THE DECLINE AND FALL

146

CHAP.,

XVIII

of sincerity, which Constantine experienced ina tedious and fruitless negotiation, exasperatedthe fierceness of his temper; and he eagerly lis-tened to those favourites, who suggested to himthat his honour, as w r ell as his interest, wasconcerned in the prosecution of the quarrel.At the head of a tumultuary band, suited forrapine rather than for conquest, he suddenlybroke into the dominions of Constans , by theway of the Julian Alps , and the country roundAquileia felt the first effects of his resentment.The measures of Constans , who then residedin Dacia, were directed with more prudenceand ability. On the news of his brother's in-vasion he detached a select and disciplinedbody of his Illyrian troops, proposing to followthem in person, with the remainder of his forces.But the conduct of his lieutenants soon termi-nated the unnatural contest. By the artful ap-pearances of flight, Constantine was betrayedinto an ambuscade, which had been concealedin a wood, where the rash youth, with a few at-tendants, w'as surprised, surrounded, and slain.His body, after it had been found in the obscurestream of the Alsa, obtained the honours of animperial sepulchre; but his provinces trans-ferred their allegiance to the conqueror, who, re-fusing to admit his elder brother Constantius toany share in these new acquisitions, maintainedthe undisputed possession of more than two-thirds of the Roman Empire. 2

1 The causes and the events of this civil war are related with tmichperplexity and contradiction, I have chiefly followed Zontras, and

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