Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/329

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 311 suspicious cruelty of her husband. The deaths of a CHAP, son and of a nephew, with the execution of a great ^^ number of respectable and perhaps innocent friends'^, who were involved in their fall, may be sufficient, how- ever, to justify the discontent of the Roman people, and to explain the satirical verses affixed to the palace gate, comparing tiie splendid and bloody reigns of Constantine and Nero^. By the death of Crispus, the inheritance of the em- The sons pire seemed to devolve on the three sons of Fausta, phe^s of who have been already mentioned under the names of ^""s'^"- Constantine, of Constantius, and of Constans. These young princes were successively invested with the title of Caesar ; and the dates of their promotion may be referred to the tenth, the twentieth, and the thirtieth years of the reign of their father ^ This conduct, though it tended to multiply the future masters of the Roman world, might be excused by the partiality of paternal affection ; but it is not so easy to understand the motives of the emperor, when he endangered the safety both of his family and of his people, by the un- necessary elevation of his two nephews, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. The former was raised, by the title of Ccesar, to an equality with his cousins. In favour of the latter, Constantine invented the new and singular appellation of ' nobirssimus'^; to which he annexed the flattering distinction of a robe of purple and gold. But of the whole series of Roman princes in any age of the empire, Hannibalianus alone was distinguished by the title of ' king :' a name which the subjects of Tiberius would have detested, as the profane and cruel Sunt haec gemmea, sed Neroniana. Sidon. Apollinar. v. 8. It is somewhat singular, that these satirical lines should be attributed, not to an obscure libeller, or a disappointed patriot, but to Ablavius, prime mi- nister and favourite of the emperor. We may now perceive, that the im- precations of the Roman people were dictated by humanity, as well as by superstition. Zosim. 1. ii. p. 105. f Euseb. Oral, in Consianlin. c. 3. These dates are sufficiently correct to justify the orator. s Zosim. 1. ii. p. 117. Under the predecessors of Constantine, ' nobi- lissimus' was a vague epithet, rather than a legal and determined title.
 * • Interfecit numerosos amicos. Eutrop. xx. 6.
 * Saturni aurea saecula quis requirat ?