stantine now extended from the confines of Cale- CHAP. XIV. donia to the extremity of Peloponnesus. It was stipulated by the same treaty, that three royal youths, the sons of the emperors, should be called to the hopes of the succession. Crispus and the youngConstantine were soon afterwards declared Cæsars in the West, while the younger Licinius was invested with the same dignity in the East. In this double proportion of honours, the couqueror asserted the superiority of his arms and power.*

tine,

323.

The reconciliation of Constantine and Licinius, General though it was embittered by resentment and jea- peace and lousy, by the remembrance of recent injuries, Constanand by the apprehension of future dangers, main- A. D. 315-' tained, however, above eight years, the tranquillity of the Roman world. As a very regular series of the imperial laws commences about this period, it would not be difficult to transcribe the civil regulations which employed the leisure of Constantine. But the most important of his institutions are intimately connected with the new system of policy and religion, which was not perfectly established till the last and peaceful years of his reign. There are many of his laws, which, as far as they concern the rights

X, v.

2 Zosimus, l. ii, p. 93. Anonym. Valesian, p. 713. Eutropius, Aurelius Victor. Euseb. in Chron. Sozomen, l. i, c. 2. Four of these writers affirm that the promotion of the Cæsars was an article of the treaty. It is, however, certain, that the younger Constantine and Licinius were not yet born; and that it is highly probable that the promotion was made the 1st of March, A. D. 317. The treaty had probably stipulated that two Cæsars might be created by the Western, and one only by the Eastern, emperor; but each of them reserved to himself the choice of the persons.

1

1

CHAP. and property of individuals, and the practice of
XIV. the bar, are more properly referred to the private

than to the public jurisprudence of the empire;
and he published many edicts of so local and
temporary a nature, that they would ill deserve
the notice of a general history. Two laws, how-
ever, may be selected from the crowd; the one
for its importance, the other for its singularity;
the former for its remarkable benevolence, the
latter for it excessive severity. 1. The horrid
practice, so familiar to the ancients, of exposing
or murdering their new-born infants, was be-
come every day more frequent in the provinces,
and especially in Italy. It was the effect of dis-
tress; and the distress was principally occasion-
ed by the intolerable burden of taxes, and by the
vexatious as well as cruel prosecutions of the
officers of the revenue against their insolvent
debtors. The less opulent or less industrious
part of mankind, instead of rejoicing in an in-
crease of family, deemed it an act of paternal
tenderness to release their children from the im-
pending miseries of a life which they themselves
were unable to support. The humanity of Con-
stantine, moved, perhaps, by some recent and
extraordinary instances of despair, engaged hin
to address an edict to all the cities of Italy, and
afterwards of Africa, directing immediate and
sufficient relief to be given to those parents who
should produce before the magistrates the chil-
dren whom their own poverty would not allow
them to educate. But the promise was too
liberal, and the provision too vague, to effect any

XIV.

general or permanent benefit. The law, though CHAP. it may merit some praise, served rather to display than to alleviate the public distress. It still remains an authentic monument to contradict and confound those venal orators, who were too well satisfied with their own situation to discover either vice or misery under the government of a generous sovereign. 2. The laws of Constantine against rapes were dictated with very little indulgence for the most amiable weaknesses of human nature; since the description of that crime was applied not only to the brutal violence which compelled, but even to the gentle seduction which might persuade, an unmarried woman, under the age of twenty-five, to leave the house of her parents. "The successful ravisher "was punished with death; and as if simple "death was inadequate to the enormity of his guilt, he was either burnt alive, or torn in

66

66

pieces by wild beasts in the amphitheatre. "The virgin's declaration that she had been "carried away with her own consent, instead of saving her lover, exposed her to share his fate.

66

66

66

The duty ofa public prosecution was intrusted "to the parents of the guilty or unfortunate maid; and if the sentiments of nature pre"vailed on them to dissemble the injury, and "to repair by a subsequent marriage the honour "of their family, they were themselves punished

• Codex Theodosian. I. xi, tit. 27, tom. iv, p. 188, with Godefroy's observations. See likewise 1. v, tit. 7, 8.

Omnia foris placita, domi prospera, annonæ ubertate, fructuum copiâ, &c. Panegyr. Vet. x, 38. This oration of Nazarius was pronounced on the day of the quinquennalia of the Cæsars, the 1st of March, A. D. 321.

CHAP. "

XIV.

by exile and confiscation. The slaves, whe"ther male or female, who were convicted of "having been accessary to the rape or seduction,

66

were burnt alive, or put to death by the ingenious torture of pouring down their throats "a quantity of melted lead. As the crime was “ofa public kind, the accusation was permitted " even to strangers. The commencement of "the action was not limited to any term of "years, and the consequences of the sentence

66

The

were extended to the innocent offspring of "such an irregular union." But whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind. most odious parts of this edict were softened or repealed in the subsequent reigns; and even Constantine himself very frequently alleviated, by partial acts of mercy, the stern temper of his general institutions. Such, indeed, was the singular humour of that emperor, who shewed himself as indulgent, and even remiss, in the execution of his laws, as he was severe, and even cruel, in the enacting of them. It is scarcely possible to observe a more decisive symptom of weakness, either in the character of the prince, or in the constitution of the government.*

See the edict of Constantine, addressed to the Roman people, in the Theodosian Code, 1. ix, tit. 24, tom. iii, p, 189.

His son very fairly assigns the true reason of the repeal, “Ne sub "specie atrocioris judicii aliqua in ulciscendo crimine dilatio nascere"tur." Cod. Theod. tom. iii, p. 193.

Eusebius (in Vitâ. Constant. I iii, c. 1) chooses to affirm, that in the reign of this hero, the sword of justice hung idle in the hands of the

magistrates.

XIV.

A. D. 322

The civil administration was sometimes inter- CHAP. rupted by the military defence of the empire. Crispus, a youth of the most amiable character, The Gowho had received with the title of Cæsar the thie war, command of the Rhine, distinguished his conduct, as well as valour, in several victories over the Franks and Alemanni; and taught the barbarians of that frontier to dread the eldest son of Constantine, and the grandson of Constantius. The emperor himself had assumed the more difficult and important province of the Danube. The Goths, who in the time of Claudius and Aurelian had felt the weight of the Roman arms, respected the power of the empire, even in the midst of its intestine divisions. But the strength of that warlike nation was now restored by a peace of near fifty years; a new generation had arisen, who no longer remembered the misfortunes of ancient days; the Sarmatians of the lake Mootis followed the Gothic standard, either as subjects or as allies; and their united force was poured upon the countries of Illyricum. Campona, Margus, and Bononia, appear to have been the scenes of several memorable sieges and battles; and though Constantine encountered a very obstinate resistance, magistrates. Eusebius himself (1. iv, c. 29, 54) and the Theodosian Code will inform us, that this excessive lenity was not owing to the want either of atrocious criminals, or of penal laws.

Nazarius in Panegyr. Vet. x. The victory of Crispus over the Alemanni is expressed on some medals.

See Zosimus l. ii, p. 93, 94; though the narrative of that historian is neither clear nor consistent. The Panegyric of Optatianus (c. 23) mentions the alliance of the Sarmatians with the Carpi and Getæ, and points out the several fields of battle. It is supposed that the Sarmatian games, celebrated in the month of November, derived their origin from the success of this war