established custom, had been erased, and his statues | gence and luxury. Habituated to the baths and theathrown down with ignominy. His son, who had per- tres of Rome, they took the field with reluctance, and secuted and deserted him when alive, affected to dis- were chiefly composed of veterans who had almost forplay the most pious regard to his memory, and gave gotten, or of new levies who had never acquired, the hat a similar treatment should be immediately use of arms, and the practice of war. The hardy leon all the statues that had been erected in gions of Gaul had long defended the frontiers of the d Africa to the honour of Constantine. That empire against the barbarians of the north; and in the prince, who sincerely wished to decline a war, performance of that laborious service, their valour was with the difficulty and importance of which he was exercised, and their discipline confirmed. There apsufficiently acquainted, at first dissembled the insult, peared the same difference between the leaders as beand sought for redress by the milder expedients of tween the armies. Caprice or flattery had tempted negociation, till he was convinced that the hostile and Maxentius with the hopes of conquest; but these ambitious designs of the Italian emperor made it ne- aspiring hopes soon gave way to the habits of pleacessary for him to arm in his own defence. Maxen- sure and the consciousness of his inexperience. The tius, who openly avowed his pretensions to the whole intrepid mind of Constantine had been trained from his monarchy of the west, had already prepared a very earliest youth to war, to action, and to military comconsiderable force to invade the Gallic provinces on mand. the side of Rhætia; and though he could not expect When Hannibal marched from Gaul Constantine pass. any assistance from Licinius, he was flattered with the into Italy, he was obliged, first to disco- es the Alps. hope that the legions of Illyricum, allured by his pre-ver, and then to open, a way over mountains and sents and promises, would desert the standard of that through savage nations, that had never yielded a pasprince, and unanimously declare themselves his sol- sage to a regular army. The Alps were then guarded diers and subjects. Constantine no longer hesitated. by nature, they are now fortified by art. Citadels conHe had deliberated with caution, he acted with vigour. structed with no less skill than labour and expense, He gave a private audience to the ambassadors, who, command every avenue into the plain, and on that side in the name of the senate and people, conjured him to render Italy almost inaccessible to the enemies of the deliver Rome from a detested tyrant; and, without re- king of Sardinia.h But in the course of the intermegarding the timid remonstrances of his council, he re-diate period, the generals, who have attempted the passolved to prevent the enemy, and to carry the war into sage, have seldom experienced any difficulty or resistthe heart of Italy. ance. In the age of Constantine, the peasants of the mountains were civilized and obedient subjects; the country was plentifully stocked with provisions, and the stupendous highways, which the Romans had carried over the Alps, opened several communications between Gaul and Italy. Constantine preferred the road of the Cottian Alps, or, as it is now called, of mount Cenis, and led his troops with such active diligence, that he descended into the plain of Piedmont before the court of Maxentius had received any certain intelligence of his departure from the banks of the Rhine. The city of Susa, however, which is situated at the foot of mount Cenis, was surrounded with walls, and provided with a garrison sufficiently numerous to check the progress of an invader; but the impatience of Constantine's troops disdained the tedious forms of a siege. The same day that they appeared before Susa, they applied fire to the gates, and ladders to the walls; and mounting to the assault amidst a shower of stones and arrows, they entered the place sword in hand, and cut in pieces the greatest part of the garrison. The flames were extinguished by the care of Constantine, and the remains of Susa preserved from total destruction. About forty miles from thence, a more severe contest awaited him. A Battle of Turin. numerous army of Italians was assembled under the lieutenants of Maxentius, in the plains of Turin. Its principal strength consisted in a species of heavy cavalry, which the Romans, since the decline of their discipline, had borrowed from the nations of the east. The horses, as well as the men, were clothed in complete armour, the joints of which were artfully adapted to the motions of their bodies. The aspect of this cavalry was formidable, their weight almost irresistible; and as, on this occasion, their generals had drawn them up in a compact column or wedge, with a sharp point, and with spreading flanks, they flattered themselves that they should easily break and

The enterprise was as full of danger Preparations. as of glory; and the unsuccessful event of two former invasions was sufficient to inspire the most serious apprehensions. The veteran troops who revered the name of Maximian, had embraced in both those wars the party of his son, and were now restrained by a sense of honour, as well as of interest, from entertaining an idea of a second desertion. Maxentius, who considered the prætorian guards as the firmest defence of his throne, had increased them to their ancient establishment; and they composed, including the rest of the Italians who were enlisted into his service, a formidable body of fourscore thousand men. Forty thousand Moors and Carthaginians had been raised since the reduction of Africa. Even Sicily furnished its proportion of troops; and the armies of Maxentius amounted to one hundred and seventy thousand foot, and eighteen thousand horse. The wealth of Italy supplied the expenses of the war; and the adjacent provinces were exhausted, to form immense magazines of corn and every other kind of pro

visions.

The whole force of Constantine consisted of ninety thousand foot and eight thousand horse; and as the defence of the Rhine required an extraordinary attention during the absence of the emperor, it was not in his power to employ above half his troops in the Italian expedition, unless he sacrificed the public safety to his private quarrel. At the head of about forty thousand soldiers, he marched to encounter an enemy whose numbers were at least four times superior to his own. But the armies of Rome, placed at a secure distance from danger, were enervated by indul

▸ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 84, 85. Nazarius in Panegyr. x. 7-13. d See Panegyr. Vet. ix. 2. Omnibus fere tuis comitibus et ducibus non solum tacite mussantibus, sed etiam aperte timentibus; contra consilia hominum, contra haruspicum monita, ipse per temet liberandæ urbis tempus venisse sentires. The embassy of the Romans is mentioned only hy Zonaras. (1. xiii.) and by Cedrenus, (in Compend. Hist. p. 270.): but those modern Greeks had the opportunity of consulting many writers which have since been lost, among which we may reckon the life of Constantine by Praxagoras. Photius (p. 63.) has made a short extract from that historical work.

g The three principal passages of the Alps between Gaul and Italy, are those of mount St. Bernard, mount Cenis, and mount Genevre. Tradition, and a resemblance of names. (Alpes Pennine,) had assign. ed the first of these for the march of Hannibal. (See Simler de Alpibus.) The Chevalier de Folard, (Polyb. tom. iv.) and M. d'Anville, have led him over mount Genevre. But notwithstanding the autho sions of mount Cenis are supported in a specious, not to say a con. vincing, manner by M. Grosley. Observations sur l'Italie, tom. i. p. 40. &c.

e Zosimus (1. ii. p. 86.) has given us this curious account of the forces on both sides. He makes no mention of any naval armaments, though we are assured (Panegyr. Vet. ix. 25.) that the war was carrity of an experienced officer and a learned geographer, the pretenried on by sea as well as by land; and that the fleet of Constantine took possession of Sardinia, Corsica, and the ports of Italy.

Panegyr. Vet. ix. 3. It is not surprising that the orator should diminish the numbers with which his sovereign achieved the conquest of Italy; but it appears somewhat singular, that he should esteem the tyrant's army at no more than 100,000 men.

h La Brunette near Suse, Demont, Exiles, Fenestrelies, Coni, &c. 1 See Ammian. Marcellin. xv. 10. His description of the roads over the Alps is clear, lively, and accurate.

Victory of Constantine near Rome.

A. D. 312. 28th Oct.

The celerity of Constantine's march | monished them to receive with acclamations of loyalty has been compared to the rapid conquest and gratitude, the fortunate Constantine, who thus of Italy by the first of the Cæsars; nor achieved by his valour and ability the most splendid is the flattering parallel repugnant to the enterprise of his life. truth of history, since no more than fifty-eight days In the use of victory, Constantine His reception, elapsed between the surrender of Verona and the final neither deserved the praise of clemency, decision of the war. Constantine had always appre-nor incurred the censure of immoderate rigour. He hended that the tyrant would consult the dictates of inflicted the same treatment, to which a defeat would fear, and perhaps of prudence; and that, instead of have exposed his own person and family, put to death risking his last hopes in a general engagement, he the two sons of the tyrant, and carefully extirpated would shut himself up within the walls of Rome. his whole race. The most distinguished adherents of His ample magazines secured him against the danger Maxentius must have expected to share his fate, as of famine; and as the situation of Constantine admit- they had shared his prosperity and his crimes; but ted not of delay, he might have been reduced to the when the Roman people loudly demanded a greater sad necessity of destroying with fire and sword the number of victims, the conqueror resisted, with firmimperial city, the noblest reward of his victory, and ness and humanity, those servile clamours, which the deliverance of which had been the motive, or were dictated by flattery as well as by resentment. rather indeed the pretence, of the civil war. It was Informers were punished and discouraged; the innowith equal surprise and pleasure, that on his arrival at cent, who had suffered under the late tyranny, were a place called Saxa Rubra, about nine miles from recalled from exile, and restored to their estates. A Rome," he discovered the army of Maxentius pre- general act of oblivion quieted the minds, and settled pared to give him battle. Their long front filled a the property of the people, both in Italy and in Africa. very spacious plain, and their deep array reached to The first time that Constantine honoured the senate the banks of the Tyber, which covered their rear, and with his presence, he recapitulated his own services forbade their retreat. We are informed, and we may and exploits in a modest oration, assured that illusbelieve, that Constantine disposed his troops with trious order of his sincere regard, and promised to reconsummate skill, and that he chose for himself the establish its ancient dignity and privileges. The post of honour and danger. Distinguished by the grateful senate repaid these unmeaning professions by splendour of his arms, he charged in person the cav- the empty titles of honour, which it was yet in their alry of his rival; and his irresistible attack deter-power to bestow; and without presuming to ratify the mined the fortune of the day. The cavalry of Max- authority of Constantine, they passed a decree to asentius was principally composed either of unwieldy sign him the first rank among the three Augusti, who cuirassiers, or of light Moors and Numidians. They governed the Ronian world. Games and festivals yielded to the vigour of the Gallic horse, which pos- were instituted to preserve the fame of his victory, sessed more activity than the one, more firmness than and several edifices, raised at the expense of Maxenthe other. The defeat of the two wings left the in- tius, were dedicated to the honour of his successful fantry without any protection on its flanks, and the un- rival. The triumphal arch of Constantine still redisciplined Italians fled without reluctance from the mains a melancholy proof of the decline of the arts, standard of a tyrant whom they had always hated, and a singular testimony of the meanest vanity. As and whom they no longer feared. The prætorians, it was not possible to find in the capital of the empire conscious that their offences were beyond the reach of a sculptor who was capable of adorning that public mercy, were animated by revenge and despair. Not- monument, the arch of Trajan, without any respect withstanding their repeated efforts, those brave vete- either for his memory or for the rules of propriety, rans were unable to recover the victory; they obtain-was stripped of its most elegant figures. The differed, however, an honourable death; and it was ob-ence of times and persons, of actions and characters, served that their bodies covered the same ground was totally disregarded. The Parthian captives apwhich had been occupied by their ranks. The confusion then became general, and the dismayed troops of Maxentius, pursued by an implacable enemy, rushed by thousands into the deep and rapid stream of the Tyber. The emperor himself attempted to escape back into the city over the Milvian bridge, but the crowds which pressed together through that narrow passage, forced him into the river, where he was immediately drowned by the weight of his armour. His body, which had sunk very deep into the mud, was found with some difficulty the next day. The sight of his head, when it was exposed to the eyes of the people, convinced them of their deliverance, and ad

t See Panegyr. Vet. ix. 16. x. 17. The former of these orators magnifies the hoards of corn, which Maxentius had collected from Africa and the islands. And yet, if there is any truth in the scarcity mentioned by Eusebius. (in Vit. Constantin. I. i. c. 26.) the imperial granaries must have been open only to the soldiers.

u Maxentius... tandem urbe in Saza Rubra, millia ferme novem ægerrime progressus. Aurelius Victor. See Cellarius Geograph. Antiq. tom. i. p. 463. Saxa Rubra was in the neighbourhood of the Cremera, a trifling rivulet, illustrated by the valour and glorious death of the three hundred Fabii.

pear prostrate at the feet of a prince who never carried his arms beyond the Euphrates; and curious antiquarians can still discover the head of Trajan on the trophies of Constantine. The new ornaments which it was necessary to introduce between the vacancies of ancient sculpture, are executed in the rudest and most unskilful manner.

The final abolition of the prætorian and conduct at guards was a measure of prudence as Rome. well as of revenge. Those haughty troops, whose numbers and privileges had been restored, and even augmented, by Maxentius, were for ever suppressed by Constantine. Their fortified camp was destroyed, and the few prætorians who had escaped the fury of the sword, were dispersed among the legions, and banished to the frontiers of the empire, where they

Zosimus, I. ii. p. 86-88, and the two Panegyrics, the former of which was pronounced a few months afterwards, afford the clearest notion of this great battle. Lactantius, Eusebius, and even the Epitomes, supply several useful hints.

b Zosimus, the enemy of Constantine, allows (1. ii. p. 88.) that only a few of the friends of Maxentius were put to death; but we may remark the expressive passage of Nazarius, (Panegyr. Vet. x. 6.) Omnibus qui labefactari statum ejus poterant cum stirpe deletis. The other orator (Panegyr. Vet. ix. 20, 21.) contents himself with observ

The post which Maxentius had taken, with the Tyber in his rear. is very clearly described by the two Panegyrists, ix. 16. x. 28. y Exceptis latrocinii illius primis auctoribus qui, desperata venia, locum quem pognæ sumpserant texere corporibus. Panegyr. Vet. ix.ing, that Constantine, when he entered Rome, did not imitate the

17.

A very idle rumour soon prevailed, that Maxentius, who had not taken any precaution for his own retreat, had contrived a very ariful snare to destroy the army of the pursuers; but that the wooden bridge which was to have been loosened on the approach of Constantine, unluckily broke down under the weight of the flying Italians. M. de Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. part. i. p. 576.) very seriously examines whether, in contradiction to common sense, the testimony of Eusebius and Zosimus ought to prevail over the silence of Lactantius, Nazarius, and the anonymous but contem. porary orator, who composed the ninth Panegyric..

cruel massacres of Cinna, of Marius, or of Sylla.

e See the two Panegyrics, and the laws of this and the ensuing year, in the Theodosian Code.

d Panegyr. Vet. ix. 20. Lactantius de M. P. c. 44. Maximin, who was confessedly the eldest Cæsar, claimed, with some show of rea son, the first rank among the Augusti.

e Adhuc cuncta opera quæ magnifice construxerat, urhis fanum atque basilicam, Flavii meritis patres sacravere. Aurelius Victor. With regard to the theft of Trajan's trophies, consult Flaminius Vacca, apud Montfaucon, Diarium Italicum, p. 250. and l'Antiquite Expliquee of the latter, tom. iv. p. 171.

The defeat,

might be serviceable without again becoming danger-marches. By this extraordinary effort of diligence, ous. By suppressing the troops which were usually he arrived, with a harassed, but formidable army, on stationed in Rome, Constantine gave the fatal blow the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus, before the lieuto the dignity of the senate and people, and the tenants of Licinius were apprised of his hostile intendisarmed capital was exposed without protection to tions. Byzantium surrendered to the power of Maximin, the insults or neglect of its distant master. We after a siege of eleven days. He was detained some days may observe, that in this last effort to preserve their under the walls of Heraclea; and he had no sooner taken expiring freedom, the Romans, from the apprehen- possession of that city, than he was alarmed by the sion of a tribute, had raised Maxentius to the intelligence, that Licinius had pitched his camp at the throne. He exacted that tribute from the senate un- distance of only eighteen miles. After a fruitless neder the name of a free gift. They implored the as-gociation, in which the two princes atsistance of Constantine. He vanquished the tyrant, tempted to seduce the fidelity of each April 30, and converted the free gift into a perpetual tax. The other's adherents, they had recourse to arms. The senators, according to the declaration which was re- emperor of the east commanded a disciplined and vetquired of their property, were divided into several eran army of above seventy thousand men, and Licinclasses. The most opulent paid annually eight pounds ius, who had collected about thirty thousand Illyrians, of gold, the next class paid four, the last two, and was at first oppressed by the superiority of numbers. those whose poverty might have claimed an exemp- His military skill, and the firmness of his troops, retion, were assessed however at seven pieces of gold. stored the day, and obtained a decisive victory. The Besides the regular members of the senate, their sons, incredible speed which Maximin exerted in his flight, their descendants, and even their relations, enjoyed is much more celebrated than his prowess in the batthe vain privileges, and supported the heavy burthens, tle. Twenty-four hours afterwards he was seen pale, of the senatorial order; nor will it longer excite our trembling, and without his imperial ornaments, at surprise, that Constantine should be attentive to in- Nicomedia, one hundred and sixty miles from the crease the number of persons who were included un- place of his defeat. The wealth of Asia was yet un der so useful a description. After the defeat of Max-exhausted; and though the flower of his veterans had entius, the victorious emperor passed no more than fallen in the late action, he had still power, if he could two or three months in Rome, which he visited twice obtain time, to draw very numerous levies from Syria during the remainder of his life, to celebrate the so- and Egypt. But he survived his mis- and death of the lemn festivals of the tenth and of the twentieth years fortunes only three or four months. His former, August. of his reign. Constantine was almost perpetually in death, which happened at Tarsus, was variously asmotion to exercise the legions, or to inspect the state cribed to despair, to poison, and to the divine justice. of the provinces. Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Sirmium, As Maximin was alike destitute of abilities and of virNaissus, and Thessalonica, were the occasional places tue, he was lamented neither by the people nor by the of his residence, till he founded a NEW ROME on the soldiers. The provinces of the east, delivered from confines of Europe and Asia. the terrors of civil war, cheerfully acknowledged the authority of Licinius.*

His alliance with.
Licinius,

A. D. 313.

War between

Before Constantine marched into Italy, he had secured the friendship, or at The vanquished emperor left behind Cruelty of Lici. least the neutrality, of Licinius, the Il-him two children, a boy of about eight, March. lyrian emperor. He had promised his and a girl of about seven, years old. Their inoffensister Constantia in marriage to that prince: but the sive age might have excited compassion; but the celebration of the nuptials was deferred till after the compassion of Licinius was a very feeble resource, conclusion of the war, and the interview of the two nor did it restrain him from extinguishing the name conquerors at Milan, which was appointed for that and memory of his adversary. The death of Severipurpose, appeared to cement the union of their families anus will admit of less excuse, as it was dictated and interests. In the midst of the public festivity neither by revenge nor by policy. The conqueror had they were suddenly obliged to take leave of each never received any injury from the father of that unother. An inroad of the Franks summoned Constan- happy youth, and the short and obscure reign of Setine to the Rhine, and the hostile approach of the verus, in a distant part of the empire, was already forsovereign of Asia demanded the immediate presence gotten. But the execution of Candidianus was an act of Licinius. Maximin had been the se- of the blackest cruelty and ingratitude. He was the Maximin and cret ally of Maxentius, and without be- natural son of Galerius, the friend and benefactor of Licinius, ing discouraged by his fate, he resolved Licinius. The prudent father had judged him too A. D. 313. to try the fortune of a civil war. He young to sustain the weight of a diadem; but he moved out of Syria, towards the frontiers of Bithynia, hoped that, under the protection of princes who were in the depth of winter. The season was severe and indebted to his favour for the imperial purple, Canditempestuous; great numbers of men as well as horses dianus might pass a secure and honourable life. He perished in the snow; and as the roads were broken was now advancing towards the twentieth year of his up by incessant rains, he was obliged to leave be- age, and the royalty of his birth, though unsupported hind him a considerable part of the heavy baggage, either by merit or ambition, was sufficient to exasperate which was unable to follow the rapidity of his forced the jealous mind of Licinius. To these innocent and illustrious victims of his tyranny, we must add the wife and daughter of the emperor Diocletian. When that prince conferred on Galerius the title of Cæsar, he had given him in marriage his daughter Valeria, whose melancholy adventures might furnish a very singular subject for tragedy. She had fulfilled Unfortunate fate and even surpassed the duties of a wife. of the empress As she had not any children herself, Valeria and her she condescended to adopt the illegitimate mother. son of her husband, and invariably displayed towards the unhappy Candidianus the tenderness and anxiety

Prætoria legiones ac subsidia factionibus aptiora quam urbi Romæ, sublata penitus; simul arma atque usus indumenti militaris. Aurelius Victor. Zosimus (1. ii. p. 89.) mentions this fact as an historian, and it is very pompously celebrated in the ninth Panegyric.

ut senatus dignitas.

Ex omnibus provinciis optimates viros curiæ tuæ pigneraveris; rius in Panegyr. Vet. x. 35. The word pigneraveris might almost seem maliciously chosen. Concerning the senatorial tax, see Zosimus. 1. ii. p. 115. the second title of the sixth book of the Theodosian Code, with Godefroy's Commentary, and Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 726.

. ex totius orbis flore consisteret. Naza

From the Theodosian Code, we may now begin to trace the motions of the emperors; but the dates both of time and place, have frequently been altered by the carelessness of transcribers.

i Zosimus (1. ii. p. 89.) observes, that before the war the sister of Constantine had been betrothed to Licinius. According to the younger Victor, Diocletian was invited to the nuptials; but having ventured to plead his age and infirmities, he received a second letter filled with reproaches for his supposed partiality to the cause of Maxentius and Maximin.

k Zosimus mentions the defeat and death of Maximin as ordinary events; but Lactantius expatiates on them, (de M. P. c. 45-50.) ascribing them to the miraculous interposition of heaven. Licinius at that time was one of the protectors of the church.

1 Lactantius de M. P. c. 50. Aurelius Victor touches on the different conduct of Licinius, and of Constantine, in the use of victory.

but their grief and indignation were suppressed by the terrors of a military guard. Such was the unworthy fate of the wife and daughter of Diocletian. We lament their misfortunes, we cannot discover their crimes, and whatever idea we may justly entertain of the cruelty of Licinius, it remains a matter of surprise, that he was not contented with some more secret and decent method of revenge.

A. D. 314.

of a real mother. After the death of Galerius, her the disguise of plebeian habits. They were at length ample possessions provoked the avarice, and her per- discovered at Thessalonica; and as the sentence of sonal attractions excited the desires, of his successor their death was already pronounced, they were imMaximin. He had a wife still alive, but divorce was mediately beheaded, and their bodies thrown into the permitted by the Roman law, and the fierce passions sea. The people gazed on the melancholy spectacle; of the tyrant demanded an immediate gratification. The answer of Valeria was such as became the daughter and widow of emperors; but it was tempered by the prudence which her defenceless condition compelled her to observe. She represented to the persons whom Maximin had employed on this occasion, "that even if honour could permit a woman of her character and dignity to entertain a thought of second nuptials, decency at least must forbid her to listen to his ad- The Roman world was now divided Quarrel between dresses at a time when the ashes of her husband and between Constantine and Licinius, the Constantine and his benefactor were still warm; and while the sor- former of whom was master of the west, Licinius, rows of her mind were still expressed by her mourn- and the latter of the east. It might pering garments. She ventured to declare, that she haps have been expected that the conquerors, fatigued could place very little confidence in the professions of with civil war, and connected by a private as well as a man, whose cruel inconstancy was capable of repu- public alliance, would have renounced, or at least diating a faithful and affectionate wife."i On this re- would have suspended, any further designs of ambipulse, the love of Maximin was converted into fury, tion. And yet a year had scarcely elapsed after the and as witnesses and judges were always at his dis- death of Maximin, before the victorious emperors turnposal, it was easy for him to cover his fury with an ed their arms against each other. The genius, the sucappearance of legal proceedings, and to assault the re- cess, and the aspiring temper of Constantine, may seem putation as well as the happiness of Valeria. Her to mark him out as the aggressor; but the perfidious estates were confiscated, her eunuchs and domestics character of Licinius justifies the most unfavourable devoted to the most inhuman tortures, and several in- suspicions, and by the faint light which history reflects nocent and respectable matrons, who were honoured on this transaction, we may discover a conspiracy fowith her friendship, suffered death, on a false accusa-mented by his arts against the authority of his coltion of adultery. The empress herself, together with league. Constantine had lately given his sister Anasher mother Prisca, was condemned to exile; and as tasia in marriage to Bassianus, a man of a considerable they were ignominiously hurried from place to place family and fortune, and had elevated his new kinsman before they were confined to a sequestered village in to the rank of Cæsar. According to the system of the deserts of Syria, they exposed their shame and government instituted by Diocletian, Italy, and perdistress to the provinces of the east, which, during haps Africa, were designed for his departments in the thirty years, had respected their august dignity. Dio- empire. But the performance of the promised favour cletian made several ineffectual efforts to alleviate the was either attended with so much delay, or accompamisfortunes of his daughter; and, as the last return nied with so many unequal conditions, that the fidelity that he expected for the imperial purple, which he had of Bassianus was alienated rather than secured by the conferred upon Maximin, he entreated that Valeria honourable distinction which he had obtained. His might be permitted to share his retirement of Salona, nomination had been ratified by the consent of Licinius, and to close the eyes of her afflicted father." He en- and that artful prince, by the means of his emissaries, treated, but as he could no longer threaten, his pray-soon contrived to enter into a secret and dangerous corers were received with coldness and disdain; and the respondence with the new Cæsar, to irritate his disconpride of Maximin was gratified, in treating Diocletian tents, and to urge him to the rash enterprise of extortas a suppliant, and his daughter as a criminal. The ing by violence what he might in vain solicit from the death of Maximin seemed to assure the empresses of a justice of Constantine. But the vigilant emperor disfavourable alteration to their fortune. The public dis- covered the conspiracy before it was ripe for execution; orders relaxed the vigilance of their guard, and they and, after solemnly renouncing the alliance of Bassiaeasily found means to escape from the place of their nus, despoiled him of the purple, and inflicted the deexile, and to repair, though with some precaution, and served punishment on his treason and ingratitude. in disguise, to the court of Licinius. His behaviour, The haughty refusal of Licinius, when he was requirin the first days of his reign, and in the honourableed to deliver up the criminals, who had taken refuge reception which he gave to young Candidianus, in- in his dominions, confirmed the suspicions already enspired Valeria with a secret satisfaction, both on her tertained of his perfidy; and the indignities offered at own account, and on that of her adopted son. But Emona, on the frontiers of Italy, to the statues of Conthese grateful prospects were soon succeeded by hor- stantine, became the signal of discord between the two ror and astonishment; and the bloody executions princes. which stained the palace of Nicomedia, sufficiently convinced her, that the throne of Maximin was filled by a tyrant more inhuman than himself. Valeria consulted her safety by a hasty flight, and, still accompanied by her mother Prisca, they wandered above fifteen months through the provinces, concealed in

The sensual appetites of Maximin were gratified at the expense of his subjects. His eunuchs, who forced away wives and virgins, examined their naked charms with anxious curiosity, lest any part of their body should be found unworthy of the royal embraces. Coyness and disdain were considered as treason, and the obstinate fair one was condemned to be drowned. A custom was gradually introduced, that no person should marry a wife without the permission of the emperor, ut ipse in omnibus nuptiis prægustator esset." Lactantius de M. P. c. 38.

The first battle was fought near Ciba- First civil war lis, a city of Pannonia, situated on the between them. river Save, about fifty miles from Sirmium. From the

doubt whether we should compute the fifteen months from the moment of her exile, or from that of her escape. The expression of per

vagata seems to denote the latter; but in that case we must suppose, that the treatise of Lactantius was written after the first civil war between Licinius and Constantine. See Cuper, p. 254.

q lta illis pudicitia et conditio exitio fuit. Lactantius de M. P. c. 51. He relates the misfortunes of the innocent wife and daughter of Diocletian with a very natural mixture of pity and exultation.

r The curious reader, who consults the Valesian Fragment, p. 713. will perhaps accuse me of giving a bold and licentious paraphrase; but if he considers it with attention, he will acknowledge that my interpretation is probable and consistent.

8 The situation of Emona, or, as it is now called, Laybach, in Carniola, (D'Anville Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 187.) may sug gest a conjecture. As it lay to the north-east of the Julian Alps, that important territory become a natural object of dispute between the sovereigns of Italy and of Illyricum.

t Cibalis or Cibale, (whose name is still preserved in the obscure ruins of Swilei,) was situated about fifty miles from Sirmium, the ca pital of Illyricum, and about one hundred from Taurunum, or Bel