He fixed Dalmatius on the Gothic frontier, to which he
annexed the government of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece. The city of
Caesarea was chosen for the residence of Hannibalianus; and the provinces
of Pontus, Cappadocia, and the Lesser Armenia, were destined to form
the extent of his new kingdom. For each of these princes a suitable
establishment was provided. A just proportion of guards, of legions, and
of auxiliaries, was allotted for their respective dignity and defence.
The ministers and generals, who were placed about their persons, were
such as Constantine could trust to assist, and even to control, these
youthful sovereigns in the exercise of their delegated power. As they
advanced in years and experience, the limits of their authority were
insensibly enlarged: but the emperor always reserved for himself the
title of Augustus; and while he showed the Caesars to the armies and
provinces, he maintained every part of the empire in equal obedience
to its supreme head. The tranquillity of the last fourteen years of his
reign was scarcely interrupted by the contemptible insurrection of a
camel-driver in the Island of Cyprus, or by the active part which the
policy of Constantine engaged him to assume in the wars of the Goths and
Sarmatians.

Among the different branches of the human race, the Sarmatians form a
very remarkable shade; as they seem to unite the manners of the Asiatic
barbarians with the figure and complexion of the ancient inhabitants of
Europe. According to the various accidents of peace and war, of alliance
or conquest, the Sarmatians were sometimes confined to the banks of the
Tanais; and they sometimes spread themselves over the immense plains
which lie between the Vistula and the Volga. The care of their numerous
flocks and herds, the pursuit of game, and the exercises of war, or
rather of rapine, directed the vagrant motions of the Sarmatians. The
movable camps or cities, the ordinary residence of their wives and
children, consisted only of large wagons drawn by oxen, and covered in
the form of tents. The military strength of the nation was composed of
cavalry; and the custom of their warriors, to lead in their hand one or
two spare horses, enabled them to advance and to retreat with a rapid
diligence, which surprised the security, and eluded the pursuit, of a
distant enemy. Their poverty of iron prompted their rude industry to
invent a sort of cuirass, which was capable of resisting a sword or
jave