elian's walls, see Vopiscus in Hist. August. p.
216, 222. Zosimus, l. i. p. 43. Eutropius, ix. 15. Aurel. Victor in
Aurelian Victor Junior in Aurelian. Euseb. Hieronym. et Idatius in
Chronic]

The victory of Claudius over the Goths, and the success of Aurelian
against the Alemanni, had already restored to the arms of Rome their
ancient superiority over the barbarous nations of the North. To chastise
domestic tyrants, and to reunite the dismembered parts of the empire,
was a task reserved for the second of those warlike emperors. Though he
was acknowledged by the senate and people, the frontiers of Italy,
Africa, Illyricum, and Thrace, confined the limits of his reign. Gaul,
Spain, and Britain, Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, were still possessed
by two rebels, who alone, out of so numerous a list, had hitherto
escaped the dangers of their situation; and to complete the ignominy of
Rome, these rival thrones had been usurped by women.

A rapid succession of monarchs had arisen and fallen in the provinces
of Gaul. The rigid virtues of Posthumus served only to hasten his
destruction. After suppressing a competitor, who had assumed the purple
at Mentz, he refused to gratify his troops with the plunder of the
rebellious city; and in the seventh year of his reign, became the victim
of their disappointed avarice. [46] The death of Victorinus, his friend
and associate, was occasioned by a less worthy cause. The shining
accomplishments [47] of that prince were stained by a licentious passion,
which he indulged in acts of violence, with too little regard to the
laws of society, or even to those of love. [48] He was slain at Cologne,
by a conspiracy of jealous husbands, whose revenge would have appeared
more justifiable, had they spared the innocence of his son. After the
murder of so many valiant princes, it is somewhat remarkable, that a
female for a long time controlled the fierce legions of Gaul, and still
more singular, that she was the mother of the unfortunate Victorinus.
The arts and treasures of Victoria enabled her successively to place
Marius and Tetricus on the throne, and to reign with a manly vigor under
the name of those dependent emperors. Money of copper, of silver, and
of gold, was coined in her name; she assumed the titles of Augusta and
Mother of the Camps: her power ended only with her life; but her life
was perhaps shortened by the ingratitude of Tetricus. [49]

[Footnote 46: His competitor was Lollianus, or A