I b RIEBER HALL LIBRARY jmmjSM (Bumm©^ ^^^U^/7^ rVyyc/, THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. By EDWARD GIBBON, Esq. WITH NOTES, By the Rev. H. H. MILMAN, • ItfiVENDAItY OP ST. PETER's, AND RECTOR OP ST. MARGARET'S, WESTMINSTER, j>i. JTew ^DITION, TO WHICH IS ADDED A COMPLETE INDEX OF THE WHOLE WORK. IN SIX VOLUMES. VOL. I. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 1880. Brtber Hall, Sf?l£ sbU" • Library .URL UHL m PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. The great work of Gibbon is indispensable to the student of history. The literature of Europe offers no substitute for " The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." It has obtained undisputed possession, as rightful occupant, of the vast period which it compre- hends. However some subjects, which it embraces, may have undergone more complete investigation, on the general view of the whole period, this history is the sole undisputed authority to which all defer, and from which few appeal to the original writers, or to more modern compilers. The inherent interest of the subject, the inexhaustible labor employed upon it; the immense condensation of matter; the luminous ar- rangement; the general accuracy; the style, which however mouotonous from its uniform stateliness, and sometimes wearisome from its elaborate art, is through- out vigorous, animated, often picturesque, always com- mands attention, always conveys its meaning with emphatic energy, describes with singular breadth and fidelity, and generalizes with unrivalled felicity of expression ; all these high qualifications have secured, lU IV PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. and seem likely to secure, its permanent place m his- toric literature. This vast design of Gibbon, the magnificent whole into which he has cast the decay and ruin of thp ancient civilization, the formation and birth of the new order of things, will of itself, independent of the laborious execution of his immense plan, render " The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire " an unap- proachable subject to the future historian : * in the eloquent language of his recent French editor, M. Guizot : — " The gradual decline of the most extraordinary dominion which has ever invaded and oppressed the world ; the fall of that immense empire, erected on the ruins of so many kingdoms, republics, and states both barbarous and civilized ; and forming in its turn, by its dismemberment, a multitude of states, republics, and kingdoms ; the annihilation of the religion of Greece and Rome ; the birth and the progress of the two new religions which have shared the most beauti- ful regions of the earth ; the decrepitude of the ancient world, the spectacle of its expiring glory and degen- erate manners ; the infancy of the modern world, the picture of its first progress, of the new direction given to the mind and character of man — such a subject must necessarily fix the attention and excite the inter- est of men, who cannot behold with indifference those memorable epochs, during which, in the fine language of Corneille — ' Un grajid dcstin commence, un grand destin s'acheve.' " This extent and harmony of design is unqueslion* • A considerable portion of this prcfat'e had already aptiewed before tt* public in tie Qaarterly Review, PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. V ably lliat which distinguishes the work of Gibbon from all other great historical compositions. He has first bridged the abyss between ancient and modern times, and connected together the two great worlds of history. The great advantage which the classical historians possess over those of modern times is in unity of plan, of course greatly facilitated by the nar- rower sphere to which tiicir researches were confined, fcixcept Herodotus, the great historians of Greece — we exclude the more modern compilers, like Diodorus Sicuius — limited themselves to a single period, or at least to the contracted sphere of Grecian atfairs. As far as the Barbarians trespassed within the Grecian boundary, or were necessarily mingled up with Grecian politics, they were admitted into the pale of Grecian history ; but to Thucydides and to Xenophon, except- ing in the Persian inroad of the latter, Greece was the world. Natural unity confined their narrative almost to chronological order, the episodes were of rare occiu- rence and extremely brief. To the Roman historians the course was equally clear and defined. Rome was their centre of unity ; and the uniformity with which the circle of the Roman dominion spread around, the regularity with which their civil polity expanded, torced, as it were, upon the Roman historian that plan which Polybius announces as the subject of his his- tory, the moans and the manner by which the whole v/orld became subject to the Roman sway. How dif- tecent the complicated politics of the European king- doms ' Ev^ery national history, to be complete, must. in a certain sense, be the history of Europe; there is uc- Knowing to how remote a quarter it may be neces* »1 PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. sarj to trace our most domestic events ; from a coun- try, how apparently disconnected, may originate the impulse which gives its direction to the whole course of affairs. In imitation of his classical models, Gibbon places Rome as the cardinal point from which his intpiiries diverge, and to which they bear constant reference ; yet how immeasurable the space over which those inquiries range ! how complicated, how confused, how apparently inextricable the causes which tend to the decline of the Roman empire ! how countless the nations which swarm forth, in mingling and indistinct hordes, constantly changing the geographical limits — incessantly confounding the natural boundaries ! At first sight, the whole period, the whole state of the world, seems to offer no more secure footing to an historical adventurer than the chaos of Milton — to be in a state of irreclaimable disorder, best described in the language of the poet : — « A dark Illimitable ocean, without bound, Without dimension, where length, breadth, and height, And time, and place, are lost: where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise Of endless wars, and by confusion stand." We feel that the unity and harmony of narrative, viiich shall comprehend this period of social disor- ganization, must be ascribed entirely to the skill and luminous disposition of the historian. It is in this •iiblime Gothic architecture of his work, in which the PREFACE BY THE EDITOR vh boundlesa range, the infinite variety, the, at first sight, incongruous gorgeousness of the separate parts, never- theless are all subordinate to one main and predomi nant idea, that Gibbon is unrivalled. We cannot but admire the manner in which he masses his materials, end arranges his facts in successive groups, not accord- ing to chronological order, but to their moral or politi- cal connection ; the distinctness with which he marks his periods of gradually increasing decay; and the skill with which, though advancing on separate paral- lels of history, he shows the common tendency of the slower or more rapid religious or civil innovations. However these principles of composition may demand more than ordinary attention on the part of the reader, they can alone impress upon the memory the leal course, and the relative importance of the events. Whoever would justly appreciate the superiority of Gibbon's lucid arrangement, should attempt to make his way through the regular but wearisome annals of Tillemont, or even the less ponderous volumes of Le Beau. Both these writers adhere, almost entirely, to chronological order ; the consequence is, that we are twenty times called upon to break off, and resume the thread of six or eight wars in different parts of the empire; to suspend the operations of a military expe- dition for a court intrigue; to hurry away from a siege to a council; and the same page places us in the middle of a campaign against the barbarians, and in the depths of the Monophysite controversy. In Gib- bon it is not always easy to bear in mind the exact dates, but the course of events is ever clear and distinct ; like a skilful general, though his troops fill PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. advance from the most remote and opposite quarterSj they are constantly bearing down and concentratnig tliemselves on one point — that which is still occnpied by the name, and by the waning power of Rome. Whether he traces the progress of hostile religions, or leads from the shores of the Baltic, or the verge of the Chinese empire, the successive hosts of barbarians — though one wave has hardly burst and discharged itself, before another swells up and approaches — all is made to flow in the same direction, and the impression which each makes upon the tottering fabric of the Roman greatness, connects their distant movements, and measures the relative importance assigned to them in the panoramic history. The more peaceful and didatic episodes on the development of the Roman laAV, or even on the details of ecclesiastical history, interpose themselves as resting-places or divisions between the periods of barbaric invasion. In short, though distracted first by the two capitals, and after- wards by the formal partition of the empire, the ex- traordinary felicity of arrangement maintains an order and a regular progression. As our horizon expands to reveal to us the gathering tempests which are forming far beyond the boundaries of the civilized world — as we follo\y their successive approach to the trembling frontier — the compressed and receding line is stili distinctly visible; though gradually dismembered, and the broken fragments assuming the form of regular states and kingdoms, the leal relation of those king- doms to the empire is maintained and defined ; and even when the Roman dominion has shrunk into littla more than the province of Thrace — wheii the name PRBFACE BY THE LDITOR. U of Rome is confined, in Italy, to the walls cf the city — yet it is still the memory, the shade of the Roman greatness, which extends over the wide sphere inlc which the historian expands his later narrative; the whole blends into the nnity, and is manifestly essen- tial to the double catastrophe of his tragic drama. But the amplitude, the magnificence, or the har- mony of design, are, though imposing, yet unworthy claims on our admiration, unless the details are filled up with correctness and accuracy. No writer has been more severely tried on this point than Gibbon. He has undergone the triple scrutiny of theological zeal quickened by just resentment, of literary emula- tion, and of that mean and invidious vanity which delights in detecting errors in writers of established fame. On the result of the trial, we may be jiermitted to summon competent witnesses before we deliver our own judgment. M. Guizot, in his preface, after stating that ni France and Germany, as well as in England, in the most enlightened countries of Europe, Gibbon is I'.onstantly cited as an authority, thus proceeds: — " I have had occasion, during my labors, to considt the writings of philosophers, who have treated on the finances of the Roman empire ; of scholars, who have iiivostigated the chronology; of theologians, who have searched the deptlis of ecclesiastical history ; of writers on law, who have studied with care the ilmuan jurisprudence; of Orientalists, who have occupied Ihcmselves with the Arabians and the Koran ; of modern historians, who have entered upon extensive lesearches touching the crusades and iUniv intluence ; 1* PREFAC E BY THE EDITOR. each of these writers has remarked and pointed out, in the ' History of the DecUne and Fall of the Roman Empire,' some negligences, some false or imperfect views, some omissions, which it is impossible not to suppose volimtary ; they have rectified some facts, combated with advantage some assertions ; but in general they have taken the researches and the ideas of Gibbon, as points of departure, or as proofs of the researches or of the new opinions which they have advanced." M. Guizot goes on to state his own impressions on reading Gibbon's history, and no authority will have greater weight with those to whom the extent and accuracy of his historical researches are known : — '^ After a first rapid perusal, which allowed me to feel nothing but the interest of a narrative, always animated, and, notwithstanding its extent and the variety of objects which it makes to pass before the view, always perspicuous, I entered upon a minute examination of the details of which it was composed ; and the opinion which I then formed was, I confess, singularly severe. I discovered, in certain chapters, errors which appeared to me sufficiently important and numerous to make me believe that they had been written with extreme negligence ; in others, I was strm^k with a certain tinge of partiality and prejudice, which imparted to the exposition of the facts tlial want of truth and justice, which the English ex|)r(!ss by thfir happy term misrepresentation. Some inijicr- fect (tronassionate spirit, with no desire but to est.'iblish the tX PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. truth) such inaccuracies or misstatements as may have keen detected, particularly with regard to Chns- lianity ; and which thus, with the previous caution, may counteract to a considerable extent the unf^iir and unfavorable impression created against rational religion : supplementary, by adding such additional information as the editor's reading may have been able to furnish, from original documents or books, not accessible at the time when Gibbon wrote. The work originated in the editor's habit of noting on the margin of his copy of Gibbon references to such authors as had discovered errors, or thrown new light on the subjects treated by Gibbon. These had grown to some extent, and seemed to him likely to be of use to others. The annotations of M. Guizot also appeared to him worthy of being better known to the English public than they were likely to be, as append ed to the French translation. The chief works from which the editor has derived his materials are, I. The French translation, with notes by M. Guizot; 2d edition, Paris, 1828. The editor has translated almost all the notes of M. Guizot. Where he has not altogether agreed with him, his respect for the learning and judgment of that writer has, in general, induced him to retain the statement from v/hich he has ventured to differ, with the grounds on which he formed his own opinion. In the notes on Christianity, he has retained all those of M. Guizot, with his own, from the conviction, that on such a subject, to many, the authority of a French statesman a Protestant, and a rational and sincere Christian, -vould appear more independent and un- PREFACE BY THE EDITOR- XXI biassed, and therefore be more commanding, than thai of an English clergyman. The editor has not scrupled to transfer the notes of M. Guizot to the present work. The well-known zeal for knowledge, displayed in all the writings of that distinguished historian, has led to the natural inference, that he would not be displeased at the attempt to make them of use to the English readers of Gibbon. The notes of M. Guizot are signed with the letter G. II. The German translation, with the notes of Wenck. Unfortunately, this learned translator died, after having completed only the first volume ; the rest of the work was executed by a very inferior hand. The notes of Wenck are extremely valuable ; many of them have been adopted by M. Guizot ; they are distinguished by the letter W.* III. The new edition of Le Beau's " Histoire du Bas Empire, with notes by M. St. Martin, and M. Brosset." That distinguished Armenian scholar, M. St. Martin (now, unhappily, deceased) had added much information from Oriental writers, particularly from those of Armenia, as well as from more general sources. Many of his observations have been found is applicable to the work of Gibbon as to that of Le Beau. IV. The editor has consulted the various answers made to Gibbon on the first appearance of his work ; • The editor regrets that he has not been able to find the Italian translation, mentioned by Gibbon himself with some respect. It i« not in our great libraries, the Museum or the Bodleian ; and he h«a a«fver found any boOksoUer in Load on who has seen it. XXII PREFACE BY THE EDITO*. he must confess, with little profit. They were, iii general, hastily compiled by inferior and now forgotten writers, with the exception of Bishop Watson, whose able apology is rather a general argument, than an examination of . misstatements. The name of Milner Brands higher with a certain class of readers, but will not carry much weight with the severe investigator «f history. V. Some few classical works and fragments have come to light, since the appearance of Gibbon's His- tory, and have been noticed in their respective places ; and much use has been made, in the later volumes particularly, of the increase to our stores of Oriental iterature. The editor cannot, indeed, pretend to have followed his author, in these gleanings, over the whole vast field of his inquiries ; he may have overlooked or may not have been able to command some works, which might have thrown still further light on these subjects ; but he trusts that what he has adduced will be of use to the student of historic truth. The editor would further observe, that with regard to some other objectionable passages, which do not in- volve misstatement or inaccuracy, he has intentionally abstained from directing particular attention towards them by any special protest. The editor's notes are marked M. A considerable part of the quotations (some of which in the later editions had fallen into great confu- sion) have been verified, and have been corrected by the latest and best editions of the authors. preface by the editob xxiu June, 1845. In this new edition, the text and the notes have be3n carefully revised, the latter by the editor. Some additional notes have been subjoined, distin- guished by the signature M. 1845. \ PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR It is not my intention to detain the reader by expa tiating on the variety or the importance of the subject which I have undertaken to treat ; since the merit of the choice would serve to render the weakness of the execution still more apparent, and still less excusable But as I have presumed to lay before the public a firs] volume only ^ of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, it will, perhaps, be expected that I should explain, in a few words, the nature and limits of my general plan. The memorable series of revolutions, which in the course of about thirteen centuries gradually under- mined, and at length destroyed, the solid fabric of himian greatness, may, with some propriety, be divided into the three following periods : I. The first of these periods may be tiaced from the age of Trajan and the Antonines, when the Ro- man monarchy, having attained its full strength and Diaturity, began to verge towards its decline ; and will * The first volume of the quarto, which contained the sixteen fir»t oliApters. 2 \ XXVi AUTHOK S PREFACE. extend to the subversion of the Western Empre, by (he barbarians of Germany ana Scythia, the rude ancestors of the most polished nations of modern Europe. This extraordinary revohition, which sub- jected Rome to the power of a (Jothic conqueror, was completed about the beginning of the sixth cen- tury. II. The second period of the Decline and Fall of Rome may be supposed to commence with the reign of Justinian, who, by his laws, as well as by his victories, restored a transient splendor to the Eastern Empire. It will comprehend the invasion of Italy by the Lom- bards ; the conquest of the Asiatic and African prov- mces by the Arabs, who embraced the religion of Mahomet ; the revolt of the Roman people against tho feeble princes of Constantinople ; and the elevation of Charlemagne, who, in the year eight hundred, pstab- lished the second, or German Empire of the West. III. The last and longest of these periods mcludes about six centuries and a half ; from the revival of the Western Empire, till the taking of Constantniople by the Turks, and the extinction of a degenerate race of princes, who continued to assume the titles of Caesar and Augustus, after their dominions were contracted to the limits of a single city ; in which the language, as well as manners, of the ancient Romans, had been long since forgotten. The writer who should under- take to relate the events of this period, would find himself obliged to enter into the general history of the Crusades, as far as they contributed to the ruin of the Greek Empire ; and he would scarcely be able to restrain his curiosity from making some inquiry into AUTHOR'S *REFACB. XXril Ihe stale of the city of Rome, during the darkness and confusion of the middle ages. As I have ventured, perhaps too hastily, to commit to the press a work which in every sense of the word, deserves the epithet of imperfect, I consider myself as contracting an engagement to finish, most probably in a second volume,^ the first of these mem- orable periods; and to deliver to the Public the com- plete History of the Decline and Fall of Rome, from the age of the Antonines to the subversion of the Western Empire. With regard to the subsequent periods, though I may entertain some hopes. I dare not presume to give any assurances. The execution of the extensive plan which I have described, would connect the ancient and modern history of the world ; but it would require many years of health, of leisure and of perseverance. Bentinck Street, February 1, 1776. P. S. The entire History, which is now published, of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the West, abundantly discharges my engagements with the Public. Perhaps their favorable opinion may encourage me to prosecute a work, which, however laborious it may seem, is the most agreeable occupa- tion of my leisure hours. Bejctinck Street, March 1, 1781. - - • The Author, as it frequently happens, took an inadequate meas- ure of his growing work. The remainder of the first period has filled fi«> volumes in quarto, being the third fourth, fifth, and sixth toI- Mme« of the octavo edition. xxviii author's preface. An Author easily persuades himself that the public opinion is still favorable to his labors ; and I have now embraced the serious resolution of proceeding to the last period of my original design, and of the Roman Empire, the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, in the year one thousand four hundred and fifty-three. The most patient Reader, who computes that three ponderous ^ volumes have been already em- ployed on the events of four centuries, may, perhaps, be alarmed at the long prospect of nine hundred years. But it is not my intention to expatiate with the same minuteness on the whole series of the Byzantine his- tory. At our entrance into this period, the reign of Justinian, and the conquests of the Mahometans, will deserve and detain our attention, and the last age of Constantinople (the Crusades and the Turks) is con- nected with the revolutions of Modern Europe. From the seventh to the eleventh century, the obscure inter- val will be supplied by a concise narrative of such facts as may still appear either interesting or impor- tant. BEifTiNCK Street, Manh 1, 1782. ' The flnt aix rolumea of Hhe octavo edition. PREFACE TO THE FIRST VOLUME. DiLioBNCE and accuracy are the only merits winch an historical writer may ascribe to himself; it any merit, indeed, can be assumed from the performanctr of an indispensable duty. I may therefore be allowed to say, that I have carefully examined all the original materials that could illustrate the subject which I had undertaken to treat. Should I ever complete the extensive design which has been sketched out in the Preface, I might perhaps conclude it with a critical account of the authors consulted during the progress of the whole work ; and however such an attempt might incur the censure of ostentation, 1 am persuaded that it would be susceptible of entertainment, as well ELS information. At present 1 shall content myself with a single observation. The biographers, who, under the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine, composed, or rather compiled, the lives of the Emperors, from Hadrian to the sons of Cams, are usually mentioned under the names of Ji^lius Spartianus, Julius Capitolinus, JElius Lampridius, Vulcatius Gallicanus, Trebellius Pollio, XXX PREFACE TO THE FIRST VOLUME. and Flavius Vopisciis. But there is so much perplex- ity in the titles of the MSS., and so many disputes have arisen among the critics (see Fabricius, Biblioth. Latin. 1. iii. c. 6) concerning their number, their names, and their respective propjrty, that for the most part I have quoted them without distinction, under tlie genenil and well-known title of th«» Augustan History. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH VOLLME OF TIIK ORIGINAL QUARTO EDITION. 1 Nvyw discharge my promise, and complete my de- sign, of writing the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, both in the West and the East. The whole period extends from the age of Trajan and the Antonines, to the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet the Second ; and inclndes a review of the Crnsades, and the state of Rome during the middle ages. Since the publication of the first volume, twelve years have elapsed ; twelve years, according to my wish, "of health, of leisure, and of perseverance." I may now congratulate my deliverance from a long and laborious service, and my satisfaction will be pure and perfect, if the public favor sliould be extended to the conclusion of my work. It was my first intention to have collected, under one view, the nutnerous authors, of every age and language, from whom I have derived the materials of this history; and I am still convinced that the appar- ent ostentation would be more than compensated by ■eal use. if I have renounced this idea, if 1 have declined an undertaking which had obtained the XXXll PREFACE. approbation of a master-artist,* my excuse may be found in the extreme difficulty of assigning a proper measure to such a catalogue. A naked list of names and editions would not be satisfactory either to myself or my readers : the characters of the principal Authors of the Roman and Byzantine History have been occasionally connected with the events which they describe ; a more copious and critical inquiry might indeed deserve, but it would demand, an elaborate volume, which might swell by degrees into a general library of historical writers. For the present, I shall content myself with renewing my serious protestation, that I have always endeavored to draw from the foun- tain-head ; that my curiosity, as well as a sense of duty, has always urged me to study the originals ; and that, if they have sometimes eluded my search, I have carefully marked the secondary evidence, on whose faith a passage or a fact were reduced to depend. I shall soon revisit the banks of the Lake of Lau- sanne, a country which I have known and loved from my early youth, i Under a mild government, amidst a beauteous landscape, in a life of leisure and independ- ence, and among a people of easy and elegant man- ners, I have enjoyed, and may again hope to enjoy^ the varied pleasures of retirement and society. But I shall ever glory in the name and character of an Eng- lishman : I am proud of my birth in a free and enlight- ened country ; and the approbation of that country is the best and most honorable reward of my laborsj Were I ambitious of any other Patron than the Public, I would inscribe this work to a Statesman, who, in » • Se« P''. Robertson's Preface to his History of America. PR£rACE. XXXlli long, a stormy, and at length an unfortunate adminis- tration, had many political opponents, almost without R personal enemy ; who has retained, in his fall from power, many faithful and disinterested friends; and who, under the pressure of severe infirmity, enjoys the lively vigor of his mind, and the felicity of his incomparable temper. Lord North will permit me to express the feelings of friendship in the language of truth : but even truth and friendship should be silent, if he still dispensed the favors of the crown. In a remote solitude, vanity may still whisper in my ear, that my readers, perhaps, may inquire whether, in the conclusion of the present work, I am now taking an everlasting farewell. They shall hear all that I know myself, and all that I could reveal to the most intimate friend. The motives of action or silence are now equally balanced ; nor can I pronounce, in my most secret thoughts, on which side the scale will preponderate. I caimot dissemble that six ample quartos must have tried, and may have exhausted, the indulgence of the Public ; that, in the repetition of similar attempts, a successful Author has much more to lose than he can hope to gain ; that I am now descending into the vale of years ; and that the most respectable of my countrymen, the men whom I aspire to imitate, have resigned the pen of history about the same period of their lives. Yet I consider that the annals of ancient and modern times may alford many rich and interesting subjects; that I am still possessed of health and leisure ; that by the practice of writing some skill and facility must be accpiired ; and that, in the ardent pursuit of truth and knowledge, I am iiol 2* XXXIV PREFACE. conscious of decay. To an active mind indolence is more painful than labor ; and the first months of my liberty will be occupied and amused in the excursions of curiosity and taste. By such temptations, I have been sometimes seduced from the rigid duty even of a pleasing and voluntary task : but my time will now be my own ; and in the use or abuse of independence, I shall no longer fear my own reproaches or those of my friends. I am fairly entitled to a year of jubilee • next summer and the following winter will rapidly pass away ; and experience only can determine whether I shall still preter the freedom and variety of study to the design and composition of a regular work, which animates, while it confines, the daily application of the Author. Caprice and accident may influence my choice ; but the dexterity of self-love will contrive to applaud either active industry or philosophic repose. DowNiNO Street, May 1, 1788. P. S. I shall embrace this opportunity of intro- ducing two verbal remarks, which have not conve- niently offered themselves to my notice. 1. As often as I use the definitions of beyond the Alps, the Rhins, the Danube, (fcc, I generally suppose myself at Rome, ahi afterwards at Constantinople; without observing whether this relative geography may agree with the local, but variable, situation of the reader, or the histo- rian. 2. In proper names of foreign, and especially of Orienta/ origin, it should be always our ann to FREFACE. XXXV ftxpress, in our English version, a faithful copy of the original/ But this rule, which is founded on a just regard to uniformity and truth, must often be relaxed; and the exceptions will be limited or enlarged by the custom of the language and the taste of the interpreter. Our alphabets may be often defective ; a harsh sound, an uncouth spelling, might offend the ear or the eye of our countrymen ; and some words, notoriously cor- rupt, are fixed, and, as it were, naturalized in tiie vulgai tongue. The prophet Mohamvied can no longer be stripped of the famous, though improper, appellation of Mahomet : the well-known cities of Aleppo, Da- mascus, and Cairo, would almost be lost in the strange descriptions of HaUb, Demaslik, and Al Caliira: the titles and offices of the Ottoman empire are fashioned by the practice of three hundred years ; and we are pleased to blend the three Chinese monosyllables, Con-fu-tzee^ in the respectable name of Confucius, oi even to adopt the Portuguese corruption of Mandarin. But I would vary the use of Zoroaster and ^erdusht, as I drew my information from Greece or Persia : since our c )nnection with India, the genuii.e Timour is restored to the throne of Tamerlane : our most correct writers have retrenched the Al, the superfluous article. from the Koran ; and we escape an ambiguous termi- nation, by adopting Moslem instead of Musulman, in the plural number. In these, and in a thousand exam- ples, the shades of distinction are often minute ; and I can feel, where I cannot explain, the motives of my choice. • ,• At rl e end of the History, the reader will find a Gererol InJei to the -\tinle Work, which has been drawn up by a person ficquenUy employed in works ot thia nature. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTER I. IHB IXTENT AND MILITARY FORCE OF THE EMPIRE, IN THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES. A. D. PAOK Introduction, 1 Moderation of Augustus, 3 Imitated by his Successors, 3 Conquest of Britain, the first Exception to it, 4 Conquest of Dae ia, the second Exception to it 5 Conquests of Trajan in the East 7 Resigned by his Successor, Hadrian, 8 Contrast of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius 8 Pacific System of Hadrian and the two Antonines, i Defensive Wars of Marcus Antoninus, K Military Establishment of the Roman Emperors, 10 Discipline 11 Exercises, 12 The Legions under the Emperors, 14 Arms, , 15 Cavalry, 15 Auxiliaries, 17 Artillery, 17 Encampment, 18 March, 19 Number and Disposition of the Legions, 19 Navy 20 Amount of the whole Establishment, 21 View of the Provinces of the Roman Empire 21 Spain 21 Gaul 22 BriUuii... 2J iXXVl CONTENTS. * • *Aam Itely 25 The Danube and 111} rian Frontier ?4 Rhetia, ^i Koricum and P&auonia, 2S Dalmatia 26 Ma-sia and Dacia 20 Thr^ice, Macedonia, and Greece, ••• ^3 Asia Minor, 26 Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine '^7 Egypt 30 Africa, c.C The Mediterranean, with its Islands, 81 General Idea of the Roman Empire 32 CHAPTER II. •t THE UNION AND INTERNAL PROSPERITY OF THE ROMAN l!MHIRB IV THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES. Principles of Government, 33 Universal Spirit of Toleration, 33 or the People 34 Of Philosophers S.") Of the Magistrates, 3( In the Provinces, 37 At Home, '3F Freedom of Rome, 39 Italy 41 The Provinces 42 Colonies and Municipal Towns, 42 Division of the "Latin and the Greek Provinces 44 General Use of both the Greek and Latin Languages, 46 Slaves 47 Their Treatment, 47 Enfranchisement, 60 Numbers, 51 Populousness of the Roman Empire, 62 Obedience and Union, 64 Bcman Monuments, 65 Many of them erected at private Expense, 66 Example of II erodes Atticus, 6^ H is Reputation 67 Most of the Roman Monuments for public Use, ^fi Twiples, Theatres, A(|ucdiicts 6k Number and O-eatness of the Cities of the Empir* W CONTENTS. XXXV 11 In Italy 60 Oaul and Spain, 61 Africa 61 Asia 62 Roman lioads 63 Posts 64 JSavigation, M Improvement of Agriculture iu the Western Countries of the Empire, 65 Introduction of Fruits, &c., 6-5 The Vine 6-i The Olive 66 Flax, 66 Artificial Grass 67 General Plenty, 67 Arts of Luxury, 68 Foreign Trade, 68 Gold and Silver '69 General Felicity, 70 Decline of Courage, 70 Decline of Genius, 71 Degeneracy, - 72 CHAPTER III. Ot TBE CONSTITUTION OF THR ROMAN EUFIUB IN TUB AQK OF TUB ANT0NINK8. Idea of a Monarchy 73 Situation of Augustus, 73 He reforms the Senate 74 Resigns hi:« usurped Power, 7o Is prevailed upon to resume it under the Title of Emperor, or General 7'^ Power of the Roman Generals, 76 Lieutenants of the Emperor, 7" Division of the Provinces between the Emperor and the Senate, 78 The former preserves his military Command, and Guards, in Rome itself, 79 Consular and Tribunitiun Powers, 79 Imperial Prerogatives, 80 The Magistrates, 81 The Senate 82 General Idea of the Imperial System, 83 Court of the Eniperors, 8>! CXXVIU CONTENTS. *• D. fAas. Deification 84 Titles of Auffustiis and Ceesar 85 Character and Policy of Augustus, 86 Image of Liberty for the People, 87 Attempts of the Senate after the Death of Caligula, 87 Image of Government for the Armies, 89 Their Obedience, 89 Designation of a Successor, &0 Of Tiberius, 90 Of Titus, 90 The Race of the Ctesars, and Flavian Family, 90 96 Adoption and Character of Trajan, 91 117 Of Hadrian 92 Adoption of the elder and younger Verus 92 i3S — ISO. Adoption of the two An tonines, 93 Character and Reign of Pius, 94 Character and Reign of Marcus, 94 Happiness of the Romans, 95 Its precarious Nature, 95 Memo'y of Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, and Domitian, 9fi Peculiar Misery of the Romans under their Tyrants, 96 Insensibility of the Orientals, 97 Knowledge and free Spirit of the Romans 98 Extent of their Empire left them no Place of Refuge 99 « CHAPTER IV. THE CHUELTY, FOLLIES, AND MURDER OF C0MM0DU8. — ELECTION OP PERTINAX. — HIS ATTEMPTS TO REFORM THE SIATE. — HIS ASSASSIN- ATION BY THE PR^TORIAN GUARDS. Indulgence of Marcus, ••••• 101 To his Wife, Faustina 101 To his Son Commodus, 102 180. Accession of the Emperor Ccmmodus, 102 Character of Commodus, 103 His Return to Rome, 103 183. Is wounded by an Assassin 104 Hatred and Cruelty of Commodus towards the Senate, 105 The Quintilian Brothers, 105 186. The Minister Perennis, 106 Revolt of Maternus, 107 The Minister Oleander, 107 His Avarice and Cruelty, 108 18P Sedition and Death of Cleande- lOb CONTENTS. ZXXIX *. ». rioa. Dissolute Pleasures of Comraodus, « Ill His Ignorance and low Sports, Ill Hunting of wild Beasts, Ill Commudus displays his Skill in the Amphitheatre, 112 Acts as a Gladiator, 113 His Infamy and Extravagance, lib Conspiracy of his Domestics, 115 »92. Death of Commodus, 116 Choice of Pertinax for Emperor, 116 He is acknowledged by the Praetorian Guards, 117 193. And by the Senate 117 The Memory of Commodus declared infamous, 118 Legal Jurisdiction of the Senate over the Eniperors, 118 Virtues of Pertinax, 119 He endeavors to reform the State 120 His Regulations, , 120 His Popularity 121 Discontent of the Prnetorians, 121 A Conspiracy prevented, 122 193. Murder of Pertinax by the Praetorians, 122 CHAPTER V. PUBLIC SALE OP T'lE EMPIRE TO DIDIU8 JULIANU8 BY THE PR.'ETO- EIAN GUARDS. — CL0DIU8 ALHINUS IN BRITAIN, PESCENNIl'S NIGER IN SYRIA, AND 8EPTIMIUS 8EVERU8 IN PANNONIA, DECLARE AOA1N8T THE MURDERERS OF PERTINAX. — CIVIL WARS AND VICTORY OF SEA'E- HU8 OVER HIS THREE RIVALS. — RELAXATION OF DISCIPLINE. — NEW MAXIMS OF GOVERNMENT. Proportion of the Military Force to the Number of the People, 124 The Pnetorian Guards 124 Their Institution 12'5 Their Camp 12.5 Strength and Confidence, I'io Their specious Claims, 126 They offer the Empire to Sale 127 193. It is purchased by Julian, 127 Julian is acknowledged by the Senate, 128 Takes Possession of the Palace, 128 The public Discontent 129 Ihe Armies of Britain, Syria, and Pannonia declare against Julian 129 Clodius Albinus in Britain, 130 Pescennius Niger in Syria 131 f] CONTENTS. * r - *-■ Paur.onia and Dalmatia, 13'-< 19« Septimius Severus 133 Declared Emperor by the raunonian Legions, 134 Marches into Italy 134 Advances towards Rome, 134 Distress of Julian, 135 His uncertain Conduct, 136 Is deserted by the Praetorians, 136 Is condemned and executed by Order of the Senate, 130 Disgrace of the Prajtorian Guards, 13J Funeral and Apotheosis of Pertinax, 137 19S— 197. Success of Severus against Niger and against Albinus, ... 137 Conduct of the two Civil Wars, 138 Arts of Severus, 138 Towards Niger, 139 Towards Albinus 140 Event of the Civil Wars 141 Decided by one or two Battles, 141 Siege of Byzantium 142 Death of Niger and Albinus, 143 Cruel Consequences of the Civil Wars, 143 Animosity of Severus against the Senate, 144 The Wisdom and Justice of his Government 144 General Peace and Prosperity 145 Relaxation of military Discipline, 145 New Establishment of the PriEtorian Guards, 146 The Office of Pra;torian Prefect, 147 The Senate oppressed by military Despotism, 148 ■^ew Maxims of the Imperial Prerogative 149 CHAPTER VI. THE DEATH OF 8KVEUVS. — TYRANNY OF CAHACALI.A. — VSIKPATION Tumult at Rome, 210 TVie younger Gordian is decl'jed Csesar 211 Maximin prepares to attack the Senate and their Emperors, ... 211 238. Marches into Italy, 213 CONTENTS. Xliil • D PAOB Siege of Aquileia, 213 Conduct of Maximus, 214 238 Murder of Maximin and his Son, 214 His Portrait, 21A Joy of the Roman World 21(1 Sedition at Rome, 216 Discontent of the Prsetorian Guards, • 217 238. Massacre of Maximus and Balbinus .«*. 21S The third Gordian remains sole Emperor, 220 Innocence and Virtues of Gordian, 220 240. Administration of Misitheus 221 242. The Persian War, 221 243 The Arts of Philip, 221 244. Murder of Gordian 222 Form of a military Republic, 222 Reign of Philip 223 248. Secular Games, 224 Decline of the Roman Empire, • 224 CHAPTER VIII. or THB STATE OF PEKSIA AFTER THE RESTORATION OP THE MONABCHT BY ARTAXERXES. The Barbarians of the East and of the North, 228 Revolutions of Asia, 226 The Persian Monarchy restored by Artaxerxes, 228 Reformation of the Magian Religion 229 Persian Theology, two Principles, 231 Religious Worship, 233 Ceremonies and moral Precepts, 234 Encouragement of Agriculture, 234 Power of the Magi 23/= Spirit of Persecution 237 Establishment of the Royal Authority in the Provinces, 237 Extent and Population of Persia, 239 Recapitulation of the War between the Parthian and Roman Empires, 246 W5, Cities of Selcucia and Ctesiphon, 241 213. Conquest of Osrhoene by the Romans, 242 230. Artaxerxes claims the Provinces of Asia, and declares War against the Romans, 243 233 Pretended Victory of Alexander Severus, 244 More probable Account of the War, 245 240 Charactei and Majums of Artaxerxes, * 246 tliv CONTENTS. » ■• fAoa Military Power of the Persians, • 247 Their Infantry contemptible, W Their Cavalry excellent, 24* CHAPTER. IX. THE BTATB OT GERMANY TILL THE INVASION OP THB BARBARIAX8, IM THE TIME OF THE EMPEROR DECIU8. Extent of Germany, 249 Climate, 253 Its Effects on the Natives, 254 Origin of the Germans 255 Fables and Conjectures, 255 The Germans ignorant of Letters, 257 The Germans ignorant of Arts and Agricnltxire 258 The Germans ignorant of the Use of Metals, 259 Their Indolence, 260 Their Taste for strong Liquors, 261 State of Population, 262 German Freedom, 263 Assemblies of the People, 264 Authority of the Princes and Magistrates, 265 More absolute over the Property than over the Persons of the Germans, 266 Voluntary Engagements, 266 German Chastity, 267 Its probable Causes • 268 Religion, 269 Its Effects in Peace, 270 Its Effects in War 271 The Bards • 271 Causes which checked the Progress of the Germans, 272 Want of Arms, 272 Want of Discipline, 273 Civil Dissensions of Germany, 274 Fomented by the Policy of Rome 275 Transient Union against Marcus Antoninus 27S Diitinctjon of the German Tribe, 277 JUnrobers *»" CONTENTS. in CHAPTER X. TBI EMPZRORfl DKCirS, 0ALLU8, ^.MILIANUS, TALERIAM AND 0\LLIB* HU8. — THE GENERAL IRRUPTION OF THE BARBARIANS. — THE THIB* TT TYRANTS. A. B »»«■• 248—268. The Nature of the Subject, 27» The Emperor Philip 279 249. Services, Revolt, Victory, and Reign of the Emperor Decius,.. 280 2.J0 lie marches against the Goths, 281 Origin of the Goths from Scandinavia 281 Religion of the Goths 283 Institutions and Death of Odin 283 Agreeable, but uncertain. Hypothesis concerning Odin, 284 Emigration of the Goths from Scandinavia into Prussia, 285 Emigration from Prussia to the Ukraine, 286 The Gothic Nation increases in its March 287 Distinction of the Germans and Sarmatians, •• 288 Description of the Ukraine, 288 The Goths invade the Roman Provinces 289 250. Various Effects of the Gothic War 290 251. Decius revives the Office of Censor in the Person of Valerius,.. 291 The Design impracticable and without Effect, 293 Defeat and Death of Decius and his Son, 293 251. Election of Gallus 295 262. Retreat of the Goths 295 Gallus purchases Peace by the Payment of an annual Tribute,. 295 Popular Discontent, 296 263. Victory and Revolt of ^milianus, 296 Gallus abandoned and slain, 297 Valerian revenges the Death of Gallus, 297 Valerian is acknowledged Emperor 297 Character of Valerian, 298 863-268. General Misfortunes of the Reigns of Valerian and Oal- lienus, 298 Inroads of the Barbarians, 299 Origin and Confederacy of the Franks 299 They invade Gaul, , 3U0 Ravage Spain , 301 Pass over into Africa, 302 Origin and Renown of the Suevi, 302 A mixed Body of Suevi assume the Name of Alemanni, 302 Invade Gaul and Italy 303 Are repulsed from Rome by the Senate and People, 3031 The Senators excluded by Gallienus from the Military Service, 304 «lvi CONTENTS. • o nam O&Uienus contracts an Alliance with the Alemanni, 30< Inroads of the Goths 30fi Conquest of the Bosphorus by the Goths, 30<> The Goths acquire a Naval Force 307 First Naval Expedition of the Goths, 307 The Goths besiege and take Trebizond, 308 The Second Expedition of the Goths 308 They plunder the Cities of Bithynia, 310 Retreat of the Goths, 310 Third Naval Expedition of the Goths, 310 They pass the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, 311 Ravage Greece and threaten Italy, 312 Their Divisions and Retreat, 313 Ruin of the Temple of Ephesus, 313 Conduct of the Goths at Athens -... 314 Conquest of Armenia by the Persians, 314 Valerian marches into the East, 316 880. Is defeated and taken Prisoner by Sapor, King of Persia, 315 Sapor overruns Syria, Cilicia, and Cappadocia 316 Boldness and Success of Odenathus against Sapor, 318 Treatment of Valerian, 318 Character and Administration of Gallienus, 320 The Thirty Tyrants, 321 Their real Number not more than Nineteen, 322 Character and Merit of the Tyrants, 322 Their obscure Birth, 323 The Causes of their Rebellion, S23 Their violent Deaths, 324 Fatal Consequences of these Usurpations, 325 Disorders of Sicily, 326 Tumults of Alexandria 326 Rebellion of the Isaurians,..!..... «>27 Famine and Pestilence, 328 Diminution of the Human Species 329 CHAPTER XI. BalON OF CLAUDIUS. — DEFEAT OP THE OOTH8. — TICTOKIE8, TRIUMPH, AND DEATH OP AURELIAN. 368. Anreolus invades Italy, is defeated and besieged at Milan 330 Death of Gallienus '■^■^^ Character and Elevation of the Emperor Claudius, 3.'52 K8 Death of Aureolas 333 CONTENTS. Xlvii •• » tkOK Clemency and Justice of Claudius 33> He undertakes the Reformation of the Army, 33i S69. The Goths invade the Empire 33>5 Distress and Firmness of Claudius 33A His Victory over the Ooths, 336 370 Death of the Emperor, who recommends Aurelian for his Suc> cesspr, 338 The Attempt and Fall of Quintilius, 338 Origin and Services of Aurelian 339 Aurelian's successful Reign, 340 His severe Discipline 340 He concludes a Treaty with the Goths, 341 He resigns to them the Province of Dacia, 341 270 The Alemannic War 342 The Alemanni invade Italy, 344 They are at last vanquished by Aurelian, 344 371. Superstitious Ceremonies, 345 Fortifications of Rome, 346 271. Aurelian suppresses the two Usurpers, 347 Succession of Usurpers in Gaul, 348 271. The Reign and Defeat of Tetricus, 348 272. Character of Zenobia, 349 Her Beauty and Learning, 349 Her Valor, 349 She revenges her Husband's Death, 351 She reigns over the East and Egypt, 352 J72. The Expedition of Aurelian, 353 The Emperor defeats the Palmyrenians in the Battles of An- tioch Emesa, 354 The State of Palmyra, 354 It is besieged by Aurelian, 355 S73. Aurelian becomes Master of Zenobia, and of the City, 355 Behavior of Zenobia, 356 Rebellion and Ruin of Palmyra, 3<57 Aurelian suppresses the Rebellion of Finnus in Egypt 358 174 Triumph of Aurelian, 359 His Treatment of Tetricus and Zenobia, 360 His Magnificence and Devotion 361 He suppresses a Sedition at Rome 361 Observations upon it, 362 Cruelty of Aurelian ^ 363 276. He marches into he £a it, and is assassinated SOI 8 XlVlii CONTENXS- CHAPTER XII. CONDUCT or THE ARMY AND SENATE AFTER THE DEATH 0¥ AUREL1A3I — KEIGNS OF TACITUS, PROBUS, CARUS, AND HIS SONS. A. o. rAoa Extraordinary Contest between the Army and the Senate for the Choice of an Emperor 366 275. A peaceful Interregnum of eight Months, 367 The Consul assembles the Senate, 368 Character of Tacitus, 369 He is elected Emperor, 370 He accepts the Purple, 370 Authority of the Senate, 371 Their Joy and Confidence, - 372 276. Tacitus is acknowledged by the Army, 372 The Alani invade Asia, and are repulsed by Tacitus, 373 276. Death of the Emperor Tacitus, 373 Usurpation and Death of his Brother Florianus, 374 Their Family subsists in Obscurity, 375 Character and Elevation of the Emperor Probus, 375 His respectful Conduct towards the Senate, 376 Victories of Probus over the Barbarians, 377 277- He delivers Gaul from the Invasion of the Germans, 378 He carries his Arms into Germany, 380 He builds a Wall from the Rhine to the Danube, 381 Introduction and Settlement of the Barbarians, 383 Daring Enterprise of the Franks, 384 279. Revolt of Saturninus in the East, 384 280. Revolt of Bonosus and Froculus in Gaul,.... 385 281. Triumphof the Emperor Probus , 386 His Discipline, 386 282. His Death, 387 Election and Character of Carus, 388 The Sentiments of the Senate and People, 389 Carus defeats the Sarmatians, and marches into the East 389 283. He gives Audience to the Persian Ambassadors, 390 283. His Victories, and extraordinary Death, 39(? He is succeeded by his two Sons, Carinus and Numerian, 392 284. Vices of Carinus, 393 He celebrates the Roman Games 394 Spectacles of Rome, 395 The Amphitheatre 396 Return of Numerian with the Army from Persia 398 Death of Numerian 399 284. Election of the Emperor Diocletian, 40C 280. Defeat and Death of Carinus, 40) coN'paNTs. xlw CIIAI'TER Xlil. fBB HEIGN OF DIOCLETIAN AND HIS THBEE ASSOCIATES, MAXIMIAN, OALEKIU8, AND CONSTANTIUS. — GENERAL RBESTABH8HMENT OF OB- DER AND TRANOaiLLITY. — THE PERSIAN WAR, VICTORY, AND TRI- UMPH. — THE NEW FORM OP ADMINISTRATION. — ABDICATION AND RETIREMENT OP DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMIAN. ». D. '*«■ fcj. Elevation and Character of Diocletian 402 His Clemency in Victory, 403 286. Association and Character of Maximian 404 292. Association of two Caesars, Galerius and Constantius, 406 Departments and Harmony of the four Princes, 406 Series of Events, 407 287. State of the Peasants of Gaul 407 Their Rebellion, 408 And Chastisement, 408 287. Revolt of Carausius in Britain, 409 Importance of Britain 410 Power of Carausius, 410 289. Acknowledged by the other Emperors 411 294. His Death, 412 296. Recovery of Britain by Constantius, 412 Defence'of the Frontiers, 413 Fortifications, 413 Dissensions of the Barbarians, 413 Conduct of the Emperors, 414 Valor of the Caesars, 414 Treatment of the Barbarians, 415 Wars of Africa and Egypt, 415 296. Conduct of Diocletian in Egypt, 416 , He suppresses Books of Alchemy, 417 Novelty and Progress of that Art, 418 The Persian War 419 282. Tiridatesthe Armenian, 419 286. His Restoration to the Throne of Armenia, 419 State of the Country, 420 Revolt of the People and Nobles 420 Story of Mamgo, 421 The Persians recover Armenia 422 396. War between the Persians and the Romans, 423 Defeat of Galerius, 423 His Reception by Diocletian, 424 2U7. Second Campaign of Galerius, ■ . 421 His Victory, 42iS His Behavior to his Royal Captives 426 I CONTENTS. Negotiation for Peace, 426 Speech of the Persian Ambassador, 427 Answer of Galerius, 427 Moderation of Diocletian, 427 Conclusion of a Treaty of Peace, 427 Articles of the Treaty, 427 The Aboras fixed as the Limits between the Empires, 428 Cession of five Provinces beyond the Tigris 428 Armenia, 429 Iberia, , 43C 803 Triumph of Diocletian and Maximian, 431 Long Absence of the Emperors from Rome, 432 Their Residence at Milan, 433 Their Residence at Nicomedia, 434 Debasement of Rome and of the Senate 434 New Bodies of Guards, Jovians and Herculians, 435 Civil Magistracies laid aside, 435 Imperial Dignity and Titles, 436 Diocletian assumes the Diadem, and introduces the Persian Cer- emonial 437 New Form of Administration, two Augusti and two Caesars 438 Increase of Taxes, 439 Abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, 441 Resemblance to Charles the Fifth, '. . 441 iOi. Long Illness of Diocletian, 442 His Prudence, 442 Compliance of Maximian, 443 Retirement of Diocletian at Salona, 444 His Philosophy, 444 813. His Death, 445 Description of Solona and the adjacent Country, 445 Of Diocletian's Palace, 448 Decline of the Arts, 447 Decline of Letters, - 449 The New Platonists 449 CHAPTER XIV. TROUBLES AFTER THE ABniCATION OF DIOCLETIAN. — DEATH OF C0N8TAK TIU8. — ELEVATION OF CONSTANTINE AND MAXENTIU8. — 9TT EMI'EB- 0R3 AT THE SAME TIME. — DEATH OF MAXIMIAN AND OALERirS. — TIO- TOE.IES OF CONSTANTINE OVER MAXENTIUS AND LICINIUS. — REUNION OF THE EMPIRE UNDEli THE AUTHORITY OF CONSTANTINE. 305—^3. Period of Civil Wars and Confusion, 451 Ckaraetirr and Situation of CdnBtantiuB 441 rONTENTS. h Of U&ieriu? 4.^3 The two Caesars, Scverus and Mazimin, 4<53 Ambition ofGalerius disappointed by two lie volutions, 4o4 274. Birth, Education, and £scape of Constantine, 455 S06. Death of Constantius, and Elevation of Constantine, 457 He is acknowledged by Oalerius, who gives him only the title of Cxsar, and that of Augustus tu Severus, 468 The Brothers and Sisters of Constantine 458 Discontent of the Komans at the Apprehension of Taxes, 459 3u6. Maxcntius declared Emperor at Rome, 460 Maximian reassumes the Purple, 461 807. Defeat and Death of Severus, 462 Maximian gives his Daughter Fausta, and the title of Augustus, to Constantine, 463 Oalerius invades Italy 463 His Retreat 46.5 307. Elevation of Licinius to the Rank of Augustus, 46-5 Elevation of Maximin 466 808. Six Emperors 466 Misfortunes of Maximian, 467 310. His Death 469 311. Death of Oalerius, 469 His Dominion shared between Maximin and Licinius, 470 308—312. Administration of Constantine in Oaul, 471 Tyranny of Maxentius in Italy and Africa 471 312. Civil War between Constantine and Maxentius 473 Preparations, 474 Constantine passes the Alps, 47o Battle of Turin 475 Siege and Battle of Verona 477 Indolence and Fears of Maxentius, 479 812. "Victory of Constantine near Rome, 480 His Reception, • 482 His Conduct at Rome, 484 813. His Alliance with Licinius, 485 War between Maximin and Licinius, 485 The Defeat of Maximin, 486 His Death 4bo Cruelty of Licinius, 486 Unfortunate Fate of the Empress Valeria and her Mother 487 ?14 Quarrel between Constantine and Licinius 489 First Civil War between them, 490 314. Battle of Cybalis, 491 Battle of Mardia, 491 Treaty of Peace 492 315 — 323. General Peace and Laws of Constantine, 493 522. The Gothic War 496 lii CONTENTS. • ekom i)Lu. Secunil Cinl War between Constantine and Licinlus 4J7 Battle of Hadrianople, 4!)9 Siege of Byzantium, and Naval Victory of Crispus, 500 Battle of Chrysopolis, 501 Submission and Death of Licinius, 502 SSL Beuuioa of the Empire 603 CHAPTER XV. THE PROORESS OP THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, AND THE SENTIMENTS, MAN- NERS, NUMBERS, AND CONDITION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. Importance of the Inquiry 504 Its Difficulties, 504 Five Causes of the Growth of Christianity, 505 I. The First Cause. Zeal of the Jews, 505 Its gradual Increase 509 Their Religion better suited to Defence than to Conquest, 510 More liberal Zeal of Christianity, 512 Obstinacy and Reasons of the believing Jews 513 The Nazarene Church of Jerusalem, 514 TheEbionites 516 The Gnostics, 518 Their Sects, Progress, and Influence, 520 The Daemons considered as the Gods of Antiquity 522 Abhorrence of the Christians for Idolatry, 523 Ceremonies 524 Arts, 525 Festivals 526 Zeal for Christianity, 627 II. The Second Cause. The Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul among the Philosophers, 528 Among the Pagans of Greece and Rome, 528 Among the Barbarians and the Jews, 530 Among the Christians, 532 Approaching End of the World, 632 Doctrine of the Millennium, 533 Conflagration of Rome and of the World, 536 The Pagans devoted to eternal Punishment, 537 Were often converted by their Fears, 638 III. The Third Cause. Miraculous Powers of the Primitive Church 539 Their Truth contested 641 Oui Perplexity in defining the Miraculous Period 642 Dae nf the primitive Miracles, •'• "4^ CONTENTS, liii IV. The Fourth Cause. Virtues of the first Christians, 643 Etfects of their Repentance, 645 Care of their Reputation 646 Morality of the Fathers 647 Principles of Human Nature, 647 The primitive Christians condemn Pleasure and Luxury, 648 Their Sentiments concerning Marriage and Chastity, 649 Their Aversion to the Business of War and Government, 651 V. The Fifth Cause. The Christians active iu the Govern- ment of the Church, ^3 Its primitive Freedom and Kquality 654 Institutions of Bishops as Presidents of the College of Presby- ters, > 556 Prov-incial Councils, 668 Union of the Church, 659 Progress of Episcopal Authority '^•59 PreJ'minence of the Metropolitan Churches, 660 Ambition of the Roman Pontiff, 561 Laity and Clergy, 562 Oblations and Revenue of the Church, 663 Distribution of the Revenue, 566 Excommunication, 56, Public Penance, 568 The Dignity of Episcopal Government, 669 Recapitulation of the Five Causes, 571 Weakness of Polytheism, 572 The Scepticism of the Pagan World proved favorable to the new Religion, 572 And to the Peace and Union of the Roman Empire, 573 Historical View of the Progress of Christianity 673 In the East, 675 The Church of Antioch, 676 In Egypt 577 In Rome, 57S In Africa and the Western Provinces 680 Beyond the Limits of the Roman Empire 582 General Proportion of Christians and Pagans, 683 Whether the first Christians were mean and ignorant, 584 Some Exceptions with regard to Learning, 684 With regard to Rank and Fortune, 585 Christianity most favorably received by the Poor and Simple,. . • . 685 Rejected by some eminent Men of the first and second Centuries, 586 Their Neglect of Prophecy, 587 Their Neglect of Miracles, 688 Oeixeral Silence concerning the Darkness of the Passion, 589 THE HISTORY or THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. — THE EXTENT AND MILITARY FORCE OF THB EMPIRE IN THE AGE OF TUE ANTONINES. In the second century of the Christian JEra, the ennpire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind. The frontiers of thai extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valor. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of tho provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence : the Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of gov- ernment. During a happy period of more than fourscore years, the public administration was conducted by the virtue And abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Anto- riines. It is the design of this, and of the two succeeding chap- ters, to describe the prosperous condition of their empire ; and afterwards, from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most important circumstances of its decline and fall ; a revolution which will ever be remembered, and is still felt by the nations of tho earth. The principal conquests of the Romans were achievei V THE DECLINE AND FALL under the republic ; and the emperors, for the most part, were satisfied with preserving those dominions which had oeen acquired by the policy of the senate, the active emula- "ion of the consuls, and the martial enthusiasm of the people. The seven first centuries were filled with a rapid succession of triumphs ; but it was reserved for Augustus to relinquish the ambitious design of subduing the whole earth, and to in- trod ice a spirit of moderation into the public councils. In* cliiied to peace by his temper and situation, it was easj for him to discover that Rome, in her present exalted situation, had much less to hope than to fear from the chance of arms ; and that, in the prosecution of remote wars, the undertaking became every day more difficult, the event more doubtful, and the possession more precarious, and less beneficial. Th« experience of Augustus added weight to these salutary re- flections, and effectually convinced him that, by the prudent vigor of his counsels, it would be easy to secure every con- cession which the safety or the dignity of Rome might require from the most formidable barbarians. Instead tff exposing his person and his legions to the arrows of the Parthians. he obtained, by an honorable treaty, the restitution of the stan- dards and prisoners which had been taken in the defeat of Crassus.i His generals, in the early part of his reign, attempted the reduction of Ethiopia and Arabia Felix. They marched near a thousand miles to the south of the tropic ; but the heat of the climate soon repelled the invaders, and protected the un- warlike natives of those sequestered regions.^ The northern ' Dion Cassius, (1. liv. p. 736,) with the annotations of Roimar, who has collected all that Roman vanity has left upon the subject. The marble of Ancyra, on which Augustus recorded his own ex- ploits, asserts that he compelled the Parthians to restore the ensigns of Crassus. " Strabo, (1. xvi. p. 780,) Tliny the elder, (Hist. Natur. 1 vi. •5. 32, 35, [28, 29,] and Dion Cassius, (1. liii. p. 72;i, and 1. liv p. 734,) have left us/- ' '^ry curious details concerning thc^f wars. The Romans made t. olves masters of Mariaba, or Mcrati, a ciry of Arabia Felix, well known to the Orientals. (See Abul.eda aui the Nubian geography, p. 52.)* They were ai-rived within • It is this city of Merab that the Arabs say was the residence of Brlkis qtveen of Saba, who desired to see Solomon. A dam, by wluch the waters roUected in its neif^liborhood were kept back, haviiij; beer, swept awiiy, the Buddeii inundation destroyed this city, of which, nevertheless, vestii;;cs remain. It bordered on a country called Adramout. w! ere a particidai ttiunijtic plant grows ; it is for this reason that we read, .n the history «f , OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 3 countries of Europe scarcely deserved the expense and labor of conquest. The forests and morasses of Germany wenf filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated from freedom ; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman power, they soon, by a signal act of despair, regained their independence and reminded Augustus of the vicissitude of fortune."* On the death of that emperor, his testament was publicly read in the senate. lie bequeathed, as a valuable legacy to his suc- cessors, the advice of confining the empire within those limita which nature seemed to have placed as its permanent bulwarka and boundaries : on the west, the Atlantic Ocean ; the Rhine and Danube on the north ; the Euphrates on the east ; and towards the south, the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa."* Happily for the repose of mankind, the moderate system recommended by the wisdom of Augustus, was adopted by the fears and vices of his immediate successors. Engaged in the pursuit of pleasure, or in the exercise of tyranny, the first Cajsars seldom showed themselves to the armies, or to the provinces ; nor were they disposed to suffer, that those tri- umphs which their indolence neglected, should be usurped by the conduct and valor of their lieutenants. The military fame three days' * journey of the spice country, the rich object of theit invasion. ^ By the slaughter of Varus and his three legions. See the first book of the Annals of Tacitus. Sueton. in August, c. 2.J, and Velle- ius Patcrculus, 1. ii. e. 117, &c. Augustus did not receive the melan- choly news with all the temper and firmness that might have been •ixpccted from his character. * Tacit. Annal. 1. ii. Dion Cassius, 1. Ivi. p. 833, and the speech of Augustus himself, in Julian's Ctesars. It receives great light from the learned notes of his French translator, M. Spanheira. the Roman expedition, that they were' arrived within three days' joumey of the spice country. — G. Compare Malte-Jinoi, Geoqr. Eng. trans, vol ii. p. 215. The period of this flood has been copiously discussed byReiske iVroi/rain. de vetustd Epoclut Arahum, niptura cataracta; Mcrabensis.) Add oliainison, Hist. Yvmane Ahl^rpyiators. 8 THE DECLINE AND FALL was justly to be dreadei, that so many distant nations would throw off the unaccustomed yoke, when they were no longer restrained by the powerful hand which had imposed it. it was an ancient tradition, that when the Capitcl waa founded by one of the Roman kings, the god Terminus (who presided over boundaries, and was represented, accord- ing to the fashion of that age, by a large stone) alone, among all the inferior deities, refused to yield his place to Jupiter himself. A favorable inference was drawn from his obsti- nacy, which was interpreted by the augurs as a sure presage that the boundaries of the Roman power would never recede.^a During many ages, the prediction, as it is usual, contributed to its own accomplishment. But though Terminus had resisted the Majesty of Jupiter, he submitted to the authority of tht emperor Hadrian.23 The resignation of all the eastern con quests of Trajan was the first measure of his reign. He restored to the Parthians the election of an independent sover- eign ; withdrew the Roman garrisons from the provinces of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria ; and, in compliance wi;h the precept of Augustus, once more established the Euphrates as the frontier of the empire.^^ Censure, which arraigns the public actions and the private motives of princes, has ascribed to envy, a conduct which might be attributed to the prudence and moderation of Hadrian. The various character of that emperor, capable, by turns, of the meanest and the most gen- erous sentiments, may afford some color to the suspicion. It was, however, scarcely in his power to place the superiority of his predecessor in a more conspicuous light, than by thus confessing himself unequal to the task of defending the con- quests of Trajan. The martial and ambitious spirit of Trajan formed a very singular contrast with the moderation of his successor. The restless activity of Hadrian was not less remarkable when " Ovid. Fast. 1. ii. ver. 667. See Livy, and Dionysius of Ilallcor- aassus, under the reign of Tarquin. «* St. Augustin is higlily delighted with the proof of the weak- 0088 of Terminus, and the vanity of the Augurs. See De Civitate Dei, iv. 29.* , ,, v, ^ See the Augustan History, p. 5, Jerome's Chronicle, and all the Epitomizers. It is somewhat surprising, that this memorable eveul ihould be omitted by Dion, or rather by Xiphilin. • The turn of Gibbon's sentence is Augustin's: " Plus Hadrianum 'Cgein homiiium, quara regem Ueoruiu tiniuissc vidcatrr. ' — M. / OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE tf compared with the gentle repose of Antoninus Pius. The life of the former was almost a perpetual journey ; and as h& possessed the various talents of the soldier, the statesman, and the scholar, he gratified his curiosity in the discharge of his J^/^duty. Careless of the difference of seasons and of climates, Uie marched on foot, and hare-headed, over the snows of Cal- edonia, and the sultry plains of the Upper Egypt ; nor was there a province of the empire which, in the course of hia reign, was not honored with the presence of the monarch.^^ But the tranquil life of Antoninus Pius was spent in the bosom of Italy; and, during the twenty-three years that he directed the public administration, the longest journeys of that amiable prince extended no farther than from his palace in Rome to the retirement of his Lanuvian villa.26 Notwithstanding this difference in their personal conduct, the general system of Augustus was equally adopted and uni- formly pursued by Hadrian and by the two Antonines. They persisted in the design of maintaining the dignity of the empire, without attempting to enlarge its limits. By every honorable expedient they invited the friendship of the bar- barians ; and endeavored to convince mankind that the Roman power, raised above the temptation of conquest, was actuated only by the love of order and justice. During a long period of forty-three years, their virtuous labors were crowned with success ; and if we except a few slight hostilities, that served to exercise the legions of the frontier, the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius ofTer the fair prospect of universal peace.27 The Roman name was revered among the most remote nations of the earth. The fiercest barbarians fre- quently submitted their differences to the arbitration of the ^ Dion, 1. Ixix. p. 1158. Hist. August, p. 5, 8. If all our histo- rians were lost, medals, inscriptions, and other monuments, would be sufficient to record the travels of Hadrian.* ** See the Augustan History and the Epitomes. " We must, however, remember, that in the time of Hadrian, * rebellion of the Jews raged with religious fury, though only in a single province. Pausanias (1. viii. c. 43) mentions twu neceasarj and successful wars, conducted by the generals of Pius : 1st. A.gainst the wandering Moors who were driven into the solitudes of Atlas. 2d. Against the Brigantcs of Britain, who had invaded the Roman province. Botli these wars (with several other Lostilitics) are mentioned in the August '\n History, p. 19. ♦ The journeys of Hadrian are traced in a note on Soluet's trs.nslation of Hegewisch, Essai sur TEpoque de Histoire Romaine la plus heureusa pour le Genre llumain. Paris, 1834, p. 123. — M. 10 THE DECLINE AND FALL emjeror , anci we are informed by a contemporary historian, that \te. had seen ambassadors who were refused l!je honor which they came to sohcit, of being admitted into the rank of siibjects.^^ The terror of the Roman arms added weight and dignity to the moderation of the emperors. They preserved peace by a constant preparation for war ; and while justice regulated their conduct, they announced to the nations on their confines, that they were as little disposed to endure, as to offer an injury. The military strength, which it had been sufficient for Hadrian and the elder Antoninus to display, was exerted against the Parthians and the Germans by the emperor Mar- cus. The hostilities of the barbarians provoked the resent- ment of that philosophic monarch, and, in the prosecution of a just defence, Marcus and his generals obtained many signal victories, both on the Euphrates and on the Danube.-^ The military establishment of the Roman empire, which thus assured either its tranquillity or success, will now become the proppr and important object of our attention. In the purer ages of the commonwealth, the use of arms was r<;served for those ranks of citizens who had a country to love, a property to defend, and some share in enacting those laws, which it wa^ their interest as well as duty to maintain. But in proportion as the public freedom was lost in extent of conquest, war was gradually improved into an art, and de- graded into a trade.-'o The leoions themselves, even at the time when they were recruited in the most distant provinces, ^^ Appian of Alexandria, in the preface to his History of the Roman Wars. "* Dion, 1. Ixxi, Hist. Angust. in Marco. The Parthian victories gave birth to a crowd of contemptible historians, whose memory has been rescued from oblivion and exposed to ridicule, in a very lively piece of criticism of Lucian. '" The poorest rank of soldiers possessed above forty pounds ster- ling, (Dionys. Halicarn. iv. 17,) a very high qualification at a time when money was so scarce, that an ounce of silver was cijuivalcat to seventy pounds weight of brass.* The populace, excluded by the ancient constitution, were indiscriminately admitted by Marias. Sec Sallust. de BeU. Jugurth. c. 91. • On the uncertainty of all these estimates, and the difficulty of fixing the relative value of brass and silver, compare Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 473, A'c. Eng. trans, p. 4.52. According to Niebuhr, the relative disproportion in value, between the two metals, arose, in a great degree, from the abundance of brass or copper. — M. Compare also Bureau de la Malle Economie Polit que dcs Romains, especially L. I. c. ix. — M. Ib45. OF THL nOMAN EMPIRE. II were supposed lo consist of Roman citizens. That distinc- tion was generally considered, either as a legal qualification or as a proper recompense for the soldier; but a more serious regard was paid to the essential merit of age, strength, and military stature.^' Ir all levies, a just preference was given to the climates of tlr; North over those of the South : the race of men born to thd exercise of arms was sought for in the roimt;y rather tha'i in cities ; and it was very reasonably pre- fcumfil. ihai liie liunly occipations of smiths, carpenters, and huntsmen, would siipjily more vigor and resolution than the sedentary trades which are employed in the service of Uix« ury.3- After every qualification of property had been laid aside, the armies of the Roman emperors were still com- manded, for the most part, by officers of liberal birth and education ; but the common soldiers, like the mercenary troops of modern Europe, were drawn from the meanest, and very frequently from the most profligate, of mankind. That public virtue, which among the ancients was denomi- nated patriotism, is derived from a strong sense of our own interest in the preservation and prosperity of the free govern- ment of which we are members. Such a sentiment, which had rendered the legions of the republic almost invincible, could make but a very feeble impression on the mercenary servants of a despotic prince ; and it became necessary to supply that defect by other motives, of a different, but not less forcible nature — honor and religion. The peasant, or mechanic, imbibed the useful prejudice that he was advanced to the more dignified profession of arms, in which his rank and reputation would depend on his own valor ; and that, although the prowess of a private soldier must often escape the notice of fame, his own behavior might sometimes confer glory or disgrace on the company, the legion, or even the army to whose honors he was associated. On his first en- trance into the service, an oath was administered to him with every circumstance of solemnity. He promised never to desert his standard, to submit his own will to the commands of his leaders, and to sacrifice his life for the safety of the emperor and the empire.-^-^ The attachment of the Roman ^' Caesar formed his legion Alaiida of Gauls and strangers : but it was during the license of civil war ; and after Uie victoiy, he gava t^em the freedom of the city foi their reward. '* See Vcgetius, dc He MUitari, 1. i. c. 2 — 7. ^ The oath of ser\'ice and fidelity to the emperor was annually rene^red by the tro'^Ds c the first of January. 12 THE DECLINE AND FALL troops to their standards was inspired by *hc united inuuence of religion and of honor. The golden eagle, which glittered m the front of the legion, was the object of their fondest de- votion ; nor was it esteemed less impious than it was igno- minious, to abandon that sacred ensign in the hour of dan- ger.^'* These motives, which derived their strength from the imagination, were enforced by fears and hopes of a more substantial kind. Regular pay, occasional donatives, and a stated recompense, after the appointed time of service, alle- \iated the hardships of the military life,^^ whilst, on the other hand, it was impossible for cowardice or disobedience to es- cape the severest punishment. The centurions were author- ized to chastise with blows, the generals had a right to punish with death ; and it was an inflexible maxim of Roman disci- pline, that a good soldier should dread his ofiicers far more than the enemy. From such laudable arts did the valor of the Imperial troops receive a degree of firmness and docility, unattainable by the impetuous and irregular passions of bar- barians. And yet so sensible were the Romans of the imperfection of valor without skill and practice, that, in their language, the name of an army was borrowed from the word which signified exercise.^^ Military exercises were the important ^* Tacitus calls the Roman eagles, Bellorum Deos. They wore placed in a chapel in the camp, and with the other deities received the religious worship of the troops.* ^* See Gronovius de Pecunia vetere, 1. iii. p. 120, &c. The empe- ror Domitian raised the annual stipend of the legionaries to twelve pieces of gold, which, in his time, was equivalent to about ten of our guineas. This pay, somewhat higher than our own, had been, and was afterwards, gradually increased, according to the progress of wealth and military government. After twenty years' service, the veteran received three thousand denarii, (about one hundred pounds ■terling,) or a proportionable allowance of land. The pay and ad- vantages of the guards were, in general, about double those of the legions. ^ Exercitua ab exercitando, Varro de Lingua LatinS, 1. iv. Cicero m Tusculan. 1. ii. 37, [15.] There is room for a very interesting work, which should lay open the connection between the languages und manners of nations.t ♦ See also Dio. Cass. xl. c. IS. — M. T I am not aware of the existence, at present, of such a work ; but the profound observations of the late William von Humboldt, in the introduc- tion to his posthumously published Essay on the Language of the Island ot Java, ((iber die Kawi-sprache, Berlin, 1836,) may cause regret that thii task was « jt completed by that accomplished and universal scholar. — M OF THK ROMAN EMPIRE. 13 and iinremit'ed object of their discipline. The lecruita and young soldiers were constantly trained, both in liie morning and in the evening, nor was age or kno\vlej£ and fall Nine centuries of war had gradually introd iced into the service many alterations and improvements. The legions^ as lliey are described by Polybius,'*^ in the time of the Punic wars, differed very materially from those which achieved the victories of Casar, or defended the monarchy of Hadrian and the Antonines. The constitution of the Imperial legion may be described in a few words.^^ The !ieavy-armed infantry, which composed its principal strength,^^ was divided into ten cohorts, and fifty-five companies, under the orders of a correspondent number of tribunes and cen- turions. The first cohort, which always claimed the post of honor and the custody of the eagle, was formed of eleven hundred and five soldiers, the most approved for valor and fidelity. The remaining nine cohorts consisted each of five hundred and fifty-five ; and the whole body of legionary infantry amounted to six thousand one hundred men. Their arms were uniform, and admirably adapted to the nature of their service : an open helmet, with a lofty crest ; a breast- plate or coat of mail ; greaves on their legs, and an ample buckler on their left arm. The buckler was of an oblong and concave figure, four feet in length, and two and a half in breadth, framed of a light wood, covered with a bulPs hide, and strongly guarded with plates of brass. Besides a lighter spear, the legionary soldier grasped in his right hand the formidable pilum, a ponderous javelin, whose utmost length was about six feet, and which was terminated by a massy triangular point of steel of eighteen inches.'*'* This instru- ment was indeed much inferior to our modern fire-arms ; F.ince it was exhausted by a single discharge, at the distance of only ten or twelve paces. Yet when it was launched by *' See an admirable digression on the Roman discipline, in the sixth book of his History. ** Vegetius de Ke MiUtari, 1. ii. c. 4, &c. Considerable part of his very perplexed abridgment was taken from the regulations of Trajan and Hadxian ; and the legion, as he describes it, cannot suit any other aje of the Roman empire. *^ Vegetius de Re Militari, 1. ii. c. 1. In the purer age nf Caesar and Cicero, the word miles was almost confined to the infantry. Under the J Dwer empire, and in the times of chivalry, it was app o- priated almost as exclusively to the men at arms, who fought on horseback. ** In the time of Polyblus and Dionysius of IIaricarnas3U3,(l. v. c 46,) the steel point of the pUuiti seems to have 1/cen much longer. hi the time of Vegetius, it was reduced to a foot, or even oiiie inche* I have chodea a medium. OF THE ROi'tfAN EMPIRE. 15 a firm and skilful hand, there was not any cavalry that durst venture within its reach, nor any shield or corselet that could sustain the impetuosity of its weight. As soon as the Koman had darted his pilwii, he drew his sword, ind rushed forwards to close with the enemy. His sword was b sliDrt well-tempered Spanish blade, that carried a double eJt;e, and was alike suited to the purpose of striking or of pushing; but the soldiei was always instructed to prefer the Imter use of his weapon, as his own body remained less exposed, whilst he inflicted a more dangerous wound on his adversary."*^ The legion was usually drawn up eight deep ; and the regular distance of three feet was left between the hies as well as ranks.''^ A body of troops, habituated to pre- serve thl'i open order, in a long front and a rapid charge, found themselves prepared to execute every disposition which the circumstances of war, or the skill of their leader, might Suggest. The soldier possessed a free space for his arms and motions, and sufficient intervals were allowed, through vvhirli seasonable reenforcements might be introduced to the relief of the exhausted combatants.'*' The tactics of the Greeks and Macedonians were formed on very different principles. The strength of the phalanx depended on sixteen ranks of long pikes, wedged together in the closest array."**^ But it wa* soon discovered by reflection, as well as by the event, that the strength of the phalanx was unable to contend with the activity of the legion.''^ The cavalry, without which the force of the legion would have remained imperfect, was divided into ten troops oi squadrons; the first, as the companion of the first cohort, consisted of a hundred and thirty-two men ; whilst each of the other nine amounted only to sLxty-six. The entire estab- lishment formed a regiment, if we may use the modern expression, of seven hundred and twenty-six horse, naturally connected with its respective legion, but occasionally separated ** For the legionary arms, see Lipsius de Militia Romanii, 1. iii c. 2—7. *' See the beautiful comparison of Virgil, Georgic ii. v. 279. ♦' M. Guichard, M6moii-es Militaires, torn. i. c. 4, and Nouveaux Memoires, torn. i. j). 293 — 311, has treated the subject hke a scholar and an othcer. ** See Arrian's Tactics. "^Vith the true partiality of a Greek, AjTian rather chose to describe the phalanx, of which he had re^wl, tLan the legions which he had commanded. •^ Polyb 1 xvii. 'win 9.' 16 THE DECLINE AND FALL to act ui the line, and to compose a part of the wings of the army.^'^ The cavalry of the emperors was no longer com- posed, like that of the ancient republic, of the noblest youths of Rome and Italy, who, by performing their military service on horseback, prepared themselves for the offices of senator and consul ; and solicited, by deeds of valor, the future suffrages of their countrymen.^* Since the alteration of man- ners and government, the most wealthy of the equestrian order were engaged in the administration of justice, and of tiie revenue ;^- and whenever they embraced the profession of arms, they were immediately intrusted with a troop of horse, or a cohort of foot.^-^ Trajan and Hadrian formed their *o Veget. de He Militari, 1. ii. c. 6. His positive testimony, which might be supported by circumstantial evidence, ought surely to silence those critics who refuse the Imperial legion its proper body of cavalry.* *' See Livy almost throughout, particularly xlii. 61. ** Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 2. The true sense of that very curi- ous passage was first discovered and illustrated by M. de Beaufort, RepubUque Koraaine, 1. ii. c. 2. *' As in the instance of Horace and Agricola. This appears to have been a defect in the Roman discipline ; which Hadrian endeav ored to remedy by ascertaining the legal age of a tribune. t • See also Joseph. B. J. iii. vi. 2. — M. t These details are not altogether accurate. Although, in the latter days of the republic, and under the first emperors, the young Roman nobles obtained the command of a squadron or a cohort with greater facility than in the former times, they never obtained it without passing through a tol- erably long military service. Usually they served first in the praetorian cohort, which was intrusted with the guard of the general ; they were received into the companionship (contubernium) of some superior officer, and were there formed for duty. Thus Jidius Caesar, though sprung from a great family, served first as contubernalis under the pra;tor, M. Thermus, and later under Servilius the Isaurian. (Suet. Jul. 2, H. Plut. in Par. p. oI6. Ed. Froben.) The example of Horace, which Gibbon adduces to prove that young knights were made tribunes immediately on entering the service, proves nothing. In the first place, Horace was not a knight ; he was the son of a freedman of Venusia, in Apulia, who exercised the hum ble office of coactor exauctionum, (collector of payments at auctions.) (Sat. i. vi. 45, or 86 ) Moreover, when the poet was made tribune, Brutus, whose army was nearly entirely composed of Orientals, gave this title to all the Romans of consideration who joined him. The emperors were still less difficult in their choice ; the number of tribunes was augmented ; the title and honors were conferred on persons whom they wished to attach t« the court. Augustus conferred on the sons of senators, sometimes the tribunate, sometimes the command of a squadron. Claudius gave to the knights who entered into the service, first the command of a cohort of auxiliaries, latar that of a squadron, and at length, for the first time, the tribunate. (.Suet, in Claud, with the notes of Ernesti.) The abuses thai arose caused the edict of Hadrian, which fijted the age at which that honoi tould be attained. (Spart. in Had, (Src.^ This edict was subsequentlj OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 17 cavalry from the same provinces, and the same class of tlieii »uh>iecis, which recruited the .-anks of the lecion. The hor*--es were bred, for the most part, in Spain or Cappadocia. The Roman troopers despised the con)pletc armor with which the cavalry of the East was encumbered. Their more useful arms consisted in a helmet, an oblong shield, light boots, and a coat of mail. A javelin, and a long broad sword, were their principal weapons of offence. The use of lances and of iron maces they seem to have borrowed from the barbarians.^ The safety and honor of the empire was principally intrusted to the legions, but the policy of Rome condescended to adopt every useful instrument of war. Considerable levies were regularly made among the provincials, who had not yet de- served the honorable distinction of Romans. Many dependent princes and communities, dispersed round the frontiers, were permitted, for a while, to hold their freedom and security by the tenure of military service. ^^ Even select troops of hostile barbarians were frequently compelled or persuaded to con- sume their dangerous valor in remote climates, and for the benefit of the state.^^ All these were included under the gen- eral name of auxiliaries ; and howsoever they might vary according to the difference of times and circumstances, their numbers were seldom much inferior to those of the legions themselves.^^ Among the auxiliaries, the bravest and most faithful bands were placed under the command of pnefects and centurions, and severely trained in the arts of Roman discipline ; but the far greater part retained those arms, to which the nature of their country, or their early habits of life. more peculiarly adapted them. By this institution, each legion ** See Arrian'a Tactics. '^ Such, in particular, was the state of the Batavians. Tacit. Get- mania, c. 29. ** Marcus Antoninus obliged the vanquished Quadi and Marco- manni to supply him with a large body of troops, which he immedi- ately sent into Britain. Dion Cassius, 1. Ix.xi. [c. 16.] *' Tacit. Annal. iv. 5. Those who fix a regular proportion of be many foot, and twice as many horse, confound the auxiliaries of the emperors with the Italian allies of the rtj)ublic. obeyed; for the emperor Valerian, in a letter addressed to Mulvius G;ilii- canus, praetorian praittct, excuses himself for having violated it in favoi of the young Frobus, afterwards emjieror, on whom he had conferred the tribunate .it an earlier age on account of his rare talents. (Vopisc. ir; Frob. iv.) — W and G. Aericola, though already invested with the title of tribune, ■was contubernalis in Britain with Suetorius Paulinus. Tao ^r. V ■— M^ 4 18 THE DECLINE AND FALL tc whom a certain proportion of auxiliaries was allotted, con- tained within itself every species of lighter troops, and of mis- sile weapons ; and was capable of encountering every nation, with the advantages of its respective arms and discipline/'* Nor was the legion destitute of what, in modern language, would be styled a train of artillery. It consisted in ten milhary engines of the largest, and fifty-five of a smaller size ; but all of which, either in an oblique or horizental manner, discharged stones and darts with irresistible violence.^^ The camp of a Roman legion presented the appearance of a fortified city.^** As soon as the space was marked out, the pioneers carefully levelled the ground, and removed every impediment that might interrupt its perfect regularity. Its form was an exact quadrangle ; and we may calculate, that a square of about seven hundred yards was sufficient for the encampment of twenty thousand Romans ; though a similar number of our own troops would expose to the enemy a front of more than treble that extent. In the midst of the carnp, the prajtorium, or general's quarters, rose above the others ; the cavalry, the infantry, and the auxiliaries occupied their respec tive stations ; the streets were broad, and perfectly straight, and a vacant space of two hundred feet was left on all sides, between the tents and the rampart. The rampart itself was usually twelve feet high, armed with a line of strong and intri- cate palisades, and defended by a ditch of twelve feet in depth as well as in breadth. This important labor was performed by the hands of the legionaries themselves ; to whom the use of the spade and the pickaxe was no less familiar than that of the sword or pilum. Active valor may often be the present of *^ Vegetius, ii. 2. Arrian, in his order of inarch and battle against the Alani. ^* The subject of the ancient machines is treated with great knowl- edge and ingenuity by the Chevalier Folard, (Polybe, torn. ii. p. _33 — 290.) He prefers them in many respects to our modern cannon nnd mortars. We may observe, that the use of them in the held gradually became more prevalent, in proportion as personal valor diul military skill decUned with the lloman empire. When men were no longer found, their place was supplied by machines. See Vegetius, ii. 25. Arrian. "" Vegetius finishes his second book, and the description of the cgion, witli the following emphatic words : — " Univcrsa ijuae ii. quo(nio belli gcrcre necessaria esse crcduiitur, sccum legio debci nbiijue portare, ut in quovis loco fixerit castra, ainiatani facia* vitateai," Ot THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 19 nature ; but such patient diligence can be the fruit only of habit and discipline.*'* Whenever the trumpet gave the signal of departure, the camp was almost instantly broke up, and the troops fell into their ranks without delay or confusion. Besides their arms, which the legionaries scarcely considered as an encumbrance, they were laden with their kitchen furniture, the instruments of fortification, and the provision of many days.^- Under this weight, which would oppress the delicacy of a modern soldier, they were trained by a regular step to advance, in about six hours, near twenty miles.''^ On the appearance of an eneni}, they threw aside their baggage, and by easy and rapid evolu- tions converted the column of march into an order of battle.^'* The slingers and archers skirmished in the front ; the auxil- iaries formed the first line, and were seconded or sustained by the strength of the legions ; the cavalry covered the flanks, and the military engines were placed in the rear. Such were the arts of war, by which the Roman emperors defended their extensive conquests, and preserved a military spirit, 9^ a time when every other virtue was oppressed by luxury and despotism. If, in che consideration of their armies, we pass from their discipline to their numbers, we shall not find it easy to define them with any tolerable accuracy. We may compute, however, that the legion, which was itself a body of six thousand eight hundred and thirty-one Romans, might, with its attendant auxiliaries, amount to about twelve thousand five hundred men. The peace establishment of Hadrian and his successors was composed of no less than thirty of these formidable brigades ; and most probably formed a standing force of three hundred and seventy-five thousand men. Instead of being confined within the walls of fortified cities, which the Romans considered as the refuge of weak- ness or pusillanimity, the legions were encamped on the banks of the great rivers, and along the frontiers of the barbarians. *' For the Roman Castramctation, see Polybius, 1. vi. with Lipsius de Militia RomanA, Joseph, de Bell. Jud. 1. iii. c. 5. Vegetius, i. 21 — 25, iii. 9, and Memoircs dc Guichard, torn. i. c. 1. ** Cicero in Tusculan. ii. 37, [lo.] — Joseph, de Bell. Jud. 1. iii. '>d 28 THE DECLI5E AND FALL live in the memory of mankind; since America, as wtll ak Europe, has received letters from the one, and religion from the other.^3 j^ sandy desert, alike destitute of wood and water, skirts along the doubdful confine of Syria, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. The wandering life of the Arabs ^ The progress of religion is well known. The use of letters was introduced among the savages of Europe about fifteen hundred years before Christ ; and the Europeans carried them to America about fifteen centuries after the Christian ^ra. But in a period of three thousand years, the Phoenician alphabet received considerable altera- tions, as it passed through the hands of the Greeks and Romans. of Jerusalem, which he calls barren and arid to the extent of sixty stadia round the city : in other parts he gives a favorable testimony to the fertil- ity of many parts of Palestine : thus he says, '' Near Jericho there is & grove of palms, and a country of a hundred stadia, full of springs, and well peopled." Moreover, Strabo had never seen Palestine ; he spoke only after reports, which may be as inaccurate as those according to which he has composed that description of Germany, in which Gluverius has de- tected so many errors. (Gluv. Germ. iii. 1.) Finally, his testimony is fcontradicted and refuted by that of other ancient authors, and by medals. Tacitus says, in speaking of Palestine, " The inliabitants are healthy and robust; the rains moderate; the soil fertile."'' (Hist. v. 6.) Ammianus Marcellinus says also, " The last of the Syrias is Palestine, a country of considerable extent, abounding in clean and well-cultivated land, and con- taining some fine cities, none of which yields to the other ; but, as it were, being on a parallel, are rivals." — xiv. 8. See also the historian Josephus, Hist. vi. 1. Procopius of Ccsarea, who lived in the sixth century, says that Chosroes, king of Persia, had a great desire to make him.«elf reaster of Palestine, 07i account of its extraordinary fertility, its opL..ence, and the great number of its inhabitants. The Saracens thought the same, and were afraid that Omar, when he went to Jerusalem, charmed with the fer- tility of the soil and the purity of the air, would never return tr Medina. (Ockley Hist, of Sarac. i. 2^2.) The importance attached by the Uomans to the conquest of Palestine, and the obstacle* thay encountered, prove also the richness and population of the country. Vespasian and Titus caused medals to be struck, with trophies, in which Palestine is represented by a female under a palm-tree, to signify the richness of the country, wi»h this legend: Jtidtea capta. Other medals also indicate this fertility ; for instance, that of Herod holding a bunch of grapes, and that of the young Agrippa displaying fruit. As to the present state of the country, one i)er eeives that it is not fair to draw any inference against its ancient fertility ; the disasters through which it has pasised, the government to which it is •ubject, the disposition of the inhabitants, explain sufficiently the wild and uncultivated appearance of the land, where, nevertheiess, fertile and cul- tivated districts are still found, according to the testimony of travellers ; amon^ others, of iShaw, Maundrel, La Kocijue, &«. — G. The Abbe Gu<'nee, in his Lettres de qtteloties Ju\fs a Moris, de Voltaire, has exhausted the subject of the fertility of Palestine ; for Voltaire had likewise indulged in sarcasm on this subject. Gibbon was assailed on this point, not, indeed, by Mr. Davis, who, he slyly insinuates, was prevented by his patriotism as a Welshman from resenting the comparison with Wales, but by othei writers. In his Vindication, he first established the correctness of hi* measurement of Palestine, which he estimates as 7(300 square Esgliob miles, while Wales is about 7011. As to the fertility, he proceeds in ihe or THE ROMAN EMPIKE 25 was inseparably connected with their independence ; anJ wherever, on some spots less barren than the rest, they ven- tured to form any settled habitations, they soon became sub* jects to the Roman empire.^'' ^ Dion Cassius, lib. Ixviii. p. 1131. following dexterously composed and splendid passage : " The eniperoi Frederick II., the enemy and the victim of the cltrgy, is accused of say- ing, after his return from his crusade, that the God of the Jews would nave despised his promised land, if he had once seen the fruitful realms 4f Sicily and Naples." (See Giannone, Istor. Civ. del R. di Napoli, ii. 245.) This raillery, which malice has, perhaps, falsely imputed to Fred- erick, is inconsistent with truth and piety; yet it must be confessed that the soil of Palestine does not contain that inexhaustible, and, as it were, spontaneous principle of fertility, which, under the most unfavorable cir- cumstances, has covered with rich harvests the banks of the Nile, the fields of Sicily, or the plains of Poland. The Jordan is the only navigaWe river of Palistine : a considerate part of the narrow space is occupied, or rather lost, in the Dead Sea, whose horrid aspect inspires every sensatior of disgust, and countenances every tale of horror. The districts which border on Arabia partak» of the sandy quality of the adjacent desert. The face of the country, except the sea-coast, ariui the valley of the Jordan, is covered with mountains, which appear, for the most part, as .laked atid barren rocks ; and in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, there is i real scar- city of the two elements of earth and water. (See Maundre^ s Travt-ls, p. 65, and Reland's Palestin. i. 238, 395.) These disadvantages, which new operate in their fullest extent, were formerly corrected bv the labors of a numerous people, and the active protection of a wise government. 'I'he hills were clothed with rich beds of-artiKcial mould, the rain was collected in vast cisterns, a supply of fresh water was conveyed by pipes and aque ducts to the dry lands. The breed of cattle was encouraged in those part* wnich were not adapted for tillage, and almost every spot was compelled to yield some productioB for the use of the inhabitants. Pat«-r i|we colendi Hand facilem esse viain voliiit, primiisqiie per arteiii Movit agroa ; ciiris aciiens iiiortaliu cordn, N«c turpere gravi passiis una Re>rna vntf rno. Gibbon, Misc. Works, iv. 540. But Gibbon has here eludad the question about the land " flowng witt milk and honey." He is describing Judnea only, without comprehending Galilee, or the rich pastures bevond the Jordan, even now proverbial foi their flocks a*id herds. (See fiurckhardt's Travels, and Hist, of Jews, i. 178.) The following is believed to be a fair statement: "The extraor- dinary fertility of the whole country must be taken into the account. No part was waste ; very little was occupied by unprofitable wood; the more fertile hills were cultivated in artificial terraces, others were hung with orchards of fruit trees ; the more rocky and barren districts were covered with vineyards." Even in the present day, the wars and micgovernment of ages have not exhausted the natural richness of the soil. "Galilee," •ays Malte Brun, " would be a paradise were it inhabited by an industrious people, under an enlightened government. No land could be Jess depend- ent on foreign miportatisn ; it bore within itself every thing that could be necessary for the subsistence and comfort of a simple agricultural people. The climate was healthy, the seasons legular ; the former lains, which fell about October, after the vintage, prepared the ground for the seed ; the 'Jitter, which prevailed during March and the beginning of April, made it 30 THE Drci.iNj: and fall The gougraphers of ant'.quity have frequently hesltaied to what portion of the globe ihey should ascribe Egypt.^^ By ks situation that celebrated kingdom is included within the immense peninsula of Africa ; but it is accessible only on the side of Asia, whose revolutions, in almost every period of history, Egypt has humbly obeyed. A Roman prefect was seated on the splendid throne of the Ptolemies ; and the iron sceptre of the Mamelukes is now in the hands of a Turkish pacha. The Nile flows down the country, above five hundred miles from the tropic of Cancer to the Mediterranean, 1ence between Gibbon's explanation and those of the newly -recovered '' De Repubiica' ot Cicero, tlionuli tne argunient is rather tlie converse, lib. I c. 30. " Sivo ha;c ail utiliiatein v\lx const;- tuta sint u pricipibiis reruni publicanim, ui rex piitaretiir utiiis esse m cuj- lo, qui nutu, ut ait Homerus, totum Olympum converteret, idemque ot lex et pater haboretur omnium."— iM. 36 THE DECLINE AND FALL ing.8 Of the four most celebrated schools, the Stoics and th? Platonists endeavored to reconcile the jarring interests of rea. son and piety. They have left us the most sublime proofs ol the existence and perfections of the first cause ; but, as it was impossible for them to conceive the creation of matter, thq workman in the Stoic philosophy was not sufficiently distin* guished from the work ; whilst, on the contrary, the Spiritual God of Plato and his disciples resembled an idea, rather than a substance. The opinions of the Academics and Epicureans were of a less religious cast ; but whilst the modest science of the former induced them to doubt, the positive ignorance of the latter urged thera to deny, the ^providence of a Supreme Ruler. The spirit ot inquiry, prompted by emulation, and supported by freedom, had divided the public teachers of phi- losophy into a variety of contending sects ; but the ingenious youth, who, from every part, resorted to Athens, and the other Beats of learning in the Roman Empire, were alike instructed in every school to reject and to despise the rehgion of the multitude. How, indeed, was it possible, that a philosopher should accept, as divine truths, the idle tales of the poets, and the incoherent traditions of antiquity ; or that he should adore, as gods, those imperfect beings whom he must have despised, as men ? Against such unworthy adversaries, Cicero conde- scended to employ the arms of reason and eloquence ; but the satire of Lucian was a much more adequte, as well as more efficacious weapon. We may be well assured, that a writer, conversant with the world, would never have ventured to expose the gods of his country to public ridicule, had they not already been the objects of secret contempt among the pol- ished and enlightened orders of society.^ Notwithstanding the fashionable irreligion winch prevailed in the age of the Antonmes, both the interest of the priests and the credulity. of the people were sufficiently respected. In their writings and conversation, the philosophers of antiquity asserted the independent dignity of reason ; but they resigned their actions to the commands of law and of custom. View- * The admirable work of Cicero de Nature Deorum is the best clew we have to guide us through the dark and profound abyss. He rep- resents witli candor, and confutes with subtlety, the opinions of the philosophers ^ [ do nut pretend to assert, that, in this irreligious age, the natii- ural terrors of superstition, dreams, omens, appariuons, «&c., had losi their efficacy. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 37 ing, With a smile of pity and indulgence, the variou3 errors of Lhe vulgar, they diligently practised the ceremonies of theii fathers, devoutly frequented the temples of the gods; and sometimes condescending to act a part on the theatre of super- stition, they concealed the sentinients of an atheist under the sacerdotal robes. Reasoners of such a temper were scarcely inclined to wrangle about their respective modes of faith, or of worship. It was indifferent to them what shape the folly of the multitude might choose to assume; and they approached with the same inward contempt, and the same external rever- ence, the altars of the Libyan, the Olympian, or the Capitoline Jupiter.^ It is not easj' to conceive from what motives a spirit of per secution could mtroduce itself into the Roman councils. The magistrates could not be actuated by a blind, though honest bigotry, since the magistrates were themselves philosophers , and the schools of Athens had given laws to the senate. They could not be impelled by ambition or avarice, as the temporal and ecclesiastical powers were united in the same hands. The pontiffs were chosen among the most illustrious of the sena- tors ; and the office of Supreme Pontiff was constantly exer- cised by the emperors themselves. They knew and valued lhe advantages of religion, as it is connected with civil govern- ment. They encouraged the public festivals which humanize the manners of the people. They managed the arts of divina- lion, as a convenient instrument of policy ; and they respected, as the firmest bond of society, the useful persuasion, that, either in this or in a future life, the crime of perjury is most assuredly punished by the avenging gods.^ But whilst they acknowledged the general advantages of religion, they were convinced, that the various modes of worship contributed alike to the same salutary purposes ; and that, in every country, the form of superstition, vThich had received the sanction of time und experience, was the best adapted to the climate, and to its inhabitants. Avarice and taste very frequently despoiled the vanquished nations of the elegant statues of their gods, * Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero, and Plutarch always inculcated a decent reverence for the religion of their own country, and of raan- fcind. The devotion of Epicurus Mas assiduous and exemplary, Diogen. Laert. x. 10. • Polybius, 1. vi. c. 53, 54. Juvenal. Sat. xiii. laments that in ht» time this apprehension had lost much ol its effect 38 THE DECLK-JE AND T^Lt, and the rich ornaments of their temples ; ^^ but, in the exer- cise of the religion which they derived from their ancestors, the} uniformly experienced the indulgence, and even protec- tion, of the Roman conquerors. The province of Gaul seems, and indeed only seems, an exception to this universal tolera- tion. Under the specious pretext of abolishing human sacri- fices, the emperors Tiberius and Claudius suppressed the dangerous power of the Druids : i* but the priests themselves, their gods and their altars, subsisted in peaceful obscurity till the final destruction of Paganism. i- Rome, the capital of a great monarchy, was incessantly filled with subjects and strangers from every part of the world, 12 who all introduced and enjoyed the favorite super- stitions of their native country. i"* Every city in the empire was justified in maintaining the purity of its ancient ceremo- nies : and the Roman senate, using the common privilege, sometimes interposed, to check this inundation of foreijjn rites.* The Egyptian superstition, of all the most contempti- ble and abject, was frequently prohibited ; the temples of Serapis and Isis demoli-shed, and their worshippers banished from Rome and Italy. ^^ But the zeal of fanaticism prevailed " See the fate of Syracuse, Tarentum, Ambracia, Corinth, &c., tho conduct of Veires, in Cicero, (Actio ii. Orat. 4,) and the ususd prac- tice of governors, in the viiith. Satire of Juvenal. " Sueton. in Claud. — Plin. Hist. Nat. xxx. 1. " Pelloutier, Histoire des Celtes, torn. vi. p. 230 — 252. '^ Seneca, Consolat. ad Helviam, p. 74. Edit. Lips. '^ Dionysius Ilalicarn. Antiquitat. Roman. 1. ii. [vol. i. p. 275, edit. Reiske.] '* In the year of Rome 701, the temple of Isis and Serapis waa demolished by the order of the Senate, (Dion Cassius, 1. xl. p. 252,) and even by the hands of tho consul, (Valerius Maximus, 1, 3.)t * Yet the worship of foreign gods at Rome was only guarantied to the natives of those countries from whence they came. The Romans admin- istered the priestly offices only to the gods of their fathers. Gibbon, throughout the whole preceding sketch of the opinions of the Romans and their subjects, has shown through what causes they were free from religious hatred and its consequences. But, on the other hand, the inter- nal state of these religions, the infidelity and hypocrisy of the uppci orders, the indift'erence towards all religion, in even the better part of the common people, during the last days of tlie republic, and under tho CtBsars, and the corrupting principles of the philosophers, had exercised a very per^.icious influence on the manners, and even on the constitu- tion. --W. ■f Gibbon here blends into one, two events, distant a hundred and sixty Bix years from each, other. It was in the year of Rome 535, tha^ the sen- ate naving orderet) the destruction of the temples of Isis and .Serapiu. no OF THE ROMAN EMriRE. 39 liver the cold and feeble elTorts of policy. The exiles re- turned, the proselytes tnultiplicd, the temples were restored with increasing splendor, and Isis and Serapis at length as- Bvrnied their place anr.ong the Roman Deities."^ Nor was this indulgence a departure from the olo maxims of government. In the purest ages ol the commonwealth, Cybele and ^Escula- piiis had been invited by solemn embassies ; i'' and it was cus- tomary to tempt the protectors of besieged cities, by the prom- ise of more distinguished honors than they possessed in thei^ native country. ^^ Rome gradually became the common t^mi- pie of her subjects ; and the freedom of the city was bestowed on alljthe gods of mankind.'^ II. The narrow policy of preserving, without any foreign mixture, the pure blood of the ancient citizens, had chenked the fortune, and hastened tlie ruin, of Athens and Spana. The aspiring genius of Rome sacrificed vanity to ambition, and deemed it more prudent, as well as honorable, to adopt virtue c*nd merit for her own wheresoever they were found, among slaves or strangers, enemies or barbarians.^'^ During After the death of Caesar, it was restored at the public expense, (Dion, 1. xlvii. p. 501.) When Augustus was in Egypt, he revered the majesty of Serapis, (Dion, 1. h. p. 647 ;) but in the Pomacrium of Rome, and a mile round it, he prohibited the worship of the Egyptian gods, (Dion, 1. liii. p. 679 ; 1. liv. p. 735.) They remained, however, very fashionable under his reign (Ovid, de Art. Amand. 1. i.) and that of his successor, tUl the justice of Tiberius was provoked to some acts of severity. (See Tacit. Annal. ii. 85. Joseph. Antiquit. 1. xviii. c. 3.) * " TcrtuUian in Apologetic, c. 6, p. 74. Edit. Havercamp. I am inclined to attribute their establishment to the devotion of the Flavian family. " See Livy, 1. xi. [Suppl.] and xxix. '* Macrob. Saturnalia, 1. iii. c. 9. He gives us a form of evoca- tion. '* Minutius Faelix in Octavio, p. 54. Arnobius, 1. vi. p. 115. *° Tacit. Annal. xi. 24. The Orbis Romanus of the learned Spanheim is a complete history of the progressive admission of Lati- am, Italy, and the provinces, to the freedom of Rome.t workman would lend his hand ; and the consul, L. .iEmilius Pauliis nim- self (Valer. Max. 1, 3) seized the axe, to give the first blow. Gi))hon at. tributes this circumstance to the second demolition, which took place in the year 701, and which he considers as the first. — W. • See, in the pictures from the walls of Pompeii, the representation of tn Isiac temple and worship. Vestiges of P^gyptian wjrship have been traced iii Gaul, and, I am informed, recently in iiiitain, in excavations al York. — M. t Democratic states, observes Denina, (dellc Revoluz. d' Italia, 1. d. c. 1.) 40 THE DECLINE AND FALL the most flourishing sera of the Athenian commonwealth, the namber of citizens gradually decreased from aboat thirty 21 to ivventy-one thousand.22 If, on the contrary, we study the growth of the Roman republic, we may discover, that, not- withstandiiig the incessant demands of wars and colonies, the citizens, who, in the first census of Servius Tullius, amounted to no more than eighty-three thousand, were multiplied, before the commencement of the social war, to the number of four hundred and sixty-three thousand men, able to bear arms rn the 'service of their country .^3 When the allies of Rome claimed an equal share of honors and privileges, the senate indeed preferred the chance of arms to an ignominious con- cession. The Samnites and the Lucanians paid the severe penalty of their rashness ; but the rest of the Italian states, as they successively returned to their duty, were admitted into the bosom of the republic,^'! and soon contributed to the ruin of public freedom. Under a democratical government, the citizens e.tercise the powers of sovereignty ; and those powers will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are committed to an unwieldy multitude. But when the popular assemblies nad been suppressed by the administration of the emperors, the conquerors were distinguished from the vanquished na- vions, only as the first and most honorable order of subjects , and their increase, however rapid, was no longer exposed to the same dangers. Yet the wisest princes, who adopted the naxims of Augustus, guarded with the strictest care the " Herodotus, v. 97. It should seem, however, that he followed a argc and popular estimation. ^^ Athenaeus, Deipnoscphist. 1. vi. p. 272. Edit. Casaubon. Meur- •ius de FortunA Attica, c. 4.* ^ See a very accurate collection of the numbers of each Lustrum in M. de Beaufort, Republique Romaine, 1. iv. c. 4.t *• Appian. de Bell. Civil. 1. i. Velleius I'aterculus, 1. ii. c. 15, 16, 17. are most jealous o<" communicating the privileges of citizenship; monar- chies or oligarchies willingly multiply the numbers of their free subjects. The most remarkable accessions to the strength of Rome, by the aggre- gation of conquered and foreign nations, took place under the regal and patrician — we may add, the Imperial government. — M. * On the number of citizens in Athens, compa-e Breckh, Public Econ- omy of Athens. (English Tr.,) p. 45, et seq. Fynes Clinton, Essay in Fasti Ilellenici, vol. i. 381. — M. t All these questions are placed in an entirely new point of view oy Niebuhr, (IJ'imische Geschichte, vol. i. p. 464.) He rejects the c;ensus of Bcrvius Tullius as unhistoric, (vol. ii. p. 78, et seq.,) and he establishes tho principle that the census comprehended all the confederate cities whicli had the right of Isopolity. — 'M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 41 djf^nity of the Roman name, and diffused the freedom of the city with a prudent liberality .^^ Ti'l the privileges of Romans had been progressively e.X' '.ended to all the inhabitants of the empire, an important dis 'inction was preserved between Italy and the provinces. Tlie 'brmer was esteemed the centre of public unity, and the firm iiasis of the constitution. Italy claimed the birth, or at least The residence, of the emperors and llie senate.-" The estates of the Italians were exempt from taxes, their persons from the arbitrary jurisdiction of governors. Their municipal corpof tlons, formed after the perfect model of the capital,* were intrusted, under the immediate eye of the supreme power, vvith the execution of the laws. Frias- tique, torn. xix. p. 1, c. 8,) how much the use of the Syriac and Egyptian languages was still preserved. ■** See Juvenal, Sat. iii. and xv. Ajnmian. Marcellin. xxii. 16. ** Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1275. The first instance hai:pentd under the reign of Scptiniius Severus. *^ See Valerius Maximus, 1. ii. c. 2, n. 2. The emperoi Claudius disfranchised an eminent (irecian for not u iiderstandiug Latin. He waa probably in some public office. Suetonius in Claud, z. 16.* • Causes seem ti) hare been pleaded, even in the senate, iu both l&n guages. Val. Max loc. 'dt. Dion. 1. Ivii. c. 15. — M. Of THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 47 equally conversant with both ; and it was almost imi-ossible, :n any province, to find a Roman subject, of a liberal educa- tion, who was at once a stranger to the Greek and to the Latin language. It was by such institutions that the nations of the empire insensibly melted away into the Roman name and people, liut there still remained, in the centre of every province and of every family, an unhappy condition of men who endured the weight, without sharing the benefits, of society. In the free states of antiquity, the domestic slaves were exposed to the wanton rigor of despotism. The perfect set- tlement of the Roman empire was preceded by ages of violence and rapine. The slaves consisted, for the most part of barbarian captives,* taken in thousands by the chance of war, purchased at a vile price,'^'^ accustomed to a life of inde pendence, and impatient to break and to revenge tlieir fetters. *^ In the camp of Lucullus, an ox sold for a drachma, and a slavo for four drachmae, or about three shillings. Plutarch, in Lucull. p 580.t * It was this which rendered the wars so sanguinary, and the battles so obstinate. The immortal liobcrtsou, in an excellent discourse on the state of the world at the period of the establishment of Christianity, has traced a picture of the melancholy efl'ects of slavery, in which we find all the depth of his views and the strength of his mind. I shall oppose succes- sively some passages to the reflectionF of Gibbon. The reader will see, not without interest, the truths wliich Gibbon appears to have mistaken or voluntarily neglected, developed by one of the best of modern historians. It is important to call them to mind here, in order to establish the facts and their consequences with accuracy. I shall more than once have occa- sion to employ, for this purpose, the discourse of Robertson. " Captives taken in war were, in all probability, the first persons Rub- jected to perpetual servitude ; and, when the necessities or luxury of man- kind increased the demand for slaves, every new war recruited their number, by reducing the van(iui.shed to that wretched condition. Hence proceeded the fierce and desperate spirit with which wars were carried on among ancient nations. While chains and slavery were the certain lot of the conquered, battles were fought, and towns defended, with a rage and obstinacy which nothing but horror at such a fate could have inspired; but, bv putting an end to the cruel institution of slavery, Christianity ex- teiulcd its mild influences to the practice of war, and that barbarous art, softened by its humane spirit, ceased to be so destructive. Secure, in cveiy event, of personal liberty, the resistance of the vanquished became less obstinate, and tlie triumph of the victor less cruel. Thus humanity was introduced into the c.Kcrcise of war, with which it appears to be almost incompatible ; and it is to the merciful ma.xims of Christianity, much more than to any other ca isc, that we must ascribe the little ferocity and blood- thed which accompany modern victories." — G. t Above 100,000 prisoners were taken in the Jewish war. — G. Hist, of Jews, iii. 71. According to a tradition i)reserved bv S. Jcrom, after the «isuirection in the time of Hadrian, lliey were sold as cheap as horses 48 ' THE DECLINE AND FALL Against such, internal enemies, whose desperate insurrections had more than once reduced the republic to the brink of destruction/^ the most severe* regulations,*^ and the most cruel treatment, seemed almost justified by the great law of ^^ Diodorus Siculus in Eclog. Hist. 1. xxxiv. and xxxvi. Floras, iii. 19, 90. *8 See a remarkable instance of severity in Cicero in Verrem, v. 3. Jbid. 124. Compare Blair on Roman Slavery, p. 19. — M., and Bureau de la Malle, Economie Politique des Romains, 1. i. c. 15. But I cannot think that this writer has made out his f ise as to the common price of an agri- cultural slave being from 2000 to 2o00 francs, (80Z. to lOOi!.) lie has over- looked the passages which show the ordinary prices, (i. e. Hor. Sat. ii. vii. 45,) and argued from extraordinary and exceptional cases. — M. 1845. * The following is the example : we shall sec whether the word " severe " is here in its place. " At the time in which L. Domitius was pra;tor in Sicily, a slave killed a wild boar of extraordinary size. The praetor, struck by the dexterity and courage of the man, desired to see him. 'J'he poor wretch, highly gratified with the distinction, came to present himself before the praitor, in hopes, no doubt, of praise and reward ; but Domitius, on learning that he had only a javelin to attack and kill the boar, ordered him to be instantly crucified, under the barbarous pretext that the law pro- hibited the use of this weapon, as of all others, to slaves." Perhaps the cruelty of Domitius is less astonishing than the indifference with which the Roman orator relates this circumstance, which affects him so little that he thus expresses himself: " Durum hoc fortasse videatur, neque ego in nllam partem disputo-" " This may appear harsh, nor do I give any opinion on the subject." And it is the same orator who exclaims, in the same oration, " Facinus est cruciare civem Romanum ; scelus verberare ; prope parricidium necare : quid dicam in crucem tollere ? " " It is a crime to imprison a Roman citizen ; wickedness to scourge ; next to parricide to put to death ; what shall I call it to crucify ? " In general, this ])assage of Gibbon on slavery, is full, not only of blamable indifference, but of an exaggeration of impartiality which resembles dis- honesty. Ho endeavors to extenuate all that is appalling in the condition and treatment of the slaves ; he would make us consider these cruelties as possibly "justified by necessity." He then describes, with minute accuracv, the slightest mitigations of their deplorable condition ; he attributes to the virtue or the policy of the emperors the progressive amelioration in the lot of the slaves ; and he passes over in silence the most influential cause, that which, after rendering the slaves less miserable, has contributed at length entirely to enfranchise them from their sufferings and then chains — Christianity. It would be easy to accumulate the most frightful, the most agonizing details, of the manner in which the Romans treated their slaves: whole works have been devoted to the description. I content myself with referring to them. Scmie reflections of Robertson, taken from the discourse already quoted, will make us feel that Gibbon, in tracing the mitigation of the condition of the sl:vves, up to a period little later than that which witnessed the establishment of Christianity in the world, could not have avoided the acknowledgment of the influence of that benelicent cause, if he had not already determined not to speak of it. " Upon establishing despotic government in the Roman empire, domestic? tyranny rose, in a short time, to an astonishing height. In that rank soil, every vice, which power nourishes in the great, or oppression engenders in the mean, thrived and grew up apace. * * * It is not the authority of any single detached precept in the gospel, but the spirit and genius of the OF THE ROMAN KMPHIE. 49 self-preservation. Rut when the principal nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa were united under tiie laws of one sovereigii, ►.lie source of foreijjn su|)plics flowed with much less abun- dance, and the Romans were reduced to the milder but more tedious method of propagation.* In their numerous families, und particularly in their country estates, they encouraged the riiairiage of their slaves.! The sentuucnts of nature, Ihe Ouistian religion, more powerful than any particular command, whioli hath abolished the practice of slavery throughout the world. The temper which Christianity inspired was mild and gentle ; and the doctrines it taught added such dignity and lustre to human nature, as rescued it from the dishonorable servitude into which it was sunk." It is in vain, then, that Gibbon pretends to attribute solely to the desire of keeping \ip the number of slaves, the milder conduct which the Romans began to adopt in their favor at the time of the emperors. This cause had hitherto acted in an opposite direction ; how came it on a sudden to have i difiercnt influence ? " The masters," he says, " encouraged the mar- riage of their slaves ; * * * the sentiments of nature, the habits of edu- cation, contributed to aiieviate the hardships of servitude." The children of slaves were the property of their master, who could dispose of or alienate them like the reat of his property. Is it in such a situation, vn*}) such notions, that the sentiments of nature unfold themselves, or habit > of education become mild and peaceful ? We must not attribute to causes inadequate or altogetlier without force, effects which reciuirc to explain them a reference to more influential causes ; and even if these slighte causes had in cft'ect a manifest influence, we must not forget that they ar themselves the effect of a primary, a higher, and more extensive cause, which, in giving to the mind and to the character a more disinterested and more humane bias, disposed men to second or themselves to advance, by their conduct, and by the change of manners, the happy results which it tended to produce. — G. I have retained the whole of M. Guizot's note, though, in his zeal for the invaluable blessings of freedom and Christianity, he has done Gibbon injustice. The condition of the slaves was undoubtedly improved under the emperors. What a great authority has said, "The condition of a slave is better under an arbitrary than under a free government," (Smith's Wealth of Nations, iv. 7,) is, I believe, supported by the history of all age.* nnd nations. The protecting edicts of Hadrian and the Antonines ai historical facts, and can as little be attributed to the influence of Christ, anity, as the milder language of heathen writers, of Seneca, (particularly Ep. 47,) of Pliny, and of Plutarch. The latter influence of Christianity is admitted by Gibbon himself. The subject of lionian slavery lias recently been investigated with great diligence in a very modest but valuable vol- ume, by W'm. Hlair, Kscj., Edin. 1833. May we be permitted, while on tlie subject, to refer to the most splendid passage extant of Mr. Pitt's clociuer.c", the description of the Pioman slivr'-dealer on the shores of Britain, con- densiung the island to irreclaimable barbarism, as a perpetual and prolific nursery of slaves .' Speeches, vol. ii. p. 80. Gibbon, it should be added, was one of the first and most consistrnt opponents of the African slave-trade. (See Hist. ch. xxv. and Letters to Lord Siieffie-.d, Misc. Works.)— M. • An active slave-trade, wliich was carried on in many (piartcrs, parfxu larly the Euxine, the eastern provinces, the coast of Africa, and Britain, must be taken into the account. Blair, 2'3 — 32. — M. t 'I'he llomans, as well in the first ayes of the republic as later, allowfxJ .^ * 50 THE DECLINE AND fALL habits of education, and the possession of a dependent species of property, contributed to alleviate the hardships of serv- tude.''^ The existence of a slave became an object of greater value, and though his happiness still depended on the temper and circumstances of the master, the humanity of the latter, instead of being restrained by fear, was encouraged by the lense of his own interest. The progress of manners was accslerated by the virtue or policy of the emperors; and by the edicts of Hadrian and the Antonines, the protection of tlie laws was extended to the most abject part of mankind. The jurisdiction of life and death over the slaves, a power long exercised and often abused, was taken out of private hands, and reserved to the magistrates alone. The subterra- neous prisons were abolished ; and, upon a just complaint of intolerable treatment, the injured slave obtained either his deliverance, or a less" cruel master.^" Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition, was not denied to the Roman slave ; and if he had any opportunity of rendering himself either useful or agreeable, he might very naturally expect that the diligence and fidelity of a few years would be rewarded with the inestimable gift of freedom. The benevolence of the master was so frequently prompted by the meaner suggestions of vanity and avarice, that the laws found it more necessary to restrain than to encourage a profuse and undistinguishing liberality, which might degenerate into a very dangerous abuse. ^^ It was a maxim of ancient jurisprudence, *'' See in Gruter, and the other collectors, a great number of inscriptions addressed by slaves to their wives, children, icllow-ser- rants, masters, &c. They are all, most probably, of the Imperial age. ^" See the Augustan History, and a Dissertation of M. de Burigny, in the xxxvth volume of the Academy of Inscriptions, upon the Ro- man slaves. *' See another Dissertation of M. de Burigny, in the xxxviith vo' • ume, on the Koraan freedmcn. to their slaves a kind of marriage, (contiibernium ;) notwithstanding thii^ luxury made a greater number of slaves in demand. The increase in ttic'i population was not sufficient, and recourse was had to tlie p\ircliase . f Blavea, wliich was made even in the provinces of the East subject to Ui! n mians. It is, moreover, known th:it slavery is a state little i'avoiable to population. (!See Hume's Essay, and Malthus on Pojiulation, i. [i'M. — (i.l The testimony of Aiipian (B. ('. 1. i. c. 7) is decisive in favor of the rai)ia IiiuUiplication of the agricultural slaves; it is confirmed bv the nunil)»rs engaged in the servile wars. Compare also Blair, p. 119; likewise CiJu mellu de Uc Rust. 1. viii.- M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 51 ihat a slave had not any country of his own , he acquired with his Uborty an admission into the poHtical societ}' ot' which his patron was a meml)or. The consequences of this maxim would have prostituted the privileges of the Roman city to a mean and promiscuous multitude. Some seasonable excop- .ions were therefore provided ; and the honorable distinction was confined to such slaves only as, for just causes, and witK the approbation of the magistrate, should receive a solemn and legal manumission. Even these chosen freedmen obtained no more than the private rights of citizens, and were rigorously excluded from civil or military honors. Whatever rriight be the merit or fortune of their sons, iAc^/ likewise were esteemed unworthy of a seat in the senate ; nor were the traces of a servile origin allowed to be completely obHterated till the third or finirlh generation.^- Without destroying the distinc- tion of ranks, a distant prospect of freedom and honors was presented, even to those whom pride and prejudice almost disdained to number among the human species. It was once proposed to discriminate the slaves by a peculiar habit ; but it was justly apprehended that there might be some janger in acquainting them with their own numbers.^^ With- out interpreting, in thciir utmost strictness, the liberal appella- tions of legions and myriads,^"* we may venture to pronounce, lliat the i)roportion of slaves, who were valued as property, was more considerable than that of servants, who can be computed only as an expense.^^ The youths of a promising genius were instructed in the arts and sciences, and their price was ascertained by the degree of their skill and talents.^ Almost every profession, either liberal^'' or meclianical, might *■- Spanheim, Orbis lloman. 1. i. c. 16, p. 124, &c. *' Scjucca de Clcmentiii, 1. i. c. 24. The original is much stronger, " (iuantiuu pcriculura imniinerct si servi nostri nuincrare nos C'Oppisseiit." *■' Sec I'liny (Hist. Natiir. 1. xxxiii.) and Athcnaeus (Deipnosopliist. 1. vi. p. 272.) The latter boldly assorts, that he knew very many (luunukAcii) Romans who ])ossessed, not for use, but ostentati m, ten and even twenty tliousand slaves. *^ In Paris there arc not more than 43,700 domestics of every sort., and not a twelfth part of the inhabitants. Messango, licchcrclics sui lb I'opulation, p. 18{j. '* .V learned slave sold for many hundred pounds sterling : Atli- eus always bred and taught them himself. Cornel. Nepos in Vit. c. 13, [on the prices of slaves, lihiir, 149.] — M. " Many of the Roman i)hysicians were slaves. Sec Dr. Middletoa'g Dissertation and Defence. 52 THE DECLINE AND FALL be found in the household of an opulent senator. The min* isters of pomp and sensual. ty were multiplied beyond the con- ception of modern luxury. ^^ It was more for the interest cf the merchant or manuflicturer to purchase, than to hire hiS workmen ; and in the country, slaves were employed as the cheapest and most laborious instruments of agriculture. To confirm the general observation, and to display the multitude of slaves, we might allege a variety of particular mstances. It was discovered, on a very melancholy occasion, that four hundred slaves were maintained in a single palace of Rome."^ The same number of four hundred belonged to an estate which an African widow, of a very private condition, resigned to her son, whilst she reserved for herself a much larger share of her property.*^" A freedman, under the reign of Augustus, though his fortune had sutTered great losses in the civil wars, left behind him three thousand six hundred yoke of oxen, two hundred and fifty thousand head of smaller cattle, and what was almost included in the description of cattle, four thousand one hundred and sixteen slaves.''! The number of subjects who acknowledged the laws of Rome, of citizens, of provincials, and of slaves, cannot now be lixed with such a degree of accuracy, as the importance of the object would deserve. We are informed, that when the Emperor Claudius excrcjiscd the ofTice of censor, he took an account of six millions nine hundred and forty-five tliousand Roman citizens, who, with the proportion of women and children, must have amounted to about twenty millions of Bouls. The multitude of subjects of an inferiu. rank wan uncertain and fluctuating. But, after weighing with attention every circumstance which could influence the balance, it seems probable, that there existed, in the time of Claudius, about twice as many provincials as there were citizens, of either sex, and of every age ; and that the slaves were at least equal in number to the free inhabitants of the Roman '* Their ranks and offices are ver- copiously enumerated by Pig- iiorius de Scrvis. *' Tacit. Annal. xiv. 43. They were all executed for not prevenl. big their master's murder.* *" Ajiuleius in Apolo^. p. 548, edit. Dclphin. <" Pliii. Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii. 47. * The remarkable speech of Cassias shows the proud yet api rcheEsiT** fpt^lings of the lloinau aristocracy ou this subject. — M OF TIIF. nOM.iN EMPIRE. 5.3 ivorld.* The total amount of this imperfctit calculation wouid rise to about one hunclred ami twcmiy millions of per- sons ; a degree of |)0[)iihition which possibly exceeds that of modern Europe,'*- and forms the most numerous society that has ever been united under the same system of government. ^'^ Compute twenty millions in France, twenty-two in Germany, Ibur iu lla;igary, ten in Italy with its islands, eight iu Great Uiitaiu End Ireland, eight in Spain and Portugal, ten or twelve in the Euio- pean Russia, six in Poland, six in Greece and Turkey, four in Swe- den, three iu Denmark and Norway, lour in the Low Countries. The whole would amount to one hundred and live, or one hundred and Beven uiiilions. See Voltaire, do I'Histoire Generale.t * According to Robertson, there were twice as many slaves as free citi- zens. — G. Mr. Blair (;>. lo) estimates three slaves to one freeina!i, be- tween the con((uost of Greece, B. C. 14G, and tlie reign of Alexander Severus, A.. 1). 212, 23-5. The proportion was probably lar<;er in Italy than in the provinces. — M. On the other hand, Zumpt, in his Dissertation (luoted below, (p. 86,) asserts it to be a "gross error in (ribbon to rei'kon the number of slaves equal to that of the free population. The luxury ;ind magnificence of the great, (he observes,) at the coniinencenient of tl. ; empire, must not be taken as tlie groundwork of calcubitions for the whole Iloman world. The agricultural laborer, and the urtisasi, in Sjjain, Oaid, Britain, Syria, and Ei!;yi)t, maintained himself, as in the present day, by his own labor and tliat of his househokl, without possessinu; a simjle slave." The latter part of my note was intended to sugt^est this con-iid- eration. Yet so completely was slavery rooted in the social systc>ni, both in the east and the west, that, in tlu' great ditfu-iion of wealth at lliis time, every one, I doubt iiot, vvho could alford a domestic shive, ke|>t one; and generally, the number of slaves was in ])roport)oii to the wealth. I do not believe that the cultivatiou of the soil by slaves was eoutiu'"J to Italy; the holders of large estates in tlie provinces wouhl probably, eitner from clioite or necessity, adopt the same mode of cultivatiou. The latifuiulia, says Pliny, had ruined Italy, and liad begun to ruin the provinces. Slaves were no doubt employed in agricultural labor to a threat extent in Sicily, and were the estates of those six enormous landholders who were said to have possessed the whole province of Africa, cultivated altogether by free colo- ni ? Whatever may have been the case in the rural districts, in the towns and cities tlie household duties were almost entirely discharged by slaves, and vast numbers belonged to the public establishments. I do not, how- ever, dilfer so far from Zumpt, and from M. Dureau de la Malic, as to adopt the higher and bolder estimate of Robertson and Mr. Blair, rather than the more cautious suEfgcstions of (iibbon. I would reduce rather than increase the proportion of the slave population. The very intjenious and elaborate calculations of the French writer, by which he deduces the amount of tlic population from the produce and consumption of corn in Itiily, appear to me neither precise nor satisfactory bases for such conipii- catod political arithmetic. I am least satisfied with his views as to the popul ition of ttie city of Rome ; but this point will be more fitly reserved Jor a note on the thirty-first chajitcr of Gibbon. The work, however, of M. Dureau de la Malic is very curious and full on some of the minuter points of Koman statistics. — M. 184o. ■*■ The present population of I'hirope is estimated at 227,700,000. Malte 6rau, Geogr. Trans, edit. 1832. See details iu tlie dili'crcut voluinftM 54 THK DECLINE AND FALL Domestic peace and union were the natural consequences of the moderate and comprehensive pohcy embraced by the Auothei authority, (Almanach de Gotha,) quoted in a recent English pub- lication, gives the following details : — France 32,897,521 Germanv, (including Hungary, Prussian and Austrian Poland,) 56,136,213 Italy, . ' 20,548,616 Great Britain and Ireland, 24,062,947 Spain and Portugal, ' * j ^IfuS E-assia, including Poland, 441220,600 Cracow, 128,480 Turkey, (including Pachalic of Dschesair,) 9,545,300 Greece, 637,700 Ionian Islands, 208,100 Sweden and Norway, 3,914,963 Denmark, 2,012,998 Belgium 3,533,538 Holland 2,444,550 Switzerland, 1,985,000 _jyj Total, 219,344,116 Since the publication of my first annotated edition of Gibbon, the sub j» ct of the population of the Roman empire has been investigated by two writers df great industry and learning; Mons. Bureau de la Malle, in his Economic Politique des Roniains, liv. ii. c. 1 to 8, and M. Zumpt, in a dis- sertation printed in the Transactions of the Berlin Academy, 1840. M. Dureau de la Malle confines his inquiry almost entirely to the city of Home, and Roman Italy. Zumpt examines at greater length the axiom, which he supposes to have been assumed by Gibbon as unquestionable, " that Italy and the Roman world was never so populous as in the time of the Antonines." Though this probably was Gibbon's opinion, he has not stated it so pt remptorily as asserted by M. Zumpt. It had before been expressly laid down by Hume, and his statement was controverted by Wallace and by Malthus. Gibbon says (p. 84) tliat there is no reason to believe the country (of Italy) less populous in the age of the Antoninei;, than in that of Romulus ; and Zumpt acknowledges that we have no sat- isfactory knowledge of the state of Italy at that early age. Zumpt, in my opinion with some reason, takes the period just before the first Punic war, as that in which Roman Italy (all south of the Rubicon) was most popu- lous. From that time, the numbers began to diminish, at first from the enormous waste of life out of the free population in the foreign, and after- wards in the civil wars ; from the cultivation of the soil by slaves ; towards the close of the republic, from the repugnance to m.arriage, which resisted alike the dread of legal punishment and the offer of legal immunity and privilege ; and from the depravity of manners, which ii-.terfcre the world that they had spirit to con- ceive, and wealth to accomplish, tiie noblest undertakings. Scarcely had the proud structure of the Coliseum been dedi- cated at Rome, before the edifices, of a smaller scale indeed, but of the same design and materials, were erected for the use, and at the expense, of the cities of Capua and Vcrona.^^ The inscription of the stupendous bridge of Alcantara attests ihat it was thrown over the Tagus by the coiurihution of a few Lu.^itanian communities. When Pliny was mirusted with the government of Bithynia and Pontus, provinces by no means the richest or most considerable of the empire, ho found the cities within his jurisdiction striving with each other in every- useful and ornamental work, that might deserve the curiosity of strangers, or the gratitude of their citizens, [l was the duly of the [)r(jcoiisul to sup|i!y their deficiencies, to direct their taste, and sometimes to moderate their emula- tion.'''^ The opulent senators of Rome and the provinces esteemed it an honor, and almost an obligation, to adorn tiie Bplendor of their age and country ; and the influence of fash- ion very frequently supplied the want of taste or generosity. Among a crowd of these private benefactors, we may select Herodes Atticus, an Athenian citizen, who lived in the age the Capitol; that of Apollo Palatine, Avilh public libr^'ics ; the por- tico and basilica of Cains and Lucius; the porticos ")f Livia ami Octavia ; and the theatre of Marcellus. The cxamph of the sov- ereign was imitated by his ministers and generals ; and his friend Agrippa left lichind hhn the immortal monument of tlic I'ai.theon. "•' See Mafiei, Verona lUustrata, 1. iv. p. GH. ** See the xth book of l'lin_y's E|)istlcs. He mentions the follow- ing works carried on at tlae expense of the citi;'S. At IS'icoinedia, a new forum, an aqueduct, and a canal, left unhuished by a king; a» Nice, a gymnasium, and a tlicatrc, which had already cost neat ninety thousand pounds ; biitlis at Prusa and (')audiopoli.i, and an ftquocluct of sixteen miles in length for the use of Siucpe. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 57 of the Antonines. Whatever might be the motive of 1 con- duct, his magnificence would have been worthy of the great- est kings. The family of Herod, at least after it had been favc/ed by fortune, was lineally descended from Cimon and Miltiadea, Theseus and Cecrops, vEacus and Jupiter. But the posterity of so many gods and heroes was fallen mto the most abject ?tate. His grandfather had sullercd by the hands of justice, and Julius Atticus, his father, must have ended his life in poverty and contempt, had he not discovered an immense, treasure buried under an old house, the last remains of his patrimony. According to the rigor of the law, the emperor might have asserted his claim, and the prudent Atticus pre- vented, by a frank confession, the ofhciousn(!ss of informers. But the equitable Ncrva, who then filled the throne, refused to accept any part of it, and commanded him to use, without scruple, the present of fortune. The cautious Athenian still insisted, that the treasure was too considerable for a subject, and that he knew not how to use it. Ahuse it then, replied the monarch, with a good-natured peevishness : for it is your .own.'''' Many will be of opinion, that Atticus literally obeyed the emperor's last instructions ; since he expended the great- est part of his fortune, which was much increased by an ad- vantageous marriage, in the service of the public. He had ■obtained for his son Herod the prefecture of the free cities of A-sia ; and the young magistrate, observing that the town of Troas was indifferently supplied with water, obtained from the munificence of Hadrian three hundred myriads of drachms, (about a hundred thousand pounds,) for the construction of a new aqueduct. But in the execution of the work, ihe charge amounted to more than double the estimate, and the officers of the revenue began to murmur, till the generous Atticus silenced their complaints, by requesting that he might be per- mitted to take upon himself the whole additional expense.'''^ The ablest preceptors of Greece and Asia had been invited by liberal rewards to direct the education of young Herod. Their pupil soon became a celebrated orator, according to the useless rhetoric of that age, which, confining itself to tiio "chools, disdained to visit either the Forum or the Senate "^ Hadrian aftcr\vards made a very C(]uitahle regulation, whirb diindcd all treasuro-trovc lietween tlic right rf property and that of discovery. Hist. August, p. 9. ** Vhiiostrat. in Vit. Souhist. '.. ii. m. 543. 58 THE DECLINE AND FALT. He was honored with the consulship at Rome : but the great est part of his hfe was spent in a philosophic retirement at Athens, and his adjacent villas ; perpetually surrounded by sophists, who acknowledged, without reluctance, the superior- ity of a rich and generous rival.^^ The monuments of hi? genius have perished ; some considerable ruins still preserve the fame of his taste and munificence : modern travellerL have measured the remains of the stadium which he cor. structed at Athens. It was six hundred feet in length, buih entirely of white marble, capable of admitting the whole body of the people, and finished in four years, whilst Hero(\, was president of the Athenian games. To the memory of his wife Regilla he dedicated a theatre, scarcely to be paral- leled in the empire : no wood except cedar, very curiously carved, was employed in any part of the building. The Odeum,* designed by Pericles for musical performances, and the rehearsal of new tragedies, had been a trophy of the vic- tory of the arts over barbaric greatness ; as the timbers em- ployed in the construction consisted chiefly of the masts of the Persian vessels. Notwithstanding the repairs bestowed on that ancient edifice by a king of Cappadocia, it was again fallen to decay. Herod restored its ancient beauty and mag- nificence. Nor was the liberality of that illustrious citizen confined to the walls of Athens. The most splendid orna- ments bestowed on the temple of Neptune in the Isthmus, a theatre at Corinth, a stadium at Delphi, a bath at Thermopylse, and an aqueduct at Canusium in Italy, were insufficient to exhaust his treasures. The people of Epirus, Thessaly Euboea, Boeotia, and Peloponnesus, experienced his favors ; and many inscriptions of the cities of Greece and Asia grate- fully style Herodes Atticus their patron and benefactor.'''*' In the commonwealths of Athens and Rome, the modest ** Aulus GcUius, in Noct. Attic, i. 2, ix. 2, x\'iii. 10, xix. 12. Philostrat. p. 564. '" See Philostrat. 1. ii. p. 548, 560. Pausanias, 1. i. and vii. 1(V The life of Herodes, in the xxxth volume of the Meraoirs ol tl: Academy of Inscriptions. • The Odeum served Tor the rehearsal of new comedies as well as tra^ dies; they were read or repeated, before representation, without music t" decorations, &c. No piece could be represented in the theatre if it hat. not been previously approved by judges for this purpose. Tnc king of Cappadocia who restored the Oaeum, which had been burn', by Sylla, was Araobarzanes. Sec Martini, Dissertation on the 'i)def-ns of the Ancients Leipsic, 1767, p. 10— 91. — W. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 59 Bimplicity of private houses announced the equal condition of freedom ; whilst the sovereignty of the people was repre- sented in tlie majestic edifices designed to the public use;' nor was this republican spirit totally extinguished by the in troduction of wealth and monarchy. It was in works of national honor and benefit, that the most virtuous of the em perors affected to display their magnificence. The golden palace of Nero excited a just indignation, but the vast extent of groutjd which had been usurped by his selfish luxury was more nobly filled under the succeeding reigns by the Coli-^ seum, the baths of Titus, the Claudian portico, and the templea dedicated to the goddess of Peace, and to the genius of Rome.''"- These monuments of architecture, the property of •*he Roman people, were adorned with the most beautiful pro- ^jctions of Grecian painting and sculpture ; and in the temple of Peace, a very curious library was open to the curiosity of the learned.* At a small dis'ance from thence was situated the Forum of Trajanf It was surrounded by a lofty portico, in the form of a quadrangle, into which four triumphal arches opened a noble and spacious entrance : in the centre arose a colunni of marble, whose height, of one hundred and ten feet, lenoted the elevation of the hill that had been cut away. This column, which still subsists in its ancient beauty, exhib- ited an exact representation of the Dacian victories of \\i. founder. The veteran soldier contemplated the story of his own campaigns, and by an easy illusion of national vanity, tho peaceful citizen associated himself to the honors of the triumph. All the other quarters of the capital, and all the provinces of the empire, were embellished by the same liberal " It is particularly remarked of Athens by Dicicarchus, do Stat<. Gr!£cix>, p. 8, inter Geographos Minores, edit. Hudson. '*' Donatus de lloma Vetere, 1. iii. c. 4, 5, 6. Nardini Iloma An- tica, 1. iii. 11, 12, 13, and a MS. description of ancient Koine, by iernardus Oricellaiius, or Rucellai, of which I obtained a copy from the Ubrary of the Canon llicardi at Florence. Two celebrated pic- tures of 'iimanthes and of Protogenes are mentioned by Phny, as in the Temple of Peace ; and the Laocoon was found in the baths of Titus. • The Emperor Vespasian, who had causrd the Temple of Peace to be iDuilt, transported to it the sjreatest part of the pictures, statues, and olhet Vorks of art which had escaped the civil tumults. It was there that every day the artists and the learned of Rjme assembled: and it is on the site of this temple that a multitude of antiques have been dug up. iiee \->Ui» of Reimai on Dion Cassius, Ixvi. c. 15, p. 1083. —W 60 THE DECLINE AND FALL Bpirit of public magnificence, and were filled \\ith amphi- theatres, theatres, temples, porticos, triumphal arches, baths and aqueducts, all variously conducive to the health, the devo- tion, and the pleasures of the meanest citizen. The last mentioned of those edifices deserve our peculiar attention. The boldness of the enterprise, the solidity of the execution, and the uses to which they were subserviem, rank the aquo ducts among the noblest monuments of Roman genius and power. The aqueducts of the capital claim a just |)rc8mi- nence ; but the curious traveller, who, without the light of history, should examine those of Spoleto, of Metz, or of Se- govia, would very naturally conclude that those provincial towns had formerly been the residence of some potent mon- arch. The solitudes of Asia and Africa were once covered with flourishing cities, whose populousness, and even whose existence, was derived from such artificial supplies of a per- ennial stream of fresh water.'''^ We hav3 computed the inhabitants, and contemplated the public works, of the Roman empire. The observation of tht number and greatness of its cities will serve to confirm the former, and to multiply the latter. It may not be unpleasing to collect a few scattered instances relative to that subject, without forgetting, however, that from th(3 vanity of nations and the poverty of language, the vague appellation of city has been indifferently bestowed on Rome and upon Laurentum. I. Ancient. Italy is said to have contained eleven hundred and ninety-seven cities ; and for whatsoever a;ra of antiquity the expression might be intended,"'' there is not any reason to believe the country less populous in the age of the Antonines, than in that of Romulus. The petty states of Latium were contained within the metropolis of the empire, by whose supe- rior influence they had been attracted.* Those parts of Italy which have so long languished under the lazy tyranny of '^ Montfaucon I'Antiquit^ Expliquee, torn. iv. p. 2, 1. i. c. 9. Fa- brctti has coinjiosed a very learned treatise on tlic amt!, where, in his time, a scanty stock of free soldiers amoni^ a larger popula- tion of Roman slaves broke the solitude. Vix seminario exiyu:) militu.Ti relicto, servitia Romana ab solitu.iine vindicaut, Liv. vi. vii. Comparf Appian Bel. Ci" i. 7 — M. subst, far O. OF THE ROMAN EMTIRE. 61 pncsts and viceroys, had been afllicted only by the mon; tol- erable calamities of war ; and the first symptoms of decay, which they experienced, were amply compensated by the rapid improvements of the Cisalpine Oaul. The splendor of Verona may be traced in its remains : yet Verona was less cel- ebrated than Aquileia or Padua, Milan or Ravenna. II. 'I'he spirit of improvement had passed the Alps, and been felt even in the woods of Britain, which were gradually cleared away to open a free space for convenient and elegant hab- itations. York was the seat of government ; London waa already enriched by commerce ; and Bath was celebrated for the salutary effects of its medicinal waters. Gaul could boast of her twelve hundred cities ;'^^ and though, in the northern parts, many of them, without excepting Paris itself. were little more than the rude and imperfect townships of a rismg people, the southern provinces imitated the wealth and elegance of Itnly."^^ Many were the cities of Gaul, Marseilles. Aries, Nismcs, Narbonne, Thoulouse, Bourdeaux, Autun, Vienna, Lyons, L'lngres, and Treves, whose, ancient condition might sustain an equal, and perhaps advantageous comparison with their present state. With regard to Spain, that country Nourished as a province, and has declined as a kingdom. Ex- hausted by the abuse of her strength, by America, and by superstition, her pride might possibly be confounded, if we required such a list of three hundred and sixty cities, as Pliny has exhibited under the reign of Vespasian.'^''' III. Three hun- dred African cities had once acknowledged the authority of Carthage,"*^ nor is it likely that their numbers diminished under the administration of the emperors : Carthage itself rose with new splendor from its ashes •, and that capital, as well as " Joseph, de Boll. Jud. ii. 16. The number, however, is mentioned, and should bo received with a degree of latitude.* '* Plin; Hist. Natur. iii. o. '^ Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 3, 4, iv. 3-5. The list seems authentic and accurate : the division of the provinces, and the diti'erent condition oi the cities, arc minutely distinguished. '^^ Strabcr.. Geograph. 1. xvii. p. 1189. ♦ Without doubt no reliance can be placed on this passage of Joscphus. The historian makes Agrippa give advice to the Jews, as to the power of ihe Romans ; and the speech is full of declamation which can furnish no tonclusions to history. Wliile enumerating the nations subject to the Romans he speaks of the Gauls as submitting to 1200 soldiers, (whicli ia false, at there were eight legions in Gaul, Tac. iv. o,) while there arc nearly twelve hundred cities. — G. Josephus (iitj'ra) places these eight legiona i>n the Rhine, as Ta«itu3 docs. — M. 62 THE DECLINE AND FALL Capua and Corinth, soon recovered all the advantages v hicL can be separated from independent sovereignty. IV. The Provinces of the East present the contrast of Roman mag- nificence with Turkish barbarism. The ruins of antiquity scattered over uncultivated fields, and ascribed, by ignorance, to the power of magic, scarcely afford a shelter to the oppressed peasant or wandering Arab. Under the reign of the Cffisars, the proper Asia alone contained five hundred populous cities,"^ enriched with all the gifts of nature, and adorned with all the refinements of art. Eleven cities of Asia had once disputed the honor of dedicating a temple to Tiberius, and their respective merits were examined by the senate.^" Four of them were immediately rejected as unequal to the burden; and among these was Laodicea, whose splendor is still dis- played in its ruins.s^ Laodicea collected a very considerable revenue from its flocks of sheep, celebrated for the fineness of their wool, and had received, a little before the contest, a legacy of above four hundred thousand pounds by the testa- ment of a gene^us citizen.^^ jf such was the poverty of Laodicea, what must have been the wealth of those cities, whose claim appeared preferable, and particularly of Per gamus, of Smyrna, and of Ephesus, who so long disputed with each other the titular primacy of Asia ? ^^ The capitals of Syria and Egypt held a still superior rank in the tniiplre ; Antioch and Alexandria looked down with disdain on a crowd of dependent cities,^'* and yielded, with reluctance, to the majesty of Rome itself. ^' Joseph, de Bell. Jud. ii. 16. Philostrat. in Vit. Sophist. 1. ii. p. 648, edit. Olear. *" Tacit. Annal. iv. 55. I have taken some pains in consulting and comparing modern travellers, with regard to the fate of those eleven cities of Asia. Seven or eight are totally destroyed : Hj'piEpe, Tralles, Laodicea, Ilium, Hahcarnassus, ililctus, Ephesus, and we may add Sardcs. Of the remaining three, Pergamus is a straggling village of two or three thousand inhabitants ; Magnesia, under the name of Guzelhissar, a town of some consequence ; and Smyrna, a great city, peopled by a hundred thousand souls. But even at Smyrna, while the Franks have maintained commerce, the Turks have ruined the arts, *' See a very exact and pleasing description of the ruins of Laodi- lea, in Chandler's Travels through Asia Minor, p. 225, &c. *^ Strabo, 1. xii. p. 866. He had studied at Tralles. / ^ See a Dissertation of M. de Boze, Mom. de rAcad6mio, torn. xviii. Aristidcs pronounced an oration, which is still extant, to recommend concord to the rival cities. "* The inhabitants of Egypt, exclusive of Alexamma, ?mounted to seven millions and a half, 'Joseph, de Bell. J;id- ii, inA Under the OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 63 Al. these citiej were connected with each other, and with the capital, by the public highways, which, issuing from the Forum of Rome, traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, ana were terminated only by the frontiers of the empire. If we carefully trace the distance from the wall of Antoninus to Rome, and from thence to Jerusalem, it will be found that the great chain of communication, from the north-west to the south-east point of the empire, was drawn out to the length of four thousand and eighty Roman miles.^^ The public roads were accurately divided by mile-stones, and rt«n in a direct line from one city to another, with very little respect for the obstacles either of nature or private property. Mountains were perforated, and bold arches thrown over the broadest and most rap'd streams.^s The middle part of the road was raised into a terrace which commanded the adjacent country, consisted of several strata of sdnd, gravel, and cement, and was paved with large stones, or, in some places near the capital, with granite.^^ Such was the solid construction of the Roman h ghways, whose firmness has not entirely yielded to the etibr' of fifteen centuries. They united the subjects of the most d itant provinces by an easy and familiar intercourse ; but their primary object had been to facilitate the marches of the legions ; nor was any country considered as completely subdued, till it had been rendered, in all its parts, pervious to the arms and authority of the conqueror. The advantage of i'eceiving the earliest intelligence, and of conveying their orders with celerity, induced the emperors to establish, through out their extensive dominions, the regular institution of posts.®^ military government of the Mamelukes, Syria was supposed to con- tain sixty thousand villages, (Histoire de Timur Beo, 1. v. c. 20.) *^ The following Itinerary may serve to convey 3omc if^ea of the direction of tlie road, and of the distance between the principal towns. I. From the wall of Antoninus to York, 222 Roman miles. II. London, 227. III. Rhutupiae or Sandwich, 67. IV. The naviga- tion to Boulogne, 4.5. V. Rhcims, 174. VI. Lyons, 330. VII. Mi- lan, 324. VIII. Rome, 426. IX. Brundusium,' 360. X. The navi- gation to Dvrrachium, 40. XI. Byzantium, 711. XII. Ancvra, 283. XIU. Tarsus, 301. XIV. Antioch, 141. XV. Tyre, 2o2. XVI. Jem- ealcm, 168. In all 4080 Roman, or 3740 English miles. Sec the Itin- eraries published by Wcsscling, his annotations ; Giile and Stukelcy for Britain, and M. d'Anville for Gaul and Italy. ** Montfaucon, I'Antiquite Expliquec, (tom. 4, p. 2, I. i. c. J,) has described the bridges of Narni, Alcantara, Nismes, &c. " Bcrgiur, Histoirc dcs grands Chcmins de I'Empire Remain, 1. ii. ». 1—28. ** Procopius in Hist. Arcan^, c. 30. Bergier, Hist, des grand» 64 THE DECLINE AND FALL Houses were every where erected at the distance 011I5 of five or six miles; each of them was constantly provided with forty horses, and by the help of these relays, it was easy to travel a hundred miles in a day along the Roman roads.Si* * The use of the posts was allowed to those who claimed it by an Im- perial mandate ; but though originally intended for the public service, it was sometimes indulged to the business or con- veniency of private citizens.^'^ Nor was the communication of the Roman empire less free and open by sea than it was by land. The provinces surrounded and enclosed the Mediter- ranean: and Italy, in the shape of an immense promontory, advanced into the midst of that great lake. The coasts of Italy are, in general, '^ftstitute of safe harbors ; but human industry had corrected the deficiencies of nature; and thei artificial port of Ostia, in particular, situate at the mouth of the Tyber, and formed by the emperor Claudius, was a useful monument of Roman greatness.^i From this port, which was only sixteen miles from the capital, a favorable breeze frequently carried vessels in seven days to the columns of Hercules, and in nine or ten, to Alexandria in Egypt.^- Chemins, 1. iv. Codex Thoodosian. 1. viii. tit. v. vol. ii p. 50G — 563, with Godefroy's learned commentary. "^ In the time of Tlieodosius, Csesarius, a magistrate of higb rank, went post from Antioch to Constantinople. He began his jeurney at night, was in Chppadocia (IGo miles from Antioch) the eriHuing evening, and arrived at Constantinople the sixth day about noon. The whole distance was 725 Roman, or 6G5 English miles. Sec L'ba- nius, Orat. xxii., and the Itineraria, p. 572 — 581. t ^" Pliny, tliough a favorite and a minister, made an apology for grantmg post-horses to his wife on the most urgent business. Epist. X. 121, 122. 91 Bcrgier, Hist, des grands Chem.ins, 1. iv. c. 49. 9* Plin. Hist. Natur. xix. i. [In Prooem.] J * Posts for the conveyance of intelligence were established by Augustus Suet. Aug. 49. The couriers travelled with amazing speed. Blair on Ro- man Slavery, note, p. 261. It is probable that the posts, from the time of Augustus, were confined to tlie public service, and supplied by impress- ment. Ncrva, as it appears from a coin of his reign, made an iniportaiu change; "he established posts upon all the public roads of Italy, and made the service chargeable upon his own exchequer. * * Hadrian, perceiving the advantage of this improvement, extended it to all the prov- ■nces of the emi)ire." Cardwcll on Coins, p. 220. — M. + A courier is mentioned in Walpolc'% Travels, ii. 3.'J5, who was to travel Jiom Aleppo to Constantinople, more than 700 miles, in eight days, an un- usually short journey. — M. X Pliny says Puteoli. which seems to have been the usual landing-place from the East. See tlie voyages of St. Paul, Acts, xxviii. 13. ari.l "li Joie- ph'i^ Vita. c. 3. — M- OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. G5 Whatever evils cither reason or declamation have iinpiitea *o extensive empire, the power of Rome was attended with some beneficial consequences to mankind ; and the same freedom of intercourse which extended the vices, dilFused hkewise the improvements, of social life. In the more remote ages of antiquity, the world was unequally divided. The East was in the immemorial possession of arts and luxury ; wiiilst the West was inhabited by rude and warlike barbarians, who either disdained agriculture, or to whom it was totally unknown. Under the protection of an established govern- ment, the productions of happier climates, and the industry of more civilized nations, \vci:c gradually introduced into the western countries of Europe ; and tlie natives were encouraged, by an open and profitable commerce, to multiply the former, as well as to improve the latter. It would be almost impos- sible to enumerate all the articles, either of the animal or the vegetable reign, which were successively imported into Europe from Asia and Egypt :'-'3 but it will not be unworthy of the dignity, and much less of the utility, of an historical work, slightly to touch on a few of the principal heads. 1. Almost all the flowers, the herbs, and the fruits, that grow in our European gardens, are of foreign extraction, which, in many cases, is betrayed even by their names : the apple was a native of Italy, and when the Romans had tasted the richer flavor of the apricot, the peach, the pohiegranate, the citron, and the orange, they contented themselves with applying to all these new fruits the common denomination of apple, dis- criminating them from each other by the additional epithet of their country. 2. In the time of Homer, the vine grew wild in the island of Sicily, and most probably in the adjacent con- tinent ; but it was not improved by the skill, nor did it aiTord Q liquor grateful to the taste, of the savage inhabitants.^'^ A thousand years afterwards, Italy could boast, that of the four- score most generous and celebrated wines, more than two thirds were produced from her soil.'-'^ The blessing was soon communicated to the Narbonnese province of Gaul ; but so intense was the cold to the north of the Cevennes, that, in the time of Strabo, it was thought impossible to ripen the grapes ^' It is not improbable that the Greeks and Phoonieians mtrodur***! Toino new arts and productions into the ncij^jhborlioo 1 of Marseil< ? and Gades. "^ Sec Ilomcr, Odyss. i. ix. v. 358. "' Pliu. llibt. ISalur. 1. xiv. 6 66 THE DECLINE ANb FAtt in those parts cf Gaul.^'^ This diffiouhy, however, was gradually vanquished ; and there is some reason to beheve tlijit the vineyards of Burgundy are as old as the age of the Antonir.es.s^ 3. The olive, in the western world, followed tlie progress of peace, of which it was considered as the sym- bol. Two centuries after the foundation of Rome, both Italy and Africa were strangers to that useful plant : it was natural- ized in those countries ; and at length carried into the heart of Spain and Gaul. The timid errors of the ancients, that it 'equired a certain degree of heat, and could only flourish in he neigliborhood of tlie sea, were insensibly exploded by /ndustry and experience. ^^ 4. The cultivation of flax was transported from Egypt to Gaul, and enriched the whole country, however it might impoverish the particular lands ou which it was sown.^^ 5. The use of artificial grasses became familiar to the farmers both of Italy and the provinces, par- ticularly the Lucerne, which derived its name and origin from ®* Strab. Geograph. 1. iv. p. 269. The intense cold of a Gallio winter was almost proverbial among the ancients.* ^'' In tlie beginning of the fourth century, the orator Eumeniug (Panegyr. Vctcr. viii. 6, edit. Dclphin.) speaks of the vines in the territory of Autun, -which were decayed through age, and the first plantation of which was totally unknown. The Pagus Arebrignua is supposed by M. d'Anville to be the district of Boaune, celebrated, even at present, for one of the first growths of Burgundy.f 9^ Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xv. *9 Plin. liist. Natur. 1. xLx. * Strabo only says that the grape does not ripen, fi annc\o( ol fxt^iwi riXca ^opu. Attempts had been made in the time of Augustus to naturalize the vine in the north of Gaul ; but the cold was too great. Diod. Sic. edit. Rhodom. p. SO-l. — W. Diodorus (lib. v. 26) gives a curious picture of the Italian traders bartering, with the savages of Gaul, a cask of wiue for a slave. — M. It appears from the newly discovered treatise of Cicero de Rcpublica, that there was a law of the republic prohibiting the culture of the vine and olive beyond the Alps, in order to keep up the value of tliose in Italy. tins justissi/ni homines, cpu transalpinas gcntes olcam ct vitcm screre non linimus, quo pluris sint nostra oliveta nostrceque vinea). Lib. iii. !). The restrictive law of Domitian was veiled under the decent pretext ot encour- ajiing the cultivation of grain. Suet. Dom. vii. It was repealed by Probus. Vopis. Probus, 18. —M. t This is proved by a passage of Pliny the Elder, where he speaks of a certain kind of grape (vitis picata, vinum picatuni) which grows naturally ki the district of Vienne, and had recently been transplanted inti the coTintry of the Arvcrni, (Auvergnc,) of the llelvii, (the Vivarais,) ti e Se- uuain, (Burgundy and Francbe Comyte.) Pliny wrote A. D. 77. Hist, Nat. xiv. ].— W OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 67 Media. '°'' The assured supply of wholesome and p^citifu food for the cattle during winter, rnultijjlied the nuniher of the flocks and herds, which in their turn contributed to the fertility of the sod. To all these improvements may be added an assiduous attention to mines and fisheries, whicli, by em- ploying a multitude of laborious hands, serve to increase the pleasures of the rich and the subsistence of the poor. The elegant treatise of Columella describes the advanced state o^ the Spanish husbandry under tiie reign of Tiberius ; and ii may be observed, that those famines, which so frequendy afflicted the infant republic, were seldom or never experienced by the extensive em|)ire of Rome. The accidental scarcity, in any single province, was immediately relieved by the plenty of its more fortunate neighbors. Agriculture is the foundation of manufactures ; since the productions of nature are the materials of art. Under the Roman empire, the labor of an industrious and ingenious people was variously, but incessantly, employed in the service of the rich. In their dress, their table, their houses, and their furniture, the favorites of fortune united every refinement of conveniency, of elegance, and of splendor, whatever coula soothe their pride or gratify their sensuality. Such refine- ments, under the odious name of luxury, have been severely arraigned by the moralists of every age ; and it might perhaps be more conducive to the virtue, as well as happiness, of man- kind, if all possessed the necessaries, and none the super- fluities, of life. But in the present imperfect condition of society, luxury, though it may proceed from vice or folly seems to be the only means that can correct the unequal dis- tribution of property. The diligent mechanic, and the skilful artist, who have obtained no share in the division of the earth, receive a voluntary tax from the possessors of land ; and the 'atter are prompted, by a sense of interest, to improve those estates, with whose produce they may purchase additional pleasures. This operation, the particular eflects of which are felt in every society, acted with much more diffusive energy in the Roman world. The provinces would soon have beeu exhausted of their wealth, if the manufactures and commerce of luxury had not insensibly restored to the industrious sub- jects the sums which were exacted from them by the arms "" Sec the asroeable Essays on Agriculture by Mr. Ilartc, in whicli he has collected all that the ancients and 'uoderns have said of Luceruo. 68 TUE DECLINE AND FALL and authority of Rome. As long as the circulation was con. lined within the bounds of the empire, it impressed the political machine with a new degree of activity, and its consequences, sometimes beneficial, could never become pernicious. But it is no easy task to confine luxury within the limits of an empire. The most remote countries of the ancient world were ransacked to supply the pomp and delicacy of Rome. The forests of Scvthia afforded some valuable furs. Amber was brought over land from the shores of the Baltic to the Danube ; and the barbarians were astonished at the price which they received in exchange for so useless a commodity. ^"^ There was a considerable demajid for Baby* Ionian carpets, and other manufactures of the East ; but the most important and unpopular branch of foreign trade was carried on with Arabia and hidia. Every year, about the time of the summer solstice, a fleet of a hundred and twenty ves sels sailed from Myos-hormos, a port of Egypt, on the Red Sea. By the periodical assistance of the monsoons, they traversed the ocean in about forty days. The coast of Malabar, or the island of Ceylon,!''^ was the usual term of their navi- gation, and it was in those markets that the merchants from the more remote countries of Asia expected their arrival. The return of the fleet of Egypt was fixed to the months of December or January ; and as soon as their rich cargo had been transported on the backs of camels, from the Red Sea to the Nile, and had descended that river as far as Alexandria, it was poured, without delay, into the capital of the empire.^^^ The objects of oriental traffic were splendid and trifling ; silk, % pound of which was esteemed not inferior in value to a pound of gold; 1°^ precious stones, among which the pearl claimed the first rank after the diamond ; '"^ and a variety of aromatics, '"' Tacit. Germania, c. 45. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxx^^i. 13. The latter observed, with some humor, that even fashion had not yet found out the use of amber. Nero sent a lloman knight to pur- chaso great quantities on the spot where it was produced, the coast of modern Prussia. '"^ Called Taprobana by the Romans, and Scrindib by the Arabs. It was discovered under the reign of Claudius, and gradually be- came the principal mart of the East. '"3 riin. Hist. Natur. 1. vi. Strabo, 1. xvii. '"* Hist. August, p. 224. A silk garment was considered as an wnament to a woman, but as'a disgrace to a man. '"* The two great pearl fialicrics were the same as at prc3*-il» Ormoz and Cape Comorin. As well as wc can compare ancient w.''il OP THE R01*AN EMPIRE. 69 that wore consi.med in religious worship and the pomp of funerals. The labor and risk of the voyage was rewarded with almost incredible profit ; but the profit was made upon Roman subjects, and a few individuals were enriched at tho expense of the public. As the natives of Arabia and India were contented with the productions and manufactures of their own country, silver, on the side of the Romans, was the prin- cipal, if not the only * instrument of commerce. Ii was a com- plaint worthy of the gravity of the senate, that, in the purchase offcn.alc ornaments, the wealth of the state was irrecoverably given away to foreign and hostile natjons.^^*^ The annual loss is computed, by a writer of an inquisitive but censorious temper at upwards of eight hundred thousand pounds sterling. i"'' Such was the style of discontent, brooding over the dark prospect of approaching poverty. And yet, if we compare the propor- tion between gold and silver, as it stood in the time of Pliny, and as it was fi.xed in the reign of Constantino, we shall dis- cover within that period a very considerable increase.!"^ There is not the least reason to suppose that gold was become more scarce ; it is therefore evident that silver was grown more common ; that whatever might be the amount of the Indian and Arabian exports, they were far from exhausting modern p;eography, Home was supplied with diamonds from the mine of Jumclpur, in Bengal, Vvhich is described in the Voyages de Ta- vcriiier, tom. ii. p. 281. '"•^ Tacit. Annal. iii. 53. In a speech of Tiberius. '"^ Plin. Ilist. Natur. xii. 18. In another place he computes half that sum ; Quingonties H. S. for India exclusive of Arabia. '"^ Tlic ])roportion, which was 1 to 10, and 12^, rose to llf^, the legal regulation of Constantine. See Arbuthnot's Tables of ancient Coins, CO. * Certainly not the only one. The Indians were not so contented with regard to foreign productions. Arrian has a long list of European wares, which they received in exchange for their own ; Italian and other wines, brass, tin, lead, coral, chrysolith, storax, glass, dresses of one or many colors, zones, &c. See Pcriphis Maris Erytlira;! in lludvon, Geogr. Min. i. p. 27. — W. The German translator observes that Gibbon has confined the use of aroniatics to religious worship and funerals. His error seems the omission of other spices, of which the Romans must have consumed irreat (juantities in their cookery. Wenck, however, admits that silver waa the chief article of exchange. — M. In 1787, a peasant (near Xellore in the Carnatic) struck, in diggine. on the remains of a Hindu temple ; he found, also, a pot which contained Roman coins and m-ulais of the second century, mostly Trujaus, Adrians, and Faustinas, all ol gold, many of them fresh and bcr.utifiil, otlicrs de- faced or perforated, as if they had been worn as ornaments. (Asiatic He ■earches, ii. 19.) — M. TO THE DECLINE AND FALL the wealth of the Roman world ; and that the produce dF the mines abundpintly supplied the demands of commerce. Notwithstanding the propensity of mankind to exalt the past, and to .depreciate the present, the tranquil and pros- perous state of the empire was warmly felt, and honestly confessed, by the provincials as well as Romans. " They acknowledged that the true principles of social life,^ laws, agriculture, and science, which had been first invented by the wisdom of Athens, were now firmly established by the power of IlDme, under whose auspicious influence the fiercest bar- barians were united by an equal government and common language. They aflirm, that with the improvement of arts, the human species was visibly multiplied. They celebrate the increasing splendor of the cities, the beautiful face of tLo country, cultivated and adorned like an immense garden ; and the long festival of peace which was enjoyed by so many nations, forgetful of their ancient animosities, and delivered from the apprehension of future danger." ^^^ Whatever sus- picions may be suggested by the air of rhetoric and declama- tion, which seems to prevail in these passages, the substance of them is perfectly agreeable to historic truth. It was scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption. This long peace, and the uniform government of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military s])irit evaporated. The natives of Europe were brave and robust. Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Illyricum supplied the legions with excellent soldiers, and constituted the real strength of the monarchy. Their personal valor remained, but they no longer- possessed that public courage which is nourished by the love of inde- pendence, the sense of national honor, the presence of dan- ger, and the habit of conmiand. They received laws and governors from the will of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence to a mercenary army. The posterity of their boldest leaders was contented with tlic rank of citizens and subjects. The most aspiring spirits resorted to the court or standard of the emperors ; and the deserted provinces *"" Among Ariatidea, (d 5 many other passages, see Pliny, (Hist. Natur. iii. 6,1 ie Urbe llomri.l and Tertullinn, de AniniA, c. 30.J OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 71 deprived of political strength or union, insensibly sunk into the languid iiKliirercnic of private life. The love of letters, almost inseparable from peace and refuiement, was fashionable among the subjects of HaJrian and the Anlonines, wliu were themselves men of learning and curiosity, it was diffused (jver the whole extent of their em- oirc ; the most northern tribes of Britons had acquired a last* for rhetoric ; Homer as well as Virgil were transcribed and studied on the banks of the Rhine and Danube ; and the most liberal rewards souiiht out the faintest ulimmerings of literary meri'."" The sciences of physic and a.stronomy were suc- cesst'ully cultivated by the Greeks ; the observations of Ptole- my and the writings of Galen are studied by those who have improved their discoveries and corrected their errors ; but if we except the inimitable Lucian, this age of indolence passed away without having produced a single writer of original genius, or who excelled in the arts of elegant comjjosition.t The authority of Plato and Aristotle, of Zeno and Epicurus, still reigned in the schools ; and their systems, transmitted with bliii 1 deference from one generation of disciples to another, "" Ilcrodcs Atticiis gave the sophist Polemo above eight thousand pounds for three declamations. See Philostrat. 1. i. p. o'58. The Autoninos founded a school at Athens, in which professors of gram- mar, rhetoric, politics, and the four great sects of j)hiloso])liy were maintained at the i)ublic expense for the instruction of youth.' The salary of a jihilosophor was ten thousand drachniie, between three and four hundred pounds a year. Similar cstablishiuents were formed in the other great cities of the empire. Sec Ijucian in Eunuch, tom. ii. p. 3-52, edit, lleitz. Philostrat. I. ii. {). 566. Hist. August, p. 21. Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxi. p. 119.5. Juvenal himselt^ iu a morose satire, which in every line betrays lus own disappointment aiid envy, is obligeth however, to say, — '■ O Juvoncs, circvnnspicit et stimulat vos, Matcrianique sibi Ducis indulgcntia quxrit." — Satir. vii. 20. • Vespasian first gave a salary f o professors ; he assigned to each pro- fessor of rhetoric, Greek and Roman, centen?. sest rtia. (Sueton. in Vesp. 18.) Hadrian and the Antonines, though still liberal, were less profuse. — G. fnmi \V. Suetonius wrote annua ccntena L. 807, -5, 10. — M. t This judgment is rather severe : besides the physicians, astronomers, and grammarians, among whom there were scmie very distiiiijuished men. there wore still, under Hadrian, Suetonius, Florus, Plutarch ; under th? Anionmes, Arrian, rausanias, Appian, Marcus Aurelius himself, Sextua Empiricus, &c. Jurispriidpiice ijaiiied much by the labors of Salving Julianus, Julius Celsus, Sex. Pomi)tinius, Cuius, ar.d others. — G from W Yci where, anionic these, is the writer of original genius, unless, peihap« Plutarch oi even of a ntyle ically ilegant .' — M. 72 THE DECLINE AND FALL preoluded every generous attempt to exercise the powers, or enlarge the limits, of the human mind. The beauties of the ooets and orators, instead of kindling a fire like their own, inspired only cold and servile imitations : or if any ventured to deviate from those models, they deviated at the same time from good sense and propriety. On the revival of letters, the youthful vigor of the imagination, after a long repose, national emulation, a new religion, new languages, and a new world, called forth the genius of Europe. But the provincials of Kome, trained by a uniform artificial foreign education were engaged in a very unequal competition with those bold encients, who, by expressing their genuine feelings in their ""itive tongue, had already occupied every place of honor. The name of Poet v/as almost forgotten ; that of Orator was usurped by the sophists. A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the corruption of taste. The sublime Longinus, who, in somewhat a later period, and in the court of a Syrian queen, preserved the spirit of ancient Athens, observes and laments this degeneracy of his contemporaries, which debased their sentiments, enervated their courage, and depressed their talents. " In the same manner," says he," as some children always remain pygmies whose infant limbs have been too closely confined, thus our tender minds, fettered by the prejudices and habits of a just servitude, are unable to expand themselves, or to attain that v/ell-proportioned greatness which we admire in the ancients ; who, living under a popular government, wrote with the same freedom as they acted." ^^^ This diminutive stature of man- kind, if we pursue the metaphor, was daily sinking below the old standard, and the Roman world was indeed peopled by a race of pygmies ; when the fierce giants of the north broke in, and mended the puny breed. They restored a manly spirit of freedom ; and after the revolution of ten centuries, tVecdom became the happy parent of taste and science. '" Longin. do Sublim. c. 41, p. 229, edit. Toll. Here, too, we may '■ ./of Longinus, "his own example strengthens all liis laws." In. .cad of proposing his sentiments Avith a manly boldness, he insinu- ates them with the most guarded caution ; puts them into the mouth ct a friend, and as far as we can collect from a corrupted text, maken a phew of refuting them himselt CHAPTER III. OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, IN TOE AGE OF THE ANTONINES. The obvious definition of a monarchy seems to be that of a state, in which a single person, by whatsoever name he may be distinguished, is intrusted with the execution of the laws the management of the revenue, and the command of tlie army. But, unless public liberty is protected by intrepid and vigilant guardians, the authority of so formidable a magistrate will soon degenerate into despotism. The influence of the clergy, in an age of superstition, might be usefully employed to assert the rights of mankind ; but so intimate is the con- nection between the throne and the altar, that the banner of the church has very seldom been seen on the side of the people.* A martial nobility and stubborn commons, possessed of arms, tenacious of property, and collected into constitu- tional assemblies, form the only balance capable of preserving a free constitution against enterprises of an aspiring prince. Every barrier of the Roman constitution had been levelled by the vast ambition of the dictator; every fence had been extirpated by the cruel hand of the triumvir. After the victory of Actium, the fate of the Roman world depended on the will of Octavianus, surnamed Caesar, by his uncle's adop- tion, and afterwards Augustus, by the flattery of the senate. The conqueror was at the head of furty-four veteran legions,^ conscious of their own strength, and of the weakness of the constitution, habituated, during twenty years' civil war, to ■ Orosius, vi. 18.t • Often enough in the ages of superstition, but not in the interest of the people or the st;Ue, but in that of the church, to whitli all otliers wero SubordiTiate. Yet the power of the pope has ot'ton been of great service ia repi/'soing the excesses of sovcreij^ns, and in softening manners. — W. The history of the Italian republics proves the error of Gibbon, and the jistjce of his German translator's comment. — M. f Uion says twenty-five, (or tlnee,) (Iv. '2'6.) The united triumvirs had brt forty-three. (Appiaii. Bell. Civ. iv. 3.) The lestimoiiy of Orosius i« ui little value when more certain may be had. — W. But all the legions, doubtless, submitted to Augustus alter the battle of Actium. -- M ()•■ 73 74 THE DECLINE AND FALL every act of blood and violence, and passionately devoted to the house of Ctesar, from whence alone they had received, und expected, the most lavish rewards. The provinces, long oppressed by the ministers of the republic, sighed for the government of a single person, who would be the master, noi the accomplice, of those petty tyrants. The people of Rome, viewing, with a secret pleasure, the humiliation of the aristoc- racy, demanded only bread and public shows ; and were supplied with both by the liberal hand of Augustus. The rich and polite Italians, who had almost universally embraced the philosophy of Epicurus, enjoyed the present blessings of ease and tranquillity, and suffered not the pleasing dream to be interrupted by the memory of their old tumultuous freedom. With its power, the senate had lost its dignity ; many of the most noble families were extinct. The republicans of spirit and ability had perished in the field of battle, or in the pro- scription. The door of the assembly had been designedly left open, for a mixed multitude of more than a thousand persons, who reflected disgrace upon their rank, instead of deriving honor from it.- The reformation of the senate was one of the first steps iii which Augustus laid aside the tyrant, and professed himself the father of his country. He was elected censor ; and, in concert with his faithful Agrippa, he examined the list of the senators, expelled a few members,* whose vices or whose obstinacy required a public example, persuaded near two hundred to prevent the shame of an expulsion by a voluntary retreat, raised the (jualification of a senator to about ten tliousand pounds, created a sufficient number of patrician families, and accepted for himself the honorable title of Prince of the Senate,! which had always been bestowed, by the * Julius Ctesar introduced soldiers, strangers, and hall- barbarian a into the senate (Sueton. in CiEsar. c. 77, 80.) The abuse became sti'l more scandalous after his death. ♦ Of these Dion and Suetonius knew nothing. — W. Dion says the contrary, nvrAi fih' o'u&ifu avrHv inr'i'Xiii^c. — M. t But Augustus, thou Octavius, was censor, and in virtue of that olhce, even aceordiJig to the constitution of the free republic, could reform the •enate, expel unworthy numbers, name the Princeps Senatiis, &c. That was called, as is well known, Scuatum Icgcre. It was customarVj dvnin« the free rei)ublic, for the censor to be named Princeps Senatiis, (S. Liv. 1. xxdi. c. 11, 1. xl. c. 51 ;) and Dion expressly says, that tliis was dona according to ancient usai;c. lie was empowered by a decree of the senate i^cuX^i irrtTpi4.&c'A) to admit a number of famil.es ameng the iialriciauri 'iually, the senate was not the legislative power. — W. or Tin: roman empiiis. 75 censors, on the citiron the most eminent fbi his nonors aacl services.*' But wliils: he thus restored the dignity, he de- stroyed the intlependenct:, or the senate. Tlie |)rinci|)les of u free constitution are irrecoverably lost, wiien the legislative power is nominated by the executive. Ik-lure an assembly thus modelled and prepared, Augustus pronounced a studied oration, which disjjlayed his patriotism, and disguised his ambition. " He lamented, yet e.\cused, his past conduct. Filial piety had required at his hands the revenge of his father's murder; the humanity of liis own nature had sometimes given way to the stern laws of necessity, and to t', forced connection with two unworthy colleagues: as long as Antony lived, the republic forbade him to abandon her to a degenerate Human, and a barbarian queen. He was now at liberty to satisfy his duty and his inclination. He solemnly restored the senate and people to all their ancient rights ; and wished only to mingle with the crowd of his fellow- citizens, and to share the blessings which he had obtained fur his country." ^ It would require the pen of Tacitus (if Tacitus had assisted at this assembly) to describe the various emotions of the senate those that were suppressed, and those that were affected. I' was dangerous to trust the sincerity of Augustus ; to seem tij distrust it was still more dangerous. The respective advan- tages of monarchy and a republic have often divided specula- tive inquirers ; the present greatness of the Roman otate, the corruption of manners, and the license of the soldiers, supplied new arguments to the advocates of monarchy ; and thesu general views of government were again warped by the hopes and fears of each individual. Amidst this confusion of senti- ments, the answer of the senate was unanimous and decisive. They refused to accept the resignation of Augustus ; they conjured him not to desert the republic, which he had saved. After a decent resistance, the crafty tyrant submitted to the orders of the senate ; and consented to receive the govern- ment of the pruvin(-es, and the general command of the Kon)an armies, under the w(;ll-known names of Proconsul and Imphrator.^ But he would receive them only for tea ^ Dion Cassiiis, 1. liii. p. 69:i. Suetonius in August. C. 35. * Dion (1. liii. p. (Ji)S) gives us a prolix, and bombast speech on this gruat occasion. 1 have borrowed from Suetonius and Tacitus the jjciicral language of Augustus, * hnpcrutor ( from wliich we have derived Emperor) signified luidei 7(5 THE DECLINE AND FALL yon re. Even before the expiration of that period, he hoped that the wounds of civil discord would be compietely healed, and that the republic, restored to its pristine health and vigor would no longer require the dangerous interposition of so extraordinary a magistrate. The memoiy of this comedy, |"epeated several times during the life of Augustus, was pie^ served to the last ages of the empire, by the peculiar pomp with which the perpetual monarchsof Rome always solem- nized the tenth years of their reig i.^ Without any violation of the principles of the constitution, the general of the Roman armies might receive and exercise an authority almost despotic over the soldiers, the enemies, and the subjects of the republic. With regard to the soldiers, the jealousy of freedom had, even from the earliest ages of ]«ome, given way to the hopes of conquest, and a just sense of military discipline. The dictator, or consul, had a right to command the service of the Roman youth ; and to punish an obstinate or cowardly disobedience by the most severe and ignominious penalties, by striking the olleader out of the list of citizens, by confiscating his property, and by selling his person into slavery.''' The most sacred rights of freedom, confirmed by the Porcian and Sempronian laws, were sus- pended by the military engagement. In his camp the general exercised an absolute power of life and death ; his jurisdiction was not confined by any forms of trial, or rules of proceeding, and the execution of the sentence was immediate and without appeal.*^ The choice of the enemies of Rome was I'cgularly decided bv the legislative authority. The most important resolutions of peace and war were seriously debated in the senate, and solemnly ratified by the people. But when the arms of the legions were carried to a great distance from Italy, the generals assumed the liberty of directing them against whatever people, and in whatever manner, they judged tlic republic no more than qmeral, and was emphatically hcstowd by the soldiers, when on the field of battle they proclaimed iheir victori- ous leader worthy of that title. "When the Roman emperors as&L,ned it in that sense, they placed it after their name, and marked how often tihev hiid taken it. ""Dion, 1. liii.p. v03, &c. ' Livy Epitom. 1. xiv. [c. 27.] Yaler. !Masim. vi. 3. * Sec, in tlie viiith book of Livy, the conduct of Manlius Torquatus and Papirius Cursor. They violated the laws of nature and humanity, nut they asKcrtcd those of military discipline ; and the people, who fcbhoived tlic action, was obliged to respect the principle. OF THE ROMAN EMPITIE 77 most advantngeous for tlie public service. It was from the fuiccess, not from the justice, of their enterprises, that they expected the liotiors of a triumph. In the use of victory, es- pecially after they were no longer controlled by the commis- sioners of the senate, they exercised the most unbounded des- potism. When Pompey commanded in the East, he rewarded his soldiers and allies, dethroned princes, divided kingdoms, founded colonies, and distributed the treasures of Mithridates. On his return to Rome, he obtained, by a single act of the senate and people, the universal ratification of all his procced- ings.9 Sucli was the power over the soldiers, and over the enemies of Rome, which was either granted to, or assumed by, the generals of the republic. They were, at the same time, the governors, or rather monarchs, of the conquered provinces, united the civil with the military character, admin- istered justice as well as the finances, and exercised both the executive and legislative power of the state. From what has been already observed in the first chapter of this work, some notion may be formed of the armies and provinces thus intrusted to the ruling hand of Augustus. But as it was impossible that he could personally command the legions of so many distant frontiers, he was indulged by the senate, as Pompey had already been, in the permission of devolving the execution of his great office on a sufficient number of lieutenants. In rank and authority these officers seemed not inferior to the ancient proconsuls ; but their station was dependent and precarious. They received and held tl'.eir commissions at the -will of a superior, to whose auspiciuus influence the merit of their actions was legally attributed. i" Tliey were the representatives of the emperor. The emperor * By the lavish but unconstrained suffra<;;es of the people, Pompey had obtained a military command scarcely inferior to that of Augus- tus. Amonnsiticn, prompted him at the age of nineteen to assume the mask of hypocrisy, which he never afterwards laid aside. With the same hand, and prol)ably with the same temper, lie signed the proscription of Cicero, and the pardon of Cinna. His virtues, and even his vices, were artificial ; and according to the various dictates of his interest, he was at first the enemy, and at last the father, of the Roman world.-" When he framed the artful system of the Imperial authority, his mod- eration was inspired by his fears. He wished to deceive the people by an image of civil liberty, and the armies by an image of civil government. I. The death of Cuesar was ever before his eyes. He had lavished wealth and honors on his adherents ; but the most favored friends of liis uncle were in the number of the con- spirators. The fidelity of the legions might defend his authority against open rebellion ; but their vigilance could not secure his person from the dagger of a determined republican ; and the Romans, who revered the memory of Brutus,-" would applaud the imitation of his virtue. Caesai had provoked his fate, as much by the ostentation of his power, as by his power itself. The consul or the tribune might have reigned in peace. The title of king had armed the Romans against his life. Augustus was sensible that man- kind is governed by names ; nor was he deceived in his ex- pectation, that the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedom. A feeble senate and enervated people cheerfully acquiesced in the pleasing illusion, as long as it was supported by the virtue, or even by the prudence, of tho *® As Octavianus advanced to the banquet of the Cccsars, his color changed like that of the chameleon ; pale at first, then red, afterwards black, he at last assumed the mild livery of Venus and the Graces, (Ciesars, p. 309.) This image, employed by Julian in his ingenious hction, is just and elegant ; but when he considers this change of character as real, and ascribes it to the power of philosophy, he dou» too much honor to philosophy and to Octavianus. ^' Two centuries after the establishment of monarchy, the emperor Marcus Antoninus recommends the character of Brutus as a perfect model of lloman virtue.* * Tn a very ingenious essay. Gibbon has ventured to call in question tho prci-'minent virt ae of Brutus. Misc. Work^ iv. 06. — M. ^8 THE DE CLINK AND FALL Buccessors of Augustus. It was 'a motive of self-preserva» lion, not a principle of liberty, that animaied the conspirators against Caligula, Nero, and Domitian. They attacked the person of the tyrant, without aiming their blow at the author- ity of the emperor. There appears, indeed, one memoraole occasion, in >vnich the senate, after seventy years of patience, made an inefiec- tual attempt to reassume its long-forgottnn rights. When the throne was vacant by the murder of Caligula, the consuls convoked that assembly in the Capitol, condemned the mem- ory of the Ccesars, gave the watchword liherty to the few cohorts who faintly adhered to their standard, and during eight-and-forty hours acted. as the independent chiefs of a free commonwealth. But while they deliberated, the praeto- rian guards had resolved. The stupid Claudius, brother of Germanicus, was already in their camp, invested with the Imperial purple, and prepared to support his election by arms. The dream of liberty was at an end ; and the senate awoke to all the horrors of inevitable servitude. Deserted by the people, and threatened by a military force, that feeble assem- bly was compelled to ratify the choice of the praetorians, and to embrace the benefit of an amnesty, which Claudius had the prudence to offer, and the generosity to observe.-^ 11. The insolence of the armies inspired Augustus with fears of a still more alarming nature. The despair of the citizens could only attempt, what the ])ower of the soldiers was, at any time, able to execute. How precarious was his own authority over men whom he had taught to violate every social duty ! He had heard their seditious clamors ; he dreaded their calmer moments of reflection. One revolution had been purchased by immense rewards; but a 'second revo- lution might double those rewards. The troops professed the fondest attachment to the house of Crcsar ; but the attach- ments of tne multitude are capricious and inconstant. Augustus summoned to his aid whatever remained in those fierce minds of Roman prejudices ; enforced the rigor of discipline by the sanction of law; and, inter[)osing the majesty of the senate between the emperor and the army '"■ It is much to be regretted that A^chavc lost the part of Tacitus which treated of that transaction. ^\'o arc forced to content our- selves Avith the popular rumors of Josephus, and the i-upcrfsct hint* of Dion and Suetonius. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 89 twldly claimed their allegiance, as the first magistrate of ihe republic.S'J During a long period of two hundred and twtnty years from the establishment of this artful system to the death of Commodus, the dangers inherent to a military government were, in a great measure, suspended. The soldiers were seldom roused to that fatal sense of their own strength, and ol the weakness of tiie civil autiiority, which was, before and afterwards, producUi^e of such dreadful calamities. Caligula and ]>omitian we/e assassinated in their palace by their own domestics :* the convulsions which agiialed Rome on the death of the former, were confined to the walls of the city. But Nero involved the whole empire in his ruin. In the space of eighteen months, four princes perished by the sword ; and the Roman world was shaken by the fury of the contending armies. Excepting only this short, though vio- lent eruption of military license, the two centuries from Augustus to Commodus passed away unstained with civil blood, and undisturbed by revolutions. The emperor was elected by the authority of the senate^ and the consent of the soldiers?^ The legions respected their oath of fidelity ; and it requires a minute inspection of the Roman annals to discover three inconsiderable rebellions, which were all ^^ Augustus restored the ancient severity of discipline. After the civil wars, he dropped the endearing name of Fellow-Soldiers, and called them only Soldiers, (Sueton. in August, c. 25.) See the use Tiberius made of the Senate in the mutiny of the Pannonian legions, (Tacit. Annal. i.) '" These words seem to have been the constitutional language. Se« Tacit. Annal. xiii. 4. t ♦ Caligula perished by a conspiracy formed by the officers of the prseto rian troops, and Domitian would not, perhaps, have been assassinated without the participation of the two chiefs of that guard in his death. t This panegyric on the soldiery is rather too liberal. Claudius war oblii^ed to purchase their consent to his coronation : the presents wliich he made, and those which the praetorians received on other occasions, consid- erably embarrassed the finances. Moreover, this formidable guard favored, in general, the cruelties of the tyrants. Tlie distant revolts were more frequent than Gibbon thinks : already, under Tiberius, the legions of Ger many would have seditiously constrained Germanicus to assume the Im- perial purple. On the revolt of Claudius Civilis, under Vespasian, the legions of Gaul murih red their general, and offered their assistance to the Gauls who were in ins\irrection. Julius Sabinus made himself be pro claimed empL-ror, &C. The wars, the merit, and the severe discipline o' Trajan, Hadrian, and tlie two Antonines, estabUshed, for seme time, s greater degree of subordination. — W. 7 90 triE DECLINJ: AND FALL suppfessed iii a few months, and without ev<;n (he hazard of a battle. 31 In elective nionarchies, the vacancy of the throne is a mo- nient big with danger ana inischiet". The Roman emperors, desirous to spare the >ogions that interval of suspense, and the temptation of an irregular choice, invested their designed suc- cessor with so large a share of present power, as should ena- ble him, after their decease, to assume the remainder, without suffering the empife to perceive the change of masters. Thus Augustus, after all his fairer prospects had been snatched from him by untimely deaths, rested his last hopes on Tiberius, obtained for his adopted son the censorial and tribunitian pow- ers, and dictated a law, by which the future prince was invested with an authority equal to his own, over the provinces and the armies."'^ Thus Vespasian subdued the generous mind of his eldest son. Titus was adored by the eastern legions, which, under his command, had recently achieved the conquest of Judsea. His power was dreaded, and, as his virtues were clouded by the intempei'ance of youth, his designs were sus- pected. Instead of listening to such unworthy suspicions, the prudent monarch associated Titus to the full powers of the Imperial dignity ; and the grateful son ever approved himself - the humble and faithful minister of so indulgent a father.-^-' The good sense of Vespasian engaged him indeed to em- brace every measure that might confirm his recent and preca- rious elevation. The military oath, and the fidelity of the troops, had been consecrated, by the habits of a hundred years, to the name and family of the Ceesars ; and although that family had been continued only by the fictitious rite of adoption, the Romans still revered, in the person of Nero, the grandson of Germanicus, and the lineal successor of Augus- tus. It was not without reluctance and remorse, that the prae- torian guards had been persuaded to abandon the cause of the " The first was Camillus Scribonianus, who took up anns in Dal- matia against Claudius, and was deserted by his troo])s in five days •, the second, L. Antonius, in Germany, who rebelled against Domitian ; and the third, Avidius Cassius, in the reign of M. Antoninus. Tlio two last reigned but a few months, and were cut off by their own adherents. We may observe, that both Camillus and Cassius colored their ambition with the design of restoring the republic ; a ta^k, jaid Cassius, peculiarly reserved for his name and family. •** Vellcius l*ator;'^us, 1. ii. c. 121. Sueton. in Tihor ;. JO •* Sueton. in Tit. c. G. Plin. in Praefat. Hist. Natur. OF THE ROMAJI EMPIRE. 91 lyrant.34 The rapid downfall of Galba, Otlio, and Vitellus taught the armies to consider the emperors as the creatures of their will, and the instruments of their license. The birth of Vespasian was mean : his grandfather had been a private sol- dier, his father a petty othcer of the revenue ; ^^ his own merit had raised him, in an advanced age, to the empire ; but hifl merit was rather useful than shining, and his virtues were disgraced by a strict and even sordid parsimony. Such a prince consulted his true interest by the association of a son, whose more splendid and amiable character might turn the public attention from the obscure origin, to the future glories, of the Flavian house. Under the mild administration of Titus, the Roman world enjoyed a transient felicity, and his beloved memory served to protect, above fifteen years, the vices of his brother Domitian. Nerva had scarcely accepted the purple from the assassins of Domitian, before he discovered that his feeble age was unable to stem the torrent of public disorders, which had mul- tiplied under the long tyranny of his predecessor. His mild disposition was respected by the good ; but the degenerate Romans required a more vigorous character, whose justice should strike terror into the guilty. Though he had several relations, he fixed his choice on a stranger. He adopted Trajan, then about forty years of age, and who commanded a powerful army in the Lower Germany ; and immediately, by a decree of the senate, declared him his colleague and suc- cessor in the empirc.^'^ It is sincerely to be lamented, that whilst we are fatigued with the disgustful relation of Nero's crimes and follies, we are reduced to collect the actions of Trajan from the glimmerings of an abridgment, or the doubt- ful liglit of a panegyric. There remains, however, one pane- gyric far removed beyond the suspicion of flattery. Above two hundred and fifty years after the death of Trajan, the senate, in pouring out the customary acclamations on the accession of a new emperor, wished that he might surpass the felicity of Augustus, and the virtue of Trajan.^" '* This idea is frcqxiently and strongly inculcated by Tacitus. See Hist. i. 5, 16, ii. 76. ** The emperor Vespasian, with his usual good sense, laughed at .he genealogists, who deduced his family from Flavins, the foiindei of Rcate, (his native country,) and one of the companions of Her- cules. Suet, in Vespasian, c. 12. •"* Dion, 1. Ixviii. p. 1121. Plin. Secund. in Panegyric. '' Feiicior Augusto, meliou Thajano. Eutrop. viii. 6. 92 THi: DECLINE AND TALL We may readily believe, that the father of !nis country hesitated whether he ought to intrust the various and doubtfu. character of his kinsman Hadrian with sovereign power. In his last moments, the arts of the empress Plotina either fixed the irresolution of Trajan, or boldly supposed a fictitious adop- tion ;-^^ the truth of which could not be safely disputed, and Hadrian was peaceably acknowledged as his lawful successor. Under his reign, as has been already mentioned, the empire flourished in peace and prosperity. He encouraged the arts, reformed the laws, asserted military discipline, and visited all his provinces in person. His vast and active genius was equally suited to th«} most enlarged views, and the minute details of civil policy. But the ruling passions of his soul were curiosity and vanity. As they prevailed, and as they were attracted by different objects, Hadrian was, by turns, an excellent prince, a ridiculous sophist, and a jealous tyrant. The general tenor of his conduct deserved praise for its equity and moderation. Yet in the first days of his reign, he put to death four consular senators, his personal enemies, and men who had been judged worthy of empire ; and the tediousness of a painful illness rendered him, at last, peevish and cruel. The senate doubted whether they should pronounce him a god or a tyrant ; and the honors decreed to his memory were granted to the prayers of the pious Antoninus.39 The caprice of Hadrian influenced his choice of a succes- sor. After revolving in his mind several men of distinguished merit, whom he esteemed and hated, he adopted -^Elius Verus, a gay and voluptuous nobleman, recommended by uncommon beauty to the lover of Antinous.'*'*. But whilst Hadrian waa delighting himself with his own applause, and the acclama- tions of the soldiers, whose consent had been secured by an ^* Dion (1. Ixix. p. 1249) affirms the whole to have been a fiction, on the authority of his father, who, being governor of the province where Trajan died, had very good opportunities of sifting this myste- rious transaction. Yet Dodv ell (Praslect. Camden, xvii.) has main- tained, that Hadrian was called to the certain hope of the empire, during the lifetime of Trajan. 3» Dion, (1. Ixx. p. 1171.) Aurel. Victor. *" The deification of Antinous, his medals, statues, temples, city, oratles, and constellation, are well known, and still dishonor thft memory of Hadrian. Yet we may remark, that of the first fifteen emperors, Claudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely correct. For the honors of An-inous, see Spanhcim, Commcntaire •ur les Ctesars de Julien, p. 80 OF THE SOMAN EMPIRE. 93 immense donauve the new- Caesar''^ was ravished from hig embraces by an untimely death. He let't only one son. Ha- drian commended the boy to the gratitude of the Antonines. He was adopted by Pius ; and, on the accession of Marcus, was invested with an equal share of sovereign power. Among the many vices of this younger Verus, he possessed one vir- tue ; a dutiful reverence for his wiser colleague, to whom he willingly abandoned the ruder cares of empire. The philo- sophic emperoi dissembled his follies, lamented his early death, and cast a decent veil over his memory. As soon as Hadrian's passion was either gratified or disap- pointed, he resolved to deserve the thanks of posterity, by placing the most exalted merit on the Roman throne. His discerning eye easily discovered a senator about fifty years of uge, l)lameless in all the offices of life ; and a youth of about seventeen, whose riper years opened a fair prospect of every virtue : the elder of these was declared the son and successor of Hadrian, on condition, however, that he himself should immediately adopt the younger. The two Antonines (for it is of them that we are now speaking) governed the Roman world forty-two years, with the same invariable spirit of wis- dom and virtue. Although Pius had two sons,'*- he preferred the welfare of Rome to the interest of his family, gave his daughter Faustina in marriage to young Marcus, obtained •from the senate the tribunitian and proconsular powers, and with a noble disdain, or rather ignorance of jealousy, associ- ated him to all the labors of government. Marcus, on the other hand, revered the character of his benefactor, loved him as a parent, obeyed him as his sovereign,"*-^ and, after he was no *' Hist. August, p. 13. Aurelius Victor in Epitom. **^ Without the help of medals and inscriptions, we should be ignorant of this fact, so honorable to the memory of Pius.* ■'•' I)uiin<^ the twenty-three years of Pius's reij^n, Marcus -was only two nights absent from the palace, and even those were at different times, llist. August, p. 25. * Gibbon attributes to Antoninus Pius a merit which he cither did not possess, or was not in a situatifrn to display. 1. He was adopted onlv op the condition that he would adopt, in hia turn, Marcus Amelius an^ L. Verus. 2. His two sons died children, and one of them, M. Galerius, alone, appears to have survived, for a few years, his father's coronation. Gibbon is also mistaken, when he says (note 42) that " without the help of racdils iHid inscriptions, we should be ignorant that Antoninus had twa »ons." Capitolinus says expressly, (c. 1,) Filii mares duo, dua; fceminie we only owe their names to the medals. Pagi. Cont. Baron, i. 3li, edit. Palis. -W. 94 IHE DECLINE AND F.ILL more, regulated his own administration by the example and maxims of his predecessor. Their united reigns are possibly the only period of history in which the happiness of a great people was the sole object of government. Titus Antoninus Pius has been justly denominated a second Nurna. The same love of religion, justice, and peace, was the distmguisliing characteristic of both princes. But the situation of the latter opened a much larger field for tlie exer- cise of those virtues. Numa could only prevent a few neigh- boring villages from plundering each other's harvests. Anto- ninus diffused order and tranquillity over the greatest part oi the earth. His reign is marked by the rare advantage of fur- nishing very few materials for history ; which is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. In private life, he was an amiable, as well as a good man. The native simplicity of his virtue was a stran- ger to vanity or affectation. He enjoyed with moderation the conveniences of his fortuiae, and the innocent pleasures of society ;'*'* and the benevolence of his soul displayed itself in a cheerful serenity of temper. The virtue of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was of a severer and more laborious kind.'^^ It was the well-earned harvest of many a learned conference, of many a patient lecture, and many a midnight lucubration. At the age of twelve years he embraced the rigid system of the Stoics, which taught him to submit his body to his mind, his passions to his reason ; to consider virtue as the only good, vice as the only evil, all things external as things indifferent.'*'^ His meditations, com- posed in the tumult of a camp, are still extant ; and he even ^' He was fond of the theatre, and not insensible to the charms of the fair sex. Marcus Antoninus, i. 16. Hist. August, p. 20, 21. Julian in Ca?sar. "•* The enemies of Marcus char<:;ed him with hypocrisy, and with a want of that simplicity which distinguished Pius and even Verus, (Hist. August. 6, 34.) This suspicion, unjust as it was, may serve to account for the superior apjjlause bestowed upon personal qualifi- cations, in prclbrijnce to the social virtues. Even Marcus Antoninus has been called a hypocrite ; but the wildest scepticism never insin- uated that Caisar miglit possibly be a coward, or TuUy a fool. Wit and valor are qualifications more easily ascertained than humanity or the love of justice. "^ Tacitus has characterized, in a few woi Is, the principles of tho portico : Doctores sapiontiae secutus est, qui sola bona (jun; honesta, tnnla tantum qwx tur])ia; potcntiam, nohilitatem, cajtergquc extra •nimum, netjuo bonis neque malis aduumurunt. Tacit, Hist. iv. 6. OF THE ROMAN EMPIKE. 95 condcscencliHi to give lessons of philosophy, in a more pul)hc inanner tlian was perhaps consistent with the modesty of a sage, or the dignity of an emperor.'''^ But his life was the noblest coiinnentary on tlie precepts of Zcno, He was severe to himself, ind-jlgent to the imperfection of others, just and benefice :U to all mankind. He regretted that Avidius Cassius who excited a rebcillion in Syria, had disappointed him, by a voluntary death,* of the |)leasure of converting an enemy "nto a friend ; and he justified the sincerity cif that sentiment, by moderating the zeal of the senate against the adlierenls of th& traitor.'"^ War he detested, as the disgrace and calamity of human nature ; | but when the necessity of a just defence called upon him to take up arms, he readily exposed hia person to eight winter campaigns, on the frozen banks of tiie Danube, the severity of which was at last fatal to the weak- ness of his constitution. His memory was revered by a grate- ful posterity, and above a century after his death, many per- sons preserved the image of Marcus Antoninus among those of their household gods.''^ If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus. The vast extent of the Roman ■empire was governed by absolute power, under the gui-danco of virtue and wisdom. The armies were restrained by the firm but gentle hand of four successive emperors, whose *' Before lie went on the second expedition against the Germans, he read lectures of philosophy to the Roman people, during thre*; days lie Kad ah-cady done the same in the cities of Greece anu Asia. Hist. August, in Cassio, c. 3. *•* Dion, 1. Ixxi. ]>. 1190. Hist. August, in Avid. Cassio.f *' Hist. Aui{ust. in Marc. Antonin. c. 18. • Cassius was muifleietl by his own partisans. Yulcat. Gallic, in Casaiot c 7. Dion, l.\xi. c. 27. — W". t" See one of the newly- rlisfovcrecl passai^es of Dion Cassias. Marcu« wrote to the senate, who urued the c.xeeution of the |)artisaus of Cassius, in these words : " L entreat and beseech you to preserve my reif^n un Btai.ied by senatorial blood. None of your order must perish either bj your desire or niino." Mai. P'rasjm. Vatican, ii. p. 224. — M. * Marciis would luit accept the services of any of the barl)arian alliei who crowded to his stanihird in the war aijainst Avidius Cassius. " Bar- ^)a^iau^," he said, with wise h\it \ain sagacity, " luust not tjecome ae quaiiited with tlic dissei ,sionB of the Itoniaii iieople." Mai 1* rut^ni. VuticAn* i. 221 - .M. 96 THE DECLINE AND FAt.lj characters and authority comimanded involuntary respoct The forms of the civil administration were carefully preserved by Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, who delighted in the image of liberty, and were pleased with considering themselves as the accouniable ministers of the laws. Such princes deserved the honor of restoring the republic, had the Romans of their days been capable of enjoymg a rational freedom. The labors of these monarchs were overpaid by the immense reward that inseparably wahed on their success ; by the honest pride of virtue, and by the exquisite delight of beholding the general happiness of which they were the authors. A jusi but melancholy reflection imbittered, however, the noblest of human enjoyments. They must often have recollected the instability of a happiness wliich depended on the character of a single man. The fatal moment was perhaps approaching, when some licentious youth, or some jealous tyrant, would abuse, to the destruction, that absolute power, which they had exerted for the benefit of their people; The ideal re- straints of the senate and the laws might serve to display the virtues, but could never correct the vices, of the emperor. The milhary force was a blind and irresistible instrument of oppression ; and the corruption of Roman manners would always supply flatterers eager to applaud, and ministers pre-^ pared to serve, the fear or the avaricCj the lust or the cruelty,' of their masters. These gloomy apprehensions had been already justified by the experience of the Romans. The annals of the emperors exhibit a strong and various picture of human nature, which we should vainly seek among the mixed and doubtful charac- ters of modern history. In the conduct of those monarchs we may trace the utmost lines of vice and virtue ; the most exalted perfection, and the meanest degeneracy of our own species. The golden age of Trajan and the Antonines had been preceded by an age of iron. It is almost superfluous to enumerate the unworthy successors of Augustus. Their un- paralleled vices, and the splendid theatre on which they were acted, have saved them from oblivion. The dark, unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the feeble Claudius, the profli gate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius,^" and the timid, *" VitelUus consumed in rncrc eating at least six millions of our ^oncy m about seven months. It is not easy to express his vicos OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 97 inhuman Domitian, are condemned to everlasting iiifaniy During fourscore years (excepting only the short and doubtful respite of Vespasian's reign) ^' Rome groaned beneath an Unremitting tvranny, which exterminated the ancient fa'iiiliea of the republic, and \v;is fatal to almost every virtue anJ Hvery talent that arose in that unhappy period. Under the reign of these monsters, the slavery of the Uonians was accompanied with two peculiar circumstances, the one occasioned by their former liberty, the o'her by their extensive conquests, which rendered their con .ition mora coinpletelv wretched than that of the victims of tyranny in any other age or country. From these causes were derived, 1. The exquisite sensibility of the sullerers ; and, 2. The mpossihilitv of escaping from the hand of the oppressor. 1. W'lieu Persia was governed by the descendants of Sefi, a race of princes whose wanton cruelty often stained their divan, their table, and their bed, with the blood of their favor- ites, there is a saying recorded of a youiig nobleman, that he never departed from the sultan's presence, without satisfying himself whether his head was still on his shoulders. Tlie experience of every day might almost justify the scepticism of Rustan.-''- Yet tlie fatal sword, suspended above him by u single thread, seems not to have disturbed the slumbers, or interrupted the tranquillity, of the Persian. The monarch's frown, he well knew, could level him with the dust ; but the stroke of lightning or apoplexy might be equally fatal ; and it was the part of a wise man to forget the inevitable calamities of human life in the enjovment of the fleeting hour. He was dignified with the appellation of the king's slave ; had, per- haps, been purchased from obscure parents, in a country which he had never known ; and was trained up from his infancy in the severe discipline of the seraglio.-'''' His name, •with dii;nity, or oven decency. Tacitus fairly calls iiim a ho^, t)ut it i« by substitutiui^ tor a coarse word a very tine iinaj^e. " At Vitei- liiis, unibraculis hortorum abditus, ut ignava animalia, quilnLS si cibum sU'i;L!;cras, jaeent tor])ontque, jjra^torita, instantia, futurn, pari oblivione diniisorat. Alquc ilium nemore Aricino desidcni ot luarcen- tcm," &c. Tacit. Ilisl. iii. 3G, ii. 35. Suetoii. in Vitell. c. 13. Dioa Oassivis, 1. Ixv. p. 1()()2. *' 'I'ho execution of Ilelvidius Priscus, and of the virtuous Epoidiia, disgraced the reign of Vespasian. *' Voyage dc CMiardin en Perse, vol. iii. p. 293. ** The i)ractice of raising slaves to the groat otlices of state ia still «»ore conuuon anionjj' the Turks than among the Persians. Th« 98 THE PKCLINE AND FALL his wealth, his honors, were the gift of a master, who might, without injustice, resume what he had bestowed. Rostand's knowledge, if he possessed any, could on y serve to confirm his habits by prejudices. His language afforded not words for any form of government, except absolute monarchy. The history of the East informed him, that such had ever been the condition of mankind.^"* The Koran, and the interpreters of that divine book, inculcated to him, that the sultan was the descendant of the prophet, and the vicegerent of heaven that patience was the first virtue of a Mussulman, and un limited obedifuice the great duty of a subject. The minds of the Romans were very differently prepared for slavery. Oppressed beneath the weight of their own cor- ruption and of military violence, they fur a long while pre served the sentiments, or at least the ideas, of their free-born ancestors. The education of Helvidius and Thrasea, of Taci- tus and Pliny, was the same as that of Cato and Cicero. From Grecian philosophy, they had imbibed the. justest and mus' liberal notions of the dignity of human nature, and the origin of civil society. The history of their own country had taught them to revere a free, a virtuous, and a victorious common- wealth ; to abhor the successful crimes of Caesar and Augus- tus ; and inwardly to despise those tyrants whom they adored with the most abject flattery. As magistrates and senators, they were admitted into the great council, which had once dictated laws to the earth, whose name still gave a sanction to the acts of the monarch, and whose authority was so often prostituted to the vilest purposes of tyranny. Tiberius, and '.hose emperors who adopted his maxims, attempted to disguise their murders by the formalities of justice, and perhaps en- •oyed a secret pleasure in rendering the senate their accom plice as well as their victim. By this assembly, the last of he Romans were condemned for imaginary crimes and real virtues. Their infamous accusers assumed the language of independent patriots, who arraigned a dangerous citizen before the tribunal of his country ; and the public service was re- warded by riches and honors.^^ The servile judges professed miserable countries of Georgia and Circassia supply rulers to the greatest part of the East. ^ Chardin says, that European travellers have diffused aii;ong the Persians some ideas of the freedom and mildness of our governiuenta, I'hey have done them a very ill ofKce. ''' Tbey alleged tlie example of ycipio and Ctto, (Tacit. Annal. ill OF THE RO.M.VW EMPIBE- 9S to assert tho majesty of the commonwealth, violated in llio person of its first magistrate,''*' whose clemency they most applauded when they tnMnbled the most ai iiis inexorable and impending cruelty.^'' The tyrant beheld their baseness with just contempt, and encountered their secret sentiments of detestation with sincere and avowed hatred for the whole body of the senate. II. The division of Europe into a number of independent states, connected, however, with each otiier by the general resemblance of religion, hmguage, and manners, is productive of the most beneficial consequences to the liberty of mankind. A modern tyrant, who should find no resistance either in his own breast, or in his [)eople, would soon experience a gentle restraint from llie example of his equals, the dread of present censure, the advice of his allies, and the apprehension of his enemies. The object of his displeasure, escaping from tho narrow limits of liis dominions, would easily obtain, in u hap- pier climate, a secure refuge, a new fortune adequate to his merit, the freedom of complaint, and perhaps the means of revenge. But the empire of the Romans filled the world, and when that empire fell into the hands of a single person, tlie world became a safe and dreary prison for his enemies. The slave of Imperial despotism, whether he was condemned to drag his gilded chain in Rome and the senate, or to wear out a life of exile on the barren rock of Seriphus, or tlie frozen 66.) MfUcoUus Ejiirus and Crispus Vibius had acfinired two millions end a hall" under Nero. Their wealth, which U[^i;rav!ited their crimes, protected them under Vespasian. Soe Tacit. Hist. iv. 4H. Dialog, dc Orator, c. 8. For one accusation, Hegulus, the just object of Pliny's satire, received from the senate the consular ornaments, and a uroucnt of .sixty thousand pounds. •'"' 'I'ho crime of innji'stij was formerly a treasonable offence af^ainst tne Koman jieople. A<< tribunes of the people, Aujiustus and Tibe- rius uppiiecl it to their own persons, and extended it to an inlinitf* latitude. • '"' After the virtuous and unfortunate widow of Germanicus had been put to death, Tiberius received the thanks of the senate for his clemency, felie had not been luibUcly stiangk>d, nor was the body drawn with a ho:)k to the (jemoniie, where tliost- of common male- factors were oxpOBcd. See Tacit. Annal. vi. 2o. Sueton. in Tiberio, • It w.Ts Tiboritis, not Augustus, wlui first took in this sense the wordu aiiuei; la^sa' Ulaic.^tatis. Buclui Tiajanus, 27. — W. lUU THE DECLINE AND FALL banks of the Danube, expected his /ate in silent despair.^ To resist was fatal, and it was impossible to fly. On every side he was encompassed with a vast extent of sea and land, which he could never hope to traverse without being discovered, seized, and restored to his irritated master. Beyond the frontiers, his anxious view could discover nothing, except the ocean, inhospitable deserts, hostile tribes of barbarians, of fierce manners and unknown language, or dependent kings, who would gladly purchase the emperor's protection by the sacrihce of an obnoxious fugitive.^^ " Wherever you are," said Cicero to the exiled Marcellus, " remember that you are equally within the power of the conqueror."^" ^8 Scriphiis was a (small rocky island in the .'Egean Sea, the inhab- itants of which were despised for their ignorance and obscurity. The place of Ovid's exile is well known, by his just, but unmanly lamen- tations. It should seem, that he only received an order to^ leave Rome in so many days, and to transport himself to Tomi. Guards and jailers v/ere unnecessary. *9 Under Tiberius, a lioman knight .ittempted to fly to thePnrtliians. He was stopi)e(l in tiie straits of Sicily ; but so little danger did tlicre apptar in the e>;ami)te, tiiat tlie niost jealous of tyrants liisdaiiu-d to punish it. Tacit. Ai!i;:il vi. i-l *^ Cicero ad Farailiares, iv. 7. CHAPTER IV. THE CRUELTY, FOLLIES, AND MURDER OF COMMODUS. EL»C TION OF PERTINAX. HIS ATTEMPTS TO REFORM THE STATB. HIS ASSASSINATION BY THE PRAETORIAN GUARDS. The mildness of Marcus, which tlie rigid discipline of tho Stoics was unable to eradicate, formed, at the same time, the most amiable, and the only defective, part of his character. His excellent understanding was often deceived by the unsus- pecting goodness of his heart. Artful men, who study the passions of princes, and conceal their own, approached his person in the disguise of philosophic sanctity, and acquired riches and honors by affecting to despise them.' His exces- sive indulgence to his brother,* his wife, and his son, exceeded the bounds of private virtue, and became a public injury, by the example and consequences of their vices. Faustina, the daughter of Pius and the wife of Marcus, has been as much celebrated for her gallantries as for her beauty. The grave simplicity of the philosopher was ill calculated to engage her wanton levity, or to fix that unbounded passion for variety, which often discovered personal merit in the meanest of mankind. 2 The Cupid of the ancients was, in general, a very sensual deity ; and the amours of an empress, as they e.xact on her side the plainest advances, are seldom suscepti- ble of much sentimental delicacy. Marcus was the only man in the emj)ire who seemed ignorant or insensible of the irreg- ularities of Faustina ; which, according to the prejudices of every age, reflected some disgrace on the injured husband. ' See tho complaints of Avidius Cassius, Hist. August, p. 45 These are, it is true, the complaints of faction ; but even faction cxaggt'ratcs, rather than invents. ^ * Faustinara satis constat apud Cajctam conditiones sibi et nauticaa et gladiatorias, elcgisse. Hist. August, p. 30. Lampridius explains the sort of merit which Faustina chose, and the conditions wliich sho exacted. Hist. August, p. 102. • His brother by adoption, and his colleague, L. Verus. Marcjs Aure- Uus hid no other brother. — W. 101 10^2 TKii DECLINE AND FALL . He promoted several of her lovers to posts of honor and profit ,3 and during a connection of thirty years, invariably gave her proofs of the most tender confidence, and of a respect which ended not with her Hfe. In his Meditations, he thanks the •gods, who had bestowed on him a wife so faithful, so gentle, and of such a wonderful sim|3licity of manners.'' The obse- quious senate, at his earnest request. d(!c.!ared her a goddess. She was represented in her leinpuis, wun the attrihutfss of Juno, Venus, and Ceres ; and it was uecreed, that, on the day of* their nuptials, the youth of either sex should pay their vows before the altar of their chaste patroness.-'' The monstrous vices of the son have cast a shade on the purity of the father's virtues. It has been objected to .\hircus, tViat he sacrificed the liap|)iness of millions to a fond partiality for a worthless boy ; and that he chose a successor in his own family, rather than in the republic. Nothing, however, waa neglected by the anxious father, and by the men of virtue and learning whom he sunmioned to his assistance, to expand the narrow mind of young Commodus, to correct his growing vices, and to render him worthy of the throne fur which he was designed. But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, excejjt in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous. The distasteful lesson of a grave philos- opher was, in a moment, obliterated by the whisper of a [)rofli- gate favorite ; and Marcus himself blasted the fruits of this labored education, by admitting his son, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, to a fidl participation of the Imperial power. He lived but four years afterwards : but he lived long enough to repent a rash measure, which I'aised the impetuous youth above the restraint of reason and authority. Most of the crimes which disturb the internal peace of society, are produced by the restraints which the necessary but unequal laws of property have imposed on the appetites of mankind, by confining to a few the possession of those *' Hist. Au^nist. p. 34. * Mcditat. 1. i. The world has hiughed at the credulity of Marcus ; ?>ut Mada* Dacier assures us, (and \vc may credit a lady,) that the nusband will always be deceived, it' the wile condescend-* to dissemble. * Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxi. [c. 31,] j). 119.5. Hist. Augu«t. \). ,V,i. Commeiitaire de Spauheim sur los Ca>sars dc Julicn, p. '2.S9. Th« deification of Faustina is the only defect whicli Julian's critii;ism is ahle to discover iii the ull-accomplishcd chiu'act"r of Marcus. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRK. 103 objects that are coveted by many. Of all our passions and appetites, the love of power is of the most unperious and unsociable nature, since the pride of one man requires the submission of the multitude. In the tumult of civil discord, the laws of society lose their force, and tlieii place is seldom supplied by those of humanity. The ardor of contention, the pride of victory, the despair of success, the memory of past injuries, and the fear of future dangers, all contribute to in flame the mind, and to silence the voice of pity. From such motives almost every ])age of history has been stained with civil blood ; but these motives will not account for the unpro- voked cruelties of C'ommodus, who had nothing to wish, and every thing to enjoy. The beloved son of Marcus succeedea to his (htlier, amidst the acelaiiiationsof the senate and armies ;^ and wUv.n he ascended the throne, the happy youth saw round him neither competitor to remove, nor enemies to punish. In this calm, elevated station, it was surely natural that he should prefer the love of matdcind to their detestation, the mild glo- ries of his five predecessors to the ignominious fate of Nero and Domitian. Yet Commodus was not, as he has been represented, a tiger born with ;m insatiate thirst of human blood, and capable, from his infancy, of the most inhuman actions." Nature had formed him of a weak rather than a wicked disposition. His sim- plicity and timidity rendered him the slave of his attendants, who gradually corrupted his mind. His cruelty, wb.ich at first obeyed the dictates of others, degenerated into habit, and at length became the ruling passion of his soul.^ Upon the death of his father, Commodus found himself embarrassed with tlie command of a great army, and the con- duct of a difficult war against the Quadi and Marcomanni.'J The servile and |)rofligate youths whom Marcus had banished, Boon regained their station and influence about the new em- pe'ror. They exaggerated the hardships and dangers of a 5 Commodus was the first Porphijrogenitiis, (t)orii since his lather's accession to the throne.) ]5y a new strain oi' tiattcry, the Egyptian medals date by the years of his lite ; as ii" they were synonymous to those of his reign. Tillcmont, Hist, des Emj-ereurs, tom. ii. p. 752. ' Hist. August, p. 40. * Dion Cassius, 1. Ix.xii. p. 1203. According to TertuUian, (Apolog. c. 25,) he died at Sirmium. But the situation of V'indobona, or Vienna, where bcith tlie Victors place his death, is better adajitcil to the operations of the war agaiist t)i»> Marcomanni and Ciuadi. 104 THE DECLINE AND FALL campaign in Jhe wild countries beyond the Danube ; and they assurea the indolent prince that the terror of his name and the arms of his lieutenants would be sufficient to complete the conquest of the dismayed barbarians, or to impose such conditions as were more advantageous than any conquest. By a dexterous application to his sensual appetites, they com- pared the tranquillity, the splendor, the refined pleasures of Rome, with the tumult of a Paimonian camp, which atrorded neither leisure nor materials for luxury.'" Commodus lis- tened to the pleasing advice , but whilst he hesitated between his own inclination and the awe which he still retained for his father's counsellors, the summer insensibly elapsed, and his triumphal entry into the capital was deferred till the autumn. His graceful person," popular address, and ini' agined virtues, attracted the public favor ; the honorable peace which he had recently granted to the barbarians, dif- fused a universal joy; ^^ his impatience to revisit Rome was fondly ascribed to the love of his country ; and his dissolute course of amusements was faintly condemned in a prince of nineteen vears of age. During the three first years of his reign, the forms, and even the spirit, of the old administration, were maintained by those faithful counsellors, to whom Marcus had recommended his son, and for wliose wisdom and integrity Commodus still entertained a reluctant esteem. The young prince and his profligate favorites revelled in all the license of sovereign power; but his hands were yet unstained with blood ; and he had even displayed a generosity of sentiment, which might perhaps have ripened into solid virtue.'-^ A fatal incident decided his fluctuating character. Orie evening, as the emperor was returning to the" palace through a dark and narrow portico in the amphitheatre,''* an assassin, who waited his passage, rushed upon him with a drawn sword, loudly exclaiming, " The senate sends you f/tis." The menace prevented the deed ; the assassin was '^' Herodian, 1. i. p. 12. " Herodian, 1. i. p. 16. i * This universal joj* is well described (from the me lals as weU as llifltorians) by Mr. WoUon, Hist, ol" Koine, p. 19'2, 193. " Manilius, the confidential secretary of Avidius Cassius, was dip- covered after he had lain concealed several years. The emperor no' ^ y relieved the public anxiety by refusing to see him, and burning '« pa])f;rs witliout ojieninn them. Dion Cassius, 1. IxxiL p. 1'209. '* See Mallei degli Amphitheatri, p. 126. OF THE ROMAN EMPIT.E. 105 seized by the guards, and immediately revealed the authors of the conspiracy. It had been formed, not in the state, but within the walls of the palace. Lucilla, the emperor's sister, and widow of Lucius Verus, impatient of the second rank and jealous of the reigning empress, had armed the murderer against her brother's life. She had not ventured to communi- cate the black design to her second husband, Claudius Poiri- peianus, a senator of distinguished merit and unshaken loy* alty ; but among the crowd of her lovers (for she imitated llie manners of Faustina) she found men of desperate for- tunes and wild ambition, who were prepared to serve her more violent, as well as her tender passions. The conspira- tors experienced the rigor of justice, and the abandoned princess was punished, first with exile, and afterwards with death. 15 But the words of the assassin sunk deep into the mind of Commodus, and left an indelible impression of fear and hatred against the whole body of the senate.* Those whom he had dreaded as im[)ortunate ministers, he now suspected as secret enemies. The Delators, a race of men discouraged, and almost extinguished, under the former reigns, again be- came formidable, as soon as they discovered that the emperor was desirous of finding disaffection and treason in the senate. That assembly, whom Marcus had ever considered as the great council of the nation, was composed of the most dis- tinguished of the Romans ; and distinction of every kind soon became criminal. The possession of wealth stimulated the diligence of the informers ; rigid virtue implied a tacit cen- sure of the irregularities of Commodus ; important services implied a dangerous superiority of merit ; and the friendship of the father always insured the aversion of the son. Sus- picion was equivalent to proof; trial to condemnation. The execution of a considerable senator was attended with tlie death of all who might lament or revenge his fate ; and when Commodus had once tasted human blood, he became incapu ble of pity or remorse. Of these innocent victims of tyranny, none died m?re lamented than the two brothers of the Quinlilian family, " Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 1203. Herodian, 1. i. pi 16. Hist. August >46. • The coiispirators were senators, even the assassin himself flerod i 8). ~ G (Ofi THE DECLINE AND FALL. Maxiniua r i,d Condianus ; whose fraternal love has s^ved! then naints from oblivion, and endeared their memory to posterity. Their studies and their occupations, their pursuits and their pleasures, were still the same. In the enjoyment of a great estate, they never admitted the idea of a separate •nteresl : some fragments are now extant of a treatise wiiich they composed in common;* and in every action of life it Wis observed that their two bodies were animated by one Si?v.v. The Antonines, who valued their virtues, and delighted m their union, raised them, in the same year, to the consul- ship ; and Marcus afterwards Uitrusled to their joint care the civil administration of Greece, and a great military command, in which they obtained a signal victory over th^s Germans. The kind cruelty of Commodus united them in death. '"^ The tyrant's rage, after having shed the noblest blood of the senate, at length recoiled on the principal instrument of his cruelty. Whilst Commodus was immersed in blood and luxury, he devolved the detail of the public business on Percn- nis, a servile and ambitious minister, who had obtained his post by the murder of his predecessor, but who possessed a considerable share of vigor and ability. By acts of extortion and the forfeited estates of the nobles sacrificed to his avarice he had accumulated an immense treasure. The Praetorian guards were under his immediate command ; and his son who already discovered a military genius, was at the head of the lUyrian liJgions. Pereimis aspired to the empire ; oi what, in the eyes of Commodus, amounted to the same crime, he was cajiable of as|)iring to it, had he not been prevented, surprised, and put to death. The fall of a minister is a very trifling incident in the general history of the empire ; but it was hastened by an extraunlinarv circumstance, which |)roved liow niiieli the nerves of disci|)liiiu were alreadv relaxcil. The leiiions oi' liritain, discuiitenU'd with the ailniinisinilion (j*" Pereimis, formed a deputation of fifteen hiui'Ircd select men, with instructions to march to Rome, and lay tiicir coniitlaints before the enipenjr. These military petitioners, by their own determined behavior, by innamiug the divisions of the guards, '* In a note upon the Aujiiistan History, C'asFubon has ccllectcd n iiunibor of j)aiticu}iu-.s concerning these celebrated brothers. Se€ p. 96 of his Ipained commentary. * 'this work was on agrifiiilturo, and is often (jiiotcfl by later writers S»'e P. NfCcUjani Piolog. ad Geoponic. Canib. 1704 — W OP THE HOMAN EMPIKE. 107 by exaggerf»tiiig the strength of the British army, and by alarming the fears of Commodiis, exacted and obtained tliH minister's death, as the only redress of tLeir grievances. •' This presumption of a distant army, and their discovery of the weakness of government, was a sure presage of the most dreadful convulsions. The negligence of the public administration was betrayed, Scon afterwards, by a new disorder, which arose from the smallesv beginnings. A spirit of desertion began to prevail among the troops : and 'he deserters, instead of seeking their safety in flight or concealment, infested the highways. Ma- ternus, a private soldier, of a during boldness above his station, collected these bands of robbers into a little army, set open the prisons, invited the slaves to assert their freedom, and plundered with impunity the rich and defenceless cities of Gaul and Spain. The governors of the provinces, who had long been the spectators, and perhaps the partners, of his depredations, were, at length, roused from their supine indo- lence by the threatening commands of the emperor. Matcr- nus found that he was encompassed, and foresaw that he must be overpowered. A great effort of despair was his last resource. He ordered his followers to disperse, to pass the Alps in small parties and various disguises, and to assemble at Rome, during the licentious tumult of the festival of " Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 1210. Herodian, 1. i. p. 22. Hist. August, p. 48 J!)ion pives a mucli less odious cliaraoter of Perennis, than the other Historians. His moderation is ahuost a pledge of Ids veracity.* * Gibbon praises Dion for the moderation witli which he speaks of I'erennis : he follows, neveitheless, in his own narrative, Herodian ami l.anipridius. Dinn -speaks of I'erennis not only with nioderatiim, but with admiration; he represents him as a great man, virtuous in his life, and blameless in his death: perhaps he may be suspected of partiality; but it is sinjruiar that Gibbon, having adopted, from Herodian ami I.anipridins their iudjrment on this minister, follows Dion's improbable aceount of 1 ■.<» death! What likelihood, in fact, that fifteen hundred men slKuild have traverse. 1 Gaul and Italy, and have arrived at Rome without any undei- standing with the I'rfEtorians, or without detection or opposition from Pcrenni", the Prcetorian pnefect V Gibbon, foreseeing, perhaps, this difficulty, has added, that the military deputation intlMined the divisions of the guards; but Dion says expresslythm they ilid not reach Home, but that tiie emperor went out "to meet them: he even reproaclies hir.i for not having opposed the'm with the guards, who were superior in number Herodian relates that Commodus, having learned, from a soblier, tho ambitious designs of I'erennis and Ids son, caused them to he attacked and massacred by night. — G. from W. Dion's narrative is reinarkLbly circum- stantial, and his authority hi'jlier than either of the other writers, lie Bints that Oleander, a new favorite, had already undermined ths iidluence »f I'eremu*. — M. 108 THE DECLINE AND FALL Cybele.^^ To murder Commodus, and to ascend the vacant throne, was the ambition of no vulgar robber. His measures were so ably concerted that his concealed troops already fiUea the streets of Rome. The envy of an accomplice discovered and ruined this singular enterprise, in the moment when it was ripe for execution. ^^ Suspicious princes often promote the last of mankind from, a vain persuasion, that those who have no dependence, o.xcept on their favor, will have no attachment, except to the -«ison of their benefactor. Oleander, the successor of Perennis, was a Phrygian by birth ; of a nation over whose stubbc rn, but servile temper, blows only could prevail.^" He had been sent from his native country to Rome, in the capacity of a slave. As a slave he entered the Imperial palace, rendered himself useful to his master's passions, and rapidly ascended to the most exalted station which a subject could enjoy. His influence over the mind of Commodus was much greater than that of his predecessor ; for Oleander was devoid of any abil- ity or virtue which could inspire the emperor with envy oi distrust. Avarice was the reigning passion of his soul, and the great principle of his administration. The rank of Con- sul, of Patrician, of Senator, was exposed to public sale ; and it would have been considered as disaffection, if any one had refused to purchase these empty and disgraceful honors with the greatest part of his fortune.^i In the lucrative provincial employments, the minister siiared with the governor the spoils of the people. The execution of the laws was venal ana aibitrary. A wealthy criminal might obtain, not only the reversal of the sentence by which he was justly condemned but might likewise inflict whatever punishment he pleased on the accuser, the witnesses, and the judge. By these means. Oleander, in the space of three years, had accumulated more wealth than had ever yet been possessed by '^ During the second Punic war, the Romans unportcd from Asia the worship of the mother of the gods. Her festival, the Mvi/alcaia, began on the fourth of April, and lasted six days. The streets were crowded with mad processions, the theatres with spectators, and the public tables with unlnddcn guests. Order and police were suspend- ed, and pleasure was the only serious business of the city. Sec Ovid, dc Pastis, 1. iv. 189, &e. '» Herodian, 1. i. p. 23, 28. *" Cicero pro Flacco, c. 27. " One of these dear-bought promotions occasionea h current boa mot, ty.at Julius Solon was ban shed into the senate. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 109 Ally frecdman. -^ Commodus was perfectly satisfied vvitli the inagniliccnl i)rcscnts whicli the artful courtier laid at his feot /n the most seasonable moments. To divert the public envy. Oleander, under the emperor's name, erected baths, porticos, and places of exercise, for the use of the people.^"^ He flat- tered himself that the Romans, dazzled and amused by this apparent liberality, would be less affected by the bloody scenea which were daily exhibited ; that they would forget the dcaih of Byrriius, a senator to whose superior merit the late emperor had granted one of his daughters ; and that they would for- give the execution of Arrius Antoninus, the last representative of the name and virtues of the Antonines. The former, with more integrity than prudence, had attempted to disclose, to his brother-in-law, the true character of Oleander. An equi- table sentence pronounced by the latter, when jiroconsul of Asia, against a worthless creature of the favorite, proved fatal to him.-"* After the fall of Perennis, the terrors of Oommodus had, for a short time, assumed the appearance of a return to virtue. Ke repealed the most odious of his acts ; loaded his memory witli the public execration, and as- cribed to the pernicious counsels of that wicked minister all the errors of his inexperienced youth. But his repentance lasted only thirty days ; and, under Oleander's tyranny, the admin- istration of Perennis was often regretted. Pestilence and famine contributed to fill up the measure of the calamities of Rorne.--^ The first could be only imputed to the just indignation of the gods ; but a monopoly of corn supported by the riches and power of the minister, was con- sidered as the immediate cause of the second. The popular discontent, after it had long circulated in whispers, broke out in the assembled circus. The people quitted their favorite amusements for the more delicious pleasure of revenge rushed in crowds towards a palace in the suburbs, one of the " Dion (1. Ixxii. p. 12, 13) observes, that no froedman had pos- eesscd riches ei^uul to those of Oleander. The foitur,c of I'allas amounted, however, to upwards of five and twenty hundred thou- sand jiounds ; Tar millies. ** Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 12, 13. Hcrodian, 1. i. p. 29. Hist. Augiust. p. 52. These baths were situated near the Pc r^a Capena. See Nar- dini Roma Antica, p. 79. ** Hist. August, p. 48. ** Herodian, 1. i. p. 28. Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. ;215. The latter says, that two thousand persons died every day at Rome, during a consid- erable length of time. HO THE DECLINE AND FALL emperor's rotirements, and demanded, with angry clamora the head of the public enemy. Oleander, who coinmandeil tne Pryetorian guards,-*^ ordered a body of cavalry to sally forth, and disperse the seditious multitude. The multitude fled with precipitation towards the city ; several were slaiii, and many more were trampled to death ; but when the caval- ry entered the streets, their pursuit was checked by a shower of stones and darts from the roofs and windows of the hous(!3. Tiie foot guards,^'' who had been long jealous of the prerogatives ind insolence of the Praetorian cavalry, embraced the party of the people. The tumult became a regular engagement, tind threatened a general massacre. The Prsetorians, at tength, gave way, oppressed with numbers; and the tide of popular fury returned with redoubled violence against the gates of the palace, where Commodus lay, dissolved in lux- ury, and alone unconscious of the civil war. It was death to approach his persnn whh the unwelcome news. He would have perished in ttiis supine security, had not two women, his eldest sister Fadilla, and Marcia, the most favored of his concubines, ventured to break into his presence. Bathed in tears, and with dishevelled hair, they threw themselves at his feet ; and with all the pressing eloquence of fear, discovered to the affrighted emperor the crimes of the minister, the rage of the people, and the impending ruin, which, in a few minutes, would burst over his palace and person. Commodus started from his dream of pleasure, and commanded that the head of Oleander should be thrown out to the people. The desired spectacle instantly appeased the tumult ; and the son '* Tuncque primum tres prcaefccti prsetorio fucrc : inter quos liber- tinus. From some remains of modesty, Clcandcr declined the title, whilst he assumed the powers, of Pnctorian prfufect. As the other fraedmen were styled, from their several departments, a rationibaa, ab cpistolis, Cleander called himself « pugione, as intrusted with the defence of his master's person. Salmasius and Casaubon seem to have talked very idly upon this passage.* " Ol ri'ji nuXfvtg TifLvi orQuTK'nut. Herodian, 1. i. p. 31. It is doubtful whether he means the Prietorian infantry, or the cohortea urbanai, a body of six thousand men, but whose rank and discii)line were not equal to their numbers. Neither Tillemont nor Wotton choose to decide this question.f * LI. Guizot denies that Lampridius means Cleander as praefect a pugione. The Libcrtinus seems to me t > moan him. — M. t It sten;s to me there is none. The passage of Ilorodian is clear, aud designates the city cohorts. Compare Dion, p. 797- — W. OF THE RfiflA,\ EMPIRE. Hi jf Marcus mifflit oven yet have regained tl)c uiTeclion and confidence ol' liis subjects.-^ But every sentiment of virtue and humanity was extinct in :he mind of Cominodus. Whilst he thus abamloned the reins ot empire to these unworthy favorites, lie valued nothing \r sovereign power, except the unbounded license of indulging his sensual appetites. His hours were spent in a seraglio of throe hundred beautiful women, and as many boys, of every rank, and of every province ; and, wherever the arts of seduction proved ineffectual, the brutal lover had recourse to violence. The ancient historians -^ have expatiated on these abandoned scenes of prostitution, which scorned every re- straint of nature or modesty ; but it would not be easy to translate their too faithful descriptions into the decency of modern language. The intervals of lust were filled up with the basest amusements. The influence of a polite age, and the labor of an attentive education, had never been able to infuse into his rude and brutish mind the least tincture of learning ; and he was the first of the Roman emperors totally devoid of taste for the pleasures of the understanding. Nero himself excelled, or affected to excel, in the elegant arts of music and poetry : nor should we despise his pursuits, had he not converted the pleasing relaxation of a leisure hour inta the serious business and ambition of his life. But Commodus f;om his earliest infancy, discovered an aversion to whatever was rational or liberal, and a fond attachment to the amuse- ments of the populace ; the sports of the circus and amphi- theatre, the combats of gladiators, and the hunting of wild beasts. The masters in every branch of learning, whom Marcus provided for his son, were heard with inattention and disgust ; whilst the Moors and Parthians, who taught him to dart the javelin and to shoot with the bow, found a disciple who delighted in his application, and soon equalled the most skilful of his instructors in the steadiness of the eye and the dexterity of the hand. The servile crowd, whose fortune depended on their mas- ter's vices, applauded these ignoble pursuits. The perfidious '" Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxii. p. 1215. Ilcrodinn, 1. i. p. 32. Hist. August, p. 48. ** Sororibus suis constnprritis. Ipsas coiicubinas suas sub oculii I'sis .stU]U'ui jiiliobat. N(v irrucutium in se juvcnum caicbat in- fainri, oinni |>arn; i-oiijoiu u: lUc ore in sexuin utruinque poIl"ilufl Hist Auji. u- -17. 112 THE DECLINE AND FALL voice of flattery reminded him, that by exploits of the same nature, by the defeat of the Nemaean Hon, and the slaughter of the wild boar of Erymanthus, the Grecian Hercules had acquired a place among the gods, and an immortal memory among men. They only forgot to observe, that, in the first ages of society, when the fiercer animals often dispute with man the possession of an unsettled country, a successful war ngainst those savages is one of the most innocent and bene- ficial labors of heroism. In the civilized- state of the Eoman empire, the wild beasts had long since retired from the face of man, and the neighborhood of populous cities. To sur- prise them in their solitary haunts, and to transport them to Rome, that they might be slain in pomp by the hand of an emperor, was an enterprise equally ridiculous for the prince and oppressive for the people. -^o Ignorant of these distinc- tions, Commodus eagerly embraced the glorious resemblance, and styled himself (as we still read on his medals ^i) the Roman Hercules * The club and the lion's hide were placed by the side of the throne, amongst the ensigns of sovereignty , and statues were erected, in which Commodus was repre- sented in the character, and with the attributes, of the god whose valor and dexterity he endeavored to emulate in the daily course of his ferocious amusements.^^ Elated with these praises, which gradually extinguished the innate sense of shame, Commodus resolved to exhibit before the eyes of the Roman people those exercises, which till then he had decently confined within the walls of his palace, and * ^° The African lions, when pressed by hunger, infested the open villages and cultivated country ; and they infested them with impu- nity. The royal beast was reserved for the pleasures of the cmpeior and the capital ; and the unfortunate peasant who killed one of them, though in his own defence, incurred a very heavy penalty. Tliis exti-aordinary r/a?ne-law was mitigated by Honorius, and finally re- pealed by Justinian. Codex Theodos. t'om. v. p. 92, et Comment Gothofred. ^' Spanheim do Nuraismat. Dissertat. xii. tom. ii. p. 493. *' Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 1216. Hist. August, p. 49. • Commodus placed his own head on the colossal statue of Hercules arith the inscription, Lvcius Commodus Hercules. The wits of Rome accordiiis? to a new fragment of Dion, published the following epigram, of which, like m:uiy other ancient jests, the point i-; not very rl<>.r: "Lot, Itaii KiiXXnnKOi 'WpaKAfii, ovk d^ki Aiixioi, aAX' i]viiyKn(iwni ui ." It m'i n:s to h* E protest of the god against being confounded w.th ihe empc.'/i. ftiA) . Fragm. Vatican, ii. 22o. — M OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 113 to the presence of a few favorites. On the appointed day, tho various motives of llattciy, foar, and curiosity, attracted to the amphitheatre an innumerable multitude of spectatoi*s ; and some degree of (i])plause was deservedly be.stowed on the un- common skill of the Imperial performer. Whether he aimed at the head or heart of the animal, the wound was alike certain and mortal. With arrows whose point was sljaped into the form of a crescent, Commodus often intercepted the rapid career, and cut asunder the long, bony neck of the ostrich.33 A panther was let loose ; and the archer waited till he had leaped upon a trembling malefactor. * lu the same instant the shaft (lew, the beast dropped dead, and the man remained unhurt. The dens of the amphitheatre disgorged at once a hundred lions : a hundred darts from the unerring hand of Commodus laid them dead as they ran raging round the Arena. Neither the huge bulk of the elephant, nor the scaly hide of the rhinocpros, could defend them from his stroke. ^Ethiopia and India yielded their most extraordinary produc-tions ; and several animals were slain in the amphitheatre, which had been seen only in the representations of art, or perhaps of fancy ."'^ In ail these exhibitions, the securest precautions were used to protect the person of the Roman Hercules from the desperate spring of any savage, who might possibly dis- regard the dignity of the emperor and the sanctity of the crod."^ ^' The ostrich's neck is three feet long, and composed of seventeen vertebra*. Sec Hutl'on, Hist. XaturcUc. ^* Commodus killed a camelopardalis or Giraffe, (Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 1211,) the tallest, the niost gentle, and the most useless of the large quadrupeds. This s; .^ular animal, a nativa only of the interior parts of Africa, has not been seen in Eui-ope since the revival of letters ; and tho\igh M. dc Buffon (Hist. Naturellc, torn, xiii.) has endeavored to describe, he has not ventured to delineate, the Girafi'c.* 2^ llorodian, 1. i. p. 37. Hist. August, p. 50. * The naturalists of our days have been more fortunate. London prob- ablj' nov.' contains mom sppcimens of this animal than have been seen in Eu- rope since the full of the Roman empire, unless in the pleasure gardens of the emperor Frederic II., in Sicily, which possessed several. Frederic's collections of wild beasts were exhibited, for the popular amusement, in many parts of Italy. Raumer, Geschichte dcr Ilohcnstaufcn, v. iii. p. -571. Gibbon, moreover, is mistaken ; as a giraffe was presented to Lorenzo da Medici, either by the sultan of Egypt or the king of Tunis. Contnmpo raiy authorities are quoted in the old work, Gcsuer ie Quadrupedib**, p. 102.— M. 8 14 tHE DECLINE AND FALL But the meanest of the populace were afTected with shame nnd indignation when they beheld their sovereign enter the lists as a gladiator, and glory in a profession wnich the laws and manners of the Romans had branded with the jiistest note of infamy .■^*^ He chose the habit and arms of the Secutor whose combat with the Retiarms form.ed one of the mo3. lively scenes in the bloody sports of the amphitheatre. The Secutor was armed whh a helmet, sword, and buckler ; \\\z iTiked antagonist had only a large net and a trident ; with the one he endeavored to entangle, with the other to despatch hig enemy. If he missed fhe first throw, he was obliged to fly from the pursuit of the Secutor, till he had prepared his net for a second cast.37 The emperor fought in this character seven lundred and thirty-five several times. These glorious achieve- ments were carefully recorded in the public acts of the empire ; and that he might omit no circumstance of infamy, he received from the common fund of gladiators a stipend so exorbitant that it became a new and most ignominious tax upon the Roman people.^^ It may be easily supposed, that in these engagements the master of the world was always sue cessful ; in the amphitheatre, his victories were not often sanguinary ; but when he exercised his skill in the school of gladiators, or his own palace, his wretched antagonists were frequently honored with a mortal wound from the hand of Commodus, and obliged to seal their flattery with their blood.^? He now disdained the appellation of Hercules. The name of Paulus, a celebrated Secutor, was the only one which delighted his ear. It was inscribed on his colossal statues, and repeated in the redoubled acclamations '^^ of the mournful and applaud- ^8 The virtuous and even the wise princes forbade the senators and knights to embrace this scandalous profession, under pain of infamy, or, what was more dreaded by those profligate wretches, of exile The tyrants allured them to dishonor by threats and rewards. Nero once produced in the arena forty senators and sixty knights. Seo Lipsius, Saturnalia, 1. ii. c. 2. He has happily corrected a passage of Suetonius in Neronc, c. 12. " Lipsius, 1. ii. c. 7, 8. Juvenal, in the eighth satire, gives picturcsqiie description of this combat. "^ Hist. August, p. 50. Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 1220. He received, fo each time, decies, about 8000 I. sterling. 3' Victor tells us, that Commodus only allowed his antagonists a leaden weapon, dreading most probably the consequences of theii despair. *" They were obliged 1 1 repeat, six hundred and twenty-six timos, ^aulusjirst of ike Secutoft &o. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 115 Ing senate.''^ Claudius Pompcianus, the virtuous husbanf. of r.ucilla, was the only senator who asserted the honor of his rank. As a father, he permitted his sons to consult their sufety by attending the amphitheatre. As a Roman, he declared, that liisowi life was in the emperor's hands, but that he would never behold the son of Marcus prostituting his person and dignity. Notwithstanding his manly resohition, Pompcianus escaped the resentment of the tyrant, and, witli his honor, had the good fortune to preserve his life.''^ Commodus had now attained the summit of vice and infamy. Amidst the acclamations of a flattering court, he was unable lo disguise from liimself, that he had deserved the contempt and hatred of every man of sense and virtue in his empire His ferocious spirit was irritated by the consciousness of tha\ hatred, by the envy of every kind of merit, by the just appre- hension of danger, and by the habit of slaughter, which he contracted in his daily amusements. History has preserved a long list of consular senators sacrificed to his wanton suspicion, which sought out, with peculiar anxiety, those unfortunate persons connected, however remotely, with the family of the Antonincs, without sparing even the ministers of liis crimes or pleasures.'-^ His cruelty proved at last fatal to himself. He had shed with impunity the noblest blood of Rome: he perished as soon as he was dreaded by his own domes- tics. Marcia, his favorite concubine, Eclectus, liis chamberlain, and LfEtus, his Prtutorian pra;fect, alarmed by the fate of their companions and predecessors, resolved to prevent the destruc- tion which every hour hung over their heads, either from the mad caprice of the tyrant,* or the sudden indignation of the *^ Dion, 1. Lxxii. p. 1221. He speaks of liis own baseness and danger. *'^ He mixed, however, some prudence with his courage, and passed the greatest part of his time in a country retirement ; alleging his advanced age, and the weakness of his eyes. " 1 never saw liim in the' senate," says Dion, "except during the short reign of Pcrtinax." All his infirmities had suddenly left him, and they returned as sud- denly upon the murder of that excellent prince. Dion, 1. Ixxiiiu p. 1227. ** The prsefccts were changed almost hourly or daily ; and the eapriDC of Commodus was often fatal to his most favored chamber- lains. Hist. August, p. 4G, 51. * Commodus had already resolved to massacre them the following n.'ght thev determined to ant.'cipiite his design. Herod, i. 17. — W. 116 THE DECLINE AND FALl- peop'ie. Marcia seized the occasion of presenting a draught of wine to her lover, after he had fatigued himself with hunt- ing some wild beasts. Conniiodus retired to sleep,; but wliilst he" was laboring whh the cilects of poison and drunkenness, a robust youth, by profession a wrestler, entered his chamber, and strangled him without resistance. The body was secretly conveyed out of the palace, before the least suspicion was ehtenaincd in the city, or even in the court, of the emperor's death. Such was the fate of the son of Marcus, and so easy was it to destroy a hated tyrant, who, by the artificial povvera or' govern m.ent, had oppressed, during thirteen years, so many millions of subjects, each of whom was equal to their master in personal strength and personal abilities.'*'* The measures of the conspirators were conducted with the deliberate coolness and celerity which the greatness of the occasion required. They resolved instantly to fill the vacant Jirone with an emperor whose character would justify and maintain the action that had been committed. They fixed on Eertinax, prtefect of the city, an ancient senator of consular rank, whose conspicuous merit had broke through the obscurity of his birth, and raised him to the first honors of the state. He had successively governed most of the provinces of the empire ; and in all his great employments, military as well as civil, he had uniformly "distinguished himself by the firmness, the prudence, and the integrity of his conduct.''^ He now ^■» Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 1222. Ilerodian, 1. i. p. 43. Hist. August. p. 52. *'' Pertinax was a native of Alba Pompcia, in Piedmont, and s&?i of a timber merchant. The order of his employments (it is marked by Capitolinus) well deserves to be set down, as expressive of tho form of government and manners of the age. 1. He was a centurion. 2. Pra-fect of a cohort in Syria, in the Parthian war, and in Britain. 3. He obtaiuLHl an Ala, or squadron of horse, in Mxsia. 4. lie was commissary of provisions on the yEmiUan way. 5. He commanded the fleet upon the Rhine. 6. He was procurator of Dacia, with a Balarj' of about IC.OO^. a year. 7. Ho conunanded tho veterans of a legion. 8. He obtained the rank of senator. 9. Of pra2tor. 10. AVith the command of the iirst legion in Rhajtia and Noricinn. 11. He was consul about tho vear 175. 12. He attended Marcus into the I'last. 13. He commanded an army on the Danube. 14. He was consular legate of Majsia. 15. Of Dacia. IG. Of Syria. 17. Of P.ritain. 18. Ho had the care of tho public provisions at Rome. 19. He waa proconsul of Africa. 20. Praifect of the city. Herodian (1. i. p. 48) does justice to his disinterested spirit ; but Capitolinus, who col- .ccted every popular rumor, charges bini with a great fortune acquired by bribery and corruption OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 1 17 remained almost alone of the friends and ministers of Marcus; and wiion, at a late hour of the night, he was awakened with the news, that the chamberlain and the pra)fect were at hia do(«', he received tliem with intrepid resignation, and desired th;;y would execute their master's orders. Instead of death, Ihcy oflered him the throne of the Roman world. During Kome itioments he distrusted their intentions and assurances. Convinced at length of the death of Commcdus, he accepted the purple with a sincere reluctance, the natural ctlect of his knowledge both of the duties and of the dangers of the supreme rank.''G Ljctus conducted without delay his new emperor to the camp of the Prcctorians, diflusing at the same time through the city a seasonable report that Commodus died suddenly of an apoplexy ; and that the virtuous Pertinax had already suc- ceeded to the throne. The guards were rather surprised than pleased with the suspicious death of a prince, whose indul- gence and liberality they alone had experienced; but the emergency of the occasion, the authority of their pra;fect, the reputation of Pertinax, and the clamors of the people, obliged them to stifle their secret discontents, to accept the donative promised by the new emperor, to swear allegiance to him, and with joyful acclamations and laurels in their hands to conduct him to the senate house, that the militaiy consent might be ratified by the civil authority. This important night was now far spent; with the dawn of day, and the commencement of the new year, the senators expected a summons to attend an ignominious ceremony.* In spite of all remonstrances, even of those of his creatures who yei preserved any regard for prudence or decency, Com- modus had icsolved to pass the night in the gladiators' school, and from thence to take possession of the consulship, in the habit and wiui the attendance of that infamous crew. On a sudden, befoie the break of day, the senate was called together in the temple of Concord, to meet the guards, and to ratify the election of a new emperor. For a few minutes they sat in *^ lul'rxn, 'Tn. the Caesars, taxes him with being accessory to th« death oi" Commodus. * The scuate always assembled at the bcE^inninc; of the year, on th« night of tl-.c 1st January, (sec .Savaron on Sid. ApoU. viii. 6,) anA thin happened the present year, as usual, without any particular order. — Q. from W. 118 THE DECLINE AND FALL si.ent suspense, doubtful of their unexpected deliverance, and suspicious of the cruel artifices of Commodus : but when at 'cngth they were assured tliat the tyrant was no mere, they resigned themselves to all the transports of joy and indigna- rion. Pertinax, who modestly represented the meanness of his extraction, and pointed out several noble senators more deserving than himself of the empire, was constrained by their dutiful violence to ascend the throne, and received a', the titles of Imperial power, confirmed by the most sincere vowa of fidelity. The memory of Commodus was branded with eternal infamy. * The names of tyrant, of gladiator, of public enemy resounded in every corner of the house. They de- creed in tumultuous votes,* that his honors should be reversed, his titles erased from the public monuments, his statues thrown down, his body dragged with a hook into the stripping room of the gladiators, to satiate the public fury ; and they ex- pressed some indignation against those ofilcious servants who had already presumed to screen his remains from the justice of the senate. But Pertinax could not refuse those last rites to the memory of Marcus, and the tears of his first protector Clau- dius Pomjjeianus, who lamented the cruel fate of his brother- in-law, and lamented still more that he had deserved it.'^'' These effusions of impotent rage against a dead emperor, whom the senate had flattered when alive with the most abject servility, betrayed a just but ungenerous spirit of revenge. *'' Capitolinus gives us the particulars of these tumultuary votes, which were moved by one senator, and repeated, or rather chanted, by the whole body. Kist. August, p. 52. * "What Gibbon improperly calls, both here and in the note, tumultuous decrees, were no more than the applauses and acclamations which recur Bo often in the history of the emperors. The custom passed from the tlie- atrc to the forum, from the forum to the senate. Applauses on the adop- tion of the Imperial decrees were first introduced under Trajan. (Plin. jmi. Panegyr. 75.) One senator read tlie form of tlie decree, and all tlie rest answered by acclamations, accompanied with a kind of chant or rliythm. These were some of the acclamations addressed to Pertinax, and against the memory of Conmiodus. Hosti patria; honores detraliantur. Pairicida; honores dctrahantur. Ut salvi simus, Jupiter, optimc, maxime, serva nobis Pertiiiaccm. This custom prevailed not only in the councils of state, but in all the meetings of the senate. However inconsistent it may appear with the solemnity of a religious assembly, the early Christians adopted and introduced it into their synods, notwithstanding the opposi- tion of some of the r'athers, particularly of St. Chrysostom. tjee the Coll. of Franc. JJern. Ferrarius de vetcrum acclamatione in Graivii The- •aur Antiq Kom. i. 6. — W. This note is rather hypercritical, as regards Gibbon, but appears to me Woithy of preservation. — M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 119 The legality of these decrees was, liowever, supported by the nriiiciples of the Imperial constitution. To censure, to depose or to punish with death, tlie first magistrate of the republic, who had abused his delegated trust, was the ancient and un- doubted prerogative of the Roman senate ;'"^ but that feeblf assembly was obliged to content itself with inflicting on a lailen tyrant that public justice, from which, during his life and reign, he had been shielded by the strong arm of military despotism.* Pertinax f;und a nobler way of condemning his predcces- sor's memory ; by the contrast of his own virtues with tiio vices of Commodus. On the day of his accession, he resigned over to his wife and son his whole private fortune ; that they might have no pretence to solicit favors at the expense of the state. He refused to flatter the vanity of the former with the title of Augusta ; or to corrupt the inexperienced youth of the latter by the rank of Cresar. Accurately distinguishing be- tween the duties of a parent and those of a sovereign, he edu- cated his son with a severe simplicity, which, while it gave him no assured prospect of the throne, might in time have rendered iiim worthy of it. In public, the behavior of Per- tinax was grave and adable. He lived with the virtuous part of the senate, (and, in a private station, he had been acquainted with the true character of each individual,) without cither pride or jealousy ; considered them as friends and compan- ions, with whom he had shared the dangers of the tyranny and with whom he wished to enjoy the security of the presen time. He very frequently invited them to familiar entertain n.ents, the frugality of which was ridiculed by those who remembered and regretted the luxurious prodigality of Corn- modus.^^ *' The senate condemned Nero to be put to death more majonim. Suoton. c. 49. ■" Dion (1. Ixxili. p. Vl'l?,) speaks of those entertainments, as a Bcnator wlio had supped with the emperor ; CapitoUnus, (Hist. Au- gust. 1'. 58,) Uke a slave, who had received his iiitelLigonce fi-om one of the scullions. * No particular law assigned this right to the senate: it was deduced from the ancient principles of the icp\il)lic. Gibbon appears to infer, from .he passat;e of Suetonius, tliiit the senate, accordinp; to its ancient right punished Nero witli death. The words, however, 7nore tnajomm refer not to the decree of the senate, but to the kind of death, which was taken from an old law of Romulus. (Sec Victor. Epit. Ed. Artzen, p. 484, n. 7. 120 THE DECLINE AND FALL To Iie?.l. as far as it was possible, the wounds inflicted by the hand of tyranny,was the pleasing, but melancholy, task of Pertinax. The innocent victims, who yet survived, were recalled from exile, released from prison, and restored to the full possession of their honors and fortunes. The unburied bodies of murdered senators (for the cruelty of Commodus endeavored to extend itself beyond death) were deposited in the sepulchres of their ancestors ; their memory was justified ; and every consolation was bestowed on their ruined and afflicted families. Among these consolations, one of tlie most grateful was the punishment of the Delators ; the common enemies of their master, of virtue, and of their country. Yet even in the inquisition of these legal assassins, Pertinax pro- ceeded with a steady temper, which gave every thing to jus- lice, and nothing to popular prejudice and resentment. The finances of the state demanded the most vigilant carp of the emperor. Thou<;h every measure of injustice and ex- lortion had been adopted, which could collect the property of the subject into the coffers of the prince, the rajiaciousnest of Commodus had been so very inadequate to his extrava- gance, that, upon his death, no more thaji eight thousand pounds were found in the exhausted treasury,^" to defray the current expenses of government, and to discharge the pressing demand of a liberal donative, which the new emperor had been obliged to promise to the Praetorian guards. Yet undci these distressed circumstances, Perttoax had the generous firmness to remit all the oppressive taxes invented by Com- modus, and to cancel all the unjust claims of the treasury ; declaring, in a decree of the senate, " that he was better sat ■ isfied to administer a poor republic with innocence, than to acquire riches by the ways of tyranny and dishonor." Econ- omy and industry he considered as the pure and genuine sources of wealth ; and from them he soon derived a copious supply for the public necessities. The expense of the house Hold was immediately reduced to one half All the instru- ments of luxury Pertinax exposed to public auction,^^ gold and ''" Decies. The blameless economy of Pius left his successors a treasure of vicics septies viillies, above two and twenty millions ster- ling. Dion, 1. Ixxiii. jj. 1231. ^^ Besides the design of convertings these useless ornaments into mone3\ Dion (I. Ixxiii. p. 1221)) assigns two secret motives of Pertinax. lie wislied to expose the vices of Commodus, and to discover by tiio purchasers those who most resembled him. OF THE ROMAN E-MI'lHE. 321 silver plate, chariots of a singular construction, a .^^Ipon1llous warflrobo of sl!k and embroidery, and a great number of beautiful slaves of both sexes ; exeepting only, with attentive humanity, those who were born in a state of freedom, and had been ravislied from the arms of their weeping parents. At the same time that he obliged the worthless favorites of the tyrant to resign a part of their ill-gotten wealth, he satistled the just creditors of the state, and unexpectedly discharged tlio long arrears of honest services. He removed the oppressive restrictions which had been laid upon commerce, and granted all the uncultivated lands in Italy and the provinces to those v/ho would improve them; with an exemption from tribute diirmg the term often years.^- Such a uniform conduct had already secured to Pertinax the noblest reward of a sovereign, tiie love and esteem of his ocople. Those who remembered the virtues of Marcus were liappy to contemplate in tlieir new emperor the features of that bright original ; and flattered tliemselves, that they should long enjoy the benign infl.ucnce of his administration. A hasty zeal to reform the corrupted state, accompanied with less prudence than might have been expected from the years and experience of Pertinax, proved fatal to himself and to his country. His honest indiscretion united against him the ser- vile crowd, who found their private benefit in the public dis- orders, and who preferred the favor of a tyrant to the inexo- rable equality of the laws.'''^^ Amidst the general joy, the sullen and angry countenance of the Prfctorian guards betrayed their inward dissatisfaction, riiey had reluctantly submitted to Pertinax ; they dreaded the ^strictness of the ancient discipline, which he was preparing to restore ; and they regretted the license of the former reign. Their discontents were secretly fomented by Lastus, their pra^fect, who found, when it was too late, that his new em- peror would reward a servant, but would not be ruled by a fuvfrite. On the third day of his reign, the soldiers seized on a noble senator, with a design to carry him to the camp, and to invest him with the Imperial purple. Instead of being dazzled by the dangerous honor, the atFrighted victim escaped *' Though Capitolinus has picked up many idle teles of the private ILfe of Pertinax, he joins with Dion and llerodian in admiring hia pubhc conduct. ^' Leges, rem surdam, incxorabilem esse. T. Liv. ii 3. 8- 122 THE DECLINE AND FALL from their violence, and took refuge at the feet of Pertinax. A short time afterwards, Sosius Falco, one of the conyuls of the year, a rash youth,^"* but of an ancient and opuleni family listened to the voice of ambition ; and a conspiracy was formed during a short absence of Pertinax, which was crushed by nis sudden return to Rome, and his resolute behavior. Falco was on the point of being justly condemned to death as a pub- lic enerny, had he not been save 1 by the earnest and sincere entreaties of the injured emperor, who conjured the senate, that the purity of his reign might not be stained by the blood oven of a guilty senator. These disappointments served only to irritate the rage of the Pra3torian guards. On the twenty-eighth of March, eighty-six days only after the death of Commodus, a general sedition broke out in the camp, which the ofiicers wanted either power or inclination to suppress. Two or three hun- dred of the most desperate soldiers marched at noonday, with arms in their hands and fury in their looks, towards the Im- perial palace. The gates were thrown open by their com- panions upon guard, and by the domestics of the old court, who had already formed a secret conspiracy against the life of the too virtuous emperor. On the news of their approach Pertinax, disdaining either flight or concealment, advanced to meet his assassins ; and recalled to their minds his own inno- cence, and the sanctity of their recent oath. For a few mo- ments they stood in silent suspense, ashamed of their atrocious design, and awed by the venerable aspect and majestic firm- ness of their sovereign, till at length, the despair of pardon reviving their fury, a barbarian of the country of Tongres^^ levelled the first blow against Pertinax, who was instantly despatched with a multitude of wounds. His head, separated from his body, and placed on a lance, was carried in triumph to the Praetorian camp., in the sight of a mournful and indig- "* K wo credit Capitolinus, (which is rather difiicuU.,) Falco be- haved with the most petulant indecency to Pertinax, on the day of his accession. The wise emperor only admonished hun of his youth. and inexperience. Hist. Aui^ust. p. 55. '* The modern bishopric of Licfjc. This soldier probably belonged to the Batavian horse-guards, who were mostly raised in the duchy of Gueldres and the neigliborliood, and were distinguished by theil valor, and by the boldness with which they swam their horses acro.si the broadest and most rapid rivers. Tacit. Hist iv. 12. Dion, L Iv p. 797. Lipsiu.s de magnitudiuc Uomaiiii, I. i. c. 4. CF THE no:.iAN empire. 123 nant j)copIc, who lamented the unworthy fate of tliaf excel' lent prince, and the traiisiciil blessings of a reign, the memory of wliich could tjerve only to aggravate their approaching misfortunes.^- " Dion, I. Ixxiii. p. ^.c,VS■ tioroiliiin, 1. ii. p. 60. Hist. August p. il Vi Uor iu Epitutu. et iu Cwsiu'ib. Kulropiub, rill. 13. CHAPTER V. PUBLIC SALE OF THE EMPIBE TO DIDIUS JULIANUS 15T TllHi rS.ETORLiN GUARDS. CLODITJS ALBINUS IN BiaXA H, FKS- CENXIUS NIGER IN SYRIA, APfD SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS IN FAN- KONIA, DECLARE AGAINST THE MURDERERS OF PERTINAX. CIVIL WARS AND VICTORY OF SEVERUS OVER HIS THREE RIVALS. RELAXATION OF DISCIFLINE. NEW BIAXIMS OF GOVERNMENT. The power of the sword is more sensibly felt in an exten- sive monarchy, than in a small community. It has been cal- culated by the ablest politicians, that no state, without being soon exhausted, can maintain above the lumdredth part of its members in arms and idleness. But although this relative proportion may be uniform, the influence of the army over the rest of the society will vary according to the degree of its })0sitive strength. The advantages of military science and discipline cannet be exerted, unless a proper number of sol- diers are united into one body, and actuated by one soul. With a handful of men, such a union would be ineffectual ; with an unvvicldy host, it would be impracticable ; and ine powers of the machine would be alike destroyed by the ex- treme minuteness or the excessive weight of its springs. To illustrate this observation, we need only reflect, that there is no superiority of natural strength, artificial weapons, or ac- quired skill, which could enable one man to keep in constant subjection one hundred of his fellow-creatures : the tyrant of a single town, or a small district, would soon discover that a liundred armed followers were a weak defence against ten thousand peasants or citizens ; but a hundred thousand well- disciplined soldiers will command, with despotic sway, ten millions of subjocts ; and a body of ten or fifteen thousand guards will strike terror into the most numerous populace that ever crowded the streets of an immense capital. The PrcCtcrian bands, whose licentious fury was the first eympigm and cause of the decline of the Roman empire, 124 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 125 scarcely airiountcd to the last-mentioned number.^ They do rived their institution from Augustus. That cmf„y tyrant Bcnslble that hiws might color, but that arms alone could maintain, his usurped dominion, had gradually formed thia powerful body of guards, in constant readiness to protect his person, to awe the senate, and either to prevent or to crush the first motions of rebellion. He distinguished these favored troops by a double pay and superior privileges ; but, as their, formidable aspect would at once have alarmed and irritated the Roman people, three cohorts only were stationed in the ca|)ital, whilst the remainder was dispersed in the adjacent towns of Italy.- But after fifty years of peace and servitude, Tiberius ventured on a decisive measure, which forever rivet, ted the fetters of his country. Under the fair pretences of relieving Italy from the heavy burden of military quarters, and of introducing a stricter discipline among the guards, he assembled them at Rome, in a permanent camp,^ which wag fortified with skilful care,'' and placed on a commanding sit- uation.^ Such formidable servants are always necessary, but often fatal to the throne of despotism. By thus introducing the Praiorian guards as it were into the palace and the senate, the emperors taught them to perceive their own strength, and the weakness of the civil government ; to view the vices of their masters with familiar contempt, and to lay aside that * They v.cve originally nine or ten thousand men, (for Tacitus and Dion arc not agreed upon the subject,) divided into as many cohorts. Vitcllius increased them to sixteen tliousand, and as far as wc can learn from inscrii)tions, they ncn-cv afterwards sunk much below that number. See Lipsius de niagnitudine llomand, i. 4. ^ vSucton. in August, c. 49. ^ Tacit. Annal. iv. 2. Sueton. in Tiber, c. 37. Dion Ch-jSius, 1. ivii. p. 8G7. ■* In tlic civil war between Yitellius and Vespasian, the Prxtorian canip -was attacked and defended with all the machines used in tiie Biege of the best fortilicd cities. Tacit. Hist. iii. 84. ' Close to the walls of the city, on the broad summit of the Quirinal nnd Viminal hills. See Nardini llom^ Antica, p. 174. Donatus de lioma Auticjua, p. 4G.* * Not on both these hills : neither Donatus nor Nardini justuy this position. (Whitakcr's Ileview, p. 13.) At the noith'^vn extremity of this hill (the Viminal) are some considerable remains of a walled enclosure whioh boars all the appearance of a Roman camp, and 'therefore is sener aliy thought to correspond with the Castra rru.-toria. Cramer's liL,l\, i 1%. — M. 126 THE DECLINE AND FALL reverential awe, which distance only, and mystery, can pre- serve towards an imaginary power. In the luxurious idleness of an opulent city, their pride was nourished by the sense of their irresistible weight ; nor was it possible to conceal from them, that the person of the sovereign, the authority of the senate, the public treasure, and the seat of empire, were all in their hands. To divert the Praetorian bands from these dangerous reflections, the firmest and best established i)rince3 were obliged to mix blandishments with commands, rewards with punishments, to flatter their pride, indulge their pleas- ures, connive at their irregularities, and to purchase their pre- carious faith by a liberal donative ; which, since the elevation jof Claudius, was exacted as a legal claim, on the accession of every new emperor.*^ The advocates of the guards endeavored to justify by argu- ments the power which they asserted by arms ; and to main- tain that, according to the purest principles of the constitution their consent was essentially necessary in the appointment of an emperor. The election of consuls, of generals, and of magistrates, however it had been recently usurped by the senate, was the ancient and undoubted right of the Roman people.''' But where was the Roman people to be found .'' Not surely amongst the mixed multitude of slaves and rtrangera that filled the streets of Rome ; a servile populace, as devoid of spirit as destitute of property. The defenders of the state, selected from the flower of the Italian youth,^ and trained in the exercise of arms and virtue, were the genuine representa- tives of the people, and the best entitled to elect the military chief of the republic. These assertions, however defective in reason, became unanswerable when the fierce Praitoriana * Cliuidius, raised by the soldiers to the empire, was the first wlio gave a donative. He gave (juuin dcna, 1'20/. (Sucton. in Claud, c. 10:} when. Marcus, with his colleague Lucius Ycrus, took (juiet possession of the throne, ho gave vicena, IGQl. to each of the guards. Hist. August, p. 2.5, (Dion, 1. Ixxiii. p. 1231.) Wo may form some idea of the amount of these sums, by Hadrian's complaint that the pro- motion of a Cit'sar had cost him ter millios, two millions and a half sterling. * ' Cicero de T.ogihus, iii. 3. The first book of Tivy, and the second of Dionysius of Ilalicarnassus, show the authority of the people, even in the election of the kings. * They were originally recruited in I;atium, Etrurla, and the old colcnics, (Tacit. Annal. iv. 5.) The emperor 0"ho complimetits thnil vanity with the flattering titles of Italitu Alumr.. , llomaua vcre juvcii- U»a. Tacit. Hist. i. 81. CF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 127 increased their weiglit, by throwing, like the barbarian con« queror of Koine, tiieir swords into tiie scale.'-' The Prtetorians had violated the sanctity of the throne by the atrocious murder of Pertinax ; they dishonored the majesty of it by their subsequent conduct. The camp was without u leader, for even the prajfect Laetus, who had excited the tem- pest, prudently declined the public indignation. Amidst the wild disorder, Sulpicianus, t!ie emperor's i'alher-in-Iaw, and governor of the city, who had been sent to the camp on tho first alarm of mutiny, was endeavoring to calm the fury of thfl multitude, when he was silenced by the clamorous return of the murderers, bearing on a lance the head of Pertinax. Though history has accustomed us to observe every principle and every passion yielding to the imperious dictates of am- bition, it is scarcely credible that, in these moments of horsor, Sulpicianus should have aspired to ascend a throne polluted with the recent blood of so near a relation and so excellent a prince. He had already begun to use the only effectual argu- ment, and to treat for the Imperial dignity ; but the more pru- dent of the Prffitorians, apprehensive that, in this private con- tract, they should not obtain a just price for so valuable a commodity, ran out upon the ramparts : and, with a loud voice, proclaimed that the Roman world was to be disposed of to the best bidder by public auction. ^"^ This infamous offer, the most insolent excess of military license, dillused a universal grief, shame, and indignation throughout the city. It reached at length th.e ears of Didius Julianus, a wealthy senator, who, regardless of the public calamities, was indulging himself in the luxury of the table. '^ His wife and his daughter, his freedmen and his parasites, easily convinced him that he deserved the throne, and earnestly conjured him to embrace so fortunate an opportunity. The vain old man hastened to the Praetorian camp, where SuU picianus was still in treaty with the guards, and began to bia against him frOm the foot of the rampart. The unworthy In the siege of Rome by the Gauls. See Livy, v. 48. Plutarch. in Camill. p. li:>. '" Dion, 1. Ixxiii. p. 1234. ITerodian, 1. ii. p. 'i3. Hist. August. p. GO. Though the three historians agree that it was in fact an auction, llcrodiau alone affirms that it was proclaimed as such by tlie eoUliers. '• Spartianus softens the most odious parts of the character and elevation of JuUuu. 128 THE DECLINE AND FALL negotiation was transacted by foithful emissaries, wlio passed altei-nateJy fi'om one candidate to tiie other, and acquainted each of them with the offers of his rival. Sulpicianus liad already promised a donative of five thousand dracluns (abova one hundred and sixty pounds) to each soldier ; when Julian, eager for the i)i-ize, rose at once to the sum of six thousand two hundred and fifty drachms, or upwards of two hundred pounds sterling. The gates of the camp were instantly thrown open to the purchaser ; he was declared emperoi', and received an oath of allegiance from the soldiers, who retained humanity enough to stipulate that he should pardon and forget the com petition of Sulpicianus.* It was now incumbent on the Praetorians to fulfil ths con- ditions of the sale. They placed their new sovereign, whom theiy served and despised, in the centre of their ranks, sur- rounded him on every side with their shields, and conducted him in close order of battle through the deserted streets of the city. The senate was commanded to assemble ; and those who had been the distinguished friends of Pertinax, or the personal enemies of Julian, found it necessary to afiect a more than common share of satisfaction at this happy revolution.^: After Julian had filled the senate house with armed soldiers, he expatiated on the freedom of his election, his own eminent virtues, and his full assurance of the aflections of the senate. The obsequious assembly congratulated, their own and the public felicity ; engaged their allegiance, and conferred on him all the several branches of the Imperial powcr.i^ From the senate Julian was conducted, hy the same military pro- cession, to take possession of the pa'toce. The first objects ^^ Dion Cassius, at that time praetor, had been a personal enemy to Julian, 1. Lxxiii. p. 1235. '^ Hist. A\igust. p. 61. We learn from thence one cTirious cii'cum Btance, that tfie new emperor, whatever had been his birth, was im- mediately aggregated to the number of patrician families, t * One of the principal causes of the proforcnce of Juliainis by the solclicvs, was the dexterity with wliich he rcniinded them that ISulpicianus would not fail to revcna:e on them the death of liis son-in-law. (See Dion, p. 1234, c. 11. Ilerod/ii. 6.) — W. . , , . , t A new fragment of Dion shows some shrewdness m the character of Julian. When the senate voted him a golden statue, he preferred one of Drass, as more lasting. He "had always ohservcd," he said, " that the Btatues of former emperors were soon destroyed. Those of brass alone remained." The indignant historian adds that he was wrong. Ihe virtue of sovereigns alone preserves their images: the brizen statue ol Juhaa Tas bioken to pieces at l.is death. Mai. Fragm. Vatican, p. ii25. - M. OF THE RO.rlAN EMPIRE. 129 that struck Lis eyes, were the abandoned trunk of Pcrtmax and tlie frugal entertainment prepared for liis supper. Tiie one he viewed witli indiirercnce, the other with contempt A magnificent feast was- prepared by his order, aud he amusefl liinisoif, till a very late hour, with dice, and the performances' of Pylades, a celebrated dancer. Yet it was observed, thai tiftei the crowd, of flatterers dispersed, and left him to dark- ne^^s, solitude, and terrible reflection, he passed a sleepless night , revolving most probably in his mind his own rash folly, the fate of his virtuous predecessor, and the doubtfu. and dangerous tenure of an empire which had not been ac- quired by merit, but purchased by money. !•* He had reason to tremble. On the throne of the world ho found himself without a friend, and even without an adherent. The guards themselves were ashamed of the prince whom their avarice had persuaded them to accept ; nor was there a citizen who did not consider his elevation with horror, as the last insult on the Roman name. The nobility, whose conspic- uous station, and ample possessions, exacted the strictest cau- tion, dissembled their sentiments, and met the alTected civility of the emperor with smiles of complacency and professions of duty. But the people, secure in their numbers and obscu- rity, gave a free vent to their passions. Tiie streets and pub- lic places of Rome resounded with clamors and imprecations. The enraged multitude affronted the person of Julian, rejected his liberality, and, conscious of the impotefice of their own resentment, they called aloud on the legions of the frontiery to assert the violated majesty of the Roman empire. The public discontent was soon ditTused from the centre to the frontiers of the empire. The armies of Britain, of Syria, and of lllyricum, lamented the death of I'ertinax, in wliose company, or under whose command, they had so often fought and conquered. They received with surprise, with indigna- tion, and perhaps with envy, the extraordinary intelligence, that the Prtetorians had disposed of the empire by public " Dion, 1. Ixxiii. p. 1235. Hist. August, p. Gl. I have endeavored 'o hlcncl into one consistent story the seeming contradictions of tho tifo writers.* * The contradiction, asM. Guizot observed, is irreconcilable. He quotes both passages : in one Julianas is represented as a miser, in the other as a voluptuary. In the one he refuses to oat till the body of I'ortinax lias been b iried ; m the other he gluts himself with every hivujy alnrost iu the sight *!' hi.s headless ranaius. — M. 130 THE DECLINE AND FALL aucti(j/i; and they sternly refused to ratify tlie ignominious bargain. Their immediate and unanimous revolt was fatal to Jurian, but it was fatal at the same time to the public peace as the generals of the respective aimics, Clodius Albums, Pescennius Niger, and Septimius Severus, were still more anxious to succeed than to revenge the murdered Pertinax. Their forces were exactly balanced. Each of them was at the head of three legions, ^^ with a numerous train of auxiliaries; and however ditierent in their characters, they were all sol- diers of experience and capacity. Clodius Albinus, governor of Britain, surpassed both hi» competitors in the nobility of his extraction, which he derived from some of the most illustrious names of the old republic '^ But the branch from which he claimed his descent was sunk into mean circumstances, and transplanted into a remote prov ince. It is difficult to form a just idea of his true character. Under the philosophic cloak of austerity, he stands accused of concealing most of the vices which degrade liuman nature. ^^ But his accusers are those venal writers who adored the for- . tune of Severus, and trampled on the ashes of an unsuccessful rival. Virtue, or the appearances of virtue, recommended Albinus to the confidence and good opinion of Marcus ; and his preserving with the son the same interest which he hud acquired with the father, is a proof at least that he was pos- sessed of a very flexible disposition. The favor of a tyrant does not always suppose a want of merit in the object of it; he may, without intending it, reward a man of worth and ability, or he may find such a man useful to his own service. It does not appear that Albinus served the son of Marcus, either ns the minister of his cruelties, or even as the associate of his pleasures. He was employed in a distant honorable command, when he received a confidential letter from the emperor, acquainting him of the treasonable designs of some discon- tented generals, and authorizing him to declare himself the guardian and successor of the throne, by assuming the titlti and ensigns of Cecsar.^** The governor of Britain wisely declined '' Dion, 1. Ixxiii. p. 123.5. '^ 'J'he I'ostluunian and the C'ejonian ; tlin former of -vvliom was raised to the consulship in the fifth year alter its institution. '" Spartianus, in Ids undii^eslcd collections, mixes up all the virtues and all the vices that enter into the hun \n conipositio i, and bestows them on the same object. Such, indeed, arc uuiny of the (J.ai'octers bv the Auj^ustau History. ■" Hist. Au{:ust. Y- 80. 84. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 131 the dangerojs honor, which Mould have marked 't inn for tha jealousy, or involved him in the approaching ruin, of C>jmmo. dus. ilc courted power by nobler, or, at least, b/ more specious arts. On a premature report of the death of the emperor, he assembled his troops ; and, in an eloquent dis- course, deplored the inevitable mischiefs of despotism, de- scribed the happiness and glory which their ancesiois liad enjoyed under the consular g^overnment, and declared his firm resolution to reinstate the senate and people in their legal authority. Tliis popular harangue was answered by the lou^ acclamations of the British legions, and received at Rome witk a secret murmur of applause. Safe in the possession of his little world, and in the command of an army less distinguished indeed for discipline than for numbers and valor,!''^ Albinus braved the menaces of Commodus, maintained towards I'erti- nax a stately ambiguous reserve, and instantly declared against the usurpation of Julian. The convulsions of the capital added new weight to his sentiments, or rather to his professions of patriotism. A regard to decency induced him to decline the lofty titles of Augustus and Emperor; and he imitated per- haps the example of Galba, who, on a similar occasion, had styled himself the Lieutenant of the senate and people.-'* Personal merit alone had raised Pcscennius Niger, from an obscure, birth and station, to the government of Syria ; a lucra- tive and important command, which in times of civil confusion gave him a near prospect of the throne. Yet his parts seem to have been better suited to the second than to the first rank ; he was an unequal rival, though he might have approved him- self an excellent lieutenant, to Severus, who afterwards dis- played the greatness of his mind by ado|)ting several useful institutions from a vanquished enemy.-^ In his government. Niger acquired the esteem of the soldiers and the love of the provincials. His rigid discipline fortified the valor and con- firmed the obedience of the fon-mer, whilst the voluptuous Syrians were less delighted with the mild firmness of his administration, than witii the allability of his manners, and the apparent pleasure with which he attended their frequent and '* Pcrtinax, who governed Britain a few years before, had been left for dead, in a mutiny of the soldiers. Hist. August, p. 64. Yet they loved and regretted him ; admiranti^us rmavirtutcm cui iraaco- bantur *^ Siieton. in Oalb. c. 10. •' Hist. August, p. 76. 132 THE DECLINE AND FALL pompous festiv .'.Is.23 As soon as the intelligence of the atro« cious murder of Pertinax had reached Antioch, the wishes of Asia invited Niger to assume the Imperial purple and reveage his death. The legions of the eastern frontier embraced his cause ; the opulent but unarmed provinces, from the frontiers of Ethiopia --^ to the Hadriatic, cheerfully submitted to his power; and the kings beyond the Tigris and the Euphrates congratulated his election, and offered him their homage and services. The mind of Niger was not capable of receiving this sudden tide of fortune : he flattered himself that his acces- sion would be undisturbed by competition and unstained by civil blood ; and whilst he enjoyed the vain pomp of triumph, he neglected to secure the means of victory. Instead of en- tering intp an effectual negotiation with the powerful armies of the West, v/hose resolution might decide, or at least must balance, the mighty contest; instead of advancing' whl)out delay tov/ards Rome and Italy, where his presence was impa- tiently expected,-'^ Niger trifled away in the luxury of Antioch those irretrievable moments which were diligently improved by the decisive activity of Severus.^^ The country of Pannonia and Dalmatia, which occupied the space between the Danube and the Hadriatic, was one of the last and most difficult conquests of the Romans. In the defence of national freedom, two liundred thousand of these barbarians had once appeared in the field, alarmed the declining age of Augustus, and exercised the vigilant prudence of Tibe- rius at the head of the collected force of the empire.^'^ The Pannonians yielded at length to the arms and institutions of Rome. Their recent subjection, however, the neighborhood, and oven the mixture, of the unconquered tribes, and perhaps " Ilcrod. 1. ii. p. 68. The Chronicle of John ISIahila, of Antioch; Bho'.vs the zealous attachment of his countrymen to these festivals, which at once gratified their sui?crstition, and their love of pleasure. ^•"' A king of Thebes, in Egypt, is mentioned, in the Augustan History, as an ally, and, indeed, as a personal friend, of Niger. If Spartianus is not, as I strongly suspect, mistaken, he has brought to light a dynasty of tributary princes totally unknown to history. ^■* Dion, 1. L\xiii. p. 1238. Herod. 1. ii. p. 07. A verse in every one's mouth at that time, seems to express the general opinion of the three rivals ; Optimus est Nif/cr, [Fuscus, which preserves the qua-ntitv. — M.] bonus Afcr, possimus Albas. Hist. August, p. 75. '^ iJcrodian, 1. ii. p. 71. '* .See an account of that memorable war in Vclloius Patcrculn* u \ 10, &c., who served in the army of Tibcriua. €K THE ROMAN E3IPIRE 133 tne climato, adapted, as it lias been observed, to tlio produc- liou (if great bodies a.nd slow minds,--' all contribulcd to prc- Berve some remains of their original ferocity, and under thy tiiino and uniform countenance of Roman provincials, the Qardy features of tne natives were still to be discerned. Their v/arlike youth allbrded an inexhaustible supply of recruits ta> che legions stationed on the banks .of the Danube, and which, from a perpetual warfare against the Germans and Sarma- tians, were deservedly esteemed the best troops in the service. The Pannonian army was at this time commanded by Sep- th-nius Severus, a native of Africa, who, in the gradual ascent of private honors, had concealed his daring ambition, which was never diverted from its steady course by the allurements of pleasure, the apprehension of danger, or the feelings of humanity.^8 On tlie first news of the murder of Pertinax, he assembled his troops, painted in the most lively colors the crime, the insolence, and the weakrjess of the Prtetorian guards, and animated the legions to arms and to revenge. He con- cluded (and the peroration was thought extremely eloquent) with promising every soldier about four hundred pounds ; an honorable donative, double in value to the infamous bribe with which Julian had purchased the empire.-^ The acclamations of the army immediately saluted Severus with the names of Augustus, Pertinax, and Emperor ; and he thus attained the' lofty station to which he was invited, by conscious merit and a long train of drcanis and omens, the fruitful odsprings either of his superstition or policy.^'^ 27 Such is the reflection of Hcrodian, 1. ii. p. 74. Will the modern Austriiins allow the iiillucnco ? ="* In the letter to Albiinis, already mentioned, Commodus accuses Severus, as one of the ambitious generals who censured liis conduct, and wished to occupy his jjlacc. Hist. August, p. 80. '^ Pannouia was too poor to supply such a sum. It was probably promised in the camp, and paid at Rome, after the victory. In fixing the sum, I have adopted the conjecture of C'asaubon. See Hist. August, p. 66. Comment, p. 115. ^" lierodian, 1, ii. p. 78. Severus was declared emperor on the banks of the Danube, cither at Carnuntum, according to Spartianus, (Ilist. August, p. G'),) or else at Sabaria, according to Victor. Mr. Hume, in supposing that the birth and dignity of Severus were loo much infcrloi to the Imperial crown, and that he marched into Italy lis general only, has not considered this transaction with his usua. accuracy, (Essay on the original contract.) * • Carnuntum, opposite to the mouth of the Morara: its position i» doubtful, either Feti-onel or llaimburg. A little intermediate village seenis 134 THE DECLINE AND TALI. The new candidate for empire saw and improved thR pecu- liar advantage of his situation. His province extended to the Julian Alps, which gave an easy access into Italy ; and he remembered the saying of x\ugustus, That a Pannonian army might in ten days appear in sight of Rome.^i By a celerity proportioned to the greatness of the occasion, he might reason- ably hope to revenge Pertinax, punish Julian, and receive tho homage of the senate and people, as their lawful emperor, before his competitors, separated from Italy by an immense tract of sea and land, were apprised of his success, or even of his election. During the whole expedition, he scarcely allowed himself any moments for sleep or food ; marching on foot, and in complete armor, at the head of his columns, no insinuated himself into the confidence and affection of his troops, pressed their diligence, revived their spirits, animated their hopes, and was well satisfied to share the hardships of the meanest soldier, whilst he kept in view the infinite superi ority of his reward. The wretched Julian had expected, and thought himself prepared, to dispute the empire with the governor of Syria , but in the invincible and rapid approach of the Pannonian legions, he saw his inevitable ruin. The hasty arrival of every messenger increased his just apprehensions. He was succes- sively informed, that Severus had passed the Alps ; that the Italian cities, unwilling or unable to oppose his progress, had received him with the warmest professions of joy and duty ; that the important place of Ravenna had surrendered without resistance, and that the Hadriatic fleet was in the hands of the conqueror. The enemy was now within two hundred and fifty miles of Rome; and every moment diminished the narrow span of life and empire allotted to Julian. He attempted, however, to prevent, or at least to protract, his ruin. He implored the venal faith of the Pra3torians, filled the >city with unavailing preparations for war, drew lines round the suburbs, and even strengthened the fortifications of tho palace ; as if those last intrenchments could be defended, without hope of relief, against a victorious invader. Fear and "• Velleius Paterculus, 1, ii. c. 3. AVe must reckon the march from the nearest verge of Pannonia, and extend the sight of the city as far &H two hundred miles. to indicito by its name (AUenbiirg) the site of an oH '.own. I^ Anvill« Ov jgr. At c. Sabaria, now Sarvar. — G. Compare note 37. — M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. I.'i5 sliumc prevented f!io guards from deserting liis stnndar'J , but they trembled at tbc name of tbe Pannonian legions, com- manded by an experienced general, and accustomed to van- quish the barbarians on tbc frozen Danube. 3- Tbey quitted witli a sigb, tbe pleasures of tbe batlis and tlieatres, to pu: on arms, wbose use tbey had almost forgotten, and beneath the weight of which they were oppressed. The unpractised elephants, whose uncouth appearance, it was hoped, would strike terror into the army of tbc north, threw their unskiifui riders ; and the awkward evolutions of the marines, drawn from the fleet of Misenum, were an object of ridicule to the populace ; whilst the senate enjoyed, with secret pleasure, the distress and weakness of the usurper.'''^ Every motion of Julian betrayed his trembling perplexity. He insisted that Severus should be declared a public enemy by the senate. He entreated that the I'annonian general might be associated to the empire. He sent public ambas- sadors of consular rank to negotiate with his rival ; he de- spatched private assassins to take away his life. He designed that tbe Vestal virgins, and all the colleges of priests, in their sacerdotal habits, and bearing before them the sacred pledges of the Roman religion, should advance in solemn process'on to meet the Pannonian legions ; and, at the same time, he vainly tried to interrogate, or to appease, tbc fates, by magic ceremonies and unlawful sacrifices."^' Severus, who dreaded neither his arms nor his enchant- ments, guarded himself from the only danger of secret con- spiracy, by the faithful attendance of six hundred chosen men, who never quitted his person or their cuirasses, either by night •''- This is not a puerile figure of rhetoric, but an allusion to a real fact recorded by Dion, 1. Ixxi. p. 1181. It probably happened moro than once. ^■' Dion, 1. Ixxiii. p. 1233. Ilcrodian, 1. ii. p. 81. There is no surer proof of the military skill of the llomans, than their first surmounting the idle terror, and afterwards disdaining tlie dangerous use, of ele- phants in war.* ^' Hist. August, p. 62, G3.t * These elephants were kept for processions, perhaps for the games. See Herod, in loc. — M. >■ t Quaj ad speculum dicunt fieri in quo pueri prwligatis oculis, incantato vertice, respieere dicuntur. * • * Tuncque puervidissc dicitur et advcntum Scveri et Juliani dccessionem. This seems to have been a practice soino- wliat similar to tliat of which our recent Egyptian travellers relate such extraordinary circumstance*. Sec also Apuleius, Orat, de Magia. -^ M. 136 THE DECLINE AND FALL or by day, during the whole march. Advancing v/iih a stea.ly and rapid course, he passed, without difficuhy, the defiles of the Apennine, received into his party the troops and anibas sadors sent to retard his progress, and made .a short halt at Interamnia, about seventy miles from Rome. His victory was already secure, but the despair of the Preetorians might have rendered it bloody ; and Severus had the laudable ain- bition of ascending the throne without drawing the sword.>^-'' His emissaries, dispersed m the capital, assured the guards, that provided they would abandon their worthless prince, and the perpetrators of the murder of Pertinax, to the justice of tlie conqueror, he would no longer consider that melancholy event as the act of the whole body. The faithless Praetorians, whose resistance was supported only by sullen obstinacy, gladly complied with the easy conditions, seized the greatest part of the assassins, and "signified to the senate, that they no longer defended the cause of Julian. That assembly, convoked by the consul, unanimously acknowledged Severus as lawful em- peror, decreed divine honors to Pertinax, and pronounced a sentence of deposition and death against his unfortunate suc- cessor. Julian was conducted into a private apartment of the baths of the palace, and beheaded as a common criminal, after having purchased, with an immense treasure, an anxious and precarious reign of only sixty-six days.^^ The almost incred- ible expedition of Severus, who, in so short a space of time, conducted a numerous army from the banks of the Danube to those of the Tyber, proves at once the plenty of provisions produced by agriculture and commerce, the goodness of the roads, the discipline of the legions, and the indolent, subdued temper of the provinces.^^ '* Victor and Eutropius, viii. 17, mention a combat near the Mil- vian bridge, the Pontc MoUe, unkno^\■a to the better and more ancient Writers. ^^ Dion, 1. Lxxiii. p. 1210. Ilerodian, 1. ii. p. 83. Hist. August. p. 63. " From these sixty-six days, we must first deduct sixteen, as Per- tvimx was murdered "on the 28th of March, and Severus most proba- bly elected on the 13th of April, (see Hist. August, p. 65, and TiUe- ciont, Hist, dcs Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 393, note 7.) "NVe cannot rIIovv less Utian ten daj-s after his election, to put a numerous army 111 motion. Forty days remain for this rapid march ; and as we may compute about eight hundred miles from Rome to the neighborhood of Yicima, the army of Severus marched twenty milca oircry day without halt or intermission. OF rilK ROMAN EMriRE. 137 The first cares of Scvcrus were bestowed on two nieasires, iht ons -JictateLl In- policy, the other hy decency ; tlio revenge, and the honors, due to the memory of Pertinax. Before tho new emperor entered Rome, he issued his commands to the Praetorian guards, directing them to wait his arrival on a large plain near the city, without arms, but in the habits of ceremony, In which they were accustomed to attend their sovereign. Ho was obeyed by those haughty troops, whose contrition was tha elfect of tlieir just terrors. A chosen part of the Ulyrian army encompassed them with levelled spears. Incapable of flight or resistance, they expected their fate in silent consternation. Severus mounted the tribunal, sternly re|)roached them with nerfidy and cowardice, dismissed them with ignominy from the trust which they had betrayed, despoiled them of their splendid ornaments, and banished them, on pain of death, to the distance of a hundred miles from the capital. During tho transaction, another detachment had been sent to seize their arms, occupy their camp, and prevent the hasty consequences of their despair.^^ The funeral and consecration of Pertinax was next solem- nized with every circumstance of sad magnificence.-^^ The senate, with a melancholy pleasure, performed the last rites to that excellent prince, whom they had loved, and still regretted. The concern of his successor was probably less sincere ; ho esteemed the virtues of Pertinax, but those virtues would for- ever have confined his ambition to a private station. Severua pronounced his funeral oration with studied eloquence, inward satisfaction, and well-acted sorrow ; and by this pious regard to his memory, convinced the credulous multitude, that he alune was worthy to sup[)ly his place. Sensible, however, that arms, not ceremonies, must assert his claim to the empire, he left Rome at the end of thirty days, and without suffering him- self to be elated by this easy victory, prepared to encounter Ills more formidable rivals. The uneonnuon abilities and fortune of Severus have in- duced an elegant historian to compare him with the first and greatest of the Cajsars.-^^ The parallel is, at least, impcr'ect. Where shall we find, in the character of Severus, the com- manding superiority of soul, the generous clemency, and the 2« Pion, 1. Ixxiv. p. 12-tl. Herodian, 1. ii. p. 84. =■» Diuii, (1. Ixxiv. p. 1214,) who assisted at tho ceremony as a sen- '^ator, •j;Lvi;s a most pompous description of it. *' Ilcroilian, I iii. u- 11 — y 138 THE DECLlf«E AND FALL Various genius, which cntilf] reconcile and unite the love of pleasure, tlie ihirat of knnwledge, and the fire of ambition > 4' In one instance only, thpy may be compa/ed, with some degree of propriety, in the celerity of their motions, and their civil victories. In less than luur years,''^ Severus subdued the riches of the East, and the valor of the West. He vanquished fwo competitors of reputation and ability, and defeated nunier- ous armies, provided with weapons and discipline equal to his own. In that age, the art of fortification, and the principles of tactics, were well understood by all the Roman general;;; and the constant superiority of Severus was that of an artist, who uses the same instruments with more skill and industry than his rivals. I shall not, however, enter into a minute nar- rative of these military operations ; but as the two civil wars against Niger and against Albinus were almost the same in their conduct, event, and consequences, I shall collect into one point of view the most striking circumstances, tending to develop the character uf the conqueror and the state of the empire. Falsehood and insincerity, unsuitable as they seem to the dignity of public transactions, offend us with a less degrading idea of meanness, than when they are found in the intercourse ■*' Though it is not, most assuredly, the intention of Lucan to exalt the character of Cipsar, yet the idea he gives of that hero, in the tenth book of the Pharsalia, whore he describes him, at the same time, makin;; love to Cleoj.atra, sustaining a siege against the power of Egypt, and conversing with the sages of the country, is, in reality, the noblest panegyric* ** Keckoning from his election, April 13, 193, to the death of Albi- nus, February 19, 197. See Tillemont's Chronology. * Lord Byron wrote, no doubt, from a reminiscence of that passage — *' It is possilde to be a very great man, and to be still very inferior to Julius CaesiV, the niost complete character, so Lord Bacon thought, of all anti- quity. Nature seems incapable of such extraordinary combinations as composed his versatile capacity, which was tlic wonder even of the Romans themselves. The first general ; the only triumphant politician ; inferior tc none in point of eloquence ; com|)aralde to aiiy in the attainments of wis- dom, in an age made up of the greatest commanders, statesmen, orators., and philosophers, that ever appeared in the world ; an author who com- posed a perfect specimen of military annals in his travelling carriage; at one time in a controversy with Cato, at another writing a treatise on pun- ning, and collecting a set of good sayings ; fighting and making love at the same moment, and willing to abandon both his empire and his mistress for ' sight of the fountains of the Nile. Such lid Julius Caisar appear to his contemporaries, and to those of the subse(iuent ages who were the n"ost In' lined to deplore and e>;eciate his fatal genius." Note 47 to Ci.nto iv «f Childe Haro(d. — M. OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 189 of |)riviue life. In the latter, they discover a wani ofecuruge; ill the otlicr, only a defect of power : and, as it is impossible for the most able statesmen to subdue millions of followers nnfl enemies by tlieir own personal strengtli, the world, under ihe name of policy, seems to have granted them a very liberal indulgence of craft and dissimulation. Yet the arts of Severus cannot be justitied by the most am[)le privileges of state rea- .«on. He promised only to betray, he flattered only to ruin; and however he might occasionally bind himself by oaths and treaties, his conscience, obsequious to his interest, always released him from the inconvenient obligation.'''' If his two competitors, reconciled by their common danger, had ad>anced upon him without delay, perhaps Severus would have sunk under their united effort. Had they even attacked him, at the same time, with separate views and se[)arate armies, the contest might have been long and doubtful. But they fell, singly and successively, an easy prey to the arts as well as arms of their subtle enemy, lulled into security by the moderation of his professions, and overwhelmed by the rapidity of his action. He first marched against Niger, whose reputation and power he the most dreaded : but he declined any hostile declarations, suppressed the name of his antagonist, and only signified to the senate and people his intention of regulating the eastern provinces. In private, he spoke of Niger, his old friend and intended successor,'*'* with the most atiectionate regard, and highly applauded his generous design of revenging the murder of Pertinax. To punish the vile usurper of the throne, was> the duty of every Roman general. To persevere in arms, and to resist a lawful em|)cror, acknowledged by the senate, would alone render him criminal. •^•^ The sons of Nieer had fallen into his hands among the children of the provincial governors, detained at Rome as pledges for the loyalty of their parents.'"* As long as the power of Niger inspired terror, or *^ Horodian, 1. ii. p. 85. ** Whilst Severus was very dangerously ill, it was industriously given out, that ho intended to appoint Niger and All^inis his succes- sors. As he could not be sincere mth respect to both, he might not bo BO with rej,'ard to either. Yet Severus carried his hypocrisy so far, bb to j^r^foss that intention in the memoirs of his own life. *'" Hist. Au-'ust. p. 65. *^ This ]iracticc, invented by Commodus, proved very useful to Sevcru-i. ilc found at Home the children of nvany of tlic principaj Bdheriiits ot his rivals ; and ho employed them more than once tc mtiraidatc, or seduce, the parents. 140 THE 1-ECLINE AND FALL even respect, they were educated with the most tender cart with the children of Severus himself"; but they were soon in volvtd in their father's ruin, and removed, first by exile, and afterwaids by death, from the eye of public compassion.'''^ Whilst Severus was enijan-ed in his eastern war, he had reason tc apprehend that the governor of Britain might pass the sea and the Alps, occupy the vacant seat of empire, and oppose his return with the authority of tiie senate and the Ibrces of the West. The aml)iguous conduct of Albinus, in not assuming the Imperial title, left room for negotiation. Forgevting, at once, his professions of patriotism, and the jealousy of sovereign power, he accepted the precarious rank of Caesar, as a reward for his fatal neutrality. Till the first contest was decided, Severus treated the man, whom he had doomed to destruction, with every mark of esteem and re- gard. Even in the letter, in which he announced his victory over Niger, he styles Albinus the brother of his soul and empire, sends him the atlectionate salutations of his wife Julia, and his young family, and entreats him to preserve the armies and the republic faitliful to their common interest. The messengers charged with this letter were instructed to accost the Caesar with respect, to desire a private audience, and to plunge tlxjir daggers into his hcart.''^ The conspiracy was discovered, and the too credulous Albinus, at length, passed over to the continent, and prepared for an unequal contest with his rival, who rushed upon him at the head of a veteran and victorious army. The military labors of Severus seem inadequate to the importance of his conquests. Two engagements,* the one near the Hellespont, the other in the narrow defiles of Cilicia, decided the fate of his Syrian competitor ; and the troops of Europe asserted their usual ascendant over the effeminate natives of Asia.'^^ The battle of Lyons, where one hundred " Hcrodian, 1. iii. p. 96. Hist. August, p. fi?, 68. *" Hist. August, p. 84. Spartianus has inserted this curious letter at full length. ** Consult the third book of Hcrodian, and the seventy-fo\irth book of Dion Cassius. • There were three actions ; one near Cyzicus, on the Hellespont, on« near Nice, in Bithynia, the third near the Issus, in Cilicia, where Alexan- der conquered Darius. (Dion, Ixiv. c. 6. Ilerodian, iii. 2, 4.) — W Uerodian represeuta the second battle as of lew importance than Dion OF THE ROMAN EMPIUE 141 und fif y thousand Romans ^° were engaf^ed, was eqnnllv fatal to Albinus. Tlie valor of tlie British army maintained, ip. deed, a sharp and doubtful contest, with the hardy discipline of tlie lllyrian legions. The fame and person of Severua appeared, during a few moments, irrecoverably lost, till thai warlike prince rallied his fainting troops, and led them on to a decisive victory •'' The war was finished by that memora- ble day.* The civil wars of modern Europe have been distinguished, not only by the fierce animosity, but likewise by tlie obstinate perseverance, of the contending factions. They have gener- ally been justified by some principle, or, at least, colored by some pretext, of religion, freedom, or loyalty. The leaders were nobles of independent property and iiereditary influence. The troops fought like men interested in the decision of the quarrel ; and as military spirit and party zeal were strongly ditTused throughout the whole community, a vanquished chief was immedialely su])|)lied with new adherents, eager to shed '.heir blood in the same cause. But the Romans, after the fall of the republic, combated only for the choice of masters. Un- der the standard of a popular candidate for empire, a few enlisted from aflection, some from fear, many from interest, none from principle. The legions, uninflamed by party zeal, were allured into civil war by liberal donatives, and still more liberal promises. A defeat, by disabling the chief from the performance of his engagements, dissolved the mercenary allegiance of his followers, and left them to consult their own safety by a timely desertion of an unsuccessful cause. It was of little moment to the jjrovinces, under whose name they were oppressed or governed ; they were driven by the impulsion of the present power, and as soon as that power "' Dion, 1. Ixxv. p. 1260. *' Dion, 1. l.xxv. p. 12G1. Ilciodiun, 1. m. p. 110. Hist. Au<;ust. p. 68. The battle was fouf^'ht in tlio i)lain of Truvoux, three or four leagues from Lyons. See Tilleniont, torn. iii. p. 40G, note 18. * According to Ilcrodian, it was his lieutenant Lsctus who led back the trcKijis to the l);ittlo, and i!;;uni'(l tlif day, which Sovcrus luid almost lost Dion also attiiljutes to Lietus a great share in the victory. Sovcrus alter- wards put him to death, either from tear or jealousy. — W. and (i. AN'enck, ind M. (jiiizot have not given the real statement of llerodian or of Dion. According to the former, La;tus apjieiued with his own army entire, which he ^vas suspected of having designedly kept disengaged when the battla was still doulitful, or rather after llie rout of Severua. Dion says that he did not )nove till Irievurus had won the victOTV- — M. 142 THE fECLINE AND FALL yielded 1o a superior force, they hastened to implore the clemency of the conqueror, who, as he had an immense debt to discharge, was obliged to sacrifice the most guilty countries to the avarice of his soldiers. In the vast extent of the Roman empire, there were few fortified cities capable of protecting a routed army; nor was there any person, or fami- ly, or order of men, whose natural interest, unsupported by the powers of government, was capable of restoring the (tause of a sinking party. ^^ Yet, in the contest between Niger and Severus, a single city deserves an honorable exception. As Byzantium was one of the greatest passages from Europe into Asia, it had been provided with a strong garrison, and a fleet of five hun- dred vessels was anchored in the harbor. ^^ '£\^q impetuosity of Severus disappointed this prudent scheme of defence ; he left to his generals the siege of Byzantium, forced the lesa guarded passage of the Hellespont, and, impatient of a meaner enemy, pressed forward to encounter his rival. By- zantium, attacked by a numerous and increasing army, and afterwards by the whole naval power of the empire, sustained a siege of three years, and remained faithful to the name and memory of Niger. The citizens and soldiers (we know not from what cause) were animated with equal fury ; several of the principal officers of Niger, who despaired of, or who dis- dained, a pardon, had thrown themselves into this last refuge : the fortifications were esteemed impregnable, and, in the de- fence of the place, a celebrated engineer displayed all the mechanic powers known to the ancients.^"* Byzantium, at length, surrendered to famine. The magistrates and soldiers were put to the sword, the walls demolished, the privileges suppressed, and the destined capital of the East subsisted only as an open village, subject to the insulting jurisdiction of Pe- rinthus. The historian Dion, who had admired the flourishing, and lamented the desolate, state of Byzantium, accused the revenge of Severus, for depriving the Roman people of the *' Montesquieu, Considerations sur la Grandeur ct la Decadence des Komains. c. xii. " Most of these, as may be supposed, were small open vessels ; tfome, however, were galleys of two, and a few of three ranks of oars '* The engineer's name was Priscus. His skill saved liis life, and he was taken into the service of the conqueror. For the particular facts of the siege, consult Dion Cassius (1. Ixxv. p. 1251) and Ilero- dian, (1. iii. p. 95 ;) for the theory of it, the iiinciful chevalier da Folard may be looked into. See Polybe, torn. i. p. 76. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE- 143 •trongest bulwark against the barba:*ians of Pontus nn J Asia.-"'' The truth uf tliis observation was but too well justific I in the succeediii'T a^e, when tiie (lothic fleets covered the Euxine and passed througli the undefined Bosphorus into the centre of the Mediterranean. Both Niger and Albinus were discovered and put to death in their flight from the field of battle. Their fate excited neither surprise nor compassion. Tiiey had staked their lives against the chance of empire, and suffered what they wouM liave inflicted ; nor did Severus claim the arrogant siipericrity of suflering his rivals to live in a jjrivate statioji. But his un- foigiviiig temper, stimulated by avarice, indulged a spirit of revenge, where there was no room for apprehension. The most considerable of the [)rovincials, who, without any dislilo to the fortunate candidate, had obeyed the governor under whose authority they were accidentally placed, were punished by death, exile, and especially by the confiscation of their estates. Many cities of the East were stripped of their an- cient iionors, and obliged to pay, into the tn^asury of Severus, four times the amoufit of the sums contributcid by them for the service of Niger.^^ Till the final decision of the war. the cruelty of Severus was, in son)e measure, restrained by die uncertainty of the event, and his pretended reverence fi)r the senate. The head of Albinus, accompanied with a menacing hotter, announced lO the Romans that he was resolved to S|)are none of the adherenta " Notwithstanding the authority of Sniirtianii-^, and ''omc modem Greeks, we may be assured, from Diou and ILrodian, tliat Uyzantiun^, many yeai's after the death of Severus, hiy in ruins.* ^ "liioii, 1. bcxiv. p. 125t). • There is no contradiction between the relation of Dion and that of Spartianiis and the modern Greeks. Diun does not say lliut Severus destroyed Bv/.antiiim. tint tli;it he deprived it of its franchises and pii.i leges, .stripped the iiihal)itants of their property, razed the f ntiticatioi.s, and subjected the city to tlu* jnrisdietion of t'erinthus. 'I'hereforc, whc n Sp;irtian, Snul.is, Cetheniis, s;iy th:it Severus and his sou Antoninui restored to Bvzantiuni its rights ;ind iVanehises, ordered 'etnples to be built, &c., this is easily recon^'ilid with the ndation of Dion. Pe.haps the latter mentioned it in some of the !'r.i;.;ineuts of his hi-tory uhich have been lost. As to Ilerodian, his expressions are evidfitly exa<;i:er:ited, and he has been K"iUy of so mini in;tec\iraeies in the historv of Severn^, that we have a ritrht to suppose one in this p;iss:it;e. — (i. ..■tn, W. Wmek :iiid M. (iuizot ha\e omitted U cite Zosimus, who mentions a partieula' por- tico built 1)V Seveins, and railed, ap|):irently, by llis name. Zosini. Liivt. v c. Xks. p. 151 1.j3, edit lleyne. — M. 144 THE DECLINE AND FALL of his unfortunate competitors. He was irritated by tl£ jusj suspicion that he had never possessed the alTections of the senate, and he concealed his old malevolence under ihe re- cent discoveiy of some treasonable correspondences. Thirty- five senators, however, acciised of havintr favored the party of Albinus, he freely pardoned, and, by his subsequent beliii- vior, endeavored to convince them, that he had forifotten, as well as forgiven, their supposed oUences. But, at the same time, he condemned forty-one ^^ other senators, whose names history has recorded ; their wives, children, and clients attend- ed them in death,* and the noblest provincials of Spain and Gaul were involved in the same ruin.f Such rigid justice — for so he termed it — was, in the opinion of Severus, the only conduct capable of insuring peace to the people or stability to the prince ; and he condescended slightly to lament, that to be mild, it was necessary that he should first be cruel.^^ The true interest of an absolute monarch generally coin- cides whh that of his people. Their numbers, their wealth, ^heir order, and their security, are the best and only founda- tions of his real greatness ; and were he totally devoid of virtue, prudence might supply its place, and would dictate the same rule of\onduct. Severus considered the Roman empire as his property, and had no sooner secured the possession, than he bestowed his care on the cultivation and improvement of so valuable an acquisition. Salutary laws, executed with inflexible firmness, soon corrected most of the abuses with which, since the death of Marcus, every part of the govern- " Dion, (1. Ixxv. p. 126-1: ;) only twenty-nine senators are mentioned by him, but forty-one are named in the Augustan History, p. G9, among whom were six of the name of Pesccnnius. Herodian (1. iii. p. llo) speaks in general of the cruelties of Severus. *** Aurchus Victor. * Wenck denies that there is any authority for this massacre of t. t wives of the senators. He adds, that only the children and relatives o. Niger and Albinus were put to death. This is true of the family of Albi- nus, whose bodies were thrown into the Rhone; those of Niger, according to Lampridius, were sent into exile, but afterwards put to deatl>. Anii>ng the partisans of All)inus who were put to death were many women of rank, mu.ta; foemina; illustres. Lamprid. in Sever. — M. t A new fragment of Dion describes the state of Rome during this con test. All pretended to be on the side of Severus ; but their secret senti ments were often betrayed by a change of countenaiice on the arrival of some sudden report. Some were detected by overacting their loyalty, rni;., ic K:Lt Ik Tuva/ui/ iyiidmKoiTo. Mai. Fragm. V.atica'a. p. 227. Severus told the senate he would rather have their hearts thaB their votes, rati ipvxaU ue i\uTe, KM fit) roij ^rioor and oi)[)ressed ; not so much indeed from any sense of humanity, as from tlie natural propensity of a despot to hum- ble the pride of greatness, and to sink all his subjects to the same common level of ahsoaite dependence. Mis expensive tast(; for liuildini;, magnificent shows, and above all a constant and lil)eral distribution of corn and provisions, were the surest means of captivating the aiiection of the Roman people.^' I'he misfortunes of civil discord were obliterated. 'Jlie calm of peace and prospen.v was once more experienced in the provinces ; and many cities, restored by tlie munificence of Severus, assumed the tiue of his colonies, and attested by public monuments their gratitude and felicity.'''' The fame of the Roman arms was revived by that warlike and success- ful emperor,"' and he boasted, with a just pride, that, having received the empire oppressed with foreign and domestic wars, he left it cstablisned in profound, universal, and honor- able peace."- Although tlie wounds of civil war appeared completely healed, its mortal poison still lurked in the vitals of the con- stitution. Severus possessed a considerable share of vigor and ability ; but the (ianns soul of the first Cajsar, or the deep policy of Augustus, were scarcely equal to the task of curbing the insolence of tne victorious legions. By gratitude, by misguided policy, by seeming necessity, Severus was re- *" Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1"272. Hist. Auijust. p. 67. Sovpinis colcbrated the secular jiaiiics with pxtraoidiiiai v iiiagiiirtfcuce, and lie lol't in tlu public jjranarios a provision of corn tor seven years, at the rate of 7"), 000 inodii, or about 2500 qu-.ivtors \)0t day. I am persuaded thr.. the granaries of Severus were sipjjliecl for a long term, but I am not less persuaded, that policy on one liand, and adnurution on the otliei, magiiiried the hoard far beyond its true contents. *'' See S])anheini's treatise of ancient mcthds, the inscriptions, and our learned travel! ■ rs Spon and M'heelor, Shaw, I'ocock, &c., who, in AJ'rica, Greece, and Asia, have found more luoiuinients of Severus than of any other lioman emperor whatsoever. *' He carried his victorio\is anns to Seleucia and Ctesi])hon, th» cajiilals of the l^artldtm monarchy. I shall have occasion to mention this war m its proper jilacc. "" E/iain ill Hrilaanis, v. us hi.-5 o\\ n just and eii.phatiu exprebsiob Hist. August. 73. !)* 14b THE DECLINE A.NP FALL ducod to relax tlie nerves of discipline.^-' The vanity of his 8old;ers was flattered with the honor of wearing gold rings : their ease was indulged in the permission of living wilh their wives in the idleness of quarters. He increased their pay beyond the example of former times and taught the.Ti to ck* pect, and soon to claim, extraordinary donatives on every public occasion of danger or festivity. Elated by success, enervated by luxury, and raised above the level of subjects by their dangerous privileges,^* they soon became incapable of military fatigue, oppressive to the country, and impatient of a just subordination. Their officers asserted the superior- "ty of rank by a more profuse and elegant luxury. There is still extant a letter of Severus, lamenting the licentious state of the army,* and exhorting one of his generals to begin the mcessary reformation from the tribunes themselves; since, as he justly observes, the officer who has forfeited the esteem, will never command the obedience, of his soldiers.^^ Had the emperor pursued the train of reflection, he would have discovered, that the primary cause of this general corruption might be ascribed, not indeed to the example, but to the per nicious indulgence, however, of the commander-in-chief. The Praetorians, who murdered their emperor and sold the emplic, had received the just punishment of their treason ; but the necessary, though dangerous, institution of guards was soon restored on a new model by Severus, and increased to four times the ancient number.^^ Formerly these troops had been recruited in Italy ; and as the adjacent provinces gradually imbibed the softer manners of Rome, the levies were extended to Macedonia, Noricum, and Spain. In the room of these elegant troops, better adapted to the pomp of courts than to the '^ses of war, it was established by Severus, " Hcrodian, i. iii. p. 115. Hist. August, p. 68. ^ Upon the insolence and privileges of the soldiers, the 16th satire. falsely ascribed to Juvenal, may be consulted ; the stylo and circum- Btances of it would induce me to believe, that it was composed under the reign of Severus, or that of his sou. ** Hist. August, p. 73. •• Ilerodian, 1. iii. p. 131. • Not of the army, but of the troops in Gaul. The c ntcnts of this let- ter seem to prove that Severus was really anxious to restore discipline Herodian is the only historian who accuses him of being tlie first cause of Its relaxation — G. from W. SpArtiau mentions his increase of lh« pay. — M or THI- RO.-MviN tMPIRE. 14? that from all the l(!j2;ioiis of tlie frontiers, tlic soitliors ni aX ilis- tingiii.slieil ibr streiifflli, valor, and fidelity, slunild Ix; occasion ally draughted; and promoted, as an lioiior and reward, into the more el[gil)lc service of the j^iiards.''''' By this new insti- •utlon, the Italian youth were diverted from the exercise of arms and the capital was terrified by the strange aspect and •nanners of a multitude of barbarians. But Severns flattered .limself, that the lernons would consider tliese chosen Pia'to riuns as the representatives of the whoh; n)ilitary order ; and that the present aid of fifty tiiousand men, superior in ariiij and appointments to any force that could be brought into tiie field aj'ainst them, would forever crush the iiopes of rcbel- hon, and secure the empire to himself and his |)osterity. The command of these favored and formidable troops soon oecame the first office of tlie emi)ire. As the government degenerated into military despotism, tlie IVtetorian Pricft'ct wlio in his origin had been a simple captain of the guards,* was placed not only at the head of the army, but of the finances, and even of the law. In every departmosspssp(l j^reat power. Tliat emperor, tlierofore, decreed that there sliouhl lie alw;iys two Praetorian Pnufects, wlio could only be taken from the cfjuestrian order. Tiberius first departed r regard to the nice frame of civil poiicv institutiid bv Augusiirs. ]\u\ the youth of Sevcrus had been trained in the imj)licit obedi- ence of camps, and his riper years spent in the despotism of military command. His haughty and inflexible spirit could not discover, or would not acknowledge, the advantage of preserving an intermediate ]jovver, however imaginary, be- tween the emperor and the army. He disdained to ])rofesi3 himself the servant of an assembly that detesleil his person and trembled at his frown ; he issued his commands, where his requests would have proved as effectual ; assumed the conduct and style of a sovereign and a conqueror, and exer- cised, without disguise, the whole legislative, as well as the executive nower. The victory over the senate was easy and inglorious. Every eye and ^very passion were directed to the supreme magistrate, who possessed the arms and treasure of the state ; whilst the senate, neither elected by the people, nor guarded by military force, nor animated by public spirit, reeled its «9 Dion, 1. lxx^'i. p. 1274. Hciodian, 1. iii. p. 122, 129. Thesiani- marian of A.lexaudria seems, as is not unusual, much better acq uaLut pd -with tins mysterious transaction, and more a.-^sured ot the gui.t of Plautianus tlian the Roman senator ventures to be. * Plautianus was cnmy)afriot, relative, ana the old friend, nf Foveru.« , he had so completely shut up all access to the emperor, that tlie latter was ignorant how far he abused his powers : at length, being inforuied of it, hi began to limit his autlmrity. I'lu' uuiri'iage of Plautilla with Caraealla \yas unfortunate ; and the prince who had been forced to ronscul to it, menaced the fallicr and the daughter with death when he should come to the throne. It was feared, after that, tlnit Plautianus wouhl avail hiaiself of the power which iTe still possessed, against the Iniiierial famil) ; and Eeverua caused him to be assassinated in Ids presence, upon tlie pretext of a conspiracy, wliich Dion considers fictitious. — Vv'. 'I'liis noU- is not, perhaps, very necessary, and does not contain the whole facts. Dion C(m siders the conspiracy the invention of Caracalla, by wlioso r-nmnaiui, almost by whoic hand, I'lautianus was siuin in the pre'-eiice ot Sevp ru8. — M." OP THE ROMAN KMPIRF,. \4it rleclininsf Miiiliority on llic frail cud criunljlinr,' In.^is of aiKMoiit 0(»ini«iii. 'I'lic fine theory of a re|r'ililic iiiscii-:i;)lv v;misli(!(l, and made way for the more natural anil snbMa.nlial feelirifia of nionareliy. As the freedom and honors of Rome were succ(!ssively connuiinicated to the provinces, in which the old government had been either unknown, or was renu'mhercd with abhorrencfj, fhe tradition of rej)uhlic;'.n ma.xims was gradually obliterated. The (jlreek historians of the a,t!;e of the Anioiiines"" observe, with a malicious |)leas-ure, that al- thourus and Julia, (1. Ixxiv. p. I'lA'.i.) 'Die learned compiler forgot that Dion is relating not a real lad, but a dream of Severus; a;;d dreams are circumscribed to no limits of tin c or space. Did M. de riUcmont imagine that marriages were con.summntcd in the temple of V'enus at Home i Hist, des Empcreurs, torn. iii. p. 389. Nottt % loj OF THE ROMAN EMI'IRE 151 yoiinf^ lu iy of Emesa in Syria luid a rni/nl tidfiviti;, he solicit oa\ and obluined huv hand."* Julia Domua (fur that was nor name) deserved all that the stars could promise lier. Sha possessed, even in advanced age, the attractions of beauty,* and united to a lively imagination a firmness of mind, and strength of judgment, seldom bestowed on her sex. Her amiable ([ualities never made any deep impression on tlie dark and jealous temper of her husband ; i)ut in her son's reign, she administered the principal allairs of the empire, with a prudence that supported his authority, and with a mod- eration that sometimes corrected his wild extravagancies.'* Julia appliec] herself to letters and philosophy, with some sue cess, and with the most si)lendid rejjutation. She was the pat- roness of every art, and the friend of every man of genius.'' The grateful flattery of the learned has celebrated lier virtues ; but, if we may credit the scandal of ancient history, chastity was very far from being tlie most, conspicuous virtue of the empress Julia.^ Two sons, Caracalla^ and Geta, were the fruit of this mar- riage, and the destined heirs of the empire. The fond hopes of the fatiier, and of the Roman world, were soon disap- pointed by these vain youths, who displayed the indolent se- curity of hereditary princes ; and a presumption that fortune would supply the place of merit and application. Without any emulation of virtue or talents, they discovered, almost from their infancy, a fixed and implacable antipathy for each other. Their aversion, confirmed by years, and fomented by the arts of their intc^rested favorites, broke out in childish, and graiiually in more serious comj)etilions ; and, at length, divided the theatre, the circus, and the court, into two factions, actu- "* Hist. AuQ;ust. p. 65. • Hist. Auj^ust. p. .5. " Dion C;i.s.sius, 1. Ixxvii. p. in04, 1314. '' See a dissertation of Moiia;;c, at tho end of liis edition of Dioge- nt3 I^acrtius, do Fa'ininis Philoso]jhis. ■* Dion, 1. lx.xvi. p. 128o. Aurclius Vict)r. • l{as8ianus was his first name, as it had been that of his maternal grai.dfathcr. Durinj; his reign, he assumed the appellation of An- toninus, which is employed by lawyers and ancient historians. Ai'tcl his death, tho public indignation loaded hini with the nicknames of Tarantus n-nd Caiaealla. The first was borrowed from a celebrated Gladiator, the s=>cond from a long Uallic gown which he distrihuteu *j the ptijplo of Rome. 152 THE DECLINE AI\D FALL. ated by the hopes and fear-i of their respective lead(;rs. The prudent emperor endeavo.ed, by every expedjent of advice and authority, to allay this growing animosity. The unhappy discord of his sons clouded all his prospects, and threatened to overturn a throne raised with so much labor, cemented with so much blood, and guarded with every defence of arms and treasure. With an impartial hand he maintained between the .11 an exact balance of favor, conferred on both the rank of Augustus, with the revered name of Antoninus ; and t'oi the first time the Roman world beheld three emperors ^^ Yet even this equal conduct served only to inflame the contest, whilst the fierce Caracalla asserted the right of primogeniture, and the milder Geta courted the affections of the people and the soldiers. In the anguish of a disappointed father, Severu3 foretold that the weaker of his sons would fall a sacrifice to the stronger; who, in his turn, would be ruined by his own vices. ^1 In these circumstances the intelligence of a war in Britain, and of an invasion of the province by the barbarians of the North, was received with pleasure by Severus. Though the vigilance of his lieutenants might have been sufficient to repel the distant enemy, he resolved to embrace the honorable pre- text of withdrawing his sons from the luxury of Rome, which enervated their minds and irritated their passions ; and of in- . ring their youth to the toils of war and government. Not- withstanding his advanced age, (for he was above threescore,) and his gout, which obliged him to be carried in a litter, he transported himself in person into that remote island, attended by his two sons, his whole court, and a formidable army. He immediately passed the walls of Hadrian and Antoninus, and ntered the enemy's country, with a design of completing the ong attempted conquest of Britain. He pcsnetrated to the northern extremity of the island, without meeting an enemy. I'ut the concealed ambuscades of the Caledonians, who hung unseen on the rear and flanks of his army, the coldness of the climate, and the severity of a winter march across the hills tnd morasses of Scotland, are reported to have cost the Romans above fifty thousand men. The Caledonians at '" The elevation of Caracalla is fixed by the' accurate M. de Tille- naont to the year 19H ; the association of Gcta to the year '208. " llerodian, 1. iii. p. 130. The lives of Caracalla uiul (iota, iii the A.ugu»tau History. OF Till: ROMAN v:mpii?e. 15M length yielded to llie powerful aiul ob.stiniile attack, sued for peace, and suiieiidercd a |)art of their arms, and a large irac! of territory- But tiieir a|»[)arent subinissioii lasted no longe.* than the present terror. As soon as the Rom;in legions han retired, they resumed their hostile independence. Their rest, less spirit provoked Severus to send a new army inl-i t n'e* (Ionia, with the most bloody orders, not to subdue hut i" «'^- tirpate the natives. They were saved l>v the deatii ol t).r'» hauglity enemy. ''"= This Caledonian war, neither markerl by d(>cis:ve event- nor attended with any important consequences, would ill de- serve our at'ention ; but it is sujtposed, not without a consi'l erable degree of probability, that the invasion of Severus i> connected with the most shining period of the British history or fable. Fingal, whose fame, with that of his heroes and bards, has been revived in our language by a recent publica- tion, is said to have commanded the Caledonians in that mem- orable juncture, to h;ive eluded tjie power of Severus, and to have obtained a signal victory on the banks of the Carun, in which the son of the King of the World, Caracul, fled from his arms along the fields of his pride.'-' Somethmg of a doubtful naist still hangs over these Highland traditions ; nor can it be entirely dispelled by the most ingenious res(>arches of modern criticism ; '•* but if we could, with safety, indulge the pleasing supp(jsition, that Fingal lived, and that Ossian sung, the striking contrast of the situation and manners of the contending nations might amuse a philosophic mind. The parallel would be little to the advantage of liie more civilized " Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. ViSO, &c. Ilerodian, 1. iii. p. 132, &c. '•' Ossian's Poems, vol. i. p. 175. '■•That the Caracul of Ossian is the Caracalla of the Ronian Histo- ry, is, perhaps, llic only point of British antiquity in wliicli Mr. Macphcrson and Mr. Whitaker are of the same opinton ; and yet the 0])inion is not without ditnculty. In the Caledonian war, tiie'son of Severus was known only by the api:eIiation of Autnninu^s, and it may seem stranije that the Highland bard should describe i\iin by n nick- name, invented four years afterwards, scarcely us(-d by the Komaua till alter the death of that emperor, and scidoiu cmploved by the most ancient historians. See Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. i:jl7. Hist. ' Au- gust. p. 89. Aurol. Victor. Euacb. in (Jlu-on. ad ann. 214.* * The historical authority of Miicphorson's Ossian liiis lut increased since Uilibon wro'.c. AVc may, indci'd, cousifler it exploded. Mr. Wlila- Kcr, in a 1-tter tn f}ilil)(in, (Slisc. W(nks, vol. ii. p I'V),) <. tinai ts, not rery succcseriilly. to weaken this objccliun of the histv.rian. - - M. 15-4 THE DECLINE AND FALL peopU' if we compared the unrelenting revenge of Severuj with t le generous clemency of Fingal ; the timid and brutal crueltv of Caracalla witli the bravery, the te derness, the elegant genius of Ossian ; the mercenary chiets, who, from motives of fear or interest, served under the Imperial stan- dard, with the free-born warriors who started Jo arms at tho voice of the king of Morven ; if, in a word, we contemplated the untutored Caledonians, glowing vwith the warm virtues of nature, and the degenerate Romans, polluted with ihe mean vices of wealth and slavery. The declining health and last illness of Severus inflamed the wild ambition and black passions of Caracalla's soul Impatient of any delay or division of empire, he attempted, more than once, to shorten the small remainder of his father's days, a ad endeavored, but without success, to excite a mutiny among the troops.^^ The old emperor had often censured the misguided lenity of Marcus, who, by a single act of justice, might have saved the Romans from the tyranny of his worth- less oon. Placed in the same situation, he experienced how easily the rigor of a judge dissolves away in the tenderness of a parent. He deliberated, he threatened, but he could not punish ; and this last and only instance of mercy was more fatal to the empire than a long series of cruelty. "J The dis- ordei of his mind irritated the pains of his body ; he wished impatiently for death, and hastened the instant of it by his impatience. He expired at York, in the sixty-fifth year of his life, and in the eighteenth of a glorious and successful reign. In his last moments he recommended concord to his sons, and his sons to the army. The salutary advice never reached the heart, or even the understanding, of the impet- uous youths; but the more obedient troops, mindful of their oath of allegiance, and of the authority of their deceased mas fer, resisted the solicitations of Caracalla, and proclaimed both orothers emperors of Rome. The new princes soon left the Caledonians in peace, returned to the capital, celebrated their father's funeral with divine honors, and were cheerfully ac- knowledged as lawful .sovereigns, by the senate, the people md the provinces. Some preeminence of rank seems to luve been allowed to the elder brother; but they botii ailmin- istered the empire with equal and independent power.'' '* Dion, I. Ixxvi. p. 1282. Hist. Auf,'ust. p. 71. Aurel. Victor. '« Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. I'lH-i. Hist. August, p. 89. "' Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1281. llcrodian, 1. iii. p. 135. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 155 Such a 'Jividea form of govcrnmeit would have proved a lource ot discord between the most all'ectionate brothers. It was impossible that it could long subsist between two impla- cable enemies, wiio neither desired nor could trust a reconcil- iation. It was visible that one only could reign, and that the other must fall ; and each of them, judging of his rival':? desig.13 by his own, guarded his life with the most jealous vigila-^;e from the repeated attacks of poison or the sword. Their rapid journey through Gaul and Italy, during which Uiey never ate at the same table, or slept in the same house, displayed to the provinces the odious spectacle of fraternal discord. On their -arrival at Rome, they immediately divided the vast extent of the impcrlbl palace. ^*^ No communication was allowed between their apartments ; the doors and pas- sages were diligently fortified, and guards posted and relieved with the same strictness as in a besieged place. The empe- rors met only in public, in the presence of their afflicted mother; and each surrounded by a numerous train of armed followers. Even on these occasions of ceremony, the dissirn- alalion of courts could ill disguise the rancor of tlieir hearts. ^^ This latent civil war already distracted the whole govern- ment, when a scheme was suggested that seemed of mutual benefit to the hostile brothers. It was proposed, that since it was impossible to reconcile their minds, they should separate their hiterest, and divide the empire between them. The conditions of the treaty were already drawn with some accu- '* Mr. Hume is justly surprised at a passage of Ilorodian, (1. iv. p 139,) who, on this occasion, represents tlio Imperial palace as equal m extent to the rest of Rome. The whole region of the I'alatina Mount, on which it was built, occuj)ied, at most, a circumference of eleven or twelve thousand feet, (see the Notitia and Victor, in Nar- dini'8 Roma Antica.) Rut we should recollect that the opulent senators had almost surrounded the ci:y with their extensive gardens and suburb palaces, the greatest part of which had been gradually ".ontiscatcd by the em])erors. If (ieta resided in the gardens that oore his name on the Janiculum, and if C.'aracalla inhabited the gar- dens of Miecenas on the Es(juiline, the rival brothers were scjiarated from each other by the distance of several miles ; and yet the m- tcrmediate space was tilled by the Imperial gardens of 8allu.st, of LucuUus, of Agrippa, of Domitian, of Caius, iS:c., all skirting round the city, and all connected with each (ther, ai.d with the palace, by bridges thrown ovc~ the Tiber and the streets. But this ex])lanation •^f Ilorodian would require, though it ill deserves, a particular difser- lation. illustrated l)y a map of ancient Rome. (Hume, Essay on Poyulousncss of Ancient Nations. — M.'j '* Hcrodian, I. iv. p. 133. 156 THE DECLINE AND FALL racy. Il was agreed, that Caracalla, as the elder brother Bho'ild remain in possession of Ejrope and the western Africa ; and that he should relinquish the sovereignty of Asia and Egypt to Geta, who might fix his residence at Alexandria or Antioch, cities little inferior to Rome itself in wealth ana greatness ; tliut numerous armies should be constantly en- camped on either side of the Thracian Bosphorus, to guard the frontiers of the rival monarchies ; and that the senators of European extraction should acknowledge the sovereign of liome, whilst the natives o/ Asia followed the emperor of the East. The tears of the empress Julia interrupted tne nego- tiation, the first idea of which had filled every Roman breast with surprise and indignation. The mighty mass of conquest was so intimately united by the hand of time and policy, that it required the most forcible violence to rend it asunder. The Romans had reason to dread, that the disjointed membera would soon be reduced by a civil war under the dominion of one master ; but if the separation was permanent, the division of the provinces must terminate in the dissolution of an empire whose unity had liitherto remained inviolate.^" Had the treaty been carried into execution, the sovereign of Europe might soon have been the conqueror of Asia ; but Caracalla obtained an easier, though a more guilty, victory. He artfully listened to his mother's entreaties, and consented to meet his brother in her apartment, on terms of peace and reconciliation. In the midst of their conversation, some cen turions, who had contrived to conceal themselves, rushed with drawn swords upon the unfortunate Geta. His distracted mother strove to protect him in her arms ; but, in the una- vailing struggle, she was Avounded in the hand, and covered with the blood of her younger son, while she saw the elder animating and assisting ^i the fury of the assassins. As soon as the deed was perpeti-ated, Caracalla, with liasty steps, and horror in his countenance, ran towards the Pniitorian camp, as his only refuge, and threw liims(;lf on the ground before the statues of the tutelar deities.-^ The soldiers attempted {.) *' Ilcroclian, 1. iv. p. 144. "' Caracalla consecratod, in the temple of Rcrapis, the sword with which, as he boasted, he had slain his brother Ueta. Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. l:J07. *' Herodian, 1. iv. p. 147. In every llonian cnmp there was a Bni'iU chapel near tlic head-quarters, iv which the statues of the tutelai deities were preserved and udorcd , and wc m.'iy reuiai'lt, that OF THE ROMAN £311 IRE. 157 raise and comfort him. In broken and disoidcred words he informed them of his imminent danger and fortunate escape ; insinuating that he had prevented the designs of his enemy, and dechired his resolution to hve and die with his faithful troops. Geta had been the favorite of tlie soldiers; but com- plaint was useless, revenge was dangerous, and they still reverenced the son of Scverus. Their discontent died away in idle nmrmurs, and Caracalla soon convinced them of the justice of his cause, by distributing in one lavish donative the accumulated treasures of his father's reign.23 The real sen- timents of the soldiers alone were of importance to his power or safety. Their declaration in his favor commanded the dutiful professions of the senate. The obsequious assembly was always prepared to ratify the decision of fortune ; * but as Caracalla wished to assuage the first emotions of public indignation, the name of Geta was mentioned with decency, and he received the funeral honors of a Roman emperor.^'* Posterity, in pity to his misfortune, has cast a veil over \\\s vices. We consider that young |)rince as the innocent victim of his brother's ambition, without recollecting that he himself wanted power, rather than inclination, to consummate the same attempts of revenge and murder.t The crime went not unpunished. Neither business, nor pleasure, nor flattery, could defend Caracalla from the stings of a guilty conscience ; and he confessed, in the anguish of a tortured mind, that his disordered fancy often beheld the angry forms of his father and his brother rising into life, to threaten the eagles, and other military ensitjns, were in the first rank of these deities ; an excellent institution, which contirmed discipline by the sanction of relii^aon. Sec Lipsius de Militia Komanii, iv. 5, v. 2. ^' Ilerodian, 1. iv. p. 118. Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1289. ** Geta was placed among the gods. Sit diviis, dura non sit vivus, eaid his brother. Hist. August, p. 91. Some marks of Geta'* consecration are still found upon medals. • The account of this transaction, in a new passage of Dion, varies in »iome degree from this statement. It adds lluit the ilext morning, in the senate, Antoninus roquested their indulgence, not because he had killed his brother, but because he was hoarse, and could not address them. Mai. Fragm. Vatican, p. 228. — M. t The ftivorable judgment which history has given of Geta is not founded •olely on a feeling of pity ; it is supported by the testimony of coTitem- porary historians : he was too fond of the pleasures of the table, and ihowed great mistrust of his brother; but he was humane, well instructed; he often endeavored to mitigate the rigorous decrees of Severus and Cara ;alla. Herod, iv 3. Spartian in Geta. — W. ll>8 THE DECLINE AND FALL and upbraid hiin."^ ^1^3 consciousness of his crime should have induced him to convince mankind, by the virtues of his reign, that the bloody deed had been the involuntary efl'act of fatal necessity. But the i^epentance of Caracalla only prompted him to remove from the world whatever could remind him of his guilt, or recall the memory of his murdered brother. On his return from the senate to the palace, h« found his mother in the company of several noble matrons, weeping over the untimely fate of her younger son. The jealous emperor threatened them with instant death ; the sen- tence was executed against Fadilla, the last remaining daughter of the emperor Marcus;* and even the afflicted Julia waa obliged to silence her lamentations, to suppress her sighs, and to receive the assassin with smites of joy and approbation. It was computed that, under the vague appellation of the friends of Geta, above twenty thousand persons of both sexes suffered death. His guards and freedmen, the ministers of his serious business, and the companions of his looser hours, those who by his interest had been promoted to any commands in the army or provinces, with the long-connected chain of their dependants, were included in the proscription ; which endeav ored to reach every one who had maintained the smallest correspondence with Geta, who lamented his death, or who even mentioned his name.-^ Helvius Pertinax, son to the prince of that name, lost his life by an unseasonable wit- ticism.2^ It was a sufficient crime of Thrasea Priscus to be »■ - I, ■ ... ,._,__■—— ■ __ .1 ,^ « Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1307. '^ Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1290. Hcrodian, 1. iv. p. 150. Dion (p. 1298) says, that the comic poets no longer durst employ the name of Geta in their plays, and that the estates of those who mentioned it in their testaments were contiscatcd. ^'' Caracalla had assumed the names of several conquered nations ; Pertinax observed, that the name of Geticus (he had obtained some advantage over the Goths, or Geta;) would be a proper addition to i:*athicii8, Alemannicus, &c. Hist. August, p. 89. * The most vahiable paragraph of Dion, which the industry of M. Mai has lecovercd, relates to this daughter of Marcus, executed by Caracalla. Her name, as appears from Fronto, as well as from Dion, was Cornificia. When commanded to choose the kind of death she was to sufler, she burst nto womanish tears ; but remembering her father Marcus, she thus spoke :— ' O my hapless soid, {4vij.ik(Ji>, aniuuda,) now imprisoned ^n the body, burst forth ! be free ! show them, however reluctant to believe it, that the 4 art the daughter of Marcus." fShe then laid aside all her orn.inients, and preparing herself for death, ordered her veins to be opened Mai. Fragm. Vatican, ii. p. 230. — M. OF THE ROMilN EMPIRE. 159 descended from a family in which the love of /iherty seemed an hereditary quality.'-^' The particular causes of calumny nnd suspicion were at length exhausted ; and when a senator was accused of being a secret enemy to the government, the emperor was satisfied with the general proof that he was a man of property and virtue. From this well-grounded prin ciple he frequently drew the most bloody inferences.! The execution of so many innocent citizens was bewaileo by the secret tears of their friends and families. The death of Papinian, the Prietorian Prsefect, was lamented as a public calamity. f During the last seven years of Severus, he had exercised the most important offices of the state, and, by his salutary influence, guided the emperor's steps in the paths of justice and moderation. In full assurance of his virtue and abilities, Severus, on his death-bed, had conjured him to watch over the prosperity and union of the Imperial family.^s The honest labors of Papinian served only to inflame the hatred ■^vhich Caracalla had already conceived against his father's n 'nister. After the murder of Geta, the Prcefect was com- ma.'>ded to exert the powers of his skill and eloquence in a studied apology for that atrocious deed. The philosophic Seneca had condescended to compose a similar epistle to the senate, in the name of the son and assassin of Agrippina.^'^ " That it was easier to commit than to justify a parricide," was the glorious reply of Papinian ;"'i who did not hesitate between the loss of life and that of honor. Such intrepid *' Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1291. He was probably descended from Hel- vidius Priscus, and Thrasea Partus, those patriots, whose firm, but useless and unseasonable, virtue has been immortalized by Tacitus.* ** It is said that Papinian was himself a relation of the empreaa Julia. ^^ Tacit. Annal. xiv. 2. " Hist. August, p. 88. * M. Guizot is indif^nant at this " cold " observation of Gibbon on ine noble character of Thrasea ; but he admits that his virtue was ztseless to the public, and vnscnsonable amidst the vices of his age. — M. t Caracalla reproached all those who demanded no favors of him. " It la clear that if you make me no requests, you do not trust me ; if you do not tiust me, you suspect me; if you suspect me, you fear me; if you feat me, you bate me." And forthwith he condemned them as conspirators. A go 3d specimen of the sorites in a tyrant's logic. See Fni?m. Vatican. i.m— M. X Papinian was no longer Praetorian Prefect. Caracalla had deprived him of that office immediately after the death of Severus. Such is the Btatemcnt of Dion ; and the testimony of Spartian, who pves Papinian the Prxtorian pra^fecture till his death, is :f little weight opposed to that if t senator then living at Rome. -- W. IGO THE DECLINE ANt FALL virliK-, wliicli Viad escaped pure and unsuUiod from the intrigues of courts, the habits of business, and trie arts of hia profession, reflects more lustre on the memory of Papiniari, tlian all his great employments, his numerous writings, and the superior reputation as a lawyer, which he has preserved Ihfougli every age of the Roman jurisprudence.^'^ It had hitherto been the peculiar felicity of the Romans, and in the \yorst of times the consolation, that the virtue of the emi)erors was active, and their vice indolent. Augustus, Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus visited their extensive domin- ions in person, and their progress was marked by ac*s of wis- dom and beneficence. The tyranny of Tiberius, Nero, and Domitian, who resided almost constantly at Rome, or in the adjacent villas, was confined to the senatorial and equestrian orders.-*-^ But (Jaracalla was the common enemy of mankind. He left the capital (and he never returned to it) about a year after the murder of Geta. The rest of his reign was spent i.i the several provinces of the empire, particularly those of the East, and every province was by turns the scene of his rapine and cruelty. The senators, compelled by fear to attend hia capricious motions, were obliged to provide daily entertain- ments at an immense expense, which he abandoned with con- tempt to his guards ; and to erect, in every city, magnificent palaces and theatres, which he either disdained to visit, o*" ordered to be immediately thrown down. The most wealthy families were ruined by partial fines and confiscations, and the great body of his subjects oppressed by ingen'-~us and aggravated taxes. •^'i In the mitlst of peace, and upon the slightest provocation, he issued his commands, at Alexandria, in Egypt, for a general massacre. From a secure post in the temple of Serapis, he viewed and directed the slaughter of many thousand citizens, as well as strangers, without distin- guishing either the number or the crime of the sufferers ; since, as he coolly informed the senate, all the Alexandrians, those who had perished, and those who had escaped, were alike guilty.-^^ ** "With regard to Papinian, see Heincccius's Historia Juris lloma- ni, 1. 330, &c. ^ Tiberius and Domitian never moved from the neighborhood of Rome. Nero made a short journey into Greece. " Et laudatorura Principum usus ex tcquo, quamvis procul ageutibus. Saovi proximi* Uigniiiut." Tacit. Hist. iv. 74. '■'* Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1294. ■* Dior, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1307. Ilcrodian, 1. iv. p. 1-58. The formei OF THE ROMAN EHijirtE 161 Tfie vv.si! i istnictions of Soverus never made any lasting .mprnssion on tlic mind of his son, who, althonixh not destitute of imagination and eloquence, was equally devoid of judgment and humanity. 3'' One dangerous maxim, worthy of a tyrant, was rememhered and abused by Caracalla. " To secure the alfections of the army, and to esteem the rest of his suhiecta as of little moment." 37 g^t the liberality of the father had been restrained by prudence, and his indulgence to the- troops was tempered by firmness and authority. The careless pro- fusion of the son was the policy of one reign, and the inevi- t;ible ruin both of the army and of the empire. The vigor of the soldiers, instead of bemg confirmed by the severe disci- pline of camps, melted away in the luxury of cities. The excessive increase of their pay and donatives ^^ exhausted the repn;scnts it as a cruel massacre, the latter as a pertidious one too. It seems probable, that the Alexandrians had irritated the tyrant by their railleries, and perhaps by their tumults.* ■■"•■ Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1296. 3' Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1284. Mr. Wotton (Hist, of Home, p. 330) suspects that this maxim was mvented by Caracalla himself, and attributed to his lather. '^ Dion (1. Ixxviii, p. 1343") informs us that the extraordinary "jifts of Caracalla to the army amounted annually to seventy millions of drachmae, (about two millions three hundred and fifty thousand pounds.) There is another passage in Dion, concerning the military pay, intinitely curious, were it not obscure, imperfect, and probably- corrupt. The best sense seems to be, that the Praetoiian guards received twelve hundred and fifty drachmic, (forty pounds a year.) (Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1307.) Under the reign of Augustus, they were paid at the rate of two drachmse, or denarii, per day, 720 a year, (Tacit. Annal. i. 17.) Domitian, who increased the soldiers' pay one fourth, must have raised the Praetorians to 960 drachmae, (Gronovius dc Pecuniii Veteri, 1. iii. c. 2.) These successive augmentations ruined the empire ; for, with the soldiers' pay, their numbers too were in' reused. We have seen the Praetorians alone increased from 10,000 to 50,000 men.t • After these massacres, Caracalla also deprived the Alexandrians of their spectacles and public feasts ; he divided the city into two parts by a wall, with towers at intervals, to prevent the peaceful communicatioiio nf Hie citizens. Thus was treated the unhappy Alexandria, says Dion, by the Ravage beast of Ausonia. This, in fact, was the epithet which the oracle tiad ai)plicd t^ him ; it is said, indeed, that he was much pleased with the aanie, and ofiea boasted of it. Dion, l.\xvii. p. 1307. — G. t Valois and Reinuir have explained in a very simple and probaole man- lier this passage of Dion, which Gibbon seems to me not to have understood O avrdi TiiU arpiiriutTiitf aOXn Tru arpaTcim, Tu7i niv ff t<^ &opv(f)opiKi^ rcTayuivun ,( ;^iXin< fiinK6aiui TTtvrfiKovTii, roli fi ncvTaKta^^iXiaq An/i/?(ii£(i/. He ordered that the soldiers should receive, as the reward of their services, the Praetorians 1250 draihms, the others 5000 drachms. Valois thinks that the numben 10 162 THE DECLINE AND FALL etaie to enrich the military order, wliose modesty in peace, and service in war, is best secured b)' an honorajle poverty. The demeanor of Caracalla was haughty and full of pride; but with the troops he forgot even the proper dignity of his rank, encouraged their insolent familiarity, and, neglecting the essential duties of a general, affected to imitate the dress :ind manners of a common soldier. It was impossible that such a character, and such conduct us that of Caracalla, could inspire either love or esteem ; but as long as his vices were beneficial to the armies, he was secure frrn ol the emperor ; but Mr. Wotton has mistaken both, b)- UTiderstancung the distinction, not of veterans and recruits, but •t old and new legions. History of Eonic, p. 347. OF TUF. ROMAN EMriRE. IbT humiliating dependence. ''^ * Julia Mresa, her sister, was onicicJ to leave llie court and Antioch. Slie retired tu Emesa with an immense fortune, ttu; fruit of twent}' years' favor accompanied by her two il;ui^ht(;rs, So^emias and Maintea cacli of whom was a widow, and each had an only son r?assianus,t for that was the name of the son of Soiemias, wai consecrated to the honorable ministry of high priest of the Sun, and this holy vocation, embraced either from prudence o- superstition, contributed to raise the Syrian youth to the em pi re of Rome. A numerous body of troops was stationed a/ Emesa ; and, as the severe discipline of Macrinus had cun- strained them to pass the winter encamped, they were eager to revenge the cruelty of such unaccustomed hardships. The soldiers, who resorted in crowds to the temple of the Siui, beheld with veneration and delight the elegant dress and figure of the young pontilf; they recognized, or they thought that they recognized, the features of Caracalla, whose memory theV now adored. The artful Ma3sa saw and cherished their rising partiality, and readily sacrificing her daughter's re[)u talion to the fortune of her grandson, she insinuated that Bas. sianus was the natural son of their murdered sovereign. The sums distributed by her emissaries with a lavish hanfl silenced every objection, and the profusion sulTiciently proved the atlinity, or at least the resemblance, of Bassianus with tin' great original. The voung Antoninus (for he had assumed and polluted that respectable name) was declared em|)eror by the troops of Emesa, asserted his hereditary right, and callf;d aloud on the armies to follow the standard of a young and *« Dion, 1. Ixxviii. j). 1380. The abridgment of Xiphilin, thouijl: legs particular, is in this place clearer than tlie original. • As soon as this princess heard of the death of Caracalla, she wisho*' to st;irvc herself to death : the respect shown to her by Macrinus, in malt iiif{ no change in her attenihuits or her court, induced her to prolon<; liei- life. Hut it appears, as far as the mutilated text of Dion and the imperfect epitome of Xiphilin permit us to Judge, that she conceived projects of ambition, and endeavored to raise herself to the empire. Slie wished to tread in the steps of Seniiramis and Nitocris, whose country bordered on her own. Macrinus sent her an order immediately to leave Antioch, and t > retire wherever she chose. She ret irued to her former purpose, and it irved herself to death. — tJ f He inherited this name from tils great-grandfather on the mother's • i le, Bassianus, father ot Julia Ma^sa, his grandmother, and of Julia Uomna. wife o'' Severus. Victor (in his epitome) is perhaps the only his- torian who has Kivcn the key to this genealoLiy, when sp.-aking of (Jara CdUa. Hie Bassianus ex avi" materni nomine dictus. Caracalla, Elag..l>* tus. and .Vlexaii ler Si verus. bore successiveiv this name. — G. 1^*8 THE DECLINE AND FALL liberal prince, who had taken up arms to revenge his father's death and the opprsssion of the military order.''''' Whilst a conspiracy of women and eunuchs was concerted vsith prudence, and conducted with rapid vigor, Macrinus, who by a decisive motion, might have crushed his infant enemy fioated between the opposite extremes of terror and security which alike fixed him inactive at Antioch. A spirit of reijcl lion dilFused itself through all the camps and garrisons of Svria successive detachments murdered their offiGers,''^ and joined the party of the lebels ; and the tardy restitution of military pay and privileges was imputed to the acknowledged weak- ness of Macrinus. At lengib he marched out of Antioch, to meet the increasing and zealous army of the young pretender. His own troops seemed to take the field with faintness and reluctance ; but, in the heat of the battle,''^ the Praetorian guards, almost by an involuntary impulse, asserted the supe- riority of their valor and discipline. The rebel ranks were broken; when the mother and grandmother of the Syrian prince, who, according to their eastern custom, had attended the army, threw themselves from their covered chariots, and, by exciting the compassion of the soldiers, endeavored to animate their drooping courage. Antoninus himself, who, in the rest of his life, never acted like a man, in this important crisis of his fale, approved himself a hero, mounted his horse, and, at the head of his rallied troops, charged sword in hand among the thickest of the enemy ; whilst the eunuch Gannys,* whose occupations had been confined to female cares and' the soft luxury of Asia, displayed the talents of an able and expe- " According to Lampridius, (Hist. August, p. 135,) Alexander Severus lived twenty-nine years three months and seven days. As he was killed March 19, 2;5o, he was born December 12, 20.3, and was consequently about this time thirteen years old, as his ekU-r cousin might be about seventeen. This computation suits much better the history of the young princes than that of Ilerodian, (1. v. p. 181,) who represents them as three years younger; Mhilst, by an opposite error of chronology, he lengthens the reign of ElagabaUia two years beyond its real duration. For the particulars of the con- spiracy, see Dion, 1. Ixxviii. p. 1339. Herodian, 1. v. j). 181. •"* By a most dnngerous proclamation of the pretended Antoninus, cveiy soldier who brought in his officer's head became entitled to his private estate, as well as to his military commission. ^^ Dion, 1. Ixxviii. p. 1345. Herodian, 1. v. p. 186. The battle was fought near the village of Imma>, about two-and-twenty miles from Antioch. * Gannys was uot a eunuch. Dion, p. 1355. — W OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 1G9 riencffl fjcneral. The battle still rafrcrl with doiibtful v:o!:5iico, and Macrinus might have obtained tlie victory, had he no» betrayed his own cause by a shamefu and precipitated flijzht. His cowardice served only to protract his life a few days, and to stamp deserved ignominy on his misCortunes. It is scarcely i.ecessary to add, that his son Diadumenianus was involved in the same fate. As soon as the stubborn Prietorians coidd lo convinced that they fought for a prince who had basely deserted them, they surrendered to the conqueror : the con- tending parties of the Roman army, mingling tears of joy and tenderness, united under the banners of the imagined son of Caracalla, and the East acknowledged with pleasure the first em[)eror of Asiatic extraction. The letters of Macrinus had condescended to inform tho senate of the slight disturbance occasioned by an impostor in Syria, and a decree immediately passed, declaring the rebel and his family public enemies; with a promise of pardon, however, to such of his deluded adherents as should merit it by an immediate return to their duty. During the twenty days that elapsed from the declaration to the victory of Antoninus, (for in so short an interval was the fate of the Roman world decideil,) the capital and the provinces, more especially those of the East, were distracted with hopes and fears, agitated with tumult, and stained with a useless effusion of civil blood, since whosoever of the rivals prevailed in Syria must reign over the empire. The specious letters in which the young conqueror announced his victory to the obedient senate were filled with professions of virtue and moderation ; the shining examples of Marcus and Augustus, he should ever consider as the great rule of his administration; and he affected to dwell with pride on the striking resemblance of his own age and fortunes with those of Augustus, who in the earliest youth had revenged, by a successful war, the murder of his father. By adopting the style of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, son of Antoninus and gnindson of Severus, he tacitly asserted hio hereditary claim to the empire ; but, by assuming the tribunitian and procon- sular powers before they had been conferred on liim by a decree of the senate, he offended the delicacy of Roman pre judi-.e. This new and injudicious violation of the constitution W:is probably dictated either by the ignorance of his Syrian courtiers, or the fierce disdain of his military followers.^" ■^ Dion, 1. Ixxix. p. 1353. 10* no THE DECLINE AND FALL As the attention of the new emperor was dlvorted hy thy most trifling amusements, he wasted many months in his luva- rious progress from Syria to Italy, passed at Nicomedia hia first winter after his victory, and deferred till the ensuing summer his triumphal entry into the capital. A faithful pic- ture, however, which preceded his arrival, and was placed h ' li.s immediate order over the altar of Victory in the senate house, conveyed to the Romans the just but unworthy resem- blance of his person and manners. He was drawn in his sacerdotal robes of silk and gold, after the loose flowing fashion of the Medes and Phcenicians ; his head was covered with a loftv tiara, his numerous collars and bracelets were adorned with gems of an inestimable value. His eyebrows were tmged with black, and his cheeks painted with an artificial red and white. 51 The grave senators confessed with a sigh, that, after having long e.xperienced the stern tyranny of their own coun- trymen, Rome was at length humbled beneath the effeminate luxury of Oriental despotism. The Sun was worshipped at Emesa, under the name of Elagabalus,52 and under the form of a black conical stone, which, as it was universally believed, had fallen from heaven on that sacred place. To this protecting deity, Antoninus, not without some reason, ascribed his elevation to the throne. The display of superstitious gratitude was the only serious business of his reign. The triumph of the god of Emesa over all the religions of the earth, was the great object of his zeal and vanity ; and the appellation of Elagabalus (for he presumed ^' Dion, 1. bcxix. p. 1363. Herodian, 1. v. p. 189. ^* This name is derived bj^ the learned from two Syriac words. F.l^, a God, and Gabal, to form, the forming or plastic god, a proper, nnd even happy epithet for the sun.» Wotton's History of liome, p. 378. * The name of Elagabalus has been disfigured in various ways. Hero- dian calls him EAaiuyd/JaAo? ; Lampridius, and the more modern writers, make him Heliogabalus. Dion calls him Elcgabalus ; but Elagabalus was the true name, as it appears on the medals. (Eckhel. de Doct. num. vet. t. vii. p. 2.50.) As to its etymology, that which Gibbon adduces is given by Bochart, Chan. ii. 5 ; but Salmasius, on better grounds, (not. in Lam- prid. in Elagab.,) derives the name of Elagabalus from the idol of that fod, represented by Herodian and the medals in the form of a mountain, gil)ol in Hebrew,) or great stone cut to a point, with marks which repre- Bcnt the sun. As it was not i)ermitted, at Hierapolis, in Syria, to make etat-;.-?s of the sun and moon, because, it was said, they are themselvea sufficiently visible, the sun was represented at Emesa in the form of a great «ione, which, as it appeared, had fallen from heaven. Spanheim, Ca-sar notes, p. 46. — G. The name of Elagabalus, in " nummis rarius legetui Rasttiie. Lex. Univ. Rei Numm. Rasche quotes two. — M. OF THE ROMAN EmViRE. 171 as pnntifT and favorite to adopt that sacred name) was dearoir to him than all tiie titles of Imperial greatness. In a solemn procession through i.ie streets of Rome, the way was strewed with gold dust ; the black stone, set in precious gems, waa placed oi) a chariot drawn by six milk-white horses richly caparisoncil. The |)ioiis emperor held the reins, and, suj>- ported by his ministers, moved slowly backwards, that ho migtil perpetually enjoy the felicity of the divine presence. In a magnificent tem|)le raised on the Palatine Mount, the sacri- fices of the god Elagabalus were celebrated with every circum- stancs of cost and solemnity. The richest wines, the most extraordinarv victims, and the rarest aromatics, were profusely consunuxl on his altar. Around the altar a chorus of Syrian damsels performed their lascivious dances to the sound of barbarian music, whilst the gravest personages of the slate and army, clothed in long I'luiMncian tunics, officiated in the mean- est functions, witii affected zeal and secret indignation. -"'^ To this temple, as to the common centre of religious wor- ship, the Imperial fanatic attempted to remove the Ancilia, the i 'a 1 hull urn,-''' and all the sacred pledges of the faith of Numa. A crowd of inferior deities attended in various sta- tions the majesty of the god of P^.mesa ; but his couit was still imperfect, till a female of distingviished rank was admitted to liis bed. Pallas had been first chosen for his consort ; but as it was dreaded lest her warlike terrors might affVight the soft delicacy of a Syrian deity, the Moon, adored by the Africai.s under the name of Astarte, was deemed a more suitable com uanion for the Sun. Her image, with the rich offerinus oi her temple as a marriage portion, was transported with solemn pomp from Carthage to Home, and the day of these mystic nuptials was a general festival in the capital and throughoul the empire.'''* A rational volu[)tuarv adheres with invariable respect to the temperate dictates of nature, and improves the gratifications " Iloiodiiui. 1. V. p. 190. "■' lit' broke into the sanctirary of Vesta, and carried away a statiio v.-hifh he su])posed to he the ])aljiidium ; but the vestals boasted that by H pious fraud, they bad imposed a counterfeit image on the |>n)- fane intruder. Hist. Auu;ust. p. IO:J. '^ Dion, 1. bcxi.\. p. i;J(iO. Ilerodian, 1. v. p. 103. The subjeits of the empire were obliged to make liberal presents to the new- mnriied couple; and whatever they 1 ad promisfd during the Ufa M' Hlagabalus «va* carefully exacted ajulej tiie admiuistratiou of M.ama>a. 172 THE DECLINE ANl. FALL of sense by sc<;ial intercourse, endearing con.iections, and th« soft coloring of tuste and the imagination. But Elagabalus, (I speak of the emperor of that name,; corrupted by his youth, his country, and his fortune, abandoned himself to the grosses! pleasui'es with ungoverned fury, and soon found disgust and satiety in the midst of his enjoyments. The inflammatory- powers (jf art were summoned to his aid : the confused mul- titude of women, of wines, and of dishes, and the studied variety of attitude and sauces, served to revive his languid appetites. New terms and new inventions in these sciences, the only ones cultivated and patronized by the monarch,-'^^ signalized his reign, and transmitted his infamy to succeeding times. A capricious prodigality supplied the want of taste and elegance ; and whilst Elagabalus lavished away the treasures of his people in the wildest extravagance, his own voice and that of his flatterers applauded a spirit and magnifi- cence unknown to the tameness of his predecessors. To con- found the order of seasons and climates,^''' to sport with the passions and prejudices of his subjects, and to subvert every law of nature and decency, were in the number of his mo.st delicious amusements. A long train of concubines, and a rapid succession of wives, among whom was a vestal virgin, ravisiied by force from her sacred asylum,^** were insufficient to satisfy the impotence of his passions. The master of tlie lloman' world affected to copy the dress and manners of the female sex, preferred the distaff to the sceptre, and dishonored the principal dignities of the empire by distributiug them among his numerous lovers; one of whom was publicly in- vested with the title and authority of the emperor's, or, as he more properly styled himself, of the empress's husband.^^ '* The invention of a new sauce was liberally rewarded ; but ii' it was not relished, the inventor was confined tr eat of nothing else till he had discovered another more agrecablf to the Imperial j)alate. Hist. August, p. 111. " lie never would eat sea-fish except at a great distance from the sea; he then would distribute vast (luantitics of the rarest sorts, brought at an immense expense, to the peasants of the inland country, Hist. August, p. 109. =* Dion, 1. Ixxix. p. 1358. Herodian, 1. v. p. 192. "^ Hieroclcs enjoyed that honor; out he would have been sti])- planted by one Zoticus, had he not contrived, by a potjoii, to enervate the powers of his rival, who, being found on trial unequal to his repu- tal'ionf was driven with ignomjny from the palace. Dion, 1. Ixxix. p. 1363, 13(31. A dancer was made prafect of the city, a chaiioieet OF THE noriAN EMPIRE. ^73 It may s'-3m probahlo, tlie vices and follies of El.xgabaliia have been adoriieiJ by (aiicy, and blackened by j)r5Judu;e.'**' Yet, confining ourselves to tlie public scenes disphjyed before the Roman people, and attested by grave and contemporary historians, their inexpressible infamy surpasses that of any other age or country. The license of an eastern monarch in secluded from the eye of curiosity by the inaccessible walb ot his seraglio. The sentiments of honor and gallantry have introduced a refinement of pleasure, a regard for decency, und a respect for the public opinion, into the modern courts of Europe;* but the corrupt and ojiulent nobles of Rome gratified every vice that could be collected from the mightv conflux of nations and manners. Secure of impunity, careless of censure, they lived without restraint in the patient and humble society of their slaves and parasites. The emperor, in his turn, viewing every rank of his subjects with the same contemptuous indilference, asserted witliout control his sover- eign privilege of lust and luxury. The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in othei's the same disorders which they allow in themselves ; and can readily discover some nice difference of age, charac- ter, or station, to justify the partial distinction. Tlie licentious soldiers, who had raised to the throne the dissolute son of Caracalla, blushed at their ignominious choice, and turned with disgust from that monster, to contem|)late with pleasure the opening virtues of his cousin Alexander, the son of Ma- ni.-ea. The crafty Miesa, sensible that her grandson Elaga- balus must inevitably destroy himself by his own vices, had provided another and surer support of her family. P'mbracing a fav(jrable moment of fondness and devotion, she had pcjr- suaded the young emperor to adopt Alexander, and to invest him with the title of Csesar, tliat his own divine occupations might be no longer interrupted by the care of the earth. In piii'loi-t of the watch, a liarbcr pnefect of the provisions. These three cniiiistL-rs, with many inferior oihcers, were all recominciided eiionni- tall' iHcinhrorimi. Hist. August, p. 105. *" E\ Du the credulous comi)iler of his life, in the Auojustan IIis- tor>- (p. Ill) i3 incliucd to suspect that liis vices may have been extt^kjcrated. • Woiick has justly ol.scrvcd that Gibbon should have reckor.ed th* nfluence of Christianity in this j^'rcat ciiaiiire. In the most savui^e times, *nd the most corrupt courts, since the introduction of Cliristiunitv there 4aire been no Neros jr Donf the armies. * This opinion of Valsecchi has been triun>i)hantly contesttt. ov Eckliel, who has shown the impossibility of reconciling it with the medals of El.igabahis, and has given the most satisfactory explanation of the five trilu.nates of that emperor. lie ascended the tlirone and received the triLjnician power the i6th of May, in the year of Rome 971 ; and on the 1st J'lnuary of tlie next year, 972, he bci^an a new tribiiniit», according ta the custom estabHshcd by preceding emperors. Durini; the years 972, 973, •74 he enjoyed the tribunate, and commenced his fifth in the year 97-5, g which he waskilled on the lOth March Eckhel de Dojt. Nuic, 0, &c — G. 176 THE DECLINE AND FALL itary. But as the Roman emperors were still considered as the generals and magistrates of the republic, their wives and mothers, although distinguished by the name of Augusta were never associated to their personal honors ; and a female reign would have appeared an inexpiable prodigy in the eyes of those primitive Romans, who married without love, or loved without delicacy and respect.'''* The haughty Agrip- pina aspired, indeed, to share the honors of the empire which she had conferred on her son ; but her mad ambition, detested by every citizen who felt for the dignity of Rome, was disap- pointed by the artful firmness of Seneca and Burrhus.^^ The good sense, or the indifference, of succeeding princes, re- strained them from ofTending the prejudices of their subjects , and it was reserved for the profligate Elagabalus to discharge the acts of the senate with the name of his mother Soiemias, who was placed by the side of the consuls, and subscribed, as a regular member, the decrees of the legislative assembly. Her more prudent sister, Mamsea, declined the useless and odious prerogative, and a solemn law was enacted, excluamg women forever from the senate, and devoting to the infernal gods the head of the wretch by whom this sanction should be violated.'^'' The substance, not the pageantry, of power, was the object of Mamaea's manly ambition. She maintained an absolute and lasting empire over the mind of her son, and in his affection the mother could not brook a rival. Alexander, with her consent, married the daughter of a patrician ; out his respect for his father-in-law, and love for the empress, ^vei'e inconsistent with the tenderness or interest of Mamtea. The patrician was executed on the ready accusation of treason, and the wife of Alexander driven with ignominy from the pal- ace, and banished into Africa.*'^ *^ Metellus Numidicus, the censor, acknowlorlged to the Horn an peojile, in a public oration, that had kind nature allowetl us to exist without the help of women, we should be delivered Irom a very troublesome companion ; and he could recommend matrimony only as the sacrifice of private pleasure to public duty. Aulus Geliius, ». 0. ** Tacit. Annal. xiii. 5. ^ Hist. August, p. 102, 107. ♦' Dion, 1. Ixxx. p. 13()9. Herodian, 1. vi. p. 206. Hist. Aui;u< ter campaigns, at the distance of near twenty miles from home,si required more than common encouragements ; and the senate wisely prevented the clamors of the people, by the institution of a regular pay for the soldiers, which was levied by a general tribute, assessed according to an equitable pro- portion on the property of the citizens.^^ During more than two hundred years after the conquest of Veil, the victories of the republic added less to the wealth than to the power of Rome. The states of Italy paid their tribute in military ser- vice only, and the vast force, both by sea and land, which was exerted in the Punic wars, was maintained at the expense of the Eomans themselves. That high-spirited people (such is often the generous enthusiasm of freedom) cheerfully sub- mitted to the most excessive but voluntary burdens, in the just confidence that they should speedily enjoy the rich harvest of their labors. Their expectations were not disappointed. In the course of a few years, the riches of Syracuse, of Car- thage, of Macedonia, and of Asia, were brought in triumph to Home. The treasures of Perseus alone amounted to near \\vo millions sterling, and the Roman people, the sovereign of ^o many nations, was forever delivered from the weight of taxes.^^ The increasing revenue of the provinces was found sufficient to defray the ordinary establishment of war and government, and the superfluous mass of gold and silver was deposited in the temple of Saturn, and reserved for any un- foreseen emergency of the state.^'* History has never, perhaps, suffered a greater or mora ^' According to the more accurate Dionysius, the city itself M'as only a hundred stadia, or twelve miles and a haK, from Rome, though Bome out-posts might be advanced farther on the side of Etruria. Nardini, in a professed treatise, has combated the popular opinion and the authority of two popes, and has removed Vcii from Civita CastcUana, to a little spot called Isola, in the midway between Rome nud the I\yh. I. .XV. c. 2. * See KationMi-iuni imperii. Compare besides Tacitn=, .Snot. An?, c. ult Dion, p. t<32. Other emperors kept and publishoil similar rei;lsler-r See a dissertation cif Dr. Wolle, de Rationario imperii Roin. [.eipsip, 177.3. Thg last book of Appian also contained the statistics of the Roman "empire, bnt it is lost. — W. t VVenck contests the accuracy of Gibbon's version of Plntarrh, ntid vip- noscs that Poinpcy only r:iised the, revenue from 50,000,000 to S5,000,000 of iniclnns; but the text of I'lntjirch seems clearlv to mean that his conquests added 85,000,000 to tlie ordin-.iry revenue. Wen'ck adds, '• Plutarch sav;<, in another part, that .\ntony made .Asia pay, at one time, 200,000 talents", that IS to say, 3S,75u,000/. sterlin.i;." Hut .\ppian explain-t this hv siivin? th;it it W.I3 the revc^nie of ten years, which brings the annual reveiiue.'at tlie tini« »f Antonv, to 3.875.000/. sterling. — M. IftS THE DECLINE AND Pi^^ portion with the taxes afterwards raised both on the l.'.nds a-^1 on the persons of the inhabitants, when the fertile coast of Africa was reduced into a province.^i Spain, by a very singular fatahty, was the Peru and Mexico of the old world. The discovery of Jhe rich western conti- nent by the Phcenicians, and the oppression of the simple natives, who were compelled to labor in their own mines for the benefit of strangers, form an exact type of the more recent history of Spanish America.^"^ The Phoenicians were ac- quainted only with the sea-coast of Spain ; avarice, as well as ambition, carried the arms of Rome and Carthage into the heart of the country, and almost every part of the soil was found pregnant with copper, silver, and gold.* Mention is made of a mine near Carthagena which yielded every day twenty-five thousand drachms of silver, or about three hundred thousand pounds a year.'^s Twenty thousand pound weight of gold was annually received from the provinces of Asturia, Gallicia, and Lusitania.^"* We want both leisure and materials to pursue this curious inquiry through the many potent states that were annihilated m the Roman empire. Some notion, however, may be formed of the revenue of the provinces where considerable wealth had been deposited by nature, or collected by man, if we observe the severe attention that was directed to the abodes of solitude and sterility. Augustus once received a petition from the inhabitants of Gyarus, humbly praying thai they might be relieved from one third of their excessive impo- sitions. Their whole tax amounted indeed to no more than one hundred and fifty drachms, or about five pounds : but Gyarus was a little island, or rather a rock, of the JEgeixn Sea, destitute of fresh water and every necessary of life, and inhabited only by a few wretched fishermen.^^ *' Appian in Punicis, p. 84. "^ Diodorus Siculus, I. 5. Cadiz was built by the Phoenicians, H little more than a thousand years before Christ. See Veil. Pa- ter, i. 2. " Strabo, 1. iii. p. 118. '* Plin. Hist. Natur. 1. xxxiii. c. 3. He mentions, likewise, a sil- ver mine in Dalmatia, that yielded every day fil'ty pounds to ;h« state. »> Strabo, 1. x. p. 486. Tacit. Annal. iii. 69, and iv. 30. See ia Coii^parc Heeren's Researches, toI. i. part ii. p.'45, ctseq. — M I OF THE ROMAN EMFTRE. 189 From the faint glimmerings of sucli floubtful and scattered lights, we sliould be inclined to believe, 1st, That (with every fair allowance for the diHerence of times and circumstances) the general income of the Roman provinces could seldom amount to less than fifteen or twenty millions of our money j'-*^ and, 2dly, That so ample a revenue must liave been fully adequate to all the expenses of the moderate governmen* instituted by Augustus, whose court was the uiodest family of a pri' ate senator, and whose military eslaD.lslmient was calculate j for the defence of the frontiers, wiih( ut any aspir- ing views of conquest, or any serious apprehension of a foreign invasion. Notwithstanding the seeming probability of both these con- clusions, the latter of them at least is positively disowned by the language and conduct of Augustus. It is not easy to determine whether, on this occasion, he acted as the common father of the Roman world, or as the oppressor of liberty ; whether he wished to relieve the provinces, or to impoverish the senate and the equestrian order. But no sooner had he assumed the reins of government, than he frequently inti- mated the insufficiency of the tributes, and the necessity of throwing an equitable proportion of the public burden upon Rome and Italy. t In the prosecution of this unpopular design rournefort (Voyages au Levant, Lettre viii.) a very lively picture of the actual misery of Gyarus. ^* Lip.sius do ni;iguitudiue Iloinuiui (1. ii. c. 3) computes the reve- nue at one hundieil and fifty millions of gold crowns ; but his Avholo book, though learned and ingenious, betrays a very heated imagina- tion.* * If Justus Lipsius has exasjijcrated the revenue of the Roman empire, Gibliou, on the other hand, has underrated it. lie fixes it at fifteen or twenty millions of our money, pjiit if we take only, on a moderate calcu- lation, the taxes ill tlie provinces which he has already ( ited, they will amount, considcriiiir the anarnientations made l)y Augustus, to nearly that sum. There remain, also, the provinces of Italy, of lUia-tia, of Noricuni, Pannonia, and (jiecce, cSrc, (Krc. Let us pay attention, besides, to the pro- ilixious expenditure of some emperors, (Suet. Vesp. IG;) we shall see tliat such a revenue could not be sufficient. The authors of the Universal History, part xii., assign forty millions sterlin;^ as the sum to about which the public revenue mi^:ht amount. — G. from W. t It is not aslonishiii<^ that Augusttis Iftld this lanp;uap;e. The senate declared also under Nero, that the state conld not exist without the im- posts as well a\ifi;mentcd as founded by Augustus. Tac. Ann. xiii. oO. After the abolition of the diil'creut tributes paid by Italy, an abolition which took place A. U. 64(5, 694, and 6;)o, the state derived no revenues from that great country, but the twejiticth i)art of the manumissions, (vicesima jianumissionum ;) and Cicero lin\ents this in many places, orrtinularly in bis epistles to Atticus, ii. 15.-- CJ. from \V. ^90 THE DECLINE AND FALL he at^vanced, however, by cautious and well-weighed slepa The introduction of customs was followed by the establish- ment Df an excise, and the scheme of taxation was completed by an artful assessment on the real and personal property of the Koman citizens, who had been exempted from any kind of contribution above a century and a half. I. In a great empire like that of Rome, a natural balance of money must have gradually established itself. It has been already obseWed, that as the wealth of the provinces was attracted to the capital by the strong hand of conquest and power, so a considerable part of it was restored to the indus- trious provinces by the gentle influence of commerce and arts. In the reign of Augustus and his successors, duties were imposed on every kind of merchandise, which through a thou- sand channels flowed to the great centre of opulence and lux- ury ; and in whatsoever manner the law was expressed, it was the Roman purchaser, and not the provincial merchant, who paid the tax.^^ The rate of the customs varied from the eighth to the fortieth part of the vahie of the commodity; and we have a right to suppose that the variation was directed by ihe unalterable maxims of policy ; that a higher duty was fixed on the articles of luxury than on those of necessity, and that the productions raised or manufactured by the labor of the subjects of the empire were treated v/ith more indulgence than was shown to the pernicious, or at least the unpopular, commerce of Arabia and India.^*^ There is still extant a long but imperfect catalogue of eastern commodities, which about the time of Alexander Severus were subject to tlie payment of duties ; cinnamon, myrrh, pepper, ginger, and the whole tribe of aromatics ; a great variety of precious stones, among which the diamond was the most remarkable for its price, and the emerald for its beauty ; ^^ Parthian and Babylonian <" Tacit. Ai^nal. xiii. 31.* ^'^ See Pliuy, (Hist. Natur. 1. vi. e. 23, Ixii. c. 18.) His observation .hat the Indian commodities were sold at Home at a hundred times their original price, may give us some notion of the jiroducc of the customs, since that original price amounted to more than eight hundred thousan-d jiounds. ■ ^' 'ITie ancients were undcqutiinted with the art of cutting diamonds. • The customs (portoria) existed in the timoa of the ancient kings ct Home. They were suppresi ed in Italy, A. U. 094, by the Prsctor, Cecilius MctellusN* pos. Augustus nly rei'Stublished them. S>ee note above. — W (U THK nOMAN EMPIRE. I'Jl Itatlior, cottons, silks, hoth raw and inamifaclured, cliony ivory, and cuniiclis.'^" \\'e may observe that llie n ROMAN EM TIRE. 193 pounds ; 108 nor do tlie friends of the younger Pliny setnj tc have been less generous to that amiable orator. i**^ Whatever was the motive of the testator, the treasury claimed, without distinction, the twentieth part of his estate : and in the cou:so ol two or three generations, the whole property of the subject must have gradually passed through the coffers of the state. In the first and golden years of the reign of Nero, that prince, froia a desire of popularity, and perhaps from a blind impulse of benevolence, conceived a wish of abolishing, the oppression of the customs and excise. The wisest senators applauded his magnanimity : but they diverted him from the execution of a design which would have dissolved the strength and resources of the repub'lic.ii" Had it indeed been pos- sible to realize this dream of fancy, such princes as Trajan and the Antonines would surely have embraced with ardor the glorious opportunity of conferring so signal an obligation on mankind. Satisfied, however, with alleviating the public burden, they attempted not to remove it. The mildness and precision of their laws ascertained the rule and measure of ta.xation, and protected the subject of every rank against arbitrary interpretations, antiquated claims, and the insolent vexation of the farmers of the revenue.'" For it is somewhat singular, that, in every age, the best and wisest of the Roman governors persevered in this pernicious method of collecting the principal branches at least of the excise and customs."- The sentiments, and, indeed, the situation, of Caracalla were very different from those of the Antonines. Inattentive, or rather averse, to the welfare of his people, he found himself uiv'u-r the necessity of gratifying the insatiate avarice which he had excited iff the army. Of the several impositions intro- duced by Augustus, the twentieth on inheritances and legacies was the most fruitful, as well as the most comprehensive. As its influence was not confined to Rome or Italy, the prod- uce continually increased with the gradual extension of the •"^ C'icero in Philip, ii. c. 16. ""* See his epistles. Every such will ij;ave him an occasion of dis • playin^; liis reverence to the dcinl, and his justice to the living. He reconciled both in his behavior to a son who had been disinherited by hv* mother, (v. 1.) *'^ Tacit. Annal. xiii. 50. Esprit des Loix, 1. xii. c. 19. '" See Pliny's Panegyric, the Augistan History, and Hurman. dc \ oetif^al. jjassim. "- I'hc tributes- (])ropcrly so called) Mere not farmed; since the |oo\ princes often remitted many millions ol arrears. 11* 194 THE DKGLINE AND FALL Roman City. The new citizens, though charged, on equal terms,^i3 with the oayment of new taxes, which had not aflected them as subjects, derived an ample comj)ensation from the rank they obtained, the privileges they acquired, and the fair prospect of honors and fortune that was thrown open to their ambition. But the favor wliich implied a distinction was lost in the prodigality of Caracalla, and the reluctant pro- vincials were compelled to assume the vain title, and the real obligations, of Roman citizens.* Nor was the rapacious son of S-csveri's contented with such a measure of taxation as had appeared sufficient to his moderate predecessors. Instead of a twe.itieth, he exacted a tenth of all legacies and inherit- ances ; and during his reign (for the ancient proportion was restored after his death) he crushed alike every part of the empire under the weight of his iron sceptre. ^^'^ When all the provincials became liable to the peculiar im positions of Roman citizens, they seemed to acquire a lega exemption from the tributes which they had paid in their former condition of subjects. Such were not the maxuns of government adopted by Caracalla and his pretended son. The old as well as the new ta.xes were, at the same time, levied in the provinces. It was reserved for the virtue of Alexander to relieve them in a great measure from this intoleral)le grievance, by reducing the tributes to a thirteenth part of the sum exacted at the time of his accession. i'^ It is impossible to conjecture the motive that engaged him to spare so trifling a remnant of "•' The situation of the new citizens is minutely described by Pliny, (Panegyric, c. 37, 38, 39.) Trajan published a law very much in tlicir favor. • ''* Dion, 1. Ixxvii. p. 1295, "^ lie who paid ten aurci, the usual tribute, was charged with no more than the third part of an aureus, and proiiortional pieces of gold were coined by Alexander's order. Hist. August, p. 127, with the commentary of Salmasius. * Gibbon has adopted the opinion of Spanheim and of Burman, which attributes to Caracalla this edict, which t^avc the right of the city to uM the iiihabitaiits of the provinces. This opinion may lie disputed. Sever;,! jiiissa^ps of Spartianus, of Aurelius Victor, and of Aristides, attiibule this edict to Marc. Aurelius. See a learned essay, entitled Joh. P. Mahueii 0)unn. dc Marc. Aur. Aiilonino Constitatioius de Civitate Universo t)rbi Konmno data auctore. Ilal.n;, 1772, 8vo. It appears that Marc. Aurelius made some modifications of this edict, which released the provincials frini some of the ciiarges imposed by the right of the city, and deprived tl 'ui wf some of the advantages which it conferttl. Caracalla aninilled ll s« modihtuliojis. — W. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 195 ihe public evil ; but tbe noxious weed, wliich had not bern totally eradicated, again sprang up with the most luxuriant growth, and in the succeeduig age darkened the Roman world with its deadly shade. In the course of this histoiy, we shall be too often sinnaioned to explain tlie land tax, the capitation, and the heavy contributions of corn, wine, oil, and meat, which »f;ere exacted from the provinces for the use of the court, the army, and the capital. As long as Rome and Italy were respected as the centre of government, a national spirit was preserved by the ancient, and insensibly imbibed by the adopted, citizens. The principal commands of the army were filled hy men who had received a liberal education, were well instructed in the advantages of laws and letters, and who had risen, by equal steps, through the regular succession of civil and military honors. i'*^ To their inlluence and example we may partly ascribe the modest obedience of the legions during the two first centuries of the lm|)erial history. l]ut when the last enclosure of the Roman constitution wa» trampled down by Caracalla, the separation of prul'fjssiuns gradually succeeded to the distinction of ranks. The more polisluMl citizens of the internal provinces were alone qualified to act as lawyers and magistrates. The rougher trade of arms was abandoned to the peasants and barbarians of the frontiers, who knew no country but their camp, no science but that of war, no civil laws, and scarcely those of military discipline. With bUuKly hands, savage manners, and ilesperale resolutions, they sometimes guarded, but much oftener subverted, the throne of the emperors. "" Soe the lives of Agricola, Vespasian, Trajan, Severus, e d hib thiuo c »mpt;t!tor8 ; and indeed of all the eminent men cf tho3* tiiLes CHAPTER VII. nt ELITATION AND TYKANNY OF MAXIMIN. KEBELLION IN AFRICA AND ITALY, UNDER THE AUTHORITY 01 THF SENATE. CIVIL "WARS AND SEDITIONS. VIOLENT DEATHS OF MAX- IMIN AND HIS SON, OF MAXIMUS AND BALBINUS, AND OF THE THREE GORDIANS. USURPATION AND SECULAR GAMES OF PHILIP. Of the various forms of government which have prevailed m the world, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule. Is it possible to relate without an • indignant smile, that, on the father's decease, the property of a nation, like that of a drove of oxen, descends to his infant Ron, as yet unknown to mankind and to himself; and that the bravest warriors and the wisest statesmen, relinquishing their natural right to empire, approach the royal cradle with bended knees and protestations of inviolable fidelity .? Satire and declamation may paint these obvious topics in the most daz- zling colors, but our more serious thoughts will respect a useful prejudice, that establishes a rule of succession, independent of the passions of mankind ; and we shall cheerfully acquiesce in any expedient which deprives the multitude of the dan- gerous, and indeed the ideal, power of giving themselves a master. In the cool shade of retirement, we may easily devise im- aginary forms of government, in which the sceptre shall be constantly bestowed on the most worthy, by the free and incorrupt suffrage of the whole community. Experience over- turns these airy fabrics, and teaches us, that in a large society, the election of a monarch can never devolve to the wisest, or to the most numerous, part of the people. The army is the only order of men sufficiently united to concur in the same uentiments, and powerful enough to impose them on the rest of their fcUow-citizens ; but the temper of soldiers, habituated at once to violence and to slavery, renders them very unfit guardi- ans of a legal, or even a civil constitution. Justice, huniariity or political wisdom, are quaKtics they arc too little ncquaiute 1 w'lih in thcmse ves, to appreciate them in others. Valor will 196 OF THK ROMAN EMPIRE. li>7 acquire their esteem, and liberality will purcliase their suf- frage ; hut the first of these merits is often lodged in the most savage breasts; the latter can only exert itself at the expense of the public; and both may be turned against the possessor of the throne, by the ambition of a daring rival. Tlie superior prerogative of birth, \ylien it has obtained the sanction of tinie and pojjular opinion, is the plainest and least invidious of all distinctions among mankind. The acknowl- edged right extinguishes the hopes of faction, and the con- scious security disarms the cruelty of the monarch. To the firm establishment of this idea we owe tlie peaceful succes- sion and mild administration of European monarchies. To the defect of it we must attribute the frequent civil wars through which an Asiatic despot is obliged to cut his way tc the throne of his fathers. Yet, even in the East, the sphere of contention is usually limited to the princes of the reignin" house, and as soon as the more fortunate competitor h;u removed his brethren by the sword and the bowstring, he n( longer entertains any jealousy of his meaner subjects. Bu' the Roman empire, after the authority of the senate had sunk mto contempt, was a vast scene of confusion. The royal, anu even noble, families of the provinces had long since been led in triumph before the car of the haughty republicans. The ancient families of Rome had successively fallen beneath the tyranny of the Caesars ; and whilst those princes were shackled by the forms of a commonwealth, and disappointed by the repeated failure of their posterity, i it was impossible that any idea of hereditary succession should have taken root in the minds of their subjects. The right to the throne, which none could claim from birth, every one assumed from merit. The darmg hopes of ambition were set loose from the salutary restraints of law and prejudice ; and the meanest of mankind might, without folly, entertain a hope of being raised by valor and fortune to a rank in the army, in which a single crime would enable him to wrest the sceptre of the world from his feeble and unpopular master. After the murder of Alexander Severus, and the elevation of Maximin, no emperor could tfiink himself safe upon the throne, and every barbarian ' Thore had been no example of three successive generations on ►he throne ; only three instances of sons who succeeded their fntliers. The marriages of the Caesars (notwithstanding tttc permission, an? Uie frequent practice of divorces) were generally unfruitful. ly« THE DECLINE AND FALL peasant of lhi3 frontier might aspire to that august, but dan gerous station. About thirty-two years before that event, the emperor Seve- rus, returning from an eastern expedition, halted in Thrace, to celebrate, witn military games, the birthday of his younger son, Geta. The country flocked in crowds to behold the^ir sovereign, and a young barbarian of gigantic stature earnestly solicited, in his rude dialect, that he might be allowed to con- tend for the prize of wrestling. As the pride of discipline would have been disgraced in the overthrow of a Roman sol- dier by a Thraciau peasant, he was matched wilh the stoutest followers of the camp, sixteen of whom he successively laid on the ground. His victory was rewarded by some trifling gifts, and a permission to enlist in the troops. The next day, the happy barbarian was distinguished above a crowd of recruits, dancing and exulting after the fashion of his country. As soon as he perceived that he had attracted the emperor'a notice, he instantly ran up to his horse, and followed him on foot, without the least appearance of fatigue, in a long and rapid career. " Thracian," said Severus with astonishment, "• art thou disposed to wrestle after thy race .'' " "• Most will- ingly, sir," replied the unwearied youth ; and, almost in a breath, overthrew seven of the strongest soldiers in the army. A gold collar was the prize of his matchless vigor and activ- ity, and he was immediately appointed to serve in the horse- guards who always attended on the person of the sovereign.- Maximin, for that was his name, though born on the terri- tories of the empire, descended from a mixed race of bar-ba- rians. His father was a Goth, and his mother of the nation of the Alani. He displayed on every occasion a valor equal .o his stiength ; and his native fierceness was soon tempered or disguised by the knowledge of the world. Under the reign of Severus and his son, he obtained the rank of centurion, with the favor and esteem of both those princes, the former of whom wfis an excellent judge of merit. (Gratitude forbade Maximin to serve under the assassin of Caracalla. Honor taught him to decline the effeminate insults of ElagaUalus. On ths accession of Alexander, he returned to court, and w;* placed by that prince in a station useful to the service, and iionorable to himself. The fourth legion, to which he was ippointed tribune, soon became, under his care, the best dis- * HL«t. August, p. 138. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 199 oipkned of the whole army. With tlie general applause of the soldiei-s, who bestowed on their favorite hero tlie names of Ajax and Hercules, he was successively promoted to the first military command;^ and had not he still retained too much of his savage origin, the emperor might perhaps have given his own sister in marriage to the son of Maximin.'* Instead of securing his fidelity, these favors served only to inflame the ambition of the Thracian peasant, who deenicd his fortune inadequate to his merit, as long as he was con- strainad to acknowledge a su|)erior. Though a stranger to real wisdom, he was not devoid of a selfish cunning, which showed him that the emperor had lost the affection of ihe army, and taught him to improve their discontent to his ov.ii advantage. It is easy for faction and calumny to shed their poison on the administration of the best of princes, and to accuse even their virtues by artfully confounding them with those vices to which they bear the nearest affinity. The troops listened with pleasure to the emissaries of Maximin. They blushed at their own ignominious patience, which, dur- ing thirteen years, had supported the vexatious discipline im- posed by an effeminate Syrian, the timid slave, of his mother and of the senate. It was time, they cried, to cast-away that useless phantom of the civil power, and to elect for their prince and general a real soldier, educated in camps, exer- cised in war, who would assert the glory, and distribute among his companions the treasures, of the empire. A great army was at that time assembled on the banks of the Rhine, under the command of the emperor himself, who, almost immediately after his return from tlie Persian war, had been obliged tg march against the barbarians of Germany. The important care of training and reviewing the new levies was intrusted to Maximin. One day, as he entered the field of exercise, the troops, either from a sudden impulse, or a formed conspiracy, saluted him emperor, silenced by their loud acclamations h's obstinate refusal, and hastened to consummate their rebellion by the murder of Alexander Severus. ■ '. ' Hist. August, p. 140. Horodian, 1. vi. p. 223. Aurelius Victor. By conipariiig these authors, it should seem tliat Maximin liad the parlicuhir command of the Tribellian horse, with the general :ommis- Bioii of disciplining the recruits of the whole anny. His biogra])hei ought tc have marked, with more care, Ids exjiloits, and the succes- jive stejis of his military promotions. * tiec iht; original letter of iUc.vander Scvcrus, Hist. August, p. 149 200 THE DECLINE AND FALL The circumstances of his death are variously related. The wriicrs, who suppose that he died in ignorance of the ingrati- tude and amhition of Maximin, affirm, that, after taking a iru- gal repast in the siglit o " the army, he retired to sleep, and that, about the seventh hour of the day, a part of his own guards broke into the Impei"ial tent, and, with many wounds, assassinated their virtuous and unsuspecting prince.-'' If we credit another, and indeed a more probable account, Maximin was invested with the purple by a numerous detachment, a the distance of several miles from the head-quarters ; and he trusted for success rather to the secret wishes than to tha public declarations of the great army. Alexander had suf- ficient time to awaken a faint sense of loyalty among his troops ; but their reluctant professions of fidelity quickly van- ished on the appearance of Maximin, who declared himself the friend and advocate of the military order, and was unani- mously acknowledged emperor of the Romans by the applaud- ing legions. The son ofMama^a, betrayed and deserted, withdrew into his tent, desirous at least to conceal his ap|)roach- ing fate from the insults of the multitude. He was soon fol- lowed bv a tribune and some centurions, the ministers of death ; but instead of receiving with manly resolution the inevitable stroke, his unavailing cries and entreaties disgraced the last moments of his life, and converted into contempt some portion of the just pity which his innocence and misfortunes must inspire. His mother, Mami-a, whose pride and, avarice he loudly accused as the cause of his ruin, perished with her son. The most faithful of his friends were sacrificed to the fu'St fury of the soldiers. Others were reserved for the more deliberate cruelty of the usurper ; and those who experienced the mildest treatment, were stripped of their employments, and ignominiously driven from the court and army.'' The former tyrants, Caligula and Nero, Commodus and Caracalla, were all dissolute and unexperienced youths," edu- * Hist. August, p. 135. I have softened some of the most improba- ble circumstances jjf this wrctclicd bioi^ra])her. Prom this ill-worded narration, it should seem that the prince's buffoon havinp; accidentally entered the tent, and awakened the slunUjcriu{^ monarch, the fear of p\inishmeut urged him to persuade the disaffected soldiers to commit tlie murder. " Ilorodian, 1. vi. p. 223—227. ' Caligula, the eldest of the four, was only twenty-five years ol age when he ascended the throne ; Caracfdla was twc/ity-thtee, Cora- modus nineteen, and Nero no more t)ian seventeen. or THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 201 sated ill the purple, and corrupted by the pride of erfipirc, the luxury of Rome, and tlie perfidious voice of (lattery. Tho cruelty of Maximin was derived from a different source, the tear of contempt. Though he depended on the attachment of the soldiers, who loved him for virtut^s like their own, he was conscious that his mean and barbarian origin, his savage appearance, and his total ignorance of the arts and institutions of civil life,*^ formed a very unfavorable contrast with the amiable manners of the unhappy Alexander. He remem- bered, that, in his humbler fortune, he had often waited before the door of the haughty nobles of Rome, and had been denied admittance by the insolence of their slaves. He recollected too the friendship of a few who had relieved his poverty, and assisted his rising hopes. But those who had spurned, and those who had protected, the Thracian were guilty of the same crime, the knowledge of his original obscurity. For this crime many were put to death ; and by the execution of several of his benefactors, Maximin published, in characters of blood, the indelible history of his baseness and ingrat- itude.9 The dark and sanguinary soul of the tyrant was open to every suspicion against those among his subjects who were the most distinguished by their birth or merit. Whenever he was alarmed with the sound of treason, his cruelty was unbounded and unrelenting. A conspiracy against his life was either discovered or imagined, and Magnus, a consular senator, was named as the principal author of it. Without a witness, with- out a trial, and without an opportunity of defence, Magnus, with four thousand of his supposed accomplices, was put to death. Italy and the whole empire were infested with innumerable spies and informers. On the slightest accusation, the first of the Roman nobles, who had governed provinces, commanded armies, and been adorned with tlie consular and trium[)lial ornaments, were chained on the public carriages, and hurried away to the emperor's presence. Confiscation, exile, or simple death, were esteemed uncommon instances of his len.ty. Some of the unfortunate sufferers he ordered to be ^ It appears that he was totally ignorant of the Greek language ; which, from its universal use in conversation and letters, was an es- (jciitial part of every liberal education. * Hist. August, p. 141. IlcrocUan, 1. vii. p. 237. The latter of these historians has been most unjustly censured for sparing the vice* »f Maximin. 202 tul: decline and fall sewed up in' the hides of slaughtered animals, olhers to ba exposed to wild beasts, others again to be beaten to death with clubs. During the three years of his reign, he disdained to visit either Rome or Italy. His camp, occasionally removed from the banks of the Rhine to those of the Danube, was the seat of his stern despotism, which trampled on every principle of law and justice, and was supported by the avowed power of the sword.'" No man of noble birth, elegant accomplish- ments, or knowledge of civil business, was sutTered near his per.son ; and the court of a Roman emperor revived the idea of tnose ancient chiefs of slaves and gladiators, whose savago power had left a deep impression of terror and detestation. '^ As long as the cruelty of Maximin was confined to the illusirious senators, or even to the bold adventurers, who in the court or army expose themselves to the caprice of for- tune, the body of the people viewed their sufferings with in« ditfeience, or perhaps with .pleasure. But the tyrant's ava- rice, stimulated by the insatiate desires of the soldiers, at 'eugth attacked the public property. Every city of the em- pire was possessed of an independent revenue, destined to purchase corn for the multitude, and to supply the expenses of the games and entertainments. By a single act of author- ity, the whole mass of wealth was at once confiscated for the use of the Imperial treasury. The temples were stripped of tlieir most valuable offerings of gold and silver, and the statues of gods, heroes, and emperors, were melted down and coined into money. These impious orders could not be exe- cuted without tumults and massacres, as in many places the people chose rather to die in the defence of their aUars, than to behold in the midst of peace their cities exposed to the rapine and cruelty of war. The soldiers themselves, among •" The wife of Maximin, by insinuating wise counsels with female gentleness, sometimes brought back the tyrant to the way of trutli anvl Iramanity. See Ammianus Marcellinus, 1. xiv. c. 1, where ho alludei to the fact which he had more fully related under the reign of tho Gordians. We may collect from the medals, that Paullina was the name of this benevolent empress ; and from the title of Diva, that she died before Maximin. (Valesius ad loc. cit. Aminian.) Spaii- heim de U. et P. N. torn. ii. p. 300.* " lie was compared to Spartacus and Athcnio. IDst. August, p. 141 ♦ If we may believe SynccUus md Zonaras, it was Maximin himself wLo jrdeied her death — G OF Tin: ROMAN EMPIRE. 203 whom this sacrilegious plunder was distributed, received it with a blusli ; and hardened as they were in acts of viol(!n<;e, they dreaded the just reproaches of their frier.ds and relations. Throughout the Roman world a gi;neral cry of indignation was heard, imploring vengeance on the common enemy of human kind ; and at length, by an act of private oppression, a peaceful and unarmed province was driven into rebellion against him.'- The procurator of Africa was a servant worthy of such a master, wh.i considered the fines and confiscations of the rich as one of ine most fruitful branches of the Imperial revenue. An iniquitous sej;itence liad been pronounced against some opulent youths of that country, the execution of which would have strijiped them of far the greater |)arl of their patrimony. In this extremity, a resolution that must either complete or prevent their ruin, was dictated by despair. A respite of three days, obtained with difficulty from the ra|)acious treas- urer, was employed in collecting from their estates a great number of slaves and peasants blindly devoted to the com- mands of their lords, and armed with the rustic wea|)ons of clubs and axes. The leaders of the cons[)iracy, as they were admitted to the audience of the procurator, stabbed him with the daggers concealed under their garments, and, by the as- sistance of their tumultuary train, seized on the little town of Thysdrus,'-^ and erected the standard of rebellion against the sovereign of the Roman empire. They rested their hopes on the hatred of mankind against Maximin, and they judiciously resolved to oppose to that detested tyrant an emperor whose mild virtues had already acquired the love and esteem of the Romans, and whose authority over the province would give weight and stability to the enterprise. Gordianus, their pro- consul, and the object of their choice, refused, with unfeigned reluctance, the dangerous honor, and begged with tears, that they would sufTer him to terminate in peace a long and inno- cent life, without staining his feeble age with civil blood. Their menaces compelled him to accept the Imperial purple, his only refuge, indeed, against the jealous cruelty of Max- • '* Horodian, 1. vii. p. 238. Zosim. 1. i. p. 15. " In tlic fertile territory of By/.ai'iuin, one hundred and fifty miles to tke south of Carthage. Tliis city was decorated, probably by th« Goidiaus, with the title of colony, and with a tine am])h.itheatre, which i.s still in a very perfect state. See Itmerar. Wesseling, p. oi) ; uid iShaw's Travels, n. 117. 204 THE DECLINE AKD FALL imin ; since, according to tne reasoning of *yrants, those who have been esteemed worthv of tlie throne deserve death, and those who deliberate have already rebelled. i"* The tlimily of Gordianus was one of the most illustrioua of the Roman senate. On the father's side he was descended fronj the Gracchi ; on his mother's, from the emperor Trajan. A great estate enabled him to support the dignity of his birth, and in the enjoyment of it, he displayed an elegant taste and beneficent disposition. The palace in Rome, formerly inhab- ited by the great Pompey, had been, during several genera- tions, in the possession of Gordian's family.!^ It was distin- guished by ancient trophies of naval victories, and decorated with the works of modern painting. Flis villa on the road tc Prneneste was celebrated for baths of singular beauty and ex tent, for three stately rooms of a hundred feet in length, and for a magnificent portico, supported by two hundred columns of the four most curious and costly sorts of marble.'*^ The public shows exhibited at his e.xpense,and in which the people were entertained with many hundreds of wild beasts and glad- iators, ^^ seem to surpass the fortune of a subject ; and whilst the liberality of other magistrates was confined to a few sol- emn festivals in Rome, the magnificence of Gordian was repeated, when he was aedile, every month in the year, and extended, during his consulship, to the principal cities of Italy. He was twice elevated to the last-mentioned dignity, by Car- acalla and by Alexander ; for he possessed the uncommon '^ Ilcrodian, 1. vii. p. 239. Hist. August, p. l.j.3. '* Hist. Aug. p. 152. The celebrated house of Pompey in carinis was usurped by Marc Antony, and consequently became, alter the Triumvir's death, a part of the Imperial domain. The emperor Trajan allowed, and even encouraged, the rich senators to purchase thoso magnLflcent and useless places, (PUii. Panegyric, c. 50 ;) and it may seem probable, that, on this occasion, Pompey's house came into the possession of Gordian's great-grandfather. ** The Claudian, the Numidian, the Cuiyatian, and the Synnadian. The colors of Roman marbles have been faintly described and imper- fectly distinguished. It appears, however, that the Carystian was a Bca-grcen, and that the marble of Synnada was white mixed with oval spots of purple. See Salmasius ad Ilist. August, p. 164. " Hist. August, p. 151, 152. He sometimes gave live hundred pair of gladiators, never less than one hundred and fifty. He once gave for the use of the circus one liundred Sicilian and as many Cap- padociau horses. The animals designed for hunting were chietiy bears, boars, -bulls, stags, elks, wild asses, &c. Elephants aud lioiM seem tc liave been appropriatod to Imperiiil laagnilicence. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 206 talent of acquiring the esteem of virtuous princes, without alarming the je.alousy of tyrants. His long life was inno- rently spent in the study of letters and the peaceful honors of Rome ; and, till he was named proconsul of Africa by the voice of the senate and the approbation of Alexander,'*^ he appears prudently to have declined the command of armies and the government of provinces.* As long as that em[)enjr lived, Africa was happy under the administration of liis worthy representative : after the baebarous Maximin had U3ur[)ed the throne, Gordianus alleviated the miseries which he was unable to prevent. When he reluctantly accepted th.c purple, he was above fourscore years old ; a last and val- uable remains of the happy age of the Antonines, wliose vir- tues he revived in his own conduct, and celebrated in an ele- gant poem of thirty books. With the venerable proconsul, his son, who had accompanied him into Africa as his lieuten- int, was likewise declared emperor. His manners wer3 less pure, but his character was equally amiable with that of his lather. Twenty-two acknowledged concubines, and a library of sixty-two thousand volumes, attested the variety of his in- clinations; and from the productions which he left beliind him, it appears that the former as well as the latter were designed for use rather than for ostentation.^^ The Roman people acknowledged in the features of the younger Gordian the resemblance oi Scipio Africanus,t recollected with pleas- ure that his mother was the granddaughter of Antoninus Pius, and lested the public hope on those latent virtues which had hitherto, as they fondly imagined, lain concealed in the /uxurious indolence of private life. As soon as the Gordians had appeased the first tumult of a popular election, they removed their court to Carthage. They were received with the acclamations of the Africans, who honored their virtues, and who, since the visit of Hadrian, had '* See the original letter, in the Augustan History, p. 1.52, which at once shows Alexander's respect for the authority of the senate, and his esteem for the proconsul appointed by that assembly. " By each of his concubines, the younger Gordian left three oi four childrer. His literary productions, tliough less numerous, were by no means contemptible. * Herodian expressly says that he had administered manv pro\'inccs, hb rii. 10. — W. t Not tte personal likeness, but the family lescent from \he Scip- OS. — W. 206 THE DECLINE AND FALL never beheld ihe majesty of a Roman emperoi. But these vain acclamations neither strengthened nor confirmed the title of the Gordians. They were induced by principle, as well as interest, to solicit the approbation of the senate ; and a depu tation of the noblest provincials was sent, without delay, to Rome, to relate and justify the conduct of their countiymen, who, having long suffered with patience, were at length resolved to act with vigor. The letters of the new princes were modest and respectful, excusing the necessity which had obliged them to accept the Imperial title ; but submitting their election and their fate to the supreme judgment of the senate.^" The inclinations of the senate were neither doubtful nor divided. ' The birth and noble alliances of the Gordians had intimately connected them with the most illustrious houses of Rome. Their fortune had created many dependants in that assembly, their merit had acquired many friends. Their mild administration opened the flattering prospect of the restoration, not only of the civil but even of the republican government. The terror of military violence, which had first obliged thf senate to forget the murder of Alexander, and to ratify th i election of a barbarian peasant,-^ now produced a contrarj effect, and provoked them to assert the injured rights of free dom and humanity. The hatred of Maximin towards the senate was declared and implacable ; the tamest submissior nad not appeased his fury, the most cautious innocence woulc not remove his suspicions ; and even the care of their owr safety urged them to share the fortune of an enterprise, of which (if unsuccessful) they were sure to be the first victims These considerations, and perhaps others of a more private nature, were debated in a previous conference of the consuls and the magistrates. As soon as their resolution was decided, they convoked in the temple of Castor the whole body of the senate, according to an ancient form of secrecy ,2- calculated to- awaken their attention, and to conceal their decrees. " Conscript fathers," said the consul Syllanus, " the two Gordians, both of consular dignity, the one your proconsul, ^^ Heroclian, 1. vii. p. 243. Hist. August, p. 144. " Quod taincn patrcs dum periculosum cxistimant ; inermes armato rfsistcre approbaverunt. — Aurclius Victor. *^ Even the servants of the house, the scribes, &c., were excluded, and their office w.is filled by the senators themselves. We are obliged to the Augustan History, p. 159, for preserving this curious exam] i«i discipline of the common-wealth. OK THE RO.MAN fcM.MRK. 207 the other your lieutenant, have been declaied emperors by I lie general consent of Africa. Lei us return thanks," he boldly continued, "to the youth of Thysdrus; let us return thanks to the faithful people of Carthage, our gen erous deliverers from a horrid monster — Why do you hear me thus coolly, thus timidly ? Why do you cast those anxious looks on each other? Why hesitate? Maximin is a ()ublic enemy ! may his enmity soon expire with him, and may we long enjoy the prudence and felicity of Gordian the father, the valor and constancy of Gordian the son ! " -^ The noble ardor of the consul revived the languid spirit of the senate. By a unanimous decree, the election of the Gordians was ratified, Maximin, his son, and his adherents, were pronounced enemies of their country, and liberal rewards were olfered to whomsoever had the courage and good fortune to destroy them. During the emperor's absence, a detachment of the Prae- torian guards remained at Rome, to protect, or rather to command, the capital. The praefect Vitalianus had signalized his fidelity to Maximin, by the alacrity with which he had obeyed, and even prevented, the cruel mandates of the tyrant His death alone could rescue the authority of the senate, and the lives of the senators, from a state of danger and suspense. Before their resolves had transpired, a quaestor and some trib- unes were commissioned to take his devoted life. They executed the order with equal boldness and success ; and, with their bloody daggers in their hands, ran through the streets, proclaiming to the people and the soldiers the news of the happy revolution. The enthusiasm of liberty waa seconded by the promise of a large donative, in lands and money ; the statues of Maximin- were thrown down ; the capi- tal of the empire acknowledged, with transport, the authority of the two Gordians and the senate ;2'* and the example of Rome was followed by the rest of Italy. A new spirit had arisen in that assembly, whose long patience had been insulted by wanton despotism and military license. The senate assumed the reins of government, and, with a calm intrepidity, preparad to vindicate by arnus the cause of freedom. Among the consular senators recom D " This spirited speech, translated from the Augustan historian, p. 156. seems transcribed by him from the original registers ol the senate. ** Hetjdian, 1. \-ii. p. 244. 4. 208 THE DECLINE AND FALL mended by their merit and services to the favor of the empeior Alexander, it was easy to select twenty, not unequal to the command of an army, and the conduct of a war. To these was the defence of Italy intrusted. Each was appointed to act in his respective department, authorized to enroll anc discipline the Italian youth ; and instructed to fortify the porta and highways, against the impending invasion of Maximip. A number of deputies, chosen from the most illustrious of the senatorian and equestrian orders, were despatched at ths same time to the governors of the several provinces, earnestli' conjuring them to fly to the assistance of their country, and t) remind the nations of their ancient ties of friendship with ttie Roman senate and people. The general respect with which these deputies were received, and the zeal of Italy and the provinces in favor of the senate, sufficiently prove that tho subjects of Maximin were reduced to that uncommon distress, in which the body of the people has more to fear from oppression than from resistance. The consciousness of that melancholy truth, inspires a degree of persevering fury, seldom to be found in those civil wars which are artificially supported for the benefit of a few factious and designing (eaders.^^ For while the cause of the Gordians was embraced with such diff'usive ardor, the Gordians themselves were no more. The feeble court of Carthage was alarmed by the rapid approach of Capelianus, governor of Mauritania, who, with a small band of veterans, and a fierce host of barbarians, attacked a faithful, but unvvarlike province. The younger Gordian sallied out to meet the' enemy at the head of a few guards, and a numerous undisciplined multitude, educated in the peaceful luxury of Carthage. His useless valor served only to procure him an honorable death in the field of battle. His aged father, whose reign had not exceeded thirty-six days, put an end to his life on the first news of the defeat. Car- thage, destitute of defence, opened her gates to the conqueror and Africa was exposed to the rapacious cruelty of a slave, obliged to satisfy his unrelenting master with a large account of blood and treasure.^"^ ** Ilerodian, 1. vii. p. 247,l.vui. p. 277. Hist. August, p. 156—153. ** Herodian, 1. vii. p. 254. Hist. Aup;ust. p. 150 — IfiO. We may observe, that one month and six days, for the reign of Gordian, is a juBt ccrrccti'^n ol Casa-ibon and Panvinius. instead of the absurd OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 209 The fate of the Gordians filled Rome with just out unex- pected terror. The seno:e, convoked in the temple oi Concord, utrected to transact the common business of the day ; and seemed to decline, with trembling anxiety, the con- sideration of their own and the public danger. A silent consternation prevailed in the assembly, till 5 senator, of the name and family of Trajan, awakened his brethren from their fatal lethargy. lie represented to them that the choice of cautious, dilatory measures had been long since out of their ^ower ; that Maximin, implacable by nature, and exasperate] by injuries, was advancing towards Italy, at the head of the military force of the empire ; and that their only remaining alternative was either to meet him bravely in the field, or tamely to expect the tortures and ignominious death reserved for unsuccessful rebellion. " We have lost," continued he, " two e.xcellent princes ; but unless we desert ourselves the hopes of the republic have not perished with the Gordians. Many are the senators, whose virtues have deserved, and whose abilities would sustain, the Imperial dignity. Let us elect two emperors, one of whom may conduct the wai against the public enemy, whilst his colleague remains at Rome to direct the civil administration. I cheerfully expose myself to the danger and envy of the nomination, and give my vote m favor of Maximus and Balbinus. Ratify my choice, conscript fathers, or appoint, in their place, others more worthy of the empire." The general apprehension silenced the whispers of jealousy ; the merit of the candidates was universally acknowledged ; and the house resounded witn tlie sincere acclamations of " Long life and victory to the, emperors Maximus and Balbinus. You are happy in the iudgment of the senate ; may the republic be happy under your administration ! " ^7 The virtues and the reputation of the new emperors jus- tified the most sanguine hopes of the Romans. The various nature of their talents seemed to appropriate to each his pecu- liar department of peace and war, without leaving room for reading of one year and six months. See Commentar. p. 193. Zosi- iDus relates, 1. i. p. 17, that the two Gordians perished by a tempest in the midst of their navigation. A strange ignorance of history, oi a strange abuse of metaphors ! '■'" See the Augnstuu History, p. 166, from tlic registers of the sen- ile; the date is cori'cssedly fauly hnt the coincidence of the Ap-'- idftrian gamc-s ^mables us to correct it. 12 210 THE DECLINE AND FALL jealousi emulation. Balbiniis was an admired orator, >i poet of distiiguished fame, and a wise magistrate, who had exer- cised w.th innocence and apphiuse the civil jurisdiction in almost all the interior provinces of the empire. Mis birth waa noble,2S his fortune affluent, his manners liberal and affable. In him the love of pleasure was corrected by a sense of dignity, nor had the habits of ease deprived him of a capacity for business. The mind of Maximus was formed in a rougher mould. By his valor and abilities he had raised himself from llie meanest origin to the first employments of the state and irmy. His victories over the Sarmatians and the Germans the austerity of his life, and the rigid impartiality of his jus- tice, while he was a Prsefcct of the city, commanded the esteem of a people whose affections were engaged in favor of the more amiable Balbinus. The two colleagues had both been consuls, (Balbinus had twice enjoyed that honorable oflice,) both had been named among the twenty iieutenants of the senate ; and since the one was sixty and the other sev- enty-four years old,29 they had both attained the full maturity jf age and experience. After the senate had conferred on Maximus and Balbinus an equal portion of the consular and tribunitian powers, the title of Fathers of their country, and the joint office of Su- preme Pontiff, they ascended to the Capitol to return thanks to the gods, protectors of Rome.^" The solemn rites of sacri- fice were disturbed by a sedition of the people. The licen- tious multitude neither loved the rigid Maximus, nor did they ** He was descended from Cornelius IJalbus, a noble Spaniard, find he adopted son of Theophancs, the Greek historian. Balbas ob- .ained the freedom of Kopie by the favor of Pompey, and preserved it oy the eloquence of Cicero. (See Uiat. pro Cornel. Balbo.) 'i'he friendship of Caesar, (to whom he rendered the most important secret eervices in the civil war) raised him to the consulship and the pontili- cate, honors never yet possessed by a strani^er. The nephew of this Balbus triumphed over the Garamantes. See Dictionnaire de Bayle, au mot Balhiis, where he distinguishes the several persons of that name, and rectifies, with his usual accuracy, the mistakes of former ■writers concerning them. ** Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 622. But little dependence is to be had on the authority of a modern Greek, so grossly ignorant of the history of the third century, that he creates several imaginary emperors, aud confounds those who really existed. '" Ilerodian, 1. vii p. 25fi, supposes that the senate was at tirst convoked 'n the Capitol, and is very elo(]iiont on *he occasion. Thi" Augustan tlistory, p. 116, seems much more authcutic. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 211 Kufficiently fear the mild and humane Balllnus. Their in- creasing numbers surrounded the temple of Jupiter ; with ob-sMnate clamors they asserted their inherent riglU of con Renting to the election of their sovert^ign ; and demanded, with an apparent moderation, that, besides the two emperora chosen by the senate, a cnird should be added of the family of the Gordians, as a just return of gratitude to those princes who had sacrificed their lives for the republic. At the head of tho city-guards, and the youth of the equestrian order, Maximud and Balbinus attempted to cut their way through the seditious multitude. The multitude, armed with sticks and stones, drove them buck into the Capitol. It is prudent to yield when the contest, whatever inay be the issue of it, must be fatal to both p;irties. A boy, only thirteen years of age, the grand- son of the elder, and nephew * of the younger, Gordian, waa produced to the people, invested with the ornaments and title of Ca3sar. The tumult was appeased by this easy conde- scension ; and the two emperors, as soon as they had been peaceably acknowledged in Rome, prepared to defend Italy against the common enemy. Whilst in Rome and Africa, revolutions succeeded each other with such amazing rapidity, that the mind of iMaximin was agitated by the most furious passions. He is said to have received the news of the rebellion of the Gordians, and of the decree of the senate against him, not with the temper of a man, but the rage of a wild beast ; which, as it could not discharge itself on the distant senate, threatened the life of his son, of his friends, and of all who ventured to approach his per- son. The grateful intelligence of the death of the (iordiana was quickly followed by the assurance that the senate, laying aside all hopes of pardon or accommodation, had substituted in their room two emperors, with whose merit he could not be unacquainted. Revenge was the only consolation left to Max- imin, and revenge could only be obtained by arms. The strength of the legions had been assembled by Alexander from all parts of the empire. Three successful campaigns against the Germans and the Sarmatians, bar! raised their fame, con firmed their discipline, and even increased their numbers, by filling the ranks with the flower of the barbarian youth. Tho life of Maximin had been spent in war, and the candid severity of history cannot refuse him the valor of a soldier, or even tho • According to some, the son. — Q 212 THE DECLINE AND FALL a1v!i\ies of an experienced general.^^ It might naturally b« expected, that a prince of such n character, instead of suffering the rebellion to gain stability by delay, should imniedialely have marched from the banks of the Danub<> to those of the Tyber, and that his victorious army, instigated by contempt for the senate, and eager to gather the spoils of Italy, shoulf. have burned with impatience to finish the easy and lucrative conquest. Yet as far as we can trust to the obscure chro- nology of that period,32 it appears that the operations of some '' In Herodian, 1. vii. p. 249, and in the Augustan History, we have three several orations of Maximin to his army, on the rebellion of Africa and Home : M. de Tillemont has very justly observed that they neither agree with each other nor with truth. Histoii-e, des Empereurs, torn. iii. p. 799. ** The carelessness of the writers of that age, leaves us in a sin- gular perplexity. 1. We know that Maximus and Balbinus wero killed during the Capitoline games. Herodian, 1. viii. p. 285. Thb authority of Censorinus (de Die Natali, c. 18) enables us to fix those games with certainty to the year 238, but leaves us in igno- rance of the month or day. 2. The election of Gordian by the senate is fixed with equal certainty to the 27th of May ; but we are at a loss to discover whether it was in the same or the preceding year. Tillemont and Muratori, who maintain the two opposite opin- ions, bring into the ticid a desultory troop of authorities, conjectures, and probabilities. The one seems to draw out, the other to contract, the scries of events between those periods, more than can be well reconciled to reason and history. Yet it is necessary to choose be- tween them.* * Eckhel has more recently treated these chnnolo^^ical questions with a perspicuity which ^hes great probability to his conclusions. Setting aside all the historians whose contradictions are irreconcilable, he has only consulted the medals, and has arranged the events before us in the follow mg orcler : — Maximin, A. U. 990, after having conquered the Germans, reenters Pannonia, establishes his winter quarters at Sirmium, and prepares himself to make war against the people of the North. In the year 991, in the cal- ends of January, commences his fourth tribunate. The Gordians are chosen emperors in Africa, probably at the beginnina; of the month of March. The senate confirms this election with joy, and declares Maximin the enemy of Komc. Five days after he had heard of this revolt, Maximin jets out from Sirmium on his inarch to Italy. These events took place about the befrinning of April ; a little after, the Gordians are slain in Africa by Capellianus, procurator of Mauritania. The senate, in its alarm, names as emperors Balbus and Maximus I'upianus, and intrusts the latter with the war against Maximin. Maximin is stopped on his road near Aquileia, by the want of provisions, and by the melting of the snows : he begins the siepe of Aquileia at the end of April. Pupian\is assembles his army at Ravenna. ^Maximin and his son are assassinated by the sol- diers enraged at the resistance of Aqu'lcia; and this was probably in the middle of May. Pupianus returns to Rome, and assumes the govern- ment with Balbinus ; they are assassin.ited towards the end of July Gordian the vounger ascends the throne. Eckhel de Dt«^ Num. Vet. yn. a06.-Q. or THE ROMAN EMPIRE. !il3 foreign viar aid to give or to receive assistance, tliey wasted ti.e important moments in idle debates and fruitless reciimina- tions The arrival of the guards put an end to the vain strife. ** The observation had been made imprudently enough in the •eclamations of the senate, and with regard to the soldiers it carried tae appearance of a wanton insult Hist. August, p. 170. ** Discordiae tacitae, et qua; intelligercntur potius quam viderentur. Hin August, p. 170. This well-chosen expression is probably «to\en from some better writer. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 219 Tliey seized on tliese emperors of the senate, for auch they called thorn with nialicioiis contempt, stripped them of their garments, and dratiji;ed tlicm in insolent triumph through the streets of Rome, with the de.sifjn of iiiHicting a slow and cruel death on these unfortunate princes. The fear of a rescue from the faithful G(;rmans of the Imperial guards, shortened their tortures ; and their bodies, mangled with a thojsand wounds, were left exposed to the insults or to the pity of the po[)ulace."''* In the space of a few months, six princes liad been cut off by the sword. Gordian, who had already received the title of Ciesar, was the only person that occurred to the soldiers as proper to fill the vacant throne.''-'' Tliey carried him to the camp, and unanimously saluted him Augustus and Emperor. His name was dear to the senate and people ; his tender age promi-sed a long im[)unlty of military license ; and the sub- mission of Rome and the provinces to the choice of the Pne- torian guards, saved the republic, at the expense indeed of ita freedom and dignity, from the horrors of a new civil war in the heart of the cap ita l.""^ »■ _^ ** llorodian, 1. viii. p. 287, 288. *' Quia noil alius crut in prajscnti, is the nxprcssion of the Augus- tan lliBtoiy. ** Qiiiiitus Curtius (L x. c. 9,) pays an elegant compHmcnt to the empcior of the day, for liavin;^, by his happy accession, extin>^uished 80 many firebrands, sheathed so many swords, and put an end to the evils of a divided government. Alter wcigiung with attention every word of the jiassage, I am of opinion, tliat it suits better with the elevation of ( jordian, than with any otlu-r period of the lloman his- tory. In tliat case, it may serve to dccick- the age of Quintus Curtius. Those who place liim under tlie tirst L'lesars, argue fr«/m tlu: purity of his style, but are embarrassed by the silence of Quintihuii, in hu accurate list of Roman historians.* • This conjecture of Gil)bon is without foundation. Many pas?apes In till- work (if Ciuintiis Curtius clcurly phice hiiu ;it an carhcr pc.ticd. Thus, in sjieakinu; nf the I'arthi.uis, lie s.iys, lliiic in I'aitliieuin i)ci-ventuni est; tunc it;nr)bik»m ncnteui : mnir ci|)ut Dnumini (|ui jiost l^niilnati ni et Tigrim ainiics -^iti Kuhro iiiari tiTiiiinantur. Tlie Pai tliiaii cnipirt had thii MXtciii only in the first age of the vulgar lera : to that af;e, thercfnre, must be a-3 unci the date of 'iuiutus t'uitius. .Mthmi^h the critics (siys M. de Sain'e Croix) have nmltiplicd conjectures on this subject, iiKJst i)f tlieiii nave ended by adopting the- opinim which places Quintus Curtius under the lei^u of Claudius. !See Just. Lips, ad Ann. Tac. ii. 20. Michel le I'ellicr Pra'f. in Curt. 'I'illeniont Hist, ties Eni]). i. p. 2-'»l. I)u Bos Rellec tions sur la I'oesie, 2J raitie. '1 iralioschi Stor'a dclla, Lett. Ital. ii. 149 Bxainen. c.t. des Historiens d'Ale.\.iiidre, 2d ed. p. 104, 840, 8.50 — G. "•"liiH iiiternunablc question seems as much perplexed as ever. The KihI 220 THE DECLmE A'.ID F.M-I. As the third Gordian was only nineteen vears cf age at the umo of liis death, the history of his life, were it known to us with greater accuracy than it really is, would contain little more than the account of his education, and the conduct of the ministers, who by turns abused or guided the simplicity of his unexperienced youth. Immediately after his accession, he fell into the hands of his m.other's eunuchs, that pernicious vermin of the East, who, since the days of Elagabalus, had mfested (he Roman palace. By the artful conspiracy of these wretches, an impenetrable veil was drawn between an innocent prince and his oppressed subjects, the virtuous disposition of Gordian was deceived, and the honors of the empire sold with- out his knowledge, though in a very public manner, to the most worthless of mankind. We are ignorant bv what for- tunate accident the emperor escaped from this ignominious slavery, and devolved his confidence on a minister, whose wise counsels had no object except the glorv of his sovereign and the happiness of the people. It should seem that love and learning introduced Misitheus to the favor of Gordian. The young prince married the daughter of his master of liietoric, and promoted his father-in-law to the first offices of the empire. Two admirable letters that ]rassed between them ar-e still extant. The minister, with the conscious dignity of virtue congratulates Gordian that he is delivered from the tyranny of the eunuchs,''^ and still more that he is sensible of his deliver- ance. The emperor acknowledges, with an amiable con- fusion, the errors of his past conduct; and laments, with sin gular propriety, the misfortune of a monarch, from whom a venal tribe of courtiers perpetually labor to conceal the truth.48 "^ Hist. August, p. IGl. IVom some hints in the two Icttrrs, I phould c-xpoct th.at the eunuchs were not e.\])elle(l the i enlace wiihout eomc degree of gentle violence, and that the young (iordian rather approved of. than consented to, their disgrace. ■•** Duxit uxorein liliam Misithci, quem causa eloquentiu- digtium parcntela sua jjutavit ; et jjru'fc-ctuin statim fecit; post cpunl, iioii puerile jam et contemptibile vidcbatur impcrium. urgument of M. Guizot is a stnmg one, except that Parthian is often u-^od by later writers for Persian. Cunzius, in his ])rpfaco to an edition puu- lishcd at llelnistadt, (1802,) maintains the opinion of Bagiiolo, wh'uh as HKns Q. Curtius to the time of Constantinc tlic (ireat. Schniieder, iu his edit. Gottintj. 1S03, sums up in this sentence, a-tatem Curtii igncari j)rt Urn est. — M. OF THK ROMAN EMPIRE. y the persuasion of his tatlier-in-law, the young emperor quitted the luxury of Roin#, opened, for the last time recorded in history, the temple of Janus, and marched in person into the East. On his approach, with a great army, the Persians withdrew their garrisons from the cities which they had already taken, and retired from the Euphrates to the Tigris. Gordian enjoyed the pleasure of announcing to tlse senate the first success of his arms, which he ascribed, with a beccjining modesty and gratitude, to the wisdom of his father and Prajfect. Durmg the whole expe- dition, Misitheus watched over the safety and discipline of the army ; whilst he |)reventcd their dangerous murmurs by maintaining a regular plenty in the camp, and by establishing ample magazines of vinegar, bacon, straw, barley, and wheat, in all the cities of the frontier.'^ But the prosjjerity of (jordian expired with Misitheus, who died of a flux, not with- out very strong suspicions of pois(jn. Philip, his successor in the proefecture, was an Anib by birth, and consequently, in the earlier part of his life, a robber by profession. His rise from so obscure a station to the first dignities of the enipire, seems to prove that he was a bold and able leader. Hut his boldness prompted him to aspire to the throne, and his abilities were employed to supplant, not to serve, his indul- gent master. The minds of the soldiers were irritated by an artificial scarcity, created by his contrivance in the camp , and the distress of the army was attributed to the youth and incapacity of the prince. It is not in our power to trace the successive steps of the secret conspiracy and open sedition, which were at length fatal to (Jordian. A sepulchral monu- ment was erected to his memory on the spot'" where he was *' Hist. August, p. 1()2. Aurclius Victor. Porphyrius in Vit Plotin. ap. Fabriciuin, Biblioth. Graec. 1. iv. c. 36. Tlie philnsoplier riotiuus accompanied the army, promptcil by the love of knowledge, and by the hope of penetrating as far as India. ^"^ About t\\xM\ty miles from the Utile town of Circcsium, on the frontier of the two empires.* • Now ICerkosia; placed in the auKle formed by the juncture of the Ohaboias, or al Khab.Tur, witli the Euptirates. This situation appeared ai 222 THE DECLINE AND FALL killed, near the conflux of the Euphrates with the little river Aboras.^i The fortunate Philip, raised to the empire by the votes of the soldiers, found a ready obedience from the senate and the provinces.-''^ We cannot forbear transcribing the ingenious, though somewhat fanciful descriplion, vvliich a celebrated writer of our own times^has traced of the military government of llie Roman empire. " What in that age was called the Ho- man empire, was only an irregular republic, not unlikn the aristocracy''^ of Algiers,'''' where the militia, possessc^d of the sovereignty, creates and deposes a magistrate, who is styled u Dey. Perhaps, indeed, it may be laid down as a general rule, that a military government is, in some respects, more republican than monarchical. Nor can ii be said that the soldiers only partook of the government by their disobedienco and rebellions. The speeches made to them by the emperors were they not at length of the same nature as those formerly pronounced to the people by the consuls and the tribunes.' And ahhough the arnues had no regular place or forms of assembly ; though their debates were short, their action sud- den, and their resolves seldom the result of cool reflccticiu did they not dispose, with absolute sway, of the public for- tune ? What was the emperor, e.xcept the minister of a *' The inscription (which contained a very singular pun ) was erased by the order of Licinius, who chiimcd some degree of relationNhip to Philij), (Hist. August, p. l(i.5;) but the tamufus, or mound of e.'irth which formed the sepulchre, still subsisted in the time of Julian. See Ammian Marcellin. xxiii. 5. ** Aurelius Victor. Eutrop. ix. 2. Orosius, vii. 20. Ammianus MarccUinus, xxiii. o. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 19. Philip, who was a native of Bostra, was about forty years of age.* *•* Can the epitliot of Ari^tocraci/ be ajjiilied, with any propriety, to the government of Algiers ? Every military government floats be- tween two extremes of absolute monanhy and wikl democracy. ^* The military repul)lic of tlie Mamelukes in Kgyi^t would liuvo afforded M. de Montesquieu (see Considerations sur la Urandi'ur el la Decadence des lloniains, c. IG) a juster and more noljle parallel. advantageous to Diocletian, th;it he raised fortifications to make it the bulwark of the empire on the side of Mcbupotuinia. D'Anville, Geog. Ano. ii. 19G. — G. It is the Carcheniish of the Old Testament, 2 Chron. xxxv 2i» Jcr. xlvi. 2. — M. * Now IJosra. It was once the metropolis of a [jroviiice mimed Arabia, nv.d the chief city of A'.raiiitis, of which tlie name is preserved in lieled liauran, the limits of wliich meet ihe dcsci t. D'Anvillf, Gcng. Aiic. ii 18b. According to Victor, (in Cajsur ,J Philip was a native cf 'f rachouitia aj.other province of Arabia. — G. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 223 violent government, elected for the priviite benefit of thp «olcli(.>rs ? " When the army had elected Philip, who was Praetorian pra;fe same event ai lo\ Et8 the year 627 'Coiroare Nicbuhr, vol. i. p. 'Z~l. M.l 01 TRt nOMAN F.MPIltE. !2Vi3 llie vir uos of war and government : 1)y the vigorous exertion of those virtues, and by the assistance of fortune, they had obtained, in the course of the three succeeding centuries, an absoUite empire over many countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The last thn^e liundred years had been consumed in apparent prosperity and internal decline. The nation of sol- diei-s, magistrates, and legislators, who composed Uie thirty- five tribes of the Roman people, was dissolvefl into the common mass of mankind, and confounded with tlie millions of servile provincials, who had received the name, without adopting the spirit, of Romans. A mercenary army, levied among the subjects and Ijarbarians of the frontier, was tiie only order of men who preserved and ab\ised their independ- ence. By their tumultuary election, a Syrian, a Goth, or an Arab, was e.xalted to the throne of Rome, and invested with despotic power over the conquests and over the country of the Scipios. The limits of the Roman empire still extended from the Western Ocean to the Tigris, and from Mount Atlas to the Rhine and the Danube. To the undiscerning eye of the vul- gar, Philip appeared a monarcli no less powerful than Hadrian or Augustus had formerly been. The form was still the same, but the animating health and vigor were fled. The industry of the people was discouraged and exhausted by a long scries of oppression. The disci|)!ine of the legions, which alone, after the extinction of every other virtue, had propped the greatness of the state, was corrupted by the ambition, or re- laxed by the weakness, of the emperors. Tlie strength of the frontiers, which had always consisted in arms ratlier than in fortiiications, was insensibly undermined ; and the fairest provinces were left exposed to the rapaciousness or ambition of the barbarians, who soon discovered the decline of the Roman empire. CHAPTER VIII. OF THE STATE OF PERSIA JiFTER THE RESTORATION Cf TH8 MONARCHY BY ARTAXUKXES. Whenever Tacitus indulges himself in those beautiful episodes, in which he relates some domestic transaction of the Germans or of tne Partliians, his pi ncipal object is to relieve the attention of the reader from a uniform scene of vice and misery. From the reign of Aug'.istus to the time of Alexander Severus, the enemies of Rome were in her bosom — the tyrants and the soldiers ; and her prosperity had a very distant and feeble interest in the revolutions that might happen beyond the Rhine and the Euphrates. But when the military order had levelled, in wild anarchy, the power of the prince, the laws of the senate, and even the discipline of the camp, the bar"barians of the North and of the East, who had long hovered on the frontier, boldly attacked the provinces of a declining monarchy. Their vexatious inroads were changed into formidable irruptions, and, after a long vicissitude of mu- tual calamities, many tribes of the victorious invaders estab- lished themselves in the provinces of the Roman Em|)ire. To obtain a clearer knowledge of these great events, we shall endeavor to form a previous idea of the character, forces, and designs of those nations who avenged the cause of ilannibal and Mithridates. In the more early ages of the world, whilst the forest that covered Europe atTorded a retreat to a few wandering savajjes, liie inhabitants of Asia were already collected mio popmous cities, and reduced uikUt extensive empires the seat of the arts, of luxury, and of des[)otism. The Assyrians reigned over tlie East.' till the sceptre of Ninus and Semiramis drojjped * An ancient chronologist, (pioted by Velleius Paterculus, (1. i. c. fi,) observes, that the Assyrians, the Meik^s, the Persians, and the Macedo- nians, reif^Mcd over Asia one thousand nine hunched and ninety-livo vears, I'roui the atcessifm of Niaus to the dcl'oat of Antiochus liy the Romans. As the hitter of these f^reiit events happened '1H9 years before C'a-ist. the foi ner -aay be placed 2184 years bc;bri tlie same »>r4. ■22o OF TH2 ROMAN I'.MPIRE. 227 from tho bands of their enervated successors. Tlie Modes and the Babylonians divided their power, and were themselves swallowed up in the monarchy of the Persians, whose nrma could not be confined within the narrow limits of Asia. Fol- lowed, as it is said, by two millions of men^ Xerxes, the de- scendant of Cyrus, invaded Greece. Thirty thousand sol- diers^ under the command of Alexander, the son of I'hilip, who was intrusted by the (ireeks with their glory and reveiijre, were sufficient to subdue Persia. The princes of the house of Seleucus usurped and lost the Macedonian command over the East. About the same time, that, by an ignominious tjeaty, they resigned to the Romans the country on this side Mount Tanis, they were driven by the Parthians,* an obscure horde of Scythian origin, from all the provinces, of Upper Asia. The formidable power of the Parthians, which spread from India to the frontiers of Syria, was in its turn subverted by Ardsliir, or Artaxerxes ; the founder of a new dynasty, which, under the name of Sassanides, governed Persia till the invasion of the Arabs. This great revolution, whose fatal influence was soon experienced by the Romans, happened in the fourth year of Alexander Severus, two hundred and twen- ty-six years after the Christian asra.'-^t The Astronomical Observations, found at Babylon by Alexander, went fifty years higher. * In the tive hundred and thirty-eighth year of the ipra of Seleu- cus. See Agathias, 1. ii. \>. 63. This great event (such is the care- lessness of the Orientals) is placed t)y Eutychius as high as the tenth year of Commodus, and by Closes of Choreuc as low as the reign of Philip. Ammianus Marcellinus has so servilely copied (xxiii. 6) his ancient materials, which are indeed very good, that he describes the family of the Arsacides as still seated on the Persian throne in the middle of the fourth century. * The Parthians were a tribe of the Indo-Gcrmanic branch which dwelt O'l the soiith-east of the Ca^spian, and belontjed to the same rare as the (Jetx, the Massageta;, and other nations, confouiided by the ancients under " the vague denomination of Scythians, Klaproth, Tableaux Hist, de I'Asie, p. 40. Strabo (p. 747) calls the Parthians Carduchi, i. e., the inhabitants of Curdistan. — M. t The Persian History, if the poetry of the Shah Nameh, the Book of Kings, may deserve tliat name, mentions tour dynasties fronj the earliest ages to the invasion of the Saracens. The Shah Nameh was coni])Ose'l with the view of perpetuating the remains of the orii^inal Persian reeordj or traditions which had survived the Saracetdr; invasion. The task was undertaken by the poet Dukiki, and afterwards, under the patronage of Mahmood of Ghazni, completed by Perdusi. The first of these dynasties is tiial of Kaiomors, as Sir W. Jones observes, the dark £.nd fabulous j-eriod ; the 8ecoud, that of the Kaianian, the heroic and poetical, in wliich the 228 rHE DECLINE AND FALL Artaxerxes had served with great reputation in the armieH of Artaban, the last king of the Parthians, and it appears that he was driven into exile and rebellion by royal ingratitude, the customary reward for superior merit. His birth v\aH obscure, and the obscurity equally gave room to the asper- sions of his enemies, and the flattery of his adherents. If we credit the scandal of the former, Artaxerxes sprang from tho illegitimate commerce of a tanner's wife with a common soldier.^ The latter represent him as descended from a branch of the ancient kings of Persia, though time and misfortune had gradually reduced his ancestors to the humble station of pri vate citizGns.'* As the lineal heir of the monarchy, he asserted his right to the throne, and challenged the noble task of deliv- ering the Persians from the oppression under which tney groaned above five centuries since the death of Darius. The Parthians were defeated in three great battles.* In the last of these their king Artaban was slain, and the spirit of the nation was forever broken.-'' The authority of Artaxerxes wa3 solemnly acknowledged in a great assembly held at Balch in Khorasan.t Two younger branches of the royal house of Arsaces wer'e confounded among the prosti'ate satraps. A third, more mindful of ancient grandeur than of present neces- sity, attempted to retire, with a numerous train of vassals, towards their kinsman, the king of Armenia ; but this little arnr.y of deserters was intercepted, and cut off, by the vigi- lance of the conqueror,^ who boldly assumed the double dia- ' The tanner's name was Babcc ; the soldier's, Sassan : from the former Artaxerxes obtained the surname of Babegan, from the latter all his descendants have been styled Sassa7}tdfs. * D'Herhelot, Bibliothequo Oriontalc, Ardshir. * Dion Cassius, 1. Ixxx. Hcrodian, 1. vi. p. 207. Abulpharagiui Dynast, p. 80. * See Moses Chorenensis, 1. ii. c. Go — 71. Jcained have discovered some curious, and imagined some fanciful, analo- gies with the Jewish, the Greek, and tlie Roman accounts of the eastern world. See, on the Shall Naiuch, Translation by Goerres, with Von Ham- mer's Review, Vienna Jahrbuch von Lit. 17, 7o, 77. Malcolm's Persia, 8vo. ed. i. 5)3. Macan's Preface to his Critical Edition ot the Shah Nameh. On the early Persian History, a very sensible abstract of various opinions in Malcolm's Hist, of Persia. — M. * In the plain of Hoormuz, the son of Babek was hailed in the field with the proud title of Shahan Shah, kiiif? of kings — a name ever since assumed D}' the sovereigns of Persia. Malcolm, i. 71. — M. + See the Persian accouut of the rise cf Ardeschir Babegan, in Malcolm 169. — M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 229 dem, and the title of Ki-^g of Kings, which had been enjoyed by his predecessor. But these pompous titles, instead of grutifying the vanity of tlie Persian, served only to admonish him of his duty, and to inflame in his soul the ambition of restoring, in their full solendor, the religion and empire of Cyrus 1. During the long servitude of Persia under the Macedonian and the Parthian yoke, the nations of Europe and Asia had mutually adopted and corrupted each other's superstitions. The Arsacides, indeed, practised the worship of the Magi; but they disgraced and polluted it with a various mixture of foreign idolatry.* The memory of Zoroaster, the ancien* prophet and ph-losopher of the Persians,'' was still revered in the East ; but the obsolete and mysterious language, in which the Zendavesta was composed,*^ opened a field of dispute to Bcventy sects, who variously explained the fundamental doc- ' Hyde and Prideaux, working up the Persian legends and their own conjectures into a very agreeable story, represent Zoroaster as a contemporary of Darius Ilystaspes. But it is sufficient to observe, that the Greek writers, who lived almost in the age of Darius, agree in E lacing the aera of Zoroaster many hundred, or even thousand, years efore their own time. The judic-ious criticism of Mr. Moyle per- ceived, and maintaiiied against his uncle Dr. I'rideaux, the antiquity of the Persian prophet. See his work, vol. ii.f * That ancient idiom was called the Zend. The language of the commentary, the Pehlvi, though much more modern, has cca.scd many ages ago to be a living tongue. This fact alone (if it is allowed as authentic) sufficiently warrants the antiquity of those writings * Silvestre de Sacy (Antiquity's de la Perse) has proved the neglect of the Zoroastrian religion under the Parthian kings. — M. t There are three leading theories concerning the age of Zoroaster; 1. That which assigns him to an age of great and almost indefinite anti- quity — it is that of Moyle, adopted by Gibbon, Volney, Recherchcs sur "Histoire, ii. 2. Rhode, also, (die Hcili^e Sage, &c.,) in a very ingenious and ably-developed theory, throws the Bactrian prophet far back into antiquity. 2. Foiicher, (Mmi. de I'Acad. xxvii. 253,) Tychscn, (in Com Soc. Gott. ii. 112,) Hecren, (Ideen. i. 4.)!),) and recently Holty, identify the Oushtasp of the Persian mythological history with Cyaxares the First, the king of the Modes, and consider the leligion to be Median in its origin, M. Gtii/ot considers this opinion most probable, note in loc. 3. Hyde, Pri- deaux, Anquctil du Perron, Klcuker, Herder, Gocrres, (Mythen-Ge- Bchichte,) Von Hammer, (Wicn. Jahrbuch, vol. ix.,) Malcolm, (i. 528,) De Guigniaut, (Kolii;. de I'Antici. 2d part, vol. iii.,) Klaproth, (Tableaux de I'Asie, p. 21,) make Gushtasp Darius Hystaspcs, and Zoroaster his con- temporary. The silence of Herodotus appears the great objection to this theory. Some writers, as M. Foucher, (re.sting, as M. Guizot observes, on the doubtful authority cf Pliny,) make more than one Zoroaster, f.nd so attempt to reconcile th« :onflicting theories. — M. '^30 THE DECLINE AND FAIL trines of thiir religion, and were all indiFerently derided by a crowd of infidels, who rejected the divine mission and ntiira- cles of the prophet. To suppress the idolaters, reunite the schismatics, and confute the unbelievers, by the infallible decision of a general council, the pious Artaxerxes sum- wliich M. d'Anquetil has brought into Europe, and translated into French.* / * Zend signifies life, living. The word means, either the collection of the canonical books of the followers of Zoroaster, or the language itself in which thty are written. Th»s' are the books that contain the word of life, whether the language was originally called Zend, or whether it was so called from the contents of the books. Avesta means word, oracle, reve- lation : this term is not the title of a particular work, but of the collection of the books of Zoroaster, as the revehition of Ormuzd. This collection is sometimes lalled Zendavesta, sometimes briefly Zend. The Zend wts the ancient language of Media, as is proved by its affinity ■with the dialecli of Armenia and Georgia ; it was already a dead language under the Arsacides in the country which was the scene of the events re- corded in the Zendavesta. Some critics, among others Richardson and Sir W. Jones, hav • called in question the antiquity of these books. The former pretended tait the Zend had never been a written or spoken lan- guage, but had hnev invented in the later times by the Magi, for the pur- poses of tlicir art ; li\t Kleuker, in the dissertations which he added to those of Anquetil an i the Abbe I'.jucher, has proved that the Zend was a living and spoken lai Ruage. — G. Sir W. Jones appears to have aban doned his doubts, on discovering the affinity between the Zend and the Sanskrit. Since tlie time of Kkniker, this question has been investigated oy many learned scholars. Sir W. Jones, Leyden, (A.!. — G. Mr. Jirskine (Bombay 'rransactioni;) considers the existing Zeiiiavesta to hare be?n compiled in the time of iVrdeschir Babhegdu. ~ M. OF Tin ROMAN EMPIRE. 231 p.iuued the Magi from all parts of his dominions. Thes*? priests, who had so long sighed in contempt and obscHrity obeyed the welcome summons ; and on the appointed day appeared, to the number of about (jighty thousand. But as the debates of so tumultuous an assembly could not have been directed by the authority of reason, or influenced by the art of policy, the Persian synod was reduced, by successive opera- tions, to forty thousand, to four thousand, to four hundred, to forty, and at last to seven Magi, the most respected for thtrir learning and piety. One of these, Erdaviraph, a young but holy prelate, received from the hands of his brethren three cups of soporiferous wine. He drank them ofT, and instantly fell into a long and profound sleep. As soon as he waked, he related to the king and to the believing multitude, his jour- ney to heaven, and his intimate conferences with the Deity. Every doub* was silenced by this supernatural evidence ; and the articles of the faith of Zoroaster were fixed with equal authority and precision.^ A short delineation of that cele- brated system will be found useful, not only to display the character of the Persian nation, but to illustrate many of their most important transactions, both in peace and war, with the Roman empire."' The great and fundamental article of the system, was the celebrated doctrine of the two principles; a bold and injudf- cious attempt of Eastern philosophy to reconcile the existence of moral and physical evil with the attributes of a beneficent Creator and Governor of the world. The first and original Being, in whom, or by whom, the universe exists, is denominated m the writings of Zoroaster, Time unthout bounds ;\ but it must t>e confessed, that this infinite substance seems rather a meta- physical abstraction of the mind, than a real object endowed ' Hyde de lleligione veterum Pers. c. 21. '" I have principally drawn this account from the Zcndavsta of vl. d'An(juetil, and the Sadder, sutjjoincd to Dr. Hyde's treatise, it inust, however, be confessed, that the studied obsciuity of a prophet, the ti<^urative style of the East, and the deceitful medium of a French or Latin yersion, may have betrayed us into error and heresy, in this abridgment of Persian theology.* • It is to be regretted that Gibbon followed the post-Mahometan Saddei of Hyde. — M. t /eruiine .Vkcrene, so translated by Anquetil and Kleuker. There is a dissertation of Foucher on tliis s il)ject, Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscr. t. xtxx. Accordins^ to Bohlen (das alte Inlien) it w the Sanskrit Sarvain Alcaraiuim, the Uncreated Whole ; or, according to Fred. Schlegel, Sarvam Akharyatn, the IJncreate Indirisible. — M. 232 THE d;cline and fall with self-consciousness, or possessed of moral perfections From either the blind or the intellige.it operation of this m- finite Time, which bears but too near an affinity whh the chaos of the Greeks, the two secondary but active principles of the universe, were from all eternity produced, Ormusd and Ahri- man, each of them possessed of the powers of creation, bu\ each disposed, by his invariable nature, to exercise them with different designs.* The principle of good is eternally ab- sorbed in light; the principle of evil eternally buried in dark- ness. The wise benevolence of Ormusd formed man capable of virtue, and abundantly provided his fair habitation with the materials of happiness. By his vigilant providence, the mo- tion of the planets, the order of the seasons, and the temper- ate mixture of the elements, are preserved But the malice of Ahriman has long since pierced OrmuscTs egg ; or, in other words, has violated the harmony of his works. Since that fatal eruption, the most minute articles of good and evil are intimately intermingled and agitated together; the rank- est poisons spring up amidst the most salutary plants; deluges, earthquakes, and conflagrations attest the conflict of Nature, and the little world of man is perpetually shaken by vice and misfortune. Whilst the rest of human kind are led away cap- tives in the chains of their infernal enemy, the faithful Persian alone reserves his religious adoration for his friend and pro- tector Ormusd, and fights under his banner of light, in the full confidence that he shall, in the last day, share the glory of his triumph. At that decisive period, the enlightened wisdom of goodness will render the power of Ormusd superior to the furious malice of his rival. Ahriman and his followers, dis- armed and subdued, will sink into their native darkness ; and virtue will maintain the eternal peace and harmony of the universe. 11 1 ' The modern Parsces (and in some degree the Sadder) exalt v^rmusd into the lirst and omnipotent cause, whilst they degrado A.hriman into an inferior but rebellious spirit. Their desire of pleas- ing the Mahometans may have contributed to rctine their theological system. . * This is an error. Ahriman was not forned by his invariatle nature to do evil ; the Zendavosta expressly recognizes (see the l/escliiie) tluit he was bom (/ood, that in his origin he was li tlic aliy.->s. Sec the Abridgment of the Doctrine of the Ancii iit I'trvi^nt', bv Ancjuc'il, r. a. '}2. — G. " " t According to tlie Zendavesta, Ahriman will imi he annihilated or pre- cipitated forever into darkness : at the resurrection of the uead lie will be OF THE ROMAN EMl'lRE. 233 The llicoIo<^y of Zoroaster was darkly comprcliendcd by foreigners, and even by the far greater number of his disci- ples ; but tlie most careless observers were struck with the philosophic simplicity of the Persian worship. " That people," says IJerodotus,^- " rejects the use of temples, of altars, and of statues, and smiles at the Tolly of those nations wno im- agine that the guds are sprung from, or bear any alTinity with, the human nature. 'J'he tops of the highest mouniaina are the places chosen for sacriiiccs. Hymns and prayers are the principal worship; the Supreme God, who fills the wide circle of heaven, is the object to whom they are ad- dressed." Yet, at the same time, in the true spirit of a polytheist, he accuseth them of adoring Eartli, Water, Fire, the Winds, and the Sun and Moon. But the Persians of every age have denied the charge, and explained the cfpaivocal con- duct, which might appear to give a color to it. The elements, and more particularly Fire, Light, and the Sun, whom they called Mithra,t were the objects of their religious reverence "^ Herodotus, 1. i. c. 131. But Dr. PridcaUx thinks, with reason, that the use of temples was afterwards pcnuittcd iii the Magiun reUKion.* entirely defeated by Ormtizd, his power will be destroyed, his kingdom overthrown to its foundations, lie will himself be purified in torrents of melting metal ; lie will change his heart and his will, become holy, lieavcn- ly, establish in his dominions tlic law and word of Ormuzd, unite himself with liim in everlasting friendsliip, and both will sing hymns in honor of the Great Eternal. !See Anquetil's Abridgment. Kleuker, Anhang, part iii. p. cSo, 36 ; and the Izeschue, one of the books of the Zendavesta. Ac- curding to the Sadder Bun-Dehesch, a more modern work, Ahriman is to be annihilated : but this is contrary to the text itself of the Zendavesta, and to the idea which its author gives of the kingdom of Eternity, after the twelve thousand years assigned to the contest between Good and Evil. — G. * The pyraea, or fire temples of the Zoroastrians, (observes Kleuker, Persica, p. 16,) were oidy to be found in Media or Aderbidjan, provinces into which Herodotus did not penetrate. — M. t Among the Persians Mithra is not the Sun : Anquetil has contested and triuniiiiiantly refuted the opinion of those who confound them, and it is evidently contrary to the text of the Zendavesta. Mithra is the first of the genii, or /zci/^, created by Ormuzd; it is he who watches overall nature. Hence arose the misapprehension of some of the Greeks, who have said that Mithra was the summus deus of the Persians : he has a tiiousand ears ancl ten thousand eyes. The Chaldeans appear to liave assigned him a higlicr rank than the Persians. It is he who bestows upon the earth the light of the sun. The sun, named Klior, (bi ightness," is thus an inferior gffnius, who, with many other genii, bears a jLiit in the functions of MitUra. These -issistant genii to another genivis are called his kuinAurs ; but in the Zendavesta they are never confounded. On the days s.icred to a particular Kei>ius, the Per.sian ought to recite, not only the prayers addressed to hiiw bu*. those al.io which are addressed to his k.uakaris ; thus the hymn or iescht lo 234 THE 1>ECL1NE AMD FALL beci'use ihey considered them as the purest sy: ibols, tlii noblest productions, and the most powerful agents ol" the Di- vine Power and Nature. •■' Every mode of religion, to make a deep and lasting im- pression on the human mind, must exercise our obedience, by enjoining practices of devotion, for which we can assign no reason; and must acqu're our esteein, by inculcating moral duties analogous to the dictates of our own hearts. The reli- gion of Zoroaster was abundantly provided with the former and possessed a sufficient portion of the latter. At the age of puberty, the faithful Persian was invested with a mysterious girdle, the badge of the divine protection ; and from that mo- ment all the actions of his life, even the most indifferent, or the most necessary, were sanctified by their peculiar prayers, ejaculations, or genuflections ; the omission of whicti, under any circumstances, was a grievous sin, not inferior in guilt to the violation of the moral duties. The moral duties, how- ever, of justice, mercy, liberality, &c., were in their turn required of the disciple of Zoroaster, who wished to escape the persecution of Ahriman, and to live with Ormusd in a blissful eternity, where the degree of felicity will be exactly proportioned to the degree of virtue and piety. ^^ '^ Hyde de Relig. Pcrs. c. 8. Notwithstanding all their distinc- tions and protestations, which seem sincere enough, their tyrants, the Mahometans, have constantly stigmatized them as idolatroua worshippers of the fire. '■» See the Sadder, the smallest part of which consists of moral precepts. The ceremonies enjoined are infinite and trifling. Fifteen genuflections, prayers, &c., were required whenever the devout Per- sian cut his nails or made water ; or as often as he put on the sacred girdle. Sadder, Art. 14, 50, 60.* of Mithra is recited on the day of tlie sun, (Klior,) and vice versfi. It is probably this which has sometimes caused them to be confounded ; but Anquetil had himself exposed tliis error, vvhicli Kleukcr, and all who have Btudied the Zendavcsta, have noticed. See viii. Diss, of Anquetil. Kleu- ker's Anhang, part iii. p. lo2. — G. M. Guizot is unquestionably right, according to the pure and original doctrine of the Zend. The Mithiiac worship, which was so extensively propagated in the West, and in which Mithra';uul the sun were perpetually confounded, seems to have been formed from a fusion of Zoroastrianism and Chaldaism, or the Syrian worship of the sun. An excellent abstract of the question, with references to the works of the chief modern writer* on this curious subject, I)e Sacy, Kleuker, Von Hammer, iSrc, may be tound In De Guigniaut's translaticui of Kreuzer. Ilelig. dAntiquitc, notes viii. ix JO book ii. vol. i. 2d oart, page 728. — M. • Zoroaster exacted much less ceremonial observaiii'c, than, at a latci period the pries's of his doctrines. This is the progress of all religious OF T1:E ROMAN EMPIRE. 23& Hut thei 3 are some remarkable instances in whicli Zoioas ter la)s aside the propliet, assumes the legislator, and discov ers a liberal concern for private and public happiness, seldom to be found among the grovelling or visionary schemes of superstition. Fasting and celibacy, the common means of purchasing the divine favor, he condemns with abhorrence as a criminal rejection of the best gifts of Providence. Th<» saint, in the Magian religion, is obliged to begot children, to plant useful trees, to destroy noxious animals, to convey water to the dry lands of Persia, and to work out his salvation by pursuing all the labors of agriculture.* We may quote from the Zendavesta a wise and benevolent maxim, which compensates for many an absurdity. " He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the repetition of ten thousand prayers." ^^ In the spring of every year a festival was celebrated, destined to represent the primitive equality, and the present connection, of mankind. The stately kings Df Persia, exchanging their vain pomp for more genuine greatness, freely mingled with the humblest but most useful of their subjects. On that day the husbandmen were admit- ted, without distinction, to the table of the king and his Satraps. The monarch accepted their petitions, inquired into their grievances, and conversed with them on the most equal terms. " From your labors," was he accustomed to say, (and to say with truth, if not with sincerity.) "• from your labors we receive our subsistence ; you derive your tranquillity from our vigilance : since, therefore, we are mutually necessary to each other, let us live together like brothers in concord and love." '6 Such a festival must indeed have degenerated, in a wealthy and despotic empire, into a theatrical representation ; '* Zendavesta, torn. i. p. 224, and Precis du Systome de Zovoastre, torn. iii. '" Hyde de Religione Persarum, c. 19. the worship, simple in its origin, is ^adually overloaded with minute pnperslitinns. The maxim of the Zendavesta, on the relative merit o' Bowiuf? tlie earth and of prayers, quoted below by Gibbon, proves that Zoroaster did not attach too much importance to these observances. Thus it is not from tlic Zendavesta that Gibbon derives tlie proof of hia allegation, but from the Sadder, a much later work. — G. * See, on Zoroaster's encouragement of agriculture, the ingenioui remarks of Ilejrrn, Idecn. vol. i. p. 449, &c. \iid Rhcde, Heilige Sage, t). 517. — M. 236 THE DECLINE AND FALI, but it was at least a comedy well worthy of a royal audienoe- and which might sometimes imprint a salutary lesson on the mind of a young prince. Had Zoroaster, in all his institutions, invariably supported this exalted character, his name would deserve a place with those of Numa and Confucius, and his system would be justly entitled to a" the applause, which it has pleased some of our divines, and even some of our philosophers, to bestow on it. But in that motley composition, dictated by reason and pas- sion, by enthusiasm and by selfish motives, some useful and sub ime truths were disgraced by a mixture of the most ab- ject and dangerous superstition. The Magi, or sacerdotal order, were extremely numerous, since, as we have already seen, fourscore thousand of them were convened in a general council. Their forces were multiplied by discipline. A reg- ular hierarchy was diffused through all the provinces of Per- sia ; and the Archimagus, who resided at Balch, was respected as the visible head of the church, and the lawful successor of Zoroaster. 17 The property of the Magi was veiy consider- able. Besides the less invidious possession of a large tract of the most fertile lands of Media, i^ they levied a general tax on the fortunes and the industry of the Persians. '^ " Though your good works," says the interested prophet, " exceed in number the leaves of the trees, the drops of rain, the stars in the heaven, or the sands on the sea-shore, they will all be un- profitable to you, unless they are accepted by the dcstour, or priest. To obtain the acceptation of this guide to salvation, you must faithfully pay him tithes of all you possess, of your goods, of your lands, and of your money. If the destour be satisfied, your soul will escape hell tortures ; you will secure praise in this world and happiness in the next. For the des- " Hyde de Religione Persarum, c. 28. Both Hyde and Prideaux affect to apply to the Magian the terms consecrated to the Christiar nierarchy. * Ammian. Marcellin. xxiii. 6. He informs us (as far as we may credit him) of two cuiious particulars: 1. That the Ma^i derived pome of their most secif t doctrines fi'ora the Indian Brachmans ; and, 2. That they were a tribe, or family, as well as order. '* The divine institution of tithes exhibits a singular instance of conformity between the law of Zoroaster and that of Moses. Those who cannot otherwise account for it, may suppose, if they please^ that .he Magv of the latter times inserted so usef'il an interpolation into the writings if their prophet. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 231' lours are the teachers of religion; they know all things, and they d sliver all men." 2" * These convenient maxims of reverence and implicit faitn were doubtless imprinted with care on the tender minds of youth ; since the Magi were the masters of education in Per- sia, and to their hands the children even of the royal family were intrusted.^' Tlie Persian priests, who were of a spec- ulative genius, preserved and investigated the secrets of Ori ental philosophy; and acquired, either by superior knowledge, or superior art, the reputation of being well verseii in some occult sciences, which have derived their appellation from the Magi.-'-^ Tliose of more active dispositions mixed with the world in courts and cities ; and it is observed, that the admin- istration of Artaxerxes was in a great measure directed by tho counsels of the sacerdotal order, whose dignity, either from policv or devotion, that prince restored to its ancient splen- dor.23 The first counsel of the Magi was agreeable to the unso- ciable genius of their faith,-"* to the practice of ancient *" Sadder, Art. viii. »' Plato in Alcibiad. '" Pliny (Hist. Natur. 1. xxx. c. 1) observes, that magic held man- kind by the triple chain of religion, of physic, and of astronomy. " Agathias, 1. iv. p. 1:54. *• Mr. Hmne, in the Natural History of Kcligion, sagaciou.sly lemarks, that the most rctined and philosophic sects are constantly the most intolerant, t * The passage quoted by Gibbon is not taken from ttie writings of Zor- oaster, but from the Sadder, a work, as has been before said, much later than the books which form the Zendavcsta, and written by a Magus for popular use ; what it contains, therefore, cannot be attril)Uted to Zoroaster. It is remarkable that Gibbon slioiild fall into this error, for Hyde himself does not ascribe the Sadder to Zoroaster; he remarks that it is written in verse, while Zoroaster always wrote in prose. Hyde, i. p. 27. Whatevei may be the case as to the latter assertion, for whi( h there ajjpears little found;iti(m, it is unquestionable that the Sadder is of much later date. The Abbe Foucherdoes not even believe it to be an extract from the works of Zoroaster. See his Diss, before (pioted. Mom. do I'Acad. des Ins. t. njivii. — G. Perhaps it is rash to speak of any part of the Zendavesta aa the writiiuj of Zoroaster, thoufjh it may l)e a genuine representation of his doctrines. As to the Sadder, liyde (in Pr;cf.) considered it not al)ove 200 years old. It is manifestly post-Mahometan. See Art. xxv. on fasting. — >]. f Hume's comparison is rather between theism and polytheism. In India, in Greece, and in modern Europe, philosophic religion has looked down with contemptuous toleration on the superstitions of the vidgar. — M. 238 THE DLCLINt Affc FALL kings 25 and even to the exanDple of their legislator, who had fallen a victim to a religious war, excited by his own intoler ant Zfial.^s By an edict of Artaxerxes, the exercise of every worship, except that of Zoroaster, was severely prohibited. The temples of the Parthians, and the statues of their deified monarchs, were thrown down with ignominy."^ The sword of Aristotle (such was the name given by the Orientals to the polytheism and philosophy of the Greeks) was easily broken ;2- the flames of persecution soon reached the more stubborn Jews and Christians ; 29 nor did they spare the heretics of their own nation and religion. The majesty of Ormusd, who was jeal- ous of a rival, was seconded by the despotism of Artaxerxes, who could not suffer a rebel ; and the schismatics within his vast empire were soon reduced to the inconsiderable number of eighty thousand. ^^ * This spirit of persecution reflects dishonor on the religion of Zoroaster ; but as it was not pro- ductive of any civil commotion, it served to strengthen the new monarchy, by uniting all the various inhabitants of Per- sia in the bands of religious zeal.t II. Artaxerxes, by his valor and conduct, had wrested the sceptre of the East from the ancient royal family of Parthia. There still remained the more difficult task of establishing, ^^ Cicero de Legibus, ii. 10. Xerxes, by the advice of the Magi, destroyed the temples of Greece. *« Hyde de Relig. Persar. c. 23, 24. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, Zurdusht. Life of Zoroaster in toni. ii. of the Zendftvesta. ^ Compare Moses of Chorene, 1. ii. c. 74, with Ammian. Marcel- lin. xxiii. 6. Hereafter I shall make use of these passages. *"* Ilahbi Abraham, in the Tarikh Schickard, p. 108, 109. *' Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, 1. viii. c. 3. Sozomen, 1. ii. c. 1. Manes, who suffered an ignominious death, may be deemed a Magian as well as a Christian heretic. •''" Hyde de Roligione Persar. c. 21. « • It is incorrect to attribute these persecutions to Artaxerxes. The Jews were held in honor by him, and their schools flourished during his reign. Compare Jost, Geschichte der Israeliter, b. xv. 5, with Basnage. Sapor was forced by the people to temporary severities ; but their real per- secution did noc begin till the reigns of Yezdigerd and Kobad. Hist, of Jews, iii. 236. According to Sozomen, i. viii.. Sapor first persecuted the Christians. Manes was put to death by Varanes the First, A. D. 277. Beausobre, Hist, de Man. i. 209. — M. t In tiip testament of Ardischcr in Ferdusi, the poet assigns these sen- timsnts to the dying king, as he addresses his soh : Never forget that aa a kinn;, you are at once the protector of religion and of your country. Consider the altar and the throne as insepa able; they must always sus'ain •ach other. Malo)lm's Persia, i. 74. — M- OF THE F.OMAr* EMPIRT. 239 ihroughDut the vast extent of Persia, a uniform and vigorous administration. The weak inchilgence of the Arsacides had resigned to their sons and l)rotlicrs the principal provinces, and the ";reatcst ofl'ices of tlie kii.irdoni in the nature of hercd- itary possessions. "^Phe tntaxce, or eighteen most powerful satraps, were permitted to assume tlie regal title; and the vain |)n(ie of the monarch was dcdighted with a nominal dominion over so many vassal kings. Even tribes of barba- rians in their mountains, and the Greek cities of Upper Asia,^' within tlieir walls, scarcely acknowledged, or seldom obeyed, any superior; and the Parthian empire exhibited, under other names, a lively image of the feudal system ^"-^ which has since prevailed in Euro|)(!. Put the active victor, at the head of a numerous and disciplined army, visited in person every prov- hice of Persia. The defeat of the boldest rebels, and the reduction of the strongest fortifications,^^ diffused the terror of his arms, anil prepared tlu; way for the peaceful reception of his authority. An obstinate resistance was fatal to the rhiefs ; but tlieir followers were treated with lenity .^^ A cheerful submission was rewarded with honors and riches but the prudent Art.axerxes, sullering no person except him- self to assume the title of king, abolished every intermediatp power between the throne and the people. His kingdom, nearly equal in extent to modern Persia, was, on every side, bounded by the sea, or by great rivers ; by the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Araxes, the (-),\us, and the Indus, by the Cas- pian Sea, and the Gu\C of Persia.*^^ That country was com " These colonics were extremely nuiucroas. Seleucua Nicator fouiKled thiity-iiine cities, all niinieil from himself, or some of his relations, (sec Apijiaii in Syri-ac. p. IH ) The a'la of vSelcucns (still in use amonj^ the eastern C'luistians) appears as late as the year 508, of CHirist 196. on the mcrlals of the (jreek cities within the Parthiiui cmjiire. Sec Moylc's works, vol. i. j). 273, ice-, and M. Frcret, Mem. de TAcadtnuic, tom. xix.. ^■■^ The modern Persians distinu'msh that i)criod as the dynasty of ,he kinj;s of the nations. See I'lin. Ilist. Nat. vi. 2o. ^^ Eutychius (toni. i. p. ^ ;?. 'M\, 'M6) relates the sic^c of the island of Mescne in llie Tiifris, with aome circr.mst&nces not unlikb the story of Nysus and Scylla. •** Ai^athias, ii. CA, [ami iv. ]). 2'i0.] Tlic princes of Segcstan de- fended their indcj-endeiKe during many vears. As romances gen- erally transport to an ancient ] criod the oeiits of their -wti time, it is not impossible that tlie fabulous cxphnts of Uustan, Prince of S(-gcstan. many have been i^raltcil on this real history. ^ We can sjarcely atlii! ute to the Persia'i monarchy the sea coast 2-10 TTiE DtOLlNE AND TALI. puted to contain, in the last century, five hundred and fifty four cities, sixty thousand villages, and about forty millions oi souls.36 [f we compare the administration of the house of Sassan with that of the house of Sefi, tlie political influence of the Magian with that of the Mahometan religion, we shall l>robably infer, that the kingdom of Artaxerxes contained at least as great a number of cities, villages, and inhabitants. But It must likewise be confessed, that in every age the want of harbors on the soa-coast, and the scarcity of fresh water in the inland prcv'nc(;s, have been very unfavorable to the commerce and agricii'.ture of the Persians ; who, in the cal- culation of their numbers, seem to have indulged one of the meanest, though most common, artifices of national, vanity. As soon as the ambitious mind of Artaxerxes had triumphe'' 0''er the resistance of his vassals, he began to threaten the neighboring states, who, during the long slumber of his pred- ecessors, had insulted Persia with impunity. He obtained some easy victories over the wild Scythians and the effemi- nate Indians ; but the Romans were an enemy, who, by their past injuries and present power, deserved the utrtiost effortg of his arms. A forty years' tranquillity, the fruit of valor and moderation, had succeeded the victories of Trajan. Dur- ing the period that elapsed from the accession of Marcus to the reign of Alexander, the Roman and the Parthian empires were twice engaged in war ; and although the whole strength of the Arsacidcs contended with a part only of the forces of Rome, the event was most commonly in favor of the latter, Macrinus, indeed, prompted by his precarious situation and pusillanimous temper, purchased a peace at the expense of of Gedrosia or Macran, which extends along the Indian Ocean from Cape Jask (the promontory Cajiclla) to Cape Goadcl. In the time of Alexander, and probably many ages afterwards, it was tbiuly in- habited by a savage [)Cople of Icthyophagi, or Fisbermon, wlio knew no arts, who acknowledged no master, and who were divided by in- hos))itablc deserts from the rest of the world. (See Arrian do Keb. Indicis.) In the twelfth century, the little town of 'L'aiz (supposed by M. d'Anville to be the Teza of Ptolemy) was peojiled and enriched by the resort of the Arabian merchants. (See Gcographia Nubiens, E. oS, and d'Anville, Geographic Ancicnne, torn. ii. i^ 283.) In the ist age, the whole country was divided between three princes, ono Mahometan and two Idolaters, wlio maintained their independence Bf^ainst the successors of Shah Abbas. (Voyages do Tavcrnier, pait i. 1. V. p. 63.').) ^ f;hardin, torn. iii. c. 1, 2, 3. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 241 near two millions of our money ^" but the generals of Mar- cus, tne emperor Severus, and his son, erected many trophies in Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria. Among their ex- ploits, the imperfect relation of which would have unseason- ably interrupted the more important series of domestic revo- lutions, we sliall only mention the repeated calamities of the two great cities of Seleucia and Ctesij)hon. Seleucia, on the western bank of the Tigris, about forty- five miles to the north of ancient Baiiylon, was the capital of the Macedonian concpiests in U|)per Asia '-^^ Many ages after the fall of their empire, Seleucia retained the genuine charac- ters of a (Jrecian colony, arts, militarv virtue, and the love uf freedom. The independent republic was governed by a senate of three hundred* nobles ; the [)eoj)le consisted of six hundred thousand citizens; the walls were strong, and as long as concord prevailed among the several order* of the state, they viewed with contempt the jxnver of the Parthian : but the mailness of faction was sometimes provoked to implore the dangerous aid of the common enemv, who was posted almost at the gates of the colony. ^^ The Partliian monarchs, like the Mogid sovereigns of IJindostan, delighted in the pas- toral life of their Scythian ancestors ; and the Imperial camp was frequently pitched in the plain of Ctesiphon, on the east- ern bank of the Tigris, at the distance of only three miles from Seleucia.'"' The innumerable attendants on luxury and despotism resorted to the court, and the little village of Ctesi- phon insensibly swelled into a great city.''^ Under the reign of Marcus, the Roman generals penetrated as far as Ctesi- phon and Stdeucia. They were received as friends by the iJreek colony ; they attacked as enemies the seat of the Par- ^ Dion, 1. xxviii. p. 1335. ^8 For the precise situation of Rabylon, Seleucia, Ctesiphon, Mo- Jain, and IJa^'dad, cities often confoiinde'l with each' other, see an excellent (Jeoy;raphical Tract of M. d'Anvillc, in Mem. dc I'Acade- niic, toni. xxx. ^° Tacit. Annal. xi. i>. Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 2G. *' This may be inferred from Strabo, 1. xvi. p. 743. *^ That most curious traveller, Bernier. who followed the camp of Aurengzebe from Delhi to Cashmir, describes with great accuracy the Immense moving city. The guard of cavalry consisted of 35,000 men, that of infantry of 10,000. It was computed that the camp contained 150,000 horses, mules, and clejiliants ; 50,000 camels, 5(»,000 oxen, and between 300,000 and 400,000 persons. Almost all Delhi followed the court, whose maguifif ence supported its industry. 13* 242 THE DECLINE AND FALL ihian kings ; yet both cities experienced the seme treatmenL The sack and conflagration of Seleucia, with the massacre of three hundred thousand of the inhabitants, tarnished the glory of the Roman triumph.'*^ Seleucia, already exhausted by the neighborhood of a too powerful rival, sunk under the fatal blow ; but Ctesiphon, in about thirty-three years, had sufii- ciently recovered its strength to maintain an obstinate siege agains' the emperor Severus. The city was, however, taken by assault; the king, who defended it in person, escaped with precipitation ; a hundred thousand captives, and a rich booty, rewarded the fatigues of the Roman soldiers. ''^ Notwith- standing these misfortunes, Ctesiphon succeeded to Babylon and to Seleucia, as one of the great capitals of the East. In summer, the monarch of Persia enjdyed at Ecbatana the cool breezes of the mountains of Media ; but the mildness of the climate engaged him to prefer Ctesiphon for his winter resi- dence. From these successful inroads the Romans derived no real or lasting benefit ; nor did they attempt to preserve such dis- tant conquests, separated from the provinces of the empire by a large tract of intermediate desert. The reduction of the king- dom of Osrhoene was an acquisition of less splendor indeed, but ot a far more solid advantage. That little state occupied the northern and most fertile part of Mesopotamia, between the Eu- phrates and the Tigris. Edessa, its capital, was situated about twenty miles beyond the former of those rivers ; and the in- habitants, since the time of Alexander, were a mixed race of Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, and Armenians.'*'* The feeble sove- reigns of Osrhoene, placed on the dangerous verge of two contending empires, were attached from inclination to the Parthian cause ; but the superior power of Rome exacted from them a reluctant homage, vvhich is still attested by their medals. After the conclusion of the Parthian war und(,'r Mar- « Dion, 1. Ixxi. p. 1178. Hist. August, p. 38. Eutrop. viii. 10. Kuscb. in Chronic, (iuadratus (quoted in the Augustan History) attempted to vindicate the llomans by alleging that the citizens of Seleucia liad tirst violated their faith. *' Dion, 1. Ixxv. p. 1263. Herodian, .. iii. p. 120. Hist. August. p. 70. ** The polished citizens of Antioch called those of Edessa mixed barbarians. It was, however, some praise, that of tlic three dialects of the Syriac, the purest and most elegant (the Aramatan) was spoken ftt Edessa. This remark M. 15aycr (Hist. Edess. p. '5) has borrowed from George of Malatia, a Syrian writer. OF T.IE ROMAN EMPIRE. 213 cus, it wai; judged prudent tc secure some substantial pledj^es of their doubtful fidelity. Forts were constructed in several parts of" the country, and a Roman garrison was fixed in the strong town of Nisibis. During tiic troubles that followed the death of Coinmodus, the princes of Osrhoene attempted to shake off the yoke ; but the stern policy of Severus confirmed their dependence,"''' an(). M. T.iiyor has notlom, from Osrhocs, who s^avo a new namo to tho conn- tiy, til the last At)ii;!n'us, had histod ."{."i^ years. Sec the learned work ol M. liayer, Histoiia Osilioena ct Kdesscnn. '" Xenophon, in the ]>ret'aec to tho Cyropa-dia, ijives a clear and taagniticent idea of the extent of r.bo empire of Cyras, llerodotu* (\. iii. c. 79, &e ) enters into a (Minun'- hiw> ..^rtiojiin^r desfrption <»l me \«eiiu •rre.Hi SdCupccD uit<> wtiict '.i • I'fTsiHn etnpire >> h>- an'iilerl ttv Ufinus Ilvstaapeh 244 THE DKCLINE AND FAIT. eians the empire of Asia, to content themselves with tho undisturbed possession of Europe. This haughty mandate was delivered by four hundred of the tallest and most beau- tiful of the Persians : who, by their fine horses, splendid arms, and rich apparel, displayed the pride and greatness of their master. ■^'^ Such an embassy was much less an offer of nego- tiation than a declaration of war. Both Al-exander Severus and Artaxerxes, collecting the military force of the Roman and Persian monarchies, resolved in this important contest Vi lead their armies in person. If we credit what should seem the most authentic of all records, an oration, still .extant, and delivered by the emperor himseli" to the senate, we must allow that the victory of Alex- ander Severus was not inferior to any of those formerly ob- tained over the Persians by the son of "hilip. The army of the Great King consisted of one hundr^j and twenty thousand horse, clothed in complete armor of steel ; of seven hundred elephants, with towers filled with archers on their backs, and of eighteen hundred chariots armed with scythes. This for- midable host, the like of which is not to be found in eastern history, and has scarcely been imagined in eastern romance,'"' was discomfited in a great battle, in which the Roman Alex- ■'S Horodian, vi. 209, 212. ''''' There were two hundred scythed chariotis at tho battle of Arbclu, in the host of Uai-ius. In the vast array of Tigranes, wluch was van- quished by LuL'ulhis, seventeen thousand h(n-sc only were coni])letely armed. Antioeluis brought tifty-four elephants into the field aijainst the Romans : by his fretiuont wars and negotiations with the princes of India, he had once collected a hundred and fifty of those great animals ; but it may be questioned whether the most jjowcrful mon- arch of Hindostan ever formed a line of battle of seven Inuulred elephants. Instead of three or four thoiisand ele])hants, which the Great ^Mognl was supposed to possess, Ta vernier (Voyages, part • Li. 1. i. p. l!)8) disccrvered, by a more accurate inqtiiiy, that he had only five liundrcd for his baggage, and eighty or ninety for the s(>i vice of war. The (irceks have varied wit^ regard to the number which Porus brought into the field; but Quintus Curtius, (viii. 18.) in this instance judicious and moderate, is contented with eighty-five ch - phants, distinguished by their size and strength. In Siam, whoro these animals are the most numerous and tho most cstecme;!, eighteen elephants are allowed as a sufticiont projiortion for each of tho nine brigades into which a just army is divided. The whole luimbor. of one hundred and sixty-two el'ei)hants of war, may sometimes !■« doubled. Hist, des Voyages, tcim. ix. p. 2G0.* * Compare Gibbon's note 10 to cK. Ivii. — M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 245 ftnder approved himself an intrepid soldier and a skilful gen- eral. The Great King Ihd before liis valor ; an immense booty, and the conquest of Mesopotamia, were the immediate fruits of this signal victory. Such are the circumstances of this ostentatious and improbable relation, dictated, as it too plainly appears, by the vanity of the monarch, adorned by the unblushing servility of his flatterers, and received without contradiction by a distant and obsequious senate.-''" Far from being inclined to believe that the arms of AUixander obtained any memorable advantage over the Persians, we are induced to suspect, that all this blaze of imaginary glory was designed to conceal some real disgrace. Our suspicions are confirmed by the authority of a contem- porary historian, who mentions the virtues of Alexander with respect, and Ids fi-ilts with candor, lie describes the judi- cious plan which had been formed for the ctjuducl of the war. Three Roman armies were destined to invade Persia at the same time, and by different roads. But the operations of the campaign, though wisely concerted, were not executed either with ability or success. The first of these armies, as soon as it had entered the marshy jjlains of Babylon, towards the artificial conflux of the Euphrates and the Tigris,-''' was en- compassed by the superior numbers, and destroyed by the arrows, of the enenriy. The alliance of Chosroes, king of Armenia,^- and the long tract of mountainous country, in which the Persian cavalry was of little service, opened a secure entrance into the heart of Media, to the second of the Roman armies. These brave troops laid waste the adjacent provinces, and by several successful actions against Artaxerxes, gave a faint color to the emperor's vanity. But the retreat of this victorious army was imprudent, or at least unfortunate. In repassing the mountains, great numbers of soldiers perished »» Hist. August, p. 133.* *' M. de Tillciuout has already observed, that Ilcrodiaii's gcoj^ra- phy is somewhat confused. " Moses of Chorcue (Hist. Armen. 1. ii. c. 71) illustrates this inva- Bion of Media, by asscrtin;:^ that Chosroes, king of Armenia, defeated Artaxerxes, and pursued him to tlic confines of India. The exploits of Chosroes have been magnitied; and he acted as a dcpoudcnt ally «o the Komaus. • See M. Giiizot's note, page 267. According to the I'crsian authorities, Ardeschir extended his conquests to tlie Euphrates. Malcolm, i. 71- — M 146 THE DECLINE AND FALL by tho badnjss, of the roads, and the severity o'' the winter season. It had been resolved, that whilst these two grefit detachments penetrated into tlie opposite extremes of the Persian dominions, the main body, under the command of Alexander himself, should support their attack, by invading the centre of the kingdom. But the unexi)enenced youth, influenced by iiis mother's counsels, and i)erha[)s by his own ftjars, deserted the bravest troops, and the fairest prospect of victory ; and after consuming in Meso|)Otamia an inactive and mglonous sminner, he led back to Aniioeli an army diuim- ished by sickness, and provoked by disappointment. The behavior of Artaxerxes had been very ditferent. Flying with rapiditv from the hills of Media to the marshes of the Eu- phrates, he hafi every where opposed the invaders in person ; and in either fortune had united with the ablest conduct tho most undaunted resolution. But in several obstinate engage- ments against the veteran legions of Rome, tho Persian mon arch had lost the flower of liis^ troops. Even his victories had weakened Ids power. The favorable opportunities of tlie absence of Alexander, and of the confusions that followed th'it emperor's death, presented themselves in vain to his am- bition. Instead of expelling the Romans, as he pretended, from the continent of Asia, he found himself unable to wrest from their hands tlie little province of Mesopotamia.-'^"^ The reign of Artaxerxes, which from the last defeat of the Parthians 'asted only fourteen years, forms a mi;moruble lera in the history of the East, and even in that of Rome. Hia chaiacter seems to have been marked'by those bold and com- manding features, that generally distinguish the princes who conquer, from those who inherit, an empire. Till the last period of the Persian monarchy, his code of laws was re- spected as the groundwork of their civil and religioua polic}'.-"'^ Several of his sayings are preserved. One of them in particular discovers a deep insight into the constitu- tion of govermnent. " 'I'lie avilhority of the prmce," said Arta.vci tes, 'Miuist be defended by a military force ; that force can only be maintained by . taxes ; all taxes must, at " For the account of this war, see Ilerodian, 1. vi. p. 209, 21 2. Ihe old iibbroviators and modern cominlors have blindly followed tV.fl Augustan History. *■' Eutychius, torn. ii. ji. ISO, vers. I'ocock. The i,'reat Cliosrocs Nonshirwan sent the code of A"*'ixcrxosi to all his satnip.s- as the invariiibl'.' '-ulo of their conduct. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 247 hL?t, fail upon agriculture ; and agriculture can never flourish p.xceut under tlie protection of justice and moderation. " ^^ Artaxerxes bequeathed his new empire, and his ambitious de- signs against tlie Romans, to S;ipor, a son not unworthy of his great fatlior ; but those ilesigiis weni too extensive for the power of Persia, and served only \t) involve both nations in a long s(;ries of destructive wars ;ind reciprocal calamities. The Persians, long since civilized and corrupted, were verv far from possessing the marlial independence, and the intrep- id hardiness, both of mind and body, which iiave rendered the northern barbarians masters of the world. The science of war, that constituied the more rational force of Greece and Rome, as it now does of Europe, never uiade any con- siderable piogress in the East. Those disciplined evolutions which harmonize and aniniaie a confuseid midlitude, were unknown to the Persians. They were equally unskilled in the arts of constructing, besieging, or defending regular forti- fications. They trusted more to their numbers than to their courage; more to their courage than to their discipline. The infantry was a half-armed, spiritless crowd of peasants, lev- ied in haste by the alluremenis of plunder, and as easily dispersed by a victory as by a defeat. The monarch and his nobles transported into the camp the pride and luxury of the seraglio. Their military operations were impeded by a use- less train of women, eunuchs, horses, and camels ; and in the midst of a successful campaign, the Persian host was often separated or*destroyed by an unexpected famine.-'''* But the nobles of Persia, in the bosom of luxury and des- potism, preserved a strong sense of personal gallantry and national honor. From the age of seven years they were taught to speak truth, to shoot with the bow, and to ride ; anl it was universally confessed, that in the two last of these arts, Miey had made a more than common proficiency."'^ The most distinguished youth were educated under the monarch's " D'llerbclot, Bibliothequc Oripiitalo, nu mot Ardshir. AVc may observe, that after an ancient jjeriod ot' tables, and a long interval of daikness, the nioilern histories of Persia begin to assume an air of tnitli wit.h the dynasty of .Sassanides. [Compare MaLcobn, i. 79. — M." *" lierodian, 1. vi. p. 214. Ammianus Marcelliiius, 1. XKiii. c. 6*. Some differences may be observed between the two historians, the natural effects of the changes produced by a century and a half. ''" 'L'lie I'crsians arc sti'' the most skilful horsemeu, and tl .cir horat* the liut'bt. in tht liaat. 2-18 THE DECLINE AND FALL eye, practised their exercises in the gate of his palace, and were severely trained up to the habits of temperance and obedience, in their long and laborious parties of hunting. In every province, the satrap maintained a like school of military virtue. The Persian nobles (so natural is the idea of feudal tenures) received from the king's bount}' lands and houses, on the condition of their service in war. They were ready on the first summons to mount on iiorseback, with a martial and splendid train of followers, and to join the numerous bodies of guards, whv) were carefully selected iVom among the most robust slaves, and the bravest adventurers of Asia. These armies, both of light and of heavy cavalry, equally formidable by the impetuosity of their charge and the rapidity of theit motions, threatened, as an impending cloud, the eastern prov- inces of the declining empire of Rome.^^ ** From Horodot.'is, Xenophon, Herodian, Ammianus, Chardin, &c., I have extracted such probable accounts of the Persian nobiJityj as seem either common Vt every age, or pnrticular to thai of th«i S&saanides. CHAPTER IX. TOE STATE OF GERMANY TILL THE INVASION t>F TEE BARB»- RIANS ;N the JIME OF THE EMPEROR DECIUS. The government and religion of Persia have deserved some notice, from their connection with the decline and fall of the Roman empire. We shall occasionally mention the Scythian or Sarmatian tribes,* which, with their arms and horses, their flocks and herds, their wives and families, wandered over the immense plains which spread themselves from the Caspian Sea to the Vistula, from the confines of Persia to those of Germany. But the warlike Germans, who first resisted, then i^vaded, and at length overturned the Western monarchy of * The Scythians, even according to the ancients, are not Samiatians. i It may "be doubted whether Gibbon intended to confound them. — M.] 'he Greeks, after having divided the world into Greeks and barbarians, divided tlie barbarians into four great classes, the Celts, the Scythians, the Indians, and the Ethiopians. They called Celts all the inhabitants of Gaul. Scythia extended from the Baltic Sea to the Lake Aral : the people enclosed in the angle to the north-east, between Celtica and Scythia, were called Celto-Scytliians, and the Sannatians were placed in the southern part of that angle. But these names of Celts, r.f Scythians, of Celto- Scythians, and Sannatians, wore invented, says Schlrtzer, by the profound cosmographic^i ignorance of the Greeks, and have no real ground ; they are purely geographical divisions, without any relation to the true aftilia- tion of tlie difi'orent races. Thus all the inhabitants of Gaul are called Celts by most of the ancient writers ; yet Gaul contained three totally dis- tinct nations, the BelgcC, the Aquitani, and the Gauls, properly so called. Hi omnes lingua institutis, lcgibus(|uo inter se diftVruut. Cicsar. Com. c i. It is thus the Turks call all Europeans Franks. Schl'^zer, Allgemeine Nordische Geschichte, p. "289. 1771. Bayer (de Origine et priscis Sedibus Scytharum, in Opusc. p. (54) savs. Primus eorum, de quib\is constat, Ephorus, in quarto historiarum libro, (ubem terrarum inter Srytbas, Indos, ^thiopas et Ccltas divisit. Fragnicntum ejus loci Cosmas Indicopleustes in topographia Christiana, f. 148, conservavit. Video ij^itur Ephorum, cum locoruui positus per certa capita distribuere et e.xplicare i,«.,iistitueret, •nsigniorum nomina ijentium vastioribus spatiis adhibuisse, nulla ntala fraiuis at mujcc.ssu iiifKlicd. Nam Ephoro ([uoquomodo dicta pro exploratis habebant Gncci plcrique et liomani : ita gliscebat error posteritate. Igitur tot tainque divorsip stirpis gimtes non inodo intra communeui qiiandam regioneni a(!Hiiit;e, unum omnes Scytharvim nomen his auctoribus subierunt, sed etiam ab ilia rtgioiiis adpellationc in enndcm nationevi sunt conflatJD. Sic Cimmoriorum res cum Scythicis, Scytharum cum Sarmaticis, Hudsicia, Uunnicis, Tataricis (rommiscentur. --G. 250 THE DECLINE AND FALL, Rome, will occupy a much more important place in this his- tory, and possess a stronger, and, if we may use tiie expres- sion, a more domestic, claim to our attention and regard. The most civilized nations of modern Europe issued from the woods of Germany ; and in the rude institutions of those barbarians we may still distinguish the original principles of our present laws and manners. In their primitive state of simplicity and '.ndependence, the Germans were surveyed by the discerning eye, and delineated by the masterly pencil, of TacitMS,* the first of historians who applied the science of philosophy to the study of facts. The expressive conciseness of his descriptions has served to exercise the diligence of in- numerable antiquarians, and to excite the genius and pene- tration of the philosophic historians of our own times. The subject, however various and important, has already been so frequently, so ably, and so successfully discussed, that it is now grown familiar to the reader, and difficult to the writer. We shall therefore content ourselves with observing, and indeed with repeating, some of the most important circum- stances of climate, of manners, and of institutions, which rendered the wild barbarians of Germany such formidable enemies to the Roman power. Ancient Germany, excluding from its independent limits the province westward of the Rhine, which had submitted to the Roman yoke, extended itself over a third part of Europe. t * The Germania of Tacitus has been a fruitful source of tij'pothesis to the ingenuity of modern writers, who have endeavored to account for the form of the work and the views of the author. According to Luden, (Gescliichte des T. V. i. 4.32, and note,) it contains the unfinished and dis- arranged collectanea for a larger work. An anoaymous writer s;ipposed by Luden to l)e M. Becker, conceives that it was intended as an ei)isode in his larger h'story. According to M. Guizot, " Tacite a peint les (iermaina comnie Mont ligne et Rousseau les saiivages, dans un ace s d'huiueur con- tre sii patrie : son livre est une satire "icA uia^urs Roniaincs, reltuiucnte bouta'le d' unpatrioto phiiosopne ()ui veut voir la vertu 1 1, oii il ne rencont-c pas la mollesse honteuse et la d«"]iravatioi\ savante d'une vielle socii'ie ' Ilist. de la Civilisatiou Moderne, i. 2")8. — M. + (Jenuany was not of such vast extent. It is from Caesar, and more particularly tVuni Pt;jlemy, (says (iatterer,) that we can know wliat was the gtate of ancit-nt Germany before the wars witli the Romans had changed *he positions of the tiibes. Germany, as changed by these wars, has becu described l)y Strabo, Pliny, and Tacitus. Germany, jjroperly so called, was bounded on the west by the Rhine, on the east by tbe Vistula, on the north by the southern point of Norway, by Sweden, and Ksthonia. On the south, the Maine and the mountains to the north of l>')heiTiia formed the limits. I'.efore the time of Ca-sar, the country between the Maine and the Danube was p irtly occupied by the Helvetians and other Ga\ils jiartly ^^V• the llercyniai orest ; but, from the time ..f C;esar to the great migra- OF THE R3MAN EMPIRE. 251 Almost the whole of modern Germany, Denmark Norway. Sweden, Finland, Livonia, Prussia, and the greater part of Poland, were peopled by tlie various tribes of one great tion, these boundaries were advanced as far as the Danube, or, what is the same thing, to the .Suabiaii Alps, altliough the Hcrcynian forest still occu pied, from north to south, a space of nine days' journey on both banks of thf Danube. " Gatterer, Versuch einer all-genieinen \Velt-Gesehiuhte," p. 424, edit, de 17l'2. This vast country was far from being inhabited by a single nation divided into diticrent tribes of the same origin. We may reckon three principal races, very distinct in their language, tlieir origin, and their customs. 1. To the east, the Slaves or Vandals. 2. To the west, tlie Cimmerians or Cimbri. :i. lietween the Slaves and Cimbrians, tlu" Germans, properly so called, the Suevi of Tacitus. The South was inhabited, before Juhus Ca;sar, by nuticins of Gaulish origin, afterwards by the Suevi. — G. On the position of these nations, the German antiquaries differ. I. The Slaves, or Sclavonians, or Wcndish tribes, according to SchlOzer, were originally settled in parts of Germany unknown to the Romans, Mccklenburgh, Pomerania, Hrandenburgh, Upper Saxony, and Lusatia. According to Gatterer, they remained to the east of the Theiss, the Niemen, and the Vistula, till the third century. The Slaves, accord- ing to Procopius and Jornandes, formed tliree great divisions. 1. The Venedi or Vandals, who took the latter name, (the Wenden,) having expelled the Vandals, properly so called, (a Suevian race, the conquerors of Africa,) from the country between the Meniel and the Vistula. 2. The Antes, who inhabited between the Dneister and the Dnieper. 3. The Scla- vonians, properly so called, in the north of Dacia. During the great migration, these races advanced into Germany as far as the Saal and the Elbe. The Sclavonian language is the stem from which have issued the Kussian, the Polish, the Bohemian, and the dialects of Lusatia, of some parts of the ducliy of Luncburgh, of Carniola, Carinthia, and Styria, &.C. ; those of Croatia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria. ScblOzer, Nordische Ge- schichte, p. 323, 335. II. The Cimbric race. Adelung calls by this name all who were not Suevi. This race had passed tlie Kliine, before the time of Caisar occupied Belgium, and are the Belgic of Ca;sar and Pliny. The Cimbrians also occupied the Isle of Jutland. The Cymri of Wales and of Britain are of this race. Many tribes on the right bank of the Khine, the Guthini in Jutland, the Usipeti in Wc^stphalia, the Sigambri in the duchy of Berg, were German Cimbrians. III. The Suevi, known in very early times by tlie Romans, for they are mentioned by L. Corn. Sisenna, who lived 123 years liefore Christ, (Nonius v. Laucea.) This race, the real Ger- mans, extended to the Vistula, and from the Baltic to the Hcrcynian forest. The name of Suevi was sometimes confined to a single tribe, as by Caesar to the Catti. The name of the Suevi has been preserved in Suabia. These three were the principal races which inhabited Germany ; they moved from east to west, and are the ])arent stem of the modern natives. But northern Europe, according to Schldzer, was not peopled by them alone; other races, of different origin, and speaking dill'erent languages, have inhabited and left descendants in these coiiiitiies. The German tribes called themselves, from very remote times, by the generic name of Teutons, (Teuteii, Deutschen,) which Tacitus derives from that of one of their gods, Tuisco. It appears more probable that it means merely men, jieoplc. Many savage nations have given themselves no other name. Thus the Laplanders call themselves Aiinag, people ; the Samoi- edes Xilletz, Nissetseh, men, &c. As to the name of Germans, (Germaui,) faesar found it i'l use in Gaul, and adopted it as a word already known to tbe Romans. Minv of the learned (from a passage ot 'lacitus, le Mor. 252 THE DECLINE AND FALL nation, whose complexion, manners, and language denoted a common origin, and preserved a striking resemblance. On the west, ancient Germany was divided by the Rhine frora the Gallic, and on the south, by the Danube, from the Illyrian, provinces of the empire. A ridge of hills, rising from the Danube, and called the Carpathian Mountains, covered Ger many on the side of Dacia or Hungary. The eastern frontier was faintly marked by the mutual fears of the Germans and the Sarmatians, and was often confounded by the mixture of warring and confederating tribes of the two nations. In tlie remote darkness of the north, the ancients imperfectly descried a frozen ocean that lay beyond the Bahic Sea, and beyond the Peninsula, or islands' of Scandinavia. Some ingenious writers^ have suspected that Europe was much colder formerly than it is at present ; and the most ancient descriptions of the climate of Germany tend exceed- ingly to confirm their theory. The general complaints of intense frost and eternal winter, are perhaps little to be re- garded, since we have no method of reducing to the accurate standard of the thermometer, the feelings, or the expressions, of an orator born in the happier regions of Greece or Asia. But I shall select two remarkable circumstances of a less equivocal nature. 1. The great rivers which covered the ' The modern philosophers of Sweden scorn agreed that the waters of the Baltic gradually sink in a regular jjrojjortion, which they have ventured to estimate at half an inch every year. Twenty centuries ago the tlat country of Scandinavia must have been covered by the Bea ; vvnile the high lands rose above the waters, as so, many islands of various forms and dimensions. Such, indeed, is the notion given us by Mela, Pliny, and Tacitus, of the vast countries round the Baltic. See in the Bibliotheciue Raisonnoe, tom. xl. and xlv. a large abstract of Dalin's History of Sweden, composed in the Swedish language.* ^ In ]:)articular, Mr. Hume, the Abbe du Bos, and M. Pellouticr, Hist, des Celtes, tom. i. Germ. c. 2) have supposed thnt it was only applied to the Teutons after Caesar's time ; but Adehiiig lias triumphantly refuted this opinion. The name of Germans is found in th(> t'listi Capitohni. Sec Grutcr, Inserip. 28)9, in whicli the consul Marcellus, in the year of Rome o;il, is said to have defeated the Gauls, the Insubrians, and the Gortnans, commanded by Virdoinai See Adelung, Aclt. Geschichte dcr Deutsch, p. 102. — Com pressed fi -nn G. * Modern geologists have rejected this theory of the depression of the Baltic, as inconsistent with recent observation. The considerable change* wnich have taken place on its shores, Mr. Lycll, frcun actual observatioH now decidedly attributes to the regular and uniform elevation ef thr laud, — Lyjll's Geology, b. ii. c. 17- — M. OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. • 253 Roman provinces, the Rhine and the Danube, were frequently frozen over, and capable of supporting the most enormous weights. The barbarians, who often chose that severe season for their inroads, transported, without apprehension or danger, their numerous armies, their cavalry, and their heavy wagons, over a vast and solid bridge of ice.-^ Modern ages have not presented an instance of a like phenomenon 2. The rein- deer, that useful animal, from whom the savage of the North derives the best comforts of his dreary life, is of a constitution that supports, and even requires, the most intense cold. He is found on the rock of Spitzberg, within ten degrees of the Pole ; he seems to delight in the snows of Lapland and Siberia : but at present he cannot subsist, much less multiply, in any- country to the south of the Baltic."* In the time of C;esar the reindeer, as well as the elk and the wild bull, was a native of the Hercynian forest, which then overshadowed a great part of Germany and Poland.^ The modern improvements ' Diodorus Siculus, 1. v. p. 340, edit. Wessel. Herodian, 1. vi. p. 221. Jornandes, c. 55. On the baiiku of the Danube, the wine^ when brought to table, was frequently frozen uUo great Invayis, frusta vini. Ovid. Epist. ex Ponto, 1. iv. 7, 9, 10. Virgil. Georgic. 1. i.j. 355. The fact is contirmcd by a soldier and a philosopher, who had experienced the intense cold of Thrace. See Xenophon, Anabasis, 1. vii. p. 5()0, edit. Hutchinson.* * Butlbn, llistoire Naturelle, torn. xii. p. 79, 116. * Cicsar de Bell. GalUc. vi. 23, &c. The most inquisitive of the Germans were ignorant of its utmost limits, although some ot mem had travelled in it more than sixty days' journey.t * The Danube is constantly frozen over. At Pesth the bridge is usuallj taken up, and the traftic and coiniuuiiication between the two banks carried en over the ice. The Rhine is likewise in many parts passable at least two years out of five. Winter campaigns are so unusual, in modern warfare, that I recollect but one instance of an ar/iij/ crossing either river on the ice. In the thirty years' war, (1035,) Jan van Wcrth, an Imperialist par tisan. crossed the' Rhine from Heidelberg on the ice with oOUO men, and surprised Spiers. Pichegru's memorable cam])aign, (1794—5,) wlien the freezing of the Meuse and Waal opened Holland to his coiuiuests, and his cavalry and artillery attacked the sliips frozen in, on the Zuyder Zee, was in a winter of unprecedented severity. — M. 1845. t The passage of Cffisar, " pavvis renomim tegumentis utuntiir,'' is obscure, observes Ludcn, (Geschichte des Teutschen Volkcs,) and insuffi- cient to prove the reindeer to have existed in Germany. It is supported, nowever, by a fragment of Sallust. German! Mitcctum rhenonibus corpus tCRunt. — M. It has been suggested to me that Cresar (as old Gesncr supposed) meant the reindeer in the following description. Est bos ccrvi figura cujus a media fronte inter aures unum cornu existit, cxcelsiua magisque directum (divaricatum, ou. ?) his qmv nobis nota sunt cornibus Ab ejus summo, sicu palmae, rami quam late diftundnntur. Bell. Gallic. vi 26. —M. 1845. 2r>4 "-HE DECLINE AND FALL sufficiently explain the causes of the diminution of the cold. These immense woods have been gradually cleared, which intercepted from the earth the rays of the sun.^ The mora-^ses have been drained, and, in proportion as the soil has been cultivated, the air has become more temperate. Canada, at this day, is an eyact picture of ancient Germany. Although situated in the same parallel with the finest provinces of France and England, that country experiences the most rigorous cold. The reindeer are very numerous, the ground is covered with deep and lasting snow, and the great river of St. Lawrence is regularly frozen, in a season when the waters of the Seine and the Thames are usually free from ice.''^ It is difficult to ascertain, and easy to exaggerate, the influ- ence of the climate of ancient Germany over the minds and bodies of the natives. Many writers have supposed, and most have allowed, though, as it should seem, without any adequate proof, that the rigorous cold of the North was favorable to long life and generative vigor, that the women were more fruitful, and the human species more prolific, than in warmer or more temperate climates.^ We may assert, with greater confidence, that the keen air of Germany formed the large and masculine limbs of the natives, who were, in general, of a more lofty stature than the people of the South ,9 gave them a kind of strength better adapted to violent exertions than to patient labor, and inspired them with constitutional bravery, which is the result of nerves and spirits. The severity of a winter campaign, that chilled the courage of the Roman troops, was scarcely felt by these hardy children of the North, 1° who, in their turn, were unable to resist the summer heats, and dissolved away in languor and sickness under the beams of an Italian sun.*' ' Cluverius (Gerraania Antiqua, 1. iii. c. 47) investigates tiic small nd scattered remains of the Ileroynian wood. ' Charlevoix, Ilistoire du Canada. * Olaus Kudbetk asserts that the Swedish women often bear ten or twelve children, and not uncommonly twenty or thirty ; but the authority of lludbock is much to be suspected. * In hos artus, in ha;c corpora, quaj miramur, oxcrcscunt. Tacit Gennauia, 3, 20. Cluvcr. 1. i. c. 14. '" Plutarch, in Mario. The Cimbri, by way of amusement, often ilid down mountains o^ snow on their broad shields. " The ilomans maac war in all climates, and by their excellent discipline were in a great measure preserved in health and vigor. It cay be ronarked, that man is the only animal which can live ruid OK THli ROMAN EMPIRE. 255 There ia not any where jpon the globe a larijc tract of country, which we have discovered destitute ot' inhabitants irf whose first population can be fixed with any degree of liis- lorical certainty. And yet, as the most philosophic minds can seldom refrain from investigating the infancy of great nations, our curiosity consumes itself in toilsome and disap- pointed etfcrls. When Tacitus considered the purity of the (icrman biooa, and the forbidding aspect of the country, he was disposed to pronounce those barbarians Indigence, or natives of the soil. We may allow with safety, and perhaps with truth, that ancient Germany was not originally peopled by any foreign colonies already formed into a political soci- ety ; 1- but that the name and nation received their existence from the gradual union of some wandering savages of the llercynian woods. To assert those savages to have been the spontaneous production of the earth which they inhabited would be a rash inference, condemned by religion, and un- warranted by reason. Such rational doubt is but ill suited with the genius of pop- ular vanity. Among the nations who have adopted the Mo- saic history of the world, the ark of JNoah has been of the same use, as was formerly to the Greeks and Romans the siege of Troy. On a narrow basis of acknowledged truth, an immense but rude superstructure of fable has been erected ; multiply in every country from the equator to the poles. The hog" Booms to approach the nearest to our species in that privilege. ''•^ Facit. Germ. c. 3. The emigration of the Gauls followorl the course of the Daii\ft)o, and discharged itself on Grcooo and Asia, I'aoitus couUl discover only oire inconsiderable tribe that retained any traces of a Gallic origin.* * The Gothini, who must not be confounded with the Gothi, a lSaPvi:in tiihe. In the time of Caesar many other tribes of Gaulish oriuiiu dwelt ahmg the course of the Danube, who could not long resist the attacks of the Suevi. The Hel\ictians, who dwelt on the l)ordcrs of the Black Forest, between the Maine and the Danube, had been expelled long before the time of Caesar. He mentions also the Volci Tectosagi, who came from Languedoc, and settled round the Black Forest. Tlie Boii, who had pen- etrated into that forest, and also have left traces of their name in Bohemia, were subdued in the first century l)y the Marcomaiiiii. Tlie Boii settb d in Noricum, were mingled afterwards with the Lombards, and received the name of Boio Aril (Bavaria) or Boiovarii: var, in some German dialects. i\ i)e;i''M!tr t'l iiKan rc'ia'Ti^. di"ipend.nits. Compare Malte Bruu, Geogra pa), vol. i. !'. 4)0. ed.l. l;>-ii. — M. 256 111E DECLINE AND FALL and tne wnd Irisl.man,^^ as well as the wilJ Tartar,!^ could point out the individual son of Japhet, from whose loins his ancestors were lineally descended. The last century abound- ed with antiquarians of profound learning and easy faith, who, by the dim light of legends and traditions, of conjec- tures and etymologies, conducted the great grandchildrea of Noah from the Tower of Babel to the extremities of the globe. Of these judicious critics, one of the most enter- taining was Oaus Rudbeck, professor in the university of Upsal.15 Whatever is celebrated either in history or fable, this zealous patriot ascribes to his country. From Sweden which formed so considerable a part of ancient Germany) the Greeks themselves derived their alphabetical charac- ters, their -astronomy, and their religion. Of that delightful region (for such it appeared to the eyes of a native) the At- lantis of Plato, the country of the Hyperboreans, the gardens of the Hesperides, the Fortunate Islands, and even the Elysian Fields, were all but faint and imperfect transcripts, A clime so profusely favored by Nature could not long re- main desert after the flood. The learned Rudbeck allows the family of Noah a few years to multiply from eight to about twenty thousand persons. He then disperses them into small colonies to replenish the earth, and to propagate the human species. The German or Swedish detachment (which marched, if I am not mistaken, under the command of Aske- naz, the son of Gomer, the son of Japhet) distinguished itself by a more than common diligence in *he prosecution of this great work. The northern hive cast "ts swarms over the '3 According to Dr. Keating, (History of IreLand, p. 13, 14,) tho giant Partholanus, who was the son of Scara, the son of Esra. the son of Sru, the son of Framant, the son of Fathaclan, the son of Magog, the son of Je])het, the son of Noah, landed on tlie coast of Munstcr, the 11 th day of May, in the year of the world one thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight. Though he succeeded in his great enterprise, the loose behavior of his wife rendered his domestic life very unhappy, and provoked him to sucli a degree, that he kiUed — her favorite greyhound. This, as the learned historian very properly observes, was the first instance of female falsehood and intidelity ever known in Ireland. " Genealogical History of the Tartars, by Abulghazi Bahadui Khan. '^ Hir. work, entitled j^.tlantica, is uncommonly scarce. Bnyk nas given two most curious extracts from it. UepublLiue det Lpttrca Janvj'3i et Fevrier, 1685. OF THE ROMA.>I EMPIRE. Z greatest part of Europe, Africa, and Asia ; and (to use the author's metaplior) the blood circulated from the extremities to the heart. But all this well-labored system of German antiquities is annihilated by a single fact, too well attested to admit of any doubt, and of too decisive a nature to leave ro(jm for any reply. The Germans, in the age of Tacitus, were unac- quainted with the use of letters ; ^^ and the use of letters is the principal circumstance that distinguishes a civilized people from a herd of savages incapable of knowledge or reflection. Without that artificial help, the human memory soon dissipates or corrupts the ideas intrusted to her charge ; and the nobler faculties of the mind, no longer supplied with models or with materials, gradually forget their powers ; the judgment be- comes feeble and -lethargic, the imagination lancuid or irregu- lar. Fully to apprehend this important truth, let us attempt, in an improved society, to calculate the immense distance '® Tacit. Germ. ii. 19. Literarum secreta viri pariter ac foeminap. ignorant. We may rest contented with this decisive authority, with- out entering into the obscure disputes concerning the antiqui.ty of tho Runic characters. The learned Celsius, a Swedet a schohir, and a philosopher, was of opinion, that they were nothing more than the Koman letters, with the curves changed into straight lines for tlie ease of engraving. Sec Pelloutier, Ilistoire des Celtes, 1. ii. c. 11. Dictionnairc Diplomatique, tom. i. p. 223. Wc may add, that the oldest Runic inscriptions are supposed to be of the third century, and the most ancient writer who mentions the Runic characters is Venantius Fortunatus, (Carm. vii. 10,) who lived towards the end of the sixth century. Barbara fraxineis pingatur Ruha tabellis.* * The obscure subject of the Runic characters has exercised the indus- try and ingenuity of tlie modern schohirs of tho north. There are three distinct theories ; one, maintained by SchlOzer, (Nordische Geschiclite, p. 481, &c.,) who considers their sixteen letters to be a corruption of the llonwin a!j>habct, post-Christian in their dale, and Schlozer would attribute their introduction into the north to the Alemanni. The second, that of Frederick Schlegel, (Vorlesur.gen fiber alte und ncue Litcratur,) supposes that these characters were left on the coasts of the Mediterranean and Northern Seas by the I'liocnicians, preserved by the priestly castes, and employed for purposes of magic. Their common origin from the rhooni- cian would account for their similarity to the Roman letters. The last, to which we incline, claims a much higiier and mere venerable antiquity for the Runic, and supposes them to have been the original characters of tho In Jo-Teutonic tribes, brought from the Fast, and preserved among the dit'erent race-; of that stock. See Ueber Deutsche Runen von W. C Grimm, 1821, A Memoir by Dr. Legis. F\indgruben des alten Nordens. For^MiD ^uartci]y ll°view, vol. ix- p. 438. — M. 14 258 THE DECLHVE AND FAt'l. between the man of learning and the illiterate (jeasant. The former, by reading and reflection, multiplies his cwn experi* ence, and lives in distant ages and remote countries ; whilst the latter, roote-d to a single spot, and confined to a few years of existen:;e, surpasses but very little his fellow- la borer, the ox, in the exercise of liis mental faculties. The same, and even a greater, diiference will be found between nations than between individuals ; and we may safely pronounce, that without some species of writing, no people has ever preserved the faithful annals of their history, ever made any considerable progress in the abstract sciences, or ever possessed, in an\ tolerable degree of perfection, the useful and agreeable arts of life. Of these arts, the ancient Germans were wretchedly des- titute. They passed their lives in a stat^ of ignorance and poverty, which it has pleased some declaimers to d.gnify with the appellation of virtuous simplicity.* Modern Germany ia said to contain about two thousand three hundred walled towns.^^ In a much wider extent of country, the geographer Ptolemy couid discover no more than ninety places which he decorates with the name of cities ; '^ though, according to our ideas, they would but ill deserve that splendid title. We can only suppose them to have been rude fortifications, constructed in the centre of the woods, and designed to secure the women, children, and cattle, whilst the warriors of the tribe marched out to repel a sudden invasion.'^ But Tacitus asserts, as a •well-known fact, that the Germans, in his time, had no cities ;2'' and that they affected to despise the works of Roman industry. '^ Rccherches Philosophiquos sur les Amcricains, torn. iii. p. 228. The author of that very curious work is, 11" I am not misinformed, a German by birth. [De Pauw.] "* The Alexandrian Geographer is often criticized by the accurate Cluverius. '^ See Cjesar, and the learned Mr. Whitaker in his Hi£tory of Manchester, vol. i. ^ Tacit. Genn. 15. * Luden (the author of the Geschichte des Teutschen Volkes) has sur- passed most writers in his p;»triotic enthusiasm for the virtues and noble manners of his ancestors. Even the cold of the cliniiitc, and ttie w;int of vines and fruit trees, as well as the barbarism of the inhaliitaiils, are calumnies of the luxurious Italians. M. Gui/.ot, on the other si(h', (in hii" Histoire de la Civilisation, vol. i. p. 272, ^c.,) has drawn a curious p4r;*llp^' •etive'jto the Germans of Tacitus and the North Aniorican Indians. • W OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 25 J as places of confinement rather than of sccuritj Their odilices were not even contiguous, or formed into regular villas; 22 each barbarian fixed his independent dwelling on the spot to which a plain, a wood, or a stream of fresh water, had induced him to give the preference. Neither stone, nor brick nor tiles, were employed in these slight habitations.^^ They were indeed no more than low huts, of a circular figure, buill of rough timber, thatched with straw, and pierced at the top to leave a fr^e passage for the smoke. In the most inclement winter, the hardy German was satisfied with a scanty garment made of the skin of some animal. The nations who dwelt towards the North clothed themselves in furs ; and the women manufactured for their own use a coarse kind of linen.-"' The game of various sorts, with which the forests of Germany were plentifully stocked, supplied its inhabitants with food and exercise.25 Their monstrous herds of cattle, less remarkablo indeed for their beauty than for their utility ,'-'5 formed the principal object of their wealth. A small quantity of corn was the only produce exacted from the earth : the use of orchards or artificial meadows was unknown to the Germans ; nor can we expect any improvements in agriculture from a people, whose proj)erty every year experienced a general change by a new division of the arable lands, and who, in that strange operation, avoided disputes, by sulTering a great part of theu territory to lie waste and without tillage.^^ Gold, silver, and iron, were extremely scarce in Germany. Its barbarous inhabitants wanted both skill and patience to investigate those rich veins of silver, which have so liberally rewarded the attention of the princes of Brunswick and Sax- ony. Sweden, which now supplies Europe with iron, was *' When the Germans commanded the Ubii of Cologne to cast off the Roman yoke, and with their new freedom to resume their ancient manners, they insisted on the immediate demoUtion of the walls of the colony. '• Fostulainus a vobis, muros coloniic, munimenta servi- tii, detrahatis ; etiam fera animalia, ai clausa tencas, virtutia oblivis- cuntur." Tacit. Hist. iv. 64. " The stranrgling villages of Silesia are several miles in length. See Cluver. l.^i. c. 13. ^ One hundred and forty years after Tacitus, a few more regulai rtructures were erected near the llhine and Danube, llcrodiaa, I vi:. p. 234. ** Tacit. Germ. 17. *' Tacit. Germ. o. w Ca^ai de Bell. Gall. vi. 21. »■ Tacit. Germ 26 CiEsar, vi. 2i. 260 THE DECLINE AND FALL equull} ignorant of its own riches; and the appearance of tha arms of the Germans furnished a sufficient proof how little -ron they were able to bestow on what they must have deen.ed the noblest use of that metal. The various transactions of peace and war had introduced some Roman coins (chieflj silver) among the borderers of the Rhine and Danube ; hu the more distant tribes were absolutely unacquainted with the use of money, carried on their confined traffic by the exchange of commodities, and prized their rude earthen vessels as of equal value with the silver vases, the presents of Rome to their princes and ambassadors.^^ To a mind capable of reflection, such leading facts convey more instruction, than a tedious detail of subordi-nate circumstances. The value of money has been settled by general consent to e.xpress our wants and our property, as letters were invented to express our ideas ; and both these institutions, by giving a more active energy to the powers and passions of human nature, have con- tributed to multiply the objects they were designed to repre- sent. The use of gold and silver is in a great measure factitious ; but it would be impossible to enumerate the im- portant and various services which agriculture, and all the arts, have received from iron, when tempered and fashioned by the operation of fire, and the dexterous hand of man. Money, in a word, is the most universal incitement, iron the most pow- erful instrument, of human industry ; and it is very difficult to conceive by what means a people, neither actuated by the one, nor seconded by the other, could emerge from the gross- est barbarism.23 If we contemplate a savage nation in any part of the globe, ft supine indolence and a carelessness of futurity will be found to constitute their general character. In a civilized state, every faculty of man is expanded and exercised ; and the great chain of mutual dependence connects and embraces the several members of society. The most numerous portion of it is employed in constant and useful labor. The select few, placed by fortune above that necessity, can, however, fill up their time by the pursuits of interest or glory, by the improve- ment of then- estate or of their understanding, by the duties, "f* Taoit. Germ. R. ^ It is said that the Mexicans and Peruvians, without the use ol either money or iron, had made a very great progress in tlie arts. Those arts, and the monuments they produced, have bee:i strangclj magnilied See Rccherches sur las Aracricains torn. ii. p 163, &c. OK THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 261 tho pleasures, ii.i even the follies of social life. The Ger- mans were not possessed of these varied resources. The care of the house and family, the management of the land and cattle, weie delegated to the old and the infirm, to women anH Blaves. The lazy warrior, destitute of every art that might employ his leisure hours, consumed his days and nights in the animal' gratifications of sleep and food. And yet, hy a wonder- ful diversity of nature, (according to the remark of a writer \\h(j had pierced into its darkest recesses,) the same barba- rians are by turns the most indolent and the most restless of mankind. They delight m sloth, they detest tranquillity.^o The languid soul, oppressed with its own weight, anxiously required some new and powerful sensation ; and war and danorer were the only amusements adequate to its fierce tem- per. The sound that summoned the German to arms was grateful to his ear. It roused him from his uncomfortable lethargy, gave him an active pursuit, and, by strong exercise of the body, and violent emotions of the mind, restored him to a more lively sense of his existence. In the dull intervals of peace, these barbarians were immoderately addicted to deep gaming and excessive drinking ; both of which, by different means, the one by inflaming their passions, the other by extin- guishing their reason, alike relieved them from the pain of thinking. They gloried in passing whole days and nights at table ; and the blood of friends and relations often stained their numerous and drunken assemblies.^! Their debts of honor (for in that liglit they have transmitted to us those of play) they discharged with the most romantic fidelity. The desperate gamester, who had staked his person and liberty on a last throw of the dice, patiently submitted to the decision of fortune, and suffered himself to be bound, chastised, and sold into remote slavery, by his weaker but more lucky antagonist.^"! Strong beer, a liquor extracted with very little art from wheat or barley, and corrupted (as it is strongly expressed by Tacitus) into a certain semblance of wine, was suflicient for the gross purposes of German debauchery. But those who had tasted the rich wines of Italy, and afterwards of Gaul, sighed for that more delicious species of into.xication 3" Tacit. Germ. 15. ^' Tacit. Uerm. 22, 23. '* Id. 24. The Germans might borrow the aits of play from the Romana, but the pasaion is vonderlully inherent in tU« human •oecies. 262 THE DECLINE AND FALL Thfv attempted not, however, (as has since been executed with «o much success.) to naturalize the vine on the banks of the Rhine and Danube ; nor did they endeavor to procure by 'ndustry the materials of an advantageous commerce. To solirit by labor what might be ravished by arms, was esteemed unworthy of the German spirit.^^ The intemper- ate thirst of strong liquors ot'ten urged the barbarians to /nvade the provinces on which art or nature had bestowed those much envied presents. The Tuscan who betrayed his country to the Celtic nations, attracted them into Italy by the prospect of the rich fruits and delicious wines, the productions of a happier climate. -^"^ And in the same manner the Ger- man auxiliaries, invited into France during the civil wars'of the sixteenth century, were allured by the promise of plen- teous quarters in the provinces of Champaigne and Burgun- dy.35 Drunkenness, the most illiberal, but not the most dangerous of our vices, was sometimes capable, in a less civilized state of mankind, of occasioning a battle, a war, or a revolution. The climate of ancient Germany has been mollified, and the soil fertilized, by the labor of ten centuries from the time of Charlemagne. The same extent of ground which at pres- ent maintains, in ease and plenty, a million of husbandmen and artificers, was unable to supply a himdred thousand lazy warriors with the simple necessaries of life."*'^ The Germans-' abandoned their immense forests to the exercise of hunting, employed in pasturage the most considerable part of their lands, bestowed on the small remainder a rude and careless cultivation, and then accused the scantiness and sterility of a country that refused to maintain the multitude of its inhabit- ants. When the return of famine severely admonished then^ of the importance of the arts, the national distress was some- tines alleviated by the emigration of a third, perhaps, or a »^ Tacit. Germ. 14. 3^ riutarch. in Camillo. T. I.iv. v. 33. ■"* Dubo.s. Ilist. de la Monarchic Francoisc, torn. i. p. 193. ^ The Helvetian nation, which issued from a country called Swit- uerland, contained, of every age and sex, 368,000 jjorsons, (Csesar de Hell. Gal. i. 29.) At present, the number of people in the Pays de Vdud \a. small district on the banks of the Leman I>akc, much more distinguished for politeness than for industry) amounts to 112,591. See iin excellent tract of M. Muret, in the Memoires de la Soci6t<'; do Bern. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 263 fourth nart of tl eir youth. ^^ The possession and the enion/- ni«,'nt (f (iroperty are the pledges which bincJ a civilized people to an improved country. But the (lermans, who carried with them what they must valued, their arms, \hcw cattle, and their women, cheerfully ahandonei the vast silence of their woods for the unbounded hopes of plunder and con- quest. The innumerable swa'ins that issued, or seemed to issue, from the sjreat storehouse of nations, were multiplied by the fears of the VMn(iuisli('(J, and by the credulity of sue- ceedino- ases. And tVnm larls thus exaggerated, an opinion was gradually establislu ct, and has been supported by writers of distinguished icputation, that, in the age of Ca\sar and Tacitus, the inhabitants of the North were far more numerous than they are in our days.-*^ A more serious inquiry into the causes of population seems to have convuiced modern philos- ophers of the falsehood, and indeed the impossibility, of the supposition. To the names of Mariana and of iMachiavel,^-' we can oppose the ecpial names of Robertson and riijme.'*'* A warlike nation like the ( lermans, without either cities, letters, arts, or money, found some compensation for this sav- age state in the enjoyment of liberty. Their poverty secured Their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism. " Among the Suiones (says Tacitus) riches are held in honor. Tliey are therefore sub- ject to an absolute monarch, who, instead of intrusting nis ^leople with the free u>e of arms, as is practised in the rest of Germany, commits liiem to the safe custody, not of a citizen, or even of a freedman, but of a slave. The neigh- bors of the Suiones, the Sitones, are sunk even below .servitude; they obey a woman. "^' In the mention of these exceptions, the great iiistorian suihciently acknowledges the •" Paul Diacouus, r. 1. 1, 8. Machiavcl, Davila, and the rest of Paul'-, lollowurs, ruprcaciit these omigiatious too much as rcgulai Bid fOU'iTtcd mcasiu'cs. ^' Sir William Temph; aii'l Montosquiou have indulged, un this Buhject, the usu.il I'veline.-s ni' their tain y. ^* Mac-hlavel, lli-t. di Fircnze, 1. i. "Mariana, Hist. Ilispan. 1. v. c. 1. *" Robortson's Charles V. Ilunio's Political Essays.* *"■ Tacit. Gornaau. 4 t. -to. Fri-iadioiniiis (who deditatcd his sup- plement to J.ivy to Clirlst i.a of Sweden) thinks proper to be very ► It is a wise oli''°rviitii)ii of Malthus, ih it tlicfe nations " were noi pi)pid(ius i;i prop irtion t) tlie laixl they occupieil, biU to the food they proiuced. Thi'v «•.•«■ pralific from thiir puip niarals anil cdiistitutionf, but theiv in-itituliiiiis \« ore nut .-ali'idati tl to piodiicu laod f «. r tliose whom they urouf^hi nito beinji — M. ISt-V 264 THE DECLIN'E AND FALL general theory of government. We are only at a loss to con- ceive by what means riches and despotism could penetrate into a remote corner of the North, and extinguish the gen- erous flame that blazed with such fierceness on the frontier of the Roman provinces, or how the ancestors of those Danes and Norwegians, so distinguished in latter ages by their unconquered spirit, could thus tamely resign the great char- acter of German liberty.'^- Some tribes, however, on the coaf5t of the Baltic, a<:knowledged the authority of kings, though without relinquishing the rights of men,''^ but in the far greater part of Germany, the form of government was a democracy, tempered, indeed, and controlled, not so m.uch by general and positive laws, as by the occasional ascendant of birth or valor, of eloquence or superstition.'*^ Civil governments, in their first institution, are voluntary associations for mutual defence. To obtain the desired end. It is- absolutely necessary that each individual should conceive himself obliged to submit his private opinions and actions to the judgment of the greater number of his associates. The German tribes were contented with this rude but liberal outline of political society. As soon as a youth, born of free parents, had attained the age of manhood, he was introduced into the general coidncil of his countrymen, solemnly invested with a shield and spear, and adopted as an equal and worthy mem- ber of the military commonwealth The assembly of the warriors of the tribe was convened at stated seasons, or on sudden emergencies. The trial of public offences, the elec tion of magistrates, and the great business of peace and war, angry witli the Roman who expressed so very little reverence for Northern queens.* *'^ May wo not suspect that superstition was the parent of despot- ism ? 'i'he descendants of Odin, (whose race was not extinct till tlio j'car 1060) are said to have reigned in Sweden above a thousand years. The temple of Upsal was the ancient scat of rolij^ion and empire. In the year 1153 I find a singular law, prohibiting the use and profession of arms to any excejjt tlie king's guards. Is it n()t proljuble that it was colored by the pretence of reviving an old insti- tution ? See Dalin's History of Sweden in the liibliotheque llaison- nce, torn. xl. and xlv. *^ Tacit. Germ. c. 43. " Id. c. 11, 12, 13, &c. * The Suioncs and the Sitones are the ancient inhabitants of Scandinn- »ia ; their name may be traced in that of Sweden ; they did not belong to (be race of the Sucvi, but that of the non-Sucvi or Cimbri, whom the Suevi, in very remote times, drove back part to the west, part to the north ; tlicy were afterwards minnlcd with Sucvian tribes, among others the Ontl S; cvbo have left traces of their name and power in the isle of Gothland. — 3 OF THE ROMAN EMP11E. 265 were determined by its independent voice. Sometimes indec'l, these important questions were previously considcrea and prepared in a more select council of tlie principal chief tains.-'''' The magistrates might deliberate and persuade, the people only could resolve ami execute ; and the resolutions of the (jermans were for ihe most part hasty and violent. Barbarians accustomed to place their freedom in gratifying the |)resent passion, and their courage in overlooking all future consequences, turned away with indignant contempt from the remonstrances of justice and policy, and it was the practice to signify by a hollow murmur their dislike of such tanid counsels. But whenever a more popular orator pro- posed to vindicate the meanest citizen from either foreign or domestic injury, whenever he called upon his fellow-country- men to assert the national honor, or to pursue some enter- prise full of danger and glory, a loud clashing of shields and spears expressed the eager applause of the assembly. For the (jermans always met in arms, and it was constantly to be dreaded, lest an irregular multitude, inflamed with faction and strong liquors, should use those arms to enforce, as well as to declare, their furious resolves. We may recollect how often the diets of Poland have been polluted with blood, and the more numerous party has been compelled to yield to tho more violent and seditious.'*'* A general of the tribe was elected on occasions of danger; and, if the danger was pressing and extensive, several tribes concurred in the choice of the same general. The bravest warrior was named to lead his countrvmen into the field, by his example rather than by his commands. But this power, however limited, was still invidious. It expired with the war and in time of peace the German tribes acknowlediied no", any supreme chief.'*" Frinces were, however, appointed, in the general assembly, to administer justice, or rather to com- pose ditierences,'*** in their respective districts. In the choice of these magistrates, as much regard was shown to birtli ai to merit."*'-* To each was assigned, by the public, a guard, ** Crrotius changes an expression ot' Tacitus, pertractantxtr into puptructaiUur. The correction is C(iually jn^t and ini;cnious. *** Even in our ancient parliament, the barons oi'ten earrieil a qaes- tvon, not so much by the number of votes, as by that of their armed fi«llowers. « Ccesar de Bell. Gal. vi. 23. *' Minuunt controvcrsias, is a very happy expression of Cajsar's. *" llei;os ex nobilitate, duces ex virtule sumunt. Tacit, 'ionn. 7 14* ' and military service ■'*"' These condi- tions are, however, very repugnant to the maxims of the ancient (jermans, who delighted in mu'ual presents ; but without either im|)osing, or acce()ting, the weight of obli- gations.''-'' " In the days of chivalry, or more properly of romance, all the men were brave, and nil the women were chaste;" and notwithstanding the latter of these virtues is acquired and preserved with much more difficulty than the former, it is ascribed, almost without exception, to the wives of the ancient Germans. Po'ygamy was not in use, except s'niong the prmces, and among them only for the sake of multiplying their alliances. Divorces were prohibited by manners rather than by laws. Adulteries were punished as rare and inex|)i- able crimes; nor was seduction justififid by example and fashion.''*' We may (N-isily discover that Tacitus nidulges an honest pleasure in the contrast of b;frbarian virtue w-ith the »■'' Tacit. Germ. i:5. 14. '* Esjiric dps Loi.x, I. xxx. o, 3. The hrilliant iiniiiiination of M'lntesnuio-,! is corrected, however, by the dry. cold reason of the A1)1h! de Miihlv. Ob>ervacl()us sur 1" Historic dc Franco, torn. i. p. s.-ie. ** (iaiideiit inimeribus, se locld msiiiro compassion, o. procure lior a second husband. 18, IH.' 206 THE DECLINE AND FALL dissolute conduct of the Roman ladies ; yet tliere are some strilving circumstances that give an air of truth, or at least probability, to the conjugal faith and chastity of the Germans. Although the progress of civilization has undoubtedly con- tributed to assuage the fiercer passions of human nature, it seems to have been less favorable to the virtue of chastity, whose most dangerous enemy is the softness of the mind. The reiincments of life corrupt while they polish the inter- course of the sexes. The gross appetite of love bccomea most dangerous when it is elevated, or rather, indeed, dis- guised by sentimental passion. The elegance of dress, of motion, and of manners, gives a lustre to beauty, and inflames the senses through the imagination. Lu.xurious entertainments, midnight dances, and licent'ous spectacles, present at once temptation and opportunity to female frailty.^'' From such dangers the unpolished wives of the barbarians were secured by poverty, solitude, and the painful cares of a domestic life. The German huts, open, on every side, to the *^ye of indiscre- tion or jealousy, were a better safeguard of conjugal fidelity, than the walls, the bolts, and the eunuchs of a Persian hararn. To this reason another may be added, of a more honorable nature. I'he Germans treated their women with esteem and confidence, consulted them on every occasion of importance, and fondly believed, that in their breasts resided a sanctity and wisdom more than human. Somr- of the interpreters of fate, such as Velleda, in llie Batavian war, governed, in the name of the deity, the fiercest nations of Germany.^** The lest of the se.x, without being adored as goddesses, were re spected as the free and equal coinpamons of soldiers; asso ciated 'even by the marriage ceremony to a life of toil, of danger, and of glory. •''■' hi ihcir great invasions, the eam|>s of the barbarians were filUid with a multitude of women, who remained lirm and unii^uinted amidst the sound of arms, llie various forms of destruction, and the honoralilc wounds of their sons and husbands."'^ Fainting armies of Germans have, *' Ovid employs two hundred lines h\ the research of jilacos tlio most favoral)Ie to love. Above all, he considers the theatre as the best adapted to collect the beauties of Rome, and to mult them int»; tenderness and sensuality. ^'* Tacit. Hist. iv. (il, fio. ** The marriage present was a yoke of oxon, horses, and arms. Bee Germ. c. 18. Tacitus is sommvhat too florid on the subject. •>" The change of exigere into exui/ere is a most excellent ^orrf^n tion. OF rilE ROMAN EMPIRK, 269 more than once, been driven back u|)on the enemy, by tho generous despur of tlie women, who dreaded death much less than servitude. If the day was irrecoverablv lost, they well knew how to deliver themselves and their children, with their own hands, from an insulting victor."' Heroines of such a cast may claim our admiration ; but they were most as- suredly neither lovely, nor very susceptible of love. Whilst they affected to tiinulate the stern virtues of vuui^ they must have resigned that attractive softness, in which principally consist the charm and weakness of woman. Conscious prido taught the German females to suppress every tender i motion that stood in competition with honor, and the first honor of the se.K has ever been that of chastity. The sentiments and conduct of these high-spirited matrons may, at once, be con- sidered as a cause, as an effect, and as a proof of the general character of the nation. Female courage, however it may be raised by fanaticism, or confirmed by habit, can be only a faint and imperfect iiiiitation of the manly valor that distin- guishes the age or country in which it may be found. The religious system of the Germans (if the wild opinions of savages can deserve that name) was dictated by their wants, their fears, and their ignorance.^- They adored the great visible objects and agents of nature, the Sim and the Moon, the Fire and the Earth ; together with those imaginary deities, who were supposed to preside over the m(jst important occu|)alions of human life. They were persuaded, that, by some ridiculous arts of divination, they could discover the will of the superior beings, and that human sacrifices were the most precious and acceptable offering to their altars. Some applause has been hastily bestowed on the sublime noticn, entertained by that people, of the Deity, whom they neitl'.'j.- c;oiifiiied within the walls of a temple, nor represented by any human figure; J)ut when we recollect, that the Ger- jnant were unskilled in architecture, and totally unacquainted •" Taoit. Gcnn. c. 7. Plutarch in Mario. Before the wives of the Tcutoues destroyed thcmnolves and their children, they had offered to surrender, on condition that they should be received as the slaves of the vestal virgins. "^ Tacitus has employed a few lines, and Cluverius one hundred and twenty-four pages, on tins obscure subject. The former discov- «i;rs in Germany the gods of Greece and Rome. The latter is pos- itive, that, under the emblems of the sun, the moon, and the firr, hie DJoua ancestors worshipped the Trinity in unity. 270 THE DECLINE AND FALL With tlii^ art of sculpture, we shall readily assign the true reason ol" a scruple, vvliich arose not so much from a supe- riority of -eason, as from a want of ingenuity. The only temples ii. Germany were dark and ancient groves, conse- crated by the reverence of succeeding generations. Their secret gloom, the imagined residence of an invisible power by presenting no distinct object of fear or worship, impressed tin. mind with a siill deeper sense of religious horror ;'^^ and the priests, ni.le and illiterate as they were, bad been taught by experience the use of every artifice that could preserve and tbrtify impressions so well suited to their own interest. The same ignorance, which renders barbarians incapable of conceiving or embracing tlie useful restraints of laws, exposes them naked and unarmed to the blind terrors of su- perstition. The CJerman priests, improving this favorable temper of their countrymen, had assumed a jurisdiction evini in temporal concerns, which the magistrate could not venture to exercise ; and the haughty warrior patiently submitted to the lash of correction, when it was inflicted, not by any human power, but by the iinmeilialo order of the god of' war.**'* The defects of civil policy were sometimes su()plied by the interposition of ecclesiastical authority. The latter was constantly exerted to maintain silence and ilecencv in the popular assemblies; Jind was sometimes extended to a more enlarged concern for the national welfare. A solemn |)rocession was occasionally cehibratcd in the present coun- tries of Mecklenburgh and Pomerania. The unknown svm- bol of the Earthy covered with a thick veil, was placed on a carriage drawn by cows ; and ■ in this manner tli." goddess, whose common residence was in the Isle of Kugen, visited several adjaceni tribes of her worshi oners. I)urin trac: "^ Ttio sacred wood, desuiihi'd with siicli sublime horror t)y Lucitl, was in tlie ui'ii;hb(iiiiood ot Aiarscillcii.; but there wore lUiiiiy of the same kind in GLTiUiiny.* ^* 'I'ucit. (iermania, c. 7. *' Tacit. Gcrmania, c. 10. • The ancient Gennaiis hud shapele-is idols, and, when they hogftn t'l buiiJ more settled habitations, they raised also temples, such as thai to tue goddess Teufana, who presided over diviiiutio.i. Mee Ade.uuir. iiisi af All J. Germans, p. 290. — G. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 2? J of God, 50 oftrn and so InefTectually proclaimod by he clorgy of the elevf.Hith century, was an obvious imitaticn cf this an- cient custom."'' But the influence of religion was far more powerful to in- flame, than to moderate, the fierce passions of the Germans fnterest aiuJ fanalicisin often pron)|)te(l its ministers to sanctity ihe most (iarin this doctrine to thd Gniils, l)ut M. I'cll'iuticr (Historic des Celtcs, 1. iii. c. 18) labors to reduce their exi)rcssious to a ni')rc orthodox sense. '" Concerning this <^ross but alluring doi'trino of the Rdda, sea Fable xx. in the curious version ol that book, published by M. Mailut, ai his lntrodu«;tiou lo the History of Itenmark 272 THE DECLIiNE AND FALl a momentary glow of martial ardor. But bow faint, how cold is the sensation v/hich a peaceful mind can receive from solitaiy study ! It was in the hour of battle, or in the feast of victory, that the bards celebrated the glory of the heroea of aixiient days, the ancestors of those warlike chieftains, who listened with transport to their artless but animated strains. The view of arms and of danger heightened tho effect of the military song; and the passions which it tended to excite, the desire of fame, and the contempt of death w<^re the habitual sentiments of a German mind."^' * Such was the situation, and such were the manners, of tho ancient Germans. Their climate, their want of learning, of arts, and of laws, their notions of honor, of gallantry, and of religion, their sense of freedom, impatience of peace, and thirst of enterprise, all contributed to form a people of mili- tary heroes. And yet we find, that during more than two hundred and fifty years that elapsed from the defeat of Varus to the reign of Decius, these formidable barbarians made few considerable attempts, and not any material imitression on the luxurious and enslaved provinces of the em|)ire. Their prog- ress was checked by their want of arms and discipline, and their fury was diverted by the intestine divisions of ancient Germany. I. It has been observed, with ingenuity, and not without '■i See Tacit. Germ. c. 3. Diod. Sicul. I. v. Strabo. 1. iv. p. 197. The classical reader may romembor the rank of Demodocus in the Phaeacian court, and the ardor infused by Tyrf.eus into the fainting Spartans. Yet there is little probability that the (jrecks and the Germans were the same people. Much learned trifling might be spared, if our antiquarians would condescend to reflect, that similai manners will natiuaUy be produced by similar situations. * Besides these battle songs, the Germaiis sang at their festival l)anquets, (Tac. Ann. i. 6o,) and around the bodies of their slain heroes. King The- odoric, of the trilie of the Gotlis, killed in a l)attle ui;ainst Attila, was hon- ored by snngs while he was borne from the field of battle. Jornandes, c 41. The same honor wus paid to the remains of Attila. ll>i(/. c. 40. According to some historians, the (icrnians Inyl songs also at their wed- dings ; but this appears to nie iuconsisten-t with their customs, in which marriage was no more than tlie purcdiase of a wife. Besides, tb.ere is but one in.stauce of this, that of the Gothic king, Ataulph, who sang himself the nu|)tial hymn when he espoused Placidia, sister of the emperors Arca- dius and llonorius, (Olympiodor. p. 8.) Hut this marriage was celebrated according to the Roman rites, of which the luiptial songs formed a part Adebmg, p. 382. — G. Chariem.vgne is said to have collected the national songs of the aucieut 3t'rm.an8. liginhard, Vil. Car Mat;.— M. OF TIIF, ROJfAN KMl'IUE. 273 h'utli, tliat tlip oomnwnrincipal strength of the Germans consisted in their infantry,"^ which wa*(li-awn up in several deep colimins, according to the distinction of ti'ibes and families. Impatient oi" fatigue and delay, these half-armed warriors rushed to battle with dissonant >houls and disordei-tnl ranks; and some- times, by the ef[()rt of native valor, prevailed over the con- strained .■md more artificial bravery of the Roman merce- naries. l)Ut as the liarbai-ians poured forth their whole souls on the first onset, they knew not how to I'ally or to retire. A repu;?e was a sure defeat ; and a defeat was most com- Uioiilv total de^tructiiin. AVhen we ivcollect the complete armor of the Roman ^oldil'rs, their discipline, exerci-es, evo- huion.-, f()rlified camps, and military engines, it appears a just .Dj^itter of .-urprise, iiow the nakeil an:arp;init, Tacit. Germ. c. G. EitJier tliat historian used a vafjue (.■-xiiiessioii, w lie nieaiU that tlicy were tlu-owti at ramfoiu. '••' It was tiieir piiiiciiial liistiuclijii lioni tfie Sauiutians, wlio ic^nt» »1J>' toii!;lit uii liorsL'iiack. 274 THE DKCT.INE AND FAT.T^ epiril of disobedience and sedition had relaxed the discipline of the Roman armies. Tiie introduction of barbarian auxil iaries into tliose armies, was a measure attended with very obvious dangers, as it might gradually instruct the Germans in the arts of war and of policy. Although they were admit- ted in small numbers and with the strictest |)recaution. the example of Civilis was proper to convince the Romans, that the danger was not imagrnary, and that their precautions were not always sufficient.""* During the cuvil wars that tbllowed the death of Nero, that artful and intrepid Batavian, whom his enemies condescended to compar*^ with Hannibal and Sertorius,^''^ formed a great design of freedom and ambition Eif the .several tribes was extremi^ly loose and prticarious. The barbari;iii3 wen; easily provoked ; they kntnv not how to forgive an injury, much less an insult ; their rcsciitmf.'Uts were hloody ami ini- '•* 'I'ho ri'Iutioii ot" this eiitor]>risi> occupies a j^roat ]);irt f»f the fourth and tilth lidoks ot tiic History of Tacitus, and is more rcinarliable for Ll« o!o iiiciicp tiian ])crs])icvii*i,y. 8ir Homy Savillo has observed levcral iua .curacies. ''' 'I'acil. Hist. iv. i:{. Lilic tliem he had lo-t an (!yo. '* It was conuuncd between the two lu'anciies of the ohl Ilhinc. a» ihoy subsisted IjotVire the face of the country was changed by ar^ lud iiaiun'. See Ciuver. (iernian. .\ntiij. 1. iii. c. 'M) :i7. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 275 p^acnhle. The casual disputes that so frcquf ntly happened in their tiimuhuous parties of hunting or drinking, were sufTicieni to inflame tiie minds of whole nations; the private feuds of any considerahle 'chieftains diffused itself among their follow- ers and allies. To chastise the insolent, or to phjnder the defenceless, were alike causes of war. The most formidable states of Germany affected to encompass their territories w '.\\ a wide frontier of solitude and devastation. The awful dis- tance preserved by their neiglibors attested the terror of their anns, and in some measure defended them from the danger of unexpected incursions."' "The Bructeri* (it is Tacitus wdio now speaks) were totally exterminated by the neighboring tribes,"** provoked by their insolence, allured by the hopes of spoil, and perhaps inspired by the tutelar deities of the emjjire. Above si.\ty thousand barbarians were destroyed ; not by the Roman arms, but in our sight, and for our entertainment. May the nation.s, enemies of Rome, ever preserve this enmity to each other ! We have now attained the utmost verge of prosperity,''^ and have nothing left to demand of fortune, except the discord of the barbarians."**" — These sentiments, less worthy of the humanity than of the patriotism of Tacitus, express the invaria- ble maxims of the policy of his countrymen. They deemed it a much safer expedient to divide than to combat the bar- barians, from whose defeat they could derive neither honor nor advantage. The money and negotiations of Rome insin- uated themselves into the heart of (Germany ; and every art of seduction was used with dignity, to conciliate those nation.* whom their proximity to the Rliine or Danube might render the most useful friends as well as the most troublesome " Caesar dc Bell. Gal. 1. vi. 23. '* They are mentioned, however, in the ivth and vtV. eer' irios by Nazarius, Annniaiius, Claudiau, kc, as a tribe of Franks, .ice C'lu- ver. Germ. Antiq. 1. iii. c. 13. '* Ur(icntibiis is the common reading ; but good sense, Lipsius, and Bome MSS. declare for Venit-ntibus. *' Tacit. Geimania, c. 33. The pious Abbe dc la IJletcrie is veiy angry with Tacitus, talks of the devil, who was a murderer fron. tho beginning, &c., &c. • The Bructeri were a non-Suevian tribe, who dwelt below the duchies kf Oldenbur^h and Laueiilmrjih, on the borders of tho Lipjip, and in the Hartz Mountains. It was among them tLiat the priestess ^'elle(la ubtained Her reuown. — G. 276 THE DECLINE AND FALL enemies. Chiefs of renown and power were flattered by the mos trifling presents, which they receiver) either as marks of distinction, or as the instruments of luxury. In civil dissen- sions the weaker faction endeavored to strengthen its interest by entering into secret connections with the governons of the frontier provinces. Every quarrel among the Germans was fomented by the intrigues of Rome ; and every plan of unirm and public good was defeated by the stronger bias of private iealousy and interest.^' The general conspiracy which terrified the Romans under the reign of Marcus Antoninus, comprehended almost all the nations of Germany, and even Sarmatia, from the mouth of the Rhine to that of the Danube.^- It is impossible for us to determine whether this hasty confederation was formed- by necessity, by reason, or by passion ; but we may rest assured, that tlie barbarians were neither allured by the indolence, or provoked by the ambition, of the Roman monarch. This dangerous invasion required all the firmness and vigilance of Marcus. He fixed generals of ability in the several stations of attack, and assumed in person the conduct of the most im- portant province on the Upper Danube. After a long and doubtful conflict, the spirit of the barbarians was subdued. The Quadi and the Marcomanni,^-* who had Uiken the lead in the war, were the most severely punished in its catastrophe. Thev were commanded to retire five miles '^^ from their own banks of the Danube, and to deliver up the flower of the youth, who were immediately sent into Britain, a remote island, where *' Many traces of this policy may be discovered in Tacitus and Dion ; and many more may be inferred from the principles of human nature. ®^ Hist. Aug. p. 31. Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xxxi. c. 5. Aurcl. Victor. The emperor Marcus was reduced to sell the rich furniture of the palace, and to enlist slaves and robbers. ^ The Marcoraanni, a colony, who, from the banks of the. Rhine, occupi':d Ijohomia and Moravia, had once erected a great and formi- dable monarchy under their king Maroboduus. See Strabo, I. vii. J). 290.] Veil. Pat. ii. 108. Tacit. Annal. ii. 63.* ^* Mr. Wotton (History of Rome, p. 166) increases the prohibition to ton times the distance. His reasoning is specious, but not con- clusive. Pive miles were sufficient for a fortified barrier. • The !Mark-niannen, the March-men or borderers. There seems littl* Jcubt that this was an appellation, rather than a f-oper name, of a part ^f the great Suevian or Teutonic ••ace. — M. OF THE ROMAN CMPIRF 277 they might be secure as hostages, and useful at soldiers.®' On the frequent rebellions of the Quadi and Marccimanni, the irritated emperor resolved to reduce their country into the form of a province. His designs were disappointed by death. This formidable league, however, the only one that appears in tlo two first centuries of the Imperial history, was entirely d.5sipated, without leaving any traces behind in Germany. In the course of this introductory chapter, we have confined ourselves to the general outlines of the manners of Germany, without attempting to describe or to distinguish the various tribes which filled that great country in the time of Ca3sar, of Tacitus, or of Ptolemy. As the ancient, or as new tribes suc- cessively present themselves in the series of this history, we shall concisely mention their origin, their situation, and their particular character. Modern nations are fixed and permanent societies, connected among themselves by laws and govern- ment, bound to their native soil by arts and agriculture. The German tribes were voluntary and fluctuating associations of soldiers, almost of savages. The same territory often changed its inhabitants in the tide of conquest and emigration. The same communities, uniting in a plan of defence or invasion, bestowed a new title on their new confederacy. The dis- solution of an ancient confederacy restored to the independent tribes their peculiar but long-forgotten appellation. A vic- torious slate often communicated its own name to a vanquished people. Sometimes crowds of volunteers flocked from all parts to the standard of a favorite leader ; his camp became their country, and some circumstance of the enterprise soon gave a common denomination to the mixed multitude. The distinctions of the ferocious invaders were perpetually varied by themselves, and confounded by the astonished subjects of the Roman empire.^^ Wars, and the administration of public affairs, are the prin- cipal subjects of history; but the number of persons interested m these busy scenes is very different, according to the different condition tjf mankind. In great monarchies, millions of obe- D GALLIENUS. THE GENERAf. IKRUPTION OF THE BAI.BAKI* ANS. — THE THIRTY TVRANTS. From the greai secular games celel)rated by Philip, to the death of the emperor Gallienus, there elapsed twenty years of shame and misfortune. During that calamitous period eveiy instant of time was marked, every province of the Roman world was afflicted, by barbarous invaders and mili tary tyrants, and the ruined empire seemed to approach the last and fatal moment of its dissolution. The confusion of the times, and the scarcity of authentic memorials, oppose equal difficulties to the historian, who attempts to preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration. Surrounded with imperfect fragments, always concise, often obscure, and some- times contradictory, he is reduced to collect, to compare, and to conjecture : and though he ought never to place his con- jectures in the rank of facts, yet the knowledge of human nature, and of the sure operation of its fierce and unrestrained passions, might, on some occasions, supply the want of histor icdl materials. There is not, for instance, any dffficulty in conceiving, that the successive murders of so many eniperors had loosened all the ties of allegiance between the prince and people ; that all the generals of Philip were disposed to imitate the example of their master ; and that the caprice of armies, long since haoituated to frequent and violent revolutions, might every da raise to the throne the most obscure of their fellow-soldiers. History can only add, that the relxillion against the emperor Philip broke out in the summer of the year two hundred and forty-nine, among the legions of Ma^sia ; and that a subaltern officer,^ named Marinus, was the object df their seditious choice. Philip was alarmed. He dreaded lest tiie treason of •.he MiEsian army shoidd prove the first spark of a general 'I'lu' px'.ri s,ion u- f I hy Z isinms and Zonaras may signify that Marmus' coMiHiWiiovi n eeia;ir>, ii cohort, or a legion. 279 R80 THE DECLTNE aNU -ALL conflagration. Distracted with the consciousness of his guih and of his danger, he communicated the intelligence to the senate. A gloomy silence prevailed, the effect of fear, and perhaps of disaffection ; till at length Decius, one of the assem- bly, assuming a spirit worthy of his noble extraction, ventured to discover more intrepidity than the emperor seemed to possess. He treated the whole business with contempt, as a hasty and inconsiderate tumult, and Philip's rival as a phantom of royalty, who in a very {"ew days would be destroyed by the same inconstancy that had created him. The speedy comple- tion of the prophecy inspired Philip with a just esteem for so able a counsellor ; and Decius appeared to him the only person capable of restoring peace and discipline to an army whose tumultuous spirit did not immediately subside after the murder of Marinus. Decius,^ who long resisted his own nomination, s;eems to have insinuated the danger of presenting a leader of merit to the angry and apprehensive minds of the soldiers ; and his prediction was again confirmed by the event The legions of Ma?sia forced their judge to become their accomplice. They left him only the alternative of death or the purple. His subsequent conduct, after that decisive measure, was unavoidable. He conducted, or followed, his army to the confines of Italy, whither Philip, collecting all his force to repel the formidable competitor whom he had raised up, advanced to meet him. The Imperial ti'oops were superior in number ; but the rebels formed an army of veterans, com- manded by an able and experienced leader. Philip was either killed in the battle, or put to death a few days afterwards at Verona. His son and associate in the empire was massacred at Rome by the Praetorian guards ; and the victorious Decius, with more favorable circumstances than the ambition of that age can usually plead, was universally acknowledged by the senate and provinces. It is reported, that, immediately after his reluctant acceptance of the title of Augustus, he had assured Philip, by a private message, of his innocence and * His birth at Bubalia, a little village in Pannonia, (Eiitrop. ix. Victor, in Ca\sarib. ct Epitom.,) seems to contradict, imless it was merely accidental, his su])posed descent from the Decii. Six hundred years had bestowed nobility on the Decii : but at the commtnccnicnt of that period, they were only plebeians of merit, mid among the first who shared the consulship with the hanijlity patricians. I'lebeiaB Deciorum aniinie, &c. Juvenal, Sat. viii. 2.')i. Sec tlic spiriicd "pecn of Docius, in Livy, x. 9, 10. OF THE ROMAN EMPIKE. 281 loyalty solemnly protesting, that, on his arrival in Italy, hfs would resign ihe Imperial ornaments, and return to the con- dition of an obedient subject. Ills professions mighl be sin- cere ; but in the situation where fortune had placed him, it was scarcely possible that he could cither forgive or be for- given.3 The emperor Decius had employed a few months in tho works of peace and the administration of justice, when ]m was summoned to the banks of the Danube by the invasion of the Goths This is the first considerable occasion in which history mentions that great people, who afterwards broke the Roman power, sacked the Capitol, and reigned in Gaul, Spain, and Italy. So memorable was the part which they acted m the subversion of the Western empire, that the name of Goths is frequently but improperly used as a general appellation of rude and warlike barbarism. In the beginning of the sixth century, and after the con- quest of Italy, the Goths, in possession of present greatness, very naturally indulged themselves in the prospect of past and of future glory. They wished to preserve the memory of their ancestors, and to transmit to posterity their own achieve- ments. The principal minister of the court of Ravenna, the learned Cassiodorus, gratified the inclination of the conquerors in a Gothic history, which consisted of twelve books, now re- duced to the imperfect abridgment of Jornandes."* These writers passed with the most artful conciseness over the mis- fortunes of the nation, celebrated its successful valor, and adorned the triumph with many Asiatic trophies, that more properly belonged to the people of Scythia. On the faith of ancient songs, the uncertain, but the only memorials of bar- Oarians, they deduced the first origin of the Goths from the vast island, or peninsula, of Scandinavia.^ * That extreme ' Zofiimus, 1. i. p. 20, c. 22, Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 624, edit. Louvic. * See the prefaces of Cassiodorus and Jornandcs : it is surprising that the latter should be omitted in the excellent edition, published by Grotius, of the Gothic writers. * On the authority of Ablavius, Jomandes quotes some old Gothic Hiroaicles in verse. De Keb. Goticis, c. 4. • The Goths have inhabited Scandinavia, but it was not their original tabitation. This great nation was anciently of the Siievian race ; it occu- pied, in the time of Tacitus, and long before, Mcckli'iihuji^h, PomcraTiia, Southern Prussia, and the north-west of Poland. A little before the birth 15 282 Tim DECLINE AND ALL country of the North was not unknown to the ::onquerors of Iialy : the ties of ancient consanguinity had bee:i strengthened by recent offices of friendship ; and a Scandinavian king had cheerfully abdicated his savage greatness, that he m;^ht pasd the remainder of his days in the peaceful and pjlished court of Ravenna.^ Many vestiges, which cannot be ascribed to the arts of popular vanity, attest the ancient residence of the Goths in the countries beyond the Baltic. From the time of the geographer Ptolemy, the southern part of Sweden seemj to have continued in the possession of the less enterprising remnant of the nation, and a large territory is even at present divided into east and west Gothland. During the middle ages, (from the ninth to the twelfth century,) whilst Christianity was advancing with a slow progress into the North, the Goths and the Swedes composed two distinct and sometimes hostile * Jorniindes, c. 3. of J. C, and in the first years of that century, they belonged to the king dom of Marbod, king of the Marcomanni: but Cotwalda, a young Gothij prince, delivered them from that tyranny, and established his own power over the kingdom of the Marcomanni, already much weakened by the vic- tories of Tiberius. The power of the Goths at that time must have been great : it was probably from them that the Sinus Codanus (the Baltic) took this name, as it was afterwards called Mare Suevicum, and Mare Venedi- cum, during the superiority of the proper Suevi and the Venedi. The epoch in which the Goths passed into Scandinavia is unknown. See Adelung, Hist, of Anc. Germany, p. 200. Gatterer, Hist. Univ. 458. — G. M. St. Martin observes, that the Scandinavian descent of the Goths rest* on the authority of Jornandes, who professed to derive it from the tradi tions of the Goths. He is supported by Procopius and Paulus Diaconus Yet the Goths are unquestionably the same with the Getae of the earlier historians. St. Martin, note on Le Beau, Hist, du has Empire, iii. 324. The identity of the Getaj and Goths is by no means generally admitted. On the whole, they seem to be one vast branch of the Indo-Teutonic r.ace, who spread irregularly towards the north of Europe, and at different peri- ods, and in different regions, came in contact with the more civili:,ed nations of the south. At this period, there seems to have been a reflux of these Gothic tribes from the North. Malte Brun considers that there are strong grounds for receiving the Tslandic traditions commented by the Danish Varro, M. Suhm. From these, and the voyage of Pytheas, which Malte Brun considers genuine, the Goths were in possc.ssion of Scandinavia, Ey-Gothland, 2oO year? before J. C, and of a tract on the continent (Rcid-Gothland) between th€ mouths of the Vistula and the Oder. In their southern migration, they followed the course of the Vistula ; afterwards, of the Dnieper. Malte Brun, Geogr. i, p. 387, edit. 1832. Geijer, the historian of Sweden, ably maintains the Scandinavian or -in of the Goths. The Gothic language, •ccording to Bopp, is the link . 'tween the Sanscrit and the modern Teu- tonic dialects : " I think that I am reading Sanscrit when I am reading Ulphila.s." Bopp Conjugations System der Sanscrit Spracle. prefaca p X — M. * OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 283 members of the samo monarchy. "^ The latter of these two names has prevailed without extinguishing the former. The Swedes, who might well bo satisfied with their own fame in arms, have, in every age, claimed the kindred glory of tho •Joths. In a moment of discontent against the court of Rome, Charles the Twelfth insinuated, that his victorious troops were not degenerated from their brave ancestors, who had already subdued the mistress of the world. ^ Till the end of the eleventh century, a celebrated temple subsisted at Upsal, the most considerable town of the Swedes and Goths. It was enriched with the gold which the Scandi- navians had acquired in their piratical adventures, and sanc- tified by the uncouth representations of the three principal deities, the god of war, the goddess of generation, and the god of thunder. In the general festival, that was solemnized every ninth year, nine animals of every species (without ex- cepting the human) were sacrificed, and their bleeding bodies suspended in the sacred grove adjacent to the temple.^ The only traces that now subsist of this barbaric superstition are contained in the Edda,* a system of mythology, compiled in Iceland about the thirteenth century, and studied by the learned of Denmark and Sweden, as the most valuable re- mains of their ancient traditions. Notwithstanding the mysterious obscurity of th^Edda, we can easily distinguish two persons confounded under the name of Odin ; the god of war, and the great legislator of Scandi- navia. The latter, the Mahomet of the North, instituted a religion adapted to the climate and to the people. Numerouti tribes on either side of the Baltic were subdued by the invin- ^ See in the Prolegomena of Grotius some large extracts from Adair of Bremen, and Saxo-Gramraaticus. The former wrote in the yeai 1077, the latter flourished about the year 1200. * Voltaire, Ilistoire de Charles XII. 1. iii. When the Austrian desired the aid of the court of Rome against Gustavus Adolphus Ihcy always represented that conqueror as the lineal successor of Alaric. Ilarte's History of Gustavus, vol. ii. p. 123. ' See Adam of Bremen in Grotii Prolegomenis, p. 10-5. The tem- ple of Upsal was destroyed by Ingo, king of Sweden, who began his reign in the year 1075, and about fourscore years afterwards a Chris- •ian cathedral was erected on its ruins. See Dalin's History of Sweden, in the Biblioth^que Raisonnce. * The Eddas have at length l)ccn made accessible to Eirt penn ■scholars ay the completion of the publication of the Saemundine Edda by the Ama Magnaiau Conlmis^^ion, in 3 vols. 4to., with a copii us lexicou of torihern mythology. — M. 284 THE DECLINE AND {■'ALL cible val(>r of Odin, by his persuasive eloquence and bj tht.' fame which he acquired of a most skilful magician. The faith that he had propagated, during a long and prosperous life, he confirmed by a voluntary death. Apprehensive of the ignominious approach of disease and infirmity, he resolved to expire as became a warrior. In a solemn assembly of the Swedes and Goths, he wounded himself in nine mortal places, hastening away (as he asserted with his dying voice) to pre- pare the feast of heroes in the palace of the God of war.^*' The native and proper habitation of Odin is distinguished by the appellation of As-gard. The happy resemblance of that name with As-burg, or As-of,ii words of a similar signin- cation, has given rise to an historical system of so pleasing a contexture, that we could almost wish to persuade ourselves of its truth. It is supposed that Odin was the chief of a tribe of barbarians which dwelt on the banks of the Lake Mseotis, till the fall of Mithridates and the arms of Pompey menaced the North with servitude. That Odin, yielding with indignant fury to a power which he was unable to resist, conducted his tribe from the frontiers of the Asiatic Sarmatia into Sweden, with the great design of forming, in that inaccessible retreat of freedom, a religion and a people, which, in some remote age, might be subservient to his immortal revenge ; when his invincible Goths, armed with martial fanaticism, should issue in numerous swarms from the neighborhqpd of the Polar circle, to chastise the oppressors of mankind. ^'^ '" Mallet, Introduction k I'Histoire du Dannemarc. " Mallet, c. Lv. p. 55, has collected from Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, and Stephanus Byzantinus, the vestige? of such a city and people. '* This wonderful expedition of Odin, which, by deducing the enmity of the (ioths and Romans from so memorable a cause, might supply the noble groundwork of an epic poem, cannot safely be received as authentic history. According to the obvious sense of the Edda, and the interpretation of the most skilful critics, As-gard, instead of denoting a real city of the Asiatic Sarmatia, is the ticti tious appellation of the mystic abode of the gods, the Olympus of Scandinavia ; from whence the prophet was supjioscd to descend, when he announced his new religion to the Gothic nations, who were already seated in the southern parts of Sweden.* • A curious letter may be consulted on this subject from the Swede, Ihre counsellor in the Chancery of Upsal, printed at Upsal by Edman, in 1772 *nd translated into Genr.an by M. SchlOzer. Gottingen, printed fol Dietericht, 1779. — G. Gibbon, at a later period of his work recanted his opinion of the tmUi OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 285 If SO rnanv successfve generations of Gotlis were ct xiblo Oi preserving a faint tradition of tlieir Scandinavian origin, we must not expect, from such unlettered barbarians, any distinct account of the time and circumstances of their emigration. To cross the Baltic was an easy and natural attempt. The Inhabitants of Sweden were masters of a sufficient numbui of large vessels, with oars,'^ and the distance is little more than one hundred miles from Carlscroon to the nearest ports of Pouierania and Prussia. Here, at length, we land on firm and historic ground. At least as early as the Christian sera,i* &tid as late as the age of the Antonines,'-'' the Goths wer* established towards the mouth of the Vistula, and in that fer- tile province where the commercial cities of Thorn, Elbing, Konincsbcrs, and Dantzick, were long afterwards founded. i*" Westward of the G(jths, the numerous tribes of the Vandals were spread along the banks of the Oder, and the sea-coast of Pomerania and Mecklenburgh. A striking resemblance of manners, complexion, religion, and language, seemed to Indicate that the Vandals and the Goths were originally one great people.'^ The latter appear to have been subdivided into Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Gepidae.'^ The distinction '' Tacit. Germania, c. 44. '* Tacit. Aunal. ii. 62. If we could yield a firm assent to the navi- gations of Pythcas of Marseilles, we must allow that the tioths had passed the Baltic- at least three hundred years before Clirist. '^ Ptolemy, 1. ii. '" By the German colonies who followed the arms of the Teutonic knights. The conquest and conversion of Prussia were completed by those adventurers in the thirteenth century. '^ Pliny (Hist. Natur. iv. 14) and Procopius (in Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 1) agree in this opinion. They Uved in distant ages, and possessed different means of investigating the truth. "* The Ostro and Visi, the eastern and western Goths, obtained those denominations from their orisrinal scats in Scandinavia.* In of this expedition of Odin. The Asiatic origin of the Goths is almost certain from the affinity of their language to the Sanscrit and Persian ; b\it their northern migration must have taken place long before the peri(.d ol liistory. The tiaiisfunnatiou of the deity Odin into a warrior chieftain., and the whole legend of his establishment in Scandinavia, is probably a theory of the northern writers, when all mythology was reduced to hero ▼••orship'. — M. * It was not in Scandinavia that the Goths were- divided into Ostrogoths and Visigoths ; that division took plaee after their irrui)tion into Daeia in the third centtiry : those who came from Mecklenburgh and F( mcrania vcre called Visii^nths ; those who came from t'ae south of Prussia, and th^ north-west of Poland, called themselves Ostrogoths. Adelung, Hist. Ail. p 202. Gatterer, Hist. Uuiv. 431. — G. 28b* THE E£CLINE AND FALL among tlie Vandals was more strongly markeil by the inde« pendenf: names of Heruli, Burgundians, Lombards, and a variety of other petty states, many of which, in a future age, expanded themselves into powerful monarchies.* In the age of the Antonines, the Goths were still seated in Prussia. About the reign of Alexander Severus, the Roman province of Dacia had already experienced their proximity by frequent and destructive inroads.'^ In this interval, there- flll their future marches and settlements they preserved, with theii names, the same relative situation. When they first departed from Sweden, the infant colony was contained in three vessels. The third, being a heavy sailer, lagged behind, and the crew, which afterwards swelled into a nation, received from that circumstance the appellation of Gepidae or Loiterers. Jornandes, c. 17. '* See a fragment of Peter Patricius in the Excerpta Legationum ; and with regard to its probable date, see Tillemont, Hist, des Empe- feurs, torn. iii. p. 346. * This opinion is by no means probable. The Vandals and the Goths vjqually belonged to the great division of the Suevi, but the two tribes were very different. Those who have treated on this part of history, appear to me to have neglected to remark that the ancients almost always gave the name of the dominant and conquering people to all the weaker and conquered races. So Pliny calls Vindeli, Vandals, all the people Oi the north-east of Europe, because at that epoch the Vandals were doubtless the conquering tribe. Csesar, on the contrary, ranges under the name of Suevi, many of the tribes whom Pliny reckons as Vandals, because the Suevi, properly so called, were then the most powerful tribe in Germany. When the Goths, become in their turn conquerors, had subjugated the nations whom they encountered on their way, these nations lost their name with their liberty, and became of Gothic origin. The Vandals them- selves were then considered as Goths; the Heruli, the Gepidae, &c., suf- fered the same fate. A common origin was thus attributed to tribes who had only been united by the conquests of some dominant nation, and this confusion has given ms« to a number of historical errors. — G. M. St. Martin has a learned note (to Le Beau, v. 261) on the origin of the Vandals. The difficulty appears to be in rejecting the close analogy of the name with the Vend or Wendish race, who were of Sclavonian, not of Saevian or German, origin. M. St. Martin supposes that the different races spread from the head of the Adriatic to the Baltic, and even the Veneti, on the shores of the Adriatic, the Vindelici, tlie tribes which gave their name to VindoUona, Vindoduna, Vindonissa, were branches of the same stock with the Sclavonian Venedi, who at one time gave tlieir name to the Baltic ; that they all spoke dialects of tlie Wendish iaiiguat;e, which Btill prevails in Carintbia, Carniola, part of Bohemia, and 1/Usatia, and is hardly extinct in Mecklenburgh and Ponicrania. The Vandal race, once 60 fearfully celebrated in the annals of mankind, has so utterly perished from the face of the earth, that we are not aware that any vestiges of their language can be traced, so as to throw light on tlie disputed question of their German, their Sclavonian, or independent origin. The weight of »ncient authority seems against M. St. Martin's opinion. Compare, or. the Vandals, Malte Brun, i. 394. Also Gibbon's note, c. xli. n. 38. — M. OK THE ROiMAN EMPIRE. 28"? fore, of about seventy years, we must place the secona migra tion of the Gothi from the BaUic to the Euxine ; but the cause that produced it lies concealed among the various motives which actuate tlic conduct of unsettled barbarians. Either a pestilence or a famine, a victory or a defeat, an oracle of the gods or the eloquence of a daring leader, were suflTicic it to impel the Gothic arms on the milder climates of the south. Besides the influence of a martial rel'gion, the numbers and spirit of the Goths were equal to the most dangerous adven- tures. The use of round bucklers and short swords retidered them formidable in a close engagement; the manly obedience which they yielded to hereditary kings, gave uncommon unior and stability to their councils : -"^ and the renowned Amala the hero of that age, and the tenth ancestor of Theodoric, king of Italy, enforced, by the ascendant of personal merit, the prerogative of his birth, which he derived from the Anses, or demigods of the Gothic nation. ^^ The fame of a great enterprise excited the bravest warriors from all the Vandalic states of Germany^ many of whom are seen a few years afterwards combating under the common standard of the Goths.^- The first motions of the emigrants carried them to the banks of the Prypec, a river universally conceived by the ancients to be the .southern branch of the Boryslhencs.2;^ The windings of that great stream through the plains of Poland and Russia gave a direction to their line of march, and a constant supply of frer.h water and pasturage to their numerous herds of cattle. They followed the un- known course of the river, confident in their valor, and care- less of whatever power might oppose their progress. The Bastarnae and the Venedi were the first who presented them- selves ; and the flower of their youth, either from choice or compulsiDn, increased the Gothic army. The Bastarnae dwelt *" Omnium harum gentium insigne, rotunda scxxta, breves gladii, et erga rcges oh.soquium. Tacit. Uermania, c. 43. The Goths probably required their iron by the commerce of amber. *' Jornandes, c. 13, 14. " The Ileruli, and the Uregundi or Burgundi, are particularly mentioned. See Mascou's History of the Germans, 1. v. A passage m the Augustan History, p. 'J,8, seems to allude to tlus great emigra- tion. The Marcomannic war was partly occasioned by the pressure of barbarous tribes, who fled before the arms of more northern barbarians. *' D'Am-illc, Geographie Ancienne, and the tliir I part of his incom parable map of Europe. 288 THE DECLINE ANb FALL on the northern side of the Carpathian Mountains : the im- mense tract of land that separated the Bastarnae from ihe savages of Finland was possessed, or rather wasted, by the Venedi;-'* we have some reason to believe that the first of these nations, which distinguished itself in the Macedonian war,-^ and was afterwards divided into the formidable tribes of the Peucini, the Borani, the Carpi, &c., derived its origir. from the Germans.* With better authority, a Sarmatian extraction may be assigned to the Venedi, who renderea themselves so famous, in the middle ages.^^ gut the confu- sion of blood and manners on that doubtful frontier often per- plexed the most accurate observers.^^ As the Goths advanced near the Euxine Sea, they encountered a purer race of Sar- matians, the Jazyges, the Alani,| and the Roxolani ; and they were probably the first Germans who ^aw the mouths of the Bor}'sthenes, and of the Tanais. If we inquire into the char- acteristic marks of the people of Germany and of Sarmatia, we shall discover that those two great portions of human kind were principally distinguished by fixed huts or movable tents, by a close dress or flowing garments, by the marriage of one ^■^ Tacit. Germania, c. 46. *^ Cluver. Germ. Antiqua, 1. iii. c. 43. ^^ The Venedi, the Slavi, and the Antes, were tlie three great tribes of the same people. Jornandos, c. 24. f *' Tacitus most assuredly deserves that title, and even his cautioua suspense is a proof of his diligent inquiries. * The BastarnfB cannot be considered original inhabitants of Germany ; Strabo and Tacitus appear to doubt it ; Pliny alone calls them Germans ; Ptolemy and Dion treat them as Scythians, a vague appellation at this period of history ; Livy, Plutarch, and Diodorus Siculus, call them Gauls, and this is the most probable opinion. They descended from the Gauls who entered Germany under Signoesus. They arc always found associated with other Gaulish tribes, such as the Boii, the Taurisci, &c., and not to the German tribes. The names of tlieir chiefs or princes, Chlonix, Chlon- dicus, Deldon, are not German names. Those who were settled in the island of Pence in the Danube, took the name of Peucini. The Carpi appear in 237 as a Suevian tribe who had made an irruption into Mffisia. Afterwards they reappear under tha Ostrogoths, with whom they were jjrobably blended. Adcluiig, p. 236, 278. — G. t They formed the great Sclavoniaii nation. — G. X Jac. Reineggs supposed that he had found, in the mountains of Cau casus, some descendants of the Alani. The Tartars call them Edeki Alan : they speak a peculiar dialect of the ancient language of the Tartan of Caucasus See J. Reineggs' Descr. of Caucasus, p. II, 13. — G. According to Klaproth, they are the Ossetes of the present day m Mount Caucasus, and were the same with the Albanians of antiquity. Klaproth, Tableaux Hist, de I'Asie, p. 180. — M. OJ' THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 288 or ot several wives, by a military force, consisting, for the most part, either of infantry or cavalry ; and above ail, by the use of (he Tcnitonic, or of the Sclavonian language ; the last of which has beiMi diirusecl by conquest, from the confinea of Italy to the neighborhood of Japan. The Goths were now in possession of the Ukraine, a country of considerable extent and uncommon fertility, intersected with navigable rivers, which, from either side, discharge themselves into the Borysthenes ; and interspersed with large and lofty forests of oaks. The plenty of game and fish, the innumerable bee-hives deposited in the hollow of old trees, and in the cavities of rocks, and forming, even in that rude age, a valuable branch of commerce, the size of the cattle, the temperature of the air, the a])tness of the soil for every species of grain, and the luxuriancy of the vegetation, all displayed ihe liberality of Nature, and tempted the industry of man.^^ But the Goths withstood all these temptations, and still adhered to a life of idleness, of poverty, and of rapine. The Scythian hordes, which, towards the east, bordered on the new settlements of the Goths, presented nothing to their arms, except the doubtful chance of an unprofitable victory But the prospect of the Roman territories was far more allur ing ; and the fields of Dacia were covered with rich harvests sown by Vhe hands of an industrious, and exposed to be gath- ered by those of a warlike, people. It is probable that the conquests of Trajan, maintained by his, successors, less fot any real advantage than for ideal dignity, had contributed ta weaken the empire on that side. The new and unsettled province of Dacia was neither strong enough to resist, not rich enough to satiate, the rapaciousness of the barbarians. As long as the remote banks of the Niester were considered as the boundary of the Roman power, the fortifications of tha Lower Danube were more carelessly guarded, and the inhab- 'tants of Majsia lived in su|)ine security, fondly conceiving themselves at an inaccessible distance from any barbarian invaders. The irruptions of the Goths, under the reign of Philip, fatally convinced thorn of their mistake. The king, M leader, of that fierce nation, traversed with contempt tho **• Gciicalo','iciil History of the Tartars, p. f 93. Mr. liell (vol. ii. p. 379) traversed the Ukraine, in his journey i'loni Pctcrsburgh to L'oii- Btautiuople. The modern face of the country is a just representation pf the ancient, since, in tlic liands of the Cossacks, it still remains in h btate of nature. 15"- 290 THE DECLINE IND FALL province of Dacia, and passed both the Niester and Ine Danube without encountering any opposition capable of re- tarding his progress. The relaxed discipline of the Roman troops betrayed the most important posts, where they were stationed, and the fear of deserved punishment induced great numbers of them to enlist under the Gothic standard. The various multitude of barbarians appeared, at length, undo* the walls of Marcianopolis, a city built by Trajan in honor of his sister, and at that time the capital of the second Ma3sia.29 The inhabitants consented to ransom their lives and property by the payment of a large sum of money, and the invaders retreated back into their deserts, animated, rather than satisfied, with the first success of their arms against an opulent but feeble countr}-. Intelligence was soon transmitted to the emperor Decius, that Cniva, king of the Goths, had passed the Danube a second time, with more considerable forces ; that his numerous detachments scattered devastation over the province of Massia, whilst the main body of the army, consisting of seventy thousand Germans and Sarma- tians, a force equal to the most daring achievements, required the presence of the Roman monarch, and the exertion of his military power. Decius found the Goths engaged before Nicopolis, on the Jatrus, one of the many monuments of Trajan's victoi-ies.-" On his approach they raised the siege, hut with a design onlj uf marching away to a conquest of greater importance, the siege of Philippopolis, a city of Thrace, founded by the fathei oi Alexander, near the foot of Mount Hajmus.^i Decius ^^ In the sixteenth chapter of Jornandes, instead of secimdo Maesiam, we may venture to substitute secundam, the second Mtesia, of which Marcianopolis was certainly the capital. (See Hieroclcs.de Provinciis, and Wesseling ad locum, p. 636. Itinerar.) It is surprising how "his palpable error of the scribe could escape the judicious correction Df Grotius.* ^" The i)laee is still called Nicop. D'Anvillc, Geographic Anciennc, torn. i. p. 307. The little stream, on wh >se banks it stood, falls into the Danube. ^' 8tephan. Byzant. de Urbibus, p. 740. Wesseling;, Itinerar. p. 136. Zonaran, by an odd mistake, ascribes the foundation of I'hilip- popolis to the immediate predecessor of Decius. f • Laden ha.^: observed that Jornandes mentions two passages over tlie Danul)e ; this relates to llie stcuud irruption into Idiesia. (JescbicUte dta r. V. ii. p. 448. — M. f Now Philippopolis or Philiba ; its situation among 'lie bills ca isod it lo be ftlso called Triniohtiuiu l)"Aiiville, Ueog. Auc. i. 295. — G. OF THE ROMAN EIlIPIRE. 291 followed tliem througli a difTicult countr/, and bv 'brcea marclies; but when he imagined himself at a considcrablr. distance iVom tlic rear of the Gollis, C'liva turned with rapid fury on his pursuers. The camp of the Romans was sur- prised and pilhiged, and, for the first time, their emperor fled in disorder before a troop of iialf-armcd barbarians. After a long resistance, Philippopolis, destitute of succor, was taken by storm. A hunch'od thousand persons are reported to have been massacred in the sack of that great city.^"^ Many pris- oners of consequence became a vahiable accession to the spoil ; and Priscus, a brother of the late emperpr Phili[), blushed not to assume the purple under the protection of the Darbarous enemies of Rome.^^ The time, however, con- sumed io that tedious siege, enabled Decius to revive the courage, r, store the discipline, and recruit the numbers of his troops. He intercepted several parties of Carpi, and otlici Germans, who were hastening to share the victory of theii countrymen,^'* intrusted the passes of the mountains to ofli- cers of approved valor and fidelity ,^^ repaired and strength, ened the fortifications of the Danube, and e.xerted his utmost vigilance to oppose either the progress or the retreat of tho 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.^t^ At the same time when Decius was strugglmg with the vio- lence of the tempest, his mind, calm and deliberate amidsi the tumult of war, invesfigated the more geneml causes, that, since the age of the Antonines, had so impetuously urged tho decline of the Roman greatness. He soon discovered that it was impossible to replace that greatness on a permanent basis without restoring public virtue, ancient principles and manners and the oppressed majesty of the laws. To execute this noble '* Ammian. xxxi. 5. ^^ Aurcl. Victor, c. 29. ^* ViutoricB Carpicw, on some medals of Decius, insinuate these udvantnjics. •'' Claudius (who aftrrwai-ds reigned Avith so much J^loni-) -wa.' jiostod in the pass of Therniopyki; with 200 Dardanians, IOC heavy und 100 lij^ht horse, 60 Cretan archers, and 1000 well-armed recruits. Hec an original letter from tha-emperor to his officer, in the Augustan History, p. 200. ''* Jornandes, c. 16 — 18. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 22. In the general ac- count of this war, it is easy to discover the opposite prejudices of tha Uolhic und the Grecian writer. In caielessuess alone they arc aliko 292 THE DECLINE AND FALL but araucjus design, he first resolved to revive the obsolete office of censor ; an otfice which, as long as it had subsisted in its pristine integrity, had so much contributed to the per- petuity of the state,"^^ till it was usurped and gradually neg- lected by the Ccesars.^s Conscious that the favor of the sove- reign may confer power, but that the esteem of the people can alone bestow authority, he submitted the choice of the censor to the unbiased voice of the senate. By their unan- imous votes, or rather acclamations, Valerian, who was after- wards emperor, and who then served with distinction in the army of Decius, was declared the most worthy of that exalted honor. As soon as the decree of the senate was transmitted to the emperor, he assembled a great council in his camp, and before the investiture of the censor elect, he apprised him of the difficulty and importance of his great office " Happy Valerian," said the prince to his distinguished subject, " happy in the general approbation of the senate and of the Roman republic ! Accept the censorship of mankind ; and judge of our manners. You will select those who deserve to continue members of the senate ; you will restore the equestrian order to its ancient splendor; you will improve the revenue, yet moderate the public burdens. You will distinguish into reg- ular classes the various and infinite multitude of citizenf , and accurately view the military strength, the wealth, the virtue, and the resources of Rome. Your decisions shall obtain the »orce of laws. The army, the palace, the ministers of jus- tice, and the great officers of the empire, are all subject to your tribunal. None are exempted, excepting only the ordi- nary consuls,^^ the prefect of the city, the king of the sacri- fices, and (as long as she preserves her chastity inviolate) the eldest of the vestal virgins. Even these few, who may not dread the severity, will anxiously solicit the esteem, of the Roman censor." ^^ '^ Montesquieu, Grandeur et Decadence des Remains, c. viii. Ho illustrates the nature and use of the censorship with his usual inge- nuity, and with uncommon precision. ^* Vespasian and Titus were the last censors, (Pliny, Hist. Natur. vii. 49. Censorinus dc Die Natali.) The modesty of Trajan refus&'jl an honor which he deserved, and his example became t law to tl.«> Antonincs. See Pliny's I'ancgyric. c. 45 and fiO. ^* Yet in spite of this exemption, I'omjjcy aj)peared before tha< tribunal during his consulship. The occasion, indeed, was cc^uallj •ingular and honorable. Plutarch in Pomp. p. 630. *" See the origir.al speech in the Augustan Hist. p. 173. 174. IF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 2^J A rnagistrite, invosted with such extensive powers, woiiI(3 have appeared not so miich the miiiistcr, as t..e colleague ot his sovereign/! Valerian justly draaded an elevation so fuh of envy and of suspicion. He modestly urged the alarming greatness of the trust, liis own insufficiency, and the incura ble corruption of the times. He artfully insinuated, that the ofiice of censor was inseparable from the Imperial dignity, and that the feeble hands of a subject were unequal to the sujjport of such an immense weight of cares and of power.'*'-^ The approaching event of war soon put an end to the prose- cution of a project so specious, but so impracticable ; and whilst it preserved Valerian from the danger, saved the em- peror Decius from the disappointment, which would most probably have attended it. A censor may maintain, he can never restore, the morals of a state. It is impossible for such a magistrate to exert his* authority with benefit, or even with effect, unless he is supported by a quick sense of honor and virtue in the minds of the pco[)le, by a decent reverence for the public opinion, and by a train of useful prejudices combat- ing on the side of national manners. In a period when these principles are annihilated, the censorial jurisdiction must either sink into empty pageantry, or be converted into a par- tial instrument of vexatious oppression. ''^ It was easier to vanquish the Goths than to eradicate the public vices ; yet, even in the first of these enterprises, Decius lost his army and his life. The Goths were now, on every side, surrounded and pur- sued by t.iC Roman arms. The flower of their troops had perished in the long siege of Philippopolis, and the exhausted country could no longer afford subsistence for the remaining multitude of licentious barbarians. Reduced to this extremity, the Goths would gladly have purchased, by the surrender of all their booty and prisoners, the permission of an undisturbed retreat. But the emperor, confident of victory, and resolving, by the chastisement of these invaders, to strike a salutary terror into the nations of the North, refused to listen to any t jrms of accommodation. The high-spirited barbarians pre *' This transaction might deceive Zonaras, who supposes that Vale- lian was actually deulared the colleague of Decius, 1. sii. p. o'io. ** Hist. August, p. 174. The emperor's reply is omitted. *^ Such as the attempts of Augustus towards a reforraaiLon of uuui- Bers. Tacit. Annal. iii. 24. 294 THE DECLINE AND FALL ferred death t; tiiavery. An obscure town of Msesia, cjilled Forum Terebronii,'^^ was the scene of the battle. The Gothic army was drawn up in three lines, and, either from choice or accident, the front of t.ie third line was covered by a morass. In the beginning of the action, the son of Decius, a youth of the fairest hopes, and already associated to the honors of the purple, was slain by an arrow, in the sight of his afflicted father ; who, summoning all his fortitude, admonished the dismayed troops, that the loss of a single soldier was of little importance to the republic.^^ The conflict was terrible ; it was the combat of despair against grief and rage. The first line of the Goths at length gave way in disorder ; the second, advancing to sustain it, shared its fate ; and the third only remained entire, prepared to dispute the passage of the morass, which was imprudently attempted by the presumption of the enemy. " Here the fortune of tiie day turned, and all things became adverse to the Romans ; the place deep with ooze sinking under those who stood, slippery to such as advanced their armor heavy, the waters deep ; nor could they wield, in that uneasy situation, their weighty javelins. The barbarians, on the contrary, were inured to encounter in the bogs, their persons tall, their spears long, such as could wound at a dis- tance." ^^ In this morass the Roman army, after an ineffec- tual struggle, was irrecoverably 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 wUh his son, has deserved to be compared, both in life and death, with the brightest examples of ancient virtue.^^ ** Tillcmont, Ilistoire dcs Empercurs, torn. iii. p. 598. As Zosimus and some of his followers mistake the Danube for the Tanaia, thej place the field of battle in the plains of Scylhia. *^ Aurelius Victor allows two distinct actions for the deaths of tho two Decii ; but I have preferred the account of Jornandcs. ■"* I have ventured to copy from Tacitus (Annal. i. 64) the j icture of a similar engagement between a Koman army and a German tribo. *"> Jornandes, c. 18. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 22, [c. 23.] Zonai-as, 1. xii. p. G27. Aurelius Victor. ** The Decii were killed before tho end of tho year two hundred and fifty-one, since the new princes took possession of the consulship on tlie ensuing calends of January. *^ Hist. August, p. 223, gives them a very honorable place among the small number of good emperors who reigned bet ween Augustui; «id Diocletian. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 29S This fatal blow liumbled, for a very little time, the insolence 5f the legions. They appear to have patiently expected, and submissively obeyed, the decree of the senate which regulated the succession to the throne. From a just regard for the memory of Decius, the Imperial title was conferred on Hos- tilianus, his only surviving son ; but an equal rank, with more ellbctual 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 Illyrian provinces from the intoler- able weight of the victorious Goths. He consented to leave in their hands the rich fruits of their invasion, an mimonse bo(Hy, 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 th'^ir angry spirits, or facilitate their so much wished-for de- parture ; 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 Scipios, the most opulent kings of the earth, who courted the protection of the victorious common- wealth, were gratified with such trifling presents as could only derive a value from the hand that bestowed them ; an ivory chair, a coarse garment of purple, an inconsiderable piece of plate, or a quantity of copper coin.^- After the wealth of nations had centred in Rome, the emperors displayed thei* greatness, and even their policy, by the regular exercise of a steady and moderate liberality towards the allies of the state. They relieved the poverty of the barbarians, honored their merit, and recompensed their fidelity. These voluntary marks of bounty were understood to flow, not from the fears, but merely from the generosity or the gratitude of the Romans; and whilst presents and subsidies were liberally distributed Bmong friends and suppliants, they were sternly refused to *'' Ilnec ubi Patrcs compcrere dccemunt. Victor in Ca»aril)U3. *' Zoiiaras, 1. xii. p. 628. *' A Selia, a Tuffa, and a golden Patera of five pounds weight, were twjcepted with joy and gratitude Ijy the wealthy king of Eg}T)t. (Livy, Sivii. 4.) (iuiiia millia JEris, a weight of copper, in value about eighteen pounds sterling, was the usual piesent made to foreign am- oOGS-idors. (Livy, xxxi. 9.) 296 THE UJECLINE AND FALL such as Claimed them as a debt.^^ g;,t this stij>':lation, of an annual payment to a victorious enemy, appeared without dis- guise in the light of an ignominious tribute ; the minds of the Romans were not yet accustomed to accept such unequal laws from a tribe of barbarians; and the prince, who by a neces- sary concession had probably saved his country, became the object of the general contempt and aversion. The death of Hostilianus, though it happened in the midst of a raging pes- tilence, was interpreted as the personal crime of Gallus;^'* and even the defeat of the late emperor was ascribed by the voice of suspicion to the perfidious counsels of his hated suc- cessor.s^ The tranquillity which the empire enjoyed during the first year of his administvation,^^ 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 repose, though at the expense of their honor. The dangerous secret of the wealth and weakness of the empire had been revealed to the world. New swarms of barbarians, encouraged by the Bucccss, and not conceiving themselves bound by the obliga- tion of their brethren, spread devastation through the lUyrian provinces, and terror as far as the gates of Rome. The defence of the monarchy, which seemed abandoned by the pusillanimous emperor, was assumed by yEmiiianus, governor of Pannonia and Maesia ; who rallied the scattered forces, and revived the fainting spirits of the troops. The barbarians were unexpectedly attacked, routed, chased, and pursued beyond the Danube. The victorious leader distributed as a donative the money collected for the tribute, and the acclamations of the soldiers proclaimed him emperor on the field of battle.^^ Gallus, who, careless of the general welfare, indulged himself in the pleasures of Italy, was almost in the same instant informed of the success, of the revolt, and of the rapid ap- ** See the firmness of a Roman general so late as the time of Alex- ander Scverus, in the Exccrj)ta Legatiomim, p. 2), edit. Louvre. ^ For the plague, see Jornandes, c. I'J, and Victor in Ca'saribus. *' Ihese improbable accusations are alleged by Zosimus, 1. i. p. 23, 24. *" Jornandes, c. 19. The Gothic writer at least observed thp peace which his victori'uis countrymen had sworn to Gu.Uus. °' Zosimus, 1. i. p. 26, 26. OF THK ROMAN EMTIRE. 297 proach of his aspiring lieutenant. lie advanced \.o meet hiro as far as the jilains of Spoleto. ^Vhen the armies came in sight of each other, tlie soldiers of Gallus compared the igno- minious conduct of their sovereign with the glory of his rival They admired the valor of iEmilianus ; they were attracted by his liberality, for he otTered a considerable increase of pay to all deserters.^^ The murder of Gallus, and of his son Volusianus, put an end to the civil war ; and the senate gave a legal sanction to the rights of conquest. The letters of .^Emilianus to that assembly displayed a mixture of moderation and vanity. He assured them, that he should resign to their wisdom the civil administration ; and, contenting himself 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 extant, representing him with the name and attributes of Hercules the Victor, and of Mars the Avenger.^" If the new monarch possessed the abilities, he wanted the ;mne, necessary to fulfil these splendid promises. Less than four months intervened between his victory and his fall.'J^ He had vanquished Gallus: he sunk under the weight of a compet- itor more formidable than Gallus. That unfortunate prince had sent Valerian, already distinguished by the honorabhe title of censor, to bring the legions of Gaul and Germany ^2 to his «.id. Valerian executed that commission with zeal and fidelity and as he arrived too late to save his sovereign, he resolved to revenge him. The troops of ^milianus, who still lay encamped in the plains of Spoleto, were awed by the sanctity of his character, but much more by the superior strength of liis army ; and as they were now become as incapable of personal attachment as they had always been of constitutional principle, they readily imbrued their hands in the blood of a prince who so lately had been the object of their partial choice. The guilt was theirs,* but the advantage of it was Valerian's ; who ** Victor in Caesaribus. '* Zonaras, 1. xii. p. G28. *" IJanduri NumLsmata, p. 94. " Eutropius, 1. ix. c. 6, says tertio mense. Euscbius omits thia emporor. ^^ Zosimus, 1. i. p. 28. Eutropius and Victor station V;ilerian'i krciy in E.ha;tia. • Aurelius Victoi says that ^Em'lianus died jf a natural disorder 'ii)X' 298 THE DECLINE AND FALL obtained (he possession of the throne by the means iiideed 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. Valerian was about sixty years of age^^ when he was in vested with the purple, not by the caprice of the populace, or the clamors of the army, but by the unanimous voice of th( Roman world. In his gradual ascent through the honors of the state, he had deserved the favor of virtuous princes, and had declared himself the enemy of tyrants.^^ His noble birlh, his mild but unblemished manners, his learning, prudence, and experience, were revered by the senate and people ; and if mankind (according to the observation of an ancient writer) had been left at liberty to choose a master, their choice would most assuredly have fallen on Valerian."^ Perhaps the merit of this emperor was inadequate to his reputation ; perhaps his abilities, or at least his spirit, were affected by the languor and coldness of old age. The consciousness of his decline engaged him to share the throne with a younger and more active associate : ^6 the emergency of the times demanded a general no less than a prince ; and the experience of the Roman censor might have directed him where to bestow the Imperial purple, as the reward of military merit. But instead of making a judicious choice, which would have confirmed his reign and endeared his memory. Valerian, consulting only the dictates of affection or vanity, immediately invested with the supreme honors his son Gallienus, a youth whose effeminate vices had been hitherto concealed by the obscurity of a private station. The joint government of the father and the son 8* He was about seventy at the time of his accession, or. as i* is more probable, of his death. Hist. August, p. 173. Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iii. p. 893, note 1. «•» Iniraicus tyrannoruni. Hist. August, p. 173. In the gloiious Btr\*ggle of the senate against Maximin, Valerian acted a very tpiritca part. Hist. August, p. 156. «* According to the distinction of Victor, he seems to have received ihe title of Imperator from the army, and that of Augustus from tlie senate. '« From Victor and from the medals, Tmemont (torn. iii. p. 710j v»^ry justly infers, that Gallieims was associated to the empire about the month of August of the year 253. Uopnis, in speaking of his death, does not say that he was asBasta- aar.cd. — G OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 299 Rubsistot! about seven, and the sole administration of Gallicnus continued aouui eight, years. But tlie whole peiiod was one uninterrupted seilej of confusion and calamity. As the Roman empire way at the same time, and on every side attacked by the biind fury of foreign invaders, and the wild ambition of domestic usurpers, we shall consult order and perspicuity, by pursuing, not so mucli the doubtful arrangs- ment of dates, as the more natural distribution of subjects. The most dangerous enemies of Koine, during the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, were, 1. The Franks; 2. The Ale nianni ; 3. The Goths ; and, 4. The Persians. Under these general appellations, we may comprehend the adventures of jess considerable tribes, whose obscure and uncouth nameij would only serve to oppress the memory and perplex the attention of the reader. I. As the posterity of the Franks compose one of the great- est and most enlightened nations of Europe, the powers of learning and ingenuity have been exhausted in the discovery of their unlettered ancestors. To the tales of credulity have succeeded the systems of fancy. Every passage has been Bifted, every spot has been surveyed, that might possibly reveal some faint traces of their origin. It has been supposed that Pannonia,'*''' that Gaul, tiiat the northern parts of Germany,^"^ gave birth to that celebrated colony of warriors. At length the most rational critics, rejecting the fictitious emigrations of ideal conquerors, have acquiesced in a sentiment whose sim- plicity persuades us of its truihl^^ They suppose, that about the year two hundred und forty ,'''^ a new confederacy was formed under the name of Franks, by the old inhabitants of the Lower Rhine and the VVeser.* The present circle of *' Various systems have been formed to explain a difficxilt passage in Gregory of Tours, 1. ii. c. 9. ^'^ The Geographer of Ilavenna, i. 11, by mentioning Mauringania, on the confiues of Denmark, as the ancient scat of the Franks, gave birth to an ingenious system of I/cibnitz. '^^ See Cluvcr. Gcrmania An*iqua, 1. iii. c. 20. M. Freret, in the Memoires do I'Acadcmie des -Inscriptions, tom. xviii. '•' Most probably under the reign of Gordian, from an accidental iirciiinstance fully canvassed by Tillcmont, tom. iii. p. 710, 1181. • The confederation of the Franks appears to have been formed, 1. Of th« Chauci. 2. Of tlie Sicambri, the inhal)itauts of the duchy of Berg. 3. Of the Attuarii, to the north of tlie Sicambri, in the principality of Waldecit Oetweeu the Dimel and tlie Edcr. 4, Of the Bnictcri, on the banks of tli* Lippe, and in the Hartz 5 Of the Chamavii, the Ganibrivii of Tacitus. 300 THE DECLINE AND FALL Westphalia, the Landgraviate of Hesse, and the duchies of Brunswick and Luneburg, were the ancient seat of the Chauci, who, in their inaccessible morasses, defied the Roman arms ; ^^ of the Cherusci, proud of the fame of Arminius ; of theCattl 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 enjoy- ment of it their best treasure ; the word that expressed that enjoyment, the most pleasing to their ear. They deserved, they assumed, they maintained the honorable epithet of Franks, or Freemen ; which concealed, though it did not extinguish the peculiar names of the several states of the confederacy.'^ Tacit consent, and mutual advantage, dictated the first laws of the union ; it was gradually cemented by habit and experience. The league of the Franks may admit of some comparison with the Helvetic body ; in which every canton, 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 diiferent. A peace of two hundred years has rewarded the wise and honest policy of the Swiss. An inconstant spirit, the thirst of rapine, and a disregard to the most solemn treaties, disgraced the character of the Franks. The Romans had long experienced the daring valor of the people of Lower Germany. The union of their strength threatened Gaul with a more formidable invasion, and required the presence of Gallienus, the heir and colleague of Imperial power.'''^ Whilst that prince, and his infant son Salonius, displayed, in the court of Treves, the majesty of the empire, its armies were ably conducted by their general, Posthumus, who, though he afterwards betrayed the family of Valerian, was ever laithful to the great interest of the monarchy. The ^' Plin. Hist. Natur. xvi. 1. The Panegyrists frequently allude to the morasses of the Franks. '" Tacit. Germania, c. 30, 37. '■* III a subsequent period, most of those old names are occasional! y mc ntionod. Sec some vestiges of them in Cluver. Germ. Antiq. 1. iii. '•* Simler dc llejiublica Helvct. cum notis Fusclin. '* Zosimus, 1. i. p. 27. wno were established, at the time crt" the Prankish confederation, in tftu country of the Bructeri. 6. Of the Catti, in Hessia. — G. The Sahi and Cherusci are added Greenwood's Hist, of GermaiiB. i. 193 - M OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 301 treacherous language of panegyrics and medals dark'y an- nounces a long series of victories. Trophies and titles attest (if such evidence cao attest) the fame of Posthurnus, wlio is repeatedly styled the Conqueror of the Germans, and tho Savior of Gaul."*^ But a single fact, the or\ly one indeed of which we Irivo any distmct knowledge, erases, m a great measure, tliese monuments of vanity and adulation. The Rhine, thougli dignified with the title of Safeguard of the provinces, wts an imperfect barrier against the daring spirit of enterprise with which tlie Franks were actuated. Their rapid devastations stretched from the river to the foot of the Pyrenees ; nor were they stopped by those mountains. Spain, which had nevei dreaded, was unable to resist, the inroads of the Germans During twelve years, the greatest part of the reign of Gallie- nus, that opulent country was the theatre of unequal ami destructive hostilities. Tarragona, the flourishing capital of a peaceful province, was sacked and almost destroyed ; ''' and so late as the days of Orosius, who wrote in the fifth century wretched cottages, scattered amidst the ruins of magnificent cities, still recorded the rage of the barbarians."^ When the fcxhausted 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 ivas astonished with the fury of these barbarians, who seemed ^* M. de Brcquigny (in tho Momoires dc rAcademic, turn, xxx.) has given us a very curious life of l*osthumus. A series of the Au- gustan History from Medals and Inscriptions has been more than once phinncd, and is still much wanted.* '^ Aurel. Victor, c. 33. Instead of PmK. direpto, both the sense And the expression require dvlato ; though indeed, for different rea- fions, it is alike difficult to correct the text of the best, and of the worst, writers. '* In the time of Ausonius (the end of the fourth ccnturj') Ilcrdo f.r Lerida was in a very ruinous state, (Auson. Epist. xxv. 58,) which {.robabiy was the consequence of this invasion. '^ Valesius is therefore mistaken in supposing that the Franks had invaded Spain by sea. • M. Eckhel, Keeper of the Cabinet of Medals, and Professor of Anti- quities at Vienna, lately deceased, has supplied this want n_v nis excellent work, Doctrina vetcrum Numniorum, conscripta a Jos. Eck'ncl, 8 vol. in ito. Vindobona, 1797. — G. Captain Smyth has likewi.sc printed (priv M<'ly i « valuable Descriptive Catalogue of -a series of Large Bra^s Medals of th.M period. Bedford. I!r34. — M. 1845. 302 THE DECLINE AND F/LL to fall from a new world, as their name, manners, and corrv plexion, were equally unknown on the coast of Africa.**^ II. In that part of Upper Saxony, beyond the Elbe, which is at present called the Marquisate of Lusace, there existed, in ancient times, a sacred wood, the awful seat of the supersti- tion of the Suevi. None were ■permitted to enter the holy precincts, without omfessing, by their servile bonds and sup pliant posture, the immediate presence of the sovereign Deity .^^ Patriotism contributed, as well as devotion, to con- secrate the Sonnenwald, or wood of the Semnones.^^ It was universally believed, that the nation had received its first existence on ihat sacred spot. At stated periods, the numer- ous tribes who gloried in the Suevic blood, resorted thither by their ambassadors ; and the memory of their common extrac- tion was perpetuated by barbaric rites and human sacrifices. The wide-eytended name of Suevi filled the interior countries of Germany, from the banks of the Oder to those of the Dan- ube. They were distinguished from the other Germans by their peculiar mode of dressing their long hair, which they gathered into a rude knot on the crown of the head ; and \hey delighted in an ornament that showed their ranks more lofty and terrible in- the eyes of the enemy.^^ Jealous as the Gei'- mans were of military renown, they all confessed the supe- rior valor of the Suevi ; and the tribes of the Usipetes and Tencteri, who, with a vast army, encountered the dictator Caesar, declared that they esteemed it not a disgrace to have fled before a people to whose arms the immortal gods them- selves were unequal.^"* In the reign of the emperor Caracalla, an innumerable swarm of Suevi appeared on the banks of the Mein, and in the neighborhood of the Roman provinces, in quest either of food, of plunder, or of glory .^^ The hasty army of vokm teers gradually coalesced into a great and permanent nation, and as it was coin[)osed from so many different tribes, assumed the name of Alemanni,* or Albneti ; to denote at once thcii *" Aurel. Victor. Eutrop. ix. 6. "■ Tacit. Germania, 38. ®- Cluvcr. GcriTi. Antiq. iii. 25. *^ Sic Suevi a ceteris Gcrmanis, sic Suevorum ingcnui a smtvIs aep- %rantur. A proud separation ! '^ Caesar in Belle Gallico, iv. 7. ** 'Victor in Caracal. Dion Cassius, Ixvii. p. i;}50. • The nation of the Alemanni waa not originallv fotmeti by the 8u««Ti OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 303 various lineage and their common bravery.^^ The latter was soon felt by the Romans in many a hostile inroad. The Alemanni fought chiefly on horseback ; but their cavalry was mridered still more formidable by a mixture of light infantry, selected from the bravest and most active of the ycuth, whom frequent exercise had inured to accompany the horsemen in the longest march, the most rapid charge, or the most precipitate retreat.^'' This warlike people of Germans had been astonished by the immense preparations of Alexander Severus ; they were dismayed by the arms of his successor, a barbarian equal in valor and fierceness to themselves. But still hovering on the frontiers of the empire, they increased the general disorder that ensued after the death of Dccius. They inflicted severe wounds on the rich provinces of Gaul ; they were the first who removed the veil that covered the feeble majesty of Italy. A numerous body of the Alemanni penetrated across the Danube and through the Rhcetian Alps into the plains of ** This etymology (iar different from those which amuse the fancy of the learned) is preserved by Asinius Quadratus, an original histo- rian, quoted by Agathias, i. c. 5. "^ The Sucvi engaged Cajsar in this manner, and the manoeuvre deserved the approbation of the conqueror, (in Bello Gallico, i. 48.) properly so called ; these have always preserved their own name. Shortly afterwards they made (A. D. 3-57) an irruption into Rhoetia, and it was not long after that they were reunited with the Alemanni. Still they have always been a distinct people ; at the present day, the people who inhabit the north-west of the Black Forest call themselves Schwaben, Suabians, iueves, while those who inhabit near the Itliine, in Ortenau, the Brisgaw, Khe Margraviate of Baden, do not consider themselves Suabians, and are by origin Alemanni. The Teucteri and the Usipetai, inhabitants of the interior and of the north of Westphalia, formed, says Gatterer, the nucleus of the AlcmaTinic nation ; they occupied the country where the name of the Alemanni first appears, as conquered in 213, bv Caracalla. They were well trained to fight on horseback, (according to Tacitus, Germ. c. 32;) and Aurelius Victcr gives the same praise to the Alemanni : finally, they never made part of the Prankish league. The Alemanni became subsequently a centre round which gathered a multitude of German tribes. See Eumen. Panegyr. c. 2 Amm. Marc, xviii. 2, xxi.K. 4. — G. The question whether the Suevi was a generic name comprehending tha clans which peopled central Germany, is rather hastdy decided by .M. Guizot. Mr. Greenwood, who has studied the modern German writers on their own origin, supposes the Sucvi, Alemanni, and Marcomanni, one people, under iitferent appellations. History »f Germany, vol. i. — M. 304 THE DECLINE AND FALL Lombardy advanced as far as Ravenna, and displayed ihe victorious banners of barbarians almost in sight of llome.^^ The insult and the danger rekindled in the senate some sparks of their ancient v'.rtue. Both the emperors were engaged in far distant wars, Valerian in the East, and Gallie- nus on the Rhine. All the hopes and resources of the Romans were in themselves. In this emergency, the senators resumed the defence of the republic, drew out the Praetorian guards, who liad been left to garrison the capital, and filled up their numbers, by enlistmg into the public service the stoutest and most willing of the Plebeians. The Alemanni, astonished with tlie sudden appearance of an army more numerous than their own, retired into Germany, laden with spoil ; and their retreat was esteemed as a victory by the un warlike Rom.ans.^^ 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 ingrati- tude was published to his subjects, in an edict which prohibited the senators from exercising any military employment, and even from approaching the camps of the legions. But his fears were groundless. The rich and luxurious nobles, sink- ing into their natural character, accepted, as a favor, this dis- graceful exemption from military service ■, and as long as they were indulged in the enjoyment of their baths, their theatres, and their villas, they cheerfully resigned the more dangerous cares of empire to the rough hands of peasants and soldiers.^*^ Another invasion of the Alemanni, of a more formidable aspect, but more glorious event, is mentioned by a writer of the lower empire. Three hundred thousand of that warlike people are said to have been vanquished, in a battle near Milan, by Gallienus in person, at the head of only ten thou- sand Romans.^' We may, however, with great probability, ascribe this incredible victory either to the credulity of the historian, or to some evaggerated exploits of one of the empe- ror's lieutenants. It was by arms of a very different nature, '* HisV Aup;iist. p. 215, 21 G. Dcxippus in the Excerpta Legatio- num, p. 8. Hieionym. Chron. Orosius, vii. 22. "'•' Zosimus, 1. i. p. 34. "^ Aurcl. Victor, in Gallicno et Probo. llis complaints broathi an uncommon spirit of fr:;cdom. "' y.onjvriis, 1. xii. p. fiSl. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 305 thai Gallienus endeavored to protect Italy fr jm the fuiy of tho Germans. He espoused Pipa, the daughter of a king of the Marcomanni, a Suevic tribe, which was often confounded with (he Alemanni in their wars and conquests.^- To the father AS the price of his alliance, he granted an ample settlement in r*annonia. The native charms of unpolished beauty seem to nave fixed the daughter in the alluctions of the inconstant smperor, and the bands of policy were more firmly connected oy those of love. But the haughty prejudice of Rome still reiused the name of marriage to the profane mixture of a citi- «en and a barbarian ; and has stigmatized the German prin- cess with the opprobrious title of concubine of Gallienus.^^ in. We have already traced thr. emigration of the Gotha from Scandinavia, or at least from Prussia, to the mouth of the Borysthenes, and have followed th(>ir victorious arms from the Borysthenes to the Danube. Under the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, the frontier of the last-mentioned river was perpetually infested by the inroads of Germans and Sarma- tians ; but it was defended by the Romans with more than usual firmness and success. Tiio provinces that were the seat of war, recruited the armies of Rome with an inexhausti- ble supply of hardy soldiers ; and more than one of these Illyrian peasants attained the station, and displayed the abili- ties, of a general. Though flying parties of the barbarians, who incessantly hovered on the banks of the Danube, pene- trated sometimes to the confines of Italy and Macedonia, their progress was commonly checked, or their return inter- cepted, by the Imperial lieutenants.'-*' But the great stream of the Gothic hostilities was diverted into a very differen' channel. The Goths, in their new settlement of the Ukraine, soon became masters of the northern coast of the Euxine : to the south of that inland sea were situated the soft and wealthy provinces of Asia Minor, which possessed all that could attract, and nothing that could resist, a barbarian conqueror. The banks of the Borysthenes are only sixty miles distant from the narrow entrance ^^ cf the peninsula of Grim Tartary, *' One of the Victors calls him king of the Marcomanni ; the other, cf the Germans. " Sec Tillcraont, Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iii. p. 39S, &c. ®* See the lives of Claudius, Aurclian, and Probus, in the Augra- tan History. *'^ It is about half a league in breadth. Genealogical History uf the Tartiirf p. SfS, 16 306 7iIE DECLINE AND FALL known to the ancients under the name of Chersonesus Tai* rica.'*^ On that inhospitable shore, Euripides, embellishing with exquisite art the tales of antiquity, has JDlaced the scene of one of his most affecting tragedies.^^ The bloody sacrifices of Diana, the arrival of Orestes and Pylades, and the triumph of virtue and religion over savage fierceness, serve to represent an historical truth, that the Tauri, the original inhabitants of the peninsula, were, in some aegree, 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 Mseotis communi- cates itself to the Euxine, was composed of degenerate Greeks and half-civilized barbarians. It subsisted, as an independent state, from the time of the Peloponnesian war,^^ was at last swallowed up by the ambition of 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 presents, by arms, and by a slight fortification drawn across the Isthmus, they effectually guarded against the roving plunderers of Sarmatia, the access of a country, which, from its peculiar situation and convenient harbors, commanded the Euxine Sea and Asia Minor.i"! As long as the sceptre was possessed by a lineal succession of kings, they acquitted themselves of their important charge with vigilance and suc- cess. Domestic factions, and the fears, or private interest, of obscure usurpers, who seized on the vacant throne, admitted the Goths into the heart of Bosphorus. With the acquisition of a superfluous waste of fertile soil, the conquerors obtained the command of a naval force, sufficient to transport their *' M. de Peyssonel, who had been French Consul at Caffa, in his Observations sur les Peuples Barbares, qui ont habit6 les bords du Danube. *' Euripides in Iphigenia in Taurid. *^ Strabo, 1. vii. p. 309. The iirst kings of Bosphorus were the allies of Athens. '^ Ajipian in Mithridat. '"" It was reduced by the arms of Agrippa. Orosius, vi. 21. liu- trnpiuH, vii. 9. The Romans once advanced within tliree days' march of the Tanais. Tacit. Annal. xii. 17. ''^' See !.he Toxaris of lyucian, if wo credit the sincerity and the virtues of the Scythian, vi-ho relates a great war of his nation agaij\sl the kings of Bosphorus. OF THE ROMAN KMPIRE. 30^ nrin'es lO the const of Asia.^^^ Xhe ships used in the naviga- tion of the Euxine were of a very singular construction. They were slight flat-bottomed barks framed of timber only, without the least mixture of iron, and occasionally covered with a shelving roof, on the appearance of a tempest. "^-^ In these floating houses, the Goths carelessly trusted themselves to thQ mercy of an unknown sea, under the conduct of sailors pressed into the service, and whose skill and fidelity were equally suspicious. But the hopes of plunder had banished every idea of danger, and a natural fearlessness of temper supplied in their minds the more rational confidence, which is the just result of knowledge and experience. Warriors of such a daring spirit must have often murmured against the cowardice of their guides, who required the strongest assur- ances of a settled calm before they would venture to embark ; and would scarcely ever be tempted to lose sight of the land. Such, at least, is the practice of the modern Turks ; '°^ and they are probably not inferior, in the art of navigation, to the ancient inhabitants of Bosphorus. The fleet of the Goths, leaving the coast of Circassia on the left hand, first appeared before Pityus, '"•''* the utmost limits of the Roman provinces ; a city provided with a convenient port, and fortified with a strong wall. Here they met with a resistance more obstinate than they had reason to expect from the feeble garrison of a distant fortress. They were re- pulsed ; and their disappointment seemed to diminish the terror of the Gothic name. As long as Successianus, an ofiicer of superior rank and merit, defended that frontier, all their efforts were ineflectual ; but as soon as he was removed by Valerian to a more honorable but less important station, they resumed the attack of Pityus ; and by the destruction of that city, obliterated the memory of their former disgrace. i**^ 1 -' Zosimns, 1. i. p. 28. "•^ Strabo, 1. xi Tacit. Hist. iii. 47. They were called Camnrtv. ' * See a very natural picture of the Eu.\ine navigation, in the xvith letter of Tournefbrt. ^'^■' Arrian phices the frontier garrisr n at Dioscurias, or Sebastopolis, forty-four miles to tlie east of I'ityus. The garrison of Phasis con- BJsted in iiis time of only four hundred foot. See the Teriplus of the riuxini'.* * 1^" Zosiinus, I. i. p 30. ♦ Pityus is I'itchin la, according to D'Anville ii. 115.— G. Kathcr ^oo Konn. — M. Li-ioscuriuS is Iskui iab. — G 308 THE DECLINE A.ND FALL Circling round the eastern extremity of the Euxine Sea, the navigation from Pityus to Trebizond is about three hun- dred miles.i"'^ The course of the Goths carried theiVi in sight of the country of Colchis, so famous by the expedition of the Argonauts ; and they even attempted, though without success, to pillage a rich temple at the mouth of the River Phasis. Trebizond, celebrated in the retreat of the ten thou- sand as an ancient colony of Greeks, i^^ derived its wealth and splendor from the magnificence of the emperor Hadrian, who had constructed an artificial port on a coast left destitute by nature of secure harbors. 1"^ The city was large and pop- ulous ; a double enclosure of walls seemed to defy the fury of the Goths, and the usual garrison had been strengthened by a reenforcement of ten thousand men. But there are not any advantages capable of supplying the absence of discipline and vigilance. The numerous garrison of Trebizond, dis- solved in riot and luxury, disdained to guard their impregnable fortifications. The Goths soon discovered the supine negli- gence of the besieged, erected a lofty pile of fascines, ascended the walls in the silence of the night, and entered the defenceless city sword in hand. A general massacre of ihe people ensued, whilst the affrighted soldiers escaped through the opposite gates of the town. The most holy tem- ples, and the most splendid edifices, were involved in a common destruction. The booty that fell into the hands of the Goths was immense : the wealth of the adjacent countries had been deposited in Trebizond, as in a secure place of refuge. The number of captives was incredible, as the victo- rious barbarians ranged without opposition through the exten- sive province of Pontus.^"^ The rich spoils of Trebizond filled a great fleet of ships that had been found in the port. The robust youth of the sea-coast were chained to the oar ; and the Goths, satisfied with the success of their first naval ^'■" Arrian (in Periplo Maris Euxine, p. 130> calls the distance 2610 btadia, '"'* Xenophon, Anabasis, 1. iv. p. 348, edit. Hutcninson.* '"* Arrian, p. 129. The general observation is Tourncfort's. "" See an epistle of Gregory 'I^aumaturgus. bishop of Nco-Cacsa" tea, quoted by Mascou, v. 37. • Fallmerayer (Geschichte les Kaiserthums von Trapezunt, r. 6 Ac ^ assigns a very ancient date to the first (Pelasgic) foundation of Irapezus (Trebizond.) — M. OF THR POMAN EMPIRE. 309 expedi.ion, returned in triumph to their new cstablishmeiits in tlie kingdom of Bosphorus.^^^ The second expedition of the Goths was undertaken with greater powers of men ami sliips ; hut they steered a difTorent course, and, disdaining tlie exhausted provinces of Pontus, fol- lowed the western coast of the Euxine, passed before the wide mouths of the Borysthenes, the Nicstcr, and the Danube, and increasing their fleet by the capture of a great number of fish- ing barks, they approached the narrow outlet through which tho Euxine Sea pours its waters into the Mediterranean, and divides the continents of Europe and Asia. The garrison of Chalcedon was encamped near the tem|)le of Jupiter Urius, on a promon- tory that commanded tlie 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 prccij/itation their advantageous post, and aban- doned the town of Chalcedon, most plentifully stored with arms and money, to the discretion of the conquerors. Whilst they hesitated whether they should prefer the sea or land, Europe or Asia, for the scene of their hostilities, a perfidious fugitive pointed out Nicomedia,* once the capital of the kings of Bithynia, as a rich and easy conquest. He guided the march, which was only sixty miles from the camp of Chalce- don,"- directed the resistless attack, and partook of the booty; for the Goths had learned sufficient policy to reward the traitor, whom they detested. Nice, Prusa, Apamiea, Cius,t cities that had sometimes rivalled, or imitated, the splendor of Nicomedia, were involved in the same calamity, which, in a few weeks, raged without control through the whole province of Bithynia. Three hundred years of peace, enjoyed by the soft uiluibitants of Asia, had abolished the exercise of arms, iind removed the apprehension of danger. The ancient walla were suffered to moulder away, and all the revenue of the most opulent cities was n;served for the construction of batlts, tenijiles, and theatres."-* '» Zosimus, 1. i. p. 32, 33. Itiiicr. llierosolym. p. i '" Zosiinus, 1. i. p. 32, 33. "■' Itiiicr. llierosolym. p. 572. "Wesseling. • It has preserved its name, joined to the preposition of plcvce, in that gf I» Nikmid. D'Anv. Geog. Anc. i^. "^ — G •f Now isnik, Bursa, Mondania, t^^c m IveiuliK. D'Anv. ii. 23. — G. 810 THE DECLINb AND FALL Wlu;n ;he city of Cyzicus withstood the utmost effort of Mithridates,!!'' it was distinguished by wise laws, a nava.! power of two hundred galleys, and three arsenals, of .\rms of military engines, and of corn."^ It was still the seat of weahh and luxury ; but of its ancient strength, nothing remained except the situation, in a little island of the Propontis, con- oected with the continent of Asia only by two bridges. Prom the recent sack of Prusa, the Goths adv^anced within oighteen miles ^^^ of the city, which they had devoted to destruction ; but the ruin of Cyzicus was delayed by a fortu- nate accident. The season was rainy, and the Lake Apolloni- ates, the reservoir of all the springs of Mount Olympus, rose to an uncommon height. The little river of Rhyndacus, which issues from the lake, swelled into a broad and rapid stream, and stopped the progress of the Goths. Their retreat to the maritime city of Heraclea, where the fleet had proba- bly been stationed, was attended by a long train of wagons laden with the spoils of Bithynia, and was marked by the flames of Nice and Nicomedia, which they wantonly burnt.^i' Some obscure hints are mentioned of a doubtful combat tha' secured their retreat.' ^^ But even a complete victory woula have been of little moment, as the approach of the autumnal equinox summoned them to hasten their return. To navigate the Euxine before the montli of May, or a{\er that of Septem ber, 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 fxoths in the ports of Bosphorus, consisted of five hundred sail of ships, 12" our ready imagination instantly computes and multiplies the formidable armament ; but, as we ure assured by the judicious Strabo,'-! that the piratical vessels used by "* lie besieged the place with 400 galleys, 150,000 foot, and a namerous cavalry. See I'lutarcli in I.ucul. Appian in MithridaL Cicero pro Lege Manilia, c. 8. "^ Strabo, 1. xii. p. 573. "* Pocock's Description of the East, 1. ii. c. 23, 24. •" Zosimus, 1. i. p. 33. ''* Syncellus tells an unintelligible story of Prince Odenathus, who defeated the CJoths, and who was killed by I'rince Odenathus. "* Voyages de Chardin, torn. i. p. 45. lie sailed with the Turks from Constantinojjlc to Caffa. '-" Syncellus (p. 382) speaks of this expedition, as u-'dcrtakcn. bj U". Ileruli. " Stralio, 1. xi p. 493 OK Tire UOMAN EMPIKE. 811 iLe barbarijiii-^ of Punt us and Llie Lesser Scythia, were not capable of containiiii; more tlian twenty-five or thirty n.en, we may safely aliirni, tliut lift ;en thousand warriors, at the most, embarked in this great expedition. Impatient of the limits of the Eiixine, they steered their destructive course from the Cimmeriiin to the Thracian Bosphorus. When they had almost jj^ained the middle of the Straits, tJiey were sud- dcMily driven back to the entrance of them ; till a favorable wind, springing up the next day, curried them in a few hours into the placid sea, or rather lake, of the Propontis. 'riicir landing on the little island of Cyzicus was attended with the ruin of that ancient and noble city. From thence issuujg dgam through the narrow passage of the Hellespont, they pursued their winding navigation amidst the numerous Islands scattered over the Archipelago, or the jEgean Sea. The assistance of captives and deserters must have been /ery necessary to pilot their vessels, and to direct their vari- ous 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. Cleoda- mus, 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 '.ime of Scylla. The efTorts of his skill were ineffectual, and :he barbarians became masters of the native seat of the muses and the arts. But while the conquerors abandoned themselves to the license of plunder and intemperance, their fleet, that lay with a slender guard in the harbor of Piraeus, was un- expectedly attacked by the brave Dexippus, who, flying with the engineer Cleodamus from the sack of Athens, collected a hasty band of volunteers, peasants as well as soldiers, and in some measure avenged the calamities of his country.^^J '" Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 7. '*2 Hist. Augu.it. p. 181. Victor, c. 33. Orosius, vii. 42. Zosi- m\u, 1. i. p. 35. Zoiuirus, 1. xii. 63.5. Synccllus, p. 382. It is not without some attention, that we can cxphiiu and conciliate their imperfect hints. We can still discover some traces of the partiality of Dexippus, in the relation of his own and his countrymen's ex- ploits.* • According to a new fragment of Dexippus, published by Mai, he had 201)0 men. He took up a strong position in u mountainous and woody district, and kept up a harassinji warfare. He expresses a hope of being (ipeedilv joined by the Imperial ikxt. Dexippus in nov. byzantinoruvu Collect', a Niebuhr, p. ■.'fi, .S. — M. 312 THE DECLINE AND FA1.L But this exploit, whatever lustre it miglit shed on the de- clining age of Athens, served rather to irritate than to suhdiie the undaunted spirit of the northern invaders. A gen^rai '"ontlagration blazed out at the same time in every district of Greece. Thebes and Argos, Corinth and Sparta, wliich had formei-ly waged such memorable wars against each other, were now unable to bring an armj' 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 Suniura to the western coast of Epirus. The Gotiis had already ad- vanced within sight of Italy, when the approach of such im- jninent danger awakened the indolent Gallienus from his dream of pleasure. The empei'or appeared in arms; and his presence seems to have checked the ardor, and to have ihvided the strength, of the enemy. Naulobatus, a chief of the Heruli, accepted an honorable capitulation, entered with a large body of his countrymen into the service of Rome, and was invested with the ornaments of the consular dignity, which had never before been profaned by the hands of a bar- barian.^-* Great numbers of the Goths, disgusted with the perils and hardships of a tedious voyage, broke into Mtesia, with a design of forcing their way over the Danube to their Bettlemeuts 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.^'^ Tlie small remainder of this destroying host re- turned on board their vessels ; and measuring back their way through the Hellespont and the Bosphorus, ravaged in their passage the shores of Troy, whose fame, immortalized by Homer, will ])robably survive the memory of the Gothic con- quests. As soon as they found themselves in safety within the basin of the Euxine, they landed at Anchialus in Thrace, near the foot of Mount Ha;mus ; and, after all their toils, indulged themselves in the use of those pleasant and salutary hot baths. What remained of the voyag*; was a short and easy navigation.^'^^ Such was the various fate of this third and greatest of their naval enterprises. It n)ay seem difficult '2* Syncellus, p. 382. This body of Heruli was for a long time faitU- ful and famous. '-' Claiulius, who commandt'il on the Danube, thought with prrpri ety and acted with spirit. His collwjigue was jealous of liis tame. Hist August, p. 181. •^'" .lurnandes, c. 20. OF TIIF. ROMAN EMPIRE. 313 to conceive how the original body of fifteen thousand war- riors could sustain the losses and divisions of so bold an ad- venture. But as their numbers were gradually wasted by the pword, by shipwrecks, and by the inlluence of a warm cli- mate, they were perpetually renewed by troops of banditti and deserters, who flocked to the standard of plunder, and by a crowd of fugitive slaves, often of German or Sarmatiari e.vtraclion, who eagerly seized the glorious opportunity of freedom and revenge. In these e.\|)e(litions, the Ciothic nati >n claimed a superior share of honor and danger ; but the tribes that fought ander the Gothic banners are sometimes distin- guished and sometimes confounded in the imperfect histories of that age ; and as the barbarian fleets seemed to issue from the mouth of the Tanais, the vague but familiar appellation of Scythians was frequently bestowed on the mixed multi- tude.127 In the general calamities of mankind, the death of an indi- vidual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice, however famous, are passed over with careless inattention. Yet we cannot forget that the temple of Diana at Ephesus, after having risen with increasing splendor from seven repeated misfortunes,'-*^ was finally burnt by the Goths in their third naval invasion. The arts of Greece, and the wealth of Asia, had conspired to erect that sacred and magnificent structure. It was supported by a hundred and twenty-seven marblp 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 sculi)tMres of Praxiteles, who had, perhaps, selected from the favorite legends of the place the birth of the divine children of Latona, the concealment of Apollo after the slaughter of the Cyclops, and the clemency of Bacchus to the vanquished Amazons. '"^ Yet the length of the temple of Ephesus was only foin- hundred and twenty-five feet, about two thirds of the measure of the church of St. Peter's at llome.'^" In the other dimensions, it was stiU more '" Zosimus and the Greeks (as the author of the Philopatris) fpve the Tiiune of Scythians to tlio-se -vvhon. Joniaudes, and the Latin writers, eonstanlly represent as CJotlis. '** Hist. Aus|. p. 178. Jornandes, c. 20. ■**» Strabo, 1. xiv. p. fi40. Vitruvius. 1. i. c. i. pracfat. 1. vii. 'I'acit. A.nnal. iii. lil. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvi. U. ^ The lenjjth of St. P';ter's is 840 Roman pahus ; each palm is IG* 314 THK DECLINE AND FALL inftirior to that sublime production of modern architecture The spreading arnis of a Christian cross require a much greater breadth than the oblong temples of the Pagans; and the boldest artists of antiquity would have been startled at the proposal of raising in the air a dome of the size and propor lions of the Pantheon. The temple of Diana was, however admired as one of the wonders of the world. Successive empires, the Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman, had revered its sanctity and enriched its splendor. i^i But the tude savages of the Baltic were destitute of a taste for the elegant arts, and they despised th^j ideal terrors of a foreign superstition. ^32 Another circumstance is related of these invasions, which might deserve our notice, were it not justly to be suspected as the fanciful conceit of a recent sophist. We are told, that in the sack of Athens the Goths had collected all the libraries, and were on the point of setting fire to this funeral pile of Grecian learning, had not one of their chiefs, of more refined policy than his brethren, dissuaded them from the design ; by the profound observation, that as long as the Greeks were addicted to the study of books, they would never ap|)ly them- selves to the exercise of arms.'^a 'fhe sagacious counsellor (should the truth of the fact be admitted) reasoned like an ignorant barburian. In the most polite and powerful nations, genius of every kind has disjjlayed itself about the same period : und the age of science has generally been the age of military virtue and success. IV. The new sovereigns of Persia, Artaxerxes and his son Sapor, had triumphed (as we have already seen) over the house of Arsaces. Of the many princes of that ancient race very little short of nine English inches. See Grcaves's Miscellanies, vol. i. p. 233 ; on the Roman Foot.* '^' The policy, liowcver, of the llomans induced them to abridge the extent of the sanctuary or asylum, which by successive privileges had spread itself two stadia round the temple. Strabo, 1. xiv. p. 6'il. Tacit. Annal. iii. GO, cS;c. "'■* They ottered no sacrilices to the Grecian gods. See Episioi. Gregor. Thaumat. *" Zonaras, 1. xii. p. G35. Such an anecdote was perfectly suited to the taste of Montai>;ne. lie makes use of it in hLs ay;reeable Essoj on Pedantry, 1. i. c. 24. • Kf Paul's Cathedral is 51)0 feet. Dallaway od Archil trcture, p '^3 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 315 Chosiotjs ^ing cf Armenia, had alone preserved both his life and his independence. He defended himself by the natural strength of his country; by the perpetual resort of fugiiivc-8 and malecontcnfs ; by tlie aUiance of the Romans, and, above all, by his own courage. Invincible in arms, during a thirty years' war, he was at length assassinated by the emissaries of Sapor, king of Persia. 1'he patriotic satraps of Armenia, who asserted the freedom and dignity of the crown, imj)lured the protection of Rome in favor of Tiridates, the lawful heir. But (he son of Chosroes was an infant, the allies were at a distance and the Persian monarch advanced towards the frontier at the nead of an irresistible force. Young Tiridates, the future nope of his country, was saved by the fidelity of a servant, and Armenia continued above twenty-seven years a reluctant province of tiie great monarchy of Persia.'^^ Elated with ;his easy conquest, and presuming on the distresses or the legencracy of the Romans, Sapor ol)ligcd the strong ganisons jf Carrhaj and Nisibis* to surrender, and spread devastation tnd terror on either side of the Euphrates. The loss of an important frontier, the ruin of a faithful and natural ally, and the rapid success of Sapoi's ambition, alTccted itome with a (lee[) sense of the insult as wtli as of the dang(;r. Valerian flattered himself, that the vigilance of his lieutenants would suliiciently provide for the safety of the Rhine and of the Danube ; but he resolved, notwithstanding his advanced itge, to marcn in person to the defence of the Euphrates. During his progress th.-ough Asia Minor, the naval enterprises of the Goths were suspended, and the atllicted province enjoyed H transient and flillacious calm, lie passed the Euphrates, encountered the Persian monarch near the walls of Edessa. was vanquishetl, and taken prisoner by Sapor. The particu- lars of this great event are darkly and iniperfectly represented : yet, by the glimmering light which is afforded us, we miy discover a long series of imprudence, of error, and of deserve(\ misfortunes on the side of the Roman emperor. lie reposed "* Moaca Chorenensis, 1. ii. c. 71, 73, 74. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 628. The authentic relation of the Armenian historian serves to rectify tho confused account of the Greek. The latter talks of the children ol" liiitlates, who at that time was nim>elf an infant. [Compare St. Martin Memoires sur I'Armenie, i. p. 301. — M.] * Xisibis, according to Persian authors, was t.akcn bv « miracl'^ • the wall fell, in compliance with the prayers of tl.e army. M:iU-^»lm's Feriias S16 THE DECTINE AND FALl an implicit confidence in Macrianus, his Praetorian praefect^^a That worthless minister rendered his master formidable only to the oppressed subjects, and contemptible to the enemies of Rome.^'"^ By his weak or wicked counsels, the Imperial army was betrayed into a situation where valor and military skill were equally unavailing.^^^ The vigorous attempt of the Romans to cut their way through the Persian host waa repulsed with great slaughter ;i38 and Sapor, who encom- passed the camp with superior numbers, patiently waited till the increasing rage of famine and pestilence had insured his victory. The licentious murmurs of the legions soon accused Valerian as the cause of their calamities ; their seditious clamors demanded an instant capitulation. An im- mense sum of gold was offered to purchase the permission of a disgraceful retreat. But the Persian, conscious of his supe- riority, refused the money with disdain ; and detaining the deputies, advanced in order of battle to the foot of the Roman rampart, and insisted on a personal conference with the em- peror. Valerian was reduced to the necessity of intrusting ins life and dignity to the faith of an enemy. The interview ended as it was na ural to expect. The emperor was made a prisoner, and h'^ astonished troops laid down their arms.'^^ In such a moment of triumph, the pride and policy of Sapor prompted him to fill the vacant throne with a successor entirely dependent on his pleasure. Uyriaaes, an obscure fugitive of Antioch, stained with every vice, was chosen to dishonor the Roman purple; and the will of the Persian victor could not fail of being ratified by the acclamations, however reluctant, of the captive army.^'"^ The Imperial slave was eager to secure the favor of his master by an act of treason to his native country. He con- ducted Sapor over the Euphrates, and, by the way of Chalcis, to the metropolis of the East. So rapid were the motions of "* Hist. Aug. p. 191. As Macrianus was an enemy to the Chris- tians, they charged him with being a magician. ^M Zosimus, I. i. fj. 33. "7 Hist. Aug. p. 174. "* Victor in Ctesar. Eutropius, ix. 7. '™ Zosimus, 1. i. p. 33. Zonaras. 1. xii. p. 630. Teter Patricius, iii ihe Excerpta Lcgat. p. 29. '*" Hist. August, p. IHo. The reign of Cyriadcs appears in that collection prior to the death of Valerian : but I have preferrc(i a prooable series of events to the doubtful chronology of a most inac- curate writer. f>F THE ROMAN EMPIRE. SH the Persian cavalry, tliaf, if we may credit a very judiciouH historian, '•'• the city of Antioch was surprised when the idle multitude was fondly gazing on the amusements of the thea- tre. The splendid buildings of Antioch, private as well a? public, were either pillaged or destroyed ; and the numerous inhabitants were put to the sword, or led away into captiv. ity.'''- The tide of devastation was stopped for a moment bv the resolution of the high priest of Emesa. Arrayed in his sacerdotal robes, he appeared at the head of a great body of fanatic peasants, armed only with slings, and defended his god and his property from the sacrilegious hands of the fol- lowers of Zoroaster.'"*^ But the ruin of Tarsus, and of many other cities, furnishes a melancholy proof that, except in this singular instance, the conquest of Syria and Cilicia scarcely interrupted the progress of the Persian arms. The advan- tages of the narrow passes of Mount Taurus were abandoneo in which an invader, whose principal force consisted in his cavalry, would have been eng;iged in a very unequal combat : and Sapor was permitted to form the siege of Ciesarca, the capital of Cappadocia ; a city, though of the second rank, which was supposed to contain four hundred thousand inhabit- ants. Demostlienes 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 Ca3sarca was betrayed by the perfidy of n phy- sician, he cut his way through the Persians, who had been ordered to exert their utmost diligence to takp him alive. Thfs heroic chief escaped the power of a foe who might either have honored or punished his obstinate valor • but many thousands of his fellow-citizens were involved in a general massacre, and Sapor is accused of treating his prisoners with '*' The sack of Antioch, anticipated by some historians, is as- signed, by the decisive testimony of Aramianus Marcelliiius, to tlie teign of Gallienus, xxiii. 6.* '*'^ Zosiinus, 1. i. p. 35. '*^ John Malala, torn. i. p. 391. lie corrupts this probable event by some fabulous circumstances. • Ileyne, in his note on Zosiraus, contests this opinion of Gibbon ; and observes, that the testimony of Ammianus is in fact by no means clear or decisive. GaUienus and Valerian reigned together. Zosimus, in a second passage, 1. iii. 32, 8, distinctly places this event before the capture of Valerian. - VI. 318 THE DECLINE A.ND FALL vvatitoxi and unrclenti.ig cruelty. i'*'* Much should i.ndoubleQ !.y be allowed for national animosity, much £jr 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 tho ';tcrn features of a conqueror. He despaired of making a«y permanent establishment in the empire, and sought only to leave beliind him a wasted desert, whilst he transported into Persia the people and the treasures of the provinces.''^^ At the time when the East trembled at the name of Sapor, he received a present not unworthy of the greatest kings ; a long train of camels, laden with tlie most rare and valuable merchandises. The rich offering was accompanied with an epistle, respectful, but not servile, from Odenathus, one of the noblest and most opulent senators of Palmyra. " Who is this Odenathus," (said the haughty victor, and he commanded that the presents should be cast into the Euphrates,) " that he thuh insolently presumes to write to his lord ? If he entertains a hope of mitigating his punishment, let him fall prostrate be- fore the foot of our throne, with his hands bound behind his back. Should he hesitate, swift destruction shall be poured on his head, on his whole race, and on his country." ^"^^ The desperate extremity to which the Palmyrenian was reduced, called into action all the latent powers of his soul. He met Sapor ; but he met him in arms. Infusing his own spirit into a little army collected from the villages of Syria,''*'' and the tents of the desert,!^^ he hovered round the Persian host, harassed their retreat, carried off' part of the treasure, and, what was dearer than any treasure, several of the women of the great king ; who was at last obliged to repass the Eu- phrates with some marks of haste and confusion.''*^ By this '■''' Zonoras, 1. xii. p. 630. Deep valleys were filled up with the elain. Crowds of prisoners were driven to water like beasts, and many perished for want of food. '<' Zosimus, 1. i. j). 2o, asserts, that Sapor, had he not preferred njioil to coniiuest, might have remained master of Asia. '■•* Peter I'atricus in Excerpt. Leg. p. 29. '*' Syrorum agrestium manii. Sextus Rufus, c. 23. Kufus, Vic- tor, the Augustan History, (p. 192,) and several inscriptions, agree in making Odenathus a citizen of Palmyra. '^* He possessed so ]iovverful an interest among the wandctin^j tribes, that Procopius (Hell. Persic. 1. ii. c. 5) and John Malala (torn i. p. 391) style hira l*rince of the Saracens. '*' Peter Patricias, p. 2n . OF I.IE ROMAN EMPIRE. 319 exploit OJenathus laid the foundations of liis future fame and foitunrs. Tile majesty of Rome, oppressed by a Persian was protected by a Syrian or Arab of Palmyra. Tlie voice of liistory, wliicii is often little more than the organ of hatred or flattery, reproaches Sapor with a pioud abuse o^ the rights of conquest. We are told that Valerian, in chains, but invested with the Imperial purple, was exposed to the multitude, a constant spectacle of fallen greatness; and that whenever the Persian monarch mounted on horseback, he placed his foot on the neck of a Roman emperor. Notwith- standing all the remonstrances of his allies, who repeatedly advised him to remember the vicissitudes of fortune, to dread the returning power of Rome, and to make his illustrious cni)- tive the pledge of peace, not the object of insult, Sapor still remained inflexible. When Valerian sunk under the weight of shame and grief, his skin, stuffed with straw, and formed into the likeness of a human figure, was preserved for ages in the most celebrated temple of Persia ; a more real monu- ment of triumph, than the fancied trophies of brass and mar- ble so often erected by Roman vanity. ^^^ The tale is moral and pathetic, but the truth t of it may very fairly be called iii question. The letters still extant from the princes of the East to Sapor are manifest forgeries ; ^^^ nor is it natural to suppose that a jealous monarch should, even in the person of a rival, thus publicly degrade the majesty of kings. Whatever treat- ment the unfortunate Valerian might experience in Persia, it is at least certain that the only emperor of Rome who had ever fallen into the hands of the enemy, languished away hii jfe in hopeless captivity. '^'' The Pagan writers lament, the Christian insult, the misfortunes of Valerian. Their various testimonies are accurately collected by 'i'illcmont, tom. iii. p. 7.'!9, &c. So little has been preserved of east- ern history before Mahomet, that the modern Persians are totally ii,'norant of the victory of Sapor, an event so glorious to their nation. 8ce Biblioth6que Oricntale.* ''"' One of these epistles is from Artavasde" king of Armenia; dnce Armenia was then a ])rovince of Persia, the king, the kingdom, and the epistle must be fictitious. • Malcolm appears to write from Persian authorities, i. 76. — M. t Yet Gibbon himself records a speech of tlie emperor Galeriiis, which alludes to the cruelties exercised apainst the livini;, and the indignities to which they exposed the dead Valerian, vol. ii. ch. 13. Respect for the 'linjily character would by no means prevent an eastern morarch from patifyiujj his pride and his vengeance on a fallen foe — M. 320 TJE DECLINE AND FALL The emperor Gallienus, who had long supporteJ with im- patience the censorial severity of his father and colleague, received the intelligence of his misfortunes with secret pleas- ure and avowed indifference. " I knew that my father was a mortal," said he ; " and since he has acted as becomes a hrave man, I am satisfied." Whilst Rome lamented the fate of her sovereign, the savage coldness of his son was e.xtolled by the servile courtiers as the perfect firmness of a hero and a stoic. 1^'^ It is difficult to paint the light, the various, the inconstant character of Gallienus, which he displayed without constraint, as soon as he became sole possessor of the empire. In every art that he attempted, his lively genius enabled him to succeed ; and as his genius was destitute of judgment, he attempted every art, except the important ones of war and government. He was a master of several curious, but useless sciences, a ready orator, an elegant poet,!^-' a skilful gardener, an excellent cook, and most contemptible prince. When the great emergencies of the state required his presence and attention, he was engaged in conversation with the philosopher Plotinus,'^'* wasting his time in trifling or licentious pleasures, preparing his initiation to the Grecian mysteries, or soliciting a place in the Areopagus of Athens. His profuse magnifi- cence insulted the general poverty ; the solemn ridicule of his triumphs impressed a deeper sense of the public disgrace.^-''^ '** Sep his life in the Augustan History. '^•' There is still extant a very pretty Epithalamium, composed by Gallienus tor the nuptials of his nephews : — " Ite ait, Juvenes, pariter sudate medullis Omnibus, inter vos : non murniura vestra columbx, Brachia non hedera;, uon vincant oscula cunchai." "* He was on the point of giving Plotinus a ruined city of Cam- pania to try the experiment of realizing Plato's Republic. See the life of Plotinus, by Porphyr}% in Fabriciiis's Biblioth. Grsec. 1. iv. ■'* A medal which bears the head of Gallienus has perplexed the ftnticiuarians by its legend and reverse ; the former Gallience Attr/ust(P^ the latter Ubique Pax. M. Spanheim supposes that the coin waa struck by some of the enemies of Gallienus, and was designed as a Bcvere satire on that effeminate prince. Hut as the use of irony may seem unworthy of the gravity of the Roman mint, M. de Vailcmont has deduced from a passage of Trcbellius PoUio (Hist. Aug. p. 198y an ingenious and natural solution. Gallitna was tirst cousin to the emperor. By delivering Africa from tlie usuri)er Celsus, she de- served the title of Augusta. On a medal in the French king's col- lection, we read a similar inscription of Faustina Aw/usta rouj.d the head of Marcus Aurclius. With regard to the L'.'-itjur. I'ax, it if OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 321 The repealed intelligence of invasions, defeats, and rebel- lions he received with a careless smile , and singling out- with afTected contempt, some particular production of the losi province, he carelessly asked, whether Rome must be ruined, unless it was supplied with linen from Egypt, and arras cloth from Gaul. There were, however, a few short moments in tlio life of Gallienus, when, exasperated by some recent injury, he suddenly appeared the intrepid soldier and the cruel tyrant , till, satiated with blood, or fatigued by resistance, lie insensi- bly sunk into the natural mildness and indolence of his cbar- ncter.'^s At the time when the reins of government were held with so loose a hand, it is not surprising, that a crowd of usurpers should start up in every province of the empire against the son of Valerian. It was probably some ingenious fancy, of com- paring the thirty tyrants of Rome with the thirty tyrants of Athens, that induced the writers of the Augustan History to select that celebrated number, which has been gradually re- ceived into popular appellation.'^^ But in every light the par- allel is idle and defective. What resemblance can we discovei between a council of thirty persons, the united oppressors of a single city, and an imcerlain list of independent rivals, who rose and fell in irregular succession throufrh the extent of a vast em- pire .'' Nor can. the number of thirty be completed, unless wo include in the account the women and children who were hon- ored with the Imperial title. The reign of Gallienus, distracted as it was, produced only nineteen pretenders to the throne : Cy- riades, Macrianus, Balista, Odenathus, and Zenobia, in the East ; in Gaul, and the western provinces, Poslhumus, Lollianus, Victorinus, and his mother Victoria, Marius, and Tetricus ; in Illyricum and the confines of the Danube, Ingenuus, Regillia- easily explained by the vanity of Gallienus, who seized, perhaps, the occasion of some momentary calm. See Nouvelles de la llepublique dfcfl Lettrcs, Janvier, 1700, p. 21 — 34. '** This singular character has, I believe, been fairly transmitted to us. The reign of his immediate successor was short and busy ; and the historians who wrote before the elevation of the family of C'onstautine could not have the most remote interest to misrcj)re- lent the character of Clallienus. '^^ Poilio expresses the most minute anxiety to complete the number.* * Compare a dissertation of Manso on the thirty tyrants, at the end of ois Leben Const-mtius des Grossen. Breslau. 1817. — M. 822 THE DFC^INE AND FALL nus, and Aureoli:? ; in Pontus,^^® Saturninus ; in Isauria, Tre- bellianus ; Piso in Thessaly ; Valens in Achaia , iEmilianus in Egypt ; and Celsus in Africa.* To illustrate the obscure monuments of the life and death of each individual, would j»rove a laborious task, alike barren of instruction and of amusement. We may content ourselves with investigating some general characters, that most strongly mark the condi- tion of the times, and the manners of the men, their pie- tensions, their motives, their fate, and the destructive conse- quences of their usurpation.^^'* It is sufficiently known, that the odious appellation of Tyrant was often employed by the ancients to express the illegal seizure of supreme power, without any reference to the abuse of it. Several of the pretenders, who raised the standard of rebellion against the emperor Gallienus, were shining models of virtue, and almost all possessed a considerable share of vigor and ability. Their merit had recommended them to the favor of Valerian, and gradually promoted them to the most important commands of the empire. The generals, who assumed the title of Augustus, were either respected by their troops for their able conduct and severe discipline, or admired for valor and success in war, or beloved for frankness and generosity. The field of victory was often the scene of their election ; and even the armorer Marius, the most contemptible '** The place of his reign is somewhat doubtful ; but there was a tyrant in Pontus, and we are acquainted with the seat of all the others. 1S9 Tillemont, torn. iii. p. 1163, reckons them somewhat dif- ferently. * Captain Smyth, in his " Catalogue of Medals," p. 307, substitutes twc new names to make up the number of nineteen, for those of Odenathus Bnd Zenobia. He subjoins this list : — 1. 2. 3. Of those whose coins Those wliose coins Those <.f whom no are undoubtedly true. are suspected. coins arc k mwn Posthumus. Cyriades. Valens. Lielianus, (LoUianus. G.) Ingenuus. Balista. Victorinus. Celsus. Satuininus. Marius. Piso Frugi frebellianus. Tetricus. — M. 1815 Macrianus. Quietiis. Ref^alianus, (RegilLanua. O.) A-lox. iEmilianus. Aureolas. Sulpicius Antoniniu. OF THE ROMAN KMPIRE. 323 of all the cand.dutes fur the purple, was distinguished, however by intrepid courage, matchless strength, and blunt honesty."^" His mean and recent trade cast, indeed, an air of ridicule en 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 bv nature : in a general state of war, military merit ij the road to glory and to greatness. Of the nineteen tyrants, Tetricus only was a senator ; Piso alone was a noble. The blood of Numa, through twenty-eight successive generations, ran in the veins of Calphurnius Piso,'*^' who, by female alli- ances, claimed a right of exhibiting, in his house, the images of Crassus and of the great Pompey."^^ His ancestors had been repeatedly dignified with all the honors which the com- monwealth could bestow ; and of all the ancient families of Rome, the Calphurian alone had survived the tyranny of the Ca!sars. 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 Callienus, the senate, with the emperor's gener- ous permission, decreed the triumphal ornaments to the mem- ory of so virtuous a rebel/''"^ The lieutenants of Valerian were grateful to the father whom they esteemed. They disdained to serve the luxurious indolence of his unworthy son. Ths throne of the Roman "" Sec the speech of Marius in the Aiigustan Histori', p. 197. The accidental identity of names was the only circumstance that could tempt I'ollio to imitate Sallust. 161 om the year two hundred and fifty to the year two hundred and sixty-five, raged without interruption in every province, every city, and almost every family, of the Roman empire. During some time five thousand persons died daily in Rome ; and "nany towns, that had escaped the hands of the Barbarians, A'ere 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 be- tween the ages of forty and seventy, had been equal to the whole sum of claimants, from fourteen to fourscore years of age, who remained alive after the reign of Gallienus.^^^ ^p. plying this authentic fact to the most correct tables of mor- tality, it evidently proves, that above half the people of Alex- andria 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. ^^^ "" Hist. August, p. 177. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 24. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 623. Euseb. Chronicon. Victor in Epitom. Victor in Caesar. Eu- tropius, ix. 5. Orosius, vii. 21. '** Euscb. Hist. Eccles. vii. 21. The fact is taken from the Letters of Dionysius, who, in the time of those troubles, was bishop of Alex- andria. '*^ In a great number of parishes, 11,000 persons were found between fourteen and eighty : 63G5 between forty and scenty. See BuiFon Hifltoire Naturelle, torn. ii. p. 690. 17 '^ CHAPTER XI. RBIGN CF CLATTtlUS. DEFEAT OF THE GOTHS. VICTORIES TEIfMPH AND DEATH OF AURELIAN. U>"rER the deplorable reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, th» empire was oppressed and almost destroyed by the soldiers ihe tyrants, and the barbarians. It was saved by a series of great princes, who derived their obscure origin from the mar- tial provinces of Illyricum. Within a period of about thirty years, Claudius, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian and his col- leagues, triumphed over the foreign and domestic enemies of the state, reestablished, with the military discipline, tho strength of the frontiers, and deserved the glorious title of Restorers of the Roman world. The removal of an effei-'inate tyrant made way foi a suc- cession of heroes. The indignation of the people imputed all their calamities to Gallienus, and the far greater part were, indeed, the consequence of his dissolute manners and careless administration. He was even destitute of a sense of honor, which so frequently supplies the absence of public virtue ; and as long as he was permitted to enjoy the possession of Italy, a victory of the barbarians, the loss of a province, or the rebellion of a general, seldom disturbed the tranquil course of his pleasures. At length, a considerable army, stationed on the Upper Danube, invested with th-e Imperial purple their leader Aureolus ; who, disdaining a confined and barren reign over the mountains of Rhajtia, passed the Alps, occupied Milan, threatened Rome, and challenged Gallienus to dispute in the lield the sovereignty of Italy. The emperor, provoked by the insult, and alarmed by the instant danger, suddenly exerted that latent vigor which sometimes broke through the indolence of his temper. Forcing himself from the luxury of the palace, he appeared in arms at the head of his legions, and advanced beyond the Po to encounter his competitor. The cofrupted name of Pontirolo ^ still preserves the memory ' Po?is Aurooll, thirteen miles from Bergamo, and thirty -^wo from Milan. Hco Cluvcr, Italia A.ntiq. tom. i. p. 245. Near this place, in 330 OP THE ROMAN EMPIK/i. 331 of a bridge over the Adda, wliich, during the action, must have proved an object of the utmost importance to both armies, The Rhaniart usurper, after receiving a total defeat and a dan- gerous wound, retired into Milan. The siege of that great city was immediately formed; the walls were battered with every engine in use among the ancients; and Aureolus, doubt- ful of iiis internal strength, and hopeless of foreign succors, already anticipated the fatal consequences of unsuccessful rebellion. His last resource was an attempt to seduce the loyalty of the besiegers. He scattered libels through the camp, inviting the troopH to desert an unwortliy master, who sacrificed the public happiness to his luxury, and the lives of his most valu- able subjects to the slightest suspicions. The arts of Aureolus diffused fears and discontent among the principal officers of his rival. A conspiracy was formed by Heraclianus the Prae- torian prrefect, by Marcian, a general of rank and reputation, and by Cecrops, who commanded a numerous body of Dal- matian guards. The death of Gallienus was resolved ; and notwithstanding their desire of first terminating the siege of Milan, the oxtremo danger which accompanied every mo- ment's delay obliged th^ to hasten the execution of theii daring purpose. At a late hour of the night, but while the emperor still protracted the pleasures of the table, an alarm was suddenly given, that Aureolus, at the head of all his forces, had made a desperate sally from the town ; Gallienus, who was never deficient in personal bravery, started from his silken couch, and without allowing himself time either to put on his armor, or to assemble his guards, he mounted on horseback, and rode full speed towards the supposed place of the attack. Encompassed by his declared or concealed enemies, he soon, amidst the nocturnal tumult, received a mortal dart from an uncertain hand. Before he expired, a patriotic sentiment rising in the mind of Gallienus, induced him to name a de- serving successor; and it was his last request, that the Impe- rial ornaments should be delivered to Claudius, who then com- manded a detached army in the neighborhood of Pavia. The report at least was diligently propagated, and the order clieer- the year 1703, the obstinate battle of Cassano wa3 fought between ihe French and Austrians. Tlie excellent relation of the Chevalier dc Folard, wjio was present, gives a very distinct idea of tht grcund. See Polybe de F>:ard, torn. iii. p. 223—248. 332 THE DECLINE AND FALL. fully obeyed by the conspirators, who had already agree*! tc place Claudius on the throne. On the first news of the em- peror's death, the troops expressed some suspicion and resent- ment, till the one was removed, and the other assuaged, by a donative of twenty pieces of gold to each soldier. They then ratified the election, and acknowledged the merit of their new sovereign.2 The obscurity vvhich covered the origin of Claudius, though It was afterwards embellished by some flattering fictions,^ suf- ficiently betrays the meanness of his birth. We can only discover that he was a native of one of the provinces border- ing on the Danube ; that his youth was spent in arms, and that his modest valor attracted the favor and confidence of Decius. The senate and people already considered him as an excellent officer, equal to the most important trusts ; and censured the inattention of Valerian, who suffered him to remain in the subordinate station of a tribune. But it was not long before that emperor distinguished the merit of Claudius, by declaring him general and chief of the lUyrian frontier, with the command of all the troops in Thrace, Moesia, Dacia, Pannonia, and Dalmatia, the appointments of the prsefect of Egypt, the establishment of the proconsul of Africa, and the Bure prospect of the consulship. By his victories over the Goths, he deserved from the senate the honor of a statue, and excited the jealous apprehensions of Gallienus. It was im- possible that a soldier could esteem so dissolute a sovereign, nor is it easy to conceal a just contempt. Some unguarded expressions which dropped from Claudius were officiously trans- mitted to the royal ear. The emperor's answer to an officer of confidence describes in very lively colors his own charac- ter, and that of the times. " There is not any thing capable of giving me more serious concern, than the intelligence con- tained in your last despatch ; '' that some malicious suggestions * On the death of Gallienus, see Trebellius Pollio in Hist. August, p. 181. Zosimus, 1. i. p. ^7. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. (')34. Eutrop. ix. 11. Aurelius Victor in Epitoni. Victor in Caesar. I have compared and blended them all, but have chiefly followed Aurelius Victor, who ecems to have had the best memoirs. ' Some supposed him, oddly enough, to be a bastard of the younger Gordian. Others took advantage of the province of Dardania, to deduce his origin from Dardanus, and the ancient kings of Troy. * Notoria, a periodical and official despatch which the emperors received from the fntmcntarii, or agents dispersed tlu-ough.the prov' inces. Of these we maj speak horoaiter. OF THE ROMAN KMPIUE. 333 Iiave indisposed towards us the mind of our friend and pnrffnt Claudius As you regard your alk-giance, use every meana to appease his resentment, but conduct your negotiation with secrecy ; let it not reach the knowledge of the Dacian troops ; they are already provoked, and it might inflame their iury. 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 presents wiiich accompanied this humble epistle, in which the monarch solicited a reconciliation with his discontented sub- ject, consisted of a considerable sum of money, a splendid wardrobe, and a valuable service of silver and gold plate. By such arts Gallienus softened the indignation and dispelled the fears of his Illyi-ian general ; and during the remainder of that reign, the formidable sword of Claudius was always drawn in the cause of a master whom he depised. At last, indeed, he received tVora the conspirators the bloody purple of Gallienus : but he had been absent from their camp and counsels ; and however he might applaud the deed, we may candidly presume that he was innocent of the knowledge of it.® Wlien Claudius ascended the throne, he was about fifty- four years of age. The siege of Milan was still continued, and Aureolus soon discovered that the success of his artilices had only raised up a more determined adversary. He attempted to negotiate witli Claudius a treaty of alliance and partition. '' Tell him," replied tiie intrepid emperor, '' that such proposals should have been made to Gallienus; he, perhaps, niiglit have listened to them witli patience, and accepted a colleague as despicable as him-elt." " This stern refusal, and a last unsuccessful effort, obliged Am-eolus to yield the city and himself to the discretion of the conrpuiror. Tlie judgment of the army pronounced him worthy of death ; and Claudius, after a feeble resistance, jonsenied to the execution of the sentence. Nor was the zeaJ jf the senate less ardent in the cause of their new sovereign. 6 Hist Ausriist. p. "208. Gallienus rlcscribcs the plate, vestments, &c. iike !i man wlio loved and understood those s|)lendid trifies. •* Julian (Orat. i. p. 6) affirms that Claudius acquired the empire in a just and even holy manner. But we may distrust the partiality of a kinsman. ^ Hist. Auffust. p. 203. There are some triflinu; differences ooncein* Vig the circums'ances of the lust defeat and deiith of Aureolus. 5M THE DECLINE AND FALL They ratified, perhaps with a sincere transport of zeal, Ihn election of Claudius ; and, as his predecessor had shown him self 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 tlie pleasure and merit of obtaining by his intercession a gen- era! act of indemnity. 8 Such ostentatious clemency discovers less of the real chai acter of Claudius, than a trifling circumstance in which ho seems to have consulted only the dictates of his heart. The frequent rebellions of the provinces had involved almost every person in the guilt of treason, almost every estate in the case of confiscation ; and Gallienus oi en displayed his liberality by distributing among his officers the property of his subjects. On the accession of Claudius, an old woman threw herself at his feet, and complained that a general of the late emperoi had obtained an arbitra-xy grant of her patrimony. This gen- eral 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 neces^ sary to revive among his troops a sense of order and obe- dience. With the authority of a veteran commander, he rep- resented to them that the relaxation of discipline had intro- duced a long train of disorders, the effects of which were at length experienced by the soldiers themselves ; that a people ruined by oppression, and indolent from despair, could no longer suj)ply a numerous army with the means of luxury, or even of subsistence ; that the danger of each individual had increased with the despotism of the military order, sinct ® Aurclius Victor in Gallien. The people loudly prayed for the datniiiition oi" Gallipnus.* The senate decreed that liis relations and servants should be thrown down headlong from the (ionionitm stairs. An obnoxious oiKcer of the revenue had his eyes tern out whilst unier examination. * Zonards, 1. xii. p. 137. • The expression is curious, " terrammatrera deosque inferos precaretor, ledes iinpias uti Gallieno darent." — M. or THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 335 princes who tremble on tlie throne will guard their safety by the instant sacrifice of every obnoxious subject. The em- peror expatiated on the mischiefs of a lawless caprice, which the soldiers could only gratify at the expense of their own blood ; as their seditious elections had so frequently bemi fol- lowed by civil wars, which consumed the flower of the legions either in the field of battle, or in the cruel abuse of victory. He painted in the most lively colors the exhausted state of the treasury, the desolation of the provinces, the disgrace of the Roman name, and the insolent triumph of rapacious bar- barians. It was against those barbarians, he declared, that he intended to point the finst eObrt of their arms. Tetricus might reign for a while over the West, and even Zenobia might preserve the dom.nion of the East.'" These usurpers were liis person"l adversaries; nor could he think of indulging any :nvate resentment till he had saved an empire, whose im- pending ruin would, unless it was timely prevented, crush both the army and the people. The various nations of Germany and Sarmatia, who fought under the Gothic standard, had already collected an arma- ment more formidable than any which had yet issued from the Euxine. On the banks of the Niester, one of the great rivers that discharge themselves into that sea, they constructed a fleet of two thousand, or even of six thousand vessels; '' num- bers which, however incredible they may seem, would have been insufficient to transport their pretended army of three hundred and twenty thousand barbarians. Whatever might be the real strength of the Goths, the vigor and success of the expedition were not adequate to the greatness of the prepara- tions. In their passage through the Bosphorus, the unskilful pilots were overpow(!red by the violence of the current ; and while the multitude of their ships were crowded in a narrow channel, many were dashed against each other, or against the shore. The barbarians made several descents on the coasts both of Euroi)e and Asia ; but the open country was already plundered, and they were repulsed with shame and loss from the fortified cities which they assaulted. A spirit of discour- '" Zonaras on this occasion mentions Posthuraus ; but the registers of the senate (Hist. August, p. '203) prove that Tetricus was already emperor of the western provrinccs. " The Aujiustan History mentions the smaller, Zonaras the larger, number ; the lively fancy of Montcscjuieu induced liim to prefer t)\e Itttter. 836 THE DECLINE AND FALL asement and division arose in the fleet, and some of iheir r.iiiefs sailed away towards the islands of Crete and Cyprus ; but the main body, pursuing a more steady course, anchored at lensfth near the foot of Mount Athos, and assaulted the cilv of Thessalonica, the wealthy capital of all the Macedonian provmces. Their attacks, in which they displayed a fierce but artless bravery, were soon interrupted Oy 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 imme- diately broke up their camp, relinquished the siege of Thessa- lonica, left their navy at the foot of Mount Athos, traversed the hills of Macedonia, and pressed forwards to engage the ast defence of Italy. We still possess an original letter addressed by Claudius to the senate and people on this memorable occasion. " Con- script fathers," says the emperor, " know that three hundreu and twenty thousand Goths have invaded the Roman territory. If I vanquish them, your gratitude will reward my services. Should I fall, remember that I am the successor of Gallienus. The whole republic is fatigued and exhausted. We shall fight after Valerian, after Ingenuus, Regillianus, LoUianus, Posthu- mus, Celsus, and a thousand others, whom a just contempt for Gallienus provoked into rebellion. We are in want of darts, of spears, and of shields. The strength of the empire, Gaul, and Spain, are usurped by Tetricus, and we blush to acknowl- edge that the archers of the East serve under the banners of Ztenobia. Whatever we shall perform will be sufficiently great." i^ The melancholy firmness of this epistle announces a hero careless of his fate, conscious of his danger, but still deriving a well-grounded hope from the resources of his own mind. The event surpassed his own expectations and those of the. world. By the most signal victories he delivered the empire from this host of barbarians, and was distinguished by poster- ity under the glorious appellation of the Gothic Claudius. The imperfect historians of an irregular war ^'^ do not enahl'i us to describe the order and circumstances of his exploits; " Trebell. PolHo in Hist. Auj;nst. p. 204. '* Ilist. August, in Claud. Aurelian. ct Prob. Zosimus, 1. i. p^ 38 — i2. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 638. Aurcl. Victor in Epitom. Victoi Junioi in Cxsar. Eutrop. ix. 11. Euseb. in Chron. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 331 but, if we could be indulged in the allusion, wc misht dis- tribute into three acts this memorable tragedy. I. The de- cisive battle was fought near Naissus, a city of Dardania. Tlie legions at first gave way, oppressed by numbers, and dis- mayed by misfortunes. Their ruin was inevitable, had not the abilities of their emperor prepared a seasonable relief. A large detachment, rising out of the secret and difllcult pass(!3 of the mountains, which, by his order, they had occupied suddenly assailed the rear of the victorious Goths. The favor- able instant was improved by the activity of Claudius. He revived the courage of his troops, restored their ranks, and pressed the barbarians on every side. Fifty thousand men are reported to have been slain in the battle of Naissus, Sev- eral large bodies of barbarians, covering their retreat with a movable fortification of wagons, retired, or rather escaped, from the field of slaughter. II. We may presume that some insurmountable diiTsculty, the fatigue, perhaj)s, or the disobe- dience, of the conquerors, prevented Claudius from completing in one day the destruction of the (Jotlis. The war was dif- fused over the provinces of Ma;sia, Thrace, and Macedonia, and its operations drawn out into a variety of marches, sur- prises, and tumultuary engagements, as well by sea as by land. When the Romans suffered any loss, it was commonly occasioned by their own cowarrlice or rashness; but the supe- rior talents of the emperor, his perfect knowledge of the country, and his judicious choice of measures as well as olficers, 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 o*" 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 oven in a naval expedition, they were accoin[)aniee Gotrc and the Goths is still, ia ray opinion iiicorrtctly maintained by some learned writers. — M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 343 violated the conditions of peace, which eitlier Gallienus had purchased, or Claudius had imposed, and, inflamed by tneir impatient youth, suddenly flew to arms. Forty thousand horse appeared in the field,"^'' and the numbers ot the infantry doubled those of the cavalry.-''' The first , objects of their avarice wwe a few cities of tlie Rhaitian frontier ; but their hopes soon rising with success, the rapid march of the Ale- manni traced a line of devastation from the Danube to the Po.2« The emperor was almost at the same time informed of the irruption, and of the retreat, of the barbarians. Collecting an active body of troops, he marched with silence and celciiiy along the skirts of the Hercynian forest ; and the Alemanni, laden with the spoils of Italy, arrived at the Danube, without suspecting, that on the opposite bank, and in an advantageous post, a Roman army lay concealed and prepared to intercept their return. Aurelian indulged the fatal security of the bar- barians, and permitted about half their forces to pass the river without disturbance and without precaution. Their situation and astonishment gave him an easy victory ; his skilful con- duct improved the advantage. Disposing the legions in a semicircular form, he advanced the two horns of the crescent across the Danube, and wheeling them on a sudden towards the centre, enclosed the rear of the German host. The dis- mayed barbarians, on whatsoever side they cast their eyes, beheld, with despair, a wasted country, a deep and rapid stream, a victorious and implacable enemy. Reduced to this distressed condition, the Alemanni no longer disdained to sue for peace. Aurelian received theii ambassadors at the head of his camp, and with every circum stance of martial pomp that could display the greatness and discipline of Rome. The legions stood to their arms in we'.l- ordered ranks and awful silence. The principal commanders, Juthungi, and ^larcomanni,) it is evident that they mean the same people, and the same war ; but it requires some care to conciliate and exj)lain thcin. ^* Cantoclarus, with his usual accuracy, chooses to translate three hundred thousand : his version is equally repugnant to sense and to gramniar. " We may remark, as an instance of bad taste, that Dexippus ipplics to th'" light infantry of the Alemanni the technical terms proper only to the Grecian phalanx. *^ In Dexijipus, we at jiresent read Rhodanus : M. de Vaiois vcrj I'uiiciouHly alters the word to Eridanu3. 344 THE DECLINE AND FAL : distinguished by the ensigns of their rank, appeared on horse- back on either side of the Imperial throne. Behind the throne the consecrated images of the emperor, and his predeces- sors,-9 the golden eagles, and the various titles of the legions, engraved in letters of gold, were exalted in the air on lofty pikes covered with silver. When Aurelian assumed his seat, his manly grace and majestic figure -^^ taught the barbarians to revere the person as well as the purple of their conquercr. The ambassadors fell prostrate on the ground in silence. They were commanded to rise, and permitted to speak. I'y the assistance of interpreters they extenuated their perfidy, magnified their exploits, expatiated on the vicissitudes of for- tune and the advantages of peace, and, with an ill-timed confidence, demanded a large subsidy, as the price of the alliance which they offered to the Romans. The answer of the emperor was stern and imperious. He treated their offer with contempt, and their demand with indignation, reproached the barbarians, that they were as ignorant of the arts of war us of the laws of peace, and finally dismissed them with the choice only of submitting to his unconditioned mercy, or awaiting the utmost severity of his resentment.^' Aurelian had I'esigned a distant province to the Goths ; but it was dangerous to trust or to pardon these perfidious barbarians, whose formidable power kept Italy itself in perpetual alarms. Immediately after this conference, it should seem that some unexpected emergency required the emperor's presence in Pannonia. He devolved on his lieutenants the care of finishing the destruction of the Alemanni, either by the sword, or by the surer operation of famine. But an active despair has often triumphed over the indolent assurance of success. The barbarians, finding it impossible to traverse the Danube and the Roman camp, broke through the [)osts in their rear, which were more feebly or less carefully guarded ; and with incred- ible diligence, but by a different road, returned towards tha mountains of Italy.^- Aurelian, who considered the war as ^ The emperor Claudius was certainly of the number ; but we aro ignorant how far this mark of rcsjiect was oxtoiulcd ; if to (Jaesar and Au<^ustu.s, it must have produced a very awful spectacle ; a long vine of the masters of the world. ^" Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 210. '' I)cxi})pus gives them a subtle and prolbc oration, vor'Jiy of a Brecijm sophLst. " Hist. AuKUbt. p. 21.'). OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 34S totaHy extinguished, received tlic mortifying intelligente of the escape of the Alcmanni, and of the ravage wliich they already comttiitted in the territory of Milan. Die legions were commanded to follow, with as much expedil'on as those heavy bodies were capable of exerting, the rapid flight of an enemy whose infantry and cavalry moved with almost equal swiftness. A few days afterwards, the emperor himself marched to the relief of Italy, at the head of a chosen body of auxiliaries, (among whom were the hostages and cavalry of the V^andals,) and of all the Prietorian guards who had served in the wars on the Danube.-*-^ As the light troops of the Alemanni had spread themselves from the Alps to the Apennine, the incessant vigilance of Aurelian and his officers was exercised in the discovery, the attack, and the pursuit of the numerous detachments. Not- withstanding this desultory war, three considerable battles are mentioned, in which the [)rincipal force of both armies waa obstinately engaged.34 The success was various. In the first, fought near Placentia, the Romans received so severe a blow, that, according to the expression of a writer extremely partial to Aurelian, the immediate dissolution of the empire was apprehended.35 The crafty barbarians, who had lined the woods, suddenly attacked the legions in the dusk of the even- ing, and, it is mos* probable, after the fatigue and disorder of a long march. The fury of their charge was irresistible ; but, at length, after a dreadful slaughter, the patient firmness of the emperor rallied his troops, and restored, in some degree, the honor of his arms. The second battle was fought neai Fano in Unibria ; on the spot which, five hundred years before, had been fatal to the brother of Hannibal.^*'* Thus far the successful Germans had advanced along the yEmilian and Flaminian way, with a design of sacking the defenceless mistress of the world. But Aurelian, who, watchful for the safety of Rome, still hung on their rear, found in this place the decisive moment of giving them a total and irretrievable defeat.37 The flying remnant of their host was exterminated ^^ Dcxippus, p. 12. •** Victor Junior in Aurelian. ** Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 216. *• The little river, or rather torrent, of Metaurus, near Fano, htm bftcn immortalized, by finding such an historian as Livj', and such a potft as Horace. " It is recorded by an inscription found at Pesaro. See Gruter. tclxxvi. 3. 346 THE DECLINE AND FALL in a tniri anJ last battle near Pavia ; and Italy was deliveitsd from th(! inroads of the Alemanni. Fear has been the original parent of superstition, and every new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of their invisible enemies. Though the best hope of the repub- lic was in the valor and conduct of Aurelian, yet such was tha public consternation, when the barbarians were hourly ex- pected at the gates of Rome, that, by a decree of the senate, the Sibylline books were consulted. Even the emperor him- self, from a motive either of religion or of policy, recommended this salutary measure, chided the tardiness of the senate,^** and offered to supply whatever expense, whatever animals, what- ever captives of any nation, the gods should require. Notwith- standing this liberal ofler, it does not appear, that any human victims expiated with their blood the sins of the lloman people. The Sibylline books enjoined ceremonies of a more harmless nature, processions of priests in white robes, attended by a chorus of youths and virgins ; lustrations of the city and adja- cent country ; and sacrifices, whose powerful influence disabled the barbarians from passing the mystic ground on which they had been celebrated. However puerile in themselves, these superstitious arts were subservient to the success of the war ; and if, in the decisive battle of Fano, the Alemanni fancied they saw an army of spectres combating on the side of Aure- lian, he received a real and effectual aid from this imaginary reenforcenient.-^^ But whatever confidence might be placed in ideal ramparts, ihe experience of the past, and the dread of the future, induced the Romans t*^ construct fortifications of a grosser and more substantial kind. The seven hills of Rome had been surround- ed, by the successors of Romulus, with an ancient wall of more than thirteen miles.^*^ The vast enclosure may seem '" One should imagine, ho said, that you were assembled in a Chris- tian church, not in the temple of all the gods. 39 Voi)iscus, in Hist. August, p. 215, 216, gives a long account of these ceremonies from the llcgisters of the senate. *" Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. To contirm our idea, wo may observe, tliat for a long time Mount Ca>lius was a grove of oaks, and Mount Vimiual was overrun with osiers ; that, in the fourth century, the Avcntine was a vacant and solitary retirement ; that till the time of Augustus, the Esquiline was an unwholesome burying-ground ; and that the numerous inocjuaUties, remarked by the ancients in the Qui- rinal, sufficiently prove that it was not covered with buildings. O^ the sevei-. hills, tlie Capitoline and Palatine only, with the adiar-ttit \ OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 347 disproportioned to the strength and numbers of tlie infan- Btate. But it was necessary to secure an ample extent cf pasture a*nd arable land, against the frequent and sujJcn incursions of tiie tribes of Latium, the perpetual enemies of the repubhc. With the progress of Roman greatness, the city and its inhabitants gradually increased, filled up the vacant space, pierced througli the useless walls, covered the field of Mars, and, on every side, followed the public highways in long and beautiful suburbs."*! The extent of the new walls, erected by Aurelian, and finished in the reign of Probus, was magnified by popular estimation to near fifty,"*"- but is reduced by accurate measurement to about twenty-one miles.^3 Jt ^y^g a great but a melancholy labor, since the defence of the capi- tal betrayed tlie decline of the monarchy. The Romans of a more prosperous age, who trusted to the arms of the legiona the safety of the frontier camps,"*** were very far from enter- taining a suspicion, that it would ever become necessary to fortify the seat of empire against the inroads of the barba- rians."*^ Tiie victory of Claudius over the Goths, and the success o^ Aurelian against the Alemanni, liad already restored to the arms of Rome their ancient superiority over the barbarous nations of the North. To chastise domestic tyrants, and to reunite tlie dismembered parts of the empire, was a task reserved for the second of those warlike emperors. Though he was acknowledged by the senate and people, the frontiers of Italy, Africa, Illyricum, and Thrace, confined the limits of his reign. Gaul, Spain, and Britain, Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, were still possessed by two rebels, who alone, out of so numerous a list, had hitherto escaped the dangers of their valleys, wore the primitive habitation of the Roman people. But thui subject would require a dissertation. ^' Exspatiantia tecta multas r.ddidere urbes, is the expression ot Pliny. *^ Hist. Au<^ust. p. 222. Both J ipsius and Isaac Vossius have eagerly embiucod this measure. *^ See iCiudini, Roma Antica, 1. i. c. 8.* " Tacit. Hist. iv. 23. ■♦* For Aurelian's waUs, see Vospiscus in Hist. August, p. 216, 222. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 43. Eutropius, ix. 1.5. Auvel. Victor in Aurelian. Victor Jimior in Aurelian. Euscb. Hieronyra. et Idatius in Cbroaio. * But compare Gitbou, ch. xli. note 77. — M. 34S THE DECLINE AND TALL Situation ; and to complete the ignominy of Rome, these nva. thrones had boen usurped by women. A rapid succession of monarchs had arisen and' fallen in the provinces of Gaul. The rigid virtues of Posthumus served only to hasten his destruction. After suppressing a compet- itor, who had assumed the purple at Mentz, he refused to gratify his troops with the plunder of the rebellious city ; and, in the seventh year of his reign, became the victim of their disappointed avarice.'"' The death of Victorinus, his friend and associate, was occasioned by a less worthy cause. The shining accomplishments'*''' of that prince were stained by a licentious passion, which he indulged in acts of violence, with too little regard to the laws of society, or even to those of love."*^ He was slain at Cologne, by a conspiracy of jealous husbands, whose revenge would have appeared more justifi- able, had they spared the innocence of his son. After the murder of so many valiant princes, it is somewhat remarkable that a female for a long time controlled the fierce legions of Gaul, and still more singular, that she was the mother of the unfortunate Victorinus. The arts and treasures of Victoria t'labled her successively to place Marius and Tetricus on the t irone, and to reign wit^ a manly vigor under the name of '.hose dependent emperors. Money of copper, of silver, and of gold, was coined in her name ; she assumed the tales of Augusta and Mother of the Camps : her power ended only ivith her life ; but her life was perhaps shortened by the in- gratitude of Tetricus.-*^ ** His competitor was Lollianus,* or ^^lianus, if, indeed, these names mean the same person. See Tillemont, torn. iii. p. 1177. •«' The character of this prince by Julius Atcrianus (ap. Hist. Au- gust, p. 187) is worth transcribing, as it seems fair and impartial. Victorino qui Post Junium Posthumium Gallias rcxit neminem e.xis- timo prajferendum ; non in virtute Trajanum ; non Antoninum in cle- mcTitia ; non in gravitate Ncrvam ; non in gubcrnando lerario Vespa eianum ; non in Censura totius vittc ac scveritate militari Pertinacem vel .Scverum. Sed omnia hajc libido et cupiehtas voluptatis muliera- ria; sic perdidit, ut nemo audeat virtutes ejus in literas mittere qucm constat omnium judicio meruisse puniri. <* He ravished the wife of Attitianus, an actuary, or army agent. Hist. August, p. 1S6. Aurcl. Victor in Aurelian. ** I^llio assigns her an article ami ng the thirty tyrants. Hist August, p. 200. • The medals which bear the name of Lollianus are considered (orgeries, fcxcept one in tne museum of the Prince of Waldeck : there ar* man7 OK THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 349 When, at the instigation of his ambitious patroness, Tetricus kssuiiied the ensigns of royaUy, he was governor of the peace- ful province of Aquitaine, an employment suited to his char- acter and education. He reigned four or five years over Gaul, bpain, and Britain, the slave and sovereign of a licentious army, whom he dreaded, and by whom he was despised. The va'or and fortune of Aurelian at length opened the prospect cf a deliverance. He ventured to disclose his melancholy situa- tion, and conjured the emperor to hasten to the relief of his unhappy rival. Had this secret correspondence reaclied the ears of the soldiers, it would most probably have cost Tetricua his life ; nor could he resign the sceptre of the West without committing an act of treason against himself. He affected the appearances of a civil war, led his forces into the field against Aurelian, posted them in the most disadvantageous manner, betrayed his own counsels to his enemy, and with a few chosen friends deserted in the beginning of the action. The rebel legions, though disordered and dismayed by the unexpected treacheiy of their chief, defended themselves with desperate valor, till they, were cut in pieces almost to a man, in this bloody and memorable battle, which was fought near Chalons in Champagne.-''^ The retreat of the irregular auxiliaries, Franks and Batavians,^^ whom the conqueror soon compelled or persuaded to repass the Rhine, restored the general tranquil- lity, and the power of Aurelian was acknowledged from the wall of Antoninus to the columns of Hercules. As early as the reign of Claudius, the city of Autun, alone and unassisted, had ventured to declare against the legions of Gaul. After a siege of seven months, they stormed and pluu dered that unfortunate city, already wasted by famine.^- Lyons, *" Pollio in Hist. August, p. 196. Vopiscus in Hist. August. ]), 220. The two Victors, in the lives of Gallienus and Aurelian. Ku- trop. ix. Hi. Euseb. in Chron. Of all these writers, only the two last (but with strong probability) place the fall of Tctricus before that pf Zenobia. M. dc Bozc (in the Academy of Inscriptions, torn, xxx.) does not wish, and Tillemont (torn. iii. ]). 1189) docs not dare to fol- .ow them. I liave been fairer than tlie one, and bolder thaa the other. *' Victor Junior in Aurelian. Eumenius mentions Batcwica, soma critics, without any reason, would fain alter the word to BagauJicae. ** Eumen. in Vet. Panegyr. iv. 8. extant bearing the name of Lajlianus, which appears to have been Uat ol the competitor of Postl-.umus. Eckhel. Doct Num. t. vii, 449. — O. 350 THE DECLINE AND FALL on the contrary, bad resisted with obstinate disafleclion the arms of Aurelian. We read of the punishment of Lyons,^^ but there is not any mention of the rewards of Autun. Such, indeed, is the policy of civil war : severely to remember in- juries, and to forget the most important services. Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive. Aurelian had no sooner secured the person and provinces of Tetricus, than he turned his arms against Zenobia, the celebrated queen of Palmyra and the East. Modern Europe has produced several illustrious women who have sustained with glory the weight of empire ; nor is our own age destitute of such distinguished characters. But if we except the doubt- ful achievements of Semiramis, Zenobia is perhaps the only female whose superior genius broke through the servile indo- lence imposed on her sex by the climate and manners of Asia.S"* She claimed her descent from the Macedonian kings of Egypt,* equalled in beauty her ancestor Cleopatra, and far surpassed that princess in chastity ^^ and valor. Zenobia was esteemed the most lovely as well as the most heroic of her sex. She was of a dark complexion, (for in speaking of a lady these trifles become important.) Her teeth were of a pearly whiteness, and her large black eyes sparkled with uncommon fire, tempered by the most attractive sweetness. Her voice was strong and harmonious. Her manly understanding was strengthened and adorned by study. She was not ignorant of the Latin tongue, but possessed in equal perfection the Greek, the Syriac, and the Egyptian languages. She had drawn up for her own use an epitome of oriental history, and familiarly com pared the beauties of Homer and Plato under the tuition of the sublime Longinus. This accomplished woman gave her hand to Odenathis,t 6^ Vopiscus in Hist. Augii^t. p. 24G. Autun was not restored till the ri'iiiii of Diocletian. See Eunienius tie rcstauramlis scliolis. ^' Almost every thinp tliat is said of the manners of Odenatlius and Zenobia is taken from their lives in the Auyustan llistorj, by Trebel- lius ToUio ; see p. VxZ, V.lS. '^ She never admitted her husband's embraces but for the sake of posterity'. If her hopes were ballied, in tiie ensuinir inoidk lihe reiter- Ated the experiment. * Aocovdiiij; to some Clirisliati writers, Zeiioltia was a , Jewess (. ost (Jescliiclite lier Isriiel. iv. 100. Hist, of .lews, ill. 170.) — M. X Acconlitig to Zosiinus, Ofleiiathus was of ii noble family in r.ihin-i;i' aiiil according' to Procopius, lie was pi-inco i>f the Saracens, who \n abil tlu banks of tlic Euphrates. Kckliei. Doct. Num vii. 4S(t. — G. OF THK ROMAN EMPIRE. 351 ci'lio, from a private station, raised liimself to the dominii n of the East. She soon became tlie friend and companion of a hero. In the intervals of war, Odenathus passionately de- lijjiited in the exercise of hunting; he pursued with ardor the wild beasts of the desert, lions, panthers, and bears ; and the ardor of Zenobia in that dangerous amusement was not inft rior to iiis own. She had inured her constitution to fatigue, dis- dained the use of a covered carriage, generally appeared on horseback in a military habit, and sometimes marched several miles on foot at the head of the troops. The success of Ode- nathus was in a great measure ascribed to her incomparable prudence and fortitude, Tlieir splendid victories over the Great King, whom they twice pursued as far as the gates of Ctesiphon, laid the foundations of their united fame and power. The armies which they commanded, and the provinces which they had saved, acknowledged not any other sovereigns than their invincible chiefs. The senate and people of Rome revered a stranger who had avenged their captive emperor, and even the insensible son of Valerian accepted Odenathu3 for his legitimate colleague. After a successful expedition against the Gothic plunderers of Asia, the Palmyrenian prince returned to the city of Emesa in Syria. Invincible in war, he was there cut off by domestic treason, and his favorite amusement of hunting was the cause, or at least the occasion, of his death. '^'^ His nephew Majonius presumed to dart his javelin before that of his uncle ; and though admonished of his error, rei)eated the same insolence. As a monarch, and as a sportsman, Odena- thus was provoked, took away his horse, a mark of ignominy among the barbarians, and chastised the rash youth by a short confinement. The olTence was soon forgot, but the punish- ment was remembered ; and Mceonius, with a few daring a.ssociates, assassinated his uncle in the midst of a great enter- tainment. Herod, the son of Odenathus, though not of Zeno- oia, a young man of a soft and efleminate temper,'^''' was killed with his father. But Maeonius obtained only the pleasure of revenge by this bloody deed. He had scarcely time to assume *« Hist. August, p. 192, 193. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 36. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 633. The last is clear and probable, the others confused and incon- Mstent. The text of Syncellus, if not corrupt, is absolute nonsense. " Odenathus and Zeiiobia often sent hini, frcm the spoils of the enemy, presents of gems ind toys, which he received with infinit* ielight. 352 THE DECLINE AND FALL the tide of Augustus, before he was sacrificed by Zenobia to the memory of her husbnnd.^^ With the assistance of his most faitliful friends, she imme- diately filled the vacant throne, and governed with manly counsels Palmyra, Syria, and the East, above five years. Bv the death of Odenathus, that authority was at an end which the senate had granted him only as a personal distinction ; but Jiis martial widow, disdaining both the senate and Gallienus, obliged one of the Roman generals, who was sent against her, to retreat into Europe, with the loss of his army and his repu- tation. ^9 Insiead of the little passions which so frequently perplex a female reign, the steady administration of Zenobia was guided bv the most judicious maxims of policy. If it was expedient to pardon, she could calm her resentment ; if it was necessary to punish, she could impose silence on the voic<^ of pity. Her strict economy was accused of avarice ; yet on every proper occasion she appeared magnificent and liberal. The neighboring states of Arabia, Armenia, and Persia, dread- ed her enmity, and solicited her alliance. To the dominions of Odenathus, which extended from the Euphrates to the fron- tiers of Bithynia, his widow added the inheritance of her ancestors, the populous and fertile kingdom of Egypt.^'' * The emperor Claudius acknowledged her merit, and waa content, tha% while he pursued the Gothic war, she shoul i assert the dignity of the empire in the East.^^ The conduct however, of Zenobia, was attended with some ambiguity ; no: is it unlikely that she had conceived the design of erecting an independent and hostile monarchy. She blended with the popular manners of Roman princes the stately pomp of the courts of Asia, and exacted from her subjects the same adora- tion that was paid to the successors of Cyrus. "She bestowed on her three sons ^^ a Latin education, and often showed them '* Some very unjust suspicions have been cast on Zenobia, as if siko was accessory to her husband's death. *9 Hist. Auf^ust. p. 180, 181. 8" See, in Hist. August, p. 198, Aurelian's testimony to her merit ; and for the concjuest of Ej^ypt, Zosimus, 1. i. \i. 39, 40. •' Timolaus, Ilerennianus, and Vaballathus. It is supposed that the two former were already dead before the war. On the last, Aure- dan bestowed a small province of Armenia, with the title of King ; several of his medals are still extant. SeeTillemon., torn. 3, p 1190. • This seems very duubtful. Claudius, during all his reign, is repre- jented as emperor on the medals of Alexandria, which arc very numeroua OF THE ROMAN EMPIHE. 353 »o the tr50|)s adorned with the Imperial purple. For herself Bhe reserved the diadem, with tlie splendid but doublfiil title of Queen of the East. When Anrelian passed over into Asia, against an adversary whose sex alone could render her an object of contempt, his presence restored obedience to the province of Bithynia, al- ready shaken by the arms and intrigues of Zenobia.^'^ Advan- cing at the head of his legions, he accepted the submission of Ancyra, and was admitted intoTyaiia, after an obstinate siege, by the help of a perfidious citizen. The generous though fierce temper of Aurelian abandon "d the traitor to tlie rage of the soldiers ; a superstitious reverence induced him to treat with lenity the countrymen of ApoUonius the philosopher.^-* Antioch was deserted on his approach, till the emperor, by his salutary edicts, recalled the fugitives, and granted a general pardon to all, who, from necessiiy rather than choice, had been engaged in the service of the Palmyrenian Queen. 1 he unexpected mildness of such a conduct reconciled the minds of the Syrians, and as far as the gates of Emesa, the wishes of the people seconded the terror of his arms.^'* Zenobia would have ill deserved her reputation, had she indolently permitted the emperor of the West to approach within a hundred miles of her capital. The fate of the East was decided in two great battles; so similar in almost every circumstance, that we can scarcely distinguish them from each other, except by observing that the first was fought hear Antioch,**^ and the second near Emesa.^c In both the queen of Palmyra animated the armies by her presence, and devolved the execution of her orders on Zabdas, who had already ®* Zosimus, 1. i. p. 44. ^ Vopiscus (in Hist. August, p. 217) gives us an authentic letter, and a doubtful vision, of Aurelian. ApoUonius of Tyana was born about t'he same time as Jesus Christ. His life (that of the former) is related in so fabulous a manner by his disciples, that we are at a .OSS to discover whether he was a sage, an impostor, or a fanatic. ** Zosimus, 1. i. p. 46. •* At a place called Immse. Eutropius, Sextus Rufus, and Jerome mention only this first battle. *' Vopiscus (in Hist. August, p. 217) mentions only the second. If Zenobia possessed any power in Ejjvpt, it could only have been at the beginning of the reign of Aurelian. The same circumstance throws great 'mprobal)iIity on her conquests in Galatia. Perhaps Zenobia administered E^ypt in the name of Claudius, and, emboldened by the death of that pnnce, subjected it to her own power. — G. 18 354 THE DECLINE AND FALL signalized his military talents by the conquest of Egypt. The numerous forces of Zenobia consisted for the most part of light arcb^rs, and of heavy cavalry clothed in complete steel. The Moorish and lUyrian horse of Aurelian were unable to sustain the ponderous charge of their antagonists. They fled in real or affected disorder, engaged the Palmyrenians in a laborious pursuit, harassed them by a desu'tory combat, and at length discomfited this impenetrable but unwieldy body of cavalry. The light infantry, in the mean time, when they had exhausted their quivers, remaining without protection against a closer onset, exposed their naked sides to the swords of the legions. Aurelian had chosen these veteran troops, who were usually stationed on the Upper Danube, and whose valor had been severely tried in the Alemannic war.^''' After the defeat of Emesa, Zenobia found it impossible to collect a third army. As far as the frontier of Egypt, the nations sub- ject to her empire had joined the standard of the conqueror, who detached Probus, the bravest of his generals, to possess himself of the Egyptian provinces. Palmyra was the last resource of the widow of Odenathus. She retired within the walls of her capital, made every preparation for a vigorous resistance, and declared, with the intrepidity of a heroine, that the last moment of her reign and of her life should be the same. Amid the barren deserts of Arabia, a few cultivated spots rise like islands out of the sandy ocean. Even the name of Tadmor, or Palmyra, by its signification in the Syriac as well as in the Latin language, denoted the multitude of palm-trees which afforded shade and verdure to that temperate region. The air was pure, and the soil, watered by some invaluable springs, was capable of producing fruits as well as corn. A place possessed of such singular advantages, and situated at a convenient distance "^^ between the Gulf of Persia and the *^ Zosinius, 1. i. p. 44 — 48. His account of the two battles is clear and circumstantial. ^* It was five hundred and thirty-seven miles from S<;leucia, and two hundred and three from the nearest coast of Syiia, according to the reckoning of Pliny, who, in a few words. (Hist. Natur. v. 21.) gives an excellent description of I'almyra.* • Tadmor, or Palmyra, was probablj- at a very early period the connecting link between tlio commerce of Tyro and Babylon. Heeren, Idecn, v. i p. ii. p 12o. Tadmor was probably built by Solomon as a con.mtrci-J ttatioD Hist, of Jews, V. i. p. 271 — M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 355 Mediterranean, was soon frequented by the caravans which conveyed to the nations of Europe a considerable part of the rich commodities of India. Palmyra insensibly increased into aVi opulent and independent city, and connecting the Roman and tte Parthian monarchies by the mutual benefits of com- merce, was suffered to observe an humble neutrality, till at length, after the victories of Trajan, the little republic sunk nito the bosom of Rome, and flourished more than one hun- dred and fifty years in the subordinate though honorable rank of a colony. It was during that peaceful period, if we may judge from a few remaining inscriptions, that the wealthy Palmyrenians constructed those temples, palaces, and porticos of Grecian architecture, whose ruins, scattered over an extent of several miles, have deserved the curiosity of our travellers. The elevation of Odenalhus and Zenobia appeared to reflect new splendor on their country, and Palmyra, for a while, stood forth the rival of Rome : but the competition was fatal, and ages of prosperity wore sacrificed to a moment of glory .'^^ In his march over the sandy desert between Emesa and Palmyra, the emperor Aurolian was perpetually harassed by the Arabs ; nor could he always defend his army, and espe- cially his baggage, from those flying troops of active and daring robbers, who watched the moment of surprise, and eluded the slow pursuit of the legions. The siege of Palmyra was an object far more diflicult and important, and the em- peror, who, with incessant vigor, pressed the attacks in person was himself wounded with a dart. " The Roman people,'' says Aurelian, in an original letter, " speak with contempt of the war which I am waging against a woman. They are ignorant both of the character and of the power of Zenobia It is impossible to enumerate her warlike preparations, of stones, of arrows, and of every species of missile weapons. Every part of the walls is provided with two or three ba/istce and artificial fires are thrown from her military engines The fear of punishment has armed her with a desperate cour- age. Yet still 1 trust in the protecting deities of Rome, whc *' Some English travellers from Aleppo discovered the ruins of Pal- aajTa about the end of the last ccntiiry. Our curiosity has since been gratified in a more splendid manner by Messieurs Wood and Dawkins. For the history of Pidniyra, we may consult the masterly dissertation of Dr. llalley in the Philosophical Transactions : Low- thorp s Abridgment, vol. iii. p. ol8 856 THE n£CLINA ANi) FALL have hitherto beer, favorable to all my undertakings '* Doubtful, however, of the protection of the gods, and of the event of the siege, Aurelian judged it more prudent to offer terms of an advantageous capitulation ; to the queen, a splen- did retreat ; to the citizens, their ancient privileges. His proposals were obstinately rejected, and the refusal was accompanied with insult. The firmness of Zenobia was supported by the hope, tha* in a very short time famine would compel the Roman army to repass the desert; and by the reasonable expectation that the kings of the East, and particularly the Persian monarch, would arm in the defence of tlieir most natural ally. But for- tune, and the perseverance of Aurelian, overcame every obsta- cle. The death of Sapor, which happened about this time,''^! distracted the councils of Persia, and the inconsiderable succors that attempted to relieve Palmyra, were easily intercepted either by the arms or the liberality of the emperor. From every part of Syria, a regular succession of convoys safely arrived in the camp, which was increased by the return of Probuswith hia victorious troops from the conquest of Egypt. It was then that Zenobia resolved to fly. She mounted the fleetest of her drom edarics,"- and had already reached the banks of the Euphrates, about sixty miles from Palmyra, when she was overtaken by the pursuit of Aurelian's light horse, seized, and brought back a captive to the fe©t of the emperor. Her capital soon after- wards surrendered, and was treated with unexpected lenity. The arms, horses, and camels, with an immense treasure of gold, silver, silk, and precious stones, were all delivered to the conqueror, who, leaving only a garrison of six hundred archers, returned to Emesa, and emi)loyed some time in the distribution of rewards and punishments at the end of so memorable a war, which restored to the obedience of Rome those provinces that had renounced their allegiance since the captivity of Valerian. '" Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 218. " From a very doubtful chronology I have endeavored to extract the most probable date. " Hist. August, p. 218. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 60. Though the camel is a heavy beast of burden, the dronitdary, which is cither of the Bame or of a kindred species, is used by the natives of Asia and Africa on all occasions which reiiuirc celerity. The Arabs affirm, that he will run over as much ground in one day as their fleetest horses can perform in eight or ten. See Butfon, Hist. Naturellc, tora. xi f^, 222, and Shaw's Travels, p. 167. OF THL OMAN ExMPIRE. 357 'VVlien the Syrian qneen was brought into the presence of \.urelian, he sternly asked her, How she had presiniied to rise in arms against the emperors of" Rome ! The answer of Zenobia was a prudent mixture of respect and firmness. ''• Because I disdained to consider as Roman emperors ar, Aureolus or a GalHenus. You alone 1 acknowledge as my conqueror and my sovereign."'"^ But as female fortitude la connnonly artificial, so it is seldom steady or consistent. The courage of Zenobia deserted her in the hour of trial ; she trRmbled at the angrj' clamore of the soldiers, who called aloud for her immediate execution, forgot the generous despair of Cleopatra, which she had proposed as her model, and ignomin iously purchased life by the sacrifice of her fame and her friends. It was to their counsels, which governed the weak- ness of her sex, that she imputed the guilt of her obstinate resistance ; it was on their heads that she directed the ven- geance of the cruel Aurelian. The fame of Longinus, who was included among the numerous and perhaps innocent victims of her tear, will survive that of tlie queen who betrayed, or the tyrant who condemned him. Genius and learning were incapable of moving a fierce unlettered soldier, but they had served to elevate and harmonize the soul of Lon"inus. With- out uttering a complaint, he calmly followed the executioner, pitying his unhappy mistress, and bestowing comfort on his afllicted friends.'''* Returning from the conquest of the East," Aurelian had \Iready crossed the Straits which divided Europe from Asia, when he was provoked by the intelligence that the Palmy- renians had massacred the governor und garrison which he. iiad left among tliem,and again erected the standard of revolt. Without a moment's deliberation, he once more turned his face towards Syria. Antioch was alarmed by his rapid upproacli, and the helpless city of Palm3'ra felt the irresistible weight of his resentment. We have a letter of Aurelian him- self, in which he acknowledges,''^ that old men, women, chil- dren, and peasaiils, had been involved in that dreadful execu- •ion, which should have been confined to armed rebellion; and although his principal concern seems directed to the reestab- lishment of a temple of the Sun, he discovers some pity for " Polio in Hist. August, p. 199. ''* Vopiscus in Ilist. August, p 219. Zosimus, 1 i. p. 61, •' Ilist. August, p. 219. SJ>8 THE DECLINE iND PALL the remnant of the Palmyrenians, to whom he grants Ihe per mission of rebuilding and inhabiting their city. But it is easioi to destroy than to restore. The seat of commerce, of arts, and of Zenobia, gradually sunk into an obscure town, a tri- fling fortress, and at length a miserable village. The present citizens of Palmyra, consisting of thirty or forty families, have erected their mud cottages within the spacious court of a mag- nificent temple. Another and a last labor still awaited the indefatigable Aurelian ; to suppress a dangerous though obscure rebel, who, during the revolt of Palmyra, had arisen on the banks of the Nile. Firmus, the friend and ally, as he proudly styled him- self, of Odenathus and Zenobia, was no more than a wealthy merchant of Egypt. In the course of his trade to India, he had formed very intimate connections with the Saracens and the Blemmyes, whose situation on either coast of the Red Sea gave them an easy introduction into the Upper Egypt. The Egyptians he inflamed with the hope of freedom, and, at the head of their furious multitude, broke into the city of Alexan- dria, where he assumed the Imperial purple, coined money, published edicts, and raised an army, which, as he vainly boasted, he was capable of maintaining from the sole profits of his paper trade. Such troops were a feeble defence against the approach of Aurelian ; and it seems almost unnecessary to relate, that Firmus was routed, taken, tortured, and put to death.76 Aurelian might now congratulate the senate, the people, and himself, that in little more than three years, he had restored universal peace and order to the Roman world. Since the foundation of Rome, no general had more nobly deserved a triumph than Aurelian ; nor was a triumph ever celebrated with superior pride and magnificence.''"^ The pomp was opened by twenty elephants, four royal tigers, and above two hundred of the most curious animals from every climate of the North, the East, and the South. They were followed by sixteen hundred gladiators, devoted to the cruel amusement " See Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 220, 242. As an mstince of luxury, it is observed, that he had glass windows. He was remarka- ble for his strength and appetite, liis courage and dexterity. From the letter of Aurelian, we may justly infer, that Firmus was the last of the rebels, and consequently that Tetricus was already suppressed. "" See the triumph of Auroiian, described by Vopiscus. He relatei the particulars with his usual minuteness; and, on this occasion, the^ happen tc be interesting. Hist, August, p. 220. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 3^9 of the ampliitheutre. Tlie wciiltlri f Asia, the arms and on- •igns of so many coru|ucred nations, and the magnificent plate and wardrobe of the Syrian queen, were disposed inexact sym- metry or artful disorder. The ambassadors of the most re- mote parts of the earth, of jEtliiopia, Arabia, Persia, Bactri- ana, India, and China, all remarkable by their rich or singular dresses, displayed the fame and power of the Roman emperor, who exposed likewise to the public view the presents that he had received, and particularly a great number of crowna of gold, the oflerings of grateful cities. The victories of Aure- lian were attested by the long train of captives who reluc- tantly attended his triumph, Goths, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alemanni, Franks, Gauls, Syrians, and Egyptians. Each people was distinguished by its peculiar inscription, and the title of Amazons was bestowed on ten martial heroines of the Gothic nation who had been taken in arms.'''*' But every eye, disregarding the crowd of captives, was fixed on the emperor Tetricus and the queen of the East. The former, as well as his son, whom he had created Augustus, was dressed in Gallic trousers,"^ a saffron tunic, and a robe of purple. The beauteous figure of Zenobia was confined by fetters of gold ; a slave supported the gold chain which encircled her neck, and she almost fainted under the intolerable weight of jev^els She preceded on foot the magnificent chariot, in which sho once hoped to enter the gates of Rome. It was followed by two other chariots, still more sumptuous, of Odenathus and of the Persian monarch. The triumphal car of Aurelian.(it ^* Among barbarous nations, women have often combated by the Bide of their husbands. But it is almost impossible that a society ot Amazons should ever have existed either in the old or new world.* '" The use of braccw, breeches, or trousers, was still considered in Italy as a Gallic and barbarian fashion. The Konians, however, had made great advances towards it. To encircle the legs and thighs with fasci c, or bands, was understood, in the time of Pompey and Horace, to be a proof of ill health or clfcniinacy. In the age of Trajan, tho custom was confined to the rich and luxurious. It gradually was adopted by tke meanest of the people. Sec a very curious note of Casaubon, ad Sueton. in August, c. 82. * KHproth's theory on the origin of such traditions is at least reeom« mended by its ingenuity. The mules of a tribe liaving gone out on a marauding expedition, and having been cut oif to a man, the females may tavc pndeavoi-.ed, foi a time to muiiitain their independence in their carna ►r village, till their children grew up. Travels, ch. x.\.x. Eiig. Trans -M. 360 THE DEI LINE AND FALi^ had formerly been used by a Gothic king) was drawn, on this memorable occasion, either by four stags or by four ele- phants.s° The most illustrious of the senate, the people, anfl the army, closed the solemn procession. Unfeigned joy, won- der, and gratitude, swelled the acclamations of the multitude ; but the satisfiiction of the senate was clouded by the appear- ance of Tetricus ; nor could they suppress a rising murmur, that the haughty emperor should thus expose to public igno- miny the person of a Roman and a magistrate.^^ But however, in the treatment of his unfortunate rivals, Aurelian might indulge his pride, he behaved towards them with a generous clemency, which was seldom exercised by the ancient conquerors. Pi'inces who, without success, had de- fended their throne or freedom, were frequently strangled in prison, as soon as the triumphal pomp ascended the Capitol. These usurpers, whom their defeat had convicted of the crime of treason, were permitted to spend their lives in affluence and honorable repose. The emperor presented Zenobia with an elegant villa at Tibur, er Tivoli, about twenty miles from the capital ; the Syrian queen insensibly sunk into a Roman matron, her daughters married into noble families, and her race was not yet extinct in the fifth century.^^ Tetricus and his son were reinstated in their rank and fortunes. They erected on the Caelian hill a magnificent palace, and as soon as it was finished, invited Aurelian to supper. On his en- trance, he was agreeably surprised with a picture which repre- sented their singular history. They were delineated offering to the emperor a civic crown and the sceptre of Gaul, and again receiving at his hands th;? ornaments of the senatorial dignity. The father was afterwards invested with the govern- ment of Lucania,83 and Aurelian, who soon admitted the abdi- cated monarch to his friendship and conversation, familiarly *" Most probably the former ; the latter, aeon on the medals of Aurelian, only denote (according to the learned Cardinal Norris) ar criontal victory. *^^ The expression of Calphurnius, (Eclog. i. 50.) NuUos duce captiva triumphos, as applied to Home, contains a very mat ifest allu- sion and censure. "*'- Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 199. Hieronyra. in Chron. I'rospel in Chron. Earonius supposes tliat Zenobius, bishop of Florence iu tnc time of St. Ambrose, was of her family. '*■' Yopisc. in Hist. August, p. 222. Eutropius, ix. 13. Victor Junior. But Pollio, in Hist. August, p. 196, says, that Tetricus waa made corrector of all Italy. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 361 ftsked him, Whether it were not more desirable to admuiistei a province of Italy, than to reign beyond the Alps. The son long continued a respectable member of the senate ; nor was there any one of the Roman nobility more esteemed by Aurelian, as well as by his successors.S'* So long and so various was tlie pomp of Aurelian's triumph that although it opened with the dawn of day, the slow majesty of the procession ascended not the Capitol before the ninth hour ; and it was already dark when the emperor returned to the palace. The festival was protracted by theatrical repre- sentations, the games of the circus, the hunting of wild beasts, combats of gladiators, and naval engagements. Liberal dona- tives were distributed to the army and people, and several institutions, agreeable or beneficial to the city, contributed to perpetuate the glory of Aurelian. A considerable portion of his oriental spoils was consecrated to the gods of Rome ; the Capitol, and every other temple, glittered with the offerings of hts ostentatious piety ; and the temple of the Sun alone received above fifteen thousand pounds of gold.*^^ This last was a magnificent structure, erected by the emperor on tiie side of the Quirinal hill, and dedicated, soon after the triumph, to that deity whom Aurelian adored as the parent of his life and fortunes. His mother had been an inferior priestess in a chapel of the Sun ; a |)eculiar devotion to the god of Light was a sentiment which the fortunate peasant imbibed in his infancy ; and every step of his elevation, every victory of his reign, fortified superstition by gratitude.*^'' The arms of Aurelian had vaijcpiished the foreign and domestic foes of the republic. We are assured, that, by his salutary rigor, crimes and factions, mischievous arts and per- nicious connivance, the luxuriant growth of a feeble and oppressive government, were eradicated throughout the Roman world.87 But if we attentively reflect how much swifter is the progress of corruption than its cure, and if we remember that ** Hist. August, p. 197. ®* Vopiscu.s in Hist. August, 222. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 5fi. IIo placed ii it the images of IJclus and ot' the Sun, which he ha ihe important subject of a proper candidate for the vacant throne. If we can prefer personal merit to accidental greatness, we nhall esteem the birth of Tacitus more truly noble than tha* of kings. He claimed his descent from the philosopliic his- torian, whose writings will instruct the last generationa of mankind.5 "The senator Tacitus was then seventy-five years of age,^ The long period of his innocent life was adorned with wealth and honors. He had twice been invested with the consulai dignity,'' and enjoyed with elegance and sobriety lis arriple patrimony of between two and three millions ster- ling.® The experience of so many princes, whom he had esteemed or endured, from tlie vain follies of Elagabalus to the useful rigor of Aurelian, taught him to form a just estimate of the duties, the dangers, and the temptations of their sublime station. From the assiduous study of his immortal ancestor he derived the knowledge of the Roman constitution, and of human nature.^ The voice of the people had already named Tacitus as the citizen the most worthy of empire. The un- grateful rumor reached his ears, and induced him to seek the retirement of one of his villas in Campania. He had passed two months in tlie delightful privacy of Baiae, when he re- luctantly obeyed the summons of the consul to resume his honorable place in the senate, and to a.ssist the republic with his counsels on this important occasion. consularis ; " and soon afterwards Princeps sencUih. It is natural to suppose, that the raonarchs of Rome, disdaining that humble title, resigned it to the naost ancient of the senators. * The only objection to this genealogy is, that the historian wa* named Cornelius, the emperor, Claudius. Eut under the lower em- pire, surnames were extremely various and uncertuin. * Zonuras, 1. xii. p. 637. The Alexandrian Chronicle, by an obvi- ous mistake, transfers that age to Aurelian. ' In the year 273, he was ordinary consul. But he must have been Buffcctus many years before, and most probably under Valerian. * Bis millies octingenties. Yopiscus in Hist. August, j). 229. This gum, according to the old standard, was equivalent to eight hundred and forty thousand Roman pounds of silver, each of the value of three pounds sterling. But in the age of Tacitus, the coin had lost much of its weight and purity. ' After his accession, he gave orders that ten copies of the histo- rian should be annually transcribed and placed in the public libraries. The Roman libraries have long since perished, and the most valuable part of Tacitus was preserved in a single MS., and discovered in a monastery of Westphalia. See Bayle, Dictionnairo, Art. Tacite, and Lipaius ad Annal. ii. 9. 370 THE DECLINE AND FALL ' He arose to speak, when from every quarter of ihe house, ne was sauted with the names of Augustus and emperor. ^ Tacitus Augustus, the gods preserve thee ! we chocse thee for our sovereign ; to thy care we intrust the republic and tho world. Accept the empire from the authority of the senate. It is due to thy rank, to thy conduct, to thy manners." A? soon as the tumult of acclamations subsided, Taciffis attempted to decline the dangerous honor, and to express his wonder, that they should elect his age and infirmities to succeed the martial vigor of Aurelian. " Are these Umbs, conscript fathers ! fitted to sustain the weight of armor, or to practise the exercises of the camp ? The variety of climates, and the hardships of a military life, would soon oppress a feeble con- stitution, which subsists only by the most tender management. My exhausted strength scarcely enables me to discharge the duty of a senator; how insufficient would it prove to the arduous labors of war and government ! Can you hope, that the legions will respect a weak old man, whose days have been spent in the shade of peace and retirement ? Can you desire that I should ever find reason to regret the favorable opinion of the senate ? " ^^ The reluctance of Tacitus (and it might possibly be sincere) was encountered by the affectionate obstinacy of the senate. Five hundred voices repeated at once, in eloquent confusion, that the greatest of the Roman princes, Numa, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, had ascended the throne in a very advanced season of life ; that the mind, not the body, a sovereign, not a soldier, was the object of their choice ; and that they expected from him no more than to guide by his wisdom the valor of the legions. These pressing though tiunultuary instances were seconded by a more regular oration of Metius Falconius, the next on the consular bench to Tacitus himself. He reminded the assembly of the evils which Rome had endured from the vices of headstrong and ca])ricious youths, congratulated them on the election of a virtuous and experienced senator, and, with a manly, though perhaps a selfish, freedom, exhorted Tacitus to remember the reasons of his elevation, and to seek a successor, not in his own family, but in the republic. The speech of Falconius was enforced by a general acclamation. The emperor ulect sub. aiitted to the authority of his country, and received the volun Vopiflcu3 in Hist. A.vtf ust. p. 227. OF THE ROiMAN EMPIRE 371 lary homag< of liis equals. The judgment of the senate was confirmed by the consent of the Roman people, and of the Pnetorian guards.^i The administration of Tacitus was not unworthy of his life and principles. A grateful servant of the senate, he consid- ered that national council as the author, and himself as the subject, of the laws.^^ He studied to heal the wounds which Imperial pride, civil discord, and military violence, had in- flicted on the constitution, and to restore, at least, the image of the ancient republic, as it had been preserved by the policy of Augustus, and the virtues of Trajan and the Antonines. It may not be useless to recapitulate some of the most im- portant prerogatives which the senate appeared to have re- gained by the election of Tacitus.'-^ 1. To invest one of their body, under the title of emperor, with the general com- mand of the armies, and the government of the frontier provinces. 2. To determine the list, or, as it was then styled, the College of Consuls. They were twelve in number, who, in successive pairs, each, during tlie sjjace of two months, filled the year, and represented the dignity of that ancient office. The authority of the senate, in the nomination of the consuls, was e.\ercised with such independent freedom, that no regard was paid to an irregidar request of the emperor in favor of his brother Florianus. " The senate," exclaimed Tacitus, with the honest transport of a patriot, " understand the character of a prince whom they have chosen." 3. To appoint the proconsuls and presidents of the provinces, and to confer on all the magistrates their civil jurisdiction. 4. To receive appeals through the intermediate office of the prcefect of the city from all the tribunals of the empire. 5. To give force and validity, by their decrees, to such as they should approve of the emperor's edicts. 6. To these several branches of authority we may add some inspection over the finances. " Hist. August, p. 228. Tacitus addressed the PraDtorians by the app(ilation of sanctissimi milites, and the people by that of sacraiissimi Quirites. '* 111 his manumissions he never exceeded the number of a hun- dred, as limited by the Caniniiin law, wliich was enacted under Augustus, and at length repealed by Justinian. See Casaubon ad 'ocum Vopisci. " See the lives of Tacitus, Florianus, and Probus, in the Augustari History ; we may be well assured, that whatever the soldier gave, th« (69 at or had already given. 872 THE DECLINE AND FALL Since, even in the stern reign of Aurelian, it was ;n their powei to divert a part of the revenue from the pubhc service.^^ Circular epistles were sent, without delay, to all the prin- cipal cities of the empire, Treves, Milan, Afjuileia, Thessalo- nica, Corinth, Athens, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage, to claim their obedience, and to inform them of the happy revo- lution, which had restored the Roman senate to its ancient dignity. Two of these epistles are still extant. We likewise possess two very singular fragments of the private correspond- ence of the senators on this occasion. They discover the most excessive joy, and the most unbounded hopes. " Cast away your indolence," it is thus that one of the senators addresses his friend, " emerge from your retirements of Baiae and Puteoli. Give yourself to the city, to the senate. Rome flourishes, the whole republic flourishes. Thanks to the Roman army, to an army truly Roman ; at length we have recovered our just authority, the end of all our desires. We hear ap- peals, we appoint proconsuls, we create emperors ; perhaps too we may restrain them — to the wise a word is sufiicient." ^^ These lofty expectations were, however, soon disappointed ; nor, indeed, was it possible that the armies and the provinces should long obey the luxurious and unwarlike nobles of Rome. On the slightest touch, the unsupported fabric of their prido and power fell to the ground. The expiring senate displayed a sudden lustre, blazed for a moment, and was extinguished forever. All that had yet passed at Rome was no more than a theat- rical representation, unless it was ratified by the more sub- stantial power of the legions. Leaving the senators to enjoy their dream of freedom and ambition, Tacitus proceeded to the Thracian camp, and was there, by the Pnetorian prajfect, presented to the assembled troops, as the prince whom they themselves had demanded, and whom the senate had bestowed. As soon as the prsefect was silent, the emperor addressed him- self to the soldiers with eloquence and propriety. He gratified their avarice by a liberal distribution of treasure, under the names of pay and donative. He engaged their esteem by a spirited declaration, that although his age might disable him " Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 216. The passage is perfectly elear, yet both Casaubon and Salmasius wish to correct it. '* Vo])iscu9 in Hist. August, p. 230, 232, 233. The senators eele brated tlie happy restoration with hecatombs and public rejoicings. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 373 from the performance of military exploits, his counsels should never be unworthy of a Roman general, the successor of the brave Aureliaii.^'^ Whilst the deceased emperor was making preparations foi a second expedition into the East, he had negotiated with the Alani,* a Scythian people, who pitched their tents in the neighborhood of the Lake Mogotis. Those barbarians, allured by presents and subsidies, had promised to invade Persia wilh a numerous body of light cavalry. They were faithful to their engagements ; but when they arrived on the Roman frontier, Aurelian was already dead, the design of the Persian war was at least suspended, and the generals, who, during the interregnum, exercised a doubtful authority, were unprepared either to receive or to oppose them. Provoked by such treat- ment, which they considered as trifling and perfidious, the Alani had recourse to their own va4or for their payment and revenge ; and as they moved with the usual swiftness of Tar- tars, they had soon spread themselves over the provinces of Pontus, Cappadocia, Cilicia, and Galatia. The legions, who from the opposite shores of the Bosphorus could almost dis- tinguish the flames of the cities and villages, impatiently urged their general to lead them against the invaders. The conduct of Tacitus was suitable to his age and station. He convinced the barbarians of the faith, as well as the power, of the em- pire. Great numbers of the Alani, appeased by the punctua- discharge of the engagements which Aurelian had contracted with them, relinquished their booty and captives, and quietly retreated to their own deserts, beyond the Phasis. Against the remainder, who refused peace, the Roman emperor waged, in person, a successful war. Seconded by an army of brave and experienced veterans, in a few weeks he delivered the provinces of Asia from the terror of the Scythian invasion. ''' But the glory and life of Tacitus were of short duration. Transported, in the depth of winter, from the soft retirement '* Hist. August, p. 228. 1' Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 230. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 57. Zonaras, i xii. p. 637. Two passages in the life of Probus (p. 236, 238) con vince mc, that these Scythian invaders of Pontus were Alani. If we may believe Zosimus, (1. i. p. 58,) Plorianus pursued them as far aa the Cimmerian Bosphorus. But ho had scarcely time for so long and difficult an expedition, ♦ On the Alani, see oh. xxvi. note W. — M. 374 THE decline; and fat.i, of Caripania to the foot of Mount Caucasus, he sunk under the unaccustomed hardships of a military life. The fatigues of the body were aggravated by the cares of the mind. For a while, the angry and selfish passions of the soldiers had been suspended by the enthusiasm of public virtue. They soon broke out with redoubled violence, and raged in the camp, and even in the tent of the aged emperor. His mild and amiable character served only to inspire contempt, and he was incessantly tormented with factions which he could not assuage, and by demands which it was impossible to satis- fy. Whatever flattering expectations he had conceived of reconciling the public disorders, Tacitus soon was convinced that the licentiousness of the army disdained the feeble re- straint of laws, and his last hour' was hastened by anguish and disappointment. It may be doubtful whether the soldiers imbrued their hands in the blood of this innocent prince. ^^ It is certain that their insolence was the cause of his death. He expired at Tyana in Cappadocia, after a reign of only six months and about twenty days.^^ The eyes of Tacitus were scarcely closed, before hia brother Florianus showed himself unworthy to reign, by the hasty usurpation of the purple, without expecting the appro- bation of the senate. The reverence for the Roman constitu- tion, which yet influenced the camp and the provinces, was sufficiently strong to dispose them to censure, but not to pro- voke them to oppose, the precipitate ambition of Florianus. The discontent would have evaporated in idle murmurs, had not the general of the East, the heroic Probus, boldly declared himself the avenger of the senate. The contest, however, was still unequal ; nor could the most able leader, at the head of the effeminate troops of Egypt and Syria, encounter, with any hopes of victory, the legions of Europe, whose irresist- ible strength appeared to support the brother of Tacitus. But the fortune and activity of Probus triumphed over every ob- stacle. The hardy veterans of his rival, accustomed to cold climates, sickened and consumed away in the sultry heats of '* Eutropius and Aurelius Victor only say tViat he died ; Victor Junior adds, that it was of a fever. Zosimns and Zonaras affirm, that he was killed by the soldiers. Vopiscus mentions both accounts, and aecms to hesitate. Yet surely these jarring opinions are easily recon- ciled. '• According to the two Victors, he reigned exactly two hundred OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 3*5 Cilicia, where the summer proved remarkably unwhoicsornc. Their numbers were diminished by frequent desertion ; the passes of the mountains were feebly defended ; Tarsus opened its gates ; and the soldiers of Florianus, when they had permitted him to enjoy the Imperial title about three months, delivered the empire from civil war by the easy sacrihce of a prince whom they despised.^o The perpetual revolutions of the throne had so perfectly i-rased every notion of hereditary right, that the family of an unfortunate emperor was incapable of exciting the jealousy of his successors. The children of Tacitus and Florianus were permitted to descend into a private station, and to min- gle with the general mass of the people. Their povertv indeed became an additional safeguard to their innocence. When Tacitus was elected by the senate, he resigned his ample patrimony to the public service ;2i an act of generosity specious in appearance, but which evidently disclosed his in- tention of transmitting the empire to his descendants. The only consolation of their fallen state was the remembrance of transient greatness, and a distant hope, the child of a flatter- ing prophecy, that at the end of a thousand years, a monarch of the race of Tacitus should arise, the protector of the sen- ate, the restorer of Rome, and the conqueror of the whole earth.22 The peasants of Illyricum, who had already given Claudius and Aurelian to the sinking empire, had an equal right to glory in the elevation of Probus.23 Above twenty years before, the emperor Valerian, with his usual penetration, had discovered the rising merit of the young soldier, on whom he conferred the rank of tribune, long before the age prescribed by the military regulations. The tribune soon justified hig choice, by a victory over a great body of Sarmalians, in *" Hist. August, p. 231. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 58, 59. Zonaras, 1, xii. p. 637. Aurclius Victor says, that Probus assumed the eminre in Illyricum ; an opinion which (though adopted by a very learned man) would throw that period of history into inextricable confusion. *' Hist. August, p. 229. " lie was to send judges to the Parthians, Persians, and Sarina- tians, a president to Taprobani, and a jiroconsul to the Koman island, (supposed by Casaubon and Salmasius to mean Britain.) Such 8 history as mine (says Vopiscus -with proi)cr modesty) will not subsist h thousand years, to expose or justify the j)rcdittion. . " For Iho jnivate life of Probus, see Vopiscus in Hist. Au{;u8t p» 234—237. 376 THE DECLINE AND FALL which he saved the life of a near relation of Valerian ; and deserved to receive .from the emperor's hand the collars, bracelets, spears, and banners, the mural and the civic crown, and all the honorable rewards reserved by ancient Rome for successful valor. The third, and afterwards the tenth, legion were intrusted to the command of Probus, who, in every step of his promotion, showed himself superior to the station which he filled. Africa and Pontus, the Rhine, the Danube, the Euphrates, and the Nile, by turns afforded him the most splendid occasions of displaying his personal prowess and his conduct in war. Aurelian was indebted to him for the con- quest of Egypt, and still more indebted for the honest courage with which he often checked the cruelty of his master. Taci- lus, who desired by the abilities of his generals to supply dis own deficiency of military talents, named him command- er-in-chief of all the eastern provinces, with five times the usual salary, the promise of the consulship, and the hope of a triumph. When Probus ascended the Imperial throne, he was about forty-four years of age ;2'* in the full possession of his fame, of the love of the army, and of a mature vigor of mind and body. His acknowledged merit, and the success of his arms against Florianus, left him without an enemy or a competitor. Yet, if we may credit his own professions, very far from being desirous of the empire, he had accepted it with the most sincere reluctance. " But it is no longer in my power," says Probus, in a private letter, " to lay down a title so full of envy and of danger. I must continue to personate the character which the soldiers have imposed upon me."^^ His dutiful address to the senate displayed the sentiments, or at least the language, of a Roman patriot : " When you elected one of your order, conscript fathers ! to succeed the emperor Aurelian, you acted in a manner suitable to your justice and wisdom. For you are the legal sovereigns of the world, and the power which you derive from your ancestors will descend to your posterity. Happy would it have been, if Florianus, instead of usurping the purple of his brother, like a private * According to the Alexandrian chronicle, he was fifty at the tiino of his death. •* The letter was addressed to the Prictorian Praefcct, whom (on condition of his jjood behavior) he promised to continuo in hi» jficai office. See Hist. Aiigust. p. 237. CF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 377 inheritance, had expected what your majesty might detcrm.ne either in his fa\or, or in that of any other person. The pru dent soldiers have punished his rashness. To me they have ofTered the title of Augustus. But I submit to your clemency my pretensions and my merits." 2'' When this respectful epistle was read by the consul, the senators were unable to disguise their satisfaction, that Probus should condescend thus humbly to solicit a sceptre which he already possessed. They celebrated with the warmest gratitude his virtues, his exploits, and above all his moderation. A decree immediately passed, without a dissenting voice, to ratify the election of the eastern armies, and to confer on their cliicf all the several branches of the Imperial dignity : the names of Caesar and Augustus, the title of Father of his country, the right of making in the same day three motions in the senate,^''' the office of Pontifex Maximus, the tribunitian power, and the proconsular com- mand ; a mode of investiture, which, though it seemed to multiply the authority of the emperor, expressed the constitu- tion of the ancient republic. The reign of Probus correspond- ed with this fair beginning. The senate was permitted to direct the civil administration of the empire. Their faithful general asserted the honor of the Roman arms, and often laid at their feet crowns of gold and barbaric trophies, the fruits of his. numerous victories.^ Yet, whilst he gratified their vanity, he must secretly have despised their indolence and weakness. Though it was every moment in their power to repeal the disgraceful edict of Gallienus, the proud successors of the Scipios patiently acquiesced in their exclusion from all military employments. They soon experienced, that those who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre. The strength of Aurelian had crushed on every side the enemies of Rome After his death they leemed to revive with an increase of fury and of numbers. They were again vanquished by the active vigor of Probus, who, in a short *' Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 237. The date cf the letter is assuredly faulty. Instead of Xon. Februar. we may read Noiu All (J list. " Hist. August, p. 238. It is odd that the senate should treat Probus less favorably than Marcus Antoninus. That prince had received, even before the death of Pius, Jus quintce relatuxnis. See Capitolin. in Hist. August, p. 24. *"* See the dutiful letter of Probus to the senate, after his German victories. Hist. August, p. *2;51). 19 378 THE DECLINE AND FALL reign of about six years,29 equalled the fame of ancient heroes, and restored peace and order to every province of the Roman world. The dangerous frontier of Rha3tia he so firmly secured, that he left it without the suspicion of an enemy. He broke the wandering power of the Sarmatian tribes, and by the terror of his arms compelled those barbari- ans to relinquish their spoil. The Gothic nation courted the alliance of so warlike an emperor.^'' He attacked the Isauri- ans in their mountains, besieged and took several of theit strongest castles,^! and flattered himself that he had forever suppressed a domestic foe, whose independence so deeply wounded the majesty of the empire. The troubles excited by the usurper Firmus in the Upper Egypt had never been perfectly appeased, and the cities of Ptolemais and Coptos fortified by the alliance of the Blemmyes, still maintained an obscure rebellion. The chastisement of those cities, and of their auxiliaries the savages of the South, is said to have alarmed the court of Persia,^^ and the Great King sued in vain for the friendship of Probus. Most of the exploits which distinguished his reign were achieved by the personal valor and conduct of the emperor, insomuch that the writer of his life expresses some amazement how, in so short a time, a single man could be present in so many distant wars. The remaining actions he intrusted to the care of his lieutenants, the judicious choice of whom forms no inconsiderable part of his glory. Carus, Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, Gale- rius, Asclepiodatus, Annibalianus, and a crowd of other chiefs, who afterwards ascended or supported the throne, were trained to arms in the severe school of Aurelian and Probus.33 But the most important service which Probus rendered to the republic was the deliverance of Gaul, and the recovery of '^ The date and duration of the reign of Probus are very correctlj ascortaiiicd by Cardinal Noris in his learned work, De Epochis Syro- Macodoniira, p. 96 — 105. A passage of Eusebius connects the second year of I'robus with the seras of several of the Syrian cities. •■'^ Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 239. ^' Zosimus (1. i. p. 62 — 65) tells us a very long and trifling story of Lycius, the Isaur'.an robber. 3* Zofiim. 1. i. p. 65. Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 239, 240. But 't seems incredible that the defeat of the sas'agcs of ^Ethiopia could atfect the Persian monarch. ^^ Ucsidcs these well-known chiefs, several others ai'e named by Vopiscus, (Hist. August, p. 241,) whose actions have not reached oui ItQC^'lcdgo, OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 379 sever ty flourishing cities oppressed by the barbarians of Ger- many, wlio, since the death of Aurelian, had ravaged ihat great province with impunity-^"* Among the various nnuhitude of those fierce invaders we may distinguish, with some degree of clear- ness, three great armies, or rather nations, successively van quished by the valor of Probas. He drove back the Franks uitj their morasses; a descriptive circumstance from whence we may infer, that the confederacy known by the manly appellation of Free, already occupied the flat maritime country, intersected and almost overflown by the stagnating waters of the Rhine, and that several tribes of the Frisians and Batavians had acceded to their alliance. He vanquished the Burgundians, a considerable people of the Vandalic race.* They had wandered in quest of booty from the banks of the Oder to those of the Seine. They esteemed themselves suf ficiently fortunate to purchase, by the restitution of all their booty, the permission of an undisturbed retreat. They at- tempted to elude that article of the treaty. Their punishmen was immediate and terrible."'^ But of all the invaders of Gaul, the mast formidable were the Lygians, a distant people, who reigned over a wide domain on the frontiers of Poland and Silesia.36 In the Lygian nation, the Arii held the first rank '« See the Caesars of Julian, and Hist. Au^st. p. 238, 240, 241. '* Zosimus, 1. i. p. 62. Hist. Augnst. p. 240. But the latter sup- poses the punishment inflicted with the consent of their kings : if BO, it was partial, like the offence. ^' See Cluver. Gerraania Antiqua, 1. iii. Ptolemy places in theii country the city of Calisia, probably Calish in Silosia.f * It was only under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, that the Burgundians, in concert with the Alemanni, invaded the interior of Gaui : ander the reign of Probus, they did no more than pass the river which separated them from the Roman Empire : they were repelled. Gatterer presumes that this river was the Danube ; a passage in Zosimus appears to me rather to indicate the Rhine. Zos. 1. i. p. 37, edit. H. Etienne, Ir'iil. — G. On the origin of the Burgundians may be consulted Malte Brun, Geogr vi. p. 396, (edit. 1831,) who observes that all the remains of the I3urgun- iian language indicate that they spoke a Gothic dialect. — M. t Luden (vol. ii. 501) supposes that these Aoyiu)V'u have been erroneously Identified with the Lygii of Tacitus. Perhaps one fertile source of mis- takes has been, that the Romans have turned appellations into national names. Malte Brun observes of the Lygii, "that their name appears Scla- vonian. and signifies ' inhabitants of plains ; ' they are probably the Lifche» jf tne middle ages, and the ancestors of the Poles. We find among thfl A.rii the worship of the two twin gods known in the Sclavian mythology." Malte Brun, vol. i. p. 278, (edit. 1831.)— M. But compare Schafarik, Slawische AltcrthOmer, l,p. 406. They were of German or Keltish descent, occupying the Wcndish (or Slaviani district Luhy-M. 1S45. 880 THE DECLINE AND FALL by their numbers and fierceness. "The Arii" (It is thus that they are described by the energy of Tacitus) " st..dy to improve by art and circumstances the innate terrors of their barbarism. Their shields are black, their bodies are painted black. They choose for the combat the darkest hour of the night. Their host advances, covered as it were with a funeral shade ; •'^ nor do they often find an enemy capable of sustain ing so strange and infernal an aspect. Of all our senses, the eyes are the first vanquished in battle." •'® Yet the arms and discipline of the Romans easily discomfited these horrid phan- toms. The Lygii were defeated in a general engagement, and Semno, the most renowned of their chiefs, fell alive into the hands of Probus. That prudent emperor, unwilling to reduce a brave people to despair, granted them an honorable capitulation, and permitted them to return in safety to their native country. But the losses which they sufTered in the march, the battle, and the retreat, broke the power of the nation : nor is the Lygian name ever repeated in the history either of Germany or of the empire. The deliverance of Gaul is reported to have cost the lives of four hundred thou, sand of the invaders ; a work of labor to the Romans, and of expense to the emperor, who gave a piece of gold for the head of every barbarian."'^ But as the fame of warriors is built on the destruction of human kind, we may naturally suspect, that the sanguinary account was multiplied by the avarice of the soldiers, and accepted, without any very severe examination by the liberal vanity of Probus. Since the expedition of Maximin, the Roman generals had confined their ambition to a defensive war against the nations of Germany, vvho perpetually pressed on the frontiers of the empire. The more daring Probus pursued his Gallic victories, passed the Rhine, and displayed his invincible eagles on the banks of the Elbe and the Necker. He was fully convinced that nothing could reconcile the minds of the barbarians to peace, unless' they experienced, in their own country, the calamities of war. Germany, exhausted by the ill success of the last emigration, was astonished by his presence. Nine of the most considerable princes repaired to his camp, and fel> " Feralis umbra, is the expression of Tacitus : it is surely a very bold one. ** Tacit. Gormania, (c. 43.) *® Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 238. OK THE nOMAN EMPiRE. 381 prostrate at his feet. Such a treaty was humbly received by tlie Germans, as it pleased the conqueror to dictate. He ex- acted a strict restitution of the effects and captives which they had carried away from the |)rovinces ; and obliged their own magistrates to punish the more obstinate robbers who pre- Bunjed to detain any part of the spoil. A considerable tribute of corn, cattle, and horses, the only wealth of barbarians, wag reserved for the use of the garrisons which Frobus established on the limits of their territory. He even entertained some thoughts of compelling the Germans to relinquish the exercise of arms, and to trust their diilerences to the justice, their safe- ty to the power, of Rome. To accompl/sh these salutary ends, the constant residence of an Imperial governor, sup- ported by a numerous army, was indispensably requisite. Probus therefore judged it more expedient to defer the exe- cution of so great a design ; which was indeed rather of specious than solid utility.'^'^ Had Germany been reduced into the state of a province, the Romans, with immense labor and expense, would have acquired only a more extensive boundary to defend against the fiercer and more active barba- rians of Scythia. Instead of reducing the warlike natives of Germany to the condition of subjects, Probus contented himself with the hum- ble expedient of raising a bulwark against their inroads. The country which now forms the circle of Swabia had been left desert in the age of Augustus by the emigration of its ancient inhabitants.^' The fertility of the soil soon attracted a new colony from the adjacent provinces of Gaul. Crowds of ad- venturers, of a roving temper and of desperate fortunes, occupied the doubtful possession, and acknowledged, by the payment of tithes, the majesty of the empire.'- To protect these new subjects, a line of frontier garrisons was gradually extended from the Rhine to the Danube. About the reign of Hadriiui, wiien that iriode of defence began to be practised, these garrisons «vere connected and covered by a strong ■*" Ilis^t. August, p. 2H8, 239. Yopiscus quotes a letter from the .•mporpr to the senate, in which he mentions his design of rcdui;uig Germany into a province. ■" Strabo, 1. vii. According to Velleius Paterculus, (ii. 108,) Mar- jboduus led his Marcomanni into Bohemia ; Cluvoriiw (German. Anti^. iii. 8) proves that it was from Swabia. *" Ttiese settlers, from the payment of tithes, were donominatftd Oecumates Tacit. Gormania, c. 29. 882 TUE DECLINE AND FALL intrencliment of trees and palisades. In the place of so rude a bulwark, the emperor Probus constructed a stone wall of a considerable heiglit, and strengthened it by towers at conven- ient distances. From the neighborhood of Newstadt and Ratisbon on the Danube, it stretched across hills, valleys, rivers, and morasses, as far as Wimpfen on the Necker, and at length terminated on the banks of the Rhine, after a wind- ing course of near two hundred niiles.^^ This important barrier, uniting the two mighty streams that protected the provinces of Europe, seemed to fill up tlie vacant space through which the barbarians, and particularly the Alemanni, could penetrate with the greatest facility into the heart of the empire. But the experience of the world, fiom China to Britain, has exposed the vain attempt of fortifying any exten- sive tract of country." An active enemy, who can select and vary his points of attack, must, in the end. discover some feeble spot, or some unguarded moment. The strength, as well as the attention, of the defenders is divided : and such are the blind effects of terror on the firmest troops, that a line broken in a single place is almost instantly deserted. The fate of the wall which Probus erected may confirm the general observation. Within a few years after his death, it was over- thrown by the Alemanni. Its scattered ruins, universally ascribed to the power of the Dieraon, now serve only to excite the wonder of the Swabian peasant. ** See notes de 'lAbbe de la Bleterie k la Grermanie de Tacite, p. 183. His account of the wall is chiefly borrowed (as he says himself) from the Ahatia Illustrata of Schoepflin. ** See liecherches sur les Chinois ct lea Egyptiens, torn. ii. p. 81 — 102. The anonymous author is well acquainted with the globe in general, and with Germany in particular : with regard to the latter, he quotes a work of M. Hanselman ; but he seems to confound the \yaU of Probus, designed against the Alemanni, with the fortifica- tion of the Mattiaci, constructed in the neighborhood of Frankfort Ri;:iinst the Catti.* • De Pauw is well known to have been the author of this work, as of the liecherches sur les Americains before quoted. The judf^nnent of M. Remusat on this writer is in a very different, I fear a juster tone. Quand au lieu de recherchcr, d'exaniiner, d'i'tudier, on se borne, conime cet ecri- vain, a juger, a prononcer, a decider, sans connoitre ni I'histoire, ni les langues, sans recourir anx sources, sans mcme se douter de leur existence, on peut en imposer pendant quekiuo temps :\ des lecteurs prevenus ou peu instruits ; mais le mt'pris qui ne manque gu<'re de succcde- a cet engouement fait bientot justice de ces assertions hazardees, et elles retombent iana Voubli d'autant phis promptenient, qu'elles ont etc pjsees avec plus de oonfiance ou de tumoritc. Sur les Langues Tartares, p. 2 Jl. — M. OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. 383 Among the useful conditions of peace imposed by Frobus on tlie vanquislicd nations of Germany, was tlie obligation of Bupi)lying the Roman army with sixteen thousand recrilits, the bravest and most robust of their youth. The emperor dis- persed them through all the provinces, and distributed this dangerous reenforcement, in small bands of fifty or sixty each, nmong the national troops ; judiciously observing, that the aid which the republic derived from the barbarians should be felt but not seen.-^^ Their aid was now become necessary. Tho feeble elegance of Italy and the internal provinces could no longer support the weight of arms. The hardy frontiers of the Rhine and Danube still produced minds and bodies equal to the labors of the camp ; but a perpetual series of wars had gradually diminished their numbers. The infrequency of marriage, and tbe ruin of agriculture, aflected the principles of population, and not only destroyed the strength of the present, but intercepted the hope of future, generations. The wisdom of Probus embraced a great and beneficial j)lan of replenishing the exhausted frontiers, by new colonies of captive or fugitive barbarians, on whom he bestowed lands, cattle, instruments of husbandry, and every encouragement that might engage them to educate a race of soldiers for the service of the republic. Into Britain, and most probably into Cambridgeshire,'"^ he transported a considerable body of Van- dals. The impossibility of an escape reconciled them to their situation, and in the subseqdent troubles of that island, they approved themselves the most faithful servants of the state."*^ Great numbers of Franks and Gepldae were settled on the banks of the Danube and the Rhine. A hundred thousand Bastarnse, expelled from their own country, cheerfully accepted an establishment in Thrace, and soon imbibed the manners and sentiments of Roman subjects.'*^ But tbe expectations of Probus were too often disajjpointcd. The impatience and idle- ness of the barbarians could ill brook the slow labors of ** lie distributed about fifty or sixty barbarians to a Numerus, aa it >vas then called, a corps with whose established number we are not exa(itly acquainted. *« Camden's Britannia, Introduction, p. 136; but he speaks from a very doubtful conjecture. " Zosimus, 1. i. p. 62. According to Vopiscus, another body of Vandals was less faithful. *' Hist. August, p. 240. They were probably expelled by tho Goths. Zosim. 1. i. p. 66. 384 THE DECLINE ANU FALL agriculture. Their unconquerable love of freedom, rising against despotism, provoked them into hasty rebellions, alike fatal to themselves and to the provinces ;49 nor could these- artificial supplies, however repeated by succeeding emperors, restore the important limit of Gaul and lUyricum to its ancient and native vigor. Of all the barbarians who abandoned their new settlements, and disturbed the public tranquillity, a very small number returned to their own country. For a short season they might wander in arms through the empire; but in the end they were surely destroyed by the power of a warlike emperor. The successful rashness of a party of Franks was attended, how- ever, with such memorable consequences, that it ought not to be passed unnoticed. They had been established, by Probus, on the sea-coast of Pontus, with a view of strengthening the frontier against the inroads of the Alani. A fleet stationed in one of the harbors of the Euxine fell into the hands of the Franks ; and they resolved, through unknown seas, to explore their way from the mouth of the Phasis to that of the Rhine. They easily escaped through the Bosphorus and the Helles- pont, and cruising along the Mediterranean, indulged their appetite for revenge and plunder by frequent descents on the unsuspecting shores of Asia, Greece, and Africa. The opu- lent city of Syracuse, in whose port the navies of Athens and Carthage had formerly been sunk, was sacked by a handful of barbarians, who massacred the'greatest part of the trembling inhabitants. From the Island of Sicily, the Franks proceeded to the columns of Hercules, trusted themselves to the ocean, coasted round Spain and Gau\- and steering their triumphant course through the British Channel, at length finished their surprising voyage, by landing in safety on the Batavian or Frisian shores.^" The example of their success, instructing their countrymen to conceive the advantages and to despise the dangers of the sea, pointed out to their enterprising spirit a new road to wealth and glory. Notwithstanding the vigilance and activity of Probus, it was tlmost impossible that he could at once contain in obedience Bvery part of his wide-extended dominions. The barbarians, ^vho broke their chains, had seized the favorable opportunity of a domestic war. When the emperor marched to the re- <9 Hist. August, p. 240. '" Panegyr. Vet. v. 18. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 66. OF THE ROMAN E3IPIRE HS5 lief cf Gaul, he devolved the commano of the East on Satur- ninus. That general, a man of merit and experience, waa driven into rebellion by the absence of his sovereign, the levity of the Alexandrian people, the pressing instances of his friends, and his own fears ; but from the moment of his ele- vation, he never entertained a hope of empire, or even ol life. " Alas ! " he said, " the republic has lost a useful ser- vant, and the rashness of an hour has destroyed the services of many years. You know not," continued he, " the misery of sovereign power ; a sword is perpetually suspended over our head. We dread our very guards, we distrust our companions. The choice of action or of repose is no longer in our dis- position, nor is there any age, or character, or conduct, that can protect us from the censure of envy. In thus exalting me to the throne, you have doomed me to a life of cares, and to an untimely fate. The only consolation which remains is, the assurance that I shall not fall alone." ^^ But as the former part of his prediction was verified by the victory, so the latter was disappointed by the clemency, of Probus. That amiable prince attempted even to save the unhappy Saturninus from the fury of the soldiers. He liad more than once solicited the usurper himself to place some confidence in the mercy of a sovereign who so highly esteemed his character, that he had punished, as a malicious informer, the first who related the improbable news of his defection. •''- Saturninus might, per- haps, have embraced the generous ofier, had he not been re- strained by the obstinate distrust of his adherents. Their guilt was deeper, and their hopes more sanguine, than those of their experienced leader. The revolt of Saturninus was scarcely extinguished in the East, before new troubles were excited in the West, by the rebellion of Bonosus and Proculus, in Gaul. The m'ost dis- tinguished merit of those two officers was their respective prowess, of the one in the combats of Bacchus, of tiie other in those of Venus, ^^ yet neither of them was destitute of *' Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 245, 246. The unfortunate orator had stiidiod rhetoric at Carthage ; anil was therefore more probably a Moor (Zosiin. 1. i. p. GO) than a Gaul, as Vopiscus calls him. ** Zonoras, 1. xii. p. G.'58. " A very surjirising instance is rocordecl of the prowess of Procu- lis. He had taken one hundred Sarinatian virgins. The rest of the •tory he must relate in lus own language ; •' Ex his uni nocte de- 19* 886 TH£ DECLINE AND FALL courage and capacity, and both sustained, with honor, the iu- gust character which the fear of punishment had engaged them to assume, till they sunk at length beneath the superioi genius of Probus. He used the victory with his accustomed moderation, and spared the fortunes as well as the Hves of their innocent families.^** The arms of Probus had now suppressed all the foreign and domestic enemies of the state. His mild but steady adminis- tration confirmed the reestablishment of the public tranquil- lity ; nor was there left in the provinces a hostile barbarian, a tyrant, or even a robber to revive the memory of past disor- ders. It was time that the emperor should revisit Rome, and celebrate his own glory and the general happiness. The tri- umph due to the valor of Probus was conducted with a mag- nificence suitable to his fortune, and the people who had so lately admired the trophies of Aurelian, gazed with equal pleasure on those of his heroic successor.^^ We cannot, on this occasion, forget the desperate courage of about fourscore gladiators, reserved, with near six hundred others, for the inhuman sports of the amphitheatre. Disdaining to shed their blood for the amusement of the populace, they killed their keepers, broke from the place of their confinement, and filled the streets of Rome with blood and confusion. After an ob- stinate resistance, they were overpowered and cut in pieces by the regular forces ; but they obtained at least an honorable death, and the satisfaction of a just revenge ^^ The military discipline which reigned in the camps of Pro- bus was less cruel than that of Aurelian, but it was equally rigid and exact. The latter had punished the irregularities of the soldiers with unrelenting severity, the former prevented them by employing the legions in constant and useful labors When Probus commanded in Egypt, he executed many con- siderable works for the splendor and benefit of that rich coun- try. The navigation of the Nile, so important to Rome itself, was improved ; and temples, buildings, porticos, and palaces, cem inivi ; oranes tamen, quod in me crat, mulieres intra dies quiii- decim reddidi." Vopiscus ia Hist Aus^ust. p. '24S. " ProcuLus, who was a native of Alben^ue, on the (Jenoese coaft, armed two thoiisand of his own slaves. His riches were grent, hut they were acquired l)y robbery. It was afterwards a saying; of hifl family, sibi non placere esse vel principes vcl lati-ouos. YopiHCU* in Hist. August, p. 2i7. »» Hist. August, p. 240. •* Zotfini. 1. i. p. 6(j OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 387 were constructed by the hands of the soldiers, who acted br Minis as architects, as engineers, and as husbandmen." It was reported of Hannibal, that, in order to preserve his troopa from the dangerous temptations of idleness, he had obliged them to form large plantations of olive-trees along the coast Df Africa.** From a similar principle, Probus exercised his legions in covering with rich vineyards the hills of Gaul and Pannonia, and two con^^iderable spots are described, which were entirely dug and planted by military labor.*' One of these, known under the name of Mount Almo, was situated near Sirmium, the country where Probus was born, for which he ever retained a partial aflection, and whose gratitude he endeavored to secure, by converting into tillage a large and unhealthy tract of marshy ground. An army thus employed constituted perhaps the most useful, as well as the bravest, por- tion of Roman subjects. But in the prosecution of a favorite scheme, the best of men, satisfied with the rectitude of their intentions, are sub- ject to forget the bounds of moderation ; nor did Probus him- self sulficiently consult the patience and disposition of his fierce legionaries."' The dangers of the military profession seem only to be compensated by a life of pleasure and idle- ness ; init if the duties of tiie soldier are incessantly aggra- vated by the labors of the peasant, he will at last sink under the intoh'rable burden, or shake it off with indignation. The ini[)rudence of Probus is said to have inflamed the discontent of his troops. More attentive to the interests of mankind than to those of the army, he expressed the vain hope that, by the establishment of universal peace, he should soon abol- ish the necessity of a standing and mercenary force.®^ Tlie 'T Hist. August, p. 236. ** Aiircl. Victor, in Prob. But the policy of Hannibal, unnoticed by anv more ancient writer, is irreconcilable with the history of his life. He left Africa wlieii he was nine years old, returned to it when he was forty-five, and immediately lust his army in the decisive battle of Zama. Livius, XXX. 87. '^'■> Hist. August, p. 210. p:utrop. ix. 17. Aurel. Victor, in Prob. Victor Junior. He revoked the prohibition of Doniitian, and granted » general pi-rmission of planting vines to the Gauls, the liritons, and the I'hniionians. ''■' Julian bestows a severe, and indeed excessive, censure on the rigor of Probus, who, as he thinks, almost deserved his fate. ^^ Vopiscus in Hist. August. ]). 2il. He lavishes on this idle hope • Urge stock of very foolish eloquence. 388 THE DECLINE AND Fa LL unguarded expression proved fatal to him. In one of the hottest days of summer, as he severely urged the unwhole- some labor of draining the marshes of Sirmium, the soldiers, impatient of fatigue, on a sudden threw down their tools, grasped their arms, and broke out into a furious mutiny. The emperor, conscious of his danger, took refuge in a lofty tower, constructed for the purpose of surveying the progress of the work.^- The tower was instantly forced, and a thousand swords were plunged at once into the bosom of the unfor tunate Probus. The rage of the troops subsided as soon as it had been gratified. They then lamented their fatal rash- ness, forgot the severity of the emperor, whom they had mas- sacred, and hastened to perpetuate, by an honorable monu- ment, the memory of his virtues and victories.^-^ When the legions had indulged their grief and repentance for the death of Probus, their unanimous consent declared Carus, his Praetorian praefect, the most deserving of the Impe- rial throne. Every circumstance that relates to this prince appears of a mixed and doubtful nature. He gloried in the title of Roman Citizen ; and affected to compare the purity of his blood with the foreign and even barbarous origin of the preceding emperors ; yet the most inquisitive of his contem- poraries, very far from admitting his claim, have variously deduced his own birth, or that of his parents, from Illyricum from Gaul, or from Africa.*^'' Though a soldier, he had re» ceived a learned education ; though a senator, he was invested with the first dignity of the army ; and in an age when the civil and military professions began to be irrecoverably sep- arated from each other, they were united in the person of Carus. Notwithstanding the severe justice which he exer- cised against the assassins of Probus, to whose favoi and esteem he was highly indebted, he could not escape the sus- picion of being accessory to a deed from whence he derived the principal advantage. He enjoyed, at least, before his ele- •* Turris ferrata. It seems to have been a movable tower, and cased with iron. ** Probus, et vere probus situs est ; Victor omnium gentium Bar- bararum ; victor ctiam tyrahnorum. ** Yet all this may be conciliated. He was bom at Narbonne in Illyricura, confounded by Eutropius -with the more famous city of that name in Gaul. His father niij^ht be an African, and his mo'hei a noble Koinan. Carus liinisolf was educated in the '^apilal 6e« Sraliger, Animadversion, ad Euscb. Chron. p. 241 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 389 ration an acknowledged character of virtue and abilities ; ^* but his auiterc temper insensibly degenerated info morosenesa and ciuelty; and the iniperfect writers of his Hfe ahnosl hesitate whether they shall not rank him in the number of Jloman tyrants.^s When Cams assumed the purple, he was about sixty years of age, and his two sons, Carinus and Nu- merian, had already attained the season of manhood.^' Tbe authority of the senate expired with Probus ; nor was the repentance of the soldiers displayed by the same dutiful regard for the civil power, which they had testified after the unfortunate death of Aurelian. The election of Carus was decided without expecting the approbation of the senate, and the new emperor contented himself with announcing, in a cold and stately epistle, that he had ascended the vacant throne.6^ A behavior so very opposite to that of his amiable predecessor afforded no favorable presage of the new reign: and the Romans, deprived of power and freedom, asserted their privilege of licentious murmurs/*^ The voice of con- gratulation and flattery was not, however, silent ; and we may still peruse, with pleasure and contempt, an eclogue, which was composed on the accession of the emperor Carus. Two shepherds, avoiding the noontide heat, retire into the cave of Faunus. On a spreading beech they discover some recent characters. The rural deity had described, in j)rophetic verses, the felicity promised to the empire under the reign of so great a prince. Faunus hails the approach of that hero, who, receiving on his shoulders the sinking weight of the Roman world, shall e.xtinguish war and faction, and once' again restore the innocence and security, of the golden age.'^'^ It is more than probable, that these elegant trifles neve? *• Probus had requested of the senate an equestrian statue and 8 marble palace, at the public expense, as a just recompense of the flin» gular merit of Carus. YoiAscus in Hist. August, p. 249. ** Vopiscus in Ilist. August, p. 242, 249. Julian excludes iht- empcror Carus and both his sons from the banquet of the Ctpsars. ^ John Malala, torn. i. p. 401. But the authority of that ignorant Greek is very slight. He ridiculously derives from Carus the city of Carrhae, and the province of Curia, the latter of which ia men- tioned by Homer. *"* Hist. August, p. 249. Carus congratulated the senate, that one Df their own order was made emperor. •* Hist. August, p. 242. "" See the first eclogue of Calphurnius. The design of it is pTj> trcd hj Fontenelle to that of Virgil's Pollio Sec torn. iii. p. 148. 390 THE DECLINE ANT) FALL reached the ears of a veteran general, who, with the consent of the legions, was preparing to execute the long-suspended design of the Persian war. Before his departure for tliis dis- tant expedition, Carus conferred on his two sons, Carinus and Numerian, the title of Csesar, and investing the former with almost an equal share of the Imperial power, divected the young prince, first to suppress some troubles which had arisen in Gaul, and afterwards to fix the seat of his residence at Rome, and to assume the government of the Western prov- inces.'i The safety of Illyricum was confirmed by a memo- rable defeat of the Sarmatians ; sixteen thousand of those barbarians remained on the field of battle, and the number of captives amounted to twenty thousand. The old emperor, animated with the fame and prospect of victory, pursued his march, in the midst of winter, through the countries of Thrace and Asia Minor, and at length, with his younger son, Nume- rian, arrived on the coitfines of the Persian monarchy. There, encamping on the summit of a lofty mountain, he pointed out to his troops the opulence and luxury of the enemy whom they were about to invade. The successor of Artaxerxes,* Varanes, or Bahram, though he had subdued the Segestans, one of the most warlike nations of Upper Asia,'^^ was alarmed at the approach of the Romans, and endeavored to retard their progress by a negotiation of •' Hist. August, p. 353. Eutropius, ix. 18. Pagi, Annal. '* Agathias, 1. iv. p. 135. AVe find one of his sayings in the BiD- liotheque Orientale ofil. d'Herbelot. "The definition of humanity includes all other virtues." f * Three monar'^Vs had intervened, Sapor, (Shahpour,) Hormisdas, (Hor- mooz,) Varanes or Baharam the First. — M. t The manner in which his life was saved by the Chief Pontiff from a conspiracy of his nobles, is as remarkable as his saying. " By the advice (of the Pontiff) all tlic nobles absented themselves from court. The king wandered through his palace alone. He saw no one ; all was silence around. He became alarmed and distressed.* At last the Chief Pontiff ai)i)eared, and bowed his head in apparent misery, but spoke not a word The king entreated him to declare wliat had happened. The virtuous man boldly related all that had passed, and conjured Bahram, in the name of his glorious ancestors, to chanfj;e his conduct and save himself from destruction. The king was inucli moved, professed himself most penitent, and said he was resolved his future life should prove his sincerity. The Dverio}ed High Priest, delighted at this success, made a signal, at which all the nobles and attendants were in an instant, as if by magic, in their usual places. The monarch now perceived that oidyone opinion prevailed on his past conduct. He repeated tiierefore to 1 is nobles all he had said t) the Chief Pontiff, and his future reigii was unstained by cruelty ox oppression. ■' Malcolm's Persia, i. 79. — M. OF THI', ROMAN EMPIRE. 391 peac;. ITis ambassadors entered tlie camp about sunset, at the time when the troops were satisfying their hunger with a fru- gal repast. The Persians expressed tiieir desire of bring in- troduced to the presence of tlie Roman emperor. They were at lengtli conducted to a soldier, who was seated on the grass. A piece of stale bacon and a few hard peas composed his su|)- per. A coarse woollen garment of purpli' was the only cir- cumstance that announced his dignity. The conference was conducted with the same disregard of courtly elegance. Cams, taking off a cap which he wore to conceal his baldness, assured the amba-isadors, that, unless their master acknowledged the superiority of Roine, he would speedily render Persia !is naked of trees as his own head was destitute of hair."* at" it. withstanding some traces of art and preparation, we may div cover in this scene the manners of Carus, and the severe sim- plicity which the martial princes, who succeeded Gallienus^ liad already restored in the Roman camps. The ministers of tiie Great King trembled and retired. The thrtiats of Carus were not without effect. lie ravaged Mesopotamia, cut in pieces whatever ojjposed his passage, rna to the tenth century, and to the reign of Nice])horus I'hoeas. .\n opinion so decisively pronouuced by Nieltuiir 39*^ THE DECLINE ANP FALL Cams was d'jstined to expose the vanity of predictions. They were scarcely uttered before they were contradicted by hia death ; an event attended with such ambiguous circumstances, that it may be related in a letter from his own secretary to the praefect of the city. " Carus," says he, " our dearest empe- ror, was confined by sickness to his bed, when a furious tem- pest arose in the camp. The darkness which overspread the sky was so thick, that we could no longer distinguish each other ; and the incessant flashes of lightning took from us the knowledge of all that passed in the general confusion. Imme- diately after the most violent clap of thunder, we heard a sudden cry that the emperor was dead ; and it soon appeared, that his chamberlains, in a rage of grief, had set fire to the royal pavilion ; a circumstance which gave rise to the report that Carus was killed by lightning. But, as far as we have been able to investigate the truth, his death was the natural effect of his disorder."'^ The vacancy of the throne was not productive of any dis- turbance. The ambition of the aspiring generals was checked by their natural fears, and young Numerian, with his absent brother Carinus, were unanimously acknowledged as Roman 2mperors. The public expected that the successor of Carus would pursue his father's footsteps, and, without allowing ihe Persians to recover from their consternation, would advance Bword in hand to the palaces of Susa and Ecbatana.'^' But the legions, however strong in numbers and discipline, were '* Hist. Au£;ust. p. 2")0. Yet Eutropius, Fostus, Rui'us, the two Victors, Jerome, Sidoiiius ApoUinaris, Syncellus, and Zonaras, all ascribe the death of Carus to lightning. " See Ncmesian. Cynegeticon, v. 71, &c. Bnd favoniblv received by Hase, the learned editor of Leo Diaconus, com- maiids respectful cousideraMoii. Bat the whole tone of tlie work appears to me altogether inconsi-^tent with any periofi in which pliilosophy did not stand, as it were, on some ground of equality with Christiaidty. The doctrine of the Trinity is sarcastically introduced rather as the strango doctrine of a new religion, than the established tenet of a faith universally prevalent. The arguineut, ado()ted from Solanns, concerning the formula of the procession of the Holy (Jhost, is utterlv worthess, as it is a mere quotation in the words of the (Jospol of St. John, xv. 20. The only argu- ment of anv value is the historic one. from the allu-ion to tliu recent violation ot' many virgins in the Ishiiul of Crete. lUii neither is the hiu- EUiign of,Niehuh"r (juite accurate, nor his reference to the Acroascs of Theodosius sati;factory. When, then, couM this occurrence take place 1 Why not in the devastation of the island by the (joihic pirates, duriii. tbe'roign of Claudius. Hist. Aug. in Claud, p 614 edit \ ai . Lugd. lit 1661. — M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 393 dismayed by the most abject superstition. Noiwithstanding all the arts that were practised to disguise the manner of the late emperor's death, it was found impossible to remove the opinion of the muhitude, and the power of opinion is irresisti- ble. Places or persons struck with lightning were considered l)y the ancients with pious horror, as singularly devoted to the wrath of Heaven."^ An oracle was remembered, which m'arked the River Tigris as the fatal boundary of the Roman arms. The troops, terrified with the fate of Carus and with their own danger, called aloud on young Numerian to obey the will of the gods, and to lead them away from this inaus- picious scene of war. The feeble emperor was unable to subdue their obstinate prejudice, and the Persians wondered at the unexpected retreat of a victorious enemy."^ The intelligence of the mysterious fate of the late emperor was soon carried from the frontiers of Persia to Rome ; and the senate, as well as the provinces, congratulated the acces- sion of the sons of Carus. These fortunate youths were strangers, however, to that conscious superiority, either of birth or of merit, which can alone render the possession of a throne easy, and as it were natural. Born and educated in a private station, the election of their father raised them at once to the rank of princes ; and his death, which happened about six- teen months afterwards, left them the unexpected legacy of a vast empire. To sustain with temper this rapid elevation, an uncommon share of virtue and prudence was requisite ; and Carinus, the elder of the brothers, was more than commonly deficient in those qualities. In the Gallic war he discovered some degree of personal courage ;^'' but from the moment of his arrival at Rome, he abandoned himself to the luxury of the capital, and to the abuse of his fortune. He was soft, vet cruel ; devoted to pleasure, but destitute of taste; and though exquisitely susceptible of vanity, indiflerent to the public esteem. In the course of a few months, he successively married and divorced nine wives, most of whom he left pregnant ; and notwithstanding this legal inconstancy, found time to indulge "" See Fostus and his commentators on tlie word Scribnuio7ium /'fctes struck by li<^htning were surrounded with a wall; things were buried \Wth mysicrious ceremony. '* Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 250. Aiirelius Victor ^cems t« believe the prediction, and to approve the retreat. *" Nemesian Cynrigeticon, v. 69. lie wis a contemporary, but tt poet. 394 THE DECLINE AND FALL such a variety of irregular appetites, as brought dishonor on himself and on the noblest houses of Rome. He beheld with inveterate hatred all those who might remember his former obscurity, or censure his present conduct. He banished, or put to death, the friends and counsellors whom his father had placed about him, to guide his inexperienced you'h ; and he persecuted with the meanest revenge his school-fellows and companions, who had not sufficiently respected the latent majesty of the emperor. With the senators, Carinus affected a lofty and regal demeanor, frequently declaring, that he designed to distribute their estates among the populace of Rome. From the dregs of that populace he selected his favorites, and even his ministers. The palace, and even the Imperial table, were filled with singers, dancers, prostitutes, and all the various retinne of vice and folly. One of his door- keepers "^1 he intrusted with the government of the city. In the room of the Praetorian prsefect, whom he put to death, Carinus substituted one of the ministers of his looser pleasures. Another, who possessed the same, or even a more infamous, title to favor, was invested with the consulship. A confidential secretar}'^, who had acquired uncommon skill in the art of for- gery, delivered the indolent emperor, with his own consent, from the irksome duty of signing his name. When the emperor Carus undertook the Persian war, he was induced, by motives of affection as well as policy, to secure the fortunes of his family, by leaving in the hands of his eldest son the armies and provinces of the West. The intelligence which he soon received of the conduct of Cari- nus filled him with shame and regret ; nor had he concealed his resolution of satisfying the republic by a severe act of jus- tice, and of adopting, in the place of an unworthy son, the brave and virtuous Constantius, who at that time was gov- ernor of Dalmatia. But the elevation of Constantius was for a while deferred ; and as soon as the father's death had released Carinus from the control of fear or decency, he dis- played to the Romans the extravagancies nf Elagabalus, aggravated by the cruelty of Domitian.^- *' Cancellarius. This word, so humbliJ in its origin, has, by a sin- gula fortune, risen into the title of the first great office of state in the monarchies of Europe. See Casaubon and Salmasius, ad Hist, August, p. 253. ** Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 253, 254. Eutropivis, ix 19. "V'ic- or THE ROMAN EMPIRE 395 The only merit of the administrat'um of Cnriniis that history could record, or poetry celebrate, was the uncommon spiea- dor with which, in his own and his brother's name, he exhib- ited the Roman games of tlie theatre, the circus, and the amphitlieatre. More than twenty years afterwards, when the courtiers of Diocletian represented to their frugal sovereign the fume and popularity of his munificent predecessor, 1\« acknowledged that the reign of Carinus had indeed been a reign of pleasure.^^ But this vain prodigality, which the pru- dence of Diocletian might justly despise, was enjoyed with surprise and transport by the Roman people. The oldest of the citizens, recollecting the spectacles of former days, the triumphal pomp of Probus or Aurelian, and the secular games of the emperor Philip, acknowledged that they were all sur- passed by the superior magnificence of Carinus.^'* The spectacles of Carinus may therefore be best iliustrated by the observation of some particulars, which histoiy has con- descended to relate concerning those of his predecessors. If we confine ourselves solely to the hunting of wild beasts, how- ever we may censure the vanity of the design or the cruelty of the execution, we are obliged to confess that neither before nor since the time of the Romans so much art and expense have ever been lavished for the amusement of the people. ^^ By the order of Probus, a great quantity of large trees, torn up by the roots, were transplanted into the midst of the circus The spacious and shady forest was immediately filled with a thousand ostriches, a thousand stags- a thousand fallow deer, and a thousand wild boars ; and all his variety of game wad abandoned to the riotous impetuosity of the multitude. The tragedy of the Succeeding day consisi.-jd in the massacre ol a hundred lions, an equal number of lionesses, two hundred leopards, and three hundred bears.'*'^ 1 he collection prepared tor Junior. The reign of Diocletian indeed was so long and prosper- ous, that it must have been very unfavorable to the re^jutation of Carinus. *• Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 254. He calls him Carus, b\it the sense is sufficiently obvious, and the words were often confounded. ** See Calphurnius, Eelofj. vii. 43. We may observe, that the spectacles of Probus were stil. rcccn;, and that the poet is seconded by the historian. '"' The plulosopher Montaigne (Essais, 1. iii. 6) g^ves a very jxist and lively view of Roman magnificence in these spectacles. •• Vopiscus in Ilis^. August, p 240 896 THE DECLINK AND FALL by the younger Gordian for his triumph, and which his suc- cessor exhibited in the secuhir games, was less lemarkable by the number than by the singularity of the animals. Twenty zebras displayed their elegant forms and variegated beauty to the eyes of the Roman people.*'' Ten elks, and as many ' caraelopards, the loftiest and most harmless ci-eatures that wander over the plains of Sarmatia and Ethiopia, were con- trasted with thirty African hyaenas and ten Indian tigers, the most implacable savages of the torrid zone. The unoffending strength with which Nature has endowed the greater quadru- peds, was admired in the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus of the Nile,'^ and a majestic troop of thirty-two elephants. ^^ While the populace gazed with stupid wonder on the splendid show, the naturalist might indeed observe the figure and properties of so many different species, transported from every part of the ancient world into the amphitheatre of Rome. But this accidental benefit, which science might derive from fully, is surely insufficient to justify such a wanton abuse of the public riches. There occurs, however, a single instance in the first Punic war, in wliich the senate wisely connected this amuse- ment of the multitude with the interest of the state. A con- biderable number of elephants, taken in the defeat of the Car- thaginian army, were driven through the circus by a few slaves, armed only with blunt javelins.^** The useful spectacle served to impress the Roman soldier with a just contempt for those unwieldy animals ; and he no longer dreaded to encoun- ter them in the ranks of war. The hunting or exhibition of wild beasts was conducted with a magnificence suitable to a people who styled themselves the masters of the world ; nor was the edifice appropriated to that entertainment less expressive of Roman greatness. Posterity "7 Tlicy are called Onagri ; but the number is too iueonsiderable for mere wild asses. Cuper (de Elephantis Exercitat. ii. 7) lias proved from Uppiau, Dion, and an anonymous Greek, that zebras have been seen at Kome. They were brought from some island of the ocean, j)erliai)s Madasjascar. *"** Carinus K^'ve a hippopotamus, (see Calphurn. Eclotr. vi. 66 ) In the latter spectaules, I do not recollect any crocodiles, of which Augus- tus once exiiibited thirty -six. Dion Cassius, I. Iv p. 781. >*^ Cai)itolin. in Hist. August, p. 1G4, 1G5. We are not acquainted with the anin:!al9 wliieh he calls arclulcontes ; some read irqoleoniet, fthers aijriolccnU-a: both corrections are very nugatory. '"J i'liu. IL'st. Natur. viii. 6, from the annals of Piso. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 391 admires, and will long admire, the awful remains of the ampliilheatre of Titjs, which so well deserved the epithet of Colossal.-" It was a building of an elliptic figure, live hun- dred and sixty-four feet in length, and four hundred and sixty- seven in breadth, founded on fourscore arches, and rising, with four successive orders of architecture, to the height of one hundred and forty feet.^"^ The outside of the edifice was encrusted with marble, and decorated with statues. Tli«j slopes of the vast concave, which formed the inside, were filled and surrounded with sixty or eighty rows of scats of marble likewise, covered with cushions, and capable of receiving with ease about fourscore thousand spectators.^-* Sixty-four I'omi' tories (for by that name the doors were very aptly distin- guished) poured forth the immense multitude ; and the entrances, passages, and staircases were contrived with such exquisite skill, that each person, whether of the senatorial, the equestrian, or the plebeian order, arrived at his destined place without trouble or confusion.^'* Nothing was omitted, which, in any respect, could be subservient to the convenience and pleasure of the spectators. They were protected from the sun and rain by an ample canopy, occasionally drawn over their heads. The air was continually refreshed by the playing of fountains, and profusely impregnated by the grateful scent of aromatics. hi the centre of the edifice, the arena., or stage, was strewed with the finest sand, and successively assumed the most different forms. At one moment it seemed to rise out of the earth, like the garden of the Hesperides, and was afterwards broken into the rocks and caverns of Thrace. The subterraneous pipes conveyed an inexhaustible supply of water ; and what had just before appeared a level plain, might be suddenly converted into a wide lake, co\ered with armed *' See Maffei, Verona lUustrata, p. iv. 1. i. c. 2. *^ Maffei, 1. ii. c. 2. The height was very much cxagj,eratecl by the ancients. It reached almost to the heavens, according to Cal- phurnius, (Eclog. vii. 23,) and surpassed the ken of human sight according to Ammianus Marccllinus (xvi. 10.) Yet how trilling to the great pyramid of Egypt, which rises 500 feet perpendicular ! " According to dill'erent copies of Victor, we read 77,000, or 87,000 spectators ; but Maffei (1. ii. c. 12) iinds room on the open seats for no more than 34,000. The remainder were contained in the upper covered galleries. ** See Miilfci, 1. ii. c. 5 — 12. lie treats the very difllcult subject with all possible clearness, and likt an architect, as well as an anti* juau-ian. 398 THE DECLINE AND FALL vessels, and replenished with the monsters of the deep."* In the decoration of these scenes, the Roman emperors displa3'^ed their wealth and liberality ; and we read on various occasions that the whole furniture of the amphitheatre consisted either of silver, or of gold, or of amber.*® The poet who describes the g-imes of Carinus, in the character of a shepherd, attracted to the capital by the fame of their magnificence, atHrms that the nets designed as a defence against the wild beasts, were of gold wire ; that the porticos were gilded ; and that the belt or circle which divided the several ranks of spectators from each other was studded with a precious mosaic of beautiful stones.'^ In the midst of this glittering pageantry, the emperor Carinus, secure of his fortune, enjoyed tlie acclamations of the people, the flattery of his courtiers, and the songs of the poets, who, for want of a more essential merit, were reduced to celebrate the divine graces of his person.®* In the same hour, but at the distance of nine hundred miles from Rome, his brother expired ; and a sudden revolution transferred into the hands of a stranger the sceptre of the house of Carus.^® The sons of Carus never saw each other after their father's death. The arrangements wliich their new situation required were probably deferred till the return of the younger brother to Rome, where a triumph was decreed to the young emperors for iMie glorious success of the Persian war.^"" It is uncertain whether they intended to divide between them the adminis- tration, or the provinces, of the empire ; but it is very unlikelv that their union would have proved of any long duration ^5 Calphurn. Eclog. vii. 64, 73. These lines are curious, and the whole eclogue has been of intinite use to Mattel. Calphurnius, as weil as Martial, (see his first book,) was a poet ; but when they described the ainphitlieatre, tlicy both wrote from their own senses, and to those of the Romans. ** Consult riin. Hist. Natur. xx.xiii. 16, xxxvii. 11. •7 lialtcus en gemmis, en inlita portieus auro Certatim radiant, «&,c. Calphurn. vii. ** Et Martis vultus et Apollinis esse putavi, says Calphurnius ; but John Malala, who had perhaps seen pictures of Carinus, describes hira ■8 thick, short, and white, torn. i. p. 403. "'■' With regard to the time when these Roman games were celebrated, Scaliger, Salmasius, and Cupur have given themselves a great deal of trouble to perplex a very clear subject. I'J^ Nemesianus (in the Cynegeticon* seems to anticipate in his fan !▼ that auspicious day. OF THE SOMAN EMPIRE. 399 The jealousy of power must have been inflamed by the oj)po- sition of characters. In the most corrupt of times, Carinus was unworthy to live : Numerian deserved to reign in a happier period. His afTable manners and gentle virtues secured him, as soon as they became known, the regard and affections of the public. Me possessed the elegant accom- plishments of a poet and orator, which dignify as well aa adorn the humblest and the most exalted station. His elo- quence, however it was applauded by the senate, was formed not so much on the model of Cicero, as on that of the modern declaimers ; but in an age very far from being destitute of poetical merit, he contended for the prize with the most cele- brated of his contemporaries, and still remained the friend of his rivals ; a circumstance which evinces either the goodness of his heai1, or the superiority of his genius.i"^ But the talents of Numerian were rather of the contemplative than of the active kind. When his father's elevation reluctantly forced him from the shade of retirement, neither his temper nor his pursuits had qualified him for the command of armies. His constitution was destroyed by the hardships of the Persian war ; and he had contracted, from the heat of the climate, "^^ such a weakness in his eyes, as obliged him, in the course of a long retreat, to confine himself to the solitude and darkness of a tent or litter. The administration of all affairs, civil as well as military, was devolved on Arrius Aper, the Prretorian prtefect, who to the power of his important office added the honor of being father-in-law to Numerian. The Imperial pavilion was strictly guarded by his most trusty adherents ; and during many days, Aper delivered to the army the sup- posed mandates of their invisible sovereign. ^^^^ It was not till eight months after the death of Carus, that the Roman army, returning by slow marches from the banks of the Tigris, arrived on those of the Thracian Bosphorus. The legions halted at Chalcedon in Asia, while the court passed over to Heraclea, on the European side of the Pro- "" He won all the crowns from Nemosianus, with whom ho vied in didactic i)oetry. The senate erected a statue to the son of ( ^arua, with a very ambiguous inscription, " To the most powerful of orators.' Bee Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 2.51. "'* A more natural cause, at least, than that assigned by Vopiscus, I Hist. i\ugust. p. 251,) incessantly weeping tor his father's deaih. '* In the Persian war, Aper was suspected of a design to betra* Carufl. Hist, August, p. 250. too THE DECLINE AND FALL pontis ''^'' But a report soon circulated through the camp, «l first in secret whispers, and at length in loud clamors, of tho emperor's death, and of the presumption of his ambitious minister, who still exercised the sovereign power in the name of a prince who was no more. The impatience of the soldiers could not long support a state of suspense. With rude curi- osity they broke into the Imperial tent, and discovered only the corpse of Numerian.i^^ The gradual decline of his health might have induced them to believe that his death was natural ; but the concealment was interpreted as an evidence of guilt, and the measures which A per had taken to secure his election became the immediate occasion of his ruin. Yet, even in the transport of their rage and grief, the troops observed a regular proceeding, which proves how firmly disci- pline had been reestablished by the martial successors of Gallienus. A general assembly of the army was appointed to be held at Chalcedon, whither Aper was transported in chains, as a prisoner and a criminal. A vacant tribunal was erected m the midst of the camp, and the generals and tribunes formed a great military council. They soon announced to the multi- tude that their choice had fallen on Diocletian, commander of the domestics or body-guards, as tlie person the most capable of revenging and succeeding their beloved emperor. The future fortunes of the candidate depended on the chance or conduct of the present hour. Conscious that the station which he had filled exposed him to some suspicions, Diocletian ascended the tribunal, and raising his eyes towards the Sun, made a solemn profession of his own innocence, in the presence of that all-seeing Deity. '^^^ Then, assuming the tone of a. sovereign and a judge, he commanded that Aper should be brought in chains to the foot of the tribunal. " This man," said he, " is the murderer of Numerian ; " and without giving him time to enter on a dangerous justification, drew his Bword, and buried it in the breast of the unfortunate prtcfect A charge supported by, such decisive proof was admitted 104 ■\yg j^je obli5i;cd to the Alexandrian Chronicle, p. 274, for the knowledge ot the time and place where Diocletian was elected emperor. '"* Hist. August, p. 2-51. Eutrop. ix. 88. Ilieronym. in Chron. Accordinf^ to these judicious writers, the death of Numerian was dis- covered by the stench of his dead body. C'ould no aromatics be f'rand in thfi Imjierial household ? '"• Aurel Victor. Eutropius, ix. 20. Hicronym. in Cliron. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 401 •without contradiction, and the legions, with repeated acclama' tions, acknowledged the justice and authority of the emperor Diocletian.'ov Before we enter upon the memorable reign of that prince, It will be proper to punish and dismiss the unworthy brother of Numerian. Carinus possessed arms and treasures sufficient to support his legal title to the empire. But his personal vices overbalanced every advantage of birth and situation. The mosf faithful servants of the father despised the incapacity, and dreaded the cruel arrogance, of the son. The hearts of the people were engaged in favor of his rival, and even the senate was inclined to prefer a usurper to a tyrant. The arts of Diocletian inflamed the general discontent ; and the winter was employed in secret intrigues, and open preparations for a civil war. In the spring, the forces of the East and of the West encountered each other in the plains of Margus, a small city of Maesia, in the neighborhood of the Danube. ^''^ The troopc, so lately returned from the Persian war, had acquired their glory at the expense of health and numbers ; nor were they in a condition to contend with the unexhausted strength of the legions of Europe. Their ranks were broken, and, for a moment, Diocletian despaired of the purple and of life. But the advantage which Carinus had obtained by the valor of his soldiers, he quickly lost by the infidelity of his officers. A tribune, whose wife he had seduced, seized the opportunity of revenge, and, by a single blow, extinguished civil discord in the blood of the adulterer.^"^ '**^ Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 252. The reason why Diocletian killed Aper, (a wild boar,) was founded on a prophecy and a pun, &a foolish as they are well known. '"* Eutropius marks its situation very accurately ; it was between the Mons Aureus and Virainiacum. M. d'Anville (Geographic An- cleune, torn. i. p. 304) places Margus at Kastolatz • in Servia, a httle below Belgrade and Semendria. '"• Hiat. August, p. 254. Eutropius, ix. 20. Aturelius Victor Victor et Epitome. • KuUicza. - Eton Atlas. — M 20 CHAPTER XIII. THE REIGN OF DIOCLETIAN AND HIS THREE ASSOCIATES, MAX- IMIAN, GALERIUS, AND CONSTANTIUS. GENERAL REES- TABLISIIMENT OF ORDER AND TRANQUILLITY. THE PERSIAi> WAR, VICTORY, AND TRIUMPH. THE NEW FORM OF AI> MINISTRATION. ABDICATION AND RETIREMENT OF DIOCLE- TIAN AND MAXIMIAN. As the reign of Diocletian was more illustrious than that of any of his predecessors, so was his birth more abject and obscure. The strong claims of merit and of violence had frequently superseded the ideal prerogatives of nobility ; but a distinct line of separation was hitherto preserved between the free and the servile part of mankind. The parents of Diocletian had been slaves in the house of Anulinus, a Roman senator ; nor was he himself distinguished by any other name than that which he derived from a small town in Dalmatia, from whence his mother deduced her origin. ^ It is, however, probable that his father obtained the freedom of the family, and that he soon acquired an office of scribe, which was commonly exercised by persons of his condition.^ Fa- vorable oracles, or rather the consciousness of superior merit, prompted his aspiring son to pursue the profession of arms and the hopes of fortune ; and it would be extremely curious to observe the gradation of arts and accidents which enabled hirn in the end to fulfil those oracles, and to display that merit to the world. Diocletian was successively promoted to the government of Maisia, the honors of the consulship, and the important command of the guards of the palace. He distin- * Eutro]). ix. 19. Victor in Epitome. The town seems to hare been properly called Doclia, from a small tribe of lUyrians, (see Cel- Hrius, Geograph. Antiqna, torn. i. p. 303 ;) and the original name of the fortunate slave was probably Docles ; he first lengthened it to tha Grecian harmony of Dioclcs, and at length to the Roman majesty of J)iocletianus. He likewise assumed the Patrician name of Valerius, and it is usually given him by Aurclius Victor. 2 See Uacicr on the sLxth satire oi the econd book of Iloraoe f^*rnel. NepoB. in Vit. Eumen c- I. 402 OF THE HOMAN EMPIRE. 403 gu'.shed his ahililies in the Persian war; and afier the death of iVumerian, the slave, by the confessvon and judgment of liis rivals, was declared the most worthy of the imperial lljone. The malice of religious zeal, whilst it arraigns the savage *ierceness of his colleague Maximian, has affected to cast sus- picions on the personal courage of the emperor Diocletian.^ It would not be easy to persuade us of the cowardice of o soldier of fortune, who acquired and preserved the esteem of the legions, as well as the favor of so many warlike prmcea. Yet even calumny is sagacious enough to discover and ic attack the most vulnerable part. The valor of Diocletian was never found inadequate to his duty, or to the occasion; but he appears not to have possessed the daring and generous spirit of a hero, who courts danger and fame, disdains artifice, and boldly challenges the allegiance of his equals. His abili- ties were useful rather than splendid ; a vigorous mind, im- proved by the experience and study of mankind ; dexterity and application in business ; a judicious mixture of liberality and economy, of mildness and rigor ; profound dissimulation, under the disguise of military frankness ; steadiness to pursue his ends ; flexibility to vary his means ; and, above all, the great art of submitting his own passions, as well as those of others, to the interest of his ambition, and of coloring his ambition with the most specious pretences of justice and pub- lic utility. Like Augustus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a new empire. Like the adopted son of Caesar, he was distinguished as a statesman rather than as a warrior ; nor did either of those princes employ force, when ever their purpose could be effected by policy. The victory of Diocletian was remarkable for its singulai mildness. A people accustomed to applaud the clemency of the conqueror, if the usual punishments of death, exile, and confiscation, were inflicted with any degree of temper and equity, beheld, with the most pleasing astonishment, a civil war, the flames of which were extinguished in the field of battle. Diocletian received into his confidence Aristobulus, the principal minister of the house of Carus, respected the lives, the fortunes, and the dignity, of his adversaries, and * Lactantius (or whoever was the author of the little treatise De ilortibiLS I'ersecutoium) accuses Dioclotian of timiditij in two pluees. c 7, 8. lu chap. 9 ho says o*" bim, " erat in omni tumultu metii uio- »U8 et ai imi diijcctiis 404 THE DECLINE AND FALL even continued in their respective stations the greater iiumoer of tlie servants of Carinus.'* It is not improbable that motives of prudence might assist the humanity of the artful Dalma- dan : of these servants, many had purchased his favor by secret treachery ; in others, he esteemed their grateful fidelity to an unfortunate master. The discerning judgment of Aure lian, of Probus, and of Carus, had filled the several depart ments of the state and army with officers of approved merit, vv'hose removal would have injured the public service, with- out promoting the interest of the successor. Such a conduct, however, displayed to the Roman world the fairest prospect of the new reign, and the emperor affected to confirm this favorable prepossession, by declaring, that, among all the vir tues of his predecessors, he was the most ambitious of imi- tating the humane philosophy of Marcus Antoninus.^ The first considerable action of his reign seemed to evince his sincerity as well as his moderation. After the example of Marcus, he gave himself a colleague in the person of Maxim- ian, on whom he bestowed at first the title of Csesar, and after- wards that of Augustus.6 But the motives of his conduct, as well as the object of his choice, were of a very different nature from those of his admired predecessor. By investing a luxurious youth with the honors of the purple, Marcus had discharged a debt of private gratitude, at the expense, indeed, of the happiness of the state. By associating a friend and a fellow-soldier to the labors of government, Diocletian, in a time of public danger, provided for the defence both of the East and of the West. Maximian was born a peasant, and, like Aurelian, in the territory of Sirmium. Ignorant of letters,' * In this encomium, Aurelius Victor seemr5 to convey a just, though Indirect, censure of the cruelty of Constantius. It appears from the Fasti, that Aristobulus remained prajfect of the city, and that he ended with Diocletian the consulship which he had commenced with Carinus. * Aurelius Victor styles Diocletian, " Parcntcm potius quam Dom- inum." See Hist. August, p. 30. * The question of the time when Maximian received the I.onors of Caesar and Augustus has divided modern critics, and given occasion to a great deal of learned wrangling. I have follo\>;cd M. de Tille- mont, (Histoire des Empcrcurs, tom. iv. p. 500 — 505.) who has weighed the several reasons and difficulties with his scrupulous accuracy * ' In an oration delivered before him, (Pancgyr. Vet. ii. 8,) Mamcr- tinus expresses a doubt, whether his hero, in imitating the conduct of Eckhc I concurs in this view, viii. p. 15. — M. OF THE ftOMAN EMPIRE. 405 careless of laws, the rusticity of his appearance an.i manners still betrayed in the most elevated fortune the meanness of hia extraction. War \va; the only art whicli he professed. In a lonefovc, it hardly paid its own establishment. See Appian in PrCKPiu OP THE nOMAN EMriRE. 411 land or sea force>* : and, in return for their useful alliance, he communicated to the barbarians the dangerous knowledf^e of military and naval arts. Carausius still preserved the posses- sion of Boulogne and the adjacent country. His fleets rode triumphant in tlie channel, commanded the mouths of the Seine and of the Rhine, ravaged the coasts of the ocean, and diffused beyond the columns of Hercules the terror of liij name. Under his command, Britain, destined in a future age to obtain the empire of the sea, already assumed its natural and respectable station of a maritime power. '^^ By seizing the fleet of Boulogne, Carausius had deprived his master of the means of pursuit and revenge. And when, after a vast expense of time and labor, a new armament was launched into the water,^ the Imperial troops, unaccustomed to that element, were easily baffled and defeated by tlie veteran sailors of the usurper. This disappointed effort was soon productive of a treaty of peace. Diocletian and his colleague, who justly dreaded the enterprising spirit of Carausius, resigned to liim tlie sovereignty of Britain, and reluctantly admitted tiieir perfidious servant to a participation of the Imperial honors.^" But the adoption of the two Caesars restored new vigor to the Roman arms ; and while the Rhine was guarded by the presence of Maximian, his brave associate Constanlius assumed the conduct of tlie Britisli war. His first enterprise was again.-t the important place of Boulogne. A stupendous mole, raised across the entrance of the harbor, intercepted all hop(;s of relief. The town surrendered after an obstinate defence ; and a considerable part of the naval strength of Carausius fell into the hands of the besiegers. During the three years which Constantius employed in preparing a fleet " As a great number of medals of Caraushis are still presen'cd, he is become a very favorite object of antiquarian curiosity, and every cireumstatice of his life and actions has been investigated with saga- cious accuracy. Dr. Stukely, in particular, has devoted a large vol- ume to the British emperor. I have used his materials, and rejected aiost of his fanciful conjectures. '* "When Mamcrtinus pronounced his first panegyric, the naval preparations of Maximian wore completed ; and the orator presaged e intelligence of the tyrant's death, and it was considered as p. sure presage of the approaching victory. The servants of Carausius imitated the example of treason which he had given. He was murdered by his first minister, Allectus, and the assassin succeeded to his power and to his danger. But he possessed not equal abilities either to exercise the one or to repel the other. He beheld, with anxious terror, the oppo- site shores of the continent already filled with arms, with troops, and with vessels ; for Constantius had very prudently divided his forces, that he might likewise divide the attention and resistance of the enemy. The attack was at length made by the principal squadron, which, under the command of the praefect Asclepiodatus, an officer of distinguished merit, had been assembled in the mouth of the Seine. So imperfect in those times was the art of navigation, that orators have cele- brated the daring courage of the Romans, who ventured to set sail with a side-wind, and on a stormy day. The weather proved favorable to their enterprise. Under the cover of a thick fog, they escaped the fleet of Allectus, which had been stationed off the Isle of Wight to receive them, landed in safety on some part of the western coast, and convinced the Britons, that a superiority of naval strength will not always protect their country from a foreign invasion. Asclepiodatus had no sooner disembarked the imperial troops, than he set fire to his ships ; and, as the expedition proved fortunate, his heroic conduct was universally admired. The usurper had posted himself near London, to expect the formidable attack of Constantius, who commanded in person the fleet of Bou- logne ; but the descent of a new enemy required his immedi- ate presence in the West. He performed this long march in BO precipitate a manner, that he encountered the whole force >f the praefect with a small body of harassed and disheartened troops. The engagement was soon terminated by the total defeat and death of Allectus ; a single battle, as it has often happened, decided the fate of this great island ; and when Constantius landed on the shores of Kent, he found them cov- ered with obedient subjects. Their acclamations were loud and unanimous; and the virtues of the conriaeror may induce •w to believe, that they sincerely rejoiced in a revolution OF THE R0MA:< EMPlRR. Al'j ivhicli, aAer a separation of ten years, restored Britain to the body )f the Roman empire.'" Britain had none but domestic enemies to dread ; and as long as the governors preserved tlieir fidcility, and the troops iJicir discipline, the incursions of the naked savages of Scot- land or Ireland could never materially aflect the safety of the province. The peace of the continent, and the defence of the principal rivers which bounded the empire, were objects of far greater difficulty and imjjortance. The policy of Diocle- tian, which inspired the councils of his associates, (Provided for the public tranquillity, by encouraging a spirit of dissen- uion among the barbarians, and by strengthening the fortifica- tions of the Roman limit. In the East he fixed a line of camps from Egypt to the Persian dominions, and for every camp, he instituted an adequate number of stationary troops, commanded hy their respective officers, and supplied with every kuid of nrms, from the new arsenals which he had formed at Antioch. Emesa, and Damascus.^- Nor was the precaution of the em- peror less watchful against the well-known valor of the barba- rians of Europe. From the mouth of the Rhine to that of tlie Danube, the ancient camps, towns, and citadels, w^m'c dili- gently reestablished, and, in the most exposed |)laccs, new ones were skilfully constructed : the strictest vigilance was introduced among the garrisons of the frontier, and every expedient was practised that could render the long chain of fortifications firm and impenetrable.^^ A barrier so resoect- able was seldom violated, and the barbarians often turned against each other their disappomtcd rage. The Goths, the Vandals, the Gepidai, the Burgundians, the Alemanni, wasted each other's strength by destructive hostilities : and whoso ever vanquished, they vanquished the enemies of Rome. The subjects of Diocletian enjoyed the bloody spectacle, and con- gratulated each other, that the mischiefs of civil war weie now experienced only by the barbarians.^'* " With regard to the recovery of Britain, we obtain a few hintj from Aurclius Victor and Eutropius. " Jolin Malala, in Chron. Antiochcn. torn. i. p. 408, 409. ^^ Zosim. 1. i. p. 3. That partial historian seems to celebrate tha vigilance of Diocletian, with a design of exposing the negligence of Constantino ; we may, however, listen to an orator : " Nam quid ego alarum et cohortium castra perccnseam, toto liheni et Istri et Euplira- tis limits restituta." Panegyr. Vet. iv, 18. ** Kuunt omnea in aanguinom suum poptili, quibus non contigit il4 THh DECLINE AND FAIX Notwithstauding the policy of Diocletian, it was impossible to maintain an equal and undisturbed tranquillity during a ff ign dC tvventy years, and along a frontier of many hundred miles. Sometimes the barbarians suspended their domestic animosities, and the relaxed vigilance of the garrisons some- times gave a passage to their strength or dexterity. When- ever the provinces were invaded, Diocletian conducted himself with triat calm dignity which he always affected or possessed ; reserved his presence for such occasions as were worthy oi his interposition, never exposed his person or reputation to any unnecessary danger, insured his success by every means that prudence could suggest, and displayed, with ostentation, the consequences of his victory. In wars of a more difficult nature, and more doubtful event, he employed the rough valoi of Maximian ; and that faithful soldier was content to ascribe his own victories to the wise counsels and auspicious influenct of his benefactor. But after the adoption of the two Caesars, the emperors themselves, retiring to a less laborious scene of action, devolved on their adopted sons the defence of the Dan- ube and of the Rhine. The vigilant Galerius was nevei reduced to the necessity of vanquishing an army of barbari- ans on the Roman territory.^s The brave and active Constan- tius delivered Gaul from a very furious inroad of the Ale- manni ; and his victories of Langres and Vindonissa appeai to have been actions of considerable danger and merit. As he traversed the open country with a feeble guard, he was encompassed on a sudden by the superior multitude of the enemy. He retreated with difficulty towards Langres ; but, in the general consternation, the citizens refused to open their gates, and the wounded prince was drawn up the wall by the means of a rope. But, on the news of his distress, the Roman troops hastened from all sides to his relief, and before the evening he had satisfied his honor and revenge by the slaughter of six thousand Allemani.^^'^ From the monuments Ciiss Romanis, obstinataeque feritatis popnas nunc sponte persolvunt. Panegyr. Vet. iii. 16. Mamcrtinus illustrates the fact by the exam- ple of almost all the nations of the world. ** He complained, though not with the strictest truth. "Jam flux- i3se annos quiiidccim in quibus, in lUyrico, ad ripam Danubii relega- tu8 cum gentibus barbaris luctaret." Lactant. de M. 1'. c. 18. ^* In the Greek text of Eusebius, we read six thousand, a num- Dcr which I have preferred to the sixty thousand of Jcromi\ Otosi- aa Eutropius, and his Greek translator Paeanius. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 415 of ihose times, the obscure traces of several other victories over the barbarians of Sarmatia and Germany might possibly be collected ; but the tedious search would not be rewarded either with amusement or with instruction. The conduct which the emperor Probus had adopted in the disposal of the vanquished, was imitated by Diocletian and his nssociates. The captive barbarians, exchanging death for slavery, were distributed among the provincials, and assigned to those districts (in Gaul, the territories of Amiens, Beauvaia, Cambray, Treves, Langres, and Troves, are particularly specified ^^) which had been depopulated by the calamities of war. They were usefully employed as shepherds and hus- bandmen, but were denied the exercise of arms, except when it was found expedient to enroll them in the military service. Nor did the emperors refuse the property of lands, with a less servile tenure, to such of the barbarians as solicited the pro- lection of Rome. They granted a settlement to several colo- nies of the Carpi, the Bastarnae, and the Sarmatians ; and, by a dangerous indulgence, permitted them in some measure to retain their national manners and independence.*'^ Among the provincials, it was a subject of flattering exultation, that the barbarian, so lately an object of terror, now cultivated their lands, drove their cattle to the neighboring fair, and contributed by his labor to the public plenty. They congrat- ulated their masters on the powerful accession of subjects and soldiers ; but they forgot to observe, that multitudes of secret enemies, insolent from favor, or desperate from oppression, were introduced into the heart of the empire. ^^ While the Cajsars exercised their valor on the banks of the Rhine and Danube, the presence of the emperors was re- quired on the southern confines of the Roman world. From the Nile to Mount Atlas, Africa was in arms. A confederacy of five Moorish nations issued from their deserts to invade the ^' Panegyr. Vet. vii. 21. '* There was a settlement of the Sarmatians in tlie neighborhood ol IVcvos, which seems to have been dcsei-ted by those lazy barbarians ; Aiuoaius speaks of them in his Mosella : — " Unite iter ingredioris neniornsn per avia solum, Et nulla liuniani spectans vestigia cultus ; Ari-aque SaummatGin niiper inetata colonis. njerf. wua a town of the Carpi ir the Lower M;esia. * bee the rhetorical exultation of Eumenius. Panegyr. viL 9. 41b THK DECLINE AND FALL peaceful provinces.^^ Juaan had assumed the purple at Car thage.41 Achilleus at Alexandria, and even the Blemmyes, renewed, or rather continued, their incursions into the Uppei Egypt. Scarcely any circumstances have been preserved of the exploits of Maximian in the western parts of Africa ; but it appears, by the event, that the progress of his arms was rapid and decisive, that he vanquished the fiercest barbarians of Mauritania, and that he removed them from the mountains whose inaccessible strength had inspired their inhabitants with a lawless confidence, and habituated them to a life of rapine and violence.4'2 Diocletian, on his side, opened the campaign in Egypt by the siege of Alexandria, cut off the aqueducts which conveyed the waters of the Nile into every quarter of that immense city,'*^ ^^d rendering his camp impregnable to the sallies of the besieged multitude, he pushed his reiterated attacks with caution and vigor. After a siege of eight months, Alexandria, wasted by the sword and by fire, implored the clemency of the conquerar, but it experienced the full extent of his severity. Many thousands of the citizens perished in a promiscuous slaughter, and there were few obnoxious per- sons in Egypt who escaped a sentence either of death or at least of exile.44 The fate of Busiris and of Coptos was still more melancholy than that of Alexandria : those proud cities, the former distinguished by its antiquity, the latter enriched by the passage of the Indian trade, were utterly destroyed by the arms and by the severe order of Diocletian.''^ The char- acter of the Egyptian nation, insensible to kindness, but extremely susceptible of fear, could alon» justify this excea- *" Scaliger (Animadvers. ad Euseb. p. 243) decides, in hi8 usual manner, that the Quinque f,'cntiani, or five African nations, were the five great cities, the Pcntapolis of the inoffensive province of Cyreno. ♦' After his defeat, Julian stabbed himself with a dagger, and im- mediately leaped into the flames. Victor in Epitome. ** Tu ferocissimos Mauritanite populos inaccessis montium jun'is et natural! munitione fidentes, expugnasti, rccepLsti, transtulisti. °Pan- egjT. Yet. vi. 8. *' See the description of Alexandria, in Hirtius de Bel. Alcxandrin. c. 6. _ " Eutrop. ix. 24. Orosius, vii. 25. John Malala in Chron. An- tioch. p. 409, 410. Yet Eumoiiius assures us, that Egypt was paci- fied by the clemency of Diocletian. ** Eusebius (in Chron.) places their destruction several vears soon er, and at a time when Egyjit itself was in a stati of rebellion againf the Komans. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 411 Bivr rigor. T.ie seditions of Alexandria had often affected the tranquillity and subsistence of Rome itself. Since the usurpation of Firmus, the province of Upper Egypt, inces- santly relapsing into rebellion, had embraced the alliance of the savages of ^Ethiopia. The number of the Blemmyes, scattered between the Island of Meroe and the Red Sea, was very inconsi^lerable, their disposition was unwarlike, their weapons rude and inotfensive.""^ Yet in the public disorders, these barbarians, whom antiquity, shocked with the deformity of their figure, had almost excluded from the human species, presumed to rank themselves among the enemies of Rome."*' Such had bee j the unworthy allies of the Egyptians ; and while the attention of the state was engaged in more serious wars their vexatious inroads might again harass the repose of the province. With a view of opposing to the Blemmyes a suita- ble adversary, Diocletian persuaded the Nobatnc, or people of Nubia, to remove from their ancient habitations in the deserts of Libya, and resigned to them an extensive but unprofitable territory above Syene and the cataracts of the Nile, with the stipulation, that they should ever respect and guard the fron- tier of the empire. The treaty long subsisted ; and till the establishment of Christianity introduced stricter notions of religious worship, it was annually ratified by a solemn sacri- fice in the Isle of Elephantine, in which the Romans, as well as the barbarians, adored the same visible or invisible powers of the universe.''^ At the same time that Diocletian chastised the past crimeg of the Egyptians, he provided for their future safety and hap- piness by many wise regulations, which were confirmed and enforced under the succeeding reigns.'*^ One very rem.irka- *^ Strabo, 1. xvii. p. 1, 172. Pomponius Mela, 1. i. c. 4. HLs words are curious : " Intra, si credere libet, vix homines inagisque iiemilcri ; iEgipanes, ct Blemmyes, et Satyri." *' Ausus sese inserere t'ortunae et provacare anna Rouiana. ** See Procopius de Bell. Persic. 1. i. c. 19.* *' He fixed the public allowance of corn, for the people of Alex- pndria, at two millions of medimni ; about four hundred thousand quM-tcr. Chron. Paschal, p. 276. Procop. Hist Arciiu. c. 26. • Compare, on the epoch of the final extirpation of the rites of Pagan- um from the Isle of Phila;, (Elephantine,) wliich subsisted till the edict of Theodosius, in the sixth century, a dissertation of M. Letronne, ou eertrdr. Greek inscriptions. The dissertation contains some very interest- ing observations on tlie conduct and policy of Diocletian in Egypt. Mater pimr rilist. du Christianisme en Egvpte, Nubie, et AbyssiniCj Paris, 1832 tl8 THE DETLINE AND FALL ble edict which lie published, instead of being ccndemned as the efTect of jealous tyranny, deserves to be applauded as an act of prudence and humanity. He caused a diligent inquiry to be made " for all the ancient books which treated of the admirable art of making gold and silver, and without pity, committed them to the flames; apprehensive, as we are assured, lest the opulence of the Egyptians should inspire them with confidence to rebel gigainst the empire." ^o But if Diocletian had been convinced of the reality of that valua- ble art, far from extinguishing the memory, he would have converted the operation of it to the benefit of the public revenue. It is much more likely, that his good sense discov- ered to him the folly of such magnificent pretensions, and that he was desirous of preserving the reason and fortunes of his subjects from the mischievous pursuit. It may be remarked, that these ancient books, so liberally ascribed to Pythagoras, to Solomon, or to Hermes, were the pious frauds of more recent adepts. The Greeks were inattentive either to the use or to the abuse of chemistry. In that immense register, where Pliny has deposited the discoveries, the arts, and the errors of mankind, there is not the least mention of the transmutation of metals ; and the persecution of Diocle- *aan is the first authentic event in the history of alchemy. The conquest of Egypt by the Arabs diffused that vain sci- ence over the globe. Congenial to the avarice of the human heart, it was studied in China as in Europe, with equal eager- ness, and with equal success. The darkness of the middle ages insured a favorable reception to every tale of wonder, and the revival of learning gave new vigor to hope, and suggested more specious arts of deception. Philosophy, with the aid of experience, has at length banished the study of alchemy ; and the present age, however desirous of riches, is content to seek them by the humbler means of commerce and industry. ^1 The reduction of Egypt was immediately followed by the Persian war. It was reserved for the reign of Diocletian to vrnnquish that powerful nation, and to extort a confession fron» ""» John Antioch. in Excerp. Valesian. p. 834. Suidas in Diocle- tian. . *' Roc a short history and confutation of Alchemy, in the woTks ol that philosophical compiler, La Motho le Vayer, torn i. p. 32 — 35H. or THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 419 the successors of Artaxerxes, of the superior majesty of th^ Roman empire. We liave observed, under the reign of Valerian, that Ar- menia was subdued by the perfidy and the arms of the Persians, and that, after the assassination of Chosroes, his son Tiridates, the infant heir of the monarchy, was saved by the fidelity of his friends, and educated under the protection of the emperors. Tiridates derived from his exile such advan'agen as he could never have obtained on the throne of Armenia; tne early knowledge of adversity, of mankind, and of the Roman discipline. He signalized his youth by deeds of valor, and displayed a matchless dexterity, as well as strength, in every martial exercise, and even in the less honorable contests of the Olympian games.^^ Those qualities were more nobly exerted in the defence of his benefactor Licinius.^^ That officer, in the sedition which occasioned the death of Probus, was exposed to the most imminent danger, and the enraged soldiers were forcing their way into his tent, when they were checked by the single arm of the Armenian prince. The gratitude of Tiridates contributed soon afterwards to his res- toration. Licinius was in every station the friend and com- p{mionof Galerius, and the merit of Galerius, long before he wag raised to the dignity of Caesar, had been known and esteemed by Diocletian. In the third year of that emperor's reign Tiridates was invested with the kingdom of Armenia. The justice of the measure was not less evident than its expediency. It was time lo rescue from the usurpation of the Persian monarch an impor- tant territory, which since the reign of Nero, had been always granted under the protection of the empire to a younger branch of the house of Arsaces.^ When Tiridates appeared on the frontiers of Armenia, ho was received with an unfeigned transport of joy and loyalty. *' See the education and strength of Tiridates in the Armenian history of Moses of Choreno, 1. ii. c. 76. lie could seize two wild bulls hy the horns, and break thena olf with his hands. "■'' If we give credit to the younger Victor, who supposes that in the year ;123 Licinius was only sixty years of age, he could scarcely be the same person as the patron of Tiridates ; but we know from mnch better authority, (Euseb. Ilist. Ecclesiast. 1. x. c. 8,) that Licinius was it that time in the last period of old age : sixteen yearj before, he is represented with gray hairs, and as the contemporary of Cialenus. See Lactant. c. 32. Licinius was probably bom about the year 2o0 . M See the six.ty-secrnd and sixty-third books of Dion Cassius. 420 THE DECLINE AND FALL During twenty-s:x years^ the country had experienced the re>t and imaginary hardships of a foreign yoke. The Persian monarchs adorned their new conquest with magnificent build ings ; but those monuments had been erected at the expense of the people, and were abhorred as badges of slavery. The apprehension of a revolt had inspired the most rigorous pre- cautions : oppression had been aggravated by insult, and the consciousness of the public hatred had been productive of every measure that could render it still more implacable. We have already remarked the intolerant spirit of the Magian religion. The statues of the deified kings of Armenia, and the sacred images of the sun and moon, were broke in pieces by the zeal of the conqueror ; and the perpetual fire of Ormuzd was kin- dled and preserved upon an altar erected on the summit of Mount Bagavan.^^ It was natural, that a people exasperated by so many injuries, should arm with zeal in the cause of their independence, their religion, and their hereditaiy sovereign. The torrent bore down every obstacle, and the Persian gar- risons retreated before its fury. The nobles of Armenia flew to the standard of Tiridates, all alleging their past merit, ofTe" ing their future service, and soliciting from the new king those honors and rewards from which they had been excluded with disdain under the foreign government.^^ The command of the army was bestowed on Artavasdes, whose father had saved the infancy of Tiridates, and whose family had been mas- sacred for that generous action. The brother of Artavasdes obtained the government of a province. One of the first mili- tary dignities was conferred on the satrap Otas, a man of singular temperance and fortitude, who presented to the king his sister^" and a considerable treasure, both of which, in a sequestered fortress, Otas had preserved from violation. Among the Armenian nobles appeared an ally, whose fortunes ** Moses of Chorene. Hist. Armcn. 1. ii. c. 74. The statues had been erected by Valarsaces, who reigned in Armenia about 130 yoarsj before Christ, and was the first king of the family of Arsaccs, (see Moses, Hist. Armen. 1. ii. 2, 3.) The deitication of the Arsacides is mentioned by Justin, (.vli. 5,) and by Anmii mus Marcellinus, (xxxiii. 6.) ** The Armenian nobility was numerous and powerful. Moses mentions many families which were distinguishea under the reign 5f Valarsaees, (1. ii. 7,) and which still subsisted in his own time, about the middle of the fifth century. See the preface of hi* Editors. " She was named Chosroiduchta, and had not the oa patulum 'ika OF THE ROMATl E.IPIRE. 421 Hie too remarkable to pass unnoticed. His name was Mamgo,t Ins origin was Scythian, and the horde which aclcnowlefiged his authority had encamped a very few years before on the skirts of the Chinese empire,-''^ which at that time extended as far as the neighborhood of Sogdiana.-''^ Having incurred the displeasure of his master, Mamgo, with his followers, retired to tlie banks of the Oxus, and implored the protection of Sapor. Tiie emperor of China claimed the fugitive, and alleged the rights of sovereignty. The Persian niv^narch pleaded the laws of hospitality, and with some difTicu'ty avoided a war, by the promise that he would banish IMatngo to tiie uttermost parts of the West, a punishment, as he de- scribed it, not less dreadful than death itself. Armenia was otlier women. (Hist. Armcn. 1. ii. c. 79.) I'do not understand th« expression.* '" [n Itic Armenian Histnrv, (L ii. 78,) a.s well as in the Geography, (p. 307,) (.'iiina is called Zeiiia, or Zeiiastan. It is ctiaracterizetl by the protluction of silk, by the opulence of the natives, and by their love of peace, above all the otlier nations of the earth. J ^'^ Vou-ti, tlie first eni|)eror of th(> seventh dynasty, who then reijrned in Cliina, had political transactions with FeruMiia, a province of Sog- diana. and is said to have received a lioni.m enil)assy, (Histoire des Huns, toni. i. p. 88.) In those ages the (Chinese kept a garrison at Kasligar, and oiu- of their generals, about the time of Trajan, marched as far as the ('as])ian iSea. With regard to the intercourse between Chhia and the western countries, a curious memoir of M. de (iuignea may be consulted, in the Academic des Inscriptions, torn, x.xii. j). oo5.^ * Os patulu'n signifies merely a large and widely opening mouth. Ovid (Metain. xv. 513) «ays, speaking of the monster who attacked Hippolytus, pntulo partem maris evoniit ore. Probably a wide mouth was a commoa defect among the Armenian women. — G. t .Manigo (acconling to M. St. Martin, note to Le Beau, Ii. 21.3) belonged t') t!u^ imperial race of Hon, who had filled the throne of China for four hundred years. Dethrmied by the u.mpare Mem. sur rArmenie, ii. 25. — .M. J See St. Martin, Mem. sur I'Armenie, i. 30-}. \ I'lie Chini'se .'\inials mention, under the ninth year of Yan-hi, whicL coriespoeds with tlie year Itjti .1. C, an embassy which arrivei' from 'l'a-th>in, iri I was sent liy a [a'ince called An-thun, W!io c.-ni be no other than Alarcui Aurelius An'oniniis, who th'^n ruled over the Romans. St. Martin. M^m. .on- rArmenie, ii. 30. See also Klaproth. Tableaux Hi'itori'jues de I'Asie ». 09 The embassy ciiiue by )v-ui n, Tonquin. — M. 422 THE DECLINE AND FALL chosan for the place of exile, and a large district was* assigned to the Scythian horde, on which they might feed their flocks and herds, and remove their encampment from one place to another, according to the different seasons of the year. They were employed to repel the invasion of Tiridates ; but their leader, after weighing the obligations and injuries which he had received from the Persian monarch, resolved to abandon his party. The Armenian prince, who was well acquainted with the merit as well as power of Mamgo, treated him with distinguished respect ; and, by admitting him into his confi- dence, acquired a brave and faithful servant, who contributed very effectually to his restoration.*'" For a while, fortune appeared to favor the enterprising valor of Tiridates. He not only expelled the enemies of his family and country from the whole extent of Armenia, but in the prosecution of his revenge he carried his arms, or at least his incursions, into the heart of Assyria. The historian, who has preserved the name of Tiridates from oblivion, celebrates, with a degree of national enthusiasm, his personal prowess ; and, in the true spirit of eastern romance, describes the giants and the elephants that fell beneath his invincible arm. It is from other information that we discover the distracted state of the Persian monarchy, to which the kmg of Armenia was indebted for some part of his advantages. The throne was disputed by the ambition of contending brothers ; and Hormuz, after exerting without success the strength of his own party, had recourse to the dangerous assistance of the barbarians who inhabited the banks of the Caspian Sea.*>i The civil war was, liowever, soon terminated, either by a victory or by a leconciliation ; and Narses, who was universally acknowledged as king of Persia, directed his whole force against the foreign enemy. The contest then became loo unequal ; nor was the valor of the hero aTjle to withstand the power of the monarch. Tiridates, a second time expelled from the throne of Armenia, ** See Hist. Armon. 1. ii. c. 81. •• Ipsos Persas ipsuraque Regem ascitis Saccis, et Russis, et Gollis petit frater Ormies. Panegyric. Vet. iii. 1. The Saccaewere a nation of wandering Scythians, who encamped towards the sources of the Oxus and the Jaxartes. The Gclli were the inhabitants of Ghilan, along the Caspian Sea, and who so long, under the name of Dilemites, infested the Persian monarchy. Se3 d'llcrbdot, Biliothcqae Ori Gntale. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 423 once more took refuge in. the court of the empeiiors.* Nurses soon reestablished his authority over the revolted province , and loudly complaining of the protection afforded by tht Romans to rebels and fugitives, aspired to the conquest of the East.62 Neither prudence nor honor could permit the emperors to forsake the cause of the Armenian king, and it was resolved to exert the force of the empire in the Persian war. Diocletian, with the calm dignify which he constantly assumed, fixed his own station in the city of Antioch, from whence he prepared and directed the military opcrations.*^^ fhe conduct of the legions was intrusted to the intrepid valor of Galerius, who, for that important purpose, was removed from the banks of the Danube to those of the Eluphratcs. The armies soon encoun- tered each other in the plains of Mesopotamia, and two battles were fought with various and doubtful success ; but the third engagement was of a more decisive nature ; and the Roman army received a total overthrow, which is attributed to the rashness of Galerius, who, with an inconsiderable body of troops, attacked the innumerable host of the Persians. ^4 But the consideration of the country that was the scene of action may suggest another reason for his defeat. The same ground on which Galerius was vanquished, had been rendered mem- orable by the death of Crassus, and the slaughter of ten legions. It was a plain of more than sixty miles, which extended from the hills of Carrhae to the Euphrates ; a smooth and barren surface of sandy desert, without a hillock, without *^ Moses of Chorene takes no notice of this second revolution, which I have been obliged to collect from a passage of Ammianua Marcellinus, (1. xxiii. c. 5.) Lactantius speaka of the ambition of Narses : " Concitatus domcsticis excmplis avi sui Saporis ad occupan- dura orientcm magnis copiis inhiabat." Dc Mort. Persecut. c. 9. *' We may readily believe, that Lactantius ascribes to cowardice the conduct of Diocletian. Julian, in hw oration, says, that he remained with all the forces of the empire ; a very hyperbolical expression. ** Our five abbrcNaators, Eutropius, Festus, the two Victors, and Orosius, all relate the last and great battle ; but Orosius is the only one who speaks of the two former. • M. St. Martin represents this differently. Le roi de Perse • • * profito d'un voyage que Tiridate avoit fait :'i Rome pour attaqucr ce rovaume. This reads like the evasion of the national historians to disguise t!ho fact li»creditable to their hero, bee Mem. but I'Armenie, i. 304. — M. 124 THE DECLINt AND FALL a tree, and without a spring of fresh water.^^ The steady nifantry of the Romans, fainting with heat and thirst, could neitlier hope for victory if they preserved their ranks, nor break their ranks without exposing tliemselves to the most imminent danger. In this situation they were gradually encompassed by the superior numbers, harassed by ♦he rapid evolutions, and destroyed by the arrows of the barbarian cav- alry. The king of Armenia had signalized his valor in the battle, and acquired personal glory by the public misfortune He was pursued as ftii as the Euphrates ; his horse was wounded, and it appeared impossible for him to escape tho victorious enemy. In this extremity, Tiridates embraced the only refuge which he saw before him : he dismounted and olunged into the stream. His armor was heavy, the river very deep, and at those parts at least half a mile in breadth ;6S vet such was his strength and dexterity, that he reached in safety the opposite bank.'"'' With regard to the Roman gen- eral, we are ignorant of the circumstances of his escape ; but when he returned to Antioch, Diocletian received him, not with the tenderness of a friend and colleague, but with the indignation of an offended sovereign. The haughtiest of men, clothed in his purple, but humbled by the sense of his fault and misfortune, was obliged to follow the emperor's chariot above a mile on foot, and to exhibit, before the whole court, the spectacle of his disgrace.^^ As soon as Diocletian had indulged his private resentment, and asserted the majesty of supreme power, he yielded to ihe submissive entreaties of the Csesar, and permitted him to retrieve his own honor, as well as that of the Roman arms. [n the room of the unwarlike troops of Asia, which had most probably served in the first expedition, a second army was drawi. from the veterans and new levies of the Illyrian fron- tier, and a considerable body of Gothic auxiliaries were taken "** Tho nature of the country is finely described hy Plutarch, in the life of Crassus ; and by Xcnophon, in the first book of the Anabasis. *> See Foster's Dissertation in the second volume of the tianslation of the Anabasis by Spelman ; which I will venture to recommend aa one of the best versions extant. *' Hist. Armcn. 1. ii. c. 76. I have transferred this exploit of Tiri- dates from an imaginary defeat to the real one of Galcrius. ••* Ammian. MarceUin. 1. xiv. The mile, in the hands of Eutro- pius, (Lx. 24,) of Fcstus, (c. 25.) and of Orosius, (viL 25,) easily increased to several miles. OF THE ROMAN EMI IRE. 425 into tlie Imperial pay.^s At the head of a chosen army of Iwenty-five thousand men, Galerius again passed the Eu- phrates ; but, instead of exposing his legions in the opec plains of Mesopotamia, he advanced tlirough tiie mountains of Armenia, where he found the inhabitants devoted to his cause and the country as favorable to the operations of infantry as it was inconvenient for the motions of cavalry."" Adversity had confirmed the Roman discipline, while the barbarians, elated by success, were become so negligent and remiss, that in the moment when they least expected it, they were surprised by the active conduct of Galerius, w ho, attended only by two horsemen, had with his own eyes secretly exammed the state and position of their camp. A surprise, especially in the night time, was for the most part fatal to a Persian army " Their horses were tied, and generally shackled, to prevent their running away ; and if an alarm happened, a Persian had his housing to fix, his horse to bridle, and his corselet to put on, before he could mount." 'i On this occasion, the impetuous attack of Galerius spread disorder and dismay over the camp of the barbarians. A slight resistance was followed by o dreadful carnage, and, in the general confusion, the wounded monarch (for Narses commanded his armies in person) fled towards the deserts of Media. His sumptuous tents, and those of his satraps, afforded an immense booty to the conqueror and an incident is mentioned, which proves the rustic but martial ignorance of the legions in the elegant superfluities of life. A bag of shining leather, filled with pearls, fell into the hands of a private soldier ; he carefully preserved tlie bag but he threw away its contents, judging that whatever was of no use could not possibly be of any value."- The principa loss of Narses was of a much more affecting nature. Severa of his wives, his sisters, and children, who had attended the army, were made captives in the defeat. But though the character of Galerius had in general very little aflinitv with that of Alexander, he imitated, after his victory, the amiablt ** Aurelius Victor. Jornandes cle Rebus Goticis, c. 21. '"' Aurelius Victor says, " Per Armeniam in hostes contcndit, quae ferme sola, scu facilior vincendi via est." He followed the conduct of Trajan, and the idea of Julius Caesar. " Xenophrvn's Anabasis, 1. iii. For that reason the Persian cavalry encamped sixty stadia from the enemy. ^^ 'I'hc story is told by Ammianus, 1. zxii. Instead of saccitm, eoin* read scutum. 21 42b THE DECLINE AKD FALL behivior of the Macedonian towards the family of ^ Darius. The wives and children of Narses were protected from vio« lence and rapine, conveyed to a place of safety, and treated whh every mark of respect and tenderness, that was due from a generous enemy to tlieir age, their sex, and their royal dignity.'''"^ While the East anxiously expected the decision of this great contest, the emperor Diocletian, having assembled in Syria a strong army of observation, displayed from a distance the resources of the Roman power, and reserved himself for any future emergency of the war. On the intelligence of the victory, he condescended to advance towards the frontier, with a view of moderating, by his presence and counsels, the pride of Galerius. The interview of the Roman princes at Nisibig was accompanied with every expression of respect on one side, and of esteem on the other. It was in that city that they soon afterwards gave audience to the ambassador of the Great King.''''* The power, or at least the spirit, of Narses, had been broken by his last defeat ; and he considered an im mediate peace as the only means that could stop the progress of the Roman arms. He despatched Apharban, a servanf who possessed his favor and confidence, with a commission tc negotiate a treaty, or rather to receive whatever conditions the conqueror should impose. Apharban opened the confer- ence by expressing his master's grathude for the generous treatment of his family, and by soliciting the liberty of those illustrious captives. He celebrated the valor of Galerius, without degrading the reputation of Narses, and thought it no dishonor to confess the superiority of the victorious Caesar, over a monarch who had surpassed in glory all the princes of his race. Notwithstanding the justice of the Persian cause, he was empowered to submit the present differences to the decision of the emperors themselves ; convinced as he was, that, in the midst of prosperity, they would not be unmindful of the vicissitudes of fortune. Apharban concluded his dis- '' The Persians confessed the Roman superiority in morals as well as in arms. Eutrop. ix. 24. liut this respect and gratitude of ene- mies is very seldom to be found in their own accounts. ^* Tlie account of the negotiation is taken from the fragments of Peter the I'atrician, in the Excerpta Legationiini, published in the Byzantine Collection. Peter lived under Justinian ; but it is very evident, by the nature of his materials, that thoy are drawn from the most authentic and respectable writers. OF THE ROMAN LMPIRE. 427 course in the style of eastern allegory, by observing that tho Roman and Persian monarchies were the two eyes of the world, which would remain imperfect and mutilated if either of thorn should be put out. " It well becomes the Persians," replied Galerius, with a transport of fury, which seemed to convulse his w hole frame, " it well becomes the Persians to expatiate on the vicissitude? of fortune, and calmly to read us lectures on the virtues of moderation. Let them remember their own moderation to- wards the unha|)py Valerian. They vanquished him by fraud, they treated him with indignity. They detained him till the last moment of his life in shameful captivity, and aftei his death they exposed his body to perpetual ignominy." Softening, however, his tone, Galerius insinuated to the am- bassador, that it had never been the practice of the Romans to trample on a prostrate enemy ; and that, on this occasion, they should consult their own dignity rather than the Persian merit. He dismissed Apharban with a hope that Narses would soon be informed on what conditions he might obtain, from the clemency of the emperors, a lasting peace, and the restoration of his wives and children. In this conference we may discover the fierce passions of Galerius, as well as his deference to the superior wisdom and authority of Diocletian. The ambition of the former grasped at the conquest of the East, and had proposed to reduce Persia into the state of a province. The prudence of the latter, who adhered to the moderate policy of Augustus and the Antonines, embraced the favorable opportunity of terminating a successful war by an honorable and advantageous peace."^ In pursuance of their promise, the emperors soon afterwards appointed Sicorius Probus, one of their secretaries, to acquaint tiie Persian court with xhc'w final resolution. As the minister of peace, he was received with every lijark of politeness and friendship ; but, under the pretence of allowing liim the necessary repose after so long a journey, the audience of Probus was deferred from day to day ; and he attended the slow motions of the king, till at length he was admitted to hi.? presence, near the River Asprudus in Media. The secret motive of Narses, in this delay, had been to collect such a '* Adeo victor (says Aurclius) \it ni Valerius, cujus nutu oniniii ^erfibantur, abnuissct, Ilomani fa^ices in provinciam novara t'errentur- Verum pars terrarum tamcn nobis utilior qutesita. 428 THE DECLII^E AND FALL military force as might enable him, though sincerely desirous of peace, to negotiate with the greater weight and dignity. Three persons only assisted at this important conference, the minister Apharban, the pra^fect of the guards, and an officer who had commanded on the Armenian frontier.''^ The first conditior. proposed by the ambassador is not at present of a very intel- ligible nature ; that the city of Nisibis might be established for the place of mutual exchange, or, as we should formerly havt termed h, for the staple of trade, between the two empires. There is no difficulty in conceiving the intention of the Roman princes to improve their revenue by some restraints upor commerce ; but as Nisibis was situated within their owr dominions, and as they were masters both of the imports anc exports, it should seem that such restraints were the objects of an internal law, rather than of a foreign treaty. To render them more effectual, some stipulations were probably required on the side of the king of Persia, which appeared so very repugnant either to his interest or to his dignity, that Narses could not be persuaded to subscribe them. As this was the only article to which he refused his consent, it was no longer insisted on ; and the emperors either suffered the trade to flow m its natural channels, or contented themselves with such restrictions, as it depended on their own authority to establish. As soon as this difficulty was removed, a solemn peace was concluded and ratifi(;d between the two nations. The condi- tions of a treaty so glorious to the empire, and so necessary to Persia, may deserve a more peculiar attention, as the history of Rome presents very few transactions of a similar nature ; most of her wars having either been terminated by absolute conquest, or waged against barbarians ignorant of the use of letters. I. The Aboras, or, as it is called by Xenophon, the Araxes, was fixed as the boundary between the two mon- archies.'^' That river, which rose near the Tigris, was ^^ He had been governor of Sumium,* (Pet. Patric us in Excerpt. I/egat. p. 30.) This province seems to be mcntionca by Moses of Chorcne, (Geograph. p. 3()0,) and hiy to the east of Mount Ararat. " By an error of the geographer Ptolemy, the position of Singara is removed from the Aboras to the Tigris, which may have produced the mistake of Peter, in assigning the latter river for the boundary, • The Siounikh of the Armenian writers. St Martin, Mem. »«i I'Al meme, i. 142. — M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 429 increased, a few miles below Nisibis, by the little stiearu of tbe Mygdonius, passed under the walls of Sin^^ara, and fell into the Euphrates at Circesiuin, a frontier town, which, by the care of Diocletian, was very strongly fortitied."** Meso- potamia, the object of so many wars, was ceded to the empire ; and the Persians, by this treaty, renounced all pretensions to (hat great province. II. They reliiKjuished to the Romans five provinces beyond the Tigris.^^ Their situation formed a very useful barrier, and their natural strength was soon improved by art and military skill. Four of these, to the north of the river, were districts of obscure fame and incon- siderable extent ; Intilinc, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and Mox- oene ; t but on the east of the Tigris, the empire acquired the large and mountainous territory of Carduene, the ancient seat J instead of the former. The line of the Roman frontier traversed, but never followed, the course of the Tigris.* '* Procopius de Editiciis, 1. ii. c. 6. " Three of the provinces, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and Carduene, are allowed on all sides. But instead of the other two, Peter (in Excerpt. Leg. p. 30) inserts Rehimeue and Sophone. I have preferred Am- mianus, (1. xxv. 7,) because it mignt bo proved that Sophcne was never in the hands of the Persians, cither before the reign of Diocle- tian, or after that of Jovian. For want of correct maps, like those of M. d'Anville, almost all the moderns, with Tillomont and Valesius at their head, have imagined, that it was in respect to Persia, and not to Rome, that the live provinces were situate beyond the Tigris. • There arc here several errors. Gibbon has confounded the streams and the towns which they pass. The Aboras, or rather the Chaboras, tlie Araxes of Xenophon, has its source above Kas-Ain or Rc-Saina, (Theodo- siopolis,) about twenty-seven leagues from the Tigris ; it receives the waters ot' the Mygdonius, or Saocoras, about thirty-three leagues below Nisibis, ;it a town now called Al Nahraini ; it does not pass under the walla of Sinjjara ; it is the Saocoras that waslies the walls of that town : the latter river has its source near Nisibis, at five leagues from the Tigris. Sec D'Anv. I'Euphrate et le Tigrc, 4(5, 49, 50, and the map. To the cast of the Tigris is another less considerable river, namtd also .he Cliaboras, which U'Anville calls the Centrites, Khabour, Nicephorius, without quoting the authorities on wliich he gives those names. Gibbon did not mean to speak ot this river, which does not ])ass by Singara, and docs not fall into tlie Euphrates. See Michaelis, Supp. ad Lex. Ilebraica, 3d part, p. (561, 06.5. — G. t Sec St. Martin, note on Le Beau, i. 380. He would read, for Intiline, IngeU'uic, tlie name of a small province of Armenia, near the sources of the Tigi is, mentioned l)y St. Epiphanius, (Ha-res, 60 ;) for the unknown name jVrzacei.e, with Gibbon, Arzanene. These jiroviuces do not appear tr have made an integral part of tlie Roman empire ; Roman garrisons replaced those of Persia, but the sovereignty remained in tlie hands of the feudatory orinces of Armenia. A prince of Carduene, ally or dependent on the empir», with the Roman name of Joviauus, occurs iu the reigu oi Julian. — M. 136 THE DECLINE AND FALL of tne (Jarduchians, who preserved for many ages their manly freedom in the heart of the despotic monarchies of Asia. The ten thousand Greeks traversed theii country, after a painful march, or rather engagement, of se/en days; and it is confessed by their leader, in his incomparable relation of the retreat, that they suffered more from the arrows of the Carduchians, than from the'power of the Great King.^*^ Their posterity, the Curds, with very little alteration either of name or manners,* acknowledged the nominal sovereignty of the Turk- ish sultan. III. It is almost needless to observe, that Tiridates, the faithful ally of Rome, was restored to the throne of hia fathers, and that the rights of the Imperial supremacy were fully asserted and secured. The limits of Armenia were extended as far as the fortress of Sintha in Media, and this increase of dominion was not so much an act of liberality as of justice. Of the provinces already mentioned beyond the Tigris, the four first had been dismembered by the Parthians from the crown of Armenia ;8i and when the Romans acquired the possession of them, they stipulated, at the expense of the usurpers, an ample compensation, which invested their allv with the extensive and fertile country of Atropatene. Its principal city, in the same situation perhaps . as the modern Tauris, was frequently honored by the residence of Tiridates ; and as it sometimes bore the name of Ecbatana, he imitated, in the buildings and fortifications, the splendid capital of the Medes.^^ IV. The country of Iberia was barren, its inhabit- ants rude and savage. But they were accustomed to the use of arms, and they separated from the empire barbarians much fiercer and more formidable than themselves. The narrow defiles of Mount Caucasus were in their hands, and it was in their chqice, either to admit or to exclude the wandering tribes ^'^ Xcnophon's Anabasis, 1. iv. Their bows were throe cubits in Icngtli, their arrows two ; they rolled down stones that were each a wa;^ou load. The Greeks found a great many villages in that rude country. *- According to Eutropius, (vi. 9, as the text is represented by the best MSS.,) the city of Tigranocerta was in Arzancne. The namea and situation of the other three may bo faintly traced. '^-' Compare Herodotus, 1. i. c. 97, with Moses Choronens. Hist Avmcn. 1. ii. c. 84, and the map of Armenia given by his editors. • I IravcUcd through this country in 1810, and should judge, from what I hav« .cad aiul st-cu of its inhabitants, that they have remained iiiu-hanKcd m their apijcarance and character for more than twenty ceiituifles. Mal- colm, note to Hist, of Persia, vol. i. p. 82. — M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 431 of Sarmatia, whenever a rapacious spirit urgcil tlicni to i>ene- trate into tlie richer climes of the South.^^ Tlic nomination of the kings of Iberia, which was resigned by the Persian monarch to the emperors, contributed to the strength and Becurity of the Roman power in Asia-^"! The East enjoyed a profound tranquillity during forty years ; and the treaty between the rival monarchies was strictly observed till the death of Tiridates; when a new generation, animated with difl'erenl views and dltferent passions, succeeded to the government of the world ; and the grandson of Narses undertook a long and memorable war against thd princes of the house of Con- stantino. The arduous work of rescuing the distressed empire from tyrants and barbarians had now been completely achieved by a succession of Illyrian peasants. As soon as Diocletian entered into the twentieth year of his reign, he celebrated tha^ memorable tera, as well as the success of his arms, by the ()omp of a Roman triumph.^'' Maximian, the equal partner of his power, was his only companion in the glory of that day. The two Caesars had fought and conquered, but the merit of their exploits was ascribed, according to the rigor of ancient maxims, to the auspicious influence of their fathers and emperors.^'' The triumpli of Diocletian and Maximian was less magnificent, perhaps, than those of Aurelian and IVobus, but it was dignified by several circumstances of supe- rior fame and good fortune. Africa and Britain, the Rhine, ♦he Danube, and the Nile, furnished their respective trophies; out the most distinguished ornament was of a more singular nature, a Persian victory followed by an important conquest. The representations of I'ivers, mountains, and provinces, were carried before the Imperial car. The images of thp captive wives, the sisters, and the children of the Great King, afibrded a new and grateful spectacle to the vanity of the people.^'' *' Hibcri, locorum potentcs, Caspia via Sarmatam in Anucnioa raptim ofi'undunt. Tacit. Annal. vi. 34. See Strabon. Geograpli. L xi. p. 764, [edit. Casaub.] *• Peter Patricias (in Excerpt. Leg. p. 30) is the only writer who mentions the Iberian article of the treaty. ** Eusob. in Chron. I'a^i ad annum. Till the discovery of tho treatise De Mortibus Persecutornni, it was not certain that the tnumph and the Vicennalia vere celebrated at the same tijne. ** At the time of the Vicennalia, Galcrius seems to have kept hia •tation on the Danube. See Lactant. do M. P. r. 38. "' Eutropius (ix. 27) mentions tliom as a par. of the triumph. A* 432 THE DECLINE AND FALL in Ihe eyes of posterity, this trminph is remarkaole, by a distinction of a less honorable kind. It was the last thal| Rome ever beheld. Soon after this period, the emperors ceased to vanquish, and Rome ceased to be the capital of the empire. The spot on which Rome was founded had been conse- crated by ancient ceremonies and imaginary miracles. T'^e presence of some god, or the memory of some hero, seemed to animate every part, of the city, and the empire of the world had been promised to the Capitol.^^ The native Romans felt and confessed the power of this agreeable illusion. It was derived from their ancestors, had grown up with their earliest habits of life, and was protected, in some measure, by the opinion of political utility. The form and the seat of govern- ment were intimately blended together, nor was it esteemed possible to transport the one without destroying the other.^^ But the oo'/ereignty of the capital was gradually annihilated in the exton* of conquest ; the provinces rose to the same level, and th^ vanquished nations acquired the name and privileges, without xmbibing the partial affections, of Romans. During a long period, however, the remains of the ancient constitu- tion, and the influence of custom, preserved the dignity of Rome. The emperors, though perhaps of African or Illyrian extraction, respected their adopted country, as the seat of their power, and the centre of their extensive dominions. The emergencies of war very frequently required their presence on the frontiers ; but Diocletian and Maximian were the first Roman princes who fixed, in time of peace, their ordinary residence in the provinces ; and their conduct, however it might be suggested by private motives, was justified by very specious'considerations of policy. The court of the emperor of the West was, for the most part, established at Milan, whose situation, at the foot of the Alps, appeared far more conve- thc persona had been restored to Narses, nothing more than their images could be exhibited. "* Livj- gives us a speech of Caraillus on that subject, (v. 51 — 55,) tUll of eloquence and sensibility, in opposition to a design of remov- ing the seat of government from liome to the neighboring city of Veu. ** Julius Caesar was reproached with the intention of removing the empire to Ilium or Alexandria. See Sueton. in Cajsar. c. 79. Ac- cording to the ingenious conjecture of Le Fcvre and Dacier, the third ode of the third book of Horace was intended to divert Aygus-- tus from the execution of a similar desijzn. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 433 nient than tl);it of Rome, for the important purpose of watch- ing the motions of the barbarians of Germany. Milan soon assumed the splendor of an Imperial city. The houses are described as niunerous and well built; the manners of the people as polished and liberal. A circus, a theatre, a mint, a palace, baths, which bore the name of their founder Maxim- ian ; porticos adorned with statues, and a double circumfer- enc^e of walls, contributed to the beauty of the new capital ; nor did it seem oppressed even by the proximity of Rome.^" To rival the majesty of Rome was the ambition likewise of Diocletian, who employed his leisure, and the wealth of the East, in the embellishment of Nicomedia, a city placed on the verge of Europe and Asia, almost at an equal distance between the Danube and the Euphrates. By the taste of the monarch, and at the expense of the j)eople, Nicomedia acquired, in the space of a few years, a degree of magnifi- cence which might appear to have required the labor of ages, and became inferior only to Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, in extent of populousness.'-" The life of Diocletian and Max- imian was a life of action, and a considerable portion of it was spent in camps, or in tlieir long and frequent marches ; but whenever the public business allowed them any relaxation, they seemed to have retired with pleasure to their favorite residences of N-comcdia and Milan. Till Diocletian, in the twentieth year of his reign, celebrated his Roman triumph, it is extremely doubtful whether he ever visited the ancient capital of the empire. Even on that memorable occasion his slay did not exceed two months. Disgusted with the licentious familiarity of the people, he quitted Rome with precipitation thirteen days before it was expected that he should have ** See Aurclius Victor, who likewise mentions the buildings erect- ed by Maxiniian at Carthui^e, probably dming the Moorisli war. W» ■^all insert some verses of Ausouius dc (Jlar. Urb. v. Et Meiliolniii mini oiiiiiia : cupia reruin ; IniiiiiiieriL' iiilt;i.i]iii- iluiiuis ; lacimda virirum liiL'fiiia, ft iiicircs lifti : turn (|ii|ilice iiiiiin Aiii|ilitii:ata I ici spiTJes ; |iriis uriiata Prnstjla sijiniaj iMuM'ia<|iU' ill valli rtiriiiaiii iiniiiiiil ila labro, (liiiiiia ijiui! iiiaL'iiis tablis.hmcnt, they each consisted of six thousand men. They had iiciinircd niutli reputation by the use of the plumhatcv, or darts loaded with lead. Each soldier carried ti%'e of these, which ho darted from a considerable distance, with great strength luid dexteri- ty. See Vegetius, i. 17. ** See the Theodosian Code, 1. vi. tit. ii. with Godefroy's com.xicn- tary. "" See the 1 2th dissertation in Spanhcim's excellent work de Usu Nuaiismatnm. From medals, inscriptions, and historians, lie examines every title se[!arately, and traces it from Augustus to the moment of ita disappearing. 436 THE DECLINE ANI> FALL Still iisiinguished their hif^h station by the appellation of Emperor, or Imperator, that word was understood in a new and more dignified sense, and no longer denoted the genera. of the Roman armies, but the sovereign of the Roman world. The name of Emperor, which was at first of a military nature, was associated with another of a more servile kind. The epithet of Dominus, or Lord, in its primitive signification, waa expressive, not of the authority of a prince over his subjects, or of a commander over his soldiers, but of the despotic power of a master over his domestic slaves.^^ Viewing it in that odious light, it had been rejected with abhorrence by the first CcBsars. Their resistance insensibly became more feeble, and the name less odious ; till at length the style of our Lord and Emperor was not only bestowed by flattery, but was regularly admitted into the laws and public monuments. Such lofty epithets were sufficient to elate and satisfy the most excessive vanity ; and if the successors of Diocletian still declined the title of King, it seems to have been the efft;ct not so much of their moderation as of their delicacy. Wherever the Latin tongue was in use, (and it was the language of gov- ernment throughout the empire,) the Imperial title, as it was peculiar to themselves, conveyed a more respectable idea than the name of king, which they must have shared with a hun- dred barbarian chieftains ; or which, at the best, they could derive only from Romulus, or from Tarquin. But the senti- ments of the East were very different from those of the West. From the earliest period of history, the sovereigns of Asia had been celebrated in the Greek language by the title of Basileus, or King ; and since it was considered as the first distinction among men, it was soon employed by the servile provincials of the East, in their humble addresses to the Roman throne.^^ Even the attributes, or at least the titles, of the Divinity, were usurped by Diocletian and Maximian, who transmitted them to a succession of Christian emperors.'"^ ®* Pliny (in Panegyr. c. 3, 55, &c.) speaks of Doyninm with cxocra- tion, as synonymous to Tyrant, and opposite to I'rince. And the >ame Pliny rcgul^ily gives that title (in the tenth book of the ejjistlesl to his friend rather than master, the virtuous Trajan. This strange contradiction p'uzslcs the commentators, who think, and the transla- tors, who can write. •* Synesius de Ttegno, edit. Petav. p. 15. I am indebted for thi* quotation to the Abb6 dc la Bletcrie. "* Sec Vandale de Consecrationc, p. 354. &c. It was customary fw OF THt KOMAN EMPIRE. 431 Such extravagant compliments, however, soon lose their impiety by losing their meaning; and when the ear is onco iiconsiomed to tlie sound, they are lioard with indiffererxe, as vague tliough excessive professions of respect. From the time of Augustus to that of Diocletian, the Roman piinces, conversing in a familiar manner among their fellow- citizens, were saluted only with the same respect that wa? usually paid to senators and magistrates. Their principal distinction was the Imperial or niilitary robe of purple ; whilst the senatorial garment was marked by a broad, and the eques- trian by a narrow, band or stripe of the same honorable color. Th(! pride, or rather the policy, of Diocletian, engaged that artful ])rince to introduce the stately magnificence of the court of I'ersia.i"* He ventured to assume the diadem, an ornament detested by the Romans as the odious ensign of royalty, and the use of which had been considered as the most desperate act of the madness of Caligula. It was no more than a broad white fillet set with pearls, which encircled the emperor's the emperors to mention (in the preamble of laws) their }iumen, sacred majesty, dioine oracles, &c. According to Tillcmont, Gregory Nazinn- zen complains most bitterly of the profanation, especially when it was practised by an Arian emperor.* '"' See Spanheim de Usu Numismat. Dissert, xii. • In the time of the republic, says Hegewisch, when the consuls, the prffitors, and the other inatjistrates ai)[)eare(l in |)ubllc, to perform the functions of their office, their dignity was announced botli tiy th<' syinltols which use had consecrated, and the brilliant cort.ge by which thcv were accompanied. But this dignity belonged to the office, not to the indi- vidual ; this pomp belonged to the magistrate, not to the man. * * The consul, followed, in the comitia, by all the senate, the pra-tors, the quajs- tors, the asdiles, the lictors, the apparitors, and the heralds, on re<'ntering his house, was served only by freedmen and by his slaves The first emperors went no further. Tiberius had, for his personal attendance, only a moderate number of slaves, and a few freedmen. (Tacit. Ann. iv. 7.) IJut in proportion as the republican forms disappeared, one after another, the inclination of the emperors to environ themselves with personal jjoni)), displayed itself more and more. * * The magnificence and the ceremonial of the East were entirely introduced by Diocletian, and were consecrated by Constantine to the Imperial use. 'Thenceforth the palace, the court, the table, all the personal attendance, distintruished the emperor from his •ubjects, still more than his superior dignity. The organir.ation wiuoh Diocletian gave to his new court, attached less lionor and distinction to tank than to services performed towards the members of the Imp'.riiU family. Ilegewisch, Essai, Hist, sur les Finances Romains. Few historians have characterized, in a moie philosophic manner, tht influence of a new institution. — G. It is singular that the son of a slave reduced the haughty arltlocracv of Rome to the offices of ser itude. — M. 438 THE DE'LINE AND FAf.L head. The sun ptuous robes of DiocUstian and his successors were of silk and gold ; and it is remarked with indignation, that even their shoes were studded with the most precious gems. The access to their sacred person was every day ren- dered more difficult by the institution of new forms and cere- monies. The avenues of the palace were strictly guarded tv the various schools, as they began to be called, of domestic officers. The interior apartments were intrusted to the jealous vigilance of the eunuchs, the increase of whose numbers and influence was the most infallible symptom of the progress of despotism. When a subject was at length admitted to the Imperial presence,' he was obliged, whatever might be his rank, to fall prostrate on the ground, and to adore, according to the eastern fashion, the divinity of his lord and master.i"=^ Diocletian was a man of sense, who, in the course of private as well as public life, had formed a just estimate both of him- self and of mankind : nor is it easy to conceive, that in substituting the manners of Persia to those of Rome, he wa-^ seriously actuated by so mean a principle as that of vanity. He flattered himself, that an ostentation of splendor and luxury would subdue the imagination of the multitude ; that the monarch would be less exposed to the rude license of the [)eople and the soldiers, as his person was secluded from the public view ; and that habits of submission would insensibly be productive of sentiments of veneration. Like the modesty aflected by Augustus, the state maintained by Diocletian was a theatrical representation ; but it must be confessed, that of the two comedies, the former was of a much more liberal and manly character than the latter. It was the aim of the one to disguise, and the object of the other to display, the unbounded power which the emperors possessed over the Roman world. Ostentation was the first principle of the new system insti- tuted by Diocletian. The second was division. He divided the empiie, the provinces, and every branch of the civil as well as military administration. He multiplied the wheels ii, that the two elder princes should be distinguished by the Li.>e of the diadem, and the title of Augusli ; that, as aOection or esteem might direct their choice, they should regularly call to their assistance two subordinate colleagues ; and that the Casars, rising in their turn to the first rank, should supply an uninterrupted succession of emperors. The empire was divided into four parts. The East and Italy were the mosl honorable, the Danube and the Rhine the most laborious sta- tions. The former claimed the presence of the Augusti, the .latter were intrusted to the administration of the Ccesars. The strength of the legions was in the hands of the four part- ners of sovereignty, and the despair of successively vanquish- ing four formidable rivals might intimidate the ambition of an aspiring general. In their civil government, the emperors were supposed to exercise the undivided power of the mon- arch, and their edicts, inscribed with their joint names, were received in all the provinces, as promulgated by their mutual • councils and authority. Notwithstanding these precautions, the political union of the Roman world was gradually dis solved, and a principle of division was introduced, which, in the course of a few years, occasioned the perpetual separation of the Eastern and Western Empires. The system of Diocletian was accompanied with another very material disadvantage, which cannot even at p esent be totally overlooked ; a more expensive establishment, and con- sequently an increase of taxes, and the oppnjssion of the "" The innovations introduced by Diocletian are chiefly deduced, Ist, from some very strong passages in Lactnntius ; and, '2dly, from Ihe new and various offices wliich, in the Theodosian code, appcut xlready established in the beginning of the reign of Constantine. 440 THE UECLINE AND FALL people. Instead of a modest family of slaves und freedmeri, such as had contented the simple greatness of Augustus anQ Trajan, three or four magnificent courts were established in the various parts of the empire, and as many Roman kings contended with each other and with the Persian monarch for the vair superiority of pomp and luxury. The number of ministers, of magistrates, of officers, and of servants, who filled the different departments of the state, was multiplied beyond the example of former times ; and (if we may borrow the warm expression of a contemporary) " when the propor- tion of those who received, exceeded the proportion of thoso who contributed, the provinces were oppressed by the weight of tributes." ^^^ From this period to the extinction of the empire, it would be easy to deduce an uninterrupted series of clamors and complaints. According to his religion and situa- tion, each writer chooses either Diocletian, or Constantine, or Valens, or Theodosius, for the object of his invectives ; but they unanimously agree in representing the burden of the public impositions, and particularly the land tax and capita- tion, as the intolerable and increasing grievance of their own times. From such a concurrence, an impartial historian who is obliged to extract truth from satire, as well as from pane-* gyric, will be inclined to divide the blame among the princes whom they accuse, and to ascribe their exactions much less to their personal vices, than to the uniform systcn of their administratioii."* The emperor Diocletian was indeed the '"•» Lactant. de M. P. c. 7. * The most curious document which has come to light since the publi cation of Gibbon's History, is the edict of Diocletian, published from an inscription found at Eskihiss;"ir, (Stratoniccia,) by Col. Leake. This inscriptior was first copied by .Sherard, afterwards much more completely by Mr. Bankes. It is confirmed and illustrated by a more iuipcrfect copy of the same edict, found in the Levant by a gentleman of Aix, and brought to this country by M. Yescovali. This edict wat issued in the name of the four Cajsars, Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, and Galerius. It fixed a maximum of prices, throughout the empire, for all the necessaries and commodities of life. The preamble insists, with great vehemence, on the extortion and inhumanity of the venders and merchants. Quis enim adeo obtunisi (obtusi) poctores (is) ct a sensu inhumanitatis »-xtorris est qui ignorare potest immo non senserit in venalil)us rcl)us quie vol in incrciinoniia aguntur vel diiirna urliium conversatione tractantur, in tantum se licen- tiam defusisse, ut effra-nata liliido rapicn rum copia noc annorum uber- tatibus mitigaretur. The edict, as Col. Leake clearly shows, was issued A.. C. 303. Among the articles of which the maximum value is assessed, are oil, sa'»t, honey, butchers' meat, poultry, g ime, fish, vegetables, fruit Ihe wages of laborers and artisans, schoolmasters and orators, clotre*. OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE. 441 author of that systenj ; but during his reign, the growing ovil was confined within the bounds of modesty and discretion, and he deserves the reproach of establishing pernicious pre. cedents, rather than of exercising actual oppression.'"^ It may be aoded, that his revenues were managed with prudeni economy; and that after all the current expenses wer» di3 charged, there still remained in the Imperial treasury an ample provision either for judicious liberality or for any emer gency of the state. It was in the twenty-first year of his reign that Diocletian executed his memorable resolution of abdicating the em[)ire; an action more naturally to have been expected from the elder or the younger Antoninus, than from a prince who had never practised the lessons of philoso|)hy either in the attain- ment or in the use of supreme power. Diocletian acquired the glory of giving to the world the first example of a resig- nation, '''^ which has not been very frequently imitated by suc- ceeding monarchs. The parallel of Charles the Fifth, how- ever, will naturally offer itself to our mind, not only since the eloquence of a modern historian has rendered that name so familiar to an English reader, but from the very striking re- semblance between the characters of the two emperors, whose political abilities were superior to their military genius, and whose specious virtues were much less the effect of nature than of art. The abdication of Charles appears to have been '"* Indicta lex nova quae sane illorum teinporum modestui tolerab- ilis, in peruiciein processit. Aurel. Victor., who has treated the character of Diocletian with good sense, though in bad Latin. "* Solus omnium, post conditura Komanum Impcriura, qui ex tanto fastigio sponte ad privatte vitaj statum civilitatemque remearet Eutrop. ix. 28. skins, boots and shoes, harness, timber, corn, wine, and beer, (zythus.) The depreciation in the value of money, or the rise in the price of com- Qiodities, had been so great during the last ceiiturv, that butchers' meat, which, in the second century of the empire, was in flome about two denarii the pound, was now fixed at a maxiumm of eight. Col. Leake supposes the average price could not be less than four : at the same time the maxi- mum of the wages of tlje agricultural laborers was twenty-five. Tlie whole edict is, perhaps, the most gigantic effort of a blind though well-intcn- vloned despotism, to control that which is, and ouiiht to bs, beyond tht regulation of the government. See an Edict of Diocletian, by Col. Leake, London, 1826. Col. Leake has not observed that this Edict is expressly named in the treatise de Mort. Persecut. ch. vii. Idem cum variis iniquitatibus immeu- •am facerei caritatem, legem pretiis re- um venalium statufre conatus est 442 THE DECLINE AND FALL hastened by tlic vicissitude of fortune ; and the disappoint ment of his' favorite schemes urged him to rehnquish a power which he found inadequate to his ambition. But the reign of Diocletian had flowed with a tide of uninterrupted success ; nor was it till after he had vanquished all his enemies, and uccomplished all his desigjis, that he seems to have entertained anv serious thoughts of resigning the empire. Neither Charles nor Diocletian were arrived at a very advanced period of life ; since the one was only fifty-five, and the other was no more than fifty-nine years of age ; but the active life of those priucQS, their wars and journeys, the cares of royalty, and their application to business, had already impaired their con stitulion, and -brought on the infirmities of a premature old age. 107 Notwithstanding the severity of a very cold and rainy winter, Diocletian left Italy soon after the ceremony of his trium|)h, and began his progress towards the East round the circuit of the Illyrian provinces. From the inclemency of the weather, and the fatigue of the journey, he soon contract- ed a slow, illness ; and though he made easy marches, and was generally carried in a close Utter, his disorder, before he "arrived at Nicomedia, about the end of the summer, was become very serious and alarming. During the whole winter he was confined to his palace : his danger inspired a general and unaflected concern ; but the people could only judge of the various alterations of his health, from the joy or conster- nation which they discovered in the countenances and beha- vior of his attendants. The rumor of his death was for some time universally believed, and it was supposed to be concealed with a view to prevent the troubles that might have happened during the absence of the Caesar Galerius. At length, how- ever, on the first of March, Diocletian once more appeared in public, but so pale and emaciated, that he could scarcely have been recognized by those to whom his person was the most familier. It was time to put an end to the painful struggle. which he had sustained during more than a year, between the care of his health and that of his dignity. The former re- quired indulgence and relaxation, the latter compelled him to direct, from the bed of sickness, the administration of a greal "" Tlie particulars of the journey and illness are taken from Jak' tantius, (c. 17,) who may snmtitiines be admitted as an e\ide'icc (if public facts, though very sc-dom of private anecdotes. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 443 empire. lie resolved to pass the remainder of liis days in honorable repose, to place his glory beyond the reach of fcr- lune, and to relinquish the theatre of the world to his youngcl and more active associates.'"^ The ceremony of his abdication was performed in a spacions plain, about three miles from Nicomedia. The cm- ])er()r ascended a lol'ty throne, and in a speech, full of reason and diii;nitv, declared his intention, both to the peo[)le and to the soldiers who were assembled on this extraordinary occa- sion. As soon as he had divested himself of his purple, he Avithdrew from the crazing multitude ; and traversing the city in a covered chariot, proceeded, without delay, to the I'avorite retn-ement which he had chosen in his native country of Dal- matia. On the same day, which was the first of May,'''^ Maximian, as it had been previously concerted, made his resignation of the Imperial dignity at Milan. Even in the splendor of the Roman triumph, Diocletian had meditated his design of abdicating the government. As he wished to secure the oiiedience of Maximian, he exacted from him either a general assurance that he would submit his actions to the au- thority of his benefactor, or a particular promise that he would, descend from the throne, whenever he should receive the ad- vice and the example. This engagement, though it was con- firmed by the solemnity of an oath before the altar of the Capitoline Jupiter,"" would have proved a feeble restraint on the fierce temper of Maximian, whose passion was the love of power, and who neither desired present tranquillity nor future ""* Aurelius Victor ascribes the abdication, which had been ss variously accounted for, to two causes : 1st, Diocletian's contempt of ambition ; and 2dly, His api)rohcn.sion of impending troubles. On« of the panegyrists (vi. 9) mentions the age and infirmities of Diocle- tian as a very natural reason for his rcti emcnt.* '"^ The difficulties as will as mistakes attending the dates both oi the year and of the day of Diocletian's abdication, are ])erfectly cleared U[> by Tillomont, Hist, des Empercurs, torn. iv. p. 52u, note 19, and by Pagi ad annum. "" See Panegyr. Voter, vi. 9. The oration was pronounced after Staximian had reassumed the purple. • Constantine (^rat. ad Sanct. c. 401) move than insinuated that de- rangement of mind, connected with the conflagration of tlie palace at Nicomedia l)y lightning, was the cause of his abdication. But Ileinichen, in d very sensible note on this passage in Eusebius, while he admits that his long illness might produce a temporary depression of spirits, trium- phantly appeals to the philosophical conduct of Diocletian in his retreat, and the intiucnce which he still retained on public affairs. — M. 444 THE DECLINE AND FALL reputation. But he yielded, however reluctantly, to the as* cendant which his wiser colleague had acquired over him, and retired, immediately after his abdication, to a villa in Lucania, where it was almost impossible that such an impatient spirit could find any lasting tranquillity. Diocletian, who, I'rom a servile origin, had raised himself to the throne, passed the nine last years of his life in a private condition. Reason had dictated, and content seems to have accompanied, his retreat, in which he enjoyed, for a long time, the respect of those princes to whom he had resigned the pos- session of the world. 1^1 It is seldom that minds long e.ver- cised in business have formed the habits of conversing with themselves, and in the loss of power they principally regret the want of occupation. The amusements of letters and of de- votion, which afford so many resources in solitude, were inca- pable of fixing the attention of Diocletian ; but he had pre- served, or at least he soon recovered, a taste for the most innocent as well as natural pleasures, and his leisure hours were sufficiently employed in building, planting, and garden- ing. His answer to Maximian is deservedly celebrated. He was solicited by that restless old man to reassume the reins of government, and the Imperial purple. He rejected the temptation with a smile of pity, calmly observing, that if he could show Maximian the cabbages which he had planted with his own hands at Salona, he should no longer be urged to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power.ii^ In his conversations with his friends, he frequently acknowledged, that of all arts, the most difficult was the art vi^ reigning ; and he expressed himself on that favorite toj)ic with a degree of warmth which could be the result only of experience. " How often," was he accustomed to say, " is it the interest of four or five ministers to combine together to deceive their sovereign ! Secluded from mankind by his ex- alted dignity, the truth is concealed from his knowledge ; he can oce only with their eyes, he hears nothing but their mis« representations. He confers the most )mportant offices upon *" Eumenius pays him a very fine compliment: '*At enim divi- num ilium virum, qui primus imperium ct partfRpavit et posuit, consilii et facti sui non jja-iiitct; ucc ainisisse sc jiutat quod spouto transcripsit. Felix bcatusque verc quern vestrn, tantorum principum, colunt ob.scciuia privatum." Pane;|yr. Vet, vii. lo. "* We are obliged to the younger Victor for tliis celebrated ?M)n met. Futropius mentions tlie thing in a inoro general msnner. OF THE nOYiAN EMPIRE. 445 rice and weakness, and disgraces the most virtuous and de- aerving among his subjects. By such infamous arts," added Diocletian, "the best and wisest princes are s(jld to the venal corru[)tion of their courtiers." ''-^ A just estimate of great- ness, and the assurance of immortal fame, improve our relish for the pleasures of retirement ; but the Roman emperor had rilled too important a character in the world, to enjoy without allay the comforts and security of a private condition. It waa impossible that he could remain ignorant of the troubles which afflicted the empire after his abdication. It was imposnible that he could be indifFerent to their consequences. Fear, sorrow, and discontent, sometimes pursued him into the soli- tude of Salona. His tenderness, or at least his pride, was deeply wounded by the misfortunes of his wife and daughter ; and the last moments of Diocletian were imbittercd by some affronts, which Licinius and Constantino might have spared the father of so many emperors, and the first author of their own fortune. A report, tliough of a very doubtful nature, lias reached our times, that he prudently withdrew himself from their power by a voluntary death. i^'' Before we dismiss the consideration of the life and charac- ter of Diocletian, we may, for a moment, direct our view to the place of his retirement. Salona, a principal city of hia native province of Dalmatia, was near two hundred Roman miles (according to the measurement of the public highways) from Aquileia and the confines of Italy, and about two hun- dred and seventy from Sirmium, the usual residence of the emperors whenever they visited the Illyrian frontier.^^^ A miserable village still preserves the name of Salona ; but so late as the sixteenth century, the remaina of a theatre, and a confused prospect of broken arches and marble columns, con tinued to attest its ancient splendor.^*^ About six or seven "' Hist. August, p. 223, 224. Yopiscus had learned this convcr Satiou from his father. "■• The younger Victor slightly mentions the report. But as Dio- cletian had disobliged a powerful and successful party, his memory has been loaded with every crime and misfortune. It has been sflirmed that he died raving mad, that he was condemned as a crim- n\al by the llomun senate, &c. "* See the Itiner. p. 269, 272, edit. Wcssel. "* The Abate Fortis, in his Viaggio in Dalmazia, p. 43, (printea »t Venice in the year 1774. in two small volumes in quarto,) (quotes a MS. account of the antiquities of Salona, coirqmsod by Giajnbatlista c^iustiniani abo\it the middle of the xviih century. 446 THE DECLINE AND FALL miles from the city, Diocletian constructed a magnificem palace, and we may infer, from the greatness of the work. ho\f long he had meditated his design of abdicating the empire. The choice of a spot which united all that could contribute either to health or to luxury, did not require .'he partiality of a native. "The soil was dry and fertile, the air is pure and wholesome, and though extremely hot during the summer months, this country seldom feels those sultry and noxious winds, to which the coasts of Istria and some parts of Italy are exposed. The views from the palace are no less beautiful than the soil and climate were inviting. Towards the west lies the fertile shore that stretches along the Adriatic, in which a number of small islands are scattered in such a manner, as to give this part of the sea the appearance of a great lake. On the north side lies the bay, which led to the ancient city of Salona ; and the country beyond it, appearing in sight, forms a proper contrast to that more extensive pros- pect of water, which ihe Adriatic presents both to the south and to the east. Towards the north, the view is terminated by high and irregular mountains, situated at a proper distance, and in many places covered with villages, woods, and vine- yards. ii''' Though Constantino, from a very obvious prejudice, affects (o mention the palace of Diocletian with contempt, ^^^ yet one of their successors, who could only see it in a neglected and mutilated state, celebrates its magnificence in terms of the highest admiration. 113 It covered an extent of ground consist- ing of between nine and ten English acres. The form was quadrangular, flanked with sixteen towers. Two of the sides were near six hundred, and the other two near seven hundred feet in length. The whole was constructed of a beautiful "^ Adam's Antiquities of Diocletian's Palace at Spalatro, p. 6 We may add f . circumstance or two from the Abate Fortis : the little stream of the Hyader, mentioned by Liican, produces most exquisite trout, which a sagacious writer, perhaps a monk, supposes to have been one of the principal reasons that determined Diocletian in the choice of his retirement. Fortis, p. 45. The same author (p. 38) obsen'cs, that a taste for agriculture is reviving at Spalatro ; and that an experimental farm has lately been established near the lity, Dy a society of gentlemen. "* C'on'if»nT;n. Orat. ad Coptum Sanct. c. 25. In this sermon, the emperor, or the Diohop who composed it for him, affects to relat* the miserable enu of all th.^ persecutors of the church. "• Constantin. Porphyi^ de S atu Impcr. p. 86- OF THE ROMAN EMriRE. 447 freestone, extracted from the neighboring quarries of Trau, or Tragiitium, and very little inferior to marble itself. Four streets, intersecting each other at right angles, divided the Bcveral parts of this great edifice, and the a|)proach to the principal apartment was from a very stately entrance, which is still denominated the Golden Gate. The approach tvas terminated by a peristylium of granite columns, on one aide of which we discover the square temple of yEsculapius, or the other the octagon temple of Jupiter. The latter of those deities Diocletian revered as the patron of his fortunes, the former as the protector of his health. By comparing the present remains with the precepts of Vitruvius, the several parts of the building, the baths, bed-chamber, the atrium, the basilica, and the Cyzicene, Corinthian, and Egyptian halls have been described with some degree of precision, or at least of probability. Their forms were various, their proportions just ; but they all were attended with two imperfections, very repugnant to our modern notions of taste and conveniency. These stately rooms had neither windows nor chimneys. They were lighted from the top, (for the building seems to have consisted of no more than one story,) and they received their heat by the help of pipes that were conveyed along the walls. The range of principal apartments was protected towards the south-west by a portico five hundred and seven- teen feet long, which must have formed a very noble and delightful walk, when the beauties of painting and sculpture were added to those of the prospect. Had this magnificent edifice remained in a solitary country, it would have been exposed to the ravages of time ; but it might, perhaps, have escaped the rapacious industry of man. The village of Aspalathus,i20 and, long afterwards, the provin- cial town of Spalatro, have grown out of its ruins. The Golden Gate now opens into the market-place. St. John the Baptist has usurped the honors of iEsculapius ; and the temple of Jupiter, under the protection of the Virgin, is converted into the cathedral church. For this account of Diocletian's palace we are principally indebted to an ingenious artist of oiu owu time and country, whom a very liberal curiosity carried into '.he heart of Dalmatia.^'-^ But there is room to suspect that '•" D'Anville, Geographic Ancicnne, tCm. i. p. 162. " Messieurs Aaam and Clerisseau, attended by two craughtsmen, 448 THE DECLIN I ANk 'AI.I4 the elegance of his designs and engro ving has somewhat flat- tered the objects which it was their purpose to rejvresent. We ire informed by a more recent and very judicious traveller, that the awful ruins of Spalatro are not less expressive of the decline of the arts than of the greatness of the Roman empire in the time of Diocletian. '^^ If such was indeed the state of architecture, we must naturally believe that painting and sculpture had experienced a still more sensible decay. The practice of architecture is directed by a few general and ever mechanical rules. But sculpture, and, above all, painting, propose to themselves the imitation not only of the forms of nature, but of the characters and passions of the human soul. In those sublime arts, the dexterity of the hand is of little avail, unless it is animated by fancy, and guided by the most correct taste and observation. It is almost unnecessary to remark, that the civil distrac- tions of the empire, itie license of the soldiers, the inroads of the barbarians, and the progress of despotism, had proved very unfavorable to genius, and even to learning. The sue cession of Illyrian princes restored the empire without rested ing the sciences. Their military education was not calculat- ed to mspire them with the love of letters ; and even tho mind of Diocletian, however active and capacious in business, was totally uninformed by study or speculation. The profes- sions of law and physic are of such common use and certain profit, that they will always secure a sufficient number of practitioners, endowed with a reasonable degree o\ abilities and knowledge ; but it does not appear that the students in those two faculties appeal to any celebrated masters who have flourished within that period. The voice of poetry was silent History was reduced to dry and confused abridgments, alike destitute of amusement and instruction. A languid and alTect- ed eloquence was still retained in the pay and service of the visited Spalatro in the month of July, 1757. The magnificent work which their journty produced was published in London seven ycar-i afterwards. '■■'* I shall quote the words of the Abate Fortis. " E'bar.tevolmcntc nota agli amatori dell' Architettura, e dell' Antichita, I'opera del Signor Adams, chc a donato molto a que' supcrbi vcstigi cnW abituale eieganza vtoi .-:.c> tAfii-alajus e del bulino. In generalc la x.->zzcz7a deJ scalpollo, c'l cui'ivo gusto del socolo vi gareggiano colla u.agniiicen^B del tabricato. ■ See Viaggio in Dalmazia, p. 40. oK TnC ROMAN EMPIRE. 449 emperors, who encouraged not any arts except those which coniributed to the gratification of their pride, or the defencs .of their power.'^ The declining age of learning and of mankinu is marked however, by the rise and rapid progress of the new Platonists The school of Alexandria silenced those of Athens ; and tho tncient sects enrolled themselves under the Iranners of the more fashionable teachers, who recommended their system by the novelty of their method, and the austerity of their man ners. Several of these masters, Ammonius, Plotinus, Ame lius, and Porphyry,i24 vvere men of profound thought ana mtense application ; but by mistaking the true object of philos- ophy, their labors contributed much less to improve than to corrupt the human understanding. The knowledge that is suited to our situation and powers, ihe whole compass of moral, natural, and mathematical science, was neglected by the new Platonists; whilst they exhausted their strength in the verbal disputes of metaphysics, attempted to explore the secrets of the invisible world, and studied to reconcile Aristotle with Plato, on subjects of which both these philosophers were as Ignorant as the rest of mankind. Consuming their reason in hese deep but unsubstantial meditations, their minds were exposed to illusions of fancy. They flattered themselves that they possessed the secret of disengaging the soul from its cor- poreal prison ; claimed a familiar intercourse with demons and spirits ; and, by a very singular revolution, converted the study of philosophy into that of magic. The ancient sages liad derided the popular superstition ; after disguising its ex- travagance by the thin pretence of allegory, the disciples of Plotinus and Porphyry became its most zealous defenders. "' The orator Eumenius was secretary to the emperors Maximian and Constantius, and Professor of Rhetoric in the college of Autun. His salary was six hundred thousand sesterces, which, according to the lowest computation of that age, must have exceeded three thou- sand pounds a year. He generously requested the permission of cm- ploying it in rebuilding the college. See his Oration De llestaursjidis Scholia ; which, though not exempt from vanity, may atone for hia panegyrics. "* Porphyry died about the time of Diocletian's abdication. The life of his master Plotinus, which he composed, will give us the most complete idea of the genius of the sect, and the manners of its pro- fessors. This very curious piece is inserted in Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, torn. iv. p. 88—148. 22 450 THE DECLINE AND FALL As they agreed with the Christians in a few mysterious points of faith, hey attacked the remainder of their theological sys- tem with all the fury of civil war. The new Platonists would, scarcely deserve a place in the history of science, but in that of the church the mention of them will very frequently occur CHAPTER XIV. rt..roBLES AFTER THE ABDICATION OF DIOCLETIAN. 1 EA TH 0* CONSTANTIUS. ELEVATION OF CONSTANTINE AND MAXEN- TIIJS. SIX EMPERORS AT THE SAME TIME. DEATH O? MAXIMIAN AND GALERIUS. VICTORIES OF CONSTANTINE OVER MAXENTIUS AND LICINIUS. REUNION OF THE EMPIRE UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF CONSTANTINE. The balance of power established by Diocletian subsisted no longer than while it was sustained by the firm and dexterous hand of the founder. It required such a fortunate mixture of ditTerent tempers and abilities, as could scarcely be found or even expected a second time ; two emperors without jealousy, two Caesars without ambition, and the same general interest invariably pursued by four independent princes. The abdica- tion of Diocletian and Maximian was succeeded by eighteen years of discord and confusion. The empire was afflicted by five civil wars ; and the remainder of the time was not so much a state of tranquillity as a suspension of arms between several nostile monarchs, who, viewing each other with an eye of fear and hatred, strove to increase their respective forces al the expense of their subjects. As soon as Diocletian and Maximian had resigned the pur- ple, their station, according to the rules of the new constitu- tion, was filled by the two Caesars, Constantius and Galerius, who immediately assumed the title of Augustus.! The honors of seniority and precedence were allowed to the former of those princes, and he continued under a new appellation to administer his ancient department of Gaul, Spain, and Britain. The government of those ample prov- inces was sufficient to exercise his talents and to satisfy hia ambition. Clemency, temperance, and moderation, distin- ' M. de Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Deca- dence dcs Ilnmains, c. 17) supposes, on the authority of Orosius and Euscbius, that, on this occasion, the empire, for the first time, was realty divided into two parts. It is difhcult, however, to discover in <*hat respect the plan of Galerius differed from that of Diocletiain. 4ol 452 THE DECLINE AND FALL guished the amiable character of Constantius, and his fortu nate subjects had frequently occasion to compare the virtues of their sovereign with the passions of Maximian, and even with the arts of Diocletian.- Instead of imitating their eastern pride and magnificence, Constantius preserved the modesty of a Roman prince. He declared, with unaflected sincerity, that his most valued treasure was in the hearts of his people, and that, whenever the dignity of the throne, or the danger of tho state, required any extraordinary supply, he could depend with confidence on their gratitude and liberality.^ The provincials of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, sensible of his worth, and of their own happiness, reflected with anxiety on the declining health of the emperor Constantius, and the tender age of his numer« ous family, the issue of his second marriage with the daugh- ter of Maximian. The stern temper of Galerius was cast in a very different mould ; and while he commanded the esteem of his subjects, he seldom condescended to solicit their affections. His fame in arms, and, above all, the success of the Persian war, had elated his haughty mind, which was naturally impatient of a superior, or even of an equal. If it were possible to rely on the partial testimony of an injudicious writer, we might ascribe the abdication of Diocletian to the menaces of Galerius, and relate the particulars of a private conversation between the two princes, in which the former discovered as much pusilla- nimity as the latter displayed ingratitude and arrogance.'* But * Hie non modo amabilis, sed etiam vcnerabilis Gallis fuit ; prae- cipuequod Diocletiaui suspcctam prudeiitiain, ct Maximiani sanguiiia- riam violcntiam impciio ejus evaserant. Eutrop. Breviar. x. i. ' Divitiis Provincialium (met. provmciarum) ac privatorum studcns, fisci commoda non admoduni affectans ; duccnsque melius publicas opes a privatis haberi, quam intra unum claustrum reservari. Id. ibid. He carried this maxim so far, that whenever he gave an entertain- ment, he was obliged to borrow a service of plate. * Lactantius de Mort. Persecutor, c. 18. Were the particulars of this conference more consistent with truth and decency, we might Btill ask how they came to the knowledge of an obscure rhetorician.* But there are many historians who put us in mind of the admirable Baying of the great Conde to Cardinal do Rctz : " Ces coquins nous font parler et agir, comme ils auroient fait cux-memes k notrc pla( e.'' * This attack upon Lactantius is unfounded. Lactar tius was so fai from having been an obscure rhctrrician, that lie had taught rhetoric pub- licly, ani with the greatest sue s.ss, first in Africa, and afterwards in Nicomedia. His reputation oltaii d him the esteem of Constantine, vho or THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 453 these obscure anecdotes are sufficiently refuted by an impar lial view of the character and conduct of Diocletian. What, ever mi^bt otherwise have been iiis intentions, if be hao apprehended any danger from the violence of (Valerius, hi3 good sense would have instructed him to prevent tl»e ignomin- ious contest ; and as he had lield the sceptre with glorj', ha svould have resigned it without disgrace. After the elevation of Constantius and Galerius to the rank of Augusti, two new CcBsars were required to supply their place, and to complete the system of the Imperial government. Diocletian was sincerely desirous of withdrawing himself from the world ; he considered Galerius, who had married his daughter, as the firmest support of his family and of the em- pire ; and he consented, without reluctance, that his successor should assume the nerit as well as the envy of the important nomination. It was fixed without consulting the interest or inclination of the princes of the West. Each of them had a son who was arrived at the age of manhood, and who might have been deemed the most natural candidates for the vacant honor. But the impotent resentment of Maximian was no longer to be dreaded ; and the moderate Constantius, though he might despise the dangers, was humanely apprehensive of the calamities, of civil war. The two persons whom Galerius promoted to the rank of Csesar, were much better suited to serve the views of his ambition ; and their principal recom- mendation seems to have consisted in the want of merit or personal consequence. The first of these was Daza, or, as he was afterwards called, Maximin, whose mother was the sister of Galerius. The unexperienced youth still betrayed, by his manners and language, his rustic education, when, to nis own astonishment, as well as that of the world, he was invited him to liis court, and intrusted to him the education of his son Crispus. The facts which lie relates took place during his own time ; he canTiot be accusfd of dishonesty or imposture. Satis nie vixisse arbitraboi et otKciuni liomiiies implesse si labor mens aliquos homines, ab erroribus liberatos, ad iter cijelesle direxerit. Do Opif. Dei, cap. 20. The eloquence of Lactantius has caused him to be called the Christian Cicero. Anon. Gent. — U. Yet no unprejudiced/ person can read this coarse and particular private conversation of the two emperors, without assenting to the justice of Gib- bon'e 3CT&ie sentence. But the autliorship of the treatise is by no means certain. Tlie fame of Lactantius for eloquence, as well as for truth, would Buti'cr no loss if it should be adjudged to some more " ob icure rhetorician." Manso, in his Lcben Constantius des Grossen, concurs on this point with Gibbon. Bej-lage, iv — M 454 THE DECLINE AND FALL invested by Diocletian with the purple, exalted to the dignity of Ccesar, and intrusted with the sovereign command of Egypt and Syria.^ At the same time, Severus, a faithful sei-vani, addicted to pleasure, out not incapable of business, was sem to Milan, to receive, from the reluctant hands of Maximian. the Caesarian ornaments, and the possession of Italy and Africa.*^ According to the forms of the constitution, Severus acknowledged the supremacy of the western emperor ; but he was absolutely devoted to the commands of his benefactor Galerius, who, reserving to himself the intermediate countries from the confines of Italy to those of Syria, firmly established his power over three fourths of the monarchy. In the full confidence, that the approaching death of Constantius would leave him sole master of the Roman world, we arc assured that he had arranged in his mind a long succession of future princes, and that he meditated his own retreat from public life, after he should have accomplished a glorious reign of about twenty yearsJ But within less than eighteen months, two unexpected revo- lutions overturned the ambitious schemes of Galerius. The hopes of uniting the western provinces to his empire were dis- appointed by the elevation of Constantine, whilst Italy and Africa were lost by the successful revolt of Maxentius. I. The fame of Constantine has rendered posterity attentive to the most minute circumstances of his life and actions. The place of his birth, as well as the condition of his mother Hel- ena, have been the subject not only of literary but of national disputes. Notwithstanding the recent tradition, which assigns for her father a British king,^ we are obliged to confess, that * Sublatus nuper a pccoribus et silvis (says Lactantius de M. P. c. 19) statim Scutarius, coiitinuo Protector, niox Tribunus, postridie Caesar, accoj)it Orientein. Aurelius Victor is too liberal in giving him the whole portion of Diocletian. ® His diligence and lidclity are acknowledged even by Lactantius, dc M. P. c. 18. ' These schemes, however, rest only on the very doubtful authority of Lactantius de M. P. c. 20. * This tradition, unknown to the contemporaries of Constantine, was invented in tlie darkness of monasteries, was embellished by Jeffrey of Monmoutli, and the writers of the xiilh century, has been defended by our anticiuarians of the last age, and is seriously related in the ponderous History of England, comjjiled by Mr. Carte, (vol. i. p. 147.) Ho transports, however, the kingdom of Coil, tlie imaginary futhi r of Helena, from Essex to the wall of Antoninus. OF THE SOMAN EMPIRE. 455 lleltina was the daughter of an innkeeper ; but at the 8ame time, we may defend the legality of her marriage, against those who have represented her as the concubine of Constan- tius.3 The great Constantine was most probably born at Naissus, in Dacia ; i" and it is not surprising that, in a family and province distinguished only by the profession of arms, the youth should discover very little inclination to improve his mind by the acquisition of knowledge. ^^ He was about eighteen years of age when his fatlier was promoted to the rank of Caesar ; but that fortunate event was attended with hi« mother's divorce ; and the splendor of an Imperial alliance reduced the son of Helena to a state of disgrace and humili- ation. Instead of following Constantius in the West, he remained in the service of Diocletian, signalized his valor in the wars of Egypt and Persia, and graduail rose to the hon- orable station of a tribune of the first order. The figure of Constantine was tall and majestic ; he was dexterous in all his 8 Eutropius (x. 2) expresses, in a few words, the real truth, and the occasion of the error, "e.T obscuriori matrimoino ejus filius." Zosimr.a (1. ii. p. 78) ca:;, who assisted tho Roman ann>5 with an independent l>ody of his own subjects. The practice grew fiuuiliar, and at hist bci aiuc fatal. ■22* 458 THE DECLINE AND FALL which he chose to affect.^^ ^fjg contrived to justify his usurpa lion ; nor did he yield to the acclamations of the army, til) he had provided the proper materials for a letter, which he immediately despatched to the emperor of the East. Constan- tine informed hun of the melancholy event of his father's death, modestly asserted his natural claim to the succession, and respectfully lamented^ that the affectioiwte violence of his troops had not permitted him to solicit the Imperial purple in the legular and constitutional manner. The first emotions of (jralerius were those of surprise, disappointment, and rage ; and as he could seldom restrain his passions, he loudly threat- ened, that he would commit to the flames both the letter and the messenger. But his resentment insensibly subsided ; and when he recollected the doubtful chance of war, when he had weighed the character and strength of his adversary, he con- sented to embrace the honorable accommodation which the prudence of Con^antine had left open to him. Without either condemning or ratifying the choice of the British army, Gale- rius accepted the son of his deceased colleague as the sover eign of the provinces beyond the Alps ; but he gave him only the title of Caesar, and the fourth rank among the Roman princes, whilst he conferred the vacant place of Augustus on liis favorite Severus. The apparent harmony of the empire was still preserved, and Constantine, who already possessed the substance, expected, without impatience, an opportunity of obtaining the honors, of supreme puwer.^''' The children of Constantius by his secona marriage were six in number, three of either sex, and whose Imperial descent might have solicited a preference over the meaner extraction of *he son of Helena. 'But Constantine was in the thirty-second year of his age, in the full vigor both of mind and body, at the time when the eldest of his brothers could not possibly be more than thirteen years old. His claim of superior merit had been allowed and ratified by the dying emperor.'** In hiij " Hi^ panejjyrist Eumenius (vii. 8) ventures to affirm, in the pres- ence of Constantine, that he put S])uis to his horse, and triecl, but in vain, to escape from the hands of lus soldiers. " Lactaiitius de M. P. c. 25. Eumenius (vii. 8) gives a rhetorical turn to the whole transaction. "* The choice of Constantino, by his dying father, -which is v ar- ranted by reason, and insinuated by Eumenius, seems to hi, confirmed by the most unexceptionable authority, tlie concurring evidence ot l^ctantius (de M. P. c. 2t) and of Libanius, (Oratio i.,) of Eusebij* e antin his son-in-law and ally the title of Augustus. By consentmg to receive that honor from Maximian, Constantine seemed to embrace the cause of Rome and of the senate ; but his pro- fessions were ambiguous, and his assistance slow and ineffec- tual. He considered with attention the approaching contest between the masters of Italy and the emperor of the East, and was prepared to consult his own safety or ambition in the event of the vvar.-^ The importance of the occasion called for the presence and abilities of Galerius. At the head of a powerful army, collected from Ulyricum and the East, he entered Italy, resolved to revenge the death of Severus, and to chastise the rebellious Romans ; or, as he expressed his intentions, in the furious language of a barbarian, to extirpate the senate, and to destroy the people by the sword. But the skill of Maxim- ian had concerted a prudent system of defence. The invader found every place hostile, fortified, and inaccessible ; and though he forced his way as far as Narni, within sixty miles *^ The circumstances of this \\ar, and the death of Severus, are very doubtfully and variously told in our ancient fragments, (see Tillemont, Hist, des Empcrcurs, torn. iv. part i. p. 555.) I have en- deavored to extract from them a consistent and probable narration.* *■• The sixth Panegyric was pronounced to celebrate the elevation of Constantine; but the prudent orator avoids the mention cither of Galerius or of Maxentius. He introduces only one slight allusion to Uie actual troubles, and to the majesty of Konie.t • Mr.r.so justly observes that two totally different narratives might oe Jormed, almosl upon equal authority. Beylage. iv. — M. t Compare Manso, Beylage, iv. p. 302. Gibbon's account is at lea«t aa ^loDable as that of his critic. — M ,464 THE DECLINE AND FALL of Rome his dominion in Italy was confined to the nairoAy limit^ of his camp. Sensible of the increasing difficulties of his enterprise, the haughty Galerius made the first advances towards a reconciliation, and despatched two of his most con- siderable officers to tempt the Roman princes by the offer of a conference, and the declaration of his paternal regard for Maxentius, who might obtain much more from his liberality than he could hope from the doubtful chance of war.^^ The offers of Galerius were rejected with firmness, his perfidious friendship refused with contempt, and it was not long before he discovered, that, unless he provided for his safety by a timely retreat, he had some reason to apprehend the fate of Severus. The wealth which the Romans defended against his rapacious tyranny, they freely contributed for his destruc- tion. The name of Maximian, the popular arts of his son, the secret distribution of large sums, and the promise of still more liberal rewards, checked the ardor and corrupted the fidelity of the lUyrian legions ; and when Galerius at length gave the signal of the retreat, it was with some difficulty that he could prevail on his veterans not to desert a banner which had so often conducted them to victory and honor. A con- temporary writer assigns two other causes for the failure of the expedition ; but they are both of such a nature, that a cautious historian will scarcely venture to adopt them. We are told that Galerius, who had formed a very imperfect no- tion of the greatness of Rome by the cities of the East with which he was acquainted, found his forces inadequate to the eiege of that immense capital. But the extent of a city serves only to render it more accessible to the enemy : Rome had long since been accustomed to submit on the approach of a conqueror ; nar could the temporary enthusiasm of the peo- ple have long contended against the discipline and valor ot^ the legions. We are likewise informed that the legions them- selves were struck with horror and remorse, and that those pious sons of the republic refused to violate the sanctity of their venerable parent-^*^ But when we recollect with how '* With regard to this negotiation, see the fragments of an anony- mous historian, published by Valcsius at the ejid of his edition of Ainniianus MarcelUnus, p. 711. These fragments have furnished us with several curious, and, as it should seem, authentic anecdotes. '■'* Lactautius de M. P. c. 28. The former of these reasons is prob- aMy taken from Virgil's Shepherd : " Ilhuu • * * ego huic nostrw Rimilem, Mcliba-e, putavi," &c. Lactautius dcUghts ui these poetica' alluBions. « OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 465 much ease, in the more ancient civil wars, the zeal of party and the habits of military obedience had converted the native citizens of Rome into her most implacable enemies, we shall be inclined to distrust this extreme delicacy of strangers and barbarians, who had never beheld Italy till they entered it id a hostile manner. Had they not been restrained by motives of a more interested nature, they would probably have an- Bwered Galerius in the words of Cajsar's veterans : " If our general wishes to lead us to the banks of the Tyber, we are prepared to trace out his camp. Whatsoever walls he has determined to level with the ground, our hands are ready to work the engfYies : nor shall we hesitate, should the name of the devoted city be Rome itself" These are indeed the expressions of a poet ; but of a poet who has been distin- guished, and even censured, for his strict adherance to the truth of history.'-^^ The legions of Galerius exhibited a very melancholy proof Df their disposition, by the ravages which they committed in Iheir retreat. They murdered, they ravished, they plundered, ?hey drove away the flocks and herds of the Italians; they burnt the villages through which they passed, and they en- deavored to destroy the country which it had not been in their power to subdue. During the whole march, Maxentius hung on their rear, but he very prudently declined a general engagement with those brave and desperate veterans. His father had undertaken a second journey into Gaul, with the hope of persuading Constantine, who had assembled an army on the frontier, to join in the pursuit, and to complete the vic- tory. But the actions of Constantino were guide 1 by reason, and not by resentment. He persisted in the wise resolution of maintaining a balance of power in the divided empire, and he no longer hated- Galerius, when that aspiring prince had ceased to be an object of terror.'^*^ The mind of Galerius was the most susceptible of the sterner passions, but it was not, however, incajiable of a sin- *" Castra super Tusci si ponere Tybridis uiulas ; (jubeas) Ilesperios audax veiiiam metator in agros. Tu quoscunque voles in planum ettundcre muros, His aries actus disperget saxa lacoitis ; Ilia licet penitus tolli quaiu jusseris urbcm Koma sit. Lucan. Pharsal. i. 381. *• Lactaiitius de ^I. P. c. 27. Zosim. 1. ii. p. 82. The latter ini>in- aaies that Constantine, in his interviow with Maximian, hi.d [)rom- ^ed to declare war against riraleriua. 4G6 THE DECLINE AND FALL cere and lasting friendship. Licinius, whose manners as wel. fts character were not unlike his own, seems to have engagec both his affection and esteem. Their intimacy had commenced in the happier period perhaps of their youth and obscurity. It had been cemented by the freedom and dangers of a militarj life ; they had advanced ahnost by equal steps through the successive honors of the service ; and as soon as Galeriug was invested with the Imperial dignity, he seems to have con- ceived the design of raising his companion to the same rank with himself. During the short period of his prosperity, he con- sidered the rank of Caesar as unworthy of the age and merit of Licinius, and rather chose to reserve for hhn the place of Constantius, and the empire of the West. While the em- peror was employed in the Italian war, he intrusted his friend with the defence of the Danube; and immediately after his return from that unfortunate expedition, he invested Licinius with the vacant purple of Severus, resigning to his immediate command the provinces of Illyricum.^^ The news of his promotion was no sooner carried into the East, than Maximin. who governed, or rather oppressed, the countries of Egypt and Syria, be- trayed his envy and discontent, disdained the inferior name of Cajsar, and, notwithstanding the prayers as v/ell as arguments of Galerius, exacted, almost by violence, the equal title of Augustus.^" For the first, and indeed for the last time, the Roman world was administered by six emperors. In the West, Constantine and Maxentius affected to reverence their father Maximian. In the East, Licinius and Maximin honored with more real consideration their benefactor Galerius. The op- position of interest, and the memory of a recent war, divided the empire into two great hostile powers ; but their mutual fears produced an apparent tranquillity, and even a feigned reconciliation, till the death of the elder princes, of Maximian, and more particularly of Galerius, gave a new direction to the views and passions of their surviving associates. '* M. do Tillemont (Ilist. des Emperours, torn. iv. part i. p. .559) Uas proved that Licinius, without passing through the intermediate rank oi' (Jiesar, was declared Augustus, tlie Uth of November, A. D. 307, alter the return of Galerius fi'om Italy. ** Lactaiitius dc M. P. c. 32. When Galerius declared Licinius Augustus with himself, he tried to satisfy his younger associates, by inventing for Constantine and Maximin (not Maxentius ; see Baluze, p. 81) tlie new title of sons of the Augusti. But when Maximin ac quainted him that he had been saluted Augustus by the array, Gale- rius v,as obliged to acknowledge him, as well as ConstaiMiue, as ciual esfioclatea in the Imperial dignity. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 4H7 Wliiin Maximlan liad reluctantly abdicated the empire, tlie venal orators of !lie tinxjs applauded his plrilosophic moder- ation. When his ambition excited, or at least encouraged, a civil war, they returned thanks to his generous patriotism, and gently censured that love of ease and retirement which had withdrawn him from the public service.^i But it was im- possible that minds like those of Maximian and his son could Lmg possess in Inrmony an undivided power. Maxentius con- fJered limself as Miu Iciial sovereign of Italy, elected by the Roman senaie and pidjilc; ikm- would he endure the control of his father, who arrogantly declared that by his name and abilities the rash youth had been established on the throne. The cause was solemnly pleaded before the Praetorian guards , and those troops, who dreaded the severity of the old em- peror, espoused the party of Maxentius.^- The life and free- dom of Maximian were, however, respected, and he retired from Italy into Illyricum, affecting to lament his past conduct, ind secretly contriving new mischiefs. Rut Galerius, who was well acquainted with liis character, soon obliged him to 'eave his dominions, and the last refuge of the disappointed Maximian was the court of his son-in-law Constantine.^3 Hq was received with respect by that artful j)rince, and with the appearance of filial tenderness by the empress Fausta. That he miglit remove every suspicion, he resigned the Imperial purple a second time,^"* professing himself at length convinced of the vanity of greatness and ambition. Had he persevered in this resolution, he might have ended his life with less dig- nity, indeed, than in his first retirement, yet, however, with comfort and reputation. But the near prospect of a throne brought back to his remembrance the state from whence he ^' See Panegyr. Yet. vi. 9. Audi doloris nostri liberam vocem, &c The whole passage is imagined with artful flattery, and expressed with an easy flow of eloijucnce. ^* Lactantius do M. P. c. 28. Zosim. 1. ii. p. 82. A report was spread, triat Maxentius was the son of some obscure Syrian, and had been substituted by the wife of Maximian as her own cliild. See Aurclius Victor, Anonym. Valesian. and Paaegyr. Vet. ix. 3, 4. ^' /'^'^.^'■^^ pulsum, ab Italia fugatum, ab lllyrico repudiatum, tuis prnvinciis, tuis copiis, tuo palutio recepisji. " Eumen. in Panegvr. Vet. vii. U. '* Lactantius de M. P. c. 29. Yet, after the resignation or the pm- ple, Constiintiuc still continued to Maximian the pomp and honors of the Imperial dignity; and on all public occasions gave the rght-hand >iace to his fathcr-iji-law. I anegyr. Vet. viii. 15. 468 THE DECLINE AND FALL was fallen, and he resolved, by a desperate effort, either to reign or to perish. An incursion of the Franks had sum- moned Constantine, with a part of his army, to the banks of the Rhine ; the remainder of the troops were stationed in the southern provinces of Gaul, which lay exposed to the enter- prises of the Italian emperor, and a considerable treasure was deposited in the city of Aries. Maximian either craftily in- vented, or easily credited, a vain report of the death of Con- stantine. Without hesitation he ascended the throne, seized 'he treasure, and scattering it with his accustomed profusion among the soldiers, endeavored to awake in their minds the memory of his ancient dignity and exploits. Before he could establish his authority, or finish the negotiation which he ap- pears to have entered into with his son Maxentius, the celerity of Constantine defeated all his hopes. On the first news of his perfidy and ingratitude, that prince returned by rapid narches from the Rhine to the Saone, embarked on the last- mentioned river at Chalons, and at Lyons trusting himself to the rapidity of the Rhone, arrived at the gates of Aries, with a military force which it was impossible for Maximian to resist, and which scarcely permitted him to take refuge in the neigh- boring city of Marseilles. The narrow neck of land which joined that place to the continent was fortified against the besiegers, whilst the sea was open, either for the escape of Maximian, or for the succors of Maxentius, if the latter should choose to disguise his invasion of Gaul under the honorable pretence of defending a distressed, or, ?s that the riches which Rome had accumulated in a period of 1060 years, were lavished by the tyrant on his tnercenary bauds • tedemptis ad civile latrocinium manibus in gesserat. *^ After the victory of Constantine, it was universally allowed, that the motive of delivering the republic from a detested tyrant would, tt any time, have justified his expedition into Italy. Eiisch. in. ViU CoiMt*ntui. L i. c. 26. Panegyr. Vet. is. 2. 23 474 THE DECLINE AND FALL him when alive, affected to display the most pious regard for his memory, and gave orders that a similar treatment should be immediately inflicted on all the statues that had been erected in Italy and Africa to the honor of Constantine. Tha. wise prince, who sincerely wished to decline a war, with the difficulty and importance of which he was sufficiently ac- quainted, at first dissembled the insult, and sought for redress by the milder expedients of negotiation, till he was convinced that the hostile and ambitious designs of the Italian emperor made it necessary for him to arm in his own defence. Max- entius, who openly avowed his pretensions to the whole monarchy of the West, had already prepared a very consid- erable force to invade the Gallic provinces on the side ol Rhcetia ; and though he could not expect any assistance from Licinius, he was flattered with the hope that the legions of Illyricum, allured by his presents and promises, would desert the standard of that prince, and unanimously declare them- selves his soldiers and subjects.''^ Constantine no longer hesi- tated. He had deliberated with caution, he acted with vigor. He gave a private audience to the ambassadors, who, in the name of the senate and people, conjured him to deliver Rome from a detested tyrant ; and, without regarding the timid remonstrances of his council, he resolved to prevent the enemy, and to carry the war into the heart of Italy .^^ The enterprise was as full of danger as of glory ; and the unsuccessful event of two former invasions was sufficient to inspire the most serious apprehensions. The veteran troops, who revered the name of Maximian, had embraced in both those wars the party of his son, and were now restrained by a sense of honor, as well as of interest, from entertaining an idea of a second desertion. Maxentius, who considered the Prae- torian guards as the firmest defence of his throne, had in- creased them to their ancient establishment ; and they composed, ** Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 84, 85. Nazarius in PaneR^-r. x. 7—13. *° Sec Panca-yr. Vet. ix. 2. Omnibus lere tuis Comitibus et Duci- bus non solum tacitc mussantibus, sod ctiam apcrte timentibus ; con- tra coiisilia huminum, contra Ilaruspicum monita, ipse per tcmet lib- erandai urbis tcmfus vcnisse sentircs. The embassy of the Romans Is mentioned only by Zonaras, (I. xiii,) and by Ccdronus, (in Com- pend. Hist. p. 270 ;) but those modern Greeks had the opportunity of consulting many writers which have since been lost, among which wo may reckon the life of Constantine by Praxagoras. Photins (p. S3) has mado a short extract ffom that historical work. OK THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 47R including the rest of the Italians who were enlisted into hia service, a formidable body of fourscore thousand men. Forty thousand Moors and Carthaginians had been raised since the reduction of Africa. Even Sicily furnished its proportion of troops ; and the armies of Maxentius amounted to one hundred and seventy thousand foot and eighteen thousand horse. The wealth of Italy supplied the expenses of the war ; and the adjacent provinces were exhausted, to form immense maga- zines of corn and every other kind of provisions. The whole force of Constantino consisted of ninety thou- sand foot and eight thousand horse ;^^ and as the defence of (he Rhine required an extraordinary attention during the absence of the emperor, it was not in his power to employ above half his troops in the Italian expedition, unless he sacri- ficed the public safety to his private quarrel.^^ Xi \\^q head of about forty thousand soldiers, he marched to encounter an enemy whose numbers were at least four times superior to his own. But the armies of Rome, placed at a secure distance from danger, were enervated by indulgence and luxury. Habituated to the baths and theatres of Rome, they took the field with reluctance, and were chiefly composed of veterans who had almost forgotten, or of new levies who had never acquired, the use of arms and the practice of war. The hardy legions of Gaul had long defended the frontiers of the empire against the barbarians of the North ; and in the performance of that laborious service, their valor was exercised and their discijjline confirmed. There appeared the same difference between the leaders as between the armies. Caprice or flat- tery had tempted Maxentius with the hopes of conquest ; but these aspiring hopes soon gave way to the habits of pleasure and the consciousness of his inexperience. The intrepid mind of Constantino had been trained from his earliest youth to war, to action, and to military command. When Hannibal marched from Gaul into Italy, he was " Zosiinus (1. ii. p. 86) has given us this curious account of the forces on both sides. He makes no mention of any naviil armaments, ••hough we are assured (Panegyr. Vet. ix. 25) that the war waa curried on by sea as well as by land ; and that the Heet of Constan- iinc took possession of Sardinia, Corsica, and the ports of Italv. '* Panegyr. Vet. ix. 3. It is not surprising tliat the orator should diminish the numbers with which his sovereign achieved the con- quest of Italy ; but it appears somewhat singular that he should "^-teem the tyrant's army at no mc-e than 100,000 men. 4T6 THE DECLINE AND FALL obliged, first to discover, and then to open, a way ovei mountains, and througli savage nations, that had never yielded a passage to a regular anny.^^ The Alps were then guarded by nature, they are now fortified by art. Citadels, constructed with no less skill than labor and expense, command every avenue into the plain, and on that side render Italy almost inaccessible to the enemies of the king of Sardinia.^^ But ir the course of the intermediate period, the generals, who have attempted the passage, have seldom experienced any difilculty or resistance. In the age of Constantine, the peasants of the mounta/ s were civilized and obedient subjects ; the country was plentifully stocked with provisions, and the stupendou3 highways, which the Romans had carried over the Alps, opened several communications between Gaul and Italy.^' Constantine preferred the road of the Cottian Alps, or, as it is now called, of Mount Cenis, and led his troops with such active diligence, that he descended into the plam of Piedmont before the court of Maxentius hod received any certain intelligence of his departure from the banks of the Rhine. The city of Susa, however, which is situated at the foot of Mount Cenis, was surrounded with walls, and provided with a garrison sufficiently numerous to check the progress of an invader : but the impatience of Constantino's troops disdained the tedious forms of a siege. The same day that they appeared before Susa, they applied fire to the gates, and ladders to the walls ; and mounting to the assault amidst a shower of stones and arrows, they entered the place sword in hand, and cut in " The three principal passages of the Alps between Gaul and Italy, are those of Mount St. Bernard, Mount Cenis, and Mount Genevrc. Tradition, and a resemblance of names, {Alpes Penrmue,) had assigned the first of these for the march of Hannibal, (see Siraler de Alpibus.) The Chevalier Ac Folard (Polyb. tom. iv.) and M. d'Anville have led him over Mount Gcnevre. But notwithstanding the authority of an experienced otficer and a learned geographer, the pretensions of Mount Cenis are supported in a specious, not to say a convincing, manner, by M. Grosley. Observations sur I'ltalie, ^m. i. p. 40, &c.* " La Brunette near Suse, Dcmont, Exiles, Feiiestrelles, Coni, &c. ** See Ammian. Marccllin. xv. 10. His description of the roads Dver the Alps is clear, lively, and accurate. • Tlie dissertation of Messrs. Cramer and Wickham nas clearly shown ihat the Little St. Bernard must claim the honor of Hannibal's passage. A tract by Mr. Lonf< (London, 1831) has added some sensible correctv^i ol HjunibaJ's march lo the Alp-s. — M. OF IHL SOMAN EMPIRE. 477 pieces the greatest part of the garrison. The flames were extinguished by the care of Constaiitine, and the remains of Susa preserved from total destruction. About forty miles from thence, a more severe contest awaited him. A nimier ous army of Italians was assembled under the lieutenants of Maxentius, in the plains of Turin. Its principal strength con« sisted in a species of heavy cavalry, which the Roman.s, since the decline of their discipline, had l)orrowcd from the nation of the East. The horses, as well as the men, were clothed in complete armor, the joints of whicii were artfully adapted to the motions of their bodies. The aspect of this cavalry was formidable, their weight almost irresistible ; and as, on this occasion, their generals had drawn them up in a compact column or wedge, with a sharp point, and with spreading flanks, they flattered themselves that they should easily break and trample down the army of Constantiiie. They might, perhaps, have succeeded in their design, had not their expe- rienced adversary embraced the same method of defence, which in similar circumstances had been practised by Aure- lian. The skilful evolutions of Constantino divided and baffled this massy column of cavalry. The troops of Maxentius fled in confusion towards Turin ; and as the gates of the city were shut against them, very few escaped the sword of the victo rious pursuers. By this important service, Turin deserved to experience the clemency and even favor of the conqueror. He made his entry into the Imperial palace of Milan, and almost all the cities of Italy between the Alps and the Po not only acknowledged the power, but embraced with zeal the party, of Constantino. •''^ From Milan to Rome, the iEmilian and Flaminian highways offered an easy march of about four hundred miles ; but though Constantino was impatient to encounter the tyrant, he prudently directed his operations against another army of Ital- ians, who, by their strength and position, might either oppose his progress, or, in case of a misfortune, might intercept his ••etreat. Ruricius Pompcianus, a general distinguished by his valor and ability, had under his command the city of Verona, and all the troops that were stationed in the province of Venetia. As soon as he was informed tliat Constantine wag »* Zosimus as well as Eusebius hasten from the passage of the Alpa W the decisive action near Rome. We must apply to the two Pane gyiics tbi the intennediate actions of Constantine. 478 THE DECLINE AND FALL ailvcincing towjirds him, he detached a large body of cn.\ a^ry vihich wa? def2ated in an engagement near Brescia, and pur- sued by the Gallic legions as fur as the gates of Verona. The necessity, the importance, and the difficulties of the siege of Verona, immediately presented themselves to the sagacious mmd of Constantino.^'^ The city was accessible only by a narrow peninsula towards the west, as the other three sides were surrounded by the Adige, a rapid river, which covered the province of Venetia, from whence the besieged derivea an inexhaustible supply of men and provisions. It was not without great difficulty, and after several fruitless attempts that Constantine found means to pass the river at some distance above the city, and in a place where the torrent was less violent. He then encompassed Verona with strong lines, pushed his attacks with prudent vigor, and repelled a desperate sally of Pompeianus. That intrepid general, when he had used every means of defence that the strength of the place or that of the garrison could afford, secretly escaped from Verona, anxious not for his own, but for the public safety. With inde- fatigable diligence he soon collected an army sufficient either to meet Constantine in the field, or to attack him if he obsti- nately remained within his lines. The emperor, attentive to the motions, and informed of the approach, of so formidable an enemy, left a part of his legions to continue the operations of the siege, whilst, at the head of those troops on whose valor and fidelity he more particularly depended, he advanced in person to engage the general of Maxentius. The army of Gaul was drawn up in two lines, according to the usual prac- tice of war ; but their experienced leader, perceiving that the numbers of the Italians far exceeded his own, suddenly changed his disposition, and, reducing the second, extended the front of his first line to a just pro[)ortion with that of the enemy. Such evolutions, which only veteran troops can execute without confusion in a moment of danger, commonly prove decisive ; but as this engagement began towards the close of the day, and was contested with great obstinacy during the whole night, there was less room for the conduct of the " The Marquis Maffei has e? ainincd the siege and battle of Verona with that degree of attention and accuracy which was due to a memo- rable action that happened in his native country. The fortihcations of that city, constructed by Gallienus, were less extensive than the modern walls, and the amphitheatre was not included within their circumference. See Verona Illustrata, part i. p. 142, 150. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 479 generals than for the courage of the sokhers. The return of light displayed the victory of Constniuine, and a fit Id of carnage covered with many thousands of the vanquished Italians. Their general, Pompeianus, was found among the slain ; Verona immediately surrendered at discretion, and the gaiTison was made prisoners of war.^^ When the officers of the victorious army congratulated their master on this impor- tant succ(!ss, they ventured to add some respectful complaints of such a nature, however, as the most jealous monarch's will listen to without displeasure. They represented to Constan- tino that, not contented with all the duties of a comm inder ho had exposed his own person with an excess of valo! which almost degenerated into rashness ; and they conjured him fo» the future to pay more regard to the preservation of a life in which the safety of Rome and of the empire was involved.^^ While Constantino signalized his conduct and valor in the field, the sovereign of Italy appeared insensible of the calam- ities and dancer of a civil war which raged in the heart of his dominions. Pleasure was still the only business of Maxentius. Concealing, or at least attempting to conceal, from the public knowledge the misfortunes of his arms,^" he indulged himself in a vain confidence, which deferred the remedies of the ap- proaching evil, without deferring the evil itself.*^' The rapid progress of Constantino ^'^ was scarcely sufficient to awaken him from this falal security ; he flattered himself, that his well-known liberality, and the majesty of the Roman name, which had already delivered him from two invasions, would dissipate with the same facility the rebellious army of Gaul. The officers of experience and ability, who had served under the banners of Maximian, were at length compelled to inform his effeminate son of the imminent danger to which he was ** They wanted chains for so great a multitude of captives ; and the whole council Avas at a loss ; but tlie sagacious conqueror imagined the happy expedient of converting into fetters the swords of the van- quished. Panegyr. Vet. ix. II. *» Panegyr. Vet. ix. 10. *" Literas calamitatum suarum indices supprimebat. Panegyr. Vet. jt. 15. '* lieinedia malorum potius quam mala ditforebat, is the fine cen- iure which Taci ;us passes on the supine indolence of Vitellius. •* The Manjuis ^laffei has made it extremely probable that Con Ftantine was still at Verona, the 1st of September, A. D. 312, and thai the memoraMe Kra of the ind'ctions was dated fiom his conquesJ 01 ihe Cisalpint Gaul. 480 THE DECLINE AND FALi. reduced ; and, witli a freedom thai at once surprised and convinced him, io urge the necessity of preventing his ruin, by a vigorous exertion of his remaining power. The resources «»f Maxentius, both of men and money, were still considerable. The Praetorian guards felt how strongly their own interest and safety were connected with his cause; and a third army was soon collected, more numerous than those which had beer lost in the battles of Turin and Verona. It was far from tho intention of the emperor to lead his troops in person. A stranger to the exercises of war, he trembled at the appre hension of so dangerous a contest ; and as fear is commonly superstitious, he listened with melancholy attention to ,the rumors of omens and presages which seemed to menace his life and empire. Shame at length supplied the place of courage, and forced him to take the field. He was unable to sustam the contempt of the Roman people. The circus resounded with their indignant clamors, and they tumultuously besieged the gates of the palace, reproaching the pusilla- nimity of their indolent sovereign, and celebrating the heroic spirit of Constantine.^3 Before Maxentius left Rome, he consulted the Sibylline books. The guardians of these ancient oracles were as well versed in the arts of this world as they were ignorant of the secrets of fate ; and they returned him a very prudent answer, which might adapt itself to the event, and secure their reputation, whatever should be the chance of arms.^"* The celerity of Constantine's march has been compared to the rapid conquest of Italy by the first of the Csesars ; nor is the flattering parallel repugnant to the truth of history, since no more than fifty-eight days elapsed between the surrender of Verona and the final decision of the war. Constantine had always apprehended that the tyrant would consult tho dictates of fear, and perhaps of prudence ; and that, instead of risking his last hopes in a general engagement, he would shut himself up within the walls of Rome. His ample mag- azines secured him against the danger of famine ; and as the situation of Constantine admitted not of delay, he might have been reduced to the sad necessity of destroying with fire and ■word the Imperial city, the noblest reward of his victory, " See Panegyr. Vet. xi. 16. lisctantius de M. P. c. 44. •* Hlo die hostem Ilomanorum esse periturum. The vanquijllidd prince became of course the enemy of Rome. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. ISV ana the deliverance of which had been the motive, or rather indeed the pretence, of the civil war.^^ It was with equal surprise and pleasure, that on his arrival at a place called Saxa Rubra, about nine miles from Rome,''^ he discovered Ihe army of Muxentius prepared to give him battle.^'' Their long front filled a very spacious plain, and their deep array reached to the banks of the Tyber, which covered their rear and forbade their retreat. We are informed, and we may believe, that Constantino disposed his troops with consummate skill, and that he chose for himself the post of honor and danger. Distinguished by the splendor of his arms, he charged in person the cavalry of his rival ; and his irresist- ible attack determined the fortune of the day. The cavalry of Maxentius was principally composed either of unwieldy cuirassiers, or of light Moors and Numidians. They yielded to the vigor of the Gallic horse, which possessed more activ- ity than the one, more firmness than the other. The defeat of the two wings left the infantry witliout any |)rotection on its flanks, and the undisciplined Italians lied without reluctance from the standard of a tyrant whom they had always hated, and whom they no longer feared. The Pr.etorians, conscious that their ofiences were beyond the reach of mercy, were animated by revenge and despair. Notwithstanding their repeated efforts, those brave veterans were unable to recover the victory : they obtamed, however, an honorable death ; and it was observed that their bodies covered the same ground which had been occupied by their ranks."^" The confusion then became general, and the dismayed troops of Maxentius, pursued by an implacable enemy, rushed by thousands into '* See Pancgyr, Vet, ix. 16, x. 27. The former of these orators magnifies the hoards of com, which Maxentius had coUei'ted from Africa and the Ishinds. And yet, if there is any truth in the scarcity mentioned by Eusebius, (in Vit. Constautin. 1. i. c. 36,) the Imperial granaries must have been open only to the soldiers. ••'* Maxentius . . . tandem urbc in Saxa Rubra, raillia fcrraenovem B>^errime progrcssus. Aurelius Victor. See Ccllarius (ioograph A nti'i- torn. i. p. 4()3. Saxa Rubra was in the neighborhood of the Crumcra, a tiitling rivulet, illustrated by the valor and glorious death of the three hundred Fabii. •' The post which Maxentius had taken, with the Tyber in his rear, ia very clearly described by the two raucgyrists, ix. l(j, x. '^8. ** Kxceptis latrocinii ilhus primis aucLoribus, qui desperatd veniA, locom qucni pugua; sumpaeraui texere eorporibud. l*ane(:yr Vet U. 17. 23* 482 THE DECLINE AND FALL the deep and rapid stream of the Tyber. Tlie cmpeior him- Belf attempted to escape back into the city over the Milvian bridge ; but the crowds which pressed together through that narrow passage forced him into the river, where he was im- mediately drowned by the weight of his armor.*^^ H'.s body, which had sunk very deep into the mud, was found with somo difficuhy the next day. The sight of his head, when it waa exposed to the eyes of the people, convinced them of their deliverance, and admonished them to receive with acclama- tions of loyalty and gratitude the fortunate Constantine, who thus achieved by his valor and ability the most splendid enter- prise of his life.^° In the use of victory, Constantine neither deserved the praise of clemency, nor incurred the censure of immoderate rigor.'^i He inflicted the same treatment to which a defeat would have exposed his own person and family, put to death the two sons of the tyrant, and carefully extirpated his whole *' A very idle rumor soon prevailed, that Maxentius, who had not taVen any precaution for his own retreat, had contrived a very artful enare to destroy the army of the pursuers ; but that the wooden bridge, which was to have been loosened on the approach of Constantine, unluckily broke down under the weight of the Hying Italians. M. de Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iv. part i. p. 576) very seri- ously examines whether, in contradiction to common sense, the ta«»i- mony of EVisebius and Zosimus ought to prevail over the silence of Lactantius, Nazarius, and the anonymous, but contemporary orator, who composed the ninth Panegyric* '" Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 86—88, and the two Panegyrics, the former of which was pronounced a few months afterwards, afford the clearest notion of this great battle. Lactantius, Eusebius, and even the Epit- omes, supply several useful hints. " Zosimus, the enemy of Constantino, allows (1. ii. p. 88) that only a few of the friends of Maxentius were put to death ; but we may remark the expressive passage of Nazarius, (PanegAT. Vet. x. 6,) Omnibus qui labefactari statum ejus poterant cum stirpe deletis.t' The other orator (Pancgyr. Vet. ix. 20, 21) contents himself with observing, that Constantine, when he entered Konic, did not imitate the cruel massacres of Cinna, of ^larius, or of Sylla. • Manso (Beylage, vi.) examines the question, and adduces two manl- iest allusions to the bridge, from the Life of Constantine by Praxagorus and from Libanius. Is it not very prob;ibk> that such a bridge was thrown ovei the river to facilitate the advance, and to secure the retieat, of the iLrm\ of Maxentius ? In case of defeat, orders were given for aestroying It, in order to check the pursuit: it broke down accidentally, rr in the con- fusion wiis destroyed, as has not unfrequently been the case, before the propei time. — M. I This iiiii.) refer to tLe son or sons of Maxentius. -- M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 483 race. The most distinguisHbd adherents of Maxentius musf have expected to share his fate, as tliey had sliared his pros parity and his crimes ; but when the Roman people loudly demanded a greater number of victims, the conqueror resisted, with firmness and humanity, those servile clamors, which were dictated by flattery as well as by resentment. Informers were punished and discouraged ; th(! innocent, who had sulfered under the late tyranny, were recalled from exile, and restored to their estates. A general act of oblivion quieted the minds and settled the property of the people, both in Italy and in Africa.7'^ The first time that Constantine honored the senate with his presence, he recapitulated his own services and ex- ploits in a modest oration, assured that illustrious order of hia sincere regard, and promised to reestablish its ancient dignity and privileges. The grateful senate repaid these unmeaning professions by the empty titles of honor, which it was yet in their power to bestow ; and without presuming to ratify tho authority of Constantine, they passed a decree to assign him the first rank among the three Augusti who governed the lio- man world.'^-^ Games and festivals were instituted to preserve the fame of his victory, and several edifices, raised at the ex- pense of Maxentius, were dedicated to the honor of his suc- cessful rival. The triumphal arch of Constantine still remains a melancholy proof of the decline of the arts, and a singular testimony of the meanest vanity. As it was not possible to find in the capital of the empire a sculptor who was caj)able of adorning that public monument, the arch of Trajan, with- out any respect either for his memory or for the ruies of pro- priety, was stripped of its most elegant figures. The diifer- ence of times and persons, of actions and characters, was totally disregarded. The Parthian captives appear prostrate at the feet of a prince who never carried his arms beyond the Euphrates ; and curious antiquarians can still discover the head of Trajan on the trophies of Constantine. The new ornaments which it was necessary to introduce between the vacancies of ancient sculpture are executed in the rudest and most unskilful manner.^'* '* See the two Pancojyrics, and the hiws of this and the ensuing yoar, in the Theodosiau Code. " Pane{,'yr. Vet. i.\. 20. Lactantius dc M. P. c. 44. Maxiniin, who was confessedly tho cklest Ca-sar, claimed, with some show of reaton, the first rank among the Augusti. '* Adhuc cuncta opera qua- magnitice eonstruvcrat, urbi.i farum, 484 THE DECLINE AND FALL The final abolition of ihe Prcotorian guards was a measure of prudence as well as of revenge. Those haughty troops, whose numbers and privileges had bees restored, and even augmented, by Maxentius, were forever suppressed by Con- stantine. Their fortified camp was destroyed, and the few Prajtorians who had escaped the fury of the sword were dis- persed among the legions, and banished to the frontiers of the empire, where they might be serviceable without again becom ing dangerous.'^ By suppressing the troops which were usually stationed in Rome, Constantine gave the fatal blow to the dignity of the senate and people, and the disarmed capital was exposed without protection to the insults or neglect of its distant master. We may observe, that in this last effort to oreserve their expiring freedom, the Romans, from the appro nension of a tribute, had raised Maxentius to the throne. He exacted that tribute from the senate under the name of a free gift. They implored the assistance of Constantine. He van- quished the tyrant, and converted the free gift into a perpetual tax. The senators, according to the declaration which was required of their property, were divided into several classes. The most opulent paid annually eight pounds of gold, the next class paid four, the last two, and those whose poverty might have claimed an exemption, were assessed, however, at seven pieces of gold. Besides tne regular members of the senate, their sons, their descendants, and even their relations, enjoyed the vain privileges, and supported the heav* burdens, ol the senatorial order; nor will it any longer excite our sur- prise, that Constantine should be attentive to increase the number of persons who were included under so useful a de- scription."^ After the defeat of Maxentius, the victorious atque basLlicam, Flavii meritis patres sacraverc. Aurelius Victor. With regard to the theft of Trajan's trophies, consult Flaminiua Vacca, apud Montfaucon, Diarium Italicum, p. 250, and I'Antiquit^ Expliquce of the latter, torn. iv. p. 171. '* Prajtoriae legiones ac subsidia factionibus aptiora quam urbi Boms, sublata pcnitus ; simul arma atque usus indumcnti militaris Aurelius "Victor. Zosimus (1. ii. p. 89) mentions this fact as an histo riAn, and it is very pompously celebrated in the ninth Panegyric. *• Ex omnibus provincus optimates viros Curia; tuae pigneravcris nt Senatiis dignitas .... ex totius Orbis tlore consisterct. Naza rius in I'anegyr. Vet. x. 35. The word pigneraveris might almost ■com maliciously chosen. Concerning the senatorial tax, see Zosi mus, 1. ii. p. 116, the second title of the sixth book of the Theodo wan Code, with Goacfroy's Commentary, and Mcmoinn de I'Acurtt Hue des Liscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 726. OF THK ROMAN EMPIRE. 48& emperor passed no more than two or three months in Rome, wliich he visited twice during the remainder of his life, to eelebnite the solemn festivals of the tenth and of the twentieth years of his reign. Constantine was almost perpetually in motion, to exercise the legions, or to inspect the state of the provinces. Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Sirmium, Naissus, and Thessalonica, were the occasional places of his residence, till he founded a new Rome on the confines of Europe and Asif»7' Before Constantine marched into Italy, he had secured the friendship, or at least the neutrality, of Licinius, the lllyrian emperor. He had promised his sister Constantia in marriage to that prince ; but the celebration of the nuptials was deferred till after the conclusion of the war, and the interview of the two emperors at Milan, which was appointed for that purpose, appeared to cement the union of their families and interests.''^ In the midst of the public festivity they were suddenly obliged to take leave of each other. An inroad of the F' ranks sum- moned Constantine to the Rhine, and the hostile approach of the sovereign of Asia demanded the immediate presence <»f Licinius. Maximin had been the secret ally of Maxentius, and without being discouraged by his fate, he resolved to try the fortune of a civil war. He moved out of Syria, towards the frontiers of Bithynia, in the dei)th of winter. The season was severe and tempestuous ; great numbers of men as well as horses perished in the snow ; and as the roads were broken, up by incessant rains, he was obliged to leave behind liiu) a considerable part of the heavy baggage, which was unable to follow the rapidity of his forced marches. By this extraor- dinary effort of diligence, he arrived, with a harassed but for- midable army, on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus before the lieutenants of Licinius were apprised of his hostile inten- tions. Byzantium surrendered to the power of Maximin, after a siege of eleven days. He was detained some days under the walls of Heraclea ; and he had no sooner taken possession " From the Theodosian Code, we may now begin to trace the motions of the emperors ; but the dates both of time and place have frequently been altered by the carelessness of transcribers. '* Zosimus (1. ii. p. 89) observes, that before the war the sister of Constantino had been betrothed to Licinius. According to the younger Victor, Diocletian was invited to the nuptials ; but having ventured to plead his age and intirmities, he received a second letter, tilled with reproaches for his supposed partiality to the cause of Maxentius and Viiximin. 186 THE DECLINE AND FALI. of thai city, than he was alarmed by the intelligence, that Licinius had pitched his camp at the distance of only eighteen miles. After a fruitless negotiation, in which the two princes nttempted to seduce the fidelity of each othcr''s adherents, they had recourse to arms. The emperor of the East com- manded a disciplined and veteran army of above seventy thousand men ; and Licinius, who had collected about thirty thousand Illyrians, was at first oppressed by the superiority of numbers. His militar}'' skill, and the firmness of his troops, restored the day, and obtained a decisive victory. The incred- ible speed which Maximin exerted in his flight is much more celebrated than his prowess in the battle. Twenty-four hours afterwards he was seen, pale, trembling, and without his Im- perial ornaments, at Nicomcdia, one hundred and sixty miles from the place of his defeat. The wealth of Asia was yet unexhausted ; and though the flower of his veterans had fallen in the late action, he had still power, if he could obtain time, to draw very numerous levies from Syria and Egypt. But he survived his misfortune only three or four months. His death, which happened at Tarsus, was variously ascribed to despair, to poison, and to the divine justice. As Maximin was alike destitute of abilities and of virtue, he was lamented neither by the people nor by the soldiers. The provinces of the East, delivered from the terrors of civil war, cheerfully acknowledged the authority of Licinius.'^ The vanquished emperor left behind him two children, a boy of about eight, and a girl of about seven, years old. Their moffensive age might have excited compassion ; but the com- passion of Licinius was a very feeble resource, nor did if restrain him from extinguishing the name and memory of his adversary. The death of Severianus will admit of less excuse, as it was dictated neither by revenge nor by policy. The conqueror had never received any injury from the father of that unhappy youth, and the short and obscure reign of Seve- rus, in a distant part of the empire, was already forgotten. Ihit the execution of Candidianus was an act of the blackest cruelty and ingratitude. He was the natural son of Galerius, the friend and benefactor of Licinius. The prudent father '* Zosimus mentions the defeat and death of Maximin as ordinary events; but Jiactantius expatiates on them, (de M. ]'. c. 46 — 50,) as- ciibing them to the miraculous interposition of Heaven. Licinius at tliat time was one of the protectors of the church. OP THE RO.MAN EMPIRE. 487 nad judged hiin too young to sustain the weight of a diadem ; but he hoped that, under the protection of princes who were indebted to his favor for the Imperial purple, Candidianus might pass" a secure and honorable life. He was now ad- vancing towards the twentieth year of his age, and the royalty of his birth, though unsupported either by merit or ambition, was sufficient to exasperate the jealous mind of Licinius.^'^ To these innocent and illustrious victims of his tyranny, we must add the wife and daughter of the emperor Diocletian. When that prince conferred on Galerius the title of Cajsar, he had given him in marriage his daughter Valeria, whose melan- choly adventures might furnish a very singular subject foi tragedy. She had fulfilled and even surpassed the duties ol' a wife. As she had not any children herself, she condescenil(;d to adopt the illegitimate son of her husband, and invariably displayed towards the unhappy Candidianus the tenderness and anxiety of a real mother. After the death of Galerius, her ample possessions provoked the avarice, and her personal attractions excited the desires, of his successor, Maximin.^' He had a wife still alive ; but divorce was permitted by the Roman law, and the fierce passions of the tyrant demanded an immediate gratification. The answer of Valeria was such as became the daughter and widow of emperors ; but it was tempered by the prudence which her defenceless condition compelled her to observe. She represented to the persons whom Maximin had employed on this occasion, " that even if honor could permit a woman of her character and dignity to entertain a thought of second nuptials, decency at least must forbid her to listen to his addresses at a time when the ashes of her husband and his benefactor were still warm, and while the sorrows of her mind were still expressed by her mourning garments. She ventured to declare, that she could place very '" Lactantius de M. P. c. 50. Aurclius Victor touches on the different conduct of Licinius, and of Constautine, in the use of victory. "' The sensual appetites of Maximin were gratified at the expense of his subjects. His eunuchs, who forced away wives and virjj;ins, examined their naked charms with anxious curiosity, lest any part of their body should be found unworthy of the royal embraces. Coy- ness and disdain were considered as treason, and the obstinate fait one was condemned to be drowned. A custom was gradually intro- duced, that no j)crson should marry a wife without the permission of the emperor, " ut ipse in omnibus nuptlLs pra;gustator essct." Lac- Untius (10 M. V. c. 3S, 48b THE DECLINE AND FALL little confidence in the professions of a man whose cruc inconstancy was capable of repudiating a faithful and affec- tionate wife." S2 On this repulse, the love of Maximin was converted into fury; and as witnesses and judges were always at his disposal, it was easy for him to cover his fury with an appearance of legal proceedings, and to assault the reputation as well as the happiness of Valeria. Her estates were confis- cated, her eunuchs and domestics devoted to the most inhuman tortures ; and several innocent and respectable matrons, who were honored with her friendship, suffered death, on a false accusation of adultery. The empress herself, together witb her mother Prisca, was condemned to exile; and as they were ignominiously hurried from place to place before they were confined to a sequestered village in the deserts of Syria they exposed their shame and distress to the provinces of the East, which, during thirty years, had respected their august dignity. Diocletian made several ineffectual efforts to allevi- ate the misfortunes of his daughter ; and, as the last return that he (expected for the Imperial purple, which he had con- ferred upon Maximin, he entreated that Valeria might be permitted to share his r rement of Salona, and to close the eyes of her afllicted father.^-' He entreated ; but as he could no longer threaten, his prayers were received with coldness and disdain ; and the pride of Maximin was gratified, in treat- ing Diocletian as a suppliant, and his daughter as a criminal. The death of Maximin seemed to assure the empresses of a favorable alteration in their fortune. The public disorders relaxed the vigilance of their guard, and they easily found means to escape from the place of their exile, and to repair, though with some precaution, and in disguise, to the court of Licinius. His behavior, in the first days of his reign, and the honorable reception which he gave to young Candidianus, inspired Valeria with a secret satisfaction, both on her own account and on that of her adopted son. But these grateful prospects were soon succeeded by horror and astonishment ; and the bloody executions which stained the palace of NicO- media sufficiently convinced her that the throne of Maximin *"' Lactantius de M. P. c. 39. "' Dioclctiiin at last sent cognatiim suum, quondam militarcm w Kotentcm viruin, to intercede in favor of his daughter, (I^a(;tantiu.s df I. P. c. 41.) We are not sufHciently aotjuaintcd with the historv o\ thciiC times to point out the jjcrsoi^ who wa.s employed. OF THE ROMAN EMFIBE. 4^J> was filled by a tyiant more inhuman than himself. Valeria consulted her safety by a hasty flight, and, still accompanied by her mother Prisca, they wandered above fifteen months ^^ through the provinces, concealed in the disguise of plebeian habit? They were at length discovered at Thessalonica; and as the sentence of their death was already pronounced, they were immediately beheaded, and their bodies thrown into the sea. The j)eople gazed on the melancholy spectacle ; but their grief and indignation were suppressed by the terrors of a military guard. Such was the unworthy fate of the wife and daughter of Diocletian. We lament their misfortunes, wo cannot discover their crimes; and whatever idea we may j\ stly entertain of the cruelty of Licinius, it remains a matter of surprise that he was not contented with some more secret and decent method of revenge. ^^ The Roman world was now divided between Constantine and Licinius, the former of whom was master of the West, and the latfcr of the East. It might perhaps have been ex- pected that the conquerors, fatigued with civil war, and con- nected by a private as well as public alliance, would have renounced, or at least would have suspended, any further designs of ambition. And yet a year had scarcely elapsed ufter the death of Maximin, before the victorious emperors turned their arms against each other. The genius, the suc- <:ess, and the aspiring temper of Constantine, may seem to mark him out as the aggressor; but the perfidious character of Licinius justifies the most unfavorable suspicions, and by the faint light which history reflects on this transaction,^'* we may discover a conspiracy fomented by his arts against the authority of his colleague. Constantine had lately given his ** Valeria quoquc per varias provinciaa quindccim mensibus plcbeio ciiltft pervagata. Lactantius de M. P. c. 51. There is some doubt whether we should compute the lifteeu months from the moment of her exile, or from that of her escape. The expression of pervagata seems to denote the latter ; but in that case we must suppose that the treatise of Lactantius was written after the first civil war between Licinius and Constantine. Sec Cuper, p. 2.54. ** Ita illis j)udicitia et conditio cxitio fuit. Lactantius de M. V, c. CI. He relates the misfortune* of the innocent wife and daughter of Diocletian with a VQry natural mixture of pity and exultation. *** The curious reader, who consults the Valesian fragment, p. 713, will probably accuse me of giving a bold and licentious paraphrase j Lilt if he considers it with attention, he will acknowledge that my biterpietation is probable and coiisLstent. i9(J THE DECLINE AND FALL sister Anaslasia in marriage toBas«iaiius,a i^ian of a consider able family and fortune, and had elevated his new kinsman to the rank of Caesar. According to the system of govern- ment instituted by Diocletian, Italy, and perhaps Africa, were designed for his department in the empire. But the perform- ance of the promised favor was either attended with so much oe'.ay, or accompanied with so many unequal conditions, thar the tideUty of Bassianus was alienated rather than secured b) the honorable distinction which he had obtained. His nomi- nation had been ratified by the consent of Licinius ; and that artful prince, by the means of his emissaries, soon contrived to enter into a secret and dangerous correspondence with the new Csesar, to irritate his discontents, and to urge him to the rash enterprise of extorting by violence what he might in vain solicit from the justice of Constantino. But the vigilant emperor discovered the conspiracy before it was ripe for exe- cution ; and after solemnly renouncing the alliance of Bassi- anus, despoiled him of the purple, and inflicted the deserved punishment on his treason and ingratitude. The haughty refusal of Licinius, when he was required to deliver up the criminals who had taken refuge in his dominions, confirmed the suspicions already entertained of his perfidy ; and the indignities offered at iEmona, on the frontiers of Italy, to the statues of Constantine, became the signal of discord between the two princes.^^ The first battle was fought near Cibalis, a city of Pannonia, situated on the River Save, about fifty miles above Sirmi- um.^^ From the inconsiderable forces which in this impor- tant contest two such powerful monarchs brought into the lield, it may be inferred that the one was sgddenly provoked, and that the other was unexpectedly surprised. The einperoi of the West had only twenty thousand, and the sovereign of the 8" The situation of JEmona, or. as it is now called, Laybach. in Car- niola, (D'Anvilie, Geograpliie Ancicnnc, torn. i. p. 1H7,) may suKt;vst a ConJL'ctiiri". As it lay to the north east of the Julian Alps, that nni)()r- tant territory beeanie a natural object of dispute between the sover- eigns of Italy and ot lUyricum. »» Cibalis or Cibalae (whose name is still preserved in the obscure ruins of Swilei) was situated about tifty miles from Sirmium, t'le capital of lUvricum, and about one hundred from 'raurunum, or Bel- grade, and tiic contlux of the Danube and the Save. The Uomaii garrisons and cities on those rivers are tiuely illustrated )y M. d'Aii- villv. in a njemo'.r inserted in TAcademie des Inscriptions, torn xxnii OF THE R(.MAN EMPIRE. 491 East no moic than five and thirty thousand, men. The infe- riority of number was, however, compensated by the advan- tage of the ground. Constantino had taken post in a defile about half a mile in breadth, between a steep hill and a deep morass, and in that situation he steadily expected and repulsed the first attack of the enemy. lie pursued his success, and advanced into the plain. But the veteran legions of lUyricuin rillieil under the standard of a leader who had been trained to uiins in the school of Probns and Diocletian. The missile weapons or bolh sides were; soon exhausted ; the two armies, with equal valor, rushed to a closer engagement of swords and spears, and the doubtful contest had already lasted fron. the dawn of the day to a late hour of the evening, when tho right wing, which Constantine led in person, made a vigorous and decisive charge. The judicious retreat of Licinius saved the remainder of his troops from a total defeat ; but when he computed his loss, which amounted to more than twenty thou- sand men, he thought it unsafe to pass the night in the pres- ence of an active and victorious enemy. Abandoning his camp and magazines, he marched away with secrecy and dil- igence at the head of the greatest part of his cavalry, and was soon removed beyond the danger of a pursuit. His diligence preserved his wife, his son, and his treasures, which he had deposited at Sirmium. Licinius passed through that city, and breaking down the bridge on the Save, hastened to collect a new army in Dacia and Thrace. In his flight he bestowed tho precarious title of Caesar on Valens, his general of the Illyrian frontier.^9 The plain of Mardia in Thrace was the theatre of a second battle no less obstinate and bloody than the former. The troops on both sides displayed the same valoi and discipline , and the victory was once more decided by the superior abili- ties of Constantine, who directed a body of five thousand men lo gain an advantageous height, from whence, during the heat of the action, they attacked tlie rear of the enemy, and made a very considerable slaughter. The troops of Licinius, how- ever, presenting a double front, still maintained their ground, till the approach of night put an end to the combat, and ** Zosimus (\ n. p. 90, 91) gives a very particular account of thi« battle; but the descriptions of Zofimus are rhetorical rather than nilitary 492 THE DECLINE AND FALL secured their rjtreat towards the mountains of Macedonia.^ The loss of two battles, and of his b.avest veterans, reduccid the fierce spirit of Licinius to sue for peace. His ambassador Mistrianus was admitted to the audience of Constantine : he expatiated on the common topics of moderation and humanity which are so familiar to the eloquence of the vanquished ; rep- resented in the most insinuating language, that the event of the war was still doubtful, whilst its inevitable calamities were alike pernicious to both the contending parties ; and declared, that he was authorized to propose a lasting and honorable peace in the name of the tjco emperors his masters. Constan- tine received the mention of Valens with indignation and con- tempt. " It was not for such a purpose," he sternly replied, " that we have advanced from the shores of the western ocean in an uninterrupted course of combats and victories, that, after rejecting an ungrateful kinsrtian, we should accept for our colleague a contemptible slave. The abdication of Valens is the first article of the treaty." ^^ It was necessary to accept this humiliating condition ; and the unhappy Valens, after a reign of a few days, was deprived of the purple and of his life. As soon as this obstacle was removed, the tranquillity of the Roman world was easily restored. The successive defeats of Licinius had ruined his forces, but they had displayed hia courage and abilities. His situation was almost desperate, but the efforts of despair are sometimes formidable, and the good sense of Constantine preferred a great and certain advantage to a third trial of the chance of arms. He consented to leave his rival, or, as he again styled Licinius, his friend and brother, in the possession of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt ; but the provinces of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece, were yielded to the Western empire, and the dominions of Constantine now extended from the confines of Caledonia to the extremity of Peloponnesus. It was stipulated •^ Zosimua, 1. ii. p. 92, 93. Anonym. Valcsian. p. 713. The Epit- omes furnish some circumstances ; but they frequently confound the two wars between Licinius and Constantine. " Petrus I'atricius in Excerpt. Legat. p. 27. If it should be thought that ydfili(ios signifies more properly a son-in-law, wo miglit coi'jec- turc that Constantine, assuming the name as well as the duties of a father, had aciopted his younger brothers and sisters, the children of Theodora. But in the best authors yuii^'iyo; sometimes signifies a hus- band, sometimes a father-in-law, and sometimes a kinsman in gcneruL See Spanheim, Observat. ad Julian. Otiit. i. p. 72.' or THE roMan emi'ire. VJ3 by the same treaty, that three royal youths, the sons of em- perors, should be ca/led to the hopes of the succession. Cns- pus and the young Constantine were soon afterwards declared Caesars in the West, while the younger Licinius was invested with the same dignity in the East. In this double proportion of honors, the conqueror asserted the superiority of his arma and power.^"-^ The reconciliation of Constantine and Licinius, though it •was imbittered by resentment and jealousy, by the remem- brance of recent injuries, and by the apprehension of future dangers, maintained, however, above eight years, the tran- quillity of the Roman world. As a very regular series of the Imperial laws commences about this period, it would not be diflicult to transcribe the civil regulations which employed the leisure of Constantine. But the most important of his insti- tutions are intimately connected with the new system of pol- icy and religion, which was not perfectly established till the last and peaceful years of his reign. There are many of his laws, which, as far as they concern the rights and property of individuals, and the practice of the bar, are more properly referred to the private tiian to the public jurisprudence of the empire ; and he published many edicts of so local and tempo- rary a nature, that they would ill deserve the notice of a gen- eral history. Two laws, however, may be selected from the crowd ; the one for its importance, the other for its singular- ity ; the former for its remarkable benevolence, the latter for its excessive severity. 1. The horrid practice, so familiar to the ancients, of exposing or murdering their new-born infants, was become every day more frequent in the provinces, and especially in Italy. It was the effect of distress ; and the dis- tress was principally occasioned by the intolerable burden of taxes, and by the vexatious as well as cruel prosecutions of the officers of the revenue against their insolvent debtors. The less opulent or less industrious part of mankind, instead "' Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 93. Anonym. Valesian. p. 713. Eutropius, x. V. Aurelius Victor, Euseb. in C'hron. Sozomcn, 1. i. c. 2. Four of these writers affirm that the promotion of the Caesars was an article of the treaty. It is, however, certain, that the younger Constantine and Licinius were not yet born ; and it is highly probable that the promotion was made the 1st of March, A. D. 317. The treaty had probably stipulated that the two Caesars might be created by the western, and one only by the eastern emperor; but ea<'h of them resei-vcd to himself the choice of the persons. 494 THE DECLINE AND FALI of rejoicing in an increase of family, deemed it an act of paternal tenderness to release their children from the impend- ing miseries of a life which tliey themselves were unable to Bupport. The humanity of Constantine, moved, perhaps, by some recent and extraordinary instances of despair,* engaged him to address an edict to all the cities of Italy, and afterwards of Africa, directing immediate and sufficient relief to be given to those parents who should produce before the magistrates the children whom their own poverty would not allow them tc educate. But the promise was too liberal, and the provision too vague, to effect any general or permanent benefit-^^ The law, though it may merit some praise, served rather to display than to alleviate the public distress. It still remains an authentic monument to contradict and confound those venal »3 Codex Thcodosian. 1. xi. tit. 27, torn. iv. p. 188, with Godefroy'8 observations. See likewise 1. v. tit. 7, 8. * This explanation appears to me little probable. Godefroy has made a much more happy conjecture, supported by all the historical circumstances which relate to this edict. It was published the 12th of May, A. D. 315, at Naissus in Pannonia, the birthplace of Constantine. The 8th of Octo- ber, in that year, Constantine gained the victory of Cibalis over Licinius. He was yet uncertain as to the fate of the war : the Christians, no doubt, whom he favored, had prophesied his victory. Lactantius, then prece^Jtor of Crispus, had just written his work upon Christianity, (his Divine In- stitutes ;) he had dedicated it to Constantine. In tliis book he had inveighed with great force against infanticide, and the e.\posure of infants, (1. vi. c. 20.) Is it not probable that Constantine had read this work, that he had conversed on the subject with Lactantius, that he was moved, among other things, by the passage to which I have referred, and in the first transport of his enthusiasm, he published the edict in question ? The whole of the edict bears the character of precipitation, of excitement, (entrainement,) rather than of deliberate reflection — the extent of the promises, the indefiniteness of the means, of the conditions, and of the time during which the parents might have a right to the succor of the state. Is there not reason to believe that the humanity ©f Constantine was excited by tlie influence of Lactantius, by that of the principles of Christianity, and of the Christians themselves, aheady in high esteem with the emperor, rather than by some ''extraordinary instances of ■ despair " ? *** See Hegewisch, Essai Hist, sur Ics Finances Romaines. The edict for Africa was not published till 322 : of that we may say in truth that its origin was in the misery of the times. Africa had suffered much from the cruelty of Maxentius. Constantine says expressly, that he had learned that parents, under the pressure of distress, were there selling their children. This decree is more distinct, more maturely deliberated, than the former ; the succor which was to be given to the parents, and the source from which it was to be derived, are determined. (Code Theod. L li. tit. 27, c. 2.) If the direct utility of these laws may not have been very extensive, they had at least the great ^nd happy effect of establishing « decisive opposition between the principles of the government and tho»« •rhich, to this time, had prevailed among the subjects of the empire. — G OF THE nc MAN EMPIRE. 495 orators, who wero too well satisfied with their o\\ n situation ic discover either vice or misery under the governmeui ol' a generous sovereign.'-''* 2. The laws of Constantine against rapes were dictated with very little indulgence for the most amiable weaknesses of human nature ; since the description of that crime was applied not only to the brutal violence which compelled, but even to the gentle seduction which might per- suade, an unmarried woman, under the age of twenty-five, to leave the house of her parents. " The successful ravisher was punished with death ; and as if sin)ple death was inade- quate to the enormity of his guilt, he was either burnt aHve, or torn in pieces by wild beasts in the amphitheatre. The virgin's declaration, that she had been carried away with her own consent, instead of saving her lover, exposed her to share his fate. The duty of a public prosecution was intrusted to the parents of the guilty or unfortunate maid ; and if the sen- timents of nature prevailed on them to dissemble the injury, and to repair by a subsequent marriage the honor of their family, tney were themselves punished by exile and confisca- tion. The slaves, whether male or female, who were con- victed of having been accessory to rape or seduction, were burnt alive, or put to death by the ingenious torture of pouring down their throats a quantity of melted lead. As the crime was of a public kind, the accusation was pernntted even to strangers. The commencement of the action was not limited to any term of years, and the consequences of the sentence were extended to the innocent ofispring of such an irregular union." ^^ But whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigor of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind. The most odious parts of this edict were softened or repealed in the subsequent reigns; 9^ and even Constantine himself very frequently alle- viated, by partial acts of mercy, the stern temper of his gen- eral institutions. Such, indeed, was the singular humor ot •♦ Omnia foris placita, domi prospera, annonae ubortate, fructuura copia, &c. Pancgyr. Vet. x. 38. This oration of Nazarius was pro- nounced on the day of the Quinqucnnalia of the Caesars, the 1st of March, A. D. 321. *' See the edict of Constantine, addressed to the Roman people, In the Theodosian Code, 1. ix. tit. 21, torn. iii. p. 1.S9. ** His son very fairly assigns the true reason of the repeal : " N« «ub specie atrocioris judicii aliqua in ulciscendo crimine dilatio nas- jerctur." Cod. Theod torn, iii p. 193. 496 THE DECLI^E AN! FALL I hat emperor, who showed himself as indulgen , and evec remiss, in the execution of his laws, as he was severe, and even cruel, in the enacting of them. It is scarcely possible to observe a more decisive symptom of weakness, either in the character of the prince, or in the constitution of the govern. nnent.9''' The civil administration was sometimes interrupted by the military defence of the empire. Crispus, a youth of the most amiable character, who had received with the title of Caesar the command of the Rhine, distinguished his conduct, as well as valor, in several victories over the Franks and Ale manni ; and taught the barbarians of that frontier to dread the eldest son of Constantine, and the grandson of Constantius.98 The emperor himself had assumed the more difficult and important province of the Danube. The Goths, who in the time of Claudius and Aurelian had felt the weight of the Roman arms, respected the power of the empire, even in the midst of its inteitine divisions. But the strength of that war- like nation was now restored by a peace of near fifty years ; a new generation had arisen, who no longer remembered the misfortunes of ancient days : the Sarmatians of the Lake Mseotis followed the Gothic standard either as subjects or as allies, and their united force was poured upon the countries of lUyricum. Campona, Margus, and Benonia,t appear to have been the scenes of several memorable sieges and bat- tles ; 99 and though Constantine encountered a very obstinate " Eusebius (in Vita Constant. 1. iii. c. 1) choo9e3 to affirm, that in the reign of this hero, the sword of justii;e hung idle in the hands of the magistrates. Eusebius himself, (1. iv. c. 29, 54,) and the Theodo- Bian Code, will inform us that this excessive lenity was not owing to the want cither of atrocious criminals or of penal laws. 9* Nazarius in Tauegyr. Yet. x. The victory of Crispus over the Alemanni is expressed on some medals.* »» See Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 93, 94 ; though the narrative of that his- torian is neither clear nor consistent. The Panegyric of Optatianus (c. 23) mentions the alliance of the Sarmatians with the Carpi and Qetae, and points out the several tields of battle. It is supposed that • Other medals are extant, the legends of which commemorate thr success of Constantine over the Sarmatians and other barbaroub nations, Bakmatia uf.victa. Victouia Gothica. Debellatoki gentium bak- BAROin'M. ExuPEiiATOR OMNIUM GENTIUM. St. Martin, note ou La Beau, i. 188. — M. ^ ^ „ t Campoi'.a, Old Buda, in Hungary; Marguj. Kastolatz C. K.ol'uoxa: BoDonia, Widdin, in Ma)9ia. — O. and M OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 497 resistance, lie prevailed at length in the contest, and the Goths were coMdpel ed to purchase an ignominious retreat, by restor- ing tlie booty and prisoners which they had taken. Nor was this advantage stTfficient to satisfy the indignation of the em peror. He resolved to chastise as well as to repulse the inso- lent barba«ians who had dared to invade the territories of Rome. At the head of his legions he passed the Danube, after repairing the bridge which had been constructed by Trajan, penetrated into the strongest recesses of Uacia,!*^" and when he had inflicted a severe revenge, condescended to give peace to the suppliant Goths, on condition that, as often as they were required, they should supply his armies with a body of forty thousand soldiers. ^"1 Exploits like these were no doubt honorable to Constantine, and beneficial to the state , but it may surely be questioned, whether they can justify thu exaggerated assertion of Eusebius, that all Scytiiia, as far as the extremity of the North, divided as it was into so many names and nations of the most various and savage manners had been added by his victorious arms to the Roman empire. i*^^ In this exalted state of glory it was impossible that Con- stantine should any longer endure a partner in the empire. Confiding in the superiority of his genius and military power, he determined, without any previous injury, to exert them for the destruction of Licinius, whose advanced age and unpopu- lar vices seemed to ofTer a very easy conquest.'"-' But the old emperor, awakened by the approaching danger, deceived .he expectations of his friends, as well as of his enemies. Calling forth that spirit and those abilities by which he had the Sarinatian games, celebrated in the month of Xovembcr, derived their origin from the success of this war. '"" In the Ca-sars of Julian, (p. 329. Coinmentaire de Spanheim, p 252.) Constantine boasts, that he had recovered the province (Dacia) which Trajan liad subdued. But it is insinuated by Silcnus, that tho contiuests of Constantine were like tlic gardens of Adonis, which fade and wither almost the moment they appear. "" Jornandos dc llobus Geticis, c. 21. I know not whether we may entirely depend on his authority. Such an alliance has a very recent air, and scarcely is suited to the maxims of the beginning of the fourth c;entury. "-'■^ Eusebius in Vit. Constanthi. 1. i. c. 8. This passage, however, is taken from a general declamation on the greatness of Constantine, end not from any particular account of the Gothic war. '"■* Constantinus tamon, vir ingcns, ct omnia efiicore nitens qua animo pra-parixssct, simul principatum totius orbis affectans, Licinio bellum rjtiilit. Eutropius, x. 5. Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 89. The rcascn* 24 498 THE DECLINE AND FALL deserved the friendship of Galetius and the Imperial purple, he prepanid .limself for the contest, collected the foi^es of the East, and soon filled the plains of Hadrianople with his troops, and the Straits of the Hellespont with his fleet. The army consisted of one hundred and fifty thousand foot, and fifteen thousand horse ; and as the cavalry was drawn, for the most part, from Phrygia and Cappadocia, we may conceive a more favorable opinion of the beauty of the horses, than of the courage and dexterity of their riders. The fleet was com- posed of three hundred and fifty galleys of three ranks of oars. A hundred and thirty of these were furnished by Egypt, and the adjacent coast of Africa. A hundred and ten sailed from the ports of Phoenicia and the Isle of Cyprus; and the maritime countries of Bithynia, Ionia, and Caria were likewise obliged to provide a hundred and ten galleys. The troops of Constantine were ordered to rendezvous at Thes- salonica ; they amounted to above a hundred and twenty thousand horse and foot.^"^ Their emperor was satisfied with their martial appearance, and his army contained more sol- diers, though fewer men, than that of his eastern competi- tor. The legions of Constantine were levied in the warlike provinces of Europe ; action had confirmed their discipline, victory had elevated their hopes, and there were among them a great number of veterans, who, after seventeen glorious cam- paigns under the same leader, prepared themselves to deserve an honorable dismission by a last effort of their valor.^*^^ Bui the naval preparations of Constantine were in every respect much inferior to those of Licinius. The maritime cities of Greece sent their respective quotas of men and ships to the celebrated harbor of Plrceus, and their united forces consisted of no more than two hundred small vessels; a very feeble armament, if it is compared with those formidable fleets which were equipped and maintained by the republic of Athena during the Peloponnesian war.'"'' Since Italy was no longer the seat of government, the naval establishments of Misenum which they have assi<^ncd for the first civil war may, with more pro- priety, be applied to the second. '"< Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 94, 9.5. '"* Constantine was very attentive to the privilof:;es and comfortt of his fellow-veterans, (Convcterani,) as he now began to style them. S^.c the Thcodosian Code, 1. vii. tit. 10, torn. ii. p. 419, 429. '"* Whilst the Athenians maintained the empire of the sen, theu fleet consisted of three, and afterwards of foiir, hundred gaLlevs of or THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 495 •nd liavcnna had been gradually neglected ; and ;i3 the ship- ping and mariners of the empire were supported by commerce rather than by war, it was natural that they sliould the most abound in the industrious provinces of Egypt and Asia. It is only surprising that the^ eastern emperor, who possessed so great a superiority at sea, sliould have neglected the oppor- tunity of carrying an offensive war into the centre of his rival's dominions. hislead of embracing such an active resolution, which might have changed the whole face of the war, the prudent Licinius expected the approach of his rival in a camp near Hadriano- ple, which he had fortified with an anxious care, that betrayed ills apprehension of the event. Constantino directed his march from Thessalonica towards that part of Thrace, till he found himself stopped by the broad and rapid stream of the Hebrus, and discovered the numerous army of Licinius, which filled the steep ascent of the hill, from the river to the city of Hadrianople. Many days were spent in doubtful and distant skirmishes ; but at length the obstacles of the passage and of the attack were removed by the intrepid conduct of Constan- tine. In this place we might relate a wonderful exploit of Constantine, which, though it can scarcely be paralleled eithei in poetry or romance, is celebrated, not by a venal orator devoted to his fortune, but by an historian, the partial enemy of his fame. We are assured than the valiant emperor threw himself into the River Hebrus, accompanied only by twelve horsemen, and that by the etfort or terror of his invincible arm, he broke, slaughtered, and put to flight a host of a hun- dred and fifty thousand men. The credulity of Zosimus pre- vailed so strongly over his passion, that among the events of tlie memorable battle of Hadrianople, he seems to have selected and embellished, not the most important, but the most marvellous. The valor and danger of Constantine are attested by a slight wound which he received in the thigh ; but it may be discov- ered even from an imperfect narration, and perhaps a corrupted text, that the victory was obtained no less by the conduct of the general than by the courage of the hero ; that a body of five thousand archers marched round to occupy a thick wood three ranks of oars, all completely equipped and ready for immediate •ervice. The arsenal in the port of riraeus had cost the republic a thousand talents, about two hundred and sixteen thousand pounds. gee Thucydidea do Bel. Tclopon. 1. ii. c. 13, and Meiusius dc For- tuiia Attica, c. 19. 500 THE DECLINE AND FALL m the rear of the enemy, whose attention was diverted by the construction i;f a bridge, and that Licinius, perplexed by so many artful evolutions, was reluctantly drawn from his advan- tageous post to combat on equal ground in the plain. The contest was no longer equal. His confused multitude of new levies was easily vanquished by the experienced veterans of the West. Thirty-four thousand men are reported to have been slain. The fortified camp of Licinius was taken by assault the evening of the battle ; the greater part of the fugi- tives, who had retired to the mountains, surrendered them- selves the next day to the discretion of the conqueror; and his rival, who could no longer keep the field, confined himself within the walls of Byzantium. '"^ The siege of Byzantium, which was immediately undertaken by Constantine, was attended with great labor and uncertainty. In the late civil wars, the fortifications of that place, so justly considered as the key of Europe and Asia, had been repaired and strengthened ; and as long as Licinius remained master of the sea, the garrison was much less exposed to the danger of famine than the army of the besiegers. The naval com- manders of Constantine were summoned to his camp, and received his positive orders to force the passage of the Helles- pont, as the fleet of Licinius, instead of seeking and destroying their feeble enemy, continued inactive in those narrow straits, where its superiority of numbers was of little use or advantage. Crispus, the emperor's eldest son, was intrusted with the exe- cution of this daring enterprise, which he performed with so much courage and success, that he deserved the esteem, and most probably excited the jealousy, of his father. The engage- ment lasted two days ; and in the evening of tlie first, the contending fleets, after a considerable and mutual loss, retired into their respective harbors of Europe and Asia. Tlie second day, about noon, a strong south wind i"^ sprang up, which '"^ Zosimus, I. ii. p. 95, 96. This great battle is described in the Valesian fragment, (p. 714,) in a clear though concise manner. " Licinius vero circum Hadrianopolin maximo exorcitu latcra ardui raontis implevcrat ; illuc toto agmine Constantinus inllcxit. Cum bellura terra marique traheretur, (juamvis per arduum suis nitentibuSi Bttamen disciplina militari ct I'elicitatc, Constantinus Licinii confiv Bura et sine ordine agentem vicit cxercituni ; leviter i'emorc sau- cifttus." '"* Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 97, 98. The current always sets out of the HiJlcspont ; and when it is assisted by a north wind, no vessel caii or THE ROMAN EMriRE. i)01 carried the vessels of Crispus against the enemy , and as tV.s casual advantage was im[)roved by his skilful intrepidity, he soon obtained a complete victory. A hundred and thirtj vessels were destroyed, five thousand men were slain, and Ainandus, the admiral of the Asiatic fleet, escaped with the utmost tliihculty to the shores of Chalcedon. As soon as the Hellespont wa's open, a plentiful convoy of provisions flowed into the camp of Constantine, who had already advanced the operations of the siege. He constructed artificial mounds of earth of an equal height with tiie ramparts of Byzantium. The lofty towers which were erected on that foundation galled .he besieged with large stones and darts from the military engines, and the battering rams had shaken the walls in sev- eral places. If Licinius persisted much longer in the defence^ he exposed himself to be involved in the ruin of the place. Before he was surrounded, he prudently removed his person and treasures to Chalcedon in Asia; and as he was always desirous of associating companions to the hopes and dangers of his fortune, he now bestowed the title of Caesar on Martini- anus, who exercised one of the most important offices of the empire. ^'^^ Such were still the resources, and such the abilities, of Licinius, that, after so many successive defeats, he collected in Bithynia a new army of fifty or sixty thousand men, while the activity of Constantine was employed in the siege of Byzantium. The vigilant emperor did not, however, neglect the last struggles of his antagonist. A considerable part of his victorious army was transported over the Bosphorus in small vessels, and the decisive engagement was fought soon after their landing on the heights of Chrysopolis, or, as it is now called, of Scutari. The troops of Licinius, though they were lately raised, ill armed, and worse disciplined, made head against their conquerors with fruitless but desperate valor, till a total defeat, and a slaughter of five and twenty thousand men, irretrievably determined the fate of their leader. n" He attempt the passage. A south wind renders the force of the current almost iin])erceptiblc. See Touriiefort's Voyage au Levant, l,et. xi. '"* Aurclius Victor. Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 93. According to the latter, Mnrtiniauus was Magister Othciorum, (he uses the Latin api)eUation in ( J reek.) Some medals seem to intimate, that during his short reign he received tlic title of Augustus. "" Eusel)ius (in Vita Constantin. 1. ii. c. 16, 17) ascribes this deci- iivo victory to the pious prayers of the emperor. The Valcsiaii frag- 502 THL DECLINE AND FALL retired to Nicomedia, rather with the view of gaining some time for negotiation, than with the hope of any eflectual defence. Constantia, his wife, and the sister of Constantine, interceded with her brother in favor of her husband, and ob- tained from his policy, rather than from his compassion, a solemn promise, confirmed by an oath, that after the sacrifice of Martinianus, and the resignation of the purple, Liciniug himself should be permitted to pass the remainder of his life in peace and atBuence. The behavior of Constantia, and her relation to the contending parties, naturally recalls the remem- brance of that virtuous matron who was the sister of Augus- tus, and the wife of Antony. But the temper of mankind was altered, and it was no longer esteemed infamous for a Roman to survive his honor and independence. Licinius solicited and accepted the pardon of his offences, laid himself and his pur- ple at the feet of his lord and master, was raised from the ground with insulting pity, was admitted the same day to the Imperial banquet, and soon afterwards was sent away to Thes- salonica, which had been chosen for the place of his confine- ment.ii^ His confinement was soon terminated by death, and it is doubtful whether a tumult of the soldiers, or a decree of the senate, was suggested as the motive for his execution. According to the rules of tyranny, he was accused of forming a conspiracy, and of holding a treasonable correspondence with the barbarians ; but as he was never convicted, either by his own conduct or by any legal evidence, we may perhaps be allowed, from his weakness, to presume his innocence. ^^^ The memory of Licinius was branded with infamy, his statues were thrown down, and by a hasty edict, of such mischievous tendency that it was almost immediately corrected, all his laws, and all the judicial proceedings of his reign, were at once abolished. 1^^ By this victory of Constantine, the Ro- ment (p. 714) mentions a body of Gothic auxiliaries, under their chief Aliquaca, who adhered to the party of Licinius. '" Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 102. Victor Junior in Epitome. Anonym. Valesian. p. 714. ^^ Contra rcligioncm saeramonti Thcssalonicaj privatus occisus est. Eutropius, X. 6 ; and his evidence is confirmed by Jerome (in Chronic.) fts well as by Zosinius, 1. ii. p. 102. The Valerian writer is the only one who mentions the soldiers, and it is Zonaras alone who calls in the assistance of the senate. Euscbius prudently slides over this del- icate transaction. But Sozomen, a century afterwards, ventures to assert the treasonable jjracticcs of Licinius. »" See the Theodosian Code, 1. xv. tit. 16, torn. v. p. 404, 406 or THE noriTAN nMPlRE. 503 man world was aguin united undur the authority of one em- peror, thirty-seven years after Diocletian had divided his power and provinces with his associate Maxiinian. The successive steps of the elevation of Constantine, from his first assuming the pm'ple at York, to the resignation of Licinius, at Nicomedia, have heen related with some minute- ness and precision, not only as the events are in themselves both interesting and important, but still niore, as they contrib- uted to the decline of the empire by the expense tf blood and treasure, and by the per[)etual increase, as well of the taxes, as of the military establisluDcnt. The foundation of Constan- tinople, and the establish.ment of the Christian religion, were the immediate and memorable consequences of this revolution, Theae edicts of Constantine betray a degree of passion and preeiji" U&oy very lubecoming the character of a lawgiver. CHAPTER XV. THE PROGRESS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, AND THE SENTl' MENTS, MANNERS, NUMBERS, AND CONDITION OF THE FRIMI- TIVE CHRISTIANS.* A CANDID but rarional inquiry into the progress and cstalv lishment of Christianity may be considered as a very essen- tial part of the history of the Roman empire. While that great body was invaded by open violence, or undermined by slow decay, a pure and humble religion gently insinuated Itself into the minds of men, grew up in silence and obscurity, deriv^ new vigor from opj)osition, and finally erected the triumphant banner of the Cross on the ruins of the Capitol. Nor was the influence of Christianity confined to the period or to tlie limits of the Roman empire. After a revolution of thirteen or fourteen centuries, that religion is still professed by he nations of Europe, the most distinguished portion of human Kind in arts and learning as well as in arms. By the industiy and zeal of tlie Europeans, it has been widely diffused to the most distant shores of Asia and Africa ; and by the means of their colonies has been firmly established from Canada to Chiu, in a wond umcnown to tne ancients. But this inquiry, however usim"j1 or entertaining, is attended with two peculiar difficulties. The scanty and suspicious materials of ecclesiastical history seldom enable us to dispel the dark cloud that hangs over the first age of the church. The great' law of impartiality too often obliges us to reveal the imperfections of the uninspired teachers and believers of the gospel ; and, to a careless observer, Ihcii- faults may seem to cast a shade on the faith which they professed. But the scandal of the pious Christian, and the fallacious triumph of * In spite of my resolution, Lardner led me to look through the famous fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of Gibbon. I could not lay llieni down without fiuisliin.:; them. The causes assigned, in the fifteenth chapter, for the dirt'usion of Christianity, must, no doubt, have contributed to it mate- rially ; but I doubt whether he saw them all. Perhajjs those which he enumerates are among the most obvious. They niiglit all be safely a(h)ptp.d V-y a Christian writer, with some change in the language and 'maun«r. Mackinijsk ; sec Life, i. p. 2-i4. — M 504 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 505 tlin Infidfl, should cease as soon as they recollect not oniv hy whom, but likewise to lohom, the Divine Revelation was given. The theologian may indulge tlie pleasing task of describing Keligion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. lie must discover the inevitable mixture of error and ccyrrup- lion, which she contracted in a long residence upon earth, among a weak and degenerate race of btsings.* Our curiosity is naturally prompted to inquire by what n:eans the Christian faith obtained so remarkable a victory o'.er the established religions of the earth. To this inquiry, an obvious but satisfactory answer may be returned ; that it was owing to the convincing evidence of the doctrine itself, and to the ruling providence of its great Author. But as truth and reason seldom fmd so favorable a reception in the world, and as the wisdom of Providence frequently conde- scends to use the passions of the human heart, and the general circumstances of mankind, as instruments to execute its jjur- pose, we may still be permitted, though with becoming sub- mission, to ask, not inrleed what were the first, but what were the secondary causes of the rapid growth of the Christian church. It will, perhaps, appear, that it was most efTectually favored and assisted by the five following causes : I. The inflexible, and, if we may use the expression, the intolerant zeal of the Christians, derived, it is true, from the Jewish religion, but purilicd from the narrow and un'^ocial spirit, which, instead of inviting, had deterred the Gentiles from embracin<; the law of Moses. t II. The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional circumstance which could • The art of Gibbon, or at least the unfair impression produced by these two memorable chapters, consists in confoundini; tot^ethcr, in ore undis- tini^uishabli' mass, the vrii/in and aposto/ic propi^ation of the Cihristian religion witb its later pro. — M. 1:4* 506 THE DECLINE AND FALL give wcght and efficacy to that important truth. Ill The miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive church. IV. The pure and austere morals of the Christians. V. The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually formed an independent and increasing state hi the heart of the Roman empire. I, We have already described the religious harmony of the ancient world, and the facility* with which the most diiVereiit • This facility has not always prevented intolerance, which seems inhe- rent in the religious spirit, when armed with authority. The separation of the ecclesiastical and civil power, appears to be the only moans of at once maintaining religion and tolerance: but this is a very modern notion. The passions, which mingle themselves with opinions, made the Pagans very often intolerant and persecutors ; witness the Persians, the Egyptians even the Greeks and Romans. 1st. The PersicDts. — Ca.mhyses, conqueror of the Egyptians, condemned to death the magistrates of Memphis, because they had offered divine honors to their god. Apis : he caused the god to be brought before him, struck him with his dagger, commanded the priests to be scourged, and ordered a general massacre of all the Egyptians who should be found cel- ebrating the festival of Apis : he caused all the statues of the gods to be burnt. Not content with this intolerance, he sent an army to reduce the Amnionians to slavery, and to set on fire the temple in which Jupitef delivered his oracles. See Herod, iii. 25 — 29, 37. . ■ , . Xerxes, during his invasion of Greece, acted on the same principles : he destroyed all the temples of Greece and Ionia, except that of Ephesus. See Pans. 1. vii. p. 533, and x. p. 887. Strabo, 1. xiv. p. 941. 2d. The Ef/!/ptia7is.— They thought themselves defiled when they had drunk from the same cup or eaten at the same table with a man of a dif- ferent belief from their own. " lie who has voluntarily killed any sacred animal is punished with death ; but if any one, even involuntarily, has killed a cat or an ibis, he cannot escape the extreme penalty : the people drag him away, treat him in the most cruel manner, sometimes without waiting for a judicial sentence. * * * Even at the time when King Ptolemy ■was not yet the acknowledged friend of tlic Roman people, while the mul- titude were paying court with all possible attention tL the strangers who came from Italv * * a Roman having killed a cat, the people ruslied to his house, and neither the entreaties of the nobles, whom the king sent to them, nor the terror of the Roman name, were sufHciently power! iil to rescue the man from punishment, though he had committed the crime involuntarily." Diod. Sic. i. 83. Juvenal, in his 13th Satire, describes the sanguinary conflict between the iiiliabitants of Ombos and of Tcntyra, from religious animosity. The fury was carried so far, that the cuiuiueroia toie and devoured the quivering limbs of the conquered. Ardpl adliiic Otiibos r. Tcntyra, siimmus utriiique Inile fiiKir viilfjo, qiKKl nuiniria viriiioriun Odit ulcrqiie locus ; (|iiiiiii solos crcdal liahciidos Esse Ueos qiios ipse tolit. •'^at. xv. r. S^. 8d. T/ie GrteAs. — " Let us not here," says the Abbe Guenee. " refer to the cities of Peloponnesus and their severity against atheism; the Ephe- glaac prosecuting lleraditus for impiety; the Greeks armed one against the other by religious zeal, in the Ainphi.tyoiiic war. Let us sav nothing either of the frightful cruelties inflicted by three successors of Alexander upon the Jews, to force them to al)aiidon their religion, nor of Antiochus •ipeUing the philosophers from his states. Let us not seek our proots of OF Tin: ROMAN EMPIRE. »0T and even hostile nations embraced, or at leas> 'cspected pach oth(^r's superstitions. A single people refuse') lo join in the Intolerance so far off. Athens, the polite and learned A "Hens, will supply us with sufficient examples. Kvery citizen made a public .iiid solemn vow to conform to the ieli<,'ii)n of his country, to defend it, and lo ciuse it to be respected. An e.\i)rcss law severely punislicd all discoui'.es against the gods; and a rigid decree ordered the denunciation of all whv) should deny their existence. * * * The practice was in unison witli tlie severity of the law. The proceedings oomuienced against Protagoras ; a I'xice set upon the head of Diagoras ; the danger of Alcibiaues ; Aristotle uldiged to tiy ; Stilpo banished ; Anaxagoras hardly escaping death ; Peri.-.les himself, after all his services to his country, and all the glory he hid acquired, compelled to api)ear before the tribunals and make his definice ; * * a Sricstess executed for having introduced strange gods ; Stcratts con- einncd and drinking the hemlock, because he was accused of not recog- nizing those of his country, &c. ; these facts attest too loudly, to be called in question, the religious intolerance of the most humane and enlightened people in Greece." Lettres de quelques Juifs a Mons. Voltaire, i. p. 221 (Compare Bentley on Freethinking, from which much of this ij derived.) -M. 4th. The Romans. — The laws of Rome were not less express ai'd severe. The intolerance of foreign religions reaches, with the Romans, as liigh as the laws of the twelve tables ; the prohibitions were afterwards renewed at ditfercnt times. Intolerance did not discontinue under the emperors ; witness the counsel of M;ecenas to Augustus. This counsel is so remark- able, that I think it right to insert it entire. " Honor the gods yourself," says Maicenas to Augustus, " in every way according to the usage of your ancestors, and compel (af/yic'j^t) others to worship theni. Hate and pun- ish those who introduce strange gods, (ropf ii 61} ^tn'^ui/rut nian ku'i KiXa^i,) not only for the sake of the gods, (he who despises them will respect no one, ) but because those wlio introduce new gods engage a multitude of per- sons in foreign Uiws and customs. From hence arise unio.is bound by oaths, and confederacies, and associations, things dangerous to amonarchy." Dion Cass. 1. ii. c. .'iG. (But, though some may ditfer from it, see Gibbon's just observation on this passage in Dion Cassius, ch. xvi. note 117 ; ici- pugned, indeed, by M. Guizot, note in loc.) — M. iivcn the laws which the philosophers of Athens and of Rome wrote foi their imaginary republics are intolerant. Plato does not leave to his citi- zens freedom of religious worship ; and Cicero expressly prohibits them from having other gods than those of the state. Lettres de quelques Juifs a Mons. Voltaire, i. p. 22G. — G. According to M. Guizot's just remarks, religious intolerance will ahvay« ally itself with the passions of man, however ditfercnt those passions maj- be. In the instances quoted above, with the Persians it was the pride of despotism ; to conciuor the gods of a country was the last mark of subju- gation. With the Egy))tians, it was the gross Fetichism cf the super- stitious populace, and tl>e local jealousy of neighboring towns. In Greece, persecution was in general connected with political party ; in Rome, with the stern supremacy of the law and the interests of the state. Gibbon ha;) been mistaken in attributing to tlic tolerant spirit of Paganism that which arose out of the peculiar cirf'umstances of the times. 1st. The decay of the old Polytheism, thrmiuh the progress of reason and intelligence, and the ptevalence of philosophical opinions among the higher orders. 2d The Roman character, in which the |)olitical always predominated over the religious part. The Romans were contented with having bowed the world to !i uiiii'.iriii'ty of subjection to their power, and cared not fc.r establish jii the (to tbeiul less liuiiortant uniformity of religion. — M. 50y TIIK DECLINE AND FALL rommon intercourse of manlcind. T!ie Jews, who, iiiider tlie Assyrian and Persian monarchies, had languished for rn/iny dges the most despised portion of their slaves, ^ emerged from obsciH'itv under the successors of Alexander : and as thev^ multiplied to a surprising degree in the East, and afterwards in the West, they soon excited the curiosity and wonder of othel nations.^ The sullen obstinacy with which they main- tainei their peculiar rites and unsocial manners, seemed to murk them out as a distinct species of men, who boldly pro- fessed, or who faintly disguised, their implacable hatred to the rest of human kind.-^ Neither the violence of Antiochus, nor the arts of Herod, nor the example of the circumjacent nations, could ever persuade the Jews to associate with the institutions of Moses the elegant mythology of the Greeks.* ' Dura Assyrios penes, Modosque, ot Persas Oriens fuit, dcspcetis- sima pars servientium. Tacit. Hist. v. 8. Herodotus, who visited i^sia whilst it obeyed the last of those empires, slightly mentions the Syrians of Palestine, who, according to their own confession, had received from Egypt the rite of circumcision. See 1. ii. c. 104. - Diodorus Siculus, 1. xl. Dion Cassius, 1. xxxvii. p. 121. Tacit Hist. V. 1 — 9. Justin, xxxvi. 2, 3. * Tradidit arcane qua;cunque volumine Moses, Non monstraro vias cadem nisi sacra colenti, Qu;esitum ad fonteni solos dedu".ere verpas. The letter of this law is not to be found m the present volume ot Moses. But the wise, the humane Maimonides openly teaches that if an idolater fall into the water, a Jew ought not to save him from instant death. See liasnagc, Histoire des Juits, 1. vi. c. 28.* * A Jewish sect, which indulged themselves in a sort of occasional conformity, derived from Herod, by whose cxamp.le and authority they had been seduced, the name of Herodians. But their numbers were so inconsiderable, and their duration so snort, that Josephus has liot thought them worthy of his notice. See Prideaux's Connection, vol. ii. p. 235. t * It is diametrically opposed to its spirit and to its letter ; see, among Other passages, Deut. v. 18,19, (God) " iovcth the stranger in giving him food and raiment. Love ye, therefore, the stranger: for ye v.ere stranscrs in the land of Fj>,'ypt." Comp. Lev. x,\iii. 2-5. Juvenal is a satirist, whose Btrong cx])rcssii)us can hardly be received as historic evidence; and he wrote after the horrible cruelties of the llomans, which, dur;n some cause for the complete isolation of the Jew from the rest of the A^orld. The Jew was a bigot, but his religion was not the Oidv source of lii.s bigotry. After how nmny centuries of iviutual wro'.g and hatred, which had stUl further estranged the Jew from nuinkind, ;'.i(^ Klaimohides write ? — M. "t" The llenidians were probably more of a political party tli.in a religioue Beet, thougli '.jiblnm is most Hkely right ai to their occasional cor,forMiity fcep IlijI of the Jews ii. 108. — M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 509 A.ccorcling id the ti axims of universal toleration, tlie Komans protected a siiper.stitit)ii wliicli tliey despised.-'' Tlic polite Augustus condescended to give orders, ttiat sacrifices sliould be offered for his prosperity in the temple of Jerusalem;* while the meanest of the posterity of Ahraham, who should have paid the samo liomage to the Jupiter of the Capitol, would have been an object of abhorrence to himself and to his brethren. But the moderation of the conquerors was insuffi- cient to ap|)ease the jealous prejudices of their subjects, who were alarmed and scandalized at the ensigns of paganism, whicli necessarily introduced themselves into a Roman prov- ince.'' The mad attempt of Caligula to place his own statue in the temple of Jerusalem was defeated by the unanimous resolution of a people who dreaded death much less than such an idolatrous profanation.^ Their attachment to the law of Moses was equal to their detestation of foreign religions. The current of zeal and devotion, as it was contracted into a nar- row chatmel, ran with the strength, and sometimes with the fury, of a torrent. This inflexible perseverance, which appeared so odious or so ridiculous to the ancient world, assumes a more awful charac- ter, since Providence has deigned to reveal to us the mys- terious history of the chosen people. But the devout and even scrupulous attachment to the Mosaic religion, so conspic- uous among the Jews who lived under the second temple, becomes still more surprising, if it is compared with the * Cicero pro Flacco, c. 28.* * Philo de Logationc. Augustus left a foundation for a perpetual sacrifice. Yet he ajiproved of the neglect which his grandson Caiu3 expressed towards ttc temple of Jerusalem. See Sueton. in August. c. 9:5, and Casaubon's notes on that passage. ^ See, in particular, Joseph. Anticjuitat. xvii. 6, xviii. 3 ; and de Bell. Judiac. i. X), and ii. 9. edit. liavercamp.f * Jussi a Caio Ciusare, efHgicni ejus in templo locare, arma ])0tiu3 Buniijscri'. Tacit. Ilist. v. 9. iMiilo and Josejjhus give a very cir- cumstantial, but a very rhetorical, account of this transaction, which excecdiuiily perplexed the governor of Syria. At the first mention of this idolatrous proposal, King Agrippa fainted away ; and did not recove^lus senses until the third day. (Hist, of Jews, ii. 181, &c.) • The edicts of Julius Cassar, and of some of the cities in Asia Minor, nCrel)s. Decret. pro Ju(la;is,) in favor of the nation in gcuoral, or of the Asiatic Jews, spe.ik a ditfoient Luigungc. — M. _ t This was during tlio government of Pontius Pil.ite. (Hist, of Jews, }i. 1-56.) Prohatjly in part to avoid this collioion, the Roman governor, in general, resided at Cicsarea. — M blC THE DECLINE AND FALL Btubborn increJility of tneir forefathers When Uie law was given in thuncier from Mount Sinai, when the tides of the ocean and the course of the planets were»suspended for the convenience of the Israehtes, and when temporal rewards and punisluneiits were the immediate consequences of thoir piety or disobedience, they perpetually relapseil into rebellion against the visible majesty of their Divine King, placed the idols, of the nations in the sanctuary of Jehovah, and imitated every fantastic ceremony that was practised in the tents of the Arabs, or in the cities of Pluunicia.^ As the protection of Heaven was deservedly withdrawn from the ungrateful race, their faith acquired a proportionable degree of vigor and purity. The contemporaries of Moses and Joshua had beheld with careless indiiference the most amazing miracles. Under the pressure of every calamity, the belief of tliose miracles has preserved the Jews of a later period from the universal contagion of idolatry ; and in contradiction to every known principle of the human mind, that singular people seems to have yielded a stronger and more ready assent to the tradi- tions of their remote ancestors, than to the evidence of their own senses.^" The Jewish religion was admirably fitted for defence, but i* * For the enumeration of the Syrian and Arabian deities, it may be observed, that Milton has comprised in one hundred and thirty very beautiful lines the two lar>^e and learned syntagmas which Seidell had composed on that abstruse subject. '" "How long will this people provoke me: and how long will il be ere they hciia^e me, for all the sujn^ which I have shown among them?" (Numbers .\iv. II.) It w^ould be easy, hut it would be un- becoming, to justify the complaint of the Deity fjiom the whole tenor ji the Mosaic history.* * Anions a nide and t)arljarous people, rolis^ious impressions are cas-dy made, and are as soon otla-ed. The ignorance which multiplies imaginary wonders, would weaken or destroy the etfect of real mnaele. At tlu period of the Jen-ish history, referred to in the passage from Numbers, their fears predominated over their faith, — the fears of an unwarlike people, just rescued from debasing slavery, and couunanded to attack a fierce, a well-armed, a gigantic, and a far more nuujerous race, the jjiliabi" auts of Canaan. As to'the fretpient apostasy of the .lews, their reliu'ion was bcvoud their st itc of civilization. Nor is it uncommon for a peopio to cling with passionate attacinuent to that of which, at first, they could not appreciate the v.ilue. Patriotism and national pride will contend, even to death, for political rights wliich have been forced upim a reluctant people The Christian may at least retort, with justice, that the great -uijii of hl8 religion, the resunectiou of Jesus, was most ai>i'iitl.v bel.cicd. and mou' resolutely asserted by the eve-witnesses of tlie I'm t. — .M. Ot THE ROMAN EIIPIRE, 511 was ncvor des gncd for conquest and it seoms probable that the number of proselytes was never inu li su()eriur to that tf apostates. The divine promises were originally made, and the distinguishing rite of circurr^ision was enjoined, to a single family. When the posterity of Abraham had multi- plied like the sands of the sea, the Dcjity, from whose mouth ihey received a system of laws and ceremonies, declared himself the pro|)er and as it were the national God of Israel ; nnd wita the most jealous care separated his favorite peoj)le from the rest of mankind. The conquest of the land of Canaan was acconipanied with so many wonderful and with so many bloody circumstances, that the victorious Jews were left in a state of irreconcilable hostility with all their neigh- [)ors. They had been commanded to extirpate some of the most idolatrous tribes, and the execution of the divine will had seldom been retarded by the weakness of humanity With the other nations they were forbidden to contract an)' marriages or alliances ; and the prohibition of receiving them into the co^igregation, which in some cases was perpetual, almost always extended to the third, to the seventh, or even to the tenth generation. The obligation of preaching to the Gentiles the faith of Moses had never been inculcated as a precept of the law, nor were the Jews inchned to impose it on themselves as a voluntary duty. In the admission of new citizens, that unsocial people was actuated by the selfish vanity of the (ireeks, rather than by the generous policy of Rome. The descendants of Abraham were flattered by the opinion that they alone were the heirs of the covenant, and they were apprehensive of diminishing the value of their inheritance by sharing it too eas-ily witii the strangers of the earth. A larger acquaintance with mankind extended their knowledge without correcting their prejudices ; and whenever llnj (>ud of Israel accptired any new votaries, he was much more indebted to the inconstant humor of poly- theism than to the active zeal of his own missionaries.' ^ Tlie religion of Moses seems to be instituted for a particular coun- try as well as for a single nation ; and if a strict obedience hud been paid to the order, that every male, three times in the year, should present himself before the Lord Jehovah, it would bave been impossible that the Jews could ever have spread " All that ri'latos to tlio Jewish proselytes has been very ably treati'd by IJasnagc, Hist, dos Juit's, 1. vi. c. 6. 7. 512 THE DEIXINE AND FALL themselves beyond the narrow limits of the promised land.^' That obstacle was indeed removed by the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem ; but the most considerable part of the Jewish religion was invol\¥3d in its destruction ; and the Pagans, who had long wondered at the strange report of an empty sanctuary,'^ were at a loss to discover what could be the object, or what could be the instruments, of a worship which was destitute of temples and of altars, of priests and of sacrifices. Yet even in their fallen state, the Jews, still asserting their lofty and exclusive privileges, shunned, instead of courting, the society of strangers. They still insisted with infle.xible rigor on those parts of the law which it was in their power to practise. Their peculiar distinctions of days, of meats, and a variety of trivial though burdensome obser- vanct's, were so many objects of disgust and aversion for the other nations, to whose habits and prejudices they were dia- metrically opposite. The painful and even dangerous rite of circumcision was alone capable of repelling a willing proselyte from the door of the synagogue.''* Under these circumstances, Christianity offered itself to the world, armed with the strength of the Mosaic law, and deliv- ered from the weight of its fetters. An exclusive zeal for the truth of religion, and the unity of God, was as carefully inculcated in the new as in the ancient system : and whatever was now revealed to mankind concerning the nature and de- signs of the Supreme Being, was fitted to increase their rev- erence for that mysterious doctrine. The divine authority of Moses and the prophets was admitted, and even established, as the firmest basis of Christianity. From the beginning of the world, an uninterrupted series of predictions had an- nounced and prepared the long-expected coming of the Mes- siah, who, in compliance witli the gross apjjrehensions of the '« Sco Exod. xxiv. 23, Dcut. xvi. Ifi, the commentators, and a very Bensibln note in the Universal History, vol. i. p. 603, edit. tbl. '* When Pomjiev, using or aliusing the right of conquest, entered into tne Holy of llolics, it wns observed with amazement, "NulQ inlus I)ei\m "cttigie, vacuam sedem et inania arcana." Tacit, llist. v. 9. It was a popular saying, witli regard to the Jews, Nil prater iiiihes t>.t ctBli nuinuti adorant. " A second kind of circumcision was intlicted on a Samaritan m Egyptian i)ro..clyte. The sullen iudlHurence of the Tal.-nudi^ts, \\\lh respect to the conversion of strangers, may he sefn in Busuage. Uj* toire des Juifs, 1. vl. c. 6. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 513 jews, had been more frequently represented unde;r tlie char acter of a King and Conqueror, than under that of a Prophet, a Martyr, and the Son of God. By his expiatory sacrifice, the niiperfect sacrifices of the temjjle were at once consunimateo and abolislied. The ceremonial law, which consisted only of types and figures, was succeeded by a pure and spiritual wor- slii[), equally adapted to all climates, as well as to every con- dition of mankind ; and to the initiation of blood was substi- tuted a more harmless initiation of water. The promise of divine favor, instead of being partially confined to the pos- terity of Abraham, was universally proposed to the freeman and the slave, to the Greek and to the barbarian, to the .lew and to the Gentile. Every privilege that could raise the prose- lyte from earth to heaven, that could exalt his devotion, secure h'.s happiness, or even gratify that secret pride which, under the semblance of devotion, insinuates itself into the human heart, was still reserved for the members of the Christian church ; but at the same time all mankind was permitted, and even solicited, to accept the glorious distinction, which was not only protfered as a favor, but imposed as an obliga- tion. It became the most sacred duty of a new convert to difl^ise among his friends and relations the inestimable bless- ing which he had received, and to warn them against a refu- sal that would be severely punished as a criminal disobedi- ence to the will of a benevolent but all-powerful Deity. The enfranchisement of the church from the bonds of the synagogue was a work, however, of some time and of some dilhculty. The Jewish converts, who acknowledged Jesus in the character of the Messiah foretold by their ancient oracles, respected him as a prophetic teacher of virtue and religion; but they obstinately adhered to the ceremonies of their ances tors, and were desirous of imposing them on the Gentiles, who continually augmented the number of believers. These Kulaizing (Jhristians seem to have argued with some degree of plausibility from the divine origin of the Mosaic law, and from the immutable perfections of its great Author. They afiirmed, tluit if the Being, who is the same through all eternity, had designed to abolish those sacred rites which had served to distinguish his chosen jjeople, the repeal of them would liave been no less clear and solemn than their first promulgation : that^ inst(;ad of those frequent declarations, which either sup- pose or assert the perpetuity of the Mosaic religion, it would nave been represented as a provisionary scheme intended to 514 THt DECLINE AND FALL last only to the coming of the Messiah, who should instruct mankind in a more perfect mode of faith and of worship : •* tliat the Messiali himself, and his disciples who conversed with him on «!arih, instead of authorizing by their example the most minute observances of the Mosaic law,!** would have ])ublished to the world the abolition of those useless and obsolete cere- monies, without sutlering Christianity to remain during so many years obscurely confounded among the sects of tho Jewish church. Arguments like these appear to have been used in the defence of the expiring cause of the Mosaic law , hut the industry of our learned divines has abundantly ex- plained the ambiguous language of the Old Testament, and the ambiguous conduct of the apostolic teachers. It was proper gradually to unfold the system of the gospel, and to pronounce, tvith the utmost caution and tenderness, a sentence of condemnation so repugnant to the inclination and prejudices of the believing Jews. The history of the church of Jerusalem affords a lively proof of the necessity of those precautions, and of the deep impression which the Jewish religion had made on the minds of its sectaries. The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised Jews ; and the congregation over which they firesided united the law of Moses with the doctrine of Christ.*'' t was natural that the primitive tradition of a church which M'^as founded only forty days after the death of Christ, and was governed almost as many years under the immediate inspection of his apostle, should be received as the standard of orthodoxy.*^ The distant churches very frequently ai)pealed '* These arii;uments were urged with great ingenuity by the Jew Orobio, and refuted with equal ingenuity and candor by the Christian Limborch. See the Arnica C'oUatio, (it well deserves that name,) or account of the dispute between them. '^ Jesus . . . cireumcisus erat ; cibis utebatur Judaicis ; vcstiti!! fiiniili ; purgatos scabic mittcbat ad saccrdotes ; I'aschata ct alios dies testes religiose observabat : Si quos sana\ it sabbatho, ostendit noil tantum ox lege, sed ct cxccptis scntentiis, talia opera sabbatho non intcrdictt. (irotius dc Veiitate Religionis Ohristiana?, 1. v. c. 7. A little afterwards, (c. 12,j he expatiates on the condescension of tht apostkfl. " Pd;ne oninos Christum Dcum sub legis obscrvationo crcdebant Bulpic'.us Scvcius, ii. 31. See Eusebius, Hist. Ecclcisiust. 1. iv. c. o. '* Moshciin de llcbus Christianis ante Constantinuni Magnum, p 163. In this masterly performance, which I shall often have occasion to qiiote, he enters much more fully into the state of \\c primitive thurch, tlian he has an opportunity of doing in his Genfir.il History OF THE ROMAN tMPIRE. 51 S to the authority of their venerable Parent, and relieved hcl distresses by a liberal contribuion of alms. But when numer- ous and opulent Sdcieties weie established in the great cities of the empire, in Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus, Corinin, and Rome, the reverence which Jerusalem had inspire J to all the Christian colonies insensibly diminished. Tlie Jewish con- verts, or, as they were afterwards called, the Nazarenes, who had laid the foundations of the church, soon found themselves overwhelmed by the increasing multitudes, that from all the various religions of polytheism enlisted under the banner of Christ : and the Gentiles, who, with the approbation of their peculiar apostle, had rejected the intolerable weight of the Mosaic ceremonies, at length refused to their more scrupulous brethren the same toleration which at first they had humbly solicited for their own practice. The ruin of the temple of the city, and of the public religion of the Jews, was severely felt by the Nazarenes ; as in their manners, though not in their faith, they maintained so intimate a connection with their impious countrymen, whose misfortunes were attributed by the Pagans to the contempt, and more justly ascribed by the Chris- tians to the wrath, of the Supreme Deity. The Nazarenes retired from the ruins of Jerusalem* to the little town of Pella beyond the Jordan, where that ancient church languished above sixty years in solitude and obscurity.''-^ They still enjoyed the comfort of making frequent and devout visits to the Holy City, and the hope of being one day restored to those seats which both nature and religion taught them to love as well as to revere. But at length, under the reign of Hadrian, the desperate fanaticism of the Jews filled up the measure of their calamities ; and the Romans, exasperated by their repeated rebellions, exercised the rights of victory with unusual rigor. The emperor founded, under the name of ^lia Capitolina, a new city on Mount Sion,-" to which he gave the privileges of '• Eusebius, 1. iii. c. 5. Le Clerc, Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 60o. Duriiii» this occasional absence, the bishop and church of Pclla still retained the title of Jerusalem. In the same manner, the Roman pontilfs resided seventy years at Avis^non ; and the patriarchs of Alexandrin have long since transferred their episcopal scat to Cairo. ** Dion Cassius, 1. Ixix. The exile of the Jewish nation from Jerusalem is attested by Aristo of Pella, (apud Euseb. 1. iv. c. 6,) and • This is incorrect : all the traditions concur in placing the abandon- anent of the city by the Christians, not only before it was in ruins, but lefore the siege had coiunenced. Euseb. lic. cit., and Le Ulcrc — M 516 THE DECLINE AND FALL a colony ; and denouncing the severest penalties against any of the Jewish people who should dare to approach its pre- cincts, he fixed a vigilant garrison of a Roman cohort to enforce the execution of his orders. The Nazarenes had only one way left to escape the common proscription, and the force of truth was on this occasion assisted by the influence of .em- poral advantages. They elected Marcus for their bishop, a prelate of the race of the Gentiles, and most probably a native either of Italy or of some of the Latin provinces. At his persuasion, the most considerable part of the congregation renounced the Mosaic law, in the practice of which they had persevered above a century. By this sacrifice of their habits and prejudices, they purchased a free admission into the col- ony of Hadrian, and more firmly cemented their union with the Catholic church.^^ When the name and honors of the church of Jerusalem had been restored to Mount Sion, the crimes of heresy and schism were imputed to the obscure remnant of the Nazarenes, which refused to accorfipany their Latin bishop. They still preserved their former habitation of Pella, spread themselves into the villages adjacent to Damascus, and formed an inconsiderable church in the city of Beroea, or, as it is now called, of Aleppo, in Syria.-=^ The name of Nazarenes was deemed too honor- able for those Christian Jews, and they soon received, from the supposed poverty of their understanding, as well as of their condition, the contemptuous epithet of Ebionites.'^^ j^ .^ few years after the return of the church of Jerusalem, it became a matter of doubt and controversy, whether a man is mentioned by several ecclesiastical writers ; Ijiough some of them too hastily extend this interdiction to the whole country of Palestine. '^ EusJbius, 1. iv. c. 6. Suliiicius Soverus, ii. 31. By comparing their unsatisfactory accounts, ilosheim (p. .'V27, &c.) has drawn out a very distinct representation of the circumstances and motives of tliis revolution. ** Le Clcrc (Hist. Ecclcsiast. p. 477, 535) seems to have collected from Eu:« work is reprinted in Thilo. Codex. Apoc. Nov. Test. vol. i. — M. X Bishop Pearson has attempted very happily to explain this " singu 25 5i22 THE )ECLINE AND FAL'j Gnostics was rapid and exlensive.36 They covered Asia and Egypt, established themselves in Rome, and sometimes pene- trated into the provinces of the West. For the most part they arose in the second century, flourished during the third, and were suppressed in the fourth or fifth, by the prevalence of more fasliionable controversies, and by the superior ascend- ant of the reigning power. Though they constantly disturbed the peace, and frequently disgraced the name, of religion, they contributed to assist rather than to retard the progress of Christianity. The Gentile converts, whose strongest objections and prejudices were directed against the law of Moses, could find admission into many Christian societies, which required not from their untutored mind any belief of an antecedent revelation. Their faith was insensibly fortified and enlarged, and the church was ultimately benefited by the conquests of its most inveterate enemies.37 But whatever dilTerence of opinion might subsist between the Orthodox, the Ebionites, and the Gnostics, concerning the divinity or the obligation of the Mosiac law, they were all equally animated by the same exclusive zeal ; and by the same abhorrence for idolatry, which had distinguished the Jews from the other nations of the ancient world. The phi- losopher, who considered the system of polytheism as a com- position of human fraud and error, could disguise a smile of contempt under the mask of devotion, without apprehending that either the mockery, or the compliance, would expose him to the resentment of any invisible, or, as he conceived them imaginary powers. But the established religions of Paganism were seen by the primitive Christians in a much more odious ^^ Faciunt favos et vcspae ; faciunt ecclesias et Marcionitse, is the strong expression of Tertullian, which I am obliged to quote from memory. In the time of Epiphanius (advers. Ha^reses, p. 302) the Marcionites were very numerous in Italy, Syria, Egypt, Arabia, and Persia. ^^ Augus'tin is a memorable instance of this gradual progress from reason to faith. He was, during several years, engaged in the Mani« jjhajan sect. larity." The first Christians were acquainted with a number of sayings ot Jesus Christ, whif^h are not related in our Gospels, and indeed have never Deen written. Why might not St. Ignatius, who had lived with the ii pes- tles or thi'ir disciples, repeat in other words that which St. Luke has rehted.'particularly at a time when, being in prison, he could have the Gospels at hand ? Pearson, Vind. Ign pp. 2, 9; p. 39G, iii to/a. ii. Fatre* Ajost. ed. Coteler. — G OF THE ROMAN E-'^'PIRi:. o23 and formidable liglit. It was the universal sentinient bolh of the church and of heretics, that the daemons were the authors, the patrons, and the objects of idolatry.^^ Those rebellious spirits who had been degraded from the rank of angels, and cast down into the infernal pit, were still permitted to roam upon earth, to torment the bodies, and to seduce the minds, of sinful men. The daemons soon discovered and abused the natural propensity of the human heart towards devotion, and, artfully withdrawing the adoration of mankind from their Crea- tor, they usurped the place and honors of the Supreme Deity. By the success of their malicious contrivances, they at once gratified their own vanity and revenge, and obtained the only comfort of which they were yet susceptible, the hope of involving the human species in the participation of their guilt and misery. It was confessed, or at least it was imagined, that they had distributed among themselves the most impor- tant characters of polytheism, one daemon assuming the name and attributes of Jupiter, another of iEsculapius, a third of Venus, and a fmirth perhaps of Apollo ; ^'^ and that, by the advantage of their long experience and aerial nature, they were enabled to e.xecute, with sufficient skill and dignity, the parts which they nad undertaken. They lurked in the tem- ples, instituted festivals and sacrifices, invented fables, pro- nounced oracles, and were frequently allowed to perform miracles. The Christians, who, by the interposition of evil spirits, could so readily explain every praeternatural appear- ance, were disposed and even desirous to admit the most extravagant fictions of the Pagan mythology. But the belief of the Christian was accompanied with horror. The most trifling mark of respect to the national worship he considered Qs a direct homaga yielded to the daemon, and as an act of rebellion against the majesty of God. In consequence of this opinion, it was the first but arduous duty of a Christian to preserve himself pure and undefiled by the practice of idolatry. The religion of the nations was not merely a speculative doctrine professed in the schoo's or preached in the temples. The innumerable deities and rites ** The unanimous sentiment of the primitive church is very clearl; explained by Justin Martyr, Apolog. Major, by Athenagoras, Legal c. 22, ixc, and by I.actantius, Institut. Divin. ii. 14 — 19. " Tertullian (Apolog. c. 23) alleges the confession of the daemon themselves as often as they wore tormented \fy the Christian cxoreisU 524 THE DECLINE AND FALL of polytheism were closely interwoven with every circum stance of business or pleasure, of public or of private life Rnd it seemed impossible to escape the observance of them without, at the same time, renouncing the commerce of man kind, and all the offices and amusements of society.^" The important transactions of peace and war were prepared of concluded by solemn sacrifices, in which the magistrate, the senator, and the soldier, were obliged to preside or to partici- pate.''^ The public spectacles were an essential part of the cheerful devotion of the Pagans, and the gods were supposed to accept, as the most grateful offering, the games that the prince and people celebrated in honor of their peculiar fes- tivals.^2 The Christian, who with pious horror avoided the abomination of the circus or the theatre, found himself encom- passed with infernal snares in every convivial entertainment as often as his friends, invoking the hospitable deities, poured out libations to each other''s happiness.''^ When the bride, struggling with well-affected reluctance, was forced in hyme- nceal pomp over the threshold of her new habitation,'*^ or when the sad procession of the dead slowly moved towards the funeral pile ; ''^ the Christian, on these interesting occa- ^^ TertuUian has written a most severe treatise against idolatry, to caution his brethren against the hourly danger of incurring that guilt. Recogita sylvam, et quantiB latitant spinie. De Coronfi Militis, c. 10. ■*' The Iloman senate was always held in a temple or consecrated place. (Aulas Gcllius, xiv. 7.) Before they entered on business, every senator dropped some wine and frankincense on the altar. Sueton. in August, c. 35. ''* See TertuUian, De Spcctaculis. This severe reformer shows nc more indulgence to a tragedy of Euripides, than to a combat of gladi- ators. The dress of the actors particularly offends him. By the use of the lofty buskin, they impiously strive to add a cubit to their stature, c. 23. *^ The ancient practice of concluding the entertainment with liba- tions, may be found in every classic. Socrates and Seneca, in their last moments, made a noble application of this custom. Postquam Btagnum calidae aquae introiit, respergens proximos sers'orum, additi\ voce, libare se liquorem ilium Jovi Liberator!. Tacit. Annal. xv. 64. ■'■' See the elegant but idolatrous hymn of Catullus, on the nuptials of Manlius and Julia. O Hymen, Hymensee 16 ! Quis huic Deo compararier ausit ? *^ The ancient funerals (in those of Misenus and Pallas) are no less accvirately described by Virgil, than they are illustrated by his com- mentator Servius. The pile itself was an altar, the flames were fed with the blood of victims, and all the as.'iiiiitants were sprinkled wiib liiBtral water. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 52f Bions was compelled to desert the pers ms wlio were the dear- est to him, rather than contract the guih inherent to Miose im- pious ceremonies. Every art and every trade that was in the 'east concerned in the framing or adorning of idols was pol- luted by the stain of idolatry ; '"^ a severe sentence, since it devoted to eternal misery the far greater part of ihe comniu- nitv, which is employed in the exercise of liberal or mechanic professions. If we cast our eyes over the numerous rcniE-ins of antiquity, we shall perceive, that besides the immediate representations of the gods, and the holy instruments of their ft'orship, the elegant forms and agreeable fictions consecratea by the imagination of the Greeks, were introduced as the richest ornaments of the houses^ the dress, and the furniture of the Pagans.^" Even the arts of music and painting, of elo- quence and poetry, flowed from the same impute origin. In the style of the fathers, Apollo and the Muses were the organs* of the infernal spirit ; Homer and Virgil were the most emi- nent of his servants ; and the beautiful mythology which per vades and animates the compositions of their genius, is des- tined to celebrate the glory of the dicmons. Even the com- mon language of Greece and Rome abounded with familiar but impious expressions, which the imprudent Christian might too carelessly utter, or too patiently hear.'*'^ The dangerous temptations which on every side lurked in ambush to surprise the unguarded believer, assailed him with redoubled violence on the days of solemn festivals. So art fully were they framed and disposed throughout the year, thai superstition always wore the appearance of pleasure, and «« Tcrtullian dc Idololatria, c. 11.* •" Sec every part of Montl'aucoii's Antiquities. Even the reverses of the Greek and Roman coins were frequently of an idolatrous nature. Here indeed the scrui)les of the Christian were suspended oy a strouf^er passion. f '*" Tcrtullian de Idololatria, c. 20, 21. 22. If a Pagan friend (on •Jio occasion jjcrhaps of sneezing) used the familiar expression of •'Jupiter bless you," the Christian was obliged to protest against the Uvinity of Jupiter. • The exagji;prated and declamatory opinions of Tcrtullian ought not o b.- taken as the general sentiment of the early Christians. Gibbon has ■«o often allowed himself to consider the peculiar notions of certain Fathers of the Church as inherent in Christianity. This is not accurate. -G. t All this Bcrupulous nicety is at variance with the decision of St. Paui tbout meat otfeied to idols, 1 Cor. x. 21 — 32 — M. 526 THE DECLINE AND FALL. often of virtue ^^ Some of the most sacred festivals in the Roman ritual were destined to salute the new calends of Jan- uary with vows of public and private felicity; to indulge the pious remembrince of the dead and living ; to ascertain the inviolable bounds of property ; to hail, on the return of spring, the genial powers of fecundity ; to perpetuate the two mem- orable ffiras of Rome, the foundation of the city and that of the republic ; and to restore, during the humane license of the Saturnalia, the primitive equality of mankind. Some idea may be conceived of the abhorrence of the Christians for such impious ceremonies, by the scrupulous delicacy which they displayed on a much less alarming occasion. On days of general festivity, it was the custom of the ancients to adorn their doors with lamps and with branches of laurel, and to crown their heads with a garland of flowers. This innocent and elegiint practice might perhaps have been tolerated as a mere civil institution. But it most unluckily happened that the doors were under the protection of the household gods, that the laurel was sacred to the lover of Daphne, and that garlands of flowers, though frequently worn as a symbol either of joy or mourning, had been dedicated in their first origin to the service of superstition. The trembling Christians, who were persuaded in this instance to comply with the fashion of their country, and the commands of the magistrate, labored under the most gloomy apprehensions, from the reproaches of their own conscience, the censures of the church, and the denunciations of divine vengeance.^** *' Consult the most labored work of Ovid, his imperfect Fasti. He finished no more than the first six months of the year. The eompila- tion of Macrobius is called the Saturnalia, but it is only a small part of the first book that bears any relation to the title. *° Turtullian has composed a defence, or rather panegj-ric, of tho rash action of a Christian soldier, who, by throwing away his crown of laurel, had exposed himself and his brethren to the most imminent danger.* By the mention of the emperors, (Severus and Caracalla,) it is evident, notwithstanding the wislios of M. do Tillemont, that TcrtulHan composed his treatise Do Coronfi long before he was en- gaged in the errors of the Montanists. See Mcmoires Ecclcsiastiques torn. iii. p. 384.t * The soldier did not tear off his crown to throw it down with contempt ; ae did not even throw it away ; he lield it in his hand, while others wore It on their heads. Solus hbero csipitc, ornamcnto in nianu otioso. — G. t Tertullian docs not expressly name the two empoiDrs, Severus and Caracalla : he speaks only of two euiperurs, and of a long peace which the OF THE ROMAN KMPIRE. 5'27 Such was the anxious diligence which was requited to guard the chustity of the gospel from the infectious breath of idolatry. The superstitious observances of public or private rites were carelessly practised, from education and halnt, by the followers of the established religion. But as often as they occurred, they afforded the Christians an opportunity of de- claring and confirining their zealous opposition. By these frequent protestations their attachment to tlie faith was contin- ually fortilied ; and in proportion to the increase of zeal, they combated with the more ardor and success in the holy war, which they had undertaken against the empire of the demons. II. The writings of Cicero ^^ represent in the most li\ely colors the ignorance, the errors, and the uncertainty of the ancient philosophers with regard to the immortality of the soul. When they are desirous of arming their disciples against the fear of death, they inculcate, as an obvious . though melancholy position, that the fatal stroke of our disso- lution releases us from the calamities of life ; and that those can no longer suffer, who no longer e.xist. Yet there were a few sages of Greece and Rome who had conceived a more exalted, and, in some respects, a juster idea of human nature, Jiough it must be confessed, that in the sublime inquiry, '.heir reason had been often guided by their imagination, and that their imagination had been prompted by their vanity. When they viewed with complacency the extent of their own mental powers, when they exercised the various faculties of memory, of fancy, and of judgment, in the most profound speculations, or the most important labors, and when they reflected on the desire of fame, which transported them into future ages, far beyond the bounds of death and of the grave, they were *' In particular, the first book of the Tusculan Questions, and the treatise De Senectutc, and the Somnium Scipioiiis, contain, in the most beautiful language, every thing that Grecian philosopliy, or Uoman good sense, could possibly suggest on this dark but iniportanf object. clmrch had enjoyed. It is generally agreed that TertuUian became a Montanist about the year 200 : his worit, de Corona Militis, appears to have been written, at the earliest, about the year "202 before the persecution of Keverus : it may be maintainc i, tlien, that it is subsequent to the Monta- nism of the author. See Mosheim, Diss, de Apol. Tertull. p. 53. Biblioth. rais. Amsterd. torn. x. part ii. p. 292. Cave's Hist. Lit. p. 92, 93. — G. The state oi Tcrtu.lian's opinions at the particular period is almost an idle question. " The fiery African " is not at any time to be considered a Uar representative of Christianity. — M. 628 THf DECLINE AND FALL unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of the fuijd, or to suppose that a being, for whose dignity they entertained the most sincere admiration, could be limited to a spot of earth, and to a few years of duration. With this favorable pre- , possession they summoned to their aid the science, or rather j the language, of Metaphysics. They soon discovered, that as none of the properties of matter will apply to the operations of the mind, the human soul must consequently be a substance distinct from the body, pure, simple, and spiritual, incapable of dissolution, and susce^Jtible of a much higher degree of virtue and happmess after the release from its corporeal prison. From tliese specious and noble principles, the philosophers who trod in the footsteps of Plato deduced a very unjustifia- ble conclusion, since they asserted, not only the future immor- tality, but the past eternity, of the human soul, which they were too apt to consider as a portion of the infinite and self- existing spirit, which pervades and sustains the universe.^^ \ doctrine thus removed beyond the senses and the experience of mankind, might serve to amuse the leisure of a philosophic mind ; or, in the silence of solitude, it might sometimes impart a ray of comfort to desponding virtue ; but the faint impression which had been received in the schools, was soon obliterated by the commerce and business of active life. We are sufficiently acquainted with the eminent persons who flourished in the age of Cicero, and of the first Caesai-s, with their actions, their characters, and their motives, to be assured that their conduct in this life was never regulated by any serious conviction of the rewards or punishments of a future state. At the bar and in the senate of Rome the ablest ora- tors were not apprehensive of giving offence to their hearers, by exposing that doctrine as an idle and extravagant opinion, which was rejected with contempt by every man of a liberal education and understanding.^-^ Since therefore the most sublime efforts of philosophy can extend no further than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, ** The prcfixistonce of human souls, so far at least as that doctrine is compatible with religion, was adopted by many of the Greek and Latin fathers. See Beausobre, Hist, du Manicheisme, 1. vi. c. 4. " See Cicero pro Cluent. c. 61. Caesar ap. Sallust. de Bell. Ciitiliu e. oO. Juvenal. Satir. ii. 149. Esse aliquid manes, et subterranea regna, Nee purri credunt, nisi qui nondiim mre lavantur OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 529 or, at most, the probability, of a future state, there is nothing, except a divine revelation, that can ascertain the existencje and describe the condition, of the invisible country which is destined to receive the souls of men after their separation from the body But we may perceive several defects inherent to the popular religions of Greece and Rome, which rendered them vary unequal to so arduous i task. 1. The general system of their mythology was unsupported by any solid proofs ; and the wisest among the Pagans had already disclaimed its usurped authority. 2. The description of tlic infernal regions had been abandoned to the fancy of painters and of poets, who peopled them with so many phantoms and monsters, who dis- pensed their rewards and punishments with so little equity, .hat a solemn truth, the most congenial to the human heart, wsm oppressed and disgraced by the absurd mixture of the wildest fictions.^'' 3. The doctrine of a future state was scarcely considered among the devout polytheists of Greece and Rome as a fundamental article of faith. The providence of the gods, as it related to public communities rather than to private individuals, was princi[)ally displayed on the visible theatre of the present world. The petitions which were offered on the altars of Jupiter or Apollo, expressed the anx- iety of their worshippers for temporal happiness, and their Ignorance or indiiference concerning a future life.^^ The im- portant truth of the immortality uf the soul was inculcated with more diligence, as well as success, in India, in Assyria, in Egypt, and in Gaul ; and since we cannot attribute such a difference to the superior knowledge of the barbarians, we must ascribe it to the influence of an established priesthood, which employed the motives of virtue as the instrument of ambition.^^ '* The xith hook of the Odyssey gives a very dreary and incoherent account of the inferiml shades. I'indar and Virt^il have embellished the picture ; but even those poets, though more correct than their great model, arc guilty of very strange inconsistencie?. See Bayle, Responses aux Questions d'un Provincial, part iii. c. 22. ** See the .with epistle of the hrst book of Horace, the xnith Satire of Juvenal, and the iid Satire of Persius : these jjopular discourses express the se:itiment and langiuif^e of the multitude. ** If we contine ourselves to the Gauls, we may observe, that they intrusted, not only their lives, but even their money, to the security of another \\orld. Vetus ille mos Gallorum occurrit (says Valerius Maximus i. ii. c. C, p. 10) ([uos, nicmoriii proditum est, pcfunia;* mutuas, qaue his apud inferos rcddeicntur, dare solitos. The sauifl 25* 530 THE DECLINE ND FALL We might naturally expect that a principle so essential to religion, would have been revealed in the clearest terms to the chosen people of Palestine, and that it might safely have been intrusted to the hereditary priesthood of Aaron. It is incum- bent on us to adore the mysterious dispensations of Provi- dence,^'' when we discover that the doctrine of the immor- custom is more darkly insinuated by Mela, 1. iii. c. 2. It is almost needless to add, that the profits of trade hold a just proportion to the credit of the merchant, and that the Druids derived from their holy profession a character of responsibility, which could scarcely be claimed by any other order of men. *' The right reverend author of the Divine Legation of Mosea assigns a very curious reason for the omission, and most ingeniously retorts it on the unbelievers.* * The hypothesis of Warbnrton concerning this remarkable fact, which, as far as the Laio of Moses, vs unquestionable, made few disciples; and it is difficult to suppose that it could be intended by the author himself for more than a display of intellectual strength. Modern writers have ac- counted in various ways for tlie silence of the Hebrew legislator on the immortality of the soul. According to Michaelis, " Moses wrote as an historian and as a lawgiver : he regulated the ecclesiastical discipline, rather than the religious belief of his people; and the sanctions of the law being temporal, he had no occasion, and as a civil legislator could not with propriety, threaten punishments in another world." See Michaelis, Laws of Moses, art. 272, vol. iv. p. 209, Eng. Trans. ; and Syntagma Com- mentationum, p. 80, quoted by Guizot. M. Guizot adds, the " ingenious conjecture of a philosophic theologian," which approximates to an opinion long entertained by the Editor. That writer believes, that in the state of civilization at the time of the legislator, this doctrine, bccor>ie popular among the Jews, would necessarily have given birth to a multitude of idolatrous superstitions which he wished to prevent. His primary object was to establish a firm theocracy, to make his people the conservators of the doctrine of the Divine Unity, the basis upon which Christianity was hereafter to rest. He carefully excluded every thing which could obscure or weaken that doctrine. Other nations had strangely abused their notions on the immortality of the soul ; Moses wished to prevent this abuse : hence he forbade the Jews from consulting necromancers, (those who evoke the spirits of the dead.) Deut. xviii. 11. Those who reflect on the state of the Pagans and of the Jews, and on the facility with which idolatry crept in on every side, will not be astonished that Moses has not deveioi)eil a doctrine of which the influence might be more pernicious than useful to his people. Orat. Fcst. de Vita; Immort. Spe., A.C., auct. Ph. Alb. Stupfer, p. 12, 13, 2'J. Berne, 1787. Moses, as well from the intimations scattered in his writings, the passr.ga lelating to the translation of Enoch, (Gen. v. 24,) the prohiliition of necromancy, (Michaelis believes him to be the author of the Hoolj of Job, though this opinion is in general rejected; other learned writers consider this Book to be coeval with and known to Muses,) as froin his long resi- dence in Egypt, and his acquaintance with Ei^yptian wisdom, could not he ignorant of the d'^ctrine of the immortality of the soul. But this doctrine, .f popularly known amonfj the Jews, must have been i)urely Egyptian, and; U so, intimately connected with the whole relis^ious system of that coua try If W'ls m. doubt moulded up with the tenet of the trausin^«ratioii oi 01' THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 531 tality of the soul is omitted in the law of Moses ; it is darkly insinuated by the prophets ; and during the long period which elapsed between the Egyptian and the Babylonian servitudes, the hopes as well as feare of the Jews appear to have been confined within the narrow compass of the present life.^^ Af- ter Cyrus had permitted the exiled nation to return into the promised land, and after Ezra had restored the ancient records of their religion, two celebrated sects, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, insensibly arose at Jerusalem.^^ The former, selected from the more opulent and distinguished ranks of society, were strictly attached tu the literal sense of the Mosaic law, and they piously rejected the immortality of the soul, as an opinion that received no countenance from the divine book, which they revered as the only rule of their faith. To the authority of Scripture the Pharisees added that of tradition, and rhey accepted, under the name of traditions, several specula- tive tenets from the philosophy or religion of the eastern nations. The doctrines of fate or predestination, of angels and spirits, and of a future state of rewards and punishments, were in the number of these new articles of belief; and as the Pharisees, by the austerity of their manners, had drawn into their party the body of the Jewish people, the immortality of the soul became the prevailing sentiment of the synagogue, under the reign of the Asmonaean princes and pontitls. The *' See Le Clerc (Prolegomena ad Hist. Ecclesiast. sect. 1, c. 8.) His authority seems to carry the greater weight, as he has ■written » learned and judicious commentary on the books of the Old Testa- ment. *■* Joseph. Antiquitat. 1. xiii. c. 10. De Bell. Jud. ii. 8. According to the most natural interpretation of his words, the Sadducees admit- ted only the Pentateuch ; but it has pleased some modern critics to add the I'rophets to their creed, and to suppose that they contented themselves with rejecting tlie traditions of the Pharisees. Dr. Jortin has argued that point in his Kemarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 108. the soul, perhaps wth notions analogous to the emanation system of India^ in which the liunian soul was an clllux from, or indeed a part of, the Ueity. The Mosaic roliirion dnw a wide and impassable interval between the Creator and created human beings : in this it ditfored from the Egyptian jnd all the Eastern religions. As tlien the inunortalitv of the soul was ihus inseparably blended with those foreign religions which were alto;.^ether to be elfaccd from the minds of the people, and by no means necessary foi the establishment of the theocracy, Moses maintained silence on this ]>oiut, Rnd a purer notion of it was left to be developed at a more favorable period tn tilt hiiitory of man. — M. 632 THE DECLINE AND FALL temper of the Jews was incapable of contenting itself with such a cold and languid assent as might satisfy the mind of a Polythcist ; and as soon as they admitted the idea of a future state, they embraced it with the zeal which has always formed the characteristic of the nation. Their zeal, however, added nothing to its evidence, or even probability : and it was still necessary that the doctrine of lifo and immortality, which had been dictated by nature, approved by reason, and received by superstition, should obtain the sanction of divine truth from the authority and example of Christ. When the promise of eternal happiness was proposed to mankind on condition of adopting the faith, and of observing the precepts, of the gospel, it is no wonder that so advanta- geous an offer should have been accepted by great nnm.bers of every religion, of every rank, and of every province in the Roman empire. The ancient Christians were animated by a contempt for their present existence, and by a just confidence of immortality, of which the doubtful and imperfect faith of modern ages cannot give us any adequate notion. In the primitive church, the influence of truth was very powerfully strengthened by an opinion, which, however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, has not been found agreeable to experience. It was universally believed, that the end of the world, and the kingdom of heaven, were at hand.* The near approach of this wonderful event had been predicted by the apostles ; the tradition of it was preserved by their earliest disciples, and those who understood in their literal sense the discourses of Christ himself, were obliged to expect the second and glorious coBiing of the Son of Man in the clouds, before that generation was totally extinguished, which had beheld his humble condition upon earth, and which might still be witness of the calamities of the Jews under Vespasian or Hadrian. The revolution of seventeen centuries has instructed us not to press too closely the mysterious language of prophecy and revelation ; but as long as, for wise purposes, this error was permitted to subsist in the church, it was pro- ductive of the most salutary effects on the faith and practice of ('hristians, who lived in the awful expectation of thai moment, when the globe itself, and all the various race of • This was, in fact, an integral part of the Jewish notion of the Mes- •iah, from which the minds of the apostles themselves were hut gr;.Uuallj detached See Bcrtholdt, Christologia Juda;oruni, concluding chapters OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 533 mankind, should tremble at the appearance of their dlviriC Jud|j;e.''^ The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium was •ntimately connected with the second coining of Christ. As the works of the creation had been finished in six days, theii duration in their present state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years.t^i By the same analogy it was inferred, that this long period of labor and contention, which was now almost elapsed,''^ *" This expectation was countenanced by the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew, and by the first epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalo- nians. Erasmus removes the difficulty by the help of allegory and metaphor ; and the learned Grotius ventures to insinuate, that, for wise purposes, the pious deception was permitted to take place.* *' See Burnet's Sacred Theory, part iii. c. 5. This tradition may DC traced as high as the author of the Epistle of Barnabas, wlio wrote in the first century, and wlio seems to have been half a Jew.f '^ The primitive church of Antioeh computed almost (5000 years from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ. Afric'anus, Lactantius, and the Greek church, have reduced that number to ooOO, and Eusebius has contented himself with 5200 years. Tliese calcu- lations were formed on the Scptuagint, which was universally re- • Some modern theologians explain it without discovering either alli- gory or deception. They say, that Jesus Christ, after having proclaimed the ruin of Jerusalem and of the Temple, speaks of his secoiul coniint,', and the signs which were to precede it; but those who believed that tlie moment was near deceived themselves as to the sense of two words, an error which still subsists in our versions of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, .\xiv. 29, 34. In verse 29, we read, " Immediatelv after the trib- ulation of those days shall the sun be darkened," ^c. The Greek word tiOiiaf signifies all at wwe, sudtieyi/i/, jiot immediately ; so that it sigiiific^s only the sudden appearance of the signs which Jesus Christ announces, not the shortness of the interval which was to separate them from the " days of tribulation," of which he was speaking. The verse 34 is this : " Verily I say unto you. This generation sluUl not pass till all these things ohall be fulfilled." Jesus, speaking to his disciples, uses these words, .n'/r^ ycvta, which the translators have rendered by this generation, but wliich means the race, the filiation of my disciples ; that is, he speaks of a class of men, not of a generation. The true sense then, according to tliese learned men, is. In truth I tell you that this race of men, of which you are the commencement, shall not pass away till this shall take place ; that is to say, the succession of Christians shall not cease till his coming. See Commentary of M. Paulus on the New Test., edit. 1802, tom. iii.p. 445. 146. — G. ^ ' Others, as Rosenmuller and Kuinoel, in loc, confine this passage to a bighly figurative description of the ruins of the Jewish city and polity. t In fact it is purely Jewish. See Mosheim, De Reb. Christ, ii. 8 .jphtfoot's Works, 8vo. edit. vol. iii. p. 37- Bertholdt, Christologia Jud» orum, oh 33. — M. 51J4 ri:E decline and fall would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand years ; and that Christ, with the triumphant band of the saints and the elect who had escaped death, or who had been miraculously revived, would reign upon earth till the time appointed for th« last and general resurrection. So pleasing was this hope to the mind of believers, that the lYew Jerusalem^ the seat of tins blissful kingdom, was quickly adorned with all the gayest colors of the imagination. A felicity consisting only of pure and spiritual pleasure would have appeared too refined for its inhabitants, who were still supposed to possess their human nature and senses. A garden of Eden, with the amusementg of the pastoral life, was no longer suited to the advanced state of society which prevailed under the Roman empire. A city was therefore erected of gold and precious stones, and a supernatural plenty of corn and wine was bestowed on the adjacent territory ; in the free enjoyment of whose sponta- neous productions, the happy and benevolent people was never to be restrained by any jealous laws of exclusive prop- erty.*'^ The assurance of such a Millennium was carefully inculcated by a succession of fathers from Justin Martyr,<5^ and Irenoeus, who conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, down to Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of Constantine.*^^ Though it might not be universally ccived during the six first centuries. The authority of the vulgate and of the Hebrew text has determined the moderns, Protestants as well as Catholics, to prefer a period of about 4000 years ; though, in the study of profane antiquity, they often find themselves straitened by those narrow limits.* ^3 Most of these pictures were borrowed from a misrepresentation of Isaiah, Daniel, and the Apocalypse. One of the grossest images may be found in IreniEus, (1. v. p. 455,) the disciple of Papias, who had seen the apostle St. John. **• See the second dialogue of Justin with Triphon, and the seventh book of Lactantius. It is unnecessary to allege all the intermediate fathers, as the fact is not disputed. Yet the curious reader may consult Daillc de Usu Patrum, 1. ii. c. 4. ^ The testimony of Justin of his own faith and that of his ortho- dox brethren, in "the doctrine of a Millennium, is delivered in live * Most of the more learned modern Er.glish Protestants. Dr. Hales, Mr. Fabcr, Dr. Kusscl, as well as the Continental wTiters, adopt the larp;er chronology. Tliere is little doubt tliat the narrower system was framed by the Jews of Titierias ; it was clearly neith'jr that of St. Paul, nor of Jose- phus, nor of tlie Samaritan Text. It is greatly to be regretted that th« chronology of tlie earlier Scriptures should ever have been r;ade a religious ^uef tion. — M. OV THK ROMAN EMPIRE. 535 received, it appears to have been the reigning sentiment of the orthodox believers; and it seems so well adapted to th« desires and apprehensions of mankind, that it must have eon- tributed in a vfjry considerable degree to the progress of the Christian faith. But when the edifice of the church waa nhnost completed, the temporary support was laid aside. The doctrme of Christ's reign upon earth was at first treated as a profound allegory, was considered by degrees as a doubtful and useless opinion, and was at length rejected as the absurd invention of heresy and fanaticism.'''' A mysterious propliecy, which still forms a_^art of the sacred canon, but which wag thought to favor the e.xploded sentiment, has very narrowly escaped the proscription of the church.^'' clearest, and most solemn manner, (Dialog, cum Tryphonte Jucl. p 177, 178, edit. JJencdictin.) If in the beginning of tliis important passage there is any thing like an inconsistency, we may impute it, as we think proper, either to the author or to his transcribers.* ^* Dujjin, Bibliotheciuc Ecclesiastique, torn. i. p. 223, torn. ii. p. 366 and Aloshcim, p. 720 ; though the latter of these learned divines is not altogether candid on this occasion. *' In the council of Laodicea, (about the year 360,) the Apocalypse was tacitly excluded from the sacred canon, by the same churches of Asia to which it is addressed ; and we may learn from the complaint of Sulpicius Severus, that their sentence had been ratitiod by the greater number of Christians of his time. From what causes then is the Apocalypse at present so generally received by the Greek, the Ko'jian, and the Protestant churches r The following ones may be as.'^igned. 1. The Greeks were subdued by the authority of an im- pastor, wlio, in the si.xth century, assumed the character of Dionysius the Areopagite. 2. A just apprehension, that the grammarians might become more important than the theologians, engaged the council of Trent to ti.x. the seal of their infallibility on all the books of 8criptui-e contained in the Latin Vulgate, in the number of which the Apoca- lypse was fortunately included. (Fr. Paolo, Istoria del Concilio Tri- dentino, 1. ii.) 3. The advantage of turning those mysterious prophe- cies against the See of Home, inspired the Protestants with uncora- r^on veneration for so useful an ally. See the ingenious and elegant discourses of the present bishop of Litchticld on that unpromising Bubject.f • The Millennium is described in what once stood as the XLIst Article of the English Church (sec Collier, Ecclcs. Hist., for Articles of Edw. VI.) as "a fable of Jewish dotage." The whole of these gross and earthly im- ages may be traced in the works which treat on tiie Jewish traditions, ir. Lightfoot, Schoetgen, and Eisenmenger ; " Dus entdeckte Judenthum," t .i. 809; and briefly in Bertholdt, i. c. 38, 39. —M. t The exclusion of the Apocalypse is not improbably assigned to its obvious unliniess to be read in churches. It is to be feared that a histor) 536 THE DKCLINli; AND FALL Whilst the happin-ss and glory of a temporal reign were promised to the disciples of Christ, the most dreadful calami- ties were denounced against an unbelieving world. The edi- fication of the new Jerusalem was to advance by equal steps with the destruction of the mystic Babylon ; and as long as the emperors who reigned before Constantine persisted in the profession of idolatry, the epithet of Babylon was applied to the city and to the empire of Rome. A regular series was prepared of all the r«oral and physical evils which can afflict a flourishing nation ; intestine discord, and the invasion of the fiercest barbarians from the unknown regions of the North ; pestilence and famine, comets and eclipses, earthquakes and inundations.^^ All these were only so many preparatory and alarming signs of the great catastrophe of Rome, when the country of the Scipios and Caesars should be consumed by a flame from Heaven, and the city of the seven hills, with hei palaces, her temples, and her triumphal arches, should be buried in a vast lake of fire and brimstone. It might, however, afford some consolation to Roman vanity, that the period of their empire would be that of the world itself; wliich, as it had once perished by the element of water, was destined to experience a second and a speedy destruction from the element of fire. In the opinion of a general conflagration, the faith of the Christian very happily coincided with the tradition of the East, the philosophy of the Stoics, and the analogy of Nature ; and even the country, which, from religious motives, had been chosen for the origin and principal scene of the conflagration, was the best adapted for that purpose by natural and physical causes ; by its deep caverns, beds of sulpiuir, and numerous volcanoes, of which those of JExna., of Vesuvius, and of Lipari, exhibit a very imperfect representation. The calmest and most intrepid sceptic could not refuse to acknowledge that the destruction of the present system of the world by fire, ** Lactautius (Institut. Divin. vii. 15, &c.) relates the dismal tale 01 futurity with groat spirit aud eloquence.* of the interpretation of the Apocalypse would not {^\ye a very favorabl* view either of the wisdom or the charity of the successive ages of Christi- anity. Wctstein's interjirctation, differently modified, is adopted by most Continental scholars. — M. • Lactantius had a notion of a preat Asiatic empire, which was pre- Tiously to rise on the ruins of the Jioman : quod Romanum nomen (horrel animus dicere, sed dicani, quia f iturum est) toUetur de terra, e\ imperiura bi Abiam revertetur. — M, OF THE ROMAN EIVIPIRS. 537 was in itself extremely probable. The Christian, who fc unded his belief much less on the fallacious arfruinents of reason than on the authority of tradition and the interpretation of Scripture, expected it with terror and confidence as a certain and approaching event ; and as his mind was perpet- ually filled with the solemn idea, he considered every disaster that happened to the empire as an infallible symptom of an expiring world.^^ The condemnation of the wisest and most virtuous of the Pagans, on account of their ignorance or disbelief of the divine truth, seems to offend the reason and the humanity of the present age.'** But the primitive church, whose faith was of a much firmer consistence, delivered over, without hesitation, to eternal torture, the far greater part of the human species. A charitable hope might perhaps be indulged in favor of Socrates, or some other sages of antiquity, who had consulted the light of reason before that of the gospel had arisen.'^ But it was unanimously affirmed, that those who, since the birth or the death of Christ, had obstinately persisted in the worship of the daemons, neither deserved nor could expect a pardon from the irritated justice of the Deity. These rigid sentiments, '"hich had been unknown to the ancient world, appear to havo infused a spirit of bitterness into a system of love and bar mony. The ties of blood and friendship were frequently torn asunder by the difference of religious faith ; and the Christians, who, in this world, found themselves oppressed by the power *' On this subject every reader of taste will be entertained with the third part of Burnet's Sacred Theory. He blends philosoijhy, Scripture, and tradition, into one magnificent system ; in the descrip- tion of which he displays a strength of fancy not inferior to that of Milton himself. '" And yet whatever may be the language of individuals, it is still the public doctrine of all the Christian churches ; nor can even our own refuse to admit tlic conclusions which must be drawn from the viiith and the xviiith of her Articles. The Janseuists, who liave so diUgently studied the works of the fatiicrs, maintain this sentiment with distinguishet. Middleton (Free In- quiry, p. 96, &c.) observes, that as this pretension of all othci-s was the most dithcult to support by art, it was the soonest given up. The observation suits his hypothesis.]; * Oibbon should have noticed the distinct and remarkable passage frora Chrysostom, quoted by Middleton, (Works, vol. i. p. 105,) in wliich he af- firms the long discontinuance of miracles as a notorious fact. — ^M. J This passage of Iren.eus contains no allusion to the gift of tongues ; it is merely an apology for a rude and unpolished Greek style, which could not be expected from one who passed his life in a remote and barbarou* province, and was continually obliged to speak the Celtic language. — M. * Exce()t in the life of Pachomius, an Egyptian monk of the fourth cen« •nry, (see Joitin, Ecc. Hist. i. p. 368, edit. 1805,) and the latter ^not ea?- 540 THE DECLINE AND JALL inspiration, whether it was conveyed in the form of a waking or of a s eeping vision, is described as a favor very liberally bestowed on all ranks of the faithful, on women as on elders, on boys as well as upon bishops. When their devout minda were sufficiently prepared by a course of prayer, of fasting, and of vigils, to receive the extraordinary impulse, they were ti-ansported out of their senses, and delivered in ecstasy what was inspired, being mere organs of the Holy Spirit, just as a pipe or flute is of him who blows into it.''^ We may add, tfhat the design of these visions was, for the most part, either to disclose the future history, or to guide the present iidminis- tration, of the church. Tbe expulsion of the daemons from the bodies of those unhappy persons whom they had been per- mitted to torment, was considered as a signal though ordi- nary triumph of religion, and is repeatedly alleged by the ancient apologists, as the most convi'ncing evidence of the truth of Christianity. The awful ceremony was usually per- formed in a public manner, and in the presence of a great number of spectators ; the patient was relieved by the power or skill of the exorcist, and the vanquished daemon was heard to confess that he was one of the fabled gods of antiquity, who had impiously usurped the adoration of mankind.''^ But the miraculous cure of diseases of the most inveterate or even preternatural kind, can no longer occasion any surprise, when we recollect, that in the days of Irena?us, about the end of the second century, the resurrection of the dead was very far from being esteemed an uncommon event ; that the miracle was frequently performed on neces.«ciry occasions, by great fasting and the joint supplication of the church of the place, and that the persons thus restored to their prayers had lived '* Athenaj^oras in Legatione. Justin Martyr, Cohort, ad Gentes. rertullian advers. Marcionit. 1. iv. These descriptions are not very . unlike the prophetic fury, for which Cicero (de Divinat. ii. 64) ex- presses so little reverence. '" TcrtuUian (Apolog. c. 23) throws out a bold defiance to the Pagan magistrates. Of the primitive miracles, the power of exorcising ia the only one which has been assumed by Protestants.* lier) lives of Xavier, there is no claim laid to the gift of tcBgues since the time of Iren^us ; and of this claim Xavier's own letters are profoundly •iient. See Douglas's Criterion, p. 76, edit. 1807. — M. • But by Protestants neither of the most enlightened a^<» 0"r moM reasoning n.inds. — M. n> THt ROMAN EMPIRE. 541 Rfterwurds a.noiig them many yearsJ^ At such a period, when faith could boast of so many wonderful victories over death, it seems difficult to account for the sce[)licism of those philosophers, who still rejected and derided the doctrine of the resurrection. A noble Grecian had rested on this important ground the whole controversy, and promised Theophilus. JVishop of Antioch, that if he could be gratified with the sight of a single person who had been actually raised from the dead, he would immediately embrace the Christian reli- gion. It is somewhat remarkable, that the prelate of the first eastern church, however anxious for the conversion of hia friend, thought proper to decline this fair and reasonable challenge.''^ The miracles of the primitive church, after obtaining the sanction of ages, have been lately attacked in a very free and ingenious inquiry ,"^9 which, though it has met with the most favorable reception from the public, appears to have excited a general scandal among the divines of our own as well as of the other Protestant churches of Europe. s*^ Our diflx3rcnt sentiments on this subject will be much less influenced by any particular arguments, than by our habits of study and reflec- tion ; and, above all, by the degree of evidence which we ^^ Irenaeus adv. Haereses, 1. ii. 56, 57, 1. v. c. 6. Mr. Dodwell (Dis- Bertat. ad Irenaeum, ii. 42) concludes, that the second century waa still more fertile in miracles than the first.* " Theophilus ad Autolycum, 1. i. p. 345. Edit. Benedictin. Paris, 1742.T '* Dr. Middleton sent out his Introduction in the year 1747, pub- lished his Free Inquiry in 1749, and before his death, which happened in 1750, he had prepared a vindication of it against his numerous adversaries. •*" The university of Oxford conferred degrees on his opponents. From the indignation of Mosheim, (p. 221,) we may discover the sentiments of the Lutheran divines. J * It is difficult to answer Middleton's obiection to this statement of Irenjcus : " It is very strange, that from the time of the apostles there is not a single instance of this miracle to be found in the three first centn- ries ; except a single case, slightly intimated in Eusebius, from the Works cf Papias ; which he seems tr) rank among the other fabulous stories de- li-ercd by that weak man. Middleton, Works, vol. i. p. 59. Bp. Douglas (Criterion, p. 389) would consider Irenaeus to speak of what had " been performed formerly," not in his own time. — M. t A candid sceptic might discern some impripricty in the Bishop being called upon to perform a miracle on demand. — M. I Yet many Protestant divines will now without reluctaiice (^on6nt curaQles to the time of the apostles, or at least to Ihe first century. — M 642 THE DECLINE AND FAU, have accustomed ourselves to require for the proof of a mirac* ulous event. The duty of an historian does not call upon him to interpose his private judgment in this nice and impor. tant controversy ; but he ought not to dissemble the difficulty of adopting such a theory as may reconcile the interest of religion with that of reason, of making a proper application of that theory, and of defining with precision the limits of tnai nappy period, exempt from error and from deceit, to which we might be disposed to extend the gift of supernatura. powers. From the first of the fathers to the last of the popes, a succession of bishops, of saints, of martyrs, and of mira- cles, is continued without interruption ; and the progress of superstition was so gradual, and almost imperceptible, that we know not in what particular link we should break the chain of tradition. Every age bears testimony to the wonderful events by which it was distinguished, and its testimony appears no less weighty and respectable than that of the preceding generation, till we are insensibly led on to accuse our own inconsistency, if in the eighth or in the twelfth centuiy we deny to the venerable Bede, or to the holy Bernard, the same degree of confidence which, in the second century, we had so .liberally granted to Justin or to Irenseus.^i If the truth of any of those miracles is appreciated by their apparent use and propriety, every age had unbelievers to convince, heretics to confute, and idolatrous nations to convert ; and sufficient motives might always be produced to justify the interposition of Heaven. And yet, since every friend to revelation is per i?uaded of the reality, and every reasonable man is convinced of the cessation, of miraculous powers, it is evident that there must have been some period in which they were either sud- denly or gradually withdrawn from the Christian church. Whatever asra is chosen for that purpose, the death of the apostles, the conversion of the Roman empire, or the extinc- tion of the Arian heresy ,^2 the insensibility of the Christians who lived at that time will equally afford a just matter of ♦'I It may seem somewhat remarkable, that Bernard of Clairvaux, who records so many miracles of his friend St. Malachi, never takes Hny notice of his own, which, in their turn, however, are carefully related by his companions and disciples. In the long scries of eccle- iiastical history, does there exist a single instance of a saint oneerting that he himself possessed the gift of miracles ? '• The conversion of Constantino is the acra which is ii.osf usually flxed by Protestants. The more rational di^-ir s are u.iwilling to CF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 543 surprise. They si 11 supported their pretensions after they had lost their power. Credulity performed the office of faith fanaticism was peimitted to assume the language of inspira- tion, and the effects of accident or contrivance were ascribed to supernatural causes. The recent experience of genuine miracles should have instructed the Christian world in the ways of Providence, and habituated their eye (if we may use a very inadeqjate expression) to the style of the divine artist. Sliould the most skilful painter of modern Italy presume to decorate his feeble imitations with the name of Raphael or of Correggio, the insolent fraud would be soon discovered, and indignantly rejected. Whatever opinion may be entertained of the miracles of the primitive church since the time of the apostles, this unresisting softness of temper, so conspicuous among the believers of the second and third centuries, proved of some accidental benefit to the cause of truth and religion. In modern times, a latent and even involuntary scepticism adheres to the most pious dis- positions. Their admission of supernatural truths is much less an active consent than a cold and passive acquiescence. Ac- customed long since to observe and to respect the variable order of Nature, our reason, or at least our imagination, is not sufficiently prepared to sustain the visible action of the Deity. But, in the first ages of Christianity, the situation of mankind was extremely different. The most curious, or the most cred- ulous, among the Pagans, were often persuaded to enter into a society which asserted an actual claim of miraculous powers. The primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground, and their minds were exercised by the habits of believing the admit the miracles of the ivth, whilst the more credulous are un-vvill- ng to reject those of the vth century.* • All this appears to proceed on ftie principle that any distinct line raa be drawn in an unphilosophic age between wonders and miracles, or be- tween what piety, from their unexpected and extraordinary nature, the marvellous concurrence of secondary causes to some remarkable end, may consider providential interpositio7is, and miracles strictly so called, in which the laws of nature are suspended og- violated. It is impossible to assign, on one side, limits to hiiman cicdulity, on the other, to the influence of the imagination on the bodily frame ; but some of the miracles recorded in the Gospels arc such palpable imjKissibiUiics, according to the known laws and operations of nature, tnat if recorded on sufficient evidence, and the evi- dence we believe to be that of eye-witnesses, we cannot reject them, with- out either asserting, with Hume, that no evidence can prove a mirade, or that the Author of Nature has no power of suspending its ordinary law* But which of the post -aposfoUc miracles will bear this test ? — M. 544 THE DECLINE AND FALL most extraordinary events. They felt, or they fancied, tha; on every side they were incessantly assaulted by daemons comforted by visions, instructed by prophecy, and surprisingly delivered from danger, sickness, and from death itself, by the supplications of the church. The real or imaginary prodigies, of which they so frequently conceived themselves to be the objects, the instruments, or the spectators, very happily dis- posed them to adopt with the same ease, but with far greater justice, the authentic wonders of the evangelic history ; and thus miracles that exceeded not the measure of their own experience, inspired them with the most lively assurance of mysteries which were acknowledged to surpass the limits of their understanding. It is this deep impression of supernatural truths, which has been so much celebrated under the name of faith ; a state of mind described as the surest pledge of the divine favor and of future felicity, and recommended as the first, or perhaps the only merit of a Christian. According to the more rigid doctors, the moral virtues, which may be equally practised by infidels, are destitute of any value or efficacy in the work of our justification. IV. But the primitive Christian demonstrated his faith by his virtues ; and it was very justly supposed that the divine persuasion, which enlightened or subdued the understanding, must, at the same time, purify the heart, and direct the ac- tions, of the believer. The first apologists of Christianity who justify the innocence of their brethren, and the writers of a later period who celebrate the sanctity of their ances- tors, display, in the most lively colors, the reformation of manners which was introduced into the world by the preaching of the gospel. As it is my intention to remark only such human causes as were permitted to second the influence of revelauon, I shall slightly mention two motives which might naturally render the lives of the primitive Christians much purer and more austere than those of their Pagan contempo- raries, or their degenerate successors ; repentance for their past sins, and the laudable desire of supporting the reputation of the society in which they were engaged.* * These, in the opinion of the editor, arc the most uncandid parapraphs in Giljbon's History. He oupht either, with manly courage, to have denied tne Hioral reformation introduced by Christianity, or fairly to have invest! gated all its motives; not to have confined himself to an insidious and larcastic dcsfz-'plion of the less pure and generous elements of the Chris- tian chai actor as it appeared even at that early time. — -M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 545 It 19 a vciy ancient reproach, suggested by the ignorance or tlie malice of infuielity, that the Christians aUurcd into iheir party the most atrocious criminals, wlio, as soon as {aey were touched by a sense of remorse, were easily persuaded to wash away, in the water of baptism, the guilt of their past conduct, for which the temples of the gods refused to grant them any expiation. But this reproach, when it is cleared from misrepresentation, contributes as much to the honor as it did to the increase of the church.'*^ The friends of Christian- ity may acknowledge without a blush, that many of the most eminent saints had been before their baptism the most aban- doned sinners. Those persons, who in the world had followed, though in an imperfect manner, the dictates of benevolence and propriety, derived such a calm satisfaction from the opin- ion of their own rectitude, as rendered them much less sus- ceptible of the sudden emotions of shame, of grief, and of terror, which have given birth to so many wonderful conver- sions. After the. example of their divine Master, the mission- aries of the gospel disdained not the society of men, and especially of women, oppressed by the consciousness, and very often by the effects, of their vices. As they emerged from sin and superstition to the glorious hope of immortality, they resolved to devote themselves to a life, not only of virtue, but of penitence. The desire of perfection became the ruling passion of their soul ; and it is well known, that while reason embraces a cold mediocrity, our passions hurry us, with rapid violence, over the space which lies between the most opposite extremes. When the new converts had been enrolled in the number of the faithful, and were admitted to the sacraments of the church, they found themselves restrained from relapsmg into their past disorders by another consideration of a less spiritual, but of a very innocent and respectable nature. Any particular society that has departed from the great body of the nation, or the religion to which it belonged, immediately becomes the object of universal as well as invidious observation. In pro- portion to the smallncss of its numbers, the character of the sor.iety may be affected by the virtues and vices of the {)ersons who compose it ; and every member is engaged to watch with *^ The imputations of Cclsus and Julian, with the defence of the fatliers, arc very fairly stated by Spauhcim, Commentairo sur les CkJsai-s de Julian, p. 468. 20 646 THli DECLIKE AND FALL the most vigilant attention over his own behavior, and oven that of his brethren, since, as he must expect to incur a part of the common disgrace, he may hope to enjoy a share of the common reputation. When the Christians of Bithynia wero brought before me tribunal of the younger Pliny, the)- assured the proconsul, that, far from hfeing engaged in any unlawful conspiracy, they were bound by a solemn obligation to abstain from the commission of those crimes which disturb the privato or public peace of society, from theft, robbery, adultery, per- jury, and fraud. ^'^* Near a century afterwards, Tertuilian, witii an honest pride, could boast, that very few Christians had suffered by ihe hand of the executioner, except on account of their religion.^^ Their serious and sequestered life, averse to the gay luxury of the age, inured them to chastity, temper- ance, economy, and all the sober and domestic virtues. As the greater number were of some trade or profession, it was incumbent on them, by the strictest integrity and the fairest dealing, to remove the suspicions which the profane are too apt to conceive against the appearances of sanctity. The contempt of the world exercised them in the habits of humility, meekness, and patience. The more they were persecuted, the more closely they adhered to each other. Their mutual charily and unsuspecting confidence has been remarked by infidels, and was too often abused by perfidious friends.^^ It is a very honorable circumstance for the morals of the primitive Christians, that even their faults, or rather errors, were derived from an excess of virtue. The bishops and doctors of the ciiurch, whose evidence attests, and whose authority might influence, the professions, the principles, and even the practice of their contemporaries, had studied (he «* Plin. Epist. X. 97-* •^ TortuUian, Apolog. c. 44. He adds, however, -vvith some degice tf hositation, "Aut si aliud, jam non Christi!inu3."t ** The philosopher Pcrcgrinus (of whose life and death liUcian haa left us so entertaining an account) imposed, for a long time, on the credulous simplicity of the Christians of Asia. * And this blamelessness Was fully admitted by the candid and enlight- ened Roman. — M. ■\ Tertuilian says positively no Christian, nemo illic Christianus ; for th« rest, the limitation which he himself subjoins, and which Gilibon quctci ia the foregoing note, diminishes the force of this assertion, and appears to prove that at least he knew none such.^0. Is not the sense of Tertuilian rather, if guilty of any other oflr.ice. ho has thereby jcased to uc i 'Jhristian "■ — Al OF THE ROMAN EMfJRE. 549 Scriptures with less skill than devotion ; and they often received, in the most literal sense, those rigid precepts of Christ and the apostles, .o which the prudence of succeeding commentators has applie J a looser and more figurative mode of interpretation. Ambitious to exalt the perfection of the gospel above the wisdom of philosophy, the zealous fathers have carried the duties of self-mortification, of purity, and of patitMice, to a height which it is scarcely possible to attain, and much less to preserve, in our present state of weakness and corrupticjii. A doctrine so extraordinary and so sublime must inevitably command the veneration of the people ; but it wafc ill calculated to obtain the sullVage of those worldly philoso- phers, who, in 'the conduct of this transitory life, consult only the feelings of nature and tiie interest of society .^'^ There are two very natural propensities which we may •distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispositions, the love of pleasure and the love of action. If the former ia refined by art and learning, improved by the charms of social intercourse, and corrected by a just regard to economy, to health, and to reputation, it is productive of the greatest part of the happiness of private life. The love of action is a principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature. It often leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge ; but when it is guided by the sense of propriety and benevolence, it becomes the parent of every virtue, and if those virtues are accompanied with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an empire, may be indebted for their safety and prosperity to the undaunted courage of a single man. To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe most of the agreeable, to the love of action we may attribute most of the useful and respectable, qualifica- tions. The character in which both the one and the other should be un'ited and harmonized, would seem to constitute the most perfect idea of human nature. The insen**ib!e and inactive disposition, which should be supposed alikp destitute of both, would be rejected, by the conmion consent of man- kind, as utterly incapable of procuring any happiness *o the individual, or any public benefit to the world. But it was not in this world, that the primitive Christians were desirous of making themselves either agreeable or useful.* " See a very judicious treatise of BarbcjTac sur la Morale dot P6res. , • Et que me fait cette horaol.'e semi-stoicienne, semi-6pinurienne ? A M8 THE DECLINE AND FALL The acquisition of knowledge, the exercise of" our reason of fancy, and the cheerful flow of unguarded conversation, may employ the leisure of a liberal mind. Such amusements, however, were rejected with abhorrence, or admitted with the utmost caution, by the severity of the fathers, w ho despised all knowledge that was not useful to calvation, and who consid- ered all levity of discourse as a criminal abuse of the gift of speech. In our present state of existence the body is so inseparably connected with the soul, that it seems to be our interest to taste, with innocence and moderation, the enjoy- ments of which that faithful companion is susceptible. Very dii\erent was the reasoning of our devout predecessors ; vainly aspiring to imitate the perfection of angels, they dis- dained, or they affected to disdain, every earthly and coporeal delight.^8 Some of our senses indeed are necessary for our preservation, others for our subsistence, and others again foi* our information ; and thus far it was impossible to reject the use of them. The first sensation of pleasure was marked as the first moment of their abuse. The unfeeling candidate for heaven was instructed, not only to resist the grosser allure- ments of the taste or smell, but even to shut his ears against the profane harmony of sounds, and to view with indifference the most finished productions of human art. Gay apparel, magnificent houses, and elegant furniture, were supposed to unite the double guilt of pride and of sensuality ; a simple and mortified appearance was more suitable to the Christian who was certain of his sins and doubtful of his salvation. In their censures of luxury, the fathers are extremely minute and cir- cumstantial ; ^3 and among the various articles which excite ** Lactant. Institut. Divin. 1. vi. c. 20, 21, 22. " Consult a work of Clemens of Alexandria, entitled The Paeda- ■gogue, which contains the rudiments of ethics, as they were taught ui the most celebrated of the Christian schools. for. jamais rcgardf^ I'amour du plaisir comme I'lm des principos dc la per- fection morale ? Et de quel droit faitos voiis de I'ainour de faction, et de Tamour du plaisir, les seuls elemcns de I'etre huuiain ? Est ce que vous faitcs abstraction de la verite en elle-mome, de la conscience et du senti- ment du devoir ? Est ce que vous ne scntez point, par cxemple, que le sacrifice du moi a la justice et a la vcriti', est aussi dans le canir de I'homme : que tout n'est pas pour hii action ou ])laisir, et que dans le bien ce n'est par le mouvement, mais la vrriti-, qu'il clicrche ? Et puis • • Thucvdide et Tacite, ccs maitres de rhistoire,«<)nt ils jamais introduitf dans leur recits un fragment de dissertation sur le jdaisir e* sur I'actiou. Villemain, Cours de Lit Fran9. part ii. Le^on v. — M. OF THE ROMAN EMl'IRE. M9 their pious indignation, we may enumerate false hair, garments of any color excc[)t white, instruments of music, vases of gold or silver, downy pillows, (as Jacob reposed liis head on a stone,) white bread, foreign wines, public salutations, the use of warm baths, and the practice of shaving the beard, which, accordinj* to the expression of TertuUian, is a lie against our own faces, and an impious attempt to* improve the works of the Creator.^" When Christianity was introduced among the rich and the polite, the observation of these singular laws was left, as it would be at present, to the few who were ambitious of superior sanctity. But it is always easy, as well as agreeable, for the mferior ranks of mankind to claim a merit from the contempt of that pomp and pleasure which fortune has placed beyond their reach. The virtue of the primitive Christians, like that of the first Romans, was very frequently guarded by poverty and ignorance. The chaste severity of the fathers, in whatever related to the commerce of the two sexes, flowed from the same prin- ciple ; their abhorrence of every enjoyment which might gratify the sensual, and degrade the spiritual nature of man. It was their favorite opinion, that if Adam had preserved his obedience to the Creator, he would have lived forever in a state of virgin purity, and that some harmless mode of vegetation might have peopled paradise with a race of innocent and immortal beings.'-*' The use of marriage was permitted only to his fallen posterity, as a necessary expedient to continue the human species, and as a restraint, however imperfect, on the natural licentiousness of desire. The hesitation of the orthodox casuists on this interesting subject, beirays the per- plexity of men, unwilling to approve an institution which they were compelled to tolerate.^- The enumeration of the very whimsical laws, which they most circumstantially imposed on the marriage-bed, would force a smile from the young and a *" TertuUian, de Spectaculis, c. 23. Clemens Alexandrin. Paeda- gog. 1. iii. c. 8. "' Bcausol)rc, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, 1. vii. c. 3. Justin, Gregory of ^Jys^a, Augustin, &c., strongly incline to this opinion.* ** Some of the Gnostic heretics were more consistent ; tbcy rcject> ed the use of mairiage. ♦ But these were Gnostic or Maninhean opinicns. Beausobre distinctly ascribes Augustine's bias to his recent escape fr'iLii Mancheism ; and addsi that he afterwards changed his views. — M. 550 THE DECLINE AND FAT.T. bUish from the fair. It was their unanimous sentiment, that a first marria^re was adequate to all the purposes of nature and / of society. The sensual connection was refined into a resem- blance of the mystic union of Christ with his church, and was ronounced to be indissoluble either by divorce or by death. The practice of second nuptials was branded with the name of a legal adultery ; and the persons who were guilty of so scandalous an offence against Christian purity were soon excluded from the honors, and even from the alms, of the chnrch.33 Since desire was imputed as a crime, and marriage was tolerated as a defect, it was consistent with the same prin- ciples to consider a state of celibacy as the nearest approach to the divine perfection. It was with the utmost difficulty tha\ ancient Rome could support the institution of six vestals; 9* but the primitive church was filled with a great number of jiersons of either sex, who had devoted themselves to the pro- fession of perpetual chastity.'-'^ A few of these, among which we may reckon the learned Origen, judged it the most pru- dent to disarm the tempter.^^ Some were insensible and some were invincible against the assaults of the flesh. Disdaining an ignominious flight, the virgins of the warm climate of Africa encountered the enemy in the closest engagement ; they per- mitted priests and deacons to share their bed, and gloried amidst the flames in their unsullied purity. But insulted Nature sometimes vindicated her rights, and this new species of martyrdom served only to introduce a new scandal into the church.97 Among the Christian ascetics, however, (a name *' Sec a chain of tradition, from Justin Martyr to Jerome, in tho Morale dcs P^rcs, c. iv. 6 — 26. »■• Sec a very curious Dissertation on the Vestals, in the Momoires de rAcademie dcs Inscriptions, torn. iv. p. 161—227. Notwithstand- ing the honors and rewards which were bestowed on those virgins, it was difficult to procure a sufficient number ; nor could the di-ead of the most horrible death always restrain their incontinence. *^ Cupiditatem procreandi aut unam scimvis aut nullam. Minutiua Fajlix. c. 31. Justin. Apolog. Major. Athenagoras in Legat. c. 28. TcrtuUian de Cultu Fcrmin. 1. ii. *« Eusebius, 1. vi. 8. Before the fame of Origen had excited envy and persecution, this extraordinary action was rather admired thnu censured. As it was his general practice to allegorize Scripture, it -«eem» unfortunate that in this instance only, he should have adopted the literal sense. " Cvjirian. Epist. 4, andPodwell, Disscrtat. Cyprianic. iii. Sou-e- thing nice this rash attempt was long afterwards imputed to tn« OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 55 which tliey soon acquired from their painful exercise,) many as they were less presumptuous, were probably more success ful. The loss of sf'Msual pleasure was supplied and compen sated by spiritual pride. Even the nuillitude of Pagans were inclined to estitnalt' the merit of the sacrifice by its apparent diniculty ; and it was in the pniise of these chaste spouses of Christ that the fathers have poured forth the troubled stream of their eloquence.'*** Such are the early traces of monastic principles and institutions, which, in a subsequent age, have counterbalanced all the temporal advantages of Christianity.'-*^ The Christians were not less averse to the business tlian to the pleasures of this world. The defence of our persons and property thcv knew not how to reconcile with t!i(; patient doc- trine which enjoined an unlimited forgiveness of past injuries, anri commanded them to invite the repetition of fresh insults. Their simplicity was offended by the use of oaths, by the pomp of magistracy, and liy the active contention of public life ; nor could their humane ignorance be convinced that it was lawful on any occasion to shed the blood of our fellow- creatures, either by the sword of justice, or by that of war ; even though their criminal or hostile attempts should threaten the peace and safety of the whole community. i*"* It was acknowledged, that, under a less perfect law, the powers of the Jewish constitution had been exercised, with the approba- tion of Heaven, by inspired prophets and by anointed kings. The Christians felt and confessed that such institutions might be necessary for the present system of the world, and they cheerfully submitted to the authority of their Pagan governors, liut while they inculcated the maxims of passive obedience, they refused to take any active part in the civil administration tbundor of the order of Foutovrault. Bayle has amused himself and his readers on that very delir-atc subject. ** Duj)iu (lUbilothc.fiuc Kcclesiasti'iue, torn. i. p. 19.5) gives a par- ticular account of tlie (Ualoifue of the Um virgins, as it was composed by Methodius, liishop of Tyre. Tlie praises of virginity are exces- Bive. ** The Ascetics (as early as the socr nd century) made a public pro- fession of mortifyi-ig their bodies, and of jibstainiu^ froni the use of flesh and wine. Mosheim, p. 310. '■'^ Sec the Morale des P. res. The same patient principles nave been revived since the Iteformation by the i^ociiiians, tlie modern Anabaptists, and the (Quakers. Jiarclay, the Ajiolof^ist of the Qua- kers, has ])roti'cted hin bretl ren by the authority of the primitiva Christians ; p. 542 — 540. 552 THE DECLINE AND FALL or the military defence of the empire. Some indulgence might, perhaps, be allowed to those persons who, before their conversion, were already engaged in such violent and san- guinary occupations ;i'^i but it was impossible that the Chris- tians, without renouncing a more sacred duty, could assume the character of soldiers, of magistrates, or of princes.^^^ This indolent, or even criminal disregard to the public welfare, exposed them to the contempt and reproaches of the Pagans, who very frequently asked, what must be the fate of the em- pire, attacked on every side by the barbarians, if all mankind '"" TertuUian, Apolog. c. 21. De Idololatria, c. 17, 18. Origen contra Celsum, 1. v. p. 2o3, 1. vii. p. 348, 1. viii. p. 423—428. '"- TertuUian (de Coronft Militis, c. 11) suggested to them the expedient of deserting ; a counsel, which, if it had been generally known, was not very proper to conciliate the favor of the emperors towards the Christian sect.* * There is nothing which oua;ht to astonish us in the refusal of the primitive Christians to take part in public ati'uirs ; it was the natural oun- sequence of the contrariety of their principles to the customs, laws, and active life of the Pagan world. As Cliristians, they could not enter into the senate, which, according to Gibbon hinrself, always assembled in a temple or consecrated place, and where each senator, before he took his seat, made a libation of a few drops of wine, and burnt incense on the altar; as Christians, they co\ild not assist at festivals and banquets, which always terminated with libations, &c. ; finally, as " the innumerable deities and rites of polytheism were closely interwoven with every circumstance of public and private life," the Christians could not participate in them without incurring, according to their principles, the guilt of impiety. It was then much less by an etfect of their doctrine, than by the consequence of their situation, that they stood aloof from public business. Whenever this situation offered no impediment, »hey showed as much activity as the Pagans. Proinde, says Justin MarlTr, (Apol. c. 17,) nos solunr Deum adorannis, et vobis in rebus aliis la'ti inservimus. — G. This latter passage, M. Guizot quotes in Latin ; if he had consulted the original, he would have found it to be altogether irrelevant : it merely relates to the payment of taxes. — M. TertuUian does not suggest to the soldiers the expedient of desertinfj ; he says, that they ought to be constantly on their guard to do nothing during their service contrary to the law of God, and to resolve to suU'cr martyrdom rather than submit to a base compliance, or openly to renounce the service. I Do Cor. Mil. ii. p. 127 ) He does not positively decide that the military service is not permitted to Christians ; he ends, indeed, by saying, Puta dcnique liccre militiam usque ad causam corona;. — (i. M. Guizot is, I think, again unfortunate in his defence of TertuUian. That father says, that many Christian soldiers had deserted, aut deseren- dum statim sit, ut a multis actum. The latter sentence, Puta, die., tkc, is a concession for the sake of argument : what follows is more to the purpose. — >I. Many other passages of TertuUian prove that the army was full of Chris- tian^, llesterni sumus et vestra omnia implevimus, urbes, insulas. castella, muuicipia, conci'iabu'a, rastra ywi. (Apol. c. ?7.) Navi({amus ct noi OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. 553 should adopt the pusillanimous sentiments of tl>e new sect. '"^ To this insulting question the Christian apologists returned obscure and ambiguous answers, as they were unwilling to reveal the secret cause of their security ; the expectation that, before the conversion of mankind was accomplished, war, government, the Roman empire, and the world itself, would be no more. It may be observed, that, in this instance like* wise, the situation of the first Christians coincided very hap» pily with their religious scruples, and that their aversion to an active life contributed rather to excuse them from the service, than to exclude them from the honors, of the state and army. V. But the human character, however it may be exalted or depressed by a temporary enthusiasm, will return by degrees to its proper and natural level, and will resume those passions Miat seem the most adapted to its present con/v/;/*r/A-,""' who were called to that function without distinction of age, of sex,* or of natural abilities, and who, as often as they felt the divine impulse, poured forth tlie ellusions of tht; Spirit in the ussenibly of the faithful. But these extraordinary gifts were frequently abused or misapplied by the prophetic teachers. They displayed them at an improper season, presumptuously disturbed the service of the assembly, and, by their pride or mistaken zeal, they introduced, particularly into the apostolic cliurch of Corinth, a long and melancholy train of disorders.''*' As tiie institution of prophets became useless, and even per- nicious, their powers were withdrawn, and their office abol- ished. The public functions of religion were solely intrusted to the established ministers of the church, the bishops and the presbyters ; two appellations which, in their first origin, appear '"* For the prophets of the ])riinitive church, see Mosheini, Disser- tationes ad Hist. Eeclos. ijoitineiites, toiu. ii. p. 132 — '208. '"' See the o^jistlcs of St. Piiul, and of Clemens, to the Corinth- ians, t * St. Paul distinctly reproves the intrusion of females into the prophetic office. 1 Cor. xiv. 34, 3-5. I Tim. ii. 11. ~M. t The first ministers established in the church were the deacons, ai)p<)iiiteil at Jerusalem, seven in number; they were tharjjcd with the distiil>ution of the aluis : even females had a share in this emph)yinent. After the deacons came the elders ur priests, (nptaiibrepoi,) charj^ed with the maintenance of order and decoruiri in the community, and to act every where in its name. The bishops were afterwards charged to watch over the faith and the instruction of the disciples, the apostles themselves apiiointcd several bishops. TertuUian, (adv. Mariuin, c. v.,) Clement of Alexandria, and many fathers of the second and third century, do not permit us to doubt this fact. The equality of rank between tliese ditierent functionaries did not prevent their functions beinp;, even in their origin, dis- tinct; tliey became subsequently still more so. See Plank, Geschicnte dor Christ. Kirch. Verfassmig., vol. i. p. 2i. — G. On this extremely obscure subject, which has been so much perplexed by passion and interest, it is impossible to justify any opinion without en- tering into long and controversial details. It must be admitted, in opi ><• sition to Plank, that in the New Testament, the words rrofa/itir/p •< and «irif the Ohiistian worlil. apjiears to me stronglv to favor '.he latter view.— M. 556 THE DECLINE AND FALL to have distinguished the same office and the same order of nersons. The name of Presbyter was expressive of their age, or rather of their gravity and wisdom. The title of Bishop denoted their inspection over the faith and manners of the Christians who were committed to their pastoral care. In pro- portion to the respective numbers of llie faithftd, a larger or smaller number of these episcopal presbyters guided eacli infant congregation with equal authority and with united counsels, ^^** But the most perfect equality of freedom requires the direct- ing hand of a suj)erior magistrate : and the order of public deliberations soon introduces the office of a president, invested at least with the authority of collecting the sentiments, and of executing the resolutions, of the assembly. A regard for the public tranquillity, which would so frequently have been in- ' lerrupted by annual or by occasional elections, induced the primitive Christians to constitute an honorable and perpetual magistracy, and to choose one of the wisest and most holy among their presbyters to execute, during his life, the duties of their ecclesiastical governor. It was under these circum- stances that the lofty title of Bishop began to raise itself above the humble appellation of Pres'^yter ; and while the latter remained the most natural distinction for the membei'S' of every Christian senate, the former was approp.iated to the dignity of its new president. ^'^^ The advantages of this epis- copal form of government, which appears to have been intro- duced before the end of the first century, i'" were so obvious and so important for the future greatness, as well as the pres- ent peace, of Christianity, that it was adopted without delay by all the societies which were already scattered over tho ^"^ Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, 1. vii. '"* See Jerome ad Titum, c. i. and Epistol. 85, (in the Benedictine edition, 101,) and the ehiborate ajiology of Blondci, pro sententiA Hi(-Tonvnii. The ancient state, as it is described by Jerome, of tho hish:] and presbyters of Alcxar.dria, receives a remarkable confir- mation from the patriarch Eutychius, (Annal. toni. i. p. ',VAO, ^'ers. I'ocock ;) whose testimony I know not how to reject, in spite of all the objections of tlic learned Pearson in his Vindicia? Ignatiana' part i. c. 11. '"* See the introduction to the Apocalypse. Bishops, under, the name of angels, were already instituted in the seven cities of A.sia. And yet the ojiistlc of Clemens (which is ))rol)ably of as ancient a late) docs not load us to discover any traces of episcopacy "thei ftt Corinth or Home. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 557 empire, had acquired m a very early period the sanction of Rnli(|uity,'" and is stid revered by the most powerful churches, both of the East and of the West, as a primitive and even aa a divine establishment.' '- It is needless to observe, that the pious and luimble presbyters, who were first dignified with the epi.scopal title, could not possess, and would probably have rejected, the power and poinp which now encircles the tiara of the Roman pontilf, or the mitre of a German prelate. But we may define, in a few words, the narrow limits of their original jurisdiction, which was chiefly of a spiritual, though in some instances of a temporal nature.""^ It consisted in the administration of the sacraments and discipline of the church, the superintendency of religious ceremonies, which imperceptibly increased in number and variety, the consecra- tion of ecclesiastical ministers, to whom the bishop assigned their respective functions, the management of the public fund, and the determination of all such differences ;hops ol a dis- trict, subject to a metropolitan. Plank, p. 9! . (ieschchii. der f'hr!.-«t Kirch. Vcrfussung. — O. f»r THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 559 9ver\- important controversy of faith and discipline ; ; nd i; was natural to believe lliat a lil)eral efFiision ol" the Holy Spirit wo lid be poured on the united assembly of the delegates of the (Miristian people. The iiistituti<;ii of synods was so well suited to private ambition, and to public interest, that in the space of a few years it was received throughout the whole empire. A regular correspondence was established between the provincial councils, which mutually communicated and approved their respective proceedings ; and the calhohc ciuirch soon assumed the form, and acquired the strength, of a great f(cderative roj)ul)lic.'''' 7\s the legislative authority of the particular churches was insensibly superseded by the use of councils, the bishops ob- tained by their alliance a much larger share of executive and arbitrary power ; and as soon as they were connected by a sense of their common uiterest, they were enabled to attack, with united vigor, the original rights of their clergy and [)eoplc. The prelates of the third century imperceptibly changed the language of exhortation into that of command, scattered the seeds of future usurpations, and supplied, by scripture allego- ries and declamatory rhetoric, their deficiency of force and of reason. They exalted the unity and power of the church, as it was re|)resented in the eimscoi'ai. office, of which every bishop enjoyed an equal and undivided portion. '^^ Princes and magistrates, it was often repeated, might boast an earthly claim to a transitory dominion ; it was the episco|)al authority alone which was derived from the Deity, and extended itself over this and over aiiotlier world. The bishops were the vice- gerents of Christ, the successors of the apostles, and the mystic substitutes of the high priest of the Mosaic law. Their exclu- sive privilege of conferring the sacerilotal character, invaded the freeulom both of clerical and of po|)ular elections ; and if, in the administration of the church, they still consultiMl the judgment of ihr. presbyters, or the inclination of the p«K)ple, ihey most carefully inculcated the merit of such a voluntary condescension. The bishojjs acknowledged the suj)remc au- Mauritania, Numidia, and Africa ; some presbyters and deacons ftssi/iteil at the a^scMnhly ; prajseiite plobis maxiniii parto. "* A;;uiitur ])rii'toroa pcM- tiiitcias illas, certis in locis concilia, &e rcituUiiiu do Jcjiiniis, c. ['■>. The Atrican mentions it a.s a recent and I'oreig.i uistitution. 'I'lic coalition of the Cliristian churches ii very ably ''xplaiacd by Moshcim, p. 1^54 — 170. '" Cj'i'riiui, iu his atlniired treatise De Uaitate Ecclcsiae, p. In — 8d 560 THE DECLIKE AND FALL thority which resided in the assembly of their brethren ; but in the government of his peculiar diocese, each of them exact- ed from his^oc^- the same impUcit obedience as if that favor- ite metaphor had been literally just, and as if the shepherd had been of a more exalted nature than that of his sheep. i^^ This obedience, however, was not imposed without some efforts on one side, and some resistance on the other. The democratical part of the constitution was, in many places, very warmly supported by the zealous or interested opposition of the inferior clergy. But their patriotism received the ignom.n- ious epithets of faction and schism ; and the episcopal cause was indebted for its rapid progress to the labors of many ac- tive prelates, who, like Cyprian of Carthage, could reconcile the arts of the most ambitious statesman with the Christian virtues which seem adapted to the character of a saint and mirtyr.^''-* The same causes which at first had destroyed the equality of the presbyters introduced among the bishops a preeminence of rank, and from thence a superiority of jurisdiction. As often as in the spring and autumn they met in provincial synod, the difference of personal merit and reputation was very sensibly lelt among the members of the assembly, and the multitude was governed by the wisdom and eloquence of the few. But the order of public proceedings required a more regular ana less invidious distinction ; the office of perpetual presidents ni the councils of each province was conferred on the bishops of the principal city ; and these aspiring prelates, who soon acquired the lofty titles of Metropolitans and Pri- mates, secretly pre|)ared themselves to usurp over their epis- copal brethren the same authority which the bishops had sd lately assumed above the college of presbyters. '^o Nor was il long before an emulation of preeminence and power pre- vailed among the Metropolitans themselves, each of 'hem "" Wc may ai'pcal to the whole tenor of Cyi)ii;m's conduct, of his doctrine, unci ol hi.s epistles. Le Clerc, in a sliort lite of CyiJiian, 'Bibliothcque Uuiver>clle, torn. xii. p. 207 — 378,) has laid him open with great freedom and accuracy. "* If Novatus, l''clicissimus, Sec, whom the Bishop of Carthage expelled from his church, and from Africa, were not the most detest- able monsters of wickedness, the zeal of Cyprian must occasionally have jjrcvailt'd over his voracity. For a very just account of these obscure quarrels, see Moshcim, p. 11)7 — .512. '*" Moshcim, p. 269, 571. Dupin, Antiquse Eccles Disciulin p. 19, 20. OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE. 561 aflecting to display, in the most pompous terms, the ten.pora) honors ynd advrxntaires of the city over which lie presided the numbers and opulence of the Christians who were subject to ihtjir pastoral care ; the saints and martyrs who had arisen among them ; and the purity with which they preserved tho tradition of the faith, as it had been transmitted tiirough a serien of orthodox bishops from tlie apostle or the aposlolic disciple. to wiiom the foundation of their church was -ascribed. '2' From every cause, either of a civil or of an ecclesi;istical nature, it was easy to foresee that Rome must enjoy the respect, and would soon claim the obedience, of the provinces. Tile society of the faithful bore a just proportion to tiie capital of the empire; and the Roman church was the greatest, the most numerous, and, in regard to tiie West, the most ancient ot all the Christian establishments, many of which had received their rehgion from the pious labors of her missionaries. In- stead of une apostolic founder, the utmost boast of Antioch, of Ephesus, or of Corinth, the banks of the Tyber were sup- posed to have been honored witli the preaching and martyr- dom of the two most eminent among the apostles ; ^~~ and the bishops of Rome very prudently claimed the inheritance of whatsoever prerogatives were attributed either to the {)erson or to the ofiice of St. Peter. '--^^ The bishops of Italy and of the "" Tcrtullian, in a di>;tiiict treatise, has pleaded against the heretics, theright of proscription, as it was hold by the apostolic churches. '" The journoy of 8t. I'cter to Rome is mentioned by nio7•e. — The same is imper- fect in (i reek, Latin, Italian, &c., and totally unintelligible in our Teutonic languages, t * It is quite clear that, strictly speaking, the church of Rome was not founded l)v either of these apostles. St. Paul's E|.istle to the Romans proves inuloniably the tlourishiug st;ite of the church before his visit to the s1 tenderly beloved ; and as far as an expulsion from a respecta- ble society could imprint on his character a mark of disgrace, he was shunned or suspected by the generality of mankind. The situation of these unfortunate exiles was in itself very painful and melancholy ; but, as it usually happens, their apprehensions far exceeded their sufferings. The benefits of the Christian communion were those of eternal life ; nor could they erase from their minds the awful opinion, that to those ecclesiastical governors by whom they were condemned, the Deity had committed the keys of Hell and of Paradise. The heretics, indeed, who might be supported by the consciousness of th(Mr intentions, and by the flattering hope that they alone had discovered the true path of salvntion, endeavored to regain, in their separate assemblies, those comforts, temporal as well as spiritual, which they no longer derived from the great society of Christians. But almost all those who had reluctantly yielded to the power of vice or idolatry were sensible of their fallen condition, and anxiously desirous of being restored to the benefits of the Christian communion. With regard to the treatment of these penitents, two oppo- site opinions, the one of justice, the other of mercy, divided the primitive church. The more rigid and inflexible casuists refused them forever, and without exception, the meanest place in the holy community, which they had disgraced or deserted ; and leaving them to the remorse of a guilty con- science, indulged them only with a faint ray of hope that the contrition of their life and death might possibly' be accepted by the Supreme Being.'^^ A milder sentiment was embraced, m practice as well as in theory, by the purest and most respectable of the Christian churches. ^^^ The gates of recon- ciliation and of heaven were seldom shut a, hist in the number of excommunicated heretics. See the learned and c( [lious Moshcim, Secul. ii. and iii. '** Dionysius ap. Euscb. iv. 23. Cyprian, de Lapsis. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 569 door ol the asseml)Iy, imploring with tears tlic pardor of his ofTenee.s, and soliciting the prayers of the faithful.''*' if the fault was of a very heinous nature, whole years of pi'nance were esteenned an inadequate satisfaction to the divine jus- tice ; and it was always by slow and painful gradations that the sinner, the heretic, or the apostate, was readmitted into the bosom of the church. A sentence of perpetual excom- munication was, however, reserved for some crimes of an extraordinary magnitude, and particularly for the inexcusable relapses of those penitents who had already experienced and abused the clemency of their ecclesiastical superiors. Ac- cording to the circumstances or the number of the guilty, the exercise of the Christian discipline was varied by the dis- cretion of the bishops. The councils of Ancyra and Uliberis were held about the same time, the one in Galatia, the oiha* in Spain ; but their respective canons, which are still extant, seem to broathe a very different spirit. The Galatian, who after his baptism had repeatedly sacrificed to idols, might obtain his pardon by a penance of seven years ; and if rie had seduced others to imitate his example, only three years more were added to the term of his exile. But the unhappy Spaniard, who had committed the same ofience, was deprived of the hope of reconciliation, even in the article of death ; and his idolatry was placed at the head of a list of seventeen other crimes, against which a sentence no less terrible was pro- nounced; Among these we may distinguish the inexpiable guilt of calumniating a bishop, a presbyter, or even a deacon.'''^ The well-tempered mixture of liberality and rigor, the judicious dispensation of rewards and punishments, according to the maxims of policy as well as justice, constituted the human strength of the church. The Rislu)j)s, whose paternal care extended itself to the government of both worlds, were sensible of the imjjortance of these prerogatives ; and covering ^" Cave's Primitive Christianity, part iii. c. 5. The admit crs ol anticjuity regret the losa of this [>uhlic peiiaiu-o. '** See in Dupin, Bibliotlieque Ecclesiastitjue, torn. ii. p. 304 — 313, ■ short but rational cxiwsition of the canons of those coun'-ils, which were assembled in the first moments of tramjuillity, after tl.j persecu- •ion of Diocletian. This persecution had been much less severely felt in Spain than in (lalatia ; a difference which may, ui some meas- ure, account for the contrast of their regulationa. 27 570 THE DECLINE AND FALL their ambition with the fair pretence of the love of order, thev were jealous of any rival in the exercise of a discipline so necessary to prevent the desertion of those troops which had enlisted themselves under the bannei of the cross, and whose numbers every day became more considerable. From the imperious declamations of Cyprian, we should naturally con- clude that the doctrines of excommunication and penance formed the most essential part of religion ; and that it was much less dangerous for the disciples of Christ to neglect the observance of the moral duties, than to despise the censures and authority of their bishops. Sometimes we might imagine that we were listening to the voice of xMoses, when he com- manded the earth to open, and to swallow up, in consuming flames, the rebellious race which refused obedience to the priesthood of Aaron ; and we should sometimes suppose that we hear a Roman consul asserting the majesty of the repub- lic, and declaring his inflexible resolution to enforce the rigoi of the laws.* " If such irregularities are suffered with impu- nity," (it is thus that the bisliop of Carthage chides the lenity of his colleague,) " if such irregularities are suffered, there is an end of episcopal vigor ; '''^ an end of the sublime and divine power of governing the Church, an end of Christianity itself." Cyprian had renounced those temporal honors, which »"» Cyprian Epist. 69. * Gibbon has been accused of injustice to the character of Cyprian, as exalting the "censuies and authority of the church above the observance of the moral duties." Felicissimus had been condemned by a synod of bishops, (non tantmn men, sed phxrimorum coepiscorum, sententia condem- natum,) on the charp;e not only of schism, but of embezzlement of public money, the debauching of virgins, and frequent acts of adultery. His vio- lent liienaces had extorted his readmissioji into the church, against which Cyprian protests with much vehemence : ne pecuniae commissi sibi frau- dator, ne stuprator virginum, ne matrimoniorum multorum depopulator et corruptor, ultra adhuc sponsam Christi incorruptam praesentia} sua? dedec- ore, et impudica atque incesta contagione, violaret. See Chelsum's Re- marks, p. 134. If these charges against Felicissimus were true, they were Bomcthing more than " irregularities." A Roman censor would have been a fairer subject of comparison than a consul. On the other hand, it must be admitted that the charge of adultery deepens very rapidly, as the con- troversy becomes more violent. It is first represented as a single act, re- cently detected, and which men of character were prepared to substantiate ftdiiUerii etiam crimen accedit, quod patrcs nostri graves viri dfpie/ieiiilisst Be nuntiavcriuit, et probaturos se asseverarunt. Epist. xx.wiii. The here- lic has now darkened into a man of notorious and general j)ro{lijracy. No/ can it be denied that of tlie whole long (i)istle, very far the larger and tha more passionate ])art dwells on the breach of ecclesiastical unity, ratbei than on the violation of Christian holiness. — M. •; OF THE nOMAN EMPIRE, 571 it is probable he woiiid never have obtained ; • but the acqui- sition of such absolute command over the consciences and understanding of a congregation, however obscure or despisea by the world, is more truly grateful to the pride of the human heart, than the possession of the most despotic power, imposed by arms and conquest on a reluctant people. In the course of this important, though perhaps tedious in- quiry, 1 have attempted to display the secondary causes which so efficaciously assisted the truth of the Christian religion. If among tliese causes we have discovered any artificial orna- ments, any accidental circumstances, or any mixture of error and passion, it cannot appear surprising that mankind should be the most sensibly affected by such motives as were suited to their imperfect nature. It was by the aid of these causes 3xclusive zeal, the immediate expectation of another world, the claim of miracles, the practice of rigid virtue, and the constitution of the primitive church, that Christianity spread itself with so much success in the Roman empire. To the first of these the Christians were indebted for their invincible valor, which disdained to capitulate with the enemy whom they were resolved to vanquish. The three succeeding causes supplied their valor with the most formidable arms. The last of these causes united their courage, directed their arms, and gave their efforts that irresistible weight, which even a small brnd of well-trained and intrepid volunteers has so often pos- sessed over an undisciplined multitude, ignorant of the subject, and careless of the event of the war. In the various religions of Polytheism, some wandering fanatics of Egypt and Syria, who addressed themselves to the credulous superstition of the populace, were perhaps the only order of priests '^'^ that derived their whole support and credit from their sacerdotal profession, and were very deeply affected by a personal con- '*" The arts, the manners, and the vices of the priests of the Syrian goddess arc very huinrtrously described by Apuleius, in the eighth book of liis Mctanioiphosis. • This supposition appears unfounded : the birth and the talents of Cyprian nii>fht make us presume the contrary. Thascius Cx'cilius Cypri- anus, Cartliaiifinensis, artis oratoriie profcssione clarus, magnam sibi glori- am, opes, hoiiores uequisivit, eimlaribus caenis ct larf?is dapibus assuetus, picliosa veste conspicuus, auro atque purpura fulgcns, fascibus oblectatu? et hoiiorihiis, stipalus clientium cuneis, freqiientiore comitatii oIKeii ag- minis bonestatus, ut ipse de se lotjuitur in Epistola ad Donatum. See Dr (Javo, Hist. Liter, b. i. p. 87- — G. Cave has rather embellished C; prian's language. — M. R72 THE DECLINE AND FALL cern for tlif. safety or prosperity of their tutelar deities. The ministers of Polytheism, both in Rome and in the provincf.s, were, for the most part, men of a noble birth, and of an afflu- ent fortune, who received, as an honorable distinction, the care of a celebrated temple, or of a public sacrifice, exhibited, very frequently at their own expense, the sacred games, '^' and with cold indifference performed the ancient rites, according to tht laws and fashion of their country. As they were engaged in the ordinary occupations of life, their zeal and devotion were seldom animated by a sense of interest, or by the habits of an ecclesiastical character. Confined to their respective temples and cities, they remained without any connection of discipline or government; and whilst they acknowledged the supreme 'urisdiction of the senate, of the college of pontiffs, and of the emperor, those civil magistrates contented themselves with the easy task of maintaining in peace and dignity the general worship of mankind. We have already seen how various, how loose, and how uncertain were the religious sentiments of Polytheists. Thoy were abandoned, almost without control, to the natural workings of a superstitious fancy. The acci- dental circumstances of their life and situation determined the object as well as the degree of their devotion ; and as long as their adoration was successively prostituted to a thousand deities, it was scarcely possible that their hearts could be sus- ceptible of a very sincere or lively passion for any of them. When Christianity appeared in the world, even these faint and imperfect impressions had lost much of their original power. Human reason, which by its unassisted strength is incapable of perceiving the mysteries of faith, had already obtained an easy triumph over the folly of Paganism ; and when Tertullian or Lactantius employ their labors in expos- ing its falsehood and extravagance, they are obliged to tran- scribe the eloquence of Cicero or the wit of Lucian. The contagion of these sceptical writings had been diffused far beyond the number of their readers. The fashion of incredu- lity was communicated from the philosopher to the man ot '*' The office of Asiarch was of this nature, and it is frequcntlj mentioned in Aristidcs, the Inscriptions, &c. It was annual and elective. None but the vainest citizens could desire the honor ; none out the most wealthy could support the expense. See, in the Patrci Apostol. torn. ii. p. 200, with how much indifference Philip the Asiarch conducted himself in the martyrdom of Polyrarp. lUerf wore likewise Bithyniarchs, Lyciarchs, &c. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 573 pleasure or business, from the noble to the plebeian, and from the master to the menial slave who waited at his table, and who eagerly listened to the freedom of his conversation. Or public occasions the philosophic part of mankind affected to freat with respect and decency the religions institutions of their country ; but their secret contempt penetrated through the thin and awkward disguise; and even the people, when they discovered that their dciiics were rejected and derided by ihose whose rank or understanding they were accustomed to reverence, were filled with doubts and apprehensions concern- ing the truth of those doctrines, to which they had yielded the most implicit belief. The decline of ancient prejudice exposed a very numerous portion of human kind to the danger of a painful and comfortless situation. A state of scepticism and suspense may amuse a few inquisitive minds. But the prac- tice of superstition is so congenial to the multitude, that if they are forcibly awakened, they still regret the loss of their pleasing vision. Their love of the marvellous and supernat- ural, their curiosity with regard to future events, and their strong propensity to extend their hopes and fears beyond the limits of the visible world, were the principal causes which favored the establishment of Polytheism. So urgent on the vulgar is the necessity of believing, that the fall of any sys- tem of mythology will most probably be succeeded by the introduction of some other mode of superstition. Some deities of a more recent and fashionable cast might soon have occu- pied the deserted temples of Jupiter and Apollo, if, in the decisive moment, the wisdom of Providence had not inter- posed a genuine revelation, fitted to inspire the most rational esteem and conviction, whilst, at the same time, it was adorned with all that could attract the curiosity, the wonder, and the veneration of the people. In their actual disposition, as many were almost disengaged from their artificial prejudices, but equally susceptible and desirous of a devout attachment ; an object much less deserving would have been sufficient to fill the vacant place in their hearts, and to gratify the uncertain eagerness of their passions. Those who are inclined to pursue this reflection, instead of viewing with astonishment the rapid progress of Christianity, will perhaps be surprised that its suc- cess was not still more rapid and still more universal. It has been observed, with truth as well as propriety, thai the conquests of Rome prepared and facilitated those of Chris- tianity In the second chapter of this work we have attempted 674 THE DECLINE AND FALL lo expkin in what manner the most civilized pi ovinces of Europe, Asia, and Africa were united under the dominion of one sovereif^n, and gradually connected by the most intimate ties of laws, of manners, and of language. The Jews of Pal- estine, who had fondly expected a temporal deliverer, gave so cold a reception to the miracles of the divine prophet, that it was found unnecessary to publish, or at least to preserve, any Hebrew gospel. '^^ The authentic histories of the actions of Christ were composed in the Greek language, at a consideia- ble distance from Jerusalem, and after the Gentile converts were grown extremely numerous.i^^ As soon as those histo- ries were translated into the Latin tongue, they were perfectly intelligible to all the subjects of Rome, excepting only to the peasants of Syria and Egypt, for whose benefit particular '^* The modern critics are not disposed to believe what the fathers almost unanimously assert, that St. Matthew composed a Hebrew gospel, of which only the Greek translation is extant. It seems, however, dangerous to reject their testimony.* '*' Under the reigns of Nero and Domitian, and in the cities of Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, and Ephesus. See Mill. Prolegomena ad Nov. Testament, and Dr. Lardncr's fair and extensive collection, vol. XV. t * Strong reasons appear to confirm this testimony. Papias, contempo- rary of the apostle St. John, says positively that Matthew had written the discourses of Jesus Christ in Heb^-ew, and that each interpreted them as he cordd. This Hebrew was the Syro-Cha.daic dialect, then in use at Jerusa- lem : Origen, Irena;us, Eusebius, Jerome, Epiphanius, confirm this state- ment. Jesus Christ preached Jiiniself in Syro-Chaldaic, as is proved by many words which he used, and which the Evangelists have taken th6 pains to translate. St. Paul, addressing the Jews, used the same language: Acts xxi. 40, xxii. 2, xxvi. 14. The opinions of some critics prove noth- ing against such undeniable testimonies. Moreover, their principal objec- tion is, that St. Matthew quotes the Old Testament according to the Greek Tcrsion of the LXX., which is inaccurate ; for of ten quotations, found in his Gospel, seven are evidently taken from the Hebrew text ; the three others offer little that differ: moreover, the latter are not literal quota- tions. St. Jerome says positively, that, according to a cojjy wliich he had seen in the library of Ca-sarea, the quotations were made in Hebrew (in Catal). More modern critics, among others Michaelis, a.'^ not entertain a doubt on the subject. The Greek version appears to have been made in the time of the apostles, as St. Jerome and St. Augustine affirm, perhapi by one of them. — G. Among modern critics, Dr. Hug has asserted the Greek original of St. Matthew, but the general opinion of the most learned biblical writers supports the view of M. Guizot. — M. t This question has, it is well known, been most elaborately discussed ei.ice the time of Gibbon. The Preface to the Translation of Schlcier- macher's Version of St. Luke contains a very able summary of the various »hev;rie8 — M. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 57f» versions were afterwards made. The public liighways, which had been corstructci for the use of the legions, opened an easy passage for the Christian missionaries from Damascus tc Corinth, and from Italy to the extremity of Spain or Britain ; nor did those spiritual conquerors encounter any of the obsta cles which usually retard or prevent the introduction of a for eign religion into a distant country. There is the strongest reason to believe, that before the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine, the faith of Christ had been preached in every province, and in all the great cities of tiie empire ; but the foundation of the several congregations, the numbers of the faithful who composed them, and their proportion to the unbe- lieving multitude, are now buried in obscurity, or disguised by fiction and declamation. Such imperfect circumstances, however, as have reached our knowledge concerning the increase of the Christian name in Asia and Greece, in Egypt, in Italy, and in the West, we shall now proceed to relate, without neglecting the real or imaginary acquisitions which lay beyond the frontiers of the Roman empire. The rich provinces that extend from the Euphrates to the Ionian Sea, were the principal theatre on which the apostle of the Gentiles displayed his zeal and piety. The seeds of the gospel, which he had scattered in a fertile soil, were diligent- ly cultivated by his disciples; and it should seem that, during the two first centuries, the most considerable body of Chris- tians was contained within those limits. Among the societies which were instituted in Syria, none were more ancient or more illustrious than those of Damascus, of Berea or Aleppo, and of Antioch. The prophetic introduction of the Apoca- lypse has described and itnmortalized the seven churches of Asia ; Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira,^^'' Sardes, Laod- icea, and Philadelphia ; and their colonics were soon difliised over that populous country. In a very early period, the islands of Cyprus and Crete, the provinces of Thrace and Macedonia, gave a favorable reception to the new religion ; and Christian republics were soon founded in the cities of '*^ The Alogians (Epiphdiius de Hacres. 51) disputed the genuine- ness of the Apocal^'psc, because the cliurch of Thyatira was not yet founded. Ei)iphauiu9, who allows the fact, extricates himself from the ditH :ulty by ingeniously supposing that St. John wrote in th« •pirit of prcph icy. Sec Abauzit, IXscours sur 1 Apocalypse. S76 THE DECLINE AND FALL • Corinth, of Sparta, and of Athens.^^^ The antiquity of the Greek and Asiatic churches allowed a sufficient space of .imc for their increase and multiplication ; and even the swarms of Gnostics and other heretics serve to display the flourishing condition of the orthodox church, since the appellation of here- tics has always been applied to the less numerous party. To these domestic testimonies we may add the confession, the complaints, and the apprehensions of the Gentiles themselves. From the writings of Lucian, a philosopher who had studied mankind, and who describes their manners in the most lively colors, we may learn, that, under the reign of Commodus, his native country of Pontus was filled with Epicureans and ChristiansA^^ Within fourscore years after the death of Christ, i^' the humane Pliny laments the magnitude of the evil which he vainly attempted to eradicate. In his very curious epistle to the emperor Trajan, he aflirms, that the temples were almost deserted, that the sacred victims scarcely found any purchasers, and that the superstition had not only infected the cities, but had even spread itself into the villages and the open country of Pontus and Bithynia.^^^ Without descending into a minute scrutiny of the expres- sions or of the motives of those writers who either celebrate or lament the progress of Christianity in the East, it may in gen- eral be observed, that none of them have left us any grounds from whence a just estimate might be formed of the real numbers of the faithful in those provinces. One circumstance, however, has been fortunately preserved, which seems to cast "** The epistles of Ignatius and Dionysius (ap. Euseb. It. 23) point out many churches in Asia and Greece. That of Athens seems to have been one of the least flourishing. '** Lucian in Alexandro, c. 25. Christianity, however, must have been very unequally diffused over Pontus ; since, in the middle of tho third century, there were no more than seventeen believers in the extensive diocese of Neo-Caesarea. Sec M. de Tillemont, M6moire3 Ecclesiast. torn. iv. p. 675, from Basil and Gregory of Nyssa, who were themselves natives of Cappadocia.* '*' According to the ancients, Jesus Christ suffered under the con Hulship of the two Gemini, in the year 20 of our present a;ra. Pliny was sent into Bithynia (according to Pagi) in the year 110. •*» Plin. Epist. X. 97. ♦ Gibbon forgot the conclusion of this story, that Gregory left only sev- catoen heathens in his diocese. The antithesis is suspicious, and both numbers may have been chosen to magnify the spiritual fame of the won dor-worker. — M. op THE ROMAN EMPIRE STJ I more distinct light on this obscure but interesting subject. Under the reign of Theodosius, after Chr stianity luuJ enjoyed, during more than sixty years, the suoshine of Imperial favor, •he ancient and illustrious church of Antioch consisted of ono hundred thousand persons, three thousand of whom were sup- ported out of the |)ublic oblations.'''^ The splendor and dignity of the queen of the East, the acknowledged populousness of CiEsarea, Seleucia, and Alexandria, and the destruction of two hundred and fifty thousand souls in the earthquake wliich afHicted Antioch under the elder Justin,"^'' are so many con- vincing proofs that the whole number of its inhabitants was not less than half a million, and that the Christians, however multiplied by zeal and power, did not exceed a fifth part of that great city. How difierent a proportion must we adopt when we compare the persecuted with the triumphant church, the West with the East, remote villages with populous towns, and countries recently converted to the faith with the place where the believers first received the appellation of Chris- tians ! It must not, however, be dissembled, that, in another passage, Chrysostom, to whom we are indebted for this useful information, computes the multitude of the faithful as even superior to that (jf the Jews and Pagans.i'^i But the solution of this apparent dilTiculty is easy and obvious. The eloquent preacher draws a parallel between the civil and the ecclesias- tical constitution of Antioch ; between the list of Christians who had acquir(;d heaven by baptism, and the list of citizens who had a right to share the public liberality. Slaves, strangers, and infanls were comprised m the former ; they were excluded from the latter. The extensive commerce of Alexandria, and its proximity '*» Chrysostom. Opera, torn. vii. p. 658, 810, [edit. Savil. ii. 422, 629.] '«" John Malala, torn. ii. p. 144. He draws the same conclusion with rcti;ard to the populousness of Antioch. '8' Chrysostom. torn. i. p. 592. I am indebted for these passages, though not for my inference, to the learned Dr. Lardner. Credibility of the Gospel History, vol. xii. p. 370.* • The statements of Chrysostom with regard to the population of Anti- oeh, whatever may be their accuracy, are perfectly consistent. In one passage he reckons the population at 200,000. In a second the Christians' »t 100,000. In a third he states that the Christians formed more than half the population. Gibbon has neglected to notice the first passage, ami has iriwa nis c-tiinite of the population of Antioch from other sources. The ■(IVKI maintaiueil l)y alms were widows and virgins alone. — M 578 THE DECLINE AND FALL to Pjilestine, jjave an easy entrance to the new rellcfioii. Tl M'ns at first embraced by threat numbers of the Tlicraputa; or Essenians, of the Lake Mareotis, a Jewish sect wliich had abated much of its reverence for the Mosaic ceremonies. The austere life of the Essenians, their fasts and excommunica- tions, the community of goods, the love of celibacy, their zeal for martyrdom, and the warmth thon,;j;h not the purity of theii faith, already offered a very lively ima^je of the primitive dis- cipline.^''''^ It was in the school of Alexandria that the Chi-is- tian tlieoloi^y appears to have assumed a regular and scieniific form ; and when Hadrian visited Egypt, he found a church composed of Jews and of Greeks, sutficiently important to attract tlie notice of that inquisitive prince.^^ But the prog- ress of Chi'istianity was for a long time confined within the limits of a single city, whicii was itself a foreign colony, and till the close of the second century the predecessors of De- metrius were the only prelates of the Egyptian churds. Three bishops were consecrated by the hands of Demetrius, and the number was increased to twenty by his successor Heraclas.^®* The body of the natives, a })eople distinguished by a sullen inflexibility of temper,^®* entertained the new doc- trine with coldness and reluctance ; and even in the time of Origen, it was rare to meet with an Egyptian who had sur- mounted his early prejudices in favor of the sacred animals of his country.''"' As soon, indeed, as Christianity ascended the throne, tiie zeal of those barbarians obeyed the prevailing impulsion ; the cities of Egypt were filled with bishops, and the deserts of Thebais swarmed with hermits. '«2 Basiiage, Histoire dcs Juifs, 1. 2, c. 20. 21, 22, 23, has examined with tlie most critical accuracy the curious treatise of Phiio, wiiich describes the Tlierapeuta;. By proving tliat it was eoinposeil .as eaiiy as the time of Aut^ustus, Basnage lias demonstrateil, in spite ol Ki:se- bius (1. ii. c. 17) and a crowd of modern Catholics, tiiat tlie Thernpeiitae were neitlier Christians nor moiik^. It still remains prol)ahle that tlioy changed their name, preserved their manners, adopted some nt.w articles of faith, and gradually became the fathers of the Egyj lian Ascetics. 1''* See a letter of Hadrian in tlie Augustan History, p. 245. ^"* For the succession of Alexandrian bishops, consult lienaudot's History, p. 21, &c. This curious fact is i>reserved by the iia'riareij Eutychiiis, (Aniial. tom. i. p. liol, Vers. I'ocoek,) and its internal evi- dence would alone be a sulHcient answer to all the ohjettio is wliicu Biuhop I'earson has nrgi'd in the Vindiciae Ignatianae. -'^ Ammian. Marce'liu. xxii. 16. wii Origen contra (.visum, 1. i. p. 40. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 579 A peipetua stream of strangers and provincials flowed into ihe capacious bosom of Rome. Whatever was strange or odious, whoever was guihy or suspected, might hope, in the obscurity of that immense capital, to elude tlie vigilance of llio law. In such a various conflux of nations, every teacher, either of truth or falsehood, every founder, whether of a vir- tuous or a criminal association, might easily multiply his dis- ciples or accomplices. The Christians of Rome, at the time of the accidfiutal persecution of Nero, are represented by Tacitus as already amounting to a vei"y great multitude,^''^ and tlie language of th;it great historian is almost similar to the style employed by Livy, when he relates the introduction and the suppression of the rites of Bacchus. After the Baccha- nals had awakened the severity of the senate, it was likewise apprenended that a very great multitude, as it were anotke^ penjAtr, had been initiated into those abhorred mysteries. A more careful inquiry soon demonstrated, that the otFenders did not exceed seven thousand ; a number indeed sufficiently alarmmg, when considered as the object of public justice. '^^ It is w.th the same candid allowance that we should interpret the vai.^ue expressions of Tacitus, and in a former instance of Pliny, when tiiey exaggerate the crowds of deluded fanatics who had forsaken the established worship of the gods. The church of Rome was undoubtedly the first and most populous of the empire ; and we are possessed of an authentic record which attests the state of religion in that city about the middle of the third century, and after a peace of thirty-eight years. The clergy, at that time, consisted of a bishop, forty-six pres- byters, seven deacons, as many sub-deacons, forty-two aco- lythes, and fifty readers, exorcists, and porters. The number of widows, of the infirm, and of the poor, who were main- tained by the oblations of the faithful, amounted to fifteen hundred.""'-' From reason, as well as from the analogy of Antioch, we may venture to estimate the Christians of Rome at about fifty thousand. The po|)ulousness of that great capital cannot perhaps be exactly ascertained ; but the most modest calculation will not surely reduce it lower tiian a '" Ingens nmltitiulo is tlie expression of Tacitus, xv. 44. '•* T. Liv. xxxix. I'i, 1.5, 16, 17. Nothing could exceed the liorror and con.-rernation of the senate on the discovery of the liiicchana- Uans, whose depravity is described, and perhaps exagjjerated, by Livy. '** Euscbius, 1. vi. c. 43. The Latin translator ( SL de Valois) bat thought proper to reduce the number of pre.-byters to forty -four. 580 THE DECLINE AND FALL million ( f inhabitants, of whom the ChristiariS might constitute at the most a twentieth part.''^" The western provincials appeared to have derived the knowledge of Christianity from the same source which had diffused among them the language, the sentiments, and the manners of Rome. In this more important circumstance, Africa, as well as Gaul, was gradually fashioned to the imita- tion of the capital. Yet notwithstanding the many favorable occasions which might invite the Roman missionaries to visit their Latin provinces, it was late before they passed either the sea or the Alps;'^' nor can we discover in those great coun- tries any assured traces either of faith or of persecution that ascend higher than the reign of the Antonines.i^^ Xhe slow progress of the gospel in the cold climate of Gaul, was extremely different from the eagerness with which it seems to have been received on the burning sands of Africa. The African Christians soon formed one of the principal members of the primitive church. The practice introduced into that province of appointing bishops to the most inconsiderable towns, and very frequently to the most obscure villages, con- tributed to multiply the splendor and importance of their religious societies, which during the course of the third cen- tury were animated by the zeal of Tertullian, directed by the abilities of Cyprian, and adorned by the eloquence of Lactan- tius. But if, on the contrary, we turn our eyes towards Gaul, we must content ourselves with discovering, in the time of Marcus Antoninus, the feeble and united congregations of Lyons and Vienna ; and even as late as the reign of Decius, we are assured, that in a. few cities only, Aries, Narbonne, "" This proportion of the presbyters and of the poor, to the rest of the people, was originally fixed by Burnet, (Travels into Italy, p. 1()8,) and is approved by Moyle, (vol. ii. p. 1.51.) They were both unac- quainted with the passage of Chrysostom, which converts their con- jecture almost into a fact. "' Serius trans Alpcs, religione Dei suscept.'\. Sulpicius Severus, 1. ii. With regard to Africa, see Tertullian ad Scapulam, c. 3. It it imagined that the Scyllitan martyrs were the first, (Acta Sinccra Ru- inart. p. 3-1.) One of the adversaries of Ai)uleius seems to have been » Christian. Apolog. p. 490, 497, edit. Dolphin. "'■' Tum primum intra (iaUius martyria visa. Sulp. Severus, 1, ii. These M-ere the celebrated martyrs of Lyons. See Eusebius, v. i. Tillemont, Mem. Eeclcsiast. torn. ii. p. 316. According to the Dona- tists, whose assertion is confirmed by the tacit acknowledgment of Augustin, Africa wis the last of the provinces which received the gospel. Tillemont, M na. Eeclcsiast. torn. i. y, 754. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 581 rhcjiousc, Limjges, Clermont, Tours, and Ptiris, some scat- torod cliurch^s were supported by tlie demotion of a small number of Christians."^ Silence is indeed very consistent with devotion ; but as it is seldom compatible with zeal, we may perceive and lament the languid state of Christianity in those provinces which had exchanged the Celtic for the Latin tongue, since they did not, during the three first centuries, give birth to a single eccl(;siastical writer. From daul, which claimed a just preeminence of learning and authority over ail the countries on this side of the Alps, the light of the gospel was more faintly reflected on the remote provinces of Spain and Britain ; and if we may credit the vehement assertions of Tertullian, they had already received the first rays of the faith, when he addressed his apology to the magistrates of the emperor Severus.''"* But the obscure and imperfect origin of the western churches of Europe has been so negligently recorded, that if we would relate the time and manner of their foundation, we must supply the silence of antiquity by those legends which avarice or superstition long afterwards dictated to the monks in the lazy gloom of their convents.''-'' Of these holy romances, that of the a|)ostle St. James can alone, by its singular extravagance, deserve to be mentioned. From a peaceful fisherman of the Lake of (Jennesareth, he was trans- formed into a valorous knight, who charged at the head of the Spanish chivalry in their battles against the Moors. The gravest historians have celebrated his exploits ; the miracu- lous shrine of Com|)ostella dis|)iayed his power ; and the sword of a military order, assisted by the terrors of the Inquisition, was sufficient to remove every objection of profane criticism.'"'' '" KaiiE in nlitiuibus civitatibus ecclcsiije, paucorum Christianorura devotionc, rcsurgcreiit. Acta Sincera, p. 130. Gregory of Tours, 1. i. c. '2X. Moshciiu, p. •20", 449. There is some reason to bolifve that, in tlie bcj^inning of the fourth century, the extensive (Uoccses of Liege, of Treves, and of Cologne, composed a single bishopric, which had been very recently founded. See Memoires de Tillcmont, torn, vi. part i. p. 415, 411. "^ The date of Tcrtullian's Apology is fixed, in a dissertation of Mosheini, to tlie year 108. "* In the tiftcrnth century, there were few who had either incli- nation or courage to (lucstion, whether Joseph of Arini-ithea founded the monastery of (ilastonbury, and whether Dionysius the Areopa- jpitc prclerrcd the residence of Paris to that of Athens. "• The stupen ious metamorphosis was pertornitd in the ninth 582 THE DECLINE AND FALL The progress of Christianity was not confined to the Roman empire ; and according to the primitive fathers, who interpret facts by prophecy, the new religion, within a century after the death of its divine Author, had already visited every part of the globe. " There exists not," says Justin Martyr, " a people, whether Greek or Barbarian, or any other race of mjn, by whatsoever appellation or manners they may be dis- tinguished, however ignorant of arts or agricuUure, whether they dwell under tents, or wander about in covered wagon J, among whom prayers are not offered up in the name of a crucified Jesus to the Father and Creator of all things." •'''' But this splendid exaggeration, wliich even at present it would be extremely difiicult to reconcile with the real state of man- kind, can be considered only as the rash sally of a devout but careless writer, the measure of whose belief was regulated by that of his wishes. But neither the belief nor the wislies of the fathers can alter the truth of history. It will still remain an undoubted fact, that the barbarians of Scythia and Ger- many, who afterwards subverted the Roman monarchy, were involved in the darkness of paganism ; and that even the con- version of Iberia, of Armenia, or of ^Ethiopia, was noi attempted with any degree of success till the sceptre was in the hands of an orthodox emjjeror.'"'^ Before that time, the various accidents of war and commerce might indeed difi'use an imperfect knowledge of the gospel among the tribes ot Caledonia,'"'' and among the borderers of the Rhine, the century. See Mariana, (Hist. Ilispan. 1. vii. c. 13, torn. i. p. 285, edit. Hag. Com. 1733,) who, in every sense, imitates Livy, and the honest detection of the legend of St. James by Dr. Geddes, Miscellanies, vol. ii. p. 221. "' Jus,tin Martyr, Dialog, cum Tryphon. p. 341. Ircna>us adv Hseres. 1. i. c. 10. Tertullian adv. Jnd. c. 7. See Moshcim, p. 203. "* Sec the fourth century of Moshcim's History of the Church. Many, thouji;h very confused circumstances, that relate to the conver- sion of Iberia and Armenia, may bo found in Moses of Chorcne, 1. ii. c. 78— 80.» "* According to Tertullian, the Christian faith had penetrated into parts of Britain inaccessible to the Roman arms. About a century afterwards, Ossiau, the son of Fiiigal, is said to have disputed, in his • Mens. St. Ma tin has shown that Armenia was the first nntum that embraced Christia lity. MF THE ROMAN EMFIUK. d83 Danube, and tne Euphrates.^^'' Beyond the last-mentioned river, Edcssa was distinguished by a firm and early adher- ence to the faith. 181 From Edcssa the principles of (^Jhris- tinnity were easily introduced into the Greek and Syrian cities which obeyed the successors of Artaxerxes ; but they do not appear to have made any deep impression on tl>e minds of the Persians, whose religious system, by the labors of a well- disciplined order of priests, had been constructed with much more art and solidity than the uncertain mythology of Greece and Rome.i'^2 From this impartial though imperfect survey of the progress of Christianity, it may perhaps seem probable, that the num- ber of its proselytes has been excessively magnified by fear on the one side, and by devotion on the other. According to the irreproacliable testimony of Origen,'^-^ the proportion of the faithful was very inconsiderable, when compared with the multitude of an unbelieving world ; but, as we are left without any distinct information, it is impossible to determine, and it is difficult even to conjecture, the real numbers of the primi- tive Christians. The most favorable calculation, however, that can be deduced from the examples of Antioch and of Rome, will not permit us to imagine that more than a twentieth part of the subjects of the empire had enlisted themselves under the banner of the cross before the impor- tant conversion of Constantine. But their habits of faith, of zeal, and of union, seemed to multiply their numbei-s; and the same causes which contributed to their future increase extreme old ag;e, with one of the forciijn missionaries, and the dispute* is still extunt, in verse, and in the Erse lanp;uage. See Mr. Macphcr- Bon's Dissertation on the Antiquity of Ossian's Poems, p. 10. "*" The (ioths, who ravat^ed Asia in the reign of Gallienus, carried ftway great numbers of captives ; some of whom were Christians, and be- came missionaries. Sec Tillemont, Mcinoires Ecclesiast. tom. iv. p. 44. '*' The Icf^cnd of Ab^arus. fabulous as it is, affords a decisive proof, tliat many years before Euscbius wrote his history, the greatest part of the inhabitants of Edessa had embraced Cliristianity. Their rivals, the citizens of Carrbx', adhered, on the contrary, to the cause of Pa- ganism, as late as the sixth century. '"* According to Bardcsanes (ap. Euseb. Pnepar. Evangel.) there were some Christians in Persia before the end of the second cen- tury. In the time of Constantine (see his epistle to Sapor, Vit. 1. Iv. c. 13) they composed a flourishing church. Consult Beausobre, Hist. Oiticjuc du Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 180, and the Bibliotheo* Drientahs of Assemani. '*^ Origcii contra Celsum, 1. viii. p. 42i. 681 TH?: DECLINE AND TAL.I. served to rtndei their actual strength more apparent and moro formidable. Such is the constitution of civil society, that whilst a few persons are distinguished by riclies, by honors, and by knowl- edge, the body of the people is condemned to obscurity, igno- rance and poverty. - The Christian religion, which addressed Itself to the whole human race, must consequently collect a far greater number of proselytes from the lower than from the superior ranks of life. This innocent and natural circum- stance has been improved into a very odious imputation, which seems to be less strenuously denied by the apologists, than it is urged by the adversaries, of the faith ; that the new sect of Christians was almost entirely composed of the dregs of the populace, of peasants and mechanics, of boys and women, of beggars and slaves, the last of whom might some- umes introduce the missionaries into the rich and noble fam- ilies to which they belonged. These obscure teachers (such was the charge of malice and infidelity) are as mute in public as they are loquacious and dogmatical in private. Whilst they cautiously avoid the dangerous encounter of philoso- phers, they mingle with the rude and illiterate crowd, and insinuate themselves into those minds, whom their age, their sex, or their education, has the best disposed to receive the impression of superstitious terrors.'^'* This unfavorable picture, though not devoid of a faint resemblance, betrays, by its dark coloring and distorted fea- tures, the pencil of an enemy. As the humble faith of Christ diffused itself through the world, it was embraced by several persons who derived some consequence from the advantago. of nature or fortune. Aristides, who presented an eloquent apology to the emperor Hadrian, was an Athenian philoso- pher.'^^ Justin Martyr had sought divine knowledge in thf schools of Zeiio, of AristotI*'. of Pythagoras, and of Plato, before he fortunately was accosted by the old man, or rather the angel, who turned his attention to the study of the Jewish prophets."*'* Clemens of Alexandria had acquired much various readings in the Greek, and Tertullian in the Latin, '*' Miiiueius Felix, c. 8, witVi Wowoma's notes. Celsiis aj). ()riy;oi), L iii. p. i;i8, HI. Julian up. Cyril. 1. vi. p. 20(), edit. Spaiilicim. "* Eusel). Hist. E(a'loH. iv. .i. llicronym. lipist. H'.i. '"• The story is prettily told in Justin's Dialafjues. 'rillemnnt (M6m. EccU'Hiusi. torn. ii. p. 384,) who relates it alter hii i, in surt that tl e old man wu^ a disgui^ied aut OF VOL. I. 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