As the
wretched historians of this period are entirely at variance with each
other, it is not easy to explain the motives which induced him to put
his wife Faus'ta, and his son Cris'pus, to death.
11. But it is supposed, that all the good he did was not equal to the
evil the empire sustained by his transferring the imperial seat from
Rome to Byzan'tium, or Constantino'ple, as it was afterwards called.
12. Whatever might have been the reasons which induced him to this
undertaking; whether it was because he was offended at some affronts
he had received at Rome, or that he supposed Constantino'ple more in
the centre of the empire, or that he thought the eastern parts more
required his presence, experience has shown that they were all weak
and groundless. 13. The empire had long before been in a most
declining state: but this, in a great measure, gave precipitation to
its downfall. After this, it never resumed its former splendour, but,
like a flower transplanted into a foreign clime, languished by
degrees, and at length sunk into nothing.
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