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THE division of the Roman world between the sons of
Theodosius marks the final establishment of the empire of
the East, which, from the reign of Arcadius to the taking of
Constantinople by the Turks, subsisted one thousand 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 perhaps excelled, the magnificence of Persia;
and the eloquent sermons of St Chrysostom(1) celebrate, 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 embroidered 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 curtains, the snowy carpet, the
size of the precious 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 productions 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) was comprehended within the
limits of the empire of the East. The populous countries of
that empire were the seat of art and learning, of luxury and
wealth; and the inhabitants, who had assumed the language
and manners of Greeks, styled 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
Constantinople 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 subjects 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 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
Eutropius,(3) one of the principal eunuchs of the palace 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. Under 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 ostensible functions
were confined to the menial service of the wardrobe and
Imperial bedchamber. They might direct in a whisper the
public counsels, and blast by their malicious suggestions
the fame and fortunes of the most illustrious citizens; but
they never presumed to stand forward in the front of empire,
(4) or to profane the public honours of the state. Eutropius
was the first of his artificial sex who dared to assume the
character of a Roman magistrate and general.(5) Sometimes, in
the presence of the blushing senate, he ascended the
tribunal to pronounce judgment 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 unsuccessful
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,
perhaps, than hatred to a public character. The subjects of
Arcadius were exasperated by the recollection that this
deformed and decrepit eunuch, (6) who so perversely mimicked
the actions of a man, was born in the most abject conditions
of servitude; that before he entered the Imperial palace he
had been successively sold and purchased by an hundred
masters, who had exhausted his youthful strength in every
mean and infamous office, and at length dismissed him in his
old age to freedom and poverty.(7) While these disgraceful
stories were circulated, and perhaps 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 Eutropius were
erected, in brass or marble, decorated 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 acceptation, 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) awakened, however, the
prejudices of the Romans. The effeminate consul was rejected
by the West as an indelible stain to the annals of the
republic; and without invoking the shades of Brutus and
Camillus, the colleague of Eutropius, a learned and
respectable magistrate, (9) sufficiently represented the
different maxims of the two administrations.
The bold and vigorous mind of Rufinus seems 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) As long as he despoiled the oppressors who
had enriched themselves with the plunder of the people,
Eutropius might gratify his covetous disposition 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
extortion were practised and improved; and Claudian 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 empire appreciates and divides the
Roman provinces from Mount Haemus to the Tigris. One man, at
the expense 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 antechamber 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 on of the scales is inclined by a superior weight, the
mind of the impartial judge remains in anxious suspense.(11)
Such" (continues 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 impunity of future crimes; but the
riches which Eutropius derived from confiscation were
'already' stained with injustice; since it was decent to
accuse 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
extremities of the empire were filled with innocent and
illustrious exiles. Among the generals and consuls of the
East, Abundantius(12) had reason to dread the first effects
of the resentment of Eutropius. He had been guilty of the
unpardonable crime of introducing that abject slave to the
palace 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 banished 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 Timasius (13) 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 command of a cohort; and he deserved to
feel the ingratitude of Bargus, who was secretly instigated
by the favourite to accuse his patron of a treasonable
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
sovereign. But as this form of trial might be deemed partial
and arbitrary, the further inquiry into the crimes of
Timasius was delegated to Saturnius 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 colleague, who pronounced a
sentence of condemnation against the unfortunate Timasius.
His immense 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) 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 contradictory
manner. It is insinuated that Eutropius despatched a private
order for his secret execution.(15) It was reported that in
attempting to escape from Oasis he perished in the desert of
thirst and hunger, and that his dead body was found on the
sands of Libya.(16) It has been asserted with more confidence
that his son Syagrius, after successfully eluding the
pursuit of the agents and emissaries of the court, collected
a band of African robbers that he rescued Timasius from the
place of his exile; and that both the father and the son
disappeared from the knowledge of mankind. (17) But the
ungrateful Bargus, instead of being suffered to possess the
reward of guilt, was soon afterwards circumvented and
destroyed by the more powerful villainy 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 individuals 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 violated every principle of humanity and
justice.(18) I. It is enacted, in the name and by the
authority of Arcadius, that all those who shall conspire,
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
confiscation. This species of fictitious and metaphorical
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 execution 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 conspiracy against the emperor and the empire.
The edict of Arcadius most positively and most absurdly
declares that in such cases of treason, thoughts and actions
ought to be punished with equal severity; that the knowledge
of a mischievous intention, unless it be instantly revealed,
becomes equally criminal with the intention itself;(19) and
that those rash men who shall presume to solicit the pardon
of traitors shall themselves be branded with public and
perpetual infamy. III. "With regard to the sons of traitors"
(continues the emperor), "although they ought to share the
punishment, since they will probably imitate the guilt of
their parents, yet, by the special effect of our Imperial
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 legacy
from the testament either of kinsmen or of strangers.
Stigmatised with hereditary infamy, 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 feelings of mankind, did the emperor,
or rather his favourite eunuch, applaud the moderation of a
law which transferred the same unjust and inhuman penalties
to the children of all those who had seconded or who had not
disclosed these fictitious conspiracies. Some of the noblest
regulations 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
revived in modern ages to protect the electors of Germany
and the cardinals of the church of Rome.(20)
Yet these sanguinary laws, which spread terror among a
disarmed and dispirited people, were of too weak a texture
to restrain the bold enterprise of Tribigild (21) the
Ostrogoth. The colony of that warlike nation, which had been
planted by Theodosius in one of the most fertile districts
of Phrygia,(22) 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 ungracious 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) 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
desolated by the rebellion of Tribigild. His rapid progress
was checked by the resistance of the peasants of Pamphylia;
and the Ostrogoths, attacked in a narrow pass between the
city of Selgae (24) a deep morass, and the craggy cliffs 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 barbarians and outlaws who were desirous of exercising
the profession of robbery under the more honourable names of
war and conquest. The rumours of the success of Tribigild
might for some time be suppressed by fear, or disguised by
flattery; yet they gradually alarmed both the court and the
capital. Every misfortune was exaggerated 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 depredations along the maritime
coast, from the mouth of the Nile to the port of
Constantinople. The approach of danger and the obstinacy of
Tribigild, who refused all terms of accommodation, compelled
Eutropius to summon a council of war.(25) After claiming for
himself the privilege of a veteran soldier, the eunuch
intrusted 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 differently but effectually
promoted the cause of the rebels. Leo,(26) who from the bulk
of his body and the dullness 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
opportunity. The rashness of the Ostrogoths had drawn them
into a disadvantageous position between 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 surprised 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 executed 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) When Gainas passed the Hellespont, to unite
under his standard the remains of the Asiatic troops, he
skilfully adapted his motions to the wishes of the
Ostrogoths, abandoning by his retreat the country which they
desired to invade, or facilitating by his approach the
desertion of the barbarian auxiliaries. To the Imperial
court he repeatedly magnified the valour, the genius, the
inexhaustible resources of Tribigild, confessed his own
inability to prosecute the war, and extorted the permission
of negotiating with his invincible adversary. The conditions
of peace were dictated by the haughty rebel, and the
peremptory demand of the head of Eutropius revealed the
author and the design of this hostile conspiracy.
The bold satirist, who has indulged his discontent 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
simple animals who scarcely feel that they are the property
of their shepherd. Two passions, however - 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 justice for some real
or imaginary insult which she imputed to the audacious
eunuch.(28) The emperor's hand was directed to sign the
condemnation 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 Constantinople. The archbishop,
ascending the pulpit 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 injuries and the instability
of human greatness. The agonies of the pale and affrighted
wretch, who lay grovelling under the table of the altar,
exhibited a solemn and instructive spectacle; and the
orator, who was afterwards accused of insulting the
misfortunes of Eutropius, laboured to excite the contempt,
that he might assuage the fury, of the people.(29) The powers
of humanity, of superstition, and of eloquence prevailed.
The empress Eudoxia was restrained, by her own prejudices or
by those of her subjects, from violating 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) Careless of the dignity of their
sovereign, the new ministers of the palace immediately
published an edict, to declare that his late favourite had
disgraced the names of consul and patrician, to abolish his
statues, to ,confiscate his wealth, and to inflict a
perpetual exile in the island of Cyprus.(31) A despicable and
decrepit 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 implacable 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 pronounced
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
justified his death; but he was found guilty of harnessing
to his chariot the 'sacred' animals, who, from their breed
or colour, were reserved for the use of the emperor alone.
(32)
While this domestic revolution was transacted, Gainas(33)
openly revolted from his allegiance, united his forces at
Thyatira in Lydia with those of Tribigild, and still
maintained his superior ascendant over the rebellious leader
of the Ostrogoths. The confederate armies advanced without
resistance to the straits of the Hellespont and the
Bosphorus, and Arcadius was instructed to prevent the loss
of his Asiatic dominions 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) was chosen for the place of the interview.
Gainas bowed with reverence 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 the
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
perfidious conduct was the cause of his rapid downfall.
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 offended by the public toleration of heresy.
(35) 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 covered 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) In this state
of 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 catholics uncovered the roof,
and continued to throw down flaming logs of wood till they
overwhelmed 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 intelligence that the flower of his
army had been ingloriously destroyed; that he himself was
declared a public enemy; and that his countryman Fravitta, 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 regretted 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 Chersonesus afforded materials for rafts, and
his intrepid barbarians did not refuse to trust themselves
to the waves. But Fravitta attentively watched the progress
of their undertaking. As soon as they had gained the middle
of the stream, the Roman galleys,(37) impelled 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, determined 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) the garrisons of that important frontier
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 design
was secretly communicated to the national troops, who
devoted themselves to the fortunes of their leader; and
before the signal of departure was given, a great number of
provincial auxiliaries, whom he suspected of an attachment
to their native country, were perfidiously massacred. The
Goths advanced by rapid marches through the plains of
Thrace, and they were soon delivered from the fear of
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
consulship. But a formidable ally appeared in arms to
vindicate the majesty of the empire, and to guard the peace
and liberty of Scythia. (39) The superior forces of Uldin,
king of the Huns, opposed the progress of Gainas; an hostile
and ruined country prohibited his retreat; he disdained to
capitulate; and after repeatedly attempting 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
Gainas, the inestimable gift of the conqueror, was received
at Constantinople with the most liberal expressions of
gratitude; and the public deliverance was celebrated by
festivals and illuminations. The triumphs of Arcadius became
the subject of epic poems; (40) 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 sullied her fame by the persecution of St.
John Chrysostom.
After the death of the indolent Nectarius, the 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
Antioch, whose name has been distinguished by the epithet of
Chrysostom, or the Golden Mouth. (41) A private order was
despatched to the governor of Syria; and as the people might
be unwilling to resign their favourite preacher, he was
transported, with speed and secrecy, in a postchariot, from
Antioch to Constantinople. The unanimous 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
expectations of the public. Born of a noble and opulent
family in the capital of Syria, Chrysostom 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 deserved to succeed him had
he not been stolen away by the Christians. His piety soon
disposed him to receive the sacrament of baptism; to
renounce 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 penance of six years.
His infirmities compelled him to return to the society of
mankind; 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 archiepiscopal throne,
Chrysostom still persevered in the practice of the monastic
virtues. The ample revenues, which his predecessors had
consumed in pomp and luxury, he diligently applied to the
establishment of hospitals; and the multitudes who were
supported by his charity preferred the eloquent and edifying
discourses of their archbishop 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 preserved; and the
possession of near one thousand sermons or homilies has
authorised the critics (42) of succeeding times to appreciate
the genuine merit of Chrysostom. They unanimously attribute
to the Christian orator the free command of an elegant and
copious language; the judgment to conceal the advantages
which he derived from the knowledge of rhetoric and
philosophy; an inexhaustible fund of metaphors and
similitudes, of ideas and images, to vary and illustrate the
most familiar topics; the happy art of engaging 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 dramatic representation.
The pastoral labours of the archbishop of Constantinople
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 Chrysostom thundered 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
peculiar 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) the
empress Eudoxia herself, had a much larger share of guilt to
divide among a smaller proportion 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 hastily
reformed by the fervent zeal of their archbishop. He had
condemned from the pulpit the domestic females of the clergy
of Constantinople, 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 entitled to the warmest
approbation of Chrysostom; 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 infested 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 exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction was not always
exempt from passion; nor was it always guided by prudence.
Chrysostom was naturally of a choleric disposition. (44)
Although he struggled, 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 former habits of taking his repasts alone;
and this inhospitable custom, (45) which his enemies imputed
to pride, contributed at least to nourish the infirmity of a
morose and unsocial humour. Separated from that familiar
intercourse which facilitates the knowledge and the despatch
of business, he reposed an unsuspecting confidence in his
deacon Serapion; and seldom applied his speculative
knowledge of human nature to the particular characters
either of his dependents or of his equals. Conscious of the
purity of his intentions, and perhaps of the superiority of
his genius, 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 ambitious 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 Phrygia;
and indiscreetly declared that a deep corruption of simony
and licentiousness had infected the whole episcopal order.
(46) If those bishops were innocent, such a rash and unjust
condemnation 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 Theophilus,(47)
archbishop of Alexandria, an active 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 exasperated by some personal
disputes with Chrysostom himself. (48) By the private
invitation of the empress, Theophilus landed at
Constantinople, with a stout body of Egyptian mariners, to
encounter the populace; and a train of dependent bishops, to
secure by their voices the majority of a synod. The synod(49)
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
Constantinople; 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 reputation 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 audacious
preacher, who had reviled, under the name of Jezebel, the
empress Eudoxia herself. The archbishop was rudely arrested,
and conducted through the city, by one of the Imperial
messengers, who landed him, after a short navigation, 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 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) A seasonable
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 acclamations 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
condemned 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 furious; Herodias again dances; she once more requires
the head of John:" an insolent allusion, which, as a woman
and a sovereign, it was impossible for her to forgive.(51)
The short interval of a perfidious truce was employed to
concert more effectual measures for the disgrace and ruin of
the archbishop. A numerous council 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 barbarian troops
was introduced into the city, to suppress the emotions of
the people. On the vigil of Easter the solemn administration
of baptism was rudely interrupted by the soldiers, who
alarmed the modesty of the naked catechumens, and violated,
by their presence, the awful mysteries of the Christian
worship. Arsacius occupied the church of St. Sophia and the
archiepiscopal 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 Chrysostom was marked by the conflagration of the
cathedral, of the senate-house, and of the adjacent
buildings; and this calamity was imputed, without proof, but
not without probability, to the despair of a persecuted
faction.(52)
Cicero might claim some merit if his voluntary banishment
preserved the peace of the republic;(53) but the submission
of a Chrysostom was the indispensable duty of a Christian
and a subject. 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 hostile attacks of the
Isaurians, and the more implacable 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 character was consecrated by
absence and persecution; the faults of his administration
were no longer remembered; but every tongue repeated the
praises of his genius and virtue: and the respectful
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
misfortunes, maintained a strict and frequent correspondence
(54) with the most distant provinces; exhorted 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; negotiated, by his ambassadors, with the Roman
pontiff and the emperor Honorius; 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 exposed to the revenge
of the oppressors, who continued to abuse the name and
authority of Arcadius. (55) An order was despatched 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 seacoast of the
Euxine, he expired at Comana, in Pontus, in the sixtieth
year of his age. The succeeding generation acknowledged his
innocence and merit. The archbishops of the East, who might
blush that their predecessors had been the enemies of
Chrysostom, were gradually disposed, by the firmness of the
Roman pontiff, to restore the honours of that venerable
name.(56) At the pious solicitation of the clergy and people
of Constantinople, his relics, thirty years after his death,
were transported from their obscure sepulchre to the royal
city.(57) 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, Arcadius and
Eudoxia, the forgiveness of the injured saint.(58)
Yet a reasonable doubt may be entertained whether any stain
of hereditary guilt could be derived from Arcadius to his
successor. Eudoxia 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) 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 miscarriage; and this
untimely death confounded the prophecy of a holy bishop,(60)
who, amidst the universal joy, had ventured to foretell 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) - the licentious excursions, from
Pontus to Palestine, of the Isaurian robbers, whose impunity
accused the weakness of the government; and the earthquakes,
the conflagrations, the famine, and the flights of locusts,
(62) which the popular discontent was equally disposed to
attribute to the incapacity 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) has indeed illuminated the mind
of the dying emperor with a ray of human prudence, or
celestial wisdom. Arcadius considered, with anxious
foresight, the helpless condition of his son Theodosius, who
was no more than seven years of age, the dangerous factions
of a minority, and the aspiring spirit of Jezdegerd, the
Persian monarch. Instead of tempting the allegiance of an
ambitious subject by the participation of supreme power, he
boldly appealed 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 guardian 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)
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 debated 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 unanimous evidence of
contemporaries. The strange novelty of the event, which
excites our distrust, must have attracted their notice; and
their universal silence annihilates the vain tradition of
the succeeding age.
The maxims of Roman jurisprudence, if they 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 sanction of the
royal name, must acquire and exercise an independent
authority. The great officers of the state and army, who had
been appointed before the death of Arcadius, formed an
aristocracy 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) who
obtained, by his superior 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
ministers, obliged Uldin to repass the Danube: the tribe of
the Scyrri, which composed his rearguard, was almost
extirpated; and many thousand captives were dispersed, to
cultivate, with servile labour, the fields of Asia.(66) In
the midst of the public triumph, Constantinople was
protected by a strong enclosure of new and more extensive
walls; the same vigilant care was applied 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
establishing on that river a perpetual fleet of two hundred
and fifty armed vessels.(67)
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, who displayed any courage or capacity, was
permitted to ascend the vacant throne of Theodosius. His
sister Pulcheria,(68) who was only two years older than
himself, received at the age of sixteen the title of
Augusta; and though her favour might be sometimes clouded by
caprice or intrigue, she continued to govern the Eastern
empire near forty years; during the long minority of her
brother, and after his death in her own name, and in the
name of Marcian, her nominal husband. From a motive either
of prudence or religion, she embraced a life of celibacy;
and notwithstanding some aspersions on the chastity of
Pulcheria,(69) 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 presence
of the clergy and people the three daughters of Arcadius(70)
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
Constantinople. 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 excluded from the holy threshold. Pulcheria,
her two sisters, and a chosen train of favourite damsels,
formed a religious community: they renounced the vanity of
dress, interrupted by frequent 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 expense 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 perpetual 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
revelations to the Imperial saint. (71) Yet the devotion of
Pulcheria never diverted her indefatigable attention from
temporal affairs; and she alone, among all the descendants
of the great Theodosius, appears to have inherited any share
of his manly spirit and abilities. The elegant and familiar
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 maturely weighed; her actions were prompt and decisive;
and while she moved without noise or ostentation the wheel
of government, she discreetly attributed to the genius of
the emperor the long tranquillity of his reign. In the last
years of his peaceful life Europe was indeed afflicted by
the arms of Attila; but the more extensive 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 rebellious
subject: and since we cannot applaud the vigour, some praise
may be due to the mildness and prosperity, of the
administration of Pulcheria.
The Roman world was deeply interested in the 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 diligence 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 intentions. 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 laughter, to
listen with condescension, to return suitable 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) was never
excited to support the weight and glory of an illustrious
name; and, instead of aspiring to imitate 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 enforced 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 servile train of women and eunuchs.
The ample leisure which he acquired by neglecting the
essential 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 papers 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, temperate, liberal, and
merciful; but these qualities - which can only deserve the
name of virtues when they are supported by courage and
regulated by discretion - were seldom beneficial, and they
some times proved mischievous, to mankind. His mind,
enervated by a royal education, 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. Theodosius devoutly
worshipped the dead and living saints of the catholic
church; and he once refused to eat till an insolent monk,
who had cast an excommunication on his sovereign,
condescended to heal the spiritual wound which he had
inflicted.(73)
The story of a fair and virtuous maiden, exalted 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 Athenais(74)
was educated by her father Leontius in the religion and
sciences of the Greeks; and so advantageous 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 confidence 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 brother 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
improved 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 immediately 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 ingenuous arts which
had contributed to her greatness, and wisely dedicated her
talents to the honour of religion and of her husband.
Eudocia composed a poetical paraphrase of the first eight
books of the Old Testament and of the prophecies of Daniel
and Zechariah; a cento of the verses of Homer, applied 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
impartial criticism.(75) The fondness of the emperor was not
abated by time and possession; and Eudocia, after the
marriage of her daughter, was permitted to discharge her
grateful vows by a solemn pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Her
ostentatious progress through the East may seem inconsistent
with the spirit of Christian humility: she pronounced from a
throne of gold and gems an eloquent oration to the senate of
Antioch, declared 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 munificence
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. Stephen, and
the undoubted picture of the Virgin, painted by St. Luke.(76)
But this pilgrimage was the fatal term of the glories of
Eudocia. Satiated 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
execution 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 faithful friends, and the
uncommon beauty of Paulinus encouraged the secret rumour
that his guilt was that of a successful lover.(77) As soon as
the empress perceived that the affection of Theodosius was
irretrievably lost, she requested the permission of retiring
to the distant solitude of Jerusalem. She obtained her
request, but the jealousy 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
Theodosius; and the empress, ignominiously stripped of the
honours of her rank,(78) was disgraced, perhaps 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 confirmed 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)
The gentle mind of Theodosius was never inflamed 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) His zeal and obstinacy were revenged on his
brethren: the Magi excited a cruel persecution; and the
intolerant zeal of Jezdegerd was imitated by his son
Varahes, or Bahram, who soon afterwards ascended the throne.
Some Christian fugitives, who escaped to the Roman frontier,
were sternly demanded, and generously refused; and the
refusal, aggravated by commercial disputes, soon kindled a
war between the rival monarchies. The mountains 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
engagements were fought, some towns were besieged, 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 Constantinople were celebrated with festivals and
panegyrics. From these panegyrics the historians(81) 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 despatched 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 themselves 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;
employed the price in the redemption of seven thousand
Persian captives; supplied their wants with affectionate
liberality; and dismissed them to their native country, to
inform their 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 contending
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 degraded the personal character of their
sovereign, by a vain attempt to magnify the extent of his
power, when they seriously advised the Persians to prevent,
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
Armenia might threaten the public tranquillity, the
essential conditions of this treaty were respected near
four-score years by the successors of Constantine and
Artaxerxes.
Since the Roman and Parthian standards first encountered on
the banks of the Euphrates, the kingdom of Armenia(82) 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 related. A
disgraceful treaty had resigned Armenia 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 betrayed, 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) and the unnatural division precipitated
the downfall of that ancient monarchy. Chosroes, the Persian
vassal, reigned over the eastern and most extensive portion
of the country; while the western province acknowledged the
jurisdiction of Arsaces, and the supremacy of the emperor
Arcadius. After the death of Arsaces, the Romans suppressed
the regal government, and imposed on their allies the
condition of subjects. The military command was delegated to
the count of the Armenian frontier; the city of
Theodosiopolis (84) was built and fortified in a strong
situation, on a fertile and lofty ground, near the sources
of the Euphrates; and the dependent 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 negotiate their peace and
pardon at the Persian court; and, returning with their
followers to the palace of Artaxata, acknowledged Chosroes
for their lawful sovereign. About thirty years afterwards,
Artasires, the nephew and successor of Chosroes, fell under
the displeasure of the haughty and capricious nobles of
Armenia; and they unanimously 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 people. 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 pleasures, but he
has been purified in the holy water 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 infirmities of a believer,
for the specious virtues of an heathen."(85) 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 degraded from the royal dignity, (86) which they had
possessed above five hundred and sixty years;(87) and the
dominions of the unfortunate Artasires, under the new and
significant appellation of Persarmenia, were reduced into
the form of a province. 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.