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CONSTANTIA 



CONSTANTINE I. 



the second restoration of the Bourbons, Constant 

 wrote and spoke consistently in favour of con- 

 stitutional freedom. He was returned to the 

 Chamber of Deputies in 1819, and became the 

 leader of the Opposition. He was the ablest con- 

 troversialist among the Doctrinaires, the French 

 Whigs. The greater number of his very able politi- 

 cal pamphlets were collected under the title of 

 Cours de Politique Constitutionelle (4 vols. 1817- 

 20) ; his Discours were published in 1828. He died 

 8th December 1830. His powerful intellect had 

 many sides. In De la Religion (5 vols. 1824-31) 

 lie maintained that the spirit of religion, as it 

 grows loftier and purer, casts off the various forms 

 iu which it has been embodied, and which obstruct 

 its expansion. He was likewise the author of a 

 remarkable novel, Adolphe (1816), a short story of 

 love and disillusion, in which Constant forestalls the 

 method of the modern school of analytic novelists. 

 His Correspondence appeared in 1844, his OEuvres 

 Politiques in 1875, his Letters to Madame Recamier 

 in 1881, and his Journal Intime in 1894. 



Constantly a district of Cape Colony, in South 

 Africa, lying on the eastern and north-eastern 

 slopes of Table Mountain range, and distant from 

 Cape Town 7 miles by rail. Constantia consists of 

 only three estates, High, Great, and Little Con- 

 stantia, which have long been famed for the quality 

 of the wines produced upon them. The wines 

 are sweet wines of delicious aroma, both red and 

 white. For wine-growing at the Cape, see CAPE 

 COLONY, Vol. II. p. 734. 



Constantino, a town of Spain, in Andalusia, 

 situated in a mountainous district, 40 miles NNE. 

 of Seville, with silver mines, and a trade in wine 

 and vinegar. Pop. 10,988. 



Constantine, capital of the easternmost pro- 

 vince of Algeria, is very picturesquely situated 

 on a nearly isolated chalk rock with flat summit, 

 three sides of which are washed by a small stream, 

 flowing through a deep and narrow ravine, and the 

 fourth is connected by a narrow ridge with the ad- 

 joining mountains. It is 830 feet above the river, 

 and 2160 feet above the sea ; it is connected by rail 

 with its port Philippeville, 40 miles NE., as also 

 with Algiers and with Tunis. It is surrounded by 

 walls constructed by the Arabs out of Roman sculp- 

 tured stones. There are practically two cities, the 

 French and the Arab, though the running of wide 

 streets through the Arab town has taken away 

 much of its primitive oriental look. Constantino 

 was anciently the capital of Numidia, called Carta 

 by the Carthaginians, Cirta\>y the Romans ; and near 

 it many notable events occurred in the wars with 

 Jugurtha. It was destroyed about 31 1 A. D. , but was 

 soon rebuilt by Constantine the Great, from whom 

 it derives its present name. It held out against 

 the Vandals and other besiegers, but was taken by 

 the Arabs in 710. Subsequently, it shared in 

 general the fortunes of Algeria ( q. v. ). Constantine 

 manufactures woollen cloths, saddlery, leather 

 goods, and carpets ; it is a great trade centre, being 

 the chief grain market of Algeria, and exports ou 

 -and wool. Pop. (1886) 36,536; (1891) 46,581, of 

 whom 12,006 were French and 3321 Jews. 



Constantine I., Roman emperor, 306-337 A. D. 

 FLAVIUS VALERIUS AURELIUS CONSTANTINUS, 

 surnamed ' the Great,' was born in 274, at Naissus, 

 in Upper Mcesia. He was the eldest son of Con- 

 stantms Chlorus and Helena, and first distin- 



fiished himself as a soldier in Diocletian's famous 

 gyptian expedition (296), next under Galerius 

 in the Persian war. In 305, the two emperors, 

 Diocletian and Maximian, abdicated, and were 

 succeeded in the supreme rank of Augustus by 

 the two Coesars, Constantius Chlorus and Gal- 

 erius. Galerius, envious of young Constantino's 



brilliant genius and popularity among the soldiers, 

 took every means of exposing him to danger, 

 and it was now that he acquired that mix- 

 ture of reserve, cunning, and wisdom which was 

 so conspicuous in his conduct in after-years. At 

 last, extorting a reluctant consent from the jealous 

 Galerius, he made his way hastily to his father, 

 who ruled in the West, and joined him at Boulogne 

 just as he was setting out on an expedition against 

 the Picts in North Britain (306). Constantius died 

 at York in the same year, having proclaimed his 

 son Constantine his successor. The latter now 

 wrote a conciliatory letter to Galerius, and requested 

 to be acknowledged as Augustus. Galerius did 

 not dare to quarrel with Constantine, yet he granted 

 him the title of Caesar only. Political complica- 

 tions now increased, until in 308 there were actu- 

 ally no less than six emperors at once Galerius, 

 Licinius, and Maximin in the East ; and Maximian, 

 Maxentius his son, and Constantine in the West. 

 Maxentius having quarrelled with his father, forced 

 him to flee from Rome ; he took refuge with Con- 

 stantine, who had married his daughter Fausta 

 at Aries in 307, but was ungrateful enough to 



Slot the destruction of his benefactor. This being 

 iscovered, he fled to Marseilles, the inhabitants of 

 which were just about to give him up to the con- 

 queror, when he anticipated his fate by suicide 

 (309). Maxentius professed great anger at the 

 death of his father, and assembled a large army, 

 with which he threatened Gaul. Constantine an- 

 ticipated his movements by crossing the Alps by 

 Mont Cenis, and invading Italy. Already twice he 

 had defeated Maxentius, when he finally crushed 

 his power by the great victory of the Milvian 

 Biidge, near Rome, 28th October 312. Maxentius 

 himself was pressed by the thronging crowd of 

 fugitives over the bridge into the river, and 

 drowned. Constantine now entered the capital, 

 disbanded the Praetorian guards, and destroyed 

 their camp. During his short stay in Rome he 

 assumed the title of Pontifex Maximus. It was 

 during his final struggle with Maxentius that the 

 famous incident occurred that is said to have 

 caused Constantine's conrersion, and which Euse- 

 bius gives us an account of from the lips of the 

 emperor himself. At noon there appeared in the 

 sky a flaming cross inscribed 'Ec roirry vino. ( ' By this, 

 conquer ' ). Again, the night before the final battle, 

 a vision appeared to Constantine in his sleep, bid- 

 ding him inscribe the shields of his soldiers with 

 the sacred monogram of the name of Christ. Hence 

 the well-known labarum or standard of the cross, 

 which Constantine, however, did not give his army, 

 according to Gibbon, till 323. Whatever the story 

 of the conversion be worth, one satisfactory con- 

 sequence was the edict of Milan (March 313), 

 issued conjointly with Licinius, and giving civil 

 rights and toleration to Christians throughout the 

 empire. 



Constantine was now sole emperor of the West. 

 Similarly, by the death of Galerius in 311, and of 

 Maximin in 313, Licinius became sole emperor of 

 the East. In 314 a war broke out between the two 

 rulers, in which Licinius had the worst, and was 

 fain to conclude a peace by the cession of Illyricurn, 

 Pannonia, and Greece. Constantine gave Licinius 

 his sister Constantina in marriage, and for the next 

 nine years devoted himself vigorously to the cor- 

 rection of abuses in the administration of the laws, 

 to the strengthening of the frontiers of his empire, 

 and to chastising the barbarians, who learned to 

 fear and respect his power. In 323 he renewed 

 the war with Licinius, whom he defeated, and ulti- 

 mately put to death. Constantine was now at the 

 summit of his ambition, the sole governor of the 

 Roman world. He chose Byzantium for his capital, 

 and in 330 solemnly inaugurated it as the seat of 



