Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/71

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. o.j Hellespont with his fleet. The army consisted of one cil A l*. hundred and fifty thousand foot, and fifteen thousand •'^'^- liorse; and as the cavalry was drawn, for the most ])art, from Phrygia and Caj)))adocia, we may conceive a more favourable opinion of the beauty of the horses than of the courage and dexterity of their riders. The fleet was composed of three hundred and fifty galleys of three ranks of oars. An hundred and thirty of these were furnished by Egypt and the adjacent coast of Africa. An hundred and ten sailed from the ports of Phoenicia and the isle of Cyprus; and the maritime countries of Bithynia, Ionia, and Caria, were likewise obliged to provide an hundred and ten galleys. The troops of Constantine were ordered to rendezvous at Thessalonica ; they amounted to above an hundred and twenty thousand horse and foot"". Their emperor was satisfied with their martial appearance ; and his army contained more soldiers, though fewer men, than that of his eastern competitor. The legions of Constantine were levied in the warlike provinces of Europe ; action had confirmed their discipline, victory had elevated their hopes ; and there were among them a great num- ber of veterans, who, after seventeen glorious cam- paigns under the same leader, prepared themselves to deserve an honourable dismission by a last effort of their valour". But the naval preparations of Constan- tine were in every respect much inferior to those of Licinius. The maritime cities of Greece sent their re- spective quotas of men and ships to the celebrated harbour of Piraeus, and their united forces consisted of no more than two hundred small vessels: a very feeble armament, if it is compared with those formidable fleets which were equipped and maintained by the republic of Athens during the Peloponnesian war". Since Italy "* Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 94, 95. " Constantine was very attentive to the privileges and comforts of his fellow veterans, (conveterani,) as he now began to style them. !"ee the Theodosian Code, 1. vii. tit. 20. torn. ii. p. 419. 429. " Whilst the Athenians maintained the empire of the sea, their fleet con- sisted of three, and afterwards of four hundred galleys of three ranks of