D. 396, appointing Con'stantine, his son, as his successor.
Gale'rius was seized with a very extraordinary disorder, which baffled
the skill of his physicians, and carried him off.
[Sidenote: U.C. 1064. A.D. 311.]
14. Con'stantine, afterwards surnamed the Great, had some competitors
at first for the throne.--Among the rest was Maxen'tius, who was at
that time in possession of Rome, and a stedfast assertor of Paganism.
15. It was in Constantine's march against that usurper, we are told,
that he was converted to Christianity, by a very extraordinary
appearance. 16. One evening, the army being on its march towards Rome,
Constantine was intent on various considerations upon the fate of
sublunary things, and the dangers of his approaching expedition.
Sensible of his own incapacity to succeed without divine assistance,
he employed his meditations upon the opinions that were then
agitated among mankind, and sent up his ejaculations to heaven to
inspire him with wisdom to choose the path he should pursue. As the
sun was declining, there suddenly appeared a pillar of light in the
heavens, in the fashion of a cross, with this inscription, EN TOTTO
NIKA, IN THIS OVERCOME.
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