The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire: By Edward Gibbon, Esq; ... [pt.5]

CHAP. XXXII. Arcadius Emperor of the East.—Administration and Disgrace of Eutropius.—Revolt of Gainas.—Per|secution of St. John Chrysostom.—Theodosius II. Emperor of the East.—His Sister Pulcheria.—His Wife Eudocia.—The Persian War, and Divi|sion of Armenia.

THE division of the Roman world between the sons of Theodosius, marks the final establishment of the empire of the East, which, * 1.1 from the reign of Arcadius to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, subsisted one thou|sand and fifty-eight years, in a state of premature and perpetual decay. The sovereign of that empire assumed, and obstinately retained, the vain, and at length fictitious, title of Emperor of the ROMANS; and the hereditary appellations of CAESAR and AUGUSTUS continued to declare, that he was the legitimate successor of the first of men, who had reigned over the first of nations. The palace of Constantinople rivalled, and per|haps excelled, the magnificence of Persia; and the eloquent sermons of St. Chrysostom 1 1.2 cele|brate,

while they condemn, the pompous luxury of the reign of Arcadius.

"The emperor," says he, "wears on his head either a diadem, or a crown of gold, decorated with precious stones of inestimable value. These ornaments, and his purple garments, are reserved for his sacred person alone; and his robes of silk are em|broidered with the figures of golden dragons. His throne is of massy gold. Whenever he appears in public, he is surrounded by his courtiers, his guards, and his attendants. Their spears, their shields, their cuirasses, the bridles and trappings of their horses, have either the substance, or the appearance, of gold; and the large splendid boss in the midst of their shield, is encircled with smaller bosses, which represent the shape of the human eye. The two mules that draw the chariot of the monarch, are perfectly white, and shining all over with gold. The chariot itself, of pure and solid gold, attracts the admiration of the spectators, who contemplate the purple cur|tains, the snowy carpet, the size of the pre|cious stones, and the resplendent plates of gold, that glitter as they are agitated by the motion of the carriage. The Imperial pictures are white, on a blue ground; the emperor appears seated on his throne, with his arms, his horses, and his guards beside him; and his vanquished enemies in chains at his feet."

The successors of Constantine established their perpetual residence in the royal city, which he

had erected on the verge of Europe and Asia. Inaccessible to the menaces of their enemies, and perhaps to the complaints of their people, they received, with each wind, the tributary produc|tions of every climate; while the impregnable strength of their capital continued for ages to defy the hostile attempts of the Barbarians. Their dominions were bounded by the Hadriatic and the Tigris; and the whole interval of twenty|five days navigation, which separated the extreme cold of Scythia from the torrid zone of Aethiopia 2 1.3, was comprehended within the limits of the em|pire of the East. The populous countries of that empire were the seat of art and learning, of lux|ury and wealth; and the inhabitants, who had assumed the language and manners of Greeks, stiled themselves, with some appearance of truth, the most enlightened and civilised portion of the human species. The form of government was a pure and simple monarchy; the name of the ROMAN REPUBLIC, which so long preserved a faint tradition of freedom, was confined to the Latin provinces; and the princes of Constan|tinople measured their greatness by the servile obedience of their people. They were ignorant

how much this passive disposition enervates and degrades every faculty of the mind. The sub|jects, who had resigned their will to the absolute commands of a master, were equally incapable of guarding their lives and fortunes against the assaults of the Barbarians, or of defending their reason from the terrors of superstition.

The first events of the reign of Arcadius and * 1.4 Honorius are so intimately connected, that the rebellion of the Goths, and the fall of Rufinus, have already claimed a place in the history of the West. It has already been observed, that Eutro|pius 3 1.5, one of the principal eunuchs of the pa|lace of Constantinople, succeeded the haughty minister whose ruin he had accomplished, and whose vices he soon imitated. Every order of the state bowed to the new favourite; and their tame and obsequious submission encouraged him to insult the laws, and, what is still more difficult and dangerous, the manners of his country. Un|der the weakest of the predecessors of Arcadius, the reign of the eunuchs had been secret, and almost invisible. They insinuated themselves into the confidence of the prince; but their osten|sible functions were confined to the menial ser|vice of the wardrobe and Imperial bed-chamber. They might direct, in a whisper, the public counsels, and blast, by their malicious suggestions,

the fame snd fortunes of the most illustrious citi|zens; but they never presumed to stand forward in the front of empire 4 1.6, or to profane the public honours of the state. Eutropius was the first of his artificial sex, who dared to assume the cha|racter of a Roman magistrate and general 5 1.7. Sometimes, in the presence of the blushing senate, he ascended the tribunal, to pronounce judg|ment, or to repeat elaborate harangues; and sometimes appeared on horseback, at the head of his troops, in the dress and armour of a hero. The disregard of custom and decency always betrays a weak and ill-regulated mind; nor does Eutropius seem to have compensated for the folly of the design, by any superior merit or ability in the execution. His former habits of life had not introduced him to the study of the laws, or the exercises of the field; his awkward and unsuc|cessful

attempts provoked the secret contempt of the spectators; the Goths expressed their wish, that such a general might always command the armies of Rome; and the name of the minister was branded with ridicule, more pernicious per|haps than hatred, to a public character. The subjects of Arcadius were exasperated by the recollection, that this deformed and decrepid eunuch 6 1.8, who so perversely mimicked the actions of a man, was born in the most abject condition of servitude; that, before he entered the Im|perial palace, he had been successively sold, and purchased, by an hundred masters, who had ex|hausted his youthful strength in every mean and infamous office, and at length dismissed him, in his old age, to freedom and poverty 7 1.9. While these disgraceful stories were circulated, and per|haps exaggerated, in private conversations, the vanity of the favourite was flattered with the most extraordinary honours. In the senate, in

the capital, in the provinces, the statues of Eu|tropius were erected, in brass or marble, deco|rated with the symbols of his civil and military virtues, and inscribed with the pompous title of the third founder of Constantinople. He was promoted to the rank of patrician, which began to signify, in a popular, and even legal accepta|tion, the father of the emperor; and the last year of the fourth century was polluted by the consulship of an eunuch, and a slave. This strange and inexpiable prodigy 8 1.10 awakened, however, the prejudices of the Romans. The effeminate con|sul was rejected by the West, as an indelible stain to the annals of the republic; and, without in|voking the shades of Brutus and Camillus, the colleague of Eutropius, a learned and respectable magistrate 9 1.11, sufficiently represented the different maxims of the two administrations.

The bold and vigorous mind of Rufinus seems * 1.12 to have been actuated by a more sanguinary and revengeful spirit; but the avarice of the eunuch was not less insatiate than that of the praefect 10 1.13.

As long as he despoiled the oppressors, who had enriched themselves with the plunder of the peo|ple, Eutropius might gratify his covetous dis|position without much envy or injustice: but the progress of his rapine soon invaded the wealth which had been acquired by lawful inheritance, or laudable industry. The usual methods of ex|tortion were practised and improved; and Clau|dian has sketched a lively and original picture of the public auction of the state.

"The impotence of the eunuch" (says that agreeable satirist) "has served only to stimulate his avarice: the same hand which, in his servile condition, was exercised in petty thefts, to unlock the coffers of his master, now grasps the riches of the world; and this infamous broker of the em|pire appreciates and divides the Roman pro|vinces, from Mount Haemus to the Tigris. One man, at the expence of his villa, is made proconsul of Asia; a second purchases Syria with his wife's jewels; and a third laments, that he has exchanged his paternal estate for the government of Bithynia. In the anti|chamber of Eutropius, a large tablet is exposed to public view, which marks the respective prices of the provinces. The different value of Pontus, of Galatia, of Lydia, is accurately distinguished. Lycia may be obtained for so many thousand pieces of gold; but the opulence of Phrygia will require a more considerable sum. The eunuch wishes to obliterate, by the general disgrace, his personal ignominy; and as he has

been sold himself, he is desirous of selling the rest of mankind. In the eager contention, the balance, which contains the fate and fortunes of the province, often trembles on the beam; and till one of the scales is inclined, by a su|perior weight, the mind of the impartial judge remains in anxious suspense 11 1.14."

Such" (con|tinues the indignant poet)

"are the fruits of Roman valour, of the defeat of Antiochus, and of the triumph of Pompey."

This venal prostitution of public honours secured the impu|nity of future crimes; but the riches, which Eu|tropius derived from confiscation, were already stained with injustice; since it was decent to ac|cuse, and to condemn, the proprietors of the wealth which he was impatient to confiscate. Some noble blood was shed by the hand of the executioner; and the most inhospitable extremi|ties of the empire were filled with innocent and illustrious exiles. Among the generals and con|suls * 1.15 of the East, Abundantius 12 1.16 had reason to dread the first effects of the resentment of Eutro|pius. He had been guilty of the unpardonable

crime of introducing that abject slave to the pa|lace of Constantinople: and some degree of praise must be allowed to a powerful and ungrateful favourite, who was satisfied with the disgrace of his benefactor. Abundantius was stripped of his ample fortunes by an Imperial rescript, and ba|nished to Pityus, on the Euxine, the last frontier of the Roman world; where he subsisted by the precarious mercy of the Barbarians, till he could obtain, after the fall of Eutropius, a milder exile at Sidon in Phoenicia. The destruction of Tima|sius 13 1.17 * 1.18 required a more serious and regular mode of attack. That great officer, the master-general of the armies of Theodosius, had signalised his valour by a decisive victory, which he obtained over the Goths of Thessaly; but he was too prone, after the example of his sovereign, to enjoy the luxury of peace, and to abandon his confidence to wicked and designing flatterers. Timasius had despised the public clamour, by promoting an infamous dependent to the com|mand of a cohort; and he deserved to feel the ingratitude of Bargus, who was secretly instigat|ed by the favourite to accuse his patron of a trea|sonable conspiracy. The general was arraigned before the tribunal of Arcadius himself; and the principal eunuch stood by the side of the throne,

to suggest the questions and answers of his sove|reign. But as this form of trial might be deem|ed partial and arbitrary, the farther enquiry into the crimes of Timasius was delegated to Satur|ninus and Procopius; the former of consular rank, the latter still respected as the father-in-law of the emperor Valens. The appearances of a fair and legal proceeding were maintained by the blunt honesty of Procopius; and he yielded with reluctance to the obsequious dexterity of his col|league, who pronounced a sentence of condemna|tion against the unfortunate Timasius. His im|mense riches were confiscated, in the name of the emperor, and for the benefit of the favourite; and he was doomed to perpetual exile at Oasis, a solitary spot in the midst of the sandy deserts of Libya 14 1.19. Secluded from all human converse, the master-general of the Roman armies was lost for ever to the world; but the circumstances of his fate have been related in a various and con|tradictory manner. It is insinuated, that Eutro|pius dispatched a private order for his secret execution 15 1.20. It was reported, that, in attempt|ing to escape from Oasis, he perished in the de|sert,

of thirst and hunger; and that his dead body was found on the sands of Libya 16 1.21. It has been asserted, with more confidence, that his son Sya|grius, after successfully eluding the pursuit of the agents and emissaries of the court, collected a band of African robbers; that he rescued Ti|masius from the place of his exile; and that both the father and the son disappeared from the knowledge of mankind 17 1.22. But the ungrateful Bargus, instead of being suffered to possess the reward of guilt, was soon afterwards circumvent|ed and destroyed, by the more powerful villany of the minister himself; who retained sense and spirit enough to abhor the instrument of his own crimes.

The public hatred, and the despair of indi|viduals, * 1.23 continually threatened, or seemed to threaten, the personal safety of Eutropius; as well as of the numerous adherents, who were attached to his fortune, and had been promoted by his venal favour. For their mutual defence, he contrived the safeguard of a law, which vio|lated every principle of humanity and justice 18 1.24.

I. It is enacted, in the name, and by the autho|rity, of Arcadius, that all those who shall con|spire, either with subjects, or with strangers, against the lives of any of the persons whom the emperor considers as the members of his own body, shall be punished with death and confis|cation. This species of fictitious and metaphori|cal treason is extended to protect, not only the illustrious officers of the state and army, who are admitted into the sacred consistory, but likewise the principal domestics of the palace, the senators of Constantinople, the military commanders, and the civil magistrates of the provinces: a vague and indefinite list, which, under the successors of Constantine, included an obscure and numerous train of subordinate ministers. II. This extreme severity might perhaps be justified, had it been only directed to secure the representatives of the sovereign from any actual violence in the exe|cution of their office. But the whole body of Imperial dependents claimed a privilege, or rather impunity, which screened them, in the loosest moments of their lives, from the hasty, perhaps the justifiable, resentment of their fellow-citizens: and, by a strange perversion of the laws, the same degree of guilt and punishment was applied to a private quarrel, and to a deliberate conspi|racy against the emperor and the empire. The edict of Arcadius most positively and most ab|surdly declares, that in such cases of treason, thoughts and actions ought to be punished with equal severity; that the knowledge of a mis|chievous intention, unless it be instantly revealed,

becomes equally criminal with the intention it|self 19 1.25; and that those rash men, who shall pre|sume to solicit the pardon of traitors, shall them|selves be branded with public and perpetual in|famy. III.

"With regard to the sons of the traitors," (continues the emperor) "although they ought to share the punishment, since they will probably imitate the guilt, of their pa|rents; yet, by the special effect of our Impe|rial lenity, we grant them their lives: but, at the same time, we declare them incapable of inheriting, either on the father's or on the mother's side, or of receiving any gift or le|gacy, from the testament either of kinsmen or of strangers. Stigmatised with hereditary in|famy, excluded from the hopes of honours or fortune, let them endure the pangs of poverty and contempt, till they shall consider life as a calamity, and death as a comfort and relief."

In such words, so well adapted to insult the feel|ings of mankind, did the emperor, or rather his favourite eunuch, applaud the moderation of a law, which transferred the same unjust and in|human penalties to the children of all those who had seconded, or who had not disclosed, these fictitious conspiracies. Some of the noblest re|gulations

of Roman jurisprudence have been suffered to expire; but this edict, a convenient and forcible engine of ministerial tyranny, was carefully inserted in the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian; and the same maxims have been reviv|ed in modern ages, to protect the electors of Germany, and the cardinals of the church of Rome 20 1.26.

Yet these sanguinary laws, which spread terror * 1.27 among a disarmed and dispirited people, were of too weak a texture to restrain the bold enterprise of Tribigild 21 1.28 the Ostrogoth. The colony of that warlike nation, which had been planted by Theodosius in one of the most fertile districts of Phrygia 22 1.29, impatiently compared the slow returns of laborious husbandry, with the successful rapine and liberal rewards of Alaric; and their leader resented, as a personal affront, his own ungra|cious reception in the palace of Constantinople. A soft and wealthy province, in the heart of the empire, was astonished by the sound of war; and

the faithful vassal, who had been disregarded or oppressed, was again respected, as soon as he resumed the hostile character of a Barbarian. The vineyards and fruitful fields, between the rapid Marsyas and the winding Maeander 23 1.30, were consumed with fire; the decayed walls of the cities crumbled into dust, at the first stroke of an enemy; the trembling inhabitants escaped from a bloody massacre to the shores of the Hellespont; and a considerable part of Asia Minor was deso|lated by the rebellion of Tribigild. His rapid progress was checked by the resistance of the peasants of Pamphylia; and the Ostrogoths, at|tacked in a narrow pass, between the city of Selgae 24 1.31, a deep morass, and the craggy clifts of Mount Taurus, were defeated with the loss of their bravest troops. But the spirit of their chief was not daunted by misfortune; and his army was continually recruited by swarms of Barbari|ans and outlaws, who were desirous of exercising the profession of robbery, under the more ho|nourable names of war and conquest. The ru|mours of the success of Tribigild might for some time be suppressed by fear, or disguised by flat|tery;

yet they gradually alarmed both the court and the capital. Every misfortune was exag|gerated in dark and doubtful hints; and the future designs of the rebels became the subject of anxious conjecture. Whenever Tribigild advanced into the inland country, the Romans were inclined to suppose that he meditated the passage of Mount Taurus, and the invasion of Syria. If he descended towards the sea, they imputed, and perhaps suggested, to the Gothic chief, the more dangerous project of arming a fleet in the harbours of Ionia, and of extending his depre|dations along the maritime coast, from the mouth of the Nile to the port of Constantinople. The approach of danger, and the obstinacy of Tribi|gild, who refused all terms of accommodation, compelled Eutropius to summon a council of war 25 1.32. After claiming for himself the privilege of a veteran soldier, the eunuch entrusted the guard of Thrace and the Hellespont to Gainas the Goth; and the command of the Asiatic army to his favourite Leo; two generals, who differ|ently, but effectually, promoted the cause of the rebels. Leo 26 1.33, who, from the bulk of his body,

and the dulness of his mind, was surnamed the Ajax of the East, had deserted his original trade of a woolcomber, to exercise, with much less skill and success, the military profession: and his uncertain operations were capriciously framed and executed, with an ignorance of real difficulties, and a timorous neglect of every favourable op|portunity. The rashness of the Ostrogoths had drawn them into a disadvantageous position be|tween the rivers Melas and Eurymedon, where they were almost besieged by the peasants of Pamphylia; but the arrival of an Imperial army, instead of completing their destruction, afforded the means of safety and victory. Tribigild sur|prised the unguarded camp of the Romans, in the darkness of the night; seduced the faith of the greater part of the Barbarian auxiliaries, and dissipated, without much effort, the troops, which had been corrupted by the relaxation of discipline, and the luxury of the capital. The discontent of Gainas, who had so boldly contrived and exe|cuted the death of Rufinus, was irritated by the fortune of his unworthy successor; he accused his own dishonourable patience under the servile reign of an eunuch; and the ambitious Goth was convicted, at least in the public opinion, of secretly fomenting the revolt of Tribigild, with whom he was connected by a domestic, as well as by a national, alliance 27 1.34. When Gainas pass|ed

the Hellespont, to unite under his standard the remains of the Asiatic troops, he skilfully adapted his motions to the wishes of the Ostro|goths; abandoning, by his retreat, the country which they desired to invade; or facilitating, by his approach, the desertion of the Barbarian auxi|liaries. To the Imperial court he repeatedly magnified the valour, the genius, the inexhaust|ible resources of Tribigild; confessed his own inability to prosecute the war; and extorted the permission of negotiating with his invincible ad|versary. The conditions of peace were dictated by the haughty rebel; and the peremptory de|mand of the head of Eutropius, revealed the author and the design of this hostile conspiracy.

The bold satirist, who has indulged his discon|tent * 1.35 by the partial and passionate censure of the Christian emperors, violates the dignity, rather than the truth, of history, by comparing the son of Theodosius to one of those harmless and sim|ple animals, who scarcely feel that they are the property of their shepherd. Two passions, how|ever, fear and conjugal affection, awakened the languid soul of Arcadius: he was terrified by the threats of a victorious Barbarian; and he yielded to the tender eloquence of his wife Eudoxia, who, with a flood of artificial tears, presenting her infant children to their father, implored his jus|tice for some real or imaginary insult, which she imputed to the audacious eunuch 28 1.36. The em|peror's

hand was directed to sign the condemna|tion of Eutropius; the magic spell, which during four years had bound the prince and the people, was instantly dissolved; and the acclamations, that so lately hailed the merit and fortune of the favourite, were converted into the clamours of the soldiers and people, who reproached his crimes, and pressed his immediate execution. In this hour of distress and despair, his only refuge was in the sanctuary of the church, whose privileges he had wisely, or profanely, attempted to circumscribe; and the most eloquent of the saints, John Chrysostom, enjoyed the triumph of protecting a prostrate minister, whose choice had raised him to the ecclesiastical throne of Con|stantinople. The archbishop, ascending the pul|pit of the cathedral, that he might be distinctly seen and heard by an innumerable crowd of either sex and of every age, pronounced a seasonable and pathetic discourse on the forgiveness of in|juries, and the instability of human greatness. The agonies of the pale and affrighted wretch, who lay groveling under the table of the altar, exhibited a solemn and instructive spectacle; and the orator, who was afterwards accused of in|sulting the misfortunes of Eutropius, laboured to excite the contempt, that he might assuage the fury, of the people 29 1.37. The powers of humanity,

of superstition, and of eloquence prevailed. The empress Eudoxia was restrained, by her own pre|judices, or by those of her subjects, from violat|ing the sanctuary of the church; and Eutropius was tempted to capitulate, by the milder arts of persuasion, and by an oath, that his life should be spared 30 1.38. Careless of the dignity of their sovereign, the new ministers of the palace imme|diately published an edict, to declare, that his late favourite had disgraced the names of consul and patrician, to abolish his statues, to confis|cate his wealth, and to inflict a perpetual exile in the island of Cyprus 31 1.39. A dispicable and de|crepid eunuch could no longer alarm the fears of his enemies; nor was he capable of enjoying what yet remained, the comforts of peace, of solitude, and of a happy climate. But their im|placable revenge still envied him the last moments of a miserable life, and Eutropius had no sooner

touched the shores of Cyprus, than he was hastily recalled. The vain hope of eluding, by a change of place, the obligation of an oath, engaged the empress to transfer the scene of his trial and execution, from Constantinople to the adjacent suburb of Chalcedon. The consul Aurelian pro|nounced the sentence; and the motives of that sentence expose the jurisprudence of a despotic government. The crimes which Eutropius had committed against the people, might have justi|fied his death; but he was found guilty of har|nessing to his chariot the sacred animals, who, from their breed, or colour, were reserved for the use of the emperor alone 32 1.40.

While this domestic revolution was transacted, * 1.41 Gainas 33 1.42 openly revolted from his allegiance; united his forces, at Thyatira in Lydia, with those of Tribigild; and still maintained his su|perior ascendant over the rebellious leader of the Ostrogoths. The confederate armies advanced, without resistance, to the Streights of the Helles|pont, and the Bosphorus; and Arcadius was in|structed to prevent the loss of his Asiatic domi|nions, by resigning his authority and his person to the faith of the Barbarians. The church of the holy martyr Euphemia, situate on a lofty eminence near Chalcedon 34 1.43, was chosen for the

place of the interview. Gainas bowed, with re|verence, at the feet of the emperor, whilst he required the sacrifice of Aurelian and Saturninus, two ministers of consular rank; and their naked necks were exposed, by the haughty rebel, to the edge of the sword, till he condescended to grant them a precarious and disgraceful respite. The Goths, according to the terms of the agreement, were immediately transported from Asia into Europe; and their victorious chief, who accepted the title of master-general of the Roman armies, soon filled Constantinople with his troops, and distributed among his dependents, the honours and rewards of the empire. In his early youth, Gainas had passed the Danube as a suppliant, and a fugitive: his elevation had been the work of valour and fortune; and his indiscreet, or perfi|dious conduct, was the cause of his rapid down|fal. Notwithstanding the vigorous opposition of the archbishop, he importunately claimed, for his Arian sectaries, the possession of a peculiar church; and the pride of the catholics was of|fended by the public toleration of heresy 35 1.44. Every quarter of Constantinople was filled with tumult and disorder; and the Barbarians gazed with

such ardour on the rich shops of the jewellers, and the tables of the bankers, which were co|vered with gold and silver, that it was judged prudent to remove those dangerous temptations from their sight. They resented the injurious precaution; and some alarming attempts were made, during the night, to attack and destroy with fire the Imperial palace 36 1.45. In this state of * 1.46 mutual and suspicious hostility, the guards, and the people of Constantinople, shut the gates, and rose in arms to prevent, or to punish, the conspiracy of the Goths. During the absence of Gainas, his troops were surprised and oppressed; seven thousand Barbarians perished in this bloody massacre. In the fury of the pursuit, the catho|lics uncovered the roof, and continued to throw down flaming logs of wood, till they over|whelmed their adversaries, who had retreated to the church or conventicle of the Arians. Gainas was either innocent of the design, or too confident of his success: he was astonished by the intelli|gence, that the flower of his army had been in|gloriously destroyed; that he himself was declared a public enemy; and that his countryman, Fra|vitta, a brave and loyal confederate, had assumed the management of the war by sea and land. The enterprises of the rebel, against the cities of Thrace, were encountered by a firm and well|ordered defence: his hungry soldiers were soon reduced to the grass that grew on the margin of

the fortifications; and Gainas, who vainly re|gretted the wealth and luxury of Asia, embraced a desperate resolution of forcing the passage of the Hellespont. He was destitute of vessels; but the woods of the Ch••rsonesus afforded materials for rafts, and his intrepid Barbarians did not re|fuse to trust themselves to the waves. But Fra|vitta * 1.47 attentively watched the progress of their undertaking. As soon as they had gained the middle of the stream, the Roman gallies 37 1.48, im|pelled by the full force, of oars, of the current, and of a favourable wind, rushed forwards in compact order, and with irresistible weight; and the Hellespont was covered with the fragments of the Gothic shipwreck. After the destruction of his hopes, and the loss of many thousands of his bravest soldiers, Gainas, who could no longer aspire to govern, or to subdue, the Romans, de|termined to resume the independence of a savage life. A light and active body of Barbarian horse, disengaged from their infantry and baggage, might perform, in eight or ten days, a march of three hundred miles from the Hellespont to the Danube 38 1.49; the garrisons of that important fron|tier

had been gradually annihilated; the river, in the month of December, would be deeply frozen; and the unbounded prospect of Scythia was open to the ambition of Gainas. This de|sign was secretly communicated to the national troops, who devoted themselves to the fortunes of their leader; and before the signal of depar|ture was given, a great number of provincial auxiliaries, whom he suspected of an attachment to their native country, were perfidiously mas|sacred. The Goths advanced, by rapid marches, through the plains of Thrace; and they were soon delivered from the fear of a pursuit, by the vanity of Fravitta, who, instead of extinguishing the war, hastened to enjoy the popular applause, and to assume the peaceful honours of the con|sulship. But a formidable ally appeared in arms to vindicate the majesty of the empire, and to guard the peace and liberty of Scythia 39 1.50. The superior forces of Uldin, king of the Huns, op|posed the progress of Gainas; an hostile and ruined country prohibited his retreat; he dis|dained to capitulate; and after repeatedly at|tempting to cut his way through the ranks of the

enemy, he was slain, with his desperate followers, in the field of battle. Eleven days after the naval victory of the Hellespont, the head of Gai|nas, * 1.51 the inestimable gift of the conqueror, was received at Constantinople with the most liberal expressions of gratitude; and the public deliver|ance was celebrated by festivals and illumina|tions. The triumphs of Arcadius became the subject of epic poems 40 1.52; and the monarch, no longer oppressed by any hostile terrors, resigned himself to the mild and absolute dominion of his wife, the fair and artful Eudoxia; who has sul|lied her fame by the persecution of St. John Chrysostom.

After the death of the indolent Nectarius, the * 1.53 successor of Gregory Nazianzen, the church of Constantinople was distracted by the ambition of rival candidates, who were not ashamed to solicit, with gold or flattery, the suffrage of the people, or of the favourite. On this occasion, Eutropius seems to have deviated from his ordinary maxims; and his uncorrupted judgment was determined only by the superior merit of a stranger. In a late journey into the East, he had admired the sermons of John, a native and presbyter of An|tioch, whose name has been distinguished by the epithet of Chrysostom, or the Golden Mouth 41 1.54.

A private order was dispatched to the governor of Syria; and as the people might be unwilling to resign their favourite preacher, he was trans|ported, with speed and secrecy, in a post-chariot, from Antioch to Constantinople. The unani|mous and unsolicited consent of the court, the clergy, and the people, ratified the choice of the minister; and, both as a saint and as an orator, the new archbishop surpassed the sanguine ex|pectations of the public. Born of a noble and opulent family, in the capital of Syria, Chrysos|tom had been educated, by the care of a tender mother, under the tuition of the most skilful masters. He studied the art of rhetoric in the school of Libanius; and that celebrated sophist, who soon discovered the talents of his disciple, ingenuously confessed, that John would have de|served to succeed him, had he not been stolen away by the Christians. His piety soon disposed

him to receive the sacrament of baptism; to re|nounce the lucrative and honourable profession of the law; and to bury himself in the adjacent desert, where he subdued the lusts of the flesh by an austere pennance of six years. His infirmities compelled him to return to the society of man|kind; and the authority of Meletius devoted his talents to the service of the church: but in the midst of his family, and afterwards on the archie|piscopal throne, Chrysostom still persevered in the practice of the monastic virtues. The ample revenues, which his predecessors had consumed in pomp and luxury, he deligently applied to the establishment of hospitals; and the multitudes, who were supported by his charity, preferred the eloquent and edifying discourses of their arch|bishop, to the amusements of the theatre, or the circus. The monuments of that eloquence, which was admired near twenty years at Antioch and Constantinople, have been carefully pre|served; and the possession of near one thousand sermons, or homilies, has authorised the critics 42 1.55 of succeeding times to appreciate the genuine merit of Chrysostom. They unanimously attri|bute to the Christian orator, the free command of an elegant and copious language; the judg|ment to conceal the advantages which he derived

from the knowledge of rhetoric and philosophy; an inexhaustible fund of metaphors and simili|tudes, of ideas and images, to vary and illustrate the most familiar topics; the happy art of en|gaging the passions in the service of virtue; and of exposing the folly, as well as the turpitude, of vice, almost with the truth and spirit of a dra|matic representation.

The pastoral labours of the archbishop of Con|stantinople * 1.56 provoked, and gradually united against him, two sorts of enemies; the aspiring clergy, who envied his success, and the obstinate sinners, who were offended by his reproofs. When Chry|sostom thundred, from the pulpit of St. Sophia, against the degeneracy of the Christians, his shafts were spent among the crowd, without wounding, or even marking, the character of any individual. When he declaimed against the pe|culiar vices of the rich, poverty might obtain a transient consolation from his invectives: but the guilty were still sheltered by their numbers; and the reproach itself was dignified by some ideas of superiority, and enjoyment. But as the pyramid rose towards the summit, it insensibly diminished to a point; and the magistrates, the ministers, the favourite eunuchs, the ladies of the court 43 1.57,

the empress Eudoxia herself, had a much larger share of guilt, to divide among a smaller propor|tion of criminals. The personal applications of the audience were anticipated, or confirmed, by the testimony of their own conscience; and the intrepid preacher assumed the dangerous right of exposing both the offence, and the offender, to the public abhorrence. The secret resentment of the court encouraged the discontent of the clergy and monks of Constantinople, who were too has|tily reformed by the fervent zeal of their arch|bishop. He had condemned, from the pulpit, the domestic females of the clergy of Constanti|nople, who, under the name of servants, or sisters, afforded a perpetual occasion either of sin, or of scandal. The silent and solitary ascetics, who had secluded themselves from the world, were intitled to the warmest approbation of Chryso|stom; but he despised and stigmatised, as the disgrace of their holy profession, the crowd of degenerate monks, who, from some unworthy motives of pleasure or profit, so frequently in|fested the streets of the capital. To the voice of persuasion, the archbishop was obliged to add the terrors of authority; and his ardour, in the ex|ercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, was not al|ways exempt from passion; nor was it always guided by prudence. Chrysostom was naturally of a choleric disposition 44 1.58. Although he strug|gled,

according to the precepts of the gospel, to love his private enemies, he indulged himself in the privilege of hating the enemies of God, and of the church; and his sentiments were sometimes delivered with too much energy of countenance and expression. He still maintained, from some considerations of health, or abstinence, his for|mer habits of taking his repasts alone; and this inhospitable custom 45 1.59, which his enemies imputed to pride, contributed, at least, to nourish the infirmity of a morose and unsocial humour. Se|parated from that familiar intercourse, which fa|cilitates the knowledge and the dispatch of bu|siness, he reposed an unsuspecting confidence in his deacon Serapion; and seldom applied his spe|culative knowledge of human nature to the par|ticular characters, either of his dependents, or of his equals. Conscious of the purity of his inten|tions, and perhaps of the superiority of his ge|nius, the archbishop of Constantinople extended the jurisdiction of the Imperial city, that he might enlarge the sphere of his pastoral labours; and the conduct which the profane imputed to an am|bitious motive, appeared to Chrysostom himself

in the light of a sacred and indispensable duty. In his visitation through the Asiatic provinces, he deposed thirteen bishops of Lydia and Phry|gia; and indiscreetly declared, that a deep cor|ruption of simony and licentiousness had infected the whole episcopal order 46 1.60. If those bishops were innocent, such a rash and unjust condemn|ation must excite a well-grounded discontent. If they were guilty, the numerous associates of their guilt would soon discover, that their own safety depended on the ruin of the archbishop; whom they studied to represent as the tyrant of the Eastern church.

This ecclesiastical conspiracy was managed by * 1.61 Theophilus 47 1.62, archbishop of Alexandria, an ac|tive and ambitious prelate, who displayed the fruits of rapine in monuments of ostentation. His national dislike to the rising greatness of a city, which degraded him from the second, to the third, rank, in the Christian world, was ex|asperated by some personal disputes with Chry|sostom himself 48 1.63. By the private invitation of the empress, Theophilus landed at Constantino|ple, with a stout body of Egyptian mariners, to

encounter the populace; and a train of depend|ent bishops, to secure, by their voices, the ma|jority of a synod. The synod 49 1.64 was convened in the suburb of Chalcedon, surnamed the Oak, where Rufinus had erected a stately church and monastery; and their proceedings were continued during fourteen days, or sessions. A bishop and a deacon accused the archbishop of Constantino|ple; but the frivolous or improbable nature of the forty-seven articles which they presented against him, may justly be considered as a fair and unexceptionable panegyric. Four successive summons were signified to Chrysostom; but he still refused to trust either his person, or his re|putation, in the hands of his implacable enemies, who prudently declining the examination of any particular charges, condemned his contumacious disobedience, and hastily pronounced a sentence of deposition. The synod of the Oak immediately addressed the emperor to ratify and execute their judgment, and charitably insinuated, that the penalties of treason might be inflicted on the au|dacious preacher, who had reviled, under the name of Jezabel, the empress Eudoxia herself. The archbishop was rudely arrested, and con|ducted through the city, by one of the Imperial messengers, who landed him, after a short navi|gation, near the entrance of the Euxine; from

whence, before the expiration of two days, he was gloriously recalled.

The first astonishment of his faithful people had * 1.65 been mute and passive: they suddenly rose with unanimous and irresistible fury. Theophilus escaped; but the promiscuous crowd of monks and Egyptian mariners was slaughtered without pity in the streets of Constantinople 50 1.66. A sea|sonable earthquake justified the interposition of heaven; the torrent of sedition rolled forwards to the gates of the palace; and the empress, agitated by fear, or remorse, threw herself at the feet of Arcadius, and confessed, that the public safety could be purchased only by the restoration of Chrysostom. The Bosphorus was covered with innumerable vessels; the shores of Europe and Asia were profusely illuminated; and the accla|mations of a victorious people accompanied, from the port to the cathedral, the triumph of the archbishop; who, too easily, consented to resume the exercise of his functions, before his sentence had been legally reversed by the authority of an ecclesiastical synod. Ignorant, or careless, of the impending danger, Chrysostom indulged his zeal, or perhaps his resentment; declaimed with peculiar asperity against female vices; and con|demned

the profane honours which were addressed, almost in the precincts of St. Sophia, to the statue of the empress. His imprudence tempted his enemies to inflame the haughty spirit of Eudoxia, by reporting, or perhaps inventing, the famous exordium of a sermon,

"Herodias is again fu|rious; Herodias again dances; she once more requires the head of John:"

an insolent allu|sion, which, as a woman and a sovereign, it was impossible for her to forgive 51 1.67. The short interval of a perfidious truce was employed to concert more effectual measures for the disgrace and ruin of the archbishop. A numerous coun|cil of the Eastern prelates, who were guided from a distance by the advice of Theophilus, confirmed the validity, without examining the justice, of the former sentence; and a detachment of Bar|barian troops was introduced into the city, to suppress the emotions of the people. On the vigil of Easter, the solemn administration of bap|tism was rudely interrupted by the soldiers, who alarmed the modesty of the naked catechumens, and violated, by their presence, the awful mys|teries of the Christian worship. Arsacius occu|pied the church of St. Sophia, and the archiepis|copal throne. The catholics retreated to the baths of Constantine, and afterwards to the fields: where they were still pursued and insulted by the

guards, the bishops, and the magistrates. The fatal day of the second and final exile of Chry|sostom was marked by the conflagration of the cathedral, of the senate-house, and of the adja|cent buildings; and this calamity was imputed, without proof, but not without probability, to the despair of a persecuted faction 52 1.68.

Cicero might claim some merit, if his volun|tary * 1.69 banishment preserved the peace of the re|public 53 1.70; but the submission of Chrysostom was the indispensable duty of a Christian and a sub|ject. Instead of listening to his humble prayer, that he might be permitted to reside at Cyzicus, or Nicomedia, the inflexible empress assigned for his exile the remote and desolate town of Cucusus, among the ridges of Mount Taurus, in the Lesser Armenia. A secret hope was entertained, that the archbishop might perish in a difficult and dangerous march of seventy days in the heat of summer, through the provinces of Asia Minor, where he was continually threatened by the hos|tile attacks of the Isaurians, and the more im|placable fury of the monks. Yet Chrysostom arrived in safety at the place of his confinement; and the three years, which he spent at Cucusus, and the neighbouring town of Arabissus, were the last and most glorious of his life. His cha|racter was consecrated by absence and persecu|tion;

the faults of his administration were no longer remembered; but every tongue repeated the praises of his genius and virtue: and the re|spectful attention of the Christian world was fixed on a desert spot among the mountains of Taurus. From that solitude, the archbishop, whose active mind was invigorated by misfor|tunes, maintained a strict and frequent corre|spondence 54 1.71 with the most distant provinces; ex|horted the separate congregation of his faithful adherents to persevere in their allegiance; urged the destruction of the temples of Phoenicia, and the extirpation of heresy in the isle of Cyprus; extended his pastoral care to the missions of Persia and Scythia; negociated, by his ambassadors, with the Roman pontiff, and the emperor Hono|rius; and boldly appealed, from a partial synod, to the supreme tribunal of a free and general council. The mind of the illustrious exile was still independent; but his captive body was ex|posed to the revenge of the oppressors, who con|tinued to abuse the name and authority of Arca|dius 55 1.72. An order was dispatched for the instant

removal of Chrysostom to the extreme desert of Pityus; and his guards so faithfully obeyed their cruel instructions, that, before he reached the sea-coast of the Euxine, he expired at Comana, * 1.73 in Pontus, in the sixtieth year of his age. The succeeding generation acknowledged his inno|cence and merit. The archbishops of the East, who might blush, that their predecessors had been the enemies of Chrysostom, were gradually dis|posed, by the firmness of the Roman pontiff, to restore the honours of that venerable name 56 1.74. At the pious solicitation of the clergy and people of Constantinople, his relics, thirty years after his death, were transported from their obscure * 1.75 sepulchre to the royal city 57 1.76. The emperor Theodosius advanced to receive them as far as Chalcedon; and, falling prostrate on the coffin, implored, in the name of his guilty parents, Ar|cadius and Eudoxia, the forgiveness of the in|jured saint 58 1.77.

Yet a reasonable doubt may be entertained, whether any stain of hereditary guilt could be derived from Arcadius to his successor. Eudoxia * 1.78 was a young and beautiful woman, who indulged her passions, and despised her husband: Count John enjoyed, at least, the familiar confidence of the empress; and the public named him as the real father of Theodosius the younger 59 1.79. The birth of a son was accepted, however, by the pious husband, as an event the most fortunate and honourable to himself, to his family, and to the eastern world: and the royal infant, by an unprecedented favour, was invested with the titles of Caesar and Augustus. In less than four years afterwards, Eudoxia, in the bloom of youth, was destroyed by the consequences of a miscar|riage; and this untimely death confounded the prophecy of a holy bishop 60 1.80, who, amidst the universal joy, had ventured to foretel, that she should behold the long and auspicious reign of her glorious son. The catholics applauded the justice of heaven, which avenged the persecution of St. Chrysostom; and perhaps the emperor was

the only person who sincerely bewailed the loss of the haughty and rapacious Eudoxia. Such a domestic misfortune afflicted him more deeply than the public calamities of the East 61 1.81; the li|centious excursions, from Pontus to Palestine, of the Isaurian robbers, whose impunity accused the weakness of the government; and the earth|quakes, the conflagrations, the famine, and the flights of locusts 62 1.82, which the popular discontent was equally disposed to attribute to the incapa|city of the monarch. At length, in the thirty|first year of his age, after a reign (if we may abuse that word) of thirteen years, three months, and fifteen days, Arcadius expired in the palace of Constantinople. It is impossible to delineate his character; since, in a period very copiously furnished with historical materials, it has not been possible to remark one action that properly belongs to the son of the great Theodosius.

The historian Procopius 63 1.83 has indeed illumi|nated * 1.84 the mind of the dying emperor with a ray of human prudence, or celestial wisdom. Arca|dius considered, with anxious foresight, the help|less condition of his son Theodosius, who was no more than seven years of age, the dangerous fac|tions of a minority, and the aspiring spirit of Jezde|gerd,

the Persian monarch. Instead of tempting the allegiance of an ambitious subject, by the participation of supreme power, he boldly ap|pealed to the magnanimity of a king; and placed, by a solemn testament, the sceptre of the East in the hands of Jezdegerd himself. The royal guar|dian accepted and discharged this honourable trust with unexampled fidelity; and the infancy of Theodosius was protected by the arms and councils of Persia. Such is the singular narrative of Procopius; and his veracity is not disputed by Agathias 64 1.85, while he presumes to dissent from his judgment, and to arraign the wisdom of a Christian emperor, who, so rashly, though so fortunately, committed his son and his dominions to the unknown faith of a stranger, a rival, and a heathen. At the distance of one hundred and fifty years, this political question might be de|bated in the court of Justinian; but a prudent historian will refuse to examine the propriety, till he has ascertained the truth, of the testament of Arcadius. As it stands without a parallel in the history of the world, we may justly require, that it should be attested by the positive and unani|mous evidence of contemporaries. The strange novelty of the event, which excites our distrust, must have attracted their notice; and their uni|versal

silence annihilates the vain tradition of the succeeding age.

The maxims of Roman jurisprudence, if they * 1.86 could fairly be transferred from private property to public dominion, would have adjudged to the emperor Honorius the guardianship of his nephew, till he had attained, at least, the fourteenth year of his age. But the weakness of Honorius, and the calamities of his reign, disqualified him from prosecuting this natural claim; and such was the absolute separation of the two monarchies, both in interest and affection, that Constantinople would have obeyed, with less reluctance, the orders of the Persian, than those of the Italian, court. Under a prince, whose weakness is disguised by the external signs of manhood and discretion, the most worthless favourites may secretly dispute the empire of the palace; and dictate to submissive provinces, the commands of a master, whom they direct and despise. But the ministers of a child, who is incapable of arming them with the sanc|tion of the royal name, must acquire and exercise an independent authority. The great officers of the state and army, who had been appointed be|fore the death of Arcadius, formed an aristo|cracy, which might have inspired them with the idea of a free republic; and the government of the eastern empire was fortunately assumed by the praefect Anthemius 65 1.87, who obtained, by his su|perior

abilities, a lasting ascendant over the minds of his equals. The safety of the young emperor proved the merit and integrity of Anthemius; and his prudent firmness sustained the force and reputation of an infant reign. Uldin, with a formidable host of Barbarians, was encamped in the heart of Thrace: he proudly rejected all terms of accommodation; and, pointing to the rising sun, declared to the Roman ambassadors, that the course of that planet should alone terminate the conquests of the Huns. But the desertion of his confederates, who were privately convinced of the justice and liberality of the Imperial mi|nisters, obliged Uldin to repass the Danube: the tribe of the Scyrri, which composed his rear|guard, was almost extirpated; and many thou|sand captives were dispersed, to cultivate, with servile labour, the fields of Asia 66 1.88. In the midst of the public triumph, Constantinople was pro|tected by a strong inclosure of new and more extensive walls; the same vigilant care was ap|plied to restore the fortifications of the Illyrian cities: and a plan was judiciously conceived, which, in the space of seven years, would have secured the command of the Danube, by esta|blishing on that river a perpetual fleet of two hundred and fifty armed vessels 67 1.89.

But the Romans had so long been accustomed to the authority of a monarch, that the first, even among the females, of the Imperial family, * 1.90 who displayed any courage or capacity, was per|mitted to ascend the vacant throne of Theodo|sius. His sister Pulcheria 68 1.91, who was only two years older than himself, received, at the age of sixteen, the title of Augusta; and though her fa|vour might be sometimes clouded by caprice or intrigue, she continued to govern the Eastern empire near forty years; during the long mino|rity of her brother, and after his death, in her own name, and in the name of Marcian, her no|minal husband. From a motive, either of pru|dence, or religion, she embraced a life of celi|bacy; and notwithstanding some aspersions on the chastity of Pulcheria 69 1.92, this resolution, which she communicated to her sisters Arcadia and Marina, was celebrated by the Christian world, as the sublime effort of heroic piety. In the pre|sence of the clergy and people, the three daugh|ters of Arcadius 70 1.93 dedicated their virginity to God; and the obligation of their solemn vow

was inscribed on a tablet of gold and gems; which they publicly offered in the great church of Con|stantinople. Their palace was converted into a monastery; and all males, except the guides of their conscience, the saints who had forgotten the distinction of sexes, were scrupulously ex|cluded from the holy threshold. Pulcheria, her two sisters, and a chosen train of favourite dam|sels, formed a religious community: they re|nounced the vanity of dress; interrupted, by fre|quent fasts, their simple and frugal diet; allotted a portion of their time to works of embroidery; and devoted several hours of the day and night to the exercises of prayer and psalmody. The piety of a Christian virgin was adorned by the zeal and liberality of an empress. Ecclesiastical history describes the splendid churches, which were built at the expence of Pulcheria, in all the provinces of the East; her charitable foundations for the benefit of strangers and the poor; the ample donations which she assigned for the per|petual maintenance of monastic societies; and the active severity with which she laboured to suppress the opposite heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches. Such virtues were supposed to deserve the peculiar favour of the Deity; and the relics of martyrs, as well as the knowledge of future events, were communicated in visions and reve|lations to the Imperial saint 71 1.94. Yet the devotion

of Pulcheria never diverted her indefatigable at|tention from temporal affairs; and she alone, among all the descendants of the great Theodo|sius, appears to have inherited any share of his manly spirit and abilities. The elegant and fa|miliar use which she had acquired, both of the Greek and Latin languages, was readily applied to the various occasions of speaking, or writing, on public business: her deliberations were ma|turely weighed; her actions were prompt and de|cisive; and, while she moved without noise or ostentation the wheel of government, she dis|creetly attributed to the genius of the emperor, the long tranquillity of his reign. In the last years of his peaceful life, Europe was indeed af|flicted by the arms of Attila; but the more ex|tensive provinces of Asia still continued to enjoy a profound and permanent repose. Theodosius the younger was never reduced to the disgraceful necessity of encountering and punishing a rebel|lious subject: and since we cannot applaud the vigour, some praise may be due to the mildness, and prosperity, of the administration of Pul|cheria.

The Roman world was deeply interested in the * 1.95 education of its master. A regular course of study and exercise was judiciously instituted; of

the military exercises of riding, and shooting with the bow; of the liberal studies of grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy: the most skilful masters of the East ambitiously solicited the attention of their royal pupil; and several noble youths were introduced into the palace, to animate his dili|gence by the emulation of friendship. Pulcheria alone discharged the important task of instructing her brother in the arts of government; but her precepts may countenance some suspicion of the extent of her capacity, or of the purity of her in|tentions. She taught him to maintain a grave and majestic deportment; to walk, to hold his robes, to seat himself on his throne, in a manner worthy of a great prince; to abstain from laugh|ter; to listen with condescension; to return suit|able answers; to assume, by turns, a serious or a placid countenance; in a word, to represent with grace and dignity the external figure of a Roman emperor. But Theodosius 72 1.96 was never excited to support the weight and glory of an il|lustrious name; and, instead of aspiring to imi|tate his ancestors, he degenerated (if we may

presume to measure the degrees of incapacity) below the weakness of his father and his uncle. Arcadius and Honorius had been assisted by the guardian care of a parent, whose lessons were en|forced by his authority, and example. But the unfortunate prince, who is born in the purple, must remain a stranger to the voice of truth; and the son of Arcadius was condemned to pass his perpetual infancy, encompassed only by a ser|vile train of women and eunuchs. The ample leisure, which he acquired by neglecting the es|sential duties of his high office, was filled by idle amusements, and unprofitable studies. Hunting was the only active pursuit that could tempt him beyond the limits of the palace; but he most assiduously laboured, sometimes by the light of a midnight lamp, in the mechanic occupations of painting and carving; and the elegance with which he transcribed religious books, entitled the Roman emperor to the singular epithet of Calligraphes, or a fair writer. Separated from the world by an impenetrable veil, Theodosius trusted the persons whom he loved; he loved those who were accustomed to amuse and flatter his indolence; and as he never perused the pa|pers that were presented for the royal signature, the acts of injustice the most repugnant to his character, were frequently perpetrated in his name. The emperor himself was chaste, tem|perate, liberal, and merciful; but these qua|lities, which can only deserve the name of vir|tues, when they are supported by courage, and

regulated by discretion, were seldom beneficial, and they sometimes proved mischievous, to man|kind. His mind, enervated by a royal educa|tion, was oppressed, and degraded, by abject superstition: he fasted, he sung psalms, he blindly accepted the miracles and doctrines, with which his faith was continually nourished. Theodo|sius devoutly worshipped the dead and living saints of the Catholic church; and he once re|fused to eat, till an insolent monk, who had cast an excommunication on his sovereign, conde|scended to heal the spiritual wound which he had inflicted 73 1.97.

The story of a fair and virtuous maiden, ex|alted * 1.98 from a private condition, to the Imperial throne, might be deemed an incredible romance, if such a romance had not been verified in the marriage of Theodosius. The celebrated Athe|nais 74 1.99 was educated by her father Leontius in the religion and sciences of the Greeks; and so ad|vantageous was the opinion which the Athenian philosopher entertained of his contemporaries,

that he divided his patrimony between his two sons, bequeathing to his daughter a small legacy of one hundred pieces of gold, in the lively con|fidence that her beauty and merit would be a sufficient portion. The jealousy and avarice of her brothers soon compelled Athenais to seek a refuge at Constantinople; and, with some hopes, either of justice, or favour, to throw herself at the feet of Pulcheria. That sagacious princess listened to her eloquent complaint; and secretly destined the daughter of the philosopher Leontius for the future wife of the emperor of the East, who had now attained the twentieth year of his age. She easily excited the curiosity of her bro|ther, by an interesting picture of the charms of Athenais; large eyes, a well-proportioned nose, a fair complexion, golden locks, a slender person, a graceful demeanour, an understanding improv|ed by study, and a virtue tried by distress, Theodosius, concealed behind a curtain in the apartment of his sister, was permitted to behold the Athenian virgin: the modest youth imme|diately declared his pure and honourable love; and the royal nuptials were celebrated amidst the acclamations of the capital and the provinces. Athenais, who was easily persuaded to renounce the errors of Paganism, received at her baptism the Christian name of Eudocia; but the cautious Pulcheria withheld the title of Augusta, till the wife of Theodosius had approved her fruitfulness by the birth of a daughter, who espoused, fifteen years afterwards, the emperor of the West. The

brothers of Eudocia obeyed, with some anxiety, her Imperial summons; but, as she could easily forgive their fortunate unkindness, she indulged the tenderness, or perhaps the vanity, of a sister, by promoting them to the rank of consuls and praefects. In the luxury of the palace, she still cultivated those ingenious arts, which had con|tributed to her greatness; and wisely dedicated her talents to the honour of religion, and of her husband. Eudocia composed a poeticall para|phrase of the first eight books of the Old Testa|ment, and of the prophecies of Daniel and Za|chariah; a cento of the verses of Homer, appli|ed to the life and miracles of Christ, the legend of St. Cyprian, and a panegyric on the Persian victories of Theodosius: and her writings, which were applauded by a servile and superstitious age, have not been disdained by the candour of im|partial criticism 75 1.100. The fondness of the emperor was not abated by time and possession; and Eu|docia, after the marriage of her daughter, was permitted to discharge her grateful vows by a so|lemn pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Her ostentatious progress through the East may seem inconsistent with the spirit of Christian humility: she pro|nounced, from a throne of gold and gems, an

eloquent oration to the senate of Antioch, declar|ed her royal intention of enlarging the walls of the city, bestowed a donative of two hundred pounds of gold to restore the public baths, and accepted the statues, which were decreed by the gratitude of Antioch. In the Holy Land, her alms and pious foundations exceeded the muni|ficence of the great Helena; and though the public treasure might be impoverished by this excessive liberality, she enjoyed the conscious satisfaction of returning to Constantinople with the chains of St. Peter, the right arm of St. Ste|phen, and an undoubted picture of the Virgin, painted by St. Luke 76 1.101. But this pilgrimage was the fatal term of the glories of Eudocia. Satiat|ed with empty pomp, and unmindful, perhaps, of her obligations to Pulcheria, she ambitiously aspired to the government of the Eastern empire: the palace was distracted by female discord; but the victory was at last decided, by the superior ascendant of the sister of Theodosius. The exe|cution of Paulinus, master of the offices, and the disgrace of Cyrus, Praetorian praefect of the East, convinced the public, that the favour of Eudocia was insufficient to protect her most faith|ful friends; and the uncommon beauty of Pauli|nus encouraged the secret rumour, that his guilt was that of a successful lover 77 1.102. As soon as the

empress perceived that the affection of Theodo|sius was irretrievably lost, she requested the per|mission of retiring to the distant solitude of Jeru|salem. She obtained her request; but the jea|lousy of Theodosius, or the vindictive spirit of Pulcheria, pursued her in her last retreat; and Saturninus, count of the domestics, was directed to punish with death two ecclesiastics, her most favoured servants. Eudocia instantly revenged them by the assassination of the count: the furious passions, which she indulged on this suspicious occasion, seemed to justify the severity of Theo|dosius; and the empress, ignominiously stript of the honours of her rank 78 1.103, was disgraced, per|haps unjustly, in the eyes of the world. The remainder of the life of Eudocia, about sixteen years, was spent in exile and devotion; and the approach of age, the death of Theodosius, the misfortunes of her only daughter, who was led a captive from Rome to Carthage, and the society of the Holy Monks of Palestine, insensibly con|firmed the religious temper of her mind. After a full experience of the vicissitudes of human life, the daughter of the philosopher Leontius expired, at Jerusalem, in the sixty-seventh year of her age; protesting with her dying breath,

that she had never transgressed the bounds of innocence and friendship 79 1.104.

The gentle mind of Theodosius was never in|flamed * 1.105 by the ambition of conquest, or military renown; and the slight alarm of a Persian war scarcely interrupted the tranquillity of the East. The motives of this war were just and honourable. In the last year of the reign of Jezdegerd, the supposed guardian of Theodosius, a bishop, who aspired to the crown of martyrdom, destroyed one of the fire-temples of Susa 80 1.106. His zeal and ob|stinacy were revenged on his brethren: the Magi excited a cruel persecution; and the intolerant zeal of Jezdegerd was imitated by his son Vara|ranes, or Bahram, who soon afterwards ascended the throne. Some Christian fugitives, who escaped to the Roman frontier, were sternly de|manded, and generously refused; and the refusal, aggravated by commercial disputes, soon kindled a war between the rival monarchies. The moun|tains of Armenia, and the plains of Mesopotamia,

were filled with hostile armies; but the operations of two successive campaigns were not productive of any decisive or memorable events. Some en|gagements were fought, some towns were besieg|ed, with various and doubtful success; and if the Romans failed in their attempt to recover the long lost possession of Nisibis, the Persians were repulsed from the walls of a Mesopotamian city, by the valour of a martial bishop, who pointed his thundering engine in the name of St. Thomas the Apostle. Yet the splendid victories, which the incredible speed of the messenger Palladius repeatedly announced to the palace of Constan|tinople, were celebrated with festivals and pane|gyrics. From these panegyrics the 81 1.107 historians of the age might borrow their extraordinary, and, perhaps, fabulous, tales; of the proud challenge of a Persian hero, who was entangled by the net, and dispatched by the sword, of Areobindus the Goth; of the ten thousand Immortals, who were slain in the attack of the Roman camp; and of the hundred thousand Arabs, or Saracens, who were impelled by a panic terror to throw them|selves headlong into the Euphrates. Such events may be disbelieved, or disregarded; but the charity of a bishop, Acacius of Amida, whose name might have dignified the saintly calendar, shall not be lost in oblivion. Boldly declaring, that vases of gold and silver are useless to a God

who neither eats nor drinks, the generous prelate sold the plate of the church of Amida; employ|ed the price in the redemption of seven thousand Persian captives; supplied their wants with affec|tionate liberality; and dismissed them to their native country, to inform the king of the true spirit of the religion which he persecuted. The practice of benevolence in the midst of war must always tend to assuage the animosity of contend|ing nations; and I wish to persuade myself, that Acacius contributed to the restoration of peace. In the conference which was held on the limits of the two empires, the Roman ambassadors degrad|ed the personal character of their sovereign, by a vain attempt to magnify the extent of his power; when they seriously advised the Persians to pre|vent, by a timely accommodation, the wrath of a monarch, who was yet ignorant of this distant war. A truce of one hundred years was solemnly ratified; and, although the revolutions of Ar|menia might threaten the public tranquillity, the essential conditions of this treaty were respected near fourscore years by the successors of Constan|tine and Artaxerxes.

Since the Roman and Parthian standards first * 1.108 encountered on the banks of the Euphrates, the kingdom of Armenia 82 1.109 was alternately oppressed

by its formidable protectors; and, in the course of this History, several events, which inclined the balance of peace and war, have been already re|lated. * 1.110 A disgraceful treaty had resigned Arme|nia to the ambition of Sapor; and the scale of Persia appeared to preponderate. But the royal race of Arsaces impatiently submitted to the house of Sassan; the turbulent nobles asserted, or be|trayed, their hereditary independence; and the nation was still attached to the Christian princes of Constantinople. In the beginning of the fifth century, Armenia was divided by the progress of war and faction 83 1.111; and the unnatural division precipitated the downfal of that ancient monarchy. Chosroes, the Persian vassal, reigned over the Eastern and most extensive portion of the coun|try; while the Western province acknowledged the jurisdiction of Arsaces, and the supremacy of the emperor Arcadius. After the death of Ar|saces, the Romans suppressed the regal govern|ment, and imposed on their allies the condition of subjects. The military command was dele|gated to the count of the Armenian frontier; the city of Theodosiopolis 84 1.112 was built and fortified in

a strong situation, on a fertile and lofty ground, near the sources of the Euphrates; and the de|pendent territories were ruled by five satraps, whose dignity was marked by a peculiar habit of gold and purple. The less fortunate nobles, who lamented the loss of their king, and envied the honours of their equals, were provoked to nego|ciate their peace and pardon at the Persian court; and returning, with their followers, to the palace of Artaxata, acknowledged Chosroes for their law|ful sovereign. About thirty years afterwards, Artasires, the nephew and successor of Chosroes, fell under the displeasure of the haughty and ca|pricious nobles of Armenia; and they unani|mously desired a Persian governor in the room of an unworthy king. The answer of the archbishop Isaac, whose sanction they earnestly solicited, is expressive of the character of a superstitious peo|ple. He deplored the manifest and inexcusable vices of Artasires; and declared, that he should not hesitate to accuse him before the tribunal of a Christian emperor, who would punish, without destroying, the sinner. "Our king," continued Isaac,

"is too much addicted to licentious plea|sures, but he has been purified in the holy waters of baptism. He is a lover of women, but he does not adore the fire or the elements. He may deserve the reproach of lewdness, but he is an undoubted Catholic; and his faith is pure, though his manners are flagitious.

I will never consent to abandon my sheep to the rage of devouring wolves; and you would soon repent your rash exchange of the infirmi|ties of a believer, for the specious virtues of an heathen 85 1.113."

Exasperated by the firmness of Isaac, the factious nobles accused both the king and the archbishop as the secret adherents of the emperor; and absurdly rejoiced in the sentence of condemnation, which, after a partial hearing, was solemnly pronounced by Bahram himself. The descendants of Arsaces were de|graded from the royal dignity 86 1.114, which they had possessed above five hundred and sixty years 87 1.115; and the dominions of the unfortunate Artasires, under the new and significant appellation of Per|sarmenia, were reduced into the form of a pro|vince. This usurpation excited the jealousy of the Roman government; but the rising disputes

were soon terminated by an amicable, though unequal, partition of the ancient kingdom of Armenia; and a territorial acquisition, which Augustus might have despised, reflected some lustre on the declining empire of the younger Theodosius.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The em|pire of the East, A. D. 395—1453 Reign of Arcadius, A. D. 395—408.
• 1 1.2

  Father Montsaucon, who, by the command of his Benedictine superiors, was compelled (see Longueruana, tom. i. p. 205.) to execute the laborious edition of St. Chrysostom, in thirteen volumes in folio (Paris, 1738.), amused himself with extracting from that immense collection of morals, some curious antiquities, which illus|trate the manners of the Theodosian age (See Chrysostom. Opera, tom. xiii. p. 192—196.), and his French Dissertation, in the Me|moires de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. xiii. p. 474—490.
• 2 1.3

  According to the loose reckoning, that a ship could sail, with a fair wind, 1000 stadia, or 125 miles, in the revolution of a day and night; Diodorus Siculus computes ten days from the Palus Moeotis to Rhodes, and four days from Rhodes to Alexandria. The navi|gation of the Nile, from Alexandria to Syene, under the tropic of Cancer, required, as it was against the stream, ten days more. Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. iii p. 200, edit. Wesseling. He might, without much impropriety, measure the extreme heat from the verge of the torrid zone; but he speaks of the Moeotis in the 47th degree of northern latitude, as if it lay within the polar circle.
• * 1.4

  Admini|stration and cha|racter of Eutropius, A. D. 395—399.
• 3 1.5

  Barthius, who adored his author with the blind superstition of a commentator, gives the preference to the two books which Claudian composed against Eutropius, above all his other productions (Baillet, Jugemens des Savans, tom. iv. p. 227.). They are indeed a very elegant and spirited satire; and would be more valuable in an histo|rical light, if the invective were less vague, and more temperate.
• 4 1.6

  After lamenting the progress of the eunuchs in the Roman pa|lace, and defining their proper functions, Claudian adds,

  —A fronte recedant

  Imperii.

  In Eutrop. i. 422.

  Yet it does not appear that the eunuch had assumed any of the of|ficient offices of the empire; and he is stiled only Praepositus sacri+cubiculi, in the edict of his banishment. See Cod. Theod. l. ix. tit. xl. leg. 17.
• 5 1.7

  Jamque oblita sui, nec sobria divitiis mens In miseras leges hominumque negotia ludit: Judicat cunuchus. . . . . . . . Arma etiam violare parat. . . .

  Claudian (i. 229—270.), with that mixture of indignation and hu|mour, which always pleases in a satiric poet, describes the insolent folly of the eunuch, the disgrace of the empire, and the joy of the Goths.

  —Gaudet, cum viderit hostis, Et sentit jam deesse viros.
• 6 1.8

  The poet's lively description of his deformity (i. 110—125.) is confirmed by the authentic testimony of Chrysostom (tom. iii. p. 384. edit. Montfaucon); who observes, that when the paint was washed away, the face of Eutropius appeared more ugly and wrinkled than that of an old woman. Claudian remarks (i. 469.), and the remark must have been founded on experience, that there was scarcely any interval between the youth and the decrepid age of an eunuch.
• 7 1.9

  Eutropius appears to have been a native of Armenia or Assyria. His three services, which Claudian more particularly describes, were these: 1. He spent many years as the catamite of Ptolemy, a groom or soldier of the Imperial stables. 2. Ptolemy gave him to the old general Arintheus, for whom he very skilfully exercised the profes|sion of a pimp. 3. He was given, on her marriage, to the daughter of Arintheus; and the future consul was employed to comb her hair, to present the silver ewer, to wash, and to fan his mistress in hot weather. See l. i. 31—137.
• 8 1.10

  Claudian (l. i. in Eutrop. 1—22.), after enumerating the va|rious prodigies of monstrous births, speaking animals, showers of blood or stones, double suns, &c. adds, with some exaggeration,

  Omnia cesserunt eunucho consule monstra.

  The first book concludes with a noble speech of the goddess of Rome to her favourite Honorius, deprecating the new ignominy to which she was exposed.
• 9 1.11

  Fl. Mallius Theodorus, whose civil honours, and philosophical works, have been celebrated by Claudian in a very elegant pane|gyric.
• * 1.12

  His ve|nality and injustice.
• 10 1.13

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, drunk with riches, is the forcible ex|pression of Zosimus (l. v. p. 301.); and the avarice of Eutropius is equally execrated in the Lexicon of Suidas, and the Chronicle of Marcellinus. Chrysostom had often admonished the favourite, of the vanity and danger of immoderate wealth, tom. iii. p. 381.
• 11 1.14

  —certantum saepe duorum Diversum suspendit onus: cum pondere Judex Vergit, et in geminas nutat provincia lances.

  Claudian (i. 192—209.) so curiously distinguishes the circum|stances of the sale, that they all seem to allude to particular anecdotes.
• * 1.15

  Ruin of Abundan|tius,
• 12 1.16

  Claudian (i. 154—170.) mentions the guilt and exile of Abun|dantius, nor could he fail to quote the example of the artist, who made the first trial of the brazen bull, which he presented to Phala|ris. See Zosimus, l. v. p. 302. Jerom, tom. i. p. 26. The dif|ference of place is easily reconciled; but the decisive authority of Asterius of Amasia (Orat. iv. p. 76. apud Tillemont, Hist. des Em|pereurs, tom. v. p. 435.) must turn the scale in favour of Pityus.
• 13 1.17

  Suidas (most probably from the history of Eunapius) has given a very unfavourable picture of Timasius. The account of his ac|cuser, the judges, trial, &c. is perfectly agreeable to the practice of ancient and modern courts. (See Zosimus, l. v. p. 298, 299, 300.) I am almost tempted to quote the romance of a great master (Field|ing's Works, vol. iv. p. 49, &c. 8vo edit.), which may be con|sidered as the history of human nature.
• * 1.18

  of Tima|sius.
• 14 1.19

  The great Oasis was one of the spots in the sands of Libya, watered with springs, and capable of producing wheat, barley, and palm-trees. It was about three days journey from north to south, about half a day in breadth, and at the distance of about five days march to the west of Abydus, on the Nile. See d'Anville, Descrip|tion de l'Egypte, p. 186, 187, 188. The barren desert which en|compasses Oasis (Zosimus, l. v. p. 300.) has suggested the idea of comparative fertility, and even the epithet of the happy island (Hero|dot. iii. 26.).
• 15 1.20

  The line of Claudian, in Eutrop. l. i. 180. Marmaricus claris violatur caedibus Hammon, evidently alludes to his persuasion of the death of Timasius.
• 16 1.21

  Sozomen, l. viii. c. 7. He speaks from report, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• 17 1.22

  Zosimus, l. v. p. 300. Yet he seems to suspect that this ru|mour was spread by the friends of Eutropius.
• * 1.23

  A cruel and unjust law of treason, A. D. 397, Sept. 4.
• 18 1.24

  See the Theodosian Code, l. ix. tit. 14. ad legem Corneliam de Sicariis, leg. 3. and the Code of Justinian, l. ix. tit. viii. ad legem Juliam de Majestate, leg. 5. The alteration of the title, from murder to treason, was an improvement of the subtle Tribonian. Godefroy, in a formal dissertation, which he has inserted in his Commentary, illustrates this law of Arcadius, and explains all the difficult passages which had been perverted by the jurisconsults of the darker ages. See tom. iii. p. 88—111.
• 19 1.25

  Bartolus understands a simple and naked consciousness, with|out any sign of approbation or concurrence. For this opinion, says Baldus, he is now roasting in hell. For my own part, continues the discreet Heineccius (Element. Jur. Civil. l. iv. p. 411.), I must approve the theory of Bartolus; but in practice I should incline to the sentiment of Baldus. Yet Bartolus was gravely quoted by the lawyers of Cardinal Richelieu; and Eutropius was indirectly guilty of the murder of the virtuous de Thou.
• 20 1.26

  Godefroy, tom. iii. p. 89. It is, however, suspected, that this law, so repugnant to the maxims of Germanic freedom, has been surreptitiously added to the golden bull.
• * 1.27

  Rebellion of Tribi|gild, A. D. 399.
• 21 1.28

  A copious and circumstantial narrative (which he might have reserved for more important events) is bestowed by Zosimus (l. v. p. 304—312.) on the revolt of Tribigild and Gainas. See likewise Socrates, l. vi. c. 6. and Sozomen, l. viii. c. 4. The second book of Claudian against Eutropius, is a sine, though imperfect, piece of history.
• 22 1.29

  Claudian (in Eutrop. l. ii. 237—250.) very accurately ob|serves, that the ancient name and nation of the Phrygians extended very far on every side, till their limits were contracted by the colo|nies of the Bithynians of Thrace, of the Greeks, and at last of the Gauls. His description (ii. 257—272.) of the fertility of Phrygia, and of the four rivers that produce gold, is just and picturesque.
• 23 1.30

  Xenophon. Anabasis, l. i. p. 11, 12. edit. Hutchinson. Stra|bo, l. xii. p. 865. edit. Amstel. Q. Curt. l. iii. c. 1. Claudian compares the junction of the Marsyas and Maeander to that of the Saone and the Rhône; with this difference, however, that the smaller of the Phrygian rivers is not accelerated, but retarded, by the lar|ger.
• 24 1.31

  Selgae, a colony of the Lacedaemonians, had formerly num|bered twenty thousand citizens; but in the age of Zosimus it was reduced to a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or small town. See Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. p. 117.
• 25 1.32

  The council of Eutropius, in Claudian, may be compared to that of Domitian in the fourth satire of Juvenal. The principal members of the former were, juvenes protervi lascivique senes; one of them had been a cook, a second a woolcomber. The language of their original profession exposes their assumed dignity; and their trifling conversation about tragedies, dancers, &c. is made still more ridiculous by the importance of the debate.
• 26 1.33

  Claudian (l. ii. 376—461.) has branded him with infamy; and Zosimus, in more temperate language, confirms his reproaches. L. v. p. 305.
• 27 1.34

  The conspiracy of Gainas and Tribigild, which is attested by the Greek historian, had not reached the ears of Claudian, who at|tributes the revolt of the Ostrogoths to his own martial spirit, and the advice of his wife.
• * 1.35

  Fall of Eutropius, A. D. 399.
• 28 1.36

  This anecdote, which Philostorgius alone has preserved (l. xi. c. 6. and Gothofred. Dissertat. p. 451—456.), is curious and im|portant; since it connects the revolt of the Goths with the secret intrigues of the palace.
• 29 1.37

  See the Homily of Chrysostom, tom. iii. p. 381—386. of which the exordium is particularly beautiful. Socrates, l. vi. c. 5. So|zomen, l. viii. c. 7. Montfaucon (in his Life of Chrysostom, tom. xiii. p. 135.) too hastily supposes that Tribigild was actually in Constantinople; and that he commanded the soldiers who were ordered to seize Eutropius. Even Claudian, a Pagan poet (Praefat. ad l. ii. in Eutrop. 27.), has mentioned the flight of the eunuch to the sanctuary. Suppliciterque pias humilis prostratus ad aras Mitigat iratas voce tremente nurus.
• 30 1.38

  Chrysostom, in another homily (tom. iii. p. 386.), affects to declare, that Eutropius would not have been taken, had he not de|serted the church. Zosimus (l. v. p. 313.), on the contrary, pre|tends, that his enemies forced him (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) from the sanctuary. Yet the promise is an evidence of some treaty; and the strong assurance of Claudian (Praefat. ad l. ii. 46.),

  Sed tamen exemplo non feriere tuo, may be considered as an evidence of some promise.
• 31 1.39

  Cod. Theod. l. ix. tit. xl. leg. 14. The date of that law (Jan. 17, A. D. 399.) is erroneous and corrupt; since the fall of Eutropius could not happen till the autumn of the same year. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 780.
• 32 1.40

  Zosimus, l. v. p. 313. Philostorgius, l. xi. c. 6.
• * 1.41

  Conspiracy and fall of Gainas, A. D. 400.
• 33 1.42

  Zosimus (l. v. p. 313—323.), Socrates (l. vi. c. 4.), Sozo|men (l. viii. c. 4.) and Theodoret (l. v. c. 32, 33.), represent, though with some various circumstances, the conspiracy, defeat, and death of Gainas.
• 34 1.43

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, is the expression of Zosimus himself (l. v. p. 314.), who inadvertently uses the fashionable language of the Christians. Evagrius describes (l. ii. c. 3.) the situation, archi|tecture, relics, and miracles of that celebrated church, in which the general council of Chalcedon was afterwards held.
• 35 1.44

  The pious remonstrances of Chrysostom, which do not appear in his own writings, are strongly urged by Theodoret; but his in|sinuation, that they were successful, is disproved by facts. Til|lemont (Hist. des Empercurs, tom. v. 383.) has discovered, that the emperor, to satisfy the rapacious demands of Gainas, was obliged to melt the plate of the church of the Apostles.
• 36 1.45

  The ecclesiastical historians, who sometimes guide, and some|times follow, the public opinion, most confidently assert, that the palace of Constantinople was guarded by legions of angels.
• * 1.46

  July 20.
• * 1.47

  Dec. 23.
• 37 1.48

  Zosimus (l. v. p. 319.) mentions these gallies by the name of Liburnians, and observes, that they were as swift (without explaining the difference between them) as the vessels with fifty oars, but that they were far inferior in speed to the triremes, which had been long disused. Yet he reasonably concludes, from the testimony of Poly|bius, that gallies of a still larger size had been constructed in the Punic wars. Since the establishment of the Roman empire over the Mediterranean, the useless art of building large ships of war had probably been neglected, and at length forgotten.
• 38 1.49

  Chishull (Travels, p. 61—63. 72—76.) proceeded from Gal|lipoli, through Hadrianople, to the Danube, in about fifteen days. He was in the train of an English ambassador, whose baggage con|sisted of seventy-one waggons. That learned traveller has the merit of tracing a curious and unfrequented route.
• 39 1.50

  The narrative of Zosimus, who actually leads Gainas beyond the Danube, must be corrected by the testimony of Socrates, and Sozomen, that he was killed in Thrace; and by the precise and au|thentic dates of the Alexandrian, or Paschal, Chronicle, p. 307. The naval victory of the Hellespont is fixed to the month Apellaeus, the tenth of the calends of January (December 23.); the head of Gainas was brought to Constantinople the third of the nones of Ja|nuary (January 3.), in the month Audynaeus.
• * 1.51

  A. D. 401, January 3.
• 40 1.52

  Eusebius Scholasticus acquired much fame by his poem on the Gothic war, in which he had served. Near forty years afterwards, Ammonius recited another poem on the same subject, in the presence of the emperor Theodosius. See Socrates, l. vi. c. 6.
• * 1.53

  Election and merit of Chry|sostom, A. D. 398, Feb. 26.
• 41 1.54

  The sixth book of Socrates, the eighth of Sozomen, and the fifth of Theodoret, afford curious and authentic materials for the life of John Chrysostom. Besides those general historians, I have taken for my guides the four principal biographers of the saint. 1. The author of a partial and passionate Vindication of the Arch|bishop of Constantinople, composed in the form of a dialogue, and un|der the name of his zealous partizan, Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 500—533.). It is inserted among the works of Chrysostom, tom. xiii. p. 1—90. edit. Mont|faucon. 2. The moderate Erasmus (tom. iii. epist. MCL. p. 1331—1347. edit. Lugd. Bat.). His vivacity and good sense were his own; his errors, in the uncultivated state of ecclesiastical antiquity, were almost inevitable. 3. The learned Tillemont (Mem. Eccle|siastiques, tom. xi. p. 1—405. 547—626, &c. &c.); who compiles the lives of the saints with incredible patience, and religious accu|racy. He has minutely searched the voluminous works of Chry|sostom himself. 4. Father Montfaucon; who has perused those works with the curious diligence of an editor, discovered several new homilies, and again reviewed and composed the life of Chrysos|tom (Opera Chrysostom. tom. xiii. p. 91—177.).
• 42 1.55

  As I am almost a stranger to the voluminous sermons of Chry|sostom, I have given my confidence to the two most judicious and moderate of the ecclesiastical critics, Erasmus (tom. iii. p. 1344.), and Dupin (Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. iii. p. 38.): yet the good taste of the former is sometimes vitiated by an excessive love of antiquity; and the good sense of the latter is always restrained by prudential considerations.
• * 1.56

  His admi|nistration and de|fects, A. D. 398—403.
• 43 1.57

  The females of Constantinople distinguished themselves by their enmity or their attachment to Chrysostom. Three noble and opu|lent widows, Marsa, Castricia, and Eugraphia, were the leaders of the persecution (Pallad. Dialog. tom. xiii. p. 14.). It was impos|sible that they should forgive a preacher, who reproached their affec|tation to conceal, by the ornaments of dress, their age and ugliness (Pallad. p. 27.). Olympias, by equal zeal, displayed in a more pious cause, has obtained the title of saint. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. 416—440.
• 44 1.58

  Sozomen, and more especially Socrates, have defined the real character of Chrysostom with a temperate and impartial freedom, very offensive to his blind admirers. Those historians lived in the next generation, when party violence was abated, and had conversed with many persons intimately acquainted with the virtues and im|perfections of the saint.
• 45 1.59

  Palladius (tom. xiii. p. 40, &c.) very seriously defends the archbishop. 1. He never tasted wine. 2. The weakness of his sto|mach required a peculiar diet. 3. Business, or study, or devotion, often kept him fasting till sun-set. 4. He detested the noise and le|vity of great dinners. 5. He saved the expence for the use of the poor. 6. He was apprehensive, in a capital like Constantinople, of the envy and reproach of partial invitations.
• 46 1.60

  Chrysostom declares his free opinion (tom. ix. hom. iii. in Act. Apostol. p. 29.), that the number of bishops, who might be saved, bore a very small proportion to those who would be damned.
• * 1.61

  Chryso|stom is persecuted by the em|press Eu|doxia, A. D. 403.
• 47 1.62

  See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 441—500.
• 48 1.63

  I have purposely omitted the controversy which arose among the monks of Egypt, concerning Origenism and Antropomorphism: the dissimulation and violence of Theophilus; his artful manage|ment of the simplicity of Epiphanius; the persecution and flight of the long, or tall, brothers; the ambiguous support which they re|ceived at Constantinople from Chrysostom, &c. &c.
• 49 1.64

  Photius (p. 53—60.) has preserved the original acts of the synod of the Oak; which destroy the false assertion, that Chrysostom was condemned by no more than thirty-six bishops, of whom twenty-nine were Egyptians. Forty-five bishops subscribed his sen|tence. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 595.
• * 1.65

  Popular tumults at Constanti|nople.
• 50 1.66

  Palladius owns (p. 30.), that if the people of Constantinople had found Theophilus, they would certainly have thrown him into the sea. Socrates mentions (l. vi. c. 17.) a battle between the mob and the sailors of Alexandria, in which many wounds were given, and some lives were lost. The massacre of the monks is observed only by the Pagan Zosimus (l. v. p. 324.), who acknowledges that Chrysostom had a singular talent to lead the illiterate multitude, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• 51 1.67

  See Socrates, l. vi. c. 18. Sozomen, l. viii. c. 20. Zosimus (l. v. p. 324. 327.) mentions, in general terms, his invectives against Eudoxia. The homily, which begins with those famous words, is rejected as spurious. Montfaucon, tom. xiii. p. 151. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 603.
• 52 1.68

  We might naturally expect such a charge from Zosimus (l. v. p. 327.); but it is remarkable enough, that it should be confirmed by Socrates, l. vi. c. 18. and the Paschal Chronicle, p. 307.
• * 1.69

  Exile of Chrysos|tom, A. D. 404, June 20.
• 53 1.70

  He displays those specious motives (Post Reditum, c. 13, 14.) in the language of an orator and a politician.
• 54 1.71

  Two hundred and forty-two of the epistles of Chrysostom are still extant (Opera, tom. iii. p. 528—736.). They are addressed to a great variety of persons, and shew a firmness of mind, much superior to that of Cicero in his exile. The fourteenth epistle con|tains a curious narrative of the dangers of his journey.
• 55 1.72

  After the exile of Chrysostom, Theophilus published an enor|mous and horrible volume against him, in which he perpetually repeats the polite expressions of hostem humanitatis, sacrilegorum principem, immundum daemonem; he affirms, that John Chrysostom had deli|vered his soul to be adulterated by the devil; and wishes that some farther punishment, adequate (if possible) to the magnitude of his crimes, may be inflicted on him. St. Jerom, at the request of his friend Theophilus, translated this edifying performance from Greek into Latin. See Facundus Hermian. Defens. pro iii Capitul. l. vi. c. 5. published by Sirmond. Opera, tom. ii. p. 595, 596, 597.
• * 1.73

  His death, A. D. 407, Sept. 14.
• 56 1.74

  His name was inserted by his successor Atticus in the Dyptics of the church of Constantinople, A. D. 418. Ten years afterwards he was revered as a saint. Cyril, who inherited the place, and the passions, of his uncle Theophilus, yielded with much reluctance. See Facund. Hermian. l. iv. c. 1. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 277—283.
• * 1.75

  His relics transport|ed to Con|stantino|ple, A. D. 438, Jan. 27.
• 57 1.76

  Socrates, l. vii. c. 45. Theodoret, l. v. c. 36. This event reconciled the Joannites, who had hitherto refused to acknowledge his successors. During his lifetime, the Joannites were respected by the catholics, as the true and orthodox communion of Constantino|ple. Their obstinacy gradually drove them to the brink of schism.
• 58 1.77

  According to some accounts (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 438. No 9, 10.), the emperor was forced to send a letter of invita+tion and excuses, before the body of the ceremonious saint could be moved from Comana.
• * 1.78

  The death of Arca|dius, A. D. 408, May 1.
• 59 1.79

  Zosimus, l. v. p. 315. The chastity of an empress should not be impeached without producing a witness; but it is astonishing, that the witness should write and live under a prince, whose legiti|macy he dared to attack. We must suppose that his history was a party libel, privately read and circulated by the Pagans. Tille|mont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 782.) is not averse to brand the reputation of Eudoxia.
• 60 1.80

  Porphyry of Gaza. His zeal was transported by the order which he had obtained for the destruction of eight Pagan temples of that city. See the curious details of his life (Baronius, A. D. 401. No 17—51.) originally written in Greek, or perhaps in Syriac, by a monk, one of his favourite deacons.
• 61 1.81

  Philostorg. l. xi. c. 8. and Godefroy, Dissertat. p. 457.
• 62 1.82

  Jerom (tom. vi. p. 73. 76.) describes, in lively colours, the regular and destructive march of the locusts, which spread a dark cloud, between heaven and earth, over the land of Palestine. Sea|sonable winds scattered them, partly into the Dead Sea, and partly into the Mediterranean.
• 63 1.83

  Procopius, de Bell. Persic. l. i. c. 2. p. 8. edit. Louvre.
• * 1.84

  His sup|posed tes|tament.
• 64 1.85

  Agathias, l. iv. p. 136, 137. Although he confesses the pre|valence of the tradition, he asserts, that Procopius was the first who had committed it to writing. Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 597.) argues very sensibly on the merits of this fable. His criticism was not warped by any ecclesiastical authority: both Procopius and Agathias are half Pagans.
• * 1.86

  Adminis|tration of Anthe|mius, A. D. 408—415.
• 65 1.87

  Socrates, l. vii. c. 1. Anthemius was the grandson of Philip, one of the ministers of Constantius, and the grandfather of the em|peror Anthemius. After his return from the Persian embassy, he was appointed consul and Praetorian praefect of the East, in the year 405; and held the praefecture about ten years. See his honours and praises in Godefroy, Cod. Theod. tom. vi. p. 350. Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. tom. vi. p. 1, &c.
• 66 1.88

  Sozomen, l. ix. c. 5. He saw some Scyrri at work near Mount Olympus, in Bithynia, and cherished the vain hope that those captives were the last of the nation.
• 67 1.89

  Cod. Theod. l. vii. tit. xvii. l. xv. tit. i. leg. 49.
• * 1.90

  Character and admi|nistration of Pulche|ria, A. D. 414—453.
• 68 1.91

  Sozomen has filled three chapters with a magnificent panegyric of Pulcheria (l. ix. c. 1, 2, 3.); and Tillemont (Memoires Eccles. tom. xv. p. 171—184.) has dedicated a separate article to the honour of St. Pulcheria, virgin, and empress.
• 69 1.92

  Suidas (Excerpta, p. 68. in Script. Byzant.) pretends, on the credit of the Nestorians, that Pulcheria was exasperated against their founder, because he censured her connection with the beauti|ful Paulinus, and her incest with her brother Theodosius.
• 70 1.93

  See Ducange, Famil. Byzantin. p. 70. Flaccilla, the eldest daughter, either died before Arcadius, or, if she lived till the year 431 (Marcellin. Chron.), some defect of mind or body must have excluded her from the honours of her rank.
• 71 1.94

  She was admonished, by repeated dreams, of the place where the relics of the forty martyrs had been buried. The ground had successively belonged to the house and garden of a woman of Con|stantinople, to a monastery of Macedonian monks, and to a church of St. Thyrsus, erected by Caesarius, who was consul A. D. 397; and the memory of the relics was almost obliterated. Notwithstand|ing the charitable wishes of Dr. Jortin (Remarks, tom. iv. p. 234.), it is not easy to acquit Pulcheria of some share in the pious fraud; which must have been transacted, when she was more than five-and-thirty years of age.
• * 1.95

  Education and cha|racter of Theodo|sius the younger.
• 72 1.96

  There is a remarkable difference between the two ecclesiastical historians, who in general bear so close a resemblance. Sozomen (l. ix. c. 1.) ascribes to Pulcheria the government of the empire, and the education of her brother; whom he scarcely condescends to praise. Socrates, though he affectedly disclaims all hopes of savour or fame, composes an elaborate panegyric on the emperor, and cau|tiously suppresses the merits of his sister (l. vii. c. 22. 42.). Philo|storgius (l. xii. c. 7.) expresses the influence of Pulcheria in gentle and courtly language, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Suidas (Excerpt. p. 53.) gives a true character of Theodosius; and I have followed the example of Tillemont (tom. vi. p. 25.), in bor|rowing some strokes from the modern Greeks.
• 73 1.97

  Theodoret, l. v. c. 37. The bishop of Cyrrhus, one of the first men of his age for his learning and piety, applauds the obedience of Theodosius to the divine laws.
• * 1.98

  Character and adven|tures of the em|press Eu|docia, A. D. 421—460.
• 74 1.99

  Socrates (l. vii. c. 21.) mentions her name (Athenais, the daughter of Leontius, an Athenian sophist), her baptism, marriage, and poetical genius. The most ancient account of her history is in John Malala (part ii. p. 20, 21. edit. Venet. 1743), and in the Paschal Chronicle (p. 311, 312.). Those authors had probably seen original pictures of the empress Eudocia. The modern Greeks, Zonaras, Cedrenus, &c. have displayed the love, rather than the talent, of fiction. From Nicephorus, indeed, I have ventured to assume her age. The writer of a romance would not have imagined, that Athenais was near twenty-eight years old when she inflamed the heart of a young emperor.
• 75 1.100

  Socrates, l. vii. c. 21. Photius, p. 413—420. The Homeric cento is still extant, and has been repeatedly printed; but the claim of Eudocia to that insipid performance is disputed by the critics. See Fabricius, Biblioth. Graec. tom. i. p. 357. The Ionia, a mis|cellaneous dictionary of history and fable, was compiled by another empress of the name of Eudocia, who lived in the eleventh century; and the work is still extant in manuscript.
• 76 1.101

  Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 438, 439.) is copious and florid; but he is accused of placing the lies of different ages on the same level of authenticity.
• 77 1.102

  In this short view of the disgrace of Eudocia, I have imitated the caution of Evagrius (l. i. c. 21.), and count Marcellinus (in Chron. A. D. 440 and 444.). The two authentic dates assigned by the latter, overturn a great part of the Greek fictions; and the celebrated story of the apple, &c. is fit only for the Arabian Nights, where something not very unlike it may be found.
• 78 1.103

  Priscus (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 69.), a contemporary, and a courtier, drily mentions her Pagan and Christian names, without adding any title of honour or respect.
• 79 1.104

  For the two pilgrimages of Eudocia, and her long residence at Jerusalem, her devotion, alms, &c. see Socrates (l. vii. c. 47.) and Evagrius (l. i. c. 20, 21, 22.). The Paschal Chronicle may sometimes deserve regard; and, in the domestic history of Antioch, John Malala becomes a writer of good authority. The Abbé Gue|née, in a memoir on the fertility of Palestine, of which I have only seen an extract, calculates the gifts of Eudocia at 20,488 pounds of gold, above 800,000 pounds Sterling.
• * 1.105

  The Per|sian war, A. D. 422.
• 80 1.106

  Theodoret, l. v. c. 39. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 356—364. Assemanni, bibliot. Oriental. tom. iii. p. 396. tom. iv. p. 61. Theodoret blames the rashness of Abdas, but extols the constancy of his martyrdom. Yet I do not clearly understand the casuistry which prohibits our repairing the damage which we have unlawfully committed.
• 81 1.107

  Socrates (l. vii. c. 18, 19, 20, 21.) is the best author for the Persian war. We may likewise consult the three Chronicles, the Paschal, and those of Marcellinus and Malala.
• * 1.108

  Armenia divided be|tween the Persians and the Romans,
• 82 1.109

  This account of the ruin and division of the kingdom of Ar|menia is taken from the third book of the Armenian history of Moses of Chorene. Deficient as he is in every qualification of a good his|torian, his local information, his passions, and his prejudices, are strongly expressive of a native and contemporary. Procopius (de Edificiis, l. iii. c. 1. 5.) relates the same facts in a very different manner; but I have extracted the circumstances the most probable in themselves, and the least inconsistent with Moses of Chorene.
• * 1.110

  A. D. 431—440.
• 83 1.111

  The western Armenians used the Greek language and charac|ters in their religious offices; but the use of that hostile tongue was prohibited by the Persians in the eastern provinces, which were obliged to use the Syriac, till the invention of the Armenian letters by Mesrobes, in the beginning of the fifth century, and the subse|quent version of the Bible into the Armenian language; an event which relaxed the connection of the church and nation with Con|stantinople.
• 84 1.112

  Moses Choren. l. iii. c. 59. p. 309. and p. 358. Procopius, de Edificiis, l. iii. c. 5. Theodosiopolis stands, or rather stood, about thirty-five miles to the east of Arzeroum, the modern capital of Turkish Armenia. See d'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 99, 100.
• 85 1.113

  Moses Choren. l. iii. c. 63. p. 316. According to the insti|tution of St. Gregory the apostle of Armenia, the archbishop was always of the royal family; a circumstance, which, in some degree, corrected the influence of the sacerdotal character, and united the mitre with the crown.
• 86 1.114

  A branch of the royal house of Arsaces still subsisted, with the rank and possessions (as it should seem) of Armenian satraps. See Moses Choren. l. iii. c. 65. p. 321.
• 87 1.115

  Valarsaces was appointed king of Armenia by his brother the Parthian monarch, immediately after the defeat of Antiochus Sidetes (Moses Choren. l. ii. c. 2. p. 85.), one hundred and thirty years before Christ. Without depending on the various and contradictory periods of the reigns of the last kings, we may be assured, that the ruin of the Armenian kingdom happened after the council of Chal|cedon, A. D. 431. (l. iii. c. 61. p. 312.); and under Veramus, or Bahram, king of Persia (l. iii. c. 64. p. 317.), who reigned from A. D. 420 to 440. See Assemanni, Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iii. p. 396.