Chapter XIV: Six Emperors At The Same Time, Reunion Of The

Empire.—Part IV.

The plain of Mardia in Thrace was the theatre of a second battle
no less obstinate and bloody than the former. The troops on both
sides displayed the same valor and discipline; and the victory
was once more decided by the superior abilities of Constantine,
who directed a body of five thousand men to gain an advantageous
height, from whence, during the heat of the action, they attacked
the rear of the enemy, and made a very considerable slaughter.
The troops of Licinius, however, presenting a double front, still
maintained their ground, till the approach of night put an end to
the combat, and secured their retreat towards the mountains of
Macedonia. 90 The loss of two battles, and of his bravest
veterans, reduced the fierce spirit of Licinius to sue for peace.
His ambassador Mistrianus was admitted to the audience of
Constantine: he expatiated on the common topics of moderation and
humanity, which are so familiar to the eloquence of the
vanquished; represented in the most insinuating language, that
the event of the war was still doubtful, whilst its inevitable
calamities were alike pernicious to both the contending parties;
and declared that he was authorized to propose a lasting and
honorable peace in the name of the _two_ emperors his masters.
Constantine received the mention of Valens with indignation and
contempt. “It was not for such a purpose,” he sternly replied,
“that we have advanced from the shores of the western ocean in an
uninterrupted course of combats and victories, that, after
rejecting an ungrateful kinsman, we should accept for our
colleague a contemptible slave. The abdication of Valens is the
first article of the treaty.” 91 It was necessary to accept this
humiliating condition; and the unhappy Valens, after a reign of a
few days, was deprived of the purple and of his life. As soon as
this obstacle was removed, the tranquillity of the Roman world
was easily restored. The successive defeats of Licinius had
ruined his forces, but they had displayed his courage and
abilities. His situation was almost desperate, but the efforts of
despair are sometimes formidable, and the good sense of
Constantine preferred a great and certain advantage to a third
trial of the chance of arms. He consented to leave his rival, or,
as he again styled Licinius, his friend and brother, in the
possession of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt; but the
provinces of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece,
were yielded to the Western empire, and the dominions of
Constantine now extended from the confines of Caledonia to the
extremity of Peloponnesus. It was stipulated by the same treaty,
that three royal youths, the sons of emperors, should be called
to the hopes of the succession. Crispus and the young Constantine
were soon afterwards declared Cæsars in the West, while the
younger Licinius was invested with the same dignity in the East.
In this double proportion of honors, the conqueror asserted the
superiority of his arms and power. 92

90 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 92, 93. Anonym. Valesian. p.
713. The Epitomes furnish some circumstances; but they frequently
confound the two wars between Licinius and Constantine.]

91 (return) [ Petrus Patricius in Excerpt. Legat. p. 27. If it
should be thought that signifies more properly a son-in-law, we
might conjecture that Constantine, assuming the name as well as
the duties of a father, had adopted his younger brothers and
sisters, the children of Theodora. But in the best authors
sometimes signifies a husband, sometimes a father-in-law, and
sometimes a kinsman in general. See Spanheim, Observat. ad
Julian. Orat. i. p. 72.]

92 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 93. Anonym. Valesian. p. 713.
Eutropius, x. v. Aurelius Victor, Euseb. in Chron. Sozomen, l. i.
c. 2. Four of these writers affirm that the promotion of the
Cæsars was an article of the treaty. It is, however, certain,
that the younger Constantine and Licinius were not yet born; and
it is highly probable that the promotion was made the 1st of
March, A. D. 317. The treaty had probably stipulated that the two
Cæsars might be created by the western, and one only by the
eastern emperor; but each of them reserved to himself the choice
of the persons.]

The reconciliation of Constantine and Licinius, though it was
imbittered by resentment and jealousy, by the remembrance of
recent injuries, and by the apprehension of future dangers,
maintained, however, above eight years, the tranquility of the
Roman world. As a very regular series of the Imperial laws
commences about this period, it would not be difficult to
transcribe the civil regulations which employed the leisure of
Constantine. But the most important of his institutions are
intimately connected with the new system of policy and religion,
which was not perfectly established till the last and peaceful
years of his reign. There are many of his laws, which, as far as
they concern the rights and property of individuals, and the
practice of the bar, are more properly referred to the private
than to the public jurisprudence of the empire; and he published
many edicts of so local and temporary a nature, that they would
ill deserve the notice of a general history. Two laws, however,
may be selected from the crowd; the one for its importance, the
other for its singularity; the former for its remarkable
benevolence, the latter for its excessive severity. 1. The horrid
practice, so familiar to the ancients, of exposing or murdering
their new-born infants, was become every day more frequent in the
provinces, and especially in Italy. It was the effect of
distress; and the distress was principally occasioned by the
intolerant burden of taxes, and by the vexatious as well as cruel
prosecutions of the officers of the revenue against their
insolvent debtors. The less opulent or less industrious part of
mankind, instead of rejoicing in an increase of family, deemed it
an act of paternal tenderness to release their children from the
impending miseries of a life which they themselves were unable to
support. The humanity of Constantine, moved, perhaps, by some
recent and extraordinary instances of despair, engaged him to
address an edict to all the cities of Italy, and afterwards of
Africa, directing immediate and sufficient relief to be given to
those parents who should produce before the magistrates the
children whom their own poverty would not allow them to educate.
But the promise was too liberal, and the provision too vague, to
effect any general or permanent benefit. 93 The law, though it
may merit some praise, served rather to display than to alleviate
the public distress. It still remains an authentic monument to
contradict and confound those venal orators, who were too well
satisfied with their own situation to discover either vice or
misery under the government of a generous sovereign. 94 2. The
laws of Constantine against rapes were dictated with very little
indulgence for the most amiable weaknesses of human nature; since
the description of that crime was applied not only to the brutal
violence which compelled, but even to the gentle seduction which
might persuade, an unmarried woman, under the age of twenty-five,
to leave the house of her parents. “The successful ravisher was
punished with death;” and as if simple death was inadequate to
the enormity of his guilt, he was either burnt alive, or torn in
pieces by wild beasts in the amphitheatre. The virgin’s
declaration, that she had been carried away with her own consent,
instead of saving her lover, exposed her to share his fate. The
duty of a public prosecution was intrusted to the parents of the
guilty or unfortunate maid; and if the sentiments of nature
prevailed on them to dissemble the injury, and to repair by a
subsequent marriage the honor of their family, they were
themselves punished by exile and confiscation. The slaves,
whether male or female, who were convicted of having been
accessory to rape or seduction, were burnt alive, or put to death
by the ingenious torture of pouring down their throats a quantity
of melted lead. As the crime was of a public kind, the accusation
was permitted even to strangers.9401

9401 (return) [ This explanation appears to me little probable.
Godefroy has made a much more happy conjecture, supported by all
the historical circumstances which relate to this edict. It was
published the 12th of May, A. D. 315. at Naissus in Pannonia, the
birthplace of Constantine. The 8th of October, in that year,
Constantine gained the victory of Cibalis over Licinius. He was
yet uncertain as to the fate of the war: the Christians, no
doubt, whom he favored, had prophesied his victory. Lactantius,
then preceptor of Crispus, had just written his work upon
Christianity, (his Divine Institutes;) he had dedicated it to
Constantine. In this book he had inveighed with great force
against infanticide, and the exposure of infants, (l. vi. c. 20.)
Is it not probable that Constantine had read this work, that he
had conversed on the subject with Lactantius, that he was moved,
among other things, by the passage to which I have referred, and
in the first transport of his enthusiasm, he published the edict
in question? The whole of the edict bears the character of
precipitation, of excitement, (entrainement,) rather than of
deliberate reflection—the extent of the promises, the
indefiniteness of the means, of the conditions, and of the time
during which the parents might have a right to the succor of the
state. Is there not reason to believe that the humanity of
Constantine was excited by the influence of Lactantius, by that
of the principles of Christianity, and of the Christians
themselves, already in high esteem with the emperor, rather than
by some “extraordinary instances of despair”? * * * See
Hegewisch, Essai Hist. sur les Finances Romaines. The edict for
Africa was not published till 322: of that we may say in truth
that its origin was in the misery of the times. Africa had
suffered much from the cruelty of Maxentius. Constantine says
expressly, that he had learned that parents, under the pressure
of distress, were there selling their children. This decree is
more distinct, more maturely deliberated than the former; the
succor which was to be given to the parents, and the source from
which it was to be derived, are determined. (Code Theod. l. xi.
tit. 27, c 2.) If the direct utility of these laws may not have
been very extensive, they had at least the great and happy effect
of establishing a decisive opposition between the principles of
the government and those which, at this time, had prevailed among
the subjects of the empire.—G.]

The commencement of the action was not limited to any term of
years, and the consequences of the sentence were extended to the
innocent offspring of such an irregular union. 95 But whenever
the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigor
of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of
mankind. The most odious parts of this edict were softened or
repealed in the subsequent reigns; 96 and even Constantine
himself very frequently alleviated, by partial acts of mercy, the
stern temper of his general institutions. Such, indeed, was the
singular humor of that emperor, who showed himself as indulgent,
and even remiss, in the execution of his laws, as he was severe,
and even cruel, in the enacting of them. It is scarcely possible
to observe a more decisive symptom of weakness, either in the
character of the prince, or in the constitution of the
government. 97

93 (return) [ Codex Theodosian. l. xi. tit. 27, tom. iv. p. 188,
with Godefroy’s observations. See likewise l. v. tit. 7, 8.]

94 (return) [ Omnia foris placita, domi prospera, annonæ
ubertate, fructuum copia, &c. Panegyr. Vet. x. 38. This oration
of Nazarius was pronounced on the day of the Quinquennalia of the
Cæsars, the 1st of March, A. D. 321.]

95 (return) [ See the edict of Constantine, addressed to the
Roman people, in the Theodosian Code, l. ix. tit. 24, tom. iii.
p. 189.]

96 (return) [ His son very fairly assigns the true reason of the
repeal: “Na sub specie atrocioris judicii aliqua in ulciscendo
crimine dilatio næ ceretur.” Cod. Theod. tom. iii. p. 193]

97 (return) [ Eusebius (in Vita Constant. l. iii. c. 1) chooses
to affirm, that in the reign of this hero, the sword of justice
hung idle in the hands of the magistrates. Eusebius himself, (l.
iv. c. 29, 54,) and the Theodosian Code, will inform us that this
excessive lenity was not owing to the want either of atrocious
criminals or of penal laws.]

The civil administration was sometimes interrupted by the
military defence of the empire. Crispus, a youth of the most
amiable character, who had received with the title of Cæsar the
command of the Rhine, distinguished his conduct, as well as
valor, in several victories over the Franks and Alemanni, and
taught the barbarians of that frontier to dread the eldest son of
Constantine, and the grandson of Constantius. 98 The emperor
himself had assumed the more difficult and important province of
the Danube. The Goths, who in the time of Claudius and Aurelian
had felt the weight of the Roman arms, respected the power of the
empire, even in the midst of its intestine divisions. But the
strength of that warlike nation was now restored by a peace of
near fifty years; a new generation had arisen, who no longer
remembered the misfortunes of ancient days; the Sarmatians of the
Lake Mæotis followed the Gothic standard either as subjects or as
allies, and their united force was poured upon the countries of
Illyricum. Campona, Margus, and Benonia, 982 appear to have been
the scenes of several memorable sieges and battles; 99 and though
Constantine encountered a very obstinate resistance, he prevailed
at length in the contest, and the Goths were compelled to
purchased an ignominious retreat, by restoring the booty and
prisoners which they had taken. Nor was this advantage sufficient
to satisfy the indignation of the emperor. He resolved to
chastise as well as to repulse the insolent barbarians who had
dared to invade the territories of Rome. At the head of his
legions he passed the Danube, after repairing the bridge which
had been constructed by Trajan, penetrated into the strongest
recesses of Dacia, 100 and when he had inflicted a severe
revenge, condescended to give peace to the suppliant Goths, on
condition that, as often as they were required, they should
supply his armies with a body of forty thousand soldiers. 101
Exploits like these were no doubt honorable to Constantine, and
beneficial to the state; but it may surely be questioned, whether
they can justify the exaggerated assertion of Eusebius, that ALL
SCYTHIA, as far as the extremity of the North, divided as it was
into so many names and nations of the most various and savage
manners, had been added by his victorious arms to the Roman
empire. 102

98 (return) [ Nazarius in Panegyr. Vet. x. The victory of Crispus
over the Alemanni is expressed on some medals. * Note: Other
medals are extant, the legends of which commemorate the success
of Constantine over the Sarmatians and other barbarous nations,
Sarmatia Devicta. Victoria Gothica. Debellatori Gentium
Barbarorum. Exuperator Omnium Gentium. St. Martin, note on Le
Beau, i. 148.—M.]

982 (return) [ Campona, Old Buda in Hungary; Margus, Benonia,
Widdin, in Mæsia—G and M.]

99 (return) [ See Zosimus, l. ii. p. 93, 94; though the narrative
of that historian is neither clear nor consistent. The Panegyric
of Optatianus (c. 23) mentions the alliance of the Sarmatians
with the Carpi and Getæ, and points out the several fields of
battle. It is supposed that the Sarmatian games, celebrated in
the month of November, derived their origin from the success of
this war.]

100 (return) [ In the Cæsars of Julian, (p. 329. Commentaire de
Spanheim, p. 252.) Constantine boasts, that he had recovered the
province (Dacia) which Trajan had subdued. But it is insinuated
by Silenus, that the conquests of Constantine were like the
gardens of Adonis, which fade and wither almost the moment they
appear.]

101 (return) [ Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 21. I know not
whether we may entirely depend on his authority. Such an alliance
has a very recent air, and scarcely is suited to the maxims of
the beginning of the fourth century.]

102 (return) [ Eusebius in Vit. Constantin. l. i. c. 8. This
passage, however, is taken from a general declamation on the
greatness of Constantine, and not from any particular account of
the Gothic war.]

In this exalted state of glory, it was impossible that
Constantine should any longer endure a partner in the empire.
Confiding in the superiority of his genius and military power, he
determined, without any previous injury, to exert them for the
destruction of Licinius, whose advanced age and unpopular vices
seemed to offer a very easy conquest. 103 But the old emperor,
awakened by the approaching danger, deceived the expectations of
his friends, as well as of his enemies. Calling forth that spirit
and those abilities by which he had deserved the friendship of
Galerius and the Imperial purple, he prepared himself for the
contest, collected the forces of the East, and soon filled the
plains of Hadrianople with his troops, and the straits of the
Hellespont with his fleet. The army consisted of one hundred and
fifty thousand foot, and fifteen thousand horse; and as the
cavalry was drawn, for the most part, from Phrygia and
Cappadocia, we may conceive a more favorable opinion of the
beauty of the horses, than of the courage and dexterity of their
riders. The fleet was composed of three hundred and fifty galleys
of three ranks of oars. A hundred and thirty of these were
furnished by Egypt and the adjacent coast of Africa. A hundred
and ten sailed from the ports of Phœnicia and the isle of Cyprus;
and the maritime countries of Bithynia, Ionia, and Caria were
likewise obliged to provide a hundred and ten galleys. The troops
of Constantine were ordered to a rendezvous at Thessalonica; they
amounted to above a hundred and twenty thousand horse and foot.
104 Their emperor was satisfied with their martial appearance,
and his army contained more soldiers, though fewer men, than that
of his eastern competitor. The legions of Constantine were levied
in the warlike provinces of Europe; action had confirmed their
discipline, victory had elevated their hopes, and there were
among them a great number of veterans, who, after seventeen
glorious campaigns under the same leader, prepared themselves to
deserve an honorable dismission by a last effort of their valor.
105 But the naval preparations of Constantine were in every
respect much inferior to those of Licinius. The maritime cities
of Greece sent their respective quotas of men and ships to the
celebrated harbor of Piræus, and their united forces consisted of
no more than two hundred small vessels—a very feeble armament, if
it is compared with those formidable fleets which were equipped
and maintained by the republic of Athens during the Peloponnesian
war. 106 Since Italy was no longer the seat of government, the
naval establishments of Misenum and Ravenna had been gradually
neglected; and as the shipping and mariners of the empire were
supported by commerce rather than by war, it was natural that
they should the most abound in the industrious provinces of Egypt
and Asia. It is only surprising that the eastern emperor, who
possessed so great a superiority at sea, should have neglected
the opportunity of carrying an offensive war into the centre of
his rival’s dominions.

103 (return) [ Constantinus tamen, vir ingens, et omnia efficere
nitens quæ animo præparasset, simul principatum totius urbis
affectans, Licinio bellum intulit. Eutropius, x. 5. Zosimus, l.
ii. p 89. The reasons which they have assigned for the first
civil war, may, with more propriety, be applied to the second.]

104 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 94, 95.]

105 (return) [ Constantine was very attentive to the privileges
and comforts of his fellow-veterans, (Conveterani,) as he now
began to style them. See the Theodosian Code, l. vii. tit. 10,
tom. ii. p. 419, 429.]

106 (return) [ Whilst the Athenians maintained the empire of the
sea, their fleet consisted of three, and afterwards of four,
hundred galleys of three ranks of oars, all completely equipped
and ready for immediate service. The arsenal in the port of
Piræus had cost the republic a thousand talents, about two
hundred and sixteen thousand pounds. See Thucydides de Bel.
Pelopon. l. ii. c. 13, and Meursius de Fortuna Attica, c. 19.]

Instead of embracing such an active resolution, which might have
changed the whole face of the war, the prudent Licinius expected
the approach of his rival in a camp near Hadrianople, which he
had fortified with an anxious care that betrayed his apprehension
of the event. Constantine directed his march from Thessalonica
towards that part of Thrace, till he found himself stopped by the
broad and rapid stream of the Hebrus, and discovered the numerous
army of Licinius, which filled the steep ascent of the hill, from
the river to the city of Hadrianople. Many days were spent in
doubtful and distant skirmishes; but at length the obstacles of
the passage and of the attack were removed by the intrepid
conduct of Constantine. In this place we might relate a wonderful
exploit of Constantine, which, though it can scarcely be
paralleled either in poetry or romance, is celebrated, not by a
venal orator devoted to his fortune, but by an historian, the
partial enemy of his fame. We are assured that the valiant
emperor threw himself into the River Hebrus, accompanied only by
_twelve_ horsemen, and that by the effort or terror of his
invincible arm, he broke, slaughtered, and put to flight a host
of a hundred and fifty thousand men. The credulity of Zosimus
prevailed so strongly over his passion, that among the events of
the memorable battle of Hadrianople, he seems to have selected
and embellished, not the most important, but the most marvellous.
The valor and danger of Constantine are attested by a slight
wound which he received in the thigh; but it may be discovered
even from an imperfect narration, and perhaps a corrupted text,
that the victory was obtained no less by the conduct of the
general than by the courage of the hero; that a body of five
thousand archers marched round to occupy a thick wood in the rear
of the enemy, whose attention was diverted by the construction of
a bridge, and that Licinius, perplexed by so many artful
evolutions, was reluctantly drawn from his advantageous post to
combat on equal ground on the plain. The contest was no longer
equal. His confused multitude of new levies was easily vanquished
by the experienced veterans of the West. Thirty-four thousand men
are reported to have been slain. The fortified camp of Licinius
was taken by assault the evening of the battle; the greater part
of the fugitives, who had retired to the mountains, surrendered
themselves the next day to the discretion of the conqueror; and
his rival, who could no longer keep the field, confined himself
within the walls of Byzantium. 107

107 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 95, 96. This great battle is
described in the Valesian fragment, (p. 714,) in a clear though
concise manner. “Licinius vero circum Hadrianopolin maximo
exercitu latera ardui montis impleverat; illuc toto agmine
Constantinus inflexit. Cum bellum terra marique traheretur,
quamvis per arduum suis nitentibus, attamen disciplina militari
et felicitate, Constantinus Licinu confusum et sine ordine
agentem vicit exercitum; leviter femore sau ciatus.”]

The siege of Byzantium, which was immediately undertaken by
Constantine, was attended with great labor and uncertainty. In
the late civil wars, the fortifications of that place, so justly
considered as the key of Europe and Asia, had been repaired and
strengthened; and as long as Licinius remained master of the sea,
the garrison was much less exposed to the danger of famine than
the army of the besiegers. The naval commanders of Constantine
were summoned to his camp, and received his positive orders to
force the passage of the Hellespont, as the fleet of Licinius,
instead of seeking and destroying their feeble enemy, continued
inactive in those narrow straits, where its superiority of
numbers was of little use or advantage. Crispus, the emperor’s
eldest son, was intrusted with the execution of this daring
enterprise, which he performed with so much courage and success,
that he deserved the esteem, and most probably excited the
jealousy, of his father. The engagement lasted two days; and in
the evening of the first, the contending fleets, after a
considerable and mutual loss, retired into their respective
harbors of Europe and Asia. The second day, about noon, a strong
south wind 108 sprang up, which carried the vessels of Crispus
against the enemy; and as the casual advantage was improved by
his skilful intrepidity, he soon obtained a complete victory. A
hundred and thirty vessels were destroyed, five thousand men were
slain, and Amandus, the admiral of the Asiatic fleet, escaped
with the utmost difficulty to the shores of Chalcedon. As soon as
the Hellespont was open, a plentiful convoy of provisions flowed
into the camp of Constantine, who had already advanced the
operations of the siege. He constructed artificial mounds of
earth of an equal height with the ramparts of Byzantium. The
lofty towers which were erected on that foundation galled the
besieged with large stones and darts from the military engines,
and the battering rams had shaken the walls in several places. If
Licinius persisted much longer in the defence, he exposed himself
to be involved in the ruin of the place. Before he was
surrounded, he prudently removed his person and treasures to
Chalcedon in Asia; and as he was always desirous of associating
companions to the hopes and dangers of his fortune, he now
bestowed the title of Cæsar on Martinianus, who exercised one of
the most important offices of the empire. 109

108 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 97, 98. The current always sets
out of the Hellespont; and when it is assisted by a north wind,
no vessel can attempt the passage. A south wind renders the force
of the current almost imperceptible. See Tournefort’s Voyage au
Levant, Let. xi.]

109 (return) [ Aurelius Victor. Zosimus, l. ii. p. 93. According
to the latter, Martinianus was Magister Officiorum, (he uses the
Latin appellation in Greek.) Some medals seem to intimate, that
during his short reign he received the title of Augustus.]

Such were still the resources, and such the abilities, of
Licinius, that, after so many successive defeats, he collected in
Bithynia a new army of fifty or sixty thousand men, while the
activity of Constantine was employed in the siege of Byzantium.
The vigilant emperor did not, however, neglect the last struggles
of his antagonist. A considerable part of his victorious army was
transported over the Bosphorus in small vessels, and the decisive
engagement was fought soon after their landing on the heights of
Chrysopolis, or, as it is now called, of Scutari. The troops of
Licinius, though they were lately raised, ill armed, and worse
disciplined, made head against their conquerors with fruitless
but desperate valor, till a total defeat, and a slaughter of five
and twenty thousand men, irretrievably determined the fate of
their leader. 110 He retired to Nicomedia, rather with the view
of gaining some time for negotiation, than with the hope of any
effectual defence. Constantia, his wife, and the sister of
Constantine, interceded with her brother in favor of her husband,
and obtained from his policy, rather than from his compassion, a
solemn promise, confirmed by an oath, that after the sacrifice of
Martinianus, and the resignation of the purple, Licinius himself
should be permitted to pass the remainder of this life in peace
and affluence. The behavior of Constantia, and her relation to
the contending parties, naturally recalls the remembrance of that
virtuous matron who was the sister of Augustus, and the wife of
Antony. But the temper of mankind was altered, and it was no
longer esteemed infamous for a Roman to survive his honor and
independence. Licinius solicited and accepted the pardon of his
offences, laid himself and his purple at the feet of his _lord_
and _master_, was raised from the ground with insulting pity, was
admitted the same day to the Imperial banquet, and soon
afterwards was sent away to Thessalonica, which had been chosen
for the place of his confinement. 111 His confinement was soon
terminated by death, and it is doubtful whether a tumult of the
soldiers, or a decree of the senate, was suggested as the motive
for his execution. According to the rules of tyranny, he was
accused of forming a conspiracy, and of holding a treasonable
correspondence with the barbarians; but as he was never
convicted, either by his own conduct or by any legal evidence, we
may perhaps be allowed, from his weakness, to presume his
innocence. 112 The memory of Licinius was branded with infamy,
his statues were thrown down, and by a hasty edict, of such
mischievous tendency that it was almost immediately corrected,
all his laws, and all the judicial proceedings of his reign, were
at once abolished. 113 By this victory of Constantine, the Roman
world was again united under the authority of one emperor,
thirty-seven years after Diocletian had divided his power and
provinces with his associate Maximian.

110 (return) [ Eusebius (in Vita Constantin. I. ii. c. 16, 17)
ascribes this decisive victory to the pious prayers of the
emperor. The Valesian fragment (p. 714) mentions a body of Gothic
auxiliaries, under their chief Aliquaca, who adhered to the party
of Licinius.]

111 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 102. Victor Junior in Epitome.
Anonym. Valesian. p. 714.]

112 (return) [ Contra religionem sacramenti Thessalonicæ privatus
occisus est. Eutropius, x. 6; and his evidence is confirmed by
Jerome (in Chronic.) as well as by Zosimus, l. ii. p. 102. The
Valesian writer is the only one who mentions the soldiers, and it
is Zonaras alone who calls in the assistance of the senate.
Eusebius prudently slides over this delicate transaction. But
Sozomen, a century afterwards, ventures to assert the treasonable
practices of Licinius.]

113 (return) [ See the Theodosian Code, l. xv. tit. 15, tom. v. p
404, 405. These edicts of Constantine betray a degree of passion
and precipitation very unbecoming the character of a lawgiver.]

The successive steps of the elevation of Constantine, from his
first assuming the purple at York, to the resignation of
Licinius, at Nicomedia, have been related with some minuteness
and precision, not only as the events are in themselves both
interesting and important, but still more, as they contributed to
the decline of the empire by the expense of blood and treasure,
and by the perpetual increase, as well of the taxes, as of the
military establishment. The foundation of Constantinople, and the
establishment of the Christian religion, were the immediate and
memorable consequences of this revolution.