高考英语 可能考的名著《HISTORY OF ROMAN-2》18素材

1、HISTORY OF ROMAN-2Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons. Part I. Character Of Constantine. - Gothic War. - Death OfConstantine. - Division Of The Empire Among His Three Sons. -Persian War. - Tragic Deaths Of Constantine The Younger AndConstans. - Usurpation Of Magnentius. - Civil War.

2、 - Victory OfConstantius. The character of the prince who removed the seat of empire,and introduced such important changes into the civil andreligious constitution of his country, has fixed the attention,and divided the opinions, of mankind. By the grateful zeal of theChristians, the deliverer of th

3、e church has been decorated withevery attribute of a hero, and even of a saint; while thediscontent of the vanquished party has compared Constantine tothe most abhorred of those tyrants, who, by their vice andweakness, dishonored the Imperial purple. The same passions havein some degree been perpetu

4、ated to succeeding generations, andthe character of Constantine is considered, even in the presentage, as an object either of satire or of panegyric. By theimpartial union of those defects which are confessed by hiswarmest admirers, and of those virtues which are acknowledged byhis most-implacable e

5、nemies, we might hope to delineate a justportrait of that extraordinary man, which the truth and candor ofhistory should adopt without a blush. 1 But it would soonappear, that the vain attempt to blend such discordant colors,and to reconcile such inconsistent qualities, must produce afigure monstrou

6、s rather than human, unless it is viewed in itsproper and distinct lights, by a careful separation of thedifferent periods of the reign of Constantine. Footnote 1: On ne se trompera point sur Constantin, en croyanttout le mal ru'en dit Eusebe, et tout le bien qu'en dit Zosime. Fleury, Hist.

7、Ecclesiastique, tom. iii. p. 233. Eusebius andZosimus form indeed the two extremes of flattery and invective. The intermediate shades are expressed by those writers, whosecharacter or situation variously tempered the influence of theirreligious zeal. The person, as well as the mind, of Constantine,

8、had beenenriched by nature with her choices endowments. His stature waslofty, his countenance majestic, his deportment graceful; hisstrength and activity were displayed in every manly exercise, andfrom his earliest youth, to a very advanced season of life, hepreserved the vigor of his constitution b

9、y a strict adherence tothe domestic virtues of chastity and temperance. He delighted inthe social intercourse of familiar conversation; and though hemight sometimes indulge his disposition to raillery with lessreserve than was required by the severe dignity of his station,the courtesy and liberality

10、 of his manners gained the hearts ofall who approached him. The sincerity of his friendship has beensuspected; yet he showed, on some occasions, that he was notincapable of a warm and lasting attachment. The disadvantage ofan illiterate education had not prevented him from forming a justestimate of

11、the value of learning; and the arts and sciencesderived some encouragement from the munificent protection ofConstantine. In the despatch of business, his diligence wasindefatigable; and the active powers of his mind were almostcontinually exercised in reading, writing, or meditating, ingiving audien

12、ces to ambassadors, and in examining the complaintsof his subjects. Even those who censured the propriety of hismeasures were compelled to acknowledge, that he possessedmagnanimity to conceive, and patience to execute, the mostarduous designs, without being checked either by the prejudicesof educati

13、on, or by the clamors of the multitude. In the field,he infused his own intrepid spirit into the troops, whom heconducted with the talents of a consummate general; and to hisabilities, rather than to his fortune, we may ascribe the signalvictories which he obtained over the foreign and domestic foes

14、 ofthe republic. He loved glory as the reward, perhaps as themotive, of his labors. The boundless ambition, which, from themoment of his accepting the purple at York, appears as the rulingpassion of his soul, may be justified by the dangers of his ownsituation, by the character of his rivals, by the

15、 consciousnessof superior merit, and by the prospect that his success wouldenable him to restore peace and order to tot the distractedempire. In his civil wars against Maxentius and Licinius, he hadengaged on his side the inclinations of the people, who comparedthe undissembled vices of those tyrant

16、s with the spirit of wisdomand justice which seemed to direct the general tenor of theadministration of Constantine. 2Footnote 2: The virtues of Constantine are collected for themost part from Eutropius and the younger Victor, two sincerepagans, who wrote after the extinction of his family. EvenZosi

17、mus, and the Emperor Julian, acknowledge his personal courageand military achievements. Had Constantine fallen on the banks of the Tyber, or even inthe plains of Hadrianople, such is the character which, with afew exceptions, he might have transmitted to posterity. But theconclusion of his reign (ac

18、cording to the moderate and indeedtender sentence of a writer of the same age) degraded him fromthe rank which he had acquired among the most deserving of theRoman princes. 3 In the life of Augustus, we behold the tyrantof the republic, converted, almost by imperceptible degrees, intothe father of h

19、is country, and of human kind. In that ofConstantine, we may contemplate a hero, who had so long inspiredhis subjects with love, and his enemies with terror, degeneratinginto a cruel and dissolute monarch, corrupted by his fortune, orraised by conquest above the necessity of dissimulation. Thegenera

20、l peace which he maintained during the last fourteen yearsof his reign, was a period of apparent splendor rather than ofreal prosperity; and the old age of Constantine was disgraced bythe opposite yet reconcilable vices of rapaciousness andprodigality. The accumulated treasures found in the palaces

21、ofMaxentius and Licinius, were lavishly consumed; the variousinnovations introduced by the conqueror, were attended with anincreasing expense; the cost of his buildings, his court, and hisfestivals, required an immediate and plentiful supply; and theoppression of the people was the only fund which c

22、ould supportthe magnificence of the sovereign. 4 His unworthy favorites,enriched by the boundless liberality of their master, usurpedwith impunity the privilege of rapine and corruption. 5 A secretbut universal decay was felt in every part of the publicadministration, and the emperor himself, though

23、 he still retainedthe obedience, gradually lost the esteem, of his subjects. Thedress and manners, which, towards the decline of life, he choseto affect, served only to degrade him in the eyes of mankind. The Asiatic pomp, which had been adopted by the pride ofDiocletian, assumed an air of softness

24、and effeminacy in theperson of Constantine. He is represented with false hair ofvarious colors, laboriously arranged by the skilful artists tothe times; a diadem of a new and more expensive fashion; aprofusion of gems and pearls, of collars and bracelets, and avariegated flowing robe of silk, most c

25、uriously embroidered withflowers of gold. In such apparel, scarcely to be excused by theyouth and folly of Elagabalus, we are at a loss to discover thewisdom of an aged monarch, and the simplicity of a Roman veteran.6 A mind thus relaxed by prosperity and indulgence, wasincapable of rising to that m

26、agnanimity which disdains suspicion,and dares to forgive. The deaths of Maximian and Licinius mayperhaps be justified by the maxims of policy, as they are taughtin the schools of tyrants; but an impartial narrative of theexecutions, or rather murders, which sullied the declining age ofConstantine, w

27、ill suggest to our most candid thoughts the idea ofa prince who could sacrifice without reluctance the laws ofjustice, and the feelings of nature, to the dictates either ofhis passions or of his interest. Footnote 3: See Eutropius, x. 6. In primo Imperii temporeoptimis principibus, ultimo mediis com

28、parandus. From the ancientGreek version of Poeanius, (edit. Havercamp. p. 697,) I aminclined to suspect that Eutropius had originally written vixmediis; and that the offensive monosyllable was dropped by thewilful inadvertency of transcribers. Aurelius Victor expressesthe general opinion by a vulgar

29、 and indeed obscure proverb. Trachala decem annis praestantissimds; duodecim sequentibuslatro; decem novissimis pupillus ob immouicas profusiones.Footnote 4: Julian, Orat. i. p. 8, in a flattering discoursepronounced before the son of Constantine; and Caesares, p. 336. Zosimus, p. 114, 115. The stat

30、ely buildings of Constantinople,&c., may be quoted as a lasting and unexceptionable proof of theprofuseness of their founder. Footnote 5: The impartial Ammianus deserves all our confidence.Proximorum fauces aperuit primus omnium Constantinus. L. xvi. c.8. Eusebius himself confesses the abuse, (V

31、it. Constantin. l. iv.c. 29, 54;) and some of the Imperial laws feebly point out theremedy. See above, p. 146 of this volume. Footnote 6: Julian, in the Caesars, attempts to ridicule hisuncle. His suspicious testimony is confirmed, however, by thelearned Spanheim, with the authority of medals, (see

32、Commentaire,p. 156, 299, 397, 459.) Eusebius (Orat. c. 5) alleges, thatConstantine dressed for the public, not for himself. Were thisadmitted, the vainest coxcomb could never want an excuse. The same fortune which so invariably followed the standardof Constantine, seemed to secure the hopes and comf

33、orts of hisdomestic life. Those among his predecessors who had enjoyed thelongest and most prosperous reigns, Augustus Trajan, andDiocletian, had been disappointed of posterity; and the frequentrevolutions had never allowed sufficient time for any Imperialfamily to grow up and multiply under the sha

34、de of the purple. But the royalty of the Flavian line, which had been firstennobled by the Gothic Claudius, descended through severalgenerations; and Constantine himself derived from his royalfather the hereditary honors which he transmitted to hischildren. The emperor had been twice married. Minerv

35、ina, theobscure but lawful object of his youthful attachment, 7 had lefthim only one son, who was called Crispus. By Fausta, thedaughter of Maximian, he had three daughters, and three sonsknown by the kindred names of Constantine, Constantius, andConstans. The unambitious brothers of the great Const

36、antine,Julius Constantius, Dalmatius, and Hannibalianus, 8 werepermitted to enjoy the most honorable rank, and the most affluentfortune, that could be consistent with a private station. Theyoungest of the three lived without a name, and died withoutposterity. His two elder brothers obtained in marri

37、age thedaughters of wealthy senators, and propagated new branches of theImperial race. Gallus and Julian afterwards became the mostillustrious of the children of Julius Constantius, the Patrician.The two sons of Dalmatius, who had been decorated with the vaintitle of Censor, were named Dalmatius and

38、 Hannibalianus. The twosisters of the great Constantine, Anastasia and Eutropia, werebestowed on Optatus and Nepotianus, two senators of noble birthand of consular dignity. His third sister, Constantia, wasdistinguished by her preeminence of greatness and of misery. Sheremained the widow of the vanq

39、uished Licinius; and it was by herentreaties, that an innocent boy, the offspring of theirmarriage, preserved, for some time, his life, the title ofCaesar, and a precarious hope of the succession. Besides thefemales, and the allies of the Flavian house, ten or twelvemales, to whom the language of mo

40、dern courts would apply thetitle of princes of the blood, seemed, according to the order oftheir birth, to be destined either to inherit or to support thethrone of Constantine. But in less than thirty years, thisnumerous and increasing family was reduced to the persons ofConstantius and Julian, who

41、alone had survived a series of crimesand calamities, such as the tragic poets have deplored in thedevoted lines of Pelops and of Cadmus. Footnote 7: Zosimus andZonaras agree in representing Minervina as the concubine ofConstantine; but Ducange has very gallantly rescued hercharacter, by producing a

42、decisive passage from one of thepanegyrics: "Ab ipso fine pueritiae te matrimonii legibusdedisti."Footnote 8: Ducange (Familiae Byzantinae, p. 44) bestows on him,after Zosimus, the name of Constantine; a name somewhat unlikely,as it was already occupied by the elder brother. That ofHanniba

43、lianus is mentioned in the Paschal Chronicle, and isapproved by Tillemont. Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 527. Crispus, the eldest son of Constantine, and the presumptiveheir of the empire, is represented by impartial historians as anamiable and accomplished youth. The care of his education, or at

44、least of his studies, was intrusted to Lactantius, the mosteloquent of the Christians; a preceptor admirably qualified toform the taste, and the excite the virtues, of his illustriousdisciple. 9 At the age of seventeen, Crispus was invested withthe title of Caesar, and the administration of the Gall

45、icprovinces, where the inroads of the Germans gave him an earlyoccasion of signalizing his military prowess. In the civil warwhich broke out soon afterwards, the father and son divided theirpowers; and this history has already celebrated the valor as wellas conduct displayed by the latter, in forcin

46、g the straits of theHellespont, so obstinately defended by the superior fleet ofLacinius. This naval victory contributed to determine the eventof the war; and the names of Constantine and of Crispus wereunited in the joyful acclamations of their eastern subjects; wholoudly proclaimed, that the world

47、 had been subdued, and was nowgoverned, by an emperor endowed with every virtue; and by hisillustrious son, a prince beloved of Heaven, and the lively imageof his father's perfections. The public favor, which seldomaccompanies old age, diffused its lustre over the youth ofCrispus. He deserved th

48、e esteem, and he engaged the affections,of the court, the army, and the people. The experienced merit ofa reigning monarch is acknowledged by his subjects withreluctance, and frequently denied with partial and discontentedmurmurs; while, from the opening virtues of his successor, theyfondly conceive

49、 the most unbounded hopes of private as well aspublic felicity. 10Footnote 9: Jerom. in Chron. The poverty of Lactantius may beapplied either to the praise of the disinterested philosopher, orto the shame of the unfeeling patron. See Tillemont, Mem.Ecclesiast. tom. vi. part 1. p. 345. Dupin, Bibliot

50、hequeEcclesiast. tom. i. p. 205. Lardner's Credibility of the GospelHistory, part ii. vol. vii. p. 66.Footnote 10: Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. l. x. c. 9. Eutropius(x. 6) styles him "egregium virum;" and Julian (Orat. i.) veryplainly alludes to the exploits of Crispus in the civil war. Se

51、eSpanheim, Comment. p. 92. This dangerous popularity soon excited the attention ofConstantine, who, both as a father and as a king, was impatientof an equal. Instead of attempting to secure the allegiance ofhis son by the generous ties of confidence and gratitude, heresolved to prevent the mischiefs

52、 which might be apprehended fromdissatisfied ambition. Crispus soon had reason to complain, thatwhile his infant brother Constantius was sent, with the title ofCaesar, to reign over his peculiar department of the Gallicprovinces, 11 he, a prince of mature years, who had performedsuch recent and sign

53、al services, instead of being raised to thesuperior rank of Augustus, was confined almost a prisoner to hisfather's court; and exposed, without power or defence, to everycalumny which the malice of his enemies could suggest. Undersuch painful circumstances, the royal youth might not always beabl

54、e to compose his behavior, or suppress his discontent; and wemay be assured, that he was encompassed by a train of indiscreetor perfidious followers, who assiduously studied to inflame, andwho were perhaps instructed to betray, the unguarded warmth ofhis resentment. An edict of Constantine, publishe

55、d about thistime, manifestly indicates his real or affected suspicions, thata secret conspiracy had been formed against his person andgovernment. By all the allurements of honors and rewards, heinvites informers of every degree to accuse without exception hismagistrates or ministers, his friends or his most intimatefavorites, protesting, with a solemn asseveration, that hehimself will listen to the charge, that he himself will revengehis injuries; and concluding with a prayer, which discovers someapprehension of danger, that the providen