by Eutropius
IV
After these, DECIUS, a native of Lower Pannonia, born at Budalia, assumed the government. He suppressed a civil war which had been raised in Gaul. He created his son Caesar. He built a bath at Rome. When he and his son had reigned two years, they were both killed in the country of the Barbarians, and enrolled among the gods.
5
Mox imperatores creati sunt Gallus Hostilianus et Galli filius Volusianus. Sub his Aemilianus in Moesia res novas molitus est; ad quem opprimendum cum ambo profecti essent, Interamnae interfecti sunt non conpleto biennio. Nihil omnino clarum gesserunt. Sola pestilentia et morbis atque aegritudinibus notus eorum principatus fuit.
V
Immediately after, GALLUS, HOSTILIANUS, and VOLUSIANUS the son of Gallus, were created emperors. In their reign Aemilianus attempted an insurrection in Moesia; and both of them, setting out to stop his progress, were slain at Interamna, when they had not quite completed a reign of two years. They did nothing of any account. Their reign was remarkable only for a pestilence, and for other diseases and afflictions.
6
Aemilianus obscurissime natus obscurius imperavit ac tertio mense extinctus est.
VI
AEMILIANUS was little distinguished by birth, and less distinguished by his reign, in the third month of which he was cut off.
7
Hinc Licinius Valerianus in Raetia et Norico agens ab exercitu imperator et mox Augustus est factus. Gallienus quoque Romae a senatu Caesar est appellatus. Horum imperium Romano nomini perniciosum et paene exitiabile fuit vel infelicitate principum vel ignavia. Germani Ravennam usque venerunt. Valerianus in Mesopotamia bellum gerens a Sapore, Persarum rege, superatus est, mox etiam captus apud Parthos ignobili servitute consenuit.
VII
LICINIUS VALERIAN, who was then employed in Rhaetia and Noricum, was next made general by the army, and soon after emperor. GALLIENUS also received the title of Caesar from the senate at Rome. The reign of these princes was injurious, and almost fatal, to the Roman name, either through their ill-fortune or want of energy. The Germans advanced as far as Ravenna. Valerian, while he was occupied in a war in Mesopotamia, was overthrown by Sapor king of Persia, and being soon after made prisoner, grew old in ignominious slavery among the Parthians.
8
Gallienus, cum adulescens factus esset Augustus, imperium primum feliciter, mox commode, ad ultimum perniciose gessit. Nam iuvenis in Gallia et Illyrico multa strenue fecit occiso apud Mursam Ingenuo, qui purpuram sumpserat, et Trebelliano. Diu placidus et quietus, mox in omnem lasciviam dissolutus, tenendae rei publicae habenas probrosa ignavia et desperatione laxavit. Alamanni vastatis Galliis in Italiam penetraverunt. Dacia, quae a Traiano ultra Danubium fuerat adiecta, tum amissa, Graecia, Macedonia, Pontus, Asia vastata est per Gothos, Pannonia a Sarmatis Quadisque populata est, Germani usque ad Hispanias penetraverunt et civitatem nobilem Tarraconem expugnaverunt, Parthi Mesopotamia occupata Syriam sibi coeperant vindicare.
VIII
Gallienus, who was made emperor when quite a young man, exercised his power at first happily, afterwards fairly, and at last mischievously. In his youth he performed many gallant acts in Gaul and Illyricum, killing Ingenuus, who had assumed the purple, at Mursa, and Regalianus. He was then for a long time quiet and gentle; afterwards, abandoning himself to all manner of licentiousness, he relaxed the reins of government with disgraceful inactivity and carelesness. The Alemanni, having laid waste Gaul, penetrated into Italy. Dacia, which had been added to the empire beyond the Danube, was lost. Greece, Macedonia, Pontus, Asia, were devastated by the Goths. Pannonia was depopulated by the Sarmatians and Quadi. The Germans made their way as far as Spain, and took the noble city of Tarraco. The Parthians, after taking possession of Mesopotamia, began to bring Syria under their power.
9
Iam desperatis rebus et deleto paene imperio Romano Postumus in Gallia, obscurissime natus, purpuram sumpsit et per annos decem ita imperavit, ut consumptas paene provincias ingenti virtute et moderatione reparaverit. Qui seditione militum interfectus est, quod Mogontiacum civitatem, quae adversus eum rebellaverat Laeliano res novas moliente, diripiendam militibus tradere noluisset. Post eum Marius, vilissimus opifex, purpuram accepit et secundo die interfectus est. Victorinus postea Galliarum accepit imperium, vir strenuissimus, sed cum nimiae libidinis esset et matrimonia aliena corrumperet, Agrippinae occisus est actuario quodam dolum machinante, imperii sui anno secundo.
IX
When affairs were in this desperate condition, and the Roman empire almost ruined, POSTUMUS, a man of very obscure birth, assumed the purple in Gaul, and held the government with such ability for ten years, that he recruited the provinces, which had been almost ruined, by his great energy and judgment; but he was killed in a mutiny of the army, because he would not deliver up Moguntiacum, which had rebelled against him, to be plundered by the soldiers, at the time when Lucius Aelianus was endeavouring to effect a change of government.
After him Marius, a contemptible mechanic, assumed the purple, and was killed two days after. Victorinus then took on himself the government of Gaul; a man of great energy; but, as he was abandoned to excessive licentiousness, and corrupted other men’s wives, he was assassinated at Agrippina, in the second year of his reign, one of his secretaries having contrived a plot against him.
10
Huic successit Tetricus senator, qui Aquitaniam honore praesidis administrans absens a militibus imperator electus est et apud Burdigalam purpuram sumpsit. Seditiones multas militum pertulit. Sed dum haec in Gallia geruntur, in Oriente per Odenathum Persae victi sunt. Defensa Syria, recepta Mesopotamia usque ad Ctesiphontem Odenathus penetravit.
X
To him succeeded Tetricus, a senator, who, when he was governing Aquitania with the title of prefect, was chosen emperor in his absence, and assumed the purple at Bourdeaux. He had to endure many insurrections among the soldiery. But while these transactions were passing in Gaul, the Persians, in the east, were overthrown by Odenathus, who, having defended Syria and recovered Mesopotamia, penetrated into the country as far as Ctesiphon.
11
Ita Gallieno rem publicam deserente Romanum imperium in Occidente per Postumum, per Odenathum in Oriente servatum est. Gallienus interea Mediolani cum Valeriano fratre occisus est imperii anno nono Claudiusque ei successit a militibus electus, a senatu appellatus Augustus. Hic Gothos Illyricum Macedoniamque vastantes ingenti proelio vicit. Parcus vir ac modestus et iusti tenax ac rei publicae gerendae idoneus, qui tamen intra imperii biennium morbo interiit. Divus appellatus est. Senatus eum ingenti honore decoravit, scilicet ut in curia clipeus ipsi aureus, item in Capitolio statua aurea poneretur.
XI
Thus, while Gallienus abandoned the government, the Roman empire was saved in the west by Posthumus, and in the east by Odenathus. Meanwhile Gallienus was killed at Milan, together with his brother, in the ninth year of his reign, and CLAUDIUS succeeded him, being chosen by the soldiers, and declared emperor by the senate. Claudius defeated the Goths, who were laying waste Illyricum and Macedonia, in a great battle. He was a frugal and modest man, strictly observant of justice, and well qualified for governing the empire. He was however carried off by disease within two years after he began to reign, and had the title of a god. The senate honoured him with extraordinary distinctions, insomuch that a golden shield was hung up to him in the senate house, and a golden statue erected to him in the Capitol.
12
Quintillus post eum, Claudii frater, consensu militum imperator electus est, unicae moderationis vir et civilitatis, aequandus fratri vel praeponendus. Consensu senatus appellatus Augustus septimo decimo imperii die occisus est.
XII
After him QUINTILLUS, the brother of Claudius, was elected emperor by agreement among the soldiers, a man of singular moderation and aptitude for governing, comparable, or perhaps superior, to his brother. He received the title of emperor with the consent of the senate, and was killed on the seventeenth day of his reign.
> 13
Post eum Aurelianus suscepit imperium, Dacia Ripensi oriundus, vir in bello potens, animi tamen inmodici et ad crudelitatem propensioris. Is quoque Gothos strenuissime vicit. Romanam dicionem ad fines pristinos varia bellorum felicitate revocavit. Superavit in Gallia Tetricum apud Catalaunos ipso Tetrico prodente exercitum suum, cuius adsiduas seditiones ferre non poterat. Quin etiam per litteras occultas Aurelianum ita fuerat deprecatus, ut inter alia versu Vergiliano uteretur: “Eripe me his, invicte, malis”. Zenobiam quoque, quae occiso Odenatho marito Orientem tenebat, haud longe ab Antiochia sine gravi proelio cepit, ingressusque Romam nobilem triumphum quasi receptor Orientis Occidentisque egit praecedentibus currum Tetrico et Zenobia. Qui quidem Tetricus corrector Lucaniae postea fuit ac privatus diutissime vixit; Zenobia autem posteros, qui adhuc manent, Romae reliquit.
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 Catalauni 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, Tetricus 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.
14
Hoc imperante etiam in urbe monetarii rebellaverunt vitiatis pecuniis et Felicissimo rationali interfecto. Quos Aurelianus victos ultima crudelitate conpescuit. Plurimos nobiles capite damnavit. Saevus et sanguinarius ac necessarius magis in quibusdam quam in ullo amabilis imperator. Trux omni tempore, etiam filii sororis interfector, disciplinae tamen militaris et morum dissolutorum magna ex parte corrector.
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.
15
Urbem Romam muris firmioribus cinxit. Templum Soli aedificavit, in quo infinitum auri gemmarumque constituit. Provinciam Daciam, quam Traianus ultra Danubium fecerat, intermisit, vastato omni Illyrico et Moesia, desperans eam posse retinere, abductosque Romanos ex urbibus et agris Daciae in media Moesia collocavit appellavitque eam Daciam, quae nunc duas Moesias dividit et est in dextra Danubio in mare fluenti, cum antea fuerit in laeva. Occiditur servi sui fraude, qui ad quosdam militares viros, amicos ipsius, nomina pertulit adnotata, falso manum eius imitatus, tamquam Aurelianus ipsos pararet occidere; itaque ut praeveniretur, ab isdem interfectus est in itineris medio, quod inter Constantinopolim et Heracleam est stratae veteris; locus Caenophrurium appellatur. Mors tamen eius inulta non fuit. Meruit quoque inter Divos referri.
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. He also gained the honour of being enrolled among the gods. He reigned five years and six months.
16
Tacitus post hunc suscepit imperium, vir egregie moratus et rei publicae gerendae idoneus. Nihil tamen clarum potuit ostendere intra sextum mensem imperii morte praeventus. Florianus, qui Tacito successerat, duobus mensibus et diebus XX in imperio fuit neque quicquam dignum memoria egit.
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.
17
Post hunc Probus, vir inlustris gloria militari, ad administrationem rei publicae accessit. Gallias a barbaris occupatas ingenti proeliorum felicitate restituit. Quosdam imperium usurpare conatos, scilicet Saturninum in Oriente, Proculum et Bonosum Agrippinae, certaminibus oppressit. Vineas Gallos et Pannonios habere permisit, opere militari Almam montem apud Sirmium et Aureum apud Moesiam superiorem vineis conseruit et provincialibus colendos dedit. Hic cum bella innumera gessisset, pace parata dixit brevi milites necessarios non futuros. Vir acer, strenuus, iustus et qui Aurelianum aequaret gloria militari, morum autem civilitate superaret. Interfectus tamen est Sirmii tumultu militari in turri ferrata.
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.
18
Post hunc Carus est factus Augustus, Narbone natus in Gallia. Is confestim Carinum et Numerianum filios Caesares fecit. Sed dum bellum adversus Sarmatas gerit, nuntiato Persarum tumultu ad Orientem profectus res contra Persas nobiles gessit. Ipsos proelio fudit, Cochen et Ctesiphontem, urbes nobilissimas, cepit. Et cum castra super Tigridem haberet, vi divini fulminis periit. Numerianus quoque, filius eius, quem secum Caesarem ad Persas duxerat, adulescens egregiae indolis, cum oculorum dolore correptus in lecticula veheretur, inpulsore Apro, qui socer eius erat, per insidias occisus est. Et cum dolo occultaretur ipsius mors, quousque Aper invadere posset imperium, foetore cadaveris prodita est. Milites enim, qui eum sequebantur, putore commoti deductis lecticulae palliis post aliquot dies mortem eius notam habere potuerunt.
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, o
f 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.
19
Interea Carinus, quem Caesarem ad Parthos proficiscens Carus in Illyrico, Gallia, Italia reliquerat, omnibus se sceleribus inquinavit. Plurimos innoxios fictis criminibus occidit, matrimonia nobilia corrupit, condiscipulis quoque, qui eum in auditorio vel levi fatigatione taxaverant, perniciosus fuit. Ob quae omnibus hominibus invisus non multo post poenas dedit. Nam de Perside victor exercitus rediens, cum Carum Augustum fulmine, Numerianum Caesarem insidiis perdidisset, Diocletianum imperatorem creavit, Dalmatia oriundum, virum obscurissime natum, adeo ut a plerisque scribae filius, a nonnullis Anullini senatoris libertinus fuisse credatur.