306.

Biography.

From

A. D.

to

323. Civil War

Lega

It is not improbable that Severus was at Milan, or even a still remoter part of his Province, when he received intelligence that Maxentius was in arms, and that Maximianus was again adorned with the insignia 306. of Empire. That he was not at Rome is manifest from the events which took place in the very beginning of the Civil War which immediately ensued; for the Capital was seized and its gates shut against him, before he had time to recover from the consternation into which his mind was thrown by an occurrence at once so alarming and unexpected. Finding himself abandoned by his troops, whom bribery or ancient attachment had drawn over to the ranks of the usurper, he fled to Ravenna; where, it is likely, he meant to resist the impression of his enemies until he should be relieved by Galerius, who was still master of the sea, and at the head of a numerous and veteran army. Maximianus pursued him thither, and began to make preparations for a vigorous assault; but perceiving that the city was strong and well supplied with provisions, he resolved to effect his object rather by stratagem than by the tedious operations of a siege. He instructed certain emissaries, who had found admittance within the walls, to persuade Severus that a conspiracy was formed to betray the town into the hands of the insurgents; and that it would be wiser to accept the terms of an honourable capitulation than to incur the hazard of being delivered up to the rage of an offended conqueror. The plot succeeded; and Severus confided his life to the promises of Maximianus, who assured him that, except the loss of rank, he had nothing to apprehend. But the dangers which beset a captive Prince are proverbially great; and, in the present case, we find that, le. 307. after the usual expressions of respect and sympathy which console the sufferings of a fallen Monarch, Severus was conducted a prisoner to Rome, where the only kindness which he received was a choice of the easiest

Death of

Severus

Maxentius,

tinus.

From A. D.

306.

to

323.

ference with Constantine, and to induce him to unite Galerius, his forces with those of Maxentius against their com- Maximian, mon enemy: on which occasion the Sovereign of Maximinus, Gaul received from the hand of his new ally his Licinius, daughter as a bride, (to whom he was united with Constangreat magnificence at Arles, Arelatum,) and the Imperial Purple, of which he had been divested by the jealousy of Galerius. This confederacy completely defeated the designs of the Eastern despot; for when he entered Italy he found every town fortified and prepared to dispute his progress, while Constantine with a large army had advanced to the frontier and threatened to cut off his retreat. It does not appear that any general engagement took place; but so great were the losses of the invader by desertion and other casualties, that when he arrived at Ñarni (Narnia,) about sixty miles from the Capital, he felt himself reduced to the necessity of proposing terms of accommodation. His offers being rejected with contempt and firmness, he was compelled to give the signal to retire; upon which, he had the mortification to discover that many of the veteran soldiers whom he had brought for the conquest of Italy, abandoned his standard, and refused to employ their arms any longer against the native Country of the Cæsars. It is observed by Lactantius, that if the pursuit had been conducted with spirit, Galerius must have been totally destroyed; but Constantine, more desirous to weaken his enemy than to annihilate him, allowed his scattered Legions to pass unmolested, while Maxentius, elated with present success, thought not of the means of securing his ascendency. He even permitted the Illyrian fugitives to lay waste the finest parts of the Roman territory, and to carry away the wealth which the inhabitants had refused to contribute for their support; and satisfied that such Barbarians were urging a hasty retreat, he calmly followed their steps through burning villages and desolated fields, without attempting to impede their march or provoke them to battle.*

Before Galerius set out on this unfortunate expe- Licinius dition, he intrusted his friend Licinius with the raised to the government of the Sarmatian frontier; and, when he Empire. Nov. 307returned, he expressed his gratitude for the faithful services of his Lieutenant by raising him to the first rank in the Empire. It is extremely probable, that his

* Lactant, de Mort. Pers. c. 28. Zosim. lib. ii.

From A. D.

306.

to

323.

Biography. object in this arrangement was to provide a successor to Severus, and to place on the Throne of Italy an Emperor devoted to his interests, and with sufficient talent and ambition to protect the honours with which he himself was now invested. In pursuance of these views he confided to his Imperial colleague the command of Dacia and Pannonia; being still determined to punish the usurpation of Maxentius, whom he never acknowledged, and to strip Constantine once more of the Purple, which he had a second time dared to assume. But new difficulties arose whence he least expected them; for no sooner was intelligence conveyed into Syria, that Licinius had been elevated to the station of Augustus, than Maximin, disdaining the inferior name of Cæsar, boldly challenged an equal title. Unable to oppose the violent resolution of his nephew, Galerius, after trying some expedients which were rejected, agreed to accord to him and to the son of Constantius the highest honours of the State; and thus the Roman world for the first time saw its government in the hands of six Emperors, without unanimity or subordination.*

Plots of

It was not, therefore, to be expected that men of such Maximianus opposite characters and views could long act together, or against approve the same principles of administration; but, perMaxentius and Conhaps, the people of Rome were not prepared to witness stantine. the first tokens of dissension either in their own immediate neighbourhood, or between a father and his son. Maxentius, unwilling to possess a divided Empire, opposed the interference of Maximianus; who, irritated at the ingratitude, the furious temper, and depraved morals of the other, left his Court and went into Gaul. After failing to excite Constantine to take arms against the Italian Emperor, he is said to have had recourse, for the same purpose, to Galerius his implacable enemy; to whose plans against their common relation he was now very eager to become subservient. It was on this occasion, too, that he used his utmost efforts to prevail upon Diocletian to resume the Purple; who, more pleased with his rural occupations, wisely declined the arduous duties in which his ancient colleague wished him to engage. But, in the East as well as in the West, Maximianus found his character suspected and his schemes pronounced impracticable; wherefore he soon afterwards retired from the dominions of Galerius, and sought a final refuge in the territory of his son-in-law beyond the Alps. He was received with kindness by this politic Prince; who, though he concurred in the expediency of his resigning a rank which had ceased to be accompanied with power, still treated him with the respect due to his age and dignity, permitted him to retain all the magnificence which belonged to his former office, and at every public ceremony gave him the highest place of honour. Maximianus made not a suitable return for such generous usage. Constantine was called to the banks of the Rhine to defend his borders against the Barbarians; an expedition in which he employed only a part of his troops, the remainder of whom he left in the Southern Provinces to watch the movements of his Italian neighbours. The old Emperor, seduced by this opportunity to ascend a Throne, or misled by a rumour that his son-in-law had perished in the field, lavished upon the soldiers an immense treasure which he found in the city of Arles, and once more arrayed

Death of Maximianus

Eutrop. lib. x. Aurel. Victor, Epit. Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib x.

Licinius

himself in the Sovereign Purple. The speedy return of Galerius, Constantine disconcerted all his measures and put a Maximian, period to his life. After a vain attempt to maintain Maxentius. Maximinus, Marseilles in the face of a victorious army, he found that an irrevocable sentence of death was pronounced Constanagainst him; the mode of executing which being left to his own choice, gave rise to a report, prevalent among the Historians of the time, that he fled from remorse and despair to an act of voluntary suicide.*

tinus.

From

A. D. 306.

to 323

Galerius.

May, 311.

The reign of Galerius did not extend much more than a year beyond that of Maximianus. The disorderly course of life which he pursued was visited with a severe punishment in the form of a loathsome and Death of incurable disease, which terminated his days, in the month of May, 311, at Sardica, the capital of Dacia, his native country. The character of this Prince, though stained with many foul passions, appeared to some advantage as long as he held the subordinate station of Cæsar, and acknowledged the superior wisdom and virtues of Diocletian. His administration, after he attained the rank of Augustus, was not distinguished either by success in war, or by those studies and improvements which confer an ornament on Peace. It is asserted, indeed, that he spent the few years which he survived after his Italian campaign, in clearing from wood an extensive district in Pannonia, and in rescuing from the waters of the lake Pelso a fertile plain in the same Provinces, to which in honour of his wife he gave the name of Valeria; but the destructive hand of time has long effaced the patriotic labours of Galerius. and the Danube has again converted the fine fields which he had prepared for the plough, into a useless and deformed marsh.†

dominions.

The death of the Eastern Emperor was regarded by Maximin Maximin and Licinius as a signal to collect their and Licinius forces, with the intention of disputing or of dividing the divide his dominions which had been under his personal government. An amicable distribution prevented an appeal to the sword. It was agreed that the former should receive, in addition to Syria and Egypt, the rich Provinces of Asia Minor; and that the latter should be established master of all the territory bounded by the Hellespont, the Danube, and the Adriatic. The narrow straits which connect the Black Sea and the Mediterranean constituted the mutual limits of their Empire; the shores of which were soon covered with camps and fortifications, affording thereby the most striking evidence that Europe and Asia, though parts of one great Political Body, were no longer under one Head, nor devoted to one interest. A secret Treaty is said to have speedily united the views of Constantine and Licinius; while Maxentius in Italy, and Maximin in Syria, resolved to consult their security by entering into a similar league.‡

It is not a little remarkable, that although Constan- Maxentius tine, Licinius, and Maximin recognised one another's prepares t attack Co title to the rank of Augustus, they unanimously refused stantine. this honour to Maxentius, who possessed the ancient seat of Government and the important Provinces of Italy and Africa. On the other hand, it is true, the Italian Emperor considered himself as the only Sovereign Prince, and described his three colleagues as merely his

From

A. D. 306.

to

323.

Biography. Lieutenants, appointed to defend the frontiers against the Barbarians of the East and of the North. His proximity to Constantine, whom he regarded with equal hatred and suspicion, soon involved the Western parts of the Empire in war. He affected to bewail the death of his father, who had fallen a victim to the just resentment of that Emperor, and to be seriously offended upon hearing that his titles had been erased and his statues thrown down by the same authority. He therefore gave orders to inflict a severe retaliation upon all the statues which had been erected to Constantine in any part of Italy or Africa; and openly avowing his pretensions to the undivided Monarchy of the West, he prepared a large army to invade the Gallic Provinces by the way of the Rhætian Alps. His forces, drawn from Italy and Africa, are said to have amounted to nearly two hundred thousand men, including about twenty thousand cavalry in heavy armour. Constantine did not remain long ignorant of these formidable preparations; for the Senate, apprehensive that Maxentius, should he prove victorious, would employ his success to rivet their chains more closely, sent ambassadors to conjure him, in the name of the Roman People, to deliver their Country from a detested tyrant. This appeal to his generosity coincided with the views of his ambition; and accordingly, without weighing the reasons which were urged by the more timid of his Generals against an enterprise so full of hazard, he resolved to anticipate the movements of his enemy, and to carry the war at once into the heart of his dominions.*

At the head of ninety thousand foot and eight thousand horse the Sovereign of Gaul entered the passes of the Alps, through which he marched his squadrons with so much expedition, that he was ready to pour down upon the plains of Italy before Maxentius had received information of his departure from the banks of the Rhine. Susa, a place of some strength at the foot of Mount Cenis, manifested a disposition to check his progress; but Constantine, too sensible of the value of time, in such circumstances, to have recourse to the tedious forms of a regular siege, resolved to reduce it by an immediate assault. Accordingly, applying fire zed by to the gates and scaling-ladders to the walls, he led his Constantine veterans to the charge, who soon compelled the inDer Turin. habitants to submit at discretion. From thence he directed his steps towards Turin; in the neighbourhood of which he found a powerful army assembled, and prepared to give him battle. Its principal strength consisted in a large body of heavy horse, equipped after the manner of Eastern nations, and disciplined according to the mode of warfare practised in Egypt and Syria. The experience of Constantine suggested a method of attack which rendered their massive armour not only useless, but positively injurious and destructive: and, having defeated the cavalry, he obtained, at less expense of bloodshed, a complete triumph over the raw levies which the Lieutenants of Maxentius had drawn into the field. The fugitives sought refuge in Turin; but the citizens having declared for the conqueror, shut their gates, and beheld with satisfaction the slaughter of those mercenaries, whose arms the tyrant had threatened to use for the entire subjugation of the Western Empire. This example was immediately followed by almost all the cities between the

Zosim. lib. ii, Zonar. lib. xiii. Panegyr. Vet, ix, x.

From

A. D. 306.

to

323.

The Generals of Maxentius made a second attempt near Brescia to drive back the invader; but their troops being inferior both in skill and bravery to the Gallic Legions, they found it necessary to retreat under the walls of Verona. Rusicus Pompeianus, an officer of great reputation, commanded the Province of Venetia, and discharged, at the same time, the duties of Imperial Lieutenant. Confiding in the strength of the fortifications, he threw himself with a powerful garrison into the city; hoping by that expedient to employ the activity of Constantine until a large army, under Maxentius in person, should advance from Rome to crush the assailant. But Rusicus soon had reason to His further apprehend that Verona would fall before the Emperor successes. could reach the banks of the Adige; for which cause he retired privately from the town, and employed his utmost zeal in raising such a force as might be sufficient to meet Constantine in the field, or, at least, compel him to raise the siege. The Sovereign of Gaul was not intimidated by this unexpected movement; but leaving a part of his army to occupy the attention of the garrison, he placed himself at the head of those cohorts on whose valour and attachment he could principally depend, and advanced to anticipate the designs of Pompeianus. A furious battle ensued, which terminated in the complete discomfiture of the Italians, who had to bewail their brave commander among the number of the slain, and to blush for the greater portion of their soldiers, who surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Verona immediately opened her gates to the conqueror; Aquileia and Modena invited him to take possession of their territory; and no obstacle now remained to retard his progress until he should arrive on the borders of the Tiber.†

Rome.

Maxentius, still detained in Rome by its pleasures Final vic and amusements, was at length roused to a sense of tory near his danger; and urged by the clamours and reproaches of the people, he consented to lead forth the Prætorians and such other troops as could be raised on that emergency, to make one vigorous effort for the defence of his Capital. It was with no small pleasure that Constantine, upon reaching a place called the Red Rocks, (Sara Rubra,) within nine miles of the city, saw the army of his antagonist drawn up in order of battle, along the Eastern bank of the river; which, at once, protected their rear and cut off their retreat. The troops on both sides, actuated by the strongest passions, and seeing before them only the simple alternative of victory or of inevitable destruction, prepared for the combat with a cool and unalterable determination. The Prætorians, in particular, who had provoked the indignation of Constantine, looked for no mercy at his hands, and accordingly opened their breasts to the most powerful emotions of revenge and despair. But these feelings were of little avail when opposed by the steady valour of practised soldiers. The persevering efforts of the Guards procured for them nothing more than an honourable death; the praise of covering with their dead bodies the ground which they had occupied before the commencement of the fight. The other troops of Maxentius sought safety by rushing into the deep and

From A. D. 306.

Biography. rapid current of the Tiber; while he himself, attempt ing to return into the city over the Milvian bridge, was forced by the crowd of runaways into the water, where he was immediately drowned or crushed to death. His head presented to the people on the top of a spear, convinced them that their deliverance from a hated despot was now achieved, and prepared them to receive with acclamations of loyalty and gratitude, a hero who equalled in the rapidity of his conquests the first and greatest of the Cæsars.*

to

323,

Policy of

Constantine used his victory with moderation and Constantine. clemency. He, indeed, put to death the two sons of the tyrant, but when the voice of the people called for a greater number of victims, he loudly condemned the sanguinary disposition which he had resolved not to gratify. Influenced by prudence rather than by revenge, he abolished for ever the Prætorian Guards whom Maxentius had restored to their wonted privileges and number. He destroyed their camp, which had assumed the form and even the strength of a fortress; taking care to disperse the remainder of that formidable body of troops among the Legions which were stationed on the remotest frontiers. But he carried not his severities any farther. On the contrary, he made haste to pass a general act of oblivion, which secured to his subjects, as well in Italy as in Africa, the full possession of life and property. In return, he received from the Senate the compliment of the first rank among the three Emperors who continued to govern the Roman World; the honour of various Games and Festivals decreed to commemorate his exploits; and, finally, a Triumphal Arch, which the Capital of the Empire had no longer sufficient talent to complete, without stripping of its ornaments an edifice consecrated to the memory of the illustrious Trajan.† While the two Emperors of the West were disputing tween Maxi- the Sovereignty of Rome, those of the East awaited with deep interest the issue of the conflict; aware that one or both of them would soon become the victim of the conqueror. Before Constantine engaged in the war he secured the friendship of Licinius, to whom he had promised his favourite sister in marriage. Maximin, the Sovereign of Asia, had from similar motives attached himself to the fortunes of Maxentius; whom he aided, however, not by appearing in the field against the armies of Gaul, but by occupying the attention of the Illyrian Emperor on the Eastern frontier of his Provinces. After the conquest of Italy was completed by the victory at the Tiber, Constantine invited his ally to meet him at Milan, where the latter might celebrate his nuptials in a manner suited to his rank as well as to the happy circumstances in which the Empire was now placed.

War be

min and Licinius.

But the two Princes were not long permitted to enjoy the festivity, by which they had meant to cement the union of their families and of their political interests. An irruption of the Barbarians summoned Constantine to the Rhine, while Licinius received information that Maximin, at the head of a large army, had invaded Bithynia, and threatened to lay waste the richest Provinces of Asia Minor. As this inroad was made in the very depth of winter, the Syrian Legions suffered

* Lactant. de Mort. Pers. c. 43, 44. Panegyr. Vet. ix. 16; x. 27. Euseb. in Vit. Const. Zosim. lib. ii.

+ Panegyr. Vet. ix. 20, 21. Zosim, lib. ii. Lactant. de Mort. Pers. c. 44.

Constantinus,

From

A. D. 306.

to

323.

greatly from the severity of the more Northern climate into which they were conducted; and, accordingly, before they reached the Thracian Bosphorus, many of the Licinius. soldiers had sunk under fatigue and cold, and had lost, owing to bad roads and rapid movements, the most valuable part of their heavy baggage. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, Maximin, who had still under his command about seventy thousand veterans, reduced Byzantium before Licinius could collect a sufficient force to hazard a battle. At length the Illyrian cohorts appeared in the field, to the amount of thirty thousand men. An obstinate engagement took place, in which military skill in their leader had to con tend against superior numbers aided by discipline and long experience in war. The talents of Licinius finally Death of prevailed over the ignorant impetuosity of his anta- Maximin. gonist. Maximin sustained a decisive defeat, and fled in the utmost consternation towards Syria; but stopping at Tarsus, to recruit his army and to watch the movements of the conqueror, he fell a victim either to disease or to violence, in the course of three months, leaving the Provinces of Asia to increase the territories of his victorious rival.*

The success obtained by Licinius was sullied with Cruelty of wanton cruelty, not only towards the family of the van- Licinius, quished Emperor, but also upon private individuals who had it not in their power to disturb the tranquillity of his reign. He murdered a son of Severus, although chargeable with no other offence than that of being the offspring of a person who had the misfortune to be raised to Sovereign authority. He took away the life of Candidianus the son of Galerius, his own friend and benefactor; and he concluded by putting to an ignominious death Prisca and Valeria the wife and daughter of Diocletian, to whose self-denial he owed his elevation to the Imperial Throne.

Licinius.

The Roman Empire was now in the hands of two War berulers, of whom the one was animated by an insatiable tween Con ambition, the other was noted for jealousy and faith- stantine an lessness. We cannot, therefore, be surprised to find that before twelve months had elapsed, they were both disposed to make an appeal to arms. It is difficult to ascertain the true cause of the war which ensued; for, in reading the Annalists of that interesting period, we have to deplore a total absence of facts, while we see, in every page, the most unequivocal tokens of party spirit, or of personal hatred. Zosimus accuses Constantine of injustice and perfidy: other writers lay the blame on Licinius, who is said to have thrown down the statues of the Western Emperor, and to have given an asylum to certain traitors who had fled from his Court. It admits not of any doubt, however, that towards the end of the year 315 the two Emperors, at the head of their respective armies, met near Cibalis in Pannonia; where a sanguinary battle was fought, which, after a conflict from the rising to the setting of the sun, terminated in the defeat of Licinius with Defeat the loss of twenty thousand men. In his retreat he Licinius conferred the dignity of Cæsar on Valens, his General on the Illyrian frontier, and who was esteemed, notwithstanding the sarcasms of the conqueror, an officer of courage and experience.†

* Zosim, lib. ii. Lactant. de Mort. Pers. c. 45, 48, 50. Aurel. Victor.

+ Lactant. de Mort. Pers. c. 50, 51. Aurel. Victor. Anon. apud Vales. Zosim. lib. ii.

Biography.

From

A. D.

306.

323. New divi.

sien of the Empire.

Constantine

the Goths.

This measure gave so much offence to Constantine, that he refused to listen to any terms of accommodation, until the new Sovereign should have been degraded. A second battle accordingly took place, in which Constantine again had the advantage, although not without having sustained a very severe loss both of horse and foot. The fears of Licinius now induced him to consent to the sacrifice of Valens, who appears to have been deprived at once of the Purple and of his life. A Treaty immediately followed without encountering any material obstacle; of which one of the conditions was, that the Emperor of the East should relinquish the Provinces of Pannonia, Dacia, Dalmatia, Macedonia and Greece, and rest satisfied with the possession of Thrace, Asia Minor, Egypt and Syria. It was likewise agreed on the same occasion, that two sons of Constantine should be declared the Caesars of the West, while the younger Licinius should be exalted to a similar authority in the dominions of his father; a proportion of honours which asserted, on the part of the Roman Chief, the superiority of his arms and power.*

The Empire enjoyed a Peace of nearly eight years ploys his duration, in the East as well as in the West. This against interval was employed by Constantine in enacting laws and establishing institutions; some of which have been described as more deserving of praise on account of their humanity than of their wisdom. Crispus, the Crispus, the eldest son of the Emperor, was stationed in Gaul, where he had occasional opportunities to display his valour and military conduct against the Franks and Alemanni, who had not yet been taught to respect the boundaries of Roman power. Similar triumphs crowned the arms of Constantine himself, on the banks of the Danube and in the wilds of Scythia. An obscure warfare is mentioned by Eusebius, who, on this occasion, however, relinquishes the office of an Historian for the pleasure of Rhetorical declamation and personal eulogy. But we may collect from the facts to which he alludes, that most of the Gothic Tribes were reduced to submission, that they acknowledged the supremacy of the Emperor, and even consented to augment his Legions with a large body of recruits, drawn from among the bravest and hardiest of their youth. +

Renewal of

Finding that the reputation of Licinius for wisdom Civil War. and clemency, so far from increasing with his years, had now sunk under a load of vice and selfishness, Constantine resolved to deliver the Empire from a domination which had ceased to inspire any other sentiments than those of contempt and abhorrence. Besides, he could no longer endure a partner in the Govern ment, and began to consider that it would be the greatest glory of his reign, to replace the whole Roman World under one sceptre, and to direct its allegiance to one Sovereign. The Eastern Emperor prepared for the contest with a degree of spirit and activity worthy of his better days. He assembled in the plains of Hadrianople an army of a hundred and fifty thousand foot, and fifteen thousand horse, while the Straits of the Hellespont were occupied with his fleet, consisting of nearly four hundred galleys of a large size. Constantine could not muster a force either by land or by sea so numerous and imposing as that now described. He brought

Eutrop. lib. x. Aurel. Victor.

† Panegyr. Vet. x. 33. Euseb. in Vit. Const.

tinus,

into the field about a hundred and twenty thousand Constantroops, cavalry and infantry; but the ports of Italy, Africa, and Greece, could not supply him with more than two hundred small vessels.

Licinius.

From

A. D.

306.

to

323.

The hostile armies, on the third of July in the yea. 323, came in sight of each other near the banks of the Hebrus, at no great distance from the city of Hadrianople. After various manoeuvres and repeated skirmishes, a general action ensued, when the troops of Battle of Licinius were beaten and completely dispersed, and Hadrianople himself compelled to flee for safety to the stronghold of Byzantium. Thirty-four thousand remained dead on the field of battle, and on the following day a still greater number surrendered to the Conqueror as prisoners of war.†

Pursuing his object with the firmness and resolution Siege of which marked his character, Constantine immediately Byzantum. laid siege to Byzantium, which was justly regarded as the key of Europe and of Asia. His labours in this arduous undertaking were greatly assisted by the bravery of his son Crispus, who engaged the fleet of Licinius in the narrow seas, forced the passage of the Hellespont, and carried into the camp of the besiegers an ample supply of ammunition and provisions. Apprehensive that the place could not long resist the skill and activity of the assailants, the beaten Emperor contrived to escape from its walls; and conveying with him a mass of treasure and a few faithful officers he determined to raise a fresh army in the Lesser Asia, and to trust his fortune once more to the decision of arms. On this emergency he elevated to the rank of Cæsar his Lieutenant Martinianus, in whose zeal and fidelity he had been accustomed to repose the utmost confidence.

and defeat

Constantine did not neglect this last effort on the part Battle of of his rival; but, without intermitting the operations of Chrysopolis the siege, sent across the straits a large portion of his of Licinius. victorious army. Licinius was at the head of more than fifty thousand men, ill disciplined, indeed, but courageous and devoted to his interests; and knowing that the fate of the Empire depended upon their exertions, they expressed a determination to conquer or die. The decisive conflict took place on the heights of Chrysopolis, a short distance from the city of Chalcedon, where victory was disputed with not less obstinacy than on former occasions. It is doubtful whe ther Constantine commanded in person against his brother-in-law, in this important action, or whether he had intrusted the conduct of the Legions to one of his Whichever might be the leader, the soldiers of Europe gained a complete triumph over the tumultuary levies of Asia, and confirmed by the superiority of their military character the claims of their master to universal empire. Twenty-five thousand men fell dead around the standards of Licinius: the remainder dis persed through the adjoining Provinces, or yielded themselves to a temporary captivity; while their Imperial leader fled to Nicomedia, rather with the view of gaining some time for negociation than with the hope of being able to make any effectual resistance.§ He

sons.