OONSTANTIU3 L 



CONTARINI. 



and were likely to out off the old border station*. We 



tad that ho gave lands in Thrace and other province* sooth of the 

 Danube to the Sarmatiana, who had been driven from their country 

 by the Ootha. Constantino probably thought of making one race of 

 barbarians a rampart to the empire againat the other. In the year 

 W. wh peering to march again* the PewUna. who had com 

 hoatililie*, he 



fell Ul at Nioomedia, and died there, in hU 



ixiy-fourth year. He U said to hare received baptum on hit death- 

 bed from an Arian buliop; for although long converted to ChrUtiauity 

 he was (till only a catechumen, ai wai frequently the oaae with 

 eoorerU in that age. HU body wai transferred to Constantinople, 

 where it waa buried, after a nunptuoui funeral The lenate of Rome 

 and the Christians of the East reckoned 



placed him among the god., 

 htm a 



, 



among the eainU : hii festival U .till celebrated by the Greek, 

 Coptic, and Ruaian churchee on the 2 lit of Hay. 



The character of Conitantine hai been the object of various and 

 contradictory judgments, according to the religion* and political ipirit 

 of the Tarioiu writer*. Kumbiu*. Naxarius, and other Christian con- 

 temporaries, grateful for the protection afforded by the emperor to the 

 Christian religion, may be oooaidered his panegyrwto, while Zoaimus 

 and other heathen writers, animated by an opposite feeling, were his 

 enemies. The brief summing-up of Eutropiu* is perhaps nearest the 

 truth. ' In the first part of his reign he was equal to the best princes, 

 in the latter to middling one*. He bad many great qualities ; he was 

 fond of military glory, and was successful He was also favourable to 

 ciil arU and liberal studies ; fond of beiug laved and praised, and 

 liberal to most of his friends. He made many laws ; some good and 

 equitable, others superBuous, and some harsh and severe." He has 

 been blamed for dividing the empire, but that bad been done already 

 by Diocletian ; in fact it was too large and straggling to remain in the 

 pnesesiinn of a single dynasty. By founding another capital in the East 

 he probably did not accelerate the fall of the West, while at the same 

 time he established a second empire, which lasted for more than a 

 thousand years after bis death. 



(Eusebius, Life of Conttaxtine ; Zosimus; Aurelius Victor; Eutro- 

 pius and other numerous writers, a list of whom is given by J. Vogt ; 

 Jfutoria Litleraria Conitantini Mogul, 1720.) 



Coin of Conitantine the Great 

 BritUb MuMuro. Actual lite. Gold. Weight 70 grain*. 



CONSTA'NTIDS I., called CHLORU3, on account of his habitual 

 p alt pees, son of Eutropiiu, of a distinguished Illyrian family, and of 

 Claudia, niece of the Emperor Claudius II., was born about 250. He 

 served with distinction under Aurelian, Probus, and Diocletian. In 

 the year 291 Mailmlanui, the colleague of Diocletian, named him Cniar 

 and bis colleague, while Diocletian chose on his side Ualerius: the 

 .idminirtration of the empire was divided among the four. Constantius 

 bad for his share the Gaula, Spain, and Britain. Both the new Caesars 

 wen obliged to repudiate their wives. Constantius, whose first wife 

 wae Helena, the mother of Constantine, married Theodora, daughter 

 of Maximianus; Galerius married Valeria, daughter of Diocletian. 

 Conatautiui carried on war against the Franks, who began to be 

 troublesome on the Lower Rhine, and took a vast number of them 

 prisoner*. He restored the town of Augnstoduuum (Autun), which 

 had bean devastated by Tetricus, one of the thirty tyrants. He then 

 repaired to Britain, with Ascleptodotus, one of bis lieutenants, who 

 defeated Allectus (300), the successor of Carausius in the usurped 

 dominion of the island. Britain was thus restored to the empire after 

 a revolt of ten years. On hit return to Gaul, Constantius went again*t 

 the Alemanni, whom he defeated with great slaughter near Vindoouwa 

 in Helvetia, some say near Langrea, and drove them beyond the Rhine. 

 About this time be founded the town of Constantia (Constant). In 

 the year Sol the two emperor*, with the two Csesws, came to Rome, 

 where they enjoyed the honour of a triumph. In the following year 

 Diocletian and Maximianu* abdicated, and appointed Constantius and 

 Galerins their successor*, who in their turn appointed two new Ctcaars 

 as their colleagues, namely, Severus and Maximinus Dais, or Data. 

 Conatantius continued to administer his old government of Gaul, Spain, 

 and Britain. His administration, which waa equitable and humane, is 

 greatly praised by the historians, both Christian and hoatben. !! 

 put a stop to the persecutions against the Christians, and employed 

 many of them about his person. The last campaign of Constantiu* 

 waa against the Caledonian*, some say against the Picts, whom he 

 defeated. He died soon after at Eboracum (York), July 25, 806, in 

 the arms of his ion Constantino, whom he appointed his sueooaaor, 

 304. By his second wife Theodora, Constantius left several children 

 Dalmatiiu; Julius Constantiu*, who was the father of Constantius 

 Gallus and of Julian the Apostate ; and Constantia, afterwards married 

 to Liciniu*. 



CONSTA'NTIUS II. (FLAVIUS JULIUS), son of Constantine the 



Gnat, was left by his father's will Emperor of the Bait. The troops 

 lowever, in order to secure the empire to the three sous of Constantino, 

 tilled Julius Conitantiua, half-brother of the late emperor, Dalmatiua 

 and Anuibalienus, hi* nephews, and other of hi* relatives, with several 

 patrician* and ministers. This massacre wai allowed by Constantms, 

 ind some say wai ordered by him ; only two nephews of Constantino 

 escaped, Gallus and Julianui, afterwards emperor. Constantiu* wa* 

 repeatedly engaged in war against the Persians ami the Armenian*, but 

 with little success on his part Auimianus Marcelliuui, in speaking of 

 these wars, says that the Romans were successful when led by the 

 emperor's lieutenants, but were generally lose when led by the 

 emperor in person. After the death of Conatans in 850, Constantiua 

 inarched with a large force against Magnentiu* to revenge his brother's 

 death, and at the same time to take possession of hi* dominion*. A 

 desperate battle was fought in 351 near Mursa, on the banks of the 

 Drave, and at last the cavalry of Constautius gained the victory. 

 Itagnentius escaped into Italy, but Constantius was too much weakened 

 by hi* victory to follow him until the next year, when he entered 

 Italy, defeated Magnentiu* again, and compelled him to escape into 

 QauL In the year after, 353, Conatantius again defeated Magnentiu* 

 in Gaul. The usurper, finding himself forsaken by hi* aoldiers, killed 

 bimself; and his brother Decentius, whom he had made Cicsar, 

 followed his example. Constantius now became master of the West as 

 well as of the East, and thus re-uuited the whole empire under his 

 dominion. He had appointed his cousin Gallus Casar and governor 

 of the East, when he aet out to oppose Magneutius. In the same year, 

 853, ConsUntins assembled a council at Aries, which was composed 

 of Arian bishops. The emperor favoured that Beet, and persecuted 

 the orthodox or Nicxans, and exiled many of their bishops, among 

 others Libcrius, bishop of Rome. In the year 354, Constantius, having 

 received repeated cotnplainU of the cruelties aud oppressions com- 

 mitted by Gallus in the East, sent for him, aud caused him to be 

 beheaded in Dalmatia. Several conspiracies were aUo discovered or 

 invented by the courtiers of Coustantius, and numerous persons tortured 

 and put to death. Meantime the Franks and the Alemanni had pasted 

 the Rhine, and destroyed Colouia (Cologne) and other towns ; the 

 Quadi and the Sarmatians were ravaging 1'annonia, and the Persians 

 attacked the eastern provinces. It was in this emergency that Con- 

 stautius, being at Milan in November 855, proclaimed his cousin Julian 

 Cesar, gave him his sister Helena in marriage, and sent him as com- 

 mander to the Gauls. In the following year Constantius issued laws 

 forbidding under pain of death any sacrifice to idols, aud condemning 

 to death all magicians, astrologers, and soothsayers. In 357 the 

 emperor repaired to Rome for the first time, and was received with 

 great pomp by the senate, and public festivals aud games were 

 celebrated in his honour. Ho caused the obelisk which Constantino 

 had removed from Heliopolis to Alexandria to be carried to Home, 

 where it waa raised in the Circus Maximus : it was now called the 

 Lateral! Obelisk. Constautius having returned to tiie East, defeated 

 the Sarmatians, while Julian conquered the Germans on the Rhine. 

 He then marched against the Persians, but was unsuccessful. In tho 

 meantime Julian had been proclaimed emperor by the soldier* at I'.iris. 

 Constantius was making preparations to attack him when he was taken 

 ill at Tarsus, and died there in November 361. On his death-bed he 

 named Julian his successor. Constantius, though not a good i : 

 had yet some valuable qualities. He was cautious and discriminating 

 in the appointment of his great officers ; he took care of the soUiei-i ; 

 he bestowed office generally on the most deserving ; was fond of science 

 and application ; was temperate, sober, slept little, aud hii habits were 

 regular. But he was suspicious, and cruel in consequence of his sus- 

 picious. He oppressed the people with taxes, and spent much money 

 in pomp, parade, and useless building. (Ammianus, b. xiv.) 



CONTARINI, an illustrious family of Venice, which has given to 

 the republic many senators, doge*, and statesmen. The first doge of 

 the name was Domenico Contarini, in the llth century; another, 

 Andrea Contarini, waa doge during the war of Chiozza. After the 

 Genoese had taken that place, and were threatening the very existence 

 of Venice, in 13sO, Contarini, then eighty years of age, led the 

 Venetian fleet against the enemy ; and being assisted by Vottor 

 Piiani and Carlo Zeno, he defeated the Genoese, retook Chiozza, and 

 thus saved the republic. Ambrogio ConUriui was sent, in 1473, by 

 the republic, then at war with Mahomet II., a* ambassador to Hussum 

 Hassan Bey, sovereign or usurper of Persia, to contract on offensive 

 alliance against the Ottomans. The coasts of Asia Minor and Syria 

 being occupied by the Turks, Cuntarini was obliged to take his way 

 through Poland and Tartary to Caft'a in the Crimea, from whence be 

 oroesaJ tho Euxine to the mouth of tho Phasis, and thence proceeded 

 through Mingrelia and Armenia to Persia. He met Hussum Hassan 

 at Ispahan, accompanied him to Tabrrex, aud then returned home- 

 wards by Derbent aud the Caspian Sea to Astrakhan, and thence to 

 Moscow, where he was well received by the grand-duke of Muscovy. 

 He returned to Venice iu 1477, and published the journal of his 

 mis-ion, which is curious, and written with much apparent regard to 

 truth. 'Itinerario nell' Anno 1473, ad Usun Casaan R4 di Persia,' 

 4to, Vonezia, 1524. Huisum Hassan attacked Mahomet, while the 

 Venetian fleet was ravaging the coasta of Am Minor ; but the Persians 

 wore defeated by the Turks near Trebizond, and the alliance led to no 

 other result than to effect a temporary diversion in favour of Venice. 



