The energetic administration of Aurelian had now restored the
empire--not to its lost vigor, that was impossible--but to a condition of
repose. That was a condition more agreeable to the empire than to the
emperor. Peace was hateful to Aurelian; and he sought for war, where it
could seldom be sought in vain, upon the Persian frontier. But he was not
destined to reach the Euphrates; and it is worthy of notice, as a
providential ordinance, that his own unmerciful nature was the ultimate
cause of his fate. Anticipating the emperor's severity in punishing some
errors of his own, Mucassor, a general officer in whom Aurelian placed
especial confidence, assassinated him between Byzantium and Heraclea. An
interregnum of eight months succeeded, during which there occurred a
contest of a memorable nature. Some historians have described it as
strange and surprising. To us, on the contrary, it seems that no contest
could be more natural. Heretofore the great strife had been in what way to
secure the reversion or possession of that great dignity; whereas now the
rivalship lay in declining it. But surely such a competition had in it,
under the circumstances of the empire, little that can justly surprise us.
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