Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/341

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 323 till the arrival of Constantius, the second and perhaps C 11 A P. the most favoured of the sons of Constantine*^. XMII. The voice of the dying emperor had recommended Massacre of the care of his funeral to the piety of Constantius; and *^P"°"** that ])rince, by the vicinity of his eastern station, could easily prevent the diligence of his brothers, who re- sided in their distant government of Italy and Gaul. As soon as he had taken possession of the palace of Constantinople, his first care was to remove the appre- hensions of his kinsmen by a solemn oath, which he pledged for their security. His next employment was, to find some specious pretence which might release his conscience from the obligation of an imprudent pro- mise. The arts of fraud were made subservient to the designs of cruelty ; and a manifest forgery was attested by a person of the most sacred character. From the hands of the bishop of Nicomedia, Constantius re- ceived a fatal scroll, affirmed to be the genuine testa- ment of his father; in which the emperor expressed his suspicions that he had been poisoned by his bro- thers; and conjui-ed his sons to revenge his death, and to consult their own safety, by the punishment of the guilty ''. Whatever reasons might have been al- leged by these unfortunate princes to defend their life and honour against so incredible an accusation, they were silenced by the furious clamours of the soldiers, who declared themselves at once their enemies, their judges, and their executioners. The spirit, and even the forms of legal proceedings were repeatedly vio- lated in a promiscuous massacre ; which involved the two uncles of Constantius, seven of his cousins, of •= The character of Dalmatius is advantageously, though concisely, drawn by Eutropius, (x. 9.) Dahnatius Cffisar prosperrima indole, neque patruo absimilis, haud multn post oppressus est factione militari. As both Jerome and the Alexandrian Chronicle mention the third year of the Caesar, which , did not commence till the eighteenth or twenty- fourth of September, A.D. 337, it IS certain that these military factions continue/d above four months. '' I have related this singular anecdote on the authority of Philostorgius, I. ii. c. 16. But if such a pretext was ever used by Constantine and his ad- herents, it was laid aside with contempt as soon as it had served their im- mediate purpose. Athanasius (torn. i. p. 856.) mentions the oath which Constantius had taken for the security of his kinsmen. Y 2