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The nature of the subject
FROM the great secular games celebrated by Philip to the
death of the emperor Gallienus there elapsed (A.D, 248-268)
twenty years of shame and misfortune. During that calamitous
period every instant of time was marked, every province of
the Roman world was afflicted by barbarous invaders and
military tyrants, and the ruined empire seemed to approach
the last and fatal moment of its dissolution. The confusion
of the times, and the scarcity of authentic memorials,
oppose equal difficulties to the historian, who attempts to
preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration.
Surrounded with imperfect fragments, always concise, often
obscure, and sometimes contradictory, he is reduced to
collect, to compare, and to conjecture: and though he ought
never to place his conjectures in the rank of facts, yet the
knowledge of human nature, and of the sure operation of its
fierce and unrestrained passions, might, on some occasions,
supply the want of historical materials.
The emperor Philip
There is not, for instance, any difficulty in conceiving
that the successive murders of so many emperors had loosened
all the ties of allegiance between the prince and people;
that all the generals of Philip were disposed to imitate the
example of their master; and that the caprice of armies,
long since habituated to frequent and violent revolutions,
might any day raise to the throne the most obscure of their
fellow-soldiers. History can only add that the rebellion
against the emperor Philip broke out in the summer of the
year two hundred and forty-nine, among the legions of Maesi;
and that a subaltern officer, (1) named Marinus, was the
object of their seditious choice. Philip was alarmed. He
dreaded lest the treason of the Maesian army should prove
the first spark of a general conflagration. Distracted with
Services, the consciousness of his guilt and of his danger, he
revolt communicated the intelligence to the senate. A gloomy
victory, silence prevailed, the effect of fear, and perhaps of
and reign of disaffection: till at length Decius, one of the assembly,
the emperor assuming a spirit worthy of his noble extraction (2), ventured
Decius to discover more intrepidity than the emperor seemed to
possess. He treated the whole business with contempt, as a
hasty and inconsiderate tumult, and Philip's rival as a
phantom of royalty, who in a very few days would be
destroyed by the same inconstancy that had created him. The
speedy completion of the prophecy inspired Philip with a
just esteem for so able a counsellor: and Decius appeared to
him the only person capable of restoring peace and
discipline to an army whose tumultuous spirit did not
immediately subside after the murder of Marinus. Decius who
long resisted his own nomination, seems to have insinuated
the danger of presenting a leader of merit to the angry and
apprehensive minds of the soldiers; and his prediction was
again confirmed by the event. The legion of Maesia forced
their judge to become (A.D. 249) their accomplice. They left
him only the alternative of death or the purple. His
subsequent conduct, after that decisive measure, was
unavoidable. He conducted or followed his army to the
confines of Italy, whither Philip, collecting all his force
to repel the formidable competitor whom he had raised up,
advanced to meet him. The Imperial troops were superior in
number; but the rebels formed an army of veterans, commanded
by an able and experienced leader. Philip was either
killed in the battle or put to death a few days afterwards
at Verona. His son and associate in the empire was massacred
at Rome by the Praetorian guards; and the victorious Decius,
with more favourable circumstances than the ambition of that
age can usually plead, was universally acknowledged by the
senate and provinces It is reported that, immediately after
his reluctant acceptance of the title of Augustus, he had
assured Philip, by a private message, of his innocence and
loyalty, solemnly protesting that, on his arrival in Italy,
he would resign the imperial ornaments and return to the
condition of an obedient subject. His professions might be
sincere. But in the situation where fortune had placed him
it was scarcely possible that he could either forgive or be
forgiven.(3)
He marches against the Goths
The emperor Decius had employed a few months in the works of
peace and the administration of justice, when (A.D. 250) he
was summoned to the banks of the Danube by the invasion of
the GOTHS. This is the first considerable occasion in which
history mentions that great people, who afterwards broke the
Roman power, sacked the Capitol, and reigned in Gaul, Spain,
and Italy. So memorable was the part which they acted in the
subversion of the Western empire that the name of GOTHS is
frequently but improperly used as a general appellation of
rude and war-like barbarism.
Origin of the Goths from Scandinavia
In the beginning of the sixth century, and after the
conquest of Italy, the Goths, in possession of present
greatness, very naturally indulged themselves in the
prospect of past and of future glory. They wished to
preserve the memory of their ancestors, and to transmit to
posterity their own achievements. The principal minister of
the court of Ravenna, the learned Cassiodorus, gratified the
inclination of the conquerors in a Gothic history, which
consisted of twelve books, now reduced to the imperfect
abridgment of Jornandes. (4) These writers passed with the
most artful conciseness over the misfortunes of the nation,
celebrated its successful valour, and adorned the triumph
with many Asiatic trophies that more properly belonged to
the people of Scythia. On the faith of ancient songs, the
uncertain, but the only, memorials of barbarians, they
deduced the first origin of the Goths from the vast island,
or peninsula, of Scandinavia.(5) That extreme country of the
north was not unknown to the conquerors of Italy: the ties
of ancient consanguinity had been strengthened by recent
offices of friendship; and a Scandinavian king had
cheerfully abdicated his savage greatness that he might pass
the remainder of his days in the peaceful and polished court
of Ravenna.(6) Many vestiges, which cannot be ascribed to the
arts of popular vanity, attest the ancient residence of the
Goths in the countries beyond the Baltic. From the time of
the geographer Ptolemy, the southern part of Sweden seems to
have continued in the possession of the less enterprising
remnant of the nation, and a large territory is even at
present divided into east and west Gothland. During the
middle ages (from the ninth to the twelfth century), whilst
Christianity was advancing with a slow progress into the
north, the Goths and the Swedes composed two distinct and
sometimes hostile members of the same monarchy.(7) The latter
of these two names has prevailed without extinguishing the
former. The Swedes, who might well be satisfied with their
own fame in arms, have in every age claimed the kindred
glory of the Goths. In a moment of discontent against the
court of Rome, Charles the Twelfth insinuated that his
victorious troops were not degenerated from their brave
ancestors who had already subdued the mistress of the world.(8)
Religion of the Goths
Till the end of the eleventh century, a celebrated temple
subsisted at Upsal, the most considerable town of the Swedes
and Goths. It was enriched with the gold which the
Scandinavians had acquired in their piratical adventures,
and sanctified by the uncouth representations of the three
principal deities, the god of war, the goddess of
generation, and the god of thunder. In the general festival
that was solemnised every ninth year, nine animals of every
species (without excepting the human) were sacrificed, and
their bleeding bodies suspended in the sacred grove adjacent
to the temple. (9) The only traces that now subsist of this
barbaric superstition are contained in the Edda, a system of
mythology compiled in Iceland about the thirteenth century,
and studied by the learned of Denmark and Sweden as the most
valuable remains of their ancient traditions.
Institutions and death of Odin
Notwithstanding the mysterious obscurity of the Edda, we can
easily distinguish two persons confounded under the name of
Odin, the god of war, and the great legislator of
Scandinavia. The latter, the Mahomet of the north,
instituted a religion adapted to the climate and to the
people. Numerous tribes on either side of the Baltic were
subdued by the invincible valour of Odin, by his persuasive
eloquence, and by the fame, which he acquired, of a most
skilful magician. The faith that he had propagated during a
long and prosperous life he confirmed by a voluntary death.
Apprehensive of the ignominious approach of disease and
infirmity, he resolved to expire as became a warrior. In a
solemn assembly of the Swedes and Goths, he wounded himself
in nine mortal places, hastening away (as he asserted with
his dying voice) to prepare the feast of heroes in the
palace of the god of war.(10)
Agreeable but uncertain hypothesis concerning Odin
The native and proper habitation of Odin is distinguished by
the appellation of As-gard. The unhappy resemblance of that
name with As-burg, or As-of (11) words of a similar
signification, has given rise to an historical system of so
pleasing a conjecture that we could almost wish to persuade
ourselves of its truth. It is supposed that Odin was the
chief of a tribe of barbarians which dwelt on the banks of
the lake Maetois, till the fall of Mithridates and the arms
of Pompey menaced the north with servitude. That Odin,
yielding with indignant fury to a power which he was unable
to resist, conducted his tribe from the frontiers of the
Asiatic Sarmatia into Sweden with the great design of
forming, in that inaccessible retreat of freedom, a religion
and a people which, in some remote age, might be,
subservient to his immortal revenge; when his invincible
Goths, armed with martial fanaticism, should issue in
numerous swarms from the neighbourhood of the Polar circle,
to chastise the oppressors of mankind.(12)
Emmigration of the Goths from Scandinavia into Prussia
If so many successive generations of Goths were capable of
preserving a faint tradition of their Scandinavian origin,
we must not expect, from such unlettered barbarians, any
distinct account of the time and circumstances of their
emigration. To cross the Baltic was an easy and natural
attempt. The inhabitants of Sweden were masters of a
sufficient number of large vessels, with oars,(13) and the
distance is little more than one hundred miles from
Carlscrona to the nearest ports of Pomerania and Prussia.
Here, at length, we land on firm and historic ground. At
least as early as the Christian era,(14) and as late as the
age of the Antonines,(15) the Goths were established towards
the mouth of the Vistula, and in that fertile province where
the commercial cities of Thorn, Elbing, Koningsberg, and
Dantzic were long afterwards founded. (16) Westward of the
Goths, the numerous tribes of the Vandals were spread along
the banks of the Oder, and the seacoast of Pomerania and
Mecklenburg. A striking resemblance of manners, complexion,
religion, and language, seemed to indicate that the Vandals
and the Goths were originally one great people. (17) The
latter appear to have been subdivided into Ostrogoths,
Visigoths, and Gepidae.(18) The distinction among the Vandals
was more strongly marked by the independent names of Heruli,
Burgundians, Lombards, and a variety of other petty states,
many of which, in a future age, expanded themselves into
powerful monarchies.
From Prussia to the Ukriane
In the age of the Antonines, the Goths were still seated in
Prussia. About the reign of Alexander Severus, the Roman
province of Dacia had already experienced their proximity by
frequent and destructive inroads. (19) In this interval,
therefore, of about seventy years, we must place the second
migration of the Goths from the Baltic to the Euxine; but
the cause that produced it lies concealed among the various
motives which actuate the conduct of unsettled barbarians
Either a pestilence or a famine, a victory or a defeat, an
oracle of the gods or the eloquence of a daring leader, were
sufficient to impel the Gothic arms on the milder climates
of the south. Besides the influence of a martial religion,
the numbers and spirit of the Goths were equal to the most
dangerous adventures. The use of round bucklers and short
swords rendered them formidable in a close engagement; the
manly obedience which they yielded to hereditary kings gave
uncommon union and stability to their councils;(20) and the
renowned Amala, the hero of that age, and the tenth ancestor
of Theodoric, king of Italy, enforced, by the ascendant of
personal merit, the prerogative of his birth, which he
nation.(21) derived from the Anses, or demigods of the
Gothic nation.
The Gothic nation increases in its march.
The fame of a great enterprise excited the bravest warriors
from all the Vandalic states of Germany, many of whom are
seen a few years afterwards combating under the common
standard of the Goths.(22) The first motions of the emigrants
carried them to the banks of the Prypec, a river universally
conceived by the ancients to be the southern branch of the
Borysthenes.(23) The windings of that great stream through
the plains of Poland and Russia gave a direction to their
line of march, and a constant supply of fresh water and
pasturage to their numerous herds of cattle. They followed
the unknown course of the river, confident in their valour,
and careless of whatever power might oppose f their
progress. The Bastarnae and the Venedi were the first who
presented themselves and the flower of their youth, either
from choice or compulsion, increased the Gothic army. The
Bastarnae dwelt on the northern side of the Carpathian
mountains; the immense tract of land that separated the
Bastarnae from the savages of Finland was possessed, or
rather wasted, by the Venedi; (24) we have some reason to
believe that the first of these nations, which distinguished
itself in the Macedonian war,(25) and was afterwards divided
into the formidable tribes of the Peucini, the Borani, the
Carpi, etc., derived its origin from the Germans. With
better authority, a Sarmatian extraction may be assigned to
the Venedi, who rendered themselves so famous in the middle
ages.(26) But the confusion of blood and manners on that
Distinction doubtful frontier often perplexed the most accurate
of Germans observers.(27) As the Goths advanced near the Euxine Sea,
and they encountered a purer race of Sarmatians, the Jazyges,
Sarmatians the Alani, and the Roxolani and they were probably the first
Germans who saw the mouth of the Borysthenes and of the
Tanais. If we inquire into the characteristic marks of the
people of Germany and of Sarmatia, we shall discover that
those two great portions of human kind were principally
distinguished by fixed huts or movable tents, by a close
dress of flowing garments, by the marriage of one or of
several wives, by a military force consisting, for the most
part, either of infantry or cavalry; and above all by the
use of the Teutonic or of the Sclavonian language the last
of which has been diffused by conquest from the confines of
Italy to the neighbourhood of Japan.
Description of the Ukraine
The Goths were now in possession of the Ukraine, a country
of considerable extent and uncommon fertility, intersected
with navigable rivers, which, from either side, discharge
themselves into the Borysthenes; and interspersed with large
and lofty forests of oaks. The plenty of game and fish, the
innumerable beehives, deposited in the hollows of old trees,
and in the cavities of rocks, and forming, even in that rude
age, a valuable branch of commerce, the size of the cattle,
the temperature of the air, the aptness of the soil for
every species of grain, and the luxuriancy of the
vegetation, all displayed the liberality of Nature, and
tempted the industry of man.(28) But the Goths withstood all
these temptations, and still adhered to a life of idleness,
of poverty, and of rapine.
The Goths invade the Roman provinces.
The Scythian hordes, which, towards the east, bordered on
the new settlements of the Goths, presented nothing to their
arms except the doubtful chance of an unprofitable victory.
But the prospect of the Roman territories was far more
alluring; and the fields of Dacia were covered with rich
harvests, sown by the hands of an industrious, and exposed
to be gathered by those of a warlike, people. It is probable
that the conquests of Trajan maintained by his successors,
less for any real advantage than for ideal dignity, had
contributed to weaken the empire on that side. The new and
unsettled province of Dacia was neither strong enough to
resist, nor rich enough to satiate, the rapaciousness of the
barbarians. As long as the remote banks of the Dniester were
considered as the boundary of the Roman power, the
fortifications of the Lower Danube were more carelessly
guarded, and the inhabitants of Maesia lived in supine
security, fondly conceiving themselves at an inaccessible
distance from any barbarian invaders. The irruptions of the
Goths, under the reign of Philip, fatally convinced them of
their mistake. The king, or leader, of that fierce nation
traversed with contempt the province of Dacia, and passed
both the Dniester and the Danube without encountering any
opposition capable of retarding his progress. The relaxed
discipline of the Roman troops betrayed the most important
posts where they were stationed, and the fear of deserved
punishment induced great numbers of them to enlist under the
Gothic standard. The various multitude of barbarians
appeared, at length, under the walls of Marcianopolis, a
city built by Trajan in honour of his sister, and at that
time the capital of the second Maesia.(29) The inhabitants
consented to ransom their lives and property by the payment
of a large sum of money, and the invaders retreated back
into their deserts, animated, rather than satisfied, with
the first success of their arms against an opulent but
feeble country. Intelligence was soon transmitted to the
emperor Decius that Cniva, king of the Goths, had passed the
Danube a second time, with more considerable forces; that
his numerous detachments scattered devastation over the
province of Maesia, whilst the main body of the army,
consisting of seventy thousand Germans and Sarmatians, a
force equal to the most daring achievements, required the
presence of the Roman monarch, and the exertion of his
military power.
Various events of the Gothic war.
Decius found (A.D. 250) the Goths engaged before Nicopolis,
on the Jatrus, one of the many monuments of Trajan's
victories.(30) On his approach they raised the siege, but
with a design only of marching away to a conquest of greater
importance, the siege of Philippopolis, a city of Thrace,
founded by the father of Alexander, near the foot of mount
Haemus.(31) Decius followed them through a difficult country,
and by forced marches; but when he imagined himself at a
considerable distance from the rear of the Goths, Cniva
turned with rapid fury on his pursuers. The camp of the
Romans was surprised and pillaged, and, for the first time,
their emperor fled in disorder before a. troop of half-armed
barbarians. After a long resistance, Philippopolis,
destitute of succour, was taken by storm. A hundred thousand
persons are reported to have been massacred in the sack of
that great city. (32) Many prisoners of consequence became a
valuable accession to the spoil; and Priscus, a brother of
the late emperor Philip, blushed not to assume the purple
under the protection of the barbarous enemies of Rome.(33)
The time, however consumed in that tedious siege enabled
Decius to revive the courage, restore the discipline, and
recruit the numbers of his troops. He intercepted several
parties of Carpi, and other Germans, who were hastening to
share the victory of their countrymen, (34) intrusted the
passes of the mountains to officers of approved valour and
fidelity;(35) repaired and strengthened the fortifications of
the Danube, and exerted his utmost vigilance to oppose
either the progress or the retreat of the Goths. Encouraged
by the return of fortune, he anxiously waited for an
opportunity to retrieve, by a great and decisive blow, his
own glory and that of the Roman arms.(36)
Decius revives the office of censor in the person of Valerian
At the same time when Decius was struggling with the
violence of the tempest, his mind, calm and deliberate
amidst the tumult of war, investigated the more general
causes that, since the age of the Antonines, had so
impetuously urged the decline of the Roman greatness. He
soon discovered that it was impossible to replace that
greatness on a permanent basis without restoring public
virtue, ancient principles and manners, and the oppressed
majesty of the laws. To execute this noble but arduous
design, he first resolved to revive the obsolete office of
censor; an office which, as long as it had subsisted in its
pristine integrity, had so much contributed to the
perpetuity of the state, (37) till it was usurped and
gradually neglected by the Caesars. (38) Conscious that the
favour of the sovereign may confer power, but that the
esteem of the people can alone bestow authority, he
submitted the choice of the censor to the unbiased voice of
the senate. By their unanimous votes, or rather
acclamations, Valerian, who was afterwards emperor, and who
then served with distinction in the army of Decius, was
(A.D. 251, 27th Oct.) declared the most worthy of that exalted
honour. As soon as the decree of the senate was transmitted
to the emperor, he assembled a great council in his camp,
and, before the investiture of the censor elect, he apprised
him of the difficulty and importance of his great office.
"Happy Valerian," said the prince to his distinguished
subject, "happy in the general approbation of the senate and
of the Roman republic ! Accept the censorship of mankind;
and judge of Our manners. You will select those who deserve
to continue members of the senate; you will restore the
equestrian order to its ancient splendour; you will improve
the revenue, yet moderate the public burdens. You will
distinguish into regular classes the various and infinite
multitude of citizens, and accurately review the military
strength, the wealth, the virtue, and the resources of Rome.
Your decisions shall obtain the force of laws. The army, the
palace, the misters of justice, and the great officers of
the empire, are all subject to your tribunal. None are
exempted, excepting only the ordinary consuls, (39) the
prefect of the city, the king of the sacrifices, and (as
long as she preserves her chastity inviolate) the eldest of
the vestal virgins. Even these few, who may not dread the
severity, will anxiously solicit the esteem, of the Roman
censor.)"(40)
The design impractical, and without effect.
A magistrate, invested with such extensive powers, would
have appeared not so much the minister as the colleague of
his sovereign.(41) Valerian justly dreaded an elevation so
full of envy and of suspicion. He modestly urged the
alarming greatness of the trust, his own insufficiency, and
the incurable corruption of the times. He artfully
insinuated that the office of censor was inseparable from
the Imperial dignity, and that the feeble hands of a subject
were unequal to the support of such an immense weight of
cares and of power.(42) The approaching event of war soon put
an end to the prosecution of a project so specious but so
impracticable; and whilst it preserved Valerian from the
danger, saved the emperor Decius from the disappointment
which would most probably have attended it. A censor may
maintain, he can never restore, the morals of a state. It is
impossible for such a magistrate to exert his authority with
benefit, or even with effect, unless he is supported by a
quick sense of honour and virtue in the minds of the people,
by a decent reverence for the public opinion, and by a train
of useful prejudices combating on the side of national
manners. In a period when these principles are annihilated,
the censorial jurisdiction must either sink into empty
pageantry, or be converted into a partial instrument of
vexatious oppression.(43) It was easier to vanquish the Goths
than to eradicate the public vices yet even in the first of
these enterprises Decius lost his army and his life.
Defeat and death of Decius and his son
The Goths were now, on every side, surrounded and pursued by
the Roman arms. The flower of their troops had perished in
the long siege of Philippopolis, and the exhausted country
could no longer afford subsistence for the remaining
multitude of licentious barbarians. Reduced to this
extremity, the Goths would gladly have purchased, by the
surrender of all their booty and prisoners, the permission
of an undisturbed retreat. But the emperor, confident of
victory and resolving, by the chastisement of these
invaders, to strike a salutary terror into the nations of
the North, refused to listen to any terms of accommodation.
The high-spirited barbarians preferred death to slavery. An
obscure town of Maesia, called Forum Terebronii,(44) was the
scene of the battle. The Gothic army was drawn up in three
lines, and, either from choice or accident, the front of the
third line was covered by a morass. In the beginning of the
action, the son of Decius, a youth of the fairest hopes, and
already associated to the honours of the purple, was slain
by an arrow, in the sight of his afflicted father; who,
summoning all his fortitude, admonished the dismayed troops
that the loss of a single soldier was of little importance
to the republic. (45) The conflict was terrible; it was the
combat of despair against grief and rage. The first line of
the Goths at length gave way in disorder; the second,
advancing to sustain it, shared its fate; and the third only
remained entire, prepared to dispute the passage of the
morass, which was imprudently attempted by the presumption
of the enemy. "Here the fortune of the day turned, and all
things became adverse to the Romans: the place deep with
ooze, sinking under those who stood, slippery to such as
advanced; their armour heavy, the waters deep; nor could
they wield, in that uneasy situation, their weighty
javelins. The barbarians, on the contrary, were enured to
encounters in the bogs, their persons tall, their spears
long, such as could wound at a distance."(46) In the morass
the Roman army, after an ineffectual struggle, was
irrecoverably lost; nor could the body of the emperor ever
be found.(47) Such was the fate of Decius, in the fiftieth
year of his age; an accomplished prince, active in war, and
affable in peace, (48) who, together with his son, has
deserved to be compared, both in life and death, with the
brightest examples of ancient virtue.(49)
Election of Gallus
This fatal blow humbled, for a very little time, the
insolence of the legions. They appear to have patiently
expected, and submissively obeyed, the decree of the senate,
which regulated the succession to the throne. From a just
regard for the memory of Decius, the Imperial title was
(A.D. 251, Dec.) conferred on Hostilianus, his only
surviving son; but an equal rank, with more effectual power,
was granted to Gallus, whose experience and ability seemed
equal to the great trust of guardian to the young prince and
the distressed empire. (50) The first care of the new emperor
was to deliver the IIlyrian provinces from the intolerable
Retreat of weight of the victorious Goths. He (A.D. 252) consented to
the Goths. leave in their hands the rich fruits of their invasion, an
immense booty, and, what was still more disgraceful, a great
number of prisoners of the highest merit and quality. He
plentifully supplied their camp with every convenience that
could assuage their angry spirits, or facilitate their so
much wished for departure; and he even promised to pay them
annually a large sum of gold, on condition they should never
afterwards infest the Roman territories by their incursions.(51)
Gallus purchases peace by the payment of an annual tribute.
In the age of the Scipios, the most opulent kings of the
earth, who courted the protection of the victorious
commonwealth, were gratified with such trifling presents as
could only derive a value from the hand that bestowed them;
an ivory chair, a coarse garment of purple, an
inconsiderable piece of plate, or a quantity of copper coin.
(52) After the wealth of nations had centred in Rome, the
emperors displayed their greatness, and even their policy,
by the regular exercise of a steady and moderate liberality
towards the allies of the state. They relieved the poverty
of the barbarians, honoured their merit, and recompensed
their fidelity. These voluntary marks of bounty were
understood to flow not from the fears, but merely from the
generosity or the gratitude of the Romans and whilst
presents and subsidies were liberally distributed among
friends and suppliants, they were sternly refused to such as
claimed them as a debt.(53) But this stipulation of an annual
payment to a victorious enemy appeared without disguise in
Popular the light of an ignominious tribute; the minds of the Romans
discontent were not yet accustomed to accept such unequal laws from a
tribe of barbarians; and the prince who by a necessary
concession had probably saved his country, became the object
of the general contempt and aversion. The death of
Hostilianus, though it happened in the midst of a raging
pestilence, was interpreted as the personal crime of Gallus;
(54) and even the defeat of the late emperor was ascribed by
the voice of suspicion to the perfidious counsels of his
hated successor. (55) The tranquillity which the empire
enjoyed during the first year of his administration (56)
served rather to inflame than to appease the public
discontent; and, as soon as the apprehensions of war were
removed, the infamy of the peace was more deeply and more
sensibly felt.
Victory and revolt of Aemilianus
But the Romans were irritated to a still higher degree when
they discovered that they had not even secured their repose,
though at the expense of their honour. The dangerous secret
of the wealth and weakness of the empire had been revealed
to the world. New swarms of barbarians, encouraged (A.D.
253) by the success, and not conceiving themselves bound by
the obligation, of their brethren, spread devastation
through the Illyrian provinces, and terror as far as the
gates of Rome. The defence of the monarchy which seemed
abandoned by the pusillanimous emperor, was assumed by
Aemilianus, governor of Pannonia and Maesia who rallied the
scattered forces, and revived the fainting spirits of the
troops. The barbarians were unexpectedly attacked, routed,
chased, and pursued beyond the Danube. The victorious leader
distributed as a donative the money collected for the
tribute, and the acclamations of the soldiers proclaimed him
emperor on the field of battle.(57) Gallus, who, careless of
the general welfare, indulged himself in the pleasures of
Italy, was almost in the same instant informed of the
success of the revolt and of the rapid approach of his
aspiring lieutenant. He advanced to meet him as far as the
plains of Spoleto. When the armies came in sight of each
other, the soldiers of Gallus compared the ignominious
conduct of their sovereign with the glory of his rival. They
admired the valour of Aemilianus they were attracted by his
liberality, for he offered a considerable increase of pay to
Gallus all deserters.(58) The murder of Gallus, and of his son
abandoned Volusianus, put an end to the civil war; and the senate
and slain. (A.D. 253, May) gave a legal sanction to the rights of
conquest. The letters of Aemilianus to that assembly
displayed a mixture of moderation and vanity. He assured
them that he should resign to their wisdom the civil
administration; and, contenting himself with the quality of
their general, would in a short time assert the glory of
Rome, and deliver the empire from all the barbarians both of
the North and of the East.(59) His pride was flattered by the
applause of the senate; and medals are still extant
representing him with the name and attributes of Hercules
and Victor and of Mars the Avenger.(60)
Valerian revenges the death of Gallus, and is acknowledged emperor
If the new monarch possessed the abilities, he wanted the
time necessary to fulfil these splendid promises. Less than
four months intervened between his victory and his fall.(61)
He had vanquished Gallus: he sunk under the weight of a
competitor more formidable than Gallus. That unfortunate
prince had sent Valerian, already distinguished by the
honourable title of censor, to bring the legions of Gaul and
Germany to his aid. (62) Valerian executed that commission
with zeal and fidelity; and as he arrived too late to save
his sovereign, he resolved to revenge him. The troops of
Aemilianus, who still lay encamped in the plains of Spoleto,
were awed by the sanctity of his character, but much more by
the superior strength of his army; and as they were now
become as incapable of personal attachment as they had
always been of constitutional principle, they (AD 253, Aug.)
readily imbrued their hands in the blood of a prince who had
so lately been the object of their partial choice. The guilt
was theirs, but the advantage of it was Valerian's; who
obtained the possession of the throne by the means indeed of
a civil war, but with a degree of innocence singular in that
age of revolutions; since he owned neither gratitude nor
allegiance to his predecessor whom he dethroned.
Character of Valerian.
Valerian was about sixty years of age (63) when he was
invested with the purple, not by the caprice of the
populace, or the clamours of the army, but by the unanimous
voice of the Roman world. In his gradual ascent through the
honours of the state, he had deserved the favour of virtuous
princes, and had declared himself the enemy of tyrants.(64)
His noble birth, his mild but unblemished manners, his
learning, prudence, and experience, were revered by the
senate and people; and if mankind (according to the
observation of an ancient writer) had been left at liberty
to choose a master, their choice would most assuredly have
fallen on Valerian.(65) Perhaps the merit of this emperor was
inadequate to his reputation; perhaps his abilities, or at
least his spirit, were affected by the languor and coldness
of old age. The consciousness of his decline engaged him to
share the throne with a younger and more active associate:(66)
General the emergency of the times demanded a general no less
misfortunes than a prince; and the experience of the Roman censor might
of the reigns have directed him where to bestow the Imperial purple, as
of Valerian the reward of military merit. But instead of making a
and Gallienus judicious choice, which would have confirmed his reign and
endeared his memory, Valerian, consulting only the dictates
of affection or vanity, immediately invested with the
supreme honours his son Gallienus, a youth whose effeminate
vices had been hitherto concealed by the obscurity of a
private station. The joint government of the father and the
son subsisted about seven, and the sole administration of
Gallienus continued about eight years (A.D. 253-268). But
the whole period was one uninterrupted series of confusion
and calamity. As the Roman empire was at the same time, and
on every side, attacked by the blind fury of foreign
invaders, and the wild ambition of domestic usurpers, we
shall consult order and perspicuity by pursuing not so much
the doubtful arrangement of dates as the more natural
distribution of subjects. The most dangerous enemies of
Inroads of Rome, during the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, were, 1
the The Franks; 2. The Alemanni; 3. The Goths; and 4. The
barbarians. Persians. Under these general appellations we may comprehend
the adventures of less considerable tribes, whose obscure
and uncouth names would only serve to oppress the memory and
perplex the attention of the reader.
Origin and confederacy of the Franks
I. As the posterity of the Franks compose one of the
greatest and most enlightened nations of Europe, the powers
of learning and ingenuity have been exhausted in the
discovery of their unlettered ancestors. To the tales of
credulity have succeeded the systems of fancy. Every passage
has been sifted, every spot has been surveyed, that might
possibly reveal some faint traces of their origin. It has
been supposed that Pannonia,(67) that Gaul, that the northern
parts of Germany,(68) gave birth to that celebrated colony of
warriors. At length the most rational critics, rejecting the
fictitious emigrations of ideal conquerors, have acquiesced
in a sentiment whose simplicity persuades us of its truth.
(69) They suppose that, about the year two hundred and forty,(70)
a new confederacy was formed under the name of Franks, by
the old inhabitants of the Lower Rhine and the Weser. The
present circle of Westphalia, the Landgraviate of Hesse, and
the duchies of Brunswick and Luneburg, were the ancient seat
of the Chauci, who, in their inaccessible morasses, defied
the Roman arms;(71) of the Cherusci, proud of the fame of
Arminius; of the Catti, formidable by their firm and
intrepid infantry; and of several other tribes of inferior
power and renown. (72) The love of liberty was the ruling
passion of these Germans; the enjoyment of it their best
treasure; the word that expressed that enjoyment the most
pleasing to their ear. They deserved, they assumed, they
maintained the honourable epithet of Franks or Freemen;
which concealed, though it did not extinguish, the peculiar
names of the several states of the confederacy.(73) Tacit
consent, and mutual advantage, dictated the first laws of
the union; it was gradually cemented by habit and
experience. The league of the Franks may admit of some
comparison with the Helvetic body; in which every canton,
retaining its independent sovereignty, consults with its
brethren in the common cause, without acknowledging the
authority of any supreme head or representative assembly.(74)
But the principle of the two confederacies were extremely
different. A peace of two hundred years has rewarded the
wise and honest policy of the Swiss. An inconstant spirit,
the thirst of rapine, and a disregard to the most solemn
treaties, disgraced the character of the Franks.
They invade Gaul
The Romans had long experienced the daring valour of the
people of Lower Germany. The union of their strength
threatened Gaul with a more formidable invasion, and
required the presence of Gallienus, the heir and colleague
of imperial power.(75) Whilst that prince, and his infant son
Salonius, displayed, in the court of Treves, the majesty of
the empire, its armies were ably conducted by their general
Posthumus, who, though he afterwards betrayed the family of
Valerian, was ever faithful for the great interest of the
monarchy. The treacherous language of panegyrics and medals
darkly announces a long series of victories. Trophies and
titles attest (if such evidence can attest) the fame of
Posthumus, who is repeatedly styled The Conqueror of the
Germans, and the saviour of Gaul.(76)
Ravage Spain
But a single fact, the only one indeed of which we have any
distinct knowledge, erases, in a great measure, these
monuments of vanity and adulation. The Rhine, though
dignified with the title of Safeguard of the provinces, was
an imperfect barrier against the daring spirit of enterprise
with which the Franks were actuated. Their rapid
devastations stretched from the river to the foot of the
Pyrenees: nor were they stopped by those mountains. Spain,
which had never dreaded, was unable to resist, the inroads
of the Germans. During twelve years, the greatest part of
the reign of Gallienus, that opulent country was the theatre
of unequal and destructive hostilities. Tarragona, the
flourishing capital of a peaceful province, was sacked and
almost destroyed(77) and so late as the days of Orosius, who
wrote in the fifth century, wretched cottages, scattered
amidst the ruins of magnificent cities, still recorded the
rage of the barbarians. (78) When the exhausted country no
longer supplied a variety of plunder, the Franks seized on
and pass over some vessels in the ports of Spain, (79) and transported
into Africa themselves into Mauritania. The distant province was
astonished with the fury of these barbarians, who seemed to
fall from a new world, as their name, manners, and
complexion were equally unknown on the coast of Africa.(80)
Origin and renown of the Suevi
II. In that part of Upper Saxony beyond the Elbe, which is
at present called the Marquisate of Lusace, there existed,
in ancient times, a sacred wood, the awful seat of the
superstition of the Suevi. None were permitted to enter the
holy precincts without confessing, by their servile bonds
and suppliant posture, the immediate presence of the
sovereign Deity. (81) Patriotism contributed as well as
devotion to consecrate the Sonnenwald, or wood of the
Semnones.(82) It was universally believed that the nation had
received its first existence on that sacred spot. At stated
periods, the numerous tribes who gloried in the Suevic blood
resorted thither by their ambassadors; and the memory of
their common extraction was perpetuated by barbaric rites
and human sacrifices. The wide extended name of Suevi filled
the interior countries of Germany from the banks of the Oder
to those of the Danube. They were distinguished from the
other Germans by their peculiar mode of dressing their long
hair, which they gathered into a rude knot on the crown of
the head; and they delighted in an ornament that showed
their ranks more lofty and terrible in the eyes of the
enemy.(83) Jealous as the Germans were of military renown,
they all confessed the superior valour of the Suevi; and the
tribes of the Usipetes and Tencteri, who, with a vast army,
encountered the dictator Caesar, declared that they esteemed
it not a disgrace to have fled before a people to whose arms
the immortal gods themselves were unequal. (84)
A mixed body of Suevi assume the name of Alemanni
In the reign of the emperor Caracalla, an innumerable swarm
of Suevi appeared on the banks of the Mein, and in the
neighbourhood of the Roman provinces, in quest either of
food, of plunder, or of glory. (85) The hasty army of
volunteers gradually coalesced into a great and permanent
nation, and as it was composed from so many different
tribes, assumed the name of Alemanni, or All-men; to denote
at once their various lineage and their common bravery.(86)
The latter was soon felt by the Romans in many a hostile
inroad. The Alemanni fought chiefly on horseback; but their
cavalry was rendered still more formidable by a mixture of
light infantry, selected from the bravest and most active of
the youth, whom frequent exercise had enured to accompany
the horsemen in the longest march, the most rapid charge, or
the most precipitate retreat.(87)
Invade Gaul and Italy
This warlike people of Germans had been astonished by the
immense preparations of Alexander Severus; they were
dismayed by the arms of his successor, a barbarian equal in
valour and fierceness to themselves. But still hovering on
the frontiers of the empire, they increased the general
disorder that ensued after the death of Decius. They
inflicted severe wounds on the rich provinces of Gaul; they
were the first who removed the veil that covered the feeble
majesty of Italy. A numerous body of the Alemanni penetrated
across the Danube, and through the Rhaetian Alps, into the
plains of Lombardy, advanced as far as Ravenna, and
displayed the victorious banners of barbarians almost in
sight of Rome.(88) The insult and the danger rekindled in the
are repulsed senate some sparks of their ancient virtue. Both the
from Rome emperors were engaged in far distant wars, Valerian in the
by the senate East and Gallienus on the Rhine. All the hopes and resources
and people of the Romans were in themselves. In this emergency, the
senators resumed the defence of the republic, drew out the
Praetorian guards, who had been left to garrison the
capital, and filled up their numbers by enlisting into the
public service the stoutest and most willing of the
Plebeians. The Alemanni, astonished with the sudden
appearance of an army more numerous than their own, retired
into Germany laden with spoil; and their retreat was
esteemed as a victory by the unwarlike Romans. (89)
The senators excluded by Gallienus from military service
When Gallienus received the intelligence that his capital
was delivered from the barbarians, he was much less
delighted than alarmed with the courage of the senate, since
it might one day prompt them to rescue the republic from
domestic tyranny as well as from foreign invasion. His timid
ingratitude was published to his subjects in an edict which
prohibited the senators from exercising any military
employment, and even from approaching the camps of the
legions. But his fears were groundless. The rich and
luxurious nobles, sinking into their natural character,
accepted, as a favour, this disgraceful exemption from
military service; and as long as they were indulged in the
enjoyment of their baths, their theatres, and their villas,
they cheerfully resigned the more dangerous cares of empire
to the rough hands of peasants and soldiers.(90)
Gallienus contreacts an alliance with the Alemanni
Another invasion of the Alemanni, of a more formidable
aspect, but more glorious event, is mentioned by a writer of
the lower empire. Three hundred thousand of that warlike
people are said to have been vanquished, in a battle near
Milan, by Gallienus in person at the head of only ten
thousand Romans.(91) We may, however, with great probability,
ascribe this incredible victory either to the credulity of
the historian or to some exaggerated exploits of one of the
emperor's lieutenants. It was by arms of a very different
nature that Gallienus endeavoured to protect Italy from the
fury of the Germans He espoused Pipa, the daughter of a king
of the Marcomanni, a Suevic tribe, which was often
confounded with the Alemanni in their wars and conquests.(92)
To the father, as the price of his alliance, he granted an
ample settlement in Pannonia. The native charms of
unpolished beauty seem to have fixed the daughter in the
affections of the inconstant emperor, and the bands of
policy were more firmly connected by those of love. But the
haughty prejudice of Rome still refused the name of marriage
to the profane mixture of a citizen and a barbarian; and has
stigmatised the German princess with the opprobrious title
of concubine of Gallienus.(93)
Inroads of the Goths
III. We have already traced the emigration of the Goths from
Scandinavia, or at least from Prussia, to the mouth of the
Borysthenes, and have followed their victorious arms from
the Borysthenes to the Danube. Under the reigns of Valerian
and Gallienus, the frontier of the last mentioned river was
perpetually infested by the inroads of Germans and
Sarmatians but it was defended by the Romans with more than
usual firmness and success. The provinces that were the seat
of war recruited the armies of Rome with an inexhaustible
supply of hardy soldiers; and more than one of these
Illyrian peasants attained the station and displayed the
abilities of a general. Though flying parties of the
barbarians, who incessantly hovered on the banks of the
Danube, penetrated sometimes to the confines of Italy and
Macedonia, their progress was commonly checked, or their
return intercepted, by the Imperial lieutenants.(94) But the
great stream of the Gothic hostilities was diverted into a
very different channel. The Goths, in their new settlement
of the Ukraine, soon became masters of the northern coast of
the Euxine: to the south of that inland sea were situated
the soft and wealthy provinces of Asia Minor, which
possessed all that could attract, and nothing that could
resist, a barbarian conqueror.
Conquest of the Bosphorus by the Goths
The banks of the Borysthenes are only sixty miles distant
from the narrow entrance (95) of the peninsula of Crim
Tartary, known to the ancients under the name of Chersonesus
Taurica. (96) On that inhospitable shore, Euripides,
embellishing with exquisite art the tales of antiquity, has
placed the scene of one of his most affecting tragedies.(97)
The bloody sacrifices of Diana, the arrival of Orestes and
Pylades, and the triumph of virtue and religion over savage
fierceness, serve to represent an historical truth, that the
Tauri, the original inhabitants of the peninsula, were, in
some degree, reclaimed from their brutal manners by a
gradual intercourse with the Grecian colonies which settled
along the maritime coast. The little kingdom of Bosphorus,
whose capital was situated on the Straits, through which the
Maeotis communicates itself to the Euxine, was composed of
degenerate Greeks and half-civilised barbarians. It
subsisted, as an independent state, from the time of the
Peloponnesian war,(98) was at last swallowed up by the
ambition of Mithridates, (99) and, with the rest of his
dominions, sunk under the weight of the Roman arms. From the
reign of Augustus, (100) the kings of Bosphorus were the
humble, but not useless, allies of the empire. By presents,
by arms, and by a slight fortification drawn across the
Isthmus, they effectually guarded against the roving
plunderers of Sarmatia the access of a country which, from
its peculiar situation and convenient harbours, commanded
the Euxine Sea and Asia Minor.(101) As long as the sceptre
was possessed by a lineal succession of kings, they
acquitted themselves of their important charge with
vigilance and success. Domestic factions, and the fears, or
private interest, of obscure usurpers, who seized on the
vacant throne, admitted the Goths into the heart of
Bosphorus. With the acquisition of a superfluous waste of
fertile soil, the conquerors obtained the command of a naval
force, sufficient to transport their armies to the coast of
who acqquire Asia.(102) The ships used in the navigation of the Euxine
a naval forcewere of a very singular construction. They were slight
flat-bottomed barks framed of timber only, without the least
mixture of iron, and occasionally covered with a shelving
roof on the appearance of a tempest.(103) In these floating
houses, the Goths carelessly trusted themselves to the mercy
of an unknown sea, under the conduct of sailors pressed into
the service, and whose skill and fidelity were equally
suspicious. But the hopes of plunder had banished every idea
of danger, and a natural fearlessness of temper supplied in
their minds the more rational confidence which is the just
result of knowledge and experience. Warriors of such a
daring spirit must have often murmured against the cowardice
of their guides who required the strongest assurances of a
settled calm before they would venture to embark; and would
scarcely ever be tempted to lose sight of the land. Such, at
least, is the practise of the modern Turks,(104) and they are
probably not inferior in the art of navigation to the
ancient inhabitants of Bosphorus.
First naval expidition of the Goths
The fleet of the Goths, leaving the coast of Circassia on
the left hand, first appeared before Pityus,(105) the utmost
limits of the Roman provinces; a city provided with a
convenient port and fortified with a strong wall. Here they
met with a resistance more obstinate than they had reason to
expect from the feeble garrison of a distant fortress. They
were repulsed; and their disappointment seemed to diminish
the terror of the Gothic name. As long as Successianus, an
officer of superior rank and merit, defended that frontier,
all their efforts were ineffectual; but as soon as he was
removed by Valerian to a more honourable but less important
station, they resumed the attack of Pityus; and, by the
destruction of that city, obliterated the memory of their
former disgrace.(106)
The Goths besiege and take Trebizond
Circling round the eastern extremity of the Euxine Sea, the
navigation from Pityus to Trebizond is about three hundred
miles.(107) The course of the Goths carried them in sight of
the country of Colchis, so famous by the expedition of the
Argonauts, and they even attempted, though without success,
to pillage a rich temple at the mouth of the river Phasis.
Trebizond, celebrated in the retreat of the Ten Thousand as
an ancient colony of Greeks, (108) derived its wealth and
splendour from the munificence of the emperor Hadrian, who
had constructed an artificial port on a coast left destitute
by nature of secure harbours. (109) The city was large and
populous; a double enclosure of walls seemed to defy the fury
of the Goths, and the usual garrison had been strengthened by
a reinforcement of ten thousand men. But there are not any
advantages capable of supplying the absence of discipline and
vigilance. The numerous garrison of Trebizond, dissolved in
riot and luxury, disdained to guard their impregnable
fortifications. The Goths soon discovered the supine
negligence of the besieged, erected a lofty pile of fascines,
ascended the walls in the silence of the night, and entered
the defenceless city sword in hand. A general massacre of the
people ensued, whilst the affrighted soldiers escaped through
the opposite gates of the town. The most holy temples, and the
most splendid edifices, were involved in a common destruction.
The booty that fell into the hands of the Goths was immense:
the wealth of the adjacent countries had been deposited in
Trebizond, as in a secure place of refuge. The number of
captives was incredible, as the victorious barbarians ranged
without opposition through the extensive province of Pontus.(110)
The rich spoils of Trebizond filled a great fleet of ships
that had been found in the port. The robust youth of the
seacoast were chained to the oar; and the Goths, satisfied
with the success of their first naval expedition, returned in
triumph to their new establishments in the kingdom of
Bosphorus.(111)
The Second Expedition Of The Goths
The second expedition of the Goths was undertaken with
greater powers of men and ships; but they steered a
different course, and, disdaining the exhausted provinces of
Pontus, followed the western coast of the Euxine, passed
before the wide mouths of the Borysthenes, the Dniester, and
the Danube, and increasing their fleet by the capture of a
great number of fishing barks, they approached the narrow
outlet through which the Euxine Sea pours its waters into
the Mediterranean, and divides the continents of Europe and
Asia. The garrison of Chalcedon was encamped near the temple
of Jupiter Urius on a promontory that commanded the entrance
of the Strait; and so dreaded were the invasions of the
barbarians, that this body of troops surpassed in number the
They plunder Gothic army. But it was in numbers alone that they surpassed
The cities of it. They deserted with precipitation their advantageous
Bithynia post, and abandoned the town of Chalcedon, most plentifully
stored with arms and money, to the discretion of the
conquerors. Whilst they hesitated whether they should prefer
the sea or land, Europe or Asia, for the scene of their
hostilities, a perfidious fugitive pointed out Nicomedia,
once the capital of the kings of Bithynia, as a rich and
easy conquest. He guided the march, which was only sixty
miles from the camp of Chalcedon, (112) directed the
resistless attack, and partook of the booty; for the Goths
had learned sufficient policy to reward the traitor whom
they detested. Nice, Prusa, Apamaea, Cius, cities that had
sometimes rivalled, or imitated, the splendour of Nicomedia,
were involved in the same calamity, which, in a few weeks,
raged without control through the whole province of
Bithynia. Three hundred years of peace, enjoyed by the soft
inhabitants of Asia, had abolished the exercise of arms and
removed the apprehension of danger. The ancient walls were
suffered to moulder away, and all the revenue of the most
opulent cities was reserved for the construction of baths,
temples, and theatres.(113)
The Retreat of the Goths
When the city of Cyzicus withstood the utmost effort of
Mithridates,(114) it was distinguished by wise laws, a naval
power of two hundred galleys, and three arsenals: of arms,
of military engines, and of corn.(115) It was still the seat
of wealth and luxury; but of its ancient strength nothing
remained except the situation, in a little island of the
Propontis, connected with the continent of Asia only by two
bridges. From the recent sack of Prusa, the Goths advanced
within eighteen miles (116) of the city, which they had
devoted to destruction, but the ruin of Cyzicus was delayed
by a fortunate accident. The season was rainy, and the lake
Apolloniates, the reservoir of all the springs of Mount
Olympus, rose to an uncommon height. The little river of
Rhyndacus, which issues from the lake, swelled into a broad
and rapid stream, and stopped the progress of the Goths.
Their retreat to the maritime city of Heraclea, where the
fleet had probably been stationed, was attended by a long
train of waggons, laden with the spoils of Bithynia, and was
marked by the flames of Nice and Nicomedia, which they
wantonly burnt.(117) Some obscure hints are mentioned of a
doubtful combat that secured their retreat.(118) But even a
complete victory would have been of little moment, as the
approach of the autumnal equinox summoned them to hasten
their return. To navigate the Euxine before the month of
May, or after that of September, is esteemed by the modern
Turks the most unquestionable instance of rashness and
folly.(119)
Third naval expidition of the Goths
When we are informed that the third fleet, equipped by the
Goths in the ports of Bosphorus, consisted of five hundred
sail of ships, (120) our ready imagination instantly computes
and multiplies the formidable armament; but as we are
assured, by the judicious Strabo, (121) that the piratical
vessels used by the barbarians of Pontus and the Lesser
Scythia were not capable of containing more than twenty-five
or thirty men, we may safely affirm that fifteen thousand
warriors, at the most, embarked in this great expedition.
Impatient of the limits of the Euxine, they steered their
destructive course from the Cimmerian to the Thracian
They pass Bosphorus. When they had almost gained the middle of the
The Bosphorus Straits, they were suddenly driven back to the entrance of
and the them, till a favourable wind springing up the next day
Hellespont carried them in a few hours into the placid sea, or rather
lake, of the Propontis. Their landing on the little island
of Cyzicus was attended with the ruin of that ancient and
noble city. From thence issuing again through the narrow
passage of the Hellespont, they pursued their winding
navigation amidst the numerous islands scattered over the
Archipelago, or the Agean Sea. The assistance of captives
and deserters must have been very necessary to pilot their
vessels and to direct their various incursions, as well on
the coast of Greece as on that of Asia. At length the Gothic
fleet anchored in the port of Piraeus, five miles distant
from Athens, (122) which had attempted to make some
preparations for a vigorous defence. Cleodamus, one of the
engineers employed by the emperor's orders to fortify the
maritime cities against the Goths, had already begun to
repair the ancient walls fallen to decay since the time of
Sulla. The efforts of his skill were ineffectual, and the
barbarians became masters of the native seat of the muses
and the arts. But while the conquerors abandoned themselves
to the licence of plunder and intemperance, their fleet,
that lay with a slender guard in the harbour of Piraeus, was
unexpectedly attacked by the brave Dexippus, who, flying
with the engineer Cleodamus from the sack of Athens,
collected a hasty band of volunteers, peasants as well as
soldiers, and in some measure avenged the calamities of his
country.(123)
ravage Greece, and threaten Italy
But this exploit, whatever lustre it might shed on the
declining age of Athens, served rather to irritate than to
subdue the undaunted spirit of the northern invaders. A
general conflagration blazed out at the same time in every
district of Greece. Thebes and Argos, Corinth and Sparta,
which had formerly waged such memorable wars against each
other, were now unable to bring an army into the field, or
even to defend their ruined fortifications. The rage of war,
both by land and by sea, spread from the eastern point of
Sunium to the western coast of Epirus. The Goths had already
advanced within sight of Italy, when the approach of such
imminent danger awakened the indolent Gallienus from his
dream of pleasure. The emperor appeared in arms; and his
presence seems to have checked the ardour, and to have
divided the strength, of the enemy. Naulobatus, a chief of
Their divisions the Heruli, accepted an honourable capitulation, entered
and retreat with a large body of his countrymen into the service of
Rome, and was invested with the ornaments of the consular
dignity, which had never before been profaned by the hands
of a barbarian.(124) Great numbers of the Goths, disgusted
with the perils and hardships of a tedious voyage, broke
into Measia, with a design of forcing their way over the
Danube to their settlements in the Ukraine. The wild attempt
would have proved inevitable destruction if the discord of
the Roman generals had not opened to the barbarians the
means of an escape. (125) The small remainder of this
destroying host returned on board their vessels; and
measuring back their way through the Hellespont and the
Bosphorus, ravaged in their passage the shores of Troy,
whose fame, immortalised by Homer, will probably survive the
memory of the Gothic conquests. As soon as they found
themselves in safety within the basin of the Euxine, they
landed at Anchialus in Thrace, near the foot of Mount
Haemus; and, after all their toils, indulged themselves in
the use of those pleasant and salutary hot baths. What
remained of the voyage was a short and easy navigation.(126)
Such was the various fate of this third and greatest of
their naval enterprises. It may seem difficult to conceive
how the original body of fifteen thousand warriors could
sustain the losses and divisions of so bold an adventure.
But as their numbers were gradually wasted by the sword, by
shipwrecks, and by the influence of a warm climate, they
were perpetually renewed by troops of banditti and
deserters, who flocked to the standard of plunder, and by a
crowd of fugitive slaves, often of German or Sarmatian
extraction, who eagerly seized the glorious opportunity of
freedom and revenge. In these expeditions, the Gothic nation
claimed a superior share of honour and danger; but the
tribes that fought under the Gothic banners are sometimes
distinguished and sometimes confounded in the imperfect
histories of that age; and as the barbarian fleets seemed to
issue from the mouth of the Tanais, the vague but familiar
appellation of Scythians was frequently bestowed on the
mixed multitude.(127)
Ruin of the temple of Ephesus
In the general calamities of mankind the death of an
individual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice, however
famous, are passed over with careless inattention. Yet we
cannot forget that the temple of Diana at Ephesus, after
having risen with increasing splendour from seven repeated
misfortunes,(128) was finally burnt by the Goths in their
third naval invasion. The arts of Greece, and the wealth of
Asia, had conspired to erect that sacred and magnificent
structure. It was supported by an hundred and twenty-seven
marble columns of the Ionic order. They were the gifts of
devout monarchs, and each was sixty feet high. The altar was
adorned with the masterly sculptures of Praxiteles, who had,
perhaps, selected from the favourite legends of the place
the birth of the divine children of Latona, the concealment
of Apollo after the slaughter of the Cyclops, and the
clemency of Bacchus to the vanquished Amazons.(129) Yet the
length of the temple of Ephesus was only four hundred and
twenty-five feet, about two-thirds of the measure of the
church of St. Peter's at Rome.(130) In the other dimensions
it was still more inferior to that sublime production of
modern architecture. The spreading arms of a Christian cross
require a much greater breadth than the oblong temples of
the Pagans; and the boldest artists of antiquity would have
been startled at the proposal of raising in the air a dome
of the size and proportions of the Pantheon. The temple of
Diana was, however, admired as one of the wonders of the
world. Successive empires, the Persian, the Macedonian, and
the Roman, had revered its sanctity and enriched its
splendour.(131) But the rude savages of the Baltic were
destitute of a taste for the elegant arts, and they despised
the ideal terrors of a foreign superstition.(132)
Conduct of the Goths at Athens
Another circumstance is related of these invasions which
might deserve our notice, were it not justly to be suspected
as the fanciful conceit of a recent sophist. We are told
that in the sack of Athens the Goths had collected all the
libraries, and were on the point of setting fire to this
funeral pile of Grecian learning, had not one of their
chiefs, of more refined policy than his brethren, dissuaded
them from the design; by the profound observation that as
long as the Greeks were addicted to the study of books, they
could never apply themselves to the exercise of arms.(133)
The sagacious counsellor (should the truth of the fact be
admitted) reasoned like an ignorant barbarian. In the most
polite and powerful nations, genius of every kind has
displayed itself about the same period; and the age of
science has generally been the age of military virtue and
success.
Conquest of Armenia by the Persians
IV. The new sovereigns of Persia, Artaxerxes and his son
Sapor, had triumphed over the house of Arsaces. Of the many
princes of that ancient race, Chosroes, king of Armenia, had
alone preserved both his life and his independence. He
defended himself by the natural strength of his country; by
the perpetual resort of fugitives and malcontents; by the
alliance of the Romans, and, above all, by his own courage.
Invincible in arms, during a thirty years' war, he was at
length assassinated by the emissaries of Sapor, king of
Persia. The patriotic satraps of Armenia, who asserted the
freedom and dignity of the crown, implored the protection of
Rome in favour of Tiridates the lawful heir. But the son of
Chosroes was an infant, the allies were at a distance, and
the Persian monarch advanced towards the frontier at the
head of an irresistible force. Young Tiridates, the future
hope of his country, was saved by the fidelity of a servant,
and Armenia continued above twenty-seven years a reluctant
province of the great monarchy of Persia.(134) Elated with
this easy conquest, and presuming on the distresses or the
degeneracy of the Romans, Sapor obliged the strong garrisons
of Carrhae and Nisibis to surrender, and spread devastation
and terror on either side of the Euphrates.
Valerian marches into the East
The loss of an important frontier, the ruin of a faithful and
natural ally, and the rapid success of Sapor's ambition,
affected Rome with a deep sense of the insult as well as of
the danger. Valerian flattered himself that the vigilance of
is lieutenants would sufficiently provide for the safety of
the Rhine and of the Danube; but he resolved, notwithstanding
his advanced age, to march in person to the defence of the
Euphrates. During his progress through Asia Minor, the naval
enterprises of the Goths were suspended, and the afflicted
province enjoyed a transient and fallacious calm. He passed
Is defeated the Euphrates, encountered the Persian monarch near the walls
and taken of Edessa, was (A.D. 260) vanquished and taken prisoner by
prisoner by Sapor. The particulars of this great event are darkly and
Sapor Kingimperfectly represented; yet by the glimmering light which is
of Persia afforded us, we may discover a long series of imprudence, of
error, and of deserved misfortunes on the side of the Roman
emperor. He reposed an implicit confidence in Macrinus, his
Praetorian praefect. (135) That worthless minister rendered
his master formidable only to the oppressed subjects, and
contemptible to the enemies of Rome.(136) By his weak or wicked
counsels, the Imperial Army was betrayed into a situation
where valour and military skill were equally unavailing. (137)
The vigorous attempt of the Romans to cut heir way through the
Persian host was repulsed with great slaughter;(138) and
Sapor, who encompassed the camp with superior numbers,
patiently waited till the increasing rage of famine and
pestilence had ensured his victory. The licentious murmurs of
the legions soon accused Valerian as the cause of their
calamities; their seditious clamours demanded an instant
capitulation. An immense sum of gold was offered to purchase
the permission of a disgraceful retreat. But the Persian,
conscious of his superiority, refused the money with disdain;
and detaining the deputies, advanced in order of battle to the
foot of the Roman rampart, and insisted on a personal
conference with the emperor. Valerian vas reduced to the
necessity of intrusting his life and dignity to the faith of
an enemy. The interview ended as it was natural to expect. The
emperor was made a prisoner, and his astonished troops laid
down their arms.(139) In such a moment of triumph, the pride
and policy of Sapor prompted him to fill the vacant throne
with a successor entirely dependent on his pleasure. Cyriades,
an obscure fugitive of Antioch, stained with every vice, was
chosen to dishonour the Roman purple; and the will of the
Persian victor could not fail of being ratified by the
acclamations, however reluctant, of the captive army.((140)
Sapor overuns Syria,Cilicia, and Cappadocia
The Imperial slave was eager to secure the favour of his
master by an act of treason to his native country. He
conducted Sapor over the Euphrates, and by the way of
Chalcis to the metropolis of the East. So rapid were the
motions of the Persian cavalry that, if we may credit a very
judicious historian,(141) the city of Antioch was surprised
when the idle multitude was fondly gazing on the amusements
of the theatre. The splendid buildings of Antioch, private
as well as public, were either pillaged or destroyed; and
the numerous inhabitants were put to the sword, or led away
into captivity.(142) The tide of devastation was stopped for
a moment by the resolution of the high priest of Emesa.
Arrayed in his sacerdotal robes, he appeared at the head of
a great body of fanatic peasants, armed only with slings,
and defended his god and his property from the sacrilegious
hands of the followers of Zoroaster. (143) But the ruin of
Tarsus, and many other cities, furnishes a melancholy proof
that, except in this single instance, the conquest of Syria
and Cilicia scarcely interrupted the progress of the Persian
arms. The advantages of the narrow passes of Mount Taurus
were abandoned, in which an invader, whose principal force
consisted in his cavalry, would have been engaged in a very
unequal combat: and Sapor was permitted to form the siege of
Caesarea, the capital of Cappadocia; a city, though of the
second rank, which was supposed to contain four hundred
thousand inhabitants. Demosthenes commanded in the place,
not so much by the commission of the emperor, as in the
voluntary defence of his country. For a long time he
deferred it's fate; and, when at last Caesarea was betrayed
by the perfidy of a physician, he cut his way through the
Persians, who had been ordered to exert their utmost
diligence to take him alive. This heroic chief escaped the
power of a foe, who might either have honoured or punished
his obstinate valour; but many thousands of his
fellow-citizens were involved in a general massacre, and
Sapor is accused of treating his prisoners with wanton and
unrelenting cruelty.(144) Much should undoubtedly be allowed
for national animosity, much for humbled pride and impotent
revenge; yet, upon the whole, it is certain that the same
prince, who, in Armenia, had displayed the mild aspect of a
legislator, showed himself to the Romans under the stern
features of a conqueror. He despaired of making any
permanent establishment in the empire, and sought only to
leave behind him a wasted desert, whilst he transported into
Persia the people and the treasures of the provinces.(145)
Boldness and success of Odenathus against Sapor
At the time when the East trembled at the name of Sapor, he
received a present not unworthy of the greatest kings; a
long train of camels laden with the most rare and valuable
merchandises. The rich offering was accompanied with an
epistle, respectful but not servile, from Odenathus, one of
the noblest and most opulent senators of Palmyra. "Who is
this Odenathus" (said the haughty victor, and he commanded
that the presents should be cast into the Euphrates), "that
he thus insolently presumes to write to his lord? If he
entertains a hope of mitigating his punishment let him fall
prostrate before the foot of our throne with his hands bound
behind his back. Should he hesitate, swift destruction shall
be poured on his head, on his whole race, and on his
country.'' (146) The desperate extremity to which the
Palmyrenian was reduced called into action all the latent
powers of his soul. He met Sapor; but he met him in arms.
Infusing his own spirit into a little army collected from
the villages of Syria (147) and the tents of the desert,(147)
he hovered round the Persian host, harassed their retreat,
carried off part of the treasure, and, what was dearer than
any treasure, several of the women of the Great King; who
was at last obliged to repass the Euphrates with some marks
of haste and confusion.(149) By this exploit, Odenathus laid
the foundations of his future fame and fortunes. The majesty
of Rome, oppressed by a Persian, was protected by a Syrian
or Arab of Palmyra.
Treatment of Valerian
The voice of history, which is often little more than the
organ of hatred or flattery, reproaches Sapor with a proud
abuse of the rights of conquest. We are told that Valerian,
in chains, but invested with the Imperial purple, was
exposed to the multitude, a constant spectacle of fallen
greatness; and that whenever the Persian monarch mounted on
horseback, he placed his foot on the neck of a Roman
emperor. Notwithstanding all the remonstrances of his
allies, who repeatedly advised him to remember the
vicissitude of fortune, to dread the returning power of
Rome, and to make his illustrious captive the pledge of
peace, not the object of insult, Sapor still remained
inflexible. When Valerian sunk under the weight of shame and
grief, his skin, stuffed with straw, and formed into the
likeness of a human figure, was preserved for ages in the
most celebrated temple of Persia; a more real monument of
triumph than the fancied trophies of brass and marble so
often erected by Roman vanity. (150) The tale is moral and
pathetic, but the truth of it may very fairly be called in
question. The letters still extant from the princes of the
East to Sapor are manifest forgeries;(151) nor is it natural
to suppose that a jealous monarch should, even in the person
of a rival, thus publicly degrade the majesty of kings.
Whatever treatment the unfortunate Valerian might experience
in Persia, it is at least certain that the only emperor of
Rome who had ever fallen into the hands of the enemy
languished away his life in hopeless captivity.
Character and administration of Gallienus
The emperor Gallienus, who had long supported with
impatience the censorial severity of his father and
colleague, received the intelligence of his misfortunes with
secret pleasure and avowed indifference. "I knew that my
father was a mortal," said he, "and since he has acted as
becomes a brave man, I am satisfied." Whilst Rome lamented
the fate of her sovereign, the savage coldness of his son
was extolled by the servile courtiers as the perfect
firmness of a hero and a stoic.(152) It is difficult to paint
the light, the various, the inconstant character of
Gallienus, which he displayed without constraint, as soon as
he became sole possessor of the empire. In every art that he
attempted his lively genius enabled him to succeed; and as
his genius was destitute of judgment, he attempted every art
except the important ones of war and government. He was a
master of several curious but useless. sciences, a ready
orator and elegant poet, (153) a skilful gardener, an
excellent cook, and most contemptible prince. When the great
emergencies of the state required his presence and
attention, he was engaged in conversation with the
philosopher Plotinus,(154) wasting his time in trifling or
licentious pleasures, preparing his initiation to the
Grecian mysteries, or soliciting a place in the Areopagus of
Athens. His profuse magnificence insulted the general
poverty; the solemn ridicule of his triumphs impressed a
deeper sense of the public disgrace. (155) The repeated
intelligence of invasions, defeats, and rebellions, he
received with a careless smile; and singling out, with
affected contempt, some particular production of the lost
province, he carelessly asked whether Rome must be ruined
unless it was supplied with linen from Egypt and Arras cloth
from Gaul? There were, however, a few short moments in the
life of Gallienus when, exasperated by some recent injury,
he suddenly appeared the intrepid soldier and the cruel
tyrant; till satiated with blood, or fatigued by resistance,
he insensibly sunk into the natural mildness and indolence
of his character.(156)
The 30 tyrants
At a time when the reins of government were held with so
loose a hand, it is not surprising that a crowd of usurpers
should start up in very province of the empire against the
son of Valerian. It was probably some ingenious fancy, of
comparing the thirty tyrants of Rome with the thirty tyrants
of Athens, that induced the writers of the Augustan History
to select that celebrated number, which has been gradually
received into a popular appellation.(157) But in every light
the parallel is idle and defective. What resemblance can we
discover between a council of thirty persons, the united
oppressors of a single city, and an uncertain list of
independent rivals, who rose and fell in irregular
succession through the extent of a vast empire? Nor can the
number of thirty be completed, unless we include in the
account the women and children who were honoured with the
Imperial title. The reign of Gallienus, distracted as it
Their real was, produced only nineteen pretenders to the throne;
number was Cyriades, Macrianus, Balista, Odenathus, and Zenobia in the
no more than East; in Gaul, and the western provinces, Posthumus,
nineteen Lollianus, Victorinus and his mother Victoria, Marius, and
Tetricus. In Illyricum and the confines of the Danube,
Ingenuus, Regillianus, and Aureolus; in Pontus,(158)
Saturninus; in Isauria, Trebellianus; Piso in Thessaly;
Valens in Achaia; Aemilianus in Egypt; and Celsus in Africa.
To illustrate the obscure monuments of the life and death of
each individual would prove a laborious task, alike barren
of instruction and of amusement. We may content ourselves
with investigating some general characters that most
strongly mark the condition of the times and the manners of
the men, their pretensions, their motives, their fate, and
the destructive consequences of their usurpation.(159)
Character and merit of the tyrants
It is sufficiently known that the odious appellation of Tyrant was often employed by the ancients to express the
illegal seizure of supreme power, without any reference to
the abuse of it. Several of the pretenders, who raised the
standard of rebellion against the emperor Gallienus, were
shining models of virtue, and almost all possessed a
considerable share of vigour and ability. Their merit had
recommended them to the favour of Valerian, and gradually
promoted them to the most important commands of the empire.
The generals, who assumed the title of Augustus, were either
respected by their troops for their able conduct and severe
discipline, or admired for valour and success in war, or
beloved for frankness and generosity. The field of victory
was often the scene of their election; and even the armourer
Marius, the most contemptible of all the candidates for the
purple, was distinguished however by intrepid courage,
matchless strength, and blunt honesty. (160) His mean and
recent trade cast indeed an air of ridicule on his
Their elevation; but his birth could not be more obscure than was
obscure that of the greater part of his rivals, who were born of
birth peasants and enlisted in the army as private soldiers. In
times of confusion, every active genius finds the place
assigned him by Nature: in a general state of war, military
merit is the road to glory and to greatness. Of the nineteen
tyrants, Tetricus only was a senator; Piso alone was a
noble. The blood of Numa, through twenty-eight successive
generations, ran in the veins of Calphurnius Piso,(161) who,
by female alliances, claimed a right of exhibiting, in his
house, the images of Crassus and of the great Pompey.(162)
His ancestors had been repeatedly dignified with all the
honours which the commonwealth could bestow; and of all the
ancient families of Rome the Calphurnian alone had survived
the tyranny of the Caesars. The personal qualities of Piso
added new lustre to his race. The usurper Valens, by whose
order he was killed, confessed, with deep remorse, that even
an enemy ought to have respected the sanctity of Piso and
although he died in arms against Gallienus, the senate, with
the emperor's generous permission, decreed the triumphal
ornaments to the memory of so virtuous a rebel.(163)
The causes of their rebellion
The lieutenants of Valerian were grateful to the father,
whom they esteemed. They disdained to serve the luxurious
indolence of his unworthy son. The throne of the Roman world
was unsupported by any principle of loyalty; and treason
against such a prince might easily be considered as
patriotism to the state. Yet if we examine with candour the
conduct of these usurpers, it will appear that they were
much oftener driven into rebellion by their fears than urged
to it by their ambition. They dreaded the cruel suspicions
of Gallienus; they equally dreaded the capricious violence
of their troops. If the dangerous favour of the army had
imprudently declared them deserving of the purple, they were
marked for sure destruction; and even prudence would counsel
them to secure a short enjoyment of empire, and rather to
try the fortune of war than to expect the hand of an
executioner. When the clamour of the soldiers invested the
reluctant victims with the ensigns of sovereign authority,
they sometimes mourned in secret their approaching fate.
"You have lost," said Saturninus on the day of his
elevation, "you have lost a useful commander, and you have
made a very wretched emperor.''(164)
Their violent deaths
The apprehensions of Saturninus were justified by the
repeated experience of revolutions. Of the nineteen tyrants
who started up under the reign of Gallienus, there was not
one who enjoyed a life of peace or a natural death. As soon
as they were invested with the bloody purple, they inspired
their adherents with the same fears and ambition which had
occasioned their own revolt. Encompassed with domestic
conspiracy, military sedition, and civil war, they trembled
on the edge of precipices, in which, after a longer or
shorter term of anxiety, they were inevitably lost. The
precarious monarchs received, however, such honours as the
flattery of their respective armies and provinces could
bestow; but their claim, founded on rebellion, could never
obtain the sanction of law or history. Italy, Rome, and the
senate constantly adhered to the cause of Gallienus, and he
alone was considered as the sovereign of the empire. That
prince condescended indeed to acknowledge the victorious
arms of Odenathus, who deserved the honourable distinction,
by the respectful conduct which he always maintained towards
the son of Valerian. With the general applause of the
Romans, and the consent of Gallienus, the senate conferred
the title of Augustus on the brave Palmyrenian and seemed to
intrust him with the government of the East, which he
already possessed, in so independent a manner, that, like a
private succession, he bequeathed it to his illustrious
widow Zenobia.(165)
Fatal consequences of these usurpation
The rapid and perpetual transitions from the cottage to the
throne and from the throne to the grave, might have amused
an indifferent philosopher; were it possible for a
philosopher to remain indifferent amidst the general
calamities of human kind. The election of these precarious
emperors, their power and their death, were equally
destructive to their subjects and adherents. The price of
their fatal elevation was instantly discharged to the
troops, by an immense donative, drawn from the bowels of the
exhausted people. However virtuous was their character,
however pure their intentions, they found themselves reduced
to the hard necessity of supporting their usurpation by
frequent acts of rapine and cruelty. When they fell, they
involved armies and provinces in their fall. There is still
extant a most savage mandate from Gallienus to one of his
ministers, after the suppression of Ingenuus, who had
assumed the purple in IIlyricum. "It is not enough," says
that soft but inhuman prince, "that you exterminate such as
have appeared in arms: the chance of battle might have
served me as effectually. The male sex of every age must be
extirpated; provided that, in the execution of the children
and old men, you can contrive means to save our reputation.
Let every one die who has dropped an expression, who has
entertained a thought against me, against me, the son of
Valeria the father and brother of so many princes.(166)
Remember that Ingenuus was made emperor: tear, kill, hew in
pieces. I write to you with my own hand, and would inspire
you with my own feelings.''(167) Whilst the public forces of
the state were dissipated in private quarrels, the
defenceless provinces lay exposed to every invader. The
bravest usurpers were compelled, by the perplexity of their
situation, to conclude ignominious treaties with the common
enemy, to purchase with oppressive tributes the neutrality
or services of the barbarians, and to introduce hostile and
independent nations into the heart of the Roman monarchy.
(168)
Such were the barbarians, and such the tyrants, who, under
the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, dismembered the
provinces, and reduced the empire to the lowest pitch of
disgrace and ruin, from whence it seemed impossible that it
should ever emerge. As far as the barrenness of materials
would permit, we have attempted to trace, with order and
perspicuity, the general events of that calamitous period.
There still remain some particular facts; I. The disorders
of Sicily; II. The tumults of Alexandria; and, III. The
rebellion of the Isaurians, which may serve to reflect a
strong light on the horrid picture.
Disorders of Sicily
I. Whenever numerous troops of banditti, multiplied by
success and impunity, publicly defy, instead of eluding the
justice of their country, we may safely infer that the
excessive weakness of the government is felt and abused by
the lowest ranks of the community. The situation of Sicily
preserved it from the barbarians; nor could the disarmed
province have supported an usurper. The sufferings of that
once flourishing and still fertile island were inflicted by
baser hands. A licentious crown of slaves and peasants
reigned for a while over the plundered country, and renewed
the memory of the servile wars of more ancient times.(169)
Devastations, of which the husbandman was either the victim
or the accomplice, must have ruined the agriculture of
Sicily; and as the principal estates were the property of
the opulent senators of Rome, who often enclosed within a
farm the territory of an old republic, it is not improbable
that this private injury might affect the capital more
deeply than all the conquests of the Goths or the Persians.
Tumults of Alexandria
II. The foundation of Alexandria was a noble design, at once
conceived and executed by he son of Philip. The beautiful
and regular form of that great city, second only to Rome
itself, comprehended a circumference of fifteen miles ;(170)
it was peopled by three hundred thousand inhabitants,
besides at least an equal number of slaves. (171) The
lucrative trade of Arabia and India flowed through the port
of Alexandria to the capital and provinces of the empire.
Idleness was unknown. Some were employed in blowing of
glass, others in weaving of linen, others again
manufacturing the papyrus. Either sex, and every age, was
engaged in the pursuits of industry, nor did even the blind
or the lame want occupations suited to their condition.(172)
But the people of Alexandria, a various mixture of nations,
united the vanity and inconstancy of the Greeks with the
superstition and obstinacy of the Egyptians. The most
trifling occasion, a transient scarcity of flesh or lentils,
the neglect of an accustomed salutation, a mistake of
precedency in the public baths, or a religious dispute,(173)
were at any time sufficient to kindle a sedition among that
vast multitude, whose resentments were furious and
implacable.(174) After the captivity of Valerian and the
insolence of his son had relaxed the authority of the laws,
the Alexandrians abandoned themselves to the ungoverned rage
of their passions, and their unhappy country was the theatre
of a civil war, which continued (with a few short and
suspicious truces) above twelve years.(175) All intercourse
was cut off between the several quarters of the afflicted
city, every street was polluted with blood, every building
of strength converted into a citadel; nor did the tumults
subside, till a considerable part of Alexandria was
irretrievably ruined. The spacious and magnificent district
of Bruchion, with its palaces and museum, the residence of
the kings and philosophers of Egypt, is described above a
century afterwards as already reduced to its present state
of dreary solitude.(176)
Rebellion of the Isaurians
III. The obscure rebellion of Trebellianus, who assumed the
purple in Isauria, a petty province of Asia Minor, was
attended with strange and memorable consequences. The
pageant of royalty was soon destroyed by an officer of
Gallienus; but his followers, despairing of mercy, resolved
to shake off their allegiance, not only to the emperor, but
to the empire, and suddenly returned to the savage manners,
from which they had never perfectly been reclaimed. Their
craggy rocks, a branch of the wide extended Taurus,
protected their inaccessible retreat. The tillage of some
fertile valleys(177) supplied them with necessaries, and a
habit of rapine with the luxuries of life. In the heart of
the Roman monarchy, the Isaurians long continued a nation of
wild barbarians. Succeeding princes, unable to reduce them
to obedience either by arms or policy, were compelled to
acknowledge their weakness by surrounding the hostile and
independent spot with a strong chain of fortifications,(178)
which often proved insufficient to restrain the incursions
of these domestic foes. The Isaurians, gradually extending
their territory to the sea-coast, subdued the western and
mountainous part of Cilicia, formerly the nest of those
daring pirates, against whom the republic had once been
obliged to exert its utmost force, under the conduct of the
great Pompey.(179)
Famine and pestilence.
Our habits of thinking so fondly connect the order of the
universe with the fate of man, that this gloomy period of
history has been decorated with inundations, earthquakes,
uncommon meteors, preternatural darkness, and a crowd of
prodigies fictitious or exaggerated. (180) But a long and
general famine was a calamity of a more serious kind. It was
the inevitable consequence of rapine and oppression, which
extirpated the produce of the present, and the hope of
future harvests. Famine is almost always followed by
epidemical diseases, the effect of scanty and unwholesome
food. Other causes must however have contributed to the
furious plague, which, from the year two hundred and fifty
to the year two hundred and sixty-five, raged without
interruption in every province, every city, and almost every
family, of the Roman empire.During some time five thousand
persons died daily in Rome, and many towns, that had escaped
the hands of the barbarians, were entirely depopulated.(181)
Diminution of the human species
We have the knowledge of a very curious circumstance, of
some use perhaps in the melancholy calculation of human
calamities. An exact register was kept at Alexandria, of all
the citizens entitled to receive the distribution of corn.
It was found that the ancient number of those comprised
between the ages of forty and seventy had been equal to the
whole sum of claimants, from fourteen to fourscore years of
age, who remained alive after the reign of Gallienus.(182)
Applying this authentic fact to the most correct tables of
mortality, it evidently proves that above half the people of
Alexandria had perished; and could we venture to extend the
analogy to the other provinces, we might suspect that war,
pestilence, and famine had consumed, in a few years, the
moiety of the human species.(183)