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Part II.
His acknowledgec merit, and the success of his arms against
Florianus, left him without an enemy or a competitor. Yet, if we
may credit his own professions, very far from being desirous of the
empire, he had accepted it with the most sincere reluctance.
"But it is no longer in my power," says Probus, in a private letter, "to lay down a title so full of envy and of danger. I must
continue to personate the character which the soldiers have imposed upon me." 25 His dutiful address to the senate displayed
the sentiments, or at least the language, of a Roman patriot: "When you elected one of your order, conscript fathers! to succeed
the emperor
Aurelian, you acted in a manner suitable to your justice and wisdom. For you are the legal sovereigns of the world,
and the power which you derive from your ancestors will descend to your posterity. Happy would it have been, if
Florianus,
instead of usurping the purple of his brother, like a private inheritance, had expected what your majesty might determine, either
in his favor, or in that of other person. The prudent soldiers have punished his rashness. To me they have offered the title of
Augustus. But I submit to your clemency my pretensions and my merits."
26 When this respectful epistle was read by the
consul, the senators were unable to disguise their satisfaction, that
Probus should condescend thus numbly to solicit a scepter
which he already possessed. They celebrated with the warmest gratitude his virtues, his exploits, and above all his moderation.
A decree immediately passed, without a dissenting voice, to ratify the election of the eastern armies, and to confer on their chief
all the several branches of the Imperial dignity: the names of
Caesar and
Augustus, the title of Father of his country, the right of
making in the same day three motions in the senate,
27 the office of
Pontifex,
Maximus, the
tribunitian power, and the
proconsular command; a mode of investiture, which, though it seemed to multiply the authority of the emperor, expressed the
constitution of the ancient republic. The reign of
Probus corresponded with this fair beginning. The senate was permitted to
direct the civil
administration of the empire. Their faithful general asserted the honor of the Roman arms, and often laid at their
feet crowns of gold and barbaric trophies, the fruits of his numerous victories.
28 Yet, whilst he gratified their vanity, he must
secretly have despised their indolence and weakness. Though it was every moment in their power to repeal the disgraceful edict
of
Gallienus, the proud successors of the
Scipios patiently acquiesced in their exclusion from all military employment. They
soon experienced, that those who refuse the sword must renounce the scepter.
Footnote 25: This letter was addressed to the Praetorian prefect, whom (on condition of his good behavior) he promised to continue in his great office. See Hist. August. p. 237.
Footnote 26: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 237. The date of the letter is assuredly faulty.
Footnote 27: Hist. August. p. 238. It is odd that the senate should treat Probus less favorably than Marcus Antoninus. That prince had received, even before the death of Pius, Jus quintoe relationis.
Footnote 28: See the dutiful letter of Probus to the senate, after his German victories. Hist. August. p. 239.
The strength of
Aurelian had crushed on every side the enemies of Rome. After his death they seemed to revive with an
increase of fury and of numbers. They were again vanquished by the active vigor of
Probus, who, in a short reign of about six
years,
29 equaled the fame of ancient heroes, and restored peace and order to every
province of the Roman world. The
dangerous
frontier of
Rhaetia he so firmly secured, that he left it without the suspicion of an enemy. He broke the wandering
power of the
Sarmatian tribes, and by the terror of his arms compelled those barbarians to relinquish their spoil. The
Gothic
nation courted the alliance of so warlike an emperor.
30 He attacked the
Isaurians in their mountains, besieged and took
several of their strongest castles,
31 and flattered himself that he had forever suppressed a domestic foe, whose independence
so deeply wounded the majesty of the empire. The troubles excited by the usurper
Firmus in the
Upper Egypt had never been
perfectly appeased, and the cities of
Ptolemais and
Coptos, fortified by the alliance of the Blemmyes, still maintained an
obscure rebellion. The chastisement of those cities, and of their auxiliaries the savages of the South, is said to have alarmed the
court of
Persia,
32 and the Great King sued in vain for the friendship of
Probus. Most of the exploits which distinguished his
reign were achieved by the personal valor and conduct of the emperor, insomuch that the writer of his life expresses some
amazement how, in so short a time, a single man could be present in so many distant wars. The remaining actions he entrusted to
the care of his lieutenants, the judicious choice of whom forms no inconsiderable part of his glory.
Carus,
Diocletian,
Maximian,
Constantius,
Galerius,
Asclepiodatus,
Annibalianus, and a crowd of other chiefs, who afterwards ascended or supported the
throne, were trained to arms in the severe school of
Aurelian and
Probus.
33
Footnote 29: The date and duration of the reign of Probus are very correctly ascertained by Cardinal Noris in his learned
work, De Epochis Syro-Macedonum, p. 96 - 105. A passage of Eusebius connects the second year of Probus with the eras
of several of the Syrian cities.
Footnote 30: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 239.
Footnote 31: Zosimus (l. i. p. 62 - 65) tells us a very long and trifling story of Lycius, the Isaurian robber.
Footnote 32: Zosim. l. i. p. 65. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 239, 240. But it seems incredible that the defeat of the savages of
Ethiopia could affect the Persian monarch.
Footnote 33: Besides these well-known chiefs, several others are named by Vopiscus, (Hist. August. p. 241,) whose actions
have not reached knowledge.
But the most important service which
Probus rendered to the republic was the deliverance of
Gaul, and the recovery of seventy flourishing cities oppressed by the
barbarians of Germany, who, since the death of
Aurelian,
had ravaged that great
province with impunity.
34 (…gee…Germans terrorizing the French…imagine that…)
Among the various multitude of those fierce invaders we may distinguish,
with some degree of clearness, three great armies, or rather nations, successively vanquished by the valor of
Probus. He drove
back the
Franks into their morasses; a descriptive circumstance from whence we may infer, that the
confederacy known by the
manly appellation of Free, already occupied the flat
maritime country, intersected and almost overflown by the stagnating
waters of the
Rhine, and that several tribes of the
Frisians and
Batavians had acceded to their alliance. He vanquished the
Burgundians, a considerable people of the
Vandal race.
* They had wandered in quest of booty from the banks of the
Oder
to those of the
Seine. They esteemed themselves sufficiently fortunate to purchase, by the restitution of all their booty, the
permission of an undisturbed retreat. They attempted to elude that article of the
treaty. Their punishment was immediate and
terrible.
35 But of all the invaders of
Gaul, the most formidable were the
Lygians, a distant people, who reigned over a wide
domain on the frontiers of
Poland and
Silesia.
36 In the Lygian nation, the Arii held the first rank by their numbers and
fierceness. Said
Tacitus: "
The Arii study to improve by art and circumstances the
innate terrors of their barbarism. Their shields are black, their bodies are painted black. They choose for the combat the
darkest hour of the night. Their host advances, covered as it were with a funeral shade; 37 nor do they often find an
enemy capable of sustaining so strange and infernal an aspect. Of all our senses, the eyes are the first vanquished in battle."
38
Yet the arms and discipline of the
Romans easily discomfited these
horrid phantoms. The
Lygii were defeated in a general
engagement, and
Semno, the most renowned of their chiefs, fell alive into the hands of
Probus. That prudent emperor, unwilling to
reduce a brave people to despair, granted them an honorable
capitulation, and permitted them to return in safety to their native country.
But the losses which they suffered in the march, the battle, and the retreat, broke the power of the nation: nor is the
Lygian name ever
repeated in the history either of
Germany or of the empire.
The deliverance of Gaul is reported to have cost the lives of four
hundred thousand of the invaders; a work of labor to the Romans, and of expense to the emperor, who gave a piece of gold for
the head of every barbarian.
39 But as the fame of warriors is built on the destruction of human kind, we may naturally
suspect, that the sanguinary account was multiplied by the avarice of the soldiers, and accepted without any very severe
examination by the liberal vanity of
Probus.
Footnote 34: See the Caesars of Julian, and Hist. August. p. 238, 240, 241.
Footnote *: It was only under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, that the Burgundians, in concert with the Alemanni,
invaded the interior of Gaul; under the reign of Probus, they did no more than pass the river which separated them from the
Roman Empire: they were repelled. Gatterer presumes that this river was the Danube; a passage in Zosimus appears to me
rather to indicate the Rhine. Zos. l. i. p. 37, edit H. Etienne, 1581.
Footnote 35: Zosimus, l. i. p. 62. Hist. August. p. 240. But the latter supposes the punishment
inflicted with the consent of their kings: if so, it was partial, like the offence.
Footnote 36: See Cluver. Germania Antiqua, l. iii. Ptolemy places in their country the city of Calisia, probably Calish in Silesia.
Note: Luden (vol ii. 501) supposes that these have been erroneously identified with the Lygii of Tacitus. Perhaps one fertile
source of mistakes has been, that the Romans have turned appellations into national names.
Footnote 37: Feralis umbra, is the expression of Tacitus: it is surely a very bold one.
Footnote 38: Tacit. Germania, (c. 43.)
Footnote 39: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 238
Since the expedition of
Maximin, the Roman generals had confined their ambition to a defensive war against the nations of
Germany, who perpetually pressed on the frontiers of the empire. The more daring
Probus pursued his
Gallic victories, passed
the
Rhine, and displayed his invincible eagles on the banks of the
Elbe and the Necker. He was fully convinced that nothing
could reconcile the minds of the barbarians to peace, unless they experienced, in their own country, the calamities of war.
Germany, exhausted by the ill success of the last emigration, was astonished by his presence. Nine of the most considerable
princes repaired to his camp, and fell prostrate at his feet. Such a treaty was humbly received by the Germans, as it pleased the
conqueror to dictate. He exacted a strict restitution of the effects and captives which they had carried away from the provinces;
and obliged their own magistrates to punish the more obstinate robbers who presumed to detain any part of the spoil. A
considerable
tribute of corn, cattle, and horses, the only wealth of barbarians, was reserved for the use of the garrisons which
Probus established on the limits of their
territory. He even entertained some thoughts of compelling the Germans to relinquish
the exercise of arms, and to trust their differences to the
justice, their safety to the power, of Rome. To accomplish these
salutary ends, the constant residence of an Imperial governor, supported by a numerous army, was indispensably requisite.
Probus therefore judged it more expedient to defer the execution of so great a design; which was indeed rather of specious than
solid utility.
40 Had Germany been reduced into the state of a
province, the Romans, with immense labor and expense, would
have acquired only a more extensive boundary to defend against the fiercer and more active barbarians of
Scythia.
Footnote 40: Hist. August. 238, 239. Vopiscus quotes a letter from the emperor to the senate, in which he mentions his design
of reducing Germany into a province.
Instead of reducing the warlike natives of
Germany to the condition of subjects,
Probus contented himself with the humble
expedient of raising a bulwark against their inroads. The country which now forms the circle of
Swabia had been left desert in
the age of
Augustus by the emigration of its ancient inhabitants.
41 The fertility of the soil soon attracted a new colony from the
adjacent provinces of
Gaul. Crowds of adventurers, of a roving temper and of desperate fortunes, occupied the doubtful
possession, and acknowledged, by the payment of tithes the majesty of the empire.
42 To protect these new subjects, a line
of
frontier garrisons was gradually extended from the Rhine to the Danube. About the reign of
Hadrian, when that mode of
defense began to be practiced, these garrisons were connected and covered by a strong entrenchment of trees and palisades. In
the place of so rude a bulwark, the emperor
Probus constructed a stone wall of a considerable height, and strengthened it by
towers at convenient distances. From the neighborhood of
Newstadt and
Ratisbon on the Danube, it stretched across hills,
valleys, rivers, and morasses, as far as
Wimpfen on the Necker, and at length terminated on the banks of the Rhine, after a
winding course of near two hundred miles.
43 This important barrier, uniting the two mighty streams that protected the
provinces of Europe, seemed to fill up the vacant space through which the barbarians, and particularly the
Alemanni, could
penetrate with the greatest facility into the heart of the empire. But the experience of the world, from China to Britain, has
exposed the vain attempt of fortifying any extensive tract of country.
44 An active enemy, who can select and vary his points
of attack, must, in the end, discover some feeble spot, on some unguarded moment. The strength, as well as the attention, of
the defenders is divided; and such are the blind effects of terror on the firmest troops, that a line broken in a single place is
almost instantly deserted. The fate of the wall which
Probus erected may confirm the general observation. Within a few years
after his death, it was overthrown by the
Alemanni. Its scattered ruins, universally ascribed to the power of the
Daemon, now
serve only to excite the wonder of the
Swabian peasant.
Footnote 41: Strabo, l. vii. According to Valleius Paterculus, (ii. 108,)
Maroboduus led his Marcomanni into Bohemia; Cluverius (German. Antiq. iii. 8) proves that it was from Swabia.
Footnote 42: These settlers, from the payment of tithes, were denominated Decunates. Tacit. Germania, c. 29
Footnote 43: See notes de l'Abbe de la Bleterie a la Germanie de Tacite, p. 183. His account of the wall is chiefly borrowed
(as he says himself) from the Alsatia Illustrata of Schoepflin.
Footnote 44: See Recherches sur les Chinois et les Egyptiens, tom. ii. p. 81 - 102. The anonymous author is well acquainted with the globe in general, and with Germany in particular: with regard to the latter, he quotes a work of M. Hanselman; but he
seems to confound the wall of Probus, designed against the Alemanni, with the fortification of the Mattiaci, constructed in the
neighborhood of Frankfort against the Catti.
Among the useful conditions of peace imposed by
Probus on the vanquished nations of Germany, was the obligation of
supplying the Roman army with sixteen thousand recruits, the bravest and most robust of their youth. The emperor dispersed
them through all the provinces, and distributed this dangerous
reinforcement, in small bands of fifty or sixty each, among the
national troops; judiciously observing, that the aid which the republic derived from the barbarians should be felt but not seen.
45 Their aid was now become necessary.
The feeble elegance of Italy and the internal provinces could no longer support the
weight of arms. The hardy frontiers of the Rhine and Danube still produced minds and bodies equal to the labors of the camp;
but a perpetual series of wars had gradually diminished their numbers. The infrequency of
marriage, and the ruin of
agriculture,
affected the principles of
population, and not only destroyed the strength of the present, but intercepted the hope of future,
generations. The wisdom of
Probus embraced a great and beneficial plan of replenishing the exhausted frontiers, by new
colonies of captive or fugitive barbarians, on whom he bestowed lands, cattle, instruments of
husbandry, and every
encouragement that might engage them to educate a race of soldiers for the service of the
republic. Into Britain, and most
probably into
Cambridgeshire,
46 he transported a considerable body of
Vandals. The impossibility of an escape reconciled
them to their situation, and in the subsequent troubles of that island, they approved themselves the most faithful servants of the
state.
47 Great numbers of
Franks and
Gepidae were settled on the banks of the Danube and the Rhine. A hundred thousand
Bastarnae, expelled from their own country, cheerfully accepted an establishment in
Thrace, and soon imbibed the manners and
sentiments of Roman subjects.
48 But the expectations of
Probus were too often disappointed. The impatience and idleness of
the barbarians could ill brook the slow labors of
agriculture. Their unconquerable love of freedom, rising against
despotism,
provoked them into hasty rebellions, alike fatal to themselves and to the provinces;
49 nor could these artificial supplies,
however repeated by succeeding emperors, restore the important limit of Gaul and Illyricum to its ancient and native vigor.
Footnote 45: He distributed about fifty or sixty barbarians to a Numerus, as it was then called, a corps with whose established
number we are not exactly acquainted.
Footnote 46: Camden's Britannia, Introduction, p. 136; but he speaks from a very doubtful conjecture.
Footnote 47: Zosimus, l. i. p. 62. According to Vopiscus, another body of Vandals was less faithful.
Footnote 48: Hist. August. p. 240. They were probably expelled by the Goths. Zosim. l. i. p. 66.
Footnote 49: Hist. August. p. 240.
Of all the barbarians who abandoned their new settlements, and disturbed the public
tranquillity, a very small number returned
to their own country. For a short season they might wander in arms through the empire; but in the end they were surely
destroyed by the power of a warlike emperor. The successful rashness of a party of
Franks was attended, however, with such
memorable consequences, that it ought not to be passed unnoticed. They had been established by
Probus, on the sea-coast of
Pontus, with a view of strengthening the frontier against the inroads of the
Alani. A fleet stationed in one of the harbors of the
Euxine fell into the hands of the Franks; and they resolved, through unknown seas, to explore their way from the mouth of the
Phasis to that of the Rhine. They easily escaped through the
Bosphorus and the
Hellespont, and cruising along the
Mediterranean, indulged their appetite for revenge and plunder by frequent descents on the unsuspecting shores of Asia,
Greece, and Africa. The opulent city of
Syracuse, in whose port the natives of
Athens and
Carthage had formerly been sunk,
was sacked by a handful of barbarians, who massacred the greatest part of the trembling inhabitants. From the Island of
Sicily,
the Franks proceeded to the
Columns of Hercules, trusted themselves to the ocean, coasted round Spain and Gaul, and steering
their triumphant course through the
English Channel, at length finished their surprising voyage, by landing in safety on the
Batavian or Frisian shores.
50 The example of their success, instructing their countrymen to conceive the advantages and to
despise the dangers of the sea, pointed out to their enterprising spirit a new road to wealth and glory.
Footnote 50: Panegyr. Vet. v. 18. Zosimus, l. i. p. 66.
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To cite original text:
Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794.
The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. 1st ed. (London : Printed for W. Strahan ; and T. Cadell, 1776-1788.), pp. 332-340.