and perhaps of his wife, he enjoyed an uninterrupted flow of
private as well as public felicity, till the thirtieth year of
his reign; a period which none of his predecessors, since
Augustus, had been permitted to celebrate. Constantine survived
that solemn festival about ten months; and at the mature age of
sixty-four, after a short illness, he ended his memorable life at
the palace of Aquyrion, in the suburbs of Nicomedia, whither he
had retired for the benefit of the air, and with the hope of
recruiting his exhausted strength by the use of the warm baths.
The excessive demonstrations of grief, or at least of mourning,
surpassed whatever had been practised on any former occasion.
Notwithstanding the claims of the senate and people of ancient
Rome, the corpse of the deceased emperor, according to his last
request, was transported to the city, which was destined to
preserve the name and memory of its founder. The body of
Constantine adorned with the vain symbols of greatness, the
purple and diadem, was deposited on a golden bed in one of the
apartments of the palace, which for that purpose had been
splendidly furnished and illuminated. The forms of the court
were strictly maintained. Every day, at the appointed hours, the
principal officers of the state, the army, and the household,
approaching the person of their sovereign with bended knees and a
composed countenance, offered their respectful homage as
seriously as if he had been still alive. From motives of policy,
this theatrical representation was for some time continued; nor
could flattery neglect the opportunity of remarking that
Constantine alone, by the peculiar indulgence of Heaven, had
reigned after his death. ^47

[Footnote 46: Eusebius (in Vit. Const. l. iv. c. 50) remarks