reign,
Constantine visited the city of Autun, and generously remitted the
arrears of tribute, reducing at the same time the proportion of their
assessment from twenty-five to eighteen thousand heads, subject to the
real and personal capitation. [40] Yet even this indulgence affords
the most unquestionable proof of the public misery. This tax was so
extremely oppressive, either in itself or in the mode of collecting it,
that whilst the revenue was increased by extortion, it was diminished
by despair: a considerable part of the territory of Autun was left
uncultivated; and great numbers of the provincials rather chose to live
as exiles and outlaws, than to support the weight of civil society. It
is but too probable, that the bountiful emperor relieved, by a partial
act of liberality, one among the many evils which he had caused by his
general maxims of administration. But even those maxims were less
the effect of choice than of necessity. And if we except the death of
Maximian, the reign of Constantine in Gaul seems to have been the most
innocent and even virtuous period of his life.

The provinces were protected by his presence from the inroads of the
barbarians, who either dreaded or experienced his active valor. After
a signal victory over the Franks and Alemanni, several of their princes
were exposed by his order to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre of
Treves, and the people seem to have enjoyed the spectacle, without
discovering, in such a treatment of royal captives, any thing that was
repugnant to the laws of nations or of humanity. [41]

[Footnote 40: See the viiith Panegyr., in which Eumenius displays, in
the presence of Constantine, the misery and the gratitude of the city of
Autun.]

[Footnote 41: Eutropius, x. 3. Panegyr. Veter. vii. 10, 11, 12.
A great number of the French youth were likewise exposed to the same
cruel and ignominious death.]

[Footnote 41: Yet the panegyric assumes something of an apologetic tone.
Te vero Constantine, quantumlibet oderint hoses, dum perhorrescant. Haec
est enim vera virtus, ut non ament et quiescant. The orator appeals to
the ancient ideal of the republic.--M.]

The virtues of Constantine were rendered more illustrious by the vices
of Maxentius. Whilst the Gallic provinces enjoyed as much happiness as
the condition of the times was capable of receiving, Italy and Africa
groaned under the dominion of a tyrant, as contemptible as he was
odious. The zeal of flattery and