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

By the death of Crispus, the inheritance of the empire seemed to
devolve on the three sons of Fausta, who have been already
mentioned under the names of Constantine, of Constantius, and of
Constans. These young princes were successively invested with the
title of Cæsar; and the dates of their promotion may be referred
to the tenth, the twentieth, and the thirtieth years of the reign
of their father. 29 This conduct, though it tended to multiply
the future masters of the Roman world, might be excused by the
partiality of paternal affection; but it is not so easy to
understand the motives of the emperor, when he endangered the
safety both of his family and of his people, by the unnecessary
elevation of his two nephews, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. The
former was raised, by the title of Cæsar, to an equality with his
cousins. In favor of the latter, Constantine invented the new and
singular appellation of _Nobilissimus;_ 30 to which he annexed
the flattering distinction of a robe of purple and gold. But of
the whole series of Roman princes in any age of the empire,
Hannibalianus alone was distinguished by the title of King; a
name which the subjects of Tiberius would have detested, as the
profane and cruel insult of capricious tyranny. The use of such a
title, even as it appears under the reign of Constantine, is a
strange and unconnected fact, which can scarcely be admitted on
the joint authority of Imperial medals and contemporary writers.
31 3111

29 (return) [ Euseb. Orat. in Constantin. c. 3. These dates are
sufficiently correct to justify the orator.]

30 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. p. 117. Under the predecessors of
Constantine, _Nobilissimus_ was a vague epithet, rather than a
legal and determined title.]

31 (return) [ Adstruunt nummi veteres ac singulares. Spanheim de
Usu Numismat. Dissertat. xii. vol. ii. p. 357. Ammianus speaks of
this Roman king (l. xiv. c. l, and Valesius ad loc.) The Valesian
fragment styles him King of kings; and the Paschal Chronicle
acquires the weight of Latin evidence.]

3111 (return) [ Hannibalianus is always designated in these
authors by the title of king. There still exist medals struck to
his honor, on which the same title is found, Fl. Hannibaliano
Regi. See Eckhel, Doct. Num. t. viii. 204. Armeniam nationesque
circum socias habebat, says Aur. Victor, p. 225. The writer means
the Lesser Armenia. Though it is not possible to question a fact
supported by such respectable authorities, Gibbon considers it
inexplicable and incredible. It is a strange abuse of the
privilege of doubting, to refuse all belief in a fact of such
little importance in itself, and attested thus formally by
contemporary authors and public monuments. St. Martin note to Le
Beau i. 341.—M.]

The whole empire was deeply interested in the education of these
five youths, the acknowledged successors of Constantine. The
exercise of the body prepared them for the fatigues of war and
the duties of active life. Those who occasionally mention the
education or talents of Constantius, allow that he excelled in
the gymnastic arts of leaping and running that he was a dexterous
archer, a skilful horseman, and a master of all the different
weapons used in the service either of the cavalry or of the
infantry. 32 The same assiduous cultivation was bestowed, though
not perhaps with equal success, to improve the minds of the sons
and nephews of Constantine. 33 The most celebrated professors of
the Christian faith, of the Grecian philosophy, and of the Roman
jurisprudence, were invited by the liberality of the emperor, who
reserved for himself the important task of instructing the royal
youths in the science of government, and the knowledge of
mankind. But the genius of Constantine himself had been formed by
adversity and experience. In the free intercourse of private
life, and amidst the dangers of the court of Galerius, he had
learned to command his own passions, to encounter those of his
equals, and to depend for his present safety and future greatness
on the prudence and firmness of his personal conduct. His
destined successors had the misfortune of being born and educated
in the imperial purple. Incessantly surrounded with a train of
flatterers, they passed their youth in the enjoyment of luxury,
and the expectation of a throne; nor would the dignity of their
rank permit them to descend from that elevated station from
whence the various characters of human nature appear to wear a
smooth and uniform aspect. The indulgence of Constantine admitted
them, at a very tender age, to share the administration of the
empire; and they studied the art of reigning, at the expense of
the people intrusted to their care. The younger Constantine was
appointed to hold his court in Gaul; and his brother Constantius
exchanged that department, the ancient patrimony of their father,
for the more opulent, but less martial, countries of the East.
Italy, the Western Illyricum, and Africa, were accustomed to
revere Constans, the third of his sons, as the representative of
the great Constantine. He fixed Dalmatius on the Gothic frontier,
to which he annexed the government of Thrace, Macedonia, and
Greece. The city of Cæsarea was chosen for the residence of
Hannibalianus; and the provinces of Pontus, Cappadocia, and the
Lesser Armenia, were destined to form the extent of his new
kingdom. For each of these princes a suitable establishment was
provided. A just proportion of guards, of legions, and of
auxiliaries, was allotted for their respective dignity and
defence. The ministers and generals, who were placed about their
persons, were such as Constantine could trust to assist, and even
to control, these youthful sovereigns in the exercise of their
delegated power. As they advanced in years and experience, the
limits of their authority were insensibly enlarged: but the
emperor always reserved for himself the title of Augustus; and
while he showed the _Cæsars_ to the armies and provinces, he
maintained every part of the empire in equal obedience to its
supreme head. 34 The tranquillity of the last fourteen years of
his reign was scarcely interrupted by the contemptible
insurrection of a camel-driver in the Island of Cyprus, 35 or by
the active part which the policy of Constantine engaged him to
assume in the wars of the Goths and Sarmatians.

32 (return) [ His dexterity in martial exercises is celebrated by
Julian, (Orat. i. p. 11, Orat. ii. p. 53,) and allowed by
Ammianus, (l. xxi. c. 16.)]

33 (return) [ Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. l. iv. c. 51. Julian,
Orat. i. p. 11-16, with Spanheim’s elaborate Commentary.
Libanius, Orat. iii. p. 109. Constantius studied with laudable
diligence; but the dulness of his fancy prevented him from
succeeding in the art of poetry, or even of rhetoric.]

34 (return) [ Eusebius, (l. iv. c. 51, 52,) with a design of
exalting the authority and glory of Constantine, affirms, that he
divided the Roman empire as a private citizen might have divided
his patrimony. His distribution of the provinces may be collected
from Eutropius, the two Victors and the Valesian fragment.]

35 (return) [ Calocerus, the obscure leader of this rebellion, or
rather tumult, was apprehended and burnt alive in the
market-place of Tarsus, by the vigilance of Dalmatius. See the
elder Victor, the Chronicle of Jerom, and the doubtful traditions
of Theophanes and Cedrenus.]

Among the different branches of the human race, the Sarmatians
form a very remarkable shade; as they seem to unite the manners
of the Asiatic barbarians with the figure and complexion of the
ancient inhabitants of Europe. According to the various accidents
of peace and war, of alliance or conquest, the Sarmatians were
sometimes confined to the banks of the Tanais; and they sometimes
spread themselves over the immense plains which lie between the
Vistula and the Volga. 36 The care of their numerous flocks and
herds, the pursuit of game, and the exercises of war, or rather
of rapine, directed the vagrant motions of the Sarmatians. The
movable camps or cities, the ordinary residence of their wives
and children, consisted only of large wagons drawn by oxen, and
covered in the form of tents. The military strength of the nation
was composed of cavalry; and the custom of their warriors, to
lead in their hand one or two spare horses, enabled them to
advance and to retreat with a rapid diligence, which surprised
the security, and eluded the pursuit, of a distant enemy. 37
Their poverty of iron prompted their rude industry to invent a
sort of cuirass, which was capable of resisting a sword or
javelin, though it was formed only of horses’ hoofs, cut into
thin and polished slices, carefully laid over each other in the
manner of scales or feathers, and strongly sewed upon an under
garment of coarse linen. 38 The offensive arms of the Sarmatians
were short daggers, long lances, and a weighty bow with a quiver
of arrows. They were reduced to the necessity of employing
fish-bones for the points of their weapons; but the custom of
dipping them in a venomous liquor, that poisoned the wounds which
they inflicted, is alone sufficient to prove the most savage
manners, since a people impressed with a sense of humanity would
have abhorred so cruel a practice, and a nation skilled in the
arts of war would have disdained so impotent a resource. 39
Whenever these Barbarians issued from their deserts in quest of
prey, their shaggy beards, uncombed locks, the furs with which
they were covered from head to foot, and their fierce
countenances, which seemed to express the innate cruelty of their
minds, inspired the more civilized provincials of Rome with
horror and dismay.

36 (return) [ Cellarius has collected the opinions of the
ancients concerning the European and Asiatic Sarmatia; and M.
D’Anville has applied them to modern geography with the skill and
accuracy which always distinguish that excellent writer.]

37 (return) [ Ammian. l. xvii. c. 12. The Sarmatian horses were
castrated to prevent the mischievous accidents which might happen
from the noisy and ungovernable passions of the males.]

38 (return) [ Pausanius, l. i. p. 50,. edit. Kuhn. That
inquisitive traveller had carefully examined a Sarmatian cuirass,
which was preserved in the temple of Æsculapius at Athens.]

39 (return) [ Aspicis et mitti sub adunco toxica ferro, Et telum
causas mortis habere duas. Ovid, ex Ponto, l. iv. ep. 7, ver.
7.——See in the Recherches sur les Americains, tom. ii. p.
236—271, a very curious dissertation on poisoned darts. The venom
was commonly extracted from the vegetable reign: but that
employed by the Scythians appears to have been drawn from the
viper, and a mixture of human blood.]

The use of poisoned arms, which has been spread over both worlds,
never preserved a savage tribe from the arms of a disciplined
enemy. The tender Ovid, after a youth spent in the enjoyment of
fame and luxury, was condemned to a hopeless exile on the frozen
banks of the Danube, where he was exposed, almost without
defence, to the fury of these monsters of the desert, with whose
stern spirits he feared that his gentle shade might hereafter be
confounded. In his pathetic, but sometimes unmanly lamentations,
40 he describes in the most lively colors the dress and manners,
the arms and inroads, of the Getæ and Sarmatians, who were
associated for the purposes of destruction; and from the accounts
of history there is some reason to believe that these Sarmatians
were the Jazygæ, one of the most numerous and warlike tribes of
the nation. The allurements of plenty engaged them to seek a
permanent establishment on the frontiers of the empire. Soon
after the reign of Augustus, they obliged the Dacians, who
subsisted by fishing on the banks of the River Teyss or Tibiscus,
to retire into the hilly country, and to abandon to the
victorious Sarmatians the fertile plains of the Upper Hungary,
which are bounded by the course of the Danube and the
semicircular enclosure of the Carpathian Mountains. 41 In this
advantageous position, they watched or suspended the moment of
attack, as they were provoked by injuries or appeased by
presents; they gradually acquired the skill of using more
dangerous weapons, and although the Sarmatians did not illustrate
their name by any memorable exploits, they occasionally assisted
their eastern and western neighbors, the Goths and the Germans,
with a formidable body of cavalry. They lived under the irregular
aristocracy of their chieftains: 42 but after they had received
into their bosom the fugitive Vandals, who yielded to the
pressure of the Gothic power, they seem to have chosen a king
from that nation, and from the illustrious race of the Astingi,
who had formerly dwelt on the hores of the northern ocean. 43

40 (return) [ The nine books of Poetical Epistles which Ovid
composed during the seven first years of his melancholy exile,
possess, beside the merit of elegance, a double value. They
exhibit a picture of the human mind under very singular
circumstances; and they contain many curious observations, which
no Roman except Ovid, could have an opportunity of making. Every
circumstance which tends to illustrate the history of the
Barbarians, has been drawn together by the very accurate Count de
Buat. Hist. Ancienne des Peuples de l’Europe, tom. iv. c. xvi. p.
286-317]

41 (return) [ The Sarmatian Jazygæ were settled on the banks of
Pathissus or Tibiscus, when Pliny, in the year 79, published his
Natural History. See l. iv. c. 25. In the time of Strabo and
Ovid, sixty or seventy years before, they appear to have
inhabited beyond the Getæ, along the coast of the Euxine.]

42 (return) [ Principes Sarmaturum Jazygum penes quos civitatis
regimen plebem quoque et vim equitum, qua sola valent,
offerebant. Tacit. Hist. iii. p. 5. This offer was made in the
civil war between Vitellino and Vespasian.]

43 (return) [ This hypothesis of a Vandal king reigning over
Sarmatian subjects, seems necessary to reconcile the Goth
Jornandes with the Greek and Latin historians of Constantine. It
may be observed that Isidore, who lived in Spain under the
dominion of the Goths, gives them for enemies, not the Vandals,
but the Sarmatians. See his Chronicle in Grotius, p. 709. Note: I
have already noticed the confusion which must necessarily arise
in history, when names purely _geographical_, as this of
Sarmatia, are taken for _historical_ names belonging to a single
nation. We perceive it here; it has forced Gibbon to suppose,
without any reason but the necessity of extricating himself from
his perplexity, that the Sarmatians had taken a king from among
the Vandals; a supposition entirely contrary to the usages of
Barbarians Dacia, at this period, was occupied, not by
Sarmatians, who have never formed a distinct race, but by
Vandals, whom the ancients have often confounded under the
general term Sarmatians. See Gatterer’s Welt-Geschiehte p.
464—G.]

This motive of enmity must have inflamed the subjects of
contention, which perpetually arise on the confines of warlike
and independent nations. The Vandal princes were stimulated by
fear and revenge; the Gothic kings aspired to extend their
dominion from the Euxine to the frontiers of Germany; and the
waters of the Maros, a small river which falls into the Teyss,
were stained with the blood of the contending Barbarians. After
some experience of the superior strength and numbers of their
adversaries, the Sarmatians implored the protection of the Roman
monarch, who beheld with pleasure the discord of the nations, but
who was justly alarmed by the progress of the Gothic arms. As
soon as Constantine had declared himself in favor of the weaker
party, the haughty Araric, king of the Goths, instead of
expecting the attack of the legions, boldly passed the Danube,
and spread terror and devastation through the province of Mæsia.

To oppose the inroad of this destroying host, the aged emperor
took the field in person; but on this occasion either his conduct
or his fortune betrayed the glory which he had acquired in so
many foreign and domestic wars. He had the mortification of
seeing his troops fly before an inconsiderable detachment of the
Barbarians, who pursued them to the edge of their fortified camp,
and obliged him to consult his safety by a precipitate and
ignominious retreat. 4311 The event of a second and more
successful action retrieved the honor of the Roman name; and the
powers of art and discipline prevailed, after an obstinate
contest, over the efforts of irregular valor. The broken army of
the Goths abandoned the field of battle, the wasted province, and
the passage of the Danube: and although the eldest of the sons of
Constantine was permitted to supply the place of his father, the
merit of the victory, which diffused universal joy, was ascribed
to the auspicious counsels of the emperor himself.

4311 (return) [ Gibbon states, that Constantine was defeated by
the Goths in a first battle. No ancient author mentions such an
event. It is, no doubt, a mistake in Gibbon. St Martin, note to
Le Beau. i. 324.—M.]

He contributed at least to improve this advantage, by his
negotiations with the free and warlike people of Chersonesus, 44
whose capital, situate on the western coast of the Tauric or
Crimæan peninsula, still retained some vestiges of a Grecian
colony, and was governed by a perpetual magistrate, assisted by a
council of senators, emphatically styled the Fathers of the City.

The Chersonites were animated against the Goths, by the memory of
the wars, which, in the preceding century, they had maintained
with unequal forces against the invaders of their country. They
were connected with the Romans by the mutual benefits of
commerce; as they were supplied from the provinces of Asia with
corn and manufactures, which they purchased with their only
productions, salt, wax, and hides. Obedient to the requisition of
Constantine, they prepared, under the conduct of their magistrate
Diogenes, a considerable army, of which the principal strength
consisted in cross-bows and military chariots. The speedy march
and intrepid attack of the Chersonites, by diverting the
attention of the Goths, assisted the operations of the Imperial
generals. The Goths, vanquished on every side, were driven into
the mountains, where, in the course of a severe campaign, above a
hundred thousand were computed to have perished by cold and
hunger. Peace was at length granted to their humble
supplications; the eldest son of Araric was accepted as the most
valuable hostage; and Constantine endeavored to convince their
chiefs, by a liberal distribution of honors and rewards, how far
the friendship of the Romans was preferable to their enmity. In
the expressions of his gratitude towards the faithful
Chersonites, the emperor was still more magnificent. The pride of
the nation was gratified by the splendid and almost royal
decorations bestowed on their magistrate and his successors. A
perpetual exemption from all duties was stipulated for their
vessels which traded to the ports of the Black Sea. A regular
subsidy was promised, of iron, corn, oil, and of every supply
which could be useful either in peace or war. But it was thought
that the Sarmatians were sufficiently rewarded by their
deliverance from impending ruin; and the emperor, perhaps with
too strict an economy, deducted some part of the expenses of the
war from the customary gratifications which were allowed to that
turbulent nation.

44 (return) [ I may stand in need of some apology for having
used, without scruple, the authority of Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, in all that relates to the wars and negotiations
of the Chersonites. I am aware that he was a Greek of the tenth
century, and that his accounts of ancient history are frequently
confused and fabulous. But on this occasion his narrative is, for
the most part, consistent and probable nor is there much
difficulty in conceiving that an emperor might have access to
some secret archives, which had escaped the diligence of meaner
historians. For the situation and history of Chersone, see
Peyssonel, des Peuples barbares qui ont habite les Bords du
Danube, c. xvi. 84-90. ——Gibbon has confounded the inhabitants of
the city of Cherson, the ancient Chersonesus, with the people of
the Chersonesus Taurica. If he had read with more attention the
chapter of Constantius Porphyrogenitus, from which this narrative
is derived, he would have seen that the author clearly
distinguishes the republic of Cherson from the rest of the Tauric
Peninsula, then possessed by the kings of the Cimmerian
Bosphorus, and that the city of Cherson alone furnished succors
to the Romans. The English historian is also mistaken in saying
that the Stephanephoros of the Chersonites was a perpetual
magistrate; since it is easy to discover from the great number of
Stephanephoroi mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, that
they were annual magistrates, like almost all those which
governed the Grecian republics. St. Martin, note to Le Beau i.
326.—M.]

Exasperated by this apparent neglect, the Sarmatians soon forgot,
with the levity of barbarians, the services which they had so
lately received, and the dangers which still threatened their
safety. Their inroads on the territory of the empire provoked the
indignation of Constantine to leave them to their fate; and he no
longer opposed the ambition of Geberic, a renowned warrior, who
had recently ascended the Gothic throne. Wisumar, the Vandal
king, whilst alone, and unassisted, he defended his dominions
with undaunted courage, was vanquished and slain in a decisive
battle, which swept away the flower of the Sarmatian youth. 4411
The remainder of the nation embraced the desperate expedient of
arming their slaves, a hardy race of hunters and herdsmen, by
whose tumultuary aid they revenged their defeat, and expelled the
invader from their confines. But they soon discovered that they
had exchanged a foreign for a domestic enemy, more dangerous and
more implacable. Enraged by their former servitude, elated by
their present glory, the slaves, under the name of Limigantes,
claimed and usurped the possession of the country which they had
saved. Their masters, unable to withstand the ungoverned fury of
the populace, preferred the hardships of exile to the tyranny of
their servants. Some of the fugitive Sarmatians solicited a less
ignominious dependence, under the hostile standard of the Goths.
A more numerous band retired beyond the Carpathian Mountains,
among the Quadi, their German allies, and were easily admitted to
share a superfluous waste of uncultivated land. But the far
greater part of the distressed nation turned their eyes towards
the fruitful provinces of Rome. Imploring the protection and
forgiveness of the emperor, they solemnly promised, as subjects
in peace, and as soldiers in war, the most inviolable fidelity to
the empire which should graciously receive them into its bosom.
According to the maxims adopted by Probus and his successors, the
offers of this barbarian colony were eagerly accepted; and a
competent portion of lands in the provinces of Pannonia, Thrace,
Macedonia, and Italy, were immediately assigned for the
habitation and subsistence of three hundred thousand Sarmatians.
45 4511

4411 (return) [ Gibbon supposes that this war took place because
Constantine had deducted a part of the customary gratifications,
granted by his predecessors to the Sarmatians. Nothing of this
kind appears in the authors. We see, on the contrary, that after
his victory, and to punish the Sarmatia is for the ravages they
had committed, he withheld the sums which it had been the custom
to bestow. St. Martin, note to Le Beau, i. 327.—M.]

45 (return) [ The Gothic and Sarmatian wars are related in so
broken and imperfect a manner, that I have been obliged to
compare the following writers, who mutually supply, correct, and
illustrate each other. Those who will take the same trouble, may
acquire a right of criticizing my narrative. Ammianus, l. xvii.
c. 12. Anonym. Valesian. p. 715. Eutropius, x. 7. Sextus Rufus de
Provinciis, c. 26. Julian Orat. i. p. 9, and Spanheim, Comment.
p. 94. Hieronym. in Chron. Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. l. iv. c.
6. Socrates, l. i. c. 18. Sozomen, l. i. c. 8. Zosimus, l. ii. p.
108. Jornandes de Reb. Geticis, c. 22. Isidorus in Chron. p. 709;
in Hist. Gothorum Grotii. Constantin. Porphyrogenitus de
Administrat. Imperii, c. 53, p. 208, edit. Meursii.]

4511 (return) [ Compare, on this very obscure but remarkable war,
Manso, Leben Coa xantius, p. 195—M.]

By chastising the pride of the Goths, and by accepting the homage
of a suppliant nation, Constantine asserted the majesty of the
Roman empire; and the ambassadors of Æthiopia, Persia, and the
most remote countries of India, congratulated the peace and
prosperity of his government. 46 If he reckoned, among the favors
of fortune, the death of his eldest son, of his nephew, and
perhaps of his wife, he enjoyed an uninterrupted flow of private
as well as public felicity, till the thirtieth year of his reign;
a period which none of his predecessors, since Augustus, had been
permitted to celebrate. Constantine survived that solemn festival
about ten months; and at the mature age of sixty-four, after a
short illness, he ended his memorable life at the palace of
Aquyrion, in the suburbs of Nicomedia, whither he had retired for
the benefit of the air, and with the hope of recruiting his
exhausted strength by the use of the warm baths. The excessive
demonstrations of grief, or at least of mourning, surpassed
whatever had been practised on any former occasion.
Notwithstanding the claims of the senate and people of ancient
Rome, the corpse of the deceased emperor, according to his last
request, was transported to the city, which was destined to
preserve the name and memory of its founder. The body of
Constantine adorned with the vain symbols of greatness, the
purple and diadem, was deposited on a golden bed in one of the
apartments of the palace, which for that purpose had been
splendidly furnished and illuminated. The forms of the court were
strictly maintained. Every day, at the appointed hours, the
principal officers of the state, the army, and the household,
approaching the person of their sovereign with bended knees and a
composed countenance, offered their respectful homage as
seriously as if he had been still alive. From motives of policy,
this theatrical representation was for some time continued; nor
could flattery neglect the opportunity of remarking that
Constantine alone, by the peculiar indulgence of Heaven, had
reigned after his death. 47

46 (return) [ Eusebius (in Vit. Const. l. iv. c. 50) remarks
three circumstances relative to these Indians. 1. They came from
the shores of the eastern ocean; a description which might be
applied to the coast of China or Coromandel. 2. They presented
shining gems, and unknown animals. 3. They protested their kings
had erected statues to represent the supreme majesty of
Constantine.]

47 (return) [ Funus relatum in urbem sui nominis, quod sane P. R.
ægerrime tulit. Aurelius Victor. Constantine prepared for himself
a stately tomb in the church of the Holy Apostles. Euseb. l. iv.
c. 60. The best, and indeed almost the only account of the
sickness, death, and funeral of Constantine, is contained in the
fourth book of his Life by Eusebius.]

But this reign could subsist only in empty pageantry; and it was
soon discovered that the will of the most absolute monarch is
seldom obeyed, when his subjects have no longer anything to hope
from his favor, or to dread from his resentment. The same
ministers and generals, who bowed with such referential awe
before the inanimate corpse of their deceased sovereign, were
engaged in secret consultations to exclude his two nephews,
Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, from the share which he had assigned
them in the succession of the empire. We are too imperfectly
acquainted with the court of Constantine to form any judgment of
the real motives which influenced the leaders of the conspiracy;
unless we should suppose that they were actuated by a spirit of
jealousy and revenge against the præfect Ablavius, a proud
favorite, who had long directed the counsels and abused the
confidence of the late emperor. The arguments, by which they
solicited the concurrence of the soldiers and people, are of a
more obvious nature; and they might with decency, as well as
truth, insist on the superior rank of the children of
Constantine, the danger of multiplying the number of sovereigns,
and the impending mischiefs which threatened the republic, from
the discord of so many rival princes, who were not connected by
the tender sympathy of fraternal affection. The intrigue was
conducted with zeal and secrecy, till a loud and unanimous
declaration was procured from the troops, that they would suffer
none except the sons of their lamented monarch to reign over the
Roman empire. 48 The younger Dalmatius, who was united with his
collateral relations by the ties of friendship and interest, is
allowed to have inherited a considerable share of the abilities
of the great Constantine; but, on this occasion, he does not
appear to have concerted any measure for supporting, by arms, the
just claims which himself and his royal brother derived from the
liberality of their uncle. Astonished and overwhelmed by the tide
of popular fury, they seem to have remained, without the power of
flight or of resistance, in the hands of their implacable
enemies. Their fate was suspended till the arrival of
Constantius, the second, and perhaps the most favored, of the
sons of Constantine. 49

48 (return) [ Eusebius (l. iv. c. 6) terminates his narrative by
this loyal declaration of the troops, and avoids all the
invidious circumstances of the subsequent massacre.]

49 (return) [ The character of Dalmatius is advantageously,
though concisely drawn by Eutropius. (x. 9.) Dalmatius Cæsar
prosperrimâ indole, neque patrou absimilis, _haud multo_ post
oppressus est factione militari. As both Jerom and the
Alexandrian Chronicle mention the third year of the Cæsar, which
did not commence till the 18th or 24th of September, A. D. 337,
it is certain that these military factions continued above four
months.]