darkness of the night. The
signal victory which Constantius obtained is attributed to the arms of
his cavalry. His cuirassiers are described as so many massy statues
of steel, glittering with their scaly armor, and breaking with their
ponderous lances the firm array of the Gallic legions. As soon as the
legions gave way, the lighter and more active squadrons of the second
line rode sword in hand into the intervals, and completed the disorder.
In the mean while, the huge bodies of the Germans were exposed almost
naked to the dexterity of the Oriental archers; and whole troops of
those Barbarians were urged by anguish and despair to precipitate
themselves into the broad and rapid stream of the Drave. The number of
the slain was computed at fifty-four thousand men, and the slaughter
of the conquerors was more considerable than that of the vanquished; a
circumstance which proves the obstinacy of the contest, and justifies
the observation of an ancient writer, that the forces of the empire were
consumed in the fatal battle of Mursa, by the loss of a veteran army,
sufficient to defend the frontiers, or to add new triumphs to the glory
of Rome. Notwithstanding the invectives of a servile orator, there
is not the least reason to believe that the tyrant deserted his own
standard in the beginning of the engagement. He seems to have displayed
the virtues of a general and of a soldier till the day was irrecoverably
lost, and his camp in the possession of the enemy. Magnentius then
consulted his safety, and throwing away the Imperial ornaments,
escaped with some difficulty from the pursuit of the light horse, who
incessantly followed his rapid flight from the banks of the Drave to the
foot of the Julian Alps.

The approach of winter supplied the indolence of Constantius with
specious reasons for deferring the prosecution of the war till the
ensuing spring. Magnentius had fixed his residence in the city of
Aquileia, and showed a seeming resolution to dispute the passage of
the mountains and morasses which fortified the confines of the Venetian
province. The surprisal of a castle in the Alps by the secret march of
the Imperialists, could scarcely have determined him to relinquish the
possession of Italy, if the inclinations of the people had supported the
cause of their tyrant. But the memory of the cruelties exercised by his
ministers, after the unsuccessful revolt of Nepotian, had left a deep
impression of horror and resentment on