Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/376

S52 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, rear, which were more feebly or less carefully guarded ; • and with incredible diligence, but by a different road. returned towards the mountains of Italy Aurelian, who considered the war as totally extinguished, re- ceived the mortifying intelligence of the escape of the Alemanni, and of the ravage which they already com- mitted in the territory of Milan. The legions were commanded to follow, with as much expedition as those heavy bodies were capable of exerting, the rapid flight of an enemy, whose infantry and cavalry moved with almost equal swiftness. A few days afterwards the emperor himself marched to the relief of Italy, at the head of a chosen body of auxiliaries, (among whom were the hostages and cavalry of the Vandals,) and of all the pretorian guards who had served in the wars on the Danube ^. and are at As the light troops of the Alemanni had spread quashed by themselves from the Alps to the Apennine, the in- Aurelian. ccssant vigilance of Aurelian and his officers was ex- ercised in the discovery, the attack, and the pursuit of the numerous detachments. Notwithstanding this de- sultory war, three considerable battles are mentioned, in which the principal force of both armies was obsti- nately engaged ^ The success was various. In the first, fought near Placentia, the Romans received so severe a blow, that, according to the expression of a writer extremely partial to Aurelian, the immediate dis- solution of the empire was apprehended ™. The crafty barbarians, who had lined the woods, suddenly attacked the legions in the dusk of the evening, and, it is most probable, after the fatigue and disorder of a long march. The fury of their charge was irresistible; but at length, after a dreadful slaughter, the patient firm- ness of the emperor rallied his troops, and restored, in some degree, the honour of his arms. The second battle was fought near Fano in Umbria; on the spot which, five hundred years before, had been fatal to the • Hist. August, p. 215. . ^ Dexippus, p. 12. • Victor junior, in Aurelian, "' Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 216. '