ented; and as the sum was insensibly increased,
the pretences of levying it, a victory, a birth, a marriage, or an
imperial consulship, were proportionably multiplied. Maxentius
had imbibed the same implacable aversion to the senate, which had
characterized most of the former tyrants of Rome; nor was it possible
for his ungrateful temper to forgive the generous fidelity which had
raised him to the throne, and supported him against all his enemies.
The lives of the senators were exposed to his jealous suspicions, the
dishonor of their wives and daughters heightened the gratification of
his sensual passions. It may be presumed, that an Imperial lover
was seldom reduced to sigh in vain; but whenever persuasion proved
ineffectual, he had recourse to violence; and there remains one
memorable example of a noble matron, who preserved her chastity by
a voluntary death. The soldiers were the only order of men whom he
appeared to respect, or studied to please. He filled Rome and Italy with
armed troops, connived at their tumults, suffered them with impunity
to plunder, and even to massacre, the defenceless people; and indulging
them in the same licentiousness which their emperor enjoyed, Maxentius
often bestowed on his military favorites the splendid villa, or the
beautiful wife, of a senator. A prince of such a character, alike
incapable of governing, either in peace or in war, might purchase the
support, but he could never obtain the esteem, of the army. Yet his
pride was equal to his other vices. Whilst he passed his indolent life
either within the walls of his palace, or in the neighboring gardens of
Sallust, he was repeatedly heard to declare, that he alone was emperor,
and that the other princes were no more than his lieutenants, on whom he
had devolved the defence of the frontier provinces, that he might enjoy
without interruption the elegant luxury of the capital. Rome, which had
so long regretted the absence, lamented, during the six years of his
reign, the presence of her sovereign.

Though Constantine might view the conduct of Maxentius with abhorrence,
and the situation of the Romans with compassion, we have no reason to
presume that he would have taken up arms to punish the one or to
relieve the other. But the tyrant of Italy rashly ventured to provoke
a formidable enemy, whose ambition had been hitherto restrained by
considerations of prudence, rather than by principles of justice. After
the death of Maximian, his t