to
an unwieldy corpulence, was covered with ulcers, and devoured by
innumerable swarms of those insects which have given their name to a
most loathsome disease; but as Galerius had offended a very zealous and
powerful party among his subjects, his sufferings, instead of exciting
their compassion, have been celebrated as the visible effects of divine
justice. He had no sooner expired in his palace of Nicomedia, than the
two emperors who were indebted for their purple to his favors, began
to collect their forces, with the intention either of disputing, or of
dividing, the dominions which he had left without a master. They were
persuaded, however, to desist from the former design, and to agree in
the latter. The provinces of Asia fell to the share of Maximin, and
those of Europe augmented the portion of Licinius. The Hellespont and
the Thracian Bosphorus formed their mutual boundary, and the banks of
those narrow seas, which flowed in the midst of the Roman world, were
covered with soldiers, with arms, and with fortifications. The deaths
of Maximian and of Galerius reduced the number of emperors to four. The
sense of their true interest soon connected Licinius and Constantine; a
secret alliance was concluded between Maximin and Maxentius, and their
unhappy subjects expected with terror the bloody consequences of their
inevitable dissensions, which were no longer restrained by the fear or
the respect which they had entertained for Galerius.

Among so many crimes and misfortunes, occasioned by the passions of the
Roman princes, there is some pleasure in discovering a single action
which may be ascribed to their virtue. In the sixth year of his reign,
Constantine visited the city of Autun, and generously remitted the
arrears of tribute, reducing at the same time the proportion of their
assessment from twenty-five to eighteen thousand heads, subject to the
real and personal capitation. Yet even this indulgence affords the most
unquestionable proof of the public misery. This tax was so extremely
oppressive, either in itself or in the mode of collecting it, that
whilst the revenue was increased by extortion, it was diminished
by despair: a considerable part of the territory of Autun was left
uncultivated; and great numbers of the provincials rather chose to live
as exiles and outlaws, than to support the weight of civil society. It
is but too probable, that the bountiful emperor relieved, by a partial
act of liberality, one amon