should have accomplished a glorious reign of about twenty years 7. 0 His diligence and fideky arc acknowledged' even by L'actantius, i But unexperienced youth still betrayed by his manners C HA P Birth, education, and escape of Conflantine. AD. 274.. 3 This tradition, unknoWn to the contemporaries of Constantine. was invented in the darkness of monflsteties, wds embellished by Jeffrey os Monmouth, and the writers of the xiith century, has been defended by our antiquarians of the last age, and is seriously related in the ponderous history os England, compiled by Mr. Carte (vol. i. p. 1470. He transports, however, the kingdom of Coil, the imaginary father os Helenn, from Essex to the wall of Anto; mnus. 9 Eutropius (x. 4.) expresses, in a few words, the real truth. and the occasion of the error, " ekobsmriorlmarrimnio ejus filius." Zofimus (1. ii. p, 783) eagerly seized the most unsavourable report," and is followed by Orosius (vii. 25.), whose authority is oddly enough overlooked by the indesatigable'but partial Tillemont. By insisting on the divorce of Helena, Diocletian acknowledged he: marriage. ' _ dible diligence os Constantine '3. Leaving the |