exhortations by a liberal donative, purified the camp by a solemn sacrifice of expiation, and then dismissed the legions to their several provinces, impressed, as he hoped, with a lively sense of gratitude and obedience." But nothing could reconcile the haughty spirit of the Prætorians. They attended the emperors on the memorable day of their public entry into Rome; but, amidst the general acclamations, the sullen dejected countenance of the guards sufficiently declared that they considered themselves as the object, rather than the partners, of the triumph. When the whole body was united in their camp, those who had served under Maximin, and those who had remained at Rome, insensibly communicated to each other their complaints and apprehensions. The emperors chosen by the army had perished with ignominy; those elected by the senate were seated on the throne."2 The long discord between the civil and military powers was decided by a war in which the former had obtained a complete victory. The soldiers must now learn a new doctrine of submission to the senate; and whatever clemency was affected by that politic assembly, they dreaded a slow revenge, coloured by the name of discipline, and justified by fair pretences of the public good. But their fate was still in their own hands; and if they had courage to despise the vain terrors of an impotent republic, it was easy to convince the world that those who were masters of the arms were masters of the authority of the state.

and Balbi

When the senate elected two princes it is probable that, besides the declared reason of providing for the various emergencies Massacre of of peace and war, they were actuated by the secret desire of Maximus weakening by division the despotism of the supreme magis- nus. trate. Their policy was effectual, but it proved fatal both to their emperors and to themselves. The jealousy of power was soon exasperated by the difference of character. Maximus despised Balbinus as a luxurious noble, and was in his turn disdained by his colleague as an obscure soldier. Their silent discord was understood rather than seen ;43 but the mutual consciousness prevented them from uniting in any vigorous measures of defence against their common enemies of the Pratorian camp. The whole city was employed in the Capitoline games, and the emperors were left almost alone in the palace. On a sudden they were alarmed by the approach of a troop of desperate assassins. Ignorant of each other's situation or designs, "Herodian, 1. viii. [c. 7.]

The observation had been made imprudently enough in the acclamations of the senate, and with regard to the soldiers it carried the appearance of a wanton insult. Hist. August. p. 170. [Capitol. Max. et Balb. c. 12, 13.]

Discordia tacitæ, et quæ intelligerentur potius quam viderentur. Hist. August. p. 170. [Capitol. ib. c. 14.] This well-chosen expression is probably stolen from some better writer.

66

"whom may conduct the war against the public enemy, whilst his "colleague remains at Rome to direct the civil administration. I "cheerfully expose myself to the danger and envy of the nomination, " and give my vote in favour of Maximus and Balbinus. Ratify my "choice, conscript fathers, or appoint, in their place, others more worthy of the empire." The general apprehension silenced the whispers of jealousy; the merit of the candidates was universally acknowledged; and the house resounded with the sincere acclamations of "Long life and victory to the emperors Maximus and "Balbinus. You are happy in the judgment of the senate; may "the republic be happy under your administration! "27

Their cha

The virtues and the reputation of the new emperors justified the most sanguine hopes of the Romans. The various nature racters. of their talents seemed to appropriate to each his peculiar department of peace and war, without leaving room for jealous emulation. Balbinus was an admired orator, a poct of distinguished fame, and a wise magistrate, who had exercised with innocence and applause the civil jurisdiction in almost all the interior provinces of the empire. His birth was noble,28 his fortune affluent, his manners liberal and affable. In him the love of pleasure was corrected by a sense of dignity; nor had the habits of ease deprived him of a capacity for business. The mind of Maximus was formed in a rougher mould. By his valour and abilities he had raised himself from the meanest origin to the first employments of the state and army. His victories over the Sarmatians and the Germans, the austerity of his life, and the rigid impartiality of his justice whilst he was præfect of the city, commanded the esteem of a people whose affections were engaged in favour of the more amiable Balbinus. The two colleagues had both been consuls (Balbinus had twice enjoyed that honourable office), both had been named among the twenty lieutenants of the senate; and, since the one was sixty and the other seventy-four years old,29 they had both attained the full maturity of age and experience.

See the Augustan History, p. 166 [Capitol. Maxim. et Balbin. c. 2], from the registers of the senate; the date is confessedly faulty, but the coincidence of the Apollinarian games enables us to correct it.

25 He was descended from Cornelius Balbus, a noble Spaniard, and the adopted son of Theophanes the Greek historian. Balbus obtained the freedom of Rome by the favour of Pompey, and preserved it by the eloquence of Cicero (see Orat. pro Cornel. Balbo). The friendship of Cæsar (to whom he rendered the most important secret services in the civil war) raised him to the consulship and the pontificate, honours never yet possessed by a stranger. The nephew of this Balbus triumphed over the Garamantes. See Dictionnaire de Bayle, au mot Baibus, where he distiuguishes the several persons of that name, and rectifies, with his usual accuracy, the mistakes of former writers concerning them.

29 Zonaras, 1. xii. [c. 17, p. 579] p. 622. But little dependence is to be had on the authority of a modern Greek, so grossly ignorant of the history of the third century that he creates several imaginary emperors, and confounds those who really existed.

The

Gordian is

Cæsar.

After the senate had conferred on Maximus anu Balbinus an equal portion of the consular and tribunitian powers, the title of Tumult at Fathers of their country, and the joint office of Supreme Rome. Pontiff, they ascended to the Capitol to return thanks to younger the gods, protectors of Rome.30 The solemn rites of sacri- declared fice were disturbed by a sedition of the people. The licentious multitude neither loved the rigid Maximus, nor did they sufficiently fear the mild and humane Balbinus. Their increasing numbers surrounded the temple of Jupiter; with obstinate clamours they asserted their inherent right of consenting to the election of their sovereign; and demanded, with an apparent moderation, that, besides the two emperors chosen by the senate, a third should be added of the family of the Gordians, as a just return of gratitude to those princes who had sacrificed their lives for the republic. At the head of the city-guards and the youth of the equestrian order, Maximus and Balbinus attempted to cut their way through the seditious multitude. The multitude, armed with sticks and stones, drove them back into the Capitol. It is prudent to yield when the contest, whatever may be the issue of it, must be fatal to both parties. A boy, only thirteen years of age, the grandson of the elder and nephew of the younger Gordian, was produced to the people, invested with the ornaments and title of Cæsar. The tumult was appeased by this casy condescension; and the two emperors, as soon as they had been peaceably acknowledged in Rome, prepared to defend Italy against the common enemy.

attack the

their em

Whilst in Rome and Africa revolutions succeeded each other with such amazing rapidity, the mind of Maximin was agitated Maximin by the most furious passions. He is said to have received prepares to the news of the rebellion of the Gordians, and of the decree senate and of the senate against him, not with the temper of a man, perors. but the rage of a wild beast; which, as it could not discharge itself on the distant senate, threatened the life of his son, of his friends, and of all who ventured to approach his person. The grateful intelligence of the death of the Gordians was quickly followed by the assurance that the senate, laying aside all hopes of pardon or accommodation, had substituted in their room two emperors, with whose merit he could not be unacquainted. Revenge was the only consolation left to Maximin, and revenge could only be obtained by arms.

30 Herodian, 1. vii. [c. 10] p. 256, supposes that the senate was at first convoked in the Capitol, and is very eloquent on the occasion. The Augustan History, p. 166 [Capitol. Maxim. et Balb. c. 3], seems much more authentic.

According to some, the son.-G.

The strength of the legions had been assembled by Alexander from all parts of the empire. Three successful campaigns against the Germans and the Sarmatians had raised their fame, confirmed their discipline, and even increased their numbers by filling the ranks with the flower of the barbarian youth. The life of Maximin had been spent in war, and the candid severity of history cannot refuse him the valour of a soldier, or even the abilities of an experienced general. It might naturally be expected that a prince of such a character, instead of suffering the rebellion to gain stability by delay, should immediately have marched from the banks of the Danube to those of the Tiber, and that his victorious army, instigated by contempt for the senate, and eager to gather the spoils of Italy, should have burned with impatience to finish the easy and lucrative conquest. Yet, as far as we can trust to the obscure chronology of that period, it appears that the operations of some foreign war deferred the Italian expedition till the ensuing spring. From the prudent conduct of Maximin we may learn that the savage features of his character have been exaggerated by the pencil of party; that his passions, however impetuous, submitted to the force of reason; and that the barbarian possessed something of the generous spirit of Sylla, who

31 In Herodian, 1. vii. [c. 8] p. 249, and in the Augustan History [Capitol. Maximini, c. 18, and Gordiani, c. 14], we have three several orations of Maximin to his army, on the rebellion of Africa and Rome: M. de Tillemont has very justly observed that they neither agree with each other nor with truth. Histoire des Empe reurs, tom. iii. p. 799.

1.

32 The carelessness of the writers of that age leaves us in a singular perplexity. We know that Maximus and Balbinus were killed during the Capitoline games. Herodian, 1. viii. [c. 8] p. 285. The authority of Censorinus (de Die Natali, c. 18) enables us to fix those games with certainty to the year 238, but leaves us in ignorance of the month or day. 2. The election of Gordian by the senate is fixed with equal certainty to the 27th of May; but we are at a loss to discover whether it was in the same or the preceding year. Tillemont and Muratori, who maintain the two opposite opinions, bring into the field a desultory troop of authorities, conjectures, and probabilities. The one seems to draw out, the other to contract, the series of events between those periods, more than can be well reconciled to reason and history. Yet it is necessary to choose between them."

a The evidence of coins, which have been examined with great accuracy by Eckhel, shows that the interval between the elevation of the Gordians and the deaths of Maximus and Balbinus could not have exceeded five months, and consequently that these events must be placed in the year 238. Eckhel places them between the beginning of March and the end of July; but Clinton supposes that the deaths of Maximus and Balbinus took place about forty days earlier than the date of Eckhel, since the Cod. Justin. names Gordian III. at June 22nd; and it is expressly stated (Herodian, vii. 4), that the Gordians were

subdued the enemies of Rome before he suffered himself to revenge his private injuries.33

A.D 238,

When the troops of Maximin, advancing in excellent order, arrived at the foot of the Julian Alps, they were terrified by the Marches silence and desolation that reigned on the frontiers of Italy. into Italy. The villages and open towns had been abandoned on their February. approach by the inhabitants, the cattle was driven away, the provisions removed or destroyed, the bridges broke down, nor was anything left which could afford either shelter or subsistence to an invader. Such had been the wise orders of the generals of the senate, whose design was to protract the war, to ruin the army of Maximin by the slow operation of famine, and to consume his strength in the sieges of the principal cities of Italy, which they had plentifully stored with men and provisions from the deserted country. Aquileia received and withstood the first shock of the siege of invasion. The streams that issue from the head of the Aquileia. Hadriatic gulf, swelled by the melting of the winter snows, 34 opposed an unexpected obstacle to the arms of Maximin. At length, on a singular bridge, constructed, with art and difficulty, of large hogsheads, he transported his army to the opposite bank, rooted up the beautiful vineyards in the neighbourhood of Aquileia, demolished the suburbs, and employed the timber of the buildings in the engines and towers with which on every side he attacked the city. The walls, fallen to decay during the security of a long peace, had been hastily repaired on this sudden emergency: but the firmest defence of Aquileia consisted in the constancy of the citizens; all ranks of whom, instead of being dismayed, were animated by the extreme danger, and their knowledge of the tyrant's unrelenting temper. Their courage was supported and directed by Crispinus and Menophilus, two of the twenty lieutenants of the senate, who, with a small body of regular troops, had thrown themselves into the besieged place. The army of Maximin was repulsed in repeated attacks, his machines destroyed by showers of artificial fire; and the generous

"Velleius Paterculus, 1. ii. c. 24. The president de Montesquieu (in his dialogue between Sylla and Eucrates) expresses the sentiments of the dictator in a spirited and even a sublime manner.

Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. ii. p. 294) thinks the melting of the snows suits better with the months of June or July than with that of February. The opinion of a man who passed his life between the Alps and the Apennines is undoubtedly of great weight; yet I observe, 1. That the long winter, of which Muratori takes advantage, is to be found only in the Latin version, and not in the Greek text of Herodian. 2. That the vicissitudes of suns and rains to which the soldiers of Maximin were exposed (Herodian, 1. viii. [c. 5] p. 277), denotes the spring rather than the summer. We may observe likewise, that these several streams, as they melted into one, composed the Timavus, so poetically (in every sense of the word described by Virgil. They are about twelve miles to the east of Aquileia. See Cluver. Italia Antiqua, tom. i. p. 189, &c.