After the death of Gale-ius, and the defeat A. D. 311, of feveral competitors for the throne, Conftantine became fole mafter of the Roman world, when he honoured the fenate with his prefence, and affured that illuftrious order of his fincere regard. Games and feftivals were inftituted to perpetuate the fame of his victory; but the triumphal arch of the victor ftill remains a melancholy proof of the decline of the arts. No fculptor was found in the capital, capable of adorning that public monument. The arch of Trajan was fripped of its ornaments; and Parthian figures appear proftrate at the fect of a prince, who never carried his arms beyond the Euphrates.

The final abolition of the prætorian guards fucceeded the triumph of Conftantine; their fortified camp was deftroyed, and the few who had efcaped the fword, were dif perfed among the legions, and banished to the frontiers.

Conftantine, who, fome time before, had made a public profeffion of the Chriftian religion, now refolved to establith it on fo fure a bafis, that no revolution fhould fhake it. Edicts were iffued, declaring that the Chriftians fhould be cafed of all their grievances, and received into places of truft and authority; and it was ordained that no criminal fhould for the future, fuffer death by the crofs, which had formerly been the ufual way of punishing flaves convicted of capital offences. The progrefs and establishment of the Chriftian religion was favoured and affifted by feveral caufes. The zeal and virtues of the first Christians, which correfponded with the purity of their doctrines, could not fail to command the veneration of the people, and increate the number of their followers. The doctrine of a future life, and the immortality of the foul, though generally rejected, impreffed the minds of the more exalted fages of Greece and Rome. Philofophy pointed out the hope, but divine revelation alone can afcertain the exiftence of a future state. Eternal happinefs, therefore, on evangelical conditions, was accepted by great numbers of every religion, of every rank, and of every province, in the Roman empire.

The activity of the Chriftians, alfo, in the government of the church, was marked by a fpirit of patriotifm, fuch as had characterifed the first of the Romans in the aggrandifement of the republic. The ecclefiaftical governors of the christians were taught to unite the wifdom of the ferpent with the innocence of the dove. In the church, as well as in the world, the perfons placed in any public ftation rendered themfelves confiderable by their eloquence and

firmneis

firmnefs, by their knowledge of mankind, and by their dexterity in bufinefs; and the exertion of thefe qualifications was advantageoufly contrafted with the cool' indifference of the minifters of Polytheifm.

Conftantine declared it to be his pleafure, that in all the provinces of the empire the orders of the bifhops fhould be exactly obeyed; a privilege of which, in fucceeding times, thefe fathers made but a very indifferent ufe. He called alfo a general council of them, in order to reprefs the herefies that had already crept into the church, particularly that of Arius. To this place repaired about three hundred and eighteen bishops, befides a multitude of prefbyters and deacons, together with the Emperor himfelf; who all, except feventeen, concurred in condemning the tenets of Arius; who, with his affociates was banifhed into a reinote part of the empire.

A. D. 330.

Having now restored peace through all his imperial dominions, Conftantine refolved to transfer the feat of empire from Rome to Byzantium, or Conftantinople, as it was afterwards called. Whatever might have been the reasons which induced him to this undertaking; whether it was because he was offended at fome affronts he had received at Rome, or that he fuppofed Conftantinople more in the centre of the empire; or that he thought the caftern parts more required his prefence, experience has fhown that they were all weak and groundle's. The empire had long before been in a moft declining ftate; but this, in a great measure, gave precipitation to its downAfter this it never refumed its former fplendour, but, like a flower transplanted into a foreign clime, languifhed by degrees, and at length funk into nothing.

fall.

His defign was to build a city, which he might make the capital of the world; and for this purpofe, he made choice of a fituation at Chalcedon in Afia Minor; but we are told, that in laying out the ground-plan, an eagle caught up the line, and flew with it over to Byzantium, a city which lay upon the oppofite fide of the Bofphorus. Here, therefore, it was thought expedient to fix the feat of empire; and, indeed nature feemed to have formed it with all the conveniences, and all the beauties, which might induce power to make it the feat of refidence. It was fituated on a plain, which rofe gently from the water, and commanded that traight which unites the Mediterranean with the Euxine fea. The climate was healthy, the foil fertile; the harbour was fecure and capacious, and the approach on the fide of the continent was of finall extent, and eafy defence.

Five of the feven hills, which, on the approach to Con ftantinople, appear to rife above each other, were enclosed within the walls of Conftantine. The new buildings, about a century after the death of the founder, covered the narrow ridge of the fixth, and the broad fummit of the seventh hill; and the younger Theodofius, to protect thefe fuburbs from the inroads of the barbarians, furrounded the whole with adequate walls: yet even including the fuburbs of Pera and Galata, which are fituated beyond the harbour, the circumference of Conftantinople cannot exceed fourteen Roman miles.

To erect an eternal monument to his glories, the Emperor employed the wealth and labour of the Roman world; for the conftruction of the walls alone were allowed two millions five hundred thousand pounds. But the decline of arts coinpelled him to adorn his capital with the works of remoter periods; and to gratify his vanity, the cities of Greece and Afia were difpoiled of their most valuable ornaments. Whatever could exalt the dignity of a great city, or contribute to the benefit or pleasure of its numerous inhabitants, was to be found within the walls of Conftantinople. A particular defcription, compofed about a century after its foundation, enumerates a capital or school of learning, a circus, two theatres, eight public, and one hundred and fifty-three private baths, fifty-two porticoes, five granaries, eight aqueducts of water, four fpacious halls of juftice, fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, and four thousand three hundred and eighty eight houfes, which for their fize or beauty, deferved to be distinguished from the multitude of plebeian habitations.

The population of his favoured city was the next and moft ferious object of the attention of its founder. The inhabitants of Rome and the more ancient cities of the empire were at firft allured or compelled to relinquish their refidence; but encouragements and obligations foon became unneceffary; the fubjects of the empire were attracted by the feat of government, and Conftantinople, in lefs than a century, was fuperior to Rome.

Italy indeed was defolated by the change. Robbed of its wealth and inhabitants, it funk into a ftate of the most annihilating languor. Changed into a garden by Afiatic pomp, and crowded with villas, now deferted by their voluptuous owners, this once fertile country was unable to maintain itself.

This removal produced no immediate alteration in the government of the empire; the inhabitants of Rome, though with reluctance, fubmitted to the change; nor was there

for

for two or three years any difturbance in the ftate, until, at length, the Goths finding that the Romans had withdrawn all their garrifons along the Danube, renewed their inroads, and ravaged the country with unheard-of cruelty. Conftantine however foon repreffed their incurfions, and fo ftraitened them, that near an hundred thousand of their number perithed by cold and hunger. Thefe, and fome other infurrections, being happily fuppreffed, the government of the empire was divided as follows: Conftantine, the Emperor's eldest fon, commanded in Gaul and the western provinces; Conftantius, his fecond, governed Africa and Illyricum; and Conftans, the youngeft, ruled in Italy. Dalmatius the Emperor's brother, was fent to defend those parts that bordered upon the Goths; and Anmibalianus, his nephew, had the charge of Cappadocia and Armenia Minor. This divifion of the empire ftill further contributed to its downfall; for the united itrength of the ftate being no longer brought to repreis invafions, the barbarians fought with fuperior numbers, and conquered at laft, though often defeated. Conftantine, however, did not live to feel thefe calamities. The latter part of his reign was peaceful and plendid; ambaffadors from the remoteft Indies came to acknowledge his authority; the Perfians, who were ready for fresh inroads, upon finding him prepared to oppose them, fent humbly to defire his friendship and forgiveness.

Thus he enjoyed an uninterrupted flow of private as well as public felicity, till the 30th year of his reign, when he ended his memorable life at the palace of Aquyron, in the fuburbs of Nicomedia, whither he had retired for the benefit of the air.

This monarch's character is reprefented to us in very different lights. The Chriftian writers of that time adorn it with every ftrain of panegyric; the heathens on the contrary load it with all the virulence of invective. Nature had been favourable to him both with regard to body and mind. His ftature was lofty, his countenance majestic, and his deportment graceful; whilft his adherence to chastity and temperance preferved his conftitution to a very late period of life. In difpatch of business he was indefatigable; in the field he was an intrepid foldier and confummate general. He eftablifhed a religion that continues to be the blefling of mankind, but purfued a scheme of politics that deftroyed the empire.

CHAP.

CHAP. LII.

Caufes of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

TH

HE power of the prætorian bands increafed to fuch a degree, as to endanger the ftate. They were inftituted by Auguftus, as already obferved, to guard his perfon and maintain his ufurped dominion. That fuch a formidable body might not alarm the Roman people, three cohorts only were ftationed in the capital, while the reft was difperfed in the adjacent towns of Italy. After the Romans had been accustomed to subjection, Tiberius, under the pretence of relieving Italy from a heavy burthen, and improving the military difcipline, affembled them in the city, in a permanent camp.

The armed minifters of de'potifm frequently overturn that throne which they were intended to fupport. Introduced into the palace and the Senate, the prætorian bands began to perceive their own ftrength, and the weaknefs of the civil government. A fucceffion of emperors, whom they created or dethroned, convinced them, that the fupreme power was at their difpofal.

To curb the infolence, and balance the power of the fe formidable bands, Titus, Trajan, and the Antonines, by reftoring the influence of the Senate, preferved an intermediate power between them and the army. The image of their ancient freedom was even held up to the people. But Severus, educated in camps, had been accustomed to the defpotifm of military command. He annihilated the authority of the Senate, and governed by the army. He augmented the guards to four times the ancient number, and recruited them indifcriminately from all the provinces of the empire.

The captain of thefe troops, amounting to fifty thoufand men, was, under the name of Prætorian Præfect, at the head of the army, of the finances, and of the law,

A military government was now eftablished; and every military government fluctuates between the extremes of abfolute monarchy and wild democracy.

The emperors now depended on the legions, whofe favour they had to fecure, and whofe avarice they had to gratify by donations and bribes. Oppreffion and tyranny

had