icited
a preference over the meaner extraction of the son of Helena. But
Constantine was in the thirty-second year of his age, in the full vigor
both of mind and body, at the time when the eldest of his brothers could
not possibly be more than thirteen years old. His claim of superior
merit had been allowed and ratified by the dying emperor. [18] In his
last moments Constantius bequeathed to his eldest son the care of the
safety as well as greatness of the family; conjuring him to assume both
the authority and the sentiments of a father with regard to the children
of Theodora. Their liberal education, advantageous marriages, the secure
dignity of their lives, and the first honors of the state with which
they were invested, attest the fraternal affection of Constantine;
and as those princes possessed a mild and grateful disposition, they
submitted without reluctance to the superiority of his genius and
fortune. [19]

[Footnote 18: The choice of Constantine, by his dying father, which is
warranted by reason, and insinuated by Eumenius, seems to be confirmed
by the most unexceptionable authority, the concurring evidence of
Lactantius (de M. P. c. 24) and of Libanius, (Oratio i.,) of Eusebius
(in Vit. Constantin. l. i. c. 18, 21) and of Julian, (Oratio i)]

[Footnote 19: Of the three sisters of Constantine, Constantia married
the emperor Licinius, Anastasia the Caesar Bassianus, and Eutropia
the consul Nepotianus. The three brothers were, Dalmatius, Julius
Constantius, and Annibalianus, of whom we shall have occasion to speak
hereafter.]

II. The ambitious spirit of Galerius was scarcely reconciled
to the disappointment of his views upon the Gallic provinces, before the
unexpected loss of Italy wounded his pride as well as power in a still
more sensible part. The long absence of the emperors had filled Rome
with discontent and indignation; and the people gradually discovered,
that the preference given to Nicomedia and Milan was not to be ascribed
to the particular inclination of Diocletian, but to the permanent form
of government which he had instituted. It was in vain that, a few months
after his abdication, his successors dedicated, under his name, those
magnificent baths, whose ruins still supply the ground as well as the
materials for so many churches and convents. [20] The tranquility of
those elegant recesses of ease and luxury was disturbed by the impatient
murmurs of the Romans, and a report was insensibly circ