EDWARD GIBBON: Historical Works, Memoirs & Letters (Including "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"). Edward Gibbon
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he died of a disease.]
17 Theoclius (as quoted in the Augustan History, p. 211) affirms that in one day he killed with his own hand forty-eight Sarmatians, and in several subsequent engagements nine hundred and fifty. This heroic valor was admired by the soldiers, and celebrated in their rude songs, the burden of which was, mille, mile, mille, occidit.]
18 Acholius (ap. Hist. August. p. 213) describes the ceremony of the adoption, as it was performed at Byzantium, in the presence of the emperor and his great officers.]
19 Hist. August, p. 211 This laconic epistle is truly the work of a soldier; it abounds with military phrases and words, some of which cannot be understood without difficulty. Ferramenta samiata is well explained by Salmasius. The former of the words means all weapons of offence, and is contrasted with Arma, defensive armor The latter signifies keen and well sharpened.]
20 Zosimus, l. i. p. 45.]
* The five hundred stragglers were all slain. — M.]
21 Dexipphus (ap. Excerpta Legat. p. 12) relates the whole transaction under the name of Vandals. Aurelian married one of the Gothic ladies to his general Bonosus, who was able to drink with the Goths and discover their secrets. Hist. August. p. 247.]
22 Hist. August. p. 222. Eutrop. ix. 15. Sextus Rufus, c. 9. de Mortibus Persecutorum, c. 9.]
23 The Walachians still preserve many traces of the Latin language and have boasted, in every age, of their Roman descent. They are surrounded by, but not mixed with, the barbarians. See a Memoir of M. d’Anville on ancient Dacia, in the Academy of Inscriptions, tom. xxx.]
* The connection between the Getae and the Goths is still in my opinion incorrectly maintained by some learned writers — M.]
24 See the first chapter of Jornandes. The Vandals, however, (c. 22,) maintained a short independence between the Rivers Marisia and Crissia, (Maros and Keres,) which fell into the Teiss.]
25 Dexippus, p. 7 — 12. Zosimus, l. i. p. 43. Vopiscus in Aurelian in Hist. August. However these historians differ in names,) Alemanni Juthungi, and Marcomanni,) it is evident that they mean the same people, and the same war; but it requires some care to conciliate and explain them.]
26 Cantoclarus, with his usual accuracy, chooses to translate three hundred thousand: his version is equally repugnant to sense and to grammar.]
27 We may remark, as an instance of bad taste, that Dexippus applies to the light infantry of the Alemanni the technical terms proper only to the Grecian phalanx.]
28 In Dexippus, we at present read Rhodanus: M. de Valois very judiciously alters the word to Eridanus.]
29 The emperor Claudius was certainly of the number; but we are ignorant how far this mark of respect was extended; if to Caesar and Augustus, it must have produced a very awful spectacle; a long line of the masters of the world.]
30 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 210.]
31 Dexippus gives them a subtle and prolix oration, worthy of a Grecian sophist.]
32 Hist. August. p. 215.]
33 Dexippus, p. 12.]
34 Victor Junior in Aurelian.]
35 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 216.]
36 The little river, or rather torrent, of, Metaurus, near Fano, has been immortalized, by finding such an historian as Livy, and such a poet as Horace.]
37 It is recorded by an inscription found at Pesaro. See Gruter cclxxvi. 3.]
38 One should imagine, he said, that you were assembled in a Christian church, not in the temple of all the gods.]
39 Vopiscus, in Hist. August. p. 215, 216, gives a long account of these ceremonies from the Registers of the senate.]
40 Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. To confirm our idea, we may observe, that for a long time Mount Caelius was a grove of oaks, and Mount Viminal was overrun with osiers; that, in the fourth century, the Aventine was a vacant and solitary retirement; that, till the time of Augustus, the Esquiline was an unwholesome burying-ground; and that the numerous inequalities, remarked by the ancients in the Quirinal, sufficiently prove that it was not covered with buildings. Of the seven hills, the Capitoline and Palatine only, with the adjacent valleys, were the primitive habitations of the Roman people. But this subject would require a dissertation.]
41 Exspatiantia tecta multas addidere urbes, is the expression of Pliny.]
42 Hist. August. p. 222. Both Lipsius and Isaac Vossius have eagerly embraced this measure.]
43 See Nardini, Roman Antica, l. i. c. 8.
Note: But compare Gibbon, ch. xli. note 77. — M.]
44 Tacit. Hist. iv. 23.]
45 For Aurelian’s walls, see Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 216, 222. Zosimus, l. i. p. 43. Eutropius, ix. 15. Aurel. Victor in Aurelian Victor Junior in Aurelian. Euseb. Hieronym. et Idatius in Chronic]
46 His competitor was Lollianus, or Aelianus, if, indeed, these names mean the same person. See Tillemont, tom. iii. p. 1177.
Note: The medals which bear the name of Lollianus are considered forgeries except one in the museum of the Prince of Waldeck there are many extent bearing the name of Laelianus, which appears to have been that of the competitor of Posthumus. Eckhel. Doct. Num. t. vi. 149