The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · ¶478
The arms of Probus had now suppressed all the foreign and domestic enemies of the state. His mild but steady administration confirmed the re-ëstablishment of the public tranquillity; nor was there left in the provinces a hostile barbarian, a tyrant, or even a robber, to revive the memory of past disorders. It was time that the emperor should revisit Rome, and celebrate his own glory and the general happiness. The triumph due to the valor of Probus was conducted with a magnificence suitable to his fortune, and the people, who had so lately admired the trophies of Aurelian, gazed with equal pleasure on those of his heroic successor. We cannot, on this occasion, forget the desperate courage of about fourscore gladiators, reserved, with near six hundred others, for the inhuman sports of the amphitheatre. Disdaining to shed their blood for the amusement of the populace, they killed their…Read in context ›
Edward Gibbon · Project Gutenberg #731 (Milman edition) — public domain
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