ver the
cavalry and the infantry, while thirty-five military commanders, with
the titles of counts and dukes, under their orders, held sway in the
provinces. The army itself was recruited with difficulty, for such was
the horror of the profession of a soldier which affected the minds of
the degenerate Romans that compulsory levies had frequently to be made.
The number of the barbarian auxiliaries enormously increased, and they
were included in the legions and the troops that surrounded the throne.
Seven ministers with the rank of Illustrious regulated the affairs of
the palace, and a host of official spies and torturers swelled the
number of the immediate followers of the sovereign.

The general tribute, or indiction, as it was called, was derived largely
from the taxation of landed property. Every fifteen years an accurate
census, or survey, was made of all lands, and the proprietor was
compelled to state the true facts of his affairs under oath, and paid
his contribution partly in gold and partly in kind. In addition to this
land tax there was a capitation tax on every branch of commercial
industry, and "free gifts" were exacted from the cities and provinces on
the occasion of any joyous event in the family of the emperor. The
peculiar "free gift" of the senate of Rome amounted to some $320,000.

Constantine celebrated the twentieth year of his reign at Rome in the
year 326. The glory of his triumph was marred by the execution, or
murder, of his son Crispus, whom he suspected of a conspiracy, and the
reputation of the emperor who established the Christian religion in the
Roman world was further stained by the death of his second wife, Fausta.
With a successful war against the Goths in 331, and the expulsion of the
Sarmatians in 334, his reign closed. He died at Nicomedia on May 22,
337.

_II.--The Division of East and West_

The unity of the empire was again destroyed by the three sons of
Constantine. A massacre of their kinsmen preceded the separation of the
Roman world between Constantius, Constans, and Constantine. Within three
years, civil war eliminated Constantine. The conflict among the emperors
resulted in a doubtful war with Persia, and the almost complete
extinction of the Christian monarchy which had been founded for
fifty-six years in Armenia.

Constantius was left sole emperor in 353. He associated with himself
successively as Caesars the two nephews of the great Constantine, Gallus
and Julian.