Naissus,
and Thessalonica, were the occasional places of his residence, till he
founded a new Rome on the confines of Europe and Asia. [77]

[Footnote 75: Praetoriae legiones ac subsidia factionibus aptiora quam
urbi Romae, sublata penitus; simul arma atque usus indumenti militaris
Aurelius Victor. Zosimus (l. ii. p. 89) mentions this fact as an
historian, and it is very pompously celebrated in the ninth Panegyric.]

[Footnote 76: Ex omnibus provinciis optimates viros Curiae tuae
pigneraveris ut Senatus dignitas.... ex totius Orbis flore consisteret.
Nazarius in Panegyr. Vet x. 35. The word pigneraveris might almost seem
maliciously chosen. Concerning the senatorial tax, see Zosimus, l. ii.
p. 115, the second title of the sixth book of the Theodosian Code, with
Godefroy's Commentary, and Memoires de l'Academic des Inscriptions, tom.
xxviii. p. 726.]

[Footnote 77: From the Theodosian Code, we may now begin to trace the
motions of the emperors; but the dates both of time and place have
frequently been altered by the carelessness of transcribers.]

Before Constantine marched into Italy, he had secured the friendship,
or at least the neutrality, of Licinius, the Illyrian emperor. He had
promised his sister Constantia in marriage to that prince; but the
celebration of the nuptials was deferred till after the conclusion
of the war, and the interview of the two emperors at Milan, which
was appointed for that purpose, appeared to cement the union of their
families and interests. [78] In the midst of the public festivity they
were suddenly obliged to take leave of each other. An inroad of the
Franks summoned Constantine to the Rhime, and the hostile approach
of the sovereign of Asia demanded the immediate presence of Licinius.
Maximin had been the secret ally of Maxentius, and without being
discouraged by his fate, he resolved to try the fortune of a civil war.
He moved out of Syria, towards the frontiers of Bithynia, in the depth
of winter. The season was severe and tempestuous; great numbers of men
as well as horses perished in the snow; and as the roads were broken up
by incessant rains, he was obliged to leave behind him a considerable
part of the heavy baggage, which was unable to follow the rapidity
of his forced marches. By this extraordinary effort of diligence,
he arrived with a harassed but formidable army, on the banks of the
Thracian Bosphorus before the lieutenants of Licinius were apprised of
his hostile inten