tified by the dying emperor. In his last
moments Constantius bequeathed to his eldest son the care of the safety
as well as greatness of the family; conjuring him to assume both the
authority and the sentiments of a father with regard to the children of
Theodora. Their liberal education, advantageous marriages, the secure
dignity of their lives, and the first honors of the state with which
they were invested, attest the fraternal affection of Constantine;
and as those princes possessed a mild and grateful disposition, they
submitted without reluctance to the superiority of his genius and
fortune.

II. The ambitious spirit of Galerius was scarcely reconciled to the
disappointment of his views upon the Gallic provinces, before the
unexpected loss of Italy wounded his pride as well as power in a still
more sensible part. The long absence of the emperors had filled Rome
with discontent and indignation; and the people gradually discovered,
that the preference given to Nicomedia and Milan was not to be ascribed
to the particular inclination of Diocletian, but to the permanent form
of government which he had instituted. It was in vain that, a few months
after his abdication, his successors dedicated, under his name, those
magnificent baths, whose ruins still supply the ground as well as the
materials for so many churches and convents. The tranquility of those
elegant recesses of ease and luxury was disturbed by the impatient
murmurs of the Romans, and a report was insensibly circulated, that
the sums expended in erecting those buildings would soon be required
at their hands. About that time the avarice of Galerius, or perhaps
the exigencies of the state, had induced him to make a very strict and
rigorous inquisition into the property of his subjects, for the purpose
of a general taxation, both on their lands and on their persons. A very
minute survey appears to have been taken of their real estates; and
wherever there was the slightest suspicion of concealment, torture was
very freely employed to obtain a sincere declaration of their personal
wealth. The privileges which had exalted Italy above the rank of the
provinces were no longer regarded: * and the officers of the revenue
already began to number the Roman people, and to settle the proportion
of the new taxes. Even when the spirit of freedom had been utterly
extinguished, the tamest subjects have sometimes ventured to resist
an unprecedented invasion of their property; bu