Page:A general history for colleges and high schools (Myers, 1890).djvu/373

Rh added this new terror. Aurelius plaoed himself at the head of his legions, and hurried beyond the Alps. For many years, amidst the snows of winter and the heats of summer, he strove to beat back the assailants of the empire.

The efforts of the devoted Aurelius checked the inroads of the barbarians ; but he could not subdue them, so weakened was the empire by the ravages of the pestilence, and so exhausted was the treasury from the heavy and constant drains upon it. At last his weak body gave way beneath the hardships of his numerous campaigns, and he died in his camp at Vindobona (now Vienna), in the nineteenth year of his reign ( 180).

The united voice of the Senate and people pronounced him a god, and divine worship was accorded to his statue. Never was Monarchy so justified of her children as in the lives and works of the Antonines. As Merivale, in dwelling upon their virtues, very justly remarks, "the blameless career of these illustrious princes has furnished the best excuse for Cæsarism in all after-ages."