XII. of whom forms no inconsiderable part of his CHAP. glory. Carus, Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, Galerius, Asclepiodatus, Annibalianus, and a crowd of other chiefs, who afterwards ascended or supported the throne, were trained to arms in the severe school of Aurelian and Probus.* He deli from the mans. But the most important service which Probus A. D. 277. rendered to the republic was the deliverance of vers Gaul Gaul, and the recovery of seventy flourishing invasion of cities oppressed by the barbarians of Germany, the Ger who, since the death of Aurelian, had ravaged that great province with impunity!' Among the various multitude of those fierce invaders, we may distinguish, with some degree of clearness, three great armies, or rather nations, successive vanquished by the valour of Probus. He drove back the Franks into their morasses; a descriptive circumstance from whence we may infer, that the confederacy known by the manly appellation of Free, already occupied the flat maritime country, intersected and almost overflown by the stagnating waters of the Rhine, and that several tribes of the Frisians and Batavians had acceded to their alliance. He vanquished the Burgundians, a considerable people of the Vandalic race. They had wandered in quest of booty from the banks of the Oder to those of the Seine. They esteemed themselves sufficiently fortunate to purchase, by the restitution of all their booty, the permis * Besides these well known chiefs, several others are named by Vopiscus (Hist. Augnst. p. 241), whose actions have not reached our knowledge. See the Cæsars of Julian, and Hist. August. p. 238, 240, 241. CHAP. XII. sion of an undisturbed retreat. They attempted to elude that article of the treaty. Their punish'ment was immediate and terrible." But of all the invaders of Gaul, the most formidable were the Lygians, a distant people who reigned over a wide domain on the frontiers of Poland and Silesia. In the Lygian nation, the Arii held the first rank by their numbers and fierceness. "The "Arii (it is thus that they are described by the 66 energy of Tacitus) study to improve by art "and circumstances the innate terrors of their "barbarism. Their shields are black, their "bodies are painted black. They chuse for the "combat the darkest hour of the night. Their "host advances, covered as it were with a fune"ral shade; nor do they often find an enemy capable of sustaining so strange and inferna "an aspect. Of all our senses, the eyes are the “first vanquished in battle." Yet the arms and discipline of the Romans easily discomfited these horrible 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 despair, granted them an honourable capitulation, and permitted them Zosimus, I. i. p. 62. Hist. August. p. 240. But the latter sup poses the punishment inflicted with the consent of their kings: if so, it was partial, like the offence. "See Cluver, Germania Antiqua, 1. iii. Ptolemy places in their country the city of Calisia, probably Calish in Silesia. • Feralis umbra is the expression of Tasitus: it is surely a very bold one. Tacit. Germania (c. 43). XII. to return in safety to their native country. But CHAP. the losses which they suffered 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 cost 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 destruction of human kind, we may naturally suspect, that the sanguinary account was multiplied by the avarice of the soldiers, and accepted without any very severe examination by the liberal vanity of Probus. his arms Since the expedition of Maximin, the Roman and carries generals had confined their ambition to a defen- into Gersive war against the nations of Germany, who many. perpetually pressed on the frontiers of the empire. The more daring Probus pursued his Gallic victories, passed the Rhine, and displayed his invincible eagles on the banks of the Elbe and the Neckar. 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 success of the last emigration, was astonished by his presence. Nine of the most considerable princes repaired to his camp, and fell prostrate at his feet. Such a XII. CHAP. 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 magistrates to punish the more obstinate robbers who presumed to detain any part of the spoil. A considerable tribute of corn, cattle, and horses, the only wealth of barbarians, was reserved for the use of the garrisons which Probus established on the limits of their territory. He even entertained some thoughts of compelling the Germans to relinquish the exercise of arms, and trust their differences to the justice, their safety to the power, of Rome. To accomplish these salutary ends, the constant residence of an imperial governor, supported by a numerous army, was indispensably requisite. Probus therefore judged it more expedient to defer the execution of so great a design; which was indeed rather of specious than solid utility." Had Germany been reduced into the state of a province, the Romans, with immense labour and expence, would have acquired only a more extensive boundary to defend against the fiercer and more active barbarians of Scythia. He builds a wall from the Rhine to the Danube. Instead of reducing the warlike natives of Germany to the condition of subjects, Probus contented himself with the humble expedient of raising a bulwark against their inroads. The country, which now forms the circle of Swabia, 'Hist. August. p. 238, 239. Vopiscus quotes a letter from the emperor to the senate, in which he mentions his design of reducing Germany into a province. ་ XII. had been left desert in the age of Augustus by CHAP the emigration of its ancient inhabitants. The fertility of the soil soon attracted a new colony from the adjacent provinces of Gaul. Crowds of adventurers, of a roving temper and of desperate fortunes, occupied the doubtful possession, and acknowledged, by the payment of tythes, the majesty of the empire. To protect these new subjects, a line of frontier garrisons was gradually extended from the Rhine to the Danube. About the reign of Hadrian, when that inode of defence began to be practised, these garrisons were connected and covered by a strong intrenchment of trees and palisades. In the place of so rude a bulwark, the emperor Probus constructed a stone-wall of a considerable height, and strengthened it by towers at convenient distances. From the neighbourhood of Newstadt and Ratisbon on the Danube, it stretched across hills, vallies, rivers, and morasses, as far as Wimpsen on the Necker, and at length terminated on the banks of the Rhine, after a winding course of near two hundred miles." This important barrier, uniting the two mighty streams that protected the provinces of Europe, seemed to fill up the vacant space through which Strabo, I. vii. According to Velleius Paterculus (ii, 108), Maroboduus led his Macromanni into Bohemia: Cluverius (German, Antiq. iii, 6) proves that it was from Swabia. These settlers, from the payment of tythes, were denominated Decumates. Tacit. Germania. c. 29. "See Notes de l'Abbé de la Bleterie à la Germanie de Tacite, p. 183 His account of the wall is chiefly borrowed (as he says himself) from the Alsatia Illustrata of Schepflin. |