. She remained the widow of the vanquished
Licinius; and it was by her entreaties, that an innocent boy, the
offspring of their marriage, preserved, for some time, his life, the
title of Caesar, and a precarious hope of the succession. Besides the
females, and the allies of the Flavian house, ten or twelve males, to
whom the language of modern courts would apply the title of princes of
the blood, seemed, according to the order of their birth, to be destined
either to inherit or to support the throne of Constantine. But in less
than thirty years, this numerous and increasing family was reduced to
the persons of Constantius and Julian, who alone had survived a series
of crimes and calamities, such as the tragic poets have deplored in the
devoted lines of Pelops and of Cadmus.

[Footnote 7: Zosimus and Zonaras agree in representing Minervina as the
concubine of Constantine; but Ducange has very gallantly rescued her
character, by producing a decisive passage from one of the panegyrics:
"Ab ipso fine pueritiae te matrimonii legibus dedisti."]

[Footnote 8: Ducange (Familiae Byzantinae, p. 44) bestows on him, after
Zosimus, the name of Constantine; a name somewhat unlikely, as it
was already occupied by the elder brother. That of Hannibalianus is
mentioned in the Paschal Chronicle, and is approved by Tillemont. Hist.
des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 527.]

Crispus, the eldest son of Constantine, and the presumptive heir of
the empire, is represented by impartial historians as an amiable and
accomplished youth. The care of his education, or at least of his
studies, was intrusted to Lactantius, the most eloquent of the
Christians; a preceptor admirably qualified to form the taste, and
the excite the virtues, of his illustrious disciple. [9] At the age
of seventeen, Crispus was invested with the title of Caesar, and the
administration of the Gallic provinces, where the inroads of the Germans
gave him an early occasion of signalizing his military prowess. In the
civil war which broke out soon afterwards, the father and son divided
their powers; and this history has already celebrated the valor as
well as conduct displayed by the latter, in forcing the straits of the
Hellespont, so obstinately defended by the superior fleet of Lacinius.
This naval victory contributed to determine the event of the war;
and the names of Constantine and of Crispus were united in the joyful
acclamations of their eastern subjects; who loudly proclaimed, t