eir purple to
his favors, began to collect their forces, with the intention either
of disputing, or of dividing, the dominions which he had left without a
master. They were persuaded, however, to desist from the former design,
and to agree in the latter. The provinces of Asia fell to the share
of Maximin, and those of Europe augmented the portion of Licinius. The
Hellespont and the Thracian Bosphorus formed their mutual boundary, and
the banks of those narrow seas, which flowed in the midst of the Roman
world, were covered with soldiers, with arms, and with fortifications.
The deaths of Maximian and of Galerius reduced the number of emperors
to four. The sense of their true interest soon connected Licinius
and Constantine; a secret alliance was concluded between Maximin and
Maxentius, and their unhappy subjects expected with terror the bloody
consequences of their inevitable dissensions, which were no longer
restrained by the fear or the respect which they had entertained for
Galerius. [39]

[Footnote 36: Aurelius Victor, c. 40. But that lake was situated on the
upper Pannonia, near the borders of Noricum; and the province of Valeria
(a name which the wife of Galerius gave to the drained country)
undoubtedly lay between the Drave and the Danube, (Sextus Rufus, c. 9.)
I should therefore suspect that Victor has confounded the Lake Pelso
with the Volocean marshes, or, as they are now called, the Lake Sabaton.
It is placed in the heart of Valeria, and its present extent is not less
than twelve Hungarian miles (about seventy English) in length, and two
in breadth. See Severini Pannonia, l. i. c.
9.]

[Footnote 37: Lactantius (de M. P. c. 33) and Eusebius (l. viii. c.
16) describe the symptoms and progress of his disorder with singular
accuracy and apparent pleasure.]

[Footnote 38: If any (like the late Dr. Jortin, Remarks on
Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 307--356) still delight in recording
the wonderful deaths of the persecutors, I would recommend to their
perusal an admirable passage of Grotius (Hist. l. vii. p. 332)
concerning the last illness of Philip II. of Spain.]

[Footnote 39: See Eusebius, l. ix. 6, 10. Lactantius de M. P. c. 36.
Zosimus is less exact, and evidently confounds Maximian with Maximin.]

Among so many crimes and misfortunes, occasioned by the passions of the
Roman princes, there is some pleasure in discovering a single action
which may be ascribed to their virtue. In the sixth year of his