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of Africa. He was an (1) enactor of just and equal laws, and was very fevere and implacable to offenfes; he would not fuffer even petty. larcenies to go unpunished: as neither would Alexander Severus in the fame period, who (2) was a moft fevere judge against thieves; and was fo fond of the Chriftian maxim, Whatsoever you would not have done to you, do not you to another, that he commanded it to be ingraven on the palace, and on the public buildings. These two emperors were alfo no lefs celebrated for the procuring of corn and oil and other provi fions, and for fupplying the Romans with them after they had experienced a want of them. They repaired the neglects of former times, and corrected the abufes of former princes. Of Septimius Severus it is faid, that (3) the provifion of corn, which he found very small, he fo far confulted, that at his death he left a certain rate or allowance to the Roman people for seven years and alfo of oil as much as for the fpace of five years might supply not only the

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(1) Legum conditor longe æquabilium-implacabilis deJiais ne parva latrocinia quidem impunita patiebatur. Aurel. Victor de Cæfar. Cap. 20.

(2) Severiflimus judex contra fures-Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris; quam fenten

tiam ufque adeo dilexit, ut et in palatio et in publicis operibus præfcribi juberet. Lampridius in Alexandro.Hift.Auguft. Script. VI. p.123& 132. Edit. Salmafi.

(3) Rei frumentariæ, quam minimam repererat, ita confuluit, ut excedens vita, feptem anno

rum

the uses of the city, but likewife of all Italy which might want oil. Of Alexander Severus. it is also faid, that (4) he took fuch care in providing for the Roman people, that the corn which Heliogabalus had wasted, he replaced out of his own money; the oil alfo, which Septimius Severus had given to the people, and which Heliogabalus had leffened, he restored whole as before. The color of the black horfe befits the severity of their nature and their name, and the balances are the well known emblem of justice, as well as an intimation of scarcity; and the proclamation for juftice and judgment, and for the procuration of corn and oil and wine, is fitly made by a creature like a man. This period continued during the reigns of the Septimian family about 42 years.

7. And when he had opened the fourth A feal, I heard the voice of the fourth beaft fay, Come, and fee.

8 And I looked, and behold, a pale horse;

rum canonem P.R. relinqueret. Spartian. ibid. p. 67. ole vero tantum ut per quinquennium non folum urbis ufibus, fed et totius Italiæ quæ oleo egeret, fufficeret. Spartian in Severo. jbid. p. 73.

(4) Commeatum populi Ro

and

mani fic adjuvit, ut quum fru-
menta Heliogabalus evertiffet,
vicem de propria pecunia loco
fuo reponeret-Oleum quod
Severus populo dederat, quod-
que Heliogabalus imminuerat,
integrum reftituit. Lamprid.
in Alex, ibid. p. 121.
(5) Voce

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and his name that fat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him and power

was given unto them, over the fourth part

of the earth, to kill with fword, and with

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hunger, and with death, and with the beafts of the earth.

The fourth feal or period (ver. 7, 8.) is dif tinguished by a concurrence of evils, war, and famin, and peftilence, and wild beafts; and was proclamed by the fourth living creature, who was like an eagle, and had his ftation in the north. And I looked, and behold, a pale horfe; and his name that fat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him: and power was given unto them, over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with fword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beafts of the earth. These are the fame four fore judgments, with which Ezekiel (XIV. 21.) threatened Jerufalem, the fword, and the famin, and the oifome beast, and the peftilence;

(5) Voce Javare intelligendus eft homo; ex Hebraitmo: Nam ita fumitur apud Jer. IX. 21. et XVIII. 21. Sic apud Sirachidem legimus XXXIX. 29. Apas nas dara os, ubi itidem JavaTo haud dubie peftilentiam fignificat. Syrus quoque tum hic tum apud Lucam hos ver

for

tit N. i. e. Sarares et LXX Hebræorum 7 i. e. pestem vertunt Savarov, ut et Chaldæus et Latinus Lev. XXVI. 25. Horum exemplo Severus Sulpitius, Hift. I. mortem pro peftilentia pofuit. Grot. in Matt. XXIV. 7.

(6) Hic de vico Thraciæ, vicino barbaris, barbaro etiam

patre

for in the oriental languages the peftilence is emphatically (5) ftiled death. These four were to destroy the fourth part of mankind; and the image is very poetical, of death riding on a pale borse, and bell or the grave following with him, ready to swallow up the dead corpfes. This period commenceth with Maximin, who was an emperor from the north, being (6) born of barbarous parents in a village of Thrace. He was indeed a barbarian in all respects. There was not, as an (7) hiftorian affirms, a more cruel animal upon the earth; and he was defervedly called by the name of Cyclops, Bufiris, Phalaris, and the worst of tyrants. The hiftory of his and feveral fucceeding reigns is full of wars and murders, mutinies of foldiers, and invafions of foreign armies, rebellions of subjects, and deaths of princes. There were more than twenty emperors in the space of fifty years, and all or most of them died in war, or were murdered by their own foldiers and subjects. Befides lawful

patre et matre genitus. Julius Capitolin. in Maximin. Hift. Auguft. Script. VI. Edit. Salmas. p. 138. Vide etiam notas Salmas. et Cafauboni. Mag

205,

το μεν γενος των ενδοτάτων Oganwv nas pižolagbagwv. Max. qui quod ad genus attinet, ex Intimis Thracibus, et femibar

baris erat. Herodian. Lib. 6. p. 140. Edit. H. Steph. 1581.1

(7) Neque enim fuit crudelius animal in terris-tam crudelis fuit, ut illum alii Cyclopem, alii Bufiridem, alii Scironem, nonnulli Phalarim, multi Typhonem, vel Gygem vocarent. Jul. Capit. ibid. p. 141.

(8) Vide

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lawful emperors, there were in the reign of Gallienus (8) thirty tyrants or ufurpers, who fet up in different parts of the empire, and came all to violent and miferable ends. Here was fufficient employment for the ford; and fuch wars and devaftations muft neceffarily produce a famin, and the famin is another distinguishing calamity of this period. In the reign of Gallus the Scythians made fuch incurfions, that (9) not one nation fubject to the Romans was left unwafted by them, and every unwalled town, and most of the walled cities were taken by them. In the reign of Probus alfo (1) there was a great famin throughout the world; and for want of victuals the army mutinied, and flew him. An usual confequence of famin is the pestilence, and the peftilence is the third diftinguishing calamity

(8) Vide Trebell. Pollio. de triginta tyrannis. Hift. Aug. Script. VI. p. 184, &c. Edit. Salmafii.

(9) ὡςε μηδὲ ἑν εθνος Ρωμαίοις υπηκοον απορθητον ὑπο τετων και ταλειφθήναι, πασαν δε ὡς εἰπεῖν αντείχισον πόλιν, και των ωχυρως

μενων τείχεσι τας πλείες άλωνα:. adeo quidem, ut nulla gens Romanæ ditionis ab eis non vaftata manferit, fed omnia, prope dixerim, oppida deftituta mænibus, et iifdem munitorum magna pars, capta fuerint. Zofim. in Gall. Lib. 1. Sect. 26.

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