. 2.]

[Footnote 72: Zosimus, l. ii. p. 119, 120. Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiii. p.
13, and the Abbreviators.]

As soon as the death of Constans had decided this easy but important
revolution, the example of the court of Autun was imitated by the
provinces of the West. The authority of Magnentius was acknowledged
through the whole extent of the two great praefectures of Gaul and
Italy; and the usurper prepared, by every act of oppression, to collect
a treasure, which might discharge the obligation of an immense donative,
and supply the expenses of a civil war. The martial countries of
Illyricum, from the Danube to the extremity of Greece, had long obeyed
the government of Vetranio, an aged general, beloved for the simplicity
of his manners, and who had acquired some reputation by his experience
and services in war. [73] Attached by habit, by duty, and by gratitude,
to the house of Constantine, he immediately gave the strongest
assurances to the only surviving son of his late master, that he would
expose, with unshaken fidelity, his person and his troops, to inflict a
just revenge on the traitors of Gaul. But the legions of Vetranio were
seduced, rather than provoked, by the example of rebellion; their
leader soon betrayed a want of firmness, or a want of sincerity; and
his ambition derived a specious pretence from the approbation of the
princess Constantina. That cruel and aspiring woman, who had obtained
from the great Constantine, her father, the rank of Augusta, placed
the diadem with her own hands on the head of the Illyrian general; and
seemed to expect from his victory the accomplishment of those unbounded
hopes, of which she had been disappointed by the death of her husband
Hannibalianus. Perhaps it was without the consent of Constantina, that
the new emperor formed a necessary, though dishonorable, alliance with
the usurper of the West, whose purple was so recently stained with her
brother's blood. [74]

[Footnote 73: Eutropius (x. 10) describes Vetranio with more temper, and
probably with more truth, than either of the two Victors. Vetranio was
born of obscure parents in the wildest parts of Maesia; and so much had
his education been neglected, that, after his elevation, he studied the
alphabet.]

[Footnote 74: The doubtful, fluctuating conduct of Vetranio is described
by Julian in his first oration, and accurately explained by Spanheim,
who discusses the situation and behavior of Constantina.]

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