The Empire. 
R 0 M E. 
The Empire. 
by plausible promises, induced to espouse his interest. 
Tims Zenobia, deceived in her expected succours, and des¬ 
pairing of relief, attempted to escape into Persia, but was 
taken in her flight. The city of Palmyra likewise submitted 
to the conqueror; and Longinus, the celebrated critic, and 
secretary to the queen, was by Aurelian’s order put to death, 
which he met with a sublimity equal to his writings. Zenobia 
was reserved to grace Aurelian’s triumph, and was afterwards 
allotted such lands, and such an income, as served to main¬ 
tain her in almost all her former splendour. 
Aurelian having thus restored peace to the empire, endea¬ 
voured to bring back justice also. He was very rigid in 
punishing the crimes of the soldiery; and took care that the 
peasantry should not be plundered, upon any pretence, of the 
smallest article of their property. 
However he frequently degenerated into cruelty; but the 
vices of the times, in some measure, required it. In the pu¬ 
nishments he inflicted on the guilty, or those who were repu¬ 
ted so, the Christians were sharers. Against these he drew up 
several letters and edicts, preparatory to a very severe perse¬ 
cution ; but, if we may believe the credulous historians of 
the times, he was deterred, just as he was going to sign them, 
by a thunderbolt, which fell so near his person, that his 
escape was judged miraculous. 
His severities, at last, were the cause of his destruction. 
Menestheus, his principal secretary, having been threatened 
by him, began to consider how he might elude the premedi¬ 
tated blow. For this purpose he forged a roll of the names 
of several persons, whom he pretended the emperor had 
marked out for death, adding his own, to strengthen him in 
the confidence of the party. The scroll, thus contrived, was 
shewn with an air of the utmost secrecy to some of the per¬ 
sons concerned; and they, to procure their safety, immedi¬ 
ately agreed with him to destroy the emperor. This resolu - 
tion was soon put into execution; for, as Aurelian passed 
with a small guard from Uraclea in Thrace towards Byzan¬ 
tium, the conspirators set upon him, and put him to death. 
He]was slain in the sixtieth, or, as some say, the sixty-third 
year of his age, after a very active reign of almost five years. 
The death of Aurelian was so unexpected, and he had taken 
off such a number of competitors, that no one declared 
himself a candidate in the army, and, on the other side, the 
senate declined the election, so that a space of near eight 
months elapsed in the interchange of mutual deference. At 
length, however, the senate made choice of Tacitus, a man of 
great merit, but not ambitious of the honour of empire: 
he accepted with reluctance the reins of government, being at 
that time seventy-five years old. 
■ One of the first acts of his government was to punish those 
y?ho had conspired against the late emperor; particularly 
Menestheus, who was impaled alive, and his body thrown to 
wild beasts. During this reign, the senate seemed to have 
exercised a considerable share of authority. Upon endea- 
E iring to obtain the consulship for his brother Probus, the 
ate refused their consent; at which he seemed no way 
moved, but calmly remarked, that they best knew whom to 
choose. This moderatron prevailed in all the rest of his con - 
duct: he was extremely tempera* e; his table was’plain, 
and furnished with nothing expensive; he even prohibited 
bis empress from wearing jewels, and forbade the use of gold 
and embroidery. He was fond of learning, and the memory 
of such men as had deserved well of their country; particu¬ 
larly the works of his namesake Tacitus, the historian, were 
greatly honoured by him. He commanded that they should 
be placed in every public library throughout the empire, 
and that many copies of them should be transcribed at 
the public charge. 
A reign begun with such moderation and justice, only 
wanted continuance to have made the empire happy; but 
after enjoying the empire about six months, he died of a 
fever in his march to oppose the Persians and Scythians, who 
had invaded the eastern parts of the empire. 
On the demise of Tacitus, the army seemed divided in the 
choice of an emperor • one part of it chose Florian, brother to 
287 
the deceased, but the majority were for some time undeter¬ 
mined. They alleged, in their conferences with each 
other, the necessity of electing one eminent for valour, 
honesty, piety, clemency, and probity .- but the last 
virtue being that chiefly insisted upon, the whole 
army, as if by common consent, cried out that Probus 
should be the emperor. He was accordingly confirmed in this 
dignity, with all the usual solemnities; and Florian, his op¬ 
ponent, finding himself quite deserted, opened his arteries, and 
bled to death. 
Probus was forty-four years old when he ascended the 
throne: he was born of noble parentage at Sirmium in 
Pannonia, and bred up a soldier from his youth. He began 
early to distinguish himself for his discipline and valour; 
being frequently the first man that in besieging towns 
scaled the walls, or that burst into the enemy’s camp. He 
was equally remarkable for single combats, and saving the 
lives of many eminent citizens. Nor were his activity and 
courage, when elected to the empire, less apparent than in his 
private station. Every year now produced only new calam¬ 
ities to the empire; and fresh irruptions on every side 
threatened universal desolation; to oppose which, all the 
abilities of Probus were scarcely sufficient. Hp hastened, 
however, with an army to repress the Germans in Gaul, of 
whom he slew four hundred thousand; he then marched 
into Dalmatia, to oppose and subdue the Sarmatians. From 
thence he led his forces into Thrace, and compelled the 
Goths to sue for peace: He afterwards turned his arms to¬ 
wards Asia, subdued the province of Isauria; and, marching 
onwards, conquered a people called the Blemii, who, leaving 
their native forests of ^Ethiopia, had possessed themselves of 
Arabia and Judea. Narsius also, the king of Persia, sub¬ 
mitted at his approach; and upon his return into Europe, 
he divided the depopulated parts of Thrace among its bar¬ 
barous invadersa circumstance that afterwards produced 
great calamities in the empire. 
The diligence of Probus was not less conspicuous in sup¬ 
pressing intestine commotions. Saturnius, being compelled 
by the Egyptians to declare himself emperor, was defeated 
and slain. Proculus also, a person remarkable only for his 
great attachment to women, set up against the emperor, but 
being compelled to fly, was at length delivered up by the 
Germans. At the same time Bonosus, equally remarkable as a 
votary to Bacchus, rebelled, and being overcome, hanged 
himself in despair. Probu?, when he saw him, immediately 
after his death, could not avoid pointing at the body, and 
saying, “ There hangs not a man, but a bottle.” 
Notwithstanding every effort to give quiet to the empire, 
the barbarians who surrounded it kept it in continual 
alarms. The Goths and Vandals, finding the emperor en¬ 
gaged in quelling domestic disputes, renewed theiraccustomed 
inroads, and once more felt the punishment of their presump¬ 
tion. They were conquered in several engagements, and 
Probus returned in triumph to Rome. His active temper, 
however, would not suffer him to continue at rest while he 
had an enemy left to conquer. In his last expedition, he led 
his soldiers against the Persians, and going through Sirmium, 
the place of his nativity, he there employed several thousand 
of his soldiers in draining a fen that was incommodious to the 
inhabitants. The troops, however, disliking the labour of this 
task, mutinied, and attacked Probus as he was passing into 
one of the towns of Illyricum. The emperor escaped into an 
iron tower, which he had built for the purpose of watching 
the operations in the marshes; but having none of his guards 
along with him, he was overpowered and murdered in the 
50th year of his age, and the seventh of his reign. The 
news of this event occasioned great consternation in Rome. 
Both his friends and his enemies deplored his loss.; and the 
very army who had murdered him erected a monument over 
his body, with the inscription, “ Hie Probus imperator, 
vere Probus, situs est, victor omnium gentium barbarorum, 
victor etiam tyrannoram.” 
Probus was succeeded by Aurelius Carus, the prstorian 
prefect, who was proclaimed by the army; he appointed 
his 
