ROMAN EMPIRE. 





u 

 elect' 



>. 2C8. 



Death of 

 Claudius. 

 A. D. 270; 



Quimillus 

 proclaims 



iitlf cm- 

 piror. 



Aureliaa 

 declared 

 enjperor by 

 the army. 



A.I). 270. 



murdered by Martian, one of hi* own generals, and 

 Flavins Claudius was nominated Ins successor, an ap. 

 pointment which was gladly confirmed both by the se- 

 nd the people. 



Flavins Cliiudiu*, supposed by some to be a Dalma- 

 tian, by others to be a Tn.j m. ;m:l by some son of 

 the emperor (J.irdian. In the -j.'ith year of his age, he 

 li.ul to retrieve the almost desperate affairs of the em- 

 pire. Strong i n body, vigorous in intellect, temperate 

 in all his desires, mi admirer of virtue, and a severe 

 (ii>prnser of punishment, this great man seemed des- 

 tined to reform the degeneracy <>f the age, as well as 

 to recall the a*ncient glories of the Human name. After 

 defeating Aurcolus nrar Milan, he conducted a numer- 

 ous army against the Heruli, the Trutangi, and the Vir- 

 vho had descended the 1) mube in 'JOOO ship?, 

 .vn I being well MppNvd with ammunition and provi- 

 -nread an universal alarm through all the adja- 

 cent provinces. The Goths had already desolated 

 , and pillaged Athens ; and the cruelties and 

 devastations which they there committed, inspired the 

 Romans with fresh alarm. Claudius, however, march- 

 ed against them with an army every way dispropor- 

 tionate to them, and he either cut to pieces, or took 

 prisoners, the whole of their vast army, which amounted 

 to above 300,000. Every province was supplied with 

 slaves from the captives, and every house was filled 

 with the arms which were taken. His success inspired 

 courage into the Roman soldiers, and the Goths were 

 defeated in all the frontiers of the empire. After sub- 

 duing the revolted Germans, Claudius carried his arms 

 ;::,riin>t Tetricus and Zenobia, two of the nineteen 

 sovereign? who still exercised a sort of imperial autho- 

 rity in the east. He was seized, however, with a pes- 

 tilential fever near Sirmium, in Pannonh, where he 

 died in a few days, after a virtuous and glorious reign 

 of nearly two years. The historians of Rome repre- 

 sent Claudius as uniting the piety of Antoninus with 

 the valour of Trnjan and the moderation of Augustus ; 

 and this exalted character is remarkably confirmed by 

 the words which the senate addressed to him when 

 alive, Claud/ Augn^te, tn f rater, in pater, In amiciis, tu 

 /x,;///.v .senator, In vtre prrnceps. 



Quintillus, the brother of Claudius was for some 

 time acknowledged as emperor, more from respect 

 to his brother's memory than from any splendid ac- 

 complishments of his own ; but the military position 

 of Home demanded an experienced and brave com- 

 mander, and on this nccount, the army with one ac- 

 cord elected to the empire Aurelian, who was general 

 of the horse, and who hid been recommended by 

 Claudius himself. When Quintillus heard that Aure- 

 lian was marching against him, he opened his veins in 

 a bath, and thus died after a reign of seventeen days. 

 After a vigorous reign of nearly five years Aurelian was 

 murdered by Mnestheus, in the beginning of the year 

 275. A minute account of the events of his reign 

 have already been given under our article AURELIAN, 

 Vol. 1 1. p. 109. 



The miserable fate of the thirty tyrants seems to 

 have operated as a check against that imperial ambi- 

 tion which seems to have been inherent in almost every 

 Unman general. No individual ventured to declare 

 himself a candidate ; and the army itself, as if tired of the 

 exertion of its patronage, modestly referred the ap- 

 pointment to the senate. The senate declined to exer- 

 cise the right thus assigned to them, till Rome had 

 been left for eight months without a political or a 



military ruler. They at last elected M. 

 Tacitus in the ?0th, or as some say the 75th 

 his age ; but the good old man refused the 

 and retired to his country house in Campania to c " 



the urgency with which it was pressed upon him. eltcl * d 

 The necessities of the state, however, induced him to ^^ t?4p 

 y it-Id to the importunities of the senate. He began 

 hi-, r.-i^n by punishing tho.e who had been concerned 

 in the murder of his predecessors. Mnestheus WM 

 impaled alive, his body devoured by wild beasts, tnd 

 his estate applied to public purposes. The senate re- 

 covered their privileges, and seem not only to have 

 been the counsellors of the emjieror, but to have ex- 

 erci-ed a control over his measures. When the em- 

 peror was desirous of having his brother-in-law raised 

 to the consulship, the senate refused his request, and 

 the rvnperor calmly replied, that the senate was better 

 able to judge than himself of the fitness of the candi- 

 dates. Tacitus was a pattern of temperance, economy, 

 moderation, and impartiality. He paid great attention 

 to the morals ot the people ; and he not only abolish- 

 ed the brothels which had so long corrupted" the city, 

 but he ordered all the public baths to be shut at sun- 

 set, and thus contributed greatly to the morality of 

 the capital. Tacitus was also addicted to literature 

 and to the patronage of distinguished men. He boast- 

 ed of being a descendant of his namesake the great 

 historian ; he ordered his works to be placed in all 

 the public libraries ; and he commanded ten copies of 

 them to be written every year with great care and 

 accuracy, in order that so valuable a work should not 

 be destroyed by accident or design. 



To these peaceful virtues Tacitus added the accom- 

 plishments of a warrior. He drove back the barba- 

 rians who had made an irruption into the Roman pro- 

 vinces in Asia ; and when he was making preparations Death of 

 for an expedition against the Persians and Scythians, Tacitus, 

 he died of a violent distemper in Cilicia, and ac- A - D - * 75 - 

 cording to others, he was assassinated after a reign of 

 six months, and in the year 276. 



The place of Tacitus was not easily supplied, and 

 the army were divided in the choice of an emperor. 

 All parties agreed in the necessity of having a brave, 

 a moderate, and a good man ; and though Florianus, 

 the brother-in-law of Tacitus was elected by one part 

 of the army, yet the decision in favour of Probus was 

 unanimous, and Florianus finding himself deserted by 

 his own friends, opened his arteries and bled himself to 

 death. 



Marcus Aurelius Severus Probus was the son of a p ro bo 

 gardner at Sirmium in Pannonia ; but his father having elected on. 

 entered the army obtained the rank of a military tri- peror. 

 bune. Probus rose to the same rank in the twenty- A - D - * T8> 

 second year of his age ; and was so highly distinguish- 

 ed by his clemency, valour, and probity, that he was 

 raised to the empire in the forty-fourth year of his age. 

 In his early life, he was frequently the first of the be- 

 siegers who scaled the walls of the enemy, and who 

 broke into their camp. He had also come off victori- 

 ous in many single combats, and had saved the lives of 

 several distinguished citizens. When he had arranged 

 the affairs of government, he marched with a numerous 

 army to repress the incursions of the Gauls, and after 

 several obstinate conflicts, he left no fewer than 

 400,000 dead on the field. He next turned his arms 

 against the Sarmatians, who had invaded Dalmatia, 

 and after obtaining the same success in that quarter, 

 he conducted his troops into Thrace, and compelled 



