Aurelian and gave him his daughter Ulpia in marriage. Aurelian expelled the Goths from Illyria, and for this important service Valerian publicly thanked him and proclaimed him consul elect (257 A.D.). He was eulogized as the liberator of Illyricum, the restorer of Gaul and the rival of Scipio. Valerian's successor, Claudius, appointed Aurelian captaingeneral of Illyria and Thrace and commander-in-chief of the cavalry of the empire, and confided to him the defense of the frontier against the Goths. Claudius, in his last illness, recommended Aurelian as the most deserving of the throne and the best qualified to execute the great designs which he himself had undertaken. Aurelian was also proclaimed by the army and succeeded Claudius in 270 A.D.

"The reign of Aurelian," says Gibbon, "lasted only four years and about nine months; but every instant of that short period was filled by some memorable achievement. He put an end to the Gothic war, chastised the Germans who invaded Italy, recovered Gaul, Spain and Britain out of the hands of Tetricus and destroyed the proud monarchy of Zenobia." He first marched against a numerous host of Goths and Vandals who had crossed the Danube and ravaged Pannonia. These barbarians were forced to submit and give hostages, and terminate the war by a lasting treaty of peace. But the most important condition of peace was understood rather than expressed. Aurelian withdrew the Roman forces from Dacia and tacitly relinquished this province to the Goths and Vandals in order that the Danube might be the boundary of the empire. By this politic act he contracted and protected the frontier, for after Dacia became independent, it often served as a barrier of the empire against the invasions of Northern barbarians. In the same year, 270 A.D., the German tribe of Alemanni invaded Northern Italy, which they devastated. Aurelian was almost at the same time informed of the irruption and the retreat of the barbarians. When the Alemanni laden with spoils arrived at the Danube, a Roman army was concealed on the opposite bank and intercepted their return. Aurelian permitted half of their army to pass the river in fatal security and gained over them an easy victory. The other body of Alemanni, finding it impos

sible to cross the river while the roads in their rear were still open, marched rapidly to Italy and ravaged Cisalpine Gaul. When they were overtaken by the Roman army near Placentia, they avoided a battle and occupied a dense forest. Issuing by night they defeated the Romans with great slaughter (270), and marched into Umbria. This victory caused consternation at Rome, and the barbarians were hourly expected at the gates. Aurelian, now obliged to conduct the campaign in person, gained a decisive victory over them near Fano, and the remnant of their host was exterminated near Pavia.

On the accession of Aurelian, his empire comprised Italy, Gaul, Spain, Africa, Illyricum, Dacia and Thrace. Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, had extended her sway over Syria, Egypt and a large part of Asia Minor. The most memorable event of his reign was his expedition against Zenobia in 272 A.D. The armies met on the Orontes near Antioch, where the heroic queen of Palmyra animated her army by her presence. The numerous forces of Zenobia consisted for the most part of light archers and of heavy cavalry clothed in complete steel. The Palmyrenes were defeated, and retreated to Emesa, where Aurelian gained another decisive victory. Zenobia retired within the walls of the populous and splendid capital, and prepared for an obstinate resistance. After a long siege her capital surrendered in 273 A.D., and was treated with unexpected lenity. Aurelian obtained here an immense treasure of gold, silver, silk and precious stones, and leaving a garrison of six hundred men, returned to Emesa. The Emperor spared the life of Zenobia, but he put to death Longinus, her prime minister, as having counselled her obstinate resistance. When Aurelian reached Byzantium, he learned that the people of Palmyra had revolted and massacred the governor and garrison. Immediately marching back to Palmyra, he put to death nearly the whole population and razed the city to the ground.

During the revolt of Palmyra, an Egyptian rebel, named Firmus, had assumed the imperial purple, coined money and raised an army. He was quickly defeated by Aurelian and was put to death. Aurelian might now congratulate the senate, the people and himself, that he had restored universal

peace and order. In 274 A.D. he celebrated a magnificent triumph, in which his victories were attested by a long train of captives, Goths, Vandals, Alemanni, Franks, Gauls and Syrians. Such a triumph had not been witnessed since the time of Pompey and Cæsar. The attention of the spectators was engrossed by the beautiful figure of Zenobia, who, confined by golden chains was paraded on foot before the chariot of Aurelian.

He next devoted attention to domestic reforms and improvements. Laws were enacted against luxury. He began to erect around Rome a new line of strongly fortified walls embracing a circuit of about twenty miles. His attempt to restore the integrity of the coin was opposed by a formidable sedition. Gibbon quotes a letter of Aurelian in which he says, A sedition within the walls has just given birth to a very serious civil war. The workmen of the mint have risen in rebellion. Seven thousand of my soldiers have been slain in the contest." The noblest families of Rome were involved in the guilt or suspicion of this conspiracy and were treated with excessive cruelty.

In the autumn of 274 A.D., Aurelian, at the age of sixty, undertook an expedition against the Persians. His private secretary plotted against him and induced many officers of high rank to conspire with him by counterfeiting his master's hand and showing them a list of their own names devoted to death. On his march between Byzantium and Heraclea, he was killed by an officer named Mucapor in January, 275 A.D. He was succeeded by Tacitus, a descendant of the celebrated historian.

THE ALEMANNI DRIVEN FROM ROME.

While the vigorous and moderate conduct of Aurelian restored the Illyrian frontier, the nation of the Alemanni violated the conditions of peace, which either Gallienus had purchased, or Claudius had imposed, and, inflamed by their impatient youth, suddenly flew to arms. Forty thousand

horse appeared in the field, and the numbers of the infantry doubled those of the cavalry. The first objects of their avarice were a few cities of the Rhætian frontier; but their hopes

soon rising with success, the rapid march of the Alemanni traced a line of devastation from the Danube to the Po.

The emperor was almost at the same time informed of the irruption, and of the retreat, of the barbarians. Collecting an active body of troops, he marched with silence and celerity along the skirts of the Hercynian forest; and the Alemanni, laden with the spoils of Italy, arrived at the Danube, without suspecting, that on the opposite bank, and in an advantageous post, a Roman army lay concealed and prepared to intercept their return. Aurelian indulged the fatal security of the barbarians, and permitted about half their forces to pass the river without disturbance and without precaution. Their situation and astonishment gave him an easy victory; his skillful conduct improved the advantage. Disposing the legions in a semi-circular form, he advanced the two horns of the crescent across the Danube, and wheeling them on a sudden towards the centre, enclosed the rear of the German host. The dismayed barbarians, on whatsoever side they cast their eyes, beheld, with despair, a wasted country, a deep and rapid stream, a victorious and implacable enemy.

Reduced to this distressed condition, the Alemanni no longer disdained to sue for peace. Aurelian received their ambassadors at the head of his camp, and with every circumstance of martial pomp that could display the greatness and discipline of Rome. The legions stood to their arms in wellordered ranks and awful silence. The principal commanders, distinguished by the ensigns of their rank, appeared on horseback on either side of the Imperial throne. Behind the throne the consecrated images of the emperor, and his predecessors, the golden eagles, and the various titles of the legions, engraved in letters of gold, were exalted in the air on lofty pikes covered with silver. When Aurelian assumed his seat, his manly grace and majestic figure taught the barbarians to revere the person as well as the purple of their conqueror. The ambassadors fell prostrate on the ground in silence. They were commanded to rise, and permitted to speak. By the assistance of interpreters they extenuated their perfidy, magnified their exploits, expatiated on the vicissitudes of fortune and the advantages of peace, and, with an ill-timed con

fidence, demanded a large subsidy, as the price of the alliance which they offered to the Romans. The answer of the emperor was stern and imperious. He treated their offer with contempt, and their demand with indignation, reproached the barbarians, that they were as ignorant of the arts of war as of the laws of peace, and finally dismissed them with the choice only of submitting to his unconditioned mercy, or awaiting the utmost severity of his resentment. Aurelian had resigned a distant province to the Goths; but it was dangerous to trust or to pardon these perfidious barbarians, whose formidable power kept Italy itself in perpetual alarms.

Immediately after this conference, it should seem that some unexpected emergency required the emperor's presence in Pannonia. He devolved on his lieutenants the care of finishing the destruction of the Alemanni, either by the sword, or by the surer operation of famine. But an active despair has often triumphed over the indolent assurance of success. The barbarians, finding it impossible to traverse the Danube and the Roman camp, broke through the posts in their rear, which were more feebly or less carefully guarded; and with incredible diligence, but by a different road, returned towards the mountains of Italy. Aurelian, who considered the war as totally extinguished, received the mortifying intelligence of the escape of the Alemanni, and of the ravage which they had already committed in the territory of Milan. The legions were commanded to follow, with as much expedition as those heavy bodies were capable of exerting, the rapid flight of an enemy whose infantry and cavalry moved with almost equal swiftness. A few days afterwards, the emperor himself marched to the relief of Italy, at the head of a chosen body of auxiliaries (among whom were the hostages and cavalry of the Vandals), and of all the Prætorian guards who had served in the wars of the Danube.

As the light troops of the Alemanni had spread themselves from the Alps to the Apennine, the incessant vigilance of Aurelian and his officers was exercised in the discovery, the attack, and the pursuit of the numerous detachments. Notwithstanding this desultory war, three considerable battles are mentioned, in which the principal force of both armies was