Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/246

222 military tyranny. " What reward may we expect for delivering Rome from a monster?" was the question asked by Maximus in a moment of freedom and confidence. Balbinus answered it without hesitation, "The love of the senate, of the people, and of all mankind." " Alas!" replied his more penetrating colleague, "alas! I dread the hatred of the soldiers, and the fatal effects of their resentment ." His apprehensions were but too well justified by the event.

Whilst Maximus was preparing to defend Italy against the common foe, Balbinus, who remained at Rome, had been engaged in scenes of blood and intestine discord. Distrust and jealousy reigned in the senate; and even in the temples where they assembled, every senator carried either open or concealed arms. In the midst of their deliberations, two veterans of the guards, actuated either by curiosity or a sinister motive, audaciously thrust themselves into the house, and advanced by degrees beyond the altar of victory. Gallicanus, a consular, and Maecenas, a pretorian senator, viewed with indignation their insolent intrusion : drawing their daggers, they laid the spies, for such they deemed them, dead at the foot of the altar ; and then advancing to the door of the senate, imprudently exhorted the multitude to massacre the pretorians, as the secret adherents of the tyrant. Those who escaped the first fury of the tumult took refuge in the camp, which they defended with superior advantage against the reiterated attacks of the people, assisted by the numerous bands of gladiators, the property of opulent nobles. The civil war lasted many days, with infinite loss and confusion on both sides. When the pipes were broken that supplied the camp with water, the pretorians were reduced to intolerable distress ; but in their turn they made desperate sallies into the city, set fire to a great number of houses, and filled the streets with the blood of the inhabitants. The emperor Balbinus attempted, by ineffectual edicts and precarious