he darkest designs of revenge and murder. [15] In the midst of the
festival, the unfortunate Crispus was apprehended by order of the
emperor, who laid aside the tenderness of a father, without assuming the
equity of a judge. The examination was short and private; [16] and as it
was thought decent to conceal the fate of the young prince from the
eyes of the Roman people, he was sent under a strong guard to Pola, in
Istria, where, soon afterwards, he was put to death, either by the hand
of the executioner, or by the more gentle operations of poison. [17] The
Caesar Licinius, a youth of amiable manners, was involved in the ruin of
Crispus: [18] and the stern jealousy of Constantine was unmoved by the
prayers and tears of his favorite sister, pleading for the life of a
son, whose rank was his only crime, and whose loss she did not long
survive. The story of these unhappy princes, the nature and evidence of
their guilt, the forms of their trial, and the circumstances of their
death, were buried in mysterious obscurity; and the courtly bishop, who
has celebrated in an elaborate work the virtues and piety of his hero,
observes a prudent silence on the subject of these tragic events. [19]
Such haughty contempt for the opinion of mankind, whilst it imprints an
indelible stain on the memory of Constantine, must remind us of the very
different behavior of one of the greatest monarchs of the present age.
The Czar Peter, in the full possession of despotic power, submitted to
the judgment of Russia, of Europe, and of posterity, the reasons which
had compelled him to subscribe the condemnation of a criminal, or at
least of a degenerate son. [20]

[Footnote 13: Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 28. Tillemont, tom. iv. p. 610.]

[Footnote 14: His name was Porphyrius Optatianus. The date of his
panegyric, written, according to the taste of the age, in vile
acrostics, is settled by Scaliger ad Euseb. p. 250, Tillemont, tom. iv.
p. 607, and Fabricius, Biblioth. Latin, l. iv. c. 1.]

[Footnote 15: Zosim. l. ii. p. 103. Godefroy, Chronol. Legum, p. 28.]

[Footnote 16: The elder Victor, who wrote under the next reign, speaks
with becoming caution. "Natu grandior incertum qua causa, patris judicio
occidisset." If we consult the succeeding writers, Eutropius, the
younger Victor, Orosius, Jerom, Zosimus, Philostorgius, and Gregory of
Tours, their knowledge will appear gradually to increase, as their means
of information must have diminished--a circumst