History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
had offered to purchase at the expense of his dignity, and of a
tributary present of two thousand pounds of silver. The emperor
parsimoniously refused to his soldiers the sums which he granted
with a lavish and trembling hand to the Barbarians. The
dexterity, as well as the firmness, of Julian was put to a severe
trial, when he took the field with a discontented army, which had
already served two campaigns, without receiving any regular pay
or any extraordinary donative. 88
86 (return) [ Ammian. xviii. 2. Libanius, Orat. x. p. 279, 280.
Of these seven posts, four are at present towns of some
consequence; Bingen, Andernach, Bonn, and Nuyss. The other three,
Tricesimæ, Quadriburgium, and Castra Herculis, or Heraclea, no
longer subsist; but there is room to believe, that on the ground
of Quadriburgium the Dutch have constructed the fort of Schenk, a
name so offensive to the fastidious delicacy of Boileau. See
D’Anville, Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, p. 183. Boileau, Epitre
iv. and the notes. Note: Tricesimæ, Kellen, Mannert, quoted by
Wagner. Heraclea, Erkeleus in the district of Juliers. St.
Martin, ii. 311.—M.]
87 (return) [ We may credit Julian himself, (Orat. ad S. P. Q.
Atheniensem, p. 280,) who gives a very particular account of the
transaction. Zosimus adds two hundred vessels more, (l. iii. p.
145.) If we compute the 600 corn ships of Julian at only seventy
tons each, they were capable of exporting 120,000 quarters, (see
Arbuthnot’s Weights and Measures, p. 237;) and the country which
could bear so large an exportation, must already have attained an
improved state of agriculture.]
88 (return) [ The troops once broke out into a mutiny,
immediately before the second passage of the Rhine. Ammian. xvii.
9.]
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