national troops were reinforced by a numerous body of Alemanni, who obeyed the orders of Crocus, one of their hereditary chieftains'S. The opinion of their own importance, and the assurance that Britain, Gaul, and Spain would acquiesce in their nomination, were diligently inculcated to the legiOns by the adherents of Constantine. The soldiers were asked," Whether they could hesitate a moment between the honour of placing at their head the worthy son of their beloved emperor, and the ignominy of tamely expecting the arrival of some obseure stranger, on whom it might please the sovereign of Asia to bestow the armies and provinces of the West. It was insinuated to them, that gratitude and liberality held a distinguished place among the virtues os Constantine; nor did that artsul prince shew himself to the troops, till they were prepared to salute him with the names of Augustus and Emperor. The throne was the object of' his desires ziand had he been less actuated by ambi* sition, 'it was his only means of safety. He was 'well acquainted with the character and sentiments os Galerius, and sufficiently apprized, that if he wished to live he must determine to reign. The

they submitted without reluctance to the superiority of his genius and sortune U.

II. The ambitious spirit of Galerius was scarcely reconciled to the disappointment of his views upon the Gallic provinces, before the unexpected loss of Italy wounded his pride as well as power in a still more senfible part. The long absence of the emperors had filled Rome with discontent and indignation ; and the people gradually discovered, that the preference given to Nicomedia and Milan, was not to be ascribed to the particular inclination of Diocletian, but to the permanent form of government which he had vinstituted. It was in vain that, a few months after his abdication, his successors dedicated, under his name, those magnificent baths, whose ruins still supply the ground as well' as the materials for so many churches and convents "2 The tranquillity of those elegant recesses of ease and luxury was disturbed by the impatient murmurs of the Romans ;- and a report was insensibly

CHAP- circulated, that the sums expended in erecting w those buildings, would soon be required at their hands. About that time the avarice of Galerius, or perhaps the exigencies of the state, had induced him to make a very strict and rigorous inquisition into the property of his subjects for the purpose of a general taxation, both on their lands and on their persons. A very minute survey appears to have been taken of their real estates; * and wherever there was the slightest suspicion of concealment, torture was very freely employed to obtain a sincere declaration of their personal twealth ". The privileges which had exalted Italy above the rank of the provinces, were no longer regarded : and the officers of the revenue already began to number the Roman people, and to settle the proportion of the new taxes. Even when the spirit of freedom had been utterly extinguished, the tamest subjects have sOmetimes ventured to resist an unprecedented invasion of theirproperty; but on Ithis occasion the injury was aggravated by the insult, and the sense of private interest was quickened by that of national honour. The conquest of Macedonia, as we have already observed, had delivered the Roman people from the weight of personal taxes. Though they had experienced every form of despotism, they had now enjoyed that exemption near five hundred years; nor could theypatiently brook the insolence of an Illyrian-peasant, who, from his distant residence in Asia, presumed to number Rome