eople loudly demanded a greater
number of victims, the conqueror resisted with firmness and humanity,
those servile clamors, which were dictated by flattery as well as by
resentment. Informers were punished and discouraged; the innocent,
who had suffered under the late tyranny, were recalled from exile, and
restored to their estates. A general act of oblivion quieted the minds
and settled the property of the people, both in Italy and in Africa.
The first time that Constantine honored the senate with his presence, he
recapitulated his own services and exploits in a modest oration,
assured that illustrious order of his sincere regard, and promised to
reestablish its ancient dignity and privileges. The grateful senate
repaid these unmeaning professions by the empty titles of honor, which
it was yet in their power to bestow; and without presuming to ratify the
authority of Constantine, they passed a decree to assign him the first
rank among the three Augusti who governed the Roman world. Games and
festivals were instituted to preserve the fame of his victory, and
several edifices, raised at the expense of Maxentius, were dedicated
to the honor of his successful rival. The triumphal arch of Constantine
still remains a melancholy proof of the decline of the arts, and a
singular testimony of the meanest vanity. As it was not possible to find
in the capital of the empire a sculptor who was capable of adorning that
public monument, the arch of Trajan, without any respect either for his
memory or for the rules of propriety, was stripped of its most elegant
figures. The difference of times and persons, of actions and characters,
was totally disregarded. The Parthian captives appear prostrate at the
feet of a prince who never carried his arms beyond the Euphrates;
and curious antiquarians can still discover the head of Trajan on the
trophies of Constantine. The new ornaments which it was necessary to
introduce between the vacancies of ancient sculpture are executed in the
rudest and most unskillful manner.

The final abolition of the Praetorian guards was a measure of prudence as
well as of revenge. Those haughty troops, whose numbers and privileges
had been restored, and even augmented, by Maxentius, were forever
suppressed by Constantine. Their fortified camp was destroyed, and the
few Praetorians who had escaped the fury of the sword were dispersed
among the legions, and banished to the frontiers of the empire,
where they might