Constantine’s wardrobe becomes dubious

All right, this is too good not to post. Constantine is nearing death. Gibbon, who obviously doesn’t care much for the Emperor, sends him into the night with a final raised eyebrow– about his late clothing style. Being on Gibbon’s bad side is not a fortunate position, not even for the dead.

“…the emperor himself, though he still retained the obedience, gradually lost the esteem of his subjects. The dress and manners, which, towards the decline of life, he chose to affect, served only to degrade him in the eyes of mankind. The Asiatic pomp, which had been adopted by the pride of Diocletian, assumed an air of softness and effeminacy in the person of Constantine. He is represented with false hair of various colours, laboriously arranged by the skillful artists of the times; a diadem of a new and more expensive fashion; a profusion of gems and pearls, of collars and bracelets, and a variegated flowing robe of silk, most curiously embroidered with flowers of gold.”