XIII. of arms except when it was found expedient to CHA P. enrol them in the military service. Nor did the emperors refuse the property of lands, with a less servile tenure, to such of the barbarians as solicited the protection of Rome. They granted a settlement to several colonies of the Carpi, the Bastarnæ, and the Sarmatians; and, by a dangerous indulgence, permitted them in some measure to retain their national manners and independence *. Among the provincials, it was a subject of flattering exultation, that the barbarian, so lately an object of terror, now cultivated their lands, drove their cattle to the neighbouring fair, and contributed by his labour to the public plenty. They congratulated their masters on the powerful accession of subjects and soldiers; but they forgot to observe, that multitudes of secret enemies, insolent from favour, or desperate from oppression, were introduced into the heart of the empire t.. presence While the Cæsars exercised their valour on the banks of the Rhine and Danube, the of the emperors was required on the southern confines of the Roman world. From the Nile * There was a settlement of the Sarmatians in the neighbourhood of Treves, which seems to have been deserted by those lazy Barbarians; Ausonius speaks of them in his Moselle ; Unde iter ingrediens nemorosa par avia solum, Arvaque Sauromatûm nuper metata colonis. There was a town of the Carpi in the Lower Mæsia. ↑ See the rhetorical exultation of Eumenius. Panegyr. vii. . Wars of Africa and Egypt, CHA P. to mount Atlas, Africa was in arms. A conXII. federacy of five Moorish nations issued from their deserts to invade the peaceful provinces *. Julian had assumed the purple at Carthage †. Achilleus at Alexandria, and even the Blemmyes renewed, or rather continued, their incursions into the Upper Egypt. Scarcely any circumstances have been preserved of the exploits of Maximian in the western parts of Africa; but it appears by the event, that the progress of his arms was rapid and decisive, that he vanquished the fiercest barbarians of Mauritania, and that he removed them from the mountains, whose inaccessible strength had inspired their inhabitants with a lawless confidence, and habituated them to a life of rapine and violence ‡. A. D. 296. Diocletian, on his side, opened the campaign in of Diocle- Egypt by the siege of Alexandria, cut off the aqueducts which conveyed the waters of the Nile into every quarter of that immense city §, and rendering his camp impregnable to the sallies of the besieged multitude, he pushed his reiterated attacks with caution and vigour. After a siege of eight months, Alexandria, wasted by the sword Conduct tian in Egypt. * and Scaliger (Animadvers. ad Euseb. p. 243.) decides in his usual manner, that the Quinque gentiani, or five African nations, were the five great cities, the Pentapolis of the inoffensive province of Cyrene. After his defcat, Julian stabbed himself with a dagger, and immediately leaped into the flames. Victor in Epitome. Tu ferocissimos Mauritania populos inaccessis montium jugis et naturali munitione fidenets, expugnasti, recipisti, transtulisti. Panegyr. Vet. vi. 8. 5 See the description cf Alexandria, in Hirtius de Bel. Alexandrin. c. 5. XIII. and by fire, implored the clemency of the con- c H A P. queror; but it experienced the full extent of his severity. Many thousands of the citizens perished in a promiscuous slaughter, and there were few obnoxious persons in Egypt who escaped a sentence either of death, or at least of exile *. The fate of Eusiris and of Coptos was still more melancholy than that of Alexandria; those proud cities, the former distinguished by its antiquity, the latter enriched by the passage of the Indian trade, were utterly destroyed by the arms and by the severe order of Diocletian †. The character of the Egyptian nation, insensible to kindness, but extremely susceptible of fear, could alone justify this excessive rigour. The seditions of Alexandria had often affected the tranquillity and subsistence of Rome itself. Since the usurpation of Firmus, the province of Upper Egypt, incessantly relapsing into rebellion, had embraced the alliance of the savages of Ethiopia. The number of the Blemmyes, scattered between the island of Meroe and the Red Sea, was very inconsiderable, their disposition was unwarlike, their weapons rude and inoffensive 1. Yet in the public disorders these barbarians, whom antiquity, K 4 *Eutrop. ix. 24. Orosius, vii. 25. John Malela in Chron. Antioch. p. 409, 410. Yet Eumenius assures us, that Egypt was pacified by the clemency of Diocletian. Eusebius (in Chron.) places their destruction several years sooner, and at a time when Egypt itself was in a state of rebellion against the Romans. ‡ Strabo, 1. xvii. p. 1. 172. Pomponius Mela, 1. i. c. 4. His words are curious, "Intra, si credere libet, vix homines magisque semiferi; Ægipanes, et Blemmyes, et Satyri.” XIII. CHAP. quity, shocked with the deformity of their figure, had almost excluded from the human species, presumed to rank themselves among the enemies of Rome*. Such had been the unworthy allies of the Egyptians; and while the attention of the state was engaged in more serious wars, their vexatious inroads might again harass the repose of the province. With a view of opposing to the Blemmyes a suitable adversary, Diocletian persuaded the Nobatæ, or people of Nubia, to remove from their ancient habitations in the deserts of Lybia, and resigned to them an extensive, but unprofitable territory, above Syene and the cataracts of the Nile, with the stipulation, that they should ever respect and guard the frontier of the empire. The treaty long subsisted; and till the establishment of Christianity introduced stricter notions of religious worship, it was annually ratified by a solemn sacrifice in the isle of Elephantine, in which the Romans, as well as the barbarians, adored the same visible or invisible powers of the universe †. At the same time that Diocletian chastised the past crimes of the Egyptians, he provided for their future safety and happiness, by many wise regulations, which were confirmed and enforced under the succeeding reigns t. One very remarkable edict, which he published, instead of being condemned * Ausus sese inserere fortunæ et provocare arma Romana. † See Procopius de Bell. Persic, 1. i. c. 19. He fixed the public allowance of corn for the people of Alexandria, at two millions of medimni; about four hundred thousand quarters, Chron. Paschal. p. 276. Procop. Hist. Arcan. c. 26, XIII. He sup presses demned as the effect of jealous tyranny, deserves c H A P. to be applauded as an act of prudence and humanity. He caused a diligent enquiry to be made for all the ancient books which treated "of the admirable art of making gold and silver, books of alchymy, " and without pity committed them to the flames; "apprehensive, as we are assured, lest the opu"lence of the Egyptians should inspire them "with confidence to rebel against the empire*.” But if Diocletian had been convinced of the reality of that valuable art, far from extinguishing the memory, he would have converted the operation of it to the benefit of the public revenue. It is much more likely, that his good sense discovered to him the folly of such magnificent pretensions, and that he was desirous of preserving the reason and fortunes of his subjects from the mischievous pursuit. It may be remarked, Novelty that these ancient books, so liberally ascribed to and proPythagoras, to Solomon, or to Hermes, were the that art, pious frauds of more recent adepts. The Greeks were inattentive either to the use or to the abuse of chymistry. In that immense register, where. Pliny has deposited the discoveries, the arts, and the errors of mankind, there is not the least mention of the transmutation of metals; and the persecution of Diocletian is the first authentic event in the history of alchymy. The conquest of Egypt by the Arabs diffused that vain science over the globe. Congenial to the avarice of the human heart, it was studied in China as in Europe, John Antioch in Excerp, Valesian, p. 824, Suidas in Diocletian. gress of |