Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/321

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 303 laxed by prosperity and indulgence, was incapable of CHAP, rising to that magnanimity which disdains suspicion, "^^^^^^ and dares to forgive. The deaths of Maximian and Licinius may perhaps be justified by the maxims of policy, as they are taught in the schools of tyrants ; but an impartial narrative of the executions, or rather mur- ders, which sullied the declining age of Constantine, will sussfest to our nwst candid thoughts, the idea of a prince who could sacrifice without reluctance the laws of justice, and the feelings of nature, to the dictates cither of his passions or of his interest. The same fortune which so invai'iably followed the His family, standard of Constantine, seemed to secure the hopes and comforts of his domestic life. Those among his predecessors who had enjoyed the longest and most prosperous reigns, Augustus, Trajan, and Diocletian, had been disappointed of posterity ; and the frequent revolutions had never allowed sufficient time for any imperial family to grow up and multiply under the shade of the purple. But the royalty of the Flavian line, which had been first ennobled by the Gothic Claudius, descended through several generations ; and Constantine himself derived from his royal father the hereditary honours which he transmitted to his cliil- dren. The emperor had been twice married. Miner- vina, the obscure but lawful object of his youthful attachment ^, had left him only one son, who was called Crispus. By Fausta, the daughter of Maximian, he had three daughters, and three sons, known by the kindred names of Constantine, Constantius, and Con- stans. The unambitious brothers of the great Con- stantine, Julius Constantius, Dalmatius, and Hanni- balianus'', were permitted to enjoy the most honourable rity of medals. See Commentaire, p. 156. 299. 397. 459. Eusebius, (Oral. c. 5.) alleges, that Constantine dressed for the public, not for him- self. Were this admitted, the vainest coxcomb could never want an excuse. R Zosimus and Zonaras agree in representing Minervina as the concubine of Constantine : but Ducange has very gallantly rescued her character, by producing a decisive passage from one of the panegyrics: " Ab ipso fine pueriti.i.' te matrimonii legibus dedisti." " Ducange (Farailiae Byzantinae, p. 44.) bestows on him, after Zonaras,