greatly enlarged the circuit of the capital, and provided for its security by a new inclosure of walls, which bore his name, though the work was not finished till the reign of the succeeding emperor, Probus.

Upon authorities preferred by Mr. Gibbon to the more general account, it was about this time that Aurelian marched into Gaul to put an end to the usurpation of Tetricus, who had succeeded several other governors and generals raised to the purple by the troops in the Gallic provinces. Tetricus himself, tired of his precarious sway, which he could not safely abdicate, had invited the emperor to come to his deliverance; and he posted his army in such a manner, that it was attacked with great advantage by Aurelian, and almost entirely cut in pieces, near Chalons in Champagne. Tetricus surrendered himself to the victor; who soon reduced the whole of Gaul to its allegiance.

In 272 Aurelian engaged in the expedition which has most distinguished his reign, that against Zenobia queen of Palmyra. This celebrated woman had added to the dominions of her late husband Odenathus, who ruled from the Euphrates to Bithynia, the kingdom of Egypt; and she reigned over many rich and populous territories under the title of Queen of the East. She frequently showed her three sons to the troops arrayed in the imperial purple, and manifested a design of founding a monarchy independent of the Roman empire. A general of Gallienus who had been sent against her was obliged to return with loss and disgrace; and Claudius, employed in the Gothic war, had left her unmolested. Aurelian, however, resolved to assert the majesty and restore the integrity of the empire; and marching with his legions into the East, by the way of Illyricum and Thrace, he was admitted without opposition into Ancyra and Tyana, where the lenity with which he treated the inhabitants, and the strict discipline observed by his troops, promoted his success in Syria. Zenobia attempted to check his progress as he advanced to Antioch; and a battle was fought near that metropolis, which ended to the advantage of Aurelian. Another combat near Emesa proved decisive of the war. Zenobia after this second defeat shut herself up in Palmyra, and for some time resisted with firmness the arms of the emperor who invested the city. At length, atAt length, at tempting to fly into Persia, she was taken by the light troops which pursued her, and brought captive to the emperor. She diverted his anger from herself upon the counsellors who had advised her resistance; and the execution of the

celebrated Longinus, among others, has stained the memory of the victor. Aurelian, however, treated with clemency the city of Palmyra, which surrendered at discretion. Meantime Egypt had been reduced to the obedience of Rome by the arms of Probus; and Aurelian was enabled to take the road for Europe, leaving all the dominions of Zenobia re-united to the empire. He had already passed the Bosphorus with his army, when he was suddenly recalled by the news of the revolt of the Palmyrenians, who had massacred the Roman garri son, and proclaimed a new emperor. Aurelian returned with a speed which prevented all measures of defence on their part, and took a most severe vengeance on the unfortunate Palmyra, which for three days was delivered to the unbridled rage and rapine of the soldiers. After this dreadful execution, he spared the poor remnant of the inhabitants, and took pains to re-establish in all its splendour the magnificent temple of the sun, to the worship of which luminary he was superstitiously addicted. Hence the indefatigable emperor took his course for Egypt, where Firmus, an ally of Zenobia, had taken possession of Alexandria, and assumed the purple. Aurelian without difficulty extinguished this rebellion, and destroyed its author. After this final success in the east, he again proceeded westward; and, (if the usurpation of Tetricus had been already suppressed) he arrived at Rome, leaving the empire in a state of universal tranquillity.

His triumph was one of the most splendid and memorable spectacles which Roman victory had afforded. A long train of rich spoils, curious animals, gladiators, embassadors from the remotest parts of the earth, and captive nations, was closed by the deposed sovereigns, Tetricus and Zenobia, who, according to the haughty and unfeeling custom of Rome, were exhibited to the public gaze, to contrast, by the humiliation of their greatness, the glory and exaltation of the victor. Tetricus, with his son, appeared in the habit of Gallic kings; but the appearance of the former, who was a Roman senator, in the train of captives, threw a gloom over the senatorian spectators. Zenobia, confined in fetters of gold, and almost sinking under the weight of jewels, was a more grateful sight to Roman pride. After the emperor had thus employed his competitors in decorating his triumph, he displayed his clemency in the manner in which he treated them. Zenobia was presented with a villa at Tibur, where she passed her days with honour as a Roman matron. Tetricus and his son were restored to

their rank and fortunes, and continued among the most respectable members of the senatorian body.

Aurelian then bent his cares to the improvement and regulation of the capital, and the restoration of order, and reformation of abuses, throughout the empire. He displayed great munificence in the largesses he bestowed on the people of Rome, and it seems to have been an object of importance with him to have them well fed. He is indeed supposed to have retained a partiality in favour of the plebeian order, to which he had belonged, and to have regarded the patrician with a degree of jealousy and distrust. His zeal for reform was marked by the rigour and severity of his character; and the sternness of the soldier appears through the paternal features of the monarch. A sedition in Rome, originating from the workmen of the mint, and which arose to such a height that a bloody battle was fought within the walls, with the loss of seven thousand of the emperor's troops, gave occasion to a most severe chastisement, and implicated in its fatal consequences many senators and patricians, represented as innocent victims to the suspicions of the sovereign.

A visit to Gaul, where he rebuilt the ancient city of Genabum, and called it, from his own name "Aurelianum" [now Orleans], and an expedition against the barbarians who had made an inroad into Vindelicia, occupied some of the concluding months of Aurelian's reign. These were, however, only preludes to a great military enterprise he had planned against the Persian empire; and he had begun his march for the east, and was waiting in Thrace for an opportunity to cross the straits, when a conspiracy, artfully fomented by one of his secretaries whom he meant to call to account for peculation, and headed by Mucapor, a general whom he trusted, put an end to his life by assassination, at Canophrurium, between Heraclea and Byzantium, in January, 275. He had reigned near five years, and left behind him an only daughter. He was little regretted, especially by the senate, though universally acknowledged as a wise, active and fortunate prince, very useful to the empire in its state of danger and declension. It is said that he meditated a severe persecution of the Christians at

the time of his death.

The historians of this reign are Vopiscus, the Victors, Pollio, Zosimus, and Eutropius. From these, Crevier and Gibbon have drawn their narrations whence the above account is principally taken.-A.

VOL. I.

AURELIUS VICTOR, SEXTUS, a Roman historian, flourished in the fourth century, probably from the reign of Constantius to that of Theodosius. He speaks (Hist. c. 28.) of the eleven hundredth year from the founding of Rome, which was the 348th of Christ, or the 12th of Constantius, as passing in his time without any public celebration: and he mentions (c. 16. and c. ult.) an earthquake which happened at his time in Nicomedia, in the consulship of Cerealis, that is, in the year of the city 1110, or of Christ 359. Aurelius Victor was born in the country, (Aurel. Vict. in Severo.) of mean and illiterate parents; perhaps in Africa, for in his writings he dwells on the praise of Africa, calling it the glory of the earth; and a treatise "On the Origin of the Roman Nation," bears the name of Victor Afer, together with that of Livius. Notwithstanding the meanness of his extraction, his talents raised him to distinction. He was ap pointed by Julian, in 361, præfect of the second Pannonia; and for his meritorious services he was honoured with a brazen statue ; he was long afterwards præfect of Rome (Ammian. Marcell. lib. xxi. c. 18.) and in 369 consul with Valentinian. This was probably in the reign of Theodosius; for an inscription remains, which Sextus Aurelius Victor, præfect of the city, engraved on a monument in honour of Theodosius. If all these passages refer to the same Sextus Aurelius Victor, as is not improbable, he was placed in posts of high distinction under a succession of emperors, and lived till towards the end of the fourth century.

The abridgement of the Roman history above-mentioned, under the title of "Libellus de Origine Gentis Romanæ," promises a history of the whole period, from the uncertain time of Janus and Saturn to the twelfth consulship of Constantius, but in fact ends in the first year of the city. This work, though it bears the names of Victor and Livius, is by some ascribed to Asconius Pedianus. (Fab. Bib, Lat. lib. iii. c. 9.) It was published, together with the works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, at Francfort, in 1586; and with a collection of ancient historians by Gothofred, in 18mo. at Lyons, in 1591.

Aurelius Victor is commonly, and notwithstanding the objections of sundry writers, not without reason, received as the author of a biographical treatise, "De Viris Illustribus Urbis Romæ." This work commences with Proca, king of the Albans, and ends with Pompey: it has been published in 4to. with the notes of Machaneus, at Leipsic, in 1516, and with

3 R

should have committed the unnecessary crime, by some laid to his charge, of hastening his death by poison.

Aureng-zebe was ambitious to aggrandise his dominions by conquest, and undertook several expeditions by his sons and generals for that purpose. He subdued Visapour, Golconda, and the Carnatic to the south, and overran the kingdom of Asem to the north. He reduced Bengal, over which province he made his uncle Shah Hest governor; and then cleared the mouths of the Ganges from the Portuguese pirates who had long infested them. His reputation for power and wealth caused embassies to be sent to him from all the neighbouring eastern nations, as well as from the European powers, who wished to obtain commercial advantages in his dominions. Through apprehension of the hostile designs of his sons against him and each other, he passed most of his time in his camp, which was in reality a moving city, and is described by the curious traveller Bernier, who followed it from Dehli to Cashmeer. The guard of cavalry consisted of 35,000 men; that of infantry, of 10,000. The number of horses, mules, and elephants in the camp was computed at 150,000; of camels and oxen at 50,000 each; and of persons, between 300,000 and 400,000. Almost all Dehli followed the court, whose magnificence supported the industry of its traders and

artisans.

All his precautions, however, could not prevent the revolts and quarrels of his sons, of whom, besides Mahmoud abovementioned, he had four; Mauzm, also called Shah Alum, Azem, Akber, and Rambuksh. Aureng-zebe had resolved to destroy all the Rajaputs, or native Hindoo princes, whose disaffection he had experienced, and with whom his son sultan Mauzm held a treasonable correspondence. Not only policy, but religious bigotry, seems to have invited the emperor to this attempt, and he gave orders to destroy all the heathen temples in Azmeer, many of them buildings of great magnificence. He had designed a general conversion of his Hindoo subjects, but was obliged to suspend its execution. His favourite son and intended successor sultan Akber, rebelled against him, and was compelled to take refuge in Persia, whence he never returned.

Aureng-zebe died at Ahmednagar in February 1707, in his eighty-ninth year. By his will he recommended to his sons a division of his dominions; and he enjoined his servants to be obedient to sultan Azem, who was present

with him. He directed that he should be buried by the side of a holy dervis whose tomb was near the city where he died, and in a sepulchre equally plain; and such was the opinion of sanctity which his religious zeal inspired, that many Mahometans pay a visit to his tomb, as a meritorious pilgrimage.

He

Aureng-zebe was one of the most splendid sovereigns of his line, and possessed many qualities which fitted him for governing a mighty empire. He was sober, active, and resolute; and though he scrupled no means in acquiring his power, like Augustus, he exercised it for the most part with mildness. He became, indeed, culpably indulgent towards his governors and omrahs, whom he suffered with impunity to oppress the people, saying that he was not a God to do as he pleased, and that God would in his own time punish them if they did evil. But this sanctimonious forbearance was suspected of an interested design. greatly augmented his dominions and revenues, and is said to have carried the latter to the amazing annual sum of near thirty-eight millions sterling. He was a great observer of all the ceremonies and austerities of his religion; affected plainness in dress; and carefully practised the injunction of working with his own hands for his living, and employed his leisure in making caps, which he distributed among the great lords of his court. He assumed the titles of Mohioddin, or Reviser of Religion; and of Alem Ghir, or Conqueror of the World, of which his ignorant vanity led him to believe that he possessed three parts in four. The traveller Gemelli Carreri, who saw him in 1695, gives the following description of his person. "He was of a low stature, with a large nose, a white beard, and olive complexion. He was slender, and stooping with age, and supported himself on a staff; yet he endorsed petitions without spectacles, and by his chearful countenance, seemed pleased with doing business at a public audience." Mod. Univers. Hist.-A.

AUREOLUS, MANIUS ACILIUS, one of the short-lived competitors for the Roman empire, was a native of Dacia, and in his youth followed the humble occupation of a shepherd; but enlisting himself in the Roman army, his valour raised him from the ranks to the command of a body of horse, with which he performed great service to the emperor Gallienus in a battle against the rebel Ingenuus. Afterwards, being commander in chief in Illyricum, he defeated Macrianus, who had assumed the pur