The
wealth of Italy supplied the expenses of the war; and the adjacent
provinces were exhausted, to form immense magazines of corn and every
other kind of provisions.

The whole force of Constantine consisted of ninety thousand foot and
eight thousand horse; and as the defence of the Rhine required an
extraordinary attention during the absence of the emperor, it was not
in his power to employ above half his troops in the Italian expedition,
unless he sacrificed the public safety to his private quarrel. At the
head of about forty thousand soldiers he marched to encounter an enemy
whose numbers were at least four times superior to his own. But the
armies of Rome, placed at a secure distance from danger, were enervated
by indulgence and luxury. Habituated to the baths and theatres of
Rome, they took the field with reluctance, and were chiefly composed
of veterans who had almost forgotten, or of new levies who had never
acquired, the use of arms and the practice of war. The hardy legions
of Gaul had long defended the frontiers of the empire against the
barbarians of the North; and in the performance of that laborious
service, their valor was exercised and their discipline confirmed. There
appeared the same difference between the leaders as between the armies.
Caprice or flattery had tempted Maxentius with the hopes of conquest;
but these aspiring hopes soon gave way to the habits of pleasure and the
consciousness of his inexperience. The intrepid mind of Constantine had
been trained from his earliest youth to war, to action, and to military
command.

Chapter XIV: Six Emperors At The Same Time, Reunion Of The Empire.--Part
III.

When Hannibal marched from Gaul into Italy, he was obliged, first to
discover, and then to open, a way over mountains, and through savage
nations, that had never yielded a passage to a regular army. The Alps
were then guarded by nature, they are now fortified by art. Citadels,
constructed with no less skill than labor and expense, command every
avenue into the plain, and on that side render Italy almost inaccessible
to the enemies of the king of Sardinia. But in the course of the
intermediate period, the generals, who have attempted the passage,
have seldom experienced any difficulty or resistance. In the age of
Constantine, the peasants of the mountains were civilized and obedient
subjects; the country was plentifully stocked with provisions, and the
stupendous highways, which the Romans ha