the Batavian or Frisian shores. [50] The
example of their success, instructing their countrymen to conceive the
advantages and to despise the dangers of the sea, pointed out to their
enterprising spirit a new road to wealth and glory.

[Footnote 50: Panegyr. Vet. v. 18. Zosimus, l. i. p. 66.]

Notwithstanding the vigilance and activity of Probus, it was almost
impossible that he could at once contain in obedience every part of his
wide-extended dominions. The barbarians, who broke their chains, had
seized the favorable opportunity of a domestic war. When the emperor
marched to the relief of Gaul, he devolved the command of the East on
Saturninus. That general, a man of merit and experience, was driven into
rebellion by the absence of his sovereign, the levity of the Alexandrian
people, the pressing instances of his friends, and his own fears; but
from the moment of his elevation, he never entertained a hope of empire,
or even of life. "Alas!" he said, "the republic has lost a useful
servant, and the rashness of an hour has destroyed the services of many
years. You know not," continued he, "the misery of sovereign power; a
sword is perpetually suspended over our head. We dread our very guards,
we distrust our companions. The choice of action or of repose is no
longer in our disposition, nor is there any age, or character, or
conduct, that can protect us from the censure of envy. In thus exalting
me to the throne, you have doomed me to a life of cares, and to an
untimely fate. The only consolation which remains is, the assurance that
I shall not fall alone." [51] But as the former part of his prediction
was verified by the victory, so the latter was disappointed by the
clemency of Probus. That amiable prince attempted even to save the
unhappy Saturninus from the fury of the soldiers. He had more than once
solicited the usurper himself to place some confidence in the mercy of a
sovereign who so highly esteemed his character, that he had punished, as
a malicious informer, the first who related the improbable news of his
disaffection. [52] Saturninus might, perhaps, have embraced the generous
offer, had he not been restrained by the obstinate distrust of his
adherents. Their guilt was deeper, and their hopes more sanguine, than
those of their experienced leader.

[Footnote 51: Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 245, 246. The unfortunate
orator had studied rhetoric at Carthage; and was therefore more probably
a Moor (Zosim. l. i