ed
multitude to desert and depose the object of their partial choice. The
approaching contest with Magnentius was of a more serious and bloody
kind. The tyrant advanced by rapid marches to encounter Constantius, at
the head of a numerous army, composed of Gauls and Spaniards, of Franks
and Saxons; of those provincials who supplied the strength of the
legions, and of those barbarians who were dreaded as the most formidable
enemies of the republic. The fertile plains of the Lower Pannonia,
between the Drave, the Save, and the Danube, presented a spacious
theatre; and the operations of the civil war were protracted during the
summer months by the skill or timidity of the combatants. Constantius
had declared his intention of deciding the quarrel in the fields of
Cibalis, a name that would animate his troops by the remembrance of the
victory, which, on the same auspicious ground, had been obtained by the
arms of his father Constantine. Yet by the impregnable fortifications
with which the emperor encompassed his camp, he appeared to decline,
rather than to invite, a general engagement. It was the object of
Magnentius to tempt or to compel his adversary to relinquish this
advantageous position; and he employed, with that view, the various
marches, evolutions, and stratagems, which the knowledge of the art of
war could suggest to an experienced officer. He carried by assault the
important town of Siscia; made an attack on the city of Sirmium, which
lay in the rear of the Imperial camp, attempted to force a passage over
the Save into the eastern provinces of Illyricum; and cut in pieces
a numerous detachment, which he had allured into the narrow passes of
Adarne. During the greater part of the summer, the tyrant of Gaul showed
himself master of the field. The troops of Constantius were harassed
and dispirited; his reputation declined in the eye of the world; and
his pride condescended to solicit a treaty of peace, which would have
resigned to the assassin of Constans the sovereignty of the provinces
beyond the Alps. These offers were enforced by the eloquence of
Philip the Imperial ambassador; and the council as well as the army
of Magnentius were disposed to accept them. But the haughty usurper,
careless of the remonstrances of his friends, gave orders that Philip
should be detained as a captive, or, at least, as a hostage; while he
despatched an officer to reproach Constantius with the weakness of
his reign, and to insult him b