This, however, is probably an exaggeration. Nineteen such rebels are
mentioned by name; of whom the chief were Calpurnius Piso, a Roman
senator; Tetricus, a man of rank who claimed a descent from Pompey,
Crassus, and even from Numa Pompilius, and maintained himself some time in
Gaul and Spain; Trebellianus, who founded a republic of robbers in Isauria
which survived himself by centuries; and Odenathus, the Syrian. Others
were mere _Terra filii,_ or adventurers, who flourished and decayed
in a few days or weeks, of whom the most remarkable was a working armorer
named Marius. Not one of the whole number eventually prospered, except
Odenathus; and he, though originally a rebel, yet, in consideration of
services performed against Persia, was suffered to retain his power, and
to transmit his kingdom of Palmyra to his widow Zenobia. He was even
complimented with the title of Augustus. All the rest perished. Their
rise, however, and local prosperity at so many different points of the
empire, showed the distracted condition of the state, and its internal
weakness. That again proclaimed its external peril.
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