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I Vopiscus, our principal authority, wrote at Rome, sixteen years only after the death of Aurelian ; and, besides the recent-notoriety of the facts, constantly draws his materials from the Journals of the Senate, and the original papers of the Ulpian library. Zofimns and Zonaras appear as ignorant of this transaction as they were in general of the Roman constitution.

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time of Numa and Romulus, the arms of the people were controlled by the authority of' the Patricians; and the balance of freedom was easily

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The decline of the Roman state, far different

from its infancy, was attended with every cir

cumstance that could banish from an interregnum

the prospect of obedience and harmony: an im

mense and tumultuous capital, a-wide extent ofempire, the servile equality of despotism, an

army of four hundred thousand mercenaries, and

the experience of frequent revolutions. Yet,

notwithstanding all these temptations, the disci

pline and memory of Aurelian still restrained the seditious temper of the troops, as well as the fatal

ambition of their leaders. The flower of the , legions maintained their stations on the b s of

the Bosphorus, and the Imperial standar awed' the 'less powerful'camps of Rome and of the provinces. A generous though tranfient enthusiasm seemed to animate the military order; and we may hope that a few real patriots cultivated the returning friendship of the army and the senate, as the only expedient capable of restoring the republic to its ancient beauty and vigour.

On the twenty-fifth of September, near eight months after the murder of Aurelian, the consul convoked an assembly of the senate, and reported

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lCISXIlA P. five years of age 5. The long period o'f his in: Up nocent life was adorned with wealth and honours.

He had twice been invested with the consular dignity 7, and enjoyed with elegance and sobriety his ample patrimpny of between two and three millions sterling 3. The experience of so man)r princes, whom he had esteemed or endured, from the vain follies of Elagabalus to the useful rigour of Aurelian, taught him to form a just estimate of the duties, the dangers, and the temptations, of their sublime station. From the assrduous study of his immortal ancestor he derived the knowledge of the Roman constitution, and of human nature 9. The voice of the people had already named Tacitus as the citizen the most. Worthy of empire. The ungrateful rumour reached his ears, and induced him to se the retirement of one of his villas in Campani. He had passed two months in the delightful privacy of Baim, when he reluctantly obeyed the sum

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6 Zonaras, l. xii. p. 637. The Alexandrian Chronicle, by an obvious mistake, transfers that age to Aurelian.

7 In the year 273, he was ordinary consul. But he must have been Suffectus many years before, and most probably under Valeman. '

3 Bir millie: ectirlgtntier. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 229. This sum, according to the old standard, was equivalent to eight hundred and forty thousand Roman pounds of silver, each of the value of three pounds sterling. But in the age of Tacitus, the coin had lost much of its weight and purity. i

9 After his acceflion, he gave orders that ten copics of the historian shouid be annually transcribed and placed in the public libraries. The Roman libraries have long since perished, and the most valuable part of Tacitus was preserved in a single MS. andss discovered in a monastery of Westphalia. See Bayle, Dictionnaire, Art. smite, and Lipsius ad Annal. ii. 9.

mons 'lo Vopiscus.in Hist. August. p. 227.

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tionate

and aecepts the purple.

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