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Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died

Chap. XLVI.

The armies thus approaching each other, seemed on the eve of a battle. Then Daia made this vow to Jupiter, that if he obtained victory he would extinguish and utterly efface the name of the Christians. And on the following night an angel of the Lord seemed to stand before Licinius while he was asleep, admonishing him to arise immediately, and with his whole army to put up a prayer to the Supreme God, and assuring him that by so doing he should obtain victory. Licinius fancied that, hearing this, he arose, and that his monitor, who was nigh him, directed how be should pray, and in what words. Awaking from sleep, he sent for one of his secretaries, and dictated these words exactly as he had heard them:--

"Supreme God, we beseech Thee; Holy God, we beseech Thee; unto Thee we commend all right; unto Thee we commend our safety; unto Thee we commend our empire. By Thee we live, by Thee we are victorious and happy. Supreme Holy God, hear our prayers; to Thee we stretch forth our arms. Hear, Holy Supreme God."

Many copies were made of these words, and distributed amongst the principal commanders, who were to teach them to the soldiers under their charge. At this all men took fresh courage, in the confidence that victory bad been announced to them from heaven. Licinius resolved to give battle on the kalends of May; ¹ for precisely eight years before Daia had received the dignity of Caesar, and Licinius chose that day in hopes that Daia might be vanquished on the anniversary of his reign, as Maxentius had been on his. Daia, however, purposed to give battle earlier, to fight on the day before those kalends, ² and to triumph on the anniversary of his reign. Accounts came that Daia was in motion; the soldiers of Licinius armed themselves; and advanced. A barren and open plain, called Campus Serenus, lay between the two armies. They were now in sight of one another. The soldiers of Licinius placed their shields on the ground, took off their helmets, and, following the example of their leaders, stretched forth their hands towards heaven. Then the emperor uttered the prayer, and they all repeated it after him. The host, doomed to speedy destruction, heard the murmur of the prayers of their adversaries. And now, the ceremony having been thrice performed, the soldiers of Licinius became full of courage, buckled on their helmets again, and resumed their shields. The two emperors advanced to a conference: but Daia could not be brought to peace; for he held Licinius in contempt, and imagined that the soldiers would presently abandon an emperor parsimonious in his donatives, and enter into the service of one liberal even to profusion. And indeed it was on this notion that he began the war. He looked for the voluntary surrender of the armies of Licinius; and, thus reinforced, he meant forthwith to have attacked Constantine.

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De mortibus persecutorum

46.

[1] Propinquantibus ergo exercitibus iam futurum propediem proelium videbatur. [2] Tum Maxi minus eiusmodi votum Iovi vovit, ut si victoriam cepisset, Christianorum nomen extingueret funditusque deleret. [3] Tunc proxima nocte Licinio quiescenti adsistit angelus dei monens, ut ocius surgeret atque oraret deum summum cum omni exercitu suo; illius fore victoriam, si fecisset. [4] Post has voces cum surgere sibi visus esset et cum ipse qui monebat adstaret, tunc docebat eum, quomodo et quibus verbis esset orandum. [5] Discusso deinde somno notarium iussit acciri et sicut audierat, haec verba dictavit:

[6] «Summe deus, te rogamus, sancte deus, te rogamus. Omnem iustitiam tibi commendamus, salutem nostram tibi commendamus, imperium nostrum tibi commendamus. Per te vivimus, per te victores et felices existimus. Summe, sancte deus, preces nostras exaudi; bracchia nostra ad te tendimus, exaudi sancte, summe deus.»

[7] Scribuntur haec in libellis pluribus et per praepositos tribunosquue mittuntur, ut suos quisque milites doceat. Crevit animus universis victoriam sibi credentibus de caelo nuntiatam. [8] Statuit imperator proeli um diei Kalendarum Maiarum, quae octavum annum nuncupationis eius implebant, ut suo potissimum natali vinceretur, sicut ille victus est Romae. [9] Maximinus voluit praeire maturius; pridie mane aciem composuit, ut natalem suum postridie victor celebraret. Nuntiatur in castra movisse Maximinum. Capiunt milites arma obviamque procedunt. Campus intererat sterilis ac nudus, quem vocant Ergenum. [10] Erat iam utraque acies in conspectu. Liciniani scuta deponunt, galeas resolvunt, ad caelum manus tendunt praeeuntibus praepositis et pro imperatore precem dicunt. Audit acies peritura precantium murmur. [11] Illi oratione ter dicta virtute iam pleni reponunt capitibus galeas, scuta tollunt. Procedunt imperatores ad conloquium. [12] Ferri non potuit Maxi minus ad pacem: contemnebat enim Licinium ac desertum iri a militibus existimabat, quod ille esset in largiendo tenax, ipse autem profusus, eoque proposito moverat bellum, ut exercitu Licinii sine certamine accepto ad Constantinum duplicatis viribus statim pergeret.