Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/42

 24 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, groaned under the dominion of a tyrant as contempti- ^^^^- ble as he was odious. The zeal of flattery and faction lias indeed too frequently sacrificed the reputation of the vanquished to the glory of their successful rivals ; but even those writers who have revealed, with the most freedom and pleasure, the faults of Constantine, unanimously confess, that Maxentius was cruel, ra- pacious, and profligate*. He had the good fortune to supi)ress a slight rebellion in Africa. The governor and a few adherents had been guilty; the province suffered for their crime. The flourishing cities of Cirtha and Carthage, and the whole extent of that fertile country, were wasted by fire and sword. The abuse of victory was followed by the abuse of law and justice. A formidable army of sycophants and dela- tors invaded Africa ; the rich and the noble were easily convicted of a connection with the rebels ; and those among them who experienced the emperor's clemency, were only punished by the confiscation of their estates". So signal a victory was celebrated by a magnificent triumph, and Maxentius exposed to the eyes of the people the spoils and captives of a Roman province. The state of the capital was no less deserving of compassion than that of Africa. The wealth of Rome supplied an inexhaustible fund for his vain and prodigal expenses, and the ministers of his revenue were skilled in the arts of rapine. It was under his reign that the method of exacting a. free gift from the senators was first invented ; and as the sum was insensibly increased, the pretences of levying it, a victory, a birth, a marriage, or an imperial consulship, were proportionably multiplied''. Maxentius had im- bibed the same implacable aversion to the senate, which had characterized most of the former tyrants of Rome: ' Julian excludes Maxentius from the banquet of the Caesars with ab- horrence and contempt; and Zosimus (1. ii. p. 85.) accuses him of every kind of cruelty and profligacy. " Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 83 — 85 ; Aurelius Victor. {■ ■'' The passage of Aurelius Victor should he read in the following manner : Primus institute pessimo, munenim specie, patres oraioresque pecuniam conferre prodigenti sibi cogeret.