diadem, was depofited on a golden bed in one of CHA P. the apartments of the palace, which for that pur. XVIII. pofe had been fplendidly furnished and illuminat ed. The forms of the court were strictly maintained. Every day, at the appointed hours, the principal officers of the ftate, the army, and the household, approaching the perfon of their fovereign with bended knees and a compofed countenance, offered their refpectful homage as seriously as if he had been still alive. From motives of policy, this theatrical reprefentation was for fome time continued; nor could flattery neglect the opportunity of remarking that Constantine alone, by the peculiar indulgence of heaven, had reigned after his death 47. But this reign could fubfift only in empty pa- Factions of geantry; and it was foon difcovered that the will the court. of the moft abfolute monarch is feldom obeyed, when his fubjects have no longer any thing to hope from his favour, or to dread from his re fentment. The fame minifters and generals who bowed with fuch reverential awe before the inanimate corpfe of their deceased fovereign, were engaged in fecret çonfultations to exclude his two nephews, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, from the share which he had affigned them in the fucceffion of the empire. We are too imperfectly acquaint 47 Funus relatum in urbem fui nominis, quod fane P.R. ægerrime tulit. Aurelius Victor.. Conftantine had prepared for himself a stately tomb in the church of the Holy Apostles. Euseb. 1. iv. c. 60. The best, and indeed almoft the only account of the fickness, death, and funeral of Conftantine, is contained in the fourth book of his Life, by Eufebius. VOL. III. K: ed CHAP, ed with the court of Conftantine to form any XVIII. judgment of the real motives which influenced the leaders of the confpiracy; unless we should fuppose that they were actuated by a spirit of jealousy and revenge against the præfect Ablavius, a proud favourite, who had long directed the counfels and abused the confidence of the late emperor. The arguments by which they folicited the concurrence of the foldiers and people, are of a more obvious nature: and they might with decency, as well as truth, infift on the fuperior rank of the children of Conftantine, the danger of multiplying the number of fovereigns, and the impending mischiefs which threatened the republic, from the difcord of fo many rival princes, who were not connected by the tender fympathy of fraternal affection. The intrigue was conducted with zeal and fecrecy, till a loud and unanimous declaration was procured from the troops, that they would fuffer none except the fons of their lamented monarch, to reign over the Roman empire The younger Dalmatius, who was united with his collateral relations by the ties of friendship and intereft, is allowed to have inherited a confiderable fhare of the abilities of the great Conftantine: but, on this occafion, he does not appear to have concerted any meafures for fupporting, by arms, the juft claims which himself and his royal brother derived from the liberality of their uncle. Aftonished and overwhelmed by the tide of po 48 48 Eufebius (I. iv. c. 6.) terminates his narrative by this loyal declaration of the troops, and avoids all the invidious circumstances of the fubfequent maffacre. pular pular fury, they seem to have remained, without CHA P. the power of flight or of refiftance, in the hands. XVIII. of their implacable enemies. Their fate was fufpended till the arrival of Conftantius, the fe cond, and perhaps the most favoured, of the fons of the princes. The voice of the dying emperor had recom- Maffacre mended the care of his funeral to the piety of Conftantius; and that prince, by the vicinity of his eastern station, could eafily prevent the diligence of his brothers, who refided in their distant government of Italy and Gaul. As foon as he had taken poffeffion of the palace of Conftantinople, his first care was to remove the apprehenfions of his kinfmen by a folemn oath, which he pledged for their fecurity. His next employment was to find fome fpecious pretence which might release his confcience from the obligation of an imprudent promife. The arts of fraud were made fubfervient to the defigns of cruelty; and a manifeft forgery was attefted by a perfon of the moft facred character. From the hands of the bishop of Nicomedia, Conftantius received a fatal fcroll, affirmed to be the genuine testament of his father; in which the emperor expreffed his fufpicions that he had been poifoned by his brothers; and conjured his fons to revenge his death, 49 The character of Dalmatius is advantageoufly, though concisely drawn by Eutropius (x. 9). Dalmatius Cæfar prosperrimâ indole, neque patruo abfimilis, baud multo post, oppreffus eft factione militari. As both Jerom and the Alexandrian Chronicle mention the third year of the Cæfar, which did not commence till the 18th or 24th of September, A. D. 337, it is certain that thefe military factions continued above four months. CHA P. and to confult their own safety, by the punishment XVIII. of the guilty 50. Whatever reasons might have been alleged by thefe unfortunate princes to defend their life and honour against fo incredible an accufation, they were filenced by the furious cla mours of the foldiers, who declared themselves, at once, their enemies, their judges, and their executioners. The fpirit, and even the forms of legal proceedings were repeatedly violated in a promifcuous maffacre; which involved the two uncles of Conftantius, feven of his coufins, of whom Dalmatius and Hannibalianus were the most illuftrious, the Patrician Optatus, who had married a fifter of the late emperor, and the Præfect Ablavius, whofe power and riches had infpired him with fome hopes of obtaining the purple. If it were neceffary to aggravate the horrors of this bloody fcene, we might add, that Conftantius himself had efpoufed the daughter of his uncle Julius, and that he had beftowed his fifter in marriage on his coufin Hannibalianus. Thefe alliances, which the policy of Conftantine, regardless of the public prejudice s, had formed between so I have related this fingular anecdote on the authority of Phi loftorgius, l. ii, c. 16. But if such a pretext was ever used by Conftantine and his adherents, it was laid afide with contempt, as foon as it had ferved their immediate purpose. Athanafius (tom. i. p. 856.) mentions the oath which Conftantius had taken for the security of his kinfmen. 51 Conjugia fobrinarum diu ignorata, tenipore addito percrebuiffe. Tacit. Annal. xii. 6. and Lipfius ad lóc. The repeal of the ancient law, and the practice of five hundred years, were infufficient to eradicate the prejudices of the Romans; who still confidered the marriages of coufins-german, as a fpecies of imperfect incest (Augustin de Civitate Dei, xv. 6.); and Julian, whofe mind was biaffed by between the feveral branches of the Imperial CHA P. house, ferved only to convince mankind, that XVIII. these princes were as cold to the endearments of conjugal affection, as they were infenfible to the ties of confanguinity, and the moving entreaties of youth and innocence. Of fo numerous a family, Gallus and Julian alone, the two youngest children of Julius Conftantius, were faved from the hands of the affaffins, till their rage, fatiated with flaughter, had in fome measure fubfided. The emperor Conftantius, who, in the abfence of his brothers, was the most obnoxious to guilt and reproach, discovered, on fome future occafions, a faint and tranfient remorfe for those cruelties which the perfidious counfels of his ministers, and the irresistible violence of the troops, had extorted from his unexperienced youth 52, The maffacre of the Flavian race was fucceeded by a new divifion of the provinces; which was by fuperftition and refentment, ftigmatizes thefe unnatural alliances between his own coufins with the opprobrious epithet of yaμwv TE OU gauw (Orat. vii. p. 228). The jurifprudence of the canons has fince revived and enforced this prohibition, without being able to introduce it either into the civil or the common law of Europe. See on the fubject of thefe marriages, Taylor's Civil Law, p. 331. Brouer de Jure Connub. I. ii, c. 12. Hericourt des Loix Ecclefiaftiques, part iii. c. 5. Fleury Inftitutions du Droit Canonique, tom. i. p. 331. Paris, 1767, and Fra Paolo Iftoria del Concilio Trident. I. viii. 52 Julian (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 270.) charges his coufin Conftantius with the whole guilt of a maffacre, from which he himself fo narrowly escaped. His affertion is confirmed by Athanafius, who, for reasons of a very different nature, was not lefs an enemy of Conftantius (tom. i. p. 856.). Zofimus joins in the fame accufation. But the three abbreviators, Eutropius and the Victors, use very qualifying expreffions; "finente potius quam jubente;" "incertum "❝ vi militum." quo fuafore;" Divifion of the empire A.D. 337. Sept. 11. |