XXVII. CHAP. Theodofius had already fubfided; the deputies of the people, both the bishop and the orator, had obtained a favourable audience; and the reproaches of the emperor were the complaints of injured friendship, rather than the ftern menaces of pride and power. A free and general pardon was granted to the city and citizens of Antioch; the prifon-doors were thrown open; and fenators, who defpaired of their lives, recovered the poffeffion of their houses and estates; and the capital of the East was reftored to the enjoyment of her ancient dignity and fplendour. Theodofius condefcended to praise the fenate of Conftantinople, who had generally interceded for their diftreffed brethren he rewarded the eloquence of Hilarius with the government of Palestine; and difmiffed the bishop of Antioch with the warmest expreffions April 25. of his refpect and gratitude. A thousand new statues arose to the clemency of Theodofius; the applause of his fubjects was ratified by the approbation of his own heart; and the emperor confeffed, that, if the exercise of justice is the most important duty, the indulgence of mercy is the moft exquifite pleasure, of a fovereign "°. Sedition and maffacre of Theffalo nica, A.D. 390. The fedition of Theffalonica is afcribed to a more shameful caufe, and was productive of much 90 The fedition of Antioch is represented in a lively, and almost dramatic, manner, by two orators, who had their respective shares of interest and merit. See Libanius (Orat. xiv, xv. p. 389–420. edit. Morel. Orat. i. p. 1-14. Venet. 1754.), and the twenty orations of St. John Chryfoftom, de Statuis (tom. ii. p. 1–225. edit. Montfaucon.). I do not pretend to much perfonal acquaintance with Chryfoftom; but Tillemont (Hift. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 263283) and Hermant (Vie de St. Chryfoftome, tom. i. p. 137-224.) had read him with pious curiofity, and diligence. more dreadful confequences. That great city, the metropolis of all the Illyrian provinces, had been protected from the dangers of the Gothic war by strong fortifications, and a numerous garrifon. Botheric, the general of those troops, and, as it should feem from his name, a Barbarian, had among his flaves a beautiful boy, who excited the impure defires of one of the charioteers of the Circus. The infolent and brutal lover was thrown into prifon by the order of Botheric; and he fternly rejected the importunate clamours of the multitude, who, on the day of the public games, lamented the abfence of their favourite; and confidered the skill of a charioteer as an object of more importance than his virtue. The refentment of the people was embittered by some previous difputes; and, as the ftrength of the garrifon had been drawn away for the fervice of the Italian war, the feeble remnant, whose numbers were reduced by desertion, could not fave the unhappy general from their licentious fury. Botheric, and several of his principal officers, were inhumanly murdered: their mangled bodies were dragged about the streets; and the emperor, who then refided at Milan, was furprised by the intelligence of the audacious and wanton cruelty of the people of Theffalonica. The fentence of a dif paffionate judge would have inflicted a fevere punishment on the authors of the crime; and the merit of Botheric might contribute to exasperate the grief and indignation of his master. The fiery and choleric temper of Theodofius was impatient of the dilatory forms of a judicial enquiry; VOL. V. F and CHA P. XXVII. XXVII. CHAP. and he haftily refolved, that the blood of his lieutenant fhould be expiated by the blood of the guilty people. Yet his mind ftill fluctuated between the counfels of clemency and of revenge; the zeal of the bishops had almost extorted from the reluctant emperor the promife of a general pardon; his paffion was again inflamed by the flattering fuggeftions of his minifter Rufinus; and, after Theodofius had dispatched the meffengers of death, he attempted, when it was too late, to prevent the execution of his orders. The punishment of a Roman city was blindly committed to the undistinguishing fword of the Barbarians; and the hoftile preparations were concerted with the dark and perfidious artifice of an illegal con fpiracy. The people of Theffalonica were treacherously invited, in the name of their fovereign, to the games of the Circus: and fuch was their infatiate avidity for those amufements, that every confideration of fear, or fufpicion, was difregarded by the numerous fpectators. As foon as the affembly was complete, the foldiers, who had fecretly been posted round the circus, received the fignal, not of the races, but of a general maffacre. The promiscuous carnage continued three hours, without discrimination of ftrangers or natives, of age or fex, of innocence or guilt; the most moderate accounts ftate the number of the flain at feven thousand; and it is affirmed by fome writers, that more than fifteen thousand victims were facrificed to the manes of Botheric. A foreign merchant, who had probably no concern in his murder, offered his own life, and all his wealth, to fup ply ply the place of one of his two fons; but, while the CHAP and con dust of Ambrofe, The respectful attachment of the emperor for Influence the orthodox clergy, had difpofed him to love and admire the character of Ambrofe; who united all the epifcopal virtues in the most eminent degree. The friends and minifters of Theodofius imitated the example of their fovereign; and he obferved, with more furprise than difpleasure, that all his fecret counfels were immediately com-. 91 The original evidence of Ambrofe (tom. ii. epift. li. p. 998.), Auguftin (de Civitat. Dei, v. 26.), and Paulinus (in Vit. Ambrof. c. 24.), is delivered in vague expreffions of horror and pity. It is illuftrated by the fubfequent and unequal teftimonies of Sozomen (1. vii. c. 25.), Theodoret (1. v. c. 17), Theophanes (Chronograph. p. 62.), Cedrenus (p. 317.), and Zonaras (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 34.). Zofimus alone, the partial enemy of Theodofius, moft unaccountably paffes over in filence the woift of his actions. XXVII. CHAP municated to the archbishop; who acted from the laudable perfuafion, that every measure of civil government may have fome connection with the glory of God, and the interest of the true religion. The monks and populace of Callinicum, an obfcure town on the frontier of Perfia, excited by their own fanaticism, and by that of their bishop, had tumultuously burnt a conventicle of the Valentinians, and a fynagogue of the Jews. The feditious prelate was condemned, by the magiftrate of the province, either to rebuild the synagogue, or to repay the damage; and this moderate fentence was confirmed by the emperor. But it was not confirmed by the archbishop of Milan 92. He dictated an epiftle of cenfure and reproach, more fuitable, perhaps, if the emperor had received the mark of circumcifion, and renounced the faith of his baptifm. Ambrofe confiders the toleration of the Jewish, as the perfecution of the Christian, religion; boldly declares, that he himfelf, and every true believer, would eagerly dif pute with the bishop of Callinicum the merit of the deed, and the crown of martyrdom; and laments, in the most pathetic terms, that the execution of the fentence would be fatal to the fame and falvation of Theodofius. As this private admonition did not produce an immediate effect, the archbishop, from his pulpit ", publicly ad 93 92 See the whole tranfaction in Ambrofe (tom. ii. epift. xl, xli. p. 946–956.), and his biographer Paulinus (c. 23.). Bayle and Barbeyrac (Morales des Péres, c. xvii. p. 325, &c.) have justly condemned the archbishop. 93 His fermon is a ftrange allegory of Jeremiah's rod, of an almondtree, of the woman who washed and anointed the feet of Chrift. But the peroration is direct and perfonal. 5 dreffed |