he troops, as if satiated
with the exercise of power, again conjured the senate to invest one of
its own body with the Imperial purple. The senate still persisted in its
refusal; the army in its request. The reciprocal offer was pressed and
rejected at least three times, and, whilst the obstinate modesty of
either party was resolved to receive a master from the hands of the
other, eight months insensibly elapsed; an amazing period of tranquil
anarchy, during which the Roman world remained without a sovereign,
without a usurper, and without a sedition. * The generals and
magistrates appointed by Aurelian continued to execute their ordinary
functions; and it is observed, that a proconsul of Asia was the only
considerable person removed from his office in the whole course of the
interregnum.

An event somewhat similar, but much less authentic, is supposed to have
happened after the death of Romulus, who, in his life and character,
bore some affinity with Aurelian. The throne was vacant during twelve
months, till the election of a Sabine philosopher, and the public peace
was guarded in the same manner, by the union of the several orders of
the state. But, in the time of Numa and Romulus, the arms of the people
were controlled by the authority of the Patricians; and the balance
of freedom was easily preserved in a small and virtuous community. The
decline of the Roman state, far different from its infancy, was attended
with every circumstance that could banish from an interregnum the
prospect of obedience and harmony: an immense and tumultuous capital,
a wide extent of empire, the servile equality of despotism, an army
of four hundred thousand mercenaries, and the experience of frequent
revolutions. Yet, notwithstanding all these temptations, the discipline
and memory of Aurelian still restrained the seditious temper of the
troops, as well as the fatal ambition of their leaders. The flower of
the legions maintained their stations on the banks of the Bosphorus, and
the Imperial standard awed the less powerful camps of Rome and of the
provinces. A generous though transient enthusiasm seemed to animate the
military order; and we may hope that a few real patriots cultivated the
returning friendship of the army and the senate, as the only expedient
capable of restoring the republic to its ancient beauty and vigor.

On the twenty-fifth of September, near eight months after the murder of
Aurelian, the consul convoked an assembly o