ting a slow and cruel death on these unfortunate
princes. The fear of a rescue from the faithful Germans of the Imperial
guards, shortened their tortures; and their bodies, mangled with a
thousand wounds, were left exposed to the insults or to the pity of the
populace. [44]

[Footnote 43: Discordiae tacitae, et quae intelligerentur potius
quam viderentur. Hist. August. p. 170. This well-chosen expression is
probably stolen from some better writer.]

[Footnote 44: Herodian, l. viii. p. 287, 288.]

In the space of a few months, six princes had been cut off by the sword.
Gordian, who had already received the title of Caesar, was the only
person that occurred to the soldiers as proper to fill the vacant
throne. [45] They carried him to the camp, and unanimously saluted him
Augustus and Emperor. His name was dear to the senate and people;
his tender age promised a long impunity of military license; and the
submission of Rome and the provinces to the choice of the Praetorian
guards, saved the republic, at the expense indeed of its freedom
and dignity, from the horrors of a new civil war in the heart of the
capital. [46]

[Footnote 45: Quia non alius erat in praesenti, is the expression of the
Augustan History.]

[Footnote 46: Quintus Curtius (l. x. c. 9,) pays an elegant compliment
to the emperor of the day, for having, by his happy accession,
extinguished so many firebrands, sheathed so many swords, and put an end
to the evils of a divided government. After weighing with attention
every word of the passage, I am of opinion, that it suits better with
the elevation of Gordian, than with any other period of the Roman
history. In that case, it may serve to decide the age of Quintus
Curtius. Those who place him under the first Caesars, argue from the
purity of his style but are embarrassed by the silence of Quintilian, in
his accurate list of Roman historians. * Note: This conjecture of Gibbon
is without foundation. Many passages in the work of Quintus Curtius
clearly place him at an earlier period. Thus, in speaking of the
Parthians, he says, Hinc in Parthicum perventum est, tunc ignobilem
gentem: nunc caput omnium qui post Euphratem et Tigrim amnes siti Rubro
mari terminantur. The Parthian empire had this extent only in the first
age of the vulgar aera: to that age, therefore, must be assigned the
date of Quintus Curtius. Although the critics (says M. de Sainte Croix)
have multiplied conjectures on this subject, most of t