28 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, aiitl eight tliousaiul liorse'"; and as the defence of the ^^^ • Rhine required an extraordinary attention during the absence of the emperor, it was not in his power to employ above half his troops in the Itahan expedition, unless he sacrificed the pubhc safety to his private quarreF. At the Iiead of about forty thousand sol- diers, he marched to encounter an enemy whose num- bers were at least four times superior to his own. But the armies of Italy, placed at a secure distance from danger, were enervated by indulgence and luxury. Habituated to the baths and theatres of Rome, they took the field with reluctance ; and were chiefly com- posed of veterans who had almost forgotten, or of new levies who had never acquired, the use of arms and the practice of war. The hardy legions of Gaul had long defended the frontiers of the empire against the barbarians of the north ; and in the performance of that laborious service their valour was exercised and their discipline confirmed. There appeared the same difference between the leaders as between the armies. Caprice or flattery had tempted Maxentius with the hopes of conquest; but these aspiring hopes soon gave way to the habits of pleasure and the con- sciousness of his inexperience. The intrepid mind of Constantine had been trained from his earliest youth to war, to action, and to military command. Constantine When Hannibal marched from Gaul into Italy, he Alps!^ ^^^ ^^^^ obliged first to discover, and then to open, a way over mountains and through savage nations that had never yielded a passage to a regular army^. The e Zosimus (1. ii. p. 86.) has given us this curious account of the forces on both sides. He makes no mention of any naval armaments ; though we are assured (Panegyr. Vet. ix. 25.) that the war was carried on by sea as well as by land ; and that the fleet of Constantine took possession of Sardi- nia, Corsica, and the ports of Italy.
- ■ Panegyr. Vet. ix. 3. It is not surprising that the orator should di-
minish the numbers with which his sovereign achieved the conquest of Italy; but it appears somewhat singular that he should esteem the tyrant's army at no more than one hundred thousand men. s The three principal passages of the Alps between Gaul and Italy, are those of mount St. Bernard, mount Cenis, and mount Genevre. Tradition, and a resemblance of names, {Alpes Pennince,) had assigned the first of these for the march of Hannibal. See Sinder de Alpibus. The chevalier
