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XI.

slaughter, the patient firmness of the emperor rallied CHAP. his troops, and restored, in some degree, the honour of his arms. The second battle was fought near Fano in Umbria; on the spot which, five hundred years before, had been fatal to the brother of Hannibal36. Thus far the successful Germans had advanced along the Æmilian and Flaminian way, with a design of sacking the defenceless mistress of the world. But Aurelian, who, watchful for the safety of Rome, still hung on their rear, found in this place the decisive moment, of giving them a total and irretrievable defeats. The flying remnant of their host was exterminated in a third and last battle near Pavia; and Italy was delivered from the inroads of the Alemanni.

tious cere

Fear has been the original parent of superstition, Superstiand every new calamity urges trembling mortals to monies. deprecate the wrath of their invisible enemies. Though the best hope of the republic was in the valour and conduct of Aurelian, yet such was the public consternation, when the barbarians were hourly expected at the gates of Rome, that, by a decree of the senate, the Sibylline books were consulted. Even the emperor himself, from a motive either of religion or of policy, recommended this salutary measure, chided the tardiness of the senate, and offered to supply whatever expense, whatever animals, whatever captives of any nation, the gods should require. Notwithstanding this liberal offer, it does not appear, that any human victims expiated with their blood the sins of the Roman people. The Sibylline books enjoined cere- A. D. 271. monies of a more harmless nature, processions of January priests in white robes, attended by a chorus of youths and virgins; lustrations of the city and adjacent country; and sacrifices, whose powerful influence disabled the barbarians from passing the mystic ground on

36 The little river or rather torrent of Metaurus near Fano, has been immortalized, by finding such an historian as Livy, and such a poet as Horace. 37 It is recorded by an inscription found at Pezaro. See Gruter. cclxxvi, 3.

38 One should imagine, he said, that you were assembled in a Christian church, not in the temple of all the gods.

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CHAP. Which they had been celebrated. However puerile in themselves, these superstitious arts were subservient to the success of the war; and if, in the decisive battle of Fano, the Alemanni fancied they saw an army of spectres, combating on the side of Aurelian, he received a real and effectual aid from this imaginary reinforcement39.

Fortifications of Rome.

But whatever confidence might be placed in ideal ramparts, the experience of the past, and the dread of the future, induced the Romans to construct fortifications of a grosser and more substantial kind. The seven hills of Rome had been surrounded, by the successors of Romulus, with an ancient wall of more than thirteen miles. The vast inclosure may seem disproportioned to the strength and numbers of the infant state. But it was necessary to secure an ample extent of pasture and arable land, against the frequent and sudden incursions of the tribes of Latium, the perpetual enemies of the republic. With the progress of Roman greatness, the city and its inhabitants gradually increased, filled up the vacant space, pierced through the useless walls, covered the field of Mars, and, on every side, followed the public highways in long and beautiful suburbs. The extent of the new walls, erected by Aurelian, and finished in the reign of Probus, was magnified by popular estimation to near fifty42, but is reduced by accurate measurement to about twenty-one miles13. It was a great but melancholy labour, since the defence of the capital betrayed

39 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 215, 216, gives a long account of these ceremonies, from the registers of the senate.

40 Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. To confirm our idea, we may observe, that for a long time Mount Cælius was a grove of oaks, and Mount Viminal was over-run with osiers; that, in the fourth century, the Aventine was a vacant and solitary retirement; that, till the time of Augustus, the Esquiline was an unwholesome burying ground; and that the numerous inequa lities, remarked by the ancients in the Quirinal, sufficiently prove that it was not covered with buildings. Of the seven hills, the Capitoline and Palatine only, with the adjacent vallies, were the primitive habitation of the Roman people. But this subject would require a dissertation.

41 Exspatiantia tecta multas addidere urbes, is the expression of Pliny. 42 Hist. August. p. 222. Both Lipsius and Isaac Vossius have eagerly embraced this measure.

43 See Nardini, Roma Antica, 1. i. c. 8.

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the decline of the monarchy. The Romans of a more CHAP. prosperous age, who trusted to the arms of the legions the safety of the frontier camps, were very far from entertaining a suspicion, that it would ever become necessary to fortify the seat of empire against the inroads of the barbarians45.

ses the

The victory of Claudius over the Goths, and the Aurelian success of Aurelian against the Alemanni, had already suppresrestored to the arms of Rome their ancient superiority two usurover the barbarous nations of the North. To chastise pers. domestic tyrants, and to re-unite the dismembered parts of the empire, was a task reserved for the second of those warlike emperors. Though he was acknowledged by the senate and people, the frontiers of Italy, Africa, Illyricum, and Thrace, confined the limits of his reign. Gaul, Spain, and Britain, Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, were still possessed by two rebels, who alone, out of so numerous a list, had hitherto escaped the dangers of their situation; and to complete the ignominy of Rome, these rival thrones had been usurped by women.

usurpers

A rapid succession of monarchs had arisen and fal- Succeslen in the provinces of Gaul. The rigid virtues of sion of Posthumus served only to hasten his destruction. in Gaul. After suppressing a competitor, who had assumed the purple at Mentz, he refused to gratify his troops with the plunder of the rebellious city; and, in the seventh year of his reign, became the victim of their disappointed avarice. The death of Victorinus, his friend and associate, was occasioned by a less worthy cause. The shining accomplishments47 of that prince were stained by a licentious passion, which he indulged in

44 Tacit. Hist. iv. 23.

45 For Aurelian's walls, see Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 216–222. Zosimus, l. i. p. 43. Eutropius, ix. 15. Aurel. Victor in Aurelian. Victor Junior in Aurelian. Euseb. Hieronym, et Idatius in Chronic.

46 His competitor was Lollianus, or Elianus, if indeed these names mean the same person. See Tillemont, tom. iii. p. 1177.

47 The character of this prince by Julius Aterianus (ap. Hist. August. p. 187.) is worth transcribing, as it seems fair and impartial. Victorino qui post Junium Posthumium Gallias rexit neminem existimo præferendum; non in virtute Trajanum ; non Antoninum in clementia; non in gravitate Nervam; non in gubernando ærario Vespasianum; non in Censura toX x

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CHAP. acts of violence, with too little regard to the laws of society, or even to those of love48. He was slain at Cologne, by a conspiracy of jealous husbands, whose revenge would have appeared more justifiable, had they spared the innocence of his son. After the murder of so many valiant princes, it is somewhat remarkable, that a female for a long time controlled the fierce legions of Gaul, and still more singular, that she was the mother of the unfortunate Victorinus. The arts and treasures of Victoria enabled her successively to place Marius and Tetricus on the throne, and to reign with a manly vigour under the name of those dependent emperors. Money of copper, of silver, and of gold, was coined in her name; she assumed the titles of Augusta and Mother of the Camps; her power ended only with her life; but her life was perhaps shortened by the ingratitude of Tetricus.

The reign

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Tetri

When, at the instigation of his ambitious patroness, l defeat Tetricus assumed the ensigns of royalty, he was governor of the peaceful province of Aquitaine, an employment suited to his character and education. He reigned four or five years over Gaul, Spain, and Britain, the slave and sovereign of a licentious army, whom he dreaded, and by whom he was despised. The valour and fortune of Aurelian at length opened

A. D. 271. the prospect of a deliverance. He ventured to disSummer. close his melancholy situation, and conjured the emperor to hasten to the relief of his unhappy rival. Had this secret correspondence reached the ears of the soldiers, it would most probably have cost Tetricus his life; nor could he resign the sceptre of the West, without committing an act of treason against himself. He affected the appearances of a civil war, led his forces into the field against Aurelian, posted them in the most

tius vitæ ac severitate militari Pertinacem vel Severum. Sed omnia hæc libido et cupiditas voluptatis mulierariæ sic perdidit, ut nemo audeat virtutes ejus in literas mittere quem constat omnium judicio meruisse puniri. 48 He ravished the wife of Attitianus, an actuary, or army agent. Hist. August. p. 186. Aurel. Victor in Aurelian.

49 Pollio assigns her an article among the thirty tyrants. Hist. August. p. 200.

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disadvantageous manner, betrayed his own counsels CHAP. to the enemy, and with a few chosen friends deserted in the beginning of the action. The rebel legions, though disordered and dismayed by the unexpected treachery of their chief, defended themselves with desperate valour, till they were cut in pieces almost to a man, in this bloody and memorable battle, which was fought near Chalons in Champaigne50. The retreat of the irregular auxiliaries, Franks and Batavians, whom the conqueror soon compelled or persuaded to repass the Rhine, restored the general tranquillity, and the power of Aurelian was acknowledged from the wall of Antoninus to the columns of Hercules.

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As early as the reign of Claudius, the city of Autun alone and unassisted, had ventured to declare against the legions of Gaul. After a siege of seven months, they stormed and plundered that unfortunate city, already wasted by famines. Lyons, on the contrary, had resisted with obstinate disaffection the arms of Aurelian. We read of the punishment of Lyons, but there is not any mention of the rewards of Autun. Such, indeed, is the policy of civil war: severely to remember injuries, and to forget the most important services. Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.

of Zeno

Aurelian had no sooner secured the person and pro- A. D. 27. vinces of Tetricus, than he turned his arms against Ze-Character nobia, the celebrated queen of Palmyra and the East, bia; Modern Europe has produced several illustrious women who have sustained with glory the weight of empire; nor is our own age destitute of such distinguish

50 Pollio in Hist. August. p. 196. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 220. The two Victors, in the lives of Gallienus and Aurelian. Eutrop. ix. 13. Euseb. in Chron. Of all these writers, only the two last (but with strong probability) place the fall of Tetricus before that of Zenobia. M. De Boze (in the Academy of Inscriptions, tem. xxx.) does not wish, and Tillemont (tom. iii. p. 1189.) does not dare, to follow them. I have been fairer than the one, and bolder than the other.

51 Victor Junior in Aurelian. Eumenius mentions Batavice; some critics, without any reason, would fain alter the word to Bagaudice.

52 Eumen. in Vet. Panegyr. iv. 8.

53 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 246. Autun was not restored till the reign of Dioclesian. See Eumenius de restaurandis scholis.

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