ictor, he seems to have
received the title of Imperator from the army, and that of Augustus from
the senate.]

[Footnote 66: From Victor and from the medals, Tillemont (tom. iii. p.
710) very justly infers, that Gallienus was associated to the empire
about the month of August of the year 253.]

I. As the posterity of the Franks compose one of the greatest and most
enlightened nations of Europe, the powers of learning and ingenuity have
been exhausted in the discovery of their unlettered ancestors. To the
tales of credulity have succeeded the systems of fancy. Every passage
has been sifted, every spot has been surveyed, that might possibly
reveal some faint traces of their origin. It has been supposed that
Pannonia, [67] that Gaul, that the northern parts of Germany, [68] gave
birth to that celebrated colony of warriors. At length the most rational
critics, rejecting the fictitious emigrations of ideal conquerors, have
acquiesced in a sentiment whose simplicity persuades us of its truth.
[69] They suppose, that about the year two hundred and forty, [70] a new
confederacy was formed under the name of Franks, by the old inhabitants
of the Lower Rhine and the Weser. [701] The present circle of Westphalia,
the Landgraviate of Hesse, and the duchies of Brunswick and Luneburg,
were the ancient of the Chauci who, in their inaccessible morasses,
defied the Roman arms; [71] of the Cherusci, proud of the fame of
Arminius; of the Catti, formidable by their firm and intrepid infantry;
and of several other tribes of inferior power and renown. [72] The love
of liberty was the ruling passion of these Germans; the enjoyment of it
their best treasure; the word that expressed that enjoyment, the most
pleasing to their ear. They deserved, they assumed, they maintained the
honorable appellation of Franks, or Freemen; which concealed, though
it did not extinguish, the peculiar names of the several states of the
confederacy. [73] Tacit consent, and mutual advantage, dictated the first
laws of the union; it was gradually cemented by habit and experience.
The league of the Franks may admit of some comparison with the Helvetic
body; in which every canton, retaining its independent sovereignty,
consults with its brethren in the common cause, without acknowledging
the authority of any supreme head, or representative assembly. [74] But
the principle of the two confederacies was extremely different. A peace
of two hundred years has rewarded the wis