Unfortu

the empress

her mo

CHAP. favour for the Imperial purple, Candidianus might XIV. pafs a fecure and honourable life. He was now advancing towards the twentieth year of his age, and the royalty of his birth, though unfupported either by merit or ambition, was fufficient to exafperate the jealous mind of Licinius". To these innocent and illuftrious victims of his tyranny, we must add the wife and daughter of the emperor Diocletian. When that prince conferred on Galerius the title of Cæfar, he had given him in marriage his daughter Valeria, whofe melancholy adventures might furnish a very fingular subject for tragedy. She had fulfilled and even furpaffed nate fate of the duties of a wife. As she had not any children Valeria and herfelf, she condefcended to adopt the illegitimate fon of her husband, and invariably difplayed towards the unhappy Candidianus the tenderness and anxiety of a real mother. After the death of Galerius, her ample poffeffions provoked the avarice, and her perfonal attractions excited the defires, of his fucceffor Maximin ". He had a wife ftill alive, but divorce was permitted by the Roman law, and the fierce paffions of the tyranț demanded an immediate gratification. The answer of Valeria was fuch as became the daughter and widow of emperors; but it was tempered by the prudence which her defenceless condition compelled her to obferve. She reprefented to the perfons whom Maximin had employed on this occafion, » that even if honour could permit a woman of » her character and dignity to entertain a thought of fecand nuptials, decency at least must forbid

ther,

رو

.95

دو

her to liften to his addreffes at a time when the ashes of her husband and his benefactor were ftill warm; and while the forrows of her mind "were ftill expreffed by her mourning garments, She ventured to declare, that she could place » very little confidence in the profeflions of a "man, whofe cruel inconftancy was capable of

82

repudiating a faithful and affectionate wife "." On this repulfe, the love of 'Maximin was converted into fury, and as witneffes and judges were always at his difpofal, it was eafy for him to cover his fury with an appearance of legal proceedings, and to alfault the reputation as well as the happiness of Valeria. Her eftates were confifcated, her eunuchs and domeftics devoted to the most inhuman tortures, and several innocent and respectable matrons who were honoured with her friendship, fuffered death, on a falfe accufation of adultery. The empress herself, together with her mother Prifca, was condemned to exile; and as they were ignominiously hurried from place to place before they were confined to a sequestered village in the deferts of Syria, they expofed their shame and distress to the provinces of the Eaft, which, during thirty years, had refpected their auguft dignity. Diocletian made feveral ineffectual efforts to alleviate the misfortunes of his daughter; and, as the laft return that he expected for the Imperial purple, which he had conferred upon Maximin, he entreated that Valeria might be permitted to share his retirement of Salona, and to close the eyes of her afflicted father". He

СНАР.
XIV.

XIV.

CHAP. entreated, but as he could no longer threaten, his prayers were received with coldnefs and difdain; and the pride of Maximin was gratified, in treating Diocletian as a fuppliant, and his daughter as a criminal. The death of Maximin feemed to affure the empreffes of a favourable alteration in their fortune. The public disorders relaxed the vigilance of their guard, and they eafily found means to escape from the place of their exile, and to repair, though with fome precaution, and in disguise, to the court of Licinius. His behaviour, in the first days of his reign, and the honourable reception which he gave to young Candidianus inspired Valeria with a fecret fatisfaction, both on her own account, and on that of her adopted fon. But these grateful profpects were foon fucceeded by horrour and aftonishment, and the bloody executions which stained the palace of Nicomedia, fufficiently convinced her, that the throne of Maximin was filled by a tyrant more inhuman than himself. Valeria confulted her fafety by a hafty flight, and, ftill accompanied by her mother Prifca, they wandered above fifteen months** through the provinces, concealed in the disguise of plebeian habits. They were at length difcovered at Theffalonica; and as the fentence of their death was already pronounced, they were immediately beheaded, and their bodies thrown into the sea. The people gazed on the melancholy fpectacle; but their grief and indignation were fuppreffed by the terrors of a military guard. Such was the unworthy fate of the wife and daughter of Dio

cletian. We lament their misfortunes, we cannot discover their crimes, and whatever idea we may justly entertain of the cruelty of Licinius, it remains a matter of surprise, that he was not contented with fome more fecret and decent method

СНАР.

XIV.

between Conftan

tine and Licinius.

A. D. 314.

The Roman world was now divided between Quarrel Conftantine and Licinius, the former of whom was master of the West, and the latter of the Eaft. It might perhaps have been expected that the conquerors, fatigued with civil war, and connected by a private as well as public alliance, would have renounced, or at leaft would have fufpended, any farther defigns of ambition. And yet a year had scarcely elapfed after the death of Maximin, before the victorious emperors turned their arms against each other. The genius, the fuccefs, and the aspiring temper, of Conftantine, may seem to mark him out as the aggreffor; but the perfidious character of Licinius juftifies the most unfavourable fufpicions, and by the faint light which history reflects on this tranfaction

86

we may discover a confpiracy fomented by his arts against the authority of his colleague. Conftantine had lately given his fifter Anaftafia in marriage to Baffianus, a man of.a confiderable family and fortune, and had elevated his new kinfman to the rank of Cæfar. According to the fyftem of government inftituted by Diocletian, Italy, and perhaps Africa, were defigned for his department in the empire. But the performance of the promised favour was either at

1

СНАР,

XIV.

First civil

war between them.

Battle of

tended with fo much delay, or accompanied with
fo many unequal conditions, that the fidelity of.
Baffianus was alienated rather than fecured by
the honourable diftinction which he had obtained.
His nomination had been ratified by the confent
of Licinius, and that artful prince, by the means
of his emiffaries, foon contrived to enter into a
fecret and dangerous correfpondence with the
new Cæfar, to irritate his difcontents, and to
urge him to the rash enterprise of extorting by
violence what he might in vain folicit from the
juftice of Conftantine. But the vigilant emperor
difcovered the confpiracy before it was ripe for
execution; and, after folemnly renouncing the
alliance of Baffianus, defpoiled him of the pur-
ple, and inflicted the deserved punishment on his
treafon and ingratitude. The haughty refufal of
Licinius, when he was required to deliver up the
criminals, who had taken refuge in his domi-
nions, confirmed the fufpicions already enter-
tained of his perfidy; and the indignities offered at
Emona, on the frontiers of Italy, to the ftatues
of Conftantine, became the fignal of difcord be-
tween the two princes".

The first battle was fought near Cibalis, a city of Pannonia, .fituated on the river Save, about fifty miles above Sirmium ". From the inconfiderable forces which in this important conteft Cibalis. two fuch powerful monarchs brought into the field, it may be inferred, that the one was fuddenly provoked, and that the other was unexpectedly furprised. The emperor of the West

A. D. 315.

8th Oct.