CHAP. ignorance of the rest of the assembly, prompted them XV. to join their voices to the general acclamation. The

Magnentius and Vetra

purple,

A. D. 350.

March 1.

guards hastened to take the oath of fidelity; the gates of the town were shut; and before the dawn of day, Magnentius became master of the troops and treasure of the palace and city of Autun. By his secrecy and diligence he entertained some hopes of surprising the person of Constans, who was pursuing in the adjacent forest his favourite amusement of hunting, or perhaps some pleasures of a more private and criminal nature. The rapid progress of fame allowed him, however, an instant for flight, though the desertion of his soldiers and subjects deprived him of the power of resistance. Before he could reach a sea-port in Spain, where he intended to embark, he was overtaken near Helena, at the foot of the Pyrenees, by a party of light cavalry, whose chief, regardless of the sanctity of a temple, executed his commission by the murder of the son of Constantine *.

As soon as the death of Constans had decided this nio assume easy but important revolution, the example of the the puro court of Autun was imitated by the provinces of the west. The authority of Magnentius was acknowledged through the whole extent of the two great præfectures of Gaul and Italy; and the usurper prepared, by every act of oppression, to collect a treasure, which might discharge the obligation of an immense donative, and supply the expenses of a civil

war.

The martial countries of Illyricum, from the Danube to the extremity of Greece, had long obeyed the government of Vetranio, an aged general, beloved for the simplicity of his manners, and who had acquired some reputation by his experience and services in war. Attached by habit, by duty, and by gratitude, to the house of Constantine, he immediately

Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 119, 120. Zonaras, tom. ii, 1. xiii. p. 13. and the Ab

breviators.

XV.

gave the strongest assurances to the only surviving CHAP.
son of his late master, that he would expose, with
unshaken fidelity, his person and his troops, to inflict
a just revenge on the traitors of Gaul. But the le-
gions of Vetranio were seduced rather than provoked
by the example of rebellion; their leader soon be-
trayed a want of firmness, or a want of sincerity; and
his ambition derived a specious pretence from the
approbation of the princess Constantina. That cruel
and aspiring woman, who had obtained from the great
Constantine her father the rank of Augusta, placed
the diadem with her own hands on the head of the
Illyrian general; and seemed to expect from his vic-
tory the accomplishment of those unbounded hopes,
of which she had been disappointed by the death of
her husband Hannibalianus. Perhaps it was without
the consent of Constantina, that the new emperor
formed a necessary, though dishonourable, alliance
with the usurper of the west, whose purple was so
recently stained with her brother's blood.

refuses to

The intelligence of these important events, which Constantius
so deeply affected the honour and safety of the Im- treat.
perial house, recalled the arms of Constantius from A. D. 350.
the inglorious prosecution of the Persian war. He
recommended the care of the east to his lieutenants,
and afterwards to his cousin Gallus, whom he raised
from a prison to a throne; and marched towards
Europe, with a mind agitated by the conflict of hope
and fear, of grief and indignation. On his arrival at
Heraclea in Thrace, the emperor gave audience to the
ambassadors of Magnentius and Vetranio. The first
author of the conspiracy, Marcellinus, who in some
measure had bestowed the purple on his new master,
boldly accepted this dangerous commission: and his
three colleagues were selected from the illustrious
personages of the state and army. These deputies

CHAP.
XV.

were instructed to soothe the resentment, and to alarm the fears, of Constantius. They were empowered to offer him the friendship and alliance of the western princes, to cement their union by a double marriage; of Constantius with the daughter of Magnentius, and of Magnentius himself with the ambitious Constantina; and to acknowledge in the treaty the pre-eminence of rank, which might justly be claimed by the emperor of the east. Should pride and mistaken piety urge him to refuse these equitable conditions, the ambassadors were ordered to expatiate on the inevitable ruin which must attend his rashness, if he ventured to provoke the sovereigns of the west to exert their superior strength; and to employ against him that valour, those abilities, and those legions, to which the house of Constantine had been indebted for so many triumphs. Such propositions and such arguments appeared to deserve the most serious attention; the answer of Constantius was deferred till the next day; and as he had reflected on the importance of justifying a civil war in the opinion of the people, he thus addressed his council, who listened with real or affected credulity: "Last

night," said he, "after I retired to rest, the shade "of the great Constantine, embracing the corpse of 66 my murdered brother, rose before my eyes; his "well-known voice awakened me to revenge, forbad "me to despair of the republic, and assured me of "the success and immortal glory which would crown "the justice of my arms." The authority of such a vision, or rather of the prince who alleged it, silenced every doubt, and excluded all negotiation. The ignominious terms of peace were rejected with disdain. One of the ambassadors of the tyrant was dismissed with the haughty answer of Constantius; colleagues, as unworthy of the privileges of the law

his

XV.

Vetranio,

of nations, were put in irons; and the contending CHAP. powers prepared to wage an implacable war *. Such was the conduct, and such perhaps was the Deposes duty, of the brother of Constans towards the per- A. D. 350. fidious usurper of Gaul. The situation and character Dec. 25. of Vetranio admitted of milder measures; and the policy of the eastern emperor was directed to disunite his antagonist, and to separate the forces of Illyricum from the cause of rebellion. It was an easy task to deceive the frankness and simplicity of Vetranio, who, fluctuating some time between the opposite views of honour and interest, displayed to the world the insincerity of his temper, and was insensibly engaged in the snares of an artful negotiation. Constantius acknowledged him as a legitimate and equal colleague in the empire, on condition that he would renounce his disgraceful alliance with Magnentius, and appoint a place of interview on the frontiers of their respective provinces; where they might pledge their friendship by mutual vows of fidelity, and regulate by common consent the future operations of the civil war. In consequence of this agreement, Vetranio advanced to the city of Sardica, at the head of twenty thousand horse, and of a more numerous body of infantry; a power so far superior to the forces of Constantius, that the Illyrian emperor appeared to command the life and fortunes of his rival, who, depending on the success of his private negotiations, had seduced the troops, and undermined the throne, of Vetranio. The chiefs, who had secretly embraced the party of Constantius, prepared in his favour a public spectacle, calculated to discover and inflame the passions of the multitude. The united armies were commanded to assemble in a large plain near the city. In the centre, according to the rules of ancient discipline, a military tribunal, or rather scaffold, was erected, from

* See Peter the Patrician, in the Excerpta Legationum, p. 27.

!

XV.

CHAP. whence the emperors were accustomed, on solemn
and important occasions, to harangue the troops.
The well-ordered ranks of Romans and Barbarians,
with drawn swords, or with erected spears, the
squadrons of cavalry, and the cohorts of infantry,
distinguished by the variety of their arms and ensigns,
formed an immense circle round the tribunal; and
the attentive silence which they preserved was some-
times interrupted by loud bursts of clamour or of ap-
plause. In the presence of this formidable assembly,
the two emperors were called upon to explain the
situation of public affairs: the precedency of rank
was yielded to the royal birth of Constantius; and
though he was indifferently skilled in the arts of
rhetoric, he acquitted himself, under these difficult
circumstances, with firmness, dexterity, and elo-
quence. The first part of his oration seemed to be
pointed only against the tyrant of Gaul; but while
he tragically lamented the cruel murder of Constans,
he insinuated, that none, except a brother, could claim
a right to the succession of his brother. He dis-
played, with some complacency, the glories of his Im-
perial race; and recalled to the memory of the
troops, the valour, the triumphs, the liberality of the
great Constantine, to whose sons they had engaged
their allegiance by an oath of fidelity, which the in-
gratitude of his most favoured servants had tempted
them to violate. The officers, who surrounded the
tribunal, and were instructed to act their parts in this
extraordinary scene, confessed the irresistible power
of reason and eloquence, by saluting the emperor
Constantius as their lawful sovereign. The contagion
of loyalty and repentance was communicated from
rank to rank; till the plain of Sardica resounded
with the universal acclamation of " Away with these
"upstart usurpers! Long life and victory to the son
"of Constantine! Under his banners alone we will