306 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, common bravery ^ The latter was soon felt by the Romans in many a hostile inroad. The Alemanni fought chiefly on horseback; but their cavalry was ren- dered still more formidable by a mixture of light in- fantry, selected from the bravest and most active of the youth, whom frequent exercise had enured to accom- pany the horsemen in the longest march, the most rapid charge, or the most precipitate retreat ^ invade Gaul This warlike people of Germans had been astonished ^^' by the immense preparations of Alexander Severus; they were dismayed by the arms of his successor, a barbarian equal in valour and fierceness to themselves. But still hovering on the frontiers of the empire, they increased the general disorder that ensued after the death of Decius. They inflicted severe wounds on the rich provinces of Gaul: they were the first who re- moved the veil that covered the feeble majesty of Italy. A numerous body of the Alemanni penetrated across the Danube, and through the Rhaetian alps, into the plains of Lombardy, advanced as far as Ravenna, and displayed the victorious banners of barbarians almost in sight of Rome*. The insult and the danger rekindled are repulsed in the senate some sparks of their ancient virtue. Both by The seT *^^^ emperors were engaged in far distant wars, Vale- ate and peo- rian in the east, and Gallienus on the Rhine. All the hopes and resources of the Romans were in themselves. In this emergency, the senators resumed the defence of the republic, drew out the pretorian guards, who had been left to garrison the capital, and filled up their numbers, by enlisting into the public service the stoutest and most willing of the plebeians. The Alemanni, as- tonished with the sudden appearance of an army more numerous than their own, retired into Germany, laden •■ This etymology (far different from those which amuse the fancy of the learned) is preserved by Asinius Quadratus, an original historian, quoted by Agathias, i. c. 5. s The Suevi engaged Caesar in this manner, and the manoeuvre deserved the approbation of the conqueror : in Bello Gallico, i. 48.
- Hist. August, p. 215, 216; Dexippus in the Excerpta Legationum,
p. 8; Hieronym. Chron. ; Orosius, vii. 22.
