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The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire




[Footnote 66: Vopiscus (in Hist. August. p. 217) mentions only
the second.]
[Footnote 67: Zosimus, l. i. p. 44 - 48. His account of the two
battles is clear and circumstantial.]

Amid the barren deserts of Arabia, a few cultivated spots
rise like islands out of the sandy ocean. Even the name of
Tadmor, or Palmyra, by its signification in the Syriac as well as
in the Latin language, denoted the multitude of palm-trees which
afforded shade and verdure to that temperate region. The air was
pure, and the soil, watered by some invaluable springs, was
capable of producing fruits as well as corn. A place possessed
of such singular advantages, and situated at a convenient
distance ^68 between the Gulf of Persia and the Mediterranean,
was soon frequented by the caravans which conveyed to the nations
of Europe a considerable part of the rich commodities of India.
Palmyra insensibly increased into an opulent and independent
city, and connecting the Roman and the Parthian monarchies by the
mutual benefits of commerce, was suffered to observe an humble
neutrality, till at length, after the victories of Trajan, the
little republic sunk into the bosom of Rome, and flourished more
than one hundred and fifty years in the subordinate though
honorable rank of a colony. It was during that peaceful period,
if we may judge from a few remaining inscriptions, that the
wealthy Palmyrenians constructed those temples, palaces, and
porticos of Grecian architecture, whose ruins, scattered over an
extent of several miles, have deserved the curiosity of our
travellers. The elevation of Odenathus and Zenobia appeared to
reflect new splendor on their country, and Palmyra, for a while,
stood forth the rival of Rome: but the competition was fatal, and
ages of prosperity were sacrificed to a moment of glory. ^69
[Footnote 68: It was five hundred and thirty-seven miles from
Seleucia, and two hundred and three from the nearest coast of
Syria, according to the reckoning of Pliny, who, in a few words,
(Hist. Natur. v. 21,) gives an excellent description of Palmyra.

Note: Talmor, or Palmyra, was probably at a very early
period the connecting link between the commerce of Tyre and
Babylon. Heeren, Ideen, v. i. p. ii. p. 125. Tadmor was
probably built by Solomon as a commercial station. Hist. of
Jews, v. p. 271 - M.]

[Footnote 69: Some English travellers from Aleppo discovered the
ruins of Palmyra about the end of the last century. Our
curiosity has since been gratified in a more splendid manner by
Messieurs Wood and Dawkins. For the history of Palmyra, we may
consult the masterly dissertation of Dr. Halley in the
Philosophical Transactions: Lowthorp's Abridgment, vol. iii. p.
518.]
In his march over the sandy desert between Emesa and
Palmyra, the emperor Aurelian was perpetually harassed by the
Arabs; nor could he always defend his army, and especially his
baggage, from those flying troops of active and daring robbers,
who watched the moment of surprise, and eluded the slow pursuit
of the legions. The siege of Palmyra was an object far more
difficult and important, and the emperor, who, with incessant
vigor, pressed the attacks in person, was himself wounded with a
dart. "The Roman people," says Aurelian, in an original letter,
"speak with contempt of the war which I am waging against a
woman. They are ignorant both of the character and of the power
of Zenobia. It is impossible to enumerate her warlike
preparations, of stones, of arrows, and of every species of
missile weapons. Every part of the walls is provided with two or
three balistoe and artificial fires are thrown from her military
engines. The fear of punishment has armed her with a desperate
courage. Yet still I trust in the protecting deities of Rome,
who have hitherto been favorable to all my undertakings." ^70
Doubtful, however, of the protection of the gods, and of the
event of the siege, Aurelian judged it more prudent to offer
terms of an advantageous capitulation; to the queen, a splendid
retreat; to the citizens, their ancient privileges. His
proposals were obstinately rejected, and the refusal was
accompanied with insult.

[Footnote 70: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 218.]

The firmness of Zenobia was supported by the hope, that in a
very short time famine would compel the Roman army to repass the
desert; and by the reasonable expectation that the kings of the
East, and particularly the Persian monarch, would arm in the
defence of their most natural ally. But fortune, and the
perseverance of Aurelian, overcame every obstacle. The death of
Sapor, which happened about this time, ^71 distracted the
councils of Persia, and the inconsiderable succors that attempted
to relieve Palmyra, were easily intercepted either by the arms or
the liberality of the emperor. From every part of Syria, a
regular succession of convoys safely arrived in the camp, which
was increased by the return of Probus with his victorious troops
from the conquest of Egypt. It was then that Zenobia resolved to
fly. She mounted the fleetest of her dromedaries, ^72 and had
already reached the banks of the Euphrates, about sixty miles
from Palmyra, when she was overtaken by the pursuit of Aurelian's
light horse, seized, and brought back a captive to the feet of
the emperor. Her capital soon afterwards surrendered, and was
treated with unexpected lenity. The arms, horses, and camels,
with an immense treasure of gold, silver, silk, and precious
stones, were all delivered to the conqueror, who, leaving only a
garrison of six hundred archers, returned to Emesa, and employed
some time in the distribution of rewards and punishments at the
end of so memorable a war, which restored to the obedience of
Rome those provinces that had renounced their allegiance since
the captivity of Valerian.

[Footnote 71: From a very doubtful chronology I have endeavored
to extract the most probable date.]

[Footnote 72: Hist. August. p. 218. Zosimus, l. i. p. 50.
Though the camel is a heavy beast of burden, the dromedary, which
is either of the same or of a kindred species, is used by the
natives of Asia and Africa on all occasions which require
celerity. The Arabs affirm, that he will run over as much ground
in one day as their fleetest horses can perform in eight or ten.
See Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. xi. p. 222, and Shaw's Travels
p. 167]
When the Syrian queen was brought into the presence of
Aurelian, he sternly asked her, How she had presumed to rise in
arms against the emperors of Rome! The answer of Zenobia was a
prudent mixture of respect and firmness. "Because I disdained to
consider as Roman emperors an Aureolus or a Gallienus. You alone
I acknowledge as my conqueror and my sovereign." ^73 But as
female fortitude is commonly artificial, so it is seldom steady
or consistent. The courage of Zenobia deserted her in the hour
of trial; she trembled at the angry clamors of the soldiers, who
called aloud for her immediate execution, forgot the generous
despair of Cleopatra, which she had proposed as her model, and
ignominiously purchased life by the sacrifice of her fame and her
friends. It was to their counsels, which governed the weakness
of her sex, that she imputed the guilt of her obstinate
resistance; it was on their heads that she directed the vengeance
of the cruel Aurelian. The fame of Longinus, who was included
among the numerous and perhaps innocent victims of her fear, will
survive that of the queen who betrayed, or the tyrant who
condemned him. Genius and learning were incapable of moving a
fierce unlettered soldier, but they had served to elevate and
harmonize the soul of Longinus. Without uttering a complaint, he
calmly followed the executioner, pitying his unhappy mistress,
and bestowing comfort on his afflicted friends. ^74

[Footnote 73: Pollio in Hist. August. p. 199.]

[Footnote 74: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 219. Zosimus, l. i.
p. 51.]
Returning from the conquest of the East, Aurelian had
already crossed the Straits which divided Europe from Asia, when
he was provoked by the intelligence that the Palmyrenians had
massacred the governor and garrison which he had left among them,
and again erected the standard of revolt. Without a moment's
deliberation, he once more turned his face towards Syria. Antioch
was alarmed by his rapid approach, and the helpless city of
Palmyra felt the irresistible weight of his resentment. We have
a letter of Aurelian himself, in which he acknowledges, ^75 that
old men, women, children, and peasants, had been involved in that
dreadful execution, which should have been confined to armed
rebellion; and although his principal concern seems directed to
the reestablishment of a temple of the Sun, he discovers some
pity for the remnant of the Palmyrenians, to whom he grants the
permission of rebuilding and inhabiting their city. But it is
easier to destroy than to restore. The seat of commerce, of
arts, and of Zenobia, gradually sunk into an obscure town, a
trifling fortress, and at length a miserable village. The
present citizens of Palmyra, consisting of thirty or forty
families, have erected their mud cottages within the spacious
court of a magnificent temple.
[Footnote 75: Hist. August. p. 219.]

Another and a last labor still awaited the indefatigable
Aurelian; to suppress a dangerous though obscure rebel, who,
during the revolt of Palmyra, had arisen on the banks of the
Nile. Firmus, the friend and ally, as he proudly styled himself,
of Odenathus and Zenobia, was no more than a wealthy merchant of
Egypt. In the course of his trade to India, he had formed very
intimate connections with the Saracens and the Blemmyes, whose
situation on either coast of the Red Sea gave them an easy
introduction into the Upper Egypt. The Egyptians he inflamed
with the hope of freedom, and, at the head of their furious
multitude, broke into the city of Alexandria, where he assumed
the Imperial purple, coined money, published edicts, and raised
an army, which, as he vainly boasted, he was capable of
maintaining from the sole profits of his paper trade. Such
troops were a feeble defence against the approach of Aurelian;
and it seems almost unnecessary to relate, that Firmus was
routed, taken, tortured, and put to death. ^76 Aurelian might now
congratulate the senate, the people, and himself, that in little
more than three years, he had restored universal peace and order
to the Roman world.
[Footnote 76: See Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 220, 242. As an
instance of luxury, it is observed, that he had glass windows.
He was remarkable for his strength and appetite, his courage and
dexterity. From the letter of Aurelian, we may justly infer,
that Firmus was the last of the rebels, and consequently that
Tetricus was already suppressed.]

Since the foundation of Rome, no general had more nobly
deserved a triumph than Aurelian; nor was a triumph ever
celebrated with superior pride and magnificence. ^77 The pomp was
opened by twenty elephants, four royal tigers, and above two
hundred of the most curious animals from every climate of the
North, the East, and the South. They were followed by sixteen
hundred gladiators, devoted to the cruel amusement of the
amphitheatre. The wealth of Asia, the arms and ensigns of so
many conquered nations, and the magnificent plate and wardrobe of
the Syrian queen, were disposed in exact symmetry or artful
disorder. The ambassadors of the most remote parts of the earth,
of Aethiopia, Arabia, Persia, Bactriana, India, and China, all
remarkable by their rich or singular dresses, displayed the fame
and power of the Roman emperor, who exposed likewise to the
public view the presents that he had received, and particularly a
great number of crowns of gold, the offerings of grateful cities.

The victories of Aurelian were attested by the long train of
captives who reluctantly attended his triumph, Goths, Vandals,
Sarmatians, Alemanni, Franks, Gauls, Syrians, and Egyptians.
Each people was distinguished by its peculiar inscription, and
the title of Amazons was bestowed on ten martial heroines of the
Gothie nation who had been taken in arms. ^78 But every eye,
disregarding the crowd of captives, was fixed on the emperor
Tetricus and the queen of the East. The former, as well as his
son, whom he had created Augustus, was dressed in Gallic
trousers, ^79 a saffron tunic, and a robe of purple. The
beauteous figure of Zenobia was confined by fetters of gold; a
slave supported the gold chain which encircled her neck, and she
almost fainted under the intolerable weight of jewels. She
preceded on foot the magnificent chariot, in which she once hoped
to enter the gates of Rome. It was followed by two other
chariots, still more sumptuous, of Odenathus and of the Persian
monarch. The triumphal car of Aurelian (it had formerly been
used by a Gothic king) was drawn, on this memorable occasion,
either by four stags or by four elephants. ^80 The most
illustrious of the senate, the people, and the army closed the
solemn procession. Unfeigned joy, wonder, and gratitude, swelled
the acclamations of the multitude; but the satisfaction of the
senate was clouded by the appearance of Tetricus; nor could they
suppress a rising murmur, that the haughty emperor should thus
expose to public ignominy the person of a Roman and a magistrate.
^81
[Footnote 77: See the triumph of Aurelian, described by Vopiscus.

He relates the particulars with his usual minuteness; and, on
this occasion, they happen to be interesting. Hist. August. p.
220.]

[Footnote 78: Among barbarous nations, women have often combated
by the side of their husbands. But it is almost impossible that
a society of Amazons should ever have existed either in the old
or new world.

Note: Klaproth's theory on the origin of such traditions is
at least recommended by its ingenuity. The males of a tribe
having gone out on a marauding expedition, and having been cut
off to a man, the females may have endeavored, for a time, to
maintain their independence in their camp village, till their
children grew up. Travels, ch. xxx. Eng. Trans - M.]
[Footnote 79: The use of braccoe, breeches, or trousers, was
still considered in Italy as a Gallic and barbarian fashion. The
Romans, however, had made great advances towards it. To encircle
the legs and thighs with fascioe, or bands, was understood, in
the time of Pompey and Horace, to be a proof of ill health or
effeminacy. In the age of Trajan, the custom was confined to the
rich and luxurious. It gradually was adopted by the meanest of
the people. See a very curious note of Casaubon, ad Sueton. in
August. c. 82.]
[Footnote 80: Most probably the former; the latter seen on the
medals of Aurelian, only denote (according to the learned
Cardinal Norris) an oriental victory.]

[Footnote 81: The expression of Calphurnius, (Eclog. i. 50)
Nullos decet captiva triumphos, as applied to Rome, contains a
very manifest allusion and censure.]

But however, in the treatment of his unfortunate rivals,
Aurelian might indulge his pride, he behaved towards them with a
generous clemency, which was seldom exercised by the ancient
conquerors. Princes who, without success, had defended their
throne or freedom, were frequently strangled in prison, as soon
as the triumphal pomp ascended the Capitol. These usurpers, whom
their defeat had convicted of the crime of treason, were
permitted to spend their lives in affluence and honorable repose.

The emperor presented Zenobia with an elegant villa at Tibur, or
Tivoli, about twenty miles from the capital; the Syrian queen
insensibly sunk into a Roman matron, her daughters married into
noble families, and her race was not yet extinct in the fifth
century. ^82 Tetricus and his son were reinstated in their rank
and fortunes. They erected on the Caelian hill a magnificent
palace, and as soon as it was finished, invited Aurelian to
supper. On his entrance, he was agreeably surprised with a
picture which represented their singular history. They were
delineated offering to the emperor a civic crown and the sceptre
of Gaul, and again receiving at his hands the ornaments of the
senatorial dignity. The father was afterwards invested with the
government of Lucania, ^83 and Aurelian, who soon admitted the
abdicated monarch to his friendship and conversation, familiarly
asked him, Whether it were not more desirable to administer a
province of Italy, than to reign beyond the Alps. The son long
continued a respectable member of the senate; nor was there any
one of the Roman nobility more esteemed by Aurelian, as well as
by his successors. ^84
[Footnote 82: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 199. Hieronym. in
Chron. Prosper in Chron. Baronius supposes that Zenobius,
bishop of Florence in the time of St. Ambrose, was of her
family.]

[Footnote 83: Vopisc. in Hist. August. p. 222. Eutropius, ix.
13. Victor Junior. But Pollio, in Hist. August. p. 196, says,
that Tetricus was made corrector of all Italy.]

[Footnote 84: Hist. August. p. 197.]

So long and so various was the pomp of Aurelian's triumph,
that although it opened with the dawn of day, the slow majesty of
the procession ascended not the Capitol before the ninth hour;
and it was already dark when the emperor returned to the palace.
The festival was protracted by theatrical representations, the
games of the circus, the hunting of wild beasts, combats of
gladiators, and naval engagements. Liberal donatives were
distributed to the army and people, and several institutions,
agreeable or beneficial to the city, contributed to perpetuate
the glory of Aurelian. A considerable portion of his oriental
spoils was consecrated to the gods of Rome; the Capitol, and
every other temple, glittered with the offerings of his
ostentatious piety; and the temple of the Sun alone received
above fifteen thousand pounds of gold. ^85 This last was a
magnificent structure, erected by the emperor on the side of the
Quirinal hill, and dedicated, soon after the triumph, to that
deity whom Aurelian adored as the parent of his life and
fortunes. His mother had been an inferior priestess in a chapel
of the Sun; a peculiar devotion to the god of Light was a
sentiment which the fortunate peasant imbibed in his infancy; and
every step of his elevation, every victory of his reign,
fortified superstition by gratitude. ^86
[Footnote 85: Vopiscus in Hist. August. 222. Zosimus, l. i. p.
56. He placed in it the images of Belus and of the Sun, which he
had brought from Palmyra. It was dedicated in the fourth year of
his reign, (Euseb in Chron.,) but was most assuredly begun
immediately on his accession.]
[Footnote 86: See, in the Augustan History, p. 210, the omens of
his fortune. His devotion to the Sun appears in his letters, on
his medals, and is mentioned in the Caesars of Julian.
Commentaire de Spanheim, p. 109.]
The arms of Aurelian had vanquished the foreign and domestic
foes of the republic. We are assured, that, by his salutary
rigor, crimes and factions, mischievous arts and pernicious
connivance, the luxurious growth of a feeble and oppressive
government, were eradicated throughout the Roman world. ^87 But
if we attentively reflect how much swifter is the progress of
corruption than its cure, and if we remember that the years
abandoned to public disorders exceeded the months allotted to the
martial reign of Aurelian, we must confess that a few short
intervals of peace were insufficient for the arduous work of
reformation. Even his attempt to restore the integrity of the
coin was opposed by a formidable insurrection. The emperor's
vexation breaks out in one of his private letters. "Surely,"
says he, "the gods have decreed that my life should be a
perpetual warfare. A sedition within the walls has just now
given birth to a very serious civil war. The workmen of the
mint, at the instigation of Felicissimus, a slave to whom I had
intrusted an employment in the finances, have risen in rebellion.

They are at length suppressed; but seven thousand of my soldiers
have been slain in the contest, of those troops whose ordinary
station is in Dacia, and the camps along the Danube." ^88 Other
writers, who confirm the same fact, add likewise, that it
happened soon after Aurelian's triumph; that the decisive
engagement was fought on the Caelian hill; that the workmen of
the mint had adulterated the coin; and that the emperor restored
the public credit, by delivering out good money in exchange for
the bad, which the people was commanded to bring into the
treasury. ^89

[Footnote 87: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 221.]

[Footnote 88: Hist. August. p. 222. Aurelian calls these
soldiers Hiberi Riporiences Castriani, and Dacisci.]

[Footnote 89: Zosimus, l. i. p. 56. Eutropius, ix. 14. Aurel
Victor.]
We might content ourselves with relating this extraordinary
transaction, but we cannot dissemble how much in its present form
it appears to us inconsistent and incredible. The debasement of
the coin is indeed well suited to the administration of
Gallienus; nor is it unlikely that the instruments of the
corruption might dread the inflexible justice of Aurelian. But
the guilt, as well as the profit, must have been confined to a
very few; nor is it easy to conceive by what arts they could arm
a people whom they had injured, against a monarch whom they had
betrayed. We might naturally expect that such miscreants should
have shared the public detestation with the informers and the
other ministers of oppression; and that the reformation of the
coin should have been an action equally popular with the
destruction of those obsolete accounts, which by the emperor's
order were burnt in the forum of Trajan. ^90 In an age when the
principles of commerce were so imperfectly understood, the most
desirable end might perhaps be effected by harsh and injudicious
means; but a temporary grievance of such a nature can scarcely
excite and support a serious civil war. The repetition of
intolerable taxes, imposed either on the land or on the
necessaries of life, may at last provoke those who will not, or
who cannot, relinquish their country. But the case is far
otherwise in every operation which, by whatsoever expedients,
restores the just value of money. The transient evil is soon
obliterated by the permanent benefit, the loss is divided among
multitudes; and if a few wealthy individuals experience a
sensible diminution of treasure, with their riches, they at the
same time lose the degree of weight and importance which they
derived from the possession of them. However Aurelian might
choose to disguise the real cause of the insurrection, his
reformation of the coin could furnish only a faint pretence to a
party already powerful and discontented. Rome, though deprived
of freedom, was distracted by faction. The people, towards whom
the emperor, himself a plebeian, always expressed a peculiar
fondness, lived in perpetual dissension with the senate, the
equestrian order, and the Praetorian guards. ^91 Nothing less
than the firm though secret conspiracy of those orders, of the
authority of the first, the wealth of the second, and the arms of
the third, could have displayed a strength capable of contending
in battle with the veteran legions of the Danube, which, under
the conduct of a martial sovereign, had achieved the conquest of
the West and of the East.

[Footnote 90: Hist. August. p. 222. Aurel Victor.]

[Footnote 91: It already raged before Aurelian's return from
Egypt. See Vipiscus, who quotes an original letter. Hist.
August. p. 244.]
Whatever was the cause or the object of this rebellion,
imputed with so little probability to the workmen of the mint,
Aurelian used his victory with unrelenting rigor. ^92 He was
naturally of a severe disposition. A peasant and a soldier, his
nerves yielded not easily to the impressions of sympathy, and he
could sustain without emotion the sight of tortures and death.
Trained from his earliest youth in the exercise of arms, he set
too small a value on the life of a citizen, chastised by military
execution the slightest offences, and transferred the stern
discipline of the camp into the civil administration of the laws.

His love of justice often became a blind and furious passion and
whenever he deemed his own or the public safety endangered, he
disregarded the rules of evidence, and the proportion of
punishments. The unprovoked rebellion with which the Romans
rewarded his services, exasperated his haughty spirit. The
noblest families of the capital were involved in the guilt or
suspicion of this dark conspiracy. A nasty spirit of revenge
urged the bloody prosecution, and it proved fatal to one of the
nephews of the emperor. The the executioners (if we may use the
expression of a contemporary poet) were fatigued, the prisons
were crowded, and the unhappy senate lamented the death or
absence of its most illustrious members. ^93 Nor was the pride of
Aurelian less offensive to that assembly than his cruelty.
Ignorant or impatient of the restraints of civil institutions, he
disdained to hold his power by any other title than that of the
sword, and governed by right of conquest an empire which he had
saved and subdued. ^94

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