Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/444

 420 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, manifest superiority over the elder. The birth of Con- '___ stantius was less obscure than that of his colleagues. Eutropius, his father, was one of the most consider- able nobles of Dardania, and his mother was the niece of the emperor Claudius"'. Although the youth of Constantius had been spent in arms, he was endowed with a mild and amiable disposition ; and the popular voice had long since acknowledged him worthy of the rank which he at last attained. To strengthen the bonds of political, by those of domestic union, each of the emperors assumed the character of a father to one of the Caesars, Diocletian to Galerius, and Maximian to Constantius; and each obliging them to repudiate their former wives, bestowed his daughter in marriage Depart- on his adopted son". These four princes distributed hTrmoiT^of ^"^^"o themselves the wide extent of the Roman em- the four pire. The defence of Gaul, Spain", and Britain, was princes. intrusted to Constantius: Galerius was stationed on the banks of the Danube, as the safeguard of the lUyrian provinces. Italy and Africa were considered as the department of Maximian; and for his peculiar portion, Diocletian reserved Thrace, Egypt, and the rich countries of Asia. Every one was sovereign within his own jurisdiction; but their united authority ex- tended over the whole monarchy; and each of them was prepared to assist his colleagues with his counsels or presence. The Caesars, in their exalted rank, re- vered the majesty of the emperors ; and the three younger princes invariably acknowledged, by their gratitude and obedience, the common parent of their fortunes. The suspicious jealousy of power found not any place among them ; and the singular happiness of their union has been compared to a chorus of music, "» Julian, the grandson of Constantius, boasts that his family was de- rived from the warHke Maesians. Misopogon, p. 348. The Dardanians dwelt on the edge of Maesia. " Galerius married Valeria, the daughter of Diocletian ; if we speak with strictness, Theodora, the wife of Constantius, was daughter only to the wife of Maximian. Spanheim, Dissertat. xi. 2. " This division agrees with that of the four prefectures ; yet there is some reason to doubt whether Spain was not a province of Maximian. See Tillemont, torn. iv. p. 517.