The enraged multitude affronted the person of Julian,
rejected his liberality, and, conscious of the impotence of their own
resentment, they called aloud on the legions of the frontiers to assert
the violated majesty of the Roman empire.

The public discontent was soon diffused from the centre to the frontiers
of the empire. The armies of Britain, of Syria, and of Illyricum,
lamented the death of Pertinax, in whose company, or under whose
command, they had so often fought and conquered. They received with
surprise, with indignation, and perhaps with envy, the extraordinary
intelligence, that the Praetorians had disposed of the empire by public
auction; and they sternly refused to ratify the ignominious bargain.
Their immediate and unanimous revolt was fatal to Julian, but it was
fatal at the same time to the public peace, as the generals of the
respective armies, Clodius Albinus, Pescennius Niger, and Septimius
Severus, were still more anxious to succeed than to revenge the murdered
Pertinax. Their forces were exactly balanced. Each of them was at the
head of three legions, with a numerous train of auxiliaries; and however
different in their characters, they were all soldiers of experience and
capacity.

Clodius Albinus, governor of Britain, surpassed both his competitors in
the nobility of his extraction, which he derived from some of the most
illustrious names of the old republic. But the branch from which he
claimed his descent was sunk into mean circumstances, and transplanted
into a remote province. It is difficult to form a just idea of his true
character. Under the philosophic cloak of austerity, he stands accused
of concealing most of the vices which degrade human nature. But his
accusers are those venal writers who adored the fortune of Severus,
and trampled on the ashes of an unsuccessful rival. Virtue, or the
appearances of virtue, recommended Albinus to the confidence and good
opinion of Marcus; and his preserving with the son the same interest
which he had acquired with the father, is a proof at least that he was
possessed of a very flexible disposition. The favor of a tyrant does
not always suppose a want of merit in the object of it; he may, without
intending it, reward a man of worth and ability, or he may find such a
man useful to his own service. It does not appear that Albinus served
the son of Marcus, either as the minister of his cruelties, or even as
the associate of his pleasures. He was employe