6
THE DECLINE AND FALL
CHAP. I.
the fairest and most wealthy climates of the globe, turned with contempt from gloomy hills assailed by the winter tempest, from lakes concealed in a blue mist, and from cold and lonely heaths, over which the deer of the forest were chased by a troop of naked barbarians[1].
Conquest of Dacia; the second exception.Such was the state of the Roman frontiers, and such the maxims of imperial policy from the death of Augustus to the accession of Trajan. That virtuous and active prince had received the education of a soldier, and possessed the talents of a general[2]. The peaceful system of his predecessors was interrupted by scenes of war and conquest; and the legions, after a long interval, beheld a military emperor at their head. The first exploits of Trajan were against the Dacians, the most warlike of men, who dwelt beyond the Danube, and who, during the reign of Domitian, had insulted with impunity the majesty of Rome[3]. To the strength and fierceness of barbarians they added a contempt for life, which was derived from a warm persuasion of the immortality and transmigration of the soul [4]. Decebalus, the Dacian king, approved himself a rival not unworthy of Trajan; nor did he despair of his own and the public fortune, till, by the confession of his enemies, he had exhausted every resource both of valour and policy[5]. This memorable war, with a very short suspension of hostilities, lasted five years; and as the emperor could exert, without control, the whole force of the state, it was terminated by the absolute submission of the barbarians[6]. The new province of Dacia, which formed a second exception to the precept of Augustus, was about thirteen hundred- ↑ See Appian, in Proœm. and the uniform imagery of Ossian's Poems, which, according to every hypothesis, were composed by a native Caledonian.
- ↑ See Pliny's Panegyric, which seems founded on facts.
- ↑ Dion Cassius, 1. lxvii.
- ↑ Herodotus, 1. iv. c. 94. Julian in the Cæsars, with Spanheim's observations.
- ↑ Plin. Epist. viii. 9.
- ↑ Dion Cassius, 1. lxviii. p. 1123. 1131; Julian in Cæsaribus; Eutropius, viii. 2. 6; Aurelius Victor, and Victor in Epitome.
of Vespasiana to the north of the wall, that independence would be reduced within very narrow limits.
