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. The death of Victorinus, his friend
and associate, was occasioned by a less worthy cause. The shining
accomplishments 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. 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.

When, at the instigation of his ambitious patroness, Tetricus assumed
the ensigns of royalty, he was governor of the peaceful province of
Aquitaine, an employment suited to his character and education. He
reigned four or five years over Gaul, Spain, and Britain, the slave
and sovereign of a licentious army, whom he dreaded, and by whom he
was despised. The valor and fortune of Aurelian at length opened the
prospect of a deliverance. He ventured to disclose his melancholy
situation, and conjured the emperor to hasten to the relief of his
unhappy rival. Had this secret correspondence reached the ears of the
soldiers, it would most probably have cost Tetricus his life; nor could
he resign the sceptre of the West without committing an act of treason
against himself. He affected the appearances of a civil war, led
his forces into the field, again