Page:Constantinople by Brodribb.djvu/55

 commemorated in the tasteless sculpture of the arch of Constantine, was by all accounts a brutal and licentious man, utterly unworthy of empire. The other, also his brother-in-law, Licinius, by birth a Dacian peasant, was indeed an able soldier, but had all the cruelty and treachery of an Eastern despot. The struggle between them was not decided by a single battle, or indeed very speedily. After the fall of Maxentius, the world was divided between the two, Constantine being supreme in the west, Licinius in the east. Both had great fleets and armies, and the war was on a scale equal to that which had ended more than three centuries before in the victory of Augustus at Actium. It was really decided, though not at once terminated, by a battle at Adrianople in 323 B.C. Licinius was driven out of a fortified position, and his army was routed with frightful slaughter. He fell back on Byzantium, the siege of which it was now necessary for Constantine to undertake.

The defences of the city had, it appears, been thoroughly restored, and were strong enough to keep an assailant at bay. But the chief difficulty of the besieging army at first was in supplying themselves with provisions. The city was perfectly safe from any such danger as long as Licinius commanded the Hellespont with his fleet. It was not easy to see how his ships were to be driven from the narrow strait, but it was evident that the attempt must be made if the siege was to be brought to a successful issue. To carry the place by a sudden assault on the land side, in the face of a numerous garrison, was, it may be assumed, beyond