. p. 60) than a Gaul, as Vopiscus calls him.]

[Footnote 52: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 638.]

The revolt of Saturninus was scarcely extinguished in the East, before
new troubles were excited in the West, by the rebellion of Bonosus and
Proculus, in Gaul. The most distinguished merit of those two officers
was their respective prowess, of the one in the combats of Bacchus, of
the other in those of Venus, [53] yet neither of them was destitute
of courage and capacity, and both sustained, with honor, the august
character which the fear of punishment had engaged them to assume, till
they sunk at length beneath the superior genius of Probus. He used the
victory with his accustomed moderation, and spared the fortune, as well
as the lives of their innocent families. [54]

[Footnote 53: A very surprising instance is recorded of the prowess of
Procufus. He had taken one hundred Sarmatian virgins. The rest of the
story he must relate in his own language: "Ex his una necte decem inivi;
omnes tamen, quod in me erat, mulieres intra dies quindecim reddidi."
Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 246.]

[Footnote 54: Proculus, who was a native of Albengue, on the Genoese
coast armed two thousand of his own slaves. His riches were great, but
they were acquired by robbery. It was afterwards a saying of his family,
sibi non placere esse vel principes vel latrones. Vopiscus in Hist.
August. p. 247.]

The arms of Probus had now suppressed all the foreign and domestic
enemies of the state. His mild but steady administration confirmed the
reestablishment of the public tranquillity; nor was there left in the
provinces a hostile barbarian, a tyrant, or even a robber, to revive the
memory of past disorders. It was time that the emperor should revisit
Rome, and celebrate his own glory and the general happiness. The triumph
due to the valor of Probus was conducted with a magnificence suitable to
his fortune, and the people who had so lately admired the trophies of
Aurelian, gazed with equal pleasure on those of his heroic successor.
[55] We cannot, on this occasion, forget the desperate courage of about
fourscore gladiators, reserved, with near six hundred others, for the
inhuman sports of the amphitheatre. Disdaining to shed their blood for
the amusement of the populace, they killed their keepers, broke from the
place of their confinement, and filled the streets of Rome with blood
and confusion. After an obstinate resistance, they were overpowered and
cut i