nd murder. The death of Aurelian,
however, is remarkable by its extraordinary consequences. The legions
admired, lamented, and revenged their victorious chief. The artifice
of his perfidious secretary was discovered and punished. The deluded
conspirators attended the funeral of their injured sovereign, with
sincere or well-feigned contrition, and submitted to the unanimous
resolution of the military order, which was signified by the following
epistle: "The brave and fortunate armies to the senate and people of
Rome.--The crime of one man, and the error of many, have deprived us
of the late emperor Aurelian. May it please you, venerable lords and
fathers! to place him in the number of the gods, and to appoint a
successor whom your judgment shall declare worthy of the Imperial
purple! None of those whose guilt or misfortune have contributed to
our loss, shall ever reign over us." The Roman senators heard, without
surprise, that another emperor had been assassinated in his camp; they
secretly rejoiced in the fall of Aurelian; and, besides the recent
notoriety of the facts, constantly draws his materials from the Journals
of the Senate, and the but the modest and dutiful address of the
legions, when it was communicated in full assembly by the consul,
diffused the most pleasing astonishment. Such honors as fear and perhaps
esteem could extort, they liberally poured forth on the memory of their
deceased sovereign. Such acknowledgments as gratitude could inspire,
they returned to the faithful armies of the republic, who entertained
so just a sense of the legal authority of the senate in the choice of an
emperor. Yet, notwithstanding this flattering appeal, the most prudent
of the assembly declined exposing their safety and dignity to the
caprice of an armed multitude. The strength of the legions was, indeed,
a pledge of their sincerity, since those who may command are seldom
reduced to the necessity of dissembling; but could it naturally be
expected, that a hasty repentance would correct the inveterate habits
of fourscore years? Should the soldiers relapse into their accustomed
seditions, their insolence might disgrace the majesty of the senate, and
prove fatal to the object of its choice. Motives like these dictated
a decree, by which the election of a new emperor was referred to the
suffrage of the military order.

The contention that ensued is one of the best attested, but most
improbable events in the history of mankind. T