XXX. cealed his vices under the mask of Chriftian piety, CHAP. had fecretly undermined the benefactor, by whose favour he was promoted to the honourable offices of the Imperial palace. Olympius revealed to the unfufpecting emperor, who had attained the twenty-fifth year of his age, that he was without weight, or authority, in his own government; and artfully alarmed his timid and indolent difpofition by a lively picture of the designs of Stilicho, who already meditated the death of his fovereign, with the ambitious hope of placing the diadem on the head of his fon Eucherius. The emperor was inftigated, by his new favourite, to affume the tone of independent dignity; and the minister was astonished to find, that fecret refolutions were formed in the court and council, which were repugnant to his intereft, or to his intentions. Instead of residing in the palace of Rome, Honorius declared, that it was his pleafure to return to the fecure fortrefs of Ravenna. On the first intelligence of the death of his brother Arcadius, he prepared to vifit Conftantinople, and to regulate, with the authority of a guardian, the provinces of the infant Theodofius 10. The justify his character, which Zofimus (1. v. p. 340.) exposes with visible satisfaction. Auguftin revered the piety of Olympius, whom he styles a true fon of the church (Baronius, Annal. Ecclef. A. D. 408. N° 19, &c. Tillemont, Mem. Ecclef. tom. xiii. p. 467, 468.). But these praises, which the African saint so unworthily betows, might proceed, as well from ignorance, as from adulation. 105 Zofimus, 1. v. p. 338, 339. Sozomen, 1. ix. c. 4. Stilicho offered to undertake the journey to Conftantinople, that he might divert Honorius from the vain attempt. The Eastern empire would not have obeyed, and could not have been conquered. repre CHAP. reprefentation of the difficulty and expence of Difgrace and death Aug. 23. and fudden fally of active diligence; but the dangerous project of fhewing the emperor to the camp of Pavia, which was compofed of the Roman troops, the enemies of Stilicho, and his Barbarian auxiliaries, remained fixed and unalterable. The minifter was preffed, by the advice of his confident Juftinian, a Roman advocate, of a lively and penetrating genius, to oppofe a journey fo prejudicial to his reputation and fafety. His ftrenuous, but ineffectual, efforts confirmed the triumph of Olympius; and the prudent lawyer withdrew himself from the impending ruin of his patron. In the paffage of the emperor through Bologna, of Stilicho, a mutiny of the guards was excited and appeased A.D.408, by the fecret policy of Stilicho; who announced his inftructions to decimate the guilty, and afcribed to his own interceffion the merit of their pardon. After this tumult, Honorius embraced, for the last time, the minifter whom he now confidered as a tyrant, and proceeded on his way to the camp of Pavia, where he was received by the loyal acclamations of the troops who were affembled for the fervice of the Gallic war. On the morning of the fourth day, he pronounced, as he had been taught, a military oration in the prefence of the foldiers, whom the charitable vifits, and artful difcourfes, of Olympius had prepared to execute a dark and bloody confpiracy. At the first fignal, they maffacred the friends of Stilicho, the most illustrious officers of the empire ; 7 XXX. pire; two Prætorian præfects, of Gaul, and of CHAP. Italy; two masters-general, of the cavalry, and infantry; the master of the offices; the quæftor, the treasurer, and the count of the domestics. Many lives were loft; many houses were plundered; the furious fedition continued to rage till the clofe of the evening; and the trembling emperor, who was feen in the streets of Pavia, without his robes or diadem, yielded to the perfuafions of his favourite; condemned the memory of the flain; and folemnly approved the innocence and fidelity of their affaffins. The intelligence of the maffacre of Pavia filled the mind of Stilicho with just and gloomy apprehenfions: and he instantly fummoned, in the camp of Bologna, a council of the confederate leaders, who were attached to his fervice, and would be involved in his ruin. The impetuous voice of the affembly called aloud for arms, and for revenge; to march, without a moment's delay, under the banners of a hero, whom they had so often followed to victory; to surprise, to opprefs, to extirpate the guilty Olympius, and his degenerate Romans; and perhaps to fix the diadem on the head of their injured general. Instead of executing a refolution, which might have been justified by fuccefs, Stilicho hesitated till he was irrecoverably loft. He was still ignorant of the fate of the emperor; he distrusted the fidelity of his own party; and he viewed with horror the fatal confequences of arming a crowd of licentious Barbarians, against the soldiers and people of Italy. The confederates, impatient of VOL. V. R his XXX. CHAP. his timorous and doubtful delay, haftily retired, with fear and indignation. At the hour of midnight, Sarus, a Gothic warrior, renowned among the Barbarians themselves for his ftrength and va-' lour, fuddenly invaded the camp of his benefactor, plundered the baggage, cut in pieces the faithful Huns, who guarded his perfon, and penetrated to the tent, where the minifter, penfive and fleeplefs, meditated on the dangers of his fituation. Stilicho escaped with difficulty from the fword of the Goths; and, after iffuing a laft and generous admonition to the cities of Italy, to fhut their gates against the Barbarians, his confidence, or his despair, urged him to throw himfelf into Ravenna, which was already in the abfolute poffeffion of his enemies. Olympius, who had affumed the dominion of Honorius, was speedily informed, that his rival had embraced, as a fuppliant, the altar of the Chriftian church. The bafe and cruel difpofition of the hypocrite was incapable of pity or remorfe; but he piously affected to elude, rather than to violate, the privilege of the fanctuary. Count Heraclian, with a troop of foldiers, appeared, at the dawn of day, before the gates of the church of Ravenna. The bishop was fatisfied by a folemn oath, that the Imperial mandate only directed them to fecure the perfon of Stilicho: but, as foon as the unfortunate minifter had been tempted beyond the holy threshold, he produced the warrant for his inftant execution. Stilicho fupported, with calm refignation, the injurious names of traitor and parricide; XXX. parricide; repreffed the unfeasonable zeal of his CHAP. followers, who were ready to attempt an ineffectual rescue; and, with a firmness not unworthy of the last of the Roman generals, fubmitted his neck to the fword of Heraclian *05. cuted. The fervile crowd of the palace, who had fo Hismemolong adored the fortune of Stilicho, affected to ry perfeinfult his fall; and the moft diftant connection with the mafter-general of the Weft, which had fo lately been a title to wealth and honours, was ftudiously denied, and rigorously punished. His family, united by a triple alliance with the family of Theodofius, might envy the condition of the meaneft peafant. The flight of his fon Eucherius was intercepted; and the death of that innocent youth foon followed the divorce of Thermantia, who filled the place of her fifter Maria; and who, like Maria, had remained a virgin in the Imperial bed 106. The friends of Stilicho, who had efcaped the maffacre of Pavia, were perfecuted by the implacable revenge of Olympius: and the most exquifite cruelty was employed to extort the confeffion of a treafonable and facrilegious confpiracy. They died in filence: their firmness 105 Zofimus (1. v. p. 336-345.) has copiously, though not clearly, related the difgrace and death of Stilicho. Olympiodorus (apud Phot. p. 177.), Orofius (1. vii. c. 38. p. 571, 572.), Sozomen (l. ix. c. 4.), and Philoftorgius (1. xi. c. 3. 1. xii. c. 2.), afford fupplemental hints. 106 Zofimus, 1. v. P. 333. The marriage of a Chriftian with two fifters, fcandalifes Tillemont (Hift. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 557.) ; who expects, in vain, that pope Innocent 1. fhould have done fomething in the way, either of cenfure, or of dispensation. |