The first mention made of this illustrious name, we find in Trebellius Pollios Life of the Emperor Gallienus, about the 260th Year after Christ.  His Words are these:  “Cum, &c.  Whilst Gallienus spent his time in nothing but Gluttony and shameful Practices, and govern’d the Commonwealth after so ridiculous a manner, that it was like Boys play, when they set up Kings in jest among themselves; the Gauls, who naturally hate luxurious Princes, elected Posthumus for their Emperor, who at that time was Gallienus’s Lieutenant in Gaul with imperial Authority.  Gallienus thereupon commenced a War with Posthumus; and Posthumus being assisted by many Auxiliaries, both of the Celtae and the Franks, took the Field along with Victorinus—.”  By which Words we may plainly perceive, that the Gauls crav’d the Assistance of the Franks; that is, of these Authors or Beginners of liberty, to enable them to shake off the Tyrant Gallienus’s Yoke:  Which same thing Zonaras hints at in his Life of Gallienus, when he says, [Greek:  epolemise de phrangois], &c.—­We find another mention made of the same People in Flavius Vopiscus’s Life of Aurelian, in these Words:—­“At Mentz the Tribune of the 6th Legion discomfited the Franks, who had made Incursions, and overspread all Gallia; he slew 700, and sold 300 Captives for Slaves.”—­For you must not expect that our Franks, any more than other Nations in their Wars, were constantly victorious, and crown’d with Success.  On the contrary, we read that Constantine, afterwards call’d the Great, took Prisoners two of their Kings, and exposed them to the Wild Beasts at the publick shews.  Which Story both Eutropius in his 9th Book, and the Rhetorician in that Panegyrick so often quoted, make mention of.

And because the same Rhetorician in another place speaks of those Wars in the Confines of the Batavi, which we have shewn not to be far distant from the Franks, I will set down his Words at Length. Multa Francorum millia, &c. “He slew, drove out, and took Prisoners many thousand Franks, who had invaded Batavia, and other Territories on this side the Rhine.”  And in another Place says, “He clear’d the Country of the Batavians, which had before been possess’d by several Nations and Kings of the Franks; and not satisfied with only overcoming them, he transplanted them into the Roman Territories, and forced them to lay aside their Fierceness as well as their Weapons.”  From which place we are given to understand, not obscurely, that Constantine, (being constrain’d to do so by the Franks) granted them Lands within the Bounds of the Roman Empire. Ammianus, lib. 15. writes, that the Franks, during the Civil Wars between Constantine