V.

affected civility of the Emperor with fmiles of CHA P. complacency, and profeffions of duty. But the people, fecure in their numbers and obfcurity, gave a free vent to their paffions. The streets and public places of Rome refounded with clamours and imprecations. The enraged multitude affronted the perfon of Julian, rejected his liberality, and, confcious of the impotence of their own resentment, they called aloud on the legions of the frontiers to affert the violated majesty of the Roman empire.

Syria, and

declare

against Ju

The public difcontent was foon diffufed from The armies the centre to the frontiers of the empire. The of Britain, armies of Britain, of Syria, and of Illyricum, Pannonia, lamented the death of Pertinax, in whofe company, or under whofe command, they had fo lian. often fought and conquered. They received with furprise, with indignation, and perhaps with envy, the extraordinary intelligence, that the Prætorians had difpofed of the empire by public auction; and they fternly refused to ratify the ignominious bargain. Their immediate and unanimous revolt was fatal to Julian, but it was fatal at the fame time to the public peace; as the generals of the refpective armies, Clodius Albinus, Pefcennius Niger, and Septimius Severus, were still more anxious to fucceed 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

is Dion, 1. lxxiii. p. 1235.

cha

CHAP. characters, they were all foldiers of experience and capacity.

V.

Clodius

Britain.

Clodius Albinus, governor of Britain, furAlbinus in paffed both his competitors in the nobility of his extraction, which he derived from fome of the moft illuftrious names of the old republic". But the branch from whence he claimed his defcent, was funk into mean circumstances, and tranfplanted into a remote province. It is dif ficult to form a juft idea of his true character. Under the philofophic cloak of aufterity, he ftands accused of concealing most of the vices which degrade human nature". But his accufers are thofe venal writers who adored the fortune of Severus, and trampled on the afhes of an unfuccefsful rival. Virtue, or the appearances virtue, recommended Albinus to the confidence and good opinion of Marcus; and his preferving with the fon the fame intereft which he had acquired with the father, is a proof at least that he was poffeffed of a very flexible difpofition. 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 fuch a man ufeful to his own fervice. It does not appear that Albinus ferved the fon of Marcus, either as the minifter of his cruelties, or even as the affociate of his pleasures.

of

The

"The Pofthumian and the Cejonian; the former of whom was raised to the confulfhip in the fifth year after its inftitution.

17 Spartanius, in his undigefted collections, mixes up all the virtues and all the vices that enter into the human composition, and bestows them on the fame object. Such, indeed, are many of the characters in the Auguftan History.

He

V

He was employed in a distant honourable com- CHAP. mand, when he received a confidential letter from the Emperor, acquainting him of the treafonable defigns of fome difcontented generals, and authorifing him to declare himself the guardian and fucceffor of the throne, by affuming the title and enfigns of Cæfar 18. The governor of Britain wifely declined the dangerous honour, which would have marked him for the jealoufy, or involved him in the approaching ruin, of Commodus. He courted power by nobler, or, at least, by more fpecious arts. On a premature report of the death of the Emperor, he affembled his troops; and, in an eloquent difcourfe, deplored the inevitable mifchiefs of defpotifm, defcribed the happiness and glory which their ancestors had enjoyed under the confular government, and declared his firm refolution to reinftate the fenate 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 fecret murmur of applaufe. Safe in the poffeffion of this little world, and in the command of an army lefs diftinguifhed indeed for difcipline than for numbers and valour, Albinus braved the menaces of Commodus, maintained towards Pertinax a ftately ambiguous referve, and inftantly declared against

18 Hift. Auguft. p. 80. 84.

19 Pertinax, who governed Britain a few years before, had been left for dead, in a mutiny of the foldiers. Hift. Auguft. p. 54. Yet they loved and regretted him; admirantibus eam virtutem cui irafcebantur.

VOL. I.

N

the

V.

CHAP. the ufurpation of Julian. The convulfions of the capital added new weight to his fentiments, or rather to his profeffions of patriotifm. A regard to decency induced him to decline the lofty titles of Auguftus and Emperor; and he imitated perhaps the example of Galba, who, on a fimilar occafion, had ftyled himself the Lieutenant of the fenate and people 20.

Pefcennius
Niger in

Syria.

Perfonal merit alone had raised Pefcennius Niger, from an obfcure birth and station, to the government of Syria; a lucrative and important command, which, in times of civil confufion, gave him a near profpect of the throne. Yet his parts feem to have been better fuited to the fecond than to the firft 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 feveral useful inftitutions from a vanquished enemy". In his government, Niger acquired the efteem of the foldiers, and the love of the provincials. His rigid discipline fortified the valour and confirmed the obedience of the former, whilst the voluptuous Syrians were lefs 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 feftivals 22. As foon as the intel

20 Sueton. in Galb. c. 10.

"Hist. August. p. 76.

22 Herod. 1. ii. p. 68. The chronicle of John Malala, of Antioch, fhews the zealous attachment of his countrymen to these feftivals, which at once gratified their fuperftition and their love of

pleasure.

ligence

V.

ligence of the atrocious murder of Pertinax had CHA P. reached Antioch, the wishes of Afia invited Niger to affume the Imperial purple and revenge his death. The legions of the eastern frontier embraced his caufe; the opulent but unarmed provinces from the frontiers of Ethiopia 23 to the Hadriatic, cheerfully fubmitted to his power; and the kings beyond the Tigris and the Euphrates congratulated his election, and offered him their homage and fervices. The mind of Niger was not capable of receiving this fudden tide of fortune: he flattered himself that his acceffion would be undisturbed by competition, and unftained by civil blood; and whilft he enjoyed the vain pomp of triumph, he neglected to fecure the means of victory. Inftead of entering into an effectual negociation with the powerful armies of the Weft, whofe refolution might decide, or at least must balance, the mighty conteft; instead of advancing without delay, towards Rome and Italy, where his prefence was impatiently expected 24, Niger trifled away, in the luxury of Antioch, thofe irretrievable moments which were diligently improved by the decifive activity of Severus 25.

23 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 ftrongly fufpect, mistaken, he has brought to light a dynasty of tributary princes totally unknown to history.

24 Dion, 1. lxxiii. p. 1238. Herod. 1. ii. p. 67. A verse in every one's mouth at that time, feems to express the general opinion of the three rivals; Optimus eft Niger, bonus Afer, peffimus Albus. Hist. Auguft. p. 75.

25 Herodian, l. ii. p. 71.