rendered himself up to the victor; having first obtained an oath
that his life should be spared, and that he should be permitted to
pass the remainder of his days in retirement. 7. This, however,
Con'stantine shortly after broke; for either fearing his designs, or
finding him actually engaged in fresh conspiracies, he commanded him
to be put to death, together with Mar'tian, his general, who some time
before had been created Caesar.

8. Con'stantine being thus become sole monarch, resolved to establish
Christianity on so sure a basis that no new revolution should shake
it. He commanded that, in all the provinces of the empire, the orders
of the bishops should he implicitly obeyed. He called also a general
council, in order to repress the heresies that had already crept
into the church, particularly that of A'rius. 9. To this council, at
which he presided in person, repaired about three hundred and eighteen
bishops, besides a multitude of presbyters and deacons; who all,
except about seventeen, concurred in condemning the tenets of A'rius,
who, with his associates, was banished into a remote part of the
empire.

10. Thus he restored universal tranquillity to his dominions, but was
not able to ward off calamities of a more domestic nature. As the
wretched historians of this period are entirely at variance with each
other, it is not easy to explain the motives which induced him to put
his wife Faus'ta, and his son Cris'pus, to death.

11. But it is supposed, that all the good he did was not equal to the
evil the empire sustained by his transferring the imperial seat from
Rome to Byzan'tium, or Constantino'ple, as it was afterwards called.
12. Whatever might have been the reasons which induced him to this
undertaking; whether it was because he was offended at some affronts
he had received at Rome, or that he supposed Constantino'ple more in
the centre of the empire, or that he thought the eastern parts more
required his presence, experience has shown that they were all weak
and groundless. 13. The empire had long before been in a most
declining state: but this, in a great measure, gave precipitation to
its downfall. After this, it never resumed its former splendour, but,
like a flower transplanted into a foreign clime, languished by
degrees, and at length sunk into nothing.

14. At first, his design was to build a city, which he might make the
capital of the world: and for this purpose he made choice of a
situation at