ed that the legions themselves
were struck with horror and remorse, and that those pious sons of the
republic refused to violate the sanctity of their venerable parent. But
when we recollect with how much ease, in the more ancient civil wars,
the zeal of party and the habits of military obedience had converted the
native citizens of Rome into her most implacable enemies, we shall be
inclined to distrust this extreme delicacy of strangers and barbarians,
who had never beheld Italy till they entered it in a hostile manner. Had
they not been restrained by motives of a more interested nature, they
would probably have answered Galerius in the words of Caesar's veterans:
"If our general wishes to lead us to the banks of the Tyber, we are
prepared to trace out his camp. Whatsoever walls he has determined to
level with the ground, our hands are ready to work the engines: nor
shall we hesitate, should the name of the devoted city be Rome itself."
These are indeed the expressions of a poet; but of a poet who has been
distinguished, and even censured, for his strict adherence to the truth
of history.

The legions of Galerius exhibited a very melancholy proof of their
disposition, by the ravages which they committed in their retreat. They
murdered, they ravished, they plundered, they drove away the flocks
and herds of the Italians; they burnt the villages through which they
passed, and they endeavored to destroy the country which it had not
been in their power to subdue. During the whole march, Maxentius hung
on their rear, but he very prudently declined a general engagement with
those brave and desperate veterans. His father had undertaken a second
journey into Gaul, with the hope of persuading Constantine, who had
assembled an army on the frontier, to join in the pursuit, and to
complete the victory. But the actions of Constantine were guided by
reason, and not by resentment. He persisted in the wise resolution of
maintaining a balance of power in the divided empire, and he no longer
hated Galerius, when that aspiring prince had ceased to be an object of
terror.

The mind of Galerius was the most susceptible of the sterner passions,
but it was not, however, incapable of a sincere and lasting friendship.
Licinius, whose manners as well as character, were not unlike his own,
seems to have engaged both his affection and esteem. Their intimacy had
commenced in the happier period perhaps of their youth and obscurity.
It had been cem