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THE DECLINE AND FALL
CHAP.
VII.
Siege ofAquileia.
the operations of some foreign war deferred theItalian expedition till the ensuing spring. Fromthe prudent conduct of Maximin, we may learnthat the savage features of his character havebeen exaggerated by the pencil of party, thathis passions, however impetuous, submitted tothe force of reason, and that the barbarian pos-sessed something of the generous spirit of Syl-la, who subdued the enemies of Rome , beforehe suffered himself to revenge his private in-juries . 11
When the troops of Maximin, advancing in ex-cellent order, arrived at the foot of the JulianAlps , they were terrified by the silence and deso-lation that reigned on the frontiers of Italy . Thevillages and open towns had been abandoned ontheir approach by the inhabitants, the cattle wasdriven away, the provisions removed, or destroy-ed, the bridges broke down, nor was any thingleft which could afford either shelter or sub-sistence to an invader. Such had been the wiseorders of the generals of the senate; whose de-sign was to protract the war, to ruin the army ofMaximin by the slow operation of famine, and toconsume his strength in the sieges of the prin-cipal cities of Italy , which they had plentifullystored with men and provisions from the desertedcountry. Aquileia received and withstood thefirst shock of the invasion. The streams thatissue from the head of the Hadriatic gulf, swelled
k Velleius Paterculus, I. li, c. 24. The president de Montes-quieu (in his dialogue between Sylla and Eucrates) expresses thesentiments of the dictator, in a spirited, and even a sublime man-ner.