Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/366

 .348 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, renees, and advanced towards Lyons, the last and fatal ^^^^^- station of Magnentius ". The temper of the tyrant, which was never inclined to clemency, was urged by distress to exercise every act of oppression which could extort an immediate supply from the cities of Gaul ^ Their patience was at length exhausted ; and Treves, the seat of pretorian government, gave the sig- nal of revolt, by shutting her gates against Decentius, who had been raised by his brother to the rank either of Ceesar or of Augustus''. From Treves, Decentius was obliged to retire to Sens, where he was soon sur- roimded by an army of Germans, whom the pernicious arts of Constantius had introduced into the civil dis- sensions of Rome*^. In the mean time the imperial troops forced the passages of the Cottian Alps, and in the bloody combat of mount Seleucus irrevocably fixed the title of rebels on the party of Magnentius '. He was unable to bring another army into the field ; the fidelity of his guards was corrupted; and wlien he ap- peared in public to animate them by his exhortations, he was saluted with an unanimous shout of " Long live the emperor Constantius !" The tyrant, who per- ceived that they were preparing to deserve pardon and rewards by the sacrifice of the most obnoxious criminal, prevented their design by falling on his sword ^; a death ^ Zosim. 1. ii. p. 133 ; Julian, Orat. i. p. 40. ii. p. 74. ^ Ammian. xv. 6 ; Zosim. 1. ii. p. 133. Julian, who (Orat. i. p. 40.) inveighs against the cruel effects of the tyrant's despair, mentions (Orat. i. p. 34.) the oppressive edicts which were dictated by his necessities, or by his avarice. His subjects were compelled to purchase the imperial demesnes; a doubtful and dangerous species of property, which, in case of a revolution, might be imputed to them as a treasonable usurpation. '^ The medals of Magnentius celebrate the victories of the two Augusti, and of the Caesar. The Ca;sar was another brother, named Desiderius. See Tillemont, Hist, des P2mpereurs, tom. iv. p. 757. •* Julian, Orat. i. p. 40. ii. p. 74. with Spanheim, p. 263. His com- mentary illustrates the transactions of this civil war. Mons Seleuci was a small place in the Cottian Alps, a few miles distant from Vapincum, or Gap, an episcopal city of Dauphine. See d'Anville, Notice de la Gaule, p. 464 ; and Longuerue, Description de la France, p. 327. ^ Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 134; Liban. Orat. x. p. 268, 269. The latter most vehemently arraigns this cruel and selfish policy of Constantius. f Julian, Orat. i. p. 40; Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 134; Socrates, 1. ii. c. 32; Sozomen, 1. iv. c. 7. The younger Victor describes his death with some horrid circumstances : Transfosso latere, ut erat vasti corporis, vulnere naiibusque et ore cruorem effundens, exspiravit. If we can give credit to