Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/352

 S2S THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. The lieutenants of Valerian were grateful to the father, whom they esteemed. They disdained to serve The causes the luxurious indolence of his unworthy son. The bellion. tlirone of the Roman world was unsupported by any principle of loyalty ; and treason against such a prince might easily be considered as patriotism to the state. Yet if we examine with candour the conduct of these ; usurpers, it will appear that they were much oftener driven into rebeUion by their fears, than urged to it by their ambition. They dreaded the cruel suspicions of Gallienus; they equally dreaded the capricious vio- lence of their troops. If the dangerous favour of the army had imprudently declared them deserving of the purple, they were marked for sure destruction ; and even prudence would counsel them, to secure a short enjoyment of empire, and rather to try the fortune of war, than to expect the hand of an executioner. When the clamour of the soldiers invested the reluctant vic- tims with the ensigns of sovereign authority, they some- times mourned in secret their approaching fate. " You have lost," said Saturninus, on the day of his elevation, " you have lost a useful commander, and you have made a very wretched emperor ^." Their vio- The apprehensions of Saturninus were justified by ent eat s. ^i^^ repeated experience of revolutions. Of the nine- teen tyrants who started up under the reign of Gal- lienus, there was not one who enjoyed a life of peace, or a natural death. As soon as they were invested with the bloody purple, they inspired their adherents with the same fears and ambition which had occasioned their own revolt. Encompassed with domestic conspiracy, military sedition, and civil war, they trembled on the edge of precipices, in which, after a longer or shorter term of anxiety, they were inevitably lost. These pre- carious monarchs received, however, such honours as the flattery of their respective armies and provinces could bestow; but their claim, founded* on rebellion, could never obtain the sanction of law or history. Italy, " Hist. August, p. 196.