But Nemesis
was already on his steps. An insurrection had broken out amongst the
legions stationed in Moesia; and they had raised to the purple some officer
of low rank. Philip, having occasion to notice this affair in the senate,
received for answer from Decius, that probably the pseudo-imperator would
prove a mere evanescent phantom. This conjecture was confirmed; and Philip
in consequence conceived a high opinion of Decius, whom (as the
insurrection still continued) he judged to be the fittest man for
appeasing it. Decius accordingly went, armed with the proper authority.
But on his arrival, he found himself compelled by the insurgent army to
choose between empire and death. Thus constrained, he yielded to the
wishes of the troops; and then hastening with a veteran army into Italy,
he fought the battle of Verona, where Philip was defeated and killed,
whilst the son of Philip was murdered at Rome by the praetorian guards.
With Philip ends, according to our distribution, the second series of the
Caesars, comprehending Commodus, Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Septimius
Severus, Caracalla, and Geta, Macrinus, Heliogabalus, Alexander Severus,
Maximin, the two Gordians, Pupienus and Balbinus, the third Gordian, and
Philip the Arab.
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