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.]

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

      The voice of the dying emperor had recommended the care of his
      funeral to the piety of Constantius; and that prince, by the
      vicinity of his eastern station, could easily prevent the
      diligence of his brothers, who resided in their distant
      government of Italy and Gaul. As soon as he had taken possession
      of the palace of Constantinople, his first care was to remove the
      apprehensions of his kinsmen, by a solemn oath which he pledged
      for their security. His next employment was to find some specious
      pretence which might release his conscience from the obligation
      of an imprudent promise. The arts of fraud were made subservient
      to the designs of cruelty; and a manifest forgery was attested by
      a person of the most sacred character. From the hands of the
      Bishop of Nicomedia, Constantius received a fatal scroll,
      affirmed to be the genuine testament of his father; in which the
      emperor expressed his suspicions that he had been poisoned by his
      brothers; and conjured his sons to revenge his death, and to
      consult their own safety, by the punishment of the guilty. 50
      Whatever reasons might have been alleged by these unfortunate
      princes to defend their life and honor against so incredible an
      accusation, they were silenced by the furious clamors of the
      soldiers, who declared themselves, at once, their enemies, their
      judges, and their executioners. The spirit, and even the forms of
      legal proceedings were repeatedly violated in a promiscuous
      massacre; which involved the two uncles of Constantius, seven of
      his cousins, of whom Dalmatius and Hannibalianus were the most
      illustrious, the Patrician Optatus, who had married a sister of
      the late emperor, and the Præfect Ablavius, whose power and
      riches had inspired him with some hopes of obtaining the purple.
      If it were necessary to aggravate the horrors of this bloody
      scene, we might add, that Constantius himself had espoused the
      daughter of his uncle Julius, and that he had bestowed his sister
      in marriage on his cousin Hannibalianus. These alliances, which
      the policy of Constantine, regardless of the public prejudice, 51
      had formed between the several branches of the Imperial house,
      served only to convince mankind, that these princes were as cold
      to the endearments of conjugal affection, as they were insensible
      to the ties of consanguinity, and the moving entreaties of youth
      and innocence. Of so numerous a family, Gallus and Julian alone,
      the two youngest children of Julius Constantius, were saved from
      the hands of the assassins, till their rage, satiated with
      slaughter, had in some measure subsided. The emperor Constantius,
      who, in the absence of his brothers, was the most obnoxious to
      guilt and reproach, discovered, on some future occasions, a faint
      and transient remorse for those cruelties which the perfidious
      counsels of his ministers, and the irresistible violence of the
      troops, had extorted from his unexperienced youth. 52

      50 (return) [ I have related this singular anecdote on the
      authority of Philostorgius, l. ii. c. 16. But if such a pretext
      was ever used by Constantius and his adherents, it was laid aside
      with contempt, as soon as it served their immediate purpose.
      Athanasius (tom. i. p. 856) mention the oath which Constantius
      had taken for the security of his kinsmen. ——The authority of
      Philostorgius is so suspicious, as not to be sufficient to
      establish this fact, which Gibbon has inserted in his history as
      certain, while in the note he appears to doubt it.—G.]

      51 (return) [ Conjugia sobrinarum diu ignorata, tempore addito
      percrebuisse. Tacit. Annal. xii. 6, and Lipsius ad loc. The
      repeal of the ancient law, and the practice of five hundred
      years, were insufficient to eradicate the prejudices of the
      Romans, who still considered the marriages of cousins-german as a
      species of imperfect incest. (Augustin de Civitate Dei, xv. 6;)
      and Julian, whose mind was biased by superstition and resentment,
      stigmatizes these unnatural alliances between his own cousins
      with the opprobrious epithet (Orat. vii. p. 228.). The
      jurisprudence of the canons has since received and enforced this
      prohibition, without being able to introduce it either into the
      civil or the common law of Europe. See on the subject of these
      marriages, Taylor’s Civil Law, p. 331. Brouer de Jure Connub. l.
      ii. c. 12. Hericourt des Loix Ecclésiastiques, part iii. c. 5.
      Fleury, Institutions du Droit Canonique, tom. i. p. 331. Paris,
      1767, and Fra Paolo, Istoria del Concilio Trident, l. viii.]

      52 (return) [ Julian (ad S. P.. Q. Athen. p. 270) charges his
      cousin Constantius with the whole guilt of a massacre, from which
      he himself so narrowly escaped. His assertion is confirmed by
      Athanasius, who, for reasons of a very different nature, was not
      less an enemy of Constantius, (tom. i. p. 856.) Zosimus joins in
      the same accusation. But the three abbreviators, Eutropius and
      the Victors, use very qualifying expressions: “sinente potius
      quam jubente;” “incertum quo suasore;” “vi militum.”]

      The massacre of the Flavian race was succeeded by a new division
      of the provinces; which was ratified in a personal interview of
      the three brothers. Constantine, the eldest of the Cæsars,
      obtained, with a certain preëminence of rank, the possession of
      the new capital, which bore his own name and that of his father.
      Thrace, and the countries of the East, were allotted for the
      patrimony of Constantius; and Constans was acknowledged as the
      lawful sovereign of Italy, Africa, and the Western Illyricum. The
      armies submitted to their hereditary right; and they
      condescended, after some delay, to accept from the Roman senate
      the title of _Augustus_. When they first assumed the reins of
      government, the eldest of these princes was twenty-one, the
      second twenty, and the third only seventeen, years of age. 53

      53 (return) [ Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. l. iv. c. 69. Zosimus,
      l. ii. p. 117. Idat. in Chron. See two notes of Tillemont, Hist.
      des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 1086-1091. The reign of the eldest
      brother at Constantinople is noticed only in the Alexandrian
      Chronicle.]

      While the martial nations of Europe followed the standards of his
      brothers, Constantius, at the head of the effeminate troops of
      Asia, was left to sustain the weight of the Persian war. At the
      decease of Constantine, the throne of the East was filled by
      Sapor, son of Hormouz, or Hormisdas, and grandson of Narses, who,
      after the victory of Galerius, had humbly confessed the
      superiority of the Roman power. Although Sapor was in the
      thirtieth year of his long reign, he was still in the vigor of
      youth, as the date of his accession, by a very strange fatality,
      had preceded that of his birth. The wife of Hormouz remained
      pregnant at the time of her husband’s death; and the uncertainty
      of the sex, as well as of the event, excited the ambitious hopes
      of the princes of the house of Sassan. The apprehensions of civil
      war were at length removed, by the positive assurance of the
      Magi, that the widow of Hormouz had conceived, and would safely
      produce a son. Obedient to the voice of superstition, the
      Persians prepared, without delay, the ceremony of his coronation.

      A royal bed, on which the queen lay in state, was exhibited in
      the midst of the palace; the diadem was placed on the spot, which
      might be supposed to conceal the future heir of Artaxerxes, and
      the prostrate satraps adored the majesty of their invisible and
      insensible sovereign. 54 If any credit can be given to this
      marvellous tale, which seems, however, to be countenanced by the
      manners of the people, and by the extraordinary duration of his
      reign, we must admire not only the fortune, but the genius, of
      Sapor. In the soft, sequestered education of a Persian harem, the
      royal youth could discover the importance of exercising the vigor
      of his mind and body; and, by his personal merit, deserved a
      throne, on which he had been seated, while he was yet unconscious
      of the duties and temptations of absolute power. His minority was
      exposed to the almost inevitable calamities of domestic discord;
      his capital was surprised and plundered by Thair, a powerful king
      of Yemen, or Arabia; and the majesty of the royal family was
      degraded by the captivity of a princess, the sister of the
      deceased king. But as soon as Sapor attained the age of manhood,
      the presumptuous Thair, his nation, and his country, fell beneath
      the first effort of the young warrior; who used his victory with
      so judicious a mixture of rigor and clemency, that he obtained
      from the fears and gratitude of the Arabs the title of
      _Dhoulacnaf_, or protector of the nation. 55 5511

      54 (return) [ Agathias, who lived in the sixth century, is the
      author of this story, (l. iv. p. 135, edit. Louvre.) He derived
      his information from some extracts of the Persian Chronicles,
      obtained and translated by the interpreter Sergius, during his
      embassy at that country. The coronation of the mother of Sapor is
      likewise mentioned by Snikard, (Tarikh. p. 116,) and D’Herbelot
      (Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 703.) ——The author of the
      Zenut-ul-Tarikh states, that the lady herself affirmed her belief
      of this from the extraordinary liveliness of the infant, and its
      lying on the right side. Those who are sage on such subjects must
      determine what right she had to be positive from these symptoms.
      Malcolm, Hist. of Persia, i 83.—M.]

      55 (return) [ D’Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 764.]

      5511 (return) [ Gibbon, according to Sir J. Malcolm, has greatly
      mistaken the derivation of this name; it means Zoolaktaf, the
      Lord of the Shoulders, from his directing the shoulders of his
      captives to be pierced and then dislocated by a string passed
      through them. Eastern authors are agreed with respect to the
      origin of this title. Malcolm, i. 84. Gibbon took his derivation
      from D’Herbelot, who gives both, the latter on the authority of
      the Leb. Tarikh.—M.]

      The ambition of the Persian, to whom his enemies ascribe the
      virtues of a soldier and a statesman, was animated by the desire
      of revenging the disgrace of his fathers, and of wresting from
      the hands of the Romans the five provinces beyond the Tigris. The
      military fame of Constantine, and the real or apparent strength
      of his government, suspended the attack; and while the hostile
      conduct of Sapor provoked the resentment, his artful negotiations
      amused the patience of the Imperial court. The death of
      Constantine was the signal of war, 56 and the actual condition of
      the Syrian and Armenian frontier seemed to encourage the Persians
      by the prospect of a rich spoil and an easy conquest. The example
      of the massacres of the palace diffused a spirit of
      licentiousness and sedition among the troops of the East, who
      were no longer restrained by their habits of obedience to a
      veteran commander. By the prudence of Constantius, who, from the
      interview with his brothers in Pannonia, immediately hastened to
      the banks of the Euphrates, the legions were gradually restored
      to a sense of duty and discipline; but the season of anarchy had
      permitted Sapor to form the siege of Nisibis, and to occupy
      several of the mo st important fortresses of Mesopotamia. 57 In
      Armenia, the renowned Tiridates had long enjoyed the peace and
      glory which he deserved by his valor and fidelity to the cause of
      Rome. 5711 The firm alliance which he maintained with Constantine
      was productive of spiritual as well as of temporal benefits; by
      the conversion of Tiridates, the character of a saint was applied
      to that of a hero, the Christian faith was preached and
      established from the Euphrates to the shores of the Caspian, and
      Armenia was attached to the empire by the double ties of policy
      and religion. But as many of the Armenian nobles still refused to
      abandon the plurality of their gods and of their wives, the
      public tranquillity was disturbed by a discontented faction,
      which insulted the feeble age of their sovereign, and impatiently
      expected the hour of his death. He died at length after a reign
      of fifty-six years, and the fortune of the Armenian monarchy
      expired with Tiridates. His lawful heir was driven into exile,
      the Christian priests were either murdered or expelled from their
      churches, the barbarous tribes of Albania were solicited to
      descend from their mountains; and two of the most powerful
      governors, usurping the ensigns or the powers of royalty,
      implored the assistance of Sapor, and opened the gates of their
      cities to the Persian garrisons. The Christian party, under the
      guidance of the Archbishop of Artaxata, the immediate successor
      of St. Gregory the Illuminator, had recourse to the piety of
      Constantius. After the troubles had continued about three years,
      Antiochus, one of the officers of the household, executed with
      success the Imperial commission of restoring Chosroes, 5712 the
      son of Tiridates, to the throne of his fathers, of distributing
      honors and rewards among the faithful servants of the house of
      Arsaces, and of proclaiming a general amnesty, which was accepted
      by the greater part of the rebellious satraps. But the Romans
      derived more honor than advantage from this revolution. Chosroes
      was a prince of a puny stature and a pusillanimous spirit.
      Unequal to the fatigues of war, averse to the society of mankind,
      he withdrew from his capital to a retired palace, which he built
      on the banks of the River Eleutherus, and in the centre of a
      shady grove; where he consumed his vacant hours in the rural
      sports of hunting and hawking. To secure this inglorious ease, he
      submitted to the conditions of peace which Sapor condescended to
      impose; the payment of an annual tribute, and the restitution of
      the fertile province of Atropatene, which the courage of
      Tiridates, and the victorious arms of Galerius, had annexed to
      the Armenian monarchy. 58 5811

      56 (return) [ Sextus Rufus, (c. 26,) who on this occasion is no
      contemptible authority, affirms, that the Persians sued in vain
      for peace, and that Constantine was preparing to march against
      them: yet the superior weight of the testimony of Eusebius
      obliges us to admit the preliminaries, if not the ratification,
      of the treaty. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p.
      420. ——Constantine had endeavored to allay the fury of the
      prosecutions, which, at the instigation of the Magi and the Jews,
      Sapor had commenced against the Christians. Euseb Vit. Hist.
      Theod. i. 25. Sozom. ii. c. 8, 15.—M.]

      57 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 20.]

      5711 (return) [ Tiridates had sustained a war against Maximin.
      caused by the hatred of the latter against Christianity. Armenia
      was the first _nation_ which embraced Christianity. About the
      year 276 it was the religion of the king, the nobles, and the
      people of Armenia. From St. Martin, Supplement to Le Beau, v. i.
      p. 78.——Compare Preface to History of Vartan by Professor
      Neumann, p ix.—M.]

      5712 (return) [ Chosroes was restored probably by Licinius,
      between 314 and 319. There was an Antiochus who was præfectus
      vigilum at Rome, as appears from the Theodosian Code, (l. iii. de
      inf. his quæ sub ty.,) in 326, and from a fragment of the same
      work published by M. Amedee Peyron, in 319. He may before this
      have been sent into Armenia. St. M. p. 407. [Is it not more
      probable that Antiochus was an officer in the service of the
      Cæsar who ruled in the East?—M.] Chosroes was succeeded in the
      year 322 by his son Diran. Diran was a weak prince, and in the
      sixteenth year of his reign. A. D. 337. was betrayed into the
      power of the Persians by the treachery of his chamberlain and the
      Persian governor of Atropatene or Aderbidjan. He was blinded: his
      wife and his son Arsaces shared his captivity, but the princes
      and nobles of Armenia claimed the protection of Rome; and this
      was the cause of Constantine’s declaration of war against the
      Persians.—The king of Persia attempted to make himself master of
      Armenia; but the brave resistance of the people, the advance of
      Constantius, and a defeat which his army suffered at Oskha in
      Armenia, and the failure before Nisibis, forced Shahpour to
      submit to terms of peace. Varaz-Shahpour, the perfidious governor
      of Atropatene, was flayed alive; Diran and his son were released
      from captivity; Diran refused to ascend the throne, and retired
      to an obscure retreat: his son Arsaces was crowned king of
      Armenia. Arsaces pursued a vacillating policy between the
      influence of Rome and Persia, and the war recommenced in the year
      345. At least, that was the period of the expedition of
      Constantius to the East. See St. Martin, additions to Le Beau, i.
      442. The Persians have made an extraordinary romance out of the
      history of Shahpour, who went as a spy to Constantinople, was
      taken, harnessed like a horse, and carried to witness the
      devastation of his kingdom. Malcolm. 84—M.]

      58 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 20, 21. Moses of Chorene, l.
      ii. c. 89, l. iii. c. 1—9, p. 226—240. The perfect agreement
      between the vague hints of the contemporary orator, and the
      circumstantial narrative of the national historian, gives light
      to the former, and weight to the latter. For the credit of Moses,
      it may be likewise observed, that the name of Antiochus is found
      a few years before in a civil office of inferior dignity. See
      Godefroy, Cod. Theod. tom. vi. p. 350.]

      5811 (return) [ Gibbon has endeavored, in his History, to make
      use of the information furnished by Moses of Chorene, the only
      Armenian historian then translated into Latin. Gibbon has not
      perceived all the chronological difficulties which occur in the
      narrative of that writer. He has not thought of all the critical
      discussions which his text ought to undergo before it can be
      combined with the relations of the western writers. From want of
      this attention, Gibbon has made the facts which he has drawn from
      this source more erroneous than they are in the original. This
      judgment applies to all which the English historian has derived
      from the Armenian author. I have made the History of Moses a
      subject of particular attention; and it is with confidence that I
      offer the results, which I insert here, and which will appear in
      the course of my notes. In order to form a judgment of the
      difference which exists between me and Gibbon, I will content
      myself with remarking, that throughout he has committed an
      anachronism of thirty years, from whence it follows, that he
      assigns to the reign of Constantius many events which took place
      during that of Constantine. He could not, therefore, discern the
      true connection which exists between the Roman history and that
      of Armenia, or form a correct notion of the reasons which induced
      Constantine, at the close of his life, to make war upon the
      Persians, or of the motives which detained Constantius so long in
      the East; he does not even mention them. St. Martin, note on Le
      Beau, i. 406. I have inserted M. St. Martin’s observations, but I
      must add, that the chronology which he proposes, is not generally
      received by Armenian scholars, not, I believe, by Professor
      Neumann.—M.]

      During the long period of the reign of Constantius, the provinces
      of the East were afflicted by the calamities of the Persian war.
      5813 The irregular incursions of the light troops alternately
      spread terror and devastation beyond the Tigris and beyond the
      Euphrates, from the gates of Ctesiphon to those of Antioch; and
      this active service was performed by the Arabs of the desert, who
      were divided in their interest and affections; some of their
      independent chiefs being enlisted in the party of Sapor, whilst
      others had engaged their doubtful fidelity to the emperor. 59 The
      more grave and important operations of the war were conducted
      with equal vigor; and the armies of Rome and Persia encountered
      each other in nine bloody fields, in two of which Constantius
      himself commanded in person. 60 The event of the day was most
      commonly adverse to the Romans, but in the battle of Singara,
      their imprudent valor had almost achieved a signal and decisive
      victory. The stationary troops of Singara 6011 retired on the
      approach of Sapor, who passed the Tigris over three bridges, and
      occupied near the village of Hilleh an advantageous camp, which,
      by the labor of his numerous pioneers, he surrounded in one day
      with a deep ditch and a lofty rampart. His formidable host, when
      it was drawn out in order of battle, covered the banks of the
      river, the adjacent heights, and the whole extent of a plain of
      above twelve miles, which separated the two armies. Both were
      alike impatient to engage; but the Barbarians, after a slight
      resistance, fled in disorder; unable to resist, or desirous to
      weary, the strength of the heavy legions, who, fainting with heat
      and thirst, pursued them across the plain, and cut in pieces a
      line of cavalry, clothed in complete armor, which had been posted
      before the gates of the camp to protect their retreat.
      Constantius, who was hurried along in the pursuit, attempted,
      without effect, to restrain the ardor of his troops, by
      representing to them the dangers of the approaching night, and
      the certainty of completing their success with the return of day.
      As they depended much more on their own valor than on the
      experience or the abilities of their chief, they silenced by
      their clamors his timid remonstrances; and rushing with fury to
      the charge, filled up the ditch, broke down the rampart, and
      dispersed themselves through the tents to recruit their exhausted
      strength, and to enjoy the rich harvest of their labors. But the
      prudent Sapor had watched the moment of victory. His army, of
      which the greater part, securely posted on the heights, had been
      spectators of the action, advanced in silence, and under the
      shadow of the night; and his Persian archers, guided by the
      illumination of the camp, poured a shower of arrows on a disarmed
      and licentious crowd. The sincerity of history 61 declares, that
      the Romans were vanquished with a dreadful slaughter, and that
      the flying remnant of the legions was exposed to the most
      intolerable hardships. Even the tenderness of panegyric,
      confessing that the glory of the emperor was sullied by the
      disobedience of his soldiers, chooses to draw a veil over the
      circumstances of this melancholy retreat. Yet one of those venal
      orators, so jealous of the fame of Constantius, relates, with
      amazing coolness, an act of such incredible cruelty, as, in the
      judgment of posterity, must imprint a far deeper stain on the
      honor of the Imperial name. The son of Sapor, the heir of his
      crown, had been made a captive in the Persian camp. The unhappy
      youth, who might have excited the compassion of the most savage
      enemy, was scourged, tortured, and publicly executed by the
      inhuman Romans. 62

      5813 (return) [ It was during this war that a bold flatterer
      (whose name is unknown) published the Itineraries of Alexander
      and Trajan, in order to direct the _victorious_ Constantius in
      the footsteps of those great conquerors of the East. The former
      of these has been published for the first time by M. Angelo Mai
      (Milan, 1817, reprinted at Frankfort, 1818.) It adds so little to
      our knowledge of Alexander’s campaigns, that it only excites our
      regret that it is not the Itinerary of Trajan, of whose eastern
      victories we have no distinct record—M]

      59 (return) [ Ammianus (xiv. 4) gives a lively description of the
      wandering and predatory life of the Saracens, who stretched from
      the confines of Assyria to the cataracts of the Nile. It appears
      from the adventures of Malchus, which Jerom has related in so
      entertaining a manner, that the high road between Beræa and
      Edessa was infested by these robbers. See Hieronym. tom. i. p.
      256.]

      60 (return) [ We shall take from Eutropius the general idea of
      the war. A Persis enim multa et gravia perpessus, sæpe captis,
      oppidis, obsessis urbibus, cæsis exercitibus, nullumque ei contra
      Saporem prosperum prælium fuit, nisi quod apud Singaram, &c. This
      honest account is confirmed by the hints of Ammianus, Rufus, and
      Jerom. The two first orations of Julian, and the third oration of
      Libanius, exhibit a more flattering picture; but the recantation
      of both those orators, after the death of Constantius, while it
      restores us to the possession of the truth, degrades their own
      character, and that of the emperor. The Commentary of Spanheim on
      the first oration of Julian is profusely learned. See likewise
      the judicious observations of Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs,
      tom. iv. p. 656.]

      6011 (return) [ Now Sinjar, or the River Claboras.—M.]

      61 (return) [ Acerrimâ nocturnâ concertatione pugnatum est,
      nostrorum copiis ngenti strage confossis. Ammian. xviii. 5. See
      likewise Eutropius, x. 10, and S. Rufus, c. 27. ——The Persian
      historians, or romancers, do not mention the battle of Singara,
      but make the captive Shahpour escape, defeat, and take prisoner,
      the Roman emperor. The Roman captives were forced to repair all
      the ravages they had committed, even to replanting the smallest
      trees. Malcolm. i. 82.—M.]

      62 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. iii. p. 133, with Julian. Orat. i.
      p. 24, and Spanneism’s Commentary, p. 179.]

      Whatever advantages might attend the arms of Sapor in the field,
      though nine repeated victories diffused among the nations the
      fame of his valor and conduct, he could not hope to succeed in
      the execution of his designs, while the fortified towns of
      Mesopotamia, and, above all, the strong and ancient city of
      Nisibis, remained in the possession of the Romans. In the space
      of twelve years, Nisibis, which, since the time of Lucullus, had
      been deservedly esteemed the bulwark of the East, sustained three
      memorable sieges against the power of Sapor; and the disappointed
      monarch, after urging his attacks above sixty, eighty, and a
      hundred days, was thrice repulsed with loss and ignominy. 63 This
      large and populous city was situate about two days’ journey from
      the Tigris, in the midst of a pleasant and fertile plain at the
      foot of Mount Masius. A treble enclosure of brick walls was
      defended by a deep ditch; 64 and the intrepid resistance of Count
      Lucilianus, and his garrison, was seconded by the desperate
      courage of the people. The citizens of Nisibis were animated by
      the exhortations of their bishop, 65 inured to arms by the
      presence of danger, and convinced of the intentions of Sapor to
      plant a Persian colony in their room, and to lead them away into
      distant and barbarous captivity. The event of the two former
      sieges elated their confidence, and exasperated the haughty
      spirit of the Great King, who advanced a third time towards
      Nisibis, at the head of the united forces of Persia and India.
      The ordinary machines, invented to batter or undermine the walls,
      were rendered ineffectual by the superior skill of the Romans;
      and many days had vainly elapsed, when Sapor embraced a
      resolution worthy of an eastern monarch, who believed that the
      elements themselves were subject to his power. At the stated
      season of the melting of the snows in Armenia, the River
      Mygdonius, which divides the plain and the city of Nisibis,
      forms, like the Nile, 66 an inundation over the adjacent country.
      By the labor of the Persians, the course of the river was stopped
      below the town, and the waters were confined on every side by
      solid mounds of earth. On this artificial lake, a fleet of armed
      vessels filled with soldiers, and with engines which discharged
      stones of five hundred pounds weight, advanced in order of
      battle, and engaged, almost upon a level, the troops which
      defended the ramparts. 6611 The irresistible force of the waters
      was alternately fatal to the contending parties, till at length a
      portion of the walls, unable to sustain the accumulated pressure,
      gave way at once, and exposed an ample breach of one hundred and
      fifty feet. The Persians were instantly driven to the assault,
      and the fate of Nisibis depended on the event of the day. The
      heavy-armed cavalry, who led the van of a deep column, were
      embarrassed in the mud, and great numbers were drowned in the
      unseen holes which had been filled by the rushing waters. The
      elephants, made furious by their wounds, increased the disorder,
      and trampled down thousands of the Persian archers. The Great
      King, who, from an exalted throne, beheld the misfortunes of his
      arms, sounded, with reluctant indignation, the signal of the
      retreat, and suspended for some hours the prosecution of the
      attack. But the vigilant citizens improved the opportunity of the
      night; and the return of day discovered a new wall of six feet in
      height, rising every moment to fill up the interval of the
      breach. Notwithstanding the disappointment of his hopes, and the
      loss of more than twenty thousand men, Sapor still pressed the
      reduction of Nisibis, with an obstinate firmness, which could
      have yielded only to the necessity of defending the eastern
      provinces of Persia against a formidable invasion of the
      Massagetæ. 67 Alarmed by this intelligence, he hastily
      relinquished the siege, and marched with rapid diligence from the
      banks of the Tigris to those of the Oxus. The danger and
      difficulties of the Scythian war engaged him soon afterwards to
      conclude, or at least to observe, a truce with the Roman emperor,
      which was equally grateful to both princes; as Constantius
      himself, after the death of his two brothers, was involved, by
      the revolutions of the West, in a civil contest, which required
      and seemed to exceed the most vigorous exertion of his undivided
      strength.

      63 (return) [ See Julian. Orat. i. p. 27, Orat. ii. p. 62, &c.,
      with the Commentary of Spanheim, (p. 188-202,) who illustrates
      the circumstances, and ascertains the time of the three sieges of
      Nisibis. Their dates are likewise examined by Tillemont, (Hist.
      des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 668, 671, 674.) Something is added
      from Zosimus, l. iii. p. 151, and the Alexandrine Chronicle, p.
      290.]

      64 (return) [ Sallust. Fragment. lxxxiv. edit. Brosses, and
      Plutarch in Lucull. tom. iii. p. 184. Nisibis is now reduced to
      one hundred and fifty houses: the marshy lands produce rice, and
      the fertile meadows, as far as Mosul and the Tigris, are covered
      with the ruins of towns and allages. See Niebuhr, Voyages, tom.
      ii. p. 300-309.]

      65 (return) [ The miracles which Theodoret (l. ii. c. 30)
      ascribes to St. James, Bishop of Edessa, were at least performed
      in a worthy cause, the defence of his couutry. He appeared on the
      walls under the figure of the Roman emperor, and sent an army of
      gnats to sting the trunks of the elephants, and to discomfit the
      host of the new Sennacherib.]

      66 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 27. Though Niebuhr (tom. ii. p.
      307) allows a very considerable swell to the Mygdonius, over
      which he saw a bridge of _twelve_ arches: it is difficult,
      however, to understand this parallel of a trifling rivulet with a
      mighty river. There are many circumstances obscure, and almost
      unintelligible, in the description of these stupendous
      water-works.]

      6611 (return) [ Macdonald Kinnier observes on these floating
      batteries, “As the elevation of place is considerably above the
      level of the country in its immediate vicinity, and the Mygdonius
      is a very insignificant stream, it is difficult to imagine how
      this work could have been accomplished, even with the wonderful
      resources which the king must have had at his disposal”
      Geographical Memoir. p. 262.—M.]

      67 (return) [ We are obliged to Zonaras (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 11)
      for this invasion of the Massagetæ, which is perfectly consistent
      with the general series of events to which we are darkly led by
      the broken history of Ammianus.]

      After the partition of the empire, three years had scarcely
      elapsed before the sons of Constantine seemed impatient to
      convince mankind that they were incapable of contenting
      themselves with the dominions which they were unqualified to
      govern. The eldest of those princes soon complained, that he was
      defrauded of his just proportion of the spoils of their murdered
      kinsmen; and though he might yield to the superior guilt and
      merit of Constantius, he exacted from Constans the cession of the
      African provinces, as an equivalent for the rich countries of
      Macedonia and Greece, which his brother had acquired by the death
      of Dalmatius. The want of sincerity, which Constantine
      experienced in a tedious and fruitless negotiation, exasperated
      the fierceness of his temper; and he eagerly listened to those
      favorites, who suggested to him that his honor, as well as his
      interest, was concerned in the prosecution of the quarrel. At the
      head of a tumultuary band, suited for rapine rather than for
      conquest, he suddenly broke onto the dominions of Constans, by
      the way of the Julian Alps, and the country round Aquileia felt
      the first effects of his resentment. The measures of Constans,
      who then resided in Dacia, were directed with more prudence and
      ability. On the news of his brother’s invasion, he detached a
      select and disciplined body of his Illyrian troops, proposing to
      follow them in person, with the remainder of his forces. But the
      conduct of his lieutenants soon terminated the unnatural contest.

      By the artful appearances of flight, Constantine was betrayed
      into an ambuscade, which had been concealed in a wood, where the
      rash youth, with a few attendants, was surprised, surrounded, and
      slain. His body, after it had been found in the obscure stream of
      the Alsa, obtained the honors of an Imperial sepulchre; but his
      provinces transferred their allegiance to the conqueror, who,
      refusing to admit his elder brother Constantius to any share in
      these new acquisitions, maintained the undisputed possession of
      more than two thirds of the Roman empire. 68

      68 (return) [ The causes and the events of this civil war are
      related with much perplexity and contradiction. I have chiefly
      followed Zonaras and the younger Victor. The monody (ad Calcem
      Eutrop. edit. Havercamp.) pronounced on the death of Constantine,
      might have been very instructive; but prudence and false taste
      engaged the orator to involve himself in vague declamation.]

      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.]

      Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part I.

     Constantius Sole Emperor.—Elevation And Death Of Gallus.— Danger
     And Elevation Of Julian.—Sarmatian And Persian Wars.—Victories Of
     Julian In Gaul.

      The divided provinces of the empire were again united by the
      victory of Constantius; but as that feeble prince was destitute
      of personal merit, either in peace or war; as he feared his
      generals, and distrusted his ministers; the triumph of his arms
      served only to establish the reign of the _eunuchs_ over the
      Roman world. Those unhappy beings, the ancient production of
      Oriental jealousy and despotism, 1 were introduced into Greece
      and Rome by the contagion of Asiatic luxury. 2 Their progress was
      rapid; and the eunuchs, who, in the time of Augustus, had been
      abhorred, as the monstrous retinue of an Egyptian queen, 3 were
      gradually admitted into the families of matrons, of senators, and
      of the emperors themselves. 4 Restrained by the severe edicts of
      Domitian and Nerva, cherished by the pride of Diocletian, reduced
      to an humble station by the prudence of Constantine, 6 they
      multiplied in the palaces of his degenerate sons, and insensibly
      acquired the knowledge, and at length the direction, of the
      secret councils of Constantius. The aversion and contempt which
      mankind had so uniformly entertained for that imperfect species,
      appears to have degraded their character, and to have rendered
      them almost as incapable as they were supposed to be, of
      conceiving any generous sentiment, or of performing any worthy
      action. 7 But the eunuchs were skilled in the arts of flattery
      and intrigue; and they alternately governed the mind of
      Constantius by his fears, his indolence, and his vanity. 8 Whilst
      he viewed in a deceitful mirror the fair appearance of public
      prosperity, he supinely permitted them to intercept the
      complaints of the injured provinces, to accumulate immense
      treasures by the sale of justice and of honors; to disgrace the
      most important dignities, by the promotion of those who had
      purchased at their hands the powers of oppression, 9 and to
      gratify their resentment against the few independent spirits, who
      arrogantly refused to solicit the protection of slaves. Of these
      slaves the most distinguished was the chamberlain Eusebius, who
      ruled the monarch and the palace with such absolute sway, that
      Constantius, according to the sarcasm of an impartial historian,
      possessed some credit with this haughty favorite. 10 By his
      artful suggestions, the emperor was persuaded to subscribe the
      condemnation of the unfortunate Gallus, and to add a new crime to
      the long list of unnatural murders which pollute the honor of the
      house of Constantine.

      1 (return) [ Ammianus (l. xiv. c. 6) imputes the first practice
      of castration to the cruel ingenuity of Semiramis, who is
      supposed to have reigned above nineteen hundred years before
      Christ. The use of eunuchs is of high antiquity, both in Asia and
      Egypt. They are mentioned in the law of Moses, Deuteron. xxxiii.
      1. See Goguet, Origines des Loix, &c., Part i. l. i. c. 3.]

      2 (return) [ Eunuchum dixti velle te; Quia solæ utuntur his
      reginæ—Terent. Eunuch. act i. scene 2. This play is translated
      from Meander, and the original must have appeared soon after the
      eastern conquests of Alexander.]

      3 (return) [ Miles.... spadonibus Servire rugosis potest. Horat.
      Carm. v. 9, and Dacier ad loe. By the word _spado_, the Romans
      very forcibly expressed their abhorrence of this mutilated
      condition. The Greek appellation of eunuchs, which insensibly
      prevailed, had a milder sound, and a more ambiguous sense.]

      4 (return) [ We need only mention Posides, a freedman and eunuch
      of Claudius, in whose favor the emperor prostituted some of the
      most honorable rewards of military valor. See Sueton. in Claudio,
      c. 28. Posides employed a great part of his wealth in building.

     Ut _Spado_ vincebat Capitolia Nostra Posides. Juvenal. Sat. xiv.]

      Castrari mares vetuit. Sueton. in Domitian. c. 7. See Dion
      Cassius, l. lxvii. p. 1107, l. lxviii. p. 1119.]

      6 (return) [ There is a passage in the Augustan History, p. 137,
      in which Lampridius, whilst he praises Alexander Severus and
      Constantine for restraining the tyranny of the eunuchs, deplores
      the mischiefs which they occasioned in other reigns. Huc accedit
      quod eunuchos nec in consiliis nec in ministeriis habuit; qui
      soli principes perdunt, dum eos more gentium aut regum Persarum
      volunt vivere; qui a populo etiam amicissimum semovent; qui
      internuntii sunt, aliud quam respondetur, referentes; claudentes
      principem suum, et agentes ante omnia ne quid sciat.]

      7 (return) [ Xenophon (Cyropædia, l. viii. p. 540) has stated the
      specious reasons which engaged Cyrus to intrust his person to the
      guard of eunuchs. He had observed in animals, that although the
      practice of castration might tame their ungovernable fierceness,
      it did not diminish their strength or spirit; and he persuaded
      himself, that those who were separated from the rest of human
      kind, would be more firmly attached to the person of their
      benefactor. But a long experience has contradicted the judgment
      of Cyrus. Some particular instances may occur of eunuchs
      distinguished by their fidelity, their valor, and their
      abilities; but if we examine the general history of Persia,
      India, and China, we shall find that the power of the eunuchs has
      uniformly marked the decline and fall of every dynasty.]

      8 (return) [ See Ammianus Marcellinus, l. xxi. c. 16, l. xxii. c.
      4. The whole tenor of his impartial history serves to justify the
      invectives of Mamertinus, of Libanius, and of Julian himself, who
      have insulted the vices of the court of Constantius.]

      9 (return) [ Aurelius Victor censures the negligence of his
      sovereign in choosing the governors of the provinces, and the
      generals of the army, and concludes his history with a very bold
      observation, as it is much more dangerous under a feeble reign to
      attack the ministers than the master himself. “Uti verum absolvam
      brevi, ut Imperatore ipso clarius ita apparitorum plerisque magis
      atrox nihil.”]

      10 (return) [ Apud quem (si vere dici debeat) multum Constantius
      potuit. Ammian. l. xviii. c. 4.]

      When the two nephews of Constantine, Gallus and Julian, were
      saved from the fury of the soldiers, the former was about twelve,
      and the latter about six, years of age; and, as the eldest was
      thought to be of a sickly constitution, they obtained with the
      less difficulty a precarious and dependent life, from the
      affected pity of Constantius, who was sensible that the execution
      of these helpless orphans would have been esteemed, by all
      mankind, an act of the most deliberate cruelty. 11 Different
      cities of Ionia and Bithynia were assigned for the places of
      their exile and education; but as soon as their growing years
      excited the jealousy of the emperor, he judged it more prudent to
      secure those unhappy youths in the strong castle of Macellum,
      near Cæsarea. The treatment which they experienced during a six
      years’ confinement, was partly such as they could hope from a
      careful guardian, and partly such as they might dread from a
      suspicious tyrant. 12 Their prison was an ancient palace, the
      residence of the kings of Cappadocia; the situation was pleasant,
      the buildings stately, the enclosure spacious. They pursued their
      studies, and practised their exercises, under the tuition of the
      most skilful masters; and the numerous household appointed to
      attend, or rather to guard, the nephews of Constantine, was not
      unworthy of the dignity of their birth. But they could not
      disguise to themselves that they were deprived of fortune, of
      freedom, and of safety; secluded from the society of all whom
      they could trust or esteem, and condemned to pass their
      melancholy hours in the company of slaves devoted to the commands
      of a tyrant who had already injured them beyond the hope of
      reconciliation. At length, however, the emergencies of the state
      compelled the emperor, or rather his eunuchs, to invest Gallus,
      in the twenty-fifth year of his age, with the title of Cæsar, and
      to cement this political connection by his marriage with the
      princess Constantina. After a formal interview, in which the two
      princes mutually engaged their faith never to undertake any thing
      to the prejudice of each other, they repaired without delay to
      their respective stations. Constantius continued his march
      towards the West, and Gallus fixed his residence at Antioch; from
      whence, with a delegated authority, he administered the five
      great dioceses of the eastern præfecture. 13 In this fortunate
      change, the new Cæsar was not unmindful of his brother Julian,
      who obtained the honors of his rank, the appearances of liberty,
      and the restitution of an ample patrimony. 14

      11 (return) [ Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. iii. p. 90) reproaches the
      apostate with his ingratitude towards Mark, bishop of Arethusa,
      who had contributed to save his life; and we learn, though from a
      less respectable authority, (Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom.
      iv. p. 916,) that Julian was concealed in the sanctuary of a
      church. * Note: Gallus and Julian were not sons of the same
      mother. Their father, Julius Constantius, had had Gallus by his
      first wife, named Galla: Julian was the son of Basilina, whom he
      had espoused in a second marriage. Tillemont. Hist. des Emp. Vie
      de Constantin. art. 3.—G.]

      12 (return) [ The most authentic account of the education and
      adventures of Julian is contained in the epistle or manifesto
      which he himself addressed to the senate and people of Athens.
      Libanius, (Orat. Parentalis,) on the side of the Pagans, and
      Socrates, (l. iii. c. 1,) on that of the Christians, have
      preserved several interesting circumstances.]

      13 (return) [ For the promotion of Gallus, see Idatius, Zosimus,
      and the two Victors. According to Philostorgius, (l. iv. c. 1,)
      Theophilus, an Arian bishop, was the witness, and, as it were,
      the guarantee of this solemn engagement. He supported that
      character with generous firmness; but M. de Tillemont (Hist. des
      Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 1120) thinks it very improbable that a
      heretic should have possessed such virtue.]

      14 (return) [ Julian was at first permitted to pursue his studies
      at Constantinople, but the reputation which he acquired soon
      excited the jealousy of Constantius; and the young prince was
      advised to withdraw himself to the less conspicuous scenes of
      Bithynia and Ionia.]

      The writers the most indulgent to the memory of Gallus, and even
      Julian himself, though he wished to cast a veil over the
      frailties of his brother, are obliged to confess that the Cæsar
      was incapable of reigning. Transported from a prison to a throne,
      he possessed neither genius nor application, nor docility to
      compensate for the want of knowledge and experience. A temper
      naturally morose and violent, instead of being corrected, was
      soured by solitude and adversity; the remembrance of what he had
      endured disposed him to retaliation rather than to sympathy; and
      the ungoverned sallies of his rage were often fatal to those who
      approached his person, or were subject to his power. 15
      Constantina, his wife, is described, not as a woman, but as one
      of the infernal furies tormented with an insatiate thirst of
      human blood. 16 Instead of employing her influence to insinuate
      the mild counsels of prudence and humanity, she exasperated the
      fierce passions of her husband; and as she retained the vanity,
      though she had renounced, the gentleness of her sex, a pearl
      necklace was esteemed an equivalent price for the murder of an
      innocent and virtuous nobleman. 17 The cruelty of Gallus was
      sometimes displayed in the undissembled violence of popular or
      military executions; and was sometimes disguised by the abuse of
      law, and the forms of judicial proceedings. The private houses of
      Antioch, and the places of public resort, were besieged by spies
      and informers; and the Cæsar himself, concealed in a a plebeian
      habit, very frequently condescended to assume that odious
      character. Every apartment of the palace was adorned with the
      instruments of death and torture, and a general consternation was
      diffused through the capital of Syria. The prince of the East, as
      if he had been conscious how much he had to fear, and how little
      he deserved to reign, selected for the objects of his resentment
      the provincials accused of some imaginary treason, and his own
      courtiers, whom with more reason he suspected of incensing, by
      their secret correspondence, the timid and suspicious mind of
      Constantius. But he forgot that he was depriving himself of his
      only support, the affection of the people; whilst he furnished
      the malice of his enemies with the arms of truth, and afforded
      the emperor the fairest pretence of exacting the forfeit of his
      purple, and of his life. 18

      15 (return) [ See Julian. ad S. P. Q. A. p. 271. Jerom. in Chron.
      Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, x. 14. I shall copy the words of
      Eutropius, who wrote his abridgment about fifteen years after the
      death of Gallus, when there was no longer any motive either to
      flatter or to depreciate his character. “Multis incivilibus
      gestis Gallus Cæsar.... vir natura ferox et ad tyrannidem
      pronior, si suo jure imperare licuisset.”]

      16 (return) [ Megæra quidem mortalis, inflammatrix sævientis
      assidua, humani cruoris avida, &c. Ammian. Marcellin. l. xiv. c.
      1. The sincerity of Ammianus would not suffer him to misrepresent
      facts or characters, but his love of _ambitious_ ornaments
      frequently betrayed him into an unnatural vehemence of
      expression.]

      17 (return) [ His name was Clematius of Alexandria, and his only
      crime was a refusal to gratify the desires of his mother-in-law;
      who solicited his death, because she had been disappointed of his
      love. Ammian. xiv. c. i.]

      18 (return) [ See in Ammianus (l. xiv. c. 1, 7) a very ample
      detail of the cruelties of Gallus. His brother Julian (p. 272)
      insinuates, that a secret conspiracy had been formed against him;
      and Zosimus names (l. ii. p. 135) the persons engaged in it; a
      minister of considerable rank, and two obscure agents, who were
      resolved to make their fortune.]

      As long as the civil war suspended the fate of the Roman world,
      Constantius dissembled his knowledge of the weak and cruel
      administration to which his choice had subjected the East; and
      the discovery of some assassins, secretly despatched to Antioch
      by the tyrant of Gaul, was employed to convince the public, that
      the emperor and the Cæsar were united by the same interest, and
      pursued by the same enemies. 19 But when the victory was decided
      in favor of Constantius, his dependent colleague became less
      useful and less formidable. Every circumstance of his conduct was
      severely and suspiciously examined, and it was privately
      resolved, either to deprive Gallus of the purple, or at least to
      remove him from the indolent luxury of Asia to the hardships and
      dangers of a German war. The death of Theophilus, consular of the
      province of Syria, who in a time of scarcity had been massacred
      by the people of Antioch, with the connivance, and almost at the
      instigation, of Gallus, was justly resented, not only as an act
      of wanton cruelty, but as a dangerous insult on the supreme
      majesty of Constantius. Two ministers of illustrious rank,
      Domitian the Oriental præfect, and Montius, quæstor of the
      palace, were empowered by a special commission 1911 to visit and
      reform the state of the East. They were instructed to behave
      towards Gallus with moderation and respect, and, by the gentlest
      arts of persuasion, to engage him to comply with the invitation
      of his brother and colleague. The rashness of the præfect
      disappointed these prudent measures, and hastened his own ruin,
      as well as that of his enemy. On his arrival at Antioch, Domitian
      passed disdainfully before the gates of the palace, and alleging
      a slight pretence of indisposition, continued several days in
      sullen retirement, to prepare an inflammatory memorial, which he
      transmitted to the Imperial court. Yielding at length to the
      pressing solicitations of Gallus, the præfect condescended to
      take his seat in council; but his first step was to signify a
      concise and haughty mandate, importing that the Cæsar should
      immediately repair to Italy, and threatening that he himself
      would punish his delay or hesitation, by suspending the usual
      allowance of his household. The nephew and daughter of
      Constantine, who could ill brook the insolence of a subject,
      expressed their resentment by instantly delivering Domitian to
      the custody of a guard. The quarrel still admitted of some terms
      of accommodation. They were rendered impracticable by the
      imprudent behavior of Montius, a statesman whose arts and
      experience were frequently betrayed by the levity of his
      disposition. 20 The quæstor reproached Gallus in a haughty
      language, that a prince who was scarcely authorized to remove a
      municipal magistrate, should presume to imprison a Prætorian
      præfect; convoked a meeting of the civil and military officers;
      and required them, in the name of their sovereign, to defend the
      person and dignity of his representatives. By this rash
      declaration of war, the impatient temper of Gallus was provoked
      to embrace the most desperate counsels. He ordered his guards to
      stand to their arms, assembled the populace of Antioch, and
      recommended to their zeal the care of his safety and revenge. His
      commands were too fatally obeyed. They rudely seized the præfect
      and the quæstor, and tying their legs together with ropes, they
      dragged them through the streets of the city, inflicted a
      thousand insults and a thousand wounds on these unhappy victims,
      and at last precipitated their mangled and lifeless bodies into
      the stream of the Orontes. 21

      19 (return) [ Zonaras, l. xiii. tom. ii. p. 17, 18. The assassins
      had seduced a great number of legionaries; but their designs were
      discovered and revealed by an old woman in whose cottage they
      lodged.]

      1911 (return) [ The commission seems to have been granted to
      Domitian alone. Montius interfered to support his authority. Amm.
      Marc. loc. cit.—M]

      20 (return) [ In the present text of Ammianus, we read _Asper_,
      quidem, sed ad _lenitatem_ propensior; which forms a sentence of
      contradictory nonsense. With the aid of an old manuscript,
      Valesius has rectified the first of these corruptions, and we
      perceive a ray of light in the substitution of the word _vafer_.
      If we venture to change _lenitatem_ into _levitatem_, this
      alteration of a single letter will render the whole passage clear
      and consistent.]

      21 (return) [ Instead of being obliged to collect scattered and
      imperfect hints from various sources, we now enter into the full
      stream of the history of Ammianus, and need only refer to the
      seventh and ninth chapters of his fourteenth book. Philostorgius,
      however, (l. iii. c. 28) though partial to Gallus, should not be
      entirely overlooked.]

      After such a deed, whatever might have been the designs of
      Gallus, it was only in a field of battle that he could assert his
      innocence with any hope of success. But the mind of that prince
      was formed of an equal mixture of violence and weakness. Instead
      of assuming the title of Augustus, instead of employing in his
      defence the troops and treasures of the East, he suffered himself
      to be deceived by the affected tranquillity of Constantius, who,
      leaving him the vain pageantry of a court, imperceptibly recalled
      the veteran legions from the provinces of Asia. But as it still
      appeared dangerous to arrest Gallus in his capital, the slow and
      safer arts of dissimulation were practised with success. The
      frequent and pressing epistles of Constantius were filled with
      professions of confidence and friendship; exhorting the Cæsar to
      discharge the duties of his high station, to relieve his
      colleague from a part of the public cares, and to assist the West
      by his presence, his counsels, and his arms. After so many
      reciprocal injuries, Gallus had reason to fear and to distrust.
      But he had neglected the opportunities of flight and of
      resistance; he was seduced by the flattering assurances of the
      tribune Scudilo, who, under the semblance of a rough soldier,
      disguised the most artful insinuation; and he depended on the
      credit of his wife Constantina, till the unseasonable death of
      that princess completed the ruin in which he had been involved by
      her impetuous passions. 22

      22 (return) [ She had preceded her husband, but died of a fever
      on the road at a little place in Bithynia, called Coenum
      Gallicanum.]

      Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.—Part II.

      After a long delay, the reluctant Cæsar set forwards on his
      journey to the Imperial court. From Antioch to Hadrianople, he
      traversed the wide extent of his dominions with a numerous and
      stately train; and as he labored to conceal his apprehensions
      from the world, and perhaps from himself, he entertained the
      people of Constantinople with an exhibition of the games of the
      circus. The progress of the journey might, however, have warned
      him of the impending danger. In all the principal cities he was
      met by ministers of confidence, commissioned to seize the offices
      of government, to observe his motions, and to prevent the hasty
      sallies of his despair. The persons despatched to secure the
      provinces which he left behind, passed him with cold salutations,
      or affected disdain; and the troops, whose station lay along the
      public road, were studiously removed on his approach, lest they
      might be tempted to offer their swords for the service of a civil
      war. 23 After Gallus had been permitted to repose himself a few
      days at Hadrianople, he received a mandate, expressed in the most
      haughty and absolute style, that his splendid retinue should halt
      in that city, while the Cæsar himself, with only ten
      post-carriages, should hasten to the Imperial residence at Milan.

      In this rapid journey, the profound respect which was due to the
      brother and colleague of Constantius, was insensibly changed into
      rude familiarity; and Gallus, who discovered in the countenances
      of the attendants that they already considered themselves as his
      guards, and might soon be employed as his executioners, began to
      accuse his fatal rashness, and to recollect, with terror and
      remorse, the conduct by which he had provoked his fate. The
      dissimulation which had hitherto been preserved, was laid aside
      at Petovio, 2311 in Pannonia. He was conducted to a palace in the
      suburbs, where the general Barbatio, with a select band of
      soldiers, who could neither be moved by pity, nor corrupted by
      rewards, expected the arrival of his illustrious victim. In the
      close of the evening he was arrested, ignominiously stripped of
      the ensigns of Cæsar, and hurried away to Pola, [23b] in Istria,
      a sequestered prison, which had been so recently polluted with
      royal blood. The horror which he felt was soon increased by the
      appearance of his implacable enemy the eunuch Eusebius, who, with
      the assistance of a notary and a tribune, proceeded to
      interrogate him concerning the administration of the East. The
      Cæsar sank under the weight of shame and guilt, confessed all the
      criminal actions and all the treasonable designs with which he
      was charged; and by imputing them to the advice of his wife,
      exasperated the indignation of Constantius, who reviewed with
      partial prejudice the minutes of the examination. The emperor was
      easily convinced, that his own safety was incompatible with the
      life of his cousin: the sentence of death was signed, despatched,
      and executed; and the nephew of Constantine, with his hands tied
      behind his back, was beheaded in prison like the vilest
      malefactor. 24 Those who are inclined to palliate the cruelties
      of Constantius, assert that he soon relented, and endeavored to
      recall the bloody mandate; but that the second messenger,
      intrusted with the reprieve, was detained by the eunuchs, who
      dreaded the unforgiving temper of Gallus, and were desirous of
      reuniting to _their_ empire the wealthy provinces of the East. 25

      23 (return) [ The Thebæan legions, which were then quartered at
      Hadrianople, sent a deputation to Gallus, with a tender of their
      services. Ammian. l. xiv. c. 11. The Notitia (s. 6, 20, 38, edit.
      Labb.) mentions three several legions which bore the name of
      Thebæan. The zeal of M. de Voltaire to destroy a despicable
      though celebrated legion, has tempted him on the slightest
      grounds to deny the existence of a Thebæan legion in the Roman
      armies. See Œuvres de Voltaire, tom. xv. p. 414, quarto edition.]

      2311 (return) [ Pettau in Styria.—M ---- Rather to Flanonia. now
      Fianone, near Pola. St. Martin.—M.]

      24 (return) [ See the complete narrative of the journey and death
      of Gallus in Ammianus, l. xiv. c. 11. Julian complains that his
      brother was put to death without a trial; attempts to justify, or
      at least to excuse, the cruel revenge which he had inflicted on
      his enemies; but seems at last to acknowledge that he might
      justly have been deprived of the purple.]

      25 (return) [ Philostorgius, l. iv. c. 1. Zonaras, l. xiii. tom.
      ii. p. 19. But the former was partial towards an Arian monarch,
      and the latter transcribed, without choice or criticism, whatever
      he found in the writings of the ancients.]

      Besides the reigning emperor, Julian alone survived, of all the
      numerous posterity of Constantius Chlorus. The misfortune of his
      royal birth involved him in the disgrace of Gallus. From his
      retirement in the happy country of Ionia, he was conveyed under a
      strong guard to the court of Milan; where he languished above
      seven months, in the continual apprehension of suffering the same
      ignominious death, which was daily inflicted almost before his
      eyes, on the friends and adherents of his persecuted family. His
      looks, his gestures, his silence, were scrutinized with malignant
      curiosity, and he was perpetually assaulted by enemies whom he
      had never offended, and by arts to which he was a stranger. 26
      But in the school of adversity, Julian insensibly acquired the
      virtues of firmness and discretion. He defended his honor, as
      well as his life, against the insnaring subtleties of the
      eunuchs, who endeavored to extort some declaration of his
      sentiments; and whilst he cautiously suppressed his grief and
      resentment, he nobly disdained to flatter the tyrant, by any
      seeming approbation of his brother’s murder. Julian most devoutly
      ascribes his miraculous deliverance to the protection of the
      gods, who had exempted his innocence from the sentence of
      destruction pronounced by their justice against the impious house
      of Constantine. 27 As the most effectual instrument of their
      providence, he gratefully acknowledges the steady and generous
      friendship of the empress Eusebia, 28 a woman of beauty and
      merit, who, by the ascendant which she had gained over the mind
      of her husband, counterbalanced, in some measure, the powerful
      conspiracy of the eunuchs. By the intercession of his patroness,
      Julian was admitted into the Imperial presence: he pleaded his
      cause with a decent freedom, he was heard with favor; and,
      notwithstanding the efforts of his enemies, who urged the danger
      of sparing an avenger of the blood of Gallus, the milder
      sentiment of Eusebia prevailed in the council. But the effects of
      a second interview were dreaded by the eunuchs; and Julian was
      advised to withdraw for a while into the neighborhood of Milan,
      till the emperor thought proper to assign the city of Athens for
      the place of his honorable exile. As he had discovered, from his
      earliest youth, a propensity, or rather passion, for the
      language, the manners, the learning, and the religion of the
      Greeks, he obeyed with pleasure an order so agreeable to his
      wishes. Far from the tumult of arms, and the treachery of courts,
      he spent six months under the groves of the academy, in a free
      intercourse with the philosophers of the age, who studied to
      cultivate the genius, to encourage the vanity, and to inflame the
      devotion of their royal pupil. Their labors were not
      unsuccessful; and Julian inviolably preserved for Athens that
      tender regard which seldom fails to arise in a liberal mind, from
      the recollection of the place where it has discovered and
      exercised its growing powers. The gentleness and affability of
      manners, which his temper suggested and his situation imposed,
      insensibly engaged the affections of the strangers, as well as
      citizens, with whom he conversed. Some of his fellow-students
      might perhaps examine his behavior with an eye of prejudice and
      aversion; but Julian established, in the schools of Athens, a
      general prepossession in favor of his virtues and talents, which
      was soon diffused over the Roman world. 29

      26 (return) [ See Ammianus Marcellin. l. xv. c. 1, 3, 8. Julian
      himself in his epistle to the Athenians, draws a very lively and
      just picture of his own danger, and of his sentiments. He shows,
      however, a tendency to exaggerate his sufferings, by insinuating,
      though in obscure terms, that they lasted above a year; a period
      which cannot be reconciled with the truth of chronology.]

      27 (return) [ Julian has worked the crimes and misfortunes of the
      family of Constantine into an allegorical fable, which is happily
      conceived and agreeably related. It forms the conclusion of the
      seventh Oration, from whence it has been detached and translated
      by the Abbé de la Bleterie, Vie de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 385-408.]

      28 (return) [ She was a native of Thessalonica, in Macedonia, of
      a noble family, and the daughter, as well as sister, of consuls.
      Her marriage with the emperor may be placed in the year 352. In a
      divided age, the historians of all parties agree in her praises.
      See their testimonies collected by Tillemont, Hist. des
      Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 750-754.]

      29 (return) [ Libanius and Gregory Nazianzen have exhausted the
      arts as well as the powers of their eloquence, to represent
      Julian as the first of heroes, or the worst of tyrants. Gregory
      was his fellow-student at Athens; and the symptoms which he so
      tragically describes, of the future wickedness of the apostate,
      amount only to some bodily imperfections, and to some
      peculiarities in his speech and manner. He protests, however,
      that he _then_ foresaw and foretold the calamities of the church
      and state. (Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iv. p. 121, 122.)]

      Whilst his hours were passed in studious retirement, the empress,
      resolute to achieve the generous design which she had undertaken,
      was not unmindful of the care of his fortune. The death of the
      late Cæsar had left Constantius invested with the sole command,
      and oppressed by the accumulated weight, of a mighty empire.
      Before the wounds of civil discord could be healed, the provinces
      of Gaul were overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians. The
      Sarmatians no longer respected the barrier of the Danube. The
      impunity of rapine had increased the boldness and numbers of the
      wild Isaurians: those robbers descended from their craggy
      mountains to ravage the adjacent country, and had even presumed,
      though without success, to besiege the important city of
      Seleucia, which was defended by a garrison of three Roman
      legions. Above all, the Persian monarch, elated by victory, again
      threatened the peace of Asia, and the presence of the emperor was
      indispensably required, both in the West and in the East. For the
      first time, Constantius sincerely acknowledged, that his single
      strength was unequal to such an extent of care and of dominion.
      30 Insensible to the voice of flattery, which assured him that
      his all-powerful virtue, and celestial fortune, would still
      continue to triumph over every obstacle, he listened with
      complacency to the advice of Eusebia, which gratified his
      indolence, without offending his suspicious pride. As she
      perceived that the remembrance of Gallus dwelt on the emperor’s
      mind, she artfully turned his attention to the opposite
      characters of the two brothers, which from their infancy had been
      compared to those of Domitian and of Titus. 31 She accustomed her
      husband to consider Julian as a youth of a mild, unambitious
      disposition, whose allegiance and gratitude might be secured by
      the gift of the purple, and who was qualified to fill with honor
      a subordinate station, without aspiring to dispute the commands,
      or to shade the glories, of his sovereign and benefactor. After
      an obstinate, though secret struggle, the opposition of the
      favorite eunuchs submitted to the ascendency of the empress; and
      it was resolved that Julian, after celebrating his nuptials with
      Helena, sister of Constantius, should be appointed, with the
      title of Cæsar, to reign over the countries beyond the Alps. 32

      30 (return) [ Succumbere tot necessitatibus tamque crebris unum
      se, quod nunquam fecerat, aperte demonstrans. Ammian. l. xv. c.
      8. He then expresses, in their own words, the fattering
      assurances of the courtiers.]

      31 (return) [ Tantum a temperatis moribus Juliani differens
      fratris quantum inter Vespasiani filios fuit, Domitianum et
      Titum. Ammian. l. xiv. c. 11. The circumstances and education of
      the two brothers, were so nearly the same, as to afford a strong
      example of the innate difference of characters.]

      32 (return) [ Ammianus, l. xv. c. 8. Zosimus, l. iii. p. 137,
      138.]

      Although the order which recalled him to court was probably
      accompanied by some intimation of his approaching greatness, he
      appeals to the people of Athens to witness his tears of
      undissembled sorrow, when he was reluctantly torn away from his
      beloved retirement. 33 He trembled for his life, for his fame,
      and even for his virtue; and his sole confidence was derived from
      the persuasion, that Minerva inspired all his actions, and that
      he was protected by an invisible guard of angels, whom for that
      purpose she had borrowed from the Sun and Moon. He approached,
      with horror, the palace of Milan; nor could the ingenuous youth
      conceal his indignation, when he found himself accosted with
      false and servile respect by the assassins of his family.
      Eusebia, rejoicing in the success of her benevolent schemes,
      embraced him with the tenderness of a sister; and endeavored, by
      the most soothing caresses, to dispel his terrors, and reconcile
      him to his fortune. But the ceremony of shaving his beard, and
      his awkward demeanor, when he first exchanged the cloak of a
      Greek philosopher for the military habit of a Roman prince,
      amused, during a few days, the levity of the Imperial court. 34

      33 (return) [ Julian. ad S. P. Q. A. p. 275, 276. Libanius, Orat.
      x. p. 268. Julian did not yield till the gods had signified their
      will by repeated visions and omens. His piety then forbade him to
      resist.]

      34 (return) [ Julian himself relates, (p. 274) with some humor,
      the circumstances of his own metamorphoses, his downcast looks,
      and his perplexity at being thus suddenly transported into a new
      world, where every object appeared strange and hostile.]

      The emperors of the age of Constantine no longer deigned to
      consult with the senate in the choice of a colleague; but they
      were anxious that their nomination should be ratified by the
      consent of the army. On this solemn occasion, the guards, with
      the other troops whose stations were in the neighborhood of
      Milan, appeared under arms; and Constantius ascended his lofty
      tribunal, holding by the hand his cousin Julian, who entered the
      same day into the twenty-fifth year of his age. 35 In a studied
      speech, conceived and delivered with dignity, the emperor
      represented the various dangers which threatened the prosperity
      of the republic, the necessity of naming a Cæsar for the
      administration of the West, and his own intention, if it was
      agreeable to their wishes, of rewarding with the honors of the
      purple the promising virtues of the nephew of Constantine. The
      approbation of the soldiers was testified by a respectful murmur;