Character of Constantine— Gothic War—Death of Constantine— Division of the Empire among His Three Sons— Persian War— Tragic Deaths of Constantine the Younger and Constans— Usurpation of Magnentius— Civil War— Victory of Constantius.
Character of Constantine
THE character of the prince who removed the seat of empire,
and introduced such important changes into the civil and
religious constitution of his country, has fixed the
attention, and divided the opinions of mankind By the
grateful zeal of the Christians the deliverer of the church
has been decorated with every attribute of a hero, and even
of a saint; while the discontent of the vanquished party has
compared Constantine to the most abhorred of those tyrants
who, by their vice and weakness, dishonoured the Imperial
purple. The same passions have, in some degree, been
perpetuated to succeeding generations, and the character of
Constantine is considered, even in the present age, as an
object either of satire or of panegyric. By the impartial
union of those defects which are confessed by his warmest
admirers, and of those virtues which are acknowledged by his
most implacable enemies, we might hope to delineate a just
portrait of that extraordinary man, which the truth and
candour of history should adopt without a blush.(1) But it
would soon appear that the vain attempt to blend such
discordant colours, and to reconcile such inconsistent
qualities, must produce a figure monstrous rather than
human, unless it is viewed in its proper and distinct lights
by a careful separation of the different periods of the
reign of Constantine.
His virtues
The person, as well as the mind, of Constantine had been
enriched by nature with her choicest endowments. His stature
was lofty, his countenance majestic, his deportment
graceful; his strength and activity were displayed in every
manly exercise, and, from his earliest youth to a very
advanced season of life, he preserved the vigour of his
constitution by a strict adherence to the domestic virtues
of chastity and of temperance. He delighted in the social
intercourse of familiar conversation; and though he might
sometimes indulge his disposition to raillery with less
reserve than was required by the severe dignity of his
station, the courtesy and liberality of his manners gained
the hearts of all who approached him. The sincerity of his
friendship has been suspected; yet he showed, on some
occasions, that he was not incapable of a warm and lasting
attachment. The disadvantage of an illiterate education had
not prevented him from forming a just estimate of the value
of learning; and the arts and sciences derived some
encouragement from the munificent protection of Constantine.
In the despatch of business his diligence was indefatigable;
and the active powers of his mind were almost continually
exercised in reading, writing, or meditating, in giving
audience to ambassadors, and in examining the complaints of
his subjects. Even those who censured the propriety of his
measures were compelled to acknowledge that he possessed
magnanimity to conceive, and patience to execute, the most
arduous designs, without being checked either by the
prejudices of education or by the clamours of the multitude.
In the field he infused his own intrepid spirit into the
troops, whom he conducted with the talents of a consummate
general; and to his abilities, rather than to his fortune,
we may ascribe the signal victories which he obtained over
the foreign and domestic foes of the republic. He loved
glory as the reward, perhaps as the motive, of his labours.
The boundless ambition which, from the moment of his
accepting the purple at York, appears as the ruling passion
of his soul, may be justified by the dangers of his own
situation, by the character of his rivals, by the
consciousness of superior merit, and by the prospect that
his success would enable him to restore peace and order to
the distracted empire. In his civil wars against Maxentius
and Licinius he had engaged on his side the inclinations of
the people, who compared the undissembled vices of those
tyrants with the spirit of wisdom and justice which seemed
to direct the general tenor of the administration of
Constantine.(2)
His vices
Had Constantine fallen on the banks of the Tiber. or even in
the plains of Hadrianople, such is the character which, with
a few exceptions he might have transmitted to posterity. But
the conclusion of his reign (according to the moderate and
indeed tender sentence of a writer of the same age) degraded
him from the rank which he had acquired among the most
deserving of the Roman princes.(3) In the life of Augustus we behold the tyrant of the republic converted almost by imperceptible degrees into the father of his country and of
human kind. In that of Constantine we may contemplate a
hero, who had so long inspired his subjects with love and
his enemies with terror, degenerating into a cruel and
dissolute monarch, corrupted by his fortune, or raised by
conquest above the necessity of dissimulation. The general
peace which he maintained during the last fourteen years of
his A.D. 323-337 reign was a period of apparent splendour rather than of real prosperity; and the old age of Constantine was
disgraced by the opposite yet reconcilable vices of
rapaciousness and prodigality. The accumulated treasures
found in the palaces of Maxentius and Licinius were lavishly
consumed; the various innovations introduced by the
conqueror were attended with an increasing expense, the cost
of his buildings, his court, and his festivals required an
immediate and plentiful supply; and the oppression of the
people was the only fund which could support the
magnificence of the sovereign. (4) His unworthy favourites, enriched by the boundless liberality of their master, usurped with impunity the privilege of rapine and
corruption.(5) A secret but universal decay was felt in every part of the public administration, and the emperor himself, though he still retained the obedience, gradually lost the
esteem, of his subjects. The dress and manners which, towards the decline of life, he chose to effect, served only to degrade him in the eyes of mankind. The Asiatic pomp which had been adopted by the pride of Diocletian assumed an
air of softness and effeminacy in the person of Constantine.
He is represented with false hair of various colours,
laboriously arranged by the skilful artists of the times; a
diadem of a new and more expensive fashion; a profusion of
gems and pearls, of collars and bracelets; and a variegated
flowing robe of silk, most curiously embroidered with
flowers of gold. In such apparel, scarcely to be excused by
the youth and folly of Elagabalus, we are at a loss to
discover the wisdom of an aged monarch and the simplicity of
a Roman veteran. (6) A mind thus relaxed by prosperity and
indulgence was incapable of rising to that magnanimity which
disdains suspicion and dares to forgive. The deaths of
Maximian and Licinius may perhaps be justified by the maxims
of policy as they are taught in the schools of tyrants; but
an impartial narrative of the executions, or rather murders,
which sullied the declining age of Constantine, will suggest
to our most candid thoughts the idea of a prince who could
sacrifice, without reluctance, the laws of justice and the
feelings of nature to the dictates either of his passions or
of his interest.
His family
The same fortune which so invariably followed the standard
of Constantine seemed to secure the hopes and comforts of
his domestic life. Those among his predecessors who had
enjoyed the longest and most prosperous reigns, Augustus,
Trajan, and Diocletian, had been disappointed of posterity;
and the frequent revolutions had never allowed sufficient
time for any imperial family to grow up and multiply under
the shade of the purple. But the royalty of the Flavian
line, which had been first ennobled by the Gothic Claudius,
descended through several generations; and Constantine
himself derived from his royal father the hereditary honours
which he transmitted to his children. The emperor had been
twice married. Minervina, the obscure but lawful object of
his youthful attachment, (7) had left him only one son, who
was called Crispus. By Fausta, the daughter of Maximian, he
had three daughters, and three sons known by the kindred
names of Constantine, Constantius, and Constans. The
unambitious brothers of the Great Constantine, Julius
Constantius, Dalmatius, and Hannibalanus, (8) were permitted
to enjoy the most honourable rank and the most affluent
fortune that could be consistent with a private station. The
youngest of the three lived without a name and did without
posterity. His two elder brothers obtained in marriage the
daughters of wealthy senators, and propagated new branches
of the Imperial race. Gallus and Julian afterwards became
the most illustrious of the children of Julius Constantius,
the Patrician. The two sons of Dalmatius, who had been
decorated with the vain title of Censor, were named
Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. The two sisters of the great
Constantine, Anastasia and Eutropia, were bestowed on
Optatus and Nepotianus, two senators of noble birth and of
consular dignity. His third sister, Constantia, was
distinguished by her pre-eminence of greatness and of
misery. She remained the widow of the vanquished Licinius;
and it was by her entreaties that an innocent boy, the
offspring of their marriage, preserved, for sometime, his
life, the title of Caesar, and a precarious hope of the
succession. Besides the females and the allies of the
Flavian house, ten or twelve males, to whom the language of
modern courts would apply the title of princes of the blood,
seemed, according to the order of their birth, to be
destined either to inherit or to support the throne of
Constantine. But in less than thirty years this numerous and
increasing family was reduced to the persons of Constantius
and Julian, who alone had survived a series of crimes and
calamities such as the tragic poets have deplored in the
devoted lines of Pelops and of Cadmus.
Virtues of Crispus
Crispus, the eldest son of Constantine, and the presumptive
heir of the empire, is represented by impartial historians
as an amiable and accomplished youth. The care of his
education, or at least of his studies, was intrusted to
Lactantius, the most eloquent of the Christians; a preceptor
admirably qualified to form the taste and to excite the
virtues of his illustrious disciple. (9) At the age of
seventeen Crispus was invested with the title of Caesar, and
the administration of the Gallic provinces, where the
inroads of the Germans gave him an early occasion of
signalising his military prowess. In the civil war which
broke out soon afterwards, the father and son divided their
powers; and this history has already celebrated the valour
as well as conduct displayed by the latter in forcing the
straits of the Hellespont, so obstinately defended by the
superior fleet of Licinius. This naval victory contributed
to determine the event of the war, and the names of
Constantine and of Crispus were united in the joyful
acclamations of their eastern subjects, who loudly
proclaimed that the world had been subdued, and was now
governed, by an emperor endowed with every virtue, and by
his illustrious son, a prince beloved of Heaven, and the
lively image of his father's perfections. The public favour,
which seldom accompanies old age, diffused its lustre over
the youth of Crispus. He deserved the esteem and he engaged
the affections of the court, the army, and the people. The
experienced merit of a reigning monarch is acknowledged by
his subjects with reluctance, and frequently denied with
partial and discontented murmurs; while, from the opening
virtues of his successor, they fondly conceive the most
unbounded hopes of private as well as public felicity.(10)
Jealousy of Constantine. A.D. 324, October 10.
This dangerous popularity soon excited the attention of
Constantine, who, both as a father and as a king, was
impatient of an equal. Instead of attempting to secure the
allegiance of his son by the generous ties of confidence and
gratitude, he resolved to prevent the mischiefs which might
be apprehended from dissatisfied ambition. Crispus soon had
reason to complain that, while his infant brother
Constantius was sent with the title of Caesar to reign over
his peculiar department of the Gallic provinces,(11) he, a prince of mature years, who had performed such recent and
signal services, instead of being raised to the superior
rank of Augustus, was confined almost a prisoner to his
father's court, and exposed, without power or defence, to
every calumny which the malice of his enemies could suggest.
Under such painful circumstances the royal youth might not
always be able to compose his behaviour or suppress his
discontent and we may be assured that he was encompassed by
a train of indiscreet or perfidious followers, who
assiduously studied to inflame, and who were perhaps
instructed to betray, the unguarded warmth of his
resentment.A.D. 325, October 1 An edict of Constantine, published about this time, manifestly indicates his real or affected suspicions that a secret conspiracy had been formed against his person and government. By all the allurements of honours and
rewards he invites informers of every degree to accuse,
without exception, his magistrates or ministers, his friends
or his most intimate favourites, protesting, with a solemn
asseveration, that he himself will listen to the charge,
that he himself will revenge his injuries; and concluding
with a prayer, which discovers some apprehension of danger,
that the providence of the Supreme Being may still continue
to protect the safety of the emperor and of the empire.(12)
Disgrace and death of Crispus, A.D. 326, July
The informers who complied with so liberal an invitation
were sufficiently versed in the arts of courts to select the
friends and adherents of Crispus as the guilty persons; nor
is there any reason to distrust the veracity of the emperor
who had promised an ample measure of revenge and punishment.
The policy of Constantine maintained, however, the same
appearances of regard and confidence towards a son whom he
began to consider as his most irreconcilable enemy. Medals
were struck with the customary vows for the long and
auspicious reign of the young Caesar;(13) and as the people
who was not admitted into the secrets of the palace, still
loved his virtues and respected his dignity, a poet, who
solicits his recall from exile adores with equal devotion
the majesty of the father and that of the son.(14) The time
was now arrived for celebrating the august ceremony of the
twentieth year of the reign of Constantine and the emperor,
for that purpose, removed his court from Nicomedia to Rome,
where the most splendid preparations had been made for his
reception. Every eye and every tongue affected to express
their sense of the general happiness, and the veil of
ceremony and dissimulation was drawn for a while over the
darkest designs of revenge and murder.(15) In the midst of
the festival the unfortunate Crispus was apprehended by
order of the emperor, who laid aside the tenderness of a
father without assuming the equity of a judge. The
examination was short and private;(16) and as it was thought
decent to conceal the fate of the young prince from the eyes
of the Roman people, he was sent under a strong guard to
Pola, in Istria, where, soon afterwards, he was put to
death, either by the hand of the executioner or by the more
gentle operation of poison.(17) The Caesar Liciniuss, a youth
of amiable manners, was involved in the ruin of Crispus,(18)
and the stern jealousy of Constantine was unmoved by the
prayers and tears of his favourite sister, pleading for the
life of a son whose rank was his only crime, and whose loss
she did not long survive. The story of these unhappy
princes, the nature and evidence of their guilt, the forms
of their trial, and the circumstances of their death, were
buried in mysterious obscurity, and the courtly bishop, who
has celebrated in an elaborate work the virtues and piety of
his hero, observes a prudent silence on the subject of these
tragic events.(19) Such haughty contempt for the opinion of
mankind, whilst it imprints an indelible stain on the memory
of Constantine, must remind us of the very different
behaviour of one of the greatest monarchs of the present
age. The Czar Peter, in the full possession of despotic
power, submitted to the judgment of Russia, of Europe, and
of posterity, the reasons which had compelled him to
subscribe the condemnation of a criminal, or at least of a
degenerate, son. (20)
The empress Fausta
The innocence of Crispus was so universally acknowledged
that the modern Greeks, who adore the memory of their
founder, are reduced to palliate the guilt of a parricide
which the common feelings of human nature forbade them to
justify. They pretend that, as soon as the afflicted father
discovered the falsehood of the accusation by which his
credulity had been so fatally misled, he published to the
world his repentance and remorse; that he mourned forty
days, during which he abstained from the use of the bath and
all the ordinary comforts of life; and that, for the lasting
instruction of posterity, he erected a golden statue of
Crispus, with this memorable inscription, - TO MY SON, WHOM
I UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED. (21) A tale so moral and so interesting would deserve to be supported by less exceptionable
authority; but if we consult the more ancient and authentic
writers, they will inform us that the repentance of
Constantine was manifested only in acts of blood and
revenge, and that he atoned for the murder of an innocent
son by the execution, perhaps, of a guilty wife. They
ascribe the misfortunes of Crispus to the arts of his
stepmother, Fausta, whose implacable hatred or whose
disappointed love renewed in the palace of Constantine the
ancient tragedy of Hippolytus and of Phaedra.(22) Like the
daughter of Minos, the daughter of Maximian accused her
son-in-law of an incestuous attempt on the chastity of his
father's wife and easily obtained, from the jealousy of the
emperor, a sentence of death against a young prince whom she
considered with reason as the most formidable rival of her
own children. But Helena, the aged mother of Constantine,
lamented and revenged the untimely fate of her grandson
Crispus; nor was it long before a real or pretended
discovery was made that Fausta herself entertained a
criminal connection with a slave belonging to the Imperial
stables.(23) Her condemnation and punishment were the instant
consequences of the charge, and the adulteress was
suffocated by the steam of a bath, which, for that purpose,
had been heated to an extraordinary degree.(24) By some it
will perhaps be thought that the remembrance of a Conjugal
union of twenty years, and the honour of their common
offspring, the destined heirs of the throne, might have
softened the obdurate heart of Constantine, and persuaded
him to suffer his wife, however guilty she might appear, to
expiate her offences in a solitary prison. But it seems a
superfluous labour to weight the propriety, unless we could
ascertain the truth, of this singular event, which is
attended with some circumstances of doubt and perplexity.
Those who have attacked, and those who have defended, the
character of Constantine, have alike disregarded two very
remarkable passages of two orations pronounced under the
succeeding reign. The former celebrates the virtues, the
beauty, and the fortune of the empress Fausta, the daughter,
wife, sister, and mother of so many princes.(25) The latter
asserts, in explicit terms, that the mother of the younger
Constantine, who was slain three years after his father's
death, survived to weep over the fate of her son. (26)
Notwithstanding the positive testimony of several writers of
the Pagan as well as of the Christian religion, there may
still remain some reason to believe, or at least to suspect,
that Fausta escaped the blind and suspicious cruelty of her
husband. The deaths of a son and of a nephew, with the
execution of a great number of respectable and perhaps
innocent friends,(27) who were involved in their fall, may be
sufficient, however, to justify the discontent of the Roman
people, and to explain the satirical verses affixed to the
palace gate, comparing the splendid and bloody reigns of
Constantine and Nero.(28)
The sons and nephews of Constantine
By the death of Crispus the inheritance of the empire seemed
to devolve on the three sons of Fausta, who have been
already mentioned under the names of Constantine,
Constantius, and of Constans. These young princes were
successively invested with the title of Caesar, and the
dates of their promotion may be referred to the tenth, the
twentieth, and the thirtieth years of the reign of their
father.(29) This conduct, though it tended to multiply the
future masters of the Roman world, might be excused by the
partiality of paternal affection; but it is not so easy to
understand the motives of the emperor, when he endangered
the safety both of his family and of his people by the
unnecessary elevation of his two nephews, Dalmatius and
Hannibalianus. The former was raised, by the title of
Caesar, to an equality with his cousins. In favour of the
latter, Constantine invented the new and singular
appellation of Nobilissimus, (30) to which he annexed the flattering distinction of a robe of purple and gold. But of
the whole series of Roman princes in any age of the empire
Hannibalianus alone was distinguished by the title of KING,
a name which the subjects of Tiberius would have detested as
the profane and cruel insult of capricious tyranny. The use
of such a title, even as it appears under the reign of
Constantine, is a strange and unconnected fact, which can
scarcely be admitted on the joint authority of Imperial
medals and contemporary writers.(31)
Their education
The whole empire was deeply interested in the education of
these five youths, the acknowledged successors of
Constantine. The exercises of the body prepared them for the
fatigues of war and the duties of active life. Those who
occasionally mention the education or talents of Constantius
allow that he excelled in the gymnastic arts of leaping and
running; that he was a dexterous archer, a skilful horseman,
and a master of all the different weapons used in the
service either of the cavalry or of the infantry.(32) The
same assiduous cultivation was bestowed, though not perhaps
with equal success, to improve the minds of the sons and
nephews of Constantine.(33) The most celebrated professors of
the Christian faith, of the Grecian philosophy, and of the
Roman jurisprudence, were invited by the liberality of the
emperor, who reserved for himself the important task of
instructing the royal youths in the science of government
and the knowledge of mankind. But the genius of Constantine
himself had been formed by adversity and experience. In the
free intercourse of private life, and amidst the dangers of
the court of Galerius, he had learned to command his own
passions, to encounter those of his equals, and to depend
for his present safety and future greatness on the prudence
and firmness of his personal conduct. His destined
successors had the misfortune of being born and educated in
the Imperial purple. Incessantly surrounded with a train of
flatterers, they passed their youth in the enjoyment of
luxury and the expectation of a throne; nor would the
dignity of their rank permit them to descend from that
elevated station from whence the various characters of human
nature appear to wear a smooth and uniform aspect. The
indulgence of Constantine admitted them, at a very tender
age, to share the administration of the empire; and they
studied the art of reigning, at the expense of the people
intrusted to their care. The younger Constantine was
appointed to hold his court in Gaul; and his brother
Constantius exchanged that department, the ancient patrimony
of their father, for the more opulent, but less martial,
countries of the East. Italy, the Western Illyricum, and
Africa, were accustomed to revere Constans, the third of his
sons, as the representative of the great Constantine. He
fixed Dalmatius on the Gothic frontier, to which he annexed
the government of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece. The city of
Caesarea was chosen for the residence of Hannibalianus; and
the provinces of Pontus, Cappadocia, and the Lesser Armenia,
were designed to form the extent of his new kingdom. For
each of these princes a suitable establishment was provided.
A just proportion of guards, of legions, and of auxiliaries,
was allotted for their respective dignity and defence. The
ministers and generals who were placed about their persons
were such as Constantine could trust to assist, and even to
control, these youthful sovereigns in the exercise of their
delegated power. As they advanced in years and experience,
the limits of their authority were insensibly enlarged: but
the emperor always reserved for himself the title of
Augustus; and while he showed the Caesars to the armies and
provinces, he maintained every part of the empire in equal
obedience to its supreme head. (34) The tranquillity of the
last fourteen years of his reign was scarcely interrupted by
the contemptible insurrection of a camel-driver in the
island of Cyprus, (35) or by the active part which the policy
of Constantine engaged him to assume in the wars of the
Goths and Sarmatians.
Manners of the Sarmatians
Among the different branches of the human race, the
Sarmatians form a very remarkable shade; as they seem to
unite the manners of the Asiatic barbarians with the figure
and complexion of the ancient inhabitants of Europe.
According to the various accidents of peace and war, of
alliance or conquest, the Sarmatians were sometimes confined
to the banks of the Tanais, and they sometimes spread
themselves over the immense plains which lie between the
Vistula and the Volga.(36) The care of their numerous flocks
and herds, the pursuit of game, and the exercise of war, or
rather of rapine, directed the vagrant motions of the
Sarmatians. The movable camps or cities, the ordinary
residence of their wives and children, consisted only of
large waggons drawn by oxen, and covered in the form of
tents. The military strength of the nation was composed of
cavalry; and the custom of their warriors to lead in their
hand one or two spare horses enabled them to advance and to
retreat with a rapid diligence, which surprised the
security, and eluded the pursuit, of a distant enemy.(37)
Their poverty of iron prompted their rude industry to invent
a sort of cuirass, which was capable of resisting a sword or
javelin, though it was formed only of horses hoofs, cut into
thin and polished slices, carefully laid over each other in
the manner of scales or feathers, and strongly sewed upon an
undergarment of coarse linen. (38) The offensive arms of the
Sarmatians were short daggers, long lances, and a weighty
bow with a quiver of arrows. They were reduced to the
necessity of employing fish-bones for the points of their
weapons; but the custom of dipping them in a venomous
liquor, that poisoned the wounds which they inflicted, is
alone sufficient to prove the most savage manners; since a
people impressed with a sense of humanity would have
abhorred so cruel a practice, and a nation skilled in the
arts of war would have disdained so impotent a resource.(39)
Whenever these barbarians issued from their deserts in quest
of prey, their shaggy beards, uncombed locks, the furs with
which they were covered from head to foot, and their fierce
countenancess which seemed to express the innate cruelty of
their minds, inspired the more civilised provincials of Rome
with horror and dismay.
Their settlement near the Danube.
The tender Ovid, after a youth spent in the enjoyment of
fame and luxury, was condemned to an hopeless exile on the
frozen banks of the Danube, where he was exposed, almost
without defence, to the fury of these monsters of the
desert, with whose stern spirits he feared that his gentle
shade might hereafter be confounded. In his pathetic, but
sometimes unmanly lamentations, (40) he describes in the most
lively colours the dress and manners, the arms and inroads;
of the Getae and Sarmatians, who were associated for the
purposes of destruction; and from the accounts of history
there is some reason to believe that these Sarmatians were
the Jazygae, one of the most numerous and warlike tribes of
the nation. The allurements of plenty engaged them to seek a
permanent establishment on the frontiers of the empire. Soon
after the reign of Augustus they obliged the Dacians, who
subsisted by fishing on the banks of the river Theiss or
Tibiscus, to retire into the hilly country, and to abandon
to the victorious Sarmatians the fertile plains of the Upper
Hungary, which are bounded by the course of the Danube and
the semicircular enclosure of the Carpathian mountains.(41)
In this advantageous position they watched or suspended the
moment of attack, as they were provoked by injuries or
appeased by presents; they gradually acquired the skill of
using more dangerous weapons; and although the Sarmatians
did not illustrate their name by any memorable exploits,
they occasionally assisted their eastern and western
neighbours, the Goths and the Germans, with a formidable
body of cavalry. They lived under the irregular aristocracy
of their chieftains, (42) but after they had received into
their bosom the fugitive Vandals who yielded to the pressure
of the Gothic power, they seem to have chosen a king from
that nation, and from the illustrious race of the Astingi,
who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the northern ocean.
(43)
The Gothic war, A.lD. 331.
This motive of enmity must have inflamed the subjects of
contention which perpetually arise on the confines of
warlike and independent nations. The Vandal princes were
stimulated by fear and revenge; the Gothic kings aspired to
extend their dominion from the Euxine to the frontiers of
Germany; and the waters of the Maros, a small river which
falls into the Theiss, were stained with the blood of the
contending barbarians. After some experience of the superior
strength and numbers of their adversaries, the Sarmatians
implored the protection of the Roman monarch, who beheld
with pleasure the discord of the nations, but who was justly
alarmed by the progress of the Gothic arms. As soon as
Constantine had declared himself in favour of the weaker
party, the haughty Araric, king of the Goths, instead of
expecting the attack of the legions, boldly passed the
Danube, and spread terror and devastation through the
province of Maesia. To oppose the inroad of this destroying
host the aged emperor took the field in person; but on this
occasion either his conduct or his fortune betrayed the
glory which he had acquired in so many foreign and domestic
wars. He had the mortification of seeing his troops fly
before an inconsiderable detachment of the barbarians, who
pursued them to the edge of their fortified camp, and
obliged him to consult his safety by a precipitate and
ignominious retreat. (44) The event of a second and more
successful action retrieved the honour of the Roman name;
and the powers of art and discipline prevailed, after an
obstinate contest, over the efforts of irregular valour. The
broken army of the Goths abandoned the field of battle, the
wasted province, and the passage of the Danube: and although
the eldest of the sons of Constantine was permitted to
supply the place of his father, the A.D. 332, April 20. merit of the victory, which diffused universal joy, was ascribed to the auspicious counsels of the emperor himself.
He contributed at least to improve this advantage by his negotiations with the free and warlike people of Chersonesus,(45) whose capital, situated on the western coast of the Tauric or Crimaean peninsula, still retained some vestiges of a Grecian colony, and was governed by a perpetual magistrate, assisted by a council of senators, emphatically styled the Fathers of the City. The Chersonites were animated against the Goths by the memory of the wars which, in the preceding century, they had maintained with unequal forces against the invaders of their country. They were connected with the Romans by the mutual benefits of commerce; as they were supplied from the provinces of Asia with corn and manufactures, which they purchased with their only productions, salt, wax, and hides. Obedient to the requisition of Constantine, they prepared under the conduct of their magistrate Diogenes, a considerable army, of which the principal strength consisted in cross-bows and military chariots. The speedy march and intrepid attack of the Chersonites, by diverting the attention of the Goths, assisted the operations of the Imperial generals. The Goths, vanquished on every side, were driven into the mountains, where, in the course of a severe campaign, above an hundred thousand were computed to have perished by cold and hunger. Peace was at length granted to their humble supplications; the eldest son of Araric was accepted as the most valuable hostage; and Constantine endeavoured to convince their chiefs, by a liberal distribution of honours and rewards, how far the friendship of the Romans was preferable to their enmity. In the expressions of his gratitude towards the faithful Chersonites, the emperor was still more magnificent. The pride of the nation was gratified by the splendid and almost royal decorations bestowed on their magistrate and his successors. A perpetual exemption from all duties was stipulated for their vessels which traded to the ports of the Black Sea. A regular subsidy was promised, of iron, corn, oil, and of every supply which could be useful either in peace or war. But it was thought that the Sarmatians were sufficiently rewarded by their deliverance from impending ruin and the emperor, perhaps with too strict an economy, deducted some part of the expenses of the war from the customary gratifications which were allowed to that turbulent nation.
Expulsion of the Sarmatians, A.D. 334
Exasperated by this apparent neglect, the Sarmatians soon
forgot, with the levity of barbarians, the services which
they had so lately received, and the dangers which still
threatened their safety. Their inroads on the territory of
the empire provoked the indignation of Constantine to leave
them to their fate; and he no longer opposed the ambition of
Geberic, a renowned warrior, who had recently ascended the
Gothic throne. Wisumar, the Vandal king, whilst, alone and
unassisted, he defended his dominions with undaunted
courage, was vanquished and slain in a decisive battle which
swept away the flower of the Sarmatian youth. The remainder
of the nation embraced the desperate expedient of arming
their slaves, a hardy race of hunters and herdsmen, by whose
tumultuary aid they revenged their defeat, and expelled the
invader from their confines. But they soon discovered that
they had exchanged a foreign for a domestic enemy, more
dangerous and more implacable. Enraged by their former
servitude, elated by their present glory, the slaves, under
the name of Limigantes, claimed and usurped the possession
of the country which they had saved. Their masters, unable
to withstand the ungoverned fury of the populace, preferred
the hardships of exile to the tyranny of their servants.
Some of the fugitive Sarmatians solicited a less ignominious
dependence under the hostile standard of the Goths. A more
numerous band retired beyond the Carpathian mountains, among
the Quadi, their German allies, and were easily admitted to
share a superfluous waste of uncultivated land. But the far
greater part of the distressed nation turned their eyes
towards the fruitful provinces of Rome. Imploring the
protection and forgiveness of the emperor, they solemnly
promised, as subjects in peace, and as soldiers in war, the
most inviolable fidelity to the empire which should
graciously receive them into its bosom. According to the
maxims adopted by Probus and his successors, the offers of
this barbarian colony were eagerly accepted; and a competent
portion of lands in the provinces of Pannonia, Thrace,
Macedonia, and Italy, were immediately assigned for the
habitation and subsistence of three hundred thousand
Sarmatians.(46)
Death and funeral of Constantine, A.D. 335, July 25.
By chastising the pride of the Goths, and by accepting the
homage of a suppliant nation, Constantine asserted the
majesty of the Roman empire; and the ambassadors of
Aethiopia, Persia, and the most remote countries of India,
congratulated the peace and prosperity of his government.(47)
If he reckoned among the favours of fortune the death of his
eldest son, of his nephew, and perhaps of his wife, he
enjoyed an uninterrupted flow of private as well as public
felicity till the thirtieth year of his reign; a period
which none of his predecessors; since Augustus, had been
permitted to celebrate. Constantine survived that solemn
festival about ten months; and, at the mature age of
A.D. 337, May 22.sixty-four, after a short illness, he ended his memorable life at the palace of Aquyrion, in the suburbs of Nicomedia, whither he had retired for the benefit of the air, and with
the hope of recruiting his exhausted strength by the use of
the warm baths. The excessive demonstrations of grief, or at
least of mourning, surpassed what ever had been practised on
any former occasion. Notwithstanding the claims of the
senate and people of ancient Rome, the corpse of the
deceased emperor, according to his last request, was
transported to the city which was destined to preserve the
name and memory of its founder. The body of Constantine,
adorned with the vain symbols of greatness, the purple and
diadem, was deposited on a golden bed in one of he
apartments of the palace, which for that purpose had been
splendidly furnished and illuminated. The forms of the court
were strictly maintained. Every day, at the appointed hours,
the principal officers of the state, the army, and the
household, approaching the person of their sovereign with
bended knees and a composed countenance, offered their
respectful homage as seriously as if he had been still
alive. From motives of policy, this theatrical
representation was for some time continued; nor could
flattery neglect the opportunity of remarking that
Constantine alone, by the peculiar indulgence of Heaven, had
reigned after his death.(48)
Factions of the court.
But this reign could subsist only in empty pageantry; and it
was soon discovered that the will of the most absolute
monarch is seldom obeyed when his subjects have no longer
anything to hope from his favour, or to dread from is
resentment. The same ministers and generals who bowed with
such reverential awe before the inanimate corpse of their
deceased sovereign were engaged in secret consultations to
exclude his two nephews, Dalmatius and Hannialianus, from
the share which he had assigned them in the succession of
the empire. We are too imperfectly acquainted with the court
of Constantine to form any judgment of the real motives
which influenced the leaders of the conspiracy; unless we
should suppose that they were actuated by a spirit of
jealousy and revenge against the praefect Ablavius, a proud
favourite, who had long directed the counsels and abused the
confidence of the late emperor. The arguments by which they
solicited the concurrence of the soldiers and people are of
a more obvious nature: and they might with decency, as well
as truth, insist on the superior rank of the children of
Constantine, the danger of multiplying the number of
sovereigns, and the impending mischiefs which threatened the
republic, from the discord of so many rival princes who were
not connected by the tender sympathy of fraternal affection.
The intrigue was conducted with zeal and secrecy, till a
loud and unanimous declaration was procured from the troops
that they would suffer none except the sons of their
lamented monarch to reign over the Roman empire.(49) The
younger Dalmatius, who was united with his collateral
relations by the ties of friendship and interest, is allowed
to have inherited a considerable share of the abilities of
the great Constantine; but, on this occasion, he does not
appear to have concerted any measures for supporting by arms
the just claims which himself and his royal brother derived
from the liberality of their uncle. Astonished and
overwhelmed by the tide of popular fury, they seem to have
remained, without the power of flight or of resistance, in
the hands of their implacable enemies. Their fate was
suspended till the arrival of Constantius, the second,(50)
and perhaps the most favoured, of the sons of Constantine.
Massacre of the princes.
The voice of the dying emperor had recommended the care of
his funeral to the piety of Constantius; and that prince, by
the vicinity of his eastern station, could easily prevent
the diligence of his brothers, who resided in their distant
governments of Italy and Gaul. As soon as he had taken
possession of the palace of Constantinople, his first care
was to remove the apprehensions of his kinsmen, by a solemn
oath which he pledged for their security. His next
employment was to find some specious pretence which might
release his conscience from the obligation of an imprudent
promise. The arts of fraud were made subservient to the
designs of cruelty; and a manifest forgery was attested by a
person of the most sacred character. From the hands of the
bishop of Nicomedia, Constantius received a fatal scroll,
affirmed to be the genuine testament of his father; in which
the emperor expressed his suspicions that he had been
poisoned by his brothers; and conjured his sons to revenge
his death, and to consult their own safety, by the
punishment of the guilty. (51) Whatever reasons might have
been alleged by these unfortunate princes to defend their
life and honour against so incredible an accusation, they
were silenced by the furious clamours of the soldiers, who
declared themselves, at once, their enemies, their judges,
and their executioners. The spirit, and even the forms, of
legal proceedings were repeatedly violated in a promiscuous
massacre; which involved the two uncles of Constantius,
seven of his cousins, of whom Dalmatius and Hannibalianus
were the most illustrious, the Patrician Optatus, who had
married a sister of the late emperor, and the praefect
Ablavius, whose power and riches had inspired him with some
hopes of obtaining the purple. If it were necessary to
aggravate the horrors of this bloody scene, we might add
that Constantius himself had espoused the daughter of his
uncle Julius, and that he had bestowed his sister in
marriage on his cousin Hannibalianus. These alliances, which
the policy of Constantine, regardless of the public
prejudice,(52) had formed between the several branches of the
Imperial house, served only to convince mankind that these
princes were as cold to the endearments of conjugal
affection, as they were insensible to the ties of
consanguinity and the moving entreaties of youth and
innocence. Of so numerous a family, Gallus and Julian alone,
the two youngest children of Julius Constantius, were saved
from the hands of the assassins, till their rage, satiated
with slaughter, had in some measure subsided. The emperor
Constantius, who, in the absence of his brothers, was the
most obnoxious to guilt and reproach, discovered, on some
future occasions, a faint and transient remorse for those
cruelties which the perfidious counsels of his ministers and
the irresistible violence of the troops, had extorted from
his inexperienced youth.(53)
Division of the empire, A.D. 337, Sept. 11
The massacre of the Flavian race was succeeded by a new
division of the provinces, which was ratified in a personal
interview of the three brothers. Constantine, the eldest of
the Caesars, obtained, with a certain pre-eminence of rank,
the possession of the new capital, which bore his own name
and that of his father. Thrace and the countries of the East
were allotted for the patrimony of Constantius; and Constans
was acknowledged as the lawful sovereign of Italy, Africa,
and the western Illyricum. The armies submitted to their
hereditary right, and they condescended, after some delay,
to accept from the Roman senate the title of Augustus. When
they first assumed the reins of government, the eldest of
these princes was twenty-one, the second twenty, and the
third only seventeen, years of age.(54)
Sapor king of Persia, A.D. 310.
While the martial nations of Europe followed the standards
of his brothers, Constantius, at the head of the effeminate
troops of Asia, was left to sustain the weight of the
Persian war. At the decease of Constantine, the throne of
the East was filled by Sapor, son of Hormouz, or Hormisdas,
and grandson of Narses, who, after the victory of Galerius,
had humbly confessed the superiority of the Roman power.
Although Sapor was in the thirtieth year of his long reign,
he was still in the vigour of youth, as the date of his
accession, by a very strange fatality, had preceded that of
his birth. The wife of Hormouz remained pregnant at the time
of her husband's death, and the uncertainty of the sex, as
well as of the event, excited the ambitious hopes of the
princes of the house of Sassan. The apprehensions of civil
war were at length removed by the positive assurance of the
Magi that the widow of Hormouz had conceived, and would
safely produce a son. Obedient to the voice of superstition,
the Persians prepared, without delay, the ceremony of his
coronation. A royal bed, on which the queen lay in state,
was exhibited in the midst of the palace; the diadem was
placed on the spot which might be supposed to conceal the
future heir of Artaxerxes, and the prostrate satraps adored
the majesty of their invisible and insensible sovereign.(55)
If any credit can be given to this marvellous tale, which
seems, however, to be countenanced by the manners of the
people and by the extraordinary duration of his reign, we
must admire not only the fortune but the genius of Sapor. In
the soft sequestered education of a Persian harem the royal
youth could discover the importance of exercising the vigour
of his mind and body, and by his personal merit deserved a
throne on which he had been seated while he was yet
unconscious of the duties and temptations of absolute power.
His minority was exposed to the almost inevitable calamities
of domestic discord; his capital was surprised and plundered
by Thair, a powerful king of Yemen or Arabia, and the
majesty of the royal family was degraded by the captivity of
a princess, the sister of the deceased king. But as soon as
Sapor attained the age of manhood the presumptuous Thair,
his nation, and his country, fell beneath the first effort
of the young warrior, who used his victory with so judicious
a mixture of rigour and clemency that he obtained from the
fears and gratitude of the Arabs the title of Dhoulacnaf,
or protector of the nation.(56)
State of Mesopotamia and Armenia.
The ambition of the Persian, to whom his enemies ascribe the
virtues of a soldier and a statesman, was animated by the
desire of revenging the disgrace of his fathers, and of
wresting from the hands of the Romans the five provinces
beyond the Tigris. The military fame of Constantine, and the
real or apparent strength of his government, suspended the
attack, and, while the hostile conduct of Sapor provoked the
resentment, his artful negotiations amused the patience of
the Imperial court. The death of Constantine was the signal
of war,(57) and the actual condition of the Syrian and
Armenian frontier seemed to encourage the Persians by the
prospect of a rich spoil and an easy conquest. The example
of the massacres of the palace diffused a spirit of
licentiousness and sedition among the troops of the East,
who were no longer restrained by their habits of obedience
to a veteran commander. By the prudence of Constantius, who,
from the interview with his brothers in Pannonia,
immediately hastened to the banks of the Euphrates, the
legions were gradually restored to a sense of duty and
discipline; but the season of anarchy had permitted Sapor to
form the siege of Nisibis, and to occupy several of the most
important fortresses of Mesopotamia. (58) In Armenia the
renowned Tiridates had long enjoyed the peace and glory
which he deserved by his valour and fidelity to the cause of
Rome. The firm alliance which he maintained with Constantine
was productive of spiritual as well as of temporal benefits;
by the conversion of Tiridates the character of a saint was
applied to that of a hero, the Christian faith was preached
and established from the Euphrates to the shores of the
Caspian, and Armenia was attached to the empire by the
double ties of policy and of religion. But as many of the
Armenian nobles still refused to abandon the plurality of
their gods and of their wives, the public tranquillity was
disturbed by a discontented faction, which insulted the
feeble age of their sovereign, and impatiently expected the
A.D. 342. hour of his death. He died at length, after a reign of fifty-six years, and the fortune of the Armenian monarchy expired with Tiridates. His lawful heir was driven into
exile, the Christian priests were either murdered or
expelled from their churches, the barbarous tribes of
Albania were solicited to descend from their mountains, and
two of the most powerful governors, usurping the ensigns or
the powers of royalty, implored the assistance of Sapor, and
opened the gates of their cities to the Persian garrisons.
The Christian party, under the guidance of the archbishop of
Artaxata, the immediate successor of St. Gregory the
Illuminator, had recourse to the piety of Constantius. After
the troubles had continued about three years, Antiochus, one
of the officers of the household, executed with success the
Imperial commission of restoring Chosroes, the son of
Tiridates, to the throne of his fathers, of distributing
honours and rewards among the faithful servants of the house
of Arsaces, and of proclaiming a general amnesty, which was
accepted by the greater part of the rebellious satraps. But
the Romans derived more honour than advantage from this
revolution. Chosroes was a prince of a puny stature and a
pusillanimous spirit. Unequal to the fatigues of war, averse
to the society of mankind, he withdrew from his capital to a
retired palace which he built on the banks of the river
Eleutherus, and in the centre of a shady grove, where he
consumed his vacant hours in the rural sports of hunting and
hawking. To secure this inglorious ease, he submitted to the
conditions of peace which Sapor condescended to impose: the
payment of an annual tribute, and the restitution of the
fertile province of Atropatene, which the courage of
Tiridates and the victorious arms of Galerius had annexed to
the Armenian monarchy.(59)
The Persian war, A.D. 337-360.
During the long period of the reign of Constantius the
provinces of the East were afflicted by the calamities of
the Persian war. The irregular incursions of the light
troops alternately spread terror and devastation beyond the
Tigris and beyond the Euphrates, from the gates of Ctesiphon
to those of Antioch; and this active service was performed
by the Arabs of the desert, who were divided in their
interest and affections, some of their independent chiefs
being enlisted in the party of Sapor, whilst others had
engaged their doubtful fidelity to the emperor.(60) The more
grave and important operations of the war were conducted
with equal vigour; and the armies of Rome and Persia
encountered each other in nine bloody fields, in two of
which Constantius himself commanded in person. (61) The event of the day was most commonly adverse to the Romans, but in
A.D. 348 the battle of Singara their imprudent valour had almost achieved a signal and decisive victory. The stationary troops of Singara retired on the approach of Sapor, who
passed the Tigris over three bridges, and occupied near the
village of Hilleh an advantageous camp, which, by the labour
of his numerous pioneers, he surrounded in one day with a
deep ditch and a lofty rampart. His formidable host, when it
was drawn out in order of battle, covered the banks of the
river, the adjacent heights, and the whole extent of a plain
of above twelve miles which separated the two armies. Both
were alike impatient to engage, but the barbarians, after a
slight resistance, fled in disorder, unable to resist, or
desirous to weary, the strength of the heavy legions, who,
fainting with heat and thirst, pursued them across the
plain, and cut in pieces a line of cavalry clothed in
complete armour, which had been posted before the gates of
the camp to protect their retreat. Constantius, who was
hurried along in the pursuit, attempted, without effect, to
restrain the ardour of his troops, by representing to them
the dangers of the approaching night, and the certainty of
completing their success with the return of day. As they
depended much more on their own valour than on the
experience or the abilities of their chief, they silenced by
their clamours his timid remonstrances, and, rushing with
fury to the charge, filled up the ditch, broke down the
rampart, and dispersed themselves through the tents to
recruit their exhausted strength, and to enjoy the rich
harvest of their labours. But the prudent Sapor had watched
the moment of victory. His army, of which the greater part,
securely posted on the heights, had been spectators of the
action, advanced in silence and under the shadow of the
night, and his Persian archers, guided by the illumination
of the camp, poured a shower of arrows on a disarmed and
licentious crowd. The sincerity of history(62) declares that
the Romans were vanquished with a dreadful slaughter, and
that the flying remnant of the legions was exposed to the
most intolerable hardships. Even the tenderness of
panegyric, confessing that the glory of the emperor was
sullied by the disobedience of his soldiers, chooses to draw
a veil over the circumstances of this melancholy retreat.
Yet one of those venal orators, so jealous of the fame of
Constantius, relates, with amazing coolness, an act of such
incredible cruelty, as, in the judgment of posterity, must
imprint a far deeper stain on the honour of the Imperial
name. The son of Sapor, the heir of his crown, had been made
a captive in the Persian camp. The unhappy youth, who might
have excited the compassion of the most savage enemy, was
scourged, tortured, and publicly executed by the inhuman
Romans.(63)
Siege of Nisbis.
Whatever advantages might attend the arms of Sapor in the
field, though nine repeated victories diffused among the
nations the fame of his valour and conduct, he could not
hope to succeed in the execution of his designs while the
fortified towns of Mesopotamia, and, above all, the strong
and ancient city of Nisibis, remained in the possession of
the Romans. In the space of twelve years Nisibis, which,
since the time of Lucullus, had been deservedly esteemed the
bulwark of the East, sustained three memorable sieges A.D. 338,346,350. against the power of Sapor, and the disappointed monarch, after urging his attacks above sixty, eighty, and an hundred
days, was thrice repulsed with loss and ignominy.(64) This large and populous city was situate about two days' journey from the Tigris, in the midst of a pleasant and fertile plain at the foot of Mount Masius. A treble enclosure of
brick walls was defended by a deep ditch; (65) and the
intrepid resistance of Count Lucilianus and his garrison was
seconded by the desperate courage of the people. The
citizens of Nisibis were animated by the exhortations of
their bishop,(66) inured to arms by the presence of danger,
and convinced of the intentions of Sapor to plant a Persian
colony in their room, and to lead them away into distant and
barbarous captivity. The event of the two former sieges
elated their confidence and exasperated the haughty spirit
of the Great King, who advanced a third time towards
Nisibis, at the head of the united forces of Persia and
India. The ordinary machines, invented to batter or
undermine the walls, were rendered ineffectual by the
superior skill of the Romans, and many days had vainly
elapsed when Sapor embraced a resolution worthy of an
eastern monarch who believed that the elements themselves
were subject to his power. At the stated season of the
melting of the snows in Armenia, the river Mygdonius, which
divides the plain and the city of Nisibis, forms, like the
Nile,(67) an inundation over the adjacent country. By the
labour of the Persians the course of the river was stopped
below the town, and the waters were confined on every side
by solid mounds of earth. On this artificial lake a fleet of
armed vessels, filled with soldiers, and with engines which
discharged stones of five hundred pounds weight, advanced in
order of battle, and engaged, almost upon a level, the
troops which defended the ramparts The irresistible force of
the waters was alternately fatal to the contending parties,
till at length a portion of the walls, unable to sustain the
accumulated pressure, gave way at once, and exposed an ample
breach of one hundred and fifty feet. The Persians were
instantly driven to the assault, and the fate of Nisibis
depended on the event of the day. The heavy-armed cavalry,
who led the van of a deep column, were embarrassed in the
mud, and great numbers were drowned in the unseen holes
which had been filled by the rushing waters. The elephants,
made furious by their wounds, increased the disorder, and
trampled down thousands of the Persian archers. The Great
King, who, from an exalted throne, beheld the misfortunes of
his arms, sounded, with reluctant indignation, the signal of
the retreat, and suspended for some hours the prosecution of
the attack. But the vigilant citizens improved the
opportunity of the night, and the return of day discovered a
new wall of six feet in height rising every moment to fill
up the interval of the breach. Notwithstanding the
disappointment of his hopes and the loss of more than twenty
thousand men, Sapor still pressed the reduction of Nisibis
with an obstinate firmness which could have yielded only to
the necessity of defending the eastern provinces of Persia
against a formidable invasion of the Massagetae.(68) Alarmed
by this intelligence, he hastily relinquished the siege, and
marched with rapid diligence from the banks of the Tigris to
those of the Oxus. The danger and difficulties of the
Scythian war engaged him soon afterwards to conclude, or at
least to observe, a truce with the Roman emperor, which was
equally grateful to both princes, as Constantius himself,
after the deaths of his two brothers, was involved, by the
revolutions of the West, in a civil contest which required
and seemed to exceed the most vigorous exertion of his
undivided strength.
Civil war and death of Constantine, A.D. 340,March.
After the partition of the empire three years had scarcely
elapsed before the sons of Constantine seemed impatient to
convince mankind that they were incapable of contenting
themselves with the dominions which they were unqualified to
govern. The eldest of those princes soon complained that he
was defrauded of his just proportion of the spoils of their
murdered kinsmen; and though he might yield to the superior
guilt and merit of Constantius, he exacted from Constans the
cession of the African provinces, as an equivalent for the
rich countries of Macedonia and Greece which his brother had
acquired by the death of Dalmatius. The want of sincerity
which Constantine experienced in a tedious and fruitless
negotiation exasperated the fierceness of his temper, and he
eagerly listened to those favourites who suggested to him
that his honour, as well as his interest. was concerned in
the prosecution of the quarrel. At the head of a tumultuary
band, suited for rapine rather than for conquest, he
suddenly broke into the dominions of Constans, by the way of
the Julian Alps, and the country round Aquileia felt the
first effects of his resentment. The measures of Constans,
who then resided in Dacia, were directed with more prudence
and ability. On the news of his brother's invasion he
detached a select and disciplined body of his Illyrian
troops, proposing to follow them in person with the
remainder of his forces. But the conduct of his lieutenants
soon terminated the unnatural contest. By the artful
appearances of flight, Constantine was betrayed into an
ambuscade, which had been concealed in a wood, where the
rash youth, with a few attendants, was surprised,
surrounded, and slain. His body, after it had been found in
the obscure stream of the Alsa, obtained the honours of an
Imperial sepulchre, but his provinces transferred their
allegiance to the conqueror, who, refusing to admit his
elder brother Constantius to any share in these new
acquisitions, maintained the undisputed possession of more
than two-thirds of the Roman empire.(69)
Murder of Constans, A.D. 350, February.
The fate of Constans himself was delayed about ten years
longer, and the revenge of his brother's death was reserved
for the more ignoble hand of a domestic traitor. The
pernicious tendency of the system introduced by Constantine
was displayed in the feeble administration of his sons, who,
by their vices and weakness, soon lost the esteem and
affections of their people. The pride assumed by Constans
from the unmerited success of his arms was rendered more
contemptible by his want of abilities and application. His
fond partiality towards some German captives, distinguished
only by the charms of youth, was an object of scandal to the
people;(70) and Magnentius, an ambitious soldier, who was
himself of barbarian extraction, was encouraged by the
public discontent to assert the honour of the Roman name.(71)
The chosen bands of Jovians and Herculians, who acknowledged
Magnentius as their leader, maintained the most respectable
and important station in the Imperial camp. The friendship
of Marcellinus, count of the sacred largesses, supplied with
a liberal hand the means of seduction. The soldiers were
convinced, by the most specious arguments, that the republic
summoned them to break the bonds of hereditary servitude,
and, by the choice of an active and vigilant prince. to
reward the same virtues which had raised the ancestors of
the degenerate Constans from a private condition to the
throne of the world. As soon as the conspiracy was ripe for
execution. Marcellinus, under the pretence of celebrating
his son's birthday, gave a splendid entertainment to the
illustrious and honourable persons of the court of Gaul,
which then resided in the city of Autun. The intemperance of
the feast was artfully protracted till a very late hour of
the night, and the unsuspecting guests were tempted to
indulge themselves in a dangerous and guilty freedom of
conversation. On a sudden the doors were thrown open, and
Magnentius, who had retired for a few moments, returned into
the apartment, invested with the diadem and purple. The
conspirators instantly saluted him with the titles of
Augustus and Emperor. The surprise, the terror, the
intoxication, the ambitious hopes, and the mutual ignorance
of the rest of the assembly prompted them to join their
voices to the general acclamation. The guards hastened to
take the oath of fidelity, the gates of the town were shut,
and before the dawn of day Magnentius became master of the
troops and treasure of the palace and city of Autun. By his
secrecy and diligence he entertained some hopes of
surprising the person of Constans, who was pursuing in the
adjacent forest his favourite amusement of hunting, or
perhaps some pleasures of a more private and criminal
nature. The rapid progress of fame allowed him, however, an
instant for flight, though the desertion of his soldiers and
subjects deprived him of the power of resistance. Before he
could reach a seaport in Spain, where he intended to embark,
he was overtaken near Helena, (72) at the foot of the
Pyrenees, by a party of light cavalry, whose chief,
regardless of the sanctity of a temple, executed his
commission by the murder of the son of Constantine.(73)
Magnentius and Vetranio assume the purple, A.D. 350, March 1.
As soon as the death of Constans had decided this easy but
important revolution, the example of the court of Autun was
imitated by the provinces of the West. The authority of
Magnentius was acknowledged through the whole extent of the
two great praefectures of Gaul and Italy; and the usurper
prepared, by every act of oppression, to collect a treasure
which might discharge the obligation of an immense donative
and supply the expenses of a civil war. The martial
countries of Illyricum, from the Danube to the extremity of
Greece, had long obeyed the government of Vetranio, an aged
general, beloved for the simplicity of his manners, and who
had acquired some reputation by his experience and services
in war.(74) Attached by habit, by duty, and by gratitude to
the house of Constantine, he immediately gave the strongest
assurances to the only surviving son of his late master that
he would expose, with unshaken fidelity, his person and his
troops to inflict a just revenge on the traitors of Gaul.
But the legions of Vetranio were seduced, rather than
provoked, by the example of rebellion; their leader soon
betrayed a want of firmness or a want of sincerity, and his
ambition derived a specious pretence from the approbation of
the princess Constantina. That cruel and aspiring woman, who
had obtained from the great Constantine, her father, the
rank of Augusta, placed the diadem with her own hands on the
head of the Illyrian general, and seemed to expect from his
victory the accomplishment of those unbounded hopes of which
she had been disappointed by the death of her husband
Hannibalianus. Perhaps it was without the consent of
Constantina that the new emperor formed a necessary, though
dishonourable, alliance with the usurper of the West, whose
purple was so recently stained with her brother's blood.(75)
Constantius refuses to treat. A.D. 350..
The intelligence of these important events, which so deeply
affected the honour and safety of the Imperial house,
recalled the arms of Constantius from the inglorious
prosecution of the Persian war. He recommended the care of
the East to his lieutenants, and afterwards to his cousin
Gallus, whom he raised from a prison to a throne, and
marched towards Europe, with a mind agitated by the conflict
of hope and fear, of grief and indignation. On his arrival
at Heraclea in Thrace, the emperor gave audience to the
ambassadors of Magnentius and Vetranio. The first author of
the conspiracy, Marcellinus, who in some measure had
bestowed the purple on his new master, boldly accepted this
dangerous commission; and his three colleagues were selected
from the illustrious personages of the state and army. These
deputies were instructed to soothe the resentment, and to
alarm the fears, of Constantius. They were empowered to
offer him the friendship and alliance of the western
princes, to cement their union by a double marriage, - of
Constantius with the daughter of Magnentius, and of
Magnentius himself with the ambitious Constantina, - and to
acknowledge in the treaty the pre-eminence of rank which
might justly be claimed by the emperor of the East. Should
pride and mistaken piety urge him to refuse these equitable
conditions, the ambassadors were ordered to expatiate on the
inevitable ruin which must attend his rashness, if he
ventured to provoke the sovereigns of the West to exert
their superior strength, and to employ against him that
valour, those abilities, and those legions, to which the
house of Constantine had been indebted for so many triumphs.
Such propositions and such arguments appeared to deserve the
most serious attention; the answer of Constantius was
deferred till the next day; and as he had reflected on the
importance of justifying a civil war in the opinion of the
people, he thus addressed his council, who listened with
real or affected credulity:
"Last night," said he, "after I retired to rest, the shade of the great Constantine, embracing the corpse of my murdered brother, rose before my eyes; his well-known voice awakened me to revenge, forbade me to despair of the republic, and assured me of the success and immortal glory which would crown the justice of my arms."
The authority of such a vision, or rather of the prince who alleged it, silenced every doubt, and excluded all negotiation. The ignominious terms of peace were rejected with disdain. One of the ambassadors of the tyrant was dismissed with the haughty answer of Constantius; his colleagues, as unworthy of the privileges of the law of nations, were put in irons; and the contending powers prepared to wage an implacable war.(76)
Deposes Vetranio, A.D. 350, Dec. 25.
Such was the conduct, and such perhaps was the duty, of the
brother of Constans towards the perfidious usurper of Gaul.
The situation and character of Vetranio admitted of milder
measures; and the policy of the Eastern emperor was directed
to disunite his antagonists, and to separate the forces of
Illyricum from the cause of rebellion. It was an easy task
to deceive the frankness and simplicity of Vetranio, who,
fluctuating some time between the opposite views of honour
and interest, displayed to the world the insincerity of his
temper, and was insensibly engaged in the snares of an
artful negotiation. Constantius acknowledged him as a
legitimate and equal colleague in the empire, on condition
that he would renounce his disgraceful alliance with
Magnentius, and appoint a place of interview on the
frontiers of their respective provinces, where they might
pledge their friendship by mutual vows of fidelity, and
regulate by common consent the future operations of the
civil war. In consequence of this agreement, Vetranio
advanced to the city of Sardica,(77) at the head of twenty
thousand horse, and of a more numerous body of infantry; a
power so far superior to the forces of Constantius, that the
Illyrian emperor appeared to command the life and fortunes
of his rival, who, depending on the success of his private
negotiations, had seduced the troops and undermined the
throne of Vetranio. The chiefs, who had secretly embraced
the party of Constantius, prepared in his favour a public
spectacle, calculated to discover and inflame the passions
of the multitude. (78) The united armies were commanded to
assemble in a large plain near the city. In the centre,
according to the rules of ancient discipline, a military
tribunal, or rather scaffold, was erected, from whence the
emperors were accustomed, on solemn and important occasions,
to harangue the troops. The well-ordered ranks of Romans and
barbarians, with drawn swords, or with erected spears, the
squadrons of cavalry, and the cohorts of infantry,
distinguished by the variety of their arms and ensigns,
formed an immense circle around the tribunal; and the
attentive silence which they preserved was sometimes
interrupted by loud bursts of clamour or of applause. In the
presence of this formidable assembly the two emperors were
called upon to explain the situation of public affairs: the
precedency of rank was yielded to the royal birth of
Constantius; and though he was indifferently skilled in the
arts of rhetoric, he acquitted himself, under these
difficult circumstances, with firmness, dexterity, and
eloquence. The first part of his oration seemed to be
pointed only against the tyrant of Gaul; but while he
tragically lamented the cruel murder of Constans, he
insinuated that none, except a brother, could claim a right
to the succession of his brother. He displayed, with some
complacency, the glories of his Imperial race, and recalled
to the memory of the troops the valour, the triumphs, the
liberality of the great Constantine, to whose sons they had
engaged their allegiance by an oath of fidelity, which the
ingratitude of his most favoured servants had tempted them
to violate. The officers, who surrounded the tribunal, and
were instructed to act their parts in this extraordinary
scene, confessed the irresistible power of reason and
eloquence, by saluting the emperor Constantius as their
lawful sovereign. The contagion of loyalty and repentance
was communicated from rank to rank, till the plain of
Sardica resounded with the universal acclamation of
"Away with these upstart usurpers ! Long life and victory to the son of Constantine! Under his banners alone we will fight and conquer."
The shout of thousands, their menacing gestures, the fierce clashing of their arms, astonished and subdued the courage of Vetranio, who stood, amidst the defection of his followers, in anxious and silent suspense. Instead of embracing the last refuge of generous despair, he tamely submitted to his fate, and, taking the diadem from his head, in the view of both armies fell prostrate at the feet of his conqueror. Constantius used his victory with prudence and moderation; and raising from the ground the aged suppliant, whom he affected to style by the endearing name of Father, he gave him his hand to descend from the throne. The city of Prusa was assigned for the exile or retirement of the abdicated monarch, who lived six years in the enjoyment of ease and affluence. He often expressed his grateful sense of the goodness of Constantius, and, with a very amiable simplicity, advised his benefactor to resign the sceptre of the world, and to seek for content (where alone it could be found) in the peaceful obscurity of a private condition.(79)
Makes war against Magnentius, A.D. 351.
The behaviour of Constantius on this memorable occasion was
celebrated with some appearance of justice; and his
courtiers compared the studied orations which a Pericles or
a Demosthenes addressed to the populace of Athens with the
victorious eloquence which had persuaded an armed multitude
to desert and depose the object of their partial choice.(80)
The approaching contest with Magnentius was of a more
serious and bloody kind. The tyrant advanced by rapid
marches to encounter Constantius, at the head of a numerous
army, composed of Gauls and Spaniards, of Franks and Saxons;
of those provincials who supplied the strength of the
legions, and of those barbarians who were dreaded as the
most formidable enemies of the republic. The fertile plains
(81) of the Lower Pannonia, between the Drave, the Save, and
the Danube, presented a spacious theatre; and the operations
of the civil war were protracted during the summer months by
the skill or timidity of the combatants.(82) Constantius had
declared his intention of deciding the quarrel in the fields
of Cibalis, a name that would animate his troops by the
remembrance of the victory which, on the same auspicious
ground, had been obtained by the arms of his father
Constantine Yet, by the impregnable fortifications with
which the emperor encompassed his camp, he appeared to
decline rather than to invite a general engagement. It was
the object of Magnentius to tempt or to compel his adversary
to relinquish this advantageous position; and he employed
with that view the various marches, evolutions, and
stratagems which the knowledge of the art of war could
suggest to an experienced officer. He carried by assault the
important town of Siscia; made an attack on the city of
Sirmium, which lay in the rear of the Imperial camp;
attempted to force a passage over the Save into the eastern
provinces of Illyricum; and cut in pieces a numerous
detachment which he had allured into the narrow passes of
Adarne. During the greater part of the summer the tyrant of
Gaul showed himself master of the field. The troops of
Constantius were harassed and dispirited; his reputation
declined in the eye of the world; and his pride condescended
to solicit a treaty of peace, which would have resigned to
the assassin of Constans the sovereignty of the provinces
beyond the Alps. These offers were enforced by the eloquence
of Philip the Imperial ambassador; and the council as well
as the army of Magnentius were disposed to accept them. But
the haughty usurper, careless of the remonstrances of his
friends, gave orders that Philip should be detained as a
captive, or at least as an hostage; while he despatched an
officer to reproach Constantius with the weakness of his
reign, and to insult him by the promise of a pardon if he
would instantly abdicate the purple.
"That he should confide in the justice of his cause, and the protection of an avenging Deity,"
was the only answer which honour permitted the emperor to return. But he was so sensible of the difficulties of his situation, that he no longer dared to retaliate the indignity which had been offered to his representative. The negotiation of Philip was not, however, ineffectual, since he determined Sylvanus the Frank, a general of merit and reputation, to desert with a considerable body of cavalry a few days before the battle of Mursa.
Battle of Mursa, A.D. 351, Sept. 28.
The city of Mursa, or Essek, celebrated in modern times for a bridge of boats, five miles in length, over the river Drave, and the adjacent morasses, (83) has been always considered as a place of importance in the wars of Hungary. Magnentius, directing his march towards Mursa, set fire to the gates, and, by a sudden assault, had almost scaled the walls of the town. The vigilance of the garrison extinguished the flames; the approach of Constantius left him no time to continue the operations of the siege; and the emperor soon removed the only obstacle that could embarrass his motions, by forcing a body of troops which had taken post in an adjoining amphitheatre. The field of battle round Mursa was a naked and level plain: on this ground the army of Constantius formed, with the Drave on their right; while their left, either from the nature of their disposition, or
from the superiority of their cavalry, extended far beyond the right flank of Magnentius. (84) The troops on both sides remained under arms in anxious expectation during the greatest part of the morning; and the son of Constantine, after animating his soldiers by an eloquent speech, retired into a church at some distance from the field of battle, and committed to his generals the conduct of this decisive day. (85) They deserved his confidence by the valour and military skill which they exerted. They wisely began the action upon the left; and advancing their whole wing of cavalry in an oblique line, they suddenly wheeled it on the right flank of the enemy, which was unprepared to resist the impetuosity of their charge. But the Romans of the West soon rallied by the habits of discipline; and the barbarians of Germany
supported the renown of their national bravery. The engagement soon became general; was maintained with various and singular turns of fortune; and carcely ended with the darkness of the night. The signal victory which Constantius obtained is attributed to the arms of his cavalry. His cuirassiers are described as so many massy statues of steel, glittering with their scaly armour, and breaking with their ponderous lances the firm array of the Gallic legions. As soon as the legions gave way, the lighter and more active squadrons of the second line rode sword in hand into the intervals and completed the disorder. In the meanwhile, the huge bodies of the Germans were exposed almost naked to the dexterity of the Oriental archers; and whole troops of those barbarians were urged by anguish and despair to precipitate
themselves into the broad and rapid stream of the Drave.(86) The number of the slain was computed at fifty-four thousand men, and the slaughter of the conquerors was more
considerable than that of the vanquished;(87) a circumstance which proves the obstinacy of the contest, and justifies the observation of an ancient writer, that the forces of the empire were consumed in the fatal battle of Mursa, by the
loss of a veteran army, sufficient to defend the frontiers, or to add new triumphs to the glory of Rome. (88)
Notwithstanding the invectives of a servile orator, there is not the least reason to believe that the tyrant deserted his own standard in the beginning of the engagement. He seems to have displayed the virtues of a general and of a soldier till the day was irrecoverably lost, and his camp in the possession of the enemy. Magnentius then consulted his safety, and, throwing away the Imperial ornaments, escaped with some difficulty from the pursuit of the light horse, who incessantly followed his rapid flight from the banks of
the Drave to the foot of the Julian Alps.(89)
Conquest of Italy, A.D. 352.
The approach of winter supplied the indolence of Constantius
with specious reasons for referring the prosecution of the
war till the ensuing spring. Magnentius had fixed his
residence in the city of Aquileia, and showed a seeming
resolution to dispute the passage of the mountains and
morasses which fortified the confines of the Venetian
province. The surprisal of a castle in the Alps by the
secret march of the imperialists could scarcely have
determined him to relinquish the possession of Italy, if the
inclinations of the people had supported the cause of their
tyrant.(90) But the memory of the cruelties exercised by his
ministers, after the unsuccessful revolt of Nepotian, had
left a deep impression of horror and resentment on the minds
of the Romans. That rash youth, the son of the princess
Eutropia, and the nephew of Constantine, had seen with
indignation the sceptre of the West usurped by a perfidious
barbarian. Arming a desperate troop of slaves and
gladiators, he overpowered the feeble guard of the domestic
tranquillity of Rome, received the homage of the senate,
and, assuming the title of Augustus, precariously reigned
during a tumult of twenty eight days. The march of some
regular forces put an end to his ambitious hopes: the
rebellion was extinguished in the blood of Nepotian, of his
mother Eutropia, and of his adherents; and the proscription
was extended to all who had contracted a fatal alliance with
the name and family of Constantine. (91) But as soon as Constantius, after the battle of Mursa, became master of the
seacoast of Dalmatia, a band of noble exiles, who had
ventured to equip a fleet in some harbour of the Adriatic,
sought protection and revenge in his victorious camp. By
their secret intelligence with their countrymen, Rome and
the Italian cities were persuaded to display the banners of
Constantius on their walls. The grateful veterans, enriched
by the liberality of the father, signalised their gratitude
and loyalty to the son. The cavalry, the legions, and the
auxiliaries of Italy, renewed their oath of allegiance to
Constantius; and the usurper, alarmed by the general
desertion, was compelled, with the remains of his faithful
troops, to retire beyond the Alps into the provinces of
Gaul. The detachments, however, which were ordered either to
press or to intercept the flight of Magnentius, conducted
themselves with the usual imprudence of success; and allowed
him, in the plains of Pavia, an opportunity of turning on
his pursuers, and gratifying his despair by the carnage of a
useless victory.(92)
Last defeat and death of Magnentius, A.D. 353, August 10..
The pride of Magnentius was reduced, by repeated
misfortunes, to sue, and to sue in vain, for peace. He first
despatched a senator, in whose abilities he confided, and
afterwards several bishops, whose holy character might
obtain a more favourable audience, with the offer of
resigning the purple, and the promise of devoting the
remainder of his life to the services of the emperor. But
Constantius, though he granted fair terms of pardon and
reconciliation to all who abandoned the standard of
rebellion,(93) avowed his inflexible resolution to inflict a
just punishment on the crimes of an assassin whom he
prepared to overwhelm on every side by the effort of his
victorious arms. An Imperial fleet acquired the easy
possession of Africa and Spain, confirmed the wavering faith
of the Moorish nations, and landed a considerable force,
which passed the Pyrenees, and advanced towards Lyons, the
last and fatal station of Magnentius.(94) The temper of the
tyrant, which was never inclined to clemency, was urged by
distress to exercise every act of oppression which could
extort an immediate supply from the cities of Gaul.(95) Their
patience was at length exhausted; and Treves, the seat of
Praetorian government, gave the signal of revolt, by
shutting her gates against Decentius, who had been raised by
his brother to the rank of either Caesar or of Augustus.(96)
From Treves, Decentius was obliged to retire to Sens, where
he was soon surrounded by an army of Germans, whom the
pernicious arts of Constantius had introduced into the civil
dissensions of Rome. (97) In the meantime the Imperial troops forced the passages of the Cottian Alps, and in the bloody combat of Mount Seleucus irrevocably fixed the title of
rebels on the party of Magnentius.(98) He was unable to bring
another army into the field; the fidelity of his guards was
corrupted; and when he appeared in public to animate them by
his exhortations, he was saluted with an unanimous shout of "Long live the emperor Constantius!" The tyrant, who perceived that they were preparing to deserve pardon and
rewards by the sacrifice of the most obnoxious criminal,
prevented their design by falling on his sword;(99) a death more easy and more honourable than he could hope to obtain from the hands of an enemy whose revenge would have been coloured with the specious pretence of justice and fraternal piety. The example of suicide was imitated by Decentius, who
strangled himself on the news of his brother's death. The author of the conspiracy, Marcellinus, had long since disappeared in the battle of Mursa, (100) and the public
tranquillity was confirmed by the execution of the surviving leaders of a guilty and unsuccessful faction. A severe inquisition was extended over all who, either from choice or from compulsion, had been involved in the cause of rebellion. Paul, surnamed Catena from his superior skill in the judicial exercise of tyranny, was sent to explore the latent remains of the conspiracy in the remote province of Britain. The honest indignation expressed by Martin, vice-praefect of the island, was interpreted as an evidence of his own guilt; and the governor was urged to the necessity of turning against his breast the sword with which he had been provoked to wound the Imperial minister. The most innocent subjects of the West were exposed to exile and confiscation, to death and torture; and as the timid are always cruel, the mind of Constantius was inaccessible to mercy.(101)