did not commence till the 18th or 24th of September, A. D. 337,
it is certain that these military factions continued above four
months.]

Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.

Part III.

The voice of the dying emperor had recommended the care of
his funeral to the piety of Constantius; and that prince, by the
vicinity of his eastern station, could easily prevent the
diligence of his brothers, who resided in their distant
government of Italy and Gaul. As soon as he had taken possession
of the palace of Constantinople, his first care was to remove the
apprehensions of his kinsmen, by a solemn oath which he pledged
for their security. His next employment was to find some
specious pretence which might release his conscience from the
obligation of an imprudent promise. The arts of fraud were made
subservient to the designs of cruelty; and a manifest forgery was
attested by a person of the most sacred character. From the
hands of the Bishop of Nicomedia, Constantius received a fatal
scroll, affirmed to be the genuine testament of his father; in
which the emperor expressed his suspicions that he had been
poisoned by his brothers; and conjured his sons to revenge his
death, and to consult their own safety, by the punishment of the
guilty. ^50 Whatever reasons might have been alleged by these
unfortunate princes to defend their life and honor against so
incredible an accusation, they were silenced by the furious
clamors of the soldiers, who declared themselves, at once, their
enemies, their judges, and their executioners. The spirit, and