husband in a bath, made more than usually hot for the purpose*. The deaths of Crispus, Licinius, and Fausta were followed by those of many of the emperor's friends on various charges.

By Fausta the emperor had had three sons, named Constantine, Constantius and Constans; his elder half-brother Julius Constantius had, beside other children, two sons named Gallus and Julian; and Dalmatius another half brother, was the father of two princes, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. From some motive which has not been assigned, Constantine resolved to associate the two last-named nephews with his own sons in the empire, placing the former, as a Cæsar, on an equality with them; and giving the latter the new title of Nobilissimus, and even, as it would appear, that of King, which we find used of him alone.

A war between the Goths and Sarmatians engaged the attention of Constantine in the latter years of his reign. Policy causing him to take the part of the latter, the former crossed the Danube and laid Moesia waste (331). The emperor took the field in person, but his troops fled from before them, and he was obliged to retire. In the following year (332), however, the imperial troops led by the Cæsar Constantius retrieved their fame. The Goths were forced to recross the Danube and to sue for peace. The Sarmatians having shown the usual levity and ingratitude of barbarians, Constantine left them to their fate. Vanquished in battle by the Goths, they armed their slaves, and by their aid expelled the invaders from their territory; but the slaves turned their arms against their masters, drove them out of the country, and held it under the name of Limigantes.

Nothing occurred to disturb the tranquillity of the empire during the remaining years of the reign of Constantine. He breathed his last on the 22nd of May, 337, in the palace of Aquirion at Nicomedia, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, after a prosperous reign of thirty years and ten months. His corpse was removed to Constantinople, where it was placed on a golden bed in an illuminated apartment of the palace; and each day the principal officers of state approached it and offered their homage, as if to the living emperor. It was at

*Zosimus, Philostorgius and others assert that Fausta was put to death. Yet, as Gibbon observes, in a monody on her son, the younger Constantine, she is said to have lived to deplore his fate.

length committed to the tomb with all fitting ceremony and magnificence.

The merits and virtues of the emperor Constantine were so numerous and conspicuous, that were it not for the deaths of his son and nephew and friends, his name would be without any considerable blemish. It is, however, objected to him, that in his latter years he adopted a style of dress and manners which exhibited more of Asiatic effeminacy than of Roman dignity. He is also charged with lavishing on needless and expensive buildings, the money wrung from his subjects by oppressive taxation, and of overlooking, if not encouraging, the rapacity of his friends and favorites. Like so many of those who have attained to empire by their own merits and talents, Constantine is more to be esteemed in the early than in the later years of his reign.

It is remarkable that Constantine-though he openly professed the Christian religion, convened and presided at a general council of the church, and enjoyed nearly all the privileges of the initiated order of the faithful-remained all through his reign in the humble rank of a catechumen, and deferred receiving the sacrament of baptism till he discerned the certain symptoms of the approach of his dissolution. The superstition in which this practice originated has already been explained; and it derogates from the wisdom or knowledge of the Nicene Fathers to know that they tacitly at least sanctioned a usage so detrimental to true religion.

CHAPTER III.*

CONSTANTINE II. CONSTANTIUS. CONSTANS.

A.U. 1090-1114.

A.D. 337-361.

Slaughter of the imperial family.-Persian war.-Deaths of Constantine and Constans.-Magnentius.-Gallus.-Julian.-Silvanus.-Court of Constantius. - War with the Limigantes.-Persian war.- Julian in Gaul.- Battle of Strasburg.-Julian proclaimed emperor.-His march from Gaul.-Death of Constantius.

THE tomb had not received the mortal remains of the great Constantine, when a plot was laid to destroy some of the objects of his regard. The troops were induced, we are not informed by whom or by what means, to declare that none but the sons of the late monarch should rule over his empire; and Dalmatius and Hannibalianus were seized and placed under custody, till Constantius, to whom the charge of the funeral had been committed, should arrive in the capital. When this prince came he pledged his oath to his kinsmen for their safety; but ere long a false charge was made against them, and the soldiers became clamorous for their death. A general massacre of the imperial family ensued, in which two uncles and seven cousins of Constantius, and with them Optatus, the husband of his aunt, perished. Their fate was shared by the prefect Ablavius, the minister and favorite of the late emperor. Of the whole imperial family there only remained the three emperors and Gallus and Julian, the sons of Julius Constantius.

In the following month of September, the three brothers had a personal interview, in which a new arrangement of the empire was concluded; by which Constantine, as the eldest, was conceded a superiority in rank and the possession of the eastern capital.

The eastern frontier gave Constantius occupation for some years. Sapor II. king of Persia, a prince of great energy and enterprise, burned to recover the provinces which had been ceded to Galerius, but dread of the power and genius

* Authorities: Zozimus, Ammianus Marcellinus, the Epitomators, and the Ecclesiastical Historians.

of Constantine had held him in check. As soon, however, as the empire fell into the hands of inexperienced young princes, he poured his troops into Mesopotamia, and for some years the Roman annals have only to tell of armies defeated, and towns besieged or taken by the Persian monarch. In the battle of Singara (348) the Roman legions routed the troops of Persia, and drove them to their camp. As the night was at hand, Constantius, who commanded in person, sought to restrain his men, and defer the attack till the light of morn; but heedless of the commands of their prince, the soldiers eager for prey pressed on, and forcing the camp, spread themselves all over it in search of plunder. In the dead of the night, Sapor, who had posted his troops on the adjacent hills, led them to the attack of the scattered and unprepared enemies, and the Romans were routed with immense slaughter. The survivors escaped with the utmost difficulty, and endured intolerable hardships in their retreat. This is said to have been the ninth victory over the troops of Rome achieved by the arms of Sapor. But though thus successful in the field, he was unable to carry the important city of Nisibis. Thrice did he lead his forces under its walls, and thrice did he employ in vain the valour of his soldiers and the arts of his engineers; the gallant city still remained unsubdued.

While Constantius was thus occupied in the East, Constans had become sole ruler in the West. For Constantine having required that Constans should resign Africa to him, and being irritated by the insincerity displayed by that prince in the negotiation, made a sudden irruption into his dominions (340); but in the neighbourhood of Aquileia he came to an engagement with the generals of Constans, and being drawn into an ambush, himself and all those about him were slain. Constans then took possession of the whole of his dominions, refusing to give any share to his remaining brother, who does not, however, appear to have claimed it.

At

For about ten years Constans exercised every kind of oppression over his subjects. His hours were devoted to the chase, and to other pleasures of a less innocent nature. length (350) a conspiracy was formed against him by Magnentius, a Frank, but born in Gaul, who commanded the Jovian and Herculian guards. Marcellinus, the treasurer, shared in the conspiracy; and when the court was at Autun, and the emperor was taking the pleasures of the chase in the adjoining forest, he gave, under the pretext of celebrating

his son's birthday, a magnificent entertainment, to which were invited the principal officers of the army. The festival was prolonged till after midnight, when Magnentius withdrew for a little time and then re-appeared clad in the imperial habit. Those in the secret instantly saluted him emperor, and the remainder, taken by surprise, were induced to join in the acclamation. Promises and money were liberally scattered, and both the soldiery and the people declared for Magnentius. It was hoped that they might be able to surprise Constans on his return from the chase, but he got timely information and fled for Spain. He was, however, overtaken by those despatched in pursuit of him, at a town named Helena (Elne) at the foot of the Pyrenees, dragged from a church to which he had fled for refuge, and put to death.

The whole of the West, with the exception of Illyricum, yielded obedience to Magnentius. The troops of that country were commanded by Vetranio, an aged general of simple and upright manners, but so illiterate as to be ignorant of even reading and writing. At first he professed allegiance to the remaining son of Constantine, but at length he yielded to the desires of his legions and those of the princess Constantina, the daughter of Constantine, and widow of Hannibalianus, who thus, perhaps, sought to obtain vengeance for her husband and to recover her own power. He consented to accept of empire; and Constantina with her own hand placed the diadem on his head. Vetranio soon found it expedient to accept of the proffered alliance of Magnentius.

An opportune incursion of the Massagetans into the northern part of his dominions having just at this time called Sapor away from the third siege of Nisibis, Constantius found himself at leisure to attend to the affairs of the West. Leaving a sufficient force with his generals he set out for Europe to avenge the murder of his brother. At Heraclea, in Thrace, he was met by an embassy from the two emperors of the West, headed by Marcellinus. It was proposed that he should ac knowledge them, marry the daughter of Magnentius, and give Constantina in marriage to that prince. Next day he gave