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CHAP. XVIII.

Character of Conftantine. -Gothic War.- Death of Conftantine. Divifion of the Empire among his three Sons. Perfian War. - Tragic Deaths of Conftantine the Younger and Conftans. — Ufurpation of Magnentius.- Civil War. - Victory of Conftan

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TH HE character of the prince who removed CH a p. the feat of empire, and introduced fuch XVIII. important changes into the civil and religious Character conftitution of his country, has fixed the atten- of Contion, and divided the opinions, of mankind. By the grateful zeal of the Chriftians, the deliverer of the church has been decorated with every attribute of a hero, and even of a faint; while the discontent of the vanquished party has compared Conftantine to the most abhorred of thofe tyrants, who, by their vice and weakness, dishonoured the Imperial purple. The fame paffions have in fome degree been perpetuated to fucceeding generations, and the character of Conftantine is confidered, even in the prefent age, as an object either of fatire or of panegyric. By the impartial union of those defects which are confeffed by his warmest admirers, and of those virtues which are acknowledged by his moft implacable enemies, we might hope to delineate a just portrait of that extraordinary man, which the truth and candour of history should adopt without

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But it would foon appear, that the vain atXVIII. tempt to blend fuch discordant colours, and to reconcile fuch inconfiftent qualities, must produce a figure monftrous rather than human, unless it is viewed in its proper and diftinct lights, by a careful feparation of the different periods of the reign of Conftantine.

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tues.

The perfon, as well as the mind, of Conftantine had been enriched by nature with her choicest endowments. His ftature was lofty, his countenance majestic, his deportment graceful; his ftrength and activity were displayed in every manly exercife, and from his earliest youth, to a very advanced season of life, he preferved the vigour of his conftitution by a strict adherence to the domeftic virtues of chastity and temperance. He delighted in the focial intercourfe of familiar converfation; and though he might fometimes indulge his disposition to raillery with less reserve than was required by the fevere dignity of his station, the courtesy and liberality of his manners gained the hearts of all who approached him. The fincerity of his friendfhip has been fufpected; yet he fhewed, on fome occafions, that he was not incapable of a warm and lafting attachment. The disadvantage of an illiterate education had not prevented him from forming a juft eftimate

1 On ne fe trompera point fur Constantin, en croyant tout le mal qu'en dit Eufebe, et tout le bien qu'en dit Zofime. Fleury Hift. Ecclefiaftique, tom. iii. p. 233. Eufebius and Zofimus form indeed the two extremes of flattery and invective. The intermediate fhades are expressed by thofe writers, whofe character or fituation variouly tempered the influence of their religious zeal.

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of the value of learning; and the arts and sciences CHA P. derived fome encouragement from the munificent XVIII. protection of Conftantine. In the dispatch of business, his diligence was indefatigable; and the active powers of his mind were almost continually exercised in reading, writing, or meditating, in giving audience to ambaffadors, and in examining the complaints of his fubjects. Even those who cenfured the propriety of his measures were compelled to acknowledge, that he poffeffed magnanimity to conceive, and patience to execute, the most arduous defigns, without being checked either by the prejudices of education, or by the clamours of the multitude. In the field, he infufed his own intrepid fpirit into the troops, whom he conducted with the talents of a confummate general; and to his abilities, rather than to his fortune, we may afcribe the fignal victories which he obtained over the foreign and domeftic foes of the republic. He loved glory, as the reward, perhaps as the motive, of his labours, The boundless ambition, which, from the moment of his accepting the purple at York, appears as the ruling paffion of his foul, may be justified by the dangers of his own fituation, by the character of his rivals, by the consciousness of fuperior merit, and by the profpect that his fuccefs would enable him to restore peace and order to the distracted empire. In his civil wars against Maxentius and Licinius, he had engaged on his fide the inclinations of the people, who compared the undiffembled vices of those tyrants, with the spirit of wisdom and justice which seemed

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CHAP. to direct the general tenor of the administration of XVIII. Conftantine 2.

His vices.

A.D. 323337.

Had Conftantine fallen on the banks of the Tyber, or even in the plains of Hadrianople, fuch is the character which, with a few exceptions, he might have tranfmitted to pofterity. But the conclufion of his reign (according to the moderate and indeed tender fentence of a writer of the fame age) degraded him from the rank which he had acquired among the most deferving of the Roman princes 3. In the life of Auguftus, we behold the tyrant of the republic, converted, almoft by imperceptible degrees, into the father of his country and of human kind. In that of Conftantine, we may contemplate a hero, who had fo long inspired his fubjects with love, and his enemies with terror, degenerating into a cruel and diffolute monarch, corrupted by his fortune, or raised by conqueft above the neceffity of diffimulation. The general peace which he maintained during the last fourteen years of his reign,

The virtues of Constantine are collected for the most part from Eutropius, and the younger Victor, two fincere pagans, who wrote after the extinction of his family. Even Zofimus, and the Emperor Julian, acknowledge his perfonal courage and military atchievements.

3 See Eutropius, x. 6. In primo Imperii tempore optimis principibus, ultimo mediis comparandus. From the ancient Greek verfion of Panius (edit. Havercamp. p. 697.), I am inclined to fufpect that Eutropius had originally written vix mediis; and that the offenfive monofyllable was dropped by the wilful inadvertency of transcribers. Aurelius Victor expreffes the general opinion by ą vulgar and indeed obfcure proverb. Trachala decem annis præ. ftantiffimus, duodecim fequentibus latre; decem noviffimis pupillus eb immodicas profufiones.

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was a period of apparent fplendor rather than of CHA P. real profperity; and the old age of Conftantine XVIII. was difgraced by the oppofite yet reconcileable vices of rapaciousness and prodigality. The accumulated treasures found in the palaces of Maxentius and Licinius, were lavishly consumed; the various innovations introduced by the conqueror were attended with an encreafing expence; the coft of his buildings, his court, and his feftivals, required an immediate and plentiful fupply; and the oppreffion of the people was the only fund which could fupport the magnificence of the fovereign. His unworthy favourites, enriched by the boundless liberality of their mafter, ufurped with impunity the privilege of rapine and corruptions. A fecret but univerfal decay was felt in every part of the public administration, and the emperor himself, though he ftill retained the obedience, gradually loft the esteem, of his fub. jects. The drefs and manners, which, towards the decline of life, he chofe to affect, ferved only to degrade him in the eyes of mankind. The Afiatic pomp, which had been adopted by the pride of Diocletian, affumed an air of foftness and effeminacy in the perfon of Conftantine. He

4 Julian. Orat. i. p. 8. in a flattering difcourfe pronounced be. fore the fon of Conftantine; and Cæfares, p. 335. Zofimus, p. 114, 115. The stately buildings of Conftantinople, &c. may be quoted as a lafting and unexceptionable proof of the profufeness of their founder.

5 The impartial Ammianus deferves all our confidence. Proximorum fauces aperuit primus omnium Conftantinus. L. xvi. c. 8. Eufebius himself confeffes the abuse (Vit. Conftantin. 1. iv. c. 29. 54); and fome of the Imperial laws feebly point out the remedy. See above, p. 53. of this volume.

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