CONTENTS OF VOL. XXIV. PAGE THE GERMANS OF CAESAR. By Sir Henry H. Howorth, K.C.I.E. THE CINQUE PORTS UNDER HENRY II. By A. Ballard KING JOHN AND ARTHUR OF BRITTANY. By Professor Powicke LONDON AND THE COMMUNE. By Professor George Burton Adams 490 THE VOTAGE OF THE 'BARBARA, OF LONDON, TO BLAZE IN 1540. THE LITAST CYDER HENRY VIII. By the Ber. F. E. Brightman 101 THE CORONATION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. By C. G. Bare. C.S.I. 322 . THE SECOND COUNCIL OF STATE DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. THE MISSIONS OF WILLIAM GRENVILLE TO THE HAGUE AND VERSAILLES IN 1787. By J. Holland Rose, Litt.D. of the short campaign of 324 between Constantine and Licinius. A campaign productive of such results merits more attention than it has hitherto received. The facts which led to the campaign are the following: Constantine, proclaimed emperor at York in 306, defeated Maxentius in 312 at the battle of the Milvian Bridge and became master in the western portion of the empire. Licinius and Maximin Daia held the eastern portion, Maximin holding sway over Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, while Licinius was ruler of the Balkan Peninsula and Pannonia, the south-western portion of what is now Hungary. The sea of Marmora with the Bosporus and the Dardanelles was the boundary between their respective territories. In 313 Maximin invaded the territory of Licinius, captured Byzantium and Heraclia, but was defeated at Chirallum, the present Chorlu, fled to Nicomedia, now Ismid, and was pursued by Licinius into the Taurus mountains, where shortly afterwards he died. Licinius thereupon added the territories over which his rival had ruled to those held by him in south-eastern Europe. When in the same year Constantine gave his sister Constantia in marriage to Licinius he spoke of him as his friend and brother.' In the following year (314) however Licinius chose to take offence with Constantine, and a campaign followed, in which Licinius was beaten at Cibalis, in Pannonia, about a hundred miles north-west of Belgrade, and VOL. XXIV.-NO. XCIII. All rights reserved, B subsequently at Mardia, in Thrace. Then peace was made, bu Licinius had to submit to lose his territories in Macedonia, Illyri Greece, and a part of Mysia or Bulgaria. It seems reasonabl certain that neither emperor afterwards trusted the other. In 314 the Roman empire was thus divided between Constantin and Licinius. During the ten years between 314 and 324 thes emperors drifted apart. Nor is it difficult to understand why the did so. Each desired to become sole emperor. Licinius, elated b the acquisition in 313 of the territories of Maximin, was depresse in 314 at having lost Macedonia and Greece, and in the campaign i Pannonia and Thrace, a campaign which had set back his chance of defeating his rival. The different environment and persona disposition of the two emperors prevented or extinguished al sympathy between them. Constantine was a clean liver; Liciniu the most selfish of libertines. Constantine was the younger man had steadily advanced until he had become lord of every country in the empire from Britain to the Aegean Sea. He was seeking says Eutropius, with whom it is difficult to disagree, to make himself ruler of the whole world. His strength and territory were increasing as each year passed. Licinius on his part was every day becoming less popular with his own subjects. He had nothing but his skill as a soldier to recommend him, unless it were his zeal for paganism. But he was unpopular even among his pagan subjects. His violence, profligacy, utter disregard of the rights of others, and tyranny made him generally hated. The success of his rival rankled in the mind of the elder man. Old age was coming on him, and he might well conclude that, as a struggle was inevitable, the sooner it came the better. But the great cause of estrangement was the attitude which each had adopted towards the Christians. Constantine had commenced his reign by following the example of his father in tolerating them. He had gone further and had already thrown in his lot with them, because he had found that they were loyal to him, because he recognised that they were tenacious, zealous, firm believers, who would do anything, including going to death for their faith and for him as its defender, and because he believed. that they would ultimately prove the stronger party. Licinius, on the other hand, had never liked the Christians. He was intolerant The causes of the war in 314 are not clear. Gibbon (ch. xiv.) adopts and accentuates a story by the anonymous author of the Fragmentum Valesianum to the effect that Bassianus, who had married Anastasia, a sister of Constantine, was made Caesar with the consent of Licinius; but that delay having occurred in installing him in Italy, Licinius employed the brother of Bassianus to urge him to declare against Constantine. The plot however was discovered and Constantine demanded the surrender of those implicated in it from Licinius, who haughtily refused. Remembering the perfidious character of Licinius, the story may well be true, though the version of the anonymous author itself suggests that there were other causes. |