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The Death and Funeral of Constantine – Massacre of the Princes – Division of the Empire – The Persian War (337 – 360 A.D.)
By chastising the pride of the Goths, and by accepting the
homage of a suppliant nation, Constantine asserted the majesty of
the Roman Empire; and the ambassadors of Aethiopia, Persia, and
the most remote countries of India, congratulated the peace and
prosperity of his government. 46 If he reckoned, among the
favors of fortune, the death of his eldest son, of his nephew,
and perhaps of his wife, he enjoyed an uninterrupted flow of
private as well as public felicity, till the thirtieth year of
his reign; a period which none of his predecessors, since
Augustus, had been permitted to celebrate. Constantine survived
that solemn festival about ten months; and at the mature age of
sixty-four, after a short illness, he ended his memorable life at
the palace of Aquyrion, in the suburbs of Nicomedia , whither he
had retired for the benefit of the air, and with the hope of
recruiting his exhausted strength by the use of the warm baths.
The excessive demonstrations of grief, or at least of mourning,
surpassed whatever had been practised on any former occasion.
Notwithstanding the claims of the senate and people of ancient
Rome, the corpse of the deceased emperor, according to his last
request, was transported to the city, which was destined to
preserve the name and memory of its founder. The body of
Constantine adorned with the vain symbols of greatness, the
purple and diadem, was deposited on a golden bed in one of the
apartments of the palace, which for that purpose had been
splendidly furnished and illuminated. The forms of the court
were strictly maintained. Every day, at the appointed hours, the
principal officers of the state, the army, and the household,
approaching the person of their sovereign with bended knees and a
composed countenance, offered their respectful homage as
seriously as if he had been still alive. From motives of policy ,
this theatrical representation was for some 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
Footnote 46: Eusebius (in Vit. Const. l. iv. c. 50) remarks
three circumstances relative to these Indians. 1. They came from
the shores of the eastern ocean; a description which might be
applied to the coast of China or Coromandel. 2. They presented
shining gems, and unknown animals. 3. They protested their kings
had erected statues to represent the supreme majesty of
Constantine.
Footnote 47: Funus relatum in urbem sui nominis, quod sane P. R.
aegerrime tulit. Aurelius Victor. Constantine prepared for
himself a stately tomb in the church of the Holy Apostles.
Euseb. l. iv. c. 60. The best, and indeed almost the only
account of the sickness, death, and funeral of Constantine, is
contained in the fourth book of his Life by Eusebius.
But this reign could subsist only in empty pageantry; and it
was soon discovered that the will of the most absolute monarch is
seldom obeyed, when his subjects have no longer anything to hope
from his favor, or to dread from his resentment. The same
ministers and generals, who bowed with such referential awe
before the inanimate corpse of their deceased sovereign, were
engaged in secret consultations to exclude his two nephews,
Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, from the share which he had assigned
them in the succession of the Empire. We are too imperfectly
acquainted with the court of Constantine to form any judgment of
the real motives which influenced the leaders of the conspiracy;
unless we should suppose that they were actuated by a spirit of
jealousy and revenge against the praefect Ablavius, a proud
favorite, who had long directed the counsels and abused the
confidence of the late emperor. The arguments, by which they
solicited the concurrence of the soldiers and people, are of a
more obvious nature; and they might with decency, as well as
truth, insist on the superior rank of the children of
Constantine, the danger of multiplying the number of sovereigns,
and the impending mischiefs which threatened the republic, from
the discord of so many rival princes, who were not connected by
the tender sympathy of fraternal affection. The intrigue was
conducted with zeal and secrecy, till a loud and unanimous
declaration was procured from the troops, that they would suffer
none except the sons of their lamented monarch to reign over the
Roman Empire. 48 The younger Dalmatius, who was united with his
collateral relations by the ties of friendship and interest, is
allowed to have inherited a considerable share of the abilities
of the great Constantine; but, on this occasion, he does not
appear to have concerted any measure for supporting, by arms, the
just claims which himself and his royal brother derived from the
liberality of their uncle. Astonished and overwhelmed by the
tide of popular fury, they seem to have remained, without the
power of flight or of resistance, in the hands of their
implacable enemies. Their fate was suspended till the arrival of
Constantius, the second, and perhaps the most favored, of the
sons of Constantine.
Footnote 48: Eusebius (l. iv. c. 6) terminates his narrative by
this loyal declaration of the troops, and avoids all the
invidious circumstances of the subsequent massacre.
Footnote 49: The character of Dalmatius is advantageously,
though concisely drawn by Eutropius. (x. 9.) Dalmatius Ceasar
prosperrima indole, neque patrou absimilis, haud multo post
oppressus est factione militari. As both Jerom and the
Alexandrian Chronicle mention the third year of the Ceasar, which
did not commence till the 18th or 24th of September, A. D. 337,
it is certain that these military factions continued above four
months.
The voice of the dying emperor had recommended the care of
his funeral to the piety of Constantius; and that prince, by the
vicinity of his eastern station, could easily prevent the
diligence of his brothers, who resided in their distant
government of Italy and Gaul. As soon as he had taken possession
of the palace of Constantinople, his first care was to remove the
apprehensions of his kinsmen, by a solemn oath which he pledged
for their security. His next employment was to find some
specious pretence which might release his conscience from the
obligation of an imprudent promise. The arts of fraud were made
subservient to the designs of cruelty; and a manifest forgery was
attested by a person of the most sacred character. From the
hands of the bishop of Nicomedia , Constantius received a fatal
scroll, affirmed to be the genuine testament of his father; in
which the emperor expressed his suspicions that he had been
poison ed by his brothers; and conjured his sons to revenge his
death, and to consult their own safety, by the punishment of the
guilty. 50 Whatever reasons might have been alleged by these
unfortunate princes to defend their life and honor against so
incredible an accusation, they were silenced by the furious
clamors of the soldiers, who declared themselves, at once, their
enemies, their judges, and their executioners. The spirit, and
even the forms of legal proceedings were repeatedly violated in a
promiscuous massacre; which involved the two uncles of
Constantius, seven of his cousins, of whom Dalmatius and
Hannibalianus were the most illustrious, the Patrician Optatus,
who had married a sister of the late emperor, and the Praefect
Ablavius, whose power and riches had inspired him with some hopes
of obtaining the purple. If it were necessary to aggravate the
horrors of this bloody scene, we might add, that Constantius
himself had espoused the daughter of his uncle Julius, and that
he had bestowed his sister in marriage on his cousin
Hannibalianus. These alliances, which the policy of Constantine,
regardless of the public prejudice, 51 had formed between the
several branches of the Imperial house, served only to convince
mankind, that these princes were as cold to the endearments of
conjugal affection, as they were insensible to the ties of
consanguinity, and the moving entreaties of youth and innocence.
Of so numerous a family, Gallus and Julian alone, the two
youngest children of Julius Constantius, were saved from the
hands of the assassins, till their rage, satiated with slaughter,
had in some measure subsided. The emperor Constantius, who, in
the absence of his brothers, was the most obnoxious to guilt and
reproach, discovered, on some future occasions, a faint and
transient remorse for those cruelties which the perfidious
counsels of his ministers, and the irresistible violence of the
troops, had extorted from his unexperienced youth. 52
Footnote 50: I have related this singular anecdote on the
authority of Philostorgius, l. ii. c. 16. But if such a pretext
was ever used by Constantius and his adherents, it was laid aside
with contempt, as soon as it served their immediate purpose.
Athanasius (tom. i. p. 856) mention the oath which Constantius
had taken for the security of his kinsmen.
Footnote *: The authority of Philostorgius is so suspicious, as
not to be sufficient to establish this fact, which Gibbon has
inserted in his history as certain, while in the note he appears
to doubt it. - G.
Footnote 51: Conjugia sobrinarum diu ignorata, tempore addito
percrebuisse. Tacit. Annal. xii. 6, and Lipsius ad loc. The
repeal of the ancient law, and the practice of five hundred
years, were insufficient to eradicate the prejudices of the
Romans, who still considered the marriages of cousins-german as a
species of imperfect incest. (Augustin de Civitate Dei, xv. 6;)
and Julian, whose mind was biased by superstition and resentment,
stigmatizes these unnatural alliances between his own cousins
with the opprobrious epithet (Orat. vii. p. 228.). The
jurisprudence of the canons has since received and enforced this
prohibition, without being able to introduce it either into the
civil or the common law of Europe. See on the subject of these
marriages, Taylor's Civil Law, p. 331. Brouer de Jure Connub. l.
ii. c. 12. Hericourt des Loix Ecclesiastiques, part iii. c. 5.
Fleury, Institutions du Droit Canonique, tom. i. p. 331. Paris,
1767, and Fra Paolo, Istoria del Concilio Trident, l. viii.
Footnote 52: Julian (ad S. P.. Q. Athen. p. 270) charges his
cousin Constantius with the whole guilt of a massacre, from which
he himself so narrowly escaped. His assertion is confirmed by
Athanasius, who, for reasons of a very different nature, was not
less an enemy of Constantius, (tom. i. p. 856.) Zosimus joins in
the same accusation. But the three abbreviators, Eutropius and
the Victors, use very qualifying expressions: "sinente potius
quam jubente;" "incertum quo suasore;" "vi militum."
The massacre of the Flavian race was succeeded by a new
division of the provinces; which was ratified in a personal
interview of the three brothers. Constantine, the eldest of the
Caesars, obtained, with a certain preeminence of rank, the
possession of the new capital, which bore his own name and that
of his father. Thrace, and the countries of the East, were
allotted for the patrimony of Constantius; and Constans was
acknowledged as the lawful sovereign of Italy, Africa, and the
Western Illyricum. The armies submitted to their hereditary
right; and they condescended, after some delay, to accept from
the Roman senate the title of Augustus. When they first assumed
the reins of government, the eldest of these princes was
twenty-one, the second twenty, and the third only seventeen,
years of age. 53
Footnote 53: Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. l. iv. c. 69. Zosimus,
l. ii. p. 117. Idat. in Chron. See two notes of Tillemont, Hist.
des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 1086-1091. The reign of the eldest
brother at Constantinople is noticed only in the Alexandrian
Chronicle.
While the martial nations of Europe followed the standards
of his brothers, Constantius, at the head of the effeminate
troops of Asia, was left to sustain the weight of the Persian
war. At the decease of Constantine, the throne of the East was
filled by Sapor, son of Hormouz, or Hormisdas, and grandson of
Narses, who, after the victory of Galerius, had humbly confessed
the superiority of the Roman power. Although Sapor was in the
thirtieth year of his long reign, he was still in the vigor of
youth, as the date of his accession, by a very strange fatality,
had preceded that of his birth. The wife of Hormouz remained
pregnant at the time of her husband's death; and the uncertainty
of the sex, as well as of the event, excited the ambitious hopes
of the princes of the house of Sassan. The apprehensions of
Civil war were at length removed, by the positive assurance of
the Magi, that the widow of Hormouz had conceived, and would
safely produce a son. Obedient to the voice of superstition, the
Persians prepared, without delay, the ceremony of his coronation.
A royal bed, on which the queen lay in state, was exhibited in
the midst of the palace; the diadem was placed on the spot, which
might be supposed to conceal the future heir of Artaxerxes, and
the prostrate satraps adored the majesty of their invisible and
insensible sovereign. 54 If any credit can be given to this
marvellous tale, which seems, however, to be countenanced by the
manners of the people, and by the extraordinary duration of his
reign, we must admire not only the fortune, but the genius, of
Sapor. In the soft, sequestered education of a Persian harem,
the royal youth could discover the importance of exercising the
vigor of his mind and body; and, by his personal merit, deserved
a throne, on which he had been seated, while he was yet
unconscious of the duties and temptations of absolute power. His
minority was exposed to the almost inevitable calamities of
domestic discord; his capital was surprised and plundered by
Thair, a powerful king of Yemen, or Arabia; and the majesty of
the royal family was degraded by the captivity of a princess, the
sister of the deceased king. But as soon as Sapor attained the
age of manhood, the presumptuous Thair, his nation, and his
country, fell beneath the first effort of the young warrior; who
used his victory with so judicious a mixture of rigor and
clemency, that he obtained from the fears and gratitude of the
Arabs the title of Dhoulacnaf, or protector of the nation. 55
Footnote 54: Agathias, who lived in the sixth century, is the
author of this story, (l. iv. p. 135, edit. Louvre.) He derived
his information from some extracts of the Persian Chronicles,
obtained and translated by the interpreter Sergius, during his
embassy at that country. The coronation of the mother of Sapor
is likewise mentioned by Snikard, (Tarikh. p. 116,) and
D'Herbelot (Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 703.)
Footnote *: The author of the Zenut-ul-Tarikh states, that the
lady herself affirmed her belief of this from the extraordinary
liveliness of the infant, and its lying on the right side. Those
who are sage on such subjects must determine what right she had
to be positive from these symptoms. Malcolm, Hist. of Persia, i
83. - M.
Footnote 55: D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 764.
Footnote *: Gibbon, according to Sir J. Malcolm, has greatly
mistaken the derivation of this name; it means Zoolaktaf, the
Lord of the Shoulders, from his directing the shoulders of his
captives to be pierced and then dislocated by a string passed
through them. Eastern authors are agreed with respect to the
origin of this title. Malcolm, i. 84. Gibbon took his
derivation from D'Herbelot, who gives both, the latter on the
authority of the Leb. Tarikh. - M.
The ambition of the Persian, to whom his enemies ascribe the
virtues of a soldier and a statesman, was animated by the desire
of revenging the disgrace of his fathers, and of wresting from
the hands of the Romans the five provinces beyond the Tigris.
The military fame of Constantine, and the real or apparent
strength of his government, suspended the attack; and while the
hostile conduct of Sapor provoked the resentment, his artful
negotiations amused the patience of the Imperial court. The
death of Constantine was the signal of war, 56 and the actual
condition of the Syrian and Armenia n frontier seemed to encourage
the Persians by the prospect of a rich spoil and an easy
conquest. The example of the massacres of the palace diffused a
spirit of licentiousness and sedition among the troops of the
East, who were no longer restrained by their habits of obedience
to a veteran commander. By the prudence of Constantius, who,
from the interview with his brothers in Pannonia, immediately
hastened to the banks of the Euphrates, the legions were
gradually restored to a sense of duty and discipline; but the
season of anarchy had permitted Sapor to form the siege of
Nisibis, and to occupy several of the mo st important fortresses
of Mesopotamia. 57 In Armenia , the renowned Tiridates had long
enjoyed the peace and glory which he deserved by his valor and
fidelity to the cause of Rome. ! The firm alliance which he
maintained with Constantine was productive of spiritual as well
as of temporal benefits; by the conversion of Tiridates, the
character of a saint was applied to that of a hero, the Christian
faith was preached and established from the Euphrates to the
shores of the Caspian, and Armenia was attached to the Empire by
the double ties of policy and religion. But as many of the
Armenia n nobles still refused to abandon the plurality of their
gods and of their wives, the public tranquility was disturbed by
a discontented faction, which insulted the feeble age of their
sovereign, and impatiently expected the hour of his death. He
died at length after a reign of fifty- six years, and the fortune
of the Armenia n monarchy expired with Tiridates. His lawful heir
was driven into exile, the Christian priests were either murdered
or expelled from their churches, the barbarous tribes of Albania
were solicited to descend from their mountains; and two of the
most powerful governors, usurping the ensigns or the powers of
royalty, implored the assistance of Sapor, and opened the gates
of their cities to the Persian garrisons. The Christian party,
under the guidance of the Archbishop of Artaxata, the immediate
successor of St. Gregory the Illuminator, had recourse to the
piety of Constantius. After the troubles had continued about
three years, Antiochus, one of the officers of the household,
executed with success the Imperial commission of restoring
Chosroes, * the son of Tiridates, to the throne of his fathers,
of distributing honors and rewards among the faithful servants of
the house of Arsaces, and of proclaiming a general amnesty, which
was accepted by the greater part of the rebellious satraps. But
the Romans derived more honor than advantage from this
revolution. Chosroes was a prince of a puny stature and a
pusillanimous spirit. Unequal to the fatigues of war, averse to
the society of mankind, he withdrew from his capital to a retired
palace, which he built on the banks of the River Eleutherus, and
in the centre of a shady grove; where he consumed his vacant
hours in the rural sports of hunting and hawking. To secure this
inglorious ease, he submitted to the conditions of peace which
Sapor condescended to impose; the payment of an annual tribute,
and the restitution of the fertile province of Atropatene, which
the courage of Tiridates, and the victorious arms of Galerius,
had annexed to the Armenia n monarchy. 58
Footnote 56: Sextus Rufus, (c. 26,) who on this occasion is no
contemptible authority, affirms, that the Persians sued in vain
for peace, and that Constantine was preparing to march against
them: yet the superior weight of the testimony of Eusebius
obliges us to admit the preliminaries, if not the ratification,
of the treaty. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p.
420.
Footnote *: Constantine had endeavored to allay the fury of the
prosecutions, which, at the instigation of the Magi and the Jews,
Sapor had commenced against the Christians. Euseb Vit. Hist.
Theod. i. 25. Sozom. ii. c. 8, 15. - M.
Footnote 57: Julian. Orat. i. p. 20.
Footnote *: Tiridates had sustained a war against Maximin.
caused by the hatred of the latter against Christianity. Armenia
was the first nation which embraced Christianity. About the year
276 it was the religion of the king, the nobles, and the people
of Armenia . From St. Martin, Supplement to Le Beau, v. i. p. 78.
Compare Preface to History of Vartan by Professor Neumann, p ix.
- M.
Footnote *: Chosroes was restored probably by Licinius, between
314 and 319. There was an Antiochus who was praefectus vigilum at
Rome, as appears from the Theodosian Code, (l. iii. de inf. his
quae sub ty.,) in 326, and from a fragment of the same work
published by M. Amedee Peyron, in 319. He may before this have
been sent into Armenia . St. M. p. 407. Is it not more probable
that Antiochus was an officer in the service of the Caesar who
ruled in the East? - M. Chosroes was succeeded in the year 322
by his son Diran. Diran was a weak prince, and in the sixteenth
year of his reign. A. D. 337. was betrayed into the power of the
Persians by the treachery of his chamberlain and the Persian
governor of Atropatene or Aderbidjan. He was blinded: his wife
and his son Arsaces shared his captivity, but the princes and
nobles of Armenia claimed the protection of Rome; and this was
the cause of Constantine's declaration of war against the
Persians. - The king of Persia attempted to make himself master
of Armenia ; but the brave resistance of the people, the advance
of Constantius, and a defeat which his army suffered at Oskha in
Armenia , and the failure before Nisibis, forced Shahpour to
submit to terms of peace. Varaz-Shahpour, the perfidious governor
of Atropatene, was flayed alive; Diran and his son were released
from captivity; Diran refused to ascend the throne, and retired
to an obscure retreat: his son Arsaces was crowned king of
Armenia . Arsaces pursued a vacillating policy between the
influence of Rome and Persia, and the war recommenced in the year
345. At least, that was the period of the expedition of
Constantius to the East. See St. Martin, additions to Le Beau,
i. 442. The Persians have made an extraordinary romance out of
the history of Shahpour, who went as a spy to Constantinople, was
taken, harnessed like a horse, and carried to witness the
devastation of his kingdom. Malcolm. 84 - M.
Footnote 58: Julian. Orat. i. p. 20, 21. Moses of Chorene, l.
ii. c. 89, l. iii. c. 1 - 9, p. 226 - 240. The perfect agreement
between the vague hints of the contemporary orator, and the
circumstantial narrative of the national historian , gives light
to the former, and weight to the latter. For the credit of Moses,
it may be likewise observed, that the name of Antiochus is found
a few years before in a civil office of inferior dignity. See
Godefroy, Cod. Theod. tom. vi. p. 350.
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To cite original text:
Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. (NY : Knopf, 1993), v. 2, pp. 173 - 180 .