Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/73

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 55 memorable battle of Hadrianople, he seems to have CllAi'. selected and embellished, not the most im])ortant, but ^^^ ' the most marvellous. The valour and danger of Con- stantine are attested by a slight wound which he re- ceived in the thigh ; but it may be discovered even from an imperfect narration, and perhaps a corrupted text, that the victory was obtained no less by the con- duct of the general than by the courage of the hero ; that a body of five thousand archers marched round to occupy a thick wood in the rear of the enemy, whose attention was diverted by the construction of a bridge, and that Licinius, ])erplexed by so many artful evolu- tions, was reluctantly drawn from his advantageous post to combat on equal ground in the plain. The contest was no longer equal. His confused multitude of new levies was easily vanquished by the experienced vete- rans of the west. Thirty-four thousand men are re- ported to have been slain. The fortified camp of Lici- nius was taken by assault the evening of the battle; the greater part of the fugitives, who had retired to the mountains, surrendered themselves the next day to the discretion of the conqueror ; and his rival, who could no longer keep the field, confined himself within the walls of Byzantium f'. The siege of Byzantium, which was immediately un- SiegeofBy- dertaken by Constantine, was attended with great la- ^'„j n^y'^i hour and uncertainty. In the late civil wars, the for- victory of tifications of that place, so justly considei'ed as the key of Europe and Asia, had been repaired and strength- ened ; and as long as Licinius remained master of the sea, the garrison was much less exposed to the danger of fiimine than the army of the besiegers. The naval commanders of Constantine were summoned to his camp, P Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 95, 96. This great battle is described in the Valesian fragment, (p. 714.) in a clear though concise manner. " Licinius vero circum Hadrianopolin maximo exercitu latera ardui mentis iniplevcrat; illuc toto agmine Constantinus inflexit. Cum bellum terra mari<jue trahe- retur, ([uamvis per arduum suis nitentibus, altanien disciplina militari et felicitate, Constantinus Licinii confusum ct sine ordme agenlem vicit cxer- citiim ; leviter femore sauciatus."