XI. 27. in white robes, attended by a chorus of youths CHAP. and virgins; lustrations of the city and adjacent country; and sacrifices, whose powerful influence disabled the barbarians from passing the mystic ground on which they had been celebrated. However puerile in themselves, these superstitious arts were subservient to the success of the war; and if, in the decisive battle of Fano, the Alemanni fancied they saw an army of spectres combating on the side of Aurelian, he received a real and effectual aid from this imaginary reinforcement." tions of But whatever confidence might be placed in Fortificaideal ramparts, the experience of the past, and Rome. the dread of the future, induced the Romans to construct fortifications of a grosser and more substantial kind. The seven hills of Rome had been surrounded, by the successors of Romulus, with an ancient wall of more than thirteen miles. The vast inclosure may seem disproportioned to the strength and numbers of the infant state. But it was necessary to secure an 4 Vepiscus in Hist. August. p. 215, 216, gives a long account of these ceremonies, from the registers of the senate. Plin. Hist. Natur. iii, 5. To confirm our idea, we may observe, that for a long time mount Cælius was a grove of oaks, and mount Viminal was overrun with osiers; that, in the fourth century, the Aventine was a vacant and solitary retirement; that, till the time of Augustus, the Esquilline was an unwholesome burying-ground; and that the numerous inequalities, remarked by the ancients in the Quirinal, sufficiently prove that it was not covered with buildings. Of the seven hills, the Capitoline and Palatine only, with the adjacent vallies, were the primitive habitation of the Roman people. But this subject would require a dissertation. XI. CHAP. ample extent of pasture and arable land, against the frequent and sudden incursions of the tribes of Latium, the perpetual enemies of the republic. With the progress of Roman greatness the city and its inhabitants gradually increased, filled up the vacant space, pierced through the useless wall, covered the field of Mars, and, on every side, followed the public highways in long and beautiful suburbs.' The extent of the new walls, erected by Aurelian, and finished in the reign of Probus, was magnified by popular estimation to near fifty,' but is reduced by accurate measurement to about twenty-one miles." It was a great but melancholy labour, since the defence of the capital betrayed the decline of the monarchy. The Romans of a more pros perous age, who trusted to the arms of the legions the safety of the frontier camps, were very far from entertaining a suspicion, that it would ever become necessary to fortify the seat of empire against the inroads of the barbarians." Aurelian the two The victory of Claudius over the Goths, and suppresses the success of Aurelian against the Alemanni, usurpers, had already restored to the arms of Rome their ancient superiority over the barbarous nations Exspatiantia tecta multas addidere urbes, is the expression of Pliny. Hist. August. p. 222. Both Lipsius and Isaac Vossius have eagerly embraced this measure. "See Nardini, Roma Antica, l. i, c. 8. ! Tacit. Hist. iv, 23. ▾ For. Aurelian's walls, see Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 216, 222. Zosimus, 1. i, 43. Eutrophius, ix, 15. Aurel. Victor. in Aurelian. Victor Junior in Aurelian. Euseb. Hieronym. et Idatius in Chronic XI. of the north. To chastise domestic tyrants, and CHAP. to re-unite the dismembered parts of the empire, was a task reserved for the second of those warlike emperors. Though he was acknowledged by the senate and people, the frontiers of Italy, Africa, Illyricum, and Thrace, confined the limits of his reign. Gaul, Spain, and Britain, Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, were still possessed by two rebels, who alone, out of so numerous a list, had hitherto escaped the dangers of their situation; and to complete the ignominy of Rome, these rival thrones had been usurped by women. of usurpers A rapid succession of monarchs had arisen Succession and fallen in the provinces of Gaul. The rigid in Gaul virtues of Posthumus served only to hasten his destruction. After suppressing a competitor, who had assumed the purple at Mentz, he refused to gratify his troops with the plunder of the rebellious city; and, in the seventh year of his reign, became the victim of their disappointed avarice. The death of Victorinus, his friend and associate, was occasioned by a less worthy cause. The shining accomplishments of that prince were stained by a licen "His competitor was Lollianus, or Elianus, if indeed these names mean the same person. See Tillemont, tom. iii, p. 1177. The character of this prince by Julius Aterianus (ap. Hist. Angust. p. 187) is worth transcribing, as it seems fair and impartial. Victorino qui post Junium Posthumium Gallias rexit neminem existimo præferendum; non in virtute Trajanum: non Antoninum in clementia ; non in gravitate Nervam'; non in gubernando ærario Vespasianum ; non in Censura totius vitæ ac severitate militari Pertinacem vel Severum. Sed omina hæc libido et cupiditas voluptatis mulierariæ sic perdidit, ut nemo audeat virtutes ejus in literas mittere quem constat omnium judicio meruisse puniri. XI. CHAP. tious passion, which he indulged in acts of violence, with too little regard to the laws of society or even to those of love. He was slain at Cologne, by a conspiracy of jealous husbands, whose revenge would have appeared more justifiable, had they spared the innocence of his son. After the murder of so many valiant princes, it is somewhat remarkable, that a female for a long time controlled the fierce legions of Gaul, and still more singular, that she was the mother of the unfortunate Victorinus. The arts and treasures of Victoria enabled her successively to place Marius and Tetricus on the throne, and to reign with a manly vigour under the name of those dependent emperors. Money of copper, of silver, and of gold, was coined in her name; she assumed the titles of Augusta and Mother of the Camps: her power ended only with her life; but her life was perhaps shortened by the ingratitude of Tetricus. The reign and defeat When, at the instigation of his ambitious paof Tetri- troness, Tetricus assumed the ensigns of royalty, he was governor of the peaceful province of Aquitaine, an employment suited to his character and education. He reigned four or five years over Gaul, Spain, and Britain, the slave and sovereign of a licentious army, whom he dreaded, and by whom he was despised. The valc ur and fortune of Aurelian at length opened He ravished the wife of Attitianus, an actuary, or army agent. Hist. August. p. 186. Aurel. Victor in Aurelian. Pollio assigns her an article among thirty tyrants. Hist. August. p 200.. Summer. the prospect of a deliverance. He ventured to CHAP. disclose his melancholy situation, and conjured XI. the emperor to hasten to the relief of his unhappy A. D. 271, rival. Had this secret correspondence reached the ears of the soldiers, it would most probably have cost Tetricus his life; nor could he resign the sceptre of the West without committing an act of treason against himself. He affected the appearances of a civil war, led his forces into the field against Aurelian, posted them in the most disadvantageous manner, betrayed his own counsels to the enemy, and, with a few chosen friends, deserted in the beginning of the action. The rebel legions, though disordered and dismayed by the unexpected treachery of their chief, defended themselves with desperate valour, till they were cut in pieces almost to a man, in this bloody and memorable battle, which was fought near Chalons in Champagne. The retreat of the irregular auxiliaries, Franks and Batavians, whom the conqueror soon compelled or persuaded to repass the Rhine, restored the general tranquillity; and the power of Aurelian was ac Pollio in Hist. August. p. 196. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 220. The two Victors, in the lives of Gallienus and Aurelian. Eutrop. ix, 13. Euseb. in Chron. Of all these writers, only the two last (but with strong probability) place the fall of Tetricus before that of Zenobia. M. de Boze (in the Academy of Inscriptions, tom. xxx) does not wish, and Tillemont (tom. iii, p. 1189) does not dare, to follow them. I have been fairer than the one, and bolder than the other. * Victor Junior in Aurelian. Eumenius mentions Batavica; some critics, without any reason, would fain alter the word to Bagaudica. |