Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/75

 OF THE ROMAN EINIPIIIE. o7 Martinianus, who exercised one of the most important Cli A i'. offices of the empire ^ ^^^' Such were still the resources, and such the abilities, Battle of of Licinius, that after so many successive defeats, he poiir"' collected in Bithynia a new army of fifty or sixty thou- sand men, while the activity of Constantino was em- ployed in the siege of Byzantiutn. The vigilant em- peror did not, however, neglect the last struggles of his antagonist. A considerable part of his victorious army was trans})orted over the Bosphorus in small ves- sels, and the decisive engagement was fought soon after their landing on the heights of Chrysopolis, or, as it is now called, of Scutari. The troops of Licinius, though they were lately raised, ill armed, and worse disciplined, made head against their concjuerors with fruitless but desperate valour, till a total defeat and the slaughter of five and twenty thousand men irretrievably deter- mined the fate of their leader*. lie retired to Nico- media, rather with the view of gaining some time for negotiation, than with the hope of any effectual de- fence. Constantia, his wife and the sister of Constan- Submission tine, interceded with her brother in favour of her hus- i?,.inm«^** band, and obtained from his policy, rather than from his compassion, a solemn promise, confirmed by an oath, that after the sacrifice of Martinianus, and the resignation of the purple, Licinius himself should be permitted to pass the remainder of his life in peace and affluence. The behaviour of Constantia, and her rela- tion to the contending parties, naturally recalls the re- membrance of that virtuous matron who was the sister of Augustus and the wife of Antony. But the temper of mankind was altered, and it was no longer esteemed infamous for a Roman to survive his honour and inde- ■■ Aurelius Victor; Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 98. According to the latter, Mar- tinianus was niagister otficionim, (he uses the Latin appellation in Greek.) Some medals seem to intimate, that during his short reign he received the title of Augustus. "^ Eusebius (in Vita Constantin. I. ii.c. 16, 17.) ascribes this derisive vic- tory to the pious prayers of the emperor. The N'alesian tragiiient (p. 714.) mentions a body ol Gothic au.xiliaries, undd their chict Aliquaca, who ad- hered to the party of Licinius.