Troubles after the abdication of Diocletian— Death of Constantius. And elevation of Constantine and Maxentius— Six emperors at the same time— Death of Maximian and Galerius—Victories of Constantine over Maxentius and Licinius— Re-union of the empire under the authority of Constantine
Period of civil wars and confusion A.D. 305-323
THE balance of power established by Diocletian subsisted no
longer than while it was sustained by the firm and dexterous
hand of the founder. It required such a fortunate mixture of
different tempers and abilities as could scarcely be found,
or even expected, a second time; two emperors without
jealousy, two Caesars without ambition and the same general
interest invariably pursued by four independent princes. The
abdication of Diocletian and Maximian was succeeded by
eighteen years of discord and confusion. The empire was
afflicted by five civil wars; and the remainder of the time
was not so much a state of tranquillity as a suspension of
arms between several hostile monarchs, who, viewing each
other with an eye of fear and hatred, strove to increase
their respective forces at the expense of their subjects.
Character and situation of Constantius
As soon as Diocletian and Maximian had resigned the purple,
their station, according to the rules of the new
constitution, was filled by the two Caesars, Constantius and
Galerius, who immediately assumed the title of Augustus. (1)
The honours of seniority and precedence were allowed to the
former of those princes, and he continued under a new
appellation to administer his ancient department of Gaul,
Spain, and Britain. The government of those ample provinces
was sufficient to exercise his talents and to satisfy his
ambition. Clemency, temperance, and moderation distinguished
the amiable character of Constantius, and his fortunate
subjects had frequently occasion to compare the virtues of
their sovereign with the passions of Maximian, and even with
the arts of Diocletian. (2) Instead of imitating their eastern
pride and magnificence, Constantius preserved the modesty of
a Roman prince. He declared, with unaffected sincerity, that
his most valued treasure was in the hearts of his people;
and that, whenever the dignity of the throne or the danger
of the state required any extraordinary supply, he could
depend with confidence on their gratitude and liberality. (3)
The provincials of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, sensible of his
worth, and of their own happiness, reflected with anxiety on
the declining health of the emperor Constantius, and the
tender age of his numerous family, the issue of his second
marriage with the daughter of Maximian.
Of Galerius
The stern temper of Galerius was cast in a very different
mould; and while he commanded the esteem of his subjects, he
seldom condescended to solicit their affections. His fame in
arms, and, above all, the success of the Persian war, had
elated his haughty mind, which was naturally impatient of a
superior, or even of an equal. If it were possible to rely
on the partial testimony of an injudicious writer, we might
ascribe the abdication of Diocletian to the menaces of
Galerius, and relate the particulars of a private
conversation between the two princes, in which the former
discovered as much pusillanimity as the latter displayed
ingratitude and arrogance. (4) But these obscure anecdotes are
sufficiently refuted by an impartial view of the character
and conduct of Diocletian. Whatever might otherwise have
been his intentions, if he had apprehended any danger from
the violence of Galerius, his good sense would have
instructed him to prevent the ignominious contest; and as he
had held the sceptre with glory, he would have resigned it
without disgrace.
The two Caesars, Severus and Maximin
After the elevation of Constantius and Galerius to the rank
of Augusti, two new Caesars were required to supply their
place, and to complete the system of the Imperial
government. Diocletian was sincerely desirous of withdrawing
himself from the world; he considered Galerius, who had
married his daughter, as the firmest support of his family
and of the empire; and he consented, without reluctance,
that his successor should assume the merit as well as the
envy of the important nomination. It was fixed without
consulting the interest or inclination of the princes of the
West. Each of them had a son who was arrived at the age of
manhood, and who might have been deemed the most natural
candidates for the vacant honour. But the impotent
resentment of Maximian was no longer to be dreaded; and the
moderate Constantius, though he might despise the dangers,
was humanely apprehensive of the calamities, of civil war.
The two persons whom Galerius promoted to the rank of Caesar
were much better suited to serve the views of his ambition;
and their principal recommendation seems to have consisted
in the want of merit or personal consequence. The first of
these was Daza, or, as he was afterwards called, Maximin,
whose mother was the sister of Galerius. The inexperienced
youth still betrayed by his manners and language his rustic
education, when, to his own astonishment, as well as that of
the world, he was invested by Diocletian with the purple,
exalted to the dignity of Caesar, and intrusted with the
sovereign command of Egypt and Syria. (5) At the same time
Severus, a faithful servant, addicted to pleasure but not
incapable of business, was sent to Milan to receive from the
reluctant hands of Maximian the Caesarian ornaments and the
possession of Italy and Africa. (6) According to the forms of
the constitution, Severus acknowledged the supremacy of the
western emperor; but he was absolutely devoted to the
commands of his benefactor Galerius, who, reserving to
himself the intermediate countries from the confines of
Italy to those of Syria, firmly established his power over
three-fourths of the monarchy. In the full confidence that
the approaching death of Constantius would leave him sole
master of the Roman world we are assured that he had
arranged in his mind a long succession of future princes,
and that he meditated his own retreat from public life after
he should have accomplished a glorious reign of about twenty
years. (7)
Ambition of Galerius disappointed by two revolutions
But, within less than eighteen months, two unexpected
revolutions overturned the ambitious schemes of Galerius.
The hopes of uniting the western provinces to his empire
were disappointed by the elevation of Constantine; whilst
Italy and Africa were lost by the successful revolt of
Maxentius.
Birth, education and escape of Constantine. A.D. 274
I. The fame of Constantine has rendered posterity attentive
to the most minute circumstances of his life and actions.
The place of his birth, as well as the condition of his
mother Helena, have been the subject not only of literary
but of national disputes. Notwithstanding the recent
tradition which assigns for her father a British king, (8) we
are obliged to confess that Helena was the daughter of an
innkeeper; but at the same time we may defend the legality
of her marriage against those who have represented her as
the concubine of Constantius. (9) The great Constantine was
most probably born at Naissus, in Dacia; (10) and it is not
surprising that, in a family and province distinguished only
by the profession of arms, the youth should discover very
little inclination to improve his mind by the acquisition of
knowledge. (11) He was about eighteen years of age when his
father was promoted to the rank of Caesar; but that
fortunate event was attended with his mother's divorce; and
the splendour of an Imperial alliance reduced the son of
Helena to a state of disgrace and humiliation. Instead of
following Constantius in the West, he remained in the
service of Diocletian, signalising his valour in the wars of
Egypt and Persia, and gradually rose to the honourable
station of a tribune of the first order. The figure of
Constantine was tall and majestic; he was dexterous in all
his exercises, intrepid in war, affable in peace; in his
whole conduct the active spirit of youth was tempered by
habitual prudence; and while his mind was engrossed by
ambition, he appeared cold and insensible to the allurements
of pleasure. The favour of the people and soldiers, who had
named him as a worthy candidate for the rank of Caesar,
served only to exasperate the jealousy of Galerius; and
though prudence might restrain him from exercising any open
violence, an absolute monarch is seldom at a loss how to
execute a sure and secret revenge. (12) Every hour increased
the danger of Constantine and the anxiety of his father,
who, by repeated letters, expressed the warmest desire of
embracing his son. For some time the policy of Galerius
supplied him with delays and excuses, but it was impossible
long to refuse so natural a request of his associate without
maintaining his refusal by arms. The permission of the
journey was reluctantly granted, and, whatever precautions
the emperor might have taken to intercept a return, the
consequences of which he with so much reason apprehended,
they were effectually disappointed by the incredible
diligence of Constantine. (13) Leaving the palace of Nicomedia
in the night, he travelled post through Bithynia, Thrace,
Dacia, Pannonia, Italy, and, amidst the joyful acclamations
of the people, reached the port of Boulogne in the very
moment when his father was preparing to embark for Britain.
(14)
Death of Constantius, and elevation of Constantine.A.D. 306 July 25.
The British expedition, and an easy victory over the
barbarians of Caledonia, were the last exploits of the reign
of Constantius. He ended his life in the Imperial palace of
York, fifteen months after he had received the title of
Augustus, and almost fourteen years and a half after he had
been promoted to the rank of Caesar. His death was
immediately succeeded by the elevation of Constantine. The
ideas of inheritance and succession are so very familiar
that the generality of mankind consider them as founded not
only in reason but in nature itself. Our imagination readily
transfers the same principles from private property to
public dominion: and whenever a virtuous father leaves
behind him a son whose merit seems to justify the esteem, or
even the hopes, of the people, the joint influence of
prejudice and of affection operates with irresistible
weight. The flower of the western armies had followed
Constantius into Britain, and the national troops were
reinforced by a numerous body of Alemanni, who obeyed the
orders of Crocus, one of their hereditary chieftains. (15) The
opinion of their own importance, and the assurance that
Britain, Gaul, and Spain would acquiesce in their
nomination, were diligently inculcated to the legions by the
adherents of Constantine. The soldiers were asked whether
they could hesitate a moment between the honour of placing
at their head the worthy son of their beloved emperor and
the ignominy of tamely expecting the arrival of some obscure
stranger, on whom it might please the sovereign of Asia to
bestow the armies and provinces of the West? It was
insinuated to them that gratitude and liberality held a
distinguished place among the virtues of Constantine; nor
did that artful prince show himself to the troops till they
were prepared to salute him with the names of Augustus and
Emperor. The throne was the object of his desires; and had
he been less actuated by ambition, it was his only means of
safety. He was well acquainted with the character and
sentiments of Galerius, and sufficiently apprised that, if
he wished to live, he must determine to reign. The decent,
and even obstinate, resistance which he chose to affect (16)
was contrived to justify his usurpation; nor did he yield to
the acclamations of the army till he had provided the proper
materials for a letter, which he immediately despatched to
the emperor of the East. Constantine informed him of the
melancholy event of his father's death, modestly asserted
his natural claim to the succession, and respectfully
lamented that the affectionate violence of his troops had
not permitted him to solicit the Imperial purple in the
regular and constitutional manner. The first emotions of
Galerius were those of surprise, disappointment, and rage;
and, as he could seldom restrain his passions, he loudly
threatened that he would commit to the flames both the
letter and the messenger. He is acknowledged by Galerius, who gives him only the title of Caesar, and that of Augustus to Severus But his resentment insensibly
subsided; and when he recollected the doubtful chance of
war, when he had weighed the character and strength of his
adversary, he consented to embrace the honourable
accommodation which the prudence of Constantine had left
open to him. Without either condemning or ratifying the
choice of the British army, Galerius accepted the son of his
deceased colleague as the sovereign of the provinces beyond
the Alps; but he gave him only the title of Caesar, and the
fourth rank among the Roman princes, whilst he conferred the
vacant place of Augustus on his favourite Severus. The
apparent harmony of the empire was still preserved, and
Constantine, who already possessed the substance, expected,
without impatience, an opportunity of obtaining the honours
of supreme power. (17)
The brothers and sisters of Constantine
The children of Constantius by his second marriage were six
in number, three of either sex, and whose Imperial descent
might have solicited a preference over the meaner extraction
of the son of Helena. But Constantine was in the
thirty-second year of his age, in the full vigour both of
mind and body, at the time when the eldest of his brothers
could not possibly be more than thirteen years old. His
claim of superior merit had been allowed and ratified by the
dying emperor. (18) In his last moments Constantius bequeathed
to his eldest son the care of the safety, as well as
greatness, of the family; conjuring him to assume both the
authority and the sentiments of a father with regard to the
children of Theodora. Their liberal education, advantageous
marriages, the secure dignity of their lives, and the first
honours of the state with which they were invested, attest
the fraternal affection of Constantine; and, as those
princes possessed a mild and grateful disposition, they
submitted without reluctance to the superiority of his
genius and fortune. (19)
Discontent of the Romans at the apprehension of taxes
II. The ambitious spirit of Galerius was scarcely reconciled
to the disappointment of his views upon the Gallic provinces
before the unexpected loss of Italy wounded his pride as
well as power in a still more sensible part. The long
absence of the emperors had filled Rome with discontent and
indignation; and the people gradually discovered that the
preference given to Nicomedia and Milan was not to be
ascribed to the particular inclination of Diocletian, but to
the permanent form of government which he had instituted. It
was in vain that, a few months after his abdication, his
successors dedicated, under his name, those magnificent
baths whose ruins still supply the ground as well as the
materials for so many churches and convents. (20) The
tranquillity of those elegant recesses of ease and luxury
was disturbed by the impatient murmurs of the Romans, and a
report was insensibly circulated that the sums expended in
erecting those buildings would soon be required at their
hands. About that time the avarice of Galerius, or perhaps
the exigencies of the state, had induced him to make a very
strict and rigorous inquisition into the property of his
subjects for the purpose of a general taxation, both on
their lands and on their persons. A very minute survey
appears to have been taken of their real estates; and,
wherever there was the slightest suspicion of concealment,
torture was very freely employed to obtain a sincere
declaration of their personal wealth. (21) The privileges
which had exalted Italy above the rank of the provinces were
no longer regarded: and the officers of the revenue already
began to number the Roman people, and to settle the
proportion of the new taxes. Even when the spirit of freedom
had been utterly extinguished, the tamest subjects have
sometimes ventured to resist an unprecedented invasion of
their property; but on this occasion the injury was
aggravated by the insult, and the sense of private interest
was quickened by that of national honour. The conquest of
Macedonia, as we have already observed, had delivered the
Roman people from the weight of personal taxes. Though they
had experienced every form of despotism, they had now
enjoyed that exemption near five hundred years; nor could
they patiently brook the insolence of an Illyrian peasant,
who, from his distant residence in Asia, presumed to number
Rome among the tributary cities of his empire. The rising
fury of the people was encouraged by the authority, or at
least the connivance, of the senate; and the feeble remains
of the Praetorian guards, who had reason to apprehend their
own dissolution, embraced so honourable a pretence, and
declared their readiness to draw their swords in the service
of their oppressed country. It was the wish, and it soon
became the hope, of every citizen that, after expelling from
Italy their foreign tyrants, they should elect a prince who,
by the place of his residence, and by his maxims of
government, might once more deserve the title of Roman
emperor. The name, as well as the situation of Maxentius,
determined in his favour the popular enthusiasm.
Maxentius declared emperor at Rome. A.D. 306 28th October
Maxentius was the son of the emperor Maximian, and he had
married the daughter of Galerius. His birth and alliance
seemed to offer him the fairest promise of succeeding to the
empire; but his vices and incapacity procured him the same
exclusion from the dignity of Caesar which Constantine had
deserved by a dangerous superiority of merit. The policy of
Galerius preferred such associates as would never disgrace
the choice, nor dispute the commands, of their benefactor.
An obscure stranger was therefore raised to the throne of
Italy, and the son of the late emperor of the West was left
to enjoy the luxury of a private fortune in a villa a few
miles distant from the capital. The gloomy passions of his
soul, shame, vexation, and rage, were inflamed by envy on
the news of Constantine's success; but the hopes of
Maxentius revived with the public discontent, and he was
easily persuaded to unite his personal injury and
pretensions with the cause of the Roman people. Two
Praetorian tribunes and a commissary of provisions undertook
the management of the conspiracy; and, as every order of men
was actuated by the same spirit, the immediate event was
neither doubtful nor difficult. The praefect of the city and
a few magistrates, who maintained their fidelity to Severus,
were massacred by the guards; and Maxentius, invested with
the Imperial ornaments, was acknowledged, by the applauding
senate and people, as the protector of the Roman freedom and
dignity. Maximian re-assumes the purple It is uncertain whether Maximian was previously
acquainted with the conspiracy; but as soon as the standard
of rebellion was erected at Rome, the old emperor broke from
the retirement where the authority of Diocletian had
condemned him to pass a life of melancholy solitude, and
concealed his returning ambition under the disguise of
paternal tenderness. At the request of his son and of the
senate he condescended to reassume the purple. His ancient
dignity, his experience, and his fame in arms added strength
as well as reputation to the party of Maxentius. (22)
Defeat and death of Severus
According to the advice, or rather the orders, of his
colleague, the emperor Severus immediately hastened to Rome,
in the full confidence that, by his unexpected celerity, he
should easily suppress the tumult of an unwarlike populace,
commanded by a licentious youth. But he found on his arrival
the gates of the city shut against him, the walls filled
with men and arms, an experienced general at the head of the
rebels, and his own troops without spirit or affection. A
large body of Moors deserted to the enemy, allured by the
promise of a large donative ; and, if it be true that they
had been levied by Maximian in his African war, preferring
the natural feelings of gratitude to the artificial ties of
allegiance. Anulinus, the Praetorian praefect, declared
himself in favour of Maxentius, and drew after him the most
considerable part of the troops accustomed to obey his
commands. Rome, according to the expression of an orator,
recalled her armies, and the unfortunate Severus, destitute
of force and of counsel, retired, or rather fled, with
precipitation to Ravenna. Here he might for some time have
been safe. The fortifications of Ravenna were able to resist
the attempts, and the morasses that surrounded the town were
sufficient to prevent the approach, of the Italian army.
Thesea, which Severus commanded with a powerful fleet,
secured him an inexhaustible supply of provisions, and gave
a free entrance to the legions which, on the return of
spring, would advance to his assistance from Illyricum and
the East. Maximian, who conducted the siege in person, was
soon convinced that he might waste his time and his army in
the fruitless enterprise, and that he had nothing to hope
either from force or famine. With an art more suitable to
the character of Diocletian than to his own, he directed his
attack not so much against the walls of Ravenna as against
the mind of Severus. The treachery which he had experienced
disposed that unhappy prince to distrust the most sincere of
his friends and adherents. The emissaries of Maximian easily
persuaded his credulity that a conspiracy was formed to
betray the town, and prevailed upon his fears not to expose
himself to the discretion of an irritated conqueror, but to
accept the faith of an honourable capitulation. He was at
first received with humanity and treated with respect.
Maximian conducted the captive emperor to Rome, and gave him
the most solemn assurances that he had secured his life by
the resignation of the purple. But Severus could obtain only
an easy death and an Imperial funeral. When the sentence was
signified to him, the manner of executing it was left to his
own choice; he preferred the favourite mode of the ancients,
that of opening his veins; and, as soon as he expired, his
body was carried to the sepulchre which had been constructed
for the family of Gallienus. (23)
Maximian gives his daughter Fausta, and the title of Augustus, to Constantine.A.D. 307. 31st March
Though the characters of Constantine and Maxentius had very
little affinity with each other, their situation and
interest were the same, and prudence seemed to require that
they should unite their forces against the common enemy.
Notwithstanding the superiority of his age and dignity, the
indefatigable Maximian passed the Alps, and, courting a
personal interview with the sovereign of Gaul, carried with
him his daughter Fausta as the pledge of the new alliance.
The marriage was celebrated at Arles with every circumstance
of magnificence; and the ancient colleague of Diocletian,
who again asserted his claim to the Western empire,
conferred on his son-in-law and ally the title of Augustus.
By consenting to receive that honour from Maximian,
Constantine seemed to embrace the cause of Rome and of the
senate; but his professions were ambiguous, and his
assistance slow and ineffectual. He considered with
attention the approaching contest between the masters of
Italy and the emperor of the East, and was prepared to
consult his own safety or ambition in the event of the war.
(24)
Galerius invades Italy
The importance of the occasion called for the presence and
abilities of Galerius. At the head of a powerful army
collected from Illyricum and the East, he entered Italy,
resolved to revenge the death of Severus and to chastise the
rebellious Romans; or, as he expressed his intentions, in
the furious language of a barbarian, to extirpate the
senate, and to destroy the people by the sword. But the
skill of Maximian had concerted a prudent system of defence.
The invader found every place hostile, fortified, and
inaccessible; and though he forced his way as far as Narni,
within sixty miles of Rome, his dominion in Italy was
confined to the narrow limits of his camp. Sensible of the
increasing difficulties of his enterprise, the haughty
Galerius made the first advances towards a reconciliation,
and despatched two of his most considerable officers to
tempt the Roman princes by the offer of a conference, and
the declaration of his paternal regard for Maxentius, who
might obtain much more from his liberality than he could
hope from the doubtful chance of war. (25) The offers of
Galerius were rejected with firmness, his perfidious
friendship refused with contempt, and it was not long before
he discovered that unless he provided for his safety by a
timely retreat, he had some reason to apprehend the fate of
Severus. The wealth which the Romans defended against his
rapacious tyranny they freely contributed for his
destruction. The name of Maximian, the popular arts of his
son, the secret distribution of large sums, and the promise
of still more liberal rewards, checked the ardour and
corrupted the fidelity of the Illyrian legions; and when
Galerius at length gave the signal of the retreat, it was
with some difficulty that he could prevail on his veterans
not to desert a banner which had so often conducted them to
victory and honour. A contemporary writer assigns two other
causes for the failure of the expedition; but they are both
of such a nature that a cautious historian will scarcely
venture to adopt them. We are told that Galerius who had
formed a very imperfect notion of the greatness of Rome by
the cities of the East with which he was acquainted, found
his forces inadequate to the siege of that immense capital.
But the extent of a city serves only to render it more
accessible to the enemy: Rome had long since been accustomed
to submit on the approach of a conqueror; nor could the
temporary enthusiasm of the people have long contended
against the discipline and valour of the legions. We are
likewise informed that the legions themselves were struck
with horror and remorse, and that those pious sons of the
republic refused to violate the sanctity of their venerable
parent. (26) But when we recollect with how much ease, in the more ancient civil wars, the zeal of party and the habits of military obedience had converted the native citizens of Rome
into her most implacable enemies, we shall be inclined to
distrust this extreme delicacy of strangers and barbarians
who had never beheld Italy till they entered it in a hostile
manner. Had they not been restrained by motives of a more
interested nature, they would probably have answered
Galerius in the words of Caesar's veterans:
"If our general wishes to lead us to the banks of the Tiber, we are prepared to trace out his camp. Whatsoever walls he has determined to level with the ground, our hands are ready to work the engines: nor shall we hesitate, should the name of the devoted city be Rome itself."
These are indeed the expressions of a poet; but of a poet who has been distinguished, and even censured, for his strict adherence to the truth of history. (27)
His retreat
The legions of Galerius exhibited a very melancholy proof of
their disposition by the ravages which they committed in
their retreat. They murdered, they ravished, they plundered,
they drove away the flocks and herds of the Italians; they
burnt the villages through which they passed, and they
endeavoured to destroy the country which it had not been in
their power to subdue. During the whole march Maxentius hung
on their rear, but he very prudently declined a general
engagement with those brave and desperate veterans. His
father had undertaken a second journey into Gaul, with the
hope of persuading Constantine, who had assembled an army on
the frontier, to join the pursuit, and to complete the
victory. But the actions of Constantine were guided by
reason, and not by resentment. He persisted in the wise
resolution of maintaining a balance of power in the divided
empire, and he no longer hated Galerius when that aspiring
prince had ceased to be an object of terror. (28)
Elevation of Licius to the rank of Augustus;A.d. 307. Nov 11.
The mind of Galerius was the most susceptible of the sterner
passions, but it was not, however, incapable of a sincere
and lasting friendship. Licinius, whose manners as well as
character were not unlike his own, seems to have engaged
both his affection and esteem. Their intimacy had commenced
in the happier period, perhaps, of their youth and
obscurity. It had been cemented by the freedom and dangers
of a military life; they had advanced almost by equal steps
through the successive honours of the service; and as soon
as Galerius was invested with the Imperial dignity, he seems
to have conceived the design of raising his companion to the
same rank with himself. During the short period of his
prosperity, he considered the rank of Caesar as unworthy of
the age and merit of Licinius, and rather chose to reserve
for him the place of Constantius, and the empire of the
West. While the emperor was employed in the Italian war, he
intrusted his friend with the defence of the Danube; and
immediately after his return from that unfortunate
expedition he invested Licinius with the vacant purple of
Severus, resigning to his immediate command the provinces of
Illyricum. (29)and of MaximinThe news of his promotion was no sooner
carried into the East, than Maximin, who governed, or rather
oppressed, the countries of Egypt and Syria, betrayed his
envy and discontent, disdained the inferior name of Caesar,
and, notwithstanding the prayers as well as arguments of
Galerius, exacted, almost by violence, the equal title of
Augustus. (30) For the first, and indeed for the last time,
the Roman world was administered by Six emperors. A.D. 308six emperors. In the
West, Constantine and Maxentius affected to reverence their
father Maximian. In the East, Licinius and Maximin honoured
with more real consideration their benefactor Galerius. The
opposition of interest, and the memory of a recent war,
divided the empire into two great hostile powers; but their
mutual fears produced an apparent tranquillity, and even a
feigned reconciliation, till the death of the elder princes,
of Maximian, and more particularly of Galerius, gave a new
direction to the views and passions of their surviving
associates.
Misfortunes of Maximian
When Maximian had reluctantly abdicated the empire, the
venal orators of the times applauded his philosophic
moderation. When his ambition excited, or at least
encouraged, a civil war, they returned thanks to his
generous patriotism, and gently censured that love of ease
and retirement which had withdrawn him from the public
service. (31) But it was impossible that minds like those of
Maximian and his son could long possess in harmony an
undivided power. Maxentius considered himself as the legal
sovereign of Italy, elected by the Roman senate and people;
nor would he endure the control of his father, who
arrogantly declared that by his name and abilities the rash
youth had been established on the throne. The cause was
solemnly pleaded before the Praetorian guards; and those
troops, who dreaded the severity of the old emperor,
espoused the party of Maxentius. (32) The life and freedom of
Maximian were, however, respected, and he retired from Italy
into Illyricum, affecting to lament his past conduct, and
secretly contriving new mischiefs. But Galerius, who was
well acquainted with his character, soon obliged him to
leave his dominions, and the last refuge of the disappointed
Maximian was the court of his son-in-law Constantine. (33) He
was received with respect by that artful prince, and with
the appearance of filial tenderness by the empress Fausta.
That he might remove every suspicion, he resigned the
Imperial purple a second time, (34) professing himself at
length convinced of the vanity of greatness and ambition.
Had he persevered in this resolution, he might have ended
his life with less dignity, indeed, than in his first
retirement, yet, however, with comfort and reputation. But
the near prospect of a throne brought back to his
remembrance the state from whence he was fallen, and he
resolved, by a desperate effort, either to reign or to
perish. An incursion of the Franks had summoned Constantine,
with a part of his army, to the banks of the Rhine, the
remainder of the troops were stationed in the southern
provinces of Gaul, which lay exposed to the enterprises of
the Italian emperor, and a considerable treasure was
deposited in the city of Arles. Maximian either craftily
invented, or hastily credited, a vain report of the death of
Constantine. Without hesitation he ascended the throne,
seized the treasure, and, scattering it with his accustomed
profusion among the soldiers, endeavoured to awake in their
minds the memory of his ancient dignity and exploits. Before
he could establish his authority, or finish the negotiation
which he appears to have entered into with his son
Maxentius, the celerity of Constantine defeated all his
hopes. On the first news of his perfidy and ingratitude,
that prince returned by rapid marches from the Rhine to the
Saone, embarked on the last-mentioned river at Chalons, and,
at Lyons trusting himself to the rapidity of the Rhone,
arrived at the gates of Arles with a military force which it
was impossible for Maximian to resist, and which scarcely
permitted him to take refuge in the neighbouring city of
Marseilles. The narrow neck of land which joined that place
to the continent was fortified against the besiegers, whilst
the sea was open, either for the escape of Maximian, or for
the succours of Maxentius, if the latter should choose to
disguise his invasion of Gaul under the honourable pretence
of defending a distressed, or, as he might allege, an
injured father. Apprehensive of the fatal consequences of
delay, Constantine gave orders for an immediate assault; but
the scaling-ladders were found too short for the height of
the walls, and Marseilles might have sustained as long a
siege as it formerly did against the arms of Caesar, if the
garrison, conscious either of their fault or of their
danger, had not purchased their pardon by delivering up the
city and the person of Maximian. His death. A.D. 310. February A secret but irrevocable
sentence of death was pronounced against the usurper he
obtained only the same favour which he had indulged to
Severus, and it was published to the world that, oppressed
by the remorse of his repeated crimes, he strangled himself
with his own hands. After he had lost the assistance, and
disdained the moderate counsels, of Diocletian, the second
period of his active life was a series of public calamities
and personal mortifications, which were terminated, in about
three years, by an ignominious death. He deserved his fate;
but we should find more reason to applaud the humanity of
Constantine if he had spared an old man, the benefactor of
his father and the father of his wife. During the whole of
this melancholy transaction, it appears that Fausta
sacrificed the sentiments of nature to her conjugal duties.
(35)
Death of Galerius. A.D. 311. May
The last years of Galerius were less shameful and
unfortunate; and though he had filled with more glory the
subordinate station of Caesar than the superior rank of
Augustus, he preserved, till the moment of his death, the
first place among the princes of the Roman world. He
survived his retreat from Italy about four years; and,
wisely relinquishing his views of universal empire, he
devoted the remainder of his life to the enjoyment of
pleasure and to the execution of some works of public
utility, among which we may distinguish the discharging into
the Danube the superfluous waters of the lake Pelso, and the
cutting down the immense forests that encompassed it: an
operation worthy of a monarch, since it gave an extensive
country to the agriculture of his Pannonian subjects. (36) His
death was occasioned by a very painful and lingering
disorder. His body, swelled by an intemperate course of life
to an unwieldy corpulence, was covered with ulcers, and
devoured by innumerable swarms of those insects who have
given their name to a most loathsome disease; (37) but as
Galerius had offended a very zealous and powerful party
among his subjects, his sufferings, instead of exciting
their compassion, have been celebrated as the visible
effects of divine justice. (38) His dominion shared between Maximin and Licinius He had no sooner expired in
his palace of Nicomedia than the two emperors, who were
indebted for their purple to his favour, began to collect
their forces, with the intention either of disputing or of
dividing the dominions which he had left without a master.
They were persuaded, however, to desist from the former
design, and to agree in the latter. The provinces of Asia
fell to the share of Maximin, and those of Europe augmented
the portion of Licinius. The Hellespont and the Thracian
Bosphorus formed their mutual boundary, and the banks of
those narrow seas, which flowed in the midst of the Roman
world, were covered with soldiers, with arms and with
fortifications. The deaths of Maximian and of Galerius
reduced the number of emperors to four. The sense of their
true interest soon connected Licinius and Constantine; a
secret alliance was concluded between Maximin and Maxentius,
and their unhappy subjects expected with terror the bloody
consequences of their inevitable dissensions, which were no
longer restrained by the fear or the respect which they had
entertained for Galerius. (39)
Administration of Constantine in Gaul. A.D. 306-312
Among so many crimes and misfortunes, occasioned by the
passions of the Roman princes, there is some pleasure in
discovering a single action which may be ascribed to their
virtue. In the sixth year of his reign Constantine visited
the city of Autun, and generously remitted the arrears of
tribute, reducing at the same time the proportion of their
assessment from twenty-five to eighteen thousand heads,
subject to the real and personal capitation. (40) Yet even
this indulgence affords the most unquestionable proof of the
public misery. This tax was so extremely oppressive, either
in itself or in the mode of collecting it, that, whilst the
revenue was increased by extortion, it was diminished by
despair: a considerable part of the territory of Autun was
left uncultivated; and great numbers of the provincials
rather chose to live as exiles and outlaws than to support
the weight of civil society. It is but too probable that the
bountiful emperor relieved, by a partial act of liberality,
one among the many evils which he had caused by his general
maxims of administration. But even those maxims were less
the effect of choice than of necessity. And if we except the
death of Maximian, the reign of Constantine in Gaul seems to
have been the most innocent and even virtuous period of his
life. The provinces were protected by his presence from the
inroads of the barbarians, who either dreaded or experienced
his active valour. After a signal victory over the Franks
and Alemanni, several of their princes were exposed by his
order to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre of Treves, and
the people seem to have enjoyed the spectacle, without
discovering, in such a treatment of royal captives, anything
that was repugnant to the laws of nations or of humanity. (41)
Tyranny of Maxentius in Italy and Africa. A.D. 306-312
The virtues of Constantine were rendered more illustrious by
the vices of Maxentius. Whilst the Gallic provinces enjoyed
as much happiness as the condition of the times was capable
of receiving, Italy and Africa groaned under the dominion of
a tyrant as contemptible as he was odious. The zeal of
flattery and faction has indeed too frequently sacrificed
the reputation of the vanquished to the glory of their
successful rivals; but even those writers who have revealed,
with the most freedom and pleasure, the faults of
Constantine, unanimously confess that Maxentius was cruel,
rapacious, and profligate. (42) He had the good fortune to
suppress a slight rebellion in Africa. The governor and a
few adherents had been guilty; the province suffered for
their crime. The flourishing cities of Cirtha and Carthage,
and the whole extent of that fertile country, were wasted by
fire and sword. The abuse of victory was followed by the
abuse of law and justice. A formidable army of sycophants
and delators invaded Africa; the rich and the noble were
easily convicted of a connection with the rebels, and those
among them who experienced the emperor's clemency were only
punished by the confiscation of their estates. (43) So signal
a victory was celebrated by a magnificent triumph, and
Maxentius exposed to the eyes of the people the spoils and
captives of a Roman province. The state of the capital was
no less deserving of compassion than that of Africa. The
wealth of Rome supplied an inexhaustible fund for his vain
and prodigal expenses, and the ministers of his revenue were
skilled in the arts of rapine. It was under his reign that
the method of exacting a free gift from the senators was
first invented; and as the sum was insensibly increased, the
pretences of levying it, a victory, a birth, a marriage, or
an Imperial consulship, were proportionately multiplied. (44)
Maxentius had imbibed the same implacable aversion to the
senate which had characterised most of the former tyrants of
Rome; nor was it possible for his ungrateful temper to
forgive the generous fidelity which had raised him to the
throne and supported him against all his enemies. The lives
of the senators were exposed to his jealous suspicions, the
dishonour of their wives and daughters heightened the
gratification of his sensual passions. (45) It may be presumed
that an Imperial lover was seldom reduced to sigh in vain;
but whenever persuasion proved ineffectual, he had recourse
to violence; and there remains one memorable example of a
noble matron who preserved her chastity by a voluntary
death. The soldiers were the only order of men whom he
appeared to respect, or studied to please. He filled Rome
and Italy with armed troops, connived at their tumults,
suffered them with impunity to plunder, and even to
massacre, the defenceless people; (46) and indulging them in
the same licentiousness which their emperor enjoyed,
Maxentius often bestowed on his military favourites the
splendid villa, or the beautiful wife, of a senator. A
prince, of such a character, alike incapable of governing
either in peace or in war, might purchase the support, but
he could never obtain the esteem, of the army. Yet his pride
was equal to his other vices. Whilst he passed his indolent
life, either within the walls of his palace or in the
neighbouring gardens of Sallust, he was repeatedly heard to
declare that he alone was emperor, and that the other
princes were no more than his lieutenants, on whom he had
devolved the defence of the frontier provinces, that he
might enjoy without interruption the elegant luxury of the
capital. Rome, which had so long regretted the absence,
lamented, during the six years of his reign, the presence of
her sovereign. (47)
Civil war between Constantine and Maxentius. A.D. 312.
Though Constantine might view the conduct of Maxentius with
abhorrence, and the situation of the Romans with compassion,
we have no reason to presume that he would have taken up
arms to punish the one or to relieve the other. But the
tyrant of Italy rashly ventured to provoke a formidable
enemy whose ambition had been hitherto restrained by
considerations of prudence rather than by principles of
justice. (48) After the death of Maximian, his titles
according to the established custom, had been erased, and
his statues thrown down with ignominy. His son, who had
persecuted and deserted him when alive, affected to display
the most pious regard for his memory, and gave orders that a
similar treatment should be immediately inflicted on all the
statues that had been erected in Italy and Africa to the
honour of Constantine. That wise prince, who sincerely
wished to decline a war, with the difficulty and importance
of which he was sufficiently acquainted, at first dissembled
the insult, and sought for redress by the milder expedients
of negotiation, till he was convinced that the hostile and
ambitious designs of the Italian emperor made it necessary
for him to arm in his own defence. Maxentius, who openly
avowed his pretensions to the whole monarchy of the West,
had already prepared a very considerable force to invade the
Gallic provinces on the side of Rhaetia; and though he could
not expect any assistance from Licinius, he was flattered
with the hope that the legions of Illyricum, allured by his
presents and promises, would desert the standard of that
prince and unanimously declare themselves his soldiers and
subjects. (49) Constantine no longer hesitated. He had
deliberated with caution, he acted with vigour. He gave a
private audience to the ambassadors who, in the name of the
senate and people, conjured him to deliver Rome from a
detested tyrant; and, without regarding the timid
remonstrances of his council, he resolved to prevent the
enemy, and to carry the war into the heart of Italy. (50)
Preparations
The enterprise was as full of danger as of glory; and the
unsuccessful event of two former invasions was sufficient to
inspire the most serious apprehensions. The veteran troops,
who revered the name of Maximian, had embraced in both those
wars the party of his son, and were now restrained by a
sense of honour, as well as of interest, from entertaining
an idea of a second desertion. Maxentius, who considered the
Praetorian guards as the firmest defence of his throne, had
increased them to their ancient establishment; and they
composed, including the rest of the Italians who were
enlisted into his service, a formidable body of four-score
thousand men. Forty thousand Moors and Carthaginians had
been raised since the reduction of Africa. Even Sicily
furnished its proportion of troops; and the armies of
Maxentius amounted to one hundred and seventy thousand foot
and eighteen thousand horse. The wealth of Italy supplied
the expenses of the war; and the adjacent provinces were
exhausted to form immense magazines of corn and every other
kind of provisions. The whole force of Constantine consisted of ninety thousand
foot and eight thousand horse (51) and as the defence of the
Rhine required an extraordinary attention during the absence
of the emperor, it was not in his power to employ above half
his troops in the Italian expedition, unless he sacrificed
the public safety to his private quarrel. (52) At the head of
about forty thousand soldiers, he marched to encounter an
enemy whose numbers were at least four times superior to his
own. But the armies of Rome, placed at a secure distance
from danger, were enervated by indulgence and luxury.
Habituated to the baths and theatres of Rome, they took the
field with reluctance, and were chiefly composed of veterans
who had almost forgotten, or of new levies who had never
acquired, the use of arms and the practice of war. The hardy
legions of Gaul had long defended the frontiers of the
empire against the barbarians of the North; and in the
performance of that laborious service their valour was
exercised and their discipline confirmed. There appeared the
same difference between the leaders as between the armies.
Caprice or flattery had tempted Maxentius with the hopes of
conquest; but these aspiring hopes soon gave way to the
habits of pleasure and the consciousness of his
inexperience. The intrepid mind of Constantine had been
trained from his earliest youth to war, to action, and to
military command.
Constantine passes the Alps
When Hannibal marched from Gaul into Italy, he was obliged
first to discover and then to open a way over mountains, and
through savage nations that had never yielded a passage to a
regular army. (53) The Alps were then guarded by nature, they
are now fortified by art. Citadels, constructed with no less
skill than labour and expense, command every avenue into the
plain, and on that side render Italy almost inaccessible to
the enemies of the king of Sardinia. (54) But in the course of
the intermediate period, the generals who have attempted the
passage have seldom experienced any difficulty or
resistance. In the age of Constantine the peasants of the
mountains were civilised and obedient subjects; the country
was plentifully stocked with provisions, and the stupendous
highways which the Romans had carried over the Alps opened
several communications between Gaul and Italy. (55)
Constantine preferred the road of the Cottian Alps, or, as
it is now called, of Mount Cenis, and led his troops with
such active diligence, that he descended into the plain of
Piedmont before the court of Maxentius had received any
certain intelligence of his departure from the banks of the
Rhine. The city of Susa, however, which is situated at the
foot of Mount Cenis, was surrounded with walls, and provided
with a garrison sufficiently numerous to check the progress
of an invader; but the impatience of Constantine's troops
disdained the tedious forms of a siege. The same day that
they appeared before Susa they applied fire to the gates and
ladders to the walls; and mounting to the assault amidst a
shower of stones and arrows, they entered the place sword in
hand, and cut in pieces the greatest part of the garrison.
The flames were extinguished by the care of Constantine, and
the remains of Susa preserved from total destruction. About
forty miles from thence a more severe contest awaited him. Battle of TurinA
numerous army of Italians was assembled, under the
lieutenants of Maxentius, in the plains of Turin. Its
principal strength consisted in a species of heavy cavalry,
which the Romans, since the decline of their discipline, had
borrowed from the nations of the East. The horses, as well
as the men, were clothed in complete armour, the joints of
which were artfully adapted to the motions of their bodies.
The aspect of this cavalry was formidable, their weight
almost irresistible; and as, on this occasion, their
generals had drawn them up in a compact column or wedge,
with a sharp point, and with spreading flanks, they
flattered themselves that they should easily break and
trample down the army of Constantine. They might, perhaps,
have succeeded in their design, had not their experienced
adversary embraced the same method of defence which in
similar circumstances had been practised by Aurelian. The
skilful evolutions of Constantine divided and baffled this
massy column of cavalry. The troops of Maxentius fled in
confusion towards Turin; and as the gates of the city were
shut against them, very few escaped the sword of the
victorious pursuers. By this important service Turin
deserved to experience the clemency and even favour of the
conqueror. He made his entry into the Imperial palace of
Milan, and almost all the cities of Italy between the Alps
and the Po not only acknowledged the power, but embraced
with zeal the party of Constantine. (56)
Siege and battle of Verona
From Milan to Rome, the Emilian and Flaminian highways
offered an easy march of about four hundred miles; but
though Constantine was impatient to encounter the tyrant, he
prudently directed his operations against another army of
Italians, who, by their strength and position, might either
oppose his progress, or, in case of a misfortune, might
intercept his retreat. Ruricius Pompeianus, a general
distinguished by his valour and ability, had under his
command the city of Verona, and all the troops that were
stationed in the province of Venetia. As soon as he was
informed that Constantine was advancing towards him, he
detached a large body of cavalry, which was defeated in an
engagement near Brescia, and pursued by the Gallic legions
as far as the gates of Verona. The necessity, the
importance, and the difficulties of the siege of Verona,
immediately presented themselves to the sagacious mind of
Constantine. (57) The city was accessible only by a narrow
peninsula towards the west, as the other three sides were
surrounded by the Adige, a rapid river, which covered the
province of Venetia, from whence the besieged derived an
inexhaustible supply of men and provisions. It was not
without great difficulty, and after several fruitless
attempts, that Constantine found means to pass the river at
some distance above the city, and in a place where the
torrent was less violent. He then encompassed Verona with
strong lines, pushed his attacks with prudent vigour, and
repelled a desperate sally of Pompeianus. That intrepid
general, when he had used every means of defence that the
strength of the place or that of the garrison could afford,
secretly escaped from Verona, anxious not for his own but
for the public safety. With indefatigable diligence he soon
collected an army sufficient either to meet Constantine in
the field, or to attack him if he obstinately remained
within his lines. The emperor, attentive to the motions, and
informed of the approach of so formidable an enemy, left a
part of his legions to continue the operations of the siege,
whilst, at the head of those troops on whose valour and
fidelity he more particularly depended, he advanced in
person to engage the general of Maxentius. The army of Gaul
was drawn up in two lines, according to the usual practice
of war; but their experienced leader, perceiving that the
numbers of the Italians far exceeded his own, suddenly
changed his disposition, and, reducing the second, extended
the front of his first line to a just proportion with that
of the enemy Such evolutions, which only veteran troops can
execute without confusion in a moment of danger, commonly
prove decisive; but as this engagement began towards the
close of the day, and was contested with great obstinacy
during the whole night, there was less room for the conduct
of the generals than for the courage of the soldiers. The
return of light displayed the victory of Constantine, and a
field of carnage covered with many thousands of the
vanquished Italians. Their general, Pompeianus, was found
among the slain; Verona immediately surrendered at
discretion, and the garrison was made prisoners of war. (58)
When the officers of the victorious army congratulated their
master on this important success, they ventured to add some
respectful complaints, of such a nature, however, as the
most jealous monarchs will listen to without displeasure.
They represented to Constantine that, not contented with
performing all the duties of a commander, he had exposed his
own person with an excess of valour which almost degenerated
into rashness; and they conjured him for the future to pay
more regard to the preservation of a life in which the
safety of Rome and of the empire was involved. (59)
Indolence and fears of Maxentius
While Constantine signalised his conduct and valour in the
field, the sovereign of Italy appeared insensible of the
calamities and danger of a civil war which raged in the
heart of his dominions. Pleasure was still the only business
of Maxentius. Concealing, or at least attempting to conceal,
from the public knowledge the misfortunes of his arms, (60) he
indulged himself in a vain confidence, which deferred the
remedies of the approaching evil without deferring the evil
itself. (61) The rapid progress of Constantine (62) was scarcely
sufficient to awaken him from this fatal security; he
flattered himself that his well-known liberality and the
majesty of the Roman name, which had already delivered him
from two invasions, would dissipate with the same facility
the rebellious army of Gaul. The officers of experience and
ability who had served under the banners of Maximian were at
length compelled to inform his effeminate son of the
imminent danger to which he was reduced; and, with a freedom
that at once surprised and convinced him, to urge the
necessity of preventing his ruin by a vigorous exertion of
his remaining power. The resources of Maxentius, both of men
and money, were still considerable. The Praetorian guards
felt how strongly their own interest and safety were
connected with his cause; and a third army was soon
collected, more numerous than those which had been lost in
the battles of Turin and Verona. It was far from the
intention of the emperor to lead his troops in person. A
stranger to the exercises of war, he trembled at the
apprehension of so dangerous a contest; and, as fear is
commonly superstitious, he listened with melancholy
attention to the rumours of omens and presages which seemed
to menace his life and empire. Shame at length supplied the
place of courage, and forced him to take the field. He was
unable to sustain the contempt of the Roman people. The
circus resounded with their indignant clamours, and they
tumultuously besieged the gates of the palace, reproaching
the pusillanimity of their indolent sovereign, and
celebrating the heroic spirit of Constantine. (63) Before
Maxentius left Rome he consulted the Sibylline books. The
guardians of these ancient oracles were as well versed in
the arts of this world as they were ignorant of the secrets
of fate; and they returned him a very prudent answer, which
might adapt itself to the event, and secure their
reputation, whatever should be the chance of arms. (64)
Victory of Constantine near Rome.A.D. 312. 28th Oct.
The celerity of Constantine's march has been compared to the
rapid conquest of Italy by the first of the Caesars; nor is
the flattering parallel repugnant to the truth of history,
since no more than fifty-eight days elapsed between the
surrender of Verona and the final decision of the war.
Constantine had always apprehended that the tyrant would
consult the dictates of fear, and perhaps of prudence; and
that, instead of risking his last hopes in a general
engagement, he would shut himself up within the walls of
Rome. His ample magazines secured him against the danger of
famine; and as the situation of Constantine admitted not of
delay, he might have been reduced to the sad necessity of
destroying with fire and sword the Imperial city, the
noblest reward of his victory, and the deliverance of which
had been the motive, or rather indeed the pretence, of the
civil war. (65) It was with equal surprise and pleasure that,
on his arrival at a place called Saxa Rubra, about nine
miles from Rome, (66) he discovered the army of Maxentius
prepared to give him battle. (67) Their long front filled a
very spacious plain, and their deep array reached to the
banks of the Tiber, which covered their rear, and forbade
their retreat. We are informed, and we may believe, that
Constantine disposed his troops with consummate skill, and
that he chose for himself the post of honour and danger.
Distinguished by the splendour of his arms, he charged in
person the cavalry of his rival; and his irresistible attack
determined the fortune of the day. The cavalry of Maxentius
was principally composed either of unwieldy cuirassiers or
of light Moors and Numidians. They yielded to the vigour of
the Gallic horse, which possessed more activity than the
one, more firmness than the other. The defeat of the two
wings left the infantry without any protection on its
flanks, and the undisciplined Italians fled without
reluctance from the standard of a tyrant whom they had
always hated, and whom they no longer feared. The
Praetorians, conscious that their offences were beyond the
reach of mercy, were animated by revenge and despair.
Notwithstanding their repeated efforts, those brave veterans
were unable to recover the victory; they obtained, however,
an honourable death; and it was observed that their bodies
covered the same ground which had been occupied by their
ranks. (68) The confusion then became general, and the
dismayed troops of Maxentius, pursued by an implacable
enemy, rushed by thousands into the deep and rapid stream of
the Tiber. The emperor himself attempted to escape back into
the city over the Milvian bridge, but the crowds which
pressed together through that narrow passage forced him into
the river, where he was immediately drowned by the weight of
his armour. (69) His body, which had sunk very deep into the
mud, was found with some difficulty the next day. The sight
of his head, when it was exposed to the eyes of the people,
convinced them of their deliverance, and admonished them to
receive with acclamations of loyalty and gratitude the
fortunate Constantine, who thus achieved by his valour and
ability the most splendid enterprise of his life. (70)
His reception
In the use of victory Constantine neither deserved the
praise of clemency nor incurred the censure of immoderate
rigour. (71) He inflicted the same treatment to which a defeat
would have exposed his own person and family, put to death
the two sons of the tyrant, and carefully extirpated his
whole race. The most distinguished adherents of Maxentius
must have expected to share his fate, as they had shared his
prosperity and his crimes; but when the Roman people loudly
demanded a greater number of victims, the conqueror
resisted, with firmness and humanity, those servile
clamours, which were dictated by flattery as well as by
resentment. Informers were punished and discouraged, the
innocent who had suffered under the late tyranny were
recalled from exile, and restored to their estates. A
general act of oblivion quieted the minds and settled the
property of the people both in Italy and in Africa. (72) The
first time that Constantine honoured the senate with his
presence he recapitulated his own services and exploits in a
modest oration, assured that illustrious order of his
sincere regard, and promised to re-establish its ancient
duty and privileges. The grateful senate repaid these
unmeaning professions by the empty titles of honour which it
was yet in their power to bestow; and, without presuming to
ratify the authority of Constantine, they passed a decree to
assign him the first rank among the three Augusti who
governed the Roman world. (73) Games and festivals were
instituted to preserve the fame of his victory, and several
edifices, raised at the expense of Maxentius, were dedicated
to the honour of his successful rival. The triumphal arch
of Constantine still remains a melancholy proof of the
decline of the arts, and a singular testimony of the meanest
vanity. As it was not possible to find in the capital of the
empire a sculptor who was capable of adorning that public
monument, the arch of Trajan, without any respect either for
his memory or for the rules of propriety, was stripped of
its most elegant figures. The difference of times and
persons, of actions and characters, was totally disregarded.
The Parthian captives appear prostrate at the feet of a
prince who never carried his arms beyond the Euphrates; and
curious antiquarians can still discover the head of Trajan
on the trophies of Constantine. The new ornaments which it
was necessary to introduce between the vacancies of ancient
sculpture are executed in the rudest and most unskilful
manner. (74)
And conduct at Rome
The final abolition of the Praetorian guards was a measure
of prudence as well as of revenge. Those haughty troops,
whose numbers and privileges had been restored, and even
augmented, by Maxentius, were forever suppressed by
Constantine. Their fortified camp was destroyed, and the few
Praetorians who had escaped the fury of the sword were
dispersed among the legions and banished to the frontiers of
the empire, where they might be serviceable without again
becoming dangerous. (75) By suppressing the troops which were
usually stationed in Rome, Constantine gave the fatal blow
to the dignity of the senate and people, and the disarmed
capital was exposed, without protection, to the insults or
neglect of its distant master. We may observe that, in this
last effort to preserve their expiring freedom, the Romans,
from the apprehension of a tribute, had raised Maxentius to
the throne. He exacted that tribute from the senate under
the name of a free gift. They implored the assistance of
Constantine. He vanquished the tyrant, and converted the
free gift into a perpetual tax. The senators, according to
the declaration which was required of their property, were
divided into several classes. The most opulent paid annually
eight pounds of gold, the next class paid four, the last
two, and those whose poverty might have claimed an exemption
were assessed however, at seven pieces of gold. Besides the
regular members of the senate, their sons, their
descendants, and even their relations, enjoyed the vain
privileges and supported the heavy burdens of the senatorial
order; nor will it any longer excite our surprise that
Constantine should be attentive to increase the number of
persons who were included under so useful a description. (76)
After the defeat of Maxentius the victorious emperor passed
no more than two or three months in Rome, which he visited
twice during the remainder of his life to celebrate the
solemn festivals of the tenth and of the twentieth years of
his reign. Constantine was almost perpetually in motion, to
exercise the legions or to inspect the state of the
provinces. Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Sirmium, Naissus and
Thessalonica were the occasional places of his residence
till he founded a NEW ROME on the confines of Europe and
Asia. (77)
His alliance with Licinius. A.D. 313. March
Before Constantine marched into Italy he had secured the
friendship, or at least the neutrality, of Licinius, the
Illyrian emperor. He had promised his sister Constantia in
marriage to that prince; but the celebration of the nuptials
was deferred till after the conclusion of the war, and the
interview of the two emperors at Milan, which was appointed
for that purpose, appeared to cement the union of their
families and interests. (78) In the midst of the public
festivity they were suddenly obliged to take leave of each
other. An inroad of the Franks summoned Constantine to the
Rhine, and the hostile approach of the sovereign of Asia
demanded the immediate presence of Licinius.
War between Maximin and Licinius. A.D. 313
Maximin had
been the secret ally of Maxentius, and, without being
discouraged by his fate, he resolved to try the fortune of a
civil war. He moved out of Syria, towards the frontiers of
Bithynia, in the depth of winter. The season was severe and
tempestuous; great numbers of men as well as horses perished
in the snow; and as the roads were broken up by incessant
rains, he was obliged to leave behind him a considerable
part of the heavy baggage, which was unable to follow the
rapidity of his forced marches. By this extraordinary effort
of diligence, he arrived, with a harassed but formidable
army, on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus before the
lieutenants of Licinius were apprised of his hostile
intentions. Byzantium surrendered to the power of Maximin
after a siege of eleven days. He was detained some days
under the walls of Heraclea; and he had no sooner taken
possession of that city than he was alarmed by the
intelligence that Licinius had pitched his camp at the
distance of only eighteen miles. After a fruitless
negotiation, in which the two princes attempted to seduce
the fidelity of each other's adherents, they had recourse to
arms. the defeat, April 30,The emperor of the East commanded a disciplined and
veteran army of above seventy thousand men; and Licinius,
who had collected about thirty thousand Illyrians, was at
first oppressed by the superiority of numbers. His military
skill and the firmness of his troops restored the day and
obtained a decisive victory. The incredible speed which
Maximin exerted in his flight is much more celebrated than
his prowess in the battle. Twenty-four hours afterwards he
was seen pale, trembling, and without his Imperial
ornaments, at Nicomedia, one hundred and sixty miles from
the place of his defeat. The wealth of Asia was yet
unexhausted; and though the flower of his veterans had
fallen in the late action, he had still power, if he could
obtain time, to draw very numerous levies from Syria and
Egypt. But he survived his misfortune only three or four
months. and death of the former August.His death, which happened at Tarsus, was variously
ascribed to despair, to poison, and to the divine justice.
As Maximin was alike destitute of abilities and of virtue,
he was lamented neither by the people nor by the soldiers.
The provinces of the East, delivered from the terrors of
civil war, cheerfully acknowledged the authority of
Licinius. (79)
Cruelty of Licinius
The vanquished emperor left behind him two children, a boy
of about eight, and a girl of about seven, years old. Their
inoffensive age might have excited compassion; but the
compassion of Licinius was a very feeble resource, nor did
it restrain him from extinguishing the name and memory of
his adversary. The death of Severianus will admit of less
excuse, as it was dictated neither by revenge nor by policy.
The conqueror had never received any injury from the father
of that unhappy youth, and the short and obscure reign of
Severus, in a distant part of the empire, was already
forgotten. But the execution of Candidianus was an act of
the blackest cruelty and ingratitude. He was the natural son
of Galerius, the friend and benefactor of Licinius. The
prudent father had judged him too young to sustain the
weight of a diadem; but he hoped that, under the protection
of princes who were indebted to his favour for the imperial
purple, Candidianus might pass a secure and honourable life.
He was now advancing towards the twentieth year of his age,
and the royalty of his birth, though unsupported either by
merit or ambition, was sufficient to exasperate the jealous
mind of Licinius. (80) To these innocent and illustrious
victims of his tyranny we must add the wife and daughter of
the emperor Diocletian. When that prince conferred on
Galerius the title of Caesar, he had given him in marriage
his daughter Valeria, Unfortunate fate of the empress Valeria and her motherwhose melancholy adventures might
furnish a very singular subject for tragedy. She had
fulfilled and even surpassed the duties of a wife. As she
had not any children herself, she condescended to adopt the
illegitimate son of her husband, and invariably displayed
towards the unhappy Candidianus the tenderness and anxiety
of a real mother. After the death of Galerius, her ample
possessions provoked the avarice, and her personal
attractions excited the desires, of his successor, Maximin.
(81) He had a wife still alive; but divorce was permitted by the Roman law, and the fierce passions of the tyrant demanded an immediate gratification. The answer of Valeria
was such as became the daughter and widow of emperors; but it was tempered by the prudence which her defenceless condition compelled her to observe. She represented to the persons whom Maximin had employed on this occasion,
"that, even if honour could permit a woman of her character and dignity to entertain a thought of second nuptials, decency at least must forbid her to listen to his addresses at a time when the ashes of her husband and his benefactor were still warm, and while the sorrows of her mind were still expressed by her mourning garments. She ventured to declare that she could place very little confidence in the professions of a man whose cruel inconstancy was capable of repudiating a faithful and affectionate wife." (82)
On this repulse, the love of Maximin was converted into fury; and as witnesses and judges were always at his disposal, it was easy for him to cover his fury with an appearance of legal proceedings, and to assault the reputation as well as the happiness of Valeria. Her estates were confiscated, her eunuchs and domestics devoted to the most inhuman tortures; and several innocent and respectable matrons, who were honoured with her friendship, suffered death, on a false accusation of adultery. The empress herself, together with her mother Prisca, was condemned to exile; and as they were ignominiously hurried from place to place before they were confined to a sequestered village in the deserts of Syria, they exposed their shame and distress to the provinces of the East, which, during thirty years, had respected their august dignity. Diocletian made several ineffectual efforts to alleviate the misfortunes of his daughter; and, as the last return that he expected for the Imperial purple, which he had conferred upon Maximin, he entreated that Valeria might be permitted to share his retirement of Salona, and to close the eyes of her afflicted father. (83) He entreated; but as he could no longer threaten, his prayers were received with coldness and disdain; and the pride of Maximin was gratified in treating Diocletian as a suppliant, and his daughter as a criminal. The death of Maximin seemed to assure the empresses of a favourable alteration in their fortune. The public disorders relaxed the vigilance of their guard, and they easily found means to escape from the place of their exile, and to repair, though with some precaution, and in disguise, to the court of Licinius. His behaviour, in the first days of his reign, and the honourable reception which he gave to young Candidianus, inspired Valeria with a secret satisfaction, both on her own account, and on that of her adopted son. But these grateful prospects were soon succeeded by horror and astonishment; and the bloody executions which stained the palace of Nicomedia sufficiently convinced her that the throne of Maximin was filled by a tyrant more inhuman than himself. Valeria consulted her safety by a hasty flight, and, still accompanied by her mother Prisca, they wandered above fifteen months (84) through the provinces, concealed in the disguise of plebeian habits. They were at length discovered at Thessalonica; and as the sentence of their death was already pronounced, they were immediately beheaded, and their bodies thrown into the sea. The people gazed on the melancholy spectacle; but their grief and indignation were suppressed by the terrors of a military guard. Such was the unworthy fate of the wife and daughter of Diocletian. We lament their misfortunes, we cannot discover their crimes; and whatever idea we may justly entertain of the cruelty of Licinius, it remains a matter of surprise that he was not contented with some more secret and decent method of revenge. (85)
Quarrel between Constantine and Licinius. A.D. 314
The Roman world was now divided between Constantine and
Licinius, the former of whom was master of the West, and the
latter of the East. It might perhaps have been expected that
the conquerors, fatigued with civil war, and connected by a
private as well as public alliance, would have renounced, or
at least would have suspended, any farther designs of
ambition. And yet a year had scarcely elapsed after the
death of Maximin before the victorious emperors turned their
arms against each other. The genius, the success, and the
aspiring temper of Constantine, may seem to mark him out as
the aggressor; but the perfidious character of Licinius
justifies the most unfavourable suspicions, and by the faint
light which history reflects on this transaction (86) we may
discover a conspiracy fomented by his arts against the
authority of his colleague. Constantine had lately given his
sister Anastasia in marriage to Bassianus, a man of a
considerable family and fortune, and had elevated his new
kinsman to the rank of Caesar. According to the system of
government instituted by Diocletian, Italy, and perhaps
Africa, were designed for his department in the empire. But
the performance of the promised favour was either attended
with so much delay, or accompanied with so many unequal
conditions, that the fidelity of Bassianus was alienated
rather than secured by the honourable distinction which he
had obtained. His nomination had been ratified by the
consent of Licinius; and that artful prince, by the means of
his emissaries, soon contrived to enter into a secret and
dangerous correspondence with the new Caesar, to irritate
his discontents, and to urge him to the rash enterprise of
extorting by violence what he might in vain solicit from the
justice of Constantine. But the vigilant emperor discovered
the conspiracy before it was ripe for execution; and, after
solemnly renouncing the alliance of Bassianus, despoiled him
of the purple, and inflicted the deserved punishment on his
treason and ingratitude. The haughty refusal of Licinius,
when he was required to deliver up the criminals who had
taken refuge in his dominions, confirmed the suspicions
already entertained of his perfidy; and the indignities
offered at Almona, on the frontiers of Italy, to the statues
of Constantine, became the signal of discord between the two
princes. (87)
First civil war between them.
The first battle was fought near Cibalis, a city of
Pannonia, situated on the river Save, about fifty miles
above Sirmium. (88) From the inconsiderable forces which in
this important contest two such powerful monarchs brought
into the field, it may be inferred that the one was suddenly
provoked, and that the other was unexpectedly surprised. Battle of Cibalis. A.D. 315. 8th OctThe
emperor of the West had only twenty thousand, and the
sovereign of the East no more than five-and-thirty thousand,
men. The inferiority of number was, however, compensated by
the advantage of the ground. Constantine had taken post in a
defile about half a mile in breadth, between a steep hill
and a deep morass, and in that situation he steadily
expected and repulsed the first attack of the enemy. He
pursued his success and advanced into the plain. But the
veteran legions of Illyricum rallied under the standard of a
leader who had been trained to arms in the school of Probus
and Diocletian. The missile weapons on both sides were soon
exhausted; the two armies, with equal valour, rushed to a
closer engagement of swords and spears, and the doubtful
contest had already lasted from the dawn of the day to a
late hour of the evening, when the right wing, which
Constantine led in person, made a vigorous and decisive
charge. The judicious retreat of Licinius saved the
remainder of his troops from a total defeat; but when he
computed his loss, which amounted to more than twenty
thousand men, he thought it unsafe to pass the night in the
presence of an active and victorious enemy. Abandoning his
camp and magazines, he marched away with secrecy and
diligence at the head of the greatest part of his cavalry,
and was soon removed beyond the danger of a pursuit. His
diligence preserved his wife, his son, and his treasures,
which he had deposited at Sirmium. Licinius passed through
that city, and, breaking down the bridge on the Save,
hastened to collect a new army in Dacia and Thrace. In his
flight he bestowed the precarious title of Caesar on Valens,
his general of the Illyrian frontier. (89)
Battle of Mardia
The plain of Mardia in Thrace was the theatre of a second
battle no less obstinate and bloody than the former. The
troops on both sides displayed the same valour and
discipline; and the victory was once more decided by the
superior abilities of Constantine, who directed a body of
five thousand men to gain an advantageous height, from
whence, during the heat of the action, they attacked the
rear of the enemy, and made a very considerable slaughter.
The troops of Licinius, however, presenting a double front,
still maintained their ground till the approach of night put
an end to the combat, and secured their retreat towards the
mountains of Macedonia. (90) The loss of two battles, and of
his bravest veterans, reduced the fierce spirit of Licinius
to sue for peace. His ambassador, Mistrianus, was admitted
to the audience of Constantine: he expatiated on the common
topics of moderation and humanity, which are so familiar to
the eloquence of the vanquished; represented in the most
insinuating language that the event of the war was still
doubtful, whilst its inevitable calamities were alike
pernicious to both the contending parties; and declared that
he was authorised to propose a lasting and honourable peace
in the name of the two emperors his masters. Constantine
received the mention of Valens with indignation and
contempt.
"It was not for such a purpose," he sternly replied, "that we have advanced from the shores of the western ocean in an uninterrupted course of combats and victories, that, after rejecting an ungrateful kinsman, we should accept for our colleague a contemptible slave. The abdication of Valens is the first article of the treaty." (91)
It was necessary to accept this humiliating condition; and the unhappy Valens, after a reign of a few days, was deprived of the purple and of his life. As soon as this obstacle was removed, the tranquillity of the Roman world was easily restored. The successive defeats of Licinius had ruined his forces, but they had displayed his courage and abilities. His situation was almost desperate, but the efforts of despair are sometimes formidable, and the good sense of Constantine preferred a great and certain advantage to a third trial of the chance of arms. Treaty of peace. DecemberHe consented to leave his rival, or, as he again styled Licinius, his friend and brother, in the possession of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt; but the provinces of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece were yielded to the Western empire, and the dominions of Constantine now extended from the confines of Caledonia to the extremity of Peloponnesus. It was stipulated by the same treaty that three royal youths, the sons of the emperors, should be called to the hopes of the succession. Crispus and the young Constantine were soon afterwards declared Caesars in the West, while the younger Licinius was invested with the same dignity in the East. In this double proportion of honours, the conqueror asserted the superiority of his arms and power. (92)
General peace and laws of Constantine. A.D. 315-323
The reconciliation of Constantine and Licinius, though it
was embittered by resentment and jealousy, by the
remembrance of recent injuries, and by the apprehension of
future dangers, maintained, however, above eight years, the
tranquillity of the Roman world. As a very regular series of
the Imperial laws commences about this period, it would not
be difficult to transcribe the civil regulations which
employed the leisure of Constantine. But the most important
of his institutions are intimately connected with the new
system of policy and religion, which was not perfectly
established till the last and peaceful years of his reign.
There are many of his laws which, as far as they concern the
rights of property of individuals, and the practice of the
bar, are more properly referred to the private than to the
public jurisprudence of the empire; and he published many
edicts of so local and temporary a nature that they would
ill deserve the notice of a general history. Two laws,
however, may be selected from the crowd; the one for its
importance, the other for its singularity; the former for
its remarkable benevolence, the latter for its excessive
severity. 1. The horrid practice, so familiar to the
ancients, of exposing or murdering their newborn infants,
was becoming every day more frequent in the provinces, and
especially in Italy. It was the effect of distress; and the
distress was principally occasioned by the intolerable
burden of taxes, and by the vexatious as well as cruel
prosecutions of the officers of the revenue against their
insolvent debtors. The less opulent or less industrious part
of mankind, instead of rejoicing in an increase of family
deemed it an act of paternal tenderness to release their
children from the impending miseries of a life which they
themselves were unable to support. The humanity of
Constantine, moved, perhaps, by some recent and
extraordinary instances of despair, engaged him to address
an edict to all the cities of Italy, and afterwards of
Africa, directing immediate and sufficient relief to be
given to those parents who should produce before the
magistrates the children whom their own poverty would not
allow them to educate. But the promise was too liberal, and
the provision too vague, to effect any general or permanent
benefit. (93) The law, though it may merit some praise, served rather to display than to alleviate the public distress. It still remains an authentic monument to contradict and
confound those venal orators who were too well satisfied with their own situation to discover either vice or misery under the government of a generous sovereign. (94) 2. The
laws of Constantine against rapes were dictated with very little indulgence for the most amiable weaknesses of human nature; since the description of that crime was applied not only to the brutal violence which compelled, but even to the gentle seduction which might persuade, an unmarried woman, under the age of twenty-five, to leave the house of her parents. The successful ravisher was punished with death; and as if simple death was inadequate to the enormity of his guilt, he was either burnt alive, or torn in pieces by wild beasts in the amphitheatre. The virgin's declaration that she had been carried away with her own consent, instead of saving her lover, exposed her to share his fate. The duty of a public prosecution was intrusted to the parents of the guilty or unfortunate maid; and if the sentiments of nature prevailed on them to dissemble the injury, and to repair by a subsequent marriage the honour of their family, they were themselves punished by exile and confiscation. The slaves, whether male or female, who were convicted of having been accessary to the rape or seduction, were burnt alive, or put to death by the ingenious torture of pouring down their throats a quantity of melted lead. As the crime was of a public kind, the accusation was permitted even to strangers. The commencement of the action was not limited to any term of years, and the consequences of the sentence were extended to the innocent offspring of such an irregular union. (95) But whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind. The most odious parts of this edict were softened or repealed in the subsequent reigns; (96) and even Constantine himself very frequently alleviated, by partial acts of mercy, the stern temper of
his general institutions. Such, indeed, was the singular humour of that emperor, who showed himself as indulgent, and even remiss, in the execution of his laws, as he was severe, and even cruel, in the enacting of them. It is scarcely possible to observe a more decisive symptom of weakness, either in the character of the prince, or in the constitution of the government. (97)
The Gothic war. A.D. 322
The civil administration was sometimes interrupted by the
military defence of the empire. Crispus, a youth of the most
amiable character, who had received with the title of Caesar
the command of the Rhine, distinguished his conduct as well
as valour in several victories over the Franks and Alemanni,
and taught the barbarians of that frontier to dread the
eldest son of Constantine, and the grandson of Constantius.
(98) The emperor himself had assumed the more difficult and
important province of the Danube. The Goths, who in the time
of Claudius and Aurelian had felt the weight of the Roman
arms, respected the power of the empire, even in the midst
of its intestine divisions. But the strength of that warlike
nation was now restored by a peace of near fifty years; a
new generation had arisen, who no longer remembered the
misfortunes of ancient days: the Sarmatians of the lake
Maeotis followed the Gothic standard either as subjects or
as allies, and their united force was poured upon the
countries of Illyricum. Campona, Margus, and Bononia, appear
to have been the scenes of several memorable sieges and
battles; (99) and though Constantine encountered a very
obstinate resistance, he prevailed at length in the contest,
and the Goths were compelled to purchase an ignominious
retreat by restoring the booty and prisoners which they had
taken. Nor was this advantage sufficient to satisfy the
indignation of the emperor. He resolved to chastise as well
as to repulse the insolent barbarians who had dared to
invade the territories of Rome. At the head of his legions
he passed the Danube, after repairing the bridge which had
been constructed by Trajan, penetrated into the strongest
recesses of Dacia, (100) and, when he had inflicted a severe
revenge, condescended to give peace to the suppliant Goths,
on condition that, as often as they were required, they
should supply his armies with a body of forty thousand
soldiers. (101) Exploits like these were no doubt honourable
to Constantine and beneficial to the state; but it may
surely be questioned whether they can justify the
exaggerated assertion of Eusebius, that ALL SCYTHIA, as far
as the extremity of the North, divided as it was into so
many names and nations of the most various and savage
manners, had been added by his victorious arms to the Roman
empire. (102)
Second civil war between Constantine and Licinius. A.D. 323
In this exalted state of glory it was impossible that
Constantine should any longer endure a partner in the
empire. Confiding in the superiority of his genius and
military power, he determined, without any previous injury,
to exert them for the destruction of Licinius, whose
advanced age and unpopular vices seemed to offer a very easy
conquest. (103) But the old emperor, awakened by the
approaching danger, deceived the expectations of his friends
as well as of his enemies. Calling forth that spirit and
those abilities by which he had deserved the friend ship of
Galerius and the Imperial purple, he prepared himself for
the contest, collected the forces of the East, and soon
filled the plains of Hadrianople with his troops, and the
Straits of the Hellespont with his fleet. The army consisted
of one hundred and fifty thousand foot and fifteen thousand
horse, and as the cavalry was drawn, for the most part, from
Phrygia and Cappadocia, we may conceive a more favourable
opinion of the beauty of the horses than of the courage and
dexterity of their riders. The fleet was composed of three
hundred and fifty galleys of three ranks of oars. An hundred
and thirty of these were furnished by Egypt and the adjacent
coast of Africa. An hundred and ten sailed from the ports of
Phoenicia and the isle of Cyprus; and the maritime countries
of Bithynia, Ionia, and Caria were likewise obliged to
provide an hundred and ten galleys. The troops of
Constantine were ordered to rendezvous at Thessalonica; they
amounted to above an hundred and twenty thousand horse and
foot. (104) Their emperor was satisfied with their martial
appearance, and his army contained more soldiers, though
fewer men, than that of his eastern competitor. The legions
of Constantine were levied in the warlike provinces of
Europe; action had confirmed their discipline, victory had
elevated their hopes, and there were among them a great
number of veterans, who, after seventeen glorious campaigns
under the same leader, prepared themselves to deserve an
honourable dismission by a last effort of their valour. (105)
But the naval preparations of Constantine were in every
respect much inferior to those of Licinius. The maritime
cities of Greece sent their respective quotas of men and
ships to the celebrated harbour of Piraeus and their united
forces consisted of no more than two hundred small vessels;
a very feeble armament, if it is compared with those
formidable fleets which were equipped and maintained by the
republic of Athens during the Peloponnesian war. (106) Since
Italy was no longer the seat of government, the naval
establishments of Misenum and Ravenna had been gradually
neglected; and as the shipping and mariners of the empire
were supported by commerce rather than by war, it was
natural that they should the most abound in the industrious
provinces of Egypt and Asia. It is only surprising that the
eastern emperor, who possessed so great a superiority at
sea, should have neglected the opportunity of carrying an
offensive war into the centre of his rival's dominions.
Battle of Hadrianople. A.D. 323. July 3.
Instead of embracing such an active resolution, which might
have changed the whole face of the war, the prudent Licinius
expected the approach of his rival in a camp near
Hadrianople, which he had fortified with an anxious care
that betrayed his apprehension of the event. Constantine
directed his march from Thessallica towards that part of
Thrace, till he found himself stopped by the broad and rapid
stream of the Hebrus, and discovered the numerous army of
Licinius, which filled the steep ascent of the hill, from
the river to the city of Hadrianople. Many days were spent
in doubtful and distant skirmishes; but at length the
obstacles of the passage and of the attack were removed by
the intrepid conduct of Constantine. In this place we might
relate a wonderful exploit of Constantine which, though it
can scarcely be paralleled either in poetry or romance, is
celebrated, not by a venal orator devoted to his fortune,
but by an historian, the partial enemy of his fame. We are
assured that the valiant emperor threw himself into the
river Hebrus accompanied only by twelve horsemen, and that
by the effort or terror of his invincible arm, he broke,
slaughtered, and put to flight a host of an hundred and
fifty thousand men. The credulity of Zosimus prevailed so
strongly over his passion that, among the events of the
memorable battle of Hadrianople, he seems to have selected
and embellished, not the most important, but the most
marvellous. The valour and danger of Constantine are
attested by a slight wound which he received in the thigh;
but it may be discovered, even from an imperfect narration,
and perhaps a corrupted text, that the victory was obtained
no less by the conduct of the general than by the courage of
the hero; that a body of five thousand archers marched round
to occupy a thick wood in the rear of the enemy, whose
attention was diverted by the construction of a bridge; and
that Licinius, perplexed by so many artful evolutions, was
reluctantly drawn from his advantageous post to combat on
equal ground in the plain. The contest was no longer equal.
His confused multitude of new levies was easily vanquished
by the experienced veterans of the West. Thirty-four
thousand men are reported to have been slain. The fortified
camp of Licinius was taken by assault the evening of the
battle; the greater part of the fugitives, who had retired
to the mountains, surrendered themselves the next day to the
discretion of the conqueror; and his rival, who could no
longer keep the field, confined himself within the walls of
Byzantium. (107)
Siege of Byzantium, and naval victory of Crispus
The siege of Byzantium, which was immediately undertaken by
Constantine, was attended with great labour and uncertainty.
In the late civil wars, the fortifications of that place, so
justly considered as the key of Europe and Asia, had been
repaired and strengthened; and as long as Licinius remained
master of the sea, the garrison was much less exposed to the
danger of famine than the army of the besiegers. The naval
commanders of Constantine were summoned to his camp, and
received his positive orders to force the passage of the
Hellespont, as the fleet of Licinius, instead of seeking and
destroying their feeble enemy, continued inactive in those
narrow straits, where its superiority of numbers was of
little use or advantage. Crispus, the emperor's eldest son,
was intrusted with the execution of this daring enterprise,
which he performed with so much courage and success, that he
deserved the esteem, and most probably excited the jealousy,
of his father. The engagement lasted two days; and in the
evening of the first, the contending fleets, after a
considerable and mutual loss, retired into their respective
harbours of Europe and Asia. The second day about noon a
strong south wind (108) sprang up, which carried the vessels
of Crispus against the enemy; and as the casual advantage
was improved by his skilful intrepidity, he soon obtained a
complete victory. An hundred and thirty vessels were
destroyed, five thousand men were slain, and Amandus, the
admiral of the Asiatic fleet, escaped with the utmost
difficulty to the shores of Chalcedon. As soon as the
Hellespont was open, a plentiful convoy of provisions flowed
into the camp of Constantine, who had already advanced the
operations of the siege. He constructed artificial mounds of
earth of an equal height with the ramparts of Byzantium. The
lofty towers which were erected on that foundation galled
the besieged with large stones and darts from the military
engines, and the battering rams had shaken the walls in
several places. If Licinius persisted much longer in the
defence, he exposed himself to be involved in the ruin of
the place. Before he was surrounded, he prudently removed
his person and treasures to Chalcedon in Asia; and as he was
always desirous of associating companions to the hopes and
dangers of his fortune, he now bestowed the title of Caesar
on Martinianus, who exercised one of the most important
offices of the empire. (109)
Battle of Chrysopolis
Such were still the resources, and such the abilities, of
Licinius that, after so many successive defeats, he
collected in Bithynia a new army of fifty or sixty thousand
men, while the activity of Constantine was employed in the
siege of Byzantium. The vigilant emperor did not, however,
neglect the last struggles of his antagonist. A considerable
part of his victorious army was transported over the
Bosphorus in small vessels, and the decisive engagement was
fought soon after their landing on the heights of
Chrysopolis, or, as it is now called, of Scutari. The troops
of Licinius, though they were lately raised, ill armed, and
worse disciplined, made head against their conquerors with
fruitless but desperate valour, till a total defeat, and the
slaughter of five-and-twenty thousand men, irretrievably
determined the fate of their leader. (110)Submission and death of Licinius He retired to
Nicomedia, rather with the view of gaining some time for
negotiation than with the hope of any effectual defence.
Constantia, his wife, and the sister of Constantine,
interceded with her brother in favour of her husband, and
obtained from his policy, rather than from his compassion, a
solemn promise, confirmed by an oath, that after the
sacrifice of Martinianus, and the resignation of the purple,
Licinius himself should be permitted to pass the remainder
of his life in peace and affluence. The behaviour of
Constantia, and her relation to the contending parties,
naturally recalls the remembrance of that virtuous matron
who was the sister of Augustus and the wife of Antony. But
the temper of mankind was altered, and it was no longer
esteemed infamous for a Roman to survive his honour and
independence. Licinius solicited and accepted the pardon of
his offences, laid himself and his purple at the feet of his
lord and master, was raised from the ground with insulting
pity, was admitted the same day to the imperial banquet, and
soon afterwards was sent away to Thessalonica, which had
been chosen for the place of his confinement. (111) His
confinement was soon terminated by death, and it is doubtful
whether a tumult of the soldiers, or a decree of the senate,
was suggested as the motive for his execution. According to
the rules of tyranny, he was accused of forming a
conspiracy, and of holding a treasonable correspondence with
the barbarians; but as he was never convicted, either by his
own conduct or by any legal evidence, we may perhaps be
allowed, from his weakness, to presume his innocence. (112)
The memory of Licinius was branded with infamy, his statues were thrown down, and by a hasty edict, of such mischievous tendency that it was almost immediately corrected, all his laws and all the judicial proceedings of his reign were at once abolished. (113) Re-union of the empire. A.D. 324 By this victory of Constantine the Roman world was again united under the authority of one emperor, thirty-seven years after Diocletian had divided his power
and provinces with his associate Maximian.
The successive steps of the elevation of Constantine, from his first assuming the purple at York, to the resignation of Licinius at Nicomedia, have been related with some minuteness and precision, not only as the events are in themselves both interesting and important, but still more as they contributed to the decline of the empire by the expense of blood and treasure, and by the perpetual increase, as well of the taxes as of the military establishment. The foundation of Constantinople, and the establishment of the Christian religion, were the immediate and memorable consequences of this revolution.