108

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap tented murmurs; while, from the opening vir-

--tues of his successor, they fondly conceive the

most unbounded hopes of private as well aspublic felicity. 1 "

Jealousy This dangerous popularity soon excited thestantlne. attention of Constantine, who, both as a fatherOct io 24 ' an d as a king, was impatient of an equal. In-stead of attempting to secure the allegiance ofhis son, by the generous ties of confidence andgratitude, he resolved to prevent the mischiefswhich might be apprehended from dissatisfiedambition. Crispus soon had reason to com-plain, that while his infant brother Constantinswas sent, with the title of Caesar, to reign overhis peculiar department of the Gallic provinces,"he, a prince of mature years, who had perform-ed such recent and signal services, instead ofbeing raised to the superior rank of Augustus ,was confined almost a prisoner to his father'scourt, and exposed, without power or defence,to every calumny which the malice of his ene-mies could suggest. Under such painful cir-cumstances, the royal youth might not alwaysbe able to compose his behaviour, or suppresshis discontent; and we may be assured, that hewas encompassed by a train of indiscreet or per-

m Euseb. Hist. Ecclcsiast. 1. x, c. 9. Eutropius (x, 6) styles him« egregium virumand Julian (Orat. i) very plainly alludes to the ex-ploits of Crispus in the civil war. See Spanbeira. Comment, p. 92.

“ Compare Idatius and the Paschal Chronicle with Ammianus (1. xiv,c. 5). The year in which Constantius was created Caesar seems to bemore accurately fixed by the two chronologists; but the historian wholived in his court could not be ignorant of the day of the anniversary.For the appointment of the new CEsar to the provinces of Gaul , seeJulian, Orat. i, p. 12. Godefroy, Chronol. Leguui, p. 26, and Blonde!de la Primaut£ de l’Eglise, p. 1183.