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| Treacherous Friendship, and Idolatrous Practices of Licinius.
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Chapter XV.—Treacherous
Friendship, and Idolatrous Practices of Licinius.
And inasmuch as he who had lately fled before him now dissembled his
real sentiments, and again petitioned for a renewal of friendship and
alliance, the emperor thought fit, on certain conditions, to grant his
request,3175
| 3175 [“He consented to leave his rival, or, as he again styled
Licinius, 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.] | in the hope that such a measure
might be expedient, and generally advantageous to the community.
Licinius, however, while he pretended a ready submission to the terms
prescribed, and attested his sincerity by oaths, at this very time was
secretly engaged in collecting a military force, and again meditated
war and strife, inviting even the barbarians to join his standard,3176
| 3176 [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historical document.—Bag.]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. | and he began also to look about him for
other gods, having been deceived by those in whom he had hitherto
trusted. And, without bestowing a thought on what he had himself
publicly spoken on the subject of false deities, or choosing to
acknowledge that God who had fought on the side of Constantine, he made
himself ridiculous by seeking for a multitude of new gods.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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