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CONSTANTINE.

(From a gem in the Florentine Museum.)

Constantine, having by a felicitous union of enterprise and cunning procured his elevation to the Imperial throne, and having defeated the last of his rivals to that splendid dignity, directed his attention to the concentration rather than the extension of his enormous empire, and sought, by building Constantinople, to divert the minds of the people from foreign war and intestine discord; while he at the same time fostered and encouraged the arts by the magnificent decoration of the new capital, to which he brought from Asia and Greece some of their most splendid productions.

Vigorous in war and active in peace, Constantine united all the characteristics of the Roman and the Greek. In war he successfully opposed both civil and foreign enemies, and made himself master of the most extended empire Rome had ever designated by her name. While in the vigour of his age, he moved with slow dignity, or with active vigilance, according to the various exigencies of peace and war, along the frontiers of his extensive dominions, and was always prepared to take the field either against a foreign or a domestic enemy.