PERIOD XIX.

FROM CONSTANTINE II. TO THEODOSIUS II.

A.D.

[CENT. IV.]

REMARKABLE FACTS, EVENTS, AND DISCOVERIES.

308 The tenth persecution under Dioclesian.

305 The two emperors resign and the two Cæsars succeed them.

311 Constantius dies in Britain, and Constantine the Great begins to reign. 313 The tenth persecution ends by an edict of Constantine, who professes and establishes the Christian religion. In his reign cardinals begin.

314 Three bishops sent from Britain to the council of Arles.

323 The first general council at Nice wherein 318 fathers attended against Arius, and composed the famous Nicene Creed.

328 Constantine removes the seat of empire to Constantinople.

330 A dreadful persecution of the Christians in Persia, which lasts 40 years. 331 Constantine orders all the heathen temples to be destroyed.

334 300,000 Samaritans revolted from their masters.

341 The Gospel propagated in Ethiopia by Frumentius.

360 The first monastery founded near Poictiers in France, by Martin. 373 The Bible translated into the Gothic language.

376 The Goths settled in Thrace.

379 The cycle of Theophilus commenced.

DURING this period the Roman empire was divided into the eastern and western; each under the government of different emperors. This division began under Valens and Valentinian, and was finally settled under the two sons of Theodosius, Arcadius, and Honorius, of whom the former reigned in the east, and the latter in the west.

We see that mighty empire, which once occupied nearly the whole world, now weakened by division, and surrounded by enemies. On the east, the Persians; on the north, the Scythians, Sarmatians, Goths, and a multitude of other barbarous nations, watched all occasions to break into it; and miscarried in their attempts, rather through their own barbarity, than the strength of their enemies.

GOVERNMENT.

ROME.

CONSTANTINE II., surnamed the Young, the eldest of the three surviving sons of Constantine the Great, was born in VOL. II.

R

316, and at an early age was created Cæsar, and sent to hold his court in Gaul. At his father's death, in 337, he succeeded to his allotted portion of the empire, Gaul, Spain, and Britain, and also obtained possession of Constantinople, with a certain superiority of rank above the rest. During a reign of three years nothing is heard of him, except that he favoured Athanasius, who had been banished into his dominions, and sent him back to his church. At length, dissatisfied with his proportion of the spoils of his massacred kinsmen, he urged his brother Constans to yield him the provinces of Africa; and finding himself amused by a fruitless negociation, he was led by his impatience to make an irruption into the dominions of Constans, by way of the Julian Alps. He laid waste the country about Aquileia; but being decoyed into an ambuscade with a few attendants, was surrounded and slain, A.D. 340. His body was thrown into the river Ausa; but being afterwards discovered, was sent to Constantinople, and interred there near the tomb of his father. Constantine II. is said to have been a prince of great accomplishments, and he had gained glory during his father's life by his victories over the Goths and Sarmatians; but his aggression of his brother is not to be vindicated, and his fate seems to have been unpitied.

FLAVIUS JULIUS CONSTANTIUS II., second son of the emperor Constantine, by Fausta; was born at Sirmium in 317. He was declared Cæsar in 323, and elected emperor in 337. The soldiers, to secure the throne to the three sons of Constantine, massacred the uncles and cousins of those princes, with the exception of Julian, and his brother Gallus. Asia, Syria, Egypt, and Thrace, were allotted to Constantius as his portion of the empire. Constantius was soon involved in a war with Sapor, king of Persia, who made an incursion into Mesopotamia, and laid siege to Nisibis. Constantius marched to its relief, and in a long war which ensued, many bloody battles were fought, generally to the disadvantage of the Romans. Yet Nisibis defended itself in three different sieges: and at the battle of Singara, in 348, the Romans gained possession of Sapor's camp, but from want of discipline were driven out with great loss. Whilst Constantius was engaged in the Persian war, a civil war broke out between his two brothers; in which Constantine IL lost his life; and ten years afterwards, the survivor, Constans, was put to death in the revolt of Magnentius.

Magnentius enjoyed the fruits of his usurpation in the west. Nepotian, a nephew of Constantine, who had escaped the massacre of his family, attempting to seize upon the city of Rome, had perished together with his mother and his principal partizans. Vetranio, an old experienced general, so illiterate that he could not even read, had been proclaimed Augustus in Pannonia, but wanted the qualifications necessary for maintaining

his high fortune. Constantius at last marched from Asia, at the head of all his forces, in order to deprive Magnentius of his dominions.

General Vetranio had already entered into a league with Magnentius, and marched against the emperor; but instead of coming to an engagement, he entered into a treaty into which he was duped by Constantius, who corrupted his troops, and forced him to abdicate his authority. It is said that he consoled him with an extraordinary piece of morality, conceived in these terms: "You lose only an insignificant name, which has nothing real than the mortifications it brings with it; and you are going to enjoy solid happiness, without a mixture of uneasiness." It is added, that the good old man, charmed with his retirement, sent him a letter, containing the following words: "You are wrong in not taking a share in that felicity which you have the art of procuring for others." Such men had a claim to the title of philosophers. They either affected that character, or the historians have spoken for them. While the unwarlike Constantius was amusing himself with holding a council at Sirmium, Magnentius approached at the head of his army. When ready to pass the Save, he was met by an envoy from the emperor, with proposals of peace, which he rejected, and advanced to Mursa on the Drave, the destined scene of a celebrated action, decisive of the fate of the empire. The battle was fought with great fury; more than fifty thousand of the best troops were cut to pieces; Magnentius's Gauls performed wonders, and were slain almost to a man; but at last the usurper turned his back, after having lost Marcellinus, to whom he was indebted for his promotion.

Constantius did not appear in the field, but with trembling expectation waited the event of the engagement in a neighbouring church, where he was attended by the Arian bishop of Mursa. That crafty impostor had taken precautions to be informed of the success, and all at once proclaimed the victory, pretending that the news had been brought to him by an angel. The emperor giving entire credit to the miracle, honoured him as a saint, and attributed to him all the success of his arms. It is easy to judge what gross errors in conduct must spring from such low superstition; we shall see Constantius striking upon all the shoals of credulity and weakness.

The year following, Magnentius, who for his cruel tyranny was an object of universal detestation at Rome, took refuge in Gaul, was defeated in Dauphine by the emperor's generals, and perceiving that his soldiers were resolved to deliver him up, in a transport of despair murdered his cousins, his friends, and even his mother, after which he stabbed himself with his own sword. His brother Decentius, who had been created Cæsar, soon after strangled himself; and thus Constantius, in 353,

became sole master of the Roman empire. His conduct towards the vanquished is differently represented; but upon the whole it appears, that a very severe inquisition was carried on against all who were involved in the guilt of rebellion, and that there were many victims. As soon as Constantius was delivered from this enemy, he became more despicable and cruel than ever. A continual prey to his suspicions, every thing was to him an object of dread; and his terrors and distrust were increased by the vile eunuchs with whom his palace was filled, for the infamous custom of keeping eunuchs had found its way into the court, with other abuses of oriental despotism. Under pretence of destroying the usurper's party, he exercised the most odious tyranny. The encouragement of informers produced the ordinary effects; for one criminal a thousand innocent persons were put to death. The eunuch Paul, secretary, or rather satellite of the prince, filled every quarter of the empire with marks of his injustice, and raised a general alarm. Great Britain was the principal scene of his barbarous inquisition. Martinus, its governor, sensibly touched with the miseries of the public, and foreseeing that he would one day be involved in them in his turn, formed a design to rid the world of this savage monster, but failed in the attempt, and laid violent hands upon himself. All sentences of death, which, according to custom were presented to the emperor, were confirmed without exception; and the empress Eusebia dared not solicit the pardon even of a single person. The tyrannical orders and caprices of the court struck more terror than the invasion of the Franks, Alemains, and other barbarians. Constantius being now intoxicated with his power, assumed the titles of Master of the World, and Eternal. This ridiculous pride was accompanied with all the refinements of tyranny. Never had informers so fair a field for displaying their villainy. Dreams were made capital crimes. The persons who where imprudent enough to disclose them, ran the hazard of their lives, if what they had dreamed could possibly be susceptible of a similar interpretation. An informer, the worthy minister of the infamous Paul, was ludicrously styled the Count of Dreams, because he employed himself with a good deal of success in that branch.

In 357, Constantius paid a visit to Rome, which he had never before seen. He entered it with a most splendid train, and was received with the highest honours. He displayed his regard for the ancient capital by adding to its ornaments an obelisk of granite in a single piece, brought from Egypt, and set up in the Circus Maximus. A negociation with Sapor, in 358, failed of producing peace between the two empires, and the Persian king again invaded Mesopotamia. He took Amida after a vigorous resistance, and utterly destroyed it, and after

wards reduced Singara and Berzabde. Constantius himself then marched into Mesopotamia, but the campaign closed with nothing further memorable on either side.

The rising reputation of Julian now began to excite the fears and jealousy of Constantius; and with a view either of weakening him, or strengthening his own army, he sent an order in 360 for a large body of Julian's troops to march into the East. This step excited discontents among the soldiers, which terminated in their elevation of the prince to the rank of Augustus, which after a decent resistance he accepted, as through compulsion. The embassy he sent to give information of this event was extremely ill received, and the emperor indignantly refused to acknowledge him as a partner. Constantius marched again into Mesopotamia; and on his return married a second wife, by name, Maxima Faustina. The dangers from Sapor induced him the next year also to march to the Persian frontier, while in the mean time he was making hostile preparations against Julian. But that active prince anticipated him, and was already master of Illyricum, when Constantius first heard of his advance. The retreat of Sapor left him at liberty to oppose his rival; and despatching a strong detachment to secure the passes into Thrace, he himself followed with the rest of the army. On his arrival in Tarsus in Cilicia, he was seized with a feverish indisposition, which, however, did not prevent his advance; but it increased so rapidly, that be sunk under it at the town of Mopsucrene, twelve miles further on the road, and thus delivered the empire from the calamities of a new civil war. He died in November, 361, in the forty-fifth year of his age, and twenty-fourth of his reign.

With regard to religion, Constantius was a very zealous Christian, and by many edicts hastened the overthrow of Paganism, the public rites of which he greatly discouraged, though he did not absolutely abolish them. He built many churches, testified the greatest veneration for the clergy, and interested himself in all the niceties of theological controversy. But it is lamented by the orthodox, that through the influence of eunuchs and women he was strongly prejudiced in favour of Arianism, which he promoted by vigorous persecutions of the opposite party, and the decrees of packed and overawed councils. Though he began his reign by recalling the banished Athanasius, he afterwards caused him to be deposed, and never ceased to persecute him. Hence the ecclesiastical writers have treated his memory with great severity; and, indeed, the union of pride and weakness, superstition and cruelty, in his character, seems to justify the sentence," that he inherited the defects, without the abilities of his father."

FLAVIUS JULIUS CONSTANS I., third son of the emperor Constantine the Great by Fausta, was born about