CHAPTER XIII

HIS HUMANE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS

TO such exercises as these the emperor had long accustomed both himself and his army, whenever there was a prospect of an engagement; for his God was ever present to his thoughts, and he desired to do every thing according to His will. He had also a pious abhorrence of any wanton sacrifice of human life, which induced him to be anxious for the preservation not only of his own subjects, but even of his enemies. Accordingly he directed his victorious troops to spare the lives of their prisoners, admonishing them, as human beings, not to forget the claims of their common nature. And whenever he saw the passions of his soldiery excited beyond the limits of self-control, he repressed their fury by a largess of money, rewarding every man who saved the life of an enemy with a certain weight of gold. Constantine’s own sagacity led him to discover this inducement to spare human life; and great numbers even of the barbarians were thus saved, and owed their lives to the emperor’s gold.