Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/349

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. S2S liciting a place in the Areopagus of Athens. His pro- CHAP. fuse magnificence insulted the general poverty ; the ^' solemn ridicule of his triumphs impressed a deeper sense of the public disgraced The repeated intelli- gence of invasions, defeats, and rebellions he received with a careless smile ; and singling out, with affected contempt, some particular production of the lost pro- vince, he carelessly asked, whether Rome must be ruined, unless it was supplied with linen from Egypt, and Arras cloth from Gaul. There were, however, a few short moments in the life of Gallienus, when, ex- asperated by some recent injury, he suddenly appeared the intrepid soldier, and the cruel tyrant ; till satiated with blood, or fatigued by resistance, he insensibly sunk into the natural mildness and indolence of his character '. At a time when the reins of government were held The thirty with so loose a hand, it is not surprising that a crowd ^y^"^"^^* of usurpers should start up in every province of the empire against the son of Valerian. It was probably some ingenious fancy, of comparing the thirty tyrants of Rome with the thirty tyrants of Athens, that in- duced the writers of the Augustan history to select that celebrated number, which has been gradually re- ceived into a popular appellation *. But in every light the parallel is idle and defective. What resemblance ' A medal which bears the head of Gallienus has perplexed the anti- quarians by its legend and reverse ; the former GuHiente Augustcp, the latter tfbique Pax. M. Spanheim supposes that the coin was struck by some of the enemies of Gallienus, and was designed as a severe satire on that effemi- nate prince. But as the use of irony may seem unworthy of the gravity of the Roman mint, M. de Vallemont has deduced from a passage of Tre- bellius Pollio (Hist. August, p. 198.) an ingenious and natural solution. Galliena was first cousin to the emperor. By delivering Africa from the usurper Celsus, she deserved the title of Augusta. On a medal in the French king's collection, we read a similar inscription of Faustina Augusta round the head of Marcus Aurelius. With regard to the Uhique Fax, it is easily explained by the vanity of Gallienus, who seized, perhaps, the occa- sion of some momentary calm. See Nouvelles de la R6publique des Let- tres, Janvier, 1700. p. 21—34. The reign of his immediate successor was short and busy ; and the his- torians who wrote before the elevation of the family of Constantine, could not have the most remote interest to misrepresent the character of Gallienus. » Pollio expresses the most minute anxiety to complete the number.
 * This singular character has, I believe, been fairly transmitted to us.