Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/853

Rh CONSTANTIiNUS. principera alibi quam Romae fieri." Constantinople ta8 enlarged and embellished by Constantine and his successors; but when it is said that it equalled Rome in splendour, the cause must partly be attri- buted to the fact, that the beauty of ConsUmtino- ple was ever increasing, while that of Rome was constantly decreasing under the rough hands of her barbarian conquerors. (Comp. Ciampini, De Siicris Acdijiciis a Constantino Mayno constructis.) By making Constantinople the residence of the emperors, the centre of the empire was removed from the Latin world to the Greek ; and although Latin continued to be the official language for se- veral centuries, the influence of Greek civilization soon obtained such an ascendancy over the Latin, that while the Roman empire perished by the bar- Imrians in the West, it was changed into a Greek empire by the Greeks in the East. There was, however, such a prestige of grandeur connected with Rome, that down to the capture of Constan- tinople by the Turks, in 1453, the rulers of the Eiistern empire retained the name of Roman em- perors as a title by which they thought that they inherited the government of the world. The same title and the same presumption were assumed by the kings of tlie German barbarians, seated on the niins of Rome, and they were the pride of their successors till the downfall of the Holy Roman empire in Germany in 1806. The year 324 was signalized by an event which caused the greatest consternation in the empire, and which in the opinion of many writers has thrown indelible disgrace upon Constantine. His accomplished son, Crispus, whose virtues and glory would perhaps have been the joy of a father, but for their rendering him popular with the nation, and producing ambition in the mind of Crispus himself, was accused of high treason, and, during the celebration at Rome of the twentieth anniver- sary of Constantino's victory over Maxentius, was arrested and sent to Pola in Istria. There he was put to death. Licinius Caesar, the son of the em- peror Licinius and Constantina, the sister of Con- stantine, was accused of the same crime, and suffered the same fate. Many other persons ac- cused of being connected with the conspiracy were likewise punished with death. It is said, that Crispus had been calumniated by his step-mother, Fausta, and that Constantine, repenting the inno- cent death of his son, and discovering that Fausta lived in criminal intercourse with a slave, com- manded her to be suffocated in a warm bath. As our space does not allow us to present more than a short sketch of these complicated events, some ad- ditions to which are given in the lives of Priscus and Fausta, we refer the reader to the opinion of Niebuhr, who remarks {History of Rome^ ed. by Dr. L. Schmitz, vol. v. p. 360), " Every one knows the miserable death of Constantino's son, Crispus, who was sent into exile to Pola, and then put to death. If however people will make a tragedy of this event, I must confess that I do not see how it can be proved that Crispua was innocent. When I read of so many insurrections of sons against their fathers, I do not see why Crispus, who was Caesar, and demanded the title of Augustus, which hia father refused him, should not have thought, — ' Well, if I do not make anything of myself, my father will not, for he will certainly prefer the sons of Fausta to me, the son of a repudiated woman.' Such a thought, if it did occur to Crispus, must CONSTANTINUS. 835 have stung him to the quick. That a father should order his own son to be put to death is certainly repulsive to our feelings, but it is rash and incon- siderate to assert that Crispus was innocent. It is to me highly probable that Constantine himself was quite convinced of his son's guilt : I infer this from his conduct towards the three step-brothers of Crispus, whom he always treated with the high- est respect, and his unity and harmony with his sons is truly exemplary. It is related that Fausta was suffocated, by Constantino's command, by the steam of a bath; but Gibbon has raised some weighty doubts about this incredible and unac- countiible act, and I cannot therefore attach any importance to the story." During the latter part of his reign, Constantine enjoyed his power in peace. As early as 315, Arius denied at Alexandria the divinity of Christ. His doctrine, which afterwards gave rise to so many troubles and wars, was condemned by the general council assembled at Nicaea in 325, one of the most important events in ecclesiastical history, Constantine protected the orthodox fathers, though he must be looked upon as still a Pagan, but he did not persecute the Arians ; and the dissensions of a church to which he did not belong, did not occupy much of his "attention, since the domestic peace of the empire was not yet in danger from them. Notwithstanding the tranquillity of the empire, the evident result of a man of his genius being the sole ruler, Constantine felt that none of his sons was his equal ; and by dividing his empire among them, he hoped to remove the causes of troubles like those to which he owed his own accession. He therefore assigned to Constantine, the eldest, the administration of Gaul, Britain, Spain, and Tingitania; to Con- stantius, the second, Egypt and the Asiatic pro- vinces, except the countries given to Hanniba- lianus ; to Constans, the youngest, Italy, Western lUyricum, and the rest of Africa : they all received the title of Augustus. He conferred the title of Caesar upon his nephew Dalmatius, who obtained the administration of Eastern Illyricum, Macedo- nia, Thrace, and Greece ; and his nephew Hanni- balianus, who received the new title of Nobilissi- mus, was placed over Pontus, Cappadocia, and Armenia Minor, with Caesareia as capital. They were to govern the empire, after his death, as a joint property. Among the three Augusti, Con- stantine, the eldest, was to be the first in rank, but they were to be equal in authority : the Caesar and the Nobilissimus, though sovereign in their dominions, were inferior in rank, and, with regard to the administration of the whole empire, in au- thority also to the Augusti. The failure of this plan of Constantine's is related in the lives of his sons. In 337, Constantine was going to take the field against Sapor II., king of Persia, who claimed the provinces taken from him by Galerius and Maxi- mian. But his health was bad ; and having re- tired to Nicomedeia for the sake of the air and the waters, he died there, after a short illness, on the 22nd of May, 337. Shortly before his death, he declared his intention of becoming a Christian, and was accordingly baptized. His death was the sig- nal for the massacre of nearly all his kinsmen, which was contrived by his own sons, and subse- quently of the violent death of two of his sons, while the second, Constantius, succeeded in be- coming sole emperor. 3 H 2