Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/350

 326 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. X. Their real number was no more than nine- teen. Character and merit of the ty- rants. can we discover between a council of thirty persons, the united oppressors of a single city, and an uncertain list of independent rivals, who rose and fell in irregular succession through the extent of a vast empire ? Nor can the number of thirty be completed, unless we in- clude in the account the women and children who were honoured with the imperial title. The reign of Gal- lienus, distracted as it was, produced only nineteen pretenders to the throne; Cyriades, Macrianus, Ba- lista, Odenathus, and Zenobia, in the east; in Gaul and the western provinces, Posthumus, LolHanus, Vic- torinus and his mother Victoria, Marius, and Tetricus. In Illyricum and the confines of the Danube, Ingenuus, Regillianus, and Aureolus; in Pontus", Saturninus; in Isauria, Trebellianus ; Piso in Thessaly; Valens in Achaia ; iEmihanus in Egypt ; and Celsus in Africa. To illustrate the obscure monuments of the life and death of each individual, would prove a laborious task, alike barren of instruction and of amusement. We may content ourselves with investigating some general characters, that most strongly mark the condition of the times, and the manners of the men, their preten- sions, their motives, their fate, and the destructive con- sequences of their usurpation ^. It is sufficiently known, that the odious appellation o^ tyrant was often employed by the ancients to express the illegal seizure of supreme power, without any re- ference to the abuse of it. Several of the pretenders who raised the standard of rebellion against the em- peror Galhenus, were shining models of virtue, and almost all possessed a considerable share of vigour and ability. Their merit had recommended them to the favour of Valerian, and gradually promoted them to the most important commands of the empire. The generals who assumed the title of Augustus, were either respected by their troops for their able conduct " The place of his reign is somewhat doubtful ; but there was a tyrant in Pontus, and we are acquainted with the seat of all the others. ^ Tillemont, (torn. iii. p. 1163.) reckons them somewhat differently.