426 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 



emperor. 

 A. D. 251 



Roman military courage as he was of private honour. Instead 

 O f arra yi n g t h e strength of Rome against the invaders, 

 he purchased peace by an ignominious tribute to the 

 " . Goths > and returned to the capital to devote himself to 

 indolence and licentiousness. The^ Goths, however, 

 whose friendship he had bought, soon forgot their bar- 

 gain, and rushed in upon the eastern provinces. The 

 Persians and Scythians were encouraged by their ex- 

 ample, and spread their desolating armies over Syria 

 and Mesopotamia. While the distant members of the 

 empire were thus wasted and plundered, disorders 

 equally fatal were raging at its heart. The Christ- 

 ians were persecuted with new malignity ; a frightful 

 pestilence, which seems to have been widely extended, 

 scourged the empire for several years ; and a civil war 

 now added its horrors to these already existing evils, 

 rtallus and After conquering the Goths, .ZEmiiianus, the Roman 

 liis son general, was proclaimed emperor by his troops. Gallus 

 killed m an marc i iet j j nto t h e east to oppose him ; and in a battle 

 mfnfwith which took place in Mresia, Gallus, and along with 

 yEmilianus. him his son Volusian, was slain in the 47th year of his 

 A. D. 253. age, and the third of his reign. 



^Emilianus now expected to be acknowledged em- 

 peror by the senate; but they refused to confer upon 

 him this honour, and, when their refusal was made 

 known, the army stationed in Rhaetia proclaimed their 

 general, Valerian, emperor. The prospect of a civil 

 slain by his war between these two competitors, induced the army 



T'nT"^ of ^ milianus to P ut their own commander to death, 

 A. u. Jj'i. an( j to concur j n the general attachment to Valerian. 

 Valerian Publius Licinius Valerian was raised to the empire 

 proclaimed a t the age of 78, and united the suffrages of all classes 

 emperor. Q f ^ R omatl people. That moderation, however, and 

 ' those virtues which had distinguished him in private 

 life, did not display themselves to great advantage 

 when he came to the supreme power. He wanted cou- 

 rage in his military operations, and, though he affected 

 to be the patron of science, yet he does not seem to 

 have bestowed any essential favours on men of true 

 genius or merit. Valerian, however, made many good 

 attempts to reform the abuses of government; but he 

 left a blot upon the character of his reign, by his ma- 

 levolent persecution of the harmless Christians. The 

 incursions of the northern hordes called Valerian into 

 the field against the Goths and Scythians ; but the in-* 

 vasion of Syria by Sapor, king of Persia, compelled 

 him to undertake an expedition for its relief. His 

 Valfcrian arms, however, were unsuccessful in Mesopotamia ; and 

 taken pri- when he wished to have a private conference with Sa- 

 wner by p or> he was treacherously taken prisoner, and carried 

 A* P r>" am * n trmm P n to tne capital. Here he exposed him in 

 public to the insults of the people. He loaded him 

 with ridicule and indignities of every kind, and he used 

 the captive monarch as a footstool whenever he mount- 

 ed on horseback. After a captivity of seven years, 

 Sapor at last put out his eyes, and ordered him to be 

 flayed alive, and salt to be thrown over his mangled 

 Cruel death \ )Q( \y > t ill he perished in the greatest torment. His 

 of Valerian. g ki n i s sa i(J to have been after wards tanned and painted 

 red, and nailed up in one of the temples of Persia as a 

 warning to the future emperors of Rome. 



General in- The success of the Persian arms inspired all the 

 vasion of northern nations with the hopes of subjugating Rome. 

 While the Goths and Scythians ravaged Pontus and 

 Asia, the Franks and Alemanni carried fire and sword 

 into Rhaetia, and advanced as far as Ravenna. The 

 Sarmatians and the Quadi about the same time entered 

 Dacia and Pannonia ; and other barbarous tribes in- 



Rome by 

 the barba- 



vaded Spain, and took possession of many of their 

 strongholds. 



In this crisis Gallienus, the son of Valerian, animated 

 with a passion for revenging the sufferings of his fa- 

 ther, and punishing the insolence of the barbarians, 

 was chosen emperor by universal consent. Hastening 

 from Gaul into Italy he drove out the barbarians, and 

 delivered Rome from the terrors of an invasion. Re- 

 gillianus, who commanded in Dacia and Pannonia, was 

 equally successful, and even beat them in several en- 

 gagements in one day. 



A general of the name of Ingenuus, who commanded 

 in Pannonia, was proclaimed emperor by his troops ; 

 but Gallienus lost no time in marching against him, 

 and having come up with him in Illyricum, he defeated 

 his army, and Ingenuus was either slain by his troops 

 after the battle, or took away his own life to avoid 

 the enmity of Gallienus. The cruelties which the em- 

 peror exercised after this battle were of the most into- 

 lerable kind ; he ordered all males, whether old or 

 young, to be destroyed ; he slew all who had either 

 spoken ill of him, or had wished him ill; and he com- 

 manded one of his officers, Verianis Celis, in a letter 

 which still exists, to tear, kill, and cut in pieces with- 

 out mercy. In consequence of these cruelties, the 

 soldiers who had served under Ingenuus, and the inha- 

 bitants of Mcesia, proclaimed Q. Nonius Regillianus 

 emperor. 



This general, who was born in Dacia, is said to have 

 been a descendant of king Decabalus, who was con- 

 quered by Trajan. He had acquired great reputation 

 as a soldier, and had defeated the Sarmatians in seve- 

 ral battles after he was proclaimed emperor. He did 

 not, however, possess long the imperial honours ; hav- 

 ing been killed by his own troops in the year of our 

 Lord 26'2. 



The facility of being now made an emperor, and the 

 short period during which that honour was held, 

 brought forward a number of generals who were pro- 

 claimed by their respective armies. These candidates 

 for the imperial purple were nineteen, and they have 

 received the uame of the thirty tyrants. The follow- 

 ing is a list of them : Regillianus, Ingenuus, Cyriades, 

 Macrinus, Balistn, Udenatus, Zenobia queen of Pal- 

 myra, Posthumius, Lollianus, Victorinus, and his mo- 

 ther Victoria, Marius and Tetricus, Aureolus, Saturni- 

 nus, Trebellianus, Piso, Valens, jEmilianus, and Celsus. 



Though the name of tyrants has been applied to these 

 aspiring individuals, yet their ambition was in general 

 called forth by the infamous cruelties of Gallienus, and 

 many of them were men pre-eminent by their virtues 

 as well as by their talents, who had been compelled by 

 their soldiers to receive the empty title. The enemies of 

 the emperor being thus divided, none of his rivals had 

 strength enough to resist the arms of Gallienus, who 

 still maintained the diadem, while all his nineteen op- 

 ponents suffered by some violent death. 



The defenders of the state being thus occupied 

 with their own objects of ambition, the common ene- 

 mies of Rome were permitted to ravage the empire on 

 all sides ; and the ablest and most patriotic of the Ro- 

 man generals being thus left without support, and 

 obliged to introduce barbarians into the service, were 

 compelled to enter into the most dishonourable treaties 

 with their invaders. 



An unlocked for event, however, restored for a while 

 the drooping spirits of Rome. While Gallienus was 

 besieging one of his rivals, Aureolus, in Milan, he was 



Korean 

 Umpire. 



Gallienus 

 elected 

 emperor. 

 A. D. 2CO. 



RegilKanus 

 proclaimed 

 emperor. 



Slain by his 

 troops. 

 A. D. 2G2. 



The thirty 

 tyrants. 

 A. D. 260: 



Gallienus 

 murdered.. 

 A. D. 268. 



