106 Compare Church History, 10. 9, and the same for the following chapters, in parts or whole.

107 [Galerius Maximian. The description of his illness and death in the next chapter is repeated from the author's Ecclesiastical History, Bk. 8, c. 16.-Bag.] Compare translation of McGiffert, p. 338, and note; also Lactantius, De M. P. c. 33.

108 Compare edict in the Church History, 8. 17.

109 Licinius.

110 [Maximin, ruler of the Eastern provinces of the empire.-Bag.]

111 He was defeated by Licinius, who had much inferior forces. Compare Prolegomena, under Life, and references.

1 Literally, "the flatterers and time-servers about him."

2 Or "openly."

3 [The reading in the text is toutwn, but should be pantwn, of all Christians, as it is in Hist. Eccles. Bk. 10, c. 8, from which this passage is almost verbally taken.-Bag.]

4 This seems to intend some exoneration of Constantine, explaining why he was what the heathen called "faithless" towards Licinius.

5 Soothsayers and priests. These were technically "augurs" and "haruspices."Compare for their functions the articles Augur, Divinatio, and Haruspices, in Smith, Dict. Gr. and Rom. Ant.

6 Literally, "shield-bearers," but here relates to a chosen body of guards, as in the Macedonian army. Compare Liddell and Scott, Lex. s.v. upaspisthj.

7 The whole passage seems altogether too appropriate to receive ready credence; but it is worth noting here how Eusebius "quotes his authors," and seems to give the thing for what it is worth, keeping perhaps the same modicum of reservation for the hearers' relative imagination and memory, when relating after the events, that the modern reader does.

8 [Licinius was suspected of having secretly countenanced Bassianus (who had married Constantine's sister Anastasia, and received the rank of Caesar) in a treasonable conspiracy. Vide Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 14.-Bag.] Compare Prolegomena, underLife.

9 Or "remedy"; i.e. that which keeps off harm.

10 [Palin, "again," alluding to the former miracle, the vision of the cross, which Eusebius does not venture to attest himself, but relates on the word and oath of Constantine. Vide Bk. 1, cc. 28 and 30.-Bag.]

11 "Slaves," a word which has frequently been used by Eusebius in this literal sense.

12 This idiom here is nearly the English, "followed on the heels" of any one.

13 Ex. ix. 12.

14 [This tabernacle, which Constantine always carried with him in his military expeditions, is described by Sozomen, Bk. 1, c. 8: see English translation.-Bag.]

15 [Alluding to Ex. xxxiii. 7, &c.-Bag.]

16 ["He consented to leave his rival, or, as he again styled Li-cinius, his friend and brother, in the possession of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt; but the provinces of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece, were yielded to the Western empire, and the dominions of Constantine now extended from the confines of Caledonia to the extremity of Peloponnesus."-Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. XIV.-Bag.]

17 [Gibbon (chap. XIV.) says that the reconciliation of Constantine and Licinius maintained, above eight years, the tranquillity of the Roman world. If this be true, it may be regarded as one proof that our author's work is rather to be considered as a general sketch of Constantine's life and character than as a minutely correct historical document.-Bag.] There is either a strange lack of perspective in this account, or else Eusebius omits all account of the first wars with Licinius (314) which resulted in the division of territory mentioned in the above note. This latter view is plausible on comparison with the account in the Church History. In this view the conditions referred to above relate to the terms on which Licinius was spared on Constantia's request, and what follows is the explanation of the alleged oath-breaking of Constantine in putting Licinius to death.


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