66

XI.

"quish them your gratitude will reward my services. CHAP. "Should I fall, remember that I am the successor of "Gallienus. The whole republic is fatigued and ex"hausted. We shall fight after Valerian, after Ingenuus, Regillianus, Lollianus, Posthumus, Celsus, "and a thousand others, whom a just contempt for "Gallienus provoked into rebellion. We are in want "of darts, of spears, and of shields. The strength of "the empire, Gaul, and Spain, are usurped by Tetri"cus, and we blush to acknowledge that the archers "of the East serve under the banners of Zenobia. "Whatever we shall perform, will be sufficiently (6 great." The melancholy firmness of this epistle announces a hero careless of his fate, conscious of his danger, but still deriving a well-grounded hope from the resources of his own mind.

13

the Goths.

The event surpassed his own expectations and those His victoof the world. By the most signal victories he delivered over the empire from this host of barbarians, and was distinguished by posterity under the glorious appellation of the Gothic Claudius. The imperfect historians of an irregular war13 do not enable us to describe the order and circumstances of his exploits; but, if we could be indulged in the allusion, we might distribute into three acts this memorable tragedy. I. The decisive battle was fought near Naissus, a city of Dardania. The legions at first gave way, oppressed by numbers, and dismayed by misfortunes. Their ruin was inevitable, had not the abilities of their emperor prepared a seasonable relief. A large detachment rising out of the secret and difficult passes of the mountains, which, by his order, they had occupied, suddenly assailed the rear of the victorious Goths. The favoura ble instant was improved by the activity of Claudius. He revived the courage of his troops, restored their ranks, and pressed the barbarians on every side. Fifty thousand men are reported to have been slain in the battle of Naissus. Several large bodies of barbarians,

12 Trebell. Pollio in Hist. August. p. 204.

13 Hist. August. in Claud. Aurelian. et Prob. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 38-42, Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 638. Aurel. Victor in Epitom. Victor Junior in Cæsar. Eutrop. ix. 11. Euseb. in Chron.

CHAP. covering their retreat with a moveable fortification of XI. wagons, retired, or rather escaped, from the field of slaughter. II. We may presume that some insurmountable difficulty, the fatigue, perhaps, or the disobedience, of the conquerors, prevented Claudius from completing in one day the destruction of the Goths. The war was diffused over the provinces of Mæsia, Thrace and Macedonia, and its operations drawn out into a variety of marches, surprises, and tumultuary engagements, as well by sea as by land. When the Romans suffered any loss, it was commonly occasioned by their own cowardice or rashness; but the superior talents of the emperor, his perfect knowledge of the country, and his judicious choice of measures as well as officers, assured on most occasions the success of his arms. The immense booty, the fruit of so many victories, consisted for the greater part of cattle and slaves. A select body of the Gothic youth was received among the Imperial troops; the remainder was sold into servitude; and so considerable was the number of female captives, that every soldier obtained to his share two or three women. A circumstance from which we may conclude, that the invaders entertained some designs of settlement as well as of plunder; since even in a naval expedition they were accompanied by their families. III. The loss of their fleet, which was either taken or sunk, had intercepted the retreat of the Goths. A vast circle of Roman posts distributed with skill, supported with firmness, and gradually closing towards a common centre, forced the barbarians into the most inaccessible parts of mount Hæmus, where they found a safe refuge, but a very scanty subsistence. During the course of a rigorous winter in which they were besieged by the emperor's troops, famine and pestilence, desertion and the sword, A. D. 270. continually diminished the imprisoned multitude. On the return of spring, nothing appeared in arms except a hardy and desperate band, the remnant of that mighty host which had embarked at the mouth of the Niester.

March.

The pestilence which swept away such numbers of the barbarians, at length proved fatal to their conqueror.

XI.

recom

for his

successor.

After a short but glorious reign of two years, Claudius CHAP. expired at Sirmium, amidst the tears and acclamations of his subjects. In his last illness, he convened the Death of principal officers of the state and army, and in their the empepresence recommended Aurelian, one of his generals, ror, who as the most deserving of the throne, and the best qua- mends lified to execute the great design which he himself had Aurelian been permitted only to undertake. The virtues of Claudius, his valour, affability, justice, and temperance, his love of fame and of his country, place him in that short list of emperors who added lustre to the Roman people. Those virtues, however, were celebrated with peculiar zeal and complacency by the courtly writers of the age of Constantine, who was the great grandson of Crispus, the elder brother of Claudius. The voice of flattery was soon taught to repeat that the gods, who so hastily had snatched Claudius from the earth, rewarded his merit and piety by the perpetual establishment of the empire in his family15.

tempt and

Notwithstanding these oracles, the greatness of the The atFlavian family (a name which it had pleased them to f assume) was deferred above twenty years, and the Quintilius. elevation of Claudius occasioned the immediate ruin of his brother Quintilius, who possessed not sufficient moderation or courage to descend into the private station to which the patriotism of the late emperor had condemned him. Without delay or reflection, he assumed the purple at Aquileia, where he commanded a considerable force; and though his reign lasted only seventeen days, he had time to obtain the sanction of the senate, and to experience a mutiny of the troops. As soon as he was informed that the great army of the Danube had invested the well-known valour of Aurelian with Imperial power, he sunk under the fame and April. merit of his rival; and ordering his veins to be open

14 According to Zonaras (1. xii. p. 638) Claudius, before his death, invested him with the purple; but this singular fact is rather contradicted than confirmed by other writers.

15 See the life of Claudius by Pollio, and the orations of Mamertinus, Eumenius, and Julia. See likewise the Cæsars of Julian, p. 313. In Julian it was not adulation, but superstition and vanity.

CHAP. ed, prudently withdrew himself from the unequal contest16.

XI.

The general design of this work will not permit us Origin and services of minutely to relate the actions of every emperor after he Aurelian. ascended the throne, much less to deduce the various

Aurelian's

successful reign.

fortunes of his private life. We shall only observe, that the father of Aurelian was a peasant of the territory of Sirmium, who occupied a small farm, the property of Aurelius, a rich senator. His warlike son inlisted in the troops as a common soldier, successively rose to the rank of a centurion, a tribune, the præfect of a legion, the inspector of the camp, the general, or, as it was then called, the duke, of a frontier; and at length, during the Gothic war, exercised the important office of commander in chief of the cavalry. In every station he distinguished himself by matchless valour", rigid discipline, and successful conduct. He was invested with the consulship by the emperor Valerian, who styles him, in the pompous language of that age, the deliverer of Illyricum, the restorer of Gaul, and the rival of the Scipios. At the recommendation of Valerian, a senator of the highest rank and merit, Ul. pius Crinitus, whose blood was derived from the same source as that of Trajan, adopted the Pannonian peasant, gave him his daughter in marriage, and relieved with his ample fortune the honourable poverty which Aurelian had preserved inviolate18.

The reign of Aurelian lasted only four years and about nine months; but every instant of that short period was filled by some memorable achievement. He put an end to the Gothic war, chastised the Germans who invaded Italy, recovered Gaul, Spain, and Britain out of the hands of Tetricus, and destroyed the

16 Zosimus, 1. i. p. 42. Pollio (Hist. August. p. 207.) allows him vir. tues, and says, that like Pertinax he was killed by the licentious soldiers. According to Dexippus, he died of a disease.

17 Theoclius (as quoted in the Augustan History, p. 211.) affirms, that in one day he killed, with his own hand, forty-eight Sarmatians, and in se veral subsequent engagements nine hundred and fifty. This heroic valour was admired by the soldiers, and celebrated in their rude songs, the bi den of which was mille, mille, mille occidit.

18 Acholius (ap. Hist. August. p. 213.) describes the ceremony of t adoption, as it was performed at Byzantium, in the presence of the e peror and his great officers.

proud monarchy which Zenobia had erected in the CHAP. East, on the ruins of the afflicted empire.

XI.

It was the rigid attention of Aurelian, even to the His severe minutest articles of discipline, which bestowed such discipline. uninterrupted success on his arms. His military regulations are contained in a very concise epistle to one of his inferior officers, who is commanded to enforce them, as he wishes to become a tribune, or as he is desirous to live. Gaming, drinking, and the arts of divination, were severely prohibited. Aurelian expected that his soldiers should be modest, frugal and laborious; that their armour should be constantly kept bright, their weapons sharp, their clothing and horses ready for immediate service; that they should live in their quarters with chastity and sobriety, without damaging the corn fields, without stealing even a sheep, a fowl, or a bunch of grapes, without exacting from their landlords, either salt, or oil, or wood. The "public allowance," continues the emperor," is suffi"cient for their support; their wealth should be col"lected from the spoil of the enemy, not from the "tears of the provincials"." A single instance will serve to display the rigour, and even cruelty, of Aurelian. One of the soldiers had seduced the wife of his host. The guilty wretch was fastened to two trees forcibly drawn towards each other, and his limbs were torn asunder by their sudden separation. A few such examples impressed a salutary consternation. The punishments of Aurelian were terrible; but he had seldom occasion to punish more than once the same offence. His own conduct gave a sanction to his laws, and the seditious legions dreaded a chief who had learned to obey, and who was worthy to command.

treaty

The death of Claudius had revived the fainting He conspirit of the Goths. The troops which guarded the cludes a passes of Mount Hamus, and the banks of the Danube, with the had been drawn away by the apprehension of a civil Goths.

19 Hist. August. p. 211. This laconic epistle is truly the work of a soldier; it abounds w.th military phrases and words, some of which cannot be understood without difficulty, Ferramenta samiata is well explained by Salmasius. The former of the words means all weapons of offence, and is contrasted with Arma, defensive armour. The latter signifies keen and well sharpened.

VOL. I.

Un