au Levant, Let. xi.]

[Footnote 109: Aurelius Victor. Zosimus, l. ii. p. 93. According to the
latter, Martinianus was Magister Officiorum, (he uses the Latin
appellation in Greek.) Some medals seem to intimate, that during his
short reign he received the title of Augustus.]

Such were still the resources, and such the abilities, of Licinius,
that, after so many successive defeats, he collected in Bithynia a new
army of fifty or sixty thousand men, while the activity of Constantine
was employed in the siege of Byzantium. The vigilant emperor did not,
however, neglect the last struggles of his antagonist. A considerable
part of his victorious army was transported over the Bosphorus in small
vessels, and the decisive engagement was fought soon after their landing
on the heights of Chrysopolis, or, as it is now called, of Scutari. The
troops of Licinius, though they were lately raised, ill armed, and
worse disciplined, made head against their conquerors with fruitless but
desperate valor, till a total defeat, and a slaughter of five and twenty
thousand men, irretrievably determined the fate of their leader. [110]
He retired to Nicomedia, rather with the view of gaining some time for
negotiation, than with the hope of any effectual defence. Constantia,
his wife, and the sister of Constantine, interceded with her brother in
favor of her husband, and obtained from his policy, rather than from
his compassion, a solemn promise, confirmed by an oath, that after the
sacrifice of Martinianus, and the resignation of the purple, Licinius
himself should be permitted to pass the remainder of this life in peace
and affluence. The behavior of Constantia, and her relation to the
contending parties, naturally recalls the remembrance of that virtuous
matron who was the sister of Augustus, and the wife of Antony. But the
temper of mankind was altered, and it was no longer esteemed infamous
for a Roman to survive his honor and independence. Licinius solicited
and accepted the pardon of his offences, laid himself and his purple
at the feet of his lord and master, was raised from the ground with
insulting pity, was admitted the same day to the Imperial banquet, and
soon afterwards was sent away to Thessalonica, which had been chosen for
the place of his confinement. [111] His confinement was soon terminated
by death, and it is doubtful whether a tumult of the soldiers, or a
decree of the senate, was suggested as the motive for his execution.
A