ark the
condition of the times, and the manners of the men, their pretensions,
their motives, their fate, and their destructive consequences of their
usurpation. [159]

[Footnote 157: Pollio expresses the most minute anxiety to complete the
number. * Note: Compare a dissertation of Manso on the thirty tyrants at
the end of his Leben Constantius des Grossen. Breslau, 1817.--M.]

[Footnote 158: The place of his reign is somewhat doubtful; but there
was a tyrant in Pontus, and we are acquainted with the seat of all the
others.]

[Footnote 1581: Captain Smyth, in his "Catalogue of Medals," p.
307, substitutes two new names to make up the number of nineteen, for
those of Odenathus and Zenobia. He subjoins this list:--1. 2. 3. Of
those whose coins Those whose coins Those of whom no are undoubtedly
true. are suspected. coins are known. Posthumus. Cyriades. Valens.
Laelianus, (Lollianus, G.) Ingenuus. Balista Victorinus Celsus.
Saturninus. Marius. Piso Frugi. Trebellianus. Tetricus.
--M. 1815 Macrianus. Quietus. Regalianus (Regillianus, G.) Alex.
Aemilianus. Aureolus. Sulpicius Antoninus]

[Footnote 159: Tillemont, tom. iii. p. 1163, reckons them somewhat
differently.]

It is sufficiently known, that the odious appellation of Tyrant was
often employed by the ancients to express the illegal seizure of
supreme power, without any reference to the abuse of it. Several of the
pretenders, who raised the standard of rebellion against the emperor
Gallienus, were shining models of virtue, and almost all possessed a
considerable share of vigor and ability. Their merit had recommended
them to the favor of Valerian, and gradually promoted them to the most
important commands of the empire. The generals, who assumed the title of
Augustus, were either respected by their troops for their able conduct
and severe discipline, or admired for valor and success in war, or
beloved for frankness and generosity. The field of victory was often
the scene of their election; and even the armorer Marius, the most
contemptible of all the candidates for the purple, was distinguished,
however by intrepid courage, matchless strength, and blunt honesty.
[160] His mean and recent trade cast, indeed, an air of ridicule on his
elevation; [1601] but his birth could not be more obscure than was that of
the greater part of his rivals, who were born of peasants, and enlisted
in the army as private soldiers. In times of confusion, every active
genius finds the pl