The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 2 [1776]
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The Online Library of Liberty A Project Of Liberty Fund, Inc. Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 2 [1776] The Online Library Of Liberty This E-Book (PDF format) is published by Liberty Fund, Inc., a private, non-profit, educational foundation established in 1960 to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. 2010 was the 50th anniversary year of the founding of Liberty Fund. It is part of the Online Library of Liberty web site http://oll.libertyfund.org, which was established in 2004 in order to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. To find out more about the author or title, to use the site's powerful search engine, to see other titles in other formats (HTML, facsimile PDF), or to make use of the hundreds of essays, educational aids, and study guides, please visit the OLL web site. This title is also part of the Portable Library of Liberty DVD which contains over 1,000 books and quotes about liberty and power, and is available free of charge upon request. The cuneiform inscription that appears in the logo and serves as a design element in all Liberty Fund books and web sites is the earliest-known written appearance of the word “freedom” (amagi), or “liberty.” It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 B.C. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash, in present day Iraq. To find out more about Liberty Fund, Inc., or the Online Library of Liberty Project, please contact the Director at [email protected]. LIBERTY FUND, INC. 8335 Allison Pointe Trail, Suite 300 Indianapolis, Indiana 46250-1684 Online Library of Liberty: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 2 Edition Used: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. J.B. Bury with an Introduction by W.E.H. Lecky (New York: Fred de Fau and Co., 1906), in 12 vols. Vol. 2. Author: Edward Gibbon Editor: John Bagnell Bury About This Title: The second volume of a 12 volume set of Gibbon’s magesterial history of the end of the Roman Empire, one of the greatest works of history written during the Enlightenment. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 2 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1366 Online Library of Liberty: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 2 About Liberty Fund: Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. Copyright Information: The text is in the public domain. Fair Use Statement: This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 3 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1366 Online Library of Liberty: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 2 Table Of Contents List of Illustrations The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter X Chapter Xi Chapter Xii Chapter Xiii Chapter Xiv Chapter Xv Appendix Additional Notes By the Editor 1.: The Origin of the Goths; and the Gothic History of Jordanes — ( P. 4 Sqq. ) 2.: Visigoths and Ostrogoths — ( P. 8 ) 3.: The Defeat of Valerian, and the Date of Cyriades — ( P. 43 ) 4.: The Pretenders In the Reign of Gallienus, Known As the Thirty Tyrants — ( P. 49 ) 5.: Zenobia — ( P. 83 Sqq. ) 6.: Corrector ItaliÆ — ( P. 96 ) 7.: Probus and the Limes Germanicus — ( P. 120 ) 8.: German Campaigns of Diocletian, Maximian, and Constantius ( 285-299) — ( P. 158 Sqq. ) 9.: Diocletian’s Tariff of Maximum Prices — ( P. 178 ) 10.: Authorities For Matters Pertaining to Christianity and the Primitive Christians — ( Chap. XV.) 11.: Origin of Gnosticism — ( P. 274 ) 12.: World-eras — ( P. 289 ) 13.: Early Church Institutions — ( P. 311 ) 14.: Number of Christians In the Empire Under Diocletian and Constantine — ( Pp. 337, 341 ) PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 4 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1366 Online Library of Liberty: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 2 FRED DeFAU & COMPANY PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 5 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1366 Online Library of Liberty: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 2 [Back to Table of Contents] LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Battle between the Troops of Decius and the Goths From a painting by Joanowitz. Frontispiece Zenobia . page 90 From a statue in the Capitoline Museum. Temple of Diocletian, Palmyra . 142 From a photograph. Map of the Roman Empire under Diocletian . 150 A Roman Ambassador offering Terms of Peace to the Barbarians . 158 From a painting by Peter Paul Rubens. Arch of Titus, Rome . 264 From a photograph. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 6 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1366 Online Library of Liberty: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 2 [Back to Table of Contents] THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE CHAPTER X The Emperors Decius, Gallus, Æmilianus, Valerian, and Gallienus — The general Irruption of the Barbarians — The thirty Tyrants 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 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.1 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. There is not, for instance, any difficulty in conceiving that the successive murders of so many emperors had loosened all 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 revolutions, 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 Mæsia, and that a subaltern officer,2 named Marinus, was the object of their seditious choice. Philip was alarmed. He dreaded lest the treason of the Mæsian army should prove the first spark of a general conflagration. Distracted with the consciousness of his guilt and of his danger, he communicated the intelligence to the senate. A gloomy silence prevailed, the effect of fear, and perhaps of disaffection, till at length Decius, one of the assembly, assuming a spirit worthy of his noble extraction, ventured to discover more intrepidity than the emperor seemed to possess. He treated the whole business with contempt, as a hasty and inconsiderate tumult, and Philip’s rival as a phantom of royalty, who in a very few days would be destroyed by the same inconstancy that had created him. The speedy completion of the prophecy inspired Philip with a just esteem for so able a counsellor, and Decius appeared to him the only person capable of restoring peace and discipline to an army whose tumultuous spirit did not immediately subside after the murder of Marinus. Decius,3 who long resisted his own nomination, seems to have insinuated the danger of presenting a leader of merit to the angry and apprehensive minds of the soldiers; and his prediction was again confirmed by the event. The legions of Mæsia forced their judge to become their accomplice. They left him only the alternative of death or the purple. His subsequent conduct, after that PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 7 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1366 Online Library of Liberty: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 2 decisive measure, was unavoidable. He conducted or followed his army to the confines of Italy, whither Philip, collecting all his force to repel the formidable competitor whom he had raised up, advanced to meet him. The Imperial troops were superior in number; but the rebels formed an army of veterans, commanded by an able and experienced leader. Philip was either killed in the battle or put to death a few days afterwards at Verona. His son and associate in the empire,4 was massacred at Rome by the Prætorian guards; and the victorious Decius, with more favourable circumstances than the ambition of that age can usually plead, was universally acknowledged by the senate and provinces. It is reported that, immediately after his reluctant acceptance of the title of Augustus, he had assured Philip by a private message of his innocence and loyalty, solemnly protesting that, on his arrival in Italy, he would resign the Imperial ornaments, and return to the condition of an obedient subject. His professions might be sincere; but, in the situation where fortune had placed him, it was scarcely possible that he could either forgive or be forgiven.5 The emperor Decius had employed a few months in the works of peace6 and the administration of justice, when he was summoned to the banks of the Danube by the invasion of the Goths.