ervice, their valor was exercised and their discipline confirmed. There
appeared the same difference between the leaders as between the armies.
Caprice or flattery had tempted Maxentius with the hopes of conquest;
but these aspiring hopes soon gave way to the habits of pleasure and the
consciousness of his inexperience. The intrepid mind of Constantine had
been trained from his earliest youth to war, to action, and to military
command.

[Footnote 51: Zosimus (l. ii. p. 86) has given us this curious account
of the forces on both sides. He makes no mention of any naval armaments,
though we are assured (Panegyr. Vet. ix. 25) that the war was carried on
by sea as well as by land; and that the fleet of Constantine took
possession of Sardinia, Corsica, and the ports of Italy.]

[Footnote 52: Panegyr. Vet. ix. 3. It is not surprising that the orator
should diminish the numbers with which his sovereign achieved the
conquest of Italy; but it appears somewhat singular that he should
esteem the tyrant's army at no more than 100,000 men.]

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

When Hannibal marched from Gaul into Italy, he was obliged, first to
discover, and then to open, a way over mountains, and through savage
nations, that had never yielded a passage to a regular army. [53]
The Alps were then guarded by nature, they are now fortified by art.
Citadels, constructed with no less skill than labor and expense, command
every avenue into the plain, and on that side render Italy almost
inaccessible to the enemies of the king of Sardinia. [54] But in the
course of the intermediate period, the generals, who have attempted the
passage, have seldom experienced any difficulty or resistance. In the
age of Constantine, the peasants of the mountains were civilized and
obedient subjects; the country was plentifully stocked with provisions,
and the stupendous highways, which the Romans had carried over the Alps,
opened several communications between Gaul and Italy. [55] Constantine
preferred the road of the Cottian Alps, or, as it is now called, of
Mount Cenis, and led his troops with such active diligence, that he
descended into the plain of Piedmont before the court of Maxentius had
received any certain intelligence of his departure from the banks of the
Rhine. The city of Susa, however, which is situated at the foot of
Mount Cenis, was surrounded with walls, and provided with a garrison
suffici