The Empire. 
ROME. 
295 
the state. The important question was agitated in their pre¬ 
sence, and those ambitious courtiers easily discerned, that it 
was incumbent on them to second by their eloquence, the 
importunate violence of the Caesar; and their arguments 
determined the reluctant mind of Dioclesian to embrace a new 
system of persecution. 
The twenty-third of February, which coincided .with the 
Roman festival of the Terminaiia, was appointed (whether 
from accident or design) to set bounds to the progress, of 
Christianity. It was enacted, that their churches, in all the 
provinces of the empire, should be demolished to their 
foundations; and the punishment of death was denounced 
against all who should presume to hold any secret assemblies 
for the purpose of religious worship ; that the bishops and 
presbyters should deliver all their sacred books into the hands 
of the magistrates, who were commanded, under the severest 
penalties, to bum them in a public and solemn manner. By 
the same edict, the property of the church was confiscated ; 
and the several parts of which it might consist, were either 
sold to the highest bidder, united to the imperial domain, 
bestowed on the cities and corporations, or granted to the 
solicitations of rapacious courtiers. After taking such effec¬ 
tual measures to abolish the worship, and to dissolve the 
government, of the Christians, it was thought necessary to 
subject to the most intolerable hardships the condition of 
those perverse individuals who should still reject the religion 
of nature, of Rome, and of their ancestors. 
This edict was scarcely exhibited to the public view, in 
the most conspicuous place of Nicomedia, before it was torn 
down by the hands of a Christian, who expressed, at the 
same time, by the bitterest invectives, his contempt as well 
as abhorrence for such impious and tyrannical governors. 
He was burnt, or rather roasted, by a slow fire; and his ex¬ 
ecutioners, zealous to revenge the personal insult which had 
been offered to the emperors, exhausted every refinement of 
cruelty, without being able to subdue the patience, or to 
alter the steady and insulting smile which in his dying ago¬ 
nies he still preserved in his countenance. The Christians, 
though they confessed that his conduct had not been strictly 
conformable to the laws of prudence, admired the divine 
fervour of his zeal; and the excessive commendations which 
they lavished on the memory of their hero and mar¬ 
tyr, contributed to fix a deep impression of terror and hatred 
in the mind of Dioclesian. 
His fears were soon alarmed by the view of a danger from 
which he very narrowly escaped. Within fifteen days the 
palace.of Nicomedia, and even the bed-chamber of Diocle¬ 
sian, were twice in flames ; and though both times they were 
extinguished without any material damage, the singular 
repetition of the fire was justly considered as an evident 
proof that it had not been the effect of chance or negligence. 
The suspicion naturally fell on the Christians; and it was 
suggested, with some degree of probability, that those despe¬ 
rate fanatics, provoked by their present sufferings, and ap¬ 
prehensive of impending calamities, had entered into a con¬ 
spiracy with their faithful brethren, the eunuchs of the palace, 
against the lives of two emperors, whom they detested as the 
irreconcilable enemies of the church of God. A great num¬ 
ber of persons were now thrown into prison. Every mode 
of torture was put in practice, and the court, as well as city, 
was polluted with many bloody executions. But as it was 
found impossible to extort any discovery of this mysterious 
transaction, it seems incumbent on us either to presume the 
innocence, or to admire the resolution of the sufferers. 
The mild and humane temper of Constantius was averse 
to the oppression of any part of his subjects; and the prin¬ 
cipal offices of his palace were exercised by Christians. But 
as long as he remained in the subordinate station of Caesar, 
it. was not in his power openly to reject the edicts of the 
emperor. His authority contributed, however, to alle¬ 
viate the sufferings which he pitied. He consented, with 
reluctance, to the rain of the churches; but he ventured to 
protect the Christians themselves from the fury of the popu¬ 
lace, and from the rigour of the laws. The elevation of 
Constantius to the supreme and independent dignity of 
The Empire. 
Augustus, gave a free scope to the exercise of his virtues, 
and the shortness of his reign did not prevent him from 
establishing a system of toleration, of which he left the pre¬ 
cept and the example to his son Constantine. His fortunate 
son, from the first moment of his accession, declaring him¬ 
self the protector of the church, at length deserved the 
appellation of the first emperor who publicly professed and 
established the Christian religion. The motives of his 
conversion, may variously be deduced from benevo¬ 
lence, from policy, from conviction, or from remorse ; but 
every yictory of Constantine’s was productive of some relief 
or benefit to the church. 
The fable of Constantine’s conversion is well known. 
One evening, during his war with Maxentius, as we are told 
by Eusebius, the army being upon its march towards 
Rome, Constantine was taken up with various considerations 
upon the dangers of his approaching expedition ; and sen¬ 
sible of his own incapacity to succeed without divine 
• assistance, he employed his meditations upon the opinions 
that were then chiefly agitated among mankind, and sent 
up his ejaculations to Heaven to inspire him with wisdom to 
choose the path to pursue. It was then, as the sun was de¬ 
clining, that there suddenly appeared a pillar of light in 
the heavens, in the figure of a cross, with this inscription, 
TOTTO NIKA, “ In this overcome.” This extraordinary ap¬ 
pearance created so much astonishment, that he, on the fol¬ 
lowing day, caused a royal standard to be made, resembling 
that which he had seen in the heavens, and commanded it to be 
carried before him in the wars, as an ensign of victory and 
celestial protection. After this he consulted with several of 
the principal teachers of Christianity, and made a public 
avowal of that religion. 
The siege of Byzantium had introduced that beautiful city 
to the notice of Constantine, and when pagan Rome became 
disgusting in his eyes, and he had resolved to build a new 
imperial city, this was remembered. Of the fitness of By¬ 
zantium for this honour. Gibbon gives the following splendid 
account. 
“ Situated in the forty-first degree of latitude, the Imperial 
city commanded, from her seven hills, the opposite shores of 
Europe and Asia ; the climate was healthy and temperate, 
the soil fertile, the harbour secure and capacious; and the 
approach on the side of the continent was of small extent and 
easy defence. The Bosphorus and the Hellespont may be 
considered as the two gates of Constantinople; and the prince 
who possessed those important passages could always shut 
them against a naval enemy, and open them to the fleets of 
commerce. The preservation of the eastern provinces may, 
in some degree, be ascribed to the policy of Constantine, as 
the barbarians of the Euxine, who in the preceding age had 
poured their armaments into the heart of the Mediterranean, 
soon desisted from the exercise of piracy, and despaired of 
forcing this insurmountable barrier. When the gates of the 
Hellespont and Bosphorus were shut, the capital still enjoyed, 
within their spacious enclosure, every production which could 
supply the wants, or gratify the luxury, of its numerous 
inhabitants. The sea coasts of Thrace and Bithynia, which 
languish under the weight of Turkish oppression, still exhibit 
a rich prospect of vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful har¬ 
vests ; and the Propontis has ever been renowned for an inex¬ 
haustible store of the most exquisite fish, that are taken in 
their stated seasons, without skill and almost without labour. 
But when the passages of the Streights were thrown open for 
trade, they alternately admitted the natural and artificial 
riches of the north and south, of the Euxine, and of the Medi¬ 
terranean. Whatever rude commodities were collected in the 
forests of Germany and Scythia, as far as the sources of the 
Tanais and the Borysthenes; whatsoever was manufactured 
by the skill of Europe or Asia; the corn of Egypt, and 
the gems and spices of the farthest India, were brought 
by the varying winds into the port of Constantinople, which, 
for many ages, attracted the commerce of the ancient 
world." 
The extreme length of Constantinople was about three 
Roman miles; the circumference measured between ten and 
eleven ; 
