Character of the Emperor Conftantine: from Gibbon's Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. THE [A. D. 324.] HE character of the prince who removed the feat of empire, and introduced fuch important changes into the civil and religious conftitution of his country, has fixed the attention, and divided the opinions, of mankind. By the grateful zeal of the Chriftians, the deliverer of the church has been decorated with every attribute of a hero, and even of a faint; while the difcontent of the vanquished party has compared Conftantine to the most abhorred of thofe tyrants, who, by their vice and weaknefs, difhonoured the Imperial purple. The fame paffions have in fome degree been perpetuated to fucceeding generations, and the character of Conftantine is confidered, even in the prefent age, as an object either of fatire or of panegyric. By the impartial union of thofe defects which are confeffed by his warmeft admirers, and of thofe virtues which are acknowledged by his moft implacable enemies, we might hope to delineate a juft portrait of that VOL. XXIV. extraordinary man, which the truth and candour of history should adopt without a blufh. But it would foon appear, that the vain attempt to blend fuch difcordant colours, and to reconcile fuch inconfiftent qualities, must produce a figure monftrous rather than human, unless it is viewed in its proper and diftinct lights by a careful feparation of the different periods of the reign of Conftantine. The perfon, as well as the mind of Conftantine, had been enriched by nature with her choicest endowments. His ftature was lofty, his countenance majestic, his deportment graceful; his ftrength and activity were displayed in every manly exercife, and from his earliest youth, to a very advanced feafon of life, he preferved the vigour of his conftitu tion by a ftrict adherence to the domeftic virtues of chastity and temperance. He delighted in the focial intercourfe of familiar converfation; and though he might fometimes indulge his difpofition to raillery with lefs referve than was required by the fevere dignity of his ftation, the courtesy and liberality of his manners gained the hearts of all who approached him. The fincerity of his friend. fhip has been fufpected; yet he B fhewed, fhewed, on fome occafions, that he was not incapable of a warm and lafting attachment. The difadvantage of an illiterate education had not prevented him from forming a juft eftimate of the value of learning; and the arts and fciences derived fome encouragement from the munificent protection of Conftantine. In the dif patch of business, his diligence was indefatigable; and the active powers of his mind were almoft continually exercised in reading, writing, or meditating, in giving audience to anbaffadors, and in examining the complaints of his fubjects. Even those who cenfured the propriety of his measures were compelled to acknowledge, that he poffeffed magnanimity to conceive, and patience to execute, the most arduous defigns, without being checked either by the prejudices of education, or by the clamours of the multitude. In the field, he infufed his own intrepid fpirit into the troops, whom he conducted with the ta lents of a confummate general; and to his abilities, rather than to his fortune, we may afcribe the fignal victories which he obtained over the foreign and domestic foes of the republic. He loved glory, as the reward, perhaps as the motive, of his labours. The The boundlefs ambition, which, from the moment of his accepting the purple at York, appeared as the ruling paffion of his foul, may be juftified by the dangers of his own fituation, by the character of his rivals, by the confcioufnefs of fuperior merit, and by the profpect that his fuccefs would enable him to restore peace and order to the distracted empire. In his ci vil wars against Maxentius and Licinius, he had engaged on his fide the inclinations of the people, who compared the undiffembled vices of thofe tyrants, with the fpirit of wisdom and justice which feemed to direct the general tenor of the administration of Conftantine. Had Conftantine fallen on the banks of the Tyber, or even in the plains of Hadrianople, fuch is the character which, with a few exceptions, he might have tranf mitted to pofterity. But the con. clufion of his reign (according to the moderate and indeed tender fentence of a writer of the fame age) degraded him from the rank which he had acquired among the most deferving of the Roman princes. In the life of Auguftus, we behold the tyrant of the republic, converted almost by imperceptible degrees, into the father of his country and of human kind. In that of Conftantine, we may contemplate a hero, who had fo long infpired his fubjects with love, and his enemies with terror, degenerating into a cruel and diffolute monarch, corrupted by his fortune, or raised by conquest above the neceffity of diffimulation. The general peace which he maintained during the last fourteen years of his reign, was a period of apparent fplendor rather than of real profperity; and the old age of Conftantine was difgraced by the oppofite yet reconcileable vices of rapaciousness and prodigality. The accumulated treafures found in the palaces of Maxentius and Licinius, were lavifhly confumed; the various innovations introduced by the conqueror, were attended with an increafing en increafing expence; the coft of his buildings, his court, and his feftivals, required an immediate and plentiful fupply; and the oppreflion of the people was the only fund which could fupport the magnificence of the fovereign. His unworthy favourites, riched by the boundlefs liberality of their mafter, ufurped with impunity the privilege of rapine and corruption. A fecret but univerfal decay was felt in every part of the public adminiftration, and the emperor himself, though he ftill retained the obedience, gradually loft the efteem, of his fubjects. The dress and manners, which, towards the decline of life, he chose to affect, ferved only to degrade him in the eyes of man. kind. The Afiatic pomp, which had been adopted by the pride of Diocletian, affumed an air of foft nefs and effeminacy in the perfon of Conftantine. He is reprefented with falfe hair of various colours, laboriously arranged by the skilful artifts of the times; a diadem of a new and more expenfive fashion; a profufion of gems and pearls, of collars and bracelets, and a variegated flowing robe of filk, moft curiously embroidered with flowers of gold. In fuch apparel, fcarcely to be excused by the youth and folly of Elagabalus, we are at a lofs to difcover the wisdom of an aged monarch, and the fimplicity of a Roman veteran. A mind thus relaxed by prosperity and indulgence, was incapable of rifing to that magnanimity which difdains fufpicion, and dares to forgive. The deaths of Maximinian and Licinius may perhaps be juftified 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 fullied the declining age of Conftantine, will fuggeft to our moft candid thoughts, the idea of a prince, who could facrifice without reluctance the laws of juftice, and the feelings of nature, to the dictates either of his paffions or of his interest. An Account of the paftoral Manners and of the Government of the Scythians or Tartars; from the fame Author. N plains of Scythia, or Tartary, have been inhabited by vagrant tribes of hunters and thepherds, whofe indolence refufes to culti vate the earth, and whose restless fpirit difdains the confinement of the Scythians, and Tartars, have a fedentary life. In every age, been renowned for their invincible courage, and rapid conquefts. The thrones of Afia have been repeatedly overturned by the fhepherds of the North; and their arms have spread terror and devaftation over the most fertile and warlike countries of Europe. On this occafion, as well as on many others, the fober historian is forci bly awakened from a pleasing vifion; and is compelled, with fome reluctance, to confefs, that the paftoral manners, which have been adorned with the fairest attributes of peace and innocence, are much better adapted to the fierce and cruel habits of a military life. To illuftrate this obfervation, I fhall now proceed to confider a nation of fhepherds and of war every age, the immenfe B 2 I. The corn, or even the rice, which conftitutes the ordinary and whole fome food of a civilized people, can be obtained only by the patient toil of the husbandman. Some of the happy favages, who dwell between the tropics, are plentifully nourished by the liberality of nature; but in the climates of the North, a nation of fhepherds is reduced to their flocks and herds. The skilful practitioners of the medical art will determine (if they are able to determine) how far the temper of the human mind may be affected by the use of animal, or of vegetable food; and whether the common affociation of carnivorous and cruel, deferves to be confidered in any other light than that of an innocent, perhaps a falutary prejudice of humanity. Yet if it be true, that the fentiment of compaffion is imperceptibly weakened by the fight and practice of domeftic cruelty, we may obferve that the horrid objects which are difguifed by the arts of European refinement, are exhibited in their naked and moft difgufting fimplicity, in the tent of a Tartarian shepherd. The ox or the fheep, are flaughtered by the fame hand from which they were accustomed to receive their daily food; and the Eleed ing limbs are ferved, with very little preparation, on the table of their unfeeling murderer. In the military profeflion, and especially in the conduct of a numerous army, the exclusive use of animal food appears to be productive of the most folid advantages. Corn is a bulky and perishable commodity; and the large magazines, which are indifpenfably neceffary for the fubfiftence of our troops, must be flowly transported by the labour of men or horfes. But the flocks and herds, which accompany the march of the Tartars, afford a fure and increasing supply of flesh and milk: in the far greater part of the uncultivated wafte, the vegetation of the grafs is quick and luxuriant; and there are few places fo extremely barren, that the hardy cattle of the North cannot find fome tolerable pafture. The fupply is multiplied and prolonged, by the undiftinguifhing appetite, and patient abftinence, of the Tartars. They indifferently feed on the fiefh of thofe animals that have been killed for the table, or have died of difcafe. Horfe-fleth, which in every age and country has been profcribed by the civilized nations of Europe and Afia, they devour with peculiar greedinefs; and this fingular tafte facilitates the fuccels of their military operations. The active cavalry of Scythia is always followed, in their most diftant and rapid incurfions, by an adequate number of spare horfes, who may be occafionally ufed, either to redouble the speed, or to fatisfy the hunger of the Barbarians. Many are the refources of courage and poverty. When the forage round a camp of of Tartars is almoft confumed, they flaughter the greateft part of their cattle, and preferve the flesh, either smoaked, or dried in the fun. On the fudden emergency of a hafty march, they provide themselves with a fufficient quantity of little balls of cheefe, or rather of hard curd, which they occafionally diffolve in water; and this unfubftantial diet will fupport, for many days, the life, and even the fpirits, of the patient warrior. But this extraordinary abftinence, which the Stoic would approve, and the hermit might envy, is commonly fucceeded by the most voracious indulgence of appetite. The wines of a happier climate are the moft grateful prefent, or the most valuable commodity, that can be offered to the Tartars; and the only example of their industry seems to confift in the art of extracting from mare's milk a fermented liquor, which poffeffes a very strong power of. intoxication. Like the animals of prey, the favages, both of the old and new world, experience the alternate viciffitudes of famine and plenty; and their ftomach is inured to fuftain, without much inconvenience, the oppofite extremes of hunger and of intemperance. II. In the ages of ruftic and martial fimplicity, a people of foldiers and husbandmen are difperfed over the face of an extenfive and cultivated country; and fome time muft elapfe before the warlike youth of Greece or Italy could be affembled under the fame ftandard, either to defend their own confines, or to invade the territories of the adjacent tribes. The progrefs of manufactures and The commerce infenfibly collects a large multitude within the walls of a city: but thefe citizens are no longer foldiers; and the arts which adorn and improve the state of civil focie y, corrupt the habits of the military life. The paftoral manners of the Scythians feem to unite the different advantages of fimplicity and refine ment. The individuals of the fame tribe are conftantly affembled, but they are affembled in a camp; and the native spirit of thefe dauntlefs fhepherds is animated by mutual fupport and emulation. The houfes of the Tartars are no more than fmall tents, of an oval form, which afford a cold and dirty habitation, for the promifcuous youth of both fexes. palaces of the rich confift of wooden huts of fuch a fize that they may be conveniently fixed on large waggons, and drawn by a team perhaps of twenty or thirty oxen. The flocks and herds, after grazing all day in the adjacent paftures, retire, on the approach of night, within the protection of the camp. The neceffity of preventing the moft mifchievous confufion, in fuch a perpetual concourfe of men and animals, muft gradually introduce, in the diftribution, the order, and the guard, of the encampment, the rudiments of the military art. foon as the forage of a certain diftrict is confumed, the tribe, or rather army, of thepherds, makes a regular march to fome fresh paftures; and thus acquires, in the ordinary occupations of the paftoral life, the practical knowledge of one of the most important and difficult operations of war. The choice of stations is regulated by B 3 As the |