A war having broken out in the East between Licinius and Maxi minas, the latter was defeated, and died of poison at Tarsus : all his family were put to death by Licinias. The whole empire was now ' divided between Constantine, who ruled over the West, including Italy and Africa ; and Licinina, who had the eastern provinces, with Egypt.
Constantine now openly favoured the Christian communion, and discountenanced and ridiculed the practices of the old religion of Rome. He exempted the Christian clergy from personal taxes and from civil duties, and granted donations and privileges to the churches. He ordered a council of the bishops of the West to assemble at Arles to settle the schism of the Donatists, and went himself to Arles; bat while there be received news of the hostile intentions of Liclnius, which made him march in haste at the head of an army into Illyricum. The two armies met near Sirmium in Pannonia, and again in the plains of Thrace, after which Licinius stied for and obtained peace, by giving up to Constantine Illyricum, Macedonia, and Greece. On visiting these new provinces, Constantine promulgated several laws, by which he abolished the punishment of the cross; ordered that the children of destitute parents should be maintained at the public expense ; and allowed the emancipation of slaves to be effected in the Christian churches in presence of the clergy without any interference of the civil magistrate. By another law, promulgated at Sardica in December 316, he gave to the vicars or governors of the provinces full power to try persons of every rank accused of oppressions and robbery, without any appeal to Rome, by which he put a check on the overbearing insolence of the rich towards the poor. In the year 318, Crispus, eon of Constantine by his first wife, obtained the con sulship with the younger Licinius, the eon of Licinlus. Constantine spent several years in visiting the provinces of the empire, and pro mulgating new laws, which were conceived for the most part in a humane and liberal spirit he abolished the punishment of flagellation formerly inflicted on defaulters in the payment of taxes, introduced a better discipline into the prisons, repealed the old laws against celibacy, and forbade concubinage, which was then allowed' by the Roman laws. He also prohibited nocturnal assemblies, and certain obscene rites of Paganism; but he did not attempt to forbid the exercise of the old religion.
By an edict of March 321, he ordered the observance of the Sunday, and abstinence from work on that day. In the year 322 he defeated
the Sarmatian* and the Golfe or Goths, and repulsed them beyond the Danube. On returning to Thessalonica, where he was constructing a harbour, the Goths appeared again, and invaded Mania and Thrace. Constantine again attacked them, and pursued them into the terri tories of Licinius. This was made the pretence of a new war between the two emperors, in which Licinius being defeated near Chalcedon, by sea and by land, escaped to Nicomedia, and there surrendered to Constantine, who, at the intercession of his sister Conetantia, promised him his life, and sent him to Thesealonica, where however he was soon after (324) put to death. Licinius has been spoken very unfa vourably of by most historians. Constantine, being now master of the whole empire, extended to the east his laws in favour of the Christian religion. He forbade consulting the haruspices and the oracles ; ordered the churches of the Christians which had been demolished under Maximinus and Licinius to be rebuilt, and the property of the church to be restored, and more especially the burial-grounds of the Martyrs; and reinstated in their rank and right all those who had been prosecuted or exiled on account of their religion. In writing to the Metropolitans he styled them well-beloved brethren.' He published a Latin edict, which was turned into Greek by Eusebius, addressed to all the subjects of the empire, in which he exhorted them to renounce their old superstitions, and to adore only one God, the Saviour of the Christians. In 325 he assembled the first universal council of Nicasa, which he attended in person. [Ames.] On the 25th of July of that year, being the anniversary of his accession to the empire, he gave a great entertainment to all the fathers of the council, to whom he gave considerable gifts and sums to distribute to the poor. From Nicomedia, where he resided for some time, he issued an edict inviting all the subjects of the empire to, address their corn plainta to him in person against any abuse of authority of the governors and magistrates. By another edict he abolished the fights of gladiators, and ordered that the convicts, who were formerly compelled to fight against them or against the wild beasts, should be employed in working the mines. These facts show a great alteration in Constantine's mind from the time when he himself gave up the Frankish prisoners to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre.