tration; and, contenting himself with the quality of their
general, would in a short time assert the glory of Rome, and deliver the
empire from all the barbarians both of the North and of the East. [59]
His pride was flattered by the applause of the senate; and medals are
still extant, representing him with the name and attributes of Hercules
the Victor, and Mars the Avenger. [60]

[Footnote 57: Zosimus, l. i. p. 25, 26.]

[Footnote 58: Victor in Caesaribus.]

[Footnote 59: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 628.]

[Footnote 60: Banduri Numismata, p. 94.]

If the new monarch possessed the abilities, he wanted the time,
necessary to fulfil these splendid promises. Less than four months
intervened between his victory and his fall. [61] He had vanquished
Gallus: he sunk under the weight of a competitor more formidable than
Gallus. That unfortunate prince had sent Valerian, already distinguished
by the honorable title of censor, to bring the legions of Gaul and
Germany [62] to his aid. Valerian executed that commission with zeal and
fidelity; and as he arrived too late to save his sovereign, he resolved
to revenge him. The troops of Aemilianus, who still lay encamped in the
plains of Spoleto, were awed by the sanctity of his character, but much
more by the superior strength of his army; and as they were now
become as incapable of personal attachment as they had always been of
constitutional principle, they readily imbrued their hands in the blood
of a prince who so lately had been the object of their partial choice.
The guilt was theirs, [621] but the advantage of it was Valerian's; who
obtained the possession of the throne by the means indeed of a civil
war, but with a degree of innocence singular in that age of revolutions;
since he owed neither gratitude nor allegiance to his predecessor, whom
he dethroned.

[Footnote 61: Eutropius, l. ix. c. 6, says tertio mense.
Eusebio this emperor.]

[Footnote 62: Zosimus, l. i. p. 28. Eutropius and Victor station
Valerian's army in Rhaetia.]

[Footnote 621: Aurelius Victor says that Aemilianus died of a natural
disorder. Tropius, in speaking of his death, does not say that he was
assassinated--G.]

Valerian was about sixty years of age [63] when he was invested with the
purple, not by the caprice of the populace, or the clamors of the army,
but by the unanimous voice of the Roman world. In his gradual ascent
through the honors of the state, he had deserved the favor of virtuous
princes