II M A N E M P I II K. 



Hi) 



Vision of 

 (.'on stan - 

 tine. 



Jloman self to death. Intent upon revenue-, G.-derius marched 

 .injure. j nt( , 1^1^, .,,,,; ; ,|)| )() intf(l I. 'i-iiiiu-^ in tin- room < 



huthe WM 8(ii>n M-i/ed with an extraordinary 

 disease, \\lnYh cut him off lifter suffering greftl agonies, 

 and \vliii-h the Christians ascribed tu the cruelties 

 which he had exncised against them. 



Ilu- empire was now in the possession of four 

 claimants, of Maxentius, who commanded in Home, 

 (it l.ii-inius, who governed in the East, of Maximus, 

 who had been declared Cjrsar along with Severus, and 

 who also ruled some of the eastern provinces, and of 



: inline, who succeeded to his father. 

 \Vlu-ii Con-tantine was conducting his army to 

 Komi-, to oppose the tyranny ot .Maxentius, he saw the 

 celebrated vision of the cross which converted him to 

 Christianity, and of which we have given an account 

 in our life of CONSTANTINE, vol. VJ. p. 17<). After 

 defeating and killing Maxentius, Maximus, and Li- 

 cinus, ( oiM.mtine restored tranquillity to the empire, 

 A. I>. 30G. established Christianity as the national religion, and 

 transferred the seat of government from Rome to Con- 

 ^t mtinople. * . 



After the death of Constantine, the Roman empire 

 was divided, at his desire, among his three sons, Con- 

 fhviiion of stantine, Constans, and Constantius. To the eldest, 

 the empire Constantine, he gave Gaul, Spain, and Britain ; to the 

 among the second, Constantius:, Asia, Syria, and Egypt; and to 

 three sons of tne youngest, Constans, Illyricum, Italy, and Africa. 

 To his nephew, Dalmatius, Constantine had bequeathed 

 A. 1). 337. 1 nrace > M*cedoo, and Achaia ; and to his other ne- 

 phew, king Annibalianus, Armenia Minor, Pontus, 

 Cappadocia, and the city of Csesarea. The senate and 

 army, however, proclaimed the three sons of Constan- 



Itine emperors, without paying any attention to his two 

 nephews, who, along with Julius Constantius, Con- 

 stantine's brother, and all their friends and adherents, 

 were soon after murdered. Callus and Julian, two of 

 the sons of Julius Constantius, were alone saved; the 

 former from his being afflicted with a severe malady, 

 and the other on account of his infancy. 

 Not contented with his own dominions, Constantine 

 invaded the dominions of Constans, and made himself 

 A. D. 340. master of several towns in Italy. Constans marched 

 his army into the field, and Constantine, having fallen 

 into an ambuscade near Aquileia, was cut off with his 

 whole army. His body was thrown into the river 

 Ansa, but was afterwards interred near his father's 

 grave in Constantinople. 



For a period of ten years Constans retained the un- 

 disturbed possession of the western empire ; but his 

 indolence having brought him into contempt with his 

 A. D. 360. army, Magnentius, a German, revolted against him, 

 and having seized upon the imperial palace at Actium, 

 he acquired some temporary popularity by distributing 

 among the populace the plunder of the palace. Con- 

 stans fled into Spain, but being pursued by Gaiso with 

 a body of troops, he was slain near Helena, a small 

 village at the foot of the Pyrenees. 



Having subdued the Persians, Constantius now 

 turned his arms against the usurpers of his power ; 

 among whom were Veteranio, a general of infantry in 

 Romania, and Nepotianus the son of Eutropia, the, 

 sister of Constantine the Great. Nepotianus made 

 himself master of Rome, and committed great slaughter 

 among the inhabitants; but Marcellinus, the prime 

 minister of Magnentius, marched against him, and after 

 a bloody battle, defeated and slew Nepotianus. Mar- 

 cellinus and Magnentius committed great cruelties on 



C-onstans 

 murdered 



the inhabitants; and by means of the heavy exa||fp9 



which they made upon the rich, they were er 

 assemble a powerful army, compo-ed of the 

 nations that were subjugated by Home. Beta 

 ever, trying the chances of war, Magnentii 

 with the other usurper \ eteranio, proposed 

 peace to the emperor. Cuntantius was induced to 

 make a separate treaty with Veteranio, and to agume 

 him as a partner in the empire ; but when Veteranio 

 ascended the tribunal along with Constant! u, the x>l- 

 diers pulled him down, and refused tp acknowledge, 

 any other emperor than Constantius. 



After raising his cousin Gallus to the rank of Ca-iar, 

 Constantius excited the Franks to invade Gaul ; but 

 Magnentius marched into Pannonia to meet him, and 

 having challenged him to fight on the plains of Sciscia, 

 upon the Save, Constantius's army fell into an ambus- 

 cade, and were routed with great slaughter. Elated 

 with this success, Magnentius haughtily rejected offer* 

 of peace made to him by Constantius, and a general 

 engagement having been brought on at Mursa, Mag- 

 nentius was defeated with the loss of 24-.000 men. 



After various other successes, in which Constantius 

 took Aquileia, Africa, Italy, and Spain declared for A. D. 33*. 

 Constantius ; and Magnentius, perceiving the desperate 

 condition of his affairs, dispatched an assassin to mur- 

 der Gallus Caesar, in the hopes of compelling the em- 

 peror to withdraw his forces from Gaul. The assassin, 

 however, was seized and executed, and Magnentius, 

 having experienced a severe reverse in Gaul, took re- 

 fuge in Lyons, where he slew himself and all his rela- 

 tions who accompanied him. from the dread of being Magoentiu* 

 delivered up by his soldiers to the emperor. His bro- 1 " u * bio> - 

 ther, Decentius, whom he had made his partner in V^'TJ oo 

 power, also strangled himself, and Constantius remain, 

 ed the sole possessor of the empire. 



The general tranquillity, liowever, was soon dis- 

 turbed by the irruptions of the barbarians into many of 

 the provinces ; but especially by the tyrannical con- 

 duct and cruelties of Gallus, who, at the instigation of 

 his wife Constantine, filled the provinces with blood. 

 As soon as Constantius heard of his exactions and his 

 cruelties, he sent for him to Italy ; but having made a 

 fruitless attempt to revolt, he confessed his crime, and (^j,,, ut 

 was put to death by the order of the emperor. , to death. 



After quelling an insurrection in Germany, and put- A. D. 354* 

 ting to death Sylvanus, a leader of the Franks who 

 had revolted, Constantius was called upon to defend 

 Gaul against the inroads of the barbarians. Deeming, 

 it imprudent to leave Italy, he raised his cousin Julian 

 to the dignity of Caesar; and though this young man. 

 had devoted himself principally to literature, he yet 

 exhibited the greatest bravery and skill in the field. 

 Constantius appointed him governor of Gaul, and gave, 

 him his sister Helena in marriage. He therefore set 

 out for Gaul, and having come up with the barbarians 

 in the thick woods between Auxerre and Troyes, he 

 defeated them with great slaughter. Having next de- 

 feated the Germans, he advanced to Cologne, and after 

 repairing its fortifications, he took up his w inter quar- 

 ters at Sens. Here he was besieged by the barbarians 

 for nearly a month, and having at last forced them to A. D. 3.5". 

 retire, he was appointed by Constantius commander in 

 chief of all the forces in Gaul. After defeating the 

 Leti with great slaughter, and forcing the barbarians 

 to quit the islands of the Rhine, he came up with their 

 main army, commanded by Chnodomarius and six 

 other kings, who had encamped in the neighbourhood , 



* See COXSTAXTINE, Vol. VI. p. 179, for a full account of his reign. 



