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Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died

Chap. XX.

Galerius having effected the expulsion of the two old men, began to consider himself alone as the sovereign of the Roman empire. Necessity had required the appointment of Constantius to the first rank; but Galerius made small account of one who was of an easy temper, and of health declining and precarious. He looked for the speedy death of Constantius. And although that prince should recover, it seemed not difficult to force him to put off the imperial purple; for what else could he do, if pressed by his three colleagues to abdicate? Galerius had Licinius ever about his person, his old and intimate acquaintance, and his earliest companion in arms, whose counsels he used in the management of all affairs; yet he would not nominate Licinius to the dignity of Caesar, with the title of son, for he purposed to nominate him, in the room of Constantius, to the dignity of emperor, with the title of brother, while he himself might hold sovereign authority, and rule over the whole globe with unbounded licence. After that, he meant to have solemnized the vicennial festival; to have conferred on his son Candidianus, then a boy of nine years of age, the office of Caesar; and, in conclusion, to have resigned, as Diocletian had done. And thus, Licinius and Severus being emperors, and Maximin and Candidianus in the next station of Caesars, he fancied that, environed as it were by an impregnable wall, he should lead an old age of security and peace. Such were his projects; but God, whom he had made his adversary, frustrated all those imaginations.

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De mortibus persecutorum

20.

[1] Maximianus postquam senibus expulsis quod voluit effecit, se iam solum totius orbis domi num [esse] ferebat, nam Constantium quamvis priorem nominari esset necesse, contemnebat, quod et natura mitis esset et valitudine corporis impeditus. [2] Hunc sperabat brevi obiturum, et si non obisset, vel invitum exuere facile videbatur. Quid enim faceret, si a tribus cogeretur imperium deponere? [3] Habebat ipse Licinium veteris contubernii amicum et a prima militia familiarem, cuius consiliis ad omnia regenda utebatur; sed eum Caesarem facere noluit, ne filium nominaret, ut postea in Constantii locum nuncuparet Augustum atque fratrem, [4] tunc vero ipse principatum teneret ac pro arbitrio suo debacchatus in orbem terrae vicennalia celebraret, ac substituto Caesare filio suo, tunc erat novennis, et ipse deponeret, ita cum imperii summam tenerent Licinius ac Severus et secundum Caesarum nomen Maximinus et Candidianus, inexpugnabili muro circumsaeptus securam et tranquillam degeret senectutem. [5] Huc consilia eius tendebant. Sed deus, quem sibi fecit infestum, cuncta illius cogitata dissolvit.