414 



CONSTANTINE. 



awn mode of thinking, and all the property was re- 

 stored to the Christians, tlmt had been taken from 

 them during the persecutions. They were also made 

 eligible to public offices. This edict marks the pe- 

 riod of the triumph of the cross and the downfall of 

 paganism. 



Constantine liad married his daughter to Licinius ; 

 but the latter, jealous of his fame, conceived a mortal 

 hatred against him, which he displayed by persecut- 

 ing the Christians. Both emperors took up arms, 

 and met in Pannonia, A. D. 314. Constantine, sur- 

 rounded by bishops and priests, besought the assis- 

 tance of the God of the Christians ; while Licinius, 

 calling upon his soothsayers and magicians, relied 

 upon the protection of tlieir gods. Licinius was de- 

 feated, but the conqueror granted him peace. He, 

 however, renewed hostilities, was vanquished again, 

 taken prisoner, and put to death at Constantino's 

 command. Thus the latter became, in 325, the sole 

 head of the Eastern and Western empires. His first 

 and chief cares were the establishment of peace and 

 order, and the propagation of his religion. Many 

 beneficial decrees were proclaimed by him. Among 

 these were those which abolished all the establish- 

 ments of debauchery, ordered the children of the 

 poor to be supported at his expense, gave permission 

 to complain of his officers, and promised that the 

 emperor would not only hear complaints, but com- 

 pensate the complainants for injuries received, when 

 they were proved to exist. He diminished the land- 

 taxes one quarter ; and, to secure a fair distribution 

 of them, he caused a new valuation of estates to be 

 taken. The state treasury had always been enriched 

 by the property of criminals ; but Constantine spared 

 the property of their wives, and ameliorated the con- 

 dition of their children. Death in prison, he said, 

 was a cruel punishment for the innocent, and an in- 

 sufficient penalty for the guilty ; he therefore ordered 

 all trials of prisoners to take place at once. He for- 

 bade the use of unwholesome dungeons and oppres- 

 sive chains. The reason which he assigned was, 

 that it was his duty to secure the person of the ac- 

 cused, but not to injure him. He gave leave to sick 

 persons, widows, and orphans, to appeal from the lo- 

 cal magistrates, and refused this privilege to their 

 adversaries. It had been customary for the heirs of 

 a person deceased to divide his slaves among them ; 

 Constantine forbade the separation, in these cases, of 

 husbands from their wives, and of parents from their 

 children. Divorces had been very common among the 

 Romans, but he made them much more difficult. To 

 the Christians he gave permission, not only to erect 

 churches, but to be remunerated, for the cost of them, 

 from his domains. Amidst all the cares of govern- 

 ment and the occupations of war, he found leisure to 

 assemble the council of Aries, to put an end to the 

 schism of the Donatists. The oecumenical council, 

 held at Nice, in Bithynia (q. v.), A. D. 325, was at- 

 tended by him in person. 



Nov. 26, 329, he laid the foundations of a new 

 capital of the empire, at Byzantium, upon the Bos- 

 phorus, in Thrace. The city of Byzantium had 

 been almost entirely destroyed by Severus ; it was 

 rebuilt by Constantine, enlarged, and adorned with 

 open squares, fountains, a circus, and palaces, and 

 called by his own name. Highly favoured by nature, 

 it soon rivalled Rome herself! All the wealth of the 

 empire was collected in the East ; thither the nations 

 poured their tribute and their trade ; and Rome, the 

 ancient mistress of the world, sunk from her supre- 

 macy. Constantine divided the empire into four 

 parts, which were governed by four pretorian pre- 

 fects. These four parts contained thirteen dioceses, 

 each underthe direction of a vicar, and the dioceses 

 comprised 117 provinces. Constantine contributed 



to bring much evil on the empire by employing mer- 

 cenary troops to guard the frontiers ; and the legions 

 which had occupied the frontiers were dispersed in 

 the provinces. Towards the close of his life, he 

 favoured the Arians, to which he was induced by Eu- 

 sebius of Nicomedia ; and he even banished many 

 Catholic bishops. In the year 337, he fell sick in 

 the neighbourhood of Nicomedia, was baptized, and 

 died after a reign of thirty-one years. 



Constantine committed a great political error in 

 dividing his empire among his three sons, < 'onstan- 

 tine, Constantius, and Constans. The condemnation 

 of his son Crispus, who had been falsely accused by 

 his stepmother of an attempt to seduce her, has al- 

 ways been considered a stain on his memory. His 

 zeal for Christianity appears to have been excited 

 not less by the knowledge, that the religion which 

 was embraced by a majority of the inhabitants of the 

 Roman empire must prevail, and that, of course, the 

 strength of the government must be increased by 

 protecting it, than by a wish to apply its consoling 

 powers to the relief of a heavy conscience. He has 

 been accused of inordinate ambition, excessive liber- 

 ality, and an Oriental fondness for parade. But he 

 was brave at the head of his army, mild and indulgent 

 in his intercourse with his subjects, the favourite of 

 his people, the terror of his foes. In the year 332, 

 he fought successfully against the Goths, who had 

 already experienced his power. His eldest son gained 

 many victories over them, and about 100,000 of the 

 enemy perished by the sword or by hunger. Con- 

 stantine made use of his advantages only to grant 

 them a favourable peace, npon terms equally benefi- 

 cial to himself. He took this opportunity to rid 

 his empire of a disgraceful tribute, which his pre- 

 decessors had paid to these barbarians, and to secure 

 his frontier upon the Danube. The Sarmatians, who 

 had been expelled their country by the slaves whom 

 they had injudiciously armed against the Goths, 

 and who took refuge in his dominions, he provided 

 with lands in Thrace, Lesser Scythia, Macedonia, 

 and in Italy itself. He even resolved, in his fifty- 

 sixth year, and but a short tune before his death, tr> 

 take the field against the Persians. He was fond of 

 the sciences, as well as of arms, and gave them his 

 protection. He read much, and wrote nearly all his 

 own letters. In Eusebius we find many proofs of his 

 theological learning. Some of the martyrologists 

 have counted him among the saints, and fix the 20th 

 of May as his festival. The Greeks and Russians 

 observe it upon the 21st of the same month. Among 

 all the writers who have attempted to describe the 

 character, influence, and policy of Constantine, Gib- 

 bon, from the extent of his researches and the pro- 

 foundness of his views, appears to deserve the first 

 place. 



CONSTANTINE, grand-prince of Russia. Con- 

 stantine Caesarovitch Paulovitch, grand-prince of 

 Russia, and second son of Paul I., was born May 9, 

 1779. The characteristics of this prince were, ac- 

 tivity, energy, a rudeness often merging into bar- 

 barity, and a degree of personal courage approaching 

 to rashness. In 1799, he distinguished himself, 

 under Suwarroff, both as a soldier and a commander. 

 Paul I. bestowed upon him the title of Casarovitch 

 as a reward for his services. At Austerlitz, in 1805, 

 he distinguished himself by his bravery, at the head 

 of the guards, after he had been betrayed, by his 

 courage into a too hasty advance. In 1812, 13 and 

 14, he attended his brother, the emperor Alexander, 

 in all his campaigns. He appeared at the congress 

 of Vienna, and received from the emperor Francis 

 the command of a regiment of cuirassiers. He was 

 afterwards employed in superintending the affairs of 

 the new kingdom of Poland. He was then succes- 



