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Three fuccefsful C H A P.

campaigns against the Germans and the Sarmatians, had raised their fame, confirmed their difcipline, and even increased their numbers, by filling the ranks with the flower of the barbarian youth. The life of Maximin had been spent in war, and the candid feverity of history cannot refufe him the valour of a foldier, or even the abilities of an experienced general ". It might naturally be expected, that a prince of fuch a character, inftead of suffering the rebellion to gain ftability by delay, fhould imme diately have marched from the banks of the Danube to thofe of the Tyber, and that his victorious army, inftigated by contempt for the fenate, and eager to gather the spoils of Italy, fhould have burned with impatience to finish the eafy and lucrative conqueft. Yet as far as we can trust to the obfcure chronology of that period 3, it appears that the operations of fome

31 In Herodian, 1. vii. p. 249. and in the Auguftan History, we have three several orations of Maximin to his army, on the rebellion of Africa and Rome; M. de Tillemont has very juftly observed, that they neither agree with each other, nor with truth. Hiftoire des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 799.

32 The careleffness of the writers of that age leaves us in a fingular perplexity. 1. We know that Maximus and Balbinus were killed during the Capitoline games. Herodian, 1. viii. p. 285. The authority of Cenforinus (de Die Natali, c. 18.) enables us to fix those games with certainty to the year 238, but leaves us in ignorance of the month or day. 2. The election of Gordian by the fenate, is fixed, with equal certainty, to the 27th of May; but we are at a lofs to discover, whether it was in the fame or the preceding year. Tillemont and Muratori, who maintain the two oppofite opinions, bring into the field a defultory troop of authorities, conjectures, and probabilities. The one feems to draw out, the other to contract, the series of events between those periods, more than can be well reconciled to reason and history. Yet it is necessary to choose between them.

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VII.

VII.

CHA P. foreign war deferred the Italian expedition till the enfuing spring. From the prudent conduct of Maximin, we may learn that the favage features of his character have been exaggerated by the pencil of party, that his paffions, however impetuous, fubmitted to the force of reason, and that the barbarian poffeffed fomething of the generous fpirit of Sylla, who fubdued the enemies of Rome, before he fuffered himself to revenge his private injuries 33.

Marches

A.D. 238.

When the troops of Maximin, advancing in into Italy. excellent order, arrived at the foot of the Julian February. Alps, they were terrified by the filence and defolation that reigned on the frontiers of Italy. The villages and open towns had been abandoned on their approach by the inhabitants, the cattle was driven away, the provisions removed, or destroyed, the bridges broke down, nor was any thing left which could afford either fhelter or fubfiftence to an invader. Such had been the wife orders of the generals of the fenate; whofe defign was to protract the war, to ruin the army of Maximin by the flow operation of famine, and to confume his ftrength in the fieges of the principal cities of Italy, which they had plentifully ftored with men and provifions from the deferted country. Aquileia received and withflood the firft fhock of the invafion. The ftreams that iffue from the head of the Hadriatic gulf, fwelled

Siege of
Aquileia.

33 Vellieus Paterculus, l. ii. c. 24. The prefident de Montefquieu (in his dialogue between Sylla and Eucrates) expreffes the fentiments of the dictator, in a spirited and even a fublime manner.

VII.

by the melting of the winter fnows 34, oppofed CHA P. an unexpected obftacle to the arms of Maximin. At length, on a fingular bridge, conftructed with art and difficulty of large hogfheads, he tranfported his army to the oppofite bank, rooted up the beautiful vineyards in the neighbourhood of Aquileia, demolished the suburbs, and employed the timber of the buildings in the engines and towers, with which on every fide he attacked the city. The walls, fallen to decay during the fecurity of a long peace, had been haftily repaired on this fudden emergency: but the firmeft defence of Aquileia confifted in the conftancy of the citizens; all ranks of whom, instead of being difmayed, were animated by the extreme danger, and their knowledge of the tyrant's unrelenting temper. Their courage was fupported and directed by Crifpinus and Menophilus, two of the twenty lieutenants of the fenate, who with a small body of regular troops had thrown themselves into the befieged place. The army of Maximin was repulfed on repeated attacks, his machines destroyed by

34 Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. ii. p. 294.) thinks the melting of the fnows fuits better with the months of June or July than with that of February. The opinion of a man who paffed his life between the Alps and the Appennines, is undoubtedly of great weight; yet I obferve, 1. That the long winter of which Muratori takes advantage, is to be found only in the Latin verfion, and not in the Greek text of Herodian. 2. That the viciffitudes of funs and rains, to which the foldiers of Maximin were exposed (Herodian, 1. viii. p. 277.), denotes the spring rather than the fummer. We may obferve likewise, that these several streams, as they melted into one, compofed the Timavus, fo poetically (in every sense of the word) described by Virgil. They are about twelve miles to the east of Aquileia. See Cluver. Italia, tom. i. p. 189, &c.

fhowers

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CHA P. fhowers of artificial fire; and the generous enthufiafm of the Aquileians was 'exalted into a confidence of fuccefs, by the opinion, that Belenus, their tutelar deity, combated in perfon in the defence of his diftreffed worshippers 35.

Conduct of
Maximus.

The Emperor Maximus, who had advanced as far as Ravenna, to fecure that important place, and to haften the military preparations, beheld the event of the war in the more faithful mirror of reafon and policy. He was too fenfible, that a fingle town could not refist the perfevering efforts of a great army; and he dreaded, left the enemy, tired with the obftinate refiftance of Aquileia, fhould on a fudden relinquish the fruitlefs fiege, and march directly towards Rome. The fate of the empire and the cause of freedom muft then be committed to the chance of a battle; and what arms could he oppofe to the veteran legions of the Rhine and Danube? Some troops newly levied among the generous but enervated youth of Italy; and a body of German auxiliaries, on whofe firmness, in the hour of trial, it was dangerous to depend. In the midft of these just alarms, the ftroke of domeftic confpiracy punished the crimes of Maximin, and delivered Rome and the fenate from the calamities that would furely have attended the victory of an enraged barbarian.

35 Herodian, 1. viii. p. 272.

The Celtic deity was supposed to be Apollo, and received under that name the thanks of the fenate. A temple was likewise built to Venus the Bald, in honour of the women of Aquileia, who had given up their hair to make ropes for the military engines.

The

VII.

and his fon,

The people of Aquileia had fcarcely expe- CHA P. rienced any of the common miferies of a fiege, their magazines were plentifully fupplied, and Murder of feveral fountains within the walls affured them Maximin of an inexhauftible refource of fresh water. A.D. 238. The foldiers of Maximin were, on the contrary, April. expofed to the inclemency of the feafon, the contagion of difeafe, and the horrors of famine. The open country was ruined, the rivers filled with the flain, and polluted with blood. A fpirit of defpair and difaffection began to diffufe itself among the troops; and as they were cut off from all intelligence, they eafily believed that the whole empire had embraced the cause of the fenate, and that they were left as devoted victims, to perifh under the impregnable walls of Aquileia. The fierce temper of the tyrant was exafperated by disappointments, which he imputed to the cowardice of his army; and his wanton and ill-timed cruelty, inftead of ftriking terror, infpired hatred, and a just defire of revenge. A party of Prætorian guards, who trembled for their wives and children in the camp of Alba, near Rome, executed the fentence of the fenate. Maximin, abandoned by his guards, was flain in his tent, with his fon (whom he had affociated to the honours of the purple), Anulinus the præfect, and the principal minifters of his tyranny 36. The fight

36 Herodian, 1. viii. p. 279. Hift. Auguft. p. 146. The duration of Maximin's reign has not been defined with much accuracy, except by Eutropius, who allows him three years and a few days (1. ix. i.); we may depend on the integrity of the text, as the Latin original is checked by the Greek verfion of Pæanius.

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