Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/247

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 229 Cagsars was viewed with cold indifference by a martial CHAP. X v 1 1 prince, born in the neighbourhood of the Danube, edu- '__ cated in the courts and armies of Asia, and invested with the purple by the legions of Britain. The Ita- lians, who had received Constantine as their deliverer, submissively obeyed the edicts which he sometimes condescended to address to the senate and people of Rome; but they were seldom honoured with the pre- sence of their new sovereign. During the vigour of his age, Constantine, according to the various exigen- cies of peace and war, moved with slow dignity, or with active diligence, along the frontiers of his extensive dominions; and was always prepared to take the field, either against a foreign or a domestic enemy. But as he gradually reached the summit of prosperity and the decline of life, he began to meditate the design of fixing in a more permanent station the strength as well as ma- jesty of the throne. In the choice of an advantageous situation, he preferred the confines of Europe and Asia; to curb, with a powerful arm, the barbarians who dwelt between the Danube and the Tanais ; to watch with an eye of jealousy the conduct of the Persian monarch, who indignantly supported the yoke of an ignominious treaty. With these views, Diocletian had selected and embellished the residence of Nicomedia : but the me- mory of Diocletian was justly abhorred by the pro- tector of the church ; and Constantine was not insen- sible to the ambition of founding a city which might perpetuate the glory of his own name. During the late operations of the war against Licinius, he had sufficient opportunity to contemyjlate, both as a soldier and as a statesman, the incomparable position of Byzantium ; Situation of and to observe how strongly it was guarded by nature against an hostile attack, whilst it was accessible on every side to the benefits of commercial intercourse. Many ages before Constantine, one of the most judi- cious historians of antiquity * had described the advan- » Polybius, 1. iv. p. 423. edit. Casaubon. He observes, that the peace of the Byzantines was frequently disturbed, and the extent of their territory contracted, by the inroads of the wild Thracians.