encompaffed by a train of indifcreet or perfidious C H A P. The informers, who complied with fo liberal 12 Cod. Theod. 1. ix. tit. iv. Godefroy fufpected the secret motives of this law. Comment. tom. iii. p. 9. 13 Ducange Fam. Byzant. p. 28. lillemont, tom. iv. p. 619. and Difgrace and death of Crifpus. A.D. 326, July. CHA P. and as the people, who were not admitted into the XVIII. fecrets of the palace, still loved his virtues, and refpected his dignity, a poet who folicits his recal from exile, adores with equal devotion the majesty of the father and that of the fon 4. The time was now arrived for celebrating the auguft ceremony of the twentieth year of the reign of Conftantine; and the emperor, for that purpose, removed his court from Nicomedia to Rome, where the moft fplendid preparations had been made for his reception. Every eye, and every tongue, affected to exprefs their fenfe of the general happiness, and the veil of ceremony and diffimulation was drawn for a while over the darkest designs of revenge and murder ". In the midst of the feftival, the unfortunate Crifpus was apprehended by order of the emperor, who laid afide the tenderness of a father, without affuming the equity of a judge. The examination was fhort and private 16; and as it was thought decent to conceal the fate of the young prince from the eyes of the Roman people, he was fent under a 14 His name was Porphyrius Optatianus. The date of his panegyris, written according to the taste of the age in vile acroftics, is fettled by Scaliger ad Eufeb. p. 250. Tillemont, tom. iv. p. 607. and Fabricius Biblioth. Latin, 1. iv. c. I. 15 Zofim. 1. ii. p. 103. Godefroy Chronol. Legum, p. 28. 16 AxpTws, without a trial, is the ftrong, and most probably the juft expreffion of Suidas. The elder Victor, who wrote under the next reign, speaks with becoming caution. "Natû grandior incertum quâ causâ, patris judicio occidiffet." If we confult the fucceeding writers, Eutropius, the younger Victor, Orofius, Jerom, Zofimus, Philoftorgius, aud Gregory of Tours; their knowledge will appear gradually to increase, as their means of information must have diminished, a circumftance which frequently occurs in historical difquifition. ftrong guard to Pola, in Iftria, where, foon after- CHA P. tum. 17 Ammianus (1. xiv. c. 11.) ufes the general expreffion of peremp 18 Sororis filium, commode indolis juvenem. Eutropius, x. 6. 19 See the life of Conftantine, particularly l. ii. c. 19, 20. Two hundred and fifty years afterwards Evagrius (1. iii. c. 41.) deduced from the filence of Eufebius a vain argument againff the reality of the the CHA P. the greatest monarchs of the prefent age. The XVIII. Czar Peter, in the full poffeffion of defpotic The em prefs Faufta. power, fubmitted to the judgment of Ruffia, of Europe, and of pofterity, the reasons which had compelled him to fubfcribe the condemnation of a criminal, or at least of a degenerate, fon 2. The innocence of Crifpus was fo univerfally acknowledged, that the modern Greeks, who adore the memory of their founder, are reduced to palliate the guilt of a parricide, which the common feelings of human nature forbade them to justify. They pretend, that as foon as the afflicted father discovered the falfehood of the accufation by which his credulity had been fo fatally misled, he published to the world his repentance and remorse; that he mourned forty days, during which he abstained from the use of the bath, and all the ordinary comforts of life; and that, for the lafting inftruction of pofterity, he erected a golden ftatue of Crifpus, with this memorable infcription: TO MY SON, WHOM I UNJUSTLY CONDEMNED A tale fo moral and fo interefting would deferve to be fupported by lefs exceptionable authority; but if we confult the more ancient and authentic writers, they will inform us, that the repentance of Conftantine was manifefted only in acts of blood and revenge; and that he atoned for the murder of an innocent fon, by the execution, 20 Hiftoire de Pierre le Grand, par Voltaire, part ii. c. x. 21 21 In order to prove that the ftatue was erected by Conftantine, and afterwards concealed by the malice of the Arians, Codinus very readily creates (p. 34.) two witneffes, Hippolitus, and the younger Herodotus, to whofe imaginary hiftories he appeals with unblufhing confidence. perhaps P perhaps, of a guilty wife. They afcribe the CHA P. 22 Zofimus (1. ii. p. 103.) may be confidered as our original. 23 Philoftorgius, 1. ii. c. 4. Zofimus (l. ii. p. 104. 116.) imputes Ι The |