202 REIGN OF GALLIENUS. vinces. Yet, amidst the general distress and poverty, Gallienus lived in wasteful magnificence, and celebrated mock triumphs though his generals were defeated on all sides. When he heard of the invasion of one province, or the rebellion of another, he carelessly asked if Rome would be ruined without linen from Egypt, or Arras cloth from Gaul. The following anecdote is also told as an instance of his fondness for jesting. His wife had been deceived by her jeweller, and the man was condemned as guilty of fraud, and sentenced to be exposed in the amphitheatre. The emperor went there with a large concourse of people; and, just as the trembling criminal was expecting some wild beast to be let loose upon him, a harmless fowl appeared. This was the contrivance of Gallienus; as he playfully said, it was fit that the man should be deceived as he had deceived others. It has been often remarked that, under some of the worst of the emperors, the Christians suffered the least: thus it is plain the Lord reigneth as King of kings, and can protect his people from injury under any circumstances. At the beginning of his reign, Gallienus permitted the bishops, who had been exiled by his father, to return to their homes, and restored the burial places that had been taken away from the Christians in different parts. It appears that he looked upon the Christians as a new sect of philosophers, and protected them because he took a pride in supporting every kind of knowledge, and the liberty of thinking, as he wished to be considered the patron of philosophy. The new Platonists now began to attract still more attention; and their many fancies, especially their pretended communion with unseen spirits, charmed persons of meditative minds. But their powers were wasted in endless disputes about the nature of the human mind, and the secrets of the invisible world. Plotinus, the head of the Alexandrian school, obtained great respect in the world for his learning and gravity of manners. Persons of the highest rank revered him; and the emperor was on the point of giving him a ruined city in Campania for the establishment of a Platonic republic, when he died. This man pretended, like Socrates, to have a demon or familiar spirit which instructed him how to act; and he was looked upon by his disciples as something heavenly. When he was dying he said, "I am endeavouring to rejoin that which is PORPHYRY. 66 203 divine, in the divine part of the universe." How different to the simple happy confidence of Stephen, when he said "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Porphyry, the most celebrated scholar of Plotinus, only became acquainted with Christianity to despise and oppose it; and, as he was one of the emperor's most intimate friends, Gallienus had little opportunity of considering the truth. During a dreadful plague, which afflicted the empire for many years at this time, Porphyry tried to persuade the people that the spread of the Christian religion occasioned the general suffering; Men forget," said he, 66 that Esculapius and the other gods no longer dwell among them; for, since Jesus was honoured, no one has received any public benefit from the gods." But this bitter enemy bore witness to the firmness of those who believed in Jesus, by relating that when a man inquired at the oracle of Apollo, how he could make his wife give up Christianity, the reply was, "" 'It is easier, perhaps, to write on water, or to fly in the air, than to reclaim her. Leave her in her folly to hymn, in a faint mournful voice, the dead God who publicly suffered death from judges of singular wisdom." Thus was it common for the Gentiles to account" Christ crucified" foolishness, and to set at nought the doctrine of the resurrection. It is most plainly set forth in Scripture, that national sins are visited by national calamities, not only upon the Jews but upon the Gentiles also; and the Romans were, doubtless, included among the nations to whom that solemn message was sent, "Ye shall not be unpunished." And again, "Thus saith the Lord, Lo, I begin to bring evil on the city that is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished?" (see Jer. xxv. 15-29). The power of Rome had been used to punish the city that was called by the name of the Lord, and now other powers were used to humble the pride of Rome. These new powers come forwards very strikingly in the reign of Gallienus. First, there was the confederation of German tribes, who called themselves the Franks or Free-men ; they were distinguished for their love of liberty, fickle disposition, and disregard of the most solemn treaties. They overran Gaul and Spain for the sake of plunder; and, by means of some Spanish vessels, reached Mauritania, to the astonishment of the Africans, who had never seen such people before. Another confederation of Germans, who called themselves 204 ATTACKS OF THE BARBARIANS. Allemanni (all-men), had frequently annoyed the Romans, and, whenever they were driven back, returned again; but it was not till after the death of Decius that they succeeded in ravaging Gaul, and forcing their way into Italy. Valerian being then in the East, and Gallienus absent in another direction, the Senate, on hearing the Allemanni were already at Ravenna, led out the Prætorians with a multitude of armed plebeians, and drove away the invaders. But Gallienus, at his return, was displeased at the manner in which Italy had been defended, and passed a law forbidding the senators to take up any military employment: from that time they gave themselves up to luxurious ease, and gladly remained in their splendid palaces. However, the mode in which the emperor sought for security was extremely displeasing to the proud Romans he chose to marry Pipa, the beautiful daughter of one of the barbarian kings; but his subjects contemptuously called her his concubine. : While the Franks and the Allemanni attacked the Western provinces, the Goths, in three different invasions, destroyed many cities in Asia Minor, massacred great numbers of the provincials, and, at last, over ran Greece. The Athenians vainly tried to retard their progress; and they were on the borders of Italy before Gallienus was alive to his danger. Yet these powerful barbarians were, in some measure, overcome; and great numbers of them entered into the Roman service for the sake of the pay. One of their chiefs was presented with the consular ornaments; and a kind of friendship being thus formed, the rest of the Goths returned home. It was in this invasion that the famous temple of Diana, at Ephesus, was finally destroyed. It had been regarded as a holy place during the successive empires of Persia, Greece, and Rome; and, after being destroyed seven times, a new temple had been raised on the same spot, and was considered the most beautiful building in the world. Nineteen pretenders to the empire arose during the reign of Gallienus; and, though the name of tyrants was applied to them, it was only because the ancients used that word to express the unlawful possession of absolute power; for many of them were excellent and humane rulers, and far better qualified to reign than Gallienus. But he alone was supported by Rome and the Senate, acknowledged by law, and called em MISERIES OF THE REIGN OF GALLIENUS. 205 peror in history. Not one of the temporary monarchs lived a peaceful life, or died a natural death, though all received, for a season, every honour their respective armies, or provinces could bestow. The lieutenants, who had respected Valerian, did not esteem his son, but they were mostly forced into open rebellion against him by their discontented troops; and one of them, on the day he was proclaimed Augustus, said to his soldiers, "You have lost a useful commander, and made a very wretched emperor." Though Gallienus made no personal exertion, he sent forth the severest edicts against the rebels, and desired that his rivals and their supporters should be everywhere destroyed. One of his violent letters, concerning the usurper of Illyria, runs thus: Remember, that Ingenius was made emperor! Tear, kill, hew in pieces, &c. I write to you with my own hand, and I would inspire you with my own feelings." The slaughter and misery that followed the attempts of all these usurpers cannot be described; for, when they fell, their armies and provinces suffered dreadfully from the emperor's vengeance. The invasions of the barbarians, and the internal rebellions, were not the only miseries of the reign of Gallienus. Great tumults in Sicily caused a scarcity at Rome, as it was chiefly supplied with corn from that island; and a civil war raged at Alexandria for nearly twelve years. Some trifling cause provoked the three classes of inhabitants against each other, and all intercourse was cut off between the several quarters of the city the strong buildings were converted into fortresses, the streets were stained with blood, and great part of the city was in ruins before peace was restored. Famine and plague were the natural consequences of such continued war and disorder; and every province throughout the empire was in turn affected. At one time five thousand died daily at Rome; and, in Africa, immense numbers perished. In Alexandria, it was calculated half the inhabitants died, and some towns were entirely depopulated. Whole families were often swept away; and, in Carthage, the bodies lay in the streets. But whilst the Pagans neglected the attendance of the sick and the burial of the dead, through fear of contagion, the Christians showed their superiority by attending to both. It is supposed that, in the course of these few years, half the human family throughout the Roman empire perished, either through war, pestilence, or famine. Some historians have added accounts of inundations, earthquakes, strange meteors, preternatural darkness, &c. but it is probable, in the agitated state of the public mind, there was a tendency to exaggeration. Gallienus was at last roused from his inactivity by hearing that Aureolus, the emperor of the legions on the Upper Danube, was about to attack Rome. While he was besieging the pretender in the city of Milan, to which he had retreated, he was killed before the walls by some unknown hand, A.D. 268. The singular story of Odenathus, to whom alone Gallienus allowed the title of Augustus, and who was owned by the senate as the emperor of the East, must be added here. Amid the barren deserts of Arabia, there are here and there fertile spots, like those in the African deserts, which look like green islands surrounded by an ocean of sand. On the most remarkable of the Arabian oases stood Tadmor, or Palmyra; both the Syriac and Latin names signifying a multitude of palmtrees. The air was pure, springs of fresh water abounded, and the soil was capable of producing corn and fruit. This favoured situation, it appears, was first taken advantage of by King Solomon (2 Chron. viii. 8); and being at a convenient distance between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean, it became the resting-place of the caravans from India. Palmyra at length increased into a large city, and was long allowed to remain independent, as both the Romans and Parthians profited by the commerce carried on by its merchants. After the victories of Trajan, however, it came within the limits of the Roman empire; and for a hundred and fifty years it flourished as a colony. It is supposed that the surprising ruins of Grecian architecture, still scattered over an extent of many miles, are the remains of temples and palaces which were raised at Palmyra during this period of prosperity and peace. At the time that Sapor triumphed over Valerian, his pride rose to such a height that he was ready to trample every thing under his feet: and when Odenathus, the noblest and richest citizen of Palmyra, sent him a respectful letter, with a long train of camels laden with costly presents, the haughty conqueror desired that the gifts might be thrown into the Euphrates, and sent back the messengers to tell Odenathus, that |