be serviceable without again becoming dangerous. By
suppressing the troops which were usually stationed in Rome, Constantine
gave the fatal blow to the dignity of the senate and people, and the
disarmed capital was exposed without protection to the insults or
neglect of its distant master. We may observe, that in this last effort
to preserve their expiring freedom, the Romans, from the apprehension of
a tribute, had raised Maxentius to the throne. He exacted that tribute
from the senate under the name of a free gift. They implored the
assistance of Constantine. He vanquished the tyrant, and converted
the free gift into a perpetual tax. The senators, according to the
declaration which was required of their property, were divided into
several classes. The most opulent paid annually eight pounds of gold,
the next class paid four, the last two, and those whose poverty might
have claimed an exemption, were assessed, however, at seven pieces
of gold. Besides the regular members of the senate, their sons, their
descendants, and even their relations, enjoyed the vain privileges, and
supported the heavy burdens, of the senatorial order; nor will it any
longer excite our surprise, that Constantine should be attentive to
increase the number of persons who were included under so useful a
description. After the defeat of Maxentius, the victorious emperor
passed no more than two or three months in Rome, which he visited twice
during the remainder of his life, to celebrate the solemn festivals
of the tenth and of the twentieth years of his reign. Constantine was
almost perpetually in motion, to exercise the legions, or to inspect the
state of the provinces. Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Sirmium, Naissus,
and Thessalonica, were the occasional places of his residence, till he
founded a new Rome on the confines of Europe and Asia.

Before Constantine marched into Italy, he had secured the friendship,
or at least the neutrality, of Licinius, the Illyrian emperor. He had
promised his sister Constantia in marriage to that prince; but the
celebration of the nuptials was deferred till after the conclusion
of the war, and the interview of the two emperors at Milan, which
was appointed for that purpose, appeared to cement the union of their
families and interests. In the midst of the public festivity they were
suddenly obliged to take leave of each other. An inroad of the Franks
summoned Constantine to the Rhime, and the hostile approach of the
sove