OF THE HOMAN EMPIRE

J95

Byzantium, accused the revenge of Severus, chap.

for depriving the Roman people of the strongest..

bulwark against the barbarians of Pontus andAsia . 1 The truth of this observation was buttoo well justified in the succeeding age, whenthe Gothic fleets covered the Euxine , and pas-sed through the undefended Bosphorus into thecentre of the Mediterranean.

Both Niger and Albinos were discovered and Deaths ofput to death in their flight from the field of bat A ibinut?tie. Their fate excited neither surprise norcompassion. They had staked their lives a_ dvilgainst the chance of empire, and suffered whatthey Avould have inflicted; nor did Severusclaim the arrogant superiority of suffering hisrivals to live in a private station. But his un-forgiving temper, stimulated by avarice, indul-ged a spirit of revenge, where there was noroom for apprehension. The most consider-able of the provincials, who, without any dis-like to the fortunate candidate, had obeyed thegovernor under whose authority they were ac-cidentally placed, were punished by death,exile, and especially by the confiscation of theirestates. Many cities of the East were stript oftheir ancient honours, and obliged to pay, intothe treasury of Severus, four times the amountof the sums contributed by them for the serviceof Niger . k

1 Notwithstanding the authority of Spartianus, and s tr.c modernGreeks, we may be assured from Dion and Herodian, that Byzantium,many years after the death of Severus, lay in ruins.

k Dion, 1. Ixxiv, p. 1250.

o 2