Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/438

 A'20 THE DECLINE AND FALL C II A P. preternatural origin of dreams was universally admitted ' ' by the nations of antiquity; and a considerable part of the Gallic army was already prepared to place their confidence in the salutary sign of the christian religion. The secret vision of Constantine could be disproved only by the event ; and the intrepid hero who had passed the Alps and the Apennine, might view with careless despair the consequences of a defeat under the walls of Rome, The senate and people, exulting in their own deliverance from an odious tyrant, ac- knowledged that the victory of Constantine surpassed the powers of man, without daring to insinuate that it had been obtained by the protection of the gods. The triumphal arch, which was erected about three years after the event, proclaims, in ambiguous language, that, by the greatness of his own mind, and by an hi- stinct or impulse of the Divinity, he had saved and avenged the Roman republic". The pagan orator, who had seized an earlier opportunity of celebrating the virtues of the conqueror, supposes that he alone enjoyed a secret and intimate commerce with the Su- preme Being, who delegated the care of mortals to his subordinate deities ; and thus assigns a very plausible reason why the subjects of Constantine should not pre- sume to embrace the new religion of their sovei-eign Appearance HL The philosopher, who with calm suspicion ex- of a cross in ai^^jnes the dreams and omens, the miracles and prodi- the sky. ^ _ _ ^ gies, of profane or even of ecclesiastical history, will probably conclude, that if the eyes of the spectators have sometimes been deceived by fraud, the under- standing of the readers has much more frequently been insulted by fiction. Every event, or appearance, or p. 460. Without insisting on the silence of Diodorus, Plutarch, Justin, etc. it may be observed that Polyienus, who in a separate chapter (1. iv. c. 6.) has collected nineteen military stratagems of Antigonus, is totally ignorant of this remarkable vision. " Instinclu Divinitatis, mentis magnitudine. The inscription on the triumphal arch of Constantine, which has been copied by Baronius, Gruter, etc. may still be perused by every curious traveller. " Habes profecto aliquid cum ilia mente divina secretum ; quas delegata nostra diis minoribus cura uni se tibi dignatur ostendere. Panegyr. 'et. ix. 2.