XI.

CHA P. 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 walls, 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 prosperous 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 ||.

The victory of Claudius over the Goths, and Aurelian the success of Aurelian against the Alemanni, suppresses had already restored to the arms of Rome their usurpers. ancient superiority over the barbarous nations

the two

of

* 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, 1. i. c. 8.

§ Tacit. Hist. iv. 23.

For Aurelian's walls, see Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 216, 222. Zosimus, 1. i. p. 43. Eutropius, ix. 15. Aurel. Victor. in Aurelian. Victor Junior in Aurelian, Euseb. Hieronym. et Idatius in Chronic.

XI.

of the North. To chastise domestic tyrants, CHA P. and 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.

A rapid succession of monarchs had arisen and fallen in the provinces of Gaul. The rigid 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 licentious passion, which

*His competitor was Lollianus, or Ælianus, if indeed these names mean the same person. See Tillemont, tom. iii. p. 1177. † The character of this prince by Julius Aterianus (ap. Hist. August. 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 omnia hæc libido et cupiditas voluptatis mulierariæ sic perdidit, ut nemo audeat virtutes ejus in literas mittere quem constat omnium ju dicio meruisse puniri.

Succes

sion of u

surpers in

Gaul.

CHA P. which he indulged in acts of violence, with too

f

XI.

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 dependant 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 †.

When, at the instigation of his ambitious paThe reign and defeat troness, Tetricus assumed the ensigns of royalty, of Tetri- he was governor of the peaceful province of

cus.

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 valour and fortune of Aurelian at length opened

the

* He ravaged the wife of Attitianus, an actuary, or army agent. Hist. August. p. 186. Aurel. Victor in Aurelian. Pollio assigns her an article among the thirty tyrants. Hist. August. p. 200.

A.D. 271.

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 rival. Had this secret correspondence reached Summer. 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 acknow

ledged

* 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 Batavice; some critics, without any reason, would fain alter the word to Bagaudice.

CHA P. ledged from the wall of Antoninus to the column of Hercules.

XI.

A. D. 272.

of Zeno

bia;

As early as the reign of Claudius, the city of Autun, alone and unassisted, had ventured to declare against the legion of Gaul. After a siege of seven months, they stornied and plundered that unfortunate city, already wasted by famine*. Lyons, on the contrary, had resisted, with obstinate disaffection, the arms of Aurelian. We read of the punishment of Lyons t; but there is not any mention of the rewards of Autun. Such, indeed, is the policy of civil war; severely to remember injuries, and to forget the most important services. Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.

Aurelian had no sooner secured the person and Character provinces of Tetricus, than he turned his arms. against Zenobia, the celebrated queen of Palmyra and the East. Modern Europe has produced several illustrious women, who have sustained with glory the weight of empire; nor is our own age destitute of such distinguished characBut if we except the doubtful atchievements of Semiramis, Zenobia is perhaps the only female whose superior genius broke through the servile indolence imposed on her sex by the climate and manners of Asia ‡. She claimed her descent

ters.

* Eumen. in. Vet. Panegyr. iv. 8.

Vopiscus in Hist. August p. 246. Autun was not restored till the reign of Diocletian. See Eumenius de restaurandis scholis.

Almost every thing that is said of the manners of Odenathus and Zonobia, is taken from their lives in the Augustan History, by Trebellius Pollio, see p. 192. 198.