Complete Works of Eutropius

by Eutropius

  XIII

  After his death AURELIAN succeeded to the throne. He was born in Dacia Ripensis, and was a man of ability in war, but of an ungovernable temper, and too much inclined to cruelty. He defeated the Goths with great vigour, and extended the Roman empire, by various successes in the field, to its former limits. He overthrew Tetricus at Catalauni8 in Gaul, Tetricus himself, indeed, betraying his own army, whose constant mutinies he was unable to bear; and he had even by secret letters entreated Aurelian to march towards him, using, among other solicitations, the verse of Virgil: —

  Eripe me his, invicte, malis.

  Unconquer’d hero, free me from these ills.

  He also took prisoner Zenobia, who, having killed her husband Odenathus, was mistress of the east, in a battle of no great importance near Antioch, and, entering Rome, celebrated a magnificent triumph, as recoverer of the east and the west, Tetricus9 and Zenobia going before his chariot. This Tetricus was afterwards governor of Lucania, and lived long after he was divested of the purple. Zenobia left descendants, who still live at Rome.

  XIV

  In his reign, the people of the mint raised a rebellion in the city, after having adulterated the money, and put to death Felicissimus the commissioner of the treasury. Aurelian suppressed them with the utmost severity; several noblemen he condemned to death. He was indeed cruel and sanguinary, and rather an emperor necessary for the times in some respects than an amiable one in any. He was always severe, and put to death even the son of his own sister. He was however a reformer, in a great degree, of military discipline and dissoluteness of manners.

  XV

  He surrounded the city of Rome with stronger walls. He built a temple to the Sun, in which he put a vast quantity of gold and precious stones. The province of Dacia, which Trajan had formed beyond the Danube, he gave up, despairing, after all Illyricum and Moesia had been depopulated, of being able to retain it. The Roman citizens, removed from the town and lands of Dacia, he settled in the interior of Moesia, calling that Dacia which now divides the two Moesiae, and which is on the right hand of the Danube as it runs to the sea, whereas Dacia was previously on the left. He was killed through the treachery of one of his own slaves, who carried to certain military men, the friends of Aurelian, their own names entered upon a list, having counterfeited the hand of Aurelian, and making it appear that he intended to put them to death. That he might be prevented from doing so, he was assassinated by them in the middle of the road, the old paved way, which is between Constantinople and Heraclea. The place is called Caenophrurium. But his death was not unavenged.10 He also gained the honour of being enrolled among the gods. He reigned five years and six months.

  XVI

  After him TACITUS succeeded to the throne; a man of excellent morals, and well qualified to govern the empire. He was unable, however, to show the world anything remarkable, being cut off by death in the sixth mouth of his reign. FLORIANUS, who succeeded Tacitus, was on the throne only two mouths and twenty days, and did nothing worthy of mention.

  XVII

  PROBUS then succeeded to the government, a man rendered illustrious by the distinction which he obtained in war. He recovered Gaul, which had been seized by the Barbarians, by remarkable successes in the field. He also suppressed, in several battles, some persons that attempted to seize the throne, as Saturninus in the east, and Proculus and Bonosus at Agrippina. He allowed the Gauls and Cannonians to have vineyards. By obliging his soldiers to work, too, he planted vineyards on Mount Alma in Sirmium, and on Mount Aureus in Upper Moesia, and left them to the people of the provinces to cultivate. After he had gone through a great number of wars, and had at last obtained peace, he observed, that “in a short time soldiers would not be wanted.” He was a man of spirit, activity, and justice, equalling Aurelian in military glory, and surpassing him in affability of manners. He was killed, however, at Sirmium, in an iron turret, during an insurrection of the soldiery. He reigned six years and four months.

  XVIII

  After the death of Probus, CARUS was created emperor, a native of Narbo in Gaul, who immediately made his sons, Carinus and Numerianus, Caesars, and reigned, in conjunction with them, two years. News being brought, while he was engaged in a war with the Sarmatians, of an insurrection among the Persians, he set out for the east, and achieved some noble exploits against that people; he routed them in the field, and took Seleucia and Ctesiphon, their noblest cities, but, while he was encamped on the Tigris, he was killed by lightning. His son NUMERIANUS, too, whom he had taken with him to Persia, a young man of very great ability, while, from being affected with a disease in his eyes, he was carried in a litter, was cut off by a plot of which Aper, his father-in-law, was the promoter; and his death, though attempted craftily to be concealed until Aper could seize the throne, was made known by the odour of his dead body; for the soldiers, who attended him, being struck by the smell, and opening the curtains of his litter, discovered his death some days after it had taken place.

  XIX

  In the meantime CARINUS, whom Carus, when he set out to the war with Parthia, had left, with the authority of Caesar, to command in Illyricum, Gaul, and Italy, disgraced himself by all manner of crimes; he put to death many innocent persons on false accusations, formed illicit connexions with the wives of noblemen, and wrought the ruin of several of his school-fellows, who happened to have offended him at school by some slight provocation. Incurring the hatred of all men. by such proceedings, he not long after met with deserved punishment.

  The victorious army, on returning from Persia, as they had lost their emperor Carus by lightning, and the Caesar Numerianus by a plot, conferred the imperial dignity on DIOCLETIAN, a native of Dalmatia, of such extremely obscure birth, that he is said by most writers to have been the son of a clerk, but by some to have been a freedman of a senator named Anulinus.

  XX

  Diocletian, in the first assembly of the army that was held, took an oath that Numerian was not killed by any treachery on his part; and while Aper, who had laid the plot for Numerian’s life, was standing by, he was killed, in the sight of the army, with a sword by the hand of Diocletian. He soon after overthrew Carinus, who was living under the utmost hatred and detestation, in a great battle at Margum,11 Carinus being betrayed by his own troops, for though he had a greater number of men than the enemy, he was altogether abandoned by them between Viminacium and mount Aureus. He thus became master of the Roman empire; and when the peasants in Gaul made an insurrection, giving their faction the name of Bagaudae,12 and having for leaders Amandus and Aelianus, he despatched Maximian Herculius, with the authority of Caesar, to suppress them. Maximian, in a few battles of little importance, subdued the rustic multitude, and restored peace to Gaul.

  XXI

  During this period, Carausius, who, though of very mean birth, had gained extraordinary reputation by a course of active service in war, having received a commission in his post at Bononia, to clear the sea, which the Franks and Saxons infested, along the coast of Belgica and Armorica, and having captured numbers of the barbarians on several occasions, but having never given back the entire booty to the people of the province or sent it to the emperors, and there being a suspicion, in consequence, that the barbarians were intentionally allowed by him to congregate there, that he might seize them and their booty as they passed, and by that means enrich himself, assumed, on being sentenced by Maximian to be put to death, the imperial purple, and took on him the government of Britain.

  XXII

  While disorder thus prevailed throughout the world, while Carausius was taking arms in Britain and Achilleus in Egypt, while the Quinquegentiani13 were harassing Africa, and Narseus14 was making war upon the east, Diocletian promoted MAXIMIAN HERCULIUS from the dignity of Caesar to that “of emperor, and created Constantius and Maximian Galerius Caesars, of whom Constantius is said to have been the grand-nephew of Claudius15 by a daughter, and Maximian Galerius to have been born in Dacia not far from Sardica.16 That he might also unite them
by affinity, Constantius married Theodora the step-daughter of Herculius, by whom he had afterwards six children, brothers to Constantine; while Galerius married Valeria, the daughter of Diocletian; both being obliged to divorce the wives that they had before. With Carausius, however, as hostilities were found vain against a man eminently skilled in war, a peace was at last arranged. At the end of seven years, Allectus, one of his supporters, put him to death, and held Britain himself for three years subsequently, but was cut off by the efforts of Asclepiodotus, praefect of the praetorian guard.

  XXIII

  At the same period a battle was fought by Constantius Caesar in Gaul, at Lingonae,17 where he experienced both good and had fortune in one day; for though he was driven into the city by a sudden onset of the barbarians, with such haste and precipitation that after the gates were shut he was drawn up the wall by ropes, yet, when his army came up, after the lapse of scarcely six hours, he cut to pieces about sixty thousand of the Alemanni. Maximian the emperor, too, brought the war to an end in Africa, by subduing the Quinquegentiani, and compelling them to make peace. Diocletian, meanwhile, besieging Achilleus in Alexandria, obliged him to surrender about eight months after, and put him. to death. He used his victory, indeed, cruelly, and distressed all Egypt with severe proscriptions and massacres. Yet at the same time he made many judicious arrangements and regulations, which continue to our own days.

  XXIV

  Galerius Maximian, in acting against Narseus, fought, on the first occasion, a battle far from successful, meeting him between Callinicus and Carrae, and engaging in the combat rather with rashness than want of courage; for he contended with a small army against a very numerous enemy. Being in consequence defeated, and going to join Diocletian, he was received by him, when he met him on the road, with such extreme haughtiness, that he is said to have run by his chariot for several miles in his scarlet robes.

  XXV

  But having soon after collected forces in Illyricum and Moesia, he fought a second time with Narseus (the grandfather of Hormisdas and Sapor), in Greater Armenia, with extraordinary success, and with no less caution and spirit, for he undertook, with one or two of the cavalry, the office of a speculator.18 After putting Narseus to flight, he captured his wives, sisters, and children, with a vast number of the Persian nobility besides, and a great quantity of treasure; the king himself he forced to take refuge in the remotest deserts in his dominions. Returning therefore in triumph to Diocletian, who was then encamped with some troops in Mesopotamia, he was welcomed by him with great honour. Subsequently, they conducted several wars both in conjunction and separately, subduing the Carpi and Bastarntae, and defeating the Sarmatians, from which nations he settled a great number of captives in the Roman territories.

  XXVI

  Diocletian was of a crafty disposition, with much sagacity, and keen penetration. He was willing to gratify his own disposition to cruelty in such a way as to throw the odium upon others; he was however a very active and able prince. He was the first that introduced into the Roman empire a ceremony suited rather to royal usages than to Roman liberty, giving orders that he should be adored,19 whereas all emperors before him were only saluted. He put ornaments of precious stones on his dress and shoes, when the imperial distinction had previously been only in the purple robe, the rest of the habit being the same as that of other men.

  XXVII

  But Herculius was undisguisedly cruel, and of a violent temper, and showed his severity of disposition in the sternness of his looks. Gratifying his own inclination, he joined with Diocletian in even the most cruel of his proceedings. But when Diocletian, as age bore heavily upon him, felt himself unable to sustain the government of the empire, he suggested to Herculius that they should both retire into private life, and commit the duty of upholding the state to more vigorous and youthful hands. With this suggestion his colleague reluctantly complied. Both of them, in the same day, exchanged the robe of empire for an ordinary dress, Diocletian at Nicomedia, Herculius at Milan, soon after a magnificent triumph which they celebrated at Rome over several nations, with a noble succession of pictures,20 and in which the wives, sisters, and children of Narseus were led before their chariots. The one then retired to Salonae, and the other into Lucania.

  XXVIII

  Diocletian lived to an old age in a private station, at a villa which is not far from Salonae, in honourable retirement, exercising extraordinary philosophy, inasmuch as he alone of all men, since the foundation of the Roman empire, voluntarily returned from so high a dignity to the condition of private life, and to an equality with the other citizens. That happened to him, therefore, which had happened to no one since men were created, that, though he died in a private condition, he was enrolled among the gods.

  ENDNOTES.

  1 In the old sense of the word, as Tzschucke thinks, on account of his victory. He had been made emperor before, as appears from Herodian, vii. 2.

  2 A city of Gallia Transpadana, at the top of the Adriatic.

  3 Ambo. Both Gallus and Volusianus. — Tzschucke.

  4 Extinctus est. He was killed by the soldiery, according to Zosimus,. i 29, and Zonaras, xii. 22.

  5 A town of Lower Pannonia, on the river Drave. Cellar. Geog. Ant. ii. 8, 27.

  6 Vilissimus opifex. Victor de Caes. 33, 9, calls him ferri opifex, a worker in iron.

  7 A town of the Ubii, so called because Agrippina was born there. It is now Cologne.

  8 In Gallia Belgica, Amm. Marcell. xv. 11, now, as Tzschucke thinks, Chalons sur Marne.

  9 See c. 10.

  10 Tacitus made it his care to put the assassins to death. Vopisc. Vit. Tacit, c. 13; Aurel. Vict. Epit. c. 36.

  11 A town in Upper Moesia, between the Danube and the Margus or Morava.

  12 A name of uncertain signification, but supposed, says Tzschucke, to mean rebels or robbers.

  13 Cellarius thinks that they may be the same as the Pentapolitani, that is, the Cyrenaeans, Cyrenaica comprising five cities, Berenice, Arsinoe, Ptolemais, Apollonia, and Cyrene.

  14 King of Persia; more frequently written Narses.

  15 The emperor mentioned in c. 11. Constantius was the grandson of Crispus, Claudius’s brother.

  16 The metropolis of Dacia Mediterranea; thought to be the same as the present Sofia in Bulgaria.

  17 Apud Lingonas. Lingonae, or Lingones, the chief town of the Lingones in Gaul, previously called Andomatunum; now Langres.

  18 The speculatores, under the emperors, were a body of troops attached to the praetorian cohorts, or perhaps forming part of them, and having the care of the emperor’s person. Ipsum Othonem comitabantur speculatorum lecta corpora, cum caeleris praetoriis cohortibus. Tac. Hist, ii 11.

  19 Adorari. See C. Nep. life of Conon, c. 3.

  20 Pompa ferculorum illustri. Fercula are representations of cities, rivers, and other objects in the conquered countries, carried in procession at a triumph, in imitation of Romulus, who carried the spoils of a slain enemy suspensa ferculo, Liv. i. 10. — Tzschucke. Ferculum was a kind of frame in which anything might be carried or suspended.

  BOOK X

  Division of the empire between Constantius and Galerius, Maximin and Severus being Caesars, I. — Constantine made emperor in Britain, and Maxentius, son of Maximian, at Rome; Maximian attempts to regain the throne; failure of Severus against Maxentius, II. — Subsequent efforts of Maximian; his death and character, III. — Four emperors at once, Constantine, Maxentius, Licinius, and Maximin, Maxentius overthrown by Constantine; death of Maximin, IV. — -Licinius defeated by Constantine, who becomes sole emperor, and makes three Caesars, V. VI. — Character and death of Constantine, VII. VIII. — He is succeeded by three sons and a nephew, Constantine, Constantine, Constans, and Dalmatius; Constantius survives them all, and becomes sole emperor, suppressing Veteranio and Nepotian, IX.-XI. — Overthrow and death of Magnentius; Gallus made Caesar, XII. — Deaths of Gallus and Sylvanus, XIII. — Julian sent to Gaul by Constantius with the authority of Caesar; his succes
ses, XIV. — Julian made emperor; death and character of Constantius, XV. — Julian’s expedition to the east; his death and character, XVI. — Jovian made emperor in the east; his ill-fortune; he cedes a portion of the Roman territory to Sapor; his death, and the supposed causes of it, XVII. XVIII.

  I

  THESE emperors, then, having retired from the government of the state, CONSTANTIUS and GALERIUS were made emperors; and the Roman world was divided between them in such a manner, that Constantius had Gaul, Italy, and Africa; Galerius Illyricum, Asia, and the East; two Caesars being joined with them. Constantius, however, content with the dignity of emperor, declined the care of governing Africa. He was an excellent man, of extreme benevolence, who studied to increase the resources of the provinces and of private persons, cared but little for the improvement of the public treasury, and used to say that “it was better for the national wealth to be in the hands of individuals than to be laid up in one place of confinement.” So moderate was the furniture of his house, too, that if, on holidays, he had to entertain a greater number of friends than ordinary, his dining-rooms were set out with the plate of private persons, borrowed from their several houses. By the Gauls1 he was not only beloved but venerated, especially because, under his government, they had escaped the suspicious prudence of Diocletian, and the sanguinary rashness of Maximian. He died in Britain, at York, in the thirteenth year of his reign, and was enrolled among the gods.