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was no

of thirty perfons, the united oppreffors of a fin- CHAP. gle city, and an uncertain lift of independent rivals, who rofe and fell in irregular fucceffion through the extent of a vast empire? Nor can the number of thirty be completed, unless we include in the account the women and children who were honoured with the Imperial title. The reign of Gallienus, diftracted as it was, produced only nineteen pretenders to the throne; Cy- Their real riades, Macrianus, Balista, Odenathus, and Ze- number nobia, in the east; in Gaul, and the western pro- more than vinces, Pofthumus, Lollianus, Victorinus and nineteen. his mother Victoria, Marius, and Tetricus. In Illyricum and the confines of the Danube, Ingenuus, Regillianus, and Aureolus; in Pontus S Saturninus; in Ifauria, Trebellianus; Pifo in Theffaly; Valens in Achaia; Emilianus in Egypt; and Celfus in Africa. To illuftrate the obfcure monuments of the life and death of each individual, would prove a laborious task, alike barren of instruction and of amusement. We may content ourselves with investigating fome general characters, that most strongly mark the condition of the times, and the manners of the men, their pretenfions, their motives, their fate, and the deftructive confequences of their ufurpation 159.

and merit

It is fufficiently known, that the odious appel- Character lation of Tyrant was often employed by the ancients to express the illegal feizure of fupreme rants.

159 The place of his reign is fomewhat doubtful; but there was a tyrant in Pontus, and we are acquainted with the feat of all the others.

159 Tillemont, tom. iii. p.1163, reckons them somewhat differently.

power,

of the ty

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CHA P. power, without any reference to the abuse of it. Several of the pretenders, who raised the standard of rebellion against the Emperor Gallienus, were fhining models of virtue, and almoft all poffeffed a confiderable share of vigour and ability. Their merit had recommended them to the favour of Valerian, and gradually promoted them to the moft important commands of the empire. The generals, who affumed the title of Auguftus, were either refpected by their troops for their able conduct and fevere difcipline, or admired for valour and fuccefs in war, or beloved for frankness and generofity. The field of victory was often the fcene of their election; and even the armourer Marius, the most contempti ble of all the candidates for the purple, was dif tinguished however by intrepid courage, matchless strength, and blunt honefty" His mean

160

and recent trade caft indeed an air of ridicule on Their ob- his elevation; but his birth could not be more fcure birth. obfcure than was that of the greater part of his

rivals, who were born of peasants, and inlifted in the army as private foldiers. In times of confufion, every active genius finds the place affigned him by Nature: in a general state of war, military merit is the road to glory and to greatness. Of the nineteen tyrants, Tetricus only was a fenator; Pifo alone was a noble. The blood of Numa, through twenty-eight fucceffive generations, ran in the veins of Calphur

16 See the speech of Marius, in the Auguftan Hiftory, p. 197. The accidental identity of names was the only circumftance that could tempt Pollio to imitate Salluft.

10

nius

X.

nius Pifo, who, by female alliances, claimed CHA P. a right of exhibiting, in his houfe, the images of Craffus and of the great Pompey 162. His anceftors had been repeatedly dignified with all the honours which the commonwealth could bestow; and of all the ancient families of Rome, the Calphurnian alone had furvived the tyranny of the Cæfars. The perfonal qualities of Pifo added new luftre to his race. The ufurper Valens, by whose order he was killed, confeffed, with deep remorse, that even an enemy ought to have refpected the fanctity of Pifo; and although he died in arms against Gallienus, the fenate, with the Emperor's generous permiffion, decreed the triumphal ornaments to the memory of fo virtuous a rebel 163.

bellion.

The lieutenants of Valerian were grateful to The caufes the father whom they efteemed. They difdained of their re to ferve the luxurious indolence of his unworthy fon. The throne of the Roman world was unfupported by any principle of loyalty; and treafon against fuch a prince might eafily be confidered as patriotifm to the state. Yet if we examine with candour the conduct of these

161 Vos, O Pompilius fanguis is Horace's addrefs to the Pifos. See Art. Poet. v. 292. with Dacier's and Sanadon's notes.

162 Tacit. Annal. xv. 48. Hift. i. 15. In the former of thefe paffages we may venture to change paterna into materna. In every generation from Auguftus to Alexander Severus, one or more Pifos appears as confuls. A Pifo was deemed worthy of the throne by Auguftus (Tacit. Annal. i. 13.). A fecond headed a formidable confpiracy against Nero; and a third was adopted, and declared Cæfar by Galba.

163 Hift. Auguft. p. 195. The fenate, in a moment of enthusiasm, feems to have prefumed on the approbation of Gallienus.

ufurpers,

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CHA P. ufurpers, it will appear, that they were much oftener driven into rebellion by their fears, than urged to it by their ambition. They dreaded the cruel fufpicions of Gallienus; they equally dreaded the capricious violence of their troops. If the dangerous favour of the army had imprudently declared them deferving of the purple, they were marked for fure deftruction; and even prudence would counfel them to fecure a short enjoyment of empire, and rather to try the fortune of war than to expect the hand of an executioner. When the clamour of the foldiers invefted the reluctant victims with the enfigns of fovereign authority, they fometimes mourned in fecret their approaching fate. "You have loft," faid Saturninus, on the day of his elevation, you have loft a useful commander, and you "have made a very wretched Emperor164"

Their vio

66

The apprehenfions of Saturninus were juftified lent deaths. by the repeated experience of revolutions. Of the nineteen tyrants who ftarted up under the reign of Gallienus, there was not one who enjoyed a life of peace, or a natural death. As foon as they were invested with the bloody purple, they infpired their adherents with the fame fears and ambition which had occafioned their own revolt. Encompaffed with domeftic confpiracy, military fedition, and civil war, they trembled on the edge of precipices, in which, after a longer or fhorter term of anxiety, they were inevitably loft. These precarious monarchs

X.

received, however, fuch honours, as the flattery CHA P. of their respective armies and provinces could bestow: but their claim, founded on rebellion, could never obtain the fanction of law or hif tory. Italy, Rome, and the fenate, conftantly adhered to the caufe of Gallienus, and he alone was confidered as the fovereign of the empire. That prince condescended, indeed, to acknowledge the victorious arms of Odenathus, who deferved the honourable diftinction by the refpectful conduct which he always maintained towards the fon of Valerian. With the general applaufe of the Romans, and the confent of Gallienus, the fenate conferred the title of Auguftus on the brave Palmyrenian; and feemed to intruft him with the government of the Eaft, which he already poffeffed, in fo independent a manner, that, like a private fucceffion, he bequeathed it to his illuftrious widow Zenobia 165.

of thefe

The rapid and perpetual tranfitions from the Fatal concottage to the throne, and from the throne to fequences the grave, might have amused an indifferent ufurpaphilofopher; were it poffible for a philofopher tions. to remain indifferent amidst the general calamities of human kind. The election of thefe precarious emperors, their power and their death, were equally deftructive to their fubjects and adherents. The price of their fatal elevation was inftantly discharged to the troops, by an immenfe donative drawn from the bowels of the

165 The affociation of the brave Palmyrenian was the most popular act of the whole reign of Gallienus. Hift. Auguft. p. 180.

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