Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/408

 384 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. But the glory and life of Tacitus were of short duration. Transported, in the depth of winter, from Death of the soft retirement of Campania to the foot of mount Tacitus. Caucasus, he sunk under the unaccustomed hardships of a military life. The fatigues of the body were ag- gravated by the cares of the mind. For a while, the angry and selfish passions of the soldiers had been suspended by the enthusiasm of public virtue. They soon broke out with redoubled violence, and raged in the camp, and even in the tent of the aged emperor. His mild and amiable character served only to inspire contempt ; and he was incessantly tormented with fac- tions which he could not assuage, and by demands which it was impossible to satisfy. Whatever flattering expectations he had conceived of reconciling the public disorders, Tacitus soon was convinced, that the licen- tiousness of the army disdained the feeble restraint of laws ; and his last hour was hastened by anguish and disappointment. It may be doubtful whether the soldiers imbrued their hands in the blood of this in- nocent prince ^ It is certain that their insolence was A. p. 276. the cause of his death. He expired at Tyana in Cap- ^^^ ' padocia, after a reign of only six months and about twenty days *. Usurpation The eyes of Tacitus were scarcely closed, before his hS^brTth'ef ^^^^^^^ Florianus showed himself unworthy to reign, Florianus. by the hasty usurpation of the purple, without expect- ing the approbation of the senate. The reverence for the Roman constitution, which yet influenced the camp and the provinces, was sufficiently strong to dispose them to censure, but not to provoke them to oppose, the precipitate ambition of Florianus. The discontent would have evaporated in idle murmurs, had not the Zosimus, (1. i. p. 58.) Florianus pursued them as far as the Cimmerian Bosphorus. But he had scarcely time for so long and difficult an ex- pedition. « Eutropius and Aurelius Victor only say that he died ; Victor junior adds, that it was of a fever. Zosimus and Zonaras affirm, that he was killed by the soldiers. Vopiscus mentions both accounts, and seems to hesitate. Yet surely these jarring opinions are easily reconciled.
 * According to the two Victors, he reigned exactly two hundred days.