solitude and devastation. The awful distance preserved by their neighbors attested the terror of their arms, and in some measure defended them from the danger of unexpected in cursions." fomented of Rome. "The Bructeri" (it is Tacitus who now speaks) "were totally exterminated by the neighboring tribes," provoked by their insolence, allured by the hopes of spoil, and perby the policy haps inspired by the tutelar deities of the empire. Above sixty thousand barbarians were destroyed, not by the Roman arms, but in our sight and for our entertainment. May the nations, enemies of Rome, ever preserve this enmity to each other! We have now attained the utmost verge of prosperity," and have nothing left to demand of fortune except the discord of the barbarians." These sentiments, less worthy of the humanity than of the patriotism of Tacitus, express the invariable maxims of the policy of his countrymen. They deemed it a much safer expedient to divide than to combat the barbarians, from whose defeat they could derive neither honor nor advantage. The money and negotiations of Rome insinuated themselves into the heart of Germany, and every art of seduction was used with dignity to conciliate those nations whom their proximity to the Rhine or Danube might render the most useful friends as well as the most troublesome enemies. Chiefs of renown and power were flattered by the most trifling presents, which they received either as marks of distinction or as the instruments of luxury. In civil dissensions the weaker faction endeavored to strengthen its interest by entering into secret connections with the governors of the frontier provinces. Every quarrel among the Germans was fomented by the intrigues of Rome, 17 Cæsar de Bell. Gall. 1. vi. 23. 18 They are mentioned, however, in the fourth and fifth centuries by Nazarius, Ammianus, Claudian, etc., as a tribe of Franks. See Cluver. Germ. Antiq. 1. iii. c. 13. 19 Urgentibus is the common reading, but good-sense, Lipsius, and some MSS. declare for Vergentibus. [The common reading urgentibus gives a good sense: see Orelli ad loc.-S.] 80 Tacit. Germ. c. 33. The pious Abbé de la Bleterie is very angry with Taci tus, talks of the devil who was a murderer from the beginning, etc., etc. and every plan of union and public good was defeated by the stronger bias of private jealousy and interest."1 Transient Marcus An 82 The general conspiracy which terrified the Romans under the reign of Marcus Antoninus comprehended almost all the nations of Germany, and even Sarmatia, from the union against mouth of the Rhine to that of the Danube. It is toninus. impossible for us to determine whether this hasty confederation was formed by necessity, by reason, or by passion; but we may rest assured that the barbarians were neither allured by the indolence nor provoked by the ambition of the Roman monarch. This dangerous invasion required all the firmness and vigilance of Marcus. He fixed generals of ability in the several stations of attack, and assumed in person the conduct of the most important province on the Upper Danube. After a long and doubtful conflict, the spirit of the barbarians was subdued. The Quadi and the Marcomanni," who had taken the lead in the war, were the most severely punished in its catastrophe. They were commanded to retire five miles from their own banks of the Danube, and to deliver up the flower of the youth, who were immediately sent into Britain, a remote island, where they might be secure 81 Many traces of this policy may be discovered in Tacitus and Dion; and many more may be inferred from the principles of human nature. 82 Hist. August. p. 31. [Capitol. M. Ant. Phil. c. 22.] Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xxxi. c. 5. Aurel. Victor. [de Cæsar. c. 16]. The Emperor Marcus was reduced to sell the rich furniture of the palace, and to enlist slaves and robbers. 83 The Marcomanni, a colony who, from the banks of the Rhine, occupied Bohemia and Moravia, had once erected a great and formidable monarchy under their king Maroboduus. See Strabo, 1. vii. [p. 290]. Vell. Pat. ii. 108. Tacit. Annal. ii. 63.a 84 Mr. Wotton (History of Rome, p. 166) increases the prohibition to ten times the distance. His reasoning is specious, but not conclusive. Five miles were sufficient for a fortified barrier. a The name Marc-o-manni, the March-men or borderers, appears to have been given to different tribes on the different marches or confines of Germany, and not to have been the name of one and the same people. Since there were Marcomanni in the army of Ariovistus on the Rhine (Cæs. Bell. Gall. i. c. 51), it was inferred, as Gibbon has stated in his note, that the Marcomanni of Maroboduus were a colony from the Marcomanni on the Rhine; but there may have been no connection between them, the Marcomanni of Ariovistus being the Marchmen of the Gallic march, and the Marcomanni of Maroboduus being the Marchmen of the RhætoPannonian march. See Latham, The Germania of Tacitus, Proleg. p. liii, seq.-S. as hostages and useful as soldiers." On the frequent rebellions of the Quadi and Marcomanni, the irritated emperor resolved to reduce their country into the form of a province. His designs were disappointed by death. This formidable league, however, the only one that appears in the two first centuries of the imperial history, was entirely dissipated without leaving any traces behind in Germany. Distinction of the German tribes. In the course of this introductory chapter we have confined ourselves to the general outlines of the manners of Germany, without attempting to describe or to distinguish the various tribes which filled that great country in the time of Cæsar, of Tacitus, or of Ptolemy. As the ancient, or as new tribes successively present themselves in the series of this history, we shall concisely mention their origin, their situation, and their particular character. Modern nations are fixed and permanent societies, connected among themselves by laws and government, bound to their native soil by arts and agriculture. The German tribes were voluntary and fluctuating associations of soldiers, almost of savages. The same territory often changed its inhabitants in the tide of conquest and emigration. The same communities, uniting in a plan of defence or invasion, bestowed a new title on their new confederacy. The dissolution of an ancient confederacy restored to the independent tribes their peculiar but long-forgotten appellation. A victorious state often communicated its own name to a vanquished people. Sometimes crowds of volunteers flocked from all parts to the standard of a favorite leader; his camp became their country, and some circumstance of the enterprise soon gave a common denomi nation to the mixed multitude. The distinctions of the fe rocious invaders were perpetually varied by themselves, and confounded by the astonished subjects of the Roman empire." Wars and the administration of public affairs are the prin cipal subjects of history; but the number of persons inter 85 Dion, 1. lxxi. [e. 11 seq.] lxxii. [c. 2]. 86 See an excellent dissertation on the origin and migrations of nations, in the Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, tom. xviii. p. 48-71. It is seldom that the antiquarian and the philosopher are so happily blended. Numbers. ested in these busy scenes is very different, according to the different condition of mankind. In great monarchies millions of obedient subjects pursue their useful occupations in peace and obscurity. The attention of the writer, as well as of the reader, is solely confined to a court, a capital, a regular army, and the districts which happen to be the occasional scene of military operations. But a state of freedom and barbarism, the season of civil commotions, or the situation of petty republics," raises almost every member of the community into action, and consequently into notice. The irregular divisions and the restless motions of the people of Germany dazzle our imagination, and seem to multiply their numbers. The profuse enumeration of kings and warriors, of armies and nations, inclines us to forget that the same objects are continually repeated under a variety of appellations, and that the most splendid appellations have been frequently lavished on the most inconsiderable objects. 87 Should we suspect that Athens contained only 21,000 citizens, and Sparta no more than 39,000? See Hume and Wallace on the number of mankind in ancient and modern times.a a This number, though too positively stated, is probably not far wrong as an average estimate. On the subject of Athenian population, see St. Croix, Acad. des Inscrip. xlviii.; Böckh, Public Economy of Athens, i. 47, Eng. trans.; Fynes Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, vol. i. p. 381. The latter author estimates the citizens of Sparta at 33,000.-M. CHAPTER X. The Emperors Decius, Gallus, Emilianus, Valerian, and Gallienus.-The general Irruption of the Barbarians.-The Thirty Tyrants. The nature of A.D. 248-268. FROM the great secular games celebrated by Philip to the death of the Emperor Gallienus, there elapsed twenty years of shame and misfortune. During that calamitous the subject. period, every instant of time was marked, every province of the Roman world was afflicted, by barbarous invaders and military tyrants, and the ruined empire seemed to approach the last and fatal moment of its dissolution. The confusion of the times and the scarcity of authentic memorials oppose equal difficulties to the historian who attempts to preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration. Surrounded with imperfect fragments, always concise, often obscure, and sometimes contradictory, he is reduced to collect, to compare, and to conjecture; and though he ought never to place his conjectures in the rank of facts, yet the knowledge of human nature, and of the sure operation of its fierce and unrestrained passions, might, on some occasions, supply the want of historical materials. The Emper or Philip. There is not, for instance, any difficulty in conceiving that the successive murders of so many emperors had loosened ali the ties of allegiance between the prince and people; that all the generals of Philip were disposed to imitate the example of their master; and that the caprice of armies long since habituated to frequent and violent revo lutions might every day raise to the throne the most obscure of their fellow-soldiers. History can only add that the rebellion against the Emperor Philip broke out in the summer of the year two hundred and forty-nine, among the legions of |