as he became sole possessor of the empire. In every
art that he attempted, his lively genius enabled him to succeed; and as
his genius was destitute of judgment, he attempted every art, except
the important ones of war and government. He was a master of several
curious, but useless sciences, a ready orator, an elegant poet, [153] a
skilful gardener, an excellent cook, and most contemptible prince. When
the great emergencies of the state required his presence and attention,
he was engaged in conversation with the philosopher Plotinus, [154]
wasting his time in trifling or licentious pleasures, preparing his
initiation to the Grecian mysteries, or soliciting a place in the
Arcopagus of Athens. His profuse magnificence insulted the general
poverty; the solemn ridicule of his triumphs impressed a deeper sense
of the public disgrace. [155] The repeated intelligence of invasions,
defeats, and rebellions, he received with a careless smile; and singling
out, with affected contempt, some particular production of the lost
province, he carelessly asked, whether Rome must be ruined, unless it
was supplied with linen from Egypt, and arras cloth from Gaul. There
were, however, a few short moments in the life of Gallienus, when,
exasperated by some recent injury, he suddenly appeared the intrepid
soldier and the cruel tyrant; till, satiated with blood, or fatigued by
resistance, he insensibly sunk into the natural mildness and indolence
of his character. [156]

[Footnote 152: See his life in the Augustan History.]

[Footnote 153: There is still extant a very pretty Epithalamium,
composed by Gallienus for the nuptials of his nephews:--"Ite ait, O
juvenes, pariter sudate medullis Omnibus, inter vos: non murmura vestra
columbae, Brachia non hederae, non vincant oscula conchae."]

[Footnote 154: He was on the point of giving Plotinus a ruined city of
Campania to try the experiment of realizing Plato's Republic. See the
Life of Plotinus, by Porphyry, in Fabricius's Biblioth. Graec. l. iv.]
[Footnote 155: A medal which bears the head of Gallienus has perplexed
the antiquarians by its legend and reverse; the former Gallienoe
Augustoe, the latter Ubique Pax. M. Spanheim supposes that the coin was
struck by some of the enemies of Gallienus, and was designed as a severe
satire on that effeminate prince. But as the use of irony may seem
unworthy of the gravity of the Roman mint, M. de Vallemont has deduced
from a passage of Trebellius Pollio