cruelty itself could invent. The laws of nature and humanity were violated, friend betrayed friend, brother informed against brother, children against their parents, and parents against their children; every one thinking it meritorious to discover a Christian and procure his death. Décius vented his rage chiefly against the bishops. Among his victims were Fábian, bishop of Rome; Bab'ylaz, bishop of Antioch; and Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem. Great numbers of Christians betook themselves to mountains, rocks, and deserts, choosing rather to live among wild beasts than with men who had divested themselves of reason and humanity. Among these was the celebrated Paul, who withdrew into the deserts of Egypt, where he is said to have lived a solitary life for the greater part of a century. He is usu ally regarded as the father and founder of the order of anchorets, or hermits, whose superstitious austerities appear to have been derived from the extraordinary penances practised by the fanatics of central

and southern Asia.

This persecution was interrupted by an invasion of the Goths, who, for the first time, crossed the Danube in considerable numbers, and devastated Mo'sia. Décius marched against them, and gained some important advantages; but in his last battle, charging into the midst of the enemy to avenge the death of his son, he was overpowered and slain (A. D. 251). A great number of the Romans, thus deprived of their leader, fell victims to the barbarians; the survivors, grateful for the protection afforded them by the legions of Gallus, who commanded in the neighborhood, proclaimed that general emperor.

Gallus concluded a dishonorable peace with the Goths, and renewed the persecutions of the Christians. His dastardly conduct provoked general resentment; the provincial armies revolted, but the most dangerous insurrection was that headed by Æmiliánus, who was proclaimed emperor in Mo'sia. He led his forces into Italy, and the hostile armies met at Interamna (Terni); but just as an engagement was about to commence, Gallus was murdered by his own soldiers (A. D. 253), and Æmiliánus proclaimed emperor. In three months Emiliánus himself met a similar fate, the army having chosen Valérian, the governor of Gaul, to the sovereignty.

Valérian, though now sixty years of age, possessed powers that might have revived the sinking fortunes of the empire, which was now invaded on all sides. The Goths, who had formed a powerful monarchy on the lower Danube and the northern coasts of the Black sea, extended their territories to the Borys'thenes (Dnieper) and Tanáis (Don): they ravaged Moe'sia, Thrace, and Macedon; while their fleets, which soon became formidable after the capture of the Tauric Chersonese (Crim Tartary), devastated the coasts both of the European and Asiatic provinces. The great confederation of the Franks became formidable on the lower Rhine, and not less dangerous was that of the Allemanni on the upper part of that river. The Carpians and Sarmatians laid Moe'sia waste.

The Sarmatians were particularly formidable for their cavalry: both horses and men were covered with a curious kind of scale armor formed of the sliced hoofs of animals, which hung sufficiently loose not to impede the motions of the warrior, and was yet strong enough to

turn aside arrows and javelins. The light cavalry of the Persians at the same time devastated the greater part of western Asia, extending their ravages even to the shores of the Mediterranean.

Galliénus, the emperor's son, whom Valérian had chosen for his colleague, and Aurelian, destined to succeed him in the empire, gained several victories over the Germanic tribes, while Valérian marched in person against the Scythians and Persians, who had invaded Asia. He gained a victory over the former in Anatolia, but, imprudently passing the Euphrátes, he was surrounded by Sápor's army near Edes'sa, in a situation where neither courage nor military skill could be of any avail, and was forced to surrender at discretion (A. D. 259). During nine years Valérian languished in hopeless captivity, the object of scorn and insult to his brutal conqueror, while no effort was made for his liberation by his unnatural son.

SECTION VII. From the Captivity of Valerian to the Resignation of

Dioclesian.

FROM A. D. 260 To A. D. 305.

GALLIE'NUS Succeeded to the throne, receiving the news of his father's misfortunes with secret pleasure and open indifference. He seemed to be versed in everything but the art of government; "he was master of several curious but useless sciences, a ready orator and elegant poet, a skilful gardener, an excellent cook, and most contemptible prince." At the moment of his accession, the barbarians, encouraged by the captivity of Valérian, invaded the empire on all sides. Italy itself was invaded by the Germans, who advanced to Raven'na but they were forced to retire by the emperor. Galliénus, after this exertion, sunk into complete inactivity: his indolence roused a host of competitors for the empire in the different provinces, commonly called "the thirty tyrants," though the number of pretenders did not exceed nineteen. It would be impossible to describe the various struggles for power between these rivals, which distracted every part of the empire. Far the most remarkable of them was Odenátus, who assumed the purple at Palmy'ra, gained several great victories over the Persians, and besieged Sápor in Ctes'iphon. Though he failed to take the city, he checked for a long time the progress of the Sassan'ides. Galliénus, hearing of these great achievements, resolved to convert a rival into a friend, and proclaimed Odenátus his partner in the empire. But this great man was murdered by some of his own family: he was succeeded by his wife, the celebrated Zenóbia, who took the title of Queen of the East. Galliénus did not long survive him: he was murdered while besieging Aureólus, one of his rivals, in Mediolanum (Milan); but before his death he transmitted his rights to Claúdius, a general of great reputation (A. D. 268). Most of the other tyrants had previously fallen in battle or by assassination.

Mar'cus Aurélius Claúdius, having conquered his only rival, Auréolus, marched against the Germans and Goths, whom he routed with great slaughter. He then prepared to march against Zenóbia, who had

• Gibbon.

conquered Egypt; but a pestilence broke out in his army, and the emperor himself was one of its victims (A. D. 270). Extraordinary honors were paid to his memory by the senate. His brother was elected emperor by acclamation; but in seventeen days he so displeased the army by attempting to revive the ancient discipline, that he was deposed and murdered.

Aurélian, a native of Sir'mium, in Pannónia, was chosen emperor by the army; and the senate, well acquainted with his merits, joyfully confirmed the election. He made peace with the Goths, and led his army against the Germans, who had once more invaded Italy. Aurélian was at first defeated; but he soon retrieved his loss, and cut the whole of the barbarian army to pieces. His next victory was obtained over the Vandals, a new horde that had passed the Danube; and having thus secured the tranquillity of Europe, he marched to rescue the eastern provinces from Zenóbia.

The queen of Palmyra was one of the most illustrious women recorded in history: she claimed descent from the Egyptian Ptolemies, but was probably of Jewish origin, since she is said to have professed the Jewish religion. She was well acquainted with the principal languages of the eastern and western worlds, skilled in the leading sciences of her day, and so well versed in affairs of state, that the successes of her husband, Odenátus, are generally attributed to his having acted by her advice. For nearly six years she ruled Syria and Mesopotámia, discharging all the duties of an excellent sovereign and intrepid commander. Ambition, however, precipitated her ruin: not satisfied with the conquest of Egypt, she aspired at the sovereignty of Asia, and Aurélian resolved to put an end to usurpations so disgraceful to the Roman fame.

On his march through Thrace, the emperor fought a great battle with the Goths. Not satisfied with a single victory, he pursued them across the Danube, routed their forces a second time, and slew one of their kings. Passing over into Asia, he encountered the forces of Zenóbia near Antioch; the battle was sanguinary and well contested, but in the end the Romans prevailed. A second victory enabled Aurélian to besiege Palmy'ra, which the dauntless queen defended with great spirit and resolution. At length, finding that there was no hope of succor, she attempted secretly to fly into Persia, but was betrayed by her servants, and taken prisoner. Palmy'ra surrendered; but the citizens soon revolting, this great commercial capital was stormed, its inhabitants put to the sword, and its trade and prosperity irretrievably ruined.

Scarcely had this revolt been subdued, when Aurélian was called upon to quell a formidable insurrection in Egypt. The celerity of his march disconcerted the rebels; they were speedily conquered; and the emperor, having thus suppressed all the troubles of the east, resolved to recover Gaul, Spain, and Britain, which had now for thirteen years been the prey of different tyrants. A single campaign restored these provinces to the empire; and Aurélian, returning to Rome, was honored with the most magnificent triumph that the city had ever beheld. Far more honorable to him, however, was his generous treatment of his captives—a suitable estate was granted at Tibur (Tivoli) to Zenóbia and ner children. The princess, reconciling herself to her lot, became a

respectable Roman matron; and her family was not extinct in the fifth century.

Tranquillity was first disturbed by a violent insurrection excited at Rome by the debasing of the coinage. The imperial troops, sent to drive the mob from the Cœlian hill, were routed with the loss of seven thousand men, and it was with the utmost difficulty that the insurgents were reduced. Aurélian punished the principal authors of the tumult with great severity, not to say cruelty, and, finding that he had thus become unpopular, left the city. He directed his course to Gaul, where he appeased some growing disturbances; thence he marched to Vindelícia, and restored it to the empire: but he abandoned the province of Dácia to the barbarians, withdrawing all the Roman garrisons that had been stationed beyond the Danube.

Aurélian's virtues were sullied by the sternness and severity that naturally belongs to a peasant and a soldier. His officers dreaded his inflexibility, which had been already shown in his sentencing his own nephew to death. While he was thus preparing to lead his army against the Persians, he discovered an act of peculation committed by Mnesthéus, one of his secretaries, and threatened a severe punishment. The guilty functionary, having no other hope of escape, conspired with several others exposed to legal vengeance: they assailed the emperor, escorted only by a few friends, on his road to Byzantium, and slew him with innumerable wounds (A. D. 275). But the assassins did not escape the punishment due to their crimes; the soldiers, attached fondly to an emperor who had so often led them to victory, tore the authors of his death to pieces. They showed, at the same time, greater respect for the law than had ever been displayed by their predecessors, cheerfully referring the choice of an emperor to the senate.

After a tranquil interregnum of more than six months, the senate elected Marcus Claudius Tacitus, a member of their own body, in spite of his great age, for he was already passed his seventy-fifth year. Having enacted some useful laws, the emperor marched against the A'lans, who had overrun Asia Minor. He defeated the barbarians; but the fatigues of the campaign proved too much for his constitution, and he died in Cappadocia, after a short reign of about seven months.

Flóran, the brother of Tacit'us, was elected emperor by the senate, but Marcus Aurélius Próbus was the choice of the Syrian army; and a civil war soon began between these rivals. But Florian's own soldiers took offence at some part of his conduct, rose in sudden mutiny, and put him to death. Próbus, now undisputed master of the empire, led his troops from Asia to Gaul, which was again devastated by the German tribes; he not only defeated the barbarians, but pursued them into their own country, where he gained greater advantages than any of his predecessors. Thence he passed into Thrace, where he humbled the Goths; and returning to Asia, he completely subdued the insurgent Isaurians, whose lands he divided among his veterans. Alarmed at these victories, Bahram II., king of Persia, called Var'ames by the western writers, sent ambassadors to solicit peace, and submitted to the terms dictated by the emperor. Three competitors in different provinces were next subdued; but when wars were at an end, the emperor employed his armies in useful public works, which so offended the licen

tious soldiery, that they suddenly attacked and slew hím (A. D. 282). They subsequently repented of the crime, and united to raise a stately monument to his memory.

Cárus, the captain of the prætorian guards, was elected emperor by the army; and the senate, not without reluctance, assented to the arrangement. The new emperor gave the title of Cæsar to his sons Carínus and Numeriánus, the former of whom was one of the most depraved young men of his time; the latter a model of every virtue. The new emperor signalized his accession by a brilliant victory over the Sarmatians: he would have pursued these barbarians into their native wilds, had he not been summoned to Asia by a new invasion of the Persians. Leaving the care of the western provinces to Carinus, the emperor, accompanied by Numeriánus, hastened into Mesopotámia, where he defeated Bahram, and, pursuing the Persians into their own country, besieged Ctes'iphon. The city would probably have been taken, had not the emperor fallen a victim to disease, or, as others say, to a thunderbolt (A. D. 283). Numeriánus was chosen his successor; but, after a few months' reign, he was assassinated by A'per his fatherin-law and captain of his guards. The crime, however, was discovered, and the murderer put to death by the army.

Dioclésian, said to have been originally a slave, was unanimously saluted emperor, by the army. He was proclaimed at Chal'cedon on the 17th of December, A. D. 284; an epoch that deserves to be remembered, as it marks the beginning of a new era, called "the era of Dioclésian," or "the era of martyrs," which long prevailed in the church, and is still used by the Copts, the Abyssinians, and other African nations. When Carinus heard of his brother's death, he assembled a numerous army, marched from Gaul into Illyricum, where he conquered à usurper named Juliánus, and thence advancing into Moe'sia, inflicted a severe defeat on the army of Dioclésian, in the plains of Mar'gus (Morava Hissar). But in the very moment of victory a tribune, whose wife he had seduced, seized the opportunity of revenge, and by a single blow put an end to the civil war.

Dioclésian made a generous use of his victory in an age when death, exile, and confiscation, were the usual fate of the conquered party, the new emperor did not even deprive his rival's ministers of office. The troubles of the empire appearing too great to be managed by a single mind, Dioclésian voluntarily gave himself a colleague, selecting for this high situation his friend Maximian, a brave and skilful soldier, but unfortunately also an ignorant and ferocious barbarian. Scarcely had the appointment been made, when Maximian was called upon to exert his military talents in Gaul, both in suppressing insurrections and checking the barbarians. He effected his purposes with great skill; while his colleague gained several victories over the Sarmatians in the east.

A brief interval of tranquillity was followed by new and more alarming disturbances in every part of the empire. The two sovereigns, in great alarm, resolved on a further division of authority; each chose an associate and successor, with the title of Cæsar, who was to be invested with a considerable share of imperial power: to this new dignity Dioclésian nominated Max'imin Galérius; and Maximian, Constan'tius Chlórus. A division of the empire followed: Dioclésian took the prov