26 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, absence, lamented, during the six years of his reign, the presence of her sovereign *. XIV Civil war Though Constantine might view the conduct of between Maxentius with abhorrence, and the situation of the Constantine . . and Max- Romans with compassion, we have no reason to pre- A^D%12 sume that he would have taken up arms to punish the one, or to relieve the other. But the tyrant of Italy rashly ventured to provoke a formidable enemy, whose ambition had been hitherto restrained by consider- ations of prudence, rather than by principles of jus- tice ^ After the death of Maximian, his titles, accord- ing to the established custom, had been erased, and his statues thrown down with ignominy. His son, who had persecuted and deserted him when alive, affected to display the most pious regard for his memory, and gave orders that a similar treatment should be imme- diately inflicted on all the statues that had been erected in Italy and Africa to the honour of Constantine. That wise prince, who sincerely wished to decline a war, with the difficulty and importance of which he was sufficiently acquainted, at first dissembled the insult, and sought for redress by the milder expedients of negociation, till lie was convinced that the hostile and ambitious designs of the Italian emperor made it ne- cessary for him to arm in his own defence. Maxentius, who openly avowed his preten.-ions to the whole monarchy of the west, had already prepared a very considerable force to invade the Gallic provinces on the side of Rhaetia; and though he could not expect any assistance from Licinius, he was flattered with the hope that the legions of Illyricum, allured by his pre-
- See in the Panegyrics (ix. 14.) a lively description of the indolence
and vain pride of Maxentius. In another pl;ice, the orator observes, that the riches which Rome had accumulated in a period of one thousand and sixty years, were lavished by the tyrant on his mercenary bands : redemptis ad civile latrocinium manibus ingesserat.
- > After the victory of Constantine, it was universally allowed, th at the
motive of delivering the republic from a detested tyrant, would at any time have justified his expedition into Italy. Euseb. in Vit. ('onstantin. 1, i. c. 26 : Panegyr. Vet. ix. 2.
