
 
 <jo£5 ^ -A O
 
 '* 1 \ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 BY T.nE EDITOR, 
 
 The great work of Gibbon is indispensable to the 
 student of history. The hterature of Europe offers 
 no substitute for " The Decline and Fall of the Koivian 
 Empire." It has obtained undisputed possession, as 
 rightful occupant, of the vast period which it compre- 
 hends. However some subjects, which it embraces, 
 may have undergone more complete investigation, on 
 the general view of the whole period, this history is 
 the sole undisputed authority to which all defer, and 
 from which few appeal to the original writers, or to 
 more modern compilers.'/ The inherent interest of the 
 subject, the_[nex.haustible labor employed upon it ; the 
 immense condensation of matter ; the luminous arr 
 rang eme nt ; the general accuracy ; the style, which, 
 hovvcver monotonous from its uniform stateliness, and 
 sometimes wearisome from its elaborate ar^, is through- 
 out vigorous, animated, often picturesque, always com- 
 mands attention, always conveys its meaning with 
 emphatic energy, describes with singular breadth and 
 fidelity, and generalizes with unrivalled felicity of 
 expression ; all these high qualifications have secured,
 
 IV PREFACE BY THE EDfTOR 
 
 and seem likel y to secure, its pe rmanent, place in hjs- 
 toric literature. 
 
 This vast design of Gibbon, the magnificent whole 
 yinto which he has cast the decay and ruin of the 
 ancient civilization, the formation and birth of the 
 new order of things, will of itself, independent of the 
 laborious execution of his immense plan, render " The 
 Decline and Fall of t!ie Roman Empire" an unap- 
 proachable subject to the future historian :* in the 
 eloquent language of his recent French editor, M. 
 Guizot : — 
 
 " The gradual decline of the most extraordinary 
 dominion which has ever invaded and oppressed the 
 world ; the fall of that immense empire, erected on the 
 ruins of so many kingdoms, republics, and states both 
 barbarous and civilized; and forming in its turn, by 
 "ts dismemberment, a multitude of states, republics, 
 and kino;doms ; the annihilation of the reliiiion of 
 Greece and Rome ; the birth and the progress of the 
 two new religions which have shared the most beauti- 
 ful regions of the earth ; the decrepitude of the ancient 
 world, the spectacle of its expiring glory and degen- 
 rtrate manners ; the infancy of the modern world, the 
 picture of its first progress, of the new direction given 
 to the mind and character of man — such a subject 
 must necessarily fix the attention and excite the inter- 
 est of men, who cannot behold with indifference those 
 memorable epochs, during which, in the fine language 
 of Corneille — 
 
 ' Un grand destiu coniraeuce, un grand destin s'acbeve.' " 
 This extent and harmony of design is unquestion- 
 
 * A ccusidcrable ijortlon of this pi*efaco has already appeared before tsa 
 public in the Cluartcrlj- Review
 
 PREFAUK BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 ably that which distinguishes the work of Gibbon 
 from all other great historical compositions. He has 
 first bridged the abyss between ancient and modern 
 times, and connected together the two great worlds 
 of history. The great adv^antage which the classical 
 historians possess over those of modern times is in 
 unify of plan, of course greatly facilitated by the nar- 
 rower sphere to which their researches were confined. 
 I'jxcept Herodotus, the great historians of Greece — 
 we exclude the more modern compilers, like Diodorus 
 Siculus — limited themselves to a single period, or at 
 'east to the contracted sphere of Grecian affairs. As 
 far as the Barbarians trespassed within the Grecian 
 boundary, or were necessarily mingled up with Grecian 
 politics, they were admitted into the pale of Grecian 
 history ; but to Thucydides and to Xenophon, except- 
 ing in the Persian inroad of the latter, Greece was the 
 world. Natural unity confined their narrative almost 
 to chronological order, the episodes were of rare occur- 
 rence and extremely brief. To the Roman historians 
 the course was equally clear and defined. Rome was 
 their centre of unity ; and the uniformity with which 
 the circle of the Roman dominion spread around, the 
 egularity with which their civil polity expanded, 
 orced, as it were, upon the Roman historian that plan 
 which Polybius announces as the subject of his his- 
 tory, the means and the manner by which the whole 
 world became subject to the Roman sway. How dif- 
 ferent the complicated politics of tiie European king- 
 doms! Every national history, to be complete, must, 
 in a certain sense, be the history of Europe ; there is 
 Qo knowing to how remote a quarter il may be noces-
 
 71 PREFACE BY THE EDirOR. 
 
 sary to trace our most domestic events ; from a coun 
 try, how apparently disconnected, may originate the 
 impulse which chives its direction to the whole course 
 cf afilurs. 
 
 In imitation of his classical models, Gibbon places 
 ^{ome as the cardinal point from \vhich his inquiiies 
 iliverge, an d to which they bear constant reference; 
 yet how immeasurable the space over which those 
 inquiries range ! how complicated, how confused, how 
 apparently inexti'icable the causes which tend to the 
 decline of the Roman empire! how countless the 
 nations which swarm forth, in mingling and indistinct 
 hordes, constantly changing the geographical limits— 
 mcessantly confounding the natural boundaries! Ai 
 first sight, the whole period, the whole state of the 
 world, seems to offer no more secure footing to an 
 historical adventurer than the chaos of Milton — to be 
 in a state of irreclaimable disorder, best described in 
 the language of the poet : — 
 
 " A dark 
 
 Illimitable ocean, without bound, 
 
 Without dimension, -where length, breadth, and height, 
 
 And time, and place, are lost : where eldest Night 
 
 And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold 
 
 Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise 
 
 Of endless warf?, and by confusion stand." 
 
 / We feel that the uiiity and_Jharmony of n arra tive, 
 which shall comprehend this period of social disor- 
 gaiiizationj must be ascribed entirely to^ the skill and 
 luminous disposition of the historian. It is in this 
 ■ublime Gothic architecture of his work, in which thf
 
 PREFACE BY THE KDiTOR. Vt 
 
 boundless range, the infinite variety, the, at first sJL'ht, 
 jnconCTruous gorgeousness of the separate parts, nevjer- 
 theless are all subordinate to one main ap^predorni- 
 
 iiant i_dea, that Gibbon is vinrivalledl/We_cajnnot but 
 aflniire the manner in which he masses his materiaisX^ 
 iiia arranges his facts in successive groups, not acc(jr(l- y' 
 mg to chronologica l ord er, but to their moral or politi- 
 cal connection ; the distinctness, with which he marks 
 his periods of gradually increasing decay ; and the 
 skill with which, though advancing on separate paral- 
 lels of history, he shows the common tendency of the 
 slower or more rapid religious or civil innovations. 
 However these principles of composition may demand 
 more than ordinary attention on the part of the reader, 
 they can alone impress upon the memory the real 
 course, and the relative importance of the events. 
 Whoever would justly appreciate the superiority of 
 Gibbon's lucid arrangement, should attempt to make 
 his way through the regular but w^earisome annals of 
 Tiliemont, or even the less ponderous volumes of Le 
 Beau. Both these writers adhere, almost entirely, to 
 chronological order ; the consequence is, that we are 
 twenty times called upon to break off, and resume the 
 thread of six or eight wars in different parts of the 
 empire ; to suspend the operations of a military expe« 
 dition for a court intrigue; to hurry away from a 
 siege to a council ; and the same page places us in the 
 middle of a campaign against the barbarians, an^ in 
 the depths of the Monophysite controversy .(^In Gib- 
 uon it is not always easy to bear in mind the exao). 
 dates but the course of events is ever clear and 
 distinct ; like a skilful general, tjough his troop*
 
 Vlil PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 advance from the most remote and opposite quarterSi 
 tney are constantly bearing down and concentrating 
 themselves on one point — that which is still occupied 
 by the name, and by the waning power of Rome 
 Whether he traces the progress of hostile religions, oi 
 leads fi'om the shores of the Baltic, or the verge of the 
 Chinese empire, the successive hosts of barbarians— 
 :hough one wave ha.-^ hardly burst and discharged 
 itself, before another swells up and approaches— all is 
 made to flow in the same direction, and the impression 
 wh ich each m akes upon the tottering fabric of the 
 Roman greatness, connects their distant mov emen ts, 
 and m easures the relative importance assigned to them 
 in^ the jpanoramic history. The more peaceful and 
 didactic episodes on the development of the Roman 
 law, or even on the details of ecclesiastical history, 
 interpose themselves as resting-places or divisions 
 between the periods of barbaric invasion. In short, 
 though distracted first by the two capitals, and aftei 
 wards by the formal partition of the empire, the ex- 
 traordinary felicity of arrangement maintains an order 
 and a regular progression. As our horizon expands to 
 t eveal to us the gathering tempests which are forming 
 lar beyond the boundaries of the civilized world — as 
 we follow their successive approach to the trembling 
 frontier — the compressed and receding line is still 
 distinctly visible ; though gradually dismembered and 
 the broken fragments assuming the form of regular 
 slates and kingdoms, the real relation of those king- 
 doms to the empire is maintained and defined ; and 
 even when the Roman dominion has shrunk into little 
 more than the province of Thrace — when the name
 
 FREFACE BY TJIE EDIIUR IS 
 
 1/ Komtf • vOiifined, in Italy, to the walls of the cilj 
 — yet il i.s si il the memory, the shade of the Roman 
 gieatness, which extends over the wide sphere into 
 which the historian expands his later narrative ; the 
 svliole blends into the unity, and is manifestly essenliai 
 In the double catastrophe of his tragic drama. 
 
 But the amplitude, the magnificence, o^_the hai*- 
 mony of design, are, though imposing, yet unwortjiy 
 cla ims on our admiration, unless ' the details are filled 
 ^ip wit h correctness and accuracy. No writer has 
 been more severely tried on this point than Gibbon. 
 He has undergone the triple scrutiny of theological 
 zeal quickened by just resentment, of literary emula- 
 tion, and of that mean and invidious vanity which 
 delights in detecting; errors in writers of established 
 fame. On the result of the trial, we may be permitted 
 to summon competent witnesses before we deliver our 
 own judgment. 
 
 M. Guizot, in his preface, after stating that in 
 France and Germany, as well as in England, in the 
 most enlightened countries of Europe, Gibbon is con- 
 stantly cited as an authority, thus proceeds : — 
 
 "I have had occasion, during my labors, to consult 
 the writings of philosophers, who have treated on the 
 finances of the Roman empire ; of scholars, who have 
 investigated the chronology ; of theologians, who have 
 searched the depths of ecclesiastical history ; of 
 writers on law, who have studied with care the Roman 
 jurisprudence ; of Orientalists, who have occu])icd 
 themselves with the Arabians and the Koran ; of 
 modern historians, who have entered upon extensive 
 researches touching the crusades and their influence ;
 
 X PREFACE 3Y THE EDITOR. 
 
 each of these writers has remarked and pointed oul, 
 in tiie ' History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman 
 Empire,' some negligences, some false or imperfect 
 views some omissions, which it is impossible not to 
 sui)})0se voluntary ; they have rectified some facts, 
 20jnbated with advantage some assertions ; but in 
 jieiieral they have taken the researches and the ideas 
 of Gibbon, as points of departm'e, or as proofs of the 
 researches or of the new opinions v/hich they have 
 advanced." 
 
 M. Guizot goes on to state his own impressions on 
 reading Gibbon's history, and no authority will have 
 greater weight with those to whom the extent and ac- 
 curacy of his historical researches are known : — 
 
 " After a first rapid perusal, which allowed me to 
 feel nothing but the interest of a narrative, a'vvays 
 animated, and, notwithstanding its extent and the 
 variety of objects which it makes to pass before the 
 view, always perspicuous, I entered upon a minute 
 examination of the details of which it was composed ; 
 and the opinion which I then formed was, I confess, 
 singularly severe. I discovered, in certain chapters, 
 errors which appeared to me sufficiently important 
 and numerous to make me believe that they had been 
 written with extreme negligence ; in others, I was 
 struck with a certain tinge of partiality and prejudice, 
 which imparted to the exposition of the facts that 
 want of truth and justice, which the English express 
 by their happy term misrepresentation. Some imper- 
 fect {tronquces) quotations ; some passages, omitted 
 unintentionally or designedly cast a suspicion on IK'S 
 honesty (bonne foi) of the author ; and his violatioD
 
 PREFACE BY ThE EDITOR. C 
 
 of the first law of history — increased to my eye by 
 the prolonged attention with wiiich I occupied m jclf 
 with every phrase, every note, every reflection — 
 caused me to form upon the whole work, a judgment 
 far too rigorous. After having finished my labors, I 
 allowed some time to elapse before I reviewed the 
 ♦vhole. A second attentive and regular perusal ol 
 the entire work, of the notes of the author, and of 
 those which I had thought it right to subjoin, showed 
 me how much I bad exaggerated the importance of 
 the reproaches which Gibbon really deserved ; ^ waa 
 struck with the same errors, the same partiality on 
 certain subjects ; but I had been far from doing ad- 
 equate justice to the immensity of his researches, the 
 variety of his knowledge, and above all, to that truly 
 philosophical discrimination (Justesse d'espi-ii) which 
 judges the past as it would judge the present ; which 
 does not permit itself to be blinded by the clouds 
 which time gathers around the dead, and which pre- 
 vent us from seeing that, under the toga, as under the 
 modern dress, in the senate as in our councils, men. 
 were what they still are, and that events took place 
 tughteen centuries ago, as they take place in our days. 
 A then felt that his book, in spite of its faults, will 
 'always be a noble work — and that we may correct his 
 errors and combat his prejudices, without ceasing to 
 admit that few men have combined, if we are not to 
 say in so_ high a degreCj at least in a manner so com- 
 plete, and so _well regulated, the necessary qualificfL. 
 lions for a writer of history.v 
 
 The present editor has followed the track of Gibbou 
 through many parts of his work ; he has read hit
 
 KU PREFACE B V THE EDITOR 
 
 authorities vvili^ constant reference to his pages, and 
 must pron .unce his deliberate judgment, in terms of 
 the highest admiration as to his general accuracy. 
 Many of his seeming errors are almost inevitable from 
 the close condensation of his matter. t„^rom the im^ 
 niense range of his history, it was sometimes necessary 
 U") compress into a single sentence, a whole ^^ague and 
 JitTuse page of a Byzantine chronicler. Perhaps some 
 thing of importance may have thus escaped, and his 
 expressions may not quite contain the whole sdbstance 
 of the passage from which they are taken. >s/His limits, 
 at times, compel him to sketch ; where that is the case, 
 it is not fair to expect the full details of the finisiied 
 picture. At times he can only deal with important 
 results ; and in his account of a war, it sometimes re- 
 quires great attention to discover that the events 
 which seem to be comi^rehended in a single campaign, 
 occupy several years^ But this admirable skill in se- 
 lecting and giving prominence to the points which are 
 of real weight and importance — this distribution of 
 light and shade — though perhaps it may occasionally 
 betray him into vague and imperfect statements, is 
 ime of the highest excellencies of Gibbon's historic 
 manner. It is the more striking, when we pass from 
 Ihe works of his chief authorities, where, after labor- 
 ing through long, minute, and wearisome descriptions 
 of the accessary and subordinate circumstances, a sin« 
 gle unmarked and undistinguished sentence, which we 
 may overlook from the inattention of fatigue, contains 
 the great moral and political result. 
 
 Gibbon's method of arrangement, though or. the 
 whole most favorable to the clear compieheisioL of
 
 PREFACE BY THE EUllOR. XII 
 
 tli e eve nts, leads_Iikewise .to apparent inaccuracy 
 That which we expect to find in one part is leserved 
 for another The estimate which we aie to form, 
 depends on the accurate bahince of statements in 
 remote parts of the work ; and we iiave sometimes to 
 correct and modify opinions, formed from one chapter 
 cy those of another. Yet, on the other hand, it is 
 astonishing how rarely we detect contradiction ; the 
 mind of the author has ah'eady harmonized the whole 
 result to truth and probability ; the general impression 
 is almost invariably the same. The quotations of 
 Gibbon have likewise been called in question ; — 1 
 have, 171 general, been more inclined to admire their 
 exactitude, than to^cofhplain of their indistinctness, or 
 ■'ncompleteness. i/Where they are imperfect, it is com- 
 monly from the study of brevity, and rather from the 
 desire of compressing the substance of liis notes into 
 pointed and emphatic sentences, than from dishonesty, 
 or uncandid suppression of truthJS 
 
 These observations apply more particularly to the 
 accuracy and fidelity of the historian as to his facts ; 
 his inferences, of course, are more liable to exception. 
 't is almost impossible to trace the '"aie between 
 unfairness and unfaithfulness ; between intentional 
 misrepresentation and undesigned false coloring. The 
 relative magnitude and importance of events must, in 
 some respect, depend upon the mind before which 
 tliey are presented ; the estimate of character, on the 
 habits and feelings of the reader. Christians, like 
 M. Guizot and ourselves, will see some things, and 
 some persons, in a ditTerent light from the historian of 
 the Decline and Fall. We may deplore the bias of
 
 nV PREFACE I!li THE EDITOR. 
 
 his mind ; we ^nay ourselves be on our guard againsl 
 the danger of bvMig misled, and be anxious to warn 
 less wary readers against the same perils ; but we 
 must not confound this secret and unconscious de- 
 panure from truth, with the deliberate violation of 
 that veracity which is the only title of an historian t(^ 
 'jur confidence. Gibbon, it may be fearlessly asserted 
 is rarely chargeable even with the suppression of any 
 inaterial fact, which bears upon individual character ; 
 he may, with apparently invidious hostility, enhance 
 the errors and crim^, and disparage the virtues of 
 certain persons ;^^^t^_in general, he leav^ us the 
 mate rials, for forming a fairer judgment ,CdTid if he is 
 not exempt from his own prejudices, perhaps we might 
 write passions, yet it must be candidly acknowledged, 
 that his philosophical bigotry is not more unjust thiin 
 the theological partialities of :hose ecclesiastical writers 
 \\i\o were before in undisputed possession of this prov- 
 mceyoi history. 
 
 yWe are thus naturally led to that great misrepre- 
 sentation wdiich pervades his history — his false esti- 
 mate of the nature and intluence of Christianity. 
 
 But on this subject some preliminary caution is 
 necessary, lest that should be expected from a new 
 edition, which it is impossible that it should com 
 pletely accomplish. We must first be prepared with 
 tlie only sound preservative against the false impres- 
 sion likely to be produced by the perusal of Gibbon , 
 end we must see clearly the real cause of that false 
 • inpression. The former of these cautions will be 
 briefly suggested in its proper place, but it may be as 
 w^W to state it. here, somewhat more at length. Th*
 
 PREFACE BY THE EDITOR HI 
 
 fc of Gibbon, or at least the unfair impression prO" 
 duced by his two memorable chapters, consists in hig 
 confounding together, in one indistinguishable mass, 
 the origin and apostolic propagation of the new re- 
 ligion, with its later progress. L--^o argument for the 
 Ji/ine authority of Christianity has been urged with 
 greater force, or traced with higher eloquence, than 
 that deduced from its primary development, explica 
 ble on no other hypothesis than a heavenly origin, 
 and from its rapid extension through great part of 
 the Roman empire. But this argument — one, when 
 confined within reasonable limits, of unanswerable 
 force — becomes more feeble and disputable in propor- 
 tion as it recedes from the birthplace, as it were, of 
 the religion, ^^he further Christianity advanced, the 
 more causes purely human were enlisted in its favor ; 
 nor can it be doubted that those developed with such 
 artful exclusiveness by Gibbon did concur most essen- 
 tially to its establishment. It is in the Christian dis- 
 pensation, as in the material world. In both it is ai 
 the great First Cause, that the Deity is most undenia- 
 bly manifest. When once launched in regular motion 
 upon the bosom of space, and endowed with all their 
 properties and relations of weight and mutual at 
 traction, the heavenly bodies appear to pursue their 
 courses according to secondary laws, which account 
 ^or all their sublime regularity. So Christianity pro- 
 claims its Divine Author chiefly in its first origin and 
 development. When it had once received its impulse 
 jrom above — when it had once been infused into the 
 minds of its first teachers — when it had gained full 
 possession of the reason and affections of the favored
 
 XVI IREFACE BY THE EDITOR 
 
 few — it might he — and to the Protestant, the rationa 
 Christian, it is impossible to define when it really wai 
 — -left to make its way by its native force, under the 
 ordinary secret agencies of all-ruling Providence. The 
 main question, the divine origin of the 7'eligion, was 
 lexterously eluded, or speciously conceded by Gib- 
 bon ; his plan enabled him to commence hisp<icount, 
 in most parts, below the apostolic times ;Wnd it was 
 only by the strength of the dark coloring with which 
 he brought out the failings and the follies of the suc- 
 ceeding ages, that a shadow of doubt and suspicion 
 was thrown back upon the primitive period of Chris- 
 tiai^ity. 
 
 . /' The theologian," says Gibbon, " may indulge the 
 pleasing task of d escribing religion as she descend ed 
 from heaven, arrayed in her native purity ; a more 
 melancholy duty is imposed upon the historian : — he 
 must discover the inevitable mixture of error and cor - 
 ruption which she contracted in a long residence 
 upon eartli among a weak and degene rate rac e of 
 beings,',' Divest this passage of the latent sarcasc 
 betrayed by the subsequent tone of the whole disqui 
 sition, and it might commence a Christian history 
 written in the most Christian spirit of candor. But as 
 the historian, by seeming to respect, yet by dexter 
 ously confounding the limits of the sacred land, con- 
 trived to insinuate that it was an Utopia which had 
 no existence but in the imagination of the theologiai 
 — as he suggested rather than affirmed that the dayg 
 jl Christian purity were a kind of poetic golden age; 
 — so the ther^logian, by venturing too far into the 
 V')main of the historian, has been perpetually obliged
 
 PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. XVli 
 
 lo contest points on which he had little chance of vic^ 
 tory — to deny facts established on unshaken evidence 
 — and thence, to retire, if not with the shame of defeat, 
 yet with but doubtful and imperfect success, 
 i/raley, with his intuitive sagacity, saw through the 
 difficulty of answ^ering Gibbon by the ordinary arts of 
 controversy ; his emphatic sentence, " Who can refute 
 a sneer ?'' contains as much truth as point. But ful. 
 and pregnant as this phrase is, it is not quite the whole 
 truth ; it is the tone in which th^ progress of Chris- 
 tianity is traced, in comparison with the rest of the 
 splendid and prodigally ornamented work, which is 
 f.he radical defect in the " Decline and Fall."-^Chris- 
 ti anity a lone receives no embellishment from _ the 
 magic of Gibbon's language ; his imagination is dead 
 to its moral dignity ; it is kept down by a general 
 tone of jealous disparagement, or neutralized by a 
 painfully elaborate exposition of its darker and degen- 
 erate periods. There are occasions, indeed, when its 
 pure and exalted humanity, when its manifestly bene- 
 ficial influence, can compel even him, as it were, to 
 lairness, and kindle his unguarded eloquence to its 
 usual fervor ; but, in general, he soon relapses into ;i 
 frigid apathy ; affects an ostentatiously severe impar- 
 tiality ; notes all the faults of Christians in every age 
 with bitter and almost malignant sarcasm ; reluctantly, 
 and with exception and reservation, admits their claim 
 to admiratiory This inextricable bias appears even 
 to influence his manner of composition. While all 
 the other assailants of the Roman empire, whethei 
 vv'arlike or religious, the Goth, the Hun, the Arab, 
 the Tartar, Ala ic and Attila, Mahomet, and Zengis,
 
 tVlll PREt'ACE BY THE EUITUR. 
 
 and Tamerlane, are each introduced upon the scene . 
 almost with dramatic animation — their progress re- 
 lated in a full, complete, and unbroken narrative — the_ 
 triumph of Christianity alone takes the form of a cold 
 an d critical disqu isition. The successes of barbarous 
 energy and brute force call forth all the consummate 
 skill of composition ; while the m.oral triumphs of 
 Christian benevolence — the tranquil heroism of en- 
 durance, the blameless purity, the contempt of guilty 
 fame and of honors destructive to the human race, 
 which, had they assumed the proud name of philoso- 
 phy, would have been blazoned in his brightest words., 
 because they own religion as their principle — sink 
 into narrow asceticism. The glories of C hr istianit y, 
 in short, touch o n no chord in the heart^ofJLlie_wi:iterjL 
 hi s im agination remains unkindled ; his^yords, though 
 the y mai ntai n their stately and measured march, have 
 become _cool, argumentative, and inanimate. Who 
 would obscure one hue of that gorgeous coloring in 
 , which Gibbon has invested the dying forms of Pagan- 
 .' ism, or darken one paragraph in his splendid view of 
 1 the rise and progress of Mahometanism? But who 
 ' would not have wished that the same equal justice 
 had been done to Christianity ; that its real character 
 and deeply penetrating influence had been traced with 
 the same philosophical sagacity, and represented with 
 more sober, as would become its quiet course, and 
 perhaps less picturesque, but still with lively and 
 attractive, descriptiveness ? He might have thrown 
 aside, with the same scorn, the mass of ecclesiastical 
 fiction which envelops the early history of the church, 
 stripped off the legendary romance, and brought out
 
 PREFACE rv THE EDITOR. XIH 
 
 the facU in their primitive nakedness and simplicity — • 
 1 he had but allowed those facts the benefit of the 
 ghjwing eloquence which he denied to them alone. 
 tie might have annihilated the whole fabric of post- 
 apostolic miracles, if he had left uninjured by sarcastic 
 jisinuation those of the New Testament ; he might 
 have cashiered, with Dodwell, the whole host of mar- 
 tyrs, which owe their existence to the prodigal inven- 
 tion of later days, had he but bestowed fair room, and 
 dwelt with his ordinary energy on the sufferings of 
 the genuine witnesses to the truth of Christianity, the 
 Polycarps, or the martyrs of Vienne. 
 
 And indeed, if, after all, the view of the early prog 
 resrf of Christianity be melancholy and humiliating 
 we mui-t beware lest we charge the whole of this on 
 the infidelity of the historian. It is idle, it is disin- 
 genuous, to deny or to dissemble the early deprava- 
 tions of Christianity, its gradual but rapid departure 
 from its primitive simplicity and purity, still more^ 
 from its spirit of universal love. It may be no un- 
 salutary lesson to the Christian world, that this silent, 
 this unavoidable, perhaps, yet fatal change shall have 
 been drawn by an impartial, or even an hostile hand. 
 The Christianity of every age may take warning, lest 
 by its oxvn narrow views, its want of wisdom, and its 
 want of charity, it give the same advantage to the 
 future unfriendly historian, and disparage the caus^ of 
 trnej:filigi^n. 
 
 The design of the present edition is partly correC" 
 tivCj partly supplementary : corrective, by notes, which 
 poin( out (n is nofied. in a perfectly candid and dis- 
 paasionate spn-it, witb no desn^e but to establish (he
 
 XX PREFACE BY THE EDITOR, 
 
 truth) such inac(.uracies or misstalemenii as may have 
 been detected, particularly with regard to Christianity; 
 and which thus, with the previous caution, may coiiii. 
 teract to a considerable extent the unfair and unfavor 
 able impression created against rational religion : sup 
 plementary, by adding such additional information as 
 ihe editor's reading may have been able to furnish, 
 from original documents or books, not accessible at the 
 lime when Gibbon wrote. 
 
 The work originated in the editor's habit of noting 
 on the margin of his copy of Gibbon references to 
 such authors as had discovered errors, or thrown new 
 light on the subjects treated by Gibbon. These had 
 grown to some extent, and seemed to him likely to be 
 of use to others. The annotations of M. Guizot also 
 appeared to him worthy of being better known to the 
 English public than they were likely to be, as append- 
 ed to the French translation. 
 
 The chief works from which the editor has derived 
 his materials are, I. The French translation, with 
 notes by M. Guizot; 2d edition, Paris, 1828. The 
 editor has translated almost all the notes of M. Guizot. 
 Where he has not altogether agreed with him, his 
 respect for the learning and judgment of that writei 
 has, in general, induced him to retain the statement 
 from which he has ventured to differ, with the 
 grounds on which he formed his own opinion. Tn 
 the notes on Christianity, he has retained all those 
 of M. Guizot, with his own, from the conviction, that 
 on such a subject, to many, the authority of a Frencli 
 Btatesman, a Protestant, and a rational and sincere 
 Christian, would appear more independent and iir.-
 
 PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. IXJ 
 
 biassed, and therefore be more commanding, than that 
 of an English clergyman. 
 
 The editor has not scrupled to transfer the notes of 
 M. Guizot to the present work. The well-known 
 real for knowledge, displayed in all the writings of 
 that dislinguished historian, has led to the natm'al 
 inference, tiiat he would not be displeased at tho 
 attempt to make them ot use to the English readers 
 of Gibbon. The notes of M. Guizot are signed with 
 the letter G. 
 
 II. The German translation, with the notes of 
 Wenck. Unfortunately this learned translator died, 
 after having completed only the first volume ; the rest 
 of the work was executed by a very inferior hand. 
 
 The notes of Wenck are extremely valuable ; many 
 of them have been adopted by M. Guizot ; they are 
 distinguished by the letter W.* 
 
 III. The new edition of Le Beau's " Ilisioire du 
 Bas Empire, with notes by M. St.- Martin, and M 
 Brosset.'"' That distinguished Armenian scholar, M. 
 St. Martin (now, unhappily, deceased) had added 
 much information from Oriental writers, particularly 
 from those of Armenia, as well as from more general 
 sources. Many of his observations have been found 
 as applicable to the work of Gibbon as to that of Le 
 Beau. 
 
 IV. The editor has consulted the various answers 
 made to Gibbon on the first appearance of his work ; 
 
 • Tlie editor regrets that he has not been able to find the Italian 
 fera:islation, mentioned by Gibbon himself with some respect. It is 
 not in our great librariea tlie Museum or the Bodleian ; and he hue 
 Derer foimd any bookseller in London who has seen it.
 
 XKII PREFACE BY THE EOITOB. 
 
 he must confess, with little profit. They were, ii 
 
 general, hastily compiled by inferior and now forgotten 
 writers, with the exception of Bishop Watson, whose 
 able apology is rather a general argument, than an 
 examination of misstatements. The name of Milner 
 itards higher with a certain class of readers, but will 
 iiot carry much weight with the severe investigator of 
 history. 
 
 V. Some few classical works and fragments have 
 come to light, since the appearance of Gibbon's His- 
 tory, and have been noticed in their respective places ; 
 and much use has been made, in the latter volumes 
 particularly, of the increase to our stores of Oriental 
 literature. The editor cannot, indeed, pretend to have 
 followed his author, in these gleanings, over the wholo 
 vast field of his inquiries ; he may have overlooked or 
 may not have been able to command some works, 
 whicPT irK&'lt .have thrown still further light on these 
 subjects ; but he trusts that what he has adduced will 
 be of use to the student of historic truth. 
 
 The editor would further observe, thai with regard 
 to some other objectionable passages, which do not in- 
 volve misstatement or inaccuracy, he has intentionally 
 abstained from directing particular attention towards 
 them by any special protest. 
 
 The editor's notes are marked M, 
 
 A considerable part of the quotations (some of 
 which in the later editions had fallen into great confu. 
 sioj ) have been verified, and have been corrected by 
 ih* '^tesi and test editions of the authors.
 
 fRKFACE BY THK EDITOR. Xllll 
 
 June, 1845. 
 
 In this new edition, the text and the notes have 
 Doen carefully revised, the latter by the editor. 
 
 Some additional notes have been subjoined, distio 
 g;uished by the signature M. 1845. 
 
 2
 
 rREFACE 
 
 OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 It is not m; intention to detain the reader by exfa 
 iating 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. 
 Biit as I ha,Ve presumed to lay before il.c p-^^lic a iirsi 
 volume only' 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 under- 
 mined, and at length destroyed, the solid fabric of 
 human greatness, may, with some propriety, be divided 
 into the three following periods : 
 \J I. TJie first of these periods may be traced froni 
 the age of Trajan and the Antonines, when the Ro- 
 ^ man monarchy, having attained its full strength and 
 
 <^:::i^ inaturity, began to verge towards its decline ; and wi'l 
 
 ^ ^ _ _^ 
 
 The first volume of the quarto, which contained the sixteen first 
 duijitcrs.
 
 AUTdOR S PREFACl!;. XXV 
 
 CAtcnd to the subversion of the Western Empire, by 
 t he b arbarians of Germany and Scythia, the rude 
 ancestors of the most polished nations of modern 
 Europe. This extraordinary revolution, which jSiib- 
 jccted JRome to the power of a Gothic conqueror, 
 was completed about the beginning of the sixth cen- 
 
 V II. Thii.. second, period of the Decline and Fall of 
 Rome ma y be supposed to commence with the reign ol 
 Justin ian, v/ho, by his laws, as well as by his victories, 
 restored a transient splendor to the Eastern Empire 
 It will comprehend the invasion of Italy by the Lom- 
 bmdz ; the_conques.t of ihe. Asiatic, and. African pmv- 
 inces by the Arabs, who jembraced the religion of 
 Mahomet ; the revolt of the Roman people against the. 
 feeble pr inces of Constantinople ; and the elevation of 
 Charlemagne, who, in the year eight hundred, estab- 
 lished the second, or GmuuaxLEmpire of the West 
 
 ^ III. The last aj.id longest of these periods includoii 
 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 August us, aft er their dominions were contracted 
 to theJimits of a single. city; in which the language, 
 as^well as manners, of the ancient Romans, hajcl been 
 long since forgotten. The writer who should under- 
 take to relate the events of this period, would find 
 liiniself obliged to enter into the general h istory _of 
 li)C Crusades, as far as they c ontributed to t he ruin o i 
 th e Greek E mpire : and he would scarcely be able to 
 restrain his curiosity from making some inquiry lute
 
 XXVI AUTHOR S PREFACE. 
 
 . the stale of the city of Ro me, during the darkness aiid 
 
 ^confu sion o f the middle ages. 
 
 As I have ventured, perhaps too hastily, to comniil 
 to the press a work which in every sense of the 
 word, deserves the epithet of imperfect. I consider 
 (fiyself as contracting an engagement to finish, most 
 probably in a second volume, '^ the first of these mem- 
 orable periods ; and to deliver to the Public the com- 
 plete 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 pe- 
 riods, though I may entertain some hopes, I dare not 
 presume to give any assurances. iThe execution of 
 the extensive plan which I have described^ vvould con- 
 nect the ancientand modern history of the w^orld ; but 
 it would require_4nany._years of health, of leisure, and 
 of perseverance. { 
 
 Bkntinck St^pet, February 1, 1'776. 
 
 P. S. The entire History, which is now published, 
 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the 
 West, abundantly discharges my engagements with 
 the Public. Perhaps their favorable opinion may 
 encourage me to prosecute a w)rk, which, however 
 laborious it may seem, is the most agreeable occupa- 
 tion of my leisure hours. 
 Bentinck Street, March 1, 1781. 
 
 ' The Authjr, as it frequently happens, took an inadequate meaa 
 ore of hia gro (ving work. The remainder of the first period has fiUeo 
 lieo volumes in quarto, being the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth volumflf 
 al the octavo edition.
 
 AUTHOR S PREFACE. XXVll 
 
 ' An Author easily persuades himself that tiie public 
 opinion is still favorable to his labors ; and I have 
 now^ embraced the serious resolution of proceeding to 
 he last period of my original design, and of the 
 Roman Empire, the taking of Constantinople by the 
 Turk?, in the year one thousand four hundred and 
 fifty-three. The most patient Reader, who computes 
 that three ponderous ^ volumes have been already em- 
 ployed on the events of four centuries, may, perhaps, 
 be alarmed at the long prospect o f nine hundr ed years.^ 
 jBut it is not my intention to expatiate with the same 
 minuteness on the whole series of the Byzantine his- 
 tory. 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 Crusades and the Turks) is con- 
 nected with the revolutions of Modern Europe. From 
 the seventh to the eleventh century, the obscure inter- 
 val will be supplied by a concise narrative of such 
 facts as may still appear either interesting or import 
 
 BKir*moK SraKET, March 1, 1782. 
 
 * The first six yolumes of the octavo editkn.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO THE FIKST VOLUME 
 
 Diligence and accuracy art ih?. only merits m \Hch 
 an historical writer may asciibe to himself; if any 
 merit, indeed, can be assumed from the .pei'ibrmance 
 oLbxi indispensable duty. I may therefore be allowed 
 to sa}^ that I have carefully examined all the original 
 materials that could illustrate the subject which I had 
 undertaken to treat. Should 1 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 susceptible of entertainment, as wel' 
 as information. 
 
 At present I shall content myself with a single 
 observation. The biographers, who, under the reigns 
 of Diocletian and Constantine, conjposed, or rather 
 compiled, the lives of the Emperors, from Hadrian to 
 the sons of Carus, are usually mentioned under the 
 names of iElius Spartianus, .Tubus Capitolinus, ^Eliu* 
 Lampridius, Yulcatius Gallicanus, TrebeHius PolJio
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST VOLUME \\l\ 
 
 and Flavius Vopiscus. But there is so much per])lex- 
 ity in the titles of the MSS., and so n.any disputes 
 have arisen among tiie critics (see Fabricius, Bibhoth. 
 Latin. 1. iii. c. 6) concerning their number, their 
 names, and their respective property, that for the mosl 
 part I have quoted them without distinc.ion, unde. 
 tlie general and well-known title of th» Augusta* 
 History.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 rOURTH VOLUME OF THE ORIGINAL QUARTO EDITIOK 
 
 I NOW dlscliarge my promise, and complete my de- 
 sign, ot writing tiie History of the Decline and Fall 
 ofjhe Roman Empire, both in the West. and the East. 
 
 The \vhole 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 
 »ges, Since the publication of the first volume, twelve 
 J^rs have elapsed ; twelve years, according to my 
 wish, " of health, of leisure, and of perseverance." I 
 Play now congratulate my deliverance from a long and 
 Hborious service, and my satisfaction will be pui'e and 
 perfect, if the public favor should be extended to the 
 conclusion of my work. 
 
 "^ It was my first intention to have collected, under 
 :)ne view, the nutnerous authors, of every age and 
 language, from whom I have derived the materials of 
 this history ; and 1 am still convinced that the appa- 
 rent ostentation would be more than compensated by 
 real use. If I have renounced this idea, if I have 
 decimed an undertaking which had obtained the
 
 ritEFACB. XXX) 
 
 approbation of a inaster-artist,* my excuse may bt 
 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 occa- 
 eionally connected with the events which they describe ; 
 a more copious and critical inquiry might indeed de- 
 serve, but it would demand, an elaborate voiume, which 
 might swell by degrees into a general library of his- 
 torical writers. For the present, I shall content my- 
 self with renewing my serious protestation, that I have 
 always endeavored to draw from the fountain-head ; 
 that my curiosity, as well as a sense of duty, has al- 
 ways 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 pas- 
 sage or a fact were reduced to depend. 
 
 I shall soon revisit the banks of the Lake of Lau- 
 sanne, a country which I have known and loved from 
 my early youth. Under a mild government, amidst a 
 beauteous landscape, in a life of leisure and independ- 
 ence, and among a people of easy and elegant man- 
 ners, 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 Eng- 
 lishman : I am proud of my birth in a free and enlight- 
 ened country ; and the approbation of that country 
 is the best and most honorable reward of my labors 
 Were I ambitious of any other Patron than the Public, 
 
 would inscribe this work to a Statesman, who, in a 
 
 • See Dr. Robertson's Preface to hi? History of America.
 
 XXXn PREFACE. 
 
 long, a stormy, and at length an unfortunate adminis 
 tiation, had many pohtical opponents, almost withou> 
 u 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 vigor of his mind, and the felicity of his incom- 
 parable temper. Lord North will permit me to ex- 
 press the feelings of friendship in the language of truth : 
 but even truth and friendship should be silent, if he 
 still dispensed the favors of the crown. 
 
 In a remote solitude, vanity may still whisper in my 
 ear, that my readers, perhaps, may inquire whether, iri 
 the conclusion of the present work, I am now taking 
 a n eve rlasting farewell. The} shall hear all that i 
 know myself, and all that I could reve?' '.^ the mosn 
 intimate friend. The motives of action or silence ^.ir, 
 now equally balanced ; nor can I pronounce, m my 
 most secret thoughts, on which side the scale "vvUl 
 preponderate. I cannot dissemble that six airr-'i 
 quartos must have tried, and may have exhausted, t -. 
 indulgence 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 aflbrd many 
 lich and interesting subjects ; that I am sti 1 possessed 
 of health and leisure ; that by the practice of writing 
 some skill and facility mus^ oe acquired ; and that, ir 
 the ardent pursuit of truth and knowledge, I am iio\
 
 PREFACE. XXXU 
 
 conscious of decay. To an active mind, indolence is 
 more painful than labor ; and the first months of my 
 liberty will be occupied and amused in the excursions 
 ol c uriosity and taste. By such temptations, I have 
 been sometimes seduced from the rigid duty even of 
 1 pleasing and voluntary task : but my time will now 
 K' my own ; and in the use or abuse of independence, 
 I shal. no longer fear my own reproaches or those of 
 my friends. 1 am fairly entitled to a year of jubilee . 
 next summei 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 
 animates, 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 1, 1*788. 
 
 P. S. I shall embrace this opportunity of intro- 
 ducins two verbal remarks, which have not conve- 
 niently oflfered themselves to my notice. 1. As often 
 as 1 use the definitions of beyond the Alps, the Rhine, 
 the Danube, &c., I generally suppose myself at Rome, 
 and afterwards at Constantinople ; \vithout observing 
 whether this relative geography may agree with the 
 local, but variable, situation of the reader, or the histo- 
 rian 2. In proper names of foreign, and especially 
 of Orienta> origin, it should be always our aim to 
 express, in our English version, a faithful copy of Jie
 
 XXXIV PREFACE. 
 
 original. But this rule, which is founded on a lust 
 regard to uniformity and truth, must often be relaxed ; 
 and the exceptions will be limited or enlarged by the 
 custom of the language and the taste of the interpreter. 
 Our alphabets may be often defective ; a harsh sound. 
 ar uncouth spelling, might offend the ear or the eye 
 of our countrymen ; and some words, notoriously cor- 
 rupt, 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, Da- 
 mascus, and Cairo, would almost be lost in the strange 
 descriptions of Haleb, Demashk, and Al Cahira : the 
 titles ana oliices of the Ottoman empire are fashioned 
 by the practice of three hundred years ; and we are 
 pleased to blend the three Chinese monosyllables, 
 Con-fu-tzee, in the respectable name of Confucius, or 
 even to adopt the Portuguese corruption of Mandarin. 
 But I would vary the use of Zoroaster and Zerdusht, 
 as I drew my information from Greece or Persia : since 
 our connection with India, the genuine Timour 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 termi- 
 nation, by adopting Moslem, instead of Musulman, in 
 the plural number. In these, and in a thousand exam- 
 ples, the shades of distinction are often minute ; and I 
 can feel, where I cannot explain, the motives of my 
 choice. 
 
 *»* At the eud of the History, the reader will find a General Indei 
 to the whole Work, which has been drawn up by a person frequentlj 
 nnployed in works of this natura.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF THE FIRST VOLUME, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ma fXTKNT AND MILITARY FORCE OF THE EMPIRE, IN THE AGK OP TSl 
 
 ANT0NINE3. 
 & D, PAOE 
 
 Introduclion, 1 
 
 Moderation of Augustus 9 
 
 Imitated by his Successors 3 
 
 Conquest of Britain, the first Exception to it 4 
 
 Conquest of Dacia, the second Exception to it, 5 
 
 Conquests of Trajan in the East, 7 
 
 Resigpned by his Successor, Hadrian 8 
 
 Contrast of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, 6 
 
 Pacific System of Hadrian and the two Antonines, 9 
 
 Defensive Wars of Marcus Antoninus, 10 
 
 Militaiy Establishment of the Bx)man Emperors, IC 
 
 Discipline, 11 
 
 Exercises 13 
 
 The Legions under the Emperors, 14 
 
 Arms 15 
 
 Cavalry 15 
 
 Auxiliaries, 17 
 
 Artillery, 17 
 
 Encampment, 18 
 
 March, 19 
 
 Number and Disposition of the Legions, 19 
 
 Navj', iM) 
 
 Amount of the whole Establishment 21 
 
 View o: the Provinces of the Roman Empire !1 
 
 Spain, , . , 81 
 
 Gaul ,. 2S 
 
 Briuln, 83
 
 riXVl CONTENTS. 
 
 *. » ' • "1 
 
 IiaJy SJ 
 
 The Danube and Illyrian Frontier 8< 
 
 R h*tia 25 
 
 Noricam and Pannonia, 2£ 
 
 Dalmatia, . ^ 25 
 
 Maasia and Daoia, 2fl 
 
 Tlirace, Macedonia, and Greece 26 
 
 Asia Minor 2b 
 
 Sj-ria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, 27 
 
 Egypt 30 
 
 Africa 30 
 
 The Mediterranean, with its Islands, 31 
 
 General Idea of the Roman Empire, ., 3P 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 tF THE UNION AND INTERNAL PROSPERITY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IK 
 THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES. 
 
 Principles of Goveniment, 33 
 
 Universal Spirit of Toleration, 33 
 
 Of the People 34 
 
 Of Philosophers, 35 
 
 Of the Magistrates, 37 
 
 In the Provinces, 37 
 
 At Rome, 38 
 
 Freedom of Rome, 39 
 
 Italj' 41 
 
 The Provinces 42 
 
 Colonies and Municipal Towns 42 
 
 Division of the Latin and Greek Provinces, 44 
 
 General Use of both the Greek and Latin Languages, 46 
 
 Slaves, 47 
 
 Their Treatment 47 
 
 Enfranchisement, 50 
 
 Numbers, 51 
 
 Populousness of the Roman Empire, 52 
 
 Obedience and Union, 54 
 
 Elomau Monuments 55 
 
 Many of them erected at private Expense 55 
 
 Example of Herodes Atticns, 5€ 
 
 His Reputation 57 
 
 Most of the Roman Monuments for public Use 5S 
 
 Temples, Theatres, Aqueducts, 58 
 
 Number and Greatness of the Cities of the Empire 8*
 
 CONTENTS. XlXni 
 
 In Ital/ 60 
 
 Gaul and Spain CI 
 
 Africa, 01 
 
 Asia GS 
 
 Roman Roads , 63 
 
 Posts 64 
 
 Navigation 64 
 
 Improvement of Agriculture in the Western Countries of the Em- 
 pire, 63 
 
 Introduction of Frails, &c., 63 
 
 The Vine, 63 
 
 The Olive 66 
 
 Flax 60 
 
 Artificial Grass, 67 
 
 Cfeneral Plenty 67 
 
 Arts of Luxurj', 68 
 
 Foreign Trade, 68 
 
 Grold and Silver, 69 
 
 General Felicity, 70 
 
 Decline of Courage 70 
 
 Decline of Genius, 71 
 
 Degeneracy, 72 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 VHE CONSTITUTION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN -^HE AGE OF THE 
 
 ANTONINES. 
 
 Idea of a Monarcliy, 73 
 
 Situation of Augustus 73 
 
 He reforms the Senate, 74 
 
 'Resigns his usurped Power 75 
 
 fe prevailed upon to resume it under the Title of Emperor or 
 
 General 73 
 
 Power of the Roman Generals 78 
 
 Lieutenants of the Emperor 77 
 
 Division of the Provinces between the Emperor and the Senste,... 78 
 n:e former preserves his military Command, and Guards, in Rome 
 
 itself; 79 
 
 Consular and Tribunitian Powers 79 
 
 Imperial Prerogatives, 80 
 
 The Magistrates 81 
 
 Tlie Senate, 89 
 
 €teneral Idea of the Irapcri;il System - 93 
 
 Ooart of the Emperors W
 
 XXXVlll CONTENTS. 
 
 %. ». MSB 
 
 Deification, 84 
 
 Titles of Augustus and Ccesar, 85 
 
 Character and Policy of Augustus 96 
 
 Image of Liberty for tlie People, 87 
 
 Attempts of the Senate after the Death of Caligula, 87 
 
 Image of Government for the Armies, 89 
 
 Their Obedience, 89 
 
 Designation of a Suca jssor, 90 
 
 Of Tiberius 90 
 
 Of Titus, 90 
 
 The llace of the Csesars, and Flavian Family, 90 
 
 M Adoption and Character of Trajan, 91 
 
 117 Of Hadrian 92 
 
 Adoption of the elder and younger Verus, 92 
 
 13?— 180. Adoption of tlie two Anionines, 93 
 
 Character and Reign of Pius 94 
 
 Character and Reign of Maixus, 94 
 
 Happiness of the Romans, 95 
 
 Its precarious Nature, 95 
 
 Memory of Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, and Domitian 96 
 
 Peculiar Misery of tlie Romans under their Tyrants 96 
 
 Insensibility of the Orientals, 97 
 
 Knowledge and free Spirit of the Romans 98 
 
 Kxtent of their Empire left them no Place of Refiige, 98 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CRUELTY, FOLLIES, AND MURDER OF COMMODUS. — ELECTION OF PERTI- 
 NAX. — HIS ATTEMPTS TO REFORM THE STATE. — HIS ASSASSINATION BT 
 THE PR.a;TORIAN GUARDS. 
 
 lidulgence of Marcus, 101 
 
 To his Wife, Faustina, 101 
 
 To his Son Commodus 102 
 
 180. Accession of the Emperor Commodus 103 
 
 Character of Commodus, 103 
 
 His Return to Rome, 103 
 
 183. Is wounded by an Assassin, 104 
 
 Hatred and Cruelty of Commodus tOtvards the Senate 105 
 
 The QuintiUan Brothers, 105 
 
 lee. The Minister Perennis, 106 
 
 Revolt of Matemus 107 
 
 The Minister Cleander 107 
 
 Hifl Avarice and Cruelty, 1C8 
 
 m Sedition and Death of Cleander, IW
 
 CONTENTS. XXXll 
 
 ■ ■ PAOI 
 
 Dissolute Pleasures uf Commodus, ^ Ill 
 
 His Ig^norance and low Sports, Ill 
 
 Hunting of wild Beasts Ill 
 
 Commodus displays his Skill in the Amphitheatre 1 1'J 
 
 Acts as a Gladiator, 113 
 
 His Lifamy and Extravagance 115 
 
 Conspiracy of his Domestics US 
 
 tfli Death of Commodus, 116 
 
 Choice of Pertinax for Emperor, 116 
 
 He is acknowledged by the Prretorian Guards 117 
 
 ItJ. And by the Senate 117 
 
 The Memory of Commodus declared infamous 118 
 
 Legal Jurisdiction of the Senate over the Emperors 118 
 
 Virtues of Pertinax 119 
 
 He endeavors to refonn the State 120 
 
 His Regulations. 120 
 
 His Popularity 121 
 
 Discontent of the Prajtorians 121 
 
 A Conspiracy prevented, 122 
 
 I W. Murder of Pertinax by the Praetorians, 122 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 fUBLIC SALE OF THE EMPIRE TO DIDIUS JULIANUS BY THE PR^TCRIAS 
 GUARDS. — CI.0DIUS ALlilNUS 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 
 UIS THREE RIVALS. — RELAXATION OF DISCIPLINE. — NEW MAXIMS OF 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Proportion of the Military Force to the Number of the People 124 
 
 The Pra3torian Guards, 124 
 
 Their Institution, 125 
 
 Their Camp 125 
 
 Strength and Confidence 125 
 
 Their specious Claims, 126 
 
 They ofler the Empire to Sale, 127 
 
 113 It is purchased by Julian 127 
 
 Julian is acknowledged by the Senate,.... 128 
 
 Takes Possession of the Palace 1 28 
 
 The public Discontent, 12B 
 
 The Armies of Britain, Syria, and Pannonia declare against 
 
 Julian 129 
 
 Clodins Albinus in Britain 130 
 
 Peicenuius Niger in SjTia, 133
 
 U CONTENTS. 
 
 Pannonia and Dalmatia, ..... 131 
 
 193 Soptimius Sevcrus 133 
 
 Declared Emperor by llie Piuiuouiaii Legions, 134 
 
 Marches into Italy, 134 
 
 Advances towards Rome i34 
 
 Distress of Julian 133 
 
 H'.s uncertain Conduct, 136 
 
 Is descried by the Praetorians, 136 
 
 Is condemned and executed by Order of the Senate, 136 
 
 Disgrace of the Praetorian Guards 137 
 
 Funeral and Apotheosis of Periinax 137 
 
 183 -197. Success of Scverus against Niger and sgainst Albinus 137 
 
 Conduct of the two Civil \V;irs 13? 
 
 Arts of Sevcrus 138 
 
 Towards Niger, 13D 
 
 Towards Albiniis 1 '10 
 
 Event of the Civil VVais 141 
 
 Decided by one or two Battles 141 
 
 Siege of Bjzantium, 142 
 
 Death of Niger and Albinus, 143 
 
 Cruel Consequences of the Civil Wars 143 
 
 Animosity of Severus against the Senate 144 
 
 The Wisdom and Justice of his Government, 144 
 
 General Peace and Prosperity, 143 
 
 Relaxation of Military Discijiline, 145 
 
 New Establishment of the Prajtorian Guards, 146 
 
 The Office of Prffitorian Prefect, 147 
 
 The Senate oppressed by militai-y Despotism, 148 
 
 New Maxims of the Imperial Prerogative, l4^ 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE DEATH OF SEVERUS. — TYRANNY OF CARACAT.T.A. — USURPATION OP 
 MACRINUS. — FOLLIES OF ELAGABALUS. — VIRTUES OF ALEXANDER SEVERUS. 
 — LICENTIOUSNESS OF THE ARMY. — GENERAL STATE OF THE UOMAN 
 
 FINANCES. 
 
 Greatness and Discontent of Severus 150 
 
 His Wife, the Empress Julia, 150 
 
 Their two Sons, Caracalla and Geta, 151 
 
 Tlieir mutual Aversion to each other, * 51 
 
 Three Emperors 153 
 
 »3 The Caledonian War, 153 
 
 Fingal and his Heroes 158 
 
 Coatrost of the Caledonians and the Romans 1S9
 
 CONTENTS. xlj 
 
 •. S, _ ItOE 
 
 Ambition of Cai-acallf 15? 
 
 111. Death of Sevcrus, and Accession of his two Sous l.')4 
 
 Jealousy and Hatred of the two Emperors, 155 
 
 Fruitless Negotiations for dividing the Empire between thcni, ... 153 
 
 «:2 Murder of Geta 156 
 
 Remorse and Cruelty of Caracalla, 1 ST 
 
 Death of Papinian, 1 59 
 
 J13 His T}"ranny extended over the whole Empire, 160 
 
 Relaxation of Discipline, 161 
 
 11 1 Murder of Caracalla 1C9 
 
 Imitation of Alexander, U<3 
 
 Election and Character of Macrinus, 1*53 
 
 Discontent of the Senate, 1G4 
 
 Discontent of the Army, 1C5 
 
 Macrinus attempts a Reformation of the Army, 165 
 
 Death of the Empress Julia, .' 166 
 
 Education, Pretensions, and Revolt of Elagabalns, called at first 
 
 Bassianus and Antonnius, 167 
 
 318. Defeat and Death of Macrinus 168 
 
 Elagabidus writes to the Senate 169 
 
 819. Picture of Elagabalus 170 
 
 His Superstition, 171 
 
 His profligate and effeminate Luxury 171 
 
 Contempt of Decency, which distinguished the Roman Tyrants, 173 
 Discontents of the Anny, 173 
 
 •^zl. Alexander Severus declared Ctesar, 171 
 
 222. Sedition of the Guards, and Murder of Elagabalus 174 
 
 Accession of Alexander Severus, 175 
 
 Power of his Mother Maniaea 176 
 
 His wise and moderate Administration. 177 
 
 Education and virtuous temper of Alexander, 177 
 
 Journal of his ordinary Life 178 
 
 122 — 235. General Happiness of the Roman World 179 
 
 Alexander refuses the name of Antonnius, 1 80 
 
 He attempts to reform the Army, 180 
 
 Seditions of the Praatorian Guards, and Murder of Ulpian 181 
 
 Danger of Dion Cassius 182 
 
 Tumults of the Legions, 183 
 
 Firmness of the Emperor 183 
 
 Defects of his Reign and Character, 184 
 
 Digression on the Finances of the Empire, 185 
 
 Establishment of the Tribute on Roman Citizens 183 
 
 Abolition of the Tribute 186 
 
 Tributes of the Provinces 187 
 
 Of Asia, Egypt, and Gaul, 187 
 
 Of Africa and Spain 181 
 
 Of the Isle of Gyarus, IM
 
 riii CONTENTS. 
 
 Amonnt of A\c Revenue IBS 
 
 Taxes on Roman Citizens instituted by Augustus 189 
 
 I. The Customs, 190 
 
 IT. The Excise, 191 
 
 III. Tax on Legacies and Inheritances 191 
 
 Suited to the Laws and Manners, 193 
 
 Regulations of the Emperors 193 
 
 Edict of Caracalla l»3 
 
 The Freedom of the City given to all Provincials for the Purpose 
 
 of Taxation, 194 
 
 Temporary Reduction of the Tribute 194 
 
 Consequences of the universal Freedom of Rome, 195 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THK ELEVATION AND TYRANNY OE MAXIMIN. — REBELLION IN AFRICA 
 AND ITALY, UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE SENATE. — CIVIL WARS 
 AND SEDITIONS. — VIOLENT DEATHS OF MAXIMIN AND HIS SON, OF MAX- 
 IMUS AND BALBINUS, AND OF THE THREE GOUDIANS. — USURPATION AND 
 SECULAR GAMES OF PHILIP. 
 
 The apparent Ridicule and solid Advantages of hereditary Succes- 
 sion, 196 
 
 Want of it in the Roman Empire productive of the greatest Calam- 
 ities 19 
 
 Birth and Fortunes of Maximin, 197 
 
 His Military Service and Honors 198 
 
 835. Conspiracy of Maximin, '.39 
 
 Murder of Alexander Severus 199 
 
 Tyi'anny of Maximin, "200 
 
 Oppression of the Provinces, 201 
 
 2?7 Revolt in Africa 203 
 
 Character and Elevation of the two Gordians 204 
 
 They solicit the Confirmation of their Authority 205 
 
 The Senate ratifies the Election of the Gordians, 20fi 
 
 Declares Maximin a public Enemy 207 
 
 Assumes the Command of Rome and Italy 207 
 
 Prepares for a Civil War, 207 
 
 837 Defeat and Death of the two Gordians 208 
 
 Election of Maximns and Balbinus by the Senate, 208 
 
 Their Characters 209 
 
 Tumult at Rome 210 
 
 The Younger Gordian is declared Cassar, 211 
 
 Maximin prepares to attack the Senate and their Emperors, 211 
 
 til Marches into Italy 319
 
 CONTENTS. Xllll 
 
 •• 9. PAec. 
 Siege of Aquileia, 213 
 
 Conduct of Maximus, 214 
 
 838. Murder of Maximin and his Son 214 
 
 His Portrait, 215 
 
 Joy of the Roman World 216 
 
 Sedition at Rome 216 
 
 Discontent of the Praetorian Guards, 217 
 
 fi36 Massacre of Maximus and Balbinus 218 
 
 The third Gordian remains sole Emperor, 220 
 
 Innocence and Virtues of Gordian 220 
 
 240. Administration of Misithcus 221 
 
 242. The Persian War 221 
 
 243. The Arts of Phihp, 221 
 
 244. Murder of Gordian 222 
 
 Form of a military Republic, 222 
 
 Reign of Philip 223 
 
 348. Secular Games, 224 
 
 Decline of the Roman Empire, 224 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OI IHE STATE OF PKRSIA AFTKR THE RESTORATION OF THE MONARCH? 
 
 BY ARTA.XERXES. 
 
 The Barbarians of the East and of the North 22t) 
 
 Revolutions of Asia, 220 
 
 The Persian Monarchy restored by Artaxerxes 228 
 
 Reformation of the Magian Religion, 229 
 
 Persian Theology, two Principles, 231 
 
 Religious Worship 233 
 
 Ceremonies and moral Precepts, 234 
 
 Encouragement of Agiiculture, 234 
 
 Power of the Magi 235 
 
 Spirit of Persecution 237 
 
 Establishment of the Royal Authority in the Provinces, 237 
 
 Extent and Population of Persia, 239 
 
 Recapitulation of the War between the Parthian and Roman 
 
 Empires, 24(1 
 
 165 Cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon 241 
 
 16. Conquest of Osrhoene by the Romans, 24? 
 
 130, Artaxerxes claims the Provinces of Asia, and declares War 
 
 against the Romans 24.1 
 
 133 Pretended Victory of Alexander Sevenis 244 
 
 More probable Account of the "War, 245 
 
 140. Character and Maxims of Artaxerxes, 24J
 
 / 
 
 XllV C0NTKNT8. 
 
 Military Power of the Persians, 247 
 
 Their Infantiy contemptible 247 
 
 Their Cavalry excellcut, 248 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HI STATE OF GERMANY TILL THE INVASION OF THE BARBARIAMJ. in 
 THE TIME OF THE EMPEROR DECIUS. 
 
 Extent of Gennany, 249 
 
 Climate, 252 
 
 Its Effects on the Natives 234 
 
 Origin of the Germans 255 
 
 Tables and Conjectures 255 
 
 The Germans ignorant of Letters, 257 
 
 The Germans ignorant of Arts and Agriculture, 258 
 
 The Germans ignorant of the Use of Metals, 259 
 
 Their Indolence 260 
 
 Their Taste for strong Liquors 261 
 
 State of Population, 262 
 
 Gennan Freedom 263 
 
 Assemblies of the People, 264 
 
 Authority of the Princes and Magistrates 'J65 
 
 More absolute over the Property than over the Persons of the 
 
 Germans, 266 
 
 Voluntary Engagements 266 
 
 German Chastity 267 
 
 Its probable Causes 2€8 
 
 Reli.gion 269 
 
 Its Effects in Peace 270 
 
 Its Eflfbcts in ^Var 271 
 
 The Bards 271 
 
 Causes which checked the Progress of the Germans, 272 
 
 Want of Arms 272 
 
 Want of Disci pline 273 
 
 Civil Dissensions of Germany 274 
 
 Fomented by the Policy of Rome, 275 
 
 Transient Union against Marcus Antoninus, 278 
 
 Distinction of the German Tribe, 277 
 
 WttiabrT*, „..., ...,. Sif
 
 CONTENTS. lit 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE EMFEUDRS DECIUS, CALLUS, ^MILIANUS, VALERIAS. AI^D OALllERtS 
 — THE GENERAL IRRUPTION OF THE BARBARIANS, — THE THIRTT IT 
 S-iNTi 
 
 i. I>. PAnE 
 
 US- 268. The Nature of the Subject 1'79 
 
 The Emperor Philip 279 
 
 H9 Services RevoU, Victory, and Reig^ of the Emperor Decius, 280 
 
 B5C He marches against the Goths, 281 
 
 Origin of the Goths from Scandinavia, 281 
 
 Religion of the Goths 283 
 
 Institutions and Death of Odin, 283 
 
 Agreeable, but unccitain, Hypothesis concerning Odin 284 
 
 Emigration of the Goths from Scandinavia, ^ 285 
 
 Emigration from Prussia to the Ukraine, 286 
 
 The Gothic Nation increases in its March 287 
 
 Distinction of the Germans and Sarmatians, 288 
 
 Description of the Ukraine 289 
 
 The Goths invade the Roman Provinces 289 
 
 850. Various Effects of the Gothic War 2^0 
 
 251. Decius revives the Office of Censor in the Person of Valerias, . .. 291 
 
 The Design impracticable and without Effect, 293 
 
 Defeat and Death of Decius and his Son, 293 
 
 251. Election of Gallus 295 
 
 C52. Retreat of the Goths 295 
 
 Gallus purchases Peace by the Payment of an annaal Tribute 295 
 
 Popular Discontent 290 
 
 2.53. Victory and Revolt of iEmilianus, 296 
 
 Gallus abandoned and slain, 297 
 
 Valerian revenges the Death of Gallus, 297 
 
 Valerian is acknowledged Emperor, 297 
 
 Character of Valerian, 298 
 
 13? 268. General Misfortunes of the Reigns of Valerian and Gal- 
 
 lienns 298 
 
 Inroads of the Barbarians 293 
 
 Origin and Confederacy of the Franks 293 
 
 They invade Gaul 300 
 
 Ravage Spain 1^31 
 
 Pass over into Africa, 3 >< 
 
 Origin and Renown of the Sncvi, 303 
 
 A mixed body of Suevi assume the Name of Alemanni, 302 
 
 Invade Gaul and Italy 303 
 
 Are repulsed from Rom" by tiio Senate and People 303 
 
 rbe Senators excluded by Gallieiiu.s from the ivfilitaiy Service,.. . 30*
 
 llvl Ct>NTENTS. 
 
 A. • risB 
 
 Gallienas contracts an Alliance with the Alemanni, 304 
 
 Inroads of the Goths 305 
 
 Conquest of the Bosphorus by the Goths, , 3Qt 
 
 The Goths acquire a Naval Force, 'JOl 
 
 First Naval Expedition of the Goths ?07 
 
 The Goihs besiege and take Trebizond, 308 
 
 The Second Expedition of the Goths, 308 
 
 Thej- plunder the Cities of Bithjniia, 310 
 
 Retreat of the Goths, 31i 
 
 Third Naval Expedition of the Goths, 310 
 
 They pass the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, ail 
 
 Ravage Greece and threaten Italy, 319 
 
 Their Divisions and Retreat, 313 
 
 Ruin of the Temple of E phesus, 313 
 
 Conduct of the Goths at Athens, 314 
 
 Conquest of Armenia by the Persians, 314 
 
 Valerian marches into the East, 315 
 
 tSO Is defeated and taken Prisoner by Sapor, King of Persia 315 
 
 Sapor ovennins Syria, Cilicia, and Cappadocia 316 
 
 Boldness and Success of Odenathus against Sapor 318 
 
 Treatment of Valerian, ■.* 318 
 
 Character and Administration of Gallienus 320 
 
 The Thirty Tyrants, 321 
 
 Their real Number not more than Nineteen 323 
 
 Character and Merit of the Tyrants 322 
 
 Their obscure Birth 323 
 
 The Causes of their Rebellion, 323 
 
 Their violent Deaths 324 
 
 Fatal Consequences of these Usurpations, 325 
 
 Disorders of Sicily 326 
 
 Tumults of Alexandria, 326 
 
 Rebellion of the Isaurians, 327 
 
 Famine and Pestilence. , 328 
 
 Diminution of the Human Species, 38f 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Ki:aN or claudics. — defeat of the goths. — victories, TRiDKrH, kn 
 
 DEATH OF AURELIAN. 
 
 W8 Aureolus invades Italy, is defeated, and besieged at Milan, rt3l 
 
 Death of Gallienus JS5 
 
 Character and Elevation of the Emperor Claudiae, it% 
 
 Mi Deiith of Aureolne, K9
 
 CONTENTS. Xlvii 
 
 ». ■. '*0K 
 
 CiCweicy anJ Justice of Claudius, 333 
 
 He undertakes the Reformation of the A rmy 334 
 
 »69, The Goths invade the Empire, 335 
 
 Distress and Firmness of Claudius 33S 
 
 His Victory over the Goths, 33fi 
 
 C70 Death of the Emperor, who recommen<l8 Aurelian for his Suc- 
 cessor, - 338 
 
 The Attempt and Fall of auintilius, 338 
 
 Origin and Services of Aurelian, 339 
 
 Aurelian's successful Reign, 341' 
 
 His severe Discipline 340 
 
 He concludes a Treaty with the Goths 341 
 
 He resigns to them the Province of Dacia, 341 
 
 r»0 The Alemannic War 342 
 
 The Alemanni invade Italy, 344 
 
 They are at last vanquished by Aurelian, 344 
 
 5171. Superstitious Ceremonies, 345 
 
 Fortifications of Rome, 346 
 
 -71. Aurelian suppresses the two Usurpers, 347 
 
 Succession of Usurpers in Gaul, 348 
 
 271. The Reign and Defeat of Tetricus 348 
 
 272. Character of Zenobia, 349 
 
 Her Beauty and Learning 349 
 
 Her Valor 349 
 
 She revenges her Husband's Death 351 
 
 She reigns over the East and Egypt, 3.'i9 
 
 27?!. The Expedition of Aurelian 353 
 
 The Emperor defeats the Palmj-renians iu the Battles of Antioch 
 
 and Eniesa, 354 
 
 The State of Palmj'ra, 354 
 
 It is besieged by Aurelian, 355 
 
 *73. Aurelian becomes Master of Zenobia, and of the City, 355 
 
 Behavior of Zenobia, 356 
 
 Rebellion and Ruin of Palmyra, 357 
 
 Aurelian suppresses the Rebellion of Finnus in Egj'pt, 358 
 
 t74 Triumph of Aurelian, 359 
 
 His Treatment of Tetricus and Zenobia, 360 
 
 His Magnificence and Devotion, 361 
 
 He suppresses a Sedition at Rome 361 
 
 Observations upon it, 36? 
 
 Cruelty of Aurelian, ■t63 
 
 Wt6 He marches into the E ast, and is assassinated, Mi 
 
 3
 
 Xlviii CONTENTB. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 COUDDCT of the army and senate after the death of AUREIUR.'* 
 REIGNS OF TACITUS, PROBUS, CARUS, AND HIS S0N3 
 
 «. t PiBI. 
 
 Exlraordiuaiy Contest between the Army and the Senate for the 
 
 Clioice of an Emperor, 3C6 
 
 4' 3 A peaceful Interreg^num of eight Months 3rt7 
 
 The Consul assembles the Senate 3C8 
 
 Character of Tacitus, 3(19 
 
 He is elected Emperor, 370 
 
 He accepts llie Purple 370 
 
 Authority of the Senate 371 
 
 Their Joy and Confidence, 372 
 
 376 Tacitus is acknowledged by the Army, 372 
 
 The Alani invade Asia, and are repulsed by Tacitus, 373 
 
 876. Death of the Emperor Tacitus, 373 
 
 Usurpation and Death of his Brother Florianus 374 
 
 Their Family subsists in Obscurity 373 
 
 Character and Elevation of the Emperor Probas 375 
 
 His respectful Conduct towards the Senate, 376 
 
 Victories of Probus over the Bai'barians 377 
 
 art. He delivers Gaul from the Livasion of the Germans, 378 
 
 He carries his Anns into Geraiany, 380 
 
 He builds a Wall from the Rhine to the Danube, 381 
 
 Introduction and Settlement of the Barbarians 383 
 
 Daring Enterprise of the Franks 384 
 
 979. Revolt of Saturninus in the East, 384 
 
 rt80. Revolt of Bonosiis and Proculus in Gaul, 385 
 
 »81. Triumph of the Emperor Probus, 386 
 
 His Discipline, 386 
 
 282 His Death 387 
 
 Election and Character of Carus, 388 
 
 The Sentiments of the Senate and People 389 
 
 Cants defeats the Sarmatians, and marches into the East, 389 
 
 •83. He gives Audience to the Persian Ambassadors, 39 
 
 833 His Victories, and extraordinary Death, 390 
 
 He is succeeded by his two Sons, Carinas and Numerian, 399 
 
 881 Vices of Carinus, 393 
 
 He celebrates the Roman Games 394 
 
 SpecUicles of Rome, 39.1 
 
 The Amphitheatre 396 
 
 Return of Numerian with the Army from Perg-a, 398 
 
 Death of Numerian 398 
 
 884 Election of the Emperor Diocletian, 4O0 
 
 C85 Defeat and Death of Carinus 401
 
 C0NTBNT8. dix 
 
 CHAPTER xirr. 
 
 TH« REIGN OF r.IOCLETIAN AND HIS THREE ASSOCIATES, MAXIMIAN. 
 GALEUIUi, AND CONSTANTIUS. — GENERAL UEESTABLISHMENT OF ORDEM 
 AND TRANQUILLITY. — THE PERSIAN WAR, VICTORY, AND TRIUKPH. — 
 THS NEW FORM OF ADMINISTRATION. — ABDICATION AND RETIREME.NT 
 0/ DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMIAN. 
 
 iD Pi OK. 
 
 iifl Elevation and Character of Diocletian, 403 
 
 His Clemency in Victory 403 
 
 886 Association and Character of Maxiiuian, 404 
 
 892 Association of two Ca3sars, Galcrius and Constantius 4CH 
 
 Departments and Harmony of the four Princes 400 
 
 Series of Events, 407 
 
 ?fl7 State of the Peasants of Gaul, 407 
 
 Their Rebolhon 408 
 
 And Chastisement 403 
 
 387. Revolt of Carausius in Britain, 409 
 
 Importance of Britain, 410 
 
 Power of Carausius 410 
 
 289. Acknowledged by the other Emperors, 411 . 
 
 '".94. His Death ,... 412 
 
 296 Recovery of Britain by Constantius 412 
 
 Defence of the Frontiers, 413 
 
 Fortifications, 413 
 
 Dissensions of the Barbai-iaus, 413 
 
 Conduct of the Emperors, 414 
 
 Valor of the Caisars, 414 
 
 Treatment of the Bai'barians, 415 
 
 Wars of Africa and Egypt 415 
 
 ♦596. Conduct of Diocletian in Egypt 416 
 
 He suppresses Books of Alchemy, 417 
 
 Novelty and Progress of that Art 418 
 
 The Persian War 419 
 
 88; Tiridatos the Armenian 419 
 
 886. His Restoration to the Tlu'one of Armenia 419 
 
 State of the Country, 420 
 
 Revolt of the People and Nobles, 420 
 
 Story of Mamgo, , 421 
 
 The Persians recover Armenia, 423 
 
 B96 War between the Persians and the Romans, 423 
 
 Defeat of Galerius, 423 
 
 His Reception by Diocletian 421 
 
 *»7 Second Campaign of Galerius, 42 
 
 His Victory, 42) 
 
 His Behavior to his Royal Captives, 4!M
 
 1 CONTENTS. 
 
 A. B. rA«l 
 
 Negotiation for P(;ace, 421 
 
 Speech of die Persian Ambassador, 427 
 
 Answer of Galerius, 45n 
 
 Moderation of Diocletian 427 
 
 Conclusion of a Treaty of Peace, 427 
 
 Articles of the Treaty, 427 
 
 The Aboras fixed as the Limits between the Empires, 42S 
 
 Cession of five Provinces beyond the Tigris, 42* 
 
 Armenia 421 
 
 Iberia. 4.J0 
 
 903 Triumph of Diocletian, and Maximian 431 
 
 Long Absence of the Emperors from Rome 432 
 
 Their Residence at Milan 433 
 
 Their Residence at Nicomedia, 434 
 
 Debasement of Rome and of the Senate, 434 
 
 New Bodies of Guards, Jovians and Herculians, 435 
 
 Civil Magistracies laid aside, 435 
 
 Imperial Dignity and Titles 436 
 
 Diocletian assumes the Diadem, and introduces the Persian Cer- 
 emonial 437 
 
 New Form of Administration, two Augnsti and two Caesars, 438 
 
 Increase of Taxes, 439 
 
 Abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, 441 
 
 Resemblance to Charles the Fifth, 441 
 
 >04. Long Illness of Diocletian 443 
 
 His Pnidence, 442 
 
 Compliance of Maximian, •. 443 
 
 Retirement of Diocletian at Salona 444 
 
 His Philosopliy, 444 
 
 313. His Death, 445 
 
 Description of Solona and the adjacent Country, 445 
 
 Of Diocletian's Palace 446 
 
 Decline of the Arts, J47 
 
 Decline of Letters, ., 449 
 
 The New Platouists, 449 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 TEOCBLES AFTER THE ABDICATION OF DIOCLETIAN. — DEATH OF CONST IB 
 YIUS. — ELEVATION OF CONSTANTINE AND MAXENTIUS. — SIX EMPERC.tS AT 
 THE SAME TIME. — DEATH OF MAXIMIAN AND GALERIUS. — VICTORIi» 0» 
 C01I3TANTINE OVER MAXENTIUS AND LICINIUS — REUNION OF TUK CH- 
 P1E£ 0NDKR THE AUTHORITY OF CONSTANTINE. 
 
 ft)5— 323. Period of Civil Wars and Confusion 431 
 
 Character and Situation of Constantias, ........i iU
 
 CONTENTS. n 
 
 k. B. PAOB. 
 
 Of Gfc/eriuB, 453 
 
 The two Caesars, Severus and Maximin, 453 
 
 Ambition of Galerius disappointed by two Revolutiuns, 454 
 
 274. Birth, Education, and Escape of Constantino 455 
 
 300. Death of Constantius. and Elevation of Constantiue, 457 
 
 He is acknowledged by Galerius, who gives him only the title of 
 
 Ca3sar, and that of Augustus to Severus, 458 
 
 The Brothers and Sisters of Constantino, 458 
 
 Discontent of the Romans at the Apprehension of Taxes, 459 
 
 J9i Maxentius declared Emperor at Rome 460 
 
 Maximian reassumes the Purple, 461 
 
 307 Defeat and Death of Severus, 46a 
 
 Maximian gives his Daughter Fausta, and the title of Augustus to 
 
 Constantine 463 
 
 Galerius invades Italy, 463 
 
 His Retreat, 465 
 
 307 Elevation of Licinius to the Rank of Augustus, 4G5 
 
 Elevation of Maximin 466 
 
 308. Six Emperors, 466 
 
 Misfortunes of Maximian, 467 
 
 31 0. His Death, 469 
 
 311. Death of Galerius, 469 
 
 His Dominion shared between Maximin and Licinius, 470 
 
 306 — 312. Administration of Constantine in Gaul, 471 
 
 Tyranny of Maxentius in Italy and Africa 471 
 
 312. Civil War between Constantiue and Maxentius, 473 
 
 Preparations, 474 
 
 Constantine passes the Alps 475 
 
 Battle of Turin 475 
 
 Siege and Batde of Verona, 477 
 
 Indolence and Fears of Maxentius, 479 
 
 41, J. Victory of Constantine near Rome, 480 
 
 His Reception, 489 
 
 His Conduct at Rome, 484 
 
 31 3. His Alliance with Licinius 485 
 
 War between Maximin and Licinias, 485 
 
 The Defeat of Maximm 486 
 
 His Death, 486 
 
 Cruelty of Licinius 486 
 
 Unfortunate Fate of the Empress Valeria and her Mother 487 
 
 1 1 4 (iuarrel between Constantine and Licinius, 499 
 
 First Civil War between them, 490 
 
 111 Battle of Cybalis, 491 
 
 Battle of Mardia, 491 
 
 Treaty of Peace, 493 
 
 tl5 -323. General Peace and Laws of Constantine, 493 
 
 IW The Gothic War, 4M
 
 dl CONTENTS. 
 
 >■ B FASB 
 
 323 Becoiid Civil War between Constantine ajd Licinias, 49'; 
 
 Batllo of Hadrianople, 498 
 
 Siege of Byzantium, and Naval Victory of Crispus 500 
 
 Battle of Chiysopolis 501 
 
 Submission and Death of Licinius 503 
 
 S9 « Uennion of the Empire, 50^ 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 rBE PROGRESS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, AND THE SENTIMENTS, MAS- 
 KERS, NUMBERS, AND CONDITION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. 
 
 Importance of the Inquirj- 504 
 
 Its Difficulties, 50# 
 
 Five Causes of the Growth of Christianity 50J 
 
 , I. The First Cause. Zeal of the Jews ; 503 
 
 Its gradual Increase 509 
 
 Their Religion better suited to Defence than to Conquest, 510 
 
 More liberal Zeal of Christianity, 512 
 
 Obstinacy and Reasons of the believing Jews, 513 
 
 The Nazarene Church of Jerusalem, 514 
 
 The Ebionites, 516 
 
 The Gnostics, 518 
 
 Their Sects, Progress, and Influence, 520 
 
 The Daemons considered as the Gods of Antiquity, 522 
 
 Abhon-ence of the Christians for Idolati*y, 523 
 
 Ceremonies, 524 
 
 Arts, 525 
 
 Festivals, 526 
 
 Zeal for Christianity 527 
 
 TT. The Second Cause. The Doctrine of the Immortality of the 
 
 Soul among the Philosophers 528 
 
 Among the Pagans of Greece and Rome, 528 
 
 Among the Barbarians and the Jews, 530 
 
 Among the Christians, 532 
 
 Approaching End of the World, 532 
 
 Doctrine of the Milennium, 533 
 
 Conflagration of Rome and of the World, S'n 
 
 The Pagans devoted to eternal Punishment 537 
 
 Were often converted by their Fears 533 
 
 ni. The Third Causi. Miraculous Powers of the Primitive 
 
 Church 538 
 
 Their Truth contested 541 
 
 Our Perplexity in defining the Miraculous Period, 543 
 
 Use of the primitive Miracles 543
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 IV. The Fojrth Cause. Virtues of the first Chria 
 
 Effects of tlicir Repentance 
 
 Care of their Roputiition, 
 
 Morality of the Fathers, 
 
 Principles of Human Nature 5i. 
 
 The primitive Christians condemn Pleasure and Luxuiy, .548 
 
 Their Sentiments concerning Marriage and Chastity, 549 
 
 Their Aversion to the Business of War and Govenimeut, S.'il 
 
 V. The Fifth Cause. The Christians active in the Government 
 
 of the Church 553 
 
 Its primitive Freedom and Equality, 554 
 
 Institutions of Bishops as Presidents of the College of Presby- 
 ters, 556 
 
 Provincial Councils 558 
 
 Union of the Church 559 
 
 Progress of Episcopal Authority 559 
 
 Preeminence of the Metropolitan Churches, 56C 
 
 Ambition of the Roman Pontiff, 561 
 
 Laity and Clergy, T 562 
 
 Oblations and Revenue of the Church 563 
 
 Distribution of the Revenue 566 
 
 Excommunication, 567 
 
 Public Penance 568 
 
 The Dignity of Episcopal Government 569 
 
 Recapitulation of the Five Cause s 571 
 
 AVeakness of Polytheism, 572 
 
 The Scepticism of the Pagan World proved favorable to the new 
 
 Religion 572 
 
 And to the Peace and Union of the Roman Empire, 573 
 
 Historical View of the Progi-ess of Christianity 573 
 
 In the East, 575 
 
 Tlie Church of Antioch, 576 
 
 In Egypt, 577 
 
 In Rome. 579 
 
 In Africa and the Western Provinces, 580 
 
 Beyond the Limits of the Roman Empire 582 
 
 General Proportion of Christians and Pagans, 583 
 
 Wliether the first Christians were mean and ignorant, 5S4 
 
 Bome Exceptions wi'.h regard to Learning 584 
 
 W'ilh regard to Rank and Fortune 585 
 
 Christianity most favo.-ably received by the Poor and Simple, 586 
 
 Rejected by some eminent Men of the first and second Centaries, 5R6 
 
 Their Neglect of Prophecy, 557 
 
 Their Neglect of Miracles 586 
 
 Qeneral Silence concerning the Darkness of the Passioa 5M
 
 THB V 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 or 
 
 THE DECLINE AND FALL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. THE EXTENT AND MILITARY FORCE OF TIEB 
 
 EMPIRE IN THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES, 
 
 In the second century of tlie Christian ^ra, the empire of 
 Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the 
 most civihzed portion of mankind. The frontiers of that 
 extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and 
 discipUned valor. The gentle but powerful influence of laws 
 and manners had gradually cemented the union of the prov- 
 inces. Their .peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and- abused the 
 advantages of wealth and luxury. The image of a free con- 
 stitution was preserved with decent reverence : the Romau 
 senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and de- 
 volved on the emperors all the executive powers of govern- 
 ment. During a happy period of more than fourscore years, 
 the public administration was conducted by the virtue and 
 abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonincs. 
 It is the design of this, and of the two succeeding. .chapters, to 
 describe the prosperous condition of their empire ; and after 
 wards, from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce tha 
 most important circumstances of its decline and fall ; a revolu 
 tion which will ever be remembered, and is still fe t by the 
 nations of the earth. 
 
 The .print ipal conqu^ts of the Romans were achieved 
 
 VOL. I.- -A
 
 2 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180 
 
 and.^r the . republic ; and the emperors, for the most part, 
 were satisfied with preserving those dominions which had 
 been acquired by the pohcy of the senate, the active emula- 
 tions 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 subduing the whole earth, and to in- 
 troduce a spirit of moderation into the public councils. In 
 dined to peace by his temper and situation, it was easy fof 
 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 re- 
 flections, and eflfectually convinced him that, by the prudent 
 vigor of his counsels, it would be easy to secure every con- 
 cession which the safety or the dignity of Rome might require 
 from the most formidable barbarians. Instead of exposing 
 his person and his legions to the arrows of the Parthians, he 
 obtained, by an honorable treaty, the restitution of the stan- 
 dards and prisoners which had been taken in the defeat of 
 Orassus.* 
 
 His generals, in the early part of his reign, attempted the 
 reduction of Ethiopia and Arabia Felix, 'ihey marched near 
 a thousand miles to the south of the tropic ; but the heat of 
 the climate soon repelled the invaders, and protected the un- 
 warlike natives of those sequestered regions." The northern 
 
 * Dion Cassius, (1. liv. p. 736,) -with the annotations of Reimar 
 who has collected all that Roman vanity has left upon the subject. 
 The narble of Ancyra, on which Augustus recorded his own ex- 
 ploits, asserted that he compelled the Parthians to restore the ensigua 
 of Crassus. 
 
 2 Strabo, (L xvi. p. 780,) Pliny the elder, (Hist. Natur. 1 
 ▼i c 32, 35, [28, 29,] and Dion Cnssius, (1. Uii. p. 723, and L 
 liv. p. 734,) 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 
 
 * It is this city of Merab that the Arabs say was the residence of Belkis, 
 queen oi Saba, who desired to see Solomon. A dam, by which the watero 
 collected in its neighborh >od were ke-pi back, having been .swept away, the 
 euddeu inundation destroyed this city, of which, nevertheless, vestige* 
 remain. It bordered on a country called Adramout, where a particulai 
 •romatie piaiit rtowb : it i» for this reason that we rea^i in the bistoiy o'
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 9 
 
 countries of Europe scarcely deserved the expense and labor 
 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 AugJistua.of-the vicissitude of fortune." 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 whiclr- 
 nature seemed to have placed 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.* 
 
 Happily for the repose of mankind, the moderate system 
 recommended by the wisdom of Augustus, was adopted by 
 the 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 vvere they disposed to suflfer, that those tri> 
 umphs which their indolence neglected, should be usurped by 
 the conduct and valor of their lieutenants. The military fame 
 
 three days'* journey of the spice country, the rich object of theu 
 invasion. 
 
 ^ By the slaughter of Varus and his three legions. See the first 
 book of the Annals of Tacitus. Sueton. in August, c. 23, and Velle- 
 ius Paterculus, 1. ii. c. 117, <fec. Augustus did not receive the melan- 
 choly news with all the temper and firmness that might havp been 
 expected from his character. 
 
 ■• Tacit. Annal. 1. ii. Dion Cassius, 1. Ivi. p. 833, and the speech 
 of Augustus himself, in Julian's Csesars. It receives great light from 
 the learned notes of his French translator, M. Spanheim. 
 
 the Roman expedition, that they were arrived within three daj's' jom-ney of 
 the spice country. — G. Compare Malie-Brun, Geo^r. Eng. trans, vol. ii. p. 
 815. The period of this flood has been copiously discussed by Reiske, 
 f Program, de velm'td Epochd Arabum, nifturd cataractm Merabensxs.) 
 Add. Joliarmsen, Hist. YemancE, p. 282. Bonn, 1828 ; and sec Gibbon, note 
 16. to Chap. L.— M. 
 
 * Two, according- to Strabo. The detailed account of Strabo makes tho 
 invaders fail before Marsuabae : this cannot be the same place as Mariaba. 
 Ukert observes, that iElius Gallus would not have failed for want of watei 
 before Mariaba. (See M. Guizot's note above.) " Either, therefore, they 
 were different places, or Strabo is mistaken." (Ukert, Geograj>hie der 
 Griechen und Romer, vol. i. p. 181.) Strabo, indeed, mentions Mariaba dis- 
 linet from Marsuaba;. Gibbon ha-s followed Pliny in reckoning Mariaba 
 tmong the conquests of Gallus. There can be little doubt that lie if 
 wrong, as Gallus did not approach tlie capital of Sabcea. Compare iJmj now 
 of the Oxford editor of Strabo.- -M.
 
 4 THE DECLINE A.ND FALL [A.D. 98-180, 
 
 of a subject was considered as an insolent invasion of the Im- 
 perial prerogative ; and it became the duty, as weU as interest, 
 of every Roman general, to guard the frontiers intiusted to liia 
 care, without aspiring to conquests ivhich might have proved no 
 less fatal to Limself than to the vanquished barbarians.' 
 
 The only accession which the Roman empire received, 
 during the first century of the Christian ^ra, was the province 
 of Britain. In this single instance, the successors of Caesar 
 and Augustus were persuaded to follow the example of the 
 former, rather than the precept of the latter. The proximitj 
 of its situation to the coast of Gaul seem.ed to inviie their 
 arms ; the pleasing though doubtful intelligence of a pearl 
 fishery, attracted their avarice ; " 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 con- 
 tinental measures. After a war of about forty years, under- 
 taken by the most stupid,^ maintained by the most dissolute, 
 and terminated by the most timid of all the emperors, the far 
 2;rcater part of the island submitted to the Roman yoke.* 
 The various tribes of Britain possessed valor 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 inconsistency ; 
 and while they fought singly, they were successively subdued. 
 .Neither the fortitude of Caracfcicus, nor the despair of Boa- 
 dicea, 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 
 
 * Geriiianicus, 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 tho 
 strictest sense of the word, imperatoria virtus. 
 
 ® Caesar himself conceals that ignoble motive ; but it is mentioned 
 by Suetonius, c. 47. The British pearls proved, however, of L'ltle 
 value, on account of their dark aud livid color. Tacitus observes, 
 with reason, (in Agricola, c. 12,) that it was an inherent defect. 
 "Ego facilius crediderim, naturam margaritis deesse quam noLia 
 Bvaritiam." 
 
 ' Claudius, Nero, and Domitian. A hope is expressed by Pompo- 
 oius 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 b« 
 better known. It is amusing enough to peruse such passages iu the 
 tuidst of London. 
 
 * See the admirable abridgment given by Tacitus, in the life of 
 Agricola, and copiously, though perhaps not completely, illustrated b] 
 oor own .intiqufirians. Camden and Ho'rsley.
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. I 
 
 was disgraced by the weakest, or the most vicious of man 
 kind. At the very time when Doraitian, confined to his palace, 
 felt thcs ti^iv."ors which he inspired, his legions, under the com- 
 mand of the virtuous Agricola, defeated the collected force cf 
 the Caledonians, at the foot of the Grampian Hills ; and hia 
 fleets, venturing to explore an unknown and dangerous naviga- 
 tion, 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 insure his 
 success, by the easy reduction of Ireland, for which, in his 
 opinion, one legion and a few auxiharies were sufficient.* 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 were on every side 
 removed from before their eyes. 
 
 But the superior merit of Agricola soon occasioned hia 
 removal fi'om the government of Britain ; and forever dis- 
 appointed this rational, though extensive scheme of conquest. 
 Before his departure, the prudent general had provided for 
 i^iurity as well as for dominion. He had observed, that the 
 'sland 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 militarj'^ stations, which was afterwards fortified, in 
 the reign of Antoninus Pius, by a turf rampart, erected on 
 foundations of stone.'" This wall of Antoninus, at a small 
 distance beyond the modern cities of Edinburgh and Glas- 
 gow, was fixed as the limit of the Roman province. The 
 native Caledonians preserved, in the northern extremity of 
 the island, their wild independence, for which they were not 
 
 • The Irish writers, jealous of their national honor, are extremely 
 provoked ou this occasion, both with Tacitus and with Agricola. 
 
 *" See Horsley's Britannia Romana, L i. c. 10.* 
 
 * Agricola fortified the line from Dumbarton to Edinbnrgh, consequently 
 within Scotland. The emperor Hadrian, during his residence in Britain, 
 about the year 121, caused a rampart of earth to be raised between New- 
 castle and Carlisle. Autouiuus Pius, having gained new victories over llie 
 Caledonians, by the ability of his general, Lollius Urbicus, caused a new 
 ram pari nl earth to be constructed between Edinburgh and Dumbarton. 
 Lastly, Sei)timius Severus caused a wall of stone to be built parallel to the 
 jam part of Hadrian, and on the same locality. Sec .John Warburton's Val- 
 lum ilomanum, or the History and Antiquities of the Roman Wall. Lon- 
 don, 1754, 4n. — W. See likewise a good note on the lloman wall ia Lin 
 nrd'a History of England, vol. i. p 10, 4to edit — M.
 
 )^'; 
 
 6 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180 
 
 less indebted to tlieir poverty than to their valor. Their in- 
 cursions -were frequently repelled and chastised ; but their 
 country was never subdued." The masters of the J^^irest and 
 most wealthy climates of the globe turned with contempt from 
 gloomy hills, assailed by the winter tempest, from lakes con 
 cealed in a blue mist, and from cold and lonely heaths, over 
 which the deer of the forest were chased by a troop of naked 
 barbaTians.'" 
 
 Such was the state of the Roman frontiers, and such the 
 maxims of Imperial policy, from the death of Augustus to 
 the accession of Trajan. That virtuous and active prince had 
 received the education of a soldier, and possessed the talenta 
 of a general.'^ The peaceful system of his predecessors 
 was interrupted 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 against 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." To the strength and 
 fierceness of barbarians they added a contempt for life, which 
 was derived from a warm persuasion of the immortahty and 
 transmigration of the soul." 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 confes- 
 sion of his enemies, he had exhausted every resource both of 
 valor and policy." This memorable war, with a very short 
 suspension of hostiHties, lasted five years; and as the em- 
 peror could exert, without control, the whole force of the 
 state, it was terminated by an absolute submission of the bar- 
 barians." The new province of Dacia, which formed a 
 
 *' The poet Buchanan celebrates with elegance and spirit (see hia 
 Sylvse, V.) the un violated 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 inde- 
 pendence would be reduced within very narrow limits. 
 
 " See Appian (in Procem.) and the uniform imagery of Ossian's 
 Poems, which, according to every hypothesis, were composed by a native 
 Caledonian. 
 
 " See Pliny's Panegyric, which seems founded on facts. 
 
 " Dion Cassius, 1. Ixvii. 
 
 *' Herodotus, 1. iv. c. 94. Julian in the Csesai-s, with Spanheim'* 
 abeervations. 
 
 " Plin. Epist. viii. 9. 
 
 " Dion Cassius, 1. Ixviii. p. 1123, 1131. Julian in CaeBaribm 
 Eutropiiis, \m. 2, 6. Aurclius Victor it Epitome.
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. t 
 
 second exception to tlie precept of Augustus, was about th^^ 
 teeu hundred miles in circumference. Its natural boundariea 
 were the Niester, the Teyss 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 neighborhood of 
 Bender, a place famous in modern history, and the actual 
 , frontier of the Turkish and Russian empires.'* 
 ~^~ ^^rajan was ambitious of fame ; and as long as mankind 
 ehall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their de- 
 stroyers 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.'* Yet the sue 
 cess 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 en- 
 joyed the honor of being the first, as he was the last, of the 
 Roman generals, who ever navigated that remote sea. His 
 fleets ravaged the coast of Arabia ; and Trajan vainly flat 
 tered himself that he was approaching towards the confines 
 of India.*" Every day the astonished senate received the 
 intelligence of new names and new nations, that acknowl 
 edged his sway. They were informed that the kings of Bos- 
 phorus, Colchos, Iberia, Albania, Osrhoene, and even the Par- 
 thian 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." But the 
 death of Trajan soon clouded the splendid prospect ; and it 
 
 '* See a Memoir of M. d'Anville, on the Province of Dacia, in the 
 Academie des Inscriptions, torn, xxviii. p. 444 — 468. 
 
 *• Trajan's sentiments are represented in a very just and lively man- 
 oer in the Caesars of Julian. 
 
 * Eutropius and Sextus Rufus have endeavored to perpetuate ths 
 iliusioa See a very sensible dissertation of M. Freret in the Academit 
 des Inscriptions, torn. xxL p. 55. 
 
 •1 Dion Cassius. 1. Ixviii. ; and the Abbreviatora
 
 M THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180 
 
 was justly to be dreaded, that so many distAut nations would 
 throw off the unaccustomed yoke, when they Avere no longe* 
 restrained by the powerful hand which had imposed it. 
 
 It was an ancient tradition, that when the Capitol was 
 founded by one of the Roman kings, the god Terminus 
 (who presided over boundaries, and was represented, accord- 
 ing to the fashion of that age, by a large stone) alone, among 
 all the inferior deities, refused to yield his place to Jupitoi 
 Himself, A favorable inference was drawn from his obsti 
 nacy, which was interpreted by the augurs as a sure presage 
 that the boundaries of the Roman power would never recede." 
 During many ages, the prediction, as it is usual, contributed to 
 its own accomplishment. But though Terminus had resisted 
 the Majesty of Jupiter, he submitted to the authority of the 
 emperor Hadrian."" The resignation of all the eastern con- 
 quests of Trajan was the first measure of his reign. He 
 restored to the Parthians the election of an independent sover- 
 eign ; withdrew the Roman garrisons from the provinces of 
 Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria ; and, in compliance with 
 the precept of Augustus, once more established the Euphrates 
 as the fi'ontier of the empire." Censure, which arraigns the 
 public actions and the private motives of princes, h;xs ascribed 
 to envy, a conduct which might be attributed to the prudence 
 and moderation of Hadrian. The various character of that em- 
 peror, capable, by turns, of the meanest and the most generous 
 sentiments, may afford some color to the suspicion. It was, how- 
 ever, scarcely in his power to place the superiority of his pre- 
 decessor in a more conspicuous light, than by thus confessing 
 himself unequal to the task of defending the conquests of Trajan. 
 
 The martial and ambitious of spirit Trajan formed a very 
 singular contrast with the moderation of his successor. The 
 restless activity of Hadi-ian was not less remarkable when 
 compared with the gentle repose of Antoninus Pius. The 
 
 22 Ovid. Fast. 1. ii. vcr. 667. See Livy, aad Dionysius of Hallcar- 
 
 nassus, iinder the reign of Tarquin. 
 
 23 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.* 
 
 2* See the Augustan History, p. 5, Jerome's Chronicle, and all the 
 Epitomizers. It is somewhat surprising, that this memorable evenl 
 should be omiied by Dion, or rather by Xiphilin. . 
 
 • The turn of Gibbon's sentence is Augnstin's: "Plus Hadriaaom retfeoB 
 httmvuam, quam regem Deorum timuiBse videatur." — M.
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. f 
 
 life of the former was almost a perpetual jouraey ; and tM he 
 possessed the various talents of the soldier, the statetman, and 
 the scholar, he gratified his curiosity in the discharge of his 
 duty. Careless of the difference of seasons and of climates, he 
 inarched on foot, and bare-headed, over the snows of Caledo- 
 nia, and the sultry plains of the Upper Egypt ; nor was there 
 a province of the empire which, in the course of his loign, waa 
 not honored with the presence of the monarch.'* 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 ex- 
 tended no farther than from his palace in Rome to the retire- 
 ment of his Lanuvian villa.''* 
 
 Notwithstanding this difference in their personal conduct, 
 the general system of Augustus was equally adopted and uni- 
 formly pursued by Hadrian and by the two Antonines. JThey 
 persisted in the design of maintaining the dignity of the 
 ^-empire, without attempting- -ter-entarge its Hmits. By^nevery 
 lionbrable expedient they invited the friendship of the bar- 
 barians ; and endeavored 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 labors 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.'^ The Roman name was revered among the most 
 remote nations of the earth. The fiercest barbarians fre- 
 quently submitted their differences to the arbitration of the 
 
 25 Dion, 1. Ixix. p. 1158. Hist. August, p. 5, 8. If all our historians 
 were lost, medals, inscriptions, and other monuments, would be suffi- 
 cient to record the travels of Hadrian.* 
 
 26 See the Augustan History and the Epitomes. 
 
 2'' We must, however, remember, that in the time of Hadrian, a 
 lebelUon of the Jews raged with religious fury, though only in a single 
 province. Pausanias (1. viii. c. 43) mentions two necessary and suc- 
 cessful wars, conducted by the generals of Pius: 1st. Ag.ainst the 
 wandering Moors, who wore driven into the solitudes of Atlas. 2d 
 Against the Brigantes of Britain, who had invaded the Roman prov- 
 ince. Both these wars (with several other hostilities) are mentioned in 
 the Augustan History, p. 19. 
 
 The journej'S of Hadrian are traced in a note on Solvet'e translation of 
 Begowisch, Essai sur I'Epoque de Histoire Roaiaine la plus heoreaee poitf 
 te Genre Humain Pane, 1831, p. 123.— M. 
 
 A*
 
 10 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180 
 
 emperor ; and we are informed by a contemporary historian 
 that he had seen ambassadors who were refused the honcn 
 which they came to sohcit of being admitted into the rank of 
 subjects.'" 
 
 The terror of the Roman arms added weight and dignity to 
 the moderation of the emperors. They preserved peace by a 
 i3onatant preparation for war ; and while justice regulated their 
 •onduct, they announced to the nations on their confines, that 
 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."' The military estaV 
 lishment of the Roman empire, which thus assured either ita 
 tranquiUity or success, will now become the proper and im- 
 portant object of our attention. 
 
 In the purer ages of the commonwealth, the use of arms 
 was reserved for those ranks of citizens who had a country to 
 love, a property to defend, and some share in enacting those 
 laws, which 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 de 
 graded into a trade.'" The legions themselves, even at the 
 time when they were i-ecruited in the most distant provinces, 
 
 28 Appian of Alexandria, in the preface to his History of the 
 Roman Wars. 
 
 89 Dion, 1. Lxxi. Hist. August, in Marco. 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. 
 
 3" The poorest rank of soldiers possessed above forty pounds ster- 
 ling, (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 pounds weight of brass.* The populace, excluded by the 
 ancient constitution, were indiscriminately admitted by Marius See 
 Sallust. de Bell. Jugurth. c. 91. 
 
 * On the uuccrtaiuty of all these estimates, and the difEculty of fixing 
 the relative value of brass and silver, compare Niebuhr , vol. i. p. 473, &c, 
 Eng. trans, p. 45-2. According to Niebuhr, the relative disproportion in 
 value, between the tv^rc metals, ai'ose, in a great degree from the abundance 
 of brass or copper. — M. Compare also Dureau de la Malle Kconomifl 
 Politiqae des Romaina, especially L 1. c. ix. — M. 1845.
 
 A.,D. 9d-180.J OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. H 
 
 were supposed to consist of Roman citizens. That distino 
 tion was geueiallj considered, either as a legal qualification 
 or as a proper recompense for the soldier ; but a more serious 
 renjard was paid to the essential merit of age, strength, and 
 iiihtary stature." In all levies, a just preference was given 
 to the climates of the North over those of the South : the race 
 i)f men born to the exercise of arms was sought for in the 
 country rather than in cities ; and it was very reasonably pre- 
 sumed, that the hardy occupations of smiths, carpenters, and 
 liuntsmen, would supply more vigor and resolution than the 
 sedentary trades which are employed in the service of lux- 
 ury.'* After every qualification of property had been laid 
 aside, the armies of the Roman emperors were still com- 
 manded, for the most part, by officers of liberal birth and 
 education ; but the common soldiers, like the mercenary troops 
 of modern Europe, were drawn from the meanest, and very 
 frequently fi-om the most profligate, of mankind. 
 
 That public virtue, which among the ancients was denomi- 
 nated patriotism, is derived from a strong sense of our own. 
 interest in the preservation and prosperity of the free govern- 
 ment 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 — honor 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 valor ; and that, 
 although the prowess of a private soldier must often escape 
 the notice of fame, his own behavior might sometimes confer 
 glory or disgrace on the company, the legion, or even the 
 army, to whose honors he was associated. On his first en- 
 trance 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." The attachment of the Roman 
 
 * Caesar formed his legion Alauda of Gauls and strangers; Imt it 
 was during the license of civil war ; and after the victory, he gavfl 
 them the freedom of the city for their reward. 
 
 »a See Vegetius, de Re Militari, 1. i. c. 2—7. 
 
 ■• The oath of service aind fidelity to the emperor was annualfei 
 tcnewed by the troops on tlie first of Januai-y.
 
 19 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 99-180 
 
 iroops to their standards was inspired by the united influence 
 of rehgion and of honor. The golden eagle, which glittered 
 in the front of the legion, was the object of their fondest de- 
 votion ; nor was it esteemed less impious than it was igno- 
 minious, to abandon that sacred ensign in the hour of dan- 
 ger.*' These motives, which derived their strength from the 
 imagination, were enforced by fears and hopes of a more 
 substantial kind. Regular pay, occasional donatives, and a 
 stated recompense, after the appointed time of service, alle- 
 viated the hardships of the military life," whilst, on the other 
 hand, it was impossible for cowardice or disobedience to es- 
 cape the severest punishment. The centurions were author- 
 ized to chastise with blows, the generals had a right to punish 
 with death ; and it was an inflexible maxim of Roman disci- 
 pline, that a good soldier should dread his officers far more 
 than the enemy. From such laudable arts did the valor of 
 the Imperial troops receive a degree of firmness and docility 
 unattainable by the impetuous and irregular passions of bar 
 barians. 
 
 And yet so sensible were the Romans of the impeifection 
 of valor without skill and practice, that, in their language, 
 the name of an army was borrowed from the word which 
 signified exercise.^* Military exercises were the important 
 
 3* 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.* 
 
 35 See Gronovius de Pecunia vetere, 1. iii. p. 120, &c. The em- 
 peror Domitian raised the annual stipend of the legionariw to twelve 
 pieces of gold, which, in his time, was equivalent to about ten of our 
 guineas. Tliis pay, somewhat higher than our own, had been, and 
 ■was afterwards, gradually increased, according to the progress of 
 vealth and miUtary government. After twenty years' service, tht 
 veteran received three thousand denarii, (about one hundred poundt 
 sterling,) or a proportionable allowance of land. The pay and ad- 
 vantages of the guards were, in general, about double those of the 
 legions. 
 
 ** Exercitus ab exercitando, Varro de Lingua Latina, 1. iv. Cicero 
 in Tusculan. 1. ii. 37. [15.] There is room for a very interesting 
 work, which should lay open the connection between tho languages 
 and manners of nations.f 
 
 * See also Die. Cass. xL c. 18. — ^M. 
 
 t I am not aware of the existence, at present, of such a w^ork ; bat tna 
 prafoand observations of the late WiUiam von Humboldt, in the introduc- 
 tion to his posthumously published Essay on the Language of the Island 
 at Java (ijber die Kawi-sprache, Berlin, 1836,) may cause regret tha,* tluf 
 ttuili \vu.8 not completed by that accomplished and universaj scholar. — M.
 
 A. D, 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. IS 
 
 and unremitted object of their discipline. The iticruita 
 and young soldiers were constantly trained, both in the 
 morning and in 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 labors 
 might not receive any interruption from the most tempestuous 
 vfeather ; and it was carefully observed, that the arms 
 deatincd to this imitation of war, should be of double the 
 weight which wa*s required in real action." It is not the 
 pui-pose of this work to enter into any minute descriptioF 
 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 soldiere 
 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 evolu- 
 tions ; and to move to the sound of flutes in the Pyrrhic 
 or martial dance." In the midst of peace, the Roman 
 troops familiarized 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." It was the policy 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 unexperienced soldiers, to 
 reward the diligent, and sometimes to dispute with them 
 the prize of superior strength or dexterity.*" Under the 
 reigns of those princes, the science of tactics was cultivated 
 with success ; and as long as the empire retained any vigor, 
 their military instructions vvere respected as the most perfect 
 model of Roman discipline. 
 
 *7 Vegslius, 1. ii. and the rest of his first book. 
 
 S8 The Pyrrliic dance is extremely well illustrated by M. le Beau, 
 in the Academie des Inscriptions, torn. xxxv. p. 262, itc. Tliat learned 
 t&lemician, in a series of memoirs, has collected all Ihe passages of 
 tii? &ncK'.nt8 that relate to the Roman legion. 
 
 * Joseph, de Bell. Judaico, 1. iii. c. 5. We are indebted to this Jew 
 for oome ^ery curious details of Eoman discipline. 
 
 * Plin. Panfgyr. c. 13. Life of Hadrian, in the Au^^tau 
 Hutory.
 
 14 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180 
 
 Nine centuries of war had gradually introduced into the 
 service many alterations and improvements. The legions, 
 as they are described by Polybius/' in the time of the 
 Punic wars, differed very materially from those which 
 achieved the victories of Caesar, or defended the monarchy 
 of Uadrian and the Antonines. The constitution of the 
 Imperial legion may be described in a few words,*'' The 
 Deavy-armed infantry, which composed its principal strength,** 
 ffas divided into ten cohorts, and fifty-five companies, under 
 the orders of a correspondent number of 'tribunes and cen- 
 turions. The first cohort, which always claimed the post of 
 honor and the custody of the eagle, was formed of eleven 
 hundred and five soldiers, the most approved for valor 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 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 liand the 
 formidable pilum, a ponderous javelin, whose utmost length 
 was about six feet, and which was terminated by a massy 
 triangular point of steel of eighteen inches.** This instru- 
 ment 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 
 
 *^ See an admirable digression on the Roman discipline, in the sixth 
 book of his History. 
 
 ^2 Vegetius de Re Militari, 1. ii. c. 4, &c. Considerable part of hia 
 very perplexed abridgment was taken from the regulations of Trajan 
 and Hadrian ; and the legion, as he describes it, cannot suit any othei 
 age of the Roman empire. 
 
 43 Vegetius de Re Militari, 1. ii. c. 1. In the purer age of Caesar 
 and Cicero, the word miles was almost confined to the infabtry 
 Under the lower empire, and the times of chivalry, it was appro- 
 priated almost as exclusively to the men at arms, who fought ou 
 tiorseback. 
 
 *♦ In the time of Polybius and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, (L t. e 
 45,) the steel point of t]\e pilum seems to have b<er much longer. Jd 
 the time of Vegetius, it was reduced to a foot, cir even nine inches. I 
 h&Te chosen a medium.
 
 A. D. 98-180.] ,1P THE ROMAN EMPIRR. Ifl 
 
 A firm and skilful liand, there was not any cavalry that 
 durst venture within its reach, nor any shield or corselet that 
 could sustain the impetuosity of its weight. As soon as thfe 
 Roman had darted his pilum, he drew his sword, and 
 rushed forwards to close with the enemy. His sword 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.** The legion was usually drawn up eight deep ; 
 and the regular distance of three feet was left between the 
 files as well as ranks.*' A body of troops, habituated to pre- 
 serve 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 reenforcements might be introduced to the relief 
 of the exhausted combatants.*^ 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.*' 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.** 
 
 The cavalry, without which the force of the legion would 
 have remained imperfect, was divided into ten troops or 
 squadrons ; the first, as the companion of the first cohort, 
 consisted of a hundred and thirty-two men ; whilst each of 
 the other nine amounted only to sixty -six. The entire estab- 
 lishment formed a regiment, if we may use the modern 
 expression, of seven hundred and twenty-six horse, naturally 
 jonnected with its respective legion, but occasionally separated 
 
 <* For the legionary arms, see Lipsius de Militia Romana, L iii. 
 4 2—7. 
 
 *« See the beautiful comparison of Virgil, Georgic ii. v. 2*79. 
 
 *' M. Guichard, Menioires Militaires, torn. i. c. 4, and Nouveaur 
 Memoircs, torn. i. p. 293 — 311, has treated the subject like a scholar 
 and an officer. 
 
 <^ See Arrian's Tactics. With tie true partiality of a Greek, Arrian 
 rather chose to describe the phalaiix, of which he had read, than the 
 legions which he had con\manded. 
 
 " Pilyb. 1 xvii. [xviii. 9.1
 
 18 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180. 
 
 to act ill the line, and to compose a part of the wings of the 
 army.** The cavalry of the emperors was no longer com- 
 posed, like that of the ancient republic, of the noblest youths 
 of Roaie and Italy, who, by performing their military service 
 on horseback, prepared themselves for the offices of senator 
 and consul ; and solicited, by deeds of valor, the future 
 suffrages of their c/^untrymen.'"' Since the alteration of man- 
 ners and government, the most wealthy of the equestrian 
 order were engaged in the administration of justice, and of 
 the revenue ;" and whenever they embraced the profession 
 of arms, they were immediately intrusted with a troop of 
 horse, or a cohort of foot/^ Trajan and Hadrian formed their 
 
 5" Veget. de Re Militari, L 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.* 
 
 51 See Livy almost throughout, particularly xlii 61. 
 
 52 PHn. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 2. The true sense of that very curious 
 
 f)assage was first discovered and illustrated by M. de Beaufort, Repub- 
 ique Romaine, 1. iL c. 2. 
 
 53 As in the instance of Horace and Agricola. This appears to have 
 been a defect in the Roman discipline ; which Hadrian endeavored to 
 remedy by ascertaining the legal age of a tribune.f 
 
 " See also Joseph. B. J. iii. vi. 2. — M. 
 
 t These details are not altogether accurate. Although, in the latter 
 days of the republic, and under the first emperors, the young Roman nobles 
 obtained the command of a squadron or a cohort with greater facility than 
 in the former times, they never obtained it without passing through a tol- 
 erably long mihtary service. Usually they served first in the pra;torian 
 cohort, which \vas intnisted with the guard of the general : they were 
 received into the companionship (contubeniium) of some superior oflicer, 
 and were there formed for duty. Thus Julius Caesar, though sprung from 
 a great family, served first as contubemalis under the prstor, M. Thennus, 
 and later under Servilius the Isaurian. (Suet. Jul. 2, 5. Plut. in Par 
 p. 516. Ed. Froben.) The example of Horace, which Gibbon adduces to 
 prove that young knights were made tribunes immediately on entering the 
 «ei-vice, proves nothing. In the first place, Horace was not a knight ; he 
 was the son of a freedman of Venusia, in ApuHa, who exercised the hum- 
 ble oiBce of coactor exauctionum, (collector of payments at auctions.) 
 (Sat. i. vi. 45, or 86.) Moreover, when the poet was made tribune, Brutus, 
 whose army was nearly entirely composed of Orientals, gave this title to 
 all the Romans of consideration ^vho joined him. The emperors were still 
 less difficult in their choice ; the number of tribunes was augmented ; the 
 title and honors were confen-ed on persons whom they wished to attach to 
 the court. Augustus conferred on the sons of senators, sometimes the 
 tribunate, sometimes the command of a squadron. Claudius gave to the 
 knights who entered into the service, first the command of a cohort of 
 arxiliariefi, later that of a squadron, and at length, for the first time, the 
 tribunate. (Suet, in Claud, with the notes of Emesti.) The abuses thaj 
 ::ro8e caus^jd the odict of Hadrian, which fixed the age at which that bonot 
 ooald be attained. (Spai-t. in Had. &c.) Tliis edict w^as sabseqaentlj
 
 A.D. 9S-180.] OF THE ROMA> EMPIRE. I* 
 
 cavalry from the saiC3 provinces, and the same class of thei? 
 subjects, which recruited the ranks of the legion. The liorsea 
 were bred, for the most part, in Spain or Cappadocia. The 
 Roman troopers despised the complete armor 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 prin- 
 capal weapons of offence. The use of lances and of iron macee 
 they seem to have borrowed from the barbarians." 
 
 The safety and honor of the empire was principally intrusted 
 to the legions, but the policy of Eome condescended to adopt 
 every useful instrument of war. Considerable levies were 
 regularly made among the provincials, who had not yet de 
 served the honorable distinction of Romans. Many dependen 
 princes and communities, dispersed round the frontiers, weri; 
 permitted, for a while, to hold their freedom and security by 
 the tenure of military service." Even select troops of hostile 
 barbarians were frequently compelled or persuaded to con- 
 sume their dangerous valor in remote climates, and for the 
 benefit of the state.^° All these were included under the gen< 
 eral name of auxiliaries ; and howsoever they might vary 
 according to the difference of times and circumstances, their 
 numbers were seldom much inferior to those of the legions 
 themselves." Among the auxiliaries, the bravest and most 
 feithful bands were placed under the command of praefects 
 »nd 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, 
 
 -* See Arrian's Tactics. 
 
 55 Such, in particular, was the state of the Batavians. Tacit. Ger- 
 mania, c. 29. 
 
 55 Marcus Antoninus obliged the vanquished Quadi and Marco- 
 manni to supply him with a large body of troops, which he immedi- 
 ately sent into Britain. Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxi. [c. 16.] 
 
 5T Tacit. Annal. iv. 5. Those who fix a regular proportion of as 
 wany foot, and twice as many horse, confound the auxiliaries of the 
 emperors with the Italian allies of the repubhc. 
 
 beyed; for the emperor Valerian, in a letter addressed to Mulvius Galli- 
 anus, praet/jrian prajfect, excuses himself for having violated it in favor 
 of the young Probus jftei^vvards emperor, on whom he had confeiTed the 
 tribunate at an earler age on account of his rai'c talents. (Vopisc. in 
 Frob. iv.) — W and G. Agricola, though already invested with the title 
 ■f tribune, was coutubemalis in Britain with Suetonius Patlinus TtD 
 Agr v.— M
 
 18 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A D. 98-18C 
 
 to whom n certain proportion of auxiliaries was allotted, con- 
 tained within itself every species of lighter troops, and of mis- 
 B le weapons ; and was capable of encountering every nation, 
 with the advantages of its respective arms and discipline." 
 Nor was the legion destitute of what, in modern language, 
 would be styled a train of artillery. It consisted in ten military 
 engines of the largest, and fifty-live of a smaller size ; but all 
 uf which, either in an oblique or horizontal manner, discharged 
 Jtones and darts with irresistible violence." 
 
 The camp of a Roman legion presented the appearance of 
 a fortified city.*" As soon as the space was marked out, the 
 pioneers carefully levelled the ground, and removed every 
 impediment that might interrupt its perfect regularity. Ite 
 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 ciimp, the 
 prgetorium, or general's quarters, rose above the others ; the 
 cavalry, the infantry, and the auxiliaries occupied their respec-- 
 tive 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 iteelf wa^ 
 usually twelve feet high, armed with a line of strong and iiitri 
 cate palisades, and defended by a ditch of twelve feet in depth 
 as well as in breadth. This important labor was j-)erformed 
 by the hands of the legionaries themselves ; to whom che use 
 of the spade and the pickaxe was no less familiar th.HU that of 
 the sword or pilum. Active valor may often be the present of 
 
 *8 Vegetius, ii. 2. Arrian, in his order of mai'ch and I lUle against 
 
 the Alani. 
 
 59 The subject of the ancient machines is treated with -.reat knowl 
 edge and ingenuity by the Chevalier Folard, (Polybe, ton , ii. p. 233— 
 290.) He prefers them in many respects to our modern camion and 
 mortars. We may observe, that the use of them in tb > field grad- 
 ually became more prevalent, in proportion as person; .1 valor and 
 military skill declined with the Roman empire. Whe j meri T^^ere 
 m longer found, their place was supplied by machines Bee V»»ge- 
 'du!3, il 25. Arrian. 
 
 *" Vegetius finishes his second book, and the description ci the 
 iegion, with the following emphatic words: — ''Univc^ei qv<e ir 
 quoque belli genere necessaria esse creduntur, secum logio debet 
 ubique portare, nt in quo vis loco fixerit castra, armntam iadai 
 dvitatem."
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF ruE koman empire. U 
 
 nature ; but sucli patient diligence can bo ilio fruit wni/ of 
 habit and discipline.*' 
 
 Wlienever the trumpet gave the signal of departure, the 
 camp was almost instantly broke up, and the troops fell into 
 their ranks without delay or confusion. Besides their arms, 
 which the legendaries scarcely considered f>s an encumbrance, 
 they were laden with their kitchen furniture, the instruments 
 of fortification, and the provision of many days." 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.*' 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." 
 The slingers and archers skirmished in the front; the auxil- 
 iaries 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. 
 
 Such were the arts of war, by which the Roman emperors 
 defended their extensive conquests, and preserved a military 
 e-pirit, 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 
 nay compute, however, that the legion, which was itself a 
 »ody of six thousand eight hundred and thirty-one Romans, 
 jight, with its attendant auxiliaries, amount to about twelve 
 iiousand five hundred men. The peace establishment of 
 Hadrian and his successors wjis 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 weak- 
 ness or pusillanimity, the legions were encamped on the banka 
 of the great rivers, and along the frontiers of the barbarians. 
 
 '• For the Roman Castrametation, see Polybiu?, 1. vi. with Lipsiua 
 de Militid Romana, Joseph, de BelL Jud. 1. iii. c. 6. Vegetiiia, i. 21 
 — '25, iii. 9, and Memoires de Guichard, torn. i. c. 1. 
 
 •* Cicero in Tusculaii. ii. 37, [15.] — Joseph, de Bell. Jud. 1. iii. 5, 
 Ffontinus, iv. 1. 
 
 '3 Vegetius, i. 9. See Memoires de I'Academie dc3 Inscriptions, 
 torn. XXV. p. ISY. 
 
 •* See those evolutions admirably well explained by M. Guidutrcl 
 Nouveaux Memoires, torn. i. p. 141 — 284.
 
 20 THE DECLIN3 AND FALl [A. D. 93-180. 
 
 As their station s, for the most part, remained fixed and pel 
 manent, we luay venture to describe the distribution of the 
 troops. Tliree legions were sufficient for Britain. The prin- 
 cipal strength lay upon the Rhine and Danube, and consisted 
 of sixteen legions, in the following proportions : two in the 
 Lower, and three in the Upper Germany ; one in Rhjetia, one 
 in Noricum, four in Pannonia, three in Msesia, 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 tranquiUity of each of 
 those great provinces. Even Italy was not left destitute of a 
 military force. Above twenty thousand chosen soldiers, dis- 
 tinguished by the titles of City Cohorts and Praetorian Guards, 
 watched over the safety of the monarch and the capital. Aa 
 the authors of almost every revolution that distracted the em- 
 pire, the Praetorians will, very soon, and very loudly, demand 
 our attention ; but, in their arms and institutions, we cannot 
 find any circumstance which discriminated them from the 
 legions, unless it were a more splendid appearance, and a less 
 rigid discipline.** 
 
 The navy maintained by the emperors might seem inade- 
 quate to their greatness ; but it was fully sufficient for every 
 useful purpose of government. The ambition of the Ronians 
 was confined 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 rnosl 
 remote coasts of the ocean. To the Romans the ocean 
 remained an object of terror rather than of curiosity ; "' the 
 whole extent of the Mediterranean, 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 
 
 8 Tadtus (AnnaL iv. 5) hasgiven us a state of the legions undpF 
 Tiberius ; and Dion Cassius (1. Iv. p. 794) under Alexander Severca 
 I have endeavored to fix on the proper medium between these two . 
 periods. See likewise Lipsius de Magnitudine Romana, L i. c. 4, 6. 
 
 ** The Romans tried to disguise, by the pretence of rciigioue aT?«^ 
 their ignorance an 1 terror. See Tacit. Germania, c. S4-
 
 A.D. 98-lSU.j OF THE ROMAN EMPIUE, 21 
 
 the most convenient ports of Italy, the one at Ravenna, on 
 the Adriatic, the other at Misenum, in the Bay of Naples. 
 Experience seems at lenc^tli 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 
 hia rival."' Of these Liburnians he composed the two fleets 
 of Kavenna and Misenum, destined to command, the one tho 
 eastern, the other the western division of the Mediterranean ; 
 and to each of the squadrons he attached a body of several 
 tliousand marines. Besides these two ports, which may be 
 considered as the principal 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 between Gaul and Britain, and a 
 great number of vessels constantly luaintained on the Rhine 
 anc Hanube, to harass the country, or to intercept the passage 
 of the barbarians." If we review this general state of tho.^ 
 Imperial forces ; of the cavalry as well as infantry ; of the 
 legions, the auxiliaries, the guards, and the navy; the most 
 Hberal computation will nut allow us to fix the entire estab- 
 lishment by sea and by land at more than four hundred and 
 fifty thousand men : a military power, which, however formi- 
 dable it may seem, was equalled by a monarch of the last cen- 
 tury, whose kingdom was confined within a single province V 
 of the Roman empire.'* / 
 
 We have attempted to explain the spirit which moderated", 
 and the strength which supported, the power of Hadrian and 
 the Antonines. We shall now endeavor, with clearness and 
 precision, to describe the provinces once rtnit ^ -ifriTTft'r tT ipir 
 Bway, but, at present, divided into so many injependeut and 
 hostile states. 
 
 Spain, the western extremity of the einpire, of Europe, 
 
 ST Plutarch, in Marc. Anton, [c. 67.] And yet, if we may nedit 
 Orosius, these monstrous castles were no more than ten feet above the 
 water, vL 19. 
 
 *3 See Lipsius, de Magnitiid. Rom. L L c. 5. The sixteen last 
 chapters of Vegetius relate to naval a(Tai''e. 
 
 ** Volta'rc, Siecle de Louis XI\^ c. '29. It must, however, b« 
 rsioeinberb i, that Franco still feels that extraordinary eflfyrt.
 
 22 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D 98-180 
 
 and of the ancient world, lias, in every age, invariably pre- 
 served the same natural limits ; the Pyrensean Mountains, the 
 Mediterranean, and the Atlantic Ocean. That great penin- 
 sula, at present so unequally divided between two sovereigns, 
 was distributed by Augustus into three provinces, Lusitania, 
 Baetica, and Tarraconensis. The kingdom o* 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, GaUicia, and the 
 Asturias, Biscay, and Navarre, Leon, and the two Castiles, 
 Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia, and Arragon, all contributed to 
 form the third and most considerable of the Roman govern- 
 ments, which, from the name of its capital, was styled the 
 province of Tarragona." Of the native barbarians, the Cel- 
 tiberians were the most powerful, as the Cantabrians and As- 
 turians proved the most obstinate. Confident in the strength 
 of their mountains, they were the last who submitted to the 
 arms of Rome, and tlie first who threw oft" the yoke of the 
 Arabs. 
 
 Ancient Gaul, as it contained the whole country between 
 the 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, Luxemburgh, 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 a hundred independent states." The sea-coast of the 
 
 '" See Strabo, 1. ii. 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. 
 Bee d'Anville, Geographic du Moyen Age, p. 181. 
 
 ''■ One hundred and fifteen cities appear in the Notitla of Gaul; and 
 
 it is well known that this appellation was applied not only to (he 
 
 capital town, but to the whole territory. of each state. But Plutarch 
 
 *nd Appian increase the number of tribes to three or four hunr 
 
 red
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 2S 
 
 Mediterranean, Languedoc, Provence, and Daiiphin6, rjceived 
 their provincial appellation from the colony of Narbonne. 
 The government of Aquitaine was extended from the Pyre- 
 nees 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 Cajsar, the Germans, abusing their superiority of 
 valor, had occupied a considerable portion of the Belgic ter- 
 ritory. The Roman conquerors very eagerly embraced so 
 flattering a circumstance, and the Gallic frontier of the Rhine, 
 from Basil to Leyden, received the pompous names of the 
 Upper and the Lower Germany." 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 
 Germanics. 
 
 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 Fiiths of Dumbarton and 
 Edinburgh. Before Britain lost her freedom, the country was 
 irregularly divided between tliirty 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." As for 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 Euro- 
 pean provinces, which extended from the columns of Hercules 
 to the wall of Antoninus, 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. If 
 Lad been occupied by a powerful colony of Gauls, who, sct- 
 thng themselves along the banks of the Po, from Piedmont to 
 Roraagna, carried their arms and diffused their name from 
 the Alps to the Apennine. The Liguriaus dwelt on the rockj 
 
 ** D'Anville. Notice cle I'Ancienne Gaule. 
 
 " Whittaker's History of Manchester, voL L «\ I.
 
 24 THE DECLINE A5D FALL [A. D. 98-180 
 
 coast which now forms the republic of Genoa. Venice was 
 yet unborn ; but the territories of that state, which he to the 
 east of the Adige, were inhabited by the Venetians." 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 civilized Hfe.^* The 
 Tyber rolled at the foot of the seven hills of Rome, and the 
 BOTintry of the Sabines, the Latins, and the Volsci, from that 
 fiver to the frontiers of N;iples, was the theatre of her infant 
 victories. On that celebrated ground the first consuls de- 
 served triumphs, their successors adorned villas, and their 
 posterity have erected convents.^* Capua and Campania 
 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 httle province of Istria was annexed 
 to that seat of Roman sovereignty." 
 
 The European provinces of Rome were protected by the 
 course of the Rhine and the Danube. The latter of those 
 mighty streams, which rises at the distance of only thirty 
 miles from the former, flows abo\e 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.'* The provinces of the Danube soon 
 acquired the general appellation of Illyricura, or the Illyrian 
 
 " The Italian Veneti, though often confounded with the GaulB, 
 were more probivbly of Illyrian origin.* See M. Freret, Memoires de 
 I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn, xviii. 
 
 73 See Mafiei Verona illustrata, 1. i.f 
 
 ^^ The first contrast was observed by the ancients. See Floras, i 
 1 1 . The second must strike every modern traveller. 
 
 ''1 riiny (Hist. Natur. L iii.) follows the division of ItiJy by 
 Augustus. 
 
 "* Toumcfort, Voyages en Grece efc Asie Mineure, lettre xvr"L 
 
 * Or Libumian, according to Niebulir. Vol. i. p. 172. — M. 
 
 T Add Niebulir, vol. i., and Otfried Muller, die Etnisker, wliich contaiae 
 ■/I that is krowai, and much that is conjectured, ab«ut this remarkable 
 |«ople. Alsfl Micali, Storia degli anliclii popoli ItaJiaui. Fioretxe, 1832 
 -M.
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 25 
 
 frontier," and were esteemed the most warlike of the empire; 
 but they deserve to be more particidarly considered under the 
 names of Rhtetia, Noricum, Pannonia, Dahnatia, Dacia, Msesia, 
 Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece. 
 
 The pro^/ince of Rhaetia, which soon extin<j;uished the name 
 of the Vindelicians, extended from the summit of the Alps to 
 the banks of the Danube ; from its sjurce, as far as its con 
 flux with the Inn. The greatest part of the flat country is 
 subject to the elector of liavaria ; the city of Augsburg is 
 protected by the constitution of the (xerman empire; the 
 Grisons are safe in their mountains, and tlie country of Tirol 
 is ranked among the numerous provinces of the house of 
 \ustria. 
 
 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 intimately connected. Under the Roman government 
 they were frequently united, and they still remain the patri- 
 mony 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, tliat if we except Bohemia, 
 Moravia, the northern skirts of Austria, and a part of Hungary 
 between the Teyss and the Danube, all the other dominions of 
 the House of Austria were comprised within the limits of the 
 Roman Empire. 
 
 Dalmaua, to which the name of Illyricura more properly 
 belonged, 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 pacha; 
 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.*" 
 
 '• The name of Illyricura originally belonged to ^ihe sea-coast at tba 
 Adiiitic, and was gradually extended by the Romans from the Alps 
 to the E'lxine Sea. See Severini Pannonia, 1. i. c. 3. 
 
 ** A V'enetian tiavcller, the Abbiite Fortis, has lately given us 
 •Gtite avtount of tliose very obscure rjMinuica T.ut, ■Sh« |2;eo^raDhr 
 ■ vu'^ i.— B
 
 26 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98— 180, 
 
 After the Danube had received the wawrs of the Teyss and 
 the Save, it acquired, at least among the Greeks, the name of 
 Ister.*' It formerly divided Msesia and Dacia, the latter of 
 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, Temi;swar 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, Msesia, which, during the middle ages, was broken 
 into the barbarian kingdoms of Servia and Bulgaria, is again 
 united in Turkish slavery. 
 
 The appellation of Rouraelia, which is still bestowed by the 
 Turks on the extensive countries of Thrace, Macedonia, and 
 Greece, preserves the memory of their ancient state under 
 the Roman empire. In the time of the Antonines, the mar- 
 tial 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 Thes- 
 saly, extended from the ^gean to the Ionian Sea. When we 
 reflect on the fame of Thebes and Argos, of Sparta and 
 Athens, we can scarcely persuade oui'selves, that so many 
 immortal republics of ancient Greece were lost in a single 
 province of the Roman empire, which, from the superior influ- 
 ence of the Achajan league, was usually cenominated the 
 province of Achaia. 
 
 Such was the state of Europe under the Roman emperors. 
 The provinces of Asia, without excejjting the transient con- 
 quests of Trajan, are all 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, 
 OS well as more agreeable, to obser\e the indelible characters 
 
 and antiquities of the western Illjricum can be expected only from th* 
 niunificence of the emperor, its sovereign. 
 
 " The Save rises near the confines of Istria, and was considered b^ 
 tbe more early Greeks as the principal stream of the Danube.
 
 A.I). 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 27 
 
 of nature. The name of Asia Minor is attributed with some 
 propriety to the peninsula, which, confined betwixt the Euxine 
 and the Mediterranean, advances from the Euphrates towarda 
 Europe. The most extensive and flourishing district, west- 
 ward of Mount Taurus and the River Halys, was dignified by 
 the Ronjans 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 
 Pamphyiians, 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 pos- 
 sessed the northern side of the peninsula from Constantinople 
 to Trebizond. On the opposite 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 sover- 
 eignty of the emperors, and received at their hands either trib- 
 utary princes or Roman garrisons. Budzak, Crim Tartary, Cir- 
 cassia, and Mingrelia, are the modern appellations of those 
 savage countries.*'' 
 
 Under the successors of Alexander, Syria was the seat of 
 the Seleucidse, who reigned over Upper Asia, till the success- 
 ful revolt of the Parthians confined their dominions between 
 the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. When Syria became 
 subject 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 ^ea. Phoenicia and Palestine were sometimes annexed 
 to, and sometimes 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 forever 
 
 ** See the Periplus of Arrian. He examined the coasts of the Eux 
 ine, when he was governor of Cappadocia. 
 
 • This comparison is cxag-gerated, with the intention, no doubt, of 
 attaikins the autliovity of the Bible, which boasts of the fertility of Pales- 
 tir.«. Gibbon's only authorities were that of Slrabo (I. xvi. llO'l) aud tb« 
 frusent state of the country. But Strabo only speaks of the neighborhoad
 
 W THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-38(X 
 
 dve in tae memory of mankind ; since America, as well aa 
 Europe, has received letters from the one, and religion from 
 \he otlier.*^ A sandy desert, alike destitute of wood aud 
 water, skirts />.long tliA doubtful confine of Syria, from tlia 
 fiaphrates to the Red Sea. The wandering life of tlv Arabs 
 
 •' The progress of religion is well known. The use of letters was 
 Rtroduced among the savages of Europe about fifteen hundred yeara 
 Defore Christ ; and the Europeans carried them to America about 
 fifteen centuri(,s after the Christian ^ra. But in a period of three 
 thousand years, the Phoenician alphabet received considerable altera- 
 tions, as it passed through the hands of the Greeks and Romans. 
 
 of Jerusalem, which lie calls barren and arid to the extent of sixty stadia 
 round the city : iu c;her parts he Kives a favorable testimony to the fertil- 
 ity of many parts of Palestine : thus he says, " Near Jericlio there is a 
 grove of palms, and a country of a hundred stadia, full of springs, and 
 well peopled." Moreover. Strabo had never seen Palestine; be spoke only 
 after reports, which may be as inaccurate as those according to which he 
 has composed that description of Germany, in which Gluverius has de- 
 tected so many eiTors. (Gluv. GeiTn. iii. 1.) Finallj^, his testimony ia 
 contradicted and refuted by that of other ancient authors, and by medals. 
 Tacitus says, iu speaking of Palestine, "The inhabitants are healthy and 
 robust ; the rains moderate ; the soil fertile." (Hist. v. 6.) Ammianus 
 Marcellinus says also, '• The last of the Syrias is Palestine, a country of 
 considerable extent, abounding in clean and well-cultivated land, and con- 
 lainmg some fine cities, none of \vhich j'ields to the other; but, as it were, 
 being on a iiaraljcl, are rivals." — xiv. 8. Sec also the historian Josephus, 
 Hist. vi. 1. Procopius of Cesarea, who lived in the sixth century, says that 
 Chosroes, king of Persia, had a great desire to make himself master of 
 Palestine, on account of Us extraordinary fertility, its opulence, and the 
 great number -of its inhabitants. The Saracens thought the same, and 
 were afraid that Omar, when he went to Jerusalem, charmed with the fer- 
 tility of the soil and the purity of the air, %vould never return to Medina. 
 [Ockley. Hist, of Sarac. i. 232.) The importance attached by the Romans 
 10 the conquest of Palestine, and the obstacles they encountered, prove 
 ilso the richness and population of the country. Vespasian and Titus 
 caused medals to be struck, with ti'ophies, in which Palestine is represented 
 by a female under a pahn-tree, to signify the richness of the countrj', with 
 lliis legend: Jndaa capfa. Other medals also indicate this fertility; for 
 instance, that of Herod holding a bunch of grapes, and that of the young 
 Agrippa displaying fruit. As to the present state of the country, one per- 
 ceives that it is not fair to draw any inference against its ancient fertility ; 
 die disasters through which it has passed, the government to which it ia 
 subject, the disposition of the inhabitants, explain sufficiently the wild and 
 ancultivated appearance of the land, where, nevertheless, fertile and cul- 
 tivated districts are still found, according to the testimony of travellers; 
 among others, of Sha\v, Maundrcl, La Rocque, &c. — G. The Abbe 
 Guenee, in his Lettres de quelqnes Juifs a Manx, de Voltaire, has exhausted 
 the sabject of the fertility of Palestine ; for Voltaire had likewise indulged 
 In sarca.sra on this subject. Gibbon was assailed on this point, not, indeed, 
 by Mr. Davis, who, he slyly insinuates, was prevented by liis patriotism as 
 a Welshman from resenting the comparison with Wales, but by other 
 writers. In his Vindication, he fii'st established the coirectness of hia 
 measurement of Palestine, which he estimates as 7600 square English 
 ■ilea, while Wales is about 7011. As to the fertil'ty, he proceeds in the
 
 A- D. 98-180.] OF THE ROMi^N EMPIRE. 29 
 
 was inseparably connected with their independence ; and 
 wherever, on some spots less barren than the rest, they ven- 
 tured to form any settled habitations, they soon became sub 
 jects to the Roman empire.*' 
 
 ^* Dion Cassius, lib. Ixviii. p. 1131. 
 
 following dexterously composed and splendid passage : " The empeiot 
 Fre'lerick II., the enemy and the victim of the clergy, is accused of say 
 ing, after his return from his crasade, that the God of the Jews would 
 have despised his promised land, if he had once seen the fruitfbl realms 
 of Sicily and Naples." (See Giannone, Istor. Civ. del R. di Napoli, il. 
 245.) This raillery, which malice has, perhaps, falsely imputed to Fred- 
 erick, is inconsistent with truth and piety ; yet it must be confessed that 
 tlie soil of Palestine does not contain that inexhaustible, and, as it were, 
 spontaneous principle of fertility, which, under the most unfavorable cir- 
 cumstances, has covered with rich harvests the banks of the Nile, the fields 
 of Sicily, or the plains of Poland. The Jordan is the only navigable river of 
 Palestine : a considerable part of the narrow space is occupied, or rather 
 lost, in the Bead Sea whose hoiTJd aspect inspires every sensation of dis- 
 gust, and countenances every tale of horror. The districts which border od 
 Arabia partake of the sandy quality of the adjacent desert. The face of 
 the country, except the sea-coast, and the valley of the Jordan, is covered 
 with mountains, which appear, for the most part, as naked and barren rocks ; 
 and in the neighborhood of Jerasalcm, there is a real scarcity of the two 
 elements of earth and water. (See Maundrel's Travels, p. 65, and Reland's 
 Palestin. i. 238, 395.) These disadvantages, which now operate in their fullest 
 extent, were formerly corrected by the labors of a numerous people, and the 
 active protection of a wise government. The hills were clothed with rich 
 beds of artificial mould, the rain was collected in vast cisterns, a supply of 
 fresh water was conveyed by pipes and aqueducts to the dry lands. The 
 breed of cattle was encouraged in those parts which were not adapted for 
 tillage, and almost every spot was compelled to yield some production for tho 
 nse of the inhabitants. 
 
 Pater ispe colendi 
 Haud facilem esse viam voluit, primusque pai artem 
 Movitagros; curis acuens mortalia corda, 
 Nee torpcie gravi passus sua Regna veterno. 
 
 Gibbon, Misc. Works, iv. 540. 
 
 But Gibbon has here eluded the question about the land "flowing with 
 milk and honey." He is describing Judaea only, without comprehending 
 Galilee, or the rich pastures beyond the Jordan, even now proverbial for 
 their flocks and herds. (See Burckhardt's Travels, and Hist, of Jews, i. 
 178.) The following is believed to be a fair statement: "The extraor- 
 dinary fertility of the whole country must be taken into the account. No 
 part was waste ; very little \\-as occupied by unprofitable wood ; the mora 
 fertile hills were cultivated in artificial terraces, others were hung with 
 orchards of fruit trees the more rocky and barren districts were covered 
 with vi/ieyards." Even in the present day, the wars and misgovernment 
 of ages have not exhausted the natural richness of the soil. " Galilee," 
 eays Make Brun, " would be a paradise were it inhabited by an industrious 
 people under an enlightened government. No land could be less depend- 
 ent on foreign importation ; it bore within itself every thing that could bo 
 necessary for the subsistence and comfort of a simple agricultural people. 
 The climate was healthy, the seasons regular ; the former rains, which fell 
 •boat October, after the vintiige, prepared the ground fa- the seed ; the 
 latter, which orevailcd during March and the beginning of >prU. made il
 
 so THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180, 
 
 The geographers of antiquity have frequently hesitated to 
 what portion of the globe they should ascribe Egypt.*' 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 his- 
 tory, Egypt has humbly obeyed. A Roman preefect was seat- 
 ed on the splendid throne of the Ptolemies ; and the irou 
 sceptre of the Mamelukes is now in the hands of a Turkish 
 pacha. 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 ita 
 inundations, Cyrene, situate towards the west, and along the 
 eea-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 fifteen hundred miles; yet so closely is it pressed 
 between the Mediterranean and the Sahara, or sandy desert, 
 that its breadth seldom exceeds fourscore or a 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 
 
 ** Ptolemy and Strabo, with the modern geographers, fix the Isth- 
 mus of Suez as the boundary of Asia and Africa. Dionysius, Mela, 
 Phny, Sallust, Hirtius, and Solinus, have preferred for that purpose 
 the western branch of the Nile, or even the great Catabatlmius, or 
 descent, which last would assign to Asia, not only Egypt, but part of 
 Libya. 
 
 grow rapidly. Directly the rains ceased, the gi-ain ripeued with stii 
 greater rapidity, and was gathered in before the end of May. The summer 
 months were dry and very liot, but the nights cool and refreshed by copious 
 dews. In September, the vintage was gathered. Grain of all kinds, 
 wheat, barley, millet, zea, and other sorts, grew^ in abundance ; the wheat 
 commonly yielded thirty for one. Besides the vuie and the olive, the 
 almond, the date, figs of many kinds, the orange, the pomegranate, and many 
 other fruit trees, flourished in the greatest luxuriance. Great quantity of 
 honey was collected. The balm-tree, which produced the opobalsamum, a 
 great object of trade, v^'as probably introduced fi-om Arabia, iu the time of 
 Solomon. It flourished about Jericho and in Gilead." — Milman's Hist, of 
 Jews, i, 177. — M. 
 
 * The French editor has a long and unnecessaiy note on the History of 
 CjTene. For the Y)reseut state of that coast and countiy, the volume of 
 Captain Boechey is full of iuterestiug details. Egypt, now an independent 
 and improving kingdom, appears, under the enterprising nile of Mahommed 
 Ah, hkcly to revenge its former oppression upon the decrepit power of the 
 Turkish empire. — M. — This note was \vTitten in 1838. The future destiny 
 of Egypt is an important problem, only to be solved by time. This obsecTS 
 tion will also apply to the new French colony in Algiers. — M 1845.
 
 A O. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMt'IRE. 91 
 
 the Libyans, the most savage of mankind. Under the im- 
 mediate jurisdiction of Carthage, it became the centre of 
 commirce 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 imited jnder Mas- 
 sinissa 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 Csesarieusis. The genuine Mauritania, or 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 foun- 
 dation 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 compre- 
 hended within the Roman province. The western parts of 
 Africa are intersected by the branches of Mount Atlas, a name 
 60 idly celebrated by the fancy of poets ;'* but which is now 
 diffused over the immense ocean that rolls between the ancient 
 and the new continent." 
 
 Having now finished the circuit of the Roman empire, we 
 may observe, that Africa is divided from Spain by a narrow 
 strait of about twelve miles, through which the Atlantic flows 
 mto 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 Mediterra- 
 
 w The long range, moderate height, and gentle dccliviiy 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 heav- 
 ens. The peak of TenerifF, on the contrary, rises a league and x lialf 
 above the surface of the sea ; and, as it was frequently visited by tho 
 Phcenicians, might engage the notice of the Greek poets. See Buf 
 fon, Histoire Naturelle, torn. i. p. 312. Histoire des Voyages, 
 torn. ii. 
 
 8T M. de Voltaire, torn. xiv. p. 297, unsupported by either fact or 
 probability, has generously bestowed tlie Canary Islands on the Eouuui 
 empve
 
 92 THE DEOLl>E AND FALL [A. D. 99-180 
 
 Dean Sea, its coasts and its islands, were comprised witLin th« 
 Roman dominion. Of the larger islands, the two Baleares, 
 which derive their name of Majorca and Minorca from their 
 res])ective 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.f Two Italian sove- 
 reigns assume A regal title from Sardinia and Sicily. Crete, 
 »r Canlia, with Cyprus, and most of the smaller islands of 
 Tireece and Asia, have been subdued by the Turkish arms , 
 vhilst the little rock of Malta defies their power, and hass 
 emerged, under the government of its military Order, into fame 
 and 'opulence.J 
 
 This long enumeration of provinces, whose broken frag- 
 ments have formed so many powerful kingdoms, might almost 
 induce us to forgive tlie vanity or ignorance of the ancients. 
 Dazzled with the extensive swa}^ the irresistible strength, and 
 the real or affected moderation of the emperors, they permitted 
 themselves to despise, and sometimes to forget, the outlying 
 countries which had been left in the enjoyment of a barbarous 
 independence ; and they gradually usurped the license of 
 confounding the Roman monarchy with the globe of the 
 earth.** 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 
 observing 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 tlie 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 contain above sixteen hundred thousand square 
 miles, for the most part of fertile and well-cultivated land.** 
 
 88 Bergier, Hist, des Grands Chemins, 1. iii. c. 1, 2, 3, 4, a very useful 
 eollection. 
 
 89 See Templeman's Survey of the Globe ; but I distrust both the 
 Doctor's loarning and his maps, 
 
 * Minorca was lost to Great Britain in 1782. Aim. Register for that 
 year. — M. 
 
 t The gallant struggles of tlic Corsicans for their indspendence, under 
 Pa.3li, were brought to a close in the year 1769. This volume w^as published 
 in 1776. See Botta, Storia d' Italia, vol. xiv. — M. 
 
 t Malta, it need scar<;ely be said, is now in the possession of the EngUsJi. 
 We have not, however, thought it necessary to notice cverj' change ui th* 
 pDlitical state of the worl i, since the time of Gibbon. — M
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OT THE UNION AND INTERNAL PROSPERITl OP THE ROMAS 
 EMl'IRE, IN THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES, 
 
 Ir is uot alone by the rapidity, or extent of conquest, that 
 we should estimate the greatness of Rome. The sovereicri 
 of the Russian deserts commands a larger portion of the 
 globe. In the seventh summer after his passage of the Hel- 
 lespont, Alexander erected the Macedonian trophies on the 
 oanks of the Hyphasis.' 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.\^ut the firm 
 edifice of Roman power was raised and preserved b}' the 
 wisdom of ages. The obedient provinces of Trajan and the 
 Antonines were united by laws, and adorned by arfe;- 
 They might occasionally suffer from the partial abuse of 
 delegated authority ; but the general principle of government 
 was wise, simple, and beneficent. They enjoyed the religion 
 of their ancestors, whilst in civil honors and advantages they 
 were exalted, by just degrees, to an equality with their con- 
 querors. 
 
 I. The policy of the emj^erors and the senate, as far as it 
 
 ' They were erected about the midway between Lalior and Delhi 
 The conquests of Alexander in Hindostan were confined to the Pnn 
 jab, a country watered by the five great streams of the Indus.* 
 
 2 See M. de Guignes, Histoire des Huns, 1. xv. xvi. and xvii. 
 
 * The Hj-phasis is one of the five rivers •which join the Indus or the 
 Bind, after havina: traversed the province of tlic Pcndj-ab — a name which 
 in Persian, signifies _^re rivers. * * * G. The five rivers were, 1. The 
 HyJaspes, uonv the Cheluni, Behni, or Bedusta, {Sanfcrii, Vitasiha, Ar 
 row-swift.) 2. The Acesines, the Chenab, {Sanscrit, Chandrabh'ier&, 
 Moon-ffift.) 3. Hydraotes, the Ravey, or Iraoty, {Sanserif, Iravati.) 4. Hy- 
 phaflisr .he Beyah, (.S'an«c«7, Vepasa, Fetterless.) 5. The Satadni, (iS'«2.-i« . ■' 
 trti, the Hundred Streamed,) the Sutledj, known first to the Gref " ^'^} ^ 
 time of Ptolemy. Rcnuel. Vincent, Commerce of Anc. boo' „"*• 
 
 Pentapotam. In<l. Wilsun's Sanscrit Diet., and the valuabi VP*' 
 
 Lieut. Bumes, Journal if London Geogr. Society, vol. iii. p. »^ 
 
 travels of that very able writer. Compare Gibbon's own noti!, t 
 M.— M substit. for G. 
 
 \
 
 <84 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 98-180. 
 
 concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of 
 the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part oi 
 their subjects. The various modes of worship, which prevailed 
 in the Roman world, were all considered by the people,~Ias 
 equally true ; by tbe philosopher, as equally false ; and by the 
 magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced 
 not only mutual indulgence, but even rCiigious concord. 
 \ The superstition of the people was not imbittered by any 
 mixture of theological rancor ; nor was it confined by the 
 chains of any speculative s^ste_m,» The devout polytheist, 
 though fondly attached to his national rites, admitted with 
 implicit faith the different religions of the earth.' Fear, grat- 
 itude, 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 immortality, it was universally confessed, that they 
 
 3 There is not any writer who describes in so lively a manner as 
 Herodotus th« 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.* 
 
 * M. Constant, in his very learned and eloquent work, " Sur la Religion," 
 with the two additional volumes, " Du Polytheisme Remain," has considered 
 the whole history of polytheism in a tone of philosojjhy, -which, without 
 subscribing to all his opinions, we may be pennitted to admire. " The 
 boasted tolerance of polytlieism did not rest upon the respect due from so- 
 ciety to the freedom of individual opinion. The polytheistic nations, tolerant 
 as they were towards each other, as separate states, were not the less igno- 
 rant of the eternal principle, the only basis of enlightened toleration, that 
 every one has a right to warship God in the manner which seems to him 
 the best. Citizens, on the contrary, were bound to confonn to the religion 
 of the state ; they had not the liberty to adopt a foreign religion, though that 
 religion might be legally recognized in their own city, for tlie strangers wdio 
 were its votaries." — Sur la Religion, v. 184. Du. Polyth. Rom. ii. 308. At 
 .tbis time, the growng religious indifference, and the general adcjinistraliou 
 o;i' the empire by Romans, who. being strangers, v/ould do no more than 
 p/rotect, not enlist themselves in the cause of the local superstitions, had 
 ifntroduced gi-eat laxity. But intolerance was cJearly the theory bcth of 
 , the Greek and Roman law. The subject is more fuUy considered in anotliel 
 /place. — M.
 
 A.D. 98-180.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRK. 84^ 
 
 deserved, if not the adoi-ation, at le;ist the reverence, of all 
 mankiud. The deities of a thousand groves and a thousand 
 streams possessed, in peace, their local and respective influ- 
 ence ; nor could the Romans 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 
 univei-se. 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 representa- 
 tive ; every art and profession its patron, whose attributes, in 
 the most distant ages and countries, were uniformly derived 
 from the character of their j^eculiar 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 flattery, was gradually in- 
 vested with the sublime perfections of an Eternal Parent, and 
 an Omnipotent Monarch.'' Such was the mild spirit of an- 
 tiquity, 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 respective 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. 
 
 The philosophers of Greece deduced their morals from the 
 nature of man, rather than from that of God. They medi- 
 tated, however, on the Divine Nature, as a very curious and 
 important speculation ; and in the profound inquiry, they dis- 
 played the strength and weakness of the human understand- 
 
 * The rights, powers, and pretensions of the sovereign of Olympus 
 are very clearly described in the xvtli book of the Ihad ; in tlie Greek 
 original, I mean ; for Mr. Pope, without perceiving it, has improved 
 the theology of Homer.* 
 
 ' See, for instance, CaBsar de Bell. Gall. vi.. 17. "Within a century or 
 two, the GauLs themselves apphed to their gods the names of Mercury, 
 Mars, Apoho, «fec. 
 
 * There is a curious coincidence between Gibbon's expressions and thc«e 
 of the ncwly-rccovcrcd " De Rcpublicd" of Cicero, though the argument il 
 rather the converse, hb. i. c. 30. " Sive hajc ad uiilitatem vitau constitata 
 Bint a principibus reruin publicarum, ut rex putaretur unus esse in cooltj, qni 
 nuiu, ut ait Homcrus, totum Olympum converteret, idemque et rex ot p«tfii 
 h&beretuT c«aniuin." — M.
 
 36 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180 
 
 \Dg.* Of the four most celebrated schools, the Stcdcs and the 
 Platonists endeavored to reconcile the jaring interests of rea- 
 son 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 distin- 
 guished 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 religious cast ; but whilst the modest science of 
 the former induced them to doubt, the positive ignorance of 
 the latter urged theu to deny, the providence of a Supreme 
 Ruler. The spirit of inquiry, promj^ted by emulation, and 
 supported by freedom, had divided the public teachers of phi- 
 losophy into a variety of contending sects ; but the ingenious 
 youth, who, from every 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 conde- 
 scended 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 nol 
 already been the objecte of secret contempt among the polished 
 and enlightened orders of society.^ 
 
 Notwithstanding the fashionable irreligion which prevailed 
 in the age of the Antonines, both the interest of the priests and 
 the credulity of the people were sufficiently respected. In 
 tncir writings and conversation, the philosophers of antiquity 
 asserted the independent dignity of reason ; but they resigned 
 their actions to the commands of law and of custom. View- 
 
 • The admirable -work of Cicero de Natura Deorura is the best clew 
 we Lave to guide us througt the dark and profound abyss. He reprc- 
 Bents with candor, and coufutes with subtlety, the opinions of the plu 
 losophers. 
 
 T I do not pretend to assert, that, in this irrehgious age, the natuia< 
 terrors of superstition, dreams, omens, apparitions, <tc., had lost tbeii
 
 A-D. 98-180.J OP THE ROMAN EUriRB. 87 
 
 ingf, witli a smile of pity and indulgence, the various errors of 
 ihe 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 super- 
 stition, they concealed the sentiments of an atheist under tht 
 sacerdotal robes. Reasoners of such a temper were scarcely 
 'Di lined to wrangle about their respectives modes of faith, or 
 of worship. It was indifferent to them what shape the folly 
 of the multitude might choose to assume ; ana tlicy approached 
 with the same inward contempt, and the same external rever- 
 ence, the altars of the Lib3-an, the Olympian, or the Capitoline 
 Jupiter.* 
 
 It is not easy to conceive from what motives a spirit o'* per- 
 secution could introduce itself into the Roman councils. The 
 magistrates could not be actuated by a blind, though -onest 
 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 sena- 
 tors ; and the office of Supreme Pontiff was constantly exer- 
 cised by the emperors themselves. They knew and valued 
 the advantages of religion, as it is connected with civil govern- 
 ment. They encouraged the public festivals which humanize 
 the manners of the people. They managed the arts of divina- 
 tion as a convenient 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.* But whilst they 
 Jickuowledged 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 tirde 
 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 statues of their gods, 
 
 • Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero, and Plutarch always iuculcated a 
 ieccnt reverence for the religion of their own country, and of inau- 
 ^nd. The devotion of Epicurus was assiduous und exemplary. 
 Diogen. Laert. x. 10. 
 
 • Polybius, 1. vi. c. 53, 51. Juvenal, Sat. xiii. Umenfcs that in b'v 
 itXk* this apprehension had lost much of its effect 
 
 -^ rt r^ '~ 

 
 88 rilE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D, 99-180, 
 
 and the ;icli oriiaiDents of their temples ; '" but, in the exer- 
 cise 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 : " but the priests themselves, their gods 
 and their altars, subsisted in peaceful obscurity till the final 
 destruction of Paganism.'* 
 
 Rome, the capital of a great monarchy, was incessantly 
 filled with subjects and strangers from every part of the 
 world,'^ who all introduced and enjoyed the favorite super 
 stitions of their native country.'* Every city in the empire 
 was justified in maintaining the purity of its ancient ceremo- 
 nies ; and the Roman senate, using the common privilege, 
 sometimes interposed, to check this inundation of foreign 
 rites.* The Egyptian superstition, of all the most contempti- 
 ble and abject, was frequently prohibited : the temples of 
 Serapis and Isis demolished, and their worshippers banished 
 from Rome and Italy." But the zeal of fanaticism prevailed 
 
 '" See the fate of Syracuse, Tarontum, Ambracia, Corinth, &c., the 
 conduct of Verres, in Cicero, (Actio ii. Orat. 4,) and the usual prac- 
 tice of governors, in the viiith Satire of Juvtnal. 
 
 " Seuton. in Claud. — Plin. Hist. Nat. xxx. 1. 
 
 '2 Pelloutier, Histoire des Celtes, torn. vi. p. 230—252. 
 
 '3 Seneca, Consolat. ad Helviam, p. 74. Edit. Lips. 
 
 i< Dionysius Halicarn. Antiquitat. Roman. 1. ii. [vol. i. p. 2*75, edit. 
 Reiske.] 
 
 '5 lu the year of Rome 701, the temple of Isis and Serapis was 
 Jemolished by the order of the Senate, (Dion Cassius, 1. xl. p. 252,) 
 and even by the hands of the consul, (Valerius Maximus, 1. 3.)f 
 
 * Yet the worship of forei^ gods at Rome was only guarantied to the 
 natives of those countries from whence they came. The Romans admin- 
 istered the priestly offices only to the gods of their fathers. Gibbon, 
 thi'oughout the whole preceding sketch of the opinions of the Romans 
 and tlieir subjects, has shown through what causes they were free from 
 religious hatred and its consequences. But, on the other hand, the inter 
 nal state of these religions, the infidelity and hypocrisy of the upper 
 orders, the indifference towards all religion, in even the better part of tho 
 conunon people, during the last days of the republic; and under tho 
 Caesars, and the con-upting principles of thi philosophers, had exercised s 
 very pernicious influence on the manners, and even ou the constitu- 
 tion.— W. 
 
 f Gibbon here blends into one, two events, distant a hundred and sixty- 
 fix years fi-om each other. It was in the year of Rome 535, that the gen- 
 mtn having ordered the festruction of the temples of Isis and Serapis, ti«
 
 A. D. 98-180,] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 81 
 
 over the cold aud feeble eflbrts of policy. The exiles returned, 
 the proselytes multiplied, the temples were restored with 
 increasing splendor, and Isis and Serapis at length assumed 
 their place among the Roman Deities." Nor was this indul- 
 gence a departure from the old maxims of government. In 
 the purest ages of the commonwealth, Cybele and -^sculapius 
 had been invited by solemn embassies ; " and it was customary 
 to tempt the protectors of besieged cities, by the promise of 
 more distinguished honors than they possessed in their native 
 country." Rome gradually became the common temple of 
 lier subjects ; and the freedom of the city was bestowed on all 
 the gods of mankind." 
 
 II. The narrow policy of preserving, without any foreign 
 mixture, the pure blood of the ancient citizens, had checked 
 ihe fortune, and hastened the ruin, of Athens and Sparta. 
 Xlie_a^iriiig._ genius of Rome^ sacrificed vanity to ambition, 
 and deemed it more prudent, as well as honorable, to adopt 
 virtue and merit for her own wheresoever they were found, 
 among slaves or strangers, enemies or barbarians.'^" During 
 
 After the death of Cse3ar it was Restored at the public expense. 
 (Dion. 1. xlviL p. 501.) When Augustus was in Egypt, he revered 
 the majesty of Serapis, (Dion, 1. li. p. 647 ;) but in the Pomajrium 
 of Rome, and a mile round it, he prohibited the worship of the 
 Egyptian gods, (Dion, 1. liii. p. 679 ; 1. liv. p. 735.) They remained, 
 however, very fashionable under his reign (Ovid, de Art. Amand. 1. i.) 
 and that of his successor, till the justice of Tiberius was provoked to 
 some acts of severity. (See Tacit. Annal. ii. 85. Joseph. Antiquit. 
 L 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. 
 
 '■' See Livy, 1. xi. [Suppl.] and xxix. 
 
 '* Macrob. Saturnalia, 1. iii. c. 9. He gives us a form of evoca 
 tion. 
 
 '• Minutius Fselix in Octavio, p. 54. Arnobius, 1. vi. p. 115. 
 
 "^ Tacit. Annal. xi. 24. Tlie Orbis Romanus of the learned Spanheim 
 is a complete history of the progressive admission of Latiuni, Italy, 
 and the provinces, to the freedom of Rome.f 
 
 workman would lend his liand ; and the consul, L. JEin\' jus Paulus Inm.solf 
 (Valcr. Max. 1, 3) seized die axe, to trive the first blow. Gibbon aitribuio 
 this circumstance to the second demolition, which toolv place in tlie year 70J 
 and which he considers as the fir.st. — W. 
 
 * See, in the pictures from the ■walla of Pompeii, the representation of 
 •n Isiac temple and worship. Vestiges of Egyptian v^-oi ship liave been 
 traced in Gaul, and, I am informed, recently in Britain, ir excavatioiw tt 
 York.— M. 
 
 t Democratic states, observes T)enina, (dellc Rovoluz. d' Italia, I. ii. e. IJ
 
 10 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180. 
 
 the most flourisliing sera of tlie Athenian commonwealth, tlifl 
 number of citizens gradually decreased from about thirty*' to 
 twenty-one thousand."^ If, on the contrary, we svudy the 
 growth of the Roman republic, we may discover, that, not- 
 withstanding the incessant demands of wars and colonies, the 
 citizens, who, in the first census of Servius Tullius, amounted 
 t", no more than eighty-three thousand, were multiplied, before 
 the commencement of the social war, to the number of four 
 liundred and sixty-three thousand men, able to bear arms in 
 the service of their country.'" When the allies of Rome 
 claimed an equal share of honors and privileges, the senate 
 indeed preferred the chance of arms to an ignominious con- 
 cession. 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,'** and soon contributed to the ruin 
 of public freedom. Under a democratical 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 assembhes 
 had been suppressed by the administration of the emperors, 
 the conquerors were distinguished from the vanquished na- 
 tions, only as the first and most honorable order of subjects ; 
 and their increase, however rapid, was no longer exposed to 
 the same dangere. Yet the wisest princes, who adopted the 
 maxims of Augustus," guarded with the strictest care the 
 
 "' Herodotus, v. 97. It should seem, however, that he followed a 
 large and popular estimation. 
 
 '^■■^ Athenteus, Deipnosophist. L vL p. 272. Edit. Casaubon. Meur- 
 siur, de Fortuna Attica, c. 4* 
 
 -^ See a very accurate collection of the numbers of each Lustrum in 
 M. de Beaufort, Republique Romaine, 1. iv. c. 4:.\ 
 
 '''* Appian. de BeU. Civil. L i. Velleius Paterculus, 1. ii c. 15, 
 16, 17. 
 
 are most jealous of communicating' the privileges of citizenship ; mouarcliies 
 or oligarchies willingly multiply the numbers of their free subjects. The 
 most remarkable accessions to the strength of Rome, by the aggregation of 
 conquered and foreign nations, took place under the regal and patrician — ^we 
 may add, the Imperial government. — M. 
 
 * On the number of citizens in Athens, compare Boeckh, Public Economy 
 af Athens, (English Tr.,) p. 45, ct seq. Fynes Clinton, Essay in Fasti Hcl 
 Icnici, vol. i. 381. — M. 
 
 t All these questions are placed in an entirely new point of view by Nie- 
 hulir, (Romische Geschichte, vol. i. p. 464.) He rejects the census of Serving 
 fuUius as unhistoric, (vol. ii. p. 78, et seq.,) and be establishes the principle 
 that the census comprehended all the confederate cities wliich had "the right 
 of Isopolity. — M.
 
 A.D 98-180.] OV THB R7MAK KHPIRE. 41 
 
 dignitv of the Roman iianie, and diffused the freedom of the 
 city with a pnideut liberality.'* 
 
 Till the privileges of Romans had been progressively ex- 
 tended to all the inhabitants of the empire, an important dis- 
 tinction was preserved between Italy and the provinces, llie 
 former was esteemed the centre of public unity, and the firm 
 basis of the constitution. Italy claimed the birth, or at least 
 the residence, of the emperors and. the senate."' The estates 
 of the Italians were exempt from taxes, their pei-sons from the 
 arbitrary jurisdiction of governors. Their municipal corpora- 
 tions, formed after the perfect model of the capital,* 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 bj 
 language, manners, and civil institutions, and equal to the 
 weight of a powerful empire. The republic gloried in her 
 generous policy, 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 thf; 
 walls of the city, that immortal name would have been de- 
 prived 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 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, tlie 
 double honor 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 
 
 ^^ Maecenas had advised liirn 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 mucli adapted to the practice of liis own age, and 
 so little to that of Augustus. 
 
 '* Thti senators were obliged to have one third of their own landed 
 properly in Italy. See Plia 1. vL ep. 19. The qualification was 
 educed by Marcus to one foiutli. Since the reign of Trajan, ItaH 
 ^ sunk nearer to the level of tlie provinces. 
 
 • It may be doubted wlietlicr the municipal govemment of the citie* 
 
 was not the old Italian constitution, rather tlian a transcript from that of 
 
 B/Ome. The free trovei-nmeut of the cities, observes Savigiiy, was thff 
 
 eadin? characteristic of Italy. Geschichte des ROraischen Rechts, j p 
 
 «.— M.
 
 <2 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. I). 9ft-180 
 
 country from tlie designs of Catiline, enabled lier to contend 
 with Atlic^ns for the palm of eloquence."' 
 
 The provinces of the empire (as they have been d-escribed 
 in the preceding chapter) were destitute of any public force, 
 or constitutional freedom. In Etruria, in Greece/' and in 
 Gaul,"' 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 miglit 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 van- 
 quished nations. The free states and cities which had em- 
 braced the cause of Rome were rewarded with a nominal 
 alliance, and insensibly sunk into real servitude. The public 
 authority was every where exercised by the ministers of the 
 senate and of the emperors, and that authority was absolute, 
 and without control.f But the same salutary maxims of gov- 
 ernment, 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 
 just observation of Seneca,^" confirmed by history and expe- 
 rience. The natives of Italy, allured by pleasure or by 
 
 ^'' 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 CiEsars.* 
 
 ^'^ See Pausanias, 1. vii. The Romans condef,;;ended to restore the 
 names of those assemblies, when they could no longer be dangerous. 
 
 ^^ They are frequently mentioned by Caesar. The Abbe Duboa 
 attempts, with very little success, to prove that the assemblies of Gaul 
 Wfire continued under the emperors. Histoire de I'Etablissement de la 
 Monarchic Fran^oise, 1. i. c. 4. 
 
 '" Seneca in Consolat. ad Helviam, c. 6. 
 
 * Compare Denina, Revol. d' Italia, 1. ii. c. 6, p. 100, 4 to edit. 
 
 t This is, perhaps, rather overstated. Most cities retained the choice of 
 ■beir mni>icipal officers: some retained valuable privilcircs; Atlious, lor m 
 tance, in form was still a confederate city. (Tac. Ann. ii. 53.) These priv- 
 leges, indeed, depended entirely on the arbitrary will of the emperor, who 
 ■evoked or restored them according; to his caprice. See Walther Gescliichte 
 lea Romisphen Rechts, i. 324 — an admirable summary of the ILomau cor- 
 titational histoiy. — M.
 
 A.D. 98-180.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRK 
 
 43 
 
 interest, hastened to enjoy the advantages of victory ; and we 
 may remark, that, about forty years after the reduction cf 
 Asia, eighty thousand Romans were massacred in one day, by 
 the cruel orders of Mithridates." These vohmtary exiles 
 were engaged, for the most part, in the occupations of com- 
 merce, agriculture, and the farm of the revenue. But after 
 the legions were rendered permanent by the emperors, th 
 provinces were peopled by a race of soldiers ; and the vet 
 erans, whether they received the reward of their service ii 
 land or in money, usually settled with their families in the 
 country, where they had honorably spent their youth. 
 Throughout the empire, but more particularly in the western 
 parts, the most fertile districts, and the most convenient situa 
 tions, 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 per- 
 fect representation of their great parent ; and 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 disappointed, of sharing, in due 
 time, its honors and advantages.^* The municipal cities in- 
 sensibly equalled the rank and splendor of the colonies ; and 
 in the reign of Hadrian, it was disputed which was the prefer- 
 able condition, of those societies which had issued from, or 
 those which had been received into, the bosom of Rome.** 
 The right of Latium, as it was called,* conferred on the cities 
 to which it had been granted, a more partial favor. The 
 
 *• Memnon apud Photium, (c. 33,) [c. 224, p. 231, ed Bekker.] 
 Valcr. Maxim, ix. 2. Plutarch and Dion Cassias swell the massacre 
 to 150,000 citizens; but I should esteem the smaller number to be 
 more tlian sufficient. 
 
 ''■^ Twenty-five colonies were settled m Spain, (see Plin. Hist. Nat 
 iii. 3, 4; iv. 35;) and nine in Britain, of wliich London, Colchester, 
 Lincoln, Chester, Gloucester, and Bath still remain considerable 
 cities. (See Richard of Cirencester, p. 36, and Whittaker's History 
 of Manchester, 1. i. o. 3.) 
 
 ^' Aul. Gel. Noctes Atticae, xvL 13. The Emperor Hadrian ex- 
 pressed his surprise, that the cities of Utica, Gades, and ItaUca, which 
 already enjoyed the rights of Municipia, should sohcit the title of 
 eclvnics. Their example, however, became fashionable, and the empirt 
 w/is filled with honorary colonies. See Spanheim, de Usu Numisma- 
 tum Dissertat. xiii. 
 
 * The right of Latium conferred an exemption from the govern nent of 
 the Itoman praefect. Strabo states this distinctly, 1. iv. p. 295, edit. Cubvk 
 gee also Wdther, p. 2^3.— M
 
 44 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180 
 
 magistrates only, at the expiration of their office, assunied tha 
 quality of Roman citizens ; but as those offices were annual, 
 iu a few years they circulated round the principal families." 
 Those of the provincials who were permitted to bear arras in 
 the legions ;^* those who exercised any civil employment ; 
 all, in a word, who performed any public service, or displayed 
 any personal talents, were rewarded with a present, whose 
 valuQ was continually diminished by the increasing liberality 
 of the emperore, 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 inter- 
 esting articles of marriage, testaments, and inheritances ; and 
 the road of fortune was open to those whose pretensions were 
 seconded by favor or merit. The grandsons of the Gauls, 
 who had besieged Julius Caesar in Alcsia, commanded legions, 
 governed provinces, and were admitted into the senate of 
 Rome.** Their ambition, instead of disturbing the tranquillity 
 of the state, was intimately connected with its safety and 
 greainess. 
 
 - So sensible were the Romans of the influence of language 
 /over national manners, that it was their most serious care to 
 extend, with the progress of their arras, the use of the Latin 
 tongue."'' 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 colors, 
 which, though it was in some degree concealed during the 
 meridian splendor of prosperity, became gradually more visi- 
 ole, as the shades of night descended upon the Roman woi'ld. 
 The western countries were civilized by the same hands 
 which subdued thera. As soon as the barbarians were recon- 
 ciled to obedience, their minds were open to any new im- 
 pressions of knowledge and politeness. The language of 
 Virgil and Cicero, though with some inevitable mixture of 
 'Sorruption, was so universally adopted in Africa, Spain, Gaul 
 
 ** Spanheim, Orbis Roman, c. 8, p. 62. 
 " Aj-istid. in Romas Encomio. torn. i. p. 218, edit. Jebb. 
 " Tacit. Annal. xi. 23, 24. Hist. iv. 74. 
 
 *'' See Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. Augustin. de Civitate Dei, sis 1 
 Lijjeiua de Pronunciatione Lingufe Latinae, c. 3.
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 46 
 
 Britain, and Pannonia," that the faint traces of the Punic or 
 Celtic idioms were preserved only n the mountains, or among 
 the peasants.'* Education and study insensibly inspired the 
 natives of those countries with the sentiments of Romans; 
 and Italy gave fashions, as well as laws, to her Latin provin- 
 eialri. They solicited with more ardor, and obtained with 
 more facility, the freedom and honors of the state ; sup- 
 ported the national dignity in letters *" 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 w:xs very different from that of the 
 barbarians. The former had been long since civilized and 
 corrupted. They had too much taste to relinquish their lan- 
 guage, and too much vanity to adopt any foreign institutions. 
 Still preserving the prejudices, after they had lost the virtues, 
 of their ancestors, they aflected to despise the unpolished 
 manners of the Roman conquerors, whilst they were com- 
 pelled to respect their superior wisdom and power.*' 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 conquest, had 
 been diffused from the Adriatic to the Euphrates and the 
 Nile. Asia was covered with Greek cities, and the long 
 
 '* Apuleius and Augustin will answer for Africa ; Strabo for Spain 
 aad 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 Celtic was preserved in the mountains of Wales, Cornwall, 
 and Armorica. We may observe, that Apuleius reproaches an Afri- 
 can youth, who lived among the populace, with the use of the Funic 
 whilst he had almost forgot Greek, and neither could nor would speak 
 Latin, (Apolog. p. 596.) The greater part of St. Austin's congrega- 
 tions were strangers to the Punic. 
 
 ■'° Spain alone produced Columella, the Senecas, Lucan, Martial, 
 and Quintilian. 
 
 *' There is not, I believe, from Dionysius to Libanus, a single Greek 
 critic who mentions Virgil or Horace. They seem ignorant that the 
 Romans had any good writers. 
 
 * Mr. Hallam contests this assertion as regards Britain. "Nor did the 
 Romans ever establish their language — I know not wliether they wished 
 io do so — in this island, as we perceive by that stubborn British tongiio 
 which has survived two conquests." In his note. Mr. Hallam examiues the 
 passage from Tacitus (Agric. xxi.) to which Gil)bon refers. It merely 
 asserts the progress ot Latin studies among the higher orders. (MiddL 
 Agee. iii. ?A4^ Probably it was a kind of court language, and that of psl> 
 IJo affairs, ajid prevailed in the Roman < olonies.- -M.
 
 46 THE DECLINE AND TALL [A. D. 98-180 
 
 reign of the Macedonian kiiiu's bad introduced a silent revolu- 
 tion into Syria und 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 imtated, at an hum- 
 ble distance, by the higher raniis of their subjects. Such was 
 he general division of the Roman empire into the Latin and 
 jrreek languages. 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.** The slothful effeminacy of the former exposed 
 them to the contempt, the sullen ferociousness of the latter 
 excited the aversion, of the conquerors." 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 thirty years elapsed after the 
 ruin of the Ptolemies, before an Egyptian was adniitted int<? 
 Jihe senate of Rome." 
 
 It is a just though trite observation, that victurioui Rome 
 was herself subdued by the arts of Greece. Those immortal 
 writers who still command the admiration of modern Europe, 
 soon became the favorite object of study and imitation in 
 Italy and the western provinces. Bat 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.'" 
 The two languages exercised at the same time their separate 
 jurisdiction throughout the empire : the former, as the natural 
 idiom of science ; the latter, tis the legal dialect of public 
 transactions. Those who united letters with business wera 
 
 <* The curious reader may see in Dupin, (Bibliotlieque Ecclesias 
 tique, torn. xix. p. 1, c. 8,) how much the use of the Syriac and Egyp 
 tian languages was still preserved. 
 
 <3 See Juvenal, Sat. iii. and xv. Amniian. Marcellin. xxiL 16. 
 
 «^ Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1275. The first instance happcuea 
 under tJie roign of Septimius Severus. 
 
 <5 See Valerius Maximus, 1. ii. c. 2, n. 2. The emperor Clauoiui 
 disfranchised an eminent Grecian for not understanding Latin. H* 
 was probably in some public office. Suetonius in Claud, c. lu.* 
 
 • Causos seem to have be(ni pleaded, even in the senate, ia botk 
 g»Ages. Val. Max. /oc. cit. Dion. 1. Ivii. c. 1-5. — M
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRK. 41 
 
 equally conversant with both ; and it was almost imj)ai3ible, 
 in any province, to find a Roman subject, of a liberal educa- 
 tion, who was at once a stranger to the Greek and to th« 
 Latin language. 
 
 It was by such institutions that the nations of the empire 
 insensibly melted away into the Roman name and people. 
 But there still remained, in the centre of every province j 
 and of every family, an unhappy condition of men who / 
 endured the weight, without sharing the benefits, of society. y* 
 lu the free states of antiquity, the domestic slaves were ^-o 
 exposed to the wanton rigor of despotism. The perfect set- 
 tlement of the Roman empire was 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,'" accustomed to a life of inde- 
 pendence, and impatient to break and to revenge their fetters. 
 
 <s In tbe camp of Luculhis, an ox sold foi- a drachma, and a slave 
 for four drachmae, or about three shillings. Plutarch, in LucuU. p. 
 580.t 
 
 * It was tliis whicli rendered the wars so sangninaiy, and the battles so 
 obstinate. The immortal Itobertson. in an excellent discourse on the stajO 
 of the world at the period of the establishment of Clu-istianity, has traced a 
 picture of tbe melancholy effects of slavery, in which we find all the depth 
 of bis vie^vs and the strength of his mind. I shall oppose successively some 
 passages to tbe reflections of Gibbon. The reader wiU see, not without 
 interest, the tniths which Gibbon appears to iiave mistaken or voluntarily 
 DCglected, developed by one of the best of modern historians. It is important 
 to call them to mind here, in order to establish the facts and their co-ise- 
 cjuences with accuracy. I shall more than once have occasion to employ, f'T 
 this purpose, the discourse of Robertson. 
 
 "Captives taken in war were, in all probability, the first persons sub- 
 jected to perpetual servitude ; and, when the necessities or luxury of man- 
 kind increased the demand for slaves, every new war recruited their num- 
 ber, by reducing the vanquished to that wretched condition. Hence pro- 
 ceeded the fierce and desperate spirit with ^^■hich wars were carried on 
 among ancient nations. While chains and slavery were the certain lot of 
 the conquered, battles were fought, and towns defended with a rage and 
 obstinacy which nothing but horror at such a fate could have ins[iired ; but, 
 putting an end to the cruel institution of slavery, Christianity extended its 
 mild influences to the practice of war, and that barbarous art, softened by ita 
 humane spirit, ceased to be so destructive. Secure, in every event, of per 
 Bonal liberty, the resistance of the vanquished became less obstinate, and th« 
 triumph of the victor less cruel. Thus humanity was introduced into the 
 exercise of \var, v^'ith which it appears to be almost incompatible ; and it i( 
 to the merciful maxims of Christianity, much more than to any ether causti, 
 thkit we must ascribe the little ferocity and bloodshed whicli accompany 
 modem victories." — G. 
 
 t Above 100,000 prisoners were taken in the .lewisl. war. — Q. Hi.st oA 
 Jews, iii. 71. According lo a tradition preserved by S. .Jerom, allor ihl 
 'UM&rrectioD in the time of Hadrian, they were eold as cheap as horetw
 
 48 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 03-180. 
 
 Against such internal enemies, whose desperate insurrections 
 had more than once reduced the repubhc to the brink of 
 destruction,*^ the most severe* regulations," and the most 
 cruel treatment, seemed almost justified by the great law of 
 
 *'' Diodorus Siculus in Eclog. Hist. 1. xxxir. and xxrvi Flcrus, iii 
 19, 20. 
 *^ See a remarkable instance of severity in Cicero in Verrem, v. 3. 
 
 Ibid. 124. Compare Blair on Roman Slavery, p. 19. — M., and Dureau de la 
 Msdle, Economie Politique des Romains, 1. i. c. 15. But I cannot think that 
 this v^Titer has made out his ease as to the common price of an agricultural 
 slave being from 2000 to 2oOO francs, (80Z. to 100^.) He has overlooked the 
 passages which show the ordinary prices, (i. e. Hor. Sat. ii. vii. 45,) and 
 argued fi-om extraordinary and exceptional cases. — M. 1845. 
 
 * The following is the example : we shaD see whether the word " severe" 
 is here in its place. " At the time in which L. Domitius was prtEtor in 
 Sicily, a slave killed a wild boai' of extraordinary size. The prsetor, struck 
 by tlie dexterity and courage of the man, desired to see him. The poor 
 wretch, highly gratified with the distmction, came to present himself before 
 t)ie prator. in hopes, no doubt, of praise and re'W'ai'd ; but Domitius, on 
 leaniuig that he had only a javelin to attack and kill the boar, ordered him 
 to be iustimtly cnicitied, under the barbarous pretext that the law prohibited 
 the use of this weapon, as of all others, to slaves." Perhaps the crueltj' of 
 Domitius is less astonishing than the indiflerence with which the Roman 
 orator relates this circumstance, which afi'ccts him so little that he thus 
 expresses himself: " Duram hoc fortasse vidcatur, neque ego in uUam 
 partem dispute." " Tliis may appear harsh, nor do 1 give any opinion ou 
 the subject." And it is the same orator v^^ho exclaims, la the same oration, 
 ■' Faciuus est craciare civem Romanum ; scelus verberare ; prope pan-i- 
 ridiuui nccare: quid dicam in crucem tollere?" " It is a crime to imjirison 
 a Roman citizen; wickedness to scourge; next to parricide to put to death, 
 what shall I call it to ciiicify V 
 
 In general, this passage of Gibbon on slavery, is full, not only of blamable 
 inditiereuce, but of an exaggeration of impartiality which resembles di.i- 
 honesty. He endeavors to extenuate all that is appaUiug in the condition 
 and treatment of the slaves ; he would make us consider those cnaelties aa 
 possibly "justified by neceasity." He then describes, with minute accuracy, 
 the slightest mitigations of their deplorable condition ; he attributes to the 
 virtue or the policy of the emperors the progressive amelioration m the lot 
 of the slaves; and he passes over in silence the most iuHuential cause, thai 
 which, after rendering the slaves less miserable, has contributed at length 
 entirely to enfranchise them from their sufferings and their chains, — Christi- 
 anity. It would be easy to accumulate the most frightful, the most agoni- 
 zing details, of the manner in which the Romans treated their slaves; 
 whole works have been devoted to the description. I content myself with 
 referring to them. Some retlcctions of Robertson, taken from the discourse 
 already quoted, will make us feel that Gibbon, in tracing the mitigation cf 
 the condition of the slaves, up to a period little later than that which wit- 
 nessed the establishment of Christianity in the world, could not have avoided 
 the acknowledgment of the influence of that beneficent cau.se, if he had not 
 aJruadj' detennined not to speak of it. 
 
 "Upon e.stablisliing despotic government in the Roman empire, domestic 
 tyranny rose, in a short time, to an astonishing height. In that rank soil, 
 BTery vice, which power nouiishes in the g"eat, or oppression engenders in 
 the Paean, tlirived and grew up apace. * * * It is not the authority of anj 
 
 jgle detached pre;ept in the gospel, but the t-pirit and genioa of tti«
 
 A. D. 98-180. J OF THE ROMAN EMTIRE. 40 
 
 jelf-preservation. But when the principal nations of Europe, 
 Asia, and Africa were united under the laws of one sovereign, 
 the source of foreign supplies flowed with much less abun- 
 dance, and the Romans were reduced to the milder but more 
 tedious method of propagation.* lu their numerous families, 
 ind particularly in their country estates, they encouraged the 
 narriage of their slaves.f Tlie sentiments of nature, the 
 
 Christian religion, more powerful than any particular command, which hath 
 ibolished the practice oi slavery throughout the world. The temper which 
 Christianity inspired v. as mild und gentle; and the doctrines it taught 
 added such dignity and lustre to human nature, as rescued it from the dis- 
 honorable servitude into which it was sunk." 
 
 It is iu vain, then, that Gibbon pretends to attribute solely to the desire 
 of keeping up the number of slaves, the milder conduct which the Romans 
 began to adopt in their favor at the time of the emperors. This cause had 
 hitherto acted in an opposite direction ; how came it on a sudden to have 
 a different influence ? " The masters," he says, " encouraged the mar- 
 riage of their slaves ■ * * * the sentiments of nature, the habits of edu- 
 cation, contributed to alleviate the hardships of servitude." The children 
 of slaves w^ero the property of their master, who could dispose of or 
 alienate them like the rest of his property. Is it in such a situation, with 
 such notions, that the sentiments of nature unfold themselves, or habits 
 of education become mild and peaceful ? We must not attribute to causes 
 inadequate or altogether without force, effects which require to explain 
 them a reference to more influential causes ; and even if these slighter 
 causes had in effect a manifest influsnce, we must not forget that they are 
 th<;mselves the effect of a primary, a higher, and more extensive cause, 
 which, in giving to the mind and to the character a more disinterested and 
 more humane bias, disposed men to second or themselves to advance, by 
 their conduct, and by the change of manners, the happy results which 
 it tended to produce. — G. 
 
 I have retained the whole of M. Guizot's note, though, in his zeal for the 
 invaluable blessings of freedom and Christianity, he has done Gibbon 
 injustice. The condition of the slaves was undoubtedly impi-oved under 
 the emperors. What a great authority has said, " The condition of a slave 
 is better under an arbitrary than under a free govenmieut," (Smith's 
 Wealth of Nations, iv. 7,) is, I believe, supported by the history of all ages 
 and nations. The protecting edicts of Hadrian and the Antonines are his- 
 torical facts, and can as little be attributed to the influence of Christianity, 
 as the milder language of heathen writers, of Seneca, (particularly Ep. 47,j 
 of Pliny, and of Plutarch. The latter influence of Christianity is admitted 
 by Gibbon liimself The subject of Roman slavery has recently been iu 
 vestigated with great diligence in a very modest but valuable volume, by 
 Wm. Blair, Esq., Edin. 1833. May we be permitted, while on the sub- 
 ject, to refer to the most splendid passage extant of Mr. Pitt's eloquence, the 
 description of the Roman slave-dealer on the .shores of Britain, condemning 
 •he island to irreclaimable barbarism, as a perpetual and prolific nursery oi 
 slaves ? Speeches, vol. ii. p. 80. 
 
 Gibbon, it should be added, was one of the first and most consistent op 
 ponents of the African slave-trade. (See Hist. ch. xxv. and Letters to Lor 
 Sheffield. Mi.sc. Works )— M. 
 
 " An active slave-trade, which w^as carried on in many quarters, particn- 
 larly the Euxinc, the eastern provinces, the coast of Africa, and Britafu must 
 be taken into the account. Blair, 23 — 32. — M. 
 
 t The Romans, as well in the first ages of the repulic as later, allowed 
 VOL. I. C
 
 60 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 93-1801 
 
 habits of education, and the possession of a dependent species 
 of property, contributed to alleviate the liaixlships of servi- 
 tude.*" The existence of a slave became an object of greater 
 value, and though his happiness still depended on the temper 
 and circumstances of the master, the humanity of the latter, 
 instead of being restrained by fear, was encouraged by tlT5"~ 
 sense of his own interest. The progress of manners was accel- 
 erated 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 juris- 
 diction 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 subterraneous prisons were 
 abolished ; and, upon a just complaint of intolerable treatment, 
 the injured slave obtained either his deliverance, or a less cruel 
 master.'" 
 
 Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect conditioji, was not 
 denied to the Eoman slave ; and if he had any opportunity 
 of rendering 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 vanitj' 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." It was a maxim of ancient jurisprudence. 
 
 *' See in Gruter, and the other collectors, a great number of inscrip- 
 tions addressed by slaves to their wives, children, fellow- servants, 
 masters, &c. They are all most probably of the Imperial age. 
 
 '° See the Augustan History, and a Di^ertation of M. de Burigiiy, 
 in the xxxvth volume of the Academy of Inscriptions, upon the Roman 
 slaves. 
 
 ''' See another Dissertation of M. dc Burigny, in the xxxviith vol 
 ume, on the Roman freedmen. 
 
 to their slaves a kind of marriage, (contubernium :) notwithstanding this, 
 Uixury made a greater number of slaves in demand. The increase in their 
 po|)ulation was not sufficient, and recourse was bad to the purchase of 
 slaves, which was made even in the provinces of the East subject to the 
 Romans. It is, moreover, known that slavery is a state little favorable to 
 population. (See Hume's Essay, and Malthu.'* on population, i. 3.34. — G.) 
 The testimony of Appian (B. C. 1. i. c. 7) is decisive in favor of the rapid niul- 
 liplication of the agricultural slaves ; it is confirmed by the numbers engaged 
 In the servile wars. Compai'e also Blair, p. 119 ; likewise Columella de Ra 
 RuBt. 1. viii.— M.
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 61 
 
 that a slave had not any country of his own ; he acquired 
 with his hberty 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 excep- 
 tions were therefore provided ; and the honorable distinction 
 was confined to such slaves only as, for just causes, and with 
 the approbation of the magistrate, should receive a solemn and 
 legal manumission. Even these chosen freedmen obtained no 
 more than the private rights of citizens, and were rigorously 
 excluded from civil or military honors. Whatever might bo 
 the merit or fortune of their sons, ihej/ 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." AVithout destroying the distinction of 
 ranks, a distant prospect of freedom and honors was presented, 
 even to those whom pride and prejudice almost disdained to 
 number among the human species. 
 
 It was once proposed to discriminate the slaves by a peculiar 
 habit ; but it was justly apprehended that there might be some 
 danger in acquainting them with their own numbers." With- 
 out interpreting, in their utmost strictness, the liberal appella- 
 tions of legions and myriads," we may venture to pronounce, 
 that the proportion of slaves, who were valued as property, 
 was more considerable than that of servants, who can be 
 computed only as an expense." 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." 
 Almost every profession, either liberal " or mechanical, might 
 
 . '^ Spanheim, Orbis Roman. 1. i. c. 16, p. 124, &c. 
 
 ^^ Seneca de dementia, 1. i. c. 24. The original is much stronger, 
 "Quantum periculum immineret si servi nostri numerare nos ccepis- 
 Bcnt." 
 
 '* See Pliny (Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii.) and Athenffius (Ddpnosophist. 
 L vi. p. 272.) The latter boldly asserts, that he knew very many 
 (iro/iTrciAXoi) Romans who possessed, not for use, but ostentation, ten 
 and even twenty thousand slaves. 
 
 ^^ In Paris tliere are not more than 43,000 domestics of every sort, 
 and not a twelfth part of the inhabitants. Mcssange, Recherclies sui 
 la Population, p. 186. 
 
 *" A learned slave sold for many hundred pounds sterling : Atticuj 
 always bred and taught them himself. Cornel. Nepos in Vit. c 13, 
 [on the prices of ."laves. Blair, 140.] — M. 
 
 " Many of tlie Roman physicians weie slaves. S«€ Dr Middleton't 
 Dis.sertation and Defence.
 
 52 THE DECLINE AJfD FALL [A, D. 
 
 be found in the household of an opulent senator. The mini*- 
 ters of pomp and sensuaHty were multipHed beyond the con- 
 ception of modern hixury.^* It was more for the interest of 
 the mercliant or manufacturer to purchase, than to hire hia 
 workmen ; and in the country, slaves were employed as the 
 cheapest and most laborious instruments of agriculture. To 
 confirm the general observation, and to display the multitude 
 of slaves, we might allege a variety of particular instances. 
 It was discovered, on a very melancholy occasion, that four 
 hundred slaves were maintained in a single palace of Rome." 
 The same number of four hundred belonged to an estate which 
 an African widow, of a very private condition, resigned to her 
 son, whilst she reserved for herself a much larger share of her 
 property.*" A freedman, under the name of Augustus, though 
 his fortune had suffered great losses in the civil wars, left be- 
 hind him three thousand six hundred yoke of oxen, two hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand head of smaller cattle, and what was 
 almost included in the description of cattle, four thousand one 
 hundred and sixteen slaves.*' 
 
 The number of subjects who acknowledged the laws of 
 Rome, of citizens, of provincials, and of slaves, cannot now 
 be fixed with such a degree of accuracy, as the importance of 
 the object would /"-^serve. 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 Avas 
 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 every age ; and that the sla'"es were at 
 least equal in number to the free inhabitants of the Roman 
 
 ** Their ranks and oflSces are very copiously enumerated by Kg- 
 Borius de Servis. 
 
 '" Tacit. AnnaL xiv. 43. They were all executed fcx not preven* 
 sag their master's murder.* 
 
 '"' Aj)uleius in Apolog. p. 548. edit. Delphin 
 
 " Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii. 47. 
 
 • The remarkable speech of Cassius shows the prouj yet appreWBllrt 
 faelinge of the liomau aristocracy on this subject. — M
 
 A. D. 98-180.1 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRIC. 'S8 
 
 world.* The totil amount of this imperfect calculation 
 would rise to about one hundred and twenty millions of per- 
 sons ; a degree of population which possibly exceeds that of 
 modern Europe,'" and forms the most numerous society that 
 has ever been united under the same system of government. 
 
 «* Compute twenty millions in France, twenty-two in Germany, 
 four in Hungary, ten in Italy with its islands, eight in Great Britain 
 and Ireland, eiglit in Spain and Portugal, ten or twelve in the Euro- 
 pean 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 
 mJIUons. See Voltaire, de I'Histoire Generale.f 
 
 * According to Robertson, there were twice as many slaves as ft-ee citi- 
 zens. — G. Mr. Blair (p. 15) estimates three slaves to one freeman, be- 
 tween the conquest of Greece, B. G. 146, and the reign of Alexander 
 Scverus, A. D. 222, 235. The proportion was probably larger in Italy than in 
 the provinces. — M. . On the other hand, Zumpt, in his Dissertation quoted 
 below, (p. 86,) asserts it to be a gross error in Gibbon to i-eckon the 
 number of slaves equal to that of the free population. The luxury and 
 magniticence of the great, (he observes,) at the commencement of the 
 empire, must not be taken as the groundwork of calculations for the whole 
 Roman world. The agricultural laborer, and the artisan, in Spain, Gaul, 
 Britain, Syria, and Egypt, maintained himself as in the present day, by 
 his own labor and that of his household, without possessing a single 
 slave." The latter part of my note was intended to suggest this consid- 
 eration. Yet so completely was slavery rooted in the social system, both 
 in the east and the %vest, that in the great dilfusion of wealth at this time, 
 eveiy one, I doubt not, who could afford a domestic slave, kept one ; and 
 generally, the number of slaves was in proportion to the vs'ealth. I do not 
 believe that the cultivation of the soil by slaves was confined to Italy; the 
 holders of large estates in the provinces would probably, either from choice i 
 or necessity, adopt the same mode of cultivation. The latifundia, saya 
 Pliny, had ruined Italy, and had begun to ruin the provinces. Slaves were 
 no doubt employed in agricultural labor to a great extent in Sicily, and 
 were the estates of those six enormous landholders who were said to have 
 possessed the whole province of Africa, cultivated altogether by free coloni ? 
 Whatever may have been the case in the rural districts, in the towns and 
 cities the household duties were almost entirely discharged by slaves, 
 and vast numbers belonged to the public establishments. I do not, how- 
 ever, differ so far from Zumpt, and from M. Durcau de la Malle, as to 
 adopt the higher and bolder estimate of Robertson and Mr. Blair, rather 
 than the more cautious suggestions of Gibbon. I would reduce rather than 
 increase the proportion of the slave population. The very ingenious and 
 elaborate calculations of the French writer, by \vhich he deduces the 
 amount of the populution from the produce and consumption of corn in 
 Italy, appear to me neither precise nor satisfactory bases for such compli- 
 cated political arithmetic. I am least satisfied with his views as to the 
 population of the city of Itorae ; but this point will be more fitly reserved 
 tor a note on the tliirty-fir.st chapter of Gibbon. The work, however, of 
 M. Bureau de la Malic is very curious and full on some of the minuter 
 points of Roman statistics. — M. 1845. 
 
 t The present population of Europe is estimated at 227,700,000. Malt* 
 Bran, Seogr. Trans edit. 1832, See details in the ditfereut volume*
 
 64 TUE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180 
 
 Domes'jc peace and union were tlie natural consequences 
 of the moderate and comprehensive pohcy embraced by th« 
 
 Another authority, (Almanach de Gotha,) quoted in a recent English pub- 
 Ucation, gives the fbllowmg details : — 
 
 Prance 32,897,521 
 
 Genaany, (including Hungary, Prussian and Austrian Poland,) . 56,136,213 
 
 Italy, 20,548 616 
 
 Great Britain and Ireland, 24,002,947 
 
 c • -I D , 1 < 13,953,959 
 
 Spain and Poftugal, | 3a44!oOO 
 
 Ruisia, including Poland, 44,220,600 
 
 Cracow, 128,480 
 
 Turkey, (including Pachalic of Dschesair,) 9,545,300 
 
 Greece, 637,700 
 
 Ionian Islands, 208,100 
 
 Sweden and Norway 3,914,963 
 
 Denmark 2,012,998 
 
 Belgium 3,533,538 
 
 Holland, 2,444,550 
 
 Switi-srland, 1,985,000 
 
 — M. Total, 219,344,116 
 
 Since the publication of my first annotated edition of Gibbon, the sub- 
 'ect of the population of the Roman empire has been investigated by two 
 writers of gi-eat industry and learuing; Mons. Bureau de la Malle, in his 
 Economie Politique des Remains, liv. ii. c. 1 to 8, and M. Zumpt, in a dis- 
 sertation printed in the Transactions of the Berlin Academy, 1840. M. 
 Bureau de la Malle confines his inquiry almost entirely to the city of 
 Rome, and Roman Italy. Zumpt examines at greater length the axiom, 
 which he supposes to have been assumed by Gibbon as unquestionable, 
 " that Italy and the Roman world was never so populous as in the time 
 of the Antonines." Though this probably was Gibbon's opinion, he has 
 not stated it so peremptorily as asserted by M. Zumpt. It had before been 
 expressly laid down by Hume, and his statement was controverted by 
 Wallace and by Malthus. Gibbon says (p. 84) that there is no reason to 
 believe the country fof Italy) less populous in the age of the Antonines, 
 than in that of Romulus; and Zumpt acknowledges that we have no sat- 
 kfactory knowledge of the state of Italy at that early age. Zumpt, in my 
 opinion w^ith some reason, takes the period just before the first Punic war, 
 as that in which Roman Italy (all south of the Rubicon) vi'as most pop- 
 ulous. From that time, the numbers began to diminish, at first from the 
 enormous waste of life out of the free population in the foreign, and after- 
 wards in the civil wars ; from the cultivation of the soil by slaves ; towards 
 the close of the republic, fi-om the repugnance to marriage, which resisted 
 alike the dread of legal punishment and the offer of legal immunity and 
 privUege; and fi-om the depravity of manners, which interfered with the 
 procreation, the birth, and the rearing of children. The arguments and 
 the authorities of Zumpt ai-e equally conclusive as to the decline of popula- 
 tion in Greece. Still the details, which he himself adduces as to the 
 prosperity and populousness of Asia Minor, and the whole of the Roman 
 East, with the advancement of the European provinces, especially Gaul, 
 Spain, and Britain, in civilization, and therefore in populousness, (for 1 
 bave no confidence in the vast numbers sometimes assigned to the bar- 
 barous inhabitants of these countries,) may, I think, fairly compensate for 
 any deduction to be made from Gibbon's general estimate on account of 
 Greece and Italy. Gibbon himself acknowledges his own estimate to be 
 vague and conjectural ; and I may venture to recommend the dissertatioa 
 of Zumpt OS deserving rcspeclful consideration. — M 1815.
 
 -^ 
 
 A. D. 98-iaO.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 66 
 
 Romans. If we turn cur eyes towards the monarchies of 
 A.sia, we shall behold despotism in the centre, and weakness 
 in the extremities ; the collection of the revenue, or the ad- 
 ministration of justice, enforced by the presence of an army ; 
 hostile barbarians established in the heart of the country, 
 hereditary satraps usurping the dominion of the provinces, 
 and .subjects inclined to rebellion, though incapable of free- 
 dom. But the obedience of the Roman world was uniforiiv ' 
 roluntary, and permanent. The vanquished nations, blended—/^ 
 into one great people, resigned the hope, nay, even the wish, j. ' 
 of resuming their independence, and scarcely considered their XJ^ 
 own existence as distinct from the existence of Rome. The ckj C^ 
 established authority of the emperors pervaded without ^^ A ^ 
 effort the wide extent of their dominions, and was exercised j^ 
 with the same facihty on the banks of the Thames, or of the"/; 
 Nile, as on those of the Tyber. The legions were destined y 
 to serve against the public enemy, and the civil magistrate 
 seldom required the aid of a military force."^ 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- 
 structed by the Romans, how many have escaped the notice 
 of history, how few have resisted the ravages of time and 
 barbarism ! 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 iu- 
 teresting, by two important circumstances, which coimect the 
 agreeable history of the arts with the more useful history of 
 human manners. Many of those works were erected at pr 
 vate expense, and almost all were intended for public benefit. 
 
 It is natural to suppose that the greatest number, as well as 
 the most considerable of the Roman edifices, were raised by 
 the 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 
 inarble.** The strict economy of Vespasian was the sourct 
 
 " Joseph, de Bell. Judaico, 1. ii. c. 16. The oration of Agripja, or 
 rather of the historian, is a fine picture of the Roman empire. 
 
 '* Sueton. in August, c. 28. Augustus built in Rome the temple 
 mud forum of Ma;s the Avenger ; the temple of Jupiter Tonaas in
 
 tH THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. ±J. »!^ldO 
 
 of bis mao-nificence. The works of Trajan bear the stamp 
 of bis g'enius. Tbe pubbc monuments with Avbicb 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 con- 
 laced to the glory of the monarch. They were encouraged 
 )Y the Antonines, as they contributed to the happiness of the 
 l^eople. But if the emperors were the first, they were not the 
 ir.ly architects of their dominions. Their example was uni- 
 versal ly imitated by their principal subjects, who were not 
 afraid of declaring to the world that they bad spirit to con- 
 ceive, and wealth to accomplish, the noblest undertakings. 
 Scarcely had the proud structure of the Coliseum been dedi- 
 cated at Rome, before the edifices, of a smaller scale indeed, 
 but of tbe same design and materials, were erected for the 
 use, and at the expense, of the cities of Capua and Verona." 
 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 emula- 
 tion.** The ©pulent senators of Rome and the provinces 
 esteemed it an h®n®r, and almost an obligation, to adorn the 
 splendor of their age and country ; and the influence of fash- 
 ion very frequently supplied the want of taste or generosity. 
 Among a crowd of these private benefoctors, we may select 
 Herodes Atticus, an Athenian citizen, who lived in the age 
 
 the Capitol ; that of Apollo Palatine, with public libraries • the portico 
 and basilica of Caius and Lucius; the porticos of Livia and Octavia; 
 and the theatre of Marcellus. The example of the sovereign was imi- 
 tated by liis ministers and generals ; and his friend Agvippa left behind 
 him the immortal monument of the Pantheon. 
 
 •^^ See Maffei, Veroni Illustrata, 1. iv. p. 68. 
 
 ^° See 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 acjueduct, and a canal, left unfinished by a king ; at Mce, a 
 gyinnasmm, and a theatre, which had already cost near ninety tbon 
 sand pounds ; baths at Prusa and Claudiopolis, and an aquedurt af 
 tistfcn miles in length for the use of Sinnpe.
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OP THE ROMAN EMPIRK. 61 
 
 of the Antonines. Whatever might be the motive of his con- 
 duct, his magnificence would have been worthy of the greatesf 
 kings. 
 
 The family of Herod, at least after it had been favored by 
 fortune, was lineally descended from Cimon and Miltiades, 
 Theseus and Cecrops, ^acus and Jupiter. But the posterity 
 of so many gods and heroes was fallen into the most abject 
 i^tate. Ilis grandfather had suffered by the hands of justice, 
 and Juluis 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 last remains of his 
 patrimony. According to the rigor of the law, the emperor 
 might have asserted his claim, and the prudent Atticus pre- 
 vented, 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.^' 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 advan- 
 tageous 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 aqueduct. But in the execution of the work, the charge 
 amounted to more than double the estimate, and the ofBcers 
 of the revenue began to murmur, till the generous Atticus 
 silenced their complaints, by requesting that he might be per- 
 mitted to take upon himself the whole additional expense.** 
 
 The ablest preceptors of Greece and Asia had been invited 
 by liberal rewards to direct the education of young Herod. 
 Their pupil soon became a celebrated orator, according to the 
 useless rhetoric of that age, which, confining itself to the 
 tchoolfl, disdained to visit either the Forum or the Senate. 
 
 •" Ho'lrian afterwards made a very equitable regulation, which 
 divided all treasm-e-trove between the right of property aud that <4 
 discovery. Hist. August, p. 9. 
 
 •* Fhilostrat. in Vit. Sophist. I. ii. p. 548. 
 c*
 
 68 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180 
 
 He was lionored with the consulship at Rome : but the gieat 
 est part of his hfe was spent in a philosophic retirement at 
 Athens, and his adjacent villas ; perpetually surrounded by 
 sophists, who acknowled^'ed, without reluctance, the superior- 
 ity of a rich and generous rival."* The monuments of his 
 genius have perished ; some considerable ruins still preserve 
 the fame of his taste and munificence : modern travellers 
 have measured the remains of the stadium which he con- 
 structed 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 dedicated a theatre, scarcely to be paral- 
 leled 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 performances, and 
 the rehearsal of new tragedies, had been a trophy of the vic- 
 tory of the arts over barbaric greatness ; as the timbers em- 
 ployed 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 mag- 
 nificence. Nor was the liberality of that illustrious citizen 
 confined to the walls of Athens. The most splendid orna- 
 ments 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 insufliicient to 
 exhaust his treasures. The people of Epirus, Thessaly, Euboea, 
 BoBotia, and Peloponnesus, experienced his favors ; and many 
 inscriptions of the cities of Greece and Asia gratefully style 
 Herodes Atticus their patron and benefactor." 
 
 In the commonwealths of Athens and Rome, the. modest 
 
 «9 Aulus Gellius, in Noct. Attic, i. 2, ix. 2, xviii. 10, xix. 12. Phil 
 ostrat p. 564. 
 
 ■" See Philostrat. 1. ii. p. 548, 560. Pausanias, 1. i. and vii. 10. ITie 
 life of Herodes, in the xxxtli volume of the Memoirs of the Academy 
 of liiecriptions. 
 
 * The Odeum served for the reliearsal of ne%v comedies as well as trage- 
 dies; they were read or repeated, before represemation, without music or 
 docoratioua. &c. No piece could be represented in the theatre if it had not 
 been previously approved by judges for this purpose. The king of Cappa- 
 docia who restored the Odeum, v^'hich liad been burnt by Sylla, was Arao. 
 barzanes. See Martini, Dissertation on the Odeons of the Ancients, Leipsic^ 
 1767, p. 10 -91.— W.
 
 A.. L>. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 66 
 
 simplicity of private houses aiinouuced the equal condition of 
 freedom ; whilst the sovereignty of the people was represented 
 in the majestic edifices designed to the public use;'" nor was 
 this republican sj>irit totally extinguished by the introduc- 
 tion of wealth and monarchy. It was in works of national 
 honor and benefit, that the most virtuous of the emperors 
 affected to display their magnificence. The golden palace 
 of Nero excited a 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 Coli- 
 seum, the baths of Titus, the Claudian portico, and the temples 
 dedicated to the goddess of Peace, and to the genius of 
 R-ome." These monuments of architecture, the property of 
 the Roman people, were adorned with the most beautiful pro- 
 ductions 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 surrounded by a lofty portico, 
 in the form of a quadi'angle, into which four triumphal arches 
 opened a noble and spacious entrance : 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, exhib- 
 ited 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 peacefiil citizen associated himself to the honors of the 
 triumph. All the other quarters of the capital, and all the 
 provinces of the empire, were embellished by the same liberal 
 
 7' It is particularly remarked of Athens by Dicaearchus, de Statu 
 Grseciae, p. 8, inter Geograplios Minores, edit. Hudson. 
 
 ''^ Donatus de Roma Vetere, 1. iii. c. 4, 5, 6. Nardini Roma An- 
 tica, 1. iii. 11, 12, 13, and a MS. description of ancient Rome, by 
 Bernardus Oricellarius, or Rucellai, of which I obtained a copy from 
 the library of the Canon Ricardi at Florence. Two celebrated pic- 
 tures of Timantlics and of Protogenes are mentioned by Pliny, as in 
 the Temple of Peace; and the Laocoon was found in the baths of 
 Titus. 
 
 * The Emperor Vespasian, who had caused the Temple of Peace to be 
 built, transported to it the gi-eatest part of the pictures, statues, and other 
 works of art wliich had escaped the civil tumults. It was there that every 
 day the artists and the learned of Rome assembled ; and it is on the site of 
 ids temple that a multitude of antiques have been dug up. See notei o/ 
 Eleimar on Dion Cassius, Lxvi. c. 15, p. 1083. — W.
 
 60 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D, 96-180 
 
 spirit of public magnificence, and were filled with amphi 
 theatres, theatres, temples, porticoes, triumphal arches, baths 
 and aqueducts, all variously conducive to the health, the devo 
 tion, and the pleasures of tlie meanest citizen. The las< 
 mentioned of those edifices deserve our peculiar attention. 
 The boldness of the enterprise, the solidity of the execution, 
 and the uses to which they were subservient, rank the aque- 
 ducts among the noUest monuments of Roman genius and 
 power. The aqueducts of the capital claim a just preemi- 
 nence ; but the curious traveller, who, without the hght of 
 history, should examine those of Spoleto, of Metz, or of Se- 
 govia, would very naturally conclude that those provincial 
 towns had formerly been the residence of some potent mon- 
 arch. The solitudes of Asia and Africa were once covered 
 with flourishing cities, whose populousness, and even whose 
 existence, was derived from sucla artificial supphes of a peren- 
 nial stream of fresh water." 
 
 We have computed the inhabitants, and contemplated the 
 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 subjectj. 
 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. Ancient Italy is said to have contained eleven hundred 
 and ninety-seven cities ; and tor whatsoever ?era of antiquity 
 the expression might be intended,'^ there is not any reason to 
 believe the country less populous in the age of the Antonines, 
 than in that of liomulus. The petty states of Latium wero 
 contained within the metropolis of the empire, by whose supe- 
 rior influence they had been attracted.* Those parts of Italy 
 which have so long languished under the lazy tyranny of 
 
 73 Montfaucon I'Antiquite Expliquee, torn. iv. p. 2, 1. i. c. 9. Fabretti 
 has composed a very learned treatise on the aqueducts of Rome. 
 
 ^* ^Ijan. Hist. V.ar.lib. ix. c. 16. He lived in the time of Alexander 
 fieverus. See Fabricius, Biblioth. Grceca, 1. iv. c. 21. 
 
 ' This may in some degree account for the difficulty started by Livy, ai 
 to the incredibly numerous annies raised by the small states around Rome, 
 where, in his time, a scanty stock of free soldiers amona^ a larger population 
 of Roman slaves broke tbe .solitude. Vix seminario exigno mililum reUcto 
 eervitia Romana ab solitudinc vindicaut, Liv. vi. vii. Compare Appian BaJ 
 Civ. i 7— M. siibsf. for a
 
 A. D, 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMriRE •! 
 
 priests and viceroys, had been afflicted only by the more tol- 
 erable calamities of war ; and the first symptoms of decay 
 which they experienced, were amply compensated by the 
 rapid improvements of the Cisalpine Ganl. The splendor of 
 Verona may be traced in its remains : yet Vei'ona was less cel- 
 ebrated than Aquileia or Padua, Milan or Ravenna. II. The 
 Rpirit 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 hab- 
 itations, York was the seat of government ; London was 
 already enriched by commerce ; and Bath was celebrated 
 for the salutary effects of its inedicinal waters. Gaul could 
 boast of her twelve hundred cities;'^ and though, in the 
 northern parts, many of them, without excepting Paris itself, 
 were little more than the rude and imperfect townships of a 
 rising people, the southern provinces imitated the wealth and 
 elegance of Italy.'" Many were the cities of Gaul, Marseilles, 
 Aries, Nismes, Narbonne, Thoulouse, Bourdeaux, Autun, 
 Vienna, Lyons, Langres, and Treves, whose ancient condition 
 might sustain an equal, and perhaps advantageous comparison 
 with their present state. With regard to Spain, that country 
 flourished as a province, and has declined as a kingdom. Ex- 
 hausted by the abuse of her strength, by America, and 
 by superstition, her pride might possibly be confounded, if we 
 required such a list of three hundred and sixty cities, as Pliny 
 has exhibited under the reign of Vespasian." III. Three hun- 
 dred African cities had once acknowledged the authority of 
 Carthage," nor is it likely that their numbers diminished under 
 the administration of the emperors : Carthage itself rose with 
 new splendor from its ashes ; and that capital, as well as 
 
 TS Joseph, de Bell. Jud. ii. 16. The number, however, is mentioned, 
 and should be received with a degree of latitude.* 
 
 78 Plin. Hist. jSTatur. iii. o. 
 
 " Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. ", 4, iv. 35. The list seems authentic and 
 accurate ; the division of the provinces, and the different condition of 
 the cities, arc minutely distini^'uishcd. 
 
 '•^ Strabou. GeograplL 1. xvii. p. 1189. 
 
 * Without' doubt no reliance can be placed on this passage of Joscphus. 
 The historiaa makes Agi-ippa give advice to the Jews, as to tlie power of 
 the lloniaus ; and the speech is full of declaiuatioa which can furnish no 
 conclusions to history. While enumerating the nations subject to the 
 liomaus, he speaks of the Gauls as submitting to VZOO soldier.s, (which ia 
 false, as there were eight legions in Gaul, Tac.iv. 5.) while there are nearly 
 twelve hundred cities. — G. .Tosephus {itifrn) places these eight legion* oa 
 the Rliiiie, as Tacitus does. — M.
 
 #2 TEiE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 98-l8(X 
 
 Capua and Corintb, soon recovered all the advantages which 
 can be separated from independent sovereignty. IV. The 
 provinces ol' the East present the contrast of Roman mag- 
 nificence with Turkish barbarism. The ruins of antiquity 
 scattered over uncultivated fields, and ascribed, by ignorance 
 to the power of magic, scarcely afford a shelter to th 
 oppressed peasant or wandering Arab. Under the reign of the 
 Caesars, the proper Asia alone contained five hundred populous 
 cities,"* enriched with all the gifts of nature, and adorned with 
 all the refinements of art. Eleven cities of Asia had once 
 disputed the honor of dedicating a temple to Tiberius, and 
 their respective merits were examined by the senate.*" Four 
 of them were immediately rejected as unequal to the burden ; 
 and among these was Laodicea, whose splendor is still dis- 
 played in its ruins.*^ 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 testa- 
 ment of a generous citizen.*^ If such was the poverty of 
 Laodicea, what must have been the wealth of those cities, 
 whose claim appeared preferable, and particularly of Per- 
 gamus, of Smyrna, and of Ephesus, who so long disputed 
 with each other the titular primacy of Asia ? *' The capitals 
 of Syria and Egypt held a still superior rank in the empire ; 
 Antioch and Alexandria looked down with disdain on a crowd 
 of dependent cities,** and yielded, with reluctance, to the 
 majesty of Rome itself. 
 
 ™ Joseph, de Bell. Jud. il 16. Philostrat. in Vit. Sopliist. 1. ii. p 
 
 548, edit. Olear. 
 
 8" 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, Hahcarnassus, Miletus, Ephesus, and we may 
 add Sardes. Of the remaining three, Pergamus is a straggling village 
 of two or three thousand inhabitants ; Magnesia, under the name of 
 Guzelhissar, 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 a commerce, the Turks have ruined 
 the arts. 
 
 s- See a very exact and pleasing description of the rilins of Laodi 
 eea, in Chandler's Travels through Asia Minor, ]). 225, &c. 
 
 8S Strabo, 1. xii. p. 866. He had studied at Tralles. 
 
 ^^ See a Dissertation of M. de Boze, Mem. de I'Academie, lom, 
 rviiL Aristides pronounced an oration, which is still extant, to 
 recommend concord to the rival cities. 
 
 ** The iuliabitants of Egypt, exclusive of Alexandria, amounted ta 
 KTen millions and a half, (Joseph, de BelL Jud. ii 16.) Under iha
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF TUE ROMAN EMPIRE 68 
 
 All these cities were connected wiih each other, and with 
 the capital, by the public highways, which, issuing from the 
 Forum of Rome, traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, and 
 were terminated only by the frontiers of the empire. __K we ' 
 carefully trace the distance from the wall of Antoninus to 
 Rome, and from thence to Jerusalem, it will be found that th&' 
 great chain of communication, from the north-west to the 
 iouth-east point of the empire, was drawn out to the length 
 ;f four thousand and eighty Romaa miles." The publicv 
 oads \vere accurately divided by mile-stones, and ran in a 
 (lirect line from one city to another, with very little respect for 
 the obstacles either of nature or private property. Mountains 
 were perforated, and bold arches thrown over the broadest and • 
 most rapid streams.'" The ^ middle jpavt 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, iu some places near the 
 capital, with granite." Such was the solid construction of 
 the Roman highways, whose firmness has not entirely yielded 
 to the effort of fifteen centuries. They united the subjects of 
 ;he most distant provinces by an easy and familiar intercourse ; 
 out their primary object had been to facilitate the marches of 
 the legions ; nor was any country considered as completely 
 subdued, till it had been rendered, in all its parts, pervious to 
 the arms and authority of the conqueror. The advantage of 
 receiving the earliest intelligence, and of conveying their 
 order£s with celerity, induced the emperors to establish, through- 
 out their extensive dominions, the regular institution of posts.** 
 
 military governmeut of the Mamelul:es, Syria was supposed to con- 
 tain sixty thousand villages, (Histoire de Tiinur Bee, I. v. c. 20.) 
 
 ** The following Itineraiy may serve to convey some idea of the 
 ilirection 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. Rhutupiaj or Sandwich, G7. IV. The naviga- 
 tion to Boulogne, 45. V. Rheims, 174. VI. Lyons, 330. VII. Mi- 
 lan, 324. VIIL Rome, 426. IX. Brundusium, 300. X. The navi 
 gation to Dyrrachium, 40. XL Byzantium, 711. XII. Ancyra, 283. 
 XIIL Tarsus, 301. XIV. Antiorh, 141. XV. Tyre, 252. XVL Jeru- 
 salem, 1G8. In all 4080 Roman, or 3740 Englisli miles. See the Itin 
 eraries published by Wesseling, his annotations ; Gale and Stukeley fot 
 Britain, and M. dAnville for Gaul and Italy. 
 
 ^ Montfaucon, lAntiquite Expliquee, (torn. 4, p. 2, L i. c. 5,) has 
 described the bridges of Narni, Alcantara, Nismes, itc. 
 
 ^'' Bergier, Histoire des grauds Chemins de TEmpire Remain, L ii 
 e. 1—28. 
 
 *' Procopius in Hist. Arcana, c. 30. Bergier, Hist, des grands
 
 64 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. i). 98-180. 
 
 Houses were every where erected at the distauce 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 a 
 
 hundred miles in a day along the Roman roads.*** The use 
 
 #f the posts was allowed to those who claimed it by an Im- 
 perial mandate ; but though originally intended for the publ ic 
 eorvice, it was sometimes indulged to the busine&s or con- 
 reniency of private citizens."" Nor. w-as the communicatioiH' 
 >f the Roman empire less free and open by sea than it was by 
 iand. The provinces surrounded and enclosed the Med iter " 
 ranean : 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 harbors ; but huuiaD 
 industry had corrected the deficiencies of nature ; and the 
 artificial port of Ostia, in particular, situate at the mouth of 
 the Tyber, and formed by the emperor Claudius, was a useful 
 monument of Roman greatness."* From this port, which 
 was only sixteen miles from the capital, a favorable breeze 
 frequently carried vessels in seven days to the columns of " 
 Hercules, and in nine or ten, to Alexandria in Egypt."^ 
 
 Chemins, 1. iv. Codex Theodosian. L viil tit. v. vol. ii. p. 506 — 563 
 with Godefroy's learned commentary. 
 
 89 In the time of Theodosius, Caesarius, a magistrate of high rank, 
 went post from Antioch to Constantinople. He began his jom-ney at 
 night, was in Cappadocia (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. 5*72 — 581. f 
 
 ^ Pliny, though a favorite and a minister, made an apology for 
 granting post-horses to his wife on the most urgent business. Epist. 
 X. 121, 122. 
 
 91 Bergier, Hist, des grands Chemins, 1. iv. c. 49. 
 
 92 Pliu. Hist. Natur. xix. i. [In ProcEm.] X 
 
 * Posts for the conveyance of intelligence were established by Augustus. 
 Suet. Aug. 49. The couriers travelled with amazing speed. Blair on Ro- 
 man Slavery, note, p. 2G1. It is probable that the posts, from the time of 
 Augustus, were confined to the public service, and supplied by impressment 
 Nerva, as it appears fi'om a coin of his reign, made an important change ; " hn 
 established posts upon aU the public roads of Italy, and made the sei-vice 
 chargeable upon his own excheijuer. * * Hadrian, perceiving the advan 
 Cage of this improvement, extended it to all the provinces of the em])ire.'' 
 Cardwcll on Coins, p. 220. — M. 
 
 t A courier is mentioned in Walpole's Travels, ii. 335, who was to travel 
 fix)m Aleppo to Constantinople, more than 700 miles, La eight days, an un 
 usually short joaniey. — M. 
 
 t Pliny says Putcoli, which seems to have been the usual landingplao* 
 piom the East. See the voyages of St. Pau'., Act* xxviii. 13, and of Jose 
 phus, Vit», c. 3 -M.
 
 A. D. 98-1.80.] OF THE ROMAN FMPIRE. <l8 
 
 Whatever evils either reason or declrrmation have iinputevJ 
 to extensive empire, the power of Komo was altendcd with 
 Bome beneficial consequences to mankind ; and the same 
 freedom of intercourse which extended the vices, dilfusQjd 
 likewise the improvements, of social life. In the more remote 
 ages of antiquity, the world v?as 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 disdained agriculture, or to whom it was totally • ' 
 unknown. Under the protection of an established goverii-_^' 
 ment, the productions of happier climates, and the industry of — O 
 more civihzed nations, were gradually introduced into the 
 western countries of Europe ; and the natives were encouraged, 
 hy an open and profitable commerce, to multiply the former, 
 as well as to improve the latter. It would be almost impos- 
 sible to enumerate all the articles, either of the animal or the 
 vegetable reign, which were successively imported into Europe 
 from Asia and Egypt :*^ but it will not be unworthy of the 
 dignity, and much legs of the utility, of an historical work, 
 slightly to touch on a few of the principal heads. 1. Almost 
 all the flowers, the herbs, and the fruits, that grow in our 
 European gardens, are of foreign extraction, 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 
 flavor of the apricot, the peach, the pomegranate, the citron, 
 and the orange, they content-ed themselves with applying to 
 all these new fruits the com?7ion denomination of apple, dis- 
 criminating them from each oth^sr by the additional epithet of 
 their country. 2. In the time of Homer, the vine grew wild 
 in the island of Sicily, and most probably in the adjacent con- 
 tinent; but it was not improved by the skill, nor did it afford 
 a liquor grateful to the taste, of th« savage inhabitants.** A 
 thousand years afterwards, Italy coul4 boast, that of the four- 
 score most generous and celebrate<l wines, more than two 
 thirds were produced from her soil." The blessing wra soon 
 commimicated to the Narbonneso p>-ovince of GauI ; b it so 
 intense was the cold to the north of the. Cevenncs, that, in the 
 time of Strabo, it was thought impossible to ripen Uie grapes 
 
 *3 It is not improbable that the Greeks and PhcEnicians introduced 
 some ne-w arts and productions into the pei^hborh(M>d of Mar?eillea 
 and Gades. 
 
 M See Homer, Odyss. 1. ix. v. 358. 
 
 •8 Plia Hist. Natur. L xiv.
 
 M THF RECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180. 
 
 in those parts tf Gaul."" This difficulty, however, waa 
 gradually ranquished ; and there is some reason to believe, 
 that the vineyards of Burgundy are as old as the age of the 
 Antonines." 3. The olive, in the western world, followed 
 the progress of peace, of which it v/as considered as the sym- 
 bol. Two centuries after the foundation of Rome, both Italy 
 and Africa were strangers to that useful plant : it was natural- 
 ized in those countries ; and at length carried into 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 neighborhood of the sea, were insensibly exploded by 
 industry and experience."^ 4. The cultivation of flax was 
 transported from Egypt to Gaul, and enriched the whole 
 country, however it might impoverish the particular lands on 
 which it was sown."* 5. The use of artificial grasses became 
 familiar to the farmers both of Italy and the provinces, par- 
 ticularly the Lucerne, which derived its name and origin from 
 
 * Strab. Geograph. 1. iv. p. 269. Tlie intense cold of a Gallic winter 
 waa almost proverbial among tlie ancients.* 
 
 37 In the beginning of the fourth century, the orator Eujneniua 
 (Panegyr. Veter. viii. 6, edit. Delphin.) speaks of the vines in the terri 
 tory of Autun, which were decayed through age, and the first planta- 
 tion of wliich was totally unknown. The Pagus Arebrignus is supposed 
 by M. d'Anville to be the district of Beaune, celebrated, even at present 
 for one of tlie first growths of Burgundy.f 
 
 «« PUn. Hist. Natur. 1. xv. 
 
 » Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xix. 
 
 ■* Strabo only says that the grape does not ripen, fi ajnrcXoi oi paSUoi rcXcir 
 ^opu. Attempts had been made in the time of Augustus to naturalize 
 the vine in the north of Gaul ; but the cold was too great. Diod. Sic, 
 edit. Rhodom. p. 304. — ^V. Diodorus (lib. v. 2(1) gives a curious picture of 
 the Italian traders baitering, with the savages of Gaul, a cask of wine for a 
 slave. — M. 
 
 It appears fi-om the newly discovered treatise of Cicero de Republica, that 
 there was a law of the republic proliibiting the culture of the vine and olive 
 beyond the Alps, in order to keep up the value of those in Italy. Nos jus- 
 tissimi homines, qui transalpinas gentes oleam ct vitem serere non sinimus, 
 quo pluris sint no.=tra oliveta nostrajque vineaB. Lib. iii. 9. The restrictive 
 law of Domitian was veiled under the decent pretext of encouraging the 
 ealtivation of gi-ain. Suet. Dom. vii. It was repealed by Probus Vopis 
 Frobus, ]8. — M. 
 
 t This is proved by a passage of Pliny the Elder, where he speaks of a 
 jeriain kind of grape (vitis picata. vinum picatum) which grows naturaUy 
 hi the district of Vienne, and had recently been trajisplanted into ths 
 country of the Arvemi, (Auvergne,) of the Helvii, (the Vi^ araisj the Se- 
 %uaiu, (Burgundy and Tranche Compto.^ Pliny wrote A D. 77. Hist. Nat 
 «iT. ] .- -W.'
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF THH ROMAN EMPIRE. 61 
 
 Media."" The assured supply of wholesome anc'. plentiful food 
 for the cattle during winter, multiplied the number of the 
 docks 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 pleiisures 
 of the rich and the subsistence of the poor. The elegant 
 treatise of Columella describes the advanced state of the 
 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 neighbors. 
 
 Agi'iculture is the foundation of manufactures ; since the 
 productions of nature are the materials of art. Under the 
 Roman empire, the labor 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 the'r 
 furniture, the favorites of fortune united every refinement of 
 conveniency, of elegance, and of splendor, whatever could 
 soothe their pride or gratify their sensuality. Sucb refine- 
 ments, 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 man- 
 kind, if all possessed the necessaries, and none the super- 
 fluities, of life. But in the present imperfect condition of 
 society, luxury, though it may proceed from vice or folh'^, 
 seems to be the only means that can correct the unequal dis- 
 tribution of property. The diligent mechanic, and the skilful 
 •U'tist, who have obtained no share in 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 difl'usive. energy 
 in the Romau world. The provinces would soon have been 
 exhausfcd of their wealth, if the manufactures and commerce 
 of luxury had not insensibly restored to the industrious sub- 
 jects the sums which were exacted from them by the arraa 
 
 "* See the agreeable Essays on Agriculture by Mr. Hsirte, in 
 which he has collected all that the ancients and modems liave Raid of 
 Lucerne.
 
 68 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. U. 98-180 
 
 and autliority of Rome. As long as the circulation was. con- 
 fined within the bounds of the empire, it impressed the political 
 machine with a new degree of activity, and its consequcnc£sJ 
 sometimes beneficial, could r-ever become pernicious. 
 
 But it is no easy task to confine luxury within the \\rm^ 
 of an empire. The most remote countries of the ancient 
 world were ransacked to supply the pomp and delicacy 
 of Rome. The forests of Scythia afforded some valuable 
 furs. Amber was brought over land from the shores of the 
 Baltic to tlie Danube ; and the barbarians were astonished at 
 the price which they received in exchange for so useless a 
 commodity-"' There was a considerable demand for Baby- 
 lonian carpets, and other manufectures 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 a hundred and twenty ves- 
 sels 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,"" was the usual term of their naviga- 
 tion, 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.*" 
 The objects of oriental trafllc were splendid and trifling ; silk, 
 a pound of which was esteemed not inferior in value to a pound 
 of gold ; *" precious stones, among which the pearl claimed 
 he first rank after the diamond ; '" and a variety of aromatics, 
 
 •" Tacit. Germania, c. 45. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvii. 13. The lattci 
 observed, with some humor, that even fashion had not yet fov.i'l 
 out the use of amber. Nero sent a Roman knight to purchase 
 great quantities on the spot where it was produced, tlie coast of 
 modern Prussia. 
 
 •"2 Called Taprobana by the Romans, and Serindib by the Arabs. 
 It was discovered under the reign of Claudius, and gradually became 
 th(! prir cipal mart of the E.ast. 
 
 '02 Piin. Hist. Natur. 1. vi. Strabo, 1. xvii. 
 
 ^1 Hist. August, p. 224. A silk garment was considereii as an 
 trcament to a woman, but as a disgrace to a man. 
 
 '"* The two great pearl fisheries were the same as at jjresent, 
 Ormuz and Cane Comorin. As well as we can compare ancient with
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAJT EMPIRE. 69 
 
 that were consumed in religious worship and the pomp of 
 funerals. Tlie. labor and risk of the vojage was rewarded 
 with almost incredible profit ; but the profit was made upon 
 Roman subjects, and a few individuals were enriched at tlio 
 expense of the public. As the natives of Arabia and India 
 were contented with the productions and manufactures of their 
 own country, silver, on the side of the Romans, was the prin- 
 cipal, if not the only *' instrument of commerce. It was a com- 
 plaint AYorthy 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."' The annual loss 
 is computed, by a writer of an inquisitive but censorious tem- 
 per, at upwards of eight hundred thousand pounds sterling."^ 
 Such was the style of discontent, brooding over the dark pros- 
 pect of approaching poverty. And yet, if we compare the 
 proportion between gold and silver, as it stood in the time of 
 Plinj^, and as it was fixed in the reign of Constantine, we shall 
 discover within that period a very considerable increase."* 
 There is not the least reason to suppose that gold was become 
 more scarce ; it is therefore evident that silver was grown 
 more common ; that whatever might be the amount of the 
 Indian and Arabian exports, they were far from exhausting 
 
 modern geography, Rome was supplied with diamonds from the mine 
 of Jumelpur, in Bengal, which is described in the Voyages de Ta- 
 vernier, tom. ii. p. 281. 
 
 "•^ Tacit. Annal. iii. 5.5. In a speech of Tiberius. 
 
 "' Plin. Hist. Natur. xii. 18. In another place he computes half 
 that sum ; Quingenties H. S. for India exclusive of Arabia. 
 
 "* The proportion, which was 1 to 10, and 122", rose to lif, the 
 legal regulation of Constantine. See Arbuthuot's Tables of ancient 
 Coins, c. 5. 
 
 * Certainly not tlio only one. The Indians were not so contented with 
 regard to foreign productions. Arrian has a long list of European ^vares, 
 which they received in exchange for their own ; Italian and other wines, 
 brass, tin, lead, coral, clirysolith, storax, glass, dresses of one or many 
 colors, zones, &c. See Periplus Maris Erythrsei in Hud.'^on, Geogr. Min. i. 
 p. 27. — W. Tlie Gcnnan translator observes that Gibbon has confined the 
 ase of aromatics to rehgious worship and funerals. His error seems the 
 omission of other spices, of which the Romans must have consumed great 
 quantities in their cookery. Weuck, however, admits that silver was the 
 ^lief article of exchange. — M. 
 
 In 1787, a peasant (near Ncllore in the Carnatic) struck, in digging, ou 
 iie remains of a Hindu temple ; he found, also, a pot which contained 
 Roman coins and medals of tlie second century, mostly Trajnns, Adrians, 
 and Faustinas, all of gold, many of tlieni Irtish and beautiful, others de- 
 &«ed or perfdratcd, ;is if llioy had bcuu worn as ornaments. (Asiatic U* 
 •earcnes, ii. 19.) — M.
 
 To THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180. 
 
 the wealth of tlie Roman world ; and that the produce of tli« 
 mines abundantly supplied the demands of commerce. 
 
 Notwithstanding the propensity of mankind to exalt the 
 past, and to depreciate the present, the tranquil and pros- 
 perous state of the empire was warmly felt, and honestlj 
 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, imder whose auspicious influence the fiercest bar- 
 barians were united by an equal government and common 
 language. They affirm, that with the improvement of arts, 
 the human species were visibly multiplied. They celebrate 
 the increasing splendor of the cities, the beautiful face of the 
 country, cultivated and adorned like an immense garden ; and 
 the long festival of peace which was enjoyed by so many na 
 tions, forgetful of the ancient animosities, and delivered from 
 the apprehension of future danger." '"' Whatever suspicions 
 may be suggested by the air of rhetoric and declamation, which 
 seems to prevail in these passages, the substance of them j'» 
 perfectly agreeable to historic truth. 
 
 It was scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries 
 should discover in the public felicity the later^t 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 valor remained, but they no longer possessed 
 that public courage which is nourished by the love of inde- 
 pendence, the sense of national honor, the presence of dan 
 ger, 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 wsn, 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, 
 
 "* Among many other passages, see Pliny, (Hist, Natur iii 6J 
 Aiifitldes, (de Urbo Roma,) and TertuUian, (de Animi, c. SO.)
 
 A, D. 98-180.] OF TAE tOMAN EMPIRE. 71 
 
 deprived of political strength or union, insensibly sunk into th« 
 ianguid indifference of private life. 
 
 The love of letters, almost inseparable from peace and 
 refinement, Avas fashionable among the subjects of Hadrian 
 »nd the Antonines, who were themselves men of learning and 
 curiosity. It was diffused over the whole extent of their em- 
 pire ; the most northern tribes of Britons had acquired a tasto 
 for rhetoric ; Homer as well as Virgil were transcribed and 
 studied on the banks of the Rhine and Danube ; and the mosf 
 liberal rewards sought out the feintest glimmerings of literati 
 merit.'" The sciences of physic and astronomy were suc- 
 cessfully cultivated by the Greeks ; the observations of Ptole- 
 my and the writings of Galen are studied by those wlio have 
 improved their discoveries and corrected their errors ; but if we 
 except the inimitable Lucian, this age of indolence passed away 
 without having produced 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 systems, transmitted with 
 blind deference from one generation of disciples to another, 
 
 "" Herodes Atticus gave the sophist Polemo above eight thousand 
 pounds for three declamations. See Pliilostrat. 1. i. p. 538. The 
 Antonines founded a school at Athens, in which professors of gram- 
 mar, rhetoric, politics, and the four great sects of philosophy wcr* 
 maintained at the public expense for the instruction of youth.* Tlw? 
 salary of a philosopher was ten thousand drachma, between three and 
 foiir hundred pounds a year. Similar establishments were formed in 
 the other great cities of the empire. See Lucian in Eunuch, torn. ii. p 
 352, edit. Reitz. Philostrat. L ii. p. 566. Hist. August, p. 21. Dion 
 Cassius, 1. Ixxi. p. 1195. Juvenal himself, in a morose satu'e, wliich 
 in every line betrays liis own disappointment and envy, is obliged, 
 howover, to say, — 
 
 " O Juvene.s, circumspioit et stimulat vos 
 
 Materiamque sibi Duels indulgcntia quserit." — Satii-. vii. 20. 
 
 " Vespasian first gave a salary to professors : he assigned to each profes- 
 sor of rhetoric, Greek and Roman, centena sestertia. (Sueton. in Vcsp. 16. 
 Hadrian and the Antonines, though still liberal, were less profuse. — G. from 
 W. Suetonius wrote annua centena L. 807, 5, 10. — M. 
 
 t This judgment is rather severe : besides the physicians, astronomer.s, 
 ml gi-anunarians, among whom there were some very distinguished men, 
 thOre were still, under Hadrian, Suetonius, Floras, Plutarch ; under the 
 Antonines, An-ian, Pausanias, Appian, Marcus Aurelius himself, Soxtun 
 Empiricus, &c. Jurisprudence gained mucfc by the labors of Salvias 
 Julianus, Julius Cclsus, .So.x. Pomponius, Caius, j.nd others. — G. from W 
 Yet where, among these, is the writer of original f.'»:ni is, unless, perhaps 
 Plutarch ? or even of a style really elegant ? — M.
 
 T8 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 98-i80t 
 
 precluded every generous attempt to exercise the powers, oi 
 enlarge the limits, of the human raind. The beauties of the 
 poets and orators, instead of kindling a fire like their owHj 
 inspired only cold and servile mitations : or if any ventured tu 
 deviate from those models, they deviated at the same time 
 from good sense and propriety. On the revival of letters, the 
 Vouthful vigor of the imagination, after a long repose, national 
 emulalion, 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 
 engaged in a very unequal competition with those bold an- 
 cients, who, by expressing their genuine feelings in their native 
 tongue, had already occupied every place of honor. The name 
 of Poet was almost forgotten ; that of Orator was usurped 
 by the sophists. A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commenta- 
 tors, darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius 
 was soon followed by the corruption of taste. 
 
 The sublime Longinus, who, in somewhat a later period, and 
 in the court of a Syi-ian queen, preserved the spirit of ancient 
 Athens, observes and laments this degeneracy of his contempo- 
 raries, which debased their sentiments, enervated their courage, 
 and depressed their talents. " In the same manner," says he, 
 " as some children always remain pygmies, 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 great- 
 ness which we admire in the ancients ; Avho, living under a 
 popular government, wrote with the same freedom as they 
 acted." '" 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 pygmies ; 
 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. 
 
 '" Longin. de St.blim. c. 44, p. 229, edit. Toll. Here, too, we may 
 aay of Longinus, " his own example strengthens all his laws." Instead 
 of proposing his sentiments with a manly boldness, he insinuates them 
 Trith the most guarded caution ; put? them into the mouth of a friend, 
 «Jid as far as we can collect from a (crrupted text, makes a show of 
 rg'-^ting them himself.
 
 A. 1). 98-180.1 OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. 78 
 
 CHAPTER Hi. 
 
 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, IN THE ASK 
 OF THE ANTONINES. 
 
 The obvious definition of a monarcliy seems to be that of 
 a state, in which a single [>erson, by whatsoever name he may 
 be distinguished, 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 con- 
 nection 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 enterprises of an aspiring prince. 
 
 Every barrier of the Roman constitution had been levelled 
 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 C;esar, by his uncle's adop- 
 tion, and afterwards Augustus, by the flattery of the senate. 
 The conqueror was at the head of forty-four veteran legions,' 
 conscious of their own strength, and of the weakness of the 
 sonstitution, habituated, during twenty years' civil war, to 
 
 ' Orosius, vi. 18.f 
 
 • Often enough in the ages of superstition, but not in tlie interest ol' the 
 people or tlie state, but in that of the church to wliich all others were suii- 
 ordinate. Yet the power of the pope has often been of great service in ^^- 
 pressing the excesses of sovereigns, and in softening manners. — W. The 
 history of the Italian republics proves the error of Gibbon, and the justice of 
 his German translator's comment. — M. 
 
 t Dion says twenty -five, (or three,) (Iv. 23.) The united triumvirs had but 
 forty-three. (Appian. Bell. Civ. iv. :).) The testimony of Orosius is of littlo 
 value when more certain may be had. — W. But all the legions, donbiloe* 
 •abmitled to Augustus after the battle of Actium. — M. 
 VOL. I.--1)
 
 74 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-1801 
 
 every 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 pro\inces, lone; 
 oppressed by the ministers of the republic, sighed for the 
 government of a single 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 aristoc- 
 racy, demanded only bread and public shows ; and were 
 supplied with both by the liberal hand of Augustus. The 
 rich and pohte Italians, who had almost universally embrace(? 
 the philosophy of Epicurus, enjoyed the present blessings of 
 ease and tranquillity, and suftered 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 abihty had perished in the field of battle, or in the- pro- 
 scription. The door of the assembly had been designedly left 
 open, for a mixed multitude of more than a thousand persons, 
 who leflected disgrace upon their rank, instead of deriving 
 honor from it." 
 
 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. Id 
 concert with his faithful Agrippa, he examined the list of tho 
 senators, expelled a few members,* whose vices or whosp 
 obstinacy required a public examj^le, 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 honorable title of Prince 
 of the Senate,f which had always been bestowed, by the 
 
 ' Julius Caesar introduced soldiers, strangjers, and half-barbarians 
 into the senate (Sueton. in Caesar, c. 77, 80.) The abuse became still 
 more scandalous after his death. 
 
 * Of these Dion and Suetonius knew nothing. — W. Dion says the con- 
 trary, avToi f/iv ov&iva avTwv aTrfiXciipt. — M. 
 
 t But Augiistus, then Octavius, was censor, and in virtue of that office, 
 even according to the constitution of the free repubhc, could reform thfi 
 senate, expel un\vorthy members, name the Princeps Senatiis, &c. That 
 was called, as is ^vell known, Senatum legere. It was customary, during 
 the free republic, for the censor to be named Princeps Seuatiis, (S. Liv. 1. 
 xxvii. c. 11, 1. xl. c. 51;) and Dion expressly says, that this was done 
 according to ancient usage. He \vas empo\^ cred by a decree of the senate 
 (AovAns hriTfitpaarii) to admit a number of families among the patriciaoa 
 Finally; tV/3 seaate was not the legislative power. — W
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF TUE ROMAN EMPIRE. 76 
 
 censors, on the citizen the most eminent for his honcra and 
 services.' But whilst he thus restored the dignity, he de- 
 stroyed the independence, of the senate. The principles of a 
 fi'ee constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative powei 
 Is nominated by the executive. 
 
 Before an assembly thus modelled and prepared, Augustas 
 pronounced i studied oration, which displayed his patriotism, 
 and disguisy.-d 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 sometimes given way to the stern laws of necessity, 
 and to a forced connection with two unworthy colleagues : as 
 long as Antony lived, the republic forbade 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."* 
 
 It would require the pen of Tacitus (if Tacitus had assisted 
 at this assembly) to describe the various emotions of the senate , 
 those that were suppressed, and those that were affected. Il 
 was dangerous to trust the sincerity of Augustus ; to seem tc 
 distrust it was still more dangerous. The respective advan- 
 tages of monarchy and a republic have often divided specula 
 live inquirers ; the present greatness of the Roman state, tht 
 corruption of manners, and the license 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 senti- 
 ments, the answer of the senate was unanimous and decisive. 
 They refused to accept the resignation of Augustus ; they 
 conjured him 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 govern- 
 ment of the provinces, and the general command of the 
 Roman armies, under the well-known names of Proconsul 
 and Imperator.'' But he would receive them only for ten 
 
 ' Dion Cassius, 1. liii. p. 693. Suetonius in August, c. 35. 
 
 * Dion (1. liii. p. 608) gives us a prolix and bombast speech on Hum 
 great occasion. I have borrowed from Suetonius and Tacitus Ihe gen^ 
 ral hmguage of Augustus. 
 
 * hxperator (from wliich we have deriyed Emperor) signified unde»
 
 YO THE IJECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180. 
 
 years. Even before the expiration of that period, he hopel 
 that the wounds of civil discord would be completely healed, 
 and that the republic, restored to its pristine health and vigor, 
 would no longer require the dangerous interposition of so 
 extraordinary a magistrate. The memory of this comedy, 
 repeated several times during the life of Augustus, was pre- 
 served to the last ages of the empire, by the peculiar pomp 
 with which the perpetual mouarchs of Rome always solem 
 sized the tenth years of their reign.^ 
 
 Without any violation of the principles of the constitution, 
 the general of ihe Roman armies might receive and exercise 
 an authority aUnost despotic over the soldiers, the enemies, 
 and the subject', of the republic. With regard to the soldiers, 
 the jealousy ol' freedom had, even from the earliest ages of 
 Rome, given v. s.v to the hopes of conquest, and a just sense 
 of military discipline. The dictator, or consul, had a right to 
 command tho, service of the Roman youth ; and to punish au 
 obstinate or cowardly disobedience by the most severe and 
 ignominious oenalties, by striking the offender out of the list 
 of citizens, ly confiscating his property, and by selling his 
 j)erson intf slavery.* The most sacred rights of freedom, 
 eonfirmed ',7 the Porcian and Sempronian laws, were sus- 
 pended oy ihe military engagement. In his camp the general 
 fxercistJ an absolute j>)wer of life and death; his jurisdiction 
 flra.* 'lot confined by an^ forms of trial, or rules of proceeding, 
 «*nd che execution of tlie sentence was immediate and without 
 appeal.' The cbiiice of the enemies of Rome was regularly 
 decided by the leei^^lative authority. The most important 
 resolutions of pe;ice and war were seriously debated in the 
 feenate, and solemnly ratified by the people. But when the 
 arms of the legions were carried to a great distance from 
 rtaly, the general assumed the liberty of directing them 
 against whatever people, and in whatever manner, they judged 
 
 Jie republic no more than general, and was emphatically bestowed by 
 ><ie soldiers, when on tlic field of battle they proclauned their victori- 
 lus leader worthy of that title. When the Roman emperors assumed 
 it in that sense, tij.;y placed it after Uieir name, and marked how :>ften 
 they had taken it. 
 
 « Dion. 1. nii. p. nm, (fee. 
 
 ' Livy Epitom. 1. xiv. [c. 27.] Valer. Maxim, vi. 3. 
 
 * See, in the viiith book of Livy, tlie conduct of Manlius Torquatus 
 and Papirius Cursor. They violated the laws of nature and humanity, 
 but they asserted those of military discipUne ; and the people, who 
 abhorred the action, was olAiged to respect tlie principle.
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OF THE ROMAN EMriRE. 17 
 
 most advantageciiis for the pub'.ic service. It wjvs from tho 
 success, not from the justice, of their enterprises, that thev 
 expected the honors of a triumpb. In tlie use of victory, es- 
 pecially after they were no longer controlled by the commis- 
 sioners of the senate, they exercised the most unbounded des 
 potism. AVhen Poinpey commanded in the Ejist, 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 proceed- 
 ings." 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 rejuiblic. They were, at the same 
 lime, the governors, or rather monarchs, of the conquered 
 provinces, united the civil with the military character, admin- 
 istered justice as well as the finances, and exercised both the 
 executive and legislative power of the state. 
 
 From what has already been observed in the first chapter 
 of this work, some notion may be formed of the armies and 
 provinces thus intrusted to the ruling hand of Augustus. But 
 is it was impossible that he could personally command the 
 iJegions 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 precarious. They received and held theii 
 commissions at the will of a superior, to whose auspicious 
 influence the merit of their action was legally attributed." 
 They were the representatives of the emperor. The emperor 
 
 ° By the lavish but unconstrained suffrages of the people, Pompey 
 had obtained a military command scarcely infciior to tliat of Augus- 
 tus. Among the extraordinary acts of power executed by the former, 
 we may remark the foundation of twenty-nine cities, and the distribu- 
 tion of three or four millions sterling to his troops. The ratifica- 
 tion of his acts met with some opposition and delays in the senate 
 See Plutarch, Appian, Dion Cassius, and the first book of the epistles 
 to Atticus. 
 
 '" Under the commonwealth, a triumpli could only be claimed by 
 the general, who was authorized to take the Auspices in the name 
 of the people. Ey an exact consequence, drawn from this principle 
 of policy and religion, the triumph was reserved to the emperor ; and 
 Ids most successful lieutenants were satisfied with some marks of difl- 
 tinetion, which, under the name of triumphal honor?, were inveuted in 
 their favor.
 
 78 THE DECLINE AND FALl [A. 1). 98-180 
 
 alone was the general of tlie republic, and Lis jurisdiction, civil 
 as well as military, extended over all the conquests of Home. 
 It was some satisfaction, however, to the senate, that he always 
 delegated his power to the members of their body. The im- 
 perial lieutenants were of consular or praetorian dignity ; the 
 legions were commanded by senators, and the prsefecture of 
 Egypt was the only important trust committed to a Roman 
 kiiight. 
 
 Within six days after Augustus had been compelled to 
 accept so very liberal a grant, he resolved 'o gratify the pride 
 of the senate by an easy sacrifice. He represented to them, 
 that they 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 insi&l 
 on being allowed to restore the more peaceful and secure 
 provinces to the mild administration of the ci\il magistrate. 
 In the division of the provinces, Augustus provided for his 
 own power and for the dignity of the republic. The procon- 
 suls of the senate, particularly those of Asia, Greece, and 
 Africa, enjoyed a more honorable character than the lieuten- 
 ants 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 ordinary juris- 
 diction 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 Frtnce, the favorite 
 epithet of Augustus, was the same in every part of the empire. 
 
 In return for this imaginary concession, Augustus obtained 
 an important privilege, which rendered him master of Rome 
 and Italy. By a dangerous exception to the ancient maxims, 
 he was authorized to preserve his military command, sup- 
 ported by a numerous body of guards, even in time of peace, 
 and in the heart of the capital. His command, indeed, was 
 
 • Tliis distinction is witbout foundation. The lieutenants of the emperor, 
 wbo were called Propraetors, whether they had been praetors or consuls, 
 were attended by six lictors ; those who had the right of the sword, (of life 
 ind death over the soldiers. — M.) bore the military habit (paludanientum) 
 Mid tlie sword. The provincial governors commissioned by the senate, -who, 
 whether they had been consuls or not, were called Pronconsula, had twelve 
 lictors when they had been consuls, and six only when they had but been 
 
 §ra;tors. The provinces of Africa and Asia were only given to ex-coiisol* 
 ee, on the Organization of the Provinces, Dion, liii. 12, ]6 Slrabo, xvii 
 840. -W
 
 A.D. 98~180.J OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Tl 
 
 confined to those citizens who were engaged m the service by 
 the mihtaiy oath ; but such was tlie propensity of the Romans 
 to servitude, tliat the oath was voluntarily taken by the magis- 
 trates, the senators, and the equestrian order, till the homage.' 
 of flattery was insensibly converted into an annual and solemn 
 protestation of fidelity. 
 
 Although Augustas considered a military force as the firm 
 est foundation, he wisely rejected it, as a very odious instru- 
 ment of government. It was more agreeable to his temper, 
 as well as to his policy, to reign under the venerable names 
 of ancient magistracy, and artfully to collect, in his own per- 
 son, all the scattered rays of civil jurisdiction. Wi'^h this view, 
 he permitted the senate to confer upon him, for his life, the 
 powers of the consular" and tribunitian offices," 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 superintended the ceremonies 
 of religion, levied and commanded the legions, gave audience 
 to foreign ambassadors, and presided in tlie assembhes both 
 of the senate and people. The general control of the finances 
 was intrusted to their care ; and though they seldom had 
 leisure to administer justice in person, they were considered 
 ^ the supreme guardians of law, equity, and the puHic peace. 
 Such was their ordinary jurisdiction ; but whenever the senate 
 empowered the first magistrate to consult the safety of the 
 commonwealth, he was raised by that decree above the laws, 
 and exercised, in the defence of liberty, a temporaiy despot- 
 ism." The character of the tribunes was, in every respect, 
 Iififerent from that of the consuls. The appearance of the 
 
 " Cicero (de Legibus, iii. 3) gives the consular office the name of 
 ""effia potestas; and Polybius (1. vi. c. 3) observes three powers in the 
 Aoinar constitution. The monarchical was represented and exercised 
 by ih • '^suls. 
 
 '^ As the tribunitian power (distinct from the annual office) was first 
 invented by the dictator Ciesar, (Dion, 1. xliv. p. 38-1,) 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. Civd. 1. i. 
 
 " Augustus exercised nine annual consulships without iuterruptio3- 
 He then most artfully refused the magistracy, as well as the dictator- 
 ship, absented himself from Rome, and waited till the fatal eftects of 
 tumult and faction forced the senate to invest him with a perpetual 
 consulship. Augustus, as well as his successors, affected, however, t€ 
 eoDceal bo invidious a title.
 
 80 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180. 
 
 former was modest and humble ; but their persons were sacred 
 and inviolable. Their force was suited rather for oppositioh 
 than for action. They were instituted to defend the oppressed, 
 to pardon ofiences, to arraign the enemies of the people, and, 
 when they judged it necessary, to stop, by a single word, the 
 »vhole machine of government. As long as the republic sub- 
 isted, the dangerous influence, which either the consul or the 
 ribune might derive from their respective jurisdiction, was 
 iiminished by several important 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 
 averse 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 consular and tribunitian powers 
 were united, when they were vested for life in a single person, 
 when the general of the array was, at the same time, the min- 
 ister of the senate and the representative of the Roman peojjle, 
 it was impossible to resist the exercise, nor was it easy to 
 define the hraits, of his imperial prerogative. 
 
 To these accumulated honors, the policy of Augustus soon 
 added the sjilendid as well as important dignities of supreme 
 pontiff, and of censor. By the former he acquired the man- 
 agement 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 
 1/0 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 inconvenient laws : they were authorized to convoke 
 the senate, to make several motions in the same day, to 
 recommend candidates for the honors of the state, to enlarge 
 the bounds of the city, to employ the revenue at their discre- 
 tion, to declare peace and war, to ratify treaties ; and by a 
 most comprehensive clause, they were empowered to execute 
 'jvhatsoever they should judge advantageous to the empire, and 
 
 * The uote of M. Guizot on the tribunitian power applies to the French 
 uranslntion rather than to the original. The fonner has, maintcnir la balance 
 Umjours ogale, which implies much more tlian Gibbon's general expression 
 The note belongs rather to the liistory of the Republic thau that of tbt
 
 A.. IX 98-180.J OB' THE ROMAN EMPIRE. li] 
 
 agreeable to the majesty of things private or public, humaa. oi 
 divine." 
 
 When all the various powers of executive government wer« 
 committed to the Imperial magistratt the ordinary magis- 
 trates of the commonwealth laiigiiishod in obscurity, without 
 vigor, and almost without business. The names and forma 
 of the ancient administration were preserved by Augustus 
 with the most anxious care. The usual number of consuls, 
 pffletors, and tribunes," were annually invested with their re* 
 ■ epective ensigns of office, and continued to dischaige some of 
 their least important functions. Those honors still attracted 
 the vain ambition of the Romans ; and the emperors them- 
 selves, though invested for life with the powers of the consul 
 ship, frequently aspired to the title of that annual dignity, 
 which they condescended to share with the most illustrious of 
 their fellow-citizens." In the election 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 least symptom of im- 
 patience, humbly solicited their suffrages for himself or his 
 fi'iends, and scrupulously practised all the duties of an ordinary 
 
 '* See a fragment of a Decree of the Senate, conferring on the 
 emperor Vespasian all the powers granted to his predecessors, Au- 
 gustus, Tiberius, and Claudius. This curious and important monument 
 is published in Grutcr's Inscriptions, No. ccxlii.* 
 
 '* 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 
 prjEtors were usually sixteen or eighteen, (Lipsius in Excurs. D. ad 
 Tacit. Annal. 1. i.) I have not mentioned the .(Ediles 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. L 
 23.) 
 
 " Tlie tyrants themselves were ambitious of the consul.'^hip. The 
 vu'tuous princes were moderate in the pursuit, and exact in the dis- 
 charge of it. Trajan revived the ancient o.ath, and swore before the 
 cori-sul's tribunal tliat he would observe the laws, (Plin. Panegyri". 
 e. 64.) 
 
 " It is also in the editions of Tacitus by Ryck, (Annal. p. 420, 421,) and 
 Emesti, (Excurs. ad lib. iv. 6 ;) but this fragment contains so many incon. 
 nstencies. both in matter and form, that its authenticity may be doubted 
 — W.
 
 82 THE DECLINE AKD FALL [A. D. 98-18(X 
 
 candidate* But we may venture to ascribe to his councUi 
 the first measure of the succeeding reign, by which the elec- 
 tions were transferred to the senate.'* The assembhes of the 
 people were forever abolished, and the emperors were deliv- 
 ered from a dangerous multitude, who, without restoring lib- 
 erty, might have disturbed, and perhaps endangered, the estab- 
 lished government. 
 
 By declaring themselves the protectors of the people, 
 Marius 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 instru- 
 ment of dominion. It was on the dignity of the senate that 
 Augustus and his successors 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 consulted 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 ; wth regard to criminal matters, a tribunal, constitut- 
 ed for the trial of all offences that were committed 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 pos- 
 sessed very considerable prerogatives ; but in its legislative 
 capacity, in which it was supposed virtually to represent th<» 
 
 *' Quoties Msigistratuum Comitiis interesset. Tribus ciim candida- 
 tis suis cii-cmbat : supplicabatqiie more solemni. Ferebat et ipse 
 Biiffi'agiuni in tribubus, ut unu3 e populo. Suetonius in August 
 t.56. 
 
 ** Turn prircum Comitia e campo ad patres translata sunt. Tacit. 
 Annal. i. 15. The word primum seems to allude to some faint and 
 unsuccessful eiforts which were made towards restoring them to the 
 people,* 
 
 * The emperor Caligiila made the attempt : he rest red the Comitia to the 
 people, but, in a short time, took them a^vay agaia Suet, in Caio. c. 16. 
 Dion. lix. 9, 20. Nevertheless, at the time of Dion, they presen'ed still the 
 form of the Comitia. Dion. Iviii. 20. — W.
 
 A.D. 98-180.J 01; THE EOMAN EMPIRE. 88 
 
 people, the rights of sovereignty were acknowledged to reside 
 in that assembly. Every power was derived from their au- 
 thority, every law was ratified by their sanction. Their regu- 
 lar meetings were held on three stated days in -^very month, 
 the Calends, the Nones, and the Ides. The debates were con- 
 ducted 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 
 government ; as it was instituted by Augustus, and main- 
 tained by those princes who understood their own interest and 
 that of the people, 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, con- 
 cealed their irresistible strength, and humbly professed them- 
 selves the accountable ministers of the senate, whose supreme 
 decrees they dictated and obeyed." 
 
 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 de- 
 cency, disdained that pomp and ceremony which might ofiend 
 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 sena- 
 tor. Their family, however numerous or splendid, was com- 
 posed entirely of their domestic slaves and freedmen." 
 Augustus or Trajan would have blushed at employing the 
 meanest of the Romans in those menial offices, which, in the 
 
 " Dion Cassius (1. liii. p. 703 — lli) has given a very loose and 
 partial sketch of the Imperial system. To illustrate and often to cor- 
 rect him, I hrtve meditated Tacitus, examined Suetonius, and consulted 
 the following moderns : the Abbe de la Bleterie, in the Memoires de 
 I'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xix. xxi. xxiv. xxv. xxvii. Beaufort, 
 Repubhquc Uomaine,tom. i. p. 255 — 275. The Dissertations of Noodt 
 aad Gronovius de lege Rcgia, printed at Leyden, in the year 1731 
 Gravina de Imperio Romano, p. 479 — 544 of his Opuscula. Maffei, 
 Verona Illustrata, p. i. p. 245, <fec. 
 
 '" A weak prince will always be governed by his iomestics. 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 modem 
 WTorite may be a gentleraaa
 
 84 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180 
 
 houseboU and bedchamber of a limited monarch, are so eagerly 
 solicited by the proudest nobles of Britain. 
 
 The deification of the emperors^' is the only instance in 
 T^hich they departed from their accustomed prudence and 
 modesty. The Asiatic Greeks were the first inventors, the 
 successors of Alexander the first objects, of this servile and 
 impious mode of adulation.* It was easily transferred from 
 the kings to the governors of Asia; and the Roman magis- 
 trates very frequently were adored as provincial deities, with 
 the pomp of altars and temples, of festivals and sacrifices.'* 
 It was natural that the emperors should not refuse what the 
 proconsuls had accepted ; and the divine honors 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 lifetime, a place among 
 the tutelar deities of Rome. The milder temper of his suc- 
 cessor 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 honor, on condition that they 
 should associate the worship of Rome with that of the sove- 
 reign ; he tolerated private superstition, of which he might be 
 
 ^^ See a treatise of Vandale de Consecratione Principium. It would 
 be easier for me to copy, than it has been to verify, the quotations of 
 that learned Dutchman. 
 
 ''^ See a dissertation of the Abbe Mongault in the first volume of 
 the Academy of Inscriptions. 
 
 * This is inaccurate. The successors of Alexander were not the first 
 deified sovereigns ; the Egyptians had deified and worsliipped many of 
 their kings ; the Olympus of the Greeks was peopled with divinities who 
 had reigned on earth ; finally, Romulus himself had received the honors 
 of an apotheosis (Tit. Li v. i. 16) a long time before Alexander and his 
 successors. It is also an inaccuracy to confound the honors offered in tha 
 provinces to the Roman governors, by temples and altars, with the trua 
 apotheosis of the emperors ; it was not a religious worship, for it had 
 neither priests nor saci-ificos. Augustus was severely blamed for having 
 permitted himself to be wor.'ihiyjped as a god in the provinces, (Tac Ana 
 i. 10 :) he would not have incun-ed that blame if he had only done -wliat 
 the governors were accustomed to do. — G. from W. M. Guizot has been 
 guilty of a still greater inaccuracy in confounding the deification of tne 
 living ^^•ith the apotheosis of the dead emperors. The nature of the king- 
 wor.ship of Egj-pt is still very obscure; the hero-worship of t'ti,i Greeks 
 very ditferent from the adoration of tlv» "pnesens nuraen" jo the roigcing 
 •overeign. — M
 
 A. D. 98-180.] OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 8i 
 
 the object;" but he contented himself with being revered by 
 the senate and the people in his human character, and wisely 
 left to his successor the care of his public deification. A reg- 
 ular custom was introduced, that on the decease of every 
 emperor Avho 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 
 mth those of his funoral.f This legal, and, as it should 
 «eem, injudicious profanation, so abhorrent to our stricter 
 principles, was received with a very faint murmur,^* by the 
 easy nature of Polytheism ; but it was received as an institu- 
 tion, 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 Csesar or 
 Augustus were far superior to those of the popular deities. 
 But it was the misfortune of the former to live in an enlight- 
 ened age, and their actions were too faithfully recorded to 
 admit of such a mixture of fable and mystery, as the devotion 
 of the vulgar requires. As soon as their divinity was estab- 
 lished by law, it sunk into oblivion, without contributing either 
 to their own fame, or to the dignity of succeeding princes. 
 
 In the consideration of the Imperial government, w^e have 
 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.J It was stained with the blood of the proscription ; 
 
 "* Jurandasque tuum per nomen poniimis aran, says Horace to the 
 . emperor himself, and Horace was well acquainted with the court of 
 Augustus.* 
 
 '* See Cicero in Philippic, i. C. Julian in Coesaribus. luque Deum 
 teinplis jurabit Roma per umbras, is the indignant expression of 
 Luciin ; but it is a patriotic rather than a devout indignation. 
 
 * The good pruices were not those who alone obtained the honors of an 
 apotheosis : it was conferred on many tyrants. See an excellent treatise of 
 SchoepHin, de Consecnitioue Imperatoram Romanorum, in his Commenta- 
 tiones historic^ et criticffi. Bale, 1741, p. 184. — W. 
 
 t The curious satire the dn-oK(i'Svi/r'.ia(g, in the works of Seneca, is the 
 gtpontrest remonstrance of profiined religion. — M. 
 
 \ Octavius was not of an obscui-e family, but of a considerable one of 
 tlie equestrian order. His father. C. Octavius, who possessed great prop- 
 Brty, had been pra3tor, governor of Macedonia, adorned with the title of 
 Ixape^ator, and was on tlie point of becoming consul when he died. Hi( 
 mother Attia, was daughter of M. Attius Balbus, who ha^ also been 
 ^relor. M. Anthony reproached Octavius with having been born in Arioia
 
 K6 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180. 
 
 and he was desirous, had it been possible, to erase all memory 
 of his tVmar 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 
 in the senate to dignify their minister with a new appellation; 
 and after a serious discussion, that of Augustus was chosen, 
 among several others, as being the most expressive of the 
 eharacter of peace and sanctity, which he uniformly affect- 
 ed."^ 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 
 was diffused by adoption and female alliance, Nero was the 
 last prince who could allege any hereditary claim to the hon- 
 ors of the Julian line. But, at the time of his death, the 
 practice of a century had inseparably connected those appel- 
 lations with the Imperial dignity, and they have been pre- 
 served b}' a long succession 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 Csesar was more freely commu- 
 nicated to his relations ; and, from the reign of Hadrian, at 
 least, was appropriated to the second person in the state, whc 
 was considered as the presumptive heir of the empire.* 
 
 The tender respect of Augustus for a free constitutic/n 
 which he had destroyed, can only be explained by an atten- 
 
 "^ Dion. Cassias, 1. liii. y. 710, with the curious Annotations of 
 Reimar. 
 
 which, nevertheless, wa;? a congiJerable municipal city : he was vigorously 
 refuted by Cicero. Philip, iii. c. 6. — W. Gibbon probably meant that the 
 family had but recently emerged into notice. — M. 
 
 * The princes who by their birth or their adoption belonged to the family 
 of the Coesars, took the name of Csesar. After the death of Nero, this 
 name designated the Imperial dignity itself, and afterv^'ards the appointed 
 successor. The time at which it w^as employed in the latter sense, cannot 
 be fixed with certainty. Bach (Hist. Jurisprud. Rom. 304) afBrms fi-om 
 Tacitus, H. i. 15, and Suetonius, G-alba, 17, that Galba confen-ed on Piso 
 Lccinianus the title of Casar, and fi-om that time the term had tliis mean- 
 ing : but these two liistorians simply say that he appointed Piso his suc- 
 cessor, and do not mention the word Cassar. Aurelius Victor (in Traj. 348, 
 ed. Artzen) says that Hadrian first received this title on his adoption ; but 
 tB the adoption of Hadrian is still doubtful, and besides this, as Trajan, on 
 his death-bed, was not likely to have created a new title for his socce» 
 •or, it is more probable that .ffihus Verus was the first wb: was 'sa.Ued 
 CjBsar when adopted by Hadrian. Spart. in JE\io Vero, 102.- VV.
 
 \. D. 98- 180, J OF THE ROMAN EMPIKE. 87 
 
 tive consideration of the cbaracter 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 
 Bame hand, and probably 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.^* When he 
 framed the artful system of the Imperial authorit}'-, his mod- 
 eration 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 Caesar was ever before his eyes. He had 
 lavished wealth and honors on his adherents ; but the most 
 favored 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,'" would applaud the imitation of his virtue. Csesar 
 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 man- 
 kind is governed by names ; nor was he deceived m his ex- 
 l^ectation, that the senate and people would submit to slavery, 
 provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed 
 their ancient freedom. A feeble senate and enervated people 
 cheerfully acquiesced in the pleasing illusion, as long as it 
 was supported by the virtue, or even by the prudence, of the 
 
 ^' As Octavianug advanced to the banquet of the Cajsars, his color 
 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 considers this change of 
 character as real and ascribes it to the power of Triiilosophy, he does 
 too much honor to philosophy and to Octavianus. 
 
 °' Two centuries after the estabhshment of monarchy, the emperor 
 Marcus Antoninus recommends the character of Brutus as a perfect 
 model of Roman virtue.* 
 
 * In a very ingenious essay, Gibbon has ventured to call in quesdco tlM 
 preeminent virtue of Bnitus. Misc Works, iv. 95. — M.
 
 98 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180, 
 
 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 
 person of the tyrant, without aiming their blow at the authority 
 of the emperor. 
 
 There appears, indeed, one memorable occasion, in which 
 che senate, after seventy years of patience, made an ineffec- 
 tual attempt to re-assume its long-forgotten rights. AYhen the 
 throne was vacant by the murder of Caligula, the consuls 
 convoked that assembly in the Capitol, condemned the mem- 
 ory of the Cccsars, gave the watchword liberty to the few 
 cohorts who 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 praeto- 
 rian guards had resolved. The stupid Claudius, brother of 
 Germanicus, was already in their camp, invested with the 
 Imperial purple, and prepared to support 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 assem- 
 bly was compelled to ratify the choice of the praetorians, and 
 to embrace the benefit of an amnesty, which Claudius had 
 the prudence to offer, and the generosity to observe.'^* 
 
 II. The insolence of the armies inspired Augustus with 
 fears of a still more alarming nature. The despair of the 
 citizens could only attempt, Avhat 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 
 ^ucial duty ! He had heard their seditious clamors; he 
 dreaded their calmer moments of reflection. One revolution 
 had been purchased by immense rewards ; but a second revo- 
 lution might double those rewards. The troops professed the 
 fondest attachment to the house of Csesar; but the attach- 
 ments of the multitude are capricious and inconstant. 
 'Augustus summoned to his aid whatever remained in those 
 fierce mmds of Roman prejudices ; enforced the rigor of 
 discipline by the sanction of law ; and, interposing the 
 majesty of the senate between the emperor and the array, 
 
 '* It i3 much to be rcgi'etted that we have lost the part of Tacitoh 
 which treated of that transaction. We arc forced to content ourselves 
 urith the popular rumors of Josephu3, and the imperfect hints of Diau 
 and Suetoolijs.
 
 A.D. 98-180.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 69 
 
 boldly claimed their allegianc«, as the first magistrate pf th« 
 republic 
 
 During a long period of two hundred and twenty years 
 from the establishment of this artful system to the death of 
 Commodus, 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 assassinated in their palace by their own 
 domestics : * the convulsions which agitated Rome on the 
 ileath 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 vio- 
 lent eruption of military license, 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 se7iate, and the consent of the 
 soldiers.^" The legions respected their oath of fidelity ; and 
 it requires a rninute inspection of the Roman annals to 
 discover three inconsiderable rebellions, which were all 
 
 *' 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.) 
 
 °" These words seem to have been the constitutional language. See 
 Tacit. Annal. xiii. 4.f 
 
 * Caligula perLshed by a conspiracy formed by the officers of the praeto- 
 rian troops, and Domitian would not, perhaps, have been assassinated 
 without the participation of the two chiefs of that guai'd in his death. 
 —W. 
 
 t This panegyric on the soldiery is rather too liberal. Claudius was 
 obliged to purchase their consent to his coronation : the presents which ho 
 made, and those which the praetorians received on other occasions, consid- 
 erably embarrassed the finances. Moreover, this formidable guard favored, 
 in general, the cruelties of the tyrants. The distant revolts wore more 
 frequent than Gibbon thinks : already, under Tiberius, tlie legions of G(!r- 
 many would have seditiously constrained Gennanicua to assume the Iio- 
 
 Eerial purple. On the revolt of Claudius Civilis. under Vespasian, the 
 igions of Gaul murdered their general, and olfiirod their assistance to tlia 
 Qauls who were in insurrection. .Julius Sabinus made himself be pro- 
 claimed emperor, &c. The wars, the merit, and the severe discipline of 
 Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antoninos, establislied, fo*" some time, a greatet 
 degree of Bubordination. — W
 
 90 THE DECL1\E AND FALL [A. D. 98--180 
 
 nappressed hi a few months, and without even the hazard of 
 a battle.'' 
 
 In elective monarchies, the vacancy of the throne is a luo 
 ment big with danger and mischief. The Roman emperoi-s, 
 desirous to spare the legions that interval of suspense, and the 
 temptation of an irregular choice, invested their designed suc- 
 cessor with so large a share of present power, as should ena- 
 ble him, after their decease, to assume the remainder, without 
 suffering the empire to perceive the change of masters. Thua 
 Augustus, after all his 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 pow- 
 ers, and dictated a law, by which the future prince was invested 
 with an authority equal to his own, over the provinces and the 
 armies.'^ Thus Vespasian subdued the generous mind of his 
 eldest son. Titus was adored by the eastern legions, which, 
 under his command, had recently achieved the conquest of 
 Judeea. His power was dreaded, and, as his virtues were 
 clouded by the intemperance of youth, his designs were sus- 
 pected. 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." 
 
 The good sense of Vespasian engaged him indeed to em 
 brace every measure that might confirm his recent and preca- 
 rious elevation. The military oath, and the fidelity of the 
 troops, had been consecrated, by the habits of a hundred 
 years, to the name and family of the Ceesars ; 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 Augus- 
 tus. It was not without reluctance and remorse, that the prae- 
 torian guards had been persuaded to abandon the cause of the 
 
 •' The first was Camillus Scribonianu?, -who took up arms in Dal- 
 matia 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 adherenta 
 We may observe, that both Camillus and Cassius colored their ambi 
 jiot with the design of restoring the republic ; a task, said CassiGS 
 peculiarly reserved for his name and family. 
 
 " Velleius Paterculus, 1. ii. c. 121. Sueton. in Tiber, c 2f. 
 
 ■» Sueton. m Tit c. 6. Phn. in PrsBfat. Hist. Natur,
 
 A. D. 98-180,] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 9\ 
 
 tyrant.'* The rapid downfall of Galba, Otho, and Vitellua, 
 taught the armies to consider the emperors as the creatures of 
 their will, and the instruments of their license. The birth of 
 Vespasian was mean : his grandfather had been a private sol- 
 dier, his father a petty officer of the revenue ; ^* 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. 
 
 ISTerva had scarcely accepted the purple from the assassins 
 of Domitian, before he discovered that his feeble age was 
 unable to stem the torrent of public disorders, which had mul- 
 tiplied under the long tyranny of his predecessor. His mild 
 disposition was respected by the good ; but the degenerate Ro- 
 mans required a more vigorous character, whose 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 army 
 in the Lower Germany ; and immediately, by a decree of the 
 senate, declared him his colleague and successor in the em- 
 pire,'" It is sincerely to be lamented, that whilst we are 
 fatigued with the disgustful relation of Nero's crimes and fol- 
 lies, we are reduced to collect the actions of Trajan from the 
 glimmerings of an abridgment, or 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 tho 
 virtue of Trajan." 
 
 ** This idea is frequently and strongly inculcated by Tacitus. See 
 Hist. i. 5, 16, ii. 76. 
 
 "* The emperor Vespasian, with his usual good sense, laughed af 
 the genealogists, who deduced his family from Flavius, the founder of 
 Reate, (his native country,) and one of the companions of Herciilea 
 Buet. in Vespasian, c. 12. 
 
 ** Dion, 1. IxvLii. p. 1121. Plin. Secund. in Panegyric, 
 
 *'' Felicior Augasto, meliok Teajano. Eutrop. viii. 5.
 
 92 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98"18(X 
 
 "W-^ may readily believe, tliat the father of his coimti-y 
 hesitated 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 irresohition of Trajan, or boldly supposed a fictitious adop- 
 tion ; ^* the truth of which could not be safely disputed, and 
 rfadrian 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 wa.s 
 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 honors decreed to his memory were 
 granted to the prayers of the pious Antoninus.'^ 
 
 The caprice of Hadrian influenced his choice of a succes- 
 sor. After revolving in his mind several men of distinguished 
 merit, whom he esteemed and hated, he adopted ^lius Verus. 
 a gay and voluptuous nobleman, recommended by uncommon 
 beauty to the lover of Antinous.*" But whilst Hadrian was 
 delighting himself with his own applause, and the acclama- 
 tions of the soldiers, whose consent had been secured by an 
 
 ^* Dion (L Ixix, p. 1249) affirms the whole to have been a fiction, on 
 the authority of his father, who, being governor of tlie jDrovince where 
 Trajan died, had very good opportunities of sifting this mysterious 
 transaction. Yet Dothvell (Prselect. Camden, xvii.) has maintained, 
 tliat Hadrian was called to the certain hope of the empire, during the 
 lifetime of Trajan. 
 
 "" Dion, (L Ixx. p. 1171.) Am-el. Victor. 
 
 *" The deification of Antinous, his medals, his statues, temples, city, 
 ■Dj.'iclcs, and constellation, are well known, and still dishonor the 
 memory of Hadrian. Yet we may remark, that of the first fifteen em- 
 perors, Claudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely 
 correct. For the honors of Antinous, see Spanheim, Commentioire sui 
 lea CffisjiTS de Julien, p. 80.
 
 A.D f*H->80.| OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 8»8 
 
 immynse donative, the new Cajsaf" was ravislied from his 
 embraces by an untimely death. He left only one son. Ha- 
 drian 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 reverence for his wiser colleague, to whom he willingly 
 abandoned the ruder cares of empire. The philosophic em- 
 peror dissembled his follies, lamented his early death, and cast 
 a decent veil over his memory. 
 
 As soon as Hadrian's passion was either gratiiied or disap- 
 pointed, he resolved to deserve the thanks of posterity, by 
 placing the most exalted merit on the Roman throne. His 
 discerning eye easily discovered a senator about fifty years of 
 age, ;lameless in all the offices of life ; and a youth of about 
 sevenieen, whose riper years opened a 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 youngei*. The two Antonines (for it 
 is of them that we are now speaking,) governed the Roman 
 world forty-two years, with the same invariable spirit of wis- 
 dom and virtue. Although Pius had two sons,*^ 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, associ- 
 ated him to all the labors of government. Marcus, on the other 
 hand, revered the character of his benefactor, loved him as a 
 parent, obeyed him as his sovereign,** and, after he was no 
 
 *■ Hist. August, p. 13. Aurelius Victor in Epitom. 
 
 *^ Without the help of medals and inscriptions, we should be igno- 
 rant of tills fact, so honorable to the memory of Pius.* 
 
 *^ 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. 
 
 * Gibbon attinbntes to Antoninus Pius a merit ^vhich be cither did not 
 jiossess, or was not in a situation to display. 1. He was adopted only on 
 the condition that he would adopt, in his turn, Maixus Aurelius and L. 
 Vcrus. 2. His two sons died children, and one of them, M. Galerius, 
 alone, appears to have survived, for a few years, his father's coronation. 
 Gibbon is also mistaken, when he says (note 42) that "without the help 
 of medals and inscriptions, \vc should be ignorant tbat Antoninus had two 
 sons." Capitolinus says expressly, (c. 1,1 Filii niiires duo, dure fu'minsB ; 
 we only owe tlvnr names to the medals. Pagi. ('out Huron, i. 33, «dit 
 Paris— W.
 
 84 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180. 
 
 more, regulated bis own administration by the example and 
 maxims of liis predecessor. Tlieir united reigns are possibly 
 the only period of history in which the happiness of a great 
 people was the sole object of government. 
 
 Titus Antoninus Pius has been justly denominated a secon(? 
 Numa. The same love of religion, justice, and peace, waa 
 the distinguishing characteristic of both princes. But the 
 situation of the latter opened a much larger field for the exer- 
 cise of those virtues. Numa could only prevent a few neigh- 
 boring villages from plundering each other's harvests. Anto- 
 ninus diffused order and tranquilhty over the greatest part of 
 the earth. His reign is marked by the rare advantage of fur- 
 nishing very few materials for history ; wuich 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 affectation. He enjoyed with moderation the con- 
 veniences of his fortune, and the innocent pleasures of society ;** 
 and the benevolence of his soul displayed itself in a cheerful 
 serenity of temper. 
 
 The virtue of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Avas of a severer 
 and more laborious kind." 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 
 embraced the rigid system of the Stoics, which taught him to 
 submit his body to his mind, his passions to his reason ; to 
 consider virtue as the only good, vice as the only evil, all 
 things external as things indifferent.''® His meditations, com- 
 posed in the tumult of the camp, are still extant ; and he even 
 
 ** He was fond of the theatre, and not insensible to the charnas of 
 the fair sex. Marcus Antoninus, i. 16. Hist. August, p. 20, 21. Julian 
 in Caasar. 
 
 *° Tlie enemies of Mar ;u3 charged him with hypocrisy, and with a 
 want of that simphcity which distinguished Pius and even Verus, 
 (Hist. August. 6, 34.) This suspicion, unjust as it was, may servo 
 to account for the superior applause bestowed upon personal qualifi- 
 cations, in preference to the social virtues. Even Marcus Antoninus 
 lias been called a hypocrite ; but the wildest scepticism never insinuated 
 that Cajsar miglit probalily be a coward, or TuUy a fool. Wit and 
 valor are qualifications more easily ascertained than humanity ;r th^ 
 lovo of justice. 
 
 *' Tacitus has characterised, in a few words, the principles ci Iho 
 portico ; Dottores sapientioe secutus est, qui sola bona quie honesta, main 
 lautuni quiE turpia ; potentiam, nobihtatem, casteraque extra ukimiJU. 
 oeqiie bonis neque malis adnump'ant. Tacit Hist. \v. 6.
 
 A^D. 98-180.J OF THE ROMAN KMPIRE. ffB 
 
 condescended 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.'" But his life was the 
 noblest commentary on the precepts of Zeno. He was severe 
 to himself, indulgent to the imperfections of others, just and 
 beneficent to all mankind. He regretted that Avidius Ccissius, 
 who excited a rebellion in Syria, had disappointed him, by a 
 voluntary death,* of the 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.''* War he detested, as the disgrace and calamity of 
 human nature ; J 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 j^ersons preserved 
 the image of Marcus Antoninus among those of their household 
 gods." 
 
 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 Dnmitian to the 
 accession of Commodus. The vast extent of the Roman 
 empire was governed by absolute power, under the guidance 
 of virtue and wisdom. The armies were restrained by the 
 firm but gentle hand of four successive emperors, whose 
 
 *' Before he went on the second expedition against the Germans, he 
 read lectures of philosophy to the Roman people, during three daya 
 He had already done the same in tiie cities of Greece and Asia. Hist 
 August, iu Cassio, c. 3. 
 
 ** Dion, 1. Ixxi. p. 1190. Hist. August, in Avid. Cassio.f 
 
 ** Hist. August, in Marc. Antouin. c. 18. 
 
 • Cassius was murdered by his own partisans. Vulcat. Gallic, iu Cassio 
 C. 7. Dion, Ixxi. c. 27.— "W. 
 
 t See one of the newly discovered passages of Dion Cassius. Marcus 
 \nTOteto the senate, who urged the execution of tJie partisans of Cas8iu.s, in 
 these words : " I entreat and beseech you to preserve my reign unstained 
 by senatorial blood. None of your order must perish either by jour desire 
 or mine." Mai. Fragui. Vaticau. ii. p. 224. — M. 
 
 t Marcus would not accept the services of any of the barbarian allies 
 who crowded to his standard iu the war against Avidius Cassius. " Bar 
 barians," lie said, ^vith wise but vain sagacity, "mu.st not become ac- 
 qnunted with the dissensions of the K/anan people." Mai. Fragm Vatican 
 I 824.— M
 
 M THE DECLINE AND FALL } A. D. 98-1801 
 
 tbaractcrs 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 hberty, and were pleased with considering 
 themselves as the accountable ministers of the laws. Such 
 princes deserved the honor of restoring the republic, had the 
 Romans of their days been capable of enjoying a rational 
 '^eedom. 
 
 The labors of these mouarchs were overpaid by the immense 
 reward that insepjarably 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 inibittered, however, the noblest of 
 human enjoyments. They must often have recollected the 
 instability of a happiness which depended on the character of 
 single man. The fatal moment was perhaps approaching, 
 A'hen 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 re- 
 straints of the senate and the laws might serve to display the 
 virtues, but could never correct the vices, of the emperor. 
 The military force was a blind and irresistible instrument of 
 oppression ; and the corruption of Eoman inanners would 
 always supply flatterers eager to applaud, and ministers pre- 
 pared to serve, the fear or the avarice, the lust or the cruelty, 
 . f their masters. 
 
 These gloomy apprehensions had been already justified by 
 the experience of the Romans. The annals of the emperors 
 exhibit a strong and various picture of human nature, which 
 we should vainly seek among the mixed and doubtful charac- 
 ters of modern history. In the conduct of those monarchs 
 we may trace the utmost lines of vice and virtue ; the most 
 exalted perfection, 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 unworthy successors of Augustus. Their un- 
 paralleled vices, and the splendid theatre on which they were 
 acted, have saved them from oblivion. The dark, unrelenting 
 Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the feeble Claudius, the profli- 
 gate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius,^" and the timid, 
 
 •" Vitellius nnsumed in mere eating at least six millicna of ocl 
 ' So«j in about seven 'nontbs- It is not easy to expreee his TNOl 
 
 J
 
 i.. i;. 98-180. J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 9t 
 
 •nli'Jinan Domitian, are condemned to everlasting infamy. 
 During fourscore years (excepting only the short and doubtful 
 respite of Vespasian's reign)" Rome groaned beneath an 
 unremitting tyranny, which exterminated the ancient famiUes 
 of the republic, and was fatal to almost every nrtue and 
 ■every talent that arose in that unhappy period. 
 
 Under the reign of these monsters, the slaveiy of the Ro- 
 mans was accompanied with two peculiar circumstances, the 
 one occasioned by their former liberty, the other by their ex- 
 tensive conquests, v.bich rendered their condition more com- 
 pletely 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 race of princes whose wanton cruelty often stained their 
 divan, their table, and their bed, with the blood of their favor- 
 ites, there is a saying recorded of a young nobleman, that he 
 never departed from the sultan's presence, without satisfying 
 himself whether his head was still on his shoulders. The 
 experience of every da}' might almost justify the scepticism 
 of Rustan." Yet the fatal sword, suspended above him by a 
 single thread, seems not to have disturbed the slumbers, or 
 interrupted the tranquillity, 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 fetal ; and it 
 \yas the part of a wise man to forget the inevitable calamities 
 of human life in the enjoyment of the fleeting hour. He was 
 dignified with the appellation of the king's slave ; had, per- 
 haps, 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." His name, 
 
 with digrnity, or even decency. Tacitus fairly calls him a hog, but it 
 is by substituting for a coarse word a very fine image. " At Vitellius, 
 umbraculia hortorum abditus, ut igjiava animalia, quibus si cihum 
 Buggeras, jacont torpentquc, prceterita, instantia, futura, pari oblivione 
 diniLserat. Atque ilium nemore Aricino desidem et marccntum," tfec. 
 Tacit. Hist. iii. 36, ii. 95. Suetou. in Vitell. c. 13. Dion. Cassiua, 1 
 'av. p. 1062. 
 
 *' The execution of Helvidius Priscus, and of the virtuous Eponina, 
 iisgraced the reign of Vespasian. 
 
 '^ Vovage de Chardin en Perse, vol. iii. p. 293. 
 
 " Tlie j.ractice of raising slaves to the great oflkes of state is ptiil 
 ■nore romnion am0i.g the Turks than among tiie Persians. The 
 
 VOL. I. — E
 
 M THE DECLINE AND TALL [A. D. 98-180. 
 
 his wealth, his honors, were the gift of a master, wlio might, 
 without injustice, resume what ho had bestowed, liusiau'fi 
 knowledge, if he possessed any, could only serve to confirm 
 his habits by prejudices. His language aftbrded not words 
 for any form of government, except absolute monarchy. The 
 history of the East informed him, that such had ever been tho 
 condition of mankind.^* The Koran, and the interpieters 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 unhm^ 
 iteJ obedience the great duty of a subject. 
 
 The minds of the Romans were very differently prepared 
 for slavery. Oppressed beneath the weight of their own cor- 
 ruption and of military violence, they for a long while pre- 
 served the sentiments, or at least the ideas, of their free-born 
 ancestors. The education of Helvidius and Thrasea, of Taci- 
 tus and Pliny, was the same as that of Cato and Cicero. Fi-om 
 Grecian philosophy, they had imbibed the justest and most 
 Hberal 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 common- 
 wealth ; to abhor the successful crimes of Cjesar and Augus- 
 tus ; and inwardly to despise those tyrants whom they adored 
 with the most abject flattery. As magistrates and senators 
 they Avere admitted into the great council, which had onc6 
 dictated laws to the earth, whose name still gave a sanction to 
 the acts of the monarch, and whose authority was so oftep 
 prostituted to the vilest purposes of ty^anny. Tiberins, and 
 those emperors who adopted his maxims, attempted to disguise 
 their murders by the formalities of justice, and perhaps en- 
 joyed a secret pleasure in rendering the senate their accom- 
 phce 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 ai'raigned a dangerous citizen befoie 
 the tribunal of his country ; and the public service was re- 
 warded by riches and honors.** The servile judges professed 
 
 miserable countries of Georgia andCircassia supply rulers to the great- 
 est fart of the East. 
 
 '* Chardin says, that l^luropean travellers liave diffused among th« 
 Persians some ideas of the freedom and mildness of our government* 
 They have done them a very ill office. 
 
 *' Tliey alleged the example of Scipio and Cato, (Tacit. Annai iii 
 
 I
 
 A. D. 98-180.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 99 
 
 to assert the majesty of the commonwealth, violated in the 
 person of its first magistrate,'" -whose clemency they most 
 applauded when they trembled the most at his inexorable and 
 imi)ending cruelty." 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 
 states, connected, however, with each other by the general 
 resemblance of religion, language, and manners, is productive 
 of 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 hap- 
 pier 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 dreary ])rison for his enemies. The 
 slave of Imperial despotism, whether he was condemned to 
 drag his gilded chain in Iiome and the senate, or to wear out 
 a life of exile on the barren rock of Seri})hus, or the frozen 
 
 66.) Marcelliis Epirus and Crispiis Vibiiis 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, Regains, the just object of Pliny'a 
 satire, received fi-om the senate the consular ornaments, and a present 
 of sixty thousand pounds. 
 
 "■* The crime of majesty was formerly a treasonable offence against 
 the Roman people. As tribunes of the people, Augustus and Tibe- 
 rius applied it to their own persons, and extended it to an iirfinits 
 latitude.* 
 
 " After the virtuous and unfortunate widow of Germanicus had 
 been put to death, Tiberi\is received the thanks of the senate for hia 
 clemency. She had not been publicly strarigled; nor was the bodj 
 drawn with a hook to the Gemonioo, where those of common male 
 factors were exposed. See Tacit. Annid. vi. 25. Sueton. in Tiberio 
 C53. 
 
 • It -was Tiberius, not Ausiietus, who firs' took in tlii.9 sense the worda 
 crimeD laisas majes'.atis. Bachii Trajanus, 3i' — W.
 
 100 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 98-180. 
 
 banks of the Danube, expected his fatei in silent despair." To 
 resist was fatal, and it was impossible 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 tierce 
 manners and unknown language, or dependent kings, who 
 would gladly purchase the emperor's protection by the sacrifico 
 of an obnoxious fugitive.^° " Wherever you are," said Cicero to 
 the exiled Marcellus, " remember that you are equally within 
 the power of the conqueror." " 
 
 ^* Seriphus was a small rocky island in the ^gean Sea, the inhabi- 
 tants of which were despised for their ignorance and obscurity. The 
 place of Ovid's exile is well known, by his just, but unmanly lamenta- 
 tionf. It should seem, that he only received an order to leave Rome in 
 so many days, and to transport himself to Tomi. Guards and jailers 
 were unnecessary. 
 
 *" Under Tiberius, a Roman knight attempted to fly to the Par- 
 thians. He was stopped in the straits of Sicily ; but so little dangef 
 did there appear in the example, that the most jealous of tyrants dia- 
 daiued to punish it. Tacit. AimaL vi. 14. 
 
 ** Cicero ad Familiares, iy. 7. 
 
 1
 
 A. D. 180.1 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 101 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TOE CRUELTY, FOLLIES, AND MURDER OF COMMODUS. — ELiCO- 
 
 TION OF PERTINAX HIS ATTEMPTS TO REFORM THE STATE 
 
 HIS ASSASSINATION BY THE PR^TORIAN GUARDS. 
 
 The mildness of Marcus, which the rigid disciphne of the 
 Stoics 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 unsus- 
 pecting 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 honors by affecting to despise them.' His exces- 
 sive indulgence to his brother,* his wife, and his son, exceeded 
 the bounds of private virtue, and became a pubHc injury, by 
 the example and consequences of their vices. 
 
 Faustina, the daughter of Pius and the wife of Marcus, has 
 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." The Cupid of the ancients was, in general, a 
 very sensual deity ; and the amours of an empress, as they 
 exact on her side the plainest advances, are seldom suscepti- 
 ble of much sentimental delicacy. Marcus was the only man 
 in the empire who seemed ignorant or insensible of the irreg- 
 ularities of Faustina ; which, according to the prejudices of 
 every age, reflected some disgrace on the injured husband, 
 
 1 See the complaints of AviJius Cassius, Hist. August p. 45. Theae 
 are, it is true, the complaints of faction ; but even faction exaggerates, 
 rather than invents. 
 
 2 Faustinam satis constat apud Cajetam conditiones sibi et nauticaa 
 et gladiatorias, eleglsse. Hist. August, p. 30. Lampridius explains 
 the sort of merit wliich Faustina chose, and the anditions which sh« 
 exacted. Hist. August, p. 102. 
 
 "• His brother by adoption, and his colleague, L. Venis. Marcus Aureliu* 
 had no other brother. — W.
 
 102 THE DECIJNE ANU FALL [A. D. 180. 
 
 He promoted several of her lovers to posts of honor and profit,' 
 and during a connection of thirty years, invariably gave her 
 proofs of the most tender coutidence, and of a respect which 
 ended not with her life. In his Meditations, he thanlcs the 
 gods, who had bestowed on him a wife so faithful, so gentle, 
 and of such a wonderful simplicity of manners/ The obse- 
 quious 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.' 
 
 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 tiither, and by the men of virtue and 
 /earning 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. But 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 philos- 
 opher was, in a moment, obliterated by the whisper of a profli- 
 gate favorite ; and Marcus himself blasted the fruits of this 
 labored 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 
 
 3 Hist. August, p. 34. 
 
 * Meditat. 1. L The ^yorl I has laughed at the credulity of Marcus 
 but Madam Dacier assures us, (and we may credit a lady,) that the 
 husband will always be deceived, if the wife condescends to dis- 
 Bcmble. 
 
 5 Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxi. [c. 31,] p. 1195. Hist. August, p. 83. Com- 
 mentaire de Spanheim sur les Caisars de Julien, p 289. Tlie deifica- 
 tion of Faustina is the only defect which Julian's criticism is abl« til 
 discoTcr in the all-accomplished character of Marcus.
 
 A..D. ISO.'I OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE- 108 
 
 objects that are coveted by many. Of all our passions and 
 appetites, the love of power is of the most imperious and 
 ausociable nature, since the pride of one man requires the 
 submission of the multitude. In the tumult of civil discord, 
 the laws of society lose their force, and their place is seldom 
 supplied by those of humanity. The ardor of contention, the 
 pride of victory, the despair of success, the memory v/f past 
 injuries, and the fear of future dangers, all contribute to in- 
 flame 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 unpro- 
 voked cruelties of Commodus, who had nothing to wish and 
 every thing to enjoy. The beloved son of Marcus succeeded 
 to his father, amidst the acclamations of the senate and armies ;' 
 and w^hen 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 glo- 
 ries of his five predecessors to the ignominious fate of Nero 
 and Doraitian. 
 
 Yet Commodus was not, as he has been represented, a tigei 
 born with an insatiate thirst of human blood, and capable, from 
 his infancy, of the most inhuman actions.'' Nature had formed 
 him of a weak rather than a wicked disposition. His sim- 
 plicity and timidity rendered him the slave of his attendants, 
 who gradually corrupted his mind. His cruelty, which at first 
 )beyed the dictates of others, degenerated into habit, and at 
 hngth became the ruling passion of his soul.' 
 
 Upon the death of his father, Commodus found himself 
 embarrassed with the command of a great army, and the con- 
 duct of a difficult war against the Quadi and Marcomanni.* 
 The servile and profligate youths whom Marcus had banished, 
 scon regained their station and influence about the new em- 
 peror. They exaggerated the hardships and dangers of a 
 
 * Commodus was the first Porphyrogenitus, (born since his father's 
 accession to tlie tlirone.) By a new strain of flattery, the Egyptian 
 medals date by the years of his life ; as if they were synonymous to 
 those of his reign. Tilleraont, Hist, des Empereurs, too. ii. p. "53. 
 
 '' Hist. August, p. 46. 
 
 8 Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxii. p. 1203. 
 
 9 According to 'J'crtulliau, Apolog. c. 25,) he died at Sirniium. Bui 
 the situation of Viudobona, or Vienna, where both the Victors place 
 bis death, is better adapted to the operati' us of the war against th« 
 Marcomanni ai:d QuadL
 
 104 THE DECLINE AND FALL [^.D. 183 
 
 campaign in the wild countries beyond the Danube ; and they 
 assured the indolent prince that the terror of his name, and the 
 arms of hia lieutenants, would be sufficient to complete the 
 conquest of the dismayed barbarians, or to impose such con- 
 ditions as were more advantageous than any conquest. By a 
 dexterous application to his sensual appetites, they compared 
 the tranquillity, the splendor, the refined pleasures of Rome, 
 with the tumult of a Pannonian camp, which afforded neither 
 leisure nor materials for luxury." Commodus listened to 
 the ple^^sing 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 
 graceful person," popular address, and imagined virtues, 
 attracted the public favor ; the honorable peace which he had 
 recently granted to the barbarians, diffused a universal 
 'oy ;" his impatience to revisit Rome was fondly ascribed 
 to the love of his country ; and his dissolute course of amuse- 
 ments 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 recommended his 
 son, and for whose wisdom and integrity Commodus still enter- 
 tained a reluctant esteem. The young pi-iuce and his profli- 
 gate favorites revelled 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." A fatal incident decided his 
 fluctuating character. 
 
 One evening, as the emperor was returning to the palace, 
 through a dark and narrow portico in the amphitheatre," an 
 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 waa 
 
 " Herodian, 1. i. p. 12. 
 
 ' Herodian, 1. i. p. 16. 
 
 " This universal joy is well described (from tlie medals as well oa 
 tuiitonans) by Mr. Wotton, Hist, of Rome, p. 192, 193. 
 
 " Manilius, the confidential secretary of Avidius Cassius, wao dls 
 cohered after he had lain concealed several years. The emperorn<-'bly 
 relieved the public anxiety by refusing to see him, and burning tiM 
 papers ■« ithout opening them. Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxii. ]''. 1209. 
 
 '* See Maffci degli Amphitheatii, p 126.
 
 A. D.183.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 105 
 
 seized by the guards, and immediately revealed tlie aulhora 
 of the conspiracy. It had been formed, not in the state, but 
 wiJiin the walls of the palace. Lucilla, the emperor's sister, 
 and widow of Lucius Verus, impatient of the second rank, 
 and jealous of the reigning empress, had armed the murderer 
 against her brother's life. She had not ventured to communi- 
 cate the black design to her second husband, Claudius Pom- 
 peiai 'IS, a senator ol distinguished merit and unshaken loy- 
 alty ; but among the crowd of her lovers (for she imitated 
 the manners of Faustina) she found men of desperate for- 
 tunes and wild ambition, who were prepared to serve her 
 more violent, as well as her tendei passions. The conspira- 
 tors experienced the rigor of justice, and the abandoned 
 princess was punished, first with exile, and afterwards with 
 death." 
 
 But the words of the assassin sunk deep into the mind of 
 CommodiLs, and left an indelible impression of fear and 
 hatred against the whole body of the senate.* Those whom 
 he had 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 be- 
 came formidable, as soon as they discovered that the emperor 
 was desirous of finding disafl:ection and treason in the senate. 
 That assembly, whom Marcus had ever considered as the 
 great council of the nation, was composed of the most dis 
 tinguished 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 cen- 
 sure of the irregularities of Commodus ; important services 
 implied a dangerous superiority of merit; and the friendship 
 of the father always insured the aversion of the son. Sus- 
 picion was equivalent to proof; trial to condemnation. The 
 execution gim 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 incapable 
 of pity or remorse. 
 
 Of these innocent victims of tyranny, none died more 
 lamented than the two brothers of the Quintilian family, 
 
 " Dion, 1. IxxL p 1205 Herodian, L i. p. 16 Hist August 
 p 4«. . 
 
 * Tlie cfliispii-ators wero senators, even the assassin himself. H^.-od. J 
 
 81.— a.
 
 106 THE DECLINE AND PALL | A. D 188. 
 
 Maximus and Condiamis ; whose fraternal love lias saved 
 their names from oblivion, and endeared their meinory to 
 posterity. Their studies, and their occupations, their pursuits 
 and their pleasures, were 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 which 
 they composed in common ; * and in every action of life it 
 was observed that their two bodies were animated by one 
 soul. The Antonines, who valued their virtues, and delighted 
 in their union, raised them, in the same year, to the consul- 
 ship ; 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." 
 
 The tyrant's rage, after having shed the noblest blood of 
 the 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 Peren 
 nis, a servile and ambitious minister, who had obtained his 
 post by the murder of his predecessor, but who possessed a 
 considerable share of vigor and ability. By acts of extortion, 
 and the forfeited 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 discovered a military genius, was at the head of 
 the Illyi'ian legions. Peren nis 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 death. The fall of a minister is a very 
 trifling incident in the 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, discontented with the admiri'.stration of 
 Perennis, formed a deputation of fifteen hundred select men, 
 with insti-uctions to march to Rome, and lay their complaints 
 before the emperor. These military petitioners, by their own 
 determined behaviour, by inflaming the divisions of the guards, 
 
 IS In a note upon the Augustan History, Casaubon has collected 
 B number of particulars concerning tliese celebrated brothers. Se« 
 jx 96 of his learned commentary. 
 
 • This -work was on agiiculture, and is often quoted by later writer! 
 Bee P. Needliaiu, Prolog, ad Gcopoaic. Camb. 170-1. — W.
 
 A.. D. 186.] OF THE ROMATS EMPIRE. 101 
 
 by exaggerating the strength of the British army, and by 
 alarming the fears of Commodus, exacted and obtained the 
 minister's death, as the only redress of their grievances.'' 
 This presumption of a distant army, and their discovery of 
 the weakness of government, was a sure presage of the most 
 dreadful convulsions. 
 
 The negligence of the public administration was betrayed^ 
 •con afterwards, by a new disorder, which arose from the 
 Bmallest beginnings. A spirit of desertion began to prevail 
 among the troops: and the deseiters, instead of seeking their 
 safety in flight or concealment, infested tlie highways. Ma- 
 ternus, 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 indo- 
 lence by the threatening commands of the emperor. Mater- 
 nus found that he was encompassed, and foresaw tliat 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 
 
 " Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 1210. Herodian, 1. i. p. 22. Hist. August. 
 p. 48. Dion gives a much less odious character of Perennis, than the 
 other historians. His moderation is abnost a pledge of his veracity.* 
 
 * Gibbon praises Dion for the moderation with which ho speaks of 
 Pereunis : he follows, nevertheless, in his own narrative, Herodian and 
 Lampridius. Dion speaks of Perennis not only with moderation, but with 
 admiration ; he represents him as a great man, virtuous in his life, and 
 blameless in his death : perhaps he may be suspected of partiality ; but it 
 is singular that Gibbon, having adopted, from Herodian ;md Lampridius, 
 their judgment on this minister, follows Dion's improbable acrount of his 
 death. What likelihood, in fact, that fifteen hundred men should have 
 traversed Gaul and Italy, and have arrived at Rome without any under- 
 standing with the Pra>torian.s. or without detection or opposition from 
 Perennis, the Praetorian praefect ? Gibbon, foreseeing, peihaps, this 
 difficuU3-, has added, that the military deputation inflamed tlie divisions 
 of the guards ; but Dion says expressly that they did not reach Rome, but 
 that the emperor \vcnt out to meet them : he even reproaches him for not 
 ha\'ing opposed them ^vith the gviards, \vho \vere superior in number. He- 
 rodian relates that Commodus, having learned, from a solditT, the ambitious 
 designs of Perennis and his son, caused them to be attacked and massacred 
 by night. — G. from W. Dion's narrative is remarkably circumstantial 
 aud his authority higher than either of the othcir writers. He hints tbaj 
 Cleander, a new favorite, had already undermined the influence of Peren 
 ok.— &r.
 
 108 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A, D. 186 
 
 Cybole." To murder Commodus, and to ascend the vacant 
 throne, was the ambitbn 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 
 and ruined this singular enterprise, in a moment when it 
 was ripe for execution.'* 
 
 Suspicious princes often promote the last of mankind, from 
 a vain persuasion, that those who have no dependence, except 
 on their favor, will have no attachm3nt, except to the person 
 of their benefactor. Oleander, the successor of Perennis, 
 was a Phrygian by birth ; of a nation over wliose stubborn, 
 but servile temper, blows only could prevail." lie 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 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 ; for Oleander was devoid of any abil 
 ity or virtue which could inspire the emperor with envy oi 
 distrust. Avarice was the reigning passion of his soul, and 
 the great principle of his administration. The rank of Con- 
 sul, 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 honors with 
 the greatest part of his fortune.^' In the lucrative provincial 
 employments, the minister shared with the governor the spoils 
 of the people. The execution of the laws was penal and 
 arbitrary, A wealthy criminal might obtain, not only the 
 reversal of the sentence by which he was justly condemned, 
 but might likewise inflict whatever punishment he pleased on 
 the accuser, the witnesses, and the judge. 
 
 By these means, Oleander, in the space of three years, had 
 accumulated more wealth than had ever yet been possessed by 
 
 '8 During tlie second Punic war, the Romans imported from Acia 
 the woisliip of the niotlier of tlie gods. Her festival, the Megalesia, 
 began on the fourth of April, and Listed six days. The streets were 
 crowdel with mad processions, the theatres with spectators, and th«, 
 public tables with luibidden guests. Order and police were suspend- 
 ed, and pleasure was the only serious business of the city. See Ovid 
 do Fa-stis, 1. iv, 189, &c. 
 
 » Herodian, 1. i. p. 23. 'iH 
 
 * Cicero pro Flacco, c. 21 
 
 *i One of these dear-bought piomotions occasioned a current bca 
 Qot, that Julius Solon was banished into the .senate.
 
 A.D. 189.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 10ft 
 
 iny fireeclinan.'"' Comraodus 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, 
 Oleander, under the emperor's name, erected baths, porticos, 
 and places of exercise, for the use of the people." He flat- 
 tered himself that the Romans, dazzled and amused by thi« 
 ■ipparent liberality, would be less affected by the bloody sctnea 
 which were daily exhibited ; that they would forget the death 
 of ]]3Trhus, a senator to whose superior merit the late emperoi 
 liad granted one of his daughters ; and that they would for- 
 {^ve 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 Oleander. An equi- 
 table sentence pronounced by the latter, when proconsul of 
 Asia, against a worthless creature of the favorite, proved 
 fatal to him.''* After the fall of Perennis, the terrors of 
 Oommodus 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 as- 
 cribed to the pernicious counsels of that wicked minister all the 
 errors of his inexperienced youth. But his repentance lasted 
 only thirty days ; and, under Oleander's tyranny, the adminis- 
 tration of Perennis was often regretted. 
 
 Pestilence and famine contributed to fill up the measure of 
 the calamities of Rome."' The first could be only imputed 
 to the just indignation of the gods ; but a monopoly of corn, 
 supported by the riches and power of the minister, was con- 
 iidered as the immediate cause of the second. The popular 
 discontent, after it had long circulated "in whispers, broke out 
 in the assembled circus. The people quitted their favorite 
 amusements for the more delicious pleasure of revenge, 
 rushed in crowds towards a palace in the suburbs, one cf tho 
 
 ** Dion (1. Ixxii. p. 12, 13) observe?, that no freedman had pos- 
 sessed riches equal to those of Oleander. The fortune of Pallaa 
 amounted, however, to upwards of fiv< and twenty hundred thou- 
 nand poundi Tfn millies. 
 
 23 Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 12, 13. Ilerodian, 1. i. p. 29. Hist. August. 
 p. 52. These batlis were situated near the Porta Capena. See Nar- 
 vlioi Roma Antica, p. 79. 
 
 2* Hist. August, p. 48. 
 
 25 Herodian, 1. i. p. 28. Diou, 1. Ixxii. p 1215. The latter savi 
 that two tlionsand persons died evc^ry day at Rome, during a conaid 
 prable length of time.
 
 110 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 189 
 
 emperor's etirements, and demanded, with angry clamors, 
 the head jf the public enemy. Oleander, who commanded 
 the Prjetorian guards,^' ordered a body of cavalry to ually 
 fortli, and dispei'se the seditious multitude. Tlie multitude 
 fled with precipitation towards the city ; several were slain, 
 and many more were trampled to death ; but when the caval- 
 ry entered the streets, their pursuit was cliecked by a shower 
 of stones and darts from the roofs and windows of the houses. 
 The foot guards,"' 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 violence against the 
 gates of the palace, where Commodus lay, dissolved in lux- 
 ury, 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 favored 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 afi'nghted 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 Oleander should be thrown out to the people. The 
 desired spectacle instantly appeased the tumult ; and the son 
 
 2* Tuncqiie primum tres praefccti prEetorio fuere : inter quos liber- 
 tinus From some remains of modesty, Oleander declined the title, 
 whilst he assumed the powers, of P'rjetorian prasfect. As the other 
 freedmen were styled, from their several departments, a rationibus, 
 ab epistolis, Oleander called himself a pugione, as intrusted with the 
 dcfance of his master's person. Salmasius and Casaubon seem to 
 have talked very idly upon this passage.* 
 
 2" Oi riif TTo^tcos -nit^oi crpariioTai. Hcrodian, 1. i. p. 31. It is 
 doubtful whether he means the Praetorian intantry, or the cohortea 
 nrbaua2, a body of six thousand men, but whose rank and discipline 
 were n(jt equal to their numbers. Neither Tillemont nor WottoD 
 jfcoose to decide this Djuestiou.f 
 
 M. Guizot denies that Lampridlns means Cleanderas prtEfcct a pugione. 
 The Libertinus seems to me to mean liim. — M. 
 
 t It seems to me there is none. The passage of Ilerodian is cj^tr. mi 
 tesigiates the city cohorts. Compare Dion, p. 797. — ".V
 
 A. D. 189-192.] OF THE UOMAK KMIMKB- 111 
 
 of Marcus might even yet liaro regained the affection and 
 contidcnce of his subjects.^* 
 
 But every sentiment of virtue and humanity was extinct in 
 the mind of Commodus. Whilst he thus abandoned the reins 
 of empire to these unworthy favorites, he valued notliing in 
 &'3\ereign power, except the unbounded license of indulging 
 his sensual appetites. His hours were spent in a seraglio of 
 tlltee hundred beautiful women, and as many boys, of every 
 rank, and of every province ; and, wherever the arts of 
 seduction proved inefiectual, the l^rutal lover had recourse to 
 violence. The ancient historians"* have expatiated on these 
 abandoned scenes of prostitution, which scorned every re- 
 straint of nature or modesty ; but it would not be easy to 
 translate their too faithful descriptions into the decency of 
 modern language. The intervals of lust were filled up with 
 the basest amusements. The influence of a polite age, and 
 vhe labor of an attentive education, had never been able to 
 mfuse into his rude and brutish mind the least tincture of 
 learning ; and he was the fii'st of the Roman emperors totally 
 devoid of taste for the pleasures of the understanding. 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 the amuse 
 ments of the populace ; the s]:)orts of the circus and amphi- 
 theatre, 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 equalled the most 
 skilful of his instructors in the steadiness of uhe eye and the 
 dexterity of the hand. 
 
 The servile crowd, whose fortune depended on their mas- 
 ter's vices, applauded these ignoble pursuits. The perfidious 
 
 2" Dion Cassius, I. IxxiL p. 1215. lie -odian, 1. i. p. 32. Uist. Au 
 gust. p. 48. 
 
 ^ Sororibus suis constupralis. Ipsas concubinas suas sub oculis 
 sias stuprari juljcbal. Nee irruen, ium in t-e juvemini carebat iiifuinii, 
 omni parte corporis atque ore in <3(^xum utrumque poUutus. liiat 
 Lag p. 47.
 
 112 THE DECLINE Ayn i-ALL [A. D. 18:?-ltf3 
 
 voice of iiatterj reminded him, that by exploits of the sam« 
 nature, by the defeat of the Nerasean Hon, and the slaughtei 
 of the wild boar of Ery man thus, 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 unsettled country, a successful wai 
 against those savages is one of the most innocent and bene 
 ficial labors of hei'oism. In the civilized state of the Romap 
 empire, the wild beasts had long since retired from the facf 
 of man, and the neighborhood of populous cities. To sur 
 prise 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.'* Ignorant of these distinctions, 
 Commodus eagerly embraced the glorious resemblance, and 
 styled himself (as we still read on his medals") 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 m 
 the character, and with the attributes, of the god, whose valoi 
 and dexterity he endeavored to emulate in the daily course of 
 his ferocious amusements.^* 
 
 Elated with these praises, which gradually extinguished the 
 innate sense of shame, Commodus resolved to exhibit before 
 the eyes of the Roman peo]ile those exercises, which till then 
 he had decently confined within the v/alls of his palace, and 
 
 3* The African lions, when pressed by hunger, infested the open 
 villages and cultivated country ; and they infested them with impu 
 nity. The royal beast was reserved for the pleasures of the emperor 
 and the capital ; and the unfortunate peasant who killed one of then, 
 though in his own defence, incurred a very heavy penalty Thi' 
 extraordinary (jame-law was mitigated by Honorius, and finally re 
 pealed by Justinian. Codex Theodos. tom. v. p. 92, et CommenJ 
 Gothofred. 
 
 21 Spanheim de Nuraismat. Dissertiit. xii. tom. ii. p. 493. 
 
 »2 Dion. 1. Ixxil p. 1216. Hist. August, p. 49. 
 
 * Commodus placed bis o\vu head on the colossal statue of Herci!e« 
 with the inscription, Lucius Commodus Hercules. The wits of Rome, r.c 
 cording to a new fragment of Dion, published the following epigram, of 
 which, like many other ancient jests, the point is not very cleai-: " An)$ irafj 
 KuXAuKfo; 'llpanXfji, ovK tijiX Aivkio;, AW dt>ayKa(^i)viTi px." It seems 10 b« 
 % protest of the god against being confounded with the em{)ero'*. Mai 
 Fragm. Vatican ii. 225. — M.
 
 A. D. 189-T92.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRR. 11? 
 
 to the presence of a few favorites. On the appointed day, tho 
 various motives of flattery, fear, and curiosity, attracted to tho 
 amphitheatre an innumerable multitude of spectators; and 
 some degree of ajiplause was deservedly bestowed on the un- 
 common 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 
 fcrm of a crescent, Cora modus often intercepted the rapid 
 career, and cut asunder the long, bony neck of the ostrich." 
 A panther was let loose ; and the archer waited till he had 
 leaped upon a trembling malefactor. In the same instant the 
 shaft flew, the beast dropped 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 run raging round the Arena. 
 Neither the huge bulk of the elephant, nor the scaly hide of 
 the rhinoceros, could defend them from his stroke. -^Cthiopia 
 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 perhaps of 
 fancy." In all these exhibitions, the securest precautions 
 were used to protect the person of the Roman Hercules from 
 the desperate spring of any savage, who might possibly dis- 
 regard the dignity of the emperor and the sanctity of the 
 god." 
 
 33 The ostrich's neck is three feet long, and composed of seventeen 
 vertebrte. See BufFon, Hist. Natiuelle. 
 
 3^ Commodus killed a camelopardalis or Giraffe, (Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 
 1211,) the tallest, the most gentle, and the most useless of the large 
 (juadrupeds. Tliis 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. Naturellc, torn, xiii.) !iaa 
 endeavored to describe, he has not ventured to delineate, ihe 
 Giraffe.* 
 
 35 Herodian, L i. p. 37. Hist. August, p. 50. 
 
 * The naturalists of our days have been more fortunate. London prob- 
 fkbly now contains more specimens of this animal than have been seen in 
 Erxrope since the fall of the Roman empire, unless in tho pleasure gardens 
 of the emperor Frederic II., in Sicily, which possessed several. Frederie'i 
 eolloctions of wild beasts were exhibited, for the popular amusement, in 
 many parts of Italy. Raumer, Geschichte dor Hohcnstaufcn, v. iii. p. .'i71. 
 Gibbon, moreover, is mistaken ; as a ^ratfe was presented to Lorenzo d& 
 Medici, either by tie sultan of Egypt or the l^ing of Tunis. Conteui' 
 porary authorities arc quoted m the old \\'ork, Gesnei' de CXuadrapedibuik 
 f) 16^.— M.
 
 114 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 189-192 
 
 But tl](; moincst cf the populace were affected with bhame 
 and indigiiation when tliey 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.^'* He chose the habit and arms of the Secutor, 
 whose combat with the Retiarius formed one of the most 
 Lively scenes in the bloody sports of the amphitheatre. The 
 Sccutor was armed with a helmet, sword, and buckler; his 
 naked antagonist had only a large net and a trident; with the 
 one he endeavored to entangle, with the other to despatch his 
 enemy. If he missed the first thi-ow, he was obliged to fly 
 from the pursuit of the Secutor, till he had prepared his net for a 
 second cast." The emperor fought in this character seven 
 hundred and thirty-five several times. These glorious achieve- 
 ments were carefully recorded 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.^* It may be easily sup})osed, that in 
 these engagements the master of the world was always sue 
 cessful ; in the amphitheatre, his victories were not often 
 sanguinary ; but when he exercised his skill in the school of 
 gladiators, or hjs own palace, his wretched antagonists were 
 frequently honored with a mortal wound from the hand of 
 Commodus, and obliged to seal their flattery with their blood.^' 
 lie now disdained the appellation of Hercules. The name of 
 Paulas, a celebrated Secutor, was the only one which delighted 
 his ear. It was inscribed on his colossal statues, and repeated 
 in the redoubled acclamations" of the mournful and applaud- 
 
 3* 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 
 lie tyrants allured them to dishonor by tlu-eats and rewards. Nero 
 orce produced in the arena forty senators and sixty knights. See 
 ] jpsius, Saturnaha, 1. ii. c. 2. He has happily corrected a passage of 
 J)uetonius in Nerone, c. 12. 
 
 ^T Lipsius, 1. ii. c. 7, 8. Juvenal, in the eighth satire, gives a 
 picturesque description of this combat. 
 
 3* Hist. August, p. 50. Dion, 1. IxxiL p. 1220. He received, for eacb 
 time, decies, about 8000Z. sterling. 
 
 3* Victor tells us, tliat Commodus only allowed his antagonists a 
 teaden weapon, di'eading most probably the consequences of their 
 despair. 
 
 ** They were obhged to repeat, six hvndred and twenty-six timea 
 Voflus first of th", Secutor s, &c.
 
 A. D. 192.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 116 
 
 ing senate.*' Clajdius Pompeianus, the virtuous husband of 
 LuciUa, was the only senator who asseited the honor of hi.s 
 rank. As u father, he permitted his sons to consult their 
 safety by attending the ampliitheatre. As a Roman, he 
 declared, that his own hfe 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 
 rompeianus escaped the resentment of the tyrant, and, with 
 his honor, had the good fortune to preserve his life." 
 
 Commodus had now attained the summit of vice and infamy. 
 Amidst the acclamations of a flattering court, he was unable 
 to disguise from himself, that he had deserved the contempt 
 and hatred of every 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 appre- 
 hension of danger, and by the habit of slaughter, which he 
 contracted in his 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." His cruelty proved at last fatal to himself. He 
 had shed with impunity the noblest blood of Rome : he 
 perished as soon as he was dreaded by his own domes- 
 tics. Marcia, his favorite concubine, Eclectus, his chamberlain, 
 and Lpetus, his Praetorian praefect, alarmed by the tate of their 
 companions and predecessors, resolved to prevent the destruc- 
 tion which every hour hung over their heads, either from the 
 mad caprice of the tyrant,* or the sudden indignation of the 
 
 <' Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 1221. He speaks of his own baseness and 
 danger. 
 
 ♦2 He mixed, however, some prudence witli his courage, and passed 
 the greatest part of his time in a country retirement ; alleging his 
 idvauced age, and tlie weakness of his eyes. " I never saw him in 
 Ihe senate," says Dion, " except during tlie short reign of Pertinax." 
 All his infirmities had suddenly left him, and they returned as sud- 
 denly upon the murder of that excellent jDrince. Dion, L bcxiii. 
 p. 1227. 
 
 *2 The pracfocts were changed almost hourly or daily; and the 
 caprice of Commodus was cften fatal to his most favored chamberlaioa 
 Hist. August, p 46, 51. 
 
 " Comniodj,* ^ed already' resolved to massacre iliem the follo\vlng night 
 they detemiinc] o anticipate his design Herod, i. 17. — W
 
 116 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A, D. 192 
 
 people. Marcia seized the occasion of presenting a draught 
 of wine to her lover, after he had fiiligued himself with hunt- 
 ing some wild beasts. Commodiis retired to sleep ; but whilst 
 he was laboring with the effects of poison and drunkenness, 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 waa 
 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 powei-s 
 of government, had oppressed, during thirteen years, so many 
 millions of subjects, each of whom was equal to their master in 
 personal strength and personal abilities.** 
 
 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 
 maintain the action that had been committed. They fixed on 
 Pertinax, pra^fect 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 honors of the state. 
 He had successively governed most of the provinces of the 
 empire ; and in all Jiis great employments, military as well as 
 civil, he had uniformly distinguished himself by the firmness, 
 the prudence, and the integrity of his conduct.*^ He now 
 
 " Dion, L Ixxii. p. 1222. Herodian, 1. L p. 43. Hist. August 
 p. 52. 
 
 ^^ Pertinax was a native of Alba Poinpeia, in Piedmont, and son 
 of a timber merchant. The order of his employments (it is marked 
 by Capitolinus) well deserves to be set down, as expressive of the 
 form of government and manners of the age. 1. He was a centurion. 
 
 2. Praefect of a cohort in Syria, in the Parthian war, and in Britaui. 
 
 3. He obtained an Ala, or squadron of horse, in Mtesia. 4. He wap 
 commissary of provisions on tho ^Emilian way. 5. He commanded 
 the fleet upon the Rliine. 6. He was procurator of Dacia, with a 
 salary of about IGOO/. a year. 7. He commanded the veterans of a 
 legion. 8. He obtamed the rank of senator. 9. Of praetor. 10. With 
 tlie command of the first legion in Rluetia and Noi icum. 1 1 He was 
 consul about the year 175. 12. He attended Marcus into the East 
 13. He commanded an army on tlie Danube. 14. He was consular 
 legate of M«5sia. 15. Of Dacia. 16. Of Syria. 17. Of Britaia 
 18. He had the care of the public provisions at Rome. 19. He was 
 proconsul of Africa. 20. Prajfect of the city. Herodian (1. i. p. 481 
 does justice to his disinterested spirit; but Capitolinu.?, who collectec) 
 ev«5ry popular rumor, charges him with a great fortune acqvjlre<i 
 Iff bribery and corruntiou.
 
 A.D. 193.] OK THE RJ.W.'iN EMPIRE. 117 
 
 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 chamb'^rlair. and the prajfect were at his 
 door, he received them with intrej)id resigiiatTon, 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 jissurances. 
 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." 
 
 Lgetus conducted without delay his new emperor to the 
 camp of the Praetorians, diffusing at the same time through 
 the city a seasonable report that Commodus died suddenly of 
 an apoplexy ; and that the virtuous Pertinax had already suc- 
 ceeded to the throne. The guards were rather surprised than 
 pleased with the suspicious death of a prince, whose indul- 
 gence and liberality they alone had experienced ; but the 
 emergency of the occasion, the authority of their pra^fect, the 
 reputation of Pertinax, and the clamors of the people, obliged 
 them to stifle their secret discontents, to acce])t the donative 
 promised by the new emperor, to swear allegiance to him, and 
 with joyful acclamations and laurels in their hands to conduct 
 him to the senate house, that the military consent might be 
 ratified by the civil authority. 
 
 Tliis important night was now far sjient ; with the dawn of 
 day, and the commencement of the new year, the senators 
 expected a summons to attend an ignominious ceremony.* 
 [n spite of all i-e monstrances, even of those of his creatures 
 who yet preserved any regard for prudence or decency, Com- 
 modus had resolved to pass the night in the ghvdiators' 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 
 
 <s Julian, in the Caesars, taxes him with being aorcssory to the 
 death of Commodus. 
 
 * The senate alwaj's assembled at the beginning of the year on th« 
 night of the 1st Januarj', (see Savaron on Sid. Apoll. viii. fi.) and thi* 
 happened the iirese'it yeai-, as usual, without any ijartirular order.— (J 
 from W.
 
 118 THE DECLIN-^ AND FALL [A. D. 193. 
 
 silent suspense, doubtful of thfir unexpected deliverance, and 
 Buspicious 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 transports of joy and iudigna 
 tion. Pertinax, who modestly represented the meanness of 
 his extraction, and pointed out several noble senators moro 
 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 sincere vows of 
 fidelity. The memory of Cjm modus was branded with eternal 
 infamy. The names of tyrant, of gladiator, of public enemy 
 resounded in every corner of the house. They decreed in tu- 
 multuous votes,* that his honoi"s 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 h\ry ; 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 Claudiur. Pom- 
 peianus, who lamented the cruel fate of his brother-in-law, and 
 lamented still more that he had deserved it." 
 
 These efl:usions of impotent rage against a dead emperor, 
 whom the senate had flattered when alive with the most abject 
 servility, betrayed a just but ungenerous spirit of revenge. 
 
 <T Capitolinus gives us the particulars of these tumultuary voteS; 
 which were moved by one senator, and rejieated, or rather chanted, 
 by the whole body. Hist. August, p. 52. 
 
 "^ What Gibbon improperly calls, both here and in the note, tumultuoaa 
 decrees, were no more than the applauses and acclamations which recar 
 so often in the history of the emperors. The custom passed from the the 
 atre to the forum, from the forum to the senate. Applauses on the adoption 
 of the Imperial decrees were first introduced under Trajan. (Plin. jun. 
 Paiiegyr. 75.) One senator read the form of the decree, and all the rest 
 answered by acclamations, accompanied with a kind of chant or rhythm. 
 These w^ere some of the acclamations addressed to Pertinax, and against 
 the memoi'y of Commodus. Hosti pat.rice honores detrahantur. Parricidaa 
 honores detrahantur. Ut salvi simus, Jupiter, optime, maxime, serva 
 nobis Peninacem. This custom prevailed not only in the councils of state, 
 but in all the meetings of the senate. However inconsistent it may 
 appear with the solemnity of a religious assembly, the earh'^ Christian* 
 adopted and introduced it into their synods, notwithstanding tte opposition 
 of some of the Fathers, particularly of St. Chrysostoni. Sec the Coll. of 
 Franc. Rem. Ferrarius de veterum acclamatione in Grasvii Thesaur. AntJq 
 Horn. i. 6.— W. 
 
 This note is rather hypercritical, as regards Gibbon, bu't appears to DM 
 wofthj- of preservation. — M.
 
 A.. D 193.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIKE. 119 
 
 The legality of these decrees was, however, supported by the 
 princi2:)les of the Imperial constitution. To censure, to deposn?, 
 or to punish with death, the tirst magistrate of the republic, 
 who had abused his delegated trust, Wiis the ancient and un- 
 doubted prerogative of the Roman senate ;" but that feeble 
 a^st.mbly was obliged to content itself with inflicting on a 
 dxllen 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 predece;^- 
 Bor's memory ; by the conti'ast 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 ; that they 
 might have no pretence to solicit favors at the expense of the 
 state. He refused to flatter the vanity of the foriner with the 
 title of Augusta ; or to corrupt the inexperienced youth of the 
 latter by the rank of Cajsar. Accurately distinguishing be- 
 tween the duties of a parent and those of a sovereign, he edu- 
 cated 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 behavior of Per- 
 tinax was grave and aftable. He lived with the virtuous part 
 of the senate, (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 compan- 
 ions, with whom he had shared the danger of the tyranny, 
 and with whom he wished to enjoy the security of the present 
 time. He very frequently in\'ited them to familiar entertain- 
 ments, the frugality of which was ridiculed by those who 
 remembered and regretted the luxurious prodigality of Com- 
 modus." 
 
 *^ The senate condenined Nero to be put to deatli more majorum. 
 Sueton. c. 49. 
 
 *^ Dion (1. Ixxiii. p. 1223) speaks of these entertainments, as a 
 Benator who had supped with the emperor ; Capitolinus, (Hist. Au- 
 gust, p. 58,) like a slave, who had received his intelligence from on^ 
 of the sculUons. 
 
 * No particular law assigned tliis right to the .senate : it was deduced 
 from the ancient princijdes of the republic. Gibbon appc ar.s to infer, from 
 the passage of Suetonius, that the senate, according to its moicnt right, 
 punished Nero with deatli. The words, bow-ever, rpore nnijt -inn rufer nol 
 to the decree of the senate, but to the liind of death, which was lakes 
 &t)m an old law of liomulus. (Sec Victor, lipil Ed. Art;:cn p. 484, n. 7 
 — W
 
 120 THE DECLINE AND FALL |^A. D. 1 95 
 
 Tj heal, as Far as L was possible, tlie wounds inflicted bj 
 <hfc hand of tyranny, was the pleasing, but melancholy, tatK 
 af Pertinax. The innocent victims, who yet survived, were 
 recalled from exile, releasea from prison, and restored to the 
 mil possession of their honors and fortunes. The unburi^d 
 Dodies ot murdered senators (for the cruelty of Commodua 
 endeavored to extend itself beyond death) v/ere deposited in 
 the sepulchres of their ancestors ; their memory was justified 
 and every consolation was bestowed on their ruined and 
 afilicted families. Among these consoJations, 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 leg;d asoassiris, Pertmax pro- 
 eeeded with a steady temper, which gave ever)"- ihing to justice, 
 and nothing to popular prejudice and reseotrntnt. 
 
 The finances of the state demanded tlhe ra'vst vigilant care 
 of the emperor. Though every measure of injustice and ex- 
 tortion had been adopted, which could coJlect the property of 
 the subject into the coffers of the prince, the rapaciousness 
 of Commodus had been so very inadequate to his extrava- 
 gance, that, upon his death, no more than eight thousand 
 pounds were found in the exhausted ti'easury,^" to defray the 
 current expenses of government, and to discharge the pressing 
 demand of a liberal donative, wliich the new emperor had 
 been obliged to promise to the Pra:.'torian guards. Yet under 
 these distressed circumstances, Pertinax had the generous 
 firmness to remit all the oppressive taxes invented by Com- 
 modus, and to cancel all the unjust claims of the treasury ; 
 declaring, in a decree of the senate, " that he was becter sat- 
 isfied to administer a poor republic with innocence, than to 
 acquire riches by the ways of tyranny and dishonor." Econ- 
 omy 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 tlie instru- 
 ments of luxury Pertinax exposed to public auction,'" gold and 
 
 '° Dccieif. The blameless economy of Pius left his successors a 
 treiiaure of vhles septies millics, above two and twenty millions ster 
 ling. Dion, 1. Ixxiii. p. 1231. 
 
 " Besides the desij^n of cor. . crting these useless ornaments into 
 money, Dion (1. Ixxiii. p. 1229) assigns two secret motives of Pertinax 
 He wished to expose the vices of Commodus, and to discover by the 
 purchasers those who most resembled him.
 
 A.D. 193.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. ISl 
 
 silver plate, chariots of a singular construction, a superfluous 
 wardrobe of silk and embroidery, and a great number of 
 beautiful slaves of both sexes ; excepting only, with attentive 
 humanity, those who w^ere born in a state of freedom, and had 
 been ravished from the arms of their weeping parents. At 
 the Fame time that he obliged the worthless favorites of the 
 tyrant to resign a part of their ill-gotten wealth, he satisfied 
 tjie just creditors of the state, and imexpectedly 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 fi-om tribute 
 during the term of ten years.^* 
 
 Such a uniform conduct had already secured to Pertinax 
 the noblest reward of a sovereign, the love and esteem of his 
 people. 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 pru- 
 dence than might have been expected from the years and ex- 
 perience of Pertinax, proved fatal to himself and to his coun- 
 try. His honest indiscretion united against him the servile 
 crowd, who found their private benefit in the public disorders, 
 and who preferred the favor of a tyrant to the inexorable equal- 
 ity of the laws.'* 
 
 Amidst the general joy, the siiUen and angry countenance 
 of the Praetorian guards betrayed their inwai'd dissatisfaction. 
 They had reluctantly submitted to Pertinax ; they dreaded the 
 strictness of the ancient discipline, which he was preparing to 
 restore ; and they regretted the license of the former reign. 
 Their discontents v/ere secretly fomented by Loetus, their 
 prsefect, who found, when it was too late, that his new em- 
 peror would reward a servant, but would not be ruled by a 
 favorite. On the third day of his reign, the sold'ors 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 honor, the affi'ighted victim escaped 
 
 " Though Capitolinus has picked up many idle tales of the private 
 life of Pertinax, he joins with Dion and Heroehan in admiring his pub 
 lie conduct 
 
 *' Leges, rem surdam, inexorahilem esse. T. Liv. ii. 3. 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 122 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 193 
 
 from their violence, and took refuge at the feet of Pertinax. 
 A short time afterwards, Sosius Falco, one of the consuls of 
 the year, a rash youth," but 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 behavior. 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 en- 
 treaties 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. 
 
 These disappointments served only to irritate the rage of 
 the Praetorian guards. On the twenty-eighth of March, 
 eighty-six days only after the death of Commodus, a general 
 sedition broke out in the camp, which the officers wanted 
 either power or inchnation to suppress. Two or three hun- 
 dred of the most desperate soldiers marched at noonday, with 
 arms in their hands and fury in their looks, towards the Im- 
 perial palace. The gates were thrown open by their com- 
 panions 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 concealment, advanced to 
 meet his assassins ; and recalled to their minds his own inno- 
 cence, and the sanctity of their recent oath. For a few mo- 
 ments they stood in silent suspense, ashamed of their atrocious 
 design, and awed by the venerable aspect and majestic firm- 
 ness of their sovereign, till at length, the despair of pardon 
 reviving their fury, a barbarian of the comitry of Tongress ^* 
 levelled the first blow against Pertinax, who was instantly 
 despatched with a multitude of wounds. His head, separated 
 from his body, and placed on a lance, was carried in triumph 
 to the Prsetorian camp, in the sight of a mournful and indig 
 
 '* If we credit Capitolinus, (wliicli is rather difficult,) Falco beha' 
 ed with the most petulant indecency to Pertinax, on the day of his a» 
 cession. The wise emperor only admonished him of his youth and iit 
 experience. Hist. August, p. .55. 
 
 ** The modern bishopric of Liege. This soldier probably bclongfe • 
 to the Batavian horse-guards, who were mostly raised in the duchy o; 
 G-ueldres and the neighborhood, and were distinguished by their valor, 
 and by the boldness with which they swam their horses across the 
 broadest and most rapid rivers. Tacit Hist iv. 12 Dion, L Iv p. 7911 
 Lipsius de magnitudine Romana, I. i. c. 4.
 
 A.D. lOS.] OF THE KCMAN EMPIRE. 12S 
 
 nant people, who lamented the unworthy fate of that excel- 
 lent prince, and the transient blessings of a reign, the memory 
 of which could serve only to aggravate their approaching 
 misfortunes." 
 
 " Dion, 1. Ixxiii. p. 1232. Herodian, 1. u. p. 60. Hist. Augoat 
 p, 68. Victor in Epitom. ct in Csesarib. Eutrcpius, viiL 16.
 
 124 IHE DECLINE AND FALL IA.D. 19S. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PUBLIC SALE OF THE EMPIRE TO DIDIUS JULIANOS BY THK 
 
 PR^TORIAN GUARDS. CLODIUS ALBINUS IN BRITAIN, PE8- 
 
 CENNIU8 NIGER IN SYRIA, AND SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS IN PAN- 
 
 NONIA, DECLARE AGAINST THE MURDERERS OF PERTINAX. 
 
 CIVIL WARS AND VICTORY OF SEVERUS OVER HIS THREE 
 
 RIVALS. RELAXATION OF DISCIPLINE. NEW MAXIMS OF 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The power of the sword is more sensibly felt in an exten- 
 sive monarchy, than in a small community. It has been cal 
 culated by the ablest politicians, that no state, without being 
 soon exhausted, can maintain above the hundredth part of ite 
 members in arms and idleness. But although this relative 
 proportion may be uniform, the influence of the army over 
 the rest of the society will vaiy according to the degree of 
 its positive strength. The advantages of military science and 
 discipline cannot be exerted, unless a proper number of sol- 
 diers are united into one body, and actuated by one soul 
 With a handful of men, such a union would be ineffectual ; 
 with an unwieldy host, it would be impracticable ; and the 
 powers of the machine would be alike destroyed by the ex- 
 treme minuteness or the excessive weight of its springs. To 
 illustrate this observation, we need only reflect, that there h 
 no superiority of natural strength, artificial weapons, or ac- 
 quired 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 a 
 hundred armed followers were a weak defence against teu 
 thousand peasants or citizens ; but a hundred thousand well- 
 disciphned soldiers will command, with despotic sway, ten 
 millions of subjects ; and a body of ten or fifteen thousand 
 guards Avill strike terror into the most numerous populace that 
 ever crowded the streets of an immense capital. 
 
 The PrcBtorian bands, whose licentious fury was the first 
 tymptom and cause of the decline of the Roman empire.
 
 A.D. 193.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 12fl 
 
 scarcely amounted to the last-mentioned number * Tl.ey de- 
 rived their institution from Augustus. That crafty tyrant, 
 sensible that laws might color, 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 favored 
 troops by a double pay and superior privileges ; but, as theit 
 formidable aspect would at once have alarmed and irritated 
 the Roman people, three cohorts only were stationed in the 
 capital, whilst the remainder was dispereed in the adjacent 
 towns of Italy.' But after fifty years of peace and servitude, 
 Tiberius ventured on a decisive measure, which forever rivet- 
 ted the fettei-s of his country. Under the fair pretences of 
 relieving Italy from the heavy burden of military 'quarters, 
 and of introducing a stricter discipline among the guards, he 
 assembled them at Rome, in a permanent camp,^ which was 
 fortified with skilful care,* and placed on a commanding sit- 
 uation.* 
 
 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 witli famiUar contempt, and to lay aside that 
 
 They were originally nine or ten thousand men, (for Tacitus and 
 
 ^n are not agreed upon the subject,) divided into as many cohorts. 
 
 /iteUius increased them to sixteen thousand, and as far as we can 
 
 leam from inscriptions, they never afterwards sunk much below that 
 
 Dumber. See Lipsius de magnitudine Romana, i. 4. 
 
 2 Sueton. in August, c. 49. 
 
 3 Tacit. Annal. iv. 2. Sueton. in Tiber, c. 37. Dion Cassius, L 
 Ivii. p. 867. 
 
 * In the civil war between Vitellius and Vespasian, the Praetorian 
 camp was attacked and defended with all the machines used in the 
 6iege of the best fortified cities. Tacit. Hist. iii. 84. 
 
 6 Close to the walls of the city, on the broad summit of the Quirinal 
 and Viminal hills. See Nardini Roma Antica, p. 174. Donatus de 
 Roma Antiqua, p. 46.* 
 
 * Not on botli these hills: neither Donatus nor Nardini justify this 
 position. (Wliitakcr's Review, p. 13.) At the northern extremity of this 
 hill (the Viminal) are some considerable remains of a walled enclosure^ 
 which boars all the appearance of a Roman camp, and therefore is geoor 
 ally thought to coirespond with the Castra Prastoria. Granier'a Italy ) 
 
 aao.— M.
 
 126 THS DECLINE AND FALL [A. D 193 
 
 reverential awe, which distance only, and mystery, can pre 
 serve towards an imagliarv power. In the luxurious idleness 
 of an opulent city, iheir 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 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 pleas- 
 ures, connive at their irregularities, and to purchase their pre- 
 carious faith by a liberal donative ; which, since the elevation- 
 of Claudius, was enacted as a legal claim, on the accession of 
 every new emperor,* 
 
 The advocates of the guards endeavored to justify by argu- 
 ments the power which they asserted by arms ; and to main- 
 tain that, according to the purest principles of the constitution, 
 ■•^jV 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.'' 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 property. The defenders of the state, 
 selected from the flower of the Italian youth,^ and trained in 
 the exercise of arms and virtue, were the genuine representa- 
 tives of the people, and the best entitled to elect the military 
 chief of the republic. These assertions, however defective in 
 reason, became unanswerable when the fierce Praetorians 
 
 * Claudius, raised by the soldiers to the empire, was the first who 
 ga"^e a donative. He gave quina dena, I20l. (Sueton. in Claud, c. 10:) 
 when Marcus, with his colleague Lucius Versus, took quiet possession 
 of the throne, he gave vicena, 160/. to each of the guards. Hist. 
 August, p. 25, (Dion, 1. Ixxiii. p. 1231.) We may form some idea 
 of the amount of these sums, by Hadiian's complaint that the pro- 
 motion of a Caesar had cost him ter millics, two millions and a half 
 sterling. 
 
 7 Cicero de Legibus, iii. 3. The first book of Livy, and the second 
 of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, show the authority of the people, even 
 in the election of the kings. 
 
 8 They were originally recruited in Latium, Etruria, and the old 
 colonies, (Tacit. AnnaL iv. 5.) Tho emperor Otho comphmenta tbeit 
 yanjty with the flattering titles of Italiae, Alumni, Bonxana vere juven- 
 tna Tacit. Hist, i 84.
 
 A. D. 19y.J OF THE ROMAN EMriKE. 127 
 
 increased tlieir weight, by throwing, hke the barbarian con- 
 qu2/or of Rome, their swords into the scale.* 
 
 llie Prietorians had violated the sanctity of the throne by 
 the atrocious murder of Pertinax; they dishonored the majesty 
 of it by their subsequent conduct. The camp was without a 
 leader, for even the praefect Ltetus, who had excited the tem- 
 pest, prudently declined the public indignation. Amidst the 
 wild disorder, Sulpicianus, the emperor's father-in-law, and 
 governor of the city, who had been sent to the camp on the 
 first alarm of mutiny, was endeavoring 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 accustomed us to observe every principle 
 and every passion yielding to the imperious dictates of am- 
 bition, 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 offectual argu- 
 ment, and to treat for the Imperial dignity ; but the more pru- 
 dent of the Prastorians, apprehensive that, in this private con- 
 tract, they should not obtain a just price foi' 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.'" 
 
 This infamous offer, the most insolent excess of military 
 license, diffused a universal grief, shame, and indignation 
 throughout 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.'' 
 His wife and his daughter, his freedraen and his parasites, 
 easily convinced him that he deserved the throne, and earnestly 
 conjured him to embrace so fortunate an opportunity. The 
 vain old man hastened to the Pnetorian camp, where Sul- 
 picianus was still in treaty with the guards, and began to bid 
 against him from the foot of the rampart. The unworthy 
 
 9 In the siege of Rome by the Gauls. See Livy, v. 48. Plutarch, 
 m Camill. p. 143. 
 
 1" Dion, L Lxxiil p. 1234. Herodian, L ii. p. 63. Hist. August 
 p. 60. Though the tliree historians agree that it was in fact an 
 auction, Herodian alone affirms that it was proclaimed as such by the 
 Boldiers. 
 
 " Spartianus softens the most odious parts of the character and 
 deration of Julian.
 
 128 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 198 
 
 negotiation was transacted by faithful emissaries, who passed 
 iilternately 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 Juhan, 
 eager for the prize, I'ose at once to the sum of six thousand 
 two hundred and fifty drachms, or upwards of two hundred 
 pounds sterling. The gates of the camp were instantly thrown 
 .">pen 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.* 
 
 It was now incumbent on the Praetorians to fulfil the con- 
 ditions of the sale. They placed their new sovereign, whom 
 they served and despised, in the centre of their ranks, sur- 
 rounded him on every side with their shields, and conducted 
 him in close ordci" 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." 
 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." From 
 the senate Julian was conducted, by the same military pro- 
 ccs.«ion. to take possession of the palace. The first objects 
 
 12 Dion Cassius, at that time pr."«ior, had been a personal enemy to 
 Julian, 1. Isxiii. p. 1235. 
 
 '3 Hist. Au^Tist p. 61. "We leara from thence one curious circum- 
 stance, tb£-t tL<i new emperor, whatever had been his birth, was im- 
 mediately aggregated to the number oi patrician families.f 
 
 * One of the princlrjal causes of the preference of Julianas by the sol- 
 diers, was the dexterity with which he remiuded them that Sulpicianus 
 would not fail to revcnr^e dh tkem tlie death of bis eon-in-law^. (See Dion, 
 p. 1234, c. 11. Herod, u. 6.)— W. 
 
 t A new fragment of Dion shows mtme shrcwdre<:s 5u the character of 
 Julian. When the senate voted him a f^cldeu statue, ce preferred one cf 
 brass, as more lasting. He " !iad slways ooserved," he scid,. " that the atatcea 
 of former emperor.s ■were soon destroyed. Those of brsss JL'oac remained." 
 The mdignant historian adds that he was w roag. The vLnj6 o5 ft Tereigna 
 slone preserves their images : the hrjzcu st-iL^e of Juliai; ♦?&» b».^a ta 
 pieces at his death. Mai. Fragm. Vaticaa. p 2C6 -M.
 
 AD 193.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRB. 12ft 
 
 that struck his eyes, were the abandoned traiik 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 
 hiraseU', 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 dispei-sed, and left him to dark- 
 ness, 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 acquired 
 by merit, but purchased by money.'* 
 
 He had reason to tremble. On the throne of the world he 
 found himself without a friend, and even without an adherent. 
 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 conspic- 
 uous station, and ample possessions, exacted the strictest cau- 
 tion, dissembled their sentiments, and met the aflected civility 
 of the emperor with smiles of complacency and professions 
 of duty. But the people, secure in their numbers and obscu- 
 rity, gave a free vent to their passions. The streets and pub- 
 He places of Rome resounded with clamors and imprecations. 
 The enraged multitude a9"ronted the person of Julian, rejected 
 bis liberality, and, conscious of the impotence of their own re- 
 sentment, they called aloud on the legions of the frontiers to 
 assert the violated majesty of the Roman empire. 
 
 The public discontent was soon diff"used from the centre to 
 the frontiers of the empire. The armies of Britain, of Syria, 
 and of Illyricum, lamented the death of Pertinax, in whose 
 company, or under whose command, they had so often fought 
 and conquered. They received with surprise, with indigna- 
 tion, and perhaps with envy, the extraordinary intelligence, 
 that the Praetorians had disposed of the empire by public 
 
 " Dion, L Ixxiii. p. 1235. Hist. August, p. 61. I have endeavored 
 to blend into one consistent story the seeming contradictions of Iho 
 two wiitera * 
 
 • The contradiction as M. Guizot observed, is in-econcilable. He quoCea 
 both passages: in one Julianus is represented as a miser, in the other as a 
 Tolnptuary. In the one he refuses to eat till the body of Pertinax lias been 
 toaried ; in the other he gluts himself with every luxury almost ia the sigh 
 of his headless nsrtiains. — M.
 
 130 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D, 193 
 
 auctiou; and they sternly refused to ratify the ignomiuiooa 
 bargain. Their immediate and unanimous revolt was fatal to 
 Julian, but it was fiital at the same time to the public peace , 
 as the generals of the respective armies, Clodius Albinus, 
 Pescennius Niger, and Septiraius S^verus, were still more 
 anxious to succeed than to revenge the murdered Pertinax 
 Their forces were exactly balanced. Each of them was at th 
 Lead of three legions,*^ with a numerous train of auxiliaries ; 
 and however different in their characters, they were all soldiers 
 of experience and capacity. 
 
 Clodius Albinus, 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.'* 
 But the branch from which he claimed his descent was sunk 
 into mean circumstances, and transplanted into a remote prov- 
 ince. It is difficult to form a just idea of his true character, 
 ^^nder the philosophic cloak of austerity, he stands accused 
 of concealing most of the vices which degrade human nature." 
 But his accusers are iSose venal writers who adored the for- 
 tune 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 
 bis preserving with the son the same interest which he had 
 acquired with the father, is a proof at least that he was pos- 
 sessed of a very flexible disposition. The favor 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 hia 
 pleasures. He was employed in a distant honorable command^ 
 when he received a confidential letter from the emperor, 
 acquainting him of the treasonable designs of some discon- 
 tented generals, and authorizing liim to declare himself the 
 guardian and successor of the throne, by assuming the title and 
 ensigns of Caesar.'* The governor of Britain wisely declined 
 
 ' Dion, 1. Ixxiii. p. 1235. 
 
 '• The Posthiunian and the Ce'ooian ; the former of whom "was 
 raised to the consulship in the fifth year after its institution. 
 
 " Spartianus, in his undigested collections, mixes uo all the virtues 
 and all the vices that enter into the hiunan composition, and bestowa 
 them on the same object. Such, \adeei are many of the charactera 
 in the Augustan History. 
 
 >• Hiaf A.---v-f - fin 84.
 
 A.D. 193,J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 131 
 
 the dangenjus honor, which would have marked him for the 
 ieaiousy, or involved him in the approaching ruin, of Commo- 
 dus. He courted power by nobler, or, at least, by moie 
 specious arts. On a premature report of the death of thn 
 emperor, he assembled his troops ; and, in an eloquent dis- 
 course, deplored the inevitable mischiefs of despotism, de- 
 «:cribed 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 valor," Albinus 
 braved the menaces of Commodus, maintained towards Perti- 
 nax 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 io his professions of 
 patriotism. A regard to decency induced him to decline the 
 lofty titles of Augustus and Emperor ; and he imitated per- 
 haps the example of Galba, who, on a similar occasion, had 
 styled himself the Lieutenant of the senate and people."' 
 
 Personal merit alone had raised Pescennius Niger, from an 
 obscure birth and station, to the government of Syria ; a lucra- 
 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 him- 
 self an excellent lieutenant, to Severus, who afterwards dis- 
 played the greatness of his mind by adopting several useful 
 institutions fi'om a vanquished enemy.^' In his government 
 Niger acquired the esteem of the soldiers and the love of the 
 provincials. His rigid discipline foritfied the valor and con- 
 firmed 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 
 
 *' Pertinax, who governed Britain a few years before, had been 
 left for dead, in a mutiny of the soldiers. Hist. August, p 54. Yet 
 they loved and regretted him ; admirantibus earn virtutem cui irasce- 
 banlur. 
 
 «» Sueton. in Galb. c 10. 
 
 •• Hist. August, p. 1&.
 
 182 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 193 
 
 pompous festivals.** As soon as the intelligence of the atro- 
 cious murckr 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*' to the Hadriatic, cheerfully submitted to hia 
 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 acces- 
 eion 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 en- 
 tering 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 
 aelay towards Rome and Italy, where his presence was impa- 
 tiently expected,*'^^ N'^er trifled away in the luxury of Antioch 
 those irretrievable moments which were diligently improved 
 by the decisive activity of Severus.*^ 
 
 The country of Pannonia and Dalmatia, which occupied 
 the space between the Danube and the Hadriatic, was one of 
 the 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 Tibe- 
 rius at the head of the collected force of the empire.*" The 
 Pannonians yielded at length to the arms and institutions of 
 Rome. Their recent subjection, however, the neighborhood, 
 and even the mixture, of the unconquered tribes, and perhaps 
 
 22 Herod. 1. ii. p. 68. 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. 
 
 23 A king of Thebes, m 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. 
 
 ^* Dion, 1. Ixxiii. p. 1238. Herod. 1. ii. p. 67. A verse in every one's 
 nouth at that time, seems to express the general opinion of the tliree 
 ivals ; Optimus est Niger, \_Fuscus, which preserves the quantity, — M.j 
 bomis Afer, pessimus Albus. Hist. August, p. 75. 
 
 ^' Herodian, 1. ii. p. 71. 
 
 ^* See an account of that memorable war in Velleius Patercolui, s 
 110, &c, who served in the army of Tiberius.
 
 A.D. 193.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 133 
 
 the climate, adapted, as it has been observed, to the j^roduo- 
 tion of great bodies and slow minds," all contributed to pre- 
 serve '^orae remains of their original ferocity, and under the 
 tame and uniform countenance of Roman provincials, the 
 hardy features of the natives were still to be discerned. Their 
 warlike youth atforded 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 Sarma- 
 iaans, were deservedly esteemed the best troops in the service. 
 
 The Pannonian army was at this time commanded by Sep- 
 timius Severus, a native of Africa, who, in the gradual ascent 
 of private honors, 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.** On the first news of the murder of Pertinax, he 
 assembled his troops, painted in the most lively colors the 
 crime, the insolence, and the weakness of the Praetonan guards, 
 and animated the legions to arms and to revenge. He con- 
 cluded (and the peroration was thought extremely eloquent) 
 with promising every soldier about four hundred pounds ; au 
 honorable donative, double in value to the infamous bribe with 
 which Julian had purchased the empire.^" The acclamations 
 of the army immediately saluted Severus with the names of 
 Augustus, Pertinax, and Emperor ; and he thus attained the 
 lofty station to which he was invited, by conscious merit and a 
 long train of dreams and omens, the fruitful ofifeprings either 
 of his superstition or policy."" 
 
 ^ Such is the reflection of Herodian, 1. ii. p. 74. Will the modem 
 Austrians allow the influence 2 
 
 *' In the letter to Albinus, already mentioned, Coramodus accuses 
 Severus, as one of the ambitious generals who censui'ed his conduct, 
 and wished to occupy his place. Hist. August, p. 80. 
 
 '' Pannonia was too poor to supply such a sum. It was probably 
 promised in the camp, and paid at Rome, after the victory. In fixing 
 the sum, I have adopted the conjectme of Casaubon. See Hist. 
 August, p. 66. Conmient. p. 115. 
 
 3" Herodian, 1. ii. p. TS. Severus was declared emperor on the 
 banks of the Danube, either at Carnuntum, according to Spartianus, 
 (Hist. August, p. 65,) or else at Sabaria, according to Victor. 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 
 iocuracy, (Essay on the original contract.) * 
 
 * Carnuntum, opposite to the mouth of the Morava : its petition is 
 doubtful, either Petronel or Haiinbui-ij. A htllo intermediate village seemi
 
 184 THE DECLINE AND FAIL [A. D. 193, 
 
 The new candidate for empire saw and improved the pecu- 
 liar 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 
 might in ten days appear in sight of Rome." By a celerity 
 proportioned to the greatness of the occasion, he might reason- 
 ably hope to revenge Pertinax, punish Julian, and receive the 
 boraage of the senate and people, as their lawful emperor, 
 before his competitors, separated from Italy by an immense 
 tract of sea and land, were apprised 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 armor, 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 superi- 
 ority of his reward. 
 
 The wretched Julian had. expected, and thought himself 
 Drepared, 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. The hasty arrival of every 
 messenger increased his just apprehensions. He was succes- 
 sively 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 
 miles of Rome; and every moment diminished the narrow span 
 of life and empire allotted to Julian. 
 
 He attempted, however, to prevent, or at least to protract, 
 his ruin. He implored the venal faith of the Prtetorians, filled 
 the city with unavailing preparations for war, drew lines round 
 the suburbs, and even strengthened the fortifications of the 
 palace ; as if those last intrenchments could be defended, 
 without hope of relief, against a victorious invader. Fear and 
 . • 
 
 " Velleius Paterculus, 1. ii. c. 3. We must reckon the marcli from 
 the nearest verge of Panuonia, and extend the sight of the city as fai 
 as two hundred miles. 
 
 to indicate by its name (Alteuburg) the site of an old town ITAiivilk 
 fleogr. Auc. Sabaria, now Sarvai". — Q. Compare note 37. — M.
 
 k i), 103] CF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 185 
 
 sbMTie prevented the guards from deserting Lis standard ; but 
 they trembled at the name of the Pannonian legions, com- 
 manded by an experienced general, and accustomed to ran 
 quish the barbarians on the frozen Danube." They quitteu, 
 with a sigh, the pleasures of the baths and theatres, to put on 
 arras, whose use they had almost forgotten, and beneath the 
 weight of which they were oppressed. The unpractised ele- 
 uhants, whose uncouth appearance, it was hoped, would strike 
 terror into the array of the north, threw their unskilful riders •, 
 and the awkward evolutions of the marines, drawn from the 
 deet of Misenum, were an object of ridicule to the populace ; 
 whilst the senate enjoyed, with secret pleasure, the distress and 
 weakness of the usurper." 
 
 Every motion of Julian betrayed his trembling perplexity. 
 He insisted that Severus should be declared a public enemy 
 by the senate. He entreated that the Pannonian general 
 might be associated to the empire. He sent pubhc ambas- 
 sadors of consular rank to negotiate with his rival ; he de- 
 spatched private assassins to take away his life. He designed 
 that the Vestal virgins, and all the colleges of priests, in their 
 sacerdotal habits, and bearing before them the sacred pledges of 
 the Roman religion, should aciJvance in solemn procession to 
 meet the Pannonian legions ; and, at the same time, he vainly 
 tried to interrogate, or to appease, the fates, by magic cere- 
 monies and unlawful sacrifices." 
 
 Severus, who dreaded neither his arms nor his enchant- 
 ments, guarded himself from the only danger of secret con 
 spiracy, by the faithful attendance of six hundred chosen men, 
 who never quitted his person or their cuirasses, either by night 
 
 32 Tliis is not a puerile figure of rhetoric, but an allusion to a real 
 fact recorded by Dion, 1. Ixxi. p. 1181. It probably happened more 
 than once. 
 
 33 Dion, L Ixxiii. p. 1233- Herodian, 1. ii. p. 81. There is no surer 
 proof of the military skill of the Romans, than their first surmounting 
 jhe idle terror, and afterwards tUsdaining the dangerous use, of ele 
 phants in war.* 
 
 3< Hist. August, p. G2, GS.f 
 
 * These elephants were kept for proccssious, perhaps for the games. Be 
 Ueroil. in loc. — M. 
 
 + Q,uai ad speculum dicunt fieri in quo pueri pneligatis oculis, incantata 
 •ertice, rcspicere dicuntur. * * * Tuucque puer vidissc dicitur et advenlna 
 fieveri ct Juliani decessionem This seems to have been a practice some 
 what similar to that of which our recent Egyptian travellers relate such ex 
 traordinary circumstances. See also Apuleias, Orat. de Magia. — M.
 
 136 THE DECLINE AND FALL j^A. D. 193, 
 
 or by d ly, during the whole march. Advancing with a steady 
 and rapid course, he passed, without difficulty, the defiles of 
 the Apeuuine, received into his party the troops and ambas- 
 sadors sent to retard his progress, and made a short halt at 
 Interamnia, about seventy miles from Rome. His victory 
 was already secure, but the despair of the Prtetorians might 
 have rendered it bloody ; and Severus had the laudable am- 
 bition of ascending the throne without drawing the sword.'* 
 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 
 <^omplied with the easy conditions, seized the greatest part of 
 the assassin^, 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 em- 
 peror, decreed divine honoi-s to Pertinax, and pronounced a 
 sentence of deposition and death against his unfortunate suc- 
 cessor. Julian was conducted into a private apartment of the 
 baths of the palace, and beheaded as a common criminal, after 
 having purchased, with an immense treasure, an anxious and 
 precarious reign of only sixty-six days.^* 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 Tyber, 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." 
 
 Js Victor and Eutropius, viii. 17, mention a combat near the Mil- 
 vian bridge, the Ponte MoUe, unknown to tlie better and more ancient 
 writers. 
 
 36 Dion, 1. Ixxiii. p. 1240. Herodian, 1. ii. p. 83. Hist. August 
 p. 63. 
 
 37 From these sixty-six days, we must first deduct sixteen, as Per- 
 tinax was murdered on tlie 28th of March, and Severus most proba- 
 bly elected on the 13th of April, (see Hist. August, p, 65, and Tille- 
 mont. Hist, des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 393, note 7.) We cannot 
 bUow 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 neighborhood of 
 Vienna, the army of Severus marched twenty miles every day, without 
 halt or iat«rmissioQ.
 
 A.D. 193.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 191 
 
 The first cares of Severus were bestowed on two ineasure? 
 the one dic:ated by policy, the other by decency ; the revenge, 
 and the honors, due to the memory of Pertinax. Before ths 
 new emperor entered Rome, be issued his commands to the 
 Praetorian 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 Illyri;m army 
 encompassed them with levelled spears. Incapable of flight 
 or resistance, they expected their fate in silent consternation. 
 Severus mounted the tribunal, sternly reproached them with 
 pei"fidy 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 a 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." 
 
 The funeral and consecration of Pertinax was next solem- 
 nized with every circumstance of sad magnificence.'' The 
 senate, with a melancholy pleasure, performed the last rites to 
 that 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 supply 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 sufiering himself 
 to be elated by this easy victory, prepared to encounter iiia 
 more formidable rivals. 
 
 The uncommon abilities and fortune of Severus have in- 
 duced an elegant historian to compare liim with the first and 
 greatest of the Csesars.'"* The parallel is, at least, imperfect 
 Where shall we find, in the character of Severus, the com- 
 manding superiority of soul, the generous clemency, and tha 
 
 *• Dion, 1. Ixxiv. p. 1241. Herodian, 1. ii. p. 84. 
 *» Dion, (1. bcxiv. p. 1244,) who assisted at the ceremony as a sen 
 fttor, gives a most pompous description of it. 
 ♦• He'odian, 1. iii. p. 112
 
 138 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 193-107 
 
 various geni is, which could recoiicil<; and unite tlio love of 
 pleasure, the thirst of knowledge, and the fire of ambition?*' 
 In one instance only, they may be compared, with some 
 degree of propriety, in the celerity of their motions, and their 
 civil victories. In less than four years,*" Severus subdued the 
 riches of the East, and the valor of the West. He vanquished 
 two competitors of reputation and ability, ano' defeated numer- 
 ous armies, provided with weapons and disci})line equal to his 
 own. In that age, the art of fortification, and the principles 
 of tactics, were well understood by all the Roman generals ; 
 and the constant superiority of Severas was that of an artist, 
 who uses the same instruments with more skill and industry 
 than his rivals. I shall not, however, enter into a minute nar- 
 rative 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 circumstances, 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, oflfend us with a less degrading 
 idea of meanness, than when they are found in the intercourse 
 
 ■" Though it is not, most assuredly, the intention of Lucan to exalt 
 the cliaracter of Cffisar, yet the idea he gives of Oiat hero, in the tenth 
 book of the Pharsaha, where he describes him, at the same time, mak- 
 ing love to Cleopatra, sustaining a siege against the power of Egypt, 
 and conversing with the sages of the country, is, in reality, the noblest 
 panegyi-ic* 
 
 ^'^ Iteckoning from his election, April 13, 193, to the death of Albi- 
 nus, February 19, 197. See Tillemont's Chronology. 
 
 * Lord Byron wrote, no doubt, from a remiuiscence of that passage — 
 " It is possible to be a very great rnan, and to be still very inferior to Juliua 
 Caesar, the most complete character, so Lord Bacon thought, of all anti(i- 
 'lity. Nature seem," incapable of such extraordinary combinations as 
 composed his versatile capacity, which was the wonder even of the Romans 
 themselves. The lirst general ; the only triumphant politician ; inferior to 
 none in point of eloquence ; comparable to any in the attainments of wi.s- 
 dom, in an age made up of the greatest commanders, statesmen, orators, 
 and philosophers, that ever appeared in the world; an author who com- 
 posed a perfect specimen of military annals in his travelling carriage ; at 
 one time in a controversy with Cato, at another writing a treatise on pun- 
 ning, and collecting a set of good sayings ; fighting and making love at the 
 eanie moment, and willing to abandon both his empire and his mistress for 
 a eight of the fountains of the Nile. Such did Julius Caasar appear to hia 
 contemporaries, and o those of the subsequent ages who were the most in- 
 clined to deplore and execrate his fatal genius." Note 47 to Canto iv. of 
 Ohildo Harold.— M.
 
 A. D. 193-197.] OF IHE ROMAN EMPIRE. 18f 
 
 of private life. In the latter, tliey discover .a want of courai^e ; 
 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 streno-th, the world, under 
 the name of policy, seems to have granted them a very liberal 
 indulgence of craft and dissimulation. Yet the arts of Severua 
 cannot be justified by the most ample privileges of state rea- 
 son, lie 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 
 released him from the inconvenient obligation.'" 
 
 If his two competitors, reconciled by their common danger, 
 had advanced upon him without delay, perhaps Severus would 
 have sunk under their united eftbrt. 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, 
 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,''* with the most affectionate regard, and 
 highly applauded his generous design of revenging the murder 
 of Pertinax. To punish the vile usurper of the thi'one, 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.''^ The sons of Niger had 
 feUen into his hands among the children of the provincial 
 governors, detained at Rome as pledges for the loyalty of their 
 parents.'"' As long as the power of Niger inspired terror, or 
 
 *^ Herodian, 1. iL p. 85. 
 
 ** Whilst Severus was very dangerously iU, it was irdustriously 
 given out, that he intended to appoint Niger and Albinus liis successors. 
 As he could not be sincere with respect to both, lie miglit not be so with 
 regard to eitlier. Yet Severus carried his hypocrisy so far, as to pro- 
 fess that intention in the memoirs of his own life. 
 
 *^ Hist. August, p. 65. 
 
 *' This practice, invented by Conmiodus, 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 thim once to 
 intimidate, or seduce, tlie parent.s.
 
 140 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 193-197 
 
 even respect, tliey were educated with the most tender care, 
 with the children of Severus himself; but they were soon in- 
 volved in their father's ruin, and removed first by exile, and 
 afterwards by death, from the eye of public compassion." 
 
 Whilst Severus was engaged in his eastern war, he had 
 reason 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, his professions of patriotism, and the 
 jealousy of sovereign power, he accejited the precarious rank 
 of Caesar, as a reward for his fatal neutrality. Till the first 
 ''on test was decided, Severus treated the man, whom he had 
 doomed tO destruction, with every mark of esteem and re- 
 gard. Even *!.. the letter, in which he announced his victory 
 over Niger, he styles Albinus the brother of his soul and 
 empire, sends him the afl:ectionate salutations 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 instructed to 
 accost the Caesar with respect, to desire a private audience, and 
 to plmige their daggers into his heart." The 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. 
 
 The mihtary labors of Severus seem inadequate to the 
 importance of his conquests. Two engageraente,* the one 
 near the Hellespont, the other in the narrow defiles of CiHcia, 
 decided the fate of his Syrian competitor ; and the troops of 
 Europe asserted their usual ascendant over the effeminate 
 natives of Asia." The battle of Lyons, where one hundred 
 
 *' Herodian, 1. iii. p. 95. Hist. August, p. 6*7, 68. 
 
 *^ Hist. August, p. 84. Spartianus has inserted this curious lettej 
 at full length. 
 
 *^ Consult the third book of Herodian, and the seventy-fourth tiooi 
 of Dion Cassius. 
 
 ■* There w^ere three actions ; one near Cyzicus, on the Hellespont one 
 near Nice, in Bithynia, the third near the Issus, in Cilicia, where Alex 
 wider conquered Darius. (Dion, Ixiv. c. 6. Herodian, iii. 2, 4.) — W 
 Herodian represents the second battle as of less importance than Dion
 
 A. D. 193-197.J OF THE ROMAN EMl'IBE. 141 
 
 and lit'ty thousand Romans'" wero engaged, was equally fatal 
 to Albinus. The valor of the British army maintained, in- 
 deed, a sharp and doubtful contest, with the hardy discipline 
 of the Illyrian legions. The fame and person of Severua 
 appeared, during a few moments, irrecoverably lost, till that 
 warlike prince rallied his feinting troops, and led thein on to 
 a decisive victory.*' The war w:is finished by that memora- 
 ble day.* 
 
 The civil wars of modern Eui'ope have been distinguished, 
 not only by the fierce animosity, but likewise by the obstinate 
 perseverance, of the contending factions. They have gener- 
 ally been justified by some principle, or, at least, colored by 
 some pretext, of religion, freedom, or loyalty. The leaders 
 were nobles of independent property and hereditary infiuence. 
 The troops fought like men interested in the decisioa of the 
 quarrel ; and as military spirit and party zeal were strongly 
 diffused throughout the whole community, a vanquished chief 
 was immediately 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. Un- 
 der 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 desertion of an unsuccessful cause. 
 It was of little moment to the provinces, under whose name 
 they were oppressed or governed ; they were driven by the 
 impulsion of the present power, and as soon as that power 
 
 " Dion, 1. Ixxv. p. 1260. 
 
 ^' Dion, 1. Ixxv. p. 1261. Herodian, 1. iii. p. 110. Hist. August, p. 
 68. The battle was fought in the plain of Trevoux, three or four 
 leagues from Lyons. See TiUemout, torn. iii. p. 406, note 18. 
 
 * According to Herodian, it was his lieutenant Laetus who led back the 
 troops to the battle, and gained the day, which Sevenis had almost lost 
 Dion also attributes to L;i!tus a great share in the victory. Severus after- 
 waids put him to death, either from fear or jealousy. — W. and G. Wenck 
 Jmd M. Guizot have not given the real statement of Herodian or of Dioa 
 According to the former, Lcetus appeared with his own army entire, which 
 he was suspected of having designedly kept disengaged when the bal tie wai 
 ■till doubtfLf, or rather after the rout of Sevcras. Dion Pays thai ho did iini 
 move till Severus had won the victory. — M.
 
 i42 THE DECLINE j4 5D FALL [A. D. 193-197. 
 
 yielded to a superior force, they hastened to implore tha 
 clemency of the conqueror, who, as he had an immense debt 
 to discharge, was obhged to sacrifice the most guilty countries 
 to the avarice of his soldiers. In the vast extent of the 
 Koman empire, there were few fortified cities capable of 
 protecting a routed array ; nor was there any person, or fami 
 ly, or order of men, whose natural interest, unsupported by the 
 powers of government, was capable of restoring the cause of a 
 sinking party." 
 
 Yet, in the contest between Niger and Severus, a single 
 city deserves an honorable exception. As Byzantium was 
 one of the greatest passages from Europe into Asia, it had 
 been provided with a strong garrison, and a fleet of five hun- 
 dred vessels was anchored in the harbor.'^ 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. By- 
 zantium, attacked by a numerous and increasing array, 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 dis- 
 dained, a pardon, had thrown themselves into this last refuge : 
 the fortifications were esteemed irajiregnable, and, in the de- 
 fence of the place, a celebrated engineer displayed all the 
 mechanic powers known to the ancients.** Byzantium, at 
 length, surrendered to famine. The magistrates and soldiers 
 were put to the sword, the walls deraolished, the privileges 
 suppressed, and the destined capital of the East subsisted only 
 as an open village, subject to the insulting jurisdiction of Pe- 
 rinthus. The historian Dion, who had admired the flourishing, 
 and lamented the desolate, state of Byzantium, accused the 
 revenge of Severus, for depriving the Roman people of the 
 
 *^ Montesquieu, Considerations siu" la Grandeur et la Decadence 
 des Romains, c. xii. 
 
 *^ Most of these, as may be supposed, were small open vessels; 
 some, however, were gaUeys of two, and a few of three ranks of oars. 
 
 ^' The engineer's name was Priscus. His skill saved his life, and 
 be yras t.aken into the service of the conqueror. For the particular 
 fifccts of the siege, consult Dion Cassius (1. Isxv. p. 1251) and Hero- 
 dian, (1. iii. p. 95 ;) for the theory of it, the fanciful chevaher da 
 Folard may be looked into. See Folybe, torn. i. p. 16.
 
 A. D. 193-19'/.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. l4S 
 
 strongest bulwark against the barbarians of I'ontus and Asia ** 
 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 undefined 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 fete excited 
 neither surprise nor compassion. They had staked their lives 
 against the chance of empire, and suffered what they Avould 
 have inflicted ; nor did Severus claim the arrogant superiority 
 of suffering his rivals to live in a private station. But his un- 
 forgiving temper, stinmlated by avarice, indulged a spirit of 
 revenge, where there was no room for apprehension. Tho 
 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 stripped of their an- 
 cient honors, and obliged to pay, into the treasury of Severus, 
 four times the amount of the sums contributed by them for 
 the service of Niger." 
 
 Till the final decision of the war, the cruelty oif 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 
 
 ''^ Notwithstanding the authority of Spartianus, and some modero 
 Greeks, we may be assured, from Dion and Herodian, that Byzantium, 
 many years after the death of Severus, lay in ruins.* 
 
 "= Dion, 1. Ixxiv. p. 1250. 
 
 * There is no contradiction between the relation of Dion and that of 
 Spartianns and the modem Greeks. Dion does not say that Scvems 
 destroyed Byzantium, but that he deprived it of its franchises and privi- 
 leges, stripped the inhabitants of their [)roperty, razed the fortifications, and 
 subjected the city to the jurisdiction of Pcrinllius. Therefore, when Spar- 
 tian, Suidas, Ccdrcnus, say that Sevcnis and his son Antoninus restored to 
 Byzantium its rights and franchises, ordered temples to be built, &c., this ia 
 easily reconciled with the relation of Dion. Perhaps the latter mentioned it 
 in some of the fragments of his history wliich have been lost. As to Hero 
 dian, liis expressions are evidently exaggerated, and he has been guilty of 
 60 many inaccuracies in the history of Severus, that we have a right to sup- 
 pose one in this passage.^ — G. ironi Vi Wenck and M. Guizot have omitted 
 to cite Zosimus, who mentions a jiarticular portico built by Severus, and 
 called, apparently, by his name. Zosim. Hist. ii. c. xxx. p. 151, i:>'J, edit 
 Hcyne. — M.
 
 144 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 193-197 
 
 of his unfortunate 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 re- 
 cent discovery of some treasonable correspondences. Thirty- 
 five senators, however, accused of having favored tno party 
 of Albinus, he freely joardoned, and, by his subsequent beha- 
 vior, endeavored to convince them, that he had forgotten, as 
 well as forgiven, their supposed offences. But, at the same 
 time, he condemned forty-one*' other senators, whose names 
 history has recorded ; their wives, children, and clients attend- 
 ed them in dejith,* and the noblest provincials of Spain and 
 Gaul were involved in the same ruin.f Such rigid justice — 
 .ji ouLj^ termed it — was, in the opinion of Severus, the only 
 conduct capabh of insuring 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.** 
 
 The true interest of an absolute monarch generally coin- 
 cides with that of his people. Their numbers, their wealth, 
 their order, and their security, are the best and only founda- 
 tions of his real greatness ; and were he totally devoid of 
 virtue, prudence might supply its place, and would dictate the 
 same rule of conduct. Severvis 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 govern- 
 
 '^ Dion, (1. Ixxv. p. 1264;) only twenty-nine senators are mentioned 
 by him, but forty-one are named in the Augustan History, p. 69, among 
 whom were six of the name of Pescenuius. Herodian (1. iii. p. 115) 
 Bpeaks in general of the crwelties of Severus. 
 
 ** AureUus Victor. 
 
 * Wenck denies that there is any authority for this massacre of the ^vive.■^ 
 of the senators. He adds, that only the children and relatives of Niger and 
 Albinus were put to death. This is true of the family of Albinus, whose 
 bodies were thrown into the Rhone ; those of Niger, according to Lampri- 
 dius, were sent into exile, but afterwards put to death. Among the parti- 
 sans of Albinus who •were put to death ^vere many women of rank, multsB 
 foBminaB illustres. Lamprid. in Sever. — M. 
 
 t A new fragment of Dion describes the state of Rome during this con- 
 test. All pretended to be on the side of Severus ; but their secret sentiments 
 were often betrayed by a change of countenance on the arrival of some sud- 
 den report. Some were detected by overacting their loyalty, rivig, ic km 
 iK Tov a<p6Spa7Toouiroic:Tadat TrXtov iyivdJ(TKovTo. Mai. Fragm. Vatican, p. 227 
 Severus told the senate he would rather have their hearts than tlicir votes 
 rati xpvxitif I'S (biXcirc, ko} u'l Toij xf/r\<^iaiiaaiv. — Ibid. — M. 
 
 1
 
 A.D. 193-197.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 146 
 
 ment 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 hne of equity, it was generally in fovor of the 
 poor and oppressed ; not so much indeed from any senso of 
 humanity, as from the natural propensity of a despot to hum- 
 ble 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 and provisions, were the surest 
 means of captivating the affection of the Roman people.** 
 The misfortunes of civil discord were obliterated. The '-oln^ 
 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. "'' The fame 
 of the Roman arms was revived by that warlike and success- 
 ful emperor,"' and he boasted, with a just pride, that, having 
 received the empire oppressed with foreign and domestic 
 wars, he left it established in profound, universal, and honor 
 able peace." 
 
 Although the wounds of civil war appeared completely 
 healed, its mortal poison still lurked in the vitals of the con- 
 stitution. Severus possessed a considerable share of vigor 
 and ability ; but the daring soul of the first C;esar, 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 seeming necessity, Severus was re- 
 
 '" Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1212. Hist. August, p. 67. Severus celebrated 
 the secular games with extraordinary magnificence, and he left in the 
 
 ?ublic granaries a provision of corn for seven years, at the rate of 
 5,000 modii, or about 2500 quarters per day. I am persuaded that 
 the granaries of Severus were suppHed 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. 
 
 ^° 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, kave fomid more monuments of Sevcrua 
 than of any other Roman emperor whatsoever. 
 
 " He carried his victorious arms to Seleucia and Ctesiphon, the 
 capitals of the Parthian mouirchy. I shall have occasion to mention 
 this war in its proper place. 
 
 "- Etiam in Britamus, was his own just and emphatic eiptessioB 
 Hint. August. 73, 
 
 VOL. I. G.
 
 146 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 193-197 
 
 duced to relax tbe nerves of discipline.'* The vanity of hi* 
 soldiers was flattered with the honor of wearing gold rings 
 their ease was indulged in the permission of living with theit 
 wives in the idleness of quarters. He 'ncreased their pay 
 beyond the example of former times, and taught them to ex- 
 pect, and soon to claim, extraordinary donatives on every 
 pubhc occasion of danger or festivity. Elated by success, 
 enervated by luxury, and raised above the level of subjects 
 by their dangerous privileges,'* they soon becarcie incapable 
 of military fatigue, oppressive to the country, and impatient 
 of a just subordination. Their officers asserted the superior- 
 ly^" of rank by a more profuse and elegant luxury. There u 
 stiir extant a letter of Severus, lamenting the licentious stawa 
 of the army,* and exhorting one of his general?, to begin the 
 necessary reformation from the tribunes themselves ; since, aa 
 he justly observes, the officer who has forfeited the esteem, will 
 never command the obedience, of his soldiers."" Had the 
 emperor pursued the train of reflection, he would have discov- 
 ered, that the primary cause of this general corruption migh^ 
 be ascribed, not indeed to the example, but to the perniciou? 
 indulgence, however, of the commander-in-chief. 
 
 The Proetorians, who murdered their emperor and sold Ihc 
 empire, had received the just punishment of their treason • 
 but the necessary, though dangerous, institution of guard? 
 was soon restored on a new model by Severus, and increased 
 to four times the ancient number." Formerly these troops 
 had been recruited in Italy ; and as the adjacent provinces 
 gradually imbibed the softer manners of Rome, the leviet 
 were extended to Macedonia, Noricum, and Spain. In tho 
 room of these elegant troops, better adapted to the pomp ot 
 courts than to the uses of war, it was established by Severus, 
 
 Herodian, 1. iii. p. 115. Hist. August, p. 68. 
 
 '■" Upon the insolence and privileges 6i the soldier, the 16th satira 
 .wisely ascribed to Juvenal, may be consulted ; tho style and circum 
 stances of it would induce me to believe, that it was composed unde* 
 the reign of Severus, or that of his son. 
 
 " Hist. August, p. 13. 
 
 " Herodian, 1. iii. p. 131. 
 
 * Not of the anny, but of the troops in Gaul. The contents of this le4 
 ler seem to prove that Severus was really anxious to restore discipline 
 Herodian is the only historian who accuses him of being the fu-wt cause of 
 its relaxation. — G. from W Spartian mentions his increase of tlw 
 p«y.--M.
 
 A. D. 193-197.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 147 
 
 that from all the legions of the frontiere, the scldiera most dis' 
 tinguished for strength, valor, and fidelity, should be occasion- 
 ally draughted ; and promoted, as an honor and reward, into 
 the more eligible service of the guards." By this new insti- 
 tution, tlie 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 Praeto- 
 rians 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 forever crush the hopes of rebellion, and 
 secure the empire to himself and his posterity. 
 
 The command of these favored and formidable troops soon 
 became the first office of the empire. As the government 
 degenerated into military despotism, the Prastorian Prajfect, 
 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 ad- 
 ministration, he represented the person, and exercised the 
 authority, of the emperor. The first prsefect who enjoyed 
 and abused this immense power was Plautianus, the favorite 
 minister of Severus. His reign lasted above ten years, till 
 the marriage of his daughter with the eldest son of the em- 
 peror, which seemed to assure his fortune, proved the occa- 
 sion of his ruin.'* The animosities of the palace, by irritat- 
 
 " Dion, 1. Ixxiv. p. 124-3. 
 
 "^ One of his most daring and wanton acts of power, was the cas- 
 tration of a hundred free Romans, some of them married men, and 
 even fathers of famihes ; 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. 
 
 * The Prajtorian Praefect had never been a simple captain of the guards ; 
 from the iirst creation of this office, under Augustus, it possessed great 
 power. That emperor, therefore, decreed that there sliould be always two 
 Prajtorian Prsefects, who could only be taken from the ecjuestrian order 
 Tiberius first departed from the forinerclau.se of lliis edict; Alexander Seve- 
 rus violated the second by naming senators prsefects. It appears that it was 
 under Comraodus that the PraJloriau Pra;fects obtained the province of civil 
 jurisdiction ; it extended only to Italy, with the exception of Rome and iti 
 district, which was governed by the Prtrfectu/i urhi. As to the control of 
 the finances, and the levymg of taxes, it was not intrusted to them till aftes 
 tho great change that Con,staiitine I. made in the organization of the empire, 
 at least, I know^ no passage which assigns it to them before that time ; and 
 Drakenborch, who has treated tliis question iu liis Disscctat>7D de officiv 
 pral'ectorum prGetorio, r vi., does not quote one. — W.
 
 148 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 193-197, 
 
 ing the ambition and alarming the fears of Plautianus,* threat- 
 ened to ])roduce a revolution, and obliged the emperor, who 
 still loved him, to consent with reluctance to his death.** 
 After the fall of Plautianus, an eminent lawyer, the celebrated 
 Papinian, was appointed to execute the motley office of Prae 
 torian Prgefect. 
 
 Till the reign of Severus, the virtue and even the good 
 sense 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 imphcit obedi- 
 ence of camps, and his riper years spent in the despotism o^ 
 military command. His haughty and inflexible spirit cou! 
 not discover, or would not acknowledge, the advantage ol 
 preserving an intermediate power, however imaginary, be- 
 tween 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 requests would have proved as effectual ; assumed the con- 
 duct and style of a sovereign and a conqueror, and exercised, 
 without disguise, the w^hole legislative, as well as the executive 
 power. 
 
 The victory over the senate was easy and inglorious, 
 /livery eye and every passion were directed to the supreme 
 nifJs^'strate, who possessed the arms and treasure of the state ; 
 whilst the senate, neither elected by the people, nor guarded 
 by military force, nor animated by public spirit, rested its 
 
 "" Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1274. Herodian, 1. iii. p. 12'2, 129. The gram- 
 marian of Alexandria seems, as is not unusual, mucli better acquainted 
 with this mysterious transaction, and more assured of the guilt of Pla 
 fianus than the Roman senator ventures to be. 
 
 * Plautianus was compatriot, relative, and the old friend, of Severus ; 
 Le had so completely shut up aU access to the emperor, that the latter wan 
 ignorant how far he abused his powers : at length, being infoiTned of it, he 
 began to Ihnit his authority. The marriage of Plautilla with Caracalla 
 was unfortunate ; and the prince who had heen forced to consent to it, 
 menaced the father and the daughter with death when he should come to 
 the throne. It ■was feared, after that, that Plautianus ^vould avail himself 
 of the povs'er -which he still possessed, against the Imperial family ; and 
 Be"f(irus caused him to be assassinated in his presence, upon the pretext 
 of a conspiracy, which Dion considers fictitious. — W. Tiiis note is not 
 per'iaps, very necessary, and does not contain the whole facts. Dion con- 
 oiders the conspiracy \he invention of Caracalla, by whose command, 
 almost by whose hand. Pis *tiauus was slain in the presence of Seve 
 rus. — M.
 
 A.D. 193-19V.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 149 
 
 declining authorily on the frail and crumbling basis ot ancient 
 opinion. The fine theory of a republic insensibly vanisfied, 
 and made way for the more natural and substantial feelings 
 of monarchy. As the freedom and honors of Rome were 
 successively communicated to the provinces, in which the old 
 government had been either unknown, or was remembered 
 with abhorrence, the tradition of republican maxims was 
 gradually obliterated. The Greek historians of the age of 
 the Antonincs'" observe, with a malicious pleasui'C, that al- 
 though the sovereign of Rome, in compliance with an obsolete 
 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 provinces, who justified personal flattery by sj^ecula- 
 tive principles of servitude. These new advocates of pre- 
 rogative were heard with pleasure by the court, and with 
 patience by the people, when they inculcated the duty of pas- 
 sive obedience, and descanted on the ine\'itable mischiefs of 
 freedom. The lawyers and 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." The most eminent of the civil lawye?**, and par- 
 ticularly Papinian, Paulus, and Ulpian, flourished under the 
 house of Severus ; and the Roman jurisprudence, having close- 
 ly united itself with the system of monarchy, wa? supposed 
 to have attained its full majority and perfection. 
 
 The contemporaries of Severus in the enjoyment of the peace 
 and glory of his reign, forgave the cruelties by whidi it had 
 been introduced. Posterity, who experienced the fat^l effects 
 of his maxims and example, justly considered him as ^^io prin- 
 cipal author of the decline of the Roman empire. 
 
 ■"• Appian in Prooem. 
 
 " Dion Cassius seems to have written with no other viev^ Iwa to 
 fiirm these opinions into an historical system. The Piuide»>'« wiU 
 how how assiduously the lawyers, ou their side, laborec in tl*. c«aaa 
 f prerigatire.
 
 T60 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 193-107, 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THB DEATH OF SEVERUS. TYRANNY OF CARACALLA. USUK.- 
 
 PATION OF MACRINUS. FOLLIES OF ELAGABALUS. VIRr 
 
 TUES OF ALEXANDER SEVERUS. LICENTIOUSNESS OF THB 
 
 ARMY. GENERAL STATE OF THE ROMAN FINANCES. 
 
 The ascent to greatness, however steep and dangerous, may 
 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 am^bitious mind. This 
 melancholy 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." ' Distracted 
 with the care, not of acquiring, but of preserving an empire, 
 oppressed with age and infirmities, careless of fame," and 
 satiated with power, all his prospects of life were closed. 
 The desire of perpetuating the greatness of his family was 
 the only remaining wish of his ambition and paternal ten- 
 derness. 
 
 Like most of the Africans, Severus was passionately ad- 
 dicted to the vain studies of magic and divination, deeply 
 versed in the interpretation of dreams and omens, and per- 
 fectly 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, 
 while he was governor of the Lionnese Gaul.' In the choice 
 of a second, he sought only to connect himself with some fa- 
 vorite of fortune ; and as soon as he had discovered that the 
 
 * Hist. August, p. 71. "Omnia fui, et niliil expedit." 
 
 " Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1284. 
 
 ' 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. Ixxiv. p. 1243.) The learned compiler forgot 
 that Dion is relating not a real fact, but a dream of Severus ; and 
 dreams are ckcumscribcd to no hmits of time or space. Did M. de 
 Tillemont imagine that marriages were consummated in the temple of 
 Yenus at Rome ? HLst. des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 389. Note ft.
 
 " L>. 193-197.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 151 
 
 voung lady of Emesa in Syria bad a royal nativity, lie solicit- 
 ed and obtained bcr band.* Julia Donina (for tbat was ber 
 name) deserved all tbat tbe stars could promise her. She 
 possessed, even in advanced age, tbe attractions of beauty,* 
 and united to a lively imagination a firmness of mind, and 
 strengtb of judgment, seldom bestowed on ber sex. Her 
 amiable qualities never made any deep impression 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 tbat supported his authority, and with a mod- 
 eration tbat sometimes corrected his wild extravagancies.* 
 Julia applied herself to letters and philosophy, with some suc- 
 cess, and with the most eplendid reputation. She was tbe pat- 
 roness of every art, and tbe friend of every man of genius.* 
 The grateful flattery of tbe learned has celebrated ber virtues ; 
 but, if we may credit the scandal of ancient history, chastity 
 was very far from being tbe most conspicuous virtue of the 
 empress Julia.* 
 
 Two sons, Caracalla* and Geta, v/ere the fruit of this mar- 
 riage, and the destined heirs of tbe ompire. Tbe fond hopes 
 of the fether, and of the Roman world, were soon disap- 
 pointed by these vain youths, who displa7sid tbe indolent se- 
 curity of bereditary princes ; and a presun^ption that fortune 
 would supply tbe place of merit and application. Without 
 any emulation of virtue or talents, tbey discovered, almost 
 from their infancy, a fixed and implacable antipiitby for each 
 other. 
 
 Their aversion, confirmed by years, and fomented by the 
 arts of their interested favorites, broke out in childish, and 
 gradually in more serious competitions ; and, at length, dividej^ 
 tbe theatre, the circus, and the court, into two factions, actu- 
 
 * Hist. August, p. 65. 
 ' Hist. August, p. 5. 
 
 * Dion Cassius, L Ixxvii. p. 1304, 1314. 
 
 1 See a dissertation of Menage, at the end of his edition of Dioge- 
 nes Laertius, de FcEminis Philosophis. 
 
 * Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1285. Aurelius Victor. 
 
 * Bassianus was his first name, as it had been that of hia matcrcal 
 grandfather. During his reign, he assumed the appellation of An 
 toninus, which is employed by lawyers and ancient historians. Aftei 
 his death, the public indignation loaded hun with the nicknames of 
 Tarantus and Caracalla. The first was borrowed from a celebrated 
 lladiator, the second from a long Gallic gowr which he distributed 
 U> the people of Rome.
 
 152 niE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 204 
 
 atcJ by the hopes and fears of their respective leaders. Tha 
 prudent emperor endeavored, by every expedient of advice 
 and authority, to allay this growing animosity. The unhappy 
 discord of his sons clouded all his prospects, and threatened to 
 overtui'n a throne raised with so much labor, cemented with 
 so much blood, and guarded with every defence of arras and 
 treasure. With an impartial hand he maintained between 
 hem an exact balance of favor, conferred on both the rank 
 if Augustus, with the revered name of Antoninus ; and foi 
 he first time the Roman world beheld three emperors." 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, Severua 
 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." 
 
 In these circurr ^tances 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 Heutenants might have been sufficient to repel 
 the distant enemy, he resolved to embrace the honorable pre- 
 text of withdrawing his sons from the luxury of Rome, which 
 enervated their minds and irritated their passions ; and of in- 
 uring their youth to the toils of war and government. Not- 
 withstanding 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 a design of completing the 
 long attempted 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 thousand men. The Caledonians at 
 
 *' The elevation of Caracalla is fixed by the accurate M. do Tille 
 mont to the year 198 ; the association of Geta to the year 208. 
 
 " Herodian, 1. iii. p. 130. The lives of Caracalla and Geta. in th< 
 Augustan History.
 
 A. D.208.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 168 
 
 length yielded to the powerful and obstinate attack, sued for 
 peace, and surrendered a part of their arms, and a large tract 
 of territory. 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 rest- 
 less spirit provoked Severus to send a new army into Cale- 
 donia, with the most bloody orders, not to subdue, but to ex- 
 tirj)ate the natives. They were saved by the death of their 
 haughty enemy.'* 
 
 This Caledonian war, neither marked by decisive events, 
 nor attended with any important consequences, would ill do- 
 serve our attention ; but it is supposed, not without a consid- 
 erable degree of probability, that the invasion of Severus is 
 connected with the most shining period of the British history 
 or fable. Fingal, whose fame, with that of his heroes and 
 bards, has been revived in our language by a recent publica- 
 tion, is said to have commanded the Caledonians in that mem- 
 orable juncture, to have eluded the power of Sev^erus, and to 
 have obtained a signal 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.'^ Something of a 
 doubtful mist still hangs over these Highland traditions ; nor 
 can it be entirely dispelled by the most ingenious researches 
 of modern criticism ; " but if we could, with safety, indulge 
 the pleasing supposition, that Fingal lived, and that Ossian 
 sung, the striking contrast of the situation and manners of the 
 contending nations might amuse a philosophic mind. The 
 parallel would be little to the advantage of the more civilized 
 
 *' Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1280, <fec. Herodian, 1. ill. p. 132, <fec. 
 
 " Ossian's Poems, vol. i. p. 1*75. 
 
 " That the Caracul of Ossian is the Caracalla of the lloman His- 
 tory, is, perhaps, the only point of Britisli 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 lum by a nick- 
 name, invented four years afterwards, scarcely used by the Romana 
 till after the death of that emperor, and seldom employed by the most 
 ancient historians. See Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1317. Hist. August, p. 89 
 AureL Victor. Euseb. in Chron. ad ann. 214.* 
 
 *■ The historical authority of Macpherson's Ossian has not increased sinoa 
 Oibbou wrote. We may, indeed, consider it exploded. Mr. Wliitaker, ia 
 a letter to Gibbon (Misc. Works, vol. ii. p. 100,) attempts, not very socceM 
 IUI7, to weaken this objection of the historian. — M.
 
 154 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.. D. 208 
 
 people, if we compared tlie unrelenting revenge cf Severus 
 with the generous clemency of Fingal ; the timid and brutal 
 cruelty of Caracalla with the bravery, the tenderness, the ele- 
 gant genius of Ossian ; the mercenary chiefs, who, from motives 
 of fear or interest, served under the imperial standard, with 
 the free-born 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 
 iegenerate 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. Im- 
 patient of any delay or division of empire, he attempted, more 
 than once, to shorten the small remainder of his father's days, 
 and endeavored, but without success, to excite a mutiny among 
 the troops.'^ The old emperor had often censured the mis- 
 guided 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 rigoi 
 of a judge dissolves away in the tenderness of a parent. He 
 deliberated, he threatened, but he could not punish ; and this 
 tast and only instance of mercy was more fatal to the empire 
 than a long series of cruelty.^" The disorder of his mind irri 
 tated the pains of his body ; he -wished impatiently for death, 
 and hastened the instant of it by his impatience. He expired 
 at York in the sixty-fifth year of his life, and in the eighteenth 
 of a glorious and successful reign. In his last moments he 
 recommended concord to his sons, and his sons to the army. 
 The salutary advice never reached the heart, or even the un- 
 derstanding, of the impetuous youths ; but the more obedient 
 troops, mindful of their oath of allegiance, and of the author- 
 ity of their deceased master, resisted the solicitations of Cara- 
 calla, 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 honors, and 
 were cheerfully acknowledged as lawful sovereigns, by the 
 senate, the people, and the provinces. Some preeminence of 
 rank seems to have been allowed to the elder brother; but 
 they both administered the empire with equal and independent 
 power." 
 
 " Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1282. Hist. August, p. 11. AureL Victor. 
 *• Dion, 1. Ixxvi p. 1283. Hist. August, p. 89 
 " Dion, I. ixxvi. p. 1284. Herodian, 1. iii. p. 135.
 
 A.D.a08.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 165 
 
 Sucli a divided form of government would have proved a 
 source of discord between the most affectionate brothers. I* 
 was impossible that it could long subsist between two implaca- 
 ble 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 frona 
 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.'* No communication was allowed between 
 their apartments ; the doors and passages were diligently forti- 
 fied, 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 
 rancor of their hearts.'* 
 
 This latent civil war already distracted the whole govern 
 ment, when a scheme was suggested that seemed of mutual 
 benefit to the hostile brothers. It was proposed, that since it 
 was impossible 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 accu- 
 
 '* Mr. Hume is justly surprised at a passage of Herodian, (L iv. p. 
 \39,) who, on this occasion, represents the Imperial palace as equal 
 \n extent to 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 Nar 
 dini's Roma Antica.) But we should recollect that the opulent sena 
 tors had almost surrounded the city with their extensive gardens and 
 suburb palaces, the greatest part of which had been gradually confis- 
 cated by the emperors. If Geta resided in the gardens that bore his 
 aame on the Janiculum, and if Caracalla inhabited the gardens of 
 Maecenas on the Esquiline, the rival brotliers were separated from 
 each other by the distance of several miles; and yet the intermediate 
 space was filled by the Imperial gardens of SaUust, of Lucullus, of 
 Agrippa, of Domitian, of Caius, &c., aU 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 dissertatioo, illus- 
 brated by a map of ancient Rome. (Hume, Essay on Populousness 
 rf' Ancient Nations. — M.) 
 " Herodian, 1. iv. p. 139
 
 156 THE DECLINE AND FALL JA. D. 212 
 
 facy. It was agraed 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 inferior to Rome itself in wealth and 
 greatness ; that numerous armies should be constantly en- 
 camped on either side of the Thracian Bosphorus, to guard 
 the frontiers of the I'ival monarchies ; and that the senators 
 of European extraction should acknowledge the sovereign of 
 Rome, whilst the natives of Asia followed the emperor of tho 
 East. The tears of the empress Julia interrupted the nego- 
 tiation, the first idea of which had filled every Roman breast 
 with surprise and indignation. The mighty mass of conquest 
 was so intimately united 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 divisioD 
 of the provinces must terminate in the dissolution of an empire 
 whose unity had hitherto remained inviolate.*" 
 
 Had the treaty been cariied into execution, the sovereign 
 of Europe might soon have been the conqueror of Asia ; but 
 Caracalla obtained an easier, though a more guilty, \ictory. 
 He artfully listened to his mother's entreaties, and consented 
 to meet his brother in her apartment, on terms of peace and 
 reconciliation. In the midst of their conversation, some cen- 
 turions, who had contrived to conceal themselves, rushed with 
 drawn swords upon the unfortunate Geta. His distracted 
 mother strove to jjrotect him in her arms ; but, in the una- 
 vailing struggle, she was wounded in the hand, and covered 
 with the blood of her younger son, while she saw the elder 
 animating and assisting*' 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." The soldiers attempted to 
 
 ^ Herodian, 1. iv. p. 144. 
 
 21 Caracalla consecrated, in the temple of Serapis, the sword with 
 srhicli, as lie boasted, he had slain his brother Geta. Dion, L Ixxvii 
 p. 1307. 
 
 22 Herodian, 1. iv. p. 147. In every Roman camp there was a 
 small chapel near the head-quarters, in uhich the statues of the 
 tutelar deities were preserved and adored ; and we may remark, that
 
 A.D. 212.] OK THE ROMAN EMPIRE. J67 
 
 raise and couifort 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 resohition to live and die with his faithful 
 troops. Geta had been the favorite of the soldiers ; but com- 
 plaint was useless, revenge was dangerous, and they still 
 reverenced the son of Severus. Their discontent died away 
 in idle murmurs, and Caracalla soon convinced them of the 
 justice of his cause, by distribuimg in one lavish donative the 
 accumulated treasures of his father's reign.^^ The real sen- 
 timents of the soldiers alone were of importance to his power 
 or safety. Their declaration m liis favor commanded the 
 dutiful professions of the senate. Ihe obsequiouii 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 honors of a Roman emperor."' 
 Posterity, in pity to his misfortune, has cast a veil over hij 
 vices. We consider that young j^rince as the innocent victiift 
 of his brother's ambition, without recollecting that he himself 
 wanted power, rather than inclination, to consummate the 
 same attempts of revenge and murder.j- 
 
 The crime went not unpunished. Neither business, nor 
 pleasure, nor flattery, could defend Caracalla from the stings 
 of a guilty conscience ; and he confessed, in the anguish of a 
 tortured mind, that his disordered fancy often beheld the angry 
 forms of his father and his brother rising into life, to threaten 
 
 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 Romaua, iv. 5, v. 2. 
 
 23 Herodian, 1. iv. p. 148. Dion, L Lxxvii. p. 1289. 
 
 ** Geta was placed among tl\e goda. Sit divus, dum non sit vimta 
 uaid his brother. Hist. August, p. 91. Some marks of Geta'u 
 consecration are still found upon medals. 
 
 * The account of this transaction, in a new passage of Dion, vanes in 
 some ilegTce from this statement. It add* that the next morning, in the 
 senate, Anloniuus requested their indulgence, not because he had kiUcd hia 
 brother, bi t because he was hoarse, and could not address theni. Mai. 
 Fragm. Vftr;;»n. p. 228. — M. 
 
 t The favorable judgment which history has given of Geta is not founded 
 ♦T'lcly on a feeling of pity ; it is s<.'pportcd by the testimony of conti'mporary 
 hisinriaus : he was too fond of the pleasures of the table, and sho' ycd great 
 mistrust of his brother; but be was buraauo, well instructed; he wften fln 
 doavored to mitigate the rigorous decrees of Severus and CaracalU Hcnv^ 
 W. 3. Sj'artian in Geta. — W.
 
 i68 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 212L 
 
 and upbrad hiin.''' The consciousness of his crime should 
 have induced him to convince mankind, by the virtues of hia 
 reign, that the bloody deed had been the involuntary eflfect 
 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 hir murdered 
 brother. On his return from the senate to the palace, h( 
 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 sen- 
 tence was executed against Fadilla, the last remaining daughter 
 of the emperor Marcus;* and even the afflicted Julia was 
 obliged to silence her lamentations, to suppress her sighs, and 
 to receive the assassin with smiles of joy and approbation. It 
 was computed that, under the vague appellation 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 commands in the 
 army or provinces, with the long connected chain of their 
 dependants, were included in the proscription ; which endeav- 
 ored to reach every one who had maintained the smallest 
 correspondence with Geta, who lamented his death, or who 
 even mentioned his name.^^ Helvius Pertinax, son to the 
 prince of that name, lost his life by an unseasonable wit- 
 ticism.*^ It was a sufficient crime of Thrasea Priscus to be 
 
 25 DioD,l. Ixxvii. p. 1307 
 
 2* Dion, 1. IxxviL p. 1290. Herodian, L iv. p. 150. Dion (p. 
 1298) says, that the comic poets no longer durst employ the name 
 Jl Geta in Jieir plays, and that the estates of those who mentioned 
 it in their testaments were confiscated. 
 
 27 Caracalla had assumed the names of several conquered nations; 
 Pertinax observed, tJiat the name of Geticus (he had obtained some 
 advantage over the Goths, or Getse) would be a proper addition to 
 Par thicus, Aiemannicus, &c. Hist. August, p. 89. 
 
 * The most valuable paragraph of Dion, which the indus./y of M. Ma 
 has re«overed, relates to this daughter of Marcus, executed by Caracalla 
 Her name, as appears from Froiito, as well as from Dion, -was Comific.'a 
 When commanded to choose the kind of death she was to suffer, she burst 
 into womanish tears ; but remembering her father Marcus, she thus .spoke : — 
 ' O my hapless soul, iipvipiStov, animula,) now imprisoned in the body, burst 
 {brih ! be free ! fharVi/ ihem, ho%vcver reluctant to believe it, that thou art the 
 daughter of Wo^oj^." She then laid aside all her ornaments, and preparias 
 bers«jA' for doath, ordered her veins to be opened Mai. Fragm. Yadcan. it 
 p. Stag ~U.
 
 A.. D. 212.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 158 
 
 descenled from a family in which the love of libe.tty seemed 
 an hereditary quality.^* 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 prin- 
 ciple he frequently drew the most bloody inferences.! 
 
 The execution of so many innocent citizens was bewailed 
 by the secret tears of their friends and families. The death 
 of Papinian, the Praetorian Proefect, was lamented as a public 
 calamity .J During the last seven years of Severus, he had 
 exercised 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 death-bed, had conjured him to watch 
 over the prosperity and union of the Imperial family ."' The 
 honest labors of Papinian served only to inflame the hatred 
 which Caracalla had already conceived against his father's 
 minister. After the murder of Geta, the Prajfect was com- 
 manded to exert the powers 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." 
 " That it was easier to commit than to justify a parricide," 
 was the glorious reply of Papinian ;" who did not hesitate 
 between the loss of life and that of honor. Such intrepia 
 
 ** Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1291. He was probably descended from Hel- 
 vidius Priscus, and Tlirasea Paetus, those patriots, whose firm, but 
 useless and unseasonable, virtue has been immcrtalized by Tacitus.* 
 
 ■•"* It is said that Papinian was himself a relation of the empress 
 Julia. 
 
 '" Tacit. Annal. xiv. 2. 
 
 " Hist. August, p. 88. 
 
 * M. Guizot is indignant at this "cold" observation of Gibbon on the no 
 ble character of Thrasea ; but he admits that his virtue was useless to tho 
 public, and :;nseasonable amidst the vices of his age. — M. 
 
 t Caracalla reproached all those who demanded no favors of hire. " 1 
 is clear that if you make me no requests, you do not trust me ; if you do not 
 trust me, you suspect me ; if you suspect mc, you fear me ; if you fear 
 me, you hate me." And forthwith he condemned them as couspiratcrs 
 A good specimen of the sorites in a tyi-ant's logic. See Fragm. Vatican, p 
 J?0.— M. 
 
 ; Papinian was no longer Praetorian Praefcct. Caracalla had deprived hira 
 of that office immediately after the death of Sevei-us. Such is the statement 
 of Dion ; and the testimony of Spartian, who gives Pa[)iiiian the Prajtoriau 
 piwfecture till his death, is of little weight opposed to that of a senator then 
 tiring at Rome. — W.
 
 I(JO THE DECLINE AKD FALL [A.D. 'J13. 
 
 virtue, which had escaped pure and unsulHed from the 
 intrigues of courts, the habits of business, and the arts of hia 
 profession, reflects more lustre on the memory of Papinian, 
 than all his great employments, his numerous writings, and 
 the superior reputation as a lawyer, which he has preserved 
 through every age of the Roman jurisprudence.^" 
 
 It had hitherto been the pecuUar felicity of the Romans, and 
 n the worst of times the consolation, that the virtue of the 
 smperors was active, and their vice indolent. Augustus, 
 Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus visited their extensive domin- 
 ions in person, and their progress was marked by acts of wis 
 dom and beneficence. The tyranny of Tiberius, Nero, and 
 Doraitian, who resided almost constantly at Rome, or in the 
 adjacent villas, was confined to the senatorial and equestrian 
 orders.^^ But Caracalla was the common enemy of mankind. 
 He left the capital (and he never returned to it) 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 entertain- 
 ments at an immertse expense, which he abandoned with con 
 tempt 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."* In 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 distin 
 guishing 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." 
 
 '^ With regard to Papinian, see Heineccius's Historia Juris Roma 
 ni, 1 330, &c. 
 
 '- Tiberius and Domitian never moved from the neighborhood of 
 Rome. Nero made a short journey into Greece. " Et laudacorima 
 ?rincii)ura usus ex jequo, quamvis procul agentibus. Saevi proximi* 
 ingruunt." Tacit. Hist. iv. 74. 
 
 " Dion, 1. Ixxvii p. 1294. 
 
 •* Dion, L IxxA-ii. ji. 1307- Herodiar. L iv. n 158. Tho form»«
 
 A.D. 213.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 161 
 
 Tlie wise instructions of Severus never maJe anj- l!u=5tirig 
 impression on the mind of his son, who, althoug'h not destitute 
 of imagination and eloquence, was equally devoid of ju3i2;nient 
 and humanity.^® One dangerous maxim, worthy of a tyrant, 
 was remembered and abused by Caracalla. "To secure tha 
 affections of the army, and to esteem the rest of his subjects 
 as of littb moment."" 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 pro 
 fusion of the son was the policy of one reign, and the inevi- 
 table ruin both of the army and of the empire. The vigor of 
 the soldiers, instead of being confirmed by the severe disci 
 pline of camps, melted away in the luxury of cities. The 
 excessive increase of their pay and donatives'* exhausted the 
 
 represents it as a cruel massacre, the latter as a perfidious one toa 
 It seems probable that the Alexandrians has irritated the tyrant by 
 their railleries, and perhaps by their tumults.* 
 
 =" Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1296. 
 
 " Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1284. Mr. Wotton (Hist, of Rome, p. 830) 
 suspects that this maxim was invented by Caracalla himself, and 
 attributed to his father. 
 
 '^ Dion (1. Ixxviii. p. 1343) informs us that the extraordinary gifts 
 of Caracalla to the army amounted annually to seventy millions 
 of drachma} (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 Prffitorian guards 
 received twelve hundred and fifty drachma;, (forty pounds a year,) 
 (Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1307.) 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 Praetorians to 960 drachmae, (Gronoviua 
 de Pecunia Veteri, 1. iii. c. 2.) These successive augmentation? 
 ruined the empire ; for, with the soldiers' pay, their numbers too were 
 increased. We have seen the Praetorians alone increased from 10,000 
 to 50,000 men.f 
 
 * After the.se massacres, Caracalla also deprived the Alexandrians of theii 
 ■pcctacles and pubUo feasts ; he divided the city into two parts by a wall 
 with to^vers at intervals, to prevent the peaceful communications of the citi- 
 zens. Thus was treated the unhappy Alexandria, says Dion, by the savagt 
 beast of Ausonia. This, in fact, was the epithet wliich the oracle had ap- 
 plied to him ; it is said, indeed, that he was much pleased with the name, 
 and often boasted of it. Dion, bcxvii. p. 1307. — G. 
 
 t Valois and Reiniar 1 ave explained in a very simple and probable man 
 pel this passage of Dion, which Gibl/oii seems to mc not to have understooa 
 ■O atros Toif arpaTioiTati aO\a rrj; arparcdii, rui? ftiv iv tm inpv'PopiKut rcra 
 yuivot; is x'^'<'S Jia/crfaia; rrti'rijx-ui'ra, To'ii ii TrtcraxiajdjAids ^ayifiAveiv 
 He ordered that the soldiers should receive. ai3 the reward of ih>T ncrT'cea 
 the Praetorians 1250 di'achms, the othcra 5000 drachms Valois thiuk« tiuf
 
 162 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A, D. 217- 
 
 state to enrich tbe military order, whose modesty in peace, and 
 service m wa:, is best secured by an honorable poverty. Th« 
 demeanor of Caracalla was haughty and full of pride ; but with 
 the troops he forgot even the proper dignity of his rank, 
 •sncouraged their insolent familiarity, and, neglecting the esser:- 
 tial duties of a general, affected to imitate the dress and 
 manners of a common soldier. 
 
 It was impossible that such a character, and such conduct 
 as that of Caracalla, could inspire either love or esteem ; but 
 as long as his vices were beneficial to the armies, he was secure 
 from the danger of rebellion. A secret conspiracy, provoked 
 by his own jealousy, was fatal to the tyrant. The Praetorian 
 praefecture was divided between two ministers. The military 
 department was intrusted to Adventus, an experienced rather 
 tJian able soldier ; and the civil affairs were transacted by 
 OpiUus Macrinus, who, by his dexterity in business, had raised 
 himself, with a fair character, to that high office. But his 
 favor varied with the caprice of the emperor, and his life 
 might depend on the slightest suspicion, or the most casual 
 circumstance. Malice or fanaticism had suggested to an Afri- 
 can, deeply skilled in the knowledge of futurity, a very dan 
 gerous prediction, that Macrinus and his sou were destined to 
 reign over the empire. The report was soon diffused through 
 the province; and when the man was sent in chains to Rome, 
 he still asserted, in the presence of the prajfect 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 
 .nessengers, a friend of Macrinus found means to apprise him 
 of the ajDproaching 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 
 
 the numbers have been transposed, and that Caracalla added 5000 draclims 
 to the donations made to the Prffitorians, 1250 to those of the legionaries 
 The Prffltorians, in fact, always received more than the others. The error 
 of Gibbon arose from his considering that this referred to the annual pay of 
 the soldiers, ^vllile it relates to the sum they received as a reward for their 
 services on their discharg-e : aSXoi/ riis aTparsia; means recompense for ser 
 vice. Augnstus had settled that the PrsEtorians, after sixteen campaigns, 
 ihoiild receive 5000 drachms : the legionaries received only 3000 after twenty 
 years. Caracalla added 5000 drachms to the donative of tlie Praetorians, 12^0 
 to that of the legionaries. Gibbon appears to have been mistaken both in 
 confounding this donative on discharge with the annual pay, and in not pay 
 ing attention to the remai'k of Valois on the transposition of the mimbers it 
 the text. — G
 
 A. D. 21*?.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 16> 
 
 Praefect, directing him to despatch the ordinaiy AfTaii-s, and to 
 report the more important business that might be contained iu 
 them. Macrinus read his fate, and resolved to prevent it. He 
 inflamed the discontents of some inferior officers, and em 
 ployed the hand of Martialis, a desperate soldier, who had 
 been refused the rank of centurion. The devotion of Cara- 
 calla prompted him to make a pilgrimage from Edessa to the 
 celebrated temple of the Moon at Carrhse.* He was attended 
 by a body of cavalry : but having stopped on the road for 
 come necessary occasion, his guards preserved a respectful 
 distance, and Martialis, approaching his person under a pro- 
 *ence of duty, stabbed him with a dagger. The bold assassin 
 was instantly killed by a Scythian archer of the ImperiaJ 
 guard. Such was the end of a monster whose life disgraced 
 human nature, and whose reign accused the patience of the 
 Eomans.^* The grateful soldiers forgot his vices, remembered 
 only his partial hberality, and obliged the senate to prostitute 
 their own dignity and that of religion, by granting him a place 
 among the gods. Whilst he 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, persecuted the dis- 
 ciples 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 XH. (though 
 he still wanted the more elegant accomplishments of the son 
 of Phihp) might boast of having rivalled his valor and mag- 
 nanimity ; but in no one action of his life did Caracalla ex- 
 j)ress the faintest resemblance of the Macedonian hero, except 
 in the murder of a great number of his own and of his father's 
 friends.'" 
 
 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 
 
 39 Dion, 1. Ixxviii. p. 1312. Herodian, 1. iv.p. 168. 
 
 *'■ Tlie fondness of Caracalla for tlio name and ensigns of Alexander 
 is still preserved on the medals of that emperor. See Spanhcira, 
 de Usu Nuraisniatuin, Dissertat. xii. Herodian (1. iv. p. 1.01) had seen 
 very ridiculous pictures, in which a figure Avas drawn with one side of 
 the face like Alexander, and the other like Caracalla. 
 
 " Can-hsD, now Hairan, between Edessa and Nisibis, famous for tba 
 defeat of Crassus — the Haran from whence Abraham set out for tlie land of 
 Canaan. This city has always been remarkable tor its attuchmont to Saba 
 'um — a
 
 164 IHE iJECUNE ANB FALL [A. D. 211, 
 
 little regarded) hung in anxious ?uspense, as np candidate 
 presented himself whose distinguished birth and merit could 
 engage their attachment and unite their sufirages. The deci- 
 sive weight of the Pr^torian guards elevated the hopes of their 
 prjefects, and these powerful ministers began to assert their 
 legal claim to fill the vacancy of the Imperial throne. Ad- 
 ventus, however, the senior pragfect, conscious of his age and 
 infirmities, of his small reputation, and his smaller abiUties, 
 resigned the dangerous h"Uor to the crafty ambition of his 
 colleague Macrinus, whose well-dissembled grief removed all 
 suspicion of his being acce-«iary to his master's death/' The 
 troops neither loved nor esteemed his character. They Qixs . 
 their eyes around in search of a competitor, and at last yielded 
 with reluctance to his promises of unbounded liberality and 
 indulgence. A short time after his accession, he conferred on 
 his son Diadumenianus, at the age of only ten years, the Im- 
 perial title, and the popular name of Antoninus. The beauti- 
 ful figure of the youth, assisted by an additional donative, for 
 which the ceremony furnished a pretext, might attract, it was 
 hoped, the favor of the army, and secure the doubtful throne 
 of Macrinus. 
 
 The authority of the new sovereign had been ratified by the 
 cheerful submission of the senate and provinces. They ex- 
 ulted in their unexpjected 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 sui'prise had subsided, they began to scrutinize the 
 merits of Macrinus with a critical severity, and to arraign the 
 nasty choice of the army. It had hitherto been considered as 
 a fundamental maxim of the constitution, that the emperor 
 must be always 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 waT not a senator." 
 The sudden elevation of the Prajtorian prsefects betrayed the 
 meanness of their origin ; and the equestrian order was still 
 in possession of that great ofllice, which commanded with arbi- 
 
 <' Herodian, 1. iv. p. 169. Hist. August, p. 94. 
 
 ^2 Dion, 1. Ixxxviii. p. 1350. Elagabalus reproached his predecea- 
 Bor with daring to seat himself on the throne; though, as Prjetorian 
 prefect, he could not have been admitted into the senate after the 
 voice of the crier had cleared the house. The personal favor of 
 Plautianus and Sejanus had broke through the established rule. 
 They rose, indeed, from the equestrian order; but they preserved 
 the praefecture, with the rank of senator, "uid even with th* otiD- 
 colsliip.
 
 A.D. 217.] OF THE IJOMAN EMPIRE. 16B 
 
 trary sway the lives and fortunes of Jie senate. A rnurraur 
 of indignation was heard, that a man, whose obscure** extrac- 
 tion had never been illustrated by any signal service, should 
 dare to invest himself with tLe j^urplo, instead of bestowing it 
 on some distinguished senator, equal in birth and dignity to the 
 splendor of the Imperial station. As soon as the character of 
 \Jacrinus was surveyed by the sharp eye of discontent, somo 
 vices, and many defects, were easily discovered. The choice of 
 his ministers was in many instances justly censured, and the 
 dissatisfied people, with their usual candor, accused at onco his 
 indolent tameness and his excessive severity." 
 
 Ilis rash ambition had climbed a height where it was diffi- 
 cult to stand with firmness, and impossible to fall without in- 
 stant destruction. Trained in the arts of courts and the forms 
 of civil business, he trembled in the presence of the fierce 
 aud undisciplined multitude, over whom lie had assumed the 
 command ; his military talents were despised, and his personal 
 courage suspected ; a whisper that circulated in the camp, 
 disclosed the fatal secret of the conspiracy against the late em- 
 peior, aggravated the guilt of murder by the baseness of hy- 
 pocrisy, and heightened contempt by detestation. To alienato 
 the soldiers, and to provoke inevitable ruin, the character of a 
 reformer was only wanting ; and such was the peculiar hard- 
 ship 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 ty- 
 rant 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 successors. 
 
 In the' management of this necessary reformation, Macri- 
 nus proceeded with a cautious prudence, which would have 
 
 *' He wa3 a native of Caesarea, in Numidia, and began his fortune 
 by serving in the household of Plautian, from whose ruin he narrowly 
 escaped His enemie'? asserted that he was born a slave, and had ex- 
 ercised, among other infamous professions, that of Gladiator. Tho 
 fashion of aspersing the birth and condition of an adversary seems to 
 have lasted from the time of the Greek orators to the learned gram 
 marians of the last age. 
 
 " Both Dion and Herod Ian speak of the virtues and vices of 
 Mlcrinus with candor and impartiality; but the author of his hfo, 
 in the Augustan History, s'^ems to have implicitly copied some of the 
 venal writers, employed by P>LTgabulus, to blacken the memory of hia 
 predecessor.
 
 166 THE DECLINE AND FAf.L [A. D 2lt 
 
 restored heall.h and vigor 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 
 hberal esfcabhshment of Severus, and gradually formed to 
 mc-desty and obedience." One fatal error destroyed the 
 salutary effects of this 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 num- 
 bers, 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 j^resage of his future intentions. The 
 recruits, with sullen reluctance, entered on a service, whoso 
 labors were increased while its rewards were diminished by a 
 covetous and unwarlike sovereign. The murmurs of the army 
 swelled with impunity into seditious clamors ; 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 oc- 
 casion soon presented itself. 
 
 The empress Julia had experienced all the vicissitudes of 
 fortune. From an humble station she had been raised to 
 greatness, only to taste the superior bitterness of an exalted 
 rank. She Avas doomed to weep over the death of one of her 
 sons, and over the life of the other. The cruel fate of Cara- 
 calla, though her good sense must have long taught ' er to 
 expect it, awakened the feelings of a mother and of an em- 
 press. Notvpithstanding the respectful civility expressed by 
 the usurper towards the widow of Severus, she desceiiaed with 
 a painful struggle into the condition of a subject, and soon 
 withdrew herself, by a voluntary death, from the anxious and 
 
 *'' Dion, 1. Ixxxiii. p. 1336. The sense of the author is .is ae<». %g 
 the intention of the emperor ; but Mr. Wotton has mistakou both, Dy 
 anderstanding the distinction, no'i of veterans and recruits, but of old 
 Bud now legions. History of Rome, p. 34*7.
 
 A.. D. 218.] OF THE ROMAN EMl'IRE. 167 
 
 humiliiving dependence.''"* Julia Ma,'sa, her sister, was 
 ordered to leave the court and Antioch. She retired to Einesa 
 with an immense fortune, the fruit of twenty years' favor, 
 accompanied by her two daughtei^s, Soa?mias and Maina^ 
 each of whom was a widow, and each had an only son. 
 BassianuSjf for that was the name of the son of Soa3mias, was 
 consecrated to the honorable 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 em- 
 pire of Rome. A numerous body of troops was stationed at 
 Emesa ; and as the severe discipline of Macrinus had con 
 strain^-J them to pass the winter encamped, they were eager 
 to rivenge the cruelty of such unaccustomed ^vi.dships. Tho 
 soldiiM-s, who resorted in crowds to the tempie of the Sun, 
 beheld with veneration and delight the elegant dress and figure 
 if the young pontiff ; they recognized, or they thought that 
 they recognized, the features of Caracalla, whose memory 
 •■.hey m>w adored. The artful Majsa saw and cherished their 
 rising partiality, and readily sacrificing lier daughter's repu- 
 toition to the fortune of her grandson, she insinuated that Bas- 
 •*ianus was the natural son of their murdered sovereign. The 
 ♦ams distributed by her emissaries with a lavish hand silenced 
 every objection, and tVe profusion sufficiently proved the 
 affinity, or at least the resemblance, of i >assianus with the 
 gr;at original. The young Antoninus (fi_r he had assumed 
 ani polluted that respectable 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 
 
 ** Dion, 1. Ixxviii. p. 1330. Tlie abridgment of Xiphilin, though 
 less particular, is in this place clearer than the original. 
 
 * As soon as tnis princess heard of the death of Caracalla, she wished to 
 starve herself to death : the respect sho%\'n to her by Macrinus, in making' no 
 changre in her attendants or her court, induced her to prolong her life. Bu" 
 it appears, as far as the mutilated text of Dion and the imperfect epitome 
 rf Xiphilin permit us to jud,e;e, that she conceived projects of ambition, and 
 endeavored to raise herself to the empire. She wished to tread in the steps 
 of Semiramis and Nitocris, whose country bordered on her awn. Macri- 
 nus sent her an order immediately to leave Antioch, and to retire wherever 
 she chose. She returned to her fonner purpose, and starved herself to 
 death.— G. 
 
 t He inherited this name from his great-grandfather oj' the ;'.iother's side, 
 Bassianus, father of Julia M^sa, his grandmother, and of .Tulia Domna, wife 
 of Severus. Victor (in his epitome) is perhaps tho only h'storian who has 
 given the key to this genealogy, when speak! jg of Caracalla Hie Bussianua 
 ex avi materni noinine dictus. Caracalla, Elag^ahalnp, Avi Alexander Sov& 
 rus, bore sacoesswely this name. — G.
 
 168 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 218 
 
 uberal princo, who had taken iip arm, to revenge his fatbeHi 
 deatli and the oppression of the mihtaiy order.*' 
 
 Whilst a conspiracy of women and eunuchs was concerted 
 with prudence, and conducted with rapid vigor, Maciinus, who, 
 by a decisive motion, might have cruslied his infant enemy, 
 floated between the opposite extremes of terror and security, 
 wliich alike fixed him inactive at Antioch. A spirit of rebel- 
 lion diffused itself through all the camps and garrisons of Syria, 
 successive detachments murdered their officers," and joined 
 the party of the rebels ; and the tardy restitution of military 
 pay and privileges was imputed to the acknowledged weak- 
 ness of Macu'inus. 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 ; but, in the heat of the. battle,^* the Praetorian 
 guards, almost by an involuntary impulse, asserted the supe- 
 riority of their valor 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, endeavc red to 
 animate their drooping courage. Antoninus himself, who, in 
 the rest of his life, never acted like a man, in this iir.portant 
 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 occupations had been confined to female cares and the 
 soft luxury of Asia, displayed the talents of an able and expe- 
 
 *^ According to Lampridius, (Hist. August, p. 135,) Alcxaader 
 Severus lived twenty-nine years three months and seven days. As 
 ho was killed March 19, 235, he was born December 12, 205 and 
 was consequently about tliis time thirteen years old, as his elder 
 f.ousin might be about seventeen. This computation suits much 
 better the liistory of the young princes than that of Horodian, (1. t. 
 p. 181,) 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, 
 sec Dion, 1. Ixxviii. p. 1339. Hcrodian, 1. v. p. 184 
 
 ** By a most dangerous proclamation of the pretended Antoninus, 
 every soldier who brought in his officer's head became entitled to hia 
 privite estate, as well as to his military commission. 
 
 *' Dion, 1. Ixxviii. p. 1345. Herodian, 1. v. p. 186. The battle wm 
 fou^it near the village of Iir.mae, about two-and-twenty miles firoja 
 Ami }ch. 
 
 * Ganiij-s was not a eunncb. Dion, p. 1355 — W
 
 .'^. D. 218.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 189 
 
 rienced general. Ine battle still raged with doubtful violeLce, 
 and Macriuus might have obtained the victory, had he not 
 betrayed his o^vn 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 involved 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 con- 
 tending parties of the Roman army, mingling tears of joy and 
 tenderness, united luider the banners of the imagined son of 
 Caracalla, and the East acknowledged with pleasure the first 
 enip«ror of Asiatic extraction. 
 
 The letters of Macrinus had condescended to inform the 
 senate of the slight disturbance occasioned by an impostor in 
 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 of 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 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 the empire ; but, by assuming the tribunitian and procon- 
 sular powers before they had been conferred on him by a 
 decree of the senate, he offended the delicacy of Roman pre- 
 judice. This new and injudicious violation of the constitution 
 was probably dictated either by the ignorance of his Syrian 
 oourtiers, or the fierce disdain of his military followers." 
 
 '» Dion, L Ixxix. p. 1 358. 
 VOL. I H
 
 170 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.. D. 219. 
 
 As the attention of the new emperor wa> divptted by the 
 most trifling amuseraents, be wasted many month? in bis luxu* 
 rioiis progress from Syria to Italy, passed at Nicomedia his 
 arst winter after his victoiy, and deferred till the f^nsuing 
 summer his triumphal entry into the capital. A faithful pic 
 ture, however, which preceded bis arrival, an'^' was placed by 
 his immediate order over the altar of Victory in the senat* 
 house, conveyed to the Romans the just but unworthy res«ra 
 blance of his person and manners. He was drawn in h\p 
 eacerdotal robes of silk and gold, after the loose flowing fashion 
 of the Medes and Phoenicians ; bis head was covered with a 
 lofty tiara, his numerous collars and bracelets were adorned 
 with gems of an inestimable value. His eyebrows were tinged 
 with black, and his cheeks painted with an artificial red and 
 white." The grave senators confessed with a sigh, that, after 
 having long experienced the stern tyranny of their own coun- 
 trymen, Rome was at length humbled beneath the effeminate 
 .uxury of Oriental despotism. 
 
 The Sun was worshipped at Emesa, under the name of 
 Elagabalus," 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 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 
 
 " Dion, 1. Ixxix. p. 1363. Herodian, 1. v. p. 189. 
 
 ^^ Tliis name is derived by the learned from two Syriac words, Ela 
 a God, and Gabal, to form, the forming or plaf?tic god, a proper, and 
 even happy epithet for the sun.* Wotton's History of Rome, p. 378 
 
 * The name of Elagahalus has been disfigured in various -ways. Hero 
 dian calls him EXaiaj^d/JaAoj ; Lampridius, and the more modem ^vriters, 
 make him Heliogabalus. Dion calls him Eleprabalus; but Elagabalus was 
 the true name, as it appears on the medals. (P^ckhel. de Doct. num. vet. t. 
 viL p. 250.) As to its etymologj-, that which Gibbon adduces is given by 
 Bochart, Chan. ii. 5 ; but Salmasius, on better grounds, (not. in Lamprid. in 
 Elagab.,) derives the name of Elagabalus from the idol of that god, repre 
 sented by Herodian and the medals in the form of a mountain, (gibel in He 
 brew,) or great stone cut to a point, with marks which represent the sun. 
 As it ^vas not permitted, at Hierapolis, in Syria, to make statues of the sun 
 fcnd moon, because, it \vas said, they are themselves sufficiently visible, the 
 BTin ^vas represented at Emesa in the form of a great stone, ^vhich, as it ap- 
 peared, had fallen from heaven. Spanheim, Caesar, notes, p. 4C. — {.i. The 
 oarac of Elagabalus, in " nununis rarius legetur." Rasche, Lex. Univ. Re< 
 Numm. Rasche quotes tvfo. — M
 
 h. D. 219.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. IVl 
 
 as iwntiff" and favorite to adopt that sacred n«iiie) was dearer 
 to him than all the titles of Imperial greatness. In a solemn 
 procession through the streets of Rome, the way was strewed 
 with gold dust ; the black stone, set in precious gems, waa 
 placed on a chariot drawn by six milk-white hoi^ses richly 
 caparisoned. The pious emperor held the reins, and, sup- 
 2)orted by liis 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 sacri- 
 fices of the god Elagabalus were celebrated with every circum- 
 stance 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 mean- 
 est functions, with affected zeal and secret indignation." 
 
 To this temple, as to the common centre of religious wor- 
 ship, the Imperial fanatic attempted to remove the Ancilia, 
 the Palladium," and all the sacred pledges of the feith ol 
 Numa. A crowd of inferior deities attended in various sta- 
 tions 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 lest her warlike terrors might affright the soft 
 delicacy of a Syrian deity, the Moon, adorned by the Africans 
 under the name of Astarte, was deempd a more suitable com 
 panion for the Sun. Her image, with the )'ich offerings of 
 her temple as a marriage jjortion, 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." 
 
 A rational voluptuary adheres with invariable respect to the 
 temperate dictates of nature, and improves the gratifications 
 
 " Herodian, 1. v. p. 190. 
 
 '* He broke into the sanctuary of Vesta, and carried away a statue, 
 vliich he supposed to be the palladium; but the vestals boasted that, 
 ny a pio>>s fraud, they had imposed a counterfeit image on the profan<» 
 intruder. Hist. August, p. lOD. 
 
 " Dion, 1. Ixxix. p. 1360. Herodian, 1. v. p. 193. Tlie subject* 
 of the empire TPere obligee' to make L'ber.al presents to the new- 
 married couple ; an(' T^hn-teve.** they lv*d pr^ni'sed d"rL"g tlv* lift 
 of Elagabalus was carefully exijict^a uuJer vhe adiuiuisiTHuoo id 
 Mamiea.
 
 172 THE DECLINE AND FALL \l > . 21i. 
 
 of sense by social intercourse, endearing connoctiom . and the 
 Boft coloring of taste and the imagination. But E,.,igabalus, 
 (I speak of tlie emperor of that name,) corrupted by uis youth, 
 his country, and his fortune, abandoned himself to the grossest 
 pleasures with ungoverned fury, and soon found disgust and 
 satiety in the midst of his enjoyments. The inflammatory 
 powers of art were summoned to his aid : the contused mul- 
 titude of women, of wines, and of dishes, and the studied 
 variety of attitude 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,** 
 signalized his reign, and transmitted his infamy to succeeding 
 times. A capricious prodigality supplied the want of taste 
 and elegance ; and whilst Elagabalus lavished away thv) 
 treasures of his people in the wildest extravagance, his own 
 voice and that of his flatterers applauded a spirit of magniii- 
 cence unknown to the tameness of his predecessors. To con 
 found the order of seasons and climates," 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,'* were insufiicient 
 to satisfy the impotence of his passions. The master of the 
 Roman world affected to copy the dress and mannere of the 
 female sex, preferred the distatf" to the sceptre, and dishonored 
 the principal dign.iies of the empire by distributing them 
 among his numerous lovers ; one of whom was publicly in- 
 vested with the title and authority of the emperor's, or, as he 
 more properly styled himself, of the empress's husband.^* 
 
 '* The invention of a new sauce was liberally rewarded ; but if it 
 wa.a not relished, the inventor was confined to eat of nothing else till 
 be had discovered another more agreeable to the Imperial palate. 
 Hist. August, p. 111. 
 
 *' He never would eat sea-fish except at a great distance frora tho 
 Bea; 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. 
 
 ^8 Dion, 1. Ixxix. p. 1358. Herodian, 1. v. p 192. 
 
 '^ Hierocles enjoyed that honor ; but he would have been sup- 
 planted 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 repu- 
 tation, was driven with ignominy from the palace. Dion, 1. Ixxix, 
 p. 1563, lo6t. A dancer was made praefect of the city, a chariot*ei
 
 A. D. 221.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 178 
 
 It may seem probable, the vices and follies of Elagabalua 
 have been adorned by fancy, and blackened by prejudice." 
 Yet, confining ourselves to the public scenes displayed before 
 the Roman people, and attested by grave and contemporary 
 historians, their inexpressible infamy surpasses that of any 
 other age or country. The license of an eastern monarch ia 
 secluded from the eye of curiosity by the inaccessible walls of 
 his seraglio. The sentiments of honor and gallantry have 
 introduced a refinement of pleasure, a regard for decency, 
 and a respect for the public opinion, into the modern courta 
 of Europe ;* but the corrupt and opulent nobles of Home 
 gratified ever)' vice that could be collected from the mighty 
 conflux of nations and manners. Secure of impunity, careless 
 of censure, they lived without restraint 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 sover- 
 eign privilege of lust and luxury. 
 
 The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn 
 in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves ; 
 and can readily discover some nice difference of age, charac- 
 ter, 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 Ma- 
 maea. The crafty Msesa, sensible that her grandson Elaga- 
 balus must inevitably destroy himself by his own vices, had 
 provided another and surer support of her family. Embracing 
 a favorable moment of fondness and devotion, she had per- 
 suaded the young emperor to adopt Alexander, and to invest 
 him with the title of Caesar, that his own divine occupations 
 might be no longer interrupted by the care of the earth. In 
 
 prsefect of the watch, a barber prsefect of the provisions. These thret 
 ministers, with many inferior ofBcers, were all recommended encrmi 
 tate. mcmbrorum. Hist. August, p. 105. 
 
 '" Even the credulous compiler of his life, in the Au^stan Hvi- 
 ory (p. Ill) is inclined to suspect that his vices may have beea 
 exaggerated. 
 
 * Wenck has justly observed that Gibbou should have reckoned the influ- 
 ence of Christianity in this g^-eat change. In the most savage times, and 
 the most con-upt courts, since the introduction of Chri.stianity there bw* 
 been no Neros or Doiuitiaus, no Commodus or Elagabalus. — M.
 
 114 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 222 
 
 the second rank that amiable prince soon acquired the affec- 
 tions of tlie public, and excited the tyrant's jealousy, who 
 resolved to terminate the dangerous competition, either by cor- 
 rupting the manners, or by taking away the life, of his rival. 
 His arts proved unsuccessful ; his vain designs were constantly 
 discovered by his own loquacious folly, and disappointed by 
 those virtuous and faithful servants whom the prudence of 
 Maraaea 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 degraded his cousin from the rank and honors of 
 Caesar. The message was received in the senate witii silence, 
 and in the camp with fury. The Praetorian guards swore to 
 protect Alexander, and to revenge the dishonored 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 tho 
 possession of his beloved Hierocles, diverted their just indigna- 
 tion ; and they contented themselves with empowering their 
 praefects to watch over the safety of Alexander, and the conduct 
 of the emperor.*' 
 
 It was impossible that such a reconciliation should last, or 
 that even the mean soul of Elagabalus could hold an empire 
 on such humiliating terms of dependence. He soon attempted, 
 by a dangerous experiment, to try the temper of the soldiers. 
 The report of the death of Alexander, and the natural sus- 
 picion 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 instance of their affection for his cousin, and their 
 Contempt for his person, the emperor ventured to punish some 
 tf the leaders of the mutiny. His unseasonable severity proved 
 instantly fatal to his minions, his mother, and himself Elaga- 
 balus 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 infamy by 
 the senate ; the justice of whose decree has been ratified by 
 posterity.'* 
 
 *» Dion, 1. bocix. p. 1365. Herodian, 1. v. p. 195 — 201. Hist. August. 
 p. 105. The last of the three historians seems to have followed tho 
 best authors iu his account of the i-evolution. 
 
 ** The aera of the death of Elagabalus, and of the accession of 
 Alexander, has employed the learning and ingenuity of Pagi, Tille- 
 mont, Valsecchi, Vignoli. and Torre, bishop of Adria. The qiiestioB
 
 6 D. 222.J oy the roman empire. 175 
 
 in the room oi iiJagaDaius, his cousin Alexander waa 
 raised to the throne by tne Praetorian guards. Ilis relation to 
 the family of Severus, wnose name he assumed, was the same 
 as that of his predecessor; his virtue and his danger had 
 already endeared mm to the Romans, and the eager liberality 
 of the senate conferred upon him, in one day, the various titles 
 and powei-s of the Imperial dignity."^ But as Alexander waa 
 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, Mamcea remained the sole regent of her son and 
 of the empire. 
 
 In every age and country, the wiser, or at least the stronger, 
 of the two sexes, has usurped the powers of the state, and 
 confined the other to the cares and pleasures of domestic 
 life. In hereditary monarchies, however, and especially iu 
 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 mil- 
 ts 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 XiphiUn, Zonaras, and Cedrenus. 
 Elagabalus reigned three j'oars nine months and four days, from his 
 victory over Macrinus, and was killed March 10, 222. But what sliall 
 we reply to the medals, undoubtedly genuine, which reckon the fifth 
 year of his tribunitian power ? We shall reply, with the learned 
 Valsecchi, that tlie usurpation of Macrinus was annihilated, and that 
 '.he son of Caracalla dated his reign from liis father's death ? After 
 resolving this great difficulty, the smaller knots of this question may 
 Ve easily vmtied, or cut asunder.* 
 
 "^ Hist. August, p. 114. By this unusual precipitation, the senate 
 
 aeant to confound the hopes of pretenders, and prevent the factions 
 
 f the armies. 
 
 ' This opinion of Valsecchi has been triumphantly contested by Eckhol, 
 . 'ho lias shown the impossibility of rcconciliii;,' it with the medals of Elar 
 I;, balus, and has given the most satisfactory explanation of rlic five Iribu- 
 ni tes of that emperor. He ascended the throne and receive i the tribani- 
 tian power the IGtli of May, in the year of Home 971; aid on tUo Ist 
 Jamiary ^f *.he next year, U72, he began a new tribunate, according to tlie 
 *astom e«L."bli.s'iefl by preceding emperors. Daring the years 97U, 973, 974, 
 he en joye J tn." tribunal e, and commenced his fifth in the year 975, during 
 which he -ya.' knled ok the 10th March. P^ckliel de Doct. Num. viii. -130 
 ka— Q.
 
 l'Y6 THE DECLINE AND F.iLL [A D. 222. 
 
 itarj. But as the Rouian emperors were still consideud as 
 the generals and magistrates of the repullic, their wives and 
 mothers, although distinguished by the name of Augusta 
 were never associated to their personal honors ; and a female 
 reign would have appeared an inexpiable prodigy in the eyec 
 Df those primitive Kojxians, who married w'ithout love, or 
 oved without delicacy and respect." The haughty Agrip- 
 pina aspired, indeed, to share the honors 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 disap 
 pointed by the artful firmness of Seneca and Burrhus." The 
 good sense, or the indifference, of succeeding princes, restrained 
 them from oftendiug the prejudices of their subjects ; and it 
 was reserved for the profligate Elagabalus to discharge the acts 
 of the senate with the name of his mother Sosemias, who was 
 placed by the side of the consuls, and subscribed, as a regular 
 member, the decrees of the legislative assembly. Her more 
 prudent sister, Mamsea, declined the useless and odious pre- 
 rogative, 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." 
 The substance, not the pageantry, of power, was the object of 
 Mamaea's manly ambition. She maintained an absolute and 
 lasting empire over the mind of her son, and in his aftection 
 the mother could not brook a rival. Alexander, with her con- 
 sent, married the daughter of a patrician ; but his respect for 
 his father-in-law, and love for the empress, were inconsistent 
 with the tenderness or interest of Mamsea. The patrician was 
 executed on the ready accusation of treason, and the wife oi 
 Alexander driven 'vith ignominy from the palace, and banished 
 into iVfrica."" 
 
 '* Metellu3 Numidicus, the censor, acknowledged to the Roman 
 people, in a public oration, that had kind nature allowed us to exist 
 without the help of women, we should be dehvered from a very 
 troublesome companion ; and he could recommend matrimony only 
 as the sacrifice of private pleasure to public duty. Aulus Gellius, 
 16. 
 
 «* Tacit. Annal. xiii. 5. •* 
 
 •" Hist. August, p. 102, 107. 
 
 ''' Dion, 1. Lxxx. p. 1369. Herodian, 1. vi. p. 206. Hist. August 
 p 131. Herodian represents the patrician as innocent. The Augus- 
 tan History, on the authority of Dexippus, condemns him, as guilty 
 of a conspiracy against the Ufa of Alexander. It is impossible to pro- 
 nounce betweon them ; but Dion is an irreproachable witness of the
 
 A. D. 222.] OF THE ROMAN EMriRE. lYl 
 
 Notwithstanding this act of jealous cruelty, as well as soma 
 instances of avarice, with which Mamaja is cnarged, the gen- 
 eral 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 perpetual council of state, before whom every 
 public business of moment was debated and determined, 
 The celebrated Ulpian, equally distinguished by his knowledge 
 of, and his respect for, the laws of Koine, was at their head ; 
 and the prudent firmness of this aristocracy restored order and 
 authority to the government. As soon as they had purged the 
 city from foreign superstition and luxury, the remains of the 
 capricious tyranny of Elagabalus, they applied themselves 
 to remove his worthless creatures from every department 
 of the 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 ; valor, and 
 the love of discipline, the only qualifications for military employ 
 ments."' 
 
 But the most important care of Mamoea and her wise coun- 
 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 pleasure of knowledge, and the 
 necessity of labor. A natural mildness and moderatioa of 
 temper preserved him from the assaults of passion, and tlie 
 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.* 
 
 jealousy and cruelty of Mamtea towards the young empress, whose 
 nard fate Alexander lamented, but durst not oppose. 
 
 63 Herodian, 1. vi. p. 203. Hist. August, p. 119. The latter insin- 
 uates, that when any law was to be passed, the council was assisted by 
 R number of able lawyers and experienced senators, whose opinions 
 were separately given, and taken down in writing. 
 
 * Alexander received into his chapel all the relifrions which prevailed in 
 the empire ; he admitted Jesus Christ, Ahraham, Orphcu.?, Apollonius of 
 Tyana, &e. It was almost certain that his niotiicr Mamoea had instructed 
 hun in the morality of Christianity. Historians in general agree in calliiig 
 Ler a Cliristian ; there is reason to helieve that she had begun to have a 
 taslo fur the principles of Christianity. (See Tiliemont, Alexander Seve- 
 ro«) Gihbon ha.s not noticed this circumstance; he appears to hove
 
 178 THE DECXINE AND FALL [A. D. 222, 
 
 The simple journal of liis ordinary occupations exhibits a 
 pleasing picture of an accomplished emperor/' and, with 
 Bome allowance for the difference of manners, might well 
 deserve the imitation of modern princes. Alexander rose 
 earlj : the first moments of the day were consecrated to pri- 
 vate devotion, and his domestic chapel was filled, with the 
 'jnages of those heroes, who, by improving or reforming 
 human life, had deserved the grateful reverence of posterity. 
 But SIS he deemed the service of mankind the most acceptable 
 worship of the gods, the greatest part of his morning hours 
 was employed in his council, where he discussed pubhc 
 aflfairs, and determined private causes, with a patience and 
 discretion above his years. The dryness of business was 
 relieved by the charms of literature ; and a portion of time 
 was always set apart for his favorite studies of poetry, histo- 
 ry, 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, 
 surpassed most of his equals in the gymnastic arts. Ee- 
 freshed by the use of the bath and a slight dinner, he 
 resumed, with new vigor, the business of the day; and, till 
 the hour of supper, the principal 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 
 
 *3 See his life in the Augustan History. The undistinguishing 
 coinpiler has buried these interesting anecdotes under a load of trivial 
 #-od unmeaning cucumstances. 
 
 wished to lower the character of this empres.s ; he has throughout followed 
 the narrative of Herodiau, who, by the acknowledgment of Capitoliuus 
 himself, detested Alexander. Witliout believing the exaggerated praises 
 of Lampridius, he ouglit not to have followed the unjust severity of Hero- 
 diau, and, above all. not to have forgotten to say that the virtuous Alex- 
 ander Severus had insured to the Jews the preservation of their privileges, 
 and permitted the exercise of Christianity. Hist. Aug. p. 121. The 
 Christians had established their worship in a public place, of which the 
 victuallers (cauponarii) claimed, not the property, but possession by cus- 
 tom. Alexander answered, that it was better that the place should be used 
 for the .service of God, m any fonn, than for victuallers. — G. I have 
 scrupled to omit this note, as it contains some points worthy of notice ; bat 
 it is very unjust to Gibbon, who mentions almost all the circumstances, 
 which he is accused of omitting, in another, and, according to his plan, t 
 fitter olace, and, perhaps, iu stronger tenns than M. Guizot. See Chap 
 Jtvi.- M.
 
 A. D. 222 -235.] of the roman empire. 179 
 
 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 learn- 
 ing and virtue, amongst whom Ulpian wjis constantly invited. 
 Their conversation was familiar and 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." The dress of 
 Ale.\ander was plain and modest, his dem ^anor courteous and 
 aflfable : at the proper hours his palace was open to all his 
 subjects, but the voice of a crier was heard, as in the Eleu- 
 sinian mysteries, pronouncing the same salutary admonition : 
 " Let none enter these holy walls, unless lie is conscious of a 
 pure and innocent mind." " 
 
 Such a uniform tenor of life, which left not a moment for 
 vice or folly, is a better ^^roof of the wisdom and justice of 
 Alexander's governme».t, than all the trifling details preserved 
 in the compilation of Lampridius. Since the accession of 
 Commodus, the Roman world had experienced, during the 
 term of forty years, the successive and various vices of four 
 tyrants. From the death of Elagabalus, it enjoyed an aus- 
 picious calm of thirteen years.*" The provinces, relieved from 
 the oppressive taxes invented by Caracalla and his pretended 
 son, flourished in peace and prosperity, under the administration 
 of magistrates, who were convinced by experience that to 
 deserve the love of the subjects, was their best and only method 
 of obtaining the favor 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 
 vnrtuous senator might approach the person of the emperor 
 without a fear and without a blush. 
 
 TO See the 13th Satire of Juvenal. 
 " Hist. August, p. 119. 
 
 * Wenck observes that Gibbon, enchanted with the virtue of Alexander 
 has heightened, particularly in this sentence, its effect on the stale of tha 
 world. His own account, w^hich follows, of the insun-ections and foreigr* 
 Wars, is not in hannony with this beauti''ul picture. — M.
 
 180 THE DECLINE AND FAIX [A. D. 222-2»t, 
 
 The name of Antoninus, ennobled by the virtues of Piua 
 and Marcus, had been communicated bj adoption to the dis- 
 solute Verus, and by descent to the ciuel Commodus. It 
 became the honorable appellation of the sons of Se rerus, 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 impor- 
 tunity of the senate, nobly refused the borrowed lustre of a 
 name ; whilst in his whole conduct he labored to restore the 
 glories and felicity of the age of the genuine Antonines." 
 
 In the civil administration of Alexander, wisdom was 
 enforced by i)ower, and the people, sensible of the public 
 felicity, 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, ren- 
 dered them impatient of the restraints of discipline, and care- 
 less 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 sujipfed a fund of 
 gold and silver for the ordinary pay and the extraordinary 
 rewards of the troops. In tlieir 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 coun- 
 try, 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 
 armor, 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 occa- 
 sion, the warmest regard for a body of men, whose welfare, 
 jis he afiected to declare, was so closely connected with that 
 
 '* See, in the Hist. August, p. 116, 117, the whole coutest between 
 Alexander and tbc senate, extracted from the journals of that assem- 
 bly. It happened on the sixth of March, probably of the year 223, 
 wlien the Romans had enjoyed, almost a twelvemonth, the blessinge 
 of his reign. Before the appellation of Antoninus was offered him as a 
 title of honor, the senate vraifed to s^e whether Alexandt-^ -wouiil ooi 
 Meumc it as a family name.
 
 A. D. 222-235.] of the roman empikk. ISl 
 
 of the state." By the most gentle arts be hiboied to insj)ir« 
 the fierce multitude with a sense of duty, and to restore, at 
 least a faint image of that discipline to which the Romans 
 owed their empire over so many other nations, as warlike and 
 more powerful 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 PrjEtorian guards were attached to the youth of Alex- 
 vider. They loved him as a tender pupil, whom they had 
 saved from a tyrant's fury, and placed on the Imperial throne. 
 That amia])le prince was sensible of the obligation ; but as 
 his gratitude was restrained within the limits of reason and 
 'ustice, they soon were more dissatisfied with the virtues of 
 Alexander, than they had ever been with the vices of Elaora- 
 balus. 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 pernicious counsels every scheme of 
 reformation was imputed. Some trifling accident blew up 
 their discontent into a furious mutiny ; and the civil war 
 raged, during three days, in Rome, whilst the life of that ex- 
 cellent minister was defended by the gratefal people. Terri- 
 fied, 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 unfortunate Ulpian to his fate. 
 He was pursued into the Imperial palace, and massacred at 
 the feet of his master, who vaiidy strove to cover him with 
 the purple, and to obtain his pardon from the inexorable sol- 
 diers.* Such was the deplorable weakness of government, 
 that the emperor was unable to revenge his murdered friend 
 
 " It was a favorite saying of the emperor's, Se railites magis servare, 
 quam seipsurc , quod salus publica in his esset. Hist. Aug. p. 130. 
 
 * Gibbon has confounded two events altogether different — the quan-el of 
 the people with the ProBtorians, which lasted three days, and the assassins 
 tiou of Ulpian by the latter. Dion relates first tlie death of Ulpian , alter 
 wards, reverting back according to a manner which is usual with him, he 
 Bays that during the life of Ulpian, there had been a war of three days be- 
 tween the Pra'torians and the people. But Ulpian was not the cause. Dion 
 Bays, on the contrary, that it was occasioned by some unimportant circum- 
 stance ; whilst he assigns a weighty reason for the murder of Ulpian, tho 
 Judgment by which that Pranorian praefect had condemned his predecessors, 
 (Jhrestus and Flaviau, to death, whom the soldiers withed to revenge. Zo' 
 «imu« (1. 1, c. xi.) attributes tliis sentence to Manuura ; but, even then, tJi« 
 iroops might have imputed it to Ulpian, who had reaped all the advaiitag* 
 ftiui \* as others ise odious to tliem. — W.
 
 ltJ-2 THE DECLINE AND FAIL [A. D. 'J 2 2-2 3* 
 
 and liis insulted dignity, witliout stooping to the arts of 
 patience and dissimulation. Epagathus, the princijal leader 
 of the mutiny, was removed from Rome, by the honorable, 
 employment of prsefect 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 efiaced bj 
 time and absence, Alexander ventured to inflict the tardy but 
 deserved punishment of his dimes.'* Under the reign of a 
 just and virtuous prince, the tyranny of the army threatened 
 with instant death his most faithful ministers, who were sus- 
 pected of an intention to correct their intolerable disorders. 
 The historian Dion Cassius had commanded the Pannonian 
 legions with the spirit of ancient discipline. Their brethren 
 of Rome, embracing the common cause of military license, 
 demanded the head of the reformer. Alexander, however, 
 instead of yielding to their seditious clamors, showed a just 
 sense of his merit and services, by appointing him his col- 
 eague in the consulship, and defraying from his own treasury 
 the expense of that vain dignity : but as was justly appre- 
 hended, that if the soldiers beheld him with the ensigns of his 
 ofiice, they would revenge the insult in his blood, the nominal 
 first magistrate of the state retired, by the emperor's advice, 
 from the city, and spent the greatest part of his consulship at 
 his villas in Campania."* 
 
 The lenity of the emperor confirmed the insolence of the 
 troops ; the legions imitated the example of the guards, and 
 defended their prerogative of licentiousness with tho same 
 furious obstinacy. The administration of Alexander was an 
 unavailing struggle against the corruption of his age. In 
 '^llvricum, m Mauritania, in Armenia, in Mesopotamia, in Ger- 
 
 '* Though the author of the hfe of Alexander (Hist. August 
 
 E. 182) mentions the sedition raised against Ulpian by the soldiers, 
 e conceals the catastrophe, as it might discover a we.akness in the 
 administration of his hero. From this designed omission, we may 
 judge of the weight and candor of that author. 
 
 '^ For an account of Ulpian's fate and his own danger, see the 
 mutilated conclusion of Dion's History, L Ixxx. p. 1371. 
 
 * Dion possessed no estates in Campania, and was not rich. He only 
 says diat the emperor advised him to reside, during liis consulate, in some 
 p^ <ics out of Rome ; that he returned to Rome after the end of his consul- 
 ate, and had an uiterview with the emperor in Campania. He asked and 
 oijtained leave to pass the rest of his life in his native city, ^Nice, 
 in Bithynia :) it was there that he finished his histoi-y, which closes with hi* 
 lecond consulship. — W.
 
 A- D. 222-235.] of the roman empire. 183 
 
 • 
 many, frcili mutinies perpetually broke out ; his officers ivere 
 murjered, his authority was insulted, and his lite at last sacri 
 ficed to the fierce discontents of the army.'" One particulai 
 fact well deserves to be recorded, as it illustrates the manners 
 of the troops, and exhibits a singular instance of their return 
 to a sense of duty and obedience. Whilst the empei'or lay at 
 Antiocli, in his Persian expedition, the particulars of which we 
 shall he'cafter 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 inflex- 
 ible resolution, 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 clamors interrupted his mild expostulation. " Reserve 
 your shout," said the undaunted emperor, " till you take th-e 
 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 j'ou sol- 
 ders, but citizens,^'' 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 bran- 
 dished arms already threatened his person. " Your courage," 
 resumed the intrepid Alexander, "would be more nobly dis- 
 played 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 
 kud 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 tlieir punish- 
 ment, 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, dur- 
 ing thirty days, the edifying spectacle of their repentance ; 
 
 *• Annot. Reimar. ad Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxx. p. 1369. 
 
 '^ Julius Caisar had appeased a seditiou with the same word, Quit ':■ 
 tea; which, thus opposed to soldiers, was used in a sense of contempt, 
 and reduced the offenders to <he loss honorable condition of mer« 
 citisens. Tacit. Anna], i. 43.
 
 184 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A, D.^ 22-235 
 
 nor did be restore them to their former rank in the army, tili 
 he had punished with death those tribunes whose connivance 
 Jiad occasioned the mutiny. The grateful legion served the 
 emperor whilst living, and revenged him when dead.'* 
 
 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 this sin- 
 gular transaction had been investigated by the penetration of 
 a philosppher, we should discover the secret causes which on 
 that occasion authorized the boldness of the prince, and com- 
 manded 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 situa- 
 tion, the firmness of his conduct inferior to the purity of his 
 intentions. His virtues, as well as the vices of Llagabalus, 
 contracted a tincture of weakness and effeminacy from the 
 soft cliniHte of Syria, of which he was a native ; though he 
 blushed at his foreign origin, and listened with a vain compla- 
 cency to the flattering genealogists, who derived his race from 
 the ancient stock of Roman nobility." The pride and avr 
 rice of his mother cast a shade on the glories of his reign ; an 
 by exacting from his riper years the same dutiful obedience 
 which she had justly claimed from his unexperienced youth, 
 Mamaea exposed to public ridicule both her son's character 
 and her own.*° The fatigues of the Persian war irritated the 
 
 " Hist. August, p. 132. 
 
 " From the Metelli. Hist. August, p. 119. The choice was judi 
 cjous. lu one short period of twelve years, the Metelli could reckon 
 seven consulships and five triumphs. See Velleius Paterculus, ii. 1 1 
 and the Fasti. 
 
 "" The life of Alexander, in the Augustan History, is the mere idea 
 of a perfect prince, an awkward imitation of the Cyropa;dia. Tlie 
 account of his reign, as given by Herodian, is rational and moderate, 
 consistent with the general history of the age ; and, in some of th« 
 most invidious particulars, confirmed by the decisive fragments of 
 Dion. Yet from a very paltry prejudice, the greater number of oui 
 nndern writers abuse Herodian, and copy the Augustan History 
 See Mess, de Tillemont and Wotton. From the opposite prejudice, 
 the empetor Julian (in Caesarib. p. 315) dwells with a visible satisfao- 
 Uon on the effeminate weakness of the Syrian, and the ridicnloiv 
 avarice of his mother.
 
 A. D. 222-235.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 18ft 
 
 military dis(»iitont ; the unsuccsssful event* degraded the rep- 
 utation of the emperor as a general, and even as x soldier 
 Every cause prepared, and every circumstance liastened, a 
 revolution, which distracted the Roman empiie with a long 
 Beries of intestine calamities. 
 
 The dissolute tyranny of Commodus, the civil wars occa- 
 sioned by his death, and the new maxims of policy introduced 
 Dy the 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. The internal change, which under- 
 mined the foundations of the empire, we have endeavored to 
 explain with some degree of order and pers2)icuity. The 
 pei"sonal characters of the emperors, their victories, laws, fol- 
 lies, and fortunes, can interest us no farther than as they are 
 connected with the general histoiy 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 An- 
 toninus Caracalla, which communicated to all the free inhab 
 Itants of the empire the name and privileges of Roman cit- 
 izens. His unbounded liberality flowed not, however, from 
 the sentiments of a generous mind ; it was the sordid result of 
 avarice, 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 Veil in Tuscany, the first considerable enter- 
 prise of the Romans, was protracted to the tenth year, much 
 less by the strength of the place than by the unskilfulness of 
 
 * Historians are divided as to the success of the campaign against the 
 Persians; Herodian alone speaks of defeat. Lampridius, Eutropius, Victor, 
 and others, say tliat it ^vas very glorious to Alexander ; tliat he beat Ar- 
 taxerxes in a great battle, and repelled him from the frontiers of the empire. 
 This much is certain, that Alexander, on his return to Rome, (Lamp. Hist 
 Aug. c. 56, 133, 134,) received the Iwnors of a triumph, and that he said, it 
 his oration to the people, ftuirites, vicimus Persas, milites divites reduximus, 
 vobis congiai'ium poUicemur, eras ludos circenses Persicos donabimus. Al- 
 exander, says Eckliel, had too much modesty and wisdom to pennit himself 
 to ^l^ceive honors which ought only to be the reward of victory, if he had 
 not deserved them ; he would have contented himself with dissembling liig 
 losses. Eckhcl, Doct. Num. vet. vii. 270. The medals represent him as in 
 triumph ; one, among others, displays him crowned by Victory between 
 two rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris. P. M. Til. P. xii. Cos. iii. PP. 
 Iinperator paludatus D. hastam. S. parazonium, stat inter duos tluvios humi 
 ^centes, et ab accedente retro Victoria coronatur. .'E. max. mod. (Maa. 
 Beg. Gall.) Although Gibbon treats this question more in detail wlion ha 
 •peaks of the Persian monarcny. I have thought fit to place here what cob 
 tradicta his opinion. — G
 
 18fJ THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 222-23ft 
 
 the btjsiegers. The unaccustomed hardships cf so many win- 
 ter cau'.paigns, at the distance of near twenty miles from 
 home,*' required more than common encouragements ; and 
 the senate wisely prevented the clamors 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 pro- 
 portion on the property of the citizens/* During moi-e 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 ser- 
 vice 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 themselves. That high-spirited people (sucu is 
 often the generous enthusiasm of freedom) cheerfully sub- 
 mitted to the most excessive but voluntary burdens, in the just 
 confidence that they should speedily enjoy the rich harvest of 
 their labors. Their expectations were not disappointed. In 
 the course of a few years, the riches of Syracuse, of Car- 
 thage, of Macedonia, and of Asia, were brought in triumph to 
 Rome. The treasures of Perseus alone amounted to near two 
 iniOions sterling, and the Roman people, the sovereign of so 
 many nations, was forever delivered from the weight of taxes.*' 
 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.** 
 
 History has never, perhaps, suffered a greater or more 
 
 *' According to the more accurate Dionysius, the city itself waa 
 nAj a hundred stadia, or tAvelve 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 combated the popular opinion and 
 the authority of two popes, and has removed Veii from Civita Castel- 
 lana, to a httle spot called Isola, in the midway between Rome and the 
 Lake Bracciano.* 
 
 '^ See the 4th and 5tli books of Livy. In tlie Roman census, prop- 
 irty, power, and taxation were commensurate with each other. 
 
 " Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii. c. 3. Cicero de Offic. ii. 22. I'lutarch, 
 n P. ^mil. p. 275. 
 
 ** See a tine description of this accumulated wealth of ages in 
 (^cau's Phars. 1. iii. v. 155, <fec. 
 
 • See th«; iute^est^ug account of the site and ruins of Veii in Sir W OeQ'i 
 lotK)grs{iliy ofKomc and its Virinf'y. v. ii. p. 303. — M.
 
 A. D. 222-2 3 5.] of the roman empire. IW 
 
 Irreparable injury than in the loss of the curious register* be- 
 queathed by Augustus to the senate, in which that experienced 
 prince so accurately balanced the revenues and expenses of 
 the Roman empire,** Deprived of this clear and comprehen- 
 sive estimate, we are reduced to collect a few imperfect hints 
 from such of the ancients as have accidentally turned aside 
 from the splendid to the more useful parts of history. We 
 are informed that, by the 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 ster- 
 ling,** f Under the last and most 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 after- 
 wards considerably improved by the more exact economy of 
 the Romans, and the increase of the trade of' Ethiopia and 
 India,*^ Gaul was enriched by rapine, as Egypt was by com- 
 merce, and the tributes of those two great provinces have 
 been compared as nearly equal to each other in value.** The 
 ten thousand Euboic or Phoenician talents, about four millions 
 sterling,*" which vanquished Carthage was condemned to pay 
 Avithin the term of fifty years, Avere a slight acknowledgment 
 of the superiority of Rome,"" and cannot bear the least pro* 
 
 *^ Tacit, in Annal. i. 11. It seems to have existed in the time of 
 Appian. 
 
 '"' Plutarch, in Pompeio, p. 642. 
 
 " Strabo, 1. xvii. p. 798. 
 
 •** Velleius Pateiculus, I. ii. c. 39. He seems to give the preference 
 to the revenue of Gaul. 
 
 ^^ The Euboic, the Phcsnician, and the Alexandrian talents Avere 
 •*ouble in Av^eiglit to the Attic. See Hooper on ancient weiglits and 
 measures, p. iv. c. 5. It is very probable that the same talent Avaa 
 carried from Tyre to Carthage. 
 
 " Polyb. 1. XV. c. 2. 
 
 * Sec Rationarium imperii. Compare besides Tacitus, Suet. Aug. c. ult. 
 Dion, p 8.32. Other emperors kept and publislicd similar registers. See 
 a dissertation of Dr. Wolle, do Rationario imperii Rom. Leipsig, 1773. The 
 last book of Appian also contained the statistics of the Roman empire, but 
 It is lost. — "W. 
 
 t Wenck contests the accuracy of Gibbon's version of Plutarch, ;ind sup- 
 poses that Pompey only raised the revenue from .50,000.000 to 8"), 000, 000 of 
 drachms; but the text of Plutarch seems clearly to mean that his concjuesli 
 added 8.5,000,000 to the ordinary revenue. Wencli adds, " Phitarch saya 
 in another part, that Antony made Asia pay, at one time, 200,000 talents, 
 that is to say, 38,875,000/. sterling." But Appian explains this by saying 
 ihat it was the revenue of ten years, which brings the annual revenue, al 
 the time of Anl^iy, to 3,875,000/. sterling. — M.
 
 188 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 222-296, 
 
 portion with the taxes afterwards raised both on the lands and 
 on the persons of the inliabitants, when the feitile coast of 
 Africa was reduced into a province."' 
 
 Spain, by a very singnhir fatality, was the Peru and Mexico 
 of the old world. The discovery of the rich western conti- 
 nent by the Phoenicians, and the oppression of the simple 
 natives, who were compelled to labor in their own mines for 
 the benefit of strangers, form an exact type of the more recent 
 history of Spanish America.'^ The Phoenicians were acquaint- 
 ed only with the sea-coast of Spain ; avarice, as well as am- 
 bition, 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 
 pound:? a year.®* Twenty thousand pound weight of gold was 
 annually received from the provinces of Asturia, Gallicia, and 
 Lusitania.** 
 
 We want both leisure and materials to pursue this curious 
 inquiry through the many potent states that were annihilated 
 in the Roinan 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 sever^i attv"*ntion that was directed to the abodes of solitude 
 and sterili*.y. Augustus once received a petition from the in- 
 habitants of Gyarus, humbly praying that they might be re- 
 lieved from one third of their excessive impositions. Theii 
 whole tax amounted indeed to no more than one hundred and 
 fifty drachms, ov about five pounds : but Gyarus was a littlo 
 island, or rather a rocl^, of the ^"Egean Sea, destitute of fresh 
 water and every neco'^f^ry of life, and inhabited only by a fev» 
 wretched fishermen.** 
 
 "' Appian in Punicis, p. 84. 
 
 "^ Diodorus Siculus, 1. 5. CiMli's was built by the Phoaniciaca 
 a little more than a thousand yeai3 beJoie Chri.st. See Veil. Pa 
 ter. i. 2. 
 
 " Strabo, 1. iii. p. 148. 
 
 '• Plin. Hist. Natur. L xxxiii. c. S. K-j men^if^s lilf-^wi^f a slI 
 rcr mine in Dabnatia, that yielded cverj' day fil'*y pound? to Lht 
 Atftte. 
 
 •* Strabo, 1. x. p. 485. Tacit. AnnaL iii. t.9, a.^Q jr. 80. S<m» u 
 
 Compare Heeren's Researches vol i. part U. p 4' f>\ k'. - II
 
 A-D. 222-235.J of the roman empire. 1M 
 
 From the faint glimmerings of sucli doubtful and scattered 
 lights, we should be inolined to believe, 1st, That (with every 
 fair allowance for the difterences of times and circumstances) 
 the general income of the Roman provinces could seldom 
 imount to less than fifteen or twenty millions of our money ;*' 
 and, 2dly, 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 aspir- 
 ing 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 pi'ovinces, or to impoverish 
 the senate and the equestrian order. But no sooner had he 
 assumed the reins of government, than he frequently inti- 
 mated the insufficiency of the tributes, and the necessity of 
 throwing an equitable proportion of the public burden upon 
 Rome and Italy .f In the prosecution of this unpopular design, 
 
 Fom-nefort (Voyages au Levant, Lettre viii.) a very lively picture of 
 the actual misery of Gyarus. 
 
 "" Lipsius de magnitudine Romana (I. ii. c. 3) computes the reve- 
 nue at one hundred and fifty millions of gold crowns ; but his whole 
 book, though learned and ingenious, betrays a very heated imagina- 
 tion.* 
 
 * If Justus Lipsius has exasTgerated the revenue of the Roman empire 
 Gibbon, on the other hand, has undeiTated it. He fixes it at fifteen ot 
 tu-enty millions of our money. But if we take only, on a moderate calcula 
 tion, the taxes in the provinces which he has already cited, they wdll amount, 
 considering the augmentations made by Au.gustus, to nearly that sum 
 There remain also the provinces of Itah', of lUiretia, of Noricum, Pannonia. 
 and Greece, &c., &c. Let us pay attention, besides, to the prodigious ex- 
 penditure of some einperors, (Suet. Vesp. IG ;) we shall see that such a rev- 
 enue could not be sufficient. The autliors of the Universal Ili.story, part 
 xji., assign forty millions sterling as the sum to about which the public rev- 
 enue might amount. — G. from W. 
 
 t It is not a.stonishing that Augustus held this langnage. The senate de- 
 clared also under Nero, that the state could not exi.^t w'idiout the imposts as 
 well augmented as founded by Augustus. Tac. Ann. xiii. 50. After the 
 ftH^liiion of the different tributes paid by Italy, an abolition which took place 
 A U. 64K, 694, and G9o, the state derived no revenues from that great coun 
 try, but the twentieth j)art of the manumissions, (vicesima manumissionum,) 
 and Cicero laments this in many places, part'cularly in his epistles to Atti 
 va», ii. 15. — G. from \V.
 
 190 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 222-235 
 
 he advanced, however, by cautious and well-weighed steps 
 The introduction of customs was followed by the establish 
 ment 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 
 of 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, duties Averf 
 imposed on every kind of merchandise, which through a thou- 
 sand channels flowed to the great centre of opulence and lux- 
 ury ; and in whatsoever manner the law was expressed, it 
 was the Roman purchaser, and not the provincial merchant, 
 who paid the tax." 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 labor 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.'* 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 ; "^ Parthian and Babylonian 
 
 " Tacit. Annal. xiii. 31.* 
 
 "* See Pliny, (Hist. Natur. 1. vi. c. 23, Ixii. 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 tho 
 customs, since that original price amounted to more than eight himdred 
 thousand pounds. 
 
 °" The ancients were unacquainted with tlie art of cutting 
 diamonds. 
 
 " The customs fportoria) existed in the times of the ancient kint's of Rome 
 They were suppressed in Italy, A. U. 6!'4, by the Prajlor, Ceci!i"s MfteUai 
 NexK>* Angnstup (?nly rpestiWislied'tliem See note above. — W.
 
 A.. D. 2 2 '2-2 3 5.] of xfrK Roman empire. !•! 
 
 leather, cottons, silks, both i-aw and manufactured, ebony 
 ivory, and eunuchs.'"" We may observe that the use and 
 value of those effeminate slaves gradually rose with the decline 
 of the empire. 
 
 If. The excise, introduced by Augustus after the civil wars, 
 was extremely ■ moderate, but it was general. It se.'dom 
 exceeded one per cent. ; but it comprehended whatever was 
 sold in the markets or by public auction, from the most con- 
 isiderable purchases of lands and houses, to those minute 
 objects which can only derive a value from their infinite mul- 
 titude and daily consumption. Such a tax, as it affects the 
 body of the people, has ever been the occasion of clamor 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.'" 
 
 III. When Augustus resolved to establish a permanent mil- 
 itary 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 inad- 
 equate. 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 business 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."* The new imposition on legacies and inheritances 
 
 ""' M. Bouchaud, in his treatise de I'lmpot chez les Romains, has 
 transcribed this catalogue from the Digest, ard attempts to illustrate 
 it by a very prolix commentary.* 
 
 "*' Tacit. Annal. i. 78. Two years afterwards, the reduction of the 
 poor kingdom of Cappadocia gave Tiberius a pretence for diminishing 
 the excise to one half, lint the relief v/as of very short duration. 
 
 '" Dion Cassias, 1. Iv. p. 704, 1. Ivi. p. 8-25.f " 
 
 * Tn the Pandects, I. .30, t. M, do Publican. Compare Ciccrn in Vorrem, 
 
 II <•. ,.C~li.~W. 
 
 t Dion neither mentions tins pmpoMtion nor the capitniion. He tmtf
 
 '■1C2 THE DECllXE AND FALL [A.D. 222-2?5 
 
 was, however, mitigated by some j'esti'ictions. It did not take 
 place unless the object was of a certain value, most probably 
 of" fifty or a hundred pieces of gold ;'°' nor could it be exacted 
 from the nearest of kin on the fether's side.'" When the 
 rights of nature and poverty were thus secured, it seemed 
 reasonable, that a stranger, or a distant relation, who acquired 
 an unexpected accession of fortune, should cheerfully resign a 
 twentieth part of it, for the benefit of the state.'"* 
 
 Such a tax, plentiful as it must prove in every wealthy com- 
 munity, v^as most happily suited to the situation of the Romans, 
 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.'"' But a rich childish 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 
 lixely descriptions of satire, was divided between two parties, 
 the hunters and their game."" Yet, while so many unjust and 
 extravagant wills were every day dictated by cunning and sub- 
 scribed 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 a hundred and seventy thousand 
 
 "" The sum is only fixed by conjecture. 
 
 '"* As the Roman law subsisted for many ages, the Coijnati, or re 
 lations on tlie mother's side, were not called to the succession. This 
 harsh institution was gradually undermined by humanity, and finally 
 abolished by Justinian 
 
 '" Plin. Panegyric, c. 37. 
 
 "" See Heineccius in the Antiquit. Juris Romani, 1. ii. 
 
 = " Horat. 1. ii. Sat. v. Potron. c. 116, &c. PUn. 1. ii. Epist. 20. 
 
 tays that the emperor imposed a tax upon laiitled property, and sent ev.iry 
 //here men employed to make a survey, without fixing how much, anfl fci 
 fei)w much each was to pay. The scnator.s then preferred giving their asa 
 tbe tax on legacies and iuheritaaces. — W.
 
 A.D. '222-235.J o.w the roman empire. 
 
 lys 
 
 pouuds ; '** nor do the friends of the younger PHny seem to 
 Lave been less generous to that amiable orator.'"' 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. 
 
 In the first and golden years of the reign of Nero, that 
 prince, from a desire of popularity, and perhaps from a blind 
 onpulse of benevolence, conceived a wish of abolishing the 
 Dppression 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.'"* Had it indeed been possible 
 to realize this dream of fancy, such princes as Trajan and the 
 Antonines would surely have embraced with ardor the glorious 
 opportunity of conferring so signal an obligation on mankind. 
 Satisfied, however, 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 interpreta- 
 tions, antiquated claims, and the insolent vexation of the farm- 
 ere of the revenue.'" For it is somewhat singular, that, in 
 every age, the best and wisest of the Roman governors perse- 
 vered in this pernicious method of collecting the principal 
 branches at least of the excise and customs."' 
 
 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 bad excited in the array. Of the several impositions intro- 
 duced 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 prod- 
 uce continually increased with the gradual extension of the 
 
 !<•« Cicero in Philip, ii. c. 16. 
 
 '"" See liis epistles. Every such will gave him an occasion of dia- 
 claying his reverence to the dead, and liis justice to the living. He 
 reconciled both in his behavior to a son who had been disinherited by 
 his mother, (v. 1.) 
 
 "" Tacit. Annal. xiii. 50. Esprit des Loix, 1. xii. c. 19. 
 
 "' See Pliny's Panegyric, the Augustan History, and Bur man. do 
 Vectigal. passim. 
 
 "" The tributes (properly so called) were not farmed-, since the 
 gooa piinces often remitted many millions of arrears. 
 
 ^'^OL. I — I
 
 i04 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 222-235 
 
 Roman City. The new citizens, though charged, on equal 
 terms,*'^ 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 honors and fortune that was thrown open 
 to their ambition. But the favor which implied a distinction 
 was lost in the prodigality of Caracalla, and the reluctant pro- 
 vincials 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 measure of taxation as had 
 appeared sufficient to his moderate predecessors. Instead of 
 a twentieth, he exacted a tenth of all legacies and inherit- 
 ances ; and during his reign (for the ancient proportion was 
 restored after his deatti) he crushed alike every part of the 
 empire under the weight of his iron sceptre."* 
 
 When all the provincials became liable to the pecuhar im- 
 positions of Roman citizens, they seemed to acquire a legal 
 exemption from the tributes which they had paid in their 
 former condition 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 j)rovinces. 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 thirteenth part of the sum exacted 
 at the time of his accession."^ It is impossible to conjecture 
 the motive that engaged him to spare so trifling a remnant of 
 
 "' The situation of the new citizens is minutely described by Pliny, 
 (Panegyric, c. 37, 38, 39.) Trajan published a law very much in their 
 favor. 
 
 ^^* Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1295. 
 
 "" 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, with the 
 commentary of Salmasius. , 
 
 * Gibbon has adopted the ophiion of Spanhcim and of Burman, which 
 attributes to Caracalla this edict, which gave the right of the city to all 
 the mhabitants of the provinces. This opinion may be disputed. Several 
 passages of Spartianus, of Aurelius Victor, and of Aristides, attribute 
 this edict to Marc. Aurelius. Sue a learned essay, entitled Joh. P. Mahueri 
 Coram, de Marc. Aur. Antonino Constitutionis de Civitate Universe Orbi 
 Romano data auctore. Halee, 1772, 8vo. It appears that Marc. Aureliua 
 made some modifications of this edict, which released the provincials from 
 some of the charges imposed by the right of the city, and deprived tbev of 
 Bome of the advantages which it conferred. Caracalla annulled thesi awxli 
 fications. — W.
 
 A. D. 222-235.] of the roman empire. 195 
 
 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 ahall 
 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 
 government, a national spirit was preserved by the ancient, and 
 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 stops, through 
 the regular succession of civil and military honors."* To 
 their influence and example we may partly ascribe t!ie modest 
 obedience of the legions during the two first centuries of the 
 Imperial histoiy. 
 
 But when the last enclosure of the Roman constitution was 
 trampled down by Caracalla, the separation of professions 
 gradually succeeded to the distinction of ranks. The more 
 polished citizens of the internal provinces were alone qualified tc 
 act as lawyers and magistrates. The rougher trade of arms was 
 abandoned to the peasants and barbarians of the fi'ontiers, who 
 knew no country but their camp, no science but that of wa: 
 no civil laws, and scarcely those of military discipline. With 
 bloody hands, savage manners, and desperate resolutions, they 
 sometimes guarded, but much oftener subverted, the throne of 
 the emperors. 
 
 "* See the lives of Ap;ricola, Vespasian, Trajan, Severus, and hi* 
 three eompetitors ; and indeed of all the eminent men c f tboee timea.
 
 190 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 222-235 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE ELEVATION AND TYRANNY OF MAXIMIN. REBELLION IS 
 
 AFRICA AND ITALY, UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE SENATE. 
 CIVIL WARS AND SEDITIONS. VIOLENT DEATHS OF MAX- 
 IMIN 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 the world, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the 
 fairest scope for ridicule. Is it possible to relate without an 
 indignant smile, that, on the father's decease, the property of 
 a nation, hke 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 cradle with bended 
 knees and protestations of inviolable fidelity ? Satire and 
 declamation may paint these obvious topics in the most daz- 
 zling colors, 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 dan- 
 gerous, and indeed the ideal, power of giving themselves a 
 master. 
 
 In the cool shade of retirement, we may easily devise im- 
 aginary forms of government, in which the sceptre shall be 
 constantly bestowed on the most worthy, by the free and 
 incorrupt suffrage of the whole community. Experience ovei- 
 turns these airy fabrics, and teaches us, that in a large society, 
 the election of a monarch can never devolve to the wisest, oi 
 to the most numerous part of the people. The army is tlie 
 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, renders them very unfit guardi- 
 ans of a legal, or even a civil constitution. Justice, humanity, 
 or political wisdom, are qualities they are too little acquamted 
 with in themselves, to appreciate them in others. Valcr will
 
 A. D. 222-235.] OF THE UOMA.N EMPIRE. 191 
 
 acquire their esteem, and liberality will purchase their suf- 
 frage ; 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. 
 
 The superior prerogative of birth, when it has obtained the 
 sancticn of time and popular opinion, is the plainest and least 
 invidious of all distinctions among mankind. The acknowl- 
 edged right extinguishes the hopes of faction, and the con- 
 scious security disarms the cruelty of the monarch. To the 
 firm establishment of this idea we owe the peaceful succes- 
 sion 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 bowstring, he no 
 longer entertains any jealousy of his meaner subjects. But 
 the Roman empire, after the authority 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,' 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 valoi 
 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 Alexander 
 Severus, and the elevation of Maximin, no emperor could 
 think himself safe upon the throne, and every barbarian 
 
 * There had been no example of three successive generations on 
 tlie throne ; only three instances of sons v/ho succeeded their fathcra 
 The marriages of the Ciesars (notwithstanding the perraission, and 
 the fre(juent practice of divorces; were {generally unfruitfiiL
 
 198 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 222-235 
 
 peasaut of the frontier might aspire to that august, but dan 
 gerous station. 
 
 About thirty-two years before that event, the emperor Seve- 
 rus, returning from an eastern expedition, halted in Tiirace, to 
 celebrate, with military games, the birthday of his younger son, 
 Geta. The country flocked in crowds to behold their sovereign, 
 and a young barbarian of gigantic stature earnestly solicited, ia 
 his rude dialect, that he might be allowed to contend for the 
 prize of wrestling. As the pride of discipline would have been 
 disgraced in the overthrow of a Roman soldier by a Thraciau 
 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 permis- 
 sion to enlist in the troops. The next day, the happy barbarian 
 was distinguished above a crowd of recruits, dancing and exult- 
 ing 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 ap- 
 pearance of fatigue, in a long and rapid career. " Thracian," 
 said Severus with astonishment, " art thou disposed to wrestle 
 after thy race ?" " Most willingly, sir," replied the unwearied 
 youth ; and, almost in a breath, overthrew seven of the strong- 
 est soldiers in the army. A gold collar was the prize of his 
 matchless vigor and activity, and he was immediatey appointed 
 to serve in the horseguards who always attended on the person 
 of the sovereign.' 
 
 Maximin, for that was his name, though born on the terri- 
 b)ries of the empire, descended from a mixed race of barba- 
 rians. His father was a Goth, and his mother of the nation 
 of the Alani. He displayed on every occasion a valor equal 
 to his strength ; and his native fierceness was soon tempered 
 or disguised by the knowledge of the world. Under the reign 
 of Severus and his son, he obtained the rank of centurion, 
 with the favor 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. Honor 
 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 
 honorable to himself. The fourth legion, to which he was 
 appointed tribune, soon became, under his care, the best dia- 
 
 » Hist. August p. 138.
 
 A..D 222-235.J of the roman empire. 199 
 
 cipliued of the whole army. With the general applause of 
 the soldiers, who bestowed ou their favorite hero the names of 
 Ajax and Uercules, he was successively promoted to the first 
 military command ; * 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 sou of Maximin.* 
 
 Instead of securing his fidelity, these favors served only to 
 inflame the ambition of the Thracian peasant, who deemed 
 his fortune inadequate to his merit, as long as he was con- 
 strained to acknowledge a superior. Though a stranger to 
 ^ea wisdom, he was not devoid of a selfish cunning, which 
 cjhowed him that the emperor had lost the aftection 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 administration of the best of princes, and to 
 accuse even their virtues by artfully 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 thir- 
 teen years, had supported the vexatious 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 com- 
 panions the treasures, of the empire. A great army was at 
 that time assembled on the banks of the Rhine, under the com- 
 mand of the emperor himself, who, almost immediately after 
 his return from, tlie 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 Max- 
 ,rain. 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 thoir loud acclamations his obstinate 
 refusal, and hastened to consummate their rebellion by the 
 murder of Alexander Severus. 
 
 * Hist. August, p. 140. Herodian, 1. vi. p. 223. Aurclius Victor. 
 By comparing these authors, it should seem tliat Maximin liad the par- 
 ticular command of the Tribellian horse, with the general commission 
 of discipHning the recruits of the whole army. His biographer cught 
 to have market!, with more care, his exploits, and the successive stepa 
 •f his military promotions. 
 
 * See the original letter of Alexander Severus, Hist. August p 149
 
 290 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 235 
 
 The circumstances of his death are variously related. The 
 writers, who suppose that he died in ignorance of the ingrati- 
 tude and ambition of Maximin, affirm, that, after taking a fru- 
 gal repast in the sight of the array, he retired to sleep, and 
 that, about the seventh hour of the day, a part of his own 
 guards broke into the imperial tent, and, with many wounds, 
 assassinated their virtuous and unsuspecting prince.'' If we 
 credit another, and indeed a more probable account, Maximin 
 was invested with the purple by a numerous detachment, a! 
 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 sudicient time 
 to awaken a faint sense of loyalty among the troops ; but theii 
 reluctant professions of fidelity quickly vanished on the appear- 
 ance of Maximin, who declared himself the friend and advocate 
 of the military order, and was unanimously acknowledged em- 
 peror of the Komans by the applauding legions. The son of ■ 
 Maraaea, betrayed and deserted, withdrew into his tent, desir- 
 ous 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 resolution the inevitable stroke, his unavailing 
 cries and entreaties disgraced the last moments of his life, and 
 converted into contempt 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 Avere reserved for the more deliberate cruelty of the 
 usurper ; and those who experienced the mildest treatment, 
 were stripped of their employments, and ignominiously driven 
 from the court and army.* 
 
 The former tyrants, Caligula and Nero, Commodus and 
 Caracalla, were all dissolute and unexperienced youths,' edu- 
 
 * Hist. August, p. 135. I have softened some of the most improba- 
 ble circumstances of this wretched biographer. From his ill-worded 
 narration, it should seem tliat the prince's buffoon having accidentally 
 entered the tent, and awakened the slumbering monarch, the fear of 
 punishment urg(xl him to persuade the disaffected soldiers to commit 
 tiie murder. 
 
 ' Ilerodian, 1. vi. 223—227. 
 
 ' Caligula, the eldest of the four, was only twenty-five years of aga 
 when he ascended the throne ; Caracalla was twenty-three, Commcdui 
 nineteen, and Nero no more than seventeen.
 
 \. D. 235.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 201 
 
 cated in the purple, and corrupted by the pride of empire, the 
 luxury of Rome, and the perfidious voice of flattery. Tha 
 cruelty of Maxiniin was derived from a difterent source, the 
 fear of contempt. Though he depended on the attachn.ent 
 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,* formed a very unfavorable contrast with the 
 amiable manners of the unhappy Alexander. He remera- 
 bered, that, in his humbler fortune, he had often waited before 
 the door of the haughty nobles of Rome, and had been denied 
 admittance by the insolence of their slaves. He recollected 
 too the friendship of a few who had relieved his poverty, and 
 assisted his rising liopes. But those who had spurned, and 
 those who had protected, the Thracian, were guilty of tho 
 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 ingrat- 
 itude." 
 
 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 unrelenting. 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, with- 
 out a trial, and without an opportunity of defence, Magnus, with 
 four thousand of his supposed accomplices, was put to death. 
 Italy and the whole empire were infested with innumerable 
 spies and informers. On the slightest accusation, the first of 
 the Roman nobles, who had governed provinces, commanded 
 armies, and been adorned with the consular and triumpha^ 
 ornaments, were chained on the public carriages, and hurried 
 away to the emperor's presence. Confiscation, exile, or 
 simple death, were esteemed uncommon instances of hia 
 lenity. Some of the unfortunate sufterers he ordered to be 
 
 8 It appears that he was totafly ignorant of the Greek language * 
 which, from its universal use in conversation and letters, was an essen- 
 tial part of every liberal education. 
 
 » Hist. August, p. 141. Herodian, 1. vii.p. 237. The latter of thes« 
 fcistorians 1ms been most unjustly censiu-ed for sparing the vices ot 
 Maximin.
 
 202 THE DECLINE AND PALL [A. D. L*35. 
 
 sewed up in che 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 ttie 
 seat of his stern despotism, whicli trampled on every principle 
 of law and justice, and was supported by the avowed power of 
 the sword." No man of noble birth, elep^ant accomplish- 
 ments, 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." 
 
 As long as the cruelty of Maximin was confined to the 
 illustrious senators, or even to the bold adventurers, who in 
 the court or army expose themselves to the caprice of for- 
 tune, the body of the people viewed their sufferings with in- 
 difference, or perhaps with pleasure. But the tyrant's ava- 
 rice, stimulated by the insatiate desires of the soldiers, a^ 
 length attacked the public property. Every city of the em- 
 pire was possessed of an independent revenue, destined to 
 purchase corn for the multitude, and to supply the expenses 
 of the games and entertainments. By a single act of author- 
 ity, the whole mass of wealth was at once confiscated for the 
 use of the Imperial treasury. 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 could not be exe- 
 cuted without tumults and massacres, as in many places the 
 fieople 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 themselves, among 
 
 1° The wife of Maximin, by insinuating wise counsels with female 
 gentleness, sometmies brought back the tyrant to the way of truth and 
 humanity. See Ammianus MarcelUuus, 1. xiv. c. 1, 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.) Spanheini 
 de U. et P. If. torn. ii. p. 300.* 
 
 " lie was compared to Spartacus and Athenio. Hist. August, p 
 141. 
 
 * Kwo may believe Sy» cellus and Zonaras, in was Maximixj himself whi 
 ordered her ieath — G
 
 A. 0.23?.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 208 
 
 whom this sacrilegious plunder was distributed, received it 
 with a blusli ; and hardened as they were in acts of violence, 
 they dreaded the just reproaches of their friends and relations. 
 Throughout the Koman world a general cry of indignation 
 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." 
 
 The procurator of Afi'ica was a servant worthy of such a 
 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 treas- 
 urer, was employed in collecting from their estates a great 
 number of slaves and peasants blindly devoted to the com- 
 mands of their lords, and armed with the rustic weapons of 
 clubs and axes. The leaders of the conspiracy, as they were 
 admitted to the audience of the procurator, stabbed him with 
 the daggers concealed under their garments, and, by the as- 
 sistance of their tumultuary train, seized on the little town of 
 Thysdrus,'' 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 detested tyrant an emperor whose 
 mild virtues had already acquired the love and esteem of the 
 Romans, and whose authority over the province would give 
 weight and stability to the enterprise. Gordianus, their pro- 
 consul, and the object of their choice, refused, with unfeigned 
 reluctance, the dangerous honor, and begged with tears, that 
 they would suffer him to terminate in peace a long and inno- 
 cent life, without staining his feeble age with ci\'il blood. 
 Their menaces compelled him to accept the Imperial purple, 
 his only refuge, indeed, against the jealous cruelty of Max- 
 's Herodian, 1. vii. p. 238. Zosini. 1. i- p. 15. 
 
 >3 In the fertile territory of Byzacium, one hundred and fifty miles 
 to the south of Carthage. This city was decorated, probably by the 
 Gordiaiis, with the title of colony, and with a fine amphitheatre, which 
 is still in a very perfect state. See Itinerar. Wesseling, p. 69 ; and 
 Shaw's Travels, p. 117.
 
 204 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 23^ 
 
 ixuiri; since, according to the reasoning of tyrants, those whq 
 nave been esteemed worthy of the throne deserve death, and 
 those who deUberate have already rebelled." 
 
 The family of Gordianus wns one of the most illustiious 
 of the Roman senate. On the father's side he was descended 
 from the Gracchi ; on his mother's, from the emperor Trajan. 
 A great 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 inhab- 
 ited by the great Pompey, had been, during several genera- 
 tions, in the possession of Gordian's family.^* It was distin- 
 guished by aucient 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 ex 
 tent, for three stately rooms of a hundred feet in length, and 
 for a magnificent portico, supported by two hundred columns 
 of the four most curious and costly sorts of marble." The 
 public shows exhibited at his expense, and in which the people 
 were entertained with many hundreds of wild beasts and glad- 
 iators," seem to surpass the fortune of a subject ; and whilst 
 the liberality of other magistrates was confined to a few sol- 
 emn festivals at Rome, the magnificence of Gordian was 
 repeated, when he was aedile, every month in the year, and 
 extended, during his consulship, to the principal cities of Italy. 
 He was twice elevated to the last-mentioned dignity, by Car- 
 acalla and by Alexander ; for he possessed the uncommon 
 
 '* Herodian, 1. vii. p. 239. Hist. August, p. 153. 
 
 '^ Hist. Aug. p. 152. The celebrated house of Pompey in carinia 
 was usurped by Marc Antony, and consequently became, after the 
 Triumvir's death, a part of tlie Imperial domain. The emperor Trajan 
 allowed, and even encouraged, the rich senators to purchase those 
 magnificent and useless phices, (Plin. Panegyric, c. 50 ;) and it may 
 seem probable, that, on this occasion, Pompey's house came '«to the 
 possession of Gordian's great-grandfather. 
 
 " The Claudian, the Numidian, the Carystian, and tlie Synnadian 
 The colors of Roman marbles have been faintly described and imper- 
 fectly distinguished. It appears, however, that the Carystian was a 
 eea-green, and that the marble of Synnada was white mixed with 
 cval spots of purple. Sec Salmasius ad Hist. August, p. 164. 
 
 " Hist. August, p. 151, 152. He sometimes gave five hundred 
 pair of gladiators, never less than one hundred and fifty. He oEce 
 ^ave for the use of the circus one hundred Sicilian, and as many Cap- 
 padocian horees. The animals designed for hunting were chiefly 
 bears, boars, bulls, stags, elks, wUd asses, <fec. Elephants and Uoni 
 •eem to have been appropiiated tc Imperial niagnificenc©.
 
 A D. 237.J or the roman empire. 208 
 
 talent of aci;uiriug the esteem of virtuous princos, witLom 
 alarming the jealousy of tyrants. His long life was inno- 
 cently spent in the study of letters and the peaceful honoi's 
 of Rome ; and, till he wfts named proconsul of Africa by the 
 iroice of the senate and the approbation of Alexander,'* he 
 a2:)]>carf prudently to have declined the command of armies j 
 and th( government of provinces.* As long as that emperor 
 li\ed, 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 val- 
 uable remains of the happy age of the Antonincs, whose vir- 
 tues he revived in his own conduct, and celebrated in an ele- 
 gant poem of thirty books. With the venerable proconsul, 
 his son, who had accompanied him into Africa as his lieuten- 
 ant, was likewise declared emperor. His manners were less 
 pure, but his character was equally amiable with that of his 
 father. Twenty-two acknowledged concubines, and a library 
 of sixty-two thousand volumes, attested the variety of his in- 
 clinations ; and from the productions which he left behind 
 him, it appears that the former as well as the latter were 
 designed for use rather than for ostentation." The Roman 
 people acknowledged in the features of the younger Gordian 
 the resemblance of Scipio Afiicanus,f recollected with pleas- 
 ure that his mother was the granddaughter of Antoninus 
 Pius, and rested the public hope on those latent virtues which 
 had hitherto, as they fondly imagined, lain concealed in the 
 luxurious indolence of private life. 
 
 As soon as the Gordians had appeased the first tumuH of a 
 popular election, they removed their court to Carthage. They 
 were received with the acclamations of the Africans, who 
 honored their virtues, and who, since the visit of Hadrian, had 
 
 '* See the original letter, in the Augustan History, p. 152, which 
 at once shows Alexander's respect for the authority of the senate, 
 and his esteem for the proconsul appointed by that assembly, 
 
 *' By each of his concubines, the younger Gordian left three or 
 four children. His hterary productions, though less numerovis, were 
 4y TiQ means contemptible. 
 
 * Herodian expressly says that he had administered many provinces, lib 
 iti. 10.— W. 
 t Not the personal likeness, but the family descent &"om the SciplM
 
 206 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A..D.237. 
 
 never 04 held the majesty of a Roman emperor. But these 
 vain acclamations neither strengthened nor confirmed the title 
 of tae Gordians. They were induced by principle, as well aa 
 interest, to solicit the approbation of the senate ; and a depu- 
 tation of the 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 vigor. 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.** 
 The inclinations of the senate were neither doubtful nor 
 divided. The birth and noble alliances of the Gordians had 
 iutimately 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,'" now produced a contrary 
 effect, and provoked them to assert the injured rights of free- 
 dom 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 
 und the magistrates. As soon as their resolution was decided, 
 they convoked in the temple of Gostor the whole bodj of the 
 senate, according to an ancient form of secrecy,*^ 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, 
 
 '" Herodiaa, 1. vii. p. 243. Hist. August, p. 144. 
 
 * Quod tamen patres dum periculosum existimant ; inermes armato 
 ■esi.stere approbaverunt. — Aurelius Victor. 
 
 '^ Even the servants of the house, the scribes, &c., were excluded, 
 4Bid their office was filled by the senators themselves. We are obliged 
 W) the Augustan History, p. 159, for preserving tliis curious example 
 of the old discipline of the commonwealth. 
 
 M
 
 A.D,23'?.] OF THE ROMAS EMPIRE. 20"? 
 
 the other your lieutenant, have been declared emperors by 
 the general consent of Africa. Let us return thanks," ha 
 boldly continued, " to the youth of Thysdrus ; let us 
 return thanks to the faithful people of Carthage, our gen- 
 erous deliverers from a horrid monster — Why do you 
 hear me thus coolly, thus timidly ? Why do you cast those 
 anxious looks on each other ? Why hesitate ? Maximin is a 
 public enemy ! may his enmity soon expire with him, and may 
 we long enjoy the prudence and felicity of Gordian the father, 
 the valor and constancy of Gordian the son !'" "^ The nobio 
 ardor of the consul revived the languid spirit of the senate. 
 By a unanimous decree, the election of the Gordians was 
 ratified, Maximin, his son, and his adherents, were pronounced 
 enemies of their countr}-, and liberal rewards were offered to 
 whomsoever had the courage and good fortune to destroy 
 them. 
 
 During the emperor's absence, a detachment of the Pra3- 
 torian guards remained at Rome, to protect, or rather to 
 command, the capital. The praefect 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 trib- 
 unes were commissioned 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 hberty was sec- 
 onded 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 ; '* and the example of Rome was 
 followed by the rest of Italy. 
 
 A new spirit had arisen in that assembly, whose long 
 patience had been insulted by wanton despotism and military 
 license. 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 recom 
 
 *• This spirited speech, translated from the Au^stan historian, p. 
 186, seems transcribed by him from the origina registers of the senat« 
 ** Herodian, 1. vii. p. 244
 
 208 THE DECXINE AND FALL [A. D. 237 
 
 mended by tlioir merit and services to the favor of the emperoi 
 Alexander, it was easy to select twenty, not unequal to the 
 command of an army, and the conduct of a war. To these 
 was the defence of Italy intrusted. Each was appointed to 
 act in his respective department, authorized to enroll and 
 discipline the Italian youth ; and instructed to fortify the porta 
 and highways, against the impending 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 tlie 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 favor of the senate, sufficiently prove that the 
 subjects of Maximin were reduced to that uncommon 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.''* 
 
 For while the cause of the Gordians was embraced with 
 such diffusive ardor, the Gordians themselves were no more. 
 The feeble court of Carthage was alarmed by the rapid 
 approach of Capelianus, governor of Mauritania, who, with 
 a small band of veterans, and a fierce host of barbarians, 
 attacked a faithful, but imwarlike province. The younger 
 Gordian sallied out to meet the enemy at the head of a few 
 guards, and a numerous imdisciplined multitude, educated in 
 the peaceful luxury of Carthage. His useless valor served only 
 to procure him an honorable death on 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, 
 d3stitute 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.'" 
 
 " Herodian, 1. vii. p. 247, 1. viii. p. 277. Hist. August, p 156 — 168. 
 
 *' Herodian, 1. vii. p. 2.54. Hist. August, p. 1.50 — 160. We may 
 obeerve, that one month and six days, for the reign of Gordian, is a 
 juBt correctnn of Casaubon and Panviiiius. instead of the absurd
 
 A. D. 237.'! OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. SOf 
 
 The fate of the Gordians filled Rome with just bvit jinex- 
 pected terror. The senate, convoked in the temple of 
 Concord, affected to transact the common business of the 
 day ; and seemed to decline, with trembling anxiety, the con- 
 sideration of their own and the public danger. A silent 
 consternation prevailed in 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 favor of Maximus and Balbinus. Ratify my 
 choice, conscript fathers, o'r 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 resounded with 
 the sincere acclamations of " Long life and victory to the em- 
 perors Maximus and Balbinus. You are happy in the judg- 
 ment of the senate ; may the republic be happy under your 
 administration !" " 
 
 The virtues and the reputation of tlie new emperors jus- 
 tified the most sanguine hopes of the Romans. The varioua 
 nature of their talents seemed to appropriate to each his pecu- 
 liar department of peace and war, without leaving room for 
 
 reading of one year and six months. See Commentnr. p. 19S. Zosi- 
 mus relates, 1. i. p. 17, that the two Gordians perished by a tempest in 
 the midst of their navigatiou. A strange ignorance of history, or a 
 ttrange abuse of metaphors! 
 
 " See the Augustan History, p. 16G, from the registers of the sett 
 ate ; the date is confessedly faulty but the coincidence of the ApoUin*' 
 Ttan fi^ames enables us to correct it.
 
 110 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 287 
 
 jealous euiulatioii. Balbinus was an aclra''refi orator, a pool 
 of disi nguished fame, and a wise magistrate, who had exer- 
 cised with innocence and applause the civil jurisdiction in 
 Almost all the interior provinces cf the empire. His birth was 
 noble,*' his fortune affluent, his manners liberal and atfable. 
 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 Maxim us was formed in a rougher 
 mould. By his valor and abihties 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 jus- 
 tice, while he was a Praefect of the city, commanded the 
 esteem of a people whose ati'ections were engaged in favor 
 of the more amiable Balbinus. The two colleagues had both 
 been consuls, (Balbinus had twice enjoyed that honorable 
 office,) both had been named among the twenty lieutenants 
 of the senate ; and since the one was sixty and the other sev- 
 enty-four years old,''' they had both attained the full maturity 
 of age and experience. 
 
 After the senate had conferred on Maximus and Balbinus 
 an equal portion of the consular and tribunitian powers, the 
 title of Fathers of their country, and the joint office of Su- 
 preme Pontiff, they ascended to the Capitol to return thanks 
 to the gods, protectors of Rome.^' The solemn rites of sacri- 
 fice were disturbed by a sedition of the people. The licen- 
 tious multitude neither loved the rigid Maximus, nor did they 
 
 ^^ He was descended from Cornelius Balbus, a noble Spaniard, and 
 the adopted son of Theophanes, the Greek historian. Balbus ob- 
 tained the freedom of Rome by the favor 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 important secret 
 Bervices in the civil war) raised him to the consulship and the pontifi- 
 cate, honors never yet possessed by a stranger. The nephew of thia 
 Balbus triumphed over the Garamantes. See Dictionnaire de Bayle, 
 Bu mot Balbus, where he distinguishes the several persons of that 
 name, and rectifies, with his usual accuracy, the mistakes of former 
 writers concerning them. 
 
 ^^ Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 622. But little dependence is to be had on 
 the authority of a modern Greek, so grossly ignorant of the history 
 of the third century, that he creates several imaginary emperors, and 
 confounds th>se who really existed 
 
 *^ HerodLan, 1. vii. p. 256, supposes that the senate was at first 
 convoked in the Capitol, and is very eloquent on the occasion. Th« 
 Angiistar History p. 116, seems much more authentic.
 
 A. D. 237.J OF TUB ROMAN EMPIRE. 311 
 
 sufEciently fear the mild and humane Balbinus. Their in- 
 creasing numbers surrounded the temple of Jupiter; with 
 obstinate clamors they asserted their inherent right of con- 
 senting to the election of their sovereign ; and demanded, 
 with an a2)parent 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 hves for the republic. At the head of tlie 
 city-guards, and the youth of the equestrian order, Maxiraua 
 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 grand- 
 son of the elder, and nephew * of the younger Gordian, was 
 produced to the people, invested with the ornaments and title 
 of Caesar. The tumult was appeased by this easy conde- 
 scension ; 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, that the mind of Maximin 
 ■was agitated by the most furious passions. lie is said to have 
 received the news of the re"bellion 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 per- 
 son. The grateful intelligence 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 Mux- 
 imin, 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 successfnl campaigns against 
 the Germans and the Sarmatians, had raised their fame, con- 
 firmed their discipline, and even increased 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 
 Jif history cannot refuse him the valor of a soldier, or even thu 
 
 • According to some, the Bon.-
 
 212 THE DECLINE AND KALL [A. D. 237 
 
 abilities of an experienced general." It might naturally bo 
 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 Danube to those of the 
 Tyber, 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 chro 
 nology of that period,^^ it appears that the operations of some 
 
 ^' In Herodian, 1. vii. p. 249, and in the Augustan History, -we 
 have tliree 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. 
 
 '■ The carelessness of the writers of that age, leaves us in a sin- 
 gular perplexity. 1. We know that Maximus and Balbinus were 
 killed during the Capitoline games. Herodian, 1. viii. p. 285. 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 igno- 
 rance 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 opin 
 ions, 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 liistory. Yet it is necessary to choose between 
 them.* 
 
 * Eckhel has more recently treated these chronological questions with a 
 perspicuity \vhich gives great probability to his conclusions. Setting aside 
 all the historians, whose contradictions are irreconcilable, he has only con- 
 sulted the medals, and has arranged the events before us in the following 
 order : — 
 
 Maximin, A. U. 990, after having conquered the Germans, reenters 
 Pannonia, establishes his winter quarters at Sirmium, and prepare? himseli 
 to make war against the people of the North. In the year 991, in the cal 
 ends of January, commences his fourth tribunate. Tlie Gordians are 
 chosen emperors in Africa, probably at the beginning of the month ot 
 March. The senate confirms this election with joy, and declares Maximin 
 the enemy of Rome. Five days after he had heard of tliis revolt, Maximin 
 sets out from Sirmium on his march to Italy. These events took place 
 about the beginning of April; a little after, the Gordians are slain in 
 Africa by Capellianus, procurator of Mauritania. The senate, in its alarm, 
 names as emperors Balbus and Maximus Pupiauus, and intrusts the latter 
 with the war against Maximin. Maximin is stopped on his road near 
 Aquileia, by the want of provisions, and by the melting of the snows : he 
 begins the siege of Aquileia at the end of April. Pupianus assembles 
 his army at Ravemia. Maximiji and his son are assassinated by the sol- 
 diars enraged at the resistance of Aquileia : and this was probably in 
 the middle of May. Pupianus returns to Rome, ajid assumes the govera- 
 tnent with Balbinus ; they are assassinated towards tlie end ot July 
 Gordian the younger ascends the tlirone, Eckhel de Doct. Ntun. Vet vii 
 895.— G
 
 A. 1>. 238-1 O^ '^"^ ROMAN EMPIRK. 218 
 
 foreign war deferred the Italian expedition till the ensuing 
 spring. From the prudent conduct of Maximin, wo 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 bar- 
 barian possessed something of the generous spirit of Sylla, wKo 
 subdued the enemies of Rome before he suffered himself to re" 
 venge his private injuries.'^ 
 
 When the troops of Maximin, advancing in excellent order, 
 arrived at the foot of the Julian Alps, they were terrified by 
 the silence and desolation that reigned on the frontiers of Italy. 
 The villages and open towns 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 any thing left which could afford either shelter or sub- 
 sistence 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 
 provisions from the deserted country. Aquileia received and 
 withstood the first shock of the invasion. The streams that 
 issue from the head of the Hadriatic Gulf, swelled by the melt- 
 ing of the winter snows,'* opposed an unexpected obstacle to 
 the arms of Maximin. At length, on a singular bridge, con- 
 structed with art and difficulty, of large hogsheads, he trans- 
 ported his army to the opposite bank, rooted up the beautiful 
 vineyards in the neighborhood of Aquileia, demolished the 
 suburbs, and employed the timber of the buildings in the 
 
 '^ Velleius Patcrculus, 1. ii. c. 24. The president de Montesqiiien 
 (in his dialogue between Sylla and Eucrates) expresses the sentimenta 
 of the dictator in a spirited, and even a sublime manner. 
 
 '* Muratori (Annali d' Italia, torn. ii. p. 294) thinks the melting 
 of the snows suits better with the months of June or July, than 
 with those of February. The opinion of a man who passed his life 
 between the Alps and the Apennines, is undoubtedly of great 
 weight ; yet I observe, 1. That the long winter, of which Muratori 
 takes advantage, is to be found only in the Latin version, and not in 
 tlie Greek text of Herodian. 2. That the vicissitudes of suns and 
 rains, to which the soldiers of Maximin were exposed, (Herodian, L 
 riii. p. 277,) denote 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) de- 
 scribed by Virgil. They are about twelve miles to the eivst of Aquileia, 
 See Cluver. Italia Autiqua, torn. i. p. Ib9; tbc.
 
 214 TUE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 288 
 
 engines and towers, with which on every side he attacked the 
 city. Ihe 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 sup- 
 ported 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 con- 
 fidence of success, by the opinion that Belenus, their tutelar 
 deity, combated in person in the defence of his distressed 
 worshippers.^^ 
 
 The emperor Maxiraus, who had advanced as for as Ra 
 venna, to secure that important place, and to hasten the mili- 
 tary preparations, 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 array ; and he dreaded, lest the enemy, tired with the 
 obstinate resistance of Aquileia, should on a sudden relinquish 
 the fruitless siege, and march directly towards Rome. The 
 fate of the empire and the cause of fi'eedom 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 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 conspir- 
 acy punished the crimes of Maximin, and delivered Rome and 
 the senate from the calamities that would surely have attended 
 the victory of an enraged barbarian. 
 
 The people of Aquileia liad scarcely experienced any of 
 the common miseries of a siege ; their magazines were plenti- 
 fully supplied, and several fountains within the walls assured 
 them of an inexhaustible resource of fresh water. The sol- 
 
 "* Herodian, 1. viii. p. 272. 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 honor of the women 
 of Aquileia, who had given up their hair to make ropce for the mili- 
 tary engines.
 
 A.. D. 2S8.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 21S 
 
 diers of Maximin were, on the contrary, exposed to the inclem- 
 ency of the season, the contagion of disease, and the horrors 
 of famine. The open 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 trem- 
 bled for their wives and children in the camp of Alba, near 
 Rome, executed the sentence of the senate. Maximin, aban- 
 doned by his guards, was slain in his tent, with his son, (whom 
 he had associated to the honors of the purple,) Anulinus the 
 prsefect, and the principal ministers of his tyranny.'" 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 the people 
 of Rome, and to their lawful emperors Maximus and Balbinus. 
 Such was the deserved fate of a brutal savage, destitute, as he 
 has generally been represented, of every sentiment that distin- 
 guishes 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 incredible are 
 related of his matchless strength and appetite." Had he lived 
 in a less enlightened age, tradition and poetry might well have 
 
 " Herodian, I. viii. p. 279. Hist. August, p. 146. The duration of 
 Maxiinin'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 Paianius. 
 
 '' Eight Roman feet and one third, which are equal to above eiglit 
 English feet, as the two measures are to each other in the proportion 
 of 967 to 1000. See Graves's discourse on tlie 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. lie could 
 move a loaded wagon, break a horse's leg with his fist, crumble stones 
 in his hand, and tear np small trees by the loots. See his life in tha 
 A'jgustan History.
 
 316 TRK DECLINE AND FALL [A. 1>. .'JS8 
 
 described him as one of those monstrous giants, whose super* 
 natural power was constantly exerted for the destruction of 
 mankind. 
 
 It is easier to conceive than to describe the universal joy cf 
 the Roman -world on +he 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; 
 ois 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.^* The conduct of the two emperors 
 corresponded with these expectations. They administered 
 justice in person ; and the rigor of the one was tempered by 
 the other's clemency. The oppressive taxes with which Max- 
 imin 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 endeavored 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 hesitation—" The 
 love of the senate, of the people, and of all mankind." 
 "Alas!" replied his more penetrating colleague — "alas! I 
 dread the hatred of the soldiers, and the fital effects of tlieir 
 resentment."^" His apprehensions were but too well justifie(\ 
 by the event. 
 
 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 assembled, every senator carried either open or 
 concealed arms. In the midst of their deliberations, two vet- 
 erans of the guards, actuated either by curiosity or a sinister 
 motive, audaciously thrust themselves into the house, and 
 advanced by degrees beyond the altar of Victory. Gallicanm:, 
 
 •* See the congratulatory letter of Claudius Julianus, the oooau!. t« 
 &e two emperors, in the Augustan History. 
 " Hist. August, p. ni.
 
 A. D. 238.J OF THE ROMAN EMl'IRE. 211 
 
 a consular, and MiEcenas, a Prtetoiian senator, viewed witi 
 indignation their insolent intrusion : drawing tlieir 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 Prajtorians, 
 as the secret adherenis of the tyrant. Those who escaped the 
 fii-st 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, with 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 theii 
 turn they made desperate sallies into the city, set tire to a 
 great number of houses, and filled the streets with the blood 
 of the inhabitants. The emperor Balbinus attempted, by inef- 
 fectual edicts and precarious truces, to reconcile the factions 
 at Rome. But their animosity, though smothered for a while, 
 burnt with redoubled violence. The soldiers, detesting the 
 senate and the people, despised the weakness of a prince, who 
 wanted either the spirit or the power to command the obedi 
 snce of his subjects." 
 
 After the tyrant's death, his formidable army had acknowl- 
 edged, from necessity rather than from choice, the authority 
 of Maximus, 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 disor- 
 ders of the times, and assured the soldiers, that of all theii 
 past conduct the senate would remember only their generous 
 desertion of the tyrant, and their voluntary return to theii 
 duty. Maximus enforced his exhortations by a liberal dona- 
 tive, 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.*' 
 But nothing could reconcile the haughty spirit of the Praeto- 
 rians. They attended the emperors on the memorable day of 
 their public entry into Rome ; but amidst the general accla 
 mations, the sullen, dejected countenance of the guards suf 
 ficiently declared that they considered themselves as ihc 
 
 *" Herodian, 1. viii. p. 258. 
 *' Herodian, 1. viii. p. 213 
 ▼OL- I. — K
 
 118 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 238, 
 
 object, rather than the partners, of the triumph. When tlie 
 whole body was united in their camp, t'liose who had servea 
 nnder Maximin, and those who had rem^iined at Rome, insen- 
 sibly communicated to each other their complaints ana appre- 
 hensions. The emperors chosen by the army had perished 
 with ignominy; those elected by the senate weie seated on 
 the throne.*' The long discord between the civil and military 
 powers was decided by a war, in which the former had ob- 
 tained 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 re- 
 venge, colored 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 ter- 
 rors 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. 
 
 When the senate elected two princes, it is probable that, 
 besides the declared reason of providing for the various emer- 
 gencies of peace and war, they were actuated by the secret 
 desire of weakening by division the despotism of the supreme 
 magistrate. 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 ; " but 
 the mutual consciousness prevented them from uniting in any 
 vigorous measures of defence against their common enemies 
 of the Praetorian camp. The whole city was employed in the 
 Capitoline games, and the emperors were left almost alone in 
 the palace. On a sudden, 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 receive assistance, they wasted 
 the important moments in idle- iebates and fruitless recrimina- 
 tions. The arrival of the gujv ds pat an end to the vain strife. 
 
 *' The observation had been ^• ,icle imprudently enough m the accla- 
 tnations of the senate, and witb 'egard to the soldiers it carried the 
 »ppearance of a wanton insult. Hist. August, p. 170. 
 
 " DiscordiiB tacitae, et quae J t,elligerentui- potius quar^ viderentur. 
 Eiat. August, p. 170. Thi* wel> chosen expression is probably e^ct^ea 
 from some better writer.
 
 A. D. 238.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 219 
 
 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 the 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 exjDosed to the insults or to the pity of the 
 populace.** 
 
 In the space of a few months, six princes had been cut off 
 by the sword. Gordian, who had already received the title of 
 Cjesar, was the only person that occurred to the soldiers as 
 proper to fill the vacant throne." They carried him to the 
 camp, and unanimously saluted him Augustus and Emperor. 
 His name was dear to the senate and people ; his tender age 
 promised a long impunity of military license ; and the sub- 
 mission of Rome and the provinces to the choice of the Prae- 
 torian guards, saved the rejHiblic, at the expense indeed of its 
 freedom and dignity, from the horrors of a new civil war in the 
 heart of the capital.*" 
 
 ** Herodian, 1. viii. p. 281, 288. 
 
 *^ Qiiia non alius erat in prajsenti, is the expression of the Augustan 
 History. 
 
 *" Quintus Curtius (1. x. c. 9,) pays an elegant compliment to the 
 emperor of the day, for having, by his happy accession, extinguished 
 60 many firebrands, 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 tlie Roman history. 
 In that case, it may serve to decide the age of Quintus Curtius. Those 
 who place him under the first Caisars, argue from the purity of his style 
 but are embarrassed by the silence of Quiiitilian, in his accurate list of 
 Roman historians.* 
 
 * This conjecture of Gibbon is without foundation. Many passages in 
 the work of Q.uintus Curtius clearly place him at an earlier period. Thus, 
 in speaking of the Parthians, he says, Hinc in Parthicum pcrventum est , 
 tunc ignobilein gentcm: niuic caput omnium qui post Euphratem ct Tigriin 
 amnes siti Rubro raari tcrminautur. The Parthian empire had tliis extent 
 only in the first ago of the vulgar a;ra: to that age, therefore, must be as- 
 signed the date of Q,uintus Curtius. Although the critics (says M. de Sainta 
 Croix) have multiplied conjectures on this sultjci-t, most of them have ended 
 by adopting the opinion wliich places (iiiintus Curtius under the reign of 
 Claudius. See .Tust. Lips, ad Ann. Tac. i> 20. Michel lo Tellier Pnef. ik 
 Curt. Tillemont Hist, des Erap. i. p. 251. IJ d Bos Reflections sur la Poesie, 
 2d Partie. Tiraboschi Scoria della, Lett. Ital. ii. 149. Exameu. criL des 
 Historiens d'Alexandrc, 2d ed. p. 104, 849, 8.50.— G. 
 
 This interminable question seems as mu :h perplexed as ever. Tho Qrrt
 
 J20 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 240t 
 
 As the third Gordian was only nineteen years of age at the 
 time of his death, the history of his hfe, were it known to ua 
 with greater accuracy than it really is, would contain little 
 move than the account of his education, and the conduct of the 
 ministers, who by turns abused or guided the simplicity of his 
 unexperienced 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 impenetrable veil was drawn between an innocent 
 prince and his oppressed subjects, the virtuous disposition of 
 Gordian was deceived, and the honors of the empire sold with- 
 out his knowledge, though in a very public manner, to the 
 most worthless of mankind. We are ignorant by what for 
 tunate accident the emperor escaped from this ignominiouij 
 slavery, and devolved his confidence on a minister, whose 
 wise counsels had no object except the glory of his sovereign 
 and the happiness of the people. It should seem that love and 
 learning introduced Misitheus to the favor of Gordian. The 
 young prince married the daughter of his master of rhetoric, 
 and j)romoted his father-in-law to the iirst 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 delivered from the tyranny of 
 the eunuchs,'" and still more that he is sensible of his deliver 
 ance. The emperor acknowledges, with an amiable con- 
 fusion, the errors of his past conduct ; and laments, with sin- 
 gular propriet}', the misfortune of a monarch, from whom a 
 venal tribe of courtiers perpetually L'bor to conceal the 
 truth." 
 
 " Hist. August, p. 161. From some liints in the two letters, I 
 should expect that the eunuchs were not expelled the palace without 
 some degree of gentle violence, and that the yomig Gordian rather 
 approved of, than consented to, their disgrace. 
 
 " Duxit uxorem filiam Misithei, quem causa eloquentise dignum 
 parentela sua putavit; et prpefectum statini fecit; post quod, uon 
 puerile jam et contemjitibile videbatm- imperium. 
 
 argument of M. Guizot is a strong one, except tliat Parthian is often used 
 by later writers for Persian. Cunzius, in his preface to an edition pub- 
 lislied at Helmstadt, (1802,) maintains the opinion of Bagnolo, which as- 
 Bigns a. Curtius to the time of Constantino the Great. Schmieder, in his 
 edit. Gottiig:. 1803, sums up in this eenteuce, a;tDtcm Cortii ignorari palaa 
 eM.— U. 
 
 I
 
 A D. 242.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 221 
 
 The life of Misitheus had been spent in the profecsion of 
 letters, not of arms ; yet such w.os the versatile genius of that 
 threat man, that, when he was appointed Praetorian Prsefect, 
 he discharo;ed the military duties of his phice with vigor and 
 ability. The Persians had invaded Mesopotamia, and threat- 
 ened Antioch. By the persuasion of his fether-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. On his approach, with a 
 great army, the Persians withdrew their garrisons from the 
 cities which they had already taken, and retired from the 
 Euphrates to the Tigris. Gordian enjoyed the pleasure of 
 announcing to the senate the first success of his arms, which 
 he ascribed, with a becoaiing modesty and gratitude, to the 
 wisdom of his father and Prsefect. During the whole expe- 
 dition, 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 fi'ontier." But the prosperity of 
 Gordian expired with Misitheus, who died of a flux, not with 
 out very strong suspicions of poison. Philip, his successor in 
 the prtefecture, was an Arab by birth, and consequently, 
 in the 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 indul- 
 gent master. The minds of the soldiers were irritated by an 
 artificial scarcity, created by his contrivance in the camp ; 
 and the distress of the array was attributed to the youth and 
 incapacity of the prince. It is not in our power to trace the 
 Buccessive steps of the secret conspiracy and open sedition, 
 which were at length fatal to Gordian. A sepulchral monu- 
 ment was erected to his memory on the spot " where he was 
 
 *° Hist. August, p. 162. Aurelius Victor. Porphyrius ia Vit 
 Plotin. ap. Fabriciuni, Biblioth. Grsec. 1. iv. c. 36. 4lie philosopher 
 Plotinus accompanied the army, prompted by the love of knowledge, 
 fend by the hope of penetrating as far as India. 
 
 ^° About twenty miles from the little town of Circesium, on the 
 frontier of the two empires.* 
 
 " Now Kcrkesia ; placed in the angle fonned by the Juncture of tht 
 Chaboras, or al Khabour, witli the Euplirates. This situation appeared m
 
 222 THE DECLINE i ND FALL [A. D. 244 
 
 killed, near thj conflux of the Euphrates with the Httle rive. 
 Aboius.*' The fortunate Philip, raised to the empire by the 
 votes of the soldiers, found a ready obedience from the senate 
 and the provinces." 
 
 We cannot forbear transcribing the ingenious, though 
 Bomewhat 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 Ro- 
 man empire, was only an irregular republic, not unhke the 
 aristocracy^' of Algiers," where the militia, possessed of the 
 Bovereignty, 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 monarchical. 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 peo])le 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 sud- 
 den, and their resolves seldom the result of cool reflection, 
 did they not dispose, with absolute sway, of the public for- 
 tune ? What was the emperor, except the minister of a 
 
 ** The inscription (which contained a very singular pun) was erased 
 by the order of Licinius, who claimed some degree of relationsliip to 
 Philip, (Hist. August, p. 166 ;) but the tmnulus, or mound of earth 
 which formed the se,pulchre, still subsisted in the time of Julian. See 
 Ammian Marcellin. xxiii. 5. 
 
 ^^ AureUus Victor. Eutrop. ix. 2. Orosius, vii. 20. Ammianus 
 Marcellinus, xxiii. 5. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 19. Philip, who was a native of 
 Bostra, was about forty years of age.* 
 
 ^' Can the epithet of Aristocracy be applied, with any propriety, to 
 the government of Algiers ? Every military government floats between 
 two extremes of absolute monarchy and wild democracy. 
 
 ^* The military republic of the Mamelukes in Egypt would have 
 afforded M. de filontesquieu (see Considerations sur la Grandeur et la 
 Decadence des Romains, c. 16) a juster and more noble parallel. 
 
 advantagooi-s to Diocletian, that he raised fortifications to make it the bm 
 wark of the empire on the side of Mesopotamia. D'Anville, Geog. Auc. iL 
 196. — G. It is the Carchemish of the Old Testament, 2 Chron. xxxv. 20. 
 Ter. xlvi. 2. — M. 
 
 * Now Bosra, It was once the metropolis of a province named Arabia, 
 ind the cliief city of Auranitis, of which the name is preserved in Beled 
 flauran, the hmits of which meet the desert. DAnville. Geog. Anc. ii. 188. 
 A.ccording to Victor, (in Caesar.,) Philip was a native of Trachonitis anotbef 
 province of Arabia. — G.
 
 A. D. 248.] €F THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 22S 
 
 n'olout government, elected for the private benefit of tha 
 soldiers ? 
 
 " When the army had elected Philip, who was Prietorian 
 praefect to the third Gordian, the latter demanded that he 
 might remain sole emperor ; he was unable to obtain it. Ho 
 requested that the power might be equally divided between 
 them ; the army would not listen to Lis speech. He con- 
 eented to be degraded to the rank of Coesar ; the favor was 
 refused him. He desired, at least, he might be appointed 
 Praetorian praefect; his piayer was rejected. Finally, he 
 pleaded for his lite. The array, in these several judgments, 
 exercised the supi'ome magistracy." According to the histo- 
 rian, whose doubtful narrative the President De Montesquieu 
 has adopted, Philip, who, during the whole transaction, had 
 preserved a sullen silonce, was inchned to spare the innocent 
 hfe of his benefactoif; till, recollecting that his innocence 
 might excite a dangeroui: compassion in the Roman world, he 
 commanded, without regard to his supphant cries, that ho 
 should be seized, stripped, and led away to instant death 
 After a moment's pause, the inhuman sentence was exe- 
 cuted." 
 
 On his return from the East to Rome, Philip, desirous 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 
 JT revival by Augustus," they had bee'.i celebrated by Clau- 
 
 "* The Augustan History (p. 163, 164) cannot, in this instance, be 
 reconciled with itself or with probability. H'c"y could Philip con- 
 demn his predecessor, and yet consecrate his memory ? How could 
 he order his public execution, and yet, in his letters to the senate, 
 exculpate liimself from the guilt of his death? Phi Up, thougii an 
 ambitious usm-per, was by no means a mad tyrant. Some chrono- 
 .ogical difficulties have Ukewise been discovered by the nice eyes of 
 TiUemont and Muratori, in this supposed association of Philip to tha 
 empire.* 
 
 ^^ The account of the last supposed celebration, though in an 
 enhghtened period of history, was so very doubtful and obscure, that 
 the alternative seems not doubtful. When the popish jubilees, the 
 
 * Wenck endeavors to reconcile these discrepancies. He snppo.scs that 
 Gordian was led away, and died a natural death in prison. This is directly 
 coutraiy to the statement of Capitolinus and of Zosimus, whom he addacei 
 in support of his theory. He is more successful in his precedent* of 
 ugurpers deifying the v ictims of their ambition. Sit dlvns, dummodo noi 
 •it vivus. — M.
 
 224 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 248 
 
 dius; by Domitian, and by Severus, and were now renewed 
 the filth time, on tlie accomplishment of the full poiiod of a 
 thousand years from the foundation of Rome. Every cir- 
 cumstance of the secular games was skilfully adapted to 
 insj^ire the superstitious mind with deep and solemn rever- 
 ence. The long interval between them^' 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 sacrificed 
 were performed, during three nights,, on the banks of the 
 Tyber ; and the Campus Martius resounue^l with music and 
 dances, and was illuminated with innumerable lamps and 
 torches. Slaves and strangers were excluded from any par- 
 ticipation in these national ceremonies. A chorus of twenty- 
 seven youths, and as many virgins, o^ noble families, and 
 whose parents were both alive, implored the propitious gods 
 in favor of the present, and for the hope of the rising genera- 
 tion ; requesting, in religious hymns, that according to the 
 faith of their ancient oracles, they would still maintain the 
 virtue, the felicity, and the em,pire of the Roman people.'* 
 The magnificence of Philip's phows and entertainments daz- 
 zled the eyes of the multituue. The devout were employed 
 in the rites of superstition, whilst the reflecting few revolved 
 in their anxious minds the past history and the futuie fate of 
 the empire. 
 
 Since Romulus, with a small band of shepherds and out- 
 laws, fortified himself on the hills near the Tyber, ten 
 centuries had already elapsed.^' During the four first ages, 
 the Romans, in tho laborious school of poverty, had acquired 
 
 copy of the secular games, were invented by Boniface VII., the crafty 
 3ope pretended that he only revived an ancient institution. See M. 
 .6 Chais, Lettres sur les Jubiles. 
 
 " Either of a hundred or a hundred and ten years. Varro and 
 Ltvy adopted the former opinion, but the infallible authority of the 
 Sybil consecrcited the latter, (Censorious de Die Natal, c. 17.) The 
 emperors Claudius and Philip, however, did not treat the oracle with 
 impUcit respect. 
 
 ^ The idea of the secular games is best understood from the poem 
 of Horace, and the description of Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 167, &c. 
 
 '^ The received calculation of Varro assigns to the foundation of 
 Rome an asra that corresponds with the 754tli year before Christ. But 
 BO little is the chronology of Rome to be depended on, iu the more 
 early ages, that Sir Isaac Newton has brought the same exent a« loT? 
 «8 the year 627 [Compare Niebuhr vol. i. p. 271 — M.l 
 
 E
 
 A. D. 248.] OF THE ROMAN EMl'IRB. 22fi 
 
 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 sol- 
 diers, magistrates, and legislators, who composed t}»c thirty- 
 five tribes of the Roman people, were 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 tho 
 only order of men who preserved and abused their independ- 
 ence. By their tumultuary election, a Syrian, a Goth, or an 
 Arab, w^as 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 vul- 
 gar, Philip appeared a monarch no less powerful than H*driaa 
 or Augustus had formerly been. The form was still the same,, 
 but the animating health and vigor 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 re- 
 laxed by the weakness, of the emperors. The strength of the 
 frontiers, which had always consisted in anus rather thiAA in 
 fortifications, was insensibly undermined ; and the fi^rest 
 provinces were left exposed to the rapaciousness or amb*ion 
 of the barbarians, who soon discovered the decline of tha 
 Roman empire.
 
 t^ THE DECLINE AND FALL | A. D. 226-240 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 n THE STATE OF PERSIA AFTER THE RESTORATION OF TItH 
 MONARCHY BY ARTAXERXES. 
 
 Whenever Tacitus indulges himself in those beautiful 
 episodes, in which he relates some domestic transaction of 
 the Germans or of the Parthians, his principal object is to 
 reheve the attention 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 disciphne 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 mu- 
 tual calamities, many tribes of the victorious invaders estab- 
 lished themselves in the provinces of the Roman Empire. To 
 obtain a clearer knowledge of these great events, we shall 
 endeavor 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 
 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,' till the sceptre of Ninus and Semiramis dropped 
 
 ' An ancient chronologist, quoted by Valleius Paterculus, (1. i. c. 6,) 
 observes, that the Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians, and the Macedo- 
 nians, reigned over Asia one thousand nine huncbed and ninety-five 
 years, from the accession of Ninus to the defeat of Antiochus by the 
 Romans. As the latter of tliese great events happened 289 years be- 
 fore Christ, the former may be placed 2184 years before the same sera
 
 A. D. 226-240.] of the roman empire. 227 
 
 from the hands of their enervated successors. Tlie Medes 
 and the Babylonians divided their power, and were themselves 
 swallowed up in the monarchy of the Persians, whose arms 
 could not be confined within the narrow limits of Asia. Fol- 
 lowed, as it is said, by two millions of men, Xerxes, the de- 
 scendant of Cyrus, invaded Greece. Thirty thousand sol- 
 diers, 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 Macedonian command over 
 the East. About the same time, that, by an ignominious 
 treaty, they resigned to the Romans the country on this side 
 Mount Tarus, 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 
 *i"om India to the frontiers of Syria, was in its turn subverted 
 by Ardshir, 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 
 influence was soon experienced by the Romans, happened in 
 the fourth year of Alexander Severus, two hundred and twen- 
 ty-six years after the Christian era.'' f 
 
 The Astronomical Observations, found at Babylon, by Alexander, 
 went fifty years higher. 
 
 ^ In the five hundred and tliirty-eighth year of the aera of Seleu- 
 cus. See Agathias, 1. ii. p. 63. This great event (such is the care- 
 lessness of the Orientals) is placed by Eutychius as high as the tenth 
 year of Commodus, and by Moses of Chorene 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 thfc 
 family of the Arsacides as stiU seated on the Persian throne in the 
 middle of the fourth centiu'v. 
 
 * The Parthians ^vere a tribe of the ludo-Germauic branch which dwell 
 on the southeast of the Caspian, and belonged to the same race as the 
 GetEE, the Massagetae, and other nations, confounded by the ancients under 
 the vagne denomination of Scythians. Klaproth, Tableaux Hist, d I'Asie, 
 p. 40. Strabo (p. 747) calls the Parthians Carduchi, i. c., the inhabitants of 
 Curdistan. — M. 
 
 t The Persian History, if the poetry of the Shah Nameh, the Book of 
 Kings, may deserve that name mentions four dynasties from the earliest 
 ages to the invasion of the Saracens. The Shah Nameh was composed 
 with the view of perpetuating the remains of the original Persian records 
 or traditions which had survived the Saracenic invasion The task was 
 undertaken by the poet Dukiki, and aftci-svards, under the patronage of 
 Mahmood of Ghazni, completed by Fcrdusi. The first of these dyuaeties 
 18 that of Kaiomors, as Sir W. Jones observes, the dark and fabulous period ; 
 the second, that of the Kaianian, the lieroic and poetical, in which tbo
 
 228 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 226-240 
 
 Artaxerxes had served with great reputation in the armicf 
 of Artaban, the last king of the Parthians, and it appears that 
 he was driven into exile and rebellion by royal ingratitude, 
 the customary reward for superior merit. His birth was 
 obscure, and the obscurity equally gave room to the asper- 
 sions 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." The latter represent him as descended from a branch 
 of the ancient kings of Persia, though time and misfortune had 
 gradually reduced his ancestors to the humble station of pri- 
 vate citizens.'' As the lineal heir of the monarchy, he asserted 
 his right to the throne, and challenged the noble task of deliv- 
 ering 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 forever broken.* The authoiity of Artaxerxes was 
 solemnly acknowledged in a great assembly held at Balch in 
 Khorasan.f 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 neces- 
 sity, attempted to retire, with a numerous train of vassels, 
 towards their kinsman, the king of Armenia ; but this little 
 army of deserters was intercepted, and cut off, by the vigi- 
 lance of the conqueror,^ who boldly assumed the double dia- 
 
 * The tanner's name was Babec ; the soldier's, Sassan : from the for- 
 mer Artaxerxes obtained the surname of Babegan, from the latter all 
 his descendants have been styled Sasmnides. 
 
 * D'Herbelot, BibUotheque Oricntale, Ardshir. 
 
 * Dion Cassius, L Ixxx. Herodian, 1. vi. p.' 207. Abulpharagiiia Dy- 
 irnst. p. 80. 
 
 * See Moses Cliorenensis, 1. ii. c. 65 — 71. 
 
 learned have discovered some curious, and imagined some fanciful, analo- 
 gies witli the Jewish, the Greek, and tlie Roman accounts of the eastern 
 world. See, on the Shall Nameh, Translation by Goerres, with Von Ham- 
 mer's Review, Vienna Jahrbixch von Lit. 17, 15, 77. Malcolm's Persia, 8vo. 
 ed. i. 003. Macau's Preface to his Critical Edition of the Shah Nameh. On 
 Ihe early Persian History, a very sensible abstract of various opinions in 
 Malcolm's Hist, of Persia. — ]\I. 
 
 * In the plain of Hoormnz, tlie son of Babek was nailed in the field with 
 the proud title of Shahan Shah, king of kings — a name ever since assumed 
 by the sovereigns of Persia. Malcolm, i. 71. — M. 
 
 t See the Persiin acctunt of the rise of Ardcschir Babegan m MaJooIm 
 I 69.— M.
 
 A.D 226-2 to.] OF the roman empire. 229 
 
 dem, and the title of King of Kings, which had been enjoyed 
 by his predecessor. But these poopous 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 
 restoring in their full splendor, the religion and empire of 
 Cyrus. 
 
 I. During the long servitude of Persia under the Macedonian 
 and the Parthian yoke, the nations of Europe and Asia had 
 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,' was still revered in 
 the East ; but the obsolete and mysterious language, in which 
 the Zendavesta was composed,* opened a field of dispute to 
 seventy sects, who variously explained the fundamental doc- 
 
 '' Hyde rvnd Prideaux, working up the Persian legends and their 
 own conjectures into a very agreeable story, represent Zoroaster as a 
 contemporary of Darius Hystaspes. But it is sufficient to observe, that 
 the Greek writers, who lived almost in the ago of Darius, agree in 
 placing the aera of Zoroaster many hundred, or even thousand, years 
 before their own time. The judicious criticisms of Mr. Moyle per- 
 ceived, and maintained against his uncle. Dr. Prideaux, the antiquity 
 of the Persian prophet. See his work, vol. ii.j- 
 
 •* 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. Tliis fact alone (if it is allowed 
 as authentic) sufficiently warrants the antiquity of those writings 
 
 * Silvcstre de Sacy (Autiquites de la Perse) has proved the neglect of the 
 Zoroastrian religion under tlic Parthian kings. — M. 
 
 t There are three leading theories concemiag the age of Zoroaster : 
 
 1. That which assigns him to an age of great and almost indefinite antiq- 
 uity — it is that of Moyle, adopted by Gibbon, Vohicy, Rechcrches sur I'His- 
 toire, ii. 2. Rhode, also, (die Heilige Sage, &c.,) in a very ingenioc s and 
 ably-developed theory, throws the Bactrian prophet far back into antiq<»ity 
 
 2. Foucher, (Mem. de I'Acad. xxvii. 253,) Tychscn, (in Com. Soc. Gott. li. 
 112,) Heercn, (Idcen. i. 459.) and recently Holty, identify the Gushtasp of 
 Jhe Persian mythological history with Cyaxares the First, the king of tha 
 Medes, and consider the religion to be Median in its origin. M. Guizot con- 
 eiders this opinion most probable, note in loc. 3. Hyde, Prideaux, Anquctil 
 du Perron, Kleukcr, Herder, Gocrres, (Mj-then-Geschichte,) Von Hammer, 
 {M'ien. Jalirbuch, vol. ix.,) Malcolm, (i. 52%,) De Guigniaut, (Relig. de I'An 
 liq iJ part, vol. iii.,) Klaprodi, (Tableaux ac I'Asie, p. 21,) make Gushtasp 
 DaiiuB Hystaspes, and Zoroaster his contemporary. The silence of Hero- 
 Jotus appears the great objection to this theoiy. Some writers, as M. 
 Foucher, (resting, as M. Guizot observes, on the doubtful authority of Pliny,) 
 make more than one Zoroaster, and so attempt to recoucile the con dieting 
 theohiis. — M.
 
 iilt niE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 226-240, 
 
 trines of tlieir religion, and were all indifferently derided by a 
 crowd of infidels, who rejected the divine mission and mira 
 cles of the prophet. To suppress the idolaters, reunite the 
 schismatics, and confute the unbelievers, by the infallible 
 decision of a general council, the pious Artaxerxes sum- 
 
 which M d'Anquetil has brought into Europe, and translated into 
 FiencL* 
 
 * Zend signifies life, living^. The w^ord means, either the collection of 
 the canonical books of the followers of Zoroaster, or the language itself io 
 which they are written. They are the books that contain the -word of life 
 whether tlie language was originally called Zend, or whether it ■was so 
 called from the contents of the books. Avesta means -word, oracle, revela- 
 tion : this tenn is ngit the title of a particular ■work, but of the collection of 
 the books of Zoroaster, as the revelation of Ormuzd. This collection is 
 sometimes called Zendavesta, sometimes briefly Zend. 
 
 The Zend was the ancient language of Media, as is proved by its affinity 
 with the dialects of Armenia and Georgia; it ■was ah'eady a dead language 
 under the Arsacides in the country ■which ■was the scene of the events re- 
 corded in the Zendavesta. Some critics, among others Richardson and 
 Sir W. Jones, have called in question the antiquity of these books. The 
 former pretended that Zend had never been a vv^ritten or spoken language, 
 but had been invented in the later times by the Magi, for the pui-poses of 
 their art ; but Kleuker, in the dissertations which he added to those of An- 
 quetil and tlie Abbe Foucher, has proved that the Zend ■was a living and 
 spoken language. — G. Sir W. Jones appears to have abandoned his doubts, 
 on discovering the affinity between the Zend and the Sanski-it. Since the 
 time of Kleuker, this question has been investigated by many learned 
 scholars. Sir W. Jones, Leyden, (Asiat. Research, x. 283,) and Mr. Erskine, 
 (Bombay Trans, ii. 299.) consider it a derivative from the Sanskrit. The an- 
 tiquity of the Zendavesta has likewise been asserted by Rask, the great 
 Danish linguist, who, according to Malcolm, brought back from the East 
 fre.sh transcripts and additions to those published by Anquetil. According 
 to Rask, the Zend and Sanskrit are sister dialects; the one the parent of the 
 Persian, the otlier of the Indian family of languages. — G. and M. But the 
 subject is more satisfactorily illustrated in Bopp's comparative Grammar of 
 the Sanscrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, and Gei-man lan- 
 guages. Berlin. 1833-5. According to Bopp, the Zend is, in some respects, 
 of a more remarkable stnicture than the Sanskrit. Parts of the Zendavesta 
 have been published in the original, by M. Bournouf, at Paris, and M. 01- 
 shausen, in Hamburg. — M. 
 
 The Pehlvi was the language of the countries bordering on Assyiia, and 
 probably of Assj'ria itself. Pehlvi signifies valor, heroism ; the Pehlvi. 
 therefore, was the language of the ancient heroes and kings of Persia, the 
 valiant. (Mr. Erskine prefers the derivation from Pehla, a border. — M.) It 
 contains a number of Aramaic roots. Anquetil considered it formed from 
 the Zend. Kleuker does not adopt this opinion. The Pelilvi, he says, is 
 much more flowing, and less overcharged with vowels, than the Zend. The 
 books of Zoroaster, first ■written in Zend, ■were afterwards translated into 
 Pehlvi and Parsi. The Pehlvi had fallen into disuse under the dynasty of 
 the Sassanides, but the learned still wrote it. Tlie Parsi, the dialect of Pars 
 ar Farristan, was then the prevailing dialect. Kleuker, Anhang. zum Zend 
 Avesta, 2, ii. part i. p. 158, part ii. 31. — G. 
 
 Mr. Ersltine (Bombay Transactions) considers the existing Zendavesta U 
 k»vft been compiled in tlie time of Ardeschir Ba ^legan. — M.
 
 A-D. 226-240,J OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. 283 
 
 moned the Magi from all parts of his dominions. These 
 priests, who had so long sighed in contempt and obscurity 
 obeyed the welcome summons ; and, on the appointed day, 
 appeared, to the number of about eighty thousand. But aa 
 the debates of so tumultuous an assembly could not have been 
 directed by the authority of reason, or intiuenced by the art of 
 policy, the Persian synod was reduced, by successive ojiera- 
 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. lie drank 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 jour- 
 ney to heaven, and his intimate conferences with the Deity. 
 Every doubt was silenced by this supernatm'al evidence ; and 
 the articles of the faith of Zoroaster were fixed with equal 
 authority and precision.' A short delineation of that cele- 
 brated system will be found useful, not only to display the 
 character of the Persian nation, but to illustrate many of their 
 most important transactions, both in peace and war, wdth the 
 Roman empire." 
 
 The great and fundamental article of the system, was the 
 celebrated doctrine of the two principles ; a bold and injudi- 
 cious attempt of E;istern 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, in whom, or by whom, the universe exists, is denominated 
 in the writings of Zoroaster, Time ivithout bounds ; f but it must 
 be confessed, that this infinite substance seems rather a meta- 
 physical abstraction of the mind, than a real object endowed 
 
 ' Hyde de Religione veterum Pers. c. 21. 
 
 ■"' I have principally drawn this account from the Zendavesta of 
 M. d'Anqiiotil, and the Sadder, subjoined to Dr. Hyde's treatise. It 
 must, howevei-, 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 tliia 
 abridgment of Persian theology.* 
 
 * It is to be regretted that Gibbon followed the post-Muhometim Sadder 
 of Hyde.— M. 
 
 t Zeruane Akerene, so translated by Anquetil and Kleukcr. There is a 
 dissertation of Fouchcr on this subject, Mem. dc I'Acad. des Inscr. t. xxix. 
 According to Bohlen (das alte Indicu) it is the Sanskrit Sarvaii Akaranan^ 
 the Uncreated Whole ; or, according to Fred. Schlegel, Sz7-vain Akharyam, 
 the Uncreate Indivisible. — M.
 
 232 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 226-240. 
 
 with self-consciousness, or possessed of moral perfectiona, 
 Fron] either the blind or the intelligent operation of this in- 
 finite Time, which bears but too near an affinity with the chaos 
 of the Greeks, the two secondary but active principles of thfl 
 universe, were from all eternity produced, Ormusd and Ahri- 
 man, each of them possessed of the powers of creation, but 
 each disposed, by his invariable nature, to exercise them with 
 diiierent designs.* The principle of good is eternally ab- 
 orbed in light; the principle of evil eternally buried in dark- 
 ness. 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 mo- 
 tion of the planets, the order of the seasons, and the temper- 
 ate mixture of the elements, are preserved. But the malice 
 of Ahriman has long since pierced Ormusd^s egg ; or, in 
 other words, has violated the harmony of his works. Sinoi 
 that fatal eruption, the most minute articles of good and evil 
 are intimately intermingled and agitated together ; the rank- 
 est poisons sjiring up amidst the most salutary plants ; deluges, 
 earthquakes, and conflagrations attest the conflict of Nature, 
 and the little world of man is perpetually shaken by vice and 
 misfortune. Whilst the rest of human kind are led away cap- 
 tives in the chains of their infernal enemy, the faithful Persian 
 alone reserves his religious adoration for his friend and pro- 
 tector Ormusd, and fights under his banner of light, in the full 
 confidence that he shall, in the last day, share the glory of his 
 Lriumph. 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, disarmea 
 and subdued, will sink into their native darkness ; and virtue 
 will maintain the eternal peace and harmony of the universe." f 
 
 " The raodem Parsees (and in some degree the Sadder) exali 
 Ormusd into the first and omnipotent cause, whilst they degrade 
 Ahriman into an inferior but rebeUious spirit. Their desire of pleas- 
 mg the Mahometans may have contributed to refine their theological 
 
 systems. 
 
 " This is an error. Abi-iman was not forced by his invariable nature to 
 do evil ; the Zendavesta expressly recognizes (see the Izescluie) that lie 
 was born good, that in bis origin be v/as liglit ; envy rendered bim evil ; be 
 became jealous of the power and attributes of Ormuzd ; then light waa 
 changed into darkness, and Ahriman was precipitated into the abyss. See 
 the Abridgment of the Doctrine of the Ancient Persians, by Anquetil, c. ii 
 5 2.— G. 
 
 t According to the Zendavesta, Ahriman will not be annihilated or pre- 
 cipitated forever into darkness : at the resurrection of the dead he will ba
 
 A. D. 226-240.J op the roman empire. ysa 
 
 The theology of Zoroaster was darkly comprehended by 
 foreigners, and even by the far greater number of liis tlisci- 
 pies ; but the most careless observers were struck with the 
 philosophic simplicity of the Persian worship. " That people," 
 said Herodotus,'^ " rejects the use of temples, of altars, and 
 of statues, and smiles at the folly of those nations who im- 
 agine 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 ad- 
 dressed." Yet, at the same time, in the true spirit of a 
 polytheist, he accuseth 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 color to it. The elements, 
 and more particularly Fire, Light, and the Sun, whom they 
 called Mithra,f were the objects of their religious reverence, 
 
 " Herodotus, 1. i. c. 131. But Dr. Prideaux thinks, with reason, 
 that the use of temples was afterwards permitted in the Magian 
 
 religion.* 
 
 entirely defeated by Ormuzd, his power will be destroyed, his kingdom 
 overthrown to its foundations, he will himself be pariiied in torrents of 
 melting metal ; he will change his heart and his will, become holy, heaven- 
 ly, establish in his domuiions the law and word of Onnuzd, unite himself 
 with him in everlasting friendship, and both will sing hymns in honor of 
 the Great Eternal. See Anquetil's Abridgment. Kleuker, Anhang part 
 iii. p 85, 36 ; and the Izeschne, one of the books of the Zendavesta. Ac- 
 cording to the Sadder Bun-Dehesch, a more modem work, Ahi-iman is to 
 be annihilated : but this is contrary to the text itself of the Zendavesta, 
 and to the idea which its author gives of the kingdom of Eternity, after 
 the tv^-elve thousand years assigned to the contest between Good and EviL 
 — G. 
 
 * The Pyraea, or fire temples of the Zoroastrians. (observes Kleuker, Pei- 
 sica, p. IG,) were only to be found in Media or Aderbidjan, provinces into 
 which Herodotus did not penetrate. — M. 
 
 t Among the Persians Mithra is not the Sun : Anrjuetil has contested 
 and triumphantly refuted the opinion of tho.'^e ^^ ho confound them, and it 
 is evidently contrary to the text of the Zendavesta. Mithra is the first of 
 the genii, or jzcds, created by Ormuzd ; it is he who watches over all nature. 
 Hence arose the misapprehension of some of the Greeks, who have said 
 that Mithra was the summus deus of the Persians: he has a thousand ears 
 and ten thousand eyes. The Chaldeans appear to have assigned him a 
 fcigher rank than the Persians. It is he who bestows upon the earth the 
 light of the sun. The sun. named Khor, (brightness,) is thus an inferior 
 
 fenius, who, v^-ith many other genii, bears a part in the functions of Mithra. 
 'be.se assistant genii to another genius arc called his kavikars ; but in the 
 Zendavesta they are never confounded. On the days sacred to a particulaj 
 genius, the Persian ought to recite, not only the prayers addressed to him, 
 Bat those also which ai-e addressed to his kamkars ; thus the hymn or icscht
 
 284 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 226-240. 
 
 because the} considered them as 1,be purest symbols, the 
 noblest productions, and the most powerful agents of the Di- 
 vine Power and Nature.' 
 
 Every mode of religion, to make a deep and lasting im- 
 pression 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 reli- 
 gion of Zoroaster was abundantly provided with the former 
 and possessed a sufficient portion of the latter. At the age 
 of puberty, the faithful Persian was invested with a mysterious 
 girdle, the badge of the divine protection ; and from that mo- 
 ment all the actions of his life, even the most indifferent, or the 
 most necessary, were sanctified by their peculiar prayers, 
 ejaculations, or genuflections ; 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 bhssful eternity, 
 where the degree of felicity will be exactly proportioned to the 
 degree of virtue and piety." 
 
 " Hyde de Relig. Pers. c. 8. Notwithstanding all their distinctiona 
 and protestations, which seem sincere enough, their tyrants, the 
 Mahometans, have constantly stigmatized them as idolatrous worship- 
 pers of the fire. 
 
 ^* See the Sadder, the smallest part of which consists of moral 
 precepts. The ceremonies enjoined are infinite and trifling. Fifteen 
 genuflections, prayers, tfec, were required whenever the devout Persian 
 cut liis nails or made water ; or as often as he put on the sacred girdle 
 ■Sadder, Art. 14, 50, 60."- 
 
 of Mithra is recited on the day of the sun, (Khor,) and vice versS,. It ia 
 probably this which has sometimes caused tbem to be confounded ; but 
 Anquetil bad himself exposed this error, which Kleukcr, and all who have 
 studied the Zendavesta, have noticed. See viii. Diss, of Anquetil. Kleuker'a 
 Anhang-, part iii. p. 132. — G. 
 
 M. Guizot is unquestionably right, according to the pure and original 
 doctrine of llie Zend. The Mithriac worship, which was so extensively 
 propagated in the West, and in which Mithra and the siin were pei-petuaUy 
 confounded, seems to have been formed from a fusion of Zoroastrianism 
 ind Chaldaism, or the Syrian worship of the sun. An excellent abstract of 
 the question, with references to the works of the chief modern wTitcrs on 
 ihis curious subject, De Sacy, Kleuker, Von Hammer, &c., may be found in 
 De Guigniaut's translation of Kreuzer. Relig. d'Antiquite, notes viii. ix. to 
 book ii. vol. i. 2d part, page 728. — M. 
 
 * Zoroas/er exacted much less ceremonial observance, than, at a latef 
 period, tie priests of his doctrines. This is the progress of all religion*
 
 A. D. 226-240] 05? the roman emi-ire. 235 
 
 But there are some remark?.ole instances in wliich 7/yT0S& 
 ter lays aside the prophet, assumes the legislator, and discov- 
 ers a 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 cf 
 purchasing the divine favor, he condemns with abhorrence, 
 as a crimina*) rejection of the best gifts of Providence. Thg 
 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 labors of agriculture.* We may quote 
 from the Zendavesta 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 of ten 
 thousand prayers."^* In the spring of every year a festival 
 was celebrated, destined to represent the primitive equality, 
 and the present connection, 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 admit- 
 ted, 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 labors," was he accustomed to say, (and 
 to say with truth, if not with sincerity,) "from your labors 
 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." " Such a festival must indeed have degenerated, in a 
 wealthy and despotic empire, into a theatrical representation ; 
 
 " Zendavesta, torn. i. p. 224, and Precis du Systeme de Zoroastre, 
 torn. ill. 
 
 '^ Hyde de Religione Persarum, c. 19. 
 
 the worship, simple in lis origin, is gradually overloaded with minute super- 
 Btitions. The maxim of tlie Zendavesta, on the relative merit of sowing the 
 earth and of prayers, quoted below by Gibbon, proves that Zoroaster did not 
 attach too much importance to these observances. Thus it is not from the 
 Zendavesta that Gibbon derives the proof of his allegation, but from the Sad- 
 der, a much later ^vork. — G 
 
 * See, cu Zoroaster's encouragement of agriculture, the ingenions r© 
 toarliB of Ileeren, Idcen. vol. i. p. 449, &c., and Rhode, Heilige Sago. p. 517
 
 286 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 226-240 
 
 but it was at least a comedj well worthy of a royal audience, 
 and which might sometimes imprint a salutary lesson on the 
 mind of a young prince. 
 
 Had Zoroaster, in all his institutions, invariably supported 
 this exalted character, his name would deserve a place with 
 those of Numa and Confucius, and his system would be justly 
 entitled to all the applause, which it has pleased some of our 
 dRines, and even some of our philosophers, to bestow on it. 
 But in that motley composition, dictated by reason and pas- 
 sion, by enthusiasm and by selfish motives, some useful and 
 sublime truths were disgraced by a mixture of the most ab- 
 ject and dangerous superstition. 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 reg- 
 ular hierarchy was diffused through all the provinces of Per- 
 sia ; and the Archimagus, who resided at Balch, was respected 
 as the visible head of the church, and the lawful successor of 
 Zoroaster." The property of the Magi was very consider- 
 able. Besides the less invidious possession of a large tract 
 of the most fertile lands of Media,'* they levied a general tax 
 on the fortunes and the industry of the Persians." " 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 you? 
 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 des- 
 
 " Hyde de Religione Persarum, c. 28. Both Hyde and Prideaux 
 affect to apply to the Magian the terms consecrated to the Christiiin 
 hierarchy. 
 
 '" Animian. Marcollin. xxiii. 6. He informs us (as far as we may 
 credit him) of two curious particulars : 1. lliat the Magi derived somt 
 of their most secret doctrines from the Indian Brachmans; and 
 t That they were a tribe, or family, as well as order. 
 
 *^ The divine institution of tithes exhibits a singular instance of 
 conformity between the law of Zoroaster and that of Moses. Thcs* 
 vrho cannot otherwise account for it, may supjxise, if they please thai 
 the Magi of the latter times inserted so useful an interpolation into th« 
 wriiingfs of their prophet.
 
 A.D. 226-240.J of the roman empire. 
 
 287 
 
 tours are the teaobers of religion ; they know all things, and 
 they deliver all men." "» * 
 
 These convenient maxims of reverence and impl'-c-ic f.i;i'.i 
 were doubtless imprinted with care on the tender minds of 
 youth ; since the Magi were the masters of education in Per- 
 g-A, and to their hands the children even of the royal family 
 A-ere intrusted.'" The Persian priests, who were of a spec- 
 ulative genius, preserved and investigated the secrets of Ori- 
 ental plnlosophy ; and acquired, cither by superior knowledge, 
 or superior art, the reputation of being well versed in some 
 occult sciences, which have derived their appellation fi-om the 
 Magi." Those of more active dispositions mixed with the 
 world in courts and cities; and it is observed, that the admin- 
 istration 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 splen- 
 dor." 
 
 The first counsel of the Magi was agreeable to the unso- 
 ciable genius of their faith," to the practice of ancient 
 
 " Sadder, Art. viii. 
 
 *' Plato in Alcibiad. 
 
 '''' Pliny (Hist. Natur. 1. xxx. c. 1) observes, that magic held man- 
 kind by the triple chain of religion, of pliysic, and of astronomy. 
 
 '^ Agathias, 1. iv. p. 134. 
 
 ^* Mr. Hiime, in the Natural History of Religi-on, sagaciously 
 remarks, tiiat the most refined and philosophic sects are constantly the 
 most intolerant.f 
 
 * The passage quoted by Gibbon is not taken from the \vTitings of Zoi- 
 oaster, but from the Sadder, a work, as has been before said, much later 
 than the books which form the Zcndavesta. and written by a Macrus for 
 popular use; what it contains, therefore, cannot be attributed to Zoroaster. 
 It is remarkable that Gibbon should fall into this ciTor, for Hyde himself 
 does not ascribe the Sadder to Zoroaster ; he remarks that it is \\Titten ic 
 verse, while Zoroaster always ^vrote in prose. Hyde. i. p. 27. Whatever 
 may be the case as to the latter assertion, for which tliere appears little 
 foundation, it is unipiestionable that the Sadder is of much later date. 
 Tlie Abbe Foaclier does not even believe it to be an extract from the works 
 of Zoroaster. See his Diss, before quoted. Mem. do I'Acad. des Ins. T. 
 x.Kvii. — G. Perhaps it is rash to speak of any part of tlie Zcndavesta as 
 the teriling of* Zoroaster, thontrh it may be a genuine representalion of hifl 
 di3trir.<i.3. As to the Sadder, Hyde (in Pra^f) considered it not above 300 
 years old. It is manifestly post-Maliometan. See Art. xxv. on <asting. 
 -M. 
 
 I Hume's comparison is rather between theism and polj-theism. In Intliit, 
 In Greece, and in modern Europe, philosophic religion has looked loMTiwiti 
 soatcmptuous toleration on the superstitions of the vilgar. — M.
 
 288 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D 220-240. 
 
 kinga,** and evtn to tli.e example of tlieir legislator, who had 
 SIba a '."ictim to a religious war, excited by his own intoler- 
 ant zeal.^° 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 deilied 
 monarchs, were thrown down with ignominy.^' The sword 
 of Aristotle (such was the name given by the Orientals to the 
 polytheism and philosophy of the Greeks) was easily broken ; " 
 the flames of persecution soon reached the more stubborn Jews 
 and Christians ; ^^ nor did they spare the heretics of their own 
 nation and religion. The majesty of Ormusd, who was jeal- 
 ous 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.^" '* This spirit of persecution reflects 
 dishonor on the religion of Zoroaster ; but as it was not j^ro- 
 ductive of any civil commotion, it served to strengthen ths 
 new monarchy, by uniting all the various inhabitants of Per- 
 sia in the bands of religious zeal.f 
 
 TT. Artaxerxes, by his va.or and conduct, had wrested tht 
 sceptre of the East from the ancient royal family of Parthia 
 There still remained the more difficult task of establishing, 
 
 ^^ Cicero de Legibus, ii. 10. Xerxes, by the advice of the Magi, 
 destroyed the temples of Greece. 
 
 -6 Hyde de Relig. Persar. c. 23, 24. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque 
 Orientale, Zurdusht. Life of Zoroaster in torn. ii. of the Zendavesta 
 
 °' Compare Moses of Chorene, 1. ii. c. 74, with Ammian. Marcel- 
 lin. xxiii. 6. Hereafter I shall make use of these passages. 
 
 ^^ Rabbi Abraham, in the Tarikh Schickard, p. 108, 109. 
 
 ^' Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, 1. viii. c. 3. Sozomen, 1. ii. c. 1 
 Manes, who suiFered an ignominious death, may be deemed a Magiai 
 a-s well as a Christian heretic. 
 
 ^^ Hyde de Religione Persar. c. 21. 
 
 * It is incoTrect to attribute these persecutions to Artaxerxes. The Jewi 
 were held in honor by him, and their schools flourished during his reign 
 Compare Jost, Geschiciite der Israeliter, b. xv. 5, witli Basnage. Sapor wa? 
 forced by the people to temporary severities ; but their real persecution dif" 
 not begin till the reigns of Yezdigerd and Kobad. Hist, of Jev.'s, iii. 236. 
 Accoi'ding to Sozomen, i. viii., Sapor first persecuted the Christians. Manei 
 was put to death by Varanes the First, A. D. 277. Beausobre, Hist, de 
 Man. i. 20!) —M. 
 
 t In the tcstainent of Ardischer in Fcrdusi, the poet assigns these senti- 
 ments to the dying king, as ke addresses his son : Never forget that as i 
 Ring, you are at once the protector of religion and of your country. Con 
 aider the altar and the thi-oue as insepai-able ; they must always sustain eftoi 
 Other. Malcolm's Persia, i. 74 — M
 
 A. D. 226-240.J of the roman empire. 'i&:l 
 
 throughcait the vast extent of Persia, a uniform and \iaforoua 
 administration. The weak iiidulg-ence of tlie Arsacides had 
 resigned to tlieir sons and brotliers the principal provinces, 
 and the greatest offices of the kingdom in the nature of liered- 
 itary possessions. The vitaxce, 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 barba- 
 rians in their r/iountains, and the Greek cities of Upper Asia,*' 
 within their walls, scarcely acknowledged, or seldom obeyed, 
 any superior; and the Parthian empire exhil)ited, under other 
 uames, a lively image of the feudal system " which has since 
 prevailed in Europe. But the active victor, at the head of a 
 numerous and disciplined army, visited in person every prov- 
 ince of Persia. The defeat of the boldest rebels, and the 
 reduction of the strongest fortifications,^^ diffused the terror 
 of his arms, and prepared the v/ay for tlie peaceful reception 
 of his authority. An obstinate resistance was fatal to the 
 chiefs ; but their followers were treated with lenity.'* A 
 cheerful submission was rewarded with honors and licbes; 
 but the prudent Artaxerxes sufi'ering no person except him- 
 self to assume the title of king, abolished every intermediate 
 power between the throne and the people. His kingdom, 
 nearly equal in extent to modern Persia, was, on every side, 
 bounded by the sea, or by great rivers ; by the Euphrates, 
 the Tigris, the Araxes, the Oxus, and the Indus, by the Cas- 
 pian Sea, and the Gulf of Persia.'^ That country was com- 
 
 *■' Tliese colonies were extremely numerous. Seleucus Nicalor 
 founded thirty-nine cities, all named from himself, or some of his 
 relations, (see Appian in Syriac. p. 124.) The aera 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, cfec, and M. Freret, Mem. 
 de I'Academie, torn. xix. 
 
 ^" The modern Persians distinguish that period as tlie dynasty of 
 the kings of the nations. See Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 25. 
 
 =' Eutychius (tom. i. p. 3G7, 371, 375) relates the siege of the 
 island of Mescne in the Tigris, with some circumstances not unlike 
 the story of Kysus and Scylla. 
 
 '* Agathias, ii. 64, [and iv. p. 2G0.] llie princes of Segestan de- 
 fended their independence during many years. As romances gcD 
 eraliy transport to an ancient period the events of tneir own time, 
 it IS not impossible that tlie fabulous exploits of Rustan, Prince ot 
 Segostan, many have been grafted on this real history. 
 
 ** We can scarcely attribute to the Persian raonarcliy the sea-coiiat
 
 f40 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 226 -254, 
 
 puted to contain, in the last century, five hundred and fifty- 
 four cities, sixty thousand villages, and about forty millions of 
 souls.^* If we compare the alministration of the liouse of 
 Sassan with that of the house cf Sefi, the political influen(;e 
 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, ftnd inhabitants. 
 Dut it must likewise be confessed, that in every age the want 
 of harbors on the sea-coast, and the scarcity of fresh water 
 in the inland provinces, have been very unfavorable to the 
 commerce and agriculture of the Persians ; who, in the cal- 
 culation of their numbers, seem to have indulged one of the 
 ineanest, though most common, artifices of national vanity. 
 
 As soon as the ambitious mind of Artaxerxes had triumphed 
 siver the resistance of his vassals, he began to threaten the 
 Qeighboring states, who, during the long slumber of his pred- 
 ecessors, had insulted Persia with impunity. He obtained 
 some easy victories over the wild Scythians and the effemi- 
 nate Indians ; but the Romans were an enemy, who, by their 
 past injuries and present power, deserved the utmost efforts 
 of his arms. A forty years' tranquillity, the fruit of valor 
 and moderation, had succeeded the victories of Trajan. Dur- 
 ing 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 favor of the latter. 
 Macrinus, indeed, prompted by his precarious situation and 
 pusillanimous temj)er, purchased a peace at the expense of 
 
 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 afterwards, it was thinly in- 
 habited by a savage people of Icthyophagi, or Fishermen, who knew 
 no arts, who acknowledged no master, and who were divided by in- 
 hospitable deserts from the rest of the world. (See Arriau de Reb. 
 Lidicis.) In the twelfth century, the httle town of Taiz (supposed 
 by M. d'Anville to be the Teza of Ptolemy) was peopled and enriched 
 by tlie resort of the Arabian merchants. (See Geographia Nubien?, 
 
 E. 58, and d'Anville, Geograpliie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 283.) In the 
 ist age, the whole country was divided between three princes, one 
 Mahometan and two Idolaters, who maintained their indepcndeows 
 sigafnst the successors of Shah Abbas. ( Voyages de Taveriiici , pott 
 L L V. p. 63.5. 
 
 " Cbardiu, torn iii c 1 2, 3.
 
 A. D. 226-240.] of the rowan empire. 241 
 
 near two millions of our money ; " but the generals of Mar- 
 cus, the emperor Severus, and his son, erected many trophies 
 in Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria. Among their ex- 
 ploits, the imperfect relation of which would have unseason- 
 ably interrupted the more important series of domestic revo- 
 lutions, 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- 
 live miles to the north of ancient Babylon, was the capital of 
 the Macedonian conquests in Upper Asia.'* Many ages after 
 the fall of their empire, Seleucia retained the genuine charac- 
 ters 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 contempt 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.'" The Parthian monarchs, 
 like the Mogul sovereigns of Hindostan, delighted in the pas- 
 toral life of their Scythian ancestors ; and the Imperial camp 
 was frequently pitched in the plain of Ctesiphon, on the east- 
 ern bank of the Tigris, at the distance of only three miles 
 from Seleucia.'"' The innumerable attendants on luxury and 
 despotism resorted to the court, and the little village of Ctesi- 
 phon insensibly swelled into a great city.'" Under the reign 
 of Marcus, the Roman generals penetrated as far as Ctesi- 
 phon and Seleucia. They were received as friends by the 
 Greek colony ; they attacked as enemies the seat of the Par- 
 
 " Dion, 1. xxviii. p. 1335. 
 
 ** For the precise situation of Babylon, Seleucia, Ctesiphon, Mo- 
 lain, and Bagdad, cities often confounded with each other, see an ex- 
 cellent Geographical Tract of M. d'Anville, in Mem. de I'Academie, 
 torn. XXX. 
 
 " Tacit. Annal. xi. 42. Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 26. 
 
 ''" This may be inferred from Strabo, 1. xvi. p. 743. 
 
 ■" That most curious traveller, Bcrnier, who followed the camp of 
 Aurenjjfzebe 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; 60,000 camels, ,50,000 oxen, and 
 oetween 300,000 and 400,000 persons. Almost all Delhi followed the 
 court, whose magnificence sujiported its industry, 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 242 THE DECLINE AND FALV [A. 1). 226--240. 
 
 thiaii kings ; yet both cities experienced the same trentmeni 
 The sack and conflagration of Seleucia, with the massficre of 
 three hundred thousand of the inhabitants, tarnished the glory 
 of the Roman triumph." Seleucia, already exhausted by the 
 neighborhood of a too powerful rival, sunk under the fatal 
 blow ; but Ctesiphon, in about thirty-three years, had suffi- 
 ciently recovered its strength to maintain an obstinate siege 
 against the emperor Severus. The city was, however, taken 
 by assault; the king, who defended it in person, escaped with 
 precipitation ; a hundred thousand captives, and a rich booty, 
 rewarded the fatigues of the Roman soldiers." Notwith- 
 standing these misfortunes, Ctesiphon succeeded to Babylon 
 and to Seleucia, as one of the great capitals of the East. 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 resi- 
 dence. 
 
 From these successful inroads the Romans derived no real 
 or lasting benefit ; nor did they attempt to preserve such dis- 
 tant conquests, separated from the provinces of tlie empire b} 
 a large tract of intermediate desert. The reduction of the king- 
 dom of Osrhoene was an acquisition of less splendor indeed, but 
 of a far more solid advantage. That little state occupied the 
 northern and most fertile part of Mesopotamia, between the Eu 
 phrates and the Tigris. Edessa, its capital, was situated about 
 twenty miles beyond the former of those rivers ; and the in- 
 habitants, since the time of Alexander, were a mixed race of 
 Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, and Armenians." The feeble sove- 
 reigns 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 theii 
 medals. After the conclusion of the Parthian war under Mar- 
 
 ♦= Dion, 1. Ixxi. p. 1178. Hist. August, p. 38. Eutrop. viii. 10 
 Euseb. in Chronic. Quadratus (quoted in the Augustan History) 
 attempted to vindicate the Romans by alleging that the citizens of 
 Seleucia had first viohited their faith. 
 
 " Dion, 1. Ixxv. p. 1263. Herodian, 1. iii. p. 120. Hist. August 
 p. 70. 
 
 ** The polished citizens of Antioch called those of Edessa mixed 
 barbarians. It was, however, some praise, that of the three dialecla 
 of the Syriac, the purest and most elegant (tlie Aramaean) was spoken 
 ftt Edessa. This remark M.Bayer (Hist. Edess. p 5) has borrowfd 
 t-om George of Malatia, a Syrian writer.
 
 A. D. 226-240.J OF the koman empire. 24? 
 
 CU3, it was judged prudent to secure some subslrtiitia. pledges 
 cf 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 jjolicy of Severus confirmed 
 their dependence," and the perfidy of Caracalla completed the 
 6asy conquest. Abgarus, the last king of Edessa, was sent in 
 chains to Rome, his dominions reduced into a province, and his 
 capital dignified with the rank of colony ; and thus the Ro- 
 mans, about ten years befoie the fall of the Parthian monarchy, 
 obtained a firm and permanent establishment beyond tho 
 Euphrates." 
 
 Prudence as well as glory might have justified a war on 
 the side of Artaxerxes, had his views been confined to the 
 defence or acquisition of a useful frontier. But the am- 
 bitious Persian 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. CjTus, he alleged, had first subdued, and his suc- 
 cessors had for a long time possessed, the whole extent of 
 Asia, as far as tho Propontis and the ^gean Sea ; the prov- 
 inces of Caria and Ionia, under their empire, had becTi gov- 
 erned by Persian satraps, and all Egypt, to the confines of 
 Ethiopia, had acknowledged their sox-ereignty." Their rights 
 had been suspended, but not destroyed, by a long usurpation ; 
 and as soon as he received ihe Persian diadem, which birth 
 and successful valor had placed upon his head, the first great 
 duty of his station called upon him to restore the ancient limits 
 and splendor 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 Per- 
 
 " Dion. 1. Ixxv. p. 1248, 1249, 1250. M. Bayer has neglected to me 
 
 this most important passage. 
 
 ■"^ Tljis kingdom, from Osrhoes, who gave a new name to the coun- 
 try, to the last Abgarus, had lasted 353 years. See the learned work 
 of ]\I. Bayer, Historia Osrhoena et Edessena. 
 
 " Xenophon, in the preface to the Cyropjedia, gives a clear and 
 magnificent idea of the extent of the empire of Cyrus. Ilerodotua 
 (L iii. c. 79, (tc.) enters into a curious and particular description of the 
 twenty great Satrapies into which the I'ersian P'npire was divided by 
 Duiu<i Hjstaspes.
 
 244 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 226-240. 
 
 s:ans the empire of Asia, to content tneirsselves with the 
 undisturbed possession of Europe. This haughty mandate svas 
 deUvered by four hundred of the tallest and most beautiful of 
 the Persians ; who, by their fine horses, splendid arras, and 
 rich apparel, displayed the pi'ide and greatness of their master." 
 Such an embassy was iimch less an offer of negotiation than a 
 declaration of war. Both Alexander Severus and Artaxerxcs, 
 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 seern the most authentic of all 
 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 ob- 
 tained 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 armor of steel ; of seven hundred 
 elephants, with towers filled with archers on their backs, and 
 of eighteen hundred chariots armed with scythes. This for- 
 midable host, the like of which is not to be found in eastern 
 history, and has scarcely been imagined in eastern romance,'"' 
 was discomfited in a great battle, in which the Roman Alex- 
 
 " Herodian, vi. 209, 212. 
 
 *^ There were two hundred scythed chariots at the battle of Arbela, 
 in tlie host of Darius. In the vast army of Tigranes, which was van- 
 quished by LucuUus, seventeen thousand horse only were completely 
 armed. Antiochus brought fifty-four elephants into the field against 
 the Romans : by his frequent wars and negotiations witli the princes 
 of India, lie had once collected a hundred and fifty of those great 
 animals ; but it may be questioned whether the most powerful mon- 
 arch of Hindostan eve! ibrmed a line of battle of seven hundred 
 elephants. Instead of three or four thousand elephants, which the 
 Great Mogul was supposed to possess, Tavernier (Voyages, part ii. L 
 i. p. 198) discovered, by a more accurate inquiry, that he liad only five 
 hundred for his baggiige, and eighty or ninety fur the service of war. 
 The Greeks have varied witli regard to the number which Porus 
 brought into the field ; but Quintus Curtius, (viii. 13,) in this instance 
 judicious and moderate, is contented with eighty-five elephants, distin- 
 guished by tlieir size and strength. In Siam, where these animals are 
 the most numerous and the most esteemed, eighteen elephants are al- 
 lowed as a sufficient proportion for each of the nine brigades into 
 which a just army is divided. The whole number, of one liundred and 
 sixty-two elephants of war, may sometimes be uo-obled. Hist. de« 
 Voyaf.es, tom. ix. p. 260.* 
 
 * Corn pure Gibbous note 10 to ch. Ivi: — M.
 
 A. D. 22G-240.J OF hie roman empire. 2-15 
 
 ander proved himself an intrepid soldier and a skilfiil gen- 
 eral. The Great King fled before his valor ; an imniensfl 
 booty, and the conquest of Mesopotamia, were the immediate 
 fruits of this signal victory. Such are the circumstances of 
 this ostentatious and improbable relation, dictated, as it too 
 plainly appeal's, by the vanity of the monarch, adorned by the 
 unblushing servility of his flatterers, and received without con- 
 tradiction by a distant and obsequious senate." Far from be- 
 ing 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- 
 porary historian, who mentions the virtues of Alexander with 
 respect, and his faults with candor. He describes the judi- 
 cious 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, 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," was en- 
 compassed by the superior numbers, and destroyed by the 
 arrows of the enemy. The alliance of Chosroes, king of 
 Armenia," 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 
 jirovinces, and by several successful actions against Artaxerxes, 
 gave a faint color 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 
 
 V> Hist. August, p. 133.* 
 
 " M. de Tillemont has already observed, that Herodian's geography 
 is somewhat confused. 
 
 ^^ Mosea of Chorene (Hist. Armen. 1. iL c. '71) illustrates this inva- 
 sion of Media, by asserting that Chosroes, king of Armenia, defeated 
 Artaxerxes, and pursued him to the confines of India. The exnlcitj 
 of Chosroes have been magnified ; and he acted as a dependent ally to 
 the Romans. 
 
 " See M. Guizot's nolo, p. 267. Acconliug to the Persian autnoritiei 
 ArdcBchir extended bis conquests to the Euphrates. Malcolui i. 71. — M.
 
 246 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A, D. 22G-240. 
 
 by the badness of the roads, and the severity of the wintei 
 Beason. It hai been resolved, that wliilst 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, 
 influenced 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 dimin- 
 ished by sickness, and provoked by disappointment. The 
 behavior of Artaxerxes had been very different. Flying with 
 rapidity from the hills of Media to the marshes of the Eu- 
 phrates, 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 engage 
 ments against the veteran legions of Rome, the Persian mon- 
 arch had lost the flower of his troops. Even his victories 
 had weakened his power. The favorable opportunities of the 
 absence of Alexander, and of the confusions that followed 
 that emperor's death, presented themselves in vain to his am- 
 bition. Instead of expelling the Romans, as he pretended, 
 from the continent of Asia, he found himself unable to wrest 
 from their hands the little province of Mesopotamia.^' 
 
 The reign of Artaxerxes, which, from the last defeat of the 
 Parthians, lasted only fourteen years, forms a memorable aera 
 in the history of the East, and even in that of Rome. His 
 character seems to have been marked by those bold and com- 
 manding 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 re- 
 spected as the groundwork of their civil and religious 
 policy." Several of his sayings are preserved. One of 
 them in particular discovers a deep insight into the constitu- 
 tion of government. " The authority of the prince," said 
 Artaxerxesj "must be defended by a military force; that 
 force can only be maintained by taxes ; all taxes must, at 
 
 ** For the account of this war, see Ilerodian, 1. vi. p. 209, 212. 
 The old abbreviator^ and modern compilers have blindly followed the 
 Augustan History. 
 
 " Eutycluus, torn. ii. p. 180, vers. Pocock. The great Chosroes 
 Nousliinvan sen/ the code of Artaxerxes to all liia satraps, as tho in- 
 ariable rule of their conduct.
 
 A. D. 226-240.] of suk koma.-j empire. 247 
 
 last, fell upon agriculture' ; tincl agriculture can never flourish 
 except under tlie protection of justice and moderation." " 
 Artaxerxes bequeathed his new empire, and his ambitious de 
 signs against the Romans, to Sapor, a son not unworthy of 
 his great father ; but those designs were too extensive for t'no 
 power of Persia, and served only to involve both nations in a 
 long series of destructive wars and reciprocal calamities. 
 
 The I'ersians, long since civilized and corrupted, were verj 
 far from possessing the martial independence, and the intrep- 
 id hardiness, both of mind and body, which 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 con- 
 siderable 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 constructino;, be^ieo-inof, or defeudinic reo-ular forti- 
 fications. They trusted more to their numbei's than to their 
 courage ; more to their courage than to their discipline. The 
 infantry was a half-armed, spiritless crowd of peasants, lev- 
 ied in haste by the allurements of plundei", and as easily 
 dispersed by a victory as by a defeat. The monarch and his 
 nobles transported into the camp the pride and luxury of the 
 seraglio. Their military operations were impeded by a use- 
 less 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 femine.^* 
 
 But the nobles of Persia, in the bosom of luxury and des- 
 potism, preserved a strong sense of personal gallantry and 
 national honor. 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." The 
 most distinguished youth were educated under the monarch's 
 
 ** D'Herbelot, Bibliothcque Orientale, au mot Anhhir. "We may 
 observe, that after an ancient period of fables, and a long interval of 
 darkness, the modern histories of Persia begin to assume an air of 
 truth Avith the dynasty of Sassanides. [Compare jMalcolm, i. 79. — M. 
 
 '" Hcrodian, 1. vi. p. 214. AmniianusMarcellmus, 1. xxiii. c. (5. Som 
 differences may be observed between the two historians, the natural 
 efifects of the changes produced by a century and a half. 
 
 " The Persians are still the most skilful hcTsemen, and their horsei 
 the finest, in the East.
 
 248 THE DECLIXE AND FALL [A. D. 22G-240 
 
 eye, piActisod their exercises in the gate of his palace, and 
 were aeverely trained up to the habits of temperance and 
 obedience, in their long and laborious parties of hunting. Tn 
 every province, the satrap maintained a like school of miHtary 
 virtue. The Persian nobles (so natural is the idea or Teudal 
 tenures) received from the king's bounty lands and houses, on 
 the condition of their service in war. They were ready on 
 Ihe first summons to mount on horseback, with a martial and 
 splendid train of followers, and to join the numerous bodies 
 of guards, who were carefully selected from among tho most 
 robust slaves, and the bravest adventurers of Asia. These 
 armies, both of light and of heavy cavalry, equally formidable 
 by the impetuosity of their charge and the rapidity of their 
 motions, threatened, as an impending cloud, the eastern prov- 
 inces of the declining empire of Rome.** 
 
 '* From Herodotus, Xenophon, Herodian, Ammianus, Chardin, 
 Ac, I have extracted such probable acccuiits of the Persian nobihty, 
 as seem either common to every age, or particular to that of the 
 Bamamdes.
 
 A- D, 226-240.] OF the roman empirk. 24i 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IHl STATE OF GERMANY TILL THE INVASION OF THE BARBA- 
 RIANS IN THE TIME OF THE EMPEROR DECIUS. 
 
 The government and religion of Persia have deserved some 
 notice, from their connection with the decline and fall of tlio 
 Roman empire. We shall occasionally mention the Scythian 
 or Sarmatian tribes,* which, with their arms and horses, their 
 flocks and herds, their wives and fixmilies, 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 
 
 * The Scythians, even according to the ancients, are not Saniiatians. 
 [It may be doubted whether Gibbon intended to confound them. — M.] 
 The Greeks, after having divided the world into Greeks and barbarians, 
 divided the barbarians into four great classes, tlie Cehs, the Scythians, the 
 Indians, and tlie Ethiopian.?. They called Celts all the inhabitants of 
 Gaul. Scythia extended from the Baltic Sea to the Lake Aral: the people 
 enclo.sed in the angle to the north-east, between Celtica and Scythia, were 
 called Celto-Scythians, and the Sarmatians were placed in the southern 
 part of that angle. But the.se names of Celts, of Scythian.s, of Celto- 
 Scythians, and Sa^natians, %vere invented, says Schlozer, by the profound 
 cosmographical ignorance of the Greeks, and have no real ground ; they 
 are purely geographical divisions, without any relation to the true affilia- 
 tion of the different races. Thus all the inhabitants of Gaul arc called 
 Celts by most of the ancient writers ; yet Gaul contained three totally dis- 
 tinct nations, the Belga, the Aquitani, and the Gauls, jjroperly so called. 
 Hi omnes lingua institutis, legibusque inter se dlfferunt. Cicsar. Cora. c. 
 i. It is thus the Turks call all Europeans Franks. Schlozer, AUgemeine 
 Nordische Geschichte, p. 289. 1771. Bayer (dc Origine et priscis Sodibua 
 Scytharum, in Opusc. p. 64) .says, Primus eorum, de quibus constat, 
 Ephorus, in quarto liistoriaruni libro, orbein tcrrarum inter Seythas, Indos, 
 iEthiopas et Celtas divisit. Fragmentum ejus loci Cosmas Indicoplcustcs 
 in topographia Christiana, f. 118, conservavit. Video igitur Ephorum, cum 
 locorum positus per certa capita distribuore et cxplicare constitucret, insig- 
 uiorum nomina gentium vastioribus spatiis adhibuissc, niiUa viala frcnide et 
 nHccesau hifcUci. Nam Ephoro quoquoraodo dicta pro cxploratis habcbant 
 Grasei plerique et liomani : ita gliscebat error postcritatc. Igitur tot tamque 
 diversaa stirpis gentes non modo intra communem quandani regionom defi- 
 nitae, unum omnes Scytharum nomec his auctoribus subienint, sed otiain ab 
 ills, regionis adpellatione in eaudem nationem sunt conflataj. Sic Cimmeri- 
 orum res cum Scythici.s, Scytharum cum Sarmaticis, Russicis, Hunnicis, T» 
 taricis commisceiitur. — G.
 
 250 THE DECLINE AND FAIL [A. D. 2'J6--240. 
 
 Korae, will occupy a mucli more important j^lace in tliis his- 
 tory, and possess a stronger, and, if we may use tbe expres- 
 sion, 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 thoso 
 barbaiians we may still distinguish the original princij)les of 
 our present laws and manners. In their primitive state of 
 simplicity and independence, the Germans were surveyed Dy 
 the discerning eye, and delineated by the masterly pencil, of 
 Tacitus,* the fu-st of historians who applied the science of 
 philosophy to the study of facts. The expressive conciseness 
 of hi^ descriptions has served to exercise the diligence of in- 
 numerable antiquarians, and to excite the genius and pene- 
 tration 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 circum- 
 stances 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 province westward of the Rhine, which had submitted to 
 the Roman yoke, extended itself over a tliird part of Europe.f 
 
 * The Germania of Taoitus lias been a fruitful source of hypothesis to the 
 bigenuity of modern writers, who have endeavored to^account I'or the form 
 of the \vork and the viewfi of the author. According to Luden, (Geschichte 
 des T. V. i. 4:32, and note,) it contains the unfinished and disarranged col- 
 ' Jctauea for a larger work. An anonymous writer, supposed by Luden to 
 ue M. Becker, conceives that it was intended as an episode in his larger his- 
 tory. According to M. Guizot, " Tacite a peint les Germains comma Mon- 
 taigne ct Rousseau les sauvagee, dans un acces d'humeur centre sa patrie : 
 son livre est une satire des moeurs Romaines, I'eloqucntc boutade d'un pa^ 
 triotc philosophe qui veut voir la vertu la, oCi il ne rencontre pas la mol!e«se 
 houteuse ct la depravation savante dune vieUe societe." Hist, de la Civil- 
 isation Moderne, i. 258. — M. 
 
 t Germany ^vas not of such vast extent. It is from Cffisar, and ni'"!ra 
 particularly from Ptolemy, (says Gatterer.) that we can know what was the 
 Btate of ancient Germany before the wars with the Romans had changed 
 the positions of the tribes. Germany, as changed by these wars, has beej 
 described by Strabo, Pliny, and Tacitus. Gemiany, properly so called, 
 v/as bounrled on the west by the Rhine, on the east by the Vistula, on tho 
 «orth by the southern point of Noi-\vay, ijy Sv^'eden, and Esthonia. Oa 
 the south, the Maine and the mountains to the north of Bohemia formed 
 the limits. Before the time of Cassar, the country between the Maine and 
 tho Danube was partly occupied by the Helvetians and otiier Gauls, partlj) 
 by the Hercynian forest but, 'rom the lime of Cspsar to the great migr»
 
 A.D. 226-240.] OF the romax empire. 251 
 
 Almost tlie whole of modern Germany, Denmark, Ntirway, 
 Sweden, Finland, Livonia, Prussia, and the greater part of 
 Poland, were peopled by the vai'ious tribes of one great 
 
 tion, tbese boundaries were advanced as far as the Danube, or, what is the 
 game thing, to the Suabian Alps, although the Hercyniau forest still occa- 
 [)ied, fi-om north to south, a space of nine days' journey on both banks of 
 the Danube. " Gatterer. Vcrsuch einer all-gcmeineu Welt-Gcschiclite," p. 
 104, edit, de 1792. This vast country was far t'rom being inhabited by a 
 single nation divided into different tribes of the same origin. We may 
 reckon three principal races, very distinct in their language, their origin, 
 and their customs. 1. To the east, the Slaves or Vandals. 2. To the 
 west, the Cimmerians or Cimbri. 3. Between the Slaves and Cimbrians, 
 the Germans, properly so called, the Saevi of Tacitus. The South wns 
 inhabited, before Julius Cajsar, by nations of Gaulish origin, afterwards by 
 the Suevi — G. On the position cf these nations, the GeiTuan antiquaries 
 differ. I. The Slaves, or Sclavonians. or Wendish tribes, according to 
 Schlozer, were originally settled iu parts of Gennany unknown to the 
 Romans, Mecklenburgh, Pomerania, Brandenburgh, Upper Saxony, and 
 Lusatia. According to Gatterer, they remained to the east of tlie Theiss, 
 che Niemen, and the Vistula, till the third century. The Slaves, accord- 
 ing to Procopius and Jornandes, Ibrmed three gi'cat divisions. 1. The 
 Venedi or Vandals, wlio took the latter name, (the Wcnden,^ having 
 expelled the Vandals, properly so called, (a Suevian race, the conquerors 
 of Africa,) from the country between the Memel and the Vistula. 2. The 
 Ajites, who inhabited between the Dueister and the Dnieper. 3. The Scla- 
 vonians, properly so called, in the north of Dacia. During the great 
 migration, these races advanced into Germany as far as the Saal and the 
 Elbe. The Sclavonian language is the stem from which have is.sued the 
 Russian, the Poli.sh, the Bohemian, and the dialects of Lusatia, of some 
 parts of the duchy of Luueburgb, of Carniola, Carinthia, and Styria, 
 iScc. ; those of Croatia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria. Schlozer, Nordische Ge- 
 schichte, p. 323, 335. II. The Cimbric race. Adelung calls by this name 
 all who were not Suevi. This race had passed the Rhine, before the time 
 of CoBsar, occupied Belgium, and are the Belga; of Cajsar and Pliny. The 
 Cimbrians also occupied the Isle of Jutland. The Cyrari of Wales and of 
 Britain are of this race. Many tribes on the right bank of the Rhine, the 
 GuthJui in Jutland, the Usipeti iu Westphalia, the Sigambri in the duchy 
 of Berg, were Gennan Cimbrians. III. The Suevi, known in very early 
 times by the Romans, for they are mentioned by L. Corn. Sisenna, who 
 iived 123 years before Christ, (Nonius v. Lancea.) This race, the real Ger- 
 mans, extended to the Vistula, and from the Baltic to the Ilercynian 
 forest. The name of Suevi ^vas sometimes confined to a single tribe, as by 
 ("oesar to the Catti The name of the Suevi has been preserved in 
 Suabia. 
 
 These three were the principal races which inhabited Germany ; they 
 mov ;d from east to west, and are the parent stem of the modern natives. 
 But northern Europe, according to Schlozer, was not peopled bj' them 
 alone ; other races, of different origin, and speaking difterent languages, 
 have inhabited and left descendants in these countries. 
 
 The Gennan tribes called themselves, from very j-emote times, by the 
 6;eneric name of Teuton.s, (Teuton, Dcutschen,) which Tacitus derives from 
 tliat of one of their gods, Tuisco. It appears more probable that it mean* 
 cnerel}' men, people. Many savage nations have given themselves no other 
 najue. Thus the Laplanders call tliemselves Almag, people ; the Samoi 
 edes Nilletz, Nis.setsch, men, &c. As to the name of Germans, (Germani,* 
 Caesar found it in use in Gaul, and adopted it as a word already known ta 
 the Romans. Many of the learned (from a passage of Tacitus, de Mor
 
 2fi2 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 22(5-240. 
 
 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 GalHc, and on the south, by the Danube, from the Illyrianj 
 pro\inces of the empire. A ridge of hills, rising from the 
 Danube, and called the Carpathian Mountains, covered Ger- 
 many on the side of Dacia or Hungary. The eastern frontier 
 was faintly marked by the mutual fears of the (irermans and 
 the Sarraatians, 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 ' of Scandinavia. 
 
 Some ingenious writers* have suspected that Europe was 
 much colder formerly than it is at present ; and the most 
 ancient descriptions of the climate of Germany tend exceed- 
 ingly to confirm their theory. The general complaints of 
 intense frost and eternal winter, are perhaps little to be re- 
 garded, 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 remarkable circumstances of a less 
 equivocal nature. 1. The great rivers which covered the 
 
 * The modern philosophers of Sweden seem agreed that the watera 
 of the Baltic gradually sink in a regular proportion, which they have 
 pentiired to estimate at half an incli 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 Baltia 
 See in the Bibliotheque Eaisonnee, tom. xl. and xlv. a large abstract 
 of Dalin's History of Sweden, composed in the Swedish language.* 
 
 " In particular, Mr. Hmne, the Abbe du Bos. and M. Pelloutier. 
 Hist, des Celtes, tom. i. 
 
 Germ. c. 2j have supposed that it vv^as only applied to the Teutons after 
 Caesar's time ; but Adelung has triumphantly refuted this opinion. The 
 name of Genuans is found in the Fasti Capitolini. See Gruler, Iseri[). 
 2899, in which the consul Marcellus, in the j"2ar of Rome 531, is .said lo liave 
 defeated the Gauls, the Insubrians, and tlie Germaiix. commanded by Vir- 
 domar. See Adelung, Aelt. Geschichtc dcr Deutsch, p. 102. — CoinpresseO 
 from G. 
 
 * Modem geologists liave rejected this theory of the depression of the Bal 
 tic, as inconsistent with recent observation. The considerable changeii 
 which have taken place on its shores, Mr. Lyell, from actual observation 
 BOW de^-idedly attributes to the vegular and uriifonu eleva'Jon of the luid.-' 
 Lyell'fl Geology, b. ii. c. 17 — M.
 
 A. D. 226-240.] of tiik roman empire. 269 
 
 Roman provinces, the Rhino and the DanuLe, weio frequently 
 frozen over, and cajiable of sup|iorting tlie most enormous 
 weights. The barbarians, who often chose that severe season 
 for their inroads, transported, without ajiprehension or danger, 
 their numerous armies, their cavahy, and their heavy wagons, 
 over a vast and sohd bridge of ice.' Modern ages have not 
 presented an instance of a like phenomenon. 2. The rein- 
 deer, that useful animal, from whom the savage of the North 
 derives the best comforts of liis dreary life, is of a constitution 
 that supports, and even requires, the most intense cold, llo 
 is found on the rock of Spitzberg, within ten degrees of the 
 Pole; ho seems to delight in the snows of Lapland and Siberia: 
 but at present he canjiot subsist, much less multi{)ly, in any 
 country to the south of the Baltic.'' 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.* The modern improvements 
 
 ^ Diodorus Siculus, I. v, p. 340, edit. Wessel. Herodian, 1. vL 
 p. 221. Jornandes, c. 55. On the banks of the Danube, the wine, 
 when brought to table, was frequently frozen into great lumps, frusta 
 vijii. Ovid. Epist. ex Ponto, 1. iv. 7, 9, 10. Virgil. Georgic. 1. iil 
 o55. The fact is confirmed by a soldier and a philosopher, who h.id 
 experienced the intense cold of Thrace. See Xeuoplion, Anabasis, L 
 vii. p. 560, edit. Hutchinson.* 
 
 ■* Buffon, Histoire JSTaturelle, torn. xii. p. 79, 116. 
 
 ^ CsBsar de Bell. Gallic, vi. 23, <fec. Tlie most inquisitive of tho 
 Germans were ignorant of its utmost limits, although some of them 
 had travelled in it more than sixty days' journey. f 
 
 * The Danube is constantly frozen over. At Pesth the bridge is usually 
 taken up, aiid the traffic and communication betweeu the two banks ciirried 
 on over the ice. The Rhine is likewise in many parts passable at least two 
 years out of five. Winter campaigns are so unusual, in modern warfare, 
 that I i-ecollect but one instance of an army crossing either invcr on the ice. 
 In the thirty years' war, (1635,) .Ian van Wertli, an Imperialist partisan, 
 crossed the Rhine from Heidelberg on the ice with 5000 men, and surprised 
 Spiers. Pichegru's memorable campaign, (1794-5,) >vhcn the freezing of the 
 Mcuse and Waal opcncil Holland to his conquests, and his cavalry and ar 
 lillery attacked the ships frozen in, on the Zuydcr Zee, was in a winter of 
 unprecedented severity. — M. 1845. 
 
 t The passage of Coesar, "parvis rcnonum legumentis utunlur," is 
 ob.scure, ob.serves Luden, (Geschichte des Teutschen Volkes,) and insufll- 
 cient to prove the reindeer to have existed in Germany. It is su[)j)()rlca 
 however, by a fragment of Sallnst. Germam intectum rbenonibus corpus 
 Uigunt. — M. It has been enggcsted to me that Cresar (as old Gesner sup- 
 posed) meant the reindeer in the following description. E.st bos cen-i figuri 
 cujus a media fronte inter aurcs unum cornu e.xistit, excelsius ma- 
 gieq^e directum (divaricalum, qu ?) his qute nobis nota sunt cornib'is. Ab 
 sjuB anmmo, sicu'. palmaj, rami quam late diliuaduntur. BelL Gai.'ic. vi a? 
 ~M. 1845.
 
 2&4 THE DKCLINE AND FALL [A. D. 226-240. 
 
 Buffioieiilly explain the causes of the diminution of the cold. 
 These iinuiense woods have been gradually cleared, which 
 intercep':ed from the earth the rays of the sun." 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 
 iiituated in the same parallel with the finest provinces of Franct 
 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.^ 
 
 It is difficult to ascertain, and easy to exaggerate, the influ- 
 ence of the climate of ancient Germany over the minds and 
 bodies of 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 favorable to 
 long life and generative vigor, that the women were more 
 fruitful, and the human species more prolific, than in warmer 
 or more temperate climates.* 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,* gave them 
 a kind of strength better adapted to violent exertions than to 
 patient labor, 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," 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." 
 
 * Cluverius (Germaiiia Antiqua, 1. iii. c. 47) investijjates the small 
 Biid scattered remains of the Hercynian wood. 
 
 '' Cliarlevoix, Histoire du Canada. 
 
 * Olaus Rudbeck asserts that the Swedish women often hear ten or 
 twelve children, and not uncommonly twenty or thirty ; tiut the 
 authority of Rudbeck is mucli to be suspected. 
 
 * In iios artus, in ha^c corpora, quae miramur, cxcrescunt. Tacit 
 Grermania, 3, 20. Cluver. 1. i. c. 14. 
 
 " Plutarch, in Mario. The Cimbri, by way of amuscunent, often 
 olid down mountains of snow on their broad shields. 
 
 " The Romans made war in all climates, and by their excellent 
 discipline were in a great measure preserved in hetdth and vigor. It 
 may be remarked, that man is the or.ly auimal which can iSve and
 
 A. D. 226-240.J ok the koman empire. 26S 
 
 There is not any where 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 his- 
 torical certainty. And yet, lus the most philosophic niind^ 
 can seldom refrain from investigating the infancy of great 
 nations, our curiosity consumes itself in toilsome and disap- 
 pointed eflbrts. When Tacitus considered the purity of the 
 German blood, and the forbidding aspect of the country, ho 
 was disposed to pi'onounce those barbarians Indli/cnoe, or 
 natives of the soil. We may allow with safety, and perliaps 
 with trutn, that ancient Germany was not originally peopled 
 by any foreign colonies already formed into a political soci- 
 ety ;'" 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 wliich they inhabited 
 would be a rash inference, condemned by religion, and un- 
 warranted by reason. 
 
 Such rational doubt is but ill suited with the genius of pop- 
 ular vanity. Among the nations who have adopted the Mo- 
 saic history of the world, the ark of Noah has been of the 
 same use, as was formerly to the Greeks and Romans the 
 siege of Troy. On a narrow b;isis of acknowledged truth, 
 an immense but rude superstructure of fable has been erected • 
 
 multiply in every country from the equator to the poles. The hog 
 seems to approach the nearest to our species in that privilege. 
 
 " Facit. Germ. 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 
 ix&ce& of a Gallic origin.* 
 
 * The Gothini, who must not bo confoundcfl witli the Gothi, a Suovian 
 tribe. In the time of Caisar many other tribes of Gaulish origin ilwelt 
 along the course of the Danube, who could not long resist the attacks of tho 
 Suevi. Tho Helvetians, who (iwclt on the borders of the Black Forest, be- 
 tween the Maine and the Danube, had been expelled long before tlio time of 
 C;psar. He mentions also the Volci Tectosagi, \vbo came from Langucdoc 
 and settled round the Black Forest. The Boii, who had penetrated into 
 iliat forest, and also have loft traces of their name in Bohemia, were subdued 
 m the first century by the Marcomanni. The Boii settled in Noricum, wera 
 mingled afterwards with the Lombards, and received the name of Boio Arii 
 (Bavaria) or Boiovarii : var, in some German dialects, appearing to mean 
 remains, descendants. Compare Malte B-m, Geography, vol i. p. 410, edit 
 1632 -M.
 
 266 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 226-241 
 
 and the wild Trisliman/* as well as the wild Tartar, '^* could 
 point out the individual son of Japliet, from whose loins hia 
 ancestors were lineally descended. The last century abound- 
 ed with antiquarians of profound learning and easy faith, 
 who, by the dim light of legends and traditions, of conjec- 
 tures and etymologies, conducted the great grandchildren 
 of Noah from the Tower of Babel to the extremities of the 
 j^lobe. Of these judicious critics, one of the most enter- 
 taining was Oaus Rudbeck, professor in the university of 
 Upsal.'^ 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 charac- 
 tei-s, their astronomy, and their religion. Of that delightful 
 region (for such it appeared to the eyes of a native) the At- 
 lantis of Plato, the country of the Hyperboreans, the gar- 
 dens of the Hesperides, the Fortunate Islands, and even the 
 Elysian Fields, were all but faint and imperfect transcripts. 
 A clime so profusely favored by Nature could not long re- 
 main desert after the flood. The learned Rudbeck allows the 
 family of Noah a few year? to multiply from eight to about 
 twenty thousand pei'sons. 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 Aske- 
 naz, 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 
 
 '* According to Dr. Keating, (History of Ireland, p. 13, 14,) the 
 giant Portholanus, who was tlie son of Seara, the son of Esra, t)ie son 
 of Sru, the son of Framant, the son of Fathaclan, the son of Magog, 
 the son of Japhet, tlie son of Noah, landed on tlie coast of Munster tlie 
 I4th day of May, in the year of the world one thousand nine hundred 
 und seventy-eight. Though he succeeded in his great enterprise, the 
 loose behavior of his wife rendered his domestic life very unhappy, and 
 provoked him to such a degree, that he killed — her favorite greyhound 
 This, as tlie learned historian very properly observes, was the Jirst in- 
 stance of female falsehood and infidehty ever known in Ireland. 
 
 ■* Genealogical History of the Tartars, by Abulghazi Bahadiii 
 Khan. 
 
 " His work, entitled Atlantica, is unconunonly scarce. Bayle hai 
 given two most curious extracts from it. Republique dcs Lettrea 
 J»Dvier et Fevrier, 1685.
 
 A. I). 220-£40.] OF THE roman empirk. 26' 
 
 gi'eatost part of Europe, Africa, and Asia ; <irul (to use tlia 
 author's metaphor) the blood circuhited from the oxtrenatiea 
 to the heart. 
 
 But all this -well-hxbored system of German finti(iuities is 
 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 unac- 
 quainted with the use of letters ; '* and the use of letters is tha 
 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 be- 
 comes feeble and lethargic, the imagination languid or irregu- 
 lar. Fully to apprehend this important trutli, let us attempt, 
 in an improved society, to calculate the immense distance 
 
 *° Tacit. Germ. ii. 19. Literarum secreta viri pariter ac fceminaa 
 ignorant. We may rest contented with this decisive authority, with- 
 out entering into the obscure disputes concerning the antiquity of the 
 Runic characters. The learned Celsius, a Swede, a schoLxr, and a 
 philosopher, was of opinion, that they were nothing more tlian the 
 Roman letters, with the curves changed into straight lines for the 
 ease of engraving. See Pelloutier, Histoire dos Celtcs, 1. ii. c. 11. 
 Dictionnaire Diplomatique, tom. 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 Venan 
 tius Fortunatu-s, (Carm. vii. 18,) who lived towards the end of the sixth 
 century. 
 
 Barbara fraxineis pingatur Run^ tabellis.* 
 
 * The ob.scure .subject of the Runic characters has exercised llic iiidu.stry 
 and ingenuity of the modern scholars of the north. There are dirce distiuci 
 theories; one, maintained by Schluzer. (Nordische Geschichte, p. 481, &c ,) 
 who considers their sixteen letters to be a corruption of the Roman alpliabet. 
 post-Christian in their date, and Sclilozcr would attribute their introduction 
 jnto the north to the Alemauui. The second, that of ITredorick Scblcgcl, 
 (Vorlesungen iibcr alte uud neue Literatur,) supposes that these cliara(;terg 
 were left on the coasts of the Mediterranean and Northern Seas by the 
 Phosnicians, preserved by the priestly castes, and employed for purjjose-s 
 of magic. Their common origin from the Phamieiim would account for 
 heir similarity to the Roman letters. The last, to which we incline, claims 
 much higher and more venerable antiquity lor the Runic, and su])])()ses 
 tbem to have been the original characters of the Indo-Teutonic tribes, 
 brought from the East, and preserved among the ditlerent races of lliat 
 •tock. See Uebcr Deutsche Runen von W. C Grimm, 18-.21. A Memoir by 
 Dr. Lagis, Fundgi-uben des alten Nordens. Foreign Q,uarter.^ Review 
 f«l. ix. p. 438.— M.
 
 868 THE DECLINE AND FALl, [A. D. 226-240. 
 
 between the man of learning and the illiterate peasant. The 
 former, by reading and reflection, multiplies his own experi 
 ence, 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 very little his fellow-laborer, the 
 ex, 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 these arts, the ancient Germans were wretchedly des- 
 titute. 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 contain about two thousand three hundred walled 
 towns." In a much wider extent of country, the geographer 
 Ptolemy could discover no more than ninety places which ha 
 decorates with the name of cities;'* though, according to our 
 ideas, they would but ill deserve that splendid title. We car 
 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.'* But Tacitus asserts, as a 
 well-known fact, that the Germans, in his time, had no cities ; '" 
 and that they affected to despise the works of Roman industry, 
 
 " Recherclies Philosophiques siir les Araericains, torn. iii. p. 228. 
 The author of that very curious work is, if I am not misinformed, r* 
 German by birth. [De Pauw.] 
 
 '® The Alexandrian Geographer is often criticized by the accurate 
 Cluverius. 
 
 '" See C£Esar, and the learned Mr. Whitaker in lus History of 
 Manchester, vol. i. 
 
 «" Tacit. Germ. 15. 
 
 " LudeE (the author of the Geschichte des Toutschcn Volkea) has eni- 
 passed most writers in bis patriotic enthusiasm for the virtues and uoble mat.- 
 teva of his ancestors. Even tlie cold of the climate, and the want of vin-34 
 Bud fruit trees, as well as the barbarism of the inbaltitants, are calumnies of 
 Ihe luxurious Italians. M. Guizot, on the other side, (in bis Histoire de la 
 Civilisation, vol. i. p. 272. &c.,) has drawn a curious parallel betv/een th* 
 Cheroiaus of Tacitus aud the North American Indians. — M.
 
 A. D. 226-240.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 268 
 
 as places of confinement rather than of security.*' Their 
 edifices were not even contig-uoiis, or formed into regular 
 villas ; '"' each barbarian fixed his independent dwelling on tlie 
 spot to which a plain, a wood, or a stream of fresli water, liad 
 induced him to give the preference. Neither stone, nor brick, 
 nor tiles, were employed in these slight habitations.*^ 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." The 
 game of various sorts, with which the forests of Germany 
 were plentifully stocked, supplied its inhabitants with food and 
 exercise."' Their monstrous herds of cattle, less remarkable 
 indeed for their beauty than for their utility,*' formed the 
 principal ol)ject of their wealth. A small quantity of corn was 
 the only produce exacted from the earth ; the use of orchards 
 or artificial meadows was unknown to the Germans ; nor can 
 we expect any improvements in agriculture from a people, 
 whose prosperity 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."' 
 
 Gold, silver, and iron, were extremely scarce in Germany. 
 Its barbarous inhabitants wanted both skill and patience to 
 investigate those rich veins of silver, which have so liberally 
 rewarded the attention of the princes of Brunswick and Sax- 
 ony. Sweden, which now supplies Europe with iron, was 
 
 -^ 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 tlie immediate demolition of the walls of 
 the colony. " Postulamus a vobis, mm"03 colonial, munimenta servi- 
 tii, detrahatis ; etiam fera animalia, si clausa teneas, virtutis oblivis- 
 runtur." Tacit. Hist iv. 64. 
 
 -' The straggling villages of Silesia are several miles in length. 
 See Cluver. 1. i. c. 13. 
 
 ■■'' One hundred and forty years after Tacitus, a few more regulai 
 structures were erected near tlie Rhine and Danube. HeiCKliac, 1 
 ni. p. 2M. 
 
 " Tacit Germ. 17. 
 
 •* Tacit. Germ. 5. 
 
 *• Csesar de Bell. Gall. vi. 21. 
 
 " Tacit Germ. 26. Cicsar, vi 22,
 
 260 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. 1), 226-240. 
 
 equally ignorant of its own riches; and tlie appearance of the 
 arms of the Germans furnished a sufficient proof how little 
 iron they were able to bestow on what they must have deemed 
 the noblest use of that metal. The various transactions of 
 peace and war had introduced some Roman coins (chiefly 
 silver) among the borderers of the Rhine and Danube ; but 
 the more distant tribes were absolutely 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.''* To a mind capable of 
 reflection, such leading facts convey more instruction, than a 
 tedious detail of subordinate circumstances. The value of 
 money has been settled by genei'al consent to express our 
 wants and our property, as letters were invented to express 
 our ideas ; and both these institutions, by giving a more active 
 energy to the powers and passions of human nature, have con- 
 tributed 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 im- 
 portant 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 pow- 
 erful 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 gross- 
 est barbarism.** 
 
 If we contemplate a savage nation in any part of the globe, 
 a supine indolence and a carelessness of futurity v,ill 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 members of society. The most numerous portion of 
 it is employed in constant and useful labor. The select few, 
 placed by fortune above that necessity, can, however, fill up 
 their time by the pursuits of interest or glory, by the improve- 
 ment of their estate or of their understanding, by the duties, 
 
 " Tacit. Germ. 6. 
 
 ^' It is said tliat the Mexicans and Peruvians, -without the use of 
 •sither money or iron, had made a very great progress in the arta, 
 Those arts, and the monuments they produced, have been strangely 
 magnified. See Recherches sur les Americains, iifflt.. ii. p. 153, ix
 
 A.. D. 22G-240.] OF the romax EMriRE. 2^\ 
 
 the pleasures, and even the follies of social life. The Oer- 
 mans were not possessed of these varied resources. The c«,ra 
 of the house and family, the managenrent of the land and 
 cattle, were delegated to the old and the infirm, to women and 
 slaves. The lazy warrior, 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 won- 
 derful diversity of nature, (according to the remark of a writer 
 who had ])ierced into its darkest recesses,) the same barbarians 
 are by turns the most indolent and the most restless of man- 
 kind. They delight in sloth, they detest tranquillity.^" The 
 languid soul, oppressed with its own weight, anxiously required 
 Bome new and powerful sensation ; and war and danger were 
 the only amusements adequate to its fierce temper. The sound 
 that summoned the German to arms was grateful to his car. 
 It roused him from his uncomfortable lethargy, gave him an 
 active pursuit, and, by strong exercise of the body, and \iolent 
 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 froin the pain of thinking. They glo- 
 ried in passing whole days and nights at table ; and the 
 blood of friends and relations often stained their numerous and 
 drunken assemblies." Their debts of honor (for in that light 
 they have transmitted to us those of jilay) 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." 
 
 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 ])urposes 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. 
 
 »» Tacit. Germ. 15. 
 
 " Tacit. Germ. 22, 23. 
 
 '^ Id. 24. The Germans might borrow the arts of play from th« 
 ftomany, but the paxsioii. is wumlerlully iiilicreiit in the human 
 Fpecie?:.
 
 232 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. I >. 226-240. 
 
 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 endeavor to procure by 
 industry the materials of an advantageous commerce. To 
 sohcit by labor what might be ravished by arras, was 
 esteemed unworthy of the German spirit.^^ The intemper- 
 ate thirst of strong liquors often urged the barbarians to 
 invade the provinces on which art or nature had bestowed 
 those much envied presents. The Tuscan who betrayed hia 
 country to the Celtic nations, attracted them into Italy by the 
 pi- )spect of the rich fruits and delicious wines, the productions 
 of a happier climate.^* And in the same manner the Ger- 
 man auxiliaries, invited into France during the civil wars of 
 the sixteenth century, were allured by the promise of plen- 
 teous quarters in the provinces of Champaigne and Burgun- 
 dy.°* Drunkenness, the most illiberal, but not the most 
 dangerous of our vices, was sometimes capable, in a less 
 civilized state of mankind, of occasioning a battle, a war, or a 
 revolution. 
 
 The climate of ancient Germany has been modified, and 
 the soil fertilized, by the labor of ten centuries from the time 
 of Charlemagne. The same extent of ground which at pres- 
 ent maintains, in ease and plenty, a million of husbandmen 
 and artificers, was unable to supply a hundred thousand lazy 
 warriors with the simple necessaries of life.^' The Germans 
 abandoned their immense forests to the exercise of hunting, 
 eniployed 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 inhabit- 
 ants. When the return of famine severely admonished them 
 of the importance of the arts, the national distress was some- 
 times alleviated by the emigration of a third, perhaps, or a 
 
 " Tacit. Germ. 14 
 
 " Plutarch, in Camillo. T. Liv. v. 33. 
 
 '* Dubos. Hist, de la Monarchie Franfoise, torn. i. p. 193. 
 
 '' Tlie Helvetian nation, -which issued from a country caller' Swit- 
 lerland, contained, of every age and sex, 368,000 persons, (Caesar de 
 'Bell. Gal. i. 29.) At present, the number of people in the Pays de 
 Vaud (a small district on the banks of the Leman Lake, much mora 
 distiuguished for pohteness than for industry) amounts to 112.591 
 See an excellent tract of M. Muret, in the Memoires de la Societe d* 
 Bern.
 
 A., r* 22G-240.J OK the koman emi'irz. ftW 
 
 fourth part of their youth." The possession and the enjoy- 
 ment of property are the pledges which bind a civiHzcd peoj^ie 
 to an im])roved country. But the Germans, who carried with 
 them what they most vakied, their arms, their cattle, and their 
 women, cheerftilly abandoned the vast silence of their woods 
 for the unbounded hopes of plunder and conquest. The in- 
 numerable 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 griidually estab- 
 lished, and has been supported by writers of distinguished 
 reputation, that, iu the age of Caesar and Tacitus, the inhabit- 
 ants of the North wei'e far more numerous than they are in our 
 days.'* A more serious inquiry into tlie causes of population 
 seems to have convinced modern philosophers of the falsehood, 
 and indeed the impossibility, of the supposition. To the names 
 of Mariana and of Machiavel,'* we can oppose the equal names 
 jf Robertson and Hume." 
 
 A warlike nation like the Germans, without either cities, 
 letters, arts, or money, found some compensation for this sav- 
 age state in the enjoyment of liberty. Their poverty secured 
 their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are tho 
 strongest fetters of despotism. " Among the Suiones (says 
 Tacitus) riches are held in honor. They are therefore sub 
 ject 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 neigh' 
 bors of the Suiones, the Sitones, are sunk even below 
 servitude ; they obey a woman." *' In the mention of these 
 exceptions, the great historian sufficiently acknowledges the 
 
 ^' Paul Diaconup, c. 1, 2, 3. Machiavel, Davila, and the rest of 
 Paul's followers, repi-escnt these emigrations too much as regular and 
 concerted measures. 
 
 '* Sir William Temple and Montesquieu have indulged, on this sub- 
 ject, the usual liveliness of their fancj-. 
 
 '^ Machiavel, Hist, di Firenze, 1. L M.nriana, Hist. Ilispan. 1. v. c. 1 
 ^^ Robertson's Charles V. Hume's Political Essays.* 
 *' Tacit. German. 44, 45. Freinshemius (who dedicated his sup 
 pfcmcut to Livy to Christina of Sweden) thinks proper to be Terj 
 
 " It is a ^vise observation of Malthus, that these nations " were not poptt 
 Voas in proportion to the huid tbcy occui.ied, but to the food they produred 
 They were prolific from their pure morals and co;istiliitinns, but their inetl 
 lotions were not calculated to prjduce food for those whom tliey broagh 
 into beinir. — M. 1845.
 
 9'8i THE DECLIXE AND FALL [A. D. 22G-2401 
 
 general theory of government. We are only at a loss to con- 
 ceive by what means riches and despotism could penetrate 
 into a remote corner of the North, and extinguish the gen- 
 erous flame that blazed with such fierceness on the frontier 
 of the Roman provinces, or how the ancestors of those Danes 
 and Norwegians, so distinguished in latter ages by their 
 unconquered spirit, could thus tamely resign the great char- 
 acter of German liberty.** Some tribes, however, on the coast 
 of the Baltic, acknowledged the authority of kings, though 
 without relinquishing the lights of men," 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 valor, 
 of eloquence or superstition.** 
 
 Civil governments, in their first institution, are voluntary 
 associations for mutual defence. To obtain the desired end, 
 it is absolutely necessary that each individual should conceive 
 himself obliged to submit his private opinions 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 societ}'. 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 mem- 
 ber of the military commonwealth. The assembly of the 
 warriors of the tribe was convened at stated seasons, or on 
 Budden emergencies. The trial of public oftences, the elec 
 tion of magistrates, and the great business of peace and war, 
 
 angry with the Roman who expressed so very Utile reverence for 
 Northern queens.* 
 
 *■ May we not suspect tliat superstition was the parent of despot- 
 ism? The descendants 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 profession of arms to any except the king's guards. Is it not 
 probable that it was colored by the pretence of reviving an old insti- 
 tution ? See Dalin's History of Sweden in the BibUotheque Raisonneo 
 torn. xl. and xlv. 
 
 " Tacit. Germ. c. 43. *' Id c. 11, 12, 13, &c 
 
 ' The Suiones and the Sitones are the ancient inhabitants of Scandinavia, 
 their naiue may be traced in tliat of Sweden ; they did not belong to the race 
 of the Saevi, but that of the non-Suevi or Cinibri, whom the Sucvi, in very 
 remote times, drove back part to the west, part to the north ; they wafe w- 
 tcc^^'ards mingled with Suevian tribe;?, among others the Goths, who hivt 
 aft traces of their name and power in the isle of GotliJajid. — G
 
 A. D. 226-240.J OF ruE koman empire. 265 
 
 were determined by its independent voice. Sometimes 
 indeed, these important questions were previously considered 
 and prepared in a more select council of the principal chief- 
 tains." 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 
 die present passion, and their courage in overlooking 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 coun- 
 sels. But whenever a more popular orator proposed to vindi- 
 cate the meanest citizen from either foreign or domestic injury, 
 whenever he called upon his fellow-countrymen to assert the 
 national honor, or to piu'sue some enterprise full of danger 
 and glory, a loud clashing of shields and spears expressed 
 the eager applause of the assembly. For the Germans al- 
 ways met in arms, and it was constantly to be dreaded, lest 
 an irregular multitude, inflamed with faction and strong 
 liquoi-s, should use those arras 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 nu- 
 merous party has been compelled to yield to the more violent 
 and seditious.'" 
 
 A general of the tribe was elected on occasions of danger ; 
 and, if the danger was pressing and extensive, several tribes 
 concurred in the choice of the same general. The bravest 
 warrior was named to lead his countrymen into the field, by 
 his example rather than by his commands. But this power, 
 however limited, was still invidious. It expired with the war, 
 and in time of peace the German tribes acknowledged not 
 any supreme chief.*' Princes were, however, appointed, in 
 the general assembly, to administer justice, or rather to com- 
 pose differences," in their respective districts. In the choice 
 of these magistrates, as much regard was shown to birth aa 
 to merit.** To each was assigned, by the public, a guard, 
 
 ''■' Grotius changes an expression of Tacitas, pertractanhir into Prat- 
 tTociantiir. The correction is equally just and ingenious. 
 
 *" Even in otir ancient parliament, the barons often carried a qnes 
 tion, not so much by the number of votes, as by that of their armed 
 followers. 
 
 *' Cffisar de Bell. Gal. vi. 23. 
 
 ** Minuunt controvcrsias, is a, very happy expression of Cajsara. 
 
 ** Reges ex nobilitate, ducAs ex virtute sumunt Tacit G«na. f 
 ?OL. I. — M
 
 266 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 226-240 
 
 and a council of a hundred persons, and the first of the princes 
 appears to have enjoyed a preeminence of rank and honor 
 which sometimes tempted the Romans to toraphment him 
 with the regal title.^' 
 
 The comparative view of the powers of the magistrates, in 
 two remarkable instances, is alone sufficient to represent the 
 whole system of German manners. The disposal of the land- 
 ed property within their district was absolutely vested in their 
 hands, and they distributed it every year according to a new 
 division.^' At the same time they were not authorized to 
 punish with death, to imprison, or even to strike a private citi- 
 zen." A people thus jealous of their persons, and careless 
 of their possessions, must have been totally destitute of indus- 
 try and the arts, but animated with a high sense of honor and 
 independence. 
 
 The Germans respected only those duties which they 
 imposed on themselves. The most obscure soldier resisted 
 with disdain the authority of the magistrates. "The noblest 
 youths blushed not to be numbered among the faithful com- 
 panions 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 insured victory to the party which 
 they espoused. In the hour of danger it was shameful for 
 the chief to be surpassed in valor by his companions ; shame- 
 ful for the companions not to equal the valor of their chief. 
 To survive his fall in battle, was indelible infomy. To pro- 
 tect 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 victory, the companions for the chief 
 The noblest warriors, whenever their native country was 
 sunk into the laziness of peace, maintained their numerous 
 bands in some distant scene of action, to exercise their restless 
 Bj)irit, and to acquire renown by voluntary dangers. Gifts 
 
 " Cliiver. Germ. Ant. 1. i. c. 38. " Tacit. Germ. 1. 
 
 " CsBsar, vi. 22. Tacit Germ. 26.
 
 A. D. 226-240.] of the roman empire. 261 
 
 worthy of soldiers — the warhke steed, the bloody and e^'er 
 victorious lance — were the rewards which the companions 
 claimed from the liberality of their chief. The rude plenty 
 of his hospitable board was the only pay that he could bestow, 
 or they Avould accept. War, rapine, and the free-will offer- 
 ings of his friends, supplied the materials of this munifi- 
 cence." " This institution, however it might accidentally 
 weaken the several republias, invigorated the general charac- 
 ter of the Germans, and even ripened amongst them all the 
 \irtucs of which barbarians are susceptible ; the faith and 
 valor, the, hospitality and the courtesy, so conspicuous long 
 afterwards in the ages of chivalry. The honorable gifts, 
 bestowed by the chief on his brave companions, have been 
 supposed, by an ingenious writer, to contain the first rudi- 
 ments 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 mihtary service.''* These condi- 
 tions are, however, very repugnant to the maxims of the 
 ancient Germans, who delighted in mutual presents ; but 
 without either imposing, or accepting, the weight of obliga- 
 tions." 
 
 " In the days of chivalry, or more properly of romance, 
 n\\ the men were brave, and all the women were chaste ;" 
 and notwithstanding the latter of these virtues is acquired and 
 preserved 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 inexpi- 
 able crimes ; nor was seduction justified by example and 
 fashion.^* We may easily discover that Tacitus indulges an 
 honest pleasure in the contrast of barbarian virtue with tho 
 
 " Tacit. Germ. 13, 14. 
 
 *^ Esprit des Loix, 1. xxx. c. 3. The brilliant imagination of 
 Montesquieu is corrected, however, by the dry, cold reason of tlia 
 Abbe de Mably. Observations sur I'Histou-e de France, torn, i 
 p. 356. 
 
 ^' Gaudeiit muncribus, sed nee data imputant, nee acceptis nbligao 
 tur. Tacit. Germ. c. 21. 
 
 ^^ The adulteress -was whipped through the village. Neithei 
 wealth nor beauty could inspire compassion, or procure lier A secotHl 
 husband. 18. 19.
 
 208 THE DECU^E AND FALL [A. D. 226-240, 
 
 iissolute conduct of the Roman ladies ; yet there are soma 
 striking circumstances that give an air of truth, or at least 
 probability, to the conjugal faith and chastity of the Germans. 
 Although the progress of civilization has undoubtedly con- 
 ti'ibuted to assuage the fiercer passions of human nature, it 
 seems to have been less favorable to the virtue of chastity, 
 whose most dangerous enemy is the softness of the mind. 
 The refinements of life corrupt while they polish the inter- 
 course of the sexes. The gross appetite of love becomes 
 most dangerous when it is elevated, or rather, indeed, dis- 
 guised 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." From such 
 dangers the unpolished wives of the barbarians were secured 
 by poverty, solitude, and the painful cares of a domestic life. 
 The German huts, open, on every side, to the eye of indiscre- 
 tion 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 honorable 
 iiatui-e. 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 the interpreters of 
 fate, such as Velleda, in the Batavian war, governed, in the 
 name of the deity, the fiercest nations of Germany,^* The 
 rest of the sex, without being adored as goddesses, were re- 
 spected as the free and equal companions of soldiers ; asso- 
 ciated even by the marriage ceremony to a life of toil, of 
 danger, and of glory." In their great invasions, the camps 
 of the barbarians were filled with a multitude of women, who 
 remained firm and undaunted amidst the sound of arms, the 
 various forms of destruction, and the honorable \^ounds of 
 their sons and husbands.^" Fainting armies of Germans have, 
 
 *^ Ovid employs two hundred lines in the research of places the 
 most favorable 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, 
 
 "^ Tacit. Germ. iv. 61, 65. 
 
 ** The marriage present was a yoke of oxen, horses, and arm* 
 Bee Germ. c. 18. Tacitus is somewhat too florid on the subject. 
 
 *" The change of cxlgcre into cxugcre is a most excellent correo 
 ttca.
 
 A.. D. 22G-240.] of the roman empire. 269 
 
 more than once, been driven back upon the enemy, by the 
 generous despair of the women, who dreaded death much less 
 than servitude. If the day was irrecoverably lost, they well 
 knew how to deliver themselves and their children, with their 
 own hands, from an insulting victor."' Heroines of such a cast 
 ma}'' claim :)ur admiration ; but they were most assuredly neither 
 lovely, nor very susceptible of love. Whilst they aflected 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 compe- 
 tition with honor, and the first honor 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 valor that distinguishes the age or country in 
 which it may be found. 
 
 The religious system of the Germans (if the wild opinions 
 of savages can deserve that name) was dictated by their 
 wants, their fears, and their ignorance."'' 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 
 occupations 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 the temple, nor represented 
 by any human figure ; but when we recollect, that the Ger- 
 mans were unskilled in architecture, and totally unacquainted 
 
 •" Tacit. Germ. c. 1. Plutarch ia Mario. Before the wives of the 
 Teutones destroyed themselves and their children, they had offered to 
 eurrender, on condition that they should be received as the slaves of 
 the vestal virgins. 
 
 ^'"^ Tacitus has employed a few lines, and Cluvcrius one hundred and 
 {wenty-four pages, on this obscure subject. Tlie former discovers in 
 Germany the gods of Greece and Rome. Tlie latter is positive, that, 
 under the emblems of the s.in, the moon, and tho fire, his pioas ances- 
 tors worshipped the Trinity in unity
 
 •?70 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 226-2'l()l. 
 
 with tho art of sculpture, we shall readily assign the trua 
 reason of a scruple, which arose not so much from a supe- 
 riority of reason, as from a want of ingenuity. The only 
 temples in Germany were dark and ancient groves, conse- 
 crated 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 ;*^ and 
 the priests, rude and illiterate as they were, had been taught by 
 experience the use of every artitice that could preserve and 
 fortify impressions so well suited to their own interest. 
 
 The same ignorance, which renders barbarians incapable 
 of conceiving or embracing the useful restraints of laws, 
 exposes them naked and unarmed to the blind terrors of su- 
 perstition. The German priests, improving this favorable 
 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.®* 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 was sometimes extended to a 
 more enlarged concern for the national welfare. A solemn 
 procession was occasionally celebrated in the present coun- 
 tries of Mecklenburgh and Pomerania. The unknown sym- 
 bol 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 i. , the Isle of Rugen, visited 
 several adjacent tribes of her vvorshippers. During her prog- 
 ress the sound of war was hushed, quarrels were suspended, 
 arms laid aside, and the restless Germans had an opportunity 
 of tasting the blessings of peace and harmony." The truce 
 
 "' The sacred wood, described with such sublime horror by Lucan, 
 was in the neighborhood of Marseilles ; but there were many of the 
 •arte kind in Germany.* 
 
 ** Tacit. Germania, c. 7. 
 
 ** Tacit. Germania, c. 40. 
 
 Tho ancient Germans had shapeless idols, and, when they began U 
 bmld more settled habitations, they raised also temples, such as that to the 
 goddess Teafana, who presided over divination. See Adelung, Hist, of Ano 
 Germans, p. 296 — G
 
 A. D. 226-240.J OF the roman empire. 271 
 
 of G\)d, so often and so ineffcctnally proclainiod by tlio clergy 
 of the eleventh century, was an obvious imitation of this an- 
 cient custom/'' 
 
 But the influence of rehgion was far more powerful to in- 
 flame, 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 appro- 
 bation of Heaven, and full assurances of success. The con- 
 secrated standards, long revered in the groves of superstition, 
 were placed in the front of the battle ;°^ and the hostile army 
 was devoted with dire execrations to the gods of war and of 
 thunder.'* In the faith of soldiers (and such were the Ger- 
 mans) cowardice is the most unpardonable of sins. A brave 
 man was the worthy favorite of their martial deities ; tho 
 wretch who had lost his shield was alike banished from the 
 religious and civil assemblies of his countrymen. Some 
 tribes of the north seem to have embraced the doctrine of 
 transmigration,'* others imagined a gross paradise of immor- 
 tal drunkenness." 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 immortahty so vainly promise^\ 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 
 Scandinavians, and the Germans. Their genius and charac- 
 ter, as well as the reverence paid to that important oflice, 
 have been sufiiciently 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 insensibly seduced by the fiction, and feel 
 
 •* See Dr. Robertson's History of Charles V. vol L note 10. 
 
 *^ Tacit. Germania, c. *?. These standards were only tlie heads of 
 prild beasts. 
 
 "^ See an instance of this custom, Tacit. Annal. xiii. 57. 
 
 *' CaBsar Diodorus, and Lucan, seem to ascribe this doctrine to th« 
 Gauls, but M. Pelloutier (Histoire des Celtes, 1. ilL c. 18) labors to re- 
 duce.thcir expressions to a more orthodox sense. 
 
 ■" Concerning this gross but alluring doctrine of the Edda, see Fabl« 
 xx. in the ciu-ious version of that book, published by IL Mallet, in his 
 Introduction to the History of Denmark.
 
 27*2 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 226-240 
 
 a raoinenlary glow of martial ardor. But how faint, ho^ 
 cold is the sensation which a peaceful mind can receive froia 
 solitary study ! It was in the hour of battle, or in the feast 
 of victory, that the bards celebrated the glory of the heroes 
 of ancient days, the ancestors of those warlike chieftains, who 
 /istened 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." * 
 
 Such was the situation, and such were the manners of the 
 ancient Germans. Their climate, their want of learning, of 
 arts, and of laws, their notions of honor, of gallantry, and of 
 rehgion, their sense of freedom, impatience of peace, and 
 thirst of enterprise, all contributed to form a people of mili- 
 tary heroes. And yet we find, that during more than two 
 hundred and fifty years that elapsed from the defeat of Varus 
 to the reign of Pecius, these formidable barbarians made few 
 considerable attempts, and not any material impression on the 
 luxurious and enslaved provinces of the empire. Their prog- 
 ress 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 
 
 " See Tacit. Germ. c. 3. Diod. Sicul. 1. v. Strabo, 1. iv. p. 197. 
 The classical reader may remember the rank of Demodocus in the 
 Ph£eacian court, and tlie ardor infused by TyrtiEus into the fainting 
 Spartans. Yet there is httle probabiUty 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. 
 
 * Besides these battle songs, tbe Germans sang at their festival banquets, 
 (Tac. Ann. i. 65,) and around the bodies of their slain heroes. King The- 
 odoric, of the tribe of tlie Goths, killed in a battle against Attila, was houcr- 
 ed by songs while iie was borne from the field of battle. Jomandes, c. 41 
 The sanie honor was paid to the remains of Attila. Ibid. c. 49. According 
 to some liistorians, the Germans had songs also at their weddings ; but 
 this appears to me iucousisteut \vith their customs, in which marriage 
 was no more than the purchase of a wife. Besides, there is but one 
 Uistance of this, that of the Gothic king, Ataulph, who sang himself the 
 cnptial hymn when he espoused Placidia, sister of the emperors Arcadiua 
 and Honorius, (01j"mpiodor. p. 8.) Bat this mamage ^vas celebrated accord- 
 ing to the Roman rites, of which the nuptial songs foi-med a part. Adeliujg, 
 p. 382.— G. 
 
 Charlemagne is said to have collected the national songs of ihe anctMtl 
 Qeraians. Eginhai'd, Vit. Clar. Mag. — M.
 
 A..D. 226-240.] OF the roman empire. 273 
 
 truth, that the comraand of iron soon ^ves a natioE the com 
 mand of gold. But the rude tribes of Germany, ahke desti- 
 tute 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 fece of a German army dis- 
 played their poverty of iron. Swords, and the longer kind 
 of lances, they could seldom use. Their framece (as they 
 called them in their own language) were long spears headed 
 ■Kith 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 cavalrv 
 was contented. A multitude of darts, scattered" with incred- 
 ible force, were an additional resource of the infantry. Their 
 military dress, when they wore any, was nothing more than a 
 loosa mantle. A variety of colors was the only ornament 
 of their wooden or osier shields. Few of the chiefs were 
 distinguished by cuirasses, scarcely any by helmets. Though 
 the horses of Germany were neither beautiful, swift, nor 
 practised in the skilful evolutions of the Roman manege, sev- 
 eral of the nations obtained renown by their cavalry ; but, in 
 general, the principal strength of the Germans consisted in 
 their infantry,'' which was drawn up in several deep columns, 
 according to the distinction of tribes and families. Impatient 
 of fatigue and delay, these half-armed warriors rushed to 
 battle with dissonant shouts and disordered ranks ; and some- 
 times, by the effort of native valor, prevailed over the con- 
 strained and more artificial bravery of the Roman merce- 
 naries. 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 com- 
 monly total destruction. When we recollect the complete 
 armor of the Roman soldiers, their discipline, exercises, evo- 
 lutions, fortified camps, and military engines, it appears a just 
 matter of surprise, how the naked and unassisted valor of the 
 barbarians could dare to encounter, in the field, the strength 
 cf the legions, and the various troops of the auxiliaries, which 
 ieconded their operations. The contest was too unequal, 
 till the introduction of luxury had enervated the vigor, and a 
 
 " Missilia spargiuit, Tacit. Germ. c. 6. Either that historian used • 
 rague expression, or he meant that they were thrown at random. 
 
 '^ It was their principal distinction from the Sarraatians, who gen 
 trally fought on horseback.
 
 t74 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 226-240 
 
 Bpirit of disobedience and sedition liad relaxed the discipline, 
 of the Roman armies. The introduction of barbarian auxil- 
 iaries 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 poHcy. Although they were admit- 
 ted 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.'* During the civil wars that followed 
 the death of Nero, that artful and intrepid Batavian, whom 
 his enemies condescended to compare with Hannibal and 
 Sertorius," 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, de- 
 stroyed their fortified camps, and employed against the Rc^ 
 mans 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 honorable treaty. The Batavians still 
 continued to occupy the islands of the Rhine," the allies, not 
 the servants, of the Roman monarchy. 
 
 n. The strength of ancient Germany appears formidable, 
 when we consider the eflfects that might have been produced by 
 its united effort. The wide extent of country might very pos- 
 sibly contain a million of warriors, as all who were of age to bear 
 arms were of a temper to use them. But this fierce multitude, 
 incapable of concerting or executing any plan of national 
 greatness, was agitated by various and often hostile inten- 
 Eons. Germany was divided into more than forty independ- 
 ent sUites ; and, even in each state, the union of the several 
 tribes was extremely loose and precarious. The barbarians 
 were easily provoked ; they knew not how to forgive an injury, 
 much less an insult ; their resentments were bloody and im- 
 
 ''* The relation of tliis enterprise occupies a great part of tlie fourth 
 and fifth books of the History of Tacitus, and is more remarkalle for 
 its eloquence than perspicuity. Su- Henry Saville has observed sev- 
 eral inaccuracies. 
 
 " Tacit. Hist. iv. 13. Like them he had lost an eye. 
 
 '" It was contained between the two branches of the old Rhine, aa 
 they subsisted before the face of the country was changed by art and 
 Bature. See Cluver Gernan. Antiq. L iii. c. 30, 37.
 
 A.D. 226-240.J of the roman empirk 274 
 
 placable. 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 feuds of 
 any considerable chieftains diffused itself among their follow- 
 ers 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 
 ft wide frontier of solitude and devastation. The awful dis- 
 tance preserved by their neighbors attested the terror of their 
 arms, and in some measure defended them from the danger of 
 unexpected incursions." 
 
 "The Bructeri* (it is Tacitus who now speaks) were 
 totally exterminated by the neighboring tribes," provoked by 
 their 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,'* and 
 have nothing left to demand of fortune, except the' discord of 
 the barbarians."*" — These sentiments, less worthy of the 
 humanity than of the patriotism of Tacitus, express the invaria- 
 ble maxims of the policy of his countrymen. They deemed 
 it a much safer expedient to divide than to combat the bar- 
 barians, from whose defeat they could derive neither honor 
 nor advantage. The money and negotiations of Rome insin- 
 uated 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 
 
 " Caesar de Bell. Gal. 1. vi. 23. 
 
 '* They are mentioned, however, in the ivth and vth centuries by 
 Nazarius, Ammianus, Claudian, Ac, as a tribe of Franks. See Cluver. 
 Germ. Antiq. 1. iii. c. 13. 
 
 " Urgentibus is the common reading ; but good sense, Lipsius, and 
 some MSS. declare for Vergentibus. 
 
 ^'' Tacit Germania, c. 33. The pious Abbe de la Bleterie is very 
 ingry with Tacitus, talks of the devil, who was a murderer from the 
 beginning, <fec., &c. 
 
 * The Bracteri were a non-Suevian tribe, -who dwelt below the dachica 
 of Oldenbargh, and Lauenburgh, on the borders of the Lippc, and in the 
 Bartz Mountaina. It was among them that ihe priestess Velleda obtained 
 her renown. — G.
 
 276 THE DECLIITE AND FALL [A. D. 226-240 
 
 enemies. Chiefs of renown and power were flattered by th« 
 most trifling presents, which they received either as marks of 
 distinction, or as the instruments of hixury. In civil dissen- 
 sions the weaker faction endeavored to strengthen its interest 
 by entering into secret connections with the governors of the 
 frontier provinces. Every quarrel among the Germans wa3 
 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.*' 
 
 The general conspiracy which terrified the Romans undei 
 the reign of Marcus Antoninus, comprehended almost all the 
 nations of Germany, and even Sarmatia, from the mouth of 
 the Rhine to that of the Danube.** It is impossible for us to 
 determine 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, 
 nor provoked by the ambition, of the Roman monarch. This 
 dangerous invasion required all the firmness and \igilance of 
 Marcus. IJe fixed generals of ability in the several stations 
 of attack, and assumed in person the conduct of the most im- 
 portant province on the Upper Danube. After a long and 
 doubtful conflict, the spirit of the barbarians was subdued. 
 The Quadi and the ISIarcomanni,*' who had taken the lead in 
 the war, were the most severely punished in its catastrophe. 
 They were commanded to retire five miles** 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, whero 
 
 *' Many traces of this policy may be discovered in Tacitus ana 
 Dion ; and many more may be inferred from the principles of human 
 nature. 
 
 *^ Hist. Aug. p. 31. Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xxxi. c. 5. AurcL Vic 
 tor. The emperor Marcus was reduced to sell the rich furniture of 
 the palace, and to enlist slaves and robbers. 
 
 *' The Marcomanni, a colony, who, from the banks of the Rhine oc- 
 cupied Bohemia and Moravia, had once erected a great and formidable 
 monarchy under tlieir king Maroboduus. See Strabo, 1. vii. [p. 290.] 
 Veil. Pat. ii 108. Tacit. Annal. ii. 63.* 
 
 ** Mr. Wotton (History of Rome, p. Ifiti) increases tlie prohibition 
 to ten times the distance. His reasoning is specious, but not conclu 
 ■ire. Five miles were sufficient for a fortified barrier. 
 
 * The Mark-maunen, the March-men or borderers. There seenis litUa 
 donbt lliat tills was an appellation, rather than a proper nMnc of a pari </ 
 the ^eal Suevian or Teutonic race — M.
 
 A. D. 22G-240.] of tiik kd'man emi-irr. 2^1 
 
 Ihey iniglit be secure as liostages, and useful as solclicrs." On 
 the frequent rebellions of the Quadi and Marcoraanni, tlie ir- 
 ritated emperor resolved to reduce their country into the foiiu 
 of a province. His designs were disappointed by death. This 
 formidable league, however, the only one that api)ears in tht 
 two first centuries of the Imperial history, was entirely dissi 
 J ated, without leaving any traces behind in Germany. 
 
 Tn the course of this introductory chapter, we have confined 
 QUi-selves to the general outlines of the manners of Germany, 
 without attempting to describe or to distinguish the various 
 tribes which tilled that great country in the tin^e of Ctesar, of 
 Tacitus, or of Ptolemy. As the ancient, or as new tribes suc- 
 cessivel}' j)resent 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 govern- 
 ment, 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 iidiabitants in the tide of conquest and emigration. The 
 same communities, uniting in a plan of defence or invasion, 
 bestowed a new title on their new confederacy. The dis- 
 solution of an ancient confederacy restored to the independent 
 tribes their peculiar but long-forgotten appellation. A vic- 
 tot-ious state often communicated its own name to a vanquished 
 people. Sometimes crowds of volunteers flocked from all parts 
 to the standard of a favorite leader ; his camp became their 
 country, and some circumstance of the enterprise soon gave a 
 common denomination to the mixed multitude. The distinc- 
 tions of the ferocious invaders were perpetually varied by them- 
 selves, and confounded by the astonished subjects of the Roman 
 empire." 
 
 Wars, and the administration of public affairs, are the prin- 
 cipal 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 obe- 
 dient subjects pursue their useful occupations in peace and 
 Voscurity. The attention of the writer, as well as of tl^e 
 
 " Dion, 1 Ixxi. and Ixxii. 
 
 " See an excellent dissertation on the origin and migrations of na- 
 tions, in the Menioires de FAcadcmie des Inscriptions, torn, xviii. p. 48 
 — 71. It is arldom that tko antiquarian an \ tlie philosopher are so hap 
 pilj blended.
 
 278 THE DECLINE AND FAIL [A. D. 226-240 
 
 reaclei; is solely confined to a court, a capital, a regular army, 
 and tli3 distric'^B wliich happen to be the occasional scene of 
 military operations. But a state of freedom and barbarism, the 
 season of civil commotions, or the situation of petty republics,*' 
 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 imagi 
 oation, and seem to multiply their numbers. The profuse 
 enumeration of kings, of warriors, of armies and nations, in- 
 clines us to forget that the same objects are continually repeat- 
 ed under a variety of appellations, and that the most splendid 
 appellations have been frequently lavished on the most incon- 
 siderable objects. 
 
 *' 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.* 
 
 * This number, thoaafh too positively stated, is probably not far wrong, as 
 an average estimate. Ou the subject of Athenian population, see St. Croix, 
 Acad, des Inscrip. xlviii. Boeckh, Put-ic Economy of Athens, i. 47. Eng 
 Trans. Fynes CHnton, Fasti Hellenici, vol. i. p. 381. The latter anther eeti- 
 mates the citizeoB of Sparta at 33,000 -M.
 
 A- D. 248-268.1 of th/c roman emfirb. 278 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 mE EMPEROES DECIUS, GALLUS, ^MILIANUS, VALERKN, ANB 
 
 GALLIENUS. THE GENERAL IRRUPTION OF THE BARBARI 
 
 ANS. THE THIRTY TYRANTS. 
 
 From the great secular games celebrated by Philip, to tho 
 death of the emperor Gallienus, there elapsed twenty years 
 of shame and misfortune. During that calamitous period, 
 every instant of time was marked, every province of the 
 Roman world w;is afflicted, by barbarous invaders, and mili- 
 tary 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 narration. Surrounded with 
 imperfect fragments, always concise, often obscure, and some- 
 times contradictory, he is reduced to collect, to compare, and 
 to conjecture : and though he ought never to place his con- 
 jectures in the rank of facts, yet the knowledge of human 
 nature, and of the sure operation of its fierce and unrestrained 
 p issions, might, on some occasions, supply the want of histor- 
 ical materials. 
 
 There is not, for instance, any difficulty in conceiving, that 
 the successive murders of so many emperors had loosened 
 r,ll the ties of allegiance between the prince and people ; that 
 all the generals of Philip wejfo disposed to imitate the example 
 of their master ; and that the caprice of armies, long since 
 habituated to fii-equent 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 brokii out in the summer of the year two hundred and 
 forty-nine, among the legions of Msesia ; and that a subaltern 
 officer,' named Marinus, was the object of their seditious 
 choice. Philip was alarmed. He dreaded lest the treason of 
 the Mpesian army should prove the first spark of a general 
 
 * The expression used by Zosimus and Zonaras may signify that 
 Marinus cou'.manded a century, a cohort, or a tgion.
 
 280 THE DECLII'E AND FALL | A. D. 248-268^ 
 
 conflagration. Distracted Avith the consciousness of liis guilt 
 and of his danger, he communicated the intelligence to the 
 senate. A gloomy silence prevailed, the effect of fear, and 
 perhaps of disaffection ; till at length Decius, one of the assem- 
 bly, assuming a spirit worthy of 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 
 A royalty, who in a very few days would be destroyed by tho 
 same inconstancy that had created him. The speedy comple- 
 tion of the prophecy inspired Philip with a just esteem for so 
 able a counsellor ; and Decius appeared to him the only 
 rjerson capable of restoring peace and discipline to an army 
 whose tumultuous spirit did not immediately subside after the 
 murder of Marinus. Decius,'' who long resisted his own 
 nomination, 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 
 accomplice. They left him only the alternative of death or the 
 purple. His subsequent conduct, after that decisive measure, 
 was unavoidable. 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, com- 
 manded 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 was massacred 
 at Rome by the Praetorian guards ; and the victorious Decius, 
 with more favorable circumstances than the ambition of that 
 age can usually plead, was universally acknowledged b^^ the 
 senate and provinces. It is reported, that, immediately after 
 Lis reluctant acceptance of the title of Augustus, he had 
 assured Philip, by a private message, of his innocence and 
 
 - His birth at Bubalia, a little village in Pannonia, (Eutrop. ix 
 Victor, in Cffisarib. et Epitom.,) seems to contradict, unless it was 
 raerely accidental, 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 tba 
 first who shared the consulship with the liauglity patricians. Plebeire 
 Deciorum anim®, &c. Juvenal, Sat. viii. 25-L See the spirited speech 
 pf Decius, in Livy, x. 9, 10.
 
 A. D. 248-208.1 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. ^flfV 
 
 loyalty, solemnly protesting, that, on his arrival- jn Tta y, ha 
 would resign the Imperial ornaments, and return to thft con- 
 dition of an obedient subject. His professions might bo sin- 
 cere ; but in the situation where fortune had placed him, il 
 was scarcely possible that he could either forgive or be for- 
 given.' 
 
 The emperor Decius had employed a few mouths in the 
 works of peace and the administration of justice, when he 
 was summoned to the banks of the Danube by the invasion of 
 the Goths. This is the fii-st considerable occasion in which 
 history mentions that great people, who afterwards broke tlie 
 Roman power, sacked the Capitol, and reigned in Gaul, Spain, 
 and Italy. So memorable wjis the part which they acted in 
 the subversion of the AVestern empire, that the name of Goths 
 is frequently but impropo'ly used as a general appellation ef 
 rude and warlike barbarism. 
 
 In the beginning of the sixth century, and after the con- 
 quest of Italy, the Goths, in possession of present greatness, 
 \ery 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 achieve- 
 ments. 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 re- 
 duced to the imperfect abridgment of Jornandes.* These 
 writers passed with the most artful conciseness over the mis- 
 fortunes of the nation, celebrated its successful valor, 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 bar- 
 barians, they deduced the first origin of the Goths from the 
 vast island, or peninsula, of Scandinavia.^ * That extreme 
 
 ' Zosimus, 1. i. p. 20, c. 22. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 624, edit. Louvre. 
 
 * See the prefaces of Cassiodorus and Jornandes ; it is surprising 
 that the latter should be omitted in the excellent edition, published by 
 Cirotius, of the Gothic writers. 
 
 ' On the authority of Ablavius, Jornandes quotes some old Gothic 
 dironicles iu verse. De Reb. Geticis, c. 4. 
 
 * Tlie Goths have inhabited Scantlinavia, but ii was not their originaj 
 habitation. This gpix-at nation was anciently ol' ilic Sueviaii race; it occu- 
 pied, in the time of Tacitus, and long before, Mccklenbnr-rh, Ponierania 
 BcmtherD Prussia and tlie north-west of Poland. A little before the birti
 
 882 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. 1), 248-288. 
 
 couiitry of the North was not unknown to the conquerors of 
 Italy : the ties of ancient consanguinity had been strengthened 
 by recent ( flBces of friendship ; and a Scandinavian king had 
 cheerfully abdicated his savage greatness, that he might pass 
 the remainder of his days in the peaceful and polished court 
 of Ravenna.* Many vestiges, which cannot be ascribed to 
 the arts of popular vanity, attest the ancient residence of the 
 Goths in the countries beyond the Rhine. 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 
 dinded 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 
 Hnd the Swedes composed two distinct and sometimes hostile 
 
 " Jornandes, c. 3. 
 
 of J. C, and in the first years of that century, they belonged to the kingdom 
 of Marbod, king of the Marcomanni : but Cotwalda, a young Gothic prince, 
 delivered them from that tyranny, and cstabUshed his own power over the 
 kingdom of the Marcomanni, already much -weakened by the victories of 
 Tiberius. The power of the Goths at that time must have been great : it 
 was probably from them that the Sinus Codanus (the Baltic) took this name, 
 as it was afterwards called Mare Suevicum, and Mare Venedicum, during 
 rtie superiority of the proper Suevi and the Venedi. The epoch in which 
 the Goths passed into Scandinavia is unkno\vn. See Adelung, Hist, of Anc. 
 Germany, p. 200. Gatterei-, Hist. Univ. 458. — G. 
 
 M. St. Martin observes, that the Scandinavian descent of the Goths rests 
 on the authority of Jornandes, who professed to derive it from the traditions 
 of the Goths. He is supported by Procopius and Paulus Diacouus. Yet the 
 Goths are unquestionably the same with the Getee of the earlier historians. 
 St. Martin, note on Le Beau, Hist, du has Empire, iii. 324. The identity of 
 the Getaa and Goths is by no means generally admitted. On the whole, they 
 seem to be one vast branch of the Indo-Teutonic race, who spread in'egular- 
 ly towards the north of Europe, and at different periods, and in different re- 
 gions, came in contact with the more civilized nations of the south. At 
 this period, there seems to have been a reflux of these Gothic tribes from the 
 North. 
 
 Make Brun considers that there are strong grounds for receiving the 
 Islandic traditions commented by the Danish Varro, M. Suhm. From 
 these, and the voyage of Pytheas, v^-hich Malte Brun considers genuine, 
 the Goths were in possession of Scandinavia, Ey-Gothland, 250 yeara 
 before J. C, and of a tract on the continent (Reid- Gothland) between tbc 
 mouths of the Vistula and tha Oder. In their southern migration, they 
 followed the course of the Vistula; afterwards, of the Dnieper. Malto 
 Brun, Geogr. i. p. 387, edit. 1832. Geijer, the historian of Sweden, ably 
 maintains the Scandinavian origin of the Goths. The Gothic language, 
 iccording to Bopp, is the hnk between the Sanscrit and the modern Teu- 
 tonic dialects: "I think that 1 am reading Sanscrit when I am reading 
 Vlphilaa" Bo])p, Conjugations System der Sanscrit Sprache, preface, p. x. 
 
 Vlpni
 
 A-D. 2i8-268.] of hie roman EMrirwE. 283 
 
 members of the same monarchy.^ The latter of these two 
 Dames 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 Kome, 
 Charles the Twelfth insinuated, that his victorious troops were 
 not degenerated from their brave ancestors, who had already 
 Bubdued the mistress of the world.* 
 
 Till the end of the eleventh century, a celebrated templa 
 subsisted at Upsal, the most considerable town of the Swedea 
 and Goths. It was enriched with the gold which the Scandi- 
 navians had acquired in their piratical adventures, and sanc- 
 tified 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 ex- 
 cepting the human) were sacrificed, and their bleeding bodies 
 suspended in the sacred grove adjacent to the temple.' 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 re- 
 mains of their ancient traditions. 
 
 Notwithstanding the mysterious obscurity of the Edda, we 
 can easily distinguish two persons confounded under the name 
 of Odin ; the god of war, and the great legislator of Scandi- 
 navia. 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 iuvin- 
 
 ^ See in the Prolegomena of Grotius some large extracts from Adam 
 of Bremen, and Saxo-Grammaticus. The former wrote in the year 
 1077, the latter flom-ished about the year 1200. 
 
 * Voltaire, Histohe de Charles XII. 1. iii. When the Austrians 
 desired the aid of the court of Rome against Gustavus Adolplms, they 
 always represented that conqueror as the lineal successor of Alaric 
 Harte's History of Gustavus, vol. ii. p. 123. 
 
 ° See Adam of Bremen in Grotii Prolegomcnis, p. 105. The tem- 
 ple of Upsal was destroyed by Ingo, king of Sweden, who began his 
 reign in the year 1075, and about fourscore years afterwai-ds, a Chris- 
 tian cathedral was erected on its ruins. See Dalin's History of 
 Sweden, in the Bibhothcque Raisonnee. 
 
 * The Eddas have at Icng^th been made accessible to European scholars by 
 the completiou of the publicatiou of the Saeinundiue Edda by the Amt 
 Magruffian Coiumissiou, in 3 vols. 4to., with a copious lexicon of aorthen 
 Kythology. — M.
 
 284 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 248--284 
 
 cible valor of Odin, by liis persuasive eloquence, and by th( 
 fame which he acquired of a most skilful magician. Thf 
 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 pre- 
 pare the feast of heroes in the palace of the God of war." 
 
 The native and proper habitation of Odin is distinguished 
 by the appellation of As-gard. The happy resemblance of 
 that name with As-burg, or As-of," words of a similar signifi- 
 cation, 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 Mseotis, 
 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 subservient to his immortal revenge ; when his 
 invincible Goths, armed with martial fanaticism, should issue in 
 numerous swarms from the neighborhood of the Polar circle, 
 to chastise the oppressors of mankind.'^ 
 
 *^' Mallet, Introduction a rHistoii-e du Dannemarc. 
 
 " Mallet, c. iv. p. 55, has collected from Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, and 
 Stephanus Byzantinus, the vestiges of such a city and people. 
 
 ^'^ This wonderful expedition of Odin, which, by deducting the 
 enmity of the Gotlis and Romans from so memorable a cause, might 
 Bupply the noble groundwork of an epic poem, cannot safely ba 
 received as authentic laistory. According 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 ticti- 
 tious appellation of tlie mj'stic 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, Avho were 
 ah'eady seated in the southern parts of Sweden.* 
 
 " A curious letter may be consulted on this subject from the Swede, Ihre 
 coanselloi- in the Chancery of Upsal, printed at Upsal by Edman, in 1772, 
 und translated into German by M. Sctlozer. Gottingen, printed for Die 
 tericht, 1779.— G. 
 
 Gibbou, at a later period of his work, recanted his opinion of the trulk
 
 A. 1>. 2 48-20 S.J OF THE KOMAN UMPIRE. 285 
 
 If SO many successive generations of Gotlis wore capable 
 of preserving a foint tradition of tlieir Scandinavian origin, we 
 must not expect, from such unlettered barbarians, any dis- 
 tinct account of the time and circumstances of tlieir 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,'^ and the distance is little more 
 than one hundred miles from Carlscroon to the nearest ports 
 of Pomerania and Prussia. Here, at length, we land on firm 
 and historic ground. At least as early as the Christian sera,^* 
 and as late as the age of the Antonines," the Goths were 
 established towards the mouth of the Vistula, and in that fer- 
 tile province where the commercial cities of Thorn, Elbing, 
 Koningsberg, and Dantzick, were long afterwards founded." 
 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 Mecklenburgh. A striking resemblance 
 of manners, complexion, religion, and language, seemed to 
 indicate that the Vandals and the Goths were originally one 
 great people." The latter appear to have been subdivided 
 into Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Gepidse.'' The distinction 
 
 " Tacit. Gerinania, c. 44. 
 
 '^ Tacit. Aniial. ii. G2. If we coiiLl yield a firm assent to the navi- 
 gations of Pytheas of Marseilles, we must allow 'that the Goths bad 
 passed the Baltic at least three hundred years before Christ. 
 
 '* Ptolemy, 1. ii. 
 
 '° By the German colonies who followed the arms of the Teutonic 
 Vnights. The conquest and conversion of Prussia were completed by 
 those adventurers in the thirteenth century. 
 
 '■'' Pliny (Hist. Natur. iv. 14) and Procopius (in Bell. VandaL 1. i.e. 1) 
 xgvae in this opinion. Tliey lived in distant age-, and possessed differ- 
 •nt means of investigating the truth. 
 
 '* The Odro and Vlsi, the eastern and western Gotlis, obtained 
 those, denominations from their original seats in Scandinavia.* In 
 
 nf this expedition of Odin. The Asiatic origin of the Gotlw is almost 
 certain from the affinity of tlicir language to the Sanscrit and Persian ; 
 but their northern migration must have taken place long before the period 
 of liistory. The transformation of the deity Odin into a wan-ior chieftaiu, 
 and the whole legend of his establi.shmeut in Scandinavia, is probably a 
 theory of the noribern writers, when all mythology w^as reduced to hero- 
 vvorsiiip. — M. 
 
 * It was not in Scandinavia that the Goths were divided into Ostrogoths 
 imd Visigoths ; that division took place after their irruption into Dacia in 
 the lliird century : those who came from Mecklenburgh and Pomerania were 
 ctMix\ Visigoths ; those who came from the south of Prussia, and the rjrrtii- 
 WCF. f.f Poland, calliid tliemselves Ostrogoths. AdeUmg, Hi.st. All. p. 204 
 3i.i:c--'-t. iiist Uriiv 4:n.— G.
 
 286 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 248-268 
 
 among the Vandals was more strongly marked by the inde- 
 pendent names of Heruli, Burgundians, Lombards, and a 
 variety of other petty states, many of whicli, in a future age, 
 expanded themselves into powerful monarchies.* 
 
 In the age of the Antonines, the Goths were still seated in 
 Prussia. About tlie reign of Alexander Severus, the Roman 
 province of Dacia had already experienced their proximity 
 by frequent and destructive inroads.'^ In this interval, there- 
 
 all their futui'e marches and settlements they preserved, with their 
 names, the same relative situation. When they first departed frota 
 S'^eden, the infant colony was contained in three vessels. The third, 
 be.'iig a heavy sailer, lagged behind, and the crew, which afterwards 
 swelled into a nation, received from that circumstance the appellutioD 
 of Gepidffi or Loiterers. Jornandes, c. 17. 
 
 '" See a fragment of Peter Patricias in the Excerpta Logatioaum 
 and with regard to its probable date, see Tdlemont, Hist, des Empe 
 rflurs, torn. iii. p. 346. 
 
 * This opinion is by no means probable. The Vandals and tL* Goths 
 equally belonged to the great division of the Suevi, but the tvso tribes 
 were very different. Those who have treated on this part of liistory, appear 
 to mc to have neglected to remark that the ancients ahnost always gave the 
 name of the dominant and conquering people to all the weaker aud con- 
 quered races. So Pliny calls Vmdcli, Vandals, all the people of the north- 
 east of Europe, because at that epoch the Vandals were doubtlesj the con- 
 iiuermg tribe. Ca;sar, on the contrary, ranges under the name of Suevi, 
 many of the tribes whom Pliny reckons as Vandals, because tlie Suevi, 
 properly so called, were tlien tlie most powerful tribe in Germany. When 
 the Goths, become in tlicir turn conquerors, bad subjugated llie nations whom 
 they encountered on their ^vay, these nations lost their name with their lib- 
 erty, and became of Gothic origin. The Vandals themselves were then con- 
 sidered as Goths ; the Heruli, the GepidfB, &c., suffered the same fate. A 
 common origin was thus attributed to tribes who had only been united by 
 the conquests of some dominant nation, and this confusion has gi/en rise to 
 a number of historical errors. — G. 
 
 M. St. Martin has a learned note (to Le Beau, v. 261) on the origin of the 
 Vandals. Tbe dilBculty appears to he in rejecting the close analogy of the 
 name witli the Vend or ^Vendish race, who were of Sclavonian, not of Sue- 
 vian or German, origin. M. St. Martin supposes that the different races 
 spread fi-om the head of the Adriatic to the Baltic, and even the Veneti, on 
 the sliores of the Adriatic, the VindeUci, the tribes wliich gave their name 
 to Vindobana, Vindoduua, Viudonissa, were branches of the same stock with 
 tlie Sclavonian Vcnedi, who at one time gave their name to tbe Baltic; that 
 they all spoke dialects of tbe ^Vcndish language, which still prevails in Ca 
 rinthia, Carniola, part of Bohemia, and Lusatia, and is hardly extinct in 
 Mecklenburgh and Pomerania. The Vandal race, once so fearfully cele- 
 brated in the annals of. mankind, has so utterly perished from tbe face of tbe 
 earth, that we are not aware that any vestiges of their language car b<? 
 traced, so as to throw light on tbe disputed question of their Germui V f ' 
 Sclavonian, or independent origin. The weight of ancient aaiiionty scc.isi 
 R^aiust M. St. Martin's opinion. Compare, on the Vandals, Malte Hmc, L 
 394. Also Gibbon's note, e. xh. n. 38. — M.
 
 A. D. 248-268.J of the roman empire, 281 
 
 fore, of about seventy years, we must piace the second migra- 
 tion of the Goths from the Baltic to the Euxhie ; but the cause 
 that produced it hes 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 
 imj^^el the Gothic arms on the milder climates of the south. 
 Behides the influence of a martial religion, the numbers and 
 spirit of the Goths were equal to the most dangerous advep- 
 lures. 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;^" 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 pre- 
 rogative of his birth, which he derived from the Anscs, or demi' 
 gods of the Gothic nation."' 
 
 The fame of a great enterprise excited the bravest warriors 
 from all the Vandalic states of Germany, many of whom are 
 seen a few years afterwards combating under the common 
 standard of the Goths.''* The first motions of the eraigTanta 
 carried them to the banks of the Prypec, a river universally 
 conceived by the ancients to be the southern branch of the 
 Borysthenes.''^ 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 un- 
 known course of the river, confident in their valor, and care- 
 less of whatever power might oppose their progress. The 
 Bastarnee and the Venedi were the first who presented them- 
 selves ; and the flower of their youth, either from choice or 
 compulsion, incre;vsed the Gothic army. The Bastarnre dwell 
 
 *" Omnium harum gentium insigne, rotur.da scuta, breves gladii, et 
 erga rages obsequium. Tacit. Gerinania, c. 43. The Goths probably 
 acquired their iron by the commerce of amber. 
 
 -' Jornandes, c. 13, 1-4. 
 
 ^' 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, seems to allude to this ^reat emigia- 
 tion. The Marcomannic war was partly occasioned by the pressure 
 of barbarous tribes, who lied before the arms of more northern barba 
 .ians. 
 
 " D'Auvillc, Geographic Ancieiuie, aid the third [lart of liio iufon) 
 ■^abie map of Europe.
 
 2H9 THE DECLINE AND PALL [A. D. 248-268. 
 
 Ob tae northern side of the Carpathian Mountains : the im- 
 mease tract of land that separated the Bastarnaj from the 
 savages of Finland was possessed, or rather wasted, by the 
 Venedi ; *' we have some reason to believe that the first of 
 these nations, which distinguished itself in the Macedonian 
 war," and was afterwards divided into the formidable tribes 
 of the Peucini, the Borani, the Carpi, &c., derived its origin 
 from the Germans.* With better authority, a Sarraatian 
 extraction may be assigned to the Venedi, who rendered 
 themselves so famous in the middle ages.^^ But the confu- 
 feion of blood and manners on that doubtful frontier often per- 
 plexed the most accurate observers.^' As the Goths advanced 
 near the Euxine Sea, they encountered a purer race of Sar- 
 matians, the Jazyges, the Alani,J 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 char- 
 acteristic marks of the people of Germany and of Sarmatia, 
 we shall discover that those two great portions of human kind 
 were principall}^ distinguished by fixed huts or movable tents, 
 by a close dress or flowing garments, by the marriage of one 
 
 '* Tacit. Germania, c. 46. 
 
 ''* Cluver. Germ. Antiqua, L iii. c. 43. 
 
 '^ The Venedi, the Slavi, and the Antes, were the three great tribes 
 of the same people. Jornandes, '24.f 
 
 '^^ Tacitus most assuredly deserves that title, and even his cautioua 
 suspense is a proof of his diligent inquiries. 
 
 * The BastariiiB cannot be considered original inhabitants of Germany 
 Strabo and Tacitus appear to doubt it; Pliny alone calls thcni Germans: 
 Ptolemy and Dion treat them as Scythians, a vagnc rvoellation at this period 
 of history; Livj', Plutarch, and Diodorus Siculus, call them Gauls, and this 
 is the most probable opinion. Thej' descei'ded from the Gauls who entered 
 Germany under Sigrioesus. They are always found associated with other 
 Gaulish tribes, such as the Boii, the Taurisci, &c., and not to the German 
 tribes. The names of their chiefs or princes, Chlonix, Chlondicus. Deldon, 
 Hre not German names. Those who were settled in the island of Peuce in 
 the Danube, took the name of Peucini. 
 
 The Carpi appear in 237 as a Suevian tribe who had made an irruption 
 into Majsia. Afterwards they reappear under the Ostrogoths, with wliom they 
 wei-e probably blended. Adelung, p. 236, 27S. — G. 
 
 t They formed the great Sclavonian nation. — G. 
 
 X Jac. Reineggs supposed that he had found, in the mountains of Caucasus, 
 some descendants of the Alani. The Tartars call them Edeki-Alan : they 
 speak a peculiar dialect of the ancient language of the Tartai-s of Caajasua 
 See J. Reineggs' Descr. of Caucasus, p. 11, 13. — G. 
 
 According to Klaproth, they arc the Ossptes oi tne ptcsent day in Monci 
 C(xuoas»;a anil were the same with the AlbapiaBd of sntiqaity. Klaprolh. 
 ■'^•l^icaux Tlist. de I'Asic. p. 180. — M.
 
 A' D. 248-268.J of the koman empire. 289 
 
 •r of several wives, by a military force, consisting, for the 
 most part, either of infantry or cavahy ; and above all, by the 
 use of the Teutonic, or of the Sclavonian language ; the last 
 of which has been diflused by conquest, from the confines of 
 Italy to the neighborhood of Japan. 
 
 The Goths were now in possession of the Ukraine, a country 
 of considerable extent and uncommon fertility, intersected 
 with navigable rivers, which, from either side, discharge 
 themselves into the Borysthenes ; and interspersed with large 
 and leafy forests of oaks. The plenty of game and fish, the 
 innumerable bee-hives deposited in the hollow of old trees, 
 and in the cavities of rocks, and forming, even in that rude 
 age, a valuable branch of commerce, the size of the cattle, the 
 temperature of the air, the aptness of the soil for every species 
 of gain, and the luxuriancy of the vegetation, all displayed the 
 liberality of Nature, and tempted the industry of man.^' But 
 the Goths withstood all these temptations, and still adhered to 
 a life of idleness, of poverty, and of rapine. 
 
 The Scythian hordes, which, towards the east, bordered on 
 the new settlements of the Goths, presented nothing to their 
 arms, except the doubtful chance of an unprofitable victory. 
 But the prospect of the Roman territories was for more allur- 
 ing ; and the fields of Dacia were covered with rich harvests, 
 sown by the hands of an industrious, and exposed to be gath- 
 ered 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 
 •ich enough to satiate, the rapaciousiiess of the barbarians. 
 As long as the remote banks of the Niester were considered 
 as the boundary of the Roman power, the fortifications of the 
 Lower Danube were more carelessly guarded, and the inhab 
 itants of Msesia lived in supine security, fondly conceiving 
 themselves at an inaccessible distance from any barbarian 
 mvaders. The irruptions of the Goths, under the reign of 
 Philip, fatally convinced them of their mistake. The king, 
 or leader, of that fierce nation, traversed with contempt the 
 
 ^* Genealogical History of the Tartars, p. 593. Mr. Bell (vol. ii. p 
 879) traversed the Ukraine, in his journey from Petevsburgh to Coii- 
 etantinople. The modern face of the country is a just representation 
 c-f the vncient, since, in tlie hands of the Cossacks, it still remains in a 
 ■tate o.' nature. 
 
 VOL I. — N
 
 S0O THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 248-268. 
 
 province of Dacia, and passed both the Niester and the 
 Danube without encountering any opposition capable of re- 
 tarding his progress. The relaxed discipline of the Roman 
 troops betrayed the most important posts, where they were 
 stationed, and the fear of deserved punishment induced great 
 numbers of them to enlist under the Gothic standard. The 
 various multitude of barbarians appeared, at length, under 
 the walls of Marcianopolis, a city built by Trajan in honor 
 of his sister, and at that time the capital of tlie second 
 Maesia."' 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 ar 
 opulent but feeble country. Intelligence was soon transmitted 
 to the emperor Decius, that Cniva, king of the Goths, had 
 passed the Danube a second time, with more considerable 
 forces ; that his numerous detachments scattered devastation 
 over the province of Msesia, whilst the main body of the 
 army, consisting of seventy thousand Germans and Sarma- 
 tians, a force equal to the most daring achievements, required 
 he presence of the Roman monarch, and the exertion of his 
 .military power. 
 
 Decius found the Goths engaged before Nico])olis, on tho 
 • «trus, one of the many monuments of Trajan's victories.' 
 <*n his approach they raised the siege, but with a design only 
 c»f marching avi-ay to a conquest of greater importance, tho 
 ■viege of Philippopolis, a city of Thrace, founded by the father 
 of Alexander, near the foot of Mount Hajmus.'* Decius 
 
 *' In the sixteenth chapter of Jornandes, instead of secundo Msesiam 
 we may venture to substitute secundam, the second Msssia, of whicL 
 Marcianopolis was certainly the capital. (See Hierocles. de Provinciis, 
 and Wesseling ad locum, p. 636. Itinerar.) It is surprising hew 
 this palpable error of the scribe should escape the judicious correction 
 of Grotius.* 
 
 '° The place is still called Nicop. D'Anville, Geographic Anciennc, 
 torn. i. p. 307. The little stream, on whose banks it stood, falls iut<i 
 the Danube. 
 
 ^' Stephan. Byzant.de Urbibus, p. 740. Wesseling, Itinerar. p. 136. 
 Zonaras, by an odd mistake, ascribes the foundation of Philippupolii 
 to the immediate predecessor of Decius. f 
 
 * Luden has observed that Jornandes mentions two passages over Ihi 
 Danube ; this relates to the second in-uption into Massia. Gescliichte des T 
 V. ii. p. 448.— M. 
 
 t Now Philippopolis or Philiba; its situation among the hills caused it to 
 te ftleo called Trimortiura. D'Anville, Geog. Anr i "95. — G.
 
 A. D. 248-268.] of the roman empire. S91 
 
 folic wed them ibrough a difficult country, and by fortsed 
 marches; but when he imagined himself at a considerabla 
 distance 'from the rear of the Goths, Ciiiva turned with rapid 
 fury on bis pursuers. The camp of the Romans was sur- 
 prised and pillaged, and, for the first time, their emperor fled 
 in disorder before a troop of half-armed barbarians. After a 
 long resistance, Philoppopolis, destitute of succor, was taken 
 by storm. A hundred thousand persons are reported to have 
 been massacred in the sack of that great city.°^ j^fany prison- 
 ers 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." The time, however, consumed in that 
 tedious siege, enabled Decuis to revive the courage, restore the 
 discipline, and recruit the numbei-s of his troops. He inter- 
 cepted several parties of Carpi, and other Germans, who were 
 hastening to share the victory of their countrymen,'* intrusted 
 the passes of the mountains to officers of approved valor and 
 fidelity," repaired and strengthened the fortifications of the 
 Danube, and exerted his utmost vigilance to oppose either the 
 progress or the retreat of the Goths. Encouraged by the re- 
 turn of fortune, he anxiously waited for an opportunity to re- 
 trieve, by a great and decisive blow, his own glory, and that 
 of the Roman arms.'" 
 
 At the same time o'hen Dccius was struggling with the vio- 
 lence of the tempest, his mind, calm and deliberate amidst 
 the tumult of war, investigated the m-re general causes, that, 
 since the age of the Antonines, had so impetuously urged the 
 decline of the Roman greatness. Ho soon discovered that it 
 was impossible to replace that greatness on a permanent basis, 
 without restoring public virtue, ancient principles and mannei-s, 
 and the oppressed majesty of the laws. To execute this noble 
 
 " Ammian. xxxi. 5. 
 
 " Aurel. Victor, c. 29. 
 
 ^* Vic'.orice Car])icce, on some medals rf Decius, insinuate tlicse m]- 
 rantages. 
 
 ^^ Claudius (-^ho afterwards reigned with so much glory) wm 
 posted in the pass of Thermopyke with 200 Dardanians, 100 heavy 
 and IGO light horse, GO Cretan archers, and 1000 well-armed recruits. 
 See an original letter from the emperor to his officer, in the Augustan 
 History, p. 200. 
 
 ** Jornandes, c. 16 — 18. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 22. In the general ao- 
 e»unt of this .war, it is easy to discover the opposite pn^judices of the 
 &othi ; and the Grecian writer. lu carelessness alone they are alik«
 
 292 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 248-268 
 
 bnt arduous design, be first resolved to revive the obsoleta 
 office of censor ; an office which, as long as it had subsisted 
 in its pristine integrity, had so much contributed to the per- 
 petuity of the state," till it was usurped and gradually neg- 
 lected by the Caesars.'* Conscious that the favor of the sove- 
 reign may confer power, but that the esteem of the people 
 can alone bestow authority, he submitted the choice of the 
 censor to the unbiased voice of the senate. By their unan- 
 imous votes, or rather acclamations, Valerian, who was after- 
 wards emperor, and who then served with distinction in the 
 army of Decius, was declared the most worthy of that exalted 
 honor. As soon as the decree of the senate was transmitted 
 to the emperor, he assembled a great council in his camp, and 
 before the investiture of the censor elect, he apprised him of 
 the difficulty and importance of his great office. " Happy 
 Valerian," said the prince to his distinguished subject, " happy 
 in the general approbation of the senate and of the Roman 
 republic ! Accept the censorship of mankind ; and judge of 
 our mannere. You will select those who deserve to continue 
 members of the senate ; you will restore the equestrian order 
 to its ancient splendor ; you will improve the revenue, yet 
 moderate tiie public burdens. You will distinguish into reg- 
 ular classes the various and infinite multitude of citizens, and 
 accurately view the military strength, the wealth, the virtue, 
 and the resources of Rome. Your decisions shall obtain the 
 force of laws. The army, the palace, the ministers of justice, 
 and the great officers of the empire, are all subject to your 
 tribunal. None are exempted, excepting only the ordinary 
 consuls,*' the preefect 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." ■*" 
 
 " Montesquieu, Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, c. viii. He 
 illustrates the nature and use of the censorship with his usual inge- 
 auity, and with uncommon precision. 
 
 ^^ Vespasian and Titus were the last censors, (Pliny, Hist. Natur 
 v'n. 49. Censorinus de Die Natali.) The modesty of Trajan refused 
 jm honor which he deserved, and his example became a law to the 
 Anticnines. See PHny's Panegyi'ic, c. 45 and 60. 
 
 * Yet in spite of his exemption, Pompey appeared before that 
 tribunal during his consubhip. The occasion, indeed, was equallt 
 singular and honorable. Plutarch in Pomp, p 630. 
 
 *^ See the original speech in the Augustan Hist p, 1^3 114
 
 A. D. 248-268.J of the roman EMriRE. i9Jl 
 
 A magistrate, invested with such extcnsixe powers, would 
 have appeared not so much the miuister, as the cclleague of 
 his sovereign/' Valerian justly dreaded an elevation so full 
 of envy and of suspicion. He modestly argued the alarming 
 greatness of the trust, his own insufficiency, and the incura- 
 ble corruption of the times. He artfully insinuated, that the 
 office of censor was inseparable from the Imperial dignity, 
 and that the feeble hands of a subject were unequal to the 
 support of such an immense weight of cares and of power." 
 The approaching event of war soon put an end to the prose- 
 cution of a project so specious, but so impracticable ; and 
 whilst it preserved Valerian from the danger, saved the em 
 peror Decius from the disappointment, which would most 
 probably have attended it. A censor may maintain, he can 
 never restore, the morals of a state. It is impossible for such 
 a magistrate to exert his authority with benefit, or even with 
 effect, unless he is supported by a quick sense of honor and 
 virtue in the minds of the people, by a decent reverence for 
 the public opinion, and by a train of useful prejudices combat- 
 ing 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 par- 
 tial instrument of vexatious oppression." It was easier to 
 vanquish the Goths than to eradicate the public vices ; yet, 
 even in the first of these enterprises, Decius lost his army and 
 his hfe. 
 
 The Goths were now, on every side, surrounded and pur- 
 sued by the Roman arms. The flower of their troops had 
 perished in the long siege of Philippopolis, and the exhausted 
 country could no longer afford subsistence for the remaining 
 multitude of licentious barbarians. Reduced to this extremity, 
 the Goths would gladly have purchased, by the surrender of 
 all their booty and prisoners, the permission of an undisturbed 
 retreat. But the emperor, confident of victory, and resolving, 
 by the chastisement of these invaders, to strike a salutary 
 terror into the nations of the North, refused to listen to any 
 terms of accommodation. The high-spirited barbarians pre- 
 
 ** This transaction might deceive Zonar.is, who supposes that Val» 
 rian was actually declared the colleague of Decius, 1. xl r>. 625. 
 
 *^ Hist. August, p. 174. The emperor's reply is emitted. 
 
 ** Such as the attempts of Augustus towards a reformation of iiuu» 
 a«ia. Tacit Aiual. iii. 24.
 
 294 TlIK DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 248-268 
 
 ferred deatli to slavery. Aa obscure town of Maesia, called 
 Forum Terebroiiii," was the scene of the battle. The Gothic 
 army was drawn up in three lines, and either from choice or 
 accident, the front of the third line was covered by a morass. 
 In the beginning of the action, the son of Decius, a youth of 
 the fairest hopes, and already associated to the honors of the 
 purple, was slain by an arrow, in the sight of his afflicted 
 father ; who, summoning all his fortitude, admonished the dis- 
 mayed troops, that the loss of a single soldier was of little im- 
 portance to the republic." 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, ad- 
 vancing to sustain it, shared its fate ; and the third only re- 
 mained entire, prepared to dispute the passage of the morass, 
 which was imprudently attempted by the presumption of the 
 enemy. " Here the fortune of the day turned, and all things 
 became adverse to the Romans ; the place deep with ooze, 
 sinking under those who stood, slippery to such as advanced ; 
 their armor heavy, the waters deep; nor could they wield, in 
 that uneasy situation, their weighty javelins. The barbarians, 
 on the contrary, were inured to encounter in the bogs, their 
 persons tall, their spears long, such as could wound at a dis- 
 tance."" In this morass the Roman army, after an ineffectual 
 struggle, was irrecoverably lost; nor could the body of the em- 
 peror ever be found." Such was the fate of Decius, in the 
 fiftieth year of his age ; an accomplished prince, active in war 
 and afiable in peace ; " who, together with his son, has deserved 
 to be compared, both in life and death, with the brightest ex- 
 amples of ancient virtue.'"' 
 
 ** Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, torn. iii. p. 598. As Zosimus 
 and some of his followers mistake the Danube for the Tanais, they 
 "^ace the field of battle in the plains of Scj'tbia. 
 
 *^ Aurelius Victor allows two distinct actions for the deaths of the 
 two Decii ; but I have preferred the account of Jornandes. 
 
 *" I have ventured to copy from Tacitus (Annal. L 64) the picture 
 of a similar engagement between a Roman army and a German tribe. 
 
 *'' Jornandes, c. 18. Zosimus, L L p. 22, [c. 23.] Zonaras, 1. xii 
 p. 627. Aurehus Victor. 
 
 *^ The Decii were killed before the end of the year two hundred 
 and fifty-one, since the new j)rinces took possession of the consulship 
 on the ensuing calends of January. 
 
 *' Hist. August, p. 223, gives them a very honorable place among 
 the small number of good emperors who reigned between Augtutua 
 ■od Diode Uan
 
 A. 1).'- 48-268.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 298 
 
 This fatal blow humbled, for a very little tiiue, ^hc insolence 
 of the legions. They appeared to have patiently expected, and 
 Bubmissively obeyed, the decree of the senate which regulated 
 the succession to the throne. From a just regard for the mem- 
 ory of Decius, the Imperial title was conferred on Hostilianus, 
 ois only surviving son ; but an equal rank, with more effectual 
 Dower, was granted to Gallus, whose experience and ability 
 »eemed equal to the great trust of guardian to the young 
 orince and the distressed empire." The first care of the new 
 emperor was to deliver the Illyrian provinces from the ii toler- 
 able weight of the victorious Goths. He consented to le ive 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 terri- 
 tories by their incursions.^' 
 
 In the age of the Scipios, the most opulent kings of the 
 earth, who courted the protection of the victorious common- 
 wealth, 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." After the wealth of 
 nations had centred in Rome, the emperors displayed their 
 greatness, and even their policy, by the regular exercise of a 
 steady and moderate liberality towards the allies of the state. 
 They relieved the poverty of the barbarians, honored their 
 merit, and recompensed their fidelity. These voluntary marks 
 of bounty were understood to flow, not from the fears, but 
 merely from the generosity or the gratitude of the Romans ; 
 and whilst presents and subsidies were liberally distributed 
 among friends and suppliants, they were sternly refused to 
 
 '" Haec ubi Patres comperere . . . . decernuut. Victor m 
 Caesaribus. 
 
 " Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 628. 
 
 '^ A Sella, a Toga, and a golden Patera of five pounds weight, wer 
 accepted with joy and gratitude by the wealthy king of Egypt. (Livy, 
 xxvii. 4.) Quina inillia JEris, a weight of copper, in value about 
 eighteen pounds sterling, was the usual present made to foreign am 
 baasadora (Livy, xxxl 9.)
 
 296 THE DECLINE A7iD FALL [A. D. 24B-2f)?A 
 
 Bucli as claimed them as a debt." But tins stipulation, of an 
 annual payment to a victorious enemy, appeared without dis- 
 guise in the light of an ignominious tribute ; the minds of the 
 Romans were not yet accustomed to accept such unequal laws 
 from a tribe of barbarians ; and the prince, who by a necessary 
 concession had probably saved his country, became the object 
 of the general contempt and aversion. The death of Hostilia- 
 Bus, though it happened in the midst of a raging pestilence, 
 was interpreted as the personal crime of Gallus ; " and even 
 the defeat of the late emperor was ascribed by the voice of 
 suspicion to the perfidious counsels of his hated successor.** 
 The tranquillity which the empire enjoyed during the first 
 year of his administration,^* served rather to inflame than to 
 appease the public discontent ; and as soon as the apprehen- 
 sions 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 
 they discovered that they had not even secured their repose, 
 though at the expense of their honor. The dangerous secret 
 of the wealth and weakness of the empire had been revealed 
 to the world. New swarms of barbarians, encouraged by the 
 success, and not conceiving themselves bound by the obliga- 
 tion of their brethren, spread devastation though the lUyrian 
 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 ^milianus, governor 
 of Pannonia and Msesia ; who rallied the scattered forces, and 
 revived the fainting spirits of the troops. The barbarians were 
 unexpectedly attacked, routed, chased, and pursued beyond 
 the Danube. The victorious leader distributed as a donative 
 the money collected for the tribute, and the acclamations of 
 the soldiers proclaimed him emperor on the field of battle." 
 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 ap- 
 
 '^ See the firmness of a Roman general so late as the time of Alex 
 ander Severus, in the Exeerpta Legationum, p. 25, edit. Louvre. 
 
 °* For the plague, see Jornandes, c. 19, and Victor in Csesaribua. 
 
 '* These improbable accusations are alleged by Zosimjis, 1. L p. 
 28, 24. 
 
 *' Jornandes, c. 19. The Gothic writer at least observed the poact 
 vbich bis victorici-s countrymen had sworn tc Gallua 
 
 " Zosimus, 1. i. p 25, 26"
 
 K. D. 248-268.] of the roman empire. 297 
 
 proach of his aspiring lieutenint. lie advanced to meet him 
 as far as the plains of Spoleto. When the armies came iu 
 sight of each other, the soldiers of Gallus compared the igno- 
 minious conduct of their sovereign with the glory of his rival. 
 They admired the valor of ^milianus ; they were attracted 
 l>y his liberality, for he offered a considerable increase of pay 
 to all deserters.'* The murder of Gallus, and of his son 
 V^olasianus, put an end to the civil war ; and the senate gave 
 % legal sanction to the rights of conquest. The letters of 
 /Emilianus 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 witli 
 the quality of their general, would in a short time assert the 
 glory of Rome, and deliver the empire from all the barbariana 
 both of the North and of the East." His pride was flattered 
 by the applause of the senate ; and medals are still extant, 
 representing him with the name and attributes of Hercules the 
 Victor, and Mars the Avenger."" 
 
 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."' He 
 had vanquished Gallus : he sunk under the weight of a compet- 
 itor more formidable than Gallus. That unfortunate prince 
 had sent Valerian, already distinguished by the honorable title 
 of censor, to bring the legions of Gaul and Germany "' to his 
 aid. Valerian executed that commission with zeal and fidelity ; 
 and as he arrived too late to save his sovereign, he resolved 
 to revenge him. The troops of -^milianus, who still lay 
 encamped in the plains of Spoleto, were awed by the sanctity 
 of his character, but much more by the superior strength of his 
 army ; and as they were now become as incapable of personal 
 attachment as they had always been of constitutional principle, 
 they readily imbrued their hands in the blood of a prince who 
 60 lately had been the object of their partial choice. The guilt 
 was theirs,* but the advantage of it was Valerian's ; who 
 
 " Victor in Caesaribus. 
 
 " Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 628. 
 
 °° Banduri Numismata, p. 94. 
 
 " Eutropius, L ix. c. 6, says tcrtio mcnse. Eusebiis canity Ihi* 
 «nperor. 
 
 " Zosimus, 1. i. p. 28. Eutropius and Victor station Yalviaa't 
 ■rmy in Rlisetia. 
 
 * Aurelius Victor says that iEmilianus died )f a natural disorder. Bo-
 
 298 THE DECLINE ANi) FALL [A. D. 248-268 
 
 obtained the possession of the throne by the means indeed of 
 a civil war, but with a degree of innocence singular in that age 
 •f revolutions ; since he owjd neither gratitude nor allegiancfl 
 to his predecessor, whom he dethroned. 
 
 Valerian was about sixty years of age *" when he was in- 
 vested with the purple, not by the caprice of the populace, or 
 the clamors of the army, but by the unanimous voice of the 
 Roman world. In his gradual ascent through the honors of 
 the state, he had deserved the favor of virtuoas princes, and 
 had declared himself the enemy of tyrants." 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 
 mohi^ assuredly have fallen on Valerian.'* Perhaps the merit 
 of this emperor was inadequate to his reputation ; perhaps his 
 abilities, or at least his spirit, were affected by the languor 
 and coldness of old age. The consciousness of his decline 
 engaged him to share the throne with a younger and more 
 active associate ; '* the emergency of the times demanded a 
 general no less than a prince ; and the experience of the 
 Roman censor might have directed him where to bestow the 
 Imperial purple, as the reward of military merit. But instead 
 of making a judicious choice, which would have confirmed his 
 reign and endeared his memory, Valerian, consulting only the 
 dictates of affection or vanity, immediately invested with the 
 supreme honors his son Gallienus, a youth whose effeminate 
 vices had been hitherto concealed by the obscurity of a private 
 Rtation. The joint government of the father and the son 
 
 *' He was about seventy at the time of his accession, or, as it if 
 more probable, of his death. Hist. August, p. 173. Tillemont, Hist 
 des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 893, note 1. 
 
 '^* Inimicus tyrannormn. Hist. August, p. 173. In the glorious 
 struggle of the senate against Maximin, Valerian acted a very spirited 
 part. Hist. August, p. 156. 
 
 ^^ Accor ling to the distinction of Victor, he seems to have received 
 the title of Imperator from the army, and that of Augustus from the 
 tenate. 
 
 *° From Victor and from the medals, TiUemont (tom. iii. p. 710) 
 ^ery justly infers, that Gallienus was associated to the empire aboul 
 ihe month of August of the year 253. 
 
 tropins, in spoakirg of his deat':, does not say that he was assatiiaftted
 
 A. D. 248-268.] of the roman empire 'iM 
 
 subsisted about seven, and the sole administration of Gallien 
 continued about eight, years. But the whole period was on) 
 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 arrange- 
 ment of dates, as the more natural distribution of subjects. 
 The most dangerous enemies of Rome, during the reigns of 
 Valerian and Gallienus, were, 1. The Franks; 2. The Ale- 
 Jianni ; 3. The Goths ; and, 4. The Pei-sia»^s. Under these 
 general appellations, we may comprehend the adventures of 
 less considerable tribes, whose obscure and uncouth names 
 would only serve to oppress the memory and perplex the 
 •attention of the reader. 
 
 I. As the posterity of the Franks compose one of the great 
 est and most enlightened nations of Europe, the powers of 
 learning and ingenuity have been exhausted in the discovery 
 of their unlettered ancestors. To the tales of credulity have 
 succeeded the systems of fancy. Every passage has been 
 sifted, ever}' spot has been surveyed, that might possibly reveal 
 some faint traces of their origin. It has been supposed that 
 Pannonia," that Gaul, that the northern parts of Germany," 
 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 sim- 
 pHcity persuades us of its truth.*" They suppose, that about 
 the year two hundred and forty,^" 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 
 
 " Various systems have been formed to explain a difficult passage 
 in Gregory of Tours, L ii. c 9. 
 
 '^ The Geographer of Ravenna, i. 11, by mentioning Mauringania, 
 rn the confines of Denmark, as the ancient seat of the Franks, gave 
 birth to an ingenious system of Leibi itz. 
 
 '"' See Cluver. Germania Antiqiu, 1. iii. c. 20. M. Freret, in the 
 Memoires de I'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xviii. 
 
 "•" Most probably under the reign of Gordian, from an accidental 
 circumstance fully canvassed by Tillemont, tom. iiL p. 710, 1181. 
 
 * The confederation of the Franks appears to have been formed, 1. Of the 
 Chauci. 2. Of the Sicambri, the inhabitants of the duchy of Berg. 3. Of 
 the Attuarii, to the north of the Sicambri, in the principality of Waldeck, 
 between the Dimel and the Eder. 4. Of the Bructeri, on the banks of th* 
 Lippe, and in the Hartz. 5. Of the Chamavii, the Gambrivii of Taoitoib
 
 800 THE DECLINE AND FALL [/x. D. 248-26!i 
 
 Westphalia, the Landgraviate of Hesse, and ihe duchies of 
 Brunswick and Luneburg, were the ancient se.x. of the Chauci, 
 who, in their inaccessible morasses, defied tho Koman arms ;" 
 of the Cherusci, proud of the fame of Armin',us ; of the Catti, 
 formidable by their firm and intrepid infantry ; and of several 
 other tribes of inferior power and renowi.." The love of 
 hberty was the ruling passion of these Germaxis ; the enjoyment 
 of it their best treasure ; the word that expressed that enjoy- 
 ment, the most pleasing to their ear. They deserved, they 
 assumed, they maintained the honorable appellation of Franks, 
 or Freemen ; which concealed, though it did not extinguish, 
 the peculiar names of the several states of the confederacy." 
 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, recammg its inde- 
 pendent sovereignty, consults with its brethren in the common 
 cause, without acknowledging the authority of any supreme 
 head, or representative assembly." 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 dis- 
 regard to the most solemn treaties, disgraced the character of 
 the Franks. 
 
 The Romans had long experienced the daring valor of the 
 people of Lower Germany. The union of their strength 
 threatened Gaul with a more formidable invasion, and required 
 the presence of GaUienus, the heir and colleague of Imperial 
 power." Whilst that prince, and his infant son Salonius, 
 displayed, in the court of Treves, the majesty of the empire, 
 its armies were ably conducted by their general, Posthumus, 
 who, though he afterwards betrayed the family of Valerian, 
 was ever faithful to the great interests of the monarchy. The 
 
 '^ Plin. Hist. Natur. xvi. 1. 1 he Panegyrists frequently allude to 
 the morasses of the Franks. 
 
 '* Tacit. Germania, c. 30, 37. 
 
 ■" In a subsequent period, most of those old names are occasionaDy 
 aentioned. See some vestiges of them in Cluver. Germ. Antiq. L iil 
 
 ''* Simler de Republica Helvet. cum notis Fuselin. 
 
 ** Zosimus, 1. i. p. 27. 
 
 who were established, at the time of the Frankish confeieration, in the 
 ctrantry of the Bracteri. C. Of the Catti, in Hessia.— G. The Salii aai 
 Cherasci are added. Greenwood's Hist, of Gejtnans, i 193— M.
 
 A. D. 248-268.] OP THE ROMAN EMriRE. 30i 
 
 treacherous language of panegyrics and medals darkly an 
 nounces a long series of victories. Trophies and titles attest 
 (if such evidence can attest) the fame of Posthumus, who is re- 
 peatedly f^tvled the Conqueror of the Germans, and the Savior 
 of Gaul. '• ' 
 
 But a single foct, the only one indeed of which we have 
 any distinct knowledge, erases, in a great measure, these 
 Eioiiuments 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 nevef 
 dreaded, was unable to resist, the inroads of the Germans 
 During twelve years, the greatest part of the reign of Gallic 
 nus, that opulent country was the theatre of unequal and 
 destructive hostilities. Tarragona, the flourishing capital of 
 a peaceful province, was sacked and almost destroyed ;" and 
 so late as the days of Orosius, who wrote in the fifth century, 
 wretched cottages, scattered amidst the ruins of magnificent 
 cities, still recorded the rage of the barbarians.'* When the 
 exhausted country no longer supplied a variety of plunder, the 
 Franks seized on some vessels in the ports of Spain," and 
 transported themselves into Mauritania. The distant province 
 was astonished with the fury of these barbarians, who seemed 
 
 '® M. de Brequigny (in the Memoires de rAcademie, 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.* 
 
 " Aurel. Victor, c. 33. Instead oi Pane direpto, both the sense and 
 Che expression require deleto; though indeed, for different reasons, 
 it is alike difficult to correct the text of the best, and of the worst, 
 writers. 
 
 '* In the time of Ausonius (the end of the fourth century) Herda or 
 Lerida was in a very ruinous state, (Auson. Epist. xxv. 58,) which 
 probably was the consequence of this invasion. 
 
 " Valesius is therefore mistaken in supposing that the FranLs bad 
 invaded Spain by sea. 
 
 • M. Eckhel, Keeper of the Cabinet of Medals, and Professor of Aiitiqni 
 ties at Vienna, lately deceased, has supplied this want by his excellcD' work, 
 Doctriua veterum Numniorum, conscripta a Jos. Eckhel, 8 vol. in 4to Vindo- 
 bona, 17S7. — G. Captain Smj'th has likewise printed (privately) a ^ alaablt 
 Descriptive Catologue of a series of Large Brass Medals of till* jm\oi 
 Bedford, 1834.— M. 1845.
 
 402 THE DECLINE AND faLl [A. D. 248-268 
 
 to fall from a new world, as tbeir name, manners, aovil com- 
 plexion, were equally unknown ^xi the coast of Africa.** 
 
 II. In that part of Upper Saxony, beyond the Elbe, which ia 
 at present called the Marquisate of Lusace, there existed, in 
 ancient times, a sacred wood, the awful seat of the supersti- 
 tion of the 'Suevi. None were permitted to enter the holy 
 precincts, without confessing, by their servile bonds and sup- 
 pliant posture, the immediate presence of the sovereign 
 Deity.** Patriotism contributed, as well as devotion, to con- 
 secrate the Sonnenwald, or wood of the Semnones.*" It was 
 universally beUeved, that the nation had received its first 
 existence on that sacred spot. At stated periods, the numer- 
 ous tribes who gloried in the Suevic blood, resorted thither by 
 their ambassadors ; and the memory of their common extrac- 
 tion was perpetrated by barbaric rites and human sacrifices. 
 The wide-extended name of Suevi filled the interior countries 
 of Germany, from the banks of the Oder to those of the Dan- 
 ube. 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.*' Jealous as the Ger- 
 mans were of military renown, they all confessed the superior 
 valor of the Suevi; and the tribes of the Usipetes and Tencteri, 
 who, with a vast army, encountered the dictator Caesar, de- 
 clared that they esteemed it not a disgrace to have fled before 
 a people to whose arms the immortal gods themselves were 
 unequal.** 
 
 In the reign of the emperor Caracalla, an innumerable 
 swarm of Suevi appeared on the banks of the Mein, and in 
 the neighborhood of the Roman provinces, in quest either of 
 food, of plunder, or of glory.** The hasty army of volun- 
 teers gradually coalesced into a great and permanent nrifaon, 
 and as it was composed from so many different tribes, assumed 
 the name of Alemanni,* or Allmen ; to denote at once their 
 
 ** Aurel. Victor. Eutrop. ix. 6. 
 " Tacit. Germania, 38. 
 *^ Cluver. Germ. Antiq. iii. 25. 
 
 " Sic Suevi a ceteris Germanis, sic SucTorum ingenui a oerria sop 
 MBntur. A proud separation ! 
 •* Caesar in Bello Gallico, iv. T. 
 '* Victor in Caracal Dion Cassius, Ixvii. p. 1350. 
 
 " The nation of the AlemaDni was not originally ^nned by the Bv0f\
 
 A.. D. 268-268.1 of the roman EMPraE. 80S 
 
 various lineage and their common bravery." Tne latter wm 
 ^oon folt by the Romans in mnny a hostile im-oad. The Ale- 
 manni fought chiefly on horseback ; but their cavalry was ren- 
 dered still more formidable by a mixture of light infantry, 
 selected from the bravest and most active of the youth, whom 
 frequent exercise had inured to accompany the horsemen in tho 
 longest march, the most rapid charge, or the most precipitate 
 retreat.*' 
 
 This warlike people of Germans had been astonished by 
 the immense preparations of Alexander Severus; they were 
 dismayed by the arms of his successor, a barbarian equal in 
 valor and fierceness to themselves. But still hovering on the 
 frontiei"S 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 
 
 ** This etymology (far different from those which amuse the fancy 
 of the learned) is preserved by Asinius Quadratus, an origiaal histo- 
 rian, quoted by Agatbias, i. c. 5. 
 
 *' The Sucvi engaged Cajsar in tliis manner, and the manoeuvre de- 
 served the approbation of the conqueror, (in Bello Gallico, i. 48.) 
 
 properly so called ; tliese have always preserved their own name. Shortly 
 afterwards they made (A. D. 357) an imiption into E,lioetia, and it was not 
 long after that they were reunited with the Alemanni. Still they have 
 always been a distinct people ; at the present day, the people who inhabit 
 the north-west of the Black Forest call themselves Schwabcn, Suabians, 
 Suevcs, while those who inhabit near the Rhine, in Ortenau, the Hrissraw, 
 the Margraviate of Baden, do not consider themselves Suabians, and are by 
 orii^in Alemanni. 
 
 The Teucteri and the Usipctae, inliabitants of the interior and of tlic north 
 of Westphalia, formed, says Gatterer, the nucleus of the Alcmannic nation ; 
 they occupied the country where the name of the Al(>manni first appears, 
 as conquered in 213, by Caracalla. They were well trained to fight on 
 horseback, (according toTacitus, Genu. c. 32 ;) and Aurelius Victor givoi 
 the same praise to the Alemanni : finally, they never made part of the 
 Frankish league. The Alemanni became suhseiiucntly a centre round which 
 gathered a multitude of German tribes, See Eumen. PanegjT. c. 2. Amm. 
 Marc, xviii. 2, xxix. 4. — G. 
 
 The question whether the Suevi was a generic name comprehending the 
 clans which peopled central Germany, is rather hastily decided by M. Guizot 
 Mr. Greenwood, who has studied the modern German writers on their owa 
 origin, suppo.ses the Sucvi, Alemanni, and Marcomanni, one people, nodal 
 iifiereat appellations. History of Germany, vol i. — M.
 
 804 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 248-268 
 
 Lorubardy, advanced as far as Ravenna, and displayed the 
 victorious banners of barbarians almost in sight of Rome."* 
 
 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 Gallie- 
 nus on the Rhine. All the hopes and resources of the Romans 
 wore in themselves. In this emergency, the senators resumed 
 he defence of the republic, drew out the Praetorian guards, 
 ivho 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 un warlike Romans.'* 
 
 When Gallienus received the intelligence that his capital 
 was delivered from the barbarians, he was much less delighted 
 than alarmed with the courage of the senate, since it might 
 one day prompt them to rescue the pubHc from domestic 
 tyranny as well as from foreign invasion. His timid ingrati- 
 tude was published to his subjects, in an edict which prohibited 
 the senators from exercising any military employment, and 
 even from approaching the camps of the legions. But his 
 fears were groundless. The rich and luxurious nobles, sinking 
 into their natural character, accepted, as a favor, this disgrace- 
 ful exemption from military service ; and as long as they were 
 indulged in the enjoyment of their baths, their theatres, and 
 their villas, they cheerfully resigned the more dangerous cares 
 of empire to the rough hands of peasants and soldiers."" 
 
 Another invasion of the Alemanni, of a more formidable 
 aspect, but more glorious event, is mentioned by a writer of 
 the lower empire. Three hundred thousand of that warlike 
 people are said to have been vanquished, in a battle near 
 Milan, by Gallienus in person, at the head of only ten thou- 
 sand Romans." We may, however, with great probability, 
 ascribe this incredible victory either to the credulity of thu 
 historian, or to some exaggerated exploits of one of the empe- 
 ror's lieutenants. It was b'^ arms of a very difl:erent nature, 
 
 ** Hist. August, p. 215, 216. Dexippus in the Excerpta Legatio 
 Bum, p. 8. Hieronym. Chron. Orosius, vii. 22. 
 
 *' Zosimus, 1. i. p. 34. 
 
 ** Am-el. Victor, in Gallieno et Probo. His complaints IreatJw aa 
 oncommon spirit of freedom. 
 - -4> ZoDftras, L xii. p. 631.
 
 A. D. 248-268.] of the roman empirb. 30* 
 
 that Gallienus endeavored to protect Italy fiom the fury of th« 
 Germans. He espoused Pipa, the daughter of a king of the 
 Marcomanni, a Suevic tribe, which Avas often confounded with 
 the Alemanni in their wars and conquests." To the father, 
 as the price of his alhance, he granted an ample settlement in 
 Pannouia. The native charms of unpolished beauty seem i/o 
 have fixed the daughter in the aft'ections of the inconstant 
 emperor, and the bands of policy were more firmly connected 
 oy those of love. But the haughty prejudice of Rome still 
 refiised the name of marriage to the profane mixture of a citi- 
 Een and a barbarian ; and has stigmatized the German prin- 
 cess with the opprobrious title of concubine of Gallienus." 
 
 in. We have already traced the emigration of the Gotlis 
 from Scandianvia, or at least from Prussia, to the mouth of th^ 
 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 Sarma- 
 tians ; 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 inexhausti- 
 ble supply of hardy soldiers ; and more than one of these 
 Illyrian peasants attained the station, and displayed the abili- 
 ties, of a general. Though flying parties of the barbariansy 
 who incessantly hovered on the banks of the Danube, pene- 
 trated sometimes to the confines of Italy and Macedonia, 
 their progress was commonly checked, or their return inter- 
 cepted, by the Imperial lieutenants.** But the great stream 
 of the Gothic hostilities was diverted into a very different 
 channel. The Goths, in their new settlement of the Ukraine, 
 soon became masters of the northern coast of the Euxine : to 
 the south of that inland sea were situated the soft and wealthy 
 provinces of Asia Minor, which possessed all that could attract, 
 and nothing that could resist, a barbarian conqueror. 
 
 The banks of the Borysthenes arc only sixty miles distant 
 from the narrow entrance"* of the peninsula of Grim Tartary, 
 
 •* One of the Victors calls him king of the Marcomanni ; the oiheti 
 of the Germans. 
 
 "" See TiUemont, Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iii. p. 398, <fec. 
 
 ■* Se€ the lives of Claudius, Aurelian, and Probus, in the AugustaB 
 B istory 
 
 ** It is about half a league hi br?adfh. Genealogical History <^tli( 
 Tartars, p 598.
 
 S06 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 248-268 
 
 knowu to the anaents under the name of Chersonesus Tau- 
 rica." On that inhospitable shore, Euripides, embelhshing 
 with exquisite art the tales of antiquity, has placed tha 
 scene of one of his most affecting tragedies.®' 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 
 Bituated on the Straits, through which the Maeotis communi- 
 cates itself to the Euxine, was composed of degenerate 
 Greeks and half-civilized barbarians. It subsisted, as an 
 independent state, from the time of the Peloponnesian war,*' 
 was at last swallowed up by the ambition of J\lithridates,°' and, 
 with the rest of his dominions, sunk under the weight of the 
 Roman arms. From the reign of Augustus,"" 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 Sarraatia, the access of a country, which, 
 from its peculiar situation and convenient harbors, commanded 
 the Euxine Sea and Asia Minor."' As long as the sceptre 
 was possessed by a lineal succession of kings, they acquitted 
 themselves of their important charge with vigilance and suc- 
 cess. 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 
 
 ^'' M. de Peyssonel, who had been French Consul at CafFa, in his 
 Observations sur les Peuples Barbares, qui ont habite les bords du 
 Danube. 
 
 " Eeripides in Iphigenia iu Taurid. 
 
 ^^ Strabo, 1. vii. p. 309. The first kings of Bosphorus were the 
 allies of Athens. 
 
 *" Appian in Mithridat. 
 
 '°° It was reduced by the arms of Agrippa. Orosius, vL 21. Eu 
 te-ojiius, vii. 9. The Romans once advanced within thi'ee days' march 
 «f the Tanais. Tacit. Annal. xii. 17. 
 
 "" See the Toxaris of Lucian, if we credit the sincerity and the 
 virtues of th j Scythian, who relates a great war of his nation agaioel 
 the kings of Bosphorus.
 
 A. 1). 248-268.J of the roman empire. 307 
 
 armies to the coast of Asia."" The ships ustd in the naviga 
 tion of the Euxine were of a very singular construction 
 They were sHght flat-bottomed barks fr.amed of timber only, 
 without the least mixture of iron, and occasionally covered 
 with a shelving roof, on the appearance of a teinpest.'*" In 
 these floating houses, the Goths carelessly trusted themselves 
 to the mercy of an unknown sea, under the conduct of sailora 
 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 assur- 
 ances of a settled calm before they would venture to embark ; 
 and would scarcely ever be tempted to lose sight of the land. 
 Such, at least, is the practice of the modern Turks ; '"'' and 
 they are probably not inferior, in the art of navigation, to the 
 ancient inhabitants of Bosphorus. 
 
 The fleet of the Goths, leaving the coast of Circassia on 
 the left hand, first appeared before Pityus,"^ 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 tliey had reason to expect from 
 the feeble garrison of a distant fortress. They were re- 
 pulsed; and their disappointment seemed to diminish the 
 terror of the Gothic name. As long as Successianus, an 
 oSicer of superior rank and merit, defended that frontier, all 
 their efforts were ineffectual ; but as soon as he was removed 
 by Valerian to a more honorable but less important station, 
 they resumed the attack of Pityus ; and by the destruction of 
 that city, obliterated the memory of their former disgrace."' 
 
 '" Zosimus, 1. i p> 28. 
 
 '"' Strabo, 1. xi. Tacit. Hist. iii. 47. They were called Camarae. 
 
 *°* See a very natural picture of the Euxine navigation, in the 
 xvith letter of Tourn ifort. 
 
 105 ^rj-ian places the frontier garrison at Dioscurias, or Sebastopcn 
 Us, forty-four miles to the east of Pityus. The garrison of Phaais 
 consisted in his time of only four hundred foot. See the Periplus ol 
 the Euxine.* 
 
 "» Zosimus, 1. i. p. 80. 
 
 " Pityus is Pitchuida, according to D'Auville, ii. 115.- -G. Batbec 
 BonK.oun.--M. Dioscuriaa is Iskuriah.— G.
 
 508 THK DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 24 1: 2tJa 
 
 Circling round the eastern extremity of the Eux\.ie Sea. 
 the navigation from Pityus to Trebizond is about three hun- 
 dred miles."" 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 thou- 
 sand as an ancient colony of Greeks,"* derived its wealth 
 and splendor from the magnificence of the emperor Hadrian, 
 who had constructed an artificial port on a coast left destitute 
 by nature of secure harbors.'"* The city was large and pop- 
 ulous ; a double enclosure of walls seemed to defy the fury 
 of the Goths, and the usual garrison had been strengthened 
 by a reenforcement of ten thousand men. But there are not 
 any advantages capable of supplying the absence of discipline 
 and vigilance. The numerous garrison of Trebizond, dis- 
 solved in riot and luxury, disdained to guard their impregnable 
 fortifications. The Goths soon discovered the supine negli- 
 gence of the besieged, erected a lofty pile of fascines, 
 ascended the walls in the silence of the night, and entered 
 the defenceless city sword in hand. A general massacre of 
 the people ensued, whilst the affrighted soldiers escaped 
 through the opposite gates of the town. The most holy tem- 
 ples, 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 victo- 
 rious barbarians ranged without opposition through the exten- 
 sive province of Pontus."" 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 
 
 "'' Arrian (in Periplo Maris Euxine, p. 130) calls the distance 261S 
 fitadia. 
 
 '°* Xenophon, Anabasis, 1. iv. p. 348, edit. Hutchinson.* 
 '"* Arrian, p. 129. The general observation is Tournefort's. 
 "" See an epistle of Gregory Thaumaturgus, bishop of Neo-Caasareft, 
 quoted by Mascou, v. 37. 
 
 * Fallmerayer (Grescliichte des Kaiserthuras von Trapezunt, p. S, Stc] 
 «M«igns a very ancient date to the first (Pelasgic) foundation of Trapezma 
 ffrebiaoni)— M.
 
 /LD. 248 -268.] of the roman empire. 30ft 
 
 expedition, returned in triumph to their new establishment in 
 the kingdom of Bosphorus.'" 
 
 The second expedition of the Goths was undertaken with 
 greater powei-s of men and ships ; but they steered a different 
 course, and, disdaining the exhausted provinces of Pontus, fol- 
 lowed the western coast of the Euxine, passed before tlie wide 
 mouths of the Borysthenes, the Niester, and the Danube, and 
 increasing their fleet by the capture of a great number of fish- 
 ing barks, they approached the narrow outlet through which the 
 Euxine Sea pours its waters into the Mediterranean, and divides 
 ^he continents of Europe and Asia. The ganison of Chalcedon 
 t\'£is encamped near the temple of Jupiter Urius, on a promon- 
 tory 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. Thej 
 deserted with precipitation their advantageous post, and aban 
 doned the town of Chalcedon, most plentifully stored with 
 arras and money, to the discretion of the conquerors. Whils'. 
 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,* 
 directed the resistless attack, and partook of the booty ; for 
 the Goths had learned suflicient policy to reward the traitor 
 whom they detested. Nice, Prusa, Apamsea, Cius,f cities that 
 had sometimes rivalled, or imitated, the splendor of Nicome- 
 dia, were involved in the same calamity, which, in a few weeks, 
 raged without control through the whole province of Bithynia. 
 Three hundred years of peace, enjoyed l>y the soft inhabit- 
 ants 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."' 
 
 '" Zosimus, 1. L p. 32, 33. 
 
 *" Itiner. HieriDsolym. p. 572. Wesscllng. 
 
 '•» Zosimus, 1. . p. 82, 33. 
 
 It has preserved its name, joined to the pi'eposition of piw,* la that H 
 IB Nikmid. D' Anv. Geotr. Anc. ii. 28.— G. 
 t Now Isnik, Bursa, Mondaiiia Ghio or Kenilik D'Auv. ii. 23. — (i
 
 810 ' THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 24S-288, 
 
 When tke cily of Cyzicus withstood the utmost effort of 
 Mithridates,'" it was distinguished by wise laws, a nava 
 power of two hundred galleys, and three arsenals, of armS; 
 of military engines, and of corn."^ It was still the seat of 
 u'ealth and luxury ; but of its ancient strength, nothing re- 
 mained 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 "° of the city, which they had devoted to 
 destruction ; but the ruin of Cyzicus was delayed by a fortu- 
 nate accident. The season was rainy, and the Lake ApoUoni- 
 ates, 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 progi'ess of the Goths. Their retreat to the mari- 
 time city of Heraclea, where the fleet had probably been 
 stationed, was attended by a long train of wagons, laden with 
 the spoils of Bithynia, and was marked by the flames of Nice 
 and Nicomedia, which they wantonly burnt."' Some obscure 
 hints are mentioned of a doubtful combat that secured their 
 retreat."* 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 rashnais 
 and folly."' 
 
 When we are informed that the third fleet, equipped by thy 
 Goths in the ports of Bosphorus, consisted of five hundred 
 sail of ships,'*" our ready imagination instantly computes and 
 multiplies the formidable armament; but, as we are assured 
 by the judicious Strabo,'^' that the piratical vessels used by 
 
 "* He besieged the place with 400 galleys, 150,000 foot, and a 
 numerous cavahy. See Plutarch in Lucul. Appian in Mithridat 
 Cicero pro Lege Manilla, c. 8. 
 
 ■'' Strabo, 1. xii. p. 573. 
 
 "" Pocock's Description of the East, 1. ii. c. 23, 24. 
 
 '" Zosimus, 1. i. p. 33. 
 
 ^'^ Syncellus tells an unintelligible story of Prince Oclenath is, whs 
 defeated the Goths, and who was killed by Prince Odenathus. 
 
 ''" Voyages de Chardin, torn. i. p. 45. He sailed with the Tuila 
 from Constantinople to CafFa. 
 
 "' Syncellus (p 382) speaks of this expedidon, as undertatoi by 
 lie Heruh. 
 
 "' Strabo, 1. xi. p. 495.
 
 r 
 
 A. D. 248-268.] of the poman empire. 311 
 
 the barbarians of Pontus and the Lesser Sj}'tLia, were not 
 capable of containing more than twenty-five or th-rty inen_ 
 we may safely afiirra, that fifteen thousand wairio'-s, at tha 
 most, embarked in this great expedition. Impati'^nt of the 
 limits of the Euxine, they steered their destructi\e course 
 from the Cimmerian to the Thracian Bosphorus. When they 
 bad almost gained the middle of the Straits, they were sud- 
 denly driven back to the entrance of them ; till a favorable 
 wind, springing up the next day, carried them in a few hours 
 into the placid sea, or rather lake, of the Propontis. Their 
 landing on the little island of Cyzicus was attended with 
 the ruin of that ancient and noble city. From thence issuing 
 again through the narrow passage of the Hellespont, they 
 pursued their winding navigation amidst the numerous islands 
 scattered over the Archipelago, or the ^gean Sea. The assist- 
 ance 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 Pira3us, five miles distant 
 from Athens,"'* which had attempted to make some prepara- 
 tions for a vigorous defence. Cleodamus, one of the engineers 
 employed by the emperor's orders to fortify the maritime cities 
 against the Goths, had already begun to repair the ancient 
 walls, fallen to decay since the time of Scylla. The efforts of 
 his skill were ineffectual, and the barbarians became m-^sters 
 of the native seat of the muses and the arts. But while the 
 conquerors abandoned themselves to the license of plunder and 
 intemperance, their fleet, that lay with a slender guard in the 
 harbor of Pirseus, was unexpectedly attacked by the brave 
 Dexippus, who, flying with the engineer Cleodamus from th^j 
 sack of Athens, collected a hasty band of volunteers, peasauv^a 
 as well as soldiers, and in some measure avenged the calamities 
 of his country."^ 
 
 '" riin. Hist. Natur. iii. '7. 
 
 "* Hist. August, p. 181. Victor, c. 33. Orosius, vii. 42. ZoitI- 
 taus, 1. i. p. 35. Zonaras, 1. xii. 635. Synccllus, p. 3fe2. It is not 
 without some attention, tliat we can explain and conciliate their 
 imperfect hints. We can still discover some traces of the partiality 
 of Dexippus, in tlie relation of his own and his countryrien's exploits.* 
 
 According to a new fragment of Dexippus, publishes by Mai, he aail 
 2000 men. He took up a strong position in a iiountainous and wooilji 
 district, and kept up a harassing warfuro. He expresses a hope of beiii^ 
 epoedily joined by the Imperial fleet. Dexippus in rwv. IJyzaulinonun 
 Cdlect." aNiebuhr, p 26, 8.— fi/^'
 
 m THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 248-2881 
 
 But this exploit, whatever lustre it might shed on the de^ 
 dining age of Athens, seived rather to irritate than to subdue 
 the undaunted spirit of the northern invaders. A general 
 conflagration blazed out at the same time in every district of 
 Greece. Thebes and Argos, Corinth and Sparta, which had 
 formerly waged such memorable wars against each other, 
 were now imable to bring an army into the field, or even to 
 defend their ruined fortifications. The rage of war, both by 
 iand and by sea, spread from the eastern point of Suuium to 
 the western coast of Epirus. The Goths had already ad- 
 vanced within sight of Italy, when the approach of such im 
 minent danger awakened the indolent Gallienus from his 
 dream of pleasure. The emperor appeared in arms ; and his 
 presence seems to have checked the ardor, and to have 
 divided the strength, of the enemy. Naulobatus, a chief of 
 the Heruli, accepted an honorable capitulation, entered with a 
 large body of his countrymen into the service of Rome, and 
 was invested with the ornaments of the consular dignity, 
 which had never before been profaned by the hands of a bar- 
 barian.'" 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 
 riettleraents 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.'^* The small remainder of this destroying host re- 
 turned on board their vessels ; and measuring back their way 
 through the Hellespont and the Bosphorus, ravaged in their 
 passage the shores of Troy, whose fame, immortalized by 
 Homer, wiU probably survive the memory of the Gothic con- 
 quests. As soon as they found themselves in safety within 
 the basin of the Euxine, they landed at Anchialus in Thrace, 
 near the foot of Mount Hasmus ; 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."' Such was the various fate of this third 
 and greatest of their naval enterprises. It may seem difficult 
 
 "* Syncellus, p. 382. This body of Heruli was for a long time 
 ftiithful and famous. 
 
 "* Claudius, ■wlio commanded on the Danube, thought -with pro- 
 priei y and acted with spirit. His colleague was jealous of hie f^saa 
 Hi«t A-.igust. p. 181. 
 
 ** Jorn&ndes, c. 20.
 
 4.. D. 248-268.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 81S 
 
 to conceive how the original body of fifteen thousand war- 
 riors could sustain the losses and divisions of so bold an ad- 
 venture. But as their numbers were gradually wasted by the 
 sword, by shipwrecks, and by the influence of a warm cli- 
 mate, they were perpetually renewed by troops of banditti 
 and deserters, who flocked to the standard of plunder, and by 
 a crowd of fugitive slaves, often of German or Sarmatian 
 extraction, who eagerly seized the glorious opportunity of 
 freedom and revenge. In these expeditions, the Gothic nation 
 claimed a superior share of honor and danger ; but the tribes 
 that fought under the Gothic banners are sometimes distin- 
 guished and sometimes confojinded 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 multi- 
 tude.'" 
 
 In tlie general calamities of mankind, the death of an indi- 
 vidual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice, howevei 
 famous, are passed over with careless inattention. Yet we 
 cannot forget that the temple of Diana at Ephesus, after 
 having risen with increasing splendor from seven repeated 
 misfortunes,"* was finally burnt by the Goths in their third 
 aaval invasion. The arts of Greece, and the wealth of Asia, 
 had conspired to erect that sacred and magnificent structure. 
 It was supported by a hundred and twent3r-seven marble 
 columns of the Ionic order. They were the gifts of devout 
 monarchs, and each was sixty feet high. The altar was 
 adorned with the masterly sculptures of Praxiteles, who had, 
 perhaps, selected from the favorite legends of the place the 
 birth of the divine children of Latona, the concealment of 
 Apollo after the slaughter of the Cyclops, and the clemency 
 of Bacchus to the vanquished Amazons.'^' Yet the length of 
 the temple of Ephesus was only four hundred and twenty-five 
 feet, about two thirds of the measure of the church of St 
 Peter's at Rome.*'" In the other dimensions, it was still more 
 
 **' Zosimus and the Greeks (as the author of the Philopatris) give 
 Ihe name of Scythians to those whom Joruandes, and the Latii 
 writers, constantly represent as Goths. 
 
 "* Hist. Aug. p. 178. Jornandes, c. 20. 
 
 ^^^ Strabo, ]. xiv. p. 640. Vitruvius, 1. i. c. i. praefaL V vii T&nt 
 dinnaL iii 61. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 14. 
 
 "• The length of St. Peter's is 840 Roman palms ; each palm it 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 314 THE DECUNE AND FALL [A. D. 248-268. 
 
 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 propor- 
 tions of the Pantheon. The temple of Diana was, however, 
 admired as one of the wonders of the world. Successive 
 empires, the Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman, had 
 revered its sanctity and enriched its splendor."' But the rude 
 Davages of the Baltf.c were destitute of a taste for the ele- 
 gant arts, and ther despised the ideal terrors of a foreign 
 superstition."^ 
 
 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 o'l 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 brethieo, 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 them- 
 selves to the exercise of arms."' The sagacious counsellor 
 (should the truth of tho ftict be admitted) reasoned like an 
 ignorant barbarian. In the most polite and poweiful nations, 
 genius of every kind han d'&played itself about the same period ; 
 and the age of science has generally been the age of military 
 virtue and success. 
 
 IV. The new sovereign •, rl Persia, Artaxerxes and his soe 
 Sapor, had triumphed (as we have already seen) over the 
 house of Arsaces. Of the mfxciy princes of that ancient race, 
 
 very little short of nine English inches. See Greaves's Miscellanies 
 vol. i. p. 233 ; on the Roman Foot.* 
 
 '°' The policy, however, of the Roraaus 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. 
 
 "'' They offered no sacrifices to the Grecian gods. See EjistaS 
 Gregor. Thaumat. 
 
 "^ Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 635. Such an ar.ocdcte ■« as perfectly suited t* 
 the taste of Montaigne. He makes use of ix. in h:a agreeable Eesaj 
 OH Pedantry, 1, i c. 24. 
 
 " Si, Paul's Cathedral is 500 feet. Dallaway on Architecture, d. «M
 
 A.D.248-2G8-] of the roman emvire. 31 A 
 
 CSiosroes, king of Armenia, had alone preserved both his Ufa 
 and bis independence. He defended himself by the natural 
 strength of his country ; by the perpetual resort of fugitives 
 and malecontents ; by the alliance of the Romans, and abovo 
 all, by his own courage. Invincible in arms, during a thirty 
 years' war, he was at length assassinated by the emissaries of 
 Sapor, king of Persia. The patriotic satraps of Armenia, who 
 asserted the freedom and dignity of the crown, implored the 
 protection of Rome in favor of Tiridates, the lawful heir. But 
 the son of Chosroes was an infant, the allies were at a distance, 
 and the Persian monaich 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."* Elated with 
 this easy conquest, and presuming on the distresses or tho 
 degeneracy of the Romans, Sapor obliged the strong- garrisons 
 of Carrhse 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 
 natural ally, and the rapid success of Sapor's ambition, affected 
 Rome with a deep sense of the insult as well as of the danger. 
 Valerian flattered himself, that the vigilance of his lieutenants 
 would sufficiently provide for the safety of the Rhine and of 
 the Danube; but he resolved, notwithstanding his advanced 
 age, to march in person to the defence of the Euphrates. 
 During his progress through Asia Minor, the naval enterprises 
 of the Goths were suspended, and the afflicted province enjoyed 
 a transient and fallacious calm. He passed the Euphrates, 
 encountered the Persian monarch near the walls of Edessa, 
 was vanquished, and taken prisoner by Sapor. The particu- 
 lars of this great event are darkly and imperfectly represented ; 
 yet, by the glimmering light which is afforded us, we may 
 discover a long series of imprudence, of error, and of deserved 
 misfortunes on the side of the Roman emperor. He reposed 
 
 '•* Moses Chorenensis, 1. ii. c. '71, 73, 74. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 628. 
 The .inthentic relation of the Armenian historian serves to rectify the 
 confused account of the Greek. The latter talks of the children of 
 Tiridates, who at tliat time was himself an infant. [Compare St 
 Martiu Memoires sur I'Armenie, i. p. 301. — M.] 
 
 " Niaihis, according to Persian authors, was taken by a miracle; th« 
 wnll fell in comi»liance with the prayers of the aimy. Malcolm'e P«nri«, 
 L 76. -M.
 
 816 THE DECLINE AND TALL [A. D. 248-268i 
 
 an implicit confidence in Macrianus, bis Picetorian prcefect"' 
 That worthless minister rendered his master formidable only 
 to the oppressed subjects, and contemptible to the enemies of 
 Rome."' By his weak or wicked counsels, the Imperial army 
 was betrayed into a situation where valor and military skill 
 were equally unavailing/" The vigorous attempt of the 
 Romans to cut their way thi-ough the Persian host wa« 
 repulsed with great slaughter ; "' and Sapor, who encom- 
 passed the camp with superior numbers, patiently waited 
 till the increasing rage of famine and pestilence had insured 
 his victory. The licentious murmurs of the legions soon 
 accused Valerian as the cause of their calamities ; their 
 seditious clamors demanded an instant capitulation. An im- 
 mense sum of gold was offered to purchase the permission of 
 a disgraceful retreat. But the Persian, conscious of his supe- 
 riority, refused the money with disdain ; and detaining the 
 deputies, advanced in order of battle to the foot of the Roman 
 rampart, and insisted on a personal conference with the em- 
 peror. 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 djwn their arms.''* 
 In such a moment of triumph, the pride and policy of Sapor 
 prompted him to fill the vacant throne with a successor 
 entirely dependent on his pleasure. Cyriades, an obscure 
 fugitive of Antioch, stained with every vice, was chosen to 
 dishonor the Roman purple ; and the will of the Persian victor 
 could not fail of being ratified by the acclamations, however 
 reluctant, of the captive army."" 
 
 The Imperial slave was eager to secure the favor 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 
 
 "^ Hist. Aug. p. 191. As Macrianus was an enemy to the Chris 
 tians, they charged him with being a magician. 
 
 "" Zosimus, 1. i. p. 33. 
 
 "' Hist. Aug. p. 174. 
 
 "* Victor in Caesar. Eutropius, ix. 7. 
 
 "* Zosimus, 1. i. p. 33. Zonaras 1. xii. p. 630. Peter Patricius, in 
 the Excerpta Legat. p. 29. 
 
 -*" Hist. August, p. 185. The reign of Cyriades apj>ears in that 
 collection prior to the death of Valerian; but I have preferr&l a 
 probable series of tvents to the doubtful chronology of a most iimo 
 earat« writer
 
 A. D. 248-268.] of the roman empiuib. S11 
 
 the ].*ersian cavalry, that, if we may credit a very judicious 
 historian,"' the city of Antioch was surprised when the idle 
 multitude was fondly gazing on the amusements of the thea- 
 tre. The splendid buildings of Antioch, private as well aa 
 public, wtre either pillaged or destroyed ; and the numeroua 
 inhabitants were put to the sword, or led away into captiv- 
 ity."* 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, ai-med only with shngs, and defended his 
 god and his property from the sacrilegious hands of the fol- 
 lowers of Zoroaster."^ 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 advan- 
 tages of the narrow passes of Mount Taurus were abandoned, 
 in which an invader, whose principal force consisted in his 
 cavalry, would have been engaged in a very unequal combat : 
 and Sapor was permitted to form the sieo-e of Csesarea, the 
 capital of Cappadocia; a city, though of the second rank, 
 which was supposed to contain four hundred thousand inhabit- 
 ants. Demosthenes commanded in the place, not so much by 
 the commission of the emperor, as in the voluntary defence 
 of his country. For a long time he deferred its fate ; and 
 when at last Csesarea was betrayed by the oerfidy of a phy- 
 eician, 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 sf a foe who might 
 either have honored or punished his obstinate valor ; but many 
 thousands of his fellow-citizens were involved in a general 
 massacre, and Sapor is accused of treating his prisoners with 
 
 *** The sack of Antioch, anticipated by some historians, is assigned, 
 by the decisive testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus, to the reign of 
 Gallienus, xxiii. 5.* 
 
 "* Zosimus, 1. i. p. 35. 
 
 '^' John Malala, torn. i. p. 391 He corrupts this probable event bji 
 some fabulous circumstances. 
 
 • Heyne, in his note on Zosimus, contests tliis opinion of Gibbon, knd 
 observes, that the testimony of Ammianus is in (act by no means cleitr 4,1 
 decisive. Gallienus and Valerian reigned together. 2^osimas, in a rr»«<.'1 
 paesa^e, 1. iii. 32, 8, distinctly places this event before tb'j capture * 
 Valenan. — M.
 
 J18 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 248-268ii 
 
 wanton and unrelenting cruelty.'" 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 imder 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/" 
 
 At the time when the East trembled at the name of Sapor, 
 he received a present not imworthy of the greatest kings ; a 
 long train of camels, laden with the most rare and valuable 
 merchandises. The rich offering was accompanied with an 
 epistle, respectful, but not servile, from Odenathus, one of the 
 noblest and most opulent senators of Palmyra. " Who is this 
 Odenathus," (said the haughty victor, and he commanded that 
 the present should be cast into the Euphrates,) " that he thus 
 insolently presumes to write to his lord ? If he entertains a 
 hope of mitigating his punishment, let him fall prostrate be- 
 fore 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." "° The 
 desperate extremity to which the Palrayrenian 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"' and the 
 tents of the desert,"* he hovered round the Persian host, 
 harassed their retreat, carried off part of the treasure, and, 
 what was dearer than any treasure, several of the women of 
 the great king ; who was at last obliged to repass the Eu- 
 phrates with some marks of haste and confusion."* By this 
 
 "* Zonaras, 1. xiL p. 630. Deep valleys were filled up with the 
 glain. Crowds of prisoners were driven to water Uke beasts, and 
 many perished for want of food. 
 
 "^ Zosimus, 1. i. p. 25, asserts, that Sapor, had he not preferred spoil 
 to conquest, might have remained master of Asia. 
 
 "■* Peter Patricius in Excerpt. Leg. p. 29. 
 
 "' Sjrorum agrestixmi manu. Sextus Rufus, c. 23. Rufus Victof, 
 the Augustan History, (p. 192,) and several inscriptions, agree in 
 making Odenathus a citizen of PalmjTa. 
 
 **" He possessed so powerful an interest among the wandering 
 tribes, that Procopius (Bell. Persic. 1. ii. c. f)) and John Malala (torn, i 
 p. 891) style him Prince of the Saracena. 
 
 **• Peter Patricius, p. 25.
 
 A. D, 248-268.] of the roman empire. S19 
 
 exploit, Odenatlius 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. 
 
 The voice of history, which is often little more than the 
 organ of hatred or flattery, reproaches Sapor with a proud 
 abuse of the rights of conquest. We are told that Valerian, 
 in chains, but invested with the Imperial purple, was exposed 
 to the multitude, a constant spectacle of fallen greatness ; and 
 that whenever the Persian monarch mov^nted on horseback, he 
 placed his foot on the neck of a Romjin emperor. Notwith- 
 standing all the remonstrances of his allies, who repeatedly 
 ad\'ised him to remember the vicissitudes of fortune, to dread 
 the returning power of Rome, and to make his illustrious cap- 
 tive 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 Hkeness of a human figure, was preserved for ages 
 in the most celebrated temple of Pei"sia ; a more real monu- 
 ment of triumph, than the fancied trophies of brass and mar- 
 ble so often erected by Roman vanity.'^" The tale is moral 
 and pathetic, but the truth f of it may very fairly be called in 
 question. The letters still extant from the princes of the East 
 to Sapor are manifest forgeries ; '*' 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 treat- 
 ment 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 
 .ife in hopeless captivity. 
 
 "" The Pagan writers lament, the Christian insult, the misfortjunoa 
 of Valerian. Their various testimonies are accurately collected hy 
 TiUemont, torn. iii. p. 739. &c. So little has been preserved of eastern 
 history before Mahomet, that the modern Persians are totally ignorant 
 of ti:e victory of Sapor, au event so glorious to their nation. See 
 Bibliotheque Orientale.* 
 
 '^' One of these epistles is from Artavasdes, king of Armenia; since 
 Armenia was then a province of Persia, the king, the kingdom, and tha 
 tpistle must be fictitious. 
 
 * Malcolm appears to write from Persian authorities, 1. 76. — M. 
 
 t Yet Gibbon himself records a speech of the emperor Galerius, which 
 tlludes to the cruelties exercised ai^ainst the liviag-, und tlie mdignities to 
 nrhicb they exposed the dead Valerian, vol. ii. ch. 13. Respect for tha 
 kingly character v,'OTild by no meau3 prevent an eastern monarch from 
 Brati^'ing his pnd" and his vengeance on a faUon foe. — M.
 
 820 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. 1). 248-2681 
 
 The emperor Gallienus, who had long supported with im< 
 patience the censorial seveiity of his father and colleague, 
 receiv2d the intelligence of his misfortunes with secret pleas- 
 ure and avowed indifference. "I knew that my father was 
 a mortal," said he ; " and since he has acted as it becomes a 
 brave man, I am satisfied." Whilst Rome lamented the fate 
 of her sovereign, the savage coldness of his son was extolled 
 by the servile courtiers as the perfect firmness of a hero and 
 a stoic.'" It is difficult to paint the light, the various, the 
 inconstant character of Gallienus, which he displayed without 
 constraint, as soon as he became sole possessor of the empire. 
 In every art that he attempted, his lively genius enabled him 
 to succeed ; and as his genius was destitute of judgment, he 
 attempted every art, except the important ones of war and 
 government. He was a master of several curious, but useless 
 sciences, a ready orator, an elegant poet,'" 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,'" wasting his time in trifling or licentious pleasures, 
 2:)rcparing his initiation to the Grecian mysteries, or soliciting 
 a place in the Areopagus of Athens. His profuse magnifi- 
 cence insulted the general poverty ; the solemn ridicule of his 
 triumphs impressed a deeper sense of the pubhc disgrace."* 
 
 '^^ See his life in the Augustan History. 
 
 '^^ There is still extant a very pretty Epithalamiiun, composed by 
 Gallienus for the nuptials of his nephews : — 
 
 " Ite ait, O Juvenes, pariter sndate meduUis 
 Onmibus, inter vos : non mumiura vestra columbaa, 
 Bracliia non hederae, non vincant oscula conchse." 
 
 '"" He was on the point of giving Plotinns a ruined city of Campania 
 to try the experiment of realizing Plato's Republic. See the Life of 
 Plotinns, by Porphyry, in Fabricius's Biblioth. Grssc. 1. iv. 
 
 "^ A medal which bears the head of GalUenus has perplexed the 
 antiquarians by its legend and reverse ; the former Gallience Augustoe, 
 the latter Ubique Pax. M. Spanheira supppsea that the coin was 
 struck by some of the enemies of Gallienus, and was designed as a 
 severe sath'e 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 PoUio (Hist. Aug. p. 198) 
 an ingenious and natural solution. Gallicna was first cousiu to the 
 emperor. By delivering Africa from the usurper Celsus, she de- 
 served the title of Augusta. On a medal in the French king's col- 
 lection, we read a similar inscription of Faustina Augusta round thp 
 kead cf Marcus Aurelius. With rcgaid to the Ubique Pax, it >
 
 k. D. 248-268.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 92\ 
 
 The repeated intelligence of invasions, defeats, and rebel- 
 lions, ho received with a careless smile ; and singling cut, 
 with affected contempt, some particular production of the lost 
 province, he carelessly asked, whether Rome must be ruined, 
 unless it was supphed with linen from Egypt, and arras tloth 
 from Gaul. There were, however, a few short moments in the 
 lite of Gallienus, when, exasperated by some recent injury^ 
 he suddenly appeared the intrepid soldier and the cruel tyrant; 
 till, satiated with blood, or fixtigued by resistance, he insensi- 
 bly sunk into the natural mildness and indolence of his char- 
 acter."" 
 
 At the time when the reins of government were held with 
 so loose a hand, it is not surprising, that a crowd of usurpers 
 should start up in every province of the empire against the son 
 of Valerian. It was j^robably some ingenious fancy, of com- 
 paring the thirty tyrants of Rome with the thirty tyrants of 
 Athens, that induced the writers of the Augustan History to 
 select that celebrated number, which has been gradually re- 
 ceived into a popular appellation.'" But in every light the par- 
 allel 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 em- 
 pire ? Nor can the number of thirty be completed, unless we 
 include in the account the women and children who were hon- 
 ored with the Imperial title. The reign of Gallienus, distracted 
 as it was, produced only nineteen pretenders to the throne : Cy- 
 riades, Macrianus, Bahsta, Odenathus, and Zenobia, in the East; 
 in Gaul, and the western provinces, Posthumus, Lollianus, 
 Victorinus, and his mother Victoria, Marius, and Tetricus ; in 
 Illyricura and the confines of the Danube, Ingenuus, Regillia- 
 
 easily explained by the vanity of Gallienus, who seized, perhaps, the 
 occasion of some momentary calm. See Nouvelle.« de la Republique 
 des Lettres, Janvier, 1700, p. 21—34. 
 
 "* This singular character has, I believe, been fairly transmitted to 
 as. 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. 
 
 "' Pollio expresses the most minute anxiety to compleve the 
 number.* 
 
 " Compare a dissertation of Manso on the thirty tyrants, at the end tt kk 
 Leben Constantius des Grossen. Breslau, 1817.— M. 
 
 o
 
 822 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 248-208 
 
 nus, and Aureolus ; in Pontus,"* Saturninus ; in Isauria, Tre- 
 bellianus ; Piso in Thessaly ; Valens in Acliaia ; ^milianus in 
 Egypt ; and Celsus in Africa.* To illustrate the obscure mon- 
 uments of the life and death of each individual, would prove a 
 iaborious task, aUke barren of instruction and of amusement. 
 We may content ourselves with investigating some general 
 characters, that most strongly mark the condition of the times, 
 and the manners of the men, their pretensions, their motives, 
 their fate, and their destructive consequences of their usurpa- 
 tion."' 
 
 It is sufficiently known, that the odious appellation of Tyrant 
 was often employed by the ancients to express the illegal 
 jeizure of supreme power, without any reference to the abuse 
 of it. Several of the pretenders, who raised the standard of 
 .-ebellion against the emperor Gallienus, were shining models 
 of virtue, and almost all possessed a considerable share of 
 figor and ability. Their merit had recommended them to the 
 favor of Valerian, and gradually promoted them to the most 
 important commands of the empire. The generals, who 
 assumed the title of Augustus, were either respected by their 
 troops for then able conduct and severe discipline, or admired 
 for valor and success in war, or beloved for frankness and 
 generosity. The held of victory was often the scene of their 
 election ; and even the armorer Marius, the most contemptible 
 
 '" The place of his reign ia somewhat doubtful; but there wai 
 a tyi'ant in Pontus, ana we are acquainted with the seat of all the 
 others. 
 
 "^ Tillemont, torn. iii. p. llo3, reckons them somewhat differ 
 cntly. 
 
 * Captain Smyth, in his " Catalogue of Medals." p. 307, substitntes two 
 
 new names to make up the number of nineteen, fcv those of Odenathus anj 
 
 Zenobia. He subjoins this list : — 
 
 1. 2. 3. 
 
 Of those vrhose coins Those whose coins Those of whom no 
 
 are undoubtedly true. are suspected. coins are known. 
 
 Posthumus. Cyriades. Valens. 
 
 Laelianus, {Lollianus, G.) Ingenuus. Balista. 
 
 Victorinus. Celsus. Saturninus. 
 
 Marius. Piso Frugi. Trebellianua. 
 
 Tetricus. — M. 184! 
 
 Macrianus. 
 
 diiietus. 
 
 Regalianns (Regilliamis, 3.) 
 
 A.lcx. jEmilianus. 
 
 A.uref)lus. 
 
 Sulpicius Antoninus
 
 A. D- 248-268.] ok the uoman empire. 323 
 
 of all the candidates for the purple, was distinguished, however 
 by intrepid courage, matchless strength, and blunt honesty.'" 
 His mean and recent trade cast, indeed, an air of ridicule on 
 his elevation ;* but his birth could not be more obscure than 
 was that of the greater part of his rivals, who were born of 
 peasants, and enlisted in the army as private soldiers. In 
 times of confusion, every active genius linds 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 a.one was a noble. The 
 blood of Numa, through twenty -eight successive generations, 
 ran in the veins of Calphurnius Piso,*" who, by female alli- 
 ances, claimed a right of exhibiting, in his house, the images 
 of Crassus and of the great Pompey."" llis ancestors had 
 been repeatedly dignified with all the honors which the com- 
 monwealth could bestow ; and of all the ancient famiUes of 
 Rome, the Calphurnian alone had survived the tyranny of the 
 Csesaics. The personal qualities of Piso added new lustre to 
 his race. The usurper Valens, by whose order he was killed, 
 confessed, with deep remorse, that even an enemy ought to 
 have respected the sanctity of Piso ; and although he died in 
 arms against Gallienus, the senate, with the emperor's generous 
 permission, decreed the triumphal ornaments to the memory of 
 Bo virtuous a rebel.*" 
 
 The lieutenants of Valerian were grateful to the father, 
 whom they esteemed. They disdained to serve the luxurious 
 indolence of his unworthy son. The throne of the Roman 
 
 "° See the speech of Marius in the Augustan History, p. 197. The 
 accidental identity of names was the only circumstance that could 
 tempt Pollio to miitate Sallust. 
 
 101 u Y(jg^ Q pompilius sanguis !" is Horace's address to the Pisou 
 See Art. Poet. v. 292, with Dacier's and Sanadon's notes. 
 
 "^ Tacit. Annal. xv. 48. Hist. i. 15. In the former of these pas- 
 sages wc may venture to change paterna into materna. In every gen- 
 eration from Augustus to Alexander Severus, one or more Ilsoa 
 appear as consuls. A Piso was deemed wortliy of the throne by 
 Augustus, (Tacit. Annal. L 13 ;) a second headed a formidable con- 
 spiracy against Nero ; and a third was adoptf >d, and declared Caesar, by 
 Galba. 
 
 ^*' Hist. August, p. 195. The senate, in a moment of entbuaiaem, 
 seems to have presumfid on the approbation of GaUienus. 
 
 • Marias was killed by a soldier, who had formerly served as a wcrkmu 
 in his shop, and who excliHined, as he struck, " Behold the sword whiob 
 thyself hast forgfd." Trcb 'ivitd. — G.
 
 824 I'HE DECLINE AND FALL [A D. 248-201 
 
 world ft'as unsupported by hnj principle of loyalty ; and trea- 
 son against such a prince might easily be considered as patriot- 
 ism to the state. Yet if we examine with candor the conduct 
 of these usurpers, it will appear, that they were much oftener 
 driven into rebelhon by their fears, than urged to it by their 
 ambition. They dreaded the cruel suspicions of Gallienus; 
 they equally dreaded the capricious violence of their troops. 
 If the dangerous favor of the army had imprudently declared 
 them deserving of the purple, they were marked for sure de- 
 struction ; and even prudence would counsel them to secure a 
 short enjoyment of empire, and rather to try the fortune of wai 
 than to expect the hand of an executioner. When the clamor 
 of the soldiers invested the reluctant victims with the ensigns 
 of sovereign authority, they sometimes mourned in secret theii 
 approaching fate. '' You have lost," said Saturninus, on the 
 day of his elevation, " you have lost a useful commander, and 
 you have made a very wretched emperor." '" 
 
 The apprehensions of Saturninus were justified by the 
 repeated experience of revolutions. Of the nineteen tyrants 
 v?ho started up under the reign of Gallienus, there was not one 
 who enjoyed a life of peace, or a natural death. As soon as 
 they were invested with the bloody purple, they inspired their 
 adherents with the same fears and ambition which had oc- 
 casioned their own revolt. Encompassed with domestic con- 
 spiracy, 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 mon- 
 archs received, however, such honors as the flattery of their 
 respective armies and provinces could bestow ; but their 
 claim, founded on rebenion,'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 con- 
 sidered as the sovereign of the empire. That prince con- 
 descended, indeed, to acknowledge the victorious arms of 
 Odenathus, who deserved the honorable distinction, by the 
 respectful conduct which he always maintained towards the 
 son of Valerian. With the general applause of the Romans, 
 and the consent of Gallienus, the senate conferred \he title of 
 Augustus on the brave Palmyrenian ; and seemed to intrust 
 hLm with the government of th'^. East, which he alrtAdy poB- 
 
 Hist. August p. 196,
 
 A.D. 248-2G8.] of the koman empire. 328 
 
 •essed, in so independent a manner, that, like a private auo- 
 cession, he bequeatlied it to his illustrious widow, Zenobia."* 
 
 The rapid and pei'petual transitions from the cottage to the 
 throne, and from the throne to the grave, might liave amused 
 an indifierent philosopher ; were it possible for a philosopher 
 to remain indifferent amidst the general calamities of human 
 kind. The election of these precarious emperors, their power 
 and their death, were oqud.ly 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 Wivs 
 their character, however pure their intentions, they found them- 
 selves reduced to the hard necessity of supporting their usur- 
 pation by frequent acts of rapine and cruelty. When they fell, 
 they involved armies and provinces in their fall. There is 
 still extant a most savage mandate from Gallienus to one of his 
 ministers, after the suppression of Ingenuus, who had assumed 
 the purple in Illyricum. " It is not enough," says that soft 
 but inhuman prince, " that you exterminate such as have 
 appeared in arms ; the chance of battle might have served me 
 as effectually. The male sex of every age must be extirpated ; 
 provided that, in the execution of the children and old men, you 
 can contrive means to save our reputation. Let every one die 
 who has dropped an expression, who has entertained a thought 
 against me, against me^ the son of Valerian, the father and bro- 
 ther of so many princes.'" Remember that Ingenuus wjis 
 made emperor : tear, kill, hew in pieces. I write to you with my 
 own hand, and would inspire you with my own feelings." *" 
 Whilst the public forces of the state were dissipated in pii 
 vate quarrels, the defenceless provinces lay exposed to every 
 invader. The bravest usurpers were compelled, by the per- 
 plexity of their situation, to conclude ignominious treaties with 
 the common enemy, to purchase with oppressive tributes the 
 
 "* The association of the brave Palmyrenian was the most populai 
 act of the whole reign of Gallienus. Hist. August, p. 180. 
 
 '°* Gallienus had given the titles of Ccesar and Augustus to his 
 son Saloninus, slain at Cologne by the usurper Posthuraus. A second 
 son of Gallienus succeeded to the name and rank of his elder 
 brother Valerian, the brother of GaUienus, was aLso associated to 
 tlie em;plfc : several otlier brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces of 
 the emperor formed a very numerous royal family. See Tillemont 
 torn iii, and M de Brequigny in the Memoires de rAcademie, torn 
 om, p. 26?. 
 
 *" Ilist. August, p. 188.
 
 328 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A, D 248-208. 
 
 neutrality or services of the Barbarians, and to introduce 
 hostile and independent nations into the heart of the Roman 
 monarchy.'^* 
 
 Such were the barbarians, and such the tyrants, who, under 
 the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, dismembered the prov- 
 '.nces, and reduced the empire to the lowest pitch of disgrace 
 and ruin, fi-om whence it seemed impossible that it should ever 
 smerge. As far as the barrenness of materials would permit, 
 wo 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 Isauri- 
 ans, which may serve to reflect a strong light on the horrid 
 picture. 
 
 I, Whenever numerous troops of banditti, multiplied by 
 success and impunity, publicly defy, instead of eluding the 
 justice of their country, we may safely infer, that the excessive 
 weakness of the government is felt and abused by the lowest 
 ranks of the community. The situation of Sicily preserved it 
 from the Barbarians ; nor could the disarmed province have sup- 
 ported a usurper. The sufferings of that once flourishing and 
 still fertile island were inflicted by baser hands. A licentious 
 crowd of slaves and peasants reigned for a while over the plnn 
 dered country, and renewed the memory of the servile wars of 
 more ancient times."' Devastations, of which the husbandman 
 was either the victim or the accomplice, must have ruined the 
 agriculture of Sicily ; and as the principal estates were the 
 property of the opulent senators of Rome, who often enclosed 
 within a farm the territory of an old republic, it is not improb- 
 able, 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 conceived and executed by the son of Philip. The beau- 
 tiful and regular form of that great city, second only to Rome 
 itself, comprehended a circumference of fifteen miles ; "' it 
 was peopled by three hundred thousand free inhabitants, besides 
 
 "' Regillianus had some bands of Roxolani in his service; Post- 
 liumus a body of Franks. It was, perhaps, in the character of aux- 
 iliaries that the latter introduced themselves into Spain. 
 
 "^^ The Augustan History, p, 111, calls it sertUe kdhsm. Sei 
 Diodor. Sicul. 1. xxxiv. 
 
 "" Plin. Hist. Natur. y 10.
 
 A. D. 248-268.J of the roman empire. 82/ 
 
 at least an equal number of slaves.'" The lucrative trade 
 of Arabia and India flowed through the port of Alexandria, to 
 the capital and provinces of the empire.* Idleness was un- 
 known. Some were employed in blowing of glass, others in 
 weaving of linen, others again manufacturing the papyrus. 
 Either sex, and every age, was engaged in the pui*suits of 
 industry, nor did even the blind or the lame want occupations 
 suited to their condition.'" But the people of Alexandria, a 
 various mixture of nations, united the vanity and inconstancy 
 of the Greeks with the superstition and obstinacy of the 
 Egyptians. The most trifling occasion, a transient scarcity of 
 flesh or lentils, the neglect of an accustomed salutation, a 
 mistake of precedency in the public baths, or even a religious 
 dispute,'" were at any time sufficient to kindle a sedition among 
 that vast multitude, whose resentments were furious and im- 
 placable."* After the captivity of Valerian and the insolence 
 of his son had relaxed the authority of the laws, the Alexan- 
 drians 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.'" All intercourse was cut oft' between 
 the several quarters of the afflicted city, every street wjis 
 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 
 
 '" Diodor. Sicul. L xvii. p. 590, edit. "Wesseling. 
 
 '"^ See a very curious letter of Hadrian, in the Augustan History, 
 p. 245. 
 
 "' Such as the sacrilegious murder of a divine cat. See Diodor. 
 KicuL 1. i.f 
 
 "* 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. 
 
 "* Dionysius apud. Eusew. Hist. Ecclea vii. p. 21. Aramian 
 xxii. 16. 
 
 * Berenice, or Myos-Homios, on the Rod Sea, received the eastern com- 
 modities. From thence they were transported to the Nile, and down the 
 Nile to Alexandria. — M. 
 
 t The hostility between the Jewish and Grecian part of the population 
 afterwards between the two former and the Christian, were unfailing causes 
 of tumult, sedition, and nia.ssacre. In no place Nverc the religious disputes 
 afler the establishment of Christianity, ino-e frequent or more sangnmary 
 Bee Phjlo. de Legat. Hist, of Jew», vi 171. iii. Ill, 198. Giblxtn, iii 
 c. xxi. viii. c. xlvii. — M.
 
 328 THE DECLINE AND ?ALL [A D. 248* 268 
 
 maguificent district of Bruchion,* with its palaces and musa 
 um, the residence of the kings and philosophers (»f Egypt, i? 
 described above a century afterwards, as already reduced to it« 
 present state of dreary solitude."" 
 
 III. The obscure rebellion of Trebellianus, who assumed 
 ihe 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 folbwers, despairing of mercy, resolved to 
 shake off their allegiance, not only to the emperor, but to the 
 empire, and suddenly returned to the savage manners from 
 which they had never perfectly been reclaimed. Their craggy 
 rocks, a branch of the wide-extended Taurus, protected their 
 inaccessible retreat. The tillage of some fertile valleys "' 
 supplied them with necessaries, and a habit of rapine with the 
 luxuries of life. In the heart of th<i Eoman monarchy, the 
 Isaurians long continued a nation of wild barbarians. Suc- 
 ceeding princes, unable to reduce them to obedience, either 
 by arms or policy, were compelled to acknowledge their weak- 
 ness, by surroundins: the hostile and independent spot with a 
 strong chain of fortifications,"* which often proved insufficient 
 to restrain the incursions of these domestic foes. The Isau- 
 rians, gradually extending their territory to the sea-coast, sub- 
 dued the western and mountainous part of Cilicia, formerly the 
 nest of those daring pirates, against whom the republic had 
 once been ob!ii|;ed to exert its utmost force, under the conduct 
 of the great Pomp^jy."' 
 
 Our habits of thinking so fondly connect the order of the 
 universe v^th the fate of man, that this gloomy period of his- 
 tory has been decorated with inundations, earthquakes, uncom- 
 mon meteors, preternatural darkness, and a crowd of prodigies 
 fictitious or exaggerated."" But a long and general famine 
 
 "' Scaliger. Animadver. ad Euseb. Chron. p. 258. Thi-ee diaeerta- 
 tions of M. Bonamy, in the Mem. de I'Academie, torn. ix. 
 
 " ' Strabo, L xiii. p. 569. 
 
 "" Hist. August, p. 197. 
 
 '''^ See Cellarius, Geogr Antiq. torn. ii. p. 137, upon the limita of 
 Isauria. 
 
 "" Hist August p 177. 
 
 * The Brachion was a quarter of Alexandria which extended along tha 
 largest of the two ports, and contained many psJaccs, inhabited iry tha 
 Ptolemies. D'Anv. Geogr. Anc. iii. 10. — G.
 
 A^D. 248-268.] of tue roman empire. >2* 
 
 was a calamity of a more serious kiLd. It was the inevitabk 
 consequence of rapine and oppression, which extirpated the 
 produce of the present, and the hope of futtu'e harvests. 
 Famine is almost always followed by epidemical diseases, the 
 eflect of scanty and unwholesome food. Other causes must, 
 however, have contributed to the furious plague, which, from 
 tha year two hundred and fifty to the year two hundred and 
 sixty-five, raged without interruption in every province, every 
 city, and almost every family, of the Koman empire. During 
 some time five thousand persons died daily in Rome ; and 
 many towns, that had escaped the hands of the Barbarians, 
 wore entirely depopulated.'*^ 
 
 We have the knowledge of a very curious circumstance, of 
 some use perhaps in the melancholy calculation of human 
 calamities. An exact register was kept at Alexandria of all 
 the citizens entitled to receive the distribution of corn. It was 
 found, that the ancient number of those comprised between the 
 ages of forty and seventy, had been equal to the whole sum of 
 claimants, from fourteen to fourscore years of age, who remain- 
 ed alive after the reign of Gallienus."''' Applying this authen- 
 tic fact to the most correct tables of mortality, it evidently 
 proves, that above half the people of Alexandria had perished ; 
 and could we venture to extend the analogy to the other prov- 
 inces, we might suspect, that war, pestilence, and famine, had 
 consumed, in a few years, the moiety of the human species."' 
 
 "' Hist. August, p. 111. Zosimus, L i. p. 24. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 623. 
 Euseb. Chronicon. Victor in Epitom. Victor in Csesar. Eutropius, 
 ix. 5. Orosius, vii. 21. 
 
 '*^ Euseb. Hist. Ecclcs. vii. 21. The fact is taken from the Letters 
 of Dionysius, who, in the time of those trout iles, was bisliop of Alex- 
 andria. 
 
 "' In a great number of parishes, 11,000 persons were found be- 
 tween fourteen and eighty ; 5365 between forty and flcvcnty. Sm 
 Sofiicn, Hieti)ire Naturelle, torn, il p. 590.
 
 aSO THE Di:CUNQ AND FALL [A. D. 26& 
 
 CHAPTEil XI. 
 
 BXIOK OF CLAUDIUS. DEFEAT OF THE GOTHS.— VI dXiRIBB, 
 
 TRIUMPH, AND DEATH OF AURELIAN. 
 
 Under the deplorable reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, the 
 empire was oppressed and almost destroyed by the soldiers, 
 the tyrants, and the barbarians. It was saved by a series of 
 great princes, who derived their obscure origin from the martial 
 provinces of lUyricum. Within a period of about thirty years, 
 Claudius, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian and his colleagues, tri- 
 umphed over the foreign and domestic enemies of the state, 
 reestablished, with the military discipline, the strength of the 
 frontiers, and deserved the glorious title of Restorers of the Ro- 
 man world. 
 
 The removal of an effeminate tyrant made way for a sue 
 cession of heroes. The indignation of the people imputed al' 
 their calamities to Gallienus, and the far greater part wer» 
 indeed, the consequence of his dissolute manners and carelest 
 administration. He was even destitute of a sense of honor, 
 which so frequently supplies the absence of public virtue ; and 
 as long as he was permitted to enjoy the possession of Italy, 
 a victory of the barbarians, the loss of a province, or the 
 rebellion of a general, seldom disturbed the tranquil course of 
 his pleasures. At length, a considerable army, stationed ou 
 the Upper Danube, inv^-sted with the Imperial purple their 
 leader Aureolus ; who, disdaining a confined and barren reign 
 over the mountains of Rhsetia, passed the Alps, occupied 
 Milan, threatened Rome, and challenged Gallienus to dispute 
 m tlie field the sovereignty of Italy. The en peror, provoked 
 by the insult, and alarmed by the instant danger, suddenly 
 exerted that latent vigor which sometimes broke through the 
 indolence of his temper. Forcing himself from the luxury 
 cf the palace, he appeared in arms at the head of his legions, 
 &nd advanced beyond the Po to encounter his competitor. 
 The corrupted name of Pontirolo * still preserves the memory 
 
 * Pons Aureoli, thirteen miles from Bergamo, and thirty-two from 
 Milan. See Cluver. Italia Antiq. torn. i. p 245, Near this pla/>e, io
 
 A. D. 268.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 881 
 
 of a bridge over the Adda, which, during the action, must 
 have proved an object of the utmost importance to both armies. 
 The llhaetian usurper, after receiving a total defeat and a dan- 
 gerous 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 Aureolas, doubt- 
 ful of his internal strength, and hopeless of foreign succors 
 already anticipated the fatal consequences of unsuccessful 
 rebellion. 
 
 His last resource was an attempt to seduce the loyalty of 
 the besiegers. He scattered libels through the camp, inviting 
 the troops to desert an unworthy master, who sacrificed the 
 public happiness to his luxury, and the lives of his most valu- 
 able subjects to the slightest suspicions. The arts of Aureolua 
 diffused feai-s and discontent among the principal officers of 
 his rival. A conspiracy was formed by Heraclianus the Prae- 
 torian praefect, by Marcian, a general of rank and reputation, 
 and by Cecrops, who commanded a numerous body of Dal- 
 matian guards. The death of Gallienus was resolved ; and 
 notwithstanding their desire of first terminating the siege of 
 Milan, the extreme danger which accompanied every mo- 
 ment's delay obliged them to hasten the execution of their 
 daring purpose. At a late hour of the night, but while the 
 emperor still protracted the pleasures of the table, an alarm 
 was suddenly given, that Aureolus, at the head of all his forces, 
 had made a desperate sally from the town ; Gallienus, who 
 was never deficient in personal bravery, started from his silken 
 couch, and without allowing himself time either to put on his 
 armor, or to assemble his guards, he mounted on horseback, 
 and rode full speed towards the supposed place of the attack. 
 Encompassed by his declared or concealed enemies, he soon, 
 amidst the nocturnal tumult, received a mortal dart from an 
 uncertain hand. Before he expired, a patriotic sentiment 
 •ising in the mind of Gallienus, induced him to name a de- 
 serving successor ; and it was his liist request, that the Impe- 
 rial ornaments should be delivered to Claudius, who then com- 
 manded a detached army in the neighborhood of Pavia. The 
 report at least was diligently propagated, and the order cheer- 
 
 tho yerir 1T03, the obstinate battle of Cassano was fought between the 
 French and Austrians. The excellent relation of the Chevalier de 
 Folard, who was present, gives a very distinct idea of the ground 
 Bee Polybe de Folard, torn. iii. p. 223—248.
 
 S82 THE DECLINE > VD FALL [A. D. 268, 
 
 fiiUy obeyed by the conspirators, who had al ^aJy agfreed to 
 phice Claudius on the throne. On the first news of the em- 
 peror's death, the troops expressed some suspicion and resent- 
 ment, till the one was removed, and the other assuaged, by » 
 donative of twenty pieces of gold to each soldier. They then 
 ratified the election, and acknowledged the merit of theii 
 new sovereign.^ 
 
 The obscurity which covered the origin of Claudius, thougl 
 it was afterwards embellished by some flattering fictions,' suf 
 ficiently betrays the meanness of his birth. We can onlj 
 discover that he was a native of one of the provinces border- 
 ing on the Danube; that his youth was spent in arras, and 
 that his modest valor attracted the favor and confidence of 
 Decius. The senate and people already considered him aj 
 an excellent officer, equal to the most important trusts ; and 
 censured the inattention of Valerian, who siiffered 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 lUyrian frontier, 
 with the command of all the troops in Thrace, Maesia, Dacia, 
 Pannonia, and Dalmatia, the appointments of the praefect of 
 Egypt, the establishment of the proconsul of Africa, and the 
 sure prospect of the consulship. By his victories over the 
 Goths, he deserved from the senate the honor of a statue, and 
 excited the jealous apprehensions of Gallienus. It was im- 
 possible that a soldier could esteem so dissolute a sovereign, 
 nor is it easy to conceal a just cont<ompt. Some unguarded 
 expressions which dropped from Clauiiius were officiously trans- 
 mitted to the royal ear. The emperor's answer to an officer 
 of confidence describes in very lively colors his own charac- 
 ter, and that of the times. " There is not any thing capable 
 of giving me more serious concern, than the intelligence con- 
 tained in your last despatch ; * that some malicious suggestions 
 
 " On the death of Gallienus, see TrcbeUius Pollio in Hist. August 
 p. 181. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 37. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. G34. Eutrop. ix. 11, 
 Aurelius Victor in Epitom. Victor in CiBsar. I have compared and 
 blended them all, but have chiefly followed Aurelius Victor, who seems 
 to have had the best memoirs. 
 
 ^ Some supposed him, oddly enough, to be a bastard of the younger 
 Oordian. Others took advantage of the province of Dardania, to 
 deduce his origin from Dardanus, and the ancient kings of Troy. 
 
 * Notoria, a periodical and official despatch which the emperoi« 
 received from the frumentarii, or agents dispersed through the prov- 
 inces. Of these we may speak hereafter.
 
 A. D. 268.] OF THE KOMAN KMl'IRE, 383 
 
 have indisposed towards us the mind of our fiiond and ptireni 
 Claudius, As you regard your allegiance, use every means 
 to appease his resentment, but conduct your negotiation with 
 eecrocy ; 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 susjiect 
 yiat I am made acquainted with his imprudence. The fear 
 'A my anger might urge him to desperate counsels."^ The 
 presents which accompanied this humble epistle, in which the 
 monarch solicited a reconciliation with his discontented sub- 
 ject, consisted of a considerable sum of money, a splendid 
 wardrobe, and a valuable service of silver and gold plate. 
 By such arts Gallienus softened the indignation and dispelled 
 the fears of his Illyrian general ; and during the remainder 
 of that reign, the formidable sword of Claudius was always 
 drawn in the cause of a master whom he despised. At last, 
 indeed, he received from the conspirators the bloody purple 
 of Gallienus : but he had been absent from their camp and 
 counsels ; and however he might applaud the deed, we may 
 candidly presume that he was innocent of the knowledge of 
 it." When Claudius ascended the throne, he was about fifty- 
 four years of age. 
 
 Tlie siege of Milan was still cuntimied, and Aureolus soon 
 discovered that the success of his artifices had only raised up 
 a more determined adversary. He attempted to negotiate 
 with Claudius a treaty of alliance and partition. "Tell him," 
 replied the intrepid emperor, " that such proposals should have 
 been made to Gallienus ; he, perhaps, might have listened to 
 them with patience, and accepted a colleague as despicable as 
 himself."'' This stern refusal, and a last unsuccessful eflbrt, 
 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 zea! 
 of the senate less ardent in the cause of their new sovereign. 
 
 ' Hist. August, p. 208. Gallienus describes the plate, vestments, 
 Ac., like a man who loved and understood tliose splendid trifles. 
 
 ' Julian (Orat. i. p. 6) affirms that Claudius acquired the empire in 
 a just aud even holy manner. But we may distrust the partiality of 
 a kinsman. 
 
 ^ Hist. August, p. 20.3. There are some trifling difTcrcnces con- 
 eeriiiug the cucuuistarces of the last defeat and death of Aureolus
 
 S94 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 26& 
 
 They ratified, perhaps with <i sincere transport of zeal, tha 
 election of Claudius ; and, as his predecessor had shown him- 
 self the personal enemy of their order, they exercised, undei 
 the name of justice, a severe revenge against his friends an(^ 
 family. The senate was permitted to discharge the ungrateful 
 office of punishment, and the emperor reserved for himself tha 
 pleasure and merit of obtaining by his intercession a general 
 act of indemnity/ 
 
 Such ostentatious clemency discovers less of the real charac- 
 ter of Claudius, than a trifling circumstance in which he seems 
 to have consulted only the dictates of his heart. The frequent 
 rebellions of the provinces had involved almost every person in 
 the guilt of treason, almost every estate in the case of confis- 
 cation ; and Gallienus often displayed his liberality by distribut- 
 ing 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 confes- 
 sion of his fault was accompanied with immediate and ample 
 restitution.* 
 
 In the arduous task which Claudius had undertaken, of 
 restoring the empire to its ancient splendor, it was first neces- 
 sary to revive among his troops a sense of order and obe- 
 dience. With the authority of a veteran commander, he rep- 
 resented to them that the relaxation of discipline had intro- 
 duced a long train of disorders, the etFects of which were at 
 length experienced by the soldiers themselves : that a people 
 ruined by oppression, and indolent from despair, could no 
 longer supply a numerous army with the means of luxury, or 
 even of subsistence ; that the danger of each individual had 
 increased with the despotism of the military order, since 
 
 * Aurelius Victor in Gallien. The people loudly prayed for the 
 damnation of Gallienus.* The senate decreed that his relations and 
 Bervants should be thrown down headlong from the Gemonian stairs. 
 An obnoxious officer of the revenue had his eyes torn out wliilst \md«f 
 fxaniination. 
 
 ' Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 137. 
 
 The expression is curious, " terrain malrcm deosque inferos precnretu 
 ■edes impias uti Gallienn dareiit." — M.
 
 A. D. 269.1 OF THE riOMAN EMPIkK. '^'** 
 
 princes who tremble on the throne will guard their safely b? 
 the instant sacrifice of eveiy obfioxious subject. The emperor 
 expiated on the mischiefs of a lawless caprice, which the sol- 
 diers could only gratify at the expense of their own blood ; as 
 their seditious elections had so frequently been followed by civil 
 wars, which consumed the flower of the legions either in the 
 field of battle, or in the cruel abuse of victory. He painted 
 in the most lively colors the exhausted state of the treasury, 
 iJie desolation of the provinces, the disgrace of the Roman 
 name, and the insolent triumph of rapacious barbarians. It 
 was against those barbarians, he declared, that he intended to 
 point the fii-st eflfort of their arms. Tetricus might reign for a 
 while over the West, and even Zenobia might preserve the 
 dominion of the Ejist.'" These usurpei^s 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. 
 
 The various nations of Germany and Sarmatia, who fought 
 under the Gothic standard, had already collected an armament 
 more formidable than any which liad yet issued from the 
 Euxine. On the banks of the Niester, one of the great rivei-s 
 that discharge themselves into that sea, they constructed a 
 fleet of two thousand, or even of six thousand vessels;" num- 
 bers which, however incredible they may seem, would have 
 been insuflicient to transport their pretended army of three 
 hundred and twenty thousand barbarians. Wliatever might 
 be the real strength of the Goths, the vigor and success of the 
 expedition were not adequate to the greatness of the prepara- 
 tions. In their passage through the Bosphorus, the unskilful 
 pilots were overpowered by the violence of the current ; and 
 while the multitude of their ships were crowded in a narrow 
 channel, many were dashed against each other, or against the 
 shore. The barbarians made several descents on the coasts 
 both of Europe and Asia ; but the open country was already 
 plundered, and they were repulsed with shame and loss from 
 the fortified cities which they assaulted. A spirit of discour- 
 
 *' Zonaras on this occasion mentions Posthumua but the registers 
 oi the senate (Hist. August, p. 203) prove that Tetricus was already 
 emperor of the western provinces. 
 
 " Thf. Augustan History mentions the smaller, Zonaras the larger, 
 aorabir; the lively faiwy of Montesquieu iuduced him to prefer the 
 Utter.
 
 9$6 THE DECLINB AWD FALL [A. D. 20ft, 
 
 agement and division arose in tliA fleet, and some of theil 
 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 Moimt Athos, and assaulted the city 
 of Thessalonica, the wealthy capital of all the Macedonian 
 provinces. Their attacks, in which they displayed a fierce but 
 nrtless bravery, were soon interrupted by the rapid approach 
 of Claudius, hastening to a scene of action that deserved tha 
 presence of a warlike prince at the head of the remaining 
 j)Owers of the empire. Impatient for battle, the Goths imme- 
 diately broke up their camp, relinipished the siege of Thessa- 
 lonica, 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 
 the senate and people on this memorable occasion. " Con- 
 script fathers," says tlie emperor, " know that three hundred 
 and twenty thousand Goths have invaded the Roman territory. 
 If I vanquish them, your gratitude will reward my services. 
 Should I fall, remember that I am the successor of Gallienus. 
 The whole republic is fatigued and exhausted. We shall fight 
 after Valerian, after Ingenuus, Regillianus, Lollianus, Posthu- 
 mus, Celsus, and a thousand others, whom a just contempt for 
 Gallienus provoked into rebellion. We are in want of darts, 
 of spears, and of shields. The strength of the empire, Gaul, 
 and Spain, are usurped by Tetricus, and we blush to acknowl- 
 edge that the archers of the East serve under the banners of 
 Zenobia. Whatever we shall perform will be sufficiently 
 g-reat." '^ The melancholy firmness of this epistle announces 
 fl 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 
 world. By the most signal victories he delivered the empire 
 from this host of barbarians, and was distinguished by pos- 
 terity under the glorious appellation of the Gothic Claudius. 
 Ihe imperfect historians of an irregular war '* do not enable 
 as to describe the order and circumstances of his exploits,* 
 
 '* Trebell. Pollio in Hist. August, p. 204. 
 
 " Hist. August, in Claud. Aurelian. et Prob. Zosimus, L L p 
 88—4:2. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 638. AureL Victor in Epitom, Virtc* 
 Junior in ^sesar. Eutrop. ix 11. Euseb. in Chron-
 
 A.D. 269.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 837 
 
 but, if we could be indulged in the allusion, we might dia- 
 tribute into three acts this memorable tragedy. I. The de- 
 cisive battle was fought near Naissus, a city of Dardania. 
 The legions at first gave way, oppressed by numbers, and dis- 
 mayed by misfortunes. Their ruin was inevitable, had not 
 the abilities of their emperor prepared a seasonable relief. A 
 large detachment, rising out of the secret and difficult passes 
 of the mountains, which, by his order, they had occupied, 
 suddenly assailed the rear of the victorious Gotks. The favor- 
 able instant was improved by the activity of Claudius. He 
 revived the courage of his troops, restored their ranks, and 
 pressed the barbarians on every side. Fifty thousand men 
 are reported to have been slain in the battle of Naissus. Sev- 
 eral large bodies of barbarians, covering their retreat with a 
 movable fortification of wagons, retired, or rather escaped, 
 from the field of slaughter. II. We may presume that some 
 insurmountable difficulty, the fatigue, perhaps, or the disobe- 
 dience, of the conquerors, prevented Claudius from completing 
 in one day the destruction of the Goths. The war was dif- 
 fused over the province of Mgesia, Thrace, and Macedonia, 
 and its operations drawn out into a variety of marches, sur- 
 prises, 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 supe- 
 rior talents of the emperor, his perfect knowledge of the 
 country, and his judicious choice of measures as well as 
 officers, assured on most occasions the success of his arms. 
 The immense booty, the fruit of so many victories, consisted 
 for the greater part of cattle and slaves. A select body of 
 the Gothic youth was received among the Imperial troops ; 
 the remainder was sold into servitude ; and so considerable 
 was the number of female captives, that every soldier obtained 
 to his share two or three women. A circumstance from which 
 we may conclude, that the invaders entertained some designs 
 of settlement as well as of plunder ; since even in a naval 
 expedition, they were accompanied by their famihes. III. The 
 loss of their fleet, which was either taken or sunk, had inter- 
 cepted the retreat of the Goths. A vast circle of Roman 
 posts, distributed with skill, supported with firmness, and grad- 
 ually closing towards a common centre, forced the barbarJona 
 into the most inaccessible parts of Mount Haimus, where they 
 found a safe refuge, but a very scanty subsistence. During 
 !lie course of a rigorous winter in which they were besieged 
 
 VOL. I. — P.
 
 S36 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 270 
 
 by the emperor's troops, famine and pestilence, ilescrtion and 
 the sword, continually diminished the impnsoned multitude. 
 On the return of spring, nothing appeared in arms except a 
 hardy and desperate band, the remnant of that mighty hosl- 
 which had embarked at the mouth of the Niester. 
 
 The pestilence which swept away such numbers of the 
 barbarians, at length proved fatal to their conqueror. After a 
 short but glorious reign of two yeai-s, 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 Aure- 
 han," one of his generals, as the most deserving of the throne, 
 and the best qualified to execute the great design which he 
 himself had been permitted only to undertake. The virtues 
 of Claudius, his valor, affability, justice, and temperance, his 
 love of fame and of his country, place him in that short list 
 of emperors who added lustre to the Roman jjurple. Those 
 virtues, however, were celebrated with peculiar zeal and com- 
 placency by the courtly writers of the age of Constantine, who 
 was the great grandson of Crispus, the elder brother of Clau- 
 dius. The voice of flattery was soon taught to repeat, that 
 gods, who so hastily had snatched Claudius from the earth, 
 rewarded his merit and piety by the perpetual establishment 
 of the empire in his family. '° 
 
 Notwithstanding these oracles, the greatness of the Flavian 
 family (a name which it had pleased them to assume) was 
 deferred above twenty years, and the elevation of Claudius 
 occasioned the immediate ruin of his brother Quintilius, who 
 possessed not sufficient moderation or courage to descend into 
 the private station to which the patriotism of the late emperor 
 had condemned him. Without delay or reflection, he assumed 
 the purple at Aquileia, where he commanded a considerable 
 force ; and though his reign lasted only seventeen days,* he 
 
 ** According to Zonaras, (1. xii. p. 638,) Claudius, before his d >ath, 
 uivested him with the purple; but this singular fact Ls rather contra 
 dieted than confirmed by other writers. 
 
 " See the Life of Chxudius by PoUio, and the Orations of Mamer^ 
 tinus, Eumenius, and Julian. See hkewise the Cassars of Juhan, p 
 SIS, In Julian it was not adulation, but superstition and vanity. 
 
 * Such is the narrative of the greater part of the older historians ; but 
 the naiuber and the variety of his medals seem to require more time, and 
 give probability to the report of Zosimus, who makes him reign aaiaa 
 months. — G
 
 A. D. 270.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 889 
 
 had time to obtain the sanction of the senate, and to experience 
 a mutiny of the troops. As soon as he was informed that the 
 great army of the Danube had invested the well-known valor 
 of Aurelian with Imperial power, he sunk under the fome and 
 merit of his rival ; and ordering his veins to be opened, pru- 
 dently withdrew himself from the unequal contest.'* 
 
 The general design of this work will not permit us minutely 
 to relate the actions of every emperor after he ascended the 
 throne, much less to deduce the various fortunes of his private 
 life. We shall only observe, that the father of Aurelian was a 
 peasant of the territory of Sirmium, who occupied a small 
 farm, the property of Aurelius, a rich senator. His warlike 
 sou enlisted in the troops as a common soldier, successively 
 rose to the rank of a centurion, a tribune, the praefect of a 
 legion, the inspector of the camp, the general, or, as it was 
 then called, the duke, of a frontier; and at length, during the, 
 Gothic war, exercised the important office of commander-in- 
 chief, of the cavalry. In every station he distinguished him- 
 self by matchless valor," rigid discipline, and successful con- 
 duct. He was invested with the consulship by the emperor 
 Valerian, who styles him, in the pompous language of that 
 age, the deliverer of Illyricum, the restorer of Gaul, and the 
 rival of the Scipios. At the recommendation of Valerian, a 
 senator of the highest rank and merit, Ulpius Crinitus, whoso 
 blood was derived from the same source as that of Trajan^ 
 adopted the Pannonian peasant, gave him his daughter in mar- 
 riage, and relieved with his ample fortune the honorable pov- 
 erty which Aurelian had preserved inviolate." 
 
 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, recov- 
 ered Gaul, Spain, and Britain out of the hands of Tetricus, 
 
 '" Zosunus, 1. L p. 4*2. PoUio (Hist. August, p. 107) allows hino 
 virtues, and says, that, like Pertinax, he was killed by the lircntioua 
 poldiers. According to Dexippus, he died of a disease. 
 
 " Thejclius (.as quoted in the Augustan History, p. 211) afllrms 
 thiit in one diiy lie killed with his own hand forty-eight Sarmatians, 
 and in several subsequent engagements nine hundred and fifty. Thia 
 heroic valor was admired by the soldiers, and celebrated in their rude 
 eongs, the burder. of which was, inille, mille, mille, occidit. 
 
 '* Acholius (ap. Hist. August, p. 213) describes the ceremocy of 
 the adoption, as it was performed at Byzantium, in the presence ol 
 the emperor and his great officers.
 
 340 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A, D. 276 
 
 and destroyed the proud monarcliy which Zenobia had erected 
 in the E;ist ou the ruins of the afflicted empire. 
 
 It was the rigid attention of Aurehan, even to the minutest 
 articles of disciphne, which bestowed such uninterrupted suc- 
 cess on his arms. His mihtary regulations are contained in 
 a very concise epistle to one of his inferior officers, \\'ho ia 
 commanded to enforce them, as he wishes to become a trib- 
 une, or as he is desirous to live. Gaming, drinking, and tha 
 ftrts of divination, were severely prohibited. Aurelian ex- 
 pected that his soldiers should be modest, frugal, and labori 
 ous ; that their armor should be constantly kept bright, their 
 weapons sharp, their clothing and horses ready for immediate 
 service ; that they should live in their quarters with chastity 
 and sobriety, without damaging the cornfields, without steal- 
 ing even a sheep, a fowl, or a bunch of grapes, without exact- 
 ing from their landlords, either salt, or oil, or wood. " The 
 public allowance," continues the emperor, " is sufficient for 
 their support ; their wealth should be collected from the spoils 
 of the enemy, not from the tears of the provincials." " A 
 single instance will serve to display the rigor, and even cruel- 
 ty, of Aurelian. One of the soldiers had seduced the wife 
 of his host. The guilty wretch was fastened to two trees 
 forcibly drawn towards each other, and his hmbs were torn 
 asunder by their sudden separation. A few such examples 
 impressed a salutary consternation. The punishments of 
 Aurelian were terrible ; but he had seldom occasion to punish 
 more than once the same offence. His own conduct gave a 
 sanction to his laws, and the seditious legions dreaded a chief 
 who had learned to obey, and who was worthy to command. 
 
 The death of Claudius had revived the fainting spirit of 
 the Goths. The troops which guarded the passes of Moun 
 Haemus, and the banks of the Danube, had been drawn away 
 by the apprehension of a civil war ; and it seems probable 
 that the remaining body of the Gothic and Vandalic tribes 
 embraced the favorable opportunity, abandoned their settle- 
 ments of the Ukraine, traversed the rivers, and swelled with 
 new multitudes the destroying host of their countrymen. 
 
 ** Hist August, p. 211 This laconic epistle is truly the work of a 
 joldier; it abounds with military phrases and words, some of which 
 cannot be understood without difficulty. Ferr amenta samiata is well 
 explained by Salmasius. The former of the words means all weapons 
 of offence, and is contrasted with Ar7na, defensive armor The lattei 
 signifies keen and well sharpened.
 
 A. D. 2Y0.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 341 
 
 Their united numbers wore at length encountered by Aum- 
 Han, and the bloody and doubtful conflict ended only with the 
 approach of night.'"' Exhausted by so many calamities, 
 which they had mutually endured and inflicted during a tvren- 
 ty years' war, the Goths and the Romans consented to a last- 
 ing and beneficial treaty. It was earnestly solicited by the 
 barbarians, and cheerfully ratified by the legions, to whoso 
 suftrage the prudence of Aurelian referred the decision of 
 that important question. The Gothic nation engaged to sup 
 ply the armies of Rome with a body of two thousand auxil 
 laries, 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 ex- 
 pense. 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 barba- 
 rians commanded that the guilty leader should be apprehended 
 and shot to death with darts, as a victim devoted to the sanc- 
 tity 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 some- 
 thing to this pacific temper. The youths he trained in the 
 exercise of arms, and near his own person : to the damsels he 
 gave a liberal and Roman education, and by bestowing them in 
 marriage on some of his principal officers, gradually introduced 
 between the two nations the closest and most endearing 
 connections."' 
 
 But the most important condition of peace was understood 
 rather than expressed in the treaty. Aurelian withdrew the 
 Roman forces from Dacia, and tacitly relinquished that great 
 province to the Goths and Vandals."' His manly judgment 
 convinced him of the solid advantages, and taught him to de- 
 spise the seeming disgTace, of thus contracting the frontiers 
 of the monarchy. The Dacian subjects, removed from those 
 
 '" Zosiraus, 1. i. p. 45. 
 
 ^' Dexippus (ap. Excerpta Legat. p. 12) relates the -whvile traii»tc- 
 tion under the name of Vandals. Aurelian married one of the Ootliic 
 ladies to his general Bonos js, who was able to drink with the Godu 
 and discover their secrets. Hist. August, p. 247. 
 
 "* Hist. Augu?!.. p. 222. Eutrop. ix. 15. Sextus Rufus, c 9. L»K» 
 Uatius de Mc';abu3 Perseculorum, c. 9. 
 
 • The five hundred stragglers were »U elain. — 11.
 
 S42 TUE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 27(X 
 
 distant posse^sioris whicli they were unable to cultivate o! 
 defend, added strength and populousness to the southern side 
 of the Danube. A fertile territory, which the repetition of 
 barbarous inroads had changed into a desert, was yielded to 
 their industry, and a new province of Dacia still preserved 
 the memory of Trajan's conquests. The old country of that 
 name detained, however, a considerable number of its inhabit- 
 ants, who dreaded exile more than a Gothic master."' These 
 degenerate Romans continued to serve the empire, whose 
 allegiance they had renounced, by introducing among their 
 conquerors the first notions of agriculture, the useful arts, and 
 the conveniences of civilized life. An intercourse of com- 
 merce 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 
 aUiance of Rome, and a permanent interest very frequently 
 ripens into sincere and useful friendship. This various col- 
 ony, which filled the ancient province, and was insensibly 
 blended into one great people, still acknowledged the superior 
 renown and authority of the Gothic tribe, and claimed the 
 fancied honor of a Scandinavian origin. At the same time, 
 the lucky though accidental resemblance of the name of 
 Getse,* 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 Za- 
 molxis, and checked the victorious arms of Sesostris and 
 Darius.''^ 
 
 While the vigorous and moderate conduct of Aurehan 
 restored the Illyrian frontier, the nation of the Alemanni*' 
 
 "^ The "Walachians still preserve many traces of the Latin language, 
 and have boasted, in every age, of theu- 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. 
 
 ^* See the first chapter of Jornandes. The Vandals, however, (c. 
 22,) maintained a short independence between the Rivers Mariaia and 
 Crissia, (Maros and Keres,) which fell into the Teiss. 
 
 ''^ Dexippus, p. 1 — 12. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 43. Vopiscus in Aiirelian. 
 Id Hint. August. However these historians differ in names,) Alcmanni 
 
 • The conuection between the Ge'tse and the Gotlis is stil'i n my opiAV 
 laoorrectl} iiaintained by some learned writers. — M.
 
 A. D. 270.] OF TH£ ROMAN EMPIRE. 343 
 
 violated the conditions of peace, whicli either GallienuA had 
 purchased, or Claudius had imposed, and, inflamed hy their 
 impatient youth, suddenly flew to arms. Forty thcasand 
 horse appeared in the field,^" and the numbers of the infantry 
 doubled those of the cavalry.'" The first objects of their 
 avarice were a few cities of the Rhaetian frontier; but their 
 hopes soon rising with success, the rapid march of the Ale- 
 manni traced a line of devastation from the Danube to the 
 Po." 
 
 The emperor was almost at the same time informed of the 
 irruption, and of the retreat, of the barbarians. Collecting 
 an active body of troops, he marched with silence and celerity 
 along the skirts of the Hercynian forest ; and the Alemanni, 
 laden with the spoils of Italy, arrived at the Danube, without 
 suspecting, that on the opposite bank, and in an advantageous 
 post, a Roman army lay concealed and prepared to intercept 
 their return. Aurelian indulged the fetal security of the bar- 
 barians, and permitted about half their forces to pass the river 
 without disturbance and without precaution. Their situation 
 and astonishment gave him an easy victory ; his skilful con- 
 duct improved the advantage. Disposing the legions in a 
 semicircular form, he advanced the two horns of the crescent 
 across the Danube, and wheeling them on a sudden towards 
 the centre, enclosed the rear of the German host. The dis- 
 mayed barbarians, on whatsoever side they cast their eyes, 
 beheld, with despair, a wasted country, a deep and rapid 
 stream, a victorious and implacable enemy. 
 
 Reduced to this distressed condition, the Alemanni no 
 longer disdained to sue for peace. Aurelian received thei' 
 ambassadors at the head of his camp, and with every circum- 
 stance 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, 
 
 Juthungi, and Marcomanni,) it is evident that they mean the sama 
 people, and the same war ; but it requires some care to conciliate and 
 explain them. 
 
 ^° Cantoclarus, with his usual accuracy, chooses to translate thro* 
 hundred thousand : his version is equally repugnant to sense and to 
 grammar. 
 
 "'' "We may remark, as an instance of bad taste, that Dexippua 
 ippliea to the light infantry of the Alemanni the technical terms proper 
 only to the Grecian phalanx. 
 
 ** In Dexippus, wo at present read Rhodanus: M. de Valois T«rj 
 j<&diciocsly alters the word to Eridanus.
 
 3A4 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 27ft 
 
 distinguished by the ensigns of their rank, appeared on horse- 
 back on either side of the Imperial throne. Behind the throne 
 the consecrated images of the emperor, and his predeces- 
 sors,"* the golden eagles, and the various titles of the legions, 
 engraved in letters of gold, were exalted in the air on lofty 
 pikes covered with silver. When Aurelian assumed his seat, 
 his manly grace and majestic figure^" taught the barbarians 
 to revere the pereon as Avell as the purple of their conqueror. 
 The ambassadors fell prostrate on the ground in silence. 
 They were commanded to rise, and permitted to speak. By 
 the assistance of interpreters they extenuated their perfidy, 
 magnified their exploits, expatiated on the vicissitudes of for- 
 tune and the advantages of peace, and, with an ill-timed 
 confidence, demanded a large subsidy, as the price of the 
 alliance which they offered to the Romans. The answer of 
 the emperor was stern and imperious. He treated their oflfer 
 with contempt, and their demand with indignation, reproached 
 the barbarians, that they were as ignorant of the arts of war 
 as of the laws of peace, and finally dismissed them with the 
 choice only of submitting to his unconditional mercy, or 
 awaiting the utmost severity of his resentment.^' 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 
 unexpected emergency required the emperor's presence in 
 Pannonia. He devolved on his lieutenants the care of finishing 
 the destruction of the Alemanni, either by the sword, or by 
 the surer operation of famine. But an active despair has often 
 triumphed over the indolent assurance of success. The 
 barbarians, finding it impossible to traverse the Danube and 
 the Roman camp, broke through the posts in their rear, which 
 were more feebly or less carefully guarded ; and with incred- 
 ible diligence, but by a different road, returned towards the 
 mountains of Italy.^" Aurelian, who considered the war as 
 
 •• The emperor Claudius was certainly cf the number ; but we are 
 
 ignorant how far this mark of respect was extended ; if to Csesar and 
 Auijustas, it must have produced a very awful spectacle; a long line 
 of the masters of the world. 
 
 " Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 210. 
 
 *' Dexip))ns gives them a subtle and prolix oration, worthy of 9 
 firerian sophist. 
 
 •* Hist. August, p, 215.
 
 A. D. 2*70.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 34S 
 
 totally extinguished, received the mortifying intelligence ©f 
 the escape of the Alemanni, and of the ravage which thej 
 already committed in the territory of Milan. The legiong 
 were commanded to follow, Avith 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 
 Mxiliaries, (among whom were the hostages and cavalry of 
 the Vandals,) and of all the Praetorian guards who had served 
 iu the wars on the Danube.*' 
 
 As the light troops of the Alemanni had spread themselves 
 from the Alps to the Apennine, the incessant vigilance of 
 Aurelian and his officers was exercised in the discovery, the 
 attack, and the pursuit of the numerous detachments. Not- 
 withstanding this desultory war, three considerable battles are 
 mentioned, in which the principal force of both armies was 
 obstinately engaged.'* 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.'* The crafty barbarians, who had lined the 
 woods, suddenly attacked the legions in the dusk of the even- 
 ing, and, it is most probable, after the fatigue and disorder of 
 a long march. The fury of their charge was irresistible ; but, 
 at length, after a dreadful slaughter, the patient firmness of 
 the emperor rallied his troops, and restored, in some degree, 
 the honor of his arms. The second battle was fought near 
 Fano in Umbria ; on the spot which, five hundred years before, 
 had been fr^tal to the brother of Hannibal." Thus far the 
 successful Germans had advanced along the ^milian 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." The flying remnant of their host was exterminated 
 
 •* Dexij)pus, p. 1 2. 
 
 '* Victor Junior in Aurelian. 
 
 " Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 216. 
 
 *• The little river, or rather torrent, of Metaurus, near Fano, luu 
 been immortaUzed, by finding such an historian as Livy, and such a 
 poet as Horace. 
 
 " It is recorded by an inscription .found at Pesaro. See Grutet 
 Qebnvi 8.
 
 346 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. 1). 271 
 
 iu a tliird and last battle near Pavia ; and Italy was delivere<3 
 from the inroads of the Alemanni. 
 
 Fear has been the original parent of superstition, and every 
 new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wratb 
 of their invisible enemies. Though the best hope of the repub- 
 lic was in the valor and conduct of Aurelian, yet such was the 
 public consternation, when the barbarians were hourly ex 
 pected at the gates of Rome, that, by a decree of the senate, 
 the Sibylline books were consulted. Even the emperor himselt 
 from a motive either of religion or of policy, recommended 
 this salutary measure, chided the tardiness of the senate," and 
 offered to supply whatever expense, whatever animals, what- 
 ever captives of any nation, the gods should require. Notwith- 
 standing this liberal offer, it does not appear, that any human 
 victims expiated with their blood the sins of the Roman people. 
 The Sibylline books enjoined ceremonies of a more harmless 
 nature, processions of priests in white robes, attended by a 
 chorus of youths and virgins ; lustrations of the city and adja- 
 cent country ; and sacrifices, whose powerful influence disabled 
 the barbarians from passing the mystic ground on which they 
 had been celebrated. However puerile in themselves, these 
 superstitious arts were subservient to the success of the war ; 
 and if, in the decisive battle of Fano, the Alemanni fancied 
 they saw an army of spectres combating on the side of Aure- 
 lian, he received a real and effectual aid from this imaginary 
 reinforcement.^* 
 
 But whatever conCdence might be placed in ideal ramparts, 
 the experience of the past, and the dread of the future, induced 
 the Romans to construct fortifications of a grosser and more 
 substantial kind. The seven hills of Rome had been sur- 
 rounded, by the successors of Romulus, with an ancient ■wall 
 cf more than thirteen miles.*^ The vast enclosure may seem 
 
 ** One should imagine, he said, that you were assembled in a Chris- 
 lan church, not in the temple of all the gods. 
 
 ^^ Vopiscus, in Hist. August, p. 215, 216, gives a long account of 
 these ceremonies from the Registers of the senate. 
 
 '"' Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. To confirm our idea, we mav observe, 
 that for a long time Mount Cselius -was a grove of oaks, a..J Mount 
 Viminal was overrmi with osiers ; that, in the fourth century, th« 
 Aventine was a vacant and solitary retirement ; tliat, tiU the time of 
 Augustus, the Esquiline was an unwholesome burying-ground ; and 
 that the numerous inequalities, remarked by the ancients in the Qui- 
 rinal, sufiSciently prove that it was not covered with buildings. Of 
 the Bevec ^lills, the Capitoline and Palatine only, with the adjaceot
 
 /LD. 271.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 9i^^ 
 
 disproportioned to the strength and numbers of the infant 
 state. But it was necessary to secure an ample extent of 
 pasture and arable land, against the frequent and sudden 
 incursions of the tribes of Latium, the perpetual enemies of 
 the republic. With the progress of Roman greatness, the city 
 and its inhabitants gradually increased, filled up the vacant 
 space, pierced through the useless walls, covered the field of 
 Mars, and, on every side, followed the public highways in 
 long and beautiful suburbs.'" The extent of the new walls, 
 erected by Aurelian, and finished in the reign of Probus, was 
 magnified by popular estimation to near fifty," but is reduced 
 by accurate measurement to about twenty -one miles." It was 
 a great but a melancholy labor, since the defence of the capi- 
 tal 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,^* were very far from enter- 
 taining a suspicion, that it would ever become necessary to 
 fortify the seat of empire against the inroads of the barba- 
 jians." 
 
 The victory of Claudius over the Goths, and the success of 
 Aurelian against the Alemanni, had already restored to the 
 arms of Rome their ancient superiority over the barbarous 
 nations of the North. To chastise domestic tyrants, and to 
 reunite flie dismembered parts of the empire, was a task 
 reserved for the second of those warlike emperors. Though 
 he was acknowledged by the senate and people, the frontiers 
 of Italy, Africa, Illyricum, and Thrace, confined the limits of 
 his reign. Gaul, Spain, and Britain, Egypt, Syria, and Asia 
 Minor, were still possessed by two rebels, who alone, out of 
 so numerous a list, had hitherto escaped the dangers of their 
 
 valleys, were the primitive habitations of tlie Roman people. But this 
 subject would require a dissertation. 
 
 *^ Exspatiantia tecta multas addidere urbes, is the expression of 
 Pliny. 
 
 *^ Hist. Angust. p. 222. Both Lipsius and Isaac Vossius havo 
 eagerly embraced this measure. 
 
 ^' See Nardini, Roma Antica, 1. i. c. 8.* 
 
 ** Tacit. Hist. iv. 23. 
 
 ** For Aurelian's walls, see Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 216, 222. 
 Z«aimus, L i. p. 43. Eutropius, ix. 15. Aurel. Victor in Aureliaa 
 Victor Juiior in Aurelian. Euseb. Hieronym. et Idatius in Cbrcoic 
 
 • But compare Gibbon, cb. xli. note 77. — U.
 
 848 THE DECIINK AND FALL [A D. ?7l, 
 
 Bituatioti ; and to complete the ignominy of Rome, these rirjl 
 thrones had bein usurped by women, 
 
 A rapid succession of monarchs liad arisen and fallen In 
 the provinces of Gaul. The rigid virtues of Posthumus served 
 only to hasten his destruction. After suppressing a compel 
 itor, who had assumed the purple at Mentz, he refused to 
 gratify bis troops with the plunder of the rebellious city ; and 
 in the seventh year of his reign, became the victim of theii 
 disappointed avarice/* The death of Victorinus, his friend 
 and associate, was occasioned by a less worthy cause. The 
 shining accomplishments " of that prince were stamed 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,''* He was slain at Cologne, by a conspiracy of jealous 
 husbands, whose revenge would have appeared more justifiable, 
 had they spared the innocence of his son. After the murder 
 of so many valiant princes, it is somewhat remarkable, that 
 a female for a long time controlled the fierce legions of Gaul, 
 and still more singular, that she was the mother of the unfor- 
 tunate Victorinus. The arts and treasures of Victoria enabled' 
 her successively to place Marius and Tetricus on the throne, 
 and to reign with a manly vigor under the name of those 
 dependent emperors. Money of copper, of silver, and of gold, 
 was coined in her name ; she assumed the titles of Augusta 
 and Mother of the Camps : her power ended only with her 
 life; but her life was perhaps shortened by the ingratitude 
 of Tetricus.** 
 
 *^ His competitor was LoUianus,* or ^lianus, if, indeed, these 
 names mean the same person. See Tillemont, torn. iii. p. 1177. 
 
 *' The character of this prince by Juhus Aterianus (ap. Hist. Au- 
 gust, p. 187) is worth transcribing, as it seems fair and impartial. 
 Victorino qui Post Junium Posthumium Gallias rexit neminem exis- 
 timo pra3ferendum ; non in virtute Trajanum ; non Antoninum in de- 
 mentia ; non in gravitatr; Nervam ; non in gubernando asrario Vespa- 
 sianum ; non in Censura totius vitje ac severitate militari Pertinacem 
 vel Severum. Sed omnia h.-ec libido et cupiditas voluptatis muliera- 
 rise sic pordidit, ut nemo audeat virtutes ejus in literas mittere quem 
 constat omnium judicio meruisse punu'i. 
 
 *® He ravished the wife of Attitianus, an actuary, or army agent. 
 Hist. August, p. 186. Aurel. Victor in Aurelian. 
 
 *' Pollio assigns hr,r an article among the thvrty tyrants. Hist 
 At gust. p. 200. 
 
 • The medals vshicli oear the name of Lollianus are considered forperiea, 
 •Kcept one in the museum of the Prince of Waldeck • tlcre are many
 
 A. D. 271.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 811 
 
 When, at the instigation of his ambitious patraness, Totricua 
 assumed the ensigns of royalty, he \v;is governor of the peace- 
 ful province of Aquitaine, an employment suited to his char- 
 acter 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 
 falor and fortune of Aurelian at length opened the prospect of 
 a deliverance. He ventured to disclose his melancholy situa- 
 tion, and conjured the emperor to hasten to the relief of hia 
 unhappy rival. Had this secret correspondence reached the 
 ears of the soldiers, it would most probably have cost Tetricus 
 his life ; nor could he resign the sceptre of the West without 
 committing an act of treason against himself. He afiected the 
 appearances of a civil war, led his forces into the field, against 
 Aurelian, posted them in the most disadvantageous manner, 
 betrayed his own counsels to his enemy, and with a few chosen 
 friends deserted in the beginning of the action. The rebel 
 legions, though disordered and dismayed by the unexpected 
 treachery of their chief, defended themselves with desperate 
 valor, till they were cut in pieces almost to a man, in this 
 bloody and ineraorable battle, which was fought near Chalons 
 in Champagne.'"'' The retreat of the irregular auxiliaries, 
 Franks and Batavians," whom the conqueror soon compelled 
 or persuaded to repass the Rhine, restored the general tranquil- 
 lity, 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, aloao 
 and unassisted, had ventured to declare against the legions of 
 Gaul. After a siege of seven months, they stormed and plun- 
 dered that unfortunate city, already wasted by famine." Lyons, 
 
 *" Pollio in Hist. August, p. 196. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 
 220. The two Victors, in the lives of Gallienus and Aurelian. Eu- 
 trop. 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 Tiliemont (torn. iii. p. 1189) docs not dare to fol- 
 low them. I have been fairer than the one, and bolder than th« 
 other. 
 
 ^' Victor Junior in Aurelian. Euineni us mentions batavicce ; some 
 critics, Tritliout any reason, would fain alter the word to Bagct^dicce. 
 
 " Eumen. in Vet. Panegyr. iv. 8. 
 
 •xtant bearing the name of Lajlianus, which appears V ■ bave been \haf vt 
 ibe oompetitor of Poslhumus. E«khel. Doot. Num. t vi 449—0.
 
 850 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. I*. 272i 
 
 on the contrary, bad resisted with obstinate disafFectioa the 
 arms of AureUan. We read of the punishment of Lyons," 
 but there is not any mention of the rewards of Autun. Such, 
 indeed, is the policy of civil war; severely to remember in- 
 juries, and to forget the most important services. Revenge ia 
 profitable, gratitude is expensive. 
 
 Aurelian had no sooner secured the pei-son and provincef 
 of Tetricus, than he turned his arms against Zenobia, the 
 celebrated queen of Palmyra and the East. Modern Europe 
 has jiroduced several illustrious women who have sustained 
 with glory the weight of empire ; nor is our own age destitute 
 of such distinguished characters. But if we except the doubt- 
 ful achievements of Semiramis, Zenobia is perhaps the only 
 female whose superior genius broke through the servile indo- 
 lence imposed on her sex by the climate and manners of 
 Asia." She claimed her descent from the Macedonian kings 
 of Egypt,* equalled in beauty her ancestor Cleopatra, and far 
 surpassed that princess in chastity" and valor. Zenobia was 
 esteemed the most lovely as well as the most heroic of her 
 sex. She was of a dark complexion, (for in speaking of a lady 
 these trifles become important.) Her teeth were of a pearly 
 whiteness, and her large black eyes sparkled with uncomm'>ji 
 fire, tempered by the most attractive sweetness. Her voice 
 was strong and harmonious. Her manly understanding was 
 strengthened and adorned by study. She was not ignorant of 
 the Latin tongue, but possessed in equal perfection the Greek, 
 the Syriac, and the Egyptian languages. She had drawn up 
 for her own use an epitome of oriental history, and familiarly 
 compared the beauties of Homer and Plato under the tuitif n 
 of the sublime Longinus. 
 
 This accomplished woman gave her hand to Odenathus,f 
 
 *' Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 246. Autun was not restored till 
 the reigu of Diocletian. See Eumenius de restaurandis scholis. 
 
 '* Almost everytliing that is said of the manners of Odenathus and 
 Zenobia is takfen from their lives in the Augustan History, by Trebel- 
 lius PoUio; see p. 192, 198. 
 
 ^^ She never admitted her husband's embraces but for the sake of 
 posterity. If her hopes were baffled, in the ensuing jnonth she rcit 
 erated the expermient. 
 
 • According to some Christian writers, Zenobia was a Jewess. (Jo«t 
 Seschichte der Israel, iv. 166. Hist, of Jews, iii. 175.) — M. 
 
 t According to Zosimus, Odenathus was of a noble family in Palmyra 
 .;d, according to Procopius, he was prince of the Saracens, who inhabit tb) 
 •nks of the Euphi-ates. Eclhel. Doct Num. vii. 489.— G.
 
 A. D. 272.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 351 
 
 who, from a private station, raised himself to the dominion of 
 the East. She soon became the friend and com])anion of a 
 hero. In the intervals of war, Odenathus passionately de- 
 lighted in tlie exercise of hunting ; he pursued with ardor the 
 wild beasts of the desert, lions, panthers, and bears ; and the 
 ardor of Zenobia in that dangerous amusement wiis not inferior 
 to his own. She had inured her constitution to fatigue, dis- 
 dained 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 Ode- 
 nathus was in a great measure ascribed to her incomparable 
 prudence and fortitude. Their splendid victories over the 
 Groat King, whom they twice pursued as fixr as the gates of 
 Ctesiphou, 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 Asia, the Palmyrenian prince returned to the city of 
 Emesa in Syria. Invincible in war, he was there cut off 
 by domestic treason, and his favorite amusement of hunting 
 R'as the cause, or at least the occasion, of his death.'* His 
 aephew Mseonius 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, Odena- 
 thus 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 punish- 
 ment was remembered ; and Mseonius, with a few daring 
 associates, assassinated his uncle in the midst of a great enter- 
 tainment. Herod, the son of Odenathus, though not of Zeno 
 bia, a young man of a soft and effeminate temper," was killed 
 with his father. But Maeonius obtained only the pleasure of 
 revenge by this bloody deed. Ho had scarcely time to assume 
 
 *' Hist. August, p. 192, 193. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 36. Zonara.=, L xii 
 p. 633. The last is clear and probable, the others confused and incon 
 Bistent. The text of Syncellus, if not corrupt, is absolute nonse?j.se. 
 
 " Odenathus and Zenobia often sent hirj, frora the spoils of tha 
 enemy, presents of gems and toys, which he rejfivcd with inSnitJ
 
 852 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A,D. 272 
 
 the title of Augustus, before he was sacrificed by Zenobia ta 
 the ineinory of her husband.^* 
 
 With the assistance of his most faithful friends, she imme- 
 diately 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, 
 bliged one of the Roman generals, who was sent against her, 
 to retreat into Europe, with the loss of his army and his repu- 
 tation.^' Instead of the httle passions which so frequently 
 perplex a female reign, the steady administration of Zenobia 
 was guided by the most judicious maxims of policy. If it was 
 expedient to pardon, she could calm her resentment ; if it was 
 necessary to punish, she could impose silence on the voice of 
 pity. Her strict economy was accused of avarice ; yet on 
 every proper occasion she appeared magnificent and liberal. 
 The neighboring states of Arabia, Armenia, and Persia, dread- 
 ed her enmity, and solicited her alliance. To the dominions 
 of Odenathus, which extended from the Euphrates to the fron- 
 tiers of Bithynia, his widow added the inheritance of her 
 ancestors, the populous and fertile kingdom 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.*" 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 ihe 
 popular manners of Roman princes the stately pomp of the 
 courts of Asia, and exacted from her subjects the same adora- 
 tion that was paid to the successor of Cyrus. She bestowed 
 on her three sons *' a Latin education, and often showed them 
 
 ^* Some very unjust suspicions have been cast 01 Zenobia, as if she 
 was accessory to her husband's deatli. 
 
 '' Hist. August, p. 180, 181. 
 
 ** See, in Hist. August, p. 198, Aurelian's testimony to her merit; 
 and for the conquest of Egypt, Zosimus, 1. i. p. 39, 40. 
 
 °' Timolaus, Herennianus, and Vaballathus. It is supposed that 
 the two former were aheady dead before the war. On the last, Aure- 
 lian bestowed a small province of Armenia, with the title of Kirig ; 
 eeveral of his medals are still extant. See TiUemont, torn. 3, p. 1190 
 
 * This seems very doubtftil. Claudius, during all his reign, is lepra 
 rented a* emperor on the medals of Alexandria, -vwhich are very ntimeitxv
 
 Al. D. 272.] OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 368 
 
 to the troops adorned with tbe Imperial jnirplo For herself 
 •he reserved tbe diadem, with the splendid but di^aiblt'ul title 
 of Queen of the East. 
 
 When Aurelian passed over into Asia, against an adversary 
 whose sex alone could render her an object of contempt, hia 
 presence restored obedience to the province of IJithynia, al- 
 ready shaken by the arms and intrigues of Zenobia." Advan- 
 cing 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 Apoilonius the philosopher.** 
 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 Syi'ians, and as far as the gates of Emesa, the wishes of 
 the people seconded the terror of his arms.** 
 
 Zenobia would have ill deserved her reputation, had she 
 indolently permitted the emperor of the West to approach 
 within a hundred miles of her capital. The fate of the East 
 was decided in two great battles ; so similar in almost every 
 circumstance, that we can scarcely distinguish them from 
 each other, except by observing that the first was fought near 
 Antioch,*^ and the second near Emesa."* In both the queen 
 of Palmyra animated the armies by her presence, and devolved 
 the execution of her orders on Zabdas, who had already 
 
 *' Zosimus, 1. i. p. 44. 
 
 *' Vopiscus (in Hist. August, p. 211) gives us an authentic letter 
 and a doubtful vision, of Aurelian. Apoilonius of Tyana was born 
 about the same time as Jesus Christ. His life (that of the former) ia 
 related in so fabulous a manner by his disciples, that we are at a loss 
 to discover whether he was a sage, an impostor, or a fanatic. 
 
 " Zosimus, 1. i. p. 46. 
 
 *' At a place called Immse. Eutropius, Sextrs Rufus, and Jerome, 
 mention only this first battle. 
 
 *' Vopiscus (in Hist. August, p. 217) mentions only the second. 
 
 If Zenobia possessed any power in Ef,'3pt, it could only have been at tfae 
 bejfianint; of the reii,'n of Aurelian. Tbe same circumstance throws great 
 boprobability on her conquests in Galatia. Perhaps Zenobia administered 
 E^ypt in tha nanie of Claudius, and emboldened by the death of thai 
 prmce, sabjected it to her own power — (j.
 
 ^64 IHE DECLINE AND FALL [A D. 2T Z 
 
 signalized his military talents by the conquest of E^ypt. The 
 numerous forces of Zenobia consisted for the most part of 
 hght archers, and of heavy cavahy clothed in complete steel 
 The Moorisli and Illyrian horse of Aurelian were unable to 
 sustain the ponderous charge of their antagonists. They fled 
 in real or affected disorder, engaged the Palmyrenians in a 
 laborious pursuit, harassed them by a desultory combat, anc?. 
 at length discomfited this impenetrable but unwieldy body of 
 cavalry. The light infantry, in the mean time, when they 
 bad exhausted their quivers, remaining without protection 
 against a closer onset, exposed their naked sides to the swords 
 of the legions. Aurelian had chosen these veteran troops, 
 who were usually stationed on the Upper Danube, and whose 
 valor had been severely tried in the Alemannic war." After 
 the defeat of Emesa, Zenobia found it impossible to collect a 
 third army. As far as the frontier of Egypt, the nations sub- 
 ject 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. 
 
 Amid the barren deserts of Arabia, a few cultivated spots 
 rise like islands out of the sandy ocean. Even the name of 
 Tadmor, or Palmyra, by its signification in the Syriac as well 
 as in the Latin language, denoted the multitude of palm-trees 
 which afforded shade and verdure to that temperate region. 
 The air was pure, and the soil, watered by some invaluable 
 springs, was capable of producing fruits as well as corn. A 
 place possessed of such singular advantages, and situated at 
 a convenient distance *' between the Gulf of Persia and the 
 
 °' Zosinms, 1. i. p. 44 — 48. His account of the two battles is clear 
 and circumstantial. 
 
 '® 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 Phny, who, in a few words, (Hist. Natur. v. 21,) gives an 
 excellent description of Palmyra.* 
 
 * Taimor, or Palmyra, was probably at a very early period the connectina 
 link bciween the commerce of Tyre and Babylon. Heeren, Ideen, v. i. p. u 
 ft. m. Tadrnor was probably built by Solomon as a commercial statien 
 Hi*t. of Jews, V. '. p. 271 — M.
 
 A. D. 2721 OF Hfi ROMAN BMl'lRE, 361 
 
 Mediterranean, was soon frequented by the caravar.s which 
 conveyed to the nations of Europe a considerable part of the 
 rich commodities of India. Pahnyra insensibly increased into 
 an opulent and independent city, and connecting the Roman 
 and the Parthian monarchies by the mutual benefits of com- 
 merce, was suffered to observe an humble neutrality, till at 
 length, after the victories of Trajan, the little republic sunk into 
 the bosom of Rome, and flourished more than one hundred 
 and fifty years in the subordinate though honorable rank of a 
 colony. It wa? during that peaceful period, if we may judge 
 from a few remaining inscriptions, that the wealthy Palmyren- 
 ians constructed those temples, palaces, and porticos of Grecian 
 architecture, whose ruins, scattered over an extent of several 
 miles, have deserved the curiosity of our travellers. The eleva- 
 tion of Odenathus and Zenobia appeared to reflect new sj^lendor 
 on their country, and Palmyra, for a while, stood forth the rival 
 of Rome : but the competition was fatal, and ages of prosperity 
 were sacrificed to a moment of glory .*^ 
 
 In his march over the sandy desert between Emesa and 
 Palmyra, the emperor Aureliau was perpetually harassed by 
 the Arabs ; nor could he always defend his army, and espe- 
 cially his baggage, from those flying troops of active and 
 daring robbers, who watched the moment of surprise, and 
 eluded the slow pursuit of the legions. The siege of Palmyra 
 was an object far more difficult and important, and the em- 
 peror, who, with incessant vigor, pressed the attacks in person, 
 was himself wounded with a dart. "The Roman people," 
 says Aurelian, in an original letter, " speak with contempt of 
 the war which I am waging against a woman. They are 
 ignorant both of the character and of the power of Zenobia» 
 It is impossible to enumerate her warlike preparations, of 
 stones, of arrows, and of every species of missile weapons. 
 Every part of the walls is provided with two or three balistot 
 and artificial fires are thrown from her military engines. 
 Tht> fear of punishment has armed her with a desperate cour- 
 age. Yet still I trust in the protecting deities of Rome, who 
 
 *' Some English travellers from Aleppo discovered the ruins of Pal 
 ■oyra .about the end of the hist century. Our curiosity has since beea 
 gratified in a more splendid maimer by Messieurs Wood and Dawkins 
 For the history of Palmyra, we may consult the masterly dissertation 
 of Dr. Halley in the Phjlosophical Transactions: Lowthorp's Abridg 
 men^, vol. iij. p. 518.
 
 158 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.U. 278 
 
 have hitherto been favorable to all my undoi takings.""" 
 Doubtful, however, of the protection of the gods, and of the 
 event of the siege, Aurelian judged it more prudenl to offel 
 terms of an advantageous capitulation ; to the queen, a -'plendic 
 retreat ; to the citizens, their ancient privileges. His )/roposal6 
 were obstinately rejected, aud the refusal was accompanied with 
 insult. 
 
 The firmness of Zenobia was supported by the hope, that 
 in a very short time famine would compel the Ronjan army 
 to repass the desert ; and by the reasonable expectation that 
 the kings of the East, and particularly the Persian monarch, 
 would arm in the defence of their most natural ally. But for- 
 tune, and the perseverance of Aurelian, overcame ever^ obsta- 
 cle. The death of Sapor, which happened about t^is time,^* 
 distracted the councils of Persia, and the inconsidernole succors 
 that attempted to relieve Palmyra, were easily intercepted 
 cither by the arms or the liberality of the emperor. From 
 every part of Syria, a regular succession of convoys safely 
 aiTived in the camp, which was increased by the return of 
 Probus with his victorious troops from the conquest of Egypt. 
 Tt was then that Zenobia resolved to fly. She mounted the 
 fleetest of her dromedaries," and had already reached the 
 banks of the Euphrates, about sixty miles from Palmyra, whec 
 she was overtaken by the pursuit of Aurelian's light horse, 
 seized, and brought back a captive to the feet of the emperor. 
 Her capital soon afterwards surrendered, and was treated with 
 unexpected lenity. The arms, horses, and camels, with an im- 
 mense treasure of gold, silver, silk, and precious stones, were 
 all delivered to the conqueror, who, leaving only a garrison of 
 six hundred archers, returned to Emesa, and employed some 
 time in the distribution of rewards and punishments at the end 
 of so memorable a war, which restored to the obedience of 
 Rome those provinces that had renounced their allegiance since 
 the captivity of Valerian. 
 
 ""^ Vopiscus ill Hist. August, p. 218. 
 
 ^' From a very doubtful ch •onology I have endeavored to extract 
 the most probable date. 
 
 '^ Hist. August, p. 218. Zosiraus, 1. i. p. 50. Though the camel ia 
 a heavy beast of burden, the dromedary, which is either of the same 
 or of a kind/ed species, is used by the natives of Asia and Africa on all 
 occasions which require celerity. The Arabs affirm, thnt he will run 
 over as much ground in one day as their fleetest horses can perform in 
 eight or ieo. See Buifon, Hist. Naturelle, torn. xi. p. 222, and Shaw'l 
 rraveV, p. let
 
 A. D. 273.J OF TH5 ROMAN EMMRE. 351 
 
 When the Sjrian queen was brought into the presence of 
 Aurelian, be sternly asked her, How she had presumed to rise 
 in arms against the emperors of Rome ! The answer of 
 Zenobia was a prudent mixture of respect and firmness. 
 "Because I disdained to consider as Roman emperors an 
 Aureohis or a GalHenus. You alone I acknowledge as my 
 conqueror and my sovereign." " But as female fortitude is 
 commonly artificial, so it is seldom steady or consistent. Tho 
 courage of Zenobia deserted her in the hour of trial ; she 
 trembled at the angry clamors of the soldiers, who called aloud 
 for her immediate execution, forgot the generous despair of 
 Cleoj)atra, which she had proposed as her model, and ignomin 
 iously purchased life by the sacrifice of lier fame and her 
 friends. It was to their counsels, which governed the weak- 
 ness of her sex, that she imputed the guilt of lier obstinate 
 resistance ; it was on their heads that she directed the ven- 
 geance 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. With- 
 out uttering a complaint, he calmly followed the executioner, 
 pitying his unhappy mistress, and bestowing comfort on his 
 afflicted friends." 
 
 Returning from the conquest of the East, Aurelian had 
 already crossed the Straits which divided Europe from Asia, 
 when he was provoked by the intelligence that the Palmy- 
 renians 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 ap- 
 proach, and the helpless city of Palmyra felt the irresistible 
 weight of his resentment. We have a letter of Aurelian him- 
 self, in which he acknowledges," that old men, women, chil- 
 dren, and peasants, had been involved in that dreadful execu- 
 tion, which should have been confined to armed rebellion ; and 
 although his principal concern seems directed to the reestab- 
 Hehment of a temple of the Sun, he discovers some pity foi 
 
 '* Pollio in Hist. August, p. 199. 
 
 •* Voplaus in Hist. August p. 21 9. Zosirius, 1. L p. tl 
 
 '• Hist August, p. 219.
 
 S58 THE DECLINE AUD FALb [A.D. 274 
 
 the remnant of the Palmyrenians, to whom he grants the per 
 mission of rebuilding and inhabiting their citj. But it is easiei 
 to destroy than to restore. The se^t of commerce, of arts, 
 and of Zenobia, gradually sunk into an obscure town, a tri 
 fling fortress, and at length a miserable village. The present 
 citizens of Palmyra, consisting of thirty or forty families, h»vo 
 erected their mud cottages within the spacious court of a mu- 
 nificent temple. 
 
 Another and a last labor still awaitefl the indefatig.<<bl<». 
 Aurelian ; to suppress a d;mgerous though ohscMre rebel, who, 
 during the revolt of Palmyra, had arisen on the b,snks of the 
 Nile. Firmus, the friend and ally, as he prou.-liy styled him- 
 self, of Odenathus and Zenobia, was no more thfvn n wealthy 
 merchant of Egypt. In the course uf his trade to india, he 
 had formed very intimate connections with the Sarneens an(J 
 the Blemmyes, whose situation on either coast of ths Red Sea 
 gave them an easy introduction into the Upper Egypt. Th« 
 Egyptians he inflamed with the hope of freedom, and, at the 
 head of their furious multitude, broke into the city of Alexan- 
 dria, where he assumed the Imperial purple, coined money, 
 published edicts, and raised an armj^, 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 ahnost unnecessary 
 to relate, that Firmus was routed, taken, tortured, and put to 
 death." Aurelian might now congratulate the senate, th? 
 people, and himself, that in little more than three years, he had 
 restored universal peace and order to the Roman world. 
 
 Since the foundation of Rome, no general had more nobly 
 deserved a triumph than Aurelian ; nor was a triumph ever 
 celebrated with superior pride and magnificence.'^ 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 
 
 "" Sse Yopiscua in Hist. August, p. 220, 242. As an instance of 
 luxury, it is observed, that he had glass windows. He was remarka 
 ble for his strength and appetite, his courage and dexterity. From 
 tlie letter of Aurelian, we m.ay justly infer, that Firmus was tbe last 
 of the rebels, and consequently that Tetricus was already suppressed 
 
 " See tlie trimnph of Aurelian, described by Vopiscus. He relatei 
 iho particulars with liis usual minuteness ; and, on this occasion, they 
 kappen to be interesting. Hist. August, p 220.
 
 A. £>. 274.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 35S 
 
 of the aiupbitlieatre. The wealth of Asia, tlie arms and en- 
 «igns of so many conquered nations, and the uiagnificent pUita 
 and wardrobe of the Syrian queen, were disposed in exact sym- 
 metry or artful disorder. The -imbiussadors of the most re- 
 mote parts of the earth, of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, Bactri- 
 ana, India, and China, all remarkable by their rich or singular 
 dresses, displayed the tame and power of the Roman emperor, 
 who exposed likewise to the public view the presents that he 
 bad received, and particularly a great number of crowns of 
 gold, the offerings of grateful cities. The victories of'Aure- 
 lian were attested by the long train of captives who reluc- 
 tantly 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 tho 
 Gothic nation who had been taken in arms."* But every eye, 
 disregarding the crowd of captives, was fixed on the emperor 
 Tetricus and the queen of the East. The former, as well 
 as his son, whom he had created Augustus, was dressed in 
 Gallic trousers," 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 
 
 '* i\mong 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.* 
 
 '■' The use of braccce, breeches, or trousers, was still considered in 
 Italy as a Gallic and barbarian fashion. The Romans, however, had 
 made great advances towards it.. To encircle the legs and thighs with 
 faxciai, 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. 
 
 * Klaproth's theory on the origin of such traditions is at least rccom 
 attended by its uigenuity. The males of a tribe having gone out ou a 
 marauding expedition, and having been cut off to a man, tta females may 
 have endeavored, for a time, to maintain tlieir independence in their camp 
 •r village, liU their children grew up. Travels, ch. xxx. Eiig. Traat
 
 990 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 274 
 
 had foimeriy been used by a Gothic king) was drawn, on this 
 memorable occasion, either by four stags or by four elephants." 
 The most illustrious of the senate, the people, and the army 
 closed the solemn procession. Unfeigned joy, wonder, and 
 gratitude, swelled the acclamations of the multitude ; but the 
 satisfaction of the senate was clouded by the appearance of 
 Tetricus ; nor could they suppress a rising murmur, that the 
 haughty emperor should thus expose to public ignominy the 
 person of a Roman and a magistrate.*' 
 
 But however, in the treatment of his unfortunate rivaiss, 
 Aurelian might indulge his pride, he behaved towards thom 
 with a generous clemency, which was seldom exercised by the 
 ancient conquerors. Princes who, without success, had de- 
 fended their throne or freedom, were frequently strangled in 
 prison, as soon as the triumphal pomp ascended the Capitol. 
 These usurpers, whom their defeat had convicted of the crime 
 of treason, were permitted to spend their lives in affluence and 
 honorable repose. The emperor presented Zenobia with an 
 elegant villa at Tibur, or Tivoli, about twenty miles from the 
 capital ; the Syrian queen insensibly sunk into a Roman 
 matron, her daughters married into noble families, and her 
 race was not yet extinct in the fifth century.*' Tetricus and 
 his son were reinstated in their rank and fortunes. They 
 erected on the Ceelian hill a magnificent palace, and as soon 
 as it was finished, invited Aurelian to supper. On his en- 
 trance, he was agreeably surprised with a picture which repre- 
 sented their singular history. They were delineated offering 
 to the emperor a civic crown and the sceptre of Gaul, and 
 again receiving at his hands the ornaments of the senatorial 
 dignity. The father was afterwards invested with the govern- 
 ment of Lucania,*' and Aurelian, who soon admitted the abdi- 
 cated monarch to his friendship and conversation, familiarly 
 
 *° Most probably the former ; tlie latter seen on the medals of 
 Aurelian, only denote (according to the learned Cardinal Norris) an 
 oriental victory. 
 
 *' The expression of Calpliurnius, (Eclog. L 50,) NuUos decet captiva 
 triumphos, as applied to Rome, contains a very manifest allusion and 
 censure. 
 
 *- Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 199. Hieronym. in Cliron. 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. Eutropius, ix. 13. Yictoi 
 Junior. But PoUio, in Hist. August, p. 19t>, says, that Tetricus wu 
 Bade corrector ©f all Italy.
 
 A-D. 274.] OF THE ROMAN iCMPIRE. 361 
 
 asked lilra, Whether it were not more desirable to adininisLer 
 a province of Italy, than to reign beyond the Alps. The son 
 long continued a respectable member of the senate ; nor w;ia 
 there any one of the Roman nobility more esteemed by 
 A.urelian, as well as by his successors." 
 
 So long and so various was the pomp of Aurelian's triumph, 
 that although it opened with the dawn of day, the slow majesty 
 jf the procession ascended not the Capitol before the ninth 
 -lour; and it was already dark Avhen the emperor returned to 
 Jie palace. The f jstival w;vs protracted by theatrical repro 
 mentations, the games of the circus, the hunting of wild beiists, 
 combats of gladiators, and naval engagements. Liberal dona- 
 tives 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 Home ; the 
 Capitol, and every other temple, glittered with the oflerings 
 of his ostentatious piety ; and the temple of the Sun alone 
 received above fifteen thousand pounds of gold.*^ 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 sentiijient which the fortunate peasant imbibed in his 
 hifancy ; and every step of his elevation, every victory of his 
 reign, fortified superstition by gratitude." 
 
 The arms of Aurelian had vanquished the foreign and 
 domestic foes of the republic. We are assured, that, by his 
 salutary rigor, crimes and factions, mischievous arts and per- 
 nicious connivance, the luxurious growth of a feeble and 
 oppressive government, were eradicated throughout the Roman 
 world.*' But if we attentively reflect how much swifter is tho 
 progress of corruption than its cure, and if we remember that 
 
 •* Hist. August, p. 197. 
 
 ''■ Vopiscus in HLst. August. 222. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 5G. Ho placcil 
 in it the images of Belus and of the Sun, whicli he liad brouglit from 
 Palmyra. It was dedicated in tlie fourtli year of liis reign, (Euscb 
 111 Oliron.,) but was most assuredly begun immediately on his accession 
 
 *° See, in tlie Augustan History, p. 210, the omens of his fortune 
 His devotion to the Sun appears in his letters, on his medals, and ia 
 tnoniioned in the Ctesars of Julian. Commentaire de Spanhoici, p 
 109. 
 
 '^ Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 221, 
 
 VOL. T. Q
 
 882 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. 1). 27*. 
 
 the years nbar.doned to piiblic disorders exceeded the m®ntb.a 
 allotted to the martial reign of Aurelian, we miist confess thai 
 a few short intervals of peace were insufficient for the arduous 
 work of reformation. Even his attempt to restore the integ- 
 rity of the coin was opposed by a formidable insurrection. 
 The emperor's vexation breaks out in one of his private let- 
 ters. " Surely," says he, " the gods have decreed that my Ufa 
 should be a perpetual warfare. A sedition within the walla 
 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."** Other writers, who confirm the same fact, 
 add likewise, that it happened soon after Aurelian's triumph ; 
 that the decisive engagement was fought on the Caelian hill ; 
 that the workmen of the mint had adulterated the coin ; and 
 that the emperor restored the public credit, by delivering out 
 good money in exchange for the bad, which the people wjus 
 :;ommanded to bring into the treasury.** 
 
 We might content ourselves with relating this extraordinary 
 transaction, but we cannot dissemble how much in its present 
 form it appears to us inconsistent and incredible. The debase- 
 ment of the coin is indeed well suited to the administration of 
 Gallienus ; nor is it unlikely that the instruments of the cor- 
 ruption might dread the inflexible justice of Aurelian. But 
 the guilt, as well as the profit, tdust have been confined to a 
 v'ery 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 ^n action equally 
 popular with the destruction of those obsolete accounts, which 
 by the emperor's order were burnt in the forum of Trajan." 
 In an age when the principles of commerce were so imper- 
 fectly understood, the most desirable end might perhaps b€ 
 
 " Hist. August, p. 222. Aurelian calls these soldiers Hiheri htp» 
 fiences C'astriani, and Dacisci. 
 
 •* Zosimus, 1. i. p. 56. Eutropius, rx. 14. Aurel. Victor 
 •* Hist. August, p. 222. Aurel. Victor.
 
 A. D. 247.J OF THE roman EMriRB. 363 
 
 effected by hai-sh and injudicious means; but a temporary 
 grievance of such a nature can scarcely excite and support a 
 serious civil war. The repetition of intolerable taxes, imposed 
 cither on the land or on the necessaries of life, may at last 
 provoke those who will not, or who cannot, relinquish theii 
 country. But the case is iar otherwise in eN'ery operation 
 which, by whatsoever expedients, restores the just value of 
 money. The transient evil is soon obliterated by the perma- 
 nent benefit, the loss is divided among multitudes ; and if » 
 few Avealthy individuals experience a sensible diminution of 
 treasure, with their riclies, they at the same time lose the 
 degree of weight and importance which they derived from the 
 possession of them. However Aurelian might choose to 
 disguise the real cause of the insurrection, his reformation of 
 the coin could furnish only a faint pretence to a party already 
 powerful and discontented. Rome, though deprived of free- 
 dom, was distracted by faction. The people, towards whom 
 the emperor, himself a plebeian, always expressed a peculiai 
 fondness, lived in perpetual dissension with the senate, the 
 equestrian order, and the Praetorian guards.*' Nothing less 
 than the firm though secret conspiracy of those orders, of the 
 authority of the first, the wealth of the second, and the arms of 
 the third, could have displayed a strength capable of contending 
 in battle with the veteran legions of the Danube, which, undei 
 the conduct of a martial sovereign, had achieved the conquest 
 of the West and of the East. 
 
 Whatever was the cause or the object of this rebellion, 
 imputed with so little probability to the workmen of the mint, 
 Aurelian used his victory with unrelenting rigor.** 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 sel 
 too small a value on the life of a citizen, chastised by militarj/ 
 execution the slightest offences, and transferred the stern dis- 
 cipline of the camp into the civil administration of the laws 
 His love of justice often became a bhnd and fmious passion . 
 
 " It already raged before A'jreliaris return from Egypt See V» 
 piscus, who quotcp an origin:il letter. Hist August, p. 244. 
 
 '* Vopiscu.s in Hist. August, p. 222. The two Victors. EutropiiT* 
 ix. 14. Zosimus (1. i. p. 43) mentions only three senators, an-J plaro* 
 thoir death before the eastern w;ir.
 
 SG4 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 275 
 
 and whenever be deemed liis own or the pubUc safety endaiv 
 gered, he disregarded the rules of evidence, and the proportion 
 of punishments. The unprovoked rebelHon 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 tliis dark conspiracy, A hasty spirit of revenge 
 urged the bloody prosecution, and it proved fatal to one of the 
 nephews of the emperor. The executioners (if we may use th« 
 expression of a contemporary poet) were fatigued, the prisons 
 were crowded, and the unhappy senate lamented the death or 
 absence of its most illustrious members." 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.** 
 
 It was observed by one of the most sagacious of the Roman 
 princes, that the talents of his predecessor Aurelian were 
 better suited to the command of an array, than to the govern- 
 ment of an empire.'* Conscious of the character in which 
 nature and experience had enabled him to excel, he again took 
 the field a few months after his triumph. It was expedient to 
 exercise the restless temper of the legions in some foreign war, 
 and the Persian monarch, exulting in the shame of Valerian, 
 still braved with impunity the otfended majesty of Rome. At 
 the head of an army, less formidable by its numbers than by 
 its discipline and valor, the emperor advanced as far as the 
 Straits which divide Europe from Asia. He there experienced 
 that the most absolute power 'S 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 counter- 
 feiting his master's hand, he showed them, in a long and 
 
 '• Nulla catenati feralis pompi senatus 
 
 Carnificum lassabit opus ; nee carcere pleno 
 Infelix raros numerabit curia Patres. 
 
 Calphurn. Eclog. i. 60. 
 •* According to the younger Victor, he sometimes wore the diadem, 
 DeiiS and Dominus appear on his medals. 
 
 •* It was the observation of Diocletian. See Vopi^cus in Ilist 
 August, p. 224.
 
 A. D. 275.1 OF THE ROMAN KMFIRE. 365 
 
 bloody list, their own names devoted to death. Without sus- 
 pecting or examining the fraud, tliey resolved to secure their 
 lives by the murder of the emperor. On his march, between 
 Byzanthium and Heraclea, Aurelian was suddenly attacked by 
 the conspirators, whose stations gave them a right to surround 
 his person, and after a short resistance, fell by the hand of 
 Mucapor, a general whom he had always loved and trusted 
 He died regretted by the army, detested by the senate, but 
 universally acknowledged as a warlike and fortunate prince, 
 tlie useful, though severe reformer of a degenerate state." 
 
 •• Vcpiscus in Hist. August p. 221. Zosimus, L L p 67 Eutrop 
 ix. 18. The two Victors. 
 
 31*
 
 866 THE DECLINE ANl/ FALL f A. D. 275 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 COtTDUCT OF THE ARMY AND SENATE AFTER THE DEArn Ot 
 
 AURELIAN. REIGNS OF TACITUS, PROBUS, CAUUS, AND HIS 
 
 SONS. 
 
 Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, 
 that, whatever might be their conduct, their fate was com- 
 monly the same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or 
 mildness, of indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave ; 
 and almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting repe- 
 tition of treason and murder. The death of Aurelian, however, 
 is remarkable by its extraordinary consequences. The legions 
 admired, lamented, and revenged their victorious chief The 
 artifice of his perfidious secretary was discovered and punished 
 The deluded conspirators attended the funeral of their injured 
 sovereign, with sincere or well-feigned contrition, and submit- 
 ted to the unanimous resolution of the military order, which 
 was signified by the following epistle : " The brave and fortu- 
 nate 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 misfor- 
 tune have contributed to our loss, shall ever reign over us." ' 
 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 honors as fear and perhaps esteem could 
 extort, they liberally poured forth on the memory of their 
 deceased sovereign. Such acknowledgments as gratitude 
 could inspire, they returned to the faithful armies of the 
 republic, who entertained so just a sense of the legal authority 
 
 * Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 222. Aurelius Vio'tor mentions a for 
 ■utl deputation from the troops to the serate
 
 A.D. 275.] OF THE nOMAN EMPIRE. 36? 
 
 of the senate in the choice of an emperor. Yet, notwithstand- 
 ing this flattering appeal, the most prudent of the assembly 
 declined exposing their safety and dignity to the caprice of an 
 armed multitude. The strength of the legions was, indeed, 
 a pledge of their sincerity, since those who may command 
 are seldom reduced to the necessity of dissembling ; but could 
 it naturally be expected, that a hasty repentance would correct 
 the inveterate habits of fourscore years ? Should the soldiers 
 relapse into their accustomed seditions, their insolence might 
 disgrace the majesty of the senate, and prove fatiil 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. 
 
 The contention that ensued is one of the best attested, but 
 most improbable events in the history of mankind." The 
 troops, as if satiated with the exercise of power, again con- 
 'ured the senate to invest one of its own body with the Impe- 
 rial purple. The senate still persisted in its refusal ; the army 
 in its request. The reciprocal offer was pressed and I'ejected 
 at least three times, and, whilst the obstinate modesty of either 
 party was resolved to receive a master from the hands of the 
 other, eight months insensibly elapsed ; an amazing period of 
 tranquil anarchy, during which the Roman world remained 
 without a sovereign, without a usurper, and without a sedi- 
 tion.* The generals and magistrates appointed by Aurelian 
 continued to execute their ordinary functions ; and it is ob- 
 served, that a proconsul of Asia ■^s'as the only considerable 
 person removed from his office in the whole course of tho 
 interregnum. 
 
 An event somewhat similar, but much less authentic, is sup- 
 posed 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 
 
 * 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. Zosiinua and 
 Zonaras appear as ignorant of this transaction as they were in general 
 of the Roman constitution. 
 
 * The interregnum could not be more than seven months ; Aurelian waa 
 assassinated in llic miJdIc of March, the year of Rome 1028. Tacitas wa« 
 elected the 25tli September in the same year. — G.
 
 SG8 THE DECLINE AND FAIX [A. D. 275 
 
 Sabine p]iiloKoi)lit'r, and tlie public peace was guarded in the 
 Bame manner, by the union of the several orders of th(( state. 
 But, in the time of Numa and Romulus, the arms of the peo- 
 ple were coutrolbd by the authority of the Patricians ; and 
 the balance of freedom was easily pt-eserved in a small and 
 virtuous community.' The decline of the Roman state, fat 
 different from its infancy, was attended with every circum- 
 etance that could banish from an interregnum the prospect of 
 oliedience and harmony : an immense and tumultuous capital, 
 a wide extent of empire, the servile equality of despotism, an 
 army of four hundred thousand mercenaries, and the experi- 
 ence of frequent revolutions. Yet, notwithstanding all these 
 temptations, the discipline and memory of Aurelian still 
 restrained the seditious temper of the troops, as well as the 
 fatal ambition of their leaders. The flower of the legions 
 maintained their stations on the banks of the Bosphorus, and 
 the Imperial standard awed the less powerful camps of Rome 
 and of the provinces. A generous though transient enthu 
 siasm seemed to animate the military order ; and we may hope 
 that a few real patriots cultivated the returning friendship of 
 the army and the senate, as the only expedient capable of 
 restoring the republic to its ancient beauty and vigor. 
 
 On the twenty-fifth of September, near eight months after 
 the murder of Aurelian, the consul convoked an assembly of 
 the senate, and reported the doubtful and dangerous situation 
 of the empire. He slightl}^ 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 con- 
 vincing eloquence, the various dangei's that might attend any 
 fiirther delay in the choice of an emperor. Intelligence, he 
 said, was already received, that the Germans had passed the 
 Rhine, and (>ecupied some of the strongest and most opulent 
 cities of Gaul. The ambition of the Persian king kept the 
 East m perpetual alarms ; Egypt, Africa, and Illyricum, were 
 exposed to foreign and domestic arms, and the levity of 
 Syria would prefer even a female sceptre to the sanctity of 
 the Roman laws. The consul, then addressing himself to 
 Tacitus, the first of the senators,* required his opinion on 
 
 * Liv. i 17 Dionys. Halicarn. 1. ii. p. 115. Phitarch in Nirnia 
 p. 60. The first of these writers relates the story like an orator, the 
 second like a lawyer, and the third like a moralist, and none of them 
 probably without some intermixture of fable. 
 
 * Vopiscus (in Hist. August, p. 227) calls hira " primw septenti*
 
 A. D. 275.] OF THE roman empire. 3B9 
 
 the important subject of a proper candidate for tht vacant 
 throne. 
 
 If we can prefer personal merit to accidental greattirss, w« 
 shall esteem the birth of Tacitus more truly noble than that 
 of kings. He claimed his descent from the philosophic his 
 torian, whose writings will instruct the last generations of 
 mankind.* The senator Tacitus was then seventy-five years 
 of age." The long period of his innocent life was adorne.i 
 with wealth and honors. He had twice been mvested with 
 the consular dignity,' and enjoyed with elegance and sobriety 
 his ample patrimony of between two and three millions ster- 
 hng." The experience of so many princes, whom he had 
 esteemed or endured, from the vain foUies of Elagabalus to 
 the useful rigor of Aurelian, taught him to form a just estimate 
 of the duties, the dangers, and the temptations of their sublime 
 station. From the assiduous study of his immortal ancestor, 
 he derived the knowledge of the Roman constitution, and of 
 human nature.' The voice of the people had already named 
 Tacitus as the citizen the most worthy of empire. The un- 
 grateful rumor reached his ears, and induced him to seek the 
 retirement of one of his villas in Campania. He had passed 
 two months in the delightful privacy of Baiae, when he re 
 luctantly obeyed the summons of the consul to resume his 
 honorable place in the senate, and to assist the republic with 
 his counsels on this important occasion. 
 
 consularis ;" and soon afterwards Priiiceps senatus. It is natural to 
 suppose, that the monarchs of Rome, disdaining that humble title, 
 resigned it to the most ancient of tlie senators. 
 
 ' The only objection to this genealogy is, that the historian was 
 named Cornelius, the emperor, Claudius. But under the lower empire, 
 surnames were extremely various and uncertain. 
 
 * Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 637. The Alexandrian Chronicle, by an obvious 
 mistake, transfers that age to Aurelian. 
 
 ' In the year 273, he was ordinary consul. But he must have bevn 
 SufFectus many years before, and most probably under Valerian. 
 
 * Bis iiiillies octingenties. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 229. This 
 sum, according to the old standard, was equivalent to eight hundred 
 and forty thousand Roman pounds of silver, each of the value of three 
 pounds sterling. But in tiie age of Tacitus, the coin had lost much of 
 its weight and purity. 
 
 ' After his accession, he gave orders that ten copies of the liisto 
 rian 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 io a 
 monastery of Westphalia. See Bayle, Dictionnaire, Art. Tacitt, ud4 
 Lipaiua ad Anual. ii. 9.
 
 870 THE DECLINE AND FALI [A. D. 275. 
 
 He arose to speak, when from every quarter of the house, 
 he vra3 saluted with the names of Augustus and emperor. 
 " Tacitus Augustus, the gods preserve thee ! we choose thoe 
 for our sovereign ; to thy care we intrust the republic and the 
 world. Accept the empire from the authority of the senate. 
 It is due to thy rank, to thy conduct, to thy manners." Aa 
 Boon as the tumult of acclamations subsided, Tacitus attempted 
 to decline the dangerous honor, and to express his wonder, 
 that they should elect his age and infirmities to succeed the 
 martial vigor of Aurelian. "Are these limbs, conscript 
 fathers ! fitted to sustain the weight of armor, or to practise 
 the exercises of the camp ? The variety of climates, and the 
 hardships of a military life, would soon oppress a feeble con- 
 jtitution, which subsists only by the most tender management. 
 My exhausted strength scarcely enables me to discharge the 
 duty of a senator ; how insuflicient would it prove to the 
 arduous labors of war and government ! Can you hope, thai 
 the legions will respect a weak old man, whose days have been 
 spent in the shade of peace and retirement ? Can you desire 
 that I should ever find reason to regret the favorable opinion 
 of the senate ?" " 
 
 The reluctance of Tacitus (and it might possibly be sincere) 
 was encountered by the affectionate obstinacy of the senate. 
 Five hundred voices repeated at once, in eloquent confusion, 
 that the greatest of the Roman princes, Numa, Trajan, 
 Hadrian, and the Antonines, had ascended the throne in a 
 very advanced season of life ; that the mind, not the body, a 
 sovereign, not a soldier, was the object of their choice ; and 
 that they expected from him no more than to guide by his 
 wisdom the valor of the legions. These pressing though 
 tumultuary instances were seconded by a more regular oration 
 of Melius Falconius, the next on the consular bench to Tacitus 
 himself. He reminded the assembly of the evils which Rome 
 had endured from the vices of headstrong and capricious 
 youths, congratulated them on the election of a virtuous and 
 experienced senator, and, with a manly, though perhaps a 
 selfish, freedom, exhorted Tacitus to remember the reasons 
 of his elevation, and to seek a successor, not in his own 
 family, but in the republic. The speech of Falconius was 
 enforced by a general acclamation. The emperor elect sub' 
 milted to the authority of his country, ind received the volun- 
 
 "" Vopiscus iu Hist. August, p. 227.
 
 A. D. 275.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 37l 
 
 tary homage of iiis equals. The judgment of the senate was 
 confirmed by the consent of the Roman people, and of the 
 Praetoiian guards." 
 
 The administration of Tacitus was not unwortliy of his life 
 and principles. A grateful servant of the senate, he consid- 
 ered tliat national council as the author, and himself as the 
 subject, of the laws." He studied to heal the wounds which 
 Imperial pride, civil discord, and military violence, had in- 
 flicted on the constitution, and to restore, at least, the imag* 
 of the ancient republic, as it had been preserved by the policy 
 of Augustus, and the virtues of Trajan and the Antoninea. 
 It may not be useless to recapitulate some of the most im- 
 portant prerogatives which the senate appeared to have re- 
 gained by the election of Tacitus." 1. To invest one of 
 their body, under the title of emperor, with the general com- 
 mand 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 nc 
 regard was paid to an irregular i-equest of the emperor ir. 
 favor of his brother Florianus. " The senate," exclaimed 
 Tacitus, with the honest transport of a patriot, " understand 
 the character of a prince whom they have chosen." 3. To 
 appoint the proconsuls and presidents of the provinces, and 
 to confer on all the magistrates their civil jurisdiction. 4. To 
 "•eceive appeals through the intermediate office of the prjefect 
 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 finance^, 
 
 " Hist. August, p. 228. Tacitus addressed tlie Praitorians by the 
 appellation of sanctissimi milites, and the people by tliat of merati»»im. 
 Quirites. 
 
 " In his manumissions he never exceeded the number of a hun- 
 dred, as Umited by the Caninian law, which was enacted under Au 
 gustus, and at length repealed by Justinian. Sec Casaubon ad locum 
 VopisCL 
 
 '* See the lives of Tacitus, Florianug, and Probus, in the Augusta. 
 History; we may be well assured, that whatever the soldier gave th« 
 •eiutor bad aheady given.
 
 872 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 27 G. 
 
 since, even in the stern reign of Auvelian, it was iu theii 
 power to divert a part of the revenue from the pubhc service." 
 
 Circular epistles were sent, without delay, to all the prin- 
 cipal cities of the empire, Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Thessalo 
 iiica, Corinth, Athens, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage, to 
 claim their obedience, and to inform them of the happy revo- 
 lution, 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 correspond- 
 ence of the senators on this occasion. They discover the mosi 
 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 Baise and 
 Puteoli. Give yourself to the city, to the senate. Rome 
 flourishes, the whole republic flourishes. Thanks to the Roman 
 army, to an army truly Roman ; at length we have recovered 
 our just authority, the end of all our desires. We hear ap- 
 peals, we appoint proconsuls, we create emperors ; perhaps 
 too we may restrain them — to the wise a word is sufficient." " 
 These lofty expectations were, however, soon disappointed ; 
 nor, indeed, was it possible that the armies and the provinces 
 should long obey the luxurious and unwarlike nobles of Rome. 
 On the slightest touch, the unsupported fabric of their pride 
 and power fell to the ground. The expiring senate displayed 
 a sudden lustre, blazed for a moment, and was extinguished 
 forever. 
 
 All that had yet passed at Rome was no inore than a theat- 
 rical representation, unless it was ratified by the more sub- 
 stantial power of the legions. Leaving the senators to enjoy 
 their dream of freedom and ambition, Tacitus proceeded to 
 the Thracian camp, and was there, by the Praetorian praefect, 
 presented to the assembled troops, as the prince whom they 
 themselves had demanded, and whom the senate had bestowed. 
 As soon as the praefect was silent, the emperor addressed him- 
 self to the soldiers with eloquence and propriety. He gratified 
 their avarice by a liberal distribution of treasure, under the 
 James of pay and donative. He engaged their esteem by a 
 spirited declaration, that although his age might disable him 
 
 " Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 216. Tlie passage is perfectly cleai 
 |<t l>oth Casaubon and Salmasius wish to correct it. 
 
 " Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 230, 232, 233. TJxfl penators cel» 
 hi »U.d the happy restoration with hecatomb? and pubhc rejoicings.
 
 A. D. 276.^ or the roman empirh^ 873 
 
 from tlie performance of military exploits, his couiisda should 
 never be unwortliy of a Koinan general, the successor of the 
 brave Aurelian." 
 
 Whilst the deceased eiuporor was making pr€;urations for 
 a second expedition into the East, he had negotiated with Iha 
 Alani,* a Scythian people, who pitched their tents in the neigh- 
 borhood of the Lc'ike Moeotis. Those barbarians, allurud bj 
 presents and subsidies, had promised to invade Persia with a 
 Qumerous body of light cavalry. They were faithful to theii 
 engagements; but when they arrived on the Roman frciiiier, 
 Aurelian was already dead, the design of the Persian war was 
 at least suspended, and the generals, who, during the interreg- 
 num, exercised a doubtful authority, were unprepared either to 
 receive or to oppose them. Provoked by such treatment, which 
 they considered as trifling and perfidious, the Alani had recourse 
 to their own valor for their payment and revenge ; and as they 
 moved with the usual swiftness of Tartars, they had soon spread 
 themselves over the provinces of Pontus, Cappadocia, Cilicia, 
 and Galatia. The legions, who from the opposite shores of the 
 Bosphorus could almost distinguish the flames of the cities and 
 villages, impatiently urged their general to lead them against 
 the invaders. The conduct of Tacitus was suitable to his ago 
 and station. He convinced the barbarians of the faith, as well 
 as the power, of the empire. Great numbers of the Alani, 
 appeased by the punctual discharge of the engagements which 
 Aurelian had contracted with them, relinquished their booty 
 and captives, and quietly retreated to their own deserts, beyond 
 the Phasis. Against the remainder, who refused peace, the 
 Roman emperor waged, in person, a successful war. Seconded 
 by an army of brave and experienced veterans, in a few weeks 
 he delivered the provinces of Asia from the terror of the Scyth- 
 ian invasion." 
 
 But the glory and life of Tacitu;? were of short duration. 
 Transported, in the de])th of winter, from the soft retirement 
 
 •• Hist August, p. 228. 
 
 ^' Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 230. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 57. Zonaras, 
 I. xii. p. C.37. Two passages in the life of Probus (p. 236, 238) coii- 
 rince me, that tliese Scythian invaders of Pontus were Alani. If we 
 oiay believe Zosimus, (1. i. p. 58,) Florianus pursued tiiem as far as th€ 
 Ciixmcrian Bosphorus. But he luid scarcely time I'ur so loEg and diffil 
 wit VI expedition. 
 
 " Ou the Alani, see eh. xxvi. note 55. — M.
 
 874 THE DECLINE AND jTALL [A. D. 276. 
 
 of Campania to the foot of Mount Caucasus, ne sunk uuder 
 the unaccustomed hardships of a military life. The fatigues 
 of tlie body were aggravated by the cares of the mind. Far 
 a while, the angry and selfish passions of the soldiers had beeft 
 suspended by the enthusiasm of public virtue. They soon 
 broke out with redoubled violence, and raged in the camp, and 
 even m the tent of the aged emperor. His mild and amiable 
 character served only to inspire contempt, and he was inces- 
 santly 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 
 publis disorders, Tacitus soon was convinced that the licen- 
 tiousness of the army disdained the feeble restraint of laws, 
 and his last hour was hastened by anguish and disappoint- 
 ment. It may be doubtful whether the soldiers imbrued their 
 hands in the blood of this innocent prince.'* It is certain that 
 their insolences was the cause of his death. He expired at 
 Tyana in Cappadocia, after a reign of only six months and 
 about twenty days." 
 
 The eyes of Tacitus were scarcely closed, before his 
 brother Florianus showed himself unworthy to reign, by the 
 hasty usurpation of the purple, without expecting the appro- 
 bation of the senate. The reverence for the Roman constitu- 
 tion, which yet influenced the camp and the provinces, was 
 sufficiently strong to dispose them to censure, but not to pro- 
 voke 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 eft'eminate troops of Egypt and Syria, encounter, with 
 any hopes of victory, the legions of Europe, whose irresist- 
 ible strength appeared to support the brother of Tacitus. But 
 the fortune and activity of Probus triumphed over every ob- 
 stacle. The hardy veterans of his rival, accustomed to cold 
 climates, sickened and consumed away in the sultry heats of 
 
 '° Eutropius and Aurelius Victor only say that he died; Victoi 
 Junior adds, that it was of a fever. Zosimus and Zonaras affirm, that 
 he was killed by the soldiers. Vopiscus mentions both accoun ts, and 
 seems to hesitate. Yet surely these jarring opinions are easily recon- 
 eiled. 
 
 ** According to the two Victors, he reigned exactly two hundred 
 days.
 
 A.D. 276.] OF THE KOMAN EMPIKIS. 376 
 
 Cilicia, where the summer proved remarkabi}- unwholesome. 
 Their numbers were diminished by frequent desertion ; the 
 passes of the mountains were feebly defended ; Tarsus opened 
 )t« gates ; and the soldiers of Florianus, when they had per- 
 iiiitted him to enjoy the Imperial title about three months, 
 delivered the empire from civil war by the easy sacrifice of a 
 prince whom they despised.^" 
 
 The perpetual revolutions of the throne had so perfectly 
 erased every notion of hereditary title, tliat the family of an 
 unfortunate emperor was incapable of exciting the jealousy 
 of his successoi's. The children of Tacitus and Florianus 
 were permitted to descend into a private station, and to min- 
 gle 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;^' an act of generosity 
 pecious in appearance, but which evidently disclosed his in- 
 cention of transmitting the empire to his descendants. The 
 only consolation of their fellen state was the remembrance of 
 transient greatness, and a distant hope, the child of a flatter- 
 ing prophecy, that at the end of a thousand years, a monarch 
 of the race of Tacitus should arise, the protector of the sen- 
 ate, the restorer of Rome, and the conqueror of the whole 
 earth.'' 
 
 The peasants of Illyricum, who had already given Claudius 
 and Aurelian to the sinking empire, had an equal right to 
 glory in the elevation of Probus." 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 justiiied his 
 choice, by a victory over a great body of Sarmatians, in 
 
 '" Hist. August, p. 231. Zosimus, L i. p. 58, 59. Zonaras, 1. xiL 
 p. 637. Aurelius Victor says, that Probus assumed the empire in 
 Illyricum ; an opinion wliich (though adoptfid by a very learned man) 
 would throw that period of history into inextricable confusion. 
 
 "' Hist. August, p. 229 
 
 "^ He was to send judges to the Parthians, Persians, and Sarmatians, 
 a president to Taprobani, and a proconsul to the Roman island, (sup- 
 posed by Casaubon and Salmasius to mean Br tain.) Such a liistory as 
 mine (says Vopiscus -with proper modesty) will not subsist a thousand 
 years, to expose or justify the prediction. 
 
 ** For the private hfe of ProV us, see Vopiscus in Hist. August p 
 234—237
 
 376 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. I>.276i, 
 
 which he saved the hfe of a near relation of Valerian ; and 
 deserved to receive from the emperor's hand the collars, 
 bracelets, spears, and banner.?, the mural and the civic crown, 
 and all tlie honorable rewards reserved by ancient Rome for 
 succ(;ssful valor. The third, and afterwards the tenth, legion 
 were intrusted to the command of Probus, who, in every 
 step of his promotion, showed himself superior to the station 
 which he filled. Africa and Pontus, the Rhine, the Danube, 
 he Euphrates, and the Nile, by turns afforded him the most 
 splendid occasions of displaying his personal prowess and hia 
 conduct in war. Aurelian wiis indebted to him for the con- 
 quest of Egypt, and still more indebted for the honest courage 
 with which he often checked the cruelty of his master. Taci- 
 tus, who desired by the abilities of his generals to supply 
 his own deficiency of military talents, named him command- 
 er-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 ; *■* in the full possession of 
 his f;ime, of the love of the army, and of a mature vigor of 
 mind and body. 
 
 His acknowledged merit, and the success of his arms 
 against Florianus, left him without an enemy or a competitor. 
 Yet, if we may credit his own professions, very far from 
 being desirous of the empire, he had accepted it with the 
 most sincere reluctance. " But it is no longer in my power," 
 says Probus, in a private letter, " to lay down a title so full 
 of envy and of danger. I must continue to personate the 
 character which the soldiers have imposed upon me." *' His 
 dutiful address to the senate displayed the sentiments, or at 
 least the language, of a Roman patriot : " When you elected 
 one of your order, conscript fathers ! to succeed the emperor 
 Aurelian, you acted in a manner suitable to your justice and 
 wisdom. For you are the legal sovereigns of the world, and 
 the power which you derive from your ancestors will descend 
 to your posterity. Happy would it have been, if Florianus, 
 instead of usurping the purple of his brother, like a private 
 
 ** According to the Alexandrian chronicle, he was fifty at the time 
 of his death. 
 
 '^ This letter was addressed to tlie Praatorian praefect, whom (on 
 eondition of his good behavior) he promised to continue m liij 
 (jroat office. See Hist. August, p. 237.
 
 L 
 
 A.D. 276.] OF THE roman empu.e. 877 
 
 inheritance, had expected what your majesty iniglit detcriuine, 
 either in his favor, or in that of any other person. The pru- 
 dent sokhei*s have punished his raslmess To me they liave 
 offered the title of Augustus. But I submit to your clemency 
 my pretensioa- and my merits.'"" When this respectful 
 epistle was read by the consul, the senators were unable to 
 disguise their satisfaction, that Probus should condescend thus 
 numbly t; 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 C;esar and Augustus, 
 the title of Father of his country, the right of making in the 
 same day three motions in the senate,'" the office of Pontifex. 
 Maximus, the tribunitian power, and the proconsular com- 
 mand ; a mode of investiture, which, though it seemed to 
 multiply the authority of the emperor, expressed the constitu- 
 tion of the ancient republic. The reign of Probus correspond- 
 ed with this fair beginning. The senate was permitted to 
 direct the civil administration of the empire. Their faithful 
 general asserted the honor of the Roman arms, and often laid 
 at their feet crowns of gold and barbaric trophies, the fi-uits 
 of his numerous victories.** Yet, whilst he gratified their 
 vanity, he must secretly have despised their indolence and 
 weakness. Though it was every moment in their power to 
 repeal the disgraceful edict of Gallienus, the proud successors 
 of the Scipios patiently acquiesced in their exclusion from all 
 military employments. They soon experienced, that those 
 who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre. 
 
 The strength of Aurelian had crushed on every side the 
 enemies of Rome. After his death they seemed to revive 
 with an increase of fury and of numbers. They were again 
 vanquished by the active vigor of Probus, who, in a chort 
 
 *" VopiscLs in Hist. August, p. 237. Tlie date of (he letter b 
 assuredly faulty. Instead of Ntn. Februar. we may read Non 
 August. 
 
 *' Hist. August, p. 238. It is odd tliat the senate should treat 
 Frobus less favorably than Marcus Antoninus. Tiiat jirince Lad 
 received, even before the death of Pius, ^us quintx relationis. See 
 Ckpitoliiu in Hist. August, p. 24. 
 
 " See t}ie dutiful letter of Probus to the senate, after his Qeimaa 
 victories. Hist. August, p. 239.
 
 878 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 277, 
 
 reign i,f about six years,"' c<^ualled the fame of ancient 
 heroes, and restored peace and order to every province of the 
 Roman world. The dangerous frontier of Rhsetia he so 
 firmly se<iured, 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 barbari- 
 ans to relinquish their spoil. The Gothic nation courted tho 
 alliance of so warlike an emperor." He attacked the Isauri 
 ans in their mountains, besieged and took several of their 
 strongest castles," and flattered himself that he had forever 
 suppressed a domestic foe, whose independence so deeply 
 wounded the majesty of the empire. The troubles excited 
 by the usurper Firmus in the Upper Egypt had never been 
 perfectly appeased, and the cities of Ptolemais and Coptos, 
 fortified by the alliance of the Blemmyes, still maintained an 
 obscure rebellion. The chastisement of those cities, and of 
 their auxiliaries the savages of the South, is said to have 
 alarmed the court of Persia,^" and the Great King sued in 
 vain for the friendship of Probus. Most of the exploits which 
 distinguished his reign were achieved by the personal valor 
 and conduct of the emperor, insomuch that the writer of his 
 life expresses some amazement how, in so short a time, a 
 single man could be present in so many distant wars. The 
 remaining actions he intrusted to the care of his lieutenants, 
 the judicious choice of whom forms no inconsiderable part 
 of his glory. Cams, Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, Gale- 
 rius, 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.^^ 
 
 But the most important service which Probus rendered to 
 the repubhc was the deliverance of Gaul, and the recovery of 
 
 ^' 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 
 fear of Probus with the seras oi several of the Syrian cities. 
 
 ^° Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 239. 
 
 '' ZosLnius (1. i. p. 62— 65) tells us a very long and trifling story 
 jf Lycius, the Isaurian robber. 
 
 =^ Zosim. 1. i. p. 65. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 239, 240. But 
 it ses^ms incredible that the defeat of the savages of .Ethiopia could 
 affect the Persian monarch. 
 
 '' Besides these wcll-kiiowu chief;, several others are named by 
 VopLscus, (Hist. August, p. 241,) whose actions Lave n »t reached ouj 
 taiow ledge.
 
 k.D.2l1.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 3^0 
 
 seventy flourishing cities oppressed by tlie barbarians of Ger 
 many, who, since tlie death of Auroliun, liad ravaged that great 
 province with impnnity.'* Among the varions multitude of tlioso 
 fierce invaders we may distinguish, with some degree of clear- 
 ness, three great armies, or rather nations, successively van- 
 quished by the valor of Probus. He drove back the Franks 
 into their morasses ; a descriptive circumstance from whence 
 we may infer, that the confederacy known by the manly 
 appellation of J'Vee, already occupied the flat maritime 
 country, intersected and almost overflown by the stagnating 
 waters of the Rhine,, and that several tribes of the Frisians 
 and Batavians had acceded to their alliance. lie vanquished 
 the Burgundians, a considerable people of the Vandalic race.* 
 They had wandered in quest of booty from the banks of the 
 Oder to those of the Seine. They esteemed tliemselves suf- 
 ficiently fortunate to purchase, by the restitution of all their 
 booty, the permission of an undisturbed retreat. They at- 
 tempted to elude that ai'ticle of the treaty. Their punishment 
 was immediate and terrible.^^ 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.^" In the Lygian nation, the Arii held the first rank 
 
 -* See the Cajsars of Julian, and Hist. Augiist. p. 238, 240, 241. 
 
 ^^ Zosimus, 1. i. p. 62. Hist. August, p. 240. But the latter sup 
 poses the punishment inflicted with the consent of their kings: if so, 
 it was partial, like the oftence. 
 
 ^^ See Cluver. Germania Antiqua, 1. iii. Ptolemy places in their 
 country the city of Calisia, probably Calish in Silesia.f 
 
 * It was only under the emperor.s Diocletian and Maximian, tliat tiro 
 Burgundians, in concert with the Alemanni, invaded the intei'ior of Gaul* 
 under the reign of Probus, they did no more tlian pas.s the river which 
 separated them from the Roman Empire: tliey were repelled. Gatterer 
 presumes that this river was the Danube ; a passage in Zosimus appears 
 to mc rather to indicate the llhiue. Zos. 1. i. p. 37, edit H. Etieune, 3 581. 
 — G. 
 
 On the origin of the Burgundians may be consulted Malte Brun, Geogr 
 vi. p. 396. (edit. 1831,) who obsei-ves that all the remains of the Burgv'^dian 
 language indicate that they spoke a Gothic dialect. — M. 
 
 t Luden (vol ii. .'iOl) supposes that these Aoyiojvai have been erroneously 
 identified ^vith the Lygii of Tacitu.^. Pcrhap.s one fertile source of mi.stake* 
 has been, that the Romans have turned appellations into national names 
 Malte Bnin obsei"vcs of tlie Lygii. "that their name appears Sclavoniau, end 
 BiguiKos ' inhabitants of plains;' they arc probably the Licclies of ihe middla 
 ages, and the ancestors of the Poles. Wo tind among the Arii t'le worshis 
 of the two twin gods known in the Sclavian mythology." Malte Brun, vol 
 i. p. 278, (edit. 1831.)— M. 
 
 But compare Schafarik, Slawi-sche Alterthiimer, 1, p. 406. They were of 
 German or Keltish descent, occupyiiifj the Wcndish (or Slaviau) dietziat 
 Luhy.— M. IS-la.
 
 180 THE DKCLtNE AND FALL [A. D. 2TV 
 
 by tlieir numbers and fierceness. " The Arii" (it is thu« 
 that they are described by the energy of Tacitus) "study to 
 improve by art and circumstances the innate terrors of their 
 barbarism. Their shields are black, their bodies are painted 
 black. They choose for the combat the darkest hour of the 
 night. Their host advances, covered as it were with a funeral 
 shade ;" nor do they often find an enemy capable of sustain- 
 ing so strange and infernal an aspect. Of all our senses, tho 
 eyes are the first vanquished in battle." ^* Yet the arms and 
 discipline of the Romans easily discomfited these horrid phan- 
 toms. The Lygii were defeated in a general engagement, 
 and Semno, the most renowned of their chiefs, fell alive into 
 the hands of Probus. That prudent emperor, unwilling to 
 reduce a brave people to despair, granted them an honorable 
 capitulation, and permitted them to return in safety to their 
 native country. But the losses which they suffered in the 
 march, the battle, and the retreat, broke the power of the 
 nation : nor is the Lygian name ever repeated in the history 
 either of Germany or of the empire. The deliverance of 
 Gaul is reported to have cost the lives of four hundred thou- 
 sand of the invaders ; a work of labor to the Romans, and of 
 expense to the emperor, who gave a piece of gold for the head 
 of every barbarian." But as the fame of warriors is built on 
 the aestruction of human kind, we may naturally suspect, that 
 the sanguinary account was multi])lied by the avarice of the 
 soldiers, and accepted without any very severe examination by 
 the liberal vanity of Probus. 
 
 Since the expedition of Maximin, the Roman generals hao 
 confined their ambition to a defensive war against the nations 
 of Germany, who perpetually pressed on the frontiers of the 
 empire. The more daring Probus pursued his Gallic victories, 
 passed the Rhine, and displayed his invincible eagles on the 
 banks of the Elbe and the Necker. He was fully convinced 
 that nothing could reconcile the minds of the barbarians to 
 peace, unless they experienced, in their own country, tho 
 calamities of war. Germany, exhausted by the ill succosa of 
 the last emigration, was astonished by his presence. !NJn6 
 of the most considerable princes repaired to his camp, and foil 
 
 *' Feralis umbra, is the expression of Tacitus : it is surety a Ttrv 
 bold one. 
 
 ** Tacit. Gormania, (c. 43.) 
 
 ** Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 288
 
 A.D. 277.] OF TUB ROMAN EMPIRE. 381 
 
 prostrate at his feet. Siicb a treaty was liumblj received by 
 the Germans, as it pleased the conqueror to dictate, lie ex- 
 acted a strict restitution of the effects and captives which they 
 Jjad carried away from the provinces; and oljliged their own 
 magistrates to jiunish the more obstinate robbers who pre- 
 sumed 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 I'robus establislied 
 on the limits of their territory. He even entertained some 
 tlioughts of compelling the Germans to relinquish the exercise 
 of arms, and to trust their differences to the justice, their safe- 
 ty to the power, of Rome. To accomplish these salutary 
 ends, the constant residence of an Imperial governor, sup- 
 ported by a numerous army, was indis])ensably requisite. 
 Probus therefore judged it more expedient to defer the exe- 
 cution of so great a design ; which was indeed rather of 
 specious than solid utility." Had Germany been reduced 
 into the state of a province, the Romans, with immense labor 
 and expense, would have acquired only a more extensive 
 boundary to defend against the fiercer and more active barba- 
 rians of Scythia. 
 
 Instead of reducing the warlike natives of Germany to tlie 
 condition of subjects, Probus contented himself with the hum- 
 ble expedient of raising a bulwark against their inroads. The 
 country which now forms the circle of Swabiu had been left 
 desert in the age of Augustus by the emigration of its ancient 
 inhabitants.*' The fertility of the soil soon attracted a new- 
 colony from the adjacent pi'ovinces of Gaul. Crowds of ad- 
 venturers, of a roving temper and of desperate fortunes, 
 occupied the doubtful possession, and acknowledged, by the 
 payment of tithes the majesty of the emj)ire." To j)rotect 
 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, 
 tliese garrisons were connected and covered by a strong 
 
 *" Hist. August, p. 238, 239. Vopiscus quotes a letter from the 
 smperor to the ser ate, in wliich he mentions his design of reducing 
 Germany into a pre vince. 
 
 *' Strabo, 1. vii. According to Valleius Paterculus, (ii. 108,) Mar- 
 oboduus led his Marcomaniii into Boliemia; Cluverius (German. Antiq 
 iii 8) proves that it was from Swabia. 
 
 *'■' These settlers, from the payment of tithes, were denominated 
 DecMtnatrs. Tacit. Germania, c. 29
 
 382 THE DKCLINK AND FALL [A.D. 271 
 
 inlrenchment of treos and palisades. In the place of so rudo 
 a bulwark, the emperor Probus constructed a stone wall of a 
 considerable height, and strengthened it by towers at conve- 
 nient distances. From the neighborhood of Newstadt and 
 iiatisbon on the Danube, it stretched across hills, valleys, 
 rivers, and morasses, as far as Wimpfen on the Necker, and 
 at length terminated on the banks of the Rhine, after a wind- 
 ing course of near two hundred miles." This important bar- 
 rier, uniting the two mighty streams that protected the prov- 
 inces of Europe, seemed to fill up the vacant space through 
 which the barbarians, and particularly the A'emanni, 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.*' An active enemy, who can select a"d vary \m 
 points of attack, must, in the end, discover some feeble spot, oi 
 some unguarded moment. The strength, as well as the atten- 
 tion, 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 whict 
 Probus erected may confirm the general observation. Withip 
 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 Sw^bian 
 peasant. 
 
 *' See notes de I'Abbc de la Bleterie a la Germanie de Tacite, p. 
 183. His account of the wall is chiefly borrowed (as he says himself) 
 from the Alsatia Illustrata of SchcEpflin. 
 
 ^* See Recherches sur les Chinois et les Egyptiens, torn. ii. p. 81 
 — 102. The anonymous author is well acquainted with the gVibe in 
 general, and with Germany in particular : with regard to the latter, 
 he quotes a work of M. Hanselmau ; but he seems to confou',d the 
 wall of Probus, designed against the Alemanni, with the fortiJ»cation 
 of the Mattiaci, constructed in the neighborhood of Frankfort rtgainst 
 the Catti.* 
 
 * De Pauw is well know^n to have been the author of this work, aa of the 
 Recherches sur les Americains before quoted. The judgment of M. Remusat 
 on this writer is in a very different, I fear a juster tone. Quand an lieu do 
 rechcrcher, d'examiner, d'etudier, on se borne, comme cet eci-ivain, a juger 
 H. prononcer, a decider, sans connoitre ni I'liistoire. ni les langues, sans ro 
 rourir aux sources, sans nicme se doutcr de leur existence, on pent on im- 
 
 f)oser pendant Ljuelque temps a des lecteurs prevenus ou peu iustruita ; mais 
 e mepris qui ne manque guere de succedcr a cet engouement fait iiicntoi 
 justice de ces assertions hazard^es, et elles retorabent dans I'oubli ('I'awtant 
 plus promptement, qu'elles ont ete posees avec pi' is de confianct oe <1* 
 «iierite. Sm* les I angues Tfirtarcs, p. 231. — M.
 
 A.D. 277.] OP THE ROMAU KMl'IRE. 383 
 
 Among the Uieful conditions of peace imposed by Probus 
 on the vanquished nations of Germany, w;is the obligation of 
 supplying the Roman army with sixteen thousand recruits, ino 
 bravest and most robust of their youth. The emperor dis- 
 persed them through all the provinces, and distributed this 
 dangerous reenforcement, in small bands of fifty or sixty each, 
 among the national troops ; judiciously observing, that the aid 
 which the republic derived from the barbarians should be felt 
 but rot seen.''^ Their aid was now become necessary. The 
 feeble elegance of Italy and the internal provinces could no 
 longer support the weight of arras. Tlie hardy frontiers of 
 the Rhine and Danube still produced minds and bodies equal 
 to the labors of the camp ; but a perpetual series of wars 
 had gradually diminished tlieir numbers. The infrequency of 
 marriage, and the ruin of agriculture, affected the jjrinciples 
 of population, and not only destroyed the strength of the 
 present, but intercepted the hope of future, generations. The 
 wisdom of Probus embraced a great and beneficial plan of 
 replenishing the exhausted frontiers, by new colonies of 
 captive or fugitive barbarians, on whom he bestowed lands, 
 cattle, instruments of husbandry, and every encouragement 
 that might engage them to educate a race of soldiers for the | 
 service of the republic. Into Britain, and most probably into I 
 Cambridgeshire,** he transported a considerable body of Van- 
 dals. The impossibihty of an escape reconciled them to their 
 situation, and in the subsequent troubles of that island, tliey 
 approved themselves the most faithful servants of the state." 
 Great numbers of Franks and Gepidae were settled on the 
 banks of the Danube and the Rhine. A hundred thousand 
 Bastarnse, expelled from their own countiy, cheerfully accepted 
 an establishment in Thrace, and soon imbibed the manners 
 and sentiments of Roman subjects." But the expectations of 
 Probus were too often disappoiiited. The impatience and idle 
 ness of the barbarians could ill brook the slow laboi-s of 
 
 *^ He distributed about fifty or sixty barbarians to a Numenis, as it 
 was then called, a corps with whose established number we are vA 
 exactly acquainted. 
 
 ^^ Camden's Britannia, Introduction, p. 136 ; but lie speaks from a 
 very doubtful conjecture. 
 
 *' Zosimus, 1. i. p. 62. iVccording to Vopiscus, anrjther bocy of Van- 
 dals was less faithful. 
 
 ** Hist. August, p. 240. They were pro,)ably cxpelltd l>y tb« 
 Soths. Zosim. 1. i. p. 66.
 
 884 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 279 
 
 Rgriculture. Their unconquerable love of freedom, rising 
 against despotism, provoked them into liasty rebelUons, ahke 
 fatal to themselves and to the provinces;" nor could these 
 artificial supplies, however repeated by succeeding emperors, 
 restore the important limit of Gaul and Illyricum to its ancient 
 and native vigor. 
 
 Of all the barbarians who abandoned their new settlements, 
 and disturbed the public tranquillity, a very small number 
 returned to their own country. For a short season they might' 
 wander in arms through the empire ; but in the end they were 
 surely destroyed by the power of a warlike emperor. The 
 successful rashness of a party of Franks Avas attended, how- 
 ever, with such memorable consequences, that it ought not to 
 be paesed unnoticed. They had been established by Probus, 
 on the sea-coast of Pontus, with a view of strengthening the 
 frontier against the inroads of the Alani. A fleet stationed in 
 one of the harbors of the Euxine fell into the hands of the 
 Franks ; and they resolved, through unknown seas, to explore 
 their way from the mouth of the Phasis to that of the Rhine. 
 They easily escaped through the Bosphorus and the Helles- 
 pont, and cruising along the Mediterranean, indulged their 
 appetite for re\enge and plunder by frequent descents on the 
 unsuspecting shores of Asia, Greece, and Africa. The opulent 
 city of Syracuse, in whose port the natives of Athens and Car- 
 thage had formerly been sunk, was sacked by a handful of 
 barbarians, who massacred the greatest part of the trembling 
 inhabitants. From the Island of Sicil}', 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.^" 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. 
 
 Notwithstanding the vigilance and activity of Probus, it was 
 almost impossible that he could at once contain in obedience 
 every part of liis wide-extended dominions. The barbarians, 
 frho broke their chains, had seized the favorable opportunity 
 of a domestic war. When the emperor marched to the rs- 
 
 *' Hist. August, p. 240. 
 
 '■' Paneiryr. V"et. v. 18. Zoeimus, 1 i. c. 6ft.
 
 A.D.280.'J OF THE roman kmi'ire. 335 
 
 lief of Gaul, he devolved the command of the E;ust on Satur- 
 ninus. That general, a man of merit and experience, wixa 
 driven into rebellion by the absence of his sovereign, the 
 levity of the Alexandrian people, the pressing instances of hia 
 friends, and his own feai-s ; but from the moment of his eleva- 
 tion, he never entertained a hope of empire, or even of hfe. 
 " Alas !" he said, " the republic has lost a useful servant, and 
 the rashness of an hour has destroyed the services of raanv 
 years. You know not," continued he, " the misery of sovereiga 
 power ; a sword is perpetually suspended over our head. We 
 dread our very guards, we distrust our companion;.. 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 ut 
 timely fate. The only consolation which remains is, the assx 
 ranee that I shall not flill alone." °* But as the former part of 
 his prediction was verified by the victory, so the latter was dis- 
 appointed by the clemency of Probus. That amiable prince 
 attempted even to save the unhappy Saturninus from the fury 
 of the soldiers. He had more than once solicited the usurper 
 himself to place some confidence in the mercy of a sovereign 
 who so highly esteemed his character, that he had punished, as 
 a malicious informer, the first who related the improbable 
 news of his disaffection." Saturninus might, perhaps, have 
 embraced the generous offer, had he not been I'estrained 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 
 East, before new troubles Avere excited in the West, by the 
 rebellion of Bonosus and Proculus, in Gaul. The most distin- 
 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," yet neither of them was destitute of 
 
 '* Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 245, 246. Tlie unfortunate orator 
 h.%d studied rhetoric at Carthage ; an<l -^as therefore more probably A 
 Moor (Zosim. 1. i. p. 60) than a Gaul, «8 V^opiscus calls him. 
 
 " Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 638. 
 
 " A very surprising instance is recov'ed of the prowess of Procuhw. 
 He had taken one hundred Sarmatian virpJns. The rest of the storj 
 he. must relate in hi; own langua2;c: " fix his unii nccte decern inivi ; 
 
 VOL. I.-- li
 
 386 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 281 
 
 courage and capacity, and both sustained, with lionor, the august 
 character which the fear of punishment had engaged them to 
 assume, till they sunk at length beneath the superior genius of 
 Probas. He used the victory with his accustomed moderation, 
 and spared the fortune, as well as the lives of their innocent 
 families," 
 
 The arras of Probus had now suppressed all the foreign and 
 domestic enemies of the state. His mild but steady administra- 
 tion contirmed the re establishment of the public tranquillity ; 
 Dor was there left in the provinces a hostile barbarian, a tyrant, 
 or even a robber, to revive the memory of past disorders. It 
 was time that the emperor should revisit Rome, and celebrate 
 his own glory and the general happiness. The triumph due to 
 the valor of Probus w;is 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 ,^^ We cannot, on this occasion, forget the des- 
 perate courage of about fourscore gladiators, reserved, with near 
 six hundred others, for the inhuman sports of the amphitheatre. 
 Disdaining to shed their blood for the amusement of the 
 populace, they killed their keepers, broke from the place of 
 their confinement, and filled the streets of Rome with blood 
 and confusion. After an obstinate resistance, they were over- 
 powered and cut in pieces by the regular forces ; but they ob- 
 tained at least an honorable death, and the satisfaction of a just 
 revenge.*^ 
 
 The military discipline which reigned in the camps of Pro 
 bus was less cruel than that of Aurelian, but it ^tvis equalh 
 rigid and exact. The latter had punished the irregularities ol 
 the soldiei-s with unrelenting severity, the former prevented then 
 by employing the legions in constant and useful labors, Whe» 
 Probus commanded in Egypt, he executed many considera 
 ble works for the splendor and benefit of that rich country 
 The navigation of the Nile, so important to Rome itself, wa* 
 improved; and temples, buildings, porticos, and palaces 
 
 omnes tamen, quod in me erat, mulieres intra dies quindecim reddidi.' 
 Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 246. 
 
 '* Proculus, who was a native of Albengue, on the Genoese coast 
 armed two thousand of his own slaves. His riches were great, bu 
 they were acquired by robbery. It was afterwards a saying of hit 
 family, sibi non placere esse vel principes vel latrones. YopiscuB ia 
 Hiflt August, p. 247. 
 
 *' Hist. August, p. 240. 
 
 •• Zosim. 1. i. p. 66.
 
 A. D. 282.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 887 
 
 were constructed by the hands of the soldiers, who acted bj tumi 
 as architects, as engineei-s, and as husbandmen." It was report- 
 ed of Hannibal, that in order to ])rcserve his iroops from th« 
 dangerous temptations of idleness, he had obliged them to form 
 large plantations of olive-trees along the coast of Africa.** 
 From a similar principle, Probus exercised his legions in cover- 
 ing with rich vineyards the hills of Gaul and Pannonia, and 
 two considerable spots are described, which were entirely dug 
 and planted by military labor.'* One of these, known undei 
 the name of Mount x\.lmo, was situated near Sirmium, the 
 country where Probus w^as born, for which he ever retained a 
 partial affection, and whose gratitude he endeavored to 
 secure, by converting into tillage a large and unhealtliy tract 
 of marshy ground. An army thus employed constituted per- 
 haps the most useful, as well as the bravest, portion of 
 Roman subjects. 
 
 But in the prosecution of a favorite scheme, the best of men, 
 satisfied with the rectitude of their intentions, are subject to 
 forget the bounds of moderation ; nor did Probus himself 
 sufficiently consult the patience and disposition of his fierce 
 legionaries." The dangers of the military profession ^eem 
 only to be compensated by a life of pleasure and idleness ; 
 but if the duties of the soldier are incessantly aggravated 
 by the labors of the peasant, he will at last sink under the 
 intolerable burden, or shake it off with indignation. The 
 imprudence of Probus is said to have inflamed the discontent 
 of his troops. More attentive to the interests of mankind 
 than to those of the army, he expressed the vain hope, that, 
 by the establishment of universal peace, he should soon abol- 
 ish the necessity of a standing and mercenary force." The 
 
 *' Hist. August, p. 236. 
 
 ** Aurel. Victor, in Prob. But the policy of Hannibal, unnoticed by 
 any more ancient writer, is irreconcilable with the history of his lifft 
 He left Africa when lie was nine years old, returned to it when he wag 
 forty-five, and immediately lost his army in the decisive battle of Zama, 
 Livius, XXX. 3Y. 
 
 ^" Hist. August, p. 240. Eutrop. ix. 17. Aurel. Victor, in Prch 
 Victor Junior. He revoked the prohibition of Domitian, and granted a 
 tceneral permission )f planting vines to the Gauls, the Britons, and the 
 Panr.onians. 
 
 *" Julian bestows a severe, and indeed excessive, censure on tha 
 figor of Probus, who, as he thinks, almost deserved his fate. 
 
 *' Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. ^-Jll. He lavishes on this idle hop^o 
 large stock of very foolish eloquence.
 
 g^B THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 282 
 
 ungual (led expression proved fatal to him. In one of the 
 hottest days of summer, as he severely urged the unwholesome 
 labor of draining the marshes of Sinnium, the soldiers, impa- 
 tient 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 parpose of surveying the progress of the work."^ The 
 tower was instantly forced, and a thousand swords were plunged 
 at once into the bosom of the unfortunate Probus. The rage 
 of the troops subsided as soon as it had been gratified. They 
 then lamented their fatal rashness, forgot the severity of the 
 emperor, v^hom they had massacred, and hastened to perpetuate, 
 by an honorable monument, the memory of his virtues and 
 victories.^' 
 
 When the legions had indulged their grief and repentance 
 for the death of Probus, their unanimous consent declared 
 Cams, his Praetorian prasfect, the most deserving of the Impe- 
 rial throne. Every circumstance that relates to this prince 
 appears of a mixed and doubtful nature. He gloried in the 
 title of Roman Citizen ; and aftected to compare the purity of 
 hts blood with the foreign and even barbarous origin of the 
 preceding emperors ; yet the most inquisitive of his contem- 
 poraries, very far from admitting his claim, have variously 
 deduced his own birth, or that of his parents, from Illyricum, 
 from Gaul, or from Africa.** Though a soldier, he had re- 
 ceived a learned education ; though a senator, he was invested 
 with the first dignity of the army ; and in an age when the 
 civil and military professions began to be irrecoverably sep- 
 arated from each other, they were united in the person cf 
 Cams. Notwithstanding the severe justice which he exer- 
 cised against the assassins of Probus, to whose favor and 
 esteem he was highly indebted, he could not escape the sus- 
 picion of being accessory to a deed from whence he derived 
 the principal advantage. He enjoyed, at least, before his ele- 
 
 *'' Turris ferrala. It seems to have been a movable tower, and cased 
 with iron. 
 
 "^ Probus, ct verc probus situs est ; Victor omnium gentium Bar- 
 oararum ; victor etiam tyrannorum. 
 
 "* Yet all this may be conciliated. He was born at Narbonne in 
 Dlyricum, confounded by Eutropius with the more famous city of that 
 name in Gaul. His father might be an African, and his mother a nobit 
 Roman. Carus himself was educated in the capital. See ycalifjer 
 Auimad\ ertion. ad Euaeb. Chron. p. 241.
 
 A. D. 282.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 381 
 
 vation, an acknowledged character of virtue and ubilltins ; ' 
 but bis austere temper insensibly degenerated into nioroseness 
 and cruelty; and the ini})crfect writers of liis life almost bcsi- 
 fcite whether they shall not rank him in the number of Roman 
 tyrants.** When Cams assumed the purple, he was about 
 sixty years of age, and his two sons, Carinus and Numsrian, 
 had already attained the season of manhood." 
 
 The authority of the senate expired with Probus ; nor was 
 the repentance of the soldiers dis})layed by the same d itifuJ 
 regard for the civil power, which they had testified after tho 
 unfortunate death of Aurelian. The election of Carus was de- 
 dded without expecting the approbation of the senate, and the 
 aew emperor contented himself with announcing, in a cold and 
 stately epistle, that he had ascended the vacant tbrone." A 
 behavior so very opposite to that of his amiable predecessor 
 aftbrded no favorable presage of the new reign : and the 
 Romans, deprived of power and freedom, asserted their privi- 
 lege of licentious murmurs.*" The voice of congratulatioil and 
 flattery was not, however, silent; and we may still peruse, with 
 pleasure and contempt, an eclogue, which was composed on tho 
 accession of the emperor Carus. Two shepherds, avoiding the 
 noontide heat, retire into the cave of Faunus. On a spreading 
 beech they discover some recent characters. The rural deity 
 had described, in prophetic verses, the felicity promised to the 
 empire under the reign of so great a prince. Faunus hails the 
 approach of that hero, who, receiving on his shoulders the 
 sinkinc: weio'ht of the Roman world, shall extinguish war and 
 faction, and once again restore the innocence and security of 
 the golden age." 
 
 It is more than probable, that these elegant trifles nevei 
 
 •* Probus had requested of the senate an equestrian statue and » 
 marble palace, at the public expense, as a just recompense of the sin- 
 gular merit of Carus. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 249. 
 
 "" Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 242, 249. Julian excludes the em 
 pel or Carus and both his sous from the banquet of the Caesars. 
 
 *' John Malala, torn. i. p. 401. But the authority of that igncran< 
 Greek is very slight. He ridiculously derives from Carus the city of 
 Carrhse, and the province of Caria, the latter of which is mentioned 
 by Homer. 
 
 ''^ Hist. August, p. 249. Carus congratulatei.' the senate, that cue o| 
 their own order was made emperor. 
 
 «» Hist. August, p. 242. 
 
 '* See the tirst eclogue of Calphurnius. The design of it is prefers* 
 tj FoDtenello to tliat of Virgil's I'oUio. See torn, iil p. 14S.
 
 190 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A, D. 288 
 
 e«clied tLe eara of a veteran general, who, with the consehi 
 jf the legions, was preparing to execute the long-suspended 
 iesign of the Persian war. Before his departure for this dis- 
 ^nt expedition, Carus conferred on his two sons, Carinus and 
 N"umerian, the title of Coesar, and investing the former with 
 >lmost an equal share of the Imperial power, directed the 
 foung ])rince, first to suppicss some troubles which had arisen 
 b Gaul, and afterwards to fix the seat of his residence at 
 Rome, and to assume the governme^-*' of the Western prov- 
 Jices." The safety of Illyricum was confirmed by a memora- 
 ble defeat of the Sarmatians ; sixteen thousand of those bar- 
 barians remained on the field of battle, and the number of 
 taptives amounted to twent}' 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, Nume- 
 riau, arrived on the confines of the Persian monarchy. There, 
 encamping on the summit of a lofty mountain, he pointed out 
 to his troops the opulence and luxury of the enemy whom 
 they were about to invade. 
 
 The successor of Artaxerxos,* Varanes, or Bahram, though 
 he had subdued the Segestans, one of the most warlike nations 
 of Upper Asia," was alarmed at the approach of the Romans, 
 and endeavored to retard their progress by a negotiation of 
 
 '^ Hist. August, p. 353. Eiitiopius, ix. 18. Pagi. Annal. 
 
 '^ Agatliias, 1. iv. p. 135. We find one of his sayings in the Bib- 
 liotheque Orientale of M. d'Herbelot. "The definition of humanity 
 includes all other virtues." 
 
 • Three itjoaarchs had intei'vened, Sapor, (Shahpour,) Homiisdas, (Hor- 
 mooz,) Varanes o." Baharam the First. — M. 
 
 t The manner in which his life was saved hy the Chief Pontiff from a 
 conspiracy of his nobles, is as remarkable as his saying. " By the advice 
 (of the Pontiff) all the nobles absented themselves from rourt. The king 
 wandered through his palace alone. He saw no one ; all was silence 
 around. He became alarmed and distressed. At last the Chief Pontiff 
 appeared, and bowed his head in apparent misery, but spoke not a word 
 The king entreated him to decla-e what had happened. The virtuous man 
 boldly related all lliat had passed, md conjui-ed Bahram, in the name of hia 
 glorious ancestors, to change his conduct and save himself from destruction. 
 The king was much moved, professed himself most penitent, and said he 
 was resolved his future life should prove his sincerity. The overjoyed High 
 Priest, delighted at this success, made a signal, at which all the nobles and 
 attendants were in an instant, as if by magic, in their usual places. The 
 monarch now perceived that only one opinion [prevailed on his past conduct. 
 Ho repeated therefore to his nobles all he had said to the Chief Pontiff, and 
 his future reign was unstained by craelty or oppression." Malcolm's Feraioi 
 t73— M
 
 A. D. 283.1 ^^ "^^^ HOMAN empire. 301 
 
 peace. His ambassadors enterod the camp ahout sunset, at 
 the time when the troops were satisfying tlieir hunger with a 
 frugal repast. The Persians expressed their desire of being 
 introduced to the presence of tlie 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 wjis the onlj 
 circumstance that announced his dignity. The conference 
 was conducted with the same disregard of courtly elegance. 
 Oarus, taking oft' a cap which he wore to conceal his baldness, 
 assured the ambassadors, that, unless their master acknowl- 
 edged the superiority of Rome, ho would speedily render 
 Persia as naked of trees as his own head was destitute of 
 nair.''^ Notwithstanding some traces of art and preparation, 
 we may discover in this scone the manners of Carus, and the 
 severe simplicity which the martial princes, who succeeded 
 txallienus, had already restored in the Roman camps. The 
 ninisters of the Great King trembled and retired. 
 
 The threats of Carus were not without effect. He ravaged 
 i>Iesopotamia, cut in pieces whatever opposed his passage, 
 made himself master of the great cities of Seleucia and 
 dtesiphon, (which seemed to have surrendered without resist- 
 ance,) and carried his victorious arms beyond the Tigriii.'* 
 He had seized the favorable moment for an invasion. The 
 Persian councils were distracted by domestic factions, and the 
 greater part of their forces were detained on the frontiers of 
 India. Rome and the East received with transports the news 
 of such important advantages. Flattery and hope painted, in 
 the most lively colors, the fall of Persia, the conquest of 
 A.rabia, the submission of Egypt, and a lasting deliverance 
 from the inroads of the Scythian nations." But the reign of 
 
 ''* 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. 
 
 '* Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 250. Eutropius, ix. 18. The two 
 Victors. 
 
 '* To^^e Persian victory of Carus I refer the dialogue of \he 
 Philopatris, which has so long been an object of dispute among the 
 learned. But to explain and justify my opinion, woul i require a 
 dissertation.* 
 
 * Niebuhr, in the new edition of the Byzantine Historians, (vol. x ,) hai 
 boldly assigned the Pliilopatris to the tenth century, and to tho reie^n of 
 Nioepliorua Phocas. An opinion so decisively pronouiccd by N'ebatr
 
 892 THE DECLINE AND FALL [ A. D 288 
 
 Carus was destined to expose the vanity of predictions. They 
 were scarcel)' uttered before they were contradicted by hia 
 death ; an event attended with such ambiguous circumstances, 
 that it may be related in a letter from his own secretary to the 
 prajfect of the city. " Carus," says he, "our dearest empe- 
 ror, was confined by sickness to his bed, when a furious tem- 
 pest arose in the camp. The darkness which overspread the 
 fky was so thick, that we could no longer distinguish each 
 oUier; and the incessant flashes of lightning took from us the 
 knowledge of all that passed in the general confusion. Imme- 
 diately 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 ciraumstance which gave rise to the report 
 that Carus was killed by lightning. But, as far as we have 
 been able to investigate the truth, his death was the natural 
 effect of his disorder." " 
 
 The vacancy of the throne was not productive of any dis- 
 turbance. The ambition of the aspiring generals was checked 
 by their natural fears, and young Numerian, with his absent 
 brother Carinus, were unanimously acknowledged as Roman 
 emperors. The public expected that the successor of Carus 
 would pursue his father's footsteps, and, without allowing the 
 Persians to recover from their consternation, would advance 
 sword in hand to the palaces of Susa and Ecbatana." But 
 tlie legions, however strong in numbers and discipline, were 
 
 '* Hist. August, p. 250. Yet Eutropius, Festus, Rufus, the two 
 Victors, Jerome, Sidonius ApoUinaris, Syncellus, and Zonaras, all 
 ascribe the deatli of Carus to lightning. 
 
 '' See Nemesian. Cynegeticon, v. 'Tl, <fcc. 
 
 and favorably received by Hase, the learned editor of Leo Diaconus, com 
 mands respectful consideration. But the whole tone of the work appeal's 
 to me altogether inconsistent with any period in which philosophy did not 
 stand, as it \vere, on some ground of equality with Christianity. The 
 doctrine of the Trinity is sarcastically introduced rather as the strange 
 doctrine of a now religion, than the established tenet of a faith universally 
 jjrevalent. The argument, adopted from Solanus, concerning the formula 
 of the procession of the Holy Ghost, is utterly worthless, as it is a mere 
 quotation in the words of the Gospel of St. John, xv. 26. The only aieu- 
 ment of any value is the historic one, from the allusion to the recent 
 violation of many virgins in the Island of Crete. But neither is the lan- 
 guage of Niebuhr quite accurate, nor his reference to the Acroases of 
 Theodosius satisfactory. When, then, could this occun-ence take place 'i 
 Why not in the devastation of the i.sland by the Gothic pirates, dxis'mg 
 tbc reign of Claudius. Hist. Aug. in Claud, p. 814. edit. Var. Lugd. Bat 
 
 \mi.—M.
 
 I 
 
 A. D. 284.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 393 
 
 dismayed by the most abject suj)crstition. Notwithstanding 
 all the arts that were practised to disguise the manner of the 
 late emperor's death, it was found impossible to remove the 
 opiaiou of the multitude, and the power of opinion is irresisti- 
 ble. Places or persons struck with lightning were considered 
 by the ancients with pious horror, as singularly devoted to the 
 wrath of Heaven." An oracle was remembered, which marked 
 the River Tigris as the fetal 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 tlxo 
 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." 
 
 The intelligence of the mysterious fate of the late emperor 
 was soon carried from the frontiers of Persia to Rome ; and 
 the senate, as well as the provinces, congratulated the acces- 
 sion of the sons of Carus. These fortunate youths were 
 strangers, however, to that conscious superiority, either of birth 
 or of merit, which can alone render the possession of a throne 
 easy, and as it were natural. Born and educated in a private 
 station, the election of their father raised them at once to the 
 rank of princes ; ani his death, which happened about six- 
 teen months afterwards, left them the unexpected legacy of a 
 vast empire. To sustain with temper this rapid elevation, an 
 uncommon share of virtue and prudence was requisite ; and 
 Carinus, the elder of the brothers, was more than commonly 
 deficient in those qualities. In the Gallic war he discovered 
 some degree of personal courage ;"*" 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. lie was soft, yet 
 cruel ; devoted to pleasure, but destitute of taste ; and though 
 exquisitely susceptible of vanity, indifferent to the public 
 esteem. In the course of a few months, he successively married 
 and divorced nine wives, most of whom he left pregnant; ani.1 
 notwithstanding this legal inconstancy, found time to inuulga 
 
 ■** See Fesfcus and his commentators on the word Scriboniunum. 
 Places struck by lightning were surrounded with a wall ; tkingt were 
 buried with mysterious ceremony. 
 
 " Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 250. Aurelius Victor seems tr 
 beliftve the prediction, and to approve the retreat. 
 
 •" Ntmesian. Cyneg^jticou, v C9. He was u contemporary, but • 
 poet
 
 S84 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 28i 
 
 such a variety of irregular appetites, as brought dishonor on 
 himself and on the noblest houses of Rome. Ho 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 ho 
 persecuted with the meanest revenge his scbool-fellows and 
 companions, who had not sufficiently respected the latent 
 majesty of tbe emperor. With the senators, Carinus affected 
 a lofty and regal demeanor, frequently declaring, that he 
 designed to distribute their estates among the populace of 
 Rome. From the dregs of that populace he selected his 
 favorites, and even his ministers. The palace, and even the 
 Imperial table, were filled with singers, dancers, prostitutes, 
 and all the various retinue of vice and folly. One of his door- 
 keepers** he intrusted with the government of the city. In 
 the room of the Praetorian praefect, whom he put to death, 
 Carinus substituted one of the ministei's of his looser pleasures. 
 Another, who possessed tbe same, or even a more infamous, 
 title to favor, was invested with the consulship. A confidential 
 secretary, who had acquired uncommon skill in the art of for- 
 gery, delivered the indolent emperor, with his own consent 
 from the irksome duty of signing his name. 
 
 When the emperor Carus undertook the Persian war, he 
 was induced, by motives of affection as well as policy, to 
 secure the fortunes of his family, by leaving in the hands of 
 his eldest son the armies and provinces of the West. The 
 intelligence which he soon received of the conduct of Cari- 
 nus filled him with shame and regret ; nor had he concealed 
 his resolution of satisfying the republic by a severe act of jus- 
 tice, and of adopting, in the place of an unworthy son, the 
 brave and virtuous Constantius, who at that time was gov- 
 ernor of Dalmatia. But the elevation of Constantius was for 
 a while deferred ; and as soon as the Other's death had re- 
 leased Carinus from the control of fear or decency, he displayed 
 io the Romans the extravagancies of Elagabalus, aggravated 
 by the cruelty of Domitian.** 
 
 •* Oancellarius. Tliis word, so humble ia its origin, has, by a siu- 
 ^olar fortiane, risen into the title of the first great office of state in the 
 9M>narchies of Europe. See Casaubon a id Salmasius, ad Hist. A'.igust 
 p. idZ. 
 
 •* Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 253, 254. Eutropiua, 'x. IS. Vie
 
 A.. D. 284.] OF THE HOMAN EMPIRE. 30£ 
 
 The only raerit of the administration of Cai-inus tLat Listory 
 could record, or poetry celebrate, was the uncommon splen- 
 dor with which, in his own and his brother's name, he exhib- 
 ited the Roman games of the theatre, the circus, and the 
 amphitheatre. More than twenty years afterwards, when the 
 courtiers of Diocletian represented to their frugal sovereign 
 the fame and popularity of his munificent predecessor, be 
 acknowledged that the reign of Carinus had indeed been a 
 reign of pleasure.*^ But this vain prodigality, which the pru- 
 dence of Diocletian might justly despise, was enjoyed with 
 Burprise and transport by the Roman people. The oldest of 
 the citizens, recollecting the spectacles of former days, the 
 triumphal pomp of Probus or Aurelian, and the secular games 
 of the emperor Philip, acknowledged that they were all sur- 
 passed by the superior magnificence of Carinus." 
 
 The spectacles of Carinus may therefore be best illustrated 
 by the observation of some particulars, which history has con- 
 descended to relate concerning those of his predecessors. If 
 we confine ourselves solely to the hunting of wild beasts, how 
 ever we may censure the vanity of the flesign 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.** 
 By the order of Probus, a great quantity of large trees, torn 
 up by the roots, were transplanted into the midst of the circus. 
 The spacious and shady forest was immediately filled with a 
 thousand ostriches, a thousand stags, a thousand fallow deer, 
 and a thousand wild boars ; and all this variety of game was 
 abandoned to the riotous impetuosity of the multitude. The 
 tragedy of the succeeding day consisted in the massacre of 
 a hundred lions, an equal number of lionesses, two hundred 
 leopards, and three hundred bears.*" The collection prepared 
 
 to Junior. The reign of Diocletian indeed was so long and prosper- 
 ous, that it must have been very unfavorable to the reputation of 
 Carinus. 
 
 *' Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 254. He calls him Carus, but th« 
 sense is sufEciently obvious, and the words were often confounded. 
 
 •* See Calphurnius, Eclog. vii. 43. We may observe, that the si)eO' 
 tacles of Probus were still recent, and that the poet is eeconded by the 
 historian. 
 
 *' The philosopher Montaigne (Essais, 1. iii. 6) gives a very j 
 Bfely view of Roman magnificence in these spectacles. 
 
 •' Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 240.
 
 396 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 28i 
 
 by the younger Gordian for his triumph, and which his suo 
 cessor exhibited in the secular games, was less remarkable by 
 the number than by the singularity of the animals. Twenty 
 zebras displayed their elegant forms and variegated beauty to 
 the eyes of the Roman people.*' Ten elks, and as many 
 camelopards, the loftiest and most harmless creatures that 
 wander over the plains of Sjrmatia and Ethiopia, were con- 
 trasted with thirty African hysenas and ten Indian tigers, tho 
 most implacable savages of the torrid zone. The unottending 
 itrength with which IN'auire has endowed the greater quadru- 
 peds was admired in the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus of the 
 Nile,** and a majestic troop of thirty-two elephants.** While 
 the populace gazed with stupid wonder on the splendid show, 
 the naturalist might indeed observe the figure and properties 
 of so many different species, transported from every part of 
 the ancient world into the amphitheatre of Rome. But this 
 accidental benefit, which science might derive from folly, is 
 surely insufficient to justify such a wanton abuse of the pubhc 
 riches. There occurs, however, a single instance in the first 
 Punic war, in which the senate wisely connected this amuse- 
 ment of the multitude with the interest of the state. A con- 
 siderable number of elephants, taken in the defeat of the Car- 
 thaginian army, were driven through the circus by a few 
 slaves, armed only with blunt javelins.*" The useful spectacle 
 served to impress the Roman soldier with a just contempt foi 
 those unwieldy animals; and he no longer dreaded to encoun- 
 ter them in the ranks of war. 
 
 The hunting or exhibition of wild beasts was conducted with 
 a magnificence suitable to a people who styled themselves the 
 masters of the world ; nor was the edifice appropriated to that 
 entertainment less expressive of Roman greatness. Posterity 
 
 *' They are called Onagri; but the number is too irjconsidcralle 
 for mere wild asses. Cuper (de Elephantis Exercitat. ii. 7) has proved 
 from Ojipian, Dion, and an anonymous Greek, that zebras had been 
 seen at Rome. They were brought from some island of the ocean, 
 pi!>liaps Madagascar. 
 
 *^ Carinus gave a hippopotamus, (see Calphurn. Eclog. vi. 66.) Di 
 the latter spectacles, I do not recollect any crocodiles, of which Augus 
 lus once exliibited thu-ty-six. Dion Cassius, 1. Iv. p. 781. 
 
 *" Capitolin. in Hist. August, p. 164, 165. We are not acquaintt/J 
 irith the animals which he calls archeleonies ; some read arffolfonUM 
 others ar/rioleonies : both corrections are very nugatory 
 
 •" Plin. Hist. Natur. viii. 6, from the annals of Pisa
 
 A. D. 284.J OF THE ROMAN EMI'IRK. 3!M 
 
 admires, and will long admire, the awful remains of the 
 amphitheatre of Titus, which so well deserved the epithet of 
 Colossal." It was a building of an elliptic figure, tivo hun- 
 dred 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. Tha 
 elopes of the vast concave, which formed the inside, were filled 
 and surrounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats of marble 
 likewise, covered with cushions, and capable of receiving with 
 ease about fourscore thousand spectators.'^ Sixty-four vomi- 
 tories (for by that name the doors were very aptly distin- 
 guished) poured forth the immense multitude ; and the 
 entrances, passages, and staircases were contrived with such 
 exquisite skill, that each person, whether of the senatorial, the 
 equestrian, or the plebeian order, arrived at his destined place 
 without trouble or confusion.'* Nothing was omitted, which, 
 in any respect, could be subservient to the convenience and 
 pleasure of the sjDectators. They were protected from the sun 
 and rain by an ample canopy, occasionally drawn over their 
 heads. The air was continally refreshed by the playing of 
 fountains, and profusely impregnated by the grateful scent of 
 aromatics. In the centre of the edifice, the arena, or stage, 
 was strewed with the finest sand, and successively assumed the 
 most ditierent forms. At one moment it seemed to rise out 
 of the earth, like the garden of the Hesperides, and was 
 afterwards broken into the rocks and caverns of Thrace. The 
 subterraneous pipes conveyed an inexhaustible supply of 
 water; and what had just before appeared a level plain, might 
 be suddenly converted into a wide lake, covered with armed 
 
 *' 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 Cal- 
 phurnius, (Eclog. vil 23,) and surpassed the ken of huii.an sight, 
 according to Annnianus Marcellinus (.\vi. 10.) Yet how trifL'rg to the 
 great pyramid of Egypt, which rises 50U feet perpendicular 
 
 *^ According to different copies of Victor, we read 17,000, or 
 87,000 spectators; but Maffei (1. ii. c. 12) finds room on the open 
 seats for uo more than 34,000. Tlie remainder were contained in tho 
 Hpi)cr covered galleries. 
 
 ** See Maffei, 1. ii. c. 5 — 12 He treats the very difficult subjecl 
 with all possible clearness, and like an arclu*ect, as well a.) an anti 
 qijiriaa.
 
 A98 rHE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 284 
 
 ressH)lfi, and replenished with the monsters of the de^ep.** 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.^" The poet v/ho describes 
 the games of Carinus, in the character of a shepherd, attracted 
 to the capital by the fame of their magnificence, affirms that 
 ihe nets designed as a defence against the wild beasts, ^ere 
 of gold wire ; that the porticos were gilded ; and that the belt 
 or circle which divided the several ranks of spectators from 
 each other was studded with a precious mosaic of beautiful 
 stones." 
 
 In the midst of this glittering pageantry, the emperor Carinus, 
 secure of his fortune, enjoyed the acclamations of the people, 
 th'3 flattery of his courtiers, and the songs of the poets, who, 
 foi' want of a more essential merit, were reduced to celebrate 
 th i divine graces of his person.** In the same hour, but at 
 tha distance of nine hundred miles from Rome, his brothei 
 expired ; and a sudden revolution transferred into the hands of 
 a stranger the sceptre of the house of Carus.*' 
 
 The sons of Carus never saw each other after their father's 
 death. The arrangements which their new situation required 
 were probably deferred till the return of the younger brother 
 to Rome, where a triumph was decreed to the young emperors 
 for the glorious success of the Persian war.'"" • It is uncertain 
 whether they intended to divide between them the adminis- 
 tration, or the provinces, of the empire ; but it is very unlikely 
 that their union would have proved of any long duration. 
 
 °' Calphurn. Eclog vii. 64, 73. These lines are curious, and the 
 whole eclogue has been of infinite use to MafFei. Calphurnius, aa 
 well as Martial, (see his first book,) was a poet; but when they de- 
 scribed the amphitlieatre, they both wrote from their own senses, ar<i 
 to those of the Romans. 
 
 "" Consult Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 16, xxxvii. 11. 
 
 '" Balteus en gemmis, en inlita porticus auro 
 
 Oertatim radiant, <fec. Calphurn. vii. 
 
 *' Et Martis vultus et Apollinis esse putavi, says Calphuruiua ; but 
 John Malala, who had perhaps seen pictures of Carinus, describes 
 him as thick, short, and wliite, torn. i. p. 403. 
 
 "* With regard to the time when these Roman games ■« ere ce ebrat 
 *d, Scahger, Sabnasius, and Cuper have given themse'ves £ great 
 deal of trouble to perplex a very clear subject. 
 
 "° Nemesianus (in the Cynegeticon) seems to anticipate in his iaDCj 
 tliat auspicious clay.
 
 A. D. 284.] OF THE ROMAN KMriRE 399 
 
 The jealousy of power must have been inflamed by the oppo- 
 sition of characters. In the most corrupt of times, Ciirinus 
 was unworthy to hve : Numerian deserved to reign in a 
 happier period. His affable manners and gentle virtues 
 secured him, as soon as they became known, the regard and 
 afiectioiis of the public. He possessed the elegant acccm- 
 ulishments of a poet and orator, which dignify as well as 
 adorn the humblest and the most exalted station. His elo- 
 quence, however it was applauded by the senate, was formed 
 not so much on the model of Cicero, as on that of the modern 
 declaimers ; but in an age very far from being destitute of 
 poetical merit, he contended for the pi'ize with the most cele- 
 brated 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."* 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,'*" 
 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 htter. The administration of all aflairs, civil as 
 well as military, was devolved on Arrius Aper, the Praetorian 
 praefect, who to the power of his importani office added the 
 honor of being father-in-law to Numerian. The Imperial 
 pavilion was strictly guarded by his most trusty adherents ; 
 and during many days, Aper delivered to the army the sup- 
 posed mandates of their invisible sovereign.^'''^ 
 
 It was not till eight months after the death of Cams, that 
 the Roman army, returning by slow marches from the banks 
 of the Tigiis, 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 Pro- 
 
 '"^ He won all the crowns from Nemesianus, with whom he vied 
 in didactic poetry. The senate erected a statue to the son of Cams, 
 with a very ambiguous inscription, " To the most powerful of orators," 
 See Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 251. 
 
 "' A more natural cause, at least, than that assigned by Vrpisc^s^ 
 (Hist. August, p. 251,) incessantly weeping for his father's death. 
 
 "* In the Persian war, Aper was suspected of a design to betiaf 
 Cftrits. Hist. August, p. 250.
 
 400 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 284 
 
 pontis."' But a report soon circulated through the camp, at 
 first in secret whispers, and at length in loud clamors, of the 
 emperor's death, and of the presumption of his ambitious 
 minister, who still exercised the sovereign power in the name 
 of a prhice who was no more. The impatience of the soldiers 
 could not long support a state of susj^ense. With rude curi- 
 osity they broke into the Imperial tent, and discovered only 
 the corpse of Numerian."^ 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 disci- 
 pline had been reestablished by the martial successors of 
 Gallienus. A general assembly of the army was appointed to 
 be held at Chalcedon, whither Aper was transported in chains, 
 as a prisoner and a criminal. A vacant tribunal was erected 
 in the midst of the camp, and the generals and tribunes formed 
 a great military council. They soon announced to the multi- 
 tude that their choice had fallen on Diocletian, commander of 
 the domestics or body-guards, as the person the most capable 
 of revenging and succeeding their beloved emperor. The 
 future fortunes of the candidate depended on the chance or 
 conduct of the present hour. Conscious that the station which 
 he had filled exposed him to some suspicions, Diocletian 
 ascended the tribunal, and raising his eyes towards the Sun, 
 made a solemn profession of his own innocence, in the 
 presence of that all-seeing Deity."' 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 pr^efect. 
 A charge supported by such decisive proof was admitted 
 
 "^ Wft are obliged to the Alexandrian Chronicle, p. 274, for the 
 knowledge of the time and place where Diocletian was elected 
 emperor. 
 
 "^ Hist. August, p. 251. Eutrop. ix. 88. Hioronym. in Chroo, 
 According to these judicious writers, the death of Num^rian was dis- 
 covered by the stench of his dead body. Could no aromatic^ oe faunJ 
 in the Imperial household ? 
 
 "" Aurel. Victor Eutropius, ix. 20. Hieronym. in Chrott
 
 A. D. 285.] OF THE roman EMPiKn. 401 
 
 without contradiction, and the legions, with lepcated acclama 
 tions, acknowledged the justice and authority of the euiperoi 
 Diocletian.'" 
 
 Before we enter upon the memorable reign of that prince, 
 it will be proper to punish and dismiss the unworthy brother 
 of Nuraerian. Carinus possessed ai-ms and treasures sufficient 
 to support his legal title to the empire. But his personal vices 
 overbalanced every advantage of birth anl situation. The 
 most faithful servants of the father despised the incapacity, 
 and dreaded the cruel arrogance, of the son. The hearts of 
 the people were engaged in favor of his rival, and even the 
 senate was inclined to prefer a usurper to a tyrant. The arts 
 of Diocletian inflamed the general discontent ; and the winter 
 was employed in secret intrigues, and open preparations for a 
 civil war. In the spring, the forces of the East and of the 
 West encountered each other in the plains of Margus, a small 
 city of Msesia, in the neighborhood of the Danube."* The 
 troops, so lately returned from the Persian war, had acquired 
 their glory at the expense of health and numbers ; nor were 
 they in a condition to contend with the unexhausted strength 
 of the legions of Europe. Their ranks were broken, and, for 
 a moment, Diocletian despaired of the purple and of life. 
 But the advantage which Carinus had obtained by the valor 
 of his soldiers, he quickly lost by the infidelity of his ottlcers. 
 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."" 
 
 "' Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 252. The reason why Diocletian 
 killed Aper, (a wild boar,) was founded on a prophecy and a pun, aa 
 foolish as they are well known. 
 
 '°^ Eutropius marks its situation very accurately ; it was between 
 the Mons Aureus and Viminiacum. M. dAnville (Gcograpliie An- 
 cienne, torn. L p. 30-1) places Margus at Kastolatz* in Servia, i- little 
 below Belgrade and Semcndria. 
 
 "* Hist. August p. 254. Eutropius, ix. 20. Aur«.'liu8 '< wtor 
 Victor et Epitome 
 
 • Kullicza —Eton Atlas • U.
 
 40S THE DECLINE AND PALL [A.D. *>86 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 tSili REIOS OF DIOCLETIAN AND HIS THREE ASSOCIATES, MAi- 
 
 IMIAN, (JAL^:RIUS, and CONSTANTIUS. GENERAL REES- 
 
 TABLISHMENT OF ORDER AND TRANQUILLITY. THE PERSIAN 
 
 WAR, VICTORY, AND TRIUMPH. THE NEW FORM OF AD- 
 MINISTRATION. ABDICATION AND RETIREMENT OF DIOCLE- 
 TIAN AND MAXIMIAN. 
 
 As the reign of Diocletian was more illustrious than that 
 of any of his predecessors, so was his birth more abject and 
 obscure. The strong claims of merit and of violence had 
 frequently superseded the ideal prerogatives of nobility ; bu; 
 a distinct line of separation was hitherto preserved between 
 the free and the servile part of mankind. The parents of 
 Diocletian bad been slaves in the house of Anuhnus, a 
 Roman senator ; nor was he himself distinguished by any 
 other name than that which he derived from a small town ic 
 Dalmatia, from whence his mother deduced her origin.' 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 jDersons of his condition.* Fa- 
 vorable oracles, or rather the consciousness of superior merit, 
 prompted his aspiring son to pursue the profession of arms and 
 the hopes of fortune ; and it would be extremely curious to 
 observe the gradation of arts and accidents which enabled 
 him in the end to fulfil those oracles, and to display that merit 
 to the world. Diocletian was successively promoted to the 
 government of Msesia, the honors of the consulship, and the 
 important command of the guards of the palace. He distin- 
 
 ' Eutrop. ix. 19. Victor in Epitome. The town seems (o have 
 been properly called Doclia, from a small tribe of lUyrians, (see Cel 
 larius, Geograph. /utiqua, torn. i. p. 393 ;) and the original name of 
 the fortunate slave was probably Docles; he first lengtlieued it to tht 
 Grecian harmony of Diodes, and at length to the Roman majesty o': 
 Diocletianus. He likewise assimied the Patrician name of Valeriiu 
 and it is usually given liim by Aurelius Victor. 
 
 ^ See Dacitr on the sixth satire of the second book of Honci 
 Ccrnel. Nepos, 'n Vit. Eumen. c. 1.
 
 A. D. 285.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 403 
 
 guished bis abilities in tbe Persian war; and after tLe deatli 
 of Numerian, tbe sbive, by the confession and judgment of bin 
 rivals, was declared tbe most wortby of tbe Imperial tbrone. 
 The malice of religious zeal, wbilst it arraigns tbe savage 
 fierceness of his colleague Maximian, has affected to cast sus- 
 picions on tbe personal courage of tbe emperor Diocletian.* 
 It would not be easy to persuade us of tbe cowardice of a 
 soldier of fortune, who acquired and preserved the esteem of 
 tbe legions as well as tbe favor of so many warlike princes. 
 Yet even calumny is sagacious enough to discover and t<> 
 attack the most vulnerable part. Tbe valor of Diocletian was 
 never found inadequate to bis duty, or to tbe 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 tbe allegiance of his equals. Ilis abilitieii 
 were useful rather than splendid ; a vigorous mind, improved 
 by the experience and study of mankind ; dexterity and appli- 
 cation in business ; a judicious mixture of liberality and econ- 
 omy, of mildness and rigor; profound dissimulation, under the 
 disguise of military frankness ; steadiness to pursue bis ends ; 
 flexibility to vary his means ; and, above all, the groat art of 
 submitting bis own passions, as well as those of others, to the 
 interest of bis ambition, and of coloring bis ambition with tbe 
 most specious pretences of justice and public utility. Like 
 Augustus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a 
 new empire. Like the adopted son of Csesar, he was distin- 
 guished as a statesman rather than as a warrior ; nor did either 
 of those princes employ force, whenever their purpose could bo 
 effected by policy. 
 
 Tbe victory of Diocletian was remarkable for its singular 
 mildness. A people accustomed to applaud tbe clemency of 
 the conqueror, if tbe usual punishments of death, exile, and 
 confiscation, were inflicted with any degree of temper and 
 equity, beheld, with tbe most pleasing astonishment, a civil 
 war, tbe flames of which were extinguished in the field of 
 batde. Diocletian received into bis confidence Aristobulus, 
 tbe principal minister of tbe house of Cams, respected the 
 Ii\cs, tbe fortunes, and the dignit}^, of his adversaries, and 
 
 * Lactantiu3 (or whoever was the autlior of the little treatise De 
 Mortibiis Persecutorum) accuses Diocletian of timidity in two places, 
 c. 7. 8. In chap. 9 he sjvya of hun, "erat in omni turaiiltu meticuloeof 
 et nnimi disjectus."
 
 404 THE DECLINE AND PALL [A. D. 281' 
 
 e^en continued in their respective stations the greater nuinbci 
 of the servants of Cariniis.* It is not improbable that motives 
 of prudence might assist the humanity of the artful Dalmatian ; 
 of these servants, many had purchased his favor by secret 
 treachery ; in others, he esteemed their grateful fidelity to an 
 unfortunate master. TLe 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 his successor. Such a conduct, however, displayed 
 to the Roman world the feirest prospect of the new reign, and 
 the emperor affected to confirm this favorable prepossession, by 
 declaring, that, among all the virtues of his predecessors, he 
 was the most ambitious of imitating the humane philosophy 
 of Marcus Antoninus.^ 
 
 The first considerable action of his reign seemed to evince 
 his sincerity as well as his moderation. After the example of 
 Marcus, he gave himself a colleague in the person of Maxim- 
 ian, on whom he bestowed at first the title of Caesar, and after- 
 wards that of Augustus.* But the motives of his conduct, as 
 well as the object of his choice, were of a very different 
 nature from those of his admired predecessor. By investing 
 a luxurious youth with the honors of the purple, Marcus had 
 discharged a debt of private gratitude, at the expense, indeed, 
 of the happiness of the state. By associating a friend and a 
 fellow-soldier to the labors of government, Diocletian, in a 
 time of public danger, provided for the defence both of the 
 East and of the West. Maximian was born a peasant, and, 
 like Aurelian, in the territory of Sirmium. Ignorant of letters,' 
 
 * In this encomium, Aurelius Victor seems to convey a just, though 
 indirect, censure of the cruelty of Constantius. It appears from the 
 Fasti, that Aristobulus remained prtefect of the city, and that he 
 ended with Diocletian the consulship which he had commenced wit'i 
 Carinus. 
 
 ^ Aurelius Victor styles Diocletian, "Parentum potius quam Dcm 
 inum." See Hist. August, p. 30. 
 
 * The question of the time when Maximian received the honors of 
 Caesar and Augustus has divided modem critics, and given occasion to 
 a great deal of learned wrangling. I have followed M. de Tillemont, 
 (Histoirc des Empereurs, torn. iv. p. 500 — 505,) who has t\ eighed tm 
 eeveral reasons and difficulties with his scru])ulous accuracy.* 
 
 ' In an oration delivered before him, (Panegyr. Vet. ii. 8,) Mamer- 
 liouB expresses a doubt, whether his hero, in imitating the conduct of 
 
 Eckhel concurs in this view, viii p. 15. — M.
 
 A. D. 286.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. ^01 
 
 careless of laws, the rusticity of liis appearance and iiiannera 
 Btill betrayed in the most elevated fortime tlie meanness of his 
 extraction. War was the only art whicli he professed. In a 
 long course of service, he had distinguished himself on every 
 frontier of the emjtire; and though his military talents were 
 formed to obey rather than to command, though, perliapy, Lo 
 never attained the skill of a consummate general, he was 
 capable, by his valor, constancy, and experience, of executing 
 the most arduous undertakings. Nor were the vices of Max- 
 imian less useful to his benefactor. Insensible to pity, and 
 fearless of consequences, he was the ready instrument of eveiy 
 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 apj^lied to their opposite 
 maxims of government. Notwithstanding the difterence of 
 their characters, the two emperors maintained, on the throne, 
 that friendship which they had contracted in a private station. 
 The haughty, turbulent spirit of Maximian, so ftital, afterwards, 
 to himself and to the public peace, was accustomed to respect 
 the genius of Diocletian, and confessed the ascendant of rea- 
 son over brutal violence.* P'rom a motive either of pride or 
 superstition, the two emperors assumed the titles, the one of 
 Jovius, the other of Herculius. Whilst the motion of the world 
 (such was the language of their venal orators) was maintained 
 by the all-seeing wisdom of Jupiter, the invincible arm of Her- 
 <;ules purged the earth from monsters and tyrants.* 
 
 Hannibal and Scipio, had ever heard of their names. From thence 
 we may faniy infer, that Maximian was more desirous of being con- 
 eidcred as a soldier than as a man of letters; and it is in this m in- 
 ner iha'; ^^c can often translate the language of flattery into that of 
 truth. 
 
 * Lactantius de M. P. c. 8. Aurelius Victor. As among the Par.c- 
 ^rics, we find orations pronounced in praise of Maximian, and othcra 
 wliich flatter his adversaries at his expense, we derive some knowledge 
 fiom the contrast. 
 
 * See the second and third Panegyrics, particularly iii. 3, 10, 14' 
 but it would be tedious to copy the diti'use and affected expressions of 
 their false eloquence. With regard to the titles, consult Aurol. Victot 
 Lactantius de ^L P c. fi'2. Spauheim de Usu Numir-uiatnni, &c. Di» 
 KTtat. xii 8.
 
 406 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D, 286 
 
 But even the omnipotence of Jjvius and Herculius wac 
 insufficient to sustain the weight of the pubhc administration, 
 The prudence of Diocletian discovered that the empire, as- 
 sailed on every side by the barbarians, required on every side 
 the presence of a groat army, and of an emperor. With this 
 view, he resolved once more to divide his unwieldy power, 
 and with the inferior title of Cctsars* to confer on two gen- 
 erals of approved merit an unjqual share of the sovereign au- 
 thority." Galerius, surnamed Armentarius, from his original 
 profession of a herdsman, and Constantius, who from his palo 
 complexion had acquired the denomination of Chlorus," were 
 the two persons invested with the second honors of the Impe- 
 rial purj.)le. In describing the country, extraction, and man- 
 ners of Herculius, we have already delineated those of Gale- 
 rius, who was often, and not improperly, styled the yoiingei 
 Maximian, though, in many instances both of virtue and abil- 
 ity, he apjiears to have possessed a manifest superiority over 
 the elder. The birth of Constantius was less obscure than 
 that of his colleagues. Eutropius, his father, was one of the 
 most considerable nobles of Dardania, and his mother was the 
 niece of the emperor Claudius.*'^ 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 fixther to one of the Caesars, Diocletian to Galerius, and 
 Maximian to Constantius ; and each, obliging them to repudi- 
 ate their former wives, bestowed his daughter in marriage op 
 his adopted son.'' These four princes distributed among them- 
 
 " Aurelius Victor. Victor in Epitome. Eutrop. ix. 22. Lactant 
 de M. P. c. 8. Hieronym. in Cliron. 
 
 *' It is only among the modern Greeks that Tillemont can discover 
 his appellation of Chlorus. Any remarkable degree of palenc3s seema 
 inconsistent with the rubor mentioned in Panegyric, v. 19. 
 
 '^ Julian, the grandson of Constantius, boasts that his faicily was 
 dori I'ed from the warlike Majsians. Misopogon, p. 348. The Darda- 
 nian-3 dwelt on the edge of Mossia. 
 
 " Galerius married Valeria, the dauc;hter of Diocletian; if we epoaS 
 with strictness, Theodora, the wife of Constantius, was daugliter jiil^ 
 to the wife of Maximian. Spanheim, Disserlat xi. 2. 
 
 " Oq the relative power of the Augiisti and the CassarS; consult a (tiaaer 
 IMiou at the end of Manse's Leben Constantius dee Grogeen —M.
 
 A. D. 28 V.J OF THE ROMAN EMI'IKK. 40'J 
 
 selves the wide extent of the Koinnn empire. The defence of 
 Gaul, Spain," and Britain, was intrusted to Constantius : Gale- 
 rius was stationed on the banks of the Danube, as the safeguard 
 of the Illyrian provinces. Italy and Africa were considered 
 as the department of Maximian ; and for liis peculiar portion, 
 Diocletian reserved Thrace, Egypt, and the rich countries of 
 Asia. Every one was sovereign with his own jurisdiction; 
 but their united authority extended over the whole monarchy, 
 and each of them was prepared to assist his colleagues with 
 his counsels or presence. The Cajsars, in their exalted rank, 
 revered the majesty of the emperors, and the three younger 
 princes invariably acknowledged, by their gratitude and obe- 
 dience, the common parent of their fortunes. The suspicious 
 jealousy of power found not any place among them ; and the 
 singular happiness of their union has been compared to a 
 chorus of music, whose harmony was regulated and main- 
 tained by the skilful hand of the fii-st artist." 
 
 This important measure was not cari'ied into execution till 
 about six years after the association of Maximian, and that 
 interval of time had not been destitute of memorable incidents. 
 But we have preferred, for the sake of perspicuity, first to 
 describe the more perfect form of Diocletian's government, 
 and afterwards to relate the actions of his reign, following 
 rather the natural order of the events, than the dates of a very 
 doubtful chronology. 
 
 The first exploit of Maximian, though it is mentioned in a 
 few words by our imperfect writers, deserves, from its singu- 
 larity, to be recorded in a history of human manners. He 
 suppressed the peasants of Gaul, who, under the appellation of 
 Bagaudse,'" had risen in a general insurrection ; very similar 
 to those which in the fourteenth century successively afflicted 
 
 ** Tliis ilivision agrees with that of the four praefectiu'cs ; yet there 
 is some reason to doubt whether ypain was not a province of Max- 
 imian. See Tillemont, torn. iv. p. 517.* 
 
 " Juhan in Caesarib. p. 315. Spaiiheim's notes to the Fr(,n('I> 
 translation, p. 122. 
 
 '" Tlie general name of Bagaudw (L'l the signification of rebels) con- 
 tinued till the fifth century in Gaul. Some critics derive it from a 
 Celtic word Bagad, a tumultuous assembly. Scaliger ad Euseb. Du 
 Cacge Glossar. [Compare S. Turner, Anglo-Sax. History, i. 214. — M.] 
 
 " According to Aurelius Victor and other aullioriiic.«, Tliracc brloDBod 
 to the division of Galerius. Sec Tillereiont, iv. 3U. Bill the laws of iJlo 
 slAti&n are in general dated in IHyTia or Thrace. — M
 
 408 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 28t 
 
 both France and England." It sLou.d seem tlirtt very many 
 of those institutions, referred by an easy solution to the feudal 
 system, are derived from the Celtic barbarians. Whon Csesar 
 subdued the Gauls, that great nation was already divided intc 
 three orders of men ; the clergy, the nobility, and the common 
 people. The first governed by superstition, the second br 
 arms, but the third and last was not of any weight or account 
 in their pubHc councils. It was very natural for the plebeians, 
 oppressed by debt, or apprehensive of injuries, to implore the 
 pTDtection of some poweiful chief, who acquired over their 
 persons and property the same absolute right as, among the 
 Greeks and Romans, a master exercised over his slaves." 
 The greatest part of the nation was gradually reduced into a 
 state of servitude ; compelled to perpetual labor on the estates 
 of the Gallic nobles, and confined to the soil, either by the 
 real weight of fetters, or by the no less cruel and forcible 
 restraints of the laws. During the long series of troubles 
 which agitated Gaul, from the reign of GaUienus to that of 
 Diocletian, the condition of these servile peasants was pecu- 
 liarly miserable ; and they experienced at once the complicated 
 tyranny of their masters, of the barbarians, of the soldiers, and 
 of the officers of the revenue.'* 
 
 The.r 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.*" 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."' Thei" 
 
 " Chroniqiie de Froissart, vol. i. c. 182, ii. 73, 19. The naivtc of hi 
 Btorj' is lost in our best modern writers. 
 
 '" Caesar de Bell. Gallic, vi. 13. Orgetorix, the Helvetian, could anra 
 6x his defence a body of ten thousand slaves. 
 
 ^° 'J't.err oppression and misery are acknowledged by Eiuneniua 
 (Panegyr. vi. 8,) Gallias efferatas injuriis. 
 
 *° Panegyr. Vet. ii. 4. Aurelhis Victor. 
 
 '^ JElianus and Ainandus. We hayg medals coined by tbem 
 CWtzius in Thes. R. A. p. 117. 121.
 
 \.D 287.J OF THE ROMAN EMriRE. 409 
 
 power soon expired at the approach of the legioiii. The 
 strength of union and discij^Une obtained an easy victory ovei' 
 a Hcentious and divided multitude.'''' A severe retahation was 
 inflicted on the peasants who were found in arms ; the aflfrighted 
 remnant returned to their respective habitations, and their 
 unsuccessful eSbrt for freedom served only to confirm their 
 slavery. So strong and uniform is the current of popular pas- 
 sions, that we might almost venture, from very scanty materials, 
 to relate the particulars of this war; but we are not disposed 
 to believe that the principal leaders, ^lianus and Amandus, 
 were Christians,''^ or to insinuate, that the rebellion, as it hap- 
 pened in the time of Luther, was occasioned by the abuse of 
 those benevolent principles of Christianity, which inculcate the 
 riatural freedom of mankind. 
 
 Maximian had no sooner recovered Gaul from the hands of 
 the peasants, than he lost Britain by the usurpation of Carau- 
 sins. Ever since the rash but successful enterprise of the 
 Franks under the reign of Probus, their daring countrymen 
 had constructed squadrons of light brigantines, in which they 
 incessantly ravaged the provinces adjacent to the ocean.'''' To 
 repel their desultory incursions, it was found necessary to create 
 a naval power ; and the judicious measure was prosecuted with 
 prudence and vigor. Gessoriacum, or Boulogne, in the straits 
 of the British Channel, was chosen by the emperor for the sta- 
 tion of the Roman fleet ; and the command of it was intrusted 
 to Carausius, a Menapian of the meanest origin,"^ but who had 
 long signalized his skill as a pilot, and his valor as a soldier. 
 The integrity of the new admiral coi fesponded not with his 
 
 ^^ Levibus proeliis domuit. Eutrop. ix. 20. 
 
 '' The fart rests indeed on very slight authority, a life of St. Babo 
 linus, which is probably of the seventh century. See Duchesne 
 Scriptores Rer. Francicar. torn. i. p. 662. 
 
 "* Aurelius Victor calls them Germans. Eutropius (i.v. 21) gives 
 them the name of Saxons. But Eutropius lived in the ensuing cen- 
 tury, and seems to use the language of his own times. 
 
 ** The three expressions of Eutropius, Aurelius Victor, and Eume- 
 oius, " viUssime natus," " Batavite alumnus," and " Menapias civis," 
 give us a very doubtful account of the birth of Carausius. Dr. Stukely, 
 nc wever, (Hist, of Carausius, p. 62,) chooses to make him o. native of 
 St David's and a prince of the blood royal of Britaia The fcrmcr 
 idea he had found in Richard of Cirencester, p. 44 * 
 
 * The Menapians were sett ed between tlie Scheldt ard the McQM, tt 
 ^Qorthem part of BrabaiU. D'Anville, Geogr. Anc. i. 'Xi. — Q. 
 VOL. 1.— S
 
 ♦10 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 28" 
 
 abilities. When the German pirates sailed from their o^r* 
 harbors, he connived at their passage, but he diligi'ntly int'^r- 
 cepted their return, and a])propriated to his own use an amj)le 
 Bhare of the spoil which they had acquired. The wealth oT 
 Carausius was, on this occasion, very justly considered as an 
 evidence of his guilt ; and Maxiraian had ah'eady given orders 
 for his death. But the craft}'^ 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 assum- 
 ing, with the Imperial purple, the title of Augustus defied the 
 justice and the arms of his injured sovereign.^" 
 
 When Britain was thus dismembered from the empire, its 
 importance was sensibly felt, and its loss sincerely lamented. 
 The Romans celebrated, and perhaps magnified, the extent of 
 that noble island, provided on every side with convenient 
 harboi-s ; the temperature of the climate, and the fertility of 
 the soil, alike adapted foi the production of corn or of vines ; 
 the valuable minerals with which it abounded ; its rich pastures 
 covered with innumerable flocks, and its woods free from wi'd 
 beasts or venomous serpents. Above all, they regretted the 
 large amount of the revenue of Britain, whilst they confessed, 
 that such a province well deserved to become the seat of an 
 independent monarchy." During the space of seven years it 
 was possessed by Carausius ; and fortune continued propitious 
 to a rebellion supported with courage and ability. The British 
 emperor defended the frontiers of his dominions against the 
 Caledonians of the North, invited, from the continent, a great 
 number of skilful artists, and displayed, on a variety of coins 
 that are still extant, his taste and opulence. Born on tlie 
 confines of the Franks, he courted the friendship of that for- 
 midable people, by the flattering imitation of their dress and 
 manners. The bravest of their youth he enlisted among his 
 
 *° Panegyr. v. 12. Britain at this timt* was secure, and slightly 
 guarded. 
 
 ^' Panegyr. Yet v 1 1, vii. 9. The orator Emneiiius wished to exah 
 the glory of the hero (Constantius) with the imy)ortance of the con- 
 quest. Notwithstanding our laudable partiality for our native coun/jy, 
 it is difHcult to conceive, that, in the beginning of Ihe fourth century, 
 England deserved all these commendations. A century and a half 
 before, h hardly paid its own establishmer.t. See Appian in FVoceni
 
 A. D. 289.1 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 411 
 
 land or sea forces ; and, in return for their useful alliance, ha 
 communicatod to the barbarians the dangerous knowledge of 
 military and naval arts. Carausins still preserved the posses- 
 sion of Boulogne and the adjacent country. His fleets rode 
 triumphant in the channel, commanded the mouths of the 
 Seine and of the Rhine, ravaged the coasts of the ocean, and 
 diffused beyond the columns of Hercules the terror of his 
 name. Under his command, Britain, destined in a future age 
 to obtain the empire of the sea, already assumed its natural 
 and respectable station of a maritime power.''* 
 
 By seizing the fleet of Boulogne, Carausius had deprived 
 his master of the means of pursuit and revenge. And when, 
 after a vast expense of time and labor, a new armanifut waa 
 launched into the water," the Imperial troops, unaooustomed 
 to that element, were easily baffled and defeated by the veteran 
 sailors of the usurper. This disappointed effort was soon 
 productive of a treaty of peace. Diocletian and his colleague, 
 who justly dreaded the enterprising spirit of Carausius, resigned 
 to him the sovereignty of Britain, and reluctantly admitted 
 their perfidious servant to a participation of the Imperial 
 honors.'" But the adoption of the two Ceesars restored new 
 vigor 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 important place of Boulogne. A stupendous 
 mole, raised across the entrance of the harbor, intercepted all 
 hopes of relief. The town surrendered after an obstinate 
 defence ; and a considerable part of the naval strength of 
 Carausius fell into the hands of the besiegers. During the 
 three years which Constantius employed in preparing a fleet 
 
 '* As a great number of medals of Carausius are still preserved, he 
 is become a very favorite object of antiquarian curiosity,, and every 
 circumstance of his life and actions has been investigated* with saga- 
 cious accuracy. Dr. Stukely, 'n particular, has devoted a large volume 
 to the British emperor. I have used his materials, and rejected most 
 of liis fiinciful conjectures. 
 
 ^' When Mamcrtinus pronounced his first panegyric, the naval 
 preparations of Maximian were completed ; and the orator presaged 
 au assured victory. His silence in the secorxl panegyric might alonp 
 inform us that the expedition had not succeeded. 
 
 '" AureUus Victor, Eutropius, and the medals, (Pax Augg.) iiforra 
 OM of this temporary reconciliation ; though I will net presume (as 
 Dr. Stukely has done, Medallic History of Carausius, p. 86, ±c ) U 
 i»a€rt the identical articles of the treaty.
 
 412 THE DECLINE AND FALL |A. D. 205 
 
 adequate to the conquest of Britain, he secured the coa&t 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 leceived 
 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 ahilities either to exercise the one or 
 to repel the other. He beheld, with anxious terror, the oppo- 
 site shores of the continent already filled with arms, wtb 
 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 
 Dy the principal squadron, which, under the command of the 
 prsefect Asclepiodatus, an officer of distinguished merit, had 
 been assembled in the north of the Seine. So imperfect in 
 those times was the art of navigation, that orators have cele- 
 brated the daring courage of the Romans, who ventured to set 
 sail with a side-wind, and on a stormy day. The weather 
 proved favorable to their enterprise. Under the cover of a 
 thick fog, they escaped the fleet of Allectus, which had been 
 stationed off the Isle of Wight to receive them, landed in 
 safety on some part of the Avestern coast, and convinced the 
 Britons, that a superiority of naval strength will not always 
 protect their country from a foreign invasion. Asclepiodatus 
 liad no sooner disembarked the imperial troops, then he set 
 fire to his ships ; and, as the expedition proved fortunate, his 
 heroic conduct was universally admired. The usurper had 
 posted himself near London, to expect the formidable attack 
 of Constantius, who commanded in person the fleet of Bou- 
 logne; but the descent of a new enemy required his immedi- 
 ate preseftce in the West. He j)erformed this long march in 
 so precipitate a manner, that he encountered the whole force 
 of the prsefect Avith a small b-'^dy of harassed and disheartened 
 troops. The engagement was soon terminated by the total 
 defeat and death of Allectus ; a single battle, as it has often 
 happened, decided the fate of this great island ; and when 
 Constantius landed on the shores of Kent, he found them cov- 
 ered with obedient subjects. Their acclamations were loud 
 ani unanimous; and the virtues of the conqueror may induce 
 OS to believe, that they sincerely rejoiced in a revolution,
 
 A. D. 29(J.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 418 
 
 which, after a separation of ten years, restored Brit;iin to the 
 oody of the Roman empire/' 
 
 Britain had none but domestic enemies to dread ; and aa 
 long as the governors preserved their fidelity, and the troops 
 their disciphne, the incursions of the naked savages of Scot- 
 land or IreLand could never materially atfect 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 Diocle- 
 tian, which inspired the councils of his associates, provided 
 for the public tranquillity, by encouraging a spirit of dissen- 
 sion among the barbarians, and by strengthening the fortifica- 
 tions of the Roman limit. In the East he fixed a line of camps 
 from Egypt to the Persian dominions, and for every camp, he 
 instituted an adequate number of stationary troops, commanded 
 by their respective officei-s, and supplied with every kind of 
 arms, from the new arsenals which he had formed at Antioch, 
 Emesa, and Daraascus.^^ Nor was the precaution of the em- 
 peror less watchful against the well-known valor of the barba- 
 rians of Europe. From the mouth of the Rhine to that of the 
 Danube, the ancient camps, towns, and citidels, were diligently 
 reestabhshed, 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." A barrier so respectable was seldom vio- 
 lated, and the barbarians often turned against each other thei^ 
 disappointed rage. The Goths, the Vandals, the Gepidae, th^ 
 Burgundians, the Alemanni, wasted each other's strength by 
 destructive hostilities : and whosoever vanquished, they van- 
 quished the enemies of Rome. The subjects of Diocletian en- 
 joyed the bloody spectacle, and congratulated each other, that 
 the mischiefs of civil war were now experienced only by the 
 barbarians.^* 
 
 *' With regard to the recovery of Britain, we obtain a few hiata 
 from Aurelius Victor and Eutropius. 
 
 '^ John Malala, in Chron. Antiochen. torn. i. p. 408, 409. 
 
 *^ Zosim. 1. i. p. 3. That partial historian seems to celebrate the vigi- 
 aacs of Diocletian, with a design of exposing the negligence of Con- 
 Btantine ■, we may, however, listen to an orator : " Nam quid ego 
 alarum et cohortimn castra pcrcenseam, toto Rheni et Jstri ct Euphra- 
 Qs limite rcstituta." Panegyr. Vet. iv. 18. 
 
 •* Ruunt omnes in sanguinem suum popuh, quibns Don cootig^tt
 
 414 THE UKCLINE AND FAlL [A. D. 296, 
 
 Notwithstanding the policy of Dioclefjan, it >/as impossible 
 to maintain an equal and undisturbed tranquillity during a 
 reign of twenty years, and along a frontier of many hundred 
 miles. Sometimes the barbarians suspended their domestic 
 animosities, and the relaxed vigilance of the garrisons some- 
 limes gave a passage to their strength or dexterity. When- 
 ever the provinces were invaded, Diocletian conducted himself 
 ?rith that calm dignity which he always aft'ected or possessed ; 
 reserved his presence for such occasions as were "worthy of 
 his interposition, never exposed his person or reputation to 
 any unnecessary danger, insured his success by every means 
 that prudence could suggest, and displayed, with ostentation, 
 the consequences of his victory. In wars of a more difficult 
 nature, and more doubtful event, he employed the rough valor 
 of Maximian ; and that faithful soldier was content to ascribe 
 his own victories to the wise counsels and auspicious influence 
 of his benefactor. But after the adoption of the two Caesars, 
 the emperors themselves, retiring to a less laborious scene of 
 action, devolved on their adopted sons the defence of the Dan- 
 ube and of the Ithine. The vigilant Galerius was never 
 reduced to the necessity of vanquishing an army of barbari- 
 ans on the Roman territory.^'' The brave and active Contsan- 
 tius delivered Gaul from a very furious inroad of the Ale- 
 manni ; and his victories of Langres and Vindonissa appear 
 to have been actions of considerable danger and merit. As 
 he traversed the open country with a feeble guard, he was 
 encompassed on a sudden by the superior multitude of the 
 enemy. He retreated with difficulty towards Langres; but, 
 in the general consternation, the citizens refused to open their 
 gates, and the wounded prince was drawn up the wall by 
 the means of a rope. But, on the news of his distress, the 
 Roman troops hastened from all sides to his relief, and before 
 the evening he had satisfied his honor and revenge by the 
 slaughter of six thousand Alemanni.*" From the monuments 
 
 esse Romanis, obstinatasque feritatis pcenas nunc sponte persolvuct 
 Panegyr. Vet. iii. 16. Mamertinus illustrates the fact by the example 
 of almost all the nations in the world. 
 
 ^^ He complained, though not with the strictest truth, " Jam fluxisse 
 uncos quindecim in quibus, in Illyrico, ad vipam Danubii relegatua 
 Cum gentibus barbaris luctaret." Lactant. de M. P. c. 18. 
 
 '* In the Greek text of Eusebius, we read six thousand, a number 
 which I have preferred to the sixty thousand of Jerome, OroeJaa 
 Eutropius, and his Greek translator Paeanius.
 
 4.D. 290.J OF THE ROMAX EMPIRE. 41C 
 
 of those times, tUe obscure traces of several other victories 
 over the barbarians of Sarmatia and Germany miglit possibly 
 be collected ; but the tedious search would not be rewarded 
 either with amusement or with instruction. 
 
 The conduct which the emperor Probus had adopted In the 
 disposal of the vanquished, was imitated by Diocletian and his 
 associates. The captive barbarians, exchanging death for 
 slavery, were distributed among the provincials, and assigned 
 to those districts (in Gaul, the territories of Amiens, Beauvais, 
 Oambray, Treves, Langres, and Troyes, are particularly 
 specified ") which had been depopulated by the calamities of 
 war. They were usefully employed as shepherds and hus- 
 bandmen, but were denied the exercise of arms, except when 
 it was found expedient to enroll them in the military service. 
 Nor did the emperore refuse the property of lands, with a less 
 servile tenure, to such of the barbarians as solicited the pro- 
 tection of Rome. They granted a settlement to several colo- 
 nies of the Carpi, the Bastarnae, and the Sarmatians ; and, by 
 a dangerous indulgence, permitted them in some measure to 
 retain their national manners and independence.^" Among 
 the provincials, it was a subject of flattering exultation, that 
 the barbarian, so lately an object of terror, now cultivated 
 their lands, drove their cattle to the neighboring fair, and 
 contributed by his labor to the public plenty. They congratu- 
 lated their masters on the powerful accession of subjects and 
 soldiers ; but they forgot to observe, that multitudes of secret 
 enemies, insolent from favor, or desperate from oppression, 
 were introduced into the heart of the empire.'' 
 
 While the Caesars exercised their valor on the banks of the 
 Rhine and Danube, the nresence of the emperors was re- 
 quired on the southern confines of the Roman world. From 
 the Nile to Mount Atlas Africa was in arms. A confederacy 
 of five Moorish nations issued from their deserts to invade the 
 
 " Panegyr. Vet. vii. 21. 
 
 " There was a settlement of the Sarmatians in the ncighborhocKl of 
 Treves, which seems to have been do-serted by those lazy barbariwjft' 
 A.usonius speaks of them in his Mosella : — 
 
 "Unde iter ingrediens ncinorosa per avia solum, 
 Et nulla humani spcctans \cstigia cultus; 
 
 Arvaque Sauiomatura nuper mctata colonis. 
 
 Vhere was a town of the Carpi in the Lower M;esia. 
 
 See the rhetoricil exultation of Eiimenius. Panegyr. TiL H
 
 416 THE DECLINE AND FALL |^A. D. 296 
 
 peaceful prov'iuces," Julian had assumed tlie purple at Caf 
 thage." Achilleus at Alexandria, and even the IBlemmyes, 
 renewed, or rather continued, their incursions into the Uppei 
 Egypt. Scarcely any circumstances have been preserved ot 
 the exploits of Maximian in the western parts of Africa ; tut 
 it appeai-s, by the event, that the progress of his arms was 
 ra[)id and decisive, that he vanquished the fiercest barbarians 
 of Mauritania, and that he removed them from the mountains, 
 whose inaccessible strength had inspired their inhabitants with 
 & lawless confidena3, and habituated them to a Rfe of rapine 
 and violence." Diocletian, on his side, opened the campaign 
 in Egypt by the siege of Alexandria, cut off the aqueducts 
 which conveyed the waters of the Nile into every quarter of 
 that immense city,*' and rendering his camp impregnable to 
 the sallies of the besieged multitude, he pushed his reiterated 
 attacks with caution and vigor. After a siege of eight months, 
 Alexandria, wasted by the sword and by fire, implored the 
 clemency of the conqueror, but it experienced the full extent 
 of his severity. Many thousands of the citizens perished in 
 a promiscuous slaughter, and there were few obnoxious per- 
 sons in Egypt who escaped a sentence either of death or at 
 least of exile.''* The fote 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." The char- 
 acter of the Egyptian nation, insensible to kindness, but 
 extremely susceptible of fear, could alone justify this exces- 
 
 *° Scaliger (Animadvers. ad Euseb. a, 243) decides, in his usual, 
 manner, that the Quinque gentiani, or Hve African nations, were the 
 five great cities, the Pentapolis of the inoffensive province of 
 Cyrene. 
 
 *^ After his defeat, Julian stabbed himself with a dagger, and ina- 
 mediately leaped into the flames. Victor in Epitome. 
 
 *'^ Tu ferocissimos Mauritanite populos inaccessis montium jugis et 
 natm^ali munitione fidentes, expugnasti, recepisti, traustulisti. Pan- 
 egyr Vet. vi. 8. 
 
 " See the description of Alexandria, in Hirtius de Bel. Alexandria 
 c. 5. 
 
 ** Eutrop. ix. 24. Orosius, vii. 25. John Malala in Chron. An- 
 tioch. p. 409, 410. Yet Eumenius assures us, that Egypt was ])acified 
 by the clemency of Diocletian. 
 
 " Eusebiiis (in Chron.) places their destruction several years sooner 
 Kod at a time when Egypt itself was in a state of rebellion againat 
 the B.oman;9,
 
 A. D. 296.] OF TUE ROMAN EMPIRE. 4M 
 
 sive rigor. The seditions of Alexandria had often aflfected 
 the tranquillity and subsistence of Kome itself. Since the 
 usurpation of Firmus, the province of Upper Egypt, inces- 
 santly relapsing into rebellion, had embraced the alHance 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, theii 
 weapons rude and inoffensive." Yet in the public disorders, 
 tbase barbarians, whom antiquity, shocked with the deformity 
 :)f their figure, had almost excluded from the human species, 
 presumed to rank themselves among the enemies of Rome." 
 Such had been the unworthy allies of the Egyptians ; and while 
 the attention of tlie 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 suita- 
 ble adversary, Diocletian persuaded the Nobatse, or people of 
 Nubia, to remove from their ancient habitations in the deserts 
 of Libya, and resigned to them an extensive but unprofitable 
 territory above Syene and the cataracts of the Nile, with the 
 stipulation, that they should ever respect and guard the fron- 
 tier of the empire. The treaty long subsisted; and till the 
 establishment of Christianity introduced stricter notions of 
 religious worship, it was annually ratified by a solemn sacri- 
 fice in the Isle of Elephantine, in which the Romans, as well 
 as the barbarians, adored the same visible or invisible powers 
 of the univei"se.** 
 
 At the same time that Diocletian chastised the past crimes 
 of the Egyptians, he provided for their future safety and hap- 
 piness by many wise regulations, which were confirmed and 
 enforced under the succeeding reigns." One very remarka- 
 
 *^ Strabo, 1. xvii. p. 1, 172. Pomponius Mela, 1. i. c. 4. His words 
 are curious : " Intra, si credere libet vix, homines magisque semiferi • 
 vEgipanes, et Blemmyes, et Satyri." 
 
 " Ausus sese inserere fortuuse et provocare arma Romana. 
 
 ^^ See Procopius de Bell. Persic. 1. i. c. 19.* 
 
 *^ He fixed the public allowance of corn, for the people of Alex- 
 andria, at two millions of medimni; about four hui>dred thousand 
 quarters. Clu-on. Paschal, p. 276 Procop. Hist. Arcaii. c. 26. 
 
 * Compare, on the epoch of the final extirpatioa of the riles of Pagan- 
 ism from the Isle of Pliilae, (Elcpliautine,) vvhicli subsisted till the edirt 
 of Theodosius, iu the sixtji ccutury, a di.ssertation of M. Letronne, on 
 certain Greek inscriptions. The dissertation contains some verj* interest' 
 Ing observations on the conduct and policy of Diockniau in Egj'pt- Mater 
 pour I'Hist. du Christiauisme ea Egypte, Nubie. et Abyssinie, Paris 1831 
 -It 
 
 8*
 
 418 THE DECLINE AND FALL J_A. D. 296. 
 
 ble edict wLicli he published, instead of being condemned aa 
 the effect of jealous tyranny, deserves to be apj)lauded 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, 
 comrnilted them to the flames; apprehensive, as we are 
 assumed, lest the opulence of the Egyptians should inspire 
 them with confidence to rebel against the empire." ^'' But 
 if Diocletian had been convinced of the reality of that valua- 
 ble art, far from extinguishing the memory, he would have 
 ionverted the operation of it to the benefit of the public 
 revenue. It is much more likely, that his good sense discov- 
 ered to him the folly of such magnificent pretensions, and 
 that he was desirous of preserving the reason and fortunes 
 of his subjects from the mischievous pursuit. It may be 
 remarked, that these ancient books, so liberally ascribed to 
 Pythagoras, to Solomon, or to Hermes, were the pious frauds 
 of more recent adepts. The Greeks were inattentive either 
 to the use or to the abuse of chemistiy. In that immense 
 register, where Pliny has deposited the discoveries, the arts, 
 and the errors of mankind, there is not the least mention of 
 the transmutation of metals ; and the persecution of Diocle- 
 tian is the first authentic event in the history of alchemy. 
 The conquest of Egypt by the Arabs difiused that vain sci- 
 ence over the globe. Congenial to the avarice of the human 
 heart, it was studied in China as in Europe, with equal eager- 
 ness, and with equal success. The darkness of the middle 
 ages insured a favorable reception to every tale of wonder, 
 and the revival of learning gave new vigor to hope, and 
 suggested more specious arts of deception. Philosophy, with 
 the aid of experience, has at length banished the study of 
 alchemy ; and the present age, however desirous of riches, is 
 content to seek them by the humbler means of commerce 
 and industry." 
 
 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 
 
 ** John Antioch. in Excerp. Valesian. p. 834. Suidas in Diode 
 lian. 
 
 " See a short history and confutation of Alchemy, in the vrorka 
 ©f that philosopliical compiler, La Mothe Ic Vayer, torn. i. p. 83 
 —863.
 
 A.D 286.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 419 
 
 the successors of Artaxerxcs, of the superior majesty of the 
 Roman empire. 
 
 We have observed, under the reign of Valerian, that Ar- 
 menia was subdued by the perfidy and the arras of the 
 Persians, and that, after the assassination of Chosroes, his son 
 Tiridates, the intant heir of the monarchy, was saved by the 
 fidehty of his friends, and educated under the protection of the 
 emperors. Tiridates derived from liis exile such advantages 
 as he could never have obtained on the throne of Armenia ; 
 the early knowledge of adversity, of mankind, and of the 
 Roman discipline. He signalized his youth by deeds of valor, 
 and displayed a matchless dexterity, as well as strength, in 
 every martial exercise, and even in the less honorable contests 
 of tlie Olympian games." Those qualities were more nobly 
 exerted in the defence of his b.niefactor Licinius." That 
 officer, in the sedition which occasioned the death of Probus, 
 was exposed to the most imminent danger, and the enraged 
 soldiers were forcing their way into his tent, when they were 
 checked by the single arm of the Armenian prince. The 
 gratitude of Tiridates contributed soon afterwards to his res- 
 toration. Licinius was in every station the friend and com- 
 panion of Galerius, and the merit of Galerius, long before he was 
 raised to the dignity of Csesar, had been known and esteemed 
 by Diocletian. In the third year of that emperor's reign 
 Tiridates was invested with the kingdom of Armenia. The 
 justice of the measure was not less evident than its expediency. 
 It was time to rescue from the usurpation of the Persian mon- 
 arch an important territory, which, since the reign of Nero, had 
 been always granted under the protection of the empire to a 
 younger branch of the house of Arsaces.''' 
 
 When Tiridates appeared on the frontiers of Armenia, he 
 was received with an unfeigned transport of joy and loyalty. 
 
 ^" See the education and strength of Tiridates in the Armenian 
 history of Moses of Chorene, 1. ii. c. 76. He could seize two wild bulla 
 by the horns, and break them off with his hands. 
 
 °' If we give credit to the younger Victor, who supposes that in 
 tue year 323 Licinius was only sixty years of age, he could scarcely 
 be the same person as the patron of Tiridates ; but we know from 
 much better authority, (Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. L x. c. 8,) that 
 Licinius was at that time in the last period of old age : sixteeu years 
 Defore, he is represented with gray hairs, and as the contemporary 
 of (ralerius. See Lactant. c. 32. Licinius was probably born about 
 the year 250. 
 
 " See the sixtv-second and sixty-third books of Dion Cassiua.
 
 420 THE DECLINE AND FALL |^A. D. 286 
 
 Durinor twenty-six years, the country had experienced the real 
 and imaginary hardships of a foreign yoke. The Persian 
 mouarchs adorned their new conquest with magnificent build- 
 ings ; but those monuments had been erected at the expense 
 of the people, and were abhorred as badges of slavery. The 
 apprehension of a revolt had inspired the most rigorous pre- 
 cautions : oppression had been aggravated by insult, and the 
 e(:)nsciousness of the public hatred had been productive of everj 
 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 kin- 
 dled and preserved upon an altar erected on the summit of 
 Mount Bagavan.^^ It was natural, that a people exasperated 
 by so many injuries, should arm with zeal in the cause of their 
 independence, their religion, and their hereditary sovereign 
 The torrent bore down every obstacle, and the Persian gar- 
 risons retreated before its fury. The nobles of Armenia flew 
 to the standard of Tiridates, all alleging their past merit, offer- 
 ing their future service, and soliciting from the new king those 
 honors and rewards from which they had been excluded with 
 disdain under the foreign government.^® The command of 
 the army was bestowed on Artavasdes, whose father had saved 
 the infancy of Tiridates, and whose family had been mas- 
 sacred for that generous action. The brother of Artavasdes 
 obtained the government of a province. One of the first mili- 
 tary dignities was conferred on the satrap Otas, a man of 
 singular temperance and fortitude, who presented to the king 
 his sister ''' and a considerable treasure, both of which, in 
 a sequestered fortress, Otas had pi'eserved from violation. 
 Among the Armenian nobles appeared an ally, whose fortunes 
 
 *^ 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 Justm, (xli. 5,) and b-y 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 preface of hw 
 Editors. 
 
 " She was named Chosroiduchta, and had not He os p^tidurt lik*
 
 A. D, 286.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 42i 
 
 are too remarkable to pass unnoticed. His name was Manigo,f 
 his ongin was Scythian, and the horde which ackno\vledgcd 
 his authority had encamped a very few years before on the 
 skirts of the Chinese empire/* which at that time extended as 
 far as the neighborhood of Sogdiana.^" Having incurred the 
 displeasure of his master, Mamgo, with his followers, retired 
 to the banks of the Oxus, and implored the protection of 
 Bapor, The emperor of China claimed the fugitive, J,nd 
 alleged the right? 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 de- 
 scribed it, not less dreadful than death itself. Armenia was 
 
 other women. (Hist. Arraen. 1. ii. c. 19.) I do not understand the ex- 
 pression.* 
 
 ^* In the Armenian history, (1. ii. 78,) as well as in the Geograpliy, 
 (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.:]; 
 
 ^^ Vou-ti, the first emperor of the seventh dynasty, who then reign- 
 ed 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, march- 
 ed as far as the Caspian Sea. With regard to the intercourse be- 
 tween China and the Western countries, a curious memoir of M. do 
 Guigues may be consulted, in the Academie des Inscriptions, torn, 
 xxii. p. 855.§ 
 
 * Os patulum signifies merely a large and widely opening mouth. Ovid 
 (Metani. xv. 513) says, speaking of the monster who attacked Hippolytas, 
 patulo partem maris evomit ore. Probably a wide mouth was a commou 
 defect among the Armenian women. — G. 
 
 t Mamgo (according to M. St. Martin, note to Le Beau, ii. 213) belonged 
 to the imperial race of Hon, who had filled the throne of China for four hun- 
 dred years. Dethroned by the usurping race of Wei, Mamgo found a hos 
 pitable reception in Persia in the reign of Ardeschir. The emperor of China 
 having demanded the surrender of the fugitive and his partisans, Sapor, then 
 king, threatened with war both by E«me and China, counselled Mamgo to 
 retire into Armenia. " I have exjjelled him from my dominions, (he answer- 
 ed the Chinese ambassador;) I have banished him to the extremity of the 
 earth, where the sun sets ; I have dismissed him to certain deatli." Compare 
 Mem. sur I'Armenie, ii. 25. — M. 
 
 .f See St. Martin, Mem. sur 1' Ai-menie, i. 304. 
 
 § The Chinese Annals mention, under the ninth year of Yan-hi, which cot- 
 responds ^vith the year 1C6 .1. C, an embassy which arrived from Talhsin, 
 and was sent by a prince called An-thun, who can be nc other than Marcui 
 AareHus Antoninus, who then i-uled over the Romans. St. Martin, Mem. soi 
 I'ArrEisnie, ii. 30. See also Klaproth. Tableaux Historiques de I'Asie, p 
 •9. Thf! emba«sv came by Jy-nan, Tonquin. — M
 
 422 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 286, 
 
 choBen for tlie 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, accord ng to the different seasons of the year. They 
 were employed to repel the invasion of Tindates ; but their 
 leader, after weighing the obligations and injuries which he 
 had received from the Pe/sian monarch, resolved to abandon 
 his party. The Armenian prince, who was well acquainted 
 tvitb tb^ merit as well as power of Mamgo, treated him with 
 distinguished respect ; and, by admitting him into his confi- 
 dence, acquired a brave and faithful servant, who contributed 
 <rery effectually to his restoration.'^" 
 
 For a while, fortune appeared to favor the enterprising 
 valor of Tiridates. He not only expelled the enemies of his 
 family and country from the whole extent of Armenia, but in 
 the prosecution of his revenge he carried his arms, or at least 
 his incursions, into the heart of Assyria. The historian, whc 
 has preserved the name of Tiridates from oblivion, celebrates, 
 with a degree of national enthusiasm, his personal prowess : 
 and, in the true spirit of eastern romance, describes the gian*/S 
 and the elephants that fell beneath his invincible arm. It is 
 from other information that we discover the distracted state 
 of the Persian monarchy, to which the king of Armenia was 
 indebted for some part of his advantages. The throne was 
 disputed by the ambition of contending brothers ; and Hormuz, 
 after exerting without success the strength of his own party, 
 had recourse to the dangerous assistance of the barbarians 
 who inhabited the banks of the Caspian Sea." The civil war 
 was, however, soon terminated, either by a victor or by a 
 reconciliation ; and Narses, who was universally acknowledged 
 as king of Persia, directed his whole force against the foreign 
 enemy. The contest then became too unequal ; nor was the 
 valor of the hero able to withstand the power of the monarch, 
 Tiridates, a second time expelled from the throne of Armenia, 
 
 «" See Hist. Armen. 1. ii. c. 81. 
 
 *' Ipsos Pcrsas ipsumque Regem ascitis Saccis, et Russia, et Gellla, 
 petit frater Ornjies. Panegyric. Vet. iii. 1. The Saccae were a nation 
 of wandering Scythians, -who encamped towards the sources of tlie 
 Oxus and the Jaxartes. The Gelli where the inhabitants of Ghilan, 
 along the Caspian Sea, and who so long, under the name of Dilemi "«s 
 infested the Persian mor vrchy. See d'Herbelot, Bibliothequo C ri 
 sntale
 
 \.D. 296.] OF THE roman empire. 423 
 
 once movi U ok refuge in the court of the emperors.* Narses 
 soon reestablished his authority over the revolted province; 
 and loudly complaining of the protection afforded by the Ro- 
 mans to reoeis and fugitives, aspired to the conquest of the 
 East." 
 
 Neither prudence nor honor could permit the emjjerors to 
 forsake the cause of the Armenian king, and it was resolved 
 to exert the force of the empire in the Persian war. Diocletian, 
 with the calm dignity which he constantly assumed, fixed his 
 own station in the city of Antioch, from whence he prepared 
 and directed the military operations." The conduct of the 
 legions was intrusted to the intrepid valor of Galerius, who, 
 for that important purpose, was removed from the banks of the 
 Danube to those of the Euphrates. The armies soon encoun- 
 tered each other in the plains of Mesopotamia, and two battles 
 were fought with various and doubtful success ; but the third 
 engagement Avas of a more decisive nature ; and the Roman 
 army received a total overthrow, which is attributed to the 
 rashness of Galerius, who, with an inconsiderable body of 
 troops, attacked the innumerable host of the Persians.** 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 mem- 
 orable 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 
 
 *^ 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. c. 5.) Lactantius speaks of the ambition of Narses : " Concita- 
 tus domesticis exemplis avi sui Saporis ad occiipandum orientcm mag- 
 nis copiis inhiabat." De Mort. Persecut. c. 9. 
 
 "^ "We may readily believe, that Lactantius ascribes to cowardice 
 ibe conduct of Diocletian. Julian, in his oration, says, that he re- 
 mained with all the forces of the empire; a very hyperbolical expres- 
 sion. 
 
 ^* Our five abbreviators, Eutropius, Festus, *he two Victors, and 
 Orosius, all relate the last and great, battle ; but Orosius is the only 
 on*i who s]Deaks of the two former. 
 
 • M St. Martin represents this diffcreiitly. Le roi de Perse * * * prolite 
 d'un voyage que Tiridate avoit fait a Home pour attaqucr ce royauiie. Tbii 
 reads like the evasion of the national historians to disguise the fa i;t 4ieoreJ 
 Itablft to their hero. See Mem. sur I'Armenie, i. Mi. — M.
 
 424 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A D. 297. 
 
 a tree, and without a spring of fiesh water.** 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 cav* 
 airy. The king of Armenia had signahzed his valor in the 
 battle, and acquired personal glory by the public misfortune. 
 He was pursued as far as the Euphrates ; his horse was 
 wounded, and it appeared impossible for him to escape the 
 victorious enemy. In this extremity Tiridates embraced the 
 only refuge which appeared before him : he dismounted and 
 plunged into the stream. His armor was heavy, the river 
 very deep, and at those parts at least half a mile in breadth ; '* 
 yet such was his strength and dexterity, that he reached in 
 safety the opposite bank." With regard to the Roman gen- 
 eral, we are ignorant of the circumstances of his escape ; but 
 when he returned to Antioch, Diocletian received him, not with 
 the tenderness of a friend and colleague, but with the indig- 
 nation of an offended sovereign. The haughtiest of mei-, 
 clothed in his purple, but humbled by the sense of his fault and 
 uisfortune, was obliged to follow the emperor's chariot above 
 mile on foot, and to exhibit, before the whole court, the 
 spectacle of his disgrace.^* 
 
 As soon as Diocletian had indulged his private resentment, 
 and asserted the majesty of supreme power, he yielded to 
 the submissive entreaties of the Caesar, and permitted him to 
 retrieve his own honor, as well as that of the Roman arms. 
 In the room of the unwarlike troops of Asia, which had most 
 probably served in the first expedition, a second army was 
 drawn from the veterans and new levies of the Illyrian fron- 
 tier, and a considerable body of Gothic auxiliaries were taken 
 
 •' 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 
 
 '" See Foster's Dissertation in the second vohnne of the translation 
 of the Anabasis by Spelman ; which I will venture to recommend as 
 one of the best versions extant. 
 
 " Hist. Armen. 1. ii. c. 76. I have transferred this exploit of Tlri 
 dates from an imag^inary defeat to the real one of Galerius. 
 
 ** Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xir. The mile, in t)\e hands of Eutrophis, 
 (ix. 24,) of Festus (c. 25,) and of Orosius, (vii 25], easily incrojaed *• 
 ttveral miles
 
 A. D. 297. 1 OF TKC ROMAN EMPIRE 49|I 
 
 into the Imperial pay.'" At the liead of a chosen army of 
 twenty -five thousand men, Galerius again passed tlie Eu 
 phrates ; but, instead of exposint^ liis legions in the opei 
 plains of Mesopotamia he advanced through the mountains of 
 Armenia, where he found the inhabitants devoted to his cause, 
 and the country as favorable to the operations of infantry as it 
 was inconvenient for the motions of cavalry.'" Adversity had 
 3onfirmed the Roman discipline, while the barbarians, elated 
 by success, were become so negligent and remiss, that in the 
 moment when they least expected it, they were surprised by 
 the active conduct of Galerius, who, attended only by two 
 horsemen, had with his own eyes secretly examined the state 
 and position of their camp. A surprise, especially in the 
 night time, was for the most part fatal to a Persian army. 
 "Their horses were tied, and generally shackled, to prevent 
 their running av/ay ; and if an alarm happened, a Persian had 
 his housing to fix, his horse to bridle, and his corselet to put on, 
 before he could mount." " On this occasion, the impetuous 
 attack of Galerius spread disorder and dismay over the camp 
 of the barbarians. A slight resistance was followed by a 
 dreadful carnage, and, in the general confusion, the wounded 
 monarch (for Narses commanded his armies in person) fled 
 towards the deserts of Media. His sumptuous tents, and those 
 of his satraps, afforded an immense booty to the conqueror; 
 and an incident is mentioned, which proves the rustic but 
 martial ignorance of the legions in the elegant superfluities of 
 life. A bag of shining leather, filled with pearls, fell into the 
 hands of a private soldier ; he carefully preserved the bag, 
 but he threw away its contents, judging that whatever was of 
 no use could' not possibly be of any value." The principal 
 loss of Narses was of a much more affecting nature. Several 
 of his wives, his sisters, and children, who had attended the 
 army, were made captives in the defeat. But though the 
 character of Galerius had in general very little affinity with 
 that of Alexander, he imitated, after his victory, the amiable 
 
 "• Aurelius Victor. Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 21. 
 
 " Aurelius Victor says, " Per Armeuiani in hostcs contendit, qtsH) 
 fermo sola, seu facilior vincendi via est." He followed the convluct of 
 •^rrajan, and the idea of Julius CsBsar. 
 
 ''' Xenophon'8 Anabasis, 1. iii. For that reason the Persian vAvalrj 
 encamped sixty stadia from the enemy. 
 
 '* The story is tol 1 by Ammianus, L xxii. Instead of saecum, wetm* 
 fead sciitum
 
 •26 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. I). 29^. 
 
 behavior of the Macedonian towards the family of Dariuo. 
 The wives and children of Narses were protected from vio- 
 lence and rapine, conveyed to a place of safety, and treated 
 with every mark of respect and tenderness, that wah due from 
 a generous enemy to their age, their sex, and their royal 
 dignity." 
 
 While the East anxiously expected the decision of this 
 great contest, the emperor Diocletian, having assembled ir 
 Syria a strong army of observation, displayed from a distance 
 the resources of the Roman power, and reserved himself for 
 any future emergency of the war. On the intelligence of the 
 victorj' 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 
 ;vas accompanied with every expression of respect on one 
 side, and of esteem on the other. It was in that city that they 
 Boon afterwards gave audience to the ambassador of the 
 Great King." The power, or at least the spirit, of Narses, 
 had been broken by his last defeat ; and he considered an im- 
 mediate peace as the only means that could stop the progress 
 of the Roman arms. He despatched Apharban, a servant 
 who possessed his favor and confidence, with a commission to 
 negotiate a treaty, or rather to receive whatever conditions 
 the conqueror should impose. Apharban opened the confer- 
 ence by expressing his master's gratitude for the generous 
 treatment of his family, and by sohciting the liberty of those 
 illustrious captives. He celebrated the valor of Galerius, 
 without degrading the reputation of Narses, and thought it no 
 dishonor to confess the superiority of the victorious Caesar, 
 over a monarch who had surpassed in glory all the princes of 
 his race. Notwithstanding the justice of the Persian cause, 
 he was empowered to submit the present differences to the 
 decision of the emperors themselves ; convinced as he was, 
 that, in the midst of prosperity, they would not be unmindful 
 of the vicissitudes of fortune. Apharban concluded his dis- 
 
 " The Persians confessed the Roman superiority in morals as ■well 
 •B in arms. Eutrop. ix. 24. But this respect and gratitude of ene- 
 Eaies is very seldom to be found in their own accoujits. 
 
 ''* The account of the negotiation is taken from the fragments of 
 fcter the Patrician, in the Excerpta Legationmn, pubUshed in the 
 Byzantine Collection. Peter lived under Justinian ; but it is very 
 evident, ly the nature of his materials, that they are drawn from th« 
 Bifwt arVfciToio o^ici respectable writers.
 
 h. D. 29*7.] OF THE ROMAN EMl'IUE^ 421 
 
 course in the style of eastern allegory, by observing that the 
 Roman and Persian monarchios were the two oyt^ of tlia 
 world, which would remain imperfect and mutilated if cither 
 of them sliould be put out. 
 
 " It well becomes the Persians," replied Galerius, with a 
 transport of fury, which seemed to convulse his wiiole frame, 
 " it well becomes the Persians to expatiate on the vicissitudes 
 of fortune, and calmly to read us lectures on the virtues of 
 moderation. Let them remember their own moderation, to- 
 wards 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 am- 
 bassador, 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 Narscs 
 would soon be informed on what conditions he might obtain, 
 from the clemency of the emperors, a lasting peace, and the 
 restoration of his wives and children. In this conference we 
 may discover the fierce passions of Galerius, as well as his 
 deference to the superior wisdom and authority of Diocletian. 
 The ambition of the former grasped at the conquest of the 
 East, and had proposed to reduce Persia into the state of a 
 province. The prudence of the latter, who adhered to the 
 moderate policy of Augustus and the Antonines, embraced 
 the favorable opportunity of terminating a successful war by 
 an honorable and advantageous peace.'^ 
 
 In pursuance of their promise, the emperors soon afterwards 
 appointed Sicorius Probus, one of their secretaries, to acquaint 
 the Persian court with their final resolution. As the minister 
 of peace, he was received with every mark of politeness and 
 friendship; but, under the pretence of allowing him the 
 necessary repose after so long a journey, the audience of 
 Probus was deferred from day to day ; and he attended the 
 slow motions of the king, till at length he was admitted to his 
 presence, near the River Asprudus in Media. The secret 
 motive of Narses, in this delay, had been to collect such a y 
 
 " Adeo victor (says Aurdius) ut ni Valerius, cujus nutu omni* 
 gerebantur, abnuisset, Romani fasces in provinciam novam ferrentuT: 
 Verum pars terrarum tamen nobis utilior quaes! ta.
 
 428 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 297 
 
 military force iis might enable him, though sincerely desirous of 
 peace, to negotiate with the greater weight and dignity. Three 
 persons only assisted at this important conference, the niinistei 
 Apharban, the prjefect of the guards, and an officer who had 
 commanded on the Armenian frontier." The first condition 
 proposed by the ambassador is not at present of a very intel- 
 ligible nature ; that the city of Nisibis might be established for 
 thi'. place of mutual exchange, or, as we should formerly have 
 termed it, for the staple of trade, between the two empires 
 There is no difficulty in conceiving the intention of the Roman 
 princes to improve their revenue by some restraints upon 
 commerce ; but as Nisibis was situated within their own 
 dominions, and as they were masters both of the imports and 
 exports, it should seem that such restraints were the objects 
 of an internal law, rather than of a foreign treaty. To render 
 them more effectual, some stipulations were probably required 
 on the side of the king of Persia, which appeared so very 
 repugnant either to his interest or to his dignity, that Narses 
 could not be persuaded to subscribe them. As this was the 
 only article to which he refused his consent, it was no longer 
 insisted on ; and the emperors either suffered the trade to flow 
 in its natural channels, or contented themselves with suet 
 '■estrictions, as it depended on their own authority to establish 
 As soon as this difficulty was removed, a solemn peace was 
 concluded and ratified between the two nations. The condi- 
 tions 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 waged against barbarians ignorant of the use of 
 etters. I. The Aboras, or, as it is called by Xenophon, the 
 Araxes, was fixed as the boundary between the two mon- 
 archies.'^ That river, which rose near the Tigris, was 
 
 '® He Lad been governor of Sumium,* (Pet. Patricius in Excerpt, 
 Legat. p. 30.) This province seems to be msntioned by Mosea of 
 Chorene, (Geograph. p. 360,) and lay to the east of Moni!t Ararat. 
 
 " By an error of the geographer Ptolemy, the pcsition of Singara i» 
 •cmovod from the Aboras to the Tigris, which may havi, produced 
 the mistake of Peter, in assigning the iaiter river for tht bcxu-lary, 
 
 • The Siounikh of the Armeniaa vt'rl'e-.-s St. Martin M^n^ so' .'A» 
 assie, i. 142.— M.
 
 A. L>.297.f OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 428 
 
 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." Meso- 
 potomia, the object of so many wars, was ceded to the emjiire; 
 and the Persians, by this treaty, renounced all pretensions to 
 that great province. II. They relinquished to the Romans 
 five provinces beyond the Tigris." Their situation formed a 
 s'ery useful barrier, and their natural strength was soon 
 (raproved by art and military skill. Four of these, to the 
 north of the river, were districts of obscure fame and incon- 
 Biderable extent ; IntiHne, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and Mox- 
 oene ; f but on the east of the Tigris, the em])ire acquired the 
 large and mountainous territory of Carduene, the ancient scat 
 
 instead of the former. The line of the Roman frontier traversed, but 
 never followed, the course of the Tigris.* 
 
 '* Procopius de Edificiia, 1. ii. c. G. 
 
 '" Three of the provinces, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and Cardaene, are 
 allowed on all sides. But instead of the other two, Peter (in Excerpt 
 Leg. p. SO) inserts Rehimene and Sophene. I have preferred Am- 
 mianus, (1. xxv. 7,) because it might be proved that Sophene was never 
 in the hands of the Persians, either before the reign of Diocletian, oi 
 after that of Jovian. For want of correct maps, like those of M. d' An 
 ville, almost all the moderns, with Tillemoiit and Valesius at tlieir 
 head, have imagined, that it was in respect to Persia, and not to Rome, 
 that the five provinces were situate beyond the Tigris. 
 
 * There are here several eiTors. Gibbon has confounded the streams, and 
 the towns which they pass. The Aboras, or rather the Chaboras, the Arax-iS 
 of Xenophon, has its source above Ras-Ain or Re-Saina, (Theodosiopolis,) 
 about t\venty-seven leagues from the Tigris ; it receives the waters of the 
 Mygdonius, or Saocoras, about thirty-three leagues below Nisibis. at a town 
 now called Al Nahraim ; it docs not pass under the walls of Singara ; it is 
 the Saocoras that washes the walls of that town : the latter river lias its 
 Bource near Nisibis. at five leagues from the Tigris. See D Anv. I'Eupbrate 
 et I(; Tigi-e, 4G, 49, 50, and the map. 
 
 To the east of the Tigris is another less considerable river, named aisc 
 llic Chaboras, which D'Anville calls the Ccntrites, Khabour, Niccplioriua, 
 without quotiug the authorities on which he gives those names. Gibbon 
 did not mean to speak of this river, which does not pass by Sinj^ara, and 
 does not fall into the Euphrates. See Micbaclis, Supp. ad Lex. Hebraica. 
 3d part, p. 664, 665. — G. 
 
 t Sec St. Martin, note on Le Beau, i. 380. He would read, for Litiline, 
 [ngeleme, the name of a small province of Armenia, near the sources of 
 the Tigris, mentioned by St. E[)iphanius, (Ha^res, 60;) for the unknown 
 OBime Arzacene, with Gibbon, Arzanene. These provinces do not appear 
 to ha>e made an integral part of the Roman empire; Roman ganisona 
 replaced those of Persia, but the sovereignty remained in the hands of the 
 ftnzdatory princes of Armenia. A prince of Cardaene, :illy or dejieBJeul 
 on the cmj ire, w tli the Riraan name of Jovianus, occurs iu the reigfrj of 
 Jtlkn.- M.
 
 430 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D, 297 
 
 of the Carduchians, who preserved for many ages their nianlj 
 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 suftered more from the arrows of the 
 Carduchians, than from the power of the Great King." Their 
 posterity, the Curds, with very little alteration either of name or 
 manners,* acknowledged the nominal sovereignty of the Turk- 
 ish sultan. III. It is almost needless to observe, that Tiridates, 
 the faithful ally of Rome, was restored to the throne of hia 
 lathers, and that the rights of the Imperial supremacy were 
 fully asserted and secured. The limits of Armenia wero 
 extended as far as the fortress of Sintha in Media, and this 
 increase of dominion was not so much an act of liberality as 
 of justice. Of the provinces already mentioned beyond the 
 Tigris, the four first had been dismembered by the Parthians 
 from the crown of Armenia ;" and when the Romans acquired 
 the possession of them, they stipulated, at the expense of the 
 usurpers, an ample compensation, which invested their ally 
 with the extensive and fertile country of Atropatene. Its 
 principal city, in the same situation perhaps as the modern 
 Tauris, was frequently honored by the residence of Tiridates ; 
 and as it sometimes bore the name of Ecbatana, he imitated, 
 in the buildings and fortifications, the splendid capital of the 
 Medes." IV. The country of Iberia was barren, its inhabit- 
 ants rude and savage. But they were accustomed to the use 
 of arms, and they separ.ited from the empire barbarians much 
 fiercer and more formidable than themselves. The narrow 
 defiles of Mount Caucasus were in their hands, and it was in 
 their choice, either to admit or to exclude the wandering tribes 
 
 *' Xeiiophon's Anabasis, 1. iv. Their bows were three cubits ia 
 length, tlieir arrows two ; tliey rolled down stones that were each a 
 wagon load. The Greeks found a great many villages in that rude 
 country. 
 
 *"' According to Eutropius, (vi. 9, as the text is represented by the 
 best MSS.,) the city of Tigranocerta was in Arzanene. Tlie names 
 and jjituation of the other three may be faintly traced. 
 
 *^ Compare Herodotus, 1. i. c. 9*7, witli Moses Clioronens. Hist 
 Armen. 1 ii. c. 84, and the map of Armenia given by his editors. 
 
 * I travelled through this country in 1810, and should judge, frona yvhal 
 I have read and seen of its inhahitants, that tliey have remained an;lianged 
 in iheir appoarance and character for more than twenty centuries Mai 
 oolra, note tf* Uist. of Persia, vol. i. p. 82; — M.
 
 A. D. 303.] OF THE roman empire. 4"I 
 
 of Siirraatia, whenever a rapacious spirit urged them to peno- 
 trato into the richer chmes of the South.*' The noiiiinatioc 
 of the kings of Iberia, wliich was resigned by the Persian 
 monarch to the emperors, contributed to the strength aod 
 security of the Roman power in Asia." Tiie East enjoyed » 
 profound tranquiUity during forty years ; and the treaty between 
 the lival monarchies was strictly observed till the death of 
 I'iridates ; 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 tlie princes of the house of Con 
 stantine. 
 
 The arduous work of rescuing the distressed empire from 
 tyrants and barbarians had now been completely achieved by 
 a succession of Illyrian peasants. As soon as Diocletian 
 entered into the twentieth year of his reign, he celebrated that 
 memorable eera, as well as the success of his arms, by the 
 pomp of a Roman triumph.*' INIaximian, the equal partnei 
 of his power, was his only companion in the glory of thai 
 day. The two Caesars had fought and conquered, but the 
 merit of their exploits was ascribed, according to the rigor of 
 ancient maxims, to the auspicious influence of their fathers 
 and emperors.*" The triumph of Diocletian and Maximian 
 was less magnificent, perhaps, than those of Aurelian and 
 Probus, but it was dignified by several circumstances of supe 
 rior fame and good fortune. Africa and Britain, the Rhine, 
 the Danube, and the Nile, furnished their respective trophies ; 
 but the most distinguished ornament was of a more singular 
 nature, a Persian victory followed by an important conquest. 
 The representations of rivers, mountains, and provinces, were 
 carried before the Imperial car. The images of the captive 
 wives, the sisters, and the children of the Great King, afforded 
 a new and grateful spectacle to the vanity of the people." 
 
 *" Hibcn, locorum potentes, Caspia via Sarmatam in Armenios 
 raptim effundunt. Tacit. Annal. vi. 34. See Strabon. Geograph. L xi. 
 p. 7G4, [edit. Casaub.] 
 
 ^* Peter Patricius (in Excerpt. Leg. p. 30) is the only writer who 
 mentions the Iberian article of tlie treaty. 
 
 *' Euseb. in Cliron. Pagi ad annum. Till tlie discovery of the 
 treatise De Mortibus Persecutoruni, it was not certain that tSie 
 triumph and the Vicennaha was celebrated at the same time. 
 
 *' At the time of the Vicennaha, Galerius seems to have kept m 
 Elation on the Danube. See Lactaiit. de M. P. c. 38. 
 
 *'' Eutropius (ix. 27) mentions them as a part of the triumpL 4*
 
 432 TUE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 303 
 
 [n the eyes of posterity, this triumph is remarkable, by ?. 
 lisciuction of a less honorable kind. It was the last that 
 Ronje e\er beheld. Soon after this period, the emperors 
 leased to vanquish, and Rome ceased to be the capital of the 
 impire. 
 
 The spot on ^vhich Rome was founded had been onse- 
 crated by ancient ceremonies and imaginary miracles. The 
 presence of some god, or the memory of some hero, seemed 
 to animate every part of the city, and the empire of the world 
 had been promised to the Capitol." The native Romans felt 
 and confessed the power of this agreeable illusion. It was 
 derived from their ancestors, had grown up with their earliest 
 habits of life, and was protected, in some measure, by the 
 opinion of political utiHty. The form and the seat of govern- 
 ment were intimately blended together, nor was it esteemed 
 possible to transport the one without destroying the other." 
 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 aftections, of Romans. During 
 a long period, however, the remains of the ancient constitu- 
 tion, and the influence of custom, preserved the dignity of 
 Rome. The emperors, though perhaps of African or Illyrian 
 extraction, respected their adopted country, as the seat of their 
 power, and the centre of their extensive dominions. The 
 emergencies of war very frequently required their presence 
 on the frontiers ; but Diocletian and Maximian were the first 
 Roman princes who fixed, in time of peace, their ordinary 
 residence in the provinces ; and their conduct, however it 
 might be suggested by private motives, was justified by very 
 specious considerations of policy. The court of the emperor 
 of the West was, for the most part, established at Milan, whose 
 situation, at the foot of the Alps, appeared far more conve- 
 
 the persons had been restored to Ifarses, nothing more than their 
 images could be exhibited. 
 
 *' Livy gives us a speecli of Camillas on that subject, (v. 51 — 55,) 
 full of eloquence and sensibility, in opposition to a design of remov 
 ing tlie seat of government from Rome to the neighboring city of 
 Veii. 
 
 *' Julius Ca3sar was reproached with the intention of remo\ing the 
 
 empire to Ilium or Alexandria. See Sueton. in Caesar, c. 79. Ao- 
 
 »rimg to the ingenious conjecture of Le Fevre and Dacier, th« 
 
 .lird ode i>f the third book of Horace was int«nc'ed to divert Augua 
 
 aa from the execution of a similar design.
 
 D. 303.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 43S 
 
 nient than that of Rome, for the iraportaiit purpose of watch- 
 ing the motions of the barbarians of Germany. Milan soon 
 assumed the splendor of an Imperial city. The houses aro 
 described as numerous and well built; the manners of tbo 
 people as polished and liberal, A circus, a theatre, a mint, a 
 palace, baths, which bore the iiarae of their founder Maxim- 
 iaii ; porticos adorned w-ith statues, and a double circumfer- 
 ence of walls, contributed to the beauty of the new cai)ital ; 
 nor did it seem oppressed even by the proximity of Rome.** 
 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 magnifi- 
 cence which might appear to have required the labor of ages, 
 and became inferior only to Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, 
 In extent of populousness."' The life of Diocletian and Max- 
 iraian was a life of action, and a considerable portion of it was 
 spent in camps, or in the long and frequent marches ; but 
 whenever the public business allowed them any relaxation, 
 they seemed to have retired with pleiisure to their favorite 
 residences of Nicomedia and Milan. Till Diocletian, in the 
 twentieth year of his reign, celebrated his Roman triumph, it 
 is extremely doubtful whether he ever visited the ancient 
 capital of the empire. Even on that memorable occasion his 
 stay did not exceed two months. Disgusted with the licentious 
 familiarity of the people, he quitted Rome with precipitation 
 thirteen days before it was expected that he should have 
 
 •" See Aurelius Victor, who likewise mentions the buildings erected 
 by Maximian at Carthage, probably during the Moorisli war. We sliril 
 iosert some verses of Ausoniue de Clar. Urb. v. 
 
 Et Mediolani niira ')mnia: copia reruin ; 
 Innumeric cult.Bqae d.imus; facunda viroruin 
 Ingenia, ct mores laeti : turn duplirc inuro 
 Ampliflcata loci species , populique voluptas 
 Circus ; et inclusi moles cuneala Theatri ; 
 Templa, Palalin;cque arces, opuleiis(me Monela, 
 Et regio Herculei Celebris sub lionnre lavaeri. 
 Cunctaque marmoreis ornata Perislyla slRtiis ; 
 Moenia(iue in valli formam circumdata hibro, 
 Omnia qua; masnis uperum velut iemula formi? 
 Excellunt: necjuncta premit vicinia Rorare. 
 
 " Lactant de M. P. c 17. Libanius, Orat viii. p. 20*. 
 ▼ OL. I. T
 
 484 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. '). 30d 
 
 Bppearoi in the senate, invested with the ensigns cf the con- 
 sular dignity.*" 
 
 The dislike expressed by Diocletian towards Rome and 
 Roman freedom, was not the effect of momentary caprice, but 
 the result of the most artful policy. That crafty prince had 
 framed a new system of Imperial government, which was 
 afterwards completed by the family of Constantino ; and as 
 the image of the old constitution was religiously preserved in 
 the senate, he resolved to deprive that order of its smaii 
 remains of power and consideration. We may recollect, 
 about eight yeare before the elevation, of Diocletian the tran- 
 sient greatness, and the ambitious hopes, of the Roman sen- 
 ate. As long as that enthusiasm prevailed, many of the 
 nobles imprudently displayed their zeal in the cause of free- 
 dom ; and after the successes of Probus had withdrawn their 
 countenance from the republican party, the senators were 
 unable to disguise their impotent resentment. As the sover- 
 eign of Italy, Maxim ian was intrusted with the care of extin- 
 guishing this troublesome, rather than dangerous spirit, and 
 the task was perfectly suited to his cruel temper. The most 
 illustrious membei-s 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 ele- 
 gant villa, or a well-cultivated estate, was interpreted as a 
 convincing evidence of guilt.*' The camp of the Praetorians, 
 which had so long oppressed, began to protect, the majesty of 
 Rome ; and as those haughty troops were conscious of the 
 decline of their power, they were naturally disposed to unite 
 their strength with the authority of the senate. By the pru- 
 dent measures of Diocletian, the numbers of the Praetorians 
 were insensibly reduced, their privileges abolished,** and their 
 place supplied by two faithful legions of Illyricum, who, under 
 the new titles of Jovians and Herculians, were appointed to 
 perform the service of the Imperial guards.'* But the most 
 
 *^ Lactant. de M. P. c. 1*7. On a similar occasion, Aramianus men- 
 tions the dicacitas plebis, as not very agreeable to an Imperial ear. 
 (See 1. xvi. c. 10.) 
 
 °' Lactantius accuses Maximian of destroying fictis criminationibua 
 himina eenatiis, (De M. P. c. 8.) Aurelius Victor speaks very doubt- 
 fully of the faith of Diocletian towards his friends. 
 
 "* Truncatje vires urbis, immiimto pisetoriaruna cohortium atque in 
 trmis vulgi numero. Aurelius Victor. Lactantius attributes to Galo- 
 riiis the prosecution of the same plan, (c. 26.) 
 
 •• They were old corps stationed in Illyricum; and acccrding to
 
 A. D. 303.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 435 
 
 fatal though secret wound, which' the senate received from the 
 hands of Diocletian and Maximian, was inflicted by the inevi- 
 table 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 
 tsanction of the senate. The model of ancient freedom was 
 preserved in its deliberations and decrees ; and wise princes, 
 who respected the prejudices of the Roman people, were in 
 some measure obliged to assume the language and behavior 
 suitable to the general and first magistrate of the republic. In 
 the armies and in the provinces, they displayed the dignity of 
 mouarchs ; and when they fixed their residence at a distance 
 from the capital, they forever laid aside the dissimulation 
 which Augustus had recommended to his succebsore. In the 
 exercise of the legislative as well as the executive power, the 
 sovereign advised with his ministers, instead of consulting the 
 great council of the nation. The name of the senate was 
 mentioned with honor till the last period of the empire ; the 
 vanity of its members was still flattered with honorary distinc- 
 tions f* 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 connec- 
 tion with the Imperial court and the actual constitution, was 
 left a venerable but useless monument of antiquity on the Cap- 
 itoHne hill. 
 
 When the Roman princes had lost sight of the senate and 
 of their ancient capital, they easily forgot the origin and 
 nature of their legal power. The civil offices of consul, of 
 proconsul, of censor, and of tribune, by the union of which it 
 had been formed, betrayed to the people its republican ex- 
 traction. Those modest titles were laid aside ;" and if they 
 
 the ancient establishment, they each consisted of six thousand men. 
 Tliey had acquired much reputation by the use of the pliimbata, or 
 darts loaded with lead. Each soldier carried five of these, which he 
 daitod from a considerable' distance, with great strength and dexter 
 ity. See Vegetius, i. 1*7. 
 
 *» See the Theodo.*ian Code, 1. vi. tit. ii. with Godefroy's comnren 
 tary. 
 
 ^' See the 12th dissertation in Spanheim's excellent work de Usu 
 Numismatum. From medals, inscriptions, and historians, he examine! 
 every title separately, and traces it from Augustas to the momeot of 
 ita disappearing.
 
 tfS6 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 303 
 
 Btill distinguislKid their high station bj the appellation of 
 Emperor, or Imperator, that word was understood in a new 
 and more dignified sense, and no longer denoted the general 
 of the Roman armies, but the sovereign of the Roman world. 
 The name of Emperor, which was at first of a military nature, 
 was associated with another of a more servile kind. The 
 epithet of Domixus, or Lord, in its primitive signification, was 
 expressive, not of the authority of a prince over his subjects, 
 or of a commander over his soldiers, but of the despotic power 
 of a master over his domestic slaves."' Viewing it in that 
 odious light, it had been rejected with abhorrence by the ^rst 
 Caesars. Their resistance insensibly became more feeble, 
 and the name less odious ; till at length the style of our Lord 
 and Emperor was not only bestowed by flattery, but was 
 regularly admitted into the laws and public monuments. Such 
 lofty e^^ithets 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 gov- 
 ernment throughout the empire,) the Imperial title, as it was 
 peculiar to themselves, conveyed a more respectable idea than 
 the name of king, which they must have shared with a hun- 
 dred barbarian chieftains ; or which, at the best, they could 
 derive only from Romulus, or from Tarquin. But the senti- 
 ments 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."" Even the attributes, or at least the titles, of 
 the Divinity, were usurped by Diocletian and Maxiraian, who 
 transmitted them to a succession of Christian emperors."* 
 
 ** Pliny (in Panegyr. c. 3, 55, &c.) speaks of Dominus with execra- 
 tion, as synonymous to Tyrant, and opposite to Prince. And the 
 same Pliny regularly gives that title (in the tenth book of the epistles) 
 to his friend rather than master, the virtuous Trajan. This strange 
 contradiction puzzles the commentators, who think, and tlie transla- 
 tors, who can write. 
 
 " Synosius de Regno, edit. Petav. ]). 15. I am indebted for this 
 quotation to the Abbe de la Bleterie. 
 
 "° See Vaiidale de Consecratioue, p. 354, Ac. It was customary foi
 
 A.D. 303.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRK. 48Y 
 
 Such extravagant compliments, however, soon los* their 
 mipiety by losing their meaning ; and when tlie oar is onco 
 accustomed to the sound, they are heard witli indifference, as 
 vague though excessive professions of respect. 
 
 From tho time of Augustus to that of Diocletian, the Komatj 
 princes, conversing in a familiar manner among their fellow- 
 citizens, were saluted only with the same respect that was 
 usually paid to senators and magistrates. Their principal 
 distinction was the Imperial or military robe of purple ; whilst 
 the senatorial garment was marked by a broad, and tho eques- 
 trian by a narrow, band or stripe of the same honorable color. 
 The pride, or rather the policy, of Diocletian, engaged that 
 ailful prince to introduce the stately magnificence of the court 
 of Persia.'" He ventured to assume the diadem, an ornament 
 detested by the Romans as the odious ensign of royalty, and 
 the use of which had been considered as the most desperate 
 act of the madness of Caligula. It was no more than a broad 
 white fillet set with pearls, which encircled the emperor's 
 
 the emperors to mention (in the preamble of laws) their numen, sacred 
 majesty, divine oracles, &c. According to Tillemont, Gregory Nazian- 
 zen complains most bitterly of the profanation, especially when it was 
 practised by an Arian emperor.* 
 
 "" See Spanlieim de Usu Numismat. Dissert, xii. 
 
 * In the time of the republic, says Hegewdsch, when the consuls, tlie 
 proetors, aud the other magistrates appeared in public, to perform the 
 functions of their office, their dignity was announced both by the symbols 
 which use had consecrated, and the brilliant cortege by which they vycro 
 accompanied. But this dignity belonged to the office, not to the^ indi- 
 vidual; this pomp belonged to the magistrate, not to the man. * * The 
 consul, followed, in the comitia, by all the senate, the proetors, the quass- 
 tors, the aediles, the lictors, the apparitors, and the heralds, on reentering 
 his house, was served only by freedmen and by his slaves. Tho first 
 emperors went no further. Tiberius had, for his personal attendance, only 
 a moderate number of slaves, and a few freedmen. (Tacit. Ann. iv. 7.) 
 But in proportion as the republican forms disappeared, one after another, 
 the inclination of the emperors to environ themselves with personal pomp, 
 displayed itself more and more. * * The magnificence and the ceremoniaJ 
 of tl:e East were entirely introduced by Diocletian, and were consecrated 
 by Constantino to the Imperial use. Thenceforth the palace, the court, 
 the table, all the personal attendance, distinguished the emperor from hia 
 Bubjects, still more than hia superior dignity. The organiziition whicU 
 Diocletian gave to his new court, attached less honor and distuiction Xo 
 rank than to services perfomicd towards the members of the Inipenal 
 family. Hegewisch, Essai, Hist, sur les Finances Romains.^ 
 
 Few historians have characterized, in a more philosophic manner, the 
 influence of a new institution. — G. 
 
 It is singular that the son of a slave reduced the haufihty aristocracy af 
 Borne to the offices of sci-vitudc. — M.
 
 488 THE OECLINK AND FALL [A. D, 30JJ. 
 
 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 ren 
 dered more difficult by the institution of new forms and cere- 
 monies. The avenues of the palace were strictly guarded bj 
 the various schools, as they began to be called, of domestic 
 officers. The interior apartments were intrusted to the jealoua 
 vigilance of the eunuchs, the increase of whose numbers and 
 influence was the most infallible symptom of the progress of 
 despotism. When a subject was at length admitted to the 
 Imperial presence, he was obliged, whatever might be his 
 rank, to fall prostrate on the ground, and to adore, according 
 to the eastern fashion, the divinity of his lord and master."* 
 Diocletian was a man of sense, who, in the course of private 
 as well as public life, had formed a just estimate both of him- 
 self and of mankind : nor is it easy to conceive, that in 
 substituting the manners of Persia to those of Rome, he was 
 seriously actuated by so mean a principle as that of vanity. 
 He flattered himself, that an ostentation of splendor and 
 luxury would subdue the imagination of the mvdtitude ; that 
 the monarch would be less exposed to the rude license of the 
 people and the soldiers, as his person was secluded from the 
 public view ; and that habits of submission would insensibly 
 be productive of sentiments of veileration. 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 lioman world. 
 
 Ostentation was the first principle of the new system insti- 
 tuted by Diocletian. The second was division. He divided 
 the empire, the provinces, and every branch of the civil as 
 well as military administration. He multiplied the wheels of 
 the machine of government, and rendered its operations less 
 rapid, but more secure. Whatever advantages and whatever 
 defects might attend these innovations, they must be ascribed 
 in a very great d(>gree to the first inventor ; but as the new 
 
 *""■ Aurelius Victor. Eutropius, ix. 26. It appears by the Panegy- 
 rists, that the Romans were soon reconciled to the name and ceremon7 
 of adoration.
 
 I.D. 303.J OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 489 
 
 frame of policy was gradually improved and completed by 
 Bucceeding princes, it will bo more satisfactory to delay tho 
 consideration of it till the season of its full maturity and per- 
 fection.'" Reserving, therefore, for the reign of Constantiae 
 a more exact picture of the new empire, we shall content our- 
 selves 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 ; an<J 
 as he was convinced that the abiUties of a single man were 
 inadequate to the public defence, he considered the joint ad- 
 ministration of four princes not as a temporary expedient, but 
 as a fundamental law of the constitution. It was his intention, 
 that the two elder princes should be distinguished by the use 
 of the diadem, and the title of Augusti ; that, as affection or 
 esteem might direct their choice, they should regularly call to 
 their assistance two subordinate colleagues ; and that the 
 Ccesars, rising in their turn to the fii-st rank, should supply 
 an uninterrupted succession of emperors. The empire was 
 divided into four parts. The East and Italy were the most 
 honorable, the Danube and the Rhine the most laborious sta- 
 tions. The former claimed the presence of the Augusti, the 
 latter were intrusted to the administration of the Ccesars. 
 The strength of the legions was in the hands of the four part- 
 ners of sovereigntj^, and the despair of successively vanquish- 
 ing four formidable rivals 'might intimidate the ambition of 
 an aspiring general. In their civil government, the emperoi's 
 were supposed to exercise the undivided power of the mon- 
 arch, and their edicts, inscribed with their joint names, were 
 received in all the provinces, as promulgated by their mutual 
 councils and autliority. Notwithstanding these precautions, 
 the political union of the Roman world was gradually dis- 
 solved, and a principle of division was introduced, which, in 
 the course of a few years, occasioned tho 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 con- 
 Bequently an increase of taxes, and the oppression of tho 
 
 "* Tlie innovations introduced by Diocletian are chiefly deduced, 
 1st, from some very stronj^ passages in Lactantius; and, 2dly, from 
 the new and various offices which, in the Tlieodosian code, appear 
 iUready established in the beginning of the reign of Constantine.
 
 440 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 308* 
 
 peonle. Instead of a jnodest family of slaves i.nd freedmeti, 
 «uch 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 cf 
 ministers, of magistrates, of officers, and of servants, who 
 fihed the different departments of the state, was multiphed 
 boyond the example of former times ; and (if we may borrow 
 the warm expression of a contemporary) " when the propor- 
 tion of those who received, exceeded the proportion of those 
 who contributed, the provinces were oppressed by the weight 
 of tributes.'"" From this period to the extinction of the 
 empire, it would be easy to deduce an uninterrupted series of 
 clamors and complaints. According to his religion and situa- 
 tion, each writer chooses either Diocletian, or Constantine, or 
 Valens, or Theodosius, for the object of his invectives ; but 
 they unanimously agree in representing the burden of the 
 public impositions, and particularly the land tax and capita- 
 tion, as the intolerable and increjising grievance of their own 
 times. From such a concurrence, an impartial historian, who 
 is obliged to extract truth from satire, as well as from pane- 
 gyric, 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 
 
 "' Lactaiit. de M. P. c. 7. 
 
 * Tbe most curious document whicli has come to liglit since the publi 
 cation of Gibbon's History, is tlie edict of Diocletian, published from an 
 inscription found at Eskihissar, (Stratoniccia,) by Col. Leake. This 
 inscription was first copied by Sherard, afterwards much more complete!}' 
 by Mr. Bankes. It is confirmed and illustrated by a more imperfect copy of 
 the same edict, found in the Levant by a gentleman of Aix, and brouglit to 
 this countiy by M. Vescovali. This edict -was issued in the name of the 
 four Cffisars, Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, and Galerius. It fixed a 
 maximum of prices throughout the empire, for all the necessaries and 
 commodities of life. The preamble insists, -with great vehemence, on the 
 extortion and inhumanity of the venders and nier('hanta. Q.uis cnim adeo 
 obtunisi (obtusi) pectores (is) et a sensu inhumanitatis extorris est qui 
 Igiiorarc potest immo non senserit in venalibus rebus quas rel in mercimoniis 
 Wgnntur vel diunia urbium conversatione tractantur, in tantnm se licen 
 
 tiam defusissc, ut effrsonata libido rapien ram copia nee annornm uber- 
 
 latibus mitigaretur. The edict, as Col. Leake clearly soows, -was is-sucd 
 A. C. 303. Among the articles of which the maximum valae is assessed, 
 ere oil, salt, honey, butchers' meat, poultry, game, fish, vegetables, fhiit 
 die waass of laborei-s and artisans, schoojnasters and oratorr dotbei
 
 A.. D. 303.] O? THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 441 
 
 author of thst system ; but during his reign, Jio growing evil 
 was confined within the bounds of modesty and discretion, 
 and he deserves the reproach of estabhshing pernicious pre- 
 cedents, rather than of exercising actual oppression."* It 
 may be added, that his revenues were managed with prudent 
 sconomy ; and that after all the current expenses were dis- 
 charged, there still remained in the Imperial treasury an 
 ample provision either for judicious liberality or for any emer- 
 gency of the state. 
 
 It was in the twenty first year of his reign that Diocletian 
 executed his memorable resolution of abdicating the empire ; 
 an action more naturally to have been expected from the 
 elder or the younger Antoninus, than from a prince who had 
 never practised the lessons of philosopliy either in the attain- 
 ment or in the use of supreme power. Diocletian acquired 
 the glory of giving to the world the first example of a resig- 
 nation,"* which has not been very frequently imitated by suo- 
 ceeding monarchs. The parallel of Charles the Fifth, how- 
 ever, will naturally ofier 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 re- 
 semblance between the characters of the two emperors, whoso 
 political abilities were superior to their military genius, and 
 whose specious virtues were much less the eft'ect of nature 
 than of art. The abdication of Charles appears to have been 
 
 '"^ Indicta lex nova qua sane illorum temporum modestia tolerab 
 ilis, in pernicicm procossit. Aurel. Victor., who has treated tho 
 character of Diocletian ■with good sense, though in bad Latin. 
 
 ^°° Solus omnium post condituin Romanuin Imperium, qui ex 
 tanto fastigio sponte ad privatae vitse statum civilitatemque remearet 
 Eutrop. ix. 28. 
 
 skins, boots and shoes, harness, timber, com. wine, and beer, (zythus.) 
 The depreciation in the value of money, or the rise in the price of com- 
 modities, had been so great during the past century, that butchers' meat, 
 which, in the second century of tho empire, was in Rome about two denarii 
 the pound, was now fixed at a maximum of eiqlit. Col. Leake supposes 
 the average price could not be less than four : at the same time the maxi- 
 mum of the wages of tlie agricultural laborers was twenty-five. The whole 
 edict is, perhaps, the most gigantic effort of a blind though well-inten 
 tioned dtspotism, to control tliat which is, and ought to be, beyond the 
 regulation of the government. See an Edict of Diocletian, by Col. Lcalce, 
 London. ISifi. 
 
 Col. Leake has not observed that this Edict is expressly named in liifl 
 treatise de Mort. Persccut. ch. vii. Idem cum variis iniquitatibus immen 
 ma faceret laritatem, legem prctiis rerum vc^aJium statuero oonatud c* 
 — M
 
 442 THE DECLINE AXD FALL [A. D. SOi 
 
 hastened by tlie vicissitude of fortune ; and the disappoint- 
 ment of bis favorite schemes urged him to rebnquish a power 
 which he found inadequate to his ambition. But the leign of 
 Diocletian had flowed with a tide of uninterrupted success ; 
 nor was it till after he had vanquished all his enemies, and 
 accomplished all his designs, that he seems to have entertained 
 any serious thoughts of resigning the empire. Neither Charles 
 nor Diocletian were arrived at a very advanced period of life ; 
 lince 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 con- 
 stitution, and brought on the infirmities of a premature old 
 
 Notwithstanding the severity of a very cold and rainy 
 winter, Diocletian left Italy soon after the ceremony of his 
 triumph, and began his progress towards the East round the 
 circuit of the Illyrian provinces. From the inclemency of 
 the weather, and the fatigue of the journey, he soon con- 
 tracted a slow illness ; and though he made easy marches, and 
 was generally carried in a close htter, his disorder, before he 
 arrived at Nicomedia, about the end of the summer, was 
 become very serious and alarming. During the whole winter 
 he was confined to his palace : his danger inspired a general 
 and unaffected concern ; but the people could only judge of 
 ihe various alterations of his health, from the joy or conster- 
 nation which they discovered in the countenances and beha- 
 vior of his attendants. The rumor of his death was for some 
 time universally believed, and it was supposed to be concealed 
 with a view to prevent the troubles that might have happened 
 during the absence of the Caesar Galerius. At length, how 
 ever, on the first of March, Diocletian once more appeared in 
 public, but so pale and emaciated, that he could scarcely have 
 been recognized by those to whom his }>erson 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 re- 
 quired indulgence and relaxation, the latter compelled him to 
 direct, from the bed of sickness, the administration of a great 
 
 "' The particulars of the journey and illness are takfn from Lae 
 tantius, (c. 17,) who may sometimes be admitted as an evideriOO of 
 public facts, though very seldom of private anecdotes.
 
 A. D. 305.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 442 
 
 empire. He resolved to pass the remainder of his days in 
 honorable repose, to place bis glory beyond the reach of fo^ 
 tune, and to relinquish the theatre of the world to his younger 
 and more active associates.'"* 
 
 The ceremony of his abdication was performed in a 
 spacious plain, about three miles from Nicomedia. The em- 
 peror ascended a lofty .hroae, and in a speech, full of reasoa 
 and dignity, declared his intention, both to the people and to 
 the soldiers who were assembled on this extraordinary occa- 
 sion. As soon as he had divested himself of his purple, he 
 withdrew from the gazing multitude ; and traversing the city 
 in a covered chariot, proceeded, without delay, to the favorite 
 retirement which he liad chosen in his native country of Dal- 
 matia. On the same day, which was the first of May," 
 Maximian, as it had been previously concerted, made his 
 resignation of the Imperial dignity at Milan. Even in the 
 Bplendor of the Roman triumph, 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 au- 
 thority of his benefactor, or a particular promise that he would 
 descend from the throne, whenever he should receive the ad- 
 vice and the example. This engagement, though it was con- 
 firmed by the solemnity of an oath before the altar of the 
 Capitoline Jupiter,"" would have proved a feeble restraint on 
 the fierce temper of Maximian, whose passion w;is the love of 
 power, and who neither desired present tranquillity nor future 
 
 *"* Aurelius Victor ascribes the abdication, which had boon 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.* 
 
 '"'' The difficulties as well as mistakes attending the dates both of 
 the year and of tlie day of Diocletian's abdication arc perfectly cleared 
 up by Tillemont, Hist, des Empercurs, torn. iv. p 525, note 19, and by 
 I'agi ad annum. 
 
 "" See Panegyr. Veter. vi. 9. The oration was pronounced after 
 Maximian had resumed the purple. 
 
 * Constantino (Orat. ad Sanct. c. 401) more than insinuated that derauf^- 
 ment of mind, connected with the conflagration of the palace at Nicomedia 
 by lightning, was the cause of his abdication. But Hcinichen. in a very 
 sersible rote ou this passage in Euscbius, wliile ho admits that his long 
 illness might produce a temporarj' depression of spirits, triumphantly appeali 
 to the phUosophical conduct of Diocletian in his retreat, and the inilaenoe 
 which he still retained on public affairs. — M.
 
 Hi THE DECUNE AND FALL [A. D. 308 
 
 reputaiion. But he yielded, however reluctantly, to the aa- 
 Cendant 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 
 cjuld find any lasting tranquillity. 
 
 Dioccletian, who, from a servile origin, had raised himself to 
 t]ie throne, passed the nine last years of his life in a private 
 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 pos- 
 session of the world.''* It is seldom that minds long exer- 
 cised in busiut ss have formed the habits, of conversing with 
 themselves, and in the loss of power they principally regret the 
 want of occupation. The amusements of letters and of de- 
 votion, which afford so many resources in solitude, were inca- 
 pable of fixing the attention of Diocletian; but he had pre- 
 served, or at least he soon recovered, a taste for the most 
 innocent as well as natural pleasures, and his leisure hours 
 were sufficiently employed in building, planting, and garden- 
 ing. 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 ])ity, calmly observing, that if he 
 could show Maximian the cabbages which he had planted with 
 his own hands at Salona, lie should no longer be urged to 
 relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of 
 power."'' 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 favorite topic 
 with a degree of warmth which could be ii\e 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 ex- 
 alted dignity, the truth is concealed from his knowledge ; he 
 can see only with their eyes, he hears nothing but their mis- 
 representations. He confers the most important offices upon 
 
 "' Eurncnius paj^s him a very fine compliment: "At enim diviiiiim 
 dlum viriim, qui primus imptriiiin et participavit et posuit, consilii et 
 feet isui non poenitet ; iiec amisisse se putat quod sponte transcripeit 
 Felix beatusque vera quern vestra, tantorum principum, colunt obseq cLa 
 privatum." Panegyr. Vet. vii. 15. 
 
 "^ We are obliged to the younger Victor for this celebrated boo 
 mot Eutropius mentions the thing in a more general manner.
 
 A.D. 313.] OF THE ROMAN EMrTRB. 440 
 
 vice and weakness, and disgraces tl:e nuKt vittu, u? and dcserr- 
 ing among his subjtcts. By such inlan\ous arts,'' added Dio- 
 cistian, " the best and wisest princes are sold U> the venal 
 corruption of their courtiers." "" A just estimate of greatness, 
 and the assurance of immortal fame, improve our relish for 
 tlie pleasures of retirement ; but the llomau emperor had filled 
 too important a character in the world, to enjoy without alloy 
 the comforts and security of a private condition. It was im- 
 possible that he could remain ignorant of the troubles which 
 afflicted the empire after his abdication. It was impossiblo 
 that he could be inditierent to their consequences. Fear, 
 sorrow, and discontent, sometimes pursued him into the soli- 
 tude of Salona. His tenderness, or at least his pride, was 
 deeply wounded by the misfortunes of his wife and dhughter ; 
 and the last moments of Diocletian wore imbittored jy some 
 affronts, which Licinius and Constantino might ha.e spared 
 the father of so many emperors, and the first autln.r of their 
 own fortune. A report, though of a very doul)tfui i/ature, has 
 reached our times, that he prudently withdrew himself frono 
 their power by a voluntary death."* 
 
 Before we dismiss the consideration of tlie life and charac 
 ter of Diocletian, we may, for a moment, direct our view tu 
 the place of his retirement. Salona, a principal city of ]ns> 
 native province of Dalmatia, was near two hundred Roman 
 miles (according to the measurement of the public highways) 
 from Aquileia and the confines of Italy, and about two hvm- 
 dred and seventy from Sirmium, the usual residence of the 
 emperors whenever they visited the Illyrian frontier."* A 
 miserable village still preserves the name of Salona ; but so 
 late as the sixteenth century, the remains of a theatre, and a 
 onfused prospect of broken arches and marble columns, con- 
 tinued to attest its ancient splendor."' About six or seven 
 
 "' Hist. August, p. 223, 224. Vopiscus Lad learned this conversa- 
 tion from his father. 
 
 "' The younger Victor slightly mentions the report. But as Diocle- 
 tian had disobliged a pow(!rful and successful party, his memory lias 
 ^^•eeu loaded with every crime and misfortune. It has been affirmed 
 xhat he died raving mad, that he was condenmed as a criminal by the 
 ^oman senate, &c. 
 
 '-" See the Itiner. p. 269, 272, edit. Wessel. 
 
 ■'' The Abate Fortis, in his Viaggio in Dalmazia, p. 4-3, (printed a< 
 f enice in the year 1774, in two small volumes in quarto,) quotes a MS 
 •vccount of tlie antiquities of Salona, composed by Giambaltiata Oiu» 
 tiniani about the middle of tLe xvith century.
 
 446 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A D. 31d 
 
 miles from the city, Diocletian constructed a magu ficent 
 palace, and we may infer, from the greatness of the work, 
 how long he had meditated his design of abdicating tli3 
 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 
 js pure and wholesome, and though extremely hot during the 
 summer months, this country seldom feels those sultry and 
 noxious winds, to which the coasts of Istria and some parts 
 of Italy are exposed. The views from the palace are no less 
 beautiful than the soil and climate were inviting. Towards 
 the west lies the fertile shore that stretches along the Adriatic, 
 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 pros- 
 pect of water, which the Adriatic presents both to the south 
 and to the east. Towards the north, the view is terminated 
 by high and irregular mountains, situated at a proper distance 
 and in many places covered with villages, woods, and vine- 
 yards." "' 
 
 Though Constantine, from a very obvious prejudice, affects 
 to mention the jDalace of Diocletian with contempt,"* yet one 
 of their successors, who could only see it in a neglected and 
 mutilated state, celebrates its magnificence in terms of the 
 highest admiration."' It covered an extent of ground consist- 
 ing of between nine and ten English acres. The form was 
 quadrangular, 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 
 
 "' Adam's Antiquities of Diocletian's Palace at Spalatro, p. 6. "We 
 nay add a circumstance or two from the Abate Fortis : the little 
 Btream of the Hyader, mentioned 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 clioice 
 of his retirement. Fortis, p. 45. Tlie same author (p. 88) observes, 
 that a taste for agriculture is reviving at Spalatro ; and that an exj)er- 
 anental farm has lately been established near the city, by a society of 
 gentlemen. 
 
 "* Constantin. Orat. ad Ccetum Sanct. c. 25. In this sermon, the 
 smperor, or the bishop who composed it for him, affects to rela'e the 
 miserable end of all the persecutors of the church. 
 
 "' Coiiatantin. Porphyr. de Statu Imper. p. 86.
 
 A D. 313.] OF THE ROMAN ^M-l'ItlE. 441 
 
 freestone, extracted from the neighboring quarries of Trau, 
 or Tragutium, and very httle inferior to marble itself. Four 
 Btrvets, intersecting each other at right angles, divided tha 
 several parts of this great edifice, and the apjiroach '."o ;h0 
 principal apartment was from a very stately entrance, which is 
 still denominated the Golden Gate. The approach vvsis ter- 
 minated by a imisbjlium of granite columns, on one side of 
 which we discover the s [uare temple of .^culapius, 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 pres- 
 ent remains with the precepts of Vitruvius, the several parta 
 of the building, the baths, bed-chamber, the atrium, the basil' 
 ica, 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 all were attended with two imperfections, very repug- 
 nant 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 story,) 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. 
 
 Had this magnificent edifice remained in a sohtary 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,"" and, long afterwards, the pro- 
 vincial 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 honors of ^sculapius ; and the temple 
 of Jupiter, under the protection of the Virgin, is converted into 
 the cathedral 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.'" But there is room to suspect that 
 
 *■* D'Anville, Geogra.phie Ancienne, torn. i. p. 162. 
 
 '*' Messieurs Adam and Clerisseau, attended by two d.'aughteinon,
 
 448 THE DECUrNE AND FALL [A. D. {{13 
 
 the elegance of his designs and engraving lias somewhat flat- 
 tered the objects wliich 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 
 declino of the art than of the greatness of the Kctnan empire 
 in the time of Diocletian.'" If such was udeed the state of 
 architecture, we must naturally beheve 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 distrac- 
 tions of the empire, the license of the soldiers, the inroads of 
 the barbarians, and the progress of despotism, had proved 
 very unfavorable to genius, and even to learning. The suo- 
 cession of Illyrian princes restored the empire without restor 
 ing the sciences. Their military education was not calculat- 
 ed to ins])ire thein 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 profes- 
 sions of law and jjhysic are 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 instruction. A languid and atfect- 
 ed eloquence was still retained in the pay and service of the 
 
 visited Spalatro in the month of July, llbl. ITie magnificent work 
 wliich their journey produced was published in London seven ye;xrs 
 afterwards. 
 
 "'^ I shall quote the -words of the Abate Fortis. " E'bastevolmerite 
 rvita agli amatori dell' Architettura, e dell' Antichita, I'opera del 
 Bignor Adams, die a donato molto a que' superbi vestigi coll' abituale 
 eleganza del suo toccalapis e del bulino. In generale la rozzezza del 
 Bcalpello, e'l cattivo gusto del secolo vi gareggiano coUa magnificenzj 
 del fal)rica,to." See Viaggio in Dalraazia, p. 40.
 
 A. D. 313.] OF THE nOMAN EMI'IRE. 440 
 
 emperors, wlio encouraged not any arts except Ihosu wliich 
 o^ntributed to the gratification of their pride, or the def<.'nce of 
 '.Iveir power."* 
 
 The declining age of learning aiij of mankind is marked, 
 however, by the rise and I'apid progiess of the new I'latonists 
 The school of Alexandria silenced those of Athens ; and th» 
 aacient sects enrolled themselves under the bannci-s of tht 
 mote fashionable teachers, who recommended their system by 
 tae novelty of their method, and tlie austerity of their man 
 ners. Several of these masters, Ammonius, Plotinus, Ame- 
 lius, and Porphyry,'" were men of profound thought and 
 intense application ; but by mistaking the true object of philos- 
 ophy, their labors contributed much less to imjjrove than to 
 corrupt the human understanding. The knc .vledge that is 
 Buited to our situation and powers, the whole compass of moral, 
 natural, and mathematical science, was neglected by the new 
 Platonists ; v/hilst 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 
 Phito, on subjects of which both these philosophers were as 
 ignorant as the rest of mankind. ConsuminiX their reason in 
 these deep but unsubstantial meditationii, their minds were 
 exposed to illusions of fancy. They flattered themselves that 
 they possessed the secret of disengaging the soul from its cor- 
 poreal prison ; claimed a familiar intercourse with demons 
 and sjjirits ; and, by a very singular revolution, converted the 
 study of philosophy into that of magic. The ancient sages 
 had derided the popular superstition ; after disguising its ex- 
 travagance by the thin pretence of allegory, tlie disciples of 
 Plotinus and Porphyry became its most zealous defendei's. 
 
 '^° Tlie orator Eumenius was secretary to the emjierors Muximian 
 aiid Const antius, and Profei^sor of lllietoric in the college of Autun. 
 His salary was six hundred thousand sesterces, which, accordinj^ to 
 the lowest computation of that age, r.iust have exceeded tliree thou- 
 sand pounds a year. He generously requested the permission of cm- 
 ploying it in rebuilding the college. See his Oration De Kestaurandia 
 Scholis ; which, though not exempt from Vanity, may atone for hia 
 panegyiics. 
 
 '"* Porpl yry died about the time of Diocletian's abdication. -The 
 life of his master Plotinus, which he composeil, will give us the most 
 oimplete idea of the geni* .s of the sect, and the manners of its pro- 
 fessors. This very curious piece is insert ?d in Fabricius Bibliotlieca 
 BrjBca tom. iv. p.' 88— 148.
 
 460 THE DECLINE AND FALL | A. D. 313 
 
 as ti.ey agraed with the Christians in a few mysterious points 
 of faith, they attacked the remainder of their theological sys- 
 tem 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 n-equently 
 oocnr.
 
 A. D. 305-323.] of the roman empire. 451 
 
 CHAPTEK XIV. 
 
 TROUBLES AFfER THE ABDICATION OF DIOCLETIAN. — DEATH 0» 
 
 CONSTANTIUS. ELEVATION OF CONSTANTINE AND MAXEN- 
 
 TIUS. SIX EMPERORS AT THE SAME TIME. DEATH OF 
 
 MAXIMIAN AND GALERIUS. VICTORIES OF CONSTANTINE 
 
 OVER MAXENTIUS AND LICINIUS. REUNION OF THE EMPIRB 
 
 UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF CONSTANTINE. 
 
 The balance of power established by Diocletian subsisted no 
 '/onger than while it was sustained by the firm and dexterous 
 hand of 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 an-sbition, and the same general interest 
 invariably pursued by four independent princes. The abdica- 
 tion 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, \'iewing each other with an eye of fear 
 and hatred, strove to increase their respective forces at the ex- 
 pense of their subjects. 
 
 As soon as Diocletian and Maximian had resigned the pur- 
 ple, 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.' 
 
 The honors 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, and Britain. The government of those ample prov- 
 inces was sufficient to exercise his talents and to satisfy his 
 ambition. Clemency, temperance, and moderation, distin- 
 
 ' M. de Montesquieu (Considerations Pur la Grandeur et la Deca- 
 dcr.ce dcs Romains, c. 17) supposes, on the autliority of Orosius and 
 ISusebius, that, on this occasion, the empire, for the first time, was really 
 divided into two parts. It is difficult, however, to discover in wliat 
 respect the plan of Galerius diCFered from tliat of Diocletian.
 
 462 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 305- 5*25 
 
 guislied the amiable character of Ccnstantiiis, and his fortu 
 natc subjects had frequently occasion to compare the virtues of 
 their sovereign with the passions of Maximian, and even with 
 the arts of Diocletian.* 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, whenever the dignity of the throne, or the danger of the 
 state, required any extraordinary supply, he could depend with 
 corfidence on their gratitude and liberality.* The provincials 
 of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, sensible of his worth, and of thei 
 own happiness, reflected with anxiety on the declinmg health 
 of the emperor Constantius, and the tender ago of his numer 
 Dus family, the issue of his second marriage witli the daughter 
 of Maximian. 
 
 The stern temper of Galerius was cast in a very different 
 mould ; and while he commanded the esteem of his subjects, 
 he seldom condescended to solicit their affections. His tame 
 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 abdication of Diocletian to the menaces of Galerius, and 
 relate the particulars of a private conversation between tho 
 two princes, in which the former discovered as much pusilla- 
 nimity as the latter displayed ingratitude and arrogance.'' But 
 
 ^ Hie non modo amabilis, sedetiam venerabilis Gallis fuit; praecipue 
 quod Diocletiani suspectam jarudentiani, et Maximiani sanguinariaia 
 violentiam imperio ejus evaserant. Eutrop. Breviar. x. i. 
 
 ^ Divitiis Provincialium (mel. provinciarum) ac privatorum studens, 
 fisci commoda non admodum affectans; ducensque melius publicas 
 opes a privatis haberi, quam intra unuin claustrum rcservari. Id. ibid. 
 lie carried this maxim so far, that whenever he gave an entertainment, 
 he was obliged to borrow a service of plate. 
 
 * 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 par- 
 liif et agir, comme ils auroient fait eux-memes a uotro place." 
 
 ' This aUack upon Lactantius is unfounded. Lactaniins was so fai 
 from having been an obscure rhetorician, that he had taught rhetoric pub 
 licly, and with the gicatest success, first in Africa, and afterwards ia 
 Nioimcdia. His reputation obtained him the esteem of Constantine, who
 
 A,D. 305-323.J OF iiii; ruman EMPinE. 458 
 
 these obscure anecdotes are sufBeiently refuted by an inipartia 
 view of the character and conduct of Diocletian. Whatevei 
 might otherwise have been liis intentions, if he had apjtro- 
 hcuded any danger from the violence of Galerius, his gtjod 
 sense would have instructed him to prevent the ignoiiiinioua 
 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 
 'bl AugustL two new Ccesars were required to supply their 
 place, and to complete the system of the Imperial government. 
 Diocletian 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 em- 
 pire ; and he consented, without reluctance, that his successor 
 should assuine the merit as well as the envy of tlie important 
 nomination. It was fixed without consulting the interest or 
 inclination of the princes of the AVest. Each of them bad a 
 son who was arrived at the age of manhood, and who might 
 have been deemed the most natural candidates for the vacant 
 honor. ])ut the impotent 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 C^sar, were much better suited to 
 serve the views of his ambition ; and their principal recom- 
 mendation 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, 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 
 
 invited him to his court, and intrusted to him the education of his son 
 Crispus. TIic facts which he relates took place during his own time ; ho 
 taniiot be accused of dishonesty or imposture. Satis mc vixisso arbitrabor 
 !t ollicium hominis implfcsse si labor meus aliquos homines, ab crroribua 
 iberatos, ad iter coeleste direxerit. De Opif. Dei, cap. 20. The eloquence 
 if Lactanf.ius has cause I him to be called the Christian Cicero. Anon 
 jent — (j. 
 
 Yet no unprejudiced person can read this coarse and particular private 
 x;nv(u-.sation of the two emperors, without assenting to the justice of Gib- 
 bo u's severe sentence. But the aathor.«hip of the treatise is by no mcaiia 
 cert'iiii. Tb-J fame of Lactantius for eloquence as well as for truth, would 
 •afler u: .t<ss i; it should be adjudged to some more "obscure rhetorician." 
 lianso, in his Lcben Constautins des Grossen, corturs ou lhi.s point witk 
 Gibbou Uejlage, iv. — M.
 
 454 THE DECMNE AND FALL [A. D. 305 -32^ 
 
 invested by Diocletian -with the purpl'j, exalted to the dignity of 
 Ceesar, and intrusted with the sovereign command of Egypt 
 und Syria.* At the same time, Severus, a faithful servant, ad- 
 dicted to pleasure, but not incapable of business, was sent tc 
 Milan, to receive, from the reluctant hands of Maximian, the 
 Jajsarian ornaments, and the possession of Italy and Africa. 
 According to the forms of the constitution, Severus acknowl 
 edged the supremacy of the western emperor; but he svas 
 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 powei 
 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 meditated his own retreat from public life, after he 
 should have accomplished a glorious reign of about twenty 
 years.'' 
 
 But within less than eighteen months, two unexpected revo- 
 lutions overturned the ambitious schemes of Galerius. The 
 hopes of uniting the western provinces to his empire were dis- 
 appointed by the elevation of Constantine, whilst Italy and 
 AtVica were lost by the successful revolt of Maxentius. 
 
 I. The fame of Constantine has rendered posterity attentive 
 to the most minute circumstances of his life and actions. The 
 place of his birth, as well as the condition of his mother Hel- 
 ena, 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 
 
 " Sublatus nuper a pecoribus et silvis (says Lactantius de M. P. a 
 19) statiin Scutarius, continuo Protector, mox Tribunus, postridiu 
 Cajsar, accepit Orientem. Aurelius Victor is too liberal in giving him 
 tlie whole portion of Diocletiaa. 
 
 ° His diligence and fidelity are acknowledged even by LactantiuSj 
 de M. P. c. 18. 
 
 ^ These schemes, however, rest only on the very doubtful authority 
 of Lactantius de M. P. c. 20. 
 
 * This tradition, unknown to the contemporaries of Constantine 
 was invented in the darkness of monestaries, was embellished by Jeffrej 
 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 pon- 
 derous History of England, compiled by Mr. Carte, (vol. i. p. 147.) H« 
 transports, however, tlic kingdom uf Coil, t-''¥ imaginary father '»f ilele- 
 oisl, from Essex to the wall uf Antoninus.
 
 A. D. 292.J OF TIIK ROMAN EMl'IRE. AUi 
 
 Helena was the dauglitcr of an innkeeper ; but at the same 
 time, we may defend tiie legality of ber marriage, againsj 
 those who have represented her as the concubine of Constan- 
 tius.° The great Constaiitine was most probably born at 
 Naissus, in Dacia;" and it is not surprising that, in a family 
 and province distinguished only by the j^roft^'.ssion of arms, the 
 youth should discover very little inclination to improve hh 
 mind by the acquisition of knowledge." He was aboul 
 eighteen yoars of age when his father was j)romoted to the 
 rank of Caesar ; but that fortunate event was attended with his 
 mother's divorce ; and the splendor of an Imperial alliance 
 reduced the son of Helena to a state of disgrace and humili- 
 ation. Instead of following Constantius in the West, he 
 remained in the service of Diocletian, signalized his valor in 
 the wars of Egypt and Persia, and gradually rose to the hon- 
 orable station of a tribune of the lii"st order. The figure of 
 Constantine was tall and majestic ; he was dexterous in all hia 
 
 • Eutropius (x. 2) expresses, in a few words, the real truth, and the 
 occasion of the error " ex obscuriori matrimonio ejus fihus." Zosimus 
 (L ii. p. 78) eagerly seized the most mifavorablo report, and is followed 
 by Orosius, (vii. 25,) whose authority is oddly enough overlooked by the 
 indefiitigable, but partial Tillemont. By insisting on the divorce of 
 Helena, Diocletian acknowledged her marriage. 
 
 " There are tliree opinions with regard to the place of Constan 
 tine's birth. 1. Our English antiquarians wore used to dwell with rap 
 ture on the words of his panegyrist, " Britannias illic oriendo nobilea 
 fecisti." But this celebrated passage may be referred with as much 
 propriety to the accession, as to the nativity of Constantine. 2. Some 
 of the modern Greeks have ascribed the honor of his bhth to Dre- 
 panum, a town on the Gulf of Nicomedia, (Cellarius, tom. ii. p. 17-t,) 
 which Constantine dignified with the name of Helenopolis, and 
 Justinian adorned with many splendid buildings, (Procop. do Edificijj*, 
 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 maniage, and tho 
 places where his cliildren are born, have ver}' little connection with 
 each other. 3. The claim of Naissus is supported by tlie anonymous 
 wi'iter, pubUshed at the end of Ammianus, p. 710, and who in general 
 copied very good materials; and it is confirmed by Julius Firmi- 
 cus, (de Astrologia, 1. i. c. 4,) who flourished under the reign of Con 
 etautine himself. Some objections have been raised against the 
 integrity of the text, and the application 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 llomana, 1. iv. ell, ct Sup 
 plfmeut. 
 
 ^* Uteris minus instruotus. Anonym, ad Aiamian. p. 710.
 
 46C THE DECLINE AN'D FALL i A. D. 292. 
 
 exeicises, intrepid in war, .affable in peace; in nis whole cod- 
 .met, the a'.tive spirit of youth \^as tempered by habitual pru- 
 dence; and while his mind was engrossed by ambition, ho ap 
 peared cold and insensible to the allurements of pleasure. 
 The favor of the people and soldie-rs, who had named him as 
 R worthy candidate for the rank of Ccesar, served only to ex- 
 asperate the jealousy of Galerius ; and though prudence might 
 restrain him from exercising any open violence, an absolute 
 D3onafch is seldom at a loss now to execute a sure and secret 
 oven^ire.'* 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 
 Bome time the policy of Galerius supplied him with delays and 
 excuses ; but it was impossible long to refuse so natural a 
 request of his associate, without maintaining his refusal by arms. 
 The permission of the journey was reluctantly granted, and 
 whatever precautions the emperor might have taken to intercept 
 a return, the consequences of which he, with so much reason, 
 apprehended, they were effectually disappointed by the incred- 
 ible diligence of Constantine." Leaving the palace of Nico- 
 media in the night, he travelled 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 Avhen his father was preparing to embark for 
 Britain.'' 
 
 " Galerius, or perhaps his own courage, exposed him to single com 
 6at with a Sarmatian, (Anonym, p. 710,) and with a mcnstrous lioa 
 See Praxagoras apud Photium, p. 63. Praxagoras, an Athenian philoso 
 
 f)hcr, had written a life of Constantine in two books, which are no\V 
 ost. He was a contemporary. 
 
 " Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 78, 79. Lactantius de M. P. c. 24. The former 
 tells a very foolish story, tliat Constantine caused all the post-horses 
 which he had used to be hamstrung. Such a bloody execution, with- 
 out preventing a pursuit, would have scattered suspicions, and might 
 have stopped his journey.* 
 
 " Anonym, p. 710. Panegyr. Veter. vii. 4. But Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 79, 
 Eusebius de Vit. Constant. 1. i. c. 21, and Lactantius de M. P. c. 24, 
 suppose, with less accuracy, tliat he found his father on his death- 
 bed. 
 
 * Zosimus is i.ot the only writer who teUs this story. The young-er Victor 
 rxiafirms it. Ad frustrandos iu.sequentes, publica jumenta, quaqua iter ageret, 
 inlerficiens. Aurelius Victor de Caasar. sajs the same -hiiig-, G. sj3 also the 
 Anonymus Valesii. — M. 
 
 Manso, (Lebeu Coastai tins,) p. 18, ob.serves that the .story_ lits boei 
 exaggcMited ; he took this precaution dai'ln.? the iirst stage of his jowruay 
 — M,
 
 A. D. 306.1 OF THE ROMAN EMrms. 457 
 
 The British expedition, and an easy victory over tho barba- 
 rians of Caledonia, were the hvst exploits of the reign of Con- 
 stantius. He ended his life in the Imperial palace of York, 
 fifteen months after he had received the title of Augustus, and 
 almost fourteen years and a half after he had been promoted 
 to the rank of Cresar. His death was immediately succeeded 
 by the elevation of Constantine. The ideas of inhcritanoo 
 and succession are so very famihar, that the generality of 
 mankind consider them as founded, not only in reason, but in 
 nature itself. Our imagination readily t*-ansfers tho 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 tho 
 people, the joint influence of prejudice and of aftection operates 
 with irresistible weight. The flower of the western armies 
 Uad followed Constantius into Britain, and the national troops 
 were reenforced by a numerous body of Alemanni, who obeyed 
 the orders of Crocus, one of their hereditary chieftains.'^ The 
 opinion of their own importance, and the assurance that 
 Britain, Gaul, and Spain 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 honor 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 that artful prince show 
 himself to the troops, till they were prepared to salute him 
 with the names of Augustus and Emperor. The throne wjw 
 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 sentiments of Galerius, and 
 sufficiently apprised, that if he wished to live he must deter- 
 mine to reijyn. The decent and even obstinate resistance 
 
 " Cunctia qui aderant annitcntibus, sed prrRcipue Croco {alii Eroco) 
 [L^rich?] Alamannorum Rege, auxilii gratia Constantiuin comitata 
 imperium capit. Victor Junior, c. 41. Tliis is perhaps the first in- 
 stance of a barbarian king, wlio assisttul tlic Roman arms with an 
 independent body of his own suiijects. The f r act ice grew fairjli:ur 
 4nd at h\st became fut'il. 
 
 VOL I. U.
 
 458 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 306, 
 
 which he chose to affect," was contrived to justify his usurpa- 
 tion ; nor did Le yield to the acchimations of the army, till 
 he had provided the proper materials for a letter, which he 
 immediately despatched to the emperor of the E;ist. Constan- 
 tino informed him of the melancholy event of his father's 
 death, modestly asserted his natural ch\im to the succession, 
 and respectfully lamented, that the affectionate violence of his 
 troops had not permitted him to solicit the Imperial purple it 
 the regular and constitutional manner. The first emotions of 
 Galevius were those of surprise, disappointment, and rage ; 
 and as he could seldom restrain his passions, he loudly threat- 
 ened, that he would commit to the flames both the letter and 
 the messenger. But his resentment insensibly subsided ; and 
 when he recollected the doubtful chance of war, when he had 
 weighed the character and strength of his adversary, he con- 
 sented to embrace the honorable accommodation which the 
 prudence of Constantine had left open to him. Without either 
 condemning or ratifying the choice of the British army, Gale- 
 rius accepted the son of his deceased colleague as the sovereign 
 of the provinces beyond the Alps ; but he irave him only the 
 title of Caesar, and the fourth rank among the Boman princes, 
 whilst he conferred the vacant place of Augustus on his favoi'ite 
 Severus, The apparent harmony of the empire was still 
 preserved, and Constantino, who already possessed the substance, 
 expected, without impatience, an opportunity of obtaining the 
 honors, of supreme power." 
 
 The children of Constantius by his second marriage wero 
 six 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 Constantino was in the thirty-second 
 year of his age, in the full vigor both of mind and body, at 
 the time when the eldest of his brothers could not possibly be 
 more than thirteen years old. His clann of superior merit 
 had been allowed and ratified by the dyinir emperor." In hib 
 
 " His panegyrist Eumenius (vii. 8) ventures to afSira. in the prea 
 ence of Constantine, tliat he put spurs to his horse, and kied, but ir 
 vain, to escape from the hands of his soldiers. 
 
 " Lactantius de M. P. c. 25. Eumenius (vii. 8.) gives a fhetarical 
 turn to the wliole transactioi:. 
 
 '^ Tlie choice of Constantme, by his dying father, wfiich is war- 
 ranted by reason, and insinuated by Eumenius, seems to be confirmod 
 by the most unexceptionable authority, tlie concurring evidence at 
 Lactantius (de M. P. c. 24) and of Libauius, (Oratio i.,) of Eiisebiia 
 (id Vit. Constantin. 1. i. c. 18, 21) and of Julian, (Oratio L)
 
 A. D. 306.] OF TUE ROMAN SMnUE, 4S9 
 
 iast raoments Constantius bequeathed to liis eldest 3on 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 honors of the state with which they 
 were invested, attest the fraternal affection of Constantino ; and 
 as those princes possessed a mild and grateful disposition, they 
 submitted without reluctance to the superioiity of his genius 
 and fortune.'* 
 
 U. The ambitious spirit of Galerius was scarcely reconciled 
 to the disappointment of his views upon the Gallic provinces, 
 before the unexpected loss of Italy wounded his pride as well 
 as power in a still more sensible part. The long absence of 
 the emperors had filled Rome with discontent and indigna- 
 tion ; 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 government 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 still 
 supply the ground as well as the materials for so many 
 churches and convents.*" The tranquillity of those elegant 
 recesses of ease and luxury was disturbed by the impatient 
 murmurs of the Romans, and a report was insensibly circulat- 
 ed, 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 in- 
 duced him to make a very strict and rigorous inquisition into 
 the property of his subjects, for the purpose of a general 
 
 " Of tlie three sisters of Constantinc, Constantia married the 
 emperor Licinius, Anastasia tb e Cffisar Bassianus, and Eutropia the 
 consul Nepotianus. The three brothers were, Dahnatius, Julius Con- 
 stantius, and Annibalianus, of whom we shall have occasion to speak 
 h.GrG3,ftGr, 
 
 "" See Gruter. Inscrip. p. 178. The six princes are all mentioned, 
 Diocletian and Maxiniian as the senior August!, and fatliers of the 
 emperors. Tliey jointly dedicate, for the use of their own Romans, 
 this magnificent edifice. The architects have delineated the ruins of 
 these Thcrmce, and the antiquarians, particularly Donatus and Nar- 
 dini, have ascertained the ground which they covered. One of th« 
 great rooms is now the Carthusian church; and even one of tlia 
 porter's lodges is sufficient to form another church, ivhicfc belongs U 
 the Feuillans.
 
 460 THE DISCLINE XNU FALt [A. D. 306i, 
 
 taxation, bo'li on their lands and on their persons. A very 
 minute survey appears to have been taken of tlieir real estates ^ 
 and wherever there was the slightest suspicion of conceal- 
 ment, torture was very freely employed to obtain a sincere 
 declaration of their personal wealth.*' The privileges which 
 had exalted Italy above the rank of the provinces were no 
 longer regarded : * and the ofSccrs of the revenue already 
 began to number the Roman people, and to settle the propor- 
 uon of the new taxes. Even when the spirit of freedom had 
 oeeu utterly extinguished, the tamest subjects have sometimes 
 ventured to resist an unprecedented invasion of their property; 
 out on this occasion the injuiy was aggravated by the insult, 
 i»nd the sense of private interest was quickened by that of 
 national honor. The conquest of Macedonia, as we have 
 afready 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 exemp- 
 tion near five hundred years ; nor could they patiejitly brook 
 the insolence of an Illyrian peasant, who, from his distant 
 residence in Asia, presumed to number Rome among the trib- 
 utary cities of his empire. The rising fury of the people was 
 encouraged by the authoi'ity, or at least the connivance, of 
 the senate ; and the feeble remains of the Praetorian guards, 
 who had rejison to apprehend their own dissolution, embraced 
 so honorable 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 liope, 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 favor the popular enthu- 
 sL'jsm. 
 
 Maxentius was the son of the emperor Maximian, and ha 
 
 "^ See Lactant'us de M. P. c. 26, 31. 
 
 * Saviguy, in his memoir on Roman taxation, (Mem. Berl. Academ. !823 
 l&ii3, p. 5,) dates from this period the abolition of the Jus Italicum. He quotes 
 B remarliable passage of AureHus Victor. Hinc denique parti Italiaj inveo 
 turn tributorum ingens malum. Aur. Vict. c. 39. It ^va8 a necessary couso 
 quence of the division of the empire: it became impossible to ranhitain a 
 ■eeoud court and execative, and leave so large and fruitful a part of tibe tw 
 ritorj- axeiapt fiom coatribution. — M.
 
 A.D. 306.] OF TIIR ROMAN EMTIRK. 4^1 
 
 hid married the daughter of Galeriiis. His birth and ii'ilianofl 
 seemed to ofter hiin the fairest promise of succeed innj to tho 
 empire ; but his vices and inca])acity procured him the same 
 exckision from the dignity of Caesar, wliich Constantino had 
 deserved by a dangerous superiority of merit. The pohcy 
 of Galerius preferred such associates as would never disgrace 
 the clioice, nor dispute the commands, of their bcnetactor. 
 An ol)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, 
 Bhame, 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 per- 
 suaded 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 nor 
 difficult. The praefect of the city, and a few magistrates, 
 who maintained their fidelity to Severus, were massacred by 
 the guards ; and Maxentius, invested ivitli the Imperial orna- 
 ments, was acknowledged by the applauding senate and 
 people as the protector of the Roman freedom and dignity. 
 It is uncertain whether Maximian was previously acquainted 
 with the conspiracy ; but as soon as the standard of rebellion 
 was erected at Rome, the old emperor broke from the retire- 
 ment where the authority of Diocletian had condemned him 
 to pass a life of melancholy and solitude, 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."' 
 
 According to the advice, or rather the orders, of his col- 
 league, the emperor Severus immediately hastened to Rome, 
 in the full confidence, that, by his unexpected celerit)', he 
 
 ''' TJIie isixii: Panegyric represents the conduct of ilaxiinian in the 
 most favorable light, and the ambiguous expression of Aurelius 
 Victor, "retractante diu," may signify cither that he contrived, or thai 
 he opposed, the conspiracy. See Zosimus, L ii. p. 79, and Lactantiiu 
 da M. P. c. 26.
 
 482 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 307. 
 
 should easily suppress the tumult of an unwarlike populace, 
 commanded by a hcentious youth. But he found on his arri- 
 val the gates of the city shut against him, the \valls 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 deserted to the enemy, allured by the promisft 
 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. Anu- 
 linus, the Praetorian prsefect, dec"ared himself in favor of Max- 
 entius, and drew after him the 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 sur- 
 rounded 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 pro- 
 visions, and gave a free entrance to the legions, which, on the 
 return of spring, would advance to his assistance from Illyri- 
 cum 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 expe- 
 rienced disposed that unhappy prince to distrust the most sin- 
 cere 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 honorable capitulation. He was at 
 first received with humanity and treated with respeoi. Max- 
 imian 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 
 sasy death and an Imperial funeral. When the sentence was 
 signified to him, the manner of executing it was left to hia 
 own choice ; he preferred the favorite mode of the ancients, 
 ihat of opening his veins ; and as soon ss he expired, his
 
 A.D. 307.] OF THE ROMAN KMPIRE. 469 
 
 body was c;inied to the sepulchre which had oecn coiiBtructed 
 tor the tainily of Gallieuus.'^ 
 
 Though the characters of Constatitiuc and Maxentius Latl 
 very httle affinity with each other, their situation and interest 
 were the same ; and prudence seemed to ret^uire that they 
 should unite their forces against the common enemy. Not- 
 withstanding the superiority of his age and dignity, the inde- 
 atigable Maximian passed the Alps, and, courting a pei-sonal 
 interview with the sovereign of Gaul, carried with him his 
 daughter Fausta as the pledge of the now alliance. The 
 maniage 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 honor from Maximian, Constantine seemed to 
 embrace the cause of Rome and of the senate ; but his pro- 
 fessions were ambiguous, and his assistance slow and ineffec- 
 tual. 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.^* 
 
 The importance of the occasion called for the presence 
 and abilities of Galerius. At the head of a powerful army, 
 collected 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 Maxim- 
 ian had concerted 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 
 
 '* The circumstances of tJiis war, and the death of Severus, ar« 
 very doubtfully and variously told in our ancient fr.agments, (see 
 Tilk mont, Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iv. part i. p. 555.) I have en- 
 dea> ored to extract from them a consistent and probable narration.* 
 
 -* The sixtft Panegyric was pronounced to celebrate tlio elevation 
 ».' Constantine; but the prud'int orator avoid^^ the mention cither of 
 Qalerius or of Maxentius. He introduces only one slight adasion to 
 Ihe actual troubles, and to the majesty of Rome.f 
 
 ' Manso ju.stly observes that two totally diflTerent narratives raight be 
 formed almost ujpon otjual antliority. Bcylaj^c, iv. — M. 
 
 t Compare Manso, Beylago, iv p 302 Gibbon's account le at least Of 
 probable as that of liis oritic— M.
 
 464 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. iUT 
 
 vf Rome, his dominion in Italy was confined to the nariow 
 amies of ]iis camp. Sensible of the increasing difficulties of 
 his enterprise, the haughty Galerius made the first advance? 
 towards a reconciliation, and despatched two of his most con- 
 siderable officers to tempt the Roman princes by the offer cf 
 a conference, and the declaration of his paternal regard foi 
 Maxentius, who might obtain much more from his liberalitj 
 than he could hope from the doubtful chance of war.^* ITie 
 oft'ers of Galerius were rejected with firmness, his perfidious 
 friendship refuse^ with contempt, and it was not long befora 
 he discovered, that, unless he provided for his safety by ? 
 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 destruc- 
 tion. 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 ardor 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 honor. 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 no- 
 tion 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 peo- 
 ple have long contended against the discipline and valor of the 
 legions. AVe are likewise informed that the legions them- 
 selves were struck with horror and remorse, and that those 
 pious sons of the republic refused to violate the sanctity of 
 their venerable parent."* But when we recollect with how 
 
 '° With regard to this negotiation, see the fragments of an ana y 
 BGoua historian, publisLf^d hj Valesius at the end of his edition of 
 Ammianus Marcellinus. p. 711. These fragments have furnislied ui 
 with several ciuuous, and, as it shoidd seem, au'.hentic anecdotes. 
 
 "° Lactantius de M. P. c. 28. The former cf these reasons is prob- 
 ably taken from Virgil's Sliepherd : " lUam * * * ego huic nostra 
 wimlem, Mehboee, putavi." &c. Lactantius delights in. these -ooetica] 
 kllusions.
 
 A. D. SOT] OP THE ROMAN ENfprnE, 4BS 
 
 much ease, in the more aj.ciont civil wars, the zeal of partii 
 and the habits of military obedience had converted the native 
 citizens of Rome into her mo.<t implacable enemies, we shall 
 be inclined to distrust this extreme delicacy of strans^'ers and 
 barbarians, who had never beheld It;dy till they entered it in 
 a hostile manner. Had they not been restrained by molivea 
 of a more interested nature, they would probably have an- 
 swered Galerius in the words of Ctesar's veterans : " If our 
 general wishes to lead us to the banks of the Tyber, we are 
 prepared to trace out his camp. "Whatsoever walla he has 
 doterruined 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 tho 
 expressions of a poet; but of a poet who has been disitin- 
 guished, and even censured, for his strict adherence to the 
 truth of history.'" 
 
 The legions of Galerius exhibited a very molancholy proof 
 of their disposition, by the ravages which they committed in 
 their retreat. They murdered, they ravished, they plundered, 
 they drove away the flocks ard herds of the Italians ; they 
 burnt the villages through which they passed, and they en 
 deavored to destroy the country which it had not been in their 
 power to subdue. During the whole march, Maxcntius hung 
 on their rear, but he very prudently declined a general 
 engagement w4h those brave and desperate veterans. His 
 father had undertaken a second journey into Gaul, with tho 
 hope of persuading Constantine, who had assembled an army 
 on the frontier, to join in the pursuit, and to complete the vic- 
 tory. But the actions of Constantine were guided by reason, 
 and not by resentment. 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.'' 
 
 The mind of Galerius was the most susceptible of th* 
 Bternei passions, but it was not, however, incapable of a sin- 
 
 *' Castra super Tusci si ponere Tybridis undas ; {jubetu) 
 
 Hesperios audax veniam metator in agros. 
 Tu quoscunque voles in planum offundcie muros, 
 His aries actus dispergct saxa lacertis ; 
 ilia licet penitus tolli quam jusseris urbem 
 Roma sit. Lucan. Pharsal. L 381. 
 
 " Lactantius de M. P. c. 27. Zosim. 1. ii. p. 82. The latter iiMO 
 tkit«8 that Constantine, in his interview with Maximiai, had proo> 
 i««d to declare war against Galerius. 
 .,*
 
 466 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 308 
 
 cere and lasting friendship. Licinius, whose manners as well 
 as diaracter, were not unlike his own, seems to have engaged 
 both his affection 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 througli the 
 successive honors of the service ; and as soon as Galeriua 
 was invested with the Imperial dignity, he seems to have con- 
 ceived the design of raising his companion to the same rank 
 with himself. During the short period of his prosperity, he 
 considered the rank of Csesar 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 em- 
 peror was employed in the Italian war, he intrusted his frien:: 
 with the defence of the Danube ; and immediately after his 
 return from that unfortunate expedition, he invested Liciniiu 
 with the vacant purple of Severus, resigning to his immediate 
 command the provinces of Elyricum.'" The news of his pro- 
 motion was no sooner carried into the East, than Maximin, who 
 governed, or rather oppressed, the countries of Egypt and 
 Syria, betrayed his envy and discontent, 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.^" For the first, and 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 honored 
 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 powei-s ; but their mutual 
 fears produced an apparent tranquillity, and even a feigned 
 reconcihation, till the death of the elder princes, of Maximian, 
 and more particularly of Galerius, gave a new direction to tho 
 views and passions of their surviving associates. 
 
 '° M. de Tillen'iont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iv. part i. p. 559) 
 has proved that Licinius, without passing through the intermediate 
 rank of Caesar, was declared Augustus, the 11th of November, A. D. 
 BOY, after the return of Galerius from Italy. 
 
 '^ Lactantius de M. P. c. 32. When Galerius declared Licinius 
 Augustus with himself, he tried to satisfy his younger associates, bv 
 inventing for Constantine and Maximin (not Maxentius ; see Baluze, p. 
 81) the new title of sons of the Auguiti. But when Maximin ac- 
 quainted him that he had been saluted Augustis by the army, Gale 
 lius wa& obliged to acknowledge hinr &s well as Constantine, as equal 
 .i;o,on«;o+^.", •'^.^'.•,.i.T-;jTv;<;ia! dignity
 
 A. D. 308.] OF riiE roman empire. 467 
 
 When Mdximian had reluctantly abdicated the empire, the 
 venal orators of the times appUiuded his philosophic moder- 
 ation. When his ambition excited, or at least encourajyed, 
 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." But it waa im- 
 possible that minds like those of Maximian and his son could 
 long possess in harmony an undivided power. Maxentius con- 
 sidered himself as the legal 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 Prietorian guards ; 
 and those troops, who dreaded the severity of the old em- 
 peror, espoused the party of JSIaxentius." The life and free- 
 dom 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 witli his character, soon obliged him to 
 leave his dominions, and the last refuge of the disappoiuted 
 Maximian was the court of his son-in-law Constantine.^^ lie 
 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,'* 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 dig- 
 nity, indeed, than in his first retirement, yet, however, with 
 comfort and reputation. But the near prospect of a throne 
 brought back to his remembrance the state from whence he 
 
 *' See Panegyr. Vet. vi. 9. Audi doloris nostri liberam vocem, <fec. 
 The whole passage is imagined with artful flattery, and expressed with 
 RD easy flow of eloquence. 
 
 ^^ Lactantius de M. P. c. 28. Zosim. 1. ii. p. 82. A report waa 
 spread, that Maxentius was the son of some obscure Syrian, and liad 
 been substituted by the wife of Maximian as her own child. See 
 Aurelius Victor, Anonym. Valesian, and Panegyr. Vet ix. 3, 4. 
 
 "^ Ab urbe pulsum, ab ItaUa fugatum, ab Illyrico roiiudiatum, ixut 
 provinciis, tuis copiis, tuo palatio recepisti. Eumen. in Panegyr 
 V'et. viL 14.^ 
 
 " Lactantius de M. P. c. 29. Yet, after the resignation of the pur- 
 ple, Constantino still continued to Maximian the pomp and honors of 
 the Imperial dignity ; and on all public occasions gave the right-hacd 
 place to his father-in -la-i»' Panegyr. Vet. viiL 16.
 
 i68 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 310 
 
 was fallen, and lie resolved, by a desperate tfFort. either to 
 reign or to perish. An incursion of the Franks had sum- 
 inop.ed Constantine, with a part of his army, to the banks of 
 the Rhine ; the remainder of the troops were stationed in the 
 souliisrn provinces of Gaul, which lay exposed to the enter- 
 prises of the Italian emperor, and a considerable treasure was 
 deposited in the city of Aries. Maximian either craftily in- 
 vented, or easily credited, a vain report of the death of Con- 
 stantine. Without hesitation he ascended the throne, seized 
 the treasure, and scattering it with his accustomed profusion 
 among the soldiers, endeavored to awake in their minds the 
 memory of his ancient dignity and exploits. Before he could 
 establish his authority, or finish the negotiation which he ap 
 pears 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- 
 boring -city of Marseilles. The narrow neck of land which 
 joined that place to the continent was fortified against the 
 besiegers, whilst the sea was open, either for the escape of 
 Maximian, or for the succor of Maxentius, if the latter should 
 choose to disguise his invasion of Gaul under the honorable 
 pretence of defending a distressed, or, as he might allege, an 
 injured father. Apprehensive of the fatal consequences of 
 delay, Constantine 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, con- 
 scious either of their fault or of their danger, had not pur- 
 chased their pardon by delivering up the city and the pei-son 
 of Maximian. A secret but irrevocable sentence of death was 
 pronounced against the usurper ; he obtained only the same 
 favor which he had indulged to Severus, and it was published 
 to the world, that, oppressed by the remorse of lis 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 wer« 
 terminated, in about three years, by an ignomimrus deatb
 
 A.D. 31].] OF THE ROMAN EMI'lRIt. 469 
 
 He deserved his fate ; but we should Hiid more i ?;i.son to 
 applaud the humanity of Constantino, if he had spared ao 
 old man, the benefactor of his father, and the father of hi» 
 wife. During the whole of this melancholy transaction, it aj>* 
 pears that Fausta sacrificed the sentiments of nature to bti 
 conjugal duties." 
 
 The last years of Galerius were less shameful and unfor- 
 1 urate ; and though he had filled with more glory the subor- 
 dinate station of C?esar than the superior rank of Augustus, 
 he preserved, till the moment of his death, the first jilac« 
 among the princes of the Roman world. lie 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 tha» 
 encompassed it; an operation worthy of a monarch, since it 
 gave an extensive country to the agriculture of his Pannoniati 
 subjects.^" His death was occasioned by a very painful and 
 
 ="* Zosim. 1. ii. p. 82. Eumenius in Panegyr. Vet. vii. 16—21. The 
 latter of these has undoubtedly represented tlie wliolc affair in the 
 most favorable light for his sovereign. Yet even from this partial 
 narrative vre may conclude, that tlie repeated clemency of Constan- 
 tine, 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.* 
 
 ^° Aurelius Victor, c. 40. But tliat lake was .«ituated on the upper 
 Pannonia, near the borders of Noricum ; and the province of Valeria 
 (a name which tlie wife of Galerius gave to the ch-aiiied country) un- 
 doubtedly lay between the Drave and tiic Danube, (Se.vtus Rufus, c. 9.) 
 I should therefore suspect that Victor has confounded the Lake Pelso 
 with the Volocean marshes, or, as tliey are now cjiUed, the Lake Sa- 
 baton. It is placed in the heart of Valeria, and its present extent ia 
 not less tlian twelve Hungarian miles (about seventy English) in 
 length, and two in breadth. See Severini Pannonia, I. i. c. 9. 
 
 * Yet some pagan authors relate and confirm them. Aurelius Victor 
 epeakiiif? of Maximin, Bays, cutiKiue specie oIKcii, dolis compbsitis, Constau 
 Linum genenmi tcnt.iret acerbe, jure laiiieii iiitericrat. Aur. Vict, do Citsar 
 I. p. G23. Kutropius also says, indc ad Gallias profoctns est (Maxinii!uius| 
 llolo coniposito tamquam a tilio e.sset expulsns, ut Coiistaiitiuo i;euero jun 
 (<erctur: raoliens taincii Constantinum, rcpertu occasioiie, intcrlicere. puL'iia* 
 dcdit jnstissimo cxitu. Eulrop. x. p. 661. {Anon. Gent.)— G. 
 
 These writers hardly confirm more than Gibbon admits ; he di^uios tlw 
 repeated clemency of Constantino, and the reiierated treasons ol Uaxizuiu) 
 Oompare Mauso, p. 302.— M.
 
 470 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 306-312 
 
 lingering disorder. His body, swelled by an intemperate 
 course of life to an unwieldy corpulence, was covered with 
 ulcers, and devoured by innumerable swarms of those insects 
 which have given their name to a most loathsome disease ; *' 
 hut as Galerius had offended a very zealous and powerful 
 party among his subjects, his sufierings, instead of exciting 
 their compassion, have been celebrated as the visible eflPecU 
 of divine justice.^' He had no sooner expired in his palace 
 of Nicomedia, than the two emperors who were indebted for 
 their purple to his favors, began 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 fortilScations. The deaths of 
 Maximian and of Galerius reduced the number of emperors 
 to four. The sense of their true interest soon connected 
 Licinius and Constantine ; a secret alliance was concluded 
 between Maximin and Maxentlus, and their unhappy subjects 
 expected with terror the bloody consequences of their inevi- 
 table dissensions, which were no longer restrained by the fear 
 or the respect which they had entertained for Galerius."' 
 
 Among so many crimes and misfortunes, occasioned by the 
 passions of the Roman princes, there is some pleasure in dis- 
 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 per- 
 
 " Lactantius (de M. P. c. 33) and Eusobius (1. viii. c. 16) descrilie 
 the symptoms and progress of his disorder with singular accuracy and 
 Rjiparcnt pleasure. 
 
 '^^ If any (hke the late Dr. Jortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory, vol. ii. p. 307 — 356) still delight in recording the wonderful doatho 
 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 XL of Spain. 
 
 '" See Eusebius, 1. ix. 6, 10. Lactantius de M. P. c. 36. ZosimMH 
 ta less exact, and evidently coufourds "Maximian with Maxiralr..
 
 A* D. 306-312.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. -47) 
 
 sonal capitation." Yet aven this indulgxMico atlurJs the- most 
 unquestionable proof of the public misery. This Ui\ was sc 
 extremely oppressive, either in itself or in the mode of coi 
 lecting it, that whilst the revenue was incre-ased by extortion, 
 it was diminished by despair : a considerable part of tho 
 territory of Autuu 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 i)artial act 
 gf 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 Con- 
 stantine 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 valor. After a signal vic- 
 tory over the Franks and Alemanni, several of their princes 
 were exposed by his order to the wild beasts in the amphi- 
 theatre of Treves, and the people seem to have enjoyed the 
 spectacle, without discovering, in such a treatment of royal 
 captives, any thing that was repugnant to the laws of nations 
 or of humanity.'*** 
 
 The virtues of Constantino were rendered more illustrious 
 by the vices of Maxentius. Whilst the Gallic provinces 
 enjoyed as much happiness as the condition of the times was 
 capable of receiving, Italy and Africa groaned under the do- 
 minion of a tyrant, as contemptible as he was odious. The 
 zeal of flattery and faction has indeed too frequently sacri- 
 ficed 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 
 
 *° See the viiith Panegyr., in which Eumenivj) displays, iti tht 
 presence of Constantino, the misery and the gratitjdc of the city of 
 Autnn. 
 
 *' Euiropius, x. 3. Panegyr. Vetcr. vii. 10, 11. 12. A jreat num- 
 ber of the French youth -^ere hkewise exposed to the same cruel and 
 iguoraitious death. 
 
 " Yet the panefryric assumes somethine: of an apoloijetic tom\ To vcro 
 Constantino, quantumlibet oderint lies «.s, dum pcrhoiTcscaiit. Holm; chI ciiini 
 vera virtus, ut non ament et quiesotnt. The orator appeals Ui the enciecii 
 nuges of the republic. — M
 
 472 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A D. SOG-312 
 
 profligate." 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. Tho 
 abuse of viciorv was followed by the abuse of law and justice. 
 A formidable army of sycophants and delators invaded Africa ; 
 IbD rich and the noble were easily convicted of a connection 
 wilh the rebels; and those among them who experienced the 
 emperor's clemency, were only punished by the confiscation 
 of their estates." So signal a victory was celebrated by a 
 magnificent triumph, and Maxentius 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 inexhaust- 
 ible fund for his vain and prodigal expenses, and the minis 
 ters 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 multi- 
 plied." Maxentius had imbibed the same implacable aver 
 sion to the senate, which had characterized most of the former 
 tyrants of Rome ; nor was it possible for his ungrateful 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, the 
 dishonor of their wives and daughters heightened the gratifica- 
 tion of his sensual passions." It may be presumed, that an 
 Imperial lover was seldom reduced to sigh in vain ; but when, 
 ever persuasion proved ineffectual, he had recourse to violence ; 
 
 *^ Julian excludes Maxentius from the banquet of the Cajsars with 
 abhorrence and contempt; and Zosiraus (1. ii. p. 85) accuses him of every 
 kind of cruelty and profligacy. 
 
 ^^ Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 83 — 85. Aurelius Victor. 
 
 ** The passage of Aurelius Victor should be read in the following 
 manner : Primus instituto pessmio, munerum specie, Patres Oratores 
 qiie pecuniam conferre prodigenti sibi cogeret. 
 
 *^ Panegyr. Vet. ix. 3. Euseb. Hist Eccles. viii. 14, et in Vit. Con- 
 itint i. 33, 34. Rufinus, c. 17. The virtuous matron who sJabbcl 
 kersclf to escape the violence of Maxentius, was a Cliristian, wife to 'Clm 
 praefect of the city, and her name was Sophronia. It stiJl reinairw a 
 luestion among the cas'iista whether, ou such occasiojia^ suiciti« if 
 lastifiable.
 
 A-D 312.] OF TUE ROMAN EMPIRE. 473 
 
 and there remains one memorablo exainj)lo of a injble matron, 
 who preserved her chastity by a vokintary deatli. The sol- 
 diers were the only order of men whom he appeared to 
 respect, or studied to please. lie tilled Rome and Italy with 
 armed troops, connived at their tumults, suffered thorn with 
 impunity to plunder, and even to massacre, the defenceless 
 people ; ■"* and indulging them in the same licentiousness which 
 their emperor enjoyed, Maxentius often bestowed on his military 
 favorites 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 tbe army. Yet his j)ride w;« 
 equal to his other vices. Whilst he passed his indolent life 
 cither within the walls of his palace, or in the neighboring gar- 
 dens of Sallust, he was repeatedly heard to declare, that he alone 
 was emperor, and that the other princes were no more than his 
 lieutenants, on whom he had devolved the defence of the fron- 
 tier provinces, that he might enjoy without interruption the 
 elegant luxury of the capital. Rome, which had so long 
 regretted the absence, lamented, during the six years of his 
 reign, the presence of her sovereign."' 
 
 Though Constantine might \ne\v the conduct of Maxentius 
 with abhorrence, and the situation of the Romans with com- 
 passion, 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 
 of prudence, rather than by principles of justice." After 
 the death of Maximian, his titles, according to the establisli- 
 ed custom, had been erased, and his statues thrown down 
 with ignominy. His son, wlio had pei"secuted and deserted 
 
 *' Pr£Etorianis casdein vulgi quondam annueret, is the vaguo cx- 
 jiression of Aurelius Victor. See more particular, though somewhat 
 iliffereut, accounts of a tumult and massacre wliich liappened at Rome, 
 in Eusebius, (1. viii. c. 14,) and in Zosimus, (1. ii. p. 84.) 
 
 " See, in the Panegyrics, (ix. 14,) a lively description of the indo- 
 lecce and vain pride of Maxentius. In anotlier place the oratoi 
 observes that the riches which Rome had accumulated in a period of 
 1000 years, were lavished by the tyrant on liis mercenary bands; 
 redomptis ad civile latrociniiun manibus in gesserat. 
 
 ** After the victory of Constantine, it was universally .allowed, that 
 the jaot'-e of delivering the republic from a detested tyrant, would, a* 
 any time, have justitied his expedition into Italy. Euseb in Vi*. Coo- 
 ■tactin. I. L c. 26. Panogyr. Vet. ix. 2.
 
 474 THE DECLINE AND Fi.LL [A. D. 314 
 
 him wlieii ali\e, ..ftected to display the most pious regard for 
 liis memory, and gave orders that a similar treatment should 
 be immediately inflicted on all the statues that had been erected 
 in Italy wd Africa to the honor 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 
 diss-smbled the insult, and sought for redress by the milder ex- 
 pedient 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 avow- 
 ed 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 Rhtetia ; and though he could not ex- 
 pect 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 unani- 
 mously declare themselves his soldiers and subjects.*" Con- 
 stantine no longer hesitated. He had deliberated with caution, 
 he acted with vigor. He gave a private audience to the am- 
 bassadors, who, in the name of the senate and people, con- 
 iured him to deliver Eome from a detested tyrant ; and with- 
 out regarding the timid remonstrances of his council, he resolved 
 to prevent the enemy, and to carry the war into the heart of 
 Italy.'" 
 
 The enterprise was as full of danger as of glory ; and the 
 unsuccessful event of two former invasions was sufficient to in- 
 spire 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 honor, as well as of interest, from entertaining an idea 
 of a second desertion. Maxentius, who considered the Prae- 
 torian guards as the firmest defence of his throne, had in- 
 creased them to their ancient establishment ; and they composed, 
 
 *' Zosunus, 1. ii. p. 84, 85. Nazarius in Paneg^yr. x. 7 — IS. 
 
 *" See Panegyr. Vet. ix. 2. Omnibus fere tuis Comitibus et Ducibus 
 non solum tacite mussantibas, sed etiam aperte timentibus ; contra con- 
 silia hominum, contra Haiuspicum monita, ipse per temet liberandae 
 arbis tempus venisse sentires. The embassy of the Romans is mentior- 
 ed only by Zonavas, (1. xiii.,) and by Cedrenus, (in Compend. Hist. p. 
 270 ;) but those modern Greeks liad the opportunity of consulting many 
 writers which liavc since been lost, among which we may reckoa the 
 life of Constantino by Praxagoras. Pliotius (p. 03) has made a sboift 
 1Mb act from that historical work.
 
 A.D. 312.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIUB. 47fl 
 
 including the roo^. of the Itfilians who were onhstod into hia 
 service, a ff)rmidable body of fourscore thousand men. rorty 
 thousand Moors and Carthaginians had been raised since the 
 reduction of Africa. Even Sicily furnished its propurtion of 
 troops ; and the armies of Maxentius amounted to one hundred 
 and seventy thousand foot and eighteen thousand horse. Tho 
 wealth of Italy supplied the expenses of the war ; and tho ad- 
 jacent provinces were exhausted, to form immense magiizinca 
 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 extraordinary 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 tho 
 public safety to his private quarrel." 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. 
 But the armies of liome, placed at a secure distance from dan- 
 ger, were enervated by indulgence and luxury. Habituated to 
 the baths and theatres of Rome, they took tlie lield witli re- 
 luctance, and were chiefly composed of veterans who bad 
 almost forgotten, or of new levies who had never acquired, tho 
 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 thr; 
 laborious service, their valor 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 con- 
 sciousness of his inexperience. The intrepid mind of Con- 
 stantine had been trained from his earliest youth to war, to 
 action, and to military command. 
 
 When Hannibal marched from Gaul into Italy, he was 
 
 *^ Zosiinus (1. ii. p. 86) 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) tliat the war was carried on by 
 sea as well as by land ; and that the fleet of Constantine took pis- 
 session of Sardinia, Corsica, and the ports of Italy. 
 
 ^'^ Panegyr. Vet. ix. 3. It is not surprising that the orator should 
 diminish the numbers with which his sovereign achieved the conquest 
 df Italy ; but it appears somewhat singular that he should estfiem tlw 
 tyrant's army at no more than 100,000 men.
 
 476 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. SlSi 
 
 oWigod, first to discover, and then to opon. a way ovei 
 mountains, and through savage nations, that had never yielded 
 a passage to a regular army.^^ The Alps were then ^ruarded 
 by nature, they are now fortiOed by art. Citadels, constructed 
 with no less skill than labor and expense, command every 
 avenue into the plain, and on that side render Italy alm^t 
 inaccessible to the enemies of the king of Sardinia." But in 
 the course of the intermediate period, the generals, who have 
 attemj^t^d 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 communications between Gaul and Italy." 
 Constantine preferred the road of the Cottian Alps, or, as it is 
 now called, of Mount Cenis, and led his troops with such active 
 diligence, that he descended 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 situated 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 
 
 *' 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 resemblance of names, {Alpcs PcnnvncB,) 
 had assigned the first of these for the march of Hannibal, (see Simler 
 de Alpibus.) The Chevalier de Folard (Polyp, torn, iv.) and K 
 d'Anville have led him over Mount Genevre. But notwithstanding 
 the authority of an experienced officer and a learned goograpiier, the 
 pretensions "of Mount Cenis are supported in a specious, not to say 
 a convincing, manner, by M. Grosley. Observations sur ITtalie, torn. 
 L p. 40, (fee* 
 
 ^* La Brunette near Suse, Demont, Exiles, FcnestrcUes, Coni, &c. 
 
 ** See Ammian. Marcellin. xv. 10. His description of the roada 
 'Ker the Alps is clear, lively, and accurate. 
 
 • The dissertation of Messrs. Cramer aiid Wiclvham has clearly shown 
 ihat the Little St. Bernard must claim the honor of Hannibal's passege. A 
 ln»ot by Mr. Long (London, 1831) has added some sensible con-cctioiu 'f 
 Hiuiuibars march to the Alps. — M
 
 A.D. 312.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIKE, 47^ 
 
 pieces tlie greatest part of the garrison. Tlie flames wer« 
 extinguished by the care of Constantine, and the remains of 
 Susa preserve.i from total destruction. About forty milea 
 from thence, a more severe contest awaited him. A numer- 
 ous army of ItaHans was assembled under the lii-utenanLs of 
 Maxentius, in the plains of Turin. Its principal strength con- 
 sisted 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 
 comjy^ete armor, the joints of which were artfully adapted to 
 the motions of their bodies. Tlie aspect of this cavalry wjw 
 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 could easily break 
 and trample down the army of Constantine. They might, 
 perhaps, have succeeded in their design, had not their expe- 
 rienced adversary embraced the same method of defence, 
 which in similar circumstances 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 wero 
 shut against them, very few escaped the sword of the victo- 
 rious pursuei-s. By this important service, Turin deserved to 
 experience the clemency and even favor 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." 
 
 From Milan to Rome, the ^Emilian and Flaminian highways 
 offered an easy march of about four hundred miles ; but 
 though Constantine was impatient to encounter the tyrant, he 
 prudently directed his operations against another army of Ital- 
 ians, who, by their strength and position, might either oppose 
 his progi-ess, or, in case of a misfortune, might intercept his 
 retieat. Ruricius Pompeianus, a genei-al distinguished by hia 
 valor f.nd 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 tliat Constantino was 
 
 " Zosimiis as ■well as Eusebius hasten from the pasjas^c of the Alpt 
 {,': tbfc decisive action near Rome. We must apply to the two Paii» 
 gvrirs for the intermediate actions of Constantine.
 
 478 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. r. 312 
 
 advancing towards him, he detached a largo body of cavalry 
 which was defeated in an engagement near Brescia, and pur- 
 sued by the GaUic legions as far as the gates of Verona. The 
 necessity, the importance, and the difficulties cf the siege of 
 Verona, immediately presented themselves to tha sagacious 
 mind of Constantine.*' The city was accessible cnly by a 
 narrow peninsula towards the west, as the other three sidef 
 were surrounded by the xidige, 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 lijies, 
 pushed his attacks with prudent vigor, 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 inde- 
 fatigable diligence he soon collected an army sufficient either 
 to meet Constantine in the field, or to attack him if he obsti 
 nately 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 valor 
 and fidelity he more particularly depended, he advanced in 
 person to engage the general of Maxentius. The array ol 
 Gaul was drawn up in two lines, according to the usual prac- 
 tice of war ; but their experienced leader, perceiving that the 
 numbers of the Italians far exceeded his own, suddenly 
 changed his disposition, 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 confusion in a moment of danger, commonly 
 prove decisive ; but as this engagement began towards tho 
 close of the day, and was contested with great obstinacy during 
 the whole night, there was less room for the conduct of the 
 
 " The Marquis MafFei has examined the siege and battle of Verona 
 witJi that degree of attention and accuracy which was due to a memo- 
 rable action that happened in liis native country. The fortificat'i>na 
 of that city, constructed by Gallienus, were less cxtensirii tlian the 
 modern walls, and the amphitheatre was not i?]cliided within their df 
 eumfcrence. See Verona IlliHtiata, jiart i. p. 142 150.
 
 A. D. 312.] OF TKE ROMAN EMPIRE. 479 
 
 generals than for the courage of the soldioi-s. The rotuni 
 of hght displayed the victory of Constatitine, and a field of 
 carnage covered with many thousands of the vanquished Ital 
 ians. Their general, Ponipeianus, was found among the slain; 
 Verona immediately surrendered at discretion, and the garrison 
 was made prisoners of war.'* When the officers of the victo- 
 rious army congratulated their master on this important sue- 
 50SS, they ventured to add some respectful complaints, of such 
 i nature, however, as the most jealous monarchs will listen to 
 without displeasure. They represented to Constantinc, that, 
 not contented with all the duties of a commandei', he had ex- 
 posed his own person with an excess of valor which almost de- 
 generated into rashness : and they conjured him for the future 
 to.pay more regard to the preservation of a life in which th(> 
 safet}' of Rome and of the empire was involved.'" 
 
 While Constantine signalized his conduct and valor in the 
 field, the sovereign of Italy appeared insensible of the calam- 
 ities and danger of a civil war which reigned in the heart of hia 
 dominions. Pleasure was still the only business of Maxentius. 
 Concealing, or at least attempting to conceal, from the public 
 knowledge the misfoitunes of his arms,"" he indulged himself 
 in a vain confidence which deferred the remedies of the ap- 
 proaching evil, without deferring the evil itself"' The rapid 
 progress of Constantine"^ was scarcely sufficient to awaken 
 him from his fatal security; he flattered himself, that his 
 well-known liberality, and tiie 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 un(h.'t 
 the banners of Maximian, were at length compelled to inform 
 his effeminate son of the imminent clanger to which he w;\* 
 
 • " They wanted chains for so great a multitude of captives ; ajid th« 
 whole council was at a loss •, but the sagacious conqueror iinagiued the 
 happy expedient of converting into fetters the swords of the vanquLsb- 
 cd. Panegyr. Vet. ix. 11. 
 
 " Tanegyr. Vet. ix. 10. 
 
 *" Literas culamitatum suaruin indices supprimebat. Panegyr Vet 
 ix. 16. 
 
 *' Remedia malorum potius quani mala difFcrebat, is the fineccnsar* 
 which Tacitus passes on tlie supine indolonco of Vitellius. 
 
 " The Marquis Maflei lias made it extremely probable tha'- Coo- 
 etantine was still at Verona, the 1st of Sejjtemt er, A. D. £1"2. and tlia« 
 the memorable tera of th(! indications was dated from liL- couque^t o/ 
 ihe CLf alpine Gaul.
 
 480 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 31S 
 
 redaced ; and, with a freedom that at onco sjurprised and 
 convinced liini, to urge the necessity of pre\enting his ruinj 
 by a vigorous exertion of his remaining power. The resources 
 of Maxentius, botli of men and money, were still considerable. 
 The Praetorian guards felt how strongly their own interest a/id 
 safety were connected with his cause ; and a third army was 
 loon collected, more numerous than those which had been 
 lost in the battles of Turin and Verona. It was far from the 
 intention of the emperoi to lead his troops in person. A 
 stranger to the exercises of war, he trembled at the appre- 
 hension of so dangerous a contest ; and as fear is commonly 
 superstitious, he listened with melancholy attention to the 
 rumors 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 clamors, and they tumultuously 
 besieged the gates of the palace, reproaching the pusilla- 
 nimity of their indolent sovereign, and celebrating the heroic 
 spirit of Constantine."^ 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 reputation, whatever should be the chance of 
 urms."^ 
 
 The celerity of Constantino's march has been compared to 
 the rapid conquest of Italy by the first of the Caesars ; nor is 
 the flattering parallel repugnant to the truth of history, since 
 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 consult the 
 dictates of fear, and perhaps of prudence ; and that, instead 
 of risking his last hopes in a geoeral engagement, he would 
 shut himself up within the walls of Rome. His ample mag- 
 azines secured him against the danger of famine ; and as the 
 situation of Constantine admitted not of delay, he might have 
 been reduced to the sad necessity of destroying with fire and 
 iword the Imperial city, the noblest reward of his victory^ 
 
 " See PaDSgyr Vat xi. Ifi. Lactantius de M. P. c. 44. 
 •* Bio die liostpni Ronianoruni esse periturrm. The vaaquiahsd 
 ^SiCe l>ecanie oi" course the enemy of Rome.
 
 A.D. 312.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 181 
 
 and the deliverance of wliich had been the raciive, or rither 
 indeed the pretence, of the civil Nvar," It was with equal 
 surprise and pleasure, that on his arrival at a place called 
 Saxa Rubra, about nine miles from Rome,*" he discovered 
 the army of Maxentius prepared to give him battle." Their 
 long front filled a very spacious plain, and their deep array 
 reached to the banks of the Tyber, 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 honor and 
 danger. Distinguished by the splendor of his arms, he 
 charged in person the cavalry of his rival ; and his irresist 
 ible attack determined the fortune of the day. The cavalry 
 of Maxentius was principally composed either of unwieldy 
 cuirassiers, or of light Moors and Numidians. They yielded 
 t.o the viffor of the Gallic horse, which possessed more activ- 
 ity 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. Tiie Prjctorians, 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 honorable death ; 
 and it was observed that their bodies covered the same ground 
 which had been occupied by their ranks." The confusion 
 then became general, and the dismayed troops of Maxentius, 
 pursued by an implacable enemy, rushed by thousands into 
 
 " See Panegyr. Vet. ix. 16, x. 27. The former of these onitors 
 magnifies the hoards of corn, which Maxentius had collected from Africa 
 h'. i the Isknds. And yet, if there is any truth in the scarcity men- 
 tioned by Eusebius, (in Vit. Constantin. 1. i._ c. 36,) the Imperi.tl 
 granaries must have been open only to the soldiers. 
 
 *" Maxentius . . . tandem urbe in Saxa Rubra, millia ferme novem 
 ffigerrime progressus. Aurelius Victor. See Cellarius Geograpli. 
 Antiq. torn. i. p. 463. Saxa Rubra was in the neighborhood of the 
 Cremera, a trifling rivulet, illustrated by tlie valor and glorious death 
 of the three hundred Fabii. 
 
 " The post which Maxentius had taken, with the Tyber in his rear 
 is very clearly described by tlie two Panegyrists, ix. 16, x 28. ^ 
 
 •* Exceptis latrocinii ilHus primis auctoribus, qui desperata WPtiA 
 •cum quem pugnaj sumpscrant texere corporibus. Panegyr. Ve* 
 
 n. 
 
 VOL. 1. X
 
 482 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 312. 
 
 the deep and rapid stream of the Tyber. The emperor him- 
 self 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 im- 
 mediately drowned by the weight of his armor.*" His body, 
 which had sunk very deep into the mud, was found with some 
 'Jifficulty 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 valor and ability the most splendid enterprise 
 of his life." 
 
 In the use of victory, Constantine neither deserved the 
 praise of clemency, nor incurred the censure of immoderate 
 rigor." 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 e.Ktirpated his whole 
 
 *' A very idle rumor 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 mider the weight of the flying Italians. M. de 
 Tilleraont (Hist, des Empcreurs, torn. iv. part i. p. 5*76) 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* 
 
 '° Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 86 — 88, and the two Panegyrics, the former of 
 which was pronounced a few months afterwards, afford the clearesi 
 notion of this great battle. Lactantius, Eusebius, and even the Epit 
 omes, supply several useful hints. 
 
 " Zosimus, the enemy of Constantine, allows (1. ii. p. 88) 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 labefactari statum ejus poterant cum stirpe deletis.f 
 The other orator (Panegyr. Vet. ix. 20, 21) contents himself with 
 observing, that Constantine, when he entered Rome, did not imitate the 
 ciuel massacres of Cinna, of Marius, c of Sylla. 
 
 * Manso (Beylage, vi.) examines the question, and adduces two mani- 
 fest allusions to the bridge, from the Life of Constantine by Praxagoras, 
 and from Libanius. Is it not very probable that such a bridge was thrown 
 over the river to facilitate the advance, and to secure the retreat, of the 
 army of Maxentius ? In case of defeat, orders were given for destroying it, 
 in order to check the pursuit : it broke down accidentally, or in tlie coufosioT 
 was destroyed, as has rot unfrequently been tl\c case, before the pro^ei 
 time. — M. 
 
 t This may refer to the son or sons of Maxentius. — M.
 
 A.D. 312.] OF THE ROMAN KMPIRE. 48J1 
 
 race. The most distinguished adlicrents of Maxentiiis mua 
 have expected to share his fate, as they had sliared his pro* 
 perity and his crimes ; but when the Roman people loudly 
 demanded a greater number of victims, the conqueror resisted, 
 with firmness and humanity, those servile clamors, which were 
 dictated by flattery as well as by resentment. Iiiformei's were 
 punished and discouraged ; the innocent, who had suftcred 
 under the late tyranny, were recalled from exile, and restored 
 to their estates. A general act of oblivion quieted the miiuU 
 and settled the property of the people, both in Italy and in 
 Africa.'" The first time that Constantine honored the senate 
 with his presence, he recapitulated his own services and ex- 
 ploits in a modest oration, assured that illustrious order of his 
 sincere regard, and promised to reestablish its ancient dignity 
 and privileges. The grateful senate repaid these unmeaning 
 professions by the empty titles of honor, which it was yet in 
 their power to bestow ; and without presuming to ratity the 
 authority of Constantine, they passed a decree to assign him 
 the fii-fet rank among the three Augusti who governed the Ro- 
 man world." Games and festivals were instituted to preserve 
 the &me of his victory, and several edifices, raised at the ex- 
 pense of Maxentius, were dedicated to the honor of his suc- 
 cessful rival. The triumphal arch of Constantine still remains 
 a melancholy proof of the decline of the arts, and a c^uigular 
 testimony of the meanest vanity. As it was not pussible to 
 find in the capital of the empire a sculptor who was capable 
 of adorning that public monument, the arch of Trajan, with- 
 out any respect either for his memory or for the rules of pro- 
 priety, was stripped of its most elegant figures. Ihe differ- 
 ence of times and persons, of actions and characters, was 
 totally disregarded. The Parthian captives 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.''* 
 
 " See the two Tanegyrics, and the laws of this and the ensuing year, 
 ill the Theodosian Code. 
 
 " Pancgyr. Vet. ix. 20. Lactantius de M. P. c. 44. Mswirjin, who 
 was confessedly the eldest CiEsar, claimed, with some show of reasoB, 
 Uie first rank among the Augusti. 
 
 '• Adhiic cuncta opera quje raagnifice construxerat, uibiB fkn-im
 
 i84 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 312. 
 
 The filial abolition of the Praetorian guards was a measure 
 of prudence as well as of revenge. Those haughty troops, 
 whose numbers and privileges had been restored, and even 
 augmented, by Maxantius, were forever suppressed by Con- 
 stantine. Tueir fortified camp was destroyed, and the few 
 Praetorians who had escaped the fury of the sword were dis- 
 persed among the legions, and banished to the frontiers of the 
 3mpire, where they might be serviceable without again becom- 
 fflg dangerous.''* By suppressing the troops which wer<s 
 usually stationed in Rome, Constautine 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 appre- 
 hension of a tribute, had raised Maxentius to the throne. He 
 exacted that tribute from the senate under the name of a free 
 gift. They implored the assistance of Constantine. He van- 
 quished the tyrant, and converted the free gift into a perpetual 
 tax. The senators, according to the declaration which was 
 required of their property, were divided into several classes. 
 The most opulent paid annually eight pounds of gold, 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 sur- 
 prise, that Constantine should be attentive to increase the 
 number of persons who were included under so useful a de- 
 scription." After the defeat of Maxentius, the victorious 
 
 atque basilicam, Flavii meritis patres sacravere. AureLius Victor. 
 With regard to the theft of 'lYajan's trophies, consult Flaminiua 
 Vacca, apud Montfaucon, Diarium Italicum, p. 250, and TAntiquita 
 Exphquee of the latter, torn. iv. p. 171. 
 
 '^ Prsetoriae legiones ac subsidia factionibus aptiora quam urbi 
 Romae, sublata pcnitus ; simul arma atque usus indumenti militaris. 
 Aureliua Victor. Zosimus (1. iL p. 89) mentions this fact as an histo- 
 rian, and it is very pompously celebrated in the ninth Panegyric. 
 
 '^ Ex omnibus provinciis optimates viros Curiae tuaa pigneraveris 
 ut Senatus digaitas .... ex totius Orbis flore consisteret. Naza 
 tius in Panegyr. Vet x. 35. The word pigneraveris might almost 
 Beem maliciously chosen. Concerning the senatorial tax, see Zosi- 
 mus, 1. ii. ]). 115, the second title of the sixth book of the Tbeodo 
 uan Code, with Godsfroy's Commentary, aud MOmoirea de TAcaJs- 
 mie des Inscriptions, torn, xxviii. p. 726.
 
 A. D. 313.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 48i 
 
 emperor passed no more than two or three months in Rome, 
 which he visited twice during the remain Jei of his life, t<i 
 celebrate the solemn festivals of the tenth and of the twontietli 
 years of his reign. Constantine was almost perpetually in 
 motion, to exercise the legions, or to inspect the state of tho 
 provinces. Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Sirmium, Naissius, and 
 Thessalonica, were the occasional places of his residence, till 
 be founded a new Rome on the confines of Europe and Asia." 
 Before Constantine marched into Italy, he had secured the 
 . .endship, or at least the neutrality, of Licinius, the Illyriau 
 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." 
 In the midst of the public festivity they were suddenly obliged 
 to take leave of each other. An inroad of the Franks sum- 
 moned 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 without being discouraged by his fate, he resolved to try 
 the 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 ^xtraor- 
 iinary effort of diligence, he arrived with a harassed but for- 
 midable array, on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus before 
 the lieutenants of Licinius wero apprised of his hostile inten- 
 tions. 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 
 
 ''"' From the Theodosian Code, we may now begin to trace tlvo 
 motions of the emperors ; but the dates both of time an(> place have 
 frequently been altered by the larelessness of transcribers. 
 
 ■"^ Zosimus ( 1. ii. p. 89) obser\'es, that before tlie war the sister of 
 Constantine had been betrothed t.> Lieu jus. Accordinjj to the younger 
 Victor, Diocletian was invited to the nuptials ; but liaving ventured 
 to plead his age and infirmities, he received a second letter, filled with 
 reproaches for his suj^posed partiality to the cause of Maxcntius aftJ 
 Maximin.
 
 486 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 313, 
 
 of lliat city, than he was alarmed by the intelligence, that 
 Licinius 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 recourse to arms. The emperor of the East com- 
 manded a disciplined and veteran army of above seventy 
 thoasand 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 incred- 
 ible speed which Maxirain 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 Im- 
 perial 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 had still power, if he could obtain time, 
 to draw very numerous levies from Syria and Egypt. But 
 he survived his misfortune only three or four months. Hix^ 
 def ^h, which happened at Tarsus, was variously ascribed to 
 despair, to poison, and to the divine justice. As Maximin 
 was ahke 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." 
 
 The vanquished emperor left behind him two children, a boy 
 of about eight, and a girl of about seven, years old. Their 
 inofl["3nsive age might have excited compassion ; but the com- 
 passion of Licinius was a very feeble resource, nor did it 
 restrain hira from extinguishing the name and memory of his 
 adversary. The death of Seve. nanus 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 Sew 
 rus, in a distant part of the empire, was already forgotter 
 But the execution of Candidianus was an act of the blacker- 
 cruelty and ingratitude. He was the natural son of Galerius, 
 the friend and benefactor of Licinius. The prudent father 
 
 ''^ Z-Dsimus mentions the defeat and death of Maximin as ordinary 
 events; but Lactantius expatiates on them, (de M. P. c. 46— :50,) as- 
 cribing them to the miraculous interposition of Heaven. Licinius a< 
 that time was one of the protectors of the church.
 
 A. D. 313.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 487 
 
 had judged hiin too young to sustain tlie weight of a diadem; 
 but he hoped that, under the protection of princes who were 
 indebted to his fiivor for the Imperial purple, Candidianua 
 might p;iss a secure and honorable life, lie was now ad- 
 vancing 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.** 
 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 Cajsar, ho 
 had given him in marriage his daughter Valeria, whose melan- 
 choly adventures might furnish a very singular subject for 
 tragedy. She had fulfilled and even surpassed the duties of a 
 wife. As she had not any children herself, she condescended 
 to adopt the illegitimate son 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." 
 He had a wife still ahve ; 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 it 
 honor 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 a.shes 
 of her husband, and his benefactor were still warm, and wliik 
 the sorrows of her mind were still expressed by her mourning 
 garments. She ventured to declare, that she could place very 
 
 *" Lactantius de M. P. c. 50. Aurelius Victor touches on the 
 different conduct of Licinius, and of Constantine, in the use ol 
 ▼ictory. 
 
 *' The sensual appetites of Maximin were gratified at the expense 
 of his subjects. His eunuchs, who forced away wives and virgins, 
 examined their naked chaims with anxious curiosity, lest any part of 
 their body should be found unworthy of the royal enibraccs. Coy- 
 ness and disdain were con^^idered as treason, and the obstinate fair 
 one was condemned to be drowned. A custom was gradually intro- 
 duced, that no person should marry a wife without the pcrmisaion of 
 the emperor, "ut ipse in omnibus nuptiis pracgustator eseet." Lao 
 tantius de M. V r.. 38.
 
 488 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 31S 
 
 little confidence in the professions of a man whose cruel 
 nconstancy was capable of repudiating a faithful and affec- 
 tionate wife.""^ 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 reputation 
 tts well as the happiness of Valeria. Her estates were confis- 
 •■ated, her eunuchs and domestics devoted to the most inhumau 
 ortures ; and several innocent and respectable matrons, who 
 were honored 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 
 Eas% which, during thirty years, had respected their august 
 dignity. Diocletian made several ineffectual eflforts to allevi- 
 ate the misfortunes of his daughter ; and, as the last return 
 that he expected for the Imperial purple, which he had con- 
 ferred upon Maximin, he entreated that Valeria might be 
 permitted to share his retirement of Salona, and to close the 
 eyes of her afflicted father.*^ 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 treat- 
 ing Diocletian as a suppliant, and his daughter as a criminal. 
 The death of Maximin seemed to assure the empresses of a 
 favorable alteration 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 behavior, in the first days of his reign, and the 
 honorable 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 were soon succeeded by horror and astonishment ; 
 and the bloody executions which stained the palace of Nico 
 media sufficiently convinced her that the throne of Maximin 
 
 " LactantiuB de M. P. c. 39. 
 
 " Diocletian at last sent cognatura suum, quendam militarem a« 
 potcntem virum, to intercede in favor of his daughter, (Lactantius d« 
 of. P. c. 41.) We are not sufficiently acquainted with tlie history of 
 tlkeso times to point out tlie oerson who was employed.
 
 A, D. 314.J OF THE RCMAN EMPIRE. 489 
 
 was filled by a tyi'ant moro iiiliuniaii than himself. Valeria 
 consulted her safety by a ba.sty tiight, and, still accompanied 
 by her mother Prisca, they wandered above fifteen months** 
 through the provinces, concealed in the disguise of pk-beian 
 habits. They were at length discovered at Thessalonica ; and 
 as the sentence of their death w;us already pronounced, they 
 were immediately beheaded, and their bodies thrown into tho 
 lea. 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 
 d^iughter of Diocletian. We lament their misfortunes, wo 
 cannot discover their crimes ; and whatever idea wc 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.*^ 
 
 The Roman world was now divided between Constantino 
 and Licinius, the former of whom was master of the West, 
 and the latter of the East. It might perhaps have been ex- 
 pected that the conquerors, fatigued with civil war, and con- 
 nected by a private as well as public alliance, would have 
 renounced, or at least would have suspended, any further 
 designs of ambition. And yet a year had scarcely elapsed 
 after the death of Maximin, before the victorious emperora 
 turned their arras against each other. The genius, the suc- 
 cess, and the aspiring temper of Constantine, may seem to 
 mark him out as the aggressor ; but the perfidious character 
 of Licinius justifies the most unfavorable suspicions, and by 
 the faint light which history reflects on this transaction," wo 
 may discover a conspiracy fomented by his arts against the 
 authority of his colleague. Constantine had lately given his 
 
 ** Valeria quoque per varias provincias quindecim raensibus plebeio 
 cultu pervagata. 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. Tiie expression of parvagata 
 seems to denote the latter ; but in that case we must suppose that the 
 treatise of Lactantius was written after the first civil war betwcec 
 licinius and Constantine. See Cuper, p. 254. 
 
 *' Ita illis pudicitia et conditio exitio fuit. Lactantius dc M. P. C 
 6L He relates the misfortunes of tlie innocent wife and daughter of 
 DiiCietian with a very natural mixture of pity and exultation. 
 
 *' The curious reader, who consults the Videsian fnigment, p. 718, 
 will iirobably accuse me of giving a bold and licentious p:iraphrat>e; 
 bat if he considers it with attention, lie will acknowledge that ia| 
 katerpretation is probable and consistent
 
 190 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 315 
 
 sister Anasla'jid, in marriage to Bassianus, a man of a consider 
 able family and fortune, acd had elevated his new kinsman 
 to the rank oi Caesar, According to the system of govern- 
 ment instituted by Diocletian, Italy, and perhaps Africa, vk'ero 
 designed for his department in the empire. But the perform- 
 ance of the promised favor was either attended with so jnuch 
 delay, or accompanied with so many unequal conditions, that 
 the Mehiy of Bassianus was alienated rather than secured by 
 'ie honorable distinction which he had obtained. Ilis nomi- 
 nation had been ratified by the conseut of Licinius ; and that 
 artful prince, by the means of his emissaries, soon contrived 
 to enter into a secret ana 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 exe- 
 cution ; and after solemnly renouncing the alliance of Bassi- 
 anus, 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 ^mona, on the frontiers of Italy, to the 
 statues of Constantine, became the signal of discord between 
 the two princes.*' 
 
 The first battle was fought near Cibalis, a city of Pannonia, 
 situated on the River Save, about fifty miles above Sirmi- 
 um.** From the inconsiderable forces which in this impor- 
 tant 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 
 
 *' The situat'on of Mmona, or, as it is now called, Laybach, in 
 Carniola, (D'Auville, Gcographie Ancienne, torn. i. p. 187,) may sug- 
 gest a conjecture. As it lay to the north-east of the Julian Alps, tliat 
 important territory became a natural object of dispute between the 
 sovereigns of Italy and of Ulyricura. 
 
 ** Cibalis or Cibalte (whose name is still preserved in the obscure 
 ruins of Swilei) was situated about fifty miles from Sirmium, the cap 
 ital of Illyricum, and about one hundred from Taurunum, or Belgradcj 
 and the conflux of the Danube and tlie Save. The Roman gari isona 
 •nd cities on those rivers are finely illustrated by M. d'Anville in a 
 ■Miinoir mserted in I'Academie des Inscriptions, torn, xxviii
 
 \-D.315.J OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 491 
 
 East no raoic tlian five and thirty thousand, nv-ii. Tho infii- 
 riority of number was, however, compensated by tho advan- 
 tage of the ground. Constantino had taken ]iost in a defile 
 about half a mile in breadth, between a steep hill and a deep 
 raorass, and in that situation he steadily expected and repulsed 
 ihe first attjick of the enemy, lie pursued his success, and 
 advanced into the plain. But the veteran legions of Illvricura 
 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 eipal valor, rushed to a closer engagement of swords 
 and spears, and the doubtful contest had already lasted from 
 the dawn of the day to a late hour of the evening, when the 
 right ^\^ng, 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 ho 
 computed his loss, which amounted to more than twenty thou 
 sand men, he thought it unsafe to pass the night in the pres- 
 ence of an active and victorious enemy. Abandoning his 
 camp and magazines, he marched away with secrecy and dil- 
 igence 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 Sirniium. Licinius passed through that city, and 
 breaking oown tue bridge on the Save, hastened to collect a 
 new army in Dacia and Thrace. In his flight he bestowed tho 
 precarious title ot Csesav on Valens, his general of the lUyrian 
 frontier." 
 
 The plain of Mardia in Thrace was the theatre of a second 
 battle no less obstinate and bloody than the former. The 
 troops on both sides displayed the same valor and discipline ; 
 and the victory was once more decided by the superior abili- 
 ties of Constantine, 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, how- 
 ever, pr'isenting a double front, still maintained their ground, 
 till the approach of night put an end to the combat, and 
 
 •• Zosim'^ (L ii. p. 90, 91) gives a very particular account of (hia 
 battle ; but ♦he descriotions of Zosimus are rhetorical ratlier thaa 
 militarj
 
 492 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 815 
 
 secured tbeir retreat towards the mountains of Macedonia.* 
 The loss of two battles, and of his bravest veterans, reduced 
 the fierce spirit of Licinius to sue fur peace. His ambassador 
 Mistrianus was admitted to the audience of Constantine : he 
 3xpatii-.ted on the common topics of moderation and humanity, 
 which are so familiar to the eloquence of the vanquished ; rep- 
 resented 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 
 tiiat he was authorized to propose a lasting and honorable 
 peace in the name of the tv)o emperors his masters. Constan- 
 tine received the mention of Valens with indignation and con- 
 tempt. " It was not for such a purpose," he sternly replied, 
 " that we have advanced from the shores of the western ocean 
 in an uninterrupted course of combats and victories, that, after 
 rejecting an ungrateful kinsman, we should accept for our 
 colleague a contemptible slave. The abdication of Valens ia 
 the first article of the treaty."" 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 this obstacle was remo/ed, 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 desjoair are sometimes formidable, and the good 
 sftnse of Constantine preferi-ed a great and certain advantage 
 t<) a third trial of the chance of arms. He consented to leave 
 his rival, or, as he again styled Licinius, his friend and brother, 
 m the possession of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt; 
 '^ut the provinces of Paunonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Macedonia, 
 a-nd 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 
 
 •" Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 92, 93. Anonym. Valesian. p. '713. The Epit- 
 omes furnish some cirumstances ; but they frequently confound the 
 two wars between Licinius and Constantine. 
 
 ®^ Petrus Patricius in Excerpt. Legat. p. 27. If it should be thought 
 that ycLjiBpoi signifies more properly a son-ij-law, we might conjec- 
 ture that Constantine, assuming the name as •well as the duties of a 
 fetl er, had adopted his younger brothers and sisters, the children of 
 Theodora. But iu the best authors yri/</?pTS sometimes signifies a hns- 
 band, sometimes a father-in-law, and sometimes a kinsman in geneial 
 See Spanheim, Observat. ad Julian. Orat. i. p. 72.
 
 A. D. 315-323.] of the roman EMPmE 49S 
 
 by the same treaty, that three royal youths, the- sons of em- 
 perors, should be called to the hopes of the succession. Oris- 
 pus and the young Constantine were soon afterwards declared 
 Caesars in the West, while the younirin- Liciiiius w;us invested 
 witli the same dio-nity in the East. In '.his double proportion 
 Df 1 onoi-s, the conqueror a-sserted the superiority of his arms 
 ind power.'^ 
 
 '] ho reconciliation of Constantine and Liciuius, though il 
 saa imbittered by resentment and jealousy, by the reraem- 
 Dfance of recent injuries, and by the apprehension of future 
 dangers, maintained, however, above eight years, the tran- 
 quillity of the Roman world. As a very regular series of the 
 Imperial laws commences about this period, it would not bo 
 difficult to transcribe the civil regulations which employed tho 
 leisure of Constantine. But the most important of his insti- 
 tutions are intimately connected with the new system of pol- 
 icy and religion, which was not perfectly established till the 
 last and peaceful years of his reign. There are many of his 
 laws, which, as for 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 tempo- 
 rary a nature, that they would ill deserve the notice of a gen- 
 eral history. Two laws, however, may be selected from the 
 crowd ; the one for its importance, the other for its singular- 
 ity; 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 dis- 
 tress was principally occasioned by the intolerant 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 
 
 *^ Zosimus, 1. i\ p. 93. Anonym. Valesiar. p. 713. Eutropius, x. v. 
 Anrclius Victor, L'jseb. in Chron. Sozomen, 1. i. c. 2. Four of the«a 
 writers affirm 1/jat the promotion of the Caesars was an article of the 
 tr6at3'. It i?, however, certain, that tlie younn^er Constintine and 
 Licinins were Bnt yet born ; and it is iiighly probable that tlie ]iromo 
 iion was uiaJe the 1st of March, A. D. 317. Tho treaty had jirobablj 
 anpulated thut the two Cajsars might be created by tlie westtrn, and 
 one only by the eastern emperor ; but each of them reserved to aim 
 self tbi clioice of the persone
 
 494 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 315-S2S 
 
 of rejoicing in an increase of family, deemed it an act of 
 paternal tenderness to release their children from the impend- 
 ing 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 parents 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.'' The 
 law, though it may merit some praise, served rather to display 
 than to alleviate the pubhc disti-ess. It still remains an 
 authentic monument to contradict and confound those venal 
 
 " Codex Theodosian. 1. xi. tit. 27, torn. iv. p. 188, with GodefroyB 
 observations. See likewise 1. v. tit. 7, 8. 
 
 * This explanatiou appears to me little probable. Godefroy has made a 
 much more happy conjecture, supported by all the historical circumstances 
 which relate to this edict. It was pubhshed the 12th of Maj', A. D. 315, at 
 Naissus in Pannonia, the birthplace of Constantine. Tlie 8th of October, in 
 tliat year, Constantine gained the victory of Cibalis over Liciuius. He was 
 yet uncertain as to the fate of the war : the Christians, no doubt, wliom he 
 ifavored, had prophesied his victoi-y. Lactantius, then preceptor of Crispus, 
 had .just written his work upon Christianity, (his Divine Institutes ;) he had 
 dedicated it to Constantine. Iii this book he had inveighed with great force 
 against infanticide, and the e.Kposure of infants, (1. vi. c. 20.) Is it not prob- 
 able that Constantine had read this work, that he had conversed on the 
 subject %vith Lactantius, that he was moved, among other things, by the 
 passage to wliich I have refen-ed, and in the first transport of his enthusi- 
 asm, he published the edict in question ? The whole of the edict bears the 
 character of precipitation, of excitement, (entrainement,) rather than of 
 deliberate reilection — the extent of the promises, the indefiniteness of the 
 means, of the conditions, and of the time during which the parents rright 
 have a right to the succor of the state. Is there not reason to beiieve tnat 
 the humanity of Constantine was excited by the influence of Lactantius. by 
 that of the principles of Christianity, and of the Christians themselves, al- 
 ready in higli esteem with the emperor, rather than by some " extraordi 
 nary instances of despair"? * * * gee Hegewisch, Essai Hist, sur les Fi 
 nances Romaines 
 
 The edict for Afnca was not published till 322 : of that we may say in 
 truth that its origin was in the misery of the times. Africa had suflered 
 much from the cruelty of Maxentius. Constantine says expressly, that he 
 had learned that parents, under the pressure of distress, were there selliflg 
 liieir children. This decree is more distinct, more matarely deliberated, than 
 tlie former ; the succor which was to be given to the parents, and the •iourco 
 from which it was to be derived, are determined. (Code Theod. 1. xi. tit. 27, 
 a. 2.) If the direct utility of these laws may not have been very extensive, 
 they had at least tlie great and happy effect of establishing a decisive oppo- 
 ■ilion between the principles of the government and tliose which, at Uu* 
 ^ime, had prevailed among the subjects of the empire. — G.
 
 A. D. 315-323.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 49S 
 
 orators, mIio were too well satisfied with their own sitiuiticii to 
 discover either vice or misery under the government of a 
 generous sovereign.'* 2 The laws of Co"st:intino against 
 rapes were dictated with very little indulgence for the most 
 amiable weaknesses of human nature; since the descrijition 
 of that crime was applied not only to the brutal violence which 
 compelled, but even to the gentle seduction which might per- 
 suade, an unmarried woman, under the age of twenty-five, to 
 leave the house of her parents. " The successful ravislier 
 was punished with death ; and as if simple death was inade- 
 quate to the enormity of his guilt, he was either burnt alive, 
 or torn in pieces by wild beasts in the amphitheatre. The 
 virgin's declaration, that slie had been carried away wilh hor 
 own consent, instead of saving her lover, exposed her to share 
 his fate. The duty of a public prosecution was intrusted to 
 the parents of the guilty or unfortunate maid ; and if the sen- 
 timents of nature prevailed on them to dissemble the injury, 
 and to repair by a subsequent marriage the honor of their 
 family, they were themselves punished by exile and confisca- 
 tion. The slaves, whether male or female, who were con- 
 victed of having been accessory to rape or seduction, were 
 burnt alive, or put to death by tlie 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 oflspring of such an irregular 
 union." '^ But whenever the oSence inspires less horror than 
 the punishment, the rigor 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;"' and even Constantine himself very frequently alle- 
 viated, by partial acts of mercy, the stern temper of his gen- 
 eral institutions. Such, indeed, was the singular humor of 
 
 "* Omnia foris placita, domi prospera, aiinon;6 ubertate, fnictuum 
 coria, Ac. Panegyr. Vet. x. 38. This oration of Nazariu.^ was pro- 
 nounced on the day of the QuinqueiiiiaJa of the Ca;sars, the 1st of 
 March, A. D. 321. 
 
 " See the edict of Constantine, addfKsed to the Roman peojile, ic 
 the Theodosian Code, 1. ix. tit. 24, torn. si. p. 189. 
 
 •• His son very fairly assigns the true reason of the rejxal : • N"* 
 sub specie atrocioris judieii aliqua in ulcisccudo crimine dilatio tt&0 
 ceretur." Cod. Theod. torn. iii. p. 193
 
 496 THE DECLINE AW FALi. [A..D. 322L 
 
 that emperor, who showed Limself as iudulgent, and ever 
 remiss, in the execution of his laws, 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 coi.stitution of the govern- 
 ment." 
 
 The civil administration was sometimes interrupted by the 
 aailitary defence of the empire. Crispus, a youth of the most 
 imiable character, who had received with the title of Caesar 
 the command of the Rhine, distinguished his conduct, as well 
 as valor, 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.'" 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 warUke 
 nation was now restored by a peace of near fifty years ; a new 
 generation had arisen, who no longer remembered the mis- 
 fortunes of ancient days ; the Sarmatians of the Lake Ma3o- 
 tis followed the Gothic standard either as subjects or as al- 
 lies, and their united force was poured upon the countries 
 of Illyricum. Campona, Margus, and Benonia, f appear to 
 have been the scenes of several memorable sieges and bat- 
 tles ; " and though Constantine encountered a very obstinate 
 
 '" Eusebius (in Vita Constant. 1. iii. c. 1) chooses to affirm, that in the 
 reign of this 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 excessive lenity was not owing to the 
 want either of atrocious criminals or of penal laws. 
 
 •* Nazarius in Panegyr. Vet. x. The victory of Crispus over the 
 Alemanni is expressed on some medals.* 
 
 "^ See Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 93, 94 ; though the narrative of that historian 
 is neither clear nor consistent. The Panegyric of Optatianus (c. 23) 
 mentions the aUiance of the Sarmatians with the Carpi and Getae, 
 and points out the several fields of battle. It is supposed that 
 
 * Other medals are extant, the legends of which commemorate the sao 
 cess of Constantine over the Sarmatians and other barbarous nations, Bar- 
 
 ■ ATIA DEVICTA. VICTORIA Goi HICA. DeEELLATORI GENTIU.M BAUDA^ 
 
 KOKUM. ExvPERATOK OMNIUM GENTIUM. St. Martin- note on Le Beau, i 
 HI8.--M. 
 
 t Cainpona, Old Buda \a Hungary; Margus, tu-tGl»*iZ <3r 'Collacc& B« 
 BOOM. Widdin, in Maesia ■ G ind M.
 
 A. D. 823.J OF THK ROMAN EMPinB. 49) 
 
 resistance, he prevailed at longtli in the contest, am! tlio Gothi 
 were compelled to purchased an iifiioniinious retreat, bv restor- 
 ing the booty and ])risoners which they had taken. Nor wai 
 tllis advantage sufficient to satisfy the iiulignatiun of the em 
 
 i)eror. lie resolved to chastise as well tus to repulse the inso 
 ent barbarians who had dared to invade the territories of 
 Rome. At the head of his legions he passed the Danube 
 after repairing the bridge which had been constructed by Trn- 
 jan, penetrated into the strongest recesses of Dacia,"" and 
 when he had inflicted a severe revenge, condescended to give 
 peace to the suppliant Goths, on condition that, as often aa 
 they were required, they should supply his armies with a body 
 of forty thousand soldiers."* Exploits like these were no doubt 
 honorable to Constantine, and beneficial to the state ; but it may 
 surely be questioned, whether they can justify the exaggerated 
 assertion of Eusebius, that all Scytuia, 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."* 
 
 In this exalted state of glory, it was impossible that Con • 
 stantine should any longer endure a partner in the empire. 
 Confiding in the superiority of his genius and military power, 
 he determined, without any ])revious injury, to exert them for 
 the destruction of Liciuius, whose advanced age and unpopu- 
 lar vices seemed to offer a very easy conquest."' But the 
 old emperor, awakened by the approaching danger, deceived 
 the expectations of his friends, as well as of his energies. 
 Calling forth that spirit and those abilities by which he had 
 
 the Snrmatian games, celebrated in the month of November, derived 
 their origin from the success of tliis war. 
 
 "° In the CfEsars of Julian, (p. 329. Commentaire de Spanheim, p. 
 252.) Constantine boasts, that he had recovered the province (Dacia) 
 which Trajan had subdued. But it is insinuated by Silenus, that tho 
 conquests* of Constantine were like the gardens of Adonis, which fade 
 and wither almost the moment they appear. 
 
 "* Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 21. I know not whether we may 
 entirely depend on his authority. Such an alliance has a very recent 
 air, and scarcely is suited to the maxuns of th^i beginning of tlie fourth 
 century. 
 
 '" Eusebius in Vit. Constantin. 1. i. c. 8. Tliis passage, however, ia 
 tak.'.n from a general declamation on the greatness of Constantine, and 
 aot from any particular account of the Gothic war. 
 
 "' Constantinus tamen, vir ingens, et omnia efficere nitcns (}u« 
 animo pra^parasset, simul principatum totius urbis atfectans, Lianio 
 bellum inluht Kutropius, x. 5. Zosimus, 1. iL p 89. The reasom
 
 498 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 32J, 
 
 deserved the friendship of Galerius and the Imperial purple, Lij 
 prepared himself for the contest, collected the forces of tho 
 East, and s:)on filled the plains of Iladrianople with his troops, 
 and the Straits 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 Cappadocia, we may conceive a more 
 favorable opinion of the beauty of the horses, than of the 
 ■eourage and dexterity of their riders. The fleet was composed 
 of three hundred and fifty galleys of three ranks of oars. A 
 hundred and thirty of these were furnished by Egypt and the 
 adjacent coast of Africa. A 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 a hundred and ten galleys. The troops of 
 Constantine were ordered to a rendezvous at Thessalonica ; 
 they amounted to above a hundred and twenty thousand 
 horse and foot."* 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 warlike provinces 
 of Europe ; action had confirmed their discipline, victory had 
 elevated their hopes, and there were among them a great num 
 ber of veterans, who, after seventeen glorious campaigns under 
 the same leader, prepared themselves to deserve an honorable 
 dismission by a last effort of their valor."* But the naval 
 preparations of Constantine were in every respect much inferior 
 \o those of Licinius. The maritime cities of Greece sent their 
 respective quotas of men and ships to the celebrated har- 
 bor of Piraeus, and their united forces consisted of no more 
 than two hundred small vessels — a very feeble armament, 
 if it is compared with those formidable fleets which were 
 equipped and maintained by the republic of Athens dur- 
 ing the Peloponnesian war."° Since Italy was no longer 
 the seat of government, the naval establishments of Misenum 
 
 which they have assigned for the first civil war, may, with more pro- 
 priety, be applied to the second. 
 
 "*. Zosimus, 1. ii. p 94, 95. 
 
 *** Constantine v.'as very attentive to the privileges and comforta of 
 liis fellow-veterans, (Conveterfini,) as he now began to style them. See 
 the Theodosian Code, 1. vii. tit. 10, torn. ii. p. 419, 429. 
 
 106 "Whilst the Athenians maintained the empire of the sea, thejr 
 fleet consisted of three, and afterwards of four, hundred galleys of
 
 A. D. 323.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 4M 
 
 and Ravenna bad been gradually neglected ; and as tlie ship- 
 ping and mariners of tlie empire wore sup|)orted by conmiorce 
 rather than by war, it was natural that tlioy shouM the most 
 abound in the industrious proviiiC(>s ot" Kgypt and Asia. It is 
 only surprising that the eastern emperor, who possessed so 
 great a superiority at sea, should have neglected the oppor- 
 tunity of carrying an offensive war into the centre of his rival's 
 dominions. 
 
 Instead of embracing such an active resolution, which might 
 have changed the whole face of the war, the prudent Liciniua 
 expected the approach of his rival in a camp near Iladriano- 
 ■ple, which he had fortified with an anxious care, that betrayed 
 iiis apprehension of the event. Constantine directed his 
 march from Thessalonica towards that part of Thrace, till ho 
 found himself stopped by the broad and rapid stream of the 
 Hebrus, and discovered the numerous army of Licinius, nhich 
 tilled 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 Constan- 
 tine. In this place we might relate a wonderful exploit of 
 Constantine, which, though it can scarcely be paralleled either 
 in poetry or romance, 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 Hebrus, 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 a hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand men. The credulity of Zosimus pre- 
 vailed 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 valor and danger of Constantine are attested by a slight 
 wound which he received in the thigh ; but it may be discov- 
 ered 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 
 
 tlu-ee lanKs of oars, all completely equipped and ready for iirtnedi&te 
 service. The arsennl in the port of Pira;us h;id cost the icpublica 
 thousand talents, about two hundred and sLxteen thousand poundc. 
 Bee Thiicydides de Bel. I'elopon. 1. ii. c. 13, and Meursius de ForluM 
 Attica, c' 19.
 
 500 THE DECLINE AND FALl [A.D. 323 
 
 m the rear of the enemy, whose attention was diverted by Ihd 
 oonstiuction of a bridge, and that Licinius, perplexed by so 
 many artful evolutions, was reluctantly drawn from his advan- 
 tageous post to combat on equal ground on the plain. The 
 contest was no longer equal. His confused multitude of new 
 ievies was easily vanquished by the experienced veterans of 
 the West. Thirty-four thojsand 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 them- 
 selves the next day to the discretion of the conqueror ; and his 
 rival, who could no longer keep the field, confined himself 
 within the walls of Byzantium."' 
 
 The siege of Byzantium, which was immediately undertaken 
 by Constantine, was attended with great labor 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 com- 
 manders of Constantine were summoned to his camp, and 
 received his positive orders to force the passage of the Helles- 
 pont, as the fleet of Licinius, instead of seeking and destroying 
 their feeble enemy, continued inactive in those narrow straits, 
 where its superiority of numbers was of little use or advantage. 
 Crispus, the emperor's eldest son, was intrusted with the exe- 
 cution of this daring enterprise, which he performed with so 
 much courage and success, that he deserved the esteem, and 
 most pi'obably excited the jealousy, of his father. The engage- 
 ment lasted two days ; and in the evening of the first, the 
 iontending fleets, after a considerable and mutual loss, retired 
 '.nto their respective harbors of Europe and Asia. The second 
 day, about noon, a strong south wind"" sprang up, which 
 
 ^*' Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 95. 96. This great battle is described in the 
 Valesian fragment, (p. 714,) in a clear though concise manner. 
 "Licinius rero circum Hadrianopolin maximo exercltu latera ardui 
 mentis impleverat ; illuc toto agiuine Constantinus inflexit. Cum 
 helium terra marique traheretur, quamvis per arduum suis nitentibus, 
 attamen disciplina militari et fehcitate, Constantinus Licimi confu- 
 Bum et sine ordine agentem vicit exercitum; leriter femore sau 
 ciatus." 
 
 '"* Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 97, 98. The current always sets out of the 
 Bellespont ; and when it is assisted by a north wind, no vessel cas
 
 A.. D. 323.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIHK. 501 
 
 earned the vessels of Ciispus against tlie enemy ; and as the 
 casual advantage was improved by his skilful intrei)idity, he 
 soon obtained a complete victory. A hundred and thirty 
 vessels were destroyed, five thousand men were slain, and 
 Amandu!^, the admiral of the Asiatic fleet, escaped with the 
 utmost difficulty to the shores of Chalcedon. As soon 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 constructed artificial mounds of 
 earth of an equal height with the ramjiarts 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 sev- 
 eral 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 Caesar on Martini- 
 anus, who exercised one of the most important offices of the 
 empire."" 
 
 Such were still the resources, and such the abilities, of 
 Licinius, that, after so many successive defeats, he collected 
 in Bithynia a new army of fifty or sixty thousand men, while 
 the activity of Constantino 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 transported over the Bosphorus in small 
 vessels, and the decisive engagement was fc»ught 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 valor, till 
 a total defeat, and a slaughter of five and twenty thousand 
 men, irretrievably determined the fate of their leader.'" He 
 
 uttempt the passage. A south wind renders the force of the current 
 ahnost unperceptible. See Tournefort's Voyage au Levant, Let. xL 
 
 "^ AureUus Victor. Zosimus, 1. il p. 93. According to the hitter, 
 Martlnianus was Magister Officiorum, (he uses the Latin appellation 
 in Greek.) Some medals seem to intimate, that during his short reign 
 he received the title of Augustus. 
 
 "" Eusebius (in Vita Coiistantin. 1. ii. c. 16, 17) ascribes this deci- 
 sive victory to tiie pious prayers of tiie emperor. Tho Videsian frag
 
 602 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 323i 
 
 retir<jd to Is'icomedia, rather witli the view of gaining soma 
 time for negotiation, than with the hope of any effectual 
 defence. Constantia, his wife, and the sister of Constantine, 
 interceded with her brother in favor of her husband, and ob- 
 tained from liis policy, rather than from his compassion, 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 behavior of Constantia, and her 
 relation to the contending parties, naturally recalls the remem- 
 brauce of that virtuous matron who was the sister of Augus- 
 tus, 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 honor and independence. Licinius solicited and 
 accepted the pardon of his offences, laid himself and his pur- 
 ple 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 Thes- 
 salonica, which had been chosen for the place of his confine- 
 ment.'" His confinement Wcos 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."' 
 The memory of Licinius was 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 proceedings of his reign, were at 
 once abolished."^ By this victory of Constantine, the Ro- 
 
 meat (p. 714) mentions a body of Gotliic auxiliaries, under their cliief 
 Aliquaca, who adhered to the party of Licinius. 
 
 "' Zosimus, L ii. p. 102. Victor Junior in Epitome. Anonym. 
 Valesian. p. 714. 
 
 "^ Contra religionem sacramenti Thessalonicas pi'ivatus occisus est. 
 Eutropius, X. 6 ; and his evidence is confirmed by Jerome (in Chronic.) 
 as well as by Zosfmus, 1. ii. p. 102. The Valesi.an writer is the only 
 one who mentions the soldiers, and it is Zonaras alone who calls in the 
 assistance of the senate. Eusebius prudently shdes over this delicate 
 transaction. But Sozomen, a century afterwaids, ventures to assert 
 the treasonable practices of Licinius. 
 
 "» Sfte the Theodosian Code, 1. xv. tit. 15, torn. v. p 404, 40S,
 
 Jk. I* 323.1 OF THE UOMAK EV/PIRB. 501 
 
 man world WcOs again united under the authority of ono cn> 
 peror, thirty-seven years after Diocletian had divided his powej 
 and provinces with his associate Maximian. 
 
 The successive steps of the ehnation of Constantino, fron^ 
 his first assuming- the purple at York, to the resignation of 
 Licinius, at Nicouiedia, have been related with some minute- 
 ness and precision, not only as the events are in themselves 
 both interesting and important, but still more, as they contrib- 
 uted to the decline of the empire by the expense of blood and 
 treasure, and by the perpetual increjvse, ivs well of the taxes, as 
 of the military establishment. The foundation of Constan- 
 tinople, and the establishment of the Christian religion, were 
 the immediate and memorable consequences of this revolution. 
 
 These edicts of Constantine betray a degree, of passion siad precipi 
 taim J yery unb^jcoming the character of a lawgiver.
 
 M^ THE DECLINK AND FALL [A. J), 329. 
 
 \CHAPTEIl XV. 
 
 THtB VROGRESS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, AND THE SBSTj!- 
 MENIS, MANNERS, NUMBERS, AND CONDITION OF TUE PRIMI- 
 TIVE CHRISTIANS.* 
 
 A. CANDID but rational inquiry into the progress and estab- 
 lishment of Christianity may be considered as a very essen- 
 tial part of the history of the Roman empire. While that 
 great body was invaded by open violence, or undermined by 
 Blow decay, a pure and humble religion gently insinuated 
 itself into the minds cf men, grew up in silence and obscurity, 
 derived new vigor from opposition, and finally erected the 
 triumphant banner of the Cross on the ruins of the Capitol.,^ 
 Nor was the influence of Christianity confined to the period oi 
 to the limits of the Roman empire. After a revolution of 
 thirteen or fourteen centuries, that religion is still professed by 
 the nations of Europe, the most distinguished portion of human 
 kind in arts and learning as well as in arms. By the industiy 
 and zeal of the Europeans, it has been widely diffused to the 
 most distant shores of Asia and Africa ; and by the means of 
 their colonies has been firmly established from Canada to 
 Chili, in a world unknown to the ancients. 
 
 But this inquiry, however useful or entertaining, is attended 
 with two peculiar difficulties. The scanty and suspicious 
 materials of ecclesiastical history seldom enable us to dispel '^ 
 the dark cloud that hangs over the first age of the church. 
 The great law of impartiality too often obliges us to reveal the 
 imperfections of the uninspired teachers and believers of the 
 gospel ; and, to a careless observer, thei7- faults may seem to 
 cast a shade on the faith Avhich they professed. But the 
 Bcandal of the pious Christian, and the fallacious triumph of 
 
 * In spite of my resolution, Lardner led me to look through the famous 
 fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of Gibbon I could not lay them dovnTi 
 •without fiuishinET them. The causes assig^ned, in the fifteenth chapter, for 
 the ditfusion of Christianity, must, no doubt, have contributed to it material 
 ly ; but I doubt whether he saw them all. Perhaps those which he enumer- 
 ates are among the most obvious. They might all be safely adopted by i 
 Christian wriier, with some change in the language and manner. Mnciitt 
 tosA see life, i. p. 24*. — M.
 
 A. D. 323.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 506 
 
 the InfiJt:!, should cease as soon as tlicy recolKct not only b(f 
 whom, but hkewise to whom, the Diviiia llevolatiou was ;^iven. 
 The theologian may iinluli^e the l)M^^kt<i^l^ <-'t clescribiiii» 
 Religion as she descendeo from IXgj^^^^Bfe^d in lu'i* nat've 
 purity. A more melancholy d^^^^H|^Von the iiisloiiaii. 
 lie must discover the inovita^^^BP^^Hf^error and corrup- 
 tion, which she contr.n !■ d..il!ia<T^^^Rsid('nce uj)on earth, 
 among a weak and di'^i.-uefaite i*;!.-.' i^i^^ngs.* 
 
 Our curiosity i> uatuValty ■jii'omiited to inquire by wh;it 
 moans the ('Ini-ti^ii CilLli ol.iairii'l so remarkable a vi<;tory 
 over the e.-; it' the earth. To this inquiry, 
 
 an obvi""^ \\ er may be returned ; that it 
 
 was V ■ vidence of the doctrine itself, 
 
 and to t.MnuiH.- of its great Author. But as 
 
 truth,.;- lom find so favorable a reception in the 
 
 woi'1 Mio wisdom of Providence frequently conde 
 
 sc< passions of the human heart, and the general 
 
 ^ciruiA»wi;iii\ieai' <-'t mankind, as instruments to execute its pur- 
 p(^J^W<V wrfjiy still be permitted, though with becoming sub- 
 'Al§»uW.''ii''Ili^^ ^sk, not indeed what were the first, but what 
 wftH* the secondary^ causes of the rapid growth of the Christian 
 ^feif^tC^ will, perhaps," appear; that it was niost effectually 
 ffu'ovcl and assisted by the five following causes : I. The 
 ^Jlex'iHle; and if we may use the expression, the intolerant 
 f<3i^.( fi'tl. ■ Christians, derived, it is true, from the Jewish 
 peiiffioiif I 'lit purified from the narrow and unsocial spirit, 
 ^^■'^'iii^tead of inviting, had deterred the Gentiles from 
 «^Hai)fl««iii4 the law of Moses.f II. The doctrine of a future 
 HU'L^'imijroved by every additional circumstance which could 
 
 B' dmt If ■ — — ' 
 
 , art of Gibbon, or at least the unfair impression produced by theso 
 
 .niorablc chapters, consists in conlbundinq toi^etlier, in one iindis 
 
 .lable mass, the orii(in and npoxlolic projiaiialion of the Clliristiaa 
 
 !ii with its later progress. The main (luoslion, tlie divine origin of 
 
 gion, is dexterously eluded or speciously conceded ; his ])laii enablts 
 
 commence his account, in most parts, bclnw the. apostolic limes ; and 
 
 it is'Viiily by the strength of the dark coloring with which he has brought 
 out till' failings and the follies of succeeding ages, that a shadow of doubt 
 spicion is thrown back on the primitive period of Christijuiity. l)i- 
 is whole passage of the latent sarcasm betrayed by tiie subs«;f|ueiit 
 .' the whole ilisquisition, and it might commence a Cliristian history. 
 71 in the most Christian spirit of candor. — M. 
 
 lough we are thus far agreed witii respect to Uic inlle.sid.dity and 
 nnce of Christian zeal, yet as to the principle from which it v.m 
 .1, we are, toto coolo, divided in opinion. You deduce it from inp 
 I /religion- I would '•'"fer it to a more ade<iuale and a more ouvi^ap 
 , a full persuasieu of the truth of Christianity. Watson, if.uc^* U 
 n. \. 0.--M,
 
 606 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.. D, 323 
 
 give weight and efficacy to that important truth. III. The 
 miraculous powers ascr^Jjed to the primitive church. IV. The 
 pure and austere uiorals- of the Christians. V. The union 
 and disciphne of- the^KiJhristian republic, which gradually 
 formed an independe]rf|*aj^i>i|icrc;isiiig state in the heart of the 
 Iloraan empire. H ait'-wfi u 
 
 I. We have already djB«tvril>6.1<!th(! rili<4-ious harmony of the 
 
 ancient world, and the' 'tUiSiity)lf'i 4\tith-.\vliich the most difleren* 
 
 • m^iq^^^Hni^^ 
 
 * This facility haa not always prcrrerMid TnfrflrrMlci'. -Aliif-l) SRerus inbe- 
 renl iuthe religious spirit, when aimed asililJtiailxiilJU. Tin- separation of 
 the ecclesiastical and civil power, appears'iil^jUtJ^jw^i^yjii'^iiis of at once 
 maintaining religion and tolenuice : bni »fa|^,n^-(a(t'wya¥''''^ notion. 
 The passions, which mingle themselves winyft^i^iKftfti' )WJ<lft i1m> Pagans 
 very often intolerant and persecutors; witness t'S^'fr^nis^li^pi !U)]l;^>^yptian8. 
 
 )raans. ^.^ VI 
 
 Cambyses, conqueror of the EJcV' 
 3S of Memphis, because theyvjli 
 
 1st. The Persians.- 
 to death the magistrates of Memphi 
 liouors to their god. Apis: he caused the god to be b 
 struck him with his dagger, commanded the priests it 
 ordered a general massacre of all the Egj'ptians who should 
 ebrating the festival of Apis : he caused all the statues of 1 
 burnt. Not content with this intolerance, he sent an army" 
 Anmionians to slavery, and to set on fire the temple in 
 delivered his oracles. See Herod, iii. 25 — 29, 37. 
 
 Xerxes, during his invasion of Greece, acted on the same 
 destroyed all the temples of Greece and Ionia, except that 
 Sec Pans. 1. vii. p. 533, and x. ji. 887. Strabo, 1. xiv. b. 941. 
 
 2d. 7'lce Egyplians. — They thought themselves delilcd when'Sil 
 drunk from the same cup or eaten at the same table with a maul 
 ferent belief from their own. "He who has voluntarily killed an 
 animal is punished with death; but if any one, even involuiiiari)>;; iffM 
 killed a cat or an ibis, he cannot escape the e.xtrenie penalty: ihc Jftyif 
 drag him away, treat him in the most cruel manner, sometinK s, wU'lv- 
 waiting for a. judicial .sentence. * * * Even at the time when King Ptf-Utftj* 
 was not yet the acknowledged friend of the Roman people, while tbfe hi(jl»j 
 titude were paying court with all possible attention to the strangers ' .:■' 
 came from Italy * * a Roman having killed a cat. the people nish(;(i 
 •vDuse, and neither the entreaties of the nobles, whom the king m 
 r.hem, nor the teiTor of the Roman name, were sufficiently jiow 
 rescue the man from punishment, though he had committed tin 
 involuntarily." Uiod. Sic. i 83. Juvenal, in his 13lh Satire, de.scrib 
 nangumai-y conflict between the inhabitants of Ombos and of Tei 
 from religious animosity. The fury was carried so far, that the conqi 
 tore and devoured the quivering limbs of the conquered. 
 
 Ardet adhuc Ombos et Tentyra, summus utrinque 
 Imle furor vulgo, quod numiiia vicinoritni 
 flilit uterque locus; quuin solos credat hahendos 
 Esse Deos quos ipse colit. Sat. xv. v. 85. 
 
 3d. The fi recks. — " Let us not here," says the Abbe Guenee, '• rm 
 the cities of Peloponnesus and their severity against atheism; the E- 
 siajis prosecuting Heraclitus for impiet;'; the Greeks armed one a 
 U.K. Other by religious zeal, in the Amphictyonic war. Let us say n( 
 Ci.^<tf of the frightful cruelties inflicted by three successors of Alex 
 upon me .iews, to force them to abandon their leligicn, nor of Anti 
 E.xpelling tlie philosophers from his states Let us not sieek our proo) 
 
 ■^^a^^ 
 
 ,008
 
 A.D. 323.] OF THE koman emi-ihe. 607 
 
 »nd even hostile nations embraced, or at least rcspcctod, each 
 other's supei-stitions. A single pooplc refused to join in the 
 
 intolerance so far off. Athens, the polite and learned Athens, will supply 
 Ds with snfKcicut examples. Every citizen made a public and solcniii vow 
 to confbi-m to the religion of liis country, to defend it. and to cause it to 
 be respected. An cxi)rcss law severely puni.«hed ,all discourses against llie 
 gods , and a rigid decree ordered the denuucialion of all who .should deny 
 ihei'' existence. ' » * The practice -wan in unison with the severity of tbo 
 iaw. The proceedings commenced againtit Protagoras ; a ])rice set upon 
 Ihe head of Diagoras; the danger of AlciTjiades : Aristotle obliged to lly; 
 Btjlpo bani.shed ; Anaxagoras hardly escaping dvath ; Pericles himself, 
 after all liis sorviccs to his country, mul all the glorv he had acquired, 
 compelled to appear before tha tribunals and make liis defence; • " a 
 priestess executed for having introduced strange gods ; Socrates con- 
 demned and drinking the hemlock, because he was accused of not recog- 
 nizing tbose of his country, &c. ; these facts attest loo loudly, to be called 
 in question, 'tlie religious intolerance of the most humane and enlightened 
 people in Greece." Lettres do quclques Juifs d Mens. Voltaire, i. p. 221. 
 (Compai-e Bentlcy on Freethinking, from which much of this is derived.) 
 — M. ' 
 
 4th. The Romans. — The laws of Rome were not less express and ecvcrc. 
 The intolerance of foreign religions reaches, with the Romans, as high as 
 the laws of the twelve tables ; the prohibitions were afterwards renewed 
 at different times. Intolenuice did not discontinue under the emperors; 
 witness the coun.sel of Maecenas to Augustus. This counsel is so remark- 
 able, that I think it right to insert it entire. "Honor the gods yonr.seff," 
 says Majcenas to Angu.stus, " in every way according to the usage of your 
 ancestors, and compel (dvdyKa^c) others to worship them. Hale and [lun 
 i.sh tho.sc who introduce strange god.s, [tovs H Hi itvi^ovraf n'laci koX A«Aa.<'f,) 
 not only for the sake of the gods, (he who despises them will respect no 
 one,) but because those who introduce new gods engage a multitude of per- 
 sons in foreign laws and customs. From hence arise unions hound by 
 oaths and confederacies, and associations, things dangerous to a nionarchj'." 
 Dion Ca.ss. 1. ii. c. 36. (But, though some may ditler from it, see Gibbon's 
 just ob.servation on this passage in Dion Cassius, ch. xvi. note 117; im- 
 pugned, indeed, by M. Guizot, note in loc.) — M. 
 
 EJ^en the laws which the philosophers of Athens and of Rome wrote for 
 their imaginary rei)uhlics are intolerant. Plato does not leave to his citi- 
 zens freedom of religious wor.-^hip ; and Cicero expressly proliibits tliem 
 from having other gods than those of the slate. Lettres do quelques Juifa 
 a Mons. Voltaire, i. p. 22t;. — G. 
 
 According to M. Guizot's just remarks, religious intolerance will always 
 ally itself with the passions of man, however different those passions may 
 be! In the instances quoted above, with the Persiims it was the pride of 
 despotism ; to conquer the gods of a country was the last mark of subju- 
 gation. With the Egjptians, it was the gross Fetichisra of the super- 
 stitious populace, and "liie local jealou.sy of neighboring towns. In Greece, 
 pereeculion was in general connected with political party ; in Rome, with 
 the stem supremacy of the law and the interests of the state. Gibbon has 
 been mi-staken in attributing to the tolerant spirit of Paganism that which 
 arose out of the peculiar circumstances of the limes. Isl. The decay o\ 
 the old Polytheism, through ihe progress of reason and intelligence, and 
 the prevalence of iihilosophical opinions among the higher orders. 2d 
 The Roiii;in cbar.-ictir, in which the political al\\ ays predominated over llw 
 reli"ious jiarty. The lloniaus were contented wilh having Ixnsed the world 
 toa°uiiifi)ruiity of suhiiction to their power, and car.d not for eslobliHhit| 
 tlio {t.3 thciu) ies.s imiiorlanl iii:ilijiini'y of leligion.-W.
 
 608 THE DECLINE AND JTALL- [A.D. 323, 
 
 cx)mmou intercourse of mankind. The Jews, who, under tho 
 Assyrian and Persian raonavcliies, had languished for many 
 ages the most despised portion of their slaves,' emerged from 
 obscurity under the successors of Alexander ; and as they 
 multiplied to a surprising degree in the East, and afterwards 
 in the West, they soon excited the curiosity and wonder of 
 other nations.* The sullen obstinacy with which they main- 
 cained their peculiar rites and unsocial manners, seemed to 
 mark them out as a distinct species of men, who boldly pro- 
 fessed, or who faintly disguised, their implacable habits to 
 the rest of human kind.' Neither the violence of Antiochus, 
 nor the arts of Herod, nor the example of the circumjacent 
 nations, could ever persuade the Jews to associate with the 
 institutions of ]\Ioses the elegant mythology of the , Greeks.* 
 
 ' Dum Assyrios penes, Medosque, et Pcrsas Oriens fuit, despectis- 
 sima pars servientium. Tacit. Hist. v. 8. Herodotus, who visited 
 Asia whilst it obeyed the last of those empires, slightly mentiona 
 the Syrians of Palestine, who, according to their own confession, had 
 received from Egypt the rite of circumcision. See 1. ii. c. 104. 
 
 * Diodorus Siculus, 1. x\. Dion Cassius, 1. xxxvii. p. 121. Tacit 
 Hist. V. 1 — 9. Justin, xxxvi. 2, 3. 
 
 ^ Tradidit arcano qua3cunque volumine Moses, 
 
 Non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti, 
 Quresitum ad fontem solos deducere verpas. 
 The letter of this law is not to be found in the present volume of 
 Moses. But the wise, the humane Maimonides openly teaches that 
 if an idolater fall into the water, a Jew ought not to save him from 
 instant death. See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, 1. vi. c. 28.* 
 
 * A Jewish sect, Avhich indulged themselves in a sort of occasional 
 conformity, derived from Herod, by whose example and authojity 
 they had been seduced, the name of Herodians. But their numbers 
 were so inconsiderable, and their duration so short, that Josephus haa 
 not thought them worthy of his notice. See Prideaux's Connection, 
 vol. ii. p. 28.5. f 
 
 * It is diametrically opposed to its spiiit and to its lette. , see, among 
 other passages, Deut. v. 18. 19, (God) " lovelb the stranger in giving him food 
 and raiment. Love ye, therefore, the stranger : for ye were strangers in the 
 land of Egypt." Corap. Lev. xxiii. 25. Juvenal is a satirist, who.se strong 
 expressions can hardly be received as historic evidence ; and he wrote after 
 the horrible cruelties of the Romans, -whicli, during and after the war, 
 might give some cause for the complete isolation of the Jew from tbe rest 
 of the world. The Jew was a bigot, but his religion was not the only 
 source of his bigotry. After how many centuries of mutual wrong and 
 hatred, which had stiU further estranged the Jew from mankind, did Mai- 
 monides write ? — M. 
 
 t The Herodians were probably more of a political party than a religious 
 «ect, though Gibbon is most likely right as to their occasional confoimity. 
 See Hist, of the Jews, ii. 1U8.— M.'
 
 A.D. 323.] OF THE roman kmiirk. 605 
 
 According to the maxims of universal toleration, the Uoiuana 
 protected a superstition wliich they despised.* The politu 
 Augustus condescended to give ordei-s, that sacrifices should 
 be offered for his pros])ority in the temple of Jenisalein ; 
 whilst the meanest of the posterity of Abraham, who should 
 have paid the same hoir-^go to the Jupiter of the Capitol, 
 would have been an object of abhorrence to himself and to ]ii» 
 brethren. But the moderation of the conquerors w;is insuffi- 
 cient to appease the jealous prejudices of their subjects, who 
 were alarmed and scandalized at the ensigns of paganisni,-<v 
 which necessarily introduced themselves into a Roman prov- i 
 ince.' The mad attempt of Caligula to place his own statuo/ ^p ^ 
 in the temple of Jerusalem was defeated by the unanimous / (- ^ 
 resolution of a people who dreaded death much less than such V ^ 
 an idolatrous profanation.* Their att;ichment to the law of j 
 Moses was equal to their destestation of foreign religions. Tho 
 current of zeal and devotion, as it was contracted into a nar- 
 row channel, ran with the strength, and sometimes with the 
 fur}'', of a torrent. 
 
 This inflexible perseverance, which appeared so odious or so-» — " 
 ridiculous to the ancient world, assumes a more awful charac- 
 ter, since Providence has deigned to reveal to us the mys- 
 terious history of the chosen people. But the devout and 
 even scrupulous attachment to the Mosaic religion, so conspic- 
 uous among the Jews who lived under the second t-jniple, 
 becomes still more surprising, if it is compared with the 
 
 * Cicero pro Flacco, c. 28.* 
 
 * Philo de Legatione. Augustus left a foundation for a perpetual 
 sacrifice. Yet he approved of tlie neglect wliich liis grandson Caius 
 expressed towards the temple of Jerusalem. Sec Sueton. in August 
 c. 93, and Casaubon's notes on that passage. 
 
 ' See, in particular, Joseph. Antiquitat. xvii. 6, xviii. 3 ; and do 
 Bell. Judiac. i. 33, and ii. 9, edit. Havercamp.f 
 
 * Jussi a Caio Csesare, efiigieni ejus in templo locare, arma potitis 
 sumpsere. Tacit. Hist. v. 9. Philo and Josephus gave a very cir- 
 cumstantial, but a very rhetorical, account of this tnmsaction, which 
 exceedingly perplexed the governor of Syri;x. At the first montioo 
 of this idolatrous proposal. King Agrippa fainted away ; and did iiol 
 recover his senses until the third day. (Uist. of Jews, ii. 181, A-c) 
 
 * The edicts of Julius CaHsar. and of eomc of tlie cities in Asia Miuct 
 
 iKrebs. Decret. pro Juclneis.) in favor of the nation iu geiieril, or of tlie Asialit 
 ews, speak a different laiigua^je. — M. 
 t This was during the government of Pontius Pilate. (Hist, of Jews, 51 
 156.) Probably iu part to avoid '.his collision, the Uoinan governor, in gen 
 snl, resided at Ca;sarca. — M.
 
 610 I'HE DECIINE AND FALL [A. D. 323, 
 
 stubborn incredulity of their forefathers. When the law was 
 given in thunder from Mount Sinai, when the tides of the 
 ocean and the course of the planets were suspended for the 
 convenience of the Israelites, and when temporal rewards 
 and punishments were the immediate consequences of their 
 piety or disobedience, they perpetually relapsed into rebellion 
 against the visible majesty of their Divine King, placed the 
 idols of the nations in the sanctuary of Jehovah, and imitated 
 every fantastic ceremony that was practised in the tents of 
 the Arabs, or in the cities of Phcenicia.' As the protection 
 of Heaven was, deservedly withdrawn from the ungrateful 
 race, their faith acquired a proportionable degree of vigor and 
 purity. The contemporaries of Moses and Joshua had beheld 
 with careless indifference the most amazing miracles. Under 
 the pressure of every calamity, the belief of those miracles 
 has preserved the Jews of a later period from the universal 
 contagion of idolatry ; and in contradiction to every known 
 principle of the human mind, that singular people seems to 
 have yielded a stronger and more ready assent to the tradi- 
 tions of their remote ancestors, than to the evidence of their 
 own senses." 
 
 The Jewish religion was admirably fitted for defence, but it 
 
 * For the enumeration of the Syrian and Arabian deities, it may be 
 observed, tliat Milton has comprised in one hundred and thirty very 
 ■peautiful hues the two large and learned syntagmas which Selden 
 had composed on that abstruse subject. 
 
 ^° "How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it 
 be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shown among 
 them?" (Numbers xiv. 11.) It would be easy, but it would be unbe- 
 coming, to justify the complaint of tlie Deity from the whole tenor of 
 the Mosaic history.* 
 
 * Among a rude and bai-baroiis people, religious impressions are easily 
 made, and arc as soon effaced. The ignorance which multiplies imaginary 
 wonders, would weaken and destroy the effect of real miracle. At the pe- 
 riod of the Jewish liistory, referred to in the passage from Numbers, their 
 fears predominated over their faith, — the fears of an unwarlikc people, just 
 rescued from debasing slavery, and commanded to attack a iierce, a ■well- 
 armed, a gigantic, and a far more numerous race, the inhabitants of Canaan. 
 As to the frequent apostasy of the Jews, tlieir religion was beyond their state 
 of civilization. Nor is it uncommon for a peoy)le to cling with passionate 
 tttachment to that of which, at first, they could not appreciate the value. 
 Patriotism and national pride vvili contend, even to death, for political rights 
 which have been forced upon a reluctant people. The Christian may at 
 least retort, with justice, that the great sign of his religion, the resurrection 
 cf Jesus, was most ardently beUeved, and most resoldtely asserted, by the 
 eyo-witnesses of the fact. — M.
 
 A.D, 323.] OF THE ROMAN KMI'IRK. 911 
 
 was never designed for conquest ; and it seems jirobablo that 
 the number of proselytes was never much superior to that of 
 apostates. The divine promises were originally niaili-, and 
 the distinguishing rite of circumcision w;us enjoined, to a 
 single family. When the posterity of Abraham ha<l multi- 
 plied like the sands of the sea, the Deity, from whose muuth 
 they received a system of laws and ceremonies, doclan-d 
 himself the proper and as it were the national God of Israel 
 and with the most jealous care separated his favorite peoplo 
 from the rest of mankind. The conquest of the land of 
 Canaan was accompanied with so many wonderful and with 
 BO many bloody circumstances, that the victorious Jews were 
 left in a state of irreconcilable hostility with all their neigh- 
 bors. They had been commanded to extirpate some of tho 
 most idolatrous tribes, and the execution of the divine will 
 had seldom been retarded by the weakness of humanity. 
 With the other nations they were forbidden to contract any 
 marriages or alliances ; and the prohibition of receiving them 
 into the congregation, which in some cases was perpi-tuai, 
 almost always extended to the third, to the seventh, or even to 
 the tenth generation. The obligation of preaching to tlu; 
 Gentiles the faith of Moses had never been inculcated as a 
 precept of the law, nor were the Jews inclined to impose it on 
 themselves as a voluntary duty. 
 
 In the admission of new citizens, that unsocial peoplo w.is 
 actuated by the selfish vanity of the Greeks, rather than by 
 the generous policy of Rome. The descendants of Abraham 
 were flattered by tlae opinion that they alone were the heirs of 
 the covenant, and they were apprehensive of diminishing tho 
 value of their inheritance by sharing it too easily witii the 
 strangers of the earth. A larger acquaintance Vith mankind 
 extended their knowledge without correcting their prejudices ; 
 and whenever the God of Israel acquired any new votaries, 
 he w^as much more indebted to the inconstant humor of poly- 
 theism than to the active zeal of his own missionaries." Tho 
 religion of Moses seems to be instituted for a particular coun- 
 try as well as for a single nation ; and if a strict obedience 
 had been paid to the order, that every male, three times in tho 
 year, should present himself before the Lord Jehovah, it would 
 liavo been impossible that the Jews could ever have spread 
 
 " All that relates to the Jewish proselytes hits lieec rpry M} 
 k«ftted by Basnage, Hist, des Juifs. I. vi. c. 6. 7.
 
 512 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 328. 
 
 Iheiiistlves beyond the narrow limits of tlie promised land. 
 That obstacle was indeed removed by the destruction of tha 
 teraj>le of Jerusalem ; but the most considerable part of the 
 Jewish religion was iuvolved in its destruction ; and the 
 Pagans, who had long wondered at the strange report of au 
 empty sanctuary," were at a loss to discover what could be 
 the object, or what could be the instruments, of a woi-ship 
 wlikh was destitute of temples and of altars, of priests and 
 ©f sacrifices. Yet even in their fallen state, the Jews, still 
 asserting theii lofty and exclusive privileges, shunned, instead 
 of courting, the society of strangers. They still insisted with 
 inflexible rigor on those parts of the law which it was in their 
 power to practise. Their peculiar distinctions of days, of 
 meats, and a variety of trivial though burdensome obser- 
 vances, were so many objects of disgust and aversion for tlo 
 other nations, to whose habits and prejudices they were dia- 
 metrically opposite. The painful and even dangerous rite of 
 circumcision was alone capable of repelling a willing proselyte 
 from the door of the synagogue." 
 y/y Under these circumstances, Christianity offered itself to tha 
 world, armed with the strength of the Mosaic law, and deliv- 
 ered from the weight of its fetters. An exclusive zeal for 
 the truth of religion, and the unity of God, was as carefully 
 inculcated in the new as in the ancient system : and whatever 
 was now revealed to mankind concerning the nature and de- 
 signs of the Supreme Being, was fitted to increase their rev- 
 ( erence for that mysterious doctrine. The divine authority of 
 Moses and the prophets was admitted, and even established, 
 as the firmest basis of Christianity. From the beginning of 
 the world, an uninterrupted series of predictions had an- 
 nounced and prepared the long-expected coming of the Mes- 
 siah, who, in compliance with the gross apprehensions of the 
 
 ^' See Exod. xxiv. 23, Deut. xvi. 16, the commentators, and a very 
 ecnsible note in the Universal History, vol. i. p. 6U3, edit fol. 
 
 '^ When Pompey, using or abusmg the right of conquest, entered 
 into the Holy of Holies, it -was observed with amazement, "NulU 
 intiis Deum effigio, vacuam sedem et inania arcana." Tacit Hist, r, 
 9. It was a popular saying, with regard to the Jews, 
 Nil pi'aster nubes et ccbU iiumen adorant, 
 
 '* A second kind of circumcision was inflicted on a Samaritan oi 
 'EyyiAian proselyte. The sullen indifference of the Talmudists, witk 
 respect to the conversion of strangers, may be seen in Basnage 
 Histoirc des Juifs, 1. ^'\. c. G.
 
 A- D. 323.] OF THE roman emi'Ttie. AIS 
 
 Jews, hat! been more frequently represented under the cbar- 
 acter of a King and Conqueror, than under tbat of a Prophet, 
 a ]\Iartyr, and the Son of God, By his expiatory sacritic.', the 
 imperfect sacrifice^ of the temple were at once consunmiated 
 and abolished. The ceremonial law, which consisted only of 
 types and figures, was succeeded by a j^ ure and spiritual wor- V 
 %hip, equally adapted to all climates, as well as to every con- 
 dition of mankind ; and to the i nitiation of blood was substi- 
 tuted a more harmless initiation of water. The promise of 
 divine fiivor, instead of being partially confined to the pos- 
 terity of Abraham, w;is universally proposed to the freeman 
 and the slave, to the Greek and to the barliarian, to the Jew 
 and to the Gentile.) Every privilege that could raise the prose- 
 lyte from earth to heaven, that could exalt his devotion, secure 
 his happiness, or even gratify that secret pride which, luider 
 the semblance of devotion, insinuates itself into the human 
 heart, was still reserved for the membei-s of the Christian 
 church ; but at the same time all mankind was permitted, 
 and even solicited, to accept the glorious distinction, which 
 was npt only proffered as a favor, but imposed as an obliga- 
 tion. ClV became the most sacred duty of a new convert to 'i 
 diffuse among his friends and relations the inestimable bless- ) 
 ing which he had received, and to warn them against a refusal / y 
 that Avould be severely punished as a criminal disobedience \oll^ 
 the will of a benevolent but all-powerful Deity.i./^ ' 
 
 The enfranchisement of the church from the bonds of the 
 synagogue was a work, however, of some time and of some 
 difficulty. The Jewish converts, who acknowledged Jesus in 
 the character of the Messiah foretold by their ancient oracles, 
 respected him as a prophetic teacher of virtue and religion ; 
 but they obstinately adhered to the ceremonies of their ances- 
 tors, and w^ere desirous of imposing them on the Gentiles, 
 who continually augmented the number of believers. Tlifse 
 Judaizing Christians seem to have argued with some degree of 
 plausibilfty from the divine origin of the Mosaic law, and from 
 the immutable perfections of its great Author. They affirmed, 
 thai if the Being, who is the same through all eternity, had 
 designed to abolish those sacred rites which had served to 
 distinguish his chosen people, the repeal of them would have 
 been no less clear and solemn than their first promulgation : 
 that, instead of those frequent declarations, which either 8ui>- 
 pose or assert the perpetuity of the Mosaic rehgion, it would 
 £avs been represented as a provisionary scheme intended to
 
 S14 THE DECLINE AND FALL LA.D.328 
 
 last only to tlie aoming of the Messiah, who should instrucl 
 mankind in a more perfect mode of faith and of worship :" 
 that the Messiah himself, and his disciples who conversed with 
 him on earth, instead of authorizing by their example the most 
 minute observances of the Mosaic law,*' would have published 
 to the world the abolition of those useless and obsolete cere- 
 monies, without suffering Christianity to remain during so 
 many years obscurely confounded among the sects of the 
 Jewish church. Arguments like those appear to have been 
 used in the defence of the expiring cause of the Mosaic law ; 
 but the industry of our learned divines has abundantly ex- 
 plained the ambiguous language of the Old Testament, and 
 the ambiguous conduct of the apostolic teachers. It was 
 proper gradually to unfold the system of the gospel, and to 
 pronounce, with the utmost caution and tenderness, a sentence 
 of condemnation so repugnant to the inchnation and prejudices 
 of the believing Jews. 
 
 The history of the church of Jerusalem affords a lively 
 proof of the necessity of those precautions, and of the deep 
 impression which the Jewish religion had made on the minds 
 of its sectaries. The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were 
 all circumcised Jews ; and the congregation over which they 
 presided united the law of Moses with the doctrine of Christ." 
 It was natural that the primitive tradition of a church which 
 was founded only forty days after the death of Christ, and 
 was governed almost as many years under the immediate 
 inspection of his apostle, should be received as the standard of 
 orthodoxy.'* The distant churches very frequently appealed 
 
 '* These arguments were urged with great ingenuity by the Jew 
 Orobio, and refuted with equal ingenuity and candor by the Christian 
 Limborch. See the Arnica Collatio, (it well deserves that name,) or 
 account of the dispute between them. 
 
 " Jesus . . . circumcisus erat; cibis utebatur Judaicis ; vestitu 
 BimiU ; purgatos scabie mittebat ad sacerdotes ; Pascliata et ahos dies 
 festos religiose observabat: Si quos sanavit sabbatho, osteniht noa 
 tantum ex lege, sed et exceptis sententiis, talia opera sabbatho non 
 interdicta. Grotius do Veritate Religionis Christianaa, L v. c. 7. A 
 little afterwards, (c. 12,) he expatiates on the condescension of the 
 opostles. 
 
 " Psene omnes Christum Deura sub legis observatione credebant 
 Snlpicius Severus, ii. 31. See Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. iv. c. 5. 
 
 '• Moshciiii dc Eebus Christianis ante Constantinum Magnum, p. 
 153. la thi'j p>{)v''tflrly performance, which I shall often have occasion 
 to quotw ho antora much more ful)^ into the state of the primitive 
 Aurclx tUan he /las an opportunity of doing in hie General History
 
 A.LV223.| OF THE uoman empire. 615 
 
 to the authoritj of their venerable l*areiit, and r.-lieved hei 
 distresses by a Hberal contribution of ahiis. IJut when nuniftr- 
 ous and opulent societies were established in tho great eitiei 
 of the empire, in Antioeh, Alexandria, Ephcsus, (Jorinth, a>id 
 Rome, the reverence which JerusaK:m had inspired to all the 
 Christian colonies insensibly diminished. 'J"hc Jewish con- 
 verts, or, as they were afterwards called, the Nazarenes, who 
 had laid the foundations of the church, soon found themselves 
 overwhelmed by the increasing multitudes, that from all the 
 various religions of ])olytheisra enlisted under the banner of 
 Christ : and the Gentiles, who, with tho approbation of theif 
 peculiar apostle, had rejected the intolerable weight of tho 
 Mosaic cei-emouies, at length refused to their more scrupuloiu* 
 brethren the same toleration which at lirst they had huml,»ly 
 solicited for their own jiractice. The ruin of the temple of 
 the city, and of the public religion of the Jews, w:us severely 
 felt by the Nazarenes; as in their manners, though not in 
 their faith, they maintained so intimate a connection with their 
 impious countrymen, whose misfortunes were attributed by the 
 Pagans to the contempt, and more justly ;\scribed by the Chris- 
 tians to the wrath, of the Supreme Deity. The Nazarenes 
 retired from the ruins of Jerusalem* to the little town of Telia 
 beyond the Jordan, where that ancient church languished above 
 sixty years in solitude and obscurity.'" They still enjoyed 
 the comfort of making frequent and d('vout visits to the Jloli/ 
 City, and the hope of being one day restored to those seat* 
 which both nature and religion taught them to love as well aa 
 to revere. But at length, under the reign of Hadrian, tho 
 desperate fanaticism of the Jews filled up the measure of their 
 calamities ; and the Romans, exasperated by their repeated 
 rebellions, exercised the riglits of victory with unusual rigor. 
 The emperor founded, under the name of yElia Capitc)lina, a 
 new city on Mount Sion,'° to which he gave the privileges of 
 
 '^ Eusebius, 1. iii. c. 5. Le Clerc, Hist. EcclcsLost. p. fi05. During 
 tliis occasional -absence, the bishop and church of Pclla still rctainod tho 
 title of Jerusalem. In the same manner, the Roman pontiffs resided 
 seventy jears at Avignon; and the patriarchs of Ale.\uiidri.i haro 
 long since transferred their episcopal seat to Cairo. 
 
 "" Dion Cassius, 1. Ixix. The exile of the Jewisli nation from 
 Jerusalem is attested by Aristo of Pella, (apud Euseb. 1. iv. c 0,) and 
 
 * This is incorrect : all the traditiona concur in plocint? the abanilonmonl 
 of the city by the Christians, not on.y before it was in niiiia, but before Um 
 lieg^ had commenced. Euseb. loc. cit., and Le Clerc. — M.
 
 516 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 328 
 
 a colony ; find denouncing the severest pp.nalties against an} 
 of the Jewish people who should dare to approach its pre- 
 ciiiot>, he lixed a vigilant garrison of a Roman cohort tc 
 enforce the execution of his orders. The Nazarenea had only 
 one way left to escape the common proscription, and the force 
 of truth was on this occasion assisted by the influence of tem- 
 |Kjral advantages. They elected Mai'cus for their bishop, a 
 prelalo of the race of the Gentiles, and most probably a native 
 'jither of Italy or of some of the Latin provinces. At his 
 persuasion, the most considerable part of the congregation 
 renounced the Mosaic law, in the practice of which they had 
 persevered above a century. By this sacrifice of their habits 
 and prejudices, they purchased a free admission into the colony 
 of Hadrian, and more firmly cemented their union with the 
 Catholic church.^' 
 
 When the name and honors of the church of Jerusalem had 
 been restored to Mount Sion, the crimes of heresy and schism 
 were imputed to the obscure remnant of the Nazarenes, which 
 refused to accompany their Latin bishop. They still preserved 
 their former habitation of Pella, spread themselves into the 
 villages adjacent to Damascus, and formed an inconsiderable 
 church in the city of Bercea, or, as it is now called, of Aleppo, 
 in Syria.^^ The name of Nazarenes was deemed too honor- 
 able for those Christian Jews, and they soon received, from 
 the supposed poverty of their understanding, as well as of 
 their condition, the contemptuous epithet of Ebionites."' In a 
 few years after the return of the church of Jerusalem, it 
 became a matter of doubt and controversy, whether a man 
 
 is mentioned by several ecclesiastical writers ; though some of them 
 too hastily extend this interdiction to the whole country of Palestine. 
 
 ^' Eusubius, 1. iv. c. 6. Sulpicius Severus, ii. 31. By comparing 
 their unsatisfactory accounts, Moslieim (p. 327, <fec.) has drawn out a 
 very distinct representation of the circumstances and motives of this 
 revolution. 
 
 ^^ Le Clerc (Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 477, 535) seems to have collected 
 from Euscbius, Jerome, Epiphanius, and other writers, all the princi 
 pal circumstances that relate to the Nazarenes or Ebionites. The 
 nature of their opinions soon divided them into a stricter and a milder 
 Beet; and there is some reason to conjecture, that the famil}' of 
 Jesus Christ remaintd members, at least, of the latter and more ie:x1 
 «rato party. 
 
 *^ Some writers liave been jileased to create an Ebion. the imagi- 
 Bwy author of th-iir sect and name. But we can more safely rely os 
 the learned Eusehius than on tl e vehement TertuUian. or tlie credi
 
 A.D. 323.] OF THE koman empirf 617 
 
 who sincerely acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, but whc 
 still continued to observe the law of Moses, could j)os3il>lv hojx 
 for salvation. 'J^he humane teinpt-r of Justin ^hirtvr iuoliiu-d 
 him to answer this question in the atVirmative; and thouijh he 
 expressed lilmself with the most fjuarded diilidence, he ventured 
 to determine in favor of such an imperfect Christian, if he wore 
 content to practise the Mosaic ceremonies, without jirctending 
 to assert their general use or necessity. Ikit when Justin wa? 
 [ircssed to declare the sentiment of the church, lie confessed 
 that there were very many among the orthodox (Christians, 
 who not ohly excluded their Judaizing brethren from the hojwr 
 of salvation, but who declined any intercourse with them in 
 the common offices of friendship, hospitality, and social life.'* 
 The more rigorous opinion prevailed, as it was natural to ex- 
 pect, over the milder ; and an eternal bar of separation w;us 
 tixed between the disciples of Moses and those of Christ. The 
 unfortunate Ebionites, rejected from one religion as apost^ites, 
 and from the other as heretics, found themselves compelled to 
 assume a more decided character; and although some traces 
 of that obsolete sect may be discovered as late ;xs the fourth 
 century, they insensibly melted away, either into the church or 
 the sviiaofoijue.^* 
 
 lous Epiphanius. According to Le Clerc, the Hebrew word Ehjonhn 
 may be translated into Latin by that of Pauperes. See Ilist Eccle- 
 siast. p. 477.* 
 
 ^* See the very curious Dialogue of Justin Martyr with the Jew 
 Tryphou.f The conference between them was hekl at Ephesus, ir. 
 the reign of Antoninus Pius, and about twenty years after the return of 
 the church of Pella to Jerusalem. For this tlatj consult the accurate 
 note of Tilleraont, Memoires f>cclesia-<ti(|ues, torn. ii. p. 511. 
 
 ^"^ Of all the systems of Christianity, that of Abyssinia is the onlj 
 one which still adlieres to the Mosaic rites. (GeJdcs's Church History 
 
 " The opinion of Lc Clerc is generally ailmittc.l ; but Xeamler lia.x sug 
 gested some Rood reasons for supposing diat this term only applied to i>ov- 
 erty of condition. Tiie ob.scure history of their tenets and division.-", is clearly 
 and rationally traced in his History of the Church, vol. i. part ii. p. 612, Jcc, 
 Germ. edit. — M. . ,., ^... , 
 
 t Justiu Martyr makes an important distniction, which Gibbon ha.s neg- 
 lected to notice. * *■ * There were; .some who were not content with ob.^^TV- 
 in°- the Mosaic law hemsdvcs, but cnibrccd die same observanco. (ut neccH- 
 
 partyriie himself diought less favorably— i/iO'wf -"«•' roiroii ovk dWrx^/^a. 
 former by some are cons:. Jered the Nazarenes the alter the Kbionilc 
 
 end M
 
 S18 TUB DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 323. 
 
 While tlie orthodox church preserved a just medium be- 
 tween excessive veneration and improper contempt for th€ 
 law of Moses, the various heretics deviated into equal but 
 opposite extremes of error and extravagance. From the 
 acknowledged truth of the Jewish religion, the Ebionites had 
 concluded that it could never be abolished. From its supposed 
 imperfections, the Gnostics as hastily inferred that it never 
 was instituted by the wisdom of the Deity. There are some 
 objections against the authority of Moses and the prophets, 
 which too readily present themselves to the sceptical mind ; 
 though they can only be derived from our ignorance of remote 
 antiquity, and from our incapacity to form an adequate judg- 
 ment of the divine economy. These objections were eagerly 
 embraced and as petulantly urged by the vain science of the 
 Gnostics.^^ As those heretics were, for the most part, averse 
 to the pleasures of sense, they morosely arraigned the polyg- 
 amy of the patriarchs, the gallantries of David, and the 
 seraglio of Solomon. The conquest of the land of Canaan, and 
 the extirpation of the unsuspecting natives, they were at a loss 
 how to reconcile with the common notions of humanity and 
 justice.* But when they recollected the sanguinary list of 
 murders, of executions, and of massacres, which stain almost 
 every page of the Jewish annals, they acknowledged that the 
 barbarians of Palestine had exercised as much compassion 
 towards their idolatrous enemies, as they had ever shown to 
 their friends or countrymen." Passing from the sectaries of 
 
 of Ethiopia, and Dissertations de La Grand sur la Relation du P, 
 Lobo.) Tlio eunuch of the queen Candace might suggest some sus- 
 picions; but as Ave are assured (Socrates, i. 19. Sozomen, ii. 24. 
 Ludolphus, p. 281) that the ^Ethiopians Avere not converted tiU the 
 fourth century, it is more reasonable to beheve that they respected 
 the sabbath, and distinguished tl^e forbidden meats, in imitation of 
 the Jews, who, in a very early period, Avere seated on both sides of 
 the Red Sea. Chcumcision had been practised by the most ancient 
 J<;thiopians. from motives of health and cleanliness, Avhich seem to be 
 explained in the Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains, torn. ii. 
 p. 11*7. 
 
 ^° Beausobre, Histoire du Manicheisme, 1. i. c. 3, has stated their oli- 
 jections, particularly those of Fav.stus, the adversary of Augustin, Avith 
 the most learned impartiality. 
 
 ^' Apud ipsos fides obstinata, misericordia in promptu : ad versus 
 wnnee alios hostile odium. Tacit. Hist. v. 4. Sm-ely Tacitus had seen 
 
 On She ■' war law" of the Jews, see Wst. of Jews. i. 137.- -M.
 
 A.D. 323.] OF THE ROMAN ENfPIRE. 81b 
 
 the law to the law it.self, tliey asserted that it was impossible 
 that a religion which consisted only of bloody sacrifices and 
 trifling ceremonies, and whose rewards as well as piniislimeiit/i 
 were all of a carnal and temporal nature, could inspire tho 
 love of virtue, or restrain the impetuosity of passion, Tho 
 Mosaic account of the creation and fall of man wjts treated 
 with profane derision by the Gnostics, who would not listen 
 with patience to the repose of tho Deity after six days' lalx)r, 
 to the rib of Adam, the garden of Eden, the trees ut' life and 
 of knowledge, the speaking serpent, the forbidden fruit, and 
 the condemnation pronounced against human kind for tlui 
 \ venial oftence of their first progenitors." The God of Lsrael 
 ^was impiously represented by the Gnostics as a being liable to 
 passion and to error, capricious in his favor, implacable in his 
 resentment, meanly jealous of his supei-stitious worship, and 
 confining his partial providence to a single pco|)le, and to this 
 transitory life. In such a character they could discover none 
 of the features of the wise and omnipotent Father of tho 
 universe.^* They allowed that the religion of the Jews was 
 somewhat less criminal than the idolatry of the Gentiles; but' 
 it was their fundamental doctrine, that the Christ whom thej 
 adored as the first and brightt'st emanation of the L)eity ap- 
 peared upon earth to rescue mankind from their various errora 
 
 the Jews with too favorable an eye.* The perusal of Josephua must 
 have destroyed the antithesis. 
 
 ** Dr. Burnet (Archa»ologia, 1. ii. c. 1) has discussed the first 
 chapters of Genesis with too much wit and freedom. f 
 
 ^^ The milder Gnostics consiilercd Jehovah, the Creator, as a Boing 
 of a mixed nature between God and the Dainion. Others confounded 
 him with an evil principle. Consult the second century of tho gen- 
 Aral history of Mosheim, which gives a very distinct, though concise, 
 account of their strange opinions on this subject. 
 
 * Few writers have snsy)ectcd Tacitus of partiality towards the Jews. 
 The whole later liistory of the Jews illustrates as well their strong feelini,'ii 
 of humanity to their brethren, as their hostility to tho rest of mankind. 
 The character aud the po.sitioii of Jo.«oi(hus with the Roman authoritic", 
 must be kept in mind during the perusal of his Historj-. I'erlmps he has 
 not exaggerated the ferocity and fanaticism of the Jews nt that lime ; hut 
 insurrectionary warfare is not the best school for the humaner virtues, and 
 much must be allowed for the grinding tyraiuiy of the later Roman gov- 
 ernor.''. See Hist, of Jews, ii. 254. — M. 
 
 t Dr. Burnet apologized for the levity with which he had rondurted 
 some of his arguments, by tho excuse that he wrote in a learned langunor 
 for scholars alone, not for the vuL'ar. Whatever may 1"^ tliou-jlil of hi* 
 success iu tracing an Eastern allegory in the lirst clajittTB of (Jcnrsi*, hit 
 other works prove him to have been a man of ^cat geniu.s, and of Biuccri 
 piety. — M
 
 520 THE DECLINE AND FALL |_A. D, 323. 
 
 Hiid to reveal a 7iew system of truth and perfection. The most 
 learned of the fathers, by a very singular condescension, have 
 imprudently admitted the sophistry of the Gnostics.* Ac- 
 knowledging that the literal sense is repugnant to every princi- 
 ple of faith as well as reason, they deem themselves secure and 
 invulnerable behind the ample veil of allegory, which Ihey 
 carefully spread over every tender part of the Mosaic dispensa 
 tion.'° 
 
 It has been remarked with more ingenuity than truth, that 
 the virgin purity of the church was never violated by schism 
 or heresy before the reign of Trajan or Hadrian, about one 
 hundred years after the death of Christ." We may observe 
 '\with much more propriety, that, during that period, the dis- 
 ciples of the Messiah were indulged in a freer latitude, both 
 of faith and practice, than has ever been allowed in succeeding 
 ages. As the terms of communion were insensibly narrowed, 
 and the spiritual authority of the prevailing party was exercised 
 with increasing severity, many of its most respectable ad- 
 herents, who were called upon to renounce, were provoked to 
 assert their private opinions, to pursue the conse<:[uences of their 
 mistaken principles, and openly to erect the standard of rebellion 
 against the unity of the church. The Gnostics were distinguished 
 as the most polite, the most learned, and the most wealthy of the 
 Christian name ; and that general appellation, which expressed 
 a superiority of knowledge, was either assumed by their own 
 pride, or ironically bestowed by the envy of their advers<»ries. 
 They were almost without exception of the race of the Gen- 
 tiles, and their principal founders seem to ha\'e been natives 
 
 "" See Beausobre, Hist, du Manichelsme, L i. c. 4. Origen and St 
 Aiigustin were among the allegorists. 
 
 " Hegesippus, ap. Euseb. 1, iii. 32, iv. 22. Clemens Alexandria 
 Stromat. vii. 17. f 
 
 ■* The Gnostics, aud tlie historian who has stated these plausible ODjeo 
 lions with so much force as almost to make them his own, would have shown 
 9. more considerate aud not less reasonable philosophy, if they had considered 
 the religion of Moses with reference to the age in which it was promulgated , 
 if they had done justice to its sublime as well as its more imperfect views 
 of the divine nature ; the humane and civilizing provisions of the Hebrew 
 law, as well as those adapted for an infant and barbarous people. See Hist 
 of Jews, i. 3f, 37, &c.— M. 
 
 t The assertion of Hegesippus is not so positive: it is sufficient to reaj 
 the whole passage in Eusebius, to see that the former part is modified by thr 
 iatt»;r. Hegesippus adds, that up to this period the church had remained 
 pare and immaculate as a virgin. Those who labored to corrupt the doo 
 Irlnee jf tae gospel worked as yet in obscurity — Q
 
 A-D. 323.] OF THE nOMAX EMPIRE. 521 
 
 of Syria or Egypt, where the warmth of the chinat*? (Jisi>os» 
 both the mind and the body to iiulok-nt and oontoniplativu 
 devotion The Gnostics blended witli the faith of Clirisf 
 many sublime but obscure tenets, which tiiey derived from 
 oriental philosophy, and even from the religion of Zoroivster, 
 concerning the eternity of matter, the existenai of two prin- 
 ciples, and the mysterious hierarchy of the invisible world." 
 ia aoon as they launched out into that Viist abyss, they delivered 
 hemselves to the guidance of a disordered imagination ; and 
 as the paths of error are various and infinite, the Gnostics 
 were imperceptibly divided into more than lifty jiarticular 
 sects," of whom the most celebrated appear to have b«H'ii the 
 BasiUdians, the Valentinians, the Marcionit<^s, and, in a stil. 
 later period, the Manichaeans. Each of these sects could 
 boast of its bishops and congregations, of its doctors and 
 martyrs;" and, instead of the Four Gospels adopted by the 
 church,f the heretics produced a multitude of histories, in 
 which tlie actions and discourses of Clirist and of his apostles 
 were adapted to their respective tenets." The success of the 
 
 *^ In tlie account of the Gnostics of the second and third centuries, 
 Mosheim is ingenious and candid ; Le Clerc dull, but exact ; IJeauso- 
 bre almost always an apologist ; and it is much to be feared that the 
 primitive fathers are very frequently calumniators.* 
 
 "' See the catiilogues of Ircnteus anil Epiphaniu'*. It must indeed 
 be allowed, that those writers were inclined to multiply the number 
 of sects which opposed the unity of the cluircii. 
 
 ^* Eusebius. 1. iv. c. 15. Sozomen, 1. ii. c. 32. See in Baylc, in the 
 article of Marcion, a curious detail of a dispute on that subject It 
 should seem that some of the Gnostics (the Basilidians) declined, and 
 even refused the honor of Martyrdom. Their reasons were singular 
 and abstruse. See Mosheim, p. 539. 
 
 ^* See a very remarkable passage of Origen, (ProeoL ad Lucam.) 
 That indefatigable writer, who had consumetl his life in the study of 
 the Scriptures, relies for their authenticity on the in.'^pircd authority 
 of the church. It was impo.ssible that the Gnostics could receive our 
 present Gos]iels, many parts of which (particularly in the resurrection 
 of Christ) are directly," and as it might seem designedly, pointed against 
 iheir favorite tenets. It is therefore somewhat singuhir that Ignatius 
 (Epist. ad Smyrn. Patr. Apostol. tom. ii. p. 34) should choose to emphiy 
 B vague and doubtful tradition, instead of quoting the certain testiiaony 
 of the evangelists.^ 
 
 * The Histoire du Gncsticisinc of M. Matter is at once the fairest ami 
 aaost comijlete account of tiic.se sects. — M. 
 
 t M. Hahii has restored the Marcioiiite Gospel with »?reat iageouity 
 Bis vfc-ork is reprinted in Tiiilo. Code.x. A[ioc. Nov. Test. vol. i.— M. 
 
 t Bishcp Pearson has altcinpied very happi'y to explain this • aing*
 
 622 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 328 
 
 Gnostics was rapid and extensiv* .°' They covered Asia and 
 Egypt, established themselves in Rome, and sometimes f>ene- 
 tnited into the i»rovinces of the West. For the most part they 
 arose in the second century, llourished during the third, and 
 were suppressed in the fourth or fifth, by the prevalence of 
 more fashionable controversies, and by the superior ascendant 
 cf the reigning power. Though they constantly disturbed ihe 
 peace, and frequently disgraced the name, of religion, they con- 
 tributed to assist rather than to retard the progress of Christi- 
 anity. The Gentile converts, whose strongest objections and 
 prejudices were directed against the law of Moses, could find 
 admission into many Christian societies, which required not 
 from their untutored mind any belief of an antecedent revela- 
 tion. Their faith was insensibly fortified and enlarged, and the 
 church was ultimately benefited by the conquests of its most 
 inveterate enemies." 
 
 But whatever diflference of opinion might subsist between 
 the Orthodox, the Ebionites, and the Gnostics, concerning the 
 divinity or the obligation of the Mosaic law, they were all 
 equally animated by the same exclusive zeal ; and by the 
 same abhorrence for idolatry, which had distinguished the 
 Jews from the other nations of the ancient world. The phi- 
 losopher, who considered, the system of polytheism as a com- 
 position of human fraud and error, could disguise a smile of 
 contempt under the mask of devotion, without apprehending 
 that either the mockery, or the compliance, would expose him 
 to the resentment of any invisible, or, as he conceived them, 
 imaginary powers. But the established religions of Paganism 
 were seen by the primitive Christians in a much more odious 
 
 ^° Facinnt favos et vespre; faciunt ecclesias et Marcionitas, is the 
 strong expression of Tertullian, which I am obliged to quote from 
 memory. In the time of Epiphanius (advers. Haereses, p. 302) the 
 Maroioaites were very numerous in Italy, Syria, Egypt, Arabia, and 
 Persia. 
 
 ^' Augustin is a memorable instance of this gradual progress from 
 reason to faith. He was, during several years, engaged iri the Mani 
 chfear sect. 
 
 larily.' The lirnt Christians were aeijuainted with a number of sayings of 
 Jesus Cnrist, which are not rehited m our Gospels, and indeed have never 
 been wTitten. "Why miglit not St. Ignatius, who had hvcd with the apcstlet 
 or their disciples, repeat in other wcrds that which St. Luke has related, 
 particularly at a time when, being in prison, he could has^e the Gospels al 
 Dand? Pearson, Viud Igu. pp. 2, 9 p. 396. in torn. ii. Patrcs Apott ed 
 CoteXsr —Q.
 
 A.. D. 323.) OF THE ROMAN EMPIKR. fit 
 
 and formidable light. It was the universal soiitiment both of 
 the cliiuch and of heretic-^, that the daemons were llut authors, 
 the patrons, and the objects of idolatry." Those reU-llious 
 spirits who had been degraded from the rank of ang<'ls, and 
 cast down into the infernal pit, were still permiltt^-d tt» roaia 
 upon earth, to torment the bodies, and to seduce the minds, of 
 sinful men. The daemons soon discovered and abused the 
 natural propensity of the human heart towards devotion, and 
 artfully withdrawing the adoration of mankind from their Crea- 
 tor, they usurped the place and honoi*s of the Supreme Deity. 
 By the success of their malicious contrivances, they at onai 
 gratified their own vanity and revenge, and obtiiined the only 
 comfort of which they were yet susceptible, the hope of 
 involving the human species in the participation of their guilt 
 and misery. It was confessed, or at le;vst it was imngiiied, 
 that they had distributed among themselves the most impor- 
 tant characters of polytheism, one da;mon assuming the name 
 and attributes of Juj^iter, another of .dEsculapius, a third of 
 Venus, and a fourth perhaps of Apollo ; " and that, by tho 
 advantage of their iong experience and aerial nature, they 
 were enabled to execute, with sufficient skill and dignity, the 
 parts which they had undertaken. They lurked in the tcin 
 pies, instituted festivals and sacrifices, invented fables, pro- 
 nounced oracles, and were frequently allowed to perform 
 miracles. The Christians, who, by the interposition of evil 
 spirits, could so readily explain every preternatural appear- 
 ance, were disposed and even desirous to admit the most 
 extravagant fictions of the Pagan mythology. But the belief 
 of the Christian was accompanied with horror. The most 
 trifling mark of respect to the national worship he considered 
 as a direct homage yielded to the daemon, and as an act of 
 rebellion against the majesty of God. 
 
 In consequence of this opinion, it was the fii-st but arduous 
 duty of a Christian to preserve himself pure and undefiled by 
 the practice of idolatry. The religion of the nations was not 
 merely a speculative doctrine professed in the schools cr 
 preached in the tem])les. The innumerable deities and rit*)3 
 
 ** The unanimous sentiment of the primitive church is very Cicarlj 
 explained by Justin Martyr, Apolog. Major, by Atheiuigor.is, Li!gat 
 c. 22. &c.., and by Lactantius, Iiistitut. Divin. ii. 14 — 19. 
 
 •* Tertullian (Apolog. c. 23) alleges the confest^ion jf the dKmom 
 themselves as often as thev were tormented by the Christian excrcisU
 
 524 THE DECLINE AND FAU [A. D. 323 
 
 of polytheism were closely interwoven with every circum- 
 stance of business or pleasure, of public or of private life * 
 and it seemed impossible to escape the observance of them, 
 without, at the same time, renouncing the commerce of man- 
 kind, and all the offices and amusements of society.*" The 
 important transactions of peace and war were prepared or 
 concluded by solemn sacrifices, in which the magistrate, the 
 senator, and the soldier, were obliged to preside or to partici- 
 pate.'*' The public spectacles were an essential part of the 
 cheerful devotion of the Pagans, and the gods were supposed 
 to accept, as the most grateful offering, the games that the 
 prince and people celebrated in honor of their peculiar fes- 
 tivals." The Christians, who with pious horror avoided the 
 abomination of the circus or the theatre, found himself encom- 
 passed with infernal snares in every convi\ial entertainment, 
 as often as his friends, invoking the hospitable deities, poured 
 out libations to each other's happiness.''^ When the bride, 
 struggling with well-atfected reluctance, was forced into hyme- 
 nseal pomp over the threshold of her new habitation," or 
 when the sad procession of the dead slowly moved towards 
 the funeral pile ;" the Christian, on these interesting occa- 
 
 *" TertuUian has written a most severe treatise against idolatry, tc 
 caution his brethren against the hourly danger of incurring that guilt. 
 Rtcogita sylvam, et quantje latitant spinte. De Corona MiUtis, c. 10. 
 
 ■" The Roman senate was always held in a temple or consecrated 
 place. (Aulus GelUus, xiv. 7.) Before they entered on business, every 
 senator dropped some wine and frankincense ou the altar. Sueton. ia 
 August, c. 35. 
 
 *'■' See TertuUian, De Spectaculis. This severe reformer shows no 
 more indulgence to a tragedy of Euripides, than to a combat of gladi- 
 ators. Tlie dress of the actors particularly offends him. By the use 
 of the lofty buskin, they unpiously strive to add a cubit to their 
 etature. c. 23. 
 
 *^ The ancient practice of concluding the entertainment witli liba- 
 tions, may be found in every classic. Socrates and Seneca, in their 
 last moments, made a noble application of this custom. Postquam 
 fitagnura, calidte aquai introiit, respergens proximos servorum, addita 
 voc<;, libare se liquorem ilium Jovi Liberatori. Tacit. Annal. xv. 64. 
 
 " See the elegant but idolatrous hymn of Catullus, on the nuptials 
 of Manlius and Julia. O Hymen, Hymenaie lo ! Quis huic Deo 
 compaiarier ausit? 
 
 *^ The ancient funerals (in those of Misenus and Pallas) are no less 
 accurately described by Virgil, than they are illustrated by tis com- 
 mentator Servius. The pile itself was an altar, the flames were fed 
 with the blood of victims, and all the assistants were sprinkled witli 
 lusiral water.
 
 /LD. 323.] OF riiE koman emi'Iue. 631 
 
 sions, was compelled (,o desert the jiei-soiis who were- the dear- 
 est to him, rather than contract the uuilt inherent to thosj im- 
 pious ceremonies. Every art and e\ery trade that was in tlio 
 least concerned in the, Iramini^ or adurning of idols w;vs pol- 
 luted by the stain of idolatry ;" a severe sentence, since it 
 devoted to eternal misery the far greater part of the commu- 
 nity, which is employed in the exercise of liberal or mechanic 
 professions. If we cast our eyes over the numerous rt-mains 
 of antiquity, we shall perceive, that besides the imminliato 
 representations of the gods, and the holy instruments of their 
 worship, the elegant forms and agreeable fictions consecrated 
 by the imagination of the Greeks, were introduced as tho 
 'ichest ornaments of the houses, the dress, and the furniture 
 of the Pagan." Even the arts of music and painting, of elo- 
 quence and poetry, flowed from the same impure origin. In 
 ':he style of the fathers, Apollo and tlie Muses were the organs 
 of the infernal spirit; Homer and Virgil were the most emi- 
 nent of his servants ; and the beautiful mythology which per- 
 vades and animates the compositions of their genius, is des- 
 tined to celebrate the glory of the daemons. Even the com- 
 mon language of Greece and Rome abounded with familiar 
 but impious expressions, which the imprudent Christian might 
 too carelessly utter, or too patiently hear.'" 
 
 The dangerous temptations which on every side lurkfd in 
 ambush to surprise the unguarded believer, assailed him with 
 redoubled violence on the days of solemn festivals. So art- 
 fully were they framed and dispost-d throughout the year, that 
 superstition always wore the appearance of pleasure, and 
 
 *" TortuUian de Idololatria, c. 11.* 
 
 *'' Sco livery part of Moutt'aucon's Aiitic(uitius. Even the rfve'sca 
 of the Greek and Roman cuius were frequently of an idolatri.iis 
 nature. Here indeed the scruples of the Chri-itiaii were susp.'iided 
 by a stronger passion.f 
 
 " Tertullian de Idololatria, c. 20, 21, 22. If a Pagan friend On 
 the occasion perhaps of sneezing) used the fanuhar expression of 
 - Jupiter bless you," the Christian was obliged to protest against the 
 dignity of Jupiter. 
 
 » Til.' cxa'-fforateii and declamatory opinions of Tortiillian oiikIh iiol 
 IC he laken as^llic gt-ncr-A sonliin(,Mit oi" the early Clirisliuiis. GiIiIm.ii Una 
 too often allowed himself to consider the preulmr notuins of certain 
 Fathers of the Chnich as inherent in Chiistiauity. This is not uccurnlu. 
 
 t All this sinipulous nicety is nt variance with the derision of Bl PtuI 
 iliout meat oU'ered '» idols, 1 Cor. x. ','1— :j-'.— M.
 
 $26 TUE DECLINE AND FAL\ j A. D. 323^ 
 
 often of virtue. Some of the most sacred festivals in th« 
 Roman ritual were destined to salute the new calends of 
 January with vows of public and private felicity ; to indulge the 
 pious remembrance of the dead and living ; to ascertain the in- 
 violable bounds of property ; to hail, on the return of spring, 
 the genial powers of fecundity ; to perpetuate the two memora- 
 ble aeras of Rome, the foundation of the city and that of the 
 republic , and to restore, during the humane license of the Satur- 
 nalia, the primitive equality of mankind. Some idea may be 
 conceived of the abhorrence of the Christians for such impious 
 ceremonies, by the scrupulous delicacy which they displayed on 
 a much less alarming occasion. On days of general festivity, it 
 was the custoni of the ancients to adorn their doors with 
 lamps and with branches of laurel, and to crown their heads 
 with a garland of flowers. This innocent and elegant practice 
 Bjight perhaps have been tolerated as a mere civil institution. 
 But it most unluckily happened that the doors were under the 
 protection of the household gods, that the laurel was sacred to 
 the lover of Daphne, and that garlands of flowers, though 
 frequently worn as a symbol of joy or mourning, had been 
 dedicated in their first origin to the service of superstition. 
 t The trembling Christians, who were persuaded in this instance 
 j to comply witli the fashion of their country, and the commands 
 V of the magistrate, labored under the most gloomy appre- 
 \hensions, from the reproaches of his own conscience, the 
 .censures of the church, and the denunciations of divine ven- 
 geance.^" 
 
 *' Consult the most labored work of Ovid, his imperfect Fasti. He 
 finished no more than the first six months of tlic year. The compila- 
 tion of Macrobius is called tlie Saturnalia, but it is only a small part 
 of the first hook that bears any relation to the title. 
 
 '" Tertullian has composed a defence, or rather panegyric, of the 
 rash action of a Christian soldier, who, by throwing away his crown of 
 lam'el, h.ad exposed hmiself and his brethren to the most imminent 
 danger." By the mention of the einpcrors, (Severus and CaracuUa,) it 
 „ is evident, notwithstanding the wishes of M. de Tillemont, that Tertul- 
 lian composed Iiis treatise De Corona long before he was engaged \x 
 the errors of the Montanists. See Memoires Ecclcsiastiques, t<tm. iij. p, 
 S84,t 
 
 " The soldier did not tear olT his crown to throw it down with conlenipt ; 
 be did not even throw it uvsay ; he held it in his hand, %vliile ollioiB wore ii 
 oa their heads. Solus libcro capite, oi'nameuto in manu otioso. — G 
 
 t Tertullian docs not expressly name the two emperors, Scvcnis anJ 
 C&racnlla ; ho sjcuks only of t\\ o eujperor.s and et a long peace wlii.lj the
 
 A-J). 323.J OF inE uoman emi'Ike. 62*! 
 
 Such was the anxious iiliironce wliioli was ivqniicd to iruard 
 the chastity of the gospel tVoin the infectious i^i-caUi'of idolatry. 
 The superstitious observances of pubhc or private rites" wero 
 carelessly practised, from education and habit, by the followers 1/ 
 of the established religion. ]3ut as often as they' occurred, they 
 aftbrdcd the Christians an opportunity of declaring and con- 
 finning their zealous oj)position. By these frequent ])njt<-sta- 
 lions their attachment to the faith was continually f urtitied ; 
 and in proportion to the increase of zeal, they combat('(l with 
 the more ardor and success in the holy war, which they had 
 undertaken against the empire of the demons. 
 
 II. The writings of Cicero" represent in the most lively 
 colors the ignorance, the eiTors, and the uncertainty of the 
 ancient philosophers with regard to the immortality of the 
 soul. When they are desirous of arming their disciples against 
 the fear of death, they inculcate, as an obvious, though melan- 
 choly position, that the fatal stroke of our dissolution rele;use.s 
 us from the calamities of life ; and that those can no longer 
 suffer, who no longer exist. Yet there were a few sages 
 of Greece and Rome who had conceived a more e.xalted, 
 and, in some respects, a juster idea of human nature, though 
 it must be confessed, that in the sublime inquiry, their reason 
 had been often guided by their imagination, and that tlicii 
 imagination had been prompted by their vanity/' When they 
 viewed with complacency the extent of their own mental 
 powers, when they exercised the various faculties of memory, 
 of fancy, and of judgment, in the most profound speculations, 
 or the most important labors, and when they reflected on the 
 desire of fame, which transported them into future ages, far 
 beyond the bounds of death and of the grave, they were 
 
 ■*' In particular, the first book of the Tuscvil.an Questions, and the 
 treatise De ISonectute, and the Soninium Scipionis, contain, in the 
 most bjauliful language, every thing tliat Grecian philosopliy, oi 
 Roman good sense, could possibly suggest on this dark hut important 
 object. 
 
 church had enjoyed. It is generally agreed thai TcrtuUiaii hocanio a Montt- 
 nist about the year 200 : his work, de Corona Mihiis, appears to have bt>on 
 written, at the earHost about the year 202 before the persecution of iSevemH: 
 it may be maintained, then, that it is siibsennent to the Momanisra of tha 
 author. See Mosheim, Diss, dc Apot TertuH. p. 53. Hibiioili. -(lis. AmHtorc. 
 lom. X. part ii. p. 2U2. Cave's Hist. Lit. p. 92, 03.~(} 
 
 The state of Tcrtulliau's opini(uis at the particular j)ori(ii3 •« almost an idl« 
 quegtion. " The fiery Africim" is nut at any lime to be .•onsidered a fail 
 »»prt at-ulative yf Cliri.'^iianity.— M
 
 628 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D, 32S 
 
 anwillin^- to ojnfoimd themselves with the beasts of the Geld, 
 or to suppose that a being, for who^e dignity they entertained 
 the most sincere admiration, could be limited to a spot of earth, 
 and to a few years of duration. With this favorable prepos- 
 session they summoned to their aid the science, or rather the 
 language, of Metaphysics. They soon discovered, that aa 
 n( ne of the properties of matter will apply to the operations of 
 ^k^■) mind, the human soul must consequently be a substance 
 distinct from the body, pure, simple, and spiritual, incapable of 
 dissolution, and susceptible of a much higher degree of virtue 
 and happiness after the release from its corporeal prison. 
 From these specious and noble principles, the philosophers who 
 trod in the footsteps of Plato deduced a very unjustifiable con- 
 chision, since they asserted, not only the future immortality, 
 but the past eternity, of the human soul, which they were too 
 apt to consider as a portion of the infinite and self-existing 
 s|)irit, which pervades and sustains the universe.^* A doctrine 
 thus removed beyond the senses and the experience of man- 
 kind, might serve to amuse the leisure of a philosophic mind ; 
 or, in the silence of solitude, it might sometimes impait a ray 
 of comfort to desponding virtue ; but the faint impression 
 which had been received in the schools, was soon obliterated 
 by the commerce and business of active life. We are sufficiently 
 acquainted with the eminent persons who flourished in the age 
 of Cicero, and of the first Caesars, with their actions, their 
 characters, and their motives, to be assured that their conduct 
 in this life was never regulated by any serious conviction of the 
 rewards or punishments of a future state. At the bar and in 
 the senate of Rome the ablest orators were not apprehensive 
 of giving offence to their hearers, by exposing that doctrine 
 as an idle and extravagant opinion, which was rejected 
 with contempt by every man of a liberal education and unde?- 
 4anding." 
 
 Since therefore the most sublime efforts of philosophy can 
 extend no further than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, 
 
 " The preexistence of human souls, so far at least as that doctrine 
 is romjjatible witli religion, was adopted by many of the Greek aad 
 iMiii fathers. See Beausobre, Hist, du Manichei.^me, 1. vi. c. 4. 
 
 °' See Cicero pro Ciuent c. Gl. CiEsar ap. Sallust. de Beil. Ca!i& 
 yfiO. Juvenal. Satir. ii. 149. 
 
 Js.se aliiiuifl manes, et suVrtenanca regna, 
 
 ec pueri crediiiit, nisi (jiii nonduni a'rc lavantRr.
 
 A.D. 323.) OF THE ROMAN EMl'IllE, 329 
 
 or, at most, the probability, of a future state, there is iioLliinj;, 
 except a divine revelation, that can aseertiiin the existence, 
 and describe tlie condition, of the invisible country which Is 
 iestined to receive the souls of men after their separation frotn> 
 che body. But we may perceive several defects inherent to the 
 popular religions of Greece and Rome, which rendered them 
 very unequal to so arduous a task. 1. The general system of U 
 their mythology was unsupported by any solid proofs ; and the 
 wisest among the Pagans had ahvady disclaimed its usurpcl 
 authority. 2. The description of the infernal regions liao • 
 been abandoned to the fancy of painters and of poet'^, who 
 peopled them with so many phantoms and monstei-s, who dis- 
 pensed their rewards and punishments with so little equity, 
 that a solemn truth, the most congenial to the human heart, 
 was opposed and disgraced by the absurd mixture of the 
 wildest fictions." 3. The doctrine of a future stitc was \ 
 scarcely considered among the devout polytheists of Greece 
 and Rome as a fundamental article of faith. The providence 
 of the gods, as it related to public communities rather than to 
 private individuals, was principally displayed on the visible 
 theatre of the present world. The petitions which were 
 offered on the altars of Jupiter or Apollo, expressed the anx- 
 iety of their worshippers for temporal happiness, and thcil 
 ignorance or indifference concerning a future life." The im- 
 portant truth of the immortality of the soul was inculcated with 
 more dihgence, as well as success, in India, in Assyria, in 
 Egypt, and in Gaul ; and since we cannot attribute such a 
 dift'erence to the superior knowledge of the barbarians, we 
 must ascribe it to the influence of an established priesthood, 
 which employed the motives of virtue as the instrument of 
 ambition.'^ 
 
 " The xith book of the Ody«></ gives a very dre.iry and incoherent 
 account of the infernal shades. Pindar and Virgil have embfUished 
 the picture ; but even thooO poets, tliough more correct thiui thnir 
 E;reat model, are guilty rf very strange inconsistencies. Sec Bayle, 
 Uesponses aux Question? d'un I'rovinciid, ]):irt iii. c. 22. 
 
 " See xvith eyjistle of the first book of Horace, the xiiitli Satire of 
 Juvenal, and the iid Satire of Persius : these popular discourses ex- 
 press the sentiment awl language of tlie multitude. 
 
 ^" If we confine ourselves to the IJauls, we may observe, that fliey 
 intrusted, not only their fives, but even their money, to the .■security 
 of another v/orld. "Vetus illc mos Oallorum occurrit (says Vah-rins 
 Maximus, 1. ii r. 5, p. 10) quos, meinoriii prodituin est jiecuiuai 
 nmluas, (pu« his apud iuferosi reddurcntur, dar-; solito.^. I'lic naiuw 
 
 ''OL. I — Z
 
 MO THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 32S, 
 
 We might naturally expect that a princi])le ?K) ussential to 
 religion, would have been revealed in the clearest terms to the 
 chosen people of Palestine, and that it might safely have been 
 intrusted to the hereditary priesthood of Aaron. It is incum- 
 bent on us to adore the mysterious dispensations of Provi- 
 dence," when we discover that the doctrine of the immor 
 
 custom is more darkly insinuated by Mela, 1. iii. c. 2. I^ is aimosi 
 needless to add, that the profits of trade hold a just proportion to the 
 credit of the merchant, and that the Druids derived from their holy 
 profession a character of responsil)iUty, which could scarcely be claimed 
 by any other order of men. 
 
 " The right reverend author of the Divine Legation of Moses as- 
 signs a very curious reason for tlie omission, and most ingeniously re- 
 torts it on the unbelievers.* 
 
 * The hypothesis of Warburton concerning this remarkable fact, whicn, 
 as far as the Law of Moses, is unquestionable, made few disciples; and it 
 is difficult to suppose that it could be intended by the author himself for 
 more than a disjilay of intellectual strength. Modei-n -writers have ac- 
 counted in various ways for the silence of the Hebrew legislator on the 
 immortality of the soul. According to Michaelis, " Moses wrote as an 
 historian and as a lawgiver : he regulated the ecclesiastical discipline, 
 rather than the religious belief of his people ; and the sanctions of the 
 law being temporal, he had no occasion, and as a civil legislator could not 
 with propriety, threaten punishments in another world.'' See Michaelis, 
 Laws of Moses, art. 272. vol. iv. p. 209, Eng. Trans. ; and Syntagma Com- 
 mentationum, p. SO, quoted by Guizot. M. Guizot adds, the " ingenious 
 conjecture of a philosophic theologian," which approxmiatqs to an opinion 
 long entertained by the Editor. That writer believes, that in the state 
 of civilization at the time of the legislator, this doctrine, become popular 
 among the Je^vs, would necessarily have given birth to a multitude of 
 idolatrous superstitions which he wished to prevent. His primary object 
 ^vas to establish a firm theocracy, to make his people the conservators of 
 the doctrine of the Divine Unitj", the basis upon which Christianity was 
 hereafter to rest. He carefully excluded everything which could obscure 
 or weaken that doctrine. Other nations had strangely abused their notions 
 on the immortality of the soul ; Moses wished to prevent this abuse : hence 
 he forbade the Jews from consulting necromancers, (those who evoke the 
 spirits of the dead.) Deut. xviii. 11. Those who reflect on the state of 
 the Pagans and the Jews, and on the lacility with which idolatry crept iu 
 on every side, will not be astonished that Moses has not developed a doctrine 
 of which the influence might be more pernicious than usefiil to his people. 
 Orat. Fest. de Vitae Immort. Spe., &c., auct. Ph. Alb. Stapfer, p IS 13, 20. 
 Benie, 1787. 
 
 Moses, as well fi-om the intimations scattered in his writings, the passage 
 relating to the translation of Enoch, (Gen. v. 24,) the prohibition of 
 necromancy, (Michaelis believes him to be the author of the Book of Job 
 though this opinion is in general rejected ; other learned writers considei 
 this Book to be coeval with and known to Muses,) as from his long resi 
 dence in Egypt, and his acquaintance with Egyptian wisdom, could not b» 
 ignorant of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. But this doctrine 
 if popularly known among the Jews, must have been purely Egyptian, and, 
 KB so, intimately cormected v.uth the whole religious system of that coun 
 try. It was no doubt nwulded up with the tenet of the transmigration ol
 
 A. D. 323] OF riiE roman emi'ire. A8I 
 
 tality of the soul is OTnittod in the law of Mobos it is ilarkly 
 insinuated by the propliets ; and durino^ the lon<r period which 
 elapsed between the Egyptian and the IJabylonian servitudes, 
 Ihe hopes as well as fears of the Jews appear to have b<'en 
 confined within the narrow compass of the pr.'sout life." Af- 
 ter Cyrus had permitted the exiled nation to return into the 
 promised land, and after Ezra had restored the ancient records 
 of their religion, two celebrated sects, the Sadducees and 
 the Pharisees, insensibly arose at Jerusalem," The former, 
 Gelected from the more opulent and distiiiguislied ranks of 
 society, were strictly attached to the literal sense of the Mosaic 
 law, and they piously rejected the immortality of the soul, as 
 an opinion that received no countenance from the divine book, 
 which they revered as the only rule of their faith. To the 
 authority of Scripture the Pharisees added that of tradition, and 
 they accepted, under the name of traditions, several specula- 
 tive tenets from the philosophy or religion of the eastern 
 nations. The doctrines of fate or predestination, of angels 
 and spirits, and of a future state of rewards and pnnishments, 
 were in the number of these new articles of belief; and as 
 the Pharisees, by the austerity of their manners, had drawn 
 into their party the body of the Jewish people, the immortality 
 of the soul became the prevailing sentiment of thi^ synagogue, 
 under the reign of the Asmon;ean princes and ponlills. The 
 
 " See Lc Clerc (Prolegomena ad Hist. Ecclesiast. sect. 1, c. 8 
 His authority seems to carry the greater weight, as he has written r 
 learned and judicious commentary on the books of the Old Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 '*' Joseph. Antiquitat. 1. xiil. c. 10. De Bell. Jud. ii. 8. According 
 to the most natm'al interpretation of his words, the Sadducees a(hnit- 
 ted only the Pentateucli ; but it has pleased some modern critics to 
 add tiie Prophets to their creed, and to suppose tliat they contented 
 themselves with rejecting the traditions of the Phari.'iees. Dr. Jortin 
 lias argued that point hi his Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, voL 
 ii. p. 103. 
 
 the soul, perhaps with notions analogous to the emanation system of Iiulia, 
 in wliicli the human soul was an cIUu.k from, or iiuleerl a part of. the Deity 
 n-.e Mosaic religion drew a wide and impassable iutcrval tiotwecii tli« 
 Creator and created human beiugs : in this it dillercd from the Ej:yptiiui 
 and all the Eastern religions. As then the immortality of the soul wai 
 thus inseparably blended with those foreign religions which were altogothoi 
 to be effaced from the minds of the people, and by no means nccossarj- foi 
 the establishment of the theocracy, Moses niaintaiiie<i silence on this point, 
 •nd a purer notion of it was left io be developed at a mere favurable period 
 bp the hietory of man.— M.
 
 S82 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 32* 
 
 temper of the Jews was incapable of contening itself with 
 ruch a cold and languid assent as might satisfy Ihc mind of a 
 Polytheist ; and as soon as they admitted the idea of a futuie 
 Btate, they embraced it with the zeal which has always formed 
 >he characteristic of the nation. Their zeal, however, added 
 tiothing to its evidence, or even probability : and it was still 
 necessary that the doctrine of life and immortality, which had 
 been dictated by nature, approved by reason, and received by 
 superstition, should obtain the sanction of divine truth from 
 the authorit}^ and example of Christ. 
 
 "When the promise of eternal happiness was proposed to 
 " mankind on condition of adopting the faith, and of observing 
 ' the precepts, of the gospel, it is no wonder that so advanta- 
 geous an offer should have been accepted by great numbers of 
 every religion, of every rank, and of every province in the 
 Roman empire. The ancient Christians were animated by a 
 contempt for their present existence, and by a just conlidence 
 of immortality, of which the doubtful and imperfect faith of 
 modern ages cannot give us any adequate notion. In tho 
 primitive church, the influence of truth was very powerfully 
 strengthened by an opinion, which, .however it may deserve 
 respect for its usefulness and antiquity, has not been found 
 agreeable to experience. It was universally believed, that the 
 end of the world, and the kingdom of heaven, were at hand.* 
 The near approach of this wonderful event had been predicted 
 by the apostles ; the tradition of it was preserved by their 
 earliest disciples, and those who understood in their literal 
 senses the discourse of Christ himself, were obliged to expect 
 the second and glorious coming of the Son of Man in the 
 clouds, before that generation was totally extinguished, which 
 had beheld his humble condition upon earth, and which might 
 still be witness of the calamities of the Jews under Vespasian 
 or Hadrian. The revolution of seventeen centuries has in- 
 structed us not to press too closely the mysterious language 
 of prophecy and revelation ; but as long as, for wise purposes, 
 this error was permitted to subsist in the church, it was pro- 
 ductive of the most salutary effects on the feith and practice 
 of Christians, who lived in the awful expectation of that 
 moment, when the globe itself, and all the various race of 
 
 * This was, in fact, an integval part of the Jewish notion of the Mos- 
 liah, frona ^^hiI:h the minds of the apostles themselves were but graduallj 
 detP£hcd. See Beriholdt, Christologia Judasoruiu, concluding chaptcru
 
 A.D. 323.] OP THE roman kmpirh. M% 
 
 mankind, sliotild tremble at the appearance of their divine 
 Judge.'" 
 
 The ancient and popular doctrine of the Miiloiiniiiin was 
 intimately connected with the second comini; of Christ, As 
 the works of the creation had been finished in six days, their 
 duration in their present state, according to a tradit'on whicli 
 was attributed to the prophet Elijali, was fixed to six thousand 
 years." By the same analogy it was inferred, that this loup 
 period of labor and contention, which was now almost elapsed,*' 
 
 /•• This expectation was countenanced by tlie twenty-fourth chaptei 
 of St. Matthew, and by the first epistle of St Paul to the Tliossalo 
 nians. Erasmus removes the difficulty by tlie help of allc<jory .ind 
 metaphor; and the learned Grotius ventures to insinuate, tliat, for 
 wise purposes, the pious deception was permitted to Uike jilaco.* 
 
 "^ See Burnet's Sacred Theory, part iii. c 5. This tradition may bo 
 traced as high as the the author of Epistle of Barnabas, who wrote in 
 the first century, and who seems to have been half a Jew.f 
 
 ** The primitive church of Antioch computed almost 6000 years 
 from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ. Africanus^ 
 Lactantius, and the Greek church, have reduced tliat number to 6500^ 
 and Eusebius has contented himself with 5200 years. These calcu. 
 lations were formed on the Septuagint, which was universally re 
 
 • Some modem Ihoologians explain it without cli.scovcrin5 eiilicr alle 
 goiy or deception. They say. that .lesus Christ, after having pro<-lainie« 
 the ruin of Jerusalem and of the Temple, speaks of liis second corniu),' 
 and the signs which were to precede it; but those who believed that ll-.c 
 moment was near deceived themselves as to the sense of two words, ac 
 en-or which still subsists in our versions of the Gospel according- to St. 
 Matthew, xxiv. 29, 34. In verse 29, we read, " Immediately after ilie trib- 
 ulation of those days shall the sun be darkened," Ac. The Greek word 
 tidcoi; signifies all al once, f.vddciih/, not immcdialilt/ ; so that it signilicu 
 only the sudden appearance of the signs which Jesus Christ aniiounccH 
 not the shortness of the interval which was to separate thcni from tht 
 "days of tribulation," of which he was jipeaking. The verse 34 is this 
 " Verily I s.ay unto you. This generation shall not pass till all these thinjf 
 shall be fulfilled." Jesus, speaking to his disciples, uses these words, airi 
 ytvta, which the translators have rendered by this generation, but wliici 
 means the race, the filiation of my disciples ; that is, he speaks of a cla« 
 of men, not of a generation. The true sense then, according to ihe.tt 
 learned men, is, In truth I tell you that this race of men, of which you are 
 the commencement, shall not pass away till this sh.ill take place; Uiat ii 
 to say, the succession of Christians shall not cease till his conunij. Soa 
 Commentary of M. Paulus on the New Test., edit. 1802, tom. m. p. 443. 
 
 446.— G. 
 
 Others, as Rosenmuller and Kuinoel, m loc, confine this passngc to I 
 bighly figurative description of the ruins of the Jewish city and polity. 
 
 t in fact it is purely Jewish. See Mosheim, De llcb. Christ, ii. 8. LiRkt- 
 foot's Works, 8vo. edit vol. iii. p. 37. Berlholdt, Cliristologia Jad»onia» 
 en. 33.— M.
 
 034 THE DECLINE Al.D FALL [A. D. 323. 
 
 would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand years; 
 and that Christ, with the triumphant band of the saints and the 
 elect who had escaped death, or who had been miraculously 
 revived, would reign upon earth till the time appointed for tha 
 last and general resurrection. So pleasing was this hope to 
 the mind of believers, that the New Jerusalem, the seat of 
 this blissful kingdom, was quickly adorned with all the gayest 
 colors of the imagination. A felicity consisting only of pure 
 and spii'itual pleasure would have appeared too retined for i(>> 
 inhabitants, who were still supposed to possess their human 
 nature and senses. A garden of Eden, with the amusements 
 of the pastoral life, was no longer suited to the advanced state 
 of society which prevailed under the Roman empire. A city 
 was therefore erected of gold and precious stones, and a 
 supernatural plenty of corn and wine was bestowed on the 
 adjacent territory ; in the free enjoyment of whose sponta- 
 neous productions, the happy and benevolent people was 
 pever to be restrained by any jealous laws of exclusive prop- 
 f.rty/^ The assurance of such a Millennium was carefully 
 iy^culcated by a succession of fathers from Justin Martyr,'* 
 ^.nd Irenseus, who conversed with the immediate disciples of 
 'he apostles, down to Lactantius, who was preceptor to the 
 Jon of Constantine." Though it might not be universally 
 
 ceived during the six first centuries. The authority of the vulgate 
 ind of the Hebrew text has determined the moderns, Protestants as 
 well as Catholics, to prefer a period of about 4000 years ; though, in 
 )he study of profane antiquity, they often find themselves straitened 
 )»y those narrow hmits.* 
 
 °^ Most of these pictures were borrowed from a misrepresentation 
 of Isaiah, Daniel, and the Apocalypse. One of the grossest images 
 may be found in Irenajus, (1. v. p. 455,) the disciple of Papias, who had 
 Been the apostle St. John. 
 
 ^* See the second dialogue of Justin with Triphon, and tlie seventh 
 book of Lactantius. It is unnecessary to allege all the intermediate 
 fathers, as the fiict is not disputed. Yet the curious reader may 
 consult Daille de Uus Patrum, 1. ii. c. 4. 
 
 "^ The testimony of Justin of his own faith and that of his ortho- 
 dox brethien, in tlie doctrine of a Millennium, is delivered in the 
 
 " Most of the more learaed modern English Protestants, Dr. Halea, Mr. 
 Faber, Dr. Russel, as well as the Continental vv'riters, adopt the larger 
 chronoloiry. There is little doubt that the naiTower sj-stem was framed by 
 Ihe Jews" of Tiberias; it was clearly neither that of St. Paul, nor of Jos©. 
 phus, nor of the Samaritan Text. It is greatly to be regretted that _ the 
 chronology of the fjarlier Scriptures should ever have been made a religioui 
 vuesiion — M.
 
 A. D. 32y.y OF THE ROMAN EMPIKE. 5SA 
 
 received, it appears to have been the reigning sentiment af the 
 orthodox believeis ; and it seems so well adapu>d to the desires 
 and apprehensions of mankind, that it must have contrihnte^l 
 in a very considerable degree to the progress of the Christian 
 faith. But when the editice of the church was almost com- 
 pleted, the temporary support was laid aside. The doctrine 
 of Christ's reign upon earth was at first treated as a profound 
 allegory, was considered by degrees as a doubtful and useless 
 opinion, and was at length rejected as the absurd invention of 
 heresy and fanaticism." A mysterious prophecy, whieh still 
 forms a part of the sacred canon, but wliich wiis thought to 
 favor the exploded sentiment, has very narrowly escaped th« 
 proscription of the church.*' 
 
 clearest and most solemn manner, (Dialog, cum Trynhoiitc Jud. p. 177 
 178, edit. Beuedictin.) If in the beginning of this important piussago 
 there is any thing like an inconsistency, we may impute it, as we think 
 proper, either to the autiior or to his transcribers.* 
 
 ^" Dupin, Bibliothcque Ecclesiixstique, torn. i. p. 223, tom. ii. p. 36C, 
 and Mosheim, p. 720 ; though the latter of these learned divines is not 
 altogether candid on this ocoiision. 
 
 "' In the council of Laodicca. (about the year S'iO,) the Apo&dypso 
 was tacitly excluded from the sacred canon, by the same churches of 
 Asia to which it is addressed ; and we may learn from the comphunt 
 of Sulpicius Severus, that their sentence had been ratified by the 
 greater number of Christians of liis time. From what causes tlieu is 
 the Apocalypse at present so generally received by the Greek, tlio 
 Roman, and the Protestant churches ? The following ones may be 
 assigned. 1. The Greeks were subdued by the authority of an im- 
 postor, who, in the sixth century, assumed the character of Dionysiua 
 the Areopagite. 2. A just apprehension that the grammarians might 
 become more important than the theologians, engaged the council of 
 Trent to fix the seal of their infallibility on all the IxKiks of Scripture 
 contained in the Latin Vulgate, in the number of which t lie Apoca- 
 lypse was fortunately included. (Fr. Paolo, Istoria del Concilio Tri- 
 dentino, 1. ii.) 3. The advantage of turning those mysterious prophe- 
 cies against the See of Home, inspired the Protestants with uncom- 
 mon veneration for so useful an ally. See the ingenious and clogjint 
 discourses of the wesent bishop of Litchfield on that unpromising 
 subject, f 
 
 * The Millenmum is described in what once stood a.s the XLIst Article 
 of the Entclish Church (see Collier, p:cclos. Hist., for Article.'? of Kdw. VI.) 
 as "a fable of Jewish dotage." Tiie wliole of these proM nnd onrtlily im 
 a°-e8 may be traced iu the works which treat on tlic Jcwisli tradilious, io 
 Lightfoot, Schoeti,'en, and Eisenmenger ; " Das entdecklc Jiideiahum" t ii 
 809 ; and briefly in Berllioldt, i. c. 38, 31>.— M. ... 
 
 t The e-xclusion of the Apocalypse is not iniprobably a.isii^'ncd to lU 
 ibfious uuli'uess to be read in churehna. It is to ')e feared that ■ hirton'
 
 586 THE DECLINE AND FALL (AD. 328, 
 
 Wliilst the happiness and glory of a temporal reign -were 
 promised to the disciples of Christ, the most dreadful calami' 
 ties were denounced against an unbelieving wor)'"" The edi- 
 fication of a new Jerusalem was to advance by equal steps 
 with the destruction of the mystic Babylon ; and as long as 
 ihe emperors who reigned before Constantine persisted in the 
 profession of idolatry, the epithet of Babylon was applied Lo 
 tlie city and to the empire of Rome. A regular series was 
 prepared of all the moral and physical evils which can aflBict a 
 flourishing nation ; intestine discord, and the invasion of the 
 fiercest barbarians from the unknown regions of the North ; 
 pestilence and famine, comets and eclipses, earthquakes and 
 inundations.'* All these were only so many preparatory and 
 alarming signs of the great catastrophe of Rome, when th^. 
 country of the Scipios and Caesars should be consumed by a 
 flame from Heaven, and the city of the seven hills, with her 
 palaces, her temples, and her triumphal arches, should be 
 buried in a vast lake of fire and brimstone. It might, however, 
 afford some consolation to Roman vanity, that the period of 
 their empire would be that of the world itself; which, as it 
 had once perished by the element of water, was destined to 
 experience a second and a speedy destruction from the element 
 of fire. In the opinion of a general conflagration, the faith of 
 the Christian very happily coincided with the tradition of the 
 East, the philosophy of the Stoics, and the analogy of Nature ; 
 and even the country, which, from religious motives, had be<»fl 
 chosen for the origin and principal scene of the conflagratio i, 
 was the best adapted for that purpose by natural and physic tl 
 causes ; by its deep caverns, beds of sulphur, and numero is 
 volcanoes, of which those of ^tna, of Vesuvius, and '>f 
 Lipari, exhibit a very imperfect representation. The calm st 
 and most intrepid sceptic could not refuse to acknowledge tl at 
 the destruction of the pi-esent system of the world by i re, 
 
 ** Lactantius (Institut. Divin. vii. 15, &c.) relates the dismal tal' of 
 futurity with great spirit and eloquence.* 
 
 of the intcrprctaiioa of the Apocalypse would not ^ve a very fava \\},e 
 view either of the wisdom or the charity of the successive ages of ( iris- 
 tianity. Wetstein's interpretation, differently modified, is adopted by lort 
 Continental scholai-s. — M. 
 
 * Lactantius had a notion of a great Asiatic empire, which vvsa pre- 
 viously to rise on the niins of the Roman : quod Ilomanum nomen {y 'irei 
 umuas dicere, sed dicam, quia futurcm est) toUetu." de terra, et inipen » is 
 Aiiam revertetur. — M.
 
 A. 0.323.1 OF THE ROMAN EMnilB 187 
 
 was in itself extremely probable. The Christ iaii, who founded 
 bis belief much less on the fallacious arguments of reason 
 tb.'in on the authority of tradition and the iiiterprttation of 
 Scripture, expected it with terror and contidence iis a cerUiin 
 and approaching event; and as his mind was perj)<.tiially 
 (filed with the solemn idea, he considered every disastt-r that 
 happened to the empire as an infallible symptom of an expiring 
 "*orld." 
 
 The condenmation of the wisest and most virtuous of the 
 I'agans, on account of their ignorance or disbt-lief of the 
 divine truth, seems to oft'end the reason and the humanity </ 
 the present age.'" But the primitive church, whose faith was 
 of a much firmer consistence, delivered over, without hesitation, 
 to eternal torture, the far greater part of the human species. 
 A charitable hope might perhaps be indulged in favor of 
 Socrates, or some other sages of antiquity, who had consulted 
 the light of reason before that of the gospel had arisen." But 
 it was unanimously affirmed, that those who, since the birth 
 or the death of Christ, had obstinately pei"sisted in the worship 
 of the daemons, neither deserved nor could expect a pard«jn 
 from the irritated justice of the Deity. These rigid sontimi'Uts, 
 which had been unknown to the ancient world, appear to have 
 infused a spirit of bitterness into a system of love and Iuin 
 mony. The ties of blood and friendship were frequently torn 
 asunder by the difference of religious faith ; and the Christians, 
 who, in this world, found themselves oppressed by the power 
 
 "' On this subject every reader of taste will be entcrtiiincJ witi 
 the third part of Burnet's Sacred Tlieory. He bleiuls philosophy, 
 Scripture, and tradition, into one magniticent system ; in the descrip 
 tion of wiiich he displays a strength of fancy not inferior to that <>f 
 Milton himself. 
 
 ■"• And yet whatever may be the language of individuals, it is still 
 the public doctrine of all the Christian churches ; nor can even our 
 own refuse to admit the conclusions which must be drawn from tlie 
 viiith and the xviiith of her Articles. The Jaasenists, who have 80 
 diligently studied the works of the fathers, maintain IhLs sentinn-nt 
 ■mth distinguished zeal; and the learned M. de Tillemont never di* 
 misses a virtuous emperor without pronouncing his damnation. Zuin- 
 glius is perhaps the only leader of a party who has ever a<liiptod tha 
 milder sentiment, and he gave no less offence to the Lutherans thai. It 
 (he Cathohcs. See Bossuf;t, Histoire des Viiriatious des Eglii.68 Pro- 
 testantes, 1. ii. c. 19— 22. 
 
 ^* Justin and Clemens of Alexandria allow that some <>f tin phdo* 
 ophers were instructed by the Logos; confounding its doubh it^'nii 
 ai'ion of the human reason, and of <he Diviae Word. 
 
 z*
 
 y 
 
 |>38 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 32S» 
 
 of the Pagans, were sometimes seduced by resentment and spir- 
 itual pride to delight in the prospect of their future triumph. 
 " You are fond of spectacles," exclaims the stern Tertullian ; 
 " expect the greatest of all spectacles, the last and eternal judg- 
 ment of the universe. How shall I admire, how laugh, how 
 rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many proud monarchs, so 
 many fancied gods, groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness ; 
 BO many magistrates, who persecuted the name of the Lord, 
 liquefying in fiercer fires than they ever kindled against the 
 Christians; so many sage philosophers blushing in red-hot 
 flames with their deluded scholars ; so many celebrated poets 
 trembling before the tribunal, not of Minos, but of Christ; 
 so many tragedians, more tuneful in the expression of their 
 own sufferings ; so many dancers." * But the humanity of 
 the reader will permit me to draw a veil over the rest of this 
 infernal description, which the zealous African pursues in a 
 long variety of affected and unfeeling witticisms." f 
 
 l3oubtless there were many among the primitive Christians 
 
 ''^ Tertullian, de Spectaculis, c. 30. In order to ascertain the de- 
 cree of authority which the zealous African had acquired, it may 
 be sufficient to allege the testimony of Cyprian, the doctor and guide 
 of all the western churches. (See Prudent. Hym. xiii. 100.) As often 
 aa he applied himself to his daily study of the writings of Tertullian, 
 he was accustomed to say, " Da mihi magistrum. Give me my master." 
 (Hieronym. de Viris Illustribus, torn. i. p. 284.) 
 
 * This translation is not exact : the first sentence is imperfect. Tertnl- 
 Hau says, Ille dies nationibus insperatus. ille derisus, cum tanta sascuJi 
 vetustas et tot ejus nativitates uuo igne haurientur. The text does not 
 authorize the exaggerated expressions, so many magistrates, so many sage 
 philosophers, so many poets, &c. ; but simply magistrates, philosophers, 
 ^ Gets. — G. 
 
 It is not clear that Gibbon's version or paraphrase is incoiTect ; TertuUiaa 
 writes, tot tautosque reges item presides, <Scc. — M. 
 
 t The object of TertuUian's vehemence in his Treatise, was to keep tho 
 Christians away from the secular games celebrated by the Empercr Scvc- 
 ras : it has not prevented him from showing himself in other places full of 
 benevolence and charity towards unbelievers : the spirit of the gosytel has 
 sometimes prevailed over the violence of human passions : Q.ui ergo putav- 
 eris nihil nos de salute Caesaris curare (he says in his Apology) inspice Dei 
 voces, literas nostras. Scitote ex illis prfficeptum esse nobis ad rcdunda- 
 lioneiu, benignitates etiam pro inimicis Deiim orare, et pro persecutoribus 
 cona precari. Sed etiam nominatim atque mauifeste orate inquit (Christus) 
 pro rogibus et pro priucipibus et polestatibus ut omnia sint tranquilla vobis 
 Tert. Apol. c. 31.— G. 
 
 It would be wiser for Christianity, retreating upon its genuine records in 
 the New Testament, to disclaim this fierce African, than to identify itsolf 
 with his furious invectives ky unsatisfactory apologies for their orickristiu 
 Buiaticism. — M
 
 K. D. 323.] OF THE roman emi'ire 598 
 
 of a temper more suitable to the meekness and charity of th'ir 
 profession. There were many wlio felt a sincere compiussiun for 
 the danger of their friends and countrymen, and who exerted 
 the most benevolent zeal to save them from the imi>endiM<; de 
 struction. The careless Polytheist, assailed by new and uiiex 
 pected terrors, against which neither his priests nor his j)hiloso 
 phers could aftbrd him any certain protection, w:is vc'-y fre- 
 quently terrified and subdued by the menace of eternal torturi^^ 
 His fears might assist the progress of his faith and reason ; and 
 if he could once persuade himself to suspect that the Christian 
 religion might possibly be true, it became an easy task to con- 
 vince him that it was the safest and most prudeTit party that 
 he could possibly embrace. 
 
 III. The supernatural gifts, which even in this life were 
 ascribed to the Christians above the rest of mankind, must 
 have conduced to their own comfort, and very frequently tj 
 the conviction of infidels. Besides the occ;isional prodigies, 
 which might sometimes be effected by the immediate interpo- 
 sition of the Deity when he suspended the laws of Nature for 
 the service of religion, the Christian church, from the time of 
 the apostles and their first disciples," has claimed an uninter- 
 rupted succession of miraculous powei-s, the gift of tongues, 
 of vision, and of prophecy, the power of expelling daMnons, 
 of healing the sick, and of raising the dead. The knowledge 
 of foreign languages was frequently communic^ited to the 
 contemporaries of Irenaeus, though Irenieus himself w:us left 
 to struggle with the difficulties of a barbarous dialect, whilst 
 he preached the gospel to the natives of Gaul.'* The divine 
 
 " Notwithstanding the evasions of Dr. Middleton, it is impossible 
 <io overlook the clear traces of visions and inspiration, which may be 
 found in the apostolic fathers.* 
 
 '* Irenajus adv. Hares. Proem, p. 3.f Dr. Middleton (Free In- 
 quiry, p. 96, etc.) observes, that as this pretension of M otlier^ w-is the 
 most difficult to support by art, it was the soonest given up. The ob- 
 servation suits his hypothesis.:]^ 
 
 * Gibbon should have noticed the distinct and romarknblc pas.sapc from 
 Chrj'sostom, quoted by Middleton, (Works, vol. i. p. 10.">,) in which he alBnni 
 tlie long discontinuance of miracles as a notorious fact.— M. 
 
 t This passage of Ircnajus contains no allusion to the pift of tontnios it it 
 merely an apolocry for a rude and unpolishcil Greek stylo, which coul.l no» 
 Ve expected from one who passed his life in a ri'inote and barbarous prov- 
 ince, and was continuallv obliged to speak the Celtic language.— M. 
 
 t Except in the life of Pachomius, an EgypUan n-onk of the fourth cen 
 ifciy, (see Joitin. Ecc. Hist. i. p. 368. edit. 1805.) and the latter (not emrUta^
 
 MO THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 32o 
 
 inspiration, whether it was conveyed in the form of a waking 
 or of a sleeping vision, is described as a favor very hberally 
 bestowed on all ranks of the faithful, on women as on elders, 
 on boys as well as upon bishops. "When their devout minds 
 ■^ere sutRciently prepared by a course of prayer, of listing, 
 and of vigils, to receive the extraordinary impulse, they were 
 trausported out of then* senses, and delivered in ecstasy what 
 was inspired, being mere organs of the Holy Spirit, just as a 
 pip© or flute is of him who blows into it.'^ We may add, 
 that the design of these visions was, for the most part, either 
 to disclose the future history, or to guide the present adminis- 
 tration, of the church. The expulsion of the daemons from 
 the bodies of those unhappy persons whom they had been per- 
 mitted to torment, was considered as a signal though ordi- 
 nary triumph of religion, and is repeatedly alleged by the 
 ancient apologists, as the most convincing evidence of the 
 truth of Christianity. The awful ceremony was usually per- 
 formed in a public manner, and in the presence of a great 
 number of spectators ; the patient was relieved by the power 
 or skill of the exorcist, and the vanquished djsmon was heard 
 to confess that he was one of the fabled gods of antiquity, who 
 had impiously usurped the adoration of mankind." But the 
 miraculous cure of diseases of the most inveterate or even 
 preternatural kind, can no longer occasion any surprise, when 
 we recollect, that in the days of Irenrous, about the end of 
 the second century, the resurrection of the dead was very far 
 from being esteemed an uncommon event ; that the miracle 
 was frequently performed on necessary occasions, by great 
 fasting and th^ joint supplication of the church of the place, 
 and that the persons thus restored to their prayers had lived 
 
 '* Athenagoras in Legatione. Justin Martyr, Cohort, ad Gentes 
 Tertullian advers. Marcionit. 1. iv. These descriptions are not very 
 unlike the prophetic fury, for which Cicero (de Diviuat. ii. 54) expresses 
 so httle reverence. 
 
 ^* Tertullian (Apolog. c. 23) throws out a bold defiance to the Pagan 
 magistrates. Of the primitive miracles, tlie power of exorcising ia 
 4Ijo only one wJiich has been assumed by Protestants.* 
 
 lires of Xavier, there is no claim laid to the g:ift of torgnes since thedma 
 of IrentBUs; and of this claim, Xavier's owti letters are profoundly sileDL 
 See Douglas's Criterion, p. 76, edit. 1807. — M. 
 
 * Bat by Protestants neither of the most enlightened ages nor inc» 
 rsBRoning minds. — M.
 
 A.D.3'23.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIKK. 5*1 
 
 afterwards among tlioni many years." At such a p-riod, 
 when faith could boast of so many wonderful victori.s ov»ir 
 death, it seems difficult to account for the scoj^tici^m of tlioso 
 philosophei-s, who still rejocted and derided the doctrine of iha 
 resurrection. A noble Grecian had rested on this imjtortant 
 ground the whole controvers}-, and promised Tneopliilas, 
 liishop of Antioch, that if he could be gratified with iho 
 sight of a single person who had been actually raised from 
 ihv' dead, he would immediately embrace the Christian reli- 
 gion. It is somewhat remarkable, that the prelate of the first 
 eastern church, however anxious for the conversion of his 
 friend, thought proper to decline this fair and re:Lsonablo 
 challenge.** 
 
 The miracles of the primitive church, after obtjiiniuf the 
 sanction of ages, have been lately attacked in a very free and 
 ingenious inquiry," which, though it has met with the most 
 favorable reception from the public, appears to have e.xcited a 
 general scandal among the divines of our own as well jus of 
 the other Protestant churches of Europe.'" Our dilTereiil 
 sentiments on this subject will be much less influenced by any 
 particular arguments, than by our habits of study and reflec- 
 tion ; and, above all, by the degree of evidence which wo 
 
 " Irenaeus adv. Haereses, 1. ii. 56. 57, 1. v. c. 6. Mr. Dodwell (Dii«- 
 sertat. ad Iren;Euin, ii. 42) conclinles, that the second century wits still 
 more fertile in miracles tlum the first.* 
 
 '* Theopliilus ad Autolycum, L i. p. 345. Edit. Beni'dictin. Paria 
 1742. f 
 
 " Dr. Middleton sent out his IntroductitMi in the year 1747, piil>- 
 lished his Free Inquiry in 1749, and before his death, wiiich happened 
 in 1750, he had prepared a vintlicatiun of it against his numerous 
 adversaries. 
 
 '"' The university of Oxford conferred degrees on his oppfinenta. 
 From the indignation of Mosheiin, (p. 221,) we may discover the scnti- 
 raents of the Lutheran divines.;}: 
 
 * It is difficult to answer Middleton'.'^ objection to tills statement of Irenno 
 ns: " It is very .stran.irc, thut from liic time of tlic apostles tlierc is not a sin- 
 gle instance of this miracle to be found in the three lirst centuries ; exrt-pt • 
 Binele case, slightly intimated in Euscbius, from the Works of I'npiiui 
 which he seems to rank amoiiLT the other fabulous stories deliven-d by thai 
 weak man." Middleton, Works, vol. i. p. 59. Bp. Douglas (Crilcnon, p 
 389) would consider Irenaeus to speak of what had " been performed farmer 
 ly." nDt in his own time. — M. 
 
 t A candid sceptic miglit discern some impropriety in the Bish")!! beinf 
 palled npon to perform a miracle on demmiil. — M. 
 
 t Y?t many Protestant divines will now witbtmt reluctance conQim aMn 
 riM tc the time of the apostles, or at lea.st to the lirct century. — ii
 
 542 THE DEt'LINli AND FALL [A. D. 328- 
 
 have nccustoiiieJ ourselves to require for the proof of a mirac- 
 aloUi event, j The duty of an historian does not call upon 
 hiin to interpose his private judgment in this nice and impor 
 tant controversy ; ,but he ought not to dissemble the difficulty 
 of adopting such a theory as may reconcile the interest of 
 religion with that of reason, of making a proper applicatio" 
 of that theory, and of defining with precision the limits of 
 Lhat happy period, exempt from error and fi-om deceit, to 
 ^hiah we might be disposed to extend the gift of supernatural 
 powers. From the first of the fathers to the last of the popes, 
 a succession of bishops, of saints, of martyrs, and of mira- 
 cles, is continued without interruption ; and the progress of 
 superstition was so gradual, and almost imperceptible, that we 
 know not in what particular link we should break the chain 
 of tradition. Every age bears testimony to the wonderful 
 events by which it was distinguished, and its testimony appears 
 no less weighty and respectable than that of the preceding 
 generation, till we are insensibly led on to accuse our own 
 inconsistency, if in the eighth or in the twelfth century we 
 deny to the venerable Bede, or lo the holy Bernard, the same 
 degree of confidence which, in the second century, we had so 
 liberally granted to Justin or to Irenaeus.*' If the truth of 
 any of those miracles is appreciated by their apparent use 
 and propriety, every age had unbelievers to convince, heretics 
 to confute, and idolatrous nations to convert ; and sufficient 
 motives might aVways be produced to justify the interposition 
 of Heaven. And yet, since every friend to revelation is per- 
 suaded of the reahty, and every reasonable man is convinced 
 of the cessation, of miraculous powers, it is evident that there 
 nust have been some period in which they were either sud- 
 denly or gradually withdrawn from the Christian church. 
 Whatever sera is chosen for that purpose, the death of the 
 ■ipostles, the conversion of the Roman empire, or the extinc- 
 tion of the Arian heresy,** the insensibility of the Christians 
 who lived at that time will equally affi^rd a just matter of 
 
 *- It may seem somewhat remarkable, that Bernard of Clairvaux 
 who records so n,' any miracles of his friend St. Malachi, never takes 
 any notice of his own, which, in their turn, however, are carefully 
 related by his companions and disciples. In the long series of ecclc- 
 eiastical history, does there exist a single instance of a saint asserting 
 that he himself possessed the gift of miracles? 
 
 *' The conversion of Constantine is the aera which is most usuaUv 
 fi^fsd by Protestants. The more rational divines are unwilling ta
 
 A. D 323.J OF THE KOMAN K.MIIRK. MS 
 
 surprise. They still supportod their protoiisioiis after thi-y luid 
 Io'j!. their power. Credulity iiorforiuod the oftico of faitli ; 
 fanaticisiu was permitted to ivssume th(> laiiguat'e of inspira- 
 tion, and the effects of accident or contrivance were ascriln-d 
 to supernatural causes. The recent experience of fj^eiiuino 
 miracles should have instructed the Christian world in thu 
 ways of I'rovidence, and habituated their eye (if we may use 
 a very inadequate expression) to the style of the divine artisL 
 Should the most skilful painter of modern Italy presume to 
 decorate his feeble imitations with the name of Kaphael or of 
 Correggio, the insolent fraud wuuld be soon discovered, and in- 
 dignantly rejected. 
 
 Whatever opinion may be entertained of the miracles of the] 
 primitive church since the time of the apostles, this unresisting \ 
 softness of temper, so conspicuous among the believers of the > 
 second and third centuries, proved of some accidental benefit 
 to the cause of truth and religion. In modern times, a hit^-nt .- 
 and even involuntary scepticism adheres to the most pious dis- 
 positions. Their admission of supernatural truths is much less 
 an active consent than a cold and passive acquiescence. Ac- 
 customed long since to observe and to respect the variable 
 order of Nature, our reason, or at least our imagination, is not 
 sufficiently prepared to sustain the visible action of the Deity. 
 But, in the first ages of Christianity, the situation of mankind 
 was extremely ditl'erent. The most curious, ^r the most cred- 
 ulous, among the Pagans, were often persuade* to enter into a 
 society which asserted an actual claim of miraculous powers. 
 The primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground, ^ 
 and their minds were exercised by the habits of believing the 
 
 admit the miracles of the ivtli, whilst the more credulous arc unwilling 
 
 to reject those of the vth century.* 
 
 " All this appears to proceed on the principle that any distiurl lino can l>o 
 drawn in an uiii)liilosophic age between wonders and niiraclcw, or between 
 what piety, from their unexpected and exlraordinnry nature, the Ina^^•elloul^ 
 concurrence of secondary causes to some rouiarkabiu eiid, may consider 
 ■pn/vidciUialinlerpoailiuiis, and miracka strictly so called, in which the laws 
 of nature are suspended or violated. It is impossible to assiu'n, on one nHe, 
 limits to human credulity, on the other, to the intluenco of the imau'niiitiou 
 on the bodilv frame; but 'some of the miracles recorded in the Gospels are 
 eiich palpable impos^'M/i/ies, accordin.u to the known laws ajid operali.mi 
 of nature, that if recorded on sufficient evi.lence, and the evidence wc be- 
 lieve to be that of eve-witne8s<;s, we caimot reject them, without either us- 
 •erting, with Hume,"lliat no evidence can prove a minielo, or that the Aullioi 
 of Nature has no power of suspendng its ordinary lav t Bat whRb ol IM 
 voft-apos'.clic miracles will bear th's lest ? — M.
 
 544 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 323 
 
 most extraordinary events. They felt, or they fancied, that 
 
 on every side the)' were incessantly assaulted by daemons, 
 
 comforted by visions, instructed by prophecy, and surprisingly 
 
 delivered from danger, sickness, and from death itself, by the 
 
 ■•\ supplications of the church. The real or imaginary prodigies, 
 
 •^ of which they so frequently conceived themselves to be tha 
 
 ^ objects, the instruments, or the spectators, very happily dis- 
 
 V- posed them to adopt with the same ease, but with far greater 
 
 "> 'ustice, the authentic wonders of the evangelic history ; and 
 
 thus miracles that exceeded not the measure of their own 
 
 ^ experience, inspired them with the most lively assurance of 
 
 mysteries which were acknowledged to surpass the limits of 
 
 '^'"* their understanding. It is this deep impression of supernatural 
 
 .^ truths, which has been so much celebrated under the name of 
 
 , faith ; a state of mind described as the surest pledge of the 
 
 ^ divine favor and of future felicity, and recommended as the 
 
 V first, or perhaps the only merit of a Christian. According to 
 
 ■i, the more rigid doctors, the moral virtues, which may be 
 
 i* equally practised by infidels, are destitute of any value or 
 
 efficacy in the work of our justification. 
 ^ f IV. But the primitive Christian demonstrated his faith by 
 ijf i his virtues; and it was very justly supposed that the divine 
 x^i persuasion, which enlightened or subdued the understanding, 
 ^-l must, at the same time, purify the heart, and direct the ac- 
 "* ■ tions, of the believer. The first apologists of Christianity 
 who justify the innocence of their brethren, and the writers 
 of a later period who celebrate the sanctity of their ances- 
 tors, display, in the most lively colors, the reformation 
 of manners which was introduced into the world by the 
 preaching of the gospel. As it is my intention to remark only 
 such human causes as were permitted to second the influence 
 of revelation, I shall slightly mention two motives which might 
 naturally render the lives of the primitive Christians much 
 purer and more austere than those of their Pagan contempo- 
 raries, or their degenerate successors ; repentance for theii 
 past sins, and the laudable desire of supporting the reputation 
 of the society in which they were engaged.* 
 
 * Tbese, in the opinion of the editor, are the most unoandid paragraphs in 
 Gibbon's History. Ho ought either, with mauly courage, to have denied the 
 moral rcfwvnation introduced by Christianity, or fairly to have investigated 
 kU its motives ; not to have confined himself to an insidious and sarcastia 
 dsBcription of the less pure and generous elements of the Christian ch&ractei 
 »« it appeared even at that eai'ly time. — M.
 
 A.D. 323.] cp THE ROMAN EMriuE. 54c 
 
 It is a very ancient reproach, sucjgestod by the ignoranco 
 or the malice of infidelity, that the Christians aliun-d into 
 their party the most atrocious criminals, who, as soon as tlu-v 
 were touched by a sense of remorse, were easily persuailed i 
 to wash away, in the water of bajttism, the guilt of tht-ir past 
 conduct, for which the temples of the gods refused to grant 
 them any expiation. But tliis reproach, when it is ck-arcd 
 from misrepresentation, contributes as much to the honor as it 
 did to the increase of the cliurch." The friends of Christian- 
 ity may acknowledge without a blush, that many of the most 
 eminent saints had been before their baptism tiie most aban 
 doned sinners. Those persons, who in the world had followi-d, 
 though in an imperfect manner, the dictates of benevolenco 
 and propriety, derived such a calm satisfaction from the opin- 
 ion of their own rectitude, as rendered them much less sus- 
 ceptible of the sudden emotions of shame, of grief, and of 
 terror, which have given birth to so many wonderful conver- 
 sions. After the example of their divine Master, the mission- 
 aries of the gospel disdained not the society of men, and 
 especially of women, oppressed by the consciousness, and 
 very often by the eftects, of their vices. As they emerged 
 from sin and superstition to the glorious hope of immortality, 
 they resolved to devote themselves to a life, not only of virtue, 
 but of penitence. The desire of perfection became the ruling 
 passion of their soul ; and it is well known, that while reason 
 _ embraces a cold mediocrity, our passions hurry us, with rapid 
 violence, over the space which lies between the most opposite 
 extremes. 
 
 When the new converts had been enrolled in the numl»or 
 of the faithful, and were admitted to the sacraments of th? 
 church, they found themselves restrainetl from relapsing into 
 their past disorders by another consideration of a less spiritual, 
 but of a very innocent and respectable nature. Any particular 
 societv that has departed from the great body of the nation, 
 or the religion to which it belonged, immediately becomes the 
 object of universal as well as invidious observation. In pro- 
 portion to the smallness of its numbers, tlio character of the 
 society may be aftected by the virtues and vices of the persons 
 who compose it ; and every member is engaged to watch with 
 
 •* The miputations of Celsiis and Julian, with the defence of th* 
 
 fcthers, arc very fairly stated by Spanheiin, Commentaire aur l« 
 Cesars de Julian, p. 408.
 
 646 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 323 
 
 the most vigilant attention over his own beliai'ior, and ovejf 
 that of his brethren, since, as he must expect to incur a part 
 of the common disgrace, he may liope to enjoy a share of the 
 common reputation. When the Christians of Bithynia were 
 brought before the tribunal of the younger Pliny, they assured 
 the proconsul, that, far from being engaged in any unlawful 
 conspiracy, they were bound by a solemn obligation to abstain 
 from the commission of those crimes which disturb the private 
 or public j^eace of society, from theft, robbery, adultery, v>er- 
 Jury, and fraud."* Near a century afterwards, Tertullian 
 with an honest pride, could boast, that very few Christians had 
 suffered by the hand of the executioner, except on account of 
 their religion.*^ Their serious and sequestered life, averse to 
 the gay luxury of the age, inured them to chastity, temper- 
 ance, economy, and all the sober and domestic viitues. As 
 the greater number were of some trade or j^rofession, it was 
 mcumbent on them, by the strictest integrity and the fjiiresf 
 dealing, to remove the suspicions which the profane are too 
 af)t to conceive against the appearances of sanctity. The 
 rs,/'-- contempt of the world exercised them in the habits of humility, 
 *:, meekness, and patience. The more they were persecuted, 
 
 ■^ ,:y the more closely they adhered to each other. Their mutual 
 ^ '■C charity and unsuspecting confidence has been remarked by 
 ^ :,nf]dels, and was too often abused by perfidious friends.** 
 f^ It \s a very honorable circumstance for the morals of the 
 J) primitive Christians, that even their faults, or rather errors^ 
 ^were derived from an excess of virtue. The bishops and 
 'doctors of the church, whose evidence attests, and whose 
 authority might influence, the professions, the principles, and 
 even the practice of their contemporaries, had studied the 
 
 " Plin. Epist. X. 97.« 
 
 ®^ Tertullian, Apolog. c. 44. He adds, however, with some degree 
 of hesitation, " Aut si aliud, jam non Christianus."f 
 
 ^° The philosopher Peregrinus (of whose life and death Luciaa has 
 left us so entertaining an account) imposed, for a long time, on the 
 wedulous simplicity of the Christians of Asia. 
 
 * And this blamelessness was fully admiUed by the candid and enlight- 
 ftr.ed lioman. — M. 
 
 t TcrUilliau says positively no Christian, nemo illic Christianus ; for the 
 Test, the limitation which he himself subjoins, and which Gibbon quotes in 
 the foregoing note, diminishes the force of this assertion, and appeal's to 
 prove that at least he knew none such. — G. 
 
 Is not the sense of Tertullian rather, if guiltj of any other offence, he ha* 
 thereby ceased to be a Christian ? — M.
 
 A. D. 323. 1 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. M9 
 
 Scriptures with loss skill than devotion; and tliey oflen 
 received, in the most literal sense, those iii,nd precei»ts of 
 Christ and the apostles, to whieh the prudenee of succeedini^ 
 commentatoi-s has applied a looser and more tiijurative uKkle 
 of interpretation. Ambitious to exalt the perfection &: Ihu 
 pspel above the wisdom of philosophy, the zealous fatiiers 
 have carried the duties of self-niortification, of puritv, and of 
 patience, to a height which it is scarcely possible to attain, an 
 much less to preserve, in our present state of weakness anc 
 corruption. A doctrine so extraordinary and so sublime must 
 inevitably command the veneration of the people ; but it wjis 
 ill calculated to obtain the suft'nige of those worldly philoso- 
 phers, who, in the conduct of this transitory life, consult only 
 the feelings of nature and the interest of society.*' 
 
 There are two very natural propensities which we may 
 distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispositions, the 
 love of pleasure and the love of action. If the former is 
 refined by art and learning, improved by the charms of social 
 intercourse, and corrected by a just regard to economy, to 
 health, and to reputation, it is productive of the greatest part 
 of the happiness of private life. The love of action is a 
 principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature. It 
 often leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge ; but when it 
 is guided by the sense of propriety and benevolence, it becomes 
 the parent of every virtue, and if those virtues are accompanied 
 with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an empire, may bo 
 indebted for their safety and prosperity to the undaunted 
 courage of a single man. To the love of pleasure we may 
 therefore ascribe most of the agreeable, to the love of actiou 
 we may attribute most of the useful and respectable, qualificii- 
 tions. The character in which both the one and the other 
 should be united and harmonized, would seem to constitute 
 the most perfect idea of human nature. The insensible and 
 inactive disposition, which should be supposed alike destitute 
 of both, would be rejected, by tlie conunon consent of man- 
 kind, as utterly incapable of jjrocuring any liajipiness to the 
 individual, or any public benefit to the world. But it was not 
 in this world, that the primitive Christians were desirous of 
 making themselves either agreeable or useful.* /^ 
 
 •' See a very judicious treatise of Barbeyrac sur la Morale de« 
 Peres. 
 
 " El qua me fait cette bomelie 6cmi stoicicune, 6emi-6picarienoe T
 
 B48 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 323 
 
 The acquisition of knowledge, the exercise of our reason oi 
 fancy, and the cheerful flow of unguarded conversation, may 
 employ the leisure of a hberal mind. Such amusements, 
 however, were rejected with abhorrence, or admitted with the 
 utmost caution, by the severity of the fethers, who despised all 
 knowledge that was not useful to salvation, and who consid- 
 ered all levity of discours eas a criminal abuse of the gift of 
 82>.>ech. In our present state of existence the body is sc 
 inseparably connected with the soul, that it seems to be oui 
 interest to taste, with innocence and moderation, the enjoy 
 ments of which that faithful companion is susceptible. Very 
 different was the reasoning of our devout predecessoi's , 
 vainly aspiring to imitate the perfection of angels, they dis- 
 dained, or they affected to disdain, every earthly and corporeal 
 delight.*' Some of our senses indeed are necessary for oui 
 preservation, others for our subsistence, and others again for 
 our information ; and thus far it was impossible to reject the 
 use of them. The first sensation of pleasure was marked as 
 the first moment of their abuse. The unfeeling candidate for 
 heaven was instructed, not only to resist the grosser allure- 
 ments of the taste or smell, but even to shut his ears against 
 the profane harmony of sounds, and to view with indifference 
 the most finished productions of human art. Gay apparel, 
 magnificent houses, and elegant furniture, were supposed to 
 unite the double guilt of pride and of sensuality ; a simple and 
 mortified appearance was more suitable to the Christian who 
 was certain of his sins and doubtful of his salvation. In their 
 fph- censures of luxury, the fathers are extremely minute and cir- 
 ^ Vcumstantial ;'" and among the various articles which excite 
 
 < 
 
 " Lactant. Institut. Divin. 1. vi. c. 20, 21, 22. 
 
 *' Consult a work of Clemens of Alexandria, entitled The Pa;da- 
 gogue, which contains the rudiments of ethics, as they were taught in 
 the most celebrated of the Christian schools. 
 
 I'on jamais regarde I'amonr dn plaisir comma Tun des principes de la per- 
 fecuon morale ? Et de quel droit failcs vous de I'aiiiour de Taction, et de 
 I'amour du plaisir, les seals elemens de Tetro huraaiii? Est ce que -vous 
 faites abstraction do la verite en elle-meme, de la conscience et du senti- 
 ment du devoir? Est ce que vous no sentez point, par exemple, que le 
 eacrifice du moi a la justice et a la verite, est aussi dans le cceur de 
 I'homme : que tout n'est pas pour lui action ou plaisir, et que dans le bien 
 ce ii'est pas le mouvemeut, mais la verite, qu'il chercbe ? Et puis * * Thucy 
 dide et Tacite. ces raaitres de I'histoire, ont ils jamais introduits dans leu< 
 recits un fraemcnt de dissertation eur le plaisir et sar I'action. ViUemida 
 Cours de Lit. Fran? part u. Le90" v - M
 
 A.. D. 323.] OF THE ROMAN EMTIKE. 549 
 
 their i^ious indignation, we may enuuKiato falso hair, gannciiU 
 jL any color except white, instruments of music, vjises of gold 
 or silver, downy pillows, (as Jacob rejjosed his head on a stone,) 
 white bread, foreign wines, public salutations, the use of warm 
 baths, and the practice of shaving the beard, which, according 
 k) the expression of TertuUian, is a lie against our own faci-s, 
 and an impious attempt to improve the works of the Creator." 
 When Christianity wa-s introduced among the rich and tho 
 polite, tho observation of these singular laws wjis h-ft, as it 
 would be at present, to the few who were ambitious of superior 
 sanctity. But it is always easy, as well as agreeable, for the 
 inferior ranks of mankind to claim a merit from the contempt 
 of that pomp and pleasure which fortune has jjlaced beyond 
 their reach. The virtue of the primitive Christians, like, that 
 of the tarst Romans, \v;\s very frequently guarded by poverty 
 and ignorance. 
 
 The chaste severity of the fathers, in whatever related to 
 the commerce of the two sexes, flowed from the same jirin- 
 cij^le ; their abhorrence of every enjoyment which might 
 gratify the sensual, and degrade the spiritual, nature of man. 
 It was their fiivorite opinion, that if Adam had preserved his 
 obedience to the Creator, he would have lived forever in a stato 
 of virgin purity, and that some harmless mode of veget;»tion 
 might have peopled paradise with a race of innocent and 
 immortal beings."' The use of marriage was permitted only 
 to his fallen posterity, as a necessary expedient to continue 
 the human species, and as a restraint, however imjierfect, on 
 the natural licentiousness of desire. The hesitation of the 
 orthodox casuists on this interesting subject, betrays the per- 
 plexity of men, unwilling to approve an institution which they 
 were compelled to tolerate."' The enumeration of the very 
 whimsical laws, which they most circumstantially imposed on 
 the marriago-bed, would force a smile from the young and a 
 
 "» TertiillJA'., de SpccLiculis, c 23. Clemens Alexandria Tjeda- 
 gog 1. iii. c. 8. 
 
 "' Beausobr^, Hist. Critique du Manichcisme, 1. vii. c. 3. Justin, 
 Gregory of N jssa, Augustin, &c., strongly incline to this opinion.* 
 
 »* Some of "the Gnostic heretics were more consistent; they rtject- 
 .j(] the use of marriage. 
 
 * But these were Giio.stic or Manicheaii opinions, nenufsohm (ti.HtinrUj 
 »flcribe.i AiipusUno's bins to liis recent osr.ipc from Manicheism ; and kW* 
 that 1>3 atterwards changeil liis views. — M.
 
 S60 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 828. 
 
 \/ diusb from the fair. It was their unanimous seritiinent, tliat a 
 first marriage w;is adequate to all the purposes of nature and of 
 society. The sensual connection was refined into a resemblance 
 of the mystic union of Christ with his church, and was pro- 
 nounced to be indissoluble either by divorce or by death. The 
 practice of second nuptials was branded with the name of a 
 egal adultery ; and the persons who were guilty of so scan- 
 dalous an otience against Christian purity, were soon excluded 
 frojn the honors, and even from the alms, of the church.* 
 Since desire was imputed as a crime, and mari'iage was tole 
 rated as a defect, it was consistent with the same principles t( 
 consider a state of celibacy as the nearest approach to th4 
 divine perfection. It was with the utmost difficulty that 
 ancient Rome could support the institution of six vestals ;°* 
 but the primitive church was filled with a great number of per- 
 sons of either sex, who had devoted themselves to the profes- 
 sion of perpetual chastity.*^ A few of these, among whom we 
 may reckon the learned Origen, judged it the most prudent to 
 disarm the tempter.'^ Some v.ere insensible and some were 
 invincible against the assaults of the flesh. Disdaining ai\ ig- 
 nominious flight, the virgins of the warm climate of Africa en- 
 countered the enemy in the closest engagement ; they per^- 
 mitted priests and deacons to share their bed, and gloried 
 amidst the flames in their unsullied purity. But insulted 
 Nature sometimes vindicated her rights, and this new species 
 of martyrdom served only to introduce a new scandal into the 
 church." Among the Christian ascetics, howevei', (a namo 
 
 '^ See a chain of tradition, from Justin Martyr to Jerome, in the 
 Morale des Peres, c. iv. 6 — '26. 
 
 ^* See a very curious Dissertation on the Vestals, in the Memoirea 
 de TAcademie des Inscriptions, torn. iv. p. 161 — 227. Notwithstanding 
 the honors and rewards which were bestowed on those virgins, it was 
 difficult to procure a sufficient number ; nor could the dread of the most 
 liorrible death always restrain their incontinence. 
 
 ^° Cupiditatera procrcandi aut unam scimus aut nullam. Minutius 
 Faelix, c. 31. Justin. Apolog. Major. Athenagoras in Legat. c 28. 
 TertuUian de Cultu Foemin. 1. ii. 
 
 "•^ Eusehius, 1. vi. 8. Before the fame of Origen l id excited envy 
 and persecution, this extraordinary action was rather adn:iied than cen- 
 sured. As it was his general pjractice to allegorize Scrijitiirc, it sesoa 
 unfortunate that in this instance only, lie should have adoptcl the ht 
 eral ser.se. 
 
 "* Cyprian. Epist. 4, and Dodwell, Di:bsertat. Cyprianic. iii. S me- 
 thiiif^ like this rash atte.mpt was long afterwards irr.puted to Hm
 
 A.D. 323.] OF ti;r homan emi'iue. 65J 
 
 which they soon acquired from tlnir painful oxorciso,) in;iiiy, 
 as they were less presuiiipiuous, wore prohalily jnore successful. 
 The loss of sensual ploasuro was supplifd ami couipi;iis;itc«l by 
 spiritual \n-]de. Even the inultitudo of I'aijaiis wrro incliued 
 to esti iiate the merit of the sacriiiee by its apparent «Htlioulty; 
 and it was in the praise of these ch:,ste sj^ouses uf Christ that 
 the fathers have poured forth the troubled stream of their elo- 
 quence." Such are the early traces of monastic i>riiicipl.-s and 
 institutions, which, in a subsequent age, have counterbalanced 
 all the femporal advantages of Christianity." 
 
 The Christians were not less averse to the business than to 
 the pleasures of this world. The defence of our persons and 
 property they knew not how to reconcile with the patient doc- 
 trine which enjoined an unlimited forgiveness of past injuries, 
 and commanded them to invite the repetition of fresh insults. 
 Their simplicity was offended by the use of oaths, by tho 
 pomp of magistracy, and by the active contention of public 
 life; nor could their humane ignorance be convinced that it was 
 lawful on any occasion to shed the blood of our fellow- 
 creatures, either by the sword of justice, or by that of war; 
 even though their criminal or hostile attempts should threaten 
 the peace and safety of the whole community. '"'' It was 
 acknowledged, that, under a less perfect law, the powers of tho 
 Jewish constitution had been exercised, with tho apjirobation 
 of Heaven, by inspired proj)hets and by anointed kings. Tho 
 Christians felt and confessed that such institutions might be 
 necessary for the present system of the world, and they cheer- 
 fully submitted to the authority of their Pagan governors. 
 But while they inculcated the maxims of |>assive obedience, 
 they refused to take any active part in the civil administration 
 
 founder of the order of Fontevrault. Bayle lias amused himself and bis 
 readers on tliat very delicate subject. 
 
 "* Dupiri (Bibliotheque Eccle.siiistiquc, torn. i. p. 195) gives a par 
 licular account of tho dialogue of the ten virgins, as it was comi>osed 
 by Methodius, Bishop of Tyre. Tlic praises of virginity are exces- 
 sive. 
 
 " Tlie Ascetics (as early as the second century) made a public pro- 
 fossiou of mortifying their bodies, acd of abstaining from the use of lle.sh 
 and wine. Moiiieini, p. 310. 
 
 "" Sec the Morale dcs Peres. The same patient principles have 
 been revived since the Reformation by the Socinians, the modern Anv 
 baptists, and the (Quakers. Barclay, "tho Api'loiri^t of tl n Qu;iker», li.<u 
 protected his biethren by the authority o' the primitvc Christiaai , p 
 642—549
 
 MS THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 329 
 
 OT the military defence of theempir?. Some indulgence might) 
 perhaps, be allowed to those persons who, before their conver 
 sion, were already engaged in such violent and sanguinary 
 occupations ; "* but it was impossible tLat the Christians, 
 without renouncing a more sacred duty, could assume the 
 character of soldiers, of magistrates, or of princes.'"* This 
 Indolent, or even criminal disregard to the public welfare 
 exposed them to the contempt and reproaches of the Pagans 
 who very frequently asked, what must be the fate of the em 
 p?re, attacked on every side by the barbarians, if all mankind 
 
 '" TertuUian, Apolog. c. 21. De Idololatria, c. IT, 18. Origen contra 
 Celsum, 1. V. p. 253, 1. vii. p. 348, 1. viii. p. 423 — 428. 
 
 ^°'^ TertuUian (de Corona Militis, c. 11) suggested to them the ex 
 pedient of deserting ; a counsel which, if it had been generally known, 
 was not very proper to conciliate the favor of the emperors towards 
 the Christian sect.* 
 
 * There is nothing which ought to astonish us in the refusal of the 
 primitive Clu'istiaiis to take part iu public affairs; it was the natural con 
 sequence of tlie contrariety of tlieir principles to the customs, laws, ajid ac- 
 tive life of the Pagan world. As Christians, they could not enter uito the 
 senate, which, according to Gibbon himself, always assembled in a temple 
 or consecrated place, and where each senator, before he look his seat, made 
 a libation of a few drops of wine, and burnt incense on the altar; as Chris- 
 tians, they could not assist at festivals and banquets, which always tenni- 
 iiated with libations, &c. ; finally, as " the innumerable deities and rites of 
 polytheism were closely interwoven with cverj' circumstance of jmblic and 
 private life," the Christians could not participate iu them without incurring, 
 according to their principles, the guilt of impiety. It was then much less 
 by an efiect of their doctrine, than by the consequence of their situation, 
 that they stood aloof from public business Whenever this situation offered 
 no impediment, they shov^•ed as much activity as the Pagans. Proinde, says 
 Justin Martyr. (Apol. c. 17,) nos solum Deum adoramus, et vobis in rebus 
 aliis Iffiti inservimus. — G. 
 
 This latter passage, M. Guizot quotes in Latin ; if he had consulted the 
 original, he would have ibund it to be altogether irrelevant : it merely relates 
 to the payment of taxes. — M. 
 
 TertuUian does not suggest to the soldiers the expedient of deserting ; he 
 says that they ought to be constantly on their guard to do nothing during 
 their service contrary to the law of God, and to resolve to suffer martyrdom 
 rather than submit to a base compliance, or openly to renounce the service. 
 (De Cor. Mil. ii. p. 127.) He does not positively decide that the military 
 service is not permitted to Christians ; he ends, indeed, by sajhig. Puis 
 (lenique licere militiam usque ad causani coronse. — G. 
 
 M. Guizot is. I think, again unfortunate in his defence of TertuUian. 
 That father says, that mauj' Christian soldiers had deserted, aut dcscrendum 
 etaiim sit, ut a multis actum. The latter sentence, Puta. &c , &c., is a con- 
 rsssion for the sake of argument: wha follows is more to the pur 
 pase. — M. 
 
 Many other passages of TertuUian prove that the anny was full of Chri» 
 tiuiB, Hestenii snmns et ve.stra omnia implcvim-is. urbes, insuias, casteli* 
 muninipip.. .■onciliabula, castia ipsa. (Apol. c. 37.) Nav-'.gainus f,4 n«
 
 A. D. 323.J OF THE ROMAN KMIIKE. 658 
 
 should adopt the pusillanimous sentiments of the new seel.'" 
 To this insulting question the Christian apologists returned 
 obscure and ambiguous answers, as they were unwilling to 
 reveal the secret cause of their fsecurity ; the expectation that, 
 before the conversion of mankind was accomplishi'd, war, 
 government, the Roman empire, and the world itself, would 
 be no more. It may be observed, that, in this insUuice like- 
 wise, the situation of the first Christians coincided very hap- 
 pily with Lheir religious sf^riiples, and that their aversion to an 
 sctive life contributed rather toexcuso them from the service, 
 than to exclude thim from the honoi-s, of the stat<3 and .army. 
 V. But the human character, however it m.ay be exalted or 
 ■iepressed by a temporary enthusiasm, will return by di^greea 
 ♦■9 its proper and natural level, and will resume those passions 
 hat seem the most adapt':;d to its present condition. The 
 primitive Christians were dead to the business and pleasures 
 ^f the world ; but their love of action, which could nevt;r be 
 ".ntirely extinguished, soou revived, and found a new occupa- 
 <ion in the government of the church., A separate society, 
 which attacked the established religion of the empire, was 
 obliged to adopt some form of internal policy, and to appoint a 
 sufficient number of ministers, intrusted not only with the 
 spiritual functions, but even with the temporal direction of the 
 Christian commonwealth. The safety of that society, its 
 honor, its aggrandizement, were productive, even in the most 
 oious mir.ds, of a spirit of patriotism, such as the first of the 
 Romans had felt for the rei)ublic, and sometimes of a similar 
 mdiffereuce, in the use of whatever means might i^^robably 
 conduce to so desirable an end. The ambition of raiding 
 themselves or their friends to the honors and offics of the 
 church, was disguised by the laudable intention of devoting 
 to the public beuetit the power and consideration, which, for 
 
 '°' As well as we can judfje from the mutilated rejirescntation of 
 Oiigen, (1. viii. p. 423,) his adversary, Celsus, liad urged liis objection 
 wnlli great force anil candor 
 
 TObismm ot milifamiix. (c. 42.) Orit,'Cii, in truth, app.-arrt to Imve main- 
 taiued a more rigid opiniou, (Coat. Ccls. 1. viii. ;) but lie has often renouiic.-d 
 this exaggerated severity, perliaps neccs.sary to produce great results, nnd 
 be speaks of Uic profession of arms aa an honorable one. (1. iv. c. -ilti.) 
 
 On these joints Chri.stian opinion, it should seem, was much divided. 
 Tertullian. vhen he wrote tlie De Cor. Mil., was evidently indinnitr to morn 
 Bsceuc opinions, and Or.gen waa of the utme clnss. See Neonder. ■»oi i 
 part ii. p 303, edit I82«.--M 
 
 vol I. A A
 
 5bi THE DECLINE AND FAIL, [A. D. 823 
 
 fhat purpose only, it became their diit}'- to solicit. In the ex- 
 ercise of their functions, they were frequently called upon to 
 detect the errors of heresy or the arts of faction, to oppose 
 the designs of perfidious brethren, to stigmatize their charac 
 tei"s with deserved infamy, and to expel them from the bosora 
 of a society whose peace and happiness they had attempted 
 to diijturb. The ecclesiastical governors of the Cliristian? 
 were taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the inno 
 cence of the dove ; but as the former was refined, so the lat 
 ter was insensibly corrupted, by the habits of government. Tr 
 the church as well as in the world, the persons who were 
 placed in any public station rendered themselves considerable 
 by their eloquence and firmness, by their knowledge of man- 
 kind, and by their dexterity in business ; and while they con- 
 cealed from others, and perhaps from themselves, the secret 
 motives of their conduct, they too frequently relapsed into all 
 the turbulent passions of active life, which were tinctured with 
 an additional degree of bitterness and obstinacy from the m- 
 fusion of spiritual zeal. 
 
 The government of the church has often been the subject, 
 as well as the prize, of religious contention. The hostile dis- 
 putants of Rome, of Paris, of Oxford, and of Geneva, have 
 alike struggled to reduce the primitive and apostolic model'** 
 to the respective standards of their own policy. The few whc 
 have pursued this inquiry with more candor and impartiality, 
 are of opinion,"^ that the apostles declined the office of legis- 
 lation, and rather chose to endure some partial scandals and 
 divisions, than to exclude the Christians of a future age from 
 the liberty of varying their forms of ecclesiastical government 
 accoi'ding to the changes of times and circumstances. The 
 scheme of policy, which, under their approbation, was adopted 
 for the use of the first century, may be discovered from the 
 practice of Jerusalem, of Ephesus, or of Corinth. The soci- 
 eties which were instituted in the cities of the Roman empire, 
 were united only by the ties of faith and charity. Independ- 
 ence and equality formed the basis of tu-^ir internal consti 
 
 "* The aristocratical party in France, as well as ii. England, has 
 llreniiously maintained the divme origin of bishops. 3ut the Cal- 
 tinistical presbyters were impatient of a superior ; and x^ie Roman 
 FontJfT refused to acknowledge an equal. See Era raolo. 
 
 **• In the liistory of the Christian liierarchy, I have, for the laoct 
 p*rt foUo^'ei the learned and candid Mosheim.
 
 A.. D. 3'23:.] of the roman empire. 568 
 
 tution. The want of discijiline and liiiman .earning was 
 supplied by the occasional assistance of the ])rophets,^''* wlio 
 were called to that function without distinction of age, of sex,* 
 or of natural abilities, and who, as often as they felt the 
 divine impulse, poured forth the effusions of the Spirit in the 
 assembly of the faithful. But these extraordinary gifts were 
 frequently abused or misa{>plied by the prophetic teacliens. 
 The/ displayed them at an improper season, presumptuously 
 disturbed the service of the assembly, and, by their pride or 
 mistaken zeal, they ijitroduced, particularly into the apostolic 
 church of Corinth, a long and melancholy train of disorders."' 
 As the institution of prophets became useless, and even per- 
 nicious, their powers were withdrawn, and their office abol- 
 ished. The public functions of religion were solely intrusted 
 \o the established ministers of the church, the bishops and the 
 presbyters ; two appellations which, in their first origin, appear 
 
 '""' For the prophets of the primitive church, see Mosheim, Disscr 
 tatioiies ad Hist. Eccles. pcrtinentes, torn. ii. p. 132 — 208. 
 
 '"' See tlie epistles of St. Paul, and of Clemens, to the Corinth 
 ians.f 
 
 ' St. Paul distiiicUy reproves the intru.sion of females into the prophet?' 
 oflico. 1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35. 1 Tim. ii. 11.— M. 
 
 t Tlie iirst ministers established in the church were the deacons, a;>- 
 pointed at Jcmsalem, seven in number ; they were charged ^vith the dislri 
 Ijution of the alms ; even females had a share in this empla>vmcnt. After tho 
 deacons came the elders or priests, [irpcaffinpoi,) charged with the main- 
 tenance of order and decorum in the comniunitj-, and to act every where in 
 its name. The bishops were afterwards charged to watch over ihe feith 
 and the in.struction of the disciples : the aposth^s themselves appointed sev- 
 eral bishops. Tertulliaii, (adv. Marium, c. v.,) Clement of Alexandria, and 
 many fathers of the second and third century, do not permit us to doubt ihia 
 fact. The equality of rank between the.se diirerent functionaries did not 
 prevent their functions being, even in their origin, distinct ; they became 
 subsequently still more so. See Plank, Geschichte der Christ. Kirch. Ver- 
 fassung., vol. i. p. 24. — G. 
 
 On tliis e-Ktrcmely obscure subject, which has been so much perplexed by 
 pas.sion and interest, it is impossible to justify any opinion without entering 
 Into long and controversial details. It must be admitted, in opposition to 
 Plank, that in the New Testament, the words rpca^vTcpui and rTiaK6roi are 
 sometimes indiscriminately used. (Acts x.k. v. 17, comp. with 28 Tit. i. 3 
 and 7. Philip, i. 1.) But it is as clear, that as .soon as we can di.scern the 
 foiTU of church government, at a period closely bordering upon, if not withioi 
 tho apostolic age. it appears with a bishop at the head of each community, 
 holdin? some superiority ovor the pre.sbyt(!rs. Whether he was, a.s Gibben 
 from Mosheim supposes, merely an elective head of the College of Presby- 
 ters, (for this we have, in fact^ no valid authority,) or whether his distinct 
 fnnctions were established on apostolic authority, is still contested. Ttfi 
 universal submission to this episcopacy, in every part of the Christian \s orl4 
 appears to mc strongly to favor the latter view. — M.
 
 S56 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 323, 
 
 to have distinguislied the same )ffice and the same ord ir of 
 persons. The name of Presbyter was expressive of their age, 
 or rather of their gravity and wisdom. The title of Bishop 
 denoted their inspection over the faith and manners of the 
 Christians who were committed to their pastoral care. In pro- 
 portion to the respective numbers of the faithful, a Jarg^r or 
 emaller number of these episcojyal presbyters guided ^.ach 
 infant congregation with equal authority and with united c^un 
 «els."« 
 
 But the most perfect equality of freedom requires the dir-ect- 
 ing hand of a superior magistrate : and the order of public 
 deliberations soon introduces the office of a president, invested 
 at least with the authority of collecting the sentiments, and of 
 executing the resolutions, of the assembly. A regard for the 
 public tranquillity, which would so frequently have been in- 
 terrupted by annual or by occasional elections, induced the 
 primitive Christians to constitute an honorable and perpetual 
 Aiagistracy, and to choose one of the wisest and most holy 
 among their presbyterians to execute, during his life, the duties 
 of their ecclesiastical governor. It was under these circum- 
 stances that the lofty title of Bishop began to raise itself 
 above the humble appellation of Presbyter ; and while the 
 /iitter remained the most natural distinction for the members 
 of every Christian senate, the former was appropriated to the 
 dignity of its new president."' The advantages of this epis- 
 copal form of government, which appears to have been intro- 
 duced before the end of the first century,"" were so obvious, 
 and so important for the future greatness, as well as the pres- 
 ent peace, of Christianity, that it was adopted without delay 
 by all the societies which were already scattered over the 
 
 "^ Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, L vii. 
 
 "" See Jerome ad Titum, c. i. and Epistol. 85, (in the Benedictine 
 edition, 101,) and the elaborate apology of Blondel, pro sententia 
 Hieronymi. The ancient state, as it is described by Jerome, of the 
 bishop ana presbyters of Alexandria, receives a remarkable confir- 
 mation from the patriarch Eutychius, (Annal. torn. i. p. 330, Vers 
 Pocock;) whose testimony I know not how to reject, in spite of all 
 the objections of the learned Pearson in his Vindiciae Ignatianae, part 
 Lc. 11. 
 
 "° See the introduction to the Apocalypse. Bishops, under the 
 name of angels, were already instituted in the seven cities of Asia, 
 And yet the epistle of Clemens (which is prob.ibly of as ancient a 
 date) does not lead us to discover any traces of episcoj^icy either al 
 Corinth or Rome,
 
 A. D. 323.] OF THE roman empire. S6^ 
 
 empire, had acquired in a very early period the s.iiiction o^ 
 autiiiuity,"* and is still revered by the most powerful churcboi^ 
 botli of the East and of the West, as a primitive and even aa 
 a divine establishment,"" • It is needless to observe, that the 
 pious and humble presbyters, wlio were fii-st dignified with the 
 episcopal title, could not possess, and would probably have re- 
 jected, the power and pomp which now encircles the tiara of 
 the Roman pontiif, or the mitre of a German prelate. But 
 we may define, in a few words, the narrow limits of their origi- 
 nal jurisdiction, w-hich was chiefly of a spiritual, though in 
 some instances of a temporal nature.'" It consisted in tlie 
 administration of the sacraments and discipline of the church, 
 the superiutendency of religious ceremonies, which impercepti- 
 bly increased in number and variety, the consecration of eccle- 
 siastical ministers, to whom the bishop assigned their respective 
 functions, the management of the public fund, and the deter- 
 mination of all such difterences as the faithful were unwilling 
 to expose before the tribunal of an idolatrous judge. These 
 powers, during a short period, were exercised according to the 
 advice of the presbyteral college, and with the consent and 
 approbation of the assembly of Christians. The primitive 
 bishops were considered only as the first of their equals, and 
 the honorable servants of a free people. Whenever the epis- 
 copal chair became vacant by death, a new president was chosen 
 among the presbyters by the suffrages of the whole congrega- 
 tion, every member of which supposed himself invested with a 
 sacred and sacerdotal character,"* 
 
 '" Nulla Ecclesia sine Episcopo, has been a fact as well as a maxim 
 since tlie time of Tertullian and Irena^us. 
 
 "'- After we have passed tlie difficulties of the first century, we 
 find the episcopal government universally estabhshed, till it was 
 interrupted by the republican genius of the Swiss and German 
 reformers. 
 
 *" See Mosheim in the first and second centuries. Ignatius (ad 
 Srayrnasos, c. 3, &c.) is fond of exalting the episcopal dignity. Le 
 Clerc (Hist. Eccles. p. 569) very bluntly censures his conduct. 
 Mosheim, with a more critical judgment, (p. 161,) suspot'ts the purity 
 even of the smaller epistles. 
 
 "•* Wonne et Laici gacerdotes sumus ? * Tertulhan, Exhort, ad 
 "Uastitat. c. 7. As the human heart is still the same, several of tlic 
 bservations which Mr. Hume has made on Enthusiasm, (Essays, vol 
 L p. 76, quarto edit.) may be applied even to real inspiraUcfl. 
 
 * This expression was t^mp'oyed by the earlier ChristiaD Arritors in lUa 
 ■enie used by St. Peter, 1 Ep ii. 9. It was the Kauctity an< yirtuo .'w* l>«
 
 558 THE DEGLIKE AND FALL [A. D, 328. 
 
 Such was the mild and equal constitution by which the 
 Christians were governed more than a hundred years after 
 the death of the apostles. Every society formed within itself 
 a separate and independent republic; and although the most 
 distant of these little states maintained a mutual as well as 
 friendly intercourse of letters and deputations, the Christian 
 world was not yet connected by any supreme authority or 
 legislative assembly. As the numbers of the faithful were 
 gradually multiplied, they discovered the advantages that 
 might result from a closer union of their interest and designs. 
 Towards the end of the second century, the churches of 
 Greece and Asia adopted the useful institutions of provincial 
 synods,* and they may justly be supposed to have borrowed 
 the model of a representative council from the celebrated ex- 
 amples of their own country, the Amphictyons, the Achaean 
 league, or the assemblies of the Ionian cities. It was soon 
 established as a custom and as a law, that the bishops of the 
 independent churches should meet in the capital of the prov- 
 ince at the stated periods of spring and autumn. Their de- 
 liberations were assisted by the advice of a few distinguished 
 presbyters, and moderated by the presence of a listening mul- 
 titude.'" Their decrees, which were styled Canons, regulated 
 
 "' Acta Concil. Carthag. apud Cyprian, edit. Fell, p. 158. Thii 
 council was composed of eiglity-sevea bishops from the provinces of 
 
 power oP the priesthood, in which all Christians were to be equally distin- 
 guished. — M. 
 
 * The synods were not the first means taken by the insulated churches' 
 to enter into communion and to assume a corporate character. The dio- 
 feses were first formed by the union of several country cliurches with 
 n church in a city : many churches in one city uniting among themselves, or 
 Joining a more considerable church, became metropolitan. The dioceses 
 were not foiTned before the beginning of the second century : before that 
 time the Christians liad not established sullicient churches in the country 
 to stand in need of that union. It is towards the middle of the same century 
 that ^ve discover tlie first traces of the metropolitan constitution. (Probably 
 the country churches were founded in general by missionaries fi-om those in 
 the city, and would preserve a natural connection with the parent church.) 
 — M. 
 
 The provincial sj'nods did not commence till towards the middle of the 
 third century, and were not the first synods. History gives us distinct no 
 tions of the s;y'iiods, held towards the end of the second century, at Ephesus 
 at Jerusalem, at Poutus, and at Rome, to put an end to the disputes whicl 
 bad arisen between the Latin and Asiatic churches about the celebratioi, 
 of Easter. But these synods were not subject to any regular fonn or pe- 
 riodical return; this regularity was first established with tic provincial 
 synods which were formed by a union of the bishops of a district, subjec! 
 lo a metropolitan. Plank, p. 9C Geschichte der Christ. Kirch. Verfassang 
 
 --a
 
 \. D. 323.] oj riiE roman empiiib. 56tt 
 
 every important fontrovorsy of faith aiul discipline ; and it waa 
 natural to believe that a liberal effusion oi" the Holy Sjnrit 
 would be poured on the united assembly of the delej^ates of 
 the Christian people. The institution of synods was so well 
 suited to private ambition, and to public interest, that in the 
 space of a few jears it was received throutjhout tlio whole 
 empire. A regular correspondence w<as established betwee. 
 the provincial councils, which mutually communicated and 
 approved their respective proceedings ; and the catholic church 
 soon assumed the form, and acquired the strength, of a great 
 toederative republic."" 
 
 As the legislative authority of the particular churches was 
 insensibly superseded by the use of councils, the bishops ob- 
 tained by their alliance a much larger share of executive and 
 arbitrary power ; and as soon as they were connected by a 
 sense of their common interest, they were enabled to attack 
 with united vigor, the original rights of their clergy and people. 
 The prelates of the third century imperceptibly changed the 
 language of exhortation into that of command, scattered the 
 seeds of future usurpations, and supplied, by scripture allego- 
 ries and declamatory rhetoric, their deficiency of force and of 
 reason. They exalted the unity and power of the church, as 
 it was represented in the episcopal office, of which every 
 oishop enjoyed an equal and undivided portion."' Princes 
 and magistrates, it was often repeated, might boast an earthly 
 daim to a transitory dominion ; it was the episcopal authority 
 nlone which was derived from the Deity, and extended itself 
 over this and over another world. The bishops were the vice- 
 gerents of Christ, the successors of the apostles, and the mystic 
 substitutes of the high priest of the Mosaic law. Their exclu- 
 sive privilege of conferring the sacerdotal character, invaded 
 the freedom both of clerical and of popular elections ; and if, 
 in the administration of the church, they still consulted the 
 judgment of the presbyters, or the inclination of tlie people, 
 they most carefully inculcated the merit of such a voluntary 
 condescension. The bishops acknowledged the supreme au- 
 
 Mauritania, Numidia, and Africa; some presbyters and deaooni 
 assisted at the assembly ; prajsente plebis maxima parte. 
 
 ''* Afjuntiir prteterca \)ct Grfficias illas, ccrtis in locis concili:i, <ic 
 TertiiUi:ir dc Jcjuniis, c. 13. The African mentions it as a recent and 
 foreign institution. The coalition of the Christian churches is very 
 ftbly explained by Mosheim, ji. 104 — 170. 
 
 "' Cypriaji, in his adinirnd treatise Dc Unitate Ecc'.esiae. p. 'Jfi — 8€
 
 560 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D, S28l 
 
 tbority which resided in the assembly of their brethren ; but 
 in the government of his peculiar diocese, each of them exact- 
 ed from his flock the same implicit obedience as if that fovor- 
 itu metaphor had been literally just, and as if the shepherd 
 had been of a more exalted nature than that of his sheep/" 
 This obedience, however, was not imposed without some 
 efforts on one side, and some resistance on the other. The 
 iemocratical part of the constitution was, in many places, very 
 warmly supported by the zealous or interested opposition of 
 the inferior clergy. But their patriotism received the ignomini- 
 ous epithets of faction and schism ; and the episcopal cause 
 was indebted for its rapid progress to the labors of many ac- 
 tive prelates, who, like Cyprian of Carthage, could reconcile 
 the arts of the most ambitious statesman with the Christian 
 virtues which seem adapted to the character of a saint and 
 martyr."' 
 
 The same causes which at first had destroyed the equality 
 of the presbyters introduced among the bishops a jDreeminence 
 of rank, and from thence a superiority of jurisdiction. As 
 often as in the spring and autumn they met in provincial 
 synod, the difference of personal merit and reputation was very 
 sensibly felt among the membei-s of the assembly, and the 
 multitude was governed by the wisdom and eloquence of the 
 few. But the order of public proceedings required a more 
 regular and less invidious distinction ; the office of perpetual 
 presidents in the councils of each province was conferred on 
 the bishops of the principal city ; and these aspiring prelatea 
 fvho soon acquired the lof'^y titles of Metropolitans and I'ri- 
 mates, secretly prepared themselves to usurp over their epis- 
 copal brethren the same authority which the bishops had so 
 lately assumed above the college of presbyters.'^" Nor was 
 it long before an emulation of preeminence and power pre- 
 vailed among the Metropolitans themselves, each of them 
 
 ''® We may appeal to the whole tenor of Cyprian's conduct, of liia 
 doctrine, and of his epistles. Le Clerc, in a short life of Cyprian, 
 (Bibliotheque Universelle, torn. xii. p. 207 — 318,) has laid him ojtcd 
 with great freedom and accuracy. 
 
 "^ If Novatus, Felicissimus, ifec, whom the Bishop of Carthage ex 
 polled from his church, and from Africa, were not the most detestable 
 monsters of wickedness, the zeal of Cyprian must occasional: y have 
 prevailed over his veracity. For a very just account of these jbscura 
 quarrels, see Mosheim, p. 497 — 512. 
 
 "" Moslieuu, p. 269, 574. Diipin, Antiqu£e Ecclea. Disciplin. p 
 l», 20.
 
 A.. 0. 823.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 561 
 
 aflecting to display, in the most pompous t<^rms, iho tempor.i' 
 honors and advantages of tlio city over wLicli he presided; 
 ihe numbers and opulence of the Christians who were subject 
 to their pastoral care ; the saints and martyrs who had arisen 
 imong them ; and the purity with which they preserved the 
 -rndition of the faith, as it had been transmitted through a series 
 >f orthodox bishops from the apostle or the apostolic disciple, 
 c whom the foundation of their church was ascribed.'" 
 iVom every cause, either of a civil or of an ecclesiastical 
 aature, it was easy to foresee that Rome must enjoy the 
 respect, and would soon claim the obedience of the province". 
 The society of the faithful bore a just proportion to the capitxtl 
 of the empire ; and the Roman church was the greatest, tho 
 noost numerous, and, in regard to the West, the most ancient 
 of all the Christian establishments, many of which had received 
 their religion from the pious labors of her missionaries. In- 
 stead of one apostolic founder, the utmost boast of Antioch, 
 of Ephesus, or of Corinth, the banks of the Tyber were sup- 
 posed to have been honored with the preaching and martyr- 
 dom of the two most eminent among the apostles ;'" and th( 
 bishops of Rome very prudently claimed the inheritance of 
 whatsoever prerogatives were attributed either to the person oi 
 to the office of St. Peter.'" The bishops of Italy ana of tht 
 
 '^' Tertullian, in a distinct treatise, has pleaded against the heretics 
 the right of prescription, as it was held by the apostolic churches. 
 
 '^^ The journey of St. Peter to Rome is mentioned by most of the 
 ancients, (see Eusebius, ii. 25,) maintained by all the Catholics, allowed 
 by some Protestants, (see Pearson and Dodwell de Success. Episcop 
 Roman,) but has been vigorously attacked by Spanheim, (Miscellanea 
 Sacra, iii. 3.) According to Father Hardouin, the monks of the thir- 
 teenth century, who composed the .^neid, represented St Peter under 
 the allegorical character of the Trojan hero.* 
 
 '^^ It is in French only that the famous allusion to St. Peter's name 
 is exact. Tu es Pierre, et sur cette picrre. — The same is imperfect 
 in Greek, Latin, Italian, <tc., and totally unintelligible in oiir Teutonic 
 languages.f 
 
 * It is quite clear that, strictly speaking, the church of Rome was not 
 founded by either of these apostles. St. Paul's Epistle to the Romanf 
 proves undeniably the flourishing state of the church before his visit to the 
 dty; and many lloman Catholic writers have given up the impracticable 
 task of reconciling with chronology any visit of St. Peter to Home before 
 Me end of the reign of Claudiu.s, or the bcgiraiing of that of Nero.— _M. 
 
 t It is exact in SjTO-Chaldaic, the language in which it was spoken by 
 Jesas Chri.st. (St. Matt. xvi. 17.) Peter was called Cephas; atul the w«<J 
 cepfan si^ifies base, foundation, rock — Q.
 
 562 THE DECLINE AND VaUL | A.. D, 325* 
 
 provinces were disposed to allow them a primacy of ordei and 
 associatiou (such was their very accurate expression) in the 
 Cliristian aiistocracy."* But the power of a monarch waa 
 rejected with abhorrence, and the aspiring genius of Rome ex- 
 perienced from the nations of Asia and Africa a more vigorous 
 resistance to her spiritual, than she had formerly done lo her 
 temporal, dominion. The patriotic Cyprian, who ruled witlj 
 the most absolute sway the church of Carthage and the pro 
 viucial synods, opposed with resolution and success the ambition 
 of the Roman pontiff, artfully connected his own cause with 
 that of the eastern bishops, and, like Hannibal, sought out new 
 allies in the heart of Asia.'" If this Punic war was carried on 
 without any effusion of blood, it was owing much less to the 
 moderation than to the weakness of the contending prelates. 
 Invectives and excommunications were their only weapons; 
 and these, during the progress of the whole controversy, they 
 hurled against each other with equal fury and devotion. The 
 hard necessity of censuring either a pope, or a saint and mar- 
 tyr, distresses the modern Catholics whenever they are obliged 
 to relate the particulars of a dispute in which the champions 
 of religion indulged such passions as seem much more adapted 
 to the senate or to the camp.'*i° 
 
 The progress of the ecclesiastical authority gave birth to 
 the memoreble distinction of the laity and of the clergy, which 
 had been unknown to the Greeks and Romans."' The former 
 of these appellations comprehended the body of the Christian 
 people ; the latter, according to the signification of the word, 
 \ras appropriated to the chosen portion that had been set apart 
 for the service of religion ; a celebrated order of men, which 
 has furnished the most important, though not always the most 
 erlifying, subjects for modern history. Their mutual hostilities 
 sometimes disturbed the peace of the infant church, but their 
 
 *'*• IrenfBus adv. HjBreses, iii. 3. TertuUian de Praescription. c. 36, 
 fcnd Cyprian, Epistol. 27, 55, 71, 75. Le Clerc (Hist. Eccles. p. 764) 
 and Mosheim (p. 258, 578) labor in the interpretation of these pas- 
 sages. But the loose and rhetorical style of the fathers often appears 
 favorable to the pretensions of Rome. 
 
 '^' See the sharp epistle from Firmilianus, bishop of Caesarea, to 
 Stephen, bishop of Rome, ap. Cyprian, Epistol. 75. 
 
 *" Concerning this dispute of the rebaptism of heretics, sec the 
 f pistles of Cyprian, and the seventh book of Eusebius. 
 
 '" For the origin of these words, see Mosheim, p. 141. Spanlieim, 
 llist, Ecclcsiast. p. G33. The distinction '>f Clerus and laicug wa« 
 es'.ai.'ili.slied before the time ?f Tertullian.
 
 A. D. 323.J OF THE ROMAN EMriKK. 663 
 
 Eeal and acliiity were united in the couiinon cause, and the 
 Iov« of power, which (under the most artful disguises) could 
 insinuate itself into the breasts of bishops and martyra, 
 animated them to increase the number of their subjects, and 
 to enhirge the limits of the Christian empire. They wero 
 destitute of any temporal force, and they were for a long time 
 discouraged and oppressed, rather than assisted, by the civil 
 magistrate ; but they had acquired, and they employed within 
 their own society, the two most efficacious instruments of gov- 
 ernment, rewards and punishments ; the former derived from 
 the pious liberality, the latter from the devout apprehensions, 
 of the faithful. 
 
 I. The community of goods, which had so agreeably amused 
 the imagination of Plato,'** and which subsisted in some degree 
 among the austere sect of the Essenians,'** was adopted for 
 a short time in the primitive church. The fervor of the first 
 proselytes prompted them to sell those worldly possessions, 
 which they despised, to lay the price of them at the feet of 
 the apostles, and to content themselves with receiving an equal 
 share out of the general distribution."" The progress of the 
 Christian religion relaxed, and gradually abolished, this gen- 
 erous institution, which, in hands less pure than those of the 
 apostles, would too soon have been corrupted and abused by 
 the returning selfishness of human nature ; and the converts 
 ft'ho embraced the new religion were permitted to retain the 
 possession of their patrimony, to receive legacies and inher- 
 itances, and to increase their separate property by all the 
 lawful means of trade and industry. Instead of an absolute 
 Bawifice, a moderate proportion was accepted by the ministers 
 of the gospel ; and in their weekly or monthly fissemblies, 
 
 »** The community instituted by Plato is more perfect than that 
 which Sir Thomas More had imagined for his Utopia. The community 
 of women, and that of temporal goods, may be considered as insefiara- 
 ble parts of the same system. 
 
 »" Joseph. Antiquitat, xviii. 2. Philo, de Vit. Contemplativ. 
 
 »" See fne Acts of the Apostles, c. 2, 4, 5, with flrotius's Commen- 
 tary. Mosheim, in a particular dissertation, attacks the common opin- 
 ion with very inconclusive arguments.* 
 
 * This is not Vv3 general jcdgment on Mosheim's learned disscrtatioa 
 There is no trace iu the latter part of the New Testament of this comnm 
 oity of goods, and many distinct proofs of the contrary. All exhortation! 
 
 o almsgiving would have been unmeaning if property ha<l been in oomvooa 
 
 -U
 
 564 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. >33. 
 
 every believer, according to the exigency of the occasion, And 
 the measure of his wealth and piety, presented his voluntary 
 offering for the use of the comnion fund."' Nothing, how- 
 ever inconsiderable, was refused ; but it was diligently incu.- 
 calod, that, in the article of Tithes, the Mosaic law wtis stili 
 of divine obligation ; and that since the Jews, under a less 
 perfect discipline, had been commanded to pay a tenth part of 
 aij t'lat they possessed, it would become the disciples of Chiist 
 o distinguish themselves by a superior degree of liberality,*" 
 and to acquire some merit by resigning a superfluous treasure, 
 which must so soon be annihilated with the world itself.'" 
 It is almost uimecessary to observe, that the revenue of each 
 particular church, which was of so uncertain and fluctuating 
 a nature, must have varied with the poverty or the opulence 
 of the faithful, as they were dispersed in obscure villages, or 
 collected in the great cities of the empire. In the time of 
 the emperor Decius, it was the opinion of the magistrates, 
 that the Christians of Rome were possessed of very consider- 
 able wealth ; that vessels of gold and silver were used in their 
 religious worship, and that many among their proselytes had 
 sold their lands and ^houses to increase the public riches of the 
 sect, at the expense, indeed, of their unfortunate children, who 
 found themselves beggars, because their parents had been 
 saints.'" We should listen with distrust to the suspicions of 
 
 ''* Justin Martyr, Apolog. Major, c. 89. Tertullian, Apolog. c. 39. 
 ^''^ IrenjEus ad Hceres. 1. iv. c. 27, 34. Origeu in Num. Horn, ii 
 Cyprian de Unitat. Eccles. Constitut. Apostol. 1. ii. c. 34, 35, with the 
 notes of Cotolerius. The Constitutions introduce this divine precept, 
 by declaring that priests are as much above kings as the soul is above 
 the body. Among the tithable articles, they enumerate corn, wine, 
 oil, and wool. On this interesting subject, consult Prideaux's History 
 of Tithes, and Fra Paolo delle Materie Beneficiarie ; two writers of a 
 very different character. 
 
 "' The same opinion whicli prevailed about tlie year one thousandi, 
 wa3 productive of the same effects. Most of the Donations expreef 
 thftu- motive, " appropinquante mundi fine." See Moshoim'a GeneraJ 
 History of the Church, vol. i. p. 457. 
 
 *** Tum summa cura est fratribus 
 
 (TJt sermo tnstatur loquax.) 
 Offerre, fuudis venditis 
 Sestertiorum millia. 
 Addicta avorura prasdia 
 Foedis sub auctionibus, 
 Successor exheres trenail 
 Sanctis egens ParentibuB.
 
 A.. D. 323.] OF THE ROMAN EMl'IRE. Ml 
 
 strangers and enemies : on this occasion, liowevcr, they riceire 
 a very specious and probable color from the two lullowinu; 
 circumstances, the only ones that have reached our knowl- 
 edge, which deiine any precise sums, or convey any distinct 
 idea. Almost at the same period, the bishop of Carthago, 
 from a s )ciety less opulent than that of Rome, ooUected a 
 liundred thousand sesterces, (above eight hundred and fifty 
 pounds sterling,) on a sudden call of charity to redeem the 
 brethren of Numidia, who had been carried away captives by 
 Ihe barbarians of the desert.'" About a hundred years 
 before the reign of Decius, the Roman church had received, 
 in a single donation, the sum of two hundred thousand sesterces 
 from a stranger of Pontus, who proposed to fix his residence 
 in the capital.'" These oblations, for the most part, were 
 made in money ; nor was the society of Christians either 
 desirous or capable of acquiring, to any considerable degree, 
 the encumbrance of landed property. It had been provided 
 by several laws, which were enacted with the same design as 
 our statutes of mortmain, that no real estates should be given 
 or bequeathed to any corporate body, without either a special 
 privilege or a particular dispensation from the emperor or from 
 the senate ;'" who were seldom disposed to grant them in 
 favor of a sect, at first the object of their contempt, and at 
 Iftst of their fears and jealousy. A transaction, however, is 
 related under the reign of Alexander Severus, which discovers 
 that the restraint w;is sometimes eluded or suspended, and 
 that the Christians were permitted to claim and to possess lands 
 
 Haec occuluiitur abditis 
 Ecclesiarum in angulis. 
 Et summa pietas creditur 
 Nudare dukes liberos. 
 
 Prudent n-coi antpdvMv. Hymn 2. 
 The subsequent conduct of the deacon Laurence only proves how 
 proper a use was made of the wealth of the Roman church ; it wag 
 undoubtedly very considerable ; but Fra Paolo (c. 3) appears to ex- 
 aggerate, when he supposes that the successors of Conimodus wore 
 urged to persecute the Christians by their own avarice, or that of tlieir 
 Praetorian praefects. 
 
 "^ Cyprian, Epistol. 62. 
 "" Turtullian de Praj.-^criptione, c. 30. 
 
 "• Diocletian gave a rescript, which is only a declaration of the old 
 law ; " Collegium, si nullo special! privilegio subnixura sit, hfcredi- 
 tatem capere non posse, dubium non est." Fra Paolo (c. t) thinks 
 that these regulations had been much neglected since thr reign of 
 '^aleriaa.
 
 (166 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.. D. 328 
 
 within the lim ts of Rome itself. "' The progress of Christian- 
 ty, and tli e civil confusion of the empire, contributed to relas 
 the severity of the laws ; and before the close of the third 
 century many considerable estates were bestowed on tho 
 opulent churches of Rome, Milan, Carthage, Antioch, Alexan- 
 dria, and the other great cities of Raly and the provinces. 
 
 The bishop was the natural steward of the church ; tha 
 public stock was intrusted to his care without account sr con- 
 trol ; the presbyters were confined to their spiritual functions, 
 and the more dependent order of the deacons was solely employed 
 in the management and distribution of the ecclesiastical reve- 
 nue."^ If we may give credit to the vehement declamations 
 of Cyprian, there were too many among his African brethren, 
 who, in the execution of their charge, violated every precept, 
 not only of evangelical perfection, but even of moral virtue. 
 By some of these unfoithful stewards the riches of the church 
 were lavished in sensual pleasures ; by others they were per- 
 verted to the purposes of private gain, of fraudulent purchases, 
 and of rapacious usury."" But as long as the contributions of 
 the Christian people were free and unconstrained, the abuse 
 of their confidence could not be very frequent, and the gen- 
 eral uses to which their liberality was applied reflected honor 
 on the religious society. A decent portion was reserved for 
 the maintenance of the bishop and his clergy ; a sufficient 
 sum was allotted for the expenses of the public worship, of 
 which the feasts of love, the ar/apce, as they were called, con- 
 istituted a very pleasing part. The whole remainder was the 
 sacred patrimony of the poor. According to the discretion of 
 the bishop, it was distributed to support widows and orphans, 
 the lame, the sick, and the aged of the community; to comfort 
 strangers arj<^' pilgrims, and to alle\iate the misfortunes of 
 prisoners ana captives, more especially when their sufferings 
 had been occasioned by their firm attachment to the cause of 
 rehgion."* A generous intercourse of charity united the most 
 distant provinces, and the smaller congregations were cheer- 
 
 "* Hist. August, p. 131. The ground had been public; and wag 
 n.iw disputed between the society of Christians and that of butchers.* 
 
 '=« Constitut. A] ostol. ii. 35. 
 
 '" Cyprian de Lapsis, p. 89. Epistol. 65. The charge is CT>u(irme)f 
 1^ the 19th and 20tli canon of the council of lUiberis. 
 
 *" See the apologies of Justin, TertuUian, &c. 
 
 Cfcponarii, rather v-lctuallers — M.
 
 i.D. 323.1 OP riJE ROMAN EMI'IRE. 561 
 
 folly assisted by the .alms of their more opulent brethren.'*' 
 Such an institution, which paid less regard to the merit than 
 to the distress of tlie object, very materially conduced to the 
 progress of Christianity. The I'agans, who were actuated by 
 a sense of liumanity, while they derided the doctrines, ac- 
 knowledged the benevolence, of the new sect.'" The prospect 
 of immediate relief and of future protection allured into ita 
 hospitable bosom many of those unhajipy persons whom the 
 neglect of the world would have abandoned to the miserie.s 
 of want, of sickness, and of old age. There is some reascn 
 likewise to believe that great numljers of infants, who, accord 
 ing to the inhuman practice of the times, had been exposed 
 by their parents, were frequently rescued from death, baptized, 
 educated, and maintained by the piety of the Christians, and 
 at the expense of the public treasure.'" 
 
 II. It is the undoubted right of every society to exclude from 
 its communion and benefits such among its members as reject 
 or violate those regulations which have been established by 
 general consent. In the exercise of this power, the censures 
 of the Christian church were chiefly directed against scan- 
 dalous sinners, and particularly those who were guilty of 
 murder, of fraud, or of incontinence ; against the authors or 
 the followers of any heretical opinions which had been con- 
 demned by the judgment of the ejjiscopal order ; and against 
 those unhappy persons, who, whether from choice or compul- 
 sion, had polluted themselves after their baptism by any act 
 of idolatrous worship. The consequences of excommunica- 
 tion were of a temporal as well as a spiritual nature. The 
 Christian against whom it was pronounced, was deprived of 
 any part in the oblations of the faithful. The ties both of 
 religious and of private friendship were dissolved : he found 
 himself a profane object of abhorrence to the persons whom 
 
 '" The wealth and liberality of the Romans to their most distar.t 
 brethren is gratefully celebrated by Dionysius of Corinth, ap. Euseb. 
 L iv. c. 23. 
 
 "' See Lucian :u Pcreffrin. Julian (Epist. 49) seems mortified tlir.t 
 the Christian chr: ity maintains not only their own, but likewise tlie 
 heathen poor. 
 
 '*■' Such, at least, lias been the laudable conduct of more modere 
 missionaries, under the same circumstances. Above three thousand 
 cewboru infants are annually exposed in the streets of Pi'kin. See 
 lie Corate, Memoires sur la Chine, and the Rechcrches sur les Chinoii 
 at les Egyptians torn. i. p. 61.
 
 668 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 32S 
 
 he t.lic most estoetned, or by whom he had been the mos 
 tenderly beloved ; and as far as an expulsion from a respecta- 
 ble society could imprint on his character a mark of disgrace, 
 he was shunned or suspected by the generality of mankind. 
 The situation of these unfortunate exiles was in itself very 
 painful and melancholy ; but, as it usually happens, their 
 apprehensions far exceeded their sufferings. The benefits of 
 the Christian communion were those of eternal life ; nor could 
 they erase from their minds the awful opinion, that to those 
 ecclesiastical governors by whom they were condemned, the 
 Deity had committed the keys of Ilell and of Paradise. The 
 heretics, indeed, who might be supported by the consciousness 
 of their intentions, and by the flattering hope that they alone 
 had discovered the true path of salvation, endeavored to regain, 
 in their separate assemblies, those comforts, temporal as well 
 as spiritual, which they no longer derived from the great 
 society of Christians. But almost all those who had reluctantly 
 yielded to the power of vice or idolatry were sensible of their 
 fallen condition, and anxiously desirous of being restored to 
 the benefits of the Christian communion. 
 
 With regard to the treatment of these penitents, two oppo- 
 site opinions, the one of justice, the other of mercy, divided 
 the primitive church. The more rigid and inflexible casuists 
 refused them forever, and without exception, the meanest 
 place in the holy community, which they had disgraced or 
 deserted ; and leaving them to the remorse of a guilty con- 
 science, indulged them only with a faint ray of hope that the 
 contrition of their life and death might possibly be accepted 
 by the Supreme Being,'*^ A milder sentiment was embraced, 
 in practice as well as in theory, by the purest and most 
 respectable of the Christian churches."* The gates of recon- 
 ciliation and of heaven were seldom shut against the returning 
 penitent ; but a severe and solemn form of discipline wa^ 
 instituted, which, while it served to expiate his crime, might 
 powerfully deter the spectators from the imitation of his exam- 
 ple. Humbled by a public confession, emaciated by fasting 
 and clothed in sackcloth, the penitent lay prostrate at the 
 
 '** Tlie Montanists and the Novatians, who adhered to this opinion 
 jriUi the greatest rigor and obstinacy, found themselves at last in the 
 number of exec mmunicated heretics. See the learned and copioiu 
 Mosheiui, SecuL ii. and iii. 
 
 '" Dionysius ap. Euseb. iv. 23. Cyprian, de Lapsis
 
 A. D. 323.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 999 
 
 door of the assembly, imploriii!^ with tears the pardon of hi 
 offences, and soUciting the prayers of tlie faithful.'" If the 
 foult was of a very heinous nature, whole yeai-s of penance 
 were esteemed an inadequate satisfaction to the divine jus- 
 tice ; and it was always by slow and painful gradations that 
 the sinner, the heretic, or the apostate, wjis readmitted into 
 the bosom of the church. A sentence of perpetual excom- 
 munication was, however, reserved for some crimes of au 
 extraordinary magnitude, and particularly for the inexcusable 
 relapses of those penitents who had already expeiienced and 
 abused the clemency of their ecclesiastical superiors. Ac- 
 cording to the circumstances or the number of the guilty, the 
 exercise of the Christian discipline was varied by the dis- 
 cretion of the bishops. The councils of Ancyra and llliberia 
 were held about the same time, the one in Galatia, the othei 
 in Spain ; but their respective canons, which arc still extant, 
 seem to breathe a very different spirit. The Galatian, who 
 after his baptism had repeatedly sacrificed to idols, might 
 obtain his pardon by a penance of seven yeai"s ; and if he 
 had seduced others to imitate his example, only three years 
 more were added to the term of his exile. But the nnhappy 
 Spaniard, who had committed the same offence, was deprived 
 of the hope of reconciliation, even in the article of death ; and 
 his idolatry was placed at the head of a list of seventeen other 
 crimes, against which a sentence no less terrible was pro- 
 nounced. Among these we may distinguish the inexpiable 
 guilt of calumniating a bishop, a presliyter, or even a dea- 
 con.'" 
 
 The well-tempered mixture of liberality and rigor, the 
 judicious dispensation of rewards and punishments, according 
 to the maxims of policy as well as justice, constituted the 
 human strength of the church. The Bishops, whose paternal 
 care extended itself to the government of both worlds, were 
 lensible of the importance of these prerogatives ; and covering 
 
 ^" Cave's Primitive Christianity, part iii. c. 5. Tlic admirers of 
 *ntiquty regret the loss of tliis public penance. 
 
 ^** See in Dupin, Bibliothcque Ecclesiastique, torn. ii. p. SO* — 313, 
 a short but rational exposition of the canons of those councils, wbich 
 were assembled in the first moments of tranquillity, after the perse- 
 cution of Diocletian. This persecution had beer, much less severelj 
 felt in Spain than in Galatia; a difference which may, in sooie meas 
 ure accjunt for the contrast of their rej^ulatious.
 
 570 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 3^43 
 
 the!r aitbition with the fair pretence of the lore of order, they 
 were jealous of any rival in the exercise of a discipline &c 
 necessary to prevent the iesertion of those tioops which had 
 enlisted iJiemselves under the banner of the cross, and whose 
 numbers every day became more considerable. From the 
 imperious declamations of Cyprian, we should naturally con- 
 clude that the doctrines of excommunication and penance 
 formed the most essential part of religion ; and that it was 
 much less dangerous for the disciples of Christ to neglect the 
 observance of the moral duties, than to despise the censures 
 and authority of their bishops. Sometimes we might imagine 
 that we were listening to the voice of Moses, when he com- 
 manded the earth to open, and to swallow up, in consuming 
 flames, the rebellious race which refused obedience to the 
 priesthood of Aaron ; and we should sometimes suppose that 
 we hear a Roman consul asserting the majesty of the repub- 
 lic, and declaring his inflexible resolution to enforce the rigor 
 of the laws.* " If such irregularities are suffered with impu- 
 nity," (it is thus that the bishop of Carthage chides the lenity 
 of his colleague,) "if such irregularities are suffered, there is 
 an end of episcopal vigor ;"^ an end of the subhme and 
 divine power of governing the Church, an end of Christianity 
 itself." Cyprian had renounced those temporal honors, which 
 
 *'' Cyprian Epist. 69. 
 
 * Gibbon has been accused of injustice to the character of Cyprian, aa 
 exalting tlie " censures and authority of tlie church above the observance 
 of the moral duties." Felicissimus had been condemned by a synod of 
 bishops, (non tantum mea, scd plui-imorum coepiscorum, sententia condem- 
 k.atum,) on the charge not only of schism, but of embezzlement of public 
 loney, the debauching of virgins, and frequent acts of adultei-j'. His vio- 
 lent menaces had extorted his readmission into the church, against which 
 Cyprian protests with much vehemence: ne pecuniae commissfe sibi frau- 
 dator, ne stuprator virgiuum, ue matrimoniorum multorum depopulator et 
 con'uptor, ultra adhuc spousam Christi incorraptam praesentiae suae dedcc- 
 ore. et impudica atque incesta contagione, violaret. See Chelsum's Re- 
 marks, p. 134. If these charges against Felicissimus were true, they were 
 something more than " in-egularities," A Roman censor would have been 
 a fairer subject of comparison than a consul. On the other hand, it must 
 be admitted that the charge of adultery deepens very rapidly as the cun- 
 croversy becomes more violent. It is first represented as a single act. re 
 cently detected, and which men of character were prepared to substantiate : 
 adulterii ctiam crimen accedit. quod pati'es nostri graves viri deprehendissi 
 «e nuutiaverunt, et probaturos se asseverarunt. Epist. xxxviii. The liero 
 tic has now darkened into a man of notorious and general prcthgacy. Nor 
 can it be denied that of the whole long epistle, very far the larger and the 
 more passionate part dwells on the breach of ecclesiasticaJ unity Tithof 
 llum ou \he violation of Christian holiness. — M
 
 A. D 823.] OP THE ROMAN EMPIRR 57] 
 
 it 13 probable he would never have obtained ; * b it the acqui- 
 sition of such absolute command over the conscit'uces :uid 
 undei-standing of a congregation, however obscure or dcsjiised 
 by the world, is more truly grateful to the pride of the human 
 heart, than the possession of the most despotic power, imposed 
 ^y arms and conquest on a reluctant people. 
 
 In the course of this important, though perhaps tedious in- 
 [uiry, I have attempted to display the secondary causes which 
 so efficaciously assisted the truth of the Christian religion. If 
 among these causes we have discovered any artificial orna- 
 ments, any accidental circumstances, or any mixture of erro 
 and passion, it cannot appear surprising that mankind should 
 be the most sensibly atfected by such motives as were suited 
 to their imperfect nature. iL^'^^s by the aid of these causes, 
 exclusive zeal, the immediate expectation of another world, 
 the claim of miracles, the practice of rigid virtue, and the 
 constitution of the primitive church, that Christianity spread 
 itself with so much success in the Roman empire. To the 
 first of these the Christians were indebted for their invincible 
 valor, which disdained to capitulate with the enemy whom 
 they were resolved to vanquish. The three succeeding causes 
 supplied their valor with the most formidable arms. The last 
 of these causes united their courage, directed their arms, and 
 gave their efforts that irresistible weight, which even a smal. 
 band of well-trained and intrepid volunteers has so often pos- 
 sessed over an undisciplined multitude, ignorant of the subject, 
 and careless of the event of the war. In the various religions 
 D? Polytheism, some wandering fanatics of Egypt and Syria, 
 who addressed themselves to the credulous superstition of the 
 populace, were perhaps the only order of priests "" that 
 derived their whole support and credit from their sacerdotal 
 profession, and were very deeply affected by a personal con- 
 
 ito rpj^g ^j.jg^ ^Yie manners, and the vices of the priests of the Syrian 
 goddess are very humorously described by Apuleius, in the eighth 
 book of his Metamorphosis. 
 
 * This supposition appears unfounded: the birth and the talenta of 
 Cyprian might make us jjresume tlie contrary. Thasciua Ca'cilius Cypri- 
 anus, Carthaginensis, artis oratorito professione clarus, maL,'nani sibi glori- 
 om, opes, honorcs acquisivit, epularibus ca^nis ot larg-is dapibus assuctus, 
 pretiosa veste couspicuus, auro atquc purpuni fiiiccns, fascibus oblcctatui 
 et honoribus, stipatus cliontium cunois, f'ro(|ucntiore comilutu olticii ag- 
 minis honestatus, nt ipse do se loquitur in Kpistold ad Donaluiu. See Df 
 Cave, Hist. Liter, b. i. p. 87.— G. 
 
 Cavo lias rather embellis-hed Cyprian's language.- -M.
 
 572 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A.D. 323^ 
 
 oern for tH safety or prosperity of their tutelar deities. The 
 ministers of Polytheism, both in Rome and in the proxinceSj 
 were, for the most part, men of a noble birth, and of an afflu- 
 ent fortune, who received, as an honorable distinction, the care 
 of a celebrated temple, or of a public sacrifice, exhibited, very 
 frequently at their own expense, the sacred games,'" and with 
 cold inditference performed the ancient rites, according to the 
 laws and fashion of their country. As they were engaged in 
 the ordinary occupations of life, their zeal and devotion were 
 seldom animated by a sense of interest, or by the habits of an 
 ecclesiastical character. Confined to their respective temples 
 ind cities, they remained without any connection of discipline 
 or government ; and whilst they acknowledged the supreme 
 jurisdiction of the senate, of the college of pontiffs, and of 
 the emperor, those civil magistrates contented themselves with 
 the easy task of maintaining in peace and dignity the general 
 worship of mankind. We have already seen how various, 
 how loose, and how uncertain were the religious sentiments 
 of Polytheists. They Avere abandoned, almost without control, 
 to the natural workings of a superstitious fancy. The acci- 
 dental circumstances of their life and situation determined the 
 object as well as the degree of their devotion ; and as long as 
 their adoration was successively prostituted to a thousand 
 deities, it v,rts scarcely possible that their hearts could be sus- 
 ceptible of a very sincere or lively passion for any of them. 
 
 When Christianity appeared in the world, even these faint 
 and imperfect impressions had lost much of their original 
 power. Human reason, which by its unassisted strength ia 
 incapable of perceiving the mysteries of faith, had already 
 obtained an easy triumph over the folly of Paganism ; and 
 when TertuUian or Lactantius employ their labors in expos- 
 ing its falsehood and extravagance, they are obliged to tran- 
 scribe the eloquence of Cicero or the wit of Lucian. The 
 contagion of these sceptical writings had been diffused far 
 beyond the number of their readers. The fashion of incredu- 
 lity was communicated from the philosopher to the man of 
 
 **' The office of Asiarch was of this nature, and it is frequently 
 mentioned in Aristides, the Inscriptions, ±c. It was annual and 
 elective. None but the vainest citizens could deske the honor ; nono 
 but the most wealthy could support the expense. See, in the Fatres 
 Apostol. torn. ii. p. 200, witli how much indifference Philip the 
 Asiarch conducted himself in the martyrdom of Polycarp. ThrT« 
 were likewise Bithyniarchs, Lyciarchs, &c.
 
 A. D. 323.] OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. 671 
 
 pleasure or business, from the noble to the plebeian, and from 
 the master to the menial slave who waited at his table, and 
 who eagerly listened to the freedom of his convei-sation. On 
 public occasions the philosophic part of mankind affected to 
 treat with respect and decency the rehgious institutions of 
 their country ; but their secret contempt penetrated through 
 the thin and awkward disguise ; and even the peo))le, when 
 they discovered that their deities were rejected and derided by 
 those whose rank or understanding they were accustomed to 
 reverence, were tilled with doubts and apprehensions concern- 
 ing the truth of those doctrines, to which they had yielded the 
 most implicit belief. The decline of ancient prejudice exposed 
 a very numerous portion of human kind to the danger of a 
 painful and comfortless situation. A state of scepticism and 
 suspense may amuse a few inquisitive minds. But the prac- 
 tice of super^iition is so congenial to the multitude, that if 
 they are forcib y awakened, they still regret the loss of their 
 pleasing vision. Their love of the marvellous and supernat- 
 ural, their curiosity with regard to future events, and their 
 strong propensili^ to extend their hopes and fears beyond the 
 limits of the visible world, were the principal causes which 
 favored the estallishment of Polytheism. So urgent on the 
 vulgar is the necessity of believing, that the fall of any sys- 
 tem of mythology will most probably be succeeded by the 
 introduction of some other mode of superstition. Some deities 
 of a more recent and fashionable cast might soon have occu- 
 pied the deserted temples of Jujjiter and Apollo, if, in the 
 decisive moment, the wisdom of Providence had not int(3r- 
 posed a genuine revelation, fitted to inspire the most rational 
 esteem and conviction, whilst, at the same time, it was adorned 
 with all that could attract the curiosity, the wonder, and the 
 veneration of the people. In their actual disposition, as many 
 were almost disengaged from their artificial prejudices, but 
 equally susceptible and desirous of a devout attachment ; an 
 object mu?h less deserving would have been sufficient to till 
 the vacant place in their hearts, and to gi'atify the uncertain 
 eagerness of their passions. Those who are inclined to pursue 
 this reflection, instead of viewing with astonishment the rapid 
 progress of Christianity, will perhaps be surprised that its suc- 
 cess was not still more rapid and still more universal. — . 
 It has been observed, with truth as well as propriety, thai I 
 fJhe conquests of Pionie jirepared and facilitated those of Chris- | 
 danity In the second chapter of this wojk we have aCeinpted
 
 5Y4 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A, D. 325 
 
 to explain ia what manner the most civilized provinces of 
 Europe, Asia, and Africa were united under the dominion of 
 one sovereign, and gradually connected by the most intimate 
 ties of laws, of manners, and of language. The Jews of Pal- 
 estine, who had fondly expected a temporal deliverer, gave so 
 cold a reception to the miracles of the divine prophet, that it 
 was found unnecessary to ])ublish, or at least to preserve, any 
 llebrew gospel.'" The authentic histories of the actions of 
 Christ were composed in the Greek language, at a considera- 
 ole distance from Jerusalem, and after the Gentile converts 
 were grown extreniely numerous."^ As soon as those histo- 
 ries were translated into the Latin tongue, they were perfectly 
 intelligible to all the subjects of Rome, excepting only to the 
 peasants of Syria and Egypt, for whose benefit particular 
 
 '^^ The modern critics are not disposed to believe what tlie fathers 
 ahnost unanimously assert, tliat St. Matthew composed a Hebrew 
 gospel, of which only the Greek translation is extant. It seems, how 
 evei', dangerous to reject their testimony.* 
 
 '^^ Under the reigns of Nero and Domitian, and in the cities of 
 Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, and Epliesus. See Mill. Prolegomena 
 ad Nov. Testament, and Dr. Lardner's fair and extensive collection, 
 vol. XV. f 
 
 * Strong reasons appear to confinn this testimony. Papias, contempo- 
 rary of the Apostle St. .John, says positively that Matthew had wriUeii tlie 
 discourses of Jcs7is Chrint in Hebrew, and that each inierprclcd them as he 
 coald. This Hebrew was the Syro-Chaldaic dialect, then in use at Jerusa- 
 lem : Origen, Irenaaus, Eu.seblus, Jerome, Epiphauius, confirm this state- 
 ment. Jesus Christ preached himself in Syro-Chaldaic, as is proved by 
 many words which he used, and which the Evangelists have taken the 
 pains to translate. St. Paul, addressing the Je\vs, used the same language : 
 Acts xxi. 40, xxii. 2. xxvi. 14. The opinions of some critics prove nodiing 
 against such undeniable testimonies. Moreover, their principal objectiou 
 is, that St. Mattliew quotes the Old TestameiH according to the Greek 
 version of the LXX., which is inaccurate; fo» of ten quotations, found iu 
 his Gospel, seven are evidently taken fi-om the Hebrew text ; the three 
 ctl>ers offer little that difler : "moreover, the latter are not literal quota- 
 lions. St. Jerome says positively, that, according to a copy which he had 
 seen in the library of Cajsarea, the quotations were made in Hebrew (iu 
 Catal.) More modern critics, among others Michaelis, do not entertain a 
 doubt on die subject. The Greek version appears to have been made in 
 the time of the aposdes, as St. Jerome and St. Augu.stus affirm, perhapa 
 by one of them. — G. 
 
 Among modern critics, Dr. Hug has asserted the Greek original of 
 St- Matthew, but ihe iC-ner;d opinion of the most learned biblical wrileri 
 supports the vicv of M. Gnizot. — M. 
 
 t This question has, it is well known, been most elaborately discusset 
 »ince the time of Gibbon. The Preface to die Translation of Sclileier 
 macher's Version cf St. Luke contains a very able summary of the varioui 
 theories— M-
 
 A^D. 323.J OF THE llOMAN EMl'IRE. 57f 
 
 versions were afterwards made. The public highways, which 
 had been constructed for tlie use of the legions, opened an 
 easy passage for the Christian missionaries from Damascus to 
 C<jrinth, and from Italy to the extremity of Spain or Britain ; 
 cor did those spiritual con(|uerors encounter any of the obsta 
 cles vliich usually retard or prevent the inti-oduction of a for- 
 eign religion into a distant country. There is the stn^ngest 
 reason to believe, that before the reigns of Diocletian and 
 Constantine, the faith of Christ had been preached in every 
 province, and in all the great cities of the empire; but the 
 foundation of the several congregations, the numbers of the 
 fiiithful who composed them, and their j)ropoition to the unbe- 
 lieving multitude, are now buried in obscurity, or disguised by 
 fiction and declamation. Such imperfect circumstances, how- 
 ever, as have reached our knowledge concerning the increase 
 of the Christian name in Asia and Greece, in Egypt, in Italy, 
 and in the West, we shall now proceed to relate, without neg- 
 lecting the real or imaginary acquisitions which lay beyond th«« 
 frontiers of the Roman empire. 
 
 The rich provinces that extend from the Euphrates to the 
 Ionian Sea, were the principal theatre on which the apostle 
 of the Gentiles displayed his zeal and piety. Tlie seeds of the 
 gospel, which he had scattered in a fertile soil, were diligently 
 cultivated by his disciples ; and it should seem that, duriiig the 
 two first centuries, the most considerable body of Christians 
 was contained within those Hmits. Among the societies which 
 were instituted in Syria, none were more ancient or more 
 illustrious than those of Damascus, of Berea or Aleppo, and 
 of Antioch. The prophetic introduction of the Apocal\'pse 
 has described and immortalized the seven churches of Asia ; 
 Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergnmus, Thyatira,'" Sardes, Laodicejv 
 and Philadelphia ; and their colonies were soon diffused 
 over that populous country. In a very early period, the 
 islands of Cyprus and Crete, the provinces of Thrace and 
 Macedonia, gave a favorable reception to the new religion; 
 and Christian republics were soon founded in the cities of 
 
 '" Tilt' Alogians (Epiphanius de Ha:!rc'f. 51) die;putcJ tlie genuine 
 ■ess of the Apocalypse, because tlie church of Thyalira was not yet 
 founded. Epiphanius, who allows the fact, extricates liiinself irona 
 the difliculty by ingeniously supposing that St. John wrote ill tha 
 vpirit oi piopliecy. See Abauzit, Discours siir rApoculypeo
 
 876 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 
 
 (Jorixilh, of Sparta, and of Athens.'^'* The antiquity of the 
 Greek and Asiatic clnircbes allowed a sufficient sjiace of tinie 
 for their increase and nuiliiplication ; and even the swarms of 
 Gnostics and other heretics serve to display the flourishing 
 condition of the orthodox church, since the appellation of here- 
 tics has always been applied to the less numerous party. To 
 these domestic testimonies we may add the confession, the 
 complaints, and the apprehensions of the Gentiles themselves. 
 From the writings of Lucian, a philosopher who had studied 
 mankind, and who describes their manners in the most lively 
 colors, we may learn that, under the reign of Commodus, his 
 native country of Pontus was filled with Epicureans and 
 Christians'^' Within fourscore years after the death of 
 Christ,'" the humane Pliny laments the magnitude of the evil 
 which he vainly attempted to eradicate. In his very curious 
 epistle to the emperor Trajan, he affirms, that the temples 
 were almost deserted, that the sacred victims scarcely found 
 any purchasers, and that the superstition had not only infected 
 the cities, but had even spread itself into the villages and the 
 open country of Pontus and Bithynia.'^* 
 
 Without descending into a minute scrutiny of the expres- 
 sions or of the motives of those writers who either celebrate or 
 lament the progress of Christianity in the East, it may in gen- 
 eral be observed, that none of them have left us any grounds 
 from whence a just estimate might be formed of the real 
 numbers of the faithful in those provinces. One circumstance, 
 however, has been fortunately preserved, which seems to cast 
 
 "^ The epistles of Ignatius and Dionysiiis (ap. Euscb. iv. 23) point 
 out many churches in Asia and Greece. Tliat of Athens seems to 
 have been one of the least flourishing. 
 
 "° Lucian in Alexandre, c. 25. Christianity however, must have 
 been very unequally diffused over Pontus ; since, in the middle of the 
 third century, there was no more than seventeen beh(!vers in the 
 extensive diocese of Neo-Csesarea. See M. de Tillemont, Memoires 
 Ecclesiast. torn. iv. p. 6*75, from Basil and Gregory of Nyssa, who 
 were themselves natives of Cappadocia.* 
 
 '" According to tlie ancients, Jesus Christ suffered under the consul- 
 «Jiip of tlie two Gemini, in the year 29 of our present asra. Pliny was 
 sent into Bithynia (according to Pagi) in the year 110. 
 
 "' Phil. Epist. X. 97. 
 
 * Gibbon forii'ot the conclusion of this ston,-, that Gregory left only seveo 
 ieeu heathens in his diocese. The antithesis is suspicious, and both iiurn'^n 
 may have been chosen to magnify the spiritual fame of the wosAm- 
 irorker. — M.
 
 A. 1>. 023.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIKE. 677 
 
 3 more distinct light on this obscure hut interesting sulyoct 
 Under the reign of Theodosius, after Christianity had enjoyed, 
 during more than sixty years, tlie sunshine of Imperial favor, 
 the ancient and illustrious church of Antioch cotisisted of og« 
 hundred thousand persons, three thousand of whom were sup- 
 ported out of the public oblations."' The splendor and dignity 
 of the queen of the East, the acknowledged populousness of 
 Cx'sarea. Seleucia, and Alexandria, and the destruction of two 
 hundred and fifty thousand souls in the eartlupiako which 
 afllicted Antioch under the elder Justin,"" arc so many con- 
 vincing proofs that the whole number of its inhabitants was 
 not less than half a million, and that the Christians, howover 
 multiplied by zeal and jiower, did not exceed a fifth part of 
 that great city. IIow different a pr<:)portion must we adopt 
 when we compare the persecuted with the triumphant church, 
 the West with the East, remote villages v.ith populous towns, 
 and countries recently converted to the faith with the place 
 where the believers first received the appellation of Christians ! 
 It must not, however, be dissembled, that, in another pas- 
 sage, Chrysostom, to whom we are indebted for this useful in- 
 formation, computes the multitude of the faithful as even su- 
 perior to that of the Jews and Pagans."' But the solution of 
 this apparent difficulty is easy and obvious. The eloquent 
 preacher draws a parallel between the civil and the ecclesiasti- 
 cal constitution of Antioch ; between the list of Christians who 
 had acquired heaven by baptism, and the list of citizens who 
 had a right to share the public liberality. Slaves, strangers, 
 and infants were comprised in the former ; they were excluded 
 from the latter. 
 
 The extensive commerce of Alexandria, and its proximity 
 
 '*» Obrvsostom. Opera, torn. vii. p. 658, 810, [edit. Savil. ii. 422, 
 829.1 
 
 ""' John Malala, torn. ii. p. 144. He draws the same conclusion with 
 reafard to the populousncss of Antioch. 
 
 ^" Chrysostom. torn. i. p. 592. I am indebted for these passages, 
 liough not for my inference, to the learned Dr. Lardner. CreiUbility 
 of the Gospel of History, vol xii. p. 370.* 
 
 " The statements of Cbryso.stoin wilh regard to the population of Antioch, 
 whatever may be their accuracy, are perfectly consi.stciit. In one passage 
 be reckons tli'e population at 200,000. In a second the Christians at 100,000. 
 In a third lie states tliat the Christians fonned more than half the popu'.a- 
 aon. Gibbon has noijlected to notice the iirst passage, and has draws hi» 
 -stimate of the population of Antioch from other .sources. The 8000 maia 
 bulled by alms were widows and virgins alone — M 
 VOL. I. — Bd
 
 578 THE DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 323^ 
 
 K) Palestine, gave an efisy entrance to the new religion. It 
 was at first embraced by great numbers of the Theraputae, 
 or Essenians, of the Lake Mareotis, a Jewish sect which liad 
 abated much of its reverence for the Mosaic ceremonies. The 
 austere life of the Essenians, their fests and excommunications, 
 the community of goods, the love of celibacy, their zeal for 
 martyrdom, and the warmth though not the purity of theii 
 faith, already offered a very lively image of the primitive disv 
 ci])Hne.'" It was in the school of Alexandria that the Chris- 
 tian theology appears to have assumed a regular and scientifc 
 form ; and when Hadrian visited Egypt, he found a church 
 composed of Jews and of Greeks, sufficiently important to 
 attract the notice of that inquisitive prince.'" But the prog- 
 ress of Christianity was for a long time confined within the limits 
 of !i single city, which was itself a foreign colony, and till the 
 clowe of the second century the predecessors of Demetrius were 
 the only prelates of the Egyptian church. Three bishops 
 were consecrated by the hands of Demetrius, and the number 
 was increased to twenty by his successor Heraclas.'®* The 
 body of the natives, a people distinguished by a sullen inflexi- 
 bility of temper,'"' entertained the new doctrine with coldness 
 and reluctance ; and even in the time of Origen, it was rare to 
 meet with an Egyptian who had surmounted his early preja- 
 dices in favor of the sacred animals of his country."' As soon, 
 indeed, as Christianity ascended the throne, the zeal of those 
 barbarians obeyed the prevailing impulsion ; the cities of 
 Egypt were filled with bishops, and the deserts of Th<.ba?5 
 swarmed with hermits. 
 
 '^^ Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, 1. 2, c. 20, 21, 22, 23, has examined 
 with the most critical accuracy the curious treatise of Philo, which 
 describes the Tlierapeutas. By proving that it was composed as early 
 as the time of Augustus, Basnage has demonstrated, in spite of Euse- 
 bius (1. ii. c. 17) and a crowd of modern Catholics, that the Therapeuta 
 were neither Christians nor monks. It still remains probable thai 
 they changed their name, preserved their manners, adopted some new 
 articles of faith, and gradually became the fathers of the Egyptiau 
 Ascetics. 
 
 "^ See a letter of Hadrian in the Augustan History, p. 245. 
 
 "^ For the succession of Alexandrian bishops, consult Renaudot'« 
 History, p. 24, <fec. This curious fact is preserved by the patriarch 
 Eutychius, AnnaL torn. L p. 334, Vers. Pocock,) and its internal evi- 
 dence would alone bj a sufficient answer to all the objections wliick 
 Bishop Pearson has urged in tlie Vindiciae Ignatianae. 
 
 "^ Ammian. Marcellin. xxii. 16. 
 
 •** Origen contra Celsum, 1 '. p, 40,
 
 A. I). 323.] OF THE roman empire. 681 
 
 Thoulousc, Limoges, Clormont, Tours, aiul Paris, somo scat- 
 tered churches were supported by the devotion of a smal! 
 number of Cliristians.'" Silence is indeed very consistent 
 with devotion ; but as it is seldom compatible with zeal, wo 
 may perceive and lament the languid stiite of Christianity in 
 those provinces which had exchanged the Celtic for the Latin 
 tongue, since they did not, during the three first centiiriei>, 
 give birth to a single ecclesi;\stical writer. From Gaul, which 
 claimed a just preeminence of learning and authority over all 
 the countries on this side of the Alps, the light of the gospel 
 was more faintly reflected on the remote provinces of Spain 
 and Britain ; and if we may credit the vehement assertions of 
 Tertullian, they had already received the first rays of the 
 faith, when he addressed his apology to the magistrates of the 
 emperor Severus.'" But the obscure and imperfect origin 
 of the western churches of Europe has been so negligently 
 recorded, that if we would relate the time and manner of their 
 foundation, we must supply the silence of antiquity by those 
 legends which avarice or superstition long afterwards dictated 
 to the monks in the lazy gloom of their convents.'" Of these 
 holy romances, that of the apostle St. James can alone, by its 
 singular extravagance, deserve to be mentioned. From a 
 peaceful fisherman of the Lake of Gennesareth, he was trans- 
 formed into a valorous knight, Avho charged at the head of the 
 Spanish chivalry in their battles against the Moors. The 
 gravest liistorians have celebrated his exploits ; the miracu- 
 lous shrine of Compostella displayed his power ; and the 
 •word of a military order, assisted by the terrors of the 
 fnauisition, was sufficient to remove every objection of profiine 
 criticism.'"* 
 
 "' Rarae in aliquibus civitatibus ecdesiae, paucorum Christianoriun 
 devotione, resurgercnt. Acta Sinccra, p. 130. Gregory of Tours, 1 
 i. c. 28. Mosheim, p. 207, 419. There is some reason to believe that 
 in the beginning of the fourth century, the extensive dioceses of 
 Liege, of Treves, and of Cologne, composed a .single bishopric, which 
 had been very recently founded. See Memoires de Tillemont, torn 
 vi. part i. p. 43, 411. 
 
 "* The date of TertuUian's Apology is fixed, in a dissertation of 
 Mosheim, to the year 198. 
 
 "* In the fifteenth century, there were few who had either incli 
 nation or courage to question, whether Joseph of Ariinathea f')un(led 
 the monastery of Glastonbury, and whether Dionysius the Areopagita 
 preferred the residence of Paris to that of Athens. 
 
 "* The stupendous metamorphosis was performed in the nintk
 
 tt€2 THE DECLINE AND FALl [A. D. 328. 
 
 The progress of Cliiistiaiiity was not confined to the Roman 
 empire ; and according to the primitive fathers, wlio interpret 
 facts by prophecy, the new religion, within a century aftei 
 the death of its divine Author, had ah'eady visited every part 
 of the globe. "There exists not," says Justin Martyr, "a 
 people, whether Greek or Barbarian, or any other race of 
 men, by whatsoever appellation or manners they may be dis- 
 tinguished, however ignorant of arts or agriculture, whether 
 tliey dwell under tents, or wander about in covered wagons, 
 among whom prayers are not offered up in the name of a 
 crucified Jesus to the Father and Creator of all things,'"" 
 But this splendid exaggeration, which even at present it would 
 be extremely difficult to reconcile with the real state of man- 
 kind, can be considered only as the rash sally of a devout but 
 careless writer, the measure of whose belief was regulated bj" 
 that of his wishes. But neither the belief nor the wishes of 
 the fathers can alter the truth of history. It will still remain 
 an undoubted fact, that the barbarians of Scythia and Ger- 
 many, who afterwards subverted the Roman monarchy, were 
 involved in the dai'kness of paganism ; and that even the con- 
 version of Iberia, of Armenia, or of Ethiopia, was not 
 attempted with any degree of success till the sceptre was in 
 the hands of an orthodox emperor."* Before that time, the 
 various accidents of war and commerce might indeed diflfiibe 
 an imperfect knowledge of the gospel among the tribes of 
 Caledonia,'" and among the borderers of the Rhine, the 
 
 century. See Mariana, (Hist. Hispan. 1. vii. c. 13, torn. i. p. 285, edit. 
 Hag. Com. 1733,) who, in every sense, imitates Livy, and the honest 
 detection of tlie legend of St. James by Dr. Geddes, Miscellanies, voL 
 ii. p. 221. 
 
 '" Justin Martyr, Dialog, cum Tryphon. p. 341. Irenreus adv, 
 Haeres. 1. i. c. 10. TertuUian adv. Jud. c. 7. See Mosheim, p. 203. 
 
 "^ See the fourth century of Mosheim's History of the Church, 
 Many, though very confused circumstances, that relate to the conver- 
 sion of Iberia and Armenia, may be found in Moses of Chorene, 1. ii. c, 
 78—89.* 
 
 "* According to Tertullian, the Christian faith had penetrated iuto 
 parts of Britain inaccessible to the Roman arms. About a century 
 afterwards, Ossian, the son of Fingal, is said to have disputed, in hia 
 
 * Mons. St. Martin has shown that Armenia was the first nation thtt 
 Embraced (Christianity. Memoires sur I'Annenie, vol. i. p. 30G, and notes 
 to Le Beaa. Gibbon, indeed had expressed his intention of withdrawing 
 the words " of Amienia" from the text of future editions. (Vindication, 
 Works, W. .ITT.) He was bitterly taunted by Person for neglecliug o» 
 declinuig to fulfil his promise. Preface to I etters to Travig. — M
 
 A D. 323.] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 68J 
 
 Danube, and Lbe Euphrates. "" Beyond the la.st-nicntioned 
 tiver, Edessa was distinguished by a iirni and early adher- 
 ence to the faith.'*' From Edessa tlie principles of Chris- 
 tianity were easily introduced into the Greek and Syrian cities 
 which obeyed the successors of Artaxerxes ; but they do not 
 appear to have made any deep impression on the minds of 
 the Persians, whose religious system, by the labors of a well- 
 disciplined order of priests, had been constructed with much 
 more art and solidity than the uncertain mythology of Greece 
 and Rome.'*^ 
 
 From this impartial though imperfect survey of the progress 
 of Christianity, it may perhaps seem probable, that the num- 
 ber of its proselytes has been excessively magnified by fear 
 on the one side, and by devotion on the other. According to 
 the irreproachable testimony of Origen,'*' the proportion of 
 the faithful was very inconsiderable, when compared with the 
 multitude of an unbelieving world ; but, as we are left without 
 any distinct information, it is impossible to determine, and it 
 IS difficult even to conjecture, the real numbers of the primi- 
 tive Christians, The most favorable calculation, however, 
 that can be deduced from the examples of Antioch and 
 of Kome, will not permit tis to imagine that more than a 
 twentieth part of the subjects of the empire had enlisted 
 themselves under the banner of the cross before the impor- 
 tant convei-sion of Constantine. But their habits of faith, of 
 zeal, and of union, seemed to multiply their numbers ; and 
 the same causes which contributed to their future increase, 
 
 extreme old age, with one of the foreign missionaries, and the dispute 
 is still extant, in verse, and in the Erse language. See Mr. Macpher 
 Bon's Dissertation on the Antiquity of Ossian's Poems, p. 10. 
 
 '*" The Goths, who ravaged Asia in the reign of Gallienu:s carried 
 away great numbers of captives ; some of whom were Christians, and be- 
 came missionaries. See Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiast. tom. iv. j). 44. 
 
 '*' The legends of Abgarus, fabulous as it is, affords a decisive proot 
 tliat many years before Eusebius wrote liis history, the greatest part 
 of the inhabitants of Edessa had embraced Cliristianity. Their rivals, 
 the citizens of Carrliaj, adhered, on tlie contrary, to the cause of Pa- 
 ganism, as late as tlie sixth century. 
 
 "'^ According to Bardesanes (ap. Euseb. Praepar. Evangel) there 
 were some Christians in Persia before tlie end of the second century. 
 In the time of Constantine (see his epistle to Sapor, Vit. 1. iv. c. ISj 
 they composed a flouri.^liing church. Consult Beausobre, Hist. Cri- 
 tique du Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 180, and the BibUotlieca Orientalia ol 
 Aasemani. 
 
 '•• Origen contra (/clsum, 1. viii. p. 424.
 
 584 THE UECLXNK AND FALL [A- L . 323l 
 
 served to render their actual strength more apparent and more 
 formidable. 
 
 Such is the constitution of civil society, that whilst a few 
 persons are distiiiguished by riches, by honors, and by knowl- 
 edge, the body of the people is condemned to obscurity, igno- 
 rance and poverty. The Christian religion, which addressed 
 itself to the whole human race, must consequently collect a 
 fer greater number of proselytes from the lower than from 
 the superior ranks of life. This innocent and natural circum- 
 stance has been improved into a very odious imputation, which 
 seems to be less strenuously denied by the apologists, than it 
 is urged by the adversaries, of the faith ; that the new sect of 
 Christians was almost entirely composed of the dregs of the 
 populace, of peasants and mechanics, of boys and women, of 
 beggars and slaves, the last of whom might sometimes intro* 
 duce the missionaries into the rich and noble families to which 
 they belonged. These obscure teachers (such was the charge 
 of malice and infidelity) are as mute in public as they are lo- 
 quacious and dogmatical in private. Whilst they cautiously 
 avoid the dangerous encounter of philosophers, they mingle 
 with the rude and illiterate crowd, and insinuate themselves 
 into those minds, whom their age, their sex, or their education, 
 has the best disposed to receive the impression of superstitious 
 terrors."* 
 
 This unfavorable picture, though not devoid of a faint 
 resemblance, betrays, by its dark coloring and distorted fea- 
 tures, the pencil of an enemy. As the humble faith of Christ 
 diffused itself through the world, it was embraced by several 
 persons who derived some consequence from the advantages 
 of nature or fortune. Aristides, who presented an eloquent 
 apology to the emperor Hadrian, was an Athenian philoso- 
 pher.'" Justin Martyr had sought divine knowledge in the 
 schools of Zeno, of Aristotle, of Pythagoras, and of Plato, 
 before he fortunately was accosted by the old man, or rather 
 the angel, who turned his attention to the study of the Jewish 
 prophets."' Clemens of Alexandri.i had acquired much 
 various reading in the Greek, and TertuUian in the Latin, 
 
 '** Minucius Felix, c. 8, with Wowerus's notes. Celsus ap. (>riger\ 
 h iu. p. 138, 142. Julian ap. Cyril. 1. vi. p. 206, edit. Spanheim. 
 
 '*» Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iv. ?. Hieronym. Epist. 83. 
 
 "• Tho story is prettily told in Justin's Dialogues. Tillemont, (Meta 
 Ecclesiast. torn. ii. p. 384,) who relates it after him is sure that the oil 
 laaQ was a disg'iised angel.
 
 A.D. 323.] OF THE ROMAN KMriKE. ffU 
 
 anguage. Julius Africanus and Oiigon jiossesscd a very 
 considerable share of tlio learning of their times; and although 
 vhe style of Cyprian is very different from that of Lactantius, 
 we might almost discover that both those writers had been public 
 teachers of rhetoric. Even the study of phiKjsophy was at 
 length introduced among the Christians, but it w;us not always 
 productive of the most salutary effects ; knowledge was an 
 often the parent of heresy as of devotion, and the description 
 which was designed for the followers of Artemon, may, with 
 equal propriety, be applied to the various sects that resisted 
 the successors of the apostles. " They jiresume to alter the 
 Holy Scriptures, to abandon the ancient rule of faith, and to 
 form their opinions according to the subtile j)recei»ts of logic. 
 The science of the church is neglected for the study of geom- 
 etry, and they lose sight of heaven while they are em]>loyed 
 in measuring the earth. Euclid is perpetually in their hands. 
 Aristotle and Tlieophrastus are the objects of their admiration ; 
 and they express an uncommon reverence for the works of 
 Galen. Their errors are derived from the abuse of the art: 
 and sciences of the infidels, and they corrupt the simplicity of 
 the gospel by the refinements of human reason." '" 
 
 Nor can it be affirmed with truth, that the advantjiges of 
 birth and fortune w^ere always separated from the profession 
 of Christianity. Several Roman citizens were brought before 
 the tribunal of Phny, and he soon discovered, that a great 
 number of persons of evay order of men in Bithynia had 
 •deserted the religion of their ancestors. "* Ilis unsuspected 
 testimony may, in this instance, obtain more credit than the 
 bold challenge of TertuUian, when he addresses himself to 
 the fears as well as the humanity of the proconsul of Africa, 
 by assuring him, that if he persists in his cruel intentions, ho 
 must decimate Carthage, and that he w ill find among the guilty 
 many persons of his own rank, senators and matrons of nobles' 
 
 "' Eusebius, v. 28. It may be hoped, that none, except thr 
 heretics, gave occasion to the complaint of Celsus, (o.p. Origen, 1. ii. u, 
 11,) t)iat the Christians were perpetually correcting and altering then 
 flospels.* 
 
 "* Plin. Epist. X. 97. Fuerunt alii similis amentias, cives Romoni 
 - - - Multi cnini oinnis ajtatis, omnis ordinis, utriusquc Eexii;-, ctiam 
 Vocantm' in ptriculum ct vocabuntur. 
 
 * Origen states in replj', that he knows of none who had altered the Gk» 
 pels except the Marcioniles, the Valciitiiiians, auJ perhaps some tbiloviren 
 «f Lucanua.— M.
 
 5t6 THE DECLINE WD FAU I A. I). 323, 
 
 extraction, and llie friends or relations of his most intimate 
 friervds.'*' It appears, however, that about forty years after- 
 wards the emperor Valerian was persuaded of the truth of this 
 assertion, since in one of his rescripts he evidently supposes, 
 that senators, Roman knights, and ladies of quality, were 
 engaged in the Christian sect"" The church still continued 
 to increase its outward splendor as it lost its mternal purity ; 
 and, in the reign of Diocletian, the palace, the courts of justice, 
 and even the array, concealed a multitude of Christians, who 
 endeavored to reconcile the interests of the present with those 
 o'' a future life. 
 
 And yet these exceptions are either too few in number, or 
 too recent in time, entirely to remove the imputation of igno- 
 rance and obscurity which has been so arrogantly cast on the 
 fii-st proselytes of Christianity.* Instead of employing in our 
 defence the fictions of later ages, it will be more prudent to 
 -convert the occasion of scandal into a subject of edification. 
 Our serious thoughts will suggest to us, that the apostles them- 
 selves were chosen by Providence among the fishermen of 
 Galilee, and that the lower we depress the temporal condition 
 of the first Chi'istians, the more reason we shall find to admire 
 their merit and success. It is incumbent on us diligently to 
 remember, that the kingdom of heaven was promised to the 
 poor in spirit, and that minds afflicted by calamity and the 
 contempt of mankind, cheerfully listen to the divine promise 
 of future happiness ; while, on the contrary, the fortunate are 
 satisfied with the possession of this world ; and the wise 
 abuse in doubt and dispute their vain superiority of reason 
 and knowledge. 
 
 We stand in need of such reflections to comfort us for the 
 
 *' Tertullian ad Scapulum. Yet even his rhetoric rises no nigher 
 Uaan to claim a tonth part of Carthage. 
 '»' Cyprian. Epist. 70. 
 
 • This incomplete enumeration ought to be increased by the names of 
 several Pagans converted at the dawn of Christianity, and who.se conver. 
 rlon weakens tlie reproach v/hicli the historian appears to support. Such 
 «re, the Proconsul Sergius Paulus, converted at Piiphos, (Acts xiii. 7 — I'J ,) 
 Dionysius. member of the Areopagus, converted with several others, at 
 Athens, ( .\cts xvii. 34 ;) several pei'.sons at the court of Nero, (Philip, iv 
 M ;) Erastus, receiver at Corinth, (Rom. xvi. 23 ;) some A.siarchs, (AcU 
 xix. 31 ) As to the philosophers, we may i»ld Tatian, Athenagora.'?, The- 
 ophilns of Antioch, Hegesippus, Melito, Miltiades, Pantsenus, AramcniuB 
 to all distiL-i^^'tihcd for their genius and learmng. — Q.
 
 A. D. 323.J OF THE KO.IAN EMPIRE. 687 
 
 loss of some iilustrioas characters, wliicli in our eyes tnijrlit 
 have seemed the most worthy of the heavenly piesent. The 
 names of Seneca, of the" elder and the younger I'liny, of Tacitus, 
 of Phitarch, of Galen, of the slave Ei)ictetus, and of tlu^ em- 
 peror Marcus Antoninus, adorn the ag(! in which they riourishcd, 
 and exalt the dignity of human nature. They rilli'd with 
 glory their respective stations, cither in active or contempla 
 tive life ; their excellent understandings were improved by 
 etudy ; Philosophy had purified their minds from the preju 
 dices of the popular superstition ; and their days were sjwnt 
 in the pursuit of tiuth and the practice of virtue. Yet all 
 these sages (it is no less an object of suri)rise than of concern) 
 overlooked or rejected the perfection of the Christian system. 
 Their language or their silence equallv discover their con- 
 tempt for the growing sect, which in their time had diffused 
 itself over the Roman empire. Those among them who con- 
 descended to mention the Christians, consider them only as 
 obstinate and perverse enthusiasts, who exacted an implicit 
 submission to their mysterious doctrines, without being able 
 to produce a single argument that could engage the attention 
 of men of sense and learning."" 
 
 It is at least doubtful whether any of these philosophers 
 perused the apologies * which the primitive Christians repeat- 
 edly published in behalf of themselves and of their religion ; 
 but it is much to be lamented that such a cause was not de- 
 fended by abler advocates. They expose with sujterHuous 
 wit and eloquence the extravagance of Polytheism. They 
 
 "* Dr. Lardncr, in his first and second volumes of Jewish an(! 
 Christian testimonies, collects and illustrates those of Pliny the 
 younger, of Tacitus, of Galen, of Marcus Antoninus, and perhaps of 
 Epictetus, (for if, is doubtful wluither that philosopher means to speak 
 of the Christians.) The new sect is totally unnoticed by Seneca, the 
 elder Pliny, and Plutarch. 
 
 • The emperors Hadrian, Antonirus, &c.. road with astonishinout the 
 apologies of Justin Martjr, of Aristidcs, of MoUto, &c. (Soc St. Hieron. 
 ad niag. oral. Orosius, Iviii. c. 13.) JCuscbius says expressly, lliat tlie 
 cause of Christianity was defended before the senate, in a very elegajil 
 discourse, by ApoUonius the Martyr. ri,<AXti XiTupwj htrcvaaiTui mv ''ivnirruS, 
 rat X6yov iir't rfj; avyKXi'iroti /?)vX/J5 atTncriivTos, ^oyiotriTnf i^ip »;> iiiaprvplt 
 »icr£(of ini vai>T<,>v Trapucxij"' dToXuyian. — G. 
 
 Gibbon, in bis severer spirit of criticism, may have questioned ttM 
 tathority of Jerome and Euscbins. Tliero arc some difticuhies aboai 
 Apollouins, which Hoiniclion (note in loc. Ensobii) would solve, by sappo» 
 lag him tc have been, as Jerome states, a senator. — M.
 
 688 TtiM DECLINE AND FALL [A. D. 323, 
 
 interest our compassion by displaying the innocence nxA suf 
 ferings of their injured brethren. But when they would de- 
 monstrate the divine origin of Christianity, they insist much 
 more strongly on the predictions which announced, than on the 
 miracles wliicli accompanied, the appearance of the Mes- 
 siah. Their favorite argument might serve to edify a Chris- 
 tian or to convert a Jew, since both the one and the other ac- 
 knowledge the authority of those prophecies, and both are 
 obliged, with devout reverence, to search for their sense and 
 their accomplishment. But this mode of persuasion loses 
 much of its weight and influence, when it is addressed to 
 those who neither understand nor respect the Mosaic dispen- 
 sation and the prophetic style.'** In the unskilful hands of 
 Justin and of the succeeding apologists, the sublime meaning 
 of the Hebrew oracles evaporates in distant types, affected 
 conceits, and cold allegories ; and even their authenticity was 
 rendered suspicious to an unenlightened Gentile, by the mix- 
 ture of pious forgeries, which, under the names of Orpheus, 
 Hermes, and the Sibyls,"" were obtruded on him as of equal 
 value with the genuine inspirations of Heaven. The adop 
 tion of fraud and sophistry in the defence of revelation too 
 often reminds us of the injudicious conduct of those poets who 
 load their invulnerable heroes with a useless weight of cum- 
 bersome and brittle armor. 
 
 But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan 
 and philosophic world, to those evidences which were repre- 
 sented by the hand of Omnii)otence, not to their reason, but 
 to their senses ? Dnring the age of Christ, of his apostle^, 
 and of their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached 
 was confirmed by innumerable pi-odigies. The lame walked, 
 
 "'■' If the famous prophecy of the Seventy Weeks had been alleged 
 to a Roman philosopher, would he not have replied in the words of 
 Cicero, " Qua3 tandem ista auguratio est, annorum potius quam aut 
 mensium aut dierum?" De Divinatione, ii. 30. Observe with what 
 irreverence Lucian, (in Alexandro, c. 13,) and his friend Celsus up. 
 Origen, (1. vii. p. 327,) express themselves concerning the Hebrew 
 prophets 
 
 ''•'' The philosophers who derided the more ancient predictions of 
 the Sibyls, would easily have detected the Jewish and Christian 
 forgeries, which have been so triumjihantly quoted by the fathers, 
 from Justin Martyr to Lactantius. When the Sibylline verses had 
 performed their appointed task, they, like the system "f the millenni 
 um, were quietly laid aside. The Christian Sybil had unluckily fixed 
 the luin of Rome for the year 195, A. U. C. 948.
 
 A.D. 323.] OK 'lUE KOMAN EMPIRE. 58* 
 
 the blind snw, the sick were healod, tho de.ul wore raised, 
 daemons were expelled, and the laws of Nature were froqiiontly 
 suspended for the benefit of the church. But the sages of 
 Greece and Rome turned aside from the awful spectacle, and, 
 pursuing the ordinary occupations of life and study, a[)peared 
 unconscious of any alterations in the moral or j>hysical gov- 
 Hi'iiment of tha world. Under the reign of Tiberius, the 
 whole earth,"* or at least a celebrated province of the lloman 
 duipire,"" w;is involved in a preternatural darkness of three 
 hours. Even this miraculous event, which ought to have 
 excited the wonder, the curiosity, and the devotion of mankind, 
 passed without notice in an age of science and history.'" It 
 
 "* The fathers, as they are drawn out in battle array by Dom 
 Oahnet, (Dissertations sur la Bible, torn. iii. p. 295 — 308, ) seem tr 
 cover the whole earth with darkness, in wliich they aie followed by 
 most of the moderns. 
 
 ■"^ Origen ad Matth. c. 27, and a few modern critics, Beza, L«» 
 Clerc, Lardner, ifec, are desirous of confining it to the land of Judea. 
 
 198 Yhe celebrated passage of Phlegon is now wisely abandoned. 
 When Tertullian assures the Pagans that the mention of the prodigy 
 is found in Arcanis (not Archivis) vestris, (see his Apology, c. 21,) ho 
 probably appeals to the Sibylline verses, which relate it exactly in the 
 words of the Gospel.* 
 
 * According to some learned theologians a misunderstanding of ihc lexl 
 in the Gospel has given rise to this mistake, which has employed and 
 wearied so many laborious commentators, though Origen iiad already taken 
 the pains to preinform them. The expression okotos iycvcTo does not mean, 
 .ney assert, an eclipse, but any kind of ob.scurity occasioned in tlie atmos 
 phere, whether by clouds or any other cause. As this obscuration of the sun 
 rarely took place in Palestine, where in the middle of April the sky wai 
 usually clear, it assumed, in the eyes of tlie .Jews and Christians, an import- 
 ance conformable to the received notion, that llic sun (concealed at midday 
 was a sinister presage. See Amos viii. 9, 10. The word <TKdTos is often 
 taken in this sense by contemporary writers ; tlie Apocalypse says, eaKorli'dn 
 Ijhui, the sun was concealed, when speaking of an obscuration caused by 
 smoke and dust. (Revel, ix. 2.) Moreover, the Hebrew word opbal, which 
 in the LXX. answers to the Greek ckotos, signiiies any darkness; and ihe 
 Evangelists, who have modelled the sense of their expressions by thirsc of 
 the LXX., must have taken it in the same latitude. This darkening of the 
 sky usually precedes earthquakes. (Matt, xxvii. .'Jl.) The Heathen authors 
 furtish us a number of examples, of n-liich a miraculous explanation was 
 given at the time. See Ovid. ii. v. 33, 1. xv. v. 785. Pliny, Hist. Nat. 1. ii.c 
 30. Wetstein has collected all these examples in his edition of the New 
 Testament. 
 
 We need not, then, be astonislied at the silence of the Pagan authors coc- 
 ^ming a plicuomenon which diil not extend beyond Jerusalem, and which 
 tn^glit have nothing contrary to the laws of nature ; although the Christiani 
 and the Jews may have regarded it as a sinister presai:c'. See Michaelia 
 Notes 0.1 New Testament, v. 1. p. 290. Paulas, Coiumentaty on New Tent* 
 meat, iii. p. ""H). — G
 
 S90 DB\M.INE AND FALL OP THK ROMAN EMFIIiE. [A.D. 823 
 
 happened during the lifetime of Seneca and the elder ±*liny, 
 who must have experienced the immediate effects, or received 
 the earliest intelligence, of the prodigy. Each of these 
 philosophers, in a laborious woit<, has recorded all the great 
 phenomena of Nature, earthquakes, meteors, comets, and 
 Sclipses, which his indefatigable curiosity could collect.^" Both 
 Ihe one and the other have omitted to mention the greatest 
 j)henomenon to which the mortal eye has been witness since 
 the creation of the globe. A. distinct chapter of Pliny "*i3 
 designed for eclipses of an extraordinary nature and unusuaJ 
 duration ; but he contents himself with describing the singular 
 defect of light which followed the murder of Caesar, when, 
 during the greatest part of a year, the orb of the sun appeared 
 pale and without splendor. The season of obscurity, which 
 Npannot surely be compared with the preternatural darkness of 
 the Passion, had been already celebrated by most of the poets '" 
 and historians of that memorable age.""" 
 
 "^ Seneca, Quiest. Natur. L L 15, vi. 1. vii. 17. Plin. Hist N"atur. 
 
 ''•"» Plin. Hist. Natur. ii. ,30. 
 
 i»3 Virgil. Georgic. L 466. TibuUus, 1. i. Eleg. v. ver. 75. Ovid 
 Metamorph. xv. 782. Lucan. Pharsal. i. 540. The last of these pocte 
 places this prodigy before the civil war. 
 
 *'"' See a public epistle of M. Antony in Joseph. Antiquit. xiv. 12. 
 Piutarch in Caesar, p. 471. Appian. Bell. Civil. 1. iv. Dion Caise'\» 
 L xlv. p. 431. Julius Obsequens, c. 128. H>s little treatise p» ut 
 Abetfftct of Livy'H prodigies. 
 
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