Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/25

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 7 fusal by arms. The permission of the journey was CHAP, reluctantly granted ; and whatever precautions the em- ^^^ • peror might have taken to intercept a return, tiie con- sequences of which he with so much reason appre- hended, they were effectually disappointed by the incredible diligence of Constantine". Leaving the palace of Nicomedia in the night, he travelled post through Bithynia, Thrace, Dacia, Pannonia, Italy, and Gaul; and, amidst the joyful acclamations of the peo- ple, reached the port of Boulogne in the very moment when his father was preparing to embark for Britain °. The British expedition, and an easy victory over Death of the barbarians of Caledonia, were the last exploits of jj""*!^^||||' the reign of Constantius. He ended his life in the elevaiion imperial palace of York, fifteen months after he had tine. received the title of Augustus, and almost fourteen j^'^-'^'^^' years and a half after he had been promoted to the rank of CfEsar. His death was immediately succeeded by the elevation of Constantine. The ideas of in- heritance and succession are so very familiar, that the generality of mankind consider them as founded not only in reason, but in nature itself. Our imagination readily transfers the same principles from private pro- perty to public dominion: and whenever a virtuous father leaves behind him a son whose merit seems to justify the esteem, or even the hopes of the people, the joint influence of prejudice and of affection oper- ates with irresistible weight. The flower of the west- ern armies had followed Constantius into Britain ; and the national troops were reinforced by a numerous body of Alemanni, who obeyed the orders of Crocus, one of their hereditary chieftains i*. The opinion of n Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 78, 79 ; Lactantius de M. P. c. 24. The former tells a very foolish story, that Constantine caused all the post horses which he had used to be hamstrung. Such a bloody execution, withc-ut preventing a pursuit, would have scattered suspicions, and might have stopped his journey. " Anonym, p. 710; Panegyr. Veter. vii. 4. But Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 79, Eusebius de Vit. Constant. 1. i. c. 21, and Lactantius de M. P. c. 24, sup- pose, with less accuracy, that he found his father on his death bed. P Cunctis qui aderant annitentibus, sed pra;cipue Croco (alii Eroco) Alemannorum rege, auxilii gratia Constantiuni comitato. iniperium capit. Victor junior, c. 41. This is perhaps the first instance of a barbarian king