 CHAPTER X I 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 discharged themselves into the Baristianus, and it dispersed with large and leafy forests of oak. The plenty of game and fish, the innumerable beehives deposited in the hollow of old trees, and in the cavities of rock, and forming, even in that rude age, a valuable branch of commerce, the size of the cattle, the temperature of the air, the aptness of the soil for every species of grain, and the luxurancy 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 raping. The Scythian hordes, which, towards the east, bordered on the new settlements of the Goths, presented nothing to their arms, except the doubtful chance of an unprofitable victory. But the prospect of the Roman territories was far more alluring, and the fields of Dachia were covered with rich harvests, sewn by the hands of an industrious, and exposed to be gathered by those of a warlike people. It is probable that the conquests of Tarjan, maintained by his successors, less for any real advantage than for idle dignity, had contributed to weaken the empire on that side. The new and unsettled province of Dachia was neither strong enough to resist, nor rich enough to satiate, the rapaciousness of the barbarians. As long as the remote banks of the Nyester were considered as the boundary of the Roman power, the fortifications of the lower Danube were more carelessly guarded, and the inhabitants of Mercia lived in supine security, fondly conceiving themselves at an inaccessible distance from any barbarian invaders. The eruptions of the Goths, under the reign of Philip, fatally convinced them of their mistake. Tarjan, or leader of that fierce nation, traversed with contempt the province of Dachia, and passed both the Nyester and the Danube, without encountering any opposition capable of retarding his progress. The relaxed discipline of the Roman troops betrayed the most important posts where they were stationed, and the fear of deserved impunishment induced great numbers of them to enlist under the Gothic standard. The various multitude of barbarians appeared, at length, under the walls of the Marcianopolis, a city built by Tarjan in honor of his sister, and at that time the capital of the second Mercia. The inhabitants consented to ransom their lives and property by the payment of a large sum of money, and the invaders retreated back into their deserts, animated rather than satisfied, with the first success of their arms against an opulent but feeble country. Intelligence was soon transmitted to the Emperor Decius, that Canava, 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 Mercia, whilst the main body of the army, consisting of 70,000 Germans and summations, a force equal to the most daring achievements, required the presence of the Roman monarch, and the exhortation of military power. Decius found the Goths engaged before Nicopolis, one of the many monuments of Tarjan's victories. On his approach they raised a siege, but with a design only of marching away to a conquest of greater importance, the siege of Philippopolis, a city of Thrace founded by the father of Alexander, near the foot of Mount Hamas. Decius followed them through a difficult country, and by forced marches, but when he imagined himself at a considerable distance from the rear of the Goths, Canava turned with rapid fury on his pursuers. The camp of the Romans was surprised and pillaged, and for the first time their Emperor fled in disorder before a troop of half-armed barbarians. After a long resistance, Philippopolis, destitute of Saka, was taken by storm. A hundred thousand persons are reported to have been massacred in the sack of the great city. Many prisoners of consequence became a valuable accession to the spoil, and Prisacus, 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 Decius to revive the courage, restore the discipline, and recruit the numbers of his troops. He intercepted several parties of Capari, and other Germans, who were hastening to share the victory of their countrymen, entrusted 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 return of fortune, he anxiously waited for an opportunity to retrieve, by a great and decisive blow, his own glory and that of the Roman arms. At the same time when Decius was struggling with the violence of the Tempest, his mind, calm and deliberate amidst the turmoil of war, investigated the more general causes, but since the age of the Antononese had so impetuously urged the decline of the Roman greatness, he soon discovered that it was impossible to replace that greatness on a permanent basis, without restoring public virtue, ancient principles and manners, and the oppressed majesty of the law. To execute this noble but arduous design, he first resolved to revive the obsolete office of censor, an office which, as long as it had subsisted in its pristine integrity, had so much contributed to the perpetuity of the state, till it was usurped and gradually neglected by the Caesars. Conscious that the favour of the sovereign may confer power, but that the esteem of the people can alone bestow authority, he submitted the choice of the censor to the unbiased voice of the Senate. By their unanimous vote, or rather acclimations, Valerian, who was after his emperor, and who then served with the distinction in the army of Dekius, was declared the most worthy of that exalted honour. As soon as the decree of the Senate was transmitted to the emperor, he assembled a great council in his camp, and before the investiture of the censor-elect, he appraised him with the difficulty and importance of his great office. Happy Valerian! said the prince to his distinguished subject. Happy in the general approbation of the Senate and of the Roman Republic! accept the censorship of mankind, and judge of our manners. You will select those who deserve to continue members of the Senate. You will restore the equestrian order to its ancient splendour. You will improve the revenue, yet moderate the public burdens. You will distinguish into regular classes the various and infinite multitudes of citizens, and accurately view the military's 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 exempt, excepting only the ordinary councils, the prefect of the city, the king of the sacrifices, and, as long as she preserves her chastise in violet, the elders of the vestial virgins. Even these few, who may not dread the severity, will anxiously solicit the esteem of the Roman censor. A magistrate, invested with such extensive powers, would have appeared not so much the minister as the colleague of his sovereign. Injustly dreaded an elevation so full of envy and a suspicion. He modestly argued the alarming greatness of the trust, his own insufficiency, and in the incurable corruption of the times. He artfully insinuated that the office of censor was inseparable from the imperial dignity, and that the feeble hands of a subject were unequal to the support of such an immense weight of cares and of power. The approaching event of war soon put an end to the prosecution of a project so specious, but so impracticable. And whilst it preserved Valerian from the danger, saved the emperor Decius from the disappointment, which would most probably have attended it. A censor may maintain he can never restore the morals of a state. It is impossible for such a magistrate to exert his authority with benefit, or even with effect, unless he is supported by a quick sense of honour and virtue in the minds of the people, by a decent reverence for the public opinion, and by a train of useful prejudices combating on the side of national manners. In a period when these principles are annihilated, the censorial jurisdiction must either sink into empty pageantry, or be converted into a partial instrument of exaceous 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 life. The Goths were now on every side, surrounded and pursued by the Roman arms. The flower of their troops had perished in the long siege of Philippopolis, and the exhausted country could no longer afford substance for the remaining multitude of licentious barbarians. Based 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 to the emperor, confident of victory, and resolving, by the chastisement of these invaders, to strike a solitary terror into the nations of the north, refused to listen to any terms of accommodation, the high spirited barbarians preferred to death to slavery. An obscure town of Macier, called Forum, Tereboni, 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 ob-mor-as. In the beginning of the action, the son of Decius, a youth of the fairest hopes, and already associated to the honors of the purple, was slain by an arrow in the sight of his afflicted father, who, summoning all his fortitude, admonished the dismayed troops, that the loss of a single soldier was of little importance to the republic. The conflict was terrible. It was the combat of despair against grief and rage. The first line of the Goths, at length, gave way in disorder. The second, advancing to sustain it, shared its fate. And the third only remained in tire, prepared to dispute the passage of the mor-as, 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 an advance. Their armor heavy, the waters deep, nor could they wield in that uneasy situation their weighty javelins. The barbarians, on the contrary, were enured to encounter in the bogs, their persons tall, their spears long, such as could wound at a distance. In this mor-as the Roman army, after an ineffectual struggle, was irrevocably lost. Nor could the body of the emperor ever be found. Such was the fate of Decius in the fiftieth year of his age. An accomplished prince, active in war and affable in peace, who, together with his son, had deserved to be compared, both in life and death, with the brightest examples of ancient virtue. This fatal blow humbled, for a very little time, the insolence of the legions. They appeared to have patiently expected, and submissibly obeyed, the decree of the senate which regulated the succession to the throne. From a just regard for the memory of Decius, the imperial title was conferred on Hoster Lianus, his only surviving son, but an equal rank, with more effectual power, was granted to Gallus, whose experience and ability seemed equal to the great trust of guardian, to the young prince and the distressed empire. The first care of the new emperor was to deliver the Illarian provinces from the intolerable weight of the victorious Goths. He consented to leave in their hands the rich fruits of their invasion, an immense booty, and what was still more disgraceful, a great number of prisoners of the highest merit and quality. He plentifully supplied their camp with every conveniency that could assuage their angry spirits, or facilitate their so much wishful departure, and he even promised to pay them annually a large sum of gold, on condition they should never afterwards infest the Roman territories by their incursions. In the age of the Scipius, the most opulent kings of the earth, who caught the protection of the virtuous commonwealth, were gratified with such trifling presence 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 sintered in Rome, the emperors displayed their greatness and even their policy by the regular exercise of a steady and moderate liberality towards the allies of the state. They relieved the poverty of the barbarians, honoured their merit, and recompensed their fidelity. These voluntary marks of bounty were understood to flow, not from their fears, but merely from the generosity or the gratitude of the Romans. And whilst presents and subsidies were liberally distributed among friends and supplyants, they were sternly refused to such as claim them as a debt. But this stipulation of an annual payment to a victorious enemy appeared without disguise in the light of an ignominious tribute. The minds of the Romans were not yet accustomed to accept such unequal laws from a tribe of barbarians, and the prince, who by a necessary concession had probably saved his country, became the object of general contempt in aversion. The death of Felicitianus, though it happened in the midst of a raging pestilence, was interpreted as the personal crime of gallus, and even the defeat of the later emperor was ascribed by the voice of suspicion to the perfidious councils 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 apprehensions of war were removed, the infamy of the peace was more deeply and more sensibly felt. But the Romans were irritated to a still higher degree, when they discovered that they had not even secured their oppose, though at the expense of their honour. 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 obligations of their brethren, spread devastation through the Illarian 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 Emilia Annas, governor of Pannonia and Macea, who rallied the scattered forces and revived the fainting spirits of the troops. The barbarians were unexpectedly attacked, rooted, chased, and pursued beyond the Danube. The victorious leader distributed, as a denative, 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 approach of his aspiring new talent. He advanced to meet him as far as the plains of Spoleto. When the armies came in sight of each other, the soldiers of Gallus compared the ignominious conduct of their sovereign with the glory of his rival. They admired the valor of Emilia Annas. They were attracted by his liberality, for he offered a considerable increase of pay to all deserters. The murder of Gallus, and of his son Volassianus, put an end to the civil war, and the Senate gave a legal sanction to the rights of conquest. The letters of Emilia Annas to that assembly displayed a mixture of moderation and vanity. He assured them that he should resign to their wisdom the civil administration, and contenting himself with the quality of their general would in a short time assert the glory of Rome, and deliver the empire from all the barbarians, both of the north and of the east. His pride was flattered by the applause of the Senate, and medals are still exanct, 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 fulfill these splendid promises. Less than four months intervened between his victory and his fall. He had vanquished Gallus. He sank under the weight of a competitor more formidable than Gallus. That unfortunate prince had sent Volerian, already distinguished by the honourable title of censor, to bring the legions of Gaul and Germany to his aid. Volerian executed that commission with zeal and fidelity, and as he arrived too late to save his sovereign, he resolved to avenge him. The troops of Amelianus, 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 embroidered their hands in the blood of a prince, who so lately had been the object of their partial choice. The guilt was theirs, but the advantage of it was Volerians, who obtained the possession of the throne by the means indeed of a civil war, but with a degree of innocence singular in that age of revolutions, since he owed neither gratitude nor allegiance to his predecessor whom he dethroned. Volerian was about sixty years of age when he was invested with the purple, not by the caprice of the populace or the clamours of the army, but by the unanimous voice of the Roman world. In his gradual assent through the honors of the state, he had deserved the favour of virtuous 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 relived at liberty to choose a master, their choice would most assuredly have fallen on Volerian. Perhaps the merit of this emperor was inadequate to his reputation. Perhaps his abilities, or at least his spirit, were affected by the languour 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 censure 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, Volerian, consulting only the dictates of affection or vanity, immediately invested with the supreme honours, his son, Galienus, a youth whose effeminate vices had been hithero-concealed by the obscurity of a private station. The joint government of the father and the son subsisted about seven, and the sole administration of Galien continued about eight years. But the whole period was one uninterrupted series of confusion and calamity. As the Roman Empire was at the same time, on every side, attacked by the blind fury of foreign invaders, and the wild ambition of domestic usurpers, we shall consult order and perspicuity by pursuing not so much the doubtful arrangement of dates as the more natural distribution of subjects. The most dangerous enemies of Rome, during the reigns of Volerian and Galienus, were, one, the Franks, two, the Alemany, three, the Goths, and four, the Persians. Under these general appellations, we may comprehend the adventures of less considerable tribes, whose obscure and dunk-hoof names would only serve to repress the memory and perplex the attention of the reader. CHAPTER X As the prosperity of the Franks composed one of the greatest and most enlightened nations of Europe, the powers of learning and ingenuity had been exhausted in the discovery of their unlettered ancestors. To the tales of credulity have succeeded the systems of fancy. Every passage has been sifted, every spot has been surveyed, that might possibly reveal some faint traces of their origin. It has been supposed that Pannonia, 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 immigrants of ideal conquerors, have acquiesced in a sentiment whose simplicity persuades us of its truth. They suppose that about the year 240 a new confederacy was formed under the name of Franks, by the old inhabitants of the lower Rhine and the Weiser. The present circle of Westphalia, the land-graviate of Hesse, and the duchies of Brunswick and Luneburg, were the ancient of the Chorsi, who, in their inaccessible morassus, defied the Roman arms, of the Chorsi, proud of the fame of Arminius, of the Catai, formidable by their firm and intrepid infantry, and of several other tribes of inferior power and renown. The love of liberty was the ruling passion of these Germans, the enjoyment of it their best treasure. The words that expressed that enjoyment, the most pleasing to the ear, they deserved, they assumed, they maintained the honourable appellation of Franks, or freemen, which concealed, though it did not extinguish, the peculiar names of the several states of the confederacy. Tassid consent and mutual advantage dictated the first laws of the union. It was gradually cemented by habit and experience. The League of the Franks may admit of some comparison with the Helvetic body, in which every canton, retaining its independent sovereignty, consults with its brethren in the common cause, without acknowledging the authority of any supreme head, or representative assembly. 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 inconsistent spirit, the thirst of rapin, and a disregard to the most solemn treaties, was graced to 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 Galeanus, the heir and colleague of imperial power. Whilst that prince, and his infant son Salonis, 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 Illarion, was ever faithful to that great interests of the monarchy. The treacherous language of panagerics and meddles darkly announces a long series of victories. Trophies and titles attest, if such evidence can attest, the fame of Posthumus, who was repeatedly styled the conqueror of the Germans and the saviour of Gaul. But a single fact, the only one indeed of which we have any distinct knowledge, erases in a great measure these monuments of vanity and adulation. The Rhine, though dignified with the title of safeguard of the provinces, was an imperfect barrier against the daring spirit of enterprise with which the Franks were actuated. Their rapid devastation stretched from the river to the foot of the Pyrenees, nor were they stopped by these mountains. Spain, which had never dreaded, was unable to resist the inroads of the Germans. During twelve years the greatest part of the Rhine of Galienas, that opulent country was the fieta 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 Oresis, 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 to fall from a new world, as their name, manners, and complexion were equally unknown on the coast of Africa. Two. In that part of Upper Saxony, beyond the Elbe, which is at present called the Marquiset of Lusca. There existed in ancient times a sacred wood, the awful seed of the superstition of the Suave. None were permitted to enter the holy precincts, without confessing, by the servile bonds and suppliant posture, the immediate presence of the sovereign deity. Patriotism contributed, as well as devotion, to consecrate the sunny world, or wood of the Semnons. It was universally believed that the nation had received its first existence on that sacred spot. At stated periods, the numerous tribes who gloried in the Suave blood, resorted thither by their ambassadors, and the memory of their common extraction was perpetrated by barbaric rights and human sacrifices. The wide extended name of the Suave filled the interior countries of Germany, from the banks of the Euda to those of the Danube. They were distinguished from the other Germans by their peculiar mode of dressing their long hair, which they gathered into a rude knot on the crown of their head, and they delighted in an ornament that showed their ranks more lofty and terrible in the eyes of the enemy. Jealous as the Germans were of military renown, they all confessed to the superior valor of the Suave, and to the tribes of the Espetis and Tenkateri, who, with the vast army, encountered the dictator Caesar, declared that they esteemed not a disgrace to a fled before a people, to whose arms the immortal gods themselves were unequal. In the reign of the Emperor Caracalla, an innumerable swarm of survey appeared on the banks of the main, and in the neighbourhood of the Roman provinces, in quest either of food, of plunder, or of glory. The hasty army of volunteers gradually coalesced into a great and permanent nation, and as it was composed from so many different tribes, assumed the name of Olmeni, or Olmen, to denote at once their various lineage and their common bravery. The latter was soon felt by the Romans in many a hostile in-road. The Olmeni fought chiefly on horseback, but their cavalry was rendered still more formidable by a mixture of light and poultry, selected from the bravest and most active of the youth, whom frequent exercise had neared to accompany the horsemen in the longest march, with 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 frontiers of the empire, they increased to the general disorder that ensued after the death of Dekius. 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 Olmeni penetrated across the Danube, and through the reattain Alps, into the plains of Lombardy. Just as far as Ravenna, and displayed the victorious banners of barbarians almost in sight of Rome. The insults and danger rekindled in the senate some sparks of their ancient virtue. Both the emperors were engaged in far distant wars, Vilarian in the east, and Gallienus on the Rhine. All the hopes and resources of the Romans were in themselves. In this emergency, the senators resumed the defiance of the Republic, drew out the Priatorian guards who had been left to garrison the capital, and filled up their numbers by enlisting into the public service the stoutest and most willing of the plebeians. The Almeni, 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 young 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 public from domestic tyranny as well as from foreign invasion, his timid ingratitude was published to his subjects in an edict which prohibited the senators from exercising any military employment, and even from approaching the camps of the legions. But his fears were groundless. The rich and luxurious nobles, sinking into their natural character, accepted as a favour, this disgraceful exemption from military service, and as long as they were indulged in the enjoyment of their baths, their theatres, and their villas, they cheerfully resigned the more dangerous cares of the empire to the rough hands of peasants and soldiers. Another invasion of the Almeni, of a more formidable aspect, but more glorious event, is mentioned by a writer of the lower empire. Three hundred thousand are said to have been vanquished in a battle near Milan, by Gallienus in person, at the head of only ten thousand Romans. We may, however, with great probability, ascribe this incredible victory, either to the credulity of the historian, or to some exaggerated dexploits of one of the emperor's lieutenants. It was by arms of a very different nature that Gallienus endeavoured to protect Italy from the fury of the Germans. He espoused Pippa, the daughter of a king of the Marco Mani, a Suovic tribe, which was often confounded with the Almeni in their wars and conquests. To the father, as the price of his alliance, he granted an ample settlement in Pannonia. The native charms of unpolished beauty seemed to have fixed the daughter in the affections of the inconsistent emperor, and the bands of policy were more firmly connected by those of love. But the haughty prejudice of Rome still refused the name of marriage to the profane mixture of a citizen and a barbarian, and has stigmatised the German princess with the appropriate title of concubine of Gallienus. Three. We have already traced the immigration of the Goths from Scandinavia, or at least from Prussia, to the mouth of the Baratheonis, and to follow to their victorious arms from the Baratheonis 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 Sumatians, but it was defended by the Romans with more than usual firmness and success. The provinces that were the seat of war recruited the armies of Rome with an inexhaustible supply of hardy soldiers, and more than one of these Valerian peasants attained the station and displayed the abilities of a general. Though flying parties of the barbarians, who incessantly hovered on the banks of the Danube, penetrated sometimes to the confines of Italy and Macedonia, their progress was commonly checked, or their return intercepted, by the imperial lieutenants. 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 Uxin. To the south of that inland sea was 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 Baratheonis are only sixty miles distant, from the narrow entrance of the peninsula of Crim Tartary, known to the ancients under the name of Cursonys Taurica. On that, in his pitiful shore, Euripides, embellishing with his squizzet art the tales of antiquity, has placed the scene of one of his most affecting tragedies. The bloody sacrifices of Diana, the arrival of Oristies and Pallades, and the triumph of virtue and religion over savage fierceness, served to represent an historical truth, that the Tauri, the original inhabitants of the peninsula, were in some degree reclaimed from their brutal manners by a gradual intercourse with the Grecian colonies, which settled along the maritime coast. The little kingdom of Bosphorus, whose capital was situated on the Straits, through which the Miotis communicates itself to the Uxin, was composed of degenerate Greeks and half-civilized barbarians. It subsisted, as an independent state, from the time of the Philippinesian War, was, at last, swallowed up by the ambition of Mithridates, 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 presence, by arms, and by a slight fortification drawn across the Isthmus, they effectually guarded against the roving plunderers of Sermatia. The axis of a country, which, from its peculiar situation and convenient harbours, commanded the Uxin Sea and Asia Minor. As long as a sceptre was possessed by a lineal succession of kings, they acquitted themselves of their important charge with vigilance and success, domestic factions and the fears, or private interest, of obscure observers who seized on the vacant throne, admitted the Goths into the heart of Bosphorus. With the acquisition of a superfluous waste of fertile soil, the conquerors obtained the command of a naval force, sufficient to transport their armies to the coast of Asia. The ships used in the navigation of the Uxin were of very singular construction. There were slight, flat-bottomed barks framed of timber only, without the least mixture of iron, and occasionally covered with a shelving-roof, on the appearance of a tempest. In these floating houses, the Goths carelessly trusted themselves to the mercy of an unknown sea, under the conduct of sailors pressed into the surface, and whose skill and fidelity were equally suspicious, but the hopes of plunder had banished every idea of danger, and natural fearlessness of temper, supplied in their minds the more rational confidence, which is the just result of knowledge and experience. Warriors of such a daring spirit must have often murmured against the cowardice of their guides, who required the strongest assurances of a settled calm before they would venture to embark, and would scarcely ever be tempted to lose sight of the land. Such at least is the practice of the modern Turks, and they are probably not inferior in the art of navigation to the ancient inhabitants of Borispheus. The fleet of Goths leaving the coast of Socasa on the left hand first appeared before Pytus, the utmost limits of the Roman provinces, a city provided with a convenient port and fortified with a strong wall. Here they met with the resistance more obstinate than they had reason to expect from the feeble garrison of a distant fortress. They were repulsed, and their disappointment seemed to diminish the terror of the Gothic name. As long as Circassianus, an offer 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 Pytius, and by the destruction of that city obliterated the memory of their former disgrace. Circling round the eastern extremity of the Yuxin Sea, the navigation from Pytius to Trabzon is about 300 miles. The course of the Goths carried them inside 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 Fassis. Trabzon, celebrated in the retreat of the Ten Thousand as an ancient colony of Greeks, derived its wealth and splendour from the magnificence of the Emperor Hadrian, who had constructed an artificial port on a coast left destitute by nature of secure harbours. The city was large and populous. A double enclosure of walls seemed to defy the fury of the Goths, and the usual garrison had been strengthened by a reinforcement of ten thousand men. But there are not any advantages capable of supplying the absence of discipline and vigilance. The numerous garrison of Trabzon, dissolved in riot and luxury, disdained to guard their impregnable fortifications. The Goths soon discovered the supine negligence of the besieged, erected a lofty parlour Fassins, ascended the walls in the silence of the night, and entered the defenceless city sought in hand. A general massacre of the people ensued, whilst the affrighted soldiers escaped through the opposite gates of the town. The most holy temples and the most splendid edifices were involved in a common destruction. The booty that fell into the hands of the Goths was immense. The wealth of the adjacent countries had been deposited in Tresband as in a secure place of refuge. The number of captives was incredible, as the victorious barbarians ranged without opposition through the extensive province of Pontus. The rich spoils of Tresband filled a great fleet of ships that had been found in the port. The robust youth of the sea coast were chained to the oar, and the Goths, satisfied with the success of their first naval expedition, returned in triumph to their near establishment in the kingdom of Bosphorus. The second expedition of the Goths was undertaken with greater powers of men and ships, but they steered a different course, and disdaining the exhausted provinces of Pontus, followed the western coast of the Yuxin, just before the wide mouth of the Bruce the Annus, the Niesta and the Danube, and increasing their fleet by the capture of a great number of fishing-barks, they approached the narrow outlet through which the Yuxin Sea pours its waters into the Mediterranean, and divides the continents of Europe and Asia. The garrison of Calcedon was encamped in the temple of Jupiter Ureus, on a promontory that commanded the entrance of the Strait, and so inconsiderable were the dreaded invasions of the barbarians, that this body of troops surpassed in number the Gothic army. But it was in numbers alone that they surpassed it. They deserted, with precipitation, their advantageous post, and abandoned the town of Calcedon, most plentifully stored with arms and money, to the discretion of the conquerors. Whilst they hesitated whether they should prefer the sea, or land of 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 Calcedon, directed the resistless attack, and partook of the booty. For the Goths had learned sufficient policy to reward the traitor whom they detested. Nice, Prussia, Apamia, Caus, cities that had sometimes rivalled or intimidated the splendor of Nicomedia, were involved in the same calamity, which, in a few weeks, raged without control through the whole province of Bithynia. Three hundred years of peace, enjoyed by the soft inhabitants of Asia, had abolished the excise 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 resolved for the construction of baths, temples, and theatres. When the city of Sezekus withstood the utmost effort of Mithridates, it was distinguished by wise laws, a naval power of two hundred galleys, and three arsenals, of arms, of military engines, and of corn. It was still the seat of wealth and luxury, but of its ancient strength nothing remained except the situation, in a little island off the propuntus, connected with the continent of Asia only by two bridges. From the recent sack of Prussia, the Goths advanced within eighteen miles of the city, which they had devoted to destruction, but the ruin of Sezekus was delayed by a fortunate accident. The season was rainy, and the lake Apollonatus, the reservoir of all springs of Mount Olympus, rose to an uncommon height. The little river of Rhindakus, which issued from the lake, swelled into a broad and rapid stream, and stopped the progress of the Goths. There a treat to the maritime city of Heraclea, where the fleet had probably been stationed, was attended by a long train of wagons laden with the spoils of Bithania, and was marked by the flames of Nice and Nicomedia, which they wantedly 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 autumn equinox summoned them to hasten their return. To navigate the Yuxin before the month of May, or after that of September, is esteemed by the modern Turks, the most unquestionable instance of rashness and folly. When we are informed that the third fleet, equipped by the Goths in the port of Bosphorus, consisted of five hundred sails of ships, our ready imagination instantly computes and multiplies the formidable armament. But, as we are assured by the judicious starbow, that the piratical vessels used by the barbarians of Pontus and the Lesser Scythia were not capable of containing more than twenty-five or thirty men, we may safely affirm that fifteen thousand warriors at the most embarked in this great expedition. Impatient at the limits of the Yuxin, they steered their destructive course from the Chimerion to the Thracian Bosphorus. When they had almost gained the middle of the Straits, they were suddenly driven back to the entrance of them, till a favourable wind, springing up the next day, carried them in a few hours into the placid sea, or rather Lake of the Propontius. Their landing on the little island of Cisacus was attended with the ruin of that ancient and noble city. From thence, issuing again through the narrow passage of the Hellspont, they pursued their winding navigation amidst the numerous islands, scattered over the archipelago, or the Aegean Sea. The assistance of captors and deserters must have been very necessary to pilot their vessels, and to direct their various incursions, as well on the coast of Greece, as on that of Asia. At length the gothic fleet anchored in the port of Piraeus, five miles distant from Athens, which had attempted to make some preparations for a vigorous defence. Cleodamus, one of the engineers employed by the emperor's orders to fortify the maritime cities against the Goths, had already begun to repair the ancient walls, fallen to decay since the time of Scylla. The efforts of his skilled were ineffectual, and the barbarians became masters of the native seat of the muses and the arts. But while the conquerors abandoned themselves to the licence of plunder and impertinence, their fleet, that lay with the slender guard in the harbour of Piraeus, was unexpectedly attacked by the brave Daxipus, who, flying with the engineer Cleodamus, from the sack of Athens, collected the hasty band of volunteers, peasants as well as soldiers, and in some measure avenged the calamities of his country. But this exploit, whatever lustre it might shed on the declining age of Athens, served rather to irritate than to subdue the undaunted spirit of the northern invaders. A general conflagration blazed out at the same time in every district of Greece. Thebes and Argus, Corinth and Sparta, which had formally waged such memorable wars against each other, were now unable to bring an army into the field, or even to defend their ruined fortifications. The rage of war, both by land and by sea, spread from the eastern point of Sonim to the western coast of Ipirus. The Goths had already advanced within sight of Italy, when the approach of such imminent danger awakened the indolent Galienus from his dream of pleasure. The emperor appeared in arms, and his presence seemed to have checked the ardour, and to have divided the strength of the enemy. Buttus, a chief of the Heruli, accepted an honourable capitulation, entered with a large body of his countrymen into the service of Rome, and was invested with the ornaments of a consular dignity, which had never before been profaned by the hands of a barbarian. Great numbers of the Goths, disgusted with the perils and hardships of a tedious voyage, broke into messia, with a design of force in their way over the Danube to their settlements in the Ukraine. The wild attempt would have proved inevitable destruction, if the discord of the Roman generals had not opened to the barbarians the means of an escape. The small remainder of the destroying host returned on board their vessels, and measuring back their way through the Hellspont and the Borisphus, ravaged in their passage the shores of Troy, whose fame, immortalised by Homer, will probably survive the memory of the Gothic conquests. As soon as they found themselves in safety within the basin of the Uxin, they landed at Encalis in Thrace, near the foot of Mount Hamas, and after all their toils indulged themselves in the use of those pleasant and sultry hot baths. What remained of the voyage was a short and easy navigation. Such was the various fate of the third and greatest of their naval enterprises. It may seem difficult to conceive how the original body of fifteen thousand warriors could sustain the losses and diversions of so bold an adventure, but as their numbers were gradually wasted by the sword, by shipwrecks, and by the influence of a warm climate, they were perpetually renewed by troops of banditai and deserters, who flocked to the standard of plunder, and by a crowd of fugitive slaves, often of German or summation extraction, who eagerly seized the glorious opportunity of freedom and revenge. In these expeditions the Gothic nation claimed a superior share of honour and danger, but the tribes that fought under the Gothic banners are sometimes distinguished and sometimes confounded in the imperfect histories of that age. And as the barbarian fleet seemed to issue from the mouth of the Tannis, the vague but familiar appellation of Scythians was frequently bestowed on the mixed multitude. This is a Librivox recording, all Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Recording by Lizzie Driver Chapter 10 Emperors Decius, Gallus, Emilianus, Valerian, and Gallianus Part 4 In the general calamities of mankind, the death of an individual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice, however famous, are passed over with careless inattention. Yet we cannot forget that the Temple of Diana, at Ephesus, after having risen with increasing splendour from seven repeated misfortunes, was finally burnt by the Goths in their third naval invasion. The arts of Greece and the wealth of Asia had conspired to erect that sacred and magnificent structure. It was supported by 127 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 sculptors of paraxtiles, who had, perhaps, selected from the favourite legends of the place of the birth of the divine children of Latona, the concealment of Apollo after the slaughter of the Cyclops, and the clemency of backers to the vanquished Amazons. Yet the length of the Temple of Ephesus was only 425 feet, about two-thirds of the measure of the church of St. Peter's at Rome. In other dimensions it was still more inferior to that sublime production of modern architecture. The spreading arms of a Christian cross require a much greater breadth than the oblong temples of the Pagans, and the boldest artists of antiquity would have been startled at the proposal of raising in the air a dome of the size and proportions of the pantheon. The Temple of Diana was, however, admired as one of the wonders of the world. Successive empires, the Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman, had revered its sanctity and enriched its splendour. But the rude savages of the Baltic were destitute of a taste for the elegant arts, and they despised the ideal terrors of a foreign superstition. Another circumstance is related to these invasions, which might deserve our notice were it not justly to be suspected as the fanciful conceit of a recent sophist. We are told that in the sack of Athens the Goths had collected all the libraries and were on the point of setting fire to this funeral pile of Grecian learning. Had not one of their chiefs of more refined policy than his brethren dissuaded them from the design by the profound observation that as long as the Greeks were addicted to the study of books they would never apply themselves to the exercise of arms. The sagacious counsellor should, to the truth of the fact, be admitted, reasoned like an ignorant barbarian. In the most polite and powerful nations of every kind has displayed itself about the same period, and the age of science has generally been the age of military virtue and success. For the new sovereign of Persia, Artaxerxes and his son Sopor, had triumphed, as we have already seen, over the house of Arsaquies. Of the many princes of that ancient race, Crosois, king of Armenia, had alone preserved both his life and his independence. He defended himself by that natural strength of his country, by the perpetual resort of fugitives and malcontents, by the alliance of the Romans, and above all by his own courage. Invincible in arms during a thirty-years' war, he was, at length, assassinated by the emissaries of Sopor, king of Persia. The patriotic satraps of Armenia, who asserted the freedom and dignity of the crown, implored the protection of Rome in the favour of Triodatus, the lawful heir. But the son of Crosois was an infant, the allies were at a distance, and the Persian monarch advanced towards the frontier at the head of an irresistible force. Young Triodatus, the future hope of his country, was saved by the fidelity of a servant, and Armenia continued above twenty-seven years in the reluctant province of the great monarchy of Persia. Elated with this easy conquest, and presuming on the distress or the degeneracy of the Romans, Sopor obliged the strong garrisons of Carre and Nisbus to surrender, and spread devastation and terror on either side of the refugees. The loss of an important frontier, the ruin of a faithful and natural ally, and the rapid success of Sopor'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 refugees. 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 Urafrates, encountered the Persian monarch near the walls of Odessa, was vanquished and taken prisoner by Sopor. The particulars of this great defence 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 reprosed an implicit confidence in Macriannis, his pre-Itorian prefect. That worth this minister rendered his master formidable only to the oppressed subjects and come temptable to the enemies of Rome. By his weak or wicked councils, 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 through the Persian host was repulsed with great slaughter. And Sopor, who encompassed the camp with superior numbers, patiently waited till the increasing rage of famine and pestilence had ensured his victory. The licentious murmurs of the legions soon accused Valyrian as the cause of their calamities. Their sedacious climbers demanded an instant capitulation. An immense sum of gold was offered to purchase the permission of a disgraceful retreat. But the Persian, conscious of his superiority, refused the money with disdain. And detaining the deputies advanced in order of battle to the foot of the Roman rampart and insisted on a personal conference with the Emperor. Valyrian was reduced to the necessity of entrusting his life and dignity to the faith of an enemy. The interview ended as it was natural to expect. The Emperor was made a prisoner, and his astonished troops laid down their arms. In such a moment of triumph, the pride and policy of Sopor promoted him to fill the vacant throne with a successor entirely dependent on his pleasure. Chirides, an obscure fugitive of Antioch, stained with every vice, was chosen to dishonour the Roman purple. And the will of the Persian victor could not fail of being ratified by the acclamations, however reluctant of the captive army. The Imperial slave was eager to secure the favour of his master by an act of treason to his native country. He conducted Sopor over the Eurephrates and, by the way of Calcas, to the metropolis of the east. So rapid were the motions of the Persian cavalry that, if we may credit a very judicious historian, the city of Antioch was surprised when the ideal multitude was fondly gazing on the amusements of the theater. The splendid buildings of Antioch, private as well as public, were either pillaged or destroyed, and the numerous inhabitants were put to the sword or led away into captivity. The tide of devastation was stopped for a moment by the resolution of the High Priest of Emessa. Arrayed in his sacerdotal robes, he appeared at the head of a great body of fanatic peasants armed only with slings, and defended his god and his property from the sacrilegious hand of the followers of Zoroasta. But the ruin of Tarsus and of many other cities furnishes a melancholy proof that, except in this singular instance, the conquest of Syria and Cilicia scarcely interrupted the progress of the Persian arms. The advantages of the narrow passes of Mount Taurus were abandoned, in which an invader, whose principal force consisted in his cavalry, would have been engaged in a very unequal combat, and Sapor was permitted to form the siege of Caesarea, the capital of Cappadocia, a city, though of the second rank, which was supposed to contain 400,000 inhabitants. Demosthenes commanded in the place, not so much by the commission of the emperor, as in the voluntary defence of his country, for a long time he deferred its fate, and when at last Caesarea was portrayed by the perfidy of a physician, he cut his way through the Persians, who had been ordered to exert their utmost diligence to take him alive. This heroic chief escaped the power of a foe, who might either have honoured or punished his obstinate valour. But many thousands of his fellow-citizens were involved in a general massacre, and Sapor is accused of treating his prisoners with wanton and unrelenting cruelty. Much should undoubtedly be allowed for national animosity, much for humbled pride and impotent revenge. Yet upon the whole it is certain that the same prince, who in Armenia, had displayed the mild aspect of a legislator. Showed himself to the Romans under the stern features of a conqueror, he despaired of making any permanent establishment in the empire, and sought only to leave behind him a wasted desert, whilst he transported into Persia the people and the treasure of the provinces. At the time when the east trembled at the name of Sapor, he received a present not unworthy of the greatest kings. A long train of camels laden with the most rare and valuable merchandises. The rich offering was accompanied with an epistle, respectful but not servile, from Odenethus. One of the noblest and most opulent senators of Palmyra. Who is this Odenethus? said the haughty victor, and he commanded that the presents should be cast into your fratties. That he thus insolently presumes to write to his lord. If he entertains a hope of mitigating his punishment, let him fall prostrate before the foot of our throne, with his hands bound behind his back. Should he hesitate, swift destruction shall be poured on his head, on his whole race, and on his country. The desperate extremity to which the Palmyranian 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 the 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 repasse your fratties with some marks of haste and confusion. By this exploit Odenethus laid the foundations of his future fame and fortunes. The majesty of Rome, oppressed by a Persian, was protected by Assyrian or Arab of Palmyra. The voice of history, which is often little more than the organ of hatred or flattery, reproaches Sapor with the proud abuse of the rights of a conquest. We are told that Valyrian, in chains, but invested with the imperial purple, was exposed to the multitude, a constant spectacle of fallen greatness, and that, whenever the Persian monarch mounted on horseback, he placed his foot on the neck of a Roman emperor, notwithstanding all the remonstrances of his allies, who repeatedly advised him to remember the vicitudes of fortune, to dread the returning power of Rome, and to make his illustrious captive the pledge of peace, not the object of insult. So poor still remained inflexible. When Valyrian sunk onto the weight of shame and grief, his skin, stuffed with straw, was formed into the likeness of a human figure, was preserved for ages in the most celebrated temple of Persia. A more real monument of triumph than the fancied trophies of brass and marble so often erected by Roman vanity. The tale is moral and pathetic, but the truth of it may very fairly be called in question. The letters still extunked 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 treatment the unfortunate Valyrian might experience in Persia, it is at least certain that the only emperor of Rome who had ever fallen into the hands of the enemy languished away his life in hopeless captivity. The emperor Gallienus, who had long supported with impatience, the sensorial severity of his father and colleague, received the intelligence of his misfortunes with secret pleasure and avowed indifference. I knew that my father was immortal, said he, and since he has acted as it becomes a brave man, I am satisfied. Whilst Rome lamented the fate of a 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 inconsistent character of Gallienus, which he displayed without constraint, as soon as he became sole possessor of the empire. In every art 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 rediorator, an elegant poet, a skillful 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, Plontius, wasting his time in trifling or licentious pleasures, preparing his initiation to the Gruscian Mysteries, or soliciting a place in the Archipagos of Athens. His profuse magnificence insulted the general poverty. The solemn ridicule of his triumph impressed a deeper sense of the public disgrace. The repeated intelligence of invasions, defeats and rebellions he received with a careless smile, and singling out with effective contempt some particular production of the lost province. He carelessly asked whether Rome must be ruined, unless it was supplied with linen from Egypt, an aris cloth from Gaul. There were, however, a few short moments in the life of Galienus, when, exasperated by some recent injury, he suddenly appeared the intrepid soldier and the cruel tyrant, till, satiated with blood, or fatigued by resistance, he insensibly sunk into the natural mildness and indolence of his character. 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 Elarion. It was probably some ingenious fancy of comparing the thirty tyrants of Rome with the thirty tyrants of Athens, that induced the writers of the Augustan history to select that celebrated number, which has been gradually received into a popular appellation. But in every light the parallel is idle and effective. 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 successions through the extent of a vast empire? Nor can the number of thirty be completed, unless we include in the account the women and children who are honoured with the imperial title. The reign of Galienus, distracted as it was, produced only nineteen pretenders to the throne, Cyrodes, Macriannus, Ballista, Odienithus, and Xenobai in the east. In Gaul and the western provinces, Pustumus, Lolanius, Torianus, and his mother Victoria, Marius, and Tetrichus, Inalyricum, and the confines of the Danube, Ingenus, Reglianus, and Aurelius, In Pontus, Saturnanus, Inesuria, Trebellianus, Piso and Thessaly, Valens in Acaya, Amelianus in Egypt, and Celsus in Africa, to illustrate the obscure monuments of the life and death of each individual would prove a laborious task, a like baron 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 reception. It is sufficiently known that the Odis' appellation of tyrant was often employed by the ancients to express the illegal seizure of supreme power without any reference to the abuse of it. Several of the pretenders who raised the standard of rebellion against the Emperor Galienus were shining models of virtue, and almost all possessed a considerable share of vigor and ability. Their merit had recommended them to the favour of Valerian, and gradually promoted them to the most important commands of the empire. The generals, who assumed the title of Augustus, were either respected by their troops for their able conduct and severe discipline, or admired for valour and success in war, or beloved for frankness and generosity. The field of victory was often the scene of their election. And even the armor of Marius, the most contemptible 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 finds the place assigned him by nature. In a general state of war military merit is the road to glory and to greatness. Of the nineteen tyrants Tetychus only was a senator. Piso alone was a noble. The blood of Numa through twenty-eight successive generations ran in the veins of Caliphernus, Piso, who, by female alliances, claimed a right of exhibiting in his house the images of Crassus and of the great Pompeii. His ancestors had been repeatedly dignified with all the honors which the commonwealth could bestow. And of all the ancient families of Rome the Californian alone had survived the tyranny of the Caesars. The personal qualities of Piso added new lustre to his race. The usurper Valens, by whose order he was killed, confessed with deep remorse that even an enemy ought to have respected the sanctity of Piso. And although he died in arms against Galienus the senate, with the emperor's generous permission decreed the triumphal ornaments to the memory of so virtuous a rebel. The lieutenants of Valerian were grateful to the father whom they amestemed. They disdained to serve the luxurious indolence of his unworthy son. The throne of the Roman world was unsupported by any principle of loyalty. And treason against such a prince might easily be considered as patriotism to the state. Yet if we examine with candor the conduct of these usurpers it will appear that they were much often driven into rebellion by their fears than urged to it by ambition. They dreaded the cruel suspicions of Galienus. They equally dreaded the capricious violence of their troops. If the dangerous favoured the army had imprudently declared them deserving of the purple they were marked for sure destruction. And even prudence would counsel them to secure a short enjoyment of empire and rather to try the fortune of war than to expect the hand of an executioner. When the clamour of the soldiers invested the reluctant victims with the ensigns of sovereign authority they sometimes mourned in secret their approaching fate. You have lost, said Saturnus, 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 who started up under the reign of Galienus 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 ardents with the same fears and ambition which occasioned their own revolt. Encompassed with domestic conspiracy, military sedation and civil war they trembled on the edge of precipices in which, after a longer or shorter term of anxiety they were inevitably lost. These precarious monarchs received however much honours as the flattery of their respective armies and provinces could bestow but their claim, founded on rebellion could never obtain the sanction of law or history. Italy, Rome and the Senate constantly adhered to the cause of Galienus and he alone was considered as a sovereign of the empire. That prince condescended, indeed to acknowledge the victorious arms of Idenithus who deserved the honourable distinction by the respectful conduct which he always maintained towards the son of Valerian. With the general applause of the Romans and the consent of Galienus the Senate conferred the title of Augustus on the brave Palomoranian and seemed to entrust him with the government of the east which he already possessed in so independent a manner. That, like a private succession he bequeathed it to his illustrious widow Zinobia. The rapid and perpetual transitions from the cottage to the throne and from the throne to the grave might have amused an indifferent philosopher. Were it possible for a philosopher to remain indifferent amidst the general calamities of humankind the election of these precarious emperors their power and their death were equally disrupted to their subjects and adherents. The price of their fatal elevation was instantly discharged to the troops by an immensely native drawn from the bowels of the exhausted people. However virtuous was their character however pure their intentions they found themselves reduced to the hard necessity of supporting their absorption by frequent acts of raping and cruelty. When they fell they involved armies and provinces in their fall. There is still exact a most savage mandate from Gallienus to one of his ministers after the suppression of Ingenus who had assumed the purple and illocrum. It is not enough, says the 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 everyone die who has dropped an expression who has entertained a thought against me against me the son of Valerian the father and brother of so many princes remember that Ingenus was made emperor tear, kill, hue in pieces I write you with my own hand and would inspire you with my own feelings. Whilst the public forces of the state were dissipated in private quarrels the defenseless provinces lay exposed to every invader. The bravest usurpers were compelled by the perplexity of their situation to conclude ignominious treaties with the common enemy to purchase with oppressive tributes the neutrality or services of the barbarians and to introduce hostile and independent nations into the heart of the Roman monarchy such were the barbarians and such the tyrants who under the reigns of Valerian and Galienus dismembered the provinces and reduced to the empire to the lowest pitch of disgrace and ruin from whence it seemed impossible that it should ever emerge. As far as the barrenness of materials were to permit we have attempted to trace with order and perspicuity the general events of that calamitous period there still remain some particular facts one, the disorders of Sicily two, the tunnels of Alexandria and three, the rebellion of the Saurians which may serve to reflect a strong light on the horrid picture one, whenever numerous troops of Banditai 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 all the community the situation of Sicily preserved it from the barbarians nor could the disarmed province have supported the usurper the sufferings of that once flourishing and still fertile island were inflicted by baser hands a licentious crowd of slaves and peasants reigned for a while over the plundered country and renewed the memory of the servile wars of more ancient times devastations of which the husband men was either the victim or the accomplice must have ruined the agriculture of Sicily and as the principal estates with a property of the uplink senators of Rome who often enclosed within a farm the territory of an old republic it is not improbable that this private injury might affect the capital more deeply than all the conquests of the Goths or the Persians two, the foundation of Alexandria was a noble design at once conceived and executed by the son of Philip the beautiful and regular form of that great city that could only to Rome itself comprehended a circumference of 15 miles it was peopled by 300,000 free inhabitants besides 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 unknown they were employed in blowing of glass others in weaving of linen others again manufacturing the papyrus either sex and every age was engaged in the pursuits of industry nor did even the blind or the lame want occupation suited to their condition but the people of Alexandria a various mixture of nations united the vanity and inconsistency of the Greeks superstition and obscency 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 sedation among the fast multitude whose resentments were furious and impeccable after the capture of Valerian and the insolence of his son had relaxed the authority of the laws the Alexandrians abandoned themselves to the ungoverned rage of their passions and their unhappy country was the theatre of a civil war which continued with a few short and suspicious truces above twelve years all intercourse was cut off between the several quarters of the afflicted city every street was polluted with blood every building of strength converted into a citadel nor did the tumult subside to a considerable part of Alexandria was irretrievably ruined the spacious and magnificent district of Brucian with its palaces and museum the residence of the kings and philosophers of Egypt is described above a century afterwards as already reduced to its present state of dreary solitude three the obscure rebellion of Trebellius who assumed the purple in Nisoria a petty province of Asia Minor was attended with strange and memorable consequences the purgent of royalty was soon destroyed by an officer of Gallienus but his followers, despairing of mercy resolved to shake off their allegiance not only to the emperor but to the empire and suddenly returned to the savage manners from which they had never perfectly been reclaimed their craggy rocks a branch of the wide extended torus protected their inaccessible retreat the tillage of some fertile valleys supplied them in necessaries and a habit of raping with the luxuries of life in the heart of the Roman monarchy the Asurians long contained a nation of wild barbarians succeeding princes, unable to reduce them to obedience either by arms or policy were compelled to acknowledge their weakness by surrounding the hostile and independent spot with a strong chain of fortifications which often proved insufficient to restrain the incursions of these domestic foes the Asurians, gradually extending their territory to the sea coast subdued the western and mountainous part of Cilicia formerly the nest of those daring pirates against whom the republic had once been obliged to exert its utmost force under the conduct of the great Pompeii our habits of thinking so fondly connect the order of the universe with the fate of man that this gloomy period of history has been decorated within andations, earthquakes uncommon meteors preternatural darkness and a crowd of prodigies fictitious or exaggerated but along and general famine was the calamity of a more serious kind it was the inevitable consequence of raping and oppression which extirpated the produce of the peasant and the hope of future harvests famine is almost always followed by epidemical disease the effect of scanty and a wholesome food other causes must however have contributed to the furious plague which from the year 250 to the year 265 raged without interruption in every province every city and almost every family of the Roman Empire during some time 5,000 persons died daily in Rome and many towns that had escaped the hands of the barbarians were 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 40 and 70 had been equal to the whole sum of claimants from 14 to four score years of age who remained alive after the reign of Gallienus applying this authentic fact to the most correct tables of mortality it evidently proves that above half the people of Alexandria had perished and could we venture to extend the analogy to the other provinces we might suspect that war, pestilence and famine had consumed in a few years the moiety of the human species End of chapter 10 part 4 Chapter 11 part 1 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recording set in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 11 Reign of Claudius, defeat of the Goths Part 1 Reign of Claudius, defeat of the Goths victories, triumph and death of Aurelian under the deplorable reigns of Valerian and Gallienus the empire was oppressed and almost destroyed by the soldiers the tyrants and the barbarians it was saved by a series of great princes who derived their obscure origin from the Martial provinces of Eiliricum within a period of about 30 years Claudius, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian and his colleagues triumphed over the foreign and domestic enemies of the state re-established with a military discipline the strength of the frontiers and deserved the glorious title of Resturus of the Roman world the removal of an effeminate tyrant made way for a succession of heroes the indignation of the people imputed all their calamities to Gallienus and the far greater part were indeed the consequence of his disillusioned manners and careless administration he was even destitute of a sense of honour which so frequently supplies the absence of public virtue and as long as he was permitted to enjoy the possession of Italy a victory of the barbarians the loss of a province and the rebellion of a general seldom distributed the tranquil course of his pleasures at length a considerable army stationed on the upper Danube invested with the imperial purple their leader Aureolus who, disdaining a confined and barren rain over the mountains of Gratia passed the Alps, occupied Milan, threatened Rome and challenged Gallienus to dispute in the field the sovereignty of Italy the emperor provoked by the insult and alarmed by the instant danger suddenly exerted that latent vigor which sometimes broke through the indolence of his temper forcing himself from the luxury of the palace he appeared in arms at the head of his legions and advanced beyond the port to encounter his competitor the corrupted name of Pontirolo still preserves the memory of a bridge over the Atta which, during the action, must have proved an object of the utmost importance to both armies the racian usurper, after receiving a total defeat and a dangerous wound retired into Milan the siege of that great city was immediately formed the walls were battered with every engine in use among the ancients and Aureolus, doubtful of his internal strength and hopeless of foreign suckers 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 valuable subjects to the slightest suspicions the arts of Aureolus diffused fears and discontent among the principal officers of his rival a conspiracy was formed by Heraclianus, the Pritodent Prefect, by Marcian a general of rank and reputation and by Sikh crops who commanded a numerous body of the Dalmatian guards the death of Galeonus was resolved and notwithstanding their desire of first terminating the siege of Milan the extreme danger which accompanied every moment's delay obliged them to hazen 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 salive from the town Galeonus, who was never deficient in personal bravery from his silken couch and without allowing himself time either to put on his armour or to assemble his guards he mounted on horseback and rode full speed towards the supposed place of the attack encompassed by his declared or concealed enemies he soon amidst the nocturnal tumult received a mortal dart from an uncertain hand before he expired a patriotic sentiment using the kind of Galeonus induced him to name a deserving successor and it was his last request that the imperial ornaments should be delivered to Claudius who then commanded a detached army in the neighbourhood of Pavia the report at least was diligently propagated and the order cheerfully obeyed by the conspirators who had already agreed to place Claudius on the throne on the first news of the emperor's death the troops expressed some suspicion and resentment till the one was removed and the other assuaged by a donated of 20 pieces of gold to each soldier they then ratified the election and acknowledged the merit of their new sovereign the obscurity which covered the origin of Claudius though it was afterwards embellished by some flattering fictions sufficiently betrays the meanness of his birth we can only discover that he was a native of one of the provinces bordering on the Danube that his youth was spent in arms and that his modest valor attracted the favour and confidence of Decius the senate and people already considered him an excellent officer equal to the most important trusts and censured the inattention of Valerian who suffered him to remain in the subordinate section of a tribune but it was not long before that emperor distinguished the merit of Claudius by declaring him general and chief of the Ilerian frontier with the command of all the troops in Thrace Mesia, Decius, Pannonia and Dalmatia the appointments of the prefect of Egypt the establishments of the proconsul of Africa and the sure prospect of the consulship by his victories over the Goths he served from the senate the honour of a statue and excited the jealous apprehensions of Galeonis it was impossible that a soldier could esteem so disillute a sovereign nor is it easy to conceal a just contempt some unguarded expressions which dropped from Claudius were officially transmitted to the royal ear the emperor's answer to an officer of confidence describes in very lively colours his own character and that of the times there is not anything capable of giving me more serious concern than the intelligence content in your last dispatch that some malicious suggestions have indisposed towards us the mind of our friend and parent Claudius as you regard your allegiance use every means to appease his resentment but conduct your negotiation with secrecy let it not reach the knowledge of Decian troops they are already provoked and it might inflame their fury I myself have sent him some presents be it your care that he accept them with pleasure above all let him not suspect that I am made acquainted with his imprudence the fear of my anger might urge him to desperate counsels the presence which accompanied this humble epistle in which the monarch solicited a reconciliation with his discontented subject consisted of a considerable sum of money a splendid wardrobe and a valuable service of silver and gold plate by such arts galleonists soften the indignation and dispel the fears of his Ilerian general and during the reminder 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 galleonists 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 54 years of age the siege of Milan was still continued and Oriolis 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 galleonists he perhaps might have listened to them with patience and accepted a colleague as despicable as himself this turned refusal and a last unsuccessful effort obliged Oriolis to lead the city and himself to the discretion of the conqueror the judgment of the army pronounced him worthy of death and Claudius after a feeble resistance consented to the execution of the sentence nor was the zeal of the senate less ardent in the cause of their new sovereign they ratified perhaps with a sincere transport of zeal the election of Claudius and as his predecessor had shown himself the personal enemy of their order they exercised under the name of justice a severe revenge against his friends and family the senate was permitted to discharge the ungrateful office of punishment and the emperor reserved for himself the pleasure and merit of obtaining by his intercession a general act of indemnity such ostentatious clemency discovers less of the real character of Claudius than a trifling circumstance in which he seems to have consulted only the dictates of his heart the frequent rebellions of the provinces had involved almost every person in the guilt of treason almost every estate in the case of confiscation and gallowness often displayed his liberality by distributing among his officers the property of his subjects on the accession of Claudius an old woman through herself at his feet and complained that a general of the late emperor had obtained an arbitrary grant of her patrimony this general was Claudius himself who had not entirely escaped the contagion of the times the emperor blushed at the reproach but deserved the confidence which she had reposed in his equity the confession of his fault was accompanied with immediate and ample restitution in the arduous task which Claudius had undertaken of restoring the empire to its ancient splendor it was first necessary to revive among his troops a sense of order and obedience with the authority of a veteran commander he represented to them that the relaxation of discipline had introduced a long train of disorders the effect of which were at length experienced by the soldiers themselves that a people ruined by oppression and indolent from this pair could no longer supply a numerous army with a means of luxury or even subsistence that the danger of each individual had increased with the despotism of the military order since princes who tremble on the throne will guard their safety by the instant sacrifice of every obnoxious subject the emperor expiated on the mischiefs of a lawless capris which the soldiers could only gratify at the expense of their own blood as their seditious elections had so frequently been followed by civil wars which consumed the flower of the legions either in the field of battle or in the cruel abuse of victory he painted in the most lively colours the exhausted state of the treasury the desolation of the provinces the disgrace of the roman name and the insolent triumph of rapacious barbarians it was against those barbarians he declared that he intended to point the first effort of their arms tetrakas might reign for a while over the west and even zenobia might preserve the dominion of the east these usurpers were his personal adversaries nor could he think of indulging any private resentment till he had saved an empire whose impending ruin would unless it was timely prevented crush both the army and the people the various nations of Germany and some Asia who fought under the gothic standard had already collected armament more formidable than any which had yet issued from the uksin on the banks of the nister one of the great rivers that discharged themselves into that sea they constructed a fleet of two thousand or even six thousand vessels numbers which however incredible they may seem would have been insufficient to transport their pretended army of 320,000 barbarians whatever might be the real strength of the goths the vigor and success of the expedition were not adequate to the greatness of the preparations in their passage through the boss furris the unskillful 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 show the barbarians made several descents on the coasts both of Europe and Asia but the open country was already plundered and they were repulsed with shame and loss from the fortified cities which they assaulted a spirit of discouragement and division arose in the fleet and some of the achieves sailed away towards the islands of Crete and Cyprus but the main body pursuing a more steady course anchored at length near the foot of Mount Athos and assaulted the city of Thessalonica the wealthy capital of all the Macedonian provinces their attacks in which they displayed a fierce but artless bravery were soon interrupted by the rapid approach of Claudius hastening to a scene of action that deserved the presence of a warlike prince at the head of the remaining powers of the empire impatient for battle the goths immediately broke up their camp relinquished the siege of Thessalonica left their navy at the foot of Mount Athos travels to the hills of Macedonia and pressed forward to engage the last defense of Italy we still possess an original letter addressed by Claudius to the senate and people on this memorable occasion conscript fathers says the emperor know that 320,000 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 Galeonis the whole republic is fatigued and exhausted we shall fight after Valerian after ingenious Regillianis Lolianis Postumis Celsus and a thousand others whom a just contempt for Galeonis provoked into rebellion we are in the want of darts of spears and of shields the strength of the empire Paul and Spain are usurped by tetricus and we blush to acknowledge that the archers of the east serve under the banners of Zenobia whatever we shall perform will be sufficiently great the melancholy firmness of this epistle announces a hero careless to his fate conscious of his danger and still deriving a well-grounded hope from the resources of his own mind the events surpassed his own expectations and those of the world those signal victories he delivered the empire from this host of barbarians and was distinguished by posterity under the glorious appellation of the Gothic Claudius the imperfect historians of an irregular war do not enable as to describe the order and circumstances of his exploits but if we could be indulged in the illusion we might distribute into three acts this memorable tragedy one the decisive battle was fought near Nyces a city of Dartenia the legions at first gave away oppressed by numbers and dismayed by misfortunes their ruin was inevitable had not the abilities of their emperor prepared a seasonable relief a large detachment rising out of the secret and difficult passes of the mountains which by his order they had occupied suddenly assailed the rear of the victorious Goths the favorable instant was improved by the activity of Claudius he revived the courage of his troops restored their ranks and pressed the barbarians on every side 50,000 men are reported to have been slain in the battle of Nyces several large bodies of barbarians covering their retreat with the movable fortifications of wagons retired or rather escaped from the field of slaughter two we presume that some insurmountable difficulty the fatigue perhaps or the disobedience of the conquerors prevented Claudius from completing in one day the destruction of the Goths the war was diffused over the province of Mesia Thrace and Macedonia and its operations drawn out into a variety of marches surprises and tumultary engagements as well by sea as by land when the Romans suffered any loss it was commonly occasioned by their own covetous or rashness but the superior talents of the emperor his perfect knowledge of the country and his judicious choice of measures as well as officers assured on most occasions the success of his arms the immense booty the fruit of so many victories consisted for the greater part of cattle and slaves a select body of the Gothic youth was received among the imperial troops the remainder was sold into servitude and so considerable was the number of female captives that every soldier obtained to his share two or three women a circumstance from which we may conclude that the invaders entertained some designs of settlement as well as of plunder since even in a naval expedition they were accompanied by their families three the loss of their fleet which was either taken or sunk had intercepted the retreat of the Goths a vast circle of Roman posts distributed with skill supported with firmness and gradually closing towards a common centre forced the barbarians into the most inaccessible parts of Mount Hemers where they found a safe refuge but a very scanty subsistence during the course of a rigorous winter in which they were besieged by the emperor's troops famine and pestilence desertion and the sword continually diminished the impresent multitude on the return of spring nothing appeared in arms except a hardy and desperate band the remnant of that mighty host which had embarked at the mouth of the Nista the pestilence which swept away such numbers of the barbarians at length proved fatal to their conqueror after a short but glorious reign of two years Claudius expired at Symmium amidst the tears and acclamations of his subjects in his last illness he convened the principal officers of the state and army and in their presence recommended Aurelian one of his generals as the most deserving of the throne and the best qualified to execute the great design 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 luster to the roman purple those virtues however were celebrated with peculiar zeal and complacency by the courtly writers of the age of Constantine who was the great grandson of Crispus the elder brother of Claudius the voice of flattery was soon taught to repeat that gods who so hastily had snatched Claudius from the earth rewarded his merit and piety by the perpetual establishment of the empire in his family notwithstanding these oracles the greatness of the Flavian family a name which it had pleased them to assume was deferred for twenty years and the elevation of Claudius occasioned the immediate ruin of his brother Quintilius who possessed not sufficient moderation of 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 Aqualia where he commanded a considerable force and though his reign lasted only 17 days he had time to obtain the sanction of the senate and to experience a mutiny of the troops as soon as he was informed that the great army of the Danube had invested the well-known valor of Aurelian with imperial power he sunk under the fame and merit of his rival and ordering his veins to be opened prudently withdrew himself from the unequal contest 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 Sermium who occupied a small farm the property of Aurelius a rich senator his warlike son enlisted in the troops as a common soldier successively rose to the rank of a centurion, a tribune the prefect of religion the inspector of the camp, the general or as it was then called the duke of a frontier and at length during the gothic war exercised the important office of commander-in-chief of the cavalry in every station he distinguished himself by matchless vigor rigid discipline and successful conduct he was invested with a consulship by the emperor valorian who styles him in the pompous language of that age the deliverer of Ilyricum the restorer of Gaul and the rival of the Stipeos at the recommendation of valorian, a senator of the highest rank and merit Alpius Crinatus whose blood was derived from the same source as that of Trajan adopted the panonian peasant gave him his daughter in marriage and relieved with this ample fortune the honourable poverty which Aurelian had preserved in Violet the reign of Aurelian lasted only four years in about nine months but every instant of that short period was filled by some memorable achievement he put an end to the gothic war chastised the Germans who invaded Italy, recovered Gaul, Spain and Britain out of the hands of tetricus and destroyed the proud monarchy which Zenobia had erected in the east on the ruins of the afflicted empire it was the rigid attention of Aurelian even to the minutest articles of discipline which bestowed such uninterrupted success on his arms his military regulations are contained in a very concise epistel to one of his inferior officers whose commanded to enforce them as he wishes to become a tribune or his desirous to live gaming, drinking and the arts of divination were severely prohibited Aurelian expected that his soldiers should be modest frugal and laborious that their 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 corn fields without stealing even a sheep a fowl or a bunch of grapes without exacting from their landlords either salt or oil or wood 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 raker an even cruelty of Aurelian one of the soldiers had seduced the wife of his host the guilty wretch was fuzoned to two trees forcibly drawn towards each other and his limbs were torn asunder a few such examples impressed a salutary consternation the punishments of Aurelian were terrible but he had seldom occasioned to punish more than once the same offence his own conduct gave a sanction to his loss and the seditious legions dreaded a chief who had learned to obey and who was worthy to command