166

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

IV.

companions upon guard; and by the domesticsof the old court, who had already formed a se-cret conspiracy against the life of the too virtu-ous emperor. On the news of their approach,Pertinax , disdaining either flight or concealment,advanced to meet his assassins; and recalled totheir minds his own innocence, and the sanctityof their recent oath. For a few moments theystood in silent suspense, ashamed of their atro-cious design, and awed by the venerable aspectand majestic firmness of their sovereign, till atlength the despair of pardon reviving their fury,a barbarian of the country of Tongres 1 levelledthe first blow against Pertinax , who was in-stantly dispatched with a multitude of wounds.His head, separated from his body, and placedon a lance, was carried in triumph to the prae-torian camp, in the sight of a mournful and in-dignant people, who lamented the unworthy fateof that excellent prince, and the transient bles-sings of a reign, the memory of which couldserve only to aggravate their approaching mis-fortunes . 11

‘ The modern bishopric of Liege. This soldier probably belonged tothe Batavian horse-guards, who were mostly raised in the duchy ofGueldres, and the neighbourhood, and were distinguished by their va-lour, and by the boldness with which they swam their horses acrossthe broadest and most rapid rivers. Tacit. Hist, iv, 12. Dion, 1. Iv.p. 797. Lipsins de magnitudine Romana, 1. i, c. 4.

fc Dion, 1. lxxiii. p. 1232. Herodian, 1. ii, p. 60. Hist. August, p.58. Victor in Epitom. et in Csesarib. Eutropius , viii, 16.