Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/36

 18 THE DECLINE AND FALL C H A P. peroi" was employed in the Italian war, he intrusted his ^^^ • friend with the defence of the Danube ; and imme- diately after his return from that unfortunate expedi- tion, he invested Licinius with the vacant purple of Severus, resigning to his immediate command the pro- aadofMax- vinces of Illyricum ^ The news of his promotion was ''"'"■ no sooner carried into the east, than Maximin, who governed, or rather oppressed, the countries of Egypt and Syria, betrayed his envy and discontent, disdained the inferior name of Caesar, and notwithstanding the prayers as well as argvunents of Galerius, exacted, almost by violence, the equal title of Augustus ^. For the first, and indeed for the last time, the Roman world Six empe- w'as administered by six emperors. In the west, Con- ^f%. ono stantine and JNIaxentius affected to reverence their A. D. 308. father Maximian. In the east, Licinius and Maximin honoured with more real consideration their benefactor Galerius. The opposition of interest, and the memory of a recent war, divided the empire into two great hos- tile powers ; but their mutual fears produced an ap- parent tranquillity, and even a feigned reconciliation, till the death of the elder princes, of Maximian, and more particularly of Galerius, gave a new direction to the views and passions of their surviving associates. Misfortunes When Maximian had reluctantly abdicated the em- pire, the venal orators of the times applauded his phi- losophic moderation. When his ambition excited, or at least encouraged, a civil war, they returned thanks to his generous patriotism, and gently censured that love of ease and retirement which had withdrawn him from the public service ^. But it was impossible that ' M. de Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iv. part i. p. 559.) has proved that Licinius, without passing through the intermediate rank of Caesar, was declared Augustus, the eleventh of November, A.D. 307, after the return of Galerius from Italy. s Lactantius de M. P. c. 32. When Galerius declared Licinius Augustus with himself, he tried to satisfy his younger associates by inventing, for Constanline and Maiimin, (not Maieiitius, see Baluze, p. 81.) the new title of sons of the Augusti. But when Maximin acquainted him that he had been saluted Augustus by the army, Galerius was obliged to acknow- ledge him, as well as Constantine, as equal associates in the imperial dignity. '' See Panegvr. Vet. vi. 9. Audi doloris nostri liberam vocem, etc. The of Max imian