faction has indeed too frequently
sacrificed the reputation of the vanquished to the glory of their
successful rivals; but even those writers who have revealed, with
the most freedom and pleasure, the faults of Constantine, unanimously
confess that Maxentius was cruel, rapacious, and profligate. [42] He had
the good fortune to suppress a slight rebellion in Africa. The governor
and a few adherents had been guilty; the province suffered for their
crime. The flourishing cities of Cirtha and Carthage, and the whole
extent of that fertile country, were wasted by fire and sword. The abuse
of victory was followed by the abuse of law and justice. A formidable
army of sycophants and delators invaded Africa; the rich and the noble
were easily convicted of a connection with the rebels; and those among
them who experienced the emperor's clemency, were only punished by the
confiscation of their estates. [43] So signal a victory was celebrated by
a magnificent triumph, and Maxentius exposed to the eyes of the people
the spoils and captives of a Roman province. The state of the capital
was no less deserving of compassion than that of Africa. The wealth of
Rome supplied an inexhaustible fund for his vain and prodigal expenses,
and the ministers of his revenue were skilled in the arts of rapine.
It was under his reign that the method of exacting a free gift from the
senators was first invented; and as the sum was insensibly increased,
the pretences of levying it, a victory, a birth, a marriage, or an
imperial consulship, were proportionably multiplied. [44] Maxentius
had imbibed the same implacable aversion to the senate, which had
characterized most of the former tyrants of Rome; nor was it possible
for his ungrateful temper to forgive the generous fidelity which had
raised him to the throne, and supported him against all his enemies.
The lives of the senators were exposed to his jealous suspicions, the
dishonor of their wives and daughters heightened the gratification of
his sensual passions. [45] It may be presumed, that an Imperial lover
was seldom reduced to sigh in vain; but whenever persuasion proved
ineffectual, he had recourse to violence; and there remains one
memorable example of a noble matron, who preserved her chastity by
a voluntary death. The soldiers were the only order of men whom he
appeared to respect, or studied to please. He filled Rome and Italy with
armed troops, connived at their tumults, suffered them with impun