134
THE DECLINE AND FALL
CHAP.
XVIII.
sars, obtained, with a certain pre-eminence of■ rank, the possession of the new capital, whichbore his own name and that of his father.Thrace and the countries of the east, were allot-ted for the patrimony of Constantius ; and Con-stans was acknowledged as the lawful sovereignof Italy , Africa, and the western Illyricum.The armies submitted to their hereditary right;and they condescended, after some delay, to ac-cept from the Roman senate, the title of Augus-tus . When they first assumed the reins of go-vernment, the eldest of these princes wastwenty-one, the second twenty, and the thirdonly seventeen, years of age. m« While the martial nations of Europe followedthe standards of his brothers, Constantius , atthe head of the effeminate troops of Asia , M asleft to sustain the weight of the Persian war.At the decease of Constantine , the throne of theEast was filled by Sapor, son of Hormouz orHormisdas, and grandson of Narses , who, afterthe victory of Galerius , had humbly confessedthe superiority of the Roman power. AlthoughSapor was in the thirtieth year of his long reign,he was still in the vigour of youth, as the dateof his accession, by a very strange fatality, hadpreceded that of his birth. The wife of Hor-mouz remained pregnant at the time of her hus-band’s death; and the uncertainty of the sex,as well as of the event, excited the ambitioushopes of the princes of the house of Sassan.
' m Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. I. iv, o. 00. Zosimus , 1. ii, p. 117.Idat. in CUron. See two notes of Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs tom. iv, p. 1080 1091. The reign of the eldest brother at Constanti-nople is noticed only in the Alexandrian Chronicle.