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16 THE DECLINE AND FALL retire from the service."**^ Majorian^ after the death of Aetius, was recalled, and promoted ; and his intimate connexion with count Ricimer was the immediate step by which he ascended the throne of the Western empire. During the vacancy that succeeded the abdication of Avitus, the ambitious Barbarian, whose birth excluded him from the Imperial dignity, governed Italy, with the title of Patrician ; resigned, to his friend, the conspicuous station of master-general of the cavalry and infantry ; and, after an interval of some months, consented to the unani- mous wish of the Romans, whose favour Majorian had solicited by a recent victory over the Alemanni."'^ He was invested with the purple at Ravenna, and the epistle which he addressed to the senate will best describe his situation and his sentiments. " Your election, Conscript Fathers ! and the ordinance of the most valiant army, have made me your emperor.^' May the propitious Deity direct and prosper the consuls and events of my administration, to your advantage, and to the public welfare ! For my own part, I did not aspire, I have submitted, to reign ; nor should I have discharged the obligations of a citizen, if I had refused, with base and selfish ingratitude, to support the weight of those labours which were imposed by the republic. Assist, therefore, the prince whom you have made ; partake the duties which you have enjoined ; and may our common endeavours promote the happiness of an empire which I have accepted from your hands. Be assured that, in our times, justice shall resume her ancient vigour, and that virtue shall become not only inno- cent but meritorious. Let none, except the authors themselves, be apprehensive of delations,^^ which, as a subject, I have always ^ She pressed his immediate death, and was scarcely satisfied with his disgrace. It should seem that Aetius, like Belisarius and Marlborough, was governed by his wife; whose fervent piety, though it might work miracles (Gregor. Turon. 1. ii. c. 7, p. 162), was not incompatible with base and sanguinary counsels. ■" The Alemanni had passed the Rhaetian Alps, and were defeated in the Campi Canini or Valley of Bellinzone, through which the Tesin flows, in its descent from Mount Adula to the Lago Maggiore (Cluver. Italia Antiq. torn. i. p. 100, loi). This boasted victory over nine hundred Barbarians (Panegyr. Majorian. 373, &c.) betrays the extreme weakness of Italy. ■*'- Imperatorem me factum, P. C. , electionis vestrae arbitrio, at fortissimi e.xer- citus ordinatione agnoscite (Novell. Majorian. tit. iii. p. 34, ad Calcem Cod. Theodos.). Sidonius proclaims the unanimous voice of the empire. Postquam ordine vobis Ordo omnis regnum dederat ; plebs, curia, miles, Et collega simul. — [Carm. 5] 386. This language is ancient and constitutional ; and we may observe that the clergy were not yet considered as a distinct order of the state. ^* Either d/lationes or ddationes would afford a tolerable reading ; but there is much more sense and spirit in the latter, to which I have therefore given the pre- ference.