inces beyond the Ægean sea; Thrace and Illyricum were assigned to Galérius; Maximian received Italy and Africa; Gaul, Spain, and Britain, were intrusted to Constan'tius.

Although this arrangement appears to have been rendered necessary by the circumstances of the empire, it undoubtedly hastened its decline: four courts, with all their expensive adjuncts, were now to be maintained, instead of one: taxes were multiplied; the inhabitants of several provinces reduced to beggary, and agriculturists, unable to meet the imposts levied on land and produce, left the fields in many districts uncultivated. Italy, which had hitherto borne a very light share of the public burdens, was no longer permitted to claim exemption as the seat of domestic empire, and was soon reduced to a deplorable condition.

Britain, which had been usurped by Caraúsius, early claimed the attention of Constan'tius: it was, however, necessary to prepare a fleet for the invasion, as the usurper was powerful by sea; and while the naval armament was preparing, Constan ́tius gained several victories over the German hordes. Just as he was about to set sail, he learned that Carúsius had been deposed and murdered by a new usurper, named Allec'tus, far inferior to his victim in talent and popularity. The Cæsar instantly hastened to cross the channel; Allec'tus was defeated and slain in Kent, the remainder of the province quickly reduced to obedience, and the ravages of the barbarians on the northern frontiers prevented. Galérius was as successful on the Danube as Constan'tius in Britain and on the Rhine; Maximian reduced the barbarous tribes that had invaded Africa, while Dioclésian quelled a dangerous revolt in Egypt. He was soon summoned to protect the empire from a dangerous invasion of the Persians; Galérius had been sent from the Danube to the Euphrates to check their progress, but he was defeated by the Sassanid monarch Narsí, on the very field which had been so fatal to Cras'sus and his legions. Dioclésian showed great indignation at the misconduct of Galérius, to which he attributed the recent calamity; but at length he permitted himself to be mollified, and intrusted the Cæsar with a new army for a second campaign.

In the following year the Romans again invaded Persia; but, profiting by recent and bitter experience, the leader left the plains of Mesopotámia on the right, and led his forces through the Armenian mountains, which were more favorable for the operations of his infantry, in which the principal strength of his army consisted. Masking his course from the enemy, Galérius unexpectedly rushed down from the the hills on the Persian lines: the surprise, the impetuosity of the attack, and the desire for revenge which animated the Romans, rendered their onset irresistible. Narsí was severely wounded, but escaped by the swiftness of his horse, leaving his entire family, his magnificent tents, and his sumptuous camp-equipage, as a prize to the conquerors. A bag of embossed leather filled with pearls, fell into the hands of a private soldier: unacquainted with the value of his prize, he flung the pearls away, keeping the bag as something that might be useful. Galérius treated his royal captives with the greatest kindness and generosity; his conduct produced such an effect on Narsí's heart, that he solicited peace. The great province of Mesopotámia ((Juzírah) was yielded to the Romans, together with five districts beyond the Tigris,

including the greater part of Cardúchia (Kurdistán), a country more fruitful in soldiers than grain, but which, from its strength and position, commands the greater part of western Asia. These districts were taken from Tiridátes, king of Armenia, the ally of the Romans; but he was indemnified, at the expense of Persia, by the fine province of Atropatené (Azerbiján). When the Armenian took possession of this country, he made its chief city, Taúris (Tabriz), the metropolis of his kingdom, and greatly improved that ancient capital.

But these triumphs were sullied by a general persecution of the Christians (the tenth and last), which Dioclésian is said to have commenced at the instigation of Galérius (A. D. 303). It lasted ten entire years, and exceeded all the preceding in its indiscriminate massacres and severities. Such multitudes of Christians suffered death, in all the provinces of the empire, that the emperors believed that they had accomplished their purpose, and completely extirpated Christianity. They told the world in a pompous inscription, that they had extinguished the Christian name and superstition, and everywhere restored the worship of the gods to its former purity and lustre. But the church triumphed over all their artifices and power; and, in spite of the utmost efforts of tyranny, many years had not elapsed after the publication of this boast, when it reigned triumphant in the very metropolis of idolatry and superstition.

Dioclésian prepared to return to Rome, but was delayed for some time by a strange revolt in Syria. Eugénius, an officer of little or no reputation, had been intrusted with the command of five hundred men in Seleúcia, who, being employed all day in cleansing the harbor, and compelled to work all night baking their own bread, resolved to deliver themselves from such insupportable drudgery; and forthwith proclaimed their governor emperor. Eugénius at first refused the dignity; but being threatened with instant death, he allowed himself to be invested with the purple, and by a rapid march, got possession of Antioch. When the citizens, however, recovered from their surprise, they fell upon the insurgents, and cut them to pieces. Dioclésian, instead of rewarding the people of Antioch for their fidelity, ordered their chief magistrates to be put to death without inquiry or trial; a crime which rendered him so odious to the Syrians, that for more than ninety years they could not hear his name pronounced without a shudder.

Rome, on the return of the two emperors, witnessed for the last time, the splendid ceremonial of a triumph; it was less costly than those of Aurélian and Próbus, but it commemorated greater and more useful victories. In his triumph, and in the spectacles that followed it, however, Dioclésian having displayed more parsimony than was pleasing to the people, he was assailed by jests and lampoons, which annoyed him so much, that he quitted the city for Raven'na. On his journey a severe storm arose, and the cold which he caught produced a long and lingering disease that affected his reason. After he had begun to recover, he was induced, or perhaps compelled, to resign the empire, by Galérius (A. D. 305). He persuaded Maximian to abdicate also. The two Cæsars became emperors, and chose two other nobles to fill the station they had occupied.

Dioclésian survived his abdication nearly nine years; he resided

during this time at his country-seat near Salóna (Spalatro), where the ruins of his palace may still be seen. He never regretted the power he had resigned; and when Maximian and others wrote, inviting him to make a struggle for empire, he replied: "I wish you would come to Salóna, and see the cabbages I have planted: after having once visited my gården, you would never again mention to me the name of empire." The close of his life was embittered by domestic misfortune, by the ingratitude of Constantine and Licin'ius, and by the calamities which he foresaw that the dissensions of these rivals would bring upon the empire. There are various accounts given of the manner of his death, and it is impossible to discover whether he fell by his own hand or by natural disease.

SECTION VIII.-From the Abdication of Dioclésian to the Death of Constantine the Great.

FROM A. D. 303 тo A. D. 337.

THE Cæsars, Sevérus and Max'imin, owed their elevation to Galérius; but they were not quite so subservient to his wishes as he expected, both showing themselves favorable to the toleration of the Christians. Arrangements were made for the division of the empire; Constan'tius and Sevérus received the western provinces; Galérius and Max'imin ruled all the territories east of the Adriatic. Constantine, the celebrated son of Constan'tius, was sick in the provinces assigned to Galérius when the empire was thus divided; some efforts were made to assassinate a prince whose talents and popularity had already rendered him formidable. He escaped the danger by a rapid flight, and came to his father, who was just about to embark at Gessoríacum (Boulogne) for Britain. The presence of Constantine was required in that island by a formidable invasion of the Picts, a nation now for the first time mentioned in history; but while on his march against these barbarians, he was seized with a mortal disease, and died at Ebor'acum (York), where his body was honorably interred by his son Constantine (A. D. 306).

Constantine was instantly proclaimed Augustus by the soldiers; but Galérius would only give him the title of Cæsar, declaring that Sevérus was his partner in the empire. Maxen'tius, the son of Maximian, indignant at his exclusion from power, caused himself to be proclaimed emperor by the dissatisfied soldiery, and induced his father to abandon his solitude, and remount the throne. Sevérus led an army against them; but he was abandoned by the greater part of his troops, taken prisoner, and put to death (A. D. 307). Maximian, knowing that Galérius would revenge the murder of Sevérus, strengthened himself by entering into close alliance with Constantine, to whom he gave his daughter Fausta in marriage. Nor did he dread Galérius without a cause that emperor hastened from the east with a large army, and attempted to besiege Rome; but failing in this enterprise, he permitted his soldiers to devastate Italy. Maximian had gone to Gaul, hoping to receive aid from Constantine; but finding that prudent prince by no means disposed to encounter the hazards of a dangerous war, and hearing that Galérius had retreated precipitately, he returned to Rome,

where he reigned conjointly with his son. In the meantime, Galérius conferred the title of emperor on his friend Licínius; and thus the empire was shared between six sovereigns.*

Maximian having quarrelled with his son, returned to Gaul, where he began to plot against the life of Constantine; but his treachery was discovered, and he was deservedly executed (A. D. 310). In the following year a loathsome disease, produced by debauchery, removed Galérius from the stage; his dominions were divided between Maximin and Licínius. It was scarcely possible that peace could long continue between the four princes who now shared the empire. Constantine had won the affections of his subjects by his wise and beneficent administration in Gaul, while the cruelty and rapacity of Maxen'tius filled Italy and Africa with confusion. But the tyrant was not conscious of the weakness that resulted from his crimes. Under pretence of revenging the death of his father, he ordered all the statues erected in honor of Constantine throughout Italy to be thrown down, and thus provoked a war with the most able prince of the age. Constantine having passed the Alps, defeated the lieutenants of Maxen'tius at Augusta Taurinórum (Turin) and Ver'ona, while the tyrant himself remained sunk in sloth and luxury at Rome. At length he was roused from his lethargy by the rapid approach of the victorious army; a dreadful battle was fought at a place called Sax'a Rúbra, within nine miles of Rome, near the little river Creméra, so memorable for the destruction of the Fabii. The result was fatal to Maxen'tius; the prætorian guards, on whom he chiefly relied, were broken and cut to pieces by the repeated charges of the Gallic horse. The tyrant himself was drowned in the Tiber, while attempting to make his escape through the crowd over the Milvian bridge (A. D. 312). It was during this campaign that Constantine is said to have seen a miraculous vision of a luminous cross in the heavens, a little before sunset; and to have been warned in a dream to take this sacred symbol as his standard. The principal evidence for the truth of this miracle is the emperor's own account of the event, related many years afterward to Eusébius; one circumstance, however, greatly weakens his testimony; the vision was so far from producing the conversion of Constantine, that he did not receive baptism until a short time before his death.

No sooner had the death of Maxen'tius made Constantine master of Rome, than he removed the great source of all the calamities that had befallen the city under the empire, by disbanding the prætorian guards, and destroying their fortified camp. He restored the authority of the senate and magistrates, recalled all those who had been banished by Maxen'tius, and dismissed the entire tribe of spies and informers. He revoked all the edicts that had been issued against the Christians and paid great respect to the bishops and clergy, either on account of the miraculous vision already mentioned, or, as is more probable, through gratitude for the efficient aid he had received from the Christians in the recent contest, and anxiety to secure their assistance in any future struggle.

Maximin was a devoted adherent of paganism; he viewed the innovations of Constantine with great hostility; and when Licínius mar* Maximian, Galérius, Licínius, Maximin, Constantine, and Maxentius.

ried the sister of that prince, he resolved to destroy both. Taking advantage of the war in which Constantine was involved with the Franks, he marched against Licin'ius, hoping to destroy him before any assistance could arrive from the west. His first efforts were crowned with success; but being totally defeated near Adrianople, he fled without attendants to Nicomedia, where he soon died of rage and disappointment (A. D. 313). Licin'ius made a cruel use of his victory, slaughtering without mercy all whom he deemed likely to become competitors for empire: among the most illustrious of his victims were the wife and daughter of Dioclésian.

Constantine, during this war, was engaged in securing the tranquillity of western Europe; he gave an unquestionable proof of his attachment to Christianity by convening a general council of the bishops at Areláte (Arles), to suppress the heresy of the Donatists; but before the assembly met, he was forced to take the field against Licin'ius, who had thrown down his statues in Enóna (Laybach), a city of upper Pannónia. With his usual celerity, Constantine hastened into Pannónia before Licin'ius could expect his arrival; but he found that prince already in the field. A fierce battle was fought at the little town of Cib'alis or Ceb'alæ (Sevilei), not far from Sir'mium, in which Licin'ius was defeated, and forced to fly into Thrace. Thither he was followed by Constantine, vanquished a second time, and forced to consent to an accommodation, by which Illyricum, Macedon, Greece, and lower Moe'sia, were yielded to Constantine (A. D. 314). The conqueror immediately took the most prudent measures to secure his new acquisitions; while Licin'ius continued to provoke his subjects by repeated cruelties and exactions.

Foreign invasions led to a renewal of the civil war. Constantine having conquered the Sarmatians and Goths, pursued the latter into territories of Licin'ius, and that prince immediately declared that the recent articles of peace had been violated (A. D. 322). Great preparations were made on both sides for the renewal of hostilities, but Constantine was the first to take the field, and entering Thrace he found his rival encamped on the Hébrus (Maritza), not far from Adrianople. The battle was in some measure a struggle between Christianity and paganism: Constantine displayed the banner of the cross, Licin'ius the ancient idolatrous standards of the empire: the struggle was fierce-it ended in the total overthrow of Licin'ius, who had the further mortification of learning that his fleet had been destroyed in the straits of Callip'olis (Gallipoli) by Crispus, the eldest son of Constantine. An attempt was made to terminate the struggle by negotiation, but it was frustrated by the insincerity of Licin'ius: he hazarded a second engagement, and was irretrievably ruined. From the field of battle the defeated tyrant fled to Nicodemia, but he was soon taken prisoner, and put to death (A. D. 324). Constantine being thus sole master of the empire, restored the churches, of which the Christians had been deprived in the eastern provinces, to their respective pastors, and issued several edicts for the suppression of idolatry.

New controversies in the church led to the convocation of the celebrated council of Nice, in which the doctrine of the Trinity was fixed and defined, the heresy of Arius condemned, and the spiritual suprem