WHEN the announcement of Constantine’s death had been borne by swift couriers to the distant provinces, and the body, in its golden coffin¹, had been transferred to Constantinople, there was a nervous rush of aspiring² Emperors and Empresses to the capital. The unification of the Empire under Constantine had cost the State some hundred and fifty thousand of its finest soldiers, who perished in civil warfare³ while powerful nations pressed against its yielding frontiers. In his later years he had so distributed these provinces, whose unity⁴ had been so dearly purchased, among his sons and nephews, worthy⁵ and unworthy, that dismemberment was certain to follow his death. His eldest⁶ son, Constantine, now in his twenty-first year, ruled Gaul and Britain; Constantius, the second son, a youth of twenty, was the C?sar of the East; the third son, Constans, aged⁷ seventeen, held sway over Italy and Africa. His nephew Delmatius, also entitled C?sar, controlled Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, and the younger nephew Hannibalian bore the ornate title of King of Kings in Pontus and Cappadocia. The two brothers of Constantine, and the husbands of his two sisters, were not left without a share of the Imperial provision.

 

The race to Constantinople after the death of the Emperor may be imagined, but the suddenness and horror of the consequent tragedy must have sobered even the most frivolous⁸. Constantius, the second son, was the first to arrive, and to him the conduct of the impressive funeral was entrusted⁹. The members of the family gathered round287 the marble palace from all quarters of the Empire, and the shade of Constantine continued for some months to rule the State, until their conflicting claims should be adjusted. Julius Constantius and Delmatius, the

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