OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

administration was stained with the blood of afew martyrs.* The elevation of Constantius tothe supreme and independent dignity of Augus-tus gave a free scope to the exercise of his vir-tues ; and the shortness of his reign did not pre-vent him from establishing a system of toleration,of which he left the precept and the example tohis son Constantine . His fortunate son, from thefirst moment of his accession, declaring himselfthe protector of the church, at length deservedthe appellation of the first emperor who publiclyprofessed and established the Christian religion.The motives of his conversion, as they mayvariously be deduced from benevolence, frompolicy, from conviction, or from remorse; andthe progress of the revolution, which under hispowerful influence, and that of his sons, render-ed Christianity the reigning religion of the Romanempire, will form a very interesting and import-ant chapter in the third volume of this history.At present it may be sufficient to observe, thatevery victory of Constantine was productive ofsome relief or benefit to the church.

The provinces of Italy and Africa experienceda short but violent persecution. The rigorous

' Datianus is mentioned in Gniter’s Inscriptions, as having deter-mined the limits between the territories of Pax Julia and those ofEbora, both cities in the southern part of Lusitania. It we recollectthe neighbourhood of those places to Cape St. Vincent , we may sus-pect that the celebrated deacon and martyr of that name has been in-accurately assigned by Prudentins, &c. to Saragossa, or Valentia. Seethe pompons history of his sufferings, in the Memoires de Tillemont,tom. v, part ii, p. 58 85. Some critics are of opinion, that the depart-ment of Constantius, as Caesar, did not include Spain , which still conti-nued under the immediate jurisdiction of Maximian

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CHAP.

XVI.