who had dared to invade the
territories of Rome. At the head of his legions he passed the Danube
after repairing the bridge which had been constructed by Trajan,
penetrated into the strongest recesses of Dacia, [100] and when he had
inflicted a severe revenge, condescended to give peace to the suppliant
Goths, on condition that, as often as they were required, they should
supply his armies with a body of forty thousand soldiers. [101] Exploits
like these were no doubt honorable to Constantine, and beneficial to
the state; but it may surely be questioned, whether they can justify
the exaggerated assertion of Eusebius, that All Scythia, as far as the
extremity of the North, divided as it was into so many names and nations
of the most various and savage manners, had been added by his victorious
arms to the Roman empire. [102]

[Footnote 98: Nazarius in Panegyr. Vet. x. The victory of Crispus over
the Alemanni is expressed on some medals. * Note: Other medals are
extant, the legends of which commemorate the success of Constantine over
the Sarmatians and other barbarous nations, Sarmatia Devicta. Victoria
Gothica. Debellatori Gentium Barbarorum. Exuperator Omnium Gentium. St.
Martin, note on Le Beau, i. 148.--M.]

[Footnote 981]: Campona, Old Buda in Hungary; Margus, Benonia, Widdin, in
Maesia--G and M.]

[Footnote 99: See Zosimus, l. ii. p. 93, 94; though the narrative
of that historian is neither clear nor consistent. The Panegyric of
Optatianus (c. 23) mentions the alliance of the Sarmatians with the
Carpi and Getae, and points out the several fields of battle. It is
supposed that the Sarmatian games, celebrated in the month of November,
derived their origin from the success of this war.]

[Footnote 100: In the Caesars of Julian, (p. 329. Commentaire de
Spanheim, p. 252.) Constantine boasts, that he had recovered the
province (Dacia) which Trajan had subdued. But it is insinuated by
Silenus, that the conquests of Constantine were like the gardens of
Adonis, which fade and wither almost the moment they appear.]

[Footnote 101: Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 21. I know not whether we
may entirely depend on his authority. Such an alliance has a very recent
air, and scarcely is suited to the maxims of the beginning of the fourth
century.]

[Footnote 102: Eusebius in Vit. Constantin. l. i. c. 8. This
passage, however, is taken from a general declamation on the greatness
of Constantine, and not from any particular accou