ented by the freedom and dangers of a military life; they
had advanced almost by equal steps through the successive honors of the
service; and as soon as Galerius was invested with the Imperial dignity,
he seems to have conceived the design of raising his companion to the
same rank with himself. During the short period of his prosperity,
he considered the rank of Caesar as unworthy of the age and merit of
Licinius, and rather chose to reserve for him the place of Constantius,
and the empire of the West. While the emperor was employed in the
Italian war, he intrusted his friend with the defence of the Danube;
and immediately after his return from that unfortunate expedition, he
invested Licinius with the vacant purple of Severus, resigning to his
immediate command the provinces of Illyricum. The news of his promotion
was no sooner carried into the East, than Maximin, who governed, or
rather oppressed, the countries of Egypt and Syria, betrayed his
envy and discontent, disdained the inferior name of Caesar, and,
notwithstanding the prayers as well as arguments of Galerius, exacted,
almost by violence, the equal title of Augustus. For the first, and
indeed for the last time, the Roman world was administered by six
emperors. In the West, Constantine and Maxentius affected to reverence
their father Maximian. In the East, Licinius and Maximin honored with
more real consideration their benefactor Galerius. The opposition of
interest, and the memory of a recent war, divided the empire into
two great hostile powers; but their mutual fears produced an apparent
tranquillity, and even a feigned reconciliation, till the death of the
elder princes, of Maximian, and more particularly of Galerius, gave a
new direction to the views and passions of their surviving associates.

When Maximian had reluctantly abdicated the empire, the venal orators
of the times applauded his philosophic moderation. When his ambition
excited, or at least encouraged, a civil war, they returned thanks
to his generous patriotism, and gently censured that love of ease and
retirement which had withdrawn him from the public service. But it was
impossible that minds like those of Maximian and his son could long
possess in harmony an undivided power. Maxentius considered himself as
the legal sovereign of Italy, elected by the Roman senate and people;
nor would he endure the control of his father, who arrogantly declared
that by his name and abilities the rash youth h