I. It is obvious, that, as long as the immutable constitution of human

nature produces and maintains so unequal a division of property,

the most numerous part of the community would be deprived of their

subsistence, by the equal assessment of a tax from which the sovereign

would derive a very trifling revenue. Such indeed might be the theory of

the Roman capitation; but in the practice, this unjust equality was no

longer felt, as the tribute was collected on the principle of a real,

not of a personal imposition. * Several indigent citizens contributed

to compose a single head, or share of taxation; while the wealthy

provincial, in proportion to his fortune, alone represented several of

those imaginary beings. In a poetical request, addressed to one of

the last and most deserving of the Roman princes who reigned in Gaul,

Sidonius Apollinaris personifies his tribute under the figure of a

triple monster, the Geryon of the Grecian fables, and entreats the new

Hercules that he would most graciously be pleased to save his life by

cutting off three of his heads. The fortune of Sidonius far exceeded the

customary wealth of a poet; but if he had pursued the allusion, he might

have painted many of the Gallic nobles with the hundred heads of the

deadly Hydra, spreading over the face of the country, and devouring

the substance of a hundred families. II. The difficulty of allowing an

annual sum of about nine pounds sterling, even for the average of the

capitation of Gaul, may be rendered more evident by the comparison of

the present state of the same country, as it is now governed by the

absolute monarch of an industrious, wealthy, and affectionate people.

The taxes of France cannot be magnified, either by fear or by flattery,

beyond the annual amount of eighteen millions sterling, which ought

perhaps to be shared among four and twenty millions of inhabitants.

Seven millions of these, in the capacity of fathers, or brothers, or

husbands, may discharge the obligations of the remaining multitude of

women and children; yet the equal proportion of each tributary subject

will scarcely rise above fifty shillings of our money, instead of

a proportion almost four times as considerable, which was regularly

imposed on their Gallic ancestors. The reason of this difference may

be found, not so much in the relative scarcity or plenty of gold and

silver, as in the different state of society, in ancient Gaul and in

modern France. In a country where personal freedom is the privilege

of every subject, the whole mass of taxes, whether they are levied on

property or on consumption, may be fairly divided among the whole body

of the nation. But the far greater part of the lands of ancient Gaul,

as well as of the other provinces of the Roman world, were cultivated

by slaves, or by peasants, whose dependent condition was a less rigid

servitude. In such a state the poor were maintained at the expense of

the masters who enjoyed the fruits of their labor; and as the rolls of

tribute were filled only with the names of those citizens who possessed

the means of an honorable, or at least of a decent subsistence, the

comparative smallness of their numbers explains and justifies the high

rate of their capitation. The truth of this assertion may be illustrated

by the following example: The ∆dui, one of the most powerful and

civilized tribes or cities of Gaul, occupied an extent of territory,

which now contains about five hundred thousand inhabitants, in the

two ecclesiastical dioceses of Autun and Nevers; and with the probable

accession of those of Chalons and Macon, the population would amount to

eight hundred thousand souls. In the time of Constantine, the territory

of the ∆dui afforded no more than twenty-five thousand heads of

capitation, of whom seven thousand were discharged by that prince

from the intolerable weight of tribute. A just analogy would seem to

countenance the opinion of an ingenious historian, that the free and

tributary citizens did not surpass the number of half a million; and if,

in the ordinary administration of government, their annual payments may

be computed at about four millions and a half of our money, it would

appear, that although the share of each individual was four times as

considerable, a fourth part only of the modern taxes of France was

levied on the Imperial province of Gaul. The exactions of Constantius

may be calculated at seven millions sterling, which were reduced to two

millions by the humanity or the wisdom of Julian.

But this tax, or capitation, on the proprietors of land, would have

suffered a rich and numerous class of free citizens to escape. With

the view of sharing that species of wealth which is derived from art or

labor, and which exists in money or in merchandise, the emperors imposed

a distinct and personal tribute on the trading part of their subjects.

Some exemptions, very strictly confined both in time and place, were

allowed to the proprietors who disposed of the produce of their own

estates. Some indulgence was granted to the profession of the liberal

arts: but every other branch of commercial industry was affected by the

severity of the law. The honorable merchant of Alexandria, who imported

the gems and spices of India for the use of the western world; the

usurer, who derived from the interest of money a silent and ignominious

profit; the ingenious manufacturer, the diligent mechanic, and even the

most obscure retailer of a sequestered village, were obliged to admit

the officers of the revenue into the partnership of their gain; and the

sovereign of the Roman empire, who tolerated the profession, consented

to share the infamous salary, of public prostitutes. As this general tax

upon industry was collected every fourth year, it was styled the Lustral

Contribution: and the historian Zosimus laments that the approach of the

fatal period was announced by the tears and terrors of the citizens,

who were often compelled by the impending scourge to embrace the most

abhorred and unnatural methods of procuring the sum at which their

property had been assessed. The testimony of Zosimus cannot indeed be

justified from the charge of passion and prejudice; but, from the nature

of this tribute it seems reasonable to conclude, that it was arbitrary

in the distribution, and extremely rigorous in the mode of collecting.

The secret wealth of commerce, and the precarious profits of art or

labor, are susceptible only of a discretionary valuation, which is

seldom disadvantageous to the interest of the treasury; and as the

person of the trader supplies the want of a visible and permanent

security, the payment of the imposition, which, in the case of a land

tax, may be obtained by the seizure of property, can rarely be extorted

by any other means than those of corporal punishments. The cruel

treatment of the insolvent debtors of the state, is attested, and

was perhaps mitigated by a very humane edict of Constantine, who,

disclaiming the use of racks and of scourges, allots a spacious and airy

prison for the place of their confinement.

These general taxes were imposed and levied by the absolute authority

of the monarch; but the occasional offerings of the coronary goldstill

retained the name and semblance of popular consent. It was an ancient

custom that the allies of the republic, who ascribed their safety or

deliverance to the success of the Roman arms, and even the cities of

Italy, who admired the virtues of their victorious general, adorned the

pomp of his triumph by their voluntary gifts of crowns of gold, which

after the ceremony were consecrated in the temple of Jupiter, to remain

a lasting monument of his glory to future ages. The progress of zeal and

flattery soon multiplied the number, and increased the size, of these

popular donations; and the triumph of CÊsar was enriched with two

thousand eight hundred and twenty-two massy crowns, whose weight

amounted to twenty thousand four hundred and fourteen pounds of gold.

This treasure was immediately melted down by the prudent dictator, who

was satisfied that it would be more serviceable to his soldiers than to

the gods: his example was imitated by his successors; and the custom

was introduced of exchanging these splendid ornaments for the more

acceptable present of the current gold coin of the empire. The

spontaneous offering was at length exacted as the debt of duty; and

instead of being confined to the occasion of a triumph, it was supposed

to be granted by the several cities and provinces of the monarchy,

as often as the emperor condescended to announce his accession, his

consulship, the birth of a son, the creation of a CÊsar, a victory over

the Barbarians, or any other real or imaginary event which graced the

annals of his reign. The peculiar free gift of the senate of Rome was

fixed by custom at sixteen hundred pounds of gold, or about sixty-four

thousand pounds sterling. The oppressed subjects celebrated their own

felicity, that their sovereign should graciously consent to accept this

feeble but voluntary testimony of their loyalty and gratitude.

A people elated by pride, or soured by discontent, are seldom qualified

to form a just estimate of their actual situation. The subjects of

Constantine were incapable of discerning the decline of genius and manly

virtue, which so far degraded them below the dignity of their ancestors;

but they could feel and lament the rage of tyranny, the relaxation of

discipline, and the increase of taxes. The impartial historian,

who acknowledges the justice of their complaints, will observe some

favorable circumstances which tended to alleviate the misery of

their condition. The threatening tempest of Barbarians, which so soon

subverted the foundations of Roman greatness, was still repelled, or

suspended, on the frontiers. The arts of luxury and literature were

cultivated, and the elegant pleasures of society were enjoyed, by the

inhabitants of a considerable portion of the globe. The forms, the pomp,

and the expense of the civil administration contributed to restrain the

irregular license of the soldiers; and although the laws were violated

by power, or perverted by subtlety, the sage principles of the Roman

jurisprudence preserved a sense of order and equity, unknown to the

despotic governments of the East. The rights of mankind might derive

some protection from religion and philosophy; and the name of freedom,

which could no longer alarm, might sometimes admonish, the successors of

Augustus, that they did not reign over a nation of Slaves or Barbarians.

Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.--Part I.

Character Of Constantine.--Gothic War.--Death Of

Constantine.--Division Of The Empire Among His Three Sons.--

Persian War.--Tragic Deaths Of Constantine The Younger And

Constans.--Usurpation Of Magnentius.--Civil War.--Victory Of

Constantius.

The character of the prince who removed the seat of empire, and

introduced such important changes into the civil and religious

constitution of his country, has fixed the attention, and divided

the opinions, of mankind. By the grateful zeal of the Christians, the

deliverer of the church has been decorated with every attribute of a

hero, and even of a saint; while the discontent of the vanquished party

has compared Constantine to the most abhorred of those tyrants, who,

by their vice and weakness, dishonored the Imperial purple. The same

passions have in some degree been perpetuated to succeeding generations,

and the character of Constantine is considered, even in the present age,

as an object either of satire or of panegyric. By the impartial union of

those defects which are confessed by his warmest admirers, and of those

virtues which are acknowledged by his most-implacable enemies, we might

hope to delineate a just portrait of that extraordinary man, which the

truth and candor of history should adopt without a blush. But it would

soon appear, that the vain attempt to blend such discordant colors,

and to reconcile such inconsistent qualities, must produce a figure

monstrous rather than human, unless it is viewed in its proper and

distinct lights, by a careful separation of the different periods of the

reign of Constantine.

The person, as well as the mind, of Constantine, had been enriched

by nature with her choices endowments. His stature was lofty, his

countenance majestic, his deportment graceful; his strength and activity

were displayed in every manly exercise, and from his earliest youth,

to a very advanced season of life, he preserved the vigor of his

constitution by a strict adherence to the domestic virtues of chastity

and temperance. He delighted in the social intercourse of familiar

conversation; and though he might sometimes indulge his disposition to

raillery with less reserve than was required by the severe dignity

of his station, the courtesy and liberality of his manners gained the

hearts of all who approached him. The sincerity of his friendship

has been suspected; yet he showed, on some occasions, that he was not

incapable of a warm and lasting attachment. The disadvantage of an

illiterate education had not prevented him from forming a just estimate

of the value of learning; and the arts and sciences derived some

encouragement from the munificent protection of Constantine. In the

despatch of business, his diligence was indefatigable; and the active

powers of his mind were almost continually exercised in reading,

writing, or meditating, in giving audiences to ambassadors, and in

examining the complaints of his subjects. Even those who censured

the propriety of his measures were compelled to acknowledge, that he

possessed magnanimity to conceive, and patience to execute, the most

arduous designs, without being checked either by the prejudices of

education, or by the clamors of the multitude. In the field, he infused

his own intrepid spirit into the troops, whom he conducted with the

talents of a consummate general; and to his abilities, rather than to

his fortune, we may ascribe the signal victories which he obtained over

the foreign and domestic foes of the republic. He loved glory as the

reward, perhaps as the motive, of his labors. The boundless ambition,

which, from the moment of his accepting the purple at York, appears as

the ruling passion of his soul, may be justified by the dangers of his

own situation, by the character of his rivals, by the consciousness of

superior merit, and by the prospect that his success would enable him to

restore peace and order to tot the distracted empire. In his civil

wars against Maxentius and Licinius, he had engaged on his side the

inclinations of the people, who compared the undissembled vices of those

tyrants with the spirit of wisdom and justice which seemed to direct the

general tenor of the administration of Constantine.

Had Constantine fallen on the banks of the Tyber, or even in the plains

of Hadrianople, such is the character which, with a few exceptions, he

might have transmitted to posterity. But the conclusion of his reign

(according to the moderate and indeed tender sentence of a writer of

the same age) degraded him from the rank which he had acquired among the

most deserving of the Roman princes. In the life of Augustus, we behold

the tyrant of the republic, converted, almost by imperceptible

degrees, into the father of his country, and of human kind. In that of

Constantine, we may contemplate a hero, who had so long inspired his

subjects with love, and his enemies with terror, degenerating into a

cruel and dissolute monarch, corrupted by his fortune, or raised by

conquest above the necessity of dissimulation. The general peace which

he maintained during the last fourteen years of his reign, was a period

of apparent splendor rather than of real prosperity; and the old age

of Constantine was disgraced by the opposite yet reconcilable vices of

rapaciousness and prodigality. The accumulated treasures found in the

palaces of Maxentius and Licinius, were lavishly consumed; the

various innovations introduced by the conqueror, were attended with

an increasing expense; the cost of his buildings, his court, and

his festivals, required an immediate and plentiful supply; and the

oppression of the people was the only fund which could support the

magnificence of the sovereign. His unworthy favorites, enriched by

the boundless liberality of their master, usurped with impunity the

privilege of rapine and corruption. A secret but universal decay

was felt in every part of the public administration, and the emperor

himself, though he still retained the obedience, gradually lost the

esteem, of his subjects. The dress and manners, which, towards the

decline of life, he chose to affect, served only to degrade him in the

eyes of mankind. The Asiatic pomp, which had been adopted by the pride

of Diocletian, assumed an air of softness and effeminacy in the person

of Constantine. He is represented with false hair of various colors,

laboriously arranged by the skilful artists to the times; a diadem of

a new and more expensive fashion; a profusion of gems and pearls, of

collars and bracelets, and a variegated flowing robe of silk, most

curiously embroidered with flowers of gold. In such apparel, scarcely

to be excused by the youth and folly of Elagabalus, we are at a loss to

discover the wisdom of an aged monarch, and the simplicity of a Roman

veteran. A mind thus relaxed by prosperity and indulgence, was incapable

of rising to that magnanimity which disdains suspicion, and dares to

forgive. The deaths of Maximian and Licinius may perhaps be justified by

the maxims of policy, as they are taught in the schools of tyrants;

but an impartial narrative of the executions, or rather murders, which

sullied the declining age of Constantine, will suggest to our most

candid thoughts the idea of a prince who could sacrifice without

reluctance the laws of justice, and the feelings of nature, to the

dictates either of his passions or of his interest.

The same fortune which so invariably followed the standard of

Constantine, seemed to secure the hopes and comforts of his domestic

life. Those among his predecessors who had enjoyed the longest and

most prosperous reigns, Augustus Trajan, and Diocletian, had been

disappointed of posterity; and the frequent revolutions had never

allowed sufficient time for any Imperial family to grow up and multiply

under the shade of the purple. But the royalty of the Flavian line,

which had been first ennobled by the Gothic Claudius, descended through

several generations; and Constantine himself derived from his royal

father the hereditary honors which he transmitted to his children. The

emperor had been twice married. Minervina, the obscure but lawful object

of his youthful attachment, had left him only one son, who was called

Crispus. By Fausta, the daughter of Maximian, he had three daughters,

and three sons known by the kindred names of Constantine, Constantius,

and Constans. The unambitious brothers of the great Constantine, Julius

Constantius, Dalmatius, and Hannibalianus, were permitted to enjoy

the most honorable rank, and the most affluent fortune, that could

be consistent with a private station. The youngest of the three lived

without a name, and died without posterity. His two elder brothers

obtained in marriage the daughters of wealthy senators, and propagated

new branches of the Imperial race. Gallus and Julian afterwards

became the most illustrious of the children of Julius Constantius, the

Patrician. The two sons of Dalmatius, who had been decorated with the

vain title of Censor, were named Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. The two

sisters of the great Constantine, Anastasia and Eutropia, were bestowed

on Optatus and Nepotianus, two senators of noble birth and of consular

dignity. His third sister, Constantia, was distinguished by her

preeminence of greatness and of misery. She remained the widow of the

vanquished Licinius; and it was by her entreaties, that an innocent boy,

the offspring of their marriage, preserved, for some time, his life,

the title of CÊsar, and a precarious hope of the succession. Besides the

females, and the allies of the Flavian house, ten or twelve males, to

whom the language of modern courts would apply the title of princes of

the blood, seemed, according to the order of their birth, to be destined

either to inherit or to support the throne of Constantine. But in less

than thirty years, this numerous and increasing family was reduced to

the persons of Constantius and Julian, who alone had survived a series

of crimes and calamities, such as the tragic poets have deplored in the

devoted lines of Pelops and of Cadmus.

Crispus, the eldest son of Constantine, and the presumptive heir of

the empire, is represented by impartial historians as an amiable and

accomplished youth. The care of his education, or at least of his

studies, was intrusted to Lactantius, the most eloquent of the

Christians; a preceptor admirably qualified to form the taste, and

the excite the virtues, of his illustrious disciple. At the age of

seventeen, Crispus was invested with the title of CÊsar, and the

administration of the Gallic provinces, where the inroads of the Germans

gave him an early occasion of signalizing his military prowess. In the

civil war which broke out soon afterwards, the father and son divided

their powers; and this history has already celebrated the valor as

well as conduct displayed by the latter, in forcing the straits of the

Hellespont, so obstinately defended by the superior fleet of Licinius.

This naval victory contributed to determine the event of the war;

and the names of Constantine and of Crispus were united in the joyful

acclamations of their eastern subjects; who loudly proclaimed, that the

world had been subdued, and was now governed, by an emperor endowed with

every virtue; and by his illustrious son, a prince beloved of Heaven,

and the lively image of his father's perfections. The public favor,

which seldom accompanies old age, diffused its lustre over the youth of

Crispus. He deserved the esteem, and he engaged the affections, of the

court, the army, and the people. The experienced merit of a reigning

monarch is acknowledged by his subjects with reluctance, and frequently

denied with partial and discontented murmurs; while, from the opening

virtues of his successor, they fondly conceive the most unbounded hopes

of private as well as public felicity.

This dangerous popularity soon excited the attention of Constantine,

who, both as a father and as a king, was impatient of an equal. Instead

of attempting to secure the allegiance of his son by the generous ties

of confidence and gratitude, he resolved to prevent the mischiefs which

might be apprehended from dissatisfied ambition. Crispus soon had reason

to complain, that while his infant brother Constantius was sent, with

the title of CÊsar, to reign over his peculiar department of the Gallic

provinces, he, a prince of mature years, who had performed such recent

and signal services, instead of being raised to the superior rank of

Augustus, was confined almost a prisoner to his father's court; and

exposed, without power or defence, to every calumny which the malice of

his enemies could suggest. Under such painful circumstances, the royal

youth might not always be able to compose his behavior, or suppress his

discontent; and we may be assured, that he was encompassed by a train of

indiscreet or perfidious followers, who assiduously studied to inflame,

and who were perhaps instructed to betray, the unguarded warmth of

his resentment. An edict of Constantine, published about this time,

manifestly indicates his real or affected suspicions, that a secret

conspiracy had been formed against his person and government. By all the

allurements of honors and rewards, he invites informers of every degree

to accuse without exception his magistrates or ministers, his friends

or his most intimate favorites, protesting, with a solemn asseveration,

that he himself will listen to the charge, that he himself will revenge

his injuries; and concluding with a prayer, which discovers some

apprehension of danger, that the providence of the Supreme Being may

still continue to protect the safety of the emperor and of the empire.

The informers, who complied with so liberal an invitation, were

sufficiently versed in the arts of courts to select the friends and

adherents of Crispus as the guilty persons; nor is there any reason to

distrust the veracity of the emperor, who had promised an ample measure

of revenge and punishment. The policy of Constantine maintained,

however, the same appearances of regard and confidence towards a son,

whom he began to consider as his most irreconcilable enemy. Medals were

struck with the customary vows for the long and auspicious reign of the

young CÊsar; and as the people, who were not admitted into the secrets

of the palace, still loved his virtues, and respected his dignity, a

poet who solicits his recall from exile, adores with equal devotion the

majesty of the father and that of the son. The time was now arrived for

celebrating the august ceremony of the twentieth year of the reign of

Constantine; and the emperor, for that purpose, removed his court from

Nicomedia to Rome, where the most splendid preparations had been made

for his reception. Every eye, and every tongue, affected to express

their sense of the general happiness, and the veil of ceremony and

dissimulation was drawn for a while over the darkest designs of revenge

and murder. In the midst of the festival, the unfortunate Crispus was

apprehended by order of the emperor, who laid aside the tenderness of

a father, without assuming the equity of a judge. The examination was

short and private; and as it was thought decent to conceal the fate of

the young prince from the eyes of the Roman people, he was sent under a

strong guard to Pola, in Istria, where, soon afterwards, he was put

to death, either by the hand of the executioner, or by the more gentle

operations of poison. The CÊsar Licinius, a youth of amiable manners,

was involved in the ruin of Crispus: and the stern jealousy of

Constantine was unmoved by the prayers and tears of his favorite sister,

pleading for the life of a son, whose rank was his only crime, and whose

loss she did not long survive. The story of these unhappy princes, the

nature and evidence of their guilt, the forms of their trial, and the

circumstances of their death, were buried in mysterious obscurity; and

the courtly bishop, who has celebrated in an elaborate work the virtues

and piety of his hero, observes a prudent silence on the subject of

these tragic events. Such haughty contempt for the opinion of mankind,

whilst it imprints an indelible stain on the memory of Constantine, must

remind us of the very different behavior of one of the greatest monarchs

of the present age. The Czar Peter, in the full possession of despotic

power, submitted to the judgment of Russia, of Europe, and of posterity,

the reasons which had compelled him to subscribe the condemnation of a

criminal, or at least of a degenerate son.

The innocence of Crispus was so universally acknowledged, that the

modern Greeks, who adore the memory of their founder, are reduced to

palliate the guilt of a parricide, which the common feelings of human

nature forbade them to justify. They pretend, that as soon as the

afflicted father discovered the falsehood of the accusation by which

his credulity had been so fatally misled, he published to the world

his repentance and remorse; that he mourned forty days, during which

he abstained from the use of the bath, and all the ordinary comforts of

life; and that, for the lasting instruction of posterity, he erected a

golden statue of Crispus, with this memorable inscription: To my son,

whom I unjustly condemned. A tale so moral and so interesting would

deserve to be supported by less exceptionable authority; but if we

consult the more ancient and authentic writers, they will inform us,

that the repentance of Constantine was manifested only in acts of blood

and revenge; and that he atoned for the murder of an innocent son, by

the execution, perhaps, of a guilty wife. They ascribe the misfortunes

of Crispus to the arts of his step-mother Fausta, whose implacable

hatred, or whose disappointed love, renewed in the palace of Constantine

the ancient tragedy of Hippolitus and of PhÊdra. Like the daughter of

Minos, the daughter of Maximian accused her son-in-law of an incestuous

attempt on the chastity of his father's wife; and easily obtained, from

the jealousy of the emperor, a sentence of death against a young prince,

whom she considered with reason as the most formidable rival of her

own children. But Helena, the aged mother of Constantine, lamented and

revenged the untimely fate of her grandson Crispus; nor was it long

before a real or pretended discovery was made, that Fausta herself

entertained a criminal connection with a slave belonging to the Imperial

stables. Her condemnation and punishment were the instant consequences

of the charge; and the adulteress was suffocated by the steam of a bath,

which, for that purpose, had been heated to an extraordinary degree.

By some it will perhaps be thought, that the remembrance of a conjugal

union of twenty years, and the honor of their common offspring, the

destined heirs of the throne, might have softened the obdurate heart of

Constantine, and persuaded him to suffer his wife, however guilty she

might appear, to expiate her offences in a solitary prison. But it seems

a superfluous labor to weigh the propriety, unless we could ascertain

the truth, of this singular event, which is attended with some

circumstances of doubt and perplexity. Those who have attacked, and

those who have defended, the character of Constantine, have alike

disregarded two very remarkable passages of two orations pronounced

under the succeeding reign. The former celebrates the virtues, the

beauty, and the fortune of the empress Fausta, the daughter, wife,

sister, and mother of so many princes. The latter asserts, in explicit

terms, that the mother of the younger Constantine, who was slain three

years after his father's death, survived to weep over the fate of her

son. Notwithstanding the positive testimony of several writers of the

Pagan as well as of the Christian religion, there may still remain some

reason to believe, or at least to suspect, that Fausta escaped the

blind and suspicious cruelty of her husband. * The deaths of a son and a

nephew, with the execution of a great number of respectable, and perhaps

innocent friends, who were involved in their fall, may be sufficient,

however, to justify the discontent of the Roman people, and to explain

the satirical verses affixed to the palace gate, comparing the splendid

and bloody reigns of Constantine and Nero.

Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.--Part II.

By the death of Crispus, the inheritance of the empire seemed to devolve

on the three sons of Fausta, who have been already mentioned under

the names of Constantine, of Constantius, and of Constans. These young

princes were successively invested with the title of CÊsar; and the

dates of their promotion may be referred to the tenth, the twentieth,

and the thirtieth years of the reign of their father. This conduct,

though it tended to multiply the future masters of the Roman world,

might be excused by the partiality of paternal affection; but it is not

so easy to understand the motives of the emperor, when he endangered

the safety both of his family and of his people, by the unnecessary

elevation of his two nephews, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. The former

was raised, by the title of CÊsar, to an equality with his cousins.

In favor of the latter, Constantine invented the new and singular

appellation of Nobilissimus; to which he annexed the flattering

distinction of a robe of purple and gold. But of the whole series

of Roman princes in any age of the empire, Hannibalianus alone was

distinguished by the title of King; a name which the subjects of

Tiberius would have detested, as the profane and cruel insult of

capricious tyranny. The use of such a title, even as it appears under

the reign of Constantine, is a strange and unconnected fact, which

can scarcely be admitted on the joint authority of Imperial medals and

contemporary writers.

The whole empire was deeply interested in the education of these five

youths, the acknowledged successors of Constantine. The exercise of

the body prepared them for the fatigues of war and the duties of

active life. Those who occasionally mention the education or talents of

Constantius, allow that he excelled in the gymnastic arts of leaping and

running that he was a dexterous archer, a skilful horseman, and a master

of all the different weapons used in the service either of the cavalry

or of the infantry. The same assiduous cultivation was bestowed, though

not perhaps with equal success, to improve the minds of the sons and

nephews of Constantine. The most celebrated professors of the Christian

faith, of the Grecian philosophy, and of the Roman jurisprudence, were

invited by the liberality of the emperor, who reserved for himself

the important task of instructing the royal youths in the science of

government, and the knowledge of mankind. But the genius of Constantine

himself had been formed by adversity and experience. In the free

intercourse of private life, and amidst the dangers of the court of

Galerius, he had learned to command his own passions, to encounter those

of his equals, and to depend for his present safety and future greatness

on the prudence and firmness of his personal conduct. His destined

successors had the misfortune of being born and educated in the imperial

purple. Incessantly surrounded with a train of flatterers, they passed

their youth in the enjoyment of luxury, and the expectation of a throne;

nor would the dignity of their rank permit them to descend from that

elevated station from whence the various characters of human nature

appear to wear a smooth and uniform aspect. The indulgence of

Constantine admitted them, at a very tender age, to share the

administration of the empire; and they studied the art of reigning,

at the expense of the people intrusted to their care. The younger

Constantine was appointed to hold his court in Gaul; and his brother

Constantius exchanged that department, the ancient patrimony of their

father, for the more opulent, but less martial, countries of the East.

Italy, the Western Illyricum, and Africa, were accustomed to revere

Constans, the third of his sons, as the representative of the great

Constantine. He fixed Dalmatius on the Gothic frontier, to which he

annexed the government of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece. The city of

CÊsarea was chosen for the residence of Hannibalianus; and the provinces

of Pontus, Cappadocia, and the Lesser Armenia, were destined to form

the extent of his new kingdom. For each of these princes a suitable

establishment was provided. A just proportion of guards, of legions, and

of auxiliaries, was allotted for their respective dignity and defence.

The ministers and generals, who were placed about their persons, were

such as Constantine could trust to assist, and even to control, these

youthful sovereigns in the exercise of their delegated power. As they

advanced in years and experience, the limits of their authority were

insensibly enlarged: but the emperor always reserved for himself the

title of Augustus; and while he showed the CÊsars to the armies and

provinces, he maintained every part of the empire in equal obedience

to its supreme head. The tranquillity of the last fourteen years of his

reign was scarcely interrupted by the contemptible insurrection of a

camel-driver in the Island of Cyprus, or by the active part which the

policy of Constantine engaged him to assume in the wars of the Goths and

Sarmatians.

Among the different branches of the human race, the Sarmatians form a

very remarkable shade; as they seem to unite the manners of the Asiatic

barbarians with the figure and complexion of the ancient inhabitants of

Europe. According to the various accidents of peace and war, of alliance

or conquest, the Sarmatians were sometimes confined to the banks of the

Tanais; and they sometimes spread themselves over the immense plains

which lie between the Vistula and the Volga. The care of their numerous

flocks and herds, the pursuit of game, and the exercises of war, or

rather of rapine, directed the vagrant motions of the Sarmatians. The

movable camps or cities, the ordinary residence of their wives and

children, consisted only of large wagons drawn by oxen, and covered in

the form of tents. The military strength of the nation was composed of

cavalry; and the custom of their warriors, to lead in their hand one or

two spare horses, enabled them to advance and to retreat with a rapid

diligence, which surprised the security, and eluded the pursuit, of a

distant enemy. Their poverty of iron prompted their rude industry to

invent a sort of cuirass, which was capable of resisting a sword or

javelin, though it was formed only of horses' hoofs, cut into thin and

polished slices, carefully laid over each other in the manner of scales

or feathers, and strongly sewed upon an under garment of coarse linen.

The offensive arms of the Sarmatians were short daggers, long lances,

and a weighty bow vow with a quiver of arrows. They were reduced to the

necessity of employing fish-bones for the points of their weapons;

but the custom of dipping them in a venomous liquor, that poisoned

the wounds which they inflicted, is alone sufficient to prove the most

savage manners, since a people impressed with a sense of humanity would

have abhorred so cruel a practice, and a nation skilled in the arts

of war would have disdained so impotent a resource. Whenever these

Barbarians issued from their deserts in quest of prey, their shaggy

beards, uncombed locks, the furs with which they were covered from head

to foot, and their fierce countenances, which seemed to express the

innate cruelty of their minds, inspired the more civilized provincials

of Rome with horror and dismay.

The tender Ovid, after a youth spent in the enjoyment of fame and

luxury, was condemned to a hopeless exile on the frozen banks of the

Danube, where he was exposed, almost without defence, to the fury of

these monsters of the desert, with whose stern spirits he feared that

his gentle shade might hereafter be confounded. In his pathetic, but

sometimes unmanly lamentations, he describes in the most lively colors

the dress and manners, the arms and inroads, of the GetÊ and Sarmatians,

who were associated for the purposes of destruction; and from the

accounts of history there is some reason to believe that these

Sarmatians were the JazygÊ, one of the most numerous and warlike

tribes of the nation. The allurements of plenty engaged them to seek a

permanent establishment on the frontiers of the empire. Soon after the

reign of Augustus, they obliged the Dacians, who subsisted by fishing

on the banks of the River Teyss or Tibiscus, to retire into the hilly

country, and to abandon to the victorious Sarmatians the fertile plains

of the Upper Hungary, which are bounded by the course of the Danube

and the semicircular enclosure of the Carpathian Mountains. In this

advantageous position, they watched or suspended the moment of attack,

as they were provoked by injuries or appeased by presents; they

gradually acquired the skill of using more dangerous weapons, and

although the Sarmatians did not illustrate their name by any memorable

exploits, they occasionally assisted their eastern and western

neighbors, the Goths and the Germans, with a formidable body of cavalry.

They lived under the irregular aristocracy of their chieftains: but

after they had received into their bosom the fugitive Vandals, who

yielded to the pressure of the Gothic power, they seem to have chosen a

king from that nation, and from the illustrious race of the Astingi, who

had formerly dwelt on the shores of the northern ocean.

This motive of enmity must have inflamed the subjects of contention,

which perpetually arise on the confines of warlike and independent

nations. The Vandal princes were stimulated by fear and revenge; the

Gothic kings aspired to extend their dominion from the Euxine to the

frontiers of Germany; and the waters of the Maros, a small river which

falls into the Teyss, were stained with the blood of the contending

Barbarians. After some experience of the superior strength and numbers

of their adversaries, the Sarmatians implored the protection of the

Roman monarch, who beheld with pleasure the discord of the nations, but

who was justly alarmed by the progress of the Gothic arms. As soon

as Constantine had declared himself in favor of the weaker party, the

haughty Araric, king of the Goths, instead of expecting the attack of

the legions, boldly passed the Danube, and spread terror and devastation

through the province of MÊsia. To oppose the inroad of this destroying

host, the aged emperor took the field in person; but on this occasion

either his conduct or his fortune betrayed the glory which he had

acquired in so many foreign and domestic wars. He had the mortification

of seeing his troops fly before an inconsiderable detachment of the

Barbarians, who pursued them to the edge of their fortified camp, and

obliged him to consult his safety by a precipitate and ignominious

retreat. * The event of a second and more successful action retrieved

the honor of the Roman name; and the powers of art and discipline

prevailed, after an obstinate contest, over the efforts of irregular

valor. The broken army of the Goths abandoned the field of battle, the

wasted province, and the passage of the Danube: and although the eldest

of the sons of Constantine was permitted to supply the place of his

father, the merit of the victory, which diffused universal joy, was

ascribed to the auspicious counsels of the emperor himself.

He contributed at least to improve this advantage, by his negotiations

with the free and warlike people of Chersonesus, whose capital, situate

on the western coast of the Tauric or CrimÊan peninsula, still retained

some vestiges of a Grecian colony, and was governed by a perpetual

magistrate, assisted by a council of senators, emphatically styled the

Fathers of the City. The Chersonites were animated against the Goths,

by the memory of the wars, which, in the preceding century, they had

maintained with unequal forces against the invaders of their country.

They were connected with the Romans by the mutual benefits of commerce;

as they were supplied from the provinces of Asia with corn and

manufactures, which they purchased with their only productions, salt,

wax, and hides. Obedient to the requisition of Constantine, they

prepared, under the conduct of their magistrate Diogenes, a considerable

army, of which the principal strength consisted in cross-bows and

military chariots. The speedy march and intrepid attack of the

Chersonites, by diverting the attention of the Goths, assisted the

operations of the Imperial generals. The Goths, vanquished on every

side, were driven into the mountains, where, in the course of a severe

campaign, above a hundred thousand were computed to have perished

by cold and hunger Peace was at length granted to their humble

supplications; the eldest son of Araric was accepted as the most

valuable hostage; and Constantine endeavored to convince their chiefs,

by a liberal distribution of honors and rewards, how far the friendship

of the Romans was preferable to their enmity. In the expressions of his

gratitude towards the faithful Chersonites, the emperor was still more

magnificent. The pride of the nation was gratified by the splendid

and almost royal decorations bestowed on their magistrate and his

successors. A perpetual exemption from all duties was stipulated for

their vessels which traded to the ports of the Black Sea. A regular

subsidy was promised, of iron, corn, oil, and of every supply which

could be useful either in peace or war. But it was thought that

the Sarmatians were sufficiently rewarded by their deliverance from

impending ruin; and the emperor, perhaps with too strict an economy,

deducted some part of the expenses of the war from the customary

gratifications which were allowed to that turbulent nation.

Exasperated by this apparent neglect, the Sarmatians soon forgot,

with the levity of barbarians, the services which they had so lately

received, and the dangers which still threatened their safety. Their

inroads on the territory of the empire provoked the indignation of

Constantine to leave them to their fate; and he no longer opposed the

ambition of Geberic, a renowned warrior, who had recently ascended the

Gothic throne. Wisumar, the Vandal king, whilst alone, and unassisted,

he defended his dominions with undaunted courage, was vanquished and

slain in a decisive battle, which swept away the flower of the Sarmatian

youth. * The remainder of the nation embraced the desperate expedient

of arming their slaves, a hardy race of hunters and herdsmen, by whose

tumultuary aid they revenged their defeat, and expelled the invader

from their confines. But they soon discovered that they had exchanged

a foreign for a domestic enemy, more dangerous and more implacable.

Enraged by their former servitude, elated by their present glory, the

slaves, under the name of Limigantes, claimed and usurped the possession

of the country which they had saved. Their masters, unable to withstand

the ungoverned fury of the populace, preferred the hardships of exile to

the tyranny of their servants. Some of the fugitive Sarmatians solicited

a less ignominious dependence, under the hostile standard of the Goths.

A more numerous band retired beyond the Carpathian Mountains, among

the Quadi, their German allies, and were easily admitted to share a

superfluous waste of uncultivated land. But the far greater part of the

distressed nation turned their eyes towards the fruitful provinces of

Rome. Imploring the protection and forgiveness of the emperor, they

solemnly promised, as subjects in peace, and as soldiers in war, the

most inviolable fidelity to the empire which should graciously receive

them into its bosom. According to the maxims adopted by Probus and his

successors, the offers of this barbarian colony were eagerly accepted;

and a competent portion of lands in the provinces of Pannonia, Thrace,

Macedonia, and Italy, were immediately assigned for the habitation and

subsistence of three hundred thousand Sarmatians.

By chastising the pride of the Goths, and by accepting the homage of a

suppliant nation, Constantine asserted the majesty of the Roman empire;

and the ambassadors of ∆thiopia, Persia, and the most remote countries

of India, congratulated the peace and prosperity of his government. If

he reckoned, among the favors of fortune, the death of his eldest son,

of his nephew, and perhaps of his wife, he enjoyed an uninterrupted flow

of private as well as public felicity, till the thirtieth year of his

reign; a period which none of his predecessors, since Augustus, had been

permitted to celebrate. Constantine survived that solemn festival about

ten months; and at the mature age of sixty-four, after a short illness,

he ended his memorable life at the palace of Aquyrion, in the suburbs of

Nicomedia, whither he had retired for the benefit of the air, and with

the hope of recruiting his exhausted strength by the use of the warm

baths. The excessive demonstrations of grief, or at least of mourning,

surpassed whatever had been practised on any former occasion.

Notwithstanding the claims of the senate and people of ancient Rome,

the corpse of the deceased emperor, according to his last request, was

transported to the city, which was destined to preserve the name and

memory of its founder. The body of Constantine adorned with the vain

symbols of greatness, the purple and diadem, was deposited on a golden

bed in one of the apartments of the palace, which for that purpose had

been splendidly furnished and illuminated. The forms of the court were

strictly maintained. Every day, at the appointed hours, the principal

officers of the state, the army, and the household, approaching the

person of their sovereign with bended knees and a composed countenance,

offered their respectful homage as seriously as if he had been still

alive. From motives of policy, this theatrical representation was for

some time continued; nor could flattery neglect the opportunity of

remarking that Constantine alone, by the peculiar indulgence of Heaven,

had reigned after his death.

But this reign could subsist only in empty pageantry; and it was soon

discovered that the will of the most absolute monarch is seldom obeyed,

when his subjects have no longer anything to hope from his favor, or to

dread from his resentment. The same ministers and generals, who bowed

with such referential awe before the inanimate corpse of their deceased

sovereign, were engaged in secret consultations to exclude his two

nephews, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, from the share which he had

assigned them in the succession of the empire. We are too imperfectly

acquainted with the court of Constantine to form any judgment of the

real motives which influenced the leaders of the conspiracy; unless

we should suppose that they were actuated by a spirit of jealousy and

revenge against the prÊfect Ablavius, a proud favorite, who had long

directed the counsels and abused the confidence of the late emperor. The

arguments, by which they solicited the concurrence of the soldiers and

people, are of a more obvious nature; and they might with decency,

as well as truth, insist on the superior rank of the children of

Constantine, the danger of multiplying the number of sovereigns, and the

impending mischiefs which threatened the republic, from the discord of

so many rival princes, who were not connected by the tender sympathy of

fraternal affection. The intrigue was conducted with zeal and secrecy,

till a loud and unanimous declaration was procured from the troops,

that they would suffer none except the sons of their lamented monarch to

reign over the Roman empire. The younger Dalmatius, who was united with

his collateral relations by the ties of friendship and interest, is

allowed to have inherited a considerable share of the abilities of the

great Constantine; but, on this occasion, he does not appear to have

concerted any measure for supporting, by arms, the just claims which

himself and his royal brother derived from the liberality of their

uncle. Astonished and overwhelmed by the tide of popular fury, they seem

to have remained, without the power of flight or of resistance, in the

hands of their implacable enemies. Their fate was suspended till the

arrival of Constantius, the second, and perhaps the most favored, of the

sons of Constantine.

Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.--Part III.

The voice of the dying emperor had recommended the care of his funeral

to the piety of Constantius; and that prince, by the vicinity of his

eastern station, could easily prevent the diligence of his brothers, who

resided in their distant government of Italy and Gaul. As soon as he had

taken possession of the palace of Constantinople, his first care was

to remove the apprehensions of his kinsmen, by a solemn oath which

he pledged for their security. His next employment was to find some

specious pretence which might release his conscience from the obligation

of an imprudent promise. The arts of fraud were made subservient to the

designs of cruelty; and a manifest forgery was attested by a person of

the most sacred character. From the hands of the Bishop of Nicomedia,

Constantius received a fatal scroll, affirmed to be the genuine

testament of his father; in which the emperor expressed his suspicions

that he had been poisoned by his brothers; and conjured his sons to

revenge his death, and to consult their own safety, by the punishment

of the guilty. Whatever reasons might have been alleged by these

unfortunate princes to defend their life and honor against so incredible

an accusation, they were silenced by the furious clamors of the

soldiers, who declared themselves, at once, their enemies, their

judges, and their executioners. The spirit, and even the forms of legal

proceedings were repeatedly violated in a promiscuous massacre; which

involved the two uncles of Constantius, seven of his cousins, of whom

Dalmatius and Hannibalianus were the most illustrious, the Patrician

Optatus, who had married a sister of the late emperor, and the PrÊfect

Ablavius, whose power and riches had inspired him with some hopes of

obtaining the purple. If it were necessary to aggravate the horrors of

this bloody scene, we might add, that Constantius himself had espoused

the daughter of his uncle Julius, and that he had bestowed his sister in

marriage on his cousin Hannibalianus. These alliances, which the policy

of Constantine, regardless of the public prejudice, had formed between

the several branches of the Imperial house, served only to convince

mankind, that these princes were as cold to the endearments of conjugal

affection, as they were insensible to the ties of consanguinity, and

the moving entreaties of youth and innocence. Of so numerous a

family, Gallus and Julian alone, the two youngest children of Julius

Constantius, were saved from the hands of the assassins, till their

rage, satiated with slaughter, had in some measure subsided. The emperor

Constantius, who, in the absence of his brothers, was the most obnoxious

to guilt and reproach, discovered, on some future occasions, a faint and

transient remorse for those cruelties which the perfidious counsels of

his ministers, and the irresistible violence of the troops, had extorted

from his unexperienced youth.

The massacre of the Flavian race was succeeded by a new division of

the provinces; which was ratified in a personal interview of the three

brothers. Constantine, the eldest of the CÊsars, obtained, with a

certain preeminence of rank, the possession of the new capital, which

bore his own name and that of his father. Thrace, and the countries of

the East, were allotted for the patrimony of Constantius; and Constans

was acknowledged as the lawful sovereign of Italy, Africa, and the

Western Illyricum. The armies submitted to their hereditary right; and

they condescended, after some delay, to accept from the Roman senate the

title of Augustus. When they first assumed the reins of government, the

eldest of these princes was twenty-one, the second twenty, and the third

only seventeen, years of age.

While the martial nations of Europe followed the standards of his

brothers, Constantius, at the head of the effeminate troops of Asia,

was left to sustain the weight of the Persian war. At the decease of

Constantine, the throne of the East was filled by Sapor, son of

Hormouz, or Hormisdas, and grandson of Narses, who, after the victory

of Galerius, had humbly confessed the superiority of the Roman power.

Although Sapor was in the thirtieth year of his long reign, he was still

in the vigor of youth, as the date of his accession, by a very strange

fatality, had preceded that of his birth. The wife of Hormouz remained

pregnant at the time of her husband's death; and the uncertainty of the

sex, as well as of the event, excited the ambitious hopes of the princes

of the house of Sassan. The apprehensions of civil war were at length

removed, by the positive assurance of the Magi, that the widow of

Hormouz had conceived, and would safely produce a son. Obedient to

the voice of superstition, the Persians prepared, without delay, the

ceremony of his coronation. A royal bed, on which the queen lay in

state, was exhibited in the midst of the palace; the diadem was placed

on the spot, which might be supposed to conceal the future heir of

Artaxerxes, and the prostrate satraps adored the majesty of their

invisible and insensible sovereign. If any credit can be given to this

marvellous tale, which seems, however, to be countenanced by the manners

of the people, and by the extraordinary duration of his reign, we must

admire not only the fortune, but the genius, of Sapor. In the soft,

sequestered education of a Persian harem, the royal youth could discover

the importance of exercising the vigor of his mind and body; and, by his

personal merit, deserved a throne, on which he had been seated, while he

was yet unconscious of the duties and temptations of absolute power.

His minority was exposed to the almost inevitable calamities of domestic

discord; his capital was surprised and plundered by Thair, a powerful

king of Yemen, or Arabia; and the majesty of the royal family was

degraded by the captivity of a princess, the sister of the deceased

king. But as soon as Sapor attained the age of manhood, the presumptuous

Thair, his nation, and his country, fell beneath the first effort of the

young warrior; who used his victory with so judicious a mixture of rigor

and clemency, that he obtained from the fears and gratitude of the Arabs

the title of Dhoulacnaf, or protector of the nation.

The ambition of the Persian, to whom his enemies ascribe the virtues of

a soldier and a statesman, was animated by the desire of revenging the

disgrace of his fathers, and of wresting from the hands of the Romans

the five provinces beyond the Tigris. The military fame of Constantine,

and the real or apparent strength of his government, suspended the

attack; and while the hostile conduct of Sapor provoked the resentment,

his artful negotiations amused the patience of the Imperial court. The

death of Constantine was the signal of war, and the actual condition of

the Syrian and Armenian frontier seemed to encourage the Persians by

the prospect of a rich spoil and an easy conquest. The example of the

massacres of the palace diffused a spirit of licentiousness and sedition

among the troops of the East, who were no longer restrained by

their habits of obedience to a veteran commander. By the prudence of

Constantius, who, from the interview with his brothers in Pannonia,

immediately hastened to the banks of the Euphrates, the legions were

gradually restored to a sense of duty and discipline; but the season of

anarchy had permitted Sapor to form the siege of Nisibis, and to occupy

several of the most important fortresses of Mesopotamia. In Armenia,

the renowned Tiridates had long enjoyed the peace and glory which

he deserved by his valor and fidelity to the cause of Rome. The

firm alliance which he maintained with Constantine was productive

of spiritual as well as of temporal benefits; by the conversion of

Tiridates, the character of a saint was applied to that of a hero, the

Christian faith was preached and established from the Euphrates to the

shores of the Caspian, and Armenia was attached to the empire by the

double ties of policy and religion. But as many of the Armenian nobles

still refused to abandon the plurality of their gods and of their wives,

the public tranquillity was disturbed by a discontented faction, which

insulted the feeble age of their sovereign, and impatiently expected the

hour of his death. He died at length after a reign of fifty-six years,

and the fortune of the Armenian monarchy expired with Tiridates. His

lawful heir was driven into exile, the Christian priests were either

murdered or expelled from their churches, the barbarous tribes of

Albania were solicited to descend from their mountains; and two of the

most powerful governors, usurping the ensigns or the powers of royalty,

implored the assistance of Sapor, and opened the gates of their cities

to the Persian garrisons. The Christian party, under the guidance of

the Archbishop of Artaxata, the immediate successor of St. Gregory

the Illuminator, had recourse to the piety of Constantius. After the

troubles had continued about three years, Antiochus, one of the officers

of the household, executed with success the Imperial commission of

restoring Chosroes, * the son of Tiridates, to the throne of his

fathers, of distributing honors and rewards among the faithful servants

of the house of Arsaces, and of proclaiming a general amnesty, which was

accepted by the greater part of the rebellious satraps. But the Romans

derived more honor than advantage from this revolution. Chosroes was

a prince of a puny stature and a pusillanimous spirit. Unequal to the

fatigues of war, averse to the society of mankind, he withdrew from his

capital to a retired palace, which he built on the banks of the River

Eleutherus, and in the centre of a shady grove; where he consumed his

vacant hours in the rural sports of hunting and hawking. To secure this

inglorious ease, he submitted to the conditions of peace which Sapor

condescended to impose; the payment of an annual tribute, and the

restitution of the fertile province of Atropatene, which the courage

of Tiridates, and the victorious arms of Galerius, had annexed to the

Armenian monarchy.

During the long period of the reign of Constantius, the provinces of the

East were afflicted by the calamities of the Persian war. The irregular

incursions of the light troops alternately spread terror and devastation

beyond the Tigris and beyond the Euphrates, from the gates of Ctesiphon

to those of Antioch; and this active service was performed by the Arabs

of the desert, who were divided in their interest and affections; some

of their independent chiefs being enlisted in the party of Sapor, whilst

others had engaged their doubtful fidelity to the emperor. The more

grave and important operations of the war were conducted with equal

vigor; and the armies of Rome and Persia encountered each other in nine

bloody fields, in two of which Constantius himself commanded in person.

The event of the day was most commonly adverse to the Romans, but in the

battle of Singara, heir imprudent valor had almost achieved a signal

and decisive victory. The stationary troops of Singara * retired on

the approach of Sapor, who passed the Tigris over three bridges, and

occupied near the village of Hilleh an advantageous camp, which, by the

labor of his numerous pioneers, he surrounded in one day with a deep

ditch and a lofty rampart. His formidable host, when it was drawn out in

order of battle, covered the banks of the river, the adjacent heights,

and the whole extent of a plain of above twelve miles, which separated

the two armies. Both were alike impatient to engage; but the Barbarians,

after a slight resistance, fled in disorder; unable to resist, or

desirous to weary, the strength of the heavy legions, who, fainting with

heat and thirst, pursued them across the plain, and cut in pieces a line

of cavalry, clothed in complete armor, which had been posted before the

gates of the camp to protect their retreat. Constantius, who was hurried

along in the pursuit, attempted, without effect, to restrain the ardor

of his troops, by representing to them the dangers of the approaching

night, and the certainty of completing their success with the return

of day. As they depended much more on their own valor than on the

experience or the abilities of their chief, they silenced by their

clamors his timid remonstrances; and rushing with fury to the charge,

filled up the ditch, broke down the rampart, and dispersed themselves

through the tents to recruit their exhausted strength, and to enjoy

the rich harvest of their labors. But the prudent Sapor had watched the

moment of victory. His army, of which the greater part, securely posted

on the heights, had been spectators of the action, advanced in silence,

and under the shadow of the night; and his Persian archers, guided by

the illumination of the camp, poured a shower of arrows on a disarmed

and licentious crowd. The sincerity of history declares, that the Romans

were vanquished with a dreadful slaughter, and that the flying remnant

of the legions was exposed to the most intolerable hardships. Even the

tenderness of panegyric, confessing that the glory of the emperor was

sullied by the disobedience of his soldiers, chooses to draw a veil over

the circumstances of this melancholy retreat. Yet one of those venal

orators, so jealous of the fame of Constantius, relates, with amazing

coolness, an act of such incredible cruelty, as, in the judgment of

posterity, must imprint a far deeper stain on the honor of the Imperial

name. The son of Sapor, the heir of his crown, had been made a captive

in the Persian camp. The unhappy youth, who might have excited the

compassion of the most savage enemy, was scourged, tortured, and

publicly executed by the inhuman Romans.

Whatever advantages might attend the arms of Sapor in the field, though

nine repeated victories diffused among the nations the fame of his

valor and conduct, he could not hope to succeed in the execution of his

designs, while the fortified towns of Mesopotamia, and, above all, the

strong and ancient city of Nisibis, remained in the possession of the

Romans. In the space of twelve years, Nisibis, which, since the time

of Lucullus, had been deservedly esteemed the bulwark of the East,

sustained three memorable sieges against the power of Sapor; and the

disappointed monarch, after urging his attacks above sixty, eighty, and

a hundred days, was thrice repulsed with loss and ignominy. This large

and populous city was situate about two days' journey from the Tigris,

in the midst of a pleasant and fertile plain at the foot of Mount

Masius. A treble enclosure of brick walls was defended by a deep ditch;

and the intrepid resistance of Count Lucilianus, and his garrison, was

seconded by the desperate courage of the people. The citizens of Nisibis

were animated by the exhortations of their bishop, inured to arms by the

presence of danger, and convinced of the intentions of Sapor to plant

a Persian colony in their room, and to lead them away into distant and

barbarous captivity. The event of the two former sieges elated their

confidence, and exasperated the haughty spirit of the Great King, who

advanced a third time towards Nisibis, at the head of the united forces

of Persia and India. The ordinary machines, invented to batter or

undermine the walls, were rendered ineffectual by the superior skill

of the Romans; and many days had vainly elapsed, when Sapor embraced a

resolution worthy of an eastern monarch, who believed that the elements

themselves were subject to his power. At the stated season of the

melting of the snows in Armenia, the River Mygdonius, which divides the

plain and the city of Nisibis, forms, like the Nile, an inundation over

the adjacent country. By the labor of the Persians, the course of the

river was stopped below the town, and the waters were confined on every

side by solid mounds of earth. On this artificial lake, a fleet of armed

vessels filled with soldiers, and with engines which discharged stones

of five hundred pounds weight, advanced in order of battle, and engaged,

almost upon a level, the troops which defended the ramparts. *The

irresistible force of the waters was alternately fatal to the contending

parties, till at length a portion of the walls, unable to sustain the

accumulated pressure, gave way at once, and exposed an ample breach of

one hundred and fifty feet. The Persians were instantly driven to the

assault, and the fate of Nisibis depended on the event of the day. The

heavy-armed cavalry, who led the van of a deep column, were embarrassed

in the mud, and great numbers were drowned in the unseen holes which had

been filled by the rushing waters. The elephants, made furious by their

wounds, increased the disorder, and trampled down thousands of the

Persian archers. The Great King, who, from an exalted throne, beheld the

misfortunes of his arms, sounded, with reluctant indignation, the signal

of the retreat, and suspended for some hours the prosecution of the

attack. But the vigilant citizens improved the opportunity of the night;

and the return of day discovered a new wall of six feet in

height, rising every moment to fill up the interval of the breach.

Notwithstanding the disappointment of his hopes, and the loss of more

than twenty thousand men, Sapor still pressed the reduction of Nisibis,

with an obstinate firmness, which could have yielded only to the

necessity of defending the eastern provinces of Persia against a

formidable invasion of the MassagetÊ. Alarmed by this intelligence, he

hastily relinquished the siege, and marched with rapid diligence

from the banks of the Tigris to those of the Oxus. The danger and

difficulties of the Scythian war engaged him soon afterwards to

conclude, or at least to observe, a truce with the Roman emperor, which

was equally grateful to both princes; as Constantius himself, after the

death of his two brothers, was involved, by the revolutions of the

West, in a civil contest, which required and seemed to exceed the most

vigorous exertion of his undivided strength.

After the partition of the empire, three years had scarcely elapsed

before the sons of Constantine seemed impatient to convince mankind that

they were incapable of contenting themselves with the dominions which

they were unqualified to govern. The eldest of those princes soon

complained, that he was defrauded of his just proportion of the spoils

of their murdered kinsmen; and though he might yield to the superior

guilt and merit of Constantius, he exacted from Constans the cession

of the African provinces, as an equivalent for the rich countries of

Macedonia and Greece, which his brother had acquired by the death of

Dalmatius. The want of sincerity, which Constantine experienced in a

tedious and fruitless negotiation, exasperated the fierceness of his

temper; and he eagerly listened to those favorites, who suggested to

him that his honor, as well as his interest, was concerned in the

prosecution of the quarrel. At the head of a tumultuary band, suited for

rapine rather than for conquest, he suddenly broke onto the dominions of

Constans, by the way of the Julian Alps, and the country round Aquileia

felt the first effects of his resentment. The measures of Constans, who

then resided in Dacia, were directed with more prudence and ability. On

the news of his brother's invasion, he detached a select and disciplined

body of his Illyrian troops, proposing to follow them in person, with

the remainder of his forces. But the conduct of his lieutenants soon

terminated the unnatural contest. By the artful appearances of flight,

Constantine was betrayed into an ambuscade, which had been concealed

in a wood, where the rash youth, with a few attendants, was surprised,

surrounded, and slain. His body, after it had been found in the obscure

stream of the Alsa, obtained the honors of an Imperial sepulchre;

but his provinces transferred their allegiance to the conqueror, who,

refusing to admit his elder brother Constantius to any share in these

new acquisitions, maintained the undisputed possession of more than two

thirds of the Roman empire.

Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.--Part IV.

The fate of Constans himself was delayed about ten years longer, and the

revenge of his brother's death was reserved for the more ignoble hand of

a domestic traitor. The pernicious tendency of the system introduced by

Constantine was displayed in the feeble administration of his sons;

who, by their vices and weakness, soon lost the esteem and affections of

their people. The pride assumed by Constans, from the unmerited success

of his arms, was rendered more contemptible by his want of abilities

and application. His fond partiality towards some German captives,

distinguished only by the charms of youth, was an object of scandal to

the people; and Magnentius, an ambitious soldier, who was himself of

Barbarian extraction, was encouraged by the public discontent to assert

the honor of the Roman name. The chosen bands of Jovians and Herculians,

who acknowledged Magnentius as their leader, maintained the most

respectable and important station in the Imperial camp. The friendship

of Marcellinus, count of the sacred largesses, supplied with a liberal

hand the means of seduction. The soldiers were convinced by the most

specious arguments, that the republic summoned them to break the bonds

of hereditary servitude; and, by the choice of an active and vigilant

prince, to reward the same virtues which had raised the ancestors of the

degenerate Constans from a private condition to the throne of the world.

As soon as the conspiracy was ripe for execution, Marcellinus, under

the pretence of celebrating his son's birthday, gave a splendid

entertainment to the illustrious and honorable persons of the court of

Gaul, which then resided in the city of Autun. The intemperance of the

feast was artfully protracted till a very late hour of the night;

and the unsuspecting guests were tempted to indulge themselves in a

dangerous and guilty freedom of conversation. On a sudden the doors were

thrown open, and Magnentius, who had retired for a few moments,

returned into the apartment, invested with the diadem and purple. The

conspirators instantly saluted him with the titles of Augustus and

Emperor. The surprise, the terror, the intoxication, the ambitious

hopes, and the mutual ignorance of the rest of the assembly, prompted

them to join their voices to the general acclamation. The guards

hastened to take the oath of fidelity; the gates of the town were shut;

and before the dawn of day, Magnentius became master of the troops and

treasure of the palace and city of Autun. By his secrecy and diligence

he entertained some hopes of surprising the person of Constans, who was

pursuing in the adjacent forest his favorite amusement of hunting, or

perhaps some pleasures of a more private and criminal nature. The rapid

progress of fame allowed him, however, an instant for flight, though

the desertion of his soldiers and subjects deprived him of the power of

resistance. Before he could reach a seaport in Spain, where he intended

to embark, he was overtaken near Helena, at the foot of the Pyrenees, by

a party of light cavalry, whose chief, regardless of the sanctity of a

temple, executed his commission by the murder of the son of Constantine.

As soon as the death of Constans had decided this easy but important

revolution, the example of the court of Autun was imitated by the

provinces of the West. The authority of Magnentius was acknowledged

through the whole extent of the two great prÊfectures of Gaul and Italy;

and the usurper prepared, by every act of oppression, to collect a

treasure, which might discharge the obligation of an immense donative,

and supply the expenses of a civil war. The martial countries of

Illyricum, from the Danube to the extremity of Greece, had long obeyed

the government of Vetranio, an aged general, beloved for the simplicity

of his manners, and who had acquired some reputation by his experience

and services in war. Attached by habit, by duty, and by gratitude, to

the house of Constantine, he immediately gave the strongest assurances

to the only surviving son of his late master, that he would expose, with

unshaken fidelity, his person and his troops, to inflict a just revenge

on the traitors of Gaul. But the legions of Vetranio were seduced,

rather than provoked, by the example of rebellion; their leader soon

betrayed a want of firmness, or a want of sincerity; and his ambition

derived a specious pretence from the approbation of the princess

Constantina. That cruel and aspiring woman, who had obtained from the

great Constantine, her father, the rank of Augusta, placed the diadem

with her own hands on the head of the Illyrian general; and seemed to

expect from his victory the accomplishment of those unbounded hopes,

of which she had been disappointed by the death of her husband

Hannibalianus. Perhaps it was without the consent of Constantina, that

the new emperor formed a necessary, though dishonorable, alliance with

the usurper of the West, whose purple was so recently stained with her

brother's blood.

The intelligence of these important events, which so deeply affected the

honor and safety of the Imperial house, recalled the arms of Constantius

from the inglorious prosecution of the Persian war. He recommended

the care of the East to his lieutenants, and afterwards to his cousin

Gallus, whom he raised from a prison to a throne; and marched towards

Europe, with a mind agitated by the conflict of hope and fear, of grief

and indignation. On his arrival at Heraclea in Thrace, the emperor gave

audience to the ambassadors of Magnentius and Vetranio. The first author

of the conspiracy Marcellinus, who in some measure had bestowed the

purple on his new master, boldly accepted this dangerous commission; and

his three colleagues were selected from the illustrious personages

of the state and army. These deputies were instructed to soothe the

resentment, and to alarm the fears, of Constantius. They were empowered

to offer him the friendship and alliance of the western princes,

to cement their union by a double marriage; of Constantius with the

daughter of Magnentius, and of Magnentius himself with the ambitious

Constantina; and to acknowledge in the treaty the preeminence of rank,

which might justly be claimed by the emperor of the East. Should pride

and mistaken piety urge him to refuse these equitable conditions, the

ambassadors were ordered to expatiate on the inevitable ruin which must

attend his rashness, if he ventured to provoke the sovereigns of the

West to exert their superior strength; and to employ against him

that valor, those abilities, and those legions, to which the house of

Constantine had been indebted for so many triumphs. Such propositions

and such arguments appeared to deserve the most serious attention; the

answer of Constantius was deferred till the next day; and as he had

reflected on the importance of justifying a civil war in the opinion

of the people, he thus addressed his council, who listened with real or

affected credulity: "Last night," said he, "after I retired to rest,

the shade of the great Constantine, embracing the corpse of my murdered

brother, rose before my eyes; his well-known voice awakened me to

revenge, forbade me to despair of the republic, and assured me of the

success and immortal glory which would crown the justice of my arms."

The authority of such a vision, or rather of the prince who alleged

it, silenced every doubt, and excluded all negotiation. The ignominious

terms of peace were rejected with disdain. One of the ambassadors of

the tyrant was dismissed with the haughty answer of Constantius; his

colleagues, as unworthy of the privileges of the law of nations, were

put in irons; and the contending powers prepared to wage an implacable

war.

Such was the conduct, and such perhaps was the duty, of the brother

of Constans towards the perfidious usurper of Gaul. The situation and

character of Vetranio admitted of milder measures; and the policy of

the Eastern emperor was directed to disunite his antagonists, and to

separate the forces of Illyricum from the cause of rebellion. It was

an easy task to deceive the frankness and simplicity of Vetranio, who,

fluctuating some time between the opposite views of honor and interest,

displayed to the world the insincerity of his temper, and was insensibly

engaged in the snares of an artful negotiation. Constantius acknowledged

him as a legitimate and equal colleague in the empire, on condition that

he would renounce his disgraceful alliance with Magnentius, and appoint

a place of interview on the frontiers of their respective provinces;

where they might pledge their friendship by mutual vows of fidelity, and

regulate by common consent the future operations of the civil war. In

consequence of this agreement, Vetranio advanced to the city of Sardica,

at the head of twenty thousand horse, and of a more numerous body of

infantry; a power so far superior to the forces of Constantius, that the

Illyrian emperor appeared to command the life and fortunes of his rival,

who, depending on the success of his private negotiations, had seduced

the troops, and undermined the throne, of Vetranio. The chiefs, who

had secretly embraced the party of Constantius, prepared in his favor a

public spectacle, calculated to discover and inflame the passions of the

multitude. The united armies were commanded to assemble in a large

plain near the city. In the centre, according to the rules of ancient

discipline, a military tribunal, or rather scaffold, was erected, from

whence the emperors were accustomed, on solemn and important occasions,

to harangue the troops. The well-ordered ranks of Romans and Barbarians,

with drawn swords, or with erected spears, the squadrons of cavalry, and

the cohorts of infantry, distinguished by the variety of their arms and

ensigns, formed an immense circle round the tribunal; and the attentive

silence which they preserved was sometimes interrupted by loud bursts of

clamor or of applause. In the presence of this formidable assembly,

the two emperors were called upon to explain the situation of public

affairs: the precedency of rank was yielded to the royal birth of

Constantius; and though he was indifferently skilled in the arts of

rhetoric, he acquitted himself, under these difficult circumstances,

with firmness, dexterity, and eloquence. The first part of his oration

seemed to be pointed only against the tyrant of Gaul; but while he

tragically lamented the cruel murder of Constans, he insinuated, that

none, except a brother, could claim a right to the succession of

his brother. He displayed, with some complacency, the glories of his

Imperial race; and recalled to the memory of the troops the valor, the

triumphs, the liberality of the great Constantine, to whose sons

they had engaged their allegiance by an oath of fidelity, which the

ingratitude of his most favored servants had tempted them to violate.

The officers, who surrounded the tribunal, and were instructed to act

their part in this extraordinary scene, confessed the irresistible power

of reason and eloquence, by saluting the emperor Constantius as

their lawful sovereign. The contagion of loyalty and repentance was

communicated from rank to rank; till the plain of Sardica resounded with

the universal acclamation of "Away with these upstart usurpers! Long

life and victory to the son of Constantine! Under his banners alone

we will fight and conquer." The shout of thousands, their menacing

gestures, the fierce clashing of their arms, astonished and subdued the

courage of Vetranio, who stood, amidst the defection of his followers,

in anxious and silent suspense. Instead of embracing the last refuge of

generous despair, he tamely submitted to his fate; and taking the diadem

from his head, in the view of both armies fell prostrate at the feet

of his conqueror. Constantius used his victory with prudence and

moderation; and raising from the ground the aged suppliant, whom he

affected to style by the endearing name of Father, he gave him his hand

to descend from the throne. The city of Prusa was assigned for the

exile or retirement of the abdicated monarch, who lived six years in the

enjoyment of ease and affluence. He often expressed his grateful sense

of the goodness of Constantius, and, with a very amiable simplicity,

advised his benefactor to resign the sceptre of the world, and to seek

for content (where alone it could be found) in the peaceful obscurity of

a private condition.

The behavior of Constantius on this memorable occasion was celebrated

with some appearance of justice; and his courtiers compared the studied

orations which a Pericles or a Demosthenes addressed to the populace

of Athens, with the victorious eloquence which had persuaded an armed

multitude to desert and depose the object of their partial choice. The

approaching contest with Magnentius was of a more serious and bloody

kind. The tyrant advanced by rapid marches to encounter Constantius, at

the head of a numerous army, composed of Gauls and Spaniards, of Franks

and Saxons; of those provincials who supplied the strength of the

legions, and of those barbarians who were dreaded as the most formidable

enemies of the republic. The fertile plains of the Lower Pannonia,

between the Drave, the Save, and the Danube, presented a spacious

theatre; and the operations of the civil war were protracted during the

summer months by the skill or timidity of the combatants. Constantius

had declared his intention of deciding the quarrel in the fields of

Cibalis, a name that would animate his troops by the remembrance of the

victory, which, on the same auspicious ground, had been obtained by the

arms of his father Constantine. Yet by the impregnable fortifications

with which the emperor encompassed his camp, he appeared to decline,

rather than to invite, a general engagement. It was the object of

Magnentius to tempt or to compel his adversary to relinquish this

advantageous position; and he employed, with that view, the various

marches, evolutions, and stratagems, which the knowledge of the art of

war could suggest to an experienced officer. He carried by assault the

important town of Siscia; made an attack on the city of Sirmium, which

lay in the rear of the Imperial camp, attempted to force a passage over

the Save into the eastern provinces of Illyricum; and cut in pieces

a numerous detachment, which he had allured into the narrow passes of

Adarne. During the greater part of the summer, the tyrant of Gaul showed

himself master of the field. The troops of Constantius were harassed

and dispirited; his reputation declined in the eye of the world; and

his pride condescended to solicit a treaty of peace, which would have

resigned to the assassin of Constans the sovereignty of the provinces

beyond the Alps. These offers were enforced by the eloquence of

Philip the Imperial ambassador; and the council as well as the army

of Magnentius were disposed to accept them. But the haughty usurper,

careless of the remonstrances of his friends, gave orders that Philip

should be detained as a captive, or, at least, as a hostage; while he

despatched an officer to reproach Constantius with the weakness of

his reign, and to insult him by the promise of a pardon if he would

instantly abdicate the purple. "That he should confide in the justice of

his cause, and the protection of an avenging Deity," was the only answer

which honor permitted the emperor to return. But he was so sensible of

the difficulties of his situation, that he no longer dared to retaliate

the indignity which had been offered to his representative. The

negotiation of Philip was not, however, ineffectual, since he determined

Sylvanus the Frank, a general of merit and reputation, to desert with a

considerable body of cavalry, a few days before the battle of Mursa.

The city of Mursa, or Essek, celebrated in modern times for a bridge

of boats, five miles in length, over the River Drave, and the adjacent

morasses, has been always considered as a place of importance in the

wars of Hungary. Magnentius, directing his march towards Mursa, set fire

to the gates, and, by a sudden assault, had almost scaled the walls of

the town. The vigilance of the garrison extinguished the flames; the

approach of Constantius left him no time to continue the operations of

the siege; and the emperor soon removed the only obstacle that could

embarrass his motions, by forcing a body of troops which had taken post

in an adjoining amphitheatre. The field of battle round Mursa was a

naked and level plain: on this ground the army of Constantius formed,

with the Drave on their right; while their left, either from the nature

of their disposition, or from the superiority of their cavalry, extended

far beyond the right flank of Magnentius. The troops on both sides

remained under arms, in anxious expectation, during the greatest part of

the morning; and the son of Constantine, after animating his soldiers

by an eloquent speech, retired into a church at some distance from

the field of battle, and committed to his generals the conduct of this

decisive day. They deserved his confidence by the valor and military

skill which they exerted. They wisely began the action upon the left;

and advancing their whole wing of cavalry in an oblique line, they

suddenly wheeled it on the right flank of the enemy, which was

unprepared to resist the impetuosity of their charge. But the Romans of

the West soon rallied, by the habits of discipline; and the Barbarians

of Germany supported the renown of their national bravery. The

engagement soon became general; was maintained with various and singular

turns of fortune; and scarcely ended with the darkness of the night. The

signal victory which Constantius obtained is attributed to the arms of

his cavalry. His cuirassiers are described as so many massy statues

of steel, glittering with their scaly armor, and breaking with their

ponderous lances the firm array of the Gallic legions. As soon as the

legions gave way, the lighter and more active squadrons of the second

line rode sword in hand into the intervals, and completed the disorder.

In the mean while, the huge bodies of the Germans were exposed almost

naked to the dexterity of the Oriental archers; and whole troops of

those Barbarians were urged by anguish and despair to precipitate

themselves into the broad and rapid stream of the Drave. The number of

the slain was computed at fifty-four thousand men, and the slaughter

of the conquerors was more considerable than that of the vanquished; a

circumstance which proves the obstinacy of the contest, and justifies

the observation of an ancient writer, that the forces of the empire were

consumed in the fatal battle of Mursa, by the loss of a veteran army,

sufficient to defend the frontiers, or to add new triumphs to the glory

of Rome. Notwithstanding the invectives of a servile orator, there

is not the least reason to believe that the tyrant deserted his own

standard in the beginning of the engagement. He seems to have displayed

the virtues of a general and of a soldier till the day was irrecoverably

lost, and his camp in the possession of the enemy. Magnentius then

consulted his safety, and throwing away the Imperial ornaments,

escaped with some difficulty from the pursuit of the light horse, who

incessantly followed his rapid flight from the banks of the Drave to the

foot of the Julian Alps.

The approach of winter supplied the indolence of Constantius with

specious reasons for deferring the prosecution of the war till the

ensuing spring. Magnentius had fixed his residence in the city of

Aquileia, and showed a seeming resolution to dispute the passage of

the mountains and morasses which fortified the confines of the Venetian

province. The surprisal of a castle in the Alps by the secret march of

the Imperialists, could scarcely have determined him to relinquish the

possession of Italy, if the inclinations of the people had supported the

cause of their tyrant. But the memory of the cruelties exercised by his

ministers, after the unsuccessful revolt of Nepotian, had left a deep

impression of horror and resentment on the minds of the Romans.

That rash youth, the son of the princess Eutropia, and the nephew of

Constantine, had seen with indignation the sceptre of the West usurped

by a perfidious barbarian. Arming a desperate troop of slaves and

gladiators, he overpowered the feeble guard of the domestic tranquillity

of Rome, received the homage of the senate, and assuming the title of

Augustus, precariously reigned during a tumult of twenty-eight days.

The march of some regular forces put an end to his ambitious hopes:

the rebellion was extinguished in the blood of Nepotian, of his mother

Eutropia, and of his adherents; and the proscription was extended to

all who had contracted a fatal alliance with the name and family of

Constantine. But as soon as Constantius, after the battle of Mursa,

became master of the sea-coast of Dalmatia, a band of noble exiles, who

had ventured to equip a fleet in some harbor of the Adriatic, sought

protection and revenge in his victorious camp. By their secret

intelligence with their countrymen, Rome and the Italian cities were

persuaded to display the banners of Constantius on their walls. The

grateful veterans, enriched by the liberality of the father, signalized

their gratitude and loyalty to the son. The cavalry, the legions,

and the auxiliaries of Italy, renewed their oath of allegiance to

Constantius; and the usurper, alarmed by the general desertion, was

compelled, with the remains of his faithful troops, to retire beyond the

Alps into the provinces of Gaul. The detachments, however, which were

ordered either to press or to intercept the flight of Magnentius,

conducted themselves with the usual imprudence of success; and allowed

him, in the plains of Pavia, an opportunity of turning on his pursuers,

and of gratifying his despair by the carnage of a useless victory.

The pride of Magnentius was reduced, by repeated misfortunes, to sue,

and to sue in vain, for peace. He first despatched a senator, in whose

abilities he confided, and afterwards several bishops, whose holy

character might obtain a more favorable audience, with the offer of

resigning the purple, and the promise of devoting the remainder of his

life to the service of the emperor. But Constantius, though he granted

fair terms of pardon and reconciliation to all who abandoned the

standard of rebellion, avowed his inflexible resolution to inflict

a just punishment on the crimes of an assassin, whom he prepared

to overwhelm on every side by the effort of his victorious arms.

An Imperial fleet acquired the easy possession of Africa and Spain,

confirmed the wavering faith of the Moorish nations, and landed a

considerable force, which passed the Pyrenees, and advanced towards

Lyons, the last and fatal station of Magnentius. The temper of the

tyrant, which was never inclined to clemency, was urged by distress to

exercise every act of oppression which could extort an immediate supply

from the cities of Gaul. Their patience was at length exhausted; and

Treves, the seat of PrÊtorian government, gave the signal of revolt, by

shutting her gates against Decentius, who had been raised by his brother

to the rank either of CÊsar or of Augustus. From Treves, Decentius was

obliged to retire to Sens, where he was soon surrounded by an army of

Germans, whom the pernicious arts of Constantius had introduced into the

civil dissensions of Rome. In the mean time, the Imperial troops forced

the passages of the Cottian Alps, and in the bloody combat of Mount

Seleucus irrevocably fixed the title of rebels on the party of

Magnentius. He was unable to bring another army into the field; the

fidelity of his guards was corrupted; and when he appeared in public to

animate them by his exhortations, he was saluted with a unanimous shout

of "Long live the emperor Constantius!" The tyrant, who perceived that

they were preparing to deserve pardon and rewards by the sacrifice of

the most obnoxious criminal, prevented their design by falling on his

sword; a death more easy and more honorable than he could hope to obtain

from the hands of an enemy, whose revenge would have been colored with

the specious pretence of justice and fraternal piety. The example of

suicide was imitated by Decentius, who strangled himself on the news of

his brother's death. The author of the conspiracy, Marcellinus, had long

since disappeared in the battle of Mursa, and the public tranquillity

was confirmed by the execution of the surviving leaders of a guilty and

unsuccessful faction. A severe inquisition was extended over all who,

either from choice or from compulsion, had been involved in the cause of

rebellion. Paul, surnamed Catena from his superior skill in the judicial

exercise of tyranny, * was sent to explore the latent remains of the

conspiracy in the remote province of Britain. The honest indignation

expressed by Martin, vice-prÊfect of the island, was interpreted as an

evidence of his own guilt; and the governor was urged to the necessity

of turning against his breast the sword with which he had been provoked

to wound the Imperial minister. The most innocent subjects of the West

were exposed to exile and confiscation, to death and torture; and as

the timid are always cruel, the mind of Constantius was inaccessible to

mercy.

Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.--Part I.

Constantius Sole Emperor.--Elevation And Death Of Gallus.--

Danger And Elevation Of Julian.--Sarmatian And Persian

Wars.--Victories Of Julian In Gaul.

The divided provinces of the empire were again united by the victory of

Constantius; but as that feeble prince was destitute of personal merit,

either in peace or war; as he feared his generals, and distrusted his

ministers; the triumph of his arms served only to establish the reign

of the eunuchs over the Roman world. Those unhappy beings, the ancient

production of Oriental jealousy and despotism, were introduced into

Greece and Rome by the contagion of Asiatic luxury. Their progress was

rapid; and the eunuchs, who, in the time of Augustus, had been abhorred,

as the monstrous retinue of an Egyptian queen, were gradually admitted

into the families of matrons, of senators, and of the emperors

themselves. Restrained by the severe edicts of Domitian and Nerva,

cherished by the pride of Diocletian, reduced to an humble station

by the prudence of Constantine, they multiplied in the palaces of his

degenerate sons, and insensibly acquired the knowledge, and at length

the direction, of the secret councils of Constantius. The aversion and

contempt which mankind had so uniformly entertained for that imperfect

species, appears to have degraded their character, and to have rendered

them almost as incapable as they were supposed to be, of conceiving any

generous sentiment, or of performing any worthy action. But the eunuchs

were skilled in the arts of flattery and intrigue; and they alternately

governed the mind of Constantius by his fears, his indolence, and his

vanity. Whilst he viewed in a deceitful mirror the fair appearance

of public prosperity, he supinely permitted them to intercept the

complaints of the injured provinces, to accumulate immense treasures

by the sale of justice and of honors; to disgrace the most important

dignities, by the promotion of those who had purchased at their hands

the powers of oppression, and to gratify their resentment against

the few independent spirits, who arrogantly refused to solicit the

protection of slaves. Of these slaves the most distinguished was the

chamberlain Eusebius, who ruled the monarch and the palace with

such absolute sway, that Constantius, according to the sarcasm of an

impartial historian, possessed some credit with this haughty favorite.

By his artful suggestions, the emperor was persuaded to subscribe the

condemnation of the unfortunate Gallus, and to add a new crime to the

long list of unnatural murders which pollute the honor of the house of

Constantine.

When the two nephews of Constantine, Gallus and Julian, were saved from

the fury of the soldiers, the former was about twelve, and the latter

about six, years of age; and, as the eldest was thought to be of a

sickly constitution, they obtained with the less difficulty a precarious

and dependent life, from the affected pity of Constantius, who was

sensible that the execution of these helpless orphans would have been

esteemed, by all mankind, an act of the most deliberate cruelty. *

Different cities of Ionia and Bithynia were assigned for the places of

their exile and education; but as soon as their growing years excited

the jealousy of the emperor, he judged it more prudent to secure those

unhappy youths in the strong castle of Macellum, near CÊsarea. The

treatment which they experienced during a six years' confinement, was

partly such as they could hope from a careful guardian, and partly

such as they might dread from a suspicious tyrant. Their prison was an

ancient palace, the residence of the kings of Cappadocia; the situation

was pleasant, the buildings of stately, the enclosure spacious. They

pursued their studies, and practised their exercises, under the tuition

of the most skilful masters; and the numerous household appointed to

attend, or rather to guard, the nephews of Constantine, was not unworthy

of the dignity of their birth. But they could not disguise to themselves

that they were deprived of fortune, of freedom, and of safety; secluded

from the society of all whom they could trust or esteem, and condemned

to pass their melancholy hours in the company of slaves devoted to the

commands of a tyrant who had already injured them beyond the hope

of reconciliation. At length, however, the emergencies of the state

compelled the emperor, or rather his eunuchs, to invest Gallus, in the

twenty-fifth year of his age, with the title of CÊsar, and to cement

this political connection by his marriage with the princess Constantina.

After a formal interview, in which the two princes mutually engaged

their faith never to undertake any thing to the prejudice of each other,

they repaired without delay to their respective stations. Constantius

continued his march towards the West, and Gallus fixed his residence at

Antioch; from whence, with a delegated authority, he administered the

five great dioceses of the eastern prÊfecture. In this fortunate change,

the new CÊsar was not unmindful of his brother Julian, who obtained the

honors of his rank, the appearances of liberty, and the restitution of

an ample patrimony.

The writers the most indulgent to the memory of Gallus, and even Julian

himself, though he wished to cast a veil over the frailties of his

brother, are obliged to confess that the CÊsar was incapable of

reigning. Transported from a prison to a throne, he possessed neither

genius nor application, nor docility to compensate for the want of

knowledge and experience. A temper naturally morose and violent,

instead of being corrected, was soured by solitude and adversity; the

remembrance of what he had endured disposed him to retaliation rather

than to sympathy; and the ungoverned sallies of his rage were often

fatal to those who approached his person, or were subject to his power.

Constantina, his wife, is described, not as a woman, but as one of

the infernal furies tormented with an insatiate thirst of human blood.

Instead of employing her influence to insinuate the mild counsels

of prudence and humanity, she exasperated the fierce passions of her

husband; and as she retained the vanity, though she had renounced, the

gentleness of her sex, a pearl necklace was esteemed an equivalent price

for the murder of an innocent and virtuous nobleman. The cruelty of

Gallus was sometimes displayed in the undissembled violence of popular

or military executions; and was sometimes disguised by the abuse of law,

and the forms of judicial proceedings. The private houses of Antioch,

and the places of public resort, were besieged by spies and informers;

and the CÊsar himself, concealed in a plebeian habit, very frequently

condescended to assume that odious character. Every apartment of the

palace was adorned with the instruments of death and torture, and a

general consternation was diffused through the capital of Syria. The

prince of the East, as if he had been conscious how much he had to fear,

and how little he deserved to reign, selected for the objects of his

resentment the provincials accused of some imaginary treason, and his

own courtiers, whom with more reason he suspected of incensing, by their

secret correspondence, the timid and suspicious mind of Constantius.

But he forgot that he was depriving himself of his only support, the

affection of the people; whilst he furnished the malice of his enemies

with the arms of truth, and afforded the emperor the fairest pretence of

exacting the forfeit of his purple, and of his life.

As long as the civil war suspended the fate of the Roman world,

Constantius dissembled his knowledge of the weak and cruel

administration to which his choice had subjected the East; and the

discovery of some assassins, secretly despatched to Antioch by the

tyrant of Gaul, was employed to convince the public, that the emperor

and the CÊsar were united by the same interest, and pursued by the same

enemies. But when the victory was decided in favor of Constantius,

his dependent colleague became less useful and less formidable. Every

circumstance of his conduct was severely and suspiciously examined, and

it was privately resolved, either to deprive Gallus of the purple, or

at least to remove him from the indolent luxury of Asia to the hardships

and dangers of a German war. The death of Theophilus, consular of the

province of Syria, who in a time of scarcity had been massacred by the

people of Antioch, with the connivance, and almost at the instigation,

of Gallus, was justly resented, not only as an act of wanton cruelty,

but as a dangerous insult on the supreme majesty of Constantius. Two

ministers of illustrious rank, Domitian the Oriental prÊfect, and

Montius, quÊstor of the palace, were empowered by a special commission

* to visit and reform the state of the East. They were instructed to

behave towards Gallus with moderation and respect, and, by the gentlest

arts of persuasion, to engage him to comply with the invitation of his

brother and colleague. The rashness of the prÊfect disappointed these

prudent measures, and hastened his own ruin, as well as that of his

enemy. On his arrival at Antioch, Domitian passed disdainfully

before the gates of the palace, and alleging a slight pretence of

indisposition, continued several days in sullen retirement, to prepare

an inflammatory memorial, which he transmitted to the Imperial court.

Yielding at length to the pressing solicitations of Gallus, the prÊfect

condescended to take his seat in council; but his first step was to

signify a concise and haughty mandate, importing that the CÊsar should

immediately repair to Italy, and threatening that he himself would

punish his delay or hesitation, by suspending the usual allowance of his

household. The nephew and daughter of Constantine, who could ill brook

the insolence of a subject, expressed their resentment by instantly

delivering Domitian to the custody of a guard. The quarrel still

admitted of some terms of accommodation. They were rendered

impracticable by the imprudent behavior of Montius, a statesman whose

arts and experience were frequently betrayed by the levity of his

disposition. The quÊstor reproached Gallus in a haughty language, that

a prince who was scarcely authorized to remove a municipal magistrate,

should presume to imprison a PrÊtorian prÊfect; convoked a meeting of

the civil and military officers; and required them, in the name of their

sovereign, to defend the person and dignity of his representatives.

By this rash declaration of war, the impatient temper of Gallus was

provoked to embrace the most desperate counsels. He ordered his

guards to stand to their arms, assembled the populace of Antioch,

and recommended to their zeal the care of his safety and revenge. His

commands were too fatally obeyed. They rudely seized the prÊfect and

the quÊstor, and tying their legs together with ropes, they dragged

them through the streets of the city, inflicted a thousand insults and a

thousand wounds on these unhappy victims, and at last precipitated their

mangled and lifeless bodies into the stream of the Orontes.

After such a deed, whatever might have been the designs of Gallus, it

was only in a field of battle that he could assert his innocence with

any hope of success. But the mind of that prince was formed of an equal

mixture of violence and weakness. Instead of assuming the title of

Augustus, instead of employing in his defence the troops and treasures

of the East, he suffered himself to be deceived by the affected

tranquillity of Constantius, who, leaving him the vain pageantry of a

court, imperceptibly recalled the veteran legions from the provinces

of Asia. But as it still appeared dangerous to arrest Gallus in his

capital, the slow and safer arts of dissimulation were practised with

success. The frequent and pressing epistles of Constantius were filled

with professions of confidence and friendship; exhorting the CÊsar to

discharge the duties of his high station, to relieve his colleague from

a part of the public cares, and to assist the West by his presence, his

counsels, and his arms. After so many reciprocal injuries, Gallus had

reason to fear and to distrust. But he had neglected the opportunities

of flight and of resistance; he was seduced by the flattering assurances

of the tribune Scudilo, who, under the semblance of a rough soldier,

disguised the most artful insinuation; and he depended on the credit

of his wife Constantina, till the unseasonable death of that princess

completed the ruin in which he had been involved by her impetuous

passions.

Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.--Part II.