nsiderate tumult,
and Philip's rival as a phantom of royalty, who in a very few days would
be destroyed by the same inconstancy that had created him. The speedy
completion of the prophecy inspired Philip with a just esteem for so
able a counsellor; and Decius appeared to him the only person capable
of restoring peace and discipline to an army whose tumultuous spirit did
not immediately subside after the murder of Marinus. Decius, [2] who
long resisted his own nomination, seems to have insinuated the danger of
presenting a leader of merit to the angry and apprehensive minds of
the soldiers; and his prediction was again confirmed by the event. The
legions of Maesia forced their judge to become their accomplice. They
left him only the alternative of death or the purple. His subsequent
conduct, after that decisive measure, was unavoidable. He conducted, or
followed, his army to the confines of Italy, whither Philip, collecting
all his force to repel the formidable competitor whom he had raised up,
advanced to meet him. The Imperial troops were superior in number;
but the rebels formed an army of veterans, commanded by an able and
experienced leader. Philip was either killed in the battle, or put to
death a few days afterwards at Verona. His son and associate in
the empire was massacred at Rome by the Praetorian guards; and the
victorious Decius, with more favorable circumstances than the ambition
of that age can usually plead, was universally acknowledged by the
senate and provinces. It is reported, that, immediately after his
reluctant acceptance of the title of Augustus, he had assured Philip,
by a private message, of his innocence and loyalty, solemnly protesting,
that, on his arrival on Italy, he would resign the Imperial ornaments,
and return to the condition of an obedient subject. His professions
might be sincere; but in the situation where fortune had placed him, it
was scarcely possible that he could either forgive or be forgiven. [3]

[Footnote 1: The expression used by Zosimus and Zonaras may signify that
Marinus commanded a century, a cohort, or a legion.]

[Footnote 2: His birth at Bubalia, a little village in Pannonia,
(Eutrop. ix. Victor. in Caesarib. et Epitom.,) seems to contradict,
unless it was merely accidental, his supposed descent from the Decii.
Six hundred years had bestowed nobility on the Decii: but at the
commencement of that period, they were only plebeians of merit, and
among the first who shar