sister, and mother of so many princes. ^25 The latter asserts, in
explicit terms, that the mother of the younger Constantine, who
was slain three years after his father's death, survived to weep
over the fate of her son. ^26 Notwithstanding the positive
testimony of several writers of the Pagan as well as of the
Christian religion, there may still remain some reason to
believe, or at least to suspect, that Fausta escaped the blind
and suspicious cruelty of her husband. ^* The deaths of a son and
a nephew, with the execution of a great number of respectable,
and perhaps innocent friends, ^27 who were involved in their
fall, may be sufficient, however, to justify the discontent of
the Roman people, and to explain the satirical verses affixed to
the palace gate, comparing the splendid and bloody reigns of
Constantine and Nero. ^28

[Footnote 21: In order to prove that the statue was erected by
Constantine, and afterwards concealed by the malice of the
Arians, Codinus very readily creates (p. 34) two witnesses,
Hippolitus, and the younger Herodotus, to whose imaginary
histories he appeals with unblushing confidence.]
[Footnote 22: Zosimus (l. ii. p. 103) may be considered as our
original. The ingenuity of the moderns, assisted by a few hints
from the ancients, has illustrated and improved his obscure and
imperfect narrative.]
[Footnote 23: Philostorgius, l. ii. c. 4. Zosimus (l. ii. p. 104,
116) imputes to Constantine the death of two wives, of the
innocent Fausta, and of an adulteress, who was the mother of his
three successors. According to Jerom, three or four years
elapsed between the death of Crispus and that of Fausta. The
elder Victor is prudently silent.]