286 
The Empire. 
R O 
The cruelties which the emperor exercised after this battle 
were of the most intolerable 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 without mercy. In 
consequence of these cruelties, the soldiers who had served 
under Ingenuus, and the inhabitants of Maesia, proclaimed 
Q. Nonius Regillianus emperor. 
This general, who was born in Dacia, is said to have been 
a descendant of king Decabalus, who was conquered by 
Trajan. He had acquired great reputation as a soldier, and 
had defeated the Sarmatians in several battles after he was 
proclaimed emperor. He did not, however, possess long the 
imperial honours; having been killed by his own troops in 
the year of our Lord 262. 
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 proclaimed by their respec¬ 
tive armies. These candidates for the imperial purple were 
nineteen. The following is a list of them: Regillianus, 
Ingenuus, Cyriades, Macrinus, Balista, Udenatus, Zenobia 
queen of Palmyra, Posthumius, Lollianus, Victorinus, and 
his mother Victoria, Marius and Tetricus, Aureolus, Saturni- 
nus, Trebellianus, Piso, Valens, iEmilianus, and Celsus. 
Though the name of tyrant 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 opponents suffered by some violent 
death. 
The defenders of the state being thus occupied with their 
own objects of ambition, the common enemies of Rome 
were permitted to ravage the empire on all sides; and the 
ablest and most patriotic of the Roman generals being thus 
left without support, and obliged to introduce barbarians into 
the service, were compelled to enter into the most dishonour¬ 
able treaties with their invaders. 
An unlooked 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 murdered by 
Martian, one of his own generals, and Flavius Claudius was 
nominated his successor,—an appointment which was gladly 
confirmed both by the senate and the people. 
Flavius Claudius was supposed by some to be a Dalmatian, 
by others to be a Trojan, and by some a son of the emperor 
Gordian. In the 55th year of his age, he had to retrieve the 
almost desperate affairs of the empire. Strong in body, 
vigorous in intellect, temperate in his desires, and a severe 
dispenser of punishment, this man seemed destined to recall 
the ancient glories of the Roman name. After defeating 
Aureolus near Milan, he conducted a numerous army against 
the Henuii, the Trutangi, and the Virturgi, who had descended 
the Danube in 2000 ships, and being well supplied with 
ammunition and provisions, spread an universal alarm 
through all the adjacent provinces. The Goths had already 
desolated Greece, and pillaged Athens; and the cruelties and 
devastations which they there committed, inspired the 
Romans with fresh alarm. Claudius, however, marched 
against them v/ith an army every way disproportionate 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 with courage the Roman soldiers, and 
the Goths were defeated in all the frontiers of the empire. 
After subduing the revolted Germans, Claudius carried his 
arms against Tetricus and Zenobia, two of the nineteen 
sovereigns who still exercised a sort of imperial authority in 
the east. He was seized, however, with a pestilential fever 
M E. The Empire. 
near Sirmium, in Pannonia, where he died in a few days', 
after a virtuous and glorious reign of nearly two years. The 
historians of Rome represent Claudius as uniting the piety of 
Antoninus with the valour of Trajan and the moderation of 
Augustus; the senate addressed to him when alive, these 
words, Claudi Auguste, tu frater, tu pater, tu amicus, tu 
bonus senator, tu vere princeps. 
The senate, however, would probably have said as much, 
or more, to the greatest of tyrants. 
Immediately after the lamented death of Claudius, the 
army made choice ofAurelian, who was at that time mas¬ 
ter of the horse, and esteemed the most valiant commander of 
his time. However, his promotion was not without oppo¬ 
sition on the part of the senate, as Quintillius, the brother 
of the deceased emperor, put in his claim, and was, for a 
while, acknowledged at Rome. But his authority was of a 
very short duration; for finding himself abandoned by those 
who at first instigated him to declare for the throne, he 
prevented the severity of his rival, by a voluntary death. 
Aurelian, being now universally acknowledged by all 
states of the empire, assumed the command wffth a greater 
share of power than his predecessors had for some time en¬ 
joyed. He was born of mean and obscure parentage in 
Dacia, and was about fifty-five years old at the time of his 
coming to the throne. The early part of his life he had 
spent in the army, and had risen through all the gradations 
of military duty. He was of unshaken courage and amazing 
strength; for in one single engagement, he killed forty of the 
enemy with his own hand, and above nine hundred at several 
different times. 
The whole of this enterprising monarch’s reign was spent 
in repressing the irruptions of the northern nations, in hum¬ 
bling every other pretender to the empire, and punishing the 
monstrous irregularities of his own subjects. He defeated 
the Marcomanni, a fierce and terrible nation of Germany, that 
had invaded Italy, in three several engagements; and at 
length totally destroyed the whole army. He was no less 
successful against Zenobia, the queen of the East, a woman of 
the most heroic qualifications, who had long disclaimed the 
Roman power, and established an empire of her own. To 
oppose this extraordinary woman, Aurelian passed his army 
over into Asia, and surmounting all the obstructions that were 
opposed against him, he at length sat down before Tyana, a 
city of Cappadocia, which seemed resolved to hold out 
against him, and actually for some timestopped his progress. 
The unexpected obstinancy of the besieged, served not a little 
to enrage the emperor, who was naturally precipitate and 
furious. He vowed, that upon taking the city, he would so 
punish the inhabitants, as not to leave a dog alive among 
them. After some time the city was taken; and when the 
whole army expected the plunder of so wealthy a place, and 
reminded him of his former protestations, he restrained their 
impetuosity, and only ordered all the dogs in the place to be 
destroyed. He afterwards pretended that he was restrained 
from satiating his resentment on the inhabitants, by an appari¬ 
tion of the famous Apollonius, who warned him not to des¬ 
troy his birth-place. This excuse was no doubt fictitious; 
but we can easily pardon such a falsehood; 
From Tyana he marched to meet the enemy, who waited 
his approach near the city of Emesain Syria. Both armies 
were very powerful and numerous: the one trained up under 
the most valiant leader of his time; the other led on by a 
woman, who seemed born to control the pride of man. The 
battle was long and obstinate: victory for sometime inclined 
to the side of the Asiatics; but the perseverance of Aurelian’s 
generals at last carried the day; and Zenobia was obliged to 
fly to Palmyra for safety. The conqueror soon pursued her 
thither, and did all in his power to induce her submission ; 
but the haughty queen refused his proffered terms of life and 
security with scorn, relying on the succours which she ex¬ 
pected from the Persians, the Saracens, and the Armenians. 
However, Aurelian’s diligence surmounted every obstacle ; 
he intercepted the Persian auxiliaries and dispersed them; 
the Saracens shared the same fate; and the Armenians were. 
