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. But the principle of the two
confederacies was extremely different. A peace of two hundred years has
rewarded the wise and honest policy of the Swiss. An inconstant spirit,
the thirst of rapine, and a disregard to the most solemn treaties,
disgraced the character of the Franks.

Chapter X: Emperors Decius, Gallus, AEmilianus, Valerian And
Gallienus.--Part III.

The Romans had long experienced the daring valor of the people of
Lower Germany. The union of their strength threatened Gaul with a more
formidable invasion, and required the presence of Gallienus, the heir
and colleague of Imperial power. Whilst that prince, and his infant son
Salonius, displayed, in the court of Treves, the majesty of the empire
its armies were ably conducted by their general, Posthumus, who, though
he afterwards betrayed the family of Valerian, was ever faithful to the
great interests of the monarchy. The treacherous language of panegyrics
and medals darkly announces a long series of victories. Trophies and
titles attest (if such evidence can attest) the fame of Posthumus, who
is repeatedly styled the Conqueror of the Germans, and the Savior of
Gaul.

But a single fact, the only one indeed of which we have any distinct
knowledge, erases, in a great measure, these monuments of vanity and
adulation. The Rhine, though dignified with the title of Safeguard of
the provinces, was an imperfect barrier against the daring spirit of
enterprise with which the Franks were actuated. Their rapid devastations
stretched from the river to the foot of the Pyrenees; nor were they
stopped by those mountains. Spain, which had never dreaded, was unable
to resist, the inroads of the Germans. During twelve years, the greatest
part of the reign of Gallie nus, that opulent country was the theatre of
unequal and destructive hostilities. Tarragona, the flourishing capital
of a peaceful province, was sacked and almost destroyed; and so late as
the days of Orosius, who wrote in the fifth century, wretched cottages,
scattered amidst the ruins of magnificent cities, still recorded the
rage of the barbarians. When the exhausted country no longer supplied
a variety of plunder, the Franks seized on some vessels in the ports of
Spain, and t