CHA P. fave his fovereign, he refolved to revenge him. X. The troops of Æmilianus, who ftill lay encamped

in the plains of Spoleto, were awed by the fanctity of his character, but much more by the fuperior ftrength of his army; and as they were now become as incapable of perfonal attachment as they had always been of conftitutional prin, A. D. 253. ciple, they readily imbrued their hands in the Auguft. blood of a prince who fo lately had been the object of their partial choice. The guilt was theirs, but the advantage of it was Valerian's; who obtained the poffeffion of the throne by the means indeed of a civil war, but with a degree of innocence fingular in that age of revolutions; fince he owed neither gratitude nor allegiance to his predeceffor, whom he dethroned.

Character

Valerian was about fixty years of age 63 when of Valerian. he was invested with the purple, not by the caprice of the populace, or the clamours of the army, but by the unanimous voice of the Roman world. In his gradual afcent through the honours of the ftate, he had deferved the favour of virtuous princes, and had declared himself the enemy of tyrants". His noble birth, his mild but unblemished manners, his learning, prudence, and experience, were revered by the fenate and people; and if mankind (according to the observation of an ancient writer) had been

63 He was about feventy at the time of his acceffion, or, as it is more probable, of his death. Hift. Auguft. p. 173. Tillemont, Hift. des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 893. note 1.

In the glorious

64 Inimicus Tyrannorum. Hift. August. p. 173. struggle of the fenate against Maximin, Valerian acted a very spirited part. Hift. Auguft. p. 156.

left

X

tunes of

and Galli

enus,

left at liberty to choose a master, their choice. C H A P. would moft affuredly have fallen on Valerian ". Perhaps the merit of this Emperor was inadequate to his reputation; perhaps his abilities, or at leaft his fpirit, were affected by the languor and coldness of old age. The confcioufness General of his decline engaged him to fhare the throne misforwith a younger and more active affociate: the reigns the emergency of the times demanded a general of Valerian no less than a prince; and the experience of the Roman cenfor might have directed him A.D. where to bestow the Imperial purple, as the 253-268. reward of military merit. But instead of making a judicious choice, which would have confirmed his reign and endeared his memory, Valerian, confulting only the dictates of affection or vanity, immediately invested with the fupreme honours his fon Gallienus, a youth whofe effeminate vices had been hitherto concealed by the obscurity of a private station. The joint government of the father and the fon fubfifted about feven, and the fole adminiftration of Gallienus continued about eight years. But the whole period was one uninterrupted series of confufion and calamity. As the Roman empire was at the fame time, and on every fide, attacked by the blind fury of foreign invaders, and the wild ambition of do

65 According to the distinction of Victor, he seems to have received the title of Imperator from the army, and that of Auguftus from the fenate.

6 From Victor and from the medals, Tillemont (tom. iii. p. 710.) very justly infers, that Gallienus was affociated to the empire about the month of Auguft of the year 253.

mestic

X.

CHAP. meftic ufurpers, we fhall confult order and perfpicuity, by purfuing, not fo much the doubtful arrangement of dates, as the more natural distribution of fubjects. The moft dangerous enemies of Rome, during the reigns of Inroads of Valerian and Gallienus, were, 1. The Franks. 2. The Alemanni. 3. The Goths; and, 4. The Perfians. Under thefe general appellations, we may comprehend the adventures of lefs confi. derable tribes, whofe obfcure and uncouth names would only ferve to opprefs the memory and perplex the attention of the reader.

the barba

rians.

Origin and confedera

Franks.

I. As the pofterity of the Franks compofe one ey of the of the greatest and most enlightened nations of Europe, the powers of learning and ingenuity have been exhaufted in the discovery of their unlettered ancestors. To the tales of credulity, have fucceeded the fyftems of fancy. Every paffage has been fifted, every spot has been furveyed, that might poffibly reveal fome faint traces of their origin. It has been fuppofed, that Pannonia 67, that Gaul, that the northern parts of Germany 69, gave birth to that celebrated colony of warriors. At length the most rational critics, rejecting the fictitious emigra tions of ideal conquerors, have acquiefced in a fentiment whofe fimplicity perfuades us of its

68

67 Various systems have been formed to explain a difficult paffage in Gregory of Tours, l. ii. c. 9.

69 The geographer of Ravenna, i. 11. by mentioning Mauringania, on the confines of Denmark, as the ancient feat of the Franks, gave birth to an ingenious fyftem of Leibnitz.

truth.

1

noun 22.

truth. They fuppofe that about the year two C hundred and forty", a new confederacy was formed under the name of Franks, by the old inhabitants of the Lower Rhine and the Wefer. The prefent circle of Weftphalia, the Landgraviate of Heffe, and the duchies of Brunswick and Lunenburg, were the ancient feat of the Chauci, who, in their inacceffible moraffes, defied the Roman arms"; of the Cherufci, proud of the fame of Arminius; of the Catti, formidable by their firm and intrepid infantry; and of feveral other tribes of inferior power and reThe love of liberty was the ruling paffion of these Germans; the enjoyment of it their best treasure; the word that expreffed that enjoyment, the moft pleafing to their ear. They deferved, they affumed, they maintained the honourable epithet of Franks, or Freemen; which concealed, though it did not extinguish, the peculiar names of the feveral ftates of the confederacy". Tacit confent, and mutual advantage, dictated the first laws of the union; it was gradually cemented by habit and experience. The league of the Franks may admit of fome comparison with the Helvetic body in which

9 See Cluver. Germania Antiqua, l.iii. c. 20. M. Freret, in the Memoirs de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xviii.

70 Most probably under the reign of Gordian, from an accidental circumftance fully canvaffed by Tillemont, tom. iii. P. 710. 1181.

71 Plin. Hift. Natur. xvi. I. The panegyrifts frequently allude to the moraffes of the Franks.

72 Tacit. Germania, c. 30. 37.

73 In a fubfequent period, most of those old names are occafionally mentioned. See fome veftiges of them in Cluver. Germ. Antiq.

1. iii.

X.

CHA P. every canton, retaining its independent sovereignty, confults with its brethren in the common caufe, without acknowledging the authority of any supreme head or representative affembly. But the principle of the two confederacies was extremely different. A A peace of two hundred years has rewarded the wife and honeft policy of the Swifs. An inconstant spirit, the thirft of rapine, and a difregard to the moft folemn treaties, difgraced the character of the Franks.

They in

The Romans had long experienced the daring vade Gaul, valour of the people of Lower Germany.

The

union of their ftrength threatened Gaul with a more formidable invafion, and required the prefence of Gallienus, the heir and colleague of Imperial power's. Whilft that prince, and his infant fon Salonius, difplayed, in the court of Treves, the majefty of the empire, its armies were ably conducted by their general Posthumus, who, though he afterwards betrayed the family of Valerian, was ever faithful to the great intereft of the monarchy. The treacherous language of panegyrics and medals darkly announces a long feries of victories. Trophies and titles atteft (if fuch evidence can atteft) the fame of Pofthumus, who is repeatedly ftyled The conqueror of the Germans, and the faviour of Gaul 76.

74 Simler de Republica Helvet. cum notis Fuselin.

75 Zofimus, 1. i. p. 27.

76 M. de Brequigny (in the Memoirs de l'Academie, tom. xxx.) has given us a very curious life of Pofthumus. A feries of the Auguftan Hiftory, from medals and infcriptions, has been more than once planned, and is ftill much wanted.