310 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, denination and punishment were the instant conse- _^ ;_ quences of the charge ; and the aduUeress was suifo- cated by the steam of a bath, which, for that purpose, had been heated to an extraordinary degree By some it will perhaps be thought, that the remembrance of a conjugal union of twenty years, and the honour of their common offspring, the destined heirs of the throne, might have softened the obdurate heart of Constantine ; and persuaded him to suffer his wife, however guilty she might appear, to expiate her of- fences in a solitary prison. But it seems a superfluous labour to weigh the propriety, unless we could ascer- tain the truth, of this singular event ; which is attended with some circumstances of doubt and perplexity. Those who have attacked, and those who have de- fended, the character of Constantine, have alike disre- ' garded two very remarkable passages of two orations pronounced under the succeeding reign. The former celebrates the virtues, the beauty, and the fortune, of the empress Fausta, the daughter, wife, sister, and mother of so many princes. The latter asserts, in explicit terms, that the mother of the younger Con- stantine, who was slain three years after his father's death, survived to weep over the fate of her son^ Notwithstanding the positive testimony of several writ- ers of the pagan as well as of the christian religion, there may still remain some reason to believe, or at least to suspect, that Fausta escaped the blind and ess who was the mother of his three successors. According to Jerome, three or four years elapsed between the death of Crispus and that of Fausta. The elder ictor is prudently silent.
- If Fausta was put to death, it is reasonable to believe that the private
apartments of the palace were the scene of her execution. The orator Chrysostom indulges his fancy by exposing the naked empress on a desert mountain, to be devoured by wild beasts. Julian, Orat. i. He seems to call her the mother of Crispus. She might assume that title by adoption. At least, she was not considered as his mortal enemy. Julian compares the fortune of Fausta with that of Pa- rysatis, the Persian queen. A Roman would have more naturally recol- lected the second Agrippina : Et moi, qui sur le trone ai suivi mes ancetres ; Moi, fille, femme, sceur, etmere de vos maitres. <^ Monod. in Constantin. Jun. c. 4. ad calcem Eutrop. edit. Havercamp. The orator styles her the most divine and pious of queens.
