302 



ON THE MIDDLE OR DARK AGES. 



This extraordinary event having preceded his determination to build anew 

 metropolis, he expressly dedicated the city, as I have already observed, v/hen 

 on the point of behig completed, to the service of the relig-ion he had so lately 

 embraced : solemnly consecrating- it, in conformity with the custom of the 

 times, to the Virgin Mary, according to Cedrenus, but according to Eusebius, 

 to the God of Martyrs. 



Upon his death-bed Constantine divided the empire into five parts ; his three 

 sons and two of his nephews being allowed to share the imperial domains 

 between them. The building of Constantinople was a severe blow to the 

 splendour and opulence of Rome ; and this partition of the imperial authority 

 was an equal blow to the extent and integrity of tl>3 empire at large. The 

 tributary nations of every quarter, as soon as they found that the consolidated 

 force of the empire was thus frittered away, were in arms, with a view of re- 

 gaining their liberty or of enlarging their boundaries. The Franks and other 

 German tribes broke into Gaul ; the Sarmatians into Pannonia, or what is now 

 called Hungary ; the Picts, Scots, and Saxons, into Britain ; and the Austrians 

 into Africa. 



To oppose this general ravage, the imperial dominions were once more con- 

 solidated, and not long afterward, in the reign of Valentinian, who admitted 

 his brother Valens to an equal participation in the purple with himself, regu- 

 larly divided into two distinct empires, under the names of the Eastern or 

 Greek, and the Western or Latin empire ; the former comprehending Tllyrium 

 and Pannonia, or Sclavonia and Hungary as they are now denominated, 

 Thrace, Macedon, Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and all the 

 eastern provinces, having Constantinople for its metropolis ; and the latter 

 embracing Gaul, Italy, Africa, Spain, and Britain, its metropolis being ancient 

 Rome. 



The greater degree of energy manifested by the successors to the Eastern 

 empire preserved its boundaries for a considerable period of time free from 

 much mutilation ; but the empire of the West, in which Rome, though once 

 more encouraged by the presence and patronage of a splendid court, was 

 never able to recover from the blow it had received by the building of Con- 

 stantinople, continued to droop from its first establishment. Its successes 

 were few and trivial, and such as rather tended to invite new hordes of bar- 

 barians into the heart of its fairest provinces than to deter from aggression 

 by examples of signal vengeance and severity. 



The tide of incursion, as I have already observed, flowed almost entirely 

 from the north. Beyond the Tanais, and immediately crossing the Imaus or 

 Caf of the Caucasus, extending nearly from the banks of this river to the 

 Sea of Japan, lay scattered, at the commencement of the Christian era, a va- 

 riety of tribes unknown to the conquering sword of the Roman legions, and 

 distinguished by the names of Vandals, Sueves, Alans, Goths, Huns, Turks, 

 and Tartars. Of all these the Huns appear to have given the earliest proofs 

 of restlessness and love of power : they first pressed forward upon the Goths, 



racier. Secondly, Constantine declares that the vision of the cross and of the pillar of ligiit were beheld 

 by the whole army as well as by himself. Thirdly, Eusebius affiniis that he gave an account of the whole 

 to the artists for whom he immediately sent, on the morning after his explanatory dream, to construct a 

 standard ornamented with a copy of the golden cross he had beheld and enriched with jewels, according 

 to the direction he gave them. Fourthly, he tells us that Constantine narrated the same statement to the 

 bishops whom he had assembled to give him spiritual advice on the occasion. And fifthly, that he after- 

 vvaid gave the whole history of it, in like manner, in his own person, to Eusebius himself; and con- 

 firmed the narration with an oath. 



All this may, indeed, be said to be nothing more than the declaration of Eusebius alone ; but when we 

 add to these remarks, sixthly, that Eusebius published his account in the general face of those to whom he 

 asserts that the emperor communicated it at the time, and in the face of hundreds, perhaps of thousands 

 of the army, who he also asserts beheld the glorious vision, the cross and its motto, .as well as the empe- 

 ror ; and that not an individual ventured to step forward and contradict him : and when, lastly, we take 

 into consideration the undisputed fact, that the figure of the cross {lortrayed in the pillar of light was 

 crpied, together with its motto, and placed on every baimer of tiie imperial army from this time forth; 

 and that all tiie branches of the imperial family became converts to Christianity from the same period; 

 — when all these points are taken into consideration, a case is made out, not only that sufficiently vindi- 

 cates the veracity of Eusebius, but that probably demands a more miiticulous power to shut the heart 

 against its admission, than that of the miracle which is its subject-matter. See Euseb. Vit. Const, lib. i 

 cap. xxvii.— xxxi. p. 421—423. 



