ELEVATION OF CONSTANTINE AND MAXENTIUS SIX EMPERORS AT THE VICTORIES OF CONSAME TIME DEATH OF MAXIMIAN AND GALERIUS STANTINE OVER MAXENTIUS AND LICINIUS REUNION OF UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF CONSTANTINE. Period of civil wars and confusion. THE EMPIRE THE balance of power established by Diocletian subsisted no longer than while it was sustained by the firm and dexterous hand of the founder. It required such a fortunate mixture of A.D. 305-323. different tempers and abilities as could scarcely be found, or even expected, a second time; two emperors without jealousy, two Cæsars without ambition, and the same general interest invariably pursued by four independent princes. The abdication of Diocletian and Maximian was succeeded by eighteen years of discord and confusion. The empire was afflicted by five civil wars; and the remainder of the time was not so much a state of tranquillity as a suspension of arms between several hostile monarchs, who, viewing each other with an eye of fear and hatred, strove to increase their respective forces at the expense of their subjects. of Constan As soon as Diocletian and Maximian had resigned the purple, their Character station, according to the rules of the new constitution, was and situation filled by the two Cæsars, Constantius and Galerius, who tius. immediately assumed the title of Augustus.' The honours of seniority and precedence were allowed to the former of those princes, and he continued under a new appellation to administer his ancient department of Gaul, Spain, and Britain. The government of those ample provinces was sufficient to exercise his talents and to satisfy his ambition. Clemency, temperance, and moderation distinguished the amiable character of Constantius, and his fortunate subjects had frequently occasion to compare the virtues of their sovereign with the passions of Maximian, and even with the arts of Diocletian. Instead of imitating their eastern pride and magnificence, Constantius preserved the modesty of a Roman prince. He declared, with unaffected sincerity, that his most valued treasure was 2 1 M. de Montesquieu (Considérations sur la Grandeur et la Décadence des Romains, c. 17) supposes, on the authority of Orosius and Eusebius, that, on this occasion, the empire, for the first time, was really divided into two parts. It is difficult, however, to discover in what respect the plan of Galerius differed from that of Diocletian. 2 Hic non modo amabilis, sed etiam venerabilis Gallis fuit; præcipue quòd Diocletiani suspectam prudentiam, et Maximiani sanguinariam violentiam imperio ejus evaserant. Eutrop. Breviar. x. i. A.D. 305-323. THEIR CHARACTERS. 107 in the hearts of his people; and that, whenever the dignity of the throne or the danger of the state required any extraordinary supply, ne could depend with confidence on their gratitude and liberality.3 The provincials of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, sensible of his worth, and of their own happiness, reflected with anxiety on the declining health of the emperor Constantius, and the tender age of his numerous family, the issue of his second marriage with the daughter of Maximian. Of Galerius. The stern temper of Galerius was cast in a very different mould; and while he commanded the esteem of his subjects, he seldom condescended to solicit their affections. His fame in arms, and, above all, the success of the Persian war, had elated his haughty mind, which was naturally impatient of a superior, or even of an equal. If it were possible to rely on the partial testimony of an injudicious writer, we might ascribe the abdication of Diocletian to the menaces of Galerius, and relate the particulars of a private conversation between the two princes, in which the former discovered as much pusillanimity as the latter displayed ingratitude and arrogance. But these obscure anecdotes are sufficiently refuted by an impartial view of the character and conduct of Diocletian. Whatever might otherwise have been his intentions, if he had apprehended any danger from the violence of Galerius, his good sense would have instructed him to prevent the ignominious contest; and as he had held the sceptre with glory, he would have resigned it without disgrace. 4 3 Divitiis Provincialium (mel. provinciarum) ac privatorum studens, fisci commoda non admodum affectans; ducensque melius publicas opes a privatis haberi, quam intra unum claustrum reservari. Id. ibid. He carried this maxim so far, that, whenever he gave an entertainment, he was obliged to borrow a service of plate. 4 Lactantius de Mort. Persecutor. c. 18. Were the particulars of this conference more consistent with truth and decency, we might still ask how they came to the knowledge of an obscure rhetorician? But there are many historians who put us in mind of the admirable saying of the great Condé to Cardinal de Retz: "Ces coquins nous font parler et agir comme ils auroient fait eux-mêmes à notre place." This attack upon Lactantius is unfounded. Lactantius was so far from having been an obscure rhetorician, that he had taught rhetoric publicly, and with the greatest success, first in Africa, and afterwards in Nicomedia. His reputation obtained him the esteem of Constantine, who invited him to his court, and intrusted to him the education of his son Crispus. -G. But it should be borne in mind that the authorship of the treatise De Mortibus Persecutorum is uncertain. The piece is wanting in the earlier editions of Lactantius, and was first brought to light by Stephen Baluze, who printed it at Paris in his Miscellanea (vol. ii. 1679), from an ancient MS. bearing the inscription "Lucii Cecilii incipit liber ad Donatum Confessorem de Mortibus Persecutorum." Ba luze entertained no doubt that he had discovered the tract of Lactantius, quoted by Hieronymus as "De Persecutione Liber unus," an opinion corroborated by the fact that Cæcilius was one of the names of Lactantius, by the date, by the dedication to Donatus-apparently the same person with the Donatus addressed in the discourse De Ira Dei-and by the general resemblance in style and expression; but these arguments are not conclusive, and most impartial critics will admit the jus tice of Dean Milman's opinion, that "the fame of Lactantius for eloquence, as well as for truth, would suffer no loss if it should be adjudged to some more obscure rhetorician."" On the authorship of the treatise, see Smith's Dict. of Greek and Roman Biog. vol. i. p. 526.-S. 108 The two SEVERUS AND MAXIMIN CÆSARS. CHAP. XIV. After the elevation of Constantius and Galerius to the rank of Augusti, two new Caesars were required to supply their Severs and place, and to complete the system of the Imperial governMaximin. ment. Diocletian was sincerely desirous of withdrawing himself from the world; he considered Galerius, who had married nis daughter, as the firmest support of his family and of the empire; and he consented, without reluctance, that his successor should assume the merit as well as the envy of the important nomination. It was fixed without consulting the interest or inclination of the princes of the West. Each of them had a son who was arrived at the age of manhood, and who might have been deemed the most natural candidates for the vacant honour. But the impotent resentment of Maximian was no longer to be dreaded; and the moderate Constantius, though he might despise the dangers, was humanely apprehensive of the calamities, of civil war. The two persons whom Galerius promcted to the rank of Cæsar were much better suited to serve the views of his ambition; and their principal recommendation seems to have consisted in the want of merit or personal consequence. The first of these was Daza, or, as he was afterwards called, Maximin, whose mother was the sister of Galerius. The unexperienced youth still betrayed by his manners and language his rustic education, when, to his own astonishment, as well as that of the world, he was invested by Diocletian with the purple, exalted to the dignity of Cæsar, and intrusted with the sovereign command of Egypt and Syria.5 At the same time Severus, a faithful servant, addicted to pleasure, but not incapable of business, was sent to Milan to receive from the reluctant hands of Maximian the Cæsarian ornaments and the possession of Italy and Africa. According to the forms of the constitution, Severus acknowledged the supremacy of the western emperor; but he was absolutely devoted to the commands of his benefactor Galerius, who, reserving to himself the intermediate countries from the confines of Italy to those of Syria, firmly established his power over three-fourths of the monarchy. In the full confidence that the approaching death 6 5 Sublatus nuper a pecoribus et silvis (says Lactantius de M. P. c. 19) statim Scutarius, continuo Protector, mox Tribunus, postridie Cæsar, accepit Orientem. Aurelius Victor is too liberal in giving him the whole portion of Diocletian. • His diligence and fidelity are acknowledged even by Lactantius, de M. P. c. 18. a The following table shows the connexion between the above-mentioned persons:--Diocletian A.D. 274. BIRTH OF CONSTANTINE. 109 of Constantius would leave him sole master of the Roman world, we are assured that he had arranged in his mind a long succession of future princes, and that he meditated his own retreat from public life after he should have accomplished a glorious reign of about twenty years." But, within less than eighteen months, two unexpected revolutions overturned the ambitious schemes of Galerius. The hopes Ambition of uniting the western provinces to his empire were disap- of Galerius pointed by the elevation of Constantine; whilst Italy and by two reAfrica were lost by the successful revolt of Maxentius. disappointed volutions. Birth, edu escape of A.D. 274. I. The fame of Constantine has rendered posterity attentive to the most minute circumstances of his life and actions. The place of his birth, as well as the condition of his mother cation, and Helena, have been the subject not only of literary but of Constantine. national disputes. Notwithstanding the recent tradition which assigns for her father a British king, we are obliged to confess that Helena was the daughter of an innkeeper; but at the same time. we may defend the legality of her marriage against those who have represented her as the concubine of Constantius. The great Constantine was most probably born at Naissus, in Dacia ;1o and it is not 8 10 7 These schemes, however, rest only on the very doubtful authority of Lactantius de M. P. c. 20. 8 This tradition, unknown to the contemporaries of Constantine, was invented in the darkness of monasteries, was embellished by Jeffrey of Monmouth and the writers of the xiith century, has been defended by our antiquarians of the last age, and is seriously related in the ponderous History of England compiled by Mr. Carte (vol. i. p. 147). He transports, however, the kingdom of Coil, the imaginary father of Helena, from Essex to the wall of Antoninus. Eutropius (x. 2) expresses, in a few words, the real truth, and the occasion of the error, "ex obscuriori matrimonio ejus filius." Zosimus (1. ii. [c. 8] p. 78) eagerly seized the most unfavourable report, and is followed by Orosius (vii. 25), whose authority is oddly enough overlooked by the indefatigable but partial Tillemont. By insisting on the divorce of Helena, Diocletian acknowledged her marriage. 10 There are three opinions with regard to the place of Constantine's birth. 1. Our English antiquarians were used to dwell with rapture on the words of his panegyrist, "Britannias illic oriendo nobiles fecisti." But this celebrated passage may be referred with as much propriety to the accession as to the nativity of Constantine. 2. Some of the modern Greeks have ascribed the honour of his birth to Drepanum, a town on the gulf of Nicomedia (Cellarius, tom. ii. p. 174), which Constantine dignified with the name of Helenopolis, and Justinian adorned with many splendid buildings (Procop. de Edificiis, v. 2). It is indeed probable enough that Helena's father kept an inn at Drepanum, and that Constantius might lodge there when he returned from a Persian embassy in the reign of Aurelian. But in the wandering life of a soldier, the place of his marriage, and the places where his children are born, have very little connection with each other. 3. The claim of Naissus is supported by the anonymous writer. published at the end of Ammianus, p. 710 [vol. ii. p. 295, ed. Bip.], and who in general copied very good materials: and it is confirmed by Julius Firmicus (de Astrologia, 1. i. c. 4), who flourished under the reign of Constantine himself. Some objections have been raised against the integrity of the text, and the application of the passage, of Firmicus; but the former is established by the best MSS., and the latter is very ably defended by Lipsius de Magnitudine Romana, 1. iv. c. 11, et Supplement." a Other authorities place the birth of Constantine at Naissus. See Steph. Byz. s. v Nairos; Constantin. Porphyr. Them. ii. 9, p. 26; quoted by Clinton, 110 ESCAPE OF CONSTANTINE. CHAP. XIV. surprising that, in a family and province distinguished only by the profession of arms, the youth should discover very little inclination to improve his mind by the acquisition of knowledge." He was A.D. 292. about eighteen years of age when his father was promoted to the rank of Cæsar; but that fortunate event was attended with his mother's divorce; and the splendour of an Imperial alliance reduced the son of Helena to a state of disgrace and humiliation. Instead of following Constantius in the West, he remained in the service of Diocletian, signalised his valour in the wars of Egypt and Persia, and gradually rose to the honourable station of a tribune of the first order. The figure of Constantine was tall and majestic; he was dexterous in all his exercises, intrepid in war, affable in peace; in his whole conduct the active spirit of youth was tempered by habitual prudence; and while his mind was engrossed by ambition, he appeared cold and insensible to the allurements of pleasure. The favour of the people and soldiers, who had named him as a worthy candidate for the rank of Cæsar, served only to exasperate the jealousy of Galerius; and though prudence might restrain him from exercising any open violence, an absolute monarch is seldom at a loss how to execute a sure and secret revenge.12 Every hour increased the danger of Constantine, and the anxiety of his father, who, by repeated letters, expressed the warmest desire of embracing his son. For some time the policy of Galerius supplied him with delays and excuses, but it was impossible long to refuse so natural a request of his associate without maintaining his refusal by arms. The permission of the journey was reluctantly granted, and, whatever precautions the emperor might have taken to intercept a return, the consequences of which he with so much reason apprehended, they were effectually disappointed by the incredible diligence of Constantine.1 Leaving the palace of Nicomedia in the night, he travelled post through Bithynia, Thrace, Dacia, Pannonia, Italy, and Gaul, and, amidst the joyful acclamations of the people, reached the port of Boulogne in the very moment when his father was preparing to embark for Britain.14 "Literis minus instructus. Anonym. ad Ammian. p. 710. 13 12 Galerius, or perhaps his own courage, exposed him to single combat with a Sar matian (Anonym. p. 710), and with a monstrous lion. See Praxagoras apud Pho tium, p. 63. Praxagoras, an Athenian philosopher, had written a life of Constantine in two books, which are now lost. He was a contemporary. 13 Zosimus, l. ii. [c. 8] p. 78, 79. Lactantius de M. P. c. 24. The former tells a very foolish story, that Constantine caused all the post-horses which he had used to be hamstrung. Such a bloody execution, without preventing a pursuit, would have scattered suspicions, and might have stopped his journey." 14 Anonym. p. 710. Panegyr. Veter. vii. 7. But Zosimus, 1. ii. [c. 9] p. 79, a Zosimus is not the only writer who tells this story. Aurelius Victor (de Cæsar. 40; Epit. 41) says the same thing-G. -as also the Anonymus Valesii.-M. Manso (Leben Constantins, p. 18) observes that the story has been exaggerated; he took this precaution during the first stage of his journey.-M. |