ween whom was war.

(M1133) The tyranny of Maxentius led his subjects to look to Constantine
as a deliverer, who marched to the relief of the Senate and Roman people.
He crossed the Alps with forty thousand men. Maxentius collected a force
of one hundred and seventy thousand, to maintain which he had the wealth
of Italy, Africa, and Sicily. Constantine first encountered the
lieutenants of Maxentius in the plains of Turin, and gained a complete
victory, the prize of which was Milan, the new capital of Italy. He was
advancing to Rome on the Flaminian way, before Maxentius was aroused to
his danger, being absorbed in pleasures. A few miles from Rome was fought
the battle of Saxa Rubra, A.D. 312, between the rival emperors, at which
Maxentius perished, and Constantine was greeted by the Senate as the first
of the three surviving Augusti. The victory of Constantine was
commemorated by a triumphal arch, which still remains, and which was only
a copy of the arch of Trajan. The ensuing winter was spent in Rome, during
which Constantine abolished forever the praetorian guards, which had given
so many emperors to the world. In the spring Constantine gave his daughter
Constantia in marriage to Licinius, but was soon called away to the Rhine
by an irruption of Franks, while Licinius marched against Maximin, and
defeated him under the walls of Heracles. Maximin retreated to Nicomedia,
and was about to renew the war, when he died at Tarsus, and Licinius
became master of the Eastern provinces.

(M1134) There were now but two emperors, one in the East, and the other in
the West. Constantine celebrated the restoration of tranquillity by
promulgating at Milan an edict in favor of universal religious toleration,
and the persecution of the Christians by the pagans was ended forever, in
Europe. About this time Constantine himself was converted to the new
religion. In his march against Maxentius, it is declared by Eusebius, that
he saw at noonday a cross in the heavens, inscribed with the words, "By
this conquer." It is also asserted that the vision of the cross was seen
by the whole army, and the cross henceforth became the standard of the
Christian emperors. It was called the _Labarum_, and is still seen on the
coins of Constantine, and was intrusted to a chosen guard of fifty men. It
undoubtedly excited enthusiasm in the army, now inclined to accept the new
faith, and Constantine himself joined the progressive party, and made
Christianity