338 Transplantation of Barbarians 



frontier as Roman subjects is clearly regarded as a worthy achieve- 

 ment. So indeed it might have been, had it been possible to civilize 

 them as Romans, only profiting by the introduction of new blood. But 

 this process was no longer possible: its opposite, the barbarizing of 

 Roman lands, steadily went on. Claudius only reigned about two 

 years. The great soldier who followed him in 270-5, Aurelian, had a 

 plan for employing prisoners of war 1 on the cultivation of waste lands 

 in Italy itself, but we have no reason to think that much came of it. 

 And the true state of things was confessed in his abandonment of 

 Trajan's great Province of Dacia. Aurelian withdrew 2 the army and the 

 provincials, whom he settled south of the Danube in Moesia ; putting 

 the best face he could on this retirement by giving Moesia the name 

 of Dacia. 



These phenomena attest an obvious truth, sometimes ignored, that 

 territorial expansion needs something more than military conquest to 

 give it lasting effect. In order to hold conquered lands the conquerors 

 must either occupy them or thoroughly assimilate the native popula- 

 tion. Emperors in this period became aware that they could do neither. 

 Alexander Severus (222-35) gained a great victory 3 over the Persians 

 and took a number of prisoners. It was a tradition of Persian kings 

 not to let their subjects pass into foreign slavery, and Alexander al- 

 lowed them to redeem these captives by a money payment. This he 

 used partly in compensating the masters of those who had already 

 passed into private ownership, and the rest he paid into the treasury. 

 This conciliatory policy may have been wise. In any case the treasury 

 was in this age chronically in need of ready money. But dealing with 

 the great oriental monarchy was a simpler undertaking than that of 

 dealing with the rude peoples of the North, who pressed on in tribal 

 units, offering no central power with which to negotiate. Probus (276-82) 

 seems to have been sorely troubled by their variety and independence 

 of action. We hear that when operating in Thrace he settled 100,000 

 Bastarnae 4 on Roman soil, and that all these kept faith with him. But 

 he went on to transplant large bodies of Gepidae Gruthungi and Van- 

 dals. These all broke their faith. While Probus was busy putting 

 down pretenders in other parts of the empire, they went on raiding 

 expeditions at large by land and sea, defying and damaging the power 

 of Rome. True, the emperor broke them by force of arms, and drove 

 the remnant back to their wilds: but we can see what the biographer 

 ignores, that such raids did mischief which the empire was in no con- 

 dition to repair. What were the terms made with these barbarians, to 



1 familias captivas. 2 Vopisc Aurel 39 7. 



3 Lamprid Alex 55 2, 3, cf Trebell Gallien 9 5. 



4 Vopisc Probus 18 i, i. See Zosimus I 71 and No v of the Panegyrici cap 18 for 

 other versions, in which the raiders are called Franks. 



