396 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, pointed out to their enterprising spirit a new road to • wealth and glory. Revolt of Notwithstanding the vigilance and activity of Pro- Saturninus ]jyis jt was almost impossible that he could at once m the east J ..,,. „,. contain in obedience every part of his wide extended dominions. The barbarians who broke their chains, had seized the favourable opportunity of a domestic war. When the emperor marched to the relief of Gaul, he devolved the command of the east on Satur- ninus. That general, a man of merit and experience, was driven into rebellion by the absence of his sove- reign, the levity of the Alexandrian people, the press- ing instances of his friends, and his own fears ; but from the moment of his elevation he never entertained a hope of empire, or even of life. " Alas !" he said,
- the republic has lost a useful servant, and the rash-
ness of an hour has destroyed the services of many years. You know not," continued he, '* the misery of sovereign power; a sword is perpetually suspended over our head. We dread our very guards, we dis- trust our companions. The choice of action or of repose is no longer in our disposition ; nor is there any age, or character, or conduct, that can protect us from the censure of envy. In thus exalting me to the throne, you have doomed me to a life of cares, and to an un- timely fate. The only consolation which remains is, the assurance that I shall not fall alone*." But as the former part of his prediction was verified by the vic- tory, so the latter was disappointed by the clemency of Probus. That amiable prince attempted even to save the unhappy Saturninus from the fury of the soldiers. He had more than once solicited the usurper himself to place some confidence in the mercy of a sovereign A. D. 279. who so highly esteemed his character, that he had punished, as a malicious informer, the first who re- lated the improbable news of his defection ^ Saturni- e Vopiscus in Hist. August, p. 245, 246. The unfortunate orator had studied rhetoric at Carthage, and was therefore more probably a Moor (Zosim. 1. i. p. 60.) than a Gaul, as Vopiscus calls him. f Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 638.
