om force or famine. With an art more suitable to the character
of Diocletian than to his own, he directed his attack, not so much
against the walls of Ravenna, as against the mind of Severus. The
treachery which he had experienced disposed that unhappy prince to
distrust the most sincere of his friends and adherents. The emissaries
of Maximian easily persuaded his credulity, that a conspiracy was formed
to betray the town, and prevailed upon his fears not to expose himself
to the discretion of an irritated conqueror, but to accept the faith of
an honorable capitulation. He was at first received with humanity and
treated with respect. Maximian conducted the captive emperor to Rome,
and gave him the most solemn assurances that he had secured his life by
the resignation of the purple. But Severus, could obtain only an easy
death and an Imperial funeral. When the sentence was signified to him,
the manner of executing it was left to his own choice; he preferred the
favorite mode of the ancients, that of opening his veins; and as soon
as he expired, his body was carried to the sepulchre which had been
constructed for the family of Gallienus. [23]

[Footnote 23: The circumstances of this war, and the death of Severus,
are very doubtfully and variously told in our ancient fragments,
(see Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. part i. p. 555.) I have
endeavored to extract from them a consistent and probable narration.
* Note: Manso justly observes that two totally different narratives might
be formed, almost upon equal authority. Beylage, iv.--M.]

Chapter XIV: Six Emperors At The Same Time, Reunion Of The Empire.--Part II.

Though the characters of Constantine and Maxentius had very little
affinity with each other, their situation and interest were the same;
and prudence seemed to require that they should unite their forces
against the common enemy. Notwithstanding the superiority of his age
and dignity, the indefatigable Maximian passed the Alps, and, courting
a personal interview with the sovereign of Gaul, carried with him his
daughter Fausta as the pledge of the new alliance. The marriage was
celebrated at Arles with every circumstance of magnificence; and the
ancient colleague of Diocletian, who again asserted his claim to the
Western empire, conferred on his son-in-law and ally the title of
Augustus. By consenting to receive that honor from Maximian, Constantine
seemed to embrace the cause of Rome and of the sena