A.D. 280, lus in Gaul. 53 The revolt of Saturninus was scarcely extinguished in the East, before new troubles were excited in the West by the rebellion of Bonosus and Proculus in Gaul. The most distinguished merit of those two officers was their respective prowess, of the one in the combats of Bacchus, of the other in those of Venus; yet neither of them were destitute of courage and capacity, and both sustained with honor the august character which the fear of punishment had engaged them to assume, till they sunk at length beneath the superior genius of Probus. He used the victory with his accustomed moderation, and spared the fortunes as well as the lives of their innocent families."4 A.D. 281. Triumph of The arms of Probus had now suppressed all the foreign and domestic enemies of the State. His mild but steady administration confirmed the re-establishment of the the Emperor public tranquillity; nor was there left in the provProbus. inces a hostile barbarian, a tyrant, or even a robber, to revive the memory of past disorders. It was time that the emperor should revisit Rome, and celebrate his own glory and the general happiness. The triumph due to the valor of Probus was conducted with a magnificence suitable to his fortune; and the people, who had so lately admired the trophies of Aurelian, gazed with equal pleasure on those of his heroic successor." We cannot on this occasion forget the desperate courage of about fourscore gladiators, reserved, with near six hundred others, for the inhuman sports of the amphitheatre. Disdaining to shed their blood for the amusement of the populace, they killed their keepers, broke from the place of their confinement, and filled the streets of Rome with blood and 53 A very surprising instance is recorded of the prowess of Proculus. He had Laken one hundred Sarmatian virgins. The rest of the story he must relate in his own language: "Ex his unâ nocte decem inivi; omnes tamen, quod in me erat, mulieres intra dies quindecim reddidi.”—Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 246 [in Proculo, 12]. 54 Proculus, who was a native of Albengue, on the Genoese coast, armed two thousand of his own slaves. His riches were great, but they were acquired by robbery. It was afterwards a saying of his family, "Sibi non placere esse vel principes vel latrones."-Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 247 [in Proculo, 13]. 55 Hist. August. p. 240. [Vopisc. in Probo, c. 19.] confusion. After an obstinate resistance, they were overpowered and cut in pieces by the regular forces; but they obtained at least an honorable death, and the satisfaction of a just revenge. His discipline. 56 The military discipline which reigned in the camps of Probus was less cruel than that of Aurelian, but it was equally rigid and exact. The latter had punished the irregularities of the soldiers with unrelenting severity, the former prevented them by employing the legions in constant and useful labors. When Probus commanded in Egypt, he executed many considerable works for the splendor and benefit of that rich country. The navigation of the Nile, so important to Rome itself, was improved; and temples, bridges, porticoes, and palaces were constructed by the hands of the soldiers, who acted by turns as architects, as engineers, and as husbandmen." It was reported of Hannibal that, in order to preserve his troops from the dangerous temptations of idleness, he had obliged them to form large plantations of olive-trees along the coast of Africa. From a similar principle, Probus exercised his legions in covering with rich vineyards the hills of Gaul and Pannonia, and two considerable spots are described which were entirely dug and planted by military labor." One of these, known under the name of Mount Alma, was situated near Sirmium, the country where Probus was born, for which he ever retained a partial affection, and whose gratitude he endeavored to secure, by converting into tillage a large and unhealthy tract of marshy ground. An army thus employed constituted, perhaps, the most useful as well as the bravest portion of Roman subjects. 58 56 Zosim. l. i. [c. 71] p. 66. 57 Hist. August. p. 236. [Vopisc. in Probo, c. 9.] 58 Aurel. Victor. in Prob. [De Cæsar. c. 37.] But the policy of Hannibal, unnoticed by any more ancient writer, is irreconcilable with the history of his life. He left Africa when he was nine years old, returned to it when he was forty-five, and immediately lost his army in the decisive battle of Zama. Livius, xxx. 35. 59 Hist. August. p. 240. [Vopisc. Probus, c. 18.] Eutrop. ix. 17 [7]. Aurel. Victor. in Prob. Victor Junior. He revoked the prohibition of Domitian, and granted a general permission of planting vines to the Gauls, the Britons, and the Pannonians. His death. But, in the prosecution of a favorite scheme, the best of men, satisfied with the rectitude of their intentions, are subject to forget the bounds of moderation; nor did Probus himself sufficiently consult the patience and disposition of his fierce legionaries." The dangers of the military profession seem only to be compensated by a life of pleasure and idleness; but if the duties of the soldier are incessantly aggravated by the labors of the peasant, he will at last sink under the intolerable burden or shake it off with indignation. The imprudence of Probus is said to have inflamed the discontent of his troops. More attentive to the interests of mankind than to those of the army, he expressed the vain hope that, by the establishment of universal peace, he should soon abolish the necessity of a standing and mercenary force." The unguarded expression proved fatal to him. In one of the hottest days of summer, as he severely urged the unwholesome labor of draining the marshes of Sirmium, the soldiers, impatient of fatigue, on a sudden threw down their tools, grasped their arms, and broke out into a furious mutiny. The emperor, conscious of his danger, took refuge in a lofty tower constructed for the purpose of surveying the progress of the work." The tower was instantly August. forced, and a thousand swords were plunged at once into the bosom of the unfortunate Probus. The rage of the troops subsided as soon as it had been gratified. They then lamented their fatal rashness, forgot the severity of the emperor whom they had massacred, and hastened to perpetuate, by an honorable monument, the memory of his virtues. and victories.63 a A.D. 282. 60 Julian [Cæsares, p. 314] bestows a severe, and indeed excessive, censure on the rigor of Probus, who, as he thinks, almost deserved his fate. 61 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 241 [in Probo, c. 20]. He lavishes on this idle hope a large stock of very foolish eloquence. 62 iron. Turris ferrata." It seems to have been a movable tower and cased with 63 [Hic] "Probus, et vere probus situs est; Victor omnium gentium Barbararum: victor etiam tyrannorum."-[Vopisc. Prob. c. 21.] • Probus survived August 29, A. D. 282, because coins after that date were issued at Alexandria. See Clinton, Fasti Rom. vol. i. p. 322.-S. When the legions had indulged their grief and repentance for the death of Probus, their unanimous consent declared Election and Carus, his Prætorian præfect, the most deserving of the imperial throne. Every circumstance that relates to this prince appears of a mixed and doubt character of Carus. ful nature. He gloried in the title of Roman citizen, and affected to compare the purity of his blood with the foreign, and even barbarous, origin of the preceding emperors; yet the most inquisitive of his contemporaries, very far from admitting his claim, have variously deduced his own birth, or that of his parents, from Illyricum, from Gaul, or from Africa." Though a soldier, he had received a learned education; though a senator, he was invested with the first dignity of the army; and in an age when the civil and military professions began to be irrecoverably separated from each other, they were united in the person of Carus. Notwithstanding the severe justice which he exercised against the assassins of Probus, to whose favor and esteem he was highly indebted, he could not escape the suspicion of being accessary to a deed from whence he derived the principal advantage. He enjoyed, at least before his elevation, an acknowledged character of virtue and abilities;" but his austere temper insensibly degenerated into moroseness and cruelty; and the imperfect writers of his life almost hesitate whether they shall not rank him in the number of Roman tyrants." When Carus assumed the purple he was about sixty years of age, and his two sons, Carinus and Numerian, had already attained the season of manhood." 64 Yet all this may be conciliated. He was born at Narbonne, in Illyricum, confounded by Eutropius with the more famous city of that name in Gaul. His father might be an African, and his mother a noble Roman. Carus himself was educated in the capital. See Scaliger, Animadversion. ad Euseb. Chron. p. 241. 65 Probus had requested of the senate an equestrian statue and a marble palace, at the public expense, as a just recompense of the singular merit of Carus. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 249 [in Caro, c. 6]. 66 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 242, 249 [in Probo, c. 24; in Caro, c. 3]. Julian excludes the Emperor Carus and both his sons from the banquet of the Cæsars. 67 John Malala, tom. i. p. 401 [edit. Oxon.; p. 129, edit. Ven. ; p. 303, edit. The sentiments of the senate 69 The authority of the senate expired with Probus; nor was the repentance of the soldiers displayed by the same dutiful regard for the civil power which they had testified after the unfortunate death of Aurelian. The elecand people. tion of Carus was decided without expecting the approbation of the senate, and the new emperor contented himself with announcing, in a cold and stately epistle, that he had ascended the vacant throne." A behavior so very opposite to that of his amiable predecessor afforded no favorable presage of the new reign: and the Romans, deprived of power and freedom, asserted their privilege of licentious murmurs. The voice of congratulation and flattery was not, however, silent; and we may still peruse, with pleasure and contempt, an eclogue which was composed on the accession of the Emperor Carus. Two shepherds, avoiding the noontide heat, retire into the cave of Faunus. On a spreading beech they discover some recent characters. The rural deity had described, in prophetic verses, the felicity promised to the empire under the reign of so great a prince. Faunus hails the approach of that hero, who, receiving on his shoulders the sinking weight of the Roman world, shall extinguish war and faction, and once again restore the innocence and security of the golden age." Carus defeats the Sarmatians, 70 It is more than probable that these elegant trifles never reached the ears of a veteran general who, with the consent of the legions, was preparing to execute the longsuspended design of the Persian war. Before his and marches departure for this distant expedition, Carus coninto the East. ferred on his two sons, Carinus and Numerian, the title of Cæsar, and, investing the former with almost an equal share of the imperial power, directed the young prince first Bonn]. But the authority of that ignorant Greek is very slight. He ridiculously derives from Carus the city of Carrhæ and the province of Caria, the latter of which is mentioned by Homer. 68 Hist. August. p. 249. [Vopisc. Carus, c. 5.] Carus congratulated the sen ate that one of their own order was made emperor. 69 Hist. August. p. 242. [Vopisc. Probus, c. 24.] 70 See the first eclogue of Calpurnius. The design of it is preferred by Fonte nelle to that of Virgil's Pollio. See tom. iii. p. 148. [See note, p. 606.-S. |