12 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, grace the choice, nor dispute the commands, of their benefactor. An obscure stranger was therefore raised to the throne of Italy ; and the son of the late emperor of the west was left to enjoy the luxury of a private fortune in a villa a few miles distant from the capital. The gloomy passions of his soul, shame, vexation, and rage, were inflamed by envy on the news of Constan- tine's success; but the hopes of Maxentius revived with the public discontent, and he was easily persuaded to unite his personal injury and pretensions with the cause of the Roman people. Two pretorian tribunes and a commissary of provisions undertook the manage- ment of the conspiracy; and as every order of men was actuated by the same spirit, the immediate event was neither doubtful nor difficult. The prefect of the city, and a few magistrates, who maintained their fidelity to Severus, were massacred by the guards ; and Maxen- tius, invested with the imperial ornaments, was acknow- ledged by the applauding senate and people as the protector of the Roman freedom and dignity. It is uncertain whether Maximian was previously acquainted Maximian with the Conspiracy ; but as soon as the standard of thrpurpk. rebellion was erected at Rome, the old emperor broke from the retirement where the authority of Diocletian had condemned him to pass a life of melancholy soli- tude, and concealed his returning ambition under the disguise of paternal tenderness. At the request of his son and of the senate, he condescended to reassume the purple. His ancient dignity, his experience, and his fame in arms, added strength as well as reputation to the party of jNIaxentius y. Defeat and According to the advice, or rather the orders, of his " colleague, the emperor Severus immediately hastened to Rome, in the full confidence that, by his unexpected celerity, he should easily suppress the tumult of an un- warlike populace, commanded by a licentious youth. y The sixth panegj'ric represents the conduct of JMaximian in the most favourable light ; and the ambiguous expression of Aurelius Victor, " re- tractante diu," may signify, either that he contrived, or that he opposed, the conspiracy. See Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 79, and Lactantius de INI. P. c. 26. verus.
