95 (return) [ It was the observation of _The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

in Hist. August. p. 224.]

96 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 221. Zosimus, l. i. p.

57. Eutrop ix. 15. The two Victors.]

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

Conduct Of The Army And Senate After The Death Of Aurelian.—Reigns Of

Tacitus, Probus, Carus, And His Sons.

Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, that,

whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the

same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness, of

indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and almost

every reign is closed by the same disgusting repetition of

treason and murder. The death of Aurelian, however, is remarkable

by its extraordinary consequences. The legions admired, lamented,

and revenged their victorious chief. The artifice of his

perfidious secretary was discovered and punished.

The deluded conspirators attended the funeral of their injured

sovereign, with sincere or well-feigned contrition, and submitted

to the unanimous resolution of the military order, which was

signified by the following epistle: “The brave and fortunate

armies to the senate and people of Rome.—The crime of one man,

and the error of many, have deprived us of the late emperor

Aurelian. May it please you, venerable lords and fathers! to

place him in the number of the gods, and to appoint a successor

whom your judgment shall declare worthy of the Imperial purple!

None of those whose guilt or misfortune have contributed to our

loss, shall ever reign over us.” 1 The Roman senators heard,

without surprise, that another emperor had been assassinated in

his camp; they secretly rejoiced in the fall of Aurelian; but the

modest and dutiful address of the legions, when it was

communicated in full assembly by the consul, diffused the most

pleasing astonishment. Such honors as fear and perhaps esteem

could extort, they liberally poured forth on the memory of their

deceased sovereign. Such acknowledgments as gratitude could

inspire, they returned to the faithful armies of the republic,

who entertained so just a sense of the legal authority of the

senate in the choice of an emperor. Yet, notwithstanding this

flattering appeal, the most prudent of the assembly declined

exposing their safety and dignity to the caprice of an armed

multitude. The strength of the legions was, indeed, a pledge of

their sincerity, since those who may command are seldom reduced

to the necessity of dissembling; but could it naturally be

expected, that a hasty repentance would correct the inveterate

habits of fourscore years? Should the soldiers relapse into their

accustomed seditions, their insolence might disgrace the majesty

of the senate, and prove fatal to the object of its choice.

Motives like these dictated a decree, by which the election of a

new emperor was referred to the suffrage of the military order.

1 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 222. Aurelius Victor

mentions a formal deputation from the troops to the senate.]

The contention that ensued is one of the best attested, but most

improbable events in the history of mankind. 2 The troops, as if

satiated with the exercise of power, again conjured the senate to

invest one of its own body with the Imperial purple. The senate

still persisted in its refusal; the army in its request. The

reciprocal offer was pressed and rejected at least three times,

and, whilst the obstinate modesty of either party was resolved to

receive a master from the hands of the other, eight months

insensibly elapsed; an amazing period of tranquil anarchy, during

which the Roman world remained without a sovereign, without a

usurper, and without a sedition. 201 The generals and magistrates

appointed by Aurelian continued to execute their ordinary

functions; and it is observed, that a proconsul of Asia was the

only considerable person removed from his office in the whole

course of the interregnum.

2 (return) [ Vopiscus, our principal authority, wrote at Rome,

sixteen years only after the death of Aurelian; and, besides the

recent notoriety of the facts, constantly draws his materials

from the Journals of the Senate, and the original papers of the

Ulpian library. Zosimus and Zonaras appear as ignorant of this

transaction as they were in general of the Roman constitution.]

201 (return) [ The interregnum could not be more than seven

months; Aurelian was assassinated in the middle of March, the

year of Rome 1028. Tacitus was elected the 25th September in the

same year.—G.]

An event somewhat similar, but much less authentic, is supposed

to have happened after the death of Romulus, who, in his life and

character, bore some affinity with Aurelian. The throne was

vacant during twelve months, till the election of a Sabine

philosopher, and the public peace was guarded in the same manner,

by the union of the several orders of the state. But, in the time

of Numa and Romulus, the arms of the people were controlled by

the authority of the Patricians; and the balance of freedom was

easily preserved in a small and virtuous community. 3 The decline

of the Roman state, far different from its infancy, was attended

with every circumstance that could banish from an interregnum the

prospect of obedience and harmony: an immense and tumultuous

capital, a wide extent of empire, the servile equality of

despotism, an army of four hundred thousand mercenaries, and the

experience of frequent revolutions. Yet, notwithstanding all

these temptations, the discipline and memory of Aurelian still

restrained the seditious temper of the troops, as well as the

fatal ambition of their leaders. The flower of the legions

maintained their stations on the banks of the Bosphorus, and the

Imperial standard awed the less powerful camps of Rome and of the

provinces. A generous though transient enthusiasm seemed to

animate the military order; and we may hope that a few real

patriots cultivated the returning friendship of the army and the

senate as the only expedient capable of restoring the republic to

its ancient beauty and vigor.

3 (return) [ Liv. i. 17 Dionys. Halicarn. l. ii. p. 115. Plutarch

in Numa, p. 60. The first of these writers relates the story like

an orator, the second like a lawyer, and the third like a

moralist, and none of them probably without some intermixture of

fable.]

On the twenty-fifth of September, near eight months after the

murder of Aurelian, the consul convoked an assembly of the

senate, and reported the doubtful and dangerous situation of the

empire. He slightly insinuated, that the precarious loyalty of

the soldiers depended on the chance of every hour, and of every

accident; but he represented, with the most convincing eloquence,

the various dangers that might attend any further delay in the

choice of an emperor. Intelligence, he said, was already

received, that the Germans had passed the Rhine, and occupied

some of the strongest and most opulent cities of Gaul. The

ambition of the Persian king kept the East in perpetual alarms;

Egypt, Africa, and Illyricum, were exposed to foreign and

domestic arms, and the levity of Syria would prefer even a female

sceptre to the sanctity of the Roman laws. The consul, then

addressing himself to Tacitus, the first of the senators, 4

required his opinion on the important subject of a proper

candidate for the vacant throne.

4 (return) [ Vopiscus (in Hist. August p. 227) calls him “primæ

sententia consularis;” and soon afterwards Princeps senatus. It

is natural to suppose, that the monarchs of Rome, disdaining that

humble title, resigned it to the most ancient of the senators.]

If we can prefer personal merit to accidental greatness, we shall

esteem the birth of Tacitus more truly noble than that of kings.

He claimed his descent from the philosophic historian whose

writings will instruct the last generations of mankind. 5 The

senator Tacitus was then seventy-five years of age. 6 The long

period of his innocent life was adorned with wealth and honors.

He had twice been invested with the consular dignity, 7 and

enjoyed with elegance and sobriety his ample patrimony of between

two and three millions sterling. 8 The experience of so many

princes, whom he had esteemed or endured, from the vain follies

of Elagabalus to the useful rigor of Aurelian, taught him to form

a just estimate of the duties, the dangers, and the temptations

of their sublime station. From the assiduous study of his

immortal ancestor, he derived the knowledge of the Roman

constitution, and of human nature. 9 The voice of the people had

already named Tacitus as the citizen the most worthy of empire.

The ungrateful rumor reached his ears, and induced him to seek

the retirement of one of his villas in Campania. He had passed

two months in the delightful privacy of Baiæ, when he reluctantly

obeyed the summons of the consul to resume his honorable place in

the senate, and to assist the republic with his counsels on this

important occasion.

5 (return) [ The only objection to this genealogy is, that the

historian was named Cornelius, the emperor, Claudius. But under

the lower empire, surnames were extremely various and uncertain.]

6 (return) [ Zonaras, l. xii. p. 637. The Alexandrian Chronicle,

by an obvious mistake, transfers that age to Aurelian.]

7 (return) [ In the year 273, he was ordinary consul. But he must

have been Suffectus many years before, and most probably under

Valerian.]

8 (return) [ Bis millies octingenties. Vopiscus in Hist. August

p. 229. This sum, according to the old standard, was equivalent

to eight hundred and forty thousand Roman pounds of silver, each

of the value of three pounds sterling. But in the age of Tacitus,

the coin had lost much of its weight and purity.]

9 (return) [ After his accession, he gave orders that ten copies

of the historian should be annually transcribed and placed in the

public libraries. The Roman libraries have long since perished,

and the most valuable part of Tacitus was preserved in a single

Ms., and discovered in a monastery of Westphalia. See Bayle,

Dictionnaire, Art. Tacite, and Lipsius ad Annal. ii. 9.]

He arose to speak, when from every quarter of the house, he was

saluted with the names of Augustus and emperor. “Tacitus

Augustus, the gods preserve thee! we choose thee for our

sovereign; to thy care we intrust the republic and the world.

Accept the empire from the authority of the senate. It is due to

thy rank, to thy conduct, to thy manners.” As soon as the tumult

of acclamations subsided, Tacitus attempted to decline the

dangerous honor, and to express his wonder, that they should

elect his age and infirmities to succeed the martial vigor of

Aurelian. “Are these limbs, conscript fathers! fitted to sustain

the weight of armor, or to practise the exercises of the camp?

The variety of climates, and the hardships of a military life,

would soon oppress a feeble constitution, which subsists only by

the most tender management. My exhausted strength scarcely

enables me to discharge the duty of a senator; how insufficient

would it prove to the arduous labors of war and government! Can

you hope, that the legions will respect a weak old man, whose

days have been spent in the shade of peace and retirement? Can

you desire that I should ever find reason to regret the favorable

opinion of the senate?” 10

10 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 227.]

The reluctance of Tacitus (and it might possibly be sincere) was

encountered by the affectionate obstinacy of the senate. Five

hundred voices repeated at once, in eloquent confusion, that the

greatest of the Roman princes, Numa, Trajan, Hadrian, and the

Antonines, had ascended the throne in a very advanced season of

life; that the mind, not the body, a sovereign, not a soldier,

was the object of their choice; and that they expected from him

no more than to guide by his wisdom the valor of the legions.

These pressing though tumultuary instances were seconded by a

more regular oration of Metius Falconius, the next on the

consular bench to Tacitus himself. He reminded the assembly of

the evils which Rome had endured from the vices of headstrong and

capricious youths, congratulated them on the election of a

virtuous and experienced senator, and, with a manly, though

perhaps a selfish, freedom, exhorted Tacitus to remember the

reasons of his elevation, and to seek a successor, not in his own

family, but in the republic. The speech of Falconius was enforced

by a general acclamation. The emperor elect submitted to the

authority of his country, and received the voluntary homage of

his equals. The judgment of the senate was confirmed by the

consent of the Roman people and of the Prætorian guards. 11

11 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 228. Tacitus addressed the

Prætorians by the appellation of sanctissimi milites, and the

people by that of sacratissim. Quirites.]

The administration of Tacitus was not unworthy of his life and

principles. A grateful servant of the senate, he considered that

national council as the author, and himself as the subject, of

the laws. 12 He studied to heal the wounds which Imperial pride,

civil discord, and military violence, had inflicted on the

constitution, and to restore, at least, the image of the ancient

republic, as it had been preserved by the policy of Augustus, and

the virtues of Trajan and the Antonines. It may not be useless to

recapitulate some of the most important prerogatives which the

senate appeared to have regained by the election of Tacitus. 13

1. To invest one of their body, under the title of emperor, with

the general command of the armies, and the government of the

frontier provinces. 2. To determine the list, or, as it was then

styled, the College of Consuls. They were twelve in number, who,

in successive pairs, each, during the space of two months, filled

the year, and represented the dignity of that ancient office. The

authority of the senate, in the nomination of the consuls, was

exercised with such independent freedom, that no regard was paid

to an irregular request of the emperor in favor of his brother

Florianus. “The senate,” exclaimed Tacitus, with the honest

transport of a patriot, “understand the character of a prince

whom they have chosen.” 3. To appoint the proconsuls and

presidents of the provinces, and to confer on all the magistrates

their civil jurisdiction. 4. To receive appeals through the

intermediate office of the præfect of the city from all the

tribunals of the empire. 5. To give force and validity, by their

decrees, to such as they should approve of the emperor’s edicts.

6. To these several branches of authority we may add some

inspection over the finances, since, even in the stern reign of

Aurelian, it was in their power to divert a part of the revenue

from the public service. 14

12 (return) [ In his manumissions he never exceeded the number of

a hundred, as limited by the Caninian law, which was enacted

under Augustus, and at length repealed by Justinian. See Casaubon

ad locum Vopisci.]

13 (return) [ See the lives of Tacitus, Florianus, and Probus, in

the Augustan History; we may be well assured, that whatever the

soldier gave the senator had already given.]

14 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 216. The passage is

perfectly clear, both Casaubon and Salmasius wish to correct it.]

Circular epistles were sent, without delay, to all the principal

cities of the empire, Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Thessalonica,

Corinth, Athens, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage, to claim

their obedience, and to inform them of the happy revolution,

which had restored the Roman senate to its ancient dignity. Two

of these epistles are still extant. We likewise possess two very

singular fragments of the private correspondence of the senators

on this occasion. They discover the most excessive joy, and the

most unbounded hopes. “Cast away your indolence,” it is thus that

one of the senators addresses his friend, “emerge from your

retirements of Baiæ and Puteoli. Give yourself to the city, to

the senate. Rome flourishes, the whole republic flourishes.

Thanks to the Roman army, to an army truly Roman; at length we

have recovered our just authority, the end of all our desires. We

hear appeals, we appoint proconsuls, we create emperors; perhaps

too we may restrain them—to the wise a word is sufficient.” 15

These lofty expectations were, however, soon disappointed; nor,

indeed, was it possible that the armies and the provinces should

long obey the luxurious and unwarlike nobles of Rome. On the

slightest touch, the unsupported fabric of their pride and power

fell to the ground. The expiring senate displayed a sudden

lustre, blazed for a moment, and was extinguished forever.

15 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 230, 232, 233. The

senators celebrated the happy restoration with hecatombs and

public rejoicings.]

All that had yet passed at Rome was no more than a theatrical

representation, unless it was ratified by the more substantial

power of the legions. Leaving the senators to enjoy their dream

of freedom and ambition, Tacitus proceeded to the Thracian camp,

and was there, by the Prætorian præfect, presented to the

assembled troops, as the prince whom they themselves had

demanded, and whom the senate had bestowed. As soon as the

præfect was silent, the emperor addressed himself to the soldiers

with eloquence and propriety. He gratified their avarice by a

liberal distribution of treasure, under the names of pay and

donative. He engaged their esteem by a spirited declaration, that

although his age might disable him from the performance of

military exploits, his counsels should never be unworthy of a

Roman general, the successor of the brave Aurelian. 16

16 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 228.]

Whilst the deceased emperor was making preparations for a second

expedition into the East, he had negotiated with the Alani, 161 a

Scythian people, who pitched their tents in the neighborhood of

the Lake Mæotis. Those barbarians, allured by presents and

subsidies, had promised to invade Persia with a numerous body of

light cavalry. They were faithful to their engagements; but when

they arrived on the Roman frontier, Aurelian was already dead,

the design of the Persian war was at least suspended, and the

generals, who, during the interregnum, exercised a doubtful

authority, were unprepared either to receive or to oppose them.

Provoked by such treatment, which they considered as trifling and

perfidious, the Alani had recourse to their own valor for their

payment and revenge; and as they moved with the usual swiftness

of Tartars, they had soon spread themselves over the provinces of

Pontus, Cappadocia, Cilicia, and Galatia. The legions, who from

the opposite shores of the Bosphorus could almost distinguish the

flames of the cities and villages, impatiently urged their

general to lead them against the invaders. The conduct of Tacitus

was suitable to his age and station. He convinced the barbarians

of the faith, as well as the power, of the empire. Great numbers

of the Alani, appeased by the punctual discharge of the

engagements which Aurelian had contracted with them, relinquished

their booty and captives, and quietly retreated to their own

deserts, beyond the Phasis. Against the remainder, who refused

peace, the Roman emperor waged, in person, a successful war.

Seconded by an army of brave and experienced veterans, in a few

weeks he delivered the provinces of Asia from the terror of the

Scythian invasion. 17

161 (return) [ On the Alani, see ch. xxvi. note 55.—M.]

17 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 230. Zosimus, l. i. p.

57. Zonaras, l. xii. p. 637. Two passages in the life of Probus

(p. 236, 238) convince me, that these Scythian invaders of Pontus

were Alani. If we may believe Zosimus, (l. i. p. 58,) Florianus

pursued them as far as the Cimmerian Bosphorus. But he had

scarcely time for so long and difficult an expedition.]

But the glory and life of Tacitus were of short duration.

Transported, in the depth of winter, from the soft retirement of

Campania to the foot of Mount Caucasus, he sunk under the

unaccustomed hardships of a military life. The fatigues of the

body were aggravated by the cares of the mind. For a while, the

angry and selfish passions of the soldiers had been suspended by

the enthusiasm of public virtue. They soon broke out with

redoubled violence, and raged in the camp, and even in the tent

of the aged emperor. His mild and amiable character served only

to inspire contempt, and he was incessantly tormented with

factions which he could not assuage, and by demands which it was

impossible to satisfy. Whatever flattering expectations he had

conceived of reconciling the public disorders, Tacitus soon was

convinced that the licentiousness of the army disdained the

feeble restraint of laws, and his last hour was hastened by

anguish and disappointment. It may be doubtful whether the

soldiers imbrued their hands in the blood of this innocent

prince. 18 It is certain that their insolence was the cause of

his death. He expired at Tyana in Cappadocia, after a reign of

only six months and about twenty days. 19

18 (return) [ Eutropius and Aurelius Victor only say that he

died; Victor Junior adds, that it was of a fever. Zosimus and

Zonaras affirm, that he was killed by the soldiers. Vopiscus

mentions both accounts, and seems to hesitate. Yet surely these

jarring opinions are easily reconciled.]

19 (return) [ According to the two Victors, he reigned exactly

two hundred days.]

The eyes of Tacitus were scarcely closed, before his brother

Florianus showed himself unworthy to reign, by the hasty

usurpation of the purple, without expecting the approbation of

the senate. The reverence for the Roman constitution, which yet

influenced the camp and the provinces, was sufficiently strong to

dispose them to censure, but not to provoke them to oppose, the

precipitate ambition of Florianus. The discontent would have

evaporated in idle murmurs, had not the general of the East, the

heroic Probus, boldly declared himself the avenger of the senate.

The contest, however, was still unequal; nor could the most able

leader, at the head of the effeminate troops of Egypt and Syria,

encounter, with any hopes of victory, the legions of Europe,

whose irresistible strength appeared to support the brother of

Tacitus. But the fortune and activity of Probus triumphed over

every obstacle. The hardy veterans of his rival, accustomed to

cold climates, sickened and consumed away in the sultry heats of

Cilicia, where the summer proved remarkably unwholesome. Their

numbers were diminished by frequent desertion; the passes of the

mountains were feebly defended; Tarsus opened its gates; and the

soldiers of Florianus, when they had permitted him to enjoy the

Imperial title about three months, delivered the empire from

civil war by the easy sacrifice of a prince whom they despised.

20 (return) [ Hist. August, p. 231. Zosimus, l. i. p. 58, 59.

Zonaras, l. xii. p. 637. Aurelius Victor says, that Probus

assumed the empire in Illyricum; an opinion which (though adopted

by a very learned man) would throw that period of history into

inextricable confusion.]

The perpetual revolutions of the throne had so perfectly erased

every notion of hereditary title, that the family of an

unfortunate emperor was incapable of exciting the jealousy of his

successors. The children of Tacitus and Florianus were permitted

to descend into a private station, and to mingle with the general

mass of the people. Their poverty indeed became an additional

safeguard to their innocence. When Tacitus was elected by the

senate, he resigned his ample patrimony to the public service; 21

an act of generosity specious in appearance, but which evidently

disclosed his intention of transmitting the empire to his

descendants. The only consolation of their fallen state was the

remembrance of transient greatness, and a distant hope, the child

of a flattering prophecy, that at the end of a thousand years, a

monarch of the race of Tacitus should arise, the protector of the

senate, the restorer of Rome, and the conqueror of the whole

earth. 22

21 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 229]

22 (return) [ He was to send judges to the Parthians, Persians,

and Sarmatians, a president to Taprobani, and a proconsul to the

Roman island, (supposed by Casaubon and Salmasius to mean

Britain.) Such a history as mine (says Vopiscus with proper

modesty) will not subsist a thousand years, to expose or justify

the prediction.]

The peasants of Illyricum, who had already given Claudius and

Aurelian to the sinking empire, had an equal right to glory in

the elevation of Probus. 23 Above twenty years before, the

emperor Valerian, with his usual penetration, had discovered the

rising merit of the young soldier, on whom he conferred the rank

of tribune, long before the age prescribed by the military

regulations. The tribune soon justified his choice, by a victory

over a great body of Sarmatians, in which he saved the life of a

near relation of Valerian; and deserved to receive from the

emperor’s hand the collars, bracelets, spears, and banners, the

mural and the civic crown, and all the honorable rewards reserved

by ancient Rome for successful valor. The third, and afterwards

the tenth, legion were intrusted to the command of Probus, who,

in every step of his promotion, showed himself superior to the

station which he filled. Africa and Pontus, the Rhine, the

Danube, the Euphrates, and the Nile, by turns afforded him the

most splendid occasions of displaying his personal prowess and

his conduct in war. Aurelian was indebted for the honest courage

with which he often checked the cruelty of his master. Tacitus,

who desired by the abilities of his generals to supply his own

deficiency of military talents, named him commander-in-chief of

all the eastern provinces, with five times the usual salary, the

promise of the consulship, and the hope of a triumph. When Probus

ascended the Imperial throne, he was about forty-four years of

age; 24 in the full possession of his fame, of the love of the

army, and of a mature vigor of mind and body.

23 (return) [ For the private life of Probus, see Vopiscus in

Hist. August p. 234—237]

24 (return) [ According to the Alexandrian chronicle, he was

fifty at the time of his death.]

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.” 25 His dutiful address to the senate displayed

the sentiments, or at least the language, of a Roman patriot:

“When you elected one of your order, conscript fathers! to

succeed the emperor Aurelian, you acted in a manner suitable to

your justice and wisdom. For you are the legal sovereigns of the

world, and the power which you derive from your ancestors will

descend to your posterity. Happy would it have been, if

Florianus, instead of usurping the purple of his brother, like a

private inheritance, had expected what your majesty might

determine, either in his favor, or in that of any other person.

The prudent soldiers have punished his rashness. To me they have

offered the title of Augustus. But I submit to your clemency my

pretensions and my merits.” 26 When this respectful epistle was

read by the consul, the senators were unable to disguise their

satisfaction, that Probus should condescend thus numbly to

solicit a sceptre which he already possessed. They celebrated

with the warmest gratitude his virtues, his exploits, and above

all his moderation. A decree immediately passed, without a

dissenting voice, to ratify the election of the eastern armies,

and to confer on their chief all the several branches of the

Imperial dignity: the names of Cæsar and Augustus, the title of

Father of his country, the right of making in the same day three

motions in the senate, 27 the office of Pontifex Maximus, the

tribunitian power, and the proconsular command; a mode of

investiture, which, though it seemed to multiply the authority of

the emperor, expressed the constitution of the ancient republic.

The reign of Probus corresponded with this fair beginning. The

senate was permitted to direct the civil administration of the

empire. Their faithful general asserted the honor of the Roman

arms, and often laid at their feet crowns of gold and barbaric

trophies, the fruits of his numerous victories. 28 Yet, whilst he

gratified their vanity, he must secretly have despised their

indolence and weakness. Though it was every moment in their power

to repeal the disgraceful edict of Gallienus, the proud

successors of the Scipios patiently acquiesced in their exclusion

from all military employments. They soon experienced, that those

who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre.

25 (return) [ This letter was addressed to the Prætorian præfect,

whom (on condition of his good behavior) he promised to continue

in his great office. See Hist. August. p. 237.]

26 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 237. The date of the

letter is assuredly faulty. Instead of Nen. Februar. we may read

Non August.]

27 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 238. It is odd that the senate

should treat Probus less favorably than Marcus Antoninus. That

prince had received, even before the death of Pius, Jus quintoe

relationis. See Capitolin. in Hist. August. p. 24.]

28 (return) [ See the dutiful letter of Probus to the senate,

after his German victories. Hist. August. p. 239.]

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

II.

The strength of Aurelian had crushed on every side the enemies of

Rome. After his death they seemed to revive with an increase of

fury and of numbers. They were again vanquished by the active

vigor of Probus, who, in a short reign of about six years, 29

equalled the fame of ancient heroes, and restored peace and order

to every province of the Roman world. The dangerous frontier of

Rhætia he so firmly secured, that he left it without the

suspicion of an enemy. He broke the wandering power of the

Sarmatian tribes, and by the terror of his arms compelled those

barbarians to relinquish their spoil. The Gothic nation courted

the alliance of so warlike an emperor. 30 He attacked the

Isaurians in their mountains, besieged and took several of their

strongest castles, 31 and flattered himself that he had forever

suppressed a domestic foe, whose independence so deeply wounded

the majesty of the empire. The troubles excited by the usurper

Firmus in the Upper Egypt had never been perfectly appeased, and

the cities of Ptolemais and Coptos, fortified by the alliance of

the Blemmyes, still maintained an obscure rebellion. The

chastisement of those cities, and of their auxiliaries the

savages of the South, is said to have alarmed the court of

Persia, 32 and the Great King sued in vain for the friendship of

Probus. Most of the exploits which distinguished his reign were

achieved by the personal valor and conduct of the emperor,

insomuch that the writer of his life expresses some amazement

how, in so short a time, a single man could be present in so many

distant wars. The remaining actions he intrusted to the care of

his lieutenants, the judicious choice of whom forms no

inconsiderable part of his glory. Carus, Diocletian, Maximian,

Constantius, Galerius, Asclepiodatus, Annibalianus, and a crowd

of other chiefs, who afterwards ascended or supported the throne,

were trained to arms in the severe school of Aurelian and Probus.

29 (return) [ The date and duration of the reign of Probus are

very correctly ascertained by Cardinal Noris in his learned work,

De Epochis Syro-Macedonum, p. 96—105. A passage of Eusebius

connects the second year of Probus with the æras of several of

the Syrian cities.]

30 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 239.]

31 (return) [ Zosimus (l. i. p. 62—65) tells us a very long and

trifling story of Lycius, the Isaurian robber.]

32 (return) [ Zosim. l. i. p. 65. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p.

239, 240. But it seems incredible that the defeat of the savages

of Æthiopia could affect the Persian monarch.]

33 (return) [ Besides these well-known chiefs, several others are

named by Vopiscus, (Hist. August. p. 241,) whose actions have not

reached knowledge.]

But the most important service which Probus rendered to the

republic was the deliverance of Gaul, and the recovery of seventy

flourishing cities oppressed by the barbarians of Germany, who,

since the death of Aurelian, had ravaged that great province with

impunity. 34 Among the various multitude of those fierce invaders

we may distinguish, with some degree of clearness, three great

armies, or rather nations, successively vanquished by the valor

of Probus. He drove back the Franks into their morasses; a

descriptive circumstance from whence we may infer, that the

confederacy known by the manly appellation of _Free_, already

occupied the flat maritime country, intersected and almost

overflown by the stagnating waters of the Rhine, and that several

tribes of the Frisians and Batavians had acceded to their

alliance. He vanquished the Burgundians, a considerable people of

the Vandalic race. 341 They had wandered in quest of booty from

the banks of the Oder to those of the Seine. They esteemed

themselves sufficiently fortunate to purchase, by the restitution

of all their booty, the permission of an undisturbed retreat.

They attempted to elude that article of the treaty. Their

punishment was immediate and terrible. 35 But of all the invaders

of Gaul, the most formidable were the Lygians, a distant people,

who reigned over a wide domain on the frontiers of Poland and

Silesia. 36 In the Lygian nation, the Arii held the first rank by

their numbers and fierceness. “The Arii” (it is thus that they

are described by the energy of Tacitus) “study to improve by art

and circumstances the innate terrors of their barbarism. Their

shields are black, their bodies are painted black. They choose

for the combat the darkest hour of the night. Their host

advances, covered as it were with a funeral shade; 37 nor do they

often find an enemy capable of sustaining so strange and infernal

an aspect. Of all our senses, the eyes are the first vanquished

in battle.” 38 Yet the arms and discipline of the Romans easily

discomfited these horrid phantoms. The Lygii were defeated in a

general engagement, and Semno, the most renowned of their chiefs,

fell alive into the hands of Probus. That prudent emperor,

unwilling to reduce a brave people to despair, granted them an

honorable capitulation, and permitted them to return in safety to

their native country. But the losses which they suffered in the

march, the battle, and the retreat, broke the power of the

nation: nor is the Lygian name ever repeated in the history

either of Germany or of the empire. The deliverance of Gaul is

reported to have cost the lives of four hundred thousand of the

invaders; a work of labor to the Romans, and of expense to the

emperor, who gave a piece of gold for the head of every

barbarian. 39 But as the fame of warriors is built on the

destruction of human kind, we may naturally suspect that the

sanguinary account was multiplied by the avarice of the soldiers,

and accepted without any very severe examination by the liberal

vanity of Probus.

34 (return) [ See the Cæsars of Julian, and Hist. August. p. 238,

240, 241.]

341 (return) [ It was only under the emperors Diocletian and

Maximian, that the Burgundians, in concert with the Alemanni,

invaded the interior of Gaul; under the reign of Probus, they did

no more than pass the river which separated them from the Roman

Empire: they were repelled. Gatterer presumes that this river was

the Danube; a passage in Zosimus appears to me rather to indicate

the Rhine. Zos. l. i. p. 37, edit H. Etienne, 1581.—G. On the

origin of the Burgundians may be consulted Malte Brun, Geogr vi.

p. 396, (edit. 1831,) who observes that all the remains of the

Burgundian language indicate that they spoke a Gothic

dialect.—M.]

35 (return) [ Zosimus, l. i. p. 62. Hist. August. p. 240. But the

latter supposes the punishment inflicted with the consent of

their kings: if so, it was partial, like the offence.]

36 (return) [ See Cluver. Germania Antiqua, l. iii. Ptolemy

places in their country the city of Calisia, probably Calish in

Silesia. * Note: Luden (vol ii. 501) supposes that these have

been erroneously identified with the Lygii of Tacitus. Perhaps

one fertile source of mistakes has been, that the Romans have

turned appellations into national names. Malte Brun observes of

the Lygii, “that their name appears Sclavonian, and signifies

‘inhabitants of plains;’ they are probably the Lieches of the

middle ages, and the ancestors of the Poles. We find among the

Arii the worship of the two twin gods known in the Sclavian

mythology.” Malte Brun, vol. i. p. 278, (edit. 1831.)—M. But

compare Schafarik, Slawische Alterthumer, 1, p. 406. They were of

German or Keltish descent, occupying the Wendish (or Slavian)

district, Luhy.—M. 1845.]

37 (return) [ Feralis umbra, is the expression of Tacitus: it is

surely a very bold one.]

38 (return) [ Tacit. Germania, (c. 43.)]

39 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 238]

Since the expedition of Maximin, the Roman generals had confined

their ambition to a defensive war against the nations of Germany,

who perpetually pressed on the frontiers of the empire. The more

daring Probus pursued his Gallic victories, passed the Rhine, and

displayed his invincible eagles on the banks of the Elbe and the

Neckar. He was fully convinced that nothing could reconcile the

minds of the barbarians to peace, unless they experienced, in

their own country, the calamities of war. Germany, exhausted by

the ill success of the last emigration, was astonished by his

presence. Nine of the most considerable princes repaired to his

camp, and fell prostrate at his feet. Such a treaty was humbly

received by the Germans, as it pleased the conqueror to dictate.

He exacted a strict restitution of the effects and captives which

they had carried away from the provinces; and obliged their own

magistrates to punish the more obstinate robbers who presumed to

detain any part of the spoil. A considerable tribute of corn,

cattle, and horses, the only wealth of barbarians, was reserved

for the use of the garrisons which Probus established on the

limits of their territory. He even entertained some thoughts of

compelling the Germans to relinquish the exercise of arms, and to

trust their differences to the justice, their safety to the

power, of Rome. To accomplish these salutary ends, the constant

residence of an Imperial governor, supported by a numerous army,

was indispensably requisite. Probus therefore judged it more

expedient to defer the execution of so great a design; which was

indeed rather of specious than solid utility. 40 Had Germany been

reduced into the state of a province, the Romans, with immense

labor and expense, would have acquired only a more extensive

boundary to defend against the fiercer and more active barbarians

of Scythia.

40 (return) [ Hist. August. 238, 239. Vopiscus quotes a letter

from the emperor to the senate, in which he mentions his design

of reducing Germany into a province.]

Instead of reducing the warlike natives of Germany to the

condition of subjects, Probus contented himself with the humble

expedient of raising a bulwark against their inroads. The country

which now forms the circle of Swabia had been left desert in the

age of Augustus by the emigration of its ancient inhabitants. 41

The fertility of the soil soon attracted a new colony from the

adjacent provinces of Gaul. Crowds of adventurers, of a roving

temper and of desperate fortunes, occupied the doubtful

possession, and acknowledged, by the payment of tithes, the

majesty of the empire. 42 To protect these new subjects, a line

of frontier garrisons was gradually extended from the Rhine to

the Danube. About the reign of Hadrian, when that mode of defence

began to be practised, these garrisons were connected and covered

by a strong intrenchment of trees and palisades. In the place of

so rude a bulwark, the emperor Probus constructed a stone wall of

a considerable height, and strengthened it by towers at

convenient distances. From the neighborhood of Neustadt and

Ratisbon on the Danube, it stretched across hills, valleys,

rivers, and morasses, as far as Wimpfen on the Neckar, and at

length terminated on the banks of the Rhine, after a winding

course of near two hundred miles. 43 This important barrier,

uniting the two mighty streams that protected the provinces of

Europe, seemed to fill up the vacant space through which the

barbarians, and particularly the Alemanni, could penetrate with

the greatest facility into the heart of the empire. But the

experience of the world, from China to Britain, has exposed the

vain attempt of fortifying any extensive tract of country. 44 An

active enemy, who can select and vary his points of attack, must,

in the end, discover some feeble spot, 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 overthrown by the Alemanni. Its scattered ruins, universally

ascribed to the power of the Dæmon, now serve only to excite the

wonder of the Swabian peasant.

41 (return) [ Strabo, l. vii. According to Valleius Paterculus,

(ii. 108,) Maroboduus led his Marcomanni into Bohemia; Cluverius

(German. Antiq. iii. 8) proves that it was from Swabia.]

42 (return) [ These settlers, from the payment of tithes, were

denominated Decunates. Tacit. Germania, c. 29]

43 (return) [ See notes de l’Abbé de la Bleterie a la Germanie de

Tacite, p. 183. His account of the wall is chiefly borrowed (as

he says himself) from the Alsatia Illustrata of Schoepflin.]

44 (return) [ See Recherches sur les Chinois et les Egyptiens,

tom. ii. p. 81—102. The anonymous author is well acquainted with

the globe in general, and with Germany in particular: with regard

to the latter, he quotes a work of M. Hanselman; but he seems to

confound the wall of Probus, designed against the Alemanni, with

the fortification of the Mattiaci, constructed in the

neighborhood of Frankfort against the Catti. * Note: De Pauw is

well known to have been the author of this work, as of the

Recherches sur les Americains before quoted. The judgment of M.

Remusat on this writer is in a very different, I fear a juster

tone. Quand au lieu de rechercher, d’examiner, d’etudier, on se

borne, comme cet ecrivain, a juger a prononcer, a decider, sans

connoitre ni l’histoire. ni les langues, sans recourir aux

sources, sans meme se douter de leur existence, on peut en

imposer pendant quelque temps a des lecteurs prevenus ou peu

instruits; mais le mepris qui ne manque guere de succeder a cet

engouement fait bientot justice de ces assertions hazardees, et

elles retombent dans l’oubli d’autant plus promptement, qu’elles

ont ete posees avec plus de confiance. Sur les l angues Tartares,

p. 231.—M.]

Among the useful conditions of peace imposed by Probus on the

vanquished nations of Germany, was the obligation of supplying

the Roman army with sixteen thousand recruits, the bravest and

most robust of their youth. The emperor dispersed them through

all the provinces, and distributed this dangerous reënforcement,

in small bands of fifty or sixty each, among the national troops;

judiciously observing, that the aid which the republic derived

from the barbarians should be felt but not seen. 45 Their aid was

now become necessary. The feeble elegance of Italy and the

internal provinces could no longer support the weight of arms.

The hardy frontiers of the Rhine and Danube still produced minds

and bodies equal to the labors of the camp; but a perpetual

series of wars had gradually diminished their numbers. The

infrequency of marriage, and the ruin of agriculture, affected

the principles of population, and not only destroyed the strength

of the present, but intercepted the hope of future, generations.

The wisdom of Probus embraced a great and beneficial plan of

replenishing the exhausted frontiers, by new colonies of captive

or fugitive barbarians, on whom he bestowed lands, cattle,

instruments of husbandry, and every encouragement that might

engage them to educate a race of soldiers for the service of the

republic. Into Britain, and most probably into Cambridgeshire, 46

he transported a considerable body of Vandals. The impossibility

of an escape reconciled them to their situation, and in the

subsequent troubles of that island, they approved themselves the

most faithful servants of the state. 47 Great numbers of Franks

and Gepidæ were settled on the banks of the Danube and the Rhine.

A hundred thousand Bastarnæ, expelled from their own country,

cheerfully accepted an establishment in Thrace, and soon imbibed

the manners and sentiments of Roman subjects. 48 But the

expectations of Probus were too often disappointed. The

impatience and idleness of the barbarians could ill brook the

slow labors of agriculture. Their unconquerable love of freedom,

rising against despotism, provoked them into hasty rebellions,

alike fatal to themselves and to the provinces; 49 nor could

these artificial supplies, however repeated by succeeding

emperors, restore the important limit of Gaul and Illyricum to

its ancient and native vigor.

45 (return) [ He distributed about fifty or sixty barbarians to a

Numerus, as it was then called, a corps with whose established

number we are not exactly acquainted.]

46 (return) [ Camden’s Britannia, Introduction, p. 136; but he

speaks from a very doubtful conjecture.]

47 (return) [ Zosimus, l. i. p. 62. According to Vopiscus,

another body of Vandals was less faithful.]

48 (return) [Footnote 48: Hist. August. p. 240. They were

probably expelled by the Goths. Zosim. l. i. p. 66.]

49 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 240.]

Of all the barbarians who abandoned their new settlements, and

disturbed the public tranquillity, a very small number returned

to their own country. For a short season they might wander in

arms through the empire; but in the end they were surely

destroyed by the power of a warlike emperor. The successful

rashness of a party of Franks was attended, however, with such

memorable consequences, that it ought not to be passed unnoticed.

They had been established by Probus, on the sea-coast of Pontus,

with a view of strengthening the frontier against the inroads of

the Alani. A fleet stationed in one of the harbors of the Euxine

fell into the hands of the Franks; and they resolved, through

unknown seas, to explore their way from the mouth of the Phasis

to that of the Rhine. They easily escaped through the Bosphorus

and the Hellespont, and cruising along the Mediterranean,

indulged their appetite for revenge and plunder by frequent

descents on the unsuspecting shores of Asia, Greece, and Africa.

The opulent city of Syracuse, in whose port the 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 Gaul, and steering their triumphant course

through the British Channel, at length finished their surprising

voyage, by landing in safety on the Batavian or Frisian shores.

50 The example of their success, instructing their countrymen to

conceive the advantages and to despise the dangers of the sea,

pointed out to their enterprising spirit a new road to wealth and

glory.

50 (return) [ Panegyr. Vet. v. 18. Zosimus, l. i. p. 66.]

Notwithstanding the vigilance and activity of Probus, it was

almost impossible that he could at once contain in obedience

every part of his wide-extended dominions. The barbarians, who

broke their chains, had seized the favorable opportunity of a

domestic war. When the emperor marched to the relief of Gaul, he

devolved the command of the East on Saturninus. That general, a

man of merit and experience, was driven into rebellion by the

absence of his sovereign, the levity of the Alexandrian people,

the pressing instances of his friends, and his own fears; but

from the moment of his elevation, he never entertained a hope of

empire, or even of life. “Alas!” he said, “the republic has lost

a useful servant, and the rashness of an hour has destroyed the

services of many years. You know not,” continued he, “the misery

of sovereign power; a sword is perpetually suspended over our

head. We dread our very guards, we distrust our companions. The

choice of action or of repose is no longer in our disposition,

nor is there any age, or character, or conduct, that can protect

us from the censure of envy. In thus exalting me to the throne,

you have doomed me to a life of cares, and to an untimely fate.

The only consolation which remains is the assurance that I shall

not fall alone.” 51 But as the former part of his prediction was

verified by the victory, so the latter was disappointed by the

clemency, of Probus. That amiable prince attempted even to save

the unhappy Saturninus from the fury of the soldiers. He had more

than once solicited the usurper himself to place some confidence

in the mercy of a sovereign who so highly esteemed his character,

that he had punished, as a malicious informer, the first who

related the improbable news of his disaffection. 52 Saturninus

might, perhaps, have embraced the generous offer, had he not been

restrained by the obstinate distrust of his adherents. Their

guilt was deeper, and their hopes more sanguine, than those of

their experienced leader.

51 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 245, 246. The

unfortunate orator had studied rhetoric at Carthage; and was

therefore more probably a Moor (Zosim. l. i. p. 60) than a Gaul,

as Vopiscus calls him.]

52 (return) [ Zonaras, l. xii. p. 638.]

The revolt of Saturninus was scarcely extinguished in the East,

before new troubles were excited in the West, by the rebellion of

Bonosus and Proculus, in Gaul. The most distinguished merit of

those two officers was their respective prowess, of the one in

the combats of Bacchus, of the other in those of Venus, 53 yet

neither of them was destitute of courage and capacity, and both

sustained, with honor, the august character which the fear of

punishment had engaged them to assume, till they sunk at length

beneath the superior genius of Probus. He used the victory with

his accustomed moderation, and spared the fortune, as well as the

lives of their innocent families. 54

53 (return) [ A very surprising instance is recorded of the

prowess of Proculus. He had taken one hundred Sarmatian virgins.

The rest of the story he must relate in his own language: “Ex his

una necte decem inivi; omnes tamen, quod in me erat, mulieres

intra dies quindecim reddidi.” Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 246.]

54 (return) [ Proculus, who was a native of Albengue, on the

Genoese coast armed two thousand of his own slaves. His riches

were great, but they were acquired by robbery. It was afterwards

a saying of his family, sibi non placere esse vel principes vel

latrones. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 247.]

The arms of Probus had now suppressed all the foreign and

domestic enemies of the state. His mild but steady administration

confirmed the re-ëstablishment of the public tranquillity; nor

was there left in the provinces a hostile barbarian, a tyrant, or

even a robber, to revive the memory of past disorders. It was

time that the emperor should revisit Rome, and celebrate his own

glory and the general happiness. The triumph due to the valor of

Probus was conducted with a magnificence suitable to his fortune,

and the people, who had so lately admired the trophies of

Aurelian, gazed with equal pleasure on those of his heroic

successor. 55 We cannot, on this occasion, forget the desperate

courage of about fourscore gladiators, reserved, with near six

hundred others, for the inhuman sports of the amphitheatre.

Disdaining to shed their blood for the amusement of the populace,

they killed their keepers, broke from the place of their

confinement, and filled the streets of Rome with blood and

confusion. After an obstinate resistance, they were overpowered

and cut in pieces by the regular forces; but they obtained at

least an honorable death, and the satisfaction of a just revenge.

55 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 240.]

56 (return) [ Zosim. l. i. p. 66.]

The military discipline which reigned in the camps of Probus was

less cruel than that of Aurelian, but it was equally rigid and

exact. The latter had punished the irregularities of the soldiers

with unrelenting severity, the former prevented them by employing

the legions in constant and useful labors. When Probus commanded

in Egypt, he executed many considerable works for the splendor

and benefit of that rich country. The navigation of the Nile, so

important to Rome itself, was improved; and temples, buildings,

porticos, and palaces, were constructed by the hands of the

soldiers, who acted by turns as architects, as engineers, and as

husbandmen. 57 It was reported of Hannibal, that, in order to

preserve his troops from the dangerous temptations of idleness,

he had obliged them to form large plantations of olive-trees

along the coast of Africa. 58 From a similar principle, Probus

exercised his legions in covering with rich vineyards the hills

of Gaul and Pannonia, and two considerable spots are described,

which were entirely dug and planted by military labor. 59 One of

these, known under the name of Mount Almo, was situated near

Sirmium, the country where Probus was born, for which he ever

retained a partial affection, and whose gratitude he endeavored

to secure, by converting into tillage a large and unhealthy tract

of marshy ground. An army thus employed constituted perhaps the

most useful, as well as the bravest, portion of Roman subjects.

57 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 236.]

58 (return) [ Aurel. Victor. in Prob. But the policy of Hannibal,

unnoticed by any more ancient writer, is irreconcilable with the

history of his life. He left Africa when he was nine years old,

returned to it when he was forty-five, and immediately lost his

army in the decisive battle of Zama. Livilus, xxx. 37.]

59 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 240. Eutrop. ix. 17. Aurel.

Victor. in Prob. Victor Junior. He revoked the prohibition of

Domitian, and granted a general permission of planting vines to

the Gauls, the Britons, and the Pannonians.]

But in the prosecution of a favorite scheme, the best of men,

satisfied with the rectitude of their intentions, are subject to

forget the bounds of moderation; nor did Probus himself

sufficiently consult the patience and disposition of his fierce

legionaries. 60 The dangers of the military profession seem only

to be compensated by a life of pleasure and idleness; but if the

duties of the soldier are incessantly aggravated by the labors of

the peasant, he will at last sink under the intolerable burden,

or shake it off with indignation. The imprudence of Probus is

said to have inflamed the discontent of his troops. More

attentive to the interests of mankind than to those of the army,

he expressed the vain hope, that, by the establishment of

universal peace, he should soon abolish the necessity of a

standing and mercenary force. 61 The unguarded expression proved

fatal to him. In one of the hottest days of summer, as he

severely urged the unwholesome labor of draining the marshes of

Sirmium, the soldiers, impatient of fatigue, on a sudden threw

down their tools, grasped their arms, and broke out into a

furious mutiny. The emperor, conscious of his danger, took refuge

in a lofty tower, constructed for the purpose of surveying the

progress of the work. 62 The tower was instantly forced, and a

thousand swords were plunged at once into the bosom of the

unfortunate Probus. The rage of the troops subsided as soon as it

had been gratified. They then lamented their fatal rashness,

forgot the severity of the emperor whom they had massacred, and

hastened to perpetuate, by an honorable monument, the memory of

his virtues and victories. 63

60 (return) [ Julian bestows a severe, and indeed excessive,

censure on the rigor of Probus, who, as he thinks, almost

deserved his fate.]

61 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 241. He lavishes on

this idle hope a large stock of very foolish eloquence.]

62 (return) [ Turris ferrata. It seems to have been a movable

tower, and cased with iron.]

63 (return) [ Probus, et vere probus situs est; Victor omnium

gentium Barbararum; victor etiam tyrannorum.]

When the legions had indulged their grief and repentance for the

death of Probus, their unanimous consent declared Carus, his

Prætorian præfect, the most deserving of the Imperial throne.

Every circumstance that relates to this prince appears of a mixed

and doubtful nature. He gloried in the title of Roman Citizen;

and affected to compare the purity of _his_ blood with the

foreign and even barbarous origin of the preceding emperors; yet

the most inquisitive of his contemporaries, very far from

admitting his claim, have variously deduced his own birth, or

that of his parents, from Illyricum, from Gaul, or from Africa.

64 Though a soldier, he had received a learned education; though

a senator, he was invested with the first dignity of the army;

and in an age when the civil and military professions began to be

irrecoverably separated from each other, they were united in the

person of Carus. Notwithstanding the severe justice which he

exercised against the assassins of Probus, to whose favor and

esteem he was highly indebted, he could not escape the suspicion

of being accessory to a deed from whence he derived the principal

advantage. He enjoyed, at least before his elevation, an

acknowledged character of virtue and abilities; 65 but his

austere temper insensibly degenerated into moroseness and

cruelty; and the imperfect writers of his life almost hesitate

whether they shall not rank him in the number of Roman tyrants.

66 When Carus assumed the purple, he was about sixty years of

age, and his two sons, Carinus and Numerian had already attained

the season of manhood. 67

64 (return) [ Yet all this may be conciliated. He was born at

Narbonne in Illyricum, confounded by Eutropius with the more

famous city of that name in Gaul. His father might be an African,

and his mother a noble Roman. Carus himself was educated in the

capital. See Scaliger Animadversion. ad Euseb. Chron. p. 241.]

65 (return) [ Probus had requested of the senate an equestrian

statue and a marble palace, at the public expense, as a just

recompense of the singular merit of Carus. Vopiscus in Hist.

August. p. 249.]

66 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 242, 249. Julian

excludes the emperor Carus and both his sons from the banquet of

the Cæsars.]

67 (return) [ John Malala, tom. i. p. 401. But the authority of

that ignorant Greek is very slight. He ridiculously derives from

Carus the city of Carrhæ, and the province of Caria, the latter

of which is mentioned by Homer.]

The authority of the senate expired with Probus; nor was the

repentance of the soldiers displayed by the same dutiful regard

for the civil power, which they had testified after the

unfortunate death of Aurelian. The election of Carus was decided

without expecting the approbation of the senate, and the new

emperor contented himself with announcing, in a cold and stately

epistle, that he had ascended the vacant throne. 68 A behavior so

very opposite to that of his amiable predecessor afforded no

favorable presage of the new reign: and the Romans, deprived of

power and freedom, asserted their privilege of licentious

murmurs. 69 The voice of congratulation and flattery was not,

however, silent; and we may still peruse, with pleasure and

contempt, an eclogue, which was composed on the accession of the

emperor Carus. Two shepherds, avoiding the noontide heat, retire

into the cave of Faunus. On a spreading beech they discover some

recent characters. The rural deity had described, in prophetic

verses, the felicity promised to the empire under the reign of so

great a prince. Faunus hails the approach of that hero, who,

receiving on his shoulders the sinking weight of the Roman world,

shall extinguish war and faction, and once again restore the

innocence and security of the golden age. 70

68 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 249. Carus congratulated the

senate, that one of their own order was made emperor.]

69 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 242.]

70 (return) [ See the first eclogue of Calphurnius. The design of

it is preferes by Fontenelle to that of Virgil’s Pollio. See tom.

iii. p. 148.]

It is more than probable, that these elegant trifles never

reached the ears of a veteran general, who, with the consent of

the legions, was preparing to execute the long-suspended design

of the Persian war. Before his departure for this distant

expedition, Carus conferred on his two sons, Carinus and

Numerian, the title of Cæsar, and investing the former with

almost an equal share of the Imperial power, directed the young

prince first to suppress some troubles which had arisen in Gaul,

and afterwards to fix the seat of his residence at Rome, and to

assume the government of the Western provinces. 71 The safety of

Illyricum was confirmed by a memorable defeat of the Sarmatians;

sixteen thousand of those barbarians remained on the field of

battle, and the number of captives amounted to twenty thousand.

The old emperor, animated with the fame and prospect of victory,

pursued his march, in the midst of winter, through the countries

of Thrace and Asia Minor, and at length, with his younger son,

Numerian, arrived on the confines of the Persian monarchy. There,

encamping on the summit of a lofty mountain, he pointed out to

his troops the opulence and luxury of the enemy whom they were

about to invade.

71 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 353. Eutropius, ix. 18. Pagi.

Annal.]

The successor of Artaxerxes, 711 Varanes, or Bahram, though he

had subdued the Segestans, one of the most warlike nations of

Upper Asia, 72 was alarmed at the approach of the Romans, and

endeavored to retard their progress by a negotiation of peace.

721

His ambassadors entered the camp about sunset, at the time when

the troops were satisfying their hunger with a frugal repast. The

Persians expressed their desire of being introduced to the

presence of the Roman emperor. They were at length conducted to a

soldier, who was seated on the grass. A piece of stale bacon and

a few hard peas composed his supper. A coarse woollen garment of

purple was the only circumstance that announced his dignity. The

conference was conducted with the same disregard of courtly

elegance. Carus, taking off a cap which he wore to conceal his

baldness, assured the ambassadors, that, unless their master

acknowledged the superiority of Rome, he would speedily render

Persia as naked of trees as his own head was destitute of hair.

73 Notwithstanding some traces of art and preparation, we may

discover in this scene the manners of Carus, and the severe

simplicity which the martial princes, who succeeded Gallienus,

had already restored in the Roman camps. The ministers of the

Great King trembled and retired.

711 (return) [ Three monarchs had intervened, Sapor, (Shahpour,)

Hormisdas, (Hormooz,) Varanes; Baharam the First.—M.]

72 (return) [ Agathias, l. iv. p. 135. We find one of his sayings

in the Bibliotheque Orientale of M. d’Herbelot. “The definition

of humanity includes all other virtues.”]

721 (return) [ The manner in which his life was saved by the

Chief Pontiff from a conspiracy of his nobles, is as remarkable

as his saying. “By the advice (of the Pontiff) all the nobles

absented themselves from court. The king wandered through his

palace alone. He saw no one; all was silence around. He became

alarmed and distressed. At last the Chief Pontiff appeared, and

bowed his head in apparent misery, but spoke not a word. The king

entreated him to declare what had happened. The virtuous man

boldly related all that had passed, and conjured Bahram, in the

name of his glorious ancestors, to change his conduct and save

himself from destruction. The king was much moved, professed

himself most penitent, and said he was resolved his future life

should prove his sincerity. The overjoyed High Priest, delighted

at this success, made a signal, at which all the nobles and

attendants were in an instant, as if by magic, in their usual

places. The monarch now perceived that only one opinion prevailed

on his past conduct. He repeated therefore to his nobles all he

had said to the Chief Pontiff, and his future reign was unstained

by cruelty or oppression.” Malcolm’s Persia,—M.]

73 (return) [ Synesius tells this story of Carinus; and it is

much more natural to understand it of Carus, than (as Petavius

and Tillemont choose to do) of Probus.]

The threats of Carus were not without effect. He ravaged

Mesopotamia, cut in pieces whatever opposed his passage, made

himself master of the great cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon,

(which seemed to have surrendered without resistance,) and

carried his victorious arms beyond the Tigris. 74 He had seized

the favorable moment for an invasion. The Persian councils were

distracted by domestic factions, and the greater part of their

forces were detained on the frontiers of India. Rome and the East

received with transport the news of such important advantages.

Flattery and hope painted, in the most lively colors, the fall of

Persia, the conquest of Arabia, the submission of Egypt, and a

lasting deliverance from the inroads of the Scythian nations. 75

But the reign of Carus was destined to expose the vanity of

predictions. They were scarcely uttered before they were

contradicted by his death; an event attended with such ambiguous

circumstances, that it may be related in a letter from his own

secretary to the præfect of the city. “Carus,” says he, “our

dearest emperor, was confined by sickness to his bed, when a

furious tempest arose in the camp. The darkness which overspread

the sky was so thick, that we could no longer distinguish each

other; and the incessant flashes of lightning took from us the

knowledge of all that passed in the general confusion.

Immediately after the most violent clap of thunder, we heard a

sudden cry that the emperor was dead; and it soon appeared, that

his chamberlains, in a rage of grief, had set fire to the royal

pavilion; a circumstance which gave rise to the report that Carus

was killed by lightning. But, as far as we have been able to

investigate the truth, his death was the natural effect of his

disorder.” 76

74 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 250. Eutropius, ix.

18. The two Victors.]

75 (return) [ To the Persian victory of Carus I refer the

dialogue of the Philopatris, which has so long been an object of

dispute among the learned. But to explain and justify my opinion,

would require a dissertation. Note: Niebuhr, in the new edition

of the Byzantine Historians, (vol. x.) has boldly assigned the

Philopatris to the tenth century, and to the reign of Nicephorus

Phocas. An opinion so decisively pronounced by Niebuhr and

favorably received by Hase, the learned editor of Leo Diaconus,

commands respectful consideration. But the whole tone of the work

appears to me altogether inconsistent with any period in which

philosophy did not stand, as it were, on some ground of equality

with Christianity. The doctrine of the Trinity is sarcastically

introduced rather as the strange doctrine of a new religion, than

the established tenet of a faith universally prevalent. The

argument, adopted from Solanus, concerning the formula of the

procession of the Holy Ghost, is utterly worthless, as it is a

mere quotation in the words of the Gospel of St. John, xv. 26.

The only argument of any value is the historic one, from the

allusion to the recent violation of many virgins in the Island of

Crete. But neither is the language of Niebuhr quite accurate, nor

his reference to the Acroases of Theodosius satisfactory. When,

then, could this occurrence take place? Why not in the

devastation of the island by the Gothic pirates, during the reign

of Claudius. Hist. Aug. in Claud. p. 814. edit. Var. Lugd. Bat

1661.—M.]

76 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 250. Yet Eutropius, Festus, Rufus,

the two Victors, Jerome, Sidonius Apollinaris, Syncellus, and

Zonaras, all ascribe the death of Carus to lightning.]

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

III.

The vacancy of the throne was not productive of any disturbance.

The ambition of the aspiring generals was checked by their

natural fears, and young Numerian, with his absent brother

Carinus, were unanimously acknowledged as Roman emperors.

The public expected that the successor of Carus would pursue his

father’s footsteps, and, without allowing the Persians to recover

from their consternation, would advance sword in hand to the

palaces of Susa and Ecbatana. 77 But the legions, however strong

in numbers and discipline, were dismayed by the most abject

superstition. Notwithstanding all the arts that were practised to

disguise the manner of the late emperor’s death, it was found

impossible to remove the opinion of the multitude, and the power

of opinion is irresistible. Places or persons struck with

lightning were considered by the ancients with pious horror, as

singularly devoted to the wrath of Heaven. 78 An oracle was

remembered, which marked the River Tigris as the fatal boundary

of the Roman arms. The troops, terrified with the fate of Carus

and with their own danger, called aloud on young Numerian to obey

the will of the gods, and to lead them away from this

inauspicious scene of war. The feeble emperor was unable to

subdue their obstinate prejudice, and the Persians wondered at

the unexpected retreat of a victorious enemy. 79

77 (return) [ See Nemesian. Cynegeticon, v. 71, &c.]

78 (return) [ See Festus and his commentators on the word

Scribonianum. Places struck by lightning were surrounded with a

wall; things were buried with mysterious ceremony.]

79 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 250. Aurelius Victor

seems to believe the prediction, and to approve the retreat.]

The intelligence of the mysterious fate of the late emperor was

soon carried from the frontiers of Persia to Rome; and the

senate, as well as the provinces, congratulated the accession of

the sons of Carus. These fortunate youths were strangers,

however, to that conscious superiority, either of birth or of

merit, which can alone render the possession of a throne easy,

and, as it were, natural. Born and educated in a private station,

the election of their father raised them at once to the rank of

princes; and his death, which happened about sixteen months

afterwards, left them the unexpected legacy of a vast empire. To

sustain with temper this rapid elevation, an uncommon share of

virtue and prudence was requisite; and Carinus, the elder of the

brothers, was more than commonly deficient in those qualities. In

the Gallic war he discovered some degree of personal courage; 80

but from the moment of his arrival at Rome, he abandoned himself

to the luxury of the capital, and to the abuse of his fortune. He

was soft, yet cruel; devoted to pleasure, but destitute of taste;

and though exquisitely susceptible of vanity, indifferent to the

public esteem. In the course of a few months, he successively

married and divorced nine wives, most of whom he left pregnant;

and notwithstanding this legal inconstancy, found time to indulge

such a variety of irregular appetites, as brought dishonor on

himself and on the noblest houses of Rome. He beheld with

inveterate hatred all those who might remember his former

obscurity, or censure his present conduct. He banished, or put to

death, the friends and counsellors whom his father had placed

about him, to guide his inexperienced youth; and he persecuted

with the meanest revenge his school-fellows and companions who

had not sufficiently respected the latent majesty of the emperor.

With the senators, Carinus affected a lofty and regal demeanor,

frequently declaring, that he designed to distribute their

estates among the populace of Rome. From the dregs of that

populace he selected his favorites, and even his ministers. The

palace, and even the Imperial table, were filled with singers,

dancers, prostitutes, and all the various retinue of vice and

folly. One of his doorkeepers 81 he intrusted with the government

of the city. In the room of the Prætorian præfect, whom he put to

death, Carinus substituted one of the ministers of his looser

pleasures. Another, who possessed the same, or even a more

infamous, title to favor, was invested with the consulship. A

confidential secretary, who had acquired uncommon skill in the

art of forgery, delivered the indolent emperor, with his own

consent from the irksome duty of signing his name.

80 (return) [ Nemesian. Cynegeticon, v 69. He was a contemporary,

but a poet.]

81 (return) [ Cancellarius. This word, so humble in its origin,

has, by a singular fortune, risen into the title of the first

great office of state in the monarchies of Europe. See Casaubon

and Salmasius, ad Hist. August, p. 253.]

When the emperor Carus undertook the Persian war, he was induced,

by motives of affection as well as policy, to secure the fortunes

of his family, by leaving in the hands of his eldest son the

armies and provinces of the West. The intelligence which he soon

received of the conduct of Carinus filled him with shame and

regret; nor had he concealed his resolution of satisfying the

republic by a severe act of justice, and of adopting, in the

place of an unworthy son, the brave and virtuous Constantius, who

at that time was governor of Dalmatia. But the elevation of

Constantius was for a while deferred; and as soon as the father’s

death had released Carinus from the control of fear or decency,

he displayed to the Romans the extravagancies of Elagabalus,

aggravated by the cruelty of Domitian. 82

82 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 253, 254. Eutropius,

x. 19. Vic to Junior. The reign of Diocletian indeed was so long

and prosperous, that it must have been very unfavorable to the

reputation of Carinus.]

The only merit of the administration of Carinus that history

could record, or poetry celebrate, was the uncommon splendor with

which, in his own and his brother’s name, he exhibited the Roman

games of the theatre, the circus, and the amphitheatre. More than

twenty years afterwards, when the courtiers of Diocletian

represented to their frugal sovereign the fame and popularity of

his munificent predecessor, he acknowledged that the reign of

Carinus had indeed been a reign of pleasure. 83 But this vain

prodigality, which the prudence of Diocletian might justly

despise, was enjoyed with surprise and transport by the Roman

people. The oldest of the citizens, recollecting the spectacles

of former days, the triumphal pomp of Probus or Aurelian, and the

secular games of the emperor Philip, acknowledged that they were

all surpassed by the superior magnificence of Carinus. 84

83 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 254. He calls him

Carus, but the sense is sufficiently obvious, and the words were

often confounded.]

84 (return) [ See Calphurnius, Eclog. vii. 43. We may observe,

that the spectacles of Probus were still recent, and that the

poet is seconded by the historian.]

The spectacles of Carinus may therefore be best illustrated by

the observation of some particulars, which history has

condescended to relate concerning those of his predecessors. If

we confine ourselves solely to the hunting of wild beasts,

however we may censure the vanity of the design or the cruelty of

the execution, we are obliged to confess that neither before nor

since the time of the Romans so much art and expense have ever

been lavished for the amusement of the people. 85 By the order of

Probus, a great quantity of large trees, torn up by the roots,

were transplanted into the midst of the circus. The spacious and

shady forest was immediately filled with a thousand ostriches, a

thousand stags, a thousand fallow deer, and a thousand wild

boars; and all this variety of game was abandoned to the riotous

impetuosity of the multitude. The tragedy of the succeeding day

consisted in the massacre of a hundred lions, an equal number of

lionesses, two hundred leopards, and three hundred bears. 86 The

collection prepared by the younger Gordian for his triumph, and

which his successor exhibited in the secular games, was less

remarkable by the number than by the singularity of the animals.

Twenty zebras displayed their elegant forms and variegated beauty

to the eyes of the Roman people. 87 Ten elks, and as many

camelopards, the loftiest and most harmless creatures that wander

over the plains of Sarmatia and Æthiopia, were contrasted with

thirty African hyænas and ten Indian tigers, the most implacable

savages of the torrid zone. The unoffending strength with which

Nature has endowed the greater quadrupeds was admired in the

rhinoceros, the hippopotamus of the Nile, 88 and a majestic troop

of thirty-two elephants. 89 While the populace gazed with stupid

wonder on the splendid show, the naturalist might indeed observe

the figure and properties of so many different species,

transported from every part of the ancient world into the

amphitheatre of Rome. But this accidental benefit, which science

might derive from folly, is surely insufficient to justify such a

wanton abuse of the public riches. There occurs, however, a

single instance in the first Punic war, in which the senate

wisely connected this amusement of the multitude with the

interest of the state. A considerable number of elephants, taken

in the defeat of the Carthaginian army, were driven through the

circus by a few slaves, armed only with blunt javelins. 90 The

useful spectacle served to impress the Roman soldier with a just

contempt for those unwieldy animals; and he no longer dreaded to

encounter them in the ranks of war.

85 (return) [ The philosopher Montaigne (Essais, l. iii. 6) gives

a very just and lively view of Roman magnificence in these

spectacles.]

86 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 240.]

87 (return) [ They are called Onagri; but the number is too

inconsiderable for mere wild asses. Cuper (de Elephantis

Exercitat. ii. 7) has proved from Oppian, Dion, and an anonymous

Greek, that zebras had been seen at Rome. They were brought from

some island of the ocean, perhaps Madagascar.]

88 (return) [Carinus gave a hippopotamus, (see Calphurn. Eclog.

vi. 66.) In the latter spectacles, I do not recollect any

crocodiles, of which Augustus once exhibited thirty-six. Dion

Cassius, l. lv. p. 781.]

89 (return) [ Capitolin. in Hist. August. p. 164, 165. We are not

acquainted with the animals which he calls archeleontes; some

read argoleontes others agrioleontes: both corrections are very

nugatory]

90 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. viii. 6, from the annals of

Piso.]

The hunting or exhibition of wild beasts was conducted with a

magnificence suitable to a people who styled themselves the

masters of the world; nor was the edifice appropriated to that

entertainment less expressive of Roman greatness. Posterity

admires, and will long admire, the awful remains of the

amphitheatre of Titus, which so well deserved the epithet of

Colossal. 91 It was a building of an elliptic figure, five

hundred and sixty-four feet in length, and four hundred and

sixty-seven in breadth, founded on fourscore arches, and rising,

with four successive orders of architecture, to the height of one

hundred and forty feet. 92 The outside of the edifice was

encrusted with marble, and decorated with statues. The slopes of

the vast concave, which formed the inside, were filled and

surrounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats of marble likewise,

covered with cushions, and capable of receiving with ease about

fourscore thousand spectators. 93 Sixty-four _vomitories_ (for by

that name the doors were very aptly distinguished) poured forth

the immense multitude; and the entrances, passages, and

staircases were contrived with such exquisite skill, that each

person, whether of the senatorial, the equestrian, or the

plebeian order, arrived at his destined place without trouble or

confusion. 94 Nothing was omitted, which, in any respect, could

be subservient to the convenience and pleasure of the spectators.

They were protected from the sun and rain by an ample canopy,

occasionally drawn over their heads. The air was continally

refreshed by the playing of fountains, and profusely impregnated

by the grateful scent of aromatics. In the centre of the edifice,

the _arena_, or stage, was strewed with the finest sand, and

successively assumed the most different forms. At one moment it

seemed to rise out of the earth, like the garden of the

Hesperides, and was afterwards broken into the rocks and caverns

of Thrace. The subterraneous pipes conveyed an inexhaustible

supply of water; and what had just before appeared a level plain,

might be suddenly converted into a wide lake, covered with armed

vessels, and replenished with the monsters of the deep. 95 In the

decoration of these scenes, the Roman emperors displayed their

wealth and liberality; and we read on various occasions that the

whole furniture of the amphitheatre consisted either of silver,

or of gold, or of amber. 96 The poet who describes the games of

Carinus, in the character of a shepherd, attracted to the capital

by the fame of their magnificence, affirms that the nets designed

as a defence against the wild beasts were of gold wire; that the

porticos were gilded; and that the _belt_ or circle which divided

the several ranks of spectators from each other was studded with

a precious mosaic of beautiful stones. 97

91 (return) [ See Maffei, Verona Illustrata, p. iv. l. i. c. 2.]

92 (return) [ Maffei, l. ii. c. 2. The height was very much

exaggerated by the ancients. It reached almost to the heavens,

according to Calphurnius, (Eclog. vii. 23,) and surpassed the ken

of human sight, according to Ammianus Marcellinus (xvi. 10.) Yet

how trifling to the great pyramid of Egypt, which rises 500 feet

perpendicular]

93 (return) [ According to different copies of Victor, we read

77,000, or 87,000 spectators; but Maffei (l. ii. c. 12) finds

room on the open seats for no more than 34,000. The remainder

were contained in the upper covered galleries.]

94 (return) [ See Maffei, l. ii. c. 5—12. He treats the very

difficult subject with all possible clearness, and like an

architect, as well as an antiquarian.]

95 (return) [ Calphurn. Eclog vii. 64, 73. These lines are

curious, and the whole eclogue has been of infinite use to

Maffei. Calphurnius, as well as Martial, (see his first book,)

was a poet; but when they described the amphitheatre, they both

wrote from their own senses, and to those of the Romans.]

96 (return) [ Consult Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 16, xxxvii. 11.]

97 (return) [ Balteus en gemmis, en inlita porticus auro Certatim

radiant, &c. Calphurn. vii.]

In the midst of this glittering pageantry, the emperor Carinus,

secure of his fortune, enjoyed the acclamations of the people,

the flattery of his courtiers, and the songs of the poets, who,

for want of a more essential merit, were reduced to celebrate the

divine graces of his person. 98 In the same hour, but at the

distance of nine hundred miles from Rome, his brother expired;

and a sudden revolution transferred into the hands of a stranger

the sceptre of the house of Carus. 99

98 (return) [ Et Martis vultus et Apollinis esse putavi, says

Calphurnius; but John Malala, who had perhaps seen pictures of

Carinus, describes him as thick, short, and white, tom. i. p.

403.]

99 (return) [ With regard to the time when these Roman games were

celebrated, Scaliger, Salmasius, and Cuper have given themselves

a great deal of trouble to perplex a very clear subject.]

The sons of Carus never saw each other after their father’s

death. The arrangements which their new situation required were

probably deferred till the return of the younger brother to Rome,

where a triumph was decreed to the young emperors for the

glorious success of the Persian war. 100 It is uncertain whether

they intended to divide between them the administration, or the

provinces, of the empire; but it is very unlikely that their

union would have proved of any long duration. The jealousy of

power must have been inflamed by the opposition of characters. In

the most corrupt of times, Carinus was unworthy to live: Numerian

deserved to reign in a happier period. His affable manners and

gentle virtues secured him, as soon as they became known, the

regard and affections of the public. He possessed the elegant

accomplishments of a poet and orator, which dignify as well as

adorn the humblest and the most exalted station. His eloquence,

however it was applauded by the senate, was formed not so much on

the model of Cicero, as on that of the modern declaimers; but in

an age very far from being destitute of poetical merit, he

contended for the prize with the most celebrated of his

contemporaries, and still remained the friend of his rivals; a

circumstance which evinces either the goodness of his heart, or

the superiority of his genius. 101 But the talents of Numerian

were rather of the contemplative than of the active kind. When

his father’s elevation reluctantly forced him from the shade of

retirement, neither his temper nor his pursuits had qualified him

for the command of armies. His constitution was destroyed by the

hardships of the Persian war; and he had contracted, from the

heat of the climate, 102 such a weakness in his eyes, as obliged

him, in the course of a long retreat, to confine himself to the

solitude and darkness of a tent or litter.

The administration of all affairs, civil as well as military, was

devolved on Arrius Aper, the Prætorian præfect, who to the power

of his important office added the honor of being father-in-law to

Numerian. The Imperial pavilion was strictly guarded by his most

trusty adherents; and during many days, Aper delivered to the

army the supposed mandates of their invisible sovereign. 103

100 (return) [ Nemesianus (in the Cynegeticon) seems to

anticipate in his fancy that auspicious day.]

101 (return) [ He won all the crowns from Nemesianus, with whom

he vied in didactic poetry. The senate erected a statue to the

son of Carus, with a very ambiguous inscription, “To the most

powerful of orators.” See Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 251.]

102 (return) [ A more natural cause, at least, than that assigned

by Vopiscus, (Hist. August. p. 251,) incessantly weeping for his

father’s death.]

103 (return) [ In the Persian war, Aper was suspected of a design

to betray Carus. Hist. August. p. 250.]

It was not till eight months after the death of Carus, that the

Roman army, returning by slow marches from the banks of the

Tigris, arrived on those of the Thracian Bosphorus. The legions

halted at Chalcedon in Asia, while the court passed over to

Heraclea, on the European side of the Propontis. 104 But a report

soon circulated through the camp, at first in secret whispers,

and at length in loud clamors, of the emperor’s death, and of the

presumption of his ambitious minister, who still exercised the

sovereign power in the name of a prince who was no more. The

impatience of the soldiers could not long support a state of

suspense. With rude curiosity they broke into the Imperial tent,

and discovered only the corpse of Numerian. 105 The gradual

decline of his health might have induced them to believe that his

death was natural; but the concealment was interpreted as an

evidence of guilt, and the measures which Aper had taken to

secure his election became the immediate occasion of his ruin.

Yet, even in the transport of their rage and grief, the troops

observed a regular proceeding, which proves how firmly discipline

had been reëstablished by the martial successors of Gallienus. A

general assembly of the army was appointed to be held at

Chalcedon, whither Aper was transported in chains, as a prisoner

and a criminal. A vacant tribunal was erected in the midst of the

camp, and the generals and tribunes formed a great military

council. They soon announced to the multitude that their choice

had fallen on Diocletian, commander of the domestics or

body-guards, as the person the most capable of revenging and

succeeding their beloved emperor. The future fortunes of the

candidate depended on the chance or conduct of the present hour.

Conscious that the station which he had filled exposed him to

some suspicions, Diocletian ascended the tribunal, and raising

his eyes towards the Sun, made a solemn profession of his own

innocence, in the presence of that all-seeing Deity. 106 Then,

assuming the tone of a sovereign and a judge, he commanded that

Aper should be brought in chains to the foot of the tribunal.

“This man,” said he, “is the murderer of Numerian;” and without

giving him time to enter on a dangerous justification, drew his

sword, and buried it in the breast of the unfortunate præfect. A

charge supported by such decisive proof was admitted without

contradiction, and the legions, with repeated acclamations,

acknowledged the justice and authority of the emperor Diocletian.

107

104 (return) [ We are obliged to the Alexandrian Chronicle, p.

274, for the knowledge of the time and place where Diocletian was

elected emperor.]

105 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 251. Eutrop. ix. 88. Hieronym. in

Chron. According to these judicious writers, the death of

Numerian was discovered by the stench of his dead body. Could no

aromatics be found in the Imperial household?]

106 (return) [ Aurel. Victor. Eutropius, ix. 20. Hieronym. in

Chron.]

107 (return) [ Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 252. The reason why

Diocletian killed Aper, (a wild boar,) was founded on a prophecy

and a pun, as foolish as they are well known.]

Before we enter upon the memorable reign of that prince, it will

be proper to punish and dismiss the unworthy brother of Numerian.

Carinus possessed arms and treasures sufficient to support his

legal title to the empire. But his personal vices overbalanced

every advantage of birth and situation. The most faithful

servants of the father despised the incapacity, and dreaded the

cruel arrogance, of the son. The hearts of the people were

engaged in favor of his rival, and even the senate was inclined

to prefer a usurper to a tyrant. The arts of Diocletian inflamed

the general discontent; and the winter was employed in secret

intrigues, and open preparations for a civil war. In the spring,

the forces of the East and of the West encountered each other in

the plains of Margus, a small city of Mæsia, in the neighborhood

of the Danube. 108 The troops, so lately returned from the

Persian war, had acquired their glory at the expense of health

and numbers; nor were they in a condition to contend with the

unexhausted strength of the legions of Europe. Their ranks were

broken, and, for a moment, Diocletian despaired of the purple and

of life. But the advantage which Carinus had obtained by the

valor of his soldiers, he quickly lost by the infidelity of his

officers. A tribune, whose wife he had seduced, seized the

opportunity of revenge, and, by a single blow, extinguished civil

discord in the blood of the adulterer. 109

108 (return) [ Eutropius marks its situation very accurately; it

was between the Mons Aureus and Viminiacum. M. d’Anville

(Geographic Ancienne, tom. i. p. 304) places Margus at Kastolatz

in Servia, a little below Belgrade and Semendria. * Note:

Kullieza—Eton Atlas—M.]

109 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 254. Eutropius, ix. 20. Aurelius

Victor et Epitome]

Chapter XIII: Reign Of Diocletian And His Three Associates.—Part

The Reign Of Diocletian And His Three Associates, Maximian, Galerius,

And Constantius.—General Reestablishment Of Order And Tranquillity.—The

Persian War, Victory, And Triumph.—The New Form Of

Administration.—Abdication And Retirement Of Diocletian And Maximian.

As the reign of Diocletian was more illustrious than that of any

of his predecessors, so was his birth more abject and obscure.

The strong claims of merit and of violence had frequently

superseded the ideal prerogatives of nobility; but a distinct

line of separation was hitherto preserved between the free and

the servile part of mankind. The parents of Diocletian had been

slaves in the house of Anulinus, a Roman senator; nor was he

himself distinguished by any other name than that which he

derived from a small town in Dalmatia, from whence his mother

deduced her origin. 1 It is, however, probable that his father

obtained the freedom of the family, and that he soon acquired an

office of scribe, which was commonly exercised by persons of his

condition. 2 Favorable oracles, or rather the consciousness of

superior merit, prompted his aspiring son to pursue the

profession of arms and the hopes of fortune; and it would be

extremely curious to observe the gradation of arts and accidents

which enabled him in the end to fulfil those oracles, and to

display that merit to the world. Diocletian was successively

promoted to the government of Mæsia, the honors of the

consulship, and the important command of the guards of the

palace. He distinguished his abilities in the Persian war; and

after the death of Numerian, the slave, by the confession and

judgment of his rivals, was declared the most worthy of the

Imperial throne. The malice of religious zeal, whilst it arraigns

the savage fierceness of his colleague Maximian, has affected to

cast suspicions on the personal courage of the emperor

Diocletian. 3 It would not be easy to persuade us of the

cowardice of a soldier of fortune, who acquired and preserved the

esteem of the legions as well as the favor of so many warlike

princes. Yet even calumny is sagacious enough to discover and to

attack the most vulnerable part. The valor of Diocletian was

never found inadequate to his duty, or to the occasion; but he

appears not to have possessed the daring and generous spirit of a

hero, who courts danger and fame, disdains artifice, and boldly

challenges the allegiance of his equals. His abilities were

useful rather than splendid; a vigorous mind, improved by the

experience and study of mankind; dexterity and application in

business; a judicious mixture of liberality and economy, of

mildness and rigor; profound dissimulation, under the disguise of

military frankness; steadiness to pursue his ends; flexibility to

vary his means; and, above all, the great art of submitting his

own passions, as well as those of others, to the interest of his

ambition, and of coloring his ambition with the most specious

pretences of justice and public utility. Like Augustus,

Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a new empire. Like

the adopted son of Cæsar, he was distinguished as a statesman

rather than as a warrior; nor did either of those princes employ

force, whenever their purpose could be effected by policy.

1 (return) [ Eutrop. ix. 19. Victor in Epitome. The town seems to

have been properly called Doclia, from a small tribe of

Illyrians, (see Cellarius, Geograph. Antiqua, tom. i. p. 393;)

and the original name of the fortunate slave was probably Docles;

he first lengthened it to the Grecian harmony of Diocles, and at

length to the Roman majesty of Diocletianus. He likewise assumed

the Patrician name of Valerius and it is usually given him by

Aurelius Victor.]

2 (return) [ See Dacier on the sixth satire of the second book of

Horace Cornel. Nepos, ’n Vit. Eumen. c. l.]

3 (return) [ Lactantius (or whoever was the author of the little

treatise De Mortibus Persecutorum) accuses Diocletian of timidity

in two places, c. 7. 8. In chap. 9 he says of him, “erat in omni

tumultu meticulosu et animi disjectus.”]

The victory of Diocletian was remarkable for its singular

mildness. A people accustomed to applaud the clemency of the

conqueror, if the usual punishments of death, exile, and

confiscation, were inflicted with any degree of temper and

equity, beheld, with the most pleasing astonishment, a civil war,

the flames of which were extinguished in the field of battle.

Diocletian received into his confidence Aristobulus, the

principal minister of the house of Carus, respected the lives,

the fortunes, and the dignity, of his adversaries, and even

continued in their respective stations the greater number of the

servants of Carinus. 4 It is not improbable that motives of

prudence might assist the humanity of the artful Dalmatian; of

these servants, many had purchased his favor by secret treachery;

in others, he esteemed their grateful fidelity to an unfortunate

master. The discerning judgment of Aurelian, of Probus, and of

Carus, had filled the several departments of the state and army

with officers of approved merit, whose removal would have injured

the public service, without promoting the interest of his

successor. Such a conduct, however, displayed to the Roman world

the fairest prospect of the new reign, and the emperor affected

to confirm this favorable prepossession, by declaring, that,

among all the virtues of his predecessors, he was the most

ambitious of imitating the humane philosophy of Marcus Antoninus.

4 (return) [ In this encomium, Aurelius Victor seems to convey a

just, though indirect, censure of the cruelty of Constantius. It

appears from the Fasti, that Aristobulus remained præfect of the

city, and that he ended with Diocletian the consulship which he

had commenced with Carinus.]

5 (return) [ Aurelius Victor styles Diocletian, “Parentum potius

quam Dominum.” See Hist. August. p. 30.]

The first considerable action of his reign seemed to evince his

sincerity as well as his moderation. After the example of Marcus,

he gave himself a colleague in the person of Maximian, on whom he

bestowed at first the title of Cæsar, and afterwards that of

Augustus. 6 But the motives of his conduct, as well as the object

of his choice, were of a very different nature from those of his

admired predecessor. By investing a luxurious youth with the

honors of the purple, Marcus had discharged a debt of private

gratitude, at the expense, indeed, of the happiness of the state.

By associating a friend and a fellow-soldier to the labors of

government, Diocletian, in a time of public danger, provided for

the defence both of the East and of the West. Maximian was born a

peasant, and, like Aurelian, in the territory of Sirmium.

Ignorant of letters, 7 careless of laws, the rusticity of his

appearance and manners still betrayed in the most elevated

fortune the meanness of his extraction. War was the only art

which he professed. In a long course of service he had

distinguished himself on every frontier of the empire; and though

his military talents were formed to obey rather than to command,

though, perhaps, he never attained the skill of a consummate

general, he was capable, by his valor, constancy, and experience,

of executing the most arduous undertakings. Nor were the vices of

Maximian less useful to his benefactor. Insensible to pity, and

fearless of consequences, he was the ready instrument of every

act of cruelty which the policy of that artful prince might at

once suggest and disclaim. As soon as a bloody sacrifice had been

offered to prudence or to revenge, Diocletian, by his seasonable

intercession, saved the remaining few whom he had never designed

to punish, gently censured the severity of his stern colleague,

and enjoyed the comparison of a golden and an iron age, which was

universally applied to their opposite maxims of government.

Notwithstanding the difference of their characters, the two

emperors maintained, on the throne, that friendship which they

had contracted in a private station. The haughty, turbulent

spirit of Maximian, so fatal, afterwards, to himself and to the

public peace, was accustomed to respect the genius of Diocletian,

and confessed the ascendant of reason over brutal violence. 8

From a motive either of pride or superstition, the two emperors

assumed the titles, the one of Jovius, the other of Herculius.

Whilst the motion of the world (such was the language of their

venal orators) was maintained by the all-seeing wisdom of

Jupiter, the invincible arm of Hercules purged the earth from

monsters and tyrants. 9

6 (return) [ The question of the time when Maximian received the

honors of Cæsar and Augustus has divided modern critics, and

given occasion to a great deal of learned wrangling. I have

followed M. de Tillemont, (Histoire des Empereurs, tom. iv. p.

500-505,) who has weighed the several reasons and difficulties

with his scrupulous accuracy. * Note: Eckbel concurs in this

view, viii p. 15.—M.]

7 (return) [ In an oration delivered before him, (Panegyr. Vet.

ii. 8,) Mamertinus expresses a doubt, whether his hero, in

imitating the conduct of Hannibal and Scipio, had ever heard of

their names. From thence we may fairly infer, that Maximian was

more desirous of being considered as a soldier than as a man of

letters; and it is in this manner that we can often translate the

language of flattery into that of truth.]

8 (return) [ Lactantius de M. P. c. 8. Aurelius Victor. As among

the Panegyrics, we find orations pronounced in praise of

Maximian, and others which flatter his adversaries at his

expense, we derive some knowledge from the contrast.]

9 (return) [ See the second and third Panegyrics, particularly

iii. 3, 10, 14 but it would be tedious to copy the diffuse and

affected expressions of their false eloquence. With regard to the

titles, consult Aurel. Victor Lactantius de M. P. c. 52. Spanheim

de Usu Numismatum, &c. xii 8.]

But even the omnipotence of Jovius and Herculius was insufficient

to sustain the weight of the public administration. The prudence

of Diocletian discovered that the empire, assailed on every side

by the barbarians, required on every side the presence of a great

army, and of an emperor. With this view, he resolved once more to

divide his unwieldy power, and with the inferior title of

_Cæsars_, 901 to confer on two generals of approved merit an

unequal share of the sovereign authority. 10 Galerius, surnamed

Armentarius, from his original profession of a herdsman, and

Constantius, who from his pale complexion had acquired the

denomination of Chlorus, 11 were the two persons invested with

the second honors of the Imperial purple. In describing the

country, extraction, and manners of Herculius, we have already

delineated those of Galerius, who was often, and not improperly,

styled the younger Maximian, though, in many instances both of

virtue and ability, he appears to have possessed a manifest

superiority over the elder. The birth of Constantius was less

obscure than that of his colleagues. Eutropius, his father, was

one of the most considerable nobles of Dardania, and his mother

was the niece of the emperor Claudius. 12 Although the youth of

Constantius had been spent in arms, he was endowed with a mild

and amiable disposition, and the popular voice had long since

acknowledged him worthy of the rank which he at last attained. To

strengthen the bonds of political, by those of domestic, union,

each of the emperors assumed the character of a father to one of

the Cæsars, Diocletian to Galerius, and Maximian to Constantius;

and each, obliging them to repudiate their former wives, bestowed

his daughter in marriage or his adopted son. 13 These four

princes distributed among themselves the wide extent of the Roman

empire. The defence of Gaul, Spain, 14 and Britain, was intrusted

to Constantius: Galerius was stationed on the banks of the

Danube, as the safeguard of the Illyrian provinces. Italy and

Africa were considered as the department of Maximian; and for his

peculiar portion, Diocletian reserved Thrace, Egypt, and the rich

countries of Asia. Every one was sovereign with his own

jurisdiction; but their united authority extended over the whole

monarchy, and each of them was prepared to assist his colleagues

with his counsels or presence. The Cæsars, in their exalted rank,

revered the majesty of the emperors, and the three younger

princes invariably acknowledged, by their gratitude and

obedience, the common parent of their fortunes. The suspicious

jealousy of power found not any place among them; and the

singular happiness of their union has been compared to a chorus

of music, whose harmony was regulated and maintained by the

skilful hand of the first artist. 15

901 (return) [ On the relative power of the Augusti and the

Cæsars, consult a dissertation at the end of Manso’s Leben

Constantius des Grossen—M.]

10 (return) [ Aurelius Victor. Victor in Epitome. Eutrop. ix. 22.

Lactant de M. P. c. 8. Hieronym. in Chron.]

11 (return) [ It is only among the modern Greeks that Tillemont

can discover his appellation of Chlorus. Any remarkable degree of

paleness seems inconsistent with the rubor mentioned in

Panegyric, v. 19.]

12 (return) [ Julian, the grandson of Constantius, boasts that

his family was derived from the warlike Mæsians. Misopogon, p.

348. The Dardanians dwelt on the edge of Mæsia.]

13 (return) [ Galerius married Valeria, the daughter of

Diocletian; if we speak with strictness, Theodora, the wife of

Constantius, was daughter only to the wife of Maximian. Spanheim,

Dissertat, xi. 2.]

14 (return) [ This division agrees with that of the four

præfectures; yet there is some reason to doubt whether Spain was

not a province of Maximian. See Tillemont, tom. iv. p. 517. *

Note: According to Aurelius Victor and other authorities, Thrace

belonged to the division of Galerius. See Tillemont, iv. 36. But

the laws of Diocletian are in general dated in Illyria or

Thrace.—M.]

15 (return) [ Julian in Cæsarib. p. 315. Spanheim’s notes to the

French translation, p. 122.]

This important measure was not carried into execution till about

six years after the association of Maximian, and that interval of

time had not been destitute of memorable incidents. But we have

preferred, for the sake of perspicuity, first to describe the

more perfect form of Diocletian’s government, and afterwards to

relate the actions of his reign, following rather the natural

order of the events, than the dates of a very doubtful

chronology.

The first exploit of Maximian, though it is mentioned in a few

words by our imperfect writers, deserves, from its singularity,

to be recorded in a history of human manners. He suppressed the

peasants of Gaul, who, under the appellation of Bagaudæ, 16 had

risen in a general insurrection; very similar to those which in

the fourteenth century successively afflicted both France and

England. 17 It should seem that very many of those institutions,

referred by an easy solution to the feudal system, are derived

from the Celtic barbarians. When Cæsar subdued the Gauls, that

great nation was already divided into three orders of men; the

clergy, the nobility, and the common people. The first governed

by superstition, the second by arms, but the third and last was

not of any weight or account in their public councils. It was

very natural for the plebeians, oppressed by debt, or

apprehensive of injuries, to implore the protection of some

powerful chief, who acquired over their persons and property the

same absolute right as, among the Greeks and Romans, a master

exercised over his slaves. 18 The greatest part of the nation was

gradually reduced into a state of servitude; compelled to

perpetual labor on the estates of the Gallic nobles, and confined

to the soil, either by the real weight of fetters, or by the no

less cruel and forcible restraints of the laws. During the long

series of troubles which agitated Gaul, from the reign of

Gallienus to that of Diocletian, the condition of these servile

peasants was peculiarly miserable; and they experienced at once

the complicated tyranny of their masters, of the barbarians, of

the soldiers, and of the officers of the revenue. 19

16 (return) [ The general name of Bagaudæ (in the signification

of rebels) continued till the fifth century in Gaul. Some critics

derive it from a Celtic word Bagad, a tumultuous assembly.

Scaliger ad Euseb. Du Cange Glossar. (Compare S. Turner,

Anglo-Sax. History, i. 214.—M.)]

17 (return) [ Chronique de Froissart, vol. i. c. 182, ii. 73, 79.

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

18 (return) [ Cæsar de Bell. Gallic. vi. 13. Orgetorix, the

Helvetian, could arm for his defence a body of ten thousand

slaves.]

19 (return) [ Their oppression and misery are acknowledged by

Eumenius (Panegyr. vi. 8,) Gallias efferatas injuriis.]

Their patience was at last provoked into despair. On every side

they rose in multitudes, armed with rustic weapons, and with

irresistible fury. The ploughman became a foot soldier, the

shepherd mounted on horseback, the deserted villages and open

towns were abandoned to the flames, and the ravages of the

peasants equalled those of the fiercest barbarians. 20 They

asserted the natural rights of men, but they asserted those

rights with the most savage cruelty. The Gallic nobles, justly

dreading their revenge, either took refuge in the fortified

cities, or fled from the wild scene of anarchy. The peasants

reigned without control; and two of their most daring leaders had

the folly and rashness to assume the Imperial ornaments. 21 Their

power soon expired at the approach of the legions. The strength

of union and discipline obtained an easy victory over a

licentious and divided multitude. 22 A severe retaliation was

inflicted on the peasants who were found in arms; the affrighted

remnant returned to their respective habitations, and their

unsuccessful effort for freedom served only to confirm their

slavery. So strong and uniform is the current of popular

passions, that we might almost venture, from very scanty

materials, to relate the particulars of this war; but we are not

disposed to believe that the principal leaders, Ælianus and

Amandus, were Christians, 23 or to insinuate, that the rebellion,

as it happened in the time of Luther, was occasioned by the abuse

of those benevolent principles of Christianity, which inculcate

the natural freedom of mankind.

20 (return) [ Panegyr. Vet. ii. 4. Aurelius Victor.]

21 (return) [ Ælianus and Amandus. We have medals coined by them

Goltzius in Thes. R. A. p. 117, 121.]

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95 (return) [ It was the observation of Dioclatian. See Vopiscus