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

Empire.—Part II.

Though the characters of Constantine and Maxentius had very
little affinity with each other, their situation and interest
were the same; and prudence seemed to require that they should
unite their forces against the common enemy. Notwithstanding the
superiority of his age and dignity, the indefatigable Maximian
passed the Alps, and, courting a personal interview with the
sovereign of Gaul, carried with him his daughter Fausta as the
pledge of the new alliance. The marriage was celebrated at Arles
with every circumstance of magnificence; and the ancient
colleague of Diocletian, who again asserted his claim to the
Western empire, conferred on his son-in-law and ally the title of
Augustus. By consenting to receive that honor from Maximian,
Constantine seemed to embrace the cause of Rome and of the
senate; but his professions were ambiguous, and his assistance
slow and ineffectual. He considered with attention the
approaching contest between the masters of Italy and the emperor
of the East, and was prepared to consult his own safety or
ambition in the event of the war. 24

24 (return) [ The sixth Panegyric was pronounced to celebrate the
elevation of Constantine; but the prudent orator avoids the
mention either of Galerius or of Maxentius. He introduces only
one slight allusion to the actual troubles, and to the majesty of
Rome. * Note: Compare Manso, Beylage, iv. p. 302. Gibbon’s
account is at least as probable as that of his critic.—M.]

The importance of the occasion called for the presence and
abilities of Galerius. At the head of a powerful army, collected
from Illyricum and the East, he entered Italy, resolved to
revenge the death of Severus, and to chastise the rebellious
Romans; or, as he expressed his intentions, in the furious
language of a barbarian, to extirpate the senate, and to destroy
the people by the sword. But the skill of Maximian had concerted
a prudent system of defence. The invader found every place
hostile, fortified, and inaccessible; and though he forced his
way as far as Narni, within sixty miles of Rome, his dominion in
Italy was confined to the narrow limits of his camp. Sensible of
the increasing difficulties of his enterprise, the haughty
Galerius made the first advances towards a reconciliation, and
despatched two of his most considerable officers to tempt the
Roman princes by the offer of a conference, and the declaration
of his paternal regard for Maxentius, who might obtain much more
from his liberality than he could hope from the doubtful chance
of war. 25 The offers of Galerius were rejected with firmness,
his perfidious friendship refused with contempt, and it was not
long before he discovered, that, unless he provided for his
safety by a timely retreat, he had some reason to apprehend the
fate of Severus. The wealth which the Romans defended against his
rapacious tyranny, they freely contributed for his destruction.
The name of Maximian, the popular arts of his son, the secret
distribution of large sums, and the promise of still more liberal
rewards, checked the ardor and corrupted the fidelity of the
Illyrian legions; and when Galerius at length gave the signal of
the retreat, it was with some difficulty that he could prevail on
his veterans not to desert a banner which had so often conducted
them to victory and honor. A contemporary writer assigns two
other causes for the failure of the expedition; but they are both
of such a nature, that a cautious historian will scarcely venture
to adopt them. We are told that Galerius, who had formed a very
imperfect notion of the greatness of Rome by the cities of the
East with which he was acquainted, found his forces inadequate to
the siege of that immense capital.

But the extent of a city serves only to render it more accessible
to the enemy: Rome had long since been accustomed to submit on
the approach of a conqueror; nor could the temporary enthusiasm
of the people have long contended against the discipline and
valor of the legions. We are likewise informed that the legions
themselves were struck with horror and remorse, and that those
pious sons of the republic refused to violate the sanctity of
their venerable parent. 26 But when we recollect with how much
ease, in the more ancient civil wars, the zeal of party and the
habits of military obedience had converted the native citizens of
Rome into her most implacable enemies, we shall be inclined to
distrust this extreme delicacy of strangers and barbarians, who
had never beheld Italy till they entered it in a hostile manner.
Had they not been restrained by motives of a more interested
nature, they would probably have answered Galerius in the words
of Cæsar’s veterans: “If our general wishes to lead us to the
banks of the Tyber, we are prepared to trace out his camp.
Whatsoever walls he has determined to level with the ground, our
hands are ready to work the engines: nor shall we hesitate,
should the name of the devoted city be Rome itself.” These are
indeed the expressions of a poet; but of a poet who has been
distinguished, and even censured, for his strict adherence to the
truth of history. 27

25 (return) [ With regard to this negotiation, see the fragments
of an anonymous historian, published by Valesius at the end of
his edition of Ammianus Marcellinus, p. 711. These fragments have
furnished with several curious, and, as it should seem, authentic
anecdotes.]

26 (return) [ Lactantius de M. P. c. 28. The former of these
reasons is probably taken from Virgil’s Shepherd: “Illam * * *
ego huic notra similem, Meliboee, putavi,” &c. Lactantius
delights in these poetical illusions.]

27 (return)
[ Castra super Tusci si ponere Tybridis undas; (_jubeas_)
Hesperios audax veniam metator in agros.
Tu quoscunque voles in planum effundere muros,
His aries actus disperget saxa lacertis;
Illa licet penitus tolli quam jusseris urbem
Roma sit.
Lucan. Pharsal. i. 381.]

The legions of Galerius exhibited a very melancholy proof of
their disposition, by the ravages which they committed in their
retreat. They murdered, they ravished, they plundered, they drove
away the flocks and herds of the Italians; they burnt the
villages through which they passed, and they endeavored to
destroy the country which it had not been in their power to
subdue. During the whole march, Maxentius hung on their rear, but
he very prudently declined a general engagement with those brave
and desperate veterans. His father had undertaken a second
journey into Gaul, with the hope of persuading Constantine, who
had assembled an army on the frontier, to join in the pursuit,
and to complete the victory. But the actions of Constantine were
guided by reason, and not by resentment. He persisted in the wise
resolution of maintaining a balance of power in the divided
empire, and he no longer hated Galerius, when that aspiring
prince had ceased to be an object of terror. 28

28 (return) [ Lactantius de M. P. c. 27. Zosim. l. ii. p. 82. The
latter, that Constantine, in his interview with Maximian, had
promised to declare war against Galerius.]

The mind of Galerius was the most susceptible of the sterner
passions, but it was not, however, incapable of a sincere and
lasting friendship. Licinius, whose manners as well as character
were not unlike his own, seems to have engaged both his affection
and esteem. Their intimacy had commenced in the happier period
perhaps of their youth and obscurity. It had been cemented by the
freedom and dangers of a military life; they had advanced almost
by equal steps through the successive honors of the service; and
as soon as Galerius was invested with the Imperial dignity, he
seems to have conceived the design of raising his companion to
the same rank with himself. During the short period of his
prosperity, he considered the rank of Cæsar as unworthy of the
age and merit of Licinius, and rather chose to reserve for him
the place of Constantius, and the empire of the West. While the
emperor was employed in the Italian war, he intrusted his friend
with the defence of the Danube; and immediately after his return
from that unfortunate expedition, he invested Licinius with the
vacant purple of Severus, resigning to his immediate command the
provinces of Illyricum. 29 The news of his promotion was no
sooner carried into the East, than Maximin, who governed, or
rather oppressed, the countries of Egypt and Syria, betrayed his
envy and discontent, disdained the inferior name of Cæsar, and,
notwithstanding the prayers as well as arguments of Galerius,
exacted, almost by violence, the equal title of Augustus. 30 For
the first, and indeed for the last time, the Roman world was
administered by six emperors. In the West, Constantine and
Maxentius affected to reverence their father Maximian. In the
East, Licinius and Maximin honored with more real consideration
their benefactor Galerius. The opposition of interest, and the
memory of a recent war, divided the empire into two great hostile
powers; but their mutual fears produced an apparent tranquillity,
and even a feigned reconciliation, till the death of the elder
princes, of Maximian, and more particularly of Galerius, gave a
new direction to the views and passions of their surviving
associates.

29 (return) [ M. de Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. part
i. p. 559) has proved that Licinius, without passing through the
intermediate rank of Cæsar, was declared Augustus, the 11th of
November, A. D. 307, after the return of Galerius from Italy.]

30 (return) [ Lactantius de M. P. c. 32. When Galerius declared
Licinius Augustus with himself, he tried to satisfy his younger
associates, by inventing for Constantine and Maximin (not
Maxentius; see Baluze, p. 81) the new title of sons of the
Augusti. But when Maximin acquainted him that he had been saluted
Augustus by the army, Galerius was obliged to acknowledge him as
well as Constantine, as equal associates in the Imperial
dignity.]

When Maximian had reluctantly abdicated the empire, the venal
orators of the times applauded his philosophic moderation. When
his ambition excited, or at least encouraged, a civil war, they
returned thanks to his generous patriotism, and gently censured
that love of ease and retirement which had withdrawn him from the
public service. 31 But it was impossible that minds like those of
Maximian and his son could long possess in harmony an undivided
power. Maxentius considered himself as the legal sovereign of
Italy, elected by the Roman senate and people; nor would he
endure the control of his father, who arrogantly declared that by
_his_ name and abilities the rash youth had been established on
the throne. The cause was solemnly pleaded before the Prætorian
guards; and those troops, who dreaded the severity of the old
emperor, espoused the party of Maxentius. 32 The life and freedom
of Maximian were, however, respected, and he retired from Italy
into Illyricum, affecting to lament his past conduct, and
secretly contriving new mischiefs. But Galerius, who was well
acquainted with his character, soon obliged him to leave his
dominions, and the last refuge of the disappointed Maximian was
the court of his son-in-law Constantine. 33 He was received with
respect by that artful prince, and with the appearance of filial
tenderness by the empress Fausta. That he might remove every
suspicion, he resigned the Imperial purple a second time, 34
professing himself at length convinced of the vanity of greatness
and ambition. Had he persevered in this resolution, he might have
ended his life with less dignity, indeed, than in his first
retirement, yet, however, with comfort and reputation. But the
near prospect of a throne brought back to his remembrance the
state from whence he was fallen, and he resolved, by a desperate
effort, either to reign or to perish. An incursion of the Franks
had summoned Constantine, with a part of his army, to the banks
of the Rhine; the remainder of the troops were stationed in the
southern provinces of Gaul, which lay exposed to the enterprises
of the Italian emperor, and a considerable treasure was deposited
in the city of Arles. Maximian either craftily invented, or
easily credited, a vain report of the death of Constantine.
Without hesitation he ascended the throne, seized the treasure,
and scattering it with his accustomed profusion among the
soldiers, endeavored to awake in their minds the memory of his
ancient dignity and exploits. Before he could establish his
authority, or finish the negotiation which he appears to have
entered into with his son Maxentius, the celerity of Constantine
defeated all his hopes. On the first news of his perfidy and
ingratitude, that prince returned by rapid marches from the Rhine
to the Saone, embarked on the last-mentioned river at Chalons,
and, at Lyons trusting himself to the rapidity of the Rhone,
arrived at the gates of Arles with a military force which it was
impossible for Maximian to resist, and which scarcely permitted
him to take refuge in the neighboring city of Marseilles. The
narrow neck of land which joined that place to the continent was
fortified against the besiegers, whilst the sea was open, either
for the escape of Maximian, or for the succor of Maxentius, if
the latter should choose to disguise his invasion of Gaul under
the honorable pretence of defending a distressed, or, as he might
allege, an injured father. Apprehensive of the fatal consequences
of delay, Constantine gave orders for an immediate assault; but
the scaling-ladders were found too short for the height of the
walls, and Marseilles might have sustained as long a siege as it
formerly did against the arms of Cæsar, if the garrison,
conscious either of their fault or of their danger, had not
purchased their pardon by delivering up the city and the person
of Maximian. A secret but irrevocable sentence of death was
pronounced against the usurper; he obtained only the same favor
which he had indulged to Severus, and it was published to the
world, that, oppressed by the remorse of his repeated crimes, he
strangled himself with his own hands. After he had lost the
assistance, and disdained the moderate counsels, of Diocletian,
the second period of his active life was a series of public
calamities and personal mortifications, which were terminated, in
about three years, by an ignominious death. He deserved his fate;
but we should find more reason to applaud the humanity of
Constantine, if he had spared an old man, the benefactor of his
father, and the father of his wife. During the whole of this
melancholy transaction, it appears that Fausta sacrificed the
sentiments of nature to her conjugal duties. 35

31 (return) [ See Panegyr. Vet. vi. 9. Audi doloris nostri
liberam vocem, &c. The whole passage is imagined with artful
flattery, and expressed with an easy flow of eloquence.]

32 (return) [ Lactantius de M. P. c. 28. Zosim. l. ii. p. 82. A
report was spread, that Maxentius was the son of some obscure
Syrian, and had been substituted by the wife of Maximian as her
own child. See Aurelius Victor, Anonym. Valesian, and Panegyr.
Vet. ix. 3, 4.]

33 (return) [ Ab urbe pulsum, ab Italia fugatum, ab Illyrico
repudiatum, provinciis, tuis copiis, tuo palatio recepisti.
Eumen. in Panegyr Vet. vii. 14.]

34 (return) [ Lactantius de M. P. c. 29. Yet, after the
resignation of the purple, Constantine still continued to
Maximian the pomp and honors of the Imperial dignity; and on all
public occasions gave the right hand place to his father-in-law.
Panegyr. Vet. viii. 15.]

35 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. p. 82. Eumenius in Panegyr. Vet. vii.
16—21. The latter of these has undoubtedly represented the whole
affair in the most favorable light for his sovereign. Yet even
from this partial narrative we may conclude, that the repeated
clemency of Constantine, and the reiterated treasons of Maximian,
as they are described by Lactantius, (de M. P. c. 29, 30,) and
copied by the moderns, are destitute of any historical
foundation. Note: Yet some pagan authors relate and confirm them.
Aurelius Victor speaking of Maximin, says, cumque specie officii,
dolis compositis, Constantinum generum tentaret acerbe, jure
tamen interierat. Aur. Vict. de Cæsar l. p. 623. Eutropius also
says, inde ad Gallias profectus est (Maximianus) composito
tamquam a filio esset expulsus, ut Constantino genero jun
geretur: moliens tamen Constantinum, reperta occasione,
interficere, dedit justissimo exitu. Eutrop. x. p. 661. (Anon.
Gent.)—G. —— These writers hardly confirm more than Gibbon
admits; he denies the repeated clemency of Constantine, and the
reiterated treasons of Maximian Compare Manso, p. 302.—M.]

The last years of Galerius were less shameful and unfortunate;
and though he had filled with more glory the subordinate station
of Cæsar than the superior rank of Augustus, he preserved, till
the moment of his death, the first place among the princes of the
Roman world. He survived his retreat from Italy about four years;
and wisely relinquishing his views of universal empire, he
devoted the remainder of his life to the enjoyment of pleasure,
and to the execution of some works of public utility, among which
we may distinguish the discharging into the Danube the
superfluous waters of the Lake Pelso, and the cutting down the
immense forests that encompassed it; an operation worthy of a
monarch, since it gave an extensive country to the agriculture of
his Pannonian subjects. 36 His death was occasioned by a very
painful and lingering disorder. His body, swelled by an
intemperate course of life to an unwieldy corpulence, was covered
with ulcers, and devoured by innumerable swarms of those insects
which have given their name to a most loathsome disease; 37 but
as Galerius had offended a very zealous and powerful party among
his subjects, his sufferings, instead of exciting their
compassion, have been celebrated as the visible effects of divine
justice. 38 He had no sooner expired in his palace of Nicomedia,
than the two emperors who were indebted for their purple to his
favors, began to collect their forces, with the intention either
of disputing, or of dividing, the dominions which he had left
without a master. They were persuaded, however, to desist from
the former design, and to agree in the latter. The provinces of
Asia fell to the share of Maximin, and those of Europe augmented
the portion of Licinius. The Hellespont and the Thracian
Bosphorus formed their mutual boundary, and the banks of those
narrow seas, which flowed in the midst of the Roman world, were
covered with soldiers, with arms, and with fortifications. The
deaths of Maximian and of Galerius reduced the number of emperors
to four. The sense of their true interest soon connected Licinius
and Constantine; a secret alliance was concluded between Maximin
and Maxentius, and their unhappy subjects expected with terror
the bloody consequences of their inevitable dissensions, which
were no longer restrained by the fear or the respect which they
had entertained for Galerius. 39

36 (return) [ Aurelius Victor, c. 40. But that lake was situated
on the upper Pannonia, near the borders of Noricum; and the
province of Valeria (a name which the wife of Galerius gave to
the drained country) undoubtedly lay between the Drave and the
Danube, (Sextus Rufus, c. 9.) I should therefore suspect that
Victor has confounded the Lake Pelso with the Volocean marshes,
or, as they are now called, the Lake Sabaton. It is placed in the
heart of Valeria, and its present extent is not less than twelve
Hungarian miles (about seventy English) in length, and two in
breadth. See Severini Pannonia, l. i. c. 9.]

37 (return) [ Lactantius (de M. P. c. 33) and Eusebius (l. viii.
c. 16) describe the symptoms and progress of his disorder with
singular accuracy and apparent pleasure.]

38 (return) [ If any (like the late Dr. Jortin, Remarks on
Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 307—356) still delight in
recording the wonderful deaths of the persecutors, I would
recommend to their perusal an admirable passage of Grotius (Hist.
l. vii. p. 332) concerning the last illness of Philip II. of
Spain.]

39 (return) [ See Eusebius, l. ix. 6, 10. Lactantius de M. P. c.
36. Zosimus is less exact, and evidently confounds Maximian with
Maximin.]

Among so many crimes and misfortunes, occasioned by the passions
of the Roman princes, there is some pleasure in discovering a
single action which may be ascribed to their virtue. In the sixth
year of his reign, Constantine visited the city of Autun, and
generously remitted the arrears of tribute, reducing at the same
time the proportion of their assessment from twenty-five to
eighteen thousand heads, subject to the real and personal
capitation. 40 Yet even this indulgence affords the most
unquestionable proof of the public misery. This tax was so
extremely oppressive, either in itself or in the mode of
collecting it, that whilst the revenue was increased by
extortion, it was diminished by despair: a considerable part of
the territory of Autun was left uncultivated; and great numbers
of the provincials rather chose to live as exiles and outlaws,
than to support the weight of civil society. It is but too
probable, that the bountiful emperor relieved, by a partial act
of liberality, one among the many evils which he had caused by
his general maxims of administration. But even those maxims were
less the effect of choice than of necessity. And if we except the
death of Maximian, the reign of Constantine in Gaul seems to have
been the most innocent and even virtuous period of his life.

The provinces were protected by his presence from the inroads of
the barbarians, who either dreaded or experienced his active
valor. After a signal victory over the Franks and Alemanni,
several of their princes were exposed by his order to the wild
beasts in the amphitheatre of Treves, and the people seem to have
enjoyed the spectacle, without discovering, in such a treatment
of royal captives, any thing that was repugnant to the laws of
nations or of humanity. 41

40 (return) [ See the viiith Panegyr., in which Eumenius
displays, in the presence of Constantine, the misery and the
gratitude of the city of Autun.]

41 (return) [Eutropius, x. 3. Panegyr. Veter. vii. 10, 11, 12. A
great number of the French youth were likewise exposed to the
same cruel and ignominious death Yet the panegyric assumes
something of an apologetic tone. Te vero Constantine,
quantumlibet oderint hoses, dum perhorrescant. Hæc est enim vera
virtus, ut non ament et quiescant. The orator appeals to the
ancient ideal of the republic.—M.]

The virtues of Constantine were rendered more illustrious by the
vices of Maxentius. Whilst the Gallic provinces enjoyed as much
happiness as the condition of the times was capable of receiving,
Italy and Africa groaned under the dominion of a tyrant, as
contemptible as he was odious. The zeal of flattery and faction
has indeed too frequently sacrificed the reputation of the
vanquished to the glory of their successful rivals; but even
those writers who have revealed, with the most freedom and
pleasure, the faults of Constantine, unanimously confess that
Maxentius was cruel, rapacious, and profligate. 42 He had the
good fortune to suppress a slight rebellion in Africa. The
governor and a few adherents had been guilty; the province
suffered for their crime. The flourishing cities of Cirtha and
Carthage, and the whole extent of that fertile country, were
wasted by fire and sword. The abuse of victory was followed by
the abuse of law and justice. A formidable army of sycophants and
delators invaded Africa; the rich and the noble were easily
convicted of a connection with the rebels; and those among them
who experienced the emperor’s clemency, were only punished by the
confiscation of their estates. 43 So signal a victory was
celebrated by a magnificent triumph, and Maxentius exposed to the
eyes of the people the spoils and captives of a Roman province.
The state of the capital was no less deserving of compassion than
that of Africa. The wealth of Rome supplied an inexhaustible fund
for his vain and prodigal expenses, and the ministers of his
revenue were skilled in the arts of rapine. It was under his
reign that the method of exacting a _free gift_ from the senators
was first invented; and as the sum was insensibly increased, the
pretences of levying it, a victory, a birth, a marriage, or an
imperial consulship, were proportionably multiplied. 44 Maxentius
had imbibed the same implacable aversion to the senate, which had
characterized most of the former tyrants of Rome; nor was it
possible for his ungrateful temper to forgive the generous
fidelity which had raised him to the throne, and supported him
against all his enemies. The lives of the senators were exposed
to his jealous suspicions, the dishonor of their wives and
daughters heightened the gratification of his sensual passions.
45 It may be presumed that an Imperial lover was seldom reduced
to sigh in vain; but whenever persuasion proved ineffectual, he
had recourse to violence; and there remains _one_ memorable
example of a noble matron, who preserved her chastity by a
voluntary death. The soldiers were the only order of men whom he
appeared to respect, or studied to please. He filled Rome and
Italy with armed troops, connived at their tumults, suffered them
with impunity to plunder, and even to massacre, the defenceless
people; 46 and indulging them in the same licentiousness which
their emperor enjoyed, Maxentius often bestowed on his military
favorites the splendid villa, or the beautiful wife, of a
senator. A prince of such a character, alike incapable of
governing, either in peace or in war, might purchase the support,
but he could never obtain the esteem, of the army. Yet his pride
was equal to his other vices. Whilst he passed his indolent life
either within the walls of his palace, or in the neighboring
gardens of Sallust, he was repeatedly heard to declare, that _he
alone_ was emperor, and that the other princes were no more than
his lieutenants, on whom he had devolved the defence of the
frontier provinces, that he might enjoy without interruption the
elegant luxury of the capital. Rome, which had so long regretted
the absence, lamented, during the six years of his reign, the
presence of her sovereign. 47

42 (return) [ Julian excludes Maxentius from the banquet of the
Cæsars with abhorrence and contempt; and Zosimus (l. ii. p. 85)
accuses him of every kind of cruelty and profligacy.]

43 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 83—85. Aurelius Victor.]

44 (return) [ The passage of Aurelius Victor should be read in
the following manner: Primus instituto pessimo, munerum specie,
Patres Oratores que pecuniam conferre prodigenti sibi cogeret.]

45 (return) [ Panegyr. Vet. ix. 3. Euseb. Hist Eccles. viii. 14,
et in Vit. Constant i. 33, 34. Rufinus, c. 17. The virtuous
matron who stabbed herself to escape the violence of Maxentius,
was a Christian, wife to the præfect of the city, and her name
was Sophronia. It still remains a question among the casuists,
whether, on such occasions, suicide is justifiable.]

46 (return) [ Prætorianis cædem vulgi quondam annueret, is the
vague expression of Aurelius Victor. See more particular, though
somewhat different, accounts of a tumult and massacre which
happened at Rome, in Eusebius, (l. viii. c. 14,) and in Zosimus,
(l. ii. p. 84.)]

47 (return) [ See, in the Panegyrics, (ix. 14,) a lively
description of the indolence and vain pride of Maxentius. In
another place the orator observes that the riches which Rome had
accumulated in a period of 1060 years, were lavished by the
tyrant on his mercenary bands; redemptis ad civile latrocinium
manibus in gesserat.]

Though Constantine might view the conduct of Maxentius with
abhorrence, and the situation of the Romans with compassion, we
have no reason to presume that he would have taken up arms to
punish the one or to relieve the other. But the tyrant of Italy
rashly ventured to provoke a formidable enemy, whose ambition had
been hitherto restrained by considerations of prudence, rather
than by principles of justice. 48 After the death of Maximian,
his titles, according to the established custom, had been erased,
and his statues thrown down with ignominy. His son, who had
persecuted and deserted him when alive, effected to display the
most pious regard for his memory, and gave orders that a similar
treatment should be immediately inflicted on all the statues that
had been erected in Italy and Africa to the honor of Constantine.

That wise prince, who sincerely wished to decline a war, with the
difficulty and importance of which he was sufficiently
acquainted, at first dissembled the insult, and sought for
redress by the milder expedient of negotiation, till he was
convinced that the hostile and ambitious designs of the Italian
emperor made it necessary for him to arm in his own defence.
Maxentius, who openly avowed his pretensions to the whole
monarchy of the West, had already prepared a very considerable
force to invade the Gallic provinces on the side of Rhætia; and
though he could not expect any assistance from Licinius, he was
flattered with the hope that the legions of Illyricum, allured by
his presents and promises, would desert the standard of that
prince, and unanimously declare themselves his soldiers and
subjects. 49 Constantine no longer hesitated. He had deliberated
with caution, he acted with vigor. He gave a private audience to
the ambassadors, who, in the name of the senate and people,
conjured him to deliver Rome from a detested tyrant; and without
regarding the timid remonstrances of his council, he resolved to
prevent the enemy, and to carry the war into the heart of Italy.
50

48 (return) [ After the victory of Constantine, it was
universally allowed, that the motive of delivering the republic
from a detested tyrant, would, at any time, have justified his
expedition into Italy. Euseb in Vi’. Constantin. l. i. c. 26.
Panegyr. Vet. ix. 2.]

49 (return) [ Zosimus, l. ii. p. 84, 85. Nazarius in Panegyr. x.
7—13.]

50 (return) [ See Panegyr. Vet. ix. 2. Omnibus fere tuis
Comitibus et Ducibus non solum tacite mussantibus, sed etiam
aperte timentibus; contra consilia hominum, contra Haruspicum
monita, ipse per temet liberandæ arbis tempus venisse sentires.
The embassy of the Romans is mentioned only by Zonaras, (l.
xiii.,) and by Cedrenus, (in Compend. Hist. p. 370;) but those
modern Greeks had the opportunity of consulting many writers
which have since been lost, among which we may reckon the life of
Constantine by Praxagoras. Photius (p. 63) has made a short
extract from that historical work.]

The enterprise was as full of danger as of glory; and the
unsuccessful event of two former invasions was sufficient to
inspire the most serious apprehensions. The veteran troops, who
revered the name of Maximian, had embraced in both those wars the
party of his son, and were now restrained by a sense of honor, as
well as of interest, from entertaining an idea of a second
desertion. Maxentius, who considered the Prætorian guards as the
firmest defence of his throne, had increased them to their
ancient establishment; and they composed, including the rest of
the Italians who were enlisted into his service, a formidable
body of fourscore thousand men. Forty thousand Moors and
Carthaginians had been raised since the reduction of Africa. Even
Sicily furnished its proportion of troops; and the armies of
Maxentius amounted to one hundred and seventy thousand foot and
eighteen thousand horse. The wealth of Italy supplied the
expenses of the war; and the adjacent provinces were exhausted,
to form immense magazines of corn and every other kind of
provisions.

The whole force of Constantine consisted of ninety thousand foot
and eight thousand horse; 51 and as the defence of the Rhine
required an extraordinary attention during the absence of the
emperor, it was not in his power to employ above half his troops
in the Italian expedition, unless he sacrificed the public safety
to his private quarrel. 52 At the head of about forty thousand
soldiers he marched to encounter an enemy whose numbers were at
least four times superior to his own. But the armies of Rome,
placed at a secure distance from danger, were enervated by
indulgence and luxury. Habituated to the baths and theatres of
Rome, they took the field with reluctance, and were chiefly
composed of veterans who had almost forgotten, or of new levies
who had never acquired, the use of arms and the practice of war.
The hardy legions of Gaul had long defended the frontiers of the
empire against the barbarians of the North; and in the
performance of that laborious service, their valor was exercised
and their discipline confirmed. There appeared the same
difference between the leaders as between the armies. Caprice or
flattery had tempted Maxentius with the hopes of conquest; but
these aspiring hopes soon gave way to the habits of pleasure and
the consciousness of his inexperience. The intrepid mind of
Constantine had been trained from his earliest youth to war, to
action, and to military command.

51 (return) [ Zosimus (l. ii. p. 86) has given us this curious
account of the forces on both sides. He makes no mention of any
naval armaments, though we are assured (Panegyr. Vet. ix. 25)
that the war was carried on by sea as well as by land; and that
the fleet of Constantine took possession of Sardinia, Corsica,
and the ports of Italy.]

52 (return) [ Panegyr. Vet. ix. 3. It is not surprising that the
orator should diminish the numbers with which his sovereign
achieved the conquest of Italy; but it appears somewhat singular
that he should esteem the tyrant’s army at no more than 100,000
men.]