Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/381

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 357 disordered and dismayed by the unexpected treachery CHAP, of their chief, defended themselves with a desperate valour, till they were cut in pieces almost to a man, in this bloody and memorable battle, which was fought near Chalons in Champagne*^. The retreat of the irregular auxiHaries, Franks and Batavians ^, whom the conqueror soon compelled or persuaded to repass the Rhine, restored the general tranquillity; and the power of Aurelian was acknowledged from the wall of Anto- ninus to the columns of Hercules. As early as the reign of Claudius, the city of Autun, alone and unassisted, had ventured to declare against the legions of Gaul. After a siege of seven months, they stormed and plundered that unfortunate city, already wasted by famine ^ Lyons, on the contrary, had resisted with obstinate disaffection the arms of Aurelian. We read of the punishment of Lyons ^, but there is not any mention of the rewards of Autun. Such, indeed, is the policy of civil war; severely to remember injuries, and to forget the most important services. Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive. Aurelian had no sooner secured the person and pro- A. D. 272. vinces of Tetricus, than he turned his arms against ^^ zenobL • Zenobia, the celebrated queen of Palmyra and the east. Modern Europe has produced several illustrious women who have sustained with glory the weight of empire ; nor is our own age destitute of such distin- guished characters. But if we except the doubtful achievements of Semiramis, Zenobia is perhaps the only female whose superior genius broke through the •1 Pollio in Hist. August, p. 196; Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 220; the two Victors, in the lives of Gallienus and Aurelian ; Eutropius, ix. 13; Euseb. in Chron. Of all these writers, only the two last (but with strong probability) place the fall of Tetricus before that of Zenobia. M. de Boze (in the Academy of Inscriptions, torn, xxx.) does not wish, and Tillemont (torn. iii. p. 1189.) does not dare to follow them. I have been fairer than the one, and bolder than the other. e Victor junior in Aurelian. Eumenius mentions Batavicce ; some critics, without any reason, would fain alter the word to Bagaudicte. ^ Eumen. in Vet. Panegyr. iv. 8. « Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 246. Autun was not restored till the reign of Diocletian. See P^umenius de restaurandis scholis.