Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/65

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 47 and of his bravest veterans, reduced the fierce spirit of CII A P. Licinius to sue for peace. His ambassador Mistrianus ^^^' veas admitted to the audience of Constantine : he expa- tiated on the common topics of moderation and human- ity, which are so famihar to the eloquence of the van- quished ; represented, in the most insinuating language, that the event of the war was still doubtful, whilst its inevitable calamities were alike pernicious to both the contending i)arties ; and declared, that he was autho- rised to propose a lasting and honourable peace in the name of the two emperors his masters. Constantine received the mention of Valens with indignation and contempt. " It was not for such a purpose," he sternly replied, " that we have advanced from the shores of the western ocean in an uninterrupted course of com- bats and victories, that, after rejecting an ungrateful kinsman, we should accept for our colleague a con- temptible slave. The abdication of Valens is the first article of the treaty ^." It was necessary to accept this humiliating condition; and the unhappy Valens, after a reign of a few days, was deprived of the purple and of his life. As soon as this obstacle was removed, the tranquillity of the Roman w^orld was easily restored. The successive defeats of Licinius had ruined his forces, but they had displayed his courage and abili- ties. His situation was almost desperate, but the ef- forts of despair are sometimes formidable ; and the good sense of Constantine preferred a great and certain advantage to a third trial of the chance of arms. He Treaty of consented to leave his rival, or, as he again styled Li- December, cinius, his friend and brother, in the possession of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt ; but the pro- vinces of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Macedonia, and y Petrus Patricius in Excerpt. Legal, p. 27. If it should be thought that yafi(ipbg signifies more properly a son-in-law, we might conjecture, that Constantine, assuming the name as well as the duties of a father, had adopted his younger brothers and sisters, the children of Iheodora. Hut in the best authors yajujSpof sometimes signifies a husband, sometimes a father-in-law, and sometimes a kinsman in general. See Spanheim, Ohservat. ad Julian. Orat. i. p. 72.