Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/40

 22 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, disorder. His body, swelled by an intemperate course ' of" life to an unwieldy corpulence, was covered with ulcers, and devoured by innumerable swarms of those insects who have given their name to a most loath- some disease"; but as Galerius had offended a very zealous and powerful party among his subjects, his sufferings, instead of exciting their compassion, have been celebrated as the visible efl'ects of divine justice p. His domi- He had no sooner expired in his palace of Nicomedia, betweeT^ than the two emperors who were indebted for their Maximin purple to bis favour, began to collect their forces, with nius. the intention either of disputing or of dividing the dominions which he had left without a master. They were persuaded however to desist from the former de- sign, and to agree in the latter. The provinces of Asia fell to the share of Maximin, and those of Europe augmented the portion of Licinius. The Hellespont and the Thracian Bosphorus formed their mutual boundary; and the banks of those narrow seas, which flowed in the midst of the Roman world, were covered with soldiers, with arms, and with fortifications. The deaths of Maximian and of Galerius reduced the num- ber of emperors to four. The sense of their true interest soon connected Licinius and Constantine ; a secret alliance was concluded between Maximin and Maxentius, and their unhappy subjects expected with terror the bloody consequences of their inevitable dis- sensions, which were no longer restrained by the fear or the respect which they had entertained for Galerius ''. Adiiiinistra- Among SO many crimes and misfortunes occasioned stuntine in'" ^^ ^^^ passions of the Roman princeSj there is some Gajl. pleasure in discovering a single action which may be " Lactantius (de M. P. c. 33.) and Eusebius (1. viii. c. 16.) describe the symptoms and progress of his disorder with singular accuracy and apparent pleasure. P If any (like the late Dr. Jortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 307 — 356.) still delight in recording the wonderful deaths of the persecutors, I would recommend to their perusal an admirable passage of Grolius (Hist. 1. vii. p. 332.) concerning the last illness of Philip the se- cond of Spain. 'I See Eusebius, 1. ix. 6. 10 ; Lactantius de M. P. c. 36. Zosimus is less exact, and evidently confounds Maximian with INIaximin.