296 The Empire. ROME. The Empire. 
eleven ; and the surface might be computed as equal to about 
two thousand English acres. 
Some estimate may be formed of the expense bestowed on 
the foundation of Constantinople, by the allowance of about 
two millions five hundred thousand pounds for the con¬ 
struction of the walls, the porticoes, and the aqueducts. 
The divisions of the Christian world seemed to call for 
the interference of the Imperial magistrates, and Constan¬ 
tine in the year 325, resolved to establish Christianity on a 
solid basis. He commanded that in all the provinces of the 
empire the orders of the bishops should be exactly obeyed; 
a privilege of which, in succeeding times, they made but a 
very indifferent use. He assembled also a general council of 
these fathers at Nice, in order to repress the heresies that had 
already crept into the church, particularly that of Arius. 
To this place repaired about three hundred and eighteen 
bishops, besides a multitude of presbyters and deacons, to¬ 
gether with the emperor himself, who all, except about 
seventeen, concurred in condemning the tenets of Arius; 
and this heresiarch, with his associates, was banished into a 
remote part of the empire. 
But though he had thus restored universal tranquillity to 
the empire, he was not able to avoid calamities of a more 
domestic nature. As the prejudiced historians of this period 
are entirely at variance with each other, it is not easy to say 
what were the motives which induced him to put his wife 
Fausta and his son Crispus to death. The most plausible 
account is, that Fausta, the empress, who was a woman of 
great beauty, but of extravagant desires, had long, though 
secretly, indulged a criminal passion for Crispus, Constan¬ 
tine’s son by a former wife. She had tried every art to 
inspire this youth with a mutual flame: and finding her 
more distant efforts ineffectual, had even the confidence to 
make him an open confession of her love. This produced 
an .explanation, which was fatal to both. Crispus received 
her advances with detestation ; and she, to be revenged, ac¬ 
cused him to the emperor. Constantine, fired at once with 
jealousy and rage, ordered him to die without an hearing ; 
nor did his innocence appear till it was too late for redress; 
the only reparation, therefore, that remained, was the 
putting Fausta, the wicked instrument of his former cruelty, 
to death; which was accordingly executed upon her, to¬ 
gether with some others, who had been accomplices in her 
falsehood and treachery. 
Constantine left three sons by the empress Fausta, named 
Constantine, Constantius, and Constans, who had 
been successively invested with the purple, and placed in si¬ 
tuations of great power and trust. He had likewise con¬ 
ferred the title of Caesar on his nephews, Dalmatius and 
Annibalianus, and assigned each his peculiar inheritance. 
Immediately on his death, however, the ministers and 
generals about the court of Constantinople, engaged in 
secret consultations to exclude the nephews of the deceased 
emperor from the succession he had intended for them, and 
procured a declaration from the soldiers, that the sons 
of Constantine alone should participate in the empire. 
Constantius, to whom his father had recommended the 
care of his obsequies, as being on the spot, having taken 
possession of the palace, in order to quiet the apprehen¬ 
sions of Dalmatius and Annibalianus, entered into a so¬ 
lemn contract with them, which immediately after he sought 
a specious pretext for breaking. From the hands of the 
bishop of Nicomedia, he received a fictitious scroll, in 
which the late emperor expressed his suspicions, that he had 
been poisoned by his brothers, and conjured his sons to 
revenge his death. This charge, false as it undoubtedly was, 
■ precluded the hope of defence, and even the forms of legal 
proceeding. The soldiers immediately massacred the two 
uncles of Constantius and seven of his nephews, with 
other more distant connections; and of this numerous fami¬ 
ly, Callus and Julian alone were saved from the hands of 
the assassins. 
A new division of the provinces followed this bloody 
■tragedy. Constantine, the eldest of the Caesars, by way 
of pre-eminence, obtained the possession of the new capital; 
Thrace and the eastern provinces fell to the lot of Constan¬ 
tius ; and Constans was acknowledged sovereign by Italy, 
Africa, and the western Illyricum. These three princes, 
according to their seniority, were twenty-one, twenty, and 
seventeen years of age, when they assumed the reigns of 
government, and were complimented by the senate with the 
title of Augustus. 
At the decease of Constantine the Great, the throne of 
Persia was filled by Sapor, to whom his very enemies as¬ 
cribe the virtues of a statesman, and the courage and con¬ 
duct of a general. He was animated by a desire of aveng¬ 
ing the disgrace of his fathers, and of wresting from he 
hands of the Romans the fine provinces beyond the Tigris. 
Chosroes, the son of Tiridates, king of Armenia, being 
in alliance with the Romans, obtained the sceptre of his 
father, through the influence of that government, after some 
years of civil dissension; but consented to purchase the 
friendship of Sapor, by the cession of a province, and an 
ignominious tribute. 
Sapor, indeed, was a formidable rival, as well a trouble¬ 
some neighbour to Constantius, during his whole reign. 
The armies of Rome and Persia encountered each other in 
nine bloody battles, in which victory generally declared for 
the latter. In the battle of Singara, the Roman legions, by 
an effort of tumultuous valour, forced, and possessed them¬ 
selves of the Persian camp; but while they were engaged 
in plunder, the vigilant Sapor advanced, under cover of the 
night, upon the conquerors; and reversing the fortune of 
the day, compelled his foes to a melancholy retreat. 
At last, while Sapor was besieging Nisibis, for the third 
time, and had almost forced it to surrender, he received in¬ 
telligence that the eastern provinces of Persia were ravaged 
by the Massagetse. In consequence of this, he concluded a 
truce with Constantius, who was likewise called off to 
attend to other affairs; and therefore a pacification being 
equally desirable to both, the terms were easily adjusted. 
Constantine, the eldest son of the late emperor, had early 
complained of being defrauded in his just share of the spoils 
which came by the murder of Dalmatius and Annibalianus. 
From Constans, in particular, he exacted the cession of the 
African provinces, and as this was not readily granted, he 
broke into the dominions of his brother with a tumultuary 
force, and laid waste the country round Aquileia. 
Constans, who then resided in Dacia, being informed of 
these proceedings, detached a select body of Illyrian troops, 
and prepared to follow with the remainder of his forces. 
The contest, however, was soon terminated by the conduct 
of his lieutenants, who, making a feint of flying, drew Con¬ 
stantine into an ambuscade, where he was slain with his at¬ 
tendants. His provinces readily transferred their allegiance 
to the conqueror, who refusing to admit his elder brother, 
Constantius, to a participation, maintained the undisputed 
possession of by far the greater part of the Roman empire. 
Ten years afterwards, Constans was taken off by Magnen¬ 
tius, an ambitious general of barbarian extraction, who had 
been corrupted by the assistance of Marcellinus. At a splen¬ 
did entertainment, given by the latter at Autun, to the nobles 
of Gaul, Magnentius entered the apartment, invested with 
the diadem and purple; and the guests being surprised into 
an instant approbation of his treason, before morning, Mag¬ 
nentius was master of the troops and treasures of the city of 
Autun. Constans, who was then hunting in a neighbour¬ 
ing forest, on hearing this unexpected event, attempted to 
fly into Spain; but being overtaken by a party of light 
horse, was instantly put to death. 
Gaul and Italy immediately submitted to Magnentius ; 
while Illyricum, comprehending the martial countries from 
the Danube to the extremity of Greece, obeyed the govern¬ 
ment of Vetranio, a veteran of experience and reputation. 
This general, listening to the ambitious counsels of Constan- 
tina, the widow of Annibalianus, assumed the diadem also, 
and contracted an alliance with Magnentius. 
On the first news of these revolutionary movements, Con¬ 
stantius turned Iris whole attention to this quarter; and in 
order to divide his enemies, professed his readiness to 
acknowledge 
