Probus

1. It is well established, and Sallustius Crispus, along with the historians Marcus Cato and Gellius, set it down in writing as a maxim, that all the virtues of all men are reckoned only as great as those have wished them to appear who described the deeds of each particular man. This is the source of that saying of Alexander the Great of Macedon, who, when he had come to the tomb of Achilles, groaned deeply and said, "Fortunate are you, young man, who found such a herald of your virtues" — meaning Homer, who made Achilles as great in the pursuit of virtue as he himself was mighty in genius. To what end this tends, my dear Celsinus, you perhaps inquire. Probus, that emperor under whose rule the East, the West, the South, the North, and all the regions of the world were brought into perfect security, we now scarcely know, through the scantiness of writers; he has perished — for very shame! — and the history of so great and so excellent a man is such as the Punic Wars do not possess, nor the Gallic terror, nor the Pontic upheavals, nor the cunning of Spain. But I, who long ago single-handedly set forth Aurelian, whose life I traced out as best I could, and who have now written of Tacitus and Florian, will not allow myself to be barred from rising up to the deeds of Probus; and, if life holds out, I mean to tell of all the rest down to Maximian and Diocletian. Nor do I now promise eloquence or fluency, but the deeds themselves, which I will not suffer to perish.

2. Moreover, so that I may not fail in any way the friendship I hold so dear, I have made use chiefly of the books in the Ulpian Library — in my own day housed in the Baths of Diocletian — and likewise of those in the House of Tiberius; I have also used the registers of the scribes of the Porphyry Portico, and the records too of the senate and the people. And since the journal of Turdulus Gallicanus, a most honourable and most candid man, helped me greatly in gathering the deeds of so great a man, I ought not to be silent about the kindness of an aged friend. As for Gnaeus Pompey, resplendent with three triumphs — over the pirates, over the war with Sertorius, over the war with Mithridates — and exalted by the majesty of many achievements, who, after all, would know of him, had not Marcus Tullius and Titus Livius committed him to writing? Publius Scipio Africanus, nay, all the Scipios, whether the Luciuses or the Nasicas — would not darkness possess them and cover them over, had not historians, both renowned and obscure, arisen to commend them? It would be a long task to recount everything that, after this fashion, ought to be set down even though I keep silent. This much only I wish to attest: that I have written the substance, which, if anyone wishes, let him set forth more nobly in a loftier style. And indeed my purpose has been not to imitate the Sallusts, the Livys, the Tacituses, the Troguses, and all the most eloquent men in treating of the lives and the times of emperors, but rather Marius Maximus, Suetonius Tranquillus, Fabius Marcellinus, Gargilius Martialis, Julius Capitolinus, Aelius Lampridius, and the rest, who handed down these and like matters to memory not so eloquently as truthfully. For I am one of the inquisitive — a thing I cannot deny — spurred on by you who, though you know much, desire to know far more. And, not to dwell longer on what concerns my own design, I will take up a great and illustrious emperor, such as our history has not known.

3. Probus, born in Pannonia, in the city of Sirmium, of a mother more noble than his father, with a modest patrimony and connections of no great account, won renown for his most distinguished virtues, both as a private man and as emperor. The father of Probus, as some have recorded, was named Maximus, who, after he had most honourably commanded a company, attained the rank of tribune and ended his life in Egypt, leaving behind a wife, a son, and a daughter. Many say that Probus was a kinsman of Claudius, that best and most blameless emperor; but since this is reported by only one Greek writer, we shall leave the matter open. One thing, however, I do state, which I remember having read in a journal — that Probus was buried by his sister Claudia. As a young man Probus became so renowned for bodily strength that, by the judgment of Valerian, he received a tribunate while still almost beardless. There is extant a letter of Valerian to Gallienus, in which he praises Probus, still a young man, and sets him before all as a model for imitation. From which it appears that no one has ever reached the summit of the virtues when already mature, unless as a boy, formed from a more generous seed-plot of virtues, he had already marked out some distinguished achievement.

4. The letter of Valerian: "Valerian the father to Gallienus his son, Augustus to Augustus. Following both my own judgment, which I have always held concerning the young Probus from the first, and that of all good men, who declare that he is a man worthy of his own name, I have conferred upon him a tribunate, assigning him six cohorts of Saracens, and entrusting to him also the Gallic auxiliaries together with that band of Persians which the Syrian Artabassis made over to us. I beg you, dearest son, to hold this young man — whom I wish all boys to imitate — in such honour as his virtues and his deserts demand, in accordance with the splendour due to his mind."

Another letter concerning the same man, to the praetorian prefect, dealing with his pay: "Valerian Augustus to Mulvius Gallicanus, praetorian prefect. You may perhaps wonder that I have made a beardless man a tribune, contrary to the ruling of the deified Hadrian; but you will not wonder much, if you consider Probus. He is a young man truly upright; for nothing ever comes to my mind, when I think of him, but his very name — and had he not borne this name, he might well have earned it as a surname. To him, therefore, you will give orders — since his fortune is but moderate, so that his rank may be aided by increase — to be furnished with two russet tunics, two Gallic cloaks with clasps, two bordered undergarments, one silver dish of ten pounds chased with mirror-work, one hundred gold Antoniniani, a thousand silver Aureliani, ten thousand bronze Philippei; likewise, in daily rations, of beef . . . pounds, of pork six pounds, of goat's flesh ten pounds, a fowl every other day, one sextarius of oil every other day, ten sextarii a day of old wine together with lard, biscuit, vinegar, salt, vegetables, and firewood as much as is sufficient. You will further see to it that he is provided with quarters, as are the tribunes of the legions."

5. These things, then, are set forth by the letters. Now for what could be gathered from the journal. When, in the Sarmatian war, being already a tribune, he had crossed the Danube and performed many feats of bravery, he was publicly rewarded before the assembly with four headless spears, two rampart-crowns, one civic crown, four plain standards, two golden armlets, one golden torque, and one sacrificial bowl of five pounds. At that very time he rescued Valerius Flaccinus, a young man of noble birth, a kinsman of Valerian, out of the hands of the Quadi; for which Valerian bestowed on him a civic crown. The words spoken by Valerian before the assembly were these: "Receive, Probus, your rewards on behalf of the commonwealth; receive a civic crown on behalf of a kinsman." At that same time he assigned to him the Third Legion, with a testimonial of this kind:

The letter concerning the Third Legion: "Your achievements, my dearest Probus, make it seem that I am both too slow in handing over to you greater armies and yet quick to hand them over. Take into your charge the Third Legion, the Fortunate, which up to now I have entrusted to no man save one already advanced in years. To me, indeed, it was entrusted at an age when even the one who entrusted it saw me grey-haired and congratulated himself; but in your case I do not wait upon years, since you shine with virtues and are strong in character. I have ordered triple clothing to be given you, I have doubled your pay, I have appointed you a standard-bearer."

6. It would be a long task were I to run through the deeds of so great a man — the things he did as a private soldier under Valerian, under Gallienus, under Aurelian and Claudius: how often he scaled a wall, tore apart a rampart, slew an enemy in close combat, earned the gifts of emperors, and by his own valour restored the commonwealth to its ancient state. A letter of Gallienus, addressed to the tribunes, shows what Probus was: "Gallienus Augustus to the tribunes of the Illyrian armies. Although the inexorable necessity of the Persian war detains my father, I have nonetheless a kinsman, Aurelius Probus, in whom, whatever burden I labour under, I may find security; and had he been present, that tyrant who is not even to be named would never have usurped the imperial power for himself. Wherefore I desire you all to obey his counsels — a man approved both by the judgment of my father and by that of the senate."

The judgment of Gallienus, perhaps, may not seem of great weight, since he was a rather soft prince; but — and this cannot be denied — not even a dissolute man entrusts himself save to the loyalty of one whose virtues he reckons will profit him. But let it be: let the letter of Gallienus be set aside. What of the judgment of Aurelian, who handed over to Probus the men of the Tenth, the bravest soldiers of his army and those with whom he himself had performed mighty deeds, with a testimonial of this kind: "Aurelian Augustus to Probus, greeting. That you may know how highly I esteem you, take my men of the Tenth, whom Claudius entrusted to me; for these are men who, by a certain prerogative of good fortune, are accustomed to have for their commanders none but future emperors." From which it was understood that Aurelian had it in mind, should anything befall him while still in full knowledge and prudence, to make Probus emperor.

7. To weave in here the judgments of Claudius and of Tacitus concerning Probus would be a long task — although it is reported that in the senate Tacitus said, when the empire was offered to himself, that Probus ought to be made emperor; but the decree of the senate itself I have not found. Tacitus himself, however, when emperor, sent to Probus a first letter of this kind: "Tacitus Augustus to Probus. The senate, indeed, made me emperor at the wish of a wise army; yet you must know that the commonwealth now rests upon your shoulders rather than mine, for who and how great you are we all know, and the senate knows it. Be present, then, in our hours of need; uphold, as you are wont, the commonwealth for your own household's sake. We have, by decree, made your pay fivefold throughout the whole command of the East; we have doubled your military decorations; we have decreed a consulship for you, together with ourselves, for the coming year. For there awaits you, in keeping with your virtues, the palm-embroidered robe of the Capitol." Some report that this was for Probus an omen of empire — what Tacitus wrote, "There awaits you the palm-embroidered robe of the Capitol"; but this was always written to all consuls in the same form of words.

8. The love of the soldiers towards Probus was ever great. For he never allowed a soldier to do wrong; he even often drew Aurelian back from grievous cruelty; he went round to the individual companies, inspected their clothing and footwear, and, if there was any booty, divided it in such a way that he kept nothing for himself save weapons and arms. Indeed, when among the plunder — whether from the Alani or from some other people, it is uncertain — there was found a horse neither comely nor large, which, as the captives reported, was said to run a hundred miles a day, and that for eight or even ten days at a stretch, and when all believed that Probus would keep such a creature for himself, he said at the outset: "This horse befits a soldier inclined to flee rather than a brave one." Then he ordered the soldiers to cast their names into an urn, so that whoever was drawn by lot should receive it; and since there were in the army four other soldiers besides bearing the name of Probus, it chanced that the first name to come up was that of Probus — though the name of Probus the general himself had not been cast in. But since those four soldiers contended among themselves, each claiming the lot for his own, he ordered the urn to be shaken again; and again the name of Probus came up; and when he had done so a third and a fourth time, on the fourth the name of Probus was poured out. Then the whole army dedicated that horse to Probus the general, even the soldiers themselves, whose names had come up, willing it so.

9. He fought also most bravely against the Marmaridae in Africa and conquered them, and crossed over from Libya to Carthage and delivered it from rebellions. He fought also in single combat against a certain Aradio in Africa and laid him low; and because he had seen him to be a most brave and most stubborn man, he honoured him with a great tomb, which still stands, a mound raised of earth heaped up to two hundred feet by the soldiers, whom he never allowed to be idle. There are extant in Egypt his works, which he constructed by the labour of the soldiers in very many cities; and on the Nile he made so many that he alone furnished aid to the grain-revenue. He built bridges, temples, porticoes, and basilicas by the soldiers' toil; he opened up many mouths of the river, dried up most of the marshes, and on these established crops and fields. He fought also against the Palmyrenes, who were defending Egypt for the side of Odaenathus and Cleopatra — at first successfully, afterwards rashly, so that he was almost captured; but later, having recovered his strength, he brought Egypt and the greatest part of the East into the power of Aurelian.

10. While, then, he shone with these so many and so great virtues, Tacitus having been carried off by fate and Florian seizing the empire, all the armies of the East made the same man emperor. It is no unfitting nor inelegant tale to learn in what manner Probus took up the empire. When the news had come to the armies, then for the first time the soldiers were minded to forestall the armies of Italy, lest once again the senate should give them an emperor. But while there was talk among the soldiers as to who should be made emperor, and the tribunes were addressing them company by company in the field, saying that some prince must be sought out who was brave, holy, modest, merciful, upright (probus), and while this was being said throughout the many gatherings, as is wont to happen, then, as though by a divine nod, it was acclaimed on every side by all: "Probus Augustus, may the gods preserve you!" Then came the throng and a platform of turf, and he was hailed emperor, arrayed too in a purple cloak which was brought from the statue of a temple; and from there he was led back to the palace, unwilling and resisting, and saying again and again: "It is not to your advantage, soldiers; you will not fare well with me; for I cannot fawn upon you."

His first letter, addressed to Capito the praetorian prefect, was as follows: "I never sought the empire and have received it unwillingly; to lay it down — a most invidious thing — is not permitted me. I must play out the part which the soldiery has imposed upon me. I beg you, Capito, so to enjoy my company that the commonwealth be kept safe: provide everywhere for the soldier his grain, his supplies, and whatever is needful. For my part, as far as in me lies, if you govern all things rightly, I shall have no other prefect."

When, therefore, it was known that Probus was emperor, the soldiers slew Florian, who had seized the empire as though it were his by inheritance, knowing that no one could rule more worthily than Probus. Thus, without any trouble, the empire of the whole world was conferred upon him by the judgment both of the soldiers and of the senate.

11. And since we have made mention of the senate, it must be known what he himself wrote to the senate, and what in turn that most august order wrote back to him:

The first oration of Probus to the senate: "Rightly and in due order, Conscript Fathers, was it done in the year just past that your clemency gave the world an emperor — and one indeed from among yourselves, who are and ever have been and in your descendants ever shall be the princes of the world. Would that Florian too had been willing to await this, and had not claimed the empire for himself as though by inheritance; either him or some other man your majesty would have appointed. Now, since he seized the empire, the name of Augustus has been conferred on me by the soldiers, and the very thing which he had usurped has even been avenged upon him by the more prudent soldiers. I beg you to pass judgment on my deserts, ready as I am to do whatever your clemency may command."

Likewise the decree of the senate. On the third day before the Nones of February, in the Temple of Concord, among other things Aelius Scorpianus the consul said: "You have heard, Conscript Fathers, the letter of Aurelius Valerius Probus. What is your view concerning these matters?" Then it was acclaimed: "Probus Augustus, may the gods preserve you. Long since worthy, brave and just, a good leader, a good emperor, a model of soldiering, a model of empire. May the gods preserve you. Champion of the commonwealth, may you reign in good fortune; master of soldiering, may you reign in good fortune; may the gods guard you with your kin. The senate chose you even before — later than Tacitus in age, before the rest. That you have taken up the empire, we give thanks; protect us, protect the commonwealth. Gladly do we entrust to you those whom you have before preserved. You are conqueror of the Franks, you of the Goths, you of the Sarmatians, you of the Parthians, you of all; and before, you were ever worthy of empire, worthy of triumphs. May you act in good fortune, may you reign happily."

12. After this Manlius Statianus, who then held first place in giving his opinion, spoke thus: "Thanks to the immortal gods, and before all the rest, Conscript Fathers, to Jupiter Best, who has given us such an emperor as we always longed for. If we reason rightly, we need not seek out for ourselves an Aurelian, nor an Alexander, nor the Antonines, nor a Trajan, nor a Claudius. All things are gathered together in one emperor: knowledge of warfare, a merciful spirit, a venerable life, a pattern of conducting the commonwealth, and the prerogative of every virtue. Indeed, what part of the world is there which he has not learned by conquering it? Witnesses are the Marmaridae, vanquished on the soil of Africa; witnesses the Franks, laid low in trackless marshes; witnesses the Germans and Alamanni, driven far from the shores of the Rhine. And why do I speak of the Sarmatians, why of the Goths, why of the Parthians and Persians and the whole Pontic region? Everywhere flourish the tokens of the valour of Probus. It would be a long task to tell how many kings of great peoples he has put to flight, how many leaders he has slain with his own hand, how great a store of arms there is which he himself captured as a private man, what thanks earlier emperors rendered to him — witnesses are the letters inserted in the public records. Good gods, how often was he honoured with military gifts! What praises of the soldiers did he earn! In his youth he received a tribunate, and not long after his youth the command of legions. Jupiter Best and Greatest, Juno the Queen, and you, Minerva, patroness of the virtues, you, Concord of the world, and you, Roman Victory, grant this to the senate and people of Rome, grant it to the soldiers, grant it to the allies and to foreign nations: may he reign as he has soldiered! I decree, therefore, Conscript Fathers, with the prayers of all in harmony, the imperial title, the title of Caesar, the title of Augustus; I add the proconsular power, the reverence due to the father of his country, the office of pontifex maximus, the right of bringing a third matter before the senate, and the tribunician power." After this it was acclaimed: "All of us, all of us!"

13. Having received, then, this decree of the senate, in a second oration he granted to the fathers that they should themselves hear appeals from the rulings of the great judges, should appoint proconsuls, give legates to the proconsuls, grant praetorian jurisdiction to the governors, and consecrate by decrees of their own such laws as Probus should issue. Straightway thereafter, if any of the murderers of Aurelian survived, he punished them with various kinds of death, yet more gently and more moderately than the army before, and afterwards Tacitus, had taken vengeance. Then he punished also those who had laid a plot against Tacitus. The associates of Florian he spared, because they seemed to have followed not some tyrant but the brother of their own emperor; he then received back all the armies of Europe, which had both made Florian emperor and slain him.

When these things were done, he made for Gaul with a huge army — Gaul which, after the slaying of Postumus, had all been thrown into turmoil, and, after the slaying of Aurelian, was held by the Germans. There he waged battles so great and so successfully that he recovered from the barbarians sixty of the noblest cities throughout Gaul; he then recovered all the booty by which they were exalted to glory besides their wealth; and when by now they were roaming without care upon our bank, nay through all Gaul, he slew nearly four hundred thousand of those who had occupied Roman soil, and drove the rest beyond the rivers Neckar and Elbe. He carried off from them as much barbarian booty as they themselves had taken from the Romans. Over against the Roman cities he set camps on barbarian soil and there stationed soldiers,

14. and he provided fields and granaries and houses and grain for all the men beyond the Rhine — that is, for those whom he stationed on guard. Nor was there ever any cessation from fighting, since daily the heads of barbarians were brought to him — now at a single gold piece apiece — until nine chieftains of various peoples came and lay at the feet of Probus. From them he first demanded hostages, who were given at once; then grain; and finally cattle and sheep too. He is said to have given them strict orders not to use the sword, that they might look for Roman protection if they were to be defended against any. But it seemed that this could not be brought about unless the Roman frontier were extended and all Germany were made a province. Yet, with the kings themselves chiefly consenting, vengeance was taken upon those who did not faithfully restore the booty. He received besides sixteen thousand recruits, all of whom he scattered through the various provinces, so as to mingle fifty or sixty of them with the units or with the frontier soldiers, saying that the help which the Roman receives from barbarian auxiliaries must be felt, not seen.

15. When, therefore, affairs in Gaul had been settled, he sent to the senate a letter of this kind: "I give thanks to the immortal gods, Conscript Fathers, that your judgments concerning me have been confirmed. All Germany, far as it stretches, has been subdued; nine kings of various peoples have lain as suppliants, prostrate, at my feet — nay, at yours. All the barbarians now plough for you, now sow for you, and serve as soldiers against the peoples of the interior. Decree, therefore, in your custom, days of thanksgiving; for four hundred thousand of the enemy have been slain, sixteen thousand armed men have been offered to us, seventy of the noblest cities have been rescued from the enemy's captivity, and all the Gauls have been wholly set free. The golden crowns which all the cities of Gaul have offered me I have dedicated to your clemency, Conscript Fathers. Consecrate them with your own hands to Jupiter Best and Greatest and to the rest of the immortal gods and goddesses. All the booty has been recovered, and other booty captured too, and indeed greater than had been carried off before. The fields of Gaul are ploughed with barbarian oxen, and captive German teams offer their necks to our farmers; the herds of various peoples are pastured for the nourishment of ours; the breed of horses is now bred for our cavalry; the granaries are full of barbarian grain. What more? To them we leave only their soil; we possess all that is theirs. We had wished, Conscript Fathers, to appoint a new governor of Germany, but this we have deferred to fuller fulfilment of our prayers — which indeed we believe will come to pass, when divine providence shall more richly prosper our armies."

16. After this he made for Illyricum. Before he arrived, he left the Raetian provinces so thoroughly pacified that he left there not even the suspicion of any terror. In Illyricum he so crushed the Sarmatians and the other peoples that he recovered, almost without war, all that they had carried off. He then directed his march through Thrace, and all the Getic peoples, terrified by the report of his deeds and overawed by the power of his ancient name, he received either into surrender or into friendship.

When these things were done, he made for the East; and on the way, when a certain most powerful brigand, Palfuerius, had been captured and slain, he set all Isauria free, restoring the peoples and cities to Roman laws. Of the barbarians who dwell among the Isaurians, he entered their strongholds either through terror or through courtesy. And when he had traversed these, he said this: "It is easier to keep brigands out of these places than to remove them." He gave as private property to the veterans all those places which are reached only with difficulty, adding that their sons, from their eighteenth year — the males only — should be sent to military service, lest they should ever learn to play the brigand.

17. When at last all the regions of Pamphylia and of the other provinces neighbouring upon Isauria had been pacified, he turned his march to the East. He subdued the Blemmyes too, whose captives he sent to Rome, where they offered a marvellous spectacle to the gaze of the astonished Roman people. He restored besides the cities of Coptos and Ptolemais, wrested from barbarian servitude, to Roman jurisdiction. From this he gained so much that the Parthians sent envoys to him, confessing their fear and suing for peace; and these he received rather haughtily and sent home more fearful than before. There is reported also a letter of his — the gifts which the king had sent having been refused — addressed to Narseus, of this kind: "I marvel that you have sent so little of all that is to be ours. Keep for the present all those things in which you delight. If we should desire to have them, we know in what manner we ought to possess them." On receiving this letter Narseus was greatly terrified, and especially because he learned that Coptos and Ptolemais had been recovered from the Blemmyes who had held them, and that those who had before been a terror to the nations had been slaughtered to the last man.

18. Peace, therefore, having been made with the Persians, he returned to Thrace and settled a hundred thousand Bastarnae on Roman soil, all of whom kept faith. But when he had likewise transplanted very many from other peoples — that is, from the Gepidae, the Greuthungi, and the Vandals — all these broke faith, and, while Probus was occupied with the wars against the usurpers, they roamed almost over the whole world, by land and by sea, and brought no small trouble upon the glory of Rome. These indeed he overwhelmed at different times and with various victories, few returning home with glory because they had escaped the hands of Probus. These are the things Probus did with the barbarians.

But he had also no light troubles from the usurpers. For he overcame Saturninus, who had seized the empire of the East, by various kinds of battles and by his well-known valour; and when he was conquered, there was so great a quiet in the East that, as men commonly said, no one heard even of rebel mice. Then, when Proculus and Bonosus had seized the empire at Agrippina in Gaul, and were already claiming for themselves all the Britains, the Spains, and the provinces of trousered Gaul, with the barbarians helping themselves, he conquered them. And, that you may not require more concerning Saturninus, or Proculus, or Bonosus, I shall insert them in a book of their own, meaning to say a little about them, as is fitting — nay, as necessity demands. One thing certainly must be known: that all the Germans, when they were asked by Proculus for aid, chose rather to be servants to Probus than to rule along with Bonosus and Proculus. He permitted henceforth all the Gauls and the Spaniards and the Britons to have vines and to make wine. He himself planted Mount Alma in Illyricum, near Sirmium, by the hands of his soldiers, with choice vines, the ground being trenched.

19. He gave the Romans also pleasures, and indeed splendid ones, with largesses bestowed as well. He triumphed over the Germans and the Blemmyes, leading before the triumph troops of all the nations, up to fifty men apiece. He gave in the Circus a most lavish hunt, such that the people seized everything. The kind of spectacle was this: great trees, torn up by the roots by the soldiers, were set up with their trunks fastened together far and wide; then earth was thrown over them, and the whole Circus, planted out to the likeness of a wood, came into leaf by grace of the new green. Then through all the entrances were let loose a thousand ostriches, a thousand stags, a thousand boars; and besides, deer, ibexes, wild sheep, and other grass-eating animals, as many as could either be fed or found. Then the common people were sent in, and each man seized what he would. On another day he exhibited in the Amphitheatre, in a single release, a hundred maned lions, which by their roaring stirred up thunder. All these were slain from the rear gates, affording no great spectacle in the manner of their slaying; for there was not that onrush of beasts which is wont to occur when they come forth from the cages. Many besides were slain with arrows because they would not charge. Then were exhibited a hundred Libyan leopards, then a hundred Syrian; a hundred lionesses were exhibited, and bears, three hundred together — of all which beasts it is agreed that the spectacle was great rather than pleasing. There were exhibited besides three hundred pairs of gladiators, most of them Blemmyes who had been led in the triumph, many of them Germans and Sarmatians, and some too brigands of Isauria.

20. When these things had been carried out, as he was preparing the Persian war and was journeying through Illyricum, he was slain by his own soldiers through treachery. The causes of his being killed were these: first, that he never suffered a soldier to be idle, seeing that he carried out many works by the soldiers' hands, saying that the soldier ought not to eat his rations for nothing. To this he added a saying that was grievous to them — salutary, if ever it should come to pass, for the commonwealth: that within a short time there would be no need of soldiers. What had that man conceived in his mind who said this? Had he not subdued all the barbarian peoples beneath his feet and made the whole world Roman already? "Within a short time," said he, "we shall have no need of soldiers." What else is this but to say: there will soon be no Roman soldier at all? Everywhere the commonwealth, secure, will reign and possess all things. The world will forge no arms, will furnish no rations; oxen will be kept for the plough, the horse will be born for peace, there will be no wars, no captivity, everywhere peace, everywhere the laws of Rome, everywhere our magistrates.

21. I am carried, through love of that best of emperors, further than prose discourse requires; wherefore I shall add that which above all hastened the fatal doom of so great a man. For when he had come to Sirmium and desired that his native soil should be made fertile and enlarged, in order to drain a certain marsh he set many thousands of soldiers at once to the task, preparing a huge ditch by which, the channels being discharged into the Save, he might dry out the regions that would benefit the people of Sirmium. The soldiers, provoked by this, slew him as he fled into an iron-clad tower, which he himself had built up to a great height for the purpose of a watch-post — in the fifth year of his reign. Afterwards, however, all the soldiers alike made for him a huge tomb, with mounds heaped up, with an inscription of this kind cut in the marble: "Here lies Probus the emperor, and truly upright (probus), conqueror of all the barbarian nations, conqueror also of the usurpers."

22. When I compare the emperor Probus with other emperors — with almost all Roman commanders, in whatever points they showed themselves brave, or merciful, or prudent, or admirable — I understand that this man was either their equal or, if frenzied envy raises no objection, their superior. For within the five years of his reign he waged so many wars throughout the whole world, and that in person, that it is a marvel how he met every battle; he did many things with his own hand; he trained most distinguished commanders — for from his school came Carus, Diocletian, Constantius, Asclepiodotus, Hannibalianus, Leonides, Cecropius, Pisonianus, Herennianus, Gaudiosus, Ursinianus, and the rest whom our fathers admired and from among whom several good emperors arose. Let anyone now, who pleases, compare the twenty years of Trajan and Hadrian, let him compare the nearly equal span of the Antonines. For why should I speak of Augustus, in whose years of empire one can scarcely keep alive? The bad emperors I pass over in silence. The very voice of Probus, most renowned, declares what he hoped he might have been able to do, when he said that within a short time there would be no need of soldiers.

23. He indeed, conscious of his own worth, feared neither the barbarians nor the usurpers. What happiness then would have shone forth, had there been no soldiers under that prince! No provincial would give rations, no pay would be disbursed from the largesses, the Roman commonwealth would have everlasting treasures, nothing would be spent by the emperor, nothing rendered by the landholder. A golden age, in truth, he was promising: there would be no camps, nowhere would the war-trumpet be heard, no arms would need to be forged. That people of soldiers, who now harass the commonwealth with civil wars, would plough, would devote themselves to study, would be trained in the arts, would sail the seas. Add that no one would be slain in war. Good gods, how greatly did the Roman commonwealth offend you, that you took from it such a prince? Let them go now, who for civil wars make ready soldiers, who arm the right hands of brothers for the murder of brothers, who urge on children to wound their fathers — and let them deny divinity to Probus, a divinity which our emperors prudently judged should be both consecrated in his likeness and adorned in temples and celebrated with games of the circus.

24. The descendants of Probus, whether out of hatred or for fear of envy, fled the Roman world, and in Italy, around Verona and Lake Benacus and Lake Larius, and in those regions, they fixed their home. Indeed, one thing I could not pass over: when the statue of Probus set up at Verona had been struck by lightning, in such a way that the colours of his bordered robe were changed, the soothsayers replied that the descendants of this family would be of such distinction in the senate that they would all hold the highest offices. But up to now we have seen no such one; the descendants, however, seem to have eternity rather than a measure of time.

The senate received the death of Probus most grievously, and the people equally; and when it was announced that Carus was reigning — a good man indeed, but far from the character of Probus — both the senate and the people shuddered on account of his son Carinus, who had always lived most basely. For each man feared a sterner prince, but feared still more a wicked heir.

These are the things which we have learned concerning Probus, or which we have judged worthy of record. Now in another book, and that a short one, we shall speak of Firmus and Saturninus and Bonosus and Proculus; for it was not fitting that a team of four usurpers should be mingled with a good prince. After that, if life holds out, we shall begin to carry forward Carus together with his children.