Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/23

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 5 public life, after he should have accomplished a glo- CHAP, rious reign of about twenty years ^. ^'^' But within less than eighteen months, two unexpected Ambition revolutions overturned the nmbitious schemes of Gale- "l^^^'*-''.'"^ uisappoiiit- rius. The hopes of uniting the western provinces to ed by two hi- • i 1 1 ^1 1 ■• I' /", revolutions. IS empu-e were disapponited by the elevation of Con- stantine, whilst Italy and Africa were lost by the suc- cessful revolt of Maxentius. I. The fame of Constantine has rendered posterity Birth, edu- attentive to the most minute circumstances of his life esca!!e' o " and actions. The place of his birth, as well as the Constan- condition of his mother Helena, have been the subject a. i). 274. not only of literary but of national disputes. Notwith- standing the recent tradition, which assigns for her father a British king, we are obliged to confess, that Helena was the daughter of an innkeeper ; but, at "* the same time, we may defend the legality of her mar- riage, against those who have represented her as the concubine of Constantius'. The great Constantine was most probably born at Naissus, in Dacia; and c These schemes, however, rest only on the very doubtful authority of Lactantius, de M. P. c. 20. '> This tradition, unknown to the contemporaries of Constantine, was in- vented in the darkness of monasteries, was embellished by Jeffrey of Mo n- mouth and the writers of the twelfth century, has been defended by our antiquarians of the last age, and is seriously related in the ponderous history of England, compiled by jNIr. Carte : vol. i. p. 147. He transports, how- ever, the kingdom of Coil, the imaginary father of Helena, from Essex to the wall of Antoninus. ' Eutropius (x. 2.) expresses, in a few words, the real truth, and the occasion of the error, " et obscitriori matrimonio ejus filius." Zosimus (l.ii. p. 78.) eagerly seized the inost unfavourable report, and is followed by Orosius, (vii. 25.) whose authority is oddly enough overlooked by the in- defatigable but partial Tillemont. By insisting on the divorce of Helena, Diocletian acknowledged her marriage. '' There are three opinions with regard to the place of Constantino's birth. 1. Our English antiquarians were used to dwell with rapture on the words of his panegyrist: " Britannias illic oriendo nobiles fecisti." But this celebrated passage may be referred with as much propriety to the accession as to the nativity of Constantine. 2. Some of the modern Greeks have ascribed the honour of his birth to Drepanum, a town on ihe gulf of Nicomedia, (Cellarius, torn. ii. p. 174.) which Constantine dignified with the name of Helenopolis, and Justinian adorned with many splendid build- ings. Procop. de -Edificiis, v. 2. It is indeed probable enough, that Helena's father kept an inn at Drepanum ; and that Constantius might lodge there when he returned from a Persian embassy in the reign of .ure- lian. But in the wandering life of a soldier, the place of his marriage, and the places where his children are born, have very little connection with each other. 3. The claim of Naissus is supported by the anonymous writer,