37 (return) [ Ammian. l. xvii. c. 12. The Sarmatian horses were

castrated to prevent the mischievous accidents which might happen

from the noisy and ungovernable passions of the males.]

38 (return) [ Pausanius, l. i. p. 50,. edit. Kuhn. That

inquisitive traveller had carefully examined a Sarmatian cuirass,

which was preserved in the temple of Æsculapius at Athens.]

39 (return) [ Aspicis et mitti sub adunco toxica ferro, Et telum

causas mortis habere duas. Ovid, ex Ponto, l. iv. ep. 7, ver.

7.——See in the Recherches sur les Americains, tom. ii. p.

236—271, a very curious dissertation on poisoned darts. The venom

was commonly extracted from the vegetable reign: but that

employed by the Scythians appears to have been drawn from the

viper, and a mixture of human blood.]

The use of poisoned arms, which has been spread over both worlds,

never preserved a savage tribe from the arms of a disciplined

enemy. 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,

40 he describes in the most lively colors the dress and manners,

the arms and inroads, of the Getæ 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 Jazygæ, 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. 41 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: 42 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 hores of the northern ocean. 43

40 (return) [ The nine books of Poetical Epistles which Ovid

composed during the seven first years of his melancholy exile,

possess, beside the merit of elegance, a double value. They

exhibit a picture of the human mind under very singular

circumstances; and they contain many curious observations, which

no Roman except Ovid, could have an opportunity of making. Every

circumstance which tends to illustrate the history of the

Barbarians, has been drawn together by the very accurate Count de

Buat. Hist. Ancienne des Peuples de l’Europe, tom. iv. c. xvi. p.

286-317]

41 (return) [ The Sarmatian Jazygæ were settled on the banks of

Pathissus or Tibiscus, when Pliny, in the year 79, published his

Natural History. See l. iv. c. 25. In the time of Strabo and

Ovid, sixty or seventy years before, they appear to have

inhabited beyond the Getæ, along the coast of the Euxine.]

42 (return) [ Principes Sarmaturum Jazygum penes quos civitatis

regimen plebem quoque et vim equitum, qua sola valent,

offerebant. Tacit. Hist. iii. p. 5. This offer was made in the

civil war between Vitellino and Vespasian.]

43 (return) [ This hypothesis of a Vandal king reigning over

Sarmatian subjects, seems necessary to reconcile the Goth

Jornandes with the Greek and Latin historians of Constantine. It

may be observed that Isidore, who lived in Spain under the

dominion of the Goths, gives them for enemies, not the Vandals,

but the Sarmatians. See his Chronicle in Grotius, p. 709. Note: I

have already noticed the confusion which must necessarily arise

in history, when names purely _geographical_, as this of

Sarmatia, are taken for _historical_ names belonging to a single

nation. We perceive it here; it has forced Gibbon to suppose,

without any reason but the necessity of extricating himself from

his perplexity, that the Sarmatians had taken a king from among

the Vandals; a supposition entirely contrary to the usages of

Barbarians Dacia, at this period, was occupied, not by

Sarmatians, who have never formed a distinct race, but by

Vandals, whom the ancients have often confounded under the

general term Sarmatians. See Gatterer’s Welt-Geschiehte p.

464—G.]

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 Mæsia.

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. 4311 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.

4311 (return) [ Gibbon states, that Constantine was defeated by

the Goths in a first battle. No ancient author mentions such an

event. It is, no doubt, a mistake in Gibbon. St Martin, note to

Le Beau. i. 324.—M.]

He contributed at least to improve this advantage, by his

negotiations with the free and warlike people of Chersonesus, 44

whose capital, situate on the western coast of the Tauric or

Crimæan 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.

44 (return) [ I may stand in need of some apology for having

used, without scruple, the authority of Constantine

Porphyrogenitus, in all that relates to the wars and negotiations

of the Chersonites. I am aware that he was a Greek of the tenth

century, and that his accounts of ancient history are frequently

confused and fabulous. But on this occasion his narrative is, for

the most part, consistent and probable nor is there much

difficulty in conceiving that an emperor might have access to

some secret archives, which had escaped the diligence of meaner

historians. For the situation and history of Chersone, see

Peyssonel, des Peuples barbares qui ont habite les Bords du

Danube, c. xvi. 84-90. ——Gibbon has confounded the inhabitants of

the city of Cherson, the ancient Chersonesus, with the people of

the Chersonesus Taurica. If he had read with more attention the

chapter of Constantius Porphyrogenitus, from which this narrative

is derived, he would have seen that the author clearly

distinguishes the republic of Cherson from the rest of the Tauric

Peninsula, then possessed by the kings of the Cimmerian

Bosphorus, and that the city of Cherson alone furnished succors

to the Romans. The English historian is also mistaken in saying

that the Stephanephoros of the Chersonites was a perpetual

magistrate; since it is easy to discover from the great number of

Stephanephoroi mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, that

they were annual magistrates, like almost all those which

governed the Grecian republics. St. Martin, note to Le Beau i.

326.—M.]

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. 4411

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.

45 4511

4411 (return) [ Gibbon supposes that this war took place because

Constantine had deducted a part of the customary gratifications,

granted by his predecessors to the Sarmatians. Nothing of this

kind appears in the authors. We see, on the contrary, that after

his victory, and to punish the Sarmatia is for the ravages they

had committed, he withheld the sums which it had been the custom

to bestow. St. Martin, note to Le Beau, i. 327.—M.]

45 (return) [ The Gothic and Sarmatian wars are related in so

broken and imperfect a manner, that I have been obliged to

compare the following writers, who mutually supply, correct, and

illustrate each other. Those who will take the same trouble, may

acquire a right of criticizing my narrative. Ammianus, l. xvii.

c. 12. Anonym. Valesian. p. 715. Eutropius, x. 7. Sextus Rufus de

Provinciis, c. 26. Julian Orat. i. p. 9, and Spanheim, Comment.

p. 94. Hieronym. in Chron. Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. l. iv. c.

6. Socrates, l. i. c. 18. Sozomen, l. i. c. 8. Zosimus, l. ii. p.

108. Jornandes de Reb. Geticis, c. 22. Isidorus in Chron. p. 709;

in Hist. Gothorum Grotii. Constantin. Porphyrogenitus de

Administrat. Imperii, c. 53, p. 208, edit. Meursii.]

4511 (return) [ Compare, on this very obscure but remarkable war,

Manso, Leben Coa xantius, p. 195—M.]

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 Æthiopia, Persia, and the

most remote countries of India, congratulated the peace and

prosperity of his government. 46 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. 47

46 (return) [ Eusebius (in Vit. Const. l. iv. c. 50) remarks

three circumstances relative to these Indians. 1. They came from

the shores of the eastern ocean; a description which might be

applied to the coast of China or Coromandel. 2. They presented

shining gems, and unknown animals. 3. They protested their kings

had erected statues to represent the supreme majesty of

Constantine.]

47 (return) [ Funus relatum in urbem sui nominis, quod sane P. R.

ægerrime tulit. Aurelius Victor. Constantine prepared for himself

a stately tomb in the church of the Holy Apostles. Euseb. l. iv.

c. 60. The best, and indeed almost the only account of the

sickness, death, and funeral of Constantine, is contained in the

fourth book of his Life by Eusebius.]

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 præfect 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. 48 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. 49

48 (return) [ Eusebius (l. iv. c. 6) terminates his narrative by

this loyal declaration of the troops, and avoids all the

invidious circumstances of the subsequent massacre.]

49 (return) [ The character of Dalmatius is advantageously,

though concisely drawn by Eutropius. (x. 9.) Dalmatius Cæsar

prosperrimâ indole, neque patrou absimilis, _haud multo_ post

oppressus est factione militari. As both Jerom and the

Alexandrian Chronicle mention the third year of the Cæsar, which

did not commence till the 18th or 24th of September, A. D. 337,

it is certain that these military factions continued above four

months.]

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. 50

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 Præfect 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, 51

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. 52

50 (return) [ I have related this singular anecdote on the

authority of Philostorgius, l. ii. c. 16. But if such a pretext

was ever used by Constantius and his adherents, it was laid aside

with contempt, as soon as it served their immediate purpose.

Athanasius (tom. i. p. 856) mention the oath which Constantius

had taken for the security of his kinsmen. ——The authority of

Philostorgius is so suspicious, as not to be sufficient to

establish this fact, which Gibbon has inserted in his history as

certain, while in the note he appears to doubt it.—G.]

51 (return) [ Conjugia sobrinarum diu ignorata, tempore addito

percrebuisse. Tacit. Annal. xii. 6, and Lipsius ad loc. The

repeal of the ancient law, and the practice of five hundred

years, were insufficient to eradicate the prejudices of the

Romans, who still considered the marriages of cousins-german as a

species of imperfect incest. (Augustin de Civitate Dei, xv. 6;)

and Julian, whose mind was biased by superstition and resentment,

stigmatizes these unnatural alliances between his own cousins

with the opprobrious epithet (Orat. vii. p. 228.). The

jurisprudence of the canons has since received and enforced this

prohibition, without being able to introduce it either into the

civil or the common law of Europe. See on the subject of these

marriages, Taylor’s Civil Law, p. 331. Brouer de Jure Connub. l.

ii. c. 12. Hericourt des Loix Ecclésiastiques, part iii. c. 5.

Fleury, Institutions du Droit Canonique, tom. i. p. 331. Paris,

1767, and Fra Paolo, Istoria del Concilio Trident, l. viii.]

52 (return) [ Julian (ad S. P.. Q. Athen. p. 270) charges his

cousin Constantius with the whole guilt of a massacre, from which

he himself so narrowly escaped. His assertion is confirmed by

Athanasius, who, for reasons of a very different nature, was not

less an enemy of Constantius, (tom. i. p. 856.) Zosimus joins in

the same accusation. But the three abbreviators, Eutropius and

the Victors, use very qualifying expressions: “sinente potius

quam jubente;” “incertum quo suasore;” “vi militum.”]

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 Cæsars,

obtained, with a certain preëminence 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. 53

53 (return) [ Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. l. iv. c. 69. Zosimus,

l. ii. p. 117. Idat. in Chron. See two notes of Tillemont, Hist.

des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 1086-1091. The reign of the eldest

brother at Constantinople is noticed only in the Alexandrian

Chronicle.]

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. 54 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. 55 5511

54 (return) [ Agathias, who lived in the sixth century, is the

author of this story, (l. iv. p. 135, edit. Louvre.) He derived

his information from some extracts of the Persian Chronicles,

obtained and translated by the interpreter Sergius, during his

embassy at that country. The coronation of the mother of Sapor is

likewise mentioned by Snikard, (Tarikh. p. 116,) and D’Herbelot

(Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 703.) ——The author of the

Zenut-ul-Tarikh states, that the lady herself affirmed her belief

of this from the extraordinary liveliness of the infant, and its

lying on the right side. Those who are sage on such subjects must

determine what right she had to be positive from these symptoms.

Malcolm, Hist. of Persia, i 83.—M.]

55 (return) [ D’Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 764.]

5511 (return) [ Gibbon, according to Sir J. Malcolm, has greatly

mistaken the derivation of this name; it means Zoolaktaf, the

Lord of the Shoulders, from his directing the shoulders of his

captives to be pierced and then dislocated by a string passed

through them. Eastern authors are agreed with respect to the

origin of this title. Malcolm, i. 84. Gibbon took his derivation

from D’Herbelot, who gives both, the latter on the authority of

the Leb. Tarikh.—M.]

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, 56 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 mo st important fortresses of Mesopotamia. 57 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. 5711 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, 5712 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. 58 5811

56 (return) [ Sextus Rufus, (c. 26,) who on this occasion is no

contemptible authority, affirms, that the Persians sued in vain

for peace, and that Constantine was preparing to march against

them: yet the superior weight of the testimony of Eusebius

obliges us to admit the preliminaries, if not the ratification,

of the treaty. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p.

420. ——Constantine had endeavored to allay the fury of the

prosecutions, which, at the instigation of the Magi and the Jews,

Sapor had commenced against the Christians. Euseb Vit. Hist.

Theod. i. 25. Sozom. ii. c. 8, 15.—M.]

57 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 20.]

5711 (return) [ Tiridates had sustained a war against Maximin.

caused by the hatred of the latter against Christianity. Armenia

was the first _nation_ which embraced Christianity. About the

year 276 it was the religion of the king, the nobles, and the

people of Armenia. From St. Martin, Supplement to Le Beau, v. i.

p. 78.——Compare Preface to History of Vartan by Professor

Neumann, p ix.—M.]

5712 (return) [ Chosroes was restored probably by Licinius,

between 314 and 319. There was an Antiochus who was præfectus

vigilum at Rome, as appears from the Theodosian Code, (l. iii. de

inf. his quæ sub ty.,) in 326, and from a fragment of the same

work published by M. Amedee Peyron, in 319. He may before this

have been sent into Armenia. St. M. p. 407. [Is it not more

probable that Antiochus was an officer in the service of the

Cæsar who ruled in the East?—M.] Chosroes was succeeded in the

year 322 by his son Diran. Diran was a weak prince, and in the

sixteenth year of his reign. A. D. 337. was betrayed into the

power of the Persians by the treachery of his chamberlain and the

Persian governor of Atropatene or Aderbidjan. He was blinded: his

wife and his son Arsaces shared his captivity, but the princes

and nobles of Armenia claimed the protection of Rome; and this

was the cause of Constantine’s declaration of war against the

Persians.—The king of Persia attempted to make himself master of

Armenia; but the brave resistance of the people, the advance of

Constantius, and a defeat which his army suffered at Oskha in

Armenia, and the failure before Nisibis, forced Shahpour to

submit to terms of peace. Varaz-Shahpour, the perfidious governor

of Atropatene, was flayed alive; Diran and his son were released

from captivity; Diran refused to ascend the throne, and retired

to an obscure retreat: his son Arsaces was crowned king of

Armenia. Arsaces pursued a vacillating policy between the

influence of Rome and Persia, and the war recommenced in the year

345. At least, that was the period of the expedition of

Constantius to the East. See St. Martin, additions to Le Beau, i.

442. The Persians have made an extraordinary romance out of the

history of Shahpour, who went as a spy to Constantinople, was

taken, harnessed like a horse, and carried to witness the

devastation of his kingdom. Malcolm. 84—M.]

58 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 20, 21. Moses of Chorene, l.

ii. c. 89, l. iii. c. 1—9, p. 226—240. The perfect agreement

between the vague hints of the contemporary orator, and the

circumstantial narrative of the national historian, gives light

to the former, and weight to the latter. For the credit of Moses,

it may be likewise observed, that the name of Antiochus is found

a few years before in a civil office of inferior dignity. See

Godefroy, Cod. Theod. tom. vi. p. 350.]

5811 (return) [ Gibbon has endeavored, in his History, to make

use of the information furnished by Moses of Chorene, the only

Armenian historian then translated into Latin. Gibbon has not

perceived all the chronological difficulties which occur in the

narrative of that writer. He has not thought of all the critical

discussions which his text ought to undergo before it can be

combined with the relations of the western writers. From want of

this attention, Gibbon has made the facts which he has drawn from

this source more erroneous than they are in the original. This

judgment applies to all which the English historian has derived

from the Armenian author. I have made the History of Moses a

subject of particular attention; and it is with confidence that I

offer the results, which I insert here, and which will appear in

the course of my notes. In order to form a judgment of the

difference which exists between me and Gibbon, I will content

myself with remarking, that throughout he has committed an

anachronism of thirty years, from whence it follows, that he

assigns to the reign of Constantius many events which took place

during that of Constantine. He could not, therefore, discern the

true connection which exists between the Roman history and that

of Armenia, or form a correct notion of the reasons which induced

Constantine, at the close of his life, to make war upon the

Persians, or of the motives which detained Constantius so long in

the East; he does not even mention them. St. Martin, note on Le

Beau, i. 406. I have inserted M. St. Martin’s observations, but I

must add, that the chronology which he proposes, is not generally

received by Armenian scholars, not, I believe, by Professor

Neumann.—M.]

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

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

5813 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. 59 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. 60 The event of the day was most

commonly adverse to the Romans, but in the battle of Singara,

their imprudent valor had almost achieved a signal and decisive

victory. The stationary troops of Singara 6011 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 61 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. 62

5813 (return) [ It was during this war that a bold flatterer

(whose name is unknown) published the Itineraries of Alexander

and Trajan, in order to direct the _victorious_ Constantius in

the footsteps of those great conquerors of the East. The former

of these has been published for the first time by M. Angelo Mai

(Milan, 1817, reprinted at Frankfort, 1818.) It adds so little to

our knowledge of Alexander’s campaigns, that it only excites our

regret that it is not the Itinerary of Trajan, of whose eastern

victories we have no distinct record—M]

59 (return) [ Ammianus (xiv. 4) gives a lively description of the

wandering and predatory life of the Saracens, who stretched from

the confines of Assyria to the cataracts of the Nile. It appears

from the adventures of Malchus, which Jerom has related in so

entertaining a manner, that the high road between Beræa and

Edessa was infested by these robbers. See Hieronym. tom. i. p.

256.]

60 (return) [ We shall take from Eutropius the general idea of

the war. A Persis enim multa et gravia perpessus, sæpe captis,

oppidis, obsessis urbibus, cæsis exercitibus, nullumque ei contra

Saporem prosperum prælium fuit, nisi quod apud Singaram, &c. This

honest account is confirmed by the hints of Ammianus, Rufus, and

Jerom. The two first orations of Julian, and the third oration of

Libanius, exhibit a more flattering picture; but the recantation

of both those orators, after the death of Constantius, while it

restores us to the possession of the truth, degrades their own

character, and that of the emperor. The Commentary of Spanheim on

the first oration of Julian is profusely learned. See likewise

the judicious observations of Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs,

tom. iv. p. 656.]

6011 (return) [ Now Sinjar, or the River Claboras.—M.]

61 (return) [ Acerrimâ nocturnâ concertatione pugnatum est,

nostrorum copiis ngenti strage confossis. Ammian. xviii. 5. See

likewise Eutropius, x. 10, and S. Rufus, c. 27. ——The Persian

historians, or romancers, do not mention the battle of Singara,

but make the captive Shahpour escape, defeat, and take prisoner,

the Roman emperor. The Roman captives were forced to repair all

the ravages they had committed, even to replanting the smallest

trees. Malcolm. i. 82.—M.]

62 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. iii. p. 133, with Julian. Orat. i.

p. 24, and Spanneism’s Commentary, p. 179.]

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. 63 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; 64 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, 65 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, 66 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. 6611 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

Massagetæ. 67 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.

63 (return) [ See Julian. Orat. i. p. 27, Orat. ii. p. 62, &c.,

with the Commentary of Spanheim, (p. 188-202,) who illustrates

the circumstances, and ascertains the time of the three sieges of

Nisibis. Their dates are likewise examined by Tillemont, (Hist.

des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 668, 671, 674.) Something is added

from Zosimus, l. iii. p. 151, and the Alexandrine Chronicle, p.

290.]

64 (return) [ Sallust. Fragment. lxxxiv. edit. Brosses, and

Plutarch in Lucull. tom. iii. p. 184. Nisibis is now reduced to

one hundred and fifty houses: the marshy lands produce rice, and

the fertile meadows, as far as Mosul and the Tigris, are covered

with the ruins of towns and allages. See Niebuhr, Voyages, tom.

ii. p. 300-309.]

65 (return) [ The miracles which Theodoret (l. ii. c. 30)

ascribes to St. James, Bishop of Edessa, were at least performed

in a worthy cause, the defence of his couutry. He appeared on the

walls under the figure of the Roman emperor, and sent an army of

gnats to sting the trunks of the elephants, and to discomfit the

host of the new Sennacherib.]

66 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 27. Though Niebuhr (tom. ii. p.

307) allows a very considerable swell to the Mygdonius, over

which he saw a bridge of _twelve_ arches: it is difficult,

however, to understand this parallel of a trifling rivulet with a

mighty river. There are many circumstances obscure, and almost

unintelligible, in the description of these stupendous

water-works.]

6611 (return) [ Macdonald Kinnier observes on these floating

batteries, “As the elevation of place is considerably above the

level of the country in its immediate vicinity, and the Mygdonius

is a very insignificant stream, it is difficult to imagine how

this work could have been accomplished, even with the wonderful

resources which the king must have had at his disposal”

Geographical Memoir. p. 262.—M.]

67 (return) [ We are obliged to Zonaras (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 11)

for this invasion of the Massagetæ, which is perfectly consistent

with the general series of events to which we are darkly led by

the broken history of Ammianus.]

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. 68

68 (return) [ The causes and the events of this civil war are

related with much perplexity and contradiction. I have chiefly

followed Zonaras and the younger Victor. The monody (ad Calcem

Eutrop. edit. Havercamp.) pronounced on the death of Constantine,

might have been very instructive; but prudence and false taste

engaged the orator to involve himself in vague declamation.]

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; 69 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. 70 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, 71 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. 72

69 (return) [ Quarum (_gentium_) obsides pretio quæsitos pueros

venustiore quod cultius habuerat libidine hujusmodi arsisse _pro

certo_ habet. Had not the depraved taste of Constans been

publicly avowed, the elder Victor, who held a considerable office

in his brother’s reign, would not have asserted it in such

positive terms.]

70 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. and ii. Zosim. l. ii. p. 134.

Victor in Epitome. There is reason to believe that Magnentius was

born in one of those Barbarian colonies which Constantius Chlorus

had established in Gaul, (see this History, vol. i. p. 414.) His

behavior may remind us of the patriot earl of Leicester, the

famous Simon de Montfort, who could persuade the good people of

England, that he, a Frenchman by birth had taken arms to deliver

them from foreign favorites.]

71 (return) [ This ancient city had once flourished under the

name of Illiberis (Pomponius Mela, ii. 5.) The munificence of

Constantine gave it new splendor, and his mother’s name. Helena

(it is still called Elne) became the seat of a bishop, who long

afterwards transferred his residence to Perpignan, the capital of

modern Rousillon. See D’Anville. Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, p.

380. Longuerue, Description de la France, p. 223, and the Marca

Hispanica, l. i. c. 2.]

72 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 119, 120. Zonaras, tom. ii. l.

xiii. p. 13, and the Abbreviators.]

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 præfectures 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. 73 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. 74

73 (return) [ Eutropius (x. 10) describes Vetranio with more

temper, and probably with more truth, than either of the two

Victors. Vetranio was born of obscure parents in the wildest

parts of Mæsia; and so much had his education been neglected,

that, after his elevation, he studied the alphabet.]

74 (return) [ The doubtful, fluctuating conduct of Vetranio is

described by Julian in his first oration, and accurately

explained by Spanheim, who discusses the situation and behavior

of Constantina.]

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 preëminence 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. 75

75 (return) [ See Peter the Patrician, in the Excerpta Legationem

p. 27.]

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, 76 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. 77 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. 78

76 (return) [ Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 16. The position of

Sardica, near the modern city of Sophia, appears better suited to

this interview than the situation of either Naissus or Sirmium,

where it is placed by Jerom, Socrates, and Sozomen.]

77 (return) [ See the two first orations of Julian, particularly

p. 31; and Zosimus, l. ii. p. 122. The distinct narrative of the

historian serves to illustrate the diffuse but vague descriptions

of the orator.]

78 (return) [ The younger Victor assigns to his exile the

emphatical appellation of “Voluptarium otium.” Socrates (l. ii.

c. 28) is the voucher for the correspondence with the emperor,

which would seem to prove that Vetranio was indeed, prope ad

stultitiam simplicissimus.]

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. 79 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 80 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. 81 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.

79 (return) [ Eum Constantius..... facundiæ vi dejectum Imperio

in pri vatum otium removit. Quæ gloria post natum Imperium soli

proces sit eloquio clementiâque, &c. Aurelius Victor, Julian, and

Themistius (Orat. iii. and iv.) adorn this exploit with all the

artificial and gaudy coloring of their rhetoric.]

80 (return) [ Busbequius (p. 112) traversed the Lower Hungary and

Sclavonia at a time when they were reduced almost to a desert, by

the reciprocal hostilities of the Turks and Christians. Yet he

mentions with admiration the unconquerable fertility of the soil;

and observes that the height of the grass was sufficient to

conceal a loaded wagon from his sight. See likewise Browne’s

Travels, in Harris’s Collection, vol ii. p. 762 &c.]

81 (return) [ Zosimus gives a very large account of the war, and

the negotiation, (l. ii. p. 123-130.) But as he neither shows

himself a soldier nor a politician, his narrative must be weighed

with attention, and received with caution.]

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, 82 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. 83 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. 84 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. 85 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; 86 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. 87 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. 88

82 (return) [ This remarkable bridge, which is flanked with

towers, and supported on large wooden piles, was constructed A.

D. 1566, by Sultan Soliman, to facilitate the march of his armies

into Hungary.]

83 (return) [ This position, and the subsequent evolutions, are

clearly, though concisely, described by Julian, Orat. i. p. 36.]

84 (return) [ Sulpicius Severus, l. ii. p. 405. The emperor

passed the day in prayer with Valens, the Arian bishop of Mursa,

who gained his confidence by announcing the success of the

battle. M. de Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 1110)

very properly remarks the silence of Julian with regard to the

personal prowess of Constantius in the battle of Mursa. The

silence of flattery is sometimes equal to the most positive and

authentic evidence.]

85 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 36, 37; and Orat. ii. p. 59,

60. Zonaras, tom ii. l. xiii. p. 17. Zosimus, l. ii. p. 130-133.

The last of these celebrates the dexterity of the archer

Menelaus, who could discharge three arrows at the same time; an

advantage which, according to his apprehension of military

affairs, materially contributed to the victory of Constantius.]

86 (return) [ According to Zonaras, Constantius, out of 80,000

men, lost 30,000; and Magnentius lost 24,000 out of 36,000. The

other articles of this account seem probable and authentic, but

the numbers of the tyrant’s army must have been mistaken, either

by the author or his transcribers. Magnentius had collected the

whole force of the West, Romans and Barbarians, into one

formidable body, which cannot fairly be estimated at less than

100,000 men. Julian. Orat. i. p. 34, 35.]

87 (return) [ Ingentes R. I. vires eâ dimicatione consumptæ sunt,

ad quælibet bella externa idoneæ, quæ multum triumphorum possent

securitatisque conferre. Eutropius, x. 13. The younger Victor

expresses himself to the same effect.]

88 (return) [ On this occasion, we must prefer the unsuspected

testimony of Zosimus and Zonaras to the flattering assertions of

Julian. The younger Victor paints the character of Magnentius in

a singular light: “Sermonis acer, animi tumidi, et immodice

timidus; artifex tamen ad occultandam audaciæ specie formidinem.”

Is it most likely that in the battle of Mursa his behavior was

governed by nature or by art should incline for the latter.]

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. 89 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. 90 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. 91

89 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 38, 39. In that place, however,

as well as in Oration ii. p. 97, he insinuates the general

disposition of the senate, the people, and the soldiers of Italy,

towards the party of the emperor.]

90 (return) [ The elder Victor describes, in a pathetic manner,

the miserable condition of Rome: “Cujus stolidum ingenium adeo P.

R. patribusque exitio fuit, uti passim domus, fora, viæ,

templaque, cruore, cadaveri busque opplerentur bustorum modo.”

Athanasius (tom. i. p. 677) deplores the fate of several

illustrious victims, and Julian (Orat. ii p 58) execrates the

cruelty of Marcellinus, the implacable enemy of the house of

Constantine.]

91 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. p. 133. Victor in Epitome. The

panegyrists of Constantius, with their usual candor, forget to

mention this accidental defeat.]

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, 92 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. 93 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. 94 Their

patience was at length exhausted; and Treves, the seat of

Prætorian government, gave the signal of revolt, by shutting her

gates against Decentius, who had been raised by his brother to

the rank either of Cæsar or of Augustus. 95 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. 96

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.

97 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; 98 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,

99 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, 9911 was sent to explore the latent remains

of the conspiracy in the remote province of Britain. The honest

indignation expressed by Martin, vice-præfect 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. 100

92 (return) [ Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 17. Julian, in

several places of the two orations, expatiates on the clemency of

Constantius to the rebels.]

93 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. p. 133. Julian. Orat. i. p. 40, ii.

p. 74.]

94 (return) [ Ammian. xv. 6. Zosim. l. ii. p. 123. Julian, who

(Orat. i. p. 40) unveighs against the cruel effects of the

tyrant’s despair, mentions (Orat. i. p. 34) the oppressive edicts

which were dictated by his necessities, or by his avarice. His

subjects were compelled to purchase the Imperial demesnes; a

doubtful and dangerous species of property, which, in case of a

revolution, might be imputed to them as a treasonable

usurpation.]

95 (return) [ The medals of Magnentius celebrate the victories of

the _two_ Augusti, and of the Cæsar. The Cæsar was another

brother, named Desiderius. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs,

tom. iv. p. 757.]

96 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 40, ii. p. 74; with Spanheim,

p. 263. His Commentary illustrates the transactions of this civil

war. Mons Seleuci was a small place in the Cottian Alps, a few

miles distant from Vapincum, or Gap, an episcopal city of

Dauphine. See D’Anville, Notice de la Gaule, p. 464; and

Longuerue, Description de la France, p. 327.—— The Itinerary of

Antoninus (p. 357, ed. Wess.) places Mons Seleucu twenty-four

miles from Vapinicum, (Gap,) and twenty-six from Lucus. (le Luc,)

on the road to Die, (Dea Vocontiorum.) The situation answers to

Mont Saleon, a little place on the right of the small river

Buech, which falls into the Durance. Roman antiquities have been

found in this place. St. Martin. Note to Le Beau, ii. 47.—M.]

97 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 134. Liban. Orat. x. p. 268,

269. The latter most vehemently arraigns this cruel and selfish

policy of Constantius.]

98 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 40. Zosimus, l. ii. p. 134.

Socrates, l. ii. c. 32. Sozomen, l. iv. c. 7. The younger Victor

describes his death with some horrid circumstances: Transfosso

latere, ut erat vasti corporis, vulnere naribusque et ore cruorem

effundens, exspiravit. If we can give credit to Zonaras, the

tyrant, before he expired, had the pleasure of murdering, with

his own hand, his mother and his brother Desiderius.]

99 (return) [ Julian (Orat. i. p. 58, 59) seems at a loss to

determine, whether he inflicted on himself the punishment of his

crimes, whether he was drowned in the Drave, or whether he was

carried by the avenging dæmons from the field of battle to his

destined place of eternal tortures.]

9911 (return) [ This is scarcely correct, ut erat in complicandis

negotiis artifex dirum made ei Catenæ inditum est cognomentum.

Amm. Mar. loc. cit.—M.]

100 (return) [ Ammian. xiv. 5, xxi. 16.]

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, 1 were introduced into Greece

and Rome by the contagion of Asiatic luxury. 2 Their progress was

rapid; and the eunuchs, who, in the time of Augustus, had been

abhorred, as the monstrous retinue of an Egyptian queen, 3 were

gradually admitted into the families of matrons, of senators, and

of the emperors themselves. 4 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, 6 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. 7 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. 8 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, 9 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. 10 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.

1 (return) [ Ammianus (l. xiv. c. 6) imputes the first practice

of castration to the cruel ingenuity of Semiramis, who is

supposed to have reigned above nineteen hundred years before

Christ. The use of eunuchs is of high antiquity, both in Asia and

Egypt. They are mentioned in the law of Moses, Deuteron. xxxiii.

1. See Goguet, Origines des Loix, &c., Part i. l. i. c. 3.]

2 (return) [ Eunuchum dixti velle te; Quia solæ utuntur his

reginæ—Terent. Eunuch. act i. scene 2. This play is translated

from Meander, and the original must have appeared soon after the

eastern conquests of Alexander.]

3 (return) [ Miles.... spadonibus Servire rugosis potest. Horat.

Carm. v. 9, and Dacier ad loe. By the word _spado_, the Romans

very forcibly expressed their abhorrence of this mutilated

condition. The Greek appellation of eunuchs, which insensibly

prevailed, had a milder sound, and a more ambiguous sense.]

4 (return) [ We need only mention Posides, a freedman and eunuch

of Claudius, in whose favor the emperor prostituted some of the

most honorable rewards of military valor. See Sueton. in Claudio,

c. 28. Posides employed a great part of his wealth in building.

Ut _Spado_ vincebat Capitolia Nostra Posides. Juvenal. Sat. xiv.]

Castrari mares vetuit. Sueton. in Domitian. c. 7. See Dion

Cassius, l. lxvii. p. 1107, l. lxviii. p. 1119.]

6 (return) [ There is a passage in the Augustan History, p. 137,

in which Lampridius, whilst he praises Alexander Severus and

Constantine for restraining the tyranny of the eunuchs, deplores

the mischiefs which they occasioned in other reigns. Huc accedit

quod eunuchos nec in consiliis nec in ministeriis habuit; qui

soli principes perdunt, dum eos more gentium aut regum Persarum

volunt vivere; qui a populo etiam amicissimum semovent; qui

internuntii sunt, aliud quam respondetur, referentes; claudentes

principem suum, et agentes ante omnia ne quid sciat.]

7 (return) [ Xenophon (Cyropædia, l. viii. p. 540) has stated the

specious reasons which engaged Cyrus to intrust his person to the

guard of eunuchs. He had observed in animals, that although the

practice of castration might tame their ungovernable fierceness,

it did not diminish their strength or spirit; and he persuaded

himself, that those who were separated from the rest of human

kind, would be more firmly attached to the person of their

benefactor. But a long experience has contradicted the judgment

of Cyrus. Some particular instances may occur of eunuchs

distinguished by their fidelity, their valor, and their

abilities; but if we examine the general history of Persia,

India, and China, we shall find that the power of the eunuchs has

uniformly marked the decline and fall of every dynasty.]

8 (return) [ See Ammianus Marcellinus, l. xxi. c. 16, l. xxii. c.

4. The whole tenor of his impartial history serves to justify the

invectives of Mamertinus, of Libanius, and of Julian himself, who

have insulted the vices of the court of Constantius.]

9 (return) [ Aurelius Victor censures the negligence of his

sovereign in choosing the governors of the provinces, and the

generals of the army, and concludes his history with a very bold

observation, as it is much more dangerous under a feeble reign to

attack the ministers than the master himself. “Uti verum absolvam

brevi, ut Imperatore ipso clarius ita apparitorum plerisque magis

atrox nihil.”]

10 (return) [ Apud quem (si vere dici debeat) multum Constantius

potuit. Ammian. l. xviii. c. 4.]

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. 11 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 Cæsarea. 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. 12 Their prison was an ancient palace, the

residence of the kings of Cappadocia; the situation was pleasant,

the buildings 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 Cæsar, 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 præfecture. 13 In this fortunate

change, the new Cæsar 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. 14

11 (return) [ Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. iii. p. 90) reproaches the

apostate with his ingratitude towards Mark, bishop of Arethusa,

who had contributed to save his life; and we learn, though from a

less respectable authority, (Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom.

iv. p. 916,) that Julian was concealed in the sanctuary of a

church. * Note: Gallus and Julian were not sons of the same

mother. Their father, Julius Constantius, had had Gallus by his

first wife, named Galla: Julian was the son of Basilina, whom he

had espoused in a second marriage. Tillemont. Hist. des Emp. Vie

de Constantin. art. 3.—G.]

12 (return) [ The most authentic account of the education and

adventures of Julian is contained in the epistle or manifesto

which he himself addressed to the senate and people of Athens.

Libanius, (Orat. Parentalis,) on the side of the Pagans, and

Socrates, (l. iii. c. 1,) on that of the Christians, have

preserved several interesting circumstances.]

13 (return) [ For the promotion of Gallus, see Idatius, Zosimus,

and the two Victors. According to Philostorgius, (l. iv. c. 1,)

Theophilus, an Arian bishop, was the witness, and, as it were,

the guarantee of this solemn engagement. He supported that

character with generous firmness; but M. de Tillemont (Hist. des

Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 1120) thinks it very improbable that a

heretic should have possessed such virtue.]

14 (return) [ Julian was at first permitted to pursue his studies

at Constantinople, but the reputation which he acquired soon

excited the jealousy of Constantius; and the young prince was

advised to withdraw himself to the less conspicuous scenes of

Bithynia and Ionia.]

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 Cæsar

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. 15

Constantina, his wife, is described, not as a woman, but as one

of the infernal furies tormented with an insatiate thirst of

human blood. 16 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. 17 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 Cæsar himself, concealed in a 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. 18

15 (return) [ See Julian. ad S. P. Q. A. p. 271. Jerom. in Chron.

Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, x. 14. I shall copy the words of

Eutropius, who wrote his abridgment about fifteen years after the

death of Gallus, when there was no longer any motive either to

flatter or to depreciate his character. “Multis incivilibus

gestis Gallus Cæsar.... vir natura ferox et ad tyrannidem

pronior, si suo jure imperare licuisset.”]

16 (return) [ Megæra quidem mortalis, inflammatrix sævientis

assidua, humani cruoris avida, &c. Ammian. Marcellin. l. xiv. c.

1. The sincerity of Ammianus would not suffer him to misrepresent

facts or characters, but his love of _ambitious_ ornaments

frequently betrayed him into an unnatural vehemence of

expression.]

17 (return) [ His name was Clematius of Alexandria, and his only

crime was a refusal to gratify the desires of his mother-in-law;

who solicited his death, because she had been disappointed of his

love. Ammian. xiv. c. i.]

18 (return) [ See in Ammianus (l. xiv. c. 1, 7) a very ample

detail of the cruelties of Gallus. His brother Julian (p. 272)

insinuates, that a secret conspiracy had been formed against him;

and Zosimus names (l. ii. p. 135) the persons engaged in it; a

minister of considerable rank, and two obscure agents, who were

resolved to make their fortune.]

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 Cæsar were united by the same interest, and

pursued by the same enemies. 19 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 præfect, and Montius, quæstor of the

palace, were empowered by a special commission 1911 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 præfect

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 præfect condescended to

take his seat in council; but his first step was to signify a

concise and haughty mandate, importing that the Cæsar 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. 20 The quæstor reproached Gallus in a haughty

language, that a prince who was scarcely authorized to remove a

municipal magistrate, should presume to imprison a Prætorian

præfect; 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 præfect

and the quæstor, 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. 21

19 (return) [ Zonaras, l. xiii. tom. ii. p. 17, 18. The assassins

had seduced a great number of legionaries; but their designs were

discovered and revealed by an old woman in whose cottage they

lodged.]

1911 (return) [ The commission seems to have been granted to

Domitian alone. Montius interfered to support his authority. Amm.

Marc. loc. cit.—M]

20 (return) [ In the present text of Ammianus, we read _Asper_,

quidem, sed ad _lenitatem_ propensior; which forms a sentence of

contradictory nonsense. With the aid of an old manuscript,

Valesius has rectified the first of these corruptions, and we

perceive a ray of light in the substitution of the word _vafer_.

If we venture to change _lenitatem_ into _levitatem_, this

alteration of a single letter will render the whole passage clear

and consistent.]

21 (return) [ Instead of being obliged to collect scattered and

imperfect hints from various sources, we now enter into the full

stream of the history of Ammianus, and need only refer to the

seventh and ninth chapters of his fourteenth book. Philostorgius,

however, (l. iii. c. 28) though partial to Gallus, should not be

entirely overlooked.]

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 Cæsar 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. 22

22 (return) [ She had preceded her husband, but died of a fever

on the road at a little place in Bithynia, called Coenum

Gallicanum.]

Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part II.

After a long delay, the reluctant Cæsar set forwards on his

journey to the Imperial court. From Antioch to Hadrianople, he

traversed the wide extent of his dominions with a numerous and

stately train; and as he labored to conceal his apprehensions

from the world, and perhaps from himself, he entertained the

people of Constantinople with an exhibition of the games of the

circus. The progress of the journey might, however, have warned

him of the impending danger. In all the principal cities he was

met by ministers of confidence, commissioned to seize the offices

of government, to observe his motions, and to prevent the hasty

sallies of his despair. The persons despatched to secure the

provinces which he left behind, passed him with cold salutations,

or affected disdain; and the troops, whose station lay along the

public road, were studiously removed on his approach, lest they

might be tempted to offer their swords for the service of a civil

war. 23 After Gallus had been permitted to repose himself a few

days at Hadrianople, he received a mandate, expressed in the most

haughty and absolute style, that his splendid retinue should halt

in that city, while the Cæsar himself, with only ten

post-carriages, should hasten to the Imperial residence at Milan.

In this rapid journey, the profound respect which was due to the

brother and colleague of Constantius, was insensibly changed into

rude familiarity; and Gallus, who discovered in the countenances

of the attendants that they already considered themselves as his

guards, and might soon be employed as his executioners, began to

accuse his fatal rashness, and to recollect, with terror and

remorse, the conduct by which he had provoked his fate. The

dissimulation which had hitherto been preserved, was laid aside

at Petovio, 2311 in Pannonia. He was conducted to a palace in the

suburbs, where the general Barbatio, with a select band of

soldiers, who could neither be moved by pity, nor corrupted by

rewards, expected the arrival of his illustrious victim. In the

close of the evening he was arrested, ignominiously stripped of

the ensigns of Cæsar, and hurried away to Pola, [23b] in Istria,

a sequestered prison, which had been so recently polluted with

royal blood. The horror which he felt was soon increased by the

appearance of his implacable enemy the eunuch Eusebius, who, with

the assistance of a notary and a tribune, proceeded to

interrogate him concerning the administration of the East. The

Cæsar sank under the weight of shame and guilt, confessed all the

criminal actions and all the treasonable designs with which he

was charged; and by imputing them to the advice of his wife,

exasperated the indignation of Constantius, who reviewed with

partial prejudice the minutes of the examination. The emperor was

easily convinced, that his own safety was incompatible with the

life of his cousin: the sentence of death was signed, despatched,

and executed; and the nephew of Constantine, with his hands tied

behind his back, was beheaded in prison like the vilest

malefactor. 24 Those who are inclined to palliate the cruelties

of Constantius, assert that he soon relented, and endeavored to

recall the bloody mandate; but that the second messenger,

intrusted with the reprieve, was detained by the eunuchs, who

dreaded the unforgiving temper of Gallus, and were desirous of

reuniting to _their_ empire the wealthy provinces of the East. 25

23 (return) [ The Thebæan legions, which were then quartered at

Hadrianople, sent a deputation to Gallus, with a tender of their

services. Ammian. l. xiv. c. 11. The Notitia (s. 6, 20, 38, edit.

Labb.) mentions three several legions which bore the name of

Thebæan. The zeal of M. de Voltaire to destroy a despicable

though celebrated legion, has tempted him on the slightest

grounds to deny the existence of a Thebæan legion in the Roman

armies. See Œuvres de Voltaire, tom. xv. p. 414, quarto edition.]

2311 (return) [ Pettau in Styria.—M ---- Rather to Flanonia. now

Fianone, near Pola. St. Martin.—M.]

24 (return) [ See the complete narrative of the journey and death

of Gallus in Ammianus, l. xiv. c. 11. Julian complains that his

brother was put to death without a trial; attempts to justify, or

at least to excuse, the cruel revenge which he had inflicted on

his enemies; but seems at last to acknowledge that he might

justly have been deprived of the purple.]

25 (return) [ Philostorgius, l. iv. c. 1. Zonaras, l. xiii. tom.

ii. p. 19. But the former was partial towards an Arian monarch,

and the latter transcribed, without choice or criticism, whatever

he found in the writings of the ancients.]

Besides the reigning emperor, Julian alone survived, of all the

numerous posterity of Constantius Chlorus. The misfortune of his

royal birth involved him in the disgrace of Gallus. From his

retirement in the happy country of Ionia, he was conveyed under a

strong guard to the court of Milan; where he languished above

seven months, in the continual apprehension of suffering the same

ignominious death, which was daily inflicted almost before his

eyes, on the friends and adherents of his persecuted family. His

looks, his gestures, his silence, were scrutinized with malignant

curiosity, and he was perpetually assaulted by enemies whom he

had never offended, and by arts to which he was a stranger. 26

But in the school of adversity, Julian insensibly acquired the

virtues of firmness and discretion. He defended his honor, as

well as his life, against the insnaring subtleties of the

eunuchs, who endeavored to extort some declaration of his

sentiments; and whilst he cautiously suppressed his grief and

resentment, he nobly disdained to flatter the tyrant, by any

seeming approbation of his brother’s murder. Julian most devoutly

ascribes his miraculous deliverance to the protection of the

gods, who had exempted his innocence from the sentence of

destruction pronounced by their justice against the impious house

of Constantine. 27 As the most effectual instrument of their

providence, he gratefully acknowledges the steady and generous

friendship of the empress Eusebia, 28 a woman of beauty and

merit, who, by the ascendant which she had gained over the mind

of her husband, counterbalanced, in some measure, the powerful

conspiracy of the eunuchs. By the intercession of his patroness,

Julian was admitted into the Imperial presence: he pleaded his

cause with a decent freedom, he was heard with favor; and,

notwithstanding the efforts of his enemies, who urged the danger

of sparing an avenger of the blood of Gallus, the milder

sentiment of Eusebia prevailed in the council. But the effects of

a second interview were dreaded by the eunuchs; and Julian was

advised to withdraw for a while into the neighborhood of Milan,

till the emperor thought proper to assign the city of Athens for

the place of his honorable exile. As he had discovered, from his

earliest youth, a propensity, or rather passion, for the

language, the manners, the learning, and the religion of the

Greeks, he obeyed with pleasure an order so agreeable to his

wishes. Far from the tumult of arms, and the treachery of courts,

he spent six months under the groves of the academy, in a free

intercourse with the philosophers of the age, who studied to

cultivate the genius, to encourage the vanity, and to inflame the

devotion of their royal pupil. Their labors were not

unsuccessful; and Julian inviolably preserved for Athens that

tender regard which seldom fails to arise in a liberal mind, from

the recollection of the place where it has discovered and

exercised its growing powers. The gentleness and affability of

manners, which his temper suggested and his situation imposed,

insensibly engaged the affections of the strangers, as well as

citizens, with whom he conversed. Some of his fellow-students

might perhaps examine his behavior with an eye of prejudice and

aversion; but Julian established, in the schools of Athens, a

general prepossession in favor of his virtues and talents, which

was soon diffused over the Roman world. 29

26 (return) [ See Ammianus Marcellin. l. xv. c. 1, 3, 8. Julian

himself in his epistle to the Athenians, draws a very lively and

just picture of his own danger, and of his sentiments. He shows,

however, a tendency to exaggerate his sufferings, by insinuating,

though in obscure terms, that they lasted above a year; a period

which cannot be reconciled with the truth of chronology.]

27 (return) [ Julian has worked the crimes and misfortunes of the

family of Constantine into an allegorical fable, which is happily

conceived and agreeably related. It forms the conclusion of the

seventh Oration, from whence it has been detached and translated

by the Abbé de la Bleterie, Vie de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 385-408.]

28 (return) [ She was a native of Thessalonica, in Macedonia, of

a noble family, and the daughter, as well as sister, of consuls.

Her marriage with the emperor may be placed in the year 352. In a

divided age, the historians of all parties agree in her praises.

See their testimonies collected by Tillemont, Hist. des

Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 750-754.]

29 (return) [ Libanius and Gregory Nazianzen have exhausted the

arts as well as the powers of their eloquence, to represent

Julian as the first of heroes, or the worst of tyrants. Gregory

was his fellow-student at Athens; and the symptoms which he so

tragically describes, of the future wickedness of the apostate,

amount only to some bodily imperfections, and to some

peculiarities in his speech and manner. He protests, however,

that he _then_ foresaw and foretold the calamities of the church

and state. (Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iv. p. 121, 122.)]