23

he attended their frequent and pompous feftivals ".
As foon as the intelligence of the atrocious murder
of Pertinax had reached Antioch, the wishes of
Afia invited Niger to affume the Imperial purple
and revenge his death. The legions of the eaftern
frontier embraced his caufe; the opulent but unarmed
provinces from the frontiers of Æthiopia
to the
Hadriatic, cheerfully fubmitted to his power;
and the kings beyond the Tigris and the Euphrates
congratulated his election, and offered him their
homage and fervices. The mind of Niger was not
capable of receiving this fudden tide of fortune;
he flattered himself that his acceffion would be
undisturbed by competition, and unftained by civil
blood; and whilft he enjoyed the vain pomp of
triumph, he neglected to fecure the means of victory.
Inftead of entering into an effectual negociation
with the powerful armies of the west, whose
resolution might decide, or at least must balance,
the mighty conteft; instead of advancing without
delay towards Rome and Italy, where his presence
was impatiently expected Niger trifled away in
the luxury of Antioch those irretrievable moments
which were diligently improved by the decifive
activity of Severus

25

24

The country of Pannonia and Dalmatia, which occupied the space between the Danube and the Hadriatic, was one of the laft and moft difficult conquests of the Romans. In the defence of national freedom, two hundred thousand of these barbarians had once appeared in the field, alarmed the declining age of Auguftus, and exercifed the

СНАР.

V.

Pannonia and Dalk

matia.

V.

27

CHAP. vigilant prudence of Tiberius at the head of the collected force of the empire ". The Pannonians yielded at length to the arms and inftitutions of Rome. Their recent fubjection, however, the neighbourhood, and even the mixture, of the unconquered tribes, and perhaps the climate, adapted, as it has been observed, to the production. of great bodies and slow minds all contributed to preserve fome remains of their original ferocity, and under the tame and uniform countenance of Roman provincials, the hardy features of the natives were still to be difcerned. Their warlike youth afforded an inexhauftible supply of recruits to the legions ftationed on the banks of the Danube, and which, from a perpetual warfare against the Germans and Sarmatians, were deservedly esteemed the best troops in the fervice.

Septimius
Severus.

The Pannonian army was at this time commanded by Septimius Severus, a native of Africa, who, in the gradual afcent of private honours, had concealed his daring ambition, which was never diverted from its steady course by the allurements of pleasure, the apprehenfion of danger, or the feelings of humanity". On the first news of the murder of Pertinax, he affembled his troops, painted in the most lively colours the crime, the infolence, and the weaknefs of the Prætorian guards, and animated the legions to arms and to revenge. He concluded (and the peroration was thought extremely eloquent) with promifing every foldier about four hundred pounds; an honourable donative; double in value to the infamous bribe with which

Julian had purchased the empire ". The acclamations of the army immediately faluted Severus with the names of Auguftus, Pertinax, and Emperor; and he thus attained the lofty ftation to which he was invited, by confcious merit and a long train of dreams and omens, the fruitful offspring either of his fuperftition or policy

into Italy.

The new candidate for empire faw and improved the peculiar advantage of his fituation. His province extended to the Julian Alps, which gave an easy access into Italy; and he remembered the faying of Auguftus, That a Pannonian army might in ten days appear in fight of Rome ". By a celerity proportioned to the greatness of Marches the occafion, he might reasonably hope to revenge Pertinax, punish Julian, and receive the homage of the fenate and people, as their lawful emperor, before his competitors, feparated from Italy by an immenfe tract of fea and land, were apprized of his fuccefs, or even of his election. During the whole expedition he fcarcely allowed himfelf any moments for sleep or food; marching on foot, and in complete armour, at the head of his columns, he infinuated himself into the confidence and affection of his troops, preffed their diligence, revived their spirits, animated their hopes, and was well fatisfied to share the hardships of the meanest soldier, whilft he kept in view the infinite fuperiority of his reward.

towards

The wretched Julian had expected, and thought Advances himfelf prepared, to difpute the empire with the governor of Syria; but in the invincible and rapid

Rome.

CHAP, approach of the Pannonian legions, he faw his V. inevitable ruin. The hafty arrival of every meffenger increased his juft apprehenfions.. He was fucceffively informed, that Severus had paffed the Alps; that the Italian cities, unwilling or unable to oppose his progrefs, had received him with the warmeft profeffions of joy and duty; that the important place of Ravenna had furrendered without refiftance, and that the Hadriatic fleet was in the hands of the conqueror. The enemy was now within two hundred and fifty miles of Rome; and every moment diminished the narrow fpan of life and empire allotted to Julian.

Distress of
Julian.

He attempted, however, to prevent, or at least to protract, his ruin. He implored the venal faith of the Prætorians, filled the city with unavailing preparations for war, drew lines round the fuburbs, and even strengthened the fortifications of the palace; as if thofe last intrenchments could be defended without hope of relief against a victorious invader. Fear and shame prevented the guards from deferting his standard; but they trembled at the name of the Pannonian legions, commanded by an experienced general, and accustomed to vanquish the barbarians on the frozen Danube ". They quitted, with a figh, the pleasures of the baths and theatres, to put on arms, whose use they had almost forgotten, and beneath the weight of which they were oppreffed. The unpractifed elephants, whofe uncouth appearance, it was hoped, would strike terror into the army of the north, threw their unskilful riders; and the awkward evolutions of the marines, drawn

from the fleet of Mifenum, were an object of ridicule to the populace; whilft the fenate enjoyed, with fecret pleasure, the diftrefs and weakness of the ufurper ".

CHAP.

duct.

V.

Every motion of Julian betrayed his trembling His uncerperplexity. He infifted that Severus should be tain con. declared a public enemy by the fenate. He intreated that the Pannonian general might be af fociated to the empire. He fent public ambaffadors of confular rank to negociate with his rival; he dispatched private affaffins to take away his life. He defigned that the Vestal virgins, and all the colleges of priests, in their facerdotal habits, and bearing before them the facred pledges of the Roman religion, should advance, in folemn proceffion, to meet the Pannonian legions; and, at the fame time, he vainly tried to interrogate, or to appease, the fates, by magic ceremonies, and unlawful facrifices 3

34

by the Præ torians.

Severus, wo dreaded neither his arms nor his Is deferted enchantments, guarded himself from the only danger of fecret confpiracy, by the faithful attendance of fix hundred chofen men, who never quitted his person or their cuiraffes, either by night or by day, during the whole march. Advancing with a steady and rapid course, he passed, without difficulty, the defiles of the Appennine, received into his party the troops and ambaffadors fent to retard his progrefs, and made a short halt at Interamnia, about seventy miles from Rome. His victory was already fecure; but the despair of the Prætorians might have rendered it bloody; and Severus had the laudable ambition