And this reign dates itself in the series
by those ever-memorable secular or jubilee games, which celebrated the
completion of the thousandth year from the foundation of Rome. [Footnote:
This Arab emperor reigned about five years; and the jubilee celebration
occurred in his second year. Another circumstance gives importance to the
Arabian, that, according to one tradition, he was the first Christian
emperor. If so, it is singular that one of the bitterest persecutors of
Christianity should have been his immediate successor--Decius.]
Resuming our sketch of the Imperial history, we may remark the natural
embarrassment which must have possessed the senate, when two candidates
for the purple were equally earnest in appealing to them, and their
deliberate choice, as the best foundation for a valid election. Scarcely
had the ground been cleared for AEmilianus, by the murder of Gallus and his
son, when Valerian, a Roman senator, of such eminent merit, and
confessedly so much the foremost noble in all the qualities essential to
the very delicate and comprehensive functions of a Censor, [Footnote: It
has proved a most difficult problem, in the hands of all speculators upon
the imperial history, to fathom the purposes, or throw any light upon the
purposes, of the Emperor Decius, in attempting the revival of the ancient
but necessarily obsolete office of a public censorship.
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