Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/34

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
10
THE DECLINE AND FALL
CHAP. I.

few slight hostilities that served to exercise the legions of the frontier, the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius offer the fair prospect of universal peace[1]. The Roman name was revered among the most remote nations of the earth. The fiercest barbarians frequently submitted their differences to the arbitration of the emperor; and we are informed by a contemporary historian, that he had seen ambassadors who were refused the honour which they came to solicit, of being admitted into the rank of subjects[2].

Defensive wars of Marcus Antoninus.The terror of the Roman arms added weight and dignity to the moderation of the emperors. They preserved peace by a constant preparation for war; and while justice regulated their conduct, they announced to the nations on their confines, that they were as little disposed to endure as to offer an injury. The military strength which it had been sufficient for Hadrian and the elder Antoninus to display, was exerted against the Parthians and the Germans by the emperor Marcus. The hostilities of the barbarians provoked the resentment of that philosophic monarch; and in the prosecution of a just defence, Marcus and his generals obtained many signal victories, both on the Euphrates and on the Danube[3]. The military establishment of the Roman empire, which thus assured either its tranquillity or success, will now become the proper and important object of our attention.

Military establishment of the Roman emperors.In the purer ages of the commonwealth, the use of arms was reserved for those ranks of citizens who had a country to love, a property to defend, and some share
  1. We must, however, remember that, in the time of Hadrian, a rebellion of the jews raged with religious fury, though only in a single province. Pausanias, 1. viii. c. 43. mentions two necessary and successful wars conducted by the generals of Pius: first, against the wandering Moors, who were driven into the solitudes of Atlas; second, against the Brigantes of Britain, who had invaded the Roman province. Both these wars, with several other hostilities, are mentioned in the Augustan History, p. 19.
  2. Appian of Alexandria, in the preface to his history of the Roman wars.
  3. Dion, 1. lxxi. Hist. August, in Marco. The Parthian victories gave birth to a crowd of contemptible historians, whose memory has been rescued from oblivion, and exposed to ridicule, in a very lively piece of criticism of Lucian.