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XII.

CHAP. Imperial governor, fupported by a numerous army, was indifpenfably requifite. Probus therefore judged it more expedient to defer the execution of fo great a defign; which was indeed rather of fpecious than folid utility. Had Germany been reduced into the state of a province, the Romans, with immenfe labour and expence, would have acquired only a more extenfive boundary to defend against the fiercer and more active barbarians of Scythia.

He builds

a wall

from the Rhine to the Da nube.

Instead of reducing the warlike natives of Germany to the condition of subjects, Probus contented himself with the humble expedient of raifing a bulwark against their inroads. The country, which now forms the circle of Swabia, had been left defert in the age of Auguftus by the emigration of its ancient inhabitants ". The fertility of the foil foon attracted a new colony from the adjacent provinces of Gaul. Crowds of adventurers, of a roving temper and of defperate fortunes, occupied the doubtful poffeffion, and acknowledged, by the payment of tythes, the majesty of the empire To protect these new subjects, a line of frontier garrifons was gradually extended from the Rhine to the Danube. About the reign of Hadrian, when that mode of defence began to be practifed, these garrisons were connected and covered by a ftrong intrenchment of trees and palifades. In the place of fo rude a bulwark, the emperor Probus conftructed a stone-wall of a confiderable height, and ftrengthened it by towers at convenient dif tances. From the neighbourhood of Newftadt and Ratisbon on the Danube, it ftretched across hills,

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XII.

vallies, rivers, and moraffes, as far as Wimpfen CHAP, on the Necker, and at length terminated on the banks of the Rhine, after a winding courfe of near two hundred miles". This important barrier, uniting the two mighty ftreams that protected the provinces of Europe, feemed to fill up the vacant fpace through which the barbarians, and particularly the Alemanni, could penetrate with the greatest facility into the heart of the empire. But the experience of the world from China to Britain, has exposed the vain attempt of fortifying any extenfive tract of country **. An active enemy, who can felect and vary his points of attack, must, in the end, discover fome feeble spot or fome unguarded moment. The ftrength, as well as the attention, of the defenders is divided; and fuch are the blind effects of terror on the firmeft troops, that a line broken 'in a single place is almost inftantly deserted. The fate of the wall which Probus erected, may confirm the general observation. Within a few years after his death, it was overthrown by the Alemanni. Its scattered ruins, universally ascribed to the power of the Dæmon, now ferve only to excite the wonder of the Swabian peasant.

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tion and fettlement

of the bar barians.

Among the useful conditions of peace impofed by Introduc Probus on the vanquished nations of Germany, was the obligation of fupplying the Roman army with fixteen thousand recruits, the braveft and most robust of their youth, The emperor difperfed them through all the provinces, and diftributed this dangerous reinforcement in small bands of fifty or fixty

XII.

CHAP. each, among the national troops; judiciously obferving, that the aid which the republic derived from the barbarians, should be felt but not feen ". Their aid was now become neceffary. The feeble elegance of Italy and the internal provinces could no longer fupport the weight of arms. The hardy frontier of the Rhine and Danube still produced minds and bodies equal to the labours of the camp; but a perpetual feries of wars had gradually diminished their numbers. The infrequency of marriage, and the ruin of agriculture, affected the principles of population; and not only deftroyed the ftrength of the prefent, but intercepted the hope of future generations. The wisdom of Probus embraced a great and beneficial plan of replenishing the exhausted frontiers, by new colonies of captive or fugitive barbarians, on whom he bestowed lands, cattle, inftruments of husbandry, and every encouragement that might engage them to educate a race of foldiers for the fervice of the republic. Into Britain, and most probably into Cambridgeshire", he transported a confiderable body of Vandals. The impoffi bility of an escape reconciled them to their fituation, and in the fubfequent troubles of that island, they approved themselves the most faithful fervants of the ftate". Great numbers of Franks and Gepida were fettled on the banks of the Danube and the Khine. An hundred thousand Baftarnæ, expelled from their own country, cheerfully accepted an eftablishment in Thrace, and foon imbibed the manners and fentiments of Roman fubjects". But the expectations of Probus were too often difap

pointed. The impatience and idleness of the barba-
rians could ill brook the slow labours of agriculture.
Their unconquerable love of freedom, rifing against
defpotifm, provoked them into hafty rebellions,
alike fatal to themselves and to the provinces
nor could these artificial supplies, however repeated
by fucceeding emperors, reftore the important limit
of Gaul and Illyricum to its ancient and native
vigour.

Of all the barbarians who abandoned their new fettlements, and difturbed the public tranquillity, a very small number returned to their own country. For a short season they might wander in arms through the empire; but in the end they were furely destroyed by the power of a warlike emperor. The successful rashness of a party of Franks was attended, however, with fuch memorable confequences, that it ought not to be paffed unnoticed. They had been established by Probus, on the seacoaft of Pontus, with a view of ftrengthening the frontier against the inroads of the Alani. A fleet ftationed in one of the harbours of the Euxine, fell into the hands of the Franks; and they refolved, through unknown feas, to explore their way from the mouth of the Phafis to that of the Rhine. They eafily escaped through the Bofphorus and the Hellefpont, and cruizing along the Mediterranean, indulged their appetite for revenge and plunder, by frequent defcents on the unfufpecting shores of Afia, Greece, and Africa. The opulent city of Syracufe, in whose port the navies of Athens and Carthage had formerly been funk, was facked by

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CHAP.

XII.

Daring enterprise of

the Franks.

CHAP.

XII,

Revolt of Saturni nus in the Eaft;

a handful of barbarians, who maffacred the greatest part of the trembling inhabitants. From the island of Sicily, the Franks proceeded to the columns of Hercules, trufted themselves to the ocean, coasted round Spain and Gaul, and steering their triumphant courfe through the British channel, at length finished their furprifing voyage, by landing in fafety on the Batavian or Frifian shores ". The example of their fuccefs, inftructing their countrymen to conceive the advantages, and to despise the dangers, of the fea, pointed out to their enterprising spirit, a new road to wealth and glory.

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Notwithstanding the vigilance and activity of Probus, it was almoft impoffible that he could at once contain in obedience every part of his wideextended dominions. The barbarians, who broke their chains, had feized the favourable opportunity of a domestic war. When the emperor marched to the relief of Gaul, he devolved the command of the Eaft on Saturninus. That general, a man of merit and experience, was driven into rebellion by the absence of his fovereign, the levity of the Alexandrian people, the preffing inftances of his friends, and his own fears; but from the moment of his elevation, he never entertained a hope of empire, or even of life. Alas! he faid, the republic has loft a useful fervant, and the rashness of an hour has destroyed the fervices of ,, many years. You know not,„, continued he, the mifery of fovereign power; a fword is perpetually fufpended over our head. We dread our very guards, we diftruft our companions.

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