Decius Mus

, a celebrated Roman consul, who, after many glorious exploits, devoted himself to the gods’ manes for the safety of his country, in a battle against the Latins, 338 years B.C. His son Decius imitated his example, and devoted himself in like manner in his fourth consulship, when fighting against the Gauls and Samnites, B.C. 296. His grandson also did the same in the wars against Pyrrhus and the Tarentines, B.C. 280. This action of devoting oneself was of infinite service to the state. The soldiers were animated by the example, and induced to follow with intrepidity a commander who, arrayed in an unusual dre , and addre ing himself to the gods with solemn invocation, rushed into the thickest part of the enemy to meet his fate. Livy , bks. 8, 9, . — Valerius Maximus , bk. 5 , ch. 6 .— Polybius , bk. 2 .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 6 , li. 824 .――Brutus, conducted Cæsar to the senate-house the day that he was murdered.—Cnæus Metius Q. Trajanus, a native of Pannonia, sent by the emperor Philip to appease a sedition in Mœsia. Instead of obeying his master’s command, he a umed the imperial purple, and soon after marched against him, and at his death became the only emperor. He signalized himself against the Persians; and when he marched against the Goths, he pushed his horse in a deep marsh, from which he could not extricate himself, and he perished with all his army by the darts of the barbarians, A.D. 251, after a reign of two years. This monarch enjoyed the character of a brave man and of a great disciplinarian; and by his justice and exemplary life merited the title of Optimus , which a servile senate had lavished upon him.