OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

i75

affected civility of the emperor with smiles of chap.

complacency, and professions of duty. But_

the people, secure in their numbers and obscu-rity, gave a free vent to their passions. Thestreets and public places of Rome resoundedwith clamours and imprecations. The enragedmultitude affronted the person of Julian, reject-ed his liberality, and, conscious of the impo-tence of their own resentment, they called aloudon the legions of the frontiers to assert the vio-lated majesty of the Roman empire.

The public discontent was soon diffused from The armiesthe centre to the frontiers of the empire. Thearmies of Britain, of Syria , and of Illyricum,lamented the death of Pertinax , in whose com- againstpany, or under whose command, they had so Julian ’often fought and conquered. They receivedwith surprise, with indignation, and perhapswith envy, the extraordinary intelligence, thatthe praetorians had disposed of the empire bypublic auction ; and they sternly refused to ra-tify the ignominious bargain. Their immediateand unanimous revolt was fatal to Julian, butit was fatal, at the same time, to the publicpeace; as the generals of the respective armies,

Clodius Albinus, Pescennius Niger , and Septi-mius Severus, were still more anxious to suc-ceed than to revenge the murdered Pertinax .

Their forces were exactly balanced. Each ofthem was at the head of three legions, p with anumerous train of auxiliaries; and, however

p Dion, 1. Ixxiii, p. 1235.