Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/41

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIllE. 23 ascribed to their virtue. In the sixth year of his reign, CHAP. Constantine visited the city of Autun, and generously ^^'^'- remitted the arrears of tribute, reducing at the same a.D. time the proportion of tlieir assessment, from twenty- 0^~'2- five to eighteen thousand heads, subject to tiie real and personal capitation'. Yet even this indulgence affords the most unquestionable proof of the public misery. This tax was so extremely oi)pressive, either in itself or in the mode of collecting it, that whilst the revenue was increased by extortion, it was diminished by despair: a considerable part of the territory of Autun was left uncultivated ; and great numbers of the provincials rather chose to live as exiles and outlaws, than to support the weight of civil society. It is but too probable, that the bountiful emperor relieved, by a partial act of liberality, one among the many evils which he had caused by his general maxims of admini- stration. But even those maxims were less the effect of choice than of necessity. And if we except the death of Maximian, the reign of Constantine in Gaul seems to have been the most innocent and even vir- tuous period of his life. The provinces were protected by his presence from the inroads of the barbarians, who either dreaded or experienced his active valour. After a signal victory over the Franks and Alemanni, several of their princes were exposed by his order to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre of Treves ; and the people seem to have enjoyed the spectacle, without dis- covering, in such a treatment of royal captives, any thing that was repugnant to the laws of nations or of humanity ^ The virtues of Constantine were rendered more illus- Tyranny of trious by the vices of Maxentius. Whilst the Gallic -notary and provinces enjoyed as much happiness as the condition -Africa, of the times was capable of receiving, Italy and Africa 306—312. •■ See the eighth panegyric, in which Eumeuius displays, in the pre- sence of Constantine, the misery and the gratitude of the city of Autun. the French youth were likewise exposed to the same ciuel and ignominious death.
 * Eutropius, X. 3; Panegyr. Veter. vii. 10, 11, 12. A great number of