rian 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, * 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.

Valerian was about sixty years of age 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, and had declared himself the enemy of tyrants. His noble
birth, his mild but unblemished manners, his learning, prudence, and
experience, were revered by the senate and people; and if mankind
(according to the observation of an ancient writer) had been left at
liberty to choose a master, their choice would most assuredly have
fallen on Valerian. Perhaps the merit of this emperor was inadequate
to his reputation; perhaps his abilities, or at least his spirit, were
affected by the languor and coldness of old age. The consciousness of
his decline engaged him to share the throne with a younger and more
active associate; the emergency of the times demanded a general no
less than a prince; and the experience of the Roman censor might have
directed him where to bestow the Imperial purple, as the reward of
military merit. But instead of making a judicious choice, which would
have confirmed his reign and endeared his memory, Valerian, consulting
only the dictates of affection or vanity, immediately invested with the
supreme honors his son Gallienus, a youth whose effeminate vices had
been hitherto concealed by the obscurity of a private station. The joint
government of the father and the son subsisted about seven, and the sole
administration of Gallien continued about eight, years. But the whole
period was one uninterrupted ser