CHAP. XIV.
gions, or to inspect the state of the provinces. Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Sirmiuni, Naissus, and Thessalonica, were the occasional places of his residence, till he founded a new Rome on the confines of Europe and Asia[1].
Alliance with Licinius.
A.D. 313. March.
Before Constantine marched into Italy, He had secured the friendship, or at least the neutrality, of Licinius the Illyrian emperor. He had promised his sister
Constantia in marriage to that prince: but the celebration of the nuptials was deferred till after the
conclusion of the war; and the interview of the two
emperors at Milan, which was appointed for that purpose, appeared to cement the union of their families
and interests[2]. In the midst of the public festivity
they were suddenly obliged to take leave of each other.
An inroad of the Franks summoned Constantine to the
Rhine, and the hostile approach of the sovereign of
Asia demanded the immediate presence of Licinius.
War between Maximin and Licinius.
A. D. 313.
Maximin had been the secret ally of Maxentius, and
without being discouraged by his fate, he resolved to
try the fortune of a civil war. He moved out of Syria
towards the frontiers of Bithynia in the depth of winter.
The season was severe and tempestuous; great numbers of men as well as horses perished in the snow;
and as the roads were broken up by incessant rains, he
was obliged to leave behind him a considerable part of
the heavy baggage, which was unable to follow the
rapidity of his forced marches. By this extraordinary
effort of diligence, he arrived, with a harassed but formidable army, on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus, before the lieutenants of Licinius were apprised of
his hostile intentions. Byzantium surrendered to the
power of Maximin, after a siege of eleven days. He
- ↑ From the Theodosian code we may now begin to trace the motions of the emperors; but the dates both of time and place have frequently been altered by the carelessness of transcribers.
- ↑ Zosimus (1. ii. p. 89.) observes, that before the war, the sister of Constantine had been betrothed to Licinius. According to the younger Victor, Diocletian was invited to the nuptials ; but having ventured to plead his age and infirmities, he received a second letter filled with reproaches for his supposed partiality to the cause of Maxentius and Maximin.
