ry part of the public administration, and the emperor
himself, though he still retained the obedience, gradually lost the
esteem, of his subjects. The dress and manners, which, towards the
decline of life, he chose to affect, served only to degrade him in the
eyes of mankind. The Asiatic pomp, which had been adopted by the pride
of Diocletian, assumed an air of softness and effeminacy in the person
of Constantine. He is represented with false hair of various colors,
laboriously arranged by the skilful artists to the times; a diadem of
a new and more expensive fashion; a profusion of gems and pearls, of
collars and bracelets, and a variegated flowing robe of silk, most
curiously embroidered with flowers of gold. In such apparel, scarcely
to be excused by the youth and folly of Elagabalus, we are at a loss to
discover the wisdom of an aged monarch, and the simplicity of a Roman
veteran. [6] A mind thus relaxed by prosperity and indulgence, was
incapable of rising to that magnanimity which disdains suspicion, and
dares to forgive. The deaths of Maximian and Licinius may perhaps be
justified by the maxims of policy, as they are taught in the schools
of tyrants; but an impartial narrative of the executions, or rather
murders, which sullied the declining age of Constantine, will suggest
to our most candid thoughts the idea of a prince who could sacrifice
without reluctance the laws of justice, and the feelings of nature, to
the dictates either of his passions or of his interest.

[Footnote 3: See Eutropius, x. 6. In primo Imperii tempore optimis
principibus, ultimo mediis comparandus. From the ancient Greek version
of Poeanius, (edit. Havercamp. p. 697,) I am inclined to suspect that
Eutropius had originally written vix mediis; and that the offensive
monosyllable was dropped by the wilful inadvertency of transcribers.
Aurelius Victor expresses the general opinion by a vulgar and indeed
obscure proverb. Trachala decem annis praestantissimds; duodecim
sequentibus latro; decem novissimis pupillus ob immouicas profusiones.]

[Footnote 4: Julian, Orat. i. p. 8, in a flattering discourse pronounced
before the son of Constantine; and Caesares, p. 336. Zosimus, p. 114,
115. The stately buildings of Constantinople, &c., may be quoted as a
lasting and unexceptionable proof of the profuseness of their founder.]

[Footnote 5: The impartial Ammianus deserves all our confidence.
Proximorum fauces aperuit primus omnium Constantinus. L. xvi