CHAP. XIV.
peror was employed in the Italian war, he intrusted his
friend with the defence of the Danube; and immediately after his return from that unfortunate expedition, he invested Licinius with the vacant purple of
Severus, resigning to his immediate command the provinces of Illyricum[1].
and of Maximin.
The news of his promotion was
no sooner carried into the east, than Maximin, who
governed, or rather oppressed, the countries of Egypt
and Syria, betrayed his envy and discontent, disdained
the inferior name of Caesar, and notwithstanding the
prayers as well as argvunents of Galerius, exacted,
almost by violence, the equal title of Augustus[2]. For
the first, and indeed for the last time, the Roman world
Six empe- w'as administered by six emperors.
Six emperors.
A. D. 308
In the west, Constantine and Maxentius affected to reverence their
father Maximian. In the east, Licinius and Maximin
honoured with more real consideration their benefactor
Galerius. The opposition of interest, and the memory
of a recent war, divided the empire into two great hostile powers; but their mutual fears produced an apparent tranquillity, and even a feigned reconciliation,
till the death of the elder princes, of Maximian, and
more particularly of Galerius, gave a new direction to
the views and passions of their surviving associates.
Misfortunes When Maximian had reluctantly abdicated the empire, the venal orators of the times applauded his philosophic moderation. When his ambition excited, or
at least encouraged, a civil war, they returned thanks
to his generous patriotism, and gently censured that
love of ease and retirement which had withdrawn him
from the public service[3]. But it was impossible that
- ↑ M. de Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. iv. part i. p. 559.) has proved that Licinius, without passing through the intermediate rank of Caesar, was declared Augustus, the eleventh of November, A.D. 307, after the return of Galerius from Italy.
- ↑ Lactantius de M. P. c. 32. When Galerius declared Licinius Augustus with himself, he tried to satisfy his younger associates by inventing, for Constanline and Maximin, (not Maxentius, see Baluze, p. 81.) the new title of sons of the Augusti. But when Maximin acquainted him that he had been saluted Augustus by the army, Galerius was obliged to acknowledge him, as well as Constantine, as equal associates in the imperial dignity.
- ↑ See Panegvr. Vet. vi. 9. Audi doloris nostri liberam vocem, etc. The
