and
those who have defended, the character of Constantine, have alike
disregarded two very remarkable passages of two orations pronounced
under the succeeding reign. The former celebrates the virtues, the
beauty, and the fortune of the empress Fausta, the daughter, wife,
sister, and mother of so many princes. The latter asserts, in explicit
terms, that the mother of the younger Constantine, who was slain three
years after his father's death, survived to weep over the fate of her
son. Notwithstanding the positive testimony of several writers of the
Pagan as well as of the Christian religion, there may still remain some
reason to believe, or at least to suspect, that Fausta escaped the
blind and suspicious cruelty of her husband. * The deaths of a son and a
nephew, with the execution of a great number of respectable, and perhaps
innocent friends, who were involved in their fall, may be sufficient,
however, to justify the discontent of the Roman people, and to explain
the satirical verses affixed to the palace gate, comparing the splendid
and bloody reigns of Constantine and Nero.

Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.--Part II.

By the death of Crispus, the inheritance of the empire seemed to devolve
on the three sons of Fausta, who have been already mentioned under
the names of Constantine, of Constantius, and of Constans. These young
princes were successively invested with the title of Caesar; and the
dates of their promotion may be referred to the tenth, the twentieth,
and the thirtieth years of the reign of their father. This conduct,
though it tended to multiply the future masters of the Roman world,
might be excused by the partiality of paternal affection; but it is not
so easy to understand the motives of the emperor, when he endangered
the safety both of his family and of his people, by the unnecessary
elevation of his two nephews, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. The former
was raised, by the title of Caesar, to an equality with his cousins.
In favor of the latter, Constantine invented the new and singular
appellation of Nobilissimus; to which he annexed the flattering
distinction of a robe of purple and gold. But of the whole series
of Roman princes in any age of the empire, Hannibalianus alone was
distinguished by the title of King; a name which the subjects of
Tiberius would have detested, as the profane and cruel insult of
capricious tyranny. The use of such a title, even as it appears under