27

paffed, without a diffenting voice, to ratify the
election of the eastern armies, and to confer on
their chief all the feveral branches of the Imperial
dignity: the names of Cæfar and Auguftus, the
title of Father of his country, the right of making
in the fame day three motions in the fenate
the office of Pontifex Maximus, the tribunitian
power, and the proconfular command; a mode
of inveftiture, which, though it feemed to multi-
ply the authority of the emperor, expreffed the
conftitution of the ancient republic. The reign of
Probus correfponded with this fair beginning.
The fenate was permitted to direct the civil admi-
niftration of the empire. Their faithful general
afferted the honour of the Roman arms, and often
laid at their feet crowns of gold and barbaric trophies,
the fruits of his numerous victories ". Yet, whilst
he gratified their vanity, he must fecretly have
despised their indolence and weakness. Though it
was every moment in their power to repeal the
difgraceful edict of Gallienus, the proud fucceffors
of the Scipios patiently acquiefced in their exclu-
fion from all military employments. They foon
experienced, that those who refuse the fword,
muft renounce the fceptre.

СНАР.

XII.

Victories

of Probus

over the

barba

The ftrength of Aurelian had crushed on every fide the enemies of Rome. After his death they seemed to revive with an increase of fury and of numbers. They were again vanquished by the`rians. active vigour of Probus, who, in a short reign of about fix years equalled the fame of ancient heroes, and restored peace and order to every

29

1

XII.

3.

CHAP. province of the Roman world. The dangerous frontier of Rhætia, he fo firmly fecured, that he left it without the fufpicion of an enemy. He broke the wandering power of the Sarmatian tribes, and by the terror of his arms compelled those barbarians to relinquish their spoil. The Gothic nation courted the alliance of fo warlike an emperor He attacked the Ifaurians in their mountains, befieged and took several of their strongest castles ", and flattered himself that he had for ever fuppreffed a domeftic foe, whose independence fo deeply wounded the majefty of the empire. The troubles excited by the ufurper Firmus in the Upper Egypt, had never been perfectly appeased, and the cities of Ptolemais and Coptos, fortified by the alliance of the Blemmyes, ftill maintained an obscure rebellion. The chastisement of those cities, and of their auxiliaries the favages of the South, is faid to have alarmed the court of Perfia ", and the Great King fued in vain for the friendship of Probus. Moft of the exploits which diftinguished his reign, were atchieved by the perfonal valour and conduct of the emperor, infomuch that the writer of his life expreffes fome amazement how, in fo short a time, a fingle man could be present in so many diftant wars. The remaining actions he intrufted to the care of his lieutenants, the judicious choice of whom forms no inconfiderable part of his glory. Carus, Diocletian, Maximian, Conftantius, Galerius, Afclepiodatus, Annibalianus, and a crowd of other chiefs, who afterwards afcended or fupported the throne, were trained

32

trained to arms in the fevere fchool of Aurelian and Probus "3.

33

34

СНАР.
XII.

A. D. 277. He delifrom the

vers Gaul

invafion of the Ger

But the most important fervice which Probus rendered to the republic, was the deliverance of Gaul, and the recovery of feventy flourishing cities oppreffed by the barbarians of Germany, who, fince the death of Aurelian, had ravaged mans, that great province with impunity ". Among the various multitude of those fierce invaders, we may diftinguish, with fome degree of clearness, three great armies, or rather nations, fucceffively vanquished by the valour of Probus. He drove back the Francs into their moraffes; a defcriptive circumstance from whence we may infer, that the confederacy known by the manly appellation of Free, already occupied the flat maritime country, interfected and almoft overflown by the ftagnating waters of the Rhine, and that feveral tribes of the Frifians and Batavians had acceded to their alliance. He vanquished the Burgundians, a confiderable people of the Vandalic race. They had wandered in queft of booty from the banks of the Oder to those of the Seine. They esteemed themfelves fufficiently fortunate to purchase, by the reftitution of all their booty, the permiffion of an undisturbed retreat. They attempted to elude that article of the treaty. Their punishment was immediate and terrible ". But of all the invaders of Gaul, the most formidable were the Lygians, a diftant people who reigned over a wide domain on the frontiers of Poland and Silefia ". In the Lygian. nation, the Arii held the first rank by their numVol. II.

E

دو

دو

bers and fiercenefs. "The Arii (it is thus that
» they are described by the energy of Tacitus )
» ftudy to improve by art and circumftances the
» innate terrors of their barbarifm. Their shields
» are black, their bodies are painted black. They
chufe for the combat the darkest hour of the
night. Their hoft advances, covered as it were
37
with a funereal shade "
; nor do they often
find an enemy capable of fuftaining fo ftrange
and infernal an afpect. Of all our fenfes, the
» eyes are the first vanquished in battle "." Yet-
the arms and discipline of the Romans easily dif-
comfited these horrid phantoms. The Lygii were
defeated in a general engagement, and Semno,
the most renowned of their chiefs, fell alive into
the hands of Probus. That prudent emperor,
unwilling to reduce a brave people to defpair',
granted them an honourable capitulation, and
permitted them to return in fafety to their native
country. But the loffes which they fuffered in the
march, the battle, and the retreat, broke the
power of the nation: nor is the Lygian name ever
repeated in the history either of Germany or of
the empire. The deliverance of Gaul is reported
to have coft the lives of four hundred thousand of
the invaders; a work of labour to the Romans,
and of expence to the emperor, who gave a piece
of gold for the head of every barbarian ". But as
the fame of warriors is built on the deftruction
of human kind, we may naturally fufpect, that
the fanguinary account was multiplied by the
avarice of the foldiers, and accepted without any

r

very fevere examination by the liberal vanity of CHAP. Probus.

Since the expedition of Maximin, the Roman generals had confined their ambition to a defenfive war against the nations of Germany, who perpetually preffed on the frontiers of the empire. The more daring Probus purfued his Gallic victories, paffed the Rhine, and difplayed his invincible eagles on the banks of the Elbe and the Necker. He was fully convinced, that nothing could reconcile the minds of the barbarians to peace, unless they experienced in their own country the calamities of war. Germany, exhausted by the ill fuccefs of the last emigration, was aftonished by his prefence. Nine of the moft confiderable princes repaired to his camp, and fell proftrate at his feet. Such a treaty was humbly received by the Germans, as it pleased the conqueror to dictate. He exacted a strict restitution of the effects and captives which they had carried away from the provinces; and obliged their own magiftrates to punish the more obftinate robbers who prefumed to detain any part of the spoil. A confiderable tribute of corn, cattle, and horses, the only wealth of barbarians, was reserved for the use of the garrifons which Probus eftablished on the limits of their territory. He even entertained fome thoughts of compelling the Germans to relinquish the exercife of arms, and to trust their differences to the juftice, their fafety to the power, of Rome. To accomplish these falutary ends, the conftant refidence of an

XII.

and carries his Germany.

arms into