СНАР. XI. Aurelian tears and acclamations of his fubjects. In his laft illness, he convened the principal officers of the ftate and army, and in their prefence recommended for his Aurelian, one of his generals, as the most deserving fucceffor. of the throne, and the best qualified to execute the great defign which he himself had been permitted only to undertake. The virtues of Claudius, his valour, affability 14, juftice, and temperance, his love of fame and of his country, place him in that short lift of emperors who added luftre to the Roman purple. Those virtues, however, were celebrated with peculiar zeal and complacency by the courtly writers of the age of Conftantine, who was the great grandfon of Crifpus, the elder brother of Claudius. The voice of flattery was foon taught to repeat, that the gods, who fo haftily had fnatched Claudius from the earth, rewarded his merit and piety by the perpetual eftablishment of the empire in his family Notwithstanding these oracles, the greatness of the Flavian family (a name which it had pleafed them to affume) was deferred above twenty years, and the elevation of Claudius occafioned the immediate ruin of his brother Quintilius, who poffeffed not fufficient moderation or courage to defcend into the private station to which the patriotism of the late emperor had condemned him. Without delay or reflection he affumed the purple at Aquileia, where he commanded a confiderable force; and though his reign lafted only seventeen days, he had time to obtain the fanction of the fenate, and to experience a mutiny The attempt and Quintilius. fall of СНАР. XI. April. Origin and Aurelian. of the troops. As foon as he was informed that the great army of the Danube had invested the well-known valour of Aurelian with Imperial power, he funk under the fame and merit of his rival; and ordering his veins to be opened, prudently withdrew him felf from the unequal conteft ". The general defign of this work will not permit fervices of us minutely to relate the actions of every emperor after he afcended the throne, much lefs to deduce the various 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 fenator. His warlike fon inlifted in the troops as a common foldier, fucceffively rofe 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, exercifed the important office of commander in chief of the cavalry. In every station he diftinguished himself by matchless valour "7 rigid difcipline, and 17 fuccefsful conduct. He was invefted with the honourable poverty which Aurelian had preserved CHAP. inviolate ". XI. fuccefsful reign. The reign of Aurelian lafted only four years Aurelian's and about nine months; but every inftant of that short period was filled by fome memorable atchievement. He put an end to the Gothic war chaftifed the Germans who invaded Italy, recovered Gaul, Spain, and Britain out of the hands of Tetricus, and destroyed the proud monarchy which Zenobia had erected in the Eaft, on the ruins of the afflicted empire. It was the rigid attention of Aurelian, even to His fevere the minutest articles of difcipline, which bestowed difcipline. fuch uninterrupted fuccefs 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 defirous to live. Gaming, drinking, and the arts of divination, were severely prohibited. Aurelian expected that his foldiers should be modeft, frugal, and laborious; that their armour should be conftantly kept bright, their weapons sharp, their clothing and horfes ready for immediate fervice; that they should live in their quarters with chastity and fobriety, without damaging the corn fields, without ftealing even a sheep, a fowl or a bunch of grapes, without exacting from their landlords, either falt, or oil, or wood. The public allowance," continues the emperor, is fufficient for their support; their wealth should be collected from the spoil of the enemy, not from the tears of the provincials ". " A XI. CHAP. fingle inftance will ferve to difplay the rigour, and even cruelty, of Aurelian. One of the foldiers had feduced the wife of his hoft. The guilty wretch was fastened to two trees forcibly drawn towards each other, and his limbs were torn afunder by their fudden feparation. A few fuch examples impreffed a falutary confternation. The punishments of Aurelian were terrible; but he had feldom occafion to punish more than once the fame offence. His own conduct gave a fanction to his laws, and the feditious legions dreaded a chief who had learned to obey, and who was worthy to command. He concludes a treaty with The death of Claudius had revived the fainting fpirit of the Goths. The troops which guarded the the Goths, paffes of Mount Hæmus, and the banks of the Danube, had been drawn away by the apprehenfion of a civil war; and it feems probable that the remaining body of the Gothic and Vandalic tribes embraced the favourable opportunity, abandoned their fettlements of the Ukraine, traverfed the rivers, and fwelled with new multitudes the destroying host of their countrymen. Their united numbers were at length encountered by Aurelian, and the bloody and doubtful conflict ended only with the approach of night . Exhaufted by fo many calamities, which they had mutually endured and inflicted during a twenty years war, the Goths and the Romans confented to a lafting and beneficial treaty. It was earnestly folicited by the barbarians, and cheerfully ratified by the legions, to whose fuffrage the prudence of Aurelian referred the decifion 20 of XI. of that important queftion. The Gothic nation CHAP. engaged to fupply the armies of Rome with a body of two thousand auxiliaries, confifting entirely of cavalry, and ftipulated in return an undisturbed retreat, with a regular market as far as the Danube, provided by the emperor's care, but at their own expence. The treaty was observed with fuch religious fidelity, that when a party of five hundred men ftraggled from the camp in queft of plunder, the king or general of the barbarians commanded that the guilty leader should be apprehended and shot to death with darts, as a victim devoted to the fanctity of their engagements. It is, however, not unlikely, that the precaution of Aurelian, who had exacted as hoftages the fons and daughters of the Gothic chiefs, contributed fomething to this pacific temper. The youths he trained in the exercise of arms, and near his own perfon: to the damfels he gave a liberal and Roman education, and by bestowing them in marriage on fome of his principal officers, gradually introduced between the two nations the closest and most endearing connexions 21 to them the pro vince of Dacia, But the most important condition of peace was and refigus understood rather than expreffed in the treaty. Aurelian withdrew the Roman forces from Dacia, and tacitly relinquished that great province to the Goths and Vandals ". His manly judgment convinced him of the folid advantages, and taught him to defpife the feeming difgrace, of thus contracting the frontiers of the monarchy. The Dacian fubjects, removed from those distant Vol. II. B |