Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/59

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 41 death of Severianus will admit of less excuse, as it was CIIAP. dictated neither hy revenge nor by policy. The con- ^^^ ' queror had never received any injury from the father of that unhappy youth ; and the short and obscure reign of Severus in a distant part of the enij)ire was ah-eady forgotten. But the execution of Candidianus was an act of the blackest crueky and ingratitude. He was the natural son of Galerius, the friend and bene- factor of Licinius. The prudent father had judged him too young to sustain the weight of a diadem ; but he hoped that, under the protection of princes who were indebted to his favour for the imperial purple, Candidianus might pass a secure and honourable life. He was now advancing towards the twentieth year of his age; and the royalty of his birth, though unsup- ported either by merit or ambition, was sufficient to exasperate the jealous mind of Licinius '. To these innocent and illustrious victims of his tyranny, we nmst add the wife and daughter of the emperor Diocletian. When that prince conferred on Galerius the title of Caesar, he had given him in marriage his daughter Valeria, whose melancholy adventures might furnish a very singular subject for tragedy. She had fulfilled Untoriunate and even surpassed the duties of a wife. As she had *^^'^ °' "^"^ not any children herself, she condescended to adopt Valeria and the illegitimate son of her husband, and invariably dis- ""°'>^''- played towards the vnihappy Candidianus the tender- ness and anxiety of a real mother. After the death of Galerius, her ample possessions provoked the avarice, and her personal attractions excited the desires, of his successor Maximin "". He had a wife still alive; but ' Lactantius de M. P. c. 50. Aurelius Victor touciies on the different conduct of Licinius and of Constantine in the use of victory. "' 'J'he sensual appetites of Maxiinin were gratified at the expense of his subjects. His eunuchs, who forced away wives and virgins, examined their naked cliarms with anxious curiosity, lest any part of their body should be found unworthy of the royal embraces. Coyness and disdain were considered as treason, and the obstinate fair one was condemned to be drowned. A custom was gradually introduced, that no person sliouid marry a wife without the permission of the emperor, " ut ipse in omnibus nuptiis praegustator esset." Lactantius de iNL P. c. 38. That the decree was long remembered and acted upon, will appear from a drama of Fletcher'.^, entitled, the Custom of the Country.
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