XXXI. times executed; and there is reafon to believe, CHAP. 188 of the fer ven provinces of Gaul, Vis It is fomewhat remarkable, or rather it is ex- Affembly tremely natural, that the revolt of Britain and Armorica fhould have introduced an appearance of liberty into the obedient provinces of Gaul. A.D.418 In a folemn edict 189, filled with the ftrongest affurances of that paternal affection which princes fo often exprefs, and fo feldom feel, the emperor Honorius promulgated his intention of convening an annual affembly of the Seven provinces: a name peculiarly appropriated to Aquitain, and the ancient Narbonnefe, which had long fince exchanged their Celtic rudeness for the useful and elegant arts of Italy 19°. Arles, the feat of government and commerce, was appointed for the place of the affembly; which regularly 188 Confult Ufher, de Antiq. Ecclef. Britannicar. c. 8—12. 189 See the correct text of this edict, as published by Sirmond (Not. ad Sidon. Apollin. p. 147.). Hincmar, of Rheims, who affigns a place to the bishops, had probably feen (in the ninth century) a more perfect copy. Dubos, Hift. Critique de la Monarchie Françoife, tom. i. p. 241-255. 190 It is evident from the Notitia, that the feven provinces were the Viennenfis, the maritime Alps, the first and fecond Narbonnefe, Novempopulania, and the first and fecond Aquitain. In the room of the first Aquitain, the Abbé Dubos, on the authority of Hincmar, defires to introduce the firft Lugdunenfis, or Lyonnefe. VOL. V. B b continued 4 18 CHAP. continued twenty-eight days, from the fifteenth of Auguft to the thirteenth of September, of every year. It confifted of the Prætorian præfect of the Gauls; of feven provincial governors, one confular and fix prefidents; of the magiftrates, and perhaps the bifhops, of about fixty cities; and of a competent, though indefinite, number of the most honourable and opulent poffeffors of land, who might justly be confidered as the reprefentatives of their country. They were impowered to interpret and communicate the laws of their fovereign; to expofe the grievances and wishes of their conftituents; to moderate the exceffive or unequal weight of taxes; and to deliberate on every fubject of local or national importance, that could tend to the reftoration of the peace and profperity of the feven provinces. If fuch an institution, which gave the people an intereft in their own government, had been univerfally established by Trajan or the Antonines, the feeds of public wisdom and virtue might have been cherished and propagated in the empire of Rome. The privileges of the fubject would have fecured the throne of the monarch; the abuses of an arbitrary administration might have been prevented, in fome degree, or corrected, by the interpofition of these representative affemblies; and the country would have been defended against a foreign enemy, by the arms of natives and freemen. Under the mild and generous influence of liberty, the Roman empire might have remained invincible and immortal ; or if its exceffive magnitude, and the inftability of XXXI. of human affairs, had oppofed fuch perpetual CHAP. continuance, its vital and conftituent members might have separately preserved their vigour and independence. But in the decline of the empire, when every principle of health and life had been exhausted, the tardy application of this partial remedy was incapable of producing any important or falutary effects. The emperor Honorius expreffes his furprise, that he must compel the reluctant provinces to accept a privilege which they should ardently have folicited. A fine of three, or even five, pounds of gold, was impofed on the absent representatives; who seem to have declined this imaginary gift of a free constitution, as the last and most cruel infult of their oppreffors. СНАР. The em pire of the Eaft, Reign of CHA P. XXXII. Arcadius Emperor of the Eaft.-Adminiftration and Difgrace of Eutropius-Revolt of Gainas.-Perfecution of St. John Chryfoftom.-Theodofius II. Emperor of the Eaft.-His Sifter Pulcheria.His Wife Eudocia.-The Perfian War, and Divifion of Armenia. HE divifion of the Roman world between THE the fons of Theodofius, marks the final establishment of the empire of the Eaft, which, from the reign of Arcadius to the taking of 395-1453. Conftantinople by the Turks, fubfifted one thoufand and fifty-eight years, in a state of premature and perpetual decay. The fovereign of that empire affumed, and obftinately retained, the vain, and at length fictitious, title of Emperor of the ROMANS; and the hereditary appellations of CÆSAR and AUGUSTUS continued to declare, that he was the legitimate fucceffor of the firft of men, who had reigned over the firft of nations. The palace of Conftantinople rivalled, and perhaps excelled, the magnificence of Perfia; and the eloquent fermons of St. Chryfoftom' cele 1 Father Montfaucon, who, by the command of his Benedictine fuperiors, was compelled (fee Longueruana, tom. i. p. 205.) to execute the laborious edition of St. Chryfoftom, in thirteen volumes in folio (Paris 1738.), amufed himself with extracting from that immenfe collection of morals, fome curious antiquities, which illuftrate the nanners of the Theodofian age (See Chryfoftom. Opera, tom. xiii. p. 192-196.), and his French Differtation, in the Memoires de l'Acad. des Infcriptions, tom. xiii. p. 474-490. XXXII. brate, while they condemn, the pompous luxury CHAP. of the reign of Arcadius. "The emperor," says he, "wears on his head either a diadem, or a "crown of gold, decorated with precious ftones. " of ineftimable value. Thefe ornaments, and "his purple garments, are referved for his facred "perfon alone; and his robes of filk are em"broidered with the figures of golden dragons. "His throne is of maffy gold. Whenever he << appears in public, he is furrounded by his "courtiers, his guards, and his attendants. "Their spears, their fhields, their cuiraffes, the "bridles and trappings of their horses, have "either the fubftance, or the or the appearance, of "gold; and the large fplendid bofs in the "midst of their fhield, is encircled with fmaller "boffes, which reprefent the fhape of the human eye. The two mules that draw the chariot of "the monarch, are perfectly white, and fhining "all over with gold. The chariot itself, of pure " and folid gold, attracts the admiration of the fpectators, who contemplate the purple cur"tains, the fnowy carpet, the fize of the pre"cious ftones, and the refplendent 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 feated on his throne, with his arms, "his horfes, and his guards befide him; and his "vanquished enemies in chains at his feet." The fucceffors of Conftantine established their perpetual refidence in the royal city, which he Bb 3 had |