genuine
testament of his father; in which the emperor expressed his suspicions
that he had been poisoned by his brothers; and conjured his sons to
revenge his death, and to consult their own safety, by the punishment
of the guilty. 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, 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.

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 Cons