He had reason to tremble. On the throne of the world he found himself without a friend, and even without an adherent. The guards themselves were ashamed of the prince, whom their avarice had persuaded them to accept; nor was there a citizen who did not consider his elevation with horror, as the last insult on the Roman name. The nobility, whose conspicuous station and ample possessions exacted the strictest caution, dissembled their sentiments, and met the affected civility of the emperor with smiles of complacency, and professions of duty. But the people, secure in their numbers and obscurity, gave a free vent to their passions. The streets and public places of Rome resounded with clamours and imprecations. The enraged multitude affronted the person of Julian, rejected his liberality, and conscious of the impotence of their own resentment, they called aloud on the legions of the frontiers to assert the violated majesty of the Roman empire.

The public discontent was soon diffused from the centre to the frontiers of the empire. The armies of Britain, of Syria, and of Illyricum, lamented the death of Pertinax, in whose company, or under whose command, they had so often fought and conquered. They received with surprise, with

1255):-"Hoc modo quum imperium senatûs consultis stabilisset, in palatium proficiscitur; ubi cum invenisset cœnam paratam Pertinaci, derisit illam vehementer, et arcessitis unde et quoquo modo tum potuit, pretiosissimis quibusque rebus, mortuo adhuc intus jacente, semel ingurgitavit, lusit aleis, et Pyladem saltatorem cum aliis quibusdam adsumpsit." (The decrees of the senate having thus confirmed his imperial dignity, he proceeded to the palace. Scornfully ridiculing the supper which he there found prepared for Pertinax, he collected, whencesoever, and by whatever means he could, the most expensive fare, and feasted on it, while the dead body of his predecessor was yet within the same walls; he played, too, at dice, and amused himself with Pylades the dancer and others.) Gibbon has added to Dion's narrative the concluding sentence in that of Spartianus. This does not reconcile the two passages. Reimarus does not attempt to render such glaring differences consistent with each other; after discussing the value of the two authorities, he gave the preference to that of Dion, whose statements are also confirmed by Herodian (lib. 2, 7, 1). See his commentary on this passage in Dion.-GUIZOT.] [In estimating these authorities we must bear in mind, that Dion lived and held office at the time; that Herodian was the next in order of time; and that Spartianus was a century later. Gibbon, no, doubt, considered this; and what was the most probable course of such a transaction, as well as the most natural conduct of such actors-ED.]

indignation, and perhaps with envy, the extraordinary intelligence, that the prætorians had disposed of the empire by public auction; and they sternly refused to ratify the ignominous bargain. Their immediate and unanimous revolt was fatal to Julian, but it was fatal, at the same time, to the public peace; as the generals of the respective armies, Clodius Albinus, Pescennius Niger, and Septimius Severus, were still more anxious to succeed than to revenge the murdered Pertinax. Their forces were exactly balanced. Each of them was at the head of three legions,* with a numerous train of auxiliaries; and, however different in their characters, they were all soldiers of experience and capacity.

Clodius Albinus, governor of Britain, surpassed both his competitors in the nobility of his extraction, which he derived from some of the most illustrious names of the old republic. But the branch from whence he claimed his descent was sunk into mean circumstances, and transplanted into a remote province. It is difficult to form a just idea of his true character. Under the philosophic cloak of austerity, he stands accused of concealing most of the vices which degrade human nature. But his accusers are those venal writers who adored the fortune of Severus, and trampled on the ashes of an unsuccessful rival. Virtue, or the appearances of virtue, recommended Albinus to the confidence and good opinion of Marcus; and his preserving with the son the same interest which he had acquired with the father, is a proof at least that he was possessed of a very flexible disposition. The favour of a tyrant does not always suppose a want of merit in the object of it; he may, without intending it, reward a man of worth and ability, or he may find such a man useful to his own service. It does not appear that Albinus served the son of Marcus, either as the minister of his cruelties, or even as the associate of his pleasures. He was employed in a distant honourable command, when he received a confidential letter from the emperor, acquainting him of the treasonable designs of some

Dion, i. 73, p. 1235. The Posthumian and the Cejonian, the former of whom was raised to the consulship in the fifth year after its institution. Spartianus, in his undigested collections, mixes up all the virtues and all the vices that enter into the human composition, and bestows them on the same object. Such, indeed, are many of the characters in the Augustan History.

discontented génerals, and authorizing him to declare himself the guardian and successor of the throne, by assuming the title and ensigns of Cæsar.* The governor of Britain wisely declined the dangerous honour, which would have marked him for the jealousy, or involved him in the approaching ruin, of Commodus. He courted power by nobler, or, at least, by more specious arts. On a premature report of the death of the emperor, he assembled his troops; and, in an eloquent discourse, deplored the inevitable mischief of despotism, described the happiness and glory which their ancestors had enjoyed under the consular government, and declared his firm resolution to reinstate the senate and people in their legal authority. This popular harangue was answered by the loud acclamations of the British legions, and received at Rome with a secret murmur of applause. Safe in the possession of this little world, and in the command of an army less distinguished indeed for discipline than for numbers and valour, Albinus braved the menaces of Commodus, maintained towards Pertinax a stately ambiguous reserve, and instantly declared against the usurpation of Julian. The convulsions of the capital added new weight to his sentiments, or rather to his professions of patriotism. A regard to decency induced him to decline. the lofty titles of Augustus and emperor; and he imitated perhaps the example of Galba, who, on a similar occasion, had styled himself the lieutenant of the senate and people.

Personal merit alone had raised Pescennius Niger from an obscure birth and station, to the government of Syria; a lucrative and important command, which, in times of civil confusion, gave him a near prospect of the throne. Yet his parts seem to have been better suited to the second than to the first rank; he was an unequal rival, though he might have approved himself an excellent lieutenant, to Severus, who afterwards displayed the greatness of his mind by adopting several useful institutions from a vanquished enemy.§ In his government, Niger acquired the esteem of the sol

* Hist. August. p. 80, 84.

Pertinax, who governed Britain a few years before, had been left for dead, in a mutiny of the soldiers. Hist. August. p. 54. Yet they loved and regretted him; admirantibus eam virtutem cui irascebantur. Sueton. in Galb. c. 10.

§ Hist. August. p. 76.

diers and the love of the provincials. His rigid discipline fortified the valour, and confirmed the obedience of the former, whilst the voluptuous Syrians were less delighted with the mild firmness of his administration, than with the affability of his manners, and the apparent pleasure with which he attended their frequent and pompous festivals. As soon as the intelligence of the atrocious murder of Pertinax had reached Antioch, the wishes of Asia invited Niger to assume the imperial purple, and revenge his death. The legions of the eastern frontier embraced his cause; the opulent but unarmed provinces, from the frontiers of Ethiopia † to the Adriatic, cheerfully submitted to his power; and the kings beyond the Tigris and the Euphrates congratulated his election, and offered him their homage and services. The mind of Niger was not capable of receiving this sudden tide of fortune; he flattered himself that his accession would be undisturbed by competition, and unstained by civil blood; and whilst he enjoyed the vain pomp of triumph, he neglected to secure the means of victory. Instead of entering into an effectual negotiation with the powerful armies of the west, whose resolution might decide, or at least must balance, the mighty contest; instead of advancing without delay towards Rome and Italy, where his presence was impatiently expected, Niger trifled away, in the luxury of Antioch, those irretrievable moments which were diligently improved by the decisive activity of Severus.§

The country of Pannonia and Dalmatia, which occupied the space between the Danube and the Adriatic, was one of the last and most difficult conquests of the Romans. In the defence of national freedom, two hundred thousand of these barbarians had once appeared in the field, alarmed the declining age of Augustus, and exercised the vigilant prudence

* Herod. 1. 2, p. 68. The chronicle of John Malala, of Antioch, shows the zealous attachment of his countrymen to these festivals, which at once gratified their superstition, and their love of pleasure. + A king of Thebes, in Egypt, is mentioned in the Augustan history as an ally, and, indeed, as a personal friend of Niger. If Spartianus is not, as I strongly suspect, mistaken, he has brought to light a dynasty of tributary princes totally unknown to history. Dion,

1. 73, p. 1238. Herod. 1. 2, p. 67. A verse in every one's mouth at that time, seems to express the general opinion of the three rivals: Optimus est Niger, bonus Afer, pessimus Albus. Hist. August. p. 75. § Herodian, 1. 2, p. 71.

of Tiberius, at the head of the collected force of the empire.* The Pannonians yielded at length to the arms and institutions of Rome. Their recent subjection, however, the neighbourhood, and even the mixture, of the unconquered tribes, and perhaps the climate, adapted, as it has been observed, to the production of great bodies and slow minds,† all contributed to preserve some remains of their original ferocity, and under the tame and uniform countenance of Roman provincials, the hardy features of the natives were still to be discerned. Their warlike youth afforded an inexhaustible supply of recruits to the legions stationed on the banks of the Danube, and which, from a perpetual warfare against the Germans and Sarmatians, were deservedly esteemed the best troops in

the service.

The Pannonian army was at this time commanded by Septimius Severus, a native of Africa, who, in the gradual ascent of private honours, had concealed his daring ambition, which was never diverted from its steady course by the allurements of pleasure, the apprehension of danger, or the feelings of humanity. On the first news of the murder of Pertinax, he assembled his troops, painted in the most lively colours the crime, the insolence, and weakness, of the prætorian guards, and animated the legions to arms and to revenge. He concluded (and the peroration was thought extremely eloquent) with promising every soldier about four hundred pounds; an honourable donative, double in value to the infamous bribe with which Julian had purchased the empire. The acclamations of the army immediately saluted Severus with the names of Augustus Pertinax and emperor; and he thus attained the lofty station to which he was invited, by conscious merit, and a long train of dreams and omens, the fruitful offspring either of his superstition or policy.||

* See an account of that memorable war in Velleius Paterculus, 2, 110, &c., who served in the army of Tiberius. + Such is the reflection of Herodian, 1. 2, p. 74. Will the modern Austrians allow the influence?

In the letter to Albinus, already mentioned, Commodus accuses Severus, as one of the ambitious generals who censured his conduct, and wished to occupy his place. Hist. August. p. 80. § Pannonia was too poor to supply such a sum. It was probably promised in the camp, and paid at Rome, after the victory. In fixing the sum, I have adopted the conjecture of Casaubon. See Hist. August. p. 66. Comment. p. Herodian, 1. 2, p. 78. Severus was declared emperor on

115.