwithstanding  the  authority  of  Spartianus  and  some  modern  Greeks,  we 
may  be  assured,  from  Dion  and  Herodian,  that  Byzantium,  many  years  after  the 
death  of  Severus,  lay  in  ruins.  [But  the  statement  of  Spartianus  (xiii.  i),  that 
Severus  repented  of  his  harshness,  owing  (ostensibly?)  to  the  intercession  of  Cara- 
calla,  is  confirmed  by  the  legend  'AvTwi-tiVia  2e/Sao-ra,  on  Byzantine  coins  ;  Eckhel, 
ii.  32  (cp.  Schiller,  i.  713).     Not  Byzantium,  but  its  fortifications,  were  demolished.] 

5»  Dion,  1.  lxxiv.  p.  1250  [8]. 

80  Dion  (1.  lxxv.  p.  1262  [8]),  only  twenty-nine  senators  are  mentioned  by  him, 
but  forty-one  are  named  in  the  Augustan  History,  p.  69  [x.  13] ,  among  whom  were 
six  of  the  name  of  Pescennius.  Herodian  (1.  iii.  p.  115  T8])  speaks  in  genera]  oi 
the  cruelties  of  Severus.     [It  is  safer  here  to  follow  Dion. J 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  121 

their  wives,  children,  and  clients,  attended  them  in  death,  and 
the  noblest  provincials  of  Spain  and  Gaul  were  involved  in  the 
same  ruin.  Such  rigid  justice,  for  so  he  termed  it,  was,  in  the 
opinion  of  Severus,  the  only  conduct  capable  of  ensuring  peace 
to  the  people,  or  stability  to  the  prince  ;  and  he  condescended 
slightly  to  lament  that,  to  be  mild,  it  was  necessary  that  he 
should  first  be  cruel.01 

The  true  interest  of  an  absolute  monarch  generally  coincides  Tin  vrisdom 
with  that  of  his  people.  Their  numbers,  their  wealth,  their  Ms  sowm- of 
order,  and  their  security,  are  the  best  and  only  foundations  of m* 
his  real  greatness  ;  and,  were  he  totally  devoid  of  virtue,  prudence 
might  supply  its  place,  and  would  dictate  the  same  rule  of 
conduct.  Severus  considered  the  Roman  empire  as  his  property, 
and  had  no  sooner  secured  the  possession,  than  he  bestowed  his 
care  on  the  cultivation  and  improvement  of  so  valuable  an 
acquisition.  Salutary  laws,  executed  with  inflexible  firmness, 
soon  corrected  most  of  the  abuses  with  which,  since  the  death 
of  Marcus,  every  part  of  the  government  had  been  infected.  In 
the  administration  of  justice,  the  judgments  of  the  emperor 
were  characterized  by  attention,  discernment,  and  impartiality : 
and,  whenever  he  deviated  from  the  strict  line  of  equity,  it  was 
generally  in  favour  of  the  poor  and  oppressed ;  not  so  much 
indeed  from  any  sense  of  humanity,  as  from  the  natural  pro- 
pensity of  a  despot  to  humble  the  pride  of  greatness,  and  to 
sink  all  his  subjects  to  the  same  common  level  of  absolute 
dependence.  His  expensive  taste  for  building,  magnificent 
shows,  and,  above  all,  a  constant  and  liberal  distribution  of  corn  General  peace 
and  provisions,  were  the  surest  means  of  captivating  the  pern™8" 
affection  of  the  Roman  people.62  The  misfortunes  of  civil 
discord  were  obliterated.  The  calm  of  peace  and  prosperity  was 
once  more  experienced  in  the  provinces,  and  many  cities, 
restored  by  the  munificence  of  Severus,  assumed  the  title  of  his 
colonies,  and  attested  by  public  monuments  their  gratitude  and 
felicity.68     The  fame  of  the  Roman  arms  was  revived  by  that 

61  Aurelius  Victor  [Cass.  20,  13]. 

62  Dion,  i.  lxxvi.  p.  1272  [1].  Hist.  August,  p.  67  [x.  8].  Severus  celebrated 
the  secular  games  with  extraordinary  magnificence,  and  he  left  in  the  public 
granaries  a  provision  of  corn  for  seven  years,  at  the  rate  of  75,000  modii, 
or  about  2500  quarters  per  day.  I  am  persuaded  that  the  granaries  of  Severus 
were  supplied  for  a  long  term,  but  I  am  not  less  persuaded  that  policy  on  one 
hand,  and  admiration  on  the  other,  magnified  the  hoard  far  beyond  its  true  contents. 

88  See  Spanheim's  treatise  of  ancient  medals,  the  inscriptions,  and  our  learned 
travellers  Spon  and  Wheeler,  Shaw,  Pocock,  &c. ,  who,  in  Africa,  Greece,  and 
Asia,  have  found  more  monuments  of  Severus,  than  of  any  other  Roman  emperor 
whatsoever- 


122  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

warlike  and  successful  emperor,04  and  he  boasted,  with  a  just 
pride,  that,  having  received  the  empire  oppressed  with  foreign 
and  domestic  wars,  he  leit  it  established  in  profound,  universal 
and  honourable  peace.65 
Relaxation  of  Although  the  wounds  of  civil  war  appeared  completely  healed, 
discipline  its  mortal  poison  still  lurked  in  the  vitals  of  the  constitution. 
Severus  possessed  a  considerable  share  of  vigour  and  ability  ;  but 
the  daring  soul  of  the  first  Caesar,  or  the  deep  policy  of  Augustus, 
were  scarcely  equal  to  the  task  of  curbing  the  insolence  of  the 
victorious  legions.  By  gratitude,  by  misguided  policy,  by  seem- 
ing necessity,  Severus  was  induced  to  relax  the  nerves  of  disci- 
pline.66 The  vanity  of  his  soldiers  was  flattered  with  the  honour  of 
wearing  gold  rings  ;  their  ease  was  indulged  in  the  permission  of 
living  with  their  wives  in  the  idleness  of  quarters.  He  increased 
their  pay  beyond  the  example  of  former  times,  and  taught  them 
to  expect,  and  soon  to  claim,  "extraordinary  donatives  on  every 
public  occasion  of  danger  or  festivity.  Elated  by  success,  ener- 
vated by  luxury,  and  raised  above  the  level  of  subjects  by  their 
dangerous  privileges,67  they  soon  became  incapable  of  military 
fatigue,  oppressive  to  the  countiy,  and  impatient  of  a  just  sub- 
ordination. Their  officers  asserted  the  superiority  of  rank  by  a 
more  profuse  and  elegant  luxury.  There  is  still  extant  a  letter 
of  Severus,  lamenting  the  licentious  state  of  the  army,  and  ex- 
horting one  of  his  generals  to  begin  the  necessary  reformation 
from  the  tribunes  themselves ;  since,  as  he  justly  observes,  the 
officer  who  has  forfeited  the  esteem,  will  never  command  the 
obedience,  of  his  soldiers.68  Had  the  emperor  pursued  the  train 
of  reflection,  he  would  have  discovered  that  the  primary  cause 
of  this  general  corruption  might  be  ascribed,  not  indeed  to  the 
example,  but  to  the  pernicious  indulgence,  however,  of  the  com- 
mander-in-chief. 
Newest^*-         The  Praetorians,  who  murdered  their  emperor  and  sold  the 

lishraent  of 


the  Frxtonan 
guards 


64  He  carried  his  victorious  arms  to  Seleucia  and  Ctesiphon,  the  capitals  of  the 
Parthian  monarchy.     I  shall  have  occasion  to  mention  this  war  in  its  proper  place. 

65  Etiam  in  Britannis,  was  his  own  just  and  emphatic  expression.  Hist. 
Augusi73  [x.  23]. 

'iC>  Herodian,  1.  iii.  p.  115  [8].  Hist.  August,  p.  68  [x.  12].  [The  popularity  of 
Severus  and  his  son  Caracnlla  with  the  soldiers  is  illustrated  by  the  vast  number 
of  inscriptions  in  their  honour.  It  is  tru  that  discipline  was  in  some  respects 
relaxed  ;  but  in  other  respects  the  efficacy  of  the  army  was  improved.] 

67  Upon  the  insolence  and  privileges  of  the  soldiers,  the  16th  satire,  falsely 
ascribed  to  Juvenal,  may  be  consulted  ;  the  style  and  circumstances  of  it  would 
induce  me  to  believe  that  it  was  composed  under  the  reign  of  Severus  or  that  of 
his  son. 

68  Hist.  August,  p.  75  [xi.  3J. 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  123 

empire,  had  received  the  just  punishment  of  their  treason  ;  but 
the  necessary,  though  dangerous,  institution  of  guards  was  soon 
restored  on  a  new  model  by  Severus,  and  increased  to  four  times 
the  ancient  number.69  Formerly  these  troops  had  been  recruited 
in  Italy ;  and,  as  the  adjacent  provinces  gi-adually  imbibed  the 
softer  manners  of  Rome,  the  levies  were  extended  to  Macedonia, 
Noricum  and  Spain.  In  the  room  of  these  elegant  troops,  better 
adapted  to  the  pomp  of  courts  than  to  the  uses  of  war,  it  was 
established  by  Severus,  that,  from  all  the  legions  of  the  frontiers, 
the  soldiers  most  distinguished  for  strength,  valour,  and  fidelity, 
should  be  occasionally  draughted,  and  promoted,  as  an  honour 
and  reward,  into  the  more  eligible  service  of  the  guards.70  By 
this  new  institution,  the  Italian  youth  were  diverted  from  the 
exercise  of  arms,  and  the  capital  was  terrified  by  the  strange 
aspect  and  manners  of  a  multitude  of  barbarians.  But  Severus 
flattered  himself  that  the  legions  would  consider  these  chosen 
Praetorians  as  the  representatives  of  the  whole  military  order ; 
and  that  the  present  aid  of  fifty  thousand  men,  superior  in  arms 
and  appointments  to  any  force  that  could  be  brought  into  the 
field  against  them,  would  for  ever  crush  the  hopes  of  rebellion, 
and  secure  the  empire  to  himself  and  his  posterity. 

The  command  of  these  favoured  and  formidable  troops  soon  Th.  office  of 
became  the  first  office  of  the  empire.  As  the  government  de-  Pr*fect&n 
generated  into  military  despotism,  the  Praetorian  pi-aefect,  who 
in  his  origin  had  been  a  simple  captain  of  the  guards,  was 
placed,  not  only  at  the  head  of  the  army,  but  of  the  finances, 
and  even  of  the  law.  In  every  department  of  administration,  he 
represented  the  person,  and  exercised  the  authority,  of  the 
emperor.  The  first  praefect  who  enjoyed  and  abused  this 
immense  power  was  Plautianus,  the  favourite  minister  of 
Severus.  His  reign  lasted  above  ten  years,  till  the  marriage  of 
his  daughter  with  the  eldest  son  of  the  emperor,  which  seemed 
to  assure  his  fortune,  proved  the  occasion  of  his  ruin.71  The 
animosities  of  the  palace,  by  irritating  the  ambition  and  alarm- 

<>9Herodian,  1.  iii.  p.  131  [13]. 

70  Dion,  1.  Ixxiv.  p.  1243  [2].  [It  was  the  policy  of  Severus  (the  African)  to 
level  the  distinctions  which  had  subsisted  between  Italy  and  the  provinces.  Some 
acts  of  Hadrian  had  already  pointed  in  the  same  direction.  See  Appendix  11. 
Caracalla,  as  we  shall  see,  carried  the  policy  to  its  logical  end.] 

71  One  of  his  most  daring  and  wanton  acts  of  power  was  the  castration  of  a 
hundred  free  Romans,  some  of  them  married  men,  and  even  fathers  of  families  ; 
merely  that  his  daughter,  on  her  marriage  with  the  young  emperor,  might  be 
attended  by  a  train  of  eunuchs  worthy  of  an  Eastern  queen.  Dion,  1.  Ixxvi.  p. 
1271  [1].     [The  daughter's  name  was  Fulvin  Hautilla.     Caracalla  hated  her.l. 


124  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

ing  the  fears  of  Plautianus,  threatened  to  produce  a  revolution, 
and  obliged  the  emperor,  who  still  loved  him,  to  consent  with 
reluctance  to  his  death.72  After  the  fall  of  Plautianus,  an 
eminent  lawyer,  the  celebrated  Papinian,  was  appointed  to 
execute  the  motley  office  of  Praetorian  praefect. 73 
■  he  senate  Till  the  reign  of  Severus,  the  virtue,  and  even  the  good  sense 
rafttaiy  7  of  the  emperors  had  been  distinguished  by  their  zeal  or  affected 
reverence  for  the  senate,  and  by  a  tender  regard  to  the  nice 
frame  of  civil  policy  instituted  by  Augustus.  But  the  youth  of 
Severus  had  been  trained  in  the  implicit  obedience  of  camps, 
and  his  riper  years  spent  in  the  despotism  of  military  command. 
His  haughty  and  inflexible  spirit  could  not  discover,  or  would 
not  acknowledge,  the  advantage  of  preserving  an  intermediate 
power,  however  imaginary,  between  the  emperor  and  the  army. 
He  disdained  to  profess  himself  the  servant  of  an  assembly  that 
detested  his  person  and  trembled  at  his  frown ;  he  issued  his 
commands,  where  his  request  would  have  proved  as  effectual  ; 
assumed  the  conduct  and  style  of  a  sovereign  and  a  conqueror, 
and  exercised,  without  disguise,  the  whole  legislative  as  well  as 
the  executive  power. 
Hew  maxims       The  victory  over  the  senate  was  easy  and  inglorious.     Every 

of  the  Imperi-  i  •  1-iJi.j.l  •   x.      a. 

aipreroga.-  eye  and  every  passion  were  directed  to  the  supreme  magistrate, 
who  possessed  the  arms  and  treasure  of  the  state  ;  whilst  the 
senate,  neither  elected  by  the  people,  nor  guarded  by  the 
military  force,  nor  animated  by  public  spirit,  rested  its  declining 
authority  on  the  frail  and  crumbling  basis  of  ancient  opinion. 
The  fine  theory  of  a  republic  insensibly  vanished,  and  made  way 
for  the  more  natural  and  substantial  feelings  of  monarchy.  As  the 
freedom  and  honours  of  Rome  were  successfully  communicated  to 
the  provinces,  in  which  the  old  government  had  been  either  un- 
known, or  was  remembered  with  abhorrence,  the  tradition  of  re- 
publican maxims  was  gradually  obliterated.  The  Greek  historians 
of  the  age  of  the  Antonines  7i  observe,  with  a  malicious  pleasure, 
that,  although  the  sovereign  of  Rome,  in  compliance  with  an  obso- 
lete prejudice,  abstained  from  the  name  of  king,  he  possessed  the 
full  measure  of  regal  power.  In  the  reign  of  Severus,  the  senate 
was  filled  with  polished  and  eloquent  slaves  from  the  eastern  pro- 
s'2 Dion,  1.  lxxvi.  p.  1274  [4].  Herodian,  1.  iii.  p.  122,  129  [12].  The  grammarian 
of  Alexandria  seems,  as  it  is  not  unusual,  much  better  acquainted  with  this 
mysterious  transaction  ;  and  more  assured  of  the  guilt  of  Plautianus  than  the 
Roman  senator  ventures  to  be.      [Date  205  A.D.] 

73  [But  not  alone.      He  shared  the  office  with  Maecius  Laetus.] 
74Appian  in  Proaem.  [6]. 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  125 

vinces,  who  justified  personal  flattery  by  speculative  principles  of 
servitude.  These  new  advocates  of  prerogative  were  heard  with 
pleasure  by  the  court,  and  with  patience  by  the  people,  when  they 
inculcated  the  duty  of  passive  obedience,  and  descanted  on  the 
inevitable  mischiefs  of  freedom.  The  lawyers  and  the  historians 
concurred  in  teaching  that  the  Imperial  authority  was  held,  not 
by  the  delegated  commission,  but  by  the  irrevocable  resignation, 
of  the  senate  ;  that  the  emperor  was  freed  from  the  restraint 
of  civil  laws,  could  command  by  his  arbitrary  will  the  lives  and 
fortunes  of  his  subjects,  and  might  dispose  of  the  empire  as  of 
his  private  patrimony.75  The  most  eminent  of  the  civil  lawyers, 
and  particularly  Papinian,  Paulus,  and  Ulpian,  flourished  under 
the  house  of  Severus  ;  and  the  Roman  jurisprudence,  having 
closely  united  itself  with  the  system  of  monarchy,  was  supposed 
to  have  attained  its  full  maturity  and  perfection. 

The  contemporaries  of  Severus,  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  peace 
and  glory  of  his  reign,  forgave  the  cruelties  by  which  it  had  been 
introduced.  Posterity,  who  experienced  the  fatal  effect  of  his 
maxims  and  example,  justly  considered  him  as  the  principal 
author  of  the  decline  of  the  Roman  empire.76 

7*  Dion  Cassius  seems  to  hare  written  with  no  other  view,  than  to  form  these 
opinions  into  an  historical  system.  The  Pandects  will  show  how  assiduously  the 
lawyers,  on  their  side,  laboured  in  the  cause  of  prerogative. 

76  [Cp.  Appendix  n.] 


126  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  death  of  Severus — Tyranny  of  Caracalla — Usurpation  of 
Macrinus  —  Follies  of  Elagabalus — Virtues  of  Alexander 
Severus — Licentiousness  of  the  army  —  General  state  of  the 
Roman  Finances 

Greatnws  and  The  ascent  to  greatness,  however  steep  and  dangerous,  may 
sevens  entertain  an  active  spirit  with  the  consciousness  and  exercise  of 
its  own  powers  :  but  the  possession  of  a  throne  could  never  yet 
afford  a  lasting  satisfaction  to  an  ambitious  mind.  This  melan- 
choly truth  was  felt  and  acknowledged  by  Severus.  Fortune 
and  merit  had,  from  an  humble  station,  elevated  him  to  the  first 
place  among  mankind.  He  had  been  "all  things,"  as  he  said 
himself,  "and  all  was  of  little  value".1  Distracted  with  the 
care,  not  of  acquiring,  but  of  preserving,  an  empire,  oppressed 
with  age  and  infirmities,  careless  of  fame,2  and  satiated  with 
power,  all  his  prospects  of  life  were  closed.  The  desire  of  per- 
petuating the  greatness  of  his  family  was  the  only  remaining 
wish  of  his  ambition  and  paternal  tenderness. 
His  wife  the  Like  most  of  the  Africans,  Severus  was  passionately  addicted 
to  the  vain  studies  of  magic  and  divination,  deeply  versed  in 
the  interpretation  of  dreams  and  omens,  and  perfectly  acquainted 
with  the  science  of  judicial  astrology  ;  which,  in  almost  every 
age  except  the  present,  has  maintained  its  dominion  over  the 
mind  of  man.  He  had  lost  his  first  wife  whilst  he  was  governor 
of  the  Lyonnese  Gaul.3  In  the  choice  of  a  second,  he  sought 
only  to  connect  himself  with  some  favourite  of  fortune  ;  and,  as 
soon  as  he  had  discovered  that  a  young  lady  of  Emesa  in  Syria 
had  a  royal  nativity,  he  solicited  and  obtained  her  hand.4     Julia 

1  Hist.  August,  p.  71  [x.  18].     "  Omnia  fui,  et  nihil  expedit." 

2  Dion  Cassius,  1.  lxxvi.  p.  1284  [16]. 

3  About  the  year  186.  M.  de  Tillemont  is  miserably  embarrassed  with  a  passage 
of  Dion,  in  which  the  Empress  Faustina,  who  died  in  the  year  175,  is  introduced 
as  having  contributed  to  the  marriage  of  Severus  and  Julia  (1.  lxxiv.  p.  1243  [3]). 
The  learned  compiler  forgot  that  Dion  is  relating,  not  a  real  fact,  but  a  dream  of 
Severus  ;  and  dreams  are  circumscribed  to  no  limits  of  time  or  space.  Did  M. 
de  Tillemont  imagine  that  marriages  were  consummated  in  the  Temple  of  Venus 
at  Rome  ?    Hist,  des  Empereurs,  torn.  iii.  p.  389.     Note  6. 

4  Hist.  August,  p.  65  [x.  3J. 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIRE  127 

Domna  (for  that  was  her  name)  deserved  all  that  the  stars 
could  promise  her.  She  possessed,  even  in  an  advanced  age,  the 
attractions  of  beauty,5  and  united  to  a  lively  imagination  a  firm- 
ness of  mind,  and  strength  of  judgment,  seldom  bestowed  on 
her  sex.  Her  amiable  qualities  never  made  any  deep  impres- 
sion on  the  dark  and  jealous  temper  of  her  husband ;  but,  in 
her  son's  reign,  she  administered  the  principal  affairs  of  the 
empire  with  a  prudence  that  supported  his  authority  ;  and  with 
a  moderation  that  sometimes  corrected  his  wild  extravagancies.6 
Julia  applied  herself  to  letters  and  philosophy  with  some  success, 
and  with  the  most  splendid  reputation.  She  was  the  patroness 
of  every  art,  and  the  friend  of  every  man  of  genius.7  The 
grateful  flattery  of  the  learned  has  celebrated  her  virtues  ;  but,  if 
we  may  credit  the  scandal  of  ancient  history,  chastity  was  very 
far  from  being  the  most  conspicuous  virtue  of  the  Empress  Julia.s 

Two  sons,  Caracalla9  and  Geta,  were  the  fruit  of  this  marriage,  Their  two 
and  the  destined  heirs  of  the  empire.  The  fond  hopes  of  thecauaand'v 
father,  and  of  the  Roman  world,  were  soon  disappointed  by 
these  vain  youths,  who  displayed  the  indolent  security  of  hered- 
itary princes,  and  a  presumption  that  fortune  would  supply 
the  place  of  merit  and  application.  Without  any  emulation  of 
virtue  or  talents,  they  discovered,  almost  from  their  infancy,  a 
fixed  and  implacable  antipathy  for  each  other. 

Their  aversion,  confirmed  by  years,  and  fomented  by  the  arts  Their  mutual 
of  their  interested  favourites,  broke  out  in  childish,  and  gradu- each  other 
ally  in  more  serious,  competitions ;  and  at  length  divided  the 
theatre,  the  circus,  and  the  court,  into  two  factions,  actuated 
by  the  hopes  and  fears  of  their  respective  leaders.  The  prudent 
emperor  endeavoured,  by  every  expedient  of  advice  and  author- 
ity, to  allay  this  growing  animosity.  The  unhappy  discord  of 
his  sons  clouded  all  his  prospects,  and  threatened  to  overturn  a 
throne  raised  with  so  much  labour,  cemented  with  so  much 
blood,  and  guarded  with  every  defence  of  arms  and  treasure. 
With  an  impartial  hand  he  maintained  between  them  an  exact 

5  Hist.  August,  p.  85  [xiii.  10]. 

6  Dion  Cassius,  1.  Ixxvii.  p.  1304,  1312  [18  and  Ixxviii.  4]. 

7  See  a  Dissertation  of  Menage,  at  the  end  of  his  edition  of  Diogenes  Laertius, 
de  Foeminis  Philosophis. 

8  Dion,  1.  lxxvi.  p.  1285  [16].     Aurelius  Victor  [Ccesar,  xx.  23]. 

9  Bassianus  was  his  first  name,  as  it  had  been  that  of  his  maternal  grandfather. 
During  his  reign  he  assumed  the  appellation  of  Antoninus,  which  is  employed  by 
lawyers  and  ancient  historians.  [But  see  next  note.]  After  his  death,  the  public 
indignation  loaded  him  with  the  nick-names  of  Tarantus  and  Caracalla.  The  first 
was  borrowed  from  a  celebrated  Gladiator,  the  second  from  a  long  Gallic  gown 
which  he  distributed  to  the  people  of  Rome.      [Hist.  Aug.  x.  11.] 


128 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Threft 
emperors 


The  Cale- 
donian war, 
A.D.  208 


balance  of  favour,  conferred  on  both  the  rank  of  Augustus, 
with  the  revered  name  of  Antoninus  ;  and  for  the  first  time 
the  Roman  world  beheld  three  emperors.10  Yet  even  this 
equal  conduct  served  only  to  inflame  the  contest,  whilst 
the  fierce  Caracalla  asserted  the  right  of  primogeniture, 
and  the  milder  Geta  courted  the  affections  of  the  people 
and  the  soldiers.  In  the  anguish  of  a  disappointed  father, 
Severus  foretold  that  the  weaker  of  his  sons  would  fall  a 
sacrifice  to  the  stronger ;  who,  in  his  turn,  would  be  ruined 
by  his  own  vices.11 

In  these  circumstances  the  intelligence  of  a  war  in  Britain, 
and  of  an  invasion  of  the  province  by  the  barbarians  of  the 
North,  was  received  with  pleasure  by  Severus.  Though  the 
vigilance  of  his  lieutenants  might  have  been  sufficient  to  repel 
the  distant  enemy,  he  resolved  to  embrace  the  honourable  pre- 
text of  withdrawing  his  sons  from  the  luxury  of  Rome,  which 
enervated  their  minds  and  irritated  their  passions,  and  of  inuring 
their  youth  to  the  toils  of  war  and  government.  Notwithstand- 
ing his  advanced  age  (for  he  was  above  threescore),  and  his 
gout,  which  obliged  him  to  be  carried  in  a  litter,  he  transported 
himself  in  person  into  that  remote  island,  attended  by  his  two 
sons,  his  whole  court,  and  a  formidable  army.  He  immediately 
passed  the  walls  of  Hadrian  and  Antoninus,  and  entered  the 
enemy's  country,  with  the  design  of  completing  the  long-at- 
tempted conquest  of  Britain.  He  penetrated  to  the  northern 
extremity  of  the  island  without  meeting  an  enemy.  But  the 
concealed  ambuscades  of  the  Caledonians,  who  hung  unseen  on 
the  rear  and  flanks  of  his  army,  the  coldness  of  the  climate,  and 
the  severity  of  a  winter  march  across  the  hills  and  morasses  of 
Scotland,   are   reported   to  have  cost  the   Romans  above   fifty 

10  The  elevation  of  Caracalla  is  fixed  by  the  accurate  M.  de  Tillemont  to  the 
year  198  ;  the  association  of  Geta,  to  the  year  208.  [Caracalla  (the  proper  form 
is  Caracallus)  was  made  Caesar  in  196  at  Viminacium,  imperator  under  the  name 
M.  Aurelius  Antoninus  in  197,  and  finally  Augustus  with  "  tribunician  power'' 
in  198  (in  the  tenth  year  of  his  age).  It  is  to  be  observed  that  on  his  first  eleva- 
tion Severus  associated  his  name  with  the  memory  of  Pertinax,  and  he  appears 
on  inscriptions  as  L.  Septimius  Severus  Pertinax  Augustus.  But  afterwards  he 
resolved  to  affiliate  his  family  to  the  more  august  house  of  the  Antonines.  In 
Imperial  style  he  was  the  son  of  Marcus  and  brother  of  Commodus  ;  both  he 
and  his  sons  were  Antonines.  He  even  thought  of  perpetuating  Antoninus  (like 
Augustus)  as  a  synonym  of  the  Imperial  title.  See  Spartianus,  Geta.  ii.  2,  in 
animo  habuit  Severus  ut  omnes  deinceps  principes  quemadmodum  Augusti,  ita 
etiam  Antonini  dicej-entur  idque  amore  Marci,  &c.  As  for  the  association  of 
Geta  as  Augustus,  it  must  be  placed  in  Sept.  or  Oct.  209  A.D. ;  cp.  Corp.  Ins. 
Att.  iii.  p.  9.] 

11  Herodian,  1.  iii.  p.  130  [13].  The  lives  of  Caracalla  and  Geta,  in  the 
Augustan  History. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  129 

thousand  men.12  The  Caledonians  at  length  yielded  to  the 
powerful  and  obstinate  attack,  sued  for  peace,  and  surrendered 
a  part  of  their  arms,  and  a  large  tract  of  territory.13  But  their 
apparent  submission  lasted  no  longer  than  the  present  terror. 
As  soon  as  the  Roman  legions  had  retired,  they  resumed  their 
hostile  independence.  Their  restless  spirit  provoked  Severus  to 
send  a  new  army  into  Caledonia,  with  the  most  bloody  orders, 
not  to  subdue,  but  to  extirpate  the  natives.  They  were  saved 
by  the  death  of  their  haughty  enemy.14 

This  Caledonian  war,  neither  marked  by  decisive  events,  nor  Fingai  and 
attended  with  any  important  consequences,  would  ill  deserve  our 
attention  ;  but  it  is  supposed,  not  without  a  considerable  degree 
of  probability,  that  the  invasion  of  Severus  is  connected  with  the 
most  shining  period  of  the  British  history  or  fable.  Fingai, 
whose  fame,  with  that  of  his  heroes  and  bards,  has  been  revived 
in  our  language  by  a  recent  publication,  is  said  to  have  com- 
manded the  Caledonians  in  that  memorable  juncture,  to  have 
eluded  the  power  of  Severus,  and  to  have  obtained  a  signa 
victory  on  the  banks  of  the  Carun,  in  which  the  son  of  the  King 
of  the  World,  Caracul,  fled  from  his  arms  along  the  fields  of  his 
pride.15  Something  of  a  doubtful  mist  still  hangs  over  these 
Highland  traditions;     nor  can  it  be  entirely  dispelled  by  the  contrast  of 

the  Cale- 

most  ingenious  researches  of  modern  criticism : 16  but  if  we  donians  and 
could,  with  safety,  indulge  the  pleasing  supposition  that  Fingai 
lived,  and  that  Ossian  sung,  the  striking  contrast  of  the  situation 
and  manners  of  the  contending  nations  might  amuse  a  philo- 
sophic mind.  The  parallel  would  be  little  to  the  advantage  of 
the  more  civilized  people,  if  we  compared  the  unrelenting 
revenge  of  Severus  with  the  generous  clemency  of  Fingai ;  the 

12  [An  exaggeration  of  Dion  Cassius,  Ixxvi.  13.  That  some  battles  of  im- 
portance were  fought  is  proved  by  an  inscription  discovered  some  years  ago 
(Epkem.  Epig.  iv.  p.  327).] 

13  [The  wall  of  Antoninus  Pius  had  been  abandoned  ;  but  Severus  seems  to  have 
renewed  the  wall  of  Hadrian  from  Tunnocelum  to  Segedunum.  Hist.  Aug.  x.  18,  2. 
Muro  per  transversam  insulam  ducto  utrinque  ad  finem  oceani  munivit.  Whence 
he  got  the  name  B?-itannicus  Maximus.] 

14  Dion,  1.  Ixxvi.  p.  1280,  &c.  [12].     Herodian,  1.  iii.  p.  132,  &c.  [14]. 

15  Ossian's  Poems,  vol.  i.  p.  175. 

16  That  the  Caracul  of  Ossian  is  the  Caracalla  of  the  Roman  history,  is, 
perhaps,  the  only  point  of  British  antiquity  in  which  Mr.  Macpherson  and  Mr. 
Whitaker  are  of  the  same  opinion  ;  and  yet  the  opinion  is  not  without  difficulty. 
In  the  Caledonian  war,  the  son  of  Severus  was  known  only  by  the  appellation  of 
Antoninus  ;  and  it  may  seem  strange  that  the  Highland  bard  should  describe  him 
by  a  nick-name,  invented  four  years  afterwards,  scarcely  used  by  the  Romans  till 
after  the  death  of  that  emperor,  and  seldom  employed  by  the  most  ancient 
historians.  See  Dion,  1.  lxxviii.  p.  1317  [9].  Hist.  August,  p.  89  [xiii.  9]. 
Aurel.  Victor  [epit.  21].     Euseb.  in  Chron.  ad  ann.  214. 

9  VOL.    I. 


130 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Ambition  of 
flAracalla 


timid  and  brutal  cruelty  of  Caracalla,  with  the  bravery,  the 
tenderness,  the  elegant  genius  of  Ossian ;  the  mercenary  chiefs 
who,  from  motives  of  fear  or  interest,  served  under  the  Imperial 
standard,  with  the  freeborn  warriors  who  started  to  arms  at  the 
voice  of  the  King  of  Morven  ;  if,  in  a  word,  we  contemplated 
the  untutored  Caledonians,  glowing  with  the  warm  virtues  of 
nature,  and  the  degenerate  Romans,  polluted  with  the  mean 
vices  of  wealth  and  slavery. 

The  declining  health  and  last  illness  of  Severus  inflamed  the 
wild  ambition  and  black  passions  of  Caracalla's  soul.  Impatient 
of  any  delay  or  division  of  empire,  he  attempted,  more  than 
once,  to  shorten  the  small  remainder  of  his  father's  days,  and 
endeavoured,  but  without  success,  to  excite  a  mutiny  among  the 
troops.17  The  old  emperor  had  often  censured  the  misguided 
lenity  of  Marcus,  who,  by  a  single  act  of  justice,  might  have 
saved  the  Romans  from  the  tyranny  of  his  worthless  son.  Placed 
in  the  same  situation,  he  experienced  how  easily  the  rigour  of  a 
judge  dissolves  away  in  the  tenderness  of  a  parent.  He  deliber- 
ated, he  threatened,  but  he  could  not  punish ;  and  this  last  and 
only  instance  of  mercy  was  more  fatal  to  the  empire  than  a  long 
series  of  cruelty.is  The  disorder  of  his  mind  irritated  the  pains 
of  his  body ;  he  wished  impatiently  for  death,  and  hastened  the 
Death  of  instant  of  it  by  his  impatience.  He  expired  at  York  in  the 
■ccMdonof  sixty-fifth  year  of  his  life,  and  in  the  eighteenth  of  a  glorious 
AUDt.12ll'on,,  and  successful  reign.  In  his  last  moments  he  recommended 
4tiiF«bmAiy  concor(i  ^o  his  sons,  and  his  sons  to  the  army.  The  salutary 
advice  never  reached  the  heart,  or  even  the  understanding,  of 
the  impetuous  youths  ;  but  the  more  obedient  troops,  mindful  of 
their  oath  of  allegiance,  and  of  the  authority  of  their  deceased 
master,  resisted  the  solicitations  of  Caracalla,  and  proclaimed 
both  brothers  emperors  of  Rome.  The  new  princes  soon  left  the 
Caledonians  in  peace,  returned  to  the  capital,  celebrated  their 
father's  funeral  with  divine  honours,  and  were  cheerfully 
acknowledged  as  lawful  sovereigns  by  the  senate,  the  people,  and 
the  provinces.  Some  pre-eminence  of  rank  seems  to  have  been 
allowed  to  the  elder  brother ;  but  they  both  administered  the 
empire  with  equal  and  independent  power.19 

Such  a  divided  form  of  government  would   have   proved  a 

17  Dion,  1.  lxxvi.  p.  1282  [14].     Hist.  August,  p.  72  [x.  20].     Aurel.  Victor. 

18  Dion,  1.  lxxvi.  p.  1283  [14] .     Hist.  August,  p.  89  [xiii.  11,  3]. 

19  Dion,  1.  lxxvi.  p.  1284  [15].  Herodian,  1.  iii.  p.  135  [15].  [The  title  Pont. 
Max.  seems  to  have  been  reserved  for  the  elder  brother ;  Geta  is  only  Pont,  on 
coins  and  inscriptions.     Eckhel,  vii.  230.] 


Jealousy  and 
hatred  of  the 
two  emperors 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  131 

source  of  discord  between  the  most  affectionate  brothers.  It 
was  impossible  that  it  could  long  subsist  between  two  implacable 
enemies,  who  neither  desired  nor  could  trust  a  reconciliation. 
It  was  visible  that  one  only  could  reign,  and  that  the  other 
must  fall  ;  and  each  of  them,  judging  of  his  rival's  designs  by  his 
own,  guarded  his  life  with  the  most  jealous  vigilance  from  the 
repeated  attacks  of  poison  or  the  sword.  Their  rapid  journey 
through  Gaul  and  Italy,  during  which  they  never  ate  at  the 
same  table,  or  slept  in  the  same  house,  displayed  to  the  provinces 
the  odious  spectacle  of  fraternal  discord.  On  their  arrival  at 
Rome,  they  immediately  divided  the  vast  extent  of  the  Imperial 
palace.20  No  communication  was  allowed  between  their  apart- 
ments ;  the  doors  and  passages  were  diligently  fortified,  and 
guards  posted  and  relieved  with  the  same  strictness  as  in  a 
besieged  place.  The  emperors  met  only  in  public,  in  the 
presence  of  their  afflicted  mother  ;  and  each  surrounded  by  a 
numerous  train  of  armed  followers.  Even  on  these  occasions  of 
ceremony,  the  dissimulation  of  courts  could  ill  disguise  the 
rancour  of  their  hearts.21 

This  latent  civil  war  already  distracted  the  whole  government,  Fruitless  nc- 
when  a  scheme  was  suggested  that  seemed  of  mutual  benefit  to  dividing  the 
the  hostile  brothers.     It  was  proposed,  that,  since  it  was  impos- tween  them 
sible    to    reconcile    their    minds,    they   should    separate    their 
interest,  and  divide  the  empire  between  them.     The  conditions 
of  the  treaty  were  already  drawn  with  some  accuracy.     It  was 
agreed,  that  Caracalla,  as  the  elder  brother,  should  remain  in 
possession  of  Europe  and  the  western  Africa  ;  and  that  he  should 
relinquish    the    sovereignty  of  Asia  and    Egypt  to    Geta,   who 
might  fix  his  residence  at  Alexandria  or  Antioch,  cities  little  in- 
ferior to  Rome  itself  in  wealth  and  greatness  ;  that  numerous 

20  Mr.  Hume  is  justly  surprised  at  a  passage  of  Herodian(l.  iv.  p.  139  [1]),  who, 
on  this  occasion,  represents  the  Imperial  palace  as  equal  in  extent  to  [greater 
than]  the  rest  of  Rome.  The  whole  region  of  the  Palatine  Mount  on  which  it  was 
built  occupied,  at  most,  a  circumference  of  eleven  or  twelve  thousand  feet.  (See 
the  Notitia  and  Victor,  in  Nardini's  Roma  Antica.)  But  we  should  recollect  that 
the  opulent  senators  had  almost  surrounded  the  city  with  their  extensive  gardens 
and  suburb  palaces,  the  greatest  part  of  which  had  been  gradually  confiscated  by 
the  emperors.  If  Geta  resided  in  the  gardens  that  bore  his  name  on  the  Jani- 
culum  and  if  Caracalla  inhabited  the  gardens  of  Maecenas  on  the  Esquiline,  the 
rival  brothers  were  separated  from  each  other  by  the  distance  of  several  miles  ; 
and  yet  the  intermediate  space  was  filled  by  the  Imperial  gardens  of  Sallust,  of 
Lucullus,  of  Agrippa,  of  Domitian,  of  Caius,  &c,  all  skirting  round  the  city,  and 
all  connected  with  each  other,  and  with  the  palace,  by  bridges  thrown  over  the 
Tiber  and  the  streets.  But  this  explanation  of  Herodian  would  require,  though  it 
ill  deserves,  a  particular  dissertation,  illustrated  by  a  map  of  ancient  Rome.  [See 
Hume,  Essay  on  Populousness  of  Ancient  Nations. — Milman.] 

21  Herodian,  1.  iv.  p.  139  [1] . 


132  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

armies  should  be  constantly  encamped  on  either  side  of  the 
Thracian  Bosphorus,  to  guard  the  frontiers  of  the  rival  monarchies; 
and  that  the  senators  of  European  extraction  should  acknowledge 
the  sovereign  of  Rome,  whilst  the  natives  of  Asia  followed  the 
emperor  of  the  East.  The  tears  of  the  empress  Julia  interrupted 
the  negotiation,  the  first  idea  of  which  had  filled  every  Roman 
breast  with  surprise  and  indignation.  The  mighty  mass  of 
conquest  was  so  intimately  connected  by  the  hand  of  time  and 
policy,  that  it  required  the  most  forcible  violence  to  rend  it 
asunder.  The  Romans  had  reason  to  dread  that  the  disjointed 
members  would  soon  be  reduced  by  a  civil  war  under  the 
dominion  of  one  master  ;  but,  if  the  separation  was  permanent, 
the  division  of  the  provinces  must  terminate  in  the  dissolution 
of  an  empire  whose  unity, had  hitherto  remained  inviolate.22 
Herder  of  Had  the  treaty  been  carried  into  execution,  the  sovereign  of 

A.p/212,  Europe  might  soon  have  been  the  conqueror  of  Asia  ;  but  Cara- 
emrj"  calla  obtained  an  easier  though  a  more  guilty  victory.  He  art- 
fully listened  to  his  mother's  entreaties,  and  consented  to  meet 
his  brother  in  her  apartment,  on  terms  of  peace  and  reconcilia- 
tion. In  the  midst  of  their  conversation,  some  centurions,  who 
had  contrived  to  conceal  themselves,  rushed  with  drawn  swords 
upon  the  unfortunate  Geta.  His  distracted  mother  strove  to 
protect  him  in  her  arms ;  but  in  the  unavailing  struggle,  she  was 
wounded  in  the  hand,  and  covered  with  the  blood  of  her  younger 
son,  while  she  saw  the  elder  animating  and  assisting  23  the  fury 
of  the  assassins.  As  soon  as  the  deed  was  perpetrated,  Caracalla, 
with  hasty  steps  and  horror  in  his  countenance,  ran  towards  the 
Praetorian  camp,  as  his  only  refuge,  and  threw  himself  on  the 
ground  before  the  statues  of  the  tutelar  deities.24     The  soldiers 

22  Herodian,  1.  iv.  p.  144  [4].  [Yet,  in  this  proposal,  we  can  see  foreshadowed 
the  geographical  division  of  the  Empire  among  two  or  more  Emperors,  which  was 
made  a  principle  of  government  by  Diocletian.  The  tendency  to  disruption  be- 
tween the  eastern  and  western  groups  of  provinces  had  been  already  seen  in  the 
revolt  of  Avidius  Cassius,  and  the  "  tyranny  "  of  Pescennius  Niger. .  In  fact,  at  the 
elevation  of  Severus,  the  four  sovereignties  of  Diocletian, — the  four  Prasfectures  of 
Constantine — are  shadowed  forth.  (1)  Albinus  in  Gaul;  (2)  Julianus  in  Italy; 
(3)  Severus  in  the  Illyrian  Peninsula  ;  (4)  Niger  in  Asia,  are,  in  a  sense,  fore- 
runners of  Constantine,  Maximian,  Galerius,  and  Diocletian  respectively.] 

^Caracalla  consecrated,  in  the  temple  of  Serapis,  the  sword,  with  which,  as  he 
boasted,  he  had  slain  his  brother  Geta.     Dion,  1.  lxxvii.  p.  1307  [23]. 

24  Herodian,  1.  iv.  p.  147  [4].  In  every  Roman  camp  there  was  a  small 
chapel  near  the  head-quarters,  in  which  the  statues  of  the  tutelar  deities  were 
preserved  and  adored  ;  and  we  may  remark  that  the  eagles,  and  other  military 
ensigns,  were  in  the  first  rank  of  these  deities ;  an  excellent  institution,  which 
confirmed  discipline  by  the  sanction  of  religion.  See  Lipsius  de  Militia  Roman!, 
iv.  5,  v.  2. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  133 

attempted  to  raise  and  comfort  him.  In  broken  and  disordered 
words  he  informed  them  of  his  imminent  danger  and  fortunate 
escape :  insinuating  that  he  had  prevented  the  designs  of  his 
enemy,  and  declared  his  resolution  to  live  and  die  with  his  faith- 
ful troops.  Geta  had  been  the  favourite  of  the  soldiers ;  but 
complaint  was  useless,  revenge  was  dangerous,  and  they  still  rever- 
enced the  son  of  Severus.  Their  discontent  died  away  in  idle 
murmurs,  and  Caracalla  soon  convinced  them  of  the  justice  of 
his  cause,  by  distributing  in  one  lavish  donative  the  accumulated 
treasures  of  his  father's  reign.25  The  real  sentiments  of  the 
soldiers  alone  were  of  importance  to  his  power  or  safety.  Their 
declaration  in  his  favour  commanded  the  dutiful  professions  of  the 
senate.  The  obsequious  assembly  was  always  prepared  to  ratify 
the  decision  of  fortune  ;  but  as  Caracalla  wished  to  assuage  the 
first  emotions  of  public  indignation,  the  name  of  Geta  was 
mentioned  with  decency,  and  he  received  the  funeral  honours 
of  a  Roman  emperor.26  Posterity,  in  pity  to  his  misfortune,  has 
cast  a  veil  over  his  vices.  We  consider  that  young  prince  as 
the  innocent  victim  of  his  brother's  ambition,  without  recollect- 
ing that  he  himself  wanted  power,  rather  than  inclination,  to 
consummate  the  same  attempts  of  revenge  and  murder. 

The  crime  went  not  unpunished.  Neither  business,  nor  Remorse  and 
pleasure,  nor  flattery,  could  defend  Caracalla  from  the  stings  of  caracalla 
a  guilty  conscience  ;  and  he  confessed,  in  the  anguish  of  a  tor- 
tured mind,  that  his  disordered  fancy  often  beheld  the  angry 
forms  of  his  father  and  his  brother  rising  into  life,  to  threaten  and 
upbraid  him.27  The  consciousness  of  his  crime  should  have  in- 
duced him  to  convince  mankind,  by  the  virtues  of  his  reign, 
that  the  bloody  deed  had  been  the  involuntary  effect  of  fatal 
necessity.  But  the  repentance  of  Caracalla  only  prompted  him 
to  remove  from  the  world  whatever  could  remind  him  of  his 
guilt,  or  recall  the  memory  of  his  murdered  brother.  On  his 
return  from  the  senate  to  the  palace,  he  found  his  mother  in  the 
company  of  several  noble  matrons,  weeping  over  the  untimely 
fate  of  her  younger  son.  The  jealous  emperor  threatened  them 
with  instant  death  :  the  sentence  was  executed  against  Fadilla, 
the  last  remaining  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Marcus  ;  and  even 
the  afflicted  Julia  was  obliged    to  silence  her  lamentations,  to 

25Herodian,  1.  iv.  p.  148  [4].     Dion,  1.  lxxvii.  p.  1289  [3]. 

26  Geta  was  placed  among  the  gods.  Sit  divus,  dum  non  sit  vivus,  said  his 
brother.  Hist.  August,  p.  91  [xiv.  2,  8].  Some  marks  of  Geta's  consecration  are 
Still  found  upon  medals. 

27  Dion,  1.  lxxvii.  p.  1301  [15]. 


134  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

suppress  her  sighs,  and  to  receive  the  assassin  with  smiles  of  joy 
and  approbation.  It  was  computed  that,  under  the  vague  ap- 
pellation of  the  friends  of  Geta,  above  twenty  thousand  persons 
of  both  sexes  suffered  death.  His  guards  and  freedmen,  the 
ministers  of  his  serious  business,  and  the  companions  of  his  looser 
hours,  those  who  by  his  interest  had  been  promoted  to  any  com- 
mands in  the  army  or  provinces,  with  the  long  connected  chain 
of  their  dependants,  were  included  in  the  proscription  ;  which 
endeavoured  to  reach  every  one  who  had  maintained  the 
smallest  correspondence  with  Geta,  who  lamented  his  death, 
or  who  even  mentioned  his  name.28  Helvius  Pertinax,  son  to  the 
prince  of  that  name,  lost  his  life  by  an  unseasonable  witticism.29 
It  was  a  sufficient  crime  of  Thrasea  Priscus  to  be  descended 
from  a  family  in  which  the  love  of  liberty  seemed  an  hereditary 
quality.30  The  particular  causes  of  calumny  and  suspicion  were 
at  length  exhausted  ;  and  when  a  senator  was  accused  of  being 
a  secret  enemy  to  the  government,  the  emperor  was  satisfied 
with  the  general  proof  that  he  was  a  man  of  property  and  virtue. 
From  this  well-grounded  principle,  he  frequently  drew  the  most 
bloody  inferences. 
pacinian  ^ne  execution  of  so  many  innocent  citizens  was  bewailed  by 

the  secret  tears  of  their  friends  and  families.  The  death  of 
Papinian,  the  Praetorian  prsefect,31  was  lamented  as  a  public 
calamity.  During  the  last  seven  years  of  Severus,  he  had  exer- 
cised the  most  important  offices  of  the  state,  and,  by  his  salutary 
influence,  guided  the  emperor's  steps  in  the  paths  of  justice  and 
moderation.  In  full  assurance  of  his  virtue  and  abilities,  Severus, 
on  his  deathbed,  had  conjured  him  to  watch  over  the  prosperity 
and  union  of  the  Imperial  family.32  The  honest  labours  of 
Papinian  served  only  to  inflame  the  hatred  which  Caracalla  had 
already  conceived  against  his  father's  minister.  After  the 
murder  of  Geta,  the  praefect  was  commanded  to  exert  the  powers 

28  Dion,  1.  lxxvii.  p.  1290  [4].  Herodian,  1.  iv.  p.  150  [6].  Dion  (p.  1298 
[lxxvii.  12] )  says  that  the  comic  poets  no  longer  durst  employ  the  name  of  Geta 
in  their  plays,  and  that  the  estates  of  those  who  mentioned  it  in  their  testaments 
were  confiscated. 

-9  Caracalla  had  assumed  the  names  of  several  conquered  nations ;  Pertinax 
observed,  that  the  name  of  Geticus  (he  had  obtained  some  advantage  over  the 
Goths  or  Geta?)  would  be  a  proper  addition  to  Parthicus,  Alemannicus,  &c.  Hist. 
August,  p.  89  [xiii.  10,  6]. 

30  Dion,  1.  lxxvii.  p.  1291  [5].  He  was  probably  descended  from  Helvidius 
Priscus,  and  Thrasea  Paetus,  those  patriots  whose  firm,  but  useless  and  unseason- 
able, virtue  has  been  immortalized  by  Tacitus. 

31  [Dion  says  that  Caracalla,  on  his  accession,  had  deposed  Papinian  from  this 
office ;  and  Dion  was  in  a  position  to  know.] 

3-  It  is  said  that  Papinian  was  himself  a  relation  of  the  empress  Julia. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  135 

of  his  skill  and  eloquence  in  a  studied  apology  for  that  atrocious 
deed.  The  philosophic  Seneca  had  condescended  to  compose  a 
similar  epistle  to  the  senate,  in  the  name  of  the  son  and  assassin 
of  Agrippina.33  "That  it  was  easier  to  commit  than  to  justify 
a  parricide,"  was  the  glorious  reply  of  Papinian,34  who  did  not 
hesitate  between  the  loss  of  life  and  that  of  honour.  Such  in- 
trepid virtue,  which  had  escaped  pure  and  unsullied  from  the 
intrigues  of  courts,  the  habits  of  business,  and  the  arts  of  his 
profession,  reflects  more  lustre  on  the  memory  of  Papinian  than 
all  his  great  employments,  his  numerous  writings,  and  the  supe- 
rior reputation  as  a  lawyer,  which  he  has  preserved  through  every 
age  of  the  Roman  jurisprudence.35 

It  had  hitherto  been  the  peculiar  felicity  of  the  Romans,  and  hi«  tyranny 
in  the  worst  of  times  their  consolation,  that  the  virtue  of  the  the  whole 
emperors  was  active,  and  their  vice  indolent.  Augustus,  Trajan, emp 
Hadrian,  and  Marcus,  visited  their  extensive  dominions  in 
person,  and  their  progress  was  marked  by  acts  of  wisdom  and 
beneficence.  The  tyranny  of  Tiberius,  Nero,  and  Domitian,  who 
resided  almost  constantly  at  Rome,  or  in  the  adjacent  villas, 
was  confined  to  the  senatorial  and  equestrian  orders.36  But 
Caracalla  was  the  common  enemy  of  mankind.  He  left  the  a.d.  213 
capital  (and  he  never  returned  to  it)  37  about  a  year  after  the 
murder  of  Geta.  The  rest  of  his  reign  was  spent  in  the  several 
provinces  of  the  empire,  particularly  those  of  the  East,  and 
every  province  was,  by  turns,  the  scene  of  his  rapine  and  cruelty. 
The  senators,  compelled  by  fear  to  attend  his  capricious 
motions,  were  obliged  to  provide  daily  entertainments  at  an 
immense  expense,  which  he  abandoned  with  contempt  to  his 
guards ;  and  to  erect,  in  every  city,  magnificent  palaces  and 
theatres,  which  he  either  disdained  to  visit,  or  ordered  to  be 
immediately  thrown  down.  The  most  wealthy  families  were 
ruined  by  partial  fines  and  confiscations,  and  the  great  body  of 
his  subjects  oppressed  by  ingenious  and  aggravated  taxes.38     In 

33  Tacit.  Annal.  xiv.  2. 

34  Hist.  August,  p.  88  [xiii.  8,  5]. 

35  With  regard  to  Papinian,  see  Heineccius's  Historia  Juris  Romani,  1.  330,  &c. 
[The  true  cause  of  Papinian's  execution  was  probably  that  he  was  highly  un- 
popular with  the  soldiers,  whose  wishes  Caracalla  was  always  ready  to  humour.] 

36  Tiberius  and  Domitian  never  moved  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Rome. 
Nero  made  a  short  journey  into  Greece.  "  Et  laudatorum  Principum  usus  ex 
aequo  quamvis  procul  agentibus.     Sasvi  proximis  ingruunt."     Tacit.  Hist.  iv.  75. 

37  [There  is  a  coin,  however,  which  suggests  that  Caracalla  returned  to  Italy 
and  Rome  in  214  A.D.,  after  his  successful  campaigns  on  the  Rhine  and  Neckar ; 
Eckhel,  vii.  211.] 

38  Dion,  1.  lxxvii.  p.  1294  [9]. 


discipline 


136  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

the  midst  of  peace,  and  upon  the  slightest  provocation,  he 
issued  his  commands,  at  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  for  a  general 
massacre.  From  a  secure  post  in  the  temple  of  Serapis,  he 
viewed  and  directed  the  slaughter  of  many  thousand  citizens, 
as  well  as  strangers,  without  distinguishing  either  the  number 
or  the  crime  of  the  sufferers ;  since,  as  he  coolly  informed  the 
senate,  all  the  Alexandrians,  those  who  had  perished  and  those 
who  had  escaped,  were  alike  guilty.39 
R«inxation  of  The  wise  instructions  of  Severus  never  made  any  lasting 
impression  on  the  mind  of  his  son,  who,  although  not  destitute 
of  imagination  and  eloquence,  was  equally  devoid  of  judgment 
and  humanity.40  One  dangerous  maxim,  worthy  of  a  tyrant, 
was  remembered  and  abused  by  Caracalla,  "To  secure  the 
affections  of  the  army,  and  to  esteem  the  rest  of  his  subjects 
as  of  little  moment  ".41  But  the  liberality  of  the  father  had 
been  restrained  by  prudence,  and  his  indulgence  to  the  troops 
was  tempered  by  firmness  and  authority.  The  careless  profusion 
of  the  son  was  the  policy  of  one  reign,  and  the  inevitable  ruin 
both  of  the  army  and  of  the  empire.  The  vigour  of  the  soldiers, 
instead  of  being  confirmed  by  the  severe  discipline  of  camps, 
melted  away  in  the  luxury  of  cities.  The  excessive  increase  of 
their   pay  and   donatives 42  exhausted  the  state  to  enrich   the 

39  Dion,  1.  lxxvii.  p.  1307  [23].  Herodian,  1.  iv.  p.  158  [9].  The  former 
represents  it  as  a  cruel  massacre,  the  latter  as  a  perfidious  one  too.  It  seems 
probable  that  the  Alexandrians  had  irritated  the  tyrant  by  their  railleries,  and 
perhaps  by  their  tumults.  [The  punishment  of  Alexandria,  which  was  given 
over  to  the  soldiers  to  plunder,  was  hardly  such  an  act  of  caprice  as  Gibbon 
represents  it.  The  harshness  of  Caracalla  to  that  city  was  inherited  from  Severus ; 
under  both  reigns  Alexandrine  coins  are  very  rare.  There  seem  to  have  been 
serious  conspiracies  in  Egypt,  which  demanded  summary  dealing.] 

40  Dion,  1.  lxxvii.  p.  1296  [11]. 

41  Dion,  1.  lxxvi.  p.  1284  [15].  M.  Wotton  (Hist,  of  Rome,  p.  330)  suspects 
that  this  maxim  was  invented  by  Caracalla  himself  and  attributed  to  his  father. 

42  Dion  (1.  Ixxviii.  p.  1343  [36] )  informs  us  that  the  extraordinary  gifts  of 
Caracalla  to  the  army  amounted  annually  to  seventy  millions  of  drachmae  (about 
two  millions  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds).  There  is  another  passage 
in  Dion,  concerning  the  military  pay,  infinitely  curious  ;  were  it  not  obscure, 
imperfect,  and  probably  corrupt.  The  best  sense  seems  to  be,  that  the  Praetorian 
guards  received  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  drachmae  (forty  pounds)  a  year.  (Dion, 
1.  lxxvii.  p.  1307  [24].)  Under  the  reign  of  Augustus,  they  were  paid  at  the  rate 
of  two  drachmae,  or  denarii,  per  day,  720  a  year  (Tacit.  Annal.  i.  17).  Domitian, 
who  increased  the  soldiers'  pay  one-fourth,  must  have  raised  the  Prcetorians  to  960 
drachmae  (Gronovius  de  Pecunia.  Veteri,  1.  iii.  c.  2).  These  successive  augmenta- 
tions ruined  the  empire,  for,  with  the  soldiers'  pay,  their  numbers  too  were  in- 
creased. We  have  seen  the  Praetorians  alone  increased  from  10,000  to  50,000 
men.  [It  has  been  pointed  out  by  Guizot  that  Gibbon  misunderstood  the  passage 
of  Dion,  which  refers  not  to  the  annual  pay  of  soldiers,  but  to  the  recompense 
given  at  the  end  of  their  term  of  service.  But,  as  Valois  saw,  the  numbers  seem 
to  be  transposed,  for  the  praetorians  received  a  larger  sum  than  the  legionaries.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  137 

military  order,  whose  modesty  in  peace,  and  service  in  war,  is 
best  secured  by  an  honourable  poverty.  The  demeanour  of 
Caracalla  was  haughty  and  full  of  pride  ;  but  with  the  troops  he 
forgot  even  the  proper  dignity  of  his  rank,  encouraged  their 
insolent  familiarity,  and,  neglecting  the  essential  duties  of  a 
general,  affected  to  imitate  the  dress  and  manners  of  a  common 
soldier. 

It  was  impossible  that  such  a  character  and  such  a  conduct  as  Murder  of 
that  of  Caracalla  could  inspire  either  love  or  esteem;  but,  asA.D.  an 
long  as  his  vices  were  beneficial  to  the  armies,  he  was  secure  8th  March. 
from  the  danger  of  rebellion.  A  secret  conspiracy,  provoked  by 
his  own  jealousy,  was  fatal  to  the  tyrant.  The  Praetorian 
prefecture  was  divided  between  two  ministers.  The  military 
department  was  intrusted  to  Adventus,  an  experienced  rather 
than  an  able  soldier ;  and  the  civil  affairs  were  transacted  by 
Opilius  Macrinus,  who,  by  his  dexterity  in  business,  had  raised 
himself,  with  a  fair  character,  to  that  high  office.  But  his 
favour  varied  with  the  caprice  of  the  emperor,  and  his  life  might 
depend  on  the  slightest  suspicion,  or  the  most  casual  circum- 
stance. Malice  or  fanaticism  had  suggested  to  an  African, 
deeply  skilled  in  the  knowledge  of  futurity,  a  very  dangerous 
prediction,  that  Macrinus  and  his  son  were  destined  to  reign 
over  the  empire.  The  report  was  soon  diffused  through  the 
province ;  and,  Avhen  the  man  was  sent  in  chains  to  Rome,  he 
still  asserted,  in  the  presence  of  the  praefect  of  the  city,  the 
faith  of  his  prophecy.  That  magistrate,  who  had  received  the 
most  pressing  instructions  to  inform  himself  of  the  successors  of 
Caracalla,  immediately  communicated  the  examination  of  the 
African  to  the  Imperial  court,  which  at  that  time  resided  in 
Syria.  But  notwithstanding  the  diligence  of  the  public 
messengers,  a  friend  of  Macrinus  found  means  to  apprize  him 
of  the  approaching  danger.  The  emperor  received  the  letters 
from  Rome ;  and,  as  he  was  then  engaged  in  the  conduct  of  a 
chariot  race,  he  delivered  them  unopened  to  the  Praetorian 
praefect,  directing  him  to  dispatch  the  ordinary  affairs,  and  to 
report  the  more  important  business  that  might  be  contained  in 
them.  Macrinus  read  his  fate  and  resolved  to  prevent  it.  He 
inflamed  the  discontents  of  some  inferior  officers,  and  employed 
the  hand  of  Martialis,  a  desperate  soldier,  who  had  been  refused 
the  rank  of  centurion.  The  devotion  of  Caracalla  had  prompted 
him  to  make  a  pilgrimage  from  Edessa  to  the  celebrated  temple 
of  the  Moon  at  Carrhae.     He  was  attended  by  a  body  of  cavalry; 

43  [8th  April,  see  Clinton  ad  ann.] 


138 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


but  having  stopped  on  the  road  for  some  necessary  occasion, 
his  guards  preserved  a  respectful  distance,  and  Martialis, 
approaching  his  person  under  a  pretence  of  duty,  stabbed  him 
with  a  dagger.  The  bold  assassin  was  instantly  killed  by  a 
Scythian  archer  of  the  Imperial  guard.  Such  was  the  end  of  a 
monster  whose  life  disgraced  human  nature,  and  Avhose  reign 
accused  the  patience  of  the  Romans.44  The  grateful  soldiers 
forgot  his  vices,  remembered  only  his  partial  liberality,  and 
obliged  the  senate  to  prostitute  their  own  dignity  and  that  of 
religion  by  granting  him  a  place  among  the  gods.  Whilst  he 
iMiuue»of  was  upon  earth,  Alexander  the  Great  was  the  only  hero  whom 
this  god  deemed  worthy  his  admiration.  He  assumed  the  name 
and  ensigns  of  Alexander,  formed  a  Macedonian  phalanx  of 
guards,45  persecuted  the  disciples  of  Aristotle,  and  displayed 
with  a  puerile  enthusiasm  the  only  sentiment  by  which  he 
discovered  any  regard  for  virtue  or  glory.  We  can  easily 
conceive  that,  after  the  battle  of  Narva  and  the  conquest  of 
Poland,  Charles  the  Twelfth  (though  he  still  wanted  the  more 
elegant  accomplishments  of  the  son  of  Philip)  might  boast  of 
having  rivalled  his  valour  and  magnanimity ;  but  in  no  one 
action  of  his  life  did  Caracalla  express  the  faintest  resemblance 
of  the  Macedonian  hero,  except  in  the  murder  of  a  great  number 
of  his  own  and  of  his  father's  friends.46 

After  the  extinction  of  the  house  of  Severus,  the  Roman 
world  remained  three  days  without  a  master.  The  choice  of 
the  army  (for  the  authority  of  a  distant  and  feeble  senate  was 
little  regarded)  hung  in  anxious  suspense  ;  as  no  candidate  pre- 
sented himself  whose  distinguished  bh*th  and  merit  could  engage 
their  attachment  and  unite  their  suffrages.  The  decisive  weight 
of  the  Praetorian  guards  elevated  the  hopes  of  their  praefects, 
and  these  powerful  ministers  began  to  assert  their  legal  claim  to 
fill  the  vacancy  of  the  Imperial  throne.  Adventus,  however, 
the  senior  prefect,  conscious  of  his  age  and  infirmities,   of  his 


Election  and 
character  of 
Macrinni 


44  Dion,  1.  lxxviii.  p.  1312  [5,  4].  Herodian,  1.  iv.  p.  168  [13].  [Gibbon  does 
not  give  this  emperor  due  credit  for  his  ability  as  an  administrator  (carrying  out 
his  father's  policy)  and  his  important  military  works.] 

45  [Those  who  have  studied  the  question  say  that  Caracalla's  development  of  the 
phalanx  was,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  empire,  a  benefit  and  a  necessity. 
Hadrian  had  already  pointed  the  way  to  this  tactical  change.] 

46  The  fondness  of  Caracalla  for  the  name  and  ensigns  of  Alexander,  is  still 
preserved  on  the  medals  of  that  emperor.  See  Spanheim,  de  Usu  Numismatum. 
Dissertat.  xii.  Herodian  (1.  iv.  p.  154  [8] )  had  seen  very  ridiculous  pictures,  in 
which  a  figure  was  drawn  with  one  side  of  the  face  like  Alexander,  and  the  other 
like  Caracalla.  [Admiration  for  Alexander  as  an  ideal  was  a  feature  of  the  age. 
Sulla  and  Hannibal  were  also  special  favourites  of  Caracalla.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  139 

small  reputation  and  his  smaller  abilities,  resigned  the  dangerous 
honour  to  the  crafty  ambition  of  his  colleague  Macrinus,  whose 
well  dissembled  grief  removed  all  suspicion  of  his  being  acces- 
sory to  his  master's  death.47  The  troops  neither  loved  nor  es- 
teemed his  character.  They  cast  their  eyes  around  in  search 
of  a  competitor,  and  at  last  yielded  with  reluctance  to  his  pro- 
mises of  unbounded  liberality  and  indulgence.  A  short  time 
after  his  accession  he  conferred  on  his  son  Diadumenianus,  at  a.d.  217. 
the  age  of  only  ten  years,  the  Imperial  title  and  the  popular 
name  of  Antoninus. 4S  The  beautiful  figure  of  the  youth,  assisted 
by  an  additional  donative,  for  which  the  ceremony  furnished  a 
pretext,  might  attract,  it  was  hoped,  the  favour  of  the  army, 
and  secure  the  doubtful  throne  of  Macrinus. 

The  authority  of  the  new  sovereign  had  been  ratified  by  the  Discontent  ox 
cheerful  submission  of  the  senate  and  provinces.  They  ex- 
ulted in  their  unexpected  deliverance  from  a  hated  tyrant,  and 
it  seemed  of  little  consequence  to  examine  into  the  virtues  of 
the  successor  of  Caracalla.  But  as  soon  as  the  first  transports  of 
joy  and  surprise  had  subsided,  they  began  to  scrutinize  the 
merits  of  Macrinus  with  a  critical  severity,  and  to  arraign  the 
hasty  choice  of  the  army.  It  had  hitherto  been  considered  as 
a  fundamental  maxim  of  the  constitution  that  the  emperor  must 
always  be  chosen  in  the  senate,  and  the  sovereign  power,  no 
longer  exercised  by  the  whole  body,  was  always  delegated  to 
one  of  its  members.  But  Macrinus  was  not  a  senator.49  The 
sudden  elevation  of  the  Praetorian  preefects  betrayed  the  mean- 
ness of  their  origin ;  and  the  equestrian  order  was  still  in  pos- 
session of  that  great  office,  which  commanded  with  arbitrary 
sway  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  the  senate.  A  murmur  of  in- 
dignation  was  heard,   that  a  man,  whose  obscure50  extraction 

47  Herodian,  1.  iv.  p.  169  [14].     Hist.  August,  p.  94  [xv.  4] . 

48  [M.  Opellius  (Opilius  in  Hist.  Aug.)  Antoninus  Diadumenianus  nobiliss. 
Caesar.     Macrinus  himself  took  the  name  of  Severus.] 

49  Dion,  1.  lxxxix.  p.  1350  [1].  Elagabalus  reproached  his  predecessor,  with 
daring  to  seat  himself  on  the  throne  ;  though,  as  Praetorian  prasfect,  he  could 
not  have  been  admitted  into  the  senate  after  the  voice  of  the  crier  had  cleared  the 
house.  The  personal  favour  of  Plautianus  and  Sejanus  had  broke  through  the 
established  rule.  They  rose  indeed  from  the  equestrian  order  ;  but  they  pre- 
served the  prefecture  with  the  rank  of  senator,  and  even  with  the  consulship. 
[Macrinus  was  the  first  man  of  equestrian  order  who  became  emperor.] 

50  He  was  a  native  of  Coesarea,  in  Numidia,  and  began  his  fortune  by  serving 
in  the  household  of  Plautian,  from  whose  ruin  he  narrowly  escaped.  His  enemies 
asserted  that  he  was  born  a  slave,  and  had  exercised,  among  other  infamous  pro- 
fessions, that  of  Gladiator.  The  fashion  of  aspersing  the  birth  and  condition  of  an 
adversary  seems  to  have  lasted  from  the  time  of  the  Greek  orators  to  the  learned 
grammarians  of  the  last  age. 


140  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

had  never  been  illustrated  by  any  signal  service,  should  dare  to 
invest  himself  with  the  purple,  instead  of  bestowing  it  on  some 
distinguished  senator,  equal  in  birth  and  dignity  to  the  splendour 
of  the  Imperial  station.  As  soon  as  the  character  of  Macrinus 
was  surveyed  by  the  sharp  eye  of  discontent,  some  vices,  and 
many  defects,  were  easily  discovered.  The  choice  of  his 
ministers  was  in  several  instances  justly  censured,  and  the  dis- 
satisfied people,  with  their  usual  candour,  accused  at  once  his 
indolent  tameness  and  his  excessive  severity.51 
aad  the  army  His  rash  ambition  had  climbed  a  height  where  it  was  difficult 
to  stand  with  firmness,  and  impossible  to  fall  without  instant 
destruction.  Trained  in  the  arts  of  courts  and  the  forms  of  civil 
business,  he  trembled  in  the  presence  of  the  fierce  and  undis- 
ciplined multitude,  over  whom  he  had  assumed  the  command  : 
his  military  talents  were  despised,  and  his  personal  courage  sus- 
pected :  a  whisper  that  circulated  in  the  camp,  disclosed  the 
fatal  secret  of  the  conspiracy  against  the  late  emperor,  aggravated 
the  guilt  of  murder  by  the  baseness  of  hypocrisy,  and  heightened 
contempt  by  detestation.  To  alienate  the  soldiers,  and  to  pro- 
voke inevitable  ruin,  the  character  of  a  reformer  was  only 
wanting  ;  and  such  was  the  peculiar  hardship  of  his  fate,  that 
Macrinus  was  compelled  to  exercise  that  invidious  office.  The 
prodigality  of  Caracalla  had  left  behind  it  a  long  train  of  ruin 
and  disorder  :  and,  if  that  worthless  tyrant  had  been  capable  of 
reflecting  on  the  sure  consequences  of  his  own  conduct,  he  would 
perhaps  have  enjoyed  the  dark  prospect  of  the  distress  and 
calamities  which  he  bequeathed  to  his  successoi^s. 
Macrinuiat-  In  the  management  of  this  necessary  reformation,  Macrinus 
formation  of  proceeded  with  a  cautious  prudence  which  would  have  restored 
health  and  vigour  to  the  Roman  army  in  an  easy  and  almost 
imperceptible  manner.  To  the  soldiers  already  engaged  in  the 
service,  he  was  constrained  to  leave  the  dangerous  privileges 
and  extravagant  pay  given  by  Caracalla ;  but  the  new  recruits 
were  received  on  the  more  moderate,  though  liberal,  establish- 
ment of  Severus,  and  gradually  formed  to  modesty  and  obedi- 
ence.52      One  fatal  error  destroyed  the  salutary  effects  of  this 

51  Both  Dion  and  Herodian  speak  of  the  virtues  and  vices  of  Macrinus  with 
candour  and  impartiality  ;  but  the  author  of  his  Life,  in  the  Augustan  History, 
seems  to  have  implicitly  copied  some  of  the  venal  writers  employed  by  Elagabalus 
to  blacken  the  memory  of  his  predecessor. 

52  Dion,  1.  lxxviii.  p.  1336  [28] .  The  sense  of  the  author  is  as  clear  as  the 
intention  of  the  emperor  ;  but  M.  Wotton  has  mistaken  both,  by  understanding  the 
distinction,  not  of  veterans  and  recruits,  but  of  old  and  new  legions.  History  of 
Rome,  p.  347. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  141 

judicious  plan.  The  numerous  army,  assembled  in  the  East  by 
the  late  emperor,  instead  of  being  immediately  dispersed  by 
Macrinus  through  the  several  provinces,  was  suffered  to  remain 
united  in  Syria  during  the  winter  that  followed  his  elevation. 
In  the  luxurious  idleness  of  their  quarters,  the  troops  viewed 
their  strength  and  numbers,  communicated  their  complaints,  and 
revolved  in  their  minds  the  advantages  of  another  revolution. 
The  veterans,  instead  of  being  flattered  by  the  advantageous 
distinction,  were  alarmed  by  the  first  steps  of  the  emperor, 
which  they  considered  as  the  presage  of  his  future  intentions. 
The  recruits,  with  sullen  reluctance,  entered  on  a  service,  whose 
labours  were  increased  while  its  rewards  were  diminished  by  a 
covetous  and  unwarlike  sovereign.  The  murmurs  of  the  army 
swelled  with  impunity  into  seditious  clamours ;  and  the  partial 
mutinies  betrayed  a  spirit  of  discontent  and  disaffection,  that 
waited  only  for  the  slightest  occasion  to  break  out  on  every  side 
into  a  general  rebellion.  To  minds  thus  disposed  the  occasion 
soon  presented  itself. 

The   Empress  Julia   had    experienced    all  the  vicissitudes  of  Death  of  the 
fortune.     From  an  humble  station,  she  had  been  raised  to  great-  HvEducatkm, 
ness,  only  to  taste  the  superior  bitterness  of  an  exalted  rank.  Sidrevoitof 
She  was  doomed  to  weep  over  the  death  of  one  of  her  sons,  and  called  aVnrst 
over  the  life  of  the  other.     The  cruel  fate  of  Caracalla,  though  her  Antoninus 
good  sense  must  have  long  taught  her  to  expect  it,  awakened 
the  feelings  of  a  mother  and  of  an  empress.     Notwithstanding  the 
respectful  civility  expressed  by  the  usurper  towards  the  widow 
of  Severus,  she  descended  with  a  painful  struggle  into  the  con- 
dition of  a  subject,  and  soon  withdrew  herself  by  a  voluntary 
death  from  the  anxious   and  humiliating  dependence.53     Julia 
Maesa,  her  sister,   was  ordered  to  leave  the  court  and  Antioch. 
She  retired  to  Emesa  with  an  immense   fortune,  the    fruit    of 
twenty     years'     favour,     accompanied    by    her    two     daughters, 
Soaemias  and  Mamaea,  each  of  whom  was  a  widow,  and  each  had 
an  only  son.      Bassianus,  for  that  was  the  name  of  the  son  of 
Soaemias,  was  consecrated  to    the  honourable  ministry  of  high 
priest  of  the  Sun  ;  and  this  holy  vocation,  embraced  either  from 
prudence  or  superstition,  contributed  to  raise  the  Syrian  youth 
to   the  empire  of   Rome.     A    numerous   body    of  troops  were 
stationed  at  Emesa  ;  and,  as  the  severe  discipline  of  Macrinus 
had  constrained  them  to  pass  the  winter  encamped,  they  were 
eager  to  revenge  the  cruelty  of  such  unaccustomed  hardships. 

53  Dion,  1.    lxxviii.  p.    1330  [23].      The  abridgment  of  Xiphilin,  though   less 
particular,  is  in  this  place  clearer  than  the  original. 


142  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

The  soldiers,  who  resorted  in  crowds  to  the  temple  of  the  Sun, 
beheld  with  veneration  and  delight  the  elegant  dress  and  figure 
of  the  young  pontiff:  they  recognized,  or  thought  that  they  recog- 
nized, the  features  of  Caracalla,  whose  memory  they  now  adored. 
The  artful  Maesa  saw  and  cherished  their  rising  partiality,  and, 
readily  sacrificing  her  daughter's  reputation  to  the  fortune  of  her 
grandson,  she  insinuated  that  Bassianus  was  the  natural  son  of 
their  murdered  sovereign.  The  sums  distributed  by  her  emis- 
saries with  a  lavish  hand  54  silenced  every  objection,  and  the 
profusion  sufficiently  proved  the  affinity,  or  at  least  the  re- 
semblance, of  Bassianus  with  the  great  original.  The  young 
Antoninus  (for  he  had  assumed  and  polluted  that  respectable 

ad.  its  name)  was  declared  emperor  by  the  troops  of  Emesa,  asserted  his 
hereditary  right,  and  called  aloud  on  the  armies  to  follow  the 
standard  of  a  young  and  liberal  prince,  who  had  taken  up  arms  to 
revenge  his  father's  death  and  the  oppression  of  the  military  order.55 

Defe»tknd         Whilst  a  conspiracy  of  women   and   eunuchs  was  concerted 

M»criniu!  with  prudence,  and  conducted  with  rapid  vigour,  Macrinus,  who 
by  a  decisive  motion  might  have  crushed  his  infant  enemy, 
floated  between  the  opposite  extremes  of  terror  and  security, 
which  alike  fixed  him  inactive  at  Antioch.  A  spirit  of  rebellion 
diffused  itself  through  all  the  camps  and  garrisons  of  Syria, 
successive  detachments  murdered  their  officers,56  and  joined  the 
party  of  the  rebels  ;  and  the  tardy  restitution  of  military  pay 
and  privileges  was  imputed  to  the  acknowledged  weakness  of 
Macrinus.  At  length  he  marched  out  of  Antioch,  to  meet  the 
increasing  and  zealous  army  of  the  young  pretender.  His  own 
troops  seemed  to  take  the  field  with  faintness  and  reluctance ; 

a.d.  218        but,  in  the  heat  of  battle,57  the  Praetorian  guards,  almost  by  an 

54  [The  temple  of  the  Sun  was  rich.] 

55  According  to  Lampridius  (Hist.  August,  p.  135  [xviii.  60])  Alexander  Severus 
lived  twenty-nine  years,  three  months,  and  seven  days.  As  he  was  killed  March 
19,  235,  he  was  born  December  12,  205,  and  was  consequently  about  this  time 
thirteen  years  old,  as  his  elder  cousin  might  be  about  seventeen.  This  computa- 
tion suits  much  better  the  history  of  the  young  princes  than  that  of  Herodian  (1.  v. 
p.  181  [3]),  who  represents  them  as  three  years  younger;  whilst,  by  an  opposite 
error  of  chronology,  he  lengthens  the  reign  of  Elagabalus  two  years  beyond  its  real 
duration.  For  the  particulars  of  the  conspiracy,  see  Dion,  1.  lxxviii.  p.  1339  [31]. 
Herodian,  1.  v.  p.  184  [3].  [The  author's  conclusion  is  probably  mistaken. 
Alexander  was  born  October  i,  208,  and  was  thus  thirteen  and  a  half  years  old  on 
his  elevation  in  March,  222  (Aur.  Victor,  Caes.  24,  1).  The  statement  of  Lam- 
pridius may  well  be  a  slip.] 

56  By  a  most  dangerous  proclamation  of  the  pretended  Antoninus,  every  soldier 
who  brought  in  his  officer's  head  became  entitled  to  his  private  estate,  as  well  as 
to  his  military  commission. 

57  Dion,  1.  lxxviii.  p.  1344  [37].  Herodian,  1.  v.  p.  186  [4].  The  battle  was 
fought  near  the  village  of  Immae,  about  two  and  twenty  miles  from  Antioch. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  143 

involuntary  impulse,  asserted  the  superiority  of  their  valour  and 
discipline.  The  rebel  ranks  were  broken;  when  the  mother  and 
grandmother  of  the  Syrian  prince,  who,  according  to  their  eastern 
custom,  had  attended  the  army,  threw  themselves  from  their 
covered  chariots,  and,  by  exciting  the  compassion  of  the  soldiers, 
endeavoured  to  animate  their  drooping  courage.  Antoninus 
himself,  who  in  the  rest  of  his  life  never  acted  like  a  man,  in 
this  important  crisis  of  his  fate  approved  himself  a  hero,  mounted 
his  horse,  and,  at  the  head  of  his  rallied  troops,  charged  sword  in 
hand  among  the  thickest  of  the  enemy ;  whilst  the  eunuch 
Gannys,  whose  occupation  had  been  confined  to  female  cares 
and  the  soft  luxury  of  Asia,  displayed  the  talents  of  an  able 
and  experienced  general.  The  battle  still  raged  with  doubtful 
violence,  and  Macrinus  might  have  obtained  the  victory,  had  he 
not  betrayed  his  own  cause  by  a  shameful  and  precipitate  flight. 
His  cowardice  served  only  to  protract  his  life  a  few  days,  and  to 
stamp  deserved  ignominy  on  his  misfortunes.  It  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  add  that  his  son  Diadumenianus  was  in- 
volved in  the  same  fate.  As  soon  as  the  stubborn  Praetorians 
could  be  convinced  that  they  fought  for  a  prince  who  had 
basely  deserted  them,  they  surrendered  to  the  conqueror ; 
the  contending  parties  of  the  Roman  army,  mingling 
tears  of  joy  and  tenderness,  united  under  the  banners  of  the 
imagined  son  of  Caracalla,  and  the  East 58  acknowledged  with 
pleasure  the  first  emperor  of  Asiatic  extraction. 

The  letters  of  Macrinus  had  condescended  to  inform  the  Eiaga^.i™ 
senate  of  the  slight  disturbance  occasioned  by  an  impostor  in  senate 
Syria,  and  a  decree  immediately  passed,  declaring  the  rebel  and 
his  family  public  enemies ;  with  a  promise  of  pardon,  however, 
to  such  of  his  deluded  adherents  as  should  merit  it  by  an 
immediate  return  to  their  duty.  During  the  twenty  days  that 
elapsed  from  the  declaration  to  the  victory  of  Antoninus  (for  in 
so  short  an  interval  was  the  fate  of  the  Roman  world  decided), 
the  capital  and  the  provinces,  more  especially  those  of  the  East, 
were  distracted  with  hopes  and  fears,  agitated  with  tumult,  and 
stained  with  a  useless  effusion  of  civil  blood,  since  whosoever  of 
the  rivals  prevailed  in  Syria  must  reign  over  the  empire.  The 
specious  letters  in  which  the  young  conqueror  announced  his 
victory  to  the  obedient  senate  were  filled  with  professions  of 
virtue  and  moderation  ;  the  shining  examples  of  Marcus  and 
Augustus    he    should    ever   consider   as    the   great  rule   of  his 

88  [In  this  episode,   the  opposition  between  East  and  West  was  probably  an 
important  element.] 


144  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

administration  ;  and  he  affected  to  dwell  with  pride  on  the 
striking  resemblance  of  his  own  age  and  fortunes  with  those  of 
Augustus,  who  in  the  earliest  youth  had  revenged  by  a  successful 
war  the  murder  of  his  father.  By  adopting  the  style  of  Marcus 
Aurelius  Antoninus,  son  of  Antoninus,  and  grandson  of  Severus, 
he  tacitly  asserted  his  hereditary  claim  to  empire  ;  but,  by 
assuming  the  tribunitian  and  proconsular  powers  59  before  they 
had  been  conferred  on  him  by  a  decree  of  the  senate,  he  offended 
the  delicacy  of  Roman  prejudice.  This  new  and  injudicious 
violation  of  the  constitution  was  probably  dictated  either  by  the 
ignorance  of  his  Syrian  courtiers,  or  the  fierce  disdain  of  his 
military  followers.60 
picture  of  As  the  attention   of  the  new  emperor  was  diverted  by  the 

Ajf^nai0*'  most  trifling  amusements,  he  wasted  many  months  in  his 
luxurious  progress  from  Syria  to  Italy,  passed  at  Nicomedia  the 
first  winter  after  his  victory,  and  deferred  till  the  ensuing 
summer  his  triumphal  entry  into  the  capital.  A  faithful  picture, 
however,  which  preceded  his  arrival,  and  was  placed  by  his  im- 
mediate order  over  the  altar  of  Victory  in  the  senate-house,  con- 
veyed to  the  Romans  the  just  but  unworthy  resemblance  of  his 
person  and  manners.  He  was  drawn  in  his  sacerdotal  robes  of  silk 
and  gold,  after  the  loose  flowing  fashion  of  the  Medes  and  Phoeni- 
cians ;  his  head  was  covered  with  a  lofty  tiara,  his  numerous  collars 
and  bracelets  were  adorned  with  gems  of  an  inestimable  value. 
His  eye-brows  were  tinged  with  black,  and  his  cheeks  painted 
with  an  artificial  red  and  white.61  The  grave  senators  confessed 
with  a  sigh,  that,  after  having  long  experienced  the  stem  tyranny 
of  their  own  countrymen,  Rome  was  at  length  humbled  beneath 
the  effeminate  luxury  of  Oriental  despotism. 
ms  supersti  The  sun  was  worshipped  at  Emesa  under  the  name  of  Elaga- 
tlon  balus,62  and  under  the  form  of  a  black  conical  stone,  which,  as 

it  was  universally  believed,  had  fallen  from  heaven  on  that 
sacred  place.  To  this  protecting  deity,  Antoninus,  not  without 
some  reason,  ascribed  his  elevation  to  the  throne.  The  display 
of  superstitious  gratitude  was  the  only  serious  business  of  his 

59  [Pius  felix  proconsul  t 'rib.  pot.  was  the  form  stereotyped  by  Caracalla.     The 
senate  conferred  the  title  Augusta  on  Julia  Msesa.] 
«o  Dion,  1.  lxxix.  p.  1353  [4]. 

61  Dion,  1.  lxxix.  p.  1363  [14].     Herodian,  1.  v.  p.  189  [5]. 

62  This  name  is  derived  by  the  learned,  from  two  Syriac  words,  Ela,  a  god,  and 
Gabal,  to  form,  the  forming,  or  plastic  God  ;  a  proper,  and  even  happy  epithet  for 
the  Sun.  Wotton's  History  of  Rome,  p.  378.  [The  newer  derivation  is  al  gebal, 
"  the  mountain".  The  Greeks  made  the  name  into  //W;<?-gabalos  by  a  tempting 
popular  etymology.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  145 

reign.  The  triumph  of  the  god  of  Emesa  over  all  the  religions 
of  the  earth,  was  the  great  object  of  his  zeal  and  vanity  ;  and 
the  appellation  of  Elagabalus  (for  he  presumed  as  pontiff  and 
favourite  to  adopt  that  sacred  name)  was  dearer  to  him  than  all 
the  titles  of  Imperial  greatness.63  In  a  solemn  procession  through 
the  streets  of  Rome,  the  way  was  strewed  with  gold  dust ;  the 
black  stone,  set  in  precious  gems,  was  placed  on  a  chariot  drawn 
by  six  milk-white  horses  richly  caparisoned.  The  pious  em- 
peror held  the  reins,  and,  supported  by  his  ministers,  moved 
slowly  backwards,  that  he  might  perpetually  enjoy  the  felicity 
of  the  divine  presence.  In  a  magnificent  temple  raised  on  the 
Palatine  Mount,  the  sacrifices  of  the  god  Elagabalus  were 
celebrated  with  every  circumstance  of  cost  and  solemnity.  The 
richest  wines,  the  most  extraordinary  victims,  and  the  rarest 
aromatics,  were  profusely  consumed  on  his  altar.  Around  the 
altar  a  chorus  of  Syrian  damsels  performed  their  lascivious 
dances  to  the  sound  of  barbarian  music,  whilst  the  gravest 
personages  of  the  state  and  army,  clothed  in  long  Phoenician 
tunics,  officiated  in  the  meanest  functions,  with  affected  zeal  and 
secret  indignation.64 

To  this  temple,  as  to  the  common  centre  of  religious  worship, 
the  Imperial  fanatic  attempted  to  remove  the  Ancilia,  the 
Palladium,65  and  all  the  sacred  pledges  of  the  faith  of  Numa. 
A  crowd  of  inferior  deities  attended  in  various  stations  the 
majesty  of  the  god  of  Emesa  ;  but  his  court  was  still  imperfect, 
till  a  female  of  distinguished  rank  was  admitted  to  his  bed. 
Pallas  had  been  first  chosen  for  his  consort ;  but,  as  it  was 
dreaded  that  her  warlike  terrors  might  affright  the  soft  delicacy 
of  a  Syrian  deity,  the  Moon,  adoi'ed  by  the  Africans  66  under  the 
name  of  Astarte,  was  deemed  a  more  suitable  companion  for  the 
Sun.  Her  image,  with  the  rich  offerings  of  her  temple  as  a 
marriage  portion,  was  transported  with  solemn  pomp  from 
Carthage  to  Rome,  and  the  day  of  these  mystic  nuptials  was  a 
general  festival  in  the  capital  and  throughout  the  empire.67 

6S  [His  imperial  name  was  M.  Aurelius  Antoninus,  that  of  his  reputed  father.] 

64  Herodian,  1.  v.  190  [5]. 

65  He  broke  into  the  sanctuary  of  Vesta,  and  carried  away  a  statue,  which  he 
supposed  to  be  the  Palladium  ;  but  the  vestals  boasted  that,  by  a  pious  fraud,  they 
had  imposed  a  counterfeit  image  on  the  profane  intruder.  Hist.  August,  p.  103 
[xvii.  6]. 

66 [That  is,  the  Phoenician  settlers  in  Africa;  for  Astarte  was  a  Syrian  goddess.] 
87  Dion,  1.   lxxix.   p.    1360   [12].     Herodian,  1.  v.  p.   193  [6].     The  subjects  of 

the  empire  were  obliged  to  make  liberal  presents  to  the  new-married  couple  ;  and 
j  whatever  they  had  promised  during  the  life  of  Elagabalus  was  carefully  exacted 

under  the  administration  of  Mamsea. 

10  VOL.    I. 


146  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

Hie  profligate  A  rational  voluptuary  adheres  with  invariable  respect  to  the 
ate  luxury  temperate  dictates  of  nature,  and  improves  the  gratifications  of 
sense  by  social  intercourse,  endearing  connexions,  and  the  soft 
colouring  of  taste  and  imagination.  But  Elagabalus  (I  speak  of 
the  emperor  of  that  name),  corrupted  by  his  youth,  his  countiy, 
and  his  fortune,  abandoned  himself  to  the  grossest  pleasures 
with  ungovemed  fury,  and  soon  found  disgust  and  satiety  in  the 
midst  of  his  enjoyments.  The  inflammatory  powers  of  art  were 
summoned  to  his  aid  :  the  confused  multitude  of  women,  of 
wines,  and  of  dishes,  and  the  studied  variety  of  attitudes  and 
sauces,  served  to  revive  his  languid  appetites.  New  terms  and 
new  inventions  in  these  sciences,  the  only  ones  cultivated  and 
patronized  by  the  monarch,68  signalized  his  reign,  and  trans- 
mitted his  infamy  to  succeeding  times.  A  capricious  prodigality 
supplied  the  want  of  taste  and  elegance  ;  and,  whilst  Elagabalus 
lavished  away  the  treasures  of  his  people  in  the  wildest  extrava- 
gance, his  own  voice  and  that  of  his  flatterers  applauded  a  spirit 
and  magnificence  unknown  to  the  tameness  of  his  predecessors. 
To  confound  the  order  of  seasons  and  climates,69  to  sport  with 
the  passions  and  prejudices  of  his  subjects,  and  to  subvert  every 
law  of  nature  and  decency,  were  in  the  number  of  his  most 
delicious  amusements.  A  long  train  of  concubines,  and  a  rapid 
succession  of  wives,  among  whom  was  a  vestal  virgin,  ravished 
by  force  from  her  sacred  asylum,70  were  insufficient  to  satisfy  the 
impotence  of  his  passions.  The  master  of  the  Roman  world 
affected  to  copy  the  dress  and  manners  of  the  female  sex,  pre- 
ferred the  distaff"  to  the  sceptre,  and  dishonoured  the  principal 
dignities  of  the  empire  by  distributing  them  among  his  numerous 
lovers';  one  of  whom  was  publicly  invested  with  the  title  and 
authority  of  the  emperor's,  or,  as  he  more  properly  styled 
himself,  of  the  empress's  husband.71 

68  The  invention  of  a  new  sauce  was  liberally  rewarded  :  but  if  it  was  not  relished, 
the  inventor  was  confined  to  eat  of  nothing  else,  till  he  had  discovered  another  more 
agreeable  to  the  Imperial  palate.     Hist.  August,  p.  in  [xvii.  29]. 

69  He  never  would  eat  sea-fish  except  at  a  great  distance  from  the  sea  ;  he  then 
would  distribute  vast  quantities  of  the  rarest  sorts,  brought  at  an  immense  expense, 
to  the  peasants  of  the  inland  country.     Hist.  August,  p.  109  [xvii.  23]. 

70  Dion,  1.  lxxix.  p.  1358  [9].     Herodian,  1.  v.  p.  192  [6]. 

71  Hierocles  enjoyed  that  honour  ;  but  he  would  have  been  supplanted  by  one 
Zoticus,  had  he  not  contrived,  by  a  potion,  to  enervate  the  powers  of  his  rival,  who, 
being  found  on  trial  unequal  to  his  reputation,  was  driven  with  ignominy  from  the 
palace.  Dion,  1.  lxxix.  p.  1363,  1364  [15,  16] .  A  dancer  was  made  prsefect  of 
the  city,  a  charioteer  praefect  of  the  watch,  a  barber  praefect  of  the  provisions. 
These  three  ministers,  with  many  inferior  officers,  were  all  recommended  eiiormi- 
tate  membrorum.     Hist.  August,  p.  105  [xvii.  12]. 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  147 

It  may  seem  probable  the  vices  and  follies  of  Elaa;abalus  have  contempt  of 

■»  *  "  decsncv 

been  adorned  by  fancy  and  blackened  by  prejudice.72     Yet,  con-  which  aistin- 
fininjy  ourselves  to  the  public  scenes  displayed  before  the  Romar>  Roman 

1  i  ii  i  ,..  i      .     tyrants 

people,  and  attested  by  grave  and  contemporary  historians,  their 
inexpressible  infamy  surpasses  that  of  any  other  age  or  country. 
The  licence  of  an  eastern  monarch  is  secluded  from  the  eye  of 
curiosity  by  the  inaccessible  Avails  of  the  seraglio.  The  senti- 
ments of  honour  and  gallantry  have  introduced  a  refinement  of 
pleasure,  a  regard  for  decency,  and  a  respect  for  the  public 
opinion,  into  the  modern  courts  of  Europe  ;  but  the  corrupt  and 
opulent  nobles  of  Rome  gratified  every  vice  that  could  be 
collected  from  the  mighty  conflux  of  nations  and  manners. 
Secure  of  impunity,  careless  of  censure,  they  lived  without  re- 
straint in  the  patient  and  humble  society  of  their  slaves  and 
parasites.  The  emperor,  in  his  turn,  viewing  every  rank  of  his 
subjects  with  the  same  contemptuous  indifference,  asserted 
without  control  his  sovereign  privilege  of  lust  and  luxury. 

The  most  worthless  of  mankind  are  not  afraid  to  condemn  in  5lBC°!£e,?ts of 

the  army 

others  the  same  disorders  which  they  allow  in  themselves  ;  and 
can  readily  discover  some  nice  difference  of  age,  character,  or 
station,  to  justify  the  partial  distinction.  The  licentious  soldiers, 
who  had  raised  to  the  throne  the  dissolute  son  of  Caracalla, 
blushed  at  their  ignominious  choice,  and  turned  with  disgust  from 
that  monster,  to  contemplate  with  pleasure  the  opening  virtues 
of  his  cousin  Alexander,  the  son  of  Mamaea.  The  crafty  Maesa, 
sensible  that  her  grandson  Elagabalus  must  inevitably  destroy 
himself  by  his  own  vices,  had  provided  another  and  surer  sup- 
port of  her  family.  Embracing  a  favourable  moment  of  fondness 
and  devotion,  she  had  persuaded  the  young  emperor  to  adopt 
Alexander,  and  to  invest  him  with  the  title  of  Caesar,  that  his  Alexander 
own  divine  occupations  might  be  no  longer  interrupted  by  the  ^ltreTcasar, 
care  of  the  earth.  In  the  second  rank,  that  amiable  prince  soon 
acquired  the  affections  of  the  public,  and  excited  the  tyrant's 
jealousy,  who  resolved  to  terminate  the  dangerous  competition 
either  by  corrupting  the  manners,  or  by  taking  aAvay  the  life,  of  his 
rival.  His  arts  proved  unsuccessful ;  his  vain  designs  were  con- 
stantly discovered  by  his  own  loquacious  folly,  and  disappointed 
by  those  virtuous  and  faithful  servants  whom  the  prudence  of 
Mamaea  had  placed  about  the  person  of  her  son.  In  a  hasty 
sally  of  passion,  Elagabalus  resolved  to  execute  by  force  what  he 
had  been  unable  to  compass  by  fraud,  and  by  a  despotic  sentence 

72  Even  the  credulous  compiler  of  his  Life,  in  the  Augustan  History  (p.  in  [ti. 
30]),  is  inclined  to  suspect  that  his  vices  may  have  been  exaggerated. 


148  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

degraded  his  cousin  from  the  rank  and  honours  of  Caesar.  The 
message  was  received  in  the  senate  with  silence,  and  in  the 
camp  with  fury.  The  Praetorian  guards  swore  to  protect  Alex- 
ander, and  to  revenge  the  dishonoured  majesty  of  the  throne. 
The  tears  and  promises  of  the  trembling  Elagabalus,  who  only 
begged  them  to  spare  his  life,  and  to  leave  him  in  the  possession 
of  his  beloved  Hierocles,  diverted  their  just  indignation;  and 
they  contented  themselves  with  empowering  their  praefects  to 
watch  over  the  safety  of  Alexander  and  the  conduct  of  the 
emperor.73 
sedition  of  It  was  impossible  that  such  a  reconciliation  should  last,  or  that 

and  murder  of  even  the  mean  soul  of  Elagabalus  could  hold  an  empire  on  such 
Aj£a222,M'  humiliating  terms  of  dependence.  He  soon  attempted,  by  a 
dangei^ous  experiment,  to  try  the  temper  of  the  soldiers.  The 
report  of  the  death  of  Alexander,  and  the  natural  suspicion  that 
he  had  been  murdered,  inflamed  their  passions  into  fury,  and  the 
tempest  of  the  camp  could  only  be  appeased  by  the  presence 
and  authority  of  the  popular  youth.  Provoked  at  this  new  in- 
stance of  their  affection  for  his  cousin,  and  their  contempt  for  his 
person,  the  emperor  ventured  to  punish  some  of  the  leaders  of 
the  mutiny.  His  unseasonable  severity  proved  instantly  fatal  to 
his  minions,  his  mother,  and  himself.  Elagabalus  was  massacred 
by  the  indignant  Praetorians,  his  mutilated  corpse  dragged 
through  the  streets  of  the  city,  and  thrown  into  the  Tiber. 
His  memory  was  branded  with  eternal  mtamy  by  the  senate  ; 
the  justice  of  whose  decree  has  been  ratified  by  posterity.74 
Accession  of  In  the  room  of  Elagabalus,  his  cousin  Alexander  was  raised  to 
te'verus46'  the  throne  by  the  Praetorian  guards.  His  relation  to  the  family 
of  Severus,  whose  name  he  assumed,75  was  the  same  as  that  of 

73  Dion,  1.  lxxix.   p.   1366    [19].     Herodian,  1.   v.    p.   195 201    [8].     Hist. 

August,  p.  105  [xvii.  13].  The  last  of  the  three  historians  [Lampridius]  seems  to 
have  followed  the  best  authors  in  his  account  of  the  revolution.  [His  chief  autho- 
rity was  Marius  Maximus.] 

74  The  aera  of  the  death  of  Elagabalus,  and  of  the  accession  of  Alexander,  has 
employed  the  learning  and  ingenuity  of  Pagi,  Tillemont,  Valsecchi,  Vignoli,  and 
Torre,  bishop  of  Adria.  The  question  is  most  assuredly  intricate  ;  but  I  still  adhere 
to  the  authority  of  Dion,  the  truth  of  whose  calculations  is  undeniable,  and  the 
purity  of  whose  text  is  justified  by  the  agreement  of  Xiphilin,  Zonaras,  and  Ced- 
renus.  Elagabalus  reigned  three  years,  nine  months,  and  four  days,  from  his 
victory  over  Macrinus,  and  was  killed  March  10,  222.  But  what  shall  we  reply  to  the 
medals,  undoubtedly  genuine,  which  reckon  the  fifth  year  of  his  tribunitian  power? 
We  shall  reply,  with  the  learned  Valsecchi,  that  the  usurpation  of  Macrinus  was 
annihilated,  and  that  the  son  of  Caracalla  dated'his  reign  from  his  father's  death. 
After  resolving  this  great  difficulty,  the  smaller  knots  of  this  question  may  be  easily 
untied,  or  cut  asunder.  [Exact  date  uncertain,  but  probably  falls  in  the  first  half 
of  March,  222  ;  cp.,  however,  Clinton,  Fasti Romatti,  i.  234,  236.     Eckhel,  8,  430.] 

75 [M.  Aurelius  Severus  Alexander.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  149 

his  predecessor ;  his  virtue  and  his  danger  had  already  endeared 
him  to  the  Romans,  and  the  eager  liberality  of  the  senate  con- 
ferred upon  him,  in  one  day,  the  various  titles  and  powers  of  the 
Imperial  dignity.76  But,  as  Alexander  was  a  modest  and  dutiful 
youth  of  only  seventeen  years  of  age,  the  reins  of  government 
were  in  the  hands  of  two  women,  of  his  mother  Mamaea,  and  of 
Maesa,  his  grandmother.  After  the  death  of  the  latter,  who 
survived  but  a  short  time  the  elevation  of  Alexander,  Mamaea 
remained  the  sole  regent  of  her  son  and  of  the  empire. 

In  every  age  and  country,  the  wiser,  or  at  least  the  stronger,  Powerofhis 
of  the  two  sexes,  has  usurped  the  powers  of  the  state,  and  con-  Mamaea 
fined  the  other  to  the  cares  and  pleasures  of  domestic  life.  In 
hereditary  monarchies,  however,  and  especially  in  those  of 
modern  Europe,  the  gallant  spirit  of  chivalry,  and  the  law  of 
succession,  have  accustomed  us  to  allow  a  singular  exception  ; 
and  a  woman  is  often  acknowledged  the  absolute  sovereign  of  a 
great  kingdom,  in  which  she  would  be  deemed  incapable  of 
exercising  the  smallest  employment,  civil  or  military.  But  as 
the  Roman  emperors  were  still  considered  as  the  generals  and 
magistrates  of  the  republic,  their  wives  and  mothers,  although 
distinguished  by  the  name  of  Augusta,  were  never  associated  to 
their  personal  honours  ;  and  a  female  reign  would  have  appeared 
an  inexpiable  prodigy  in  the  eyes  of  those  primitive  Romans, 
who  married  without  love,  or  loved  without  delicacy  and  re- 
spect.77 The  haughty  Agrippina  aspired,  indeed,  to  share  the 
honours  of  the  empire,  which  she  had  conferred  on  her  son ;  but 
her  mad  ambition,  detested  by  every  citizen  who  felt  for  the 
dignity  of  Rome,  was  disappointed  by  the  artful  firmness  of 
Seneca  and  Burrhus.78  The  good  sense,  or  the  indifference,  of 
succeeding  princes,  restrained  them  from  offending  the  prejudices 
of  their  subjects;  and  it  was  reserved  for  the  profligate  Elagabalus 
to  disgrace  the  acts  of  the  senate  with  the  name  of  his  mother 
Soaemias,  who  was  placed  by  the  side  of  the  consuls,  and  sub- 
scribed, as  a  regular  member,  the  decrees  of  the  legislative 
assembly.     Her  more  prudent  sister,  Mamaea,  declined  the  use- 

76  Hist.  August,  p.  114.  [xvii.  i].  By  this  unusual  precipitation,  the  senate 
meant  to  confound  the  hopes  of  pretenders,  and  prevent  the  factions  of  the 
armies. 

77  Metellus  Numidicus,  the  censor,  acknowledged  to  the  Roman  people,  in  a 
public  oration,  that,  had  kind  Nature  allowed  us  to  exist  without  the  help  ol  woman, 
we  should  be  delivered  from  a  very  troublesome  companion  ;  and  he  could  recom- 
mend matrimony  only  as  the  sacrifice  of  private  pleasure  to  public  duty.  Aulus 
Gellius,  i.  6. 

78  Tacit.  Annal.  xiii.  5.  [After  Agrippina,  the  title  Augusta  had  no  political 
significance.] 


150 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


\V:ce  and 
moderate  ad- 

K_ir_istration 


Education 
and  virtuous 
temper  of 
Alexander 


less  and  odious  prerogative,  and  a  solemn  law  was  enacted, 
excluding  women  for  ever  from  the  senate,  and  devoting  to  the 
infernal  gods  the  head  of  the  wretch  by  whom  this  sanction 
should  be  violated.79  The  substance,  not  the  pageantry,  of 
power  was  the  object  of  Mamaea' s  manly  ambition.  She  main- 
tained  an  absolute  and  lasting  empire  over  the  mind  of  her  son, 
and  in  his  affection  the  mother  could  not  brook  a  rival.  Alex- 
ander, with  her  consent,  married  the  daughter  of  a  Patrician;80 
but  his  respect  for  his  father-in-law,  and  love  for  the  empress, 
were  inconsistent  with  the  tenderness  or  interest  of  Mamaea. 
The  patrician  was  executed  on  the  ready  accusation  of  treason, 
and  the  wife  of  Alexander  driven  with  ignominy  from  the 
palace,  and  banished  into  Africa.si 

Notwithstanding  this  act  of  jealous  cruelty,  as  well  as  some 
instances  of  avarice,  with  which  Mamaea  is  charged,  the  general 
tenor  of  her  administration  was  equally  for  the  benefit  of  her 
son  and  of  the  empire.  With  the  approbation  of  the  senate,  she 
chose  sixteen  of  the  wisest  and  most  virtuous  senators,  as  a  per- 
petual council  of  state,  before  whom  every  public  business  of 
moment  was  debated  and  determined.  The  celebrated  Ulpian, 
equally  distinguished  b}r  his  knowledge  of,  and  his  respect  for, 
the  laws  of  Rome,  was  at  their  head  ;  and  the  prudent  firmness 
of  this  aristocracy  restored  order  and  authority  to  the  govern- 
ment. As  soon  as  they  had  purged  the  city  from  foreign  super- 
stition and  luxury,  the  remains  of  the  capricious  tyranny  of 
Elagabalus,  they  applied  themselves  to  remove  his  worthless 
creatures  from  every  department  of  public  administration,  and 
to  supply  their  places  with  men  of  virtue  and  ability.  Learning, 
and  the  love  of  justice,  became  the  only  recommendations  for 
civil  offices ;  valour,  and  the  love  of  discipline,  the  only 
qualifications  for  military  employments.82 

But  the  most  important  care  of  Mamaea  and  her  wise  coun- 

79  Hist.  August,  p.  102,  107  [xvii.  4  and  18]. 

80  [Sallustia  Barbia  Orbiana,  daughter  of  Sallustius  Macrinus,  who  conspired 
against  the  life  of  Alexander.  Gibbon  is  too  ready  to  assume  that  Mamaea  was  to 
blame.] 

81  Dion,  1.  lxxx.  p.  1369  [2].  Herodian,  1.  vi.  p.  206  [1].  Hist.  August,  p. 
131  [xviii.  49].  Herodian  represents  the  patrician  as  innocent.  The  Augustan 
History,  on  the  authority  of  Dexippus,  condemns  him  as  guilty  of  a  conspiracy 
against  the  life  of  Alexander.  It  is  impossible  to  pronounce  between  them  :  but 
Dion  is  an  irreproachable  witness  of  the  jealousy  and  cruelty  of  Mamasa  towards 
the  young  empress,  whose  hard  fate  Alexander  lamented,  but  durst  not  oppose. 

8-  Herodian,  1.  vi.  p.  203  [1].  Hist.  August,  p.  119  [xviii.  15].  The  latter 
insinuates  that,  when  any  law  was  to  be  passed,  the  council  was  assisted  by  a 
number  of  able  lawyers  and  experienced  senators,  whose  opinions  were  separately 
given  and  taken  down  in  writing. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  151 

sellors  was  to  form  the  character  of  the  young  emperor,  on  whose 
personal  qualities  the  happiness  or  misery  of  the  Roman  world 
must  ultimately  depend.  The  fortunate  soil  assisted,  and  even 
prevented,  the  hand  of  cultivation.  An  excellent  understanding 
soon  convinced  Alexander  of  the  advantages  of  virtue,  the  plea- 
sure of  knowledge,  and  the  necessity  of  labour.  A  natural 
mildness  and  moderation  of  temper  preserved  him  from  the 
assaults  of  passion  and  the  allurements  of  vice.  His  unalterable 
regard  for  his  mother,  and  his  esteem  for  the  wise  Ulpian, 
guarded  his  unexperienced  youth  from  the  poison  of  flattery. 

The  simple  journal  of  his  ordinary  occupations  exhibits  a  journal  onus 
pleasing  picture  of  an  accomplished  emperor,sa  and,  with  some  °r  n*ry 
allowance  for  the  difference  of  manners,  might  well  deserve  the 
imitation  of  modern  princes.  Alexander  rose  early ;  the  first 
moments  of  the  day  were  consecrated  to  private  devotion,  and 
his  domestic  chapel  was  filled  with  the  images  of  those  heroes 
who,  by  improving  or  reforming  human  life,  had  deserved  the 
grateful  reverence  of  posterity.  But,  as  he  deemed  the  service 
of  mankind  the  most  acceptable  worship  of  the  gods,  the 
greatest  part  of  his  morning  hours  Mas  employed  in  his  council, 
where  he  discussed  public  affairs,  and  determined  private  causes, 
with  a  patience  and  discretion  above  his  years.  The  dryness  of 
business  was  relieved  by  the  charms  of  litei*ature  ;  and  a  portion 
of  time  was  always  set  apart  for  his  favourite  studies  of  poetry, 
history,  and  philosophy.  The  works  of  Virgil  and  Horace,  the 
republics  of  Plato  and  Cicero,  formed  his  taste,  enlarged  his 
understanding,  and  gave  him  the  noblest  ideas  of  man  and 
government.  The  exercises  of  the  body  succeeded  to  those  of 
the  mind ;  and  Alexander,  who  was  tall,  active,  and  robust,  sur- 
passed most  of  his  equals  in  the  gymnastic  arts.  Refreshed  by 
the  use  of  the  bath  and  a  slight  dinner,  he  resumed,  with  new 
vigour,  the  business  of  the  day,  and,  till  the  hour  of  supper,  the 
pi-incipal  meal  of  the  Romans,  he  was  attended  by  his  secretaries, 
with  whom  he  read  and  answered  the  multitude  of  letters, 
memorials,  and  petitions,  that  must  have  been  addressed  to  the 
master  of  the  greatest  part  of  the  world.  His  table  was  served 
with  the  most  frugal  simplicity  ;  and,  whenever  he  was  at  liberty 
to  consult  his  own  inclination,  the  company  consisted  of  a  few 
select  friends,  men  of  learning  and  virtue,  amongst  whom  Ulpian 
was   constantly  invited.       Their  conversation  was  familiar  and 

83  See  his  life  in  the  Augustan  History.  The  undistinguishing  compiler  has 
buried  these  interesting  anecdotes  under  a  load  of  trivial  and  unmeaning  circum- 
stances. 


152  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

instructive  ;  and  the  pauses  were  occasionally  enlivened  by  the 
recital  of  some  pleasing  composition,  which  supplied  the  place 
of  the  dancers,  comedians,  and  even  gladiators,  so  frequently 
summoned  to  the  tables  of  the  rich  and  luxurious  Romans.84 
The  dress  of  Alexander  was  plain  and  modest,  his  demeanour 
courteous  and  affable  :  at  the  proper  hours  his  palace  was  open 
to  all  his  subjects,  but  the  voice  of  a  crier  was  heard,  as  in  the 
Eleusinian  mysteries,  pronouncing  the  same  salutary  admonition  : 
"Let  none  enter  these  holy  walls,  unless  he  is  conscious  of  a 
pure  and  innocent  mind  ",85 
General  hap-  Such  an  uniform  tenor  of  life,  which  left  not  a  moment  for  vice 
Lnm"n°woried,  or  folly,  is  a  better  proof  of  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  Alexander's 
government  than  all  the  trifling  details  preserved  in  the  com- 
pilation of  Lampridius.  Since  the  accession  of  Commodus  the 
Roman  world  had  experienced,  during  a  term  of  forty  years,  the 
successive  and  various  vices  of  four  tyrants.  From  the  death  of 
Elagabalus  it  enjoyed  an  auspicious  calm  of  thirteen  years.  The 
provinces,  relieved  from  the  oppressive  taxes  invented  by 
Caracalla  and  his  pretended  son,  flourished  in  peace  and  pros- 
perity under  the  administration  of  magistrates,  who  were  con- 
vinced by  experience  that  to  deserve  the  love  of  the  subjects 
was  their  best  and  only  method  of  obtaining  the  favour  of  their 
sovereign.  While  some  gentle  restraints  were  imposed  on  the 
innocent  luxury  of  the  Roman  people,  the  price  of  provisions 
and  the  interest  of  money  were  reduced  by  the  paternal  care 
of  Alexander,  whose  prudent  liberality,  without  distressing  the 
industrious,  supplied  the  wants  and  amusements  of  the  populace. 
The  dignity,  the  freedom,  the  authority  of  the  senate  was 
restored ;  and  every  virtuous  senator  might  approach  the  person 
of  the  emperor  without  a  fear  and  without  a  blush. 
Aievander  re-  The  name  of  Antoninus,  ennobled  by  the  virtues  of  Pius  and 
or Antoninvu*  Marcus,  had  been  communicated  by  adoption  to  the  dissolute 
Verus,  and  by  descent  to  the  cruel  Commodus.  It  became  the 
honourable  appellation  of  the  sons  of  Severus,  was  bestowed  on 
young  Diadumenianus,  and  at  length  prostituted  to  the  infamy 
of  the  high  priest  of  Emesa.  Alexander,  though  pressed  by  the 
studied,  and  perhaps  sincere,  importunity  of  the  senate,  nobly 
refused  the  borrowed  lustre  of  a  name ;  whilst  in  his  whole  con- 
duct he  laboured  to  restore  the  glories  and  felicity  of  the  age  of 
the  genuine  Antonines.80 

M  See  the  13th  Satire  of  Juvenal.  8B  Hist.  August,  p.  119  [xviii.  18]. 

86  See  in  the  Hist.  August,  p.  116,  117  [xviii.  6-11],  the  whole  contest  between 
Alexander  and   the  senate,   extracted   from   the  journals   of  that   assembly.     It 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  153 

In  the  civil  administration  of  Alexander,  wisdom  was  en-  h«  attempts 
forced  by  power,  and  the  people,  sensible  of  the  public  felicity,  ther?JmT 
repaid  their  benefactor  with  their  love  and  gratitude.  There 
still  remained  a  greater,  a  more  necessary,  but  a  more  difficult 
enterprise  :  the  reformation  of  the  military  order,  whose  interest 
and  temper,  confirmed  by  long  impunity,  rendered  them  im- 
patient of  the  restraints  of  discipline,  and  careless  of  the  blessings 
of  public  tranquillity.  In  the  execution  of  his  design  the 
emperor  affected  to  display  his  love,  and  to  conceal  his  fear,  of 
the  army.  The  most  rigid  economy  in  every  other  branch  of 
the  administration  supplied  a  fund  of  gold  and  silver  for  the 
ordinary  pay  and  the  extraordinary  rewards  of  the  troops.  In 
their  marches  he  relaxed  the  severe  obligation  of  carrying 
seventeen  days'  provision  on  their  shoulders.  Ample  magazines 
were  formed  along  the  public  roads,  and  as  soon  as  they  entered 
the  enemy's  country,  a  numerous  train  of  mules  and  camels 
waited  on  their  haughty  laziness.  As  Alexander  despaired  of 
correcting  the  luxury  of  his  soldiers,  he  attempted,  at  least,  to 
direct  it  to  objects  of  martial  pomp  and  ornament,  fine  horses, 
splendid  armour,  and  shields  enriched  with  silver  and  gold.  He 
shared  whatever  fatigues  he  was  obliged  to  impose,  visited,  in 
person,  the  sick  and  wounded,  preserved  an  exact  register  of 
their  services  and  his  own  gratitude,  and  expressed,  on  every 
occasion,  the  warmest  regard  for  a  body  of  men,  whose  welfare, 
as  he  affected  to  declare,  was  so  closely  connected  with  that  of 
the  state.87  By  the  most  gentle  arts  he  laboured  to  inspire  the 
fierce  multitude  with  a  sense  of  duty,  and  to  restore  at  least  a 
faint  image  of  that  discipline  to  Avhich  the  Romans  owed  their 
empire  over  so  many  other  nations,  as  warlike  and  more  power- 
ful than  themselves.  But  his  prudence  was  vain,  his  courage 
fatal,  and  the  attempt  towards  a  reformation  served  only  to 
inflame  the  ills  it  was  meant  to  cure. 

The  Praetorian  guards  were  attached  to  the  youth  of  Alexander,  ssdittons 
They  loved  him  as  a  tender  pupil,  whom  they  had  saved  from  a  torian  guards, 
tyrant's  fury,  and  placed  on  the  Imperial  throne.     That  amiable  onnpun" 
prince  was  sensible  of  the  obligation ;  but,  as  his  gratitude  was 
restrained    within  the  limits  of  reason   and  justice,  they  soon 
were  more  dissatisfied  with  the  virtues  of  Alexander  than  they 

happened  on  the  sixth  of  March,  probably  of  the  year  223,  when  the  Romans  had 
enjoyed,  almost  a  twelvemonth,  the  blessings  of  his  reign.  Before  the  appellation 
of  Antoninus  was  offered  him  as  a  title  of  honour,  the  senate  waited  to  see  whether 
Alexander  would  not  assume  it  as  a  family  name. 

87  It  was  a  favourite  saying  of  the  emperor's,  Se  milites  magis  servare,  quam 
seipsum  ;  quod  salus  publica  in  his  esset.  Hist.  August,  p.  130  [xviii.  47]. 


154  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

had  ever  been  with  the  vices  of  Elagabalus.  Their  praefect,  the 
wise  Ulpian,  was  the  friend  of  the  laws  and  of  the  people  ;  he 
was  considered  as  the  enemy  of  the  soldiers,  and  to  his  per- 
nicious counsels  every  scheme  of  reformation  was  imputed. 
Some  trifling  accident  blew  up  their  discontent  into  a  furious 
mutiny  ;  and  a  civil  war  raged,  during  three  days,  in  Rome, 
whilst  the  life  of  that  excellent  minister  was  defended  by  the 
grateful  people. S8  Terrified,  at  length,  by  the  sight  of  some 
houses  in  flames,  and  by  the  threats  of  a  general  conflagration, 
the  people  yielded  with  a  sigh,  and  left  the  virtuous  but  un- 
fortunate Ulpian  to  his  fate.  He  was  pursued  into  the  Imperial 
palace,  and  massacred  at  the  feet  of  his  master,  who  vainly  strove 
to  cover  him  with  the  purple,  and  to  obtain  his  pardon  from  the 
inexorable  soldiers.  Such  was  the  deploi'able  weakness  of 
government  that  the  emperor  was  unable  to  revenge  his 
murdered  friend  and  his  insulted  dignity,  without  stooping  to 
the  arts  of  patience  and  dissimulation.  Epagathus,  the  principal 
leader  of  the  mutiny,  was  removed  from  Rome,  by  the  honour- 
able employment  of  praefect  of  Egypt ;  from  that  high  rank  he 
was  gently  degraded  to  the  government  of  Crete ;  and  when, 
at  length,  his  popularity  among  the  guards  was  effaced  by  time 
and  absence,  Alexander  ventured  to  inflict  the  tardy,  but 
deserved,  punishment  of  his  crimes.89  Under  the  reign  of  a  just 
and  virtuous  prince,  the  tyranny  of  the  army  threatened  with 
instant  death  his  most  faithful  ministers,  who  were  suspected 
of  an  intention  to  correct  their  intolerable  disorders.  The 
ranker  of      historian  Dion  Cassius  had  commanded  the  Pannonian  legions 

Dion  Cassius  ,  ,  ° 

with  the  spirit  ot  ancient  discipline.  Lheir  brethren  or  Rome, 
embracing  the  common  cause  of  military  licence,  demanded  the 
head  of  the  reformer.  Alexander,  however,  instead  of  yielding 
to  their  seditious  clamours,  showed  a  just  sense  of  his  merit  and 
services,  by  appointing  him  his  colleague  in  the  consulship, 
and  defraying  from  his  own  treasury  the  expense  of  that  vain 
dignity ;  but,  as  it  was  justly  apprehended  that  if  the  soldiers 
beheld  him  with  the  ensigns  of  his  office  they  would  revenge 

88  [Gibbon  has  fallen  into  error  by  confusing  different  occasions.  There  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  Ulpian's  life  was  in  danger  during  the  street  battles  be- 
tween the  populace  and  guards.  They  disobeyed  his  discipline  then,  but  it  was  in 
a  later  mutiny,  directed  against  himself,  that  he  was  slain.  See  Zonaras,  xii.  15, 
and  Dion,  lxxx.  2.] 

89  Though  the  author  of  the  life  of  Alexander  (Hist.  August,  p.  132  [xviii.  51]), 
mentions  the  sedition  raised  against  Ulpian  by  the  soldiers,  he  conceals  the 
catastrophe,  as  it  might  discover  a  weakness  in  the  administration  of  his  hero. 
From  this  designed  omission,  we  may  judge  of  the  weight  and  candour  of  that 
author. 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIRE  155 

the  insult  in  his  blood,  the  nominal  first  magistrate  of  the  states 
retired,  by  the  emperor's  advice,  from  the  city,  and  spent  the 
greatest  part  of  his  consulship  at  his  villas  in  Campania.90 

The  lenity    of  the  emperor  confirmed  the   insolence  of  the  Tumults  of 
troops;   the  legions  imitated  the   example   of  the  guards,  and  theleglons 
defended    their    prerogative    of  licentiousness    with    the    same 
furious    obstinacy.       The    administration    of  Alexander  was   an 
unavailing    struggle    against    the    corruption    of    his    age.       In 
Illyricum,     in     Mauritania,    in     Armenia,     in     Mesopotamia,    in 
Germany,  fresh  mutinies  perpetually  broke  out ;  his  officers  were 
murdered,    his    authority    was    insulted,    and    his    life    at    last 
sacrificed  to  the  fierce  discontents  of  the  army.91    One  particular  Firmness  of 
fact  well  deserves  to  be  recorded,  as  it  illustrates  the  manners  of  the  emperor 
the  troops,  and  exhibits  a  singular  instance  of  their  return  to  a 
sense  of  duty  and  obedience.     Whilst  the  emperor  lay  at  Antioch, 
in  his   Persian   expedition,   the  particulars   of  which  we    shall 
hereafter  relate,  the  punishment  of  some  soldiers,  who  had  been 
discovered  in  the  baths  of  women,   excited  a  sedition  in   the 
legion    to    which    they    belonged.       Alexander    ascended    his 
tribunal,  and  with  a  modest  firmness  represented  to  the  armed 
multitude  the  absolute  necessity,  as  well  as  his  inflexible  resolu- 
tion, of  correcting  the  vices  introduced  by  his  impure  predecessor, 
and  of  maintaining  the  discipline,  which  could  not  be  relaxed 
without    the    ruin    of    the    Roman   name    and    empire.     Their 
clamours  interrupted    his    mild    expostulation.     "  Reserve  your 
shouts,"  said  the  undaunted  emperor,   "  till  you  take  the  field 
against  the   Persians,  the   Germans,    and    the   Sarmatians.     Be 
silent  in  the  presence  of  your  sovereign  and  benefactor,   who 
bestows  upon  you  the  corn,  the  clothing,  and  the  money  of  the 
provinces.     Be  silent,  or  I  shall  no  longer  style  you  soldiers,  but 
citizens,9'2  if  those  indeed  who  disclaim  the  laws  of  Rome  deserve 
to  be  ranked  among  the  meanest  of  the  people."     His  menaces 
inflamed  the  fury  of  the  legion,  and  their  brandished  arms  al- 
ready   threatened    his    person.     "Your  courage,"   resumed  the 

30  For  an  account  of  Ulpian's  fate  and  his  own  danger,  see  the  mutilated  con- 
clusion of  Dion's  History,  1.  lxxx.  p.  1371  [4]. 

91  Annotat.  Reimar.  ad  Dion  Cassius,  1.  lxxx.  p.  1369  [2]. 

93  Julius  Csesar  had  appeased  a  sedition  with  the  same  word,  Quirites :  which, 
thus  opposed  to  Soldiers,  was  used  in  a  sense  of  contempt,  and  reduced  the 
offenders  to  the  less  honourable  condition  of  mere  citizens.  Tacit.  Annal.  i.  43. 
[The  truth  of  this  anecdote  of  Alexander's  firmness  has  been  suspected  by  recent 
historians,  and  Schiller  suggests  that  it  may  have  been  due  to  the  ambiguity  of  the 
name  Severus.  It  is  clear  that,  if  the  story  is  true,  Alexander  was  consciously  imi- 
tating Julius.] 


156  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

intrepid  Alexander,  "would  be  more  nobly  displayed  in  the  field 
of  battle  ;  me  you  may  destroy,  you  cannot  intimidate  ;  and  the 
severe  justice  of  the  republic  would  punish  your  crime  and 
revenge  my  death."  The  legion  still  persisted  in  clamorous 
sedition,  when  the  emperor  pronounced,  with  a  loud  voice,  the 
decisive  sentence,  "  Citizens !  lay  down  your  arms,  and  depart 
in  peace  to  your  respective  habitations ".  The  tempest  was 
instantly  appeased ;  the  soldiers,  filled  with  grief  and  shame, 
silently  confessed  the  justice  of  their  punishment  and  the 
power  of  discipline,  yielded  up  their  arms  and  military  ensigns, 
and  retired  in  confusion,  not  to  their  camp,  but  to  the  several 
inns  of  the  city.  Alexander  enjoyed,  during  thirty  days,  the 
edifying  spectacle  of  their  repentance  ;  nor  did  he  restore  them 
to  their  former  rank  in  the  army,  till  he  had  punished  with 
death  those  tribunes  whose  connivance  had  occasioned  the 
mutiny.  The  grateful  legion  served  the  emperor  whilst  living, 
and  revenged  him  when  dead.93 

The  resolutions  of  the  multitude  generally  depend  on  a 
moment  ;  and  the  caprice  of  passion  might  equally  determine 
the  seditious  legion  to  lay  down  their  arms  at  the  emperor's  feet, 
or  to  plunge  them  into  his  breast.  Perhaps,  if  the  singular 
transaction  had  been  investigated  by  the  penetration  of  a 
philosopher,  we  should  discover  the  secret  causes  which  on  that 
occasion  authorized  the  boldness  of  the  prince  and  commanded 
the  obedience  of  the  troops  ;  and  perhaps,  if  it  had  been  related 
by  a  judicious  historian,  we  should  find  this  action,  worthy  of 
Caesar  himself,  reduced  nearer  to  the  level  of  probability  and  the 
common  standard  of  the  character  of  Alexander  Severus.  The 
abilities  of  that  amiable  prince  seem  to  have  been  inadequate  to 
the  difficulties  of  his  situation,  the  firmness  of  his  conduct 
inferior  to  the  purity  of  his  intentions.  His  virtues,  as  well  as 
the  vices  of  Elagabalus,  contracted  a  tincture  of  weakness  and 
effeminacy  from  the  soft  climate  of  Syria,  of  which  he  was  a 
native  ;  though  he  blushed  at  his  foreign  origin,  and  listened 
with  a  vain  complacency  to  the  flattering  genealogists,  who 
derived  his  race  from  the  ancient  stock  of  Roman  nobility.94 
The  pride  and  avarice  of  his  mother  cast  a  shade  on  the  glories 
of  his  reign  ;  and  by  exacting  from  his  riper  years  the  same 
dutiful  obedience  which  she  had  justly  claimed  from  his  unex- 

93  Hist.  August,  p.  132  [xviii.  54]. 

91  From  the  Metelli.  Hist.  August,  p.  129  [xviii.  44].  The  choice  was  judici- 
ous. In  one  short  period  of  twelve  years,  the  Metelli  could  reckon  seven  consul- 
ships, and  five  triumphs.     See  Velleius  Paterculus,  ii.  11,  and  the  Fasti. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  157 

perienced  youth,  Mamaea  exposed  to  public  ridicule  both  her 
son's  character  and  her  own.95  The  fatigues  of  the  Persian  war 
irritated  the  military  discontent ;  the  unsuccessful  event  de- 
graded the  reputation  of  the  emperor  as  a  general,  and  even 
as  a  soldier.  Every  cause  prepared,  and  every  circumstance 
hastened,  a  revolution,  which  distracted  the  Roman  empire  with 
a  long  series  of  intestine  calamities. 

The  dissolute  tyranny  of  Commodus,  the  civil  wars  occasioned  Digression  on 
by  his  death,  and  the  new  maxims  of  policy  introduced  by  the  the  empire 
house  of  Severus,  had  all  contributed  to  increase  the  dangerous 
power  of  the  army,  and  to  obliterate  the  faint  image  of  laws 
and  liberty  that  was  still  impressed  on  the  minds  of  the  Romans. 
This  internal  change,  which  undermined  the  foundations  of 
the  empire,  we  have  endeavoured  to  explain  with  some  degree 
of  order  and  perspicuity.  The  personal  characters  of  the 
emperors,  their  victories,  laws,  follies  and  fortunes,  can  interest 
us  no  further  than  as  they  are  connected  with  the  general 
history  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  monarchy.  Our  constant 
attention  to  that  great  object  will  not  suffer  us  to  overlook  a 
most  important  edict  of  Antoninus  Caracalla,  which  communi- 
cated to  all  the  free  inhabitants  of  the  empire  the  name  and 
privileges  of  Roman  citizens.  His  unbounded  liberality  flowed 
not,  however,  from  the  sentiments  of  a  generous  mind  ;  it  was 
the  sordid  result  of  avarice,96  and  will  naturally  be  illustrated 
by  some  observations  on  the  finances  of  that  state,  from  the 
victorious  ages  of  the  commonwealth  to  the  reign  of  Alexander 
Severus. 

The  siege  of  Veii  in  Tuscany,  the  first  considerable  enterprise  Estawuh- 
of  the  Romans,  was  protracted  to  the  tenth  year,  much  less  by  "" 
the    strength   of  the    place    than   by  the  unskilfulness    of  the 
besiegers.      The   unaccustomed    hardships    of  so   many   winter 

95  The  life  of  Alexander,  in  the  Augustan  History,  is  the  mere  idea  of  a  perfect 
prince,  an  awkward  imitation  of  the  Cyropasdia.  The  account  of  his  reign,  as 
given  by  Herodian,  is  rational  and  moderate,  consistent  with  the  general  history  of 
the  age  ;  and,  in  some  of  the  most  invidious  particulars,  confirmed  by  the  decisive 
fragments  of  Dion.  Yet  from  a  very  paltry  prejudice,  the  greater  number  of  our 
modern  writers  abuse  Herodian,  and  copy  the  Augustan  History.  See  Mess,  de 
Tillemont  and  Wotton.  From  the  opposite  prejudice,  the  Emperor  Julian  (in 
Csesarib.  p.  315)  dwells  with  a  visible  satisfaction  on  the  effeminate  weakness  of 
the  Syrian,  and  the  ridiculous  avarice  of  his  mother. 

96  [Schiller  is  possibly  right  in  his  view  (i.  751)  that  military,  not  financial,  con- 
siderations were  the  chief  motive  in  determining  Caracalla's  edict.  Italy  was  no 
longer  able  to  recruit  the  legions,  and  the  auxilia  were  gradually  taking  their  place, 
while  the  Germans  were  stepping  into  the  place  of  the  auxilia.  The  extension  of 
citizenship  was  also  expedient,  in  face  of  the  barbarians  who  were  pressing  into  the 
empire.] 


158  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

campaigns,  at  the  distance  of  near  twenty  miles  from  home,07 
required  more  than  common  encouragements ;  and  the  senate 
wisely  prevented  the  clamours  of  the  people,  by  the  institution 
of  a  regular  pay  for  the  soldiers,  which  was  levied  by  a  general 
tribute,  assessed  according  to  an  equitable  proportion  on  the 
property  of  the  citizens.93  During  more  than  two  hundred 
years  after  the  conquest  of  Veii,  the  victories  of  the  republic 
added  less  to  the  wealth  than  to  the  power  of  Rome.  The 
states  of  Italy  paid  their  tribute  in  military  service  only,  and  the 
vast  force,  both  by  sea  and  land,  which  was  exerted  in  the 
Punic  wars,  was  maintained  at  the  expense  of  the  Romans  them- 
selves. That  high-spirited  people  (such  is  often  the  generous 
enthusiasm  of  freedom)  cheerfully  submitted  to  the  most 
excessive  but  voluntary  burdens,  in  the  just  confidence  that  they 
should  speedily  enjoy  the  rich  harvest  of  their  labours.  Their 
expectations  were  not  disappointed.  In  the  course  of  a  few 
and  !\tPiition  vears,  the  riches  of  Syracuse,  of  Carthage,  of  Macedonia,  and  of 
SnRomrnUte  Asia,  were  brought  in  triumph  to  Rome.  The  treasures  of 
citizen*  Perseus  alone  amounted  to  near  two  millions  sterling,  and  the 
Roman  people,  the  sovereign  of  so  many  nations,  was  for  ever 
delivered  from  the  weight  of  taxes.09  The  increasing  revenue 
of  the  provinces  was  found  sufficient  to  defray  the  ordinary 
establishment  of  war  and  government,  and  the  superfluous  mass 
of  gold  and  silver  was  deposited  in  the  temple  of  Saturn,  and 
reserved  for  any  unforeseen  emergency  of  the  state.100 
Tnbntes  of  History  has  never  perhaps  suffered  a  greater  or  more  irrepar- 
the  provinces  akie  injury  than  in  the  loss  of  that  curious  register  bequeathed 
by  Augustus  to  the  senate,  in  which  that  experienced  prince  so 
accurately  balanced  the  revenues  and  expenses  of  the  Roman 
empire.101  Deprived  of  this  clear  and  comprehensive  estimate, 
we  are  reduced  to  collect  a  few  imperfect  hints  from  such  of  the 

97  According  to  the  more  accurate  Dionysius,  the  city  itself  was  only  an  hundred 
stadia,  or  twelve  miles  and  a  half  from  Rome;  though  some  out-posts  might  be 
advanced  farther  on  the  side  of  Etruria.  Nardini,  in  a  professed  treatise,  has  com- 
bated the  popular  opinion  and  the  authority  of  two  popes,  and  has  removed  Veii 
from  Civita  Castellana,  to  a  little  spot  called  Isola,  in  the  midway  between  Rome 
and  the  lake  Bracciano. 

9S  See  the  4th  [c.  59]  and  5th  [c.  7]  books  of  Livy.  In  the  Roman  census,  pro- 
perty, power  and  taxation,  were  commensurate  with  each  other. 

99  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  1.  xxxiii.  c.  3.  Cicero  de  Officiis,  ii.  22.  Plutarch,  in  P. 
iEmil.  p.  275  [38]. 

100  See  a  fine  description  of  this  accumulated  wealth  of  ages,  in  Lucan's  Phars. 
L  iii.  v.  155,  &c. 

101  Tacit,  in  Annal.  i.  11.  It  seems  to  have  existed  in  the  time  of  Appian.  [The 
Breviarium  Imperii ;  cp.  Dion,  lvi.  33.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  159 

ancients  as  have  accidently  turned  aside  from  the  splendid  to 
the  more  useful  parts  of  history.     We  are  informed  that,  by  the  of  Asia 
conquests   of  Pompey,  the  tributes  of  Asia   were  raised    from 
fifty  to  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  millions  of  drachms,  or  about 
four  millions  and  a  half  sterling.102     Under  the  last  and  most  ofEgjrpt 
indolent  of  the  Ptolemies,  the  revenue  of  Egypt  is  said  to  have 
amounted    to    twelve    thousand    five    hundred   talents ;    a  sum 
equivalent  to  more  than  two  millions  and  a  half  of  our  money, 
but  which  was  afterwards  considerably  improved  by  the  more 
exact  economy  of  the  Romans,  and  the  increase  of  the  trade  of 
Ethiopia  and  India.103     Gaul  was  enriched  by  rapine,  as  Egypt  of0*111 
was  by  commerce,  and  the  tributes  of  those  two  great  provinces 
have  been  compared  as  nearly  equal  to  each  other  in  value.104  The  of  Africa 
ten  thousand  Euboic  or  Phoenician  talents,  about  four  millions 
sterling,105  which  vanquished  Carthage  was  condemned  to  pay 
within  the  term  of  fifty  years,  were  a  slight  acknowledgment  of 
the  superiority  of  Rome,106  and  cannot  bear  the  least  proportion 
with  the  taxes  afterwards  raised  both  on  the  lands  and  on  the 
persons  of  the  inhabitants,  when  the  fertile  coast  of  Africa  was 
reduced  into  a  province.107 

Spain,  by  a  very  singular  fatality,  was  the  Peru  and  Mexico  of  Spain 
of  the  old  world.  The  discovery  of  the  rich  western  continent 
by  the  Phoenicians,  and  the  oppression  of  the  simple  natives,  who 
were  compelled  to  labour  in  their  own  mines  for  the  benefit  of 
strangers,  form  an  exact  type  of  the  more  recent  history  of 
Spanish  America.10S  The  Phoenicians  were  acquainted  only 
with  the  sea  coast  of  Spain  ;  avarice  as  well  as  ambition  carried 
the  arms  of  Rome  and  Carthage  into  the  heart  of  the  country, 
and  almost  every  part  of  the  soil  was  found  pregnant  with 
copper,  silver,  and  gold.  Mention  is  made  of  a  mine  near 
Carthagena  which  yielded  every  day  twenty-five  thousand 
drachms  of  silver,  or  about  three  hundred  thousand  pounds  a 

102  Plutarch,  in  Pompeio,  p.  642  [45.  There  is  little  doubt  that  Plutarch  means 
they  were  raised  to  eighty-five  millions.] 

103  Strabo,  1.  xvii.  p.  798. 

104  Velleius  Paterculus,  1.  ii.  c.  30.  He  seems  to  give  the  preference  to  the  revenue 
of  Gaul.  .  si 

lo;i  The  Euboic,  the  Phoenician,  and  Alexandrian  talents,  were  double  in  weight 
to  the  Attic.  See  Hooper  on  ancient  weights  and  measures,  p.  iv.  c.  5.  It  is  very 
probable  that  the  same  talent  was  carried  from  Tyre  to  Carthage.  [The  ratio  of 
the  Euboic  to  the  Attic  talent  after  the  time  of  Solon  was  about  4  to  3.] 

ws  Polyb.  1.  xv.  c.  2. 

107Appian  in  Punicis,  p.  84. 

308  Diodorus  Siculus,  1.  v.  [37].  Cadiz  was  built  by  the  Phoenicians  a  little  more 
than  a  thousand  years  before  Christ.     See  Veil.  PatRrcul.  i.  a. 


160  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

year.109  Twenty  thousand  pounds  weight  of  gold  was  annually 
received  from  the  provinces  of  Asturia,  Gallicia,  and  Lusi- 
tania.110 

We  want  both  leisure  and  materials  to  pursue  this  curious 
inquiry  through  the  many  potent  states  that  were  annihilated  in 
the  Roman  empire.  Some  notion,  however,  may  be  formed  of 
the  revenue  of  the  provinces  where  considerable  wealth  had 
been  deposited  by  nature,  or  collected  by  man,  if  we  observe  the 
severe  attention  that  was  directed  to  the  abodes  of  solitude  and 
sterility.  Augustus  once  received  a  petition  from  the  inhabitants 
of  Gyarus,  humbly  praying  that  they  might  be  relieved  from 
one  third  of  their  excessive  impositions.  Their  whole  tax 
amounted  indeed  to  no  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
drachms,  or  about  five  pounds  ;  but  Gyarus  was  a  little  island,  or 
rather  a  rock,  of  the  JEgean  Sea,  destitute  of  fresh  water  and 
every  necessary  of  life,  and  inhabited  only  by  a  few  wretched 
fishermen.111 

From  the  faint  glimmerings  of  such  doubtful  and  scattered 
lights,  we  should  be  inclined  to  believe,  1st,  That  (with  every 
fair  allowance  for  the  difference  of  times  and  circumstances)  the 
general  income  of  the  Roman  provinces  could  seldom  amount 
to  less  than  fifteen  or  twenty  millions  of  our  money  ; 112  and, 
2ndly,  That  so  ample  a  revenue  must  have  been  fully  adequate 
to  all  the  expenses  of  the  moderate  government  instituted  by 
Augustus,  whose  court  was  the  modest  family  of  a  private 
senator,  and  whose  military  establishment  was  calculated  for  the 
defence  of  the  frontiers,  without  any  aspiring  views  of  conquest, 
or  any  serious  apprehension  of  a  foreign  invasion. 

Notwithstanding  the  seeming  probability  of  both  these  con- 
clusions, the  latter  of  them  at  least  is  positively  disowned  by 
the  language  and  conduct  of  Augustus.  It  is  not  easy  to 
determine  whether,  on  this  occasion,  he  acted  as  the  common 
father  of  the  Roman  world,  or  as  the  oppressor  of  liberty  ; 
whether  he  wished   to  relieve  the  provinces,  or  to  impoverish 

i^Strabo,  1.  iii.  p.  148. 

110  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  1.  xxxiii.  c.  3.  He  mentions  likewise  a  silver  mine  in  Dal- 
matic, that  yielded  every  day  fifty  pounds  to  the  state. 

ln  Strabo,  1.  x.  p.  485.  Tacit.  Annal.  iii.  69,  and  iv.  30.  See  in  Tournefort 
(Voyages  au  Levant,  Lettre  viii.)  a  very  lively  picture  of  the  actual  misery  of 
Gyarus. 

112  Lipsius  de  magnitude  Romana  (1.  ii.  c.  iii.)  computes  the  revenue  at  one 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  gold  crowns ;  but  his  whole  book,  though  learned  and 
ingenious,  betrays  a  very  heated  imagination.  [For  the  inquiry  touching  the  revenue 
of  the  empire  we  have  not  sufficient  data  to  make  even  an  approximate  estimate.] 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  161 

the  senate  and  the  equestrian  order.  But  no  sooner  had  he 
assumed  the  reins  of  government  than  he  frequently  intimated 
the  insufficiency  of  the  tributes,  and  the  necessity  of  throwing 
an  equitable  proportion  of  the  public  burden  upon  Rome  and 
Italy.  In  the  prosecution  of  this  unpopular  design,  he  advanced, 
however,  by  cautious  and  well-weighed  steps.  The  introduction 
of  customs  was  followed  by  the  establishment  of  an  excise,  and 
the  scheme  of  taxation  was  completed  by  an  artful  assessment 
on  the  real  and  personal  property  of  the  Roman  citizens,  who 
had  been  exempted  from  any  kind  of  contribution  above  a 
century  and  a  half. 

I.  In  a  great  empire  like  that  of  Rome,  a  natural  balance  ofThecMtomi 
money  must  have  gradually  established  itself.  It  has  been 
already  observed  that,  as  the  wealth  of  the  provinces  was 
attracted  to  the  capital  by  the  strong  hand  of  conquest  and 
power,  so  a  considerable  part  of  it  was  restored  to  the  indus- 
trious provinces  by  the  gentle  influence  of  commerce  and  arts. 
In  the  reign  of  Augustus  and  his  successors,113  duties  were 
imposed  on  every  kind  of  merchandise,  which  through  a 
thousand  channels  flowed  to  the  great  centre  of  opulence  and 
luxury ;  and  in  whatsoever  manner  the  law  was  expressed,  it 
was  the  Roman  purchaser,  and  not  the  provincial  merchant,  who 
paid  the  tax.114  The  rate  of  the  customs  varied  from  the  eighth 
to  the  fortieth  part  of  the  value  of  the  commodity  ;  and  we 
have  a  right  to  suppose  that  the  variation  was  directed  by  the 
unalterable  maxims  of  policy :  that  a  higher  duty  was  fixed  on 
the  articles  of  luxury  than  on  those  of  necessity,  and  that  the 
productions  raised  or  manufactured  by  the  labour  of  the  subjects 
of  the  empire  were  treated  with  more  indulgence  than  was 
shown  to  the  pernicious,  or  at  least  the  unpopular,  commerce  of 
Arabia  and  India.115  There  is  still  extant  a  long  but  imperfect 
catalogue  of  eastern  commodities,  which  about  the  time  of 
Alexander  Severus  were  subject  to  the  payment  of  duties : 
cinnamon,  myrrh,  pepper,  ginger,  and  the  whole  tribe  of 
aromatics ;  a  great  variety  of  precious  stones,  among  which  the 
diamond  was  the  most  remarkable  for  its  price,  and  the 
emerald   for   its   beauty : 116    Parthian   and   Babylonian  leather, 

113  [But  also  in  force  before.] 

114  Tacit.  Annal.  xiii.  31. 

115  See  Pliny  (Hist.  Natur.  I.  vi.  c.  28,  1.  xii.  c.  18).  His  observation,  that  the 
Indian  commodities  were  sold  at  Rome  at  a  hundred  times  their  original  price, 
may  give  us  some  notion  of  the  produce  of  the  customs,  since  that  original  price 
amounted  to  more  than  eight  hundred  thousand  pounds. 

116  The  ancients  were  unacquainted  with  the  art  of  cutting  diamonds. 

11  VOL.    I. 


162  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

cottons,  silks,  both  raw  and  manufactured,  ebony,  ivory,  and 
eunuchs.117  We  may  observe  that  the  use  and  value  of  those 
effeminate  slaves  gradually  rose  with  the  decline  of  the  empire. 
The  excise  II.  The  excise,  introduced  by  Augustus  after  the  civil  wars, 
was  extremely  moderate,  but  it  was  general.118  It  seldom 
exceeded  one  per  cent. ;  but  it  comprehended  whatever  was  sold 
in  the  markets  or  by  public  auction,  from  the  most  considerable 
purchases  of  land  and  houses  to  those  minute  objects  which  can 
only  derive  a  value  from  their  infinite  multitude  and  daily  con- 
sumption. Such  a  tax,  as  it  affects  the  body  of  the  people,  has 
ever  been  the  occasion  of  clamour  and  discontent.  An  emperor 
well  acquainted  with  the  wants  and  resources  of  the  state  was 
obliged  to  declare,  by  a  public  edict,  that  the  support  of  the 
army  depended  in  a  great  measure  on  the  produce  of  the 
excise.119 
Taxoniega-  III.  When  Augustus  resolved  to  establish  a  permanent 
tiierfttnces  military  force  for  the  defence  of  his  government  against  foreign 
and  domestic  enemies,  he  instituted  a  peculiar  treasury  for  the 
pay  of  the  soldiers,  the  rewards  of  the  veterans,  and  the  extra- 
ordinary expenses  of  war.  The  ample  revenue  of  the  excise, 
though  peculiarly  appropriated  to  those  uses,  was  found  in- 
adequate. To  supply  the  deficiency,  the  emperor  suggested  a 
new  tax  of  five  per  cent,  on  all  legacies  and  inheritances.  But 
the  nobles  of  Rome  were  more  tenacious  of  property  than  of 
freedom.  Their  indignant  murmurs  were  received  by  Augustus 
with  his  usual  temper.  He  candidly  referred  the  whole  busi- 
ness to  the  senate,  and  exhorted  them  to  provide  for  the  public 
service  by  some  other  expedient  of  a  less  odious  nature.  They 
were  divided  and  perplexed.  He  insinuated  to  them  that  their 
obstinacy  would  oblige  him  to  propose  a  general  land-tax  and 
capitation.  They  acquiesced  in  silence.120  The  new  imposition 
on  legacies  and  inheritances  was  however  mitigated  by  some 
restrictions.  It  did  not  take  place  unless  the  object  was  of  a 
certain  value,  most  probably  of  fifty  or  an  hundred  pieces  of 
gold  : 121  nor  could  it  be  exacted  from  the  nearest  of  kin  on  the 

U7  M.  Bouchaud,  in  his  treatise  de  l'Impot  chez  les  Romains,  has  transcribed 
this  catalogue  from  the  Digest,  and  attempts  to  illustrate  it  by  a  very  prolix  com- 
mentary. 

118  [It  was  imposed  in  Rome  and  Italy  ;  but  cannot  be  proved  for  the  provinces.] 

119  Tacit.  Annal.  i.  78.  Two  years  afterwards,  the  reduction  of  the  poor  king- 
dom of  Cappadocia  gave  Tiberius  a  pretence  for  diminishing  the  excise  to  one 
half ;  but  the  relief  was  of  a  very  short  duration. 

120  Dion  Cassius,  1.  lv.  p.  799  [25],  1.  Ivi.  p.  825  [28].  [This  tax  was  introduced 
6  A.D.] 

Wl  The  sum  is  only  fixed  by  conjecture. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  163 

father's  side.122  When  the  rights  of  nature  and  property  were  thus 
secured,  it  seemed  reasonable  that  a  stranger,  or  a  distant  relation, 
who  acquired  an  unexpected  accession  of  fortune,  should  cheer- 
fully resign  a  twentieth  part  of  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  state.123 

Such  a  tax,  plentiful  as  it  must  prove  in  every  wealthy  com-  suited  to  tiio 

laws  CLUd 

munity,  was  most  happily  suited  to  the  situation  of  the  Romans,  manners 
who  could  frame  their  arbitrary  wills,  according  to  the  dictates 
of  reason  or  caprice,  without  any  restraint  from  the  modern 
fetters  of  entails  and  settlements.  From  various  causes,  the 
partiality  of  paternal  affection  often  lost  its  influence  over  the 
stern  patriots  of  the  commonwealth  and  the  dissolute  nobles  of 
the  empire  ;  and  if  the  father  bequeathed  to  his  son  the  fourth 
part  of  his  estate,  he  removed  all  ground  of  legal  complaint.124 
But  a  rich  childless  old  man  was  a  domestic  tyrant,  and  his 
power  increased  with  his  years  and  infirmities.  A  servile  crowd, 
in  which  he  frequently  reckoned  praetors  and  consuls,  courted 
his  smiles,  pampered  his  avarice,  applauded  his  follies,  served 
his  passions,  and  waited  with  impatience  for  his  death.  The 
arts  of  attendance  and  flattery  were  formed  into  a  most  lucrative 
science  ;  those  who  professed  it  acquired  a  peculiar  appellation  ; 
and  the  whole  city,  according  to  the  lively  descriptions  of  satire, 
was  divided  between  two  parties,  the  hunters  and  their  game.125 
Yet  while  so  many  unjust  and  extravagant  wills  were  every  day 
dictated  by  cunning,  and  subscribed  by  folly,  a  few  were  the 
result  of  rational  esteem  and  virtuous  gratitude.  Cicero,  who 
had  so  often  defended  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  his  fellow- 
citizens,  was  rewarded  with  legacies  to  the  amount  of  an  hundred 
and  seventy  thousand  pounds ; 126  nor  do  the  friends  of  the 
younger  Pliny  seem  to  have  been  less  generous  to  that  amiable 
orator.127  Whatever  was  the  motive  of  the  testator,  the  treasury 
claimed,  without  distinction,  the  twentieth  part  of  his  estate ; 
and  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  generations,  the  whole  property 
of  the  subject  must  have  gradually  passed  through  the  coffers  of 
the  state. 

122  As  the  Roman  law  subsisted  for  many  ages,  the  Cognati,  or  relations  on  the 
mother's  side,  were  not  called  to  the  succession.  This  harsh  institution  was  gradu- 
ally undermined  by  humanity,  and  finally  abolished  by  Justinian. 

123  Plin.  Panegyric,  c.  37.  [The  tax  was  known  as  vicesima  hereditatium,  =  ^  per 
cent.] 

124  See  Heineccius  in  the  Antiquit.  Juris  Romani,  1.  ii. 

125  Horat.  1.  ii.  Sat.  v.  Petron.  c.  n6,  &c.     Plin.  1.  ii.  Epist.  20. 

126  Cicero  in  Philipp.  ii.  c.  16. 

127  See  his  epistles.  Every  such  Will  gave  him  an  occasion  of  displaying  his 
reverence  to  the  dead,  and  his  justice  to  the  living.  He  reconciled  both,  in  his 
behaviour  to  a  son  who  had  been  disinherited  by  his  mother  (v.  1). 


164 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Regulations 
of  the  empe- 
ror-.) 


Edict  of  Cara- 

calla 


The  freedom 
of  the  city 

fiven  to  all 
he  provin- 
cials for  tha 
purpose  of 
taxation 


In  the  first  and  golden  years  of  the  reign  of  Nero,  that  prince, 
from  a  desire  of  popularity,  and  perhaps  from  a  blind  impulse  of 
benevolence,  conceived  a  wish  of  abolishing  the  oppression  of 
the  customs  and  excise.  The  wisest  senators  applauded  his 
magnanimity  :  but  they  diverted  him  from  the  execution  of  a 
design  which  would  have  dissolved  the  strength  and  resources 
of  the  republic.128  Had  it  indeed  been  possible  to  realize  this 
dream  of  fancy,  such  princes  as  Trajan  and  the  Antonines  would 
surely  have  embraced  with  ardour  the  glorious  opportunity  of 
conferring  so  signal  an  obligation  on  mankind.  Satisfied,  how- 
ever, with  alleviating  the  public  burden,  they  attempted  not  to 
remove  it.  The  mildness  and  precision  of  their  laws  ascertained 
the  rule  and  measure  of  taxation,  and  protected  the  subject  of 
every  rank  against  arbitrary  interpretations,  antiquated  claims, 
and  the  insolent  vexation  of  the  farmers  of  the  revenue.129 
For  it  is  somewhat  singular  that,  in  every  age,  the  best  and 
wisest  of  the  Roman  governors  persevered  in  this  pernicious 
method  of  collecting  the  principal  branches  at  least  of  the  excise 
and  customs.130 

The  sentiments,  and  indeed  the  situation,  of  Caracalla  were 
very  different  from  those  of  the  Antonines.  Inattentive,  or 
rather  averse,  to  the  welfare  of  his  people,  he  found  himself 
under  the  necessity  of  gratifying  the  insatiate  avarice  which  he 
had  excited  in  the  army.  Of  the  several  impositions  introduced 
by  Augustus,  the  twentieth  on  inheritances  and  legacies  was 
the  most  fruitful  as  well  as  the  most  comprehensive.  As  its 
influence  was  not  confined  to  Rome  or  Italy,  the  produce  con- 
tinually increased  with  the  gradual  extension  of  the  Roman  City. 
The  new  citizens,  though  charged  on  equal  terms131  with  the 
payment  of  new  taxes  which  had  not  affected  them  as  subjects, 
derived  an  ample  compensation  from  the  rank  they  obtained, 
the  privileges  they  acquired,  and  the  fair  prospect  of  honours 
and  fortune  that  was  thrown  open  to  their  ambition.  But  the 
favour  which  implied  a  distinction  was  lost  in  the  prodigality  of 
Caracalla,  and  the  reluctant  provincials  were  compelled  to 
assume  the  vain  title  and  the  real  obligations  of  Roman  citizens. 
Nor  was  the  rapacious  son  of  Severus  contented  with  such  a 

J28  Tacit.  Annal.  xiii.  5c.     Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xii.  c.  19. 

129  See  Pliny's  Panegyric,  the  Augustan  History,  and  Burman.  de  Vectigal. 
passim. 

130  The  tributes  (properly  so  called)  were  not  farmed  ;  since  the  good  princes 
often  remitted  many  millions  of  arrears. 

131  The  situation  of  the  new  citizens  is  minutely  described  by  Pliny  (Panegyric. 
c.  37,  38,  39).    Trajan  published  a  law  very  much  in  their  favour. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  165 

measure  of  taxation  as  had  appeared  sufficient  to  his  moderate 
predecessors.  Instead  of  a  twentieth,  he  exacted  a  tenth  of  all 
legacies  and  inheritances ;  and  during  his  reign  (for  the  ancient 
proportion  was  restored  after  his  death)  he  crushed  alike  every 
part  of  the  empire  under  the  weight  of  his  iron  sceptre.132 

When  all  the  provincials  became  liable  to  the  peculiar  imposi-  Temporaryre- 

p  t»  -L-  ,i  i    .  •*■■>■%'  rtuction  of  the 

tions  or  Roman  citizens,  they  seemed  to  acquire  a  legal  exemp-  tribute 
tion  from  the  tributes  which  they  had  paid  in  their  former  con- 
dition of  subjects.  Such  were  not  the  maxims  of  government 
adopted  by  Caracalla  and  his  pretended  son.  The  old  as  well  as 
the  new  taxes  were,  at  the  same  time,  levied  in  the  provinces. 
It  was  reserved  for  the  virtue  of  Alexander  to  relieve  them  in  a 
great  measure  from  this  intolerable  grievance,  by  reducing  the 
tributes  to  a  thirtieth  part  of  the  sum  exacted  at  the  time  of  his 
accession.133  It  is  impossible  to  conjecture  the  motive  that  en- 
gaged him  to  spare  so  trifling  a  remnant  of  the  public  evil ;  but 
the  noxious  weed,  which  had  not  been  totally  eradicated,  again 
sprang  up  with  the  most  luxuriant  growth,  and  in  the  succeeding 
age  darkened  the  Roman  world  with  its  deadly  shade.  In  the 
course  of  this  history,  we  shall  be  too  often  summoned  to  explain 
the  land-tax,  the  capitation,  and  the  heavy  contributions  of  corn, 
wine,  oil,  and  meat,  which  were  exacted  from  the  provinces  for 
the  use  of  the  court,  the  army,  and  the  capital. 

As  long  as  Rome  and  Italy  were  respected  as  the  centre  of  consequences 
government,  a  national  spirit  was  preserved  by  the  ancient,  and  m  freedom  of 
insensibly  imbibed  by  the  adopted,  citizens.  The  principal 
commands  of  the  army  were  filled  by  men  who  had  received  a 
liberal  education,  were  well  instructed  in  the  advantages  of  laws 
and  letters,  and  who  had  risen  by  equal  steps  through  the 
regular  succession  of  civil  and  military  honours.134  To  their 
influence  and  example  we  may  partly  ascribe  the  modest  obedi- 
ence of  the  legions  during  the  two  first  centuries  of  the  Imperial 
history. 

But  when  the  last  enclosure  of  the  Roman  constitution  was 
trampled  down  by  Caracalla,  the  separation  of  possessions  gradu- 
ally succeeded  to  the  distinction  of  ranks.  The  more  polished 
citizens  of  the  internal  provinces  were  alone  qualified  to  act  as 

132  Dion,  1.  lxxvii.  p.  1295  [9].  [The  tax  was  reduced  again  to  5  per  cent, 
by  Macrinus.     By  the  sixth  century  it  had  altogether  disappeared.] 

133  He  who  paid  ten  aurei,  the  usual  tribute,  was  charged  with  no  more  than  the 
third  part  of  an  aureus,  and  proportional  pieces  of  gold  were  coined  by  Alexander's 
order.     Hist.  August,  p.  127  [xviii.  39],  with  the  commentary  of  Salmasius. 

134  See  the  lives  of  Agricola,  Vespasian,  Trajan,  Severus,  and  his  three  com- 
petitors ;  and  indeed  of  all  the  eminent  men  of  those  times. 


166  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

lawyers  and  magistrates.  The  rougher  trade  of  arms  vas 
abandoned  to  the  peasants  and  barbarians  of  the  frontiers,  who 
kneAv  no  country  but  their  camp,  no  science  but  that  of  war,  no 
civil  laws,  and  scarcely  those  of  military  discipline.  With  bloody 
hands,  savage  manners,  and  desperate  resolutions,  they  some- 
times guarded,  but  much  oftener  subverted,  the  throne  of  the 
emperors. 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  167 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  elevation,  and  tyranny,  of  Maximin — Rebellion  in  Africa  and 
Italy,  under  the  authority  of  the  Senate — Civil  Wars  and  Sedi- 
tions—  Violent  Deat/is  of  Maximin  and  his  Son,  of  Maximus  and 
Balbinus,  and  of  the  three  Gordians — Usurpation  and  Secular 
Games  of  Philip 

Of  the  various  forms  of  government  which  have  prevailed  in  me  apparent 
the  world,  an  hereditary  monarchy  seems  to  present  the  fairest  c  e* 
scope  for  ridicule.  Is  it  possible  to  relate  without  an  indignant 
smile,  that,  on  the  father's  decease,  the  property  of  a  nation, 
like  that  of  a  drove  of  oxen,  descends  to  his  infant  son,  as  yet 
unknown  to  mankind  and  to  himself,  and  that  the  bravest 
warriors  and  the  wisest  statesmen,  relinquishing  their  natural 
right  to  empire,  approach  the  royal  ci'adle  with  bended  knees 
and  protestations  of  inviolable  fidelity  ?  Satire  and  declamation 
may  paint  these  obvious  topics  in  the  most  dazzling  colours,  but 
our  more  serious  thoughts  will  respect  a  useful  prejudice,  that 
establishes  a  rule  of  succession,  independent  of  the  passions  of 
mankind  ;  and  we  shall  cheerfully  acquiesce  in  any  expedient 
which  deprives  the  multitude  of  the  dangerous,  and  indeed  the 
ideal,  power  of  giving  themselves  a  master. 

In  the  cool  shade  of  retirement,  we  may  easily  devise  imagin- and  solid 
ary  forms    of  government,  in  which  the  sceptre  shall  be  con-  of  hereditary 
stantly  bestowed  on  the  most  worthy  by  the  free  and  incorrupt*** 
suffrage  of  the  whole  community.     Experience  overtui'ns  these 
airy  fabrics,  and  teaches  us  that  in  a  large  society  the  election  of 
a   monarch    can   never  devolve  to  the  wisest  or  to  the  most 
numerous  part  of  the  people.     The  army  is  the  only  order  of 
men  sufficiently  united  to  concur  in  the  same  sentiments,  and 
powerful  enough  to  impose  them  on  the  rest  of  their  fellow- 
citizens  ;  but   the    temper   of  soldiers,   habituated   at   once    to 
violence  and  to  slavery,  i*enders  them  very  unfit  guardians  of  a 
legal  or  even  a  civil  constitution.      Justice,  humanity,  or  politi- 
cal wisdom,  are  qualities  they  are  too  little  acquainted  with  in 
themselves  to  appreciate  them  in  others.     Valour  will  acquire 


168  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

their  esteem,  and  liberality  will  purchase  their  suffrage  ;  but  the 
first  of  these  merits  is  often  lodged  in  the  most  savage  breasts  ; 
the  latter  can  only  exert  itself  at  the  expense  of  the  public  ;  and 
both  may  be  turned  against  the  possessor  of  the  throne  by  the 
ambition  of  a  daring  rival. 
w»nt  of  it  in  The  superior  prerogative  of  birth,  when  it  has  obtained  the 
empire  pro-    sanction  of  time  and  popular  opinion,  is  the  plainest  and  least 

ductive  of  tlis  *■ 

greatest  invidious  of  all  distinctions  among  mankind.  The  acknowledged 
right  extinguishes  the  hopes  of  faction,  and  the  conscious 
security  disarms  the  cruelty  of  the  monarch.  To  the  firm 
establishment  of  this  idea  we  owe  the  peaceful  succession  and 
mild  administration  of  European  monarchies.  To  the  defect  of 
it  we  must  attribute  the  frequent  civil  wars,  through  which  an 
Asiatic  despot  is  obliged  to  cut  his  way  to  the  throne  of  his 
fathers.  Yet,  even  in  the  East,  the  sphere  of  contention  is 
usually  limited  to  the  princes  of  the  reigning  house,  and,  as  soon 
as  the  more  fortunate  competitor  has  removed  his  brethren,  by  the 
sword  and  the  bow-string,  he  no  longer  entertains  any  jealousy 
of  his  meaner  subjects.  But  the  Roman  empire,  after  the  autho- 
rity of  the  senate  had  sunk  into  contempt,  was  a  vast  scene  of 
confusion.  The  royal,  and  even  noble,  families  of  the  provinces 
had  long  since  been  led  in  triumph  before  the  car  of  the  haughty 
republicans.  The  ancient  families  of  Rome  had  successively 
fallen  beneath  the  tyranny  of  the  Caesars ;  and,  whilst  those 
princes  were  shackled  by  the  forms  of  a  commonwealth,  and 
disappointed  by  the  repeated  failure  of  their  posterity,1  it  was 
impossible  that  any  idea  of  hereditary  succession  should  have 
taken  root  in  the  minds  of  their  subjects.  The  right  to  the 
throne,  which  none  could  claim  from  birth,  every  one  assumed 
from  merit.  The  daring  hopes  of  ambition  were  set  loose  from 
the  salutary  restraints  of  law  and  prejudice,  and  the  meanest  of 
mankind  might,  without  folly,  entertain  a  hope  of  being  raised 
by  valour  and  fortune  to  a  rank  in  the  army,  in  which  a  single 
crime  would  enable  him  to  wrest  the  sceptre  of  the  world  from 
his  feeble  and  unpopular  master.  After  the  murder  of  Alex- 
ander Severus  and  the  elevation  of  Maximin,  no  emperor  could 
think  himself  safe  upon  the  throne,  and  every  barbarian  peasant 
of  the  frontier  might  aspire  to  that  august  but  dangerous  sta- 
tion. 

1  There  had  been  no  example  of  three  successive  generations  on  the  throne  ;  only 
three  instances  of  sons  who  succeeded  their  fathers.  The  marriages  of  Caesars  (not- 
withstanding the  permission,  and  the  frequent  practice,  of  divorces)  were  generally 
unfruitful. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  169 

About  thirty-two  years  before  that  event,  the  emperor  Birth  and  for- 
Severus,  returning  from  an  Eastern  expedition,  halted  in  Thrace,  Maximin 
to  celebrate,  with  military  games,  the  birthday  of  his  younger 
son,  Geta.  The  country  flocked  in  crowds  to  behold  their  sove- 
reign, and  a  young  barbarian  of  gigantic  stature  earnestly 
solicited,  in  his  rude  dialect,  that  he  might  be  allowed  to  con- 
tend for  the  prize  of  wrestling.  As  the  pride  of  discipline 
would  have  been  disgraced  in  the  overthrow  of  a  Roman  soldier 
by  a  Thracian  peasant,  he  was  matched  with  the  stoutest 
followers  of  the  camp,  sixteen  of  whom  he  successively  laid  on 
the  ground.  His  victory  was  rewarded  by  some  trifling  gifts, 
and  a  permission  to  enlist  in  the  troops.  The  next  day  the 
happy  barbarian  was  distinguished  above  a  crowd  of  recruits, 
dancing  and  exulting  after  the  fashion  of  his  country.  As  soon 
as  he  perceived  that  he  had  attracted  the  emperor's  notice,  he 
instantly  ran  up  to  his  horse,  and  followed  him  on  foot,  without 
the  least  appearance  of  fatigue,  in  a  long  and  rapid  career. 
"Thracian,"  said  Severus,  with  astonishment,  "art  thou  dis- 
posed to  wrestle  after  thy  race  ?  "  "  Most  willingly,  Sir,"  re- 
plied the  unwearied  youth,  and,  almost  in  a  breath,  overthrew 
seven  of  the  strongest  soldiers  in  the  army.  A  gold  collar  was 
the  prize  of  his  matchless  vigour  and  activity,  and  he  was 
immediately  appointed  to  serve  in  the  horse -guards  who  always 
attended  on  the  person  of  the  sovereign.2 

Maximin,  for  that  was  his  name,  though  born  on  the  terri-  nis military 
tories  of  the  empire,  descended  from  a  mixed  race  of  barbarians,  honours"1 
His  father  was  a  Goth,  and  his  mother  of  the  nation  of  the 
Alani.3  He  displayed  on  every  occasion  a  valour  equal  to  his 
strength ;  and  his  native  fierceness  was  soon  tempered  or  dis- 
guised by  the  knowledge  of  the  world.  Under  the  reign  of 
Severus  and  his  son,  he  obtained  the  rank  of  centurion,  with  the 
favour  and  esteem  of  both  those  princes,  the  former  of  whom 
was  an  excellent  judge  of  merit.  Gratitude  forbade  Maximin 
to  serve  under  the  assassin  of  Caracalla.  Honour  taught  him  to 
decline  the  effeminate  insults  of  Elagabalus.  On  the  accession 
of  Alexander  he  returned  to  court,  and  was  placed  by  that 
prince  in  a  station  useful  to  the  service  and  honourable  to  him- 
self. The  fourth  legion,  to  which  he  was  appointed  tribune, 
soon  became,  under  his  care,  the  best  disciplined  of  the  whole 
army.  With  the  general  applause  of  the  soldiers,  who  bestowed 
on  their  favourite  hero  the  names  of  Ajax  and  Hercules,  he  was 

2  Hist.  August,  p.  138  [xix.  1]. 

3  [His  father's  name  was  Micca,  his  mother's  Hababa.] 


170 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Conspiracy  of 
Mazimin 


A.D.  235, 
March  19, 
Murder  of 
Alexander 
Severus 


successively  promoted  to  the  first  military  command,4  and  had 
not  he  still  retained  too  much  of  his  savage  origin,  the  emperor 
might  perhaps  have  given  his  own  sister  in  marriage  to  the  son 
of  Maximin.5 

Instead  of  securing  his  fidelity,  these  favours  served  only  to 
inflame  the  ambition  of  the  Thracian  peasant,  who  deemed  his 
fortune  inadequate  to  his  merit  as  long  as  he  was  constrained 
to  acknowledge  a  superior.  Though  a  stranger  to  real  wisdom, 
he  was  not  devoid  of  a  selfish  cunning,  which  showed  him  that 
the  emperor  had  lost  the  affection  of  the  army,  and  taught  him 
to  improve  their  discontent  to  his  own  advantage.  It  is  easy 
for  faction  and  calumny  to  shed  their  poison  on  the  administra- 
tion of  the  best  of  princes,  and  to  accuse  even  their  virtues  by  art- 
fully confounding  them  with  those  vices  to  which  they  bear  the 
nearest  affinity.  The  troops  listened  with  pleasure  to  the 
emissaries  of  Maximin.  They  blushed  at  their  own  ignominious 
patience,  which,  during  thirteen  years,  had  supported  the  vexa- 
tious discipline  imposed  by  an  effeminate  Syrian,  the  timid 
slave  of  his  mother  and  of  the  senate.  It  was  time,  they  cried, 
to  cast  away  that  useless  phantom  of  the  civil  power,  and  to 
elect  for  their  prince  and  general  a  real  soldier,  educated  in 
camps,  exercised  in  war,  who  would  assert  the  glory  and  distribute 
among  his  companions  the  treasures  of  the  empire.  A  great 
army  was  at  that  time  assembled  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine, 
under  the  command  of  the  emperor  himself,  who,  almost  im- 
mediately after  his  return  from  the  Persian  war,  had  been  obliged 
to  march  against  the  barbarians  of  Germany.  The  important 
care  of  training  and  reviewing  the  new  levies  was  intrusted  to 
Maximin.  One  day,  as  he  entered  the  field  of  exercise,  the 
troops  either  from  a  sudden  impulse  or  a  formed  conspiracy, 
saluted  him  emperor,  silenced  by  their  loud  acclamations  his 
obstinate  refusal,  and  hastened  to  consummate  their  rebellion 
by  the  murder  of  Alexander  Severus. 

The  circumstances  of  his  death  are  vaiiously  related.  The 
writers  who  suppose  that  he  died  in  ignorance  of  the  ingratitude 
and  ambition  of  Maximin  affirm  that,  after  taking  a  frugal  re- 
past in  the  sight  of  the  army,  he  retired  to  sleep,  and  that  about 
the  seventh  hour  of  the  day  a  party  of  his  own  guards  broke 

4  Hist.  August,  p.  140  [xix.  6],  Herodian,  1.  vi.  p.  223  [8].  Aurelius  Victor. 
By  comparing  these  authors,  it  should  seem,  that  Maximin  had  the  particular 
command  of  the  Triballian  horse,  with  the  general  commission  of  disciplining  the 
recruits  of  the  whole  arm)'.  His  Biographer  ought  to  have  marked,  with  more 
care,  his  exploits,  and  the  successive  steps  of  his  military  promotions. 

8  See  the  original  letter  of  Alexander  Severus,  Hist.  August,  p.  149  [xix.  29]. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  171 

into  the  Imperial  tent,  and,  with  many  wounds,  assassinated 
their  virtuous  and  unsuspecting  prince.0  If  we  credit  another, 
and  indeed  a  more  probable,  account,  Maximin  was  invested 
with  the  purple  by  a  numerous  detachment,  at  the  distance  of 
several  miles  from  the  head  quarters,  and  he  trusted  for  success 
rather  to  the  secret  wishes  than  to  the  public  declarations  of  the 
great  army.  Alexander  had  sufficient  time  to  awaken  a  faint 
sense  of  loyalty  among  his  troops ;  but  their  reluctant  pro- 
fessions of  fidelity  quickly  vanished  on  the  appearance  of 
Maximin,  who  declared  himself  the  friend  and  advocate  of  the 
military  order,  and  was  unanimously  acknowledged  emperor  of 
the  Romans  by  the  applauding  legions.  The  son  of  Mamaea,  be- 
trayed and  deserted,  withdrew  into  his  tent,  desirous  at  least  to 
conceal  his  approaching  fate  from  the  insults  of  the  multitude. 
He  was  soon  followed  by  a  tribune  and  some  centurions,  the 
ministers  of  death  ;  but  instead  of  receiving  with  manly  resolu- 
tion the  inevitable  stroke,  his  unavailing  cries  and  entreaties 
disgraced  the  last  moments  of  his  life,  and  converted  into  con- 
tempt some  portion  of  the  just  pity  which  his  innocence  and 
misfortunes  must  inspire.  His  mother,  Mamaea,  whose  pride 
and  avarice  he  loudly  accused  as  the  cause  of  his  ruin,  perished 
with  her  son.  The  most  faithful  of  his  friends  were  sacrificed 
to  the  first  fury  of  the  soldiers.  Others  were  reserved  for  the 
more  deliberate  cruelty  of  the  usurper,  and  those  who  experienced 
mildest  treatment  were  stripped  of  their  employments  and 
ignominiously  driven  from  the  court  and  army.7 

The    former    tyrants    Caligula    and    Nero,    Commodus    and  Tyranny  or 
Caracalla,  Avere  all  dissolute  and  unexperienced  youths,8  educated 
in  the  purple,  and  corrupted  by  the  pride  of  empire,  the  luxury 

6  Hist.  August,  p.  135  [xviii.  61] .  I  have  softened  some  of  the  most  improbable 
circumstances  of  this  wretched  biographer.  From  this  ill-worded  narration,  it 
should  seem  that,  the  prince's  buffoon  having  accidently  entered  the  tent,  and 
awakened  the  slumbering  monarch,  the  fear  of  punishment  urged  him  to  persuade 
the  disaffected  soldiers  to  commit  the  murder.  [The  place  of  the  event  was  doubt- 
less Mainz  or  its  neighbourhood  (so  the  Chronicle  of  Jerome,  based  on  the  Canon 
of  Eusebius),  but  Lampridius,  Hist.  Aug.  xviii.  59,  and  Aurelius  Victor,  Caesar, 
xxiv.  4,  strangely  place  the  assassination  at  Sicilia  in  Britain.  I  do  not  profess  to 
understand  either  Britain  or  Sicilia.  Schiller  guesses  a  confusion  with  Vicus  Brit- 
annicus,  Bretzenheim  near  Mainz.] 

7  Herodian,  1.  vi.  p.  223-227  [8  and  9.  The  date  of  Alexander's  death  is  March 
(18,  or  19  according  to  Borghesi)  235.  Maximin  was  acknowledged  by  the  Senate 
on  the  25th.  J.  Lohrer  (de  C.  Julio  Vero  Maximino,  1883)  has  sought  to  fix  the 
date  as  Feb.  10.] 

8  Caligula,  the  eldest  of  the  four,  was  only  twenty-five  years  of  age  when  he 
ascended  the  throne  ;  Caracalla  was  twenty-three,  Commodus  nineteen,  and  Nero 
no  more  than  seventeen. 


172  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

of  Rome,  and  the  perfidious  voice  of  flattery.  The  cruelty  of 
Maximin  9  was  derived  from  a  different  source,  the  fear  of  con- 
tempt. Though  he  depended  on  the  attachment  of  the  soldiers, 
who  loved  him  for  virtues  like  their  own,  he  was  conscious  that 
his  mean  and  barbarian  origin,  his  savage  appearance,  and  his 
total  ignorance  of  the  arts  and  institutions  of  civil  life,10  formed 
a  very  unfavourable  contrast  with  the  amiable  manners  of  the 
unhappy  Alexander.  He  remembered  that,  in  his  humbler 
fortune,  he  had  often  waited  before  the  doors  of  the  haughty 
nobles  of  Rome,  and  had  been  denied  admittance  by  the  in- 
solence of  their  slaves.  He  recollected  too  the  friendship  of  a 
few  who  had  relieved  his  poverty,  and  assisted  his  rising  hopes. 
But  those  who  had  spurned,  and  those  who  bad  protected,  the 
Thracian,  were  guilty  of  the  same  crime,  the  knowledge  of  his 
original  obscurity.  For  this  crime  many  were  put  to  death  ; 
and  by  the  execution  of  several  of  his  benefactors  Maximin 
published,  in  characters  of  blood,  the  indelible  history  of  his 
baseness  and  ingratitude.11 

The  dark  and  sanguinary  soul  of  the  tyrant  was  open  to  every 
suspicion  against  those  among  his  subjects  who  were  the  most 
distinguished  by  their  birth  or  merit.  Whenever  he  was  alarmed 
with  the  sound  of  treason,  his  cruelty  was  unbounded  and  unre- 
lenting. A  conspiracy  against  his  life  was  either  discovered  or 
imagined,  and  Magnus,  a  consular  senator,  was  named  as  the 
principal  author  of  it.  Without  a  witness,  without  a  trial,  and 
without  an  opportunity  of  defence,  Magnus,  with  four  thousand 
of  his  supposed  accomplices,  were  put  to  death.  Italy  and  the 
whole  empire  were  infested  with  innumerable  spies  and  in- 
formers.    On  the  slightest  accusation,  the  first  of  the  Roman 

9  [His  imperial  name  is  C.  Julius  Verus  Maximinus.] 

10  It  appears  that  he  was  totally  ignorant  of  the  Greek  language  ;  which,  from 
its  universal  use  in  conversation  and  letters,  was  an  essential  part  of  every  liberal 
education.      [His  Latin  was  very  imperfect.] 

11  Hist.  August,  p.  141  [xix.  8].  Herodian,  1.  vii.  p.  237  [1].  The  latter  of 
these  historians  has  been  most  unjustly  censured  for  sparing  the  vices  of  Maximin. 
[Gibbon  is  unfair  to  Maximin  (though  afterwards  indeed,  p.  183,  in  the  name  of 
"  the  candid  severity  of  history,"  he  partially  retracts  his  harsh  judgment).  Maxi- 
min was  a  rude  soldier,  but  he  was  thoroughly  well  meaning  and  capable.  He 
was  equal  to  the  emergencies  of  the  empire,  and  able  to  cope  with  the  dangers  on 
the  Rhine  and  the  Danube,  with  which  Alexander  had  not  the  strength  to  deal. 
Like  Septimius  Severus,  he  had  no  sympathy  with  the  senate,  with  Italy,  or  with 
the  populace  of  Rome.  For  him  the  army  was  the  popiilies  Komanus.  The  intense 
hatred,  however,  which  the  senate  conceived  for  him  was  chiefly  due  to  the  some- 
what tyrannical  rule  of  his  praetorian  praefect,  Vitalian,  who  governed  at  Rome 
while  the  emperor  defended  the  frontiers.  Numerous  inscriptions  testify  to  Maxi- 
min's  activity  in  every  province  in  repairing  and  extending  roads.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  173 

nobles,  who  had  governed  provinces,  commanded  armies,  and 
been  adorned  with  the  consular  and  triumphal  ornaments,  were 
chained  on  the  public  carriages,  and  hurried  away  to  the  em- 
peror's presence.  Confiscation,  exile,  or  simple  death,  were 
esteemed  uncommon  instances  of  his  lenity.  Some  of  the 
unfortunate  sufferers  he  ordered  to  be  sewed  up  in  the  hides  of 
slaughtered  animals,  others  to  be  exposed  to  wild  beasts,  others 
again  to  be  beaten  to  death  with  clubs.  During  the  three  years 
of  his  reign  he  disdained  to  visit  either  Rome  or  Italy.  His 
camp,  occasionally  removed  from  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  to 
those  of  the  Danube,  was  the  seat  of  his  stern  despotism,  which 
trampled  on  every  principle  of  law  and  justice,  and  was  supported 
by  the  avowed  power  of  the  sword.12  No  man  of  noble  birth, 
elegant  accomplishments,  or  knowledge  of  civil  business,  was 
suffered  near  his  person  ;  and  the  court  of  a  Roman  emperor 
revived  the  idea  of  those  ancient  chiefs  of  slaves  and  gladiators, 
whose  savage  power  had  left  a  deep  impression  of  terror  and 
detestation.13 

As  long  as  the  cruelty  of  Maximin  was  confined  to  the  the^o^cei 
illustrious  senators,  or  even  to  the  bold  adventurers  who  in  the 
court  or  army  expose  themselves  to  the  caprice  of  fortune,  the 
body  of  the  people  viewed  their  sufferings  with  indifference,  or 
perhaps  with  pleasure.  But  the  tyrant's  avarice,  stimulated  by 
the  insatiate  desires  of  the  soldiers,  at  length  attacked  the 
public  property.14  Every  city  of  the  empire  was  possessed  of  an 
independent  revenue,  destined  to  purchase  corn  for  the  multi- 
tude, and  to  supply  the  expenses  of  the  games  and  entertain- 
ments. By  a  single  act  of  authority,  the  whole  mass  of  wealth 
was  at  once  confiscated  for  the  use  of  the  Imperial  treasmy.  The 
temples  were  stripped  of  their  most  valuable  offerings  of  gold 
and  silver,  and  the  statues  of  gods,  heroes,  and  emperors,  were 
melted    down    and  coined  into  money.     These    impious  orders 

12  The  wife  of  Maximin,  by  insinuating  wise  counsels  with  female  gentleness, 
sometimes  brought  back  the  tyrant  to  the  way  of  truth  and  humanity.  See  Am- 
mianus  Marcellinus,  xiv.  i  [8],  where  he  alludes  to  the  fact  which  he  had  more  fully 
related  under  the  reign  of  the  Gordians.  We  may  collect  from  the  medals,  that 
Paullina  was  the  name  of  this  benevolent  empress  ;  and  from  the  title  of  Diva,  that 
she  died  before  Maximin.  (Valesius  ad  loc.  cit.  Ammian.)  Spanheim  de  U.  et 
P.  N.  torn.  ii.  p.  300. 

13  He  was  compared  to  Spartacus  and  Athenio.     Hist.  August,  p.  141  [xix.  9]. 

14  [This  is  put  rather  unfairly.  Money  was  wanted  for  the  military  operations  on 
the  frontiers  ;  and  one  can  feel  little  indignation  that  the  amusements  of  the  popu- 
lace should  have  been  postponed  for  the  defence  of  the  empire.  Gibbon  hardly 
seems  to  realize  that  Maximin's  warfare  was  serious,  and  that  his  organization  of 
the  frontier  defences  was  of  capital  importance.] 


174  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

could  not  be  executed  without  tumults  and  massacres,  as  in 
many  places  the  people  chose  rather  to  die  in  the  defence  of 
their  altars  than  to  behold  in  the  midst  of  peace  their  cities 
exposed  to  the  rapine  and  cruelty  of  war.  The  soldiers  them- 
selves, among  whom  this  sacrilegious  plunder  was  distributed, 
received  it  with  a  blush  ;  and,  hardened  as  they  were  in  acts  of 
violence,  they  dreaded  the  just  reproaches  of  their  friends  and 
relations.  Throughout  the  Roman  world  a  general  cry  of  indig- 
nation was  heard,  imploring  vengeance  on  the  common  enemy 
of  human  kind  ;  and  at  length,  by  an  act  of  private  oppression, 
a  peaceful  and  unarmed  province  was  driven  into  rebellion 
against  him.15 
Eavoitin  The  procurator  of  Africa  was    a   servant  worthy  of  such  a 

a  rii2^7'  master,  who  considered  the  fines  and  confiscations  of  the  rich  as 
one  of  the  most  fruitful  branches  of  the  Imperial  revenue.  An 
iniquitous  sentence  had  been  pronounced  against  some  opulent 
youths  of  that  country,  the  execution  of  which  would  have 
stripped  them  of  far  the  greater  part  of  their  patrimony.  In  this 
extremity,  a  resolution  that  must  either  complete  or  prevent 
their  ruin  was  dictated  by  despair.  A  respite  of  three  days, 
obtained  with  difficulty  from  the  rapacious  treasurer,  was  em- 
ployed in  collecting  from  their  estates  a  great  number  of  slaves 
and  peasants  blindly  devoted  to  the  commands  of  their  lords, 
and  armed  with  the  rustic  weapons  of  clubs  and  axes.  The 
leaders  of  the  conspiracy,  as  they  Avere  admitted  to  the  audience 
of  the  procurator,  stabbed  him  with  the  daggers  concealed 
under  their  garments,  and,  by  the  assistance  of  their  tumultuary 
train,  seized  on  the  little  town  of  Thysdrus,16  and  erected  the 
standard  of  rebellion  against  the  sovereign  of  the  Roman  empire. 
They  rested  their  hopes  on  the  hatred  of  mankind  against 
Maximin,  and  they  judiciously  resolved  to  oppose  to  that  de- 
tested tyrant  an  emperor  whose  mild  virtues  had  already  ac- 
quired the  love  and  esteem  of  the  Romans,  and  whose  authority 
over  the  province  would  give  weight  and  stability  to  the  enter- 
prise. Gordianus,17  their  proconsul,  and  the  object  of  their 
choice,    refused,    with    unfeigned    reluctance,    the    dangerous 

15  Herodian,  1.  vii.  p.  238  [3].     Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  15  [13]. 

16  In  the  fertile  territory  of  Byzacium,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  the  south 
of  Carthage.  This  city  was  decorated,  probably  by  the  Gordians,  with  the  title  of 
colony,  and  with  a  fine  amphitheatre,  which  is  still  in  a  very  perfect  state.  See 
Itinerar.  Wesseling,  p.  59,  and  Shaw's  Travels,  p.  117.  [Thysdrus  is  now  El- 
Djemm.  This  revolt  took  place  in  spring  238.  Eckhel,  vii.  293.  The  chronology 
of  the  events  of  this  year  is  hopelessly  perplexing  and  uncertain.     See  App.  12.] 

17  [M.  Antonius  Gordianus.] 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  175 

honour,  and  begged  with  tears  that  they  should  suffer  him  to 
terminate  in  peace  a  long  and  innocent  life,  without  staining  his 
feeble  age  with  civil  blood.  Their  menaces  compelled  him  to 
accept  the  Imperial  purple,  his  only  refuge  indeed  against  the 
jealous  cruelty  of  Maximin  ;  since,  according  to  the  reasoning  of 
tyrants,  those  who  have  been  esteemed  worthy  of  the  throne 
deserve  death,  and  those  who  deliberate  have  already  re- 
belled.18 

The  family  of  Gordianus  was  one  of  the  most  illustrious  of  the  characterand 
Roman  senate.  On  the  father's  side  he  was  descended  from  the  «feVtwon  °f 
Gracchi ;  on  his  mother's,  from  the  emperor  Trajan.  A  great Gor(Uans 
estate  enabled  him  to  support  the  dignity  of  his  birth,  and  in 
the  enjoyment  of  it  he  displayed  an  elegant  taste  and  beneficent 
disposition.  The  palace  in  Rome  formerly  inhabited  by  the 
great  Pompey  had  been,  during  several  generations,  in  the 
possession  of  Gordian's  family.19  It  was  distinguished  by  ancient 
trophies  of  naval  victories,  and  decorated  with  the  works  of 
modern  painting.  His  villa  on  the  road  to  Praeneste  was 
celebrated  for  baths  of  singular  beauty  and  extent,  for  three 
stately  rooms  of  an  hundred  feet  in  length,  and  for  a  magnificent 
portico,  supported  by  two  hundred  columns  of  the  four  most 
curious  and  costly  sorts  of  marble.20  The  public  shows  ex- 
hibited at  his  expense,  and  in  which  the  people  were  entertained 
with  many  hundreds  of  wild  beasts  and  gladiators,21  seem  to 
surpass  the  fortune  of  a  subject;  and,  whilst  the  liberality  of 
other  magistrates  was  confined  to  a  few  solemn  festivals  in 
Rome,  the  magnificence  of  Gordian  was  repeated,  when  he  was 
aedile,  every  month  in  the  year,  and  extended,  during  his  consul- 
ship, to  the  principal  cities  of  Italy.     He  was  twice  elevated  to 

18  Herodian,  1.  vii.  p.  239  [4].     Hist.  August,  p.  153  [xx.  7]. 

19  Hist.  August,  p.  152  [xx.  3].  The  celebrated  house  of  Pompey  in  carinis, 
was  usurped  by  Marc  Antony,  and  consequently  became,  after  the  Triumvir's 
death,  a  part  of  the  Imperial  domain.  The  emperor  Trajan  allowed  and  even  en- 
couraged the  rich  senators  to  purchase  those  magnificent  and  useless  palaces  (Plin. 
Panegyric,  c.  50) ;  and  it  may  seem  probable,  that  on  this  occasion,  Pompey's 
house  came  into  the  possession  of  Gordian's  great-grandfather. 

20  The  Claudian,  the  Numidian,  the  Carystian,  and  the  Synnadian.  The 
colours  of  Roman  marbles  have  been  faintly  described  and  imperfectly  distinguished. 
It  appears,  however,  that  the  Carystian  was  a  sea  green,  and  that  the  marble  of 
Synnada  was  white  mixed  with  oval  spots  of  purple  [rose-red].  See  Salmasius 
ad  Hist.  August,  p.  164  [xx.  30].     [The  Numidian  was  a  yellow  crocus.] 

21  Hist.  August,  p.  151,  152  [xx.  3  and  4].  He  sometimes  gave  five  hundred 
pair  of  Gladiators,  never  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty.  He  once  gave  for  the 
use  of  the  Circus  one  hundred  Sicilian,  and  as  many  Cappadocian  horses.  The 
animals  designed  for  hunting  were  chiefly  bears,  boars,  bulls,  stags,  elks,  wild 
asses,  &c.  Elephants  and  lions  seem  to  have  been  appropriated  to  Imperial  mas- 
nificence. 


176  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

the  last-mentioned  dignity,  by  Caracalla  and  by  Alexander  ;  for 
he  possessed  the  uncommon  talent  of  acquiring  the  esteem  of 
virtuous  princes,  without  alarming  the  jealousy  of  tyrants.  His 
long  life  was  innocently  spent  in  the  study  of  letters  and  the 
peaceful  honours  of  Rome  ;  and,  till  he  was  named  proconsul  of 
Africa  by  the  voice  of  the  senate  and  the  approbation  of  Alex- 
ander,22 he  appears  prudently  to  have  declined  the  command  of 
armies  and  the  government  of  provinces.  As  long  as  that 
emperor  lived,  Africa  was  happy  under  the  administration  of  his 
worthy  representative ;  after  the  barbarous  Maximin  had  usurped 
the  throne,  Gordianus  alleviated  the  miseries  which  he  was 
unable  to  prevent.  When  he  reluctantly  accepted  the  purple, 
he  was  above  fourscore  years  old  ;  a  last  and  valuable  remains 
of  the  happy  age  of  the  Antonines,  whose  virtues  he  revived  in 
his  own  conduct,  and  celebrated  in  an  elegant  poem  of  thirty 
books.  With  the  venerable  proconsul,  his  son,  who  had  ac- 
companied him  into  Africa  as  his  lieutenant,  was  likewise  de- 
clared emperor.  His  manners  were  less  pure,  but  his  character 
Avas  equally  amiable  with  that  of  his  father.  Twenty-two 
acknowledged  concubines,  and  a  library  of  sixty-two  thousand 
volumes,  attested  the  variety  of  his  inclinations ;  and  from  the 
productions  which  he  left  behind  him,  it  appears  that  both  the 
one  and  the  other  were  designed  for  use  rather  than  for  ostenta- 
tion.23 The  Roman  people  acknowledged  in  the  features  of  the 
younger  Gordian  the  resemblance  of  Scipio  Africanus,  recollected 
with  pleasure  that  his  mother  was  the  grand-daughter  of 
Antoninus  Pius,  and  rested  the  public  hope  on  those  latent 
virtues  which  had  hitherto,  as  they  fondly  imagined,  lain  con- 
cealed in  the  luxurious  indolence  of  a  private  life. 
Thcysoudt  As  soon  as  the  Gordians  had  appeased  the  first  tumult  of  a 
tion  of  their"  popular  election  they  removed  their  court  to  Carthage.  They 
7  were  received  with  the  acclamations  of  the  Africans,  who 
honoured  their  virtues,  and  who,  since  the  visit  of  Hadrian,  had 
never  beheld  the  majesty  of  a  Roman  emperor.  But  these  vain 
acclamations  neither  strengthened  nor  confirmed  the  title  of  the 
Gordians.  They  were  induced  by  principle,  as  well  as  interest, 
to  solicit  the  approbation  of  the  senate  ;  and  a  deputation  of  the 

32  See  the  original  letter,  in  the  Augustan  History,  p.  152  [xx.  5],  which  at  once 
shows  Alexander's  respect  for  the  authority  of  the  senate,  and  his  esteem  for  the 
proconsul  appointed  by  that  assembly. 

23  By  each  of  his  concubines,  the  younger  Gordian  left  three  or  four  children. 
His  literary  productions,  though  less  numerous,  were  by  no  means  contemp- 
tible. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  177 

noblest  provincials  was  sent,  without  delay,  to  Rome,  to  relate 
and  justify  the  conduct  of  their  countrymen,  who,  having  long 
suffered  with  patience,  were  at  length  resolved  to  act  with 
vigour.  The  letters  of  the  new  princes  were  modest  and 
respectful,  excusing  the  necessity  which  had  obliged  them  to 
accept  the  Imperial  title,  but  submitting  their  election  and  their 
fate  to  the  supreme  judgment  of  the  senate.24 

The  inclinations  of  the  senate  were  neither  doubtful  nor  The  ienate 
divided.  The  birth  and  noble  alliances  of  the  Gordians  had  election  0/ 
intimately  connected  them  with  the  most  illustrious  houses  of 
Rome.  Their  fortune  had  created  many  dependants  in  that 
assembly,  their  merit  had  acquired  many  friends.  Their  mild 
administration  opened  the  flattering  prospect  of  the  restoration, 
not  only  of  the  civil  but  even  of  the  republican  government. 
The  terror  of  military  violence,  which  had  first  obliged  the  senate 
to  forget  the  murder  of  Alexander,  and  to  ratify  the  election  of 
a  barbarian  peasant,25  now  produced  a  contrary  effect,  and  pro- 
voked them  to  assert  the  injured  rights  of  freedom  and  humanity. 
The  hatred  of  Maximin  towards  the  senate  was  declared  and 
implacable  ;  the  tamest  submission  had  not  appeased  his  fury, 
the  most  cautious  innocence  would  not  remove  his  suspicions  ; 
and  even  the  care  of  their  own  safety  urged  them  to  share  the 
fortune  of  an  enterprise,  of  which  (if  unsuccessful)  they  were 
sure  to  be  the  first  victims.  These  considerations,  and  perhaps 
others  of  a  more  private  nature,  were  debated  in  a  previous 
conference  of  the  consuls  and  the  magistrates.  As  soon  as  their 
resolution  was  decided,  they  convoked  in  the  temple  of  Castor 
the  whole  body  of  the  senate,  according  to  an  ancient  form  of 
secrecy,26  calculated  to  awaken  their  attention  and  to  conceal 
their  decrees.  "  Conscript  fathers,"  said  the  consul  Syllanus, 
"the  two  Gordians,  both  of  consular  dignity,  the  one  your 
proconsul,  and  the  other  your  lieutenant,  have  been  declared 
empei*ors  by  the  general  consent  of  Africa.  Let  us  return 
thanks,"  he  boldly  continued,  "  to  the  youth  of  Thysdrus  ;  let 
us  return  thanks  to  the  faithful  people  of  Carthage,  our  generous 
deliverers  from  a  horrid  monster. — Why  do  you  hear  me  thus 
coolly,  thus  timidly  ?     Why  do  you  cast  these  anxious  looks  on 

24  Herodian,  1.  vii.  p.  243  [6].     Hist.  August,  p.  144  [xix.  14]. 

25  Quod  tamen  patres,  dum  periculosum  existimant  inermes  armato  resistere, 
approbaverunt.     Aurelius  Victor  [Caesar.  25]. 

26  Even  the  servants  of  the  house,  the  scribes,  &c,  were  excluded,  and  their 
office  was  filled  by  the  senators  themselves.  We  are  obliged  to  the  Augustan 
History,  p.  157  [xx.  12],  for  preserving  this  curious  example  of  the  old  discipline 
of  the  commonwealth. 

12  VOL.   L 


178  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

each  other  ?  why  hesitate  ?     Maximin  is  a  public  enemy  !  may 
his  enmity  soon  expire  with  him,27  and  may  we  long  enjoy  the 
prudence  and  felicity  of  Gordian  the  father,  the  valour  and  con- 
stancy of  Gordian  the  son  !  "  28     The  noble  ardour  of  the  consul 
and  declares  revived   the   languid  spirit    of  the   senate.     By  an    unanimous 
pubiiTenemy  decree  the  election  of  the  Gordians  was  ratified ;  Maximin,  his 
son,  and  his  adherents  were  pronounced  enemies  of  their  country, 
and  liberal  rewards  were  offered  to  whomsoever  had  the  courage 
and  good  fortune  to  destroy  them. 
Assumes  the        During  the  emperor's  absence  a  detachment  of  the  Praetorian 
Rom'Tand0'    guards  remained  at  Rome,  to  protect,   or  rather  to  command, 
Italy  the  capital.     The  prsefect  Vitalianus  had  signalized  his  fidelity 

to  Maximin  by  the  alacrity  with  which  he  had  obeyed,  and 
even  prevented,  the  cruel  mandates  of  the  tyrant.  His  death 
alone  could  rescue  the  authority  of  the  senate,  and  the  lives  of 
the  senators,  from  a  state  of  danger  and  suspense.  Before  their 
resolves  had  transpired,  a  quaestor  and  some  tribunes  were  com- 
missioned to  take  his  devoted  life.  They  executed  the  order 
with  equal  boldness  and  success  ;  and,  with  their  bloody  daggers 
in  their  hands,  ran  through  the  streets,  proclaiming  to  the 
people  and  the  soldiers  the  news  of  the  happy  revolution.  The 
enthusiasm  of  liberty  was  seconded  by  the  promise  of  a  large 
donative  in  lands  and  money;  the  statues  of  Maximin  were 
thrown  down ;  the  capital  of  the  empire  acknowledged,  with 
transport,  the  authority  of  the  two  Gordians  and  the  senate ;  *9 
and  the  example  of  Rome  was  followed  by  the  rest  of  Italy. 
and  prepares        A  new  spirit  had  arisen  in  that  assembly,  whose  long  patience 

fnr  n  ffiHl  war  ■*  -  •  T  •!  •  ■  1* 

had  been  insulted  by  wanton  despotism  and  military  licence. 
The  senate  assumed  the  reins  of  government,  and,  with  a  calm 
intrepidity,  prepared  to  vindicate  by  arms  the  cause  of  freedom. 
Among  the  consular  senators  recommended  by  their  merit  and 
services  to  the  favour  of  the  emperor  Alexander,  it  was  easy  to 
select  twenty,  not  unequal  to  the  command  of  an  army  and  the 
conduct  of  a  war.30  To  these  was  the  defence  of  Italy  intrusted. 
Each  was  appointed  to  act  in  his  respective  department, 
authorized  to  enrol  and  discipline  the  Italian  youth,  and  in- 
structed to  fortify  the  ports  and  highways  against  the  impending 

27  [The  Latin  text  has  a  confident  future  ;  difacient  ut  esse  iani  desinat.    Gibbon 
renders  it  as  if  it  were  faciant.~\ 

28  This  spirited  speech,  translated  from  the  Augustan  historian,  p.  156  [xx.  11] , 
seems  transcribed  by  him  from  the  original  registers  of  the  senate. 

29Herodian,  1.  vii.  p.  244  [6], 

30  [Compare  Herodian,  viii.  5,  5,  with  Zosimus,  i.  14,  and  Hist.  Aug.  xxi.  10.] 


for  a  civil  war 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  179 

invasion  of  Maximin.  A  number  of  deputies,  chosen  from  the 
most  illustrious  of  the  senatorian  and  equestrian  orders,  were 
despatched  at  the  same  time  to  the  governors  of  the  several 
provinces,  earnestly  conjuring  them  to  fly  to  the  assistance  of 
their  country,  and  to  remind  the  nations  of  their  ancient  ties  of 
friendship  with  the  Roman  senate  and  people.  The  general 
respect  with  which  these  deputies  were  received,  and  the  zeal 
of  Italy  and  the  provinces  in  favour  of  the  senate,  sufficiently 
prove  that  the  subjects  of  Maximin  were  reduced  to  that  un- 
common distress,  in  which  the  body  of  the  people  has  more  to 
fear  from  oppression  than  from  resistance.  The  consciousness  of 
that  melancholy  truth  inspires  a  degree  of  persevering  fury 
seldom  to  be  found  in  those  civil  wars  which  are  artificially 
supported  for  the  benefit  of  a  few  factious  and  designing- 
leaders. 31 

For,  while  the  cause  of  the  Gordians  was  embraced  with  such  Defeat  and 
diffusive  ardour,  the  Gordians  themselves  were  no  more.     The  two  Gordians 
feeble  court  of  Carthage  was  alarmed  with  the  rapid  approach  3rd  ivay '[238, 
of  Capelianus,    governor   of  Mauritania,32    who,    with    a   small AprU1 
band  of  veterans 33  and  a  fierce  host  of  barbarians,  attacked  a 
faithful  but  unwarlike  province.     The  younger  Gordian  sallied 
out  to  meet  the  enemy  at  the  head  of  a  few  guards,   and  a 
numerous    undisciplined    multitude,   educated   in    the   peaceful 
luxury  of  Carthage.      His  useless  valour  served  only  to  procure 
him  an  honourable  death  in  the  field  of  battle.     His  aged  father, 
whose  reign  had  not  exceeded  thirty-six  days,  put  an  end  to  his 
life  on  the    first  news   of  the  defeat.      Carthage,  destitute  of 
defence,   opened  her  gates  to  the   conqueror,  and   Africa  was 
exposed  to  the  rapacious  cruelty  of  a  slave,  obliged  to  satisfy  his 
unrelenting  master  with  a  large  account  of  blood  and  treasure.34 

31  Herodian,  1.  vii.  p.  247  [7],  1.  viii.  p.  277  [6].  Hist.  August,  p.  156-158  [xx, 
13  sgq.~\.     [See  Corp.  Insc.  Lat.  iii.  1422,  1423,  1456.] 

32  [Not  of  Mauritania,  but  of  Numidia.     See  C.  I.  L.  viii.  2170.] 

33  [The  legion  iii.  Augusta.] 

34  Herodian,  1.  vii.  p.  254  [9].  Hist.  August,  p.  158-160  [xx.  15  sgg.~\.  We 
may  observe  that  one  month  and  six  days  for  the  reign  of  Gordian  is  a  just  cor- 
rection of  Casaubon  and  Panvinius,  instead  of  the  absurd  reading  of  one  year  and 
six  months.  See  Commentar.  p.  193.  Zosimus  relates,  1.  i.  p.  17  [16] .  that  the  two 
Gordians  perished  by  a  tempest  in  the  midst  of  their  navigation.  A  strange  ignor- 
ance of  history,  or  a  strange  abuse  of  metaphors  !  [The  date  of  the  death  of  the 
Gordians  is  now  known  to  be  238,  but  the  month  is  uncertain.  Sec  Appendix  12. 
The  meeting  of  the  senate  is  stated  to  have  taken  place  on  the  9th  June  or  July 
(see  next  note).  It  is  clear  that  this  meeting  followed  quickly  on  the  news  from 
Africa ;  the  words  of  Capitolinus  are — senatus  praetrepidus  in  aedem  Concofdiae 
concurrit.  Thus  the  view  of  Eckhel  and  Clinton  that  the  Gordians  fell  in  April, 
or  March,  238,  implies  the  rejection  of  this  date.] 


180 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


the  senate, 
Dta  July 


Election  of         The  fate  of  the  Gordians  filled  Rome  with  just,  but  unexpected, 
Baibinusby    terror.     The  senate,  convoked  in  the  temple  of  Concord,  affected 
to  transact  the  common  business  of  the  day  ;  and  seemed  to  de- 
cline,  with  trembling  anxiety,  the  consideration  of  their  own, 
and  the  public,  danger.     A  silent  consternation  prevailed  on  the 
assembly,  till   a    senator,    of  the   name   and   family   of  Trajan, 
awakened  his  brethren  from  their  fatal  lethargy.    He  represented 
to  them  that  the  choice  of  cautious  dilatory  measures  had  been 
long  since  out  of  their  power  ;  that   Maximin,   implacable  by 
nature  and  exasperated  by  injuries,  was  advancing  towards  Italy, 
at  the  head  of  the  military  force  of  the  empire ;  and  that  their 
only  remaining  alternative  was  either  to  meet  him  bravely  in 
the  field,  or  tamely  to  expect  the  tortures  and  ignominious  death 
reserved  for  unsuccessful  rebellion.     "We  have  lost,"  continued 
he,  "  two  excellent  princes ;  but,  unless  we  desert  ourselves,  the 
hopes   of  the  republic  have  not   perished  with  the   Gordians. 
Many  are  the  senators  whose  virtues  have  deserved,  and  whose 
abilities  would  sustain,  the  Imperial  dignity.     Let  us  elect  two 
emperors,  one  of  whom  may  conduct  the  war  against  the  public 
enemy,  whilst  his  colleague  remains  at  Rome  to  direct  the  civil 
administration.     I  cheerfully  expose  myself  to  the  danger  and 
envy  of  the  nomination,  and  give  my  vote  in  favour  of  Maximus 
and  Balbinus.      Ratify  my  choice,  conscript  fathers,  or  appoint, 
in  their  place,  others  more  worthy  of  the  empire."     The  general 
apprehension  silenced  the  whispers  of  jealousy;  the  merit  of  the 
candidates  was  universally  acknowledged ;   and  the  house   re- 
sounded with  the  sincere  acclamations  of  "  Long  life  and  victory 
to  the  Emperors  Maximus  and  Balbinus.     You  are  happy  in  the 
judgment  of  the  senate  ;  may  the  republic  be  happy  under  your 
administration  ! "  35 

The  virtues  and  the  reputation  of  the  new  emperors  justified 
the  most  sanguine  hopes  of  the  Romans.  The  various  nature  of 
their  talents  seemed  to  appropriate  to  each  his  peculiar  depart- 
ment of  peace  and  war,  without  leaving  room  for  jealous  emula- 
tion. Balbinus  was  an  admired  orator,  a  poet  of  distinguished 
fame,  and  a  wise  magistrate,  who  had  exercised  with  innocence 
and  applause  the  civil  jurisdiction  in  almost  all  the  interior 
provinces  of  the  empire.       His  birth  was  noble,36   his  fortune 

35 See  the  Augustan  History,  p.  166  [xxi.  i],  from  the  registers  of  the  senate; 
the  date  is  confessedly  faulty,  but  the  coincidence  of  the  Apollinarian  games 
enables  us  to  correct  it.  [Iunias  in  Hist.  Aug.  xxi.  i,  is  supposed  to  be  a  mere 
slip  of  the  pen  for  Iulias.] 

36  He  was  descended  from  Cornelius  Bnlbns,  a  noble  Spaniard,  and  the  adopted 
son  of  Theophanes  the  Greek  historian.     Balbus  obtained  the  freedom  of  Rome  by 


Their  char 
acters 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  181 

affluent,  his  manners  liberal  and  affable.  In  him,  the  love  of 
pleasure  was  corrected  by  a  sense  of  dignity,  nor  had  the  habits 
of  ease  deprived  him  of  a  capacity  for  business.  The  mind 
of  Maximus  37  was  formed  in  a  rougher  mould.  By  his  valour 
and  abilities  he  had  raised  himself  from  the  meanest  origin  to 
the  first  employments  of  the  state  and  army.  His  victories  over 
the  Sarmatians  and  the  Germans,  the  austerity  of  his  life,  and 
the  rigid  impartiality  of  his  justice  whilst  he  was  praefect  of  the 
city,  commanded  the  esteem  of  a  people  whose  affections  were 
engaged  in  favour  of  the  more  amiable  Balbinus.  The  two 
colleagues  had  both  been  consul  (Balbinus  had  twice  enjoyed 
that  honourable  office),  both  had  been  named  among  the  twenty 
lieutenants  of  the  senate ;  and,  since  the  one  was  sixty  and  the 
other  seventy-four  years  old,38  they  had  both  attained  the  full 
maturity  of  age  and  experience. 

After  the  senate  had  conferred  on  Maximus  and  Balbinus  an  Tumult  at 
equal  portion  of  the  consular  and  tribunitian  powers,  the  title  of  younger"16 
Fathers  of  their  country,  and  the  joint  office  of  Supreme  Pontiff,  declared'" 
they  ascended   to   the   Capitol   to    return   thanks  to  the  gods, Cssar 
protectors  of  Rome.39     The  solemn  rites  of  sacrifice  were  dis- 
turbed by  a  sedition  of  the  people.     The  licentious  multitude 
neither  loved  the  rigid  Maximus,  nor  did  they  sufficiently  fear  the 
mild    and    humane    Balbinus.     Their    increasing    numbers   sur- 
rounded the  temple  of  Jupiter ;  with  obstinate  clamours  they 
asserted    their  inherent  right  of  consenting  to  the  election  of 
their  sovereign :  and  demanded,  with  an  apparent  moderation, 
that,    besides  the  two  emperors  chosen  by  the  senate,  a  third 
should  be  added  of  the  family  of  the  Gordians,  as  a  just  return 
of  gratitude  to  those  princes  who  had  sacrificed  their  lives  for  the 
republic.     At  the  head  of  the  city  guards  and  the  youth  of  the 

the  favour  of  Pompey,  and  preserved  it  by  the  eloquence  of  Cicero  (see  Orat.  pro 
Cornel.  Balbo).  The  friendship  of  Caesar  (to  whom  he  rendered  the  most  impor- 
tant secret  services  in  the  civil  war)  raised  him  to  the  consulship  and  the  pontificate, 
honours  never  yet  possessed  by  a  stranger.  The  nephew  of  this  Balbus  triumphed 
over  the  Garamantes.  See  Dictionnaire  de  Bayle,  au  mot  Balbus,  where  he  dis- 
tinguishes the  several  persons  of  that  name,  and  rectifies,  with  his  usual  accuracy, 
the  mistakes  of  former  writers  concerning  them.  [The  full  name  of  Balbinus  was 
D.  Caelius  Calvinus  Balbinus.] 

37  [M.  Clodius  Pupienus  Maximus  (on  coins  Pupienus,  in  African  inscriptions 
Pupienius).] 

33  Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  622  [17].  But  little  dependence  is  to  be  had  on  the  autho- 
rity of  a  modern  Greek,  so  grossly  ignorant  of  the  history  of  the  third  century  that 
he  creates  several  imaginary  emperors,  and  confounds  those  who  really  existed. 

39  Herodian,  1.  vii.  p.  256  [10] ,  supposes  that  the  senate  was  at  first  convoked 
in  the  Capitol,  and  is  very  eloquent  on  the  occasion.  The  Augustan  History,  p. 
?66  [xxi.  3],  seems  much  more  authentic. 


182 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Maximin  pre 
pares  to 
attack  the 
senate  and 
their  em- 
perors 


equestrian  order.  Maximus  and  Balbinus  attempted  to  cut  their 
way  through  the  seditious  multitude.  The  multitude,  armed 
with  sticks  and  stones,  drove  them  back  into  the  Capitol.  It  is 
prudent  to  yield,  when  the  contest,  whatever  may  be  the  issue 
of  it,  must  be  fatal  to  both  parties.  A  boy,  only  thirteen  years 
of  age,  the  grandson  of  the  elder  and  nephew  of  the  younger 
Gordian,  was  produced  to  the  people,  invested  with  the  orna- 
ments and  title  of  Caesar.40  The  tumult,  was  appeased  by  this 
easy  condescension  ;  and  the  two  emperors,  as  soon  as  they 
had  been  peaceably  acknowledged  in  Rome,  prepared  to  defend 
Italy  against  the  common  enemy. 

Whilst  in  Rome  and  Africa  revolutions  succeeded  each  other 
with  such  amazing  rapidity,  the  mind  of  Maximin  was  agitated 
by  the  most  furious  passions.  He  is  said  to  have  received  the 
news  of  the  rebellion  of  the  Gordians,  and  of  the  decree  of  the 
senate  against  him,  not  with  the  temper  of  a  man,  but  the  rage 
of  a  wild  beast ;  which,  as  it  could  not  discharge  itself  on  the 
distant  senate,  threatened  the  life  of  his  son,  of  his  friends, 
and  of  all  who  ventured  to  approach  his  person.  The  grateful  in- 
telligence of  the  death  of  the  Gordians  was  quickly  followed  by 
the  assurance  that  the  senate,  laying  aside  all  hopes  of  pardon 
or  accommodation,  had  substituted  in  their  room  two  emperors, 
with  whose  merit  he  could  not  be  unacquainted.  Revenge  was 
the  only  consolation  left  to  Maximin,  and  revenge  could  only  be 
obtained  by  arms.  The  strength  of  the  legions  had  been 
assembled  by  Alexander  from  all  parts  of  the  empire.  Three 
successful  campaigns  against  the  Germans  and  the  Sarmatians  41 
had  raised  their  fame,  confirmed  their  discipline,  and  even  in- 
creased their  numbers,  by  filling  the  ranks  with  the  flower  of 
the  barbarian  youth.  The  life  of  Maximin  had  been  spent  in 
war,  and  the  candid  severity  of  history  cannot  refuse  him  the 
valour  of  a  soldier,  or  even  the  abilities  of  an  experienced 
general.4"2  It  might  naturally  be  expected  that  a  prince  of  such 
a  character,  instead  of  suffering  the  rebellion  to  gain  stability  by 
delay,  should  immediately  have  marched  from  the  banks  of  the 


40  [It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  he  was  not  adopted  as  son  by  either  of  the  Augusti, 
as  was  usual  in  such  cases.] 

41  [On  the  Rhine  against  the  Germans  235  and  236,  on  the  Danube  against  Sar- 
matians and  Dacians  in  237.  Hence  the  titles  Germanicus,  Daciais,  Sarmaticus 
which  his  son  also  bore.] 

42  In  Herodian,  1.  vii.  p.  249  [8],  and  in  the  Augustan  History  [xix.  18 ;  xx.  14] 
we  have  three  several  orations  of  Maximin  to  his  army,  on  the  rebellion  of  Africa 
and  Rome :  M.  de  Tillemont  has  very  justly  observed,  that  they  neither  agree  with 
each  other,  nor  with  truth.     Histoire  des  Empereurs,  torn.  iii.  p.  799. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  183 

Danube  to  those  of  the  Tiber,  and  that  his  victorious  army, 
instigated  by  contempt  for  the  senate,  and  eager  to  gather  the 
spoils  of  Italy,  should  have  burned  with  impatience  to  finish  the 
easy  and  lucrative  conquest.  Yet,  as  far  as  we  can  trust  to  the 
obscure  chronology  of  that  period,43  it  appears  that  the  operations 
of  some  foreign  war  deferred  the  Italian  expedition  till  the 
ensuing  spring.  From  the  prudent  conduct  of  Maximin,  we  may 
learn  that  the  savage  features  of  his  character  have  been  exag- 
gerated by  the  pencil  of  party ;  that  his  passions,  however 
impetuous,  submitted  to  the  force  of  reason ;  and  that  the 
barbarian  possessed  something  of  the  generous  spirit  of  Sylla, 
who  subdued  the  enemies  of  Rome  before  he  suffered  himself  to 
revenge  his  private  injuries.44 

When  the  troops  of  Maximin,  advancing45  in  excellent  order,  Marches  into 
arrived  at  the  foot  of  the  Julian  Alps,  they  were  terrified  by  23I, February 
the  silence  and  desolation  that  reigned  on  the  frontiers  of  Italy. 
The   villages   and  open    toAvns  had  been  abandoned,   on  their 
approach,  by  the  inhabitants,  the  cattle  was  driven  away,  the 
provisions  removed  or  destroyed,  the  bridges  broken  down,  nor 
was  anything  left  which  could  afford  either  shelter  or  subsist- 
ence to  an  invader.     Such  had  been  the  wise   orders    of  the 
generals  of  the  senate,  whose  design  was  to  protract  the  war, 
to  ruin  the  army  of  Maximin  by  the  slow  operation  of  famine, 
and  to  consume  his  strength  in  the  sieges  of  the  principal  cities 
of  Italy,  which  they  had  plentifully  stored  with  men  and  pro- 
visions from  the  deserted  country.     Aquileia  received  and  with- 
stood the  first  shock  of  the  invasion.     The  streams  that  issue  siege  of 
from  the  head  of  the  Hadriatic  gulf,  swelled  by  the  melting  of  q 
the  winter  snows,46  opposed  an  unexpected  obstacle  to  the  arms 

43  The  carelessness  of  the  writers  of  that  age  leaves  us  in  a  singular  perplexity. 
1.  We  know  that  Maximus  and  Balbinus  were  killed  during  the  Capitoline  games. 
Herodian,  1.  viii.  p.  285  [8].  The  authority  of  Censorinus  (de  Die  Natali,  c.  18) 
enables  us  to  fix  those  games  with  certainty  to  the  year  238,  but  leaves  us  in  ignor- 
ance of  the  month  or  day.  2.  The  election  of  Gordian  by  the  senate  is  fixed,  with 
equal  certainty,  to  the  27th  of  May ;  but  we  are  at  a  loss  to  discover,  whether  it 
was  in  the  same  or  the  preceding  year.  Tillemont  and  Muratori,  who  maintain 
the  two  opposite  opinions,  bring  into  the  field  a  desultory  troop  of  authorities, 
conjectures  and  probabilities.  The  one  seems  to  draw  out,  the  other  to  contract, 
the  series  of  events,  between  those  periods,  more  than  can  be  well  reconciled  to 
reason  and  history.  Yet  it  is  necessary  to  choose  between  them.  [See  further 
Appendix  12.] 

•"Velleius  Paterculus,  1.  ii.  c.  24.  The  president  de  Montesquieu  (in  his 
dialogue  between  Sylla  and  Eucrates)  expresses  the  sentiments  of  the  dictator  in 
a  spirited  and  even  sublime  manner. 

45  [From  Sirmium.] 

46  Muratori  (Annali  d'ltalia,  torn.  ii.  p.  294)  thinks  the  melting  of  the  snows 
suits  better  with  the  months  of  June  or  July,  than  with  that  of  February.     The 


184  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

of  Maximin.  At  length,  on  a  singular  bridge,  constructed,  with 
art  and  difficulty,  of  large  hogsheads,  he  transported  his  army  to 
the  opposite  bank,  rooted  up  the  beautiful  vineyards  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Aquileia,  demolished  the  suburbs,  and  employed 
the  timber  of  the  buildings  in  the  engines  and  towers  with  which 
on  every  side  he  attacked  the  city.  The  walls,  fallen  to  decay 
during  the  security  of  a  long  peace,  had  been  hastily  repaired 
on  this  sudden  emergency ;  but  the  firmest  defence  of  Aquileia 
consisted  in  the  constancy  of  the  citizens  ;  all  ranks  of  whom, 
instead  of  being  dismayed,  were  animated  by  the  extreme 
danger,  and  their  knowledge  of  the  tyrant's  unrelenting  temper. 
Their  courage  was  supported  and  directed  by  Crispinus  and 
Menophilus,  two  of  the  twenty  lieutenants  of  the  senate,  who, 
with  a  small  body  of  regular  troops,  had  thrown  themselves 
into  the  besieged  place.  The  army  of  Maximin  was  repulsed  in 
repeated  attacks,  his  machines  destroyed  by  showers  of  artificial 
fire ;  and  the  generous  enthusiasm  of  the  Aquileians  was 
exalted  into  a  confidence  of  success,  by  the  opinion  that  Belenus, 
their  tutelar  deity,  combated  in  person  in  the  defence  of  his  dis- 
tressed worshippers.47 

The  Emperor  Maximus,  who  had  advanced  as  far  as  Ravenna 
to  secure  that  important  place,  and  to  hasten  the  military  pre- 
parations, beheld  the  event  of  the  war  in  the  more  faithful 
mirror  of  reason  and  policy.  He  was  too  sensible  that  a  single 
town  could  not  resist  the  persevering  efforts  of  a  great  army ; 
and  he  dreaded  lest  the  enemy,  tired  with  the  obstinate  re- 
sistance of  Aquileia,  should  on  a  sudden  relinquish  the  fruitless 
siege  and  march  directly  towards  Rome.  The  fate  of  the  empire 
and  the  cause  of  freedom  must  then  be  committed  to  the  chance 
of  a  battle  ;  and  what  arms  could  he  oppose  to  the  veteran 
legions  of  the  Rhine  and  Danube  ?  Some  troops  newly  levied 
among  the  generous  but  enervated  youth  of  Italy,  and  a  body  of 

opinion  of  a  man  who  passed  his  life  between  the  Alps  and  the  Apennines  is  un- 
doubtedly of  great  weight ;  yet  I  observe,  i.  That  the  long  winter,  of  which 
Muratori  takes  advantage,  is  to  be  found  only  in  the  Latin  version,  and  not  in  the 
Creek  text,  of  Herodian.  2.  That  the  vicissitude  of  suns  and  rains,  to  which  the 
soldiers  of  Maximin  were  exposed  (Herodian,  1.  viii.  p.  277  [5]),  denotes  the  spring 
rather  than  the  summer.  We  may  observe  likewise,  that  these  several  streams,  as 
they  melted  into  one,  composed  the  Timavus,  so  poetically  (in  every  sense  of  the 
word)  described  by  Virgil.  They  are  about  twelve  miles  to  the  east  of  Aquileia. 
See  Cluver.  Italia  Antiqua,  torn.  i.  p.  189,  &c. 

4?  Herodian,  1.  viii.  p.  272  [3].  The  Celtic  deity  was  supposed  to  be  Apollo, 
and  received  under  that  name  the  thanks  of  the  senate.  A  temple  was  likewise 
built  to  Venus  the  Bald,  in  honour  of  the  women  of  Aquileia,  who  had  given  up 
their  hair  to  make  ropes  for  the  military  engines. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  185 

German  auxiliaries,  on  whose  firmness,  in  the  hour  of  trial,  it  was 
dangerous  to  depend.  In  the  midst  of  these  just  alarms,  the 
stroke  of  domestic  conspiracy  punished  the  crimes  of  Maximin 
and  delivered  Rome  and  the  senate  from  the  calamities 
that  would  surely  have  attended  the  victory  of  an  enrageo 
barbarian. 

The  people  of  Aquileia  had  scarcely  experienced  any  of  the  Murder  of 

r        .         .  r  •  .1      .  J  .  i        ■■/•   n      Maiimin  and 

common  miseries  or  a  siege;  their  magazines  were  plentifully  his  son, 
supplied,  and  several  fountains  within  the  walls  assured  them  April 
of  an  inexhaustible  resource  of  fresh  water.  The  soldiers  of 
Maximin  were,  on  the  contrary,  exposed  to  the  inclemency  of 
the  season,  the  contagion  of  disease,  and  the  horrors  of  famine. 
The  naked  country  was  ruined,  the  rivers  filled  with  the  slain  and 
polluted  with  blood.  A  spirit  of  despair  and  disaffection  began 
to  diffuse  itself  among  the  troops  ;  and,  as  they  were  cut  off  from 
all  intelligence,  they  easily  believed  that  the  whole  empire  had 
embraced  the  cause  of  the  senate,  and  that  they  were  left  as 
devoted  victims  to  perish  under  the  impregnable  walls  of 
Aquileia.  The  fierce  temper  of  the  tyrant  was  exasperated  by 
disappointments,  which  he  imputed  to  the  cowardice  of  his 
army ;  and  his  wanton  and  ill-timed  cruelty,  instead  of  striking 
terror,  inspired  hatred  and  a  just  desire  of  revenge.  A  party  of 
Praetorian  guards,  who  trembled  for  their  wives  and  children  in 
the  camp  of  Alba,  near  Rome,  executed  the  sentence  of  the 
senate.  Maximin,  abandoned  by  his  guards,  was  slain  in  his 
tent,  with  his  son  (whom  he  had  associated  to  the  honours  of 
the  purple),  Anulinus  the  praefect,  and  the  principal  ministers  of 
his  tyranny.48  The  sight  of  their  heads,  borne  on  the  point  of 
spears,  convinced  the  citizens  of  Aquileia  that  the  siege  was  at 
an  end  ;  the  gates  of  the  city  were  thrown  open,  a  liberal  market 
was  provided  for  the  hungry  troops  of  Maximin,  and  the  whole 
army  joined  in  solemn  protestations  of  fidelity  to  the  senate  and 
people  of  Rome,  and  to  their  lawful  emperors  Maximus  and 
Balbinus.  Such  was  the  deserved  fate  of  a  brutal  savage,  His  portrait 
destitute,  as  he  has  generally  been  represented,  of  every  senti- 
ment that  distinguishes  a  civilized,  or  even  a  human,  being. 
The  body  was  suited  to  the  soul.  The  stature  of  Maximin 
exceeded  the  measure  of  eight  feet,  and  circumstances  almost 

^Herodian,  1.  viii.  p.  279  [5].  Hist.  August,  p.  146  [xix.  23].  The  duration 
of  Maximin's  reign  has  not  been  defined  with  much  accuracy,  except  by  Eutropius, 
who  allows  him  three  years  and  a  few  days  (1.  ix.  1);  we  may  depend  on  the 
integrity  of  the  text,  as  the  Latin  original  is  checked  by  the  Greek  version  of 
Pasanius  (see  Appendix  1). 


Roman  world 


186  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

incredible  are  related  of  his  matchless  strength  and  appetite.49 
Had  he  lived  in  a  less  enlightened  age,  tradition  and  poetry 
might  well  have  described  him  as  one  of  those  monstrous  giants, 
whose  supernatural  power  was  constantly  exerted  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  mankind. 

joy  of  the  It  is  easier  to  conceive  than  to  describe  the  universal  joy  of  the 

Roman  world  on  the  fall  of  the  tyrant,  the  news  of  which  is  said 
to  have  been  carried  in  four  days  from  Aquileia  to  Rome.  The 
return  of  Maximus  was  a  triumphal  procession ;  his  colleague 
and  young  Gordian  went  out  to  meet  him,  and  the  three  princes 
made  their  entry  into  the  capital,  attended  by  the  ambassadors 
of  almost  all  the  cities  of  Italy,  saluted  with  the  splendid  offerings 
of  gratitude  and  superstition,  and  received  with  the  unfeigned 
acclamations  of  the  senate  and  people,  who  persuaded  themselves 
that  a  golden  age  would  succeed  to  an  age  of  iron.50  The 
conduct  of  the  two  emperors  corresponded  with  these  expecta- 
tions. They  administered  justice  in  person ;  and  the  rigour  of 
the  one  was  tempered  by  the  other's  clemency.  The  oppressive 
taxes  with  which  Maximin  had  loaded  the  rights  of  inheritance 
and  succession  were  repealed,  or  at  least  moderated.  Discipline 
'was  revived,  and  with  the  advice  of  the  senate  many  wise  laws 
were  enacted  by  their  Imperial  ministers,  who  endeavoured  to 
restore  a  civil  constitution  on  the  ruins  of  military  tyranny. 
"  What  reward  may  we  expect  for  delivering  Rome  from  a 
monster  ?  "  was  the  question  asked  by  Maximus,  in  a  moment  of 
freedom  and  confidence.  Balbinus  answered  it  without  hesita- 
tion, "  The  love  of  the  senate,  of  the  people,  and  of  all  mankind". 
"Alas  I"  replied  his  more  penetrating  colleague,  "Alas!  I  dread 
the  hatred  of  the  soldiei's,  and  the  fatal  effects  of  their  resent- 
ment." 01  His  apprehensions  were  but  too  well  justified  by  the 
event. 

sedition  at  Whilst  Maximus  was  preparing  to  defend  Italy  against  the 
common  foe,  Balbinus,  who  remained  at  Rome,  had  been  engaged 
in  scenes  of  blood  and  intestine  discord.  Distrust  and  jealousy 
reigned  in   the   senate ;  and  even  in  the   temples  where  they 

49  Eight  Roman  feet  and  one  third,  which  are  equal  to  above  eight  English  feet,  as 
the  two  measures  are  to  each  other  in  the  proportion  of  967  to  1000.  See  Graves's 
discourse  on  the  Roman  foot.  We  are  told  that  Maximin  could  drink  in  a  day  an 
amphora  (or  about  seven  gallons)  of  wine  and  eat  thirty  or  forty  pounds  of  meat.  He 
could  move  a  loaded  waggon,  break  a  horse's  leg  with  his  fist,  crumble  stones  in  his 
hand,  and  tear  up  small  trees  by  the  roots.     See  his  Life  in  the  Augustan  History. 

50  See  the  congratulatory  letter  of  Claudius  Julianus  the  consul,  to  the  two 
emperors,  in  the  Augustan  History  [xxi.  17]. 

si  Hist.  August,  p.  171  [xxi.  15]. 


Rome 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  187 

assembled  every  senator  carried  either  open  or  concealed  arms. 
In  the  midst  of  their  deliberations,  two  veterans  of  the  guards, 
actuated  either  by  cui'iosity  or  a  sinister  motive,  audaciously 
thrust  themselves  into  the  house,  and  advanced  by  degrees 
beyond  the  altar  of  Victory.  Gallicanus,  a  consular,  and 
Maecenas,  a  praetorian  senatoi',  viewed  with  indignation  their 
insolent  intrusion  :  drawing  their  daggers,  they  laid  the  spies, 
for  such  they  deemed  them,  dead  at  the  foot  of  the  altar,  and 
then,  advancing  to  the  door  of  the  senate,  imprudently  exhorted 
the  multitude  to  massacre  the  Praetorians  as  the  secret  adherents 
of  the  tyrant.  Those  who  escaped  the  first  fury  of  the  tumult 
took  refuge  in  the  camp,  which  they  defended  with  superior 
advantage  against  the  reiterated  attacks  of  the  people,  assisted 
by  the  numerous  bands  of  gladiators,  the  property  of  opulent 
nobles.  The  civil  war  lasted  many  days,  Avith  infinite  loss  and 
confusion  on  both  sides.  When  the  pipes  were  broken  that 
supplied  the  camp  with  water,  the  Praetorians  were  reduced  to 
intolerable  distress;  but,  in  their  turn,  they  made  desperate  sallies 
into  the  city,  set  fire  to  a  great  number  of  houses,  and  filled  the 
streets  with  the  blood  of  the  inhabitants.  The  emperor  Balbinus 
attempted,  by  ineffectual  edicts  and  precarious  truces,  to  re- 
concile the  factions  of  Rome.  But  their  animosity,  though 
smothered  for  a  while,  burnt  with  redoubled  violence.  The 
soldiers,  detesting  the  senate  and  the  people,  despised  the  weak- 
ness of  a  prince  who  wanted  either  the  spirit  or  the  power  to 
command  the  obedience  of  his  subjects.52 

After  the  tyrant's  death  his  formidable  army  had  acknowledged,  Discontent  or 
from  necessity  rather  than  from  choice,  the  authority  of  Maximus,  gutrdf 
who  transported  himself  without  delay  to  the  camp  before 
Aquileia.  As  soon  as  he  had  received  their  oath  of  fidelity  he 
addressed  them  in  terms  full  of  mildness  and  moderation ; 
lamented  rather  than  arraigned  the  wild  disorders  of  the  times, 
and  assured  the  soldiers  that,  of  all  their  past  conduct,  the 
senate  would  remember  only  their  generous  desertion  of  the 
tyrant  and  their  voluntary  return  to  their  duty.  Maximus  en- 
forced his  exhortations  by  a  liberal  donative,  purified  the  camp 
by  a  solemn  sacrifice  of  expiation,  and  then  dismissed  the  legions 
to  their  several  provinces,  impressed,  as  he  hoped,  with  a  lively 
sense  of  gratitude  and  obedience.53  But  nothing  could  reconcile 
the  haughty  spirit  of  the  Praetorians.  They  attended  the  em- 
perors on  the  memorable  day  of  their  public  entry  into  Rome : 

^Herodian,  1.  viii.  p.  258  [12].  ^  Herodian,  1.  viii.  p.  213  [7I, 


188  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

but,  amidst  the  general  acclamations,  the  sullen  dejected 
countenance  of  the  guards  sufficiently  declared  that  they  con- 
sidered themselves  as  the  object,  rather  than  the  partners,  of  the 
triumph.  When  the  whole  body  was  united  in  their  camp,  those 
who  had  served  under  Maximin,  and  those  who  had  remained  at 
Rome,  insensibly  communicated  to  each  other  their  complaints 
and  apprehensions.  The  emperors  chosen  by  the  army  had 
perished  with  ignominy ;  those  elected  by  the  senate  were 
seated  on  the  throne.54  The  long  discord  between  the  civil  and 
military  powers  was  decided  by  a  war  in  which  the  former  had 
obtained  a  complete  victory.  The  soldiers  must  now  learn  a 
new  doctrine  of  submission  to  the  senate ;  and,  whatever 
clemency  was  affected  by  that  politic  assembly,  they  dreaded  a 
slow  revenge,  coloured  by  the  name  of  discipline,  and  justified 
by  fair  pretences  of  the  public  good.  But  their  fate  was  still  in 
their  own  hands ;  and,  if  they  had  courage  to  despise  the  vain 
terrors  of  an  impotent  republic,  it  was  easy  to  convince  the  world 
that  those  who  were  masters  of  the  arms  were  masters  of  the 
authority  of  the  state. 
Massacre  of  When  the  senate  elected  two  pi-inces,  it  is  probable  that,  be- 
BaibiSLs  an  sides  the  declared  reason  of  providing  for  the  various  emergen- 
cies of  peace  and  wai*,  they  were  actuated  by  the  secret  desire 
of  weakening  by  division  the  despotism  of  the  supreme  magis- 
trate. Their  policy  was  effectual,  but  it  proved  fatal  both  to 
their  emperors  and  to  themselves.  The  jealousy  of  power  was 
soon  exasperated  by  the  difference  of  character.  Maximus 
despised  Balbinus  as  a  luxurious  noble,  and  was  in  his  turn 
disdained  by  his  colleague  as  an  obscure  soldier.  Their  silent 
discord  was  understood  rather  than  seen ; 55  but  the  mutual  con- 
sciousness prevented  them  from  uniting  in  any  vigorous  measures 
of  defence  against  their  common  enemies  of  the  Praetorian  camp. 
ad. 233,  The  whole  city  was  employed  in  the  Capitoline  games,  and  the 
emperors  were  left  almost  alone  in  the  palace.  On  a  sud- 
den they  were  alarmed  by  the  approach  of  a  troop  of  desperate 
assassins.  Ignorant  of  each  other's  situation  or  designs,  for  they 
already  occupied  very  distant  apartments,  afraid  to  give  or  to 

04  The  observation  had  been  made  imprudently  enough  in  the  acclamations  of 
the  senate,  and  with  regard  to  the  soldiers  it  carried  the  appearance  of  a  wanton 
insult.     Hist.  August,  p.  170  [xxi.  12]. 

55  Discordise  tacitoe  et  quas  intelligerentur  potius  quam  viderentur.  Hist. 
August,  p.  170  [xxi.  14].  This  well  chosen  expression  is  probably  stolen  from 
some  better  writer.  [On  the  coins,  however,  we  see  amor  mutuus,  concordia  Augg. . 
&c.  It  was  arranged  that  Balbinus  should  undertake  the  war  on  the  Danube, 
Pupienus  that  on  the  Euphrates.] 


July  15 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIEE  189 

receive  assistance,  they  wasted  the  important  moments  in  idle 
debates  and  fruitless  recriminations.  The  arrival  of  the  guards 
put  an  end  to  the  vain  strife.  They  seized  on  these  emperors 
of  the  senate,  for  such  they  called  them  with  malicious  contempt, 
stripped  them  of  their  garments,  and  dragged  them  in  insolent 
triumph  through  the  streets  of  Rome,  with  a  design  of  inflicting 
a  slow  and  cruel  death  on  these  unfortunate  princes.  The  fear 
of  a  rescue  from  the  faithful  Germans  of  the  Imperial  guards 
shortened  their  tortures  ;  and  their  bodies,  mangled  with  a 
thousand  wounds,  were  left  exposed  to  the  insults  or  to  the  pity 
of  the  populace.56 

In  the  space  of  a  few  months  six  princes  had  been  cut  off  by  The  third 
the   sword.      Gordian,    who   had   already  received  the  title  of  mains  sola* 
Caesar,    was  the   only  person   that  occurred  to  the   soldiers  as  empero 
proper  to  fill  the  vacant  throne.57     They  carried  him  to  the  camp 
and    unanimously  saluted    him   Augustus  and  Emperor.58     His 
name  was  dear  to  the  senate  and  people ;  his  tender  age  pro- 
mised a  long  impunity  of  military  licence ;  and  the  submission 
of  Rome  and  the  provinces  to  the  choice  of  the  Praetorian  guards 
saved  the  republic,  at  the  expense  indeed  of  its  freedom  and 
dignity,  from  the  horrors  of  a  new  civil  war  in  the  heart  of  the 
capital.59 

As  the  third  Gordian  was  only  nineteen  years  of  age  at  the  innocence  and 
time  of  his  death,  the  history  of  his  life,  were  it  known  to  us  Indian01 
with  greater  accuracy  than  it  really  is,  would  contain  little  more 
than  the  account  of  his  education  and  the  conduct  of  the  minis- 
ters who  by  turns  abused  or  guided  the  simplicity  of  his  inex- 
perienced youth.  Immediately  after  his  accession  he  fell  into 
the  hands  of  his  mother's  eunuchs,  that  pernicious  vermin  of  the 
East,  who,  since  the  days  of  Elagabalus,  had  infested  the  Roman 
palace.     By  the  artful  conspiracy  of  these  wretches  an  impene- 

58  Herodian,  1.  viii.  p.  287,  288  [8].  [The  date  is  probably  August ;  see 
Appendix  12.     Gibbon  pccepted  15th  July.] 

67  Quia  non  alius  erat  in  praesenti,  is  the  expression  of  the  Augustan  History 
[xxi.  14]. 

88  [Before  29th  August,  as  is  proved  by  Alexandrine  coins.] 

59Quintus  Curtius  (1.  x.  c.  9),  pays  an  elegant  compliment  to  the  emperor  of 
the  day,  for  having,  by  his  happy  accession,  extinguished  so  many  fire-brands, 
sheathed  so  many  swords,  and  put  an  end  to  the  evils  of  a  divided  government. 
After  weighing  with  attention  every  word  of  the  passage,  I  am  of  opinion  that  it 
suits  better  with  the  elevation  of  Gordian  than  with  any  other  period  of  the  Roman 
History.  In  that  case,  it  may  serve  to  decide  the  age  of  Quintus  Curtius.  Those 
who  place  him  under  the  first  Ccesars  argue  from  the  purity  of  his  style,  but  are 
embarrassed  by  the  silence  of  Quintilian  in  his  accurate  list  of  Roman  historians. 
It  is  now  srmrrally  agreed  to  place  Curtius  in  the  reign  of  Nero  ;  but  of  his  life  we 
know  nothing.] 


190  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

trable  veil  was  drawn  between  an  innocent  prince  and  his 
oppressed  subjects,  the  virtuous  disposition  of  Gordian  was 
deceived,  and  the  honours  of  the  empire  sold  without  his  know- 
ledge, though  in  a  very  public  manner,  to  the  most  worthless  of 
mankind.  We  are  ignorant  by  what  fortunate  accident  the 
emperor  escaped  from  this  ignominious  slavery,  and  devolved 
his  confidence  on  a  minister  whose  wise  counsels  had  no  object 
except  the  glory  of  the  sovereign  and  the  happiness  of  the 
people.  It  should  seem  that  love  and  learning  introduced  Misi- 
a.d.240,  theus60  to  the  favour  of  Gordian.  The  young  prince  married  the 
ttoifofMisi-  daughter  of  his  master  of  rhetoric,  and  promoted  his  father- 
in-law  to  the  first  offices  of  the  empire.  Two  admirable  letters 
that  passed  between  them  are  still  extant.  The  minister,  with  the 
conscious  dignity  of  virtue,  congratulates  Gordian  that  he  is  de- 
livered from  the  tyranny  of  the  eunuchs,61  and  still  more,  that 
he  is  sensible  of  his  deliverance.  The  emperor  acknowledges, 
with  an  amiable  confusion,  the  errors  of  his  past  conduct ;  and 
laments,  with  singular  propriety,  the  misfortune  of  a  monarch 
from  whom  a  venal  tribe  of  courtiers  perpetually  labour  to  con- 
ceal the  truth.62 
The  Persian  The  life  of  Misitheus  had  been  spent  in  the  profession  of 
letters,  not  of  arms ;  yet  such  was  the  versatile  genius  of  that 
great  man  that,  when  he  was  appointed  Praetorian  praefect,  he 
discharged  the  military  duties  of  his  place  with  vigour  and 
ability.  The  Persians  had  invaded  Mesopotamia,  and  threatened 
Antioch.  By  the  persuasion  of  his  father-in-law,  the  young 
emperor  quitted  the  luxury  of  Rome,  opened,  for  the  last  time 
recorded  in  history,  the  temple  of  Janus,  and  marched  in  person 
into  the  East.63  On  his  approach  with  a  great  army,  the  Persians 
withdrew  their  garrisons  from  the  cities  which  they  had  already 

60  [The  true  name  of  this  minister  was  C.  Furius  Sabinius  Aquila  Timesitheus. 
His  name  occurs  on  inscriptions.  Gibbon  calls  him  Misitheus  after  the  Augustan 
History.  The  marriage  of  Gordian  with  his  daughter,  Tranquillina,  is  placed  too 
early  by  Gibbon  (240  A.D.).  Alexandrine  coins  prove  that  it  took  place  in  the 
fourth  tribunate  of  the  emperor,  between  30th  August  241  and  29th  August  242.] 

61  Hist.  August,  p.  161  [xx.  24  and  25] .  From  some  hints  in  the  two  letters,  I 
should  expect  that  the  eunuchs  were  not  expelled  the  palace  without  some  degree 
of  gentle  violence,  and  that  young  Gordian  rather  approved  of,  than  consented  to, 
their  disgrace. 

63  Duxit  uxorem  filiam  Misithei,  quern  causa  eloquentiaa  dignum  parentela  sua 
putavit ;  et  prsefectum  statim  fecit ;  post  quod  non  puerile  jam  et  contemptibile 
videbatur  imperium  [ib.  23]. 

63  [The  army  of  Gordian  halted  on  its  way  and  cleared  Thrace  of  barbarian 
invaders,  Alans,  Goths,  and  Sarmatians.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  on  this 
occasion  Viminncium  was  made  a  colonia.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  191 

taken,  and  retired  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Tigris.64  Gordian 
enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  announcing  to  the  senate  the  first 
success  of  his  arms,  which  he  ascribed  with  a  becoming  modesty 
and  gratitude  to  the  wisdom  of  his  father  and  praefect.  During 
the  whole  expedition,  Misitheus  watched  over  the  safety  and 
discipline  of  the  army ;  whilst  he  prevented  their  dangerous 
murmurs  by  maintaining  a  regular  plenty  in  the  camp,  and  by 
establishing  ample  magazines  of  vinegar,  bacon,  straw,  barley, 
and  wheat,  in  all  the  cities  of  the  frontier.65  But  the  prosperity 
of  Gordian  expired  with  Misitheus,  who  died  of  a  flux,  not  with- 
out veiy  strong  suspicions  of  poison.  Philip,  his  successor  in  a  jo.  :«, 
the  prefecture,  was  an  Arab  by  birth,  and  consequently,  in  the  ™p 
earlier  part  of  his  life,  a  robber  by  profession.  His  rise  from  so 
obscure  a  station  to  the  first  dignities  of  the  empire  seems  to 
prove  that  he  was  a  bold  and  able  leader.  But  his  boldness 
prompted  him  to  aspire  to  the  throne,  and  his  abilities  were 
employed  to  supplant,  not  to  serve,  his  indulgent  master.  The 
minds  of  the  soldiers  were  irritated  by  an  artificial  scarcity, 
created  by  his  contrivance  in  the  camp  ;  and  the  distress  of  the 
army  was  attributed  to  the  youth  and  incapacity  of  the  prince. 
It  is  not  in  our  power  to  trace  the  successive  steps  of  the  secret 
conspiracy  and  open  sedition  which  were  at  length  fatal  to 
Gordian.     A  sepulchral  monument  was  erected  to  his  memory  Murder  of 

i  cfii  i  liii  -i  n  pi       Gordian, 

on  the   spot Dt>  where   he   was  killed,   near  the   conflux  or   the  a.d.  zm 
Euphrates  with  the  little  river  Aboras.67     The  fortunate  Philip, 
raised  to  the  empire  by  the  votes  of  the  soldiers,  found  a  ready 
obedience  from  the  senate  and  the  provinces.08 

64  [The  successes  were  due  to  the  abilities  of  Timesitheus.  Carrhae  and  Nisibis, 
which,  along  with  Hatra,  had  been  taken  by  Sapor  in  his  invasion  of  241  A.D., 
were  recovered,  and  the  Roman  army,  having  defeated  the  Persians  at  Resaina, 
prepared  to  march  on  Ctesiphon.] 

65  Hist.  August,  p.  162  [xx.  27J.  Aurelius  Victor  [Caesar.  27].  Porphyrius  in 
Vit.  Plotin.  ap.  Fabricium  Biblioth.  Graec.  1.  iv.  c.  36  [c.  3,  p.  103,  ed.  Westermann 
and  Boissonade] .  The  philosopher  Plotinus  accompanied  the  army,  prompted  by 
the  love  of  knowledge,  and  by  the  hope  of  penetrating  as  far  as  India. 

66  About  twenty  miles  from  the  little  town  of  Circesium,  on  the  frontier  of  the 
two  empires.      [Eutropius,  ix.  2,  3.] 

67  The  inscription  (which  contained  a  very  singular  pun)  was  erased  by  the  order 
of  Licinius,  who  claimed  some  degree  of  relationship  to  Philip  (Hist.  August,  p. 
165  [xx.  34] ) ;  but  the  tumulus  or  mound  of  earth  which  formed  the  sepulchre, 
still  subsisted  in  the  time  of  Julian.  See  Ammian.  Marcellin.  xxiii.  5.  [The  pun 
to  which  Gibbon  refers  was  on  the  name  of  Philip.  Gordian  is  described  as  the 
conqueror  of  various  peoples.  "Victori  Persarum,  victori,  &c. — sed  non  victori 
Philipporum."  It  seems  that  Gordian  had  suffered  a  reverse  in  some  skirmish  with 
the  Alans  near  Philippi.] 

63  Aurelius  Victor.  Eutrop.  ix.  2.  Orosius,  vii.  20.  Ammianus  Maicellinus, 
xxiii.  5.  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  19  [19].  Philip,  who  was  a  native  of  Bostra,  was  about 
forty  years  of  age.      [His  name  was  M.  Julius  Philippus.] 


192  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

Smtarfa  ^e  cann°t  forbear  transcribing  the  ingenious,  though  some- 

repubuc  what  fanciful,  description,  which  a  celebrated  writer  of  our  own 
times  has  traced  of  the  military  government  of  the  Roman 
empire.  "  What  in  that  age  was  called  the  Roman  empire  was 
only  an  irregular  republic,  not  unlike  the  aristocracy 69  of 
Algiers,70  where  the  militia,  possessed  of  the  sovereignty, 
creates  and  deposes  a  magistrate,  who  is  styled  a  Dey.  Perhaps, 
indeed,  it  may  be  laid  down  as  a  general  rule,  that  a  military 
government  is,  in  some  respects,  more  republican  than  mon- 
archical. Nor  can  it  be  said  that  the  soldiers  only  partook  of 
the  government  by  their  disobedience  and  rebellions.  The 
speeches  made  to  them  by  the  emperors,  were  they  not  at 
length  of  the  same  nature  as  those  formerly  pronounced  to  the 
people  by  the  consuls  and  the  tribunes  ?  And  although  the 
armies  had  no  regular  place  or  forms  of  assembly,  though  their 
debates  were  short,  their  action  sudden,  and  their  resolves 
seldom  the  result  of  cool  reflection,  did  they  not  dispose,  with 
absolute  sway,  of  the  public  fortune  ?  What  was  the  emperor, 
except  the  minister  of  a  violent  government,  elected  for  the 
private  benefit  of  the  soldier?;  ? 

"  When  the  army  a  elected  Philip,  who  was  Praetorian 
praefect  to  the  third  Gordian,  the  latter  demanded  that  he  might 
remain  sole  emperor;  he  was  unable  to  obtain  it.  He  requested 
that  the  power  might  be  equally  divided  between  them  ;  the 
army  would  not  listen  to  his  speech.  He  consented  to  be 
degraded  to  the  rank  of  Caesar ;  the  favour  was  refused  him. 
He  desired,  at  least,  he  might  be  appointed  Praetorian  praefect ; 
his  prayer  was  rejected.  Finally,  he  pleaded  for  his  life.  The 
ai'my,  in  these  several  judgments,  exercised  the  supreme  magis- 
tracy." According  to  the  historian,  whose  doubtful  narrative  the 
president  De  Montesquieu  has  adopted,  Philip,  who,  during  the 
whole  transaction,  had  preserved  a  sullen  silence,  was  inclined  to 
spare  the  innocent  life  of  his  benefactor ;  till,  recollecting  that  his 
innocence  might  excite  a  dangerous  compassion  in  the  Roman 
world,  he  commanded,  without  regard  to  his  suppliant  cries,  that 
he  should  be  seized,  stript,  and  led  away  to  instant  death. 
After  a  moment's  pause  the  inhuman  sentence  was  executed.71 

69  Can  the  epithet  of  Aristocracy  be  applied,  with  any  propriety,  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Algiers?  Every  military  government  floats  between  the  extremes  of  abso- 
lute monarchy  and  wild  democracy. 

70  The  military  republic  of  the  Mamalukes  in  Egypt  would  have  afforded  M.  de 
Montesquieu  (see  Considerations  sur  la  Grandeur  et  la  Decadence  des  Romains,  c. 
16)  a  juster  and  more  noble  parallel. 

71  The  Augustan  History  (p.  163,  164  [xx.  30])  cannot,  in  this  instance,  be  re- 
conciled with  itself  or  with  probability.    How  could  Philip  condemn  his  predecessor. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  193 

On  his  return  from  the  East  to  Rome,  Philip,  desirous  of  Ret™  of 
obliterating  the  memory  of  his  crimes,  and  of  captivating  the 
affections  of  the  people,  solemnized  the  secular  games  with 
infinite  pomp  and  magnificence.  Since  their  institution  or 
revival  by  Augustus,72  they  had  been  celebrated  by  Claudius,  by 
Domitian,  and  by  Severus,  and  were  now  renewed,  the  fifth 
time,  on  the  accomplishment  of  the  full  period  of  a  thousand 
vears  from  the  foundation  of  Rome.     Every  circumstance  of  the  secular 

i  i   op   11  i  i  -  i  games,  A.D. 

secular  games  was  skilfully  adapted  to  inspire  the  superstitious  as,  April  a 
mind  with  deep  and  solemn  reverence.  The  long  interval 
between  them  73  exceeded  the  term  of  human  life  ;  and,  as  none 
of  the  spectators  had  already  seen  them,  none  could  flatter 
themselves  with  the  expectation  of  beholding  them  a  second 
time.  The  mystic  sacrifices  were  performed,  during  three 
nights,  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber ;  and  the  Campus  Martius 
resounded  with  music  and  dances,  and  was  illuminated  with 
innumerable  lamps  and  torches.  Slaves  and  strangers  were  ex- 
cluded from  any  participation  in  these  national  ceremonies.  A 
chorus  of  twenty-seven  youths,  and  as  many  virgins,  of  noble 
families,  and  whose  parents  were  both  alive,  implored  the  pro- 
pitious gods  in  favour  of  the  present,  and  for  the  hope  of  the 
rising  generation ;  requesting,  in  religious  hymns,  that,  accord- 
ing to  the  faith  of  their  ancient  oracles,  they  would  still  maintain 
the  virtue,  the  felicity,  and  the  empire  of  the  Roman  people.74 
The  magnificence  of  Philip's  shows  and  entertainments  dazzled 
the  eyes  of  the  multitude.  The  devout  were  employed  in  the 
rites  of  superstition,  whilst  the  reflecting  few  revolved  in  their 
anxious  minds  the  past  history  and  the  future  fate  of  the  empire. 

Since  Romulus,  with  a  small  band  of  shepherds  and  outlaws.  Decline  of  the 

Roman 
empire 

and  yet  consecrate  his  memory?  How  could  he  order  his  public  execution,  and 
yet,  in  his  letters  to  the  senate,  exculpate  himself  from  the  guilt  of  his  death? 
Philip,  though  an  ambitious  usurper,  was  by  no  means  a  mad  tyrant.  Some  chrono- 
logical difficulties  have  likewise  been  discovered  by  the  nice  eyes  of  Tillemont 
and  Muratori,  in  this  supposed  association  of  Philip  to  the  empire. 

72  The  account  of  the  last  supposed  celebration,  though  in  an  enlightened  period 
of  history,  was  so  very  doubtful  and  obscure,  that  the  alternative  seems  not  doubt- 
ful. When  the  popish  jubilees,  the  copy  of  the  secular  games,  were  invented  by 
Boniface  VIII. ,  the  crafty  pope  pretended  that  he  only  revived  an  ancient  institution. 
See  M.  le  Chais,  Lettres  sur  les  Jubiles. 

73  Either  of  a  hundred,  or  a  hundred  and  ten  years.  Varro  and  Livy  adopted 
the  former  opinion,  but  the  infallible  authority  of  the  Sybil  consecrated  the  latter 
(Censorinus  de  Die  Natal,  c.  17).  The  emperors  Claudius  and  Philip,  however,  did 
not  treat  the  oracle  with  implicit  respect. 

74  The  idea  of  the  secular  games  is  best  understood  from  the  poem  of  Horace, 
and  the  description  of  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  167  [5] ,  &c.  [Milliarium  Soeculum  is  on 
the  coins.] 

13  VOL.    I. 


194  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

fortified  himself  on  the  hills  near  the  Tiber,  ten  centuries  had 
already  elapsed.75  During  the  four  first  ages,  the  Romans,  in 
the  laborious  school  of  poverty,  had  acquired  the  virtues  of  war 
and  government :  by  the  vigorous  exertion  of  those  virtues,  and 
by  the  assistance  of  fortune,  they  had  obtained,  in  the  course  of 
the  three  succeeding  centuries,  an  absolute  empire  over  many 
countries  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  The  last  three  hundred 
years  had  been  consumed  in  apparent  prosperity  and  internal 
decline.  The  nation  of  soldiers,  magistrates,  and  legislators, 
who  composed  the  thirty-five  tribes  of  the  Roman  people,  was 
dissolved  into  the  common  mass  of  mankind,  and  confounded 
with  the  millions  of  servile  provincials,  who  had  received  the 
name,  without  adopting  the  spirit,  of  Romans.  A  mercenary 
army,  levied  among  the  subjects  and  barbarians  of  the  frontier, 
was  the  only  order  of  men  who  preserved  and  abused  their 
independence.  By  their  tumultuary  election,  a  Syrian,  a  Goth, 
or  an  Arab,  was  exalted  to  the  throne  of  Rome,  and  invested 
with  despotic  power  over  the  conquests  and  over  the  country  of 
the  Scipios. 

The  limits  of  the  Roman  empire  still  extended  from  the 
Western  Ocean  to  the  Tigris,  and  from  Mount  Atlas  to  the 
Rhine  and  the  Danube.  To  the  undiscerning  eye  of  the  vulgar, 
Philip  appeared  a  monarch  no  less  powerful  than  Hadrian  or 
Augustus  had  formerly  been.  The  form  was  still  the  same,  but 
the  animating  health  and  vigour  were  fled.  The  industry  of 
the  people  was  discouraged  and  exhausted  by  a  long  series  of 
oppression.  The  discipline  of  the  legions,  which  alone,  after 
the  extinction  of  every  other  virtue,  had  propped  the  greatness 
of  the  state,  was  corrupted  by  the  ambition,  or  relaxed  by  the 
weakness,  of  the  emperors.  The  strength  of  the  frontiers,  which 
had  always  consisted  in  arms  rather  than  in  fortifications,  was 
insensibly  undermined  ;  and  the  fairest  provinces  were  left  ex- 
posed to  the  rapaciousness  or  ambition  of  the  barbarians,  who  soon 
discovered  the  decline  of  the  Roman  empire. 

75  The  received  calculation  of  Varro  assigns  to  the  foundation  of  Rome  an  aera 
that  corresponds  with  the  754th  year  before  Christ.  But  so  little  is  the  chronology 
of  Rome  to  be  depended  on  in  the  more  early  ages,  that  Sir  Isaac  Newton  has 
brought  the  same  event  as  low  as  the  year  627. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  195 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Of  the  Slate  of  Persia  after  the  Restoration  of  the  Monarch/  by 
Arlaxerxes* 

Whenever  Tacitus  indulges  himself  in  those  beautiful  episodes,  The  tar 
in  which  he  relates  some  domestic  transaction  of  the  Germans  East^nd  of 
or  of  the  Parthians,  his  principal  object  is  to  relieve  the  atten- 
tion of  the  reader  from  a  uniform  scene  of  vice  and  misery. 
From  the  reign  of  Augustus  to  the  time  of  Alexander  Severus, 
the  enemies  of  Rome  were  in  her  bosom — the  tyrants,  and  the 
soldiers ;  and  her  prosperity  had  a  very  distant  and  feeble  interest 
in  the  revolutions  that  might  happen  beyond  the  Rhine  and  the 
Euphrates.  But,  when  the  military  order  had  levelled  in  wild 
anarchy  the  power  of  the  prince,  the  laws  of  the  senate,  and  even 
the  discipline  of  the  camp,  the  barbarians  of  the  North  and  of  the 
East,  who  had  long  hovered  on  the  frontier,  boldly  attacked  the 
provinces  of  a  declining  monarchy.  Their  vexatious  inroads  were 
changed  into  formidable  irruptions,  and,  after  a  long  vicissitude 
of  mutual  calamities,  many  tribes  of  the  victorious  invaders 
established  themselves  in  the  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire. 
To  obtain  a  clearer  knowledge  of  these  great  events  we  shall 
endeavour  to  form  a  previous  idea  of  the  character,  forces,  and 
designs  of  those  nations  who  avenged  the  cause  of  Hannibal 
and  Mithridates. 

In  the  more  early  ages  of  the  world,  whilst  the  forest  that  Revolution* 

•^  of  Asia 

covered  Europe  afforded  a  retreat  to  a  few  wandering  savages, 
the  inhabitants  of  Asia  were  already  collected  into  populous 
cities,  and  reduced  under  extensive  empires,  the  seat  of  the  arts, 
of  luxury  and  of  despotism.  The  Assyrians  reigned  over  the 
East,2  till  the  sceptre  of  Ninus  and  Semiramis  dropt  from  the 

1[On  the  sources  for  Eastern  affairs  see  Appendix  13  ;  on  the  Zend  Avesta  and 
Persian  religion,  Appendix  14.] 

2  An  ancient  chronologist  quoted  by  Velleius  Paterculus  (1.  i.  c.  6)  observes  that 
the  Assyrians,  the  Medes,  the  Persians,  and  the  Macedonians,  reigned  over  Asia 
one  thousand  nine  hundred  and  ninety-five  years,  from  the  accession  of  Ninus  to 
the  defeat  of  Antiochus  by  the  Romans.  As  the  latter  of  these  great  events 
happened  189  years  before  Christ,  the  former  may  be  placed  2184  years  before  the 
same  rera.     The  Astronomical  Observations,  found  at  Babylon  by  Alexander,  went 


196  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

hands  of  their  enervated  successors.  The  Medes  and  the  Baby- 
lonians divided  their  power,  and  were  themselves  swallowed  up 
in  the  monarchy  of  the  Persians,  whose  arms  could  not  be  con- 
fined within  the  narrow  limits  of  Asia.  Followed,  as  it  is  said, 
by  two  millions  of  men,  Xerxes,  the  descendant  of  Cyrus,  in- 
vaded Greece.  Thirty  thousand  soldiers,  under  the  command  of 
Alexander,  the  son  of  Philip,  who  was  intrusted  by  the  Greeks 
with  their  glory  and  revenge,  were  sufficient  to  subdue  Persia. 
The  princes  of  the  house  of  Seleucus  usurped  and  lost  the  Mace- 
donian command  over  the  East.  About  the  same  time  that,  by 
an  ignominious  treaty,  they  resigned  to  the  Romans  the  country 
on  this  side  Mount  Taurus,  they  were  driven  by  the  Parthians, 
an  obscure  horde  of  Scythian  origin,  from  all  the  provinces  of 
Upper  Asia.  The  formidable  power  of  the  Parthians,  which 
spread  from  India  to  the  frontiers  of  Syria,  was  in  its  turn  sub- 
verted by  Ardshir,3  or  Artaxerxes;  the  founder  of  a  new  dynasty, 
which,  under  the  name  of  Sassanides,  governed  Persia  till  the 
invasion  of  the  Arabs.  This  great  revolution,  whose  fatal  in- 
fluence was  soon  experienced  by  the  Romans,  happened  in  the 
fourth  year  of  Alexander  Severus,  two  hundred  and  twenty-six 
years  after  the  Christian  aera. 4 
The  Persian  Artaxerxes  had  served  with  great  reputation  in  the  armies  of 
SoredbyXr-  Artaban,  the  last  king  of  the  Parthians,  and  it  appears  that  he 
tazerxes  wag  drjven  [n^0  exile  and  rebellion  by  royal  ingratitude,  the 
customary  reward  for  superior  merit.  His  birth  was  obscure, 
and  the  obscurity  equally  gave  room  to  the  aspersions  of  his 
enemies,  and  the  flattery  of  his  adherents.  If  we  credit  the 
scandal  of  the  former,  Artaxerxes  sprang  from  the  illegitimate 
commerce  of  a  tanner's  wife  with  a  common  soldier.5  The  latter 
represents  him  as  descended  from  a  branch  of  the  ancient  kings 
of  Persia,  though  time  and  misfortune  had  gradually  reduced  his 

fifty  years  higher.  [Babylonian  history  begins  in  the  fourth  chiliad  B.C.  ;  Assyrian 
barely  in  the  14th  century.  The  second  and  greater  Assyrian  empire  was  founded 
by  Assur-nasir-pal  and  Salmanassar  II.  his  son  in  the  ninth  century.] 

8  [Ardeshlr  is  the  approved  transliteration.] 

*  In  the  five  hundred  and  thirty-eighth  year  of  the  asra  of  Seleucus.  See  Agathias, 
1.  ii.  p.  63  [27].  This  great  event  (such  is  the  carelessness  of  the  Orientals)  is 
placed  by  Eutychius  as  high  as  the  tenth  year  of  Commodus,  and  by  Moses  of 
Cnorene  as  low  as  the  reign  of  Philip.  Ammianus  Marcellinus  has  so  servilely 
copied  (xxiii.  6)  his  ancient  materials,  which  are  indeed  very  good,  that  he  describes 
the  family  of  the  Arsacides  as  still  seated  on  the  Persian  throne  in  the  middle  of 
the  fourth  century. 

6  The  tanner's  name  was  Babec  ;  the  soldier's,  Sassan  ;  from  the  former  Artax- 
erxes obtained  the  surname  of  Babegan  ;  from  the  latter  all  his  descendants  have 
been  styled  Sassanides.  [Ardeshtr  IV.  was  the  son  of  Babag,  the  eleventh  prince  of 
Pars  or  Persis.     B&bagan  means  ' '  son  of  Babag 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  197 

encestors  to  the  humble  station  of  private  citizens.6  As  the 
lineal  heir  of  the  monarchy,  he  asserted  his  right  to  the  throne, 
and  challenged  the  noble  task  of  delivering  the  Persians  from 
the  oppression  under  which  they  groaned  above  five  centuries 
since  the  death  of  Darius.  The  Parthians  were  defeated  in 
three  great  battles.  In  the  last  of  these  their  king  Artaban 
was  slain,  and  the  spirit  of  the  nation  was  for  ever  broken.7 
The  authority  of  Artaxerxes  was  solemnly  acknowledged  in  a 
great  assembly  held  at  Balch  in  Khorasan.  Two  younger 
branches  of  the  royal  house  of  Arsaces  were  confounded  among 
the  prostrate  satraps.  A  third,  more  mindful  of  ancient  grandeur 
than  of  present  necessity,  attempted  to  retire  with  a  numerous 
train  of  vassals,  towards  their  kinsman,  the  king  of  Armenia ; 
but  this  little  army  of  deserters  was  intercepted  and  cut  off 
by  the  vigilance  of  the  conqueror,8  who  boldly  assumed  the 
double  diadem,  and  the  title  of  King  of  Kings,  which  had  been 
enjoyed  by  his  predecessor.9  But  these  pompous  titles,  instead 
of  gratifying  the  vanity  of  the  Persian,  served  only  to  admonish 
him  of  his  duty,  and  to  inflame  in  his  soul  the  ambition  of  re- 
storing, in  their  full  splendour,  the  religion  and  empire  of  Cyrus. 

I.  During  the  long  servitude  of  Persia  under  the  Macedonian  Reformation 

i        i  t»         1   •  i  i  .  r    T-i  ia.-li0'  tne  MaE!an 

and  the  Parthian  yoke,  the  nations  ot  Europe  and  Asia  had  religion 
mutually  adopted  and  corrupted  each  other's  superstitions.  The 
Arsacides,  indeed,  practised  the  worship  of  the  Magi ;  but  they 
disgraced  and  polluted  it  with  a  various  mixture  of  foreign 
idolatry.  The  memory  of  Zoroaster,  the  ancient  prophet  and 
philosopher  of  the  Persians,10  was  still  revered  in  the  East;  but 
the  obsolete  and  mysterious  language  in  which  the  Zendavesta 

6  D'Hcrbelot,  Bibliotheque  Orientale,  Ardshir, 

7  Dion  Cassius,  1.  lxxx.  [3I.  Herodian,  1.  vi.  p.  207  [2].  Abulpharagius 
Dynast,  p.  80.  [The  battle  was  fought  at  Hormuz,  between  Behbehan  and  Schusch- 
ter.  The  approved  spelling  of  Artaban  is  Ardevan.  He  was  the  fifth  Parthian 
king  of  that  name.] 

8  See  Moses  Chorenensis,  1.  ii.  c.  65-71. 

9  [Ardeshlr  IV.  of  the  small  kingdom  of  Persis  became,  when  he  overthrew  the 
Parthian  monarchy,  Ardeshlr  I.  of  the  great  kingdom  of  Persia.  His  title  was 
"  King  of  Kings  of  Eran  and  Turan  ".  The  Parthians  were  not  completely  quelled, 
though  they  had  lost  their  king,  till  232  A.D.] 

10  Hyde  and  Prideaux,  working  up  the  Persian  legends  and  their  own  conjec- 
tures into  a  very  agreeable  story,  represent  Zoroaster  as  a  contemporary  of  Darius 
Hystaspis.  But  it  is  sufficient  to  observe  that  the  Greek  writers,  who  lived  almost 
in  the  same  age,  agree  in  placing  the  sera  of  Zoroaster  many  hundred,  or  even 
thousand,  years  before  their  own  time.  The  judicious  criticism  of  Mr.  Moyle  per- 
ceived, and  maintained  against  his  uncle  Dr.  Prideaux,  the  antiquity  of  the  Persian 
prophet.  See  his  work,  vol.  ii.  [Of  Zarathustra  or  Zoroaster  himself  we  know 
nothing.  All  the  stories  about  him  are  mere  fables  ;  and  it  cannot  be  determined 
whether  he  was  a  god  made  into  a  man,  or  a  man  who  really  lived.] 


198  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

was  composed, u  opened  a  field  of  dispute  to  seventy  sects, 
who  variously  explained  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  their 
religion,  and  were  all  equally  derided  by  a  crowd  of  infidels,  who 
rejected  the  divine  mission  and  miracles  of  the  prophet.  To 
suppress  the  idolaters,  re-unite  the  schismatics,  and  confute  the 
unbelievers  by  the  infallible  decision  of  a  general  council,  the 
pious  Artaxerxes  summoned  the  Magi  from  all  parts  of  his  do- 
minions. These  priests,  who  had  so  long  sighed  in  contempt 
and  obscurity,  obeyed  the  welcome  summons ;  and  on  the  ap- 
pointed day  appeared  to  the  number  of  about  eighty  thousand. 
But  as  the  debates  of  so  tumultuous  an  assembly  could  not  have 
been  directed  by  the  authority  of  reason,  or  influenced  by  the 
art  of  policy,  the  Persian  synod  was  reduced,  by  successive  opera- 
tions, to  forty  thousand,  to  four  thousand,  to  four  hundred,  to 
forty,  and  at  last  to  seven  Magi,  the  most  respected  for  their 
learning  and  piety.  One  of  these,  Erdaviraph,  a  young  but  holy 
prelate,  received  from  the  hands  of  his  brethren  three  cups  of 
soporiferous  wine.  He  di'ank  them  off,  and  instantly  fell  into  a 
long  and  profound  sleep.  As  soon  as  he  waked,  he  related  to 
the  king  and  to  the  believing  multitude  his  journey  to  Heaven, 
and  his  intimate  conferences  with  the  Deity.  Every  doubt  was 
silenced  by  this  supernatural  evidence ;  and  the  articles  of  the 
faith  of  Zoroaster  were  fixed  with  equal  authority  and  precision. 12 
A  short  delineation  of  that  celebrated  system  will  be  found  use- 
ful, not  only  to  display  the  character  of  the  Persian  nation,  but 
to  illustrate  many  of  their  most  important  transactions,  both  in 
peace  and  war,  with  the  Roman  empire.13 
Persian  The  great  and  fundamental  article    of  the   system  was  the 

tw6o°pSipie»  celebrated  doctrine  of  the  two  principles  ;  a  bold  and  injudicious 
attempt  of  Eastern  philosophy  to  reconcile  the  existence  of 
moral  and  physical  evil  with  the  attributes  of  a  beneficent 
Creator  and  Governor  of  the  world.    The  first  and  original  Being, 

11  That  ancient  idiom  was  called  the  Zend.  The  language  of  the  commentary, 
the  Pehlvi,  though  much  more  modern,  has  ceased  many  ages  ago  to  be  a  living 
tongue.  [It  was  spoken  in  the  western  regions  of  Iran,  Zend  in  the  eastern.]  This 
fact  alone  (if  it  is  allowed  as  authentic)  sufficiently  warrants  the  antiquity  of 
those  writings,  which  M.  d'Anquetil  has  brought  into  Europe,  and  translated  into 
French.    [On.  the  Zend  Avesta  see  Appendix  14.] 

12  Hyde  de  Religione  veterum  Pers.  c.  21. 

13  1  have  principally  drawn  this  account  from  the  Zendavesta  of  M.  dAnquetil, 
and  the  Sadder,  subjoined  to  Dr.  Hyde's  treatise.  It  must,  however,  be  confessed, 
that  the  studied  obscurity  of  a  prophet,  the  figurative  style  of  the  East,  and  the 
deceitful  medium  of  a  French  or  Latin  version,  may  have  betrayed  us  into  error 
and  heresy,  in  this  abridgment  of  Persian  theology.  [Unfortunately  the  Sadder 
is  a  late  compilation, — post-Mahometan.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  199 

in  whom,  or  by  whom,  the  universe  exists,  is  denominated  in 
the  writings  of  Zoroaster,  Time  without  bounds ;  but  it  must  be 
confessed  that  this  infinite  substance  seems  rather  a  meta- 
physical abstraction  of  the  mind  than  a  real  object  endowed 
with  self-consciousness,  or  possessed  of  moral  perfections. 14  From 
either  the  blind  or  the  intelligent  operation  of  this  infinite  Time, 
which  bears  but  too  near  an  affinity  with  the  Chaos  of  the 
Greeks,  the  two  secondary  but  active  principles  of  the  universe 
were  from  all  eternity  produced,  Ormusd  and  Ahriman,  each  of 
them  possessed  of  the  powers  of  creation,  but  each  disposed,  by 
his  invariable  nature,  to  exercise  them  with  different  designs.15 
The  principle  of  good  is  eternally  absorbed  in  light :  the  principle 
of  evil  eternally  buried  in  darkness.  The  wise  benevolence  of 
Ormusd  formed  man  capable  of  virtue,  and  abundantly  provided 
his  fair  habitation  with  the  materials  of  happiness.  By  his 
vigilant  providence,  the  motion  of  the  planets,  the  order  of  the 
seasons,  and  the  temperate  mixture  of  the  elements  are  pre- 
served. But  the  malice  of  Ahriman  has  long  since  pierced 
Ormusd '.v  egg ;  or,  in  other  words,  has  violated  the  harmony  of 
his  works.  Since  that  fatal  eruption,  the  most  minute  particles 
of  good  and  evil  are  intimately  intermingled  and  agitated  to- 
gether, the  rankest  poisons  spring  up  amidst  the  most  salutary 
plants  ;  deluges,  earthquakes,  and  conflagrations  attest  the  con- 
flict of  Nature  ;  and  the  little  world  of  man  is  perpetually  shaken 
by  vice  and  misfortune.  Whilst  the  rest  of  human  kind  are  led 
away  captives  in  the  chains  of  their  infernal  enemy,  the  faithful 
Persian  alone  reserves  his  religious  adoration  for  his  friend  and 
protector  Ormusd,  and  fights  under  his  banner  of  light,  in  the 
full  confidence  that  he  shall,  in  the  last  day,  share  the  glory  of 
his  triumph.  At  that  decisive  period  the  enlightened  wisdom 
of  goodness  will  render  the  power  of  Ormusd  superior  to  the 
furious  malice  of  his  rival.  Ahriman  and  his  followers,  disarmed 
and  subdued,  will  sink  into  their  native  darkness ;  and  virtue 
will  maintain  the  eternal  peace  and  harmony  of  the  universe.16 

14  [This  doctrine  is  not  Zoroastrian.  Late  systems  endeavoured  to  overcome  the 
dualism,  and  unify  the  two  principles  by  assuming  a  higher  principle — space,  or 
time,  or  fate— from  which  both  sprang.  ] 

15  [Ahura  Mazda  and  Angra  Mainya.  The  law  was  revealed  by  Ahura  Mazda 
to  Zarathustra  (Zoroaster).] 

ls  The  modern  Parsees  (and  in  some  degree  the  Sadder)  exalt  Ormusd  into  the 
first  and  omnipotent  cause,  whilst  they  degrade  Ahriman  into  an  inferior  but 
rebellious  spirit.  Their  desire  of  pleasing  the  Mahometans  may  have  contributed 
to  refine  their  theological  system.  [The  doctrine  of  the  future  triumph  of  Ormusd 
is  not  in  the  Zendavesta.] 


200 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Religions 
worship 


Ceremonies 
and  moral 
precepts 


The  theology  of  Zoroaster  was  darkly  comprehended  by 
foreigners,  and  even  by  the  far  greater  number  of  his  disciples  ; 
but  the  most  careless  observers  were  struck  with  the  philosophic 
simplicity  of  the  Persian  worship.  "  That  people/'  says  Herodo- 
tus,17 "rejects  the  use  of  temples,  of  altars,  and  of  statues,  and 
smiles  at  the  folly  of  those  nations,  who  imagine  that  the  gods 
are  sprung  from,  or  bear  any  affinity  with,  the  human  nature.  The 
tops  of  the  highest  mountains  are  the  places  chosen  for  sacrifices. 
Hymns  and  prayers  are  the  principal  worship ;  the  Supreme 
God  who  fills  the  wide  circle  of  heaven,  is  the  object  to  whom 
they  are  addressed."  Yet,  at  the  same  time,  in  the  true  spirit 
of  a  polytheist,  he  accuses  them  of  adoring  Earth,  Water,  Fire, 
the  Winds,  and  the  Sun  and  Moon.  But  the  Persians  of  every 
age  have  denied  the  charge,  and  explained  the  equivocal  con- 
duct which  might  appear  to  give  a  colour  to  it.  The  elements, 
and  more  particularly  Fire,  Light,  and  the  Sun,  whom  they  called 
Mithra,  were  the  objects  of  their  religious  reverence,  because  they 
considered  them  as  the  purest  symbols,  the  noblest  productions, 
and  the  most  powerful  agents  of  the  Divine  Power  and  Nature.18 

Every  mode  of  religion,  to  make  a  deep  and  lasting  impression 
on  the  human  mind,  must  exercise  our  obedience  by  enjoining 
practices  of  devotion,  for  which  we  can  assign  no  reason ;  and 
must  acquire  our  esteem,  by  inculcating  moral  duties  analogous 
to  the  dictates  of  our  own  hearts.  The  religion  of  Zoroaster 
was  abundantly  provided  with  the  former,  and  possessed  a 
sufficient  portion  of  the  latter.  At  the  age  of  puberty  the  faith- 
ful Persian  was  invested  with  a  mysterious  girdle,  the  badge  of 
the  divine  protection ;  and  from  that  moment  all  the  actions  of 
his  life,  even  the  most  indifferent  or  the  most  necessary,  were 
sanctified  by  their  peculiar  prayers,  ejaculations,  or  genuflexions  ; 
the  omission  of  which,  under  any  circumstances,  was  a  grievous 
sin,  not  inferior  in  guilt  to  the  violation  of  the  moral  duties. 
The  moral  duties,  however,  of  justice,  mercy,  liberality,  &c,  were 
in  their  turn  required  of  the  disciple  of  Zoroaster,  who  wished 
to  escape  the  persecution  of  Ahriman,  and  to  live  with  Ormusd  in 
a  blissful  eternity,  where  the  degree  of  felicity  will  be  exactly 
proportioned  to  the  degree  of  virtue  and  piety.19 

17  Herodotus,  1.  i.  c.  131.  But  Dr.  Prideaux  thinks,  with  reason,  that  the  use 
of  temples  was  afterwards  permitted  in  the  Magian  religion. 

18  Hyde  de  Relig.  Pers.  c.  8.  Notwithstanding  all  their  distinctions  and  pro- 
testations, which  seem  sincere  enough,  their  tyrants,  the  Mahometans,  have  con- 
stantly stigmatized  them  as  idolatrous  worshippers  of  the  fire. 

19  See  the  Sadder,  the  smallest  part  of  which  consists  of  moral  precepts.  The 
ceremonies  enjoined  are  infinite  and  trifling.     Fifteen  genuflexions,  prayers,  &c, 


OF  THE  ROMAIS  EMPIRE  201 

But  there  are  some  remarkable  instances  in  which  Zoroaster  Encourage- 
lays  aside  the  prophet,  assumes  the  legislator,  and  discovers  a  apiculture 
liberal  concern  for  private  and  public  happiness,  seldom  to  be 
found  among  the  grovelling  or  visionary  schemes  of  superstition. 
Fasting  and  celibacy,  the  common  means  of  purchasing  the 
divine  favour,  he  condemns  with  abhorrence,  as  a  criminal 
rejection  of  the  best  gifts  of  providence.  The  saint,  in  the 
Magian  religion,  is  obliged  to  beget  children,  to  plant  useful 
trees,  to  destroy  noxious  animals,  to  convey  water  to  the  dry 
lands  of  Persia,  and  to  work  out  his  salvation  by  pursuing  all  the 
labours  of  agriculture.  We  may  quote  from  the  Zend  Avesta  a 
wise  and  benevolent  maxim,  which  compensates  for  many  an 
absurdity.  "  He  who  sows  the  ground  with  care  and  diligence 
acquires  a  greater  stock  of  religious  merit  than  he  could  gain  by 
the  repetition  often  thousand  prayers."  20  In  the  spring  of  every 
year  a  festival  was  celebrated,  destined  to  represent  the  primitive 
equality,  and  the  present  connexion,  of  mankind.  The  stately 
kings  of  Persia,  exchanging  their  vain  pomp  for  more  genuine 
greatness,  freely  mingled  with  the  humblest  but  most  useful  of 
their  subjects.  On  that  day  the  husbandmen  were  admitted, 
without  distinction,  to  the  table  of  the  king  and  his  satraps. 
The  monarch  accepted  their  petitions,  inquired  into  their 
grievances,  and  conversed  with  them  on  the  most  equal  terms. 
"  From  your  labours,"  was  he  accustomed  to  say  (and  to  say 
with  truth,  if  not  with  sincerity),  "  from  your  labours  we  receive 
our  subsistence ;  you  derive  your  tranquillity  from  our  vigilance . 
since,  therefore,  we  are  mutually  necessary  to  each  other,  let  us 
live  together  like  brothers  in  concord  and  love." 21  Such  a 
festival  must  indeed  have  degenerated,  in  a  wealthy  and  despotic 
empire,  into  a  theatrical  representation ;  but  it  was  at  least  a 
comedy  well  worthy  of  a  royal  audience,  and  which  might  some- 
times imprint  a  salutary  lesson  on  the  mind  of  a  young  prince. 

Had  Zoroaster,  in  all  his  institutions,  invariably  supported  this  Poweroftn 
exalted  character,  his  name  would  deserve  a  place  with  those  of  M*si 
Numa  and  Confucius,  and  his  system  would  be  justly  entitled  to 
all  the  applause  which  it  has  pleased  some  of  our  divines,  and 
even  some  of  our  philosophers,  to  bestow  on  it.  But  in  that 
motley  composition,  dictated  by  reason  and  passion,  by  enthusi- 
asm and  by  selfish  motives,  some  useful  and  sublime  truths  were 

were  required  whenever  the  devout  Persian  cut  his  nails  or  made  water ;  or  as 
often  as  he  put  on  the  sacred  girdle.     Sadder,  Art.  14,  50,  60. 

20  Zend  Avesta,  torn.  i.  p.  224,  and  Precis  du  Systeme  de  Zoroastre,  torn.  iii. 

21  Hvde  de  Religione  Persarum,  c.  19. 


202  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

disgraced  by  a  mixture  of  the  most  abject  and  dangerous  super- 
stition. The  Magi,  or  sacerdotal  order,  were  extremely  numerous, 
since,  as  we  have  already  seen,  fourscore  thousand  of  them  were 
convened  in  a  general  council.  Their  forces  were  multiplied  by 
discipline.  A  regular  hierarchy  was  diffused  through  all  the 
provinces  of  Persia ;  and  the  Archimagus,  who  resided  at  Balch, 
was  respected  as  the  visible  head  of  the  church,  and  the  lawful 
successor  of  Zoroaster.22  The  property  of  the  Magi  was  very 
considerable.  Besides  the  less  invidious  possession  of  a  large 
tract  of  the  most  fertile  lands  of  Media,23  they  levied  a  general 
tax  on  the  fortunes  and  the  industry  of  the  Persians.24  "  Though 
your  good  works,"  says  the  interested  prophet,  "exceed  in 
number  the  leaves  of  the  trees,  the  drops  of  rain,  the  stars  in 
the  heaven,  or  the  sands  on  the  sea-shore,  they  will  all  be  un- 
profitable to  you,  unless  they  are  accepted  by  the  destour,  or 
priest.  To  obtain  the  acceptation  of  this  guide  to  salvation,  you 
must  faithfully  pay  him  tithes  of  all  you  possess,  of  your  goods,  of 
your  lands,  and  of  your  money.  If  the  destour  be  satisfied,  your 
soul  will  escape  hell  tortures ;  you  will  secure  praise  in  this 
world  and  happiness  in  the  next.  For  the  destours  are  the 
teachers  of  religion ;  they  know  all  things,  and  they  deliver  all 
men."  25 

These  convenient  maxims  of  reverence  and  implicit  faith  were 
doubtless  imprinted  with  care  on  the  tender  minds  of  youth  ; 
since  the  Magi  were  the  masters  of  education  in  Persia,  and  to 
their  hands  the  children  even  of  the  royal  family  were  intrusted.26 
The  Persian  priests,  who  were  of  a  speculative  genius,  preserved 
and  investigated  the  secrets  of  Oriental  philosophy;  and  acquired, 
either  by  superior  knowledge  or  superior  art,  the  reputation  of 
being  well  versed  in  some  occult  sciences,  which  have  derived 
their  appellation  from  the  Magi.27  Those  of  more  active  dis- 
positions mixed  with  the  world  in  courts  and  cities ;  and  it  is 

22  Id.  c.  28.  Both  Hyde  and  Prideaux  affect  to  apply  to  the  Magian,  the  terms 
consecrated  to  the  Christian,  hierarchy. 

23  Ammian.  Marcellin.  xxiii.  6.  He  informs  us  (as  far  as  we  may  credit  him)  of 
two  curious  particulars ;  1,  that  the  Magi  derived  some  of  their  most  secret 
doctrines  from  the  Indian  Brachmans  ;  and,  2,  that  they  were  a  tribe  or  family,  as 
well  as  order. 

24  The  divine  institution  of  tithes  exhibits  a  singular  instance  of  conformity  be- 
tween the  law  of  Zoroaster  and  that  of  Moses.  Those  who  cannot  otherwise 
account  for  it  may  suppose,  if  they  please,  that  the  Magi  of  the  latter  times  in- 
serted so  useful  an  interpolation  into  the  writings  of  their  prophet. 

23  Sadder,  Art.  8. 

26  Plato  in  Alcibiad  [37] . 

27  Pliny  (Hist.  Natur.  1.  xxx.  c.  1)  observes  that  magic  held  mankind  by  the 
triple  chain  of  religion,  of  physic,  and  of  astronomy. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  203 

observed  that  the  administration  of  Artaxerxes  was  in  a  great 
measure  directed  by  the  counsels  of  the  sacerdotal  order,  whose 
dignity,  either  from  policy  or  devotion,  that  prince  restored  to 
its  ancient  splendour.28 

The  first  counsel  of  the  Magi  was  agreeable  to  the  unsociable  spirit  or 

<*   •   i    on  i  n  i  on  i  persecution 

genius  of  their  iaith/y  to  the  practice  ot  ancient  kings,30  and 
even  to  the  example  of  their  legislator,  who  had  fallen  a  victim 
to  a  religious  war  excited  by  his  own  intolerant  zeal.31  By  an 
edict  of  Artaxerxes,  the  exercise  of  every  worship,  except  that 
of  Zoroaster,  was  severely  prohibited.  The  temples  of  the 
Parthians,  and  the  statues  of  their  deified  monarchs,  were  thrown 
down  with  ignominy.32  The  sword  of  Aristotle  (such  was  the 
name  given  by  the  Orientals  to  the  polytheism  and  philosophy 
of  the  Greeks)  was  easily  broken  : 33  the  flames  of  persecution 
soon  reached  the  more  stubborn  Jews  and  Christians  ;34  nor  did 
they  spare  the  heretics  of  their  own  nation  and  religion.  The 
majesty  of  Ormusd,  who  was  jealous  of  a  rival,  was  seconded  by 
the  despotism  of  Artaxerxes,  who  could  not  suffer  a  rebel ;  and 
the  schismatics  within  his  vast  empire  were  soon  reduced  to  the 
inconsiderable  number  of  eighty  thousand.35  This  spirit  of 
persecution  reflects  dishonour  on  the  religion  of  Zoroaster ;  but, 
as  it  was  not  productive  of  any  civil  commotion,  it  served  to 
strengthen  the  new  monarchy  by  uniting  all  the  various  inhabi- 
tants of  Persia  in  the  bands  of  religious  zeal. 

II.  Artaxerxes,  by  his  valour  and  conduct,  had  wrested  the  Jf *hVroyaeint 
sceptre  of  the   East  from  the  ancient  royal  family   of  Parthia.  ^ehp°ro-yin 
There    still   remained  the    more  difficult  task    of  establishing,  v*11"3 
throughout  the  vast  extent  of  Persia,  a  uniform  and  vigorous 
administration.      The   weak   indulgence   of  the   Arsacides  had 
resigned  to  their  sons  and  brothers  the  principal  provinces  and 
the  greatest  offices  of  the  kingdom,  in  the  nature  of  hereditary 

28  Agathias,  1.  iv.  p.  134  [24.     As  nothing  is  said  here  of  the  Magi,  it  has  been 
supposed  by  Sir  Wm.  Smith  that  Gibbon  meant  to  refer  to  ii.  26.] 

29  Mr.   Hume,  in  the  Natural  History  of  Religion,  sagaciously  remarks   that 
the  most  refined  and  philosophic  sects  are  constantly  the  most  intolerant. 

30  Cicero  de  Legibus,  ii.  10.     Xerxes,  by  the  advice  of  the  Magi,  destroyed  the 
temples  of  Greece. 

31  Hyde  de  Rel.  Persar.  c.  23,  24.    D'Herbelot,  Bibliotheque  Orientale,  Zcrdusht. 
Life  of  Zoroaster  in  torn.  ii.  of  the  Zendavesta. 

32  Compare  Moses  of  Chorene,  1.  ii.  c.  74,  with  Ammian.  Marcellin.  xxiii.  6. 
Hereafter  I  shall  make  use  of  these  passages. 

33  Rabbi  Abraham,  in  the  Tarikh  Schickard,  p.  108,  109. 

3J  Basnage,   Histoire  des  Juifs,  1.  viii.  e.  3.     Sozomen,  1.  ii.  c.  1.     Manes,  who 
suffered  an   ignominious  death,  may  be  deemed  a  Magian,  as  well  as  a  Christian, 
heretic.    [The  reference  to  Sozomen  should  apparently  be  ii.  9  sqq.~\ 
35  Hyde  de  Religione  Persar.  c.  21. 


204  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

possessions.  The  vitaxae,  or  eighteen  most  powerful  satraps, 
were  permitted  to  assume  the  regal  title,  and  the  vain  pride  of 
the  monarch  was  delighted  with  a  nominal  dominion  over  so 
many  vassal  kings.  Even  tribes  of  barbarians  in  their  mountains, 
and  the  Greek  cities  of  Upper  Asia,36  within  their  walls,  scarcely 
acknowledged,  or  seldom  obeyed,  any  superior;  and  the  Parthian 
empire  exhibited,  under  other  names,  a  lively  image  of  the  feudal 
system 37  which  has  since  prevailed  in  Europe.  But  the  active 
victor,  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  and  disciplined  army,  visited 
in  person  every  province  of  Persia.  The  defeat  of  the  boldest 
rebels  and  the  reduction  of  the  strongest  fortifications38  diffused 
the  terror  of  his  arms  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  peaceful 
reception  of  his  authority.  An  obstinate  resistance  was  fatal  to 
the  chiefs ;  but  their  followers  were  treated  with  lenity.39  A 
cheerful  submission  was  rewarded  with  honours  and  riches  ;  but 
the  prudent  Artaxerxes,  suffering  no  person  except  himself  to 
assume  the  title  of  king,  abolished  every  intermediate  power 
Exto?\ind  r  between  the  throne  and  the  people.  His  kingdom,  nearly  equal 
Penia  in  extent  to  modern   Persia,  was,   on   eveiy  side,  bounded   by 

the  sea  or  by  great  rivers, — by  the  Euphrates,  the  Tigris,  the 
Araxes,  the  Oxus,  and  the  Indus ;  by  the  Caspian  Sea  and  the 
Gulf  of  Persia.*0     That  country  was  computed  to  contain,  in  the 

36  These  colonies  were  extremely  numerous.  Seleucus  Nicator  founded  thirty- 
nine  cities,  all  named  from  himself,  or  some  of  his  relations  (see  Appian  in  Syriac. 
p.  124  [57]).  The  asra  of  Seleucus  (still  in  use  among  the  eastern  Christians) 
appears  as  late  as  the  year  508,  of  Christ  196,  on  the  medals  of  the  Greek  cities 
within  the  Parthian  empire.  See  Moyle's  works,  vol.  i.  p.  273,  &c,  and  M.  Freret. 
M£m.  de  l'Acad^mie,  torn.  xix. 

37  The  modern  Persians  distinguish  that  period  as  the  dynasty  of  the  kings  of 
the  nations.     See  Plin.  Hist.  Nat.  vi.  25. 

38  Eutychius  (torn.  i.  p.  367,  371,  375)  relates  the  siege  of  the  Island  of  Mesene 
in  the  Tigris,  with  some  circumstances  not  unlike  the  story  of  Nisus  and  Scylla. 

39  Agathias,  ii.  p.  64  [26] .  The  princes  of  Segestan  defended  their  independence 
during  many  years.  As  romances  generally  transport  to  an  ancient  period  the  events 
of  their  own  time,  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  fabulous  exploits  of  Rustan  Prince 
of  Segestan  may  have  been  grafted  on  this  real  history. 

40  We  can  scarcely  attribute  to  the  Persian  monarchy  the  sea  coast  of  Gedrosia 
or  Macran,  which  extends  along  the  Indian  Ocean  from  Cape  Jask  (the  promontory 
Capella)  to  Cape  Goadel.  In  the  time  of  Alexander,  and  probably  many  ages  after- 
wards,  it  was  thinly  inhabited  by  a  savage  people  of  Ichthyophagi,  or  Fishermen, 
who  knew  no  arts,  who  acknowledged  no  master,  and  who  were  divided  by  inhos- 
pitable deserts  from  the  rest  of  the  world.  (See  Arrian  de  Reb.  Indicis  [26]. )  In  the 
twelfth  century,  the  little  town  of  Taiz  (supposed  by  M.  d'Anville  to  be  the  Tesa 
of  Ptolemy)  was  peopled  and  enriched  by  the  resort  of  the  Arabian  merchants. 
(See  Geographia  Nubiens.  p.  58,  and  d'Anville  G^ographie  Ancienne,  torn.  ii.  p. 
283.)  In  the  last  age  the  whole  country  was  divided  between  three  princes,  one 
Mahometan  and  two  Idolaters,  who  maintained  their  independence  against  the 
successors  of  Shaw  Abbas.    (Voyages  de  Tavernier,  part  i.  1.  v.  p.  635.) 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  205 

last  century,  five  hundred  and  fifty-four  cities,  sixty  thousand 
villages,  and  about  forty  millions  of  souls.41  If  we  compare  the 
administration  of  the  house  of  Sassan  with  that  of  the  house  of 
Sesi,  the  political  influence  of  the  Magian  with  that  of  the 
Mahometan  religion,  we  shall  probably  infer  that  the  kingdom 
of  Artaxerxes  contained  at  least  as  great  a  number  of  cities, 
villages,  and  inhabitants.  But  it  must  likewise  be  confessed 
that  in  every  age  the  want  of  harbours  on  the  sea  coast,  and  the 
scarcity  of  fresh  water  in  the  inland  provinces,  have  been  very 
unfavourable  to  the  commerce  and  agriculture  of  the  Persians  ; 
who,  in  the  calculation  of  their  numbers,  seem  to  have  indulged 
one  of  the  meanest,  though  most  common,  artifices  of  national 
vanity. 

As  soon  as  the  ambitious  mind  of  Artaxerxes  had  triumphed  Recapituia- 
over  the  resistance  of  his  vassals,  he  began  to  threaten  the  ware  between 
neighbouring  states,  who,  during  the  long  slumber  of  his  pre-  and  Ra0m'a^n 
decessors,  had  insulted  Persia  with  impunity.  He  obtained  some  emp 
easy  victories  over  the  wild  Scythians  and  the  effeminate 
Indians  ;  but  the  Romans  were  an  enemy  who,  by  their  past 
njuries  and  present  power,  deserved  the  utmost  efforts  of  his 
arms.  A  forty  years'  tranquillity,  the  fruit  of  valour  and  modera- 
tion, had  succeeded  the  victories  of  Trajan.  During  the  period 
that  elapsed  from  the  accession  of  Marcus  to  the  reign  of 
Alexander,  the  Roman  and  the  Parthian  empires  were  twice 
engaged  in  war ;  and,  although  the  whole  strength  of  the 
Arsacides  contended  with  a  part  only  of  the  forces  of  Rome,  the 
event  was  most  commonly  in  favour  of  the  latter.  Macrinus, 
indeed,  prompted  by  his  precarious  situation  and  pusillanimous 
temper,  purchased  a  peace  at  the  expense  of  near  two  millions 
of  our  money ; 42  but  the  generals  of  Marcus,  the  emperor 
Severus,  and  his  son,  erected  many  trophies  in  Armenia, 
Mesopotamia,  and  Assyria.  Among  their  exploits,  the  im- 
perfect relation  of  which  would  have  unseasonably  interrupted 
the  more  important  series  of  domestic  revolutions,  we  shall  only 
mention  the  repeated  calamities  of  the  two  great  cities  of 
Seleucia  and  Ctesiphon. 

Seleucia,  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Tigris,  about  forty-five  cities 
miles  to  the  north  of  ancient  Babylon,  was  the  capital  of  the  oteiiphon 

^Chardin,  torn.  iii.  c.  i,  2,  3.  [The  number  seems  too  high.  At  the  present 
time  the  population  of  Iran  and  Turan  (including  Afghanistan,  Beluchistan,  &c.)  is 
said  to  be  between  fifteen  and  sixteen  millions.] 

42  Dion,  1.  xxviii.  p.  1335  [27.  Two  hundred  million  sesterces.  Yet  the  coins 
of  218  a.d.  boast  of  a  Victoria  Parthica.] 


206  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

Macedonian  conquests  in  Upper  Asia.43  Many  ages  after  the 
fall  of  their  empire,  Seleucia  retained  the  genuine  characters  of 
a  Grecian  colony — arts,  military  virtue,  and  the  love  of  freedom. 
The  independent  republic  was  governed  by  a  senate  of  three 
hundred  nobles ;  the  people  consisted  of  six  hundred  thousand 
citizens  ;  the  walls  were  strong,  and,  as  long  as  concord  prevailed 
among  the  several  orders  of  the  state,  they  viewed  with  con- 
tempt the  power  of  the  Parthian :  but  the  madness  of  faction 
was  sometimes  provoked  to  implore  the  dangerous  aid  of  the 
common  enemy,  who  was  posted  almost  at  the  gates  of  the 
colony.44  The  Parthian  monarchs,  like  the  Mogul  sovereigns 
of  Hindostan,  delighted  in  the  pastoral  life  of  their  Scythian 
ancestors ;  and  the  Imperial  camp  was  frequently  pitched  in  the 
plain  of  Ctesiphon,  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Tigris,  at  the 
distance  of  only  three  miles  from  Seleucia.45  The  innumerable 
attendants  on  luxury  and  despotism  resorted  to  the  court,  and 
the  little  village  of  Ctesiphon  insensibly  swelled  into  a  great 
city.46  Under  the  reign  of  Marcus,  the  Roman  generals 
penetrated  as  far  as  Ctesiphon  and  Seleucia.47  They  were 
received  as  friends  by  the  Greek  colony ;  they  attacked  as 
enemies  the  seat  of  the  Parthian  kings  ;  yet  both  cities  ex- 
perienced the  same  treatment.  The  sack  and  conflagration  of 
Seleucia,  with  the  massacre  of  three  hundred  thousand  of  the 
inhabitants,  tarnished  the  glory  of  the  Roman  triumph.48 
Seleucia,  already  exhausted  by  the  neighbourhood  of  a  too 
powerful  rival,  sunk  under  the  fatal  blow ;  but  Ctesiphon,  in 
about  thirty-three  years,  had  sufficiently  recovered  its  strength 
to  maintain  an  obstinate  siege  against  the  emperor  Severus. 
The  city  was,  however,  taken  by  assault  ;   the  king,  who  de- 

43  For  the  precise  situation  of  Babylon,  Seleucia,  Ctesiphon,  Modain,  ?nd  Bag- 
dad, cities  often  confounded  with  each  other,  see  an  excellent  Geographical  Tract 
of  M.  d'Anville,  in  M£m.  de  1' Academic,  torn.  xxx. 

44  Tacit.  Annal.  vi.  42.     Plin.  Hist.  Nat.  vi.  26. 

43  This  may  be  inferred  from  Strabo,  1.  xvi.  p.  743. 

46  That  most  curious  traveller,  Bernier  (see  Hist,  de  Voyages,  torn,  x.),  who 
followed  the  camp  of  Aurengzebe  from  Delhi  to  Cashmir,  describes  with  great 
accuracy  the  immense  moving  city.  The  guard  of  cavalry  consisted  of  35,000  men, 
that  of  infantry  of  10,000.  It  was  computed  that  the  camp  contained  150,000 
horses,  mules,  and  elephants  ;  50,000  camels,  50,000  oxen,  and  between  300,000 
and  400,000  persons.  Almost  all  Delhi  followed  the  court,  whose  magnificence 
supported  its  industry. 

47  [These  successes  were  achieved  by  Avidius  Cassius.  He  took  Nisibis,  and 
Dausara  near  Edessa.     The  Parthians  were  defeated  at  Europos  in  Cyrrhestica.] 

48  Dion,  1.  lxxi.  p.  1178  [2].  Hist.  August,  p.  38  [v.  8J.  Eutrop.  viii.  10. 
Euseb.  in  Chronic,  [ann.  2180].  Quadratus  (quoted  in  the  Augustan  History) 
attempted  to  vindicate  the  Romans  by  alleging  that  the  citizens  of  Seleucia  had 
first  violated  their  faith. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  207 

fended  it  in  person,  escaped  with  precipitation ;  an  hundred 
thousand  captives  and  a  rich  booty  rewarded  the  fatigues  of 
the  Roman  soldiers.49  Notwithstanding  these  misfortunes, 
Ctesiphon  succeeded  to  Babylon  and  to  Seleucia  as  one  of  the 
great  capitals  of  the  East.50  In  summer,  the  monarch  of  Persia 
enjoyed  at  Ecbatana  the  cool  breezes  of  the  mountains  of  Media  ; 
but  the  mildness  of  the  climate  engaged  him  to  prefer  Ctesiphon 
for  his  winter  residence. 

From  these  successful  inroads  the  Romans  derived  no  real  or  conquest  of 
lasting  benefit ;  nor  did  they  attempt  to  preserve  such  distant  the  Romans 
conquests,  separated  from  the  provinces  of  the  empire  by  a 
large  tract  of  intermediate  desert.  The  reduction  of  the  king- 
dom of  Osrhoene  was  an  acquisition  of  less  splendour  indeed, 
but  of  a  far  more  solid  advantage.  That  little  state  occupied 
the  northern  and  most  fertile  part  of  Mesopotamia,  between  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Tigris.  Edessa,  its  capital,  was  situated 
about  twenty  miles  beyond  the  former  of  those  rivers,  and  the 
inhabitants,  since  the  time  of  Alexander,  were  a  mixed  race 
of  Greeks,  Arabs,  Syrians,  and  Armenians.51  The  feeble 
sovereigns  of  Osrhoene,  placed  on  the  dangerous  verge  of  two 
contending  empires,  were  attached  from  inclination  to  the 
Parthian  cause  ;  but  the  superior  power  of  Rome  exacted  from 
them  a  reluctant  homage,  which  is  still  attested  by  their 
medals.52  After  the  conclusion  of  the  Parthian  war  under 
Marcus,  it  was  judged  prudent  to  secure  some  substantial  pledges 
of  their  doubtful  fidelity.  Forts  were  constructed  in  several 
parts  of  the  country,  and  a  Roman  garrison  was  fixed  in  the 
strong  town  of  Nisibis.  During  the  troubles  that  followed  the 
death  of  Commodus,  the  princes  of  Osrhoene  attempted  to 
shake  off  the  yoke  ;  but  the  stern  policy  of  Severus  confirmed 
their  dependence,53  and  the  perfidy  of  Caracalla  completed  the 
easy  conquest.  Abgarus,  the  last  king54  of  Edessa,  was  sent  in  aj>.216 
chains  to  Rome,  his  dominions  reduced  into  a  province,  and  his 

49  Dion,  1.  lxxv.  p.  1263  [9].  Herodian,  1.  iii.  p.  120  [9].  Hist.  August,  p.  70 
[x.  16.  Hiemali  prope  tempore,  which  fixes  the  capture  to  end  of  197  or  beginning 
of  198  A.D.] 

00  [Ctesiphon  was  restored  by  Sapor  II.] 

51  The  polished  citizens  of  Antioch  called  those  of  Edessa  mixed  barbarians. 
It  was,  however,  some  praise,  that,  of  the  three  dialects  of  the  Syriac,  the  purest 
and  most  elegant  (the  Aramaean)  was  spoke  at  Edessa.  This  remark  M.  Bayer 
(Hist.  Edess.  p.  5)  has  borrowed  from  George  of  Malatia,  a  Syrian  writer. 

62  [Compare  Eckhel,  iii.  514.] 

53  Dion,  1.  lxxv.  p.  1248,  1249,  1250  [1,  2,  3].  M.  Bayer  has  neglected  to  use 
this  most  important  passage. 

54  [Bastleus  was  the  title.  J 


208 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Artaxerxes 
claims  the 
pro  vine  is  of 
Asia,  and  de- 
clares war 
against  the 
Romans, 
AD.  230 


Pretended 
victory  of 
Alexander 
Severus, 
A.D.  233 


capital  dignified  with  the  rank  of  colony ; 55  and  thus  the 
Romans,  about  ten  years  before  the  fall  of  the  Parthian 
monarchy,  obtained  a  firm  and  permanent  establishment  beyond 
the  Euphrates.56 

Prudence  as  well  as  glory  might  have  justified  a  war  on  the 
side  of  Artaxerxes,  had  his  views  been  confined  to  the  defence 
or  the  acquisition  of  a  useful  frontier.  But  the  ambitious  Per- 
sian openly  avowed  a  far  more  extensive  design  of  conquest ; 
and  he  thought  himself  able  to  support  his  lofty  pretensions  by 
the  arms  of  reason  as  well  as  by  those  of  power.  Cyrus,  he 
alleged,  had  first  subdued,  and  his  successors  had  for  a  long  time 
possessed,  the  whole  extent  of  Asia,  as  far  as  the  Propontis  and 
the  JEge&n  Sea ;  the  provinces  of  Caria  and  Ionia,  under  their 
empire,  had  been  governed  by  Persian  satraps  ;  and  all  Egypt,  to 
the  confines  of  iEthiopia,  had  acknowledged  their  sovereignty.57 
Their  rights  had  been  suspended,  but  not  destroyed,  by  a  long 
usurpation  ;58  and,  as  soon  as  he  received  the  Persian  diadem, 
which  birth  and  successful  valour  had  placed  upon  his  head, 
the  first  great  duty  of  his  station  called  upon  him  to  restore 
the  ancient  limits  and  splendour  of  the  monarchy.  The  Great 
King,  therefore  (such  was  the  haughty  style  of  his  embassies  to 
the  Emperor  Alexander),  commanded  the  Romans  instantly  to 
depart  from  all  the  provinces  of  his  ancestors,  and,  yielding  to 
the  Persians  the  empire  of  Asia,  to  content  themselves  with  the 
undisturbed  possession  of  Europe.  This  haughty  mandate  was 
delivered  by  four  hundred  of  the  tallest  and  most  beautiful  of 
the  Persians ;  who,  by  their  fine  horses,  splendid  arms,  and  rich 
apparel,  displayed  the  pride  and  greatness  of  their  master.  59 
Such  an  embassy  was  much  less  an  offer  of  negotiation  than  a 
declaration  of  war.  Both  Alexander  Severus  and  Artaxerxes, 
collecting  the  military  force  of  the  Roman  and  Persian  mon- 
archies, resolved  in  this  important  contest  to  lead  their  armies 
in  person. 

If  we   credit   what  should  seem  the  most  authentic    of  all 

58  [Caracalla  promoted  Carrhae  to  be  a  Roman  colony.  Eckhel,  iii.  508.  He 
seems  to  have  formed  the  design  of  annexing  Armenia  as  a  province.] 

66  This  kingdom,  from  Osrhoes,  who  gave  a  new  name  to  the  country,  to  the 
last  Abgarus,  had  lasted  353  years.  See  the  learned  work  of  M.  Bayer,  Historia 
Osrhoena  et  Edessena. 

87  Xenophon,  in  the  preface  to  the  Cyropsedia,  gives  a  clear  and  magnificent 
idea  of  the  extent  of  the  empire  of  Cyrus.  Herodotus  (1.  iii.  c.  79,  &c.)  enters  into 
a  curious  and  particular  description  of  the  twenty  great  Satrapies  into  which  the 
Persian  empire  was  divided  by  Darius  Hystaspis. 

68  [Dion,  lxxx.  4,  1.] 

*•*  Herodian,  vi.  209,  212  [2  and  4]. 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIEE  209 

records,  an  oration,  still  extant,  and  delivered  by  the  emperor 
himself  to  the  senate,  we  must  allow  that  the  victory  of  Alex- 
ander Severus  was  not  inferior  to  any  of  those  formerly  obtained 
over  the  Persians  by  the  son  of  Philip.     The  army  of  the  Great 
King  consisted    of  one    hundred    and    twenty  thousand   horse, 
clothed  in  complete  armour  of  steel;  of  seven  hundred  elephants 
with  towers  filled  with  archers  on  their  backs  ;  and  of  eighteen 
hundred  chariots  armed  with  scythes.      This  formidable  host, 
the  like  of  which  is  not  to  be  found  in  eastern  history,  and  has 
scarcely  been  imagined  in  eastern  romance,60  was  discomfited  in 
a  great  battle,  in  which  the  Roman  Alexander  approved  himself 
an  intrepid  soldier  and  a  skilful  general.     The  Great  King  fled 
before  his  valour:  an  immense  booty  and  the  conquest  of  Meso- 
potamia were  the  immediate  fruits  of  this  signal  victory.     Such 
are  the  circumstances  of  this  ostentatious  and  improbable  rela- 
tion, dictated,  as  it  too  plainly  appears,  by  the  vanity  of  the 
monarch,  adorned  by  the  unblushing  servility  of  his  flatterers 
and  received  without  contradiction  by  a  distant  and  obsequious 
senate. «     Far  from  being  inclined  to  believe  that  the  arms  of 
Alexander  obtained  any  memorable  advantage  over  the  Persians 
we  are  induced  to  suspect  that  all  this  blaze  of  imaginary  glory 
was  designed  to  conceal  some  real  disgrace. 

Our  suspicions  are  confirmed  by  the  authority  of  a  contem-  More  pro- 
porary  historian,  who  mentions  the  virtues  of  Alexander  with  5? thew'aT* 
respect,  and  his  faults  with  candour.     He  describes  the  judicious 
plan  which  had  been  formed  for  the  conduct  of  the  war.     Three 
Roman  armies  were  destined  to  invade  Persia  at  the  same  time 
and  by  different  roads.      But  the  operations  of  the  campaign' 

«o  There  were  two  hundred  scythed  chariots  at  the  battle  of  Arbela,  in  the  host 
of  Darius  In  the  yast  army  of  Tigranes,  which  was  vanquished  by  Lucullus 
seventeen  thousand  horse  only  were  completely  armed.  Antiochus  brought  fifty 
four  elephants  into  the  field  against  the  Romans  :  by  his  frequent  wars  and  nego  na- 
tions with  the  princes  of  India,  he  had  once  collected  an  hundred  and  fifty  of  those 
great  animals  ;  but  it  may  be  questioned,  whether  the  most  powerful  monarch  of 
Hindostan  ever  formed  a  hne  of  battle  of  seven  hundred  elephants.  Instead  of 
three  or  four  thousand  elephants,  which  the  Great  Mogul  was  supposed  to  possess 

mat^e ZilTf S>  rV1- J'  ■  Pu-  l&  discovered-  by  a  more  accurate  mquiry,' 
that  he  had  only  five  hundred  for  his  baggage,  and  eighty  or  ninety  for  the  service 

hf.n ?L  fillH  ^efn  T  V^"ed  w"tb;.. reg"d  to  the  number  which  Porus  brought 
into  the  field  but  Quintus  Curtius  (vui.  13),  in  this  instance  judicious  and  moder- 
ate, is  contented  with  eighty-five  elephants,  distinguished  by  their  size  and  strength. 
IiVht™'  ff  \  an>mals  are  the  most  numerous  and  the  most  esteemed, 

eighteen  elephants  are  allowed  as  a  sufficient  proportion  for  each  of  the  nine 

StfvtVt  W,  k  VUSr  army  JS  divided-  The  Wh0le  number,  of  one  hundred 
and  sixty-two  elephants  of  war,  may  sometimes  be  doubled.  Hist,  des  Voyages 
i  torn.  ix.  p.  260.  J  ° 

61  Hist.  August,  p.  133  [xviii.  55]. 

14  VOL.  I. 


210  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

though  wisely  concerted,  were  not  executed  either  with  ability 
or  success.  The  first  of  these  armies,  as  soon  as  it  had  entered 
the  marshy  plains  of  Babylon,  towards  the  artificial  conflux  of 
the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,62  was  encompassed  by  the  superior 
numbers,  and  destroyed  by  the  arrows,  of  the  enemy.  The 
alliance  of  Chosroes,  king  of  Armenia,63  and  the  long  tract  of 
mountainous  country,  in  which  the  Persian  cavalry  was  of  little 
service,  opened  a  secure  entrance  into  the  heart  of  Media  to  the 
second  of  the  Roman  armies.  These  brave  troops  laid  waste 
the  adjacent  provinces,  and  by  several  successful  actions  against 
Artaxerxes  gave  a  faint  colour  to  the  emperor's  vanity.  But 
the  retreat  of  this  victorious  army  was  imprudent,  or  at  least 
unfortunate.  In  repassing  the  mountains,  great  numbers  of 
soldiers  perished  by  the  badness  of  the  roads  and  the  severity 
of  the  winter  season.  It  had  been  resolved  that  whilst  these 
two  great  detachments  penetrated  into  the  opposite  extremes 
of  the  Persian  dominions,  the  main  body,  under  the  command 
of  Alexander  himself,  should  support  their  attack  by  invading 
the  centre  of  the  kingdom.  But  the  unexperienced  youth,  in- 
fluenced by  his  mother's  counsels,  and  perhaps  by  his  own  fears, 
deserted  the  bravest  troops  and  the  fairest  prospect  of  victory ; 
and,  after  consuming  in  Mesopotamia  an  inactive  and  inglorious 
summer,  he  led  back  to  Antioch  an  army  diminished  by  sickness, 
and  provoked  by  disappointment.  The  behaviour  of  Artaxerxes 
had  been  veiy  different.  Flying  with  rapidity  from  the  hills  of 
Media  to  the  marshes  of  the  Euphrates,  he  had  everywhere 
opposed  the  invaders  in  person ;  and  in  either  fortune  had 
united  with  the  ablest  conduct  the  most  undaunted  resolution. 
But  in  several  obstinate  engagements  against  the  veteran  legions 
of  Rome  the  Persian  monarch  had  lost  the  flower  of  his  troops. 
Even  his  victories  had  weakened  his  power.  The  favourable 
opportunities  of  the  absence  of  Alexander,  and  of  the  confusions 
that  followed  that  emperor's  death,  presented  themselves  in 
vain  to  his  ambition.  Instead  of  expelling  the  Romans,  as 
he  pretended,  from   the    continent  of  Asia,  he   found  himself 

62  M.  de  Tillemont  has  already  observed  that  Herodian's  geography  is  some- 
what confused. 

63  Moses  of  Chorene  (Hist.  Armen.  1.  ii.  c.  71)  illustrates  this  invasion  of  Media, 
by  asserting  that  Chosroes,  King  of  Armenia,  defeated  Artaxerxes,  and  pursued 
him  to  the  confines  of  India.  The  exploits  of  Chosroes  have  been  magnified,  and 
he  acted  as  a  dependent  ally  to  the  Romans.  [But  Chosroes  really  inflicted  a 
serious  defeat  on  Ardeshir  in  228,  drove  him  back  from  Armenia,  and  invaded  his 
realm,  pressing  as  far  as  Ctesiphon,  if  not  to  the  borders  of  Arabia.  The  Romans 
had  not  yet  appeared  on  the  scene.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  211 

unable  to  wrest  from  their  hands  the  little  province  of  Mesopo- 
tamia. 6i 

The  reign  of  Artaxerxes,  which  from  the  last  defeat  of  the  character  and 

Ti-iir*  n  *i  maxima  of 

Parthians  lasted  only  fourteen  years,  forms  a  memorable  asra  in  Artaxenea, 

*  A.D  240 

the  history  of  the  East,  and  even  in  that  of  Rome.  His  charac- 
ter seems  to  have  been  marked  by  those  bold  and  commanding 
features  that  generally  distinguish  the  princes  who  conquer, 
from  those  who  inherit,  an  empire.  Till  the  last  period  of  the 
Persian  monarchy,  his  code  of  laws  was  respected  as  the  ground- 
work of  their  civil  and  religious  policy. 05  Several  of  his  sayings 
are  preserved.  One  of  them  in  particular  discovers  a  deep  in- 
sight into  the  constitution  of  government.  "The  authority  of 
the  prince,"  said  Artaxerxes,  "  must  be  defended  by  a  military 
force ;  that  force  can  only  be  maintained  by  taxes ;  all  taxes 
must,  at  last,  fall  upon  agriculture ;  and  agriculture  can  never 
flourish  except  under  the  protection  of  justice  and  modera- 
tion."66 Artaxerxes  bequeathed  his  new  empire,  and  his  am- 
bitious designs  against  the  Romans,  to  Sapor,  a  son  not  unworthy 
of  his  great  father ;  but  those  designs  were  too  extensive  for  the 
power  of  Persia,  and  served  only  to  involve  both  nations  in  a 
long  series  of  destructive  wars  and  reciprocal  calamities. 

The  Persians,  long  since  civilized  and  corrupted,  were  very  Military 
far  from  possessing  the  martial  independence,  and  the  intrepid  lenSLu 
hardiness,  both  of  mind  and  body,  Avhich  have  rendered  the 
northern  barbarians  masters  of  the  world.  The  science  of  war, 
that  constituted  the  more  rational  force  of  Greece  and  Rome,  as 
it  now  does  of  Europe,  never  made  any  considerable  progress 
in  the  East.  Those  disciplined  evolutions  which  harmonize  and 
animate  a  confused  multitude  were  unknown  to  the  Persians. 
They  were  equally  unskilled  in  the  arts  of  constructing,  besieg- 
ing, or  defending  regular  fortifications.  They  trusted  more  to 
their  numbers  than  to  their  courage ;  more  to  their  courage  than 
to  their  discipline.       The   infantry  was  a  half-armed,  spiritless  Their  infantry 

r  J  '      r  contemptible 

Gi  For  the  account  of  this  war,  see  Herodian,  1.  vi.  p.  209,  212  [5] .  The  old 
abbreviators  and  modern  compilers  have  blindly  followed  the  Augustan  History. 
[Though  no  very  glorious  exploit  was  wrought  in  this  campaign  of  Alexander,  it 
is  clear  that  the  Persians  were  completely  checked  in  their  advance  westward,  and 
that  the  Romans  gained  some  victories.  Cp.  Aurelius  Victor,  Csesar.  24,  2,  and 
Eutropius,  viii.  23.     Not  an  inch  of  ground  was  lost  to  the  empire.  ] 

65  Eutychius,  torn.  ii.  p.  180,  vers.  Pocock.  The  great  Chosroes  Noushirwan 
sent  the  code  of  Artaxerxes  to  all  his  satraps,  as  the  invariable  rule  of  their  con- 
duct. 

66  D'Herbelot,  Bibliotheque  Orientale,  au  mot  Ardshir.  We  may  observe  that, 
after  an  ancient  period  of  fables,  and  a  long  interval  of  darkness,  the  modern  his- 
•torics  of  Persia  begin  to  assume  an  air  of  truth  with  the  dynasty  of  the  Sassanides. 


212  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

crowd  of  peasants,  levied  in  haste  by  the  allurements  of  plunder, 
and  as  easily  dispersed  by  a  victory  as  by  a  defeat.  The  mon- 
arch and  his  nobles  transported  into  the  camp  the  pride  and 
luxury  of  the  seraglio.  Their  military  operations  were  impeded 
by  a  useless  train  of  women,  eunuchs,  horses,  and  camels ;  and 
in  the  midst  of  a  successful  campaign  the  Persian  host  was  often 
separated  or  destroyed  by  an  unexpected  famine.67 
«ceuent  ^  But  tne  n°bles  of  Persia,  in  the  bosom  of  luxury  and  despotism, 
preserved  a  strong  sense  of  personal  gallantry  and  national 
honour.  From  the  age  of  seven  years  they  were  taught  to  speak 
truth,  to  shoot  with  the  bow,  and  to  ride  ;  and  it  was  universally 
confessed  that  in  the  two  last  of  these  arts  they  had  made  a 
more  than  common  proficiency.68  The  most  distinguished  youth 
were  educated  under  the  monarch's  eye,  practised  their  exercises 
in  the  gate  of  his  palace,  and  were  severely  trained  up  to  the 
habits  of  temperance  and  obedience  in  their  long  and  laborious 
parties  of  hunting.  In  every  province  the  satrap  maintained  a 
like  school  of  military  virtue.  The  Persian  nobles  (so  natural  is 
the  idea  of  feudal  tenures)  received  from  the  king's  bounty  lands 
and  houses  on  the  condition  of  their  service  in  war.  They  were 
ready  on  the  first  summons  to  mount  on  horseback,  with  a  martial 
and  splendid  train  of  followers,  and  to  join  the  numerous  bodies 
of  guards,  Avho  were  carefully  selected  from  among  the  most  robust 
slaves  and  the  bravest  adventurers  of  Asia.  These  armies,  both 
of  light  and  of  heavy  cavalry,  equally  formidable  by  the  im- 
petuosity of  their  charge  and  the  rapidity  of  their  motions, 
threatened,  as  an  impending  cloud,  the  eastern  provinces  of  the 
declining  empire  of  Rome.69 

67  Herodian,  1.  vi.  p.  214  [5].  Ammiamis  Marcellinus,  1.  xxiii.  c.  6.  Some 
differences  may  be  observed  between  the  two  historians,  the  natural  effects  of  the 
changes  produced  by  a  century  and  a  half. 

68  The  Persians  are  still  the  most  skilful  horsemen,  and  their  horses  the  finest,  in 
the  East. 

69  From  Herodotus,  Xenophon,  Herodian,  Ammianus,  Chardin,  &c. ,  I  have 
extracted  such  probable  accounts  of  the  Persian  nobility,  as  seem  either  common  to 
every  age,  or  particular  to  that  of  the  Sassanides. 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIRE  213 


CHAPTER   IX 

The  State  of  Germany  till  the  Invasion  of  the  Barbarians,  in  the 
Time  of  the  Emperor  Decius 

The  government  and  religion  of  Persia  have  deserved  some 
notice  from  their  connexion  with  the  decline  and  fall  of  the 
Roman  empire.  We  shall  occasionally  mention  the  Scythian  or 
Sarmatian  tribes,  which,  with  their  arms  and  horses,  their  Hocks 
and  herds,  their  wives  and  families,  wandered  over  the  immense 
plains  which  spread  themselves  from  the  Caspian  Sea  to  the 
Vistula,  from  the  confines  of  Persia  to  those  of  Germany.  But 
the  warlike  Germans,  who  first  resisted,  then  invaded,  and  at 
length  overturned,  the  Western  monarchy  of  Rome,  will  occupy 
a  much  more  important  place  in  this  histoiy,  and  possess  a 
stronger,  and,  if  we  may  use  the  expression,  a  more  domestic, 
claim  to  our  attention  and  regard.  The  most  civilized  nations 
of  modern  Europe  issued  from  the  woods  of  Germany,  and  in 
the  rude  institutions  of  those  barbarians  we  may  still  distinguish 
the  original  principles  of  our  present  laws  and  manners.  In 
their  primitive  state  of  simplicity  and  independence,  the  Germans 
were  surveyed  by  the  discerning  eye,  and  delineated  by  the 
masterly  pencil,  of  Tacitus,  the  first  of  historians  who  applied  the 
science  of  philosophy  to  the  study  of  facts.  The  expressive 
conciseness  of  his  descriptions  has  deserved  to  exercise  the  dili- 
gence of  innumerable  antiquarians,  and  to  excite  the  genius  and 
penetration  of  the  philosophic  historians  of  our  own  times.  The 
subject,  however  various  and  important,  has  already  been  so 
frequently,  so  ably,  and  so  successfully  discussed,  that  it  is  now 
grown  familiar  to  the  reader,  and  difficult  to  the  writer.  We 
shall  therefore  content  ourselves  with  observing,  and  indeed 
with  repeating,  some  of  the  most  important  chcumstances  of 
climate,  of  manners,  and  of  institutions,  which  rendered  the  wild 
barbarians  of  Germany  such  formidable  enemies  to  the  Roman 
power. 

Ancient  Germany,  excluding  from  its  independent  limits  the  Extent  of 
province  westward  of  the  Rhine,  which  had  submitted  to  theGennaBy 


214  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

Roman  yoke,  extended  itself  over  a  third  part  of  Europe.1 
Almost  the  whole  of  modern  Germany,  Denmark,  Norway, 
Sweden,  Finland,  Livonia,  Prussia,  and  the  greater  part  of 
Poland,  were  peopled  by  the  various  tribes  of  one  great  nation, 
whose  complexion,  manners,  and  language  denoted  a  common 
origin,  and  preserved  a  striking  resemblance.  On  the  west, 
ancient  Germany  was  divided  by  the  Rhine  from  the  Gallic, 
and  on  the  south  by  the  Danube  from  the  Illyrian,  provinces  of 
the  empire.  A  ridge  of  hills,  rising  from  the  Danube,  and  called 
the  Carpathian  Mountains,  covered  Germany  on  the  side  of 
Dacia  or  Hungary.  The  eastern  frontier  was  faintly  marked  by 
the  mutual  fears  of  the  Germans  and  the  Sarmatians,  and  was 
often  confounded  by  the  mixture  of  warring  and  confederating 
tribes  of  the  two  nations.  In  the  remote  darkness  of  the  north 
the  ancients  imperfectly  descried  a  frozen  ocean  that  lay  beyond 
the  Baltic  Sea  and  beyond  the  peninsula,  or  islands,2  of  Scan- 
dinavia. 

Some  ingenious  writers 3  have  suspected  that  Europe  was 
much  colder  formerly  than  it  is  at  present;  and  the  most  ancient 
descriptions  of  the  climate  of  Germany  tend  exceedingly  to 
confirm  their  theory.  The  general  complaints  of  intense  frost 
and  eternal  winter  are  perhaps  little  to  be  regarded,  since  we 
have  no  method  of  reducing  to  the  accurate  standard  of  the 
thermometer  the  feelings  or  the  expressions  of  an  orator  born  in 
the  happier  regions  of  Greece  or  Asia.  But  I  shall  select  two  re- 
markable circumstances  of  a  less  equivocal  nature.  1 .  The  great 
rivers  which  covered  the  Roman  provinces,  the  Rhine  and  the 
Danube,  were  frequently  frozen  over,  and  capable  of  supporting 
the  most  enormous  weights.  The  barbarians,  who  often  chose 
that  severe  season  for  their  inroads,  transported,  without  appre- 
hension or  danger,   their  numerous  armies,  their  cavalry,  and 

1  [Though  the  author  exaggerates  the  extent  of  ancient  Germany  towards  the 
east,  he  is  not  so  far  wrong  as  has  sometimes  been  supposed.  Speaking  roughly, 
German  tribes  occupied  the  whole  of  Europe  between  the  Rhine  and  the  Vistula, 
the  Northern  Sea  and  the  Danube.  Vandals,  Burgundians,  Turcilingi,  Skiri, 
and  Gutones  held  the  land  between  the  Oder  and  Vistula.] 

3  The  modern  philosophers  of  Sweden  seem  agreed  that  the  waters  of  the  Baltic 
gradually  sink  in  a  regular  proportion,  which  they  have  ventured  to  estimate  at 
half  an  inch  every  year.  Twenty  centuries  ago,  the  flat  country  of  Scandinavia 
must  have  been  covered  by  the  sea ;  while  the  high  lands  rose  above  the  waters,  as 
so  many  islands  of  various  forms  and  dimensions.  Such  indeed  is  the  notion  given 
us  by  Mela,  Pliny,  and  Tacitus,  of  the  vast  countries  round  the  Baltic.  See  in  the 
Bibliotheque  Raisonn^e,  torn.  xl.  and  xlv. ,  a  large  abstract  of  Dalin's  History  of 
Sweden,  composed  in  the  Swedish  language. 

sIn  particular,  Mr.  Hume,  and  the  Abbe"  du  Bos,  and  M.  Pelloutier,  Hist,  des 
Celtes,  torn.  i. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  215 

their  heavy  waggons,  over  a  vast  and  solid  bridge  of  ice.4 
Modern  ages  have  not  presented  an  instance  of  a  like  phenomenon. 
2.  The  reindeer,  that  useful  animal,  from  whom  the  savage  of 
the  North  derives  the  best  comforts  of  his  dreary  life,  is  of  a 
constitution  that  supports,  and  even  requires,  the  most  intense 
cold.  He  is  found  on  the  rock  of  Spitzberg,  within  ten  degrees 
of  the  pole  ;  he  seems  to  delight  in  the  snows  of  Lapland  and 
Siberia ;  but  at  present  he  cannot  subsist,  much  less  multiply,  in 
any  country  to  the  south  of  the  Baltic.5  In  the  time  of  Caesar, 
the  reindeer,  as  well  as  the  elk  and  the  wild  bull,  was  a  native 
of  the  Hercynian  forest,  which  then  overshadowed  a  great  part 
of  Germany  and  Poland.6  The  modern  improvements  suffi- 
ciently explain  the  causes  of  the  diminution  of  the  cold.  These 
immense  woods  have  been  gradually  cleared,  which  intercepted 
from  the  earth  the  rays  of  the  sun.7  The  morasses  have  been 
drained,  and,  in  proportion  as  the  soil  has  been  cultivated,  the 
air  has  become  more  temperate.  Canada,  at  this  day,  is  an 
exact  picture  of  ancient  Germany.  Although  situate  in  the 
same  parallel  with  the  f  nest  provinces  of  France  and  England, 
that  country  experiences  the  most  rigorous  cold.  The  reindeer 
are  very  numerous,  the  ground  is  covered  with  deep  and  lasting 
snow,  and  the  great  river  of  St.  Lawrence  is  regularly  frozen, 
in  a  season  when  the  waters  of  the  Seine  and  the  Thames  are 
usually  free  from  ice.8 

It  is  difficult  to  ascertain,  and  easy  to  exaggerate,  the  influence  its  effects  on 
of  the  climate  of  ancient  Germany  over  the  minds  and  bodies  of  the  natlves 
the    natives.       Many    writers    have    supposed,    and    most   have 
allowed,  though,  as  it  should  seem,  without  any  adequate  proof, 
that  the  rigorous  cold  of  the  North  was  favourable  to  long  life 
and  generative  vigour,  that  the  women  were  more  fruitful,  and 

4Diodorus  Siculus,  1.  v.  p.  340,  edit.  Wessel  [25].  Herodian,  1.  vi.  p.  221  [7] 
Jornandes,  c.  55.  On  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  the  wine,  when  brought  to  table 
was  frequently  frozen  into  great  lumps,  frusta  vini.  Ovid  Epist.  ex  Ponto,  1.  iv.  7 
7-10.  Virgil  Georgic.  1.  lii.  355.  The  fact  is  confirmed  by  a  soldier  and  a  philo 
sopher,  who  had  experienced  the  intense  cold  of  Thrace.  See  Xenophon,  Anabasis 
1.  vii.  p.  560,  edit.  Hutchinson  [4] .  [Milman  in  his  note  on  this  passage  refers  to 
an  incident  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  In  1635  "Jan  van  Werth,  an  Imperialist 
partisan,  crossed  the  Rhine  from  Heidelberg  on  the  ice  with  5000  men,  and  sur- 
prised Spires".] 

5Buffon,  Histoire  Naturelle,  torn.  xii.  p.  79,  116. 

6  Caesar  de  Bell.  Gallic,  vi.  23,  &c.  The  most  inquisitive  of  the  Germans  were 
ignorant  of  its  utmost  limits,  although  some  of  them  had  travelled  in  it  more  than 
sixty  days'  journey. 

7  Cluverius  (Germania  Antiqua,  1.  iii.  c.  47)  investigates  the  small  and  scattered 
remains  of  the  Hercynian  Wood. 

"  Charlevoix,  Histoire  du  Canada. 


Germans 


216  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

the  human  species  more  prolific,  than  in  wanner  or  more 
temperate  climates.9  We  may  assert,  with  greater  confidence, 
that  the  keen  air  of  Germany  formed  the  large  and  masculine 
limbs  of  the  natives,  who  were,  in  general,  of  a  more  lofty 
stature  than  the  people  of  the  South,10  gave  them  a  kind  of 
strength  better  adapted  to  violent  exertions  than  to  patient 
labour,  and  inspired  them  with  constitutional  bravery,  which  is 
the  result  of  nerves  and  spirits.  The  severity  of  a  winter 
campaign,  that  chilled  the  courage  of  the  Roman  troops,  was 
scarcely  felt  by  these  hardy  children  of  the  North,11  who,  in 
their  turn,  were  unable  to  resist  the  summer  heats,  and  dissolved 
away  in  languor  and  sickness  under  the  beams  of  an  Italian 
sun.12 
orieinofthe  There  is  not  anywhere  upon  the  globe  a  large  tract  of  country, 
which  we  have  discovered  destitute  of  inhabitants,  or  whose  first 
population  can  be  fixed  with  any  degree  of  historical  certainty. 
And  yet,  as  the  most  philosophic  minds  can  seldom  refrain  from 
investigating  the  infancy  of  great  nations,  our  curiosity  consumes 
itself  in  toilsome  and  disappointed  efforts.  When  Tacitus  con- 
sidered the  purity  of  the  German  blood,  and  the  forbidding 
aspect  of  the  country,  he  was  disposed  to  pronounce  those 
barbarians  Indigence,  or  natives  of  the  soil.  We  may  allow  with 
safety,  and  perhaps  with  truth,  that  ancient  Germany  was  not 
originally  peopled  by  any  foreign  colonies  already  formed  into  a 
political  society  ; 13  but  that  the  name  and  nation  received  their 
existence  from  the  gradual  union  of  some  wandering  savages  of 
the  Hercynian  woods.  To  assert  those  savages  to  have  been 
the  spontaneous  production  of  the  earth  which  they  inhabited 
would  be  a  rash  inference,  condemned  by  religion,  and  un- 
warranted by  reason. 

•Olaus  Rudbeck  asserts  that  the  Swedish  women  often  bear  ten  or  twelve 
children,  and  not  uncommonly  twenty  or  thirty;  but  the  authority  of  Rudbeck 
is  much  to  be  suspected. 

10  In  hos  artus,  in  haec  corpora,  quas  miramur,  excrescunt.  Tacit.  Germania, 
c.  20.     Cluver.  1.  i.  c.  14. 

11  Plutarch,  in  Mario.  The  Cimbri,  by  way  of  amusement,  often  slid  down 
mountains  of  snow  on  their  broad  shields. 

12  The  Romans  made  war  in  all  climates,  and  by  their  excellent  discipline  were 
in  a  great  measure  preserved  in  health  and  vigour.  It  may  be  remarked  that 
man  is  the  only  animal  which  can  live  and  multiply  in  every  country  from  the  equator 
to  the  poles.  The  hog  seems  to  approach  the  nearest  to  our  species  in  that  privi- 
legs. 

13  Tacit.  German,  c.  3.  The  emigration  of  the  Gauls  followed  the  course  of  the 
Danube,  and  discharged  itself  on  Greece  and  Asia.  Tacitus  could  discover  only 
one  inconsiderable  tribe  that  retained  any  traces  of  a  Gallic  origin.  [The  Cotini, 
c.  43.     They  were  certainly  not  Gallic] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  217 

Such  rational  doubt  is  but  ill  suited  with  the  genius  of  popular  KMwaaa 
vanity.  Among  the  nations  who  have  adopted  the  Mosaic 
history  of  the  world,  the  ark  of  Noah  has  been  of  the  same  use, 
as  w;is  formerly  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans  the  siege  of  Troy. 
On  a  narrow  basis  of  acknowledged  truth,  an  immense  but  rude 
superstructure  of  fable  has  been  erected;  and  the  wild  Irishman,14 
as  well  as  the  wild  Tartar,15  could  point  out  the  individual  son 
of  Japhet  from  whose  loins  his  ancestors  were  lineally  descended. 
The  last  century  abounded  with  antiquarians  of  profound  learn- 
ing and  easy  faith,  who,  by  the  dim  light  of  legends  and  traditions, 
of  conjectures  and  etymologies,  conducted  the  great-grandchildren 
of  Noah  from  the  Tower  of  Babel  to  the  extremities  of  the  globe. 
Of  these  judicious  critics,  one  of  the  most  entertaining  was  Olaus 
Rudbeck,  professor  in  the  university  of  Upsal.16  Whatever  is 
celebrated  either  in  history  or  fable,  this  zealous  patriot  ascribes 
to  his  country.  From  Sweden  (which  formed  so  considerable  a 
part  of  ancient  Germany)  the  Greeks  themselves  derived  their 
alphabetical  characters,  their  astronomy,  and  their  religion.  Of 
that  delightful  region  (for  such  it  appeared  to  the  eyes  of  a 
native)  the  Atlantis  of  Plato,  the  country  of  the  Hyperboreans, 
the  gardens  of  the  Hesperides,  the  Fortunate  Islands,  and  even 
the  Elysian  Fields,  were  all  but  faint  and  imperfect  transcripts. 
A  clime  so  profusely  favoured  by  Nature  could  not  long  remain 
desert  after  the  flood.  The  learned  Rudbeck  allows  the  family 
of  Noah  a  few  years  to  multiply  from  eight  to  about  twenty 
thousand  persons.  He  then  disperses  them  into  small  colonies 
to  replenish  the  earth,  and  to  propagate  the  human  species. 
The  German  or  Swedish  detachment  (which  marched,  if  I  am 
not  mistaken,  under  the  command  of  Askenaz  the  son  of  Gomer, 
the  son  of  Japhet)  distinguished  itself  by  a  more  than  common 
diligence  in  the  prosecution  of  this  great  work.  The  northern 
hive  cast  its  swarms  over  the  greatest  part  of  Europe,  Africa, 
and  Asia ;  and  (to  use  the  author's  metaphor)  the  blood  circu- 
lated back  from  the  extremities  to  the  heart. 

14  According  to  Dr.  Keating  (History  of  Ireland,  p.  13,  14),  the  giant  Partho- 
lanus,  who  was  the  son  of  Seara,  the  son  of  Esra,  the  son  of  Sru,  the  son  of  Fram- 
ant,  the  son  of  Fathaclan,  the  son  of  Magog,  the  son  of  Japhet,  the  son  of  Noah, 
landed  on  the  coast  of  Munster,  the  14th  day  of  May,  in  the  year  of  the  world  one 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  seventy-eight.  Though  he  succeeded  in  his  great 
enterprise,  the  loose  behaviour  of  his  wife  rendered  his  domestic  life  very  unhappy, 

and  provoked  him  to  such  a  degree,  that  he  killed her  favourite  greyhound. 

This,  as  the  learned  historian  very  properly  observes,  was  the  first  instance  of 
female  falsehood  and  infidelity  ever  known  in  Ireland. 

15  Genealogical  History  of  the  Tartars  by  Abulghazi  Bahadur  Khan. 

10  His  work,  entitled  Atlantica,  is  uncommonly  scarce.  Bayle  has  given  two 
most  curious  extracts  from  it.     R^publique  des  Lettres,  Janvier  et  Fdvrier,  1685. 


218  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

The  Germans       But  all   tliis   well-laboured  system  of  German  antiquities  is 
letters  annihilated  by  a  single  fact,  too  well  attested  to  admit  of  any 

doubt,  and  of  too  decisive  a  nature  to  leave  room  for  any  reply. 
The  Germans,  in  the  age  of  Tacitus,  were  unacquainted  with 
the  use  of  letters ; 17  and  the  use  of  letters  is  the  principal 
circumstance  that  distinguishes  a  civilized  people  from  a  herd  of 
savages,  incapable  of  knowledge  or  reflection.  Without  that 
artificial  help  the  human  memory  soon  dissipates  or  corrupts  the 
ideas  intrusted  to  her  charge  ;  and  the  nobler  faculties  of  the 
mind,  no  longer  supplied  with  models  or  with  materials, 
gradually  forget  their  powers :  the  judgment  becomes  feeble 
and  lethargic,  the  imagination  languid  or  irregular.  Fully  to 
apprehend  this  important  truth,  let  us  attempt,  in  an  improved 
society,  to  calculate  the  immense  distance  between  the  man  of 
learning  and  the  illiterate  peasant.  The  former,  by  reading  and 
reflection,  multiplies  his  own  experience,  and  lives  in  distant 
ages  and  remote  countries ;  whilst  the  latter,  rooted  to  a  single 
spot,  and  confined  to  a  few  years  of  existence,  surpasses  but  veiy 
little  his  fellow-labourer  the  ox  in  the  exercise  of  his  mental 
faculties.  The  same  and  even  a  greater  difference  will  be 
found  between  nations  than  between  individuals ;  and  we  may 
safely  pronounce,  that  without  some  species  of  writing  no  people 
has  ever  preserved  the  faithful  annals  of  their  history,  ever  made 
any  considerable  progress  in  the  abstract  sciences,  or  ever 
possessed,  in  any  tolerable  degree  of  perfection,  the  useful  and 
agreeable  arts  of  life, 
of  arts  and  Of  these  arts  the  ancient  Germans  were  wretchedly  destitute. 
They  passed  their  lives  in  a  state  of  ignorance  and  poverty, 
which  it  has  pleased  some  declaimers  to  dignify  with  the 
appellation  of  virtuous  simplicity.     Modern  Germany  is  said  to 

17  Tacit.  Germ.  ii.  19.  Literarum  secreta  viri  parlter  ac  fceminae  ignorant.  We 
may  rest  contented  with  this  decisive  authority,  without  entering  into  the  obscure 
disputes  concerning  the  antiquity  of  the  Runic  characters.  The  learned  Celsius,  a 
Swede,  a  scholar  and  a  philosopher,  was  of  opinion,  that  they  were  nothing  more 
than  the  Roman  letters,  with  the  curves  changed  into  straight  lines  for  the  ease  of 
engraving.  See  Pelloutier,  Histoire  des  Celtes,  1.  ii.  c.  11.  Dictionnaire  Diplo- 
matique, torn.  i.  p.  223.  We  may  add,  that  the  oldest  Runic  inscriptions  are 
supposed  to  be  of  the  third  century,  and  the  most  ancient  writer  who  mentions  the 
Runic  characters,  is  Venantius  Fortunatus  (Carm.  vii.  18),  who  lived  towards  the 
end  of  the  sixth  century. 

Barbara  fraxineis  pingatur  R  u  n  A  tabellis.  [See  Zacher,  Das  Gothische  Alpha- 
bet Vulfilas  und  das  Runenalphabet ;  Mr.  Isaac  Taylor,  Greeks  and  Goths ; 
Stephen's  Runic  Monuments.  Mr.  Taylor's  theory  that  the  Runic  alphabet  was 
originally  derived  from  the  Greeks  by  the  trade  route,  which  existed  at  a  very  early 
age  between  the  Euxine  and  the  Baltic,  is  gaining  ground.  It  was  certainly  de- 
veloped in  Scandinavia,  not  in  Germany.  The  number  of  Runic  inscriptions  found 
in  Germany  is  very  small.] 


agriculture 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  219 

contain  about  two  thousand  three  hundred  walled  towns.18  In 
a  much  wider  extent  of  country  the  geographer  Ptolemy  could 
discover  no  more  than  ninety  places  which  he  decorates  with 
the  name  of  cities ; 19  though,  according  to  our  ideas,  they 
would  but  ill  deserve  that  splendid  title.  We  can  only  suppose 
them  to  have  been  rude  fortifications,  constructed  in  the  centre 
of  the  woods,  and  designed  to  secure  the  women,  children,  and 
cattle,  whilst  the  warriors  of  the  tribe  marched  out  to  repel  a 
sudden  invasion.20  But  Tacitus  asserts,  as  a  well-known  fact, 
that  the  Germans,  in  his  time,  had  no  cities ; 21  and  that  they 
affected  to  despise  the  works  of  Roman  industry  as  places  of 
confinement  rather  than  of  security.22  Their  edifices  were  not 
even  contiguous,  or  formed  into  regular  villas  ; 23  each  barbarian 
fixed  his  independent  dwelling  on  the  spot  to  which  a  plain,  a 
wood,  or  a  stream  of  fresh  water,  had  induced  him  to  give  the 
preference.  Neither  stone,  nor  brick,  nor  tiles,  were  employed 
in  these  slight  habitations.24  They  were  indeed  no  more  than 
low  huts  of  a  circular  figure,  built  of  rough  timber,  thatched 
with  straw,  and  pierced  at  the  top  to  leave  a  free  passage  for  the 
smoke.  In  the  most  inclement  winter,  the  hardy  German  was 
satisfied  with  a  scanty  garment  made  of  the  skin  of  some 
animal.  The  nations  who  dwelt  towards  the  North  clothed 
themselves  in  furs ;  and  the  women  manufactured  for  their  own 
use  a  coarse  kind  of  linen.25  The  game  of  various  sorts  with 
which  the  forests  of  Germany  were  plentifully  stocked  supplied  its 
inhabitants  with  food  and  exercise.25  Their  monstrous  herds  of 
cattle,  less  remarkable  indeed  for  their  beauty  than  for  their 
utility,27  formed  the  principal  object  of  their  wealth.  A  small 
quantity  of  corn  was  the  only  produce  exacted  from  the  earth  :  the 

18  Recherches  Philosophiques  sur  les  AmeYicains,  torn.  iii.  p.  228.  The  author 
of  that  very  curious  work  is,  if  I  am  not  misinformed,  a  German  by  birth.  [De 
Pauw.] 

19  The  Alexandrian  Geographer  is  often  criticized  by  the  accurate  Cluverius. 

20  See  Caesar,  and  the  learned  Mr.  Whitaker  in  his  History  of  Manchester,  vol.  i. 

21  Tacit.  Germ.  16. 

22  When  the  Germans  commanded  the  Ubii  of  Cologne  to  cast  off  the  Roman 
yoke,  and  with  their  new  freedom  to  resume  their  ancient  manners,  they  insisted 
on  the  immediate  demolition  of  the  walls  of  the  colony.  "  Postulamus  a  vobis, 
muros  colonice,  munimenta  servitii,  detrahatis ;  etiam  fera  animalia,  si  clausa 
teneas,  virtutis  obliviscuntur."     Tacit.  Hist.  iv.  64. 

23  The  straggling  villages  of  Silesia  are  several  miles  in  length.  See  Cluver.  1.  i. 
c.  13. 

24  One  hundred  and  forty  years  after  Tacitus  a  few  more  regular  structures  were 
erected  near  the  Rhine  and  Danube.     Herodian   1.  vii.  p.  234. 

25  Tacit.  Germ.  17. 

26  Tacit.  Germ.  5. 

27  Caesar  de  Bell.  Gall,  vi.ar. 


220  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

use  of  orchards  or  artificial  meadows  was  unknown  to  the  Germans  ; 
nor  can  we  expect  any  improvements  in  agriculture  from  a 
people  whose  property  every  year  experienced  a  general  change 
by  a  new  division  of  the  arable  lands,  and  who,  in  that  strange 
operation,  avoided  disputes  by  suffering  a  great  part  of  their 
territory  to  lie  waste  and  without  tillage.28 

Gold,  silver,  and  iron  were  extremely  scarce  in  Germany.  Its 
barbarous  inhabitants  wanted  both  skill  and  patience  to  investi- 
gate those  rich  veins  of  silver,  which  have  so  liberally  rewarded 
the  attention  of  the  princes  of  Brunswick  and  Saxony.  Sweden, 
which  now  supplies  Europe  with  iron,  was  equally  ignorant  of 
its  own  riches  ;  and  the  appearance  of  the  arms  of  the  Germans 
furnished  a  sufficient  proof  how  little  iron  they  were  able  to  be- 
stow on  what  they  must  have  deemed  the  noblest  use  of  that 
metal.  The  various  transactions  of  peace  and  war  had  intro- 
duced some  Roman  coins  (chiefly  silver)  among  the  borderers  of 
the  Rhine  and  Danube ;  but  the  more  distant  tribes  were  ab- 
solutely unacquainted  with  the  use  of  money,  carried  on  their 
confined  traffic  by  the  exchange  of  commodities,  and  prized  their 
rude  earthen  vessels  as  of  equal  value  with  the  silver  vases,  the 
presents  of  Rome  to  their  princes  and  ambassadors.29  To  a 
mind  capable  of  reflection  such  leading  facts  convey  more  in- 
struction than  a  tedious  detail  of  subordinate  circumstances. 
The  value  of  money  has  been  settled  by  general  consent  to  ex- 
press our  wants  and  our  property,  as  letters  were  invented  to 
express  our  ideas ;  and  both  these  institutions,  by  giving  more 
active  energy  to  the  powers  and  passions  of  human  nature,  have 
contributed  to  multiply  the  objects  they  were  designed  to  repre- 
sent. The  use  of  gold  and  silver  is  in  a  great  measure  factitious ; 
but  it  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  the  important  and 
various  services  which  agriculture,  and  all  the  arts,  have  received 
from  iron,  when  tempered  and  fashioned  by  the  operation  of 
fire  and  the  dexterous  hand  of  man.  Money,  in  a  word,  is  the 
most  universal  incitement,  iron  the  most  powerful  instrument,  of 
human  industry ;  and  it  is  very  difficult  to  conceive  by  what 
means  a  people,  neither  actuated  by  the  one  nor  seconded  by 
the  other,  could  emerge  from  the  grossest  barbarism.30 

28  Tacit  Germ.  26.     Caesar,  vi.  22. 

29  Tacit.  Germ.  5. 

30  It  is  said  that  the  Mexicans  and  Peruvians,  without  the  use  of  either  money 
or  iron,  had  made  a  very  great  progress  in  the  arts.  Those  arts,  and  the  monu- 
ments they  produced,  have  been  strangely  magnified.  See  Rechcrches  sur  les 
AmtJricains,  torn.  ii.  p.  153,  &c. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  221 

If  we  contemplate  a  savage  nation  in  any  part  of  the  globe,  a-rheirindo- 
supine  indolence  and  a  carelessness  of  futurity  will  be  found  to 
constitute  their  general  character.  In  a  civilized  state  every 
faculty  of  man  is  expanded  and  exercised  ;  and  the  great  chain 
of  mutual  dependence  connects  and  embraces  the  several  mem- 
bers of  society.  The  most  numerous  portion  of  it  is  employed 
in  constant  and  useful  labour.  The  select  few,  placed  by  for- 
tune above  that  necessity,  can,  however,  fill  up  their  time  by 
the  pursuits  of  interest  or  glory,  by  the  improvement  of  their 
estate  or  of  their  understanding,  by  the  duties,  the  pleasures, 
and  even  the  follies,  of  social  life.  The  Germans  were  not 
possessed  of  these  varied  resources.  The  care  of  the  house  and 
family,  the  management  of  the  land  and  cattle,  were  delegated 
to  the  old  and  the  infirm,  to  women  and  slaves.  The  lazy  war- 
rior, destitute  of  every  art  that  might  employ  his  leisure  hours, 
consumed  his  days  and  nights  in  the  animal  gratifications  of 
sleep  and  food.  And  yet,  by  a  wonderful  diversity  of  nature 
(according  to  the  remark  of  a  writer  who  had  pierced  into  its 
darkest  recesses),  the  same  barbarians  are  by  turns  the  most 
indolent  and  the  most  restless  of  mankind.  They  delight  in 
sloth,  they  detest  tranquillity.31  The  languid  soul,  oppressed 
with  its  own  weight,  anxiously  required  some  new  and  powerful 
sensation  ;  and  war  and  danger  were  the  only  amusements  ade- 
quate to  its  fierce  temper.  The  sound  that  summoned  the 
German  to  arms  was  grateful  to  his  ear.  It  roused  him  from 
his  uncomfortable  lethargy,  gave  him  an  active  pursuit,  and,  by 
strong  exercise  of  the  body,  and  violent  emotions  of  the  mind, 
restored  him  to  a  more  lively  sense  of  his  existence.  In  the 
dull  intervals  of  peace  these  barbarians  were  immoderately 
addicted  to  deep  gaming  and  excessive  drinking;  both  of  which, 
by  different  means,  the  one  by  inflaming  their  passions,  the 
other  by  extinguishing  their  reason,  alike  relieved  them  from 
the  pain  of  thinking.  They  gloried  in  passing  whole  days  and 
nights  at  table ;  and  the  blood  of  friends  and  relations  often 
stained  their  numerous  and  drunken  assemblies.32  Their  debts 
of  honour  (for  in  that  light  they  have  transmitted  to  us  those  of 
play)  they  discharged  with  the  most  romantic  fidelity.  The 
desperate  gamester,  who  had  staked  his  person  and  liberty  on 
a  last  throw  of  the  dice,  patiently  submitted  to  the  decision  of 
fortune,  and  suffered  himself  to  be  bound,  chastised,  and  sold 
into  remote  slavery,  by  his  weaker  but  more  lucky  antagonist.33 

S1  Tacit.  Germ.  15.  32  Tacit.  Germ.  22,  23. 

33  Tacit.   Germ.  24.     The  Germans  might  borrow  the  arts  of  play  from  the 
Romans,  but  the  passion  is  wonderfully  inherent  in  the  human  species. 


222 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Their  taste 
for  strong 
liquors 


State  of 
population 


Strong  beer,  a  liquor  extracted  with  very  little  art  from  wheat 
or  barley,  and  corrupted  (as  it  is  strongly  expressed  by  Tacitus) 
into  a  certain  semblance  of  wine,  was  sufficient  for  the  gross 
purposes  of  German  debauchery.  But  those  who  had  tasted 
the  rich  wines  of  Italy,  and  afterwards  of  Gaul,  sighed  for  that 
more  delicious  species  of  intoxication.  They  attempted  not, 
however  (as  has  since  been  executed  with  so  much  success),  to 
naturalize  the  vine  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  and  Danube  ;  nor 
did  they  endeavour  to  procure  by  industry  the  materials  of  an 
advantageous  commerce.  To  solicit  by  labour  what  might  be 
ravished  by  arms  was  esteemed  unworthy  of  the  German  spirit.34 
The  intemperate  thirst  of  strong  liquors  often  urged  the  bar- 
barians to  invade  the  provinces  on  which  art  or  nature  had  be- 
stowed those  much  envied  presents.  The  Tuscan  Avho  betrayed 
his  country  to  the  Celtic  nations  attracted  them  into  Italy  by 
the  prospect  of  the  rich  fruits  and  delicious  wines,  the  produc- 
tions of  a  happier  climate.35  And  in  the  same  manner  the 
German  auxiliaries,  invited  into  France  during  the  civil  wars  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  were  allured  by  the  promise  of  plenteous 
quarters  in  the  provinces  of  Champagne  and  Burgundy. 3& 
Drunkenness,  the  most  illiberal,  but  not  the  most  dangerous  of 
our  vices,  was  sometimes  capable,  in  a  less  civilized  state  of  man- 
kind, of  occasioning  a  battle,  a  war,  or  a  revolution. 

The  climate  of  ancient  Germany  has  been  mollified,  and  the 
soil  fertilized,  by  the  labour  of  ten  centuries  from  the  time  of 
Charlemagne.  The  same  extent  of  ground,  which  at  present 
maintains,  in  ease  and  plenty,  a  million  of  husbandmen  and 
artificers,  was  unable  to  supply  an  hundred  thousand  lazy 
warriors  with  the  simple  necessaries  of  life.37  The  Germans 
abandoned  their  immense  forests  to  the  exercise  of  hunting, 
employed  in  pasturage  the  most  considerable  part  of  their  lands, 
bestowed  on  the  small  remainder  a  rude  and  careless  cultivation, 
and  then  accused  the  scantiness  and  sterility  of  a  country  that 
refused  to  maintain  the  multitude  of  its  inhabitants.  When  the 
return  of  famine  severely  admonished  them  of  the  importance  of 
the  arts,  the  national  distress  was  sometimes  alleviated  by  the 


34  Tacit.  Germ.  14.  S3  Plutarch,  in  Camillo.     T.  Liv.  v.  33. 

3<i  Dubos,  Hist,  de  la  Monarchic  Francoise,  torn.  i.  p.  193. 

37  The  Helvetian  nation,  which  issued  from  the  country  called  Switzerland,  con- 
tained, of  every  age  and  sex,  368,000  persons  (Caesar  de  Bell.  Gall.  i.  29).  At 
present,  the  number  of  people  in  the  Pays  de  Vaud  (a  small  district  on  the  banks 
of  the  Leman  Lake,  much  more  distinguished  for  politeness  than  for  industry) 
amounts  to  112,591.  See  an  excellent  Tract  of  M.  Muret,  in  the  M6moires  de  la. 
Soci^te'  de  Berne 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  223 

emigration  of  a  third,  perhaps,  or  a  fourth  part  of  their  youth.38 
The  possession  and  the  enjoyment  of  property  are  the  pledges 
which  bind  a  civilized  people  to  an  improved  country.  But  the 
Germans,  who  carried  with  them  what  they  most  valued,  their 
arms,  their  cattle,  and  their  women,  cheerfully  abandoned  the 
vast  silence  of  their  woods  for  the  unbounded  hopes  of  plunder 
and  conquest.  The  innumerable  swarms  that  issued,  or  seemed 
to  issue,  from  the  great  storehouse  of  nations,  were  multiplied 
by  the  fears  of  the  vanquished  and  by  the  credulity  of  succeeding 
ages.  And  from  facts  thus  exaggerated,  an  opinion  was  gradu- 
ally established,  and  has  been  supported  by  writers  of  distin- 
guished reputation,  that,  in  the  age  of  Csesar  and  Tacitus,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  North  were  far  more  numerous  than  they  are 
in  our  days.39  A  more  serious  inquiry  into  the  causes  of  popula- 
tion seems  to  have  convinced  modern  philosophers  of  the 
falsehood,  and  indeed  the  impossibility,  of  the  supposition.  To 
the  names  of  Mariana  and  of  Machiavel 40  we  can  oppose  the 
equal  names  of  Robertson  and  Hume.41 

A  warlike  nation  like  the  Germans,  without  either  cities,  German 
letters,  arts,  or  money,  found  some  compensation  for  this  savage 
state  in  the  enjoyment  of  liberty.  Their  poverty  secured  their 
freedom,  since  our  desires  and  our  possessions  are  the  strongest 
fetters  of  despotism.  "  Among  the  Suiones  (says  Tacitus)  riches 
are  held  in  honour.  They  are  therefore  subject  to  an  absolute 
monarch,  who  instead  of  intrusting  his  people  with  the  free  use 
of  arms,  as  is  practised  in  the  rest  of  Germany,  commits  them  to 
the  safe  custody,  not  of  a  citizen,  or  even  of  a  freedman,  but  of 
a  slave.  The  neighbours  of  the  Suiones,  the  Sitones,  are  sunk 
even  below  servitude  ;  they  obey  a  woman."  42  In  the  mention 
of  these  exceptions,  the  great  historian  sufficiently  acknowledges 
the  general  theory  of  government.  We  are  only  at  a  loss  to 
conceive  by  what  means  riches  and  despotism  could  penetrate 
into  a  remote  corner  of  the  North,  and  extinguish  the  generous 
flame  that  blazed  with  such  fierceness  on  the  frontier  of  the 
Roman  provinces,   or  how  the    ancestors   of  those   Danes  and 

33  Paul  Diaconus,  c.  i,  2,  3.  Machiavel,  Davila,  and  the  rest  of  Paul's  followers, 
represent  these  emigrations  too  much  as  regular  and  concerted  measures. 

39  Sir  William  Temple  and  Montesquieu  have  indulged,  on  this  subject,  the 
usual  liveliness  of  their  fancy. 

40  Machiavel,  Hist,  di  Firenze,  1.  i.     Mariana,  Hist.  Hispan.  1.  v.  c.  1. 

41  Robertson's  Cha.  V.     Hume's  Politic.  Ess. 

42  Tacit.  Germ.  44,  45.  Freinshemius  (who  dedicated  his  supplement  to  Livy, 
to  Christina  of  Sweden)  thinks  proper  to  be  very  angry  with  the  Roman  who  ex- 
pressed so  very  little  reverence  for  Northern  queens. 


224  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

Norwegians,,  so  distinguished  in  later  ages  by  their  unconquered 
spirit,  could  thus  tamely  resign  the  great  character  of  German 
liberty.43  Some  tribes,  however,  on  the  coast  of  the  Baltic, 
acknowledged  the  authority  of  kings,  though  without  relinquish- 
ing the  rights  of  men  ; 44  but  in  the  far  greater  part  of  Germany 
the  form  of  government  was  a  democracy,  tempered,  indeed, 
and  controlled,  not  so  much  by  general  and  positive  laws  as  by 
the  occasional  ascendant  of  birth  or  valour,  of  eloquence  or 
superstition.45 

Civil  governments,  in  their  first  institutions,  are  voluntary 
associations  for  mutual  defence.  To  obtain  the  desired  end  it 
is  absolutely  necessary  that  each  individual  should  conceive  him- 
self obliged  to  submit  his  private  opinion  and  actions  to  the 
judgment  of  the  greater  number  of  his  associates.  The  German 
tribes  were  contented  with  this  rude  but  liberal  outline  of 
political  society.  As  soon  as  a  youth,  born  of  free  parents,  had 
attained  the  age  of  manhood,  he  was  introduced  into  the  general 
council  of  his  countrymen,  solemnly  invested  with  a  shield  and 
spear,  and  adopted  as  an  equal  and  worthy  member  of  the 
military  commonwealth.  The  assembly  of  the  warriors  of  the 
tribe  was  convened  at  stated  seasons,  or  on  sudden  emergencies. 
The  trial  of  public  offences,  the  election  of  magistrates,  and  the 
great  business  of  peace  and  war,  were  determined  by  its  in- 
dependent voice.  Sometimes,  indeed,  these  important  questions 
were  previously  considered  and  prepared  in  a  more  select  council 
of  the  principal  chieftains.46  The  magistrates  might  deliberate 
and  persuade,  the  people  only  could  resolve  and  execute  ;  and 
the  resolutions  of  the  Germans  were  for  the  most  part  hasty 
and  violent.  Barbarians  accustomed  to  place  their  freedom  in 
gratifying  the  present  passion,  and  their  courage  in  overlooking 

43  May  we  not  suspect  that  superstition  was  the  parent  of  despotism?  The  de- 
scendants of  Odin  (whose  race  was  not  extinct  till  the  year  1060)  are  said  to  have 
reigned  in  Sweden  above  a  thousand  years.  The  temple  of  Upsal  was  the  ancient 
seat  of  religion  and  empire.  In  the  year  1153  I  find  a  singular  law  prohibiting  the 
use  and  possession  of  arms  to  any,  except  the  king's  guards.  Is  it  not  probable 
that  it  was  coloured  by  the  pretence  of  reviving  an  old  institution?  See  Dalin's 
History  of  Sweden  in  the  Bibliotheque  Raisonnee,  torn.  xl.  and  xlv. 

44  Tacit.  Germ.  c.  43.  [The  Gotones,  that  is,  the  Goths,  who  in  the  time  of 
Tacitus  lived  on  the  right  bank  of  the  lower  Vistula;  but  in  the  third  century  we 
find  them  on  the  Black  Sea.     Pliny  also  mentions  the  Guttones,  Nat.  Hist.  iv.  14.] 

45  Id.  c.  11,  12,  13,  &c. 

46  Grotius  changes  an  expression  of  Tacitus,  pertrnctantur  into  pratractantur. 
The  correction  is  equally  just  and  ingenious.  [Germ.  11.  apud  principes  pertrac- 
tentur.  No  change  is  necessary  ;  perlractentur  means  "  be  thoroughly  discussed  ". 
But  the  general  meaning  is  the  same.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  225 

all  future  consequences,  turned  away  with  indignant  contempt 
from  the  remonstrances  of  justice  and  policy,  and  it  was  the 
practice  to  signify  by  a  hollow  murmur  their  dislike  of  such  timid 
councils.  But,  whenever  a  more  popular  orator  proposed  to 
vindicate  the  meanest  citizen,  from  either  foreign  or  domestic 
injury,  whenever  he  called  upon  his  fellow-countrymen  to  assert 
the  national  honour,  or  to  pursue  some  enterprise  full  of  danger 
and  glory,  a  loud  clashing  of  shields  and  spears  expressed  the 
eager  applause  of  the  assembly.  For  the  Germans  always  met 
in  arms,  and  it  was  constantly  to  be  dreaded  lest  an  irregular 
multitude,  inflamed  with  faction  and  strong  liquors,  should  use 
those  arms  to  enforce,  as  well  as  to  declare,  their  furious  resolves. 
We  may  recollect  how  often  the  diets  of  Poland  have  been 
polluted  with  blood,  and  the  more  numerous  party  has  been 
compelled  to  yield  to  the  more  violent  and  seditious.47 

A  general  of  the  tribe  was  elected  on  occasions  of  danger ;  Authority  of 
and,  if  the  danger  was  pressing  and  extensive,  several  tribes  and  magu-8 
concurred  in  the  choice  of  the  same  general.  The  bravest  war- tratBS 
rior  was  named  to  lead  his  countrymen  into  the  field,  by  his 
example  rather  than  by  his  commands.  But  this  power,  how- 
ever limited,  was  still  invidious.  It  expired  with  the  war,  and 
in  time  of  peace,  the  German  tribes  acknowledged  not  any 
supreme  chief.48  Princes  were,  however,  appointed,  in  the 
general  assembly,  to  administer  justice,  or  rather  to  compose 
differences,49  in  their  respective  districts.  In  the  choice  of 
these  magistrates  as  much  regard  was  shown  to  birth  as  to 
merit.50  To  each  was  assigned,  by  the  public,  a  guard,  and  a 
council  of  an  hundred  persons,  and  the  first  of  the  princes  ap- 
pears to  have  enjoyed  a  pre-eminence  of  rank  and  honour  which 
sometimes  tempted  the  Romans  to  compliment  him  with  the 
regal  title.51 

The  comparative  view  of  the  powers  of  the  magistrates,  in  two  ™0erret^aolutB 
remarkable  instances,  is  alone  sufficient  to  represent  the  whole  gSRS™ 
system  of  German  manners.    The  disposal  of  the  landed  property  gSJJJJJr" 
within  their  district  was  absolutely  vested  in  their  hands,  and 
they  distributed  it  every  year  according  to  a  new  division.52     At 
the  same  time  they  were  not  authorized  to  punish  with  death,  to 

4?  Even  in  our  ancient  parliament,  the  barons  often  carried  a  question  not  so 
much  by  the  number  of  votes  as  by  that  of  their  armed  followers. 

48  Cassar  de  Bell.  Gall.  vi.  23. 

49  Minuunt  controversias,  is  a  very  happy  expression  of  Caesar's. 

50  Reges  ex  nobilitate,  duces  ex  virtute  sumunt.     Tacit.  Germ.  7. 

61  Cluver.  Germ.  Ant.  1.  i.  c.  38, 

62  Caesar,  vi.  22.     Tacit.  Germ.  26. 

15  VOL.    I. 


226  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

imprison,  or  even  to  strike  a  private  citizen.63     A  people  thus 
jealous  of  their  persons,  and  careless  of  their  possessions,  must 
have  been  totally  destitute  of  industry  and  the  arts,  but  animated 
with  a  high  sense  of  honour  and  independence, 
voluntary  The  Germans  respected  only  those  duties  which  they  imposed 

engagemen  ^  themselves.  The  most  obscure  soldier  resisted  with  disdain 
the  authority  of  the  magistrates.  "  The  noblest  youths  blushed 
not  to  be  numbered  among  the  faithful  companions  of  some 
renowned  chief,  to  whom  they  devoted  their  arms  and  service. 
A  noble  emulation  prevailed  among  the  companions  to  obtain 
the  first  place  in  the  esteem  of  their  chief;  amongst  the  chiefs, 
to  acquire  the  greatest  number  of  valiant  companions.  To  be 
ever  surrounded  by  a  band  of  select  youths  was  the  pride  and 
strength  of  the  chiefs,  their  ornament  in  peace,  their  defence  in 
war.  The  glory  of  such  distinguished  heroes  diffused  itself 
beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  their  own  tribe.  Presents  and 
embassies  solicited  their  friendship,  and  the  fame  of  their  arms 
often  ensured  victory  to  the  party  which  they  espoused.  In  the 
hour  of  danger  it  was  shameful  for  the  chief  to  be  surpassed  in 
valour  by  his  companions ;  shameful  for  the  companions  not  to 
equal  the  valour  of  their  chief.  To  survive  his  fall  in  battle 
was  indelible  infamy.  To  protect  his  person,  and  to  adorn  his 
glory  with  the  trophies  of  their  own  exploits,  were  the  most 
sacred  of  their  duties.  The  chiefs  combated  for  victoiy,  the 
companions  for  the  chief.  The  noblest  warriors,  whenever  their 
native  country  was  sunk  in  the  laziness  of  peace,  maintained 
their  numerous  bands  in  some  distant  scene  of  action,  to  exercise 
their  restless  spirit,  and  to  acquire  renown  by  voluntary  dangers. 
Gifts  worthy  of  soldiers,  the  warlike  steed,  the  bloody  and  ever 
victorious  lance,  were  the  rewards  which  the  companions  claimed 
from  the  liberality  of  their  chief.  The  rude  plenty  of  his  hos- 
pitable board  was  the  only  pay  that  he  could  bestow,  or  they 
would  accept.  War,  rapine,  and  the  free-will  offerings  of  his 
friends,  supplied  the  materials  of  this  munificence."54  This 
institution,  however  it  might  accidentally  weaken  the  several 
republics,  invigorated  the  general  character  of  the  Germans, 
and  even  ripened  amongst  them  all  the  virtues  of  which  bar- 
barians are  susceptible — the  faith  and  valour,  the  hospitality 
and  the  courtesy,  so  conspicuous  long  afterwards  in  the  ages  of 
chivalry.  The  honourable  gifts,  bestowed  by  the  chief  on  his 
brave  companions,  have  been  supposed,  by  an  ingenious  writer, 

P»  Tacit.  Germ.  7.  M  Tacit.  Germ.  13,  14. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  227 

to  contain  the  first  rudiments  of  the  fiefs,  distributed  after  the 
conquest  of  the  Roman  provinces,  by  the  barbarian  lords  among 
their  vassals,  with  a  similar  duty  of  homage  and  military  ser- 
vice.55 These  conditions,  are,  however,  very  repugnant  to  the 
maxims  of  the  ancient  Germans,  who  delighted  in  mutual  pre- 
sents, but  without  either  imposing  or  accepting  the  weight  of 
obligations.56 

"  In  the  days  of  chivalry,  or  more  properly  of  romance,  all  German  cna*. 
the  men  were  brave,  and  all  the  women  were  chaste ; "  and,  tJ 
notwithstanding  the  latter  of  these  virtues  is  acquired  and  pre- 
served with  much  more  difficulty  than  the  former,  it  is  ascribed, 
almost  without  exception,  to  the  wives  of  the  ancient  Germans. 
Polygamy  was  not  in  use,  except  among  the  princes,  and  among 
them  only  for  the  sake  of  multiplying  their  alliances.  Divorces 
were  prohibited  by  manners  rather  than  by  laws.  Adulteries 
were  punished  as  rare  and  inexpiable  crimes  ;  nor  was  seduction 
justified  by  example  and  fashion.57  We  may  easily  discover 
that  Tacitus  indulges  an  honest  pleasure  in  the  contrast  of  bar- 
barian virtue  with  the  dissolute  conduct  of  the  Roman  ladies : 
yet  there  are  some  striking  circumstances  that  give  an  air  of 
truth,  or  at  least  of  probability,  to  the  conjugal  faith  and  chastity 
of  the  Germans. 

Although  the  progress  of  civilization  has  undoubtedly  con-  it»  probable 

C&US6S 

tributed  to  assuage  the  fiercer  passions  of  human  nature,  it 
seems  to  have  been  less  favourable  to  the  virtue  of  chastity, 
whose  most  dangerous  enemy  is  the  softness  of  the  mind.  The 
refinements  of  life  corrupt  while  they  polish  the  intercourse  of 
the  sexes.  The  gross  appetite  of  love  becomes  most  dangerous, 
when  it  is  elevated,  or  rather,  indeed,  disguised,  by  sentimental 
passion.  The  elegance  of  dress,  of  motion,  and  of  manners, 
gives  a  lustre  to  beauty,  and  inflames  the  senses  through  the 
imagination.  Luxurious  entertainments,  midnight  dances,  and 
licentious  spectacles,  present  at  once  temptation  and  opportunity 
to  female  frailty.58  From  such  dangers  the  unpolished  wives  of 
the  barbarians  were  secured  by  poverty,  solitude,  and  the  painful 

5*  Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xxx.  c.  3.  The  brilliant  imagination  of  Montesquieu  is 
corrected,  however,  by  the  dry  cold  reason  of  the  Abbe"  de  Mably.  Observations 
sur  l'Histoire  de  France,  torn.  i.  p.  356. 

86  Gaudent  muneribus,  sed  nee  data  imputant,  nee  acceptis  obligantur.  Tacit. 
Germ.  c.  21. 

57  The  adulteress  was  whipped  through  the  village.  Neither  wealth  nor  beauty 
could  inspire  compassion,  or  procure  her  a  second  husband.     [Tacit.  Germ.]  18,  19. 

68  Ovid  employs  two  hundred  lines  in  the  research  of  places  the  most  favourable 
to  love.  Above  all  he  considers  the  theatre  as  the  best  adapted  to  collect  the 
beauties  of  Rome,  and  to  melt  them  into  tenderness  and  sensuality. 


228  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

cares  of  a  domestic  life.  The  German  huts,  open  on  every  side 
to  the  eye  of  indiscretion  or  jealousy,  were  a  better  safeguard 
of  conjugal  fidelity  than  the  walls,  the  bolts,  and  the  eunuchs 
of  a  Persian  haram.  To  this  reason  another  may  be  added  of  a 
more  honourable  nature.  The  Germans  treated  their  women 
with  esteem  and  confidence,  consulted  them  on  every  occasion 
of  importance,  and  fondly  believed  that  in  their  breasts  resided 
a  sanctity  and  wisdom  more  than  human.  Some  of  these  inter- 
preters of  fate,  such  as  Velleda,  in  the  Batavian  war,  governed, 
in  the  name  of  the  deity,  the  fiercest  nations  of  Germany.59 
The  rest  of  the  sex,  without  being  adored  as  goddesses,  were 
respected  as  the  free  and  equal  companions  of  soldiers ;  associ- 
ated even  by  the  marriage  ceremony  to  a  life  of  toil,  of  danger, 
and  of  glory.60  In  their  great  invasions,  the  camps  of  the  bar- 
barians were  filled  with  a  multitude  of  women,  who  remained 
firm  and  undaunted  amidst  the  sound  of  arms,  the  various  forms 
of  destruction,  and  the  honourable  wounds  of  their  sons  and 
husbands.61  Fainting  armies  of  Germans  have  more  than  once 
been  driven  back  upon  the  enemy  by  the  generous  despair  of 
the  women,  who  dreaded  death  much  less  than  servitude.  It 
the  day  was  irrecoverably  lost,  they  well  knew  how  to  deliver 
themselves  and  their  children,  with  their  own  hands,  from  an 
insulting  victor.62  Heroines  of  such  a  cast  may  claim  our  ad- 
miration ;  but  they  were  most  assuredly  neither  lovely  nor  very 
susceptible  of  love.  Whilst  they  affected  to  emulate  the  stern 
virtues  of  man,  they  must  have  resigned  that  attractive  softness 
in  which  principally  consist  the  charm  and  weakness  of  woman. 
Conscious  pride  taught  the  German  females  to  suppress  every 
tender  emotion  that  stood  in  competition  with  honour,  and  the 
first  honour  of  the  sex  has  ever  been  that  of  chastity.  The 
sentiments  and  conduct  of  these  high-spirited  matrons  may,  at 
once,  be  considered  as  a  cause,  as  an  effect,  and  as  a  proof,  of 
the  general  character  of  the  nation.  Female  courage,  however 
it  may  be  raised  by  fanaticism,  or  confirmed  by  habit,  can  be 
only  a  faint  and  imperfect  imitation  of  the  manly  valour  that 
distinguishes  the  age  or  country  in  which  it  may  be  found. 

M  Tacit.  Hist.  iv.  61,  65. 

60  The  marriage  present  was  a  yoke  of  oxen,  horses,  and  arms.  See  Germ.  c. 
18.     Tacitus  is  somewhat  too  florid  on  the  subject. 

61  The  change  of  exigere  into  exugere  is  a  most  excellent  correction  [c.  7.  Exugere 
plagas  would  hardly  be  possible.  Exigere  flagas  is  right,  ' '  to  examine,  probe  the 
wounds".] 

62  Tacit.  Germ.  c.  7.  Plutarch,  in  Mario.  Before  the  wives  of  the  Teutones 
destroyed  themselves  and  their  children,  they  had  offered  to  surrender,  on  con- 
dition that  they  should  be  received  as  the  slaves  of  the  vestal  virgins. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  229 

The  religious  system  of  the  Germans  (if  the  wild  opinions  of  Religion 
savages  can  deserve  that  name)  was  dictated  by  their  wants, 
their  fears,  and  their  ignorance.63  They  adored  the  great 
visible  objects  and  agents  of  Nature,  the  Sun  and  the  Moon, 
the  Fire  and  the  Earth  ;  together  with  those  imaginary  deities 
who  were  supposed  to  preside  over  the  most  important  occupa- 
tions of  human  life.  They  were  persuaded  that,  by  some 
ridiculous  arts  of  divination,  they  could  discover  the  will  of  the 
superior  beings,  and  that  human  sacrifices  were  the  most  precious 
and  acceptable  offering  to  their  altars.  Some  applause  has  been 
hastily  bestowed  on  the  sublime  notion  entertained  by  that 
people  of  the  Deity  whom  they  neither  confined  within  the  walls 
of  a  temple,  nor  represented  by  any  human  figure ;  but  when 
we  recollect  that  the  Germans  were  unskilled  in  architecture, 
and  totally  unacquainted  with  the  art  of  sculpture,  we  shall 
readily  assign  the  true  reason  of  a  scruple,  which  arose  not  so 
much  from  a  superiority  of  reason  as  from  a  want  of  ingenuity. 
The  only  temples  in  Germany  were  dark  and  ancient  groves, 
consecrated  by  the  reverence  of  succeeding  generations.  Their 
secret  gloom,  the  imagined  residence  of  an  invisible  power,  by 
presenting  no  distinct  object  of  fear  or  worship,  impressed  the 
mind  with  a  still  deeper  sense  of  religious  horror;64  and  the 
priests,  rude  and  illiterate  as  they  were,  had  been  taught  by 
experience  the  use  of  every  artifice  that  could  preserve  and 
fortify  impressions  so  well  suited  to  their  own  interest. 

The  same  ignorance  which  renders  barbarians  incapable  of  its  effects  in 
conceiving  or  embracing  the  useful  restraints  of  laws  exposes 
them  naked  and  unarmed  to  the  blind  terrors  of  superstition. 
The  German  priests,  improving  this  favourable  temper  of  their 
countrymen,  had  assumed  a  jurisdiction  even  in  temporal 
concerns  which  the  magistrate  could  not  venture  to  exercise ; 
and  the  haughty  warrior  patiently  submitted  to  the  lash  of 
correction,  when  it  was  inflicted,  not  by  any  human  power,  but 
by  the  immediate  order  of  the  god  of  war.65  The  defects  of 
civil  policy  were  sometimes  supplied  by  the  interposition  of 
ecclesiastical  authority.  The  latter  was  constantly  exerted  to 
maintain  silence  and  decency  in  the  popular  assemblies ;  and 

63  Tacitus  has  employed  a  few  lines,  and  Cluverius  one  hundred  and  twenty-four 
pages,  on  this  obscure  subject.  The  former  discovers  in  Germany  the  gods  of 
Greece  and  Rome.  The  latter  is  positive  that,  under  the  emblems  of  the  sun,  the 
moon,  and  the  fire,  his  pious  ancestors  worshipped  the  Trinity  in  unity. 

64  The  sacred  wood,  described  with  such  sublime  horror  by  Lucan,  was  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Marseilles ;  but  there  were  many  of  the  same  kind  in  Germany. 

69  Tacit.  Germania,  c.  7. 


230  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

was  sometimes  extended  to  a  more  enlarged  concern  for  the 
national  welfare.  A  solemn  procession  was  occasionally  cele- 
brated in  the  present  countries  of  Mecklenburgh  and  Pomer- 
ania.  The  unknown  symbol  of  the  Earth,  covered  with  a  thick 
veil,  was  placed  on  a  carriage  drawn  by  cows ;  and  in  this 
manner  the  goddess,  whose  common  residence  was  in  the  isle  of 
Rugen,  visited  several  adjacent  tribes  of  her  worshippers.  During 
her  progress,  the  sound  of  war  was  hushed,  quarrels  were  sus- 
pended, arms  laid  aside,  and  the  restless  Germans  had  an 
opportunity  of  tasting  the  blessings  of  peace  and  harmony.66 
The  trace  of  God,  so  often  and  so  ineffectually  proclaimed  by  the 
clergy  of  the  eleventh  century,  was  an  obvious  imitation  of  this 
ancient  custom.67 

But  the  influence  of  religion  was  far  more  powerful  to  inflame 
than  to  moderate  the  fierce  passions  of  the  Germans.  Interest 
and  fanaticism  often  prompted  its  ministers  to  sanctify  the  most 
daring  and  the  most  unjust  enterprises,  by  the  approbation  of 
Heaven,  and  full  assurances  of  success.  The  consecrated 
standards,  long  revered  in  the  groves  of  superstition,  were 
placed  in  the  front  of  the  battle  ;68  and  the  hostile  army  was 
devoted  with  dire  execrations  to  the  gods  of  war  and  of  thunder.09 
In  the  faith  of  soldiers  (and  such  were  the  Germans)  cowardice 
is  the  most  unpardonable  of  sins.  A  brave  man  was  the  worthy 
favourite  of  their  martial  deities ;  the  wretch  who  had  lost  his 
shield  was  alike  banished  from  the  religious  and  the  civil 
assemblies  of  his  countrymen.  Some  tribes  of  the  north  seem 
to  have  embraced  the  doctrine  of  transmigration,70  others 
imagined  a  gross  paradise  of  immortal  drunkenness.71  All 
agreed  that  a  life  spent  in  arms,  and  a  glorious  death  in  battle, 
were  the  best  preparations  for  a  happy  futurity,  either  in  this  or 
in  another  world. 

The  immortality  so  vainly  promised  by  the  priests  was,  in 
some  degree,  conferred  by  the  bards.  That  singular  order  of 
men  has  most  deservedly  attracted  the  notice  of  all  who  have 
attempted  to  investigate  the  antiquities  of  the  Celts,  the  Scandi- 

60  Tacit.  Germania,  c.  40. 

6y  See  Dr.  Robertson's  History  of  Charles  V.  vol.  i.  note  10. 

68  Tacit.  Germ.  c.  7.     These  standards  were  only  the  heads  of  wild  beasts. 

69  See  an  instance  of  this  custom,  Tacit.  Annal.  xiii.  57. 

70  Caesar,  Diodorus,  and  Lucan,  seem  to  ascribe  this  doctrine  to  the  Gauls,  but 
M.  Pelloutier  (Histoire  des  Celtes,  1.  iii.  c.  18)  labours  to  reduce  their  expressions 
to  a  more  orthodox  sense. 

71  Concerning  this  gross  but  alluring  doctrine  of  the  Edda,  see  Fable  xx.  in  the 
curious  version  of  that  book,  published  by  M.  Mallet,  in  his  Introduction  to  the 
History  of  Denmark. 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIKE  231 

navians,  and  the  Germans.  Their  genius  and  character,  as  well 
as  the  reverence  paid  to  that  important  office,  have  been 
sufficiently  illustrated.  But  we  cannot  so  easily  express,  or  even 
conceive,  the  enthusiasm  of  arms  and  glory  which  they  kindled 
in  the  breast  of  their  audience.  Among  a  polished  people,  a 
taste  for  poetry  is  rather  an  amusement  of  the  fancy  than  a 
passion  of  the  soul.  And  yet,  when  in  calm  retirement  we 
peruse  the  combats  described  by  Homer  or  Tasso,  we  are  in- 
sensibly seduced  by  the  fiction,  and  feel  a  momentary  glow  of 
martial  ardour.  But  how  faint,  how  cold  is  the  sensation  which 
a  peaceful  mind  can  receive  from  solitary  study  !  It  was  in  the 
hour  of  battle,  or  in  the  feast  of  victory,  that  the  bards  celebrated 
the  glory  of  heroes  of  ancient  days,  the  ancestors  of  those 
warlike  chieftains  who  listened  with  transport  to  their  artless 
but  animated  strains.  The  view  of  arms  and  of  danger 
heightened  the  effect  of  the  military  song ;  and  the  passions 
which  it  tended  to  excite,  the  desire  of  fame  and  the  contempt 
of  death,  were  the  habitual  sentiments  of  a  German  mind.72 

Such  was  the  situation  and  such  were  the  manners  of  the  ^^•dto? 
ancient  Germans.     Their  climate,  their  want  of  learning,  of  arts,  $$£""„. 
and  of  laws,  their  notions  of  honour,  of  gallantry,  and  of  religion,  manB 
their  sense   of    freedom,   impatience   of    peace,  and  thirst  of 
enterprise,  all  contributed  to  form  a  people  of  military  heroes. 
And  yet  we  find  that,  during  more  than  two  hundred  and  fiity 
years  that  elapsed  from  the  defeat  of  Varus  to  the  reign  of 
Decius,   these   formidable   barbarians    made    few   considerable 
attempts,  and  not  any  material  impression,  on  the  luxurious  and 
enslaved  provinces  of  the  empire.     Their  progress  was  checked 
by  their  want  of  arms  and  discipline,  and  their  fury  was  diverted 
by  the  intestine  divisions  of  ancient  Germany. 

I.  It  has  been  observed,  with  ingenuity,  and  not  without  want  of  arms 
truth,  that  the  command  of  iron  soon  gives  a  nation  the  command 
of  gold.  But  the  rude  tribes  of  Germany,  alike  destitute  of 
both  those  valuable  metals,  were  reduced  slowly  to  acquire,  by 
their  unassisted  strength,  the  possession  of  the  one  as  well  as 
the  other.  The  face  of  a  German  army  displayed  their 
poverty  of  iron.  Swords  and  the  longer  kind  of  lances  they 
could  seldom  use.     Their  framece  (as  they  called  them  in  their 

72  See  Tacit.  Germ.  c.  3.  Diodor.  Sicul.  1.  v.  [29].  Strabo,  1.  iv.  p.  197.  The 
classical  reader  may  remember  the  rank  of  Demodocus  in  the  Phaeacian  court,  and 
the  ardour  infused  by  Tyrtaeus  into  the  fainting  Spartans.  Yet  there  is  little  pro- 
bability that  the  Greeks  and  the  Germans  were  the  same  people.  Much  learned 
trifling  might  be  spared,  if  our  antiquarians  would  condescend  to  reflect  that 
similar  manners  will  naturally  be  produced  by  similar  situations. 


232  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

own  language)  were  long  spears  headed  with  a  sharp  but  narrow 
iron  point,  and  which,  as  occasion  required,  they  either  darted 
from  a  distance,  or  pushed  in  close  onset.  With  this  spear  and 
with  a  shield  their  cavalry  was  contented.  A  multitude  of 
darts,  scattered73  with  incredible  force,  were  an  additional 
resource  of  the  infantry.  Their  military  dress,  when  they  wore 
any,  was  nothing  more  than  a  loose  mantle.  A  variety  of 
colours  was  the  only  ornament  of  their  wooden  or  their  osier 
shields.  Few  of  the  chiefs  were  distinguished  by  cuirasses, 
scarce  any  by  helmets.  Though  the  horses  of  Germany  were 
neither  beautiful,  swift,  nor  practised  in  the  skilful  evolutions  of 
the  Roman  manage,  several  of  the  nations  obtained  renown  by 
their  cavalry;  but,  in  general,  the  principal  strength  of  the 
Germans  consisted  in  their  infantry,74  which  was  drawn  up  in 
andofdis-  several  deep  columns,  according  to  the  distinction  of  tribes  and 
cipiine  families.  Impatient  of  fatigue  or  delay,  these  half-armed 
warriors  rushed  to  battle  Avith  dissonant  shouts  and  disordered 
ranks  ;  and  sometimes,  by  the  effort  of  native  valour,  prevailed 
over  the  constrained  and  more  artificial  bravery  of  the  Roman 
mercenaries.  But  as  the  barbarians  poured  forth  their  whole 
souls  on  the  first  onset,  they  knew  not  how  to  rally  or  to  retire. 
A  repulse  was  a  sure  defeat ;  and  a  defeat  was  most  commonly 
total  destruction.  When  we  recollect  the  complete  armour  of 
the  Roman  soldiers,  their  discipline,  exercises,  evolutions, 
fortified  camps,  and  military  engines,  it  appears  a  just  matter  of 
surprise  how  the  naked  and  unassisted  valour  of  the  barbarians 
could  dare  to  encounter  in  the  field  the  strength  of  the  legions 
and  the  various  troops  of  the  auxiliaries,  which  seconded  their 
operations.  The  contest  was  too  unequal,  till  the  introduction 
of  luxury  had  enervated  the  vigour,  and  a  spirit  of  disobedience 
and  sedition  had  relaxed  the  discipline,  of  the  Roman  armies. 
The  introduction  of  barbarian  auxiliaries  into  those  armies 
was  a  measure  attended  with  very  obvious  dangers,  as  it  might 
gradually  instruct  the  Germans  in  the  arts  of  war  and  of  policy. 
Although  they  were  admitted  in  small  numbers  and  with  the 
strictest  precaution,  the  example  of  Civilis  was  proper  to 
convince  the  Romans  that  the  danger  was  not  imaginary,  and 
that  their  precautions  were  not  always  sufficient.75     During  the 

73Missilia  spargunt,  Tacit.  Germ.  c.  6.  Either  that  historian  used  a  vague 
expression,  or  he  meant  that  they  were  thrown  at  random. 

74  It  was  the  principal  distinction  from  the  Sarmatians,  who  generally  fought 
on  horseback. 

75  The  relation  of  this  enterprise  occupies  a  great  part  of  the  fourth  and  fifth 
books  of  the  History  of  Tacitus,  and  is  more  remarkable  for  its  eloquence  than 
perspicuity.     Sir  Henry  Saville  has  observed  several  inaccuracies. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  233 

civil  wars  that  followed  the  death  of  Nero,  that  artful  and  in- 
trepid Batavian,  whom  his  enemies  condescended  to  compare 
with  Hannibal  and  Sertorius,76  formed  a  great  design  of  freedom 
and  ambition.  Eight  Batavian  cohorts,  renowned  in  the  wars  of 
Britain  and  Italy,  repaired  to  his  standard.  He  introduced  an 
army  of  Germans  into  Gaul,  prevailed  on  the  powerful  cities  of 
Treves  and  Langres  to  embrace  his  cause,  defeated  the  legions, 
destroyed  their  fortified  camps,  and  employed  against  the 
Romans  the  military  knowledge  which  he  had  acquired  in  their 
service.  When  at  length,  after  an  obstinate  struggle,  he  yielded 
to  the  power  of  the  empire,  Civilis  secured  himself  and  his 
country  by  an  honourable  treaty.  The  Batavians  still  continued 
to  occupy  the  islands  of  the  Rhine,77  the  allies,  not  the  servants, 
of  the  Roman  monarchy. 

II.  The  strength  of  ancient  Germany  appears  formidable  when  civil  dusen- 
we  consider  the  effects  that  might  have  been  produced  by  its  Germany 
united  effort.  The  wide  extent  of  country  might  very  possibly 
contain  a  million  of  warriors,  as  all  who  were  of  an  age  to  bear 
arms  were  of  a  temper  to  use  them.  But  this  fierce  multitude, 
incapable  of  concerting  or  executing  any  plan  of  national  great- 
ness, was  agitated  by  various  and  often  hostile  intentions. 
Germany  was  divided  into  more  than  forty  independent  states ; 
and  even  in  each  state  the  union  of  the  several  tribes  was  ex- 
tremely loose  and  precarious.  The  barbarians  were  easily  pro- 
voked;  they  knew  not  how  to  forgive  an  injury,  much  less  an 
insult ;  their  resentments  were  bloody  and  implacable.  The 
casual  disputes  that  so  frequently  happened  in  their  tumultuous 
parties  of  hunting  or  drinking  were  sufficient  to  inflame  the 
minds  of  whole  nations ;  the  private  feud  of  any  considerable 
chieftains  diffused  itself  among  their  followers  and  allies.  To 
chastise  the  insolent,  or  to  plunder  the  defenceless,  were  alike 
causes  of  war.  The  most  formidable  states  of  Germany  affected 
to  encompass  their  territories  with  a  wide  frontier  of  solitude 
and  devastation.  The  awful  distance  preserved  by  their  neigh- 
bours attested  the  terror  of  their  arms,  and  in  some  measure 
defended  them  from  the  danger  of  unexpected  incursions.78 

"  The  Bructeri  (it  is  Tacitus  who  now  speaks)  were  totally  ex-  fomented  by 
terminated   by   the    neighbouring    tribes,79    provoked    by    their  RoemPeoUcyof 

76 Tacit.  Hist.  iv.  13.     Like  them,  he  had  lost  an  eye. 

77  It  was  contained  between  the  two  branches  of  the  old  Rhine,  as  they  sub- 
sisted before  the  face  of  the  country  was  changed  by  art  and  nature.  See  Cluver. 
German.  Antiq.  1.  iii.  c.  30,  37.  78  Caesar  de  Bell.  Gall.  1.  vi.  23. 

79  They  are  mentioned  however  in  the  ivth  and  vth  centuries  by  Nazarius,  Am- 
mianus,  Claudian,  &c. ,  as  a  tribe  of  Franks.     See  Cluver.  Germ.  Antiq.  1.  iii.  c.  13. 


234  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

insolence,  allured  by  the  hopes  of  spoil,  and  perhaps  inspired 
by  the  tutelar  deities  of  the  empire.  Above  sixty  thousand 
barbarians  were  destroyed,  not  by  the  Roman  arms,  but  in  our 
sight,  and  for  our  entertainment.  May  the  nations,  enemies  of 
Rome,  ever  preserve  this  enmity  to  each  other  !  We  have  now 
attained  the  utmost  verge  of  prosperity,80  and  have  nothing  left 
to  demand  of  fortune  except  the  discord  of  the  barbarians."  81 
These  sentiments,  less  worthy  of  the  humanity  than  of  the 
patriotism  of  Tacitus,  express  the  invariable  maxims  of  the 
policy  of  his  countrymen.  They  deemed  it  a  much  safer 
expedient  to  divide  than  to  combat  the  barbarians,  from  whose 
defeat  they  could  derive  neither  honour  nor  advantage.  The 
money  and  negotiations  of  Rome  insinuated  themselves  into  the 
heart  of  Germany,  and  every  art  of  seduction  was  used  with 
dignity  to  conciliate  those  nations  whom  their  proximity  to  the 
Rhine  or  Danube  might  render  the  most  useful  friends  as  well 
as  the  most  troublesome  enemies.  Chiefs  of  renown  and  power 
were  flattered  by  the  most  trifling  presents,  which  they  received 
either  as  marks  of  distinction  or  as  the  instruments  of  luxury. 
In  civil  dissensions,  the  weaker  faction  endeavoured  to  strengthen 
its  interest  by  entering  into  secret  connexions  with  the  governors 
of  the  frontier  provinces.  Every  quarrel  among  the  Germans 
was  fomented  by  the  intrigues  of  Rome  ;  and  every  plan  of 
union  and  public  good  was  defeated  by  the  stronger  bias  of 
private  jealousy  and  interest.82 
Transient  The  general  conspiracy  which  terrified  the  Romans  under  the 

M^cnulgalnst  reign  of  Marcus  Antoninus  comprehended  almost  all  the  nations 
Antomnui     Q£  Germany,  and  even  Sarmatia,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine 
to  that  of  the  Danube.83     It  is  impossible  for  us  to  determine 

89  Urgentibus  is  the  common  reading,  but  good  sense,  Lipsius,  and  some  MSS. 
declare  for  Vergentibus.     [An  unnecessary  correction.] 

81  Tacit.  Germania,  c.  33.  The  pious  Abb6  de  la  Bteterie  is  very  angry  with 
Tacitus,  talks  of  the  devil  who  was  a  murderer  from  the  beginning,  &c,  &c. 

82  Many  traces  of  this  policy  may  be  discovered  in  Tacitus  and  Dion ;  and 
many  more  may  be  inferred  from  the  principles  of  human  nature. 

83  Hist.  August,  p.  31  [iv.  22].  Ammian.  Marcellin.  1.  xxxi.  c.  5.  Aurel.  Victor. 
[Cses.  16].  The  Emperor  Marcus  was  reduced  to  sell  the  rich  furniture  of  the 
palace,  and  to  enlist  slaves  and  robbers.  [This  war  is  generally  called  the  Mar- 
comannic,  but  its  proper  name,  at  first,  was  the  Bellum1  Germanicum.  At  a  later 
stage,  when  the  Sarmatians  made  common  cause  with  the  Germans,  it  was  called 
the  Bellum  Germanicum  Sarmaticum.  The  Romans  took  the  field  in  167,  and 
hostilities  lasted,  with  a  short  interval  of  peace,  till  the  accession  of  Commodus, 
180.  The  following  German  peoples  took  part  in  it :— Marcomanni,  Quadi,  Narisci, 
Victovali,  Hermunduri,  Vandals,  Buri ;  also  the  (Sarmatian)  Jazyges,  who  dwelt  be- 
tween the  Theiss  and  Danube.  Large  settlements  of  the  conquered  barbarians  were 
made  within  the  limits  of  the  Empire,  so  that  this  period  has  importance  for  the  his- 
tory of  the  Roman  colonatm,  It  has  been  well  treated  by  Heisterbergk  in  his 
work,  Die  Entstehung  des  Colonats.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  235 

whether  this  hasty  confederation  was  formed  by  necessity,  by 
reason,  or  by  passion ;  but  we  may  rest  assured,  that  the 
barbarians  were  neither  allured  by  the  indolence  or  provoked 
by  the  ambition  of  the  Roman  monarch.  This  dangerous  in- 
vasion required  all  the  firmness  and  vigilance  of  Marcus.  He 
fixed  generals  of  ability  in  the  several  stations  of  attack,  and 
assumed  in  person  the  conduct  of  the  most  important  province 
on  the  Upper  Danube.  After  a  long  and  doubtful  conflict,  the 
spirit  of  the  barbarians  was  subdued.  The  Quadi  and  the 
Marcomanni,84  who  had  taken  the  lead  in  the  war,  were  the 
most  severely  punished  in  its  catastrophe.  They  were  com- 
manded to  retire  five  miles86  from  their  own  banks  of  the 
Danube,  and  to  deliver  up  the  flower  of  the  youth,  who  were 
immediately  sent  into  Britain,  a  remote  island,  where  they  might 
be  secure  as  hostages  and  useful  as  soldiers.88  On  the  frequent 
rebellions  of  the  Quadi  and  Marcomanni,  the  irritated  emperor 
resolved  to  reduce  their  country  into  the  form  of  a  province.87 
His  designs  were  disappointed  by  death.  This  formidable 
league,  however,  the  only  one  that  appears  in  the  two  first 
centuries  of  the  Imperial  history,  was  entirely  dissipated  with- 
out leaving  any  traces  behind  in  Germany. 

In  the  course  of  this  introductory  chapter,  we  have  confined  Distinction  of 
ourselves  to  the  general  outlines  of  the  manners  of  Germany,  tribes 
without  attempting  to  describe  or  to  distinguish  the  various 
tribes  which  filled  that  great  country  in  the  time  of  Caesar,  of 
Tacitus,  or  of  Ptolemy.88  As  the  ancient,  or  as  new  tribes 
successively  present  themselves  in  the  series  of  this  history,  we 
shall  concisely  mention  their  origin,  their  situation,  and  their 
particular  character.  Modern  nations  are  fixed  and  permanent 
societies,  connected  among  themselves  by  laws  and  government, 
bound  to  their  native  soil  by  arts  and  agriculture.  The  German 
tribes  were  voluntary  and  fluctuating  associations  of  soldiers, 
almost  of  savages.  The  same  territory  often  changed  its  inhabi- 
tants in  the  tide  of  conquest  and  emigration.  The  same  com- 
munities, uniting  in  a  plan  of  defence  or  invasion,  bestowed  a 

84  The  Marcomanni,  acolony,  who,  from  the  banksof  the  Rhine,  occupied  Bohemia 
and  Moravia,  had  once  erected  a  great  and  formidable  monarchy  under  their  king 
Maroboduus.    SeeStrabo,  1.  vii.  [290].     Veil.  Pat.  ii.  105  [108].    Tacit.  Annal.  ii.  63. 

85  Mr.  Wotton  (History  of  Rome,  p.  166)  increases  the  prohibition  to  ten  times 
the  distance.  His  reasoning  is  specious  but  not  conclusive.  Five  miles  were 
sufficient  for  a  fortified  barrier. 

86  Dion,  1.  lxxi.  [11  it  sqq."\  and  lxxii.  [a]. 

87  [He  intended  to  form  two  new  provinces,  Marcomannia  and  Sarmatia.] 

88  [For  our  authorities  on  early  German  History,  see  Appendix  15.] 


236  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

new  title  on  their  new  confederacy.  The  dissolution  of  an  ancient 
confederacy  restored  to  the  independent  tribes  their  peculiar  but 
long  forgotten  appellation.  A  victorious  state  often  communi- 
cated its  own  name  to  a  vanquished  people.  Sometimes  crowds 
of  volunteers  flocked  from  all  parts  to  the  standard  of  a  favourite 
leader ;  his  camp  became  their  country,  and  some  circumstance 
of  the  enterprise  soon  gave  a  common  denomination  to  the 
mixed  multitude.  The  distinctions  of  the  ferocious  invaders 
were  perpetually  varied  by  themselves,  and  confounded  by  the 
astonished  subjects  of  the  Roman  empire.89 

Wars  and  the  administration  of  public  affairs  are  the  principal 
subjects  of  history ;  but  the  number  of  persons  interested  in 
these  busy  scenes  is  very  different,  according  to  the  different 
condition  of  mankind.  In  great  monarchies  millions  of  obedient 
subjects  pursue  their  useful  occupations  in  peace  and  obscurity. 
The  attention  of  the  writer,  as  well  as  of  the  reader,  is  solely 
confined  to  a  court,  a  capital,  a  regular  army,  and  the  districts 
which  happen  to  be  the  occasional  scene  of  military  operations. 
But  a  state  of  freedom  and  barbarism,  the  season  of  civil  com- 
motions, or  the  situation  of  petty  republics,90  raises  almost  every 
member  of  the  community  into  action  and  consequently  into 
notice.  The  irregular  divisions  and  the  restless  motions  of  the 
people  of  Germany  dazzle  our  imagination,  and  seem  to  multiply 
their  numbers.  The  profuse  enumeration  of  kings  and  warriors, 
of  armies  and  nations,  inclines  us  to  forget  that  the  same  objects 
are  continually  repeated  under  a  variety  of  appellations,  and 
that  the  most  splendid  appellations  have  been  frequently  lavished 
on  the  most  inconsiderable  objects. 

89  See  an  excellent  dissertation  on  the  origin  and  migrations  of  nations,  in  the 
M^moires  de  l'Acad^mie  des  Inscriptions,  torn,  xviii.  p.  48-71.  It  is  seldom 
that  the  antiquarian  and  the  philosopher  are  so  happily  blended. 

90  Should  we  suspect  that  Athens  contained  only  21,000  citizens,  and  Sparta 
no  more  than  39,000?  See  Hume  and  Wallace  on  the  number  of  mankind  in 
ancient  and  modern  times.     [See  above,  chap.  ii.  note  22.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  237 


CHAPTER  X 

The  Emperors  Decius,  Gallus,  Mmilianus,  Valerian,  and  Gallienus — 
The  general  Irruption  of  the  Barbarians — The  thirty  Tyrants 

From  the  great  secular  games  celebrated  by  Philip  to  the  death  g£ £$££ of 
of  the  emperor  Gallienus,  there  elapsed  twenty  years  of  shame  a.d.m8-26b' 
and  misfortune.  During  that  calamitous  period,  every  instant 
of  time  was  marked,  every  province  of  the  Roman  world  was 
afflicted,  by  barbarous  invaders  and  military  tyrants,  and  the 
ruined  empire  seemed  to  approach  the  last  and  fatal  moment  of 
its  dissolution.  The  confusion  of  the  times  and  the  scarcity  of 
authentic  memorials  oppose  equal  difficulties  to  the  historian, 
who  attempts  to  preserve  a  clear  and  unbroken  thread  of  narra- 
tion.1 Surrounded  with  imperfect  fragments,  always  concise, 
often  obscure,  and  sometimes  contradictory,  he  is  reduced  to 
collect,  to  compare,  and  to  conjecture :  and  though  he  ought 
never  to  place  his  conjectures  in  the  rank  of  facts,  yet  the 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  of  the  sure  operation  of  its 
fierce  and  unrestrained  passions,  might,  on  some  occasions,  supply 
the  want  of  historical  materials. 

There  is  not,  for  instance,  any  difficulty  in  conceiving  that  the  xt»  emparor 
successive  murders  of  so  many  emperors  had  loosened  all  the  p 
ties  of  allegiance  between  the  prince  and  people ;  that  all  the 
generals  of  Philip  were  disposed  to  imitate  the  example  of  their 
master;  and  that  the  caprice  of  armies,  long  since  habituated  to 
frequent  and  violent  revolutions,  might  every  day  raise  to  the 
throne  the  most  obscure  of  their  fellow-soldiers.  History  can 
only  add,  that  the  rebellion  against  the  emperor  Philip  broke 
out  in  the  summer  of  the  year  two  hundred  and  forty-nine, 
among  the  legions  of  Maesia,  and  that  a  subaltern  officer, 2  named 
Marinus,  was  the  object  of  their  seditious  choice.     Philip  was 

1  [We  have  almost  no  sources  for  Philip's  reign.  Gibbon  mentions  no  events 
during  the  years  between  his  accession  in  244  and  the  secular  games  in  248.  An 
expedition  led  by  Philip  himself  against  the  Carpi  seems  to  have  been  the  most 
important  occurrence.  ] 

2  The  expression  used  by  Zosimus  [i.  20]  and  Zonaras  [xii.  19]  may  signify 
that  Marinus  commanded  a  century,  a  cohort,  or  a  legion. 


238  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

alarmed.  He  dreaded  lest  the  treason  of  the  Maesian  army 
should  prove  the  first  spark  of  a  general  conflagration.  Dis- 
tracted with  the  consciousness  of  his  guilt  and  of  his  danger,  he 
communicated  the  intelligence  to  the  senate.  A  gloomy  silence 
voiTrtctor^  prevailed,  the  effect  of  fear,  and  perhaps  of  disaffection,  till  at 
th^  emperor  length  Decius,  one  of  the  assembly,  assuming  a  spirit  worthy  of 
ad"?49  his  noble  extraction,  ventured  to  discover  more  intrepidity  than 
the  emperor  seemed  to  possess.  He  treated  the  whole  business 
with  contempt,  as  a  hasty  and  inconsiderate  tumult,  and  Philip's 
rival  as  a  phantom  of  royalty,  who  in  a  very  few  days  would  be 
destroyed  by  the  same  inconstancy  that  had  created  him.  The 
speedy  completion  of  the  prophecy  inspired  Philip  with  a  just 
esteem  for  so  able  a  counsellor,  and  Decius  appeared  to  him  the 
only  person  capable  of  restoring  peace  and  discipline  to  an  army 
whose  tumultuous  spirit  did  not  immediately  subside  after  the 
murder  of  Marinus.  Decius,3  who  long  resisted  his  own  nomi- 
nation, seems  to  have  insinuated  the  danger  of  presenting  a 
leader  of  merit  to  the  angry  and  apprehensive  minds  of  the 
soldiers ;  and  his  prediction  was  again  confirmed  by  the  event. 
The  legions  of  Maesia  forced  their  judge  to  become  their  accom- 
plice. They  left  him  only  the  alternative  of  death  or  the  purple. 
His  subsequent  conduct,  after  that  decisive  measure,  was  unavoid- 
able. He  conducted  or  followed  his  army  to  the  confines  of  Italy, 
whither  Philip,  collecting  all  his  force  to  repel  the  formidable 
competitor  whom  he  had  raised  up,  advanced  to  meet  him.  The 
Imperial  troops  were  superior  in  number ;  but  the  rebels  formed 
an  army  of  veterans,  commanded  by  an  able  and  experienced 
leader.  Philip  was  either  killed  in  the  battle  or  put  to  death  a 
few  days  afterwards  at  Verona.  His  son  and  associate  in  the 
empire,4  was  massacred  at  Rome  by  the  Praetorian  guards  ;  and 
the  victorious  Decius,  with  more  favourable  circumstances  than 
the  ambition  of  that  age  can  usually  plead,  was  universally  ac- 
knowledged by  the  senate  and  provinces.  It  is  reported  that, 
immediately  after  his  reluctant  acceptance  of  the  title  of  Augus- 
tus, he  had  assured  Philip  by  a  private  message  of  his  innocence 

8  His  birth  at  Bubalia,  a  little  village  in  Pannonia  (Eutrop.  ix.  [4],  Victor,  in 
Ccesarib.  [29]  et  Epitom.  [29] ),  seems  to  contradict,  unless  it  was  merely  acciden- 
tal, his  supposed  descent  from  the  Decii.  Six  hundred  years  had  bestowed 
nobility  on  the  Decii ;  but  at  the  commencement  of  that  period,  they  were  only 
Plebeians  of  merit,  and  among  the  first  who  shared  the  consulship  with  the 
haughty  Patricians.  Plebeia?  Deciorum  animee,  &c.  Juvenal,  Sat.  viii.  E54.  See 
the  spirited  speech  of  Decius  in  Livy,  x.  9,  10  [7,  8].  [C.  Messius  Quintus  Traianus 
Decius.     The  date  of  his  elevation  fell  in  the  last  days  of  248  (Schiller,  i.  803).] 

4  [Also  named  Philip.] 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIKE  239 

and  loyalty,  solemnly  protesting  that,  on  his  arrival  in  Italy,  he 
would  resign  the  Imperial  ornaments,  and  return  to  the  con- 
dition of  an  obedient  subject.  His  professions  might  be  sincere; 
but,  in  the  situation  where  fortune  had  placed  him,  it  was  scarcely 
possible  that  he  could  either  forgive  or  be  forgiven. 5 

The  emperor  Decius  had  employed  a  few  months  in  the  works  He  marches 
of  peace6  and  the  administration  of  justice,  when  he  was  sum-  Goth™ 

v  *  AD   250 

moned  to  the  banks  of  the  Danube  by  the  invasion  of  the  Goths. 
This  is  the  first  considerable  occasion  in  which  history  mentions 
that  great  people,  who  afterwards  broke  the  Roman  power, 
sacked  the  Capitol,  and  reigned  in  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Italy.  So 
memorable  was  the  part  which  they  acted  in  the  subversion  of 
the  Western  empire,  that  the  name  of  Goths  is  frequently  but 
improperly  used  as  a  general  appellation  of  rude  and  warlike 
barbarism. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century,  and  after  the  conquest  origin  of  the 
of  Italy,  the  Goths,  in  possession  of  present  greatness,  very  Scandinavia 
naturally  indulged  themselves  in  the  prospect  of  past  and  of 
future  glory.  They  wished  to  preserve  the  memory  of  their 
ancestors,  and  to  transmit  to  posterity  their  own  achievements. 
The  principal  minister  of  the  court  of  Ravenna,  the  learned 
Cassiodorus,  gratified  the  inclination  of  the  conquerors  in  a 
Gothic  history,  which  consisted  of  twelve  books,  now  reduced  to 
the  imperfect  abridgment  of  Jornandes.7  These  writers  passed 
with  the  most  artful  conciseness  over  the  misfortunes  of  the 
nation,  celebrated  its  successful  valour,  and  adorned  the  triumph 
with  many  Asiatic  trophies  that  more  properly  belonged  to  the 
people  of  Scythia.  On  the  faith  of  ancient  songs,  the  uncertain 
but  the  only  memorials  of  barbarians,  they  deduced  the  first 
origin  of  the  Goths  from  the  vast  island  or  peninsula  of 
Scandinavia.8  That  extreme  country  of  the  North  was  not 
unknown  to  the  conquerors  of  Italy  ;  the  ties  of  ancient  con- 
sanguinity had  been  strengthened  by  recent  offices  of  friendship  ; 
and  a  Scandinavian  king  had  cheerfully  abdicated  his  savage 
greatness,  that  he  might  pass  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  the 

6  Zosiraus,  1.  i.  p.  20  [22] .     Zonaras,  L  xii.  p.  624  [19].     Edit.  Louvre. 

8  [He  conferred  the  rank  of  Caesar  on  his  two  sons,  Q.  Herennius  Etruscus 
Messius  Decius  and  C.  Valens  Hostilianus  Messius  Quintus.] 

7  See  the  prefaces  of  Cassiodorus  and  Jornandes :  it  is  surprising  that  the  latter 
should  be  omitted  in  the  excellent  edition,  published  by  Grotius,  of  the  Gothic 
writers.  Qordanes  is  now  recognized  as  the  correct  spelling  of  the  Gothic  writer 
whom  Gibbon  calls  Jornandes.     See  Appendix  15.] 

8  On  the  authority  of  Ablavius,  Jornandes  quotes  some  old  Gothic  chronicles 
in  verse.  De  Reb.  Geticis,  c.  4.  [The  Scandinavian  origin  of  the  Goths  was  a 
legend  believed  by  themselves,  but  there  is  no  historical  evidence  for  it.] 


240  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

peaceful   and   polished   court   of  Ravenna.9        Many   vestiges, 
which  cannot  be  ascribed  to  the  arts  of  popular  vanity,  attest 
the  ancient  residence  of  the  Goths  in  the  countries  beyond  the 
Baltic.     From  the  time  of  the  geographer  Ptolemy,  the  southern 
part  of  Sweden  seems  to  have  continued  in  the  possession  of  the 
less  enterprising  remnant  of  the  nation,  and  a  large  territory  is 
even  at  present  divided  into  east  and  west  Gothland.     During 
the  middle  ages  (from  the  ninth  to  the  twelfth  century),  whilst 
Christianity  was  advancing  with  a  slow  progress  into  the  North, 
the  Goths  and  the  Swedes  composed  two  distinct  and  sometimes 
hostile  members  of  the  same  monarchy.10     The  latter  of  these 
two  names  has  prevailed  without  extinguishing  the  former.     The 
Swedes,  who  might  well  be  satisfied  with  their  own  fame   in 
arms,   have  in  every   age   claimed    the    kindred   glory   of  the 
Goths.     In  a  moment  of  discontent  against  the  court  of  Rome, 
Charles  the  Twelfth  insinuated  that  his  victorious  troops  were 
not  degenerated  from  their  brave  ancestors,  who  had  already 
subdued  the  mistress  of  the  world.11 
Beugonof        Till  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  a  celebrated  temple 
1116    th*      subsisted  at  Upsal,  the  most  considerable  town  of  the  Swedes 
and  Goths.     It  was  enriched  with  the  gold  which  the  Scandi- 
navians had  acquired  in  their  piratical  adventures,  and  sanctified 
by  the  uncouth  representations  of  the  three  principal  deities, 
the   god   of  war,  the   goddess  of  generation,   and  the  god   of 
thunder.     In   the  general    festival  that  was  solemnized   every 
ninth  year,  nine  animals  of  every  species  (without  excepting  the 
human)  were  sacrificed,  and  their  bleeding  bodies  suspended  in 
the  sacred  grove  adjacent  to  the  temple.12     The  only  traces  that 
now  subsist  of  this  barbaric  superstition  are  contained  in  the 
Edda,  a  system  of  mythology,  compiled  in  Iceland  about  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  studied  by  the  learned  of  Denmark  and 
Sweden,  as  the  most  valuable  remains  of  their  ancient  traditions. 
initttutioM        Notwithstanding  the  mysterious  obscurity  of  the  Edda,  we  can 

and  death  of  . 


Odin 


9Jornandes,  c.  3. 

10  See,  in  the  Prolegomena  of  Grotius  [to  Hist.  Gotth.,  Vand.  et  Lang.],  some 
large  extracts  from  Adam  of  Bremen  [98  sqq.],  and  Saxo-Grammaticus  [124  sqq.]. 
The  former  wrote  in  the  year  1077,  the  latter  flourished  about  the  year  1200. 

»  Voltaire,  Histoire  de  Charles  XII.  1.  iii.  When  the  Austrians  desired  the 
aid  of  the  court  of  Rome  against  Gustavus  Adolphus,  they  always  represented 
that  conqueror  as  the  lineal  successor  of  Alaric.  Harte's  History  of  Gustavus,  vol. 
ii.  p.  123. 

w  See  Adam  of  Bremen  in  Grotii  Prolegomenis,  p.  104  [105].  The  temple  of  Upsal 
was  destroyed  by  lngo  King  of  Sweden,  who  began  his  reign  in  the  year  1075, 
and  about  fourscore  years  afterwards  a  Christian  Cathedral  was  erected  on  <ts 
ruins.     See  Dalin's  History  of  Sweden  in  the  Bibliotheque  Raisonn^e. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  241 

easily  distinguish  two  persons  confounded  under  the  name  of 
Odin — the  god  of  war,  and  the  great  legislator  of  Scandinavia. 
The  latter,  the  Mahomet  of  the  North,  instituted  a  religion 
adapted  to  the  climate  and  to  the  people.  Numerous  tribes  on 
either  side  of  the  Baltic  were  subdued  by  the  invincible  valour  of 
Odin,  by  his  persuasive  eloquence,  and  by  the  fame  which  he 
acquired  of  a  most  skilful  magician.  The  faith  that  he  had 
propagated,  during  a  long  and  prosperous  life,  he  confirmed  by 
a  voluntary  death.  Apprehensive  of  the  ignominious  approach 
of  disease  and  infirmity,  he  resolved  to  expire  as  became  a 
warrior.  In  a  solemn  assembly  of  the  Swedes  and  Goths,  he 
wounded  himself  in  nine  mortal  places,  hastening  away  (as  he 
asserted  with  his  dying  voice)  to  prepare  the  feast  of  heroes  in 
the  palace  of  the  god  of  war.13 

The  native  and  proper  habitation  of  Odin  is  distinguished  by  Agreeatio  but 
the  appellation  of  As-gard.  The  happy  resemblance  of  that  hypothesis 
name,  with  As-burg,  or  As-of,14  words  of  a  similar  signification,  oXe  ng 
has  given  rise  to  an  historical  system  of  so  pleasing  a  contexture 
that  we  could  almost  wish  to  persuade  ourselves  of  its  truth.  It 
is  supposed  that  Odin  was  the  chief  of  a  tribe  of  barbarians 
which  dwelt  on  the  banks  of  the  lake  Maeotis,  till  the  fall  of 
Mithridates  and  the  arms  of  Pompey  menaced  the  North  with 
servitude ;  that  Odin,  yielding  with  indignant  fury  to  a  power 
which  he  was  unable  to  resist,  conducted  his  tribe  from  the 
frontiers  of  the  Asiatic  Sarmatia  into  Sweden,  with  the  great 
design  of  forming,  in  that  inaccessible  retreat  of  freedom,  a 
religion  and  a  people  which,  in  some  remote  age,  might  be  sub- 
servient to  his  immortal  revenge ;  when  his  invincible  Goths, 
armed  with  martial  fanaticism,  should  issue  in  numerous  swarms 
from  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Polar  circle,  to  chastise  the 
oppressors  of  mankind.15 

If  so  many  successive  generations  of  Goths  were  capable  of  Emigration  of 
preserving  a  faint  tradition  of  their  Scandinavian  origin,  we  must  &£m  scandi- 


naria  into 
Pnuila 


18  Mallet,  Introduction  a  l'Histoire  du  Dannemarc. 

14  Mallet,  c.  iv.  p.  55,  has  collected  from  Strabo,  Pliny,  Ptolemy,  and  Stephanus 
Byzantinus,  the  vestiges  of  such  a  city  and  people. 

18  This  wonderful  expedition  of  Odin,  which,  by  deducing  the  enmity  of  the 
Goths  and  Romans  from  so  memorable  a  cause,  might  supply  the  noble  ground- 
work of  an  Epic  Poem,  cannot  safely  be  received  as  authentic  history.  Accord- 
ing to  the  obvious  sense  of  the  Edda,  and  the  interpretation  of  the  most  skilful 
critics,  As-gard,  instead  of  denoting  a  real  city  of  the  Asiatic  Sarmatia,  is  the 
fictitious  appellation  of  the  mystic  abode  of  the  gods,  the  Olympus  of  Scandinavia  ; 
from  whence  the  prophet  was  supposed  to  descend,  when  he  announced  his  new 
religion  to  the  Gothic  nations,  who  were  already  seated  in  the  southern  parts  of 
Sweden. 

16  VOL.    L 


242  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

not  expect,  from  such  unlettered  barbarians,  any  distinct  account 
of  the  time  and  circumstances  of  their  emigration.  To  cross  the 
Baltic  was  an  easy  and  natural  attempt.  The  inhabitants  of 
Sweden  were  masters  of  a  sufficient  number  of  large  vessels  with 
oars,16  and  the  distance  is  little  more  than  one  hundred  miles 
from  Carlscroon  to  the  nearest  ports  of  Pomerania  and  Prussia. 
Here,  at  length,  Ave  land  on  firm  and  historic  ground.  At  least 
as  early  as  the  Christian  aera,17  and  as  late  as  the  age  of  the 
Antonines,18  the  Goths  were  established  towards  the  mouth  of 
the  Vistula,  and  in  that  fertile  province  where  the  commercial 
cities  of  Thorn,  Elbing,  Konigsberg,  and  Danzig,  were  long 
afterwards  founded.19  Westward  of  the  Goths,  the  numerous 
tribes  of  the  Vandals  were  spread  along  the  banks  of  the  Oder, 
and  the  sea  coast  of  Pomerania  and  Mecklenburg.  A  striking 
resemblance  of  manners,  complexion,  religion,  and  language, 
seemed  to  indicate  that  the  Vandals  and  the  Goths  were 
originally  one  great  people.20  The  latter  appear  to  have  been 
subdivided  into  Ostrogoths,  Visigoths,  and  Gepidae.21  The  dis- 
tinction among  the  Vandals  was  more  strongly  marked  by  the 
independent  names  of  Heruli,  Burgundians,  Lombards,  and  a 
variety  of  other  petty  states,  many  of  which,  in  a  future  age, 
expanded  themselves  into  powerful  monarchies. 
SpSmSio1*  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.22     In  this  interval,  therefore, 

16  Tacit.  Germania,  c.  44. 

17  Tacit.  Annal.  ii.  62.  If  we  could  yield  a  firm  assent  to  the  navigations  of 
Pytheas  of  Marseilles,  we  must  allow  that  the  Goths  had  passed  the  Baltic  at  least 
three  hundred  years  before  Christ. 

18  Ptolemy,  1.  ii. 

19  By  the  German  colonies  who  followed  the  arms  of  the  Teutonic  knights. 
The  conquest  and  conversion  of  Prussia  were  completed  by  those  adventurers  in 
the  xiiith  century. 

20  Pliny  (Hist.  Natur.  iv.  14)  and  Procopius  (in  Bell.  Vandal.  1.  i.  c.  1  [2] )  agree 
in  this  opinion.  They  lived  in  distant  ages,  and  possessed  different  means  of  in- 
vestigating the  truth.     [Resemblances  in  proper  names  point  to  a  close  kinship.] 

21  The  Ostro  and  Visi,  the  Eastern  and  Western  Goths,  obtained  those  denomina- 
tions from  their  original  seats  in  Scandinavia.  In  all  their  future  marches  and 
settlements  they  preserved,  with  their  names,  the  same  relative  situation.  When 
they  first  departed  from  Sweden,  the  infant  colony  was  contained  in  three  vessels. 
The  third  being  a  heavy  sailer  lagged  behind,  and  the  crew,  which  afterwards 
swelled  into  a  nation,  received  from  that  circumstance  the  appellation  of  Gepidae 
or  Loiterers.  Jornandes,  c.  17.  [On  this  division  and  the  early  migrations  of  the 
Goths,  see  Appendix  15,  16.] 

22  See  a  fragment  of  Peter  Patricius  in  the  Excerpta  Legationum  ;  and  with  re- 
gard to  its  probable  date,  see  Tillemont,  Hist,  des  Empereurs,  torn.  iii.  p.  346. 
[Fr.  8,  F.H.G.  iv.  p.  186]. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  243 

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 ; 23  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  demigods  of  the  Gothic 
nation.24 

The  fame  of  a  great  enterprise  excited  the  bravest  warriors  The  Gothic 
from  all   the  Vandalic  states  of  Germany,  many  of  whom  are  creases  in  its 

/»  f  i  i.-iti  march 

seen  a  tew  years  afterwards  combating  under  the  common 
standard  of  the  Goths.25  The  first  motions  of  the  emigrants 
canned  them  to  the  banks  of  the  Prypec,  a  river  universally 
conceived  by  the  ancients  to  be  the  southern  branch  of  the 
Borysthenes.26  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  valour,  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  Bastamae  dwelt  on  the  northern 
side  of  the  Carpathian   mountains ;    the   immense  tract  of  land 

23  Omnium  harum  gentium  insigne,  rotunda  scuta,  breves  gladii,  et  erga  reges 
obsequium.  Tacit.  Germania,  c.  43.  The  Goths  probably  acquired  their  iron 
by  the  commerce  of  amber. 

24  Jomandes,  c.  13,  14.  [Theodoric  was  not  "  King  of  Italy,"  as  we  shall  see  ; 
the  expression  is  a  loose  one.] 

25  The  Heruli,  and  the  Uregundi  or  Burgundi,  are  particularly  mentioned.  See 
Mascou's  History  of  the  Germans,  1.  v.  A  passage  in  the  Augustan  History,  p.  28 
[iv.  14],  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. 

46  D'Anville,  G6ographie  Ancienne,  and  the  third  part  of  his  incomparable  map 
of  Europe. 


244  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

that  separated  the  Bastamae  from  the  savages  of  Finland  was" 
possessed,  or  rather  wasted,  by  the  Venedi : 27  we  have  some 
reason  to  believe  that  the  first  of  these  nations,  which  dis- 
tinguished itself  in  the  Macedonian  war,2S  and  was  afterwards 
divided  into  the  formidable  tribes  of  the  Peucini,  the  Borani, 
the  Carpi,  &c,  derived  its  origin  from  the  Germans.  With  better 
Distinction  of  authority  a  Sarmatian  extraction  may  be  assigned  to  the  Venedi, 
s^nnatiana  who  rendered  themselves  so  famous  in  the  middle  ages.29  But 
the  confusion  of  blood  and  manners  on  that  doubtful  frontier 
often  perplexed  the  most  accurate  observers.30  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  moveable  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 
neighbourhood  of  Japan. 
?he°u&aine0f  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  lofty 
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  grain,  and 
the  luxuriancy  of  the  vegetation,  all  displayed  the  liberality  of 
Nature,  and  tempted  the  industry  of  man.31  But  the  Goths 
withstood  all  these  temptations,  and  still  adhered  to  a  life  of 
idleness,  of  poverty,  and  of  rapine. 

27  Tacit.  Germania,  c.  46.     [The  Bastamae  were  certainly  a  Germanic  people.] 
^Cluver.  Germ.  Antiqua,  1.  iii.  c.  43. 

29  The  Venedi,  the  Slavi,  and  the  Antes,  were  the  three  great  tribes  of  the  same 
people.     Jornandes,  c.  24  [xxiii.  119,  ed.  Moramsen] . 

30  Tacitus  most  assuredly  deserves  that  title,  and  even  his  cautious  suspense  is 
a  proof  of  his  diligent  inquiries. 

31  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" 
bands  of  the  Cossacks,  it  still  remains  in  a  state  of  nature. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  245 

The  Scythian  hordes,  which,  towards  the  east,  bordered  on  the  The  ooun 
new  settlements  of  the  Goths,  presented  nothing  to  their  arms,  K0Vm«l 
except  the  doubtful  chance  of  an  unprofitable  victory.  But  the  proTince, 
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  rapacious- 
ness  of  the  barbarians.  As  long  as  the  remote  banks  of  the 
Dniester  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  leader32  of  that  fierce  nation  traversed  with  contempt 
the  province  of  Dacia,  and  passed  both  the  Dniester  and  the 
Danube  without  encountering  any  opposition  capable  of  retard- 
ing 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  multi- 
tude of  barbarians  appeared,  at  length,  under  the  walls  of 
Marcianopolis,  a  city  built  by  Trajan  in  honour  of  his  sister,  and 
at  that  time  the  capital  of  the  second  Maesia.33  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.  Intelli- 
gence 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 

32  [Ostrogotha  is  said  to  have  been  his  name.  Compare  the  eponymous 
ancestors  of  the  Greek  tribes — Dorus,  /Eolus,  Ion,  Achaeus,  &c] 

SJIn  the  sixteenth  chapter  of  Jornandes,  instead  of  secundo  Msesiam,  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  could  escape  the 
judicious  correction  of  Grotius.  [Et  secundo  Moesiam  populati.  But  the 
Laurentian  Ms.  has  die  before  secundo,  hence  the  true  correction  is  de  secundo, 
see  Mommsen's  edition,  p.  81.  The  siege  of  Marcianopolis  is  described  at  length 
in  frag.  18  of  Dexippus,  first  published  by  Miiller,  F.  H.  G.  iii.  p.  675.] 


A.D.  250 


246  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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, 
varioui  Decius  found  the   Goths    engaged  before   Nicopolis,   on  the 

Gothic  war,6  Jatrus,    one   of  the    many    monuments   of  Trajan's  victories.34 

A    n     OKA  '  1  1  •  1  •      1  1  •  1 

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.35  Decius  followed 
them  through  a  difficult  countiy,  and  by  forced  marches ;  but, 
when  he  imagined  himself  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the 
rear  of  the  Goths,  Cniva  turned  with  rapid  fuiy  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  Philippopolis, 
destitute  of  succour,  was  taken  by  storm.  A  hundred  thousand 
persons  are  reported  to  have  been  massacred  in  the  sack  of  that 
great  city.36  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.37  The  time,  however,  con- 
sumed 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,38  intrusted  the  passes  of  the  mountains  to  officers 
of  approved  valour  and  fidelity,39  repaired  and  strengthened  the 
fortifications  of  the  Danube,  and  exerted  his  utmost  vigilance  to 

34  The  place  is  still  called  Nicop.  The  little  stream  [Iantra] ,  on  whose  banks  it 
stood,  falls  into  the  Danube.     D'Anville  G6ographie  Ancienne,  torn.  i.  p.  307. 

ssStephan.  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. 

8«  Ammian.  xxxi.  5.  [A  fragment  of  Dexippus,  first  edited  by  Miiller  (F.  H.  G. 
iii.  p.  678,  fr.  20),  gives  a  long  description  of  an  ineffectual  siege  of  Philippopolis 
bv  the  Goths.  Miiller  concludes  that  there  were  two  sieges,  the  first  unsuccessful, 
before  the  defeat  and  death  of  Decius,  the  second  successful,  after  that  disaster. 
This  is  supported  by  the  words  of  Ammianus,  xxxi.  5.] 

$  Aurel.  Victor  [Caesar.]  c.  29.     [Dexippus,  frags.  19,  20;  Zos.  i.  19.] 

38  Victoria  Carpicm,  on  some  medals  of  Decius,  insinuate  these  advantages. 

38  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  officers  in  the  Augustan  History,  p.  aoo  [xxv.  16J. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  247 

oppose  either  the  progress  or  the  retreat  of  the  Goths.  En- 
couraged 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.40 

At  the  same  time  when  Decius  was  struggling  with  the  vio- Deciua  re- 
lence  of  the  tempest,  his  mind,  calm  and  deliberate  amidst  the  office  of 
tumult  of  war,  investigated  the  more  general  causes  that,  since  person  of 
the  age  of  the  Antonines,  had  so  impetuously  urged  the  decline 
of  the  Roman  greatness.  He  soon  discovered  that  it  was  im- 
possible 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,41  till  it  was  usurped  and  gradually  neglected  by  the 
Caesars.42  Conscious  that  the  favour  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  unbiassed 
voice  of  the  senate.  By  their  unanimous  votes,  or  rather  a.d.  251, 27th 
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  honour.  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  apprized  him  of  the  difficulty  and  importance  of  his 
great  office.  "  Happy  Valerian,"  said  the  prince,  to  his  dis- 
tinguished 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 

40  Jornandes,  c.  16 — 18.  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  22  [23].  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. 

41  Montesquieu,  Grandeur  et  Decadence  (des  Romains,  c.  8.  He  illustrates  the 
nature  and  use  of  the  censorship  with  his  usual  ingenuity  and  with  uncommon 
precision.  [It  is  hard  to  suppose  that  Decius  was  so  unsophisticated  as  really  to 
imagine  that  the  revival  of  the  censorship  would  be  likely  to  promote  a  revival 
of  morals.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  the  measure  was  a  concession  to  the 
senate.] 

42  Vespasian  and  Titus  were  the  last  censors  (Pliny,  Hist.  Natur.  vii.  49.  Cen- 
sorinus  de  Die  Natali).  The  modesty  of  Trajan  refused  an  honour  which  he  de- 
served, and  his  example  became  a  law  to  the  Antonines.  See  Pliny's  Panegyric,  c. 
45  and  60.  [The  author  apparently  thought  that  Domitian  held  only  the  censoria 
potestas.  At  first  indeed  he  was  content  with  this ;  it  was  conferred  on  him  in  84 
or  85  a.d.  ;  but  soon  afterwards  he  assumed  the  censorship  for  life.  His  object 
was  to  control  the  senate.     Martial  (vi.  4)  addresses  him  as  Censor  maxime.] 


248  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

deserve  to  continue  members  of  the  senate ;  you  will  restore  the 
equestrian  order  to  its  ancient  splendour  ;  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  review  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,43  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."  **- 
Th.derfiii  A  magistrate  invested  with  such  extensive  powers  would  have 
SS^ritnont"'  appeared  not  so  much  the  minister  as  the  colleague  of  his  sove- 
efl,ct  reign.45     Valerian  justly  dreaded  an  elevation  so  full  of  envy 

and  of  suspicion.  He  modestly  urged  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  im- 
mense weight  of  cares  and  of  power. 46  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  im- 
possible for  such  a  magistrate  to  exert  his  authority  with  benefit, 
or  even  with  effect,  unless  he  is  supported  by  a  quick  sense  of 
honour  and  virtue  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  by  a  decent  rever- 
ence 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.47  It  was  easier  to  vanquish 
the  Goths   than   to   eradicate    the   public    vices;   yet,  even  in 

43  Yet  in  spite  of  this  exemption  Pompey  appeared  before  that  tribunal,  during 
his  consulship.  The  occasion  indeed  was  equally  singular  and  honourable. 
Plutarch  in  Pomp.  p.  630  [22]. 

44  See  the  original  speech  in  the  Augustan  Hist.  p.  173,  174  [xxii.  6  (2)] . 

46  This  transaction  might  deceive  Zonaras,  who  supposes  that  Valerian  was 
actually  declared  the  colleague  of  Decius,  1.  xii.  p.  625  [20]. 

48  Hist.  August,  p.  174  [ib.].    The  emperor's  reply  is  omitted. 

47  Such  as  the  attempts  of  Augustus  towards  a  reformation  of  manners.  Tacit. 
Annal.  iii.  24. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  249 

the  first  of  these   enterprises,   Decius  lost   his   army  and   his 
life. 

The  Goths  were  now,  on  every  side,  surrounded  and  pursued  222g*0}i£ 
by  the  Roman  arms.  The  flower  of  their  troops  had  perished  in  jjj^8  and  hia 
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  chastise- 
ment of  these  invaders,  to  strike  a  salutary  terror  into  the 
nations  of  the  North,  refused  to  listen  to  any  terms  of  accommo- 
dation. The  high-spirited  barbarians  preferred  death  to  slavery. 
An  obscure  town  of  Maesia,  called  Forum  Terebronii,48  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  asso- 
ciated to  the  honours  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.49  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  armour  heavy,  the  waters  deep ;  nor  could  they  wield,  in 
that  uneasy  situation,  their  weighty  javelins.  The  barbarians, 
on  the  contrary,  were  enured  to  encounters  in  the  bogs ;  their 
persons  tall,  their  spears  long,  such  as  could  wound  at  a  dis- 
tance."60 In  this  morass  the  Roman  army,  after  an  ineffectual 
struggle,  was  irrecoverably  lost ;  nor  could  the   body   of  the 

<8  Tillemont,  Histoire  des  Empereurs,  torn.  iii.  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.  [Forum  Tiebonii  or  Abrittus  is  in  the  province  of  Scythia, 
which  is  the  modern  Dobrudza,  but  the  site  has  not  been  discovered.] 

43  Aurelius  Victor  allows  two  distinct  actions  for  the  deaths  of  the  two  Decii ; 
but  I  have  preferred  the  account  of  Jornandes.     [And  so  Dexippus,  fr.  16.] 

50  I  have  ventured  to  copy  from  Tacitus  (Annal.  i.  64)  the  picture  of  a  similar 
engagement  between  a  Roman  army  and  a  German  tribe, 


250 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Election  of 

Gallui, 
AD.  251, 
December 


Retreat  of 
the  Goths 


Gallui 
purchasei 
peace  by  the 

payment  of 
an  annual 

tribute 


emperor  ever  be  found.51  Such  was  the  fate  of  Decius,  in  the 
fiftieth  year  of  his  age;  an  accomplished  prince,  active  in  war, 
and  affable  in  peace  ;52  Avho,  together  with  his  son,  has  deserved 
to  be  compared,  both  in  life  and  death,  with  the  brightest 
examples  of  ancient  virtue.53 

This  fatal  blow  humbled,  for  a  very  little  time,  the  insolence 
of  the  legions.  They  appear  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,54  whose  experience  and  ability  seemed 
equal  to  the  great  trust  of  guardian  to  the  young  prince  and  the 
distressed  empire.55  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.56 

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.57     After  the  wealth  of  nations  had 

51Jornandes,  c.  18.  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  22  [23].  Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  627  [20]. 
Aurelius  Victor  [Caes.  29,  5,  and  Victor,  epit.  29]. 

52  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.  [Tillemont  has  argued  for  end  of  November  251,  and  is  followed  by 
Hodgkin,  i.  p.  56,  but  Alexandrian  coins  prove  that  it  must  be  earlier  than  August 
29,  251.     See  Schiller,  i.  807.] 

83  Hist.  August,  p.  223  [xxvi.  42]  gives  them  a  very  honourable  place  among 
the  small  number  of  good  emperors  who  reigned  between  Augustus  and  Dio- 
cletian. 

54  [C.  Vibius  Trebonianus  Gallus,  governor  of  the  two  Moesias.] 

55  Haec,  ubi  Patres  comperere.  .  .  .  decernunt.     Victor  in  Caesaribus  [30] . 

66  Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  628  [21.    Zosimus,  i.  24]. 

67  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 
/Eris,  a  weight  of  copper  in  value  about  eighteen  pounds  sterling,  was  the  usual 
present  made  to  foreign  ambassadors  (Livy,  xxxi.  9). 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  251 

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,  honoured  their  merit,  and  recompensed 
their  fidelity.  These  voluntary  marks  of  bounty  were  under- 
stood to  flow,  not  from  the  fears,  but  merely  from  the  generosity 
or  the  gratitude  of  the  Romans ;  and  whilst  presents  and  sub- 
sidies were  liberally  distributed  among  friends  and  suppliants, 
they  were  sternly  refused  to  such  as  claimed  them  as  a  debt.58 
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  Popuur  ais- 
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  Hostilianus,  though  it  happened  in 
the  midst  of  a  raging  pestilence,  was  interpreted  as  the  personal 
crime  of  Gallus  ; 59  and  even  the  defeat  of  the  late  emperor  was 
ascribed  by  the  voice  of  suspicion  to  the  perfidious  counsels  of 
his  hated  successor.60  The  tranquillity  which  the  empire  en- 
joyed during  the  first  year  of  his  administration  61  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. 

But  the  Romans  were  irritated  to  a  still  higher  degree,  when  victory  and 
they  discovered  that  they  had  not  even  secured  their  repose,  Amiuanus, 
though  at  the  expense  of  their  honour.     The  dangerous  secret  A-D-253 
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    through    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   iEmilianus,62  governor  of   Pannonia 
and  Maesia;  who  rallied   the  scattered  forces  and  revived  the 
fainting  spirits  of  the  troops.    The  barbarians  were  unexpectedly 

58  See  the  firmness  of  a  Roman  general  so  late  as  the  time  of  Alexander  Severus, 
in  the  Excerpta  Legationum,  p.  25.     Edit.  Louvre. 

6BFor  the  plague  see  Jornandes,  c.  19,  and  Victor  in  Caesaribus  [30,  2. 
John  of  Antioch,  frag.  151]. 

60  These  improbable  accusations  are  alleged  by  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  23,  24  [24]. 

61  Jornandes,  c.  19.  The  Gothic  writer  at  least  observed  the  peace  which  his 
victorious  countrymen  had  sworn  to  Gallus. 

•*  [M.  Emilias  4£milianus,J 


252 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Gallus  aban- 
doned and 
slain, 
A.D.  253, 
May 


Valerian 

revengei the 
death  of 
Gallus,  and 
Is  acknow- 
ledged em- 
peror 


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.03  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  sight  of  each  other,  the  soldiers  of  Gallus 
compared  the  ignominious  conduct  of  their  sovereign  with  the 
glory  of  his  rival.  They  admired  the  valour  of  iEmilianus ;  they 
were  attracted  by  his  liberality,  for  he  offered  a  considerable 
increase  of  pay  to  all  deserters.64  The  murder  of  Gallus,  and  of 
his  son  Volusianus,65  put  an  end  to  the  civil  war ;  and  the 
senate  gave  a  legal  sanction  to  the  rights  of  conquest.  The 
letters  of  iEmilianus  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.66  His  pride  was 
flattei-ed  by  the  applause  of  the  senate ;  and  medals  are  still 
extant,  representing  him  with  the  name  and  attributes  of 
Hercules  the  Victor,  and  of  Mars  the  Avenger.67 

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.68  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  honourable  title  of 


63Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  25,  26  [28]. 

64  Victor  in  Caesaribus  [31,  2,  states  that  Gallus  and  his  son  were  slain  at 
Interamna]. 

65  [Veldumnianus  Volusianus  became  Caesar  on  the  accession  of  his  father,  and 
Augustus  on  the  death  of  Hostilianus  (before  end  of  251).] 

^Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  628  [22]. 

a  Banduri  Numismata,  p.  94. 

88  Eutropius,  1.  ix.  c.  6,  says  tertio  mense.  Eusebius  omits  this  emperor.  [Val- 
erian and  Gallienus  were  emperors  before  22nd  October  253 ;  see  Wilmanns, 
1472.  Alexandrian  coins,  which  are  so  useful  in  determining  limits,  prove  that 
^Emilianus  must  have  overthrown  Gallus  before  29th  August  253,  and  that  he 
was  not  slain  himself  earlier  than  30th  August  253.  Aurelius  Victor  and 
Zonaras  agree  that  the  reign  of  ^milianus  lasted  not  quite  four  months  ;  Jordanes, 
like  Eutropius,  says  tertio  mense.  If,  then,  we  place  the  death  of  ^Emilianus 
early  in  September,  we  must  place  that  of  Gallus  late  in  May  or  early  in  June. 
See  Schiller,  i.  810.] 


/ 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  253 


censor,  to  bring  the  legions  of  Gaul  and  Germany 69  to  his  aid. 
Valerian  executed  that  commission  with  zeal  and  fidelity ; 
and,  as  he  arrived  too  late  to  save  his  sovereign,  he  resolved  to 
l'evenge  him.  The  troops  of  iEmilianus,  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  attach- 
ment as  they  had  always  been  of  constitutional  principle,  they 
readily  imbrued  their  hands  in  the  blood  of  a  prince  who  so  ad.  253, 

*  ,  *■  August 

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  revolu- 
tions ;  since  he  owed  neither  gratitude  nor  allegiance  to  his 
predecessor,  whom  he  dethroned. 

Valerian  was  about  sixty  years  of  age70  when  he  was  invested  y^^Tot 
with  the  purple,  not  by  the  caprice  of  the  populace  or  the 
clamours  of  the  army,  but  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  Roman 
world.  In  his  gradual  ascent  through  the  honours  of  the  state 
he  had  deserved  the  favour  of  virtuous  princes,  and  had  declared 
himself  the  enemy  of  tyrants.71  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.72  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  General  mis 
the  throne   with   a  younger  and  more  active  associate  : 73  the  reigns  of 


Valerian  and 


emergency  of  the  times  demanded  a  general  no  less  than   a  ckduemu, 


A.D.  253-268 


69  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  28  [29].  Eutropius  and  Victor  station  Valerian's  army  in 
Rhsetia  [where  they  proclaimed  him  Emperor]. 

70  He  was  about  seventy  at  the  time  of  his  accession,  or,  as  it  is  more  probable, 
of  his  death.  Hist.  August,  p.  173  [xxii.  5  (1)].  Tillemont,  Hist,  des  Empereurs, 
torn.  iii.  p.  893,  note  1. 

"Inimicus  Tyrannorum,  Hist.  August,  p.  173  [ib.].  In  the  glorious  struggle 
of  the  senate  against  Maximin,  Valerian  acted  a  very  spirited  part.  Hist.  August. 
p.  156  [xx.  9] . 

72  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. 

73  From  Victor  and  from  the  medals,  Tillemont  (torn.  iii.  p.  710)  very  justly 
infers  that  Gallienus  was  associated  to  the  empire  about  the  month  of  August  of 
the  year  253.  [This  date  is  too  early.  /Emilianus  was  not  slain  till  after  August 
29.  We  can  only  say  that  Gallienus  was  associated  as  Augustus  before 
October  22.] 


254  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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  honours  his  son 
Gallienus,74  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  Gallienus  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 

wt.«xiaSitUe  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  con- 
siderable tribes,  whose  obscure  and  uncouth  names  would  only 
serve  to  oppress  the  memory  and  perplex  the  attention  of  the 
reader. 

orfffin&na  I.  As  the  posterity  of  the  Franks  compose  one  of  the  greatest 

confederacy  ,  1  •    1   ■  i  .  r  -n  i  n  P 

of  the  rraniu  ana  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,75 
that  Gaul,  that  the  northern  parts  of  Germany,76  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.77      They  suppose  that,  about  the  year  two  hundred 

w  [P.  Licinius  Egnatius  Gallienus.  The  son  of  Gallienus  was  also  associated 
in  the  empire — P.  Licinius  Cornelius  Valerianus.] 

78  Various  systems  have  been  formed  to  explain  difficult  passages  in  Gregory  of 
Tours,  1.  ii.  c.  9. 

76  The  Geographer  of  Ravenna,  i.  n,  by  mentioning  Mauringania  on  the 
confines  of  Denmark,  as  the  ancient  seat  of  the  Franks,  gave  birth  to  an  ingenious 
system  of  Leibnitz. 

77  See  Cluver.  Germania  Antiqua,  1.  iii.  c.  20.  M.  Freret,  in  the  M^moires  de 
l'Academie  des  Inscriptions,  torn,  xviii.    [The  Franks  were  the  descendants  of  the 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  255 

and  forty,78  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 
seat  of  the  Chauci,  who,  in  their  inaccessible  morasses,  defied 
the  Roman  arms;79  of  the  Cherusci,  proud  of  the  fame  of  Armi- 
nius;  of  the  Catti,  formidable  by  their  firm  and  intrepid  infantry; 
and  of  several  other  tribes  of  inferior  power  and  renown.80  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  honourable  epithet  of  Franks 
or  Freemen ;  which  concealed,  though  it  did  not  extinguish,  the 
peculiar  names  of  the  several  states  of  the  confederacy.81  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  inde- 
pendent sovereignty,  consults  with  its  brethren  in  the  common 
cause,  without  acknowledging  the  authority  of  any  supreme 
head  or  representative  assembly.82  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  disre- 
gard to  the  most  solemn  treaties,  disgraced  the  character  of  the 
Franks. 

The  Romans  had  long  experienced  the  daring  valour  of  the  They  invade 
people  of  Lower  Germany.  The  union  of  their  strength  threat- 
ened Gaul  with  a  more  formidable  invasion,  and  required  the 
presence  of  Gallienus,  the  heir  and  colleague  of  Imperial  power.83 
Whilst  that  prince84  and  his  infant  son  Saloninus  displayed  in 
the  court  of  Treves  the  majesty  of  the  empire,  its  armies  were 

Sugambri  and  Chamavi  and  in  the  third  century  had  been  increased  by  the 
Chatti.  The  Amsivarii,  Chattuarii  and  some  of  the  Bructeri  also  joined  their 
"league".] 

78  Most  probably  under  the  reign  of  Gordian,  from  an  accidental  circumstance 
fully  canvassed  by  Tillemont,  torn.  iii.  p.  710,  1181. 

79PIin.  Hist.  Natur.  xvi.  1.  The  panegyrists  frequently  allude  to  the  morasses 
of  the  Franks. 

80  Tacit.  Germania,  c.  30,  37. 

81  In  a  subsequent  period  most  of  those  old  names  are  occasionally  mentioned. 
See  some  vestiges  of  them  in  Cluver.  Germ.  Antiq.  1.  iii 

82Simler  de  Rcpublica  Helvet,  cum  notis  Fuselin. 

83  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  27  [30] . 

84  [Zonaras,  xii.  14.J 


256  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

ably  conducted  by  their  general  Posthumus,85  who,  though  he 
afterwards  betrayed86  the  family  of  Valerian,  was  ever  faithful 
to  the  great  interest  of  the  monarchy.  The  treacherous  lan- 
guage 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  Saviour  of  Gaul. 87 
ravage  Spain  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,88 
the  greatest  part  of  the  reign  of  Gallienus,  that  opulent  countiy 
was  the  theatre  of  unequal  and  destructive  hostilities.  Tarra- 
gona, the  flourishing  capital  of  a  peaceful  province,  was  sacked 
and  almost  destroyed;89  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 
and  pass  over  barbarians.90  When  the  exhausted  country  no  longer  supplied 
m  a  variety  of  plunder,  the  Franks  seized  on  some  vessels  in  the 

ports  of  Spain91   and   transported  themselves  into  Mauritania. 
The  distant  province  was  astonished  with  the  fury  of  these  bar- 

85  [M.  Cassianius  Latinius  Postumus.] 

86  [He  was  proclaimed  emperor  by  the  soldiers  in  258,  shortly  after  Gallienus 
had  hastened  from  the  Rhine  frontier  to  the  defence  ol  the  Danube.  The  emperor's 
elder  son  and  colleague,  Valerian  the  Younger,  who  had  been  left  at  Koln  to 
represent  him,  was  slain  by  the  rebels  in  259.  The  reign  of  Postumus,  one  ot 
the  "  thirty  tyrants,"  lasted  till  268.  Gibbon  omits  to  mention  the  elder  son  of 
Gallienus,  Valerian.  Saloninus  was  the  younger,  but  he  was  called  Valerian  after 
his  brother's  death.] 

87  M.  de  Brequigny  (in  the  M6moires  de  l'Acad^mie,  torn,  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. 
[See  Eckhel,  vii.  439.] 

88  [256-268  A.D.] 

S3Aurel.  Victor  [Caes.],  c.  33  [§  3].  Instead  of  Pane  direpto,  both  the  sense 
and  the  expression  require  ddeto,  though,  indeed,  for  different  reasons,  it  is  alike 
difficult  to  correct  the  text  of  the  best  and  of  the  worst  writers. 

90  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  conse- 
quence of  this  invasion.     [See  Orosius,  vii.  22,  8.] 

91  Valesius  is  therefore  mistaken  in  supposing  that  the  Franks  had  invaded 
Spain  by  sea. 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  257 

barians,  who  seemed  to  fall  from  a  new  world,  as  their  name, 
manners,  and  complexion  were  equally  unknown  on  the  coast  of 
Africa.92 

II.  In  that  part  of  Upper  Saxony,  beyond  the  Elbe,  which  is  origin  and 
at  present  called  the  Marquisate  of  Lusace,  there  existed  in  the  suevi 
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.93  Patriotism 
contributed,  as  well  as  devotion,  to  consecrate  the  Sonnenwald, 
or  wood  of  the  Semnones.94  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  perpetuated  by  barbaric  rights  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.95  Jealous  as 
the  Germans  were  of  military  renown,  they  all  confessed  the 
superior  valour  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  them- 
selves were  unequal.96 

In  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Caracalla,  an  innumerable  swarm  a  mixed  body 
of  Suevi  appeared  on  the  banks  of  the  Main,  and  in  the  neigh-  asaumTthe 
bourhood  of  the  Roman  provinces,  in  quest  either  of  food,  of  Aiemanni 
plunder,  or  of  glory.97     The  hasty  army  of  volunteers  gradually 
coalesced  into  a  great  and  permanent  nation,  and,  as  it  was  com- 
posed   from    so  many    different   tribes,    assumed    the   name   of 
Aiemanni,  or  Allmen,  to  denote  at  once  their  various  lineage  and 

92  Aurel.  Victor  [Cass.  33] .     Eutrop.  ix.  6. 

93  Tacit.  Germania,  38  [39] . 

94  Oliver.  German.  Antiq.  iii.  25. 

95  Sic  Suevi  a  ceteris  German  is,  sic  Suevorum  ingenui  a  servis  separantur.     A 
proud  separation  ! 

96  Caesar  in  Bello  Gallico,  iv.  7. 

97  Victor  in  Caracal.   [Caes.  21].      Dion  Cassius,  lxxvii.  p.  1350  [13].       [The 
invaders  were  defeated  by  Caracalla,  213  A.D.] 

17  VOL.    I. 


258  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

their  common  bravery.98  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  formid- 
able by  a  mixture  of  light  infantry  selected  from  the  bravest  and 
most  active  of  the  youth,  whom  frequent  exercise  had  enured  to 
accompany  the  horsemen  in  the  longest  march,  the  most  rapid 
charge,  or  the  most  precipitate  retreat." 
mvade  Gaul       This  warlike  people  of  Germans  had  been  astonished  by  the 

and  Italy  r       r  „      .  ,  _  ,  »    , . 

immense  preparations  ot  Alexander  beverus ;  they  were  dis- 
mayed by  the  arms  of  his  successor,  a  barbarian  equal  in  valour 
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.100  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 
are  repnised  Romans  were  in  themselves.  In  this  emergency,  the  senators 
th°e™enatee  by  resume(l  the  defence  of  the  republic,  drew  out  the  Praetorian 
and  people  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.101 
The  senators  When  Gallienus  received  the  intelligence  that  his  capital  was 
Gacmednusby   delivered  from  the  barbarians,  he  was  much  less  delighted  than 


from  the 
military 
service 


98  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.  [Another  derivation  is  Alah-mannen,  "  men  of  the  sanctuary,"  referring  to  the 
wood  of  the  Semnones.  The  identification  of  the  Alamanni  with  the  Suevians  is 
very  uncertain.] 

99  The  Suevi  engaged  Caesar  in  this  manner  and  the  manoeuvre  deserved  the 
approbation  of  the  conqueror  (in  Bello  Gallico,  i.  48). 

i°°  Hist.  August,  p.  215,  216  [xxvi.  18,  21].  Dexippus  in  the  Excerpta  Lega- 
tionum,  p.  8  [p.  n,  ed.  Bonn;  F.H.G.  iii.  p.  682].  Hieronym.  Chron.  Orosius, 
vii.  22.  [The  first  campaigns  of  Gallienus  against  the  Alamanni  were  in  256 
and  257.  The  invasion  of  Italy  took  place  259-260.  Simultaneously  another  band 
invaded  Gaul,  and  was  subdued  near  Arelate  ;  Gregory  of  Tours,  i.  32.] 

J01  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  34  [37] , 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  259 

alarmed  with  the  courage  of  the  senate,  since  it  might  one  day 
prompt  them  to  rescue  the  republic  a  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  favour  this  disgraceful  exemp- 
tion 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.102 

Another  invasion  of  the  Alemanni,  of  a  more  formidable  aspect,  Gaiiiennscon 
but  more  glorious  event,  is  mentioned  by  a  writer  of  the  Lower  amance  with 
Empire.  Three  hundred  thousand  of  that  warlike  people  are  manni8" 
said  to  have  been  vanquished,  in  a  battle  near  Milan,  by 
Gallienus  in  person,  at  the  head  of  only  ten  thousand  Romans.103 
We  may  however,  with  great  probability,  ascribe  this  incredible 
victory  either  to  the  credulity  of  the  historian,  or  to  some  ex- 
aggerated  exploits  of  one  of  the  emperor's  lieutenants.  It  was 
by  arms  of  a  very  different  nature  that  Gallienus  endeavoured  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.104  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.105 

III.  We  have  already  traced  the  emigration  of  the  Goths  from  inroads  of 

J  °  the  Gotha 

a  [The  original  text  has  public,     I  have  ventured  to  amend.    Ed.] 

102Aurel.  Victor  in  Gallieno  et  Probo  [Cresar.  34,  37].  His  complaints 
breathe  an  uncommon  spirit  of  freedom. 

103Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  631  [24.  This  victory  was  probably  gained  in  the  same 
invasion  which  has  been  already  described ;  Gallienus  fell  upon  them  as  they  were 
retreating.  We  need  not  assume  two  invasions,  or  doubt  the  statement  of 
Zonaras.] 

104  One  of  the  Victors  calls  him  King  of  the  Marcomanni,  the  other,  of  the 
Germans. 

105  See  Tillemont,  Hist,  des  Empereurs,  torn.  iii.  p.  398,  &c.  [She  was  only 
a  concubine  and  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  Empress  Salonina.] 


260  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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 
then-  return  intercepted,  by  the  Imperial  lieutenants.106  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  con- 
queror. 
conquest  of  The  banks  of  the  Borysthenes  are  only  sixty  miles  distant 
pnonufby  the  from  the  narrow  entrance  107  of  the  peninsula  of  Crim  Tartary , 
known  to  the  ancients  under  the  name  of  Chersonesus  Taurica.10s 
On  that  inhospitable  shore,  Euripides,  embellishing  with  ex- 
quisite art  the  tales  of  antiquity,  has  placed  the  scene  of  one  of 
his  most  affecting  tragedies.109  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  Meeotis 
communicates  itself  to  the  Euxine,  was  composed  of  degenerate 

106  See  the  lives  of  Claudius,  Aurelian,  and  Probus,  in  the  Augustan  History. 
[Dacia  was  lost  to  the  Goths  about  255  or  256.  The  event  is  not  recorded,  but 
it  is  inferred  from  the  fact  that  no  coins  or  inscriptions  in  the  province  date  from 
a  later  year  than  255  ;  see  Mommsen,  Romische  Geschichte,  v.  220,  Hodgkin,  i.  57.] 

107  It  is  about  half  a  league  in  breadth.  Genealogical  History  of  the  Tartars, 
p.  598. 

108  M.  de  Peyssonel,  who  had  been  French  consul  at  Caffa,  in  his  Observations 
sur  les  Peuples  Barbares,  qui  ont  habite'  les  bords  du  Danube. 

100  Euripides  in  Iphigenia  in  Taurid. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  261 

Greeks  and  half-civilized  barbarians.  It  subsisted  as  an  inde- 
pendent state  from  the  time  of  the  Peloponnesian  war,110  was 
at  last  swallowed  up  by  the  ambition  of  Mithridates,111  and,  with 
the  rest  of  his  dominions,  sunk  under  the  weight  of  the  Roman 
arms.  From  the  reign  of  Augustus,112  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  harbours,  commanded  the  Euxine  Sea 
and  Asia  Minor.113  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.114  The^^toce 
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.115  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 

110Strabo,  I.  vii.  p.  309.  The  first  kings  of  Bosphorus  were  the  allies  of 
Athens. 

111  Appian  in  Mithridat.   [67] . 

112  It  was  reduced  by  the  arms  of  Agrippa.  Orosius,  vi.  ax.  Eutropius,  vii. 
9.  The  Romans  once  advanced  within  three  days'  march  of  the  Tanais.  Tacit. 
Annal.  xii.  17. 

113  See  the  Toxaris  ot  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. 

114  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  28  [31.  Coins  prove  that  the  lineal  succession  did  not  cease 
before  267  at  the  earliest.] 

115Strabo,  1.  xi.  [p.  495].     Tacit.  Hist.  iii.  47.     They  were  called  Camaree. 


zona 


262  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

practice  of  the  modern  Turks  ;  m  and  they  are  probably  not 
inferior  in  the  art  of  navigation  to  the  ancient  inhabitants  of 
Bosphorus. 
First  naval  The  fleet  of  the  Goths,  leaving  the  coast  of  Circassia  on  the 
the  Gotta  left  hand,  first  appeared  before  Pityus,117  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  honourable 
but  less  important  station,  they  resumed  the  attack  of  Pityus ; 
and,  by  the  destruction  of  that  city,  obliterated  the  memory  of 
their  former  disgrace. 11S 
The  Goths  Circling  round  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  Euxine  Sea,  the 

takefcew-  navigation  from  Pityus  to  Trebizond  is  about  three  hundred 
miles.119  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,120  derived  its  wealth  and  splendour  from  the 
munificence  of  the  emperor  Hadrian,  who  had  constructed  an 
artificial  port  on  a  coast  left  destitute  by  nature  of  secure 
harbours.121  The  city  was  large  and  populous;  a  double  en- 
closure of  walls  seemed  to  defy  the  fury  of  the  Goths,  and  the 
usual  garrison  had  been  strengthened  by  a  reinforcement  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 

11G  See  a  very  natural  picture  of  the  Euxine  navigation,  in  the  xvith  letter  of 
Tournefort. 

U7  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.  [For  the  Gothic  invasions  see 
Hodgkin,  Italy  and  her  Invaders,  i.  ch.  i.] 

lltjZosimus,  1.  i.  p.  30.      [256  A.D.] 

119  Arrian  (in  Periplo  Maris  Euxin.  p.  130  [27])  calls  the  distance  2610  stadia. 

1=0  Xenophon,  Anabasis,  1.  iv.  p.  348.     Edit.  Hutchinson  [c.  8], 

l-1  Arrian,  p.  129  [26].     The  general  observation  is  Tournefort's. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  263 

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  barba- 
rians ranged  without  opposition  through  the  extensive  province 
of  Pont  us.122  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  establishments  in  the  kingdom  of 
Bosphorus.123 

The  second    expedition  of  the   Goths  was  undertaken  with  The  second 

o  ii  11  i  i-/r  l  expedition  of 

greater  powers  of  men  and  ships;  but  they  steered  a  different  the  Goths 
course,  and,  disdaining  the  exhausted  provinces  of  Pontus,  fol- 
lowed the  western  coast  of  the  Euxine,  passed  before  the  wide 
mouths  of  the  Boiysthenes,  the  Dniester,  and  the  Danube,  and, 
increasing  their  fleet  by  the  capture  of  a  great  number  of  fishing 
barques,  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  pre-  They  plunder 
cipitation  their  advantageous  post,  and  abandoned  the  town  of  ofBitnynia 
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,124  directed  the  resistless  attack, 
and  partook  of  the  booty ;   for  the  Goths  had  learned  sufficient 

122  See  an  epistle  of  Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  bishop  of  Neo-Csesarea,  quoted 
by  Mascou,  v.  37. 

123  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  32,  33  [35]. 
124Itiner.  Hierosolym,  p.  572.     Wesseling. 


264  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

policy  to  reward  the  traitor  whom  they  detested.  Nice,  Prusa, 
Apamsea,  Cius,  cities  that  had  sometimes  rivalled,  or  imitated, 
the  splendour  of  Nicomedia,  were  involved  in  the  same  calamity, 
which,  in  a  few  weeks,  raged  without  control  through  the  wrhole 
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.125 
Retreatof         When  the  city  of  Cvzicus  withstood  the  utmost  effort  of  Mith- 

the  Goths  i 

ridates,1-0  it  was  distinguished  by  wise  laws,  a  naval  power  of  two 
hundred  galleys,  and  three  arsenals, — of  arms,  of  military  engines, 
and  of  corn.127  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 12S  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  waggons  laden  with 
the  spoils  of  Bithynia,  and  was  marked  by  the  flames  of  Nice 
and  Nicomedia,  which  they  wantonly  burnt.1'29  Some  obscure 
hints  are  mentioned  of  a  doubtful  combat  that  secured  their 
retreat.130  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.131 

125Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  32,  33  [35]. 

12fi  He  besieged  the  place  with  400  galleys,  150,000  foot,  and  a  numerous 
cavalry.  See  Plutarch  in  Lucul.  [9].  Appian  in  Mithridat.  [72].  Cicero  pro 
Lege  Manilia,  c.  8.  127  Strabo,  1.  xii.  p.  573. 

123  Pocock's  Descriptions  of  the  East,  1.  ii.  c.  23,  24. 

129Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  33  [35]. 

130  Syncellus  [i.  p.  717,  ed.  Bonn]  tells  an  unintelligible  story  of  Prince  Odenathus , 
who  defeated  the  Goths,  and  who  was  killed  by  Prince  Odenathus. 

131  Voyages  de  Chardin.  torn.  i.  p.  45.  He  sailed  with  the  Turks  from 
Constantinople  to  Caffa. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIKE  265 

When  we  are  informed  that  the  third  fleet,  equipped  by  the  Third  naval 
Goths  in  the  ports  of  Bosphorus,  consisted  of  five  hundred  sail  It  tL  gouu 
of  ships,132  our  ready  imagination  instantly  computes  and  multi- 
plies the  formidable  armament ;  but,  as  we  are  assured  by  the 
judicious  Strabo, 133  that  the  piratical  vessels  used  by  the  bar- 
barians 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  favourable  wind,  springing  up  the  next  day,  car- 
ried them  in  a  few  hours  into  the  placid  sea,  or  rather  lake,  of 
the  Propontis.134     Their  landing  on  the  little  island  of  Cvzicus  They  pa?«  the 

it  ii  n       i  •  iii«  Bosphorus 

was  attended  with  the  ruin  or  that  ancient  and  noble  city,  and  the 
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  ^Egean 
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,135  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  mari- 
time cities  against  the  Goths,  had  already  begun  to  repair  the 
ancient  walls  fallen  to  decay  since  the  time  of  Sylla. 136  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  licence  of  plunder 
and  intemperance,137  their  fleet,  that  lay  with  a  slender  guard 
in  the  harbour  of  Piraeus,  was  unexpectedly  attacked  by  the 
brave  Dexippus,  who,  flying  with  the  engineer  Cleodamus  from 

132Syncellus  (p.  382)  [ib.]  speaks  of  this  expedition  as  undertaken  by  the 
Heruli. 

133Strabo,  1.  xi.  p.  495. 

13->  [Gibbon  omits  to  mention  that  the  Goths  sustained  a  severe  naval  defeat, 
before  they  entered  the  Propontis,  at  the  hands  of  Venerianus.  Hist.  Aug.  xxiii. 
IB-] 

130  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  iii.  7  [error  for  iv.  7]. 

136  [The  renewed  wall  was  known  as  the  wall  of  Valerian.  See  Zosimus,  i.  29. 
A  wall  was  built  at  the  same  time  across  the  Isthmus.  For  this  invasion  of 
Greece,  see  Gregorovius,    Geschichte  der  Stadt  A  then  i?n  Mittelalter,  i.   16  sqq.~] 

137  [The  monuments  of  Athens  seem  on  this  occasion  to  have  been  spared.] 


266  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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.138 
ravage  But  this  exploit,  whatever  lustre  it  might  shed  on  the  declin- 

Greece,  /-    a     1  1 

iSltUreaten  'n£  aSe  of  Athens,  served  rather  to  irritate  than  to  subdue  the 
undaunted  spirit  of  the  northern  invaders.  A  general  conflagra- 
tion blazed  out  at  the  same  time  in  every  district  of  Greece.139 
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  ardour, 

Their  and  to  have  divided  the  strength,  of  the  enemy.     Naulobatus,  a 

divisions  ~  J 

and  retreat  chief  of  the  Heruli,  accepted  an  honourable  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  bar- 
barian.140 Great  numbers  of  the  Goths,  disgusted  with  the 
perils  and  hardships  of  a  tedious  voyage,  broke  into  Msesia,  with 
a  design  of  forcing  their  way  over  the  Danube  to  their  settle- 
ments 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.141 
The  small  remainder  of  this  destroying  host  returned  on  board 
their  vessels,  and,  measuring  back  their  way  through  the  Helles- 

188  Hist.  August,  p.  181  [xxiii.  13].  Victor  [Caesar.]  c.  33.  Orosius,  vii.  42. 
Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  35  [39].  Zonaras,  1.  xii.  635  [26].  Syncellus,  p.  382  [i.  p.  717, 
ed.  Bonn].  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.  [Frag.  21. 
An  epigram  on  Dexippus  as  a  scholar,  not  as  a  deliverer,  has  been  preserved. 
C.I. A.  iii.  1,  No.  716.] 

139  [Gibbon  has  omitted  to  mention  the  attack  of  the  Goths  on  Thessalonica, 
which  almost  proved  fatal  to  that  city.  This  incident  spread  terror  throughout 
the  Illyric  peninsula,  and  thoroughly  frightened  the  government.  It  was  pro- 
bably the  immediate  cause  of  the  restoration  of  the  walls  of  Athens  and  the 
other  fortifications  in  Greece.  See  Zosimus,  i.  29,  and  perhaps  Eusebius  in 
Miiller,  F.H.G.  v.  1,  21.] 

140  Syncellus,  p.  382  [ib.] .  This  body  of  Heruli  was  for  a  long  time  faithful 
and  famous. 

141  Claudius,  who  commanded  on  the  Danube,  thought  with  propriety  and 
acted  with  spirit.  His  colleague  was  jealous  of  his  fame.  Hist.  August,  p.  181 
[xxiii.  14]. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  267 

pont  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  bason  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.142  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  honour  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.143 

In  the  general  calamities  of  mankind  the  death  of  an  individual,  Rninofthe 
however  exalted,  the  ruin  of  an  edifice,  however  famous,  are  Ephesus0 
passed  over  with  careless  inattention.  Yet  we  cannot  forget 
that  the  temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus,  after  having  risen  with 
increasing  splendour  from  seven  repeated  misfortunes,144  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  an 
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  favourite 
legends  of  the  place  the  birth  of  the  divine  children  of  Latona, 

142  Jornandes,  c.  20 

143  Zosimus,  and  the  Greeks  (as  the  author  of  the  Philopatris  [see  below,  p. 
340,  note  81J),  give  the  name  of  Scythians  to  those  whom  Jornandes,  and  the 
Latin  writers,  constantly  represent  as  Goths. 

144  Hist.  August,  p.  178  [xxiii.  6].  Jornandes,  c.  20.  [The  chronology  is  ex- 
tremely doubtful.  It  seems  more  probable  that  Ephesus  suffered  in  an  earlier 
invasion.     Sec  Hodgkin,  i.  62.] 


268 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Conduct  of 
the  Goths  at 
Athens 


Conquest  of 
Armenia  by 


the  concealment  of  Apollo  after  the  slaughter  of  the  Cyclops, 
and  the  clemency  of  Bacchus  to  the  vanquished  Amazons.115 
Yet  the  length  of  the  temple  of  Ephesus  was  only  four  hundred 
and  twenty-five  feet,  about  two  thirds  the  measure  of  the  church 
of  St.  Peter's  at  Rome.146  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  splendour.147  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. 14S 

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  ex- 
ercise of  arms.149  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. 

IV.  The  new  sovereigns  of  Persia,  Artaxerxes  and   his  son 


prsefat.  1. 


Tacit.  Anna!. 


145  Strabo,  1.  xiv.  p.  640.    Vitruvius,  1.  i 
71.     Plin.  Hist.  Nat.  xxxvi.  14. 

146  The  length  of  St.  Peter's  is  840  Roman  palms,  each  palm  is  a  very  little 
short  of  nine  English  inches.  See  Greave's  Miscellanies,  vol.  1,  p.  233;  On  the 
Roman  foot. 

147  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,  1.  xiv.  p.  641.     Tacit.  Annal.  iii.  60,  &c. 

148  They  offered  no  sacrifices  to  the  Grecians'  gods.  See  Epistol.  Gregor. 
Thaumat. 

149Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  635  [26].  Such  an  anecdote  was  perfectly  suited  to  the 
taste  of  Montaigne.  He  makes  use  of  it  in  his  agreeable  Essay  on  Pedantry,  1. 
i.  c.  24.  [Compare  Anon.  Continuation  of  Dion  Cassius,  in  Miiller,  F.H.G.  iv. 
p.  196.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  269 

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  inde- 
pendence. He  defended  himself  by  the  natural  strength  of  his 
country  ;  by  the  perpetual  resort  of  fugitives  and  malcontents  ; 
by  the  alliance  of  the  Romans ;  and,  above  all,  by  his  own 
courage.  Invincible  in  arms,  during  a  thirty  years'  war,  he  was 
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  favour 
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.150  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. 

The  loss  of  an  important  frontier,  the  ruin  of  a  faithful  and  valerian 
natural  ally,  and  the  rapid  success  of  Sapor's  ambition,  affected  the  East 
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  that  great  is  defeated 
event  are    darkly  and    imperfectly   represented ;    yet,    by    the  prisoner  by 
glimmering  light  which  is  afforded  us,  we  may  discover  a  long  ofrersia, 
series  of  imprudence,  of  error,  and  of  deserved  misfortunes  on 
the  side  of  the  Roman  emperor.     He  reposed  an  implicit  con- 
fidence in  Macrianus,  his  Praetorian  praefect.151     That  worthless 

150  Moses  Chorenensis,  1.  ii.  c.  71,  73,74.  Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  628  [21].  The 
authentic  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.  [The  succession  of  Tiridates  was  resisted  by  his  uncle  Arta- 
vasdes,  who  then  ruled  in  Armenia  as  vassal  of  Sapor.] 

151  Hist.  August,  p.  191  [xxiv.  11].  As  Macrianus  was  an  enemy  to  the 
Christians,  they  charged  him  with  being  a,  magician.      [There  seems  no  reason. 


270 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Sapor  over- 


Cilicia,  and 
Cappadocia 


minister  rendered  his  master  formidable  only  to  the  oppressed 
subjects,  and  contemptible  to  the  enemies,  of  Rome.152  By  his 
weak  or  wicked  counsels  the  Imperial  army  was  betrayed  into  a 
situation  where  valour  and  military  skill  were  equally  unavail- 
ing.153 The  vigorous  attempt  of  the  Romans  to  cut  their  way 
through  the  Persian  host  was  repulsed  with  great  slaughter ; 154 
and  Sapor,  who  encompassed  the  camp  with  superior  numbers, 
patiently  waited  till  the  increasing  rage  of  famine  and  pestilence 
had  ensured  his  victory.  The  licentious  murmurs  of  the  legions 
soon  accused  Valerian  as  the  cause  of  their  calamities  ;  their 
seditious  clamours  demanded  an  instant  capitulation.  An  im- 
mense sum  of  gold  was  offered  to  purchase  the  permission  of  a 
disgraceful  retreat.  But  the  Persian,  conscious  of  his  superior- 
ity, refused  the  money  with  disdain ;  and,  detaining  the  deputies, 
advanced  in  order  of  battle  to  the  foot  of  the  Roman  ram- 
part, 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.155  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  dishonour  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.156 

The  Imperial  slave  was  eager  to  secure  the  favour  of  his 
master  by  an  act  of  treason  to  his  native  country.  He  con- 
ducted 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  his- 
torian,157 the  city  of  Antioch  was  surprised  when  the  idle  multi- 

to  impute  any  fault  to  Macrianus  in  this  disaster.  He  appears  to  have  been  an 
able  officer  but  unfortunately  an  invalid.  For  the  defeat  of  Valerian  and  the 
chronology,  see  Appendix  17.] 

152Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  33  [36]. 

153  Hist.  August,  p.  174  [xxii.  32]. 

184  Victor  in  Cresar.  [32].    Eutropius,  ix.  7. 

lr'5Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  33  [36].  Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  630  [23].  Peter  Patricius  in  the 
Exccrpta  Legat.  p.  29. 

156  Hist.  August,  p.  185  [xxiv.  1].  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.  [But  see 
Appendix  17.] 

157  The  sack  of  Antioch,  anticipated  by  some  historians,  is  assigned,  by  the 
decisive  testimony  of  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  to  the  reign  of  Gallienus,  xxiii.  £. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  271 

tude  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.158  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.159  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  com- 
bat :  and  Sapor  was  admitted  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  com- 
mission 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  honoured  or  punished 
his  obstinate  valour  ;  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.160 
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.161 

ir'8  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  35  [36]. 

159  John  Malala,  torn.  i.  p.  391  [p.  296,  ed.  Bonn].  He  corrupts  this  probable 
event  by  some  fabulous  circumstances. 

160  Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  630  [23].  Deep  valleys  were  filled  up  with  the  slain. 
Crowds  of  prisoners  were  driven  to  water  like  beasts,  and  many  perished  for  want 
of  food. 

161  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  25  [28],  asserts  that  Sapor,  had  he  not  preferred  spoil  to 
conquest,  might  have  remained  master  of  Asia. 


272  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

Boldness  ana  At  a  time  when  the  East  trembled  at  the  name  of  Sapor,  he 
odenatnus  received  a  present  not  unworthy  of  the  greatest  kings — a  long 
apor  train  of  camels  laden  with  the  most  rare  and  valuable  merchan- 
dises. The  rich  offering  was  accompanied  with  an  epistle,  respect- 
ful 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  presents 
should  be  cast  into  the  Euphrates),  "  that  he  thus  insolently  pre- 
sumes to  write  to  his  lord  ?  If  he  entertains  a  hope  of  mitigat- 
ing 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."  162  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,163  and  the  tents  of  the  desert,164  he  hovered 
round  the  Persian  host,  harassed  their  retreat,  carried  off  pait  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.105  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. 
Treatment  of  The  voice  of  history,  which  is  often  little  more  than  the 
enan  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 

162  peter  Patricius  in  Excerpt.  Leg.  p.  29  [frag.  10,  Miiller,  F.H.G.  iv. 
Septimius  Odaenathus  had  been  made  a  consularis  by  Valerian  before  April  258. 
See  Waddington-Le  Bas  iii.  2602]. 

163Syrorum  agrestium  manu.  Sextus  Rufus,  c.  23.  Rufus,  Victor,  the 
Augustan  History  (p.  192  [xxiv.  14])  and  several  inscriptions  agree  in  making 
Odenathus  a  citizen  of  Palmyra.  [Palmyra  had  been  made  a  colonia  by  Severus. 
As  a  great  commercial  town,  its  policy  was  to  preserve  neutrality  between  the 
powers  of  the  East  and  the  West,  and,  while  the  Parthian  realm  lasted,  this  was 
feasible.  But  the  ambition  of  the  new  Persian  monarchy  forced  Palmyra  to  take 
a  decided  step,  and  either  attach  itself  to  the  Empire  or  submit  to  Sapor.  This 
step  was  taken  by  Odasnathus.] 

164  He  possessed  so  powerful  an  interest  among  the  wandering  tribes,  that 
Procopius  (Bell.  Persic.  1.  ii.  c.  5)  and  John  Malala  (torn.  i.  p.  391  [392;  p.  297,  ed. 
Bonn]  )  style  him  Prince  of  the  Saracen?. 

165  Peter  Patricius,  p.  25  [frag.  11.  See  also  Zonaras,  xii.  23  ;  Zpsjfljus,  i.  39", 
Syncellus,  i.  716  (ed.  Bonn)] . 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  273 

placed  his  foot  on  the  neck  of  a  Roman  emperor.  Notwith- 
standing all  the  remonstrances  of  his  allies,  who  repeatedly 
advised  him  to  remember  the  vicissitude  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.106  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  ; 167 
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. 

The  Empei*or  Gallienus,  who  had  lona;  supported  with  character 
impatience  the  censorial  severity  or  his  lather  and  colleague,  tration  of 
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  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 
sei'vile  courtiers  as  the  perfect  firmness  of  a  hero  and  a  stoic.168 
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 

i66  The  Pagan  writers  lament,  the  Christian  insult,  the  misfortunes  of  Valerian. 
Their  various  testimonies  are  accurately  collected  by  Tillemont,  torn.  iii.  p.  739, 
&c.  So  little  has  been  preserved  of  Eastern  history  before  Mahomet,  that  the 
modern  Persians  are  totally  ignorant  of  the  victory  of  Sapor,  an  event  so  glorious  to 
their  nation.     See  Bibliotheque  Orientale. 

167  One  of  these  epistles  is  from  Artavasdes,  king  of  Armenia  :  since  Armenia 
was  then  a  province  to  Persia,  the  king,  the  kingdom,  and  the  epistle  must  be 
fictitious. 

163  See  his  life  in  the  Augustan  History. 

18  VOL.    I. 


274  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

orator,  an  elegant  poet,100  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,170  wasting  his 
time  in  trifling  or  licentious  pleasures,  preparing  his  initiation  to 
the  Grecian  mysteries,  or  soliciting  a  place  in  the  Areopagus 
of  Athens.  His  profuse  magnificence  insulted  the  general 
poverty  ;  the  solemn  ridicule  of  his  triumphs  impressed  a  deeper 
sense  of  the  public  disgrace.171  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.172 
The  thirty  At  a  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 

169  There  is  still  extant  a  very  pretty  Epithalamium,  composed  by  Gallienus, 
for  the  nuptials  of  his  nephews  [Hist.  August,  xxiii.  n]. 

Ite  ait,  O  Juvenes,  pariter  sudate  medullis 
Omnibus,  inter  vos ;  non  murmura  vestra  columbae, 
Braehia  non  hederae,  non  vincant  oscula  conchae. 

170  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.  Grsec.  1.  iv. 

171 A  medal  which  bears  the  head  of  Gallienus  has  perplexed  the  antiquarians 
by  its  legend  and  reverse;  the  former  Gallience  Augusta,  the  latter  Ubique 
Pax  [Eckhel,  vii.  413] .  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. 
August,  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.  [Recent  authorities  however  accept  the  explanation  of  Spanheim.] 
On  a  medal  in  the  French  king's  collection,  we  read  a  similar  inscription  of  Faus- 
tina 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  occa- 
sion of  some  momentary  calm.  See  Nouvelles  de  la  Re'publique  des  Lettres 
Janvier,  1700,  p.  21-34. 

172  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.    [But  see  Appendix  1.] 


tyrants 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  275 

the  thirty  tyrants  of  Rome  with  the  thirty  tyrants  of  Alliens, 
that  induced  the  writers  of  the  Augustan  history  to  select  that 
celebrated  number,  which  has  been  gradually  received  into  a 
popular  appellation.173  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  honoured  with  the 
Imperial  title.  The  reign  of  Gallienus,  distracted  as  it  was,  Their  real 
produced  only  nineteen  pretenders  to  the  throne:  Cyriades,  no  more  than 
Macrianus,  Balista,  Odenathus,  and  Zenobia  in  the  East;  in  Gaul1"1 
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,174  Saturninus ;  in  Isauria,  Trebellianus ;  Piso  in 
Thessaly ;  Valens  in  Achaia ;  iEmilianus  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  amusement.  We  may  content  our- 
selves with  investigating  some  general  characters,  that  most 
sti-ongly  mark  the  condition  of  the  times  and  the  manners  of 
the  men,  their  pretensions,  their  motives,  their  fate,  and  the 
destructive  consequences  of  their  usurpation.175 

It  is  sufficiently  known  that  the  odious  appellation  of  Tyrant  character  and 
was  often  employed  by  the  ancients  to  express  the  illegal  seizure  tyrants 
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  vigour  and 
ability.  Their  merit  had  recommended  them  to  the  favour  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  valour  and  success 
in  war,  or  beloved  for  frankness  and  generosity.  The  field  of 
victory  was   often  the  scene  of  their  election  ;  and   even   the 

173  Pollio  expresses  the  most  minute  anxiety  to  complete  the  number. 

174  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.  [Hist.  Aug.  xxiv. 
29,  i  is  here  referred  to.     See  Appendix  18.] 

178  Tillemont,  torn.  iii.  p.  1163,  reckons  them  somewhat  differently. 


276  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

armourer  Marius,  the  most  contemptible  of  all  the  candidates 
for  the  purple,  was  distinguished  however  by  intrepid  courage, 
matchless  strength,  and  blunt  honesty.170  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 
Tteir  obscure  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  suc- 
cessive generations,  ran  in  the  veins  of  Calphurnius  Piso,177  who, 
by  female  alliances,  claimed  a  right  of  exhibiting  in  his  house 
the  images  of  Crassus  and  of  the  great  Pompey. 178  His  ances- 
tors had  been  repeatedly  dignified  with  all  the  honours  which 
the  commonwealth  could  bestow;  and,  of  all  the  ancient  families 
of  Rome,  the  Calphurnian  alone  had  survived  the  t}rranny  of  the 
Caesars.  The  personal  qualities  of  Piso  added  new  lustre  to  his 
race.  The  usurper  Valens,  by  whose  order  he  was  killed,  con- 
fessed, 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  per- 
mission, decreed  the  triumphal  ornaments  to  the  memory  of  so 
virtuous  a  rebel. 179 
The  causes  of  The  lieutenants  of  Valerian  were  grateful  to  the  father,  whom 
tneirrebeuion  foey  esteemed.  They  disdained  to  serve  the  luxurious  indolence 
of  his  unworthy  son.  The  throne  of  the  Roman  world  was  un- 
supported 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  candour  the  conduct  of  these  usurpers, 
it  will  appear  that  they  were  much  oftener  driven  into  re- 
bellion by  their  fears  than  urged  to  it  by  their  ambition.     They 

178  See  the  speech  of  Marius,  in  the  Augustan  History,  p.  187  Txxiv.  7].  The 
accidental  identity  of  names  was  the  only  circumstance  that  could  tempt  Pollio  to 
imitate  Sallust. 

177  Vos  O  Pompilius  sanguis  !  is  Horace's  address  to  the  Pisos.  See  Art.  Poet. 
v.  292,  with  Dacier's  and  Sanadon's  notes. 

178  Tacit.  Annal.  xv.  48,  Hist.  i.  15.  In  the  former  of  these  passages  we  ma)' 
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 
Cassar  by  Galba. 

179  Hist.  August,  p.  195  [xxiv.  20].  The  senate,  in  a  moment  of  enthusiasm, 
seems  to  have  presumed  on  the  approbation  of  Gallienus. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  277 

dreaded  the  cruel  suspicions  of  Gallienus  :  they  equally  dreaded 
the  capricious  violence  of  their  troops.  If  the  dangerous  favour 
of  the  army  had  imprudently  declared  them  deserving  of  the 
purple,  they  were  marked  for  sure  destruction  ;  and  even  pru- 
dence would  counsel  them  to  secure  a  short  enjoyment  of  the 
empire,  and  rather  to  try  the  fortune  of  war  than  to  expect  the 
hand  of  an  executioner.  When  the  clamour  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  eleva- 
tion, "  you  have  lost  a  useful  commander,  and  you  have  made  a 
very  wretched  emperor."  1SU 

The  apprehensions  of  Saturninus  were  justified  by  the  repeated  Their  violent 
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  in- 
vested 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  honours  as  the  flattery  of  their  respective  armies  and  pro- 
vinces 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  honourable  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  pos- 
sessed, in  so  independent  a  manner,  that,  like  a  private  succes- 
sion, he  bequeathed  it  to  his  illustrious  widow  Zenobia.181 

The  rapid  and  perpetual  transitions  from  the  cottage  to  the  Fatal  conse- 
throne,  and  from  the  throne  to  the  imive,  might  have  amused  these  usurpa- 

tions 

an  indifferent  philosopher,  were  it  possible  for  a  philosopher  to 

18n  Hist.  August,  p.  196  [xxiv.  22]. 

181  The  association  of  the  brave  Palmyrenian  was  the  most  popular  act  of  the 
whole  reign  of  Gallienus.  Hist.  August,  p.  ioo  [xxiii.  12,  1.  The  statement  is 
certainly  erroneous.     See  Appendix  19.  < 


278  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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  sup- 
pression 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  dropt  an  expression, 
who  has  entertained  a  thought,  against  me,  against  me,  the  son 
of  Valerian,  the  father  and  brother  of  so  many  princes.182  Re- 
member 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."  183  Whilst  the  public  forces  of  the 
state  were  dissipated  in  private  quarrels,  the  defenceless  pro- 
vinces 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.184 

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, 

182  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,  torn.  iii. 
and  M.  de  Brequigny  in  the  MtJmoires  de  l'Academie,  torn,  xxxii.  p.  262. 

183  Hist.  August,  p.   188  [xxiv.  8]. 

184  ResriHianus  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. 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIRE  279 

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  reorders  of 
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  an  usurper.  The  sufferings  of  that  once  flourishing 
and  still  fertile  island  were  inflicted  by  baser  hands.  A  licen- 
tious 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. 1S5  Devastations,  of  which  the  husband- 
man 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  im- 
probable that  this  private  injury  might  affect  the  capital  more 
deeply  than  all  the  conquests  of  the  Goths  or  the  Persians. 

II.  The  foundation  of  Alexandria  was  a  noble  design,  at  once  Tummts  of 
conceived  and  executed  by  the  son  of  Philip.     The  beautiful  and    exan 
regular  form  of  that  great  city,  second  only  to  Rome  itself,  com- 
prehended a  circumference  of  fifteen  miles ; 186  it  was  peopled 

by  three  hundred  thousand  free  inhabitants,  besides  at  least  an 
equal  number  of  slaves. 1S7  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  in*  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.188  But 
the  people  of  Alexandria,  a  various  mixture  of  nations,  united 
the  vanity  and  inconstancy  of  the  Greeks  with  the  superstition 

185  The  Augustan  History,  p.  177  [xxiii.  4],  calls  it  servile  bellum.    See  Diodor. 
Sicul.  1.  xxxiv. 

186  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  v.  10. 

187  Diodor.  Sicul.  1.  xvii.  p.  590.     Edit.  Wesseling  [52]. 

188  See  a  very  curious  letter  of  Hadrian  in  the  Augustan  History,  p.  245  [xxix.  8. 
Cp.  Student's  Roman  Empire,  p.  520.] 

a  [The  original  text  omits,  presumably  by  accident,  after  again.     Ed.] 


280  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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,1S9  were  at  any  time  sufficient  to  kindle  a 
sedition  among  that  vast  multitude,  whose  resentments  were 
furious  and  implacable.190  After  the  captivity  of  Valerian  and 
the  indolence  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.191  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  a  dreary  solitude.192 

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  allegi- 
ance, 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  ot  some  fertile  valleys 193  supplied  them  with  neces- 
saries, 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,194  which 

189  Such  as  the  sacrilegious  murder  of  a  divine  cat.     See  Diodor.  Sicul.  1.  i. 

190  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.  [Compare 
the  description  of  Mommsen,  Rom.  Gesch.  v.  582  sqq.~\ 

191  Dionysius  apud  Euseb.   Hist.  Eccles.  vol.  vii.  p.  [leg.c]  21.    Ammian.  xxii.  16. 
192Scaliger  Animadver.    ad   Euseb.    Chron.    p.    258.      Three   dissertations   of 

M.  Bonamy,  in  the  Mem.  de  l'Acad^mie,  torn.  ix. 
i»3  Strabo,  1.  xii.  p.  569. 
194  Hist.  August,  p.  197  [xxiv,  25] . 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  281 

often  proved  insufficient  to  restrain  the  incursions  of  these 
domestic  foes.  The  Isaurians,  gradually  extending  their  terri- 
tory 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.195 

Our  habits  of  thinking  so  fondly  connect  the  order  of  the  Famine  and 
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  fictiti- 
ous or  exaggerated.196  But  a  long  and  general  famine  was  a 
calamity  of  a  more  serious  kind.  It  was  the  inevitable  conse- 
quence 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,  eveiy  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  depopu- 
lated.197 

We  have  the  knowledge  of  a  very  curious  circumstance,  of  Diminution 
some  use  perhaps  in  the  melancholy  calculation  of  human  cala-  species 
mities.  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.198  Applying  this  authentic 
fact  to  the  most  correct  tables  of  mortality,  it  evidently  proves 
that  above  half  the  people  of  Alexandria  had  perished  ;    and 

195  See  Cellarius,  Geog.  Antiq.  torn.  ii.  p.  137,  upon  the  limits  of  Isauria. 

196  Hist.  August,  p.  177  [xxiii.  5] . 

197  Hist.  August,  p.  177  [ib.].  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  24  [26].  Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  623  [21]. 
Euseb.  Chronicon.  Victor  in  Epitom.  Victor  in  Caesar.  [33].  Eutropius,  ix.  5. 
Orosius,  vii.  21.  [One  of  the  most  significant  proofs  of  the  distress  of  the  empire 
in  the  reign  of  Gallienus  is  the  bankruptcy  of  the  government,  which  resorted 
to  the  old  expedient  of  shameless  depreciation  of  the  coinage.  At  the  end  of  his 
reign  the  argenteus  was  merely  a  coin  of  base  metal  washed  over  with  silver. 
See  Finlay,  History  of  Greece,  ed.  Tozer,  vol.  1.  Appendix  ii.] 

198  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. 


282  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

could  we  venture  to  extend  the  analogy  to  the  other  provinces, 
we  might  suspect  that  war,  pestilence,  and  famine,  had  con- 
sumed, in  a  few  years,  the  moiety  of  the  human  species.199 

199  In  a  great  number  of  parishes  11,000  persons  were  found  between  fourteen 
and  eighty ;  5365  between  forty  and  seventy.  See  Buffon,  Histoire  Naturelle, 
torn.  ii.  p.  590. 


OE  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  283 


CHAPTEE  XI 

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  pro- 
vinces 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, 
re-established,  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  Aureoius 
of  heroes.      The   indignation  of  the   people  imputed   all   theins  defeated, 
calamities  to  Gallienus,  and  the  far  greater  part  were,  indeed, at  Milan gec 
the  consequence  of  his  dissolute  manners  and  careless  adminis- 
tration.    He  was  even  destitute  of  a  sense  of  honour,  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.d.268 
a  considerable  army,  stationed  on  the  Upper  Danube,  invested 
with  the  Imperial  purple  their  leader  Aureoius  ;  who,  disdaining 
a    confined    and  barren    reign  over  the  mountains   of  Rhaetia, 
passed   the  Alps,  occupied   Milan,  threatened   Rome,  and  chal- 
lenged 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  vigour  wh  ch  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 

1  Pons  Aureoli,  thirteen   miles    from    Bergamo,  and  thirty-two   from    Milan. 
See  Cluver.  Italia  Antiq.  torn,  i,   p.  245.      Near  this  place,  in  the  year  1703,  the 


284  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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  succours, 
already  anticipated  the  fatal  consequences  of  unsuccessful  re- 
bellion. 

His  last  resource  was  an  attempt  to  seduce  the  loyalty  of  the 
besiegers.  He  scattered  libels  through  their  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  con- 
spiracy was  formed  by  Heraclianus,  the  Praetorian  praefect,  by 
Marcian,  a  general  of  rank  and  reputation,  and  by  Cecrops,2  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  armour  or  to  assemble  his  guards,  he  mounted  on  horse- 
back, 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 
a.d.  268,  uncertain  hand.  Before  he  expired,  a  patriotic  sentiment  rising 
Deatho?  m  the  nrind  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  neighbourhood  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 

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,  torn.  3,  p.  223-248. 
2  [Cecropius  is  the  name,  Hist.  Aug.  xxiii.  14.] 


Gallienus 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  285 

expressed  some  suspicion  and  resentment,  till  the  one  was  re- 
moved 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.3 

The  obscurity  which  covered  the  origin  of  Claudius,  though  it  character  and 
was  afterwards  embellished  by  some  flattering  fictions,4  suffi- the  emperor 
ciently  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 
valour  attracted  the  favour  and  confidence  of  Decius.  The 
senate  and  people  already  considered  him  as  an  excellent  officer, 
equal  to  the  most  important  trusts ;  and  censured  the  inatten- 
tion 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,  Msesia,  Dacia,  Pannonia,  and  Dalmatia,  the 
appointments  of  the  preefect  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  honour  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  colours  his  own 
character  and  that  of  the  times.  "There  is  not  anything 
capable  of  giving  me  more  serious  concern,  than  the  intelligence 
contained  in  your  last  dispatch,5  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 

3  On  the  death  of  Gallienus,  see  Trebellius  Pollio  in  Hist.  August,  p.  181  [xxiii. 
14].  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  37  [40].  Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  634  [25].  Eutropius,  ix.  11. 
Aurelius  Victor  in  Epitom.  [33].  Victor  in  Caesar.  [33].  I  have  compared  and 
blended  them  all,  but  have  chiefly  followed  Aurelius  Victor,  who  seems  to  have 
had  the  best  memoirs.  [Cecropius  slew  him  according  to  Hist.  Aug. ;  but  another 
story  named  Heraclian,  John  of  Antioch  152,  3  (Miiller,  F.H.G.  iv.)  and  Zonaras, 
xii.  25.  Zosimus,  i.  40  is  probably  right  in  saying  that  Heraclian  instigated  the 
Dalmatian  officer  to  strike  the  blow.  There  is  a  further  confusion  in  John  of 
Antioch,  who  makes  Heraclian  the  Dalmatian  captain.] 

4  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  Dar- 
danus  and  the  ancient  kings  of  Troy.      [M.  Aurelius  Claudius  was  his  name.] 

5  Notoria,  a  periodical  and  official  dispatch  which  the  emperors  received  from 
the  frumentarii  or  agents  dispersed  through  the  provinces.  Of  these  we  may 
speak  hereafter 


286  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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  ray 
anger  might  urge  him  to  desperate  counsels."0  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  con- 
spirators the  bloody  purple  of  Gallienus :  but  he  had  been  absent 
from  their  camps  and  counsels;  and,  however  he  might  applaud 
the  deed,  we  may  candidly  presume  that  he  was  innocent  of  the 
knowledge  of  it.7  When  Claudius  ascended  the  throne,  he  was 
about  fifty- four  years  of  age. 
peathof  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  him- 
self." 8  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 

6  Hist.  August,  p.  208  [xxv.  17].  Gallienus  describes  the  plate,  vestments, 
&c. ,  like  a  man  who  loved  and  understood  those  spkndid  trifles. 

7  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. 

8  Hist.  August,  p.  203  [ib.  5].  There  are  some  trifling  differences  concerning 
the  circumstances  of  the  last  defeat  and  death  of  Aureolus.  [The  inscription  in 
Boeckh  (C.I.G.  6761)  seems  to  have  no  independent  value,  but  to  have  been  com- 
posed on  the  basis  of  the  account  of  Zosimus.     See  Schiller,  i.  846.] 


Aureolus 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  287 

revenge  against  his  friends  and  family.  The  senate  was  per- 
mitted 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.9 

Such  ostentatious  clemency  discovers  less  of  the  real  character  clemency  ana 

p/-ii         -i.  i  -n-  ■  •  i-ii  l1_  justice  of 

or  Claudius  than  a  trifling  circumstance  in  which  he  seems  to  have  Claudius 
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.10 

In  the  arduous  task  which  Claudius  had  undertaken,  of  restoring  Heunder- 

.  -  .    °  takes  the  re- 

the  empire  to  its  ancient  splendour,  it  was  first  necessary  to  revive  formation  of 

i  .  #•         i  i       i       t  ,„..,       .,        thearmy 

among  his  troops  a  sense  01  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  dis- 
orders, 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  mean° 
of  luxury,  or  even  of  subsistence  ;  that  the  danger  of  each  in- 
dividual 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 
expatiated  on  the  mischiefs  of  a  lawless  caprice  which  the  soldier's 
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  victoiy.  He  painted  in  the  most 
lively  colours  the  exhausted  state  of  the  treasury,  the  desolation 
of  the  provinces,  the  disgrace  of  the  Roman  name,  and  the  inso- 
lent triumph  of  rapacious  barbarians.     It  was  against  those  bar- 

9  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. 

10  Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  137  [leg.  635 ;  c.  26]. 


empire 


288  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

barians,  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.11  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. 
ad.  269.  The  various  nations  of  Germany  and  Sarmatia  12  who  fought 

invade  the      under  the  Gothic  standard  had  already  collected  an  armament 

pmnirn  111-1  irti 

more  formidable  than  any  which  had  yet  issued  from  the  Euxine. 
On  the  banks  of  the  Dniester,  one  of  the  great  rivers  that  dis- 
charge themselves  into  that  sea,  they  constructed  a  fleet  of  two 
thousand,  or  even  of  six  thousand  vessels ; 13  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  vigour  and  success  of  the  expedition  were  not 
adequate  to  the  greatness  of  the  preparations.  In  then*  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  braveiy, 
were  soo:;  interrupted  by  the  rapid  approach  of  Claudius,  has- 
tening to  a  scene  of  action  that  deserved  the  presence  of  a  war- 
like prince  at  the  head  of  the  remaining  powers  of  the  empire. 

11  Zonaras  on  this  occasion  mentions  Posthumus ;  but  the  registers  of  the 
senate  (Hist.  August,  p.  203  [ib.  4])  prove  that  Tetricus  was  already  emperor  of 
the  western  provinces. 

13  [The  author  does  not  mention  the  coalition  of  Grethungi,  Tervingi,  Alamrmni 
and  other  nations,  which  Claudius  had  to  face  in  268.  The  Alamanni  crossed  the 
Brenner  and  were  dejected  by  Claudius  near  Lake  Garda.  Aurelius  Victor,  epit.  34, 
2  ;  Eckhel,  vii.  474  ;  C.  I.  L.  iii.  3521.] 

13  The  Augustan  History  mentions  the  smaller,  Zonaras  [Zosimus,  i.  42]  the 
larger,  number ;  the  lively  fancy  of  Montesquieu  induced  him  to  prefer  the  latter. 
[For  these  invasions  see  Hodgkin,  i.  c.  1.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  289 

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. 

We  still  possess  an  original  letter  addressed  by  Claudius  to  £jj££ee^a?d 
the  senate  and  people  on  this  memorable  occasion.  "  Conscript  ciandina 
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  Vale- 
rian, after  Ingenuus,  Regillianus,  Lollianus,  Posthumus,  Celsus, 
and  a  thousand  others,  whom  a  just  contempt  for  Gallienus  pro- 
voked 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.  What- 
ever we  shall  perform  will  be  sufficiently  great."  14  The  melan- 
choly 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. 

The  event  surpassed  his  own  expectations  and  those  of  the  ^r^017 
world.  By  the  most  signal  victories  he  delivered  the  empire  Gotha 
from  this  host  of  barbarians,  and  was  distinguished  by  posterity 
under  the  glorious  appellation  of  the  Gothic  Claudius.  The  im- 
perfect historians  of  an  irregular  war 15  do  not  enable  us  to  de- 
scribe the  order  and  circumstances  of  his  exploits  ;  but,  if  we 
could  be  indulged  in  the  illusion,  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  pre- 
pared 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  favourable  instant  was  improved  by  the 
activity  of  Claudius.  He  revived  the  courage  of  his  troops,  re- 
stored their  ranks,  and  pressed  the  barbarians  on  every  side. 

a4Trebell.  Pollio  in  Hist.  August,  p.  204  [xxv.  7]. 

15  Hist.  August,  in  Claud.  Aurelian.  et  Prob.  Zosimus,  1.  f.  p.  38-42  [c.  42]. 
Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  638  [c.  26].  Aurel.  Victor  in  Epitom.  Victor  Junior  in 
Caesar.  Eutrop.  ix.  n.  Euseb.  in  Chron.  [The  skill  with  which  Claudius 
planned  the  campaign  is  well  brought  out  in  the  account  of  Schiller,  i.  848.] 

19  VOL.    I 


290  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

Fifty  thousand  men  are  reported  to  have  been  slain  in  the  battle 
of  Naissus.  Several  large  bodies  of  barbarians,  covering  their 
retreat  with  a  moveable  fortification  of  waggons,  retired,  or  rather 
escaped,  from  the  field  of  slaughter.  II.  We  may  presume  that 
some  insurmountable  difficulty,  the  fatigue,  perhaps,  or  the  dis- 
obedience, of  the  conquerors,  prevented  Claudius  from  complet- 
ing in  one  day  the  destruction  of  the  Goths.  The  war  was 
diffused  over  the  provinces  of  Msesia,  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  Im- 
perial 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  circum- 
stance from  which  we  may  conclude  that  the  invaders  enter- 
tained 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,  deser- 
tion and  the  sword,  continually  diminished  the  imprisoned 
&.v.  270  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  Dniester. 
March.  The  pestilence  which   swept  away  such  numbers  of  the  bar- 

tmperor,  who  barians  at  length  proved  fatal  to  their  conqueror.     After  a  short 
Aureiianfor   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,16  one   of  his 

16  According  to  Zonaras  (1.  xii.  p.  63b  [ib.])  Claudius,  before  his  death,  invested 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  291 

generals,17  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 
valour,  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  the  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.18 

Notwithstanding  these  oracles,  the  greatness  of  the  Flavian  The  attompt 
family  (a  name  which  it  had  pleased  them  to  assume)  was  de-  Quintuius0 
ferred  above  twenty  years,  and  the   elevation   of  Claudius  oc- 
casioned   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  valour 
of  Aurelian  with  Imperial  power,  he  sunk  under  the  fame  and 
merit  of  his  rival ;  and,  ordering  his  veins  to  be  opened,  prudently  April 
withdrew  himself  from  the  unequal  contest.19 

The  general  design  of  this  work  will  not  permit  us  minutely  origin  and 
to  relate  the  actions   of  every  emperor  after  he  ascended  theAureuan 

him  with  the  purple ;  but  this  singular  fact  is  rather  contradicted  than  confirmed 
by  other  writers.  [Zonaras  says  that  Claudius  recommended  Aurelian  to  his 
officers,  and  that,  according  to  some,  he  even  proclaimed  him  emperor  on  the 
spot.] 

•7  [L.  Domitius  Aurelianus.] 

18  See  the  life  of  Claudius  by  Pollio,  and  the  orations  of  Mamertinus,  Eumenius, 
and  Julian.  See  likewise  the  Caesars  of  Julian,  p.  313.  In  Julian  it  was  not  adula- 
tion, but  superstition  and  vanity. 

1JZosimus,  1.  i.  p.  42  [47].  Pollio  (Hist.  August,  p.  206  [xxv.  12,  5])  allows 
him  virtues,  and  says  that  like  Pertinax  he  was  killed  by  licentious  soldiers. 
According  to  Dexippus  [quoted  by  Pollio,  Hist.  Aug.,  but  what  he  said  was  (not 
occisum  but)  mortuum  aTtoQa-vziv  nee  tamen  addit  morbo,  thus  leaving  it  doubtful] 
he  died  of  a  disease.  [M.  Aurelius  Claudius  Quintilius  (this  is  the  form  of 
his  name  on  coins,  and  in  best  MSS.  of  Hist  Aug. ;  Eckhel,  vii.  478).  It  is  to  be 
noted  that  the  Senate  favoured  his  claims.  He  had  been  stationed  to  guard  the 
Julian  Alps  and  Aquileia,  to  cover  the  rear  of  Claudius  in  his  Gothic  war.  He 
seems  to  have  gained  some  victory,  Cohen,  52.] 


292 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


[258  AD] 


Aurelian' s 
successful 
reign 


His  severe 
discipline 


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  ofSirmium,  who  occupied  a  small  farm, 
the  property  of  Aurelius,  a  rich  senator.  His  warlike  son  en- 
listed in  the  troops  as  a  common  soldier,  successively  rose  to  the 
rank  of  a  centurion,  a  tribune,  the  praefect  of  a  legion,  the  in- 
spector of  the  camp,20  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 
valour, 21  rigid  discipline,  and  successful  conduct.  He  was  in- 
vested 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  honourable  poverty  which  Aurelian  had  preserved 
inviolate.22 

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 


20  [This  seems  to  be  an  invention  of  Vopiscus.     Such  an  office  did  not  exist.] 

21  Theoclius  [Caesareanorum  temporum  scriptor]  (as  quoted  in  the  Augustan 
History,  p.  2ii  [xxvi.  6])  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  valour  was  admired  by  the  soldiers,  and  celebrated  in  their  rude 
songs,  the  burthen  of  which  was  mille  mille  mille  occidit. 

^Acholius  (ap.  Hist.  August,  p.  213  [xxvi.  12])  describes  the  ceremony  of  the 
adoption,  as  it  was  performed  at  Byzantium,  in  the  presence  of  the  emperor  and 
his  great  officers.  [Grave  doubts  are  felt  as  to  the  truth  of  these  statements 
which  Vopiscus  professes  to  quote  from  Acholius.  (1)  Aurelian  was  consul  for  the 
first  time  in  271, according  to  theconsular  Fasti(see Klein, Fasti  consulares,  no), and 
therefore  cannot  have  been  consul  in  258.  (2)  Had  he  been  adopted  by  Ulpius 
Crinitus,  he  must  have  assumed  the  name  of  his  adopted  father  ;  but  he  never  did 
so.  (3)  Some  of  the  persons  present  at  the  ceremony  held  offices  of  whose 
existence  before  Diocletian's  time  there  is  no  other  trace.  See  Rothkegel,  Die 
Regierung  des  Kaisers  Gallienus,  p.  10.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  293 

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  laborious ;  that  their  armour 
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  corn  fields,  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  spoil  of  the  enemy,  not  from  the  tears  of 
the  provincials."  23  A  single  instance  will  serve  to  display  the 
rigour,  and  even  cruelty,  of  Aurelian.  One  of  the  soldiers  hao 
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  Aure- 
lian 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. 

The  death  of  Claudius  had  revived  the  fainting  spirit  of  the  Goths.  He  concludes 
The  troops  which  guarded  the  passes  of  Mount  Hsemus,  and  the  theQolha 
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  favourable  opportu- 
nity, 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  en- 
countered by  Aurelian,  and  the  bloody  and  doubtful  conflict 
ended  only  with  the  approach  of  night.24  Exhausted  by  so 
many  calamities  which  they  had  mutually  endured  and  inflicted 
during  a  twenty  years'  war,  the  Goths  and  the  Romans  con- 
sented  to  a  lasting    and    beneficial   treaty.       It  was   earnestly 

23  Hist.  August,  p.  211  [xxvi.  7].  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  Saimasius. 
The  former  of  the  words  means  all  weapons  of  offence,  and  is  contrasted  with  Arma, 
defensive  armour.  The  latter  signifies  keen  and  well  sharpened.  [He  is  called 
restitutorexercitioncoms, Cohen,  175,  as  well  as  bythemoreambitioustitlem/?/«/0r 
orbis,  Cohen,  164^7.] 

a4Zosiin.  1.  1,  p.  45  [48] 


294  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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  auxili- 
aries, 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  connexions.25 
and  resign*         But  the  most  important  condition  of  peace  was  understood 
groyin"^?    rather  than  expressed  in  the  treaty.      Aurelian  withdrew  the 
Roman  forces  from  Dacia,  and  tacitly  relinquished  that  great 
province  to  the   Goths  and  Vandals.26      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  Dacia27  still  preserved 
the   memory  of  Trajan's  conquests.      The  old  country  of  that 
name  detained,  however,  a  considerable  number  of  its  inhabi- 
ts Dexippus  (ap.  Excerpta  Legat.  p.   12  [p.   19,  ed.  Bonn])  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    [xxix.    14,    15].       [The  author  is  mistaken  in 
applying  the  account  of  Dexippus  to  the  Goths :    the  negotiations  were  with  the 
Vandals.] 

26  Hist.  August,  p.  222  [xxvi.  39].    Eutrop.  ix.  15.    Sextus  Rufus,  c.  9.    Lactan- 
tius  de  mortibus  Persecutorum,  c.  9.      [But  see  above,  chap.  x.  note  106.] 

27  [Dacia  felix  on  coins,  Eckhel,  vii.  481.      Unfortunately  this  new  province, 
unlike  the  old,  had  no  strategic  importance.] 


Dacia 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  295 

tants,  who  dreaded  exile  more  than  a  Gothic  master.28  These 
degenerate  Romans  continued  to  serve  the  empire,  whose  allegi- 
ance they  had  renounced,  by  introducing  among  their  conquerors 
the  first  notions  of  agriculture,  the  useful  arts,  and  the  con- 
veniences 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  honour  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.29 

While  the  vigorous  and  moderate  conduct  of  Aurelian  restored  TheAiemaa- 
the  Illyrian  frontier,  the  nation  of  the  Alemanni30  violated  the  niowar 
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,31  and  the  numbers  of  the  infantry  doubled  those  of  the 
cavalry.32     The  first  objects  of  their  avarice  were  a  few  cities  of 

28  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,  torn.  xxx.  [The  Roumanian  boast  as  to  their 
descent  was  challenged  about  twenty  years  ago  by  Roesler,  whose  book  led  to 
a  notable  controversy,  which  will  claim  our  attention  at  a  later  stage.] 

29  See  the  first  chapter  of  Jornandes.  The  Vandals  however  (c.  22)  main- 
tained a  short  independence  between  the  rivers  Marisia  and  Crissia  (Maros  and 
Keres)  which  fell  into  the  Theiss. 

30  Dexippus,  p.  7-12  [fr.  25].  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  43  [49].  Vopiscus  in  Aurelian. 
in  Hist.  August,  [c.  18] .  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.  [Aurelius 
Victor,  35,  2,  says  Alamanni.  But  the  whole  narrative,  in  the  text  is  vitiated  by 
the  author's  deliberate  confusion  of  the  Juthungi,  Alamanni  and  Vandals.] 

31  Cantoclarus,  with  his  usual  accuracy,  chooses  to  translate  three  hundred 
thousand  ;  his  version  is  equally  repugnant  to  sense  and  to  grammar. 

33  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. 


September 


296  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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.33 
a.d:270.  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  Hercyniau  forest ;  and  the  Alemanni,  laden 
with  the  spoils  of  Italy,  arrived  at  the  Danube,  without  suspect- 
ing 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  astonish- 
ment gave  him  an  easy  victory ;  his  skilful  conduct  improved  the 
advantage.  Disposing  the  legions  in  a  semicircular  form,  he 
advanced  the  two  homs  of  the  crescent  across  the  Danube,  and, 
wheeling  them  on  a  sudden  towards  the  centre,  inclosed  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.34  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,35  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  figure36 
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 

33  In  Dexippus  we  at  present  read  Rhodanus  ;  M.  de  Valois  very  judiciously  alters 
the  word  to  Ei  idanus.  [This  narrative  of  Dexippus  refers  to  the  Juthungi,  not  to 
the  Alamanni.] 

s*  [Really  the  Juthungi,  Dexippus,  p.  25.  A.D.  270.  A  treaty  was  also  made 
with  the  Vandals,  ib.] 

35  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. 

36  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  210  [xxvi.  6] . 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  297 

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  con- 
fidence, 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  sub- 
mitting to  his  unconditioned  mercy,  or  awaiting  the  utmost 
severity  of  his  resentment.37  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. 

Immediately  after  this  conference  it  should  seem  that  some  fovaderuiy11 
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  bar- 
barians, 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.38  Aurelian,  who  considered  the  war  as  totally  ex- 
tinguished, 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.39 

As  the  light  troops  of  the  Alemanni  had  spread  themselves  and  are  at 

1'is  t  van- 

from  the  Alps  to  the  Apennine,  the  incessant  vigilance  of  A  ure-  mushed  "by 
lian  and  his  officers  was  exercised  in  the  discovery,  the  attack, 

37  Dexippus  gives  them  a  subtle  and  prolix  oration,  worthy  of  a  Grecian  Sophist. 

38  Hist.  August,  p.  215  [xxvi.  i8,  where  the  invaders  are  called  Marcomanni. 
The  second  invasion  of  the  Juthungi  (Dexippus,  ib.  adjin.)  may  have  been  connected 
with  this  Alamannic  invasion.] 

39  Dexippus,  p.  12  [fr.  25  adfiti.\ 


298  THE  DECLIKE  AND  FALL 

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  en- 
gaged.40 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.41  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  fuiy  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  honour  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.42  Thus  far  the  successful  Germans  had  advanced 
along  the  .ZEmilian  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.43  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. 
superstitious  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  valour  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  the 
salutary  measure,  chided  the  tardiness  of  the  senate,44  and 
offered  to  supply  whatever  expense,  whatever  animals,  what- 
ever captives  of  any  nation,  the  gods  should  require.  Not- 
withstanding this  liberal  offer,  it  does  not  appear  that  any 
human  victims  expiated  with  their  blood  the  sins  of  the  Roman 

40  Victor  Junior  in  Aurelian.  [Epit.  35]. 

41  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  216  [xxvi.  21,  1]. 

42  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. 

4S  It  is  recorded  by  an  inscription  found  at  Pezaro.  See  Gruter.  cclxxvi.  3  [Orelli, 
1031]. 

44  One  should  imagine,  he  said,  that  you  were  assembled  in  a  Christian  church, 
not  in  the  temple  of  all  the  gods. 


ceremonies 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  299 

people.  The  Sibylline  books  enjoined  ceremonies  of  a  more  aj>.  2m,  Jan. 
harmless  nature,  processions  of  priests  in  white  robes,  attended  u 
by  a  chorus  of  youths  and  virgins ;  lustrations  of  the  city  and 
adjacent  country ;  and  sacrifices,  whose  powerful  influence  dis- 
abled 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 
reinforcement.45 

But,  whatever  confidence  might  be  placed  in  ideal  ramparts,  o?^^etion3 
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.46  The  vast  inclosure  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  pro- 
gress of  Roman  greatness,  the  city  and  its  inhabitants  gradually 
increased,  filled  up  the  vacant  space,  pierced  through  the  use- 
less walls,  covered  the  field  of  Mars,  and,  on  every  side,  followed 
the  public  highways  in  long  and  beautiful  suburbs.47  The  ex- 
tent of  the  new  walls,  erected  by  Aurelian,  and  finished  in  the 
reign  of  Probus,  was  magnified  by  popular  estimation  to  near 
fifty  ;  48  but  is  reduced  by  accurate  measurement  to  about  twenty- 
one   miles.49       It  was  a  great   but  a  melancholy  labour,  since 

45Vopiscus  in  Hist.  Aug.  p.  215,216  [xxvi.  19  and  20]  gives  a  long  account  of 
these  ceremonies,  from  the  Registers  of  the  senate. 

46  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  over-run  with 
osiers  ;  that  in  the  fomth  century,  the  Aventine  was  a  vacant  and  solitary  retire- 
ment ;  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. 
[It  is  now  generally  admitted  that  Pliny  must  have  meant  the  circumference  of  the 
city  as  divided  by  Augustus  into  14  regions.] 

4?  Expatiantia  tecta  multas  addidere  urbes,  is  the  expression  of  Pliny. 

48  Hist.  August,  p.  222  [xxvi.  39,  2] .  Both  Lipsius  and  Isaac  Vossius  have 
eagerly  embraced  this  measure. 

49  See  Nardini,  Roma  Antica,  1.  i.  c.  8.  [Compare  Jordan,  Topographie  der 
Stadt  Rom  im  Alterthum,  i.  340  sqq.] 


300  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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,50  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.51 
Aureiian  The  victory  of  Claudius  over  the  Goths,  and  the  success  of 

theYwo868  Aureiian  against  the  Alemanni,  had  already  restored  to  the 
unurpers  arms  of  Rome  their  ancient  superiority  over  the  barbarous 
nations  of  the  North.  To  chastise  domestic  tyrants,  and  to  re- 
unite the  dismembered  parts  of  the  empire,  was  a  task  reserved 
for  the  latter  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, 
succession  of  A  rapid  succession  of  monarchs  had  arisen  and  fallen  in  the 
■usurpers  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.52  The 
death  of  Victorinus,  his  friend  and  associate,  was  occasioned  by 
a  less  worthy  cause.  The  shining  accomplishments  53  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.54      He  was  slain  at  Cologne,  by  a  con- 

50  Tacit.  Hist.  iv.  23. 

51  For  Aurelian's  walls,  see  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  216,  222  [xxvi.  21 ;  39]. 
Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  43  [49].  Eutropius,  ix.  15.  Aurel.  Victor  in  Aureiian.,  Victor 
Junior  in  Aureiian. ,  Euseb.  Hieronym.  et  Idatius  in  Chronic. 

52  His  competitor  was  Lollianus,  or  ^Elianus,  if  indeed  these  names  mean  the 
same  person.    See  Tillemont,  torn.  iii.  p.  1177.     [Laelianus.     See  Appendix  18.] 

33  The  character  of  this  prince  by  Julius  Aterianus  (ap.  Hist.  August,  p.  187 
[xxiv.  6] )  is  worth  transcribing,  as  it  seems  fair  and  impartial.  Victorino  qui  post 
Junium  Posthumum  Gallias  [G.  post  J.  P.]  rexit  neminem  existimo  [aestimo] 
prscferendum :  non  in  virtute  Trajanum  ;  non  Antoninum  in  dementia ;  non  in 
gravitate  Nervam ;  non  in  gubernando  serario  Vespasianum ;  non  in  censura 
totius  vitas  ac  severitate  militari  Pertinacem  vel  Severum.  Sed  omnia  haec  libido,  et 
cupiditas  voluptatis  mulierarise  [mul.  vol.]  sic  perdidit,  ut  nemo  audeat  virtutes  ejus 
in  literas  mittere  quem  constat  omnium  judicio  meruisse  puniri.  [The  right  readings 
are  inserted  in  brackets.] 

64  He  ravished  the  wife  of  Attitianus,  an  actuary,  or  army  agent.  Hist.  August, 
p.  186  [ib.].     Aurel.  Victor  in  Aureiian. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  301 

spiracy  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  successfully  to  place  Marius  and  Tetricus  on  the 
throne,  and  to  reign  with  a  manly  vigour  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.55 

When,  at  the  instigation  of  his  ambitious  patroness,  Tetricus  50  The  reign  and 
assumed  the  ensigns  of  royalty,  he  was  governor  of  the  peaceful  TetrtcuS' 
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  valour  and 
fortune  of  Aurelian  at  length  opened  the  prospect  of  a  deliver- 
ance. He  ventured  to  disclose  his  melancholy  situation,  and 
conjured  the  emperor  to  hasten  to  the  relief  of  his  unhappy  A  D  m 
rival.  Had  this  secret  correspondence  reached  the  ears  of  the Bummer' 
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  the  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  a  desperate  valour, 
till  they  were  cut  in  pieces  almost  to  a  man,  in  this  bloody  and 
memorable  battle,  which  was  fought  near  Chalons  in  Champagne.57 

65  Pollio  assigns  her  an  article  among  the  thirty  tyrants.  Hist.  Aug.  p.  200  [xxvi. 
31.    As  for  Marius,  see  Appendix  18.] 

56  [Gaius  Pius  (?)  Esuvius  Tetricus.  He  made  his  son  his  colleague,  compare 
Mommsen,  Staatsrecht,  ii.  1106,  and  Burdigala  (owing  to  his  Aquitanian  connexions) 
his  capital.] 

57  Pollio  in  Hist.  August  p.  196.  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  220  [xxiv.  24 ; 
xxvi.  32] .  The  two  Victors,  in  the  lives  of  Gallienus  and  Aurelian.  Eutropius, 
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,  torn,  xxx.)  does  not  wish,  and  Tillemont  (torn.  iii.  p.  1189) 


302  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

The  retreat  of  the  irregular  auxiliaries,  Franks  and  Batavians,58 
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. 

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.59  Lyons,  on  the  con- 
trary, had  resisted  with  obstinate  disaffection  the  arms  of  Aurelian. 
We  read  of  the  punishment  of  Lyons,60  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. 
a.d.  272.  Aurelian  had  no  sooner  secured  the  person  and  provinces  of 

zenobiaer  °  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  distin- 
guished 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.61  She  claimed  her  descent 
from  the  Macedonian  kings  of  Egypt,  equalled  in  beauty  her 
ancestor  Cleopatra,  and  far  surpassed  that  princess  in  chastity  62 
her  beauty  and  valour.  Zenobia  was  esteemed  the  most  lovely  as  well  as 
and  learning  ^e  most  heroic  of  her  sex.  She  was  of  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 

does  not  dare,  to  follow  them.  I  have  been  fairer  than  the  one,  and  bolder  than 
the  other.  [The  sources  leave  no  doubt  that  Aurelian  had  to  deal  with  Zenobia 
and  the  East  before  he  turned  to  Tetricus  and  Gaul.  Tillemont's  caution  was 
justified.] 

58  Victor  Junior  in  Aurelian.  Eumenius  mentions  Batavicm  ;  some  critics,  with- 
out any  reason,  would  fain  alter  the  word  to  Bagaudicce. 

59  Eumen.  in  Vet.  Panegyr.  iv.  8  \j>ro  restaur,  schol.  ed.  Bahrens,  p.  119] . 

60  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  246  [xxix.  13] .  Autun  was  not  restored  till  the 
reign  of  Diocletian.  See  Eumenius  de  restaurandis  scholis.  [On  Autun  (Augusto- 
dunum)  see  the  elaborate  essay  of  Mr.  Freeman,  Historical  Essays,  4th  series.] 

61  Almost  everything  that  is  said  of  the  manners  of  Odenathus  and  Zenobia 
is  taken  from  their  lives  in  the  Augustan  History,  by  Trebellius  Pollio,  see  p.  192, 
198  [xxiv.  15  and  30]. 

62  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. 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIRE  303 

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  com- 
pared the  beauties  of  Homer  and  Plato  under  the  tuition  of  the 
sublime  Longinus. 

This  accomplished  woman  gave  her  hand  to  Odenathus,  who  her  valour 
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  ardour  the  wild  beasts  of  the  desert, 
lions,  panthers,  and  bears ;  and  the  ardour  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. 

After  a  successful  expedition  against  the  Gothic  plunderers  of  she  revenges 
Asia,  the  Palmyrenian  prince  returned  to  the  city  of  Emesa  in  death"  an 
Syria.     Invincible   in  war,   he  was  there  cut  off  by  domestic 
treason,  and  his  favourite  amusement  of  hunting  was  the  cause, 
or  at  least  the  occasion,  of  his  death.63     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  ;  a.d.  267 
and  Maeonius,  with  a  few  daring  associates,  assassinated  his  uncle 
in  the  midst  of  a  great  entertainment.     Herod,  the  son  of  Odena- 

03  Hist.  August,  p.  192,  193  [xxiv.  15] .  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  36  [39] .  Zonaras,  1. 
xii.  p.  633  [c.  24] .  The  last  is  clear  and  probable,  the  others  confused  and  in- 
consistent. The  text  of  Syncellus  [i.  p.  717,  ed.  Bonn] ,  if  not  corrupt,  is  absolute 
nonsense. 


304  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

thus,  though  not  of  Zenobia,  a  young  man  of  a  soft  and  effemin- 
ate temper,64  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.65 
and  reigns  With  the  assistance  of  his  most  faithful  friends,  she  immedi- 

aZSTzgypt**  ately  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.66  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  eveiy  proper  occasion  she  ap- 
peared magnificent  and  liberal.  The  neighbouring  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  king- 
dom of  Egypt.  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.67  The 
conduct,  however,  of  Zenobia  was  attended  with  some  ambiguity; 
nor  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  successors  of  Cyrus.  She  bestowed  on  her 
three  sons 68  a  Latin  education,  and  often  showed  them  to  the 

64  Odenathus  and  Zenobia  often  sent  him,  from  the  spoils  of  the  enemy,  presents 
of  gems  and  toys,  which  he  received  with  infinite  delight. 

-'Some  very  unjust  suspicions  have  been  cast  on  Zenobia,  as  if  she  was 
accessory  to  her  husband's  death. 

66  Hist.  August,  p.  180,  181  [xxiii.  13.    See  Appendix  19.] 

67  See  in  Hist.  August,  p.  198  [xxiv.  30]  Aurelian's  testimony  to  her  merit ; 
and  for  the  conquest  of  Egypt,  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  39,  40  [44] . 

^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,  torn.  iii.  p.  1190.     [See  Appendix  19.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  305 

troops  adorned  with  the  Imperial  purple.  For  herself  she  re- 
served the  diadem,  with  the  splendid  but  doubtful  title  of  Queen 
of  the  East, 

When  Aurelian  passed  over  into  Asia,  against  an  adversary  raeExpedi- 
whose  sex  alone  could  render  her  an  object  of  contempt,  his  SS^Ajuna 
presence  restored  obedience  to  the  province  of  Bithynia,  already  CspriBs:! 
shaken  by  the  arms  and  intrigues  of  Zenobia.69  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.70  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.71 

Zenobia  would  have  ill  deserved  her  reputation,  had  she  in- The  emperor 
dolently  permitted  the  emperor  of  the  West  to  approach  within  pajmyrenianjj 
a   hundred  miles  of  her  capital.      The  fate    of  the  East  was  of  Antioch  es 
decided  in  two  great  battles  ;  so  similar  in  almost  every  circum- an    mesa 
stance  that  we  can  scarcely  distinguish  them  from  each  other, 
except  by  observing  that  the  first  was  fought  near  Antioch,72 
and  the  second  near  Emesa.73     In  both,  the  queen  of  Palmyra 
animated  the  armies  by  her  presence,  and  devolved  the  execu- 
tion 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  II- 
lyrian  horse  of  Aurelian  were  unable  to  sustain  the  ponderous 
charge  of  their  antagonists.     They  fled  in  real  or  affected  dis- 

69Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  44  [50]. 

70  Vopiscus  (in  Hist.  August,  p.  2i7[xxvi.  23,  24])  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 
bv  his  disciples,  that  we  are  at  a  loss  to  discover  whether  he  was  a  sage,  an  im- 
postor, or  a  fanatic. 

71  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  46  [52] . 

72  At  a  place  called  Immse.  Eutropius,  Sextus  Rufus,  and  Jerome,  mention 
only  this  first  battle. 

73Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  217  Txxvi.  25]  mentions  only  the  second. 

20  vol.  i- 


306  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

order,  engaged  the  Palmyrenians  in  a  laborious  pursuit,  harassed 
them  by  a  desultory  combat,  and  at  length  discomfited  this  im- 
penetrable but  unwieldy  body  of  cavalry.  The  light  infantry, 
in  the  meantime,  when  they  had  exhausted  their  quivers,  re- 
maining 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  valour  had  been  severely  tried  in  the 
Alemannic  war.74  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. 
The  state  of  Amid  the  barren  deserts  of  Arabia,  a  few  cultivated  spots  rise 
Palmyra        j.^  jsian(js  ou{.  Qf  ^e  san(jy  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  dis- 
tance,75 between  the  Gulf  of  Persia  and  the  Mediterranean, 
was  soon  frequented  by  the  caravans  which  conveyed  to  the 
nations  of  Europe  a  considei'able  part  of  the  rich  commodities 
of  India.  Palmyra  insensibly  increased  into  an  opulent  and  in- 
dependent 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  subor- 
dinate though  honourable  rank  of  a  colony.  It  was  during  that 
peaceful  period,  if  we  may  judge  from  a  few  remaining  inscrip- 
tions, that  the  wealthy  Palmyrenians  constructed  those  temples, 

74  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  44-48  [50-53].  His  account  of  the  two  battles  is  clear  and 
circumstantial. 

75  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. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIEE  307 

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  splendour  on  their  country,  and 
Palmyra  for  a  while  stood  forth  the  rival  of  Rome  :  but  the  com- 
petition was  fatal,  and  ages  of  prosperity  were  sacrificed  to  a 
moment  of  glory.76 

In  his  march  over  the  sandy  desert,  between  Emesa  and  it  u  besieged 
Palmyra,  the  Emperor  Aurelian  was  perpetually  harassed  by  thebyAureUan 
Arabs  ;  nor  could  he  always  defend  his  army,  and  especially  his 
baggage,  from  these  flying  troops  of  active  and  daring  robbers, 
who  watched  the  moment  of  surprise,  and  eluded  the  slow  pur- 
suit of  the  legions.  The  siege  of  Palmyra  was  an  object  far 
more  difficult  and  important,  and  the  emperor,  who  with  incessant 
vigour  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  war- 
like preparations,  of  stones,  of  arrows,  and  of  every  species  of 
missile  weapons.  Every  part  of  the  walls  is  provided  with  two 
or  three  balistce,  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  favourable  to  all  my  undertakings."77  Doubt- 
ful, 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. 

The  firmness  of  Zenobia  was  supported  by  the  hope  that  in  a  who  becomes 
very  short  time  famine  would  compel  the  Roman  army  to  repass zenobiaand 
the  desert ;  and  by  the  reasonable  expectation  that  the  kings  of0         y 
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 

76  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  splen- 
did manner  by  Messieurs  Wood  and  Dawkins.  For  the  history  of  Palmyra,  we 
may  consult  the  masterly  dissertation  of  Dr.  Halley  in  the  Philosophical  Transac- 
tions ;  Lowthorp's  Abridgment,  vol.  iii.  p.  518. 

77  Vopiscus  in  Hist   August,  p.  21S  [xxvi.  26]. 


308  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

of  Sapor,  which  happened  about  this  time,78  distracted  the  coun- 
cils of  Persia,  and  the  inconsiderable  succours  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,"9  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 
aj).  273  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  punish- 
ments at  the  end  of  so  memorable  a  war,  which  restored  to  the 
obedience  of  Rome  those  pi*ovinces  that  had  renounced  their 
allegiance  since  the  captivity  of  Valerian. 
Behaviour  of  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  dis- 
dained to  consider  as  Roman  emperors  an  Aureolus  or  a  Gallienus. 
You  alone  I  acknowledge  as  my  conqueror  and  my  sovereign."  80 
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  clamours  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 

W  From  a  very  doubtful  chronology  I  have  endeavoured  to  extract  the  most 
probable  date.  [The  death  of  Sapor  (Shahpur  1.)  is  variously  placed  in  269  and 
272  ;  his  son  was  involved  in  a  war  with  a  pretender.] 

7»  Hist.  August,  p.  218  [xxvi.  28].  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  50  [55].  Though  the 
camel  is  a  heavy  beast  of  burden,  the  dromedary,  who  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,  torn.  xi.  p.  222,  and  Shaw's  Travels,  p.  167. 

*°  Pollio  in  Hist.  August,  p.  199  [xxiv.  30,  23]. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  309 

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.81 

Returning  from  the  conquest  of  the  East,  Aurelian  had  already  Rebellion  and 
crossed  the  Streights  which  divide  Europe  from  Asia,  when  he  Palmyra 
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  resent- 
ment. We  have  a  letter  of  Aurelian  himself,  in  which  he 
acknowledges 82  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  re-establishment  of  a 
temple  of  the  Sun,  he  discovers  some  pity  for  the  remnant  of 
the  Palmyrenians,  to  whom  he  grants  the  permission  of  rebuild- 
ing 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. 

Another  and  a  last   labour   still   awaited   the   indefatigable  Aurelian 
Aurelian;  to  suppress  a  dangerous  though  obscure  rebel,  who,theprreebeuion 
during  the  revolt  of  Palmyra,  had  arisen  on  the  banks  of  the  Egypt 
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  connexions  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 

si  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  219  [xxvi.  30].     Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  51  [56J. 
83  Hist.  August,  p.  219  [xxvi.  31]. 


310  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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.  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.83 
Triiiphof  Since  the  foundation  of  Rome,  no  general  had  more  nobly 
Aurelian  deserved  a  triumph  than  Aurelian ;  nor  was  a  triumph  ever 
celebrated  with  superior  pride  and  magnificence.84  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  ward- 
robe of  the  Syrian  queen,  were  disposed  in  exact  symmetry  or 
artful  disorder.  The  ambassadors  of  the  most  remote  parts  of 
the  earth,  of  ^Ethiopia,  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  like- 
wise 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  Gothic  nation  who  had  been  taken  in 
arms.85  But  every  eye,  disregarding  the  crowd  of  captives,  was 
fixed  on  the  emperor  Tetricus  and  the  queen  of  the  East.     The 

88  See  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  220,  242  [xxvi.  32,  xxix.  5].  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. 

84  See  the  triumph  of  Aurelian,  described  by  Vopiscus.  He  relates  the  particu- 
lars with  his  usual  minuteness  ;  and  on  this  occasion  they  happen  to  be  interesting. 
Hist.  August.  220  [xxvi.  33]. 

85  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. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  311 

former,  as  well  as  his  son,  whom  he  had  created  Augustus,  was 
dressed  in  Gallic  trowsers,86  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.87 
The  most  illustrious  of  the  senate,  the  people,  and  the  army, 
closed  the  solemn  procession.  Unfeigned  joy,  wonder  and  grati- 
tude 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.88 

But  however,  in  the  treatment  of  his  unfortunate  rivals,  His  treatment 
Aurelian  might  indulge  his  pride,  he  behaved  towards  them  with  and  zenowa 
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  honourable  repose. 
The  emperor  presented  Zenobia  with  an  elegant  villa  at  Tibur, 
or  Tivoli,  about  twenty  miles  from  the  capital;  the  Syrian  queen 
insensibly  sank  into  a  Roman  matron,  her  daughters  married  into 
noble  families,  and  her  race  was  not  yet  extinct  in  the  fifth 

86  The  use  of  Braccce,  breeches,  or  trowsers,  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  vj'whfascicz,  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. 

87  Most  probably  the  former  :  the  latter,  seen  on  the  medals  of  Aurelian,  only 
denote  (according  to  the  learned  Cardinal  Norris  [Noris])  an  oriental  victory. 

88  The  expression  of  Calphurnius  (Eclog.  i.  50),  Nullos  ducet  captiva  triumphos, 
as  applied  to  Rome,  contains  a  very  manifest  allusion  and  censure.  [Gibbon 
supposed  Calpurnius  to  have  been  a  contemporary  of  Carus.  It  is  now  established 
that  Calpurnius  wrote  under  Nero,  and  that  the  games  which  he  describes  were 
celebrated  by  that  prince.  Some  of  the  idylls  however  which  were  ascribed  to 
Calpurnius  were  really  written  (as  Haupt  has  proved)  by  Nemesianus,  the  author 
of  the  Cynegetica,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Carus.] 


312  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

century.89  Tetricus  and  his  son  were  reinstated  in  their  rank 
and  fortunes.  They  erected  on  the  Cselian  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  histoiy.  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  govern- 
ment of  Lucania,90  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.91 
His  magnifl.  So  long  and  so  various  was  the  pomp  of  Aurelian's  triumph 
devotion  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  representa- 
tions, 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.92  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 

89  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  199  [xxiv.  29].  Hieronym.  in  Chron.  Prosper  in 
Chron.  Baronius  supposes  that  Zenobius,  bishop  of  Florence  in  the  time  of  St. 
Ambrose,  was  of  her  family. 

^Vopisc.  in  Hist.  August,  p.  222  [xxvi.  39,  1].  Eutropius,  ix.  13.  Victor 
Jun  or.  But  Pollio  in  Hist.  August,  p.  196,  says  that  Tetricus  [xxiv.  24]  was  made 
corrector  of  all  Italy.     [See  Appendix  20.] 

91  Hist.  August,  p.  197  [xxiv.  25]. 

92  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  222  [xxvi.  39].  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  56  [61].  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. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIKE  313 

which  the  fortunate  peasant  imbibed  in  his  infancy  ;  and  every 
step  of  his  elevation,  every  victory  of  his  reign,  fortified  supersti- 
tion by  gratitude.93 

The  arms  of  Aurelian  had  vanquished  the  foreign  and  domes-  He  suppresses 
tic  foes  of  the  republic.  We  are  assured  that,  by  his  salutary  Jtaome 
rigour,  crimes  and  factions,  mischievous  arts  and  pernicious  con- 
nivance, the  luxuriant  growth  of  a  feeble  and  oppressive  govern- 
ment, were  eradicated  throughout  the  Roman  world.94  But,  if 
we  attentively  reflect  how  much  swifter  is  the  progress  of  cor- 
ruption 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."  95 
Other  writers,  who  confirm  the  same  fact,  add  likewise  that  it 
happened  soon  after  Aurelian's  triumph  ;  that  the  decisive  en- 
gagement was  fought  on  the  Caelian  Hill ;  that  the  workmen  of 
the  mint  had  adulterated  the  coin ;  and  that  the  emperor  re- 
stored the  public  credit  by  delivering  out  good  money  in  ex- 
change for  the  bad  which  the  people  was  commanded  to  bring 
into  the  treasury.90 

We  might  content  ourselves  with  relating  this  extraordinary  observations 
transaction,  but  we  cannot  dissemble  how  much,  in  its  present upon  tt 
form,  it  appears  to  us  inconsistent  and  incredible.     The  debase- 
ment of  the  coin  is,  indeed,  well  suited  to  the  administration  of 
Gallienus ;   nor  is  it  unlikely  that  the  instruments  of  the  cor- 

93  See  in  the  Augustan  History,  p.  210  [xxvi.  4],  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.  107  [108,  109]. 

81  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  221  [xxvi.  37]. 

95  Hist.  August,  p.  222  [xxvi.  38].  Aurelian  calls  those  soldiers  Hileri  [in  best 
MSS.  the  name  is  corrupt— Iembariorum\  Riparicnses,  Castriani,  and  Dacisci, 

96  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  56  [61].     Eutropius,  ix.  14.    Aurel.  Victor. 


314  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

ruption  might  dread  the  inflexible  justice  of  Aurelian.  But  the 
guilt,  as  well  as  the  profit,  must  have  been  confined  to  a  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.97  In  an  age  when  the 
principles  of  commerce  were  so  imperfectly  understood,  the 
most  desirable  end  might  perhaps  be  affected  by  harsh  and 
inj  udicious  means  ;  but  a  temporary  grievance  of  such  a  nature 
can  scarcely  excite  and  support  a  serious  civil  war.  The  repeti- 
tion and  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  other- 
wise 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  Avhich  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.98  Nothing  less  than  the  firm  though 
seci*et  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, 
iuretian'  Whatever  was  the  cause  or  the  object  of  this  rebellion,  imputed 

97  Hist.  August,  p.  222  [xxvi.  38].    Aurel.  Victor.     [Aurelian's  monetary  reform 
does  not  seem  to  have  passed  much  beyond  the  stage  of  excellent  intentions.] 

98  It  already  raged  before  Aurelian's  return  from  Egypt.     See  Vopiscus   who 
quotes  an  original  letter.     Hist.  August,  p.  244  [xxix.  5]. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  315 

with  so  little  probability  to  the  workmen  of  the  mint,  Aurelian 
used  his  victory  with  unrelenting  rigour."  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  disre- 
garded 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  hasty  spirit  of  revenge  urged  the  bloody  prosecu- 
tion, and  it  proved  fatal  to  one  of  the  nephews  of  the  emperor. 
The  executioners  (if  we  may  use  the  expression  of  a  contem- 
porary poet)  were  fatigued,  the  prisons  were  crowded,  and  the 
unhappy  senate  lamented  the  death  or  absence  of  its  most  illus- 
trious members.100  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.101 

It  was  observed  by  one  of  the  most  sagacious  of  the  Roman  ho  marches 
princes  that  the  talents  of  his  predecessor  Aurelian  were  better  a^duasf"*!- 
suited  to  the  command  of  an  army  than  to  the  government  of  an  nated 
empire.102      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  theA.D.ar4, 
restless  temper  of  the  legions  in  some  foreign  war,  and  the0ctober 
Persian  monarch,  exulting  in  the  shame  of  Valerian,  still  braved 
with  impunity  the  offended  majesty  of  Rome.     At  the  head  of 

99  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  222  [xxvi.  38] .  The  two  Victors.  Eutropius, 
ix.  14.  Zosimus  (L  i.  p.  43)  mentions  only  three  senators,  and  places  their  death 
before  the  eastern  war. 

100  Nulla  catenati  feralis  pompa  senatus 

Carnificum  lassabit  opus ;  nee  carcere  pleno 
Infelix  raros  numerabit  curia  Patres. — Calphurn.  Eclog.  i.  60. 
[See  above,  note  88.] 

101  According  to  the  younger  Victor,  he  sometimes  wore  the  diadem  [Epit.  35]. 
Deus  and  Dominus  appear  on  his  medals. 

102  It  was  the  observation  of  Diocletian.  See  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  224 
[xxvi.  44J. 


316  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

an  army,  less  formidable  by  its  numbers  than  by  its  discipline 
and  valour,  the  emperor  advanced  as  far  as  the  Streights  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  re- 
solved to  secure  their  lives  by  the  murder  of  the  emperor.  On 
his  march,  between  Byzantium  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 
ad. 275,  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.103 

108  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  221  [xxvi.  35].  Zosiraus,  1.  i.  p.  57  [62].  Eutrop. 
ix.  15.  The  two  Victors.  [Lactantius,  de  mrrt.  pers.  6,  JohnofAntioch.fr.  156 
(F.  H.  G.  iv.).  The  date  of  Aurelian's  murder  is  uncertain,  but  Gibbon  puts  it  at 
least  eight  months  too  early.  Alexandrian  coins  prove  that  he  was  alive  on,  or 
shortly  before  (the  coins,  as  Herzog  suggests,  might  have  been  struck  in  advance 
and  circulated  notwithstanding  the  emperor's  death)  29th  August,  275.  Herzog 
(who  deals  with  the  problem  in  his  Gesch.  und  System  der  rom.  Staatsverf.  ii.  p. 
585)  accepts  the  date  25th  Sept.  (Hist.  Aug.  xxvii.  3)  for  the  election  of  Tacitus  by 
the  senate,  rejecting  (1)  the  date  Feb.  3  (xxvi.  41,  3),  and  (2)  the  statements  as  to 
an  interregnum  of  six  or  eight  months ;  and  (3)  condemning  the  evidence  of  an 
inscription  on  an  Orleans  milestone  (in  Henzen's  collection  5551)  which  would 
place  Aurelian's  death  at  the  end  of  275.  This  is  confirmed  by  the  statement  that  he 
reignedabout  fiveandahalf years  (cp.  Hist.  Aug.  xxvi.  37,4,asamendedbyGiambelli, 
after  Eutropius,  ix.  15) ;  he  did  not  become  emperor  before  spring  270.  See  next 
chapter,  note  3.     Cp.  Schilljr,  i.  871-2.] 


January 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE         317 


CHAPTER  XII 

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,  Extraordi- 
whatever  might  be  their  conduct,  their  fate  was  commonly  the  between  the 
same.  A  life  of  pleasure  or  virtue,  of  severity  or  mildness,  of  senate'lror  the 
indolence  or  glory,  alike  led  to  an  untimely  grave  ;  and  almost  emperor 
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  per- 
fidious 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  unani- 
mous 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." x  The  Roman  senators  heard,  without 
surprise,  that  another  emperor  had  been  assassinated  in  his  camp ; 
they  secretly  rejoiced  in  the  fall  of  Aurelian ;  but  the  modest 
and  dutiful  address  of  the  legions,  when  it  was  communicated  in 
full  assembly  by  the  consul,  diffused  the  most  pleasing  astonish- 
ment. Such  honours  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 

1  Vopiscus  in   Hist.    August,    p.   222  [xxvi.  40].     Aurelius  Victor  mentions  a 
formal  deputation  from  the  troops  to  the  senate. 


318  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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  ac- 
customed 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. 
ad  275  Feb  ^he  contention  that  ensued  is  one  of  the  best  attested,  but 
lAtera^m"1  most  improbable,  events  in  the  history  of  mankind.2  The  troops, 
montghi  as  ^  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  an  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. 

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  philo- 
sopher, 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 

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.  [See  Appendix  i.  ]  Zosimus  and  Zonaras  appear  as  ignorant  of  this 
transaction  as  they  were  in  general  of  the  Roman  constitution.  [The  interregnum 
was  six  months,  according  to  Vopiscus,  xxvii.  i,  i,  and  xxvi.  40,  4.  Eight  months 
results  from  combining  the  date  3rd  February  (xxvi.  41,  3)  with  25th  September 
(xxvii.  3,  2).     But  see  last  chapter,  note  103.] 

3  Liv.  i.  17.     Dionys.  Halicarn.  1.  ii.  p.  115  [57].      Plutarch,  in  Numa,  p.  60. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  319 

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  im- 
mense and  tumultuous  capital,  a  wide  extent  of  empire,  the  ser- 
vile equality  of  despotism,  an  army  of  four  hundred  thousand 
mercenaries,  and  the  experience  of  frequent  revolution.  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  vigour. 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  September,4  near  eight  months  after  the  a.d.  275, 

o  Setit  25 

murder  of  Aurelian,  the  consul  convoked  an  assembly  of  the  senate,  The  consuiaa. 
and  reported  the  doubtful  and  dangerous  situation  of  the  empire,  aenata" 
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  farther  delay  in  the  choice  of  an 
emperor.  Intelligence,  he  said,  Mas  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  scepti'e  to  the 
asnctity  of  the  Roman  laws.  The  consul  then,  addressing  himself 
to  Tacitus,  the  first  of  the  senators,5  required  his  opinion  on 
the  important  subject  of  a  proper  candidate  for  the  vacant 
throne. 

If  we  can  prefer  personal  merit  to  accidental  greatness,  we  character  of 
shall  esteem  the  birth  of  Tacitus  more  truly  noble  than  that  of 
kings.     He  claimed  his  descent  from  the  philosophic  historian 

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. 

4  [This  date  is  confirmed  by  xxvii.  13,  6,  whereas  that  of  the  former  meeting  of 
the  senate,  3rd  February,  is  probably  false.] 

5Vopiscus  (in  Hist.  August,  p.  227  [xxvii.  4])  calls  him  "  primas  sententias 
consularis";  and  soon  afterwards,  Princeps  senates.  It  is  natural  to  suppose 
that  the  monarchs  of  Rome,  disdaining  that  humble  title,  resigned  it  to  the  most 
ancient  of  tht:  senators. 


320  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

whose  writings  will  instruct  the  last  generations  of  mankind.6 
The  senator  Tacitus  was  then  seventy-five  years  of  age.7  The 
long  period  of  his  innocent  life  was  adorned  with  wealth  and 
honours.  He  had  twice  been  invested  wkh  the  consular  dignity,8 
and  enjoyed  with  elegance  and  sobriety  his  ample  patrimony 
of  between  two  and  three  millions  sterling.9  The  experi- 
ence of  so  many  princes,  whom  he  had  esteemed  or  endured, 
from  the  vain  follies  of  Elagabalus  to  the  useful  rigour  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.10  The  voice  of  the 
people  had  already  named  Tacitus  as  the  citizen  the  most  worthy 
of  empire.  The  ungrateful  rumour  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  honourable  place  in  the  senate,  and  to  assist  the  republic  with 
his  counsels  on  this  important  occasion. 
He  is  elected  He  arose  to  speak,  when,  from  every  quarter  of  the  house,  he 
emperor  was  sajuj-e(j  wjth  the  names  of  Augustus  and  Emperor.  "  Tacitus 
Augustas,  the  gods  preserve  thee,  we  choose  thee  for  our  sove- 
reign, to  thy  care  Ave  intrust  the  republic  and  the  world.  Ac- 
cept 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  honour,  and  to  express  his  wonder  that  they 
should  elect  his  age  and  infirmities  to  succeed  the  martial  vigour 
of  Aurelian.  "  Are  these  limbs,  conscript  fathers  !  fitted  to  sus- 
tain the  weight  of  armour,  or  to  practise  the  exercises  of  the 

6  The  only  objection  to  this  genealogy  is  that  the  historian  was  named  Cornelius, 
the  emperor,  Claudius  [M.  Claudius  Tacitus].  But  under  the  Lower  Empire 
surnames  were  extremely  various  and  uncertain. 

?Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  637  [28].  The  Alexandrian  Chronicle,  by  an  obvious 
mistake,  transfers  that  age  to  Aurelian. 

8  In  the  year  273  he  was  ordinary  consul.  But  he  must  have  been  Suffectus 
many  years  before,  and  roost  probably  under  Valerian. 

9  Bis  millies  octingenties.  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  229  [xxvii.  10].  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. 

10  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,   Landipsius  ad  Annal.  ii.  9. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  321 

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  in- 
sufficient would  it  prove  to  the  arduous  labours  of  war  and  govern- 
ment !  Can  you  hope  that  the  legions  will  respect  a  weak  old 
man,  whose  days  have  been  spent  in  the  shade  of  peace  and  re- 
tirement ?  Can  you  desire  that  I  should  ever  find  reason  to 
regret  the  favourable  opinion  of  the  senate  ?"  u 

The  reluctance  of  Tacitus,  and  it  might  possibly  be  sincere,  and  accepts 
was  encountered  by  the  affectionate  obstinacy  of  the  senate.  Five  epurp 
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  valour  of  the  legions. 
These  pressing  though  tumultuary  instances  were  seconded  by  a 
more  regular  oration  of  Metius  Falconius,  the  next  on  the  consu- 
lar 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.12 

The  administration  of  Tacitus  was  not  unworthy  of  his  life  and  Authority  of 
principles.  A  grateful  servant  of  the  senate,  he  considered  that 
national  council  as  the  author,  and  himself  as  the  subject,  of  the 
laws.13  He  studied  to  heal  the  wounds  which  Imperial  pride, 
civil  discord,  and  military  violence  had  inflicted  on  the  constitu- 
tion, and  to  restore,  at  least,  the  image  of  the  ancient  republic, 
as  it  had  been  preserved  by  the  policy  of  Augustus,  and  the 

nVopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p  227  [xxvii.  4]. 

12  Hist.  August,  p.  228  [xxvii.  7].  Tacitus  addressed  the  Praetorians  by  the 
appellation  of  sanctissimi  milites,  and  the  people  by  that  of  sacratissimi  Quirites. 

13  In  his  manumissions  he  never  exceeded  the  number  of  an  hundred,  as  limited 
by  the  Caninian  law,  which  was  enacted  under  Augustus,  and  at  length  repealed 
by  lustinian.     See  Casaubon  ad  locum  Vopisci.     [S.C.  appears  on  his  coins.] 

21  VOL.    I. 


322  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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.14 
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  favour  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  magis- 
trates 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.15 
Their  joy  and  Circular  epistles  were  sent,  without  delay,  to  all  the  principal 
confidence  cjties  of  the  empire,  Treves,  Milan,  Aquileia,  Thessalonica, 
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 

14 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. 

15  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  216  [xxvi.  20].  The  passage  is  perfectly  clear : 
yet  both  Casaubon  and  Salmasius  wish  to  correct  it.  [Est  praeterea  vestrae 
auctoritatis  area  publica.  ] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  323 

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."  16  These  lofty  expectations  were, 
however,  soon  disappointed;  nor,  indeed,  was  it  possible  that  the 
armies  and  the  provinces  should  long  obey  the  luxurious  and  un- 
warlike  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  for  ever. 

All  that  had  yet  passed  at  Rome  was  no  more  than  a  theatrical  a.d.  276. 
representation,  unless  it   was  ratified   by  the  more  substantia]  acknowledged 
power  of  the    legions.     Leaving   the   senators   to    enjoy   their  y    eanny 
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  him- 
self to  the  soldiers  with  elegance  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.17 

Whilst  the  deceased  emperor  was  making  preparations  for  a  The  Aiani 
second  expedition  into  the  East,  he  had  negotiated  with  the  and  are 
Alani,  a  Scythian  people,  who  pitched  their  tents  in  the  Tacit™  y 
neighbourhood  of  the  lake  Maeotis.  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  valour  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 

16Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  230,  232,  233  [xxvii.  18,  19].      The  senators 
celebrated  the  happy  restoration  with  hecatombs  and  public  rejoicings. 
17  Hist.  August  p.  228  [xxvii.  8]. 


324 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


death  of  the 
Emperor 

Tacitus 


A.D.  zre, 

April  12 

Usurpation 
and  death  of 
hi»  brother 
Florianus 


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  of  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.18 

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.19  It  is  certain  that  their  insolence  was  the  cause  of  his 
death.  He  expired  at  Tyana  in  Cappadocia,  after  a  reign  of 
only  six  months  and  about  twenty  days.20 

The  eyes  of  Tacitus  were  scarcely  closed  before  his  brother 

"Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  230  [xxvii.  13].  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  57  [63]. 
Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  637  [28].  Two  passages  in  the  life  of  Probus  (p.  236,  238  [8  and 
12])  convince  me  that  these  Scythian  invaders  of  Pontus  were  Alani.  [Rather, 
Goths;  cp.  Victoria  Gothica,  Cohen,  6,  236;  title  Gothicus Maximus,  Wilmanns, 
1046.]  If  we  may  believe  Zosimus  (1.  i.  p.  58  [64]),  Florianus  pursued  them  as  far 
as  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus.  But  he  had  scarcely  time  for  so  long  and  difficult 
an  expedition. 


"  Eutropius  [xv.  9]  and  Aurelius  Victor  [Cses.  36] 
Junior  adds  that  it  was  of  a  fever.  Zosimus  [i.  63^ 
he  was  killed  by  the  soldiers.  Vopiscus  [xxvii.  13' 
seems  to  hesitate.     Yet  surely  these  jarring  opinions  are  easily  reconciled 

20  According  to  the  two  Victors,  he  reigned  exactly  two  hundred  days. 


only  say  that  he  died  ;  Victor 
and  Zonaras  [ib.]  affirm  that 
mentions  both  accounts,  and 


OE  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  325 

Florianus21  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  de- 
fended ;  Tarsus  opened  its  gates,  and  the  soldiers  of  Florianus, 
when  they  had  permitted  him  to  enjoy  the  Imperial  title  about 
three  months,22  delivered  the  empire  from  civil  war  by  the  easy 
sacrifice  of  a  prince  whom  they  despised.23 

The  perpetual  revolutions  of  the  throne  had  so  perfectly  ^beB1^^Uy 
erased  every  notion  of  hereditary  right,  that  the  family  of  an  obscurity 
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,24  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 

21  [M.  Annius  Florianus.] 

tzyVix  duobus  mensibus,  Hist.  Aug.  xxvii.  14;  2  months,  20  days,  Eutropius.] 

23  Hist.  August,  p.  231  [xxvii.  14].  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  58,  50  [64,  65].  Zonaras, 
1.  xii.  p.  637  [28].  Aurelius  Victor  says  that  Probus  assumed  the  empire  in  Illyri- 
cum,  an  opinion  which  (though  adopted  by  a  very  learned  man)  would  throw  that 
period  of  history  into  inextricable  confusion.  [Probus  was  dux  tohus  orientis,  but 
the  army  seems  to  have  summoned  him  from  Illyricum.] 

24  Hist.  August,  p.  229  [xxvii.  io,  1]. 


326  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

rise,  the  protector  of  the  senate,  the  restorer  of  Rome,  and  the 
conqueror  of  the  whole  earth.25 
character *nd  The  peasants  of  IUyricum,  who  had  already  given  Claudius 
the  emperor  and  Aurelian  to  the  sinking  empire,  had  an  equal  right  to  glory 
in  the  elevation  of  Probus.26  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  honourable  rewards 
reserved  by  ancient  Rome  for  successful  valour.  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.27  Aurelian  was  in- 
debted to  him  for  the  conquest  of  Egypt,  and  still  more  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  ;  2S  in  the  full  possession  of 
his  fame,  of  the  love  of  the  army,  and  of  a  mature  vigour  of 
mind  and  body. 
ms  respectful  His  acknowledged  merit,  and  the  success  of  his  arms  against 
wanu the  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  reluc- 
tance.    "  But  it  is  no  longer  in  my  power,"  says  Probus,  in  a 

28  He  was  to  send  judges  to  the  Parthians,  Persians,  and  Sarmatians,  a  president 
to  Taprobana,  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. 

2,5  For  the  private  life  of  Probus,  see  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  234-237 
[xxviii.  3  sqq.     M.  Aurelius  Probus,  Eckhel,  vii.  500.] 

27  [Semper  victorioso  which  appears  on  coins  was  thus  deserved  before  his 
elevation.] 

28  According  to  the  Alexandrian  Chronicle,  he  was  fifty  at  the  time  of  his  death. 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  327 

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."  29  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  ances- 
tors 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  favour  or  in  that  of  any  other  person. 
The  prudent  soldiers  have  punished  his  rashness.  To  me  they 
have  offered  the  title  of  Augustus.  But  I  submit  to  your  clem- 
ency my  pretensions  and  my  merits."30  When  this  respectful 
epistle  was  read  by  the  consul,  the  senators  were  unable  to  dis-  a.d.  m 
guise  their  satisfaction  that  Probus  should  condescend  thus  ngTIB 
humbly  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,31  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  re- 
public. The  reign  of  Probus  corresponded  with  this  fair  begin- 
ning. The  senate  was  permitted  to  direct  the  civil  administration 
of  the  empire.  Their  faithful  general  asserted  the  honour  of 
the  Roman  arms,  and  often  laid  at  their  feet  crowns  of  gold  and 
barbaric  trophies,  the  fruits  of  his  numerous  victories.32     Yet, 

20  The  letter  was  addressed  to  the  Praetorian  prsefect,  whom  (on  condition  of  his 
good  behaviour)  he  promised  to  continue  in  his  great  office.  See  Hist.  Aug.  p. 
237  [xxviii.  10]. 

30  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  237  [ib.  n].  The  date  of  the  letter  is  assuredly 
faulty.  Instead  of  Non.  Februar.  we  may  read  Non.  August.  [So  Tillemont  and 
Clinton.  The  evidence  of  Alexandrian  coins  shows  that  Probus  ascended  the 
throne  before  29th  August,  276.] 

31  Hist.  August,  p.  238  [ib.  12,  8].  It  is  odd  that  the  senate  should  treat  Pro- 
bus  less  favourably  than  Marcus  Antoninus.  That  prince  had  received,  even  before 
the  death  of  Pius,  Jus  quintae  relationis.     See  Capitolin.  in  Hist.  August,  p.  24. 

32  See  the  dutiful  letter  of  Probus  to  the  senate,  after  his  German  victories.  Hist. 
August,  p.  239  [xxviii.  15]. 


328  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

whilst  he  gratified  their  vanity,  he  must  secretly  have  despised 
their  indolence  and  weakness.  Though  it  was  every  moment  in 
their  power  to  repel  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. 
XKSJotw  The  strength  of  Aurelian  had  crushed  on  every  side  the  enemies 
thebarba-  Gf  Rome.  After  his  death  they  seemed  to  revive,  with  an  in- 
crease of  fury  and  of  numbers.  They  were  again  vanquished  by 
the  active  vigour  of  Probus,  who,  in  a  short  reign  of  about  six 
years,33  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.34  He  attacked 
[278]  the  Isaurians  in  their  mountains,  besieged  and  took  several  of 

their  strongest  castles,35  and  flattered  himself  that  he  had  for 
ever  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,36 
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  valour  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.     Cams,   Diocletian,   Maximian,   Constantius, 

33  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  seras  of  several 
of  the  Syrian  cities. 

s^Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  239  [xxviii.  16,  3,  omnes  Geticos  populos]. 

35  Zosimus  (L  i.  p.  62-65  [69])  tells  a  very  long  and  trifling  story  of  Lydius  the 
I  saurian  robber. 

^Zosim.  1.  i.  p.  65  [71].     Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  239,  240  [xxviii.  17,  4  and 

18,  1].      But  it  seems  incredible  that  the  defeat  of  the  savages  of  ^Ethiopia  could 

affect  the  Persian  monarch.     [There  is  no  proof  that  Probus  was  in  Egypt  during 

his  reign  ;  but  he  celebrated  the  successes  against  the  Blemmyes  and  the  annexation 

of  Ptolemais  with  a  costly  triumph.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  329 

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.37 

But  the  most  important  service  which  Probus  rendered  to  the  a.d.  277. 
republic  was  the  deliverance  of  Gaul,  and  the  recovery  of  seventy  oani  from  the 
flourishing  cities  oppressed  by  the  barbarians  of  Germany,  who,  the  Germans 
since  the  death  of  Aurelian,  had  ravaged  that  great  province  with 
impunity.3S  Among  the  various  multitude  of  those  fierce  in- 
vaders we  may  distinguish,  with  some  degree  of  clearness,  three 
great  armies,  or  rather  nations,  successively  vanquished  by  the 
valour  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  oc- 
cupied the  flat  maritime  country,  intersected  and  almost  over- 
flown 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  [278] 
banks  of  the  Oder  to  those  of  the  Seine.  They  esteemed  them- 
selves sufficiently  fortunate  to  purchase,  by  the  restitution  of  all 
their  booty,  the  permission  of  an  undisturbed  retreat.  They  at- 
tempted to  elude  that  article  of  the  treaty.  Their  punishment 
was  immediate  and  terrible.39  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.40  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  ad- 
vances, covered  as  it  were  with  a  funereal  shade  ; 41  nor  do  they 

37  Besides  these  well-known  chiefs,  several  others  are  named  by  Vopiscus  (Hist. 
August,  p.  241  [ib.  22]),  whose  actions  have  not  reached  our  knowledge. 

38 See  the  Caesars  of  Julian,  and  Hist.  August,  p.  238,  240,  241  [ib.  15,  18]. 

39Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  62  [67,  68].  Hist.  August,  p.  240  [leg.  238,  ib.  14].  But  the 
latter  supposes  the  punishment  inflicted  with  the  consent  of  their  kings ;  if  so,  it  was 
partial,  like  the  offence.  [In  277  Prubus  himself  drove  back  the  Alamanni  "  beyond 
the  Neckar  and  the  Alba"  (  =  Rauhe  Alp  of  Swabia)  while  his  generals  repelled  the 
Franks.     The  Burgundian  victory  was  perhaps  in  278.] 

40  See  Cluver.  Germania  Antiqua,  1.  iii.  Ptolemy  places  in  their  country  the 
city  of  Calisia,  probably  Calish  in  Silesia.  [The  author  has  made  too  much 
of  the  AoyiWes  mentioned  by  Zosimus  (ib.).  It  is  quite  uncertain  who  this  people 
was.] 

41  Feralis  utnbra  is  the  expression  of  Tacitus :  it  is  surely  a  very  bold  one.  [A 
misapprehension.     Umbra  is  ablative  and  feralis  agrees  with  exercilus.] 


330  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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.  "  42  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 
honourable  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  labour  to  the  Romans,  and  of  expense  to  the 
emperor,  who  gave  a  piece  of  gold  for  the  head  of  every  bar- 
barian.43 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. 
andcarrioi  Since  the  expedition  of  Maximin,  the  Roman  generals  had 
Germanylnt0  confined  their  ambition  to  a  defensive  war  against  the  nations  of 
Germany,  who  perpetually  pressed  on  the  frontiers  of  the 
[277i  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  Neckar.44  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 

42  Tacit.  Germania  (c.  43). 
^Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  238  [ib.  15]. 

44  [These  events  belong  to  the  year  277,  and  the  reduction  of  the  Alamanni.     See 
above,  note  39,  where  Albain,  which  Gibbon  took  for  Albitn,  is  explained.] 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIRE  331 

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  indis- 
pensably 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.45  Had  Germany  been  re- 
duced into  the  state  of  a  province,  the  Romans,  with  immense 
labour  and  expense,  would  have  acquired  only  a  more  extensive 
boundary  to  defend  against  the  fiercer  and  more  active  barba- 
rians of  Scythia. 

Instead  of  reducing  the  warlike  natives  of  Germany  to  the  Hebuiidsa 
condition  of  subjects,  Probus  contented  himself  with  the  humble  Rhine  to  the 
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.46  The  fertility  of  the  soil  soon  attracted  a  new 
colony  from  the  adjacent  provinces  of  Gaul.  Crowds  of  adven- 
turers, of  a  roving  temper  and  of  desperate  fortunes,  occupied  the 
doubtful  possession,  and  acknowledged,  by  the  payment  of  tithes, 
the  majesty  of  the  empire.47  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  con- 
structed a  stone  wall  of  a  considerable  height,  and  strengthened 
it  by  towers  at  convenient  distances.  From  the  neighbourhood 
of  Neustadt  and  Ratisbon  on  the  Danube,  it  stretched  across 
hills,  valleys,  rivers,  and  morasses,  as  far  as  Wimpfen  on  the 
Neckar,  and  at  length  terminated  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine, 
after   a   winding  course   of  near   two   hundred  miles.48      This 

46  Hist.  August,  p.  238,  239  [ib.  14,  15].  Vopiscus  quotes  a  letter  from  the 
emperor  to  the  senate,  in  which  he  mentions  his  design  of  reducing  Germany  into 
a  province. 

^Strabo,  1.  vii.  [p.  290].  According  to  Velleius  Paterculus  (ii.  108)  Maro- 
boduus  led  his  Marcomanni  into  Bohemia  :  Cluverius  (Germ.  Antiq.  iii.  8) 
proves  that  it  was  from  Swabia. 

47  These  settlers,  from  the  payment  of  tithes,  were  denominated  Decumates. 
[Tacit.  Germania,  c.  29.] 

48  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 
Jllustrala  of  Schoepflin.     [For  the  Germanic  limes  see  Appendix  21.] 


332         THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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.49  An  active  enemy,  who  can  select  and  vary  his 
points  of  attack,  must,  in  the  end,  discover  some  feeble  spot  or 
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. 

Among  the  useful  conditions  of  peace,  imposed  by  Probus  on 
the  vanquished  nations  of  Germany,  was  the  obligation  of  supply- 
ing 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  rein- 
forcement 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.50  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  frontier  of  the  Rhine 
and  Danube  still  produced  minds  and  bodies  equal  to  the  labours 
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  wisdem  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 

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

60  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. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  333 

encouragement  that  might  engage  them  to  educate  a  race  of 
soldiers  for  the  service  of  the  republic.  Into  Britain,  and  most 
probably  into  Cambridgeshire/1  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.52  Great  numbers  of  Franks  and  Gepidae  were  settled 
on  the  banks  of  the  Danube  and  the  Rhine.  An  hundred  thousand 
Bastarnae,  expelled  from  their  own  country,  cheerfully  accepted 
an  establishment  in  Thrace,  and  soon  imbibed  the  manners  and 
sentiments  of  Roman  subjects.53  But  the  expectations  of  Probus 
were  too  often  disappointed.  The  impatience  and  idleness  of 
the  barbarians  could  ill  brook  the  slow  labours  of  agriculture. 
Their  unconquerable  love  of  freedom,  rising  against  despotism, 
provoked  them  into  hasty  rebellions,  alike  fatal  to  themselves  and 
to  the  provinces ; 5*  nor  could  these  artificial  supplies,  however 
repeated  by  succeeding  emperors,  restore  the  important  limit  of 
Gaul  and  Illyricum  to  its  ancient  and  native  vigour. 

Of  all  the  barbarians  who  abandoned  their  new  settlements,  During  «n- 
and  disturbed  the  public  tranquillity,  a  very  small  number  re-  tS^fnaka 
turned  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  success- 
ful 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  that  frontier 
against  the  inroads  of  the  Alani.  A  fleet  stationed  in  one  of 
the  harbours  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  navies  of  Athens  and  Carthage  had  formerly 
been  sunk,  was  sacked  by  a  handful  of  barbarians,  who  massacred 

61  Camden's  Britannia,  Introduction,  p.  136;  but  he  speaks  from  a  very  doubtful 
conjecture. 

62  Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  62  [68].      According  to  Vopiscus,  another  body  of  Vandals 
was  less  faithful. 

63  Hist.  August,  p.  240  [ib.   18].     They  were  probably  expelled  by  the  Goths. 
Zosim.  1.  i.  p.  66  [71]. 

64 Hist.  August,  p.  240  [ib.]. 


334  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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.55  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. 
Revolt  of  Notwithstanding  the  vigilance  and  activity  of  Probus,  it  was 

the  East  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  favourable  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."  56  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 
a.d.279  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  im- 
probable news  of  his  defection.57     Saturninus  might,  perhaps, 

55  Panegyr.  Vet.  v.  18  [ed.  Bahrens,  p.  145].     Zosimus,  1.  i.  p.  66  [71]. 

66  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  245,  246  [xxix.  10].  The  unfortunate  orator  had 
studied  rhetoric  at  Carthage,  and  was  therefore  more  probably  a  Moor  (Zosim.  1.  i. 
p.  60  [66])  than  a  Gaul,  as  Vopiscus  calls  him. 

67  Zonaras,  1.  xii.  p.  638  [29]. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  335 

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. 

The  revolt  of  Saturninus  was  scarcely  extinguished   in   the  ad.  m. 
East,  before   new  troubles   were  excited  in   the   West  by  the  °nd  ptocujus 
rebellion  of  Bonosus  and  Proculus  in  Gaul.     The  most  distin- m  6atU 
guished  merit  of  those  two  officers  was  their  respective  prowess, 
of  the  one  in  the  combats  of  Bacchus,  of  the  other  in  those  of 
Venus ; 5S  yet  neither   of  them  were  destitute  of  courage  and 
capacity,  and  both  sustained,  with  honoui",  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  fortunes  as  well  as  the  lives  of  their  innocent  families.59 

The  arms  of  Probus  had  now  suppressed  all  the  foreign  andA.o.zsi. 
domestic  enemies  of  the  state.  His  mild  but  steady  administra-  theUemPPeror 
tion  confirmed  the  re-establishment  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 
valour  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.60  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  confine- 
ment, 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 
honourable  death,  and  the  satisfaction  of  a  just  revenge.61 

68  A  very  surprising  instance  is  recorded  of  the  prowess  of  Proculus.  He  had 
taken  one  hundred  Sarmatian  virgins.  The  rest  of  the  story  we  must  relate  in 
his  own  language.  Ex  his  una  nocte  decern  inivi :  omnes  tamen,  quod  in  me  erat, 
mulieres  intra  dies  quindecim  reddidi.     Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  246  [ib.  12]. 

69  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,  Nee  latrones  esse,  nee  principes 
sibi  placere.  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  247  [ib.  13 :  sibi  non  placere  esse  vel 
principes  vel  latrones]. 

60  Hist.  August,  p.  240  [xxviii.  19]. 
P  Zosim.  1.  i.  p.  66  [71]. 


336  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

His  discipline  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  employ- 
ing the  legions  in  constant  and  useful  labours.  When  Probus  com- 
manded in  Egypt,  he  executed  many  considerable  works  for  the 
splendour  and  benefit  of  that  rich  country.  The  navigation  of 
the  Nile,  so  important  to  Rome  itself,  was  improved ;  and  temples, 
bridges,  porticoes,  and  palaces,  were  constructed  by  the  hands  of 
the  soldiers,  who  acted  by  turns  as  architects,  as  engineers,  and 
as  husbandmen.62  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.63  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  labour.64  One 
of  these,  known  under  the  name  of  Mount  Alma,  was  situated 
near  Sirmium,  the  country  where  Probus  was  bom,  for  which  he 
ever  retained  a  partial  affection,  and  whose  gratitude  he  endea- 
voured to  secure  by  converting  into  tillage  a  large  and  unhealthy 
track  of  marshy  ground.  An  army  thus  employed  constituted 
perhaps  the  most  useful,  as  well  as  the  bravest,  portion  of  the 
Roman  subjects. 

His  death  But,  in  the  prosecution  of  a  favourite  scheme,  the  best  of  men, 

satisfied  with  the  rectitude  of  their  intentions,  are  subject  to 
forget  the  bounds  of  moderation  ;  nor  did  Probus  himself  suffi- 
ciently consult  the  patience  and  disposition  of  his  fierce  legion- 
aries.65 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  labours  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 

62  Hist.  August,  p.  236  [ib.  9]. 

«3Aurel.  Victor  in  Prob.  But  the  policy  of  Hannibal,  unnoticed  by  any  more 
ancient  writer,  is  irreconcileable  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.     Livius,  xxx.  37  [leg.  35]. 

6*  Hist.  August,  p.  240  [ib.  18,  8].  Eutrop.  ix.  17.  Aurel.  Victor  in  Prob. 
Victor  Junior  [ep.  37,  3].  He  revoked  the  prohibition  of  Domitian,  and  granted 
a  general  permission  of  planting  vines  to  the  Gauls,  the  Britons,  and  the  Pannonians. 

65  Julian  bestows  a  severe,  and  indeed  excessive,  censure  on  the  rigour  of  Probus, 
who,  as  he  thinks, almost  deserved  his  fate.     [In  the  Ccesars.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  337 

to  the  interests  of  mankind  than  to  those  of  the  army,  he  ex- 
pressed the  vain  hope  that,  by  the  establishment  of  universal 
peace,  he  should  soon  abolish  the  necessity  of  a  standing  and 
mercenary  force.66  The  unguarded  expression  pi'oved  fatal  to 
him.  In  one  of  the  hottest  days  of  summer,  as  he  severely 
urged  the  unwholesome  labour  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  pro- 
gress   of  the  work.67     The   tower  was  instantly  forced,  and  a  ad. 282, 

■  Amnut 

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  honourable  monument,  the 
memory  of  his  virtues  and  victories.68 

When  the  legions  had  indulged  their  grief  and  repentance  for  Election  ana 
the  death  of  Probus,  their  unanimous  consent  declared  Carus,  cam* 
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  IHyricum,  from  Gaul,  or  from  Africa.69  Though 
a  soldier,  he  had  received  a  learned  education ;  though  a  senator, 

66  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  241  [ib.  20,  3-6].  He  lavishes  on  this  idle  hope 
a  large  stock  of  very  foolish  eloquence. 

67  Turris  ferrata.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  moveable  tower,  and  cased  with  iron. 
Carus  (according  to  Greek  sources)  was  proclaimed  Imperator  in  Raetia  before  the 

death  of  Probus.  In  fact  the  hesitation  of  Probus  about  proceeding  to  quell  the 
rebellion  seems  to  have  been  the  immediate  cause  of  his  fall.  See  Anon.  Contin. 
of  Dio,  5,  and  John  of  Antioch,  fr.  160  (F.  H.  G.  iv.).] 

68  Probus,  et  vere  probus  situs  est :  Victor  omnium  gentium  Barbararum  ;  victor 
etiam  tyrannorum.  [He  survived  the  29th  August,  276,  we  know  by  Alexandrian 
coins.  There  is  some  variation  in  the  sources  as  to  the  length  of  his  reign.  Hist. 
Aug.  xxviii.  2i,  he  was  killed  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign;  Aurelius  Victor,  Caes. 
37,  4,  he  reigned  somewhat  less  than  six  years,  epit.  37,  1,  six  years  ;  Cassiodorus, 
Chron. ,  he  reigned  six  years,  three  months  ;  Orosius,  7,  24,  gives  him  six  years,  four 
months.] 

69  Yet  all  this  may  be  conciliated.  He  was  born  at  Narbonne  [Narona]  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.  [M. 
Aurelius]  Carus  himself  was  educated  in  the  capital.  See  Scaliger,  Animadversion, 
ad  Euseb.  Chron.  p.  241. 

22  vol.  1. 


338  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

he  was  invested  with  the  first  dignity  of  the  army ;  and,  in  an 
age  when  the  civil  and  military  professions  began  to  be  irre- 
coverably 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  favour  and 
esteem  he  was  highly  indebted,  he  could  not  escape  the  sus- 
picion of  being  accessary  to  a  deed  from  whence  he  derived  the 
principal  advantage.  He  enjoyed,  at  least  before  his  elevation, 
an  acknowledged  character  of  virtue  and  abilities : 70  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.71  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.72 
_        .  The  authority  of  the  senate  expired  with  Probus  ;  nor  was  the 

The  senti-  .   •'.  n  r    .    ,         ,  , *  •  „  _  ,  . 

aentaofUie  repentance  ot  the  soldiers  displayed  by  the  same  dutitul  regard 
people  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.73  A  behaviour  so  very 
opposite  to  that  of  his  amiable  predecessor  afforded  no  favourable 
presage  of  the  new  reign  ;  and  the  Romans,  deprived  of  power 
and  freedom,  asserted  their  privilege  of  licentious  murmurs.74 
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  noon-tide  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 

70  Probus  had  requested  of  the  senate  an  equestrian  statue  and  a  marble  palace, 
at  the  public  expense,  as  a  just  recompens  of  the  singular  merit  of  Carus.  Vopis- 
cus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  249  [xxx.  6]. 

71Vopiscusin  Hist.  August,  p.  242,  249  [xxix.  1,  xxx.  3].  Julian  excludes  the 
Emperor  Carus  and  both  his  sons  from  the  banquet  of  the  Caesars. 

7'2  John  Malala,  torn.  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  names  of  the  sons  were 
M.  Aurelius  Carinus  and  M.  Aurelius  Numerianus]. 

73  Hist.  Aug.  p.  249  [xxx.  5:.  Carus  congratulated  the  senate,  that  one  of  their 
own  order  was  made  emperor. 

74  Hist.  Aug.  p.  242  [xxviii.  24]. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  339 

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.75 

It  is  more  than  probable  that  these  elegant  trifles  never  reached  cams  defeat* 
the  ears  of  a  veteran  general,  who,  with  the  consent  of  the  legions,  an*,  an?* 
was  preparing  to  execute  the  long-suspended  design  of  the  Per-th/last 
sian  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.76  The  safety  of  Illyricum  was  confirmed 
by  a  memorable  defeat  of  the  Sarmatians  ; 7r  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,  en- 
camping 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. 

The  successor  of  Artaxerxes,  Varanes  or  Bahram,  though  he  a.d.  283. 
had  subdued  the  Segestans.  one  of  the  most  warlike  nations  oi  ence  to  the 

"Persian 

Upper  Asia,78  was  alarmed  at  the  approach  of  the  Romans  and  ambassadors 
endeavoured  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 

75  See  the  first  eclogue  of  Calphurnius.  The  design  of  it  is  preferred  by  Fon- 
tenelle  to  that  of  Virgil's  Pollio.  See  torn.  iii.  p.  148.  [See  above,  chap.  xi.  note 
88.1 

76  Hist.  August,  p.  250  [xxx.  7].     Eutropius,  ix.  18.     Pagi,  Annal. 

77  [And  Quadi,  see  Eckhel,  7,  522.] 

78Agathias,  1.  iv.  p.  135.  We  find  one  of  his  sayings  in  the  Bibliotheque  Orien- 
tate of  M.  d'Herbelot.  "The  definition  of  humanity  includes  all  other  virtues." 
[The.  Persian  king  was  Varahran  II.] 


340 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


His  victories 

and  extra- 


A.D.  233, 
December  25 


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.79  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. 

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  seem  to  have  surrendered  without  resistance),  and  carried 
his  victorious  arms  beyond  the  Tigris.80  He  had  seized  the 
favourable  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  transport  the  news  of  such  important  advan- 
tages. Flattery  and  hope  painted,  in  the  most  lively  colours, 
the  fall  of  Persia,  the  conquest  of  Arabia,  the  submission  of 
Egypt,  and  a  lasting  deliverance  from  the  inroads  of  the  Scythian 
nations.81  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  best  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 


79  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. 

80  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  250  [ib.].      Eutropius,  ix.  18.    The  two  Victors. 

81  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.  [This  dialogue,  always  printed 
with  Lucian's  works,  has  been  held  to  belong  to  the  reign  of  Heraclius,  by  R. 
Crampe,  Philopatris,  1894.]     But  cp.  below,  vol  ii.  p.  531. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  341 

been  able  to  investigate  the  truth,  his  death  was  the  natural 
effect  of  his  disorder."  82 

The  vacancy  of  the  throne  was  not  productive  of  any  disturb-  *»  J*eJnbcy  Ut 
ance.  The  ambition  of  the  aspiring  generals  was  checked  by  carinusand 
their  mutual  fears,  and  young  Numerian,  with  his  absent  brother  Numerian 
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  re- 
cover from  their  consternation,  would  advance  sword  in  hand  to 
the  palaces  of  Susa  and  Ecbatana.83  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.84  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.85 

The  intelligence  of  the  mysterious  fate  of  the  late  emperor  a.d.  284. 
was  soon  carried  from  the  frontiers  of  Persia  to  Rome ;  and  the  carina 
senate,  as  well  as  the  provinces,  congratulated  the  accession  of 
the  sons  of  Carus.  These  fortunate  youths  were  strangers,  how- 
ever, 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 

82  Hist.  August,  p.  250  [xxx.  8].  Yet  Eutropius,  Festus,  Rufus,  the  two  Victors, 
Jerome,  Sidonius  Apollinaris,  Syncellus,  and  Zonaras,  all  ascribe  the  death  of  Carus 
to  lightning.     [It  took  place  before  Aug.  29,  283.] 

83  See  Nemesian.  Cynegeticon,  v.  71,  &c. 

84  See  Festus  and  his  commentators,  on  the  word  Scribonianum.  Places  struck 
with  lightning  were  surrounded  with  a  wall ;  things  were  buried  with  mys- 
terious ceremony. 

85  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  250  [xxx.  9].  Aurelius  Victor  seems  to  believe 
the  prediction,  and  to  approve  the  retreat. 


342  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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  ; 86 
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,87  most  of  whom 
he  left  pregnant ;  and,  notwithstanding  this  legal  inconstancy, 
found  time  to  indulge  such  a  variety  of  irregular  appetites  as 
brought  dishonour  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  demeanour,  frequently  declaring  that 
he  designed  to  distribute  their  estates  among  the  populace  of 
Rome.       From    the    dregs   of    that   populace    he    selected   his 
favourites,  and  even  his  ministers.     The  palace,  and  even  the 
Imperial  table,  was  filled  with  singers,  dancers,  prostitutes,  and 
all  the  various  retinue  of  vice  and  folly.     One  of  his  door-keep- 
ers 88  he  intrusted  with  the  government  of  the  city.  In  the  room 
of  the  Praetorian  praefect,  whom  he  put  to  death,  Carinus  substi- 
tuted one  of  the  ministers  of  his  looser  pleasures.    Another  who 
possessed  the  same,  or  even  a  more  infamous,  title  to  favour, 
was  invested  with  the  consulship.     A  confidential  secretary,  who 
had  acquired  uncommon  skill  in  the  art  of  forgeiy,  delivered  the 
indolent  emperor,  with  his  own  consent,  from  the  irksome  duty 
of  signing  his  name. 

When  the  Emperor  Cams  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 

83  Nemesian.  Cynegeticon,  v.  69.     He  was  a  contemporary,  but  a  poet. 

87  [The  name  of  one  of  his  wives,  Magnia  Urbica,  is  now  known  ;  C.  I.  L.  8, 
2384-] 

88  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 
Ca^aubon  and  Salmasius,  ad  Hist.  August,  p.  253  [xxx.  16]. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  343 

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  Con- 
stantius,  who  at  that  time  was  governor  of  Dalmatia.  But  the 
elevation  of  Constantius  was  for  a  while  deferred  ;  and,  as  soon 
as  a  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.89 

The  only  merit  of  the  administration  of  Carinus  that  history  He  ceietrates 
could  record  or  poetry  celebrate  was  the  uncommon  splendour  games 
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  Dio- 
cletian 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.90  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,  acknow- 
ledged that  they  were  all  surpassed  by  the  superior  magnificence 
of  Carinus.91 

The  spectacles  of  Carinus  may  therefore  be  best  illustrated  by  spectacles  of 
the  observation  of  some  particulars,  which  history  has  conde- 
scended 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.92  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 

89Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  253,  254  [xxx.  16,  17].  Eutropius,  ix.  19.  Victor 
Junior.  The  reign  of  Diocletian,  indeed,  was  so  long  and  prosperous,  that  it  must 
have  been  very  unfavourable  to  the  fame  of  Carinus. 

^Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  254  [xxx.  17].  He  calls  him  Cams,  but  the 
sense  is  sufficiently  obvious,  and  the  words  were  often  confounded. 

91  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.  [See 
chap.  xi.  note  88.] 

92  The  philosopher  Montaigne  (Essais.  1.  iii.  6)  gives  a  very  just  and  lively  view 
of  Roman  magnificence  in  these  spectacles. 


344  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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  an  hundred  lions,  an  equal 
number  of  lionesses,  two  hundred  leopards,  and  three  hundred 
bears.93  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  singular- 
ity of  the  animals.  Twenty  Zebras  displayed  their  elegant  forms 
and  variegated  beauty  to  the  eyes  of  the  Roman  people.94  Ten 
elks,  and  as  many  camelopards,  the  loftiest  and  most  harmless 
creatures  that  wander  over  the  plains  of  Sarmatia  and  Ethiopia, 
were  contrasted  with  thh*ty  African  hyaenas,  and  ten  Indian 
tigers,  the  most  implacable  savages  of  the  torrid  zone.  The 
unoffending  strength  with  which  Nature  has  endowed  the  greater 
quadrupedes  was  admired  in  the  rhinoceros,  the  hippopotamus  of 
the  Nile,95  and  a  majestic  troop  of  thirty-two  elephants.96  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  acci- 
dental 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.97  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. 
The  amphi-         The  hunting  or  exhibition  of  wild  beasts  was  conducted  with 

theatre 

93Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  240  [xxviii.  19]. 

94  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. 

95  Carinus  gave  an  hippopotamus  (see  Calphurn.  Eclog.  vii.  66).  In  the  later 
spectacles,  I  do  not  recollect  any  crocodiles,  of  which  Augustus  once  exhibited 
thirty-six.     Dion  Cassius,  1.  lv.  p.  781  [10]. 

96Capitolin.  in  Hist.  August,  p.  164,  165  [xx.  32,  33].  We  are  not  acquainted 
with  the  animals  whom  he  calls  arckeleontes,  some  read  argoleontes  [Salmasius], 
others  agrioleontes  [Scaliger] :  both  corrections  are  very  nugatory. 

97  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  viii.  6,  from  the  annals  of  Piso. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  345 

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  amphi- 
theatre of  Titus,  which  so  well  deserved  the  epithet  of  Colossal.98 
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."  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  above  fourscore  thousand 
spectators.100  Sixty-four  vomitories  (for  by  that  name  the  doors 
were  very  aptly  distinguished)  poured  forth  the  immense  multi- 
tude ;  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.101  Nothing  was 
omitted  which,  in  any  respect,  could  be  subservient  to  the  con- 
venience 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  continually  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  after- 
wards broken  into  the  rocks  and  caverns  of  Thrace.  The  sub- 
terraneous 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 

98  See  Maffei,  Verona  Illustrata,  P.  iv.  1.  i.  c.  2. 

"Maffei,  1.  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  fxvi.  10). 
Yet  how  trifling  to  the  great  pyramid  of  Egypt,  which  rises  five  hundred  feet 
perpendicular ! 

100  According  to  different  copies  of  Victor,  we  read  seventy-seven  thousand, 
or  eighty-seven  thousand  spectators ;  but  Maffei  (I.  ii.  c.  12)  finds  room  on  the 
open  seats  for  no  more  than  thirty-four  thousand.  The  remainder  were  contained 
in  the  upper  covered  galleries. 

101  See  Maffei,  1.  ii.  c.  5-12.  He  treats  the  very  difficult  subject  with  all  possible 
clearness,  and  like  an  architect,  as  well  as  an  antiquarian. 


346 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


A.D  284, 
Sept.  12 


Return  of 
Numenan 
with  the 
army  from 
Persia 


replenished  with  the  monsters  of  the  deep.102  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.103  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  gdded ;  and  that  the  bell  or  circle  which  divided 
the  several  ranks  of  spectators  from  each  other  was  studded  with 
a  precious  Mosaic  of  beautiful  stones.104 

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.105  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.100 

The  sons  of  Cams  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.107  It  is  uncertain 
whether  they  intended  to  divide  between  them  the  administra- 
tion 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 


102Calphurn.  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. 

303  Consult  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  xxxiii.  16,  xxxvii.  11. 

104  Balteus  en  gemmis,  en  inlita  porticus  auro. 
Certatim  radiant,  &c.     Calphurn.  vii.  [47]. 

105  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,  torn.  i.  p.  403. 

10s  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. 

107  Nemesianus  (in  the  Cynegeticon)  seems  to  anticipate  in  his  fancy  that 
auspicious  day  [80  sqq.\ 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  347 

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  veiy  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.108  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,109 
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  honour  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.110 

It  was  not  till  eight  months  after  the  death  of  Carus  that  the  Death  of 
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.111  But  a 
report  soon  circulated  through  the  camp,  at  first  in  secret 
whispers,  and  at  length  in  loud  clamours,  of  the  emperor's 
death,  and  of  the  presumption  of  his  ambitious  minister,  who 

108  He  won  all  the  crowns  from  Nemesianus,  with  whom  he  vied  in  didactic 
poetry.  [Nam  et  cum  Olympio  Ntmesiano  contendit  qui  aXievriKo.  Kw-nyeriKa  et 
vavTiica.  scripsit  inque  omnibus  colonis  inlusiratus  emicuit.]  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  [xxx.  11]. 

109 A  more  natural  cause  at  least,  than  that  assigned  by  Vopiscus  (Hist. 
August,  p.  251  [ib.  12]),  incessant  weeping  for  his  father's  death. 

110  In  the  Persian  war,  Aper  was  suspected  of  a  design  to  betray  Carus.  Hist. 
August,  p.  250  [xxx.  8]. 

111  We  are  obliged  to  the  Alexandrian  Chronicle,  p.  274,  for  the  knowledge 
of  the  time  and  place  where  Diocletian  was  elected  emperor.  [Chronicon  Pasch. 
j.  510,  ed.  Bonn.] 


348  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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.112  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  re-established  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 
ad. 284,  tribunal  was  erected  in  the  midst  of  the  camp,  and  the  generals 
liecuonof  and  tribunes  formed  a  great  military  council.  They  soon 
DtoctoSw0*  announced  to  the  multitude  that  their  choice  had  fallen  on 
Diocletian,  commander  of  the  domestics  or  body-guards,113  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.114  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.115  A  charge 
supported  by  such  decisive  proof  was  admitted  without  contra- 
diction, and  the  legions,  with  repeated  acclamations,  acknow- 
ledged the  justice  and  authority  of  the  emperor  Diocletian.116 

us  Hist.  August,  p.  251  [xxx.  12].  Eutrop.  ix.  18.  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  ? 

113  [C.  Aurelius  Valerius  Diocletianus.     He  was  comes  domesticorum.] 

n*  Aurel.  Victor  [Caes.  39].     Eutropius,  ix.  20.     Hieronym.  in  Chron. 

115  [Vopiscus  was  informed  by  his  grandfather,  an  eye-witness  of  this  scene,  that 
Diocletian  uttered  the  famous  words  of  ..Eneas  :  ALneae  magni  dextra  cadis  ( Virg. 
dE.n.  x.  830).] 

lie  Vopiscus  in  Hist.  August,  p.  252  [ib.  14,  15].  The  reason  why  Diocletian 
killed  Aper  (a.  wild  boar),  was  founded  on  a  prophecy  and  a  pun,  as  foolish  as  they 
are  well  known. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  349 

Before  we  enter  upon  the  memorable  reign  of  that  prince,  it  Defeat  and 
will  be  proper  to  punish  and  dismiss  the  unworthy  brother  of  carinus 
Numerian.  Carinus  possessed  arms  and  treasures  sufficient  to 
support  his  legal  title  to  the  empire.117  But  his  personal  vices 
overbalanced  eveiy  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  favour  of  his  rival,  and  even  the  senate 
was  inclined  to  prefer  an  usurper  to  a  tyrant.  The  arts  of  Dio- 
cletian 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  en-  a.d.  285, 
countered  each  other  in  the  plains  of  Margus,  a  small  city  of 
Maesia,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Danube.118  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  valour  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.119 

117  [And  also  a  certain  measure  of  energy.  In  his  struggle  against  Diocletian  he 
gained  successes  before  his  final  defeat.  See  Hist.  Aug.  ib.  18,  2.  And  he  sup- 
pressed a  tyrant  in  Pannonia,  one  M.  Aurelius  Julianus  (perhaps  corrector  of 
Venetia).     Aur.  Vict.  Caes.  39.     John  of  Antioch,  163.] 

118  Eutropius  marks  its  situation  very  accurately ;  it  was  between  the  Mons  Aureus 
and  Viminacium.  M.  d'Anville  (Ge"ographie  Ancienne,  torn  i.  p.  304)  places  Mar- 
gus at  Kastolatz  in  Servia,  a  little  below  Belgrade  and  Semendria.  [It  is  where  the 
river  Margus,  now  Morawa,  joins  the  Danube.  Cp.  Chron.  of  354,  p.  648,  and 
Jordanes,  Rom.  295.  Diocletian  called  the  province  of  Upper  Mcesia  Margensis  in 
memory  of  this  victory.] 

119  Hist.  August,  p.  254  [ib.  18].  Eutropius,  ix.  20.  Aurelius  Victor  [Cses.  39]. 
Victor  in  Epitome  [38]. 


350  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  reign  of  Diocletian  and  his  three  associates,  Maximian,  Galerius, 
and  Constantius — General  re-establishment  of  order  and  tran- 
quillity— The  Persian  war,  victory,  and  triumph — The  new 
form  of  administration — Abdication  and  retirement  of  Diocletian 
and  Maxi?nian 

Elevation  and  As  the  reign  of  Diocletian  was  more  illustrious  than  that  of  any 
Diocletian,     of  his  predecessors,  so  was  his  birth  more  abject  and  obscure. 

A  D  285 

U7  sept.  284]  The  strong  claims  of  merit  and  of  violence  had  frequently  super- 
seded 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  de- 
rived 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  Favourable  oracles,  or  rather  the  consciousness 
of  superior  merit,  prompted  his  aspiring  son  to  pursue  the  pro- 
fession of  arms  and  the  hopes  of  fortune  ;  and  it  would  be  ex- 
tremely 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  honours  of  the  con- 
sulship, 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 

1  Eutrop.  ix.  19.  Victor  in  Epitom.  [39  1].  The  town  seems  to  have  been 
properly  Doclia,  from  the  small  tribe  of  Illyrians  (see  Cellarius,  Geograph. 
Antiqua,  torn.  i.  p.  393);  and  the  original  name  of  the  fortunate  slave  was  probably 
Docles  ;  he  first  lengthened  it  to  the  Grecian  harmony  of  Diodes,  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. 

2  See  Dacier  on  the  sixth  satire  of  the  second  book  of  Horace.  Cornel.  Nepos, 
in  Vit.  Eumen.  c.  1. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  351 

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  favour  of  so  many  warlike  princes.  Yet  even 
calumny  is  sagacious  enough  to  discover  and  to  attack  the  most 
vulnerable  part.  The  valour  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 
rigour ;  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  am- 
bition, and  of  colouring  his  ambition  with  the  most  specious  pre- 
tences of  justice  and  public  utility.  Like  Augustus,  Diocletian 
may  be  considered  as  the  founder  of  a  new  empire.4  Like  the 
adopted  son  of  Caesar,  he  was  distinguished  as  a  statesman  rather 
than  a  warrior ;  nor  did  either  of  those  princes  employ  force, 
whenever  their  purpose  could  be  effected  by  policy. 

The  victory  of  Diocletian  was  remarkable  for  its  singular  mild-  his  clemency 
ness.  A  people  accustomed  to  applaud  the  clemency  of  the  a°d  victory 
conqueror,  if  the  usual  punishments  of  death,  exile  and  confis- 
cation 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.  Diocle- 
tian 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.5     It  is 

3  Lactantius  (or  whoever  was  the  author  of  the  little  treatise  De  Mortibus 
Persecutorum  [see  Appendix  i])  accuses  Diocletian  of  timidity  in  two  places,  c.  7, 
8.  In  chap.  9,  he  says  of  him,  "  erat  in  omni  tumultu  meticulosus  et  animi  dis- 
jectus  ". 

4  [It  is  usual  to  express  this  fact  by  saying  that  the  Principate  founded  by 
Augustus  was  transformed  by  Diocletian  into  an  absolute  Monarchy.] 

5  In  this  encomium,  Aurelius  Victor  [Cass.  39,  5]  seems  to  convey  a  just,  though 
indirect,  censure  of  the  cruelty  of  Constantius.  It  appears  from  the  Fasti,  that 
Aristobulus  remained  prsefect  of  the  city,  and  that  he  ended  with  Diocletian  the 
consulship  which  he  had  commenced  with  Carinus. 


352  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

not  improbable  that  motives  of  prudence  might  assist  the 
humanity  of  the  artful  Dalmatian ;  of  these  servants  many  had 
purchased  his  favour  by  secret  treachery  ;  in  others,  he  esteemed 
their  grateful  fidelity  to  an  unfortunate  master.  The  discerning 
judgment  of  Aurelian,  of  Probus,  and  of  Cams,  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  the  successor.  Such  a  conduct, 
however,  displayed  to  the  Roman  world  the  fairest  prospect  of 
the  new  reign,  and  the  emperor  affected  to  confirm  this  favourable 
prepossession  by  declaring  that,  among  all  the  virtues  of  his  pre- 
decessors, he  was  the  most  ambitious  of  imitating  the  humane 
philosophy  of  Marcus  Antoninus.6 
Association  The  first  considerable  action  of  his  reign  seemed  to  evince  his 
of  Maximian,  sincerity  as  well  as  his  moderation.     After  the  example  of  Marcus, 

A  D   286 

Aprin  '  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.7  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 
honours  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  labours  of 
government,  Diocletian,  in  a  time  of  public  danger,  provided  for 
the  defence  both  of  the  East  and  of  the  West.  Maximian  was 
bom  a  peasant,  and,  like  Aurelian,  in  the  territory  of  Sirmium. 
Ignorant  of  letters,8  careless  of  laws,  the  rusticity  of  his  appear- 
ance and  maimers  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 

6  Aurelius  Victor  [Cass.  39]  styles  Diocletian,  ' '  Parentem  potius  quam  Dominum  ". 
See  Hist.  August,  p.  30  [iv.  19]. 

7  The  question  of  the  time  when  Maximian  received  the  honours  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,  torn.  iv. 
p.  500-505),  who  has  weighed  the  several  reasons  and  difficulties  with  his  scrupulous 
accuracy.  [The  question  has  been  since  discussed  by  Mommsen  (Abhandlungen 
of  the  Berlin  Academy  for  i860).  Maximian  seems  to  have  been  named  Caesar, 
with  tribunician  power,  soon  after  17th  Sept.  285,  and  to  have  become  Augustus 
with  full  imperial  powers  1st  April,  286.] 

8  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. 
[We  can  still  trace  his  rough  features  on  coins.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIEE  353 

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  valour,  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.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  difference  of  their  characters,  the  two  emperors  main- 
tained, on  the  throne,  that  friendship  which  they  had  contracted 
in  a  private  station.  The  haughty  turbulent  spirit  of  Maximian, 
to  fatal  afterwards  to  himself  and  to  the  public  peace,  was  accus- 
tomed to  respect  the  genius  of  Diocletian,  and  confessed  the 
ascendant  of  reason  over  brutal  violence.9  From  a  motive  either 
of  pride  or  superstition,  the  two  emperors  assumed  the  titles,  the 
one  of  Jovius,  the  other  of  Hereulius.  Whilst  the  motion  of  the 
world  (such  was  the  language  of  their  venal  orators)  was  main- 
tained by  the  all-seeing  wisdom  of  Jupiter,  the  invincible  arm  of 
Hercules  purged  the  earth  of  monsters  and  tyrants.10 

But    even    the   omnipotence    of  Jovius   and    Hereulius   was  Association 
insufficient  to  sustain  the  weight  of  the  public  administration.  GaSus63*"' 
The    prudence    of    Diocletian    discovered    that    the     empire,  BtantuS," 
assailed   on    every  side  by  the    barbarians,   required   on  every  ^  March  i 
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    Ccesars,    to    confer 
on  two    generals   of  approved   merit   an    equal    share   of  the 
sovereign   authority.11     Galerius,   surnamed   Armentarius,   from 

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

10  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.  Span- 
heim  de  Usu  Numismatum,  &c.  Dissertat.  xii.  8.  [The  titles  have  importance  as 
showing  that,  though  the  colleagues  were  formally  co-equal,  Diocletian  held  a 
certain  primacy.] 

11  Aurelius  Victor.  Victor  in  Epitome.  Eutrop.  ix.  22.  Lactant.  de  M.  P.  c. 
8.     Hieronym.   in  Chron.     [For  date  cp.    Diocletian's  edict  de  pretiis ;  the  two 

23  VOL.    I 


354  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

his  original  profession  of  a  herdsman,  and  Constantius,  who  from 
his  pale  complexion  had  acquired  the  denomination  of  Chlorus,12 
were  the  two  persons  invested  with  the  second  honours  of  the 
Imperial  purple.  In  describing  the  country,  extraction,  and 
maimers  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  con- 
siderable nobles  of  Dardania,  and  his  mother  was  the  niece  of 
the  Emperor  Claudius.18  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  on  his  adopted  son.14  These 
four  princes  distributed  among  themselves  the  wide  extent  of 
the  Roman  empire.  The  defence  of  Gaul,  Spain,15  and  Britain, 
and  harmony  was  intrusted  to  Constantius :  Galerius  was  stationed  on  the 
princ«our  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  within 
his  own  jurisdiction  ; 16  but  their  united  authority  extended  over 

Cassars  have  trib.  pot.  ix.  in  301  A.D.     See  Incert.   Paneg.   Constantio  Cass.  2-4. 
Chron.  Pasch.  i.  512.     Mommsen,  loc.  cit.     Also  C.I.L.  2,  1439-] 

13  It  is  only  among  the  modern  Greeks  that  Tillemont  can  discover  his  appella- 
tion of  Chlorus.  Any  remarkable  degree  of  paleness  seems  inconsistent  with  the 
rubor  mentioned  in  Panegyric,  v.  19.  [Their  names  on  their  elevation  became : 
C.  Galerius  Valerius  Maximianus,  and  M.  Flavius  Valerius  Constantius.] 

13  Julian,  the  grandson  of  Constantius  boasts  that  his  family  was  denved  from 
the  warlike  Maesians.  Misopogon,  p.  348.  The  Dardanians  dwelt  on  the 
[southern]  edge  of  Maesia. 

14  Galerius  married  Valeria,  the  daughter  of  Diocletian  ;  if  we  speak  with  strict- 
ness, Theodora,  the  wife  of  Constantius,  was  daughter  only  to  the  wife  of  Maximian. 
Spanheim  Dissertat.  xi.  2. 

15  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,  torn.  iv.  p. 
517.  [Lactantius,  8,  says  that  Maximian  had  Spain,  and  he  is  probably  right.  On 
the  contrary  Aurelius  Victor,  Caes.  39,  30,  gives  him  only  Africa  and  Italy  ;  and  so 
Julian,  Or.  2,  51,  D,  who  distinctly  assigns  Spain  to  Constantius.] 

16  [This  statement  must  be  qualified  in  regard  to  the  Caesars,  who  had  no  legis- 
lative power,  no  control  over  the  Imperial  revenue,  no  consistorium.     Nor  had  they 


Departments 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  355 

the  whole  monarchy ;  and  eacli  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  com- 
pared to  a  chorus  of  music,  whose  harmony  was  regulated  and 
maintained  by  the  skilful  hand  of  the  first  artist.17 

This  important  measure  was  not  carried  into  execution  till  seriea  or 
about  six  years  after  the  association  of  Maximian,  and  that  in-  even  8 
terval  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  doubt- 
ful chronology. 

The  first  exploit  of  Maximian,  though  it  is  mentioned  in  a  few  ad.  mi 
words  by  our  imperfect  writers,  deserves,  from  its  singularity,  to  peasants  oi 
be  recorded  in  a  history  of  human  manners.  He  suppressed  the 
peasants  of  Gaul,  who,  under  the  appellation  of  Bagaudse,18 
had  risen  in  a  general  insurrection ;  very  similar  to  those  which 
in  the  fourteenth  century  successively  afflicted  both  France  and 
England.19  It  should  seem  that  veiy  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  rights  as,  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  a  master 

the  right  of  appointing  the  officials  in  their  dominions.  Their  military  powers  were 
dependent  on  the  Augusti,  to  whom  all  their  victories  were  ascribed.  They  wore 
the  purple,  but  not  the  diadem.] 

17  Julian  in  Caesarib.  p.  315.  Spanheim's  notes  to  the  French  translation,  p. 
122. 

18  The  general  name  of  Bagaudce  (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.  [For  the  social 
state  of  Gaul,  and  the  action  of  the  priests,  cp.  Salvian,  de  Gubern.  Dei,  v.  5,  6.] 

19Chronique  de  Froissart,  vol.  i.  c.  182,  ii.  73-79.  The  naiveti  of  his  story  is 
lost  in  our  best  modern  writers. 


356 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Their  rebel- 
lion 


and  chastise- 
ment 


exercised  over  his  slaves.20  The  greatest  part  of  the  nation  was 
gradually  reduced  into  a  state  of  servitude ;  compelled  to  per- 
petual labour  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  com- 
plicated tyranny  of  their  masters,  of  the  barbarians,  of  the 
soldiers,  and  of  the  officers  of  the  revenue.21 

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.22  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.23  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.24  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  par- 
ticulars of  this  war  ;  but  we  are  not  disposed  to  believe  that  the 
principal  leaders  iElianus  and  Amandus  were  Christians,25  or  to 
insinuate  that  the  rebellion,  as  it  happened  in  the  time  of  Luther, 


20  Caesar  de  Bell.  Gallic,  vi.  13.  Orgetorix,  the  Helvetian,  could  arm  for  his 
defence  a  body  of  ten  thousand  slaves. 

21  Their  oppression  and  misery  are  acknowledged  by  Eumenius  (Panegyr.  vi 
8).     Gallias  efferatas  injuriis. 

22  Panegyr.  Vet.  ii.  4.     Aurelius  Victor  [Cses.  39]. 

as  ^Elianus  and  Amandus.  We  have  medals  coined  by  them.  Goltzius  in  Thes. 
R.  A.  p.  117,  121.  [See  Eckhel,  8,  41,  but  they  are  condemned  as  spurious  by 
Cohen.] 

24  Levibus  praeliis  domuit.     Eutrop.  ix.  20. 

25  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.  torn. 
i.  p.  662. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  357 

was  occasioned  by  the  abuse  of  those  benevolent  principles  of 
Christianity  which  inculcate  the  natural  freedom  of  mankind. 

Maximian  had  no  sooner  recovered  Gaul  from  the  hands  of  .A.D.  2sr 
the  peasants,  than  he  lost  Britain  by  the  usurpation  of  Carausius.  Revolt  of 
Ever  since  the  rash  but  successful  enterprise  ot  the  r  ranks  in  Britain 
under  the  reign  of  Probus,  their  daring  countrymen  had  con- 
structed squadrons  of  light  brigantines,  in  which  they  incessantly 
ravaged  the  provinces  adjacent  to  the  ocean.26  To  repel  their 
desultory  incursions,  it  was  found  necessary  to  create  a  naval 
power  ;  and  the  judicious  measure  was  pursued  with  prudence 
and  vigour.  Gessoriacum  or  Boulogne,  in  the  streights  of  the 
British  channel,  was  chosen  by  the  emperor  for  the  station  of 
the  Roman  fleet ;  and  the  command  of  it  was  intrusted  to  Carau- 
sius, a  Menapian  of  the  meanest  origin,27  but  who  had  long 
signalized  his  skill  as  a  pilot,  and  his  valour  as  a  soldier.  The 
integrity  of  the  new  admiral  corresponded  not  with  his  abilities. 
When  the  German  pirates  sailed  from  their  own  harbours,  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  Im- 
perial purple,  the  title  of  Augustus,  defied  the  justice  and  the 
arms  of  his  injured  sovereign.28 

When  Britain  was  thus  dismembered  from  the  empire,  its  im- importance 
portance  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  harbours  ; 


26  Aurelius  Victor  calls  them  Germans.  Eutropius  (ix.  21)  gives  them  the  name 
of  Saxons  [(Mare)  quod  Franci  et  Saxones  infestabant].  But  Eutropius  lived  in 
the  ensuing  century,  and  seems  to  use  the  language  of  his  time. 

27  The  three  expressions  of  Eutropius,  Aurelius  Victor,  and  Eumenius,  "  vilissime 
natus,"  "  Batavise  alumnus,"  and  "  Menapiae  civis,"  give  us  a  very  doubtful 
account  of  the  birth  of  Carausius.  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. 

28  Panegyr.  v.  12.  Britain  at  this  time  was  secure,  and  slightly  guarded.  [For 
coins  with  Exspectate  vcni  and  Genius  Briianniae  see  Eckhel,  8,  45.] 


358 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Power  of 
Caraujnua 


AD.  2S9. 
acknowledged 
by  the  other 

emperors 


the  temperature  of  the  climate,  and  the  fertility  of  the  soil, 
alike  adapted  for  the  production  of  corn  or  of  vines ;  the  valu- 
able 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 
monai-chy.29  During  the  space  of  seven  s0  years,  it  was  possessed 
by  Carausius  ;  and  fortune  continued  propitious  to  a  rebellion 
oupported  with  courage  and  ability.  The  British  emperor  de- 
fended 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  flatter- 
ing 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 
teiTor  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.31 

By  seizing  the  fleet  of  Boulogne,  Carausius  had  deprived  his 
master  of  the  means  of  pursuit  and  revenge.  And,  when,  after 
vast  expense  of  time  and  labour,  a  new  armament  was  launched 
into   the  water,32  the    Imperial   troops,  unaccustomed  to  that 


28  Panegyr.  Vet.  v.  u,  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.  See  Appian  in 
Prooem. 

'M  [Six.    See  Appendix  22.] 

31  As  a  great  number  of  medals  of  Carausius  are  still  preserved,  he  is  become  a 
very  favourite  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. 

32  When  Mamertinus  pronounced  his  first  Panegyric  [21st  April,  289],  the  naval 
preparations  of  Maximian  were  completed :  and  the  orator  presaged  an  assured 
victor}'.  His  silence  in  the  second  Panegyric,  might  alone  inform  us  that  the 
expedition  had  not  succeeded. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  359 

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  honours.33  But  the 
adoption  of  the  two  Caesars  restored  new  vigour  to  the  Roman 
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  import- 
ant place  of  Boulogne.  A  stupendous  mole,  raised  across  the 
entrance  of  the  harbour,  intercepted  all  hopes  of  relief.  The  {£k.m 
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. 

Before  the  preparations  were   finished,  Constantius  received  ad.  2m  [293]. 
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  ajd.  2%. 
squadron,  which,  under  the  command  of  the  praefect  Asclepi<  -  sntZ^y 
dotus,  an  officer  of  distinguished  merit,  had  been  assembled  in   on3 " 
the  mouth  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  favourable  to  their  enter- 
prise.    Under  the  cover  of  a  thick  fog,  they  escaped  the  fleet  of 

sSAurelius  Victor  [Caes.  39,  39],  Eutropius  [ix.  22],  and  the  medals  (Pax  Aug.) 
inform  us  of  the  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.  [See  Eckhel,  8,  47.  Carausius  et  fratres  sui  appeared  on  his 
coins,  as  well  as  other  manifestations  of  the  unity  of  the  empire.] 


360  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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  countiy  from  a  foreign 
invasion.  Asclepiodotus  had  no  sooner  disembarked  the  Im- 
perial troops  than  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  dis- 
heartened 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  un- 
animous ;  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.34 

Defence  of  the  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  tranquillity,  by 
encouraging  a  spirit  of  dissension  among  the  barbarians,  and  by 

Fortifications  strengthening  the  fortifications  of  the  Roman  limit.  In  the 
East  he  fixed  a  line  of  camps  from  Egypt  to  the  Persian  domin- 
ions, 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.35  Nor  was 
the  precaution  of  the  emperor  less  watchful  against  the  well- 
known  valour  of  the  barbarians  of  Europe.  From  the  mouth  of 
the  Rhine  to  that  of  the  Danube,  the  ancient  camps,  towns,  and 

34  With  regard  to  the  recovery  of  Britain,  we  obtain  a  few  hints  from  Aurelius 
Victor  and  Eutropius.      [Chief  source  :  Incerti  Paneg.  Constantio.'] 

35  John  Malala,  in  Chron.  Antiochen.  torn.  i.  p.  408,  409  [p.  308,  ed.  Bonn], 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIEE  361 

citadels,  were  diligently  re-established,  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.36  A  barrier  so  re- 
spectable was  seldom  violated,  and  the  barbarians  often  turned 
against  each  other  their  disappointed  rage.  The  Goths,  the  Dissensions  of 
Vandals,  the  Gepidae,  the  Burgundians,  the  Alemanni,  wasted  barians 
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.37 

Notwithstanding  the  policy  of  Diocletian,  it  was  impossible  to  conduct  of  the 
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  vigilance  of  the  garrisons  sometimes  gave  a  passage  to 
their  strength  or  dexterity.  Whenever  the  provinces  were  in- 
vaded, 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,  ensured  his 
success  by  every  means  that  prudence  could  suggest,  and  dis- 
played, with  ostentation,  the  consequences  of  his  victory.  In 
wars  of  a  more  difficult  nature,  and  more  doubtful  event,  he 
employed  the  rough  valour  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  valour  of  tno 
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.313     The   brave   and   active 

36Zosirmis,  1.  i.  p.  3  [error  for  ii.  cap.  34].  That  partial  historian  seems  to  cele- 
brate the  vigilance  of  Diocletian,  with  the  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  Euphratis  limite  restituta?" 
Panegyr.  Vet.  iv.  18. 

37Ruunt  omnes  in  sanguinem  suum  populi,  quibus  non  contigit  esse  Romanis, 
obstinatasque  feritatis  pcenas  nunc  sponte  persolvunl.  Panegyr.  Vet.  iii.  16,  Ma- 
mertinus  illustrates  the  fact  by  the  example  of  almost  all  the  nations  of  the  world. 

33  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. 


362  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

Constantius  delivered  Gaul  from  a  very  furious  inroad  of  the 
[a.d.  298]  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  encom- 
passed 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 
honour  and  revenge  by  the  slaughter  of  six  thousand  Alemanni.39 
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. 
Treatment  of  The  conduct  which  the  emperor  Probus  had  adopted  in  the 
rtaiulirba'  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  40)  which 
had  been  depopulated  by  the  calamities  of  war.  They  were  use- 
fully employed  as  shepherds  and  husbandmen,  but  were  denied 
the  exercise  of  arms,  except  when  it  was  found  expedient  to  enrol 
them  in  the  military  service.  Nor  did  the  emperors  refuse  the 
property  of  lands,  with  a  less  servile  tenure,  to  such  of  the  bar- 
barians 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  independ- 
ence.41    Among   the  provincials,  it  was  a  subject  of  flattering 

39  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.  [For  the  distinction  of  the  various  campaigns  against  the  German 
nations  in  early  years  of  Diocletian's  reign  see  Appendix  22.  J 

40  Panegyr.  Vet.  vii.  21.  [The  fagus  Chamavorum  near  Langres  was  probably 
settled  at  this  time.] 

41  There  was  a  settlement  of  the  Sarmatians  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Treves, 
which  seems  to  have  been  deserted  by  those  lazy  barbarians  :  Ausonius  speaks  of 
them  in  his  Moselle  [5  sgq.\ 

Unde  iter  ingrediens  nemorosa  per  avia  solum, 
Et  nulla  humani  spectans  vestigia  cultus 


Arvaque  Sauromatum  nuper  metata  colonis. 
There  was  a  town  of  the  Carpi  in  the  Lower  Maesia.      [In  Gaul  Constantius  had  to 
rebuild  the  ruined  Autun  and  Trier.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  363 

exultation,  that  the  barbarian,  so  lately  an  object  of  terror,  now 
cultivated  their  lands,  drove  their  cattle  to  the  neighbouring 
fair,  and  contributed  by  his  labour  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  favour,  or  desperate  from  oppression,  were 
introduced  into  the  heart  of  the  empire.42 

While  the  Caesars  exercised  their  valour  on  the  banks  of  the  wars  of 
Rhine  and  Danube,  the  presence  of  the  emperors  was  required  Egypt 
QP  the  southern  confines  of  the  Roman  world.     From  the  Nile  to 
Mount  Atlas,  Africa  was  in  arms.     A  confederacy  of  five  Moorish  [296, 297] 
nations  issued  from  their  deserts  to  invade  the  peaceful  pro- 
vinces.43    Julian  had  assumed  the  purple  at  Carthage,44  Achil- 
leus  at  Alexandria;45  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  van- 
quished the  fiercest  barbarians  of  Mauritania,  and  that  he  removed 
them  from  the  mountains,  whose  inaccessible  strength  had  in- 
spired their  inhabitants  with  a  lawless  confidence,  and  habitu- 
ated them  to  a  life  of  rapine  and  violence.46     Diocletian,  on  his  a.d.296  12951. 
side,  opened  the  campaign  in  Egypt  by  the  siege  of  Alexandria,  Diocletian  in 
cut  off  the  aqueducts  which  conveyed  the  waters  of  the  Nile  into  gyp 
every  quarter  of  that  immense  city,47  and,  rendering  his  camp 
impregnable  to  the  sallies  of  the  besieged  multitude,  he  pushed 
his  reiterated  attacks  with  caution  and  vigour.     After  a  siege  of 
eight  months,  Alexandria,  wasted  by  the  sword  and  by  fire,  im- 
plored the  clemency  of  the  conqueror ;  but  it  experienced  the 

42  See  the  rhetorical  exultation  of  Eumenius.     Panegyr.  vii.  9. 

•^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  Penta- 
polis  of  the  inoffensive  province  of  Cyrene.  [The  Quinquegentanei  had,  along 
with  the  Bavares,  invaded  Numidia  in  260  A.D. ,  and  were  routed  by  the  legatus, 
Macrinius  Decianus,  C.  I.  L.  viii.  2615.  Again  about  ten  years  before  Maximian's 
expedition  the  same  peoples  were  crushed  by  Aurelius  Litua,  the  pra;ses  of  Maure- 
tania  Caesariensis.] 

44  After  this  defeat,  Julian  stabbed  himself  with  a  dagger,  and  immediately 
leaped  into  the  flames.     Victor  in  Epitome  [39,  3.     John  of  Antioch,  fr.  164.] 

45  [A  correction  has  been  made  here  in  the  punctuation  of  the  text.  See  Intro- 
duction, p.  xlii.] 

46 Tu  ferocissimos  Mauritaniae  populos  inaccessis  montium  jugis  et  naturali 
munitione  fidentes,  expugnasti,  recepisti,  transtulisti.  Panegyr.  Vet.  vi.  8  [Incert. 
Pan.  Max.  et  Const.  Aug.  8.  Maximian  was  still  in  Africa  on  10  March  298.  Frag. 
Vat.  41.] 

47  See  the  description  of  Alexandria  in  Hirtius  de  Bel.  Alexandrin.  c.  5. 


364  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

full  extent  of  his  severity.  Many  thousands  of  the  citizens 
perished  in  a  promiscuous  slaughter,  and  there  were  few  obnoxi- 
ous persons  in  Egypt  who  escaped  a  sentence  either  of  death  or 
at  least  of  exile.4S  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.49  The  character  of 
the  Egyptian  nation,  insensible  to  kindness,  but  extremely  sus- 
ceptible of  fear,  could  alone  justify  this  excessive  rigour.  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  ^Ethiopia.  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.50  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.51  Such  had  been  the  unworthy  allies  of  the  Egyptians ; 
and,  while  the  attention  of  the  state  was  engaged  in  more  serious 
wars,  their  vexatious  inroads  might  again  harass  the  repose  of  the 
province.  With  a  view  of  opposing  to  the  Blemmyes  a  suitable 
adversary,  Diocletian  persuaded  the  Nobata?,  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  guai'd  the  frontier  of  the  empire. 
The  treaty  long  subsisted  ;  and  till  the  establishment  of  Chris- 

^Eutrop.  ix.  24.  Orosius,  vii.  25.  John  Malala  in  Chron.  Antioch.  p.  409, 
410  [p.  309,  ed.  Bonn].  Yet  Eumenius  assures  us  that  Egypt  was  pacified  by  the 
clemency  of  Diocletian.  [Achilleus  seems  to  have  been  preceded  by  another  tyrant, 
L.  Domitius  Domitianus,  whose  reign  was  so  short  that  he  is  not  mentioned  by  any 
writer,  and  his  existence  is  only  known  by  some  coins,  which  puzzle  numismatists. 
It  has  been  conjectured,  but  not  proved,  that  he  and  Achilleus  were  one  and  the 
same  person.     Compare  Eckhel,  8,  41 ;  Cohen,  5,  549 ,  also  Schiller,  ii.  138.] 

49Eusebius  (in  Chron.)  places  their  destruction  several  years  sooner,  and  at  a 
time  when  Egypt  itself  was  in  a  state  of  rebellion  against  the  Romans.  [Diocletian 
left  Nicomedia  at  end  of  March,  295  ;  seems  to  have  begun  siege  of  Alexandria  in 
July,  for  it  lasted  eight  months,  and  a  rescript  is  dated  from  it  on  31  March,  296. 
See  Mommsen,  loc.  cit.] 

80Strabo,  1.  xvii.  p.  1,  172  {leg.  819].  Pomponius  Mela.  1.  i.  c.  4.  His  words  are 
curious,  "Intra,  si  credere  libet,  vix  homines  magisque  semiferi ;  ^Egipanes,  et 
Blemmyes,  et  Sat)Ti ". 

51  Ausus  sese  inserere  forfunse  et  provocare  arma  Romana. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  365 

tianity  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.52 

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.53  One  very  remarkable  edict,  He  suppresses 
which  he  published,  instead  of  being  condemned  as  the  effect  Ljchemy 
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  assured,  lest  the  opulence 
of  the  Egyptians  should  inspire  them  with  confidence  to  rebel 
against  the  empire  '\54  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  Novelty  and 
may  be  remarked  that  these  ancient  books,  so  liberally  ascribed  fhaf&rt 
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  chymistry.  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  trans- 
mutation of  metals ;  and  the  persecution  of  Diocletian  is  the 
first  authentic  event  in  the  history  of  alchymy.  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  ensured  a  favourable 
reception  to  every  tale  of  wonder,  and  the  revival  of  learning 
gave  new  vigour  to  hope,  and  suggested  more  specious  ai'ts  of 
deception.     Philosophy,    with   the   aid   of    experience,    has  at 

52  See  Procopius  de  Bell.  Persic.  1.  i.  c.  19. 

63  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. 

54  John  Antioch.  in  Excerp.  Valesian.  p.  834  [F.H.G.  iv.  p.  601].  Suidas  in 
Diocletian. 


war 


366  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

length  banished  the  study  of  alchymy ;  and  the  present  age, 
however  desirous  of  riches,  is  content  to  seek  them  by  the 
humbler  means  of  commerce  and  industry.55 
The  Persian  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. 
ie  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  attained  on  the  throne  of  Armenia  ;  the  early  know- 
ledge of  adversity,  of  mankind,  and  of  the  Roman  discipline. 
He  signalized  his  youth  by  deeds  of  valour,  and  displayed  a 
matchless  dexterity,  as  well  as  strength,  in  every  martial  exer- 
cise, and  even  in  the  less  honourable  contests  of  the  Olympian 
games.56  Those  qualities  were  more  nobly  exerted  in  the  defence 
of  his  benefactor  Licinius.57  That  officer,  in  the  sedition  which 
occasioned  the  death  of  Probus,  was  exposed  to  the  most  immi- 
nent 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  expedi- 
ency. It  was  time  to  rescue  from  the  usurpation  of  the  Persian 
monarch  an  important  territory,  which,  since  the  reign  of  Nero, 

65  See  a  short  history  and  confutation  of  Alchymy,  in  the  works  of  that  philoso- 
phical compiler,  La  Mothe  le  Vayer,  torn.  i.  p.  327-353. 

86  See  the  education  and  strength  of  Tiridates  in  the  Armenian  history  of  Moses 
of  Chorene,  1.  ii.  c.  76.  He  could  seize  two  wild  bulls  by  the  horns,  and  break 
them  off  with  his  hands. 

57  If  we  give  credit  to  the  younger  Victor  [Epit.  41] ,  who  supposes  that,  in  the 
year  323,  Licinius  was  only  sixty  years  of  age,  he  could  scarcely  be  the  same  per- 
son 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  grey  hairs,  and  as  the  contempor- 
ary of  Galerius.  See  Lactant.  c.  32.  Licinius  was  probably  born  about  the  year 
25a 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  367 

had  been  always  granted  under  the  protection  of  the  empire  to 
a  younger  branch  of  the  house  of  Arsaces.58 

When  Tiridates  appeared  on  the  frontiers  of  Armenia,  he  was  ad. 286. 
received  with  an  unfeigned  transport  of  joy  and  loyalty.     During  tionto  the 
twenty-six   years,   the    country   had    experienced    the  real  and  Armenia 
imaginary  hardships  of  a  foreign  yoke.     The  Persian  monarchs 
had  adorned  their  new  conquest  with  magnificent  buildings  ;  but 
those  monuments  had  been  erected  at  the  expense  of  the  people,  state  of  the 

i.  i.        ■*-  country 

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.69  It  was  natural 
that  a  people  exasperated  by  so  many  injuries  should  arm  with  Revolt  of  the 
zeal  in  the  cause  of  their  independence,  their  religion,  and  their  EobFea an' 
hereditary  sovereign.  The  torrent  bore  down  every  obstacle, 
and  the  Persian  garrison  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  honours  and  rewards  from  which  they  had  been 
excluded  with  disdain  under  the  foreign  government.60  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  61 
and  a  considerable  treasure,  both  of  which,  in  a  sequestered 

58  See  the  sixty-second  and  sixty-third  books  of  Dion  Cassius  [cp.  lxiii.  5]. 

68  Moses  of  Chorene,  Hist.  Armen.  1.  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.  1.  ii.  2,  3).  The 
deification  of  the  Arsacides  is  mentioned  by  Justin  (xli.  5)  and  by  Ammianus 
Marcellinus  (xxiii.  6). 

•°  The  Armenian  nobility  was  numerous  and  powerful.  Moses  mentions  many 
families  which  were  distinguished  under  the  reign  of  Valarsaces  (1.  ii.  7)  and  which 
still  subsisted  in  his  own  time,  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century.  See  the  pre- 
face of  his  Editors. 

81  She  was  named  Chosroiduchta,  and  had  not  the  os  fatulum  like  other  women. 
{Hist.  Armen.  1.  ii.  c.  79.)    I  do  not  understand  the  expression. 


368  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

m^o'  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  acknowledged  his  authority  had  encamped 
a  very  few  years  before  on  the  skirts  of  the  Chinese  empire,62 
which  at  that  time  extended  as  far  as  the  neighbourhood  of 
Sogdiana.03  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  ac- 
cording to  the  different  seasons  of  the  year.  They  were  employed 
to  repel  the  invasion  of  Tiridates  ;  but  their  leader,  after  weigh- 
ing 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  the  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  restora- 
tion.64 
The  Persians  For  a  while,  fortune  appeared  to  favour  the  enterprising  valour 
Armenia  of  Tiridates.  He  not  only  expelled  the  enemies  of  his  family 
and  country  from  the  whole  extent  of  Armenia,  but  in  the  pro- 
secution 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 

62  In  the  Armenian  history  (1.  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. 

63  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,  torn.  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  Acad^mie  des  Inscriptions,  torn,  xxxii.  p.  355. 

wSee  Hist.  Armen.  1.  ii.  c.  81. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  369 

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  ambi- 
tion of  contending  brothers  ;  and  Hormuz,  after  exerting  with- 
out success  the  strength  of  his  own  party,  had  recourse  to  the 
dangerous  assistance  of  the  barbarians  who  inhabited  the  banks 
of  the  Caspian  Sea.65  The  civil  war  was,  however,  soon  termi- 
nated, either  by  a  victory  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  valour  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  re-established  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.66 

Neither  prudence  nor  honour  could  permit  the  emperors  to  war  between 
forsake  the  cause  of  the  Armenian  king,  and  it  was  resolved  to  and  the  anJ 
exert  the  force  of  the  empire  in  the  Persian  war.     Diocletian,  W"*11*' 
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.67     The   conduct  of  the 
legions  was  intrusted  to  the  intrepid  valour  of  Galerius,  who,  for 
that   important  purpose,   was  removed  from  the  banks  of  the 
Danube  to  those  of  the  Euphrates.     The  armies  soon  encountered  Defeat  o» 
each  other  in  the  plains  of  Mesopotamia,  and  two  battles  were     e  "* 
fought  with  vai-ious  and  doubtful  success :  but  the  third  engage- 
ment was  of  a  more  decisive  nature ;   and   the    Roman   army 

65Ipsos  Persas  ipsumque  Regem  ascitis  Sacis,  et  Rufiis,  et  Gellis,  petit  frater 
Ormies.P  anegyric.  Vet. iii  i[leg.  17;  Genethl.  Max.  p.  114,  ed.  Bahrens].  TheSacae 
were  a  nation  of  wandering  Scythians,  who  encamped  towards  the  sources  of  the 
Oxus  and  the  Jaxartes.  The  Gelli  were  the  inhabitants  of  Ghilan  along  the  Caspian 
Sea,  and  who  so  long,  under  the  name  of  Dilemites,  infested  the  Persian  Monarchy. 
See  d'Herbelot,  Bibliotheque  Orientale. 

86  Moses  of  Chorene  takes  no  notice  of  this  second  revolution,  which  I  have  been 
obliged  to  collect  from  a  passage  of  Ammianus  Marcellinus  (1.  xxiii.  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. 
[Narses,  son  of  Varahram  II.,  succeeded  after  Sept.  13,  293  ;  Noldeke,  416.] 

87  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.  [In  the  early  part  of  the  year,  at  least  till 
April,  Diocletian  was  in  Egypt.] 

24  vol  .  1. 


370  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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. cs  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.69  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  valour  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  he  saw 
before  him  :  he  dismounted  and  plunged  into  the  stream.  His 
armour  was  heavy,  the  river  very  deep,  and  in  those  parts  at 
least  half  a  mile  in  breadth ; 70  yet  such  was  his  strength  and 
dexterity  that  he  reached  in  safety  the  opposite  bank.71  With 
regard  to  the  Roman  general,  we  are  ignorant  of  the  circum- 
Hia  reception  stances  of  his  escape ;  but,  when  he  returned  to  Antioch, 
y  an  j)joc}e|-jan  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.72 

68  Our  five  abbreviators,  Eutropius,  Festus,  the  two  Victors,  and  Orosius,  all 
relate  the  last  and  great  battle ;  but  Orosius  [vii.  25]  is  the  only  one  who  speaks  of 
the  two  former. 

69  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.  [The  mistake  of  Galerius  was 
similar  to  that  of  Crassus.] 

70 See  Foster's  Dissertation,  in  the  second  volume  of  the  translation  of  the  Ana- 
basis by  Spelman  ;  which  I  will  venture  to  recommend  as  one  of  the  best  versions 
extant. 

71  Hist.  Armen.  1.  ii.  c.  76.  I  have  transferred  this  exploit  of  Tiridates  from  an 
imaginary  defeat  to  the  real  one  of  Galerius. 

72Ammian.  Marcellin.  1.  xiv.  [n].  The  mile,  in  the  hands  of  Eutropius  (ix. 
24),  of  Festus  (c.  25),  and  of  Orosius  (vii.  25),  easily  increased  to  several  miles. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  371 

As  soon  as  Diocletian  had  indulged  his  private  resentment,  second 

i  ii  •  r  i  •    i  i     j    j.        j.i       campaign  of 

and  asserted  the  majesty  or  supreme  power,  he  yielded  to  the  GaJerfuj, 
submissive  entreaties  of  the  Caesar,  and  permitted  him  to  retrieve 
his  own  honour  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  Illynan  frontier,  and  a  consider- 
able body  of  Gothic  auxiliaries  were  taken  into  the  Imperial 
pay.73  At  the  head  of  a  chosen  army  of  twenty-five  thousand 
men,  Galerius  again  passed  the  Euphrates ;  but,  instead  of  ex- 
posing his  legions  in  the  open  plains  of  Mesopotamia,  he  advanced 
through  the  mountains  of  Armenia,  where  he  found  the  inhabi- 
tants devoted  to  his  cause,  and  the  country  as  favourable  to  the 
operations  of  infantry  as  it  was  inconvenient  for  the  motions 
of  cavalry.74  Adversity  had  confirmed  the  Roman  discipline,  hjb  victory 
whilst  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,  Avho, 
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  cors- 
let to  put  on,  before  he  could  mount."  75  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  to- 
wards 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  ignor- 
ance 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.70     The  principal  loss  of  Narses  was  and  behaviour 

1  J  J  x-  jt  to  his  royal 

73  Aurelius  Victor.     Jornandes  de  rebus  Geticis,  c.  21. 

74Aurelius  Victor  [Cass.  39]  says,  "Per  Armeniam  in  hostes  contendit,  quae 
ferme  sola,  seu  facilior  vincendi  via  est ".  He  followed  the  conduct  of  Trajan,  and 
the  idea  of  Julius  Caesar. 

75  Xenophon's  Anabasis,  1.  iii.  [c.  4].  For  that  reason,  the  Persian  cavalry  en- 
camped sixty  stadia  from  the  enemy. 

76  The  story  is  told  by  Ammianus,  1.  xxii.  [4,  8].  Instead  of  saccum  some  read 
scutum  [sacculum  is  the  true  reading,  the  Mss.  having  saccutum  and  saeculuni\. 


372  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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  behaviour  of  the  Mace- 
donian 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.77 
negotiation        While  the  East  anxiously  expected  the  decision  of  this  great 
for  peace       contest,  the  emperor  Diocletian,  having  assembled  in  Syria  a 
strong  army  of  observation,  displayed  from  a  distance  the  re- 
sources 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.78     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 
dispatched  Apharban,  a  servant  who  possessed  his  favour  and 
confidence,  with  a  commission  to  negotiate  a  treaty,  or  rather  to 
speech  of  the  receive  whatever  conditions  the  conqueror  should  impose.  Aphar- 
ambassador    ban  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  valour 
of  Galerius,  without  degrading  the  reputation  of  Narses,  and 
thought  it  no  dishonour  to  confess  the  superiority  of  the  victori- 
ous 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, 

77  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. 

78  The  account  of  the  negotiation  is  taken  from  the  fragments  of  Peter  the  Pa- 
trician, in  the  Excerpta  Legationum,  published  in  the  Byzantine  Collection  [also  in 
vol.  iv.  of  Mtiller's  Fragm.  Hist.  Grsec.].  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. 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  373 

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. 

"It  well  becomes  the  Persians,"  replied  Galerius,  with  a  Answer  of 
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  modera- 
tion. 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  Moderation 
Diocletian.  The  ambition  of  the  former  grasped  at  the  conquest  oi  Diocletian 
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 
favourable  opportunity  of  terminating  a  successful  war  by  an 
honourable  and  advantageous  peace.79 

In  pursuance  of  their  promise,  the  emperors  soon  afterwards  conclusion 
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  friend- 
ship ;  but,  under  the  pretence  of  allowing  him  the  necessary 
repose  after  so  long  a  journey,  the  audience  of  Probus  was  de- 
ferred 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 

79Adeo  Victor  (says  Aurelius)  ut  ni  Valerius,  cujus  nutu  omnia  gerebantur, 
abnuisset,  Romani  fasces  in  provinciam  novam  ferrentur.  Verum  pars  terrarum 
tamen  nobis  utilior  quaesita. 


374  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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.80     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  ap- 
peared so  veiy  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. 
»nd articles  of      As  soon  as  this  difficulty  was  removed,  a  solemn  peace  was 
the  treaty       concluded  and  ratified  between  the  two  nations.     The  conditions 
of  a  treaty  so  glorious  to  the  empire,  and  so  necessary  to  Persia, 
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 
TheAborai     waged  against  barbarians  ignorant  of  the  use  of  letters.     I.  The 
Umit  be the     Aboras,  or,  as  it  is  called  by  Xenophon,  the  Araxes,  was  fixed  as 
tweenthe      theboundary  between  the  two  monarchies.81   That  river  which  rose 

empires  * 

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.82     Meso- 

80  He  had  been  governor  of  Sumium.  (Pet.  Patricius  in  Excerpt.  Legat.  p.  30 
[F.  H.G.  iv.  p.  189].)  This  province  seems  to  be  mentioned  by  Moses  of  Chorene 
(Geograph.  p.  360),  and  lay  to  the  east  of  Mount  Ararat. 

81  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.  [The  Aboras  rises 
a  long  way  to  the  west  of  the  Tigris  ;  and  Nisibis  is  situated  on  tbe  Mygdonius.] 

82  Procopius  de  yEdificiis,  1.  ii.  c 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  375 

potamia,  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  cession  of 
provinces  beyond  the  Tigris.815  Their  situation  formed  a  very  bllondthe*" 
useful  barrier,  and  their  natural  strength  was  soon  improved  by  Tlgna 
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.84 
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  Tiri-  Armenia 
dates,  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  tar  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  Ar- 
menia ; 85  and,  when  the  Romans  acquired  the  possession  of  them, 
they  stipulated,  at  the  expense  of  the  usurpers,  an  ample  com- 
pensation, which  invested  their   ally   with   the  extensive  and 

83  Three  of  the  provinces,  Zabdicene,  Arzanene,  and  Carduene  [Corduene],  are 
allowed  on  all  sides.  But  instead  of  the  other  two,  Peter  (in  Excerpt.  Leg.  p.  30 
[ib.])  inserts  Rehimene  and  Sophene.  I  have  preferred  Ammianus  (1.  xxv.  7),  be- 
cause it  might  be  proved,  that  Sophene  was  never  in  the  hand  of  the  Persians, 
either  before  the  reign  of  Diocletian,  or  after  that  of  Jovian.  For  want  of  correct  maps, 
like  those  of  M.  dAnville,  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.  [Intilene  and  Moxoene  are 
the  same.  Gibbon's  statements  are  not  correct.  Peter  gives  Intelene  and  Sophene  ; 
Ammianus,  Moxoene  and  Rehimene.  Thus  the  question  is  between  Rehimene 
and  Sophene.] 

^Xenophon's  Anabasis,  1.  iv.  [3].  Their  bows  were  three  cubits  in  length,  their 
arrows  two ;  they  rolled  down  stones  that  were  each  a  waggon  load.  The  Greeks 
found  a  great  many  villages  in  that  rude  country. 

85  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. 


376  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

fertile  country  of  Atropatene.  Its  principal  city,  in  the  same 
situation  perhaps  as  the  modern  Tauris,  was  frequently  honoured 
with  the  residence  of  Tiridates ;  and,  as  it  sometimes  bore  the 
name  of  Ecbatana,  he  imitated,  in  the  buildings  and  fortifications, 
rberia  the  splendid  capital  of  the  Medes.86     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  them- 
selves. The  nai-row  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  climates  of"  the  South.S7 
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.88  The  East  enjoyed  a 
profound  tranquillity  during  forty  years  ;  and  the  treaty  between 
the  rival  monarchies  was  strictly  observed  till  the  death  of  Tiri- 
dates; 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. 
Triumph  of  The  arduous  work  of  rescuing  the  distressed  empire  from 
and  Maxim-    tyrants  and  barbarians  had  now  been  completely  achieved  by  a 

lan,  AD.  303,      J  „  T11  .  "      —^  J    ,  J      , 

Nov.  20  succession  01  lllyrian  peasants.  As  soon  as  Diocletian  entered 
vicennaiia  '  into  the  twentieth  year  of  his  reign,  he  celebrated  that  memor- 
able aera,  as  well  as  the  success  of  his  arms,  by  the  pomp  of  a 
Roman  triumph.89  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  ex- 
ploits was  ascribed,  according  to  the  rigour  of  ancient  maxims,  to 
the  auspicious  influence  of  their  fathers  and  emperors.90  The 
triumph  of  Diocletian  and  Maximian  was  less  magnificent, 
perhaps,  than  those  of  Aurelian  and  Probus,  but  it  was  dignified 

88  Compare  Herodotus,  1.  i.  c.  97,  with  Moses  Chorenens.  Hist.  Armen.  1.  ii.  c. 
84,  and  the  map  of  Armenia  given  by  his  editors. 

87  Hiberi,  locorum  potentes,  Caspia  via  Sarmatum  in  Armenios  raptim  effun- 
dunt.     Tacit.  Annal.  vi.  33.     See  Strabon.  Geograph.  1.  xi.  p.  764  [500J. 

88  Peter  Patricius  (in  Excerpt.  Leg.  p.  30  [F.  H.G.  iv.  p.  189])  is  the  only  writer 
who  mentions  the  Iberian  article  of  the  treaty. 

89Eusebius  in  Chron.  Pagi  ad  annum.  Till  the  discovery  of  the  treatise  de 
Mortibus  Persecutorum,  it  was  not  certain  that  the  triumph  and  the  Vicennaiia 
were  celebrated  at  the  same  time.  [Date  still  uncertain.  The  triumph,  ace.  to 
Clinton,  was  in  the  year  before  the  Vicennaiia,  but  Preuss  agrees  with  Gibbon.] 

90  At  the  time  of  the  Vicennaiia,  Galerius  seems  to  have  kept  his  station  on  the 
Danube.     See  Lactant.  de  M.  P.  c.  38. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  377 

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.91  The  representations  of 
rivers,  mountains,  and  provinces  were  carried  before  the  Im- 
perial 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.92  In  the  eyes  of  posterity 
this  triumph  is  remarkable  by  a  distinction  of  a  less  honourable 
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. 

The  spot  on  Avhich  Rome  was  founded  had  been  consecrated  Long  absence 
by  ancient  ceremonies  and  imaginary  miracles.  The  presence  of  perorstrom 
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.93  The  native  Romans  felt  and  con- 
fessed 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  Avere  intimately 
blended  together,  nor  was  it  esteemed  possible  to  transport  the 
one  without  destroying  the  other.94  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, 

s1  [The  remarkable  edict  of  301  A.D.,  in  which  Diocletian  attempted  to  fix  maxi- 
mum prices  (see  Append.  23),  records  the  number  of  victories  of  which  each  emperor 
could  boast.  Diocletian  counted  six  German,  four  Sarmatian  victories ;  Maximian, 
five  German  and  four  Sarmatian ;  both  Caesars,  two  German  and  two  Sarmatian. 
To  all  four  fell  equally,  two  Persian,  one  Britannic,  one  Caspian,  one  Armenian, 
one  Median,  and  one  Adiabenic  victory.] 

9"2  Eutropius  (ix.  27)  mentions  them  as  a  part  of  the  triumph.  As  the  persons 
had  been  restored  to  N  arses,  nothing  more  than  their  images  could  be  exhibited. 

93  Livy  gives  us  a  speech  of  Camillus  on  that  subject  (v.  51-55  [54]),  full  of 
eloquence  and  sensibility,  in  opposition  to  a  design  of  removing  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment from  Rome  to  the  neighbouring  city  of  Veii. 

ai  Julius  Caesar  was  reproached  with  the  intention  of  remov  ng  the  empire  to 
Ilium  or  Alexandria.  See  Sueton.  in  Caesar,  c.  79.  Accordi"^  to  the  ingenious 
conjecture  of  Le  Fevre  and  Dacier,  the  third  ode  of  the  third  book  of  Horace  was 
intended  to  divert  Augustus  from  the  execution  of  a  similar  design. 


378 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Their  resi- 
dence at 
Milan 


and  Nlco- 
media 


as  the  seat  oi  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  pi-inces  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 
splendour  of  an  Imperial  city.  The  houses  are  described  as 
numerous  and  Avell  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 ;  porticoes  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.95  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 
labour  of  ages,  and  became  inferior  only  to  Rome,  Alexandria, 
and  Antioch,  in  extent  or  populousness.96  The  life  of  Diocletian 
and  Maximian  was  a  life  of  action,  and  a  considerable  portion  of 
it  was  spent  in  camps,  or  in  their  long  and  frequent  marches  ; 
but,  whenever  the  public  business  allowed  them  any  relaxation, 
they    seem  to   have   retired   with    pleasure   to   their   favourite 


95  See  Aurelius  Victor  [Caes.  39],  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  mira  omnia  :  copia  rerum  : 

Innumerae  cultaeque  domus  ;  fecunda  virorum 

Ingenia,  et  mores  laeti ;  turn  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 ; 

Mceniaque  in  valli  formam  circumdata  labro, 

Omnia  quae  magnis  operum  velut  aemula  formis 

Excellunt :  nee  juncta  premit  vicinia  Romas. 
A6  Lactant.  de  M.  P.  c.  7.     Libanius  Orat.  viii.  p.  203. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  379 

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  famili 
arity  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.97 

The  dislike  expressed  by  Diocletian  towards  Rome  and  Roman  Debasement 
freedom  was  not  the  effect  of  momentary  caprice,  but  the  result  °\  u^enate 
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  con- 
stitution was  religiously  preserved  in  the  senate,  he  resolved  to 
deprive  that  order  of  its  small  remains  of  power  and  considera- 
tion. 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  successors  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.98  The  camp  of  the  Praetorians,  which  had  so  long  op- 
pressed, 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,99  and  their  place  supplied  by  two  faithful  Nue*dbgodies  of 

Joviana  and 

97  Lactant.  de  M.   P.  c.   17.     On  a  similar  occasion  Ammianus  mentions  the  Herculians 
dicacitas  plebis,  as  not  very  agreeable  to  an  Imperial  ear.     (See  1.  xvi.  c.  10)  \dica- 

citate  plebis  oblectabatur  are  the  words  of  Ammian.  ]. 

98  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. 

"Truncatae  vires  urbis,  imminuto  praetoriarum  cohortium  atque  in  armis  vulgi 
numero.  Aurelius  Victor  [ib.].  Lactantius  attributes  to  Galerius  the  prosecution 
of  the  same  plan  (c.  26), 


380  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

legions  of  Illyricum,  who,  under  the  new  titles  of  Jovians  and 
Herculians,  were  appointed  to  perform  the  service  of  the  Im- 
perial guards.100  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  behaviour 
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  for  ever  laid  aside  the  dissimulation  which 
Augustus  had  recommended  to  his  successors.  In  the  exercise 
of  the  legislative  as  well  as  of  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  honour  till  the  last  period  of  the  empire ;  the  vanity  of  its 
members  was  still  flattered  with  honorary  distinctions;101  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  connexion  with  the 
Imperial  court  and  the  actual  constitution,  was  left  a  venerable 
but  useless  monument  of  antiquity  on  the  Capitoline  hill. 
civil  magis-  When  the  Roman  princes  had  lost  sight  of  the  senate  and  of 
aside  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 ; 102  and,  if  they  still  dis- 
tinguished their  high  station  by  the  appellation  of  Emperor, 

100 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  plumbata,  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. 

101  See  the  Theodosian  Code,  1.  vi.  tit.  ii.  with  Godefroy's  commentary. 

102 See  the  12th  dissertation  in  Spanheim's  excellent  work  De  Usu  Numismntum. 
From  medals,  inscriptions,  and  historians,  he  examines  every  title  separately,  and 
traces  it  from  Augustus  to  the  moment  of  its  disappearing. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  381 

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  imperial 
name  of  Emperor,  which  was  at  first  of  a  military  nature,  waf  tiu^sty  and 
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  com- 
mander over  his  soldiers,  but  of  the  despotic  power  of  a  master 
over  his  domestic  slaves.103  Viewing  it  in  that  odious  light,  it 
had  been  rejected  with  abhorrence  by  the  first  Caesars.  Then- 
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  an  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.104  Even  the  attributes,  or  at  least  the  titles,  of  the 
Divinity,  were  usurped  by  Diocletian  and  Maximian,  who  trans- 
mitted them    to  a   succession    of  Christian  emperors.105     Such 

103  Pliny  (in  Panegyr.  c.  3,55,  &c. )  speaks  of  Dominus  with  execration,  as  synony- 
mous to  Tyrant,  and  opposite  to  Prince.  And  the  same  Pliny  regularly  gives  that 
title  (in  the  tenth  book  of  his  epistles)  to  his  friend  rather  than  master,  the  virtuous 
Trajan.  This  strange  expression  puzzles  the  commentators  who  think,  and  the 
translators  who  can  write. 

104Synesius  de  Regno,  Edit.  Petav.  p.  15.  I  am  indebted  for  this  quotation  to 
the  Abb6  de  la  B16terie. 

105  See  Van  Dale  de  Consecratione,  p.  534,  &c.  It  was  customary  for  the 
emperors  to  mention  (in  the  preamble  of  laws)  their  numen,  sacred  majesty,  divine 
oracles,  &c.  According  to  Tillemont,  Gregory  of  Nazianzen  complains  most 
bitterly  of  the  profanation,  especially  when  it  was  practised  by  an  Arian  emperor. 
["  Gregory  of  Nazianzen  "  is  as  incorrect  an  expression  as  "Thomas  of  Aquinate" 
would  be.  The  name  of  Gregory's  birthplace  is  Nazianzus,  so  that  he  may  be 
•distinguished  from  his  m  mesake  of  Nyssa,  either  as  Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  or 
as  Gregory  Nazianzene. 


382 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Diocletian 
assumes  the 

diadem,  and 
introduces 
the  Persian 
ceremonial 


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. 

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  dis- 
tinction 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  honourable  colour.  The 
pride,  or  rather  the  policy,  of  Diocletian  engaged  that  artful 
prince  to  introduce  the  stately  magnificence  of  the  court  of 
Persia.106  He  ventured  to  assume  the  diadem,  an  ornament  de- 
tested 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.107  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  in- 
crease 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.108  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 


106  See  Spanheim  de  Usu  Numismat.  Dissert,  xii. 

107  [Aurelian  wore  the  diadem  (Aurel.  Victor,  Epit.  35,  5),  and  is  styled  domino 
et  deo  on  coins.  The  senate  was  rigidly  excluded  from  all  share  in  the  government ; 
and  the  mark  S.  C.  no  longer  appears  on  the  copper  coinage.  He  was  popularly 
called  "  the  schoolmaster  of  the  senators".  Thus  Aurelian  may  be  said  to  have 
begun  the  "absolutism,"  which  Diocletian  elaborated.] 

i°8  Aurelius  Victor.  Eutropius,  ix.  26.  It  appears  by  the  Panegyrists  that  the 
Romans  were  soon  reconciled  to  the  name  and  ceremony  of  adoration. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  383 

flattered  himself  that  an  ostentation  of  splendour  and  luxury 
would  subdue  the  imagination  of  the  multitude  ;  that  the 
monarch  would  be  less  exposed  to  the  rude  licence  of  the  people 
and  the  soldiers,  as  his  person  was  secluded  from  the  public 
view  ;  and  that  habits  of  submission  would  insensibly  be  produc- 
tive 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. 

Ostentation  was  the  first  principle  of  the  new  system  instituted  New  form  of 
by  Diocletian.  The  second  was  division.  He  divided  the  em-  tration,  two 
pire,  the  provinces,  and  every  branch  of  the  civil  as  well  as  mili-  twocss'ars 
tary  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.109  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  con- 
sidered the  joint  administration  of  four  princes  not  as  a  tempo- 
rary expedient,  but  as  a  fundamental  law  of  the  constitution. 
It  was  his  intention  that  the  two  elder  princes  should  be  dis- 
tinguished 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  Caesars,  rising  in  their  turn  to  the  first  rank,  should 

109  The  innovations  introduced  by  Diocletian  are  chiefly  deduced, — ist,  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.  [It  is  only  in  some  cases  that  we  can  distinguish  with 
probability,  and  only  in  a  few  with  certainty,  between  the  work  of  Diocletian  and 
that  of  Constantine  in  organizing  the  new  constitution  of  the  Empire.  An  editor 
must  follow  the  author's  judicious  example  and  reserve  his  supplementary  remarks 
for  the  fuller  picture  in  chaD.  xvii.J 


384  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

supply  an  uninterrupted  succession  of  emperors.  The  empire 
was  divided  into  four  parts.  The  East  and  Italy  were  the  most 
honourable,  the  Danube  and  the  Rhine  the  most  laborious 
stations.  The  former  claimed  the  presence  of  the  Augusii,  the 
latter  were  intrusted  to  the  administration  of  the  Caesars.  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  pro- 
vinces, as  promulgated  by  their  mutual  councils  and  authority.110 
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. 

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  pro- 
portion of  those  who  contributed,  the  provinces  were  oppressed 
by  the  weight  of  tributes  ".ln  From  this  period  to  the  extinction 
of  the  empire,  it  would  be  easy  to  deduce  an  uninterrupted  series 
of  clamours  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  unani- 
mously agree  in  representing  the  burden  of  the  public  impositions, 
and  particularly  the  land-tax  and  capitation,  as  the  intolerable 

uo  [The  consulate  was  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  the  chief  symbol  of  the 
theoretical  unity  of  the  Empire.  Before  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  the  custom 
was  established  that  one  consul  was  appointed  by  the  Eastern,  the  other  by  the 
Western,  Augustus.] 

111  Lactant.  de.  M.  P.  c.  7. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  385 

and  increasing  grievance  of  their  own  times.  From  such  a  con- 
currence, 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  oppres- 
sion.112 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  position  either  for  judicious  liberality  or  for  any  emergency 
of  the  state. 

It  was  in  the  twenty-first  year  of  his  reign  that  Diocletian  Abdication  of 
executed  his  memorable  resolution  of  abdicating  the  empire  ;  an  and  Maxim- 
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,113  which 
has  not  been  very  frequently  imitated  by  succeeding  monarchs.  Resemblance 

™  to  Charles  tha 

The  parallel  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  however,  will  naturally  offer  Firth 
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  favourite  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 

112  Indicta  lex  nova  quae  sane  illorum  temporum  modestia  tolerabilis,  in  perni- 
ciem  processit.  Aurel.  Victor  [Cass.  39] ,  who  has  treated  the  character  of  Diocletian 
with  good  sense,  though  in  bad  Latin. 

113  Solus  omnium  post  conditum  Romanum  Imperium,  qui  ex  tanto  fastigio 
sponte  ad  privatae  vitas  statum  civilitatemque  remearet.  Eutrop.  ix.  28.  [The  ex- 
pression of  Eutropius  is  more  accurate  than  that  of  Gibbon.  We  have  an  instance 
of  an  earlier  resignation  in  the  case  of  Ptolemy  S6t6r  (abdicated  285,  died  283, 

B.C.).] 

25  vol.  1. 


386  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

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.114 
a.d.  3«.  Notwithstanding    the   severity    of    a    very   cold    and    rainy 

Loni*  illness  o  w  »  * 

of  Diocletian  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  con- 
fined to  his  palace  ;  his  danger  inspired  a  general  and  unaffected 
concern  ;  but  the  people  could  only  judge  of  the  various  altera- 
tions of  his  health  from  the  joy  or  consternation  which  they 
discovered  in  the  countenances  and  behaviour  of  his  attendants. 
The  rumour  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 

hi«  prudenw  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  honourable  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.115 

114  The  particulars  of  the  journey  and  illness  are  taken  from  Lactantius  (c.  17), 
who  may  sometimes  be  admitted  as  an  evidence  of  public  facts,  though  very  seldom 
of  private  anecdotes. 

la5Aurelius  Victor  [ib.]  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)  mentions 
the  age  and  infirmities  of  Diocletian  as  a  very  natural  reason  for  his  retirement. 
[His  illness  was  doubtless  the  chief  cause  of  his  abdication.] 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIEE  387 

The  ceremony  of  his  abdication  was  performed  in  a  spacious 
plain,  about  three  miles  from  Nicomedia.  The  emperor 
ascended  a  lofty  throne,  and  in  a  speech,  full  of  reason  and 
dignity,  declared  his  intention,  both  to  the  people  and  to  the 
soldiers  who  were  assembled  on  this  extraordinary  occasion. 
As  soon  as  he  had  divested  himself  of  the  purple,  he  withdrew  ad. 305. 
from  the  gazing  multitude,  and,  traversing  the  city  in  a  covered 
chariot,  proceeded,  without  delay,  to  the  favourite  retirement 
which  he  had  chosen  in  his  native  country  of  Dalmatia.  On 
the  same  day,  which  was  the  first  of  May,116  Maximian,  as  it  had 
been  previously  concerted,  made  his  resignation  of  the  Imperial 
dignity  at  Milan.  Even  in  the  splendour  of  the  Roman  triumph,  compliance  of 
Diocletian  had  meditated  his  design  of  abdicating  the  government. 
As  he  wished  to  secure  the  obedience  of  Maximian,  he  exacted 
from  him  either  a  general  assurance  that  he  would  submit  his 
actions  to  the  authority  of  his  benefactor,  or  a  particular  promise 
that  he  would  descend  from  the  throne,  whenever  he  should 
receive  the  advice  and  the  example.  This  engagement,  though 
it  was  confirmed  by  the  solemnity  of  an  oath  before  the  altar  of 
the  Capitoline  Jupiter,117  would  have  proved  a  feeble  restraint 
on  the  fierce  temper  of  Maximian,  whose  passion  was  the  love 
of  power,  and  who  neither  desired  present  tranquillity  nor  future 
reputation.  But  he  yielded,  however  reluctantly,  to  the 
ascendant  which  his  wiser  colleague  had  acquired  over  him,  and 
retired,  immediately  after  his  abdication,  to  a  villa  in  Lucania, 
where  it  was  almost  impossible  that  such  an  impatient  spirit 
could  find  any  lasting  tranquillity. 

Diocletian,  who,  from  a  servile  origin,  had  raised  himself  to  Retirement  of 
the  throne,  passed  the  nine  last  years  of  his  life  in  a  private  Baionk 
condition.  Reason  had  dictated,  and  content  seems  to  have 
accompanied,  his  retreat,  in  which  he  enjoyed  for  a  long  time 
the  respect  of  those  princes  to  whom  he  had  resigned  the 
possession  of  the  world.118  It  is  seldom  that  minds  long 
exercised  in  business  have  formed  any  habits  of  conversing  with 
themselves,  and  in  the  loss  of  power  they  principally  regret  the 

116  The  difficulties  as  well  as  mistakes  attending  the  dates  both  of  the  year  and 
of  the  day  of  Diocletian's  abdication  are  perfectly  cleared  up  by  Tillemont,  Hist, 
des  Empereurs,  torn.  iv.  p.  525,  Note  19,  and  by  Pagi  ad  annum. 

U7  See  Panegyr.  Veter.  vi.  9  [8] .  The  oration  was  pronounced  after  Maximian 
had  reassumed  the  purple. 

^Eumenius  pays  him  a  very  fine  compliment,  "At  enim  divinum  ilium  virum, 
qui  primus  imperium  et  participavit  et  posuit,  consilii  et  facti  sui  non  pcenitet ; 
nee  amisisse  se  putat  quod  sponte  transcripsit.  Felix  beatusque  vere  quern  vestra, 
tantorum  principum,  colunt  obsequia  privatum."     Panegyr.  Vet.  vii.  15. 


sophy 


388  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

want  of  occupation.  The  amusements  of  letters  and  of  devotion, 
which  afford  so  many  resources  in  solitude,  were  incapable  of 
fixing  the  attention  of  Diocletian  ;  but  he  had  preserved,  or  at 
least  he  soon  recovered,  a  taste  for  the  most  innocent  as  well  as 
natural  pleasures ;  and  his  leisure  hours  were  sufficiently  employed 
his  phiio-  in  building,  planting,  and  gardening.  His  answer  to  Maximian 
is  deservedly  celebrated.  He  was  solicited  by  that  restless  old 
man  to  reassume  the  reins  of  government  and  the  Imperial 
purple.  He  rejected  the  temptation  with  a  smile  of  pity, 
calmly  observing  that,  if  he  could  show  Maximian  the  cabbages 
which  he  had  planted  with  his  own  hands  at  Salona,  he  should 
no  longer  be  urged  to  relinquish  the  enjoyment  of  happiness 
for  the  pursuit  of  power.119  In  his  conversations  with  his  friends, 
he  frequently  acknowledged  that,  of  all  arts,  the  most  difficult 
was  the  art  of  reigning ;  and  he  expressed  himself  on  that 
favourite  topic  with  a  degree  of  warmth  which  could  be  the 
result  only  of  experience.  "  How  often,"  was  he  accustomed 
to  say,  "is  it  the  interest  of  four  or  five  ministers  to  combine 
together  to  deceive  their  sovereign  !  Secluded  from  mankind 
by  his  exalted  dignity,  the  truth  is  concealed  from  his  know- 
ledge ;  he  can  see  only  with  their  eyes,  he  hears  nothing  but 
their  misrepresentations.  He  confers  the  most  important 
offices  upon  vice  and  weakness,  and  disgraces  the  most  virtuous 
and  deserving  among  his  subjects.  By  such  infamous  arts," 
added  Diocletian,  "  the  best  and  wisest  princes  are  sold  to  the 
venal  corruption  of  their  courtiers."  12°  A  just  estimate  of 
greatness,  and  the  assurance  of  immortal  fame,  improve  our 
relish  for  the  pleasures  of  retirement ;  but  the  Roman  emperor 
had  filled  too  important  a  character  in  the  world  to  enjoy  with- 
out allay  the  comforts  and  security  of  a  private  condition.  It 
was  impossible  that  he  could  remain  ignorant  of  the  troubles 
which  afflicted  the  empire  after  his  abdication.  It  was  im- 
possible that  he  could  be  indifferent  to  their  consequences. 
Fear,  sorrow  and  discontent  sometimes  pursued  him  into  the 
solitude  of  Salona.  His  tenderness,  or  at  -ast  his  pride,  was 
deeply  wounded  by  the  misfortunes  of  his  wife  and  daughter ; 
and  the  last  moments  of  Diocletian  were  embittered  by  some 
affronts,  which  Licinius  and  Constantine  might  have  spared  the 
father  of  so  many  emperors,  and  the  first  author  of  their  own 

119  We  are  obliged  to  the  younger  Victor  [Epit.  39]  for  this  celebrated  bon    mot. 
Eutropius  [ix.  28]  mentions  the  thing  in  a  more  general  manner. 

120  Hist.  August,  p.  223,  224  [xxvi.  43].  Vopiscus  had  learned  this  conversation 
from  his  father. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  389 

fortune.  A  report,  though  of  a  very  doubtful  nature,  has  reached  and  death, 
our  times,  that  he  prudently  withdrew  himself  from  their  power  [tad.  316] 
by  a  voluntary  death.121 

Before  we  dismiss  the  consideration  of  the  life  and  character  Description  of 
of  Diocletian,  we  may,  for  a  moment,  direct  our  view  to  the  the  adjacent 
place  of  his  retirement.  Salona,  a  principal  city  of  his  native  coun  7 
province  of  Dalmatia,  was  near  two  hundred  Roman  miles  (ac- 
cording to  the  measurement  of  the  public  highways)  from  Aquileia 
and  the  confines  of  Italy,  and  about  two  hundred  and  seventy 
from  Sirmium,  the  usual  residence  of  the  emperors  whenever 
they  visited  the  Illyrian  frontier.122  A  miserable  village  still 
preserves  the  name  of  Salona,  but  so  late  as  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, the  remains  of  a  theatre,  and  a  confused  prospect  of  broken 
arches  and  marble  columns,  continued  to  attest  its  ancient 
splendour.123  About  six  or  seven  miles  from  the  city,  Diocletian 
constructed  a  magnificent  palace,  and  we  may  infer  from  the 
greatness  of  the  work,  how  long  he  had  meditated  his  design  of 
abdicating  the  empire.  The  choice  of  a  spot  which  united  all 
that  could  contribute  either  to  health  or  to  luxury  did  not  require 
the  partiality  of  a  native.  "  The  soil  was  dry  and  fertile,  the  air 
is  pure  and  wholesome,  and,  though  extremely  hot  during  the 
summer  months,  this  country  seldom  feels  those  sultry  and 
noxious  winds  to  which  the  coast  of  Istria  and  some  parts  of 
Italy  are  exposed.  The  views  from  the  palace  are  no  less  beau- 
tiful than  the  soil  and  climate  were  inviting.  Towards  the  west 
lies  the  fertile  shore  that  stretches  along  the  Hadriatic,  in  which 
a  number  of  small  islands  are  scattered  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
give  this  part  of  the  sea  the  appearance  of  a  great  lake.  On  the 
north  side  lies  the  bay,  which  led  to  the  ancient  city  of  Salona, 
and  the  country  beyond  it,  appearing  in  sight,  forms  a  proper 
contrast  to  that  more  extensive  prospect  of  water,  which  the 
Hadriatic  presents  both  to  the  south  and  to  the  east.  Towards 
the  north,  the  view  is  terminated  by  high  and  irregular  moun- 
tains, situated  at  a  proper  distance,  and,  in  many  places,  covered 
with  villages,  woods  and  vineyards."  124 

121  The  younger  Victor  [ib.]  slightly  mentions  the  report.  But,  as  Diocletian  had 
disobliged  a  powerful  and  successful  party,  his  memory  has  been  loaded  with  every 
crime  and  misfortune.  It  has  been  affirmed  that  he  died  raving  mad,  that  he  was 
condemned  as  a  criminal  by  the  Roman  senate,  &c. 

J— See  the  Itiner.  p.  269,  272,  edit.  Wessel. 

123The  Abate  Fortis,  in  his  Viaggio  in  Dalmazia,  p.  43  (printed  at  Venice,  in 
the  year  1774,  in  two  small  volumes  in  quarto),  quotes  a  Ms.  account  of  the  anti- 
quities of  Salona,  composed  by  Giambattista  Giustiniani  about  the  middle  of  the 
.with  century.  [See  Mr.  Jackson's  work  on  Dalmatia  (cp.  above,  p.  22) ;  and 
Mr.  Freeman'   essay  in  Historical  Essays,  2nd  series.] 

124  Adam's  Antiquities  of  Diocletian's  Palace  at  Spalatro,  p.  6.     We  may  add  a 


390  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

ofDiocie-  Though  Constantine,  from  a  very  obvious  prejudice,  affects  to 

tian's  palace  mention  the  palace  of  Diocletian  with  contempt,125  yet  one  of 
their  successors,  who  could  only  see  it  in  a  neglected  and  muti- 
lated state,  celebrates  its  magnificence  in  terms  of  the  highest 
admiration.126  It  covered  an  extent  of  ground  consisting  of 
between  nine  and  ten  English  acres.  The  form  was  quadran- 
gular, flanked  with  sixteen  towers.  Two  of  the  sides  were  near 
six  hundred,  and  the  other  two  near  seven  hundred,  feet  in 
length.  The  whole  was  constructed  of  a  beautiful  freestone, 
extracted  from  the  neighbouring  quarries  of  Trau  or  Tragutium,127 
and  very  little  inferior  to  marble  itself.  Four  streets,  intersecting 
each  other  at  right  angles,  divided  the  several  parts  of  this  great 
edifice,  and  the  approach  to  the  principal  apartment  was  from  a 
very  stately  entrance,  which  is  still  denominated  the  Golden  Gate. 
The  approach  was  terminated  by  a  peristylium  of  granite  columns, 
on  one  side  of  which  we  discover  the  square  temple  of  iEsculapius, 
on  the  other  the  octagon  temple  of  Jupiter.  The  latter  of  those 
deities  Diocletian  revered  as  the  patron  of  his  fortunes,  the 
former  as  the  protector  of  his  health.  By  comparing  the  present 
remains  with  the  precepts  of  Vitruvius,  the  several  parts  of  the 
building,  the  baths,  bedchamber,  the  atrium,  the  basilica,  and  the 
Cyzicene,  Corinthian,  and  Egyptian  halls  have  been  described 
with  some  degree  of  precision,  or  at  least  of  probability.  Their 
forms  were  various,  their  proportions  just,  but  they  were  all 
attended  with  two  imperfections,  very  repugnant  to  our  modern 
notions  of  taste  and  conveniency.  These  stately  rooms  had 
neither  windows  nor  chimneys.  They  were  lighted  from  the 
top  (for  the  building  seems  to  have  consisted  of  no  more  than 
one  storey),  and  they  received  their  heat  by  the  help  of  pipes 
that  were  conveyed  along  the  walls.  The  range  of  principal 
apartments  was  protected  towards  the  south-west  by  a  portico 
five  hundred  and  seventeen  feet  long,  which  must  have  formed 
a  very  noble  and  delightful  walk,  when  the  beauties  of  painting 
and  sculpture  were  added  to  those  of  the  prospect. 

circumstance  or  two  from  the  Abate  Fortis  ;  the  little  stream  of  the  Hyader,  men- 
tioned by  Lucan,  produces  most  exquisite  trout,  which  a  sagacious  writer,  perhaps 
a  monk,  supposes  to  have  been  one  of  the  principal  reasons  that  determined 
Diocletian  in  the  choice  of  his  retirement.  Fortis,  p.  45.  The  same  author  (p. 
38)  observes  that  a  taste  for  agriculture  is  reviving  at  Spalatro ;  and  that  an 
experimental  farm  has  lately  been  established  near  the  city,  by  a  society  of  gentle- 
men. 

125 Constantin.  Orat.  ad  Ccetum  Sanct.  c.  25.  In  this  sermon,  the  emperor,  or 
the  bishop  who  composed  it  for  him,  affects  to  relate  the  miserable  end  of  all  the 
persecutors  of  the  church. 

126  Constantin.  Porphyr.  de  Statu.  Imper.  p.  86  [iii.  p.  125,  ed.  Bonn]. 

127  [Tragurium  is  the  name  ;  now  Trau.] 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  391 

Had  this  magnificent  edifice  remained  in  a  solitary  country,  it 
would  have  been  exposed  to  the  ravages  of  time  ;  but  it  might, 
perhaps,  have  escaped  the  rapacious  industry  of  man.  The 
village  of  Aspalathus,128  and,  long  afterwards,  the  provincial 
town  of  Spalatro,  have  grown  out  of  its  ruins.  The  Golden  Gate 
now  opens  into  the  market  place.  St.  John  the  Baptist  has 
usurped  the  honours  of  ^sculapius ;  and  the  temple  of  Jupiter, 
under  the  protection  of  the  Virgin,  is  converted  into  the  cathe- 
dral church.  For  this  account  of  Diocletian's  palace  we  are 
principally  indebted  to  an  ingenious  artist  of  our  own  time  and 
country,  whom  a  very  liberal  curiosity  carried  into  the  heart  of 
Dalmatia.129  But  there  is  room  to  suspect  that  the  elegance  of  Deoll]W  ot  tke 
his  designs  and  engraving  has  somewhat  flattered  the  objects  txU 
which  it  was  their  purpose  to  represent.  We  are  informed  by  a 
more  recent  and  very  judicious  traveller  that  the  awful  ruins  of 
Spalatro  are  not  less  expressive  of  the  decline  of  the  arts  than 
of  the  greatness  of  the  Roman  empire  in  the  time  of  Diocletian.130 
If  such  was  indeed  the  state  of  architecture,  we  must  naturally 
believe  that  painting  and  sculpture  had  experienced  a  still  more 
sensible  decay.  The  practice  of  architecture  is  directed  by  a 
few  general  and  even  mechanical  rules.  But  sculpture,  and, 
above  all,  painting,  propose  to  themselves  the  imitation  not  only 
of  the  forms  of  nature,  but  of  the  characters  and  passions  of  the 
human  soul.  In  those  sublime  arts,  the  dexterity  of  the  hand 
is  of  little  avail,  unless  it  is  animated  by  fancy  and  guided  by 
the  most  correct  taste  and  observation. 

It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  remark  that  the  civil  distractions  onetterg 
of  the  empire,  the  licence  of  the  soldiers,  the  inroads  of  the  bar- 
barians, and  the  progress  of  despotism  had  proved  very  un- 
favourable to  genius,  and  even  to  learning.  The  succession  of 
Illyrian  princes  restored  the  empire,  without  restoring  the 
sciences.  Their  military  education  was  not  calculated  to  inspire 
them  with  the  love  of  letters  ;  and  even  the  mind  of  Diocletian, 
however  active  and  capacious  in  business,  was  totally  uninformed 
by  study  or  speculation.     The  professions  of  law  and  physic  are 

128  D'Anville,  G6ographie  Ancienne,  torn.  i.  p.  162. 

129  Messieurs  Adam  and  Clerisseau,  attended  by  two  draughtsmen,  visited  Spa- 
latro in  the  month  of  July,  1757.  The  magnificent  work  which  their  journey  pro- 
duced was  published  in  London  seven  years  afterwards. 

wo  1  shall  quote  the  words  of  the  Abate  Fortis.  "  E'bastevolmente  nota  agli 
amatori  dell'  Architettura,  e  dell'  Antichita,  l'opera  del  Signor  Adams,  che  a  donato 
molto  a  que'  superbi  vestigi  coll'abituale  eleganza  del  suo  toccalapis  e  del  bulino. 
In  generale  la  rozzezza  del  scalpello,  e'l  cattivo  gusto  del  secolo  vi  gareggiano  colla 
magnificenza  del  fabricate ''    See  Viaggio  in  Dalmazia,  p.  40. 


392  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

of  such  common  use  and  certain  profit  that  they  will  always 
secure  a  sufficient  number  of  practitioners  endowed  with  a 
reasonable  degree  of  abilities  and  knowledge  ;  but  it  does  not 
appear  that  the  students  in  those  two  faculties  appeal  to  any 
celebrated  masters  who  have  flourished  within  that  period.  The 
voice  of  poetry  was  silent.  History  was  reduced  to  dry  and 
confused  abridgments,  alike  destitute  of  amusement  and  instruc- 
tion. A  languid  and  affected  eloquence  was  still  retained  in  the 
pay  and  service  of  the  emperors,  who  encouraged  not  any  arts 
except  those  which  contributed  to  the  gratification  of  their  pride 
or  the  defence  of  their  power.131 
The  new  The    declining  age  of  learning  and  of  mankind  is  marked, 

however,  by  the  rise  and  rapid  progress  of  the  new  Platonists. 
The  school  of  Alexandria  silenced  those  of  Athens ;  and  the 
ancient  sects  enrolled  themselves  under  the  banners  of  the 
more  fashionable  teachers,  who  recommended  their  system  by 
the  novelty  of  their  method  and  the  austerity  of  their  manners. 
Several  of  these  masters,  Ammonius,  Plotinus,  Amelius,  and 
Porphyry,132  were  men  of  profound  thought  and  intense 
application ;  but,  by  mistaking  the  true  object  of  philosophy, 
their  labours  contributed  much  less  to  improve  than  to  corrupt 
the  human  understanding.  The  knowledge  that  is  suited  to 
our  situation  and  powers,  the  whole  compass  of  moral,  natural, 
and  mathematical  science,  was  neglected  by  the  new  Platonists, 
whilst  they  exhausted  their  strength  in  the  verbal  disputes  of 
metaphysics,  attempted  to  explore  the  secrets  of  the  invisible 
world,  and  studied  to  reconcile  Aristotle  with  Plato,  on  subjects 
of  which  both  these  philosophers  were  as  ignorant  as  the  rest 
of  mankind.  Consuming  their  reason  in  these  deep  but  un- 
substantial meditations,  their  minds  were  exposed  to  illusions  of 
fancy.  They  flattered  themselves  that  they  possessed  the 
secret  of  disengaging  the  soul  from  its  corporeal  prison  ;  claimed 
a  familiar  intercourse  with  daemons  and  spirits ;  and,  by  a  very 
singular  revolution,  converted  the  study  of  philosophy  into  that 

131  The  orator  Eumenius  was  secretary  to  the  emperors  Maximian  and  Constan- 
tius,  and  Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  the  College  of  Autun.  His  salary  was  six  hundred 
thousand  sesterces,  which,  according  to  the  lowest  computation  of  that  age,  must 
ha.ve  exceeded  three  thousand  pounds  a  year.  He  generously  requested  the  per- 
mission of  employing  it  in  rebuilding  the  college.  See  his  Oration  De  restaurandis 
scholis  ;  which,  though  not  exempt  from  vanity,  may  atone  for  his  panegyrics. 

132  Porphyry  died  about  the  time  of  Diocletian's  abdication.  The  life  of  his 
master  Plotinus,  which  he  composed,  will  give  us  the  most  complete  idea  of  the 
genius  of  the  sect,  and  the  manners  of  its  professors.  This  very  curious  piece  is 
inserted  in  Fabricius,  Bibliotheca  Grasca.  torn.  iv.  p.  88-148  [and  is  included  in 
the  volume  of  Didot's  library,  which  contains  Diogenes  Laertius]. 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIRE  393 

of  magic.  The  ancient  sages  had  derided  the  popular  super- 
stition ;  after  disguising  its  extravagance  by  the  thin  pretence 
of  allegory,  the  disciplines  of  Plotinus  and  Porphyry  became  its 
most  zealous  defenders.  As  they  agreed  with  the  Christians  in 
a  few  mysterious  points  of  faith,  they  attacked  the  remainder  of 
their  theological  system  with  all  the  fury  of  civil  war  The  new 
Platonists  would  scarcely  deserve  a  place  in  the  history  of 
science,  but  in  that  of  the  church  the  mention  of  them  will 
very  frequently  occur. 


194  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


CHAPTEE  XIV 

Troubles  after  the  abdication  of  Diocletian — Death  of '  Comlantius — 
Elevation  of  Constantine  and  Maxentius — Six  Emperors  at  the 
sa?ne  time — Death  of  Maximum  and  Galerius — Victories  of 
Constantine  over  Maxentius  and  Licinius — Reunion  of  the 
Empire  under  the  authority  of  Constantine 

period  of  The  balance  of  power  established  by  Diocletian  submitted  no 
^dcoaSion,  longer  than  while  it  was  sustained  by  the  firm  and  dexterous 
ad.  305-323  jian(i  0f  the  founder.  It  required  such  a  fortunate  mixture  of 
different  tempers  and  abilities  as  could  scarcely  be  found,  or  even 
expected,  a  second  time  ;  two  emperors  without  jealousy,  two 
Caesars  without  ambition,  and  the  same  general  interest  invari- 
ably pursued  by  four  independent  princes.  The  abdication  of 
Diocletian  and  Maximian  was  succeeded  by  eighteen  years  of 
discord  and  confusion.  The  empire  was  afflicted  by  five  civil 
wars ;  and  the  remainder  of  the  time  was  not  so  much  a  state 
of  tranquillity  as  a  suspension  of  arms  between  several  hostile 
monarchs,  who,  viewing  each  other  with  an  eye  of  fear  and 
hatred,  strove  to  increase  their  respective  forces  at  the  expense 
of  their  subjects. 
character  and  As  soon  as  Diocletian  and  Maximian  had  resigned  the  purple, 
co^tentto  their  station,  according  to  the  rules  of  the  new  constitution,  was 
filled  by  the  two  Caesars,  Constantius  and  Galerius,  who  immediately 
assumed  the  title  of  Augustus.1  The  honours  of  seniority  and 
precedence  were  allowed  to  the  former  of  those  princes,  and  he 
continued,  under  a  new  appellation,  to  administer  his  ancient 
department  of  Gaul,  Spain,2  and  Britain.  The  government  of 
those  ample  provinces  was  sufficient  to  exercise  his  talents,  and 
to  satisfy  his  ambition.  Clemency,  temperance,  and  moderation 
distinguished    the    amiable    character    of  Constantius,   and   his 

*M.  De  Montesquieu  (Considerations  sur  la  Grandeur  et  la  Decadence  des 
Romains,  c.  17)  supposes,  on  the  authority  of  Orosius  and  Eusebius,  that,  on  this 
occasion,  the  empire,  for  the  first  time,  was  really  divided  into  two  parts.  It  is 
difficult,  however,  to  discover  in  what  respect  the  plan  of  Galerius  differed  from 
that  of  Diocletian. 

2  [See  below,  note  19.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  395 

fortunate  subjects  had  frequently  occasion  to  compare  the  virtues 
of  their  sovereign  with  the  passions  of  Maximian,  and  even  with 
the  arts  of  Diocletian.8  Instead  of  imitating  their  eastern  pride 
and  magnificence,  Constantius  preserved  the  modesty  of  a  Roman 
prince.  He  declared,  with  unaffected  sincerity,  that  his  most 
valued  treasure  was  in  the  hearts  of  his  people,  and  that,  when- 
ever the  dignity  of  the  throne  or  the  danger  of  the  state  required 
any  extraordinary  supply,  he  could  depend  with  confidence  on 
their  gratitude  and  liberality.*  The  provincials  of  Gaul,  Spain, 
and  Britain,  sensible  of  his  worth  and  of  their  own  happiness, 
reflected  with  anxiety  on  the  declining  health  of  the  emperor 
Constantius,  and  the  tender  age  of  his  numerous  family,  the 
issue  of  his  second  marriage  with  the  daughter  of  Maximian. 

The  stern  temper  of  Galerius  was  cast  in  a  very  different  of  Galerius 
mould  ;  and,  while  he  commanded  the  esteem  of  his  subjects,  he 
seldom  condescended  to  solicit  their  affections.  His  fame  in 
arms,  and,  above  all,  the  success  of  the  Persian  war,  had  elated 
his  haughty  mind,  which  was  naturally  impatient  of  a  superior, 
or  even  of  an  equal.  If  it  were  possible  to  rely  on  the  partial 
testimony  of  an  injudicious  writer,  we  might  ascribe  the  abdica- 
tion of  Diocletian  to  the  menaces  of  Galerius,  and  relate  the 
particulars  of  a  private  conversation  between  the  two  princes, 
in  which  the  former  discovered  as  much  pusillanimity  as  the 
latter  displayed  ingratitude  and  arrogance.5  But  these  obscure 
anecdotes  are  sufficiently  refuted  by  an  impartial  view  of  the 
character  and  conduct  of  Diocletian.  Whatever  might  otherwise 
have  been  his  intentions,  if  he  had  apprehended  any  danger 
from  the  violence  of  Galerius,  his  good  sense  would  have  in- 
structed him  to  prevent  the  ignominious  contest ;  and,  as  he  had 
held  the  sceptre  with  glory,  he  would  have  resigned  it  without 
disgrace. 

After  the  elevation  of  Constantius  and  Galerius  to  the  rank  Thetwo 

Caesars,  Se- 
verus  and 
Maximln 

3  Hie  non  modo  amabilis,  sed  etiam  venerabilis  Gallis  fuit ;  prsecipue  quod 
Diocletiani  suspectam  prudentiam,  et  Maximiani  sanguinariam  violentiam  imperio 
ejus  evaserant.     Eutrop.  Breviar.  x.  i. 

4  Divitiis  Provincialium  (mel.  provinciarum)  ac  privatorum  studens,  fisci  com- 
moda  non  admodum  affectans  ;  ducensque  melius  publicas  opes  a  privatis  haberi, 
quam  intra  unum  claustrum  reservari.  Id.  ibid.  He  carried  this  maxim  so  far,  that 
whenever  he  gave  an  entertainment  he  was  obliged  to  borrow  a  service  of  plate. 

s  Lactantius  de  Mort.  Persecutor,  c.  18.  Were  the  particulars  of  this  conference 
more  consistent  with  truth  and  decency,  we  might  still  ask,  how  they  came  to  the 
knowledge  of  an  obscure  rhetorician  ?  But  there  are  many  historians  who  put  us 
in  mind  of  the  admirable  saying  of  the  great  Conde"  to  Cardinal  de  Retz ;  "  Ces 
coquins  nous  font  parler  et  agir,  comme  ils  auroient  fait  eux-memes  a  notre 
place". 


396  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

of  Augusti,  two  new  Ccesars  were  required  to  supply  their  place, 
and  to  complete  the  system  of  the  Imperial  government.  Dio- 
cletian was  sincerely  desirous  of  withdrawing  himself  from  the 
world  ;  he  considered  Galerius,  who  had  married  his  daughter, 
as  the  firmest  support  of  his  family  and  of  the  empire ;  and  he 
consented,  without  reluctance,  that  his  successor  should  assume 
the  merit  as  well  as  the  envy  of  the  important  nomination.  It 
was  fixed  without  consulting  the  interest  or  inclination  of  the 
princes  of  the  West.  Each  of  them  had  a  son  who  was  arrived 
at  the  age  of  manhood,  and  who  might  have  been  deemed  the 
most  natural  candidates  for  the  vacant  honour.  But  the  im- 
potent resentment  of  Maximian  was  no  longer  to  be  dreaded, 
and  the  moderate  Constantius,  though  he  might  despise  the 
dangers,  was  humanely  apprehensive  of  the  calamities,  of  civil 
war.  The  two  persons  whom  Galerius  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
Caesar  were  much  better  suited  to  serve  the  views  of  his  ambition  ; 
and  their  principal  recommendation  seems  to  have  consisted  in 
the  want  of  merit  or  personal  consequence.  The  first  of  these 
was  Daza,  or,  as  he  was  afterwards  called,  Maximin,6  whose 
mother  was  the  sister  of  Galerius.  The  unexperienced  youth 
still  betrayed  by  his  manners  and  language  his  rustic  education, 
when,  to  his  own  astonishment  as  well  as  that  of  the  world,  he 
was  invested  by  Diocletian  with  the  purple,  exalted  to  the 
dignity  of  Caesar,  and  intrusted  with  the  sovereign  command  of 
Egypt  and  Syria.7  At  the  same  time,  Severus,  a  faithful  servant, 
addicted  to  pleasure,  but  not  incapable  of  business,  was  sent  to 
Milan,  to  receive  from  the  reluctant  hands  of  Maximian  the 
Csesarean  ornaments,  and  the  possession  of  Italy  and  Africa.8 
According  to  the  forms  of  the  constitution,  Severus  acknow- 
ledged the  supremacy  of  the  western  emperor ;  but  he  was 
absolutely  devoted  to  the  commands  of  his  benefactor  Galerius, 
who,  reserving  to  himself  the  intermediate  countries  from  the 
confines  of  Italy  to  those  of  Syria,  firmly  established  his  power 
over  three-fourths  of  the  monarchy.  In  the  full  confidence  that 
the  approaching  death  of  Constantius  would  leave  him  sole 
master  of  the  Roman  world,  we  are  assured  that  he  had  arranged 
in  his  mind  a  long  succession  of  future  princes,  and  that  he 

6  [Galerius  Valerius  Maximinus.] 

7  Sublatus  nuper  a  pecoribus  et  silvis  (says  Lactantius,  de  M.  P.  c.  19)  statim 
Scutarius,  continuo  Protector,  mox  Tribunus,  postridic  Caesar,  accepit  Orientem. 
Aurelius  Victor  is  too  liberal  in  giving  him  the  whole  portion  of  Diocletian. 

8  His  diligence  and  fidelity  are  acknowledged  even  by  Lactantius,  de  M.  P. 
c.   18.     fName  ■  Flavius  Valerius  Severus.J 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  397 

meditated  his  own  retreat  from  public  life  after  he  should  have 
accomplished  a  glorious  reign  of  about  twenty  years.9 

But,    within    less    than    eighteen    months,    two    unexpected  Ambition  of 
revolutions    overturned    the    ambitious    schemes    of    Galerius.  appointed  by 
The  hopes  of  uniting  the  western  provinces  to  his  empire  were  tionsrevo  u 
disappointed  by  the  elevation  of  Constantine ;  whilst  Italy  and 
Africa  were  lost  by  the  successful  revolt  of  Maxentius. 

I.  The  fame  of  Constantine  has  rendered  posteritv  attentive  BirU>,  educa- 
to  the  most  minute  circumstances  ot  his  lire  and  actions.     TheescaPe°f 
place  of  his  birth,  as  well  as  the  condition  of  his  mother  Helena,  A.D.274 
have   been  the   subject  not   only  of  literary   but    of  national 
disputes.     Notwithstanding  the  recent  tradition,  which  assigns 
for  her  father  a   British  king,  we  are   obliged   to  confess   that 
Helena  was  the  daughter  of  an  innkeeper  ; 10  but  at  the  same 
time  we  may  defend  the  legality  of  her  marriage  against  those 
who  have  represented  her  as  the   concubine   of  Constantius.11 
The  great  Constantine  was  most  probably  born  at  Naissus,  in 
Dacia,12  and  it  is  not  surprising  that,  in  a  family  and  province 

9  These  schemes,  however,  rest  only  on  the  very  doubtful  authority  of  Lactantius, 
de  M.  P.  c.  20. 

10  This  tradition,  unknown  to  the  contemporaries  of  Constantine,  was  invented 
in  the  darkness  of  monasteries,  was  embellished  by  Jeffrey  of  Monmouth  and  the 
writers  of  the  xiith  century,  has  been  defended  by  our  antiquarians  of  the  last  age, 
and  is  seriously  related  in  the  ponderous  history  of  England,  compiled  by  Mr. 
Carte  (vol.  i.  p.  147).  He  transports,  however,  the  kingdom  of  Coil,  the  imaginary 
father  of  Helena,  from  Essex  to  the  wall  of  Antoninus. 

uEutropius  (x.  2)  expresses,  in  a  few  words,  the  real  truth,  and  the  occasion  of 
the  error,  "  ex  obscuriori  malrimonio  ejus  filius  ".  Zosimus  (1.  ii.  p.  78  [8])  eagerly 
seized  the  most  unfavourable  report,  and  is  followed  by  Orosius  (vii.  25),  whose 
authority  is  oddly  enough  overlooked  by  the  indefatigable  but  partial  Tillemont. 
By  insisting  on  the  divorce  of  Helena,  Diocletian  acknowledged  her  marriage. 

12  There  are  three  opinions  with  regard  to  the  place  of  Constantine's  birth. 

I.  Our  English  antiquarians  were  used  to  dwell  with  rapture  on  the  words  of  his 
panegyrist;  "  Britannias  illic  oriendo  nobiles  fecisti ".  But  this  celebrated  passage 
may  be  referred  with  as  much  propriety  to  the  accession  as  to  the  nativity  of  Con- 
stantine. 2.  Some  of  the  modern  Greeks  have  ascribed  the  honour  of  his  birth  to 
Drepanum,  a  town  on  the  gulf  of  Nicomedia  (Cellarius,  torn.  ii.  p.  174)  which 
Constantine  dignified  with  the  name  of  Helenopolis,  and  Justinian  adorned  with 
many  splendid  buildings  (Procop.  de  Edificiis,  v.  2).  It  is  indeed  probable  enough 
that  Helena's  father  kept  an  inn  at  Drepanum  ;  and  that  Constantius  might  lodge 
there  when  he  returned  from  a  Persian  embassy  in  the  reign  of  Aurelian.  But  in 
the  wandering  life  of  a  soldier,  the  place  of  his  marriage,  and  the  place  where  his 
children  are  born,  have  very  little  connexion  with  each  other.  3.  The  claim  of 
Naissus  is  supported  by  the  anonymous  writer,  published  at  the  end  of  Ammianus, 
p.  710  [Anonymous  Valesii,  2],  and  who  in  general  copied  very  good  materials ; 
and  it  is  confirmed  by  Julius  Firmicus  (de  Astrologia,  1.  i.  c.  4),  who  flourished 
under  the  reign  of  Constantine  himself.  [Mathesis  was  the  name  which  the  author 
himself,  Julius  Firmicus  Maternus  junior  Siculus,  gave  to  this  work  in  eight  Books.] 
Some  objections  have  been  raised  against  the  integrity  of  the  text,  and  the  applica- 
tion, of  the  passage  of  Firmicus;  but  the  former  is  established  by  the  best  Mss., 
and  the  latter  is  very  ably  defended  by  Lipsius  de  Magnitudine  Romana,  1.  iv.  c. 

II,  et  Supplement. 


398  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

distinguished  only  by  the  profession  of  arms,  the  youth  should 
discover    very    little    inclination  to  improve  his  mind    by   the 
ad. 292        acquisition    of  knowledge.13     He  was  about  eighteen  years  of 
1293?]  age  w}ien  his  father  was   promoted  to  the  rank  of  Caesar ;  but 

that  fortunate  event  was  attended  with  his  mother's  divorce  ; 
and  the  splendour  of  an  Imperial  alliance  reduced  the  son  of 
Helena  to  a  state  of  disgrace  and  humiliation.  Instead  of 
following  Constantius  in  the  West,  he  remained  in  the  service 
of  Diocletian,  signalized  his  valour  in  the  wars  of  Egypt  and 
Persia,  and  gradually  rose  to  the  honourable  station  of  a  tribune 
of  the  first  order.  The  figure  of  Constantine  was  tall  and 
majestic;  he  was  dexterous  in  all  his  exercises,  intrepid  in  war, 
affable  in  peace ;  in  his  whole  conduct  the  active  spirit  of 
youth  was  tempered  by  habitual  prudence  ;  and,  while  his  mind 
was  engrossed  by  ambition,  he  appeared  cold  and  insensible 
to  the  allurements  of  pleasure.  The  favour  of  the  people  and 
soldiers,  who  had  named  him  as  a  worthy  candidate  for  the 
rank  of  Caesar,  served  only  to  exasperate  the  jealousy  of 
Galerius ;  and,  though  prudence  might  restrain  him  from 
exercising  any  open  violence,  an  absolute  monarch  is  seldom  at 
a  loss  how  to  execute  a  sure  and  secret  revenge.14  Every  hour 
increased  the  danger  of  Constantine  and  the  anxiety  of  his 
father,  who,  by  repeated  letters,  expressed  the  warmest 
desire  of  embracing  his  son.  For  some  time  the  policy  of 
Galerius  supplied  him  with  delays  and  excuses,  but  it  was  im- 
possible long  to  refuse  so  natural  a  request  of  his  associate, 
without  maintaining  his  refusal  by  arms.  The  permission  for  the 
journey  was  reluctantly  granted,  and,  whatever  precautions  the 
emperor  might  have  taken  to  intercept  a  return,  the  conse- 
quences of  which  he,  with  so  much  reason,  apprehended,  they 
were  effectually  disappointed  by  the  incredible  diligence  of 
Constantine.15     Leaving  the  palace  of  Nicomedia  in  the  night, 

1S  Literis  minus  instructus.  Anonym,  ad  Ammian.  p.  710  [2,  2  (edited  by  Gardt- 
hausen  with  Ammianus,  ii.  p.  280  sgq.)\ 

14  Galerius,  or  perhaps  his  own  courage,  exposed  him  to  single  combat  with  a 
Sarmatian  (Anonym,  p.  710  [2,  3])  and  with  a  monstrous  lion.  See  Praxagoras 
apud  Photium,  p.  63  [F.H.G.  iv.  p.  2].  Praxagoras,  an  Athenian  philosopher, 
had  written  a  life  of  Constantine,  in  two  books,  which  are  now  lost.  He  was  a 
contemporary. 

15Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  78,  79  [8].  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  24.  The  former  tells  a 
very  foolish  story,  that  Constantine  caused  all  the  post  horses,  which  he  had  used, 
to  be  hamstrung.  Such  a  bloody  execution,  without  preventing  a  pursuit,  would 
have  scattered  suspicions  and  might  have  stopped  his  journey.  [The  ques- 
tion arises  why  Constantine  remained  so  long  in  the  East  as  he  did.  Schiller 
thinks  that  it  was  Diocletian's  purpose,  one  day  to  invest  him  with  the  purple. 
There  is  even  numismatic  evidence  that  he  was  recognized  in  Alexandria  as  Caesar 
before  the  nomination  of  Severus.     Schiller,  ii.  167. 1 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  399 

he  traveled  post  through  Bithynia,  Thrace,  Dacia,  Pannonia, 
Italy,  and  Gaul,  and,  amidst  the  joyful  acclamations  of  the 
people,  reached  the  port  of  Boulogne  in  the  very  moment  when 
his  father  was  preparing  to  embark  for  Britain.16 

The  British  expedition,  and  an  easy  victory  over  the  barbarians  Death  of 
of  Caledonia,  were  the  last  exploits  of  the  reign  of  Constantius.  and  elevation 
He  ended  his  life  in  the  Imperial  palace  of  York,  fifteen  months  stance, 

AD   306 

after  he  had  assumed  the  title  of  Augustus,  and  almost  fourteen  July  25 ' 
years  and  a  half  after  he  had  been  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
Caesar.17  His  death  was  immediately  succeeded  by  the  eleva- 
tion of  Constantine.  The  ideas  of  inheritance  and  succession 
are  so  very  familiar  that  the  generality  of  mankind  consider 
them  as  founded,  not  only  in  reason,  but  in  nature  itself.  Our 
imagination  readily  transfers  the  same  principles  from  private 
property  to  public  dominion :  and,  whenever  a  virtuous  father 
leaves  behind  him  a  son  whose  merit  seems  to  justify  the 
esteem,  or  even  the  hopes,  of  the  people,  the  joint  influence  of 
prejudice  and  of  affection  operates  with  irresistible  weight. 
The  flower  of  the  western  armies  had  followed  Constantius  into 
Britain,  and  the  national  troops  were  reinforced  by  a  numerous 
body  of  Alemanni,  who  obeyed  the  orders  of  Crocus,  one  of 
their  hereditary  chieftains.18  The  opinion  of  their  own  im- 
portance, and  the  assurance  that  Britain,  Gaul,  and  Spain  19  would 
acquiesce  in  their  nomination,  were  diligently  inculcated  to  the 
legions  by  the  adherents  of  Constantine.  The  soldiers  were 
asked,  Whether  they  could  hesitate  a  moment  between  the 
honour  of  placing  at  their  head  the  worthy  son  of  their  beloved 
emperor  and  the  ignominy  of  tamely  expecting  the  arrival  of 
some  obscure  stranger,  on  whom  it  might  please  the  sovereign 
of  Asia  to  bestow  the  armies  and  provinces  of  the  West.  It 
was  insinuated  to  them  that  gratitude  and  liberality  held  a 
distinguished  place  among  the  virtues  of  Constantine  :  nor  did 

16  Anonym,  p.  710  [2,  4].  Panegyr.  Veter.  vii.  4.  But  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  79  [9] , 
Eusebius  de  Vit.  Constan.  1.  i.  c.  21,  and  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  24  suppose,  with 
less  accuracy,  that  he  found  his  father  on  his  death-bed  [cp.  Aurel.  Victor,  Caes. 
40]. 

17  [A  metrical  epitaph  (which  Rossi  supposed  to  be  on  Constans),  found  in  two 
Mss.,  has  been  vindicated  for  Constantius  by  Mommsen  in  Hermes,  vol.  xxviii.] 

18  Cunctis  qui  aderant  annitentibus,  sed  praecipue  Croco  (alii  Eroco)  Alaman- 
norum  Rege,  auxilii  gratia  Constantium  comitato,  imperium  capit.  Victor 
Junior,  [epit.]  c.  41.  This  is  perhaps  the  first  instance  of  a  barbarian  king  who 
assisted  the  Roman  arms  with  an  independent  body  of  his  own  subjects.  The 
practice  grew  familiar,  and  at  last  became  fatal. 

19  [Spain  was  hardly  in  the  dominion  of  Constantius,  or  of  Constantine  before 
his  victory  over  Maxentius.     It  went  at  this  time  with  Africa  and  Italy.] 


400  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

that  artful  prince  show  himself  to  the  troops,  till  they  were 
prepared  to  salute  him  with  the  names  of  Augustus  and  Em- 
peror. The  throne  was  the  object  of  his  desires ;  and,  had  he 
been  less  actuated  by  ambition,  it  was  his  only  means  of 
safety.  He  was  well  acquainted  with  the  character  and  senti- 
ments of  Galerius,  and  sufficiently  apprized  that,  if  he  wished 
to  live,  he  must  determine  to  reign.  The  decent  and  even 
obstinate  resistance  which  he  chose  to  affect 20  was  contrived 
to  justify  his  usurpation ;  nor  did  he  yield  to  the  acclamations 
of  the  army,  till  he  had  provided  the  proper  materials  for  a 
letter,  which  he  immediately  despatched  to  the  emperor  of  the 
East.  Constantine  informed  him  of  the  melancholy  event  of 
his  father's  death,  modestly  asserted  his  natural  claim  to  the 
succession,  and  respectfully  lamented  that  the  affectionate 
violence  of  his  troops  had  not  permitted  him  to  solicit  the 
Imperial  purple  in  the  regular  and  constitutional  manner. 
The  first  emotions  of  Galerius  were  those  of  surprise,  disappoint- 
ment, and  rage  ;  and,  as  he  could  seldom  restrain  his  passions, 
he  loudly  threatened  that  he  would  commit  to  the  flames  both 
He  is  acknow-  the  letter  and  the  messenger.  But  his  resentment  insensibly 
Ehderitu,  who  subsided  ;  and,  when  he  recollected  the  doubtful  chance  of  war, 
oniy'the  when  he  had  weighed  the  character  and  strength  of  his 
cxsm,  and  adversary,  he  consented  to  embrace  the  honourable  accommoda- 
Augustusto  tion  which  the  prudence  of  Constantine  had  left  open  to  him. 
Without  either  condemning  or  ratifying  the  choice  of  the 
British  army,  Galerius  accepted  the  son  of  his  deceased  colleague 
as  the  sovereign  of  the  provinces  beyond  the  Alps ;  but  he  gave 
him  only  the  title  of  Caesar,  and  the  fourth  rank  among  the 
Roman  princes,  whilst  he  conferred  the  vacant  place  of  Augustus 
on  his  favourite  Severus.  The  apparent  harmony  of  the  empire 
was  still  preserved,  and  Constantine.  who  already  possessed 
the  substance,  expected,  without  impatience,  an  opportunity  of 
obtaining  the  honours,  of  supreme  power.21 
The  orotners  The  children  of  Constantius  by  his  second  marriage  were  six 
ofconatan-  in  number,  three  of  either  sex,  and  whose  Imperial  descent 
might  have  solicited  a  preference  over  the  meaner  extraction  of 
the  son  of  Helena.  But  Constantine  was  in  the  thirty-second 
year  of  his  age,  in  the  full  vigour  both  of  mind  and  body,  at  the 

20  His  panegyrist  Eumenius  (vii.  8)  ventures  to  affirm,  in  the  presence  of  Con- 
stantine, that  he  put  spurs  to  his  horse,  and  tried,  but  in  vain,  to  escape  from  the 
hands  of  his  soldiers. 

21  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  25.  Eumenius  (vii.  8)  gives  a  rhetorical  turn  to  the 
whole  transaction. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  401 

time  when  the  eldest  of  his  brothers  could  not  possibly  be  more 
than  thirteen  years  old.  His  claim  of  superior  merit  had  been 
allowed  and  ratified  by  the  dying  emperor.22  In  his  last  mo- 
ments Constantius  bequeathed  to  his  eldest  son  the  care  of  the 
safety,  as  well  as  greatness,  of  the  family ;  conjuring  him  to 
assume  both  the  authority  and  the  sentiments  of  a  father  with 
regard  to  the  children  of  Theodora.  Their  liberal  education, 
advantageous  marriages,  the  secure  dignity  of  their  lives,  and 
the  first  honours  of  the  state  with  which  they  were  invested, 
attest  the  fraternal  affection  of  Constantine  ;  and,  as  those  princes 
possessed  a  mild  and  grateful  disposition,  they  submitted  with- 
out reluctance  to  the  superiority  of  his  genius  and  fortune.23 

II.  The  ambitious  spirit  of  Galerius  was  scarcely  reconciled  Discontent  of 
to  the  disappointment  of  his  views  upon  the  Gallic  provinces,  !tethe™pp?e- 
before  the  unexpected  loss  of  Italy  wounded  his  pride  as  well  as  ta«8on 
power  in  a  still  more  sensible  part.  The  long  absence  of  the 
emperors  had  filled  Rome  with  discontent  and  indignation  :  and 
the  people  gradually  discovered  that  the  preference  given  to 
Nicomedia  and  Milan  was  not  to  be  ascribed  to  the  particular 
inclination  of  Diocletian,  but  to  the  permanent  form  of  govern- 
ment which  he  had  instituted.  It  was  in  vain  that,  a  few 
months  after  his  abdication,  his  successors  dedicated,  under  his 
name,  those  magnificent  baths,  whose  ruins  stdl  supply  the 
ground  as  well  as  the  materials  for  so  many  churches  and  con- 
vents.24 The  tranquillity  of  those  elegant  recesses  of  ease  and 
luxury  was  disturbed  by  the  impatient  murmurs  of  the  Romans  ; 
and  a  report  was  insensibly  circulated  that  the  sums  expended 
in  erecting  those  buildings  would  soon  be  required  at  their 
hands.  About  that  time  the  avarice  of  Galerius,  or  perhaps 
the  exigencies  of  the  state,  had  induced  him  to  make  a  very 

22  The  choice  of  Constantine  by  his  dying  father,  which  is  warranted  by  reason, 
and  insinuated  by  Eumenius,  seems  to  be  confirmed  by  the  most  unexceptionable 
authority,  the  concurring  evidence  of  Lactantius  (de  M.  P.  c.  24)  and  of  Libanius 
(Oration  i. ),  of  Eusebius  (in  Vit.  Constantin,  1.  i.  c.  18,  21)  and  of  Julian  (Oration 
i.  [p.  7]). 

23  Of  the  three  sisters  of  Constantine,  Constantia  married  the  Emperor  Licinius, 
Anastasia  the  Caesar  Bassianus,  and  Eutropia  the  consul  Nepotianus.  The  three 
brothers  were,  Dalmatius,  Julius  Constantius,  Annibalianus,  of  whom  we  shall 
have  occasion  to  speak  hereafter. 

24  See  Gruter  Inscrip.  p.  178.  The  six  princes  are  all  mentioned,  Diocletian  and 
Maximian  as  the  senior  Augusti  and  fathers  of  the  emperors.  They  jointly  dedicate, 
for  the  use  of  their  own  Romans,  this  magnificent  edifice.  The  architects  have 
delineated  the  ruins  of  these  Thermae  ;  and  the  antiquarians,  particularly  Donatus 
and  Nardini,  have  ascertained  the  ground  which  they  covered.  One  of  the  great 
rooms  is  now  the  Carthusian  church  ;  and  even  one  of  the  porter's  lodges  is 
sufficient  to  form  another  church,  which  belongs  to  the  Feuillans. 

2(3  vol.  1. 


402  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

strict  and  rigorous  inquisition  into  the  property  of  his  subjects 
for  the  purpose  of  a  general  taxation,  both  on  their  lands  and 
on  their  persons.  A  very  minute  survey  appears  to  have  been 
taken  of  their  real  estates ;  and,  wherever  there  was  the  slight- 
est suspicion  of  concealment,  torture  was  very  freely  employed 
to  obtain  a  sincere  declaration  of  their  personal  wealth.25  The 
privileges  which  had  exalted  Italy  above  the  rank  of  the  pro- 
vinces were  no  longer  regarded  :  and  the  officers  of  the  revenue 
already  began  to  number  the  Roman  people,  and  to  settle  the 
proportion  of  the  new  taxes.  Even  when  the  spirit  of  freedom 
had  been  utterly  extinguished,  the  tamest  subjects  have  some- 
times ventured  to  resist  an  unprecedented  invasion  of  their 
property;  but  on  this  occasion  the  injury  was  aggravated  by 
the  insult,  and  the  sense  of  private  interest  was  quickened  by 
that  of  national  honour.  The  conquest  of  Macedonia,  as  we 
have  already  observed,  had  delivered  the  Roman  people  from 
the  weight  of  personal  taxes.  Though  they  had  experienced 
every  form  of  despotism,  they  had  now  enjoyed  that  exemption 
near  five  hundred  years ;  nor  could  they  patiently  brook  the 
insolence  of  an  Illyrian  peasant,  who,  from  his  distant  residence 
in  Asia,  presumed  to  number  Rome  among  the  tributary  cities 
of  his  empire.  The  rising  fury  of  the  people  was  encouraged 
by  the  authority,  or  at  least  the  connivance,  of  the  senate ; 
and  the  feeble  remains  of  the  Praetorian  guards,  who  had 
reason  to  apprehend  their  own  dissolution,  embraced  so  honour- 
able a  pretence,  and  declared  their  readiness  to  draw  their 
swords  in  the  service  of  their  oppressed  country.  It  was  the 
wish,  and  it  soon  became  the  hope,  of  every  citizen,  that,  after 
expelling  from  Italy  their  foreign  tyrants,  they  should  elect  a 
prince  who,  by  the  place  of  his  residence,  and  by  his  maxims 
of  government,  might  once  more  deserve  the  title  of  Roman 
emperor.  The  name  as  well  as  the  situation  of  Maxentius 
determined  in  his  favour  the  popular  enthusiasm. 
Maxentius  Maxentius  was  the  son  of  the  emperor  Maximian,  and  he 
emptor  at  had  married  the  daughter  of  Galerius.  His  birth  and  alliance 
a.d.306,  seemed  to  offer  him  the  fairest  promise  of  succeeding  to  the 
Oct.  empire  ;    but  his  vices  and  incapacity  procured  him  the  same 

exclusion  from  the  dignity  of  Csesar  which  Constantine  had 
deserved  by  a  dangerous  superiority  of  merit.  The  policy  of 
Galerius  preferred  such  associates  as  would  never  disgrace  the 
choice,  nor  dispute  the  commands,  of  their  benefactors.     An  ob- 

20  See  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  26,  31. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  403 

scure  stranger  was  therefore  raised  to  the  throne  of  Italy,  and  the 
son  of  the  late  emperor  of  the  West  was  left  to  enjoy  the  luxury 
of  a  private  fortune  in  a  villa  a  few  miles  distant  from  the  capital. 
The  gloomy  passions  of  his  soul,  shame,  vexation,  and  rage,  were 
inflamed  by  envy  on  the  news  of  Constantine's  success  ;  but  the 
hopes  of  Maxentius  revived  with  the  public  discontent,  and  he 
was  easily  persuaded  to  unite  his  personal  injury  and  pretensions 
with  the  cause  of  the  Roman  people.  Two  Praetorian  tribunes 
and  a  commissary  of  provisions  undertook  the  management  of  the 
conspiracy ;  and,  as  every  order  of  men  was  actuated  by  the 
same  spirit,  the  immediate  event  was  neither  doubtful  or  difficult. 
The  praefect  of  the  city  and  a  few  magistrates,  who  maintained 
their  fidelity  to  Severus,  were  massacred  by  the  guards  ;  and 
Maxentius,  invested  with  the  Imperial  ornaments,  was  acknow- 
ledged by  the  applauding  senate  and  people  as  the  protector  of 
the  Roman  freedom  and  dignity.26  It  is  uncertain  whether 
Maximian  was  previously  acquainted  with  the  conspiracy  ;  but,  Maximian  re 
as  soon  as  the  standard  of  rebellion  was  erected  at  Rome,  the  £SjJ?ees 
old  emperor  broke  from  the  retirement  where  the  authority  of 
Diocletian  had  condemned  him  to  pass  a  life  of  melancholy  soli- 
tude, and  concealed  his  returning  ambition  under  the  disguise 
of  paternal  tenderness.  At  the  request  of  his  son  and  of  the 
senate,  he  condescended  to  reassume  the  purple.  His  ancient 
dignity,  his  experience,  and  his  fame  in  arms  added  strength  as 
well  as  reputation  to  the  party  of  Maxentius.27 

According  to  the  advice,  or  rather  the  orders,  of  his  colleague,  Defeat  and 
the  emperor  Severus  immediately  hastened  to  Rome,  in  the  full  severus 
confidence  that,  by  his  unexpected  celerity,  he  should  easily 
suppress  the  tumult  of  an  unwarlike  populace,  commanded  by  a 
licentious  youth.  But  he  found  on  his  arrival  the  gates  of  the 
city  shut  against  him,  the  walls  filled  with  men  and  arms,  an 
experienced  general  at  the  head  of  the  rebels,  and  his  own 
troops  without  spirit  or  affection.  A  large  body  of  Moors  de- 
serted to  the  enemy,  allured  by  the  promise  of  a  large  donative  ; 
|  and,  if  it  be  true  that  they  had  been  levied  by  Maximian  in  his 
|  African  war,  preferring  the  natural  feelings  of  gratitude  to  the 
artificial  ties  of  allegiance.  Anulinus,  the  Praetorian  praefect, 
declared  himself  in  favour  of  Maxentius,  and  drew  after  him  the 

26 [But  as  Caesar,  not  as  Augustus.] 

27  The  vith  Panegyric  represents  the  conduct  of  Maximian  in  the  most  favourable 
light,  and  the  ambiguous  expression  of  Aurelius  Victor,  "retractante  diu,"  may 
signify,  either  that  he  contrived,  or  that  he  opposed,  the  conspiracy.  See  Zosimus, 
1.  ii.  p.  79  [9]  and  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  26. 


404 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


AD.  307, 

Fetruary 


Maximian 
elves  his 
daughter 
Fausta.  and 
the  title  of 
Augustus,  to 
C  ens  tan  tine 

AD.  307, 
31st  March  [7] 


most  considerable  part  of  the  troops,  accustomed  to  obey  his 
commands.  Rome,  according  to  the  expression  of  an  orator, 
recalled  her  armies,  and  the  unfortunate  Severus,  destitute  of 
force  and  of  counsel,  retired,  or  rather  fled,  with  precipitation  to 
Ravenna.  Here  he  might  for  some  time  have  been  safe.  The 
fortifications  of  Ravenna  were  able  to  resist  the  attempts,  and 
the  morasses  that  surrounded  the  town  were  sufficient  to  prevent 
the  approach,  of  the  Italian  army.  The  sea,  which  Severus 
commanded  with  a  powerful  fleet,  secured  him  an  inexhaustible 
supply  of  provisions,  and  gave  a  free  entrance  to  the  legions 
which,  on  the  return  of  spring,  would  advance  to  his  assistance 
from  Illyricum  and  the  East.  Maximian,  who  conducted  the 
siege  in  person,  was  soon  convinced  that  he  might  waste  his 
time  and  his  army  in  the  fruitless  enterprise,  and  that  he  had 
nothing  to  hope  either  from  force  or  famine.  With  an  art  more 
suitable  to  the  character  of  Diocletian  than  to  his  own,  he 
directed  his  attack,  not  so  much  against  the  walls  of  Ravenna 
as  against  the  mind  of  Severus.  The  treachery  which  he  had 
experienced  disposed  that  unhappy  prince  to  distrust  the  most 
sincere  of  his  friends  and  adherents.  The  emissaries  of  Max- 
imian easily  persuaded  his  credulity  that  a  conspiracy  was  formed 
to  betray  the  town,  and  prevailed  upon  his  fears  not  to  expose 
himself  to  the  discretion  of  an  irritated  conqueror,  but  to  accept 
the  faith  of  an  honourable  capitulation.  He  was  at  first  received 
with  humanity,  and  treated  with  respect.  Maximian  conducted 
the  captive  emperor  to  Rome,  and  gave  him  the  most  solemn 
assurances  that  he  had  secured  his  life  by  the  resignation  of  the 
purple.  But  Severus  could  obtain  only  an  easy  death  and  an 
Imperial  funeral.  When  the  sentence  was  signified  to  him,  the 
manner  of  executing  it  was  left  to  his  own  choice  ;  he  preferred 
the  favourite  mode  of  the  ancients,  that  of  opening  his  veins  : 
and,  as  soon  as  he  expired,  his  body  was  carried  to  the  sepulchre 
which  had  been  constructed  for  the  family  of  Gallienus.28 

Though  the  characters  of  Constantine  and  Maxentius  had  very 
little  affinity  with  each  other,  their  situation  and  interest  were 
the  same ;  and  prudence  seemed  to  require  that  they  should 
unite  their  forces  against  the  common  enemy.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  superiority  of  his  age  and   dignity,   the  indefatigable 

28  The  circumstances  of  this  war,  and  the  death  of  Severus,  are  very  doubtfully 
and  variously  told  in  our  ancient  fragments  (see  Tillemont,  Hist,  des  Empereurs, 
torn.  iv.  part  .  p.  555).  I  have  endeavoured  to  extract  from  them  a  consistent  and 
probable  narration.  [It  is  probable  that  the  death  of  Severus  was  due  to  the  orders 
of  Maxentius,  not  of  Maximian.  As  to  the  mode  of  his  death  Gibbon  follows 
Ldactantius,  e  M.  P.  26.     Otherwise  Zosimus,  ii.  10.     Date  doubtful.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  405 

Maximian  passed  the  Alps,  and,  courting  a  personal  interview 
with  the  sovereign  of  Gaul,  carried  with  him  his  daughter  Fausta 
as  the  pledge  of  the  new  alliance.  The  marriage  was  celebrated 
at  Aries  with  every  circumstance  of  magnificence ;  and  the 
ancient  colleague  of  Diocletian,  who  again  asserted  his  claim  to 
the  western  empire,  conferred  on  his  son-in-law  and  ally  the 
title  of  Augustus.  By  consenting  to  receive  that  honour  from 
Maximian,  Constantine  seemed  to  embrace  the  cause  of  Rome 
and  of  the  senate ;  but  his  professions  were  ambiguous,  and  his 
assistance  slow  and  ineffectual.  He  considered  with  attention 
the  approaching  contest  between  the  masters  of  Italy  and  the 
emperor  of  the  East,  and  was  prepared  to  consult  his  own  safety 
or  ambition  in  the  event  of  the  war.29 

The  importance  of  the  occasion  called  for  the  presence  and  caifcriua 
abilities  of  Galerius.  At  the  head  of  a  powerful  army,  collected  mvadea  Italy 
from  Illyricum  and  the  East,  he  entered  Italy,  resolved  to 
revenge  the  death  of  Severus,  and  to  chastise  the  rebellious 
Romans ;  or,  as  he  expressed  his  intentions,  in  the  furious 
language  of  a  barbarian,  to  extirpate  the  senate,  and  to  destroy 
the  people  by  the  sword.  But  the  skill  of  Maximian  had  con- 
certed a  prudent  system  of  defence.  The  invader  found  every 
place  hostile,  fortified,  and  inaccessible  ;  and,  though  he  forced 
his  way  as  far  as  Narni,  within  sixty  miles  of  Rome,  his  dominion 
in  Italy  was  confined  to  the  narrow  limits  of  his  camp.  Sensible 
of  the  increasing  difficulties  of  his  enterprise,  the  haughty 
Galerius  made  the  first  advances  towards  a  reconciliation,  and 
dispatched  two  of  his  most  considerable  officers  to  tempt  the 
Roman  princes  by  the  offer  of  a  conference  and  the  declaration 
of  his  paternal  regard  for  Maxentius,  who  might  obtain  much 
more  from  his  liberality  than  he  could  hope  from  the  doubtful 

29  The  vith  Panegyric  was  pronounced  to  celebrate  the  elevation  of  Constantine  ; 
but  the  prudent  orator  avoids  the  mention  either  of  Galerius  or  of  Maxentius.  He 
introduces  only  one  slight  allusion  to  the  actual  troubles,  and  to  the  majesty,  of 
Rome.  [The  narrative  in  the  text  must  be  corrected  in  two  respects.  Following 
Lactantius  the  author  has  placed  the  first  visit  of  Maximian  to  Gaul  out  of  its  proper 
order,  and  he  has  wholly  omitted  to  mention  the  Congress  of  Carnuntum. 
Maximian  was  in  Italy  during  the  invasion  of  Galerius.  The  latter,  when  he 
retired,  appealed  to  Diocletian,  who  consented  to  be  present  at  a  conclave  at 
Carnuntum  and  exert  his  influence  over  Maximian  Herculius,  in  order  to  maintain 
the  system  which  he  had  himself  instituted.  The  congress  met  in  November, 
307  ;  Maximian  and  Galerius  were  present.  Diocletian  for  the  second  time  induced 
Maximian  to  abdicate,  and  the  vacant  throne  of  the  Augustus  was  filled  by  Licinius 
(who  had  probably  been  made  Caesar  shortly  before  this).  Maxentius  was 
entirely  excluded  from  the  succession.  Maximian  then  (before  the  end  of  the 
year)  paid  his  first  visit  to  Constantine,  who  had  probably  already  assumed  the 
title  of  Augustus,  which  his  father-in-law  now  confirmed.  See  Eutropius,  x.  3. 
Socrates,  Hist.  Ecc.  j,  ?.     Schiller,  ii.  177.] 


406  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

chance  of  war.30  The  offers  of  Galerius  were  rejected  with 
firmness,  his  perfidious  friendship  refused  with  contempt,  and  it 
was  not  long  before  he  discovered  that,  unless  he  provided  for 
his  safety  by  a  timely  retreat,  he  had  some  reason  to  apprehend 
the  fate  of  Severus.  The  wealth,  which  the  Romans  defended 
against  his  rapacious  tyranny,  they  freely  contributed  for  his 
destruction.  The  name  of  Maximian,  the  popular  arts  of  his 
son,  the  secret  distribution  of  large  sums,  and  the  promise  of 
still  more  liberal  rewards,  checked  the  ardour  and  corrupted  the 
fidelity  of  the  Illyrian  legions ;  and,  when  Galerius  at  length 
gave  the  signal  of  the  retreat,  it  was  with  some  difficulty  that 
he  could  prevail  on  his  veterans  not  to  desert  a  banner  which 
had  so  often  conducted  them  to  victory  and  honour.  A  con- 
temporary writer  assigns  two  other  causes  for  the  failure  of  the 
expedition ;  but  they  are  both  of  such  a  nature  that  a  cautious 
historian  will  scarcely  venture  to  adopt  them.  We  are  told 
that  Galerius,  who  had  formed  a  very  imperfect  notion  of  the 
greatness  of  Rome  by  the  cities  of  the  East  with  which  he  was 
acquainted,  found  his  forces  inadequate  to  the  siege  of  that 
immense  capital.  But  the  extent  of  a  city  serves  only  to  render 
it  more  accessible  to  the  enemy ;  Rome  had  long  since  been 
accustomed  to  submit  on  the  approach  of  a  conqueror ;  nor 
could  the  temporary  enthusiasm  of  the  people  have  long  con- 
tended against  the  discipline  and  valour  of  the  legions.  We 
are  likewise  informed  that  the  legions  themselves  were  struck 
with  horror  and  remorse,  and  that  those  pious  sons  of  the  re- 
public refused  to  violate  the  sanctity  of  their  venerable  parent.31 
But,  when  we  recollect  with  how  much  ease  in  the  more  ancient 
civil  wars,  the  zeal  of  party  and  the  habits  of  military  obedience 
had  converted  the  native  citizens  of  Rome  into  her  most  im- 
placable enemies,  we  shall  be  inclined  to  distrust  this  extreme 
delicacy  of  strangers  and  barbarians,  who  had  never  beheld  Italy 
till  they  entered  it  in  a  hostile  manner.  Had  they  not  been 
restrained  by  motives  of  a  more  interested  nature,  they  would 
probably  have  answered  Galerius  in  the  words  of  Caesar's 
veterans  :  "  If  our  general  wishes  to  lead  us  to  the  banks  of  the 
Tiber,  we  are  prepared  to   trace   out  his  camp.     Whatsoever 

so  With  regard  to  this  negotiation,  see  the  fragments  of  an  anonymous  Historian, 
published  by  Valesius  at  the  end  of  his  edition  of  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  p.  711 
[3,  7] .  These  fragments  have  furnished  us  with  several  curious,  and  as  it  should 
seem  authentic,  anecdotes. 

81  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  28  [leg.  27].  The  former  of  these  reasons  is  probably 
taken  from  Virgil's  Shepherd;  "  Illam  .  .  .  ego  huic  nostrae  similem  Melibcee 
putavi,  &c".     Lactantius  delights  in  these  poetical  allusions. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  407 

walls  he  has  determined  to  level  with  the  ground,  our  hands 
are  ready  to  work  the  engines  :  nor  shall  we  hesitate,  should 
the  name  of  the  devoted  city  be  Rome  itself."  These  are  indeed 
the  expressions  of  a  poet ;  but  of  a  poet  who  has  been  dis- 
tinguished, and  even  censured,  for  his  strict  adherence  to  the 
truth  of  history.32 

The  legions  of  Galerius  exhibited  a  very  melancholy  proof  of  His  retreat 
their  disposition  by  the  ravages  which  they  committed  in  their 
retreat.  They  murdered,  they  ravished,  they  plundered,  they 
drove  away  the  flocks  and  herds  of  the  Italians  ;  they  burnt  the 
villages  through  which  they  passed,  and  they  endeavoured  to 
destroy  the  country,  which  it  had  not  been  in  their  power  to 
subdue.  During  the  whole  march  Maxentius  hung  on  their 
rear ;  but  he  very  prudently  declined  a  general  engagement 
with  those  brave  and  desperate  veterans.  His  father  had 
undertaken  a  second  journey  into  Gaul,  with  the  hope  of  per- 
suading Constantine,  who  had  assembled  an  army  on  the  frontier, 
to  join  the  pursuit  and  to  complete  the  victory.  But  the 
actions  of  Constantine  were  guided  by  reason,  and  not  by  resent- 
ment. He  persisted  in  the  wise  resolution  of  maintaining  a 
balance  of  power  in  the  divided  empire,  and  he  no  longer  hated 
Galerius  when  that  aspiring  prince  had  ceased  to  be  an  object 
of  terror.33 

The  mind  of  Galerius  was  the  most  susceptible  of  the  sterner  Elevation  ot 
passions,  but  it  was  not  however  incapable  of  a  sincere  and  last-  the  rank  of 
ing  friendship.     Licinius,34  whose  manners  as  well  as  character  ad.  307, ' 
were  not  unlike  his  own,  seems  to  have  engaged  both  his  affec- 
tion and  esteem.     Their  intimacy  had  commenced  in  the  happier 
period,  perhaps,  of  their  youth    and  obscurity.     It   had    been 
cemented  by  the  freedom  and  dangers  of  a  military  life  ;  they 
had  advanced,  almost  by  equal   steps,  through  the  successive 
honours  of  the  service  ;  and,  as  soon  as  Galerius  was  invested 
with  the  Imperial  dignity,  he  seems  to  have  conceived  the  design 
of  raising  his  companion  to  the  same  rank  with  himself.    During 
the  short  period  of  his  prosperity,  he  considered  the  rank  of 

32  Castra  super  Tusci  si  ponere  Tybridis  undas  [jubeas), 
Hesperios  audax  veniam  metator  in  agros. 
Tu  quoscunque  voles  in  planum  effundere  muros, 
His  aries  actus  disperget  saxa  lacertis  ; 
Ilia  licet  penitus  tolli  quam  jusseris  urbem 

Roma  sit.  Lucan.  Pharsal.  i.  381. 

33  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  27.  Zosim.  1.  ii.  p.  82  [10].  The  latter  insinuates 
that  Constantine,  in  his  interview  with  Maximian,  had  promised  to  declare  war 
against  Galerius. 

S4  [Valerius  Licinianus  Licinius.] 


408  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

Caesar  as  unworthy  of  the  age  and  merit  of  Licinius,  and  rather 
chose  to  reserve  for  him  the  place  of  Constantius,  and  the 
empire  of  the  West.  While  the  emperor  was  employed  in  the 
Italian  war,  he  intrusted  his  friend  with  the  defence  of  the 
Danube  ;  and  immediately  after  his  return  from  that  unfortunate 
expedition  he  invested  Licinius  with  the  vacant  purple  of 
Severus,  resigning   to  his   immediate   command   the  provinces 

and  of  of  Ulyricum.35    The  news  of  his  promotion  was  no  sooner  carried 

into  the  East,  than  Maximin,  who  governed,  or  rather  oppressed, 
the  countries  of  Egypt  and  Syria,  betrayed  his  envy  and  discon- 
tent, disdained  the  inferior  name  of  Caesar,  and,  notwithstanding 
the  prayers  as  well  as  arguments  of  Galerius,  exacted,  almost 
by  violence,  the  equal  title  of  Augustus.36     For  the  first,  and 

six  emperors,  indeed  for  the  last,  time,  the  Roman  world  was  administered  by 
six  emperors.  In  the  West,  Constantine  and  Maxentius  affected 
to  reverence  their  father  Maximian.  In  the  East,  Licinius  and 
Maximin  honoured  with  more  real  consideration  their  benefactor 
Galerius.  The  opposition  of  interest,  and  the  memory  of  a 
recent  war,  divided  the  empire  into  two  great  hostile  powers  ; 
but  their  mutual  fears  produced  an  apparent  tranquillity,  and 
even  a  feigned  reconciliation,  till  the  deaths  of  the  elder  princes, 
of  Maximian,  and  more  particularly  of  Galerius,  gave  a  new 
direction  to  the  views  and  passions  of  their  surviving  associates. 

Misfortunes  When  Maximian  had  reluctantly  abdicated  the  empire,  the 
venal  orators  of  the  times  applauded  his  philosophic  moderation. 
When  his  ambition  excited,  or  at  least  encouraged,  a  civil  war, 
they  returned  thanks  to  his  generous  patriotism,  and  gently 
censured  that  love  of  ease  and  retirement  which  had  withdrawn 
him  from  the  public  service.37  But  it  was  impossible  that  minds 
like  those  of  Maximian  and  his  son  could  long  possess  in  harmony 
an  undivided  power.     Maxentius  considered  himself  as  the  legal 

35  M.  de  Tillemont  (Hist,  des  Empereurs,  torn.  iv.  part  i.  p.  559)  has  proved 
that  Licinius,  without  passing  through  the  intermediate  rank  of  Caesar,  was  de- 
clared Augustus,  the  nth  of  November,  A.D.  307,  after  the  return  of  Galerius 
from  Italy.  [It  is  however  possible  and  probable  that  Licinius  was  made  Caesar 
after  the  death  of  Severus.] 

38  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  32.  When  Galerius  declared  Licinius  Augustus  with 
himself,  he  tried  to  satisfy  his  younger  associates,  by  inventing  for  Constantine  and 
Maximin  (not  Maxentius,  see  Baluze,  p.  81)  the  new  title  of  sons  of  the  Augusti. 
But,  when  Maximin  acquainted  him  that  he  had  been  saluted  Augustus  by  the  army, 
Galerius  was  obliged  to  acknowledge  him,  as  well  as  Constantine,  as  equal  associ- 
ates in  the  Imperial  dignity.     [Date  uncertain.] 

17  See  Panegyr.  Vet.  vi.  9.  Audi  doloris  nostri  liberam  vocem,  &c.  The  whole 
passage  is  imagined  with  artful  flattery,  and  expressed  with  an  easy  flow  of 
eloquence. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  409 

sovereign  of  Italy,  elected  by  the  Roman  senate  and  people ; 
nor  would  he  endure  the  control  of  his  father,  who  arrogantly 
declared  that  by  his  name  and  abilities  the  rash  youth  had  been 
established  on  the  throne.  The  cause  was  solemnly  pleaded 
before  the  Praetorian  guards,  and  those  troops,  who  dreaded  the 
severity  of  the  old  emperor,  espoused  the  party  of  Maxentius.38 
The  life  and  freedom  of  Maximian  were  however  respected,  and 
he  retired  from  Italy  into  Illyricum,  affecting  to  lament  his  past 
conduct,  and  secretly  contriving  new  mischiefs.  But  Galerius, 
who  was  well  acquainted  with  his  character,  soon  obliged  him  to 
leave  his  dominions,  and  the  last  refuge  of  the  disappointed 
Maximian  was  the  court  of  his  son-in-law  Constantine.39  He 
was  received  with  respect  by  that  artful  prince,  and  with  the 
appearance  of  filial  tenderness  by  the  empress  Fausta.  That  he 
might  remove  every  suspicion,  he  resigned  the  Imperial  purple 
a  second  time,40  professing  himself  at  length  convinced  of  the 
vanity  of  greatness  and  ambition.  Had  he  persevered  in  this 
resolution,  he  might  have  ended  his  life  with  less  dignity  indeed 
than  in  his  first  retirement,  yet,  however,  with  comfort  and  re- 
putation. But  the  near  prospect  of  a  throne  brought  back  to 
his  remembrance  the  state  from  whence  he  was  fallen,  and  he 
resolved,  by  a  desperate  effort,  either  to  reign  or  to  perish.  An 
incursion  of  the  Franks  had  summoned  Constantine,  with  a  part 
of  his  army,  to  the  banks  of  the  Rhine ;  the  remainder  of  the 
troops  were  stationed  in  the  southern  provinces  of  Gaul,  which 
lay  exposed  to  the  enterprises  of  the  Italian  emperor,  and  a 
considerable  treasure  was  deposited  in  the  city  of  Aries.  Max- 
imian either  craftily  invented,  or  hastily  credited,  a  vain  report 
of  the  death  of  Constantine.  Without  hesitation  he  ascended 
the  throne,  seized  the  treasure,  and,  scattering  it  with  his  accus- 
tomed profusion  among  the  soldiers,  endeavoured  to  awake  in 
their  minds  the  memory  of  his  ancient  dignity  and  exploits. 
Before  he  could  establish  his  authority,  or  finish  the  negotiation 

s8  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  28.  Zosim.  1.  ii.  p.  82  [11].  A  report  was  spread, 
that  Maxentius  was  the  son  of  some  obscure  Syrian,  and  had  been  substituted  by 
the  wife  of  Maximian  as  her  own  child.  See  Aurelius  Victor,  Anonym.  Valesian 
[3,  6],  and  Panegyr.  Vet.  ix.  3,  4.  [Maxentius  declared  himself  sole  Augustus  in 
April,  308.  See  Chronogr.  of  354,  ed.  Mommsen  in  Abh.  of  the  Saxon  Ges. 
der  Wissensch.  1850,  p.  628.] 

_39Ab  urbe  pulsum,  ab  Italia  fugatum,  ab  Illyrico  repudiatum,  tuis  provinciis, 
tuis  copiis,  tuo  palatio  recepisti.     Eumen.  in  Panegyr.  Vet.  vii.  14. 

40  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  29.  Yet,  after  the  resignation  of  the  purple,  Con- 
stantine still  continued  to  Maximian  the  pomp  and  honours  of  the  Imperial 
dignity ;  and  on  the  public  occasions  gave  the  right-hand  place  to  his  father-in-law. 
Panegyr.  Vet.  vii.  15. 


410 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


[A.D.  308 


Hia  death, 
A.D.  310, 
February 


Death  of 
Galerius, 
A.D.  311, 
May 


which  he  appears  to  have  entered  into  with  his  son  Maxentius, 
the  celerity  of  Constantine  defeated  all  his  hopes.  On  the  first 
news  of  his  perfidy  and  ingratitude,  that  prince  returned  by 
rapid  marches  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Saone,  embarked  on  the 
last  mentioned  river  at  Chalons,  and,  at  Lyons  trusting  himself 
to  the  rapidity  of  the  Rhone,  arrived  at  the  gates  of  Aries,  with 
a  military  force  which  it  was  impossible  for  Maximian  to  resist, 
and  which  scarcely  permitted  him  to  take  refuge  in  the  neigh- 
bouring city  of  Marseilles.  The  narrow  neck  of  land  which 
joined  that  place  to  the  continent  was  fortified  against  the  be- 
siegers, whilst  the  sea  was  open,  either  for  the  escape  of  Maxim- 
ian, or  for  the  succours  of  Maxentius,  if  the  latter  should  choose 
to  disguise  his  invasion  of  Gaul  under  the  honourable  pretence 
of  defending  a  distressed,  or,  as  he  might  allege,  an  injured 
father.  Apprehensive  of  the  fatal  consequences  of  delay,  Con- 
stantine gave  orders  for  an  immediate  assault ;  but  the  scaling 
ladders  were  found  too  short  for  the  height  of  the  walls,  and 
Marseilles  might  have  sustained  as  long  a  siege  as  it  formerly 
did  against  the  arms  of  Caesar,  if  the  garrison,  conscious  either  of 
their  fault  or  of  their  danger,  had  not  purchased  their  pardon  bj 
delivering  up  the  city  and  the  person  of  Maximian.  A  secret 
but  irrevocable  sentence  of  death  was  pronounced  against  the 
usurper ;  he  obtained  only  the  same  favour  which  he  had  in- 
dulged to  Severus,  and  it  was  published  to  the  world  that,  op- 
pressed by  the  remorse  of  his  repeated  crimes,  he  strangled 
himself  with  his  own  hands.  After  he  had  lost  the  assistance, 
and  disdained  the  moderate  counsels,  of  Diocletian,  the  second 
period  of  his  active  life  was  a  series  of  public  calamities  and 
personal  mortifications,  which  were  terminated,  in  about  three 
years,  by  an  ignominious  death.  He  deserved  his  fate  ;  but  we 
should  find  more  reason  to  applaud  the  humanity  of  Constantine, 
if  he  had  spared  an  old  man,  the  benefactor  of  his  father,  and 
the  father  of  his  wife.  During  the  Avhole  of  this  melancholy 
transaction,  it  appears  that  Fausta  sacrificed  the  sentiments  of 
nature  to  her  conjugal  duties.41 

The  last  years  of  Galerius  were  less  shameful  and  unfortunate  ; 
and,  though  he  had  filled  with  more  glory  the  subordinate  station 
of  Caesar  than  the  superior  rank  of  Augustus,  he  preserved,  till 

^Zosim.  1.  ii.  p.  82  [n].  Eumenius  in  Panegyr.  Vet.  vii.  16-2T.  The  latter  of 
these  has  undoubtedly  represented  the  whole  affair  in  the  most  favourable  light 
for  his  sovereign.  Yet  even  from  this  partial  narrative  we  may  conclude  that  the 
repeated  clemency  of  Constantine,  and  the  reiterated  treasons  of  Maximian,  as 
they  are  described  by  Lactantius  (de  M.  P.  c.  29,  30)  and  copied  by  the  moderns, 
are  destitute  of  any  historical  foundation.     [A  hazardous  conclusion.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  411 

the  moment  of  his  death,  the  first  place  among  the  princes 
of  the  Roman  world.  He  survived  his  retreat  from  Italy  about 
four  years ;  and,  wisely  relinquishing  his  views  of  universal 
empire,  he  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  life  to  the  enjoyment 
of  pleasure,  and  to  the  execution  of  some  works  of  public 
utility ;  among  which  we  may  distinguish  the  discharging  into 
the  Danube  the  superfluous  waters  of  the  lake  Pelso,  and  the 
cutting  down  the  immense  forests  that  encompassed  it ;  an 
operation  worthy  of  a  monarch,  since  it  gave  an  extensive 
country  to  the  agriculture  of  his  Pannonian  subjects.42  His 
death  was  occasioned  by  a  very  painful  and  lingering  disorder. 
His  body,  swelled  by  an  intemperate  course  of  life  to  an  un- 
wieldy corpulence,  was  covered  with  ulcers,  and  devoured  by 
innumerable  swarms  of  those  insects  who  have  given  their 
name  to  a  most  loathsome  disease ; 43  but,  as  Galerius  had 
offended  a  very  zealous  and  powerful  party  among  his  subjects, 
his  sufferings,  instead  of  exciting  their  compassion,  have  been 
celebrated  as  the  visible  effects  of  divine  justice.44  He  had  no  ms  dominion 
sooner  expired  in  his  palace  of  Nicomedia,45  than  the  two  em-  tween  icaxi- 
perors  who  were  indebted  for  their  purple  to  his  favour  began  Liclntua 
to  collect  their  forces,  with  the  intention  either  of  disputing,  or 
of  dividing,  the  dominions  which  he  had  left  without  a  master. 
They  were  persuaded  however  to  desist  from  the  former  design, 
and  to  agree  in  the  latter.  The  provinces  of  Asia  fell  to  the 
share  of  Maximin,  and  those  of  Europe  augmented  the  portion 
of  Licinius.  The  Hellespont  and  the  Thracian  Bosphorus 
formed  their  mutual  boundary,  and  the  banks  of  those  narrow 
seas,  which  flowed  in  the  midst  of  the  Roman  world,  were 
covered  with  soldiers,  with  arms,  and  with  fortifications.  The 
deaths  of  Maximian  and  of  Galerius  reduced  the  number  of 

42Aurelius  Victor,  [Caes.]  c.  40.  But  that  lake  was  situated  on  the  Upper 
Pannonia,  near  the  borders  of  Noricum  ;  and  the  province  of  Valeria  (a  name 
which  the  wife  of  Galerius  gave  to  the  drained  country)  undoubtedly  lay  between 
the  Drave  and  the  Danube  (Sextus  Rufus,  c.  9).  I  should  therefore  suspect  that 
Victor  has  confounded  the  lake  Pelso,  with  the  Volocean  marshes,  or,  as  they  are 
now  called,  the  lake  Sabaton.  It  is  placed  in  the  heart  of  Valeria,  and  its  present 
extent  is  not  less  than  12  Hungarian  miles  (about  70  English)  in  length,  and  two 
in  breadth.     See  Severini  Pannonia,  1.  i.  c.  9. 

^Lactantius  (de  M.  P.  c.  33)  and  Eusebius  ([Hist.  Ecc]  1.  viii.  c.  16)  describe 
the  symptoms  and  progress  of  his  disorder  with  singular  accuracy  and  apparent 
pleasure. 

44  If  any  (like  the  late  Dr.  Jortin,  Remarks  of  Ecclesiastical  History,  vol.  ii.  p. 
307-356)  still  delight  in  recording  the  wonderful  deaths  of  the  persecutors,  I  would 
recommend  to  their  perusal  an  admirable  passage  of  Grotius  (Hist.  1.  vii.  p.  332) 
concerning  the  last  illness  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain. 

^[He  died  at  Sardica.     Anon.  Val.  3,  8.     (Salona,  Chron.  Pasch.)] 


412  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

emperors  to  four.46  The  sense  of  their  true  interest  soon 
connected  Licinius  and  Constantine ;  a  secret  alliance  was 
concluded  between  Maximin  and  Maxentius,  and  their  unhappy 
subjects  expected  with  terror  the  bloody  consequences  of  their 
inevitable  dissensions,  which  were  no  longer  restrained  by  the 
fear  or  the  respect  which  they  had  entertained  for  Galerius.47 
Administra-  Among  so  many  crimes  and  misfortunes  occasioned  by  the 
8Uut0iLc&n'  passions  of  the  Roman  princes,  there  is  some  pleasure  in  dis- 
a!d!' 306-312  covering  a  single  action  which  may  be  ascribed  to  their  virtue. 
In  the  sixth  year  of  his  reign,  Constantine  visited  the  city  of 
Autun,  and  generously  remitted  the  arrears  of  tribute,  reducing 
at  the  same  time  the  proportion  of  their  assessment,  from 
twenty-five  to  eighteen  thousand  heads,  subject  to  the  real 
and  personal  capitation.48  Yet  even  this  indulgence  affords  the 
most  unquestionable  proof  of  the  public  misery.  This  tax  was 
so  extremely  oppressive,  either  in  itself  or  in  the  mode  of 
collecting  it,  that,  whilst  the  revenue  was  increased  by  extortion, 
it  was  diminished  by  despair :  a  considerable  part  of  the 
territory  of  Autun  was  left  uncultivated ;  and  great  numbers 
of  the  provincials  rather  chose  to  live  as  exiles  and  outlaws 
than  to  support  the  weight  of  civil  society.  It  is  but  too 
probable  that  the  bountiful  emperor  relieved,  by  a  partial  act  of 
liberality,  one  among  the  many  evils  which  he  had  caused  by 
his  general  maxims  of  administration.  But  even  those  maxims 
were  less  the  effect  of  choice  than  of  necessity.  And,  if  we 
except  the  death  of  Maximian,  the  reign  of  Constantine  in 
Gaul  seems  to  have  been  the  most  innocent  and  even  virtuous 
period  of  his  life.  The  provinces  were  protected  by  his  presence 
from  the  inroads  of  the  barbarians,  who  either  dreaded  or 
experienced  his  active  valour.  After  a  signal  victory  over  the 
Franks  and  Alemanni,  several  of  their  princes  were  exposed  by 
his  order  to  the  wild  beasts  in  the  amphitheatre  of  Treves,  and 
the  people  seem  to  have  enjoyed  the  spectacle,  without  dis- 
covering, in  such  a  treatment  of  royal  captives,  anything  that 
was  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  nations  or  of  humanity.49 
Tyranny  of  The  virtues  of  Constantine  were  rendered  more  illustrious  by 
itafy  ^nd3  ta  the  vices  of  Maxentius.     Whilst  the  Gallic  provinces  enjoyed  as 


Africa,  A.D. 
306  312 


46  [But  Maxentius  was  not  recognized  by  the  other  three  Augusti.] 

47  See  Eusebius,  1.  ix.  6,  io.     Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  36.    Zosimus  is  less  exact, 
and  evidently  confounds  Maximian  with  Maximin. 

48  See  the  viiith   Panegyr.  in  which  Eumenius   displays,   in   the   presence  of 
Constantine,  the  misery  and  the  gratitude  of  the  city  of  Autun. 

49Eutropius,  x.  2.    Panegyr.  Veter.  vii.  10,  11,  12.     A  great  number  of  the  French 
youth  were  likewise  exposed  to  the  same  cruel  and  ignominious  death, 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  413 

much  happiness  as  the  condition  of  the  times  was  capable  of 
receiving,  Italy  and  Africa 50  groaned  under  the  dominion  of  a 
tyrant  as  contemptible  as  he  was  odious.  The  zeal  of  flattery 
and  faction  has  indeed  too  frequently  sacrificed  the  reputation 
of  the  vanquished  to  the  glory  of  their  successful  rivals  ;  but 
even  those  writers  who  have  revealed,  with  the  most  freedom 
and  pleasure,  the  faults  of  Constantine,  unanimously  confess  that 
Maxentius  was  cruel,  rapacious,  and  profligate.51  He  had  the 
good  fortune  to  suppress  a  slight  rebellion  in  Africa.  The 
governor  and  a  few  adherents  had  been  guilty ;  the  province 
suffered  for  their  crime.  The  flourishing  cities  of  Cirtha  and 
Carthage,  and  the  whole  extent  of  that  fertile  country,  were 
wasted  by  fire  and  sword.  The  abuse  of  victory  was  followed 
by  the  abuse  of  law  and  justice.  A  formidable  army  of  syco- 
phants and  delators  invaded  Africa ;  the  rich  and  the  noble 
were  easily  convicted  of  a  connexion  with  the  rebels  ;  and  those 
among  them  who  experienced  the  emperor's  clemency  were 
only  punished  by  the  confiscation  of  their  estates.52  So  signal 
a  victory  was  celebrated  by  a  magnificent  triumph,  and  Maxen- 
tius exposed  to  the  eyes  of  the  people  the  spoils  and  captives 
of  a  Roman  province.  The  state  of  the  capital  was  no  less 
deserving  of  compassion  than  that  of  Africa.  The  wealth  of 
Rome  supplied  an  inexhaustible  fund  for  his  vain  and  prodigal 
expenses,  and  the  ministers  of  his  revenue  were  skilled  in  the 
arts  of  rapine.  It  was  under  his  reign  that  the  method  of 
exacting  a  free  gift  from  the  senators  was  first  invented ;  and, 
as  the  sum  was  insensibly  increased,  the  pretences  of  levying  it, 
a  victory,  a  birth,  a  marriage,  or  an  Imperial  consulship,  were 
proportionably  multiplied.53  Maxentius  had  imbibed  the  same 
implacable  aversion  to  the  senate,  which  had  characterized  most 
of  the  former  tyrants  of  Rome ;  nor  was  it  possible  for  his  un- 
grateful temper  to  forgive  the  generous  fidelity  which  had  raised 
him  to  the  throne  and  supported  him  against  all  his  enemies. 
The  lives  of  the  senators  were  exposed  to  his  jealous  suspicions, 

50  [Spain  was  also  in  the  dominion  of  Maxentius.  This  is  proved  by  the  copper 
coins  struck  for  him  at  Tarraco  (and  for  his  son  Romulus).  No  coins  were  struck 
for  hnn  in  Gaul  and  Britain.] 

31  Julian  excludes  Maxentius  from  the  banquet  of  the  Cassars  with  abhorrence 
and  contempt ;  and  Zosimus  (1.  ii.  p.  85  [14])  accuses  him  of  every  kind  of  cruelty 
and  profligacy. 

62  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  83-85.     Aurelius  Victor  [Caes.  40]. 

53  The  passage  of  Aurelius  Victor  [ib.]  should  be  read  in  the  following  manner. 
Primus  instituto  pessimo,  munerum  specie,  Patres  Oratoresquc  pecuniam  conferre 
prodigenti  sibi  cogeret. 


414  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

the  dishonour  of  their  wives  and  daughters  heightened  the 
gratification  of  his  sensual  passions.54  It  may  be  presumed  that 
an  Imperial  lover  was  seldom  reduced  to  sigh  in  vain ;  but, 
whenever  persuasion  proved  ineffectual,  he  had  recourse  to 
violence  ;  and  there  remains  one  memorable  example  of  a  noble 
matron,  who  preserved  her  chastity  by  a  voluntary  death.  The 
soldiers  were  the  only  order  of  men  whom  he  appeared  to 
respect,  or  studied  to  please.  He  filled  Rome  and  Italy  with 
armed  troops,  connived  at  their  tumults,  suffered  them  with 
impunity  to  plunder,  and  even  to  massacre,  the  defenceless 
people ; 55  and,  indulging  them  in  the  same  licentiousness  which 
their  emperor  enjoyed,  Maxentius  often  bestowed  on  his  military 
favourites  the  splendid  villa,  or  the  beautiful  wife,  of  a  senator. 
A  prince  of  such  a  character,  alike  incapable  of  governing  either 
in  peace  or  in  war,  might  purchase  the  support,  but  he  could 
never  obtain  the  esteem,  of  the  army.  Yet  his  pride  was  equal 
to  his  other  vices.  Whilst  he  passed  his  indolent  life,  either 
within  the  walls  of  his  palace,  or  in  the  neighbouring  gardens 
of  Sallust,  he  was  repeatedly  heard  to  declare,  that  he  alone  was 
empei'or,  and  that  the  other  princes  were  no  more  than  his 
lieutenants,  on  whom  he  had  devolved  the  defence  of  the 
frontier  provinces,  that  he  might  enjoy  without  interruption  the 
elegant  luxury  of  the  capital.  Rome,  which  had  so  long  re- 
gretted the  absence,  lamented,  during  the  six  years  of  his  reign, 
the  presence,  of  her  sovereign.56 
civil  war  Though  Constantine  might  view  the  conduct  of  Maxentius 

Constantino    with  abhorrence,  and  the  situation  of  the  Romans  with  compas- 
uub,  a.d.  312  sion,  we  have  no  reason  to  presume  that  he  would  have  taken 
up  arms  to  punish  the  one  or  to  relieve  the  other.     But  the 
tyrant  of  Italy  rashly  ventured  to  provoke  a  formidable  enemy, 
whose  ambition  had  been  hitherto  restrained  by  considerations 

MPanegyr.  Vet.  ix.  3.  Euseb.  Hist.  Eccles.  viii.  14,  et  in  Vit.  Constant,  i. 
33,  34.  Rufinus,  c.  17.  The  virtuous  matron,  who  stabbed  herself  to  escape  the 
violence  of  Maxentius,  was  a  Christian,  wife  to  the  prsefect  of  the  city,  and  her 
name  was  Sophronia.  It  still  remains  a  question  among  the  casuists,  whether,  on 
such  occasions,  suicide  is  justifiable. 

55  Praetorianis  csedem  vulgi  quondam  annueret,  is  the  vague  expression  of 
Aurelius  Victor  [ib.].  See  more  particular,  though  somewhat  different,  accounts 
of  a  tumult  and  massacre  which  happened  at  Rome,  in  Eusebius  (1.  viii.  c.  14) 
and  in  Zosimus  (1.  ii.  p.  84  [13]). 

56  See  in  the  Panegyrics  (ix.  14)  a  lively  description  of  the  indolence  and  vain 
pride  of  Maxentius.  In  another  place  [ix.  3],  the  orator  observes  that  the  riches 
which  Rome  had  accumulated  in  a  period  of  1060  years  were  lavished  by  the 
tyrant  on  his  mercenary  bands ;  redemptis  ad  civile  latrocinium  manibus 
ingesserat. 


OF  THE  liOMAN  EMPIEE  415 

of  prudence,  rather  than  by  pi'inciples  of  justice.57  After  the 
death  of  Maximian,  his  titles,  according  to  the  established 
custom,  had  been  erased,  and  his  statues  thrown  down  with 
ignominy.  His  son,  who  had  persecuted  and  deserted  him  when 
alive,  affected  to  display  the  most  pious  regard  for  his  memory, 
and  gave  orders  that  a  similar  treatment  should  be  immediately 
inflicted  on  all  the  statues  that  had  been  erected  in  Italy  and 
Africa  to  the  honour  of  Constantine.  That  wise  prince,  who 
sincerely  wished  to  decline  a  war,  with  the  difficulty  and 
importance  of  which  he  was  sufficiently  acquainted,  at  first 
dissembled  the  insult,  and  sought  for  redress  by  the  milder 
expedients  of  negotiation,  till  he  was  convinced  that  the  hostile 
and  ambitious  designs  of  the  Italian  emperor  made  it  necessary 
for  him  to  arm  in  his  own  defence.  Maxentius,  who  openly 
avowed  his  pretensions  to  the  whole  monarchy  of  the  West, 
had  already  prepared  a  very  considerable  force  to  invade  the 
Gallic  provinces  on  the  side  of  Rhsetia,  and,  though  he  could 
not  expect  any  assistance  from  Licinius,  he  was  flattered  with 
the  hope  that  the  legions  of  Illyricum,  allured  by  his  presents 
and  promises,  would  desert  the  standard  of  that  prince,  and 
unanimously  declare  themselves  his  soldiers  and  subjects.58 
Constantine  no  longer  hesitated.  He  had  deliberated  with 
caution,  he  acted  with  vigour.  He  gave  a  private  audience  to 
the  ambassadors,  who,  in  the  name  of  the  senate  and  people, 
conjured  him  to  deliver  Rome  from  a  detested  tyrant ;  and, 
without  regarding  the  timid  remonstrances  of  his  council,  he 
resolved  to  prevent  the  enemy,  and  to  carry  the  war  into  the 
heart  of  Italy.59 

The  enterprise  was  as  full  of  danger  as  of  glory  ;  and  the  un-  preparations 
successful  event  of  two  former  invasions  was  sufficient  to  inspire 
the  most    serious    apprehensions.       The    veteran    troops,    who 
revered  the  name  of  Maximian,  had  embraced  in  both  those  wars 
the  party  of  his  son,  and  were  now  restrained  by  a  sense   of 

57  After  the  victory  of  Constantine,  it  was  universally  allowed  that  the  motive  Oi 
delivering  the  republic  from  a  detested  tyrant  would,  at  any  time,  have  justified  his 
expedition  into  Italy.     Euseb.  in  Vit.  Constantin.  1.  i.  c.  26.     Panegyr.  Vet.  ix.  2. 

58Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  84,  85  [14.].     Nazarius  in  Panegyr.  x.  7-13. 

59  See  Panegyr.  Vet.  ix.  2.  Omnibus  fere  tuis  Comitibus  et  Ducibus  non  solum 
tacite  mussantibus,  sed  etiam  aperte  timentibus  ;  contra  consilia  hominum,  contra 
Haruspicum  monita,  ipse  per  temet  liberandse  urbis  tempus  venisse  sentires.  The 
embassy  of  the  Romans  is  mentioned  only  by  Zonaras  (1.  xiii.  [1])  and  by  Cedrenus 
(in  Compend.  Hist.  p.  270  [i.  p.  474,  ed.  Bonn]) :  but  those  modern  Greeks  had 
the  opportunity  of  consulting  many  writers  which  have  since  been  lost,  among 
which  we  may  reckon  the  life  of  Constantine  by  Praxagoras.  Photius  (p.  63)  has 
made  a  short  extract  from  that  historical  work. 


416  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

honour,  as  well  as  of  interest,  from  entertaining  an  idea  of  a 
second  desertion.  Maxentius,  who  considered  the  Praetorian 
guards  as  the  firmest  defence  of  his  throne,  had  increased  them 
to  their  ancient  establishment ;  and  they  composed,  including 
the  rest  of  the  Italians  who  were  inlisted  into  his  service,  a 
formidable  body  of  fourscore  thousand  men.  Forty  thousand 
Moors  and  Carthaginians  had  been  raised  since  the  reduction  of 
Africa.  Even  Sicily  furnished  its  proportion  of  troops ;  and 
the  army  of  Maxentius  amounted  to  one  hundred  and 
seventy  thousand  foot  and  eighteen  thousand  horse.  The 
wealth  of  Italy  supplied  the  expenses  of  the  war  ;  and  the 
adjacent  provinces  were  exhausted  to  form  immense  magazines 
of  corn  and  every  other  kind  of  provisions.  The  whole  force  of 
Constantine  consisted  of  ninety  thousand  foot  and  eight  thousand 
horse  ;  ^  and,  as  the  defence  of  the  Rhine  required  an  extra- 
ordinary attention  during  the  absence  of  the  emperor,  it  was 
not  in  his  power  to  employ  above  half  his  troops  in  the  Italian 
expedition,  unless  he  sacrificed  the  public  safety  to  his  private 
quarrel.61  At  the  head  of  about  forty  thousand  soldiers,  he 
marched  to  encounter  an  enemy  whose  numbers  were  at  least 
four  times  superior  to  his  own.62  But  the  armies  of  Rome, 
placed  at  a  secure  distance  from  danger,  were  enervated  by  in- 
dulgence and  luxury.  Habituated  to  the  baths  and  theatres  of 
Rome,  they  took  the  field  with  reluctance,  and  were  chiefly 
composed  of  veterans  who  had  almost  forgotten,  or  of  new  levies 
who  had  never  acquired,  the  use  of  arms  and  the  practice  of  war. 
The  hardy  legions  of  Gaul  had  long  defended  the  frontiers  of 
the  empire  against  the  barbarians  of  the  North ;  and  in  the 
performance  of  that  laborious  service  their  valour  was  exercised 
and  their  discipline  confirmed.  There  appeared  the  same 
difference  between  the  leaders  as  between  the  armies.  Caprice 
or  flattery  had  tempted  Maxentius  with  the  hopes  of  conquest ; 
but  these  aspiring  hopes  soon  gave  way  to  the  habits  of  pleasure 
and  the  consciousness  of  his  inexperience.     The  intrepid  mind 

6°Zosimus  (1.  ii.  p.  86  [15])  has  given  us  this  curious  account  of  the  forces  on 
both  sides.  He  makes  no  mention  of  any  naval  armaments,  though  we  are  assured 
(Panegyr.  Vet.  ix.  25)  that  the  war  was  carried  on  by  sea  as  well  as  by  land;  and 
mat  the  fleet  of  Constantine  took  possession  of  Sardinia,  Corsica,  and  the  ports  of 
Italy. 

61  Panegyr.  Vet.  ix.  3.  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  orator  should  diminish  the 
numbers  with  which  his  sovereign  achieved  the  conquest  of  Italy ;  but  it  appears 
somewhat  singular,  that  he  should  esteem  the  tyrant's  army  at  no  more  than 
100,000  men. 

62  [  Twice  superior  would  probably  be  nearer  the  truth.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  417 

of  Constantine  had  been  trained  from  his  earliest  youth  to  war, 
to  action,  and  to  military  command. 

When  Hannibal  marched  from  Gaul  into  Italy,  he  was  obliged,  Con3tantine 
first  to  discover,  and  then  to  open,  a  way  over  mountains,  and§jpSesthe 
through  savage  nations,  that  had  never  yielded  a  passage  to  a  lBePfe3 
regular  army.63  The  Alps  were  then  guarded  by  nature,  they 
are  now  fortified  by  art.  Citadels,  constructed  with  no  less 
skill  than  labour  and  expense,  command  every  avenue  into  the 
plain,  and  on  that  side  render  Italy  almost  inaccessible  to  the 
enemies  of  the  King  of  Sardinia.61  But  in  the  course  of  the 
intermediate  period,  the  generals  who  have  attempted  the 
passage  have  seldom  experienced  any  difficulty  or  resistance. 
In  the  age  of  Constantine,  the  peasants  of  the  mountains  were 
civilized  and  obedient  subjects ;  the  country  was  plentifully 
stocked  with  provisions,  and  the  stupendous  highways  which 
the  Romans  had  carried  over  the  Alps  opened  several  com- 
munications between  Gaul  and  Italy.65  Constantine  preferred 
the  road  of  the  Cottian  Alps,  or,  as  it  is  now  called,  of  Mount 
Cenis,66  and  led  his  troops  with  such  active  diligence  that  he  de- 
scended into  the  plain  of  Piedmont  before  the  court  of  Maxentius 
had  received  any  certain  intelligence  of  his  departure  from  the 
banks  of  the  Rhine.  The  city  of  Susa,  however,  which  is  situ- 
ated at  the  foot  of  Mount  Cenis,  was  surrounded  with  walls,  and 
provided  with  a  garrison  sufficiently  numerous  to  check  the 
progress  of  an  invader ;  but  the  impatience  of  Constantine's 
troops  disdained  the  tedious  forms  of  a  siege.  The  same  day 
that  they  appeared  before  Susa,  they  applied  fire  to  the  gates 
and  ladders  to  the  walls  ;  and,  mounting  to  the  assault  amidst 
a  shower  of  stones  and  arrows,  they  entered  the  place  sword  in 
hand,  and  cut  in  pieces  the  greatest  part  of  the  garrison.  The 
flames  were  extinguished  by  the  care  of  Constantine,  and  the 
remains  of  Susa  preserved  from  total  destruction.  About  forty 
miles  from  thence,  a  more  severe  contest  awaited  him.      ABattiaof 

Turin 

63  The  three  principal  passages  of  the  Alps  between  Gaul  and  Italy  are  those  of 
Mount  St.  Bernard,  Mount  Cenis,  and  Mount  Genevre.  Tradition,  and  a  resem- 
blance of  names  {Alfies  Penninm),  had  assigned  the  first  of  these  for  the  march  of 
Hannibal  (see  Simler  de  Alpibus).  The  Chevalier  de  Folard  (Polybe,  torn,  iv.)  and 
M.  d'Anville  have  led  him  over  Mount  Genevre.  But,  notwithstanding  the  author- 
ity of  an  experienced  officer  and  a  learned  geographer,  the  pretensions  of  Mount 
Cenis  are  supported  in  a  specious,  not  to  say  a  convincing  manner,  by  M.  Grosley, 
Observations  sur  l'ltalie,  torn.  i.  p.  40,  &c. 

64  La  Brunette  near  Suse,  Demont,  Exiles,  Fenestrelles,  Coni,  &c. 

65  See  Ammian.  Marcellin.  xv.  10.  His  description  of  the  roads  over  the  Alps 
is  clear,  lively,  and  accurate. 

66  [This  is  not  certain  ;  some  think,  Mount  Genevre.] 

27  vol.  1. 


418  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

numerous  army  of  Italians  was  assembled,  under  the  lieutenants 
of  Maxentius,  in  the  plains  of  Turin.  Its  principal  strength 
consisted  in  a  species  of  heavy  cavalry,  which  the  Romans,  since 
the  decline  of  their  discipline,  had  borrowed  from  the  nations  of 
the  East.  The  horses,  as  well  as  the  men,  were  clothed  in 
complete  armour,  the  joints  of  which  were  artfully  adapted  to 
the  motions  of  their  bodies.  The  aspect  of  this  cavalry  was 
formidable,  their  weight  almost  irresistible  ;  and,  as,  on  this 
occasion,  their  generals  had  drawn  them  up  in  a  compact  column 
or  wedge,  with  a  sharp  point,  and  with  spreading  flanks,  they 
flattered  themselves  that  they  should  easily  break  and  trample 
down  the  army  of  Constantine.  They  might,  perhaps,  have 
succeeded  in  their  design,  had  not  their  experienced  adversary 
embraced  the  same  method  of  defence  which  in  similar  circum- 
stances had  been  practised  by  Aurelian.  The  skilful  evolutions 
of  Constantine  divided  and  baffled  this  massy  column  of  cavalry. 
The  troops  of  Maxentius  fled  in  confusion  towards  Turin  ;  and, 
as  the  gates  of  the  city  were  shut  against  them,  very  few  escaped 
the  sword  of  the  victorious  pursuers.  By  this  important  service 
Turin  deserved  to  experience  the  clemency  and  even  favour  of 
the  conqueror.  He  made  his  entry  into  the  Imperial  palace  of 
Milan,  and  almost  all  the  cities  of  Italy  between  the  Alps  and 
the  Po  not  only  acknowledged  the  power,  but  embraced  with 
zeal  the  party,  of  Constantine.67 
siege  and  From  Milan  to  Rome,  the  iEmilian  and  Flaminian  highways 

verona°f       offered  an  easy  march  of  about  four  hundred  miles  ;  but,  though 
t0et'  Constantine  was  impatient  to  encounter  the  tyrant,  he  prudently 

directed  his  operations  against  another  army  of  Italians,  who, 
by  their  strength  and  position,  might  either  oppose  his  progress, 
or,  in  case  of  a  misfortune,  might  intercept  his  retreat.  Ruricius 
Pompeianus,  a  general  distinguished  by  his  valour  and  ability, 
had  under  his  command  the  city  of  Verona,  and  all  the  troops 
that  were  stationed  in  the  province  of  Venetia.  As  soon  as 
he  was  informed  that  Constantine  was  advancing  towards  him, 
he  detached  a  large  body  of  cavalry,  which  was  defeated  in  an 
engagement  near  Brescia,  and  pursued  by  the  Gallic  legions  as 
far  as  the  gates  of  Verona.  The  necessity,  the  importance,  and 
the  difficulties  of  the  siege  of  Verona  immediately  presented 
themselves  to  the  sagacious  mind  of  Constantine.68     The  city 

87  Zosimus  as  well  as  Eusebius  hasten  from  the  passage  of  the  Alps  to  the  de- 
cisive action  near  Rome.  We  must  apply  to  the  two  Panegyrics  for  the  inter- 
mediate actions  of  Constantine. 

68  The  Marquis  Maffei  has  examined  the  siege  and  battle  of  Verona  with  that 


OF  THE  EOMAN  EMPIRE  419 

was  accessible  only  by  a  narrow  peninsula  towards  the  west,  as 
the  other  three  sides  were  surrounded  by  the  Adige,  a  rapid 
river  which  covered  the  province  of  Venetia,  from  whence  the 
besieged  derived  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  men  and  provisions. 
It  was  not  without  great  difficulty,  and  after  several  fruitless 
attempts,  that  Constantine  found  means  to  pass  the  river,  at 
some  distance  above  the  city,  and  in  a  place  where  the  torrent 
was  less  violent.  He  then  encompassed  Verona  with  strong 
lines,  pushed  his  attacks  with  prudent  vigour,  and  repelled  a 
desperate  sally  of  Pompeianus.  That  intrepid  general,  when  he 
had  used  every  means  of  defence  that  the  strength  of  the  place 
or  that  of  the  garrison  could  afford,  secretly  escaped  from 
Verona,  anxious  not  for  his  own  but  for  the  public  safety.  With 
indefatigable  diligence  he  soon  collected  an  army  sufficient 
either  to  meet  Constantine  in  the  field,  or  to  attack  him  if  he 
obstinately  remained  within  his  lines.  The  emperor,  attentive 
to  the  motions,  and  informed  of  the  approach,  of  so  formidable 
an  enemy,  left  a  part  of  his  legions  to  continue  the  operations 
of  the  siege,  whilst,  at  the  head  of  those  troops  on  whose  valour 
and  fidelity  he  more  particularly  depended,  he  advanced  in 
person  to  engage  the  general  of  Maxentius.  The  army  of  Gaul 
was  drawn  up  in  two  lines,  according  to  the  usual  practice  of 
war ;  but  their  experienced  leader,  perceiving  that  the  numbers 
of  the  Italians  far  exceeded  his  own,  suddenly  changed  his  dis- 
position, and,  reducing  the  second,  extended  the  front  of  his 
first,  line  to  a  just  proportion  with  that  of  the  enemy.  Such 
evolutions,  which  only  veteran  troops  can  execute  without  con- 
fusion in  a  moment  of  danger,  commonly  prove  decisive  :  but,  as 
this  engagement  began  towards  the  close  of  the  day,  and  was 
contested  with  great  obstinacy  during  the  whole  night,  there 
was  less  room  for  the  conduct  of  the  generals  than  for  the  courage 
of  the  soldiers.  The  return  of  light  displayed  the  victory  of 
Constantine,  and  a  field  of  carnage,  covered  with  many  thousands 
of  the  vanquished  Italians.  Their  general,  Pompeianus,  was 
found  among  the  slain ;  Verona  immediately  surrendered  at 
discretion,  and  the  garrison  was  made  prisoners  of  war.69     When 

degree  of  attention  and  accuracy  which  was  due  to  a  memorable  action  that 
happened  in  his  native  country.  The  fortifications  of  that  city,  constructed  by 
Gallienus,  were  less  extensive  than  the  modern  walls,  and  the  Amphitheatre  was 
not  included  within  their  circumference.  See  Verona  Illustrata,  Part  i.  p.  142, 
150. 

69  They  wanted  chains  for  so  great  a  multitude  of  captives ;  and  the  whole 
council  was  at  a  loss  ;  but  the  sagacious  conqueror  imagined  the  happy  expedient 
of  converting  into  fetters  the  swords  of  the  vanquished.     Panegyr.  Vet.  ix.  11. 


420  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

the  officers  of  the  victorious  army  congratulated  their  master  on 
this  important  success,  they  ventured  to  add  some  respectful 
complaints,  of  such  a  nature,  however,  as  the  most  jealous 
monarchs  will  listen  to  without  displeasure.  They  represented 
to  Constantine  that,  not  contented  with  performing  all  the 
duties  of  a  commander,  he  had  exposed  his  own  person  with  an 
excess  of  valour  which  almost  degenerated  into  rashness ;  and 
they  conjured  him  for  the  future  to  pay  more  regard  to  the 
preservation  of  a  life  in  which  the  safety  of  Rome  and  of  the 
empire  was  involved.70 
indolence  and  While  Constantine  signalized  his  conduct  and  valour  in  the 
Maxentius  field,  the  sovereign  of  Italy  appeared  insensible  of  the  calamities 
and  danger  of  a  civil  war  which  raged  in  the  heart  of  his  domin- 
ions. Pleasure  was  still  the  only  business  of  Maxentius.  Con- 
cealing, or  at  least  attempting  to  conceal,  from  the  public 
knowledge  the  misfortunes  of  his  arms,71  he  indulged  himself  in 
vain  confidence  which  deferred  the  remedies  of  the  approaching 
evil,  without  deferring  the  evil  itself.72  The  rapid  progress  of 
Constantine  73  was  scarcely  sufficient  to  awaken  him  from  this 
fatal  security  ;  he  flattered  himself  that  his  well-known  liberality, 
and  the  majesty  of  the  Roman  name,  which  had  already  delivered 
him  from  two  invasions,  would  dissipate  with  the  same  facility 
the  rebellious  army  of  Gaul.  The  officers  of  experience  and 
ability  who  had  served  under  the  banners  of  Maximian  were 
at  length  compelled  to  inform  his  effeminate  son  of  the  imminent 
danger  to  which  he  was  reduced ;  and,  with  a  freedom  that  at 
once  surprised  and  convinced  him,  to  urge  the  necessity  of 
preventing  his  ruin  by  a  vigorous  exertion  of  his  remaining 
power.  The  resources  of  Maxentius,  both  of  men  and  money, 
were  still  considerable.  The  Praetorian  guards  felt  how  strongly 
their  own  interest  and  safety  were  connected  with  his  cause ; 
and  a  third  army  was  soon  collected,  more  numerous  than  those 
which  had  been  lost  in  the  battles  of  Turin  and  Verona.  It 
was  far  from  the  intention  of  the  emperor  to  lead  his  troops  in 
person.  A  stranger  to  the  exercises  of  war,  he  trembled  at  the 
apprehension  of  so  dangerous  a  contest ;  and,  as  fear  is  commonly 

70  Panegyr.  Vet.  ix.  10. 

71  Literas  calaraitatum  suarum  indices  supprimebat.     Panegyr.  Vet.  ix.  15. 
72Remedia  malorum  potius  quam  mala  differebat,  is  the  fine  censure  which 

Tacitus  passes  on  the  supine  indolence  of  Vitellius. 

73  The  Marquis  Maffei  has  made  it  extremely  probable  that  Constantine  was 
still  at  Verona,  the  1st  of  September,  A.D.  312,  and  that  the  memorable  aera  of 
the  Indictions  was  dated  from  his  conquest  of  the  Cisalpine  Gaul. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  421 

superstitious,  he  listened  with  melancholy  attention  to  the 
rumours  of  omens  and  presages  which  seemed  to  menace  his 
life  and  empire.  Shame  at  length  supplied  the  place  of  courage, 
and  forced  him  to  take  the  field.  He  was  unable  to  sustain 
the  contempt  of  the  Roman  people.  The  circus  resounded  with 
their  indignant  clamours,  and  they  tumultuously  besieged  the 
gates  of  the  palace,  reproaching  the  pusillanimity  of  their  in- 
dolent sovereign,  and  celebrating  the  heroic  spirit  of  Constan- 
tine.74  Before  Maxentius  left  Rome,  he  consulted  the  Sibylline 
books.  The  guardians  of  these  ancient  oracles  were  as  well 
versed  in  the  arts  of  this  world,  as  they  were  ignorant  of  the 
secrets  of  fate  ;  and  they  returned  him  a  very  prudent  answer, 
which  might  adapt  itself  to  the  event,  and  secure  their  reputa- 
tion whatever  should  be  the  chance  of  arms.76 

The  celerity  of  Constantine's  march  has  been  compared  to  victory  of 
the  rapid  conquest  of  Italy  by  the  first  of  the  Caesars;  nor  is™*f^me' 
the  flattering  parallel  repugnant  to  the  truth  of  history,  since  wapnttjoefc 
no  more  than  fifty-eight  days  elapsed  between  the  surrender  of 
Verona  and  the  final  decision  of  the  war.  Constantine  had 
always  apprehended  that  the  tyrant  would  obey  the  dictates  of 
fear,  and  perhaps  of  prudence ;  and  that,  instead  of  risking  his 
last  hopes  in  a  general  engagement,  he  would  shut  himself  up 
within  the  walls  of  Rome.  His  ample  magazines  secured  him 
against  the  danger  of  famine  ;  and,  as  the  situation  of  Constan- 
tine admitted  not  of  delay,  he  might  have  been  reduced  to  the 
sad  necessity  of  destroying  with  fire  and  sword  the  Imperial 
city,  the  noblest  reward  of  his  victory,  and  the  deliverance  of 
which  had  been  the  motive,  or  rather  indeed  the  pretence,  of 
the  civil  war.76  It  was  with  equal  surprise  and  pleasure  that, 
on  his  arrival  at  a  place  called  Saxa  Rubra,  about  nine  miles 
from  Rome,77  he  discovered  the  army  of  Maxentius  prepared  to 
give  him  battle.78  Their  long  front  filled  a  very  spacious 
plain,  and  their  deep  array  reached  to  the  banks  of  the  Tiber, 

74See  Panegyr.  Vet.  xi.  16  [leg.  ix.  16].     Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  44. 

75  Illo  die  hostem  Romanorum  esse  perituruni.  The  vanquished  prince  became 
of  course  the  enemy  of  Rome. 

76  See  Panegyr.  Vet.  ix.  16,  x.  27.  The  former  of  these  orators  magnifies  the 
hoards  of  corn,  which  Maxentius  had  collected  from  Africa  and  the  islands.  And 
yet,  if  there  is  any  truth  in  the  scarcity  mentioned  by  Eusebius  (in  Vit.  Constantin. 
1.  i.  c.  36),  the  Imperial  granaries  must  have  been  open  only  to  the  soldiers. 

77  Maxentius  .  .  .  tandem  urbe  in  Saxa  Rubra,  millia  ferme  novem  asgerrime 
progressus.  Aurelius  Victor  [Caes.  40].  See  Cellarius  Geograph.  Antiq.  torn.  i. 
p.  463.  Saxa  Rubra  was  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Cremera,  a  trifling  rivulet, 
illustrated  by  the  valour  and  glorious  death  of  the  three  hundred  Fabii. 

78  The  post  which  Maxentius  had  taken,  with  the  Tiber  in  his  rear,  is  very 
cleariy  described  by  the  two  Panegyrists,  ix.  16,  x.  28. 


422  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

which  covered  their  rear,  and  forbade  their  retreat.  We  are 
informed,  and  we  may  believe,  that  Constantine  disposed  his 
troops  with  consummate  skill,  and  that  he  chose  for  himself  the 
post  of  honour  and  danger.  Distinguished  by  the  splendour  of 
his  arms,  he  charged  in  person  the  cavalry  of  his  rival ;  and  his 
irresistible  attack  determined  the  fortune  of  the  day.  The 
cavalry  of  Maxentius  was  principally  composed  either  of  un- 
wieldy cuirassiers  or  of  light  Moors  and  Numidians.  They 
yielded  to  the  vigour  of  the  Gallic  horse,  which  possessed  more 
activity  than  the  one,  more  firmness  than  the  other.  The  defeat 
of  the  two  wings  left  the  infantry  without  any  protection  on  its 
flanks,  and  the  undisciplined  Italians  fled  without  reluctance 
from  the  standard  of  a  tyrant  whom  they  had  always  hated,  and 
whom  they  no  longer  feared.  The  Praetorians,  conscious  that 
their  offences  were  beyond  the  reach  of  mercy,  were  animated 
by  revenge  and  despair.  Notwithstanding  their  repeated 
efforts,  those  brave  veterans  were  unable  to  recover  the  victory: 
they  obtained,  however,  an  honourable  death ;  and  it  was 
observed  that  their  bodies  covered  the  same  ground  which  had 
been  occupied  by  their  ranks.79  The  confusion  then  became 
general,  and  the  dismayed  troops  of  Maxentius,  pursued  by  an 
implacable  enemy,  rushed  by  thousands  into  the  deep  and 
rapid  stream  of  the  Tiber.  The  emperor  himself  attempted  to 
escape  back  into  the  city  over  the  Milvian  bridge,  but  the 
crowds  which  pressed  together  through  that  narrow  passage 
forced  him  into  the  river,  where  he  was  immediately  drowned 
by  the  weight  of  his  armour. s0  His  body,  which  had  sunk  very 
deep  into  the  mud,  was  found  with  some  difficulty  the  next 
day.  The  sight  of  his  head,  when  it  was  exposed  to  the  eyes  of 
the  people,  convinced  them  of  their  deliverance,  and  admonished 
them  to  receive  with  acclamations  of  loyalty  and  gratitude  the 
fortunate  Constantine,  who  thus  achieved  by  his  valour  and 
ability  the  most  splendid  enterprise  of  his  life.81 

79  Exceptis  latrocinii  illius  primis  auctoribus,  qui,  desperata  venia,  locum  quem 
pugnae  sumpserant  texere  corporibus.     Panegyr.  Vet.  ix.  17. 

80  A  very  idle  rumour  soon  prevailed,  that  Maxentius,  who  had  not  taken  any 
precaution  for  his  own  retreat,  had  contrived  a  very  artful  snare  to  destroy  the  army 
of  the  pursuers  ;  but  that  the  wooden  bridge,  which  was  to  have  been  loosened  on 
the  approach  of  Constantine,  unluckily  broke  down  under  the  weight  of  the  flying 
Italians.  M.  de  Tillemont  (Hist,  des  Empereurs,  torn.  iv.  part  i.  p.  576)  very 
seriously  examines  whether,  in  contradiction  to  common  sense,  the  testimony  of 
Eusebius  and  Zosimus  ought  to  prevail  over  the  silence  of  Lactantius,  Nazarius, 
and  the  anonymous,  but  contemporary  orator,  who  composed  the  ninth  Panegyric. 

81  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  86-88  [15-17],  and  the  two  Panegyrics,  the  former  of  which 
was  pronounced  a  few  months  afterwards,  afford  the  clearest  notion  of  this  great 
battle.     Lactantius,  Eusebius,  and  even  the  Epitomes,  supply  several  useful  hints. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  423 

In  the  use  of  victory,  Constantine  neither  deserved  the  praise  hi*  reception 
of  clemency,  nor  incurred  the  censure  of  immoderate  rigour. S2 
He  inflicted  the  same  treatment  to  which  a  defeat  would  have 
exposed  his  own  person  and  family,  put  to  death  the  two  sons  of 
the  tyrant,  and  carefully  extirpated  his  whole  race.  The  most 
distinguished  adherents  of  Maxentius  must  have  expected  to 
share  his  fate,  as  they  had  shared  his  prosperity  and  his  crimes  : 
but,  when  the  Roman  people  loudly  demanded  a  greater  number 
of  victims,  the  conqueror  resisted,  with  firmness  and  humanity, 
those  servile  clamours  which  were  dictated  by  flattery  as  well  as 
by  resentment.  Informers  were  punished  and  discouraged  ;  the 
innocent  who  had  suffered  under  the  late  tyranny  were  recalled 
from  exile,  and  restored  to  their  estates.  A  general  act  of  ob- 
livion quieted  the  minds  and  settled  the  property  of  the  people, 
both  in  Italy  and  in  Africa.S3  The  first  time  that  Constantine 
honoured  the  senate  with  his  presence,  he  recapitulated  his  own 
services  and  exploits  in  a  modest  oration,  assured  that  illustrious 
order  of  his  sincere  regard,  and  promised  to  re-establish  its 
ancient  dignity  and  privileges.  The  grateful  senate  repaid  these 
unmeaning  professions  by  the  empty  titles  of  honour,  which  it 
was  yet  in  their  power  to  bestow ;  and,  without  presuming  to 
ratify  the  authority  of  Constantine,  they  passed  a  decree  to  assign 
him  the  first  rank  among  the  three  Augusli  who  governed  the 
Roman  world.S4  Games  and  festivals  were  instituted  to  preserve 
the  fame  of  his  victory,  and  several  edifices,  raised  at  the  expense  of 
Maxentius,  were  dedicated  to  the  honour  of  his  successful  rival. 
The  triumphal  arch  of  Constantine  still  remains  a  melancholy 
proof  of  the  decline  of  the  arts,  and  a  singular  testimony  of  the 
meanest  vanity.  As  it  was  not  possible  to  find  in  the  capital  of 
the  empire  a  sculptor  who  was  capable  of  adorning  that  public 
monument,  the  arch  of  Trajan,  without  any  respect  either  for  his 
memory  or  for  the  rules  of  propriety,  was  stripped  of  its  most 
elegant  figures.  The  difference  of  times  and  persons,  of  actions 
and  characters,  was  totally  disregarded.     The  Parthian  captives 

82Zosimus,  the  enemy  of  Constantine,  allows  (1.  ii.  p.  88  [17])  that  only  a  few 
of  the  friends  of  Maxentius  were  put  to  death,  but  we  may  remark  the  expressive 
passage  of  Nazarius  (Panegyr.  Vet.  x.  6)  :  Omnibus  qui  labefactare  statum  ejus 
poterant  cum  stirpe  deletis.  The  other  orator  (Panegyr.  Vet.  ix.  20,  21)  contents 
himself  with  observing  that  Constantine,  when  he  entered  Rome,  did  not  imitate 
the  cruel  massacres  of  Cinna,  of  Marius,  or  of  Sylla. 

83  See  the  two  Panegyrics,  and  the  laws  of  this  and  the  ensuing  year,  in  the 
Theodosian  Code. 

84  Panegyr.  Vet.  ix.  20.  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  44.  Maximin,  who  was  con- 
fessedly the  eldest  Caesar,  claimed,  with  some  show  of  reason,  the  first  rank  among 
the  Augusti. 


424  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

appear  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  a  prince  who  never  carried  his 
arms  beyond  the  Euphrates ;  and  curious  antiquarians  can  still 
discover  the  head  of  Trajan  on  the  trophies  of  Constantine.  The 
new  ornaments  which  it  was  necessary  to  introduce  between  the 
vacancies  of  ancient  sculpture  are  executed  in  the  rudest  and 
most  unskilful  manner.85 
and  conduct  The  final  abolition  of  the  Praetorian  guards  was  a  measm*e  of 
prudence  as  well  as  of  revenge.  Those  haughty  troops,  whose 
numbers  and  privileges  had  been  restored,  and  even  augmented, 
by  Maxentius,  were  for  ever  suppressed  by  Constantine.  Their 
fortified  camp  was  destroyed,  and  the  few  Praetorians  who  had 
escaped  the  fury  of  the  sword  were  dispersed  among  the  legions, 
and  banished  to  the  frontiers  of  the  empire,  where  they  might 
be  serviceable  without  again  becoming  dangerous.86  By  sup- 
pressing the  troops  which  were  usually  stationed  in  Rome,  Con- 
stantine gave  the  fatal  blow  to  the  dignity  of  the  senate  and 
people,  and  the  disarmed  capital  was  exposed  without  protection 
to  the  insults  or  neglect  of  its  distant  master.  We  may  observe 
that,  in  this  last  effort  to  preserve  their  expiring  freedom,  the 
Romans,  from  the  apprehension  of  a  tribute,  had  raised  Maxen- 
tius to  the  throne.  He  exacted  that  tribute  from  the  senate, 
under  the  name  of  a  free  gift.  They  implored  the  assistance  of 
Constantine.  He  vanquished  the  tyrant,  and  converted  the  free 
gift  into  a  perpetual  tax.  The  senators,  according  to  the  de- 
claration which  was  required  of  their  property,  were  divided 
into  several  classes.  The  most  opulent  paid  annually  eight 
pounds  of  gold,87  the  next  class  paid  four,  the  last  two,  and 
those  whose  poverty  might  have  claimed  an  exemption  were 
assessed,  however,  at  seven  pieces  of  gold.  Besides  the  regular 
members  of  the  senate,  their  sons,  their  descendants,  and  even 
their  relations,  enjoyed  the  vain  privileges,  and  supported  the 
heavy  burdens,  of  the  senatorial  order ;  nor  will  it  any  longer 
excite  our  surprise  that  Constantine  should  be  attentive  to  in- 

85  Adhuc  cuncta  opera  quae  magnifice  construxerat,  urbis  fanum,  atque  basilicam, 
Flavii  meritis  patres  sacravere.  Aurelius  Victor  [ib.].  With  regard  to  the  theft 
of  Trajan's  trophies,  consult  Flaminius  Vacca,  apud  Montfaucon,  Diarium  Itali- 
cum,  p.  250,  and  l'Antiquite'  Expliquee  of  the  latter,  torn.  iv.  p.  171. 

86  Pisetorias  legiones  ac  subsidia  factionibus  aptiora  quam  urbi  Romae,  sublata 
penitus  ;  simul  arma  atque  usus  indumenti  militaris.  Aurelius  Victor.  Zosimus 
(1.  11,  p.  89  [17])  mentions  this  fact  as  an  historian;  and  it  is  very  pompously 
celebrated  in  the  ninth  Panegyric. 

87  [This  senatorial  tax  was  known  as  Xhefollis  (also  gleba,  or  descriptio).  The 
senator  had  further  to  pay  an  ait  rum  oblaticium  to  the  emperor  on  such  festal 
occasions  as  the  celebration  of  the  Quinquennalia.] 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  425 

crease  the  number  of  persons  who  were  included  under  so  useful 
a  description.88  After  the  defeat  of  Maxentius,  the  victorious 
emperor  passed  no  more  than  two  or  three  months  in  Rome, 
which  he  visited  twice  during  the  remainder  of  his  life,  to  cele- 
brate the  solemn  festivals  of  the  tenth  and  of  the  twentieth 
years  of  his  reign.  Constantine  was  almost  perpetually  in  motion, 
to  exercise  the  legions,  or  to  inspect  the  state  of  the  provinces. 
Treves,  Milan,  Aquileia,  Sirmium,  Naissus  and  Thessalonica  were 
the  occasional  places  of  his  residence,  till  he  founded  a  new 
Rome  on  the  confines  of  Europe  and  Asia.S9 

Before  Constantine  marched  into  Italy,  he  had  secured  the  ms  alliance 
friendship,  or  at  least   the  neutrality,  of  Licinius,   the    Illyrian  ad.  313, 
emperor.     He  had  promised  his  sister  Constantia  in  marriage 
to  that  prince  ;  but  the  celebration  of  the  nuptials  was  deferred 
till  after  the  conclusion  of  the  war ;  and  the  interview  of  the 
two  emperors  at  Milan,  which  was  appointed  for  that  purpose, 
appeared  to  cement  the  union  of  their  families  and  interests.00 
In    the    midst    of  the    public    festivity    they    were    suddenly 
obliged  to  take  leave  of  each  other.     An  inroad  of  the  Franks 
summoned  Constantine  to  the  Rhine,  and  the  hostile  approach 
of  the  sovereign  of  Asia  demanded  the  immediate  presence  of 
Licinius.     Maximin  had  been  the  secret  ally  of  Maxentius,  and,  war  between 
without  being  discouraged  by  his  fate,  he  resolved  to  try  the  andXLiciniua, 
fortune  of  a  civil   war.     He   moved   out   of  Syria  towards  the 
frontiers    of    Bithynia,    in    the  depth   of  winter.     The    season 
was  severe  and  tempestuous  ;   great  numbers  of  men  as  well  as 
horses  perished  in  the   snow  ;  and,  as  the  roads  were  broken 
up  by  incessant  rains,  he   was  obliged  to  leave  behind  him  a 
considerable    part    of   the   heavy  baggage,   which    was   unable 
to   follow  the  rapidity  of  his  forced  marches.     By  this  extra 
ordinary    effort    of  diligence,   he  arrived  with   a    harassed  but 

88  Ex  omnibus  provinciis  optimates  viros  Curice  tuae  pigneraveris ;  ut  Senatus 
dignitas  ...  ex  totius  Orbis  flore  consisteret.  Nazarius  in  Panegyr.  Vet.  x.  35. 
The  word  pigneraveris  might  almost  seem  maliciously  chosen.  Concerning  the 
senatorial  tax,  see  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  115  [33],  the  second  title  of  the  sixth  book  of 
the  Theodosian  Code,  with  Godefroy's  Commentary,  and  Memoires  de  l'Acade'mie 
des  Inscriptions,  torn,  xxviii.  p.  726. 

89  From  the  Theodosian  Code,  we  may  now  begin  to  trace  the  motions  of  the 
emperors ;  but  the  dates  both  of  time  and  place  have  frequently  been  altered  by 
the  carelessness  of  transcribers. 

90  Zosimus  (1.  ii.  p.  89  [17])  observes  that,  before  the  war,  the  sister  of  Constan- 
tine had  been  betrothed  to  Licinius.  According  to  the  younger  Victor,  Diocletian 
was  invited  to  the  nuptials  ;  but,  having  ventured  to  plead  his  age  and  infirmities, 
he  received  a  second  letter  filled  with  reproaches  for  his  supposed  partiality  to  the 
cause  of  Maxentius  and  Maximin.     [Epit.  39.] 


AD.  313 


426  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

formidable  army  on  the  banks  of  the  Thracian  Bosphorus, 
before  the  lieutenants  of  Licinius  were  apprized  of  his  hostile 
intentions.  Byzantium  surrendered  to  the  power  of  Maximin, 
after  a  siege  of  eleven  days.  He  was  detained  some  days  under 
the  walls  of  Heraclea;  and  he  had  no  sooner  taken  possession  of 
that  city  than  he  was  alarmed  by  the  intelligence  that  Licinius 

The  defeat  had  pitched  his  camp  at  the  distance  of  only  eighteen  miles. 
After  a  fruitless  negotiation,  in  which  the  two  princes  attempted 
to  seduce  the  fidelity  of  each  other's  adherents,  they  had  re- 
course to  arms.  The  emperor  of  the  East  commanded  a 
disciplined  and  veteran  army  of  above  seventy  thousand  men, 
and  Licinius,  who  had  collected  about  thirty  thousand  Illyrians, 
was  at  first  oppressed  by  the  superiority  of  numbers.  His 
military  skill  and  the  firmness  of  his  troops  restored  the  day, 
and  obtained  a  decisive  victory.  The  incredible  speed  which 
Maximin  exerted  in  his  flight  is  much  more  celebrated  than  his 
prowess  in  the  battle.  Twenty-four  hours  afterwards  he  was 
seen  pale,  trembling,  and  without  his  Imperial  ornaments,  at 
Nicomedia,  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  from  the  place  of  his 
defeat.  The  wealth  of  Asia  was  yet  unexhausted  ;  and,  though 
the  flower  of  his  veterans  had  fallen  in  the  late  action,  he  haj 
still  power,  if  he   could  obtain  time,  to   draw  very  numerous 

and  death      levies  from  Syria  and  Egypt.     But  he  survived  his  misfortune 

August0™"'  only  three  or  four  months.  His  death,  which  happened  at 
Tarsus,  was  variously  ascribed  to  despair,  to  poison,  and  to  the 
divine  justice.  As  Maximin  was  alike  destitute  of  abilities  and 
of  virtue,  he  was  lamented  neither  by  the  people  nor  by  the 
soldiers.  The  provinces  of  the  East,  delivered  from  the  terrors 
of  civil  war,  cheerfully  acknowledged  the  authority  of  Licinius.91 

cruelty  of  The  vanquished  emperor  left  behind  him  two  children,  a  boy 

of  about  eight,  and  a  girl  of  about  seven,  years  old.  Their 
inoffensive  age  might  have  excited  compassion ;  but  the  com- 
passion of  Licinius  was  a  very  feeble  resource,  nor  did  it  restrain 
him  from  extinguishing  the  name  and  memory  of  his  adversary. 
The  death  of  Severianus  will  admit  of  less  excuse,  as  it  was 
dictated  neither  by  revenge  nor  by  policy.  The  conqueror  had 
never  received  any  injury  from  the  father  of  that  unhappy 
youth,  and  the  short  and  obscure  reign  of  Severus  in  a  distant 
part  of  the  empire   was  already  forgotten.      But  the   execution 

91  Zosimus  mentions  the  defeat  and  death  of  Maximin  as  ordinary  events  ;  but 
Lactantius  expatiates  on  them  (de  M.  P.  c.  45-50),  ascribing  them  to  the  miraculous 
interposition  of  Heaven.  Licinius  at  that  time  was  one  of  the  protectors  of  the 
church. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIKE  427 

of  Candidianus  was  an  act  of  the  blackest  cruelty  and  ingratitude. 
He  was  the  natural  son  of  Galerius,  the  friend  and  benefactor 
of  Licinius.  The  prudent  father  had  judged  him  too  young  to 
sustain  the  weight  of  a  diadem ;  but  he  hoped  that,  under  the 
protection  of  princes  who  were  indebted  to  his  favour  for  the 
Imperial  purple,  Candidianus  might  pass  a  secure  and  honour- 
able life.  He  was  now  advancing  towards  the  twentieth  year 
of  his  age,  and  the  royalty  of  his  birth,  though  unsupported 
either  by  merit  or  ambition,  was  sufficient  to  exasperate  the 
jealous  mind  of  Licinius.92  To  these  innocent  and  illustrious 
victims  of  his  tyranny,  we  must  add  the  wife  and  daughter  of 
the  emperor  Diocletian.  When  that  prince  conferred  on 
Galerius  the  title  of  Caesar,  he  had  given  him  in  marriage  his 
daughter  Valeria,  whose  melancholy  adventures  might  furnish 
a  very  singular    subject   for   tragedy.     She   had   fulfilled,   and  unfortunate 

fate  of  the 

even    surpassed,    the   duties   of  a  wife.     As   she   had  not  any  empress 

111  Valeria  and 

children  herself,  she  condescended  to  adopt  the  illegitimate  son  her  mother 
of  her  husband,  and  invariably  displayed  towards  the  unhappy 
Candidianus  the  tenderness  and  anxiety  of  a  real  mother. 
After  the  death  of  Galerius,  her  ample  possessions  provoked 
the  avarice,  and  her  personal  attractions  excited  the  desires,  of 
his  successor  Maximin.93  He  had  a  wife  still  alive  ;  but  divorce 
was  permitted  by  the  Roman  law,  and  the  fierce  passions  of 
the  tyrant  demanded  an  immediate  gratification.  The  answer 
of  Valeria  was  such  as  became  the  daughter  and  widow  of 
emperors  ;  but  it  was  tempered  by  the  prudence  which  her 
defenceless  condition  compelled  her  to  observe.  She  represented 
to  the  persons  whom  Maximin  had  employed  on  this  occasion 
"that,  even  if  honour  could  permit  a  woman  of  her  character 
and  dignity  to  entertain  a  thought  of  second  nuptials,  decency 
at  least  must  forbid  her  to  listen  to  his  addresses  at  a  time 
when  the  ashes  of  her  husband  and  his  benefactor  were  still 
warm,  and  while  the  sorrows  of  her  mind  were  still  expressed 
by  her  mourning  garments.  She  ventured  to  declare  that  she 
could  place  very  little  confidence  in  the  professions  of  a  man, 

82  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  50.  Aurelius  Victor  touches  on  the  different  conduct 
of  Licinius,  and  of  Constantine,  in  the  use  of  victory. 

93  The  sensual  appetites  of  Maximin  were  gratified  at  the  expense  of  his  subjects. 
His  eunuchs,  who  forced  away  wives  and  virgins,  examined  their  naked  charms 
with  anxious  curiosity,  lest  any  part  of  their  body  should  be  found  unworthy  of  the 
royal  embraces.  Coyness  and  disdain  were  considered  as  treason,  and  the 
obstinate  fair  one  was  condemned  to  be  drowned.  A  custom  was  gradually 
introduced,  that  no  person  should  marry  a  wife  without  the  permission  of  the 
emperor,  "ut  ipse  in  omnibus  nuptiis  prsegustator  esset".  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c. 
38. 


428  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

Vviiose  cruel  inconstancy  was  capable  of  repudiating  a  faithful 
and  affectionate  wife."  94  On  this  repulse,  the  love  of  Maximin 
was  converted  into  fury ;  and,  as  witnesses  and  judges  were 
always  at  his  disposal,  it  was  easy  for  him  to  cover  his  fury  with 
an  appearance  of  legal  proceedings,  and  to  assault  the  reputa- 
tion as  well  as  the  happiness  of  Valeria.  Her  estates  were 
confiscated,  her  eunuchs  and  domestics  devoted  to  the  most 
inhuman  tortures,  and  several  innocent  and  respectable  matrons, 
who  were  honoured  with  her  friendship,  suffered  death  on  a 
false  accusation  of  adultery.  The  empress  herself,  together 
with  her  mother  Prisca,  was  condemned  to  exile ;  and,  as  they 
were  ignominiously  hurried  from  place  to  place  before  they  were 
confined  to  a  sequestered  village  in  the  deserts  of  Syria,  they 
exposed  their  shame  and  distress  to  the  provinces  of  the  East, 
which,  during  thirty  years,  had  respected  their  august  dignity. 
Diocletian  made  several  ineffectual  efforts  to  alleviate  the  mis- 
fortunes of  his  daughter;  and,  as  the  last  return  that  he  ex- 
pected for  the  Imperial  purple,  which  he  had  conferred  upon 
Maximin,  he  entreated  that  Valeria  might  be  permitted  to  share 
his  retirement  of  Salona,  and  to  close  the  eyes  of  her  afflicted 
father.95  He  entreated,  but,  as  he  could  no  longer  threaten, 
his  prayers  were  received  with  coldness  and  disdain ;  and  the 
pride  of  Maximin  was  gratified  in  treating  Diocletian  as  a 
suppliant,  and  his  daughter  as  a  criminal.  The  death  of 
Maximin  seemed  to  assure  the  empresses  of  a  favourable  altera- 
tion in  their  fortune.  The  public  disorders  relaxed  the  vigilance 
of  their  guard,  and  they  easily  found  means  to  escape  from  the 
place  of  their  exile,  and  to  repair,  though  with  some  precaution, 
and  in  disguise,  to  the  court  of  Licinius.  His  behaviour,  in  the 
first  days  of  his  reign,  and  the  honourable  reception  which  he 
gave  to  young  Candidianus,  inspired  Valeria  with  a  secret 
satisfaction,  both  on  her  own  account,  and  on  that  of  her 
adopted  son.  But  these  grateful  prospects  Avere  soon  succeeded 
by  horror  and  astonishment ;  and  the  bloody  executions  which 
stained  the  palace  of  Nicomedia  sufficiently  convinced  her  that 
the  throne  of  Maximin  was  filled  by  a  tyrant  more  inhuman 
than  himself.  Valeria  consulted  her  safety  by  a  hasty  flight, 
and,   still   accompanied  by  her  mother  Prisca,  they  wandered 

94  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  39. 

95  Diocletian  at  last  sent  cognatum  suum,  quendam  militarem  ac  potentem 
virum,  to  intercede  in  favour  of  his  daughter  (Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  41).  We  are 
not  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  history  of  these  times,  to  point  out  the  person 
who  was  employed. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  429 

above  fifteen  months  96  through  the  provinces,  concealed  in  the 
disguise  of  plebeian  habits.  They  were  at  length  discovered  at 
Thessalonica  ;  and,  as  the  sentence  of  their  death  was  already 
pronounced,  they  were  immediately  beheaded,  and  their  bodies 
thrown  into  the  sea.  The  people  gazed  on  the  melancholy 
spectacle  ;  but  their  grief  and  indignation  were  suppressed  by 
the  terrors  of  a  military  guard.  Such  was  the  unworthy  fate  of 
the  wife  and  daughter  of  Diocletian.  We  lament  their  mis- 
fortunes, we  cannot  discover  their  crimes  ;  and,  whatever  idea 
we  may  justly  entertain  of  the  cruelty  of  Licinius,  it  remains  a 
matter  of  surprise  that  he  was  not  contented  with  some  more 
secret  and  decent  method  of  revenge.1'7 

The  Roman  world  was  now  divided  between  Constantine  and  Quarrel 
Licinius,  the  former  of  whom  was  master  of  the  West,  and  the  stantine  and 
latter  of  the  East.  It  might  perhaps  have  been  expected  that  ad. 314 
the  conquerors,  fatigued  with  civil  war,  and  connected  by  a 
private  as  well  as  public  alliance,  would  have  renounced,  or  at 
least  would  have  suspended,  any  farther  designs  of  ambition. 
And  yet  a  year  had  scarcely  elapsed  after  the  death  of  Maximin, 
before  the  victorious  emperors  turned  their  arms  against  each 
other.  The  genius,  the  success,  and  the  aspiring  temper  of 
Constantine  may  seem  to  mark  him  out  as  the  aggressor ;  but 
the  perfidious  character  of  Licinius  justifies  the  most  unfavourable 
suspicions,  and  by  the  faint  light  which  history  reflects  on  this 
transaction 98  we  may  discover  a  conspiracy  fomented  by  his 
arts  against  the  authority  of  his  colleague.  Constantine  had 
lately  given  his  sister  Anastasia  in  marriage  to  Bassianus,  a  man 
of  a  considerable  family  and  fortune,  and  had  elevated  his  new 
kinsman  to  the  rank  of  Caesar.  According  to  the  system  of 
government  instituted  by  Diocletian,  Italy,  and  perhaps  Africa, 
were  designed  for  his  department  in  the  empire.  But  the  per- 
formance of  the  promised  favour  was  either  attended  with  so 
much  delay,  or  accompanied  with  so  many  unequal  conditions, 

96  Valeria  quoque  per  varias  provincias  quindecim  mensibus  plebeio  cultu  perva- 
gata.  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  51.  There  is  some  doubt  whether  we  should 
compute  the  fifteen  months  from  the  moment  of  her  exile,  or  from  that  of  her 
escape.  The  expression  of  pet  vagata  seems  to  denote  the  latter  ;  but  in  that  case 
we  must  suppose  that  the  treatise  of  Lactantius  was  written  after  the  first  civil  war 
between  Licinius  and  Constantine.     See  Cuper,  p.  254. 

97  Ita  illis  pudicitia  et  conditio  exitio  fuit.  Lactantius  de  M.  P.  c.  51.  He  re- 
lates the  misfortunes  of  the  innocent  wife  and  daughter  of  Diocletian  with  a  very 
natural  mixture  of  pity  and  exultation. 

98  The  curious  reader,  who  consults  the  Valesian  Fragment,  p.  713,  will  perhaps 
accuse  me  of  giving  a  bold  and  licentious  paraphrase  ;  but,  if  he  considers  it  with 
attention,  he  will  acknowledge  that  my  interpretation  is  probable  and  consistent. 


430  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

that  the  fidelity  of  Bassianus  was  alienated  rather  than  secured 
by  the  honourable  distinction  which  he  had  obtained.  His 
nomination  had  been  ratified  by  the  consent  of  Licinius,  and 
that  artful  prince,  by  the  means  of  his  emissaries,  soon  contrived 
to  enter  into  a  secret  and  dangerous  correspondence  with  the 
new  Caesar,  to  irritate  his  discontents,  and  to  urge  him  to  the 
rash  enterprise  of  extorting  by  violence  what  he  might  in  vain 
solicit  from  the  justice  of  Constantine.  But  the  vigilant  emperor 
discovered  the  conspiracy  before  it  was  ripe  for  execution ;  and, 
after  solemnly  renouncing  the  alliance  of  Bassianus,  despoiled 
him  of  the  purple  and  inflicted  the  deserved  punishment  on  his 
treason  and  ingratitude.  The  haughty  refusal  of  Licinius,  when 
he  was  required  to  deliver  up  the  criminals  who  had  taken  refuge 
in  his  dominions,  confirmed  the  suspicions  already  entertained 
of  his  perfidy ;  and  the  indignities  offered  at  iEmona,  on  the 
frontiers  of  Italy,  to  the  statues  of  Constantine,  became  the 
signal  of  discord  between  the  two  princes." 
First  civil  The  first  battle  was  fought  near  Cibalis,  a  city  of  Pannonia, 

them.  Battle  situated  on  the  river  Save,  about  fifty  miles  above  Sirmium.100 
ad.  3i5 [314],  From  the  inconsiderable  forces  which  in  this  important  contest 
two  such  powerful  monarchs  brought  into  the  field,  it  may  be 
inferred  that  the  one  was  suddenly  provoked,  and  that  the 
other  was  unexpectedly  surprised.  The  emperor  of  the  West 
had  only  twenty  thousand,  and  the  sovereign  of  the  East  no 
more  than  five  and  thirty  thousand,  men.  The  inferiority  of 
number  was,  however,  compensated  by  the  advantage  of  the 
ground.  Constantine  had  taken  post  in  a  defile  about  half  a 
mile  in  breadth,  between  a  steep  hill  and  a  deep  morass  ;  and 
in  that  situation  he  steadily  expected  and  repulsed  the  first 
attack  of  the  enemy.  He  pursued  his  success,  and  advanced 
into  the  plain.  But  the  veteran  legions  of  Illyricum  rallied 
under  the  standard  of  a  leader  who  had  been  trained  to  arms  in 
the  school  of  Probus  and  Diocletian.  The  missile  weapons  on 
both  sides  were  soon  exhausted ;  the  two  armies,  with  equal 
valour,  rushed  to  a  closer  engagement  of  swords  and  spears,  and 

"The  situation  of  ^mona,  or  as  it  is  now  called  Laybach,  in  Carniola  (d'An- 
ville,  Geographie  Ancienne,  torn.  i.  p.  187),  may  suggest  a  conjecture.  As  it  lay  to 
the  north-east  of  the  Julian  Alps,  that  important  territory  became  a  natural  object 
of  dispute  between  the  sovereigns  of -Italy  and  of  Illyricum. 

100  Cibalis  or  Cibalas  [now  Vinkovce]  (whose  name  is  still  preserved  in  the  obscure 
ruins  of  Swilei)  was  situated  about  fifty  miles  from  Sirmium,  the  capital  of  Illyri- 
cum, and  about  one  hundred  from  Taurunum,  or  Belgrade,  and  the  conflux  of  the 
Danube  and  the  Save.  The  Roman  garrisons  and  cities  on  those  rivers  are  finely 
illustrated  by  M.  d'Anville,  in  a  memoir  inserted  in  l'Academie  des  Inscriptions 
torn,  xxviii. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  431 

the  doubtful  contest  had  already  lasted  from  the  dawn  of  day 
to  a  late  hour  of  the  evening  when  the  right  wing,  which 
Constantine  led  in  person,  made  a  vigorous  and  decisive  charge. 
The  judicious  retreat  of  Licinius  saved  the  remainder  of  his 
troops  from  a  total  defeat ;  but,  when  he  computed  his  loss, 
which  amounted  to  more  than  twenty  thousand  men,  he  thought 
it  unsafe  to  pass  the  night  in  the  presence  of  an  active  and 
victorious  enemy.  Abandoning  his  camp  and  magazines,  he 
marched  away  with  secrecy  and  diligence  at  the  head  of  the 
greatest  part  of  his  cavalry,  and  was  soon  removed  beyond  the 
danger  of  a  pursuit.  His  diligence  preserved  his  wife,  his  son, 
and  his  treasures,  which  he  had  deposited  at  Sirmium.  Licinius 
passed  through  that  city,  and,  breaking  down  the  bridge  on  the 
Save,  hastened  to  collect  a  new  army  in  Dacia  and  Thrace.  In 
his  flight  he  bestowed  the  precarious  title  of  Caesar  on  Valens, 
his  general  of  the  Illyrian  frontier.101 

The  plain  of  Mardia  in  Thrace  was  the  theatre  of  a  second  Battle  of 
battle  no  less  obstinate  and  bloody  than  the  former.  The  troops 
on  both  sides  displayed  the  same  valour  and  discipline  ;  and  the 
victory  was  once  more  decided  by  the  superior  abilities  of  Con- 
stantine, who  directed  a  body  of  five  thousand  men  to  gain  an 
advantageous  height,  from  whence,  during  the  heat  of  the 
action,  they  attacked  the  rear  of  the  enemy,  and  made  a  very 
considerable  slaughter.  The  troops  of  Licinius,  however,  pre- 
senting a  double  front,  still  maintained  their  ground,  till  the 
approach  of  night  put  an  end  to  the  combat,  and  secured  their 
retreat  towards  the  mountains  of  Macedonia.102  The  loss  of  two 
battles,  and  of  his  bravest  veterans,  reduced  the  fierce  spirit  of 
Licinius  to  sue  for  peace.  His  ambassador,  Mistrianus,  was 
admitted  to  the  audience  of  Constantine  ;  he  expatiated  on  the 
common  topics  of  moderation  and  humanity,  which  are  so 
familiar  to  the  eloquence  of  the  vanquished  ;  represented,  in  the 
most  insinuating  language,  that  the  event  of  the  war  was  still 
doubtful,  whilst  its  inevitable  calamities  were  alike  pernicious 
to  both  the  contending  parties ;  and  declared  that  he  was 
authorized  to  propose  a  lasting  and  honourable  peace  in  the 
name  of  the  two  emperors  his  masters.  Constantine  received 
the  mention  of  Valens   with   indignation  and  contempt.     "  It 

101Zosimus  (1.  ii.  p.  90,  91  [i3])  gives  a  very  particular  account  of  this  battle; 
but  the  descriptions  of  Zosimus  are  rhetorical  rather  than  military. 

lya  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  92,  93  [19].  Anonym.  Valesian.  p.  713  [5;  17,  18].  The 
Epitomes  furnish  some  circumstances  ;  but  they  frequently  confound  the  two  wars 
between  Licinius  and  Constantine. 


432  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

was  not  for  such  a  purpose,"  he  sternly  replied,  "  that  we  have 
advanced  from  the  shores  of  the  western  ocean  in  an  uninter- 
rupted course  of  combats  and  victories,  that,  after  rejecting  aix 
ungrateful  kinsman,  we  should  accept  for  our  colleague  a  con- 
temptible slave.  The  abdication  of  Valens  is  the  first  article 
of  the  treaty."  103  It  was  necessary  to  accept  this  humiliating 
condition,  and  the  unhappy  Valens,  after  a  reign  of  a  few  days, 
was  deprived  of  the  purple  and  of  his  life.  As  soon  as  the 
obstacle  was  removed,  the  tranquillity  of  the  Roman  world  was 
easily  restored.  The  successive  defeats  of  Licinius  had  ruined 
his  forces,  but  they  had  displayed  his  courage  and  abilities. 
His  situation  was  almost  desperate,  but  the  efforts  of  despair 
are  sometimes  formidable  ;  and  the  good  sense  of  Constantine 
preferred  a  great  and  certain  advantage  to  a  third  trial  of  the 
Treaty  of  chance  of  arms.  He  consented  to  leave  his  rival,  or,  as  he  again 
December  styled  Licinius,  his  friend  and  brother,  in  the  possession  of 
Thrace,  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Egypt ;  but  the  provinces  of 
Pannonia,  Dalmatia,  Dacia,  Macedonia,  and  Greece,  were  yielded 
to  the  western  empire,  and  the  dominions  of  Constantine  now 
extended  from  the  confines  of  Caledonia  to  the  extremity  of 
Peloponnesus.  It  was  stipulated  by  the  same  treaty  that  three 
royal  youths,  the  sons  of  the  emperors,  should  be  called  to  the 
hopes  of  the  succession.  Crispus  and  the  younger  Constantine 
were  soon  afterwards  declared  Caesars  in  the  West,  while  the 
younger  Licinius  was  invested  with  the  same  dignity  in  the 
East.  In  this  double  proportion  of  honours,  the  conqueror 
asserted  the  superiority  of  his  arms  and  power.104 
General  peace  The  reconciliation  of  Constantine  and  Licinius,  though  it  was 
constantine,  embittered  by  resentment  and  iealousy,  by  the  remembrance  of 

AD  315-323 

recent   injuries,  and    by   the   apprehension    of  future  dangers, 
maintained,  however,  above  eight  years,  the  tranquillity  of  the 

103  Petrus  Patricius  in  the  Excerpt.  Legat.  p.  27  [F.G.H.  iv.  p.  190].  If  it 
should  be  thought  .hat  y<i(u./3pos  signifies  more  properly  a  son-in-law  we  might 
conjecture,  that  Constantine,  assuming  the  name  as  well  as  the  duties  of  a 
father,  had  adopted  his  younger  brothers  and  sisters,  the  children  of  Theodora. 
But  in  the  best  authors  yap.0pos  sometimes  signifies  a  husband,  sometimes  a  father- 
in-law,  and  sometimes  a  kinsman  in  general  See  Spanheim  Observat.  ad  Julian. 
Orat.  i.  p.  72. 

104  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  93  [20].  Anonym.  Valesian.  p.  713.  Eutropius,  x.  5. 
Aurelius  Victor.  Euseb.  in  Chron.  Sozomen.  1.  i.  c.  2.  Four  of  these  writers  affirm 
that  the  promotion  of  the  Caesars  was  an  article  of  the  treaty.  It  is  however 
certain  that  the  younger  Constantine  and  Licinius  were  not  yet  born ;  and  it  is 
highly  probable  that  the  promotion  was  made  the  1st  of  March,  A.D.  317.  The 
treaty  had  probably  stipulated  that  two  Caesars  might  be  created  by  the  western, 
and  one  only  by  the  eastern,  emperor :  but  each  of  them  reserved  to  himself  the 
-hoice  of  the  persons. 


OF  THE  KOMAN  EMPIKE  433 

Roman  world.  As  a  very  regular  series  of  the  Imperial  laws 
commences  about  this  period,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to 
transcribe  the  civil  regulations  which  employed  the  leisure  of 
Constantine.  But  the  most  important  of  his  institutions  are 
intimately  connected  with  the  new  system  of  policy  and  religion, 
which  was  not  perfectly  established  till  the  last  and  peaceful 
years  of  his  reign.  There  are  many  of  his  laws  which,  as  far  as 
they  concern  the  rights  and  property  of  individuals,  and  the 
practice  of  the  bar,  are  more  properly  referred  to  the  private 
than  to  the  public  jurisprudence  of  the  empire;  and  he  published 
many  edicts  of  so  local  and  temporary  a  nature,  that  they  would 
ill  deserve  the  notice  of  a  general  history.  Two  laws,  however, 
may  be  selected  from  the  crowd ;  the  one,  for  its  importance, 
the  other,  for  its  singularity ;  the  former  for  its  remarkable 
benevolence,  the  latter  for  its  excessive  severity.  1.  The  horrid 
practice,  so  familiar  to  the  ancients,  of  exposing  or  murdering 
their  new-born  infants,  was  become  every  day  more  frequent 
in  the  provinces,  and  especially  in  Italy.  It  was  the  effect  of 
distress ;  and  the  distress  was  principally  occasioned  by  the 
intolerable  burden  of  taxes,  and  by  the  vexatious  as  well  as  cruel 
prosecutions  of  the  officers  of  the  revenue  against  their  insolvent 
debtors.  The  less  opulent  or  less  industrious  part  of  mankind, 
instead  of  rejoicing  in  an  increase  of  family,  deemed  it  an  act  of 
paternal  tenderness  to  release  their  children  from  the  impending 
miseries  of  a  life  which  they  themselves  were  unable  to  support. 
The  humanity  of  Constantine,  moved,  perhaps,  by  some  recent 
and  extraordinary  instances  of  despair,  engaged  him  to  address 
an  edict  to  all  the  cities  of  Italy,  and  afterwards  of  Africa, 
directing  immediate  and  sufficient  relief  to  be  given  to  those 
pai'ents  who  should  produce,  before  the  magistrates,  the  children 
whom  their  own  poverty  would  not  allow  them  to  educate.  But 
the  promise  was  too  liberal,  and  the  provision  too  vague,  to 
effect  any  general  or  permanent  benefit.105  The  law,  though  it 
may  merit  some  praise,  served  rather  to  display  than  to  alleviate 
the  public  distress.  It  still  remains  an  authentic  monument  to 
contradict  and  confound  those  venal  orators,  who  were  too  well 
satisfied  with  their  own  situation  to  discover  either  vice  or 
misery  under  the  government  of  a  generous  sovereign.106     2. 

105  Codex  Theodosian.  1.  xi.  tit.  27.  torn.  iv.  p.  188,  with  Godefroy's observation.". 
See  likewise,  1.  v.  tit.  7-8. 

106  Omnia  foris  placita,  domi  prospera,  annonse  ubertate,  fructuum  copia,  &c. 
Panegyr.  Vet.  x.  38.  This  oration  of  Nazarius  was  pronounced  on  the  day  of  the 
Quinquennalia  of  the  Caesars,  the  1st  of  March,  A.D.  321. 

28  VOL.    I. 


434  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

The  laws  of  Constantine  against  rapes  were  dictated  with  very 
little  indulgence  for  the  most  amiable  weaknesses  of  human 
nature  ;  since  the  description  of  that  crime  was  applied  not  only 
to  the  brutal  violence  Avhich  compelled,  but  even  to  the  gentle 
seduction  which  might  persuade,  an  unmarried  woman,  under 
the  age  of  twenty-five,  to  leave  the  house  of  her  parents. 
"  The  successful  ravisher  was  punished  with  death ;  and,  as  if 
simple  death  was  inadequate  to  the  enormity  of  his  guilt,  he  was 
either  burnt  alive  or  torn  in  pieces  by  wild  beasts  in  the  amphi- 
theatre. The  virgin's  declaration  that  she  had  been  carried 
away  with  her  own  consent,  instead  of  saving  her  lover,  exposed 
her  to  share  his  fate.  The  duty  of  a  public  prosecution  was  in- 
trusted to  the  parents  of  the  guilty  or  unfortunate  maid ;  and, 
if  the  sentiments  of  Nature  prevailed  on  them  to  dissemble  the 
injury,  and  to  repair  by  a  subsequent  marriage  the  honour  of 
their  family,  they  were  themselves  punished  by  exile  and  con- 
fiscation. The  slaves,  whether  male  or  female,  who  were 
convicted  of  having  been  accessary  to  the  rape  or  seduction, 
were  burnt  alive,  or  put  to  death  by  the  ingenious  torture  of 
pouring  down  their  throats  a  quantity  of  melted  lead.  As  the 
crime  was  of  a  public  kind,  the  accusation  was  permitted  even 
to  strangers.  The  commencement  of  the  action  was  not  limited 
to  any  term  of  years,  and  the  consequences  of  the  sentence  were 
extended  to  the  innocent  offspring  of  such  an  irregular  union."  107 
But,  whenever  the  offence  inspires  less  horror  than  the  punish- 
ment, the  rigour  of  penal  law  is  obliged  to  give  way  to  the 
common  feelings  of  mankind.  The  most  odious  parts  of  this 
edict  were  softened  or  repealed  in  the  subsequent  reigns : 10S 
and  even  Constantine  himself  very  frequently  alleviated,  by 
partial  acts  of  mercy,  the  stern  temper  of  his  general  institutions. 
Such,  indeed,  was  the  singular  humour  of  that  emperor,  who 
showed  himself  as  indulgent,  and  even  remiss,  in  the  execution 
of  his  laAvs,  as  he  was  severe,  and  even  cruel,  in  the  enacting  of 
them.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  observe  a  more  decisive  symptom 
of  weakness,  either  in  the  character  of  the  prince,  or  in  the 
constitution  of  the  government.109 

107  See  the  edict  of  Constantine,  addressed  to  the  Roman  people  in  the  Theo- 
dosian  Code,  1.  ix.  tit.  24,  tom.  iii.  p.  189.     [Date:  A.D.  320,  April  i,  Aquileia.] 

108  His  son  very  fairly  assigns  the  true  reason  of  the  repeal:  "  Ne  sub  specie 
atrocioris  judicii  aliqua  in  ulciscendo  crimine  dilatio  nasceretur  ".  Cod.  Theod. 
torn.  iii.  p.  193. 

109Eusebius  (in  Vita  Constant.  1.  iii.  c.  1)  chooses  to  affirm  that  in  the  reign  of 
his  hero  the  sword  of  justice  hung  idle  in  the  hands  of  the  magistrates.  Eusebius 
himself  (1.  iv.  c.  29,  54)  and  the  Theodosian  Code  will  inform  us  that  this  ex- 
cessive lenity  was  not  owing  to  the  want  either  of  atrocious  criminals  or  of  penal  laws. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  435 

The  civil  administration  was  sometimes  interrupted  by  the  The  Gothic 
military  defence  of  the  empire.  Crispus,  a  youth  of  the  most  ad.' 322 
amiable  character,  who  had  received  with  the  title  of  Caesar  the 
command  of  the  Rhine,  distinguished  his  conduct,  as  well  as 
valour,  in  several  victories  over  the  Franks  and  Alemanni ;  and 
taught  the  barbarians  of  that  frontier  to  dread  the  eldest  son  of 
Constantine,  and  the  grandson  of  Constantius.110  The  emperor 
himself  had  assumed  the  more  difficult  and  important  province 
of  the  Danube.  The  Goths,  who  in  the  time  of  Claudius  and 
Aurelian  had  felt  the  weight  of  the  Roman  arms,  respected  the 
power  of  the  empire,  even  in  the  midst  of  its  intestine  divisions. 
But  the  strength  of  that  warlike  nation  was  now  restored  by  a 
peace  of  near  fifty  years  ;  a  new  generation  had  arisen,  who  no 
longer  remembered  the  misfortunes  of  ancient  days :  the  Sar- 
matians  of  the  lake  Maeotis  followed  the  Gothic  standard,  either 
as  subjects  or  as  allies,  and  their  united  force  was  poured  upon 
the  countries  of  Illyricum.  Campona,  Margus,  and  Bononia, 
appear  to  have  been  the  scenes  of  several  memorable  sieges  and 
battles  ; m  and,  though  Constantine  encountered  a  very  obstinate 
resistance,  he  prevailed  at  length  in  the  contest,  and  the  Goths 
were  compelled  to  purchase  an  ignominious  retreat  by  restoring 
the  booty  and  prisoners  which  they  had  taken.  Nor  was  this 
advantage  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  indignation  of  the  emperor. 
He  resolved  to  chastise  as  well  as  to  repulse  the  insolent  bar- 
barians who  had  dared  to  invade  the  territories  of  Rome.  At 
the  head  of  the  legions  he  passed  the  Danube,  after  repairing 
the  bridge  which  had  been  constructed  by  Trajan,  penetrated 
into  the  strongest  recesses  of  Dacia,112  and,  when  lie  had  inflicted 
a  severe  revenge,  condescended  to  give  peace  to  the  suppliant 
Goths,  on  condition  that,  as  often  as  they  were  required,  they 
should  supply  his  armies  with  a  body  of  forty  thousand  soldiers.113 

110  Nazarius  in  Panegyr.  Vet.  x.  [36].  The  victory  of  Crispus  over  the  Alemanni 
is  expressed  on  some  medals. 

111  See  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  93,  94  [21];  though  the  narrative  of  that  historian  is 
neither  clear  nor  consistent.  The  Panegyric  of  Optatianus  (c.  23  [in  Epigr.  Vet. 
1596,  p.  355])  mentions  the  alliance  of  the  Sarmatians  with  the  Carpi  and  Getae, 
and  points  out  the  several  fields  of  battle.  It  is  supposed  that  the  Sarmatian  games, 
celebrated  in  the  month  of  November,  derived  their  origin  from  the  success  of  this 
war  [and  also  the  ludi  Gothici,  qth  February  :   Corp.  laser.  Lat.  i.  p.  386]. 

113  In  the  Caesars  of  Julian  (p.  329.  Commentaire  de  Spanheim,  p.  252.)  Con- 
stantine boasts  that  he  had  recovered  the  province  (Dacia),  which  Trajan  had 
subdued.  But  it  is  insinuated  by  Silenus  that  the  conquests  of  Constantine  were 
like  the  gardens  of  Adonis,  which  fade  and  wither  almost  the  moment  they  appear. 

]ls  Jornandes  de  Rebus  Geticis,  c.  21.  I  know  not  whether  we  may  entirely  de- 
pend on  his  authority.  Such  an  alliance  has  a  very  recent  air,  and  scarcely  is  suited 
tc  the  maxims  of  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century. 


436 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Second  civil 
war  between 
Constantino 
and  Licinius, 
AD   323 


Exploits  like  these  were  no  doubt  honourable  to  Constantine 
and  beneficial  to  the  state  ;  but  it  may  surely  be  questioned 
whether  they  can  justify  the  exaggerated  assertion  of  Eusebius, 
that  all  Scythia,  as  far  as  the  extremity  of  the  North,  divided 
as  it  was  into  so  many  names  and  nations  of  the  most  various  and 
savage  manners,  had  been  added  by  his  victorious  arms  to  the 
Roman  empire.11* 

In  this  exalted  state  of  glory  it  was  impossible  that  Constan- 
tine should  any  longer  endure  a  partner  in  the  empire.  Con- 
fiding in  the  superiority  of  his  genius  and  military  power,  he 
determined,  without  any  previous  injury,  to  exert  them  for  the 
destruction  of  Licinius,  whose  advanced  age  and  unpopular  vices 
seemed  to  offer  a  very  easy  conquest.115  But  the  old  emperor, 
awakened  by  the  approaching  danger,  deceived  the  expectations 
of  his  friends  as  well  as  of  his  enemies.  Calling  forth  that  spirit 
and  those  abilities  by  which  he  had  deserved  the  friendship  of 
Galerius  and  the  Imperial  purple,  he  prepared  himself  for  the 
contest,  collected  the  forces  of  the  East,  and  soon  filled  the 
plains  of  Hadrianople  with  his  troops,  and  the  Streights  of  the 
Hellespont  with  his  fleet.  The  army  consisted  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  foot,  and  fifteen  thousand  horse ;  and,  as  the 
cavalry  was  drawn,  for  the  most  part,  from  Phrygia  and  Cappa- 
docia,  we  may  conceive  a  more  favourable  opinion  of  the  beauty 
of  the  horses  than  of  the  courage  and  dexterity  of  their  riders. 
The  fleet  was  composed  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  galleys  of 
three  ranks  of  oars.  An  hundred  and  thirty  of  these  were 
furnished  by  Egypt,  and  the  adjacent  coast  of  Africa.  An 
hundred  and  ten  sailed  from  the  ports  of  Phoenicia  and  the  isle 
of  Cyprus  ;  and  the  maritime  countries  of  Bithynia,  Ionia,  and 
Caria  were  likewise  obliged  to  provide  an  hundred  and  ten 
galleys.  The  troops  of  Constantine  were  ordered  to  rendezvous 
at  Thessalonica ;  they  amounted  to  above  an  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  horse  and  foot.110  Their  emperor  was  satisfied 
with  their  martial  appearance,  and  his  army  contained  more 
soldiers,  though  fewer  men,  than  that  of  his  eastern  competitor. 
The  legions  of  Constantine  were  levied  in  the  war-like  provinces 


114  Eusebius  in  Vit.  Constantin.  1.  i.  c.  8.  This  passage,  however,  is  taken  from 
a  general  declamation  on  the  greatness  of  Constantine,  and  not  from  any  particular 
account  of  the  Gothic  war. 

115  Constantinus  tamen  vir  ingens,  et  omnia  efncere  nitens  quse  animo  praepaias- 
set  simul  principatum  totius  orbis  affectans,  Licinio  bellum  intulit.  Eutropius,  x. 
5.  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  89  [18].  The  reasons  which  they  have  assigned  for  the  first 
civil  war  may,  with  more  propriety,  be  applied  to  the  second. 

116  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  94,  95  [22J, 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  437 

of  Europe  ;  action  had  confirmed  their  discipline,  victory  had 
elevated  their  hopes,  and  there  were  among  them  a  great 
number  of  veterans,  who,  after  seventeen  glorious  campaigns 
under  the  same  leader,  prepared  themselves  to  deserve  an 
honourable  dismission  by  a  last  effort  of  their  valour.117  But 
the  naval  preparations  of  Constantine  were  in  every  respect 
much  inferior  to  those  of  Licinius.  The  maritime  cities  of 
Greece  sent  their  respective  quotas  of  men  and  ships  to  the 
celebrated  harbour  of  Piraeus,  and  their  united  forces  consisted 
of  no  more  than  two  hundred  small  vessels  :  a  very  feeble  arma- 
ment, if  it  is  compared  with  those  formidable  fleets  which  were 
equipped  and  maintained  by  the  republic  of  Athens  during  the 
Peloponnesian  Avar.118  Since  Italy  was  no  longer  the  seat  of 
government,  the  naval  establishments  of  Misenum  and  Ravenna 
had  been  gradually  neglected  ;  and,  as  the  shipping  and  mariners 
of  the  empire  were  supported  by  commerce  rather  than  by  war, 
it  was  natural  that  they  should  the  most  abound  in  the  industri- 
ous provinces  of  Egypt  and  Asia.  It  is  only  surprising  that 
the  eastern  emperor,  who  possessed  so  great  a  superiority  at  sea, 
should  have  neglected  the  opportunity  of  carrying  an  offensive 
war  into  the  centre  of  his  rival's  dominions. 

Instead  of  embracing  such  an  active  resolution,  which  might  Battle  of 
have  changed  the  whole  face  of  the  war,  the  prudent  Licinius  a!d.  m°v 
expected  the  approach  of  his  rival  in  a  camp  near  Hadrianople,     y 
which  he  had   fortified  with  an  anxious  care  that  betrayed  his 
apprehension    of  the   event.     Constantine   directed   his   march 
from  Thessalonica  towards   that   part  of  Thrace,  till   he   found 
himself  stopped  by  the  broad  and  rapid  stream  of  the  Hebrus, 
and  discovered  the  numerous  army  of  Licinius,  which  filled  the 
steep  ascent  of  the  hill,  from  the  river  to  the  city  of  Hadrianople. 
Many  days  were  spent  in  doubtful  and  distant  skirmishes  ;  but 
at  length  the  obstacles  of  the  passage  and  of  the  attack  were 
removed  by  the  intrepid  conduct  of  Constantine.     In  this  place 
we   might  relate   a    wonderful   exploit   of  Constantine,   which, 
though  it  can  scarce  be  paralleled  either  in  poetry  or  romance, 

117  Constantine  was  very  attentive  to  the  privileges  and  comforts  of  his  fellow- 
veterans  (Conveterani),  as  he  now  began  to  style  them.  See  the  Theodosian  Code, 
1.  vii.  tit  20,  torn.  ii.  p.  419-429. 

us  Whilst  the  Athenians  maintained  the  empire  of  the  sea,  their  fleet  consisted 
of  three,  and  afterwards  of  four,  hundred  galleys  of  three  ranks  of  oars,  all  com- 
pletely equipped  and  ready  for  immediate  service.  The  arsenal  in  the  port  of 
Piraeus  had  cost  the  republic  a  thousand  talents,  about  two  hundred  and  sixteen 
thousand  pounds.  See  Thucydides  de  Bel.  Peloponn.  1.  ii.  c.  13,  and  Meursius  d,e. 
Fortuna  Attica,  c.  i£. 


438 


THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 


Siege  of 
Byzantium 
and  naval 
victory  of 
Crispus 


is  celebrated,  not  by  a  venal  orator  devoted  to  his  fortune, 
but  by  an  historian,  the  partial  enemy  of  his  fame.  We  are 
assured  that  the  valiant  emperor  threw  himself  into  the  river 
llebnis,  accompanied  only  by  twelve  horsemen,  and  that,  by  the 
effort  or  terror  of  his  invincible  arm,  he  broke,  slaughtered,  and  put 
to  flight  a  host  of  an  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men.  The 
credulity  of  Zosimus  prevailed  so  strongly  over  his  passion  that, 
among  the  events  of  the  memorable  battle  of  Hadrianople,  he 
seems  to  have  selected  and  embellished,  not  the  most  important, 
but  the  most  marvellous.  The  valour  and  danger  of  Constantine 
are  attested  by  a  slight  wound  which  he  received  in  the  thigh  ; 
but  it  may  be  discovered  even  from  an  imperfect  narration,  and, 
perhaps,  a  corrupted  text,  that  the  victory  was  obtained  no  less 
by  the  conduct  of  the  general  than  by  the  courage  of  the  hero ; 
that  a  body  of  five  thousand  archers  marched  round  to  occupy 
a  thick  wood  in  the  rear  of  the  enemy,  whose  attention  was 
diverted  by  the  construction  of  a  bridge  ;  and  that  Licinius, 
perplexed  by  so  many  artful  evolutions,  was  reluctantly  drawn 
from  his  advantageous  post  to  combat  on  equal  ground  in  the 
plain.  The  contest  was  no  longer  equal.  His  confused 
multitude  of  new  levies  was  easily  vanquished  by  the  experienced 
veterans  of  the  West.  Thirty-four  thousand  men  are  reported 
to  have  been  slain.  The  fortified  camp  of  Licinius  was  taken 
by  assault  the  evening  of  the  battle  ;  the  greater  part  of  the 
fugitives,  who  had  retired  to  the  mountains,  surrendered 
themselves  the  next  day  to  the  discretion  of  the  conqueror  ; 
and  his  rival,  who  could  no  longer  keep  the  field,  confined  him- 
self within  the  walls  of  Byzantium.119 

The  siege  of  Byzantium,  which  was  immediately  undertaken 
by  Constantine,  was  attended  with  great  labour  and  uncertainty. 
In  the  late  civil  wars,  the  fortifications  of  that  place,  so  justly 
considered  as  the  key  of  Europe  and  Asia,  had  been  repaired 
and  strengthened  ;  and,  as  long  as  Licinius  remained  master  of 
the  sea,  the  garrison  was  much  less  exposed  to  the  danger  of 
famine  than  the  army  of  the  besiegers.  The  naval  commanders 
of  Constantine  were  summoned  to  his  camp,  and  received  his 
positive  orders  to  force  the  passage  of  the  Hellespont,  as  the 
fleet  of  Licinius,  instead  of  seeking  and  destroying  their  feeble 

119  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  95,  96  [21  sqq.~\.  This  great  battle  is  described  in  the 
Valesi an  fragment  (p.  714),  in  a  clear  though  concise  manner.  "Licinius  vero 
circum  Hadrianopolin  maximo  exercitu  latera  ardui  montis  impleverat :  illuc 
toto  agmine  Constantinus  inrlexit.  Cum  bellum  terra  manque  traheretur,  quamvis 
per  arduum  suis  nitentibus,  attamen  discipline  militari  et  felicitate,  Constantinus 
Licinii  confusum  et  sine  ordine  agentem  vicit  exercitum  ;  leviter  femore  sauciatus." 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  439 

enemy,  continued  inactive  in  those  narrow  streights  where  its 
superiority  of  numbers  was  of  little  use  or  advantage.  Crispus, 
the  emperor's  eldest  son,  was  intrusted  with  the  execution  of 
this  daring  enterprise,  which  he  performed  with  so  much  courage 
and  success,  that  he  deserved  the  esteem,  and  most  probably 
excited  the  jealousy,  of  his  father.  The  engagement  lasted  two 
days,  and,  in  the  evening  of  the  first,  the  contending  fleets,  after 
a  considerable  and  mutual  loss,  retired  into  their  respective 
harbours  of  Europe  and  Asia.  The  second  day  about  noon  a 
strong  south  wind120  sprang  up,  which  carried  the  vessels  of 
Crispus  against  the  enemy ;  and,  as  the  casual  advantage  was 
improved  by  his  skilful  intrepidity,  he  soon  obtained  a  complete 
victory.  An  hundred  and  thirty  vessels  were  destroyed,  five 
thousand  men  were  slain,  and  Amandus,  the  admiral  of  the 
Asiatic  fleet,  escaped  Avith  the  utmost  difficulty  to  the  shores  of 
Chalcedon.  As  scon  as  the  Hellespont  was  open,  a  plentiful 
convoy  of  provisions  flowed  into  the  camp  of  Constantine,  who 
had  already  advanced  the  operations  of  the  siege.  He  con- 
structed artificial  mounds  of  earth  of  an  equal  height  with  the 
ramparts  of  Byzantium.  The  lofty  towers  which  were  erected 
on  that  foundation  galled  the  besieged  with  large  stones  and 
darts  from  the  military  engines,  and  the  battering  rams  had 
shaken  the  walls  in  several  places.  If  Licinius  persisted  much 
longer  in  the  defence,  he  exposed  himself  to  be  involved  in  the 
ruin  of  the  place.  Before  he  was  surrounded,  he  prudently 
removed  his  person  and  treasures  to  Chalcedon  in  Asia  ;  and,  as 
he  was  always  desirous  of  associating  companions  to  the  hopes 
and  dangers  of  his  fortune,  he  now  bestowed  the  title  of  Ca?sar 
on  Martinianus,  who  exercised  one  of  the  most  important  offices 
of  the  empire.121 

Such  were  still  the  resources,  and  such  the  abilities,  of  Licinius,  Battle  of 
that,  after  so  many  successive  defeats,  he  collected  in  Bithynia  [s'ept.isorw] 
a  new  army  of  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  men,  while  the  activity  of 
Constantine  was   employed   in  the   siege   of  Byzantium.     The 
vigilant  emperor  did  not,  however,  neglect  the  last  struggles  of 
his  antagonist.     A  considerable  part  of  his  victorious  army  was 

120  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  97,  98  [24].  The  current  always  sets  out  of  the  Hellespont ; 
and,  when  it  is  assisted  by  a  north  wind,  no  vessel  can  attempt  the  passage.  A 
south  wind  renders  the  force  of  the  current  almost  imperceptible.  See  Tournefort's 
Voyage  au  Levant,  Let.  xi. 

121  Aurelius  Victor  [Coes.  41].  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  93  [25].  According  to  the  latter, 
Martinianus  was  Magister  Officiorum  (he  uses  the  Latin  appellation  in  Greek). 
Some  medals  [struck  at  Nicomedia]  seem  to  intimate  that  during  his  short  reign  he 
received  the  title  of  Augustus. 


440  THE  DECLINE  AND  EALL 

transported  over  the  Bosphorus  in  small  vessels,  and  the  deci- 
sive engagement  was  fought  soon  after  their  landing  on  the 
heights  of  Chrysopolis,  or,  as  it  is  now  called,  of  Scutari.  The 
troops  of  Licinius,  though  they  were  lately  raised,  ill  armed,  and 
worse  disciplined,  made  head  against  their  conquerors  with 
fruitless  but  desperate  valour,  till  a  total  defeat  and  the  slaughter 
of  five  and  twenty  thousand  men  irretrievably  determined  the 
BubmtMion  fate  of  their  leader.122  He  retired  to  Nicomedia,  rather  with 
ucinioS  °  the  view  of  gaining  some  time  for  negotiation  than  with  the  hope 
of  any  effectual  defence.  Constantia,  his  wife  and  the  sister  of 
Constantine,  interceded  with  her  brother  in  favour  of  her  hus- 
band, and  obtained  from  his  policy,  rather  than  from  his  com- 
passion, a  solemn  promise,  confirmed  by  an  oath,  that  after  the 
sacrifice  of  Martinianus,  and  the  resignation  of  the  purple, 
Licinius  himself  should  be  permitted  to  pass  the  remainder  of 
his  life  in  peace  and  affluence.  The  behaviour  of  Constantia, 
and  her  relation  to  the  contending  parties,  naturally  recalls  the 
remembrance  of  that  virtuous  matron  who  was  the  sister  of 
Augustus  and  the  wife  of  Antony.  But  the  temper  of  mankind 
was  altered,  and  it  was  no  longer  esteemed  infamous  for  a  Roman 
to  survive  his  honour  and  independence.  Licinius  solicited  and 
accepted  the  pardon  of  his  offences,  laid  himself  and  his  purple 
at  the  feet  of  his  lord  and  master,  was  raised  from  the  ground 
with  insulting  pity,  was  admitted  the  same  day  to  the  Imperial 
banquet,  and  soon  afterwards  was  sent  away  to  Thessalonica, 
which  had  been  chosen  for  the  place  of  his  confinement.123  His 
confinement  was  soon  terminated  by  death,  and  it  is  doubtful 
whether  a  tumult  of  the  soldiers,  or  a  decree  of  the  senate,  was 
suggested  as  the  motive  for  his  execution.  According  to  the 
rules  of  tyranny,  he  was  accused  of  forming  a  conspiracy,  and  of 
holding  a  treasonable  correspondence  with  the  barbarians  ;  but, 
as  he  was  never  convicted,  either  by  his  own  conduct  or  by  any 
legal  evidence,  we  may  perhaps  be  allowed,  from  his  weakness, 
to   presume    his    innocence.124     The  memory    of   Licinius   was 

122Eusebius  (in  Vita  Constantin.  1.  ii.  c.  16,  17)  ascribes  this  decisive  victory  to 
the  pious  prayers  of  the  emperor.  The  Valesian  fragment  (p.  714)  mentions  a  body 
of  Gothic  auxiliaries,  under  their  chief  Aliquaca,  who  adhered  to  the  party  of  Licinius. 

123  Zosimus,  1.  ii.  p.  102  [28].  Victor  Junior  in  Epitome  [41].  Anonym.  Vale- 
sian, p.  714. 

124  Contra  religionem  sacramenti  Thessalonicae  privatus  occisus  est.  Eutropius 
x.  6  ;  and  his  evidence  is  confirmed  by  St.  Jerome  (in  Chronic.)  as  well  as  by  Zosi- 
mus, 1.  ii.  p.  102  [28].  The  Valesian  writer  is  the  only  one  who  mentions  the 
soldiers,  and  it  is  Zonaras  alone  [xiii.  1]  who  calls  in  the  assistance  of  the  senate. 
Eusebius  prudently  slides  over  this  delicate  transaction.  But  Sozomen,  a  century 
afterwards,  ventures  to  assert  the  treasonable  practices  of  Licinius. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  441 

branded  with  infamy,  his  statues  were  thrown  down,  and  by  a 
hasty  edict,  of  such  mischievous  tendency  that  it  was  almost 
immediately  corrected,  all  his  laws,  and  all  the  judicial  proceed- 
ings of  his  reign,  were  at  once  abolished.1-5  By  this  victory  of  fheel^°°  °/ 
Constantine,  the  Roman  world  was  again  united  under  the  AD  324 
authority  of  one  emperor,  thirty-seven  years  after  Diocletian 
had  divided  his  power  and  provinces  with  his  associate  Max- 
imian. 

The  successive  steps  of  the  elevation  of  Constantine,  from  his 
first  assuming  the  purple  at  York  to  the  resignation  of  Licinius 
at  Nicomedia,  have  been  related  with  some  minuteness  and  pre- 
cision, not  only  as  the  events  are  in  themselves  both  interesting 
and  important,  but  still  more  as  they  contributed  to  the  decline 
of  the  empire  by  the  expense  of  blood  and  treasure,  and  by 
the  perpetual  increase,  as  well  of  the  taxes  as  of  the  military 
establishment.  The  foundation  of  Constantinople,  and  the 
establishment  of  the  Christian  religion,  were  the  immediate 
and  memorable  consequences  of  this  revolution. 

125  See  the  Theodosian  Code,  1.  xv.  tit.  15,  torn.  v.  p.  404,  405.  These  edicts  of 
Constantine  betray  a  degree  of  passion  and  precipitancy  very  unbecoming  of  the 
character  of  a  lawgiver. 


END    OF   VOL    I. 


443 


APPENDIX 


ADDITIONAL    NOTES    BY    TIIE    EDITOR 


1.  AUTHORITIES 


Cassius  Dio  Cocceianus  belonged  to  a  good  family  of  the  Bithynian  town  of 
Nicasa.  His  father  Apronianus  had  been  intrusted  with  the  governorships  of 
Dalmatia  and  Cilicia,  and  he  himself  achieved  a  more  distinguished  career  in 
the  civil  service.  Arriving  at  Rome  in  the  year  in  which  the  Emperor  Marcus 
died  (180),  he  advanced  step  by  step  to  the  prsetorship  (193),  and  subsequently 
held  the  office  of  consul  twice  (see  lxxiii.  12 ;  lxxx.  2 ;  Corp.  Insc.  Lat.  iii.  5587). 
He  was  prefect  (en-eo-TdTrjira,  lxxix.  7)  of  Pergamum  and  Smyrna  in  the  reign  of 
Macrinus ;  and  under  Alexander  Severus  was  at  first  proconsul  of  Africa,  and 
was  afterwards  transferred  to  Dalmatia  and  thence  to  Upper  Pannonia  (lxxx.  1). 
After  the  year  229  he  retired  from  public  life,  owing  to  an  ailment  of  his  feet 
(lxxx.  5). 

A  work  on  dreams  and  a  monograph  on  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Commodus 
having  elicited  words  of  encouragement  from  Septimius  Severus,  Dion  conceived 
the  idea  of  writing  a  Roman  history  from  the  earliest  time  to  his  own  day. 
During  the  intervals  between  his  public  emplojTnents  abroad  he  used  to  retire 
to  Capua  and  devote  his  leisure  to  this  enterprise.  He  completed  it  in  eighty 
Books,  bringing  the  history  down  as  far  as  the  year  of  his  second  consulship,  229 
a.d.  Of  this  work  we  possess  in  a  complete  form  only  Books  xxxvi.  to  lx.,  which 
cover  the  important  period  from  68  b.c.  to  GO  a.d.  The  earlier  books  were  largely 
used  by  Zonaras  whose  Epitome  we  possess,  and  we  have  also  a  considerable 
number  of  fragments,  preserved  in  the  Excerpta  de  virtutibus  et  vitiis,  and  the 
Excerpta  de  legationibus  (compilations  made  for  Constantine  VII.  in  the  tenth 
century).1  For  the  last  twenty  Books  we  have  the  abridgment  by  Xiphilin 
(eleventh  century),  but  in  the  case  of  the  lxxviiith  and  lxxixth  a  mutilated 
Ms.  of  the  original  text.  For  the  reign  of  Antoninus  Pius,  however  (bk.  lxx.), 
even  Xiphilin  deserts  us ;  there  seems  to  have  been  a  lacuna  in  his  copy. 

For  the  history  of  the  early  Empire  we  have  few  contemporary  literary  sources, 
and  thus  the  continuous  narrative  of  Dion  is  of  inestimable  value.  Living  before 
the  Principate  had  passed  away,  and  having  had  personal  experience  of  affairs  of 
state,  he  had  a  grasp  of  constitutional  matters  which  was  quite  impossible  for 
later  writers  ;  though  in  describing  the  institutions  of  Augustus  he  falls  into  the 
error  of  making  statements  which  applied  to  his  own  age  but  not  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Principate.  He  affected  to  be  an  Attic  stylist  and  aspired  to  write 
like  Thucydides.  (The  text  of  Dindorf — an  important  contribution  to  the  study 
of  Dion — is  now  being  admirably  re-edited  by  J.  Melber ;  the  first  twro  volumes 
have  already  appeared. ) 

The  history  of  Dion  was  continued  by  an  Anonymous  author,  of  whose  work 
we  have  some  fragments  (collected  in  vol.  iv.  of  Midler's  Fragmenta  Hist.  Grsec. 
p.  191  sqq.),  and  know  something  further  through  the  fact  that  it  was  a  main 

source  of  Zonaras  when  he   had  no  longer  Dion  to  follow.      (See  below,  vol. 

ii.  p.  531.) 

i  The  Excernta  de  Sententiis  contain  not  direct  extracts  from  Dion,  but  passages  founded 

on  his  work.     The  Planudean  Excerpts  (fifteenth  century)  are  spurious.     See  preface  to 

Mclbers  edition. 


444  APPENDIX 

Herodiah  was  of  Syrian  birth,  and,  like  Dion,  was  employed  in  the  civil 
service,  but  in  far  humbler  grades.  If  he  had  ever  risen  to  the  higher  magistracies, 
if  he  had  ever  held  the  exalted  position  of  a  provincial  governor,  he  would 
certainly  have  mentioned  his  success ;  the  general  expression  which  he  employs, 
"Imperial  and  public  offices"  (i.  2),  shows  sufficiently  that  he  had  no  career. 
The  title  of  his  work  was  "Histories  of  the  Empire  after  Marcus,"  and  embraced  in 
eight  Books  the  reigns  from  the  accession  of  Commodus  to  that  of  Gordian  III. 
His  own  comments  on  the  events  which  he  relates  are  tedious ;  and  the  import- 
ance of  his  book  rests  on  the  circumstance  that  he  was  an  honest  contemporary; 
he  has  none  of  the  higher  qualities  of  an  historian.  (Kreutzer's  dissertation,  De 
Herodiano  rerum  Rom.  scriptore,  1881,  may  be  referred  to). 

The  Historia  Augusta  is  a  composite  work,  in  which  six  several  authors,  who 
lived  and  wrote  in  the  reigns  of  Diocletian  and  Constantine,  had  a  hand.  These 
authors  however  were  not  collaborators  and  did  not  write  with  a  view  to  the 
production  of  the  work  which  we  possess.  The  Historia  Augusta  seems,  in  the 
light  of  recent  criticism,  to  have  been  an  eclectic  compilation  from  a  number  of 
different,  originally  independent  histories. 

jElius  Spartianus  wrote,  by  the  wish  of  the  Emperor  Diocletian,  whom  he 
often  addresses,  a  series  of  Imperial  biographies  (including  Caesars  as  well  as 
Augusti)  from  the  death  of  the  dictator  (post  Csesarem  dictatorem ;  ii.  7,  5).  He 
came  down  at  least  as  far  as  C'aracalla. 

Vulcacius  Gallicanus  likewise  addressed  to  Diocletian  a  work  on  the  lives  of 
all  the  Emperors  who  bore  the  full  title  of  Augustus,  whether  by  legitimate  right 
or  as  tyrants.     See  vi.  3,  3. 

The  series  of  Trebellius  Pollio  was  on  a  more  limited  scale.  It  began  with 
the  two  Philips,  and  embracing  all  Emperors,  whether  renowned  or  obscure, 
reached  as  far  as  Claudius  and  his  brother  Quintillus.  It  was  not  dedicated  to 
Diocletian  but  was  written  in  his  reign,  before  Constantius  Chlorus  had  been 
raised  to  the  dignity  of  Augustus,  that  is  before  1st  May  305  (cp.  xxiii.  7,  1, 
where  Claudius  is  described  as  the  ancestor  Constanti  Ccesaris  nostri ;  cp.  too, 
ih.  14,  3,  where  Constantinus  is  an  error  for  Constantius,  and  xxiv.  21,  7,  where  we 
get  the  prior  limit  of  302).  It  is  probable  that  the  work  of  Pollio  was  a  continua- 
tion of  another  series  of  Lives  which  ended  with  the  accession  of  Philip  ;  and  it  is 
possible  that  this  presumable  series  may  have  been  actually  that  of  Spartian 
or  Vulcacius,  but  it  is  quite  uncertain. 

Flavins  Vopiscus  of  Syracuse  professedly  continued  the  work  of  Pollio,  and 
carried  it  down  as  far  as  the  death  of  Carinus  and  accession  of  Diocletian.  He 
wrote,  at  least,  the  life  of  Aurelian  between  1st  May  305  and  25th  July  306,  the 
period  in  which  Constantius  was  Emperor ;  et  eBt  quidem  iam  Constantius 
imperator,  xxvi.  44,  5. 

Julius  Capitolinus  wrote  another  series  of  Imperial  biographies,  of  which  some 
were  composed  under,  and  dedicated  to,  Diocletian,  while  others  were  written  at  a 
later  period  for  Constantine.  Where  he  began  is  uncertain  ;  the  earliest  Life 
from  his  pen  which  we  possess  is  that  of  Antoninus  Pius,  the  latest  those  of 
Maximus  and  Balbinus.  Of  the  Lives  which  are  extant  under  his  name,  those  of 
Marcus,  Lucius  Verus,  and  MAcrinus  contain  the  name  of  Diocletian.  Those  of 
Albinus  and  the  Maximins  huve  internal  notes  of  their  dedication  to  Constantine. 
As  Albinus  comes  chronologically  between  Verus  and  Macrinus,  both  dating  from 
the  reign  of  Diocletian,  it  is  impossible,  if  the  ascription  of  Macrinus  to  Capito- 
linus is  right,  to  draw  the  conclusion  that  all  the  earlier  Lives  were  written  in 
the  earlier  period,  and  all  the  later  Lives  in  the  later.  But  to  this  point  I  shall 
return. 

Aelius  Lampridius  dedicated  his  Imperial  biographies  to  Constantine.  He 
began  with  Commodus,  if  not  earlier,  and  intended  to  include  Diocletian  and 
Maximian.     The  latest  of  his  Lives  that  exists  is  that  of  Alexander  Severus. 

The  original  Ms.  of  the  Historia  Augusta,  from  which  our  Mss.  are  derived, 
contained  a  complete  series  of  Imperial  biographies,  from  Hadrian  to  Carinus,  put 
together  from  the  works  of  these  six  writers.     The  work  of  Pollio.  and  its  con- 


APPENDIX 


445 


tinuation  by  Vopiscus,  were  included  in  their  entirety.     The  contributions  drawn 
trom  the  various  biographers  may  be  conveniently  seen  in  the  following  table  :— 


Spartian  : 


Vulcacius  : 


Capitolinus 


Lampiidius : 

Pollio 

Vopiscus : 


Hadrian 
Aelius  Verus  . 
Didius  Julianus 
Severus 

Pescennius  Niger    . 
Caracallus 
Avidius  Cassius 
Antoninus  Pius 
M.  Antoninus 
Verus 
Pertinax 

Clodius  Albinus     . 
Maximini  duo 
Gordiani  tres 
Maximus  et  Balbinus 
Commodus 
Diadumenus  . 
Heliogabalus . 
Alexander  Severus 
Philip  to  Claudius  . 

Aurelian  to  Carinus 


XI. 

xiii. 


v. 

viii. 

xii. 

xix. 

xx. 

xxi. 

vii. 

xvi. 

xvii. 

xviii. 


(date  :  before  May  305). 

(date  :  before  May  305). 
(date :  before  May  305). 


(date  :  reign  of  Constan- 
tine). 


xxvi 
xxx. 


to 
to 


(date  :  reign  of  Constan- 
tine). 

(date  :  before  May  305). 

(date  :  after  May  305, 

and  begun  before  July 

306). 

I.  The  Life  of  Geta  (xiv.)  I  have  not  included  in  this  lict.  The  name  ot  the  author  is 
not  glven  in  the  Mss. ;  the  tditio  pnnceps  assigned  it  to  Spartianus.  There  is,  however 
a  serious  objection  against  attributing  it  to  Spartian  in  the  lack  of  decisive  external 
evidence.  For  it  is  dedicated  to  Constantine,  whereas  the  Lives  written  by  Spartian  are 
dedicated  to  Diocletian.  The  fact  that  Spartian  intended  to  write  a  life  of  Geta  (see  xiii 
ii,  i)  proves  nothing;  for  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  separate  Lives  of  Geta  were  not 
also  included  in  the  collections  of  Lampridius  and  Capitolinus,  and  that  the  compiler  of  the 
Histona  Augusta  did  not  prefer  one  of  them  to  the  Geta  of  Spartian 

II.  The  Life  of  Opilius  Macrinus  (xv.)  I  have  also  omitted,  although  the  Mss.  ascribe  it 
to  Capitolinus  But  ,t  is  highly  probable  that  the  Inscriptio  is  not  genuine.  For  the 
3««r  °J- thl*L'feo.n'y  kn0™s  of  two  Gordians  (3,  5,  nee  inter  Antoninos  referendi  sunt 
duo  Gordiani),  herein  agreeing  with  Lampridius  (xvi.  32,  and  xvii.  34,  6) ;  whereas  Capi- 

olinus  is  not  only  aware  of  the  three  Gordians,  whose  lives  he  wrote  (xx.),  but  criticizes 
the  ignorant  writers  who  only  speak  of  two  (xx.  2,  1,  Gordiani  non,  ut  quidam  inperiti 

(oT^S  oCU  Ldr  Srd  'J"  fU6TV;  ThiS  fiagrant  ^'"diction  which  imperatively 
forbids  us  to  ascr.be  the  Gordians  and  Macrinus  to  the  same  writer,  is  borne  out  by  the 
fact  that  Macrinus  is  dedicated  to  Diocletian,  whereas  Albinus  is  addressed  to  Constantine. 
I  is  natural  to  suppose  that  Capitolinus  wrote  his  Lives  in  chronological  order,  and  com- 
pleted in  the  reign  of  Constantine  the  biographical  series  which  he  had  begun  in  that  of 
Diocletian  If  we  decide  that  our  Macrinus  is  not  really  his  work,  we  restore  the  natural 
°J^r"     V  6  ca,nn°1'  however,  suppose  that  Macrinus  was  the  composition  of  Lampridius, 

,^%t  UndeL  Consta?tlne-  We  must  attribute  it  either  to  Spartian  or  to  Vulcacius. 
ha T  ■  arcl?etype  of  our  Mss.  was  mutilated,  and,  unfortunately  for  the  history  of  a 
yery  difficult  period,  there  is  a  lacuna  extending  from  the  end  of  Maximus  and  Balbmus  into 
PhiliTn  •  lenam\oir  T,h'Ct  °^Iy  £  ^"Series  of  fragments  remains.  Thus  the  Lives  of 
Philip,  Decius  and  Gallus  by  Trebelhus  Pollio  are  lost.  The  subscription  at  the  end  of 
Maxtmus  and  Balbinns attributes ;  the  Valerians  to  Capitolinus,  but  this  is  clearly  an  inser- 
tion made  after  the  lost  Lives  had  fallen  out. 

IV.  In  general  the  Lives  are  arranged  in  chronological  order.  There  are  three  remark- 
able deviations.  (1)  Didius  Julianus  comes  after  Verus  and  before  Commodus,  in  the 
place  where  we  should  expect  Avidius  Cassius,  while  Avidius  comes  where  we  expect 
Julianus  (2)  Albinus  comes  after  Macrinus  instead  of  following  Pescennius;  and  (?) 
Heliogabalus,  Diadumenus,  Macrinus  takes  the  place  of  the  proper  order  Macrinus 
Diadumenus  Heliogabalus.  In  all  three  cases  Peter  has  corrected  the  Mss.  in  his  edition, 
lnese   misplacements    cannot   be  explained   by   mistakes   in   the   binding  of  the   sheets 


446  APPENDIX 

(quaternions)  of  the  archetype,  though  such  mistakes  certainly  occurred  and  led  to  minor 
misplacements  notably  that  in  the  Life  of  Alexander,  c.  43  (see  Peter's  ed.). 

All  these  writers  have  much  the  same  idea  of  historical  biography.  They  give 
a  great  many  personal  details,  and  are  fond  of  trivial  anecdotes  ;  but  they  have 
no  notion  of  perspicuous  arrangement,  and  no  apprehension  of  deeper  historical 
questions.  Their  chief  source  for  the  earlier  Lives  was  Marius  Maximus  (used  by 
Spartian,  Vulcacius,  Capitolinus  and  Lampridius,  and  criticized  by  Vopiscus  as 
homo  omnium  verbosissimus,  xxix.  1),  who  continued  the  work  of  Suetonius, 
from  Nerva  to  Elagabalus.  He  lived  about  170-230  a.d.  (See,  for  a  daring  attempt 
to  reconstruct  the  history  of  Marius,  Miiller's  essay  in  Biidinger's  Untersuchungen 
zur  romischen  Kaisergeschichte,  vol.  iii.  The  tract  of  J.  Plew,  Marius  Maximus 
als  directe  und  indirecte  Quelle  der  Scriptores  Hist.  Aug.,  1878,  is  of  much 
greater  value.)  Capitolinus  and  the  author  of  the  Vita  Macrini,  also  used  a 
work  of  Junius  Cordus  who  devoted  himself  to  the  elucidation  of  the  obscurer 
reigns  (xv.  1).  But  there  were  other  stray  sources  both  Latin  and  Greek.  For 
example  Acholius,  master  of  ceremonies  to  the  Emperor  Valerian,  described  the 
journeys  of  Alexander  Severus  and  was  consulted  by  Lampridius  (xviii.  64).  The 
same  writer  wrote  Acta,  in  the  ninth  Book  of  which  he  dealt  with  the  reign  of 
Valerian  (xxvi.  12).  For  other  sources  see  Teuffel,  Gesch.  der  rom.  Litt.,  §  387. 
The  introduction  of  Vopiscus  to  his  Life  of  Aurelian  is  well  worth  reading.  It 
throws  some  light  on  the  way  in  which  these  lives  were  written  and  the  sources 
which  the  writers  commanded.  "We  learn  that  Aurelian's  daily  acts  were  written 
by  his  own  orders  in  libri  lintei,  and  the  historian  could  obtain  them  from  the 
numbered  cases1  of  the  Ulpian  Library.  The  war  of  Aurelian  then  was  an 
official  account  (ckaractere  histonco  dif/csta). 

The  citation  of  original  documents  (both  genuine  and  spurious)  is  a  feature  of 
the  Historia  Augusta.  Vopiscus,  and  perhaps  the  others  in  some  cases,  took  these 
directly  from  the  originals  in  the  Ulpian  Library,  but  in  the  case  of  the  earlier 
Lives  it  is  highly  probable  that  they  were  drawn,  at  second  hand,  from  Marius 
Maximus,  who  included  such  pieces  justicatifs  in  his  work. 

The  uncertainty  which  prevailed  in  the  reign  of  Diocletian  as  to  leading  events 
which  happened  as  late  as  the  reign  of  Aurelian  is  illustrated  instructively 
by  the  dispute  among  historical  students,  recorded  by  Vopiscus,  as  to  whether 
Firmus,  the  tyrant  of  Egypt,  had  been  invested  with  the  purple,  and  reigned  as 
an  Emperor,  or  not  (xxix.  2). 

A  special  word  must  be  said  about  the  Lives  of  Trebellius  Pollio.  It  has  been 
shown  with  tolerable  certainty,  by  the  investigations  of  H.  Peter,  that  all  the 
original  documents  which  he  inserts,  whether  transactions,  or  letters,  or  speeches, 
are  forgeries.  He  has  also  been  convicted  of  unfairness  in  bis  presentation  of 
the  personabty  of  Gallienus.  "When  Gibbon  says  (chap.  x.  note  156),  that  the 
character  of  that  unfortunate  prince  has  been  fairly  transmitted  to  us,  on  the 
ground  that  "the  historians  who  wrote  before  the  elevation  of  the  familyr  of 
Oonstantine,  could  not  have  the  most  remote  interest  to  misrepresent  the 
character  of  Gallienus,"  he  overlooks  the  internal  evidence  in  the  Biographies  of 
Pollio  (as  pointed  out  above)  which  proves  that  this  writer  was  actuated  by  the 
wish  to  glorify  Constantius  indirectly  by  a  glorification  of  Claudius.  He  had 
thus  a  distinct  motive  for  disparaging  the  abilities  and  actions  of  Gallienus.  For, 
by  pourtraying  that  monarch  as  incapable  of  ruling  and  utterly  incompetent 
to  cope  with  the  dangers  which  beset  the  Empire,  he  was  enabled  to  suggest 
a  contrast  between  the  contemptible  prince  and  his  brilliant  successor.  Through 
such  a  contrast  the  achievements  of  Claudius  seemed  more  striking.  (Recently 
F.  Rothkegel  in  a  treatise  on  Die  Regierung  des  Gallienus,  of  which  the  first  part 
lias  appeared,  1894,  has  endeavoured  to  do  justice  to  Gallienus,  and  show  that 
he  was  not  so  bad  or  incompetent  as  he  has  been  made  out.) 

The  best  text  of  the  Historia  Augusta  is  that  of  H.  Peter,  who  is  the  chief 
authority   on   the   subject.     Out  of  the  large  literature,  which  bears  on  these 

1  Cp.  xxvii.  8,  1,  where  an  "ivory  volume  in  the  sixth  armarium  "  is  referred  to.  Decrees 
of  the  Senate,  relating  to  the  Emcerors,  used  to  be  written  in  ivory  books,  as  we  learn  in 
the  same  place. 


APPENDIX  447 

biographies,  I  may  refer  to  Gemoll's  Die  Script.  Hist.  Aug.  188C,  which  has 
been  largely  used  in  this  account  of  the  Augustan  Biographies.  Dessau  has 
recently  proved  (Hermes,  1889)  that  the  Lives  were  seriously  interpolated  in 
the  age  of  Theodosius.  His  daring  thesis  that  they  are  entirely  forgeries  is 
rejected  by  Mommsen,  who  admits  the  interpolations  (ib.  1890). 

When  the  Historia  Augusta  deserts  us,  our  sources,  whether  Greek  or  Latin, 
are  either  late  or  scrappy.  We  can  extract  some  historical  facts  from  a  number 
of  contemporary  panegyrical  orations,  mostly  of  uncertain  authorship,  composed 
for  special  occasions  under  Maximian  and  his  successors.  These  will  be  best 
consulted  in  the  xii.  Panegyrici  Latini  edited  by  Bahrens.  No.  2  in  praise  of 
Maximian  is  doubtfully  ascribed  to  Claudius  Mamertinus ;  it  was  composed  at 
Trier  in  289  a.d.  for  2lst  April,  the  birthday  of  Rome.  No.  3,  said  to  be  by  the 
same  author,  is  a  genethliacus  for  Maximian's  birthday  in  291.  No.  4  is  the 
plea  of  Eumenius  of  Augustodunum  pro  rcstaurandis  scholis  pronounced  in  the 
end  of  297  before  the  praeses  provincial.  No.  5,  of  uncertain  authorship,  but 
probably  by  Eumenius,  is  a  panegyric  on  Constantius,  delivered  in  the  spring 
of  the  same  year  at  Trier.  No.  6  extols  Maximian  and  Constantine,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  marriage  of  Constantine  with  Fausta,  Maximian's  daughter,  307. 
No.  7  (probably  by  Eumenius),  is  a  panegyric  on  Constantine,  delivered  at  Trier, 
shortly  after  the  execution  of  Maximian,  310.  No.  8  (also  plausibly  ascribed  to 
Eumenius),  is  a  speech  of  thanksgiving  to  Constantine  for  benefits  which  he 
bestowed  upon  Autun,  311.  No.  9  is  a  eulogy  of  Constantine  pronounced  at 
Trier,  early  in  313,  and  contains  a  brief  account  of  his  Italian  expedition 
No.  10  bears  the  name  of  Nazarius,  and  is  likewise  a  panegyric  of  Constantine, 
dating  from  the  fifteenth  year  of  his  reign,  321.  (On  Eumenius  cp.  Brandt, 
Eumenius  von  Augustodunum,  &c,  1882.) 

Sextus  Aurelius  Victor  was  appointed  (Ammianus  tells  us,  xxi.  10,  6) 
governor  of  the  Second  Pannonia  by  the  Emperor  Julian  in  361 ;  and  at  a  later 
period  became  Prefect  of  the  City.  Inscriptions  confirm  both  statements  (see 
C.  I.  L.  6,  1186,  and  Orelli-Henzen,  3715).  He  was  of  African  birth  (see  his  Cass. 
20,  6),  and  a  pagan.  Some  think  that  the  work  known  as  Cresares  was  composed 
in  its  present  form  by  Victor  himself  ;  but  in  the  two  Mss.  (Bruxell.  and  Oxon.) 
the  title  is  Aurelii  Victoris  historic  abbreviate,  and  Th.  Opitz  (Qusestiones  de 
Sex.  Aurelio  Victore,  in  the  Acta  Societ.  Philol.  Lips.  ii.  2)  holds  that  it  is  an 
abridgment  of  a  larger  work — an  opinion  which  is  shared  by  Wdlfflin  and  others. 
(A  convenient  critical  edition  has  been  recently  brought  out  by  F.  Pichlmayer, 
1892.)  The  Epitome  {libellus  de  vita  et  rnoribus  imperatorum  breviatus  ex  libris 
Sex.  Aurelii  Victoris  a  Ccesare  Aug.  usque  ad  Theodosium)  seems  dependent  on 
the  Cajsares  as  far  as  Domitian,  but  afterwards  differs  completely.  Marius 
Maximus  was  very  probably  one  of  the  chief  sources. 

Eutropius  held  the  office  of  magistcr  memoriae  at  the  court  of  Valens  (365- 
378  a.d. ),  to  whom  he  dedicated  his  Short  Roman  History  (Breviarium  ab  urbe 
condita).  He  had  taken  part,  as  he  tells  us,  in  the  fatal  expedition  of  Julian, 
363  a.d.  (x.  16,  1).  His  handbook,  which  comes  down  to  the  death  of  Jovian, 
was  a  success,  and  had  the  honour  of  being  translated  into  Greek  about  380  a.d. 
by  the  Syrian  Paeanius,  a  pupil  of  Libanius  (see  above,  p.  185).  It  contrasts 
favourably  with  other  books  of  the  kind,  both  in  matter  and  in  style.  His  chief 
sources  were  Suetonius,  the  writers  of  the  Historia  Augusta,  and  the  work  of  the 
unknown  author  who  is  generally  designated  as  the  "  Ciironographer  of  354". 

This  work,  unknown  to  Gibbon,  was  published  and  commented  on  by  Momm- 
sen in  the  Abhandlungen  der  sachs.  Gesellschaft  der  Wissensch.  in  1850,  and  has 
been  recently  published  by  the  same  editor  in  vol  i.  of  the  Chronica  Minora  in  the 
M.  H.  G.  It  contains  a  number  of  various  lists,  including  Fasti  Consulares  up  to 
354,  the  praefecti  urbis  of  Rome  from  258  to  354,  the  bishops  of  Rome  up  to 
Liberius  (352).  The  Mss.  contain  later  additions,  especially  the  so-called 
Chronicon  Cuspiniani  (published  by  Cuspinianus  in  1552  along  with  the  Chronicle 
of  Cassiodorus),  which  is  a  source  of  value  for  the  reigns  of  Leo  and  Zeno  and  the 
first  years  of  Anastasius. 


448  APPENDIX 

Another  historical  epitome  dedicated  to  Valens  was  that  of  (Rufus)  F-estus, 
who  seems  also  to  have  been  a  magitter  memoriae.  The  time  at  which  his  book 
was  composed  can  be  precisely  fixed  to  369  a.  d.  by  his  reference  to  "  this  great 
victory  over  the  Goths  "  (c.  29 .1  gained  by  Valens  in  that  year  and  by  the  fact  that 
he  is  ignorant  of  the  province  of  Valentia,  which  was  formed  in  the  same  year. 
Festus  has  some  valuable  notices  for  the  history  of  the  fourth  century. 

L.  Caelius  Lactantius  Firmianus  lived  at  Nicomedia  under  Diocletian  an 
Constantine,  and  taught  rhetoric.  In  the  later  years  of  his  life  he  had  the 
honour  of  acting  as  the  tutor  of  Constantine's  son,  Crispus.  Our  chief  authority 
for  his  life  is  Jerome  ;  cp.  esp.  De  Viris  Illust.,  80.  His  works  were  mainly  theo- 
logical, and  the  chief  of  them  is  the  Divine  Institutions  in  seven  Books.  But  the 
most  important  for  the  historian  is  the  treatise  De  Mortibus  Persecutorum, — 
concerning  the  manners  of  death  which  befel  the  persecutors  of  Christianity  from 
Nero  to  Maxim  in.  It  was  composed  in  314-315  a.d.  Its  authorship  has  been  a 
matter  of  dispute,  for  it  does  not  bear  the  name  Lactantius,  but  L.  Csecilius. 
It  is,  however,  by  no  means  improbable  that  L.  Caecilius  is  Lactantius,  and  that 
the  treatise  is  that  enumerated  by  Jerome  (loc.  cit.)  among  his  works  as  de  persecu- 
tion librum  unum.  There  is  a  remarkable  resemblance  in  vocabulary  and 
syntax  with  the  undoubted  works  of  Lactantius,  and  differences  in  style  can  be 
explained  by  the  difference  of  subject.  The  author  of  the  De  Mortibus  is 
accurately  informed  as  to  the  events  which  took  place  in  Nicomedia,  and  he 
dedicates  his  work  to  Donatus,  to  whom  Lactantius  addressed  another  treatise, 
De  Ira  Dei.  Due  allowance  being  made  for  the  tendency  of  the  De  Mortibus,  it  is 
a  very  important  contemporary  source. 

Other  authorities  which,  though  referred  to  in  the  present  volume,  are  more 
concerned  with  the  history  of  subsequent  events,  such  as  Ammianus  Marcellinus, 
the  Anonymous  known  as  Anon.  Valesianus,  Eusebius,  Zosimus,  will  be  noticed 
in  the  Appendix  to  vol.  ii. 

Modern  Works.  For  the  general  history  :  Schiller's  Geschichte  der  romischen 
Kaiserzeit  (2  vols.,  from  Augustus  to  Theodosius  I.),  up  to  date  and  very  valuable 
for  references.  Mommsen,  Romische  Geschichte,  vol.  v.  Die  Provinzen  von 
Casar  bis  Diocletian  (also  in  Eng.  trans,  in  2  vols.).  Hoeck's  Romische 
Geschichte  (reaching  as  far  as  Constantine)  is  now  rather  antiquated ;  Duruy's 
History  of  Rome  (to  Theodosius  the  Great)  may  also  be  mentioned.  For  the 
general  administration,  including  the  military  system  of  which  Gibbon  treats  in 
chap,  i.:  Marquardt,  HandbuchderromischenAlterthiimerfStaatsverwaltung,  vols, 
iv.-vi.);  and  Schiller's  summary  in  Ivan  Midler's  Handbuch  der  klass.  Alter- 
tlmmswissenschaft.  For  manners,  social  life,  &c. ,  under  the  early  empire: 
Friedlander's  Darstellungen  aus  der  Sittengeschichte  Roms  in  der  Zeit  von 
Augustus  bis  zum  Ausgang  der  Antonine.  For  chronology :  Clinton's  Fasti  Romani, 
and  Goyau's  short  Chronologie  de  1'Empire  romain ;  Klein's  Fasti  Consulares. 

A  few  special  monographs  (in  addition  to  those  referred  to  elsewhere)  may  bo 
mentioned  here.  Hundertmark,  de  Imperatore  Pertinace.  Hiifner,  Untersuch- 
ungen  zur  Gesch.  des  Kaisers  L.  Septimius  Severus ;  A.  de  Ceuleneer,  Essai  sur 
la  vie  et  la  regne  de  Septime  Severe  ;  Wirth,  Quaestiones  Severianae.  A. 
Duncker,  Claudius  Gothicus.  Preuss,  Kaiser  Diokletian  und  seine  Zeit ;  Vogel, 
Der  Kaiser  Diokletian. 

2.  CONQUEST  OF  BRITAIN— (P.  4,  and  P.  36) 

It  may  be  well  to  note  more  exactly  how  Roman  arms  progressed  in  Britain 
after  Claudius.  (Our  chief  authority  is  the  Agricola  of  Tacitus.)  The  first 
legatus  sent  by  Vespasian  was  Petillius  Cerealis,  who  fought  against  the 
Brigantes  and  subdued  the  eastern  districts  of  the  island  as  far  north  as  Lincoln 
(Lindum).  A  line  drawn  from  Chester  (Dcva)  to  Lincoln  would  rightly  mark  the 
limits  of  Roman  rule  at  this  time.  Cerealis  was  succeeded  by  Frontinus  (whose 
treatise  on  the  science  of  warfare  is  extant),  and  he  reduced  the  Silures  (in  the 
west).     Then  came  Agricola,  whose  government  lasted  from  78  to  85  a.d.     He 


APPENDIX  449 

attempted  to  extend  the  Roman  frontiers  both  northward  and  westward,  but 
failed  to  consolidate  his  conquests.  The  only  lasting  fruit  of  the  enterprises  of 
Agricola  was  the  acquisition  of  York  (Eburacum), — a  fact  which  Tacitus  doe3  not 
record  and  which  we  have  to  infer. 

On  p.  36,  n.  34,  Gibbon  mentions  nine  colonies  in  Britain,  on  the  authority  of 
Richard  of  Cirencester,  which  has  no  value.  The  only  towns,  which  we  know  to 
have  had  the  rank  of  coloniae,  are  Camalodunum,  Eburacum,  Glevum,  Lindum. 
Verulamium  was  a  municipium. 


3.  THE  CONQUESTS  OF  TRAJAN,  AND  POLICY  OF  HADRIAN— 

(P.  5) 

The  first  Dacian  war  of  Trajan  lasted  during  101  and  102  a.d.  and  Trajan, 
celebrated  his  triumph  at  the  end  of  the  latter  year,  taking  the  title  of  Dacicus. 
The  second  war  began  two  years  later,  and  was  concluded  in  107  by  the  dis- 
sensions of  the  barbarians  and  the  suicide  of  Decebalus.  Our  only  contemporary 
sources  for  these  wars  are  monumental, — the  sculptures  on  the  Pillar  of  Trajan 
and  some  inscriptions.  Unfortunately  Trajan's  own  work  on  the  war  has 
perished.  (Arosa  and  Froehner  have  published  in  a  splendid  form  photographic 
reproductions  of  the  scenes  on  the  column  of  Trajan,  Paris,  1872-1874.  For 
details  of  the  war,  see  Jung,  Romer  und  Romanen  in  den  Donaulandern  ;  a  paper 
of  Xenopol  in  the  Revue  Historique,  1886 ;  and  an  interesting  Hungarian 
monograph  by  Kiraly  on  Sarmizegetusa,  Dacia  fovarosa,  1891.  On  the  reign  of 
Trajan,  consult  Dierauer's  paper  in  Budinger's  Untersuchungen,  vol.  i.,  and 
De  la  Berge,  Essai  sur  la  regne  Trajan.  I  may  also  refer  to  the  Student's 
Roman  Empire. ) 

Trajan's  Dacia  must  be  carefully  distinguished  from  Dacia  ripensis  south  of 
the  Danube,  a  province  formed,  as  we  shall  see,  at  a  much  later  date.  The 
capital  of  northern  Dacia  was  Sarmizegetusa,  a  Dacian  town,  which  was  founded 
anew  after  Trajan's  conquest  under  the  name  of  Ulpia  Trajana.  The  traveller 
in  Siebenbiirgen  may  now  trace  the  remains  of  this  historic  site  at  Varhely,  as 
the  Hungarians  have  named  it.  H.  Schiller  lays  stress  on  one  important  result 
of  the  Dacian  war  :  ' '  The  military  centre  of  gravity  of  the  Empire  "  was  trans- 
ferred from  the  Rhine  to  the  Danube  (Gesch.  der  rbm.  Kaiserzeit,  i.  554). 

Gibbon  omits  to  mention  as  a  third  "exception,"  besides  Britain  and  Dacia, 
the  acquisition  of  new  territory  in  the  north  of  Arabia  (east  of  Palestine),  and 
the  organization  of  a  province  of  "Arabia"  by  Cornelius  Palma  (106  a.d.). 
This  change  was  accomplished  peacefully  ;  the  two  important  towns  of  Petra 
and  Bostra  had  been  already  Roman  for  a  considerable  time.  The  chief  value 
of  the  province  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  caravans  from  the  East  on  their  way  to 
Egypt  passed  through  it.  There  are  remarkable  ruins  at  Petra  which  testify  to 
its  importance. 

Hadrian,  as  Gibbon  explains,  narrowed  the  boundaries  of  the  Empire  in  the 
East  (it  may  be  disputed  whether  he  was  right  in  resigning  Great  Armenia) ;  but 
he  was  dihgent  in  making  strong  the  defences  of  what  he  retained.  The 
Euphrates  was  a  sufficient  protection  in  itself ;  but  in  other  quarters  Hadrian 
found  work  to  do,  and  did  it.  He  built  forts  on  the  northern  frontier  of  Dacia  ; 
he  completed  the  rampart  which  defended  the  exposed  corner  between  the 
Danube  and  Rhine  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  he  built  the  great  wall  in  Britain, 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Tyne  to  the  Solway.  He  visited  Britain  in  122  a.d.  (The 
chronology  of  his  travels  given  by  Merivale  must  be  modified  in  the  light  of 
more  recent  research.  See  J.  Diirr,  Die  Reisen  des  Kaisers  Hadrian,  1881, 
and  the  Student's  Roman  Empire. ) 

It  has  been  said  that  under  no  Emperor  was  the  Roman  army  in  better 
condition  than  under  Hadrian.  Dion  Cassius  regarded  him  as  the  founder  of 
what  might  be  almost  called  a  new  military  system,  and  from  his  time  tho 
character  of  the  army  becomes  more  and  more  "  cosmopolitan  "  (Schiller,  i.  609). 

29  vol.  I. 


450  APPENDIX 

4.  THE  ROMAN  ARMY— (P.  12) 

In  his  account  of  the  army  Gibbon  closely  followed  Vegetius,  whose  state- 
ments must  be  received  with  caution.     I  may  call  attention  here  to  a  few  points. 

(a)  The  legion  contained  ten  cohorts ;  and  the  cohort,  which  had  its  own 
standard  (signum),  six  centuries.  Each  century  was  commanded  by  a  centurion. 
Under  the  early  Empire,  each  legion  was  commanded  by  a  tribunus  militum 
Augusti  (under  the  republic,  trib.  mil.  a  populo),  who,  however,  was  subject 
to  the  authority  of  a  higher  officer,  the  legatus  legionis,  who  was  supreme  com- 
mander of  both  the  legion  and  the  auxiliary  troops  associated  with  it.  In  later 
times  (as  we  learn  from  Vegetius)  the  sphere  of  the  tribune  was  reduced  to  the 
cohort.  The  number  of  soldiers  in  a  legion  was  elastic,  and  varied  at  different 
times.  It  is  generally  reckoned  at  six  thousand  foot,  and  one  hundred  and 
twenty  horsemen  (four  turmae). 

(b)  The  auxilia  included  all  the  standing  troops,  except  the  legions,  the 
volunteers  (cohortes  Italicae  civium  Romanorum  voluntariorum),  and  of  course 
the  praetorian  guards.  They  were  divided  into  cohorts,  and  were  under  the 
command  of  the  legati.  Cavalry  and  infantry  were  often  combined,  and  con- 
stituted a  cohors  equitata.  Each  cohort  (like  the  legionary  cohort)  had  its 
standard,  and  consisted  of  six  or  ten  centuries,  according  to  its  size,  which  might 
be  five  hundred  or  a  thousand  men.  To  be  distinguished  from  the  auxilia  were 
a  provincial  militia,  which  appear  in  certain  provinces  (such  as  Rsetia,  Britain, 
Dacia).  They  were  not  imperial,  and  were  supported  by  provincial  funds 
(Mommsen,  Die  rom.  Provinzialmilizen,  Hermes,  xxii.  4). 

(c)  The  use  of  "  artillery  "  on  a  large  scale  was  due  to  Greek  influence.  It 
played  an  important  part  in  the  Macedonian  army.  The  fixed  number  of  engines 
mentioned  in  the  text  (ten  onagri  and  fifty-five  carroballistae)  was  perhaps 
introduced  in  the  time  of  Vespasian.  Vegetius,  ii.  25  :  Josephus,  Bell.  Jud. 
5,  6,  3. 

(d)  As  for  the  distribution  of  the  troops,  Gibbon  arrived  at  his  statement 
by  combining  what  Tacitus  tells  of  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  and  what  Dion  Cassius 
tells  of  the  reign  of  Alexander  Severus  ;  always  a  doubtful  method  of  procedure, 
and  in  this  case  demonstrably  leading  to  erroneous  results.  Under  Tiberius  in 
23  a.d.  there  were  four  legions  in  Upper  Germany,  four  in  Lower  Germany,  three 
in  Spain,  two  in  Egypt,  four  in  Syria,  two  in  Pannonia,  two  in  Dalmatia,  two 
in  Moesia,  two  temporarily  removed  from  Pannonia  to  Africa.  New  legions 
were  created  by  Claudius,  Nero,  Domitian,  &c.  ;  on  the  other  hand,  some  of 
the  old  legions  disappeared,  or  their  names  were  changed.  Three  new  legions 
(i.,  ii.,  and  iii.  Parthica)  were  instituted  by  Septimius  Severus.  Each  legion 
had  a  special  name.  A  list  of  the  legions  (thirty  in  number)  in  the  time  of 
Marcus  Aurelius  will  be  found  in  Marquardt,  Rom  Alterthumer,  iii.  2,  356. 
The  history  of  the  Roman  legions  is  a  very  difficult  subject,  and  the  conclusions 
of  Pfitzner  (Geschichte  der  romischen  Kaiserlegionen)  are  extremely  doubtful  (see 
Mr.  E.  G.  Hardy  in  the  Journal  of  Philology,  xxiii.  29  sqq.). 

(e)  The  cohortes  urbanae  had  their  headquarters  in  the  Forum  Suarium 
(Pig-market)  at  Rome.  They  were  at  first  four  in  number,  of  one  thousand  men 
each,  until  the  time  of  Claudius,  who  seems  to  have  increased  the  number  to  six ; 
Vespasian  perhaps  added  another.  Some  of  these  regiments  were  sometimes 
stationed  elsewhere  ;  for  example,  at  Lyons,  Ostia,  Puteoli. 

See  further  article  Exercitus  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Antiquities,  new  edition. 

5.  THE  ROMAN  NAVY— (P.  18) 

The  fleets  of  Ravenna  and  Misenum  were  called  the  classes  praetoriae,  a  fitting 
name,  as  they  were  the  naval  guards  of  the  Emperor  as  long  as  he  resided  at 
Old  Rome. 

The  fleet  at  (1)  Forum  Julium  was  discontinued  soon  after  the  time  of 
Augustus.  The  other  lesser  naval  stations  under  the  Empire  were  (2)  Seleucia, 
for  the  classis  Syriaca;  (3)  Alexandria,  for  the  classis  Avx/usta  Alexand/reae ; 


APPENDIX 


451 


(4)  the  Island  of  Carpathos  ;  (5)  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  Aquileia, 
for  the  classis  Venetum.  Besides  these  there  were  (6)  the  classis  Pontica, 
stationed  in  the  Euxine  or  in  the  Propontis,  and  (7)  the  classis  Britannica, 
both  mentioned  in  the  author's  text.  There  were  also  fleets  on  the  three  great 
rivers  of  the  Empire  ;  (8)  the  ckissis  Germanica  on  the  Rhine ;  (9)  the  classis 
Pannonica  and  Mocsica  on  the  Danube  ;  and  (10)  a  fleet  on  the  Euphrates 
(mentioned  by  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  xxiii.  3,  9). 


6.  THE  PROVINCES  OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  180  A.D.— (P.  18) 

For  a  general  view  of  the  provinces,  the  reader  must  be  referred  to  Mommsen's 
brilliant  volume  Die  Provinzen  von  Casar  bis  Diocletian  (translated  into  English 
in  two  vols.).  For  the  general  administration,  including  the  military  system,  see 
Marquardt,  Handbuch  der  romischen  Alterthiimer(Staatsverwaltung,  vols,  iv.-vi.). 

1.  Sicilia,  the  first  Roman  province,  241  b.c.  It  became  a  senatorial  pro- 
vince in  27  b.c. 

2.  Sardinia  and  Corsica,  231  b.c.  Senatorial  in  27  b.c,  but  became  imperial 
in  6  a.d.  Again  senatorial  under  Nero  ;  once  more  imperial  under  Vespasian, 
and  governed  by  a  procurator  et  pra-eses.  (Given  to  senate  again  by  M.  Aurelius 
but  resumed  by  Commodus. ) 

3.  Hispania  citerior,  or  Tarraconensis,  197  b.c.  ;  imperial.  (Divided  into  3 
dioceses,  each  under  a  leg.  Augusti.) 

( These  formed  one  province  under  the  Republic, 
<  Hispania  ulterior  (197   b.c),  which  was  divided 
I  soon  after  the  foundation  of  the  Empire  (27  b.c). 
6.  Gallia  Narbonensis,   after    121    b.c     (At  first,   imperial,   after)  22    b.c 
senatorial. 

{Called  collectively  tres  Galliae,  at  first  under  one 
imperial  governor;  after  17  a.d.  each  had  its  own 
imperial  governor. 

The  civil  administration  of  these  frontier  districts 
>-was  united  with  that   of  Belgica.     The  military 
commanders  were  consular  legati. 


4.  Baetica,  senatorial. 

5.  Lusitania,  imperial. 


7.  Aquitania,  27  b.c 

8.  Lugdunensis,  27  b.c 

9.  Belgica,  27  b.c 

10.  Germania    superior, 
17  a.d.  (?). 

11.  Germania     inferior, 
17  a.d.  (?). 

12.  Alpes    Maritimse,   14  b.c    made   an   imperial  province,   governed   by   a 
(prefect,  afterwards  a)  procurator. 

13.  Alpes  Cottise,  under  Nero,  imperial  (under  a  procurator  et  praeses). 

14.  Alpes  Poeninse  (or  A.  Poeninse  et  Graiae) ;  in  second  century  became  an 
imperial  province  (under  a  procurator). 

15.  Britannia,  43  a.d.,  imperial. 

16.  Rsetia,  15  b.c,  imperial  (under  a  procurator) ;  but  after  Marcus  Aurelius 
governed  by  the  legatus  pro  prsetore  of  the  legion  Concordia. 

17.  Noricum,  15  b.c,   imperial,  under  a  procurator.     After  Marcus,   under 
the  general  of  the  legion  Pia.     (Dion  Cassius,  lv.  24,  4. ) 

After  its  conquest  Pannonia  was  added  to  the 
province  of  Illyria  (44  b.c),  imperial;  which  was 
broken  up  into  Pannonia  and  Dalmatia  10-14  a.d.  ; 
Dalmatia  under  a  consular  legatus.  Pannonia  was 
broken  up  by  Trajan  (102-107  a.d.)  into  the  two 
Pannonioe,  each  under  a  consular  legatus  (at 
v.  least  under  Marcus). 

fMoesia,  6  a.d.,  an  imperial  province,  was  broken 
■I  up  into  the  two  Moesias  by  Domitian  under  con- 
Lsular  legati. 

(Dacia,  107  a.d.,  was  at  first  one  province  (im- 
I  perial).  Hadrian  broke  it  up  into  two  (superior 
■i  and  inferior).  Marcus  made  a  new  triple  division 
I  (not  later  than  168  a.d.),  and  placed  the  provinces 
L under  consular  legati. 


18.  Pannonia  superior. 

19.  Pannonia  inferior. 

20.  Dalmatia,  or  Illyri- 

cum. 


21.  Moesia  superior. 

22.  Moesia  inferior. 


23.  Dacia  Porolissensis. 

24.  Dacia  Apulensis. 

25.  Dacia  Maluensis. 


452  APPENDIX 

26.  Thracia,  46  a.d.,  imperial  (at  first  under  a  procurator,  but  from  Trajan 
forward)  under  a  legatus. 

27.  Macedonia,  146  b.c.  ;  senatorial  in  27  b.c.  ;  from  Tiberius  to  Claudius, 
imperial  and  united  with  Achaia  ;  after  Claudius,  senatorial. 

( Included  in  Macedonia,    146  b.c.  ;    together  formed  a  sena- 
|  torial  province,  27  b.c.  ;  after  having  been  united  with  Macedonia 

28.  Achaia.    J  (15  and  44  a.d.  ),  restored  to  the  senate,  and  declared  free  by  Nero, 

29.  Epirus.     1  it  was  made  senatorial  by  Vespasian.     This  Emperor  probably 

!  separated  Epirus  (including  Acarnamia),  imperial,  under  a  pro- 
curator. 

30.  Asia,  133  b.c.  ;  senatorial  27  b.c  (under  a  consular). 

31.  Bithynia  and  Pontus,  74  and  65  b.c.  ;  senatorial  27  b.c,  became  under 
Hadrian  imperial. 

32.  Galatia  (including  Pontus  Polemoniacus)  25  b.c.  imperial;  united  twice  and 
twice  severed  from  Cappadocia ;  finally  separated  by  Trajan  and  placed  under  a 
praetorian  legatus. 

33.  Cappadocia  (including  Lesser  Armenia)  17  a.d.  imperial;  (procuratorial  till 
Vespasian,  70  a.d.,  gave  it  a  consular  legatus). 

34.  Lycia  and  Pamphylia,  43  a.d.  ;  after  various  changes  definitely  constituted 
as  imperial  by  Vespasian,  74  a.d.,  but  transferred  to  the  senate  by  Hadrian. 

35.  Cilicia,  102  b.c.  At  one  time  apparently  united  with  Syria,  but  inde- 
pendent since  Vespasian.  From  Hadrian  (including  Trachea)  imperial  under 
legatus  ;  Severus  transferred  Isauria  and  Lycaonia  from  Galatia  to  Cilicia. 

36.  Cyprus,  58  b.c.  ;  at  first  united  with  Cilicia  ;  22  b.c,  became  an  inde- 
pendent senatorial  province. 

37.  Syria,  64  b.c.  ;  imperial  under  consular  legatus,  27  b.c 

38.  Syria  Palaestina  ( =  Judsea),  separated  from  Syria  70  a.d.,  imperial  under 
legatus. 

39.  Arabia,  106  a.d.,  imperial. 

40.  Aegyptus,  30  b.c,  imperial  domain  under  praefectus  Aegypti. 

41.  Creta  and  Cyrene,  at  first  one  province  (67  b.c  and  74  b.c  respectively); 
united  27  b.c  as  a  senatorial  province  (under  a  praetor). 

42.  Africa,  146  b.c,  senatorial  under  a  consular  proconsul;  seems  to  have 
included  Numidia  from  25  b.c 


43.  Mauretania  Caesariensis. 

44.  Mauretania  Tingitana. 


[-40  a.d.,  imperial  (under  procurators). 


It  is  important  to  note  some  changes  that  were  made  between  the  death  of 
Marcus  and  the  accession  of  Diocletian.  (1)  The  diocese  of  Asturiaet  Gallaecia 
was  cut  off  as  a  separate  imperial  province  from  Tarraconensis  (216  or  217 
a.d.)  ;  (2)  Britannia  was  divided  by  Septimius  Severus  (197  a.d.)  into  Brit, 
superior  and  Brit,  inferior  (each  probably  under  a  praescs) ;  (3)  Septimius  made 
Numidia  a  separate  province  (under  a  legatus  till  Aurelian,  afterwards  under  a 
praeses) ;  (4)  Syria  was  divided  by  the  same  Emperor  (198  a.d.)  into  Syria  Coele 
(Magna)  and  Syr.  Phcenice ;  (5)  Arabia  was  divided  in  the  third  century  into 
Ar.  Bostrsea  and  Arabia  Petraea,  corresponding  to  the  two  chief  towns  of  the 
province ;  (6)  Mesopotamia  (made  a  province  by  Trajan,  and  resigned  by 
Hadrian)  was  restored  by  Lucius  Verus ;  (7)  For  Dacia  see  p.  294. 

7.  CHANGES  IN  SOUTH-EASTERN  EUROPE  SINCE  GIBBON 
WROTE— (Pp.  22,  23) 

Gibbon's  account  of  the  political  geography  of  the  Illyrian  lands  brings  home 
to  us  the  changes  which  have  taken  place  within  the  last  century.  When  he 
wrote,  Servia  and  Bulgaria  were  "united  in  Turkish  slavery";  Greece  herself 
was  under  the  same  bondage  as  well  as  Moldavia,  Walachia  and  Bosnia ;  the 
Dalmatian  coast  was  a  province  of  the  Venetian  State.  Since  then  (1)  the 
Turkish  realm  in  Europe  has  been  happily  reduced,  and  (2)  Austria  has  advanced 


APPENDIX  453 

at  the  expense  of  Venice.  (1)  Now  Greece  and  Servia  are  each  a  kingdom, 
wholly  independent  of  the  Turk  ;  Bulgaria  is  a  free  principality,  only  formally 
dependent  on  the  Sultan.  Moldavia  and  Walachia  form  the  independent  king- 
dom of  Roumania.  Even  a  portion  of  Thrace,  south  of  the  Balkans,  known  as 
Eastern  Roumelia  has  been  annexed  to  Bulgaria.  Macedonia  and  the  greatest 
part  of  Epirus  are  still  Turkish.  (2)  All  the  Dalmatian  coast,  including  Ragusa, 
belongs  to  Austria,  but  Antivari  and  Dulcigno  belong  to  the  independent  Slavonic 
principality  of  Tzernagora  or  Montenegro  (which  was  founded  in  the  middle  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  preserved  its  independence  against  the  Turks  with  varying 
success  ever  since,  and  in  our  own  time  played  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  events  of 
1876  to  1S78,  which  so  effectually  checked  the  power  of  the  Turk).  Austria  also 
acquired  (by  the  treaty  of  Berlin,  1878)  the  protectorate  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina. 

8.  COLONIES  AND  MUNICIPIA,  IUS  LATINUM— (P.  36) 

The  distinction  between  colonies  and  municipal  towns,  and  the  history  of 
ius  Latinum,  are  explained  briefly  in  the  following  passage  of  the  Student's 
Roman  Empire,  pp.  76,  77. 

"It  is  to  be  observed  that  these  communities  were  either  colonic?,  or  muni- 
cipia.  In  the  course  of  Italian  history  the  word  municipium  had  completely 
changed  its  meaning.  Originally  it  was  applied  to  a  community  possessing  ius 
Latinum,  and  also  to  the  civitas  sine  suffrar/io,  and  thus  it  was  a  term  of 
contrast  to  those  communities  which  possessed  full  Roman  citizenship.  But 
when  in  the  course  of  time  the  civitates  sine  suffragio  received  political  rights 
and  the  Roman  states  received  full  Roman  citizenship,  and  thus  the  municipium 
proper  disappeared  from  Italy,  the  word  was  still  applied  to  those  communities 
of  Roman  citizens  which  had  originally  been  either  Latin  municipia  or  independ- 
ent federate  states.  And  it  also,  of  course,  continued  to  be  applied  to  cities 
outside  Italy  which  possessed  ius  Latinum.  It  is  clear  that  originally  muni- 
cipium and  colonia  were  not  incompatible  ideas.  For  a  colon}'  founded  with 
ius  Latinum  was  both  a  municipium  and  a  colonia.  But  a  certain  opposition 
arose  between  them,  and  became  stronger  when  municipium  came  to  be  used  in 
a  new  sense.  Municipium  is  only  used  of  communities  which  existed  as  inde- 
pendent states  before  the}'  received  Roman  citizenship,  whether  by  the  deduction 
of  a  colony  or  not.  Colonia  is  generally  confined  to  those  communities  which 
were  settled  for  the  first  time  as  Roman  cities,  and  were  never  states  before. 
Thus  inxtnicipium  involves  a  reference  to  previous  autonomy. 

"  Besides  Roman  cities,  there  were  also  Latin  cities  in  the  provinces.  Origin- 
ally there  were  two  kinds  of  ius  Latinum,  one  better  and  the  other  inferior. 
The  old  Latin  colonies  possessed  the  better  kind.  The  inferior  kind  was  known 
as  the  his  of  Ariminum,  and  it  alone  was  extended  to  provincial  communities. 
When  Italy  received  Roman  citizenship  after  the  Social  war,  the  better  kind  of 
ius  Latinum  vanished  for  ever,  and  the  lesser  kind  only  existed  outside  Italy. 
The  most  important  privilege  which  distinguished  the  Latin  from  peregrine 
communities  was  that  the  member  of  a  Latin  city  had  a  prospect  of  obtaining  full 
Roman  citizenship  by  holding  magistracies  in  his  own  community.  The  Latin 
communities  are  of  course  autonomous  and  are  not  controlled  bj-  the  provincial 
governor  ;  but  like  Roman  communities  they  have  to  pay  tribute  for  their  land, 
which  is  the  propert}-  of  the  Roman  people,  unless  they  possess  immunity  or 
ius  Italicum  as  well  as  ius  Latinum." 

9.  THE  MINE  OF  SOUMELPOUR— (P.  55) 

In  an  appendix  to  the  second  volume  of  his  translation  of  Tavcrnier's  Travels 
in  India,  Mr.  V.  Ball  has  pointed  out  (p.  457),  that  the  diamond  mine  of  Soumel- 
pour  on  the  Gouel  is  not  to  be  identified,  as  hitherto,  with  Sambulpur  on 
the  Mahanadi,  but  is  the  same  as  "  Semah  or  Semulpur  on  the  Koel,  in  the 
Sub-Division  of  Palamau  ". 


454  APPENDIX 

In  the  original,  and  all  subsequent  editions  of  Gibbon  the  name  was  spelt 
"Jumelpur".  Mr.  Ball  rightly  remarks  that  this  is  merely  a  misprint ;  and 
I  have  corrected  it  in  the  text. 

10.  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE— (Chapter  III.) 

The  constitutional  history  of  Rome  (both  Republican  and  Imperial)  has  been 
get  on  a  new  basis  since  Gibbon.  The  impulse  was  given  by  Niebuhr  ;  and  this 
branch  of  history  has  progressed  hand  in  hand  with  the  study  of  inscriptions 
on  stone  and  metal.  No  one  has  done  so  much  for  the  subject  as  Mommsen, 
whose  Romisches  Staatsrecht  (3  vols.)  occupies  the  same  position  for  Roman 
constitutional  history  as  the  work  of  Bishop  Stubbs  for  English.  Another 
recent  work  of  importance  is  E.  Herzog's  Geschichte  und  System  der  romischen 
Staatsverf assung  (2  vols. ).  Madvig's  Verf assung  und  Verwaltung  des  romischen 
Staates  was  retrogressive.  The  works  of  Mispoulet  and  "Willems  may  also  be 
mentioned.  Of  great  value  for  details  is  O.  Hirschfeld's  Untersuchungen  auf 
dem  Gebiete  der  romischen  Verwaltungsgeschichte.  For  the  imperial  procurators 
see  "Procurator"  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Antiquities,  new  edition. 

It  would  be  endless  to  enumerate  the  writers  from  whom  material  for  the 
constitutional  history  is  drawn  ;  but  attention  must  be  called  to  the  importance 
of  inscriptions  and  coins  which  fill  up  many  gaps  in  our  knowledge.  It  would 
hardly  be  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Latinarum  (edited 
by  Mommsen  and  others)  is  the  keystone  of  Mommsen's  Staatsrecht.  The  Corpus 
is  not  yet  complete,  and  must  be  supplemented  by  the  collections  of  Orelli- 
Henzen  and  "Wilmanns. 

The  most  important  collections  of  coins  are  Eckhel's  Doctrina  Numorum 
Veterum  (8  vols.),  which  appeared  in  1792 — 3ome  years  too  late  for  Gibbon, — and 
Cohen's  Descriptions  des  monnaies  frappees  sous  l'Empire  romain  communement 
appelees  Medailles  imperiales  (1859-1868). 

For  a  short  account  of  the  Imperial  constitution  I  may  refer  to  Mr.  Pelham's 
article  on  the  Principate  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Antiquities,  and  to  the  Student's 
Roman  Empire,  chaps,  ii.  and  iii.  Here  it  will  be  enough  to  draw  attention  to 
a  few  important  points  in  which  Gibbon's  statements  need  correction  or  call  for 
precision. 

(1)  P.  60.— "Prince  of  the  Senate." 

The  view  that  the  name  princeps  meant  princeps  senatus  held  its  ground  until 
a  few  years  ago,  when  it  was  exploded  by  Mr.  Pelham.  Princeps,  the  general,  non- 
official  designation  of  the  emperors,  meant  "first  of  the  Roman  citizens  "  {princept 
eivium  Romanorum  or  civitatis),  and  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Senate. 

lb. — "  He  was  elected  censor." 

The  censorship  of  Augustus  was  only  temporary  ;  it  was  not  considered  one 
of  the  necessary  prerogatives  of  the  princeps,  for  that,  as  Gibbon  says,  would 
have  meant  the  destruction  of  the  independence  of  the  senate.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  in  the  theory  of  the  principate  the  independence  of  the  senate 
was  carefully  guarded,  though  practically  the  influence  of  the  princeps  was 
predominant.  Augustus  discharged  the  functions  of  censor  repeatedly  ;  not, 
however,  under  that  name,  but  as  prwfectus  morurn.  Gibbon  is  wrong  in  stating 
(p.  65)  that  the  censorship  was  one  of  the  Imperial  prerogatives.  He  was  followed 
in  this  by  Merivale. 

(3)  P.  63. — "  Lieutenants  of  the  Emperor." 

The  provinces  fell  into  two  classes  according  as  consulars  or  praetorians  were 
admitted  to  the  post  of  governor.  But  this  distinction  must  not  be  confounded 
with  that  of  the  titles  pro  consule  and  pro  pratorc,  which  were  borne  by  the 
governors  of  senatorial  and  Imperial  provinces  respectively.  The  representative 
of  the  emperor  could  not  be  pro  consule,  as  his  position  depended  on  the  procon- 
sular imperium  of  the  emperor  himself.  A  rir  consularis  might  be  pro  prcetorc. 
The  full  title  of  the  Imperial  lieutenant  was  legatus  Augusti  pro  prcetore. 

In  the  dependent  kingdoms  were  placed  procuratores,  of  equestrian  rank. 

(4)  P.  64. — "Consular  and  tribunitian  powers." 


APPENDIX  455 

Gibbon's  statements  here  require  correction,  though  the  question  of  the  exact 
constitution  of  the  power  of  the  princeps  is  still  a  matter  of  debate. 

Augustus  at  first  intended  to  found  the  principate  as  a  continuation  of  the  pro- 
consular imperium  with  the  consulate,  and  he  held  the  consulate  from  27  to 
23  b.c.  But  then  he  changed  his  mind,  as  this  arrangement  gave  rise  to  some 
difficulties,  and  replaced  the  consular  power  by  the  tribunitian  power,  which  had 
been  conferred  on  him  for  life  in  36  b.c,  after  his  victory  over  Sextus  Pompeius. 
Thus  the  principate  depended  on  the  association  of  the  proconsular  with  the 
tribunitian  power  ;  and  Augustus  dated  the  years  of  his  reign  from  23,  not  from 
27  b.c.  After  this  he  filled  the  consulship  only  in  those  years  in  which  he 
instituted  a  census. 

(5)  P.  65. — "  Supreme  pontiff." 

He  became  Pontiff  in  12  b.c  Besides  being  Pont.  Max.  Augustus  belonged  to 
the  other  sacerdotal  colleges.     He  was  augur,  septemvir,  quindecimvir. 

11.  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  PRINCIPATE 
OF  SEPTIMIUS  SEVERUS— (Pp.  120-125) 

The  name  of  Septimius  Severus  marks  an  important  stage  in  the  development 
of  the  Principate  of  Augustus  into  the  absolute  monarchy  of  Diocletian.  If  he 
had  been  followed  by  emperors  as  strong  and  far-sighted  as  himself,  the  goal 
would  have  been  reached  sooner ;  and,  moreover,  the  tendencies  of  his  policy 
would  have  been  clearer  to  us.  But  the  administration  of  his  immediate 
successors  was  arbitrary  ;  and  the  reaction  under  Alexander  threw  things  back. 
Severus  had  no  Tiberius  or  Constantine  to  follow  him ;  and  like  Augustus  he 
committed  the  error  of  founding  a  dynasty.  His  example  was  a  warning  to 
Diocletian. 

The  records  of  his  reign  show  that  he  took  little  account  of  the  senate,  and 
made  much  of  the  army.  This  has  been  brought  out  by  Gibbon.  But  it  would 
be  a  mistake  to  call  his  rule  a  military  despotism.  He  did  not  apply  military 
methods  to  civil  affairs.  He  was  more  than  a  mere  soldier -emperor ;  he  was  a 
considerable  statesman. 

His  influence  on  constitutional  history  concerns  three  important  points.  (1) 
He  furthered  in  a  very  marked  way  the  tendency,  already  manifest  early  in  the 
second  century,  to  remove  the  line  of  distinction  between  Italy  and  the  provinces. 
[a)  He  recruited  the  Pr;etorian  guards,  hitherto  Italians,  from  the  legionaries, 
and  so  from  the  provinces,  (t)  He  encroached  on  the  privileges  of  Italy  by 
quartering  one  of  three  new  legions,  which  he  created,  in  a  camp  on  Mount  Alba 
near  Rome,  (c)  He  assumed  the  proconsular  title  in  Italy,  (d)  By  the  bestowal 
of  ius  Italicum  he  elevated  a  great  many  provincial  cities  (in  Dacia,  Africa,  and 
Syria)  to  a  level  with  Italy.  (2)  He  increased  the  importance  of  the  Prsetorian 
Prefect.  We  can  now  see  this  post  undergoing  a  curious  change  from  a  military 
into  a  civil  office.  Held  by  Papinian,  it  seemed  to  be  the  summit  in  the  career 
not  of  a  soldier  but  of  a  jurist.  (3)  The  financial  policy  of  Severus  in  keeping 
the  res  privata  of  the  princeps  distinct  from  his  fiscus, — crown  property  as 
distinguished  from  state  revenue  (cp.  p.  99,  footnote  52). 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  tendency  to  give  effect  to  the  mains  imperium  of 
the  princeps  in  controlling  the  governors  of  the  senatorial  provinces  and  the 
republican  magistrates  (consuls)  was  confirmed  and  furthered  under  Severus. 
For  example,  governors  of  senatorial  provinces  are  brought  before  his  court, 
Hist.  Aug.  x.  4,  8.  The  mams  imperium,  used  with  reserve  by  the  earlier  emperors, 
was  one  of  the  chief  constitutional  instruments  by  which  the  princeps  ousted  the 
senate  from  the  government  and  converted  the  "  dyarch3' "  into  a  monarchy. 

Note. — In  regard  to  the  prefecture  of  the  Pnetorian  guards,  the  rule  that  it 
should  be  held  by  two  colleagues  was  generally  observed  from  Augustus  to 
Diocletian.  We  can  quote  cases  of  (1)  tico  prefects  under  Augustus,  Tiberius, 
Gaius,  Claudius,  Nero,  Otho,  Vitellius,  Domitian,  Trajan,  Hadrian,  Pius,  Marcus, 
Commodus,    Julianus,    Severus,    Caracalla,    Elagabalus,    Macrinus,    Alexander, 


456  APPENDIX 

Gordian ;  (2)  of  one  prefect  under  Augustus  (Seius  Strabo),  Tiberius  (Sejanus 
Macro),  Claudius  and  Nero  (Burrus),  Galba,  Vespasian  (Clemens,  Titus),  Pius, 
Alexander  (Ulpian),  Probus ;  (3)  of  three  praefects  under  Commodus,  Julianus, 
Alexander  (Ulpian  as  superior  colleague  and  two  others). 

12.  CHRONOLOGY  OF  238  A.D.— (P.  179) 

The  chronological  difficulties  of  the  year  238,  which  exercised  Tillemont, 
Clinton,  Eckhel  (vii.  293  sqq. )  and  Borghesi,  have  been  recently  discussed  with 
care  by  O.  Seeck  in  a  paper  in  the  Rheinisches  Museum,  xli.  (p.  161  sqq.)  1886, 
and  by  J.  Lohrer  in  his  monograph  de  Julio  "Vc-ro  Maximino. 

The  Chronicler  of  354  gives  as  the  length  of  the  reign  of  Maximin  three  years, 
tour  months,  two  days,  which  would  give  17th  March  235  to  18th  July  238  (Hist. 
Aug.  xxi.  i. ).  The  latter  date  cannot  be  right  (for  Alexandrian  coins  show  that 
the  seventh  trib.  year  of  Gordian  III.  ran  from  30th  August  243  to  29th  August 
244,  proving  that  Gordian  was  elected  before  29th  August  238  ;  the  latest  possible 
date  for  the  dethronement  of  Maximus  and  Balbinus  would  therefore  be  1st  August, 
and  in  the  thirteen  days  between  18th  July  and  that  day,  there  is  not  room  for 
the  arrival  of  the  news  of  Maximin's  death  at  Rome,  for  the  journey  of  Maximus 
to  Aquileia  and  his  stay  there) ;  hence  Seeck  emends  menses  iii.  (for  menses  iiii. ), 
which  gives  17th  June  for  Maximin's  death.  He  calculates  that  the  siege  of 
Aquileia  began  in  the  beginning  or  middle  of  May. 

The  Chronicler  of  354  gives  ninety -nine  days  for  the  reign  of  Maximus  and 
Balbinus  ;  and  twenty  days  for  that  of  the  two  Gordians,  but  Seeck  shows 
from  Zonaras  (622  d.  ),  and  Glycas  (243  c. )  that  this  number  should  be  twenty- 
two.  Allowing  roughly  130  days  from  the  elevation  of  the  Gordians  to  the  fall 
of  Maximus  and  Balbinus,  we  get  24th  March,  as  the  latest  possible  date  for 
the  elevation  of  the  Gordians.  This  calculation  would  suit  Cod.  Just.  vii.  26,  5 
(Imp.  Gordianus  A.  Marino),  which  is  subscribed  xii.  Kal.  April  Pio  et  Pontiano 
Coss.,  and  would  prove  that  the  reign  of  Gordianus  began  before  2lst  March. 
But  we  should  have  to  emend  Impp.  Gordiam. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  this  plausible  reconstruction  of  Seeck  depends 
on  the  emendation  of  a  text. 

13.  AUTHORITIES  FOR  ORIENTAL  AFFAIRS— (Chapter  VIII. ) 

The  Armenian  writers:  Moses  of  Chorene,  History  of  Armenia;  Agathangelus, 
History  of  the  Reign  of  Tiridates  and  the  Preaching  of  Gregory  Hluminator 
(Mliller,  F.  H.  G.  v.  2 ;  transl.  by  V.  Langlois) ;  Faustus  of  Byzantium, 
Historical  Library  (ib.).  The  credibility  of  Moses  of  Chorene  is  examined  in  an 
important  article  by  Gutschmid  in  the  Berichte  der  kon.  sachs.  Gesellschaft  d. 
"Wissensch,  1876.  A.  Carriere  has  recently  attempted  to  show  (Nouvelles  Sources 
de  Mo'ise  de  Khoren,  1893)  that  the  work  of  Moses  belongs  not  to  the  latter  half 
of  the  fifth,  but  to  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century. 

Agathias,  the  Greek  historian,  who  wrote  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century, 
made  a  special  study  of  Sassanid  history,  and,  through  a  friend,  derived  infor- 
mation from  Persian  documents.  His  digression  on  the  origin  of  the  new 
Persian  kingdom  (bk.  ii.  26,  27)  is  important. 

Rawlinson's  Sixth  and  Seventh  Oriental  Monarchies  treat  of  the  Parthian 
and  new  Persian  periods  respectively.  Gutschmid,  Geschichte  Irans  von  Alexander 
dem  Grossen  bis  zum  Untergang  der  Arsaciden,  1888.  Justi,  Geschichte  Persiens. 
Noldeke,  Geschichte  der  Perser  und  Araber  zur  Zeit  der  Sassaniden,  1879. 
Scbneiderwirth,  Die  Parther,  1874.     Drexler,  Caracallas  Zug  nach  dem  Orient. 

14.  THE  ZEND  A  VESTA— (P.  197  sqq.) 

The  first  European  translation  of  the  Avesta  was  made  by  Anquetil  du 
Perron,  and  appeared  (in  3  vols. )  in  1771,  just  in  time  for  Gibbon  to  make  use 
of.  The  appearance  of  this  work  aroused  a  storm  of  controversy,  chiefly  in 
England,  and  it  is  interesting  to  observe  that  Gibbon  was  among  those  wh» 


APPENDIX  457 

accepted  the  Avesta  as  genuine  documents  of  the  Zoroastrian  religion.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  say  that  in  the  present  century  their  antiquity  has  been 
abundantly  confirmed. 

The  Avesta  is  a  liturgical  collection  of  fragments  from  older  texts,  and  is  (as 
M.  Darmesteter  remarks)  more  like  a  prayer-book  than  a  Bible.  It  consists  of 
two  parts,  of  which  the  first  (1)  contains  the  Vendidad,  the  Visperad,  and  the 
Yasna.  The  Vendidad  (a  corruption  of  vldaevo-dAtern  —  " antidemoniac  law") 
consists  of  religious  laws  and  legendary  tales;  the  Visperad,  of  litanies  for 
sacrifice  ;  and  the  Yasna,  of  litanies  also,  and  five  hymns  in  an  older  dialect  than 
the  rest  of  the  work.  The  second  part  (2)  is  the  Small  Avesta,  a  collection  of 
short  prayers. 

Two  questions  arise  :  (a)  "When  was  the  Avesta  compiled  ?  (b)  What  is  the 
origin  of  the  older  texts  which  supplied  the  material  ? 

_  (a)  It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  Avesta  was  first  collected  under  the  Sassa- 
nids.  But  it  is  stated  in  a  Pahlavi  authority  that  the  collection  was  begun  under 
the  Arsacids  (having  been  ordered  by  King  Valkash  or  Vologeses)  and  completed 
under  the  Sassanid  Shapur  II.  in  the  fourth  century  (a.d.  309-380).  If  this  is 
true,  we  must  modify  the  usual  view  of  the  revival  of  Mazdeism  by  Ardeshir  the 
first  Sassanid,  and  regard  his  religious  movement  as  merely  the  thorough  realiza- 
tion of  an  idea  derived  from  the  Parthian  princes.  M.  Darmesteter  concludes  his 
discussion  of  the  question  thus  (Introduction  to  his  translation  of  the  Zend 
Avesta,  p.  xxxv.) :  "It  can  be  fairly  admitted,  that  even  in  the  time  and  at  the 
court  of  the  Philhellenic  Parthians  a  Zoroastrian  movement  may  have  originated, 
and  that  there  came  a  time  when  they  perceived  that  a  national  religion  is  a  part 
of  national  life.  It  was  the  merit  of  the  Sassanids  that  they  saw  the  drift  of  this 
idea  which  they  had  the  good  fortune  to  carry  out."  It  would  of  course  be  vain 
to  attempt  to  determine  which  of  the  four  or  five  kings  named  Vologeses 
originated  the  collection.  The  completion  under  Shapur  II.  is  an  established 
fact. 

(b)  As  to  the  older  texts  from  which  the  Avesta  was  put  together,  Darmesteter 
concludes  that  "  the  original  texts  of  the  Avesta  were  not  written  by  the  Persians. 
.  .  .  They  were  written  in  Media  by  the  priests  of  Ragha  and  Atropatene  in  the 
language  of  Media,  and  they  exhibit  the  ideas  of  the  sacerdotal  class  under  the 
Achaemenian  dynasty." 

There  is  a  Parsi  tradition  that  of  twenty -one  original  books  the  Vendidad  is 
the  sole  remaining  one.  But  Zend  scholars  seem  uncertain  as  to  how  far  this 
tradition  is  to  be  accepted.  For  the  original  religion  of  Ahura-mazda,  as  it 
existed  under  the  Achaemenians,  our  sources  are  (1)  the  inscriptions  of  Darius 
and  his  successors,  and  (2)  Herodotus  and  other  Greek  writers. 

Those  who  wish  to  know  more  of  the  Avesta  and  the  Zoroastrian  religion 
may  be  sent  to  M.  Darmesteter's  translation  of  the  Vendidad  (vol.  iv.  of  the 
"Sacred  Books  of  the  East")  and  his  admirable  Introduction,  to  which  I  am 
indebted  for  the  summary  in  this  note.  This  translation  has  superseded  those  of 
Spiegel  and  De  Harlez  ;  but  it  must  be  observed  that  the  students  of  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Persians  constantly  disagree  in  a  very  marked  way,  in  translation  as 
well  as  in  interpretation. 

15.  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  GOTHS ;  AND  THE  GOTHIC  HISTORY 
OF  JORDANES— (P.  239  sqq.) 

The  earliest  mention  of  the  Goths  of  which  we  have  any  record  occurred  in  the 
work  of  Pytheas  of  Massilla,  who  lived  towards  the  end  of  the  fourth  centuiy  b.c. 
and  is  famous  as  the  earliest  explorer  of  the  North.  His  good  faith  has  been 
called  in  question  by  some  ancient  writers,  but  the  moderns  take  a  more 
favourable  view  of  his  work,  so  far  as  it  is  known  from  the  references  of  such 
writers  as  Strabo  and  Pliny.  (See  Mullenhoff,  Deutsche  Alterthumskunde,  I.) 
His  notice  of  the  Goths  is  cited  by  Pliny,  Nat.  Hist,  xxxvii.  2  :  Pytheas  Guttoni- 
bns  Germaniae  genti  accoli  aestuarium  Oceani  Mentonomon  nomine  spatio 
stadiorum  sex  milia  ;  ab  hoc  diet  naviyationc  insulam  abesse  Abalvm.    The  names 


458  APPENDIX 

Abalum  and  Mentonomon  are  mysterious ;  but  there  seems  ground  for  inferring 
that  in  the  fourth  century  b.c.  the  Guttones  lived  in  the  same  regions  on  the 
shores  of  the  Baltic  which  they  occupied  in  the  first  century  a.d.  (Pliny,  Nat. 
Hist.  iv.  14 ;  Tacitus,  Germ.  43,  Gotones).  Nor  is  there  any  good  ground  for 
refusing  to  identify  the  Gotones  or  Guttones  of  the  first  century  with  the  Gothi 
of  the  third.  (See  Hodgkin,  Italy  and  her  Invaders,  vol.  i.  cap.  i.,  to  which  I 
would  refer  for  a  full  discussion,  as  well  as  to  Dahn's  Konige  der  Germanen. ) 

Our  chief  source  for  the  early  history  of  the  Goths  is  the  Getica  (or  de 
origine  actibusque  Getarum)  of  Jordanes  (whom  it  was  formerly  usual  to  call 
Jornandes,  a  name  which  appears  only  in  inferior  Mss.).  Jordanes  (a  Christian 
name  suggesting  the  river  Jordan)  was  a  native  of  Lower  Moesia,  and  lived  in 
the  sixth  century  in  the  reign  of  Justinian.  It  is  not  quite  certain  to  what 
nationality  he  belonged ;  but  it  is  less  probable  that  he  was  a  genuine  Goth  or 
even  a  Teuton  than  that  he  was  of  Alanic  descent.  A  certain  Candac  had  led  a 
mixed  body  of  barbarians,  Scyri,  Sadagarii  and  Alans  (see  Get.  1.  265)  into 
Lower  Moesia  and  Scythia  ;  they  had  settled  in  the  land,  assimilated  themselves 
to  the  surrounding  Goths,  and  adopted  the  Gothic  name,  more  illustrious  than 
their  own.  The  grandfather  of  Jordanes  had  been  a  notary  of  Candac,  and 
Jordanes  himself  was  secretary  of  Candac's  nephew  Gunthigis.  This  connexion 
of  the  family  of  Jordanes  with  a  family  which  was  certainly  not  Gothic,  com- 
bined with  the  name  of  his  father  Alanoviimuthes,  leads  us  to  conclude  that 
Jordanes  was  an  Alan ; a  and  this  was  quite  consistent  with  his  being  an  ardent 
"Goth".  The  small  Alanic  settlement  of  Moesia  merged  itself  in  the  Gothic 
people,  just  as  the  larger  Alanic  population  of  Spain  merged  itself  in  the  Vandalic 
nation.  Beginning  life  as  a  scribe,  Jordanes  ended  it  as  a  monk  (Getica,  1.  266), 
perhaps  as  a  bishop ;  it  has  been  proposed  to  identify  him  with  a  bishop  of 
Croton  who  lived  at  the  same  time  and  bore  the  same  name  (Mansi,  ix.  60). 

Jordanes  wrote  his  Getica  in  the  year  551.  It  was  unnecessary  for  him  to 
say  that  he  had  no  literary  training  {agrammatus) ;  this  fact  is  written  large  all 
over  his  work.  He  states  that  his  book  was  the  result  of  a  three  days'  study  of 
the  Gothic  History  of  Cassiodorius  the  learned  minister  of  Theodoric.  The  fact 
is  that  the  Getica  is  simply  an  abridgment  of  the  larger  work  of  Cassiodorius  (in 
twelve  books) ;  and  modern  critics  (Usener,  Hodgkin)  not  unreasonably  question 
the  ' '  three  days  "  of  Jordanes.  Thus,  when  we  are  dealing  with  Jordanes,  we 
are  really,  in  most  cases,  dealing  with  Cassiodorius  ;  and  the  spirit,  the  tendency, 
of  Cassiodorius  is  faithfully  reflected  in  Jordanes.  To  praise  the  Gothic  race,  and 
especially  the  Amal  line  to  which  Theodoric  belonged,  was  the  aim  of  that 
monarch's  minister ;  Jordanes  writes  in  the  same  spirit  and  echoes  the  antipathy 
to  the  Vandals  which  was  expressed  by  Cassiodorius.  There  are,  however,  also 
certain  original  elements  in  the  Getica.  There  is  a  significant  contrast  between 
the  knowledge  of  the  geography  of  the  eastern  provinces  of  the  Balkan  peninsula 
and  the  ignorance  of  the  rest  of  the  empire,  which  are  displayed  in  this  treatise. 
The  stress  laid  on  the  institution  of  Gothic  foederati  may  be  attributed  rather  to 
the  Moesian  subject  of  the  empire  than  to  the  minister  of  the  independent 
Ostrogothic  kingdom. 

One  of  the  features  of  the  lost  work  of  Cassiodorius  was  the  manufacture  of 
an  ancient  history  for  the  Goths  by  the  false  identification  of  that  race  with  the 
Getae  and  with  the  Scythians.  The  former  confusion  was  suggested  by  the 
resemblance  of  name,  the  latter  by  the  geographical  comprehensiveness  of  the 
term  Scythia,  which  embraced  all  the  peoples  of  the  North  before  they  appeared 
on  the  scene  of  history.  These  fanciful  reconstructions  are  eagerly  adopted  by 
Jordanes. 

It  may  be  well  doubted  whether  Jordanes  consulted  on  his  own  account 
another  writer  on  Gothic  history,  Ablavius  (cp.  Gibbon,  chap.  x.  note  5),  who  is 
merely  a  name  to  us.     He  cites  him  with  praise  (iv.   28  and  elsewhere);    but 

1  There  are  internal  confirmations  of  this  conclusion, — signs  of  a  special  interest  taken 
by  Jordanes  in  the  Alans ;  see  Getica,  xv.  83,  xxiv.  126-7,  xliii.  226.  See  Momrosen, 
Prooemium  to  his  edition,  p.  x. 


APPENDIX  459 

there  is  little  doubt  that  the  laudatory  references  are  derived  from  Cassiodorius. 
On  the  other  hand  it  may  be  supposed  that  Jordanes,  living  among  Goths, 
counting  himself  as  a  Goth,  had  some  independent  knowledge  of  old  Gothic 
legends  and  songs  to  which  he  refers  as  mentioned  by  Ablavius  (ib.,  quem  ad 
modum  et  in  priscis  eorum  carminibus  pene  storico  ritu,  &c. ).  The  emigration  of 
the  Goths  from  Scandzia,  the  island  of  the  far  north,  their  coming  to  the  land  of 
Oium,  and  battle  with  the  Spali,  are  not  indeed  historical,  but  are  a  genuine 
Gothic  legend ;  and  stand  on  quite  a  different  footing  from  the  Getic  and  Scythian 
discoveries  of  Cassiodorius. 

The  other  work  of  Jordanes,  a  summary  of  Roman  history  (entitled  de  summa 
temporum  vel  origine  actibusque  gentis  Romanorum,  usually  cited  as  Romana), 
written  partly  before,  partly  after,  the  Getica,  does  not  concern  us  here.  An 
account  of  the  sources  of  both  works  will  be  found  in  Mommsen's  exhaustive 
Procemium  to  his  splendid  edition  in  the  Monumenta  Germanise  historica  (1882), 
from  which  for  this  brief  notice  I  have  selected  a  few  leading  points.  The 
reader  may  also  be  referred  to  the  clear  summary  and  judicious  discussion  of 
Mr.  Hodgkin  in  the  introduction  and  appendix  to  the  first  chapter  of  his  Italy 
and  her  Invaders,  and  to  Mr.  Acland's  article  "Jordanes"  in  the  Dictionary  of 
Christian  Biography. 

Some  other  points  in  connexion  with  Jordanes  will  call  for  notice  when  we 
come  to  his  own  time. 

16.  VISIGOTHS  AND  OSTROGOTHS— (P.  242) 

"We  cannot  say  with  certainty  at  what  period  the  Gothic  race  was  severed 
into  the  nations  of  East  and  West  Goths.  The  question  is  well  discussed  by 
Mr.  Hodgkin,  in  Italy  and  her  Invaders,  chap.  i.  Appendix. 

The  name  Ostrogoth  occurs  first  in  the  Life  of  Claudius  Gothicus  in  the 
Historia  Augusta  (written  about  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century),  and  next  in 
Claudian,  in  Eutrop.  ii.  153  (at  the  end  of  the  same  century).  Our  first  testimony 
to  the  existence  of  the  Visigothic  name  is  later.  In  the  fifth  century  Sidonius 
Apollinaris  speaks  of  the  Vesi  in  two  places  (Pan.  in  Avit.  456 ;  Pan.  in  Major. 
458).  Is  there  any  ground  for  inferring  that  the  Ostrogothic  name  is  the  older? 
It  looks  rather  as  if  at  first  (c.  300-4tX))  the  distinction  was  between  Ostrogoths 
and  Goths  ;  and  that  the  name  Visigoth  was  a  later  appellation. 

"We  must  emphatically  reject  the  view  that  Gruthungi  and  Thervingi  were  old 
names  for  Ostrogoths  and  Visigoths  respectively  and  expressed  the  same  distinc- 
tion. Mr.  Hodgkin  has  noticed  the  objections  supplied  by  the  passages  iu  the 
Vita  Claudii  and  Claudian ;  and  they  are  decisive. 

17.  THE  DEFEAT  OF  VALERIAN,  AND  THE  DATE  OF 

CYRIADES— (P.  270) 

Valerian  set  out  in  257,  held  a  council  of  war  in  Byzantium  at  the  beginning  of 
258  (Hist.  Aug.  xxvi.  13).  Thence  he  proceeded  to  Cappadocia.  The  north 
coasts  of  Asia  Minor  were  suffering  at  this  time  from  the  invasions  of  the 
Germans,  and  it  has  been  conjectured  that  there  may  have  been  an  understanding 
between  the  European  and  Asiatic  enemies  of  the  Empire  (as  sometimes  in  later 
ages ;  as  once  before  in  the  days  of  Decebalus),  and  that  Valerian  aimed  at 
preventing  a  junction  of  Persians  and  Goths.  Vict.  Parthica  on  coins  in  259  a.d. 
point  to  a  victory  perhaps  near  Edessa  Where  Valerian  was  captured  is  un- 
certain. Cedrenus  says  in  Caesarea  (i.  p.  454) ;  the  anonymous  Continuator  of 
Dion  suggests  the  neighbourhood  of  Samosata.  The  date  is  uncertain  too.  There 
is  no  trace  of  Valerian  after  260  a.d.  Inscriptions  and  sculptures  on  the  rocks  of 
Nakshi  Paistan  have  been  supposed  to  commemorate  the  Persian  victory. 

Gibbor.  in  his  "probable  series  of  events  "has  distinctly  gone  wrong.  Two 
things  are  certain  :  (1)  Sapor  was  twice  at  Antioch,  and  (2)  Cyriades  fell  before 
Valerian.  The  first  visit  of  the  Persian  monarch  to  Antioch  was  in  the  summer 
of   256,  whither  he   was  accompanied  by  Cyriades  (also  called  Mariades,   see 


460  APPENDIX 

MlLUer,  F.  H.  G.  iv.  p.  192),  whom  he  had  set  up  in  that  city  as  a  Persian 
vassal.  Antioch  was  won  back  in  the  same  year  or  in  257  ;  Cyriades  was  torn  to 
pieces  by  the  inhabitants,  and  the  Persians  were  massacred.  See  Ammian,  xxiii. 
5 ;  Hist.  Aug.  xxiv.  2.  The  second  visit  of  Sapor  to  Antioch  was  after  the 
capture  of  Valerian.     See  Aur.  Victor,  Ca?sar.  33,  3. 

18.  THE  PRETENDERS  IN  THE  REIGN  OF  GALLIENTJS,  KNOWN 
AS  THE  THIRTY  TYRANTS— (P.  275) 

Fati publici  fuit,  says  Trebellius  Pollio,  who  recorded  the  deeds  of  the  tyrants 
in  the  Augustan  History,  ut  Gallieni  tempore  quicwiique  potuit,  ad  imperium 
prosiliret.  Gibbon  recognized  that  the  significance  of  these  shadow-emperors 
was  only  "collective";  they  all  vanished  rapidly;  the  emperor's  power  always 
proved  superior.  Their  simultaneous  appearance  only  illustrates  vividly  the 
general  disintegration  of  the  Empire. 

It  may  be  well,  however,  to  add  a  few  details,  chiefly  references,  to  the 
succinct  account  of  Gibbon.     I  take  them  in  the  order  of  his  list. 

(1)  Cyriades.     See  p.  270,  and  Appendix  17. 

(2,  Macrianus.  The  generals  Macrianus  and  Balista  caused  the  two  sons  of 
the  former,  T.  Fulvius  Junius  Macrianus  and  T.  Fulvius  Junius  Quietus,  to  be 
proclaimed  emperors  (261  a.d.  ;  see  Hist.  Aug.  Vita  Gall.  1,  2).  It  is  a  question 
whether  Macrianus  their  father  (he  to  whom  Gibbon  imputed  the  blame  of 
Valerian's  disaster)  assumed  the  purple  also.  There  can,  I  think,  be  no  doubt 
that  he  did  not.  We  have  («)  the  negative  evidence  that  no  coins  which  can  be 
certainly  ascribed  to  him  and  not  to  his  son  are  forthcoming ;  (b)  the  story  of  his 
refusal  in  Hist.  Aug.  xxiv.  7-11 ;  and  (c)  the  positive  statement  of  Zonaras,  xii. 
24.  Against  this  we  have  to  place  the  apparent  statement  in  Hist.  Aug.  xxiii. 
1,  2-4  (I  say  apparent,  because  the  passage  is  mutilated),  and  the  clear  statement 
in  xxiv.  12,  12,  which  is  glaringly  inconsistent  with  the  immediately  preceding 
narrative.  Macrianus  is  described  as  refusing  the  empire  on  the  ground  of  old 
age  and  bodily  weakness,  and  casting  the  burden  on  his  sons.  Balista,  who  had 
offered  him  the  empire,  agrees  :  and  then  the  narrative  proceeds:  "Macrianus 
promises  (clearly  in  the  name  of  his  sons)  a  double  donation  to  the  soldiers  and 
hurls  threats  against  Gallienus ;  accordingly  he  was  made  emperor  along  with 
Macrianus  and  Quietus  his  two  sons,"  as  if  this  were  the  logical  outcome  of  the 
proceedings.     From  this  evidence  there  can  I  think  be  only  one  conclusion. 

(3)  Balista.  He  has  even  less  claim  than  the  elder  Macrianus  to  a  place 
among  the  tyrants ;  like  Macrianus  he  was  only  a  tyrant-maker.  Hist.  Aug. 
xxiv.  12,  4,  and  18. 

(4)  Odenathus.  The  ground  for  placing  Odenathus  among  the  tyrants  seems 
to  be  that  he  assumed  the  title  of  king  (Hist.  Aug.  xxiv.  15,  2)  and  that  he  had 
great  power  in  the  East.  But  a  tyrant  means  one  who  rebels  against  the  true 
emperor  and  usurps  the  Imperial  title.  Odenathus  never  rebelled  against 
Gallienus  and  never  usurped  the  title  Augustus  (2e/3ao~rd5)  or  the  title  Caesar.  He 
supported  the  interests  of  Gallienus  in  the  East  and  overthrew  the  real  tyranny 
which  was  set  up  by  Macrianus.  For  his  services  Gallienus  rewarded  him  by  the 
title  of  oiuTo/cpaTwp  or  impcrator,  an  unusual  title  to  confer,  but  not  necessarily 
involving  Imperial  dignity.  (This  title  is  enough  to  account  for  the  statement 
in  Hist.  Aug.  xxiii.  12,  1.)  As  a  king  he  held  the  same  position  that,  for 
instance,  Agrippa  held  under  Claudius.  An  inscription  of  a  statue  which  two  of 
his  generals  erected  in  his  honour  in  271  a.d.  has  been  preserved  (de  Vogue, 
Syrie  centrale,  p.  28)  and  there  he  is  entitled  king  of  kings.  This,  as  Schiller 
says  (i.  838),  should  be  decisive. 

(5)  Zenobia.  What  applies  to  Odenathus  applies  to  Zenobia  as  far  as  the 
reign  of  Gallienus  is  concerned.  She  received  the  title  SejSao-nj  in  Egypt,  but  not 
till  after  271  and  doubtless  with  the  permission  of  Claudius. 

(6)  Postumus.  (See  note  86,  p.  256.)  He  made  his  residence  at  Trier,  was 
acknowledged  in  Spain  and  Britain,  and  seems  to  have  taken  effective  measures 


APPENDIX  461 

for  the  tranquillity  and  security  of  Gaul.  In  262  he  celebrated  his  quinquennalia 
(Eckhel,  vii.  438).  His  coinage  is  superior  to  that  of  the  lawful  emperors  of  the 
time  ;  it  did  not  pass  current  in  Italy,  and  the  Imperial  money  was  excluded  from 
Gaul  (Mommsen,  Rom.  Miinzwesen,  815).  It  is  important  to  observe  that 
Postumus  was  faithful  to  the  idea  of  Rome.  He  was  not  in  any  sense  a 
successor  of  Sacrovir,  Vindex  and  Classicus;  he  had  no  thought  of  an  anti- 
Roman  imperium  Galliarum. 

(7)  Lollianus.  This  is  the  form  of  the  name  in  our  Mss.  of  his  Life  in  the 
Historia  Augusta  (xxiv.  5) ;  his  true  name,  Cornelius  Ulpianus  Laelianus,  is 
preserved  on  coins  (Cohen,  v.  CO).  In  a  military  mutiny  (268  a.d.,  in  his 
fifth  consulship)  Postumus  was  slain  and  Laelianus  elevated.  The  new  tyrant 
marched  against  the  Germans,  who  had  taken  advantage  of  this  struggle  (subita 
irruptione  Germanorum)to  invade  theempire  and  destroy  the  forts  which  Postumus 
during  the  year  of  his  rule  had  erected  on  the  frontier ;  but  he  was  slain  by  his 
soldiers, — it  is  said,  because  he  was  too  energetic,  quod  in  labore  nimius  esset 
(Hist.  Aug.  xxiv.  5).  Victorinus,  who  succeeded  him,  had  probably  something  to 
do  with  his  death. 

(8)  Victorinus.  In  265  a.d.  Gallienus  sent  Aureolus  to  assert  his  authority  in 
Gaul  against  Postumus.  In  the  course  of  the  war,  an  Imperial  commander  M. 
Piauvonius  Victorinus  deserted  to  the  tyrant,  who  welcomed  him  and  created  him 
Caesar.  Victorinus  obtained  supreme  power  after  the  death  of  Laelianus.  He 
reigned  but  a  few  months  ;  his  death  is  noticed  by  Gibbon  in  chap.  xi. 

Victoria  or  Victorina.  The  mother  of  Victorinus  (see  chap.  xi.).  Her  coins 
are  condemned  as  spurious  (Cohen,  5,  75). 

(9)  Marius.  M.  Aurelius  Marius  ;  Eckhel,  vii.  454.  According  to  Hist.  Aug. 
xxiv.  8.  1,  he  reigned  only  three  days  after  the  death  of  Victorinus.  Perhaps  he 
survived  Victorinus  by  three  days,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  arose  as  a 
tyrant,  at  an  earlier  date,  perhaps  immediately  after  the  death  of  Postumus.  If 
he  had  reigned  only  three  days,  it  is  unlikely  we  should  have  his  coins.  Com- 
pare Schiller,  i.  856. 

(10)  Tetricus.     (See  chap,  xi.) 

(11)  Ingenuus.  His  tyranny  was  set  up  in  Pannonia  and  Moesia  in  the  same 
year  as  that  of  Postumus  in  Gaul  (258  a.d.).  He  was  defeated  by  Aureolus  at 
Mursa — the  scene  of  the  defeat  of  a  more  famous  tyrant  in  later  times — and 
slain,  at  his  own  request,  by  his  shield-bearer. 

(12)  Regillianus.  A  Dacian,  who  held  the  post  of  dux  of  Illyricum  ;  his  true 
name  was  Regalianus,  preserved  on  coins  and  in  one  Ms.  of  the  Historia  Augusta. 
He  had  won  victories  against  the  Sarmatians,  and  his  name,  in  its  corrupt  form, 
lent  itself  to  the  declension  of  rex:  "rex,  regis,  regi,  Regi-lianus"  (Hist.  Aug. 
xxiv.  10,  5).  But  his  reign  lasted  only  for  a  moment.  His  elevation  was  probably 
due  to  disaffection  produced  by  the  hard  measures  adopted  by  Gallienus  in 
Pannonia  when  he  suppressed  the  revolt  of  Ingenuus. 

(13)  Aureolus.     (See  chap,  xi.) 

(14)  Saturninus.  Of  him  we  know  nothing.  See  Hist.  Aug.  xxiv.  23,  and 
xxiii.  9,  1. 

(15)  Trebellianus.  See  Hist.  Aug.  xxiv.  26 ;  beyond  what  is  stated  there  we 
know  nothing.  Palatiuni  in  arce  Isauriae  constituit.  He  was  slain  by  an 
Egyptian,  brother  of  the  man  who  slew  ./Emilianus,  tyrant  in  Egypt,  see  below. 

(16)  Piso.  It  is  probably  a  mistake  to  include  Piso  among  the  tyrants.  He 
belonged  to  the  party  of  Macrianus  (see  above),  who  in  261  sent  him  to  Greece  to 
overpower  the  governor  Valens.  But  a  curious  thing  happened.  Piso,  who 
had  come  in  the  name  of  a  tyrant,  supported  the  cause  of  the  lawful  emperor 
Gallienus  (see  Hist.  Aug.  xxiv.  21,  4),  while  Vaiens,  who  represented  the  cause 
of  Gallienus,  revolted,  and  became  a  tyrant  himself.  Both  Piso  and  Valens  were 
slain  by  their  soldiers  ; — the  news  of  Piso's  death  had  reached  Rome  by  the  25th 
June  (Hist.  Aug.  ib.  3). 

(17)  Valens.     See  last  note. 

(18)  iEmilianus.  He  threatened  to  starve  the  empire,  which  depended  for 
corn  on  Egypt.     There  are  no  genuine  coins  of  this  tyrant. 


462  APPENDIX 

(19)  Celsus.  Elevated  by  the  proconsul  of  Africa  and  the  dux  limitis  Libyci. 
Hist.  Aug.  xxiv.  29. 

Of  these  nineteen,  Macrianus,  Balista,  Odenathus,  Zenobia,  and  Piso  have  no 
claim  to  be  regarded  as  tyrants.  But  the  places  of  Macrianus  the  father  and 
Balista  may  be  filled  by  Macrianus  the  son.  and  Quietus.  Thus  the  number 
limeteen  is  reduced  to  sixteen. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  Pollio,  who,  as  Gibbon  says,  "expresses  the  most 
minute  anxiety  to  complete  the  number  "  of  the  thirty  tyrants,  and  as  we  have 
seen  includes  some  who  were  certainly  not  tyrants,  should  omit  two  names  of 
rebels    which    are  mentioned    by  Zosimus.     In  i.    38  (ed.    Mendelssohn)   this 

historian  says  :  er  tou'tu>  Si  firavnaravTuiv  ovitu  (Gallienus)  MfVopo?  Te  toO  Movpoixnov 
Kal  AvpioAov  KaX  ' KvtiovLvov  koX  irepuiv  -rr\ei6fuiv,      AureliuS  we  know  ;    ere'povs  TrAeiopas 

we  know  ;  but  who  were  Memor  and  Antoninus  ?  Are  they  mentioned  by  Pollio 
under  other  names  or  did  they  not  reach  the  length  of  an  Imperial  title  ?  Of 
Antoninus  as  far  as  I  know  we  hear  nowhere  else,  but  of  Memor  we  have  a  notice, 
in  a  fragment  of  the  Anonymous  Continuer  of  Dion  Cassius  (Miiller,  F.  H.  G.  iv. 
p.  193),  frag.  4,  where  the  mention  of  a  Theodotus  recalls  him  who  put  to  death 
^Emilianus  and  makes  us  think  of  Egypt.  (In  the  old  Stephanian  text  of 
Zosimus  KfiepoTrcK  is  read  instead  of  MeVopo?  ;  but  the  unknown  Ms.  used  by 
Stephanus  seems  to  have  been  worthless. ) 

19.  ZENOBIA— (P.  302  sqq. ) 

In  regard  to  Gibbon's  account  of  the  war  of  Aurelian  with  Zenobia,  the 
following  points  are  to  be  observed : — 

(1)  This  war  preceded  the  subjugation  of  Tetricus  and  Gaul. 

(2)  After  her  husband's  death  Zenobia  took  the  title  $a<rikt.<r<ro.,  and  while  her 
son  Wahballath  succeeded  to  his  father's  position  as  dux  Rovianorum  and  Lord 
of  Palmyra,  she  really  ruled.  The  name  Wahballath,  meaning  dea  dedit,  was 
rendered  in  Greek  by  'Aerjro-Siupo?. 

(3)  The  story  told  by  Gibbon  from  Hist.  Aug.  xxiii.  13,  that  Zenobia  defeated 
a  Roman  army  (under  one  Heraclian)  is  suspicious  (see  Schiller,  i.  859,  note  1); 
for  we  find  her  on  good  terms  with  the  Roman  government  immediately  after, 
and  she  recovers  Egypt,  which  was  under  the  usurper  Probatus,  for  Claudius, 
who  was  too  much  occupied  with  the  Gothic  danger  to  proceed  himself  against 
the  tyrant.  Her  son  AVahballath  governed  in  Egypt  as  the  representative  of 
Claudius,  and  the  circumstance  that  he  was  officially  named  /3ao-iAe0s  does  not 
imply  that  he  was  a  rebel. 

(4)  Aurelian  on  his  accession  270  a.d.  recognized  Wahballath  as  vir  consularis 
Romanorum  Imperator  dux  Romanorum  ;  he  appeared  beside  Aurelian  on  coins ; 
and  his  mother  assumed  the  title  Augusta. 

(5)  "Wahballath  began  to  issue  coins  without  the  head  of  Aurelian  and 
assumed  the  title  Augustus.  This  seems  to  have  been  a  consequence  of  an 
estrangement  from  the  Emperor ;  but  we  do  not  know  the  immediate  circum- 
stances. The  position  which  the  Palmyrene  family  occupied  was  obviously  in- 
consistent with  the  unity  of  the  Empire. 

(6)  The  following  stages  may  be  marked  in  the  course  of  the  war  :  (a)  Probus 
establishes  the  authority  of  Aurelian  in  Egypt,  and  the  forces  of  Zenobia  fail  at 
Chalcedon ;  (b)  Aurelian  takes  Ancyra  and  Tyana,  and  passes  into  Syria;  (c) 
Zenobia's  army  is  driven  from  Antioch,  and  (d)  defeated  at  Emesa;  (e)  the 
surrender  of  Palmyra  (early  in  272) ;  (/)  its  final  destruction  (spring  273). 

(7)  Von  Sallet,  who  has  thrown  much  light  on  this  episode  in  his  work  Die 
Fiirsten  von  Palmyra,  thinks  that  the  catastrophe  of  Palmyra  was  accomplished 
before  the  end  of  271.  But  there  are  serious  objections  to  his  chronology.  See 
Schiller,  i.  857-864. 

20.  CORRECTOR  ITALIC— ( P.  312! 

As  Gibbon  notices,  two  statements  are  made  in  the  Historia  Augusta,  as  to 
the   honourable  provision  which  Aurelian  made  for  Tetricus.     In  the  Life  of 


APPENDIX  463 

Tetricus  (xxiv,  24,  5)  we  read:  conrectorem  totius  Italics  fecit,  id  est, 
Campaniae,  Samni,  Lucanise,  Brittiorum  [Bruttii],  Apuliae,  Calabrise,  Etrurise 
atque  Umbrise,  Piceni  et  Flaminiae  omnisque  annonariae  regionis  ;  but  in  the  Life 
of  Aurelian  (xxvi.  39,  1)  Tetricum  triumphatum  correctorem  Lucania  fecit  (so 
Aurel.  Victor.  &c. ).  Both  statements  cannot  be  true,  and  Mommsen  (Ephem. 
epig.  i.  140)  has  proved  that  the  first  is  to  be  accepted  and  the  second  rejected. 

We  find  the  idea  of  a  governor  of  Italy  in  the  famous  advice  to  Augustus 
which  Dion  Cassius  (52,  21)  puts  in  the  mouth  of  Maecenas.  It  is  suggested  that 
Italy  beyond  a  circuit  of  a  hundred  miles  from  Borne  should  be  governed  like  the 
provinces.  But  as  early  as  214  we  find  C.  Suetrius  Sabinus,  a  consular,  as 
electus  ad  corrigendum  statum  Italia  (C.  I.  L.  x.  5398)  and  at  a  later  period 
Pomponius  Bassus  tTravop9u>rt\<;  7rao-7)5  'IraAias.  See  further  Mommsen,  loc.  cit.,  and 
Staatsrecht,  ii.  1086. 

Thus  we  find  that  correctors  of  all  Italy  were  occasionally  appointed,  during 
the  third  century.  Therefore,  Mommsen  argues  convincingly  (and  it  is  a  good 
instance  of  the  application  of  a  principle  of  historical  criticism),  the  notice  that 
Tetricus  was  corrector  Italice  is  the  true  one.  For  a  later  writer  to  whom 
correctors  of  Lucania  were  perfectly  familiar  would  never  have  changed  a  corrector 
Lucanice  into  a  corrector  Italia. 

21.  PROBUS  AND  THE  LIMES  GERMANICUS— (P.  331. 

The  statement  of  Gibbon  that  Probus  ' '  constructed  a  stone  wall  of  a  consider- 
able height,  and  strengthened  it  by  towers  at  convenient  distances"  is  not 
warranted  by  the  evidence,  which  consists  entirely  of  two  remarks  in  his  Life  in 
the  Hist.  Aug. : — 

(1)  c.  13.  contra  urbes  Romanas  et  castra  in  solo  barbarico  posuit  atque  illic 
milites  collocavit. 

(2)  c.  14.  sed  visum  est  id  non  posse  fieri  nisi  si  limes  Romanus  exteuderetur 
et  fieret  Germania  tota  provincia.  (id  refers  to  the  command  of  Probus,  that  the 
German  dependent  tribes  should  not  fight  themselves,  but,  when  attacked,  seek 
the  aid  of  the  Roman  army. ) 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  only  statement  of  fact  is  in  the  first  passage,  from 
which  we  learn  that  Probus  constructed  and  garrisoned  some  forts  on  soil  which 
was  then  barbarian.  The  second  passage  states  no  fact,  but  ventilates  a,  perhaps 
wild,  hypothesis. 

It  is  also  to  be  noticed  that  the  actual  Wall,  constructed  long  before  the  time  of 
Probus,  was  not  a  regular  wall  of  hewn  stone,  and  that  its  length  between  the 
points  that  Gibbon  roughly  marks  was  more  than  300  (not  "near  200")  miles. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  limes  ( both  the  trans-Rhenane  and  the  trans- 
Danubian)  was  probably  due  chiefly  to  Domitian  and  Hadrian. 

There  is  a  considerable  literature  on  the  Imperial  limes  ;  but  all  previous  works 
will  be  superseded  by  "Der  Obergermanischraetische  Limes  des  Romerreichs," 
edited  by  O.  von  Sarwey  and  F.  Hettner,  and  published  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Reichs-Limes-Kommission.     This  work  is  appearing  in  parts. 

22.  GERMAN  CAMPAIGNS  OF  DIOCLETIAN,  MAXIMIAN  AND 
CONSTANTIUS  (A.D.  285-299)— (P.  361  sqq.) 

(1)  There  was  a  campaign  in  spring  285,  against  German  invaders  of  the 
Danubian  regions,  in  consequence  of  which  Diocletian  assumed  the  title  of 
Germanicus  Maximus.     Cp.  Corp.  Insc.  Lat.  vi.  1116. 

(2)  In  286  the  Alamanni  (who,  pushed  by  the  Burgundians,  had  left  their  old 
abodes  on  the  Main  and  established  themselves  along  the  banks  of  the  Rhine, 
within  the  limes,  from  Mainz  to  Lake  Constance)  and  Burgundians  invaded  Gaul. 
Maximian  was  at  Mainz,  in  June  (Frag.  Vat.  271).  The  Heruls  and  Chaibones 
also  approached  the  frontier,  but  their  host  was  destroyed  by  Maximian,  who 


464  APPENDIX 

allowed  plague  and  famine  to  work  havoc  among  the  Alamannic  invaders.     See 
Mamertinus,  Pan.  Max.  v.  and  Genethl.  Max.  17. 

(3)  At  the  beginning  of  287  marauding  expeditions  had  to  be  repelled  and 
Maximian  won  back  some  territory  bevond  the  Rhine.  Mamertinus,  Pan.  Max. 
6,  10. 

(4)  291 ;  war  with  the  Franks,  of  whom  large  numbers  were  settled  in  lands  of 
the  Nervii  and  round  Trier.  Cp.  Incert.  Pan.  Constant.  Cses.  21,  Mamert. 
Genethl.  Max.  7. 

(5)  293,  summer;  Constantius,  having  taken  Gesoriacum,  invades  the  land  of 
the  Franks,  and,  returning  victorious,  settles  a  large  number  as  coloni  in  Gaul. 
It  has  been  conjectured  (Schiller,  ii.  132)  that  the  regions  of  the  Lower  Meuse  and 
Rhine  were  now  once  more  incorporated  in  the  Empire  as  the  province  of 
Germania  Secunda,  which  is  mentioned  in  the  List  of  provinces  found  at  Verona 
(see  Introduction,  p.  Ii.) 

(6)  After  the  recovery  of  Britain,  Constantius  busied  himself  with  the  fortifica- 
tion of  the  Rhine  frontier.  In  298  the  victories  of  Langres  and  Windisch 
(Vindonissa)  were  won  over  the  Alamanni. 

(7)  In  299  Constantius  invaded  the  land  of  the  Alamanni ;  Incert.  Pan. 
Constantio  Csbb.  2,  3. 

For  the  determination  of  the  chronology  Mommsen's  study  in  the  Abhand- 
lungen  of  the  Berlin  Academy,  1860,  is  invaluable. 

23.  DIOCLETIAN'S  TARIFF  OF  MAXIMUM  PRICES— (P.  377) 

The  most  celebrated  work  of  Diocletian  in  the  field  of  political  economy  was 
the  edict  (referred  to  by  Lactantius  in  De  Mort.  persecutorum,  7 ;  partial  copies  of 
it  have  been  discovered  since  Gibbon  wrote  in  the  form  of  inscriptions)  fixing 
maximum  prices  for  provisions  and  wages,  301  a.d.  See  Corp.  Insc.  Lat.  iii.  801 
sqq.  It  had  been  found  that,  notwithstanding  plenteous  harvests,  prices  and 
wages  went  up.  The  soldiers  especially  suffered,  and,  unable  to  purchase  their 
provisions  from  their  pay,  were  obliged  to  draw  upon  their  savings.  It  is  probable 
that  the  law  was  not  universal,  but  applied  only  to  those  provinces  which  were 
ruled  directly  by  Diocletian  ;  it  is  also  probable  that  it  was  enforced  only  for  a 
few  years.  For  a  full  discussion  see  Mommsen's  paper  in  the  Berichte  der  kon- 
sachsischen  Ges.  d.  Wissensch.,  phil.-hist.  klasse,  1851.  The  text  is  published  in 
a  convenient  form  by  Mommsen,  with  notes  by  Bliimner,  1693. 

The  monetary  reforms  of  Diocletian,  though  they  were  not  permanent,  have 
some  interest  in  connexion  with  this  edict.  He  coined  a  new  aureus  of  60  to  a 
pound  of  gold ;  he  restored  the  denarius  of  silver ;  and  introduced  some  new 
copper  coins.  The  relative  value  of  silver  to  gold  seems  to  have  been  determined 
at  14 '27  to  1.     See  Finlay,  Hist,  of  Greece,  vol.  1,  App.  1. 


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