Election of A.D. 252 and affable in peace; 52 who, together with his son, has deserved to be compared, both in life and death, with the brightest examples of ancient virtue.53 This fatal blow humbled, for a very little time, the insolence of the legions. They appear to have patiently expected, and submissively obeyed, the decree of the senate which regulated the succession to the throne. From a just regard for the memory of Decius, the Imperial title was conferred on Hostilianus, his only surviving son; but an equal rank, with more effectual power, was granted to Gallus,54 whose experience and ability seemed equal to the great trust of guardian to the young prince and the distressed empire.55 The first care of the new emperor was to deliver the Illyrian provinces from the intolerable weight of the victorious Goths. He consented to leave in their hands the rich fruits of their invasion, an immense booty, and, what was Retreat of still more disgraceful, a great number of prisoners of the highest merit and quality. He plentifully supplied their camp with every conveniency that could assuage their angry spirits, or facilitate their so much wished-for departure; and he even promised to pay them annually a large sum of gold, on condition they should never afterwards infest the Roman territories by their incursions.56 the Goths Gallus purchases peace by the pay In the age of the Scipios, the most opulent kings of the earth, who courted the protection of the victorious commonwealth, ment of an were gratified with such trifling presents as could only derive a value from the hand that bestowed them; an ivory chair, a coarse garment of purple, an inconsiderable piece of plate, or a quantity of copper coin.57 After the wealth of nations had annual tribute 52 The Decii were killed before the end of the year two hundred and fifty-one, since the new princes took possession of the consulship on the ensuing calends of January. [Tillemont has argued for end of November 251, and is followed by Hodgkin, i. p. 56, but Alexandrian coins prove that it must be earlier than August 29, 251. See Schiller, i. 807. A still earlier date is supplied by the inscription C.I.L. vi. 3743, which, having been lost, has been rediscovered. The reading Divo Decio III. et Divo Herennio cos. proves that Decius was dead by the 24th of June. See Jahresberichte der Geschichtswissenschaft, xxiv. (1901) i. 108.] 53 Hist. August. p. 223 [xxvi. 42] gives them a very honourable place among the small number of good emperors who reigned between Augustus and Diocletian. [C. Vibius Trebonianus Gallus, governor of the two Moesias.] 55 Hæc, ubi Patres comperere.. decernunt. Victor in Cæsaribus [30]. 56 Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 628 [21. Zosimus, i. 24]. 57 A Sella, a Toga, and a golden Patera of five pounds weight, were accepted with joy and gratitude by the wealthy King of Egypt (Livy, xxvii. 4). Quina millia Eris, a weight of copper in value about eighteen pounds sterling, was the usual present made to foreign ambassadors (Livy, xxxi. 9). discontent centred in Rome, the emperors displayed their greatness, and even their policy, by the regular exercise of a steady and moderate liberality towards the allies of the state. They relieved the poverty of the barbarians, honoured their merit, and recompensed their fidelity. These voluntary marks of bounty were understood to flow, not from the fears, but merely from the generosity or the gratitude of the Romans; and, whilst presents and subsidies were liberally distributed among friends and suppliants, they were sternly refused to such as claimed them as a debt.58 But this stipulation of an annual payment to a victorious enemy appeared without disguise in the light of an ignominious tribute; the minds of the Romans were not yet accustomed to Popular accept such unequal laws from a tribe of barbarians; and the prince, who by a necessary concession had probably saved his country, became the object of the general contempt and aversion. The death of Hostilianus, though it happened in the midst of a raging pestilence, was interpreted as the personal crime of Gallus; 59 and even the defeat of the late emperor was ascribed by the voice of suspicion to the perfidious counsels of his hated successor." 60 The tranquillity which the empire enjoyed during the first year of his administration 61 served rather to inflame than to appease the public discontent; and, as soon as the apprehensions of war were removed, the infamy of the peace was more deeply and more sensibly felt. and revolt ianus, But the Romans were irritated to a still higher degree, when Victory they discovered that they had not even secured their repose, of Emilthough at the expense of their honour. The dangerous secret A.D. 253 of the wealth and weakness of the empire had been revealed to the world. New swarms of barbarians, encouraged by the success, and not conceiving themselves bound by the obligation, of their brethren, spread devastation through the Illyrian provinces, and terror as far as the gates of Rome. The defence of the monarchy, which seemed abandoned by the pusillanimous emperor, was assumed by Emilianus, governor of Pannonia 62 58 See the firmness of a Roman general so late as the time of Alexander Severus, in the Excerpta Legationum, p. 25. Edit. Louvre. 59 For the plague see Jornandes, c. 19, and Victor in Cæsaribus [30, 2. John of Antioch, frag. 151]. 60 These improbable accusations are alleged by Zosimus, 1. i. p. 23, 24 [24]. 61 Jornandes, c. 19. The Gothic writer at least observed the peace which his victorious countrymen had sworn to Gallus. 62 [M. Æmilius Emilianus.] 63 and Mæsia; who rallied the scattered forces and revived the fainting spirits of the troops. The barbarians were unexpectedly attacked, routed, chased, and pursued beyond the Danube. The victorious leader distributed as a donative the money collected for the tribute, and the acclamations of the soldiers proclaimed him emperor on the field of battle. Gallus, who, careless of the general welfare, indulged himself in the pleasures of Italy, was almost in the same instant informed of the success, of the revolt, and of the rapid approach, of his aspiring lieutenant. He advanced to meet him as far as the plains of Spoleto. When the armies came in sight of each other, the soldiers of Gallus compared the ignominious conduct of their sovereign with the glory of his rival. They admired the valour of Æmilianus; they were attracted by his liberality, for he offered a considerable increase of pay to all deserters.64 The murder of Gallus, and and slain, of his son Volusianus,65 put an end to the civil war; and the senate gave a legal sanction to the rights of conquest. The letters of Æmilianus to that assembly displayed a mixture of moderation and vanity. He assured them that he should resign to their wisdom the civil administration; and, contenting himself with the quality of their general, would in a short time assert the glory of Rome, and deliver the empire from all the barbarians both of the North and of the East." 66 His pride was flattered by the applause of the senate; and medals are still extant, representing him with the name and attributes of Hercules the Victor, and of Mars the Avenger.67 Gallus abandoned A.D. 253, May Valerian revenges If the new monarch possessed the abilities, he wanted the the death time, necessary to fulfil these splendid promises. Less than four months intervened between his victory and his fall.68 He had of Gallus, and is acknowledged emperor 63 Zosimus, l. i. p. 25, 26 [28]. 64 Victor in Cæsaribus [31, 2, states that Gallus and his son were slain at Interamna (Terni)]. 65 [C. Vibius Afinius Gallus Veldumnianus Volusianus became Cæsar on the accession of his father, and Augustus on the death of Hostilianus (before end of 251).] 67 Banduri Numismata, p. 94. 66 Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 628 [22]. 68 Eutropius, 1. ix. c. 6, says tertio mense. Eusebius omits this emperor. [Valerian and Gallienus were emperors before 22nd October, 253; see Wilmanns, 1472. Alexandrian coins, which are so useful in determining limits, prove that Emilianus must have overthrown Gallus before 29th August, 253, and that he was not slain himself earlier than 30th August, 253. Aurelius Victor and Zonaras agree that the reign of Æmilianus lasted not quite four months; Jordanes, like Eutropius, says tertio mense. If, then, we place the death of Emilianus early in September, we must place that of Gallus late in May or early in June. See Schiller, i. 810.] : vanquished Gallus: he sunk under the weight of a competitor more formidable than Gallus. That unfortunate prince had sent Valerian, already distinguished by the honourable title of censor, to bring the legions of Gaul and Germany 69 to his aid. Valerian executed that commission with zeal and fidelity; and, as he arrived too late to save his sovereign, he resolved to revenge him. The troops of Æmilianus, who still lay encamped in the plains of Spoleto, were awed by the sanctity of his character, but much more by the superior strength of his army; and, as they were now become as incapable of personal attachment as they had always been of constitutional principle, they readily imbrued their hands in the blood of a prince who so A.D. 253, lately had been the object of their partial choice. The guilt was theirs, but the advantage of it was Valerian's; who obtained the possession of the throne by the means indeed of a civil war, but with a degree of innocence singular in that age of revolutions; since he owed neither gratitude nor allegiance to his predecessor, whom he dethroned. August of Valerian Valerian was about sixty years of age' 70 when he was in- Character vested with the purple, not by the caprice of the populace or the clamours of the army, but by the unanimous voice of the Roman world. In his gradual ascent through the honours of the state he had deserved the favour of virtuous princes, and had declared himself the enemy of tyrants." His noble birth, his mild but unblemished manners, his learning, prudence, and experience, were revered by the senate and people; and, if mankind (according to the observation of an ancient writer) had been left at liberty to choose a master, their choice would most assuredly have fallen on Valerian. Perhaps the merit of this emperor was inadequate to his reputation; perhaps his abilities, or at least his spirit, were affected by the languor and coldness of old age. The consciousness of his decline engaged him to share the throne with a younger and more active Zosimus, 1. i. p. 28 [29]. Eutropius and Victor station Valerian's army in Rhætia [where they proclaimed him Emperor]. 70 He was about seventy at the time of his accession, or, as it is more probable, of his death. Hist. August. p. 173 [xxii. 5 (1)]. Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 893, note 1. 71 Inimicus Tyrannorum, Hist. August. p. 173 [ib.]. In the glorious struggle of the senate against Maximin, Valerian acted a very spirited part. Hist. August. p. 156 [xx. 9]. 72 According to the distinction of Victor, he seems to have received the title of Imperator from the army, and that of Augustus from the senate. VOL. 1.-18 General misfortunes of reigns of and A.D. 253-268 associate: 7 the emergency of the times demanded a general no less than a prince; and the experience of the Roman censor Valerian might have directed him where to bestow the Imperial purple, Gallienus, as the reward of military merit. But, instead of making a judicious choice, which would have confirmed his reign and endeared his memory, Valerian, consulting only the dictates of affection or vanity, immediately invested with the supreme honours his son Gallienus,74 a youth whose effeminate vices had been hitherto concealed by the obscurity of a private station. The joint government of the father and the son subsisted about seven, and the sole administration of Gallienus continued about eight, years. But the whole period was one uninterrupted series of confusion and calamity. As the Roman empire was at the same time, and on every side, attacked by the blind fury of foreign invaders, and the wild ambition of domestic usurpers, we shall consult order and perspicuity by pursuing not so much the doubtful arrangement of dates as the more natural distribution of subjects. The most dangerous enemies of Rome, durInroads of ing the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, were,-1. The Franks. 2. The Alemanni. 3. The Goths; and, 4. The Persians. Under these general appellations we may comprehend the adventures of less considerable tribes, whose obscure and uncouth names would only serve to oppress the memory and perplex the attention of the reader. the bar barians Origin and confeder Franks I. As the posterity of the Franks compose one of the acy of the greatest and most enlightened nations of Europe, the powers of learning and ingenuity have been exhausted in the discovery of their unlettered ancestors. To the tales of credulity have succeeded the systems of fancy. Every passage has been sifted, every spot has been surveyed, that might possibly reveal some faint traces of their origin. It has been supposed that Pannonia, that Gaul, that the northern parts of Germany,76 73 From Victor and from the medals, Tillemont (tom. iii. p. 710) very justly infers that Gallienus was associated to the empire about the month of August of the year 253. [This date is too early. Emilianus was not slain till after August 29. We can only say that Gallienus was associated as Augustus before October 22.] 74 [P. Licinius Egnatius Gallienus. The son of Gallienus was also associated in the empire-P. Licinius Cornelius Valerianus.] 75 Various systems have been formed to explain difficult passages in Gregory of Tours, 1. ii. c. 9. 76 The Geographer of Ravenna, i. 11, by mentioning Mauringania on the confines of Denmark, as the ancient seat of the Franks, gave birth to an ingenious system of Leibnitz. |