OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 283 tious choice. Philip was alarmed. He dreaded lest CHAP, the treason of the Maesian army should prove the first ^' spark of a general conflagration. Distracted with the consciousness of his guilt and of his danger, he com- municated the intelligence to the senate. A gloomy silence prevailed, the effect of fear, and perhaps of dis- affection : till at length Decius, one of the assembly, Services, re- assuming a spirit worthy of his noble extraction, ven- and'reign of tured to discover more intrepidity than the emperor ^^ emperor seemed to possess. He treated the whole business A. d. 249. with contempt, as a hasty and inconsiderate tumult, and Philip's rival as a phantom of royalty, who in a very few days would be destroyed by the same incon- stancy that had created him. The speedy completion of the prophecy inspired Philip with a just esteem for so able a counsellor ; and Decius appeared to him the only person capable of restoring peace and discipline to an army, whose tumultuous spirit did not immedi- ately subside after the murder of Marinus. Decius, who long resisted his own nomination, seems to have insinuated the danger of presenting a leader of merit to the angry and apprehensive minds of the soldiers ; and his prediction was again confirmed by the event. The legions of Maesia forced their judge to become their accomplice. They left him only the alternative of death or the purple. His subsequent conduct, after that decisive measure, was unavoidable. He con- ducted, or followed, his army to the confines of Italy, whither Philip, collecting all his force to repel the for- midable competitor whom he had raised up, advanced to meet him. The imperial troops were superior in number ; but the rebels formed an army of veterans, commanded by an able and experienced leader ^, Philip was either killed in the battle, or put to death a few
- » His birth at Bubalia, a little village in Pannonia, (Eutrop. ix. Victor
ia Caesarib. et Epitom.) seems to contradict, unless it was merely acciden- tal, his supposed descent from the Decii. Six hundred years had bestowed nobility on the Decii ; but at the commencement of that period, they were only plebeians of merit, and among the first who shared the consulsiiip with the haughty patricians. PlebeiaB Deciorum animae, etc.* Juvenal, sat. viii. 254. See the spirited speech of Decius, in Livy, x. 9, 10.
