THE ONE GREAT BATTLE OF CHRISTENDOM! During the progress of these affairs, Constantine had thoroughly satisfied himself, by the reports of his secret political agents in Nicomedia and elsewhere, that the assurances which the Eusebii had given to him that Licinius would not in any event move his fleet away from the coasts of Asia were entirely trustworthy. The overthrow of the Gothic church, which had been founded and edified by Ulfilas, had been followed by a treaty of peace with that splendid people, whereby they had bound themselves to furnish, whenever the service of the emperor required it, forty thousand young men for the imperial army; these legions had long ago been supplied, armed, and thoroughly exercised, and constituted in themselves a magnificent army. The emperor had been triumphant everywhere. "Confiding in the superiority of his genius and military power," saith the historian Gibbon, "he determined, without any previous injury, to exert them for the destruction of Licinius, whose advanced age and unpopular vices seemed to promise an easy conquest. But the old emperor, awakened by the approaching danger, deceived the expectations of his friends as well as enemies. Calling forth that spirit and those abilities by which he had deserved the friendship of Galerius and the imperial purple, he prepared himself for the contest, collected the forces of the East, and soon filled the plains of Hadrianople with his troops, and the straits of the Hellespont with his fleet. The army consisted of one hundred and fifty thousand foot and fifteen thousand horse. The fleet was composed of three hundred and fifty galleys of three ranks of oars.... The troops of Constantine were ordered to rendezvous at Thessalonica. They numbered above one hundred and twenty thousand horse and foot. Their emperor was satisfied with their martial appearance, and his army contained more soldiers, though fewer men, than that of his eastern competitor. The legions of Constantine were levied in the warlike provinces of Europe; action had confirmed their discipline; victory had elevated their hopes, and there were among them a great number of veterans, who, after seventeen glorious campaigns under the same leader, prepared themselves to deserve honorable dismissal by a last effort of their valor. But the naval preparations of Constantine were in every respect much inferior to those of Licinius. The maritime cities of Greece sent their respective quotas of men and ships to the celebrated harbor of Piræus, and their united forces consisted of no more than two hundred small vessels.... _It is only surprising_ that the Eastern emperor, _who possessed so great a superiority at sea_, should have neglected this opportunity of carrying an offensive war into the center of his rival’s dominions. Instead of embracing such an active resolution, _which might have changed the whole face of the war_, the prudent Licinius expected the approach of his