nt was fortified against the
besiegers, whilst the sea was open, either for the escape of Maximian,
or for the succor of Maxentius, if the latter should choose to disguise
his invasion of Gaul under the honorable pretence of defending a
distressed, or, as he might allege, an injured father. Apprehensive
of the fatal consequences of delay, Constantine gave orders for an
immediate assault; but the scaling-ladders were found too short for the
height of the walls, and Marseilles might have sustained as long a siege
as it formerly did against the arms of Caesar, if the garrison, conscious
either of their fault or of their danger, had not purchased their pardon
by delivering up the city and the person of Maximian. A secret but
irrevocable sentence of death was pronounced against the usurper; he
obtained only the same favor which he had indulged to Severus, and
it was published to the world, that, oppressed by the remorse of his
repeated crimes, he strangled himself with his own hands. After he had
lost the assistance, and disdained the moderate counsels of Diocletian,
the second period of his active life was a series of public calamities
and personal mortifications, which were terminated, in about three
years, by an ignominious death. He deserved his fate; but we should find
more reason to applaud the humanity of Constantine, if he had spared
an old man, the benefactor of his father, and the father of his wife.
During the whole of this melancholy transaction, it appears that Fausta
sacrificed the sentiments of nature to her conjugal duties.

The last years of Galerius were less shameful and unfortunate; and
though he had filled with more glory the subordinate station of Caesar
than the superior rank of Augustus, he preserved, till the moment of his
death, the first place among the princes of the Roman world. He survived
his retreat from Italy about four years; and wisely relinquishing his
views of universal empire, he devoted the remainder of his life to the
enjoyment of pleasure, and to the execution of some works of public
utility, among which we may distinguish the discharging into the Danube
the superfluous waters of the Lake Pelso, and the cutting down the
immense forests that encompassed it; an operation worthy of a monarch,
since it gave an extensive country to the agriculture of his Pannonian
subjects. His death was occasioned by a very painful and lingering
disorder. His body, swelled by an intemperate course of life