400

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap tifications of the Danube , and exerted liis ut-

__most vigilance to oppose either the progress or

the retreat of the Goths . Encouraged by thereturn of fortune, he anxiously waited for anopportunity to retrieve, by a great and decisiveblow, his own glory, and that of the Romanarms."

Deems re- At the same time when Decius was strugglingoffice o'f w ^h the violence of the tempest, his mind,censor in ca l m and deliberate amidst the tumult of war,

the person . 7

of Vale- investigated the more general causes, that,nan ' since the age of the Antonines, had so impetu-ously urged the decline of the Roman great-ness. He soon discovered that it was impos-sible to replace that greatness on a permanentbasis, without restoring public virtue, ancientprinciples and manners, and the oppressed ma-jesty of the laws. To execute this noble butarduous design, he first resolved to revive theobsolete office of censor; an office, which, aslong as it had subsisted in its pristine integrity,had so much contributed to the perpetuity of thestate , 0 till it was usurped and gradually neglected

and 160 light horse, 60 Cretan archers, and 1000 well armed recruits.See an original letter from the emperor to his officer, in the. Augustanhistory, p. 200.

n Jornandes, c. 16-18. Zosimns, 1. i, p. 22. In the general ac-count of this war, it is easy to discover the opposite prejudices ofthe Gothic and the Grecian writer. In carelessness alone they arealike.

0 Montesquieu , Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, c. viii. Heillustrates the nature and use of the censorship with his usual ingenuity,and with uncommon precision