veral bishops, whose holy
character might obtain a more favorable audience, with the offer of
resigning the purple, and the promise of devoting the remainder of his
life to the service of the emperor. But Constantius, though he granted
fair terms of pardon and reconciliation to all who abandoned the
standard of rebellion, [92] avowed his inflexible resolution to inflict
a just punishment on the crimes of an assassin, whom he prepared
to overwhelm on every side by the effort of his victorious arms.
An Imperial fleet acquired the easy possession of Africa and Spain,
confirmed the wavering faith of the Moorish nations, and landed a
considerable force, which passed the Pyrenees, and advanced towards
Lyons, the last and fatal station of Magnentius. [93] The temper of the
tyrant, which was never inclined to clemency, was urged by distress to
exercise every act of oppression which could extort an immediate supply
from the cities of Gaul. [94] Their patience was at length exhausted;
and Treves, the seat of Praetorian government, gave the signal of
revolt, by shutting her gates against Decentius, who had been raised
by his brother to the rank either of Caesar or of Augustus. [95] From
Treves, Decentius was obliged to retire to Sens, where he was
soon surrounded by an army of Germans, whom the pernicious arts of
Constantius had introduced into the civil dissensions of Rome. [96] In
the mean time, the Imperial troops forced the passages of the Cottian
Alps, and in the bloody combat of Mount Seleucus irrevocably fixed the
title of rebels on the party of Magnentius. [97] He was unable to bring
another army into the field; the fidelity of his guards was corrupted;
and when he appeared in public to animate them by his exhortations,
he was saluted with a unanimous shout of "Long live the emperor
Constantius!" The tyrant, who perceived that they were preparing to
deserve pardon and rewards by the sacrifice of the most obnoxious
criminal, prevented their design by falling on his sword; [98] a death
more easy and more honorable than he could hope to obtain from the hands
of an enemy, whose revenge would have been colored with the specious
pretence of justice and fraternal piety. The example of suicide
was imitated by Decentius, who strangled himself on the news of his
brother's death. The author of the conspiracy, Marcellinus, had
long since disappeared in the battle of Mursa, [99] and the public
tranquillity was confirmed by the execution