carcely be paralleled
either in poetry or romance, is celebrated, not by a venal orator
devoted to his fortune, but by an historian, the partial enemy of his
fame. We are assured that the valiant emperor threw himself into the
River Hebrus, accompanied only by twelve horsemen, and that by the
effort or terror of his invincible arm, he broke, slaughtered, and put
to flight a host of a hundred and fifty thousand men. The credulity of
Zosimus prevailed so strongly over his passion, that among the events of
the memorable battle of Hadrianople, he seems to have selected and
embellished, not the most important, but the most marvellous. The valor
and danger of Constantine are attested by a slight wound which he
received in the thigh; but it may be discovered even from an imperfect
narration, and perhaps a corrupted text, that the victory was obtained
no less by the conduct of the general than by the courage of the hero;
that a body of five thousand archers marched round to occupy a thick
wood in the rear of the enemy, whose attention was diverted by the
construction of a bridge, and that Licinius, perplexed by so many artful
evolutions, was reluctantly drawn from his advantageous post to combat
on equal ground on the plain. The contest was no longer equal. His
confused multitude of new levies was easily vanquished by the
experienced veterans of the West. Thirty-four thousand men are reported
to have been slain. The fortified camp of Licinius was taken by assault
the evening of the battle; the greater part of the fugitives, who had
retired to the mountains, surrendered themselves the next day to the
discretion of the conqueror; and his rival, who could no longer keep the
field, confined himself within the walls of Byzantium. [107]

[Footnote 107: Zosimus, l. ii. p. 95, 96. This great battle is described
in the Valesian fragment, (p. 714,) in a clear though concise manner.
"Licinius vero circum Hadrianopolin maximo exercitu latera ardui montis
impleverat; illuc toto agmine Constantinus inflexit. Cum bellum
terra marique traheretur, quamvis per arduum suis nitentibus, attamen
disciplina militari et felicitate, Constantinus Licinu confusum et sine
ordine agentem vicit exercitum; leviter femore sau ciatus."]

The siege of Byzantium, which was immediately undertaken by Constantine,
was attended with great labor and uncertainty. In the late civil wars,
the fortifications of that place, so justly considered as the key of
Europe and A