Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.—Part IV

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; 69 and Magnentius, an ambitious soldier,
who was himself of Barbarian extraction, was encouraged by the
public discontent to assert the honor of the Roman name. 70 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 _honorable_ 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
favorite 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, 71 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. 72

69 (return) [ Quarum (_gentium_) obsides pretio quæsitos pueros
venustiore quod cultius habuerat libidine hujusmodi arsisse _pro
certo_ habet. Had not the depraved taste of Constans been
publicly avowed, the elder Victor, who held a considerable office
in his brother’s reign, would not have asserted it in such
positive terms.]

70 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. and ii. Zosim. l. ii. p. 134.
Victor in Epitome. There is reason to believe that Magnentius was
born in one of those Barbarian colonies which Constantius Chlorus
had established in Gaul, (see this History, vol. i. p. 414.) His
behavior may remind us of the patriot earl of Leicester, the
famous Simon de Montfort, who could persuade the good people of
England, that he, a Frenchman by birth had taken arms to deliver
them from foreign favorites.]

71 (return) [ This ancient city had once flourished under the
name of Illiberis (Pomponius Mela, ii. 5.) The munificence of
Constantine gave it new splendor, and his mother’s name. Helena
(it is still called Elne) became the seat of a bishop, who long
afterwards transferred his residence to Perpignan, the capital of
modern Rousillon. See D’Anville. Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, p.
380. Longuerue, Description de la France, p. 223, and the Marca
Hispanica, l. i. c. 2.]

72 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 119, 120. Zonaras, tom. ii. l.
xiii. p. 13, and the Abbreviators.]

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 præfectures 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. 73 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 dishonorable, alliance with the
usurper of the West, whose purple was so recently stained with
her brother’s blood. 74

73 (return) [ Eutropius (x. 10) describes Vetranio with more
temper, and probably with more truth, than either of the two
Victors. Vetranio was born of obscure parents in the wildest
parts of Mæsia; and so much had his education been neglected,
that, after his elevation, he studied the alphabet.]

74 (return) [ The doubtful, fluctuating conduct of Vetranio is
described by Julian in his first oration, and accurately
explained by Spanheim, who discusses the situation and behavior
of Constantina.]

The intelligence of these important events, which so deeply
affected the honor 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 preëminence 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 valor, 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. 75

75 (return) [ See Peter the Patrician, in the Excerpta Legationem
p. 27.]

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 honor 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, 76 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 favor a public spectacle, calculated to discover
and inflame the passions of the multitude. 77 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 round the tribunal; and the attentive silence which they
preserved was sometimes interrupted by loud bursts of clamor 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 valor, 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 favored servants had tempted them to violate. The officers,
who surrounded the tribunal, and were instructed to act their
part 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. 78

76 (return) [ Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 16. The position of
Sardica, near the modern city of Sophia, appears better suited to
this interview than the situation of either Naissus or Sirmium,
where it is placed by Jerom, Socrates, and Sozomen.]

77 (return) [ See the two first orations of Julian, particularly
p. 31; and Zosimus, l. ii. p. 122. The distinct narrative of the
historian serves to illustrate the diffuse but vague descriptions
of the orator.]

78 (return) [ The younger Victor assigns to his exile the
emphatical appellation of “Voluptarium otium.” Socrates (l. ii.
c. 28) is the voucher for the correspondence with the emperor,
which would seem to prove that Vetranio was indeed, prope ad
stultitiam simplicissimus.]

The behavior 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. 79 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 80 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. 81 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 a
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 honor 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.

79 (return) [ Eum Constantius..... facundiæ vi dejectum Imperio
in pri vatum otium removit. Quæ gloria post natum Imperium soli
proces sit eloquio clementiâque, &c. Aurelius Victor, Julian, and
Themistius (Orat. iii. and iv.) adorn this exploit with all the
artificial and gaudy coloring of their rhetoric.]

80 (return) [ Busbequius (p. 112) traversed the Lower Hungary and
Sclavonia at a time when they were reduced almost to a desert, by
the reciprocal hostilities of the Turks and Christians. Yet he
mentions with admiration the unconquerable fertility of the soil;
and observes that the height of the grass was sufficient to
conceal a loaded wagon from his sight. See likewise Browne’s
Travels, in Harris’s Collection, vol ii. p. 762 &c.]

81 (return) [ Zosimus gives a very large account of the war, and
the negotiation, (l. ii. p. 123-130.) But as he neither shows
himself a soldier nor a politician, his narrative must be weighed
with attention, and received with caution.]

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, 82 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. 83 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. 84 They deserved his confidence by the valor
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 scarcely 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 armor, 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 mean while, 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. 85 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; 86 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. 87 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. 88

82 (return) [ This remarkable bridge, which is flanked with
towers, and supported on large wooden piles, was constructed A.
D. 1566, by Sultan Soliman, to facilitate the march of his armies
into Hungary.]

83 (return) [ This position, and the subsequent evolutions, are
clearly, though concisely, described by Julian, Orat. i. p. 36.]

84 (return) [ Sulpicius Severus, l. ii. p. 405. The emperor
passed the day in prayer with Valens, the Arian bishop of Mursa,
who gained his confidence by announcing the success of the
battle. M. de Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 1110)
very properly remarks the silence of Julian with regard to the
personal prowess of Constantius in the battle of Mursa. The
silence of flattery is sometimes equal to the most positive and
authentic evidence.]

85 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 36, 37; and Orat. ii. p. 59,
60. Zonaras, tom ii. l. xiii. p. 17. Zosimus, l. ii. p. 130-133.
The last of these celebrates the dexterity of the archer
Menelaus, who could discharge three arrows at the same time; an
advantage which, according to his apprehension of military
affairs, materially contributed to the victory of Constantius.]

86 (return) [ According to Zonaras, Constantius, out of 80,000
men, lost 30,000; and Magnentius lost 24,000 out of 36,000. The
other articles of this account seem probable and authentic, but
the numbers of the tyrant’s army must have been mistaken, either
by the author or his transcribers. Magnentius had collected the
whole force of the West, Romans and Barbarians, into one
formidable body, which cannot fairly be estimated at less than
100,000 men. Julian. Orat. i. p. 34, 35.]

87 (return) [ Ingentes R. I. vires eâ dimicatione consumptæ sunt,
ad quælibet bella externa idoneæ, quæ multum triumphorum possent
securitatisque conferre. Eutropius, x. 13. The younger Victor
expresses himself to the same effect.]

88 (return) [ On this occasion, we must prefer the unsuspected
testimony of Zosimus and Zonaras to the flattering assertions of
Julian. The younger Victor paints the character of Magnentius in
a singular light: “Sermonis acer, animi tumidi, et immodice
timidus; artifex tamen ad occultandam audaciæ specie formidinem.”
Is it most likely that in the battle of Mursa his behavior was
governed by nature or by art should incline for the latter.]

The approach of winter supplied the indolence of Constantius with
specious reasons for deferring 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. 89 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. 90 But as soon as Constantius, after the battle of
Mursa, became master of the sea-coast of Dalmatia, a band of
noble exiles, who had ventured to equip a fleet in some harbor 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, signalized 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 of gratifying his despair by the
carnage of a useless victory. 91

89 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 38, 39. In that place, however,
as well as in Oration ii. p. 97, he insinuates the general
disposition of the senate, the people, and the soldiers of Italy,
towards the party of the emperor.]

90 (return) [ The elder Victor describes, in a pathetic manner,
the miserable condition of Rome: “Cujus stolidum ingenium adeo P.
R. patribusque exitio fuit, uti passim domus, fora, viæ,
templaque, cruore, cadaveri busque opplerentur bustorum modo.”
Athanasius (tom. i. p. 677) deplores the fate of several
illustrious victims, and Julian (Orat. ii p 58) execrates the
cruelty of Marcellinus, the implacable enemy of the house of
Constantine.]

91 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. p. 133. Victor in Epitome. The
panegyrists of Constantius, with their usual candor, forget to
mention this accidental defeat.]

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 favorable
audience, with the offer of resigning the purple, and the promise
of devoting the remainder of his life to the service of the
emperor. But Constantius, though he granted fair terms of pardon
and reconciliation to all who abandoned the standard of
rebellion, 92 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. 93 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. 94 Their
patience was at length exhausted; and Treves, the seat of
Prætorian government, gave the signal of revolt, by shutting her
gates against Decentius, who had been raised by his brother to
the rank either of Cæsar or of Augustus. 95 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. 96
In the mean time, 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.
97 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 a
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; 98 a death more
easy and more honorable than he could hope to obtain from the
hands of an enemy, whose revenge would have been colored 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,
99 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, 9911 was sent to explore the latent remains
of the conspiracy in the remote province of Britain. The honest
indignation expressed by Martin, vice-præfect 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. 100

92 (return) [ Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 17. Julian, in
several places of the two orations, expatiates on the clemency of
Constantius to the rebels.]

93 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. p. 133. Julian. Orat. i. p. 40, ii.
p. 74.]

94 (return) [ Ammian. xv. 6. Zosim. l. ii. p. 123. Julian, who
(Orat. i. p. 40) unveighs against the cruel effects of the
tyrant’s despair, mentions (Orat. i. p. 34) the oppressive edicts
which were dictated by his necessities, or by his avarice. His
subjects were compelled to purchase the Imperial demesnes; a
doubtful and dangerous species of property, which, in case of a
revolution, might be imputed to them as a treasonable
usurpation.]

95 (return) [ The medals of Magnentius celebrate the victories of
the _two_ Augusti, and of the Cæsar. The Cæsar was another
brother, named Desiderius. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs,
tom. iv. p. 757.]

96 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 40, ii. p. 74; with Spanheim,
p. 263. His Commentary illustrates the transactions of this civil
war. Mons Seleuci was a small place in the Cottian Alps, a few
miles distant from Vapincum, or Gap, an episcopal city of
Dauphine. See D’Anville, Notice de la Gaule, p. 464; and
Longuerue, Description de la France, p. 327.—— The Itinerary of
Antoninus (p. 357, ed. Wess.) places Mons Seleucu twenty-four
miles from Vapinicum, (Gap,) and twenty-six from Lucus. (le Luc,)
on the road to Die, (Dea Vocontiorum.) The situation answers to
Mont Saleon, a little place on the right of the small river
Buech, which falls into the Durance. Roman antiquities have been
found in this place. St. Martin. Note to Le Beau, ii. 47.—M.]

97 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 134. Liban. Orat. x. p. 268,
269. The latter most vehemently arraigns this cruel and selfish
policy of Constantius.]

98 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 40. Zosimus, l. ii. p. 134.
Socrates, l. ii. c. 32. Sozomen, l. iv. c. 7. The younger Victor
describes his death with some horrid circumstances: Transfosso
latere, ut erat vasti corporis, vulnere naribusque et ore cruorem
effundens, exspiravit. If we can give credit to Zonaras, the
tyrant, before he expired, had the pleasure of murdering, with
his own hand, his mother and his brother Desiderius.]

99 (return) [ Julian (Orat. i. p. 58, 59) seems at a loss to
determine, whether he inflicted on himself the punishment of his
crimes, whether he was drowned in the Drave, or whether he was
carried by the avenging dæmons from the field of battle to his
destined place of eternal tortures.]

9911 (return) [ This is scarcely correct, ut erat in complicandis
negotiis artifex dirum made ei Catenæ inditum est cognomentum.
Amm. Mar. loc. cit.—M.]

100 (return) [ Ammian. xiv. 5, xxi. 16.]