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Foundation of Conftantinople. -Political System of
Conftantine, and his Succeffors.- Military Dif-
cipline.The Palace. The Finances.

THE

XVII.

HE unfortunate Licinius was the laft rival CHA P. who opposed the greatnefs, and the last captive who adorned the triumph, of Conftantine. After a tranquil and profperous reign, the Conqueror bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the Roman empire; a new capital, a new policy, and a new religion; and the innovations which he established have been embraced and confecrated by fucceeding generations. The age of the great Conftantine and his fons is filled with important events; but the hiftorian must be oppreffed by their number and vaVOL. III. B

riety,

CHAP. riety, unless he diligently feparates from each XVII. other the scenes which are connected only by the

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order of time. He will defcribe the political inftitutions that gave strength and stability to the empire, before he proceeds to relate the wars and revolutions which haftened its decline. He will adopt the divifion unknown to the ancients, of civil and ecclesiastical affairs; the victory of the Christians, and their inteftine difcord, will fupply copious and diftinct materials both for edification and for fcandal.

After the defeat and abdication of Licinius, his victorious rival proceeded to lay the foundations of a city, deftined to reign, in future times, the mistress of the Eaft, and to furvive the empire and religion of Conftantine. The motives, whether of pride or of policy, which first induced Diocletian to withdraw himself from the ancient feat of government, had acquired additional weight by the example of his fucceffors, and the habits of forty years. Rome was infenfibly confounded with the dependent kingdoms which had once acknowledged her fupremacy; and the country of the Cæfars was viewed with cold indifference by a martial prince, born in the neighbourhood of the Danube, educated in the courts and armies of Afia, and invefted with the purple by the legions of Britain. The Italians, who had received Conftantine as their deliverer, fubmiffively obeyed the edicts which he fometimes condefcended to addrefs to the fenate and people of Rome; but they were feldom honoured with the prefence of their new fovereign. During the vi

gour

XVII.

gour of his age, Conftantine, according to the va- CHA P. rious exigencies of peace and war, moved with flow dignity, or with active diligence, along the frontiers of his extenfive dominions; and was always prepared to take the field either against a foreign or a domestic enemy. But as he gradually reached the fummit of profperity and the decline of life, he began to meditate the defign of fixing in a more permanent station the strength as well as majesty of the throne. In the choice of an advantageous fituation, he preferred the confines of Europe and Afia; to curb, with a powerful arm, the barbarians who dwelt between the Danube and the Tanais; to watch with an eye of jealousfy the conduct of the Perfian monarch, who indignantly supported the yoke of an ignominious treaty, With thefe views, Diocletian had selected and embellished the refidence of Nicomedia: but the memory of Diocletian was jusftly abhorred by the protector of the church; and Conftantine was not infenfible to the ambition of founding a city which might perpetuate the glory of his own name, During the late operations of the war against Licinius, he had fufficient opportunity to Situation contemplate, both as a foldier and as a statefman, of Byzan the incomparable position of Byzantium; and to obferve how strongly it was guarded by nature against an hoftile attack, whilft it was acceffible on every fide to the benefits of commercial intercourse. Many ages before Conftantine, one of the most judicious hiftorians of antiquity

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