CHA P. XIX. Conftantius fole Emperor. Elevation and Death of THE divided provinces of the empire were again united by the victory of Conftantius; but as that feeble prince was deftitute of perfonal merit, either in peace or war; as he feared his generals, and diftrusted his minifters; the triumph of his arms ferved only to eftablish the reign of the eunuchs over the Roman world. Those unhappy beings, the ancient production of Oriental jealousy and defpotifm, were introduced into Greece and Rome by the contagion of Afiatic luxury. Their progrefs was rapid; and the eunuchs, who, in the time of Auguftus, had been abhorred, as the monstrous retinue of an Egyp tian queen', were gradually admitted into the fa milies of matrons, of fenators, and of the em perors themselves *. Restrained by the fevere edicts of Domitian and Nerva', cherished by the pride of Diocletian, reduced to an humble ftation by the prudence of Constantine, they multiplied in the palaces of his degenerate fons, and infenfibly acquired the knowledge, and at length the direction, of the fecret councils of Conftantius. The averfion and contempt which mankind has fo uniformly entertained for that im CHAP. XIX. Power of the eu nuchs. CHAP. perfect fpecies, appears to have degraded their XIX. Education of Gallus and Julian. character, and to have rendered them almost as incapable as they were fuppofed to be, of conceiving any generous fentiment, or of performing any worthy action. But the eunuchs were skilled in the arts of flattery and intrigue; and they alternately governed the mind of Conftantius by his fears, his indolence, and his vanity'. Whilft he viewed in a deceitful mirror the fair appearance of public profperity, he fupinely permitted them to intercept the complaints of the injured provinces, to accumulate immenfe treafures by the fale of justice and of honours; to difgrace the most important dignities, by the promotion of those who had purchased at their hands the powers of oppreffion and to gratify their refentment against the few independent spirits, who arrogantly refused to folicit the protection of slaves. Of thefe slaves the most diftinguished was the chamberlain Eufebius, who ruled the monarch and the palace with fuch abfolute fway, that Conftantius, according to the farcasm of an impartial hiftorian, poffeffed fome credit with this haughty favourite ". By his artful fuggeftions, the emperor was perfuaded to fubfcribe the condemnation of the unfortunate Gallus, and to add a new crime to the long lift of unnatural murders which pollute the honour of the house of Conftantine. 1 When the two nephews of Conftantine, Gallus and Julian, were faved from the fury of the fol diers, the former was about twelve, and the latter about fix, years of age; and, as the eldest was thought to be of a fickly conftitution, they obtained with the lefs difficulty a precarious and dependent life, from the affected pity of Conftantius, who was fenfible that the execution of thefe helpless orphans would have been efteemed, by all mankind, an act of the most deliberate cruelty". Different cities of Ionia and Bithynia were affigned for the places of their exile and education; but, as foon as their growing years excited the jealoufy of the emperor, he judged it more prudent to fecure thofe unhappy youths in the ftrong caftle of Macellum, near Cæfarea. The treatment which they experienced during a fix years confinement, was partly fuch as they could hope from a careful guardian, and partly fuch as they might dread from a fufpicious ty rant ". Their prifon was an ancient palace, the refidence of the kings of Cappadocia; the fitua tion was pleasant, the buildings ftately, the inclofure fpacious. They purfued their ftudies, and practifed their exercises, under the tuition of the moft skilful mafters; and the numerous household appointed to attend, or rather to guard, the nephews of Conftantine, was not unworthy of the dignity of their birth. But they could not disguise to themselves that they were deprived of fortune, of freedom, and of fafety; fecluded from the fociety of all whom they could truft or esteem, and condemned to pass their melancholy hours in the company of slaves, devoted to the commands of a tyrant, who had already injured them beyond the hope of reconciliation., At. CHAP. XIX. XIX. CHAP. length, however, the emergencies of the state compelled the emperor, or rather his eunuchs, to invest Gallus, in the twenty-fifth of his age, clared Cæfar, March 5. year Gallus de- with the title of Cæfar, and to cement this political connection by his marriage with the princess A. D. Conftantina. After a formal interview, in which the two princes mutually engaged their faith never to undertake any thing to the prejudice of each other, they repaired without delay to their respective stations. Conftantius continued his march towards the Weft, and Gallus fixed his refidence at Antioch, from whence, with a delegated authority, he adminiftered the five great dio. ceses of the eastern præfecture". In this fortunate change, the new Cæfar was not unmindful of his brother Julian, who obtained the honours of his rank, the appearances of liberty, and the reftitution of an ample patrimony ". Cruelty dence of Gallus, The writers the most indulgent to the memory and impru of Gallus, and even Julian himself, though he wished to caft a veil over the frailties of his brother, are obliged to confefs that the Cæfar was incapable of reigning. Tranfported from a prison to a throne, he poffeffed neither genius nor application, nor docility to compenfate for the want of knowledge and experience. A temper naturally morofe and violent, instead of being corrected, was foured by folitude and adverfity; the remembrance of what he had endured, difpofed him to retaliation rather than to fympathy; and the ungoverned fallies of his rage were often fatal to those who approached his perfon, or were fub. ject to his power ". Conftantina, his wife, is described, not as a woman, but as one of the infernal furies tormented with an infatiate thirst of human blood ". Inftead of employing her influence to infinuate the mild counfels of prudence and humanity, she exafperated the fierce paffions. of her husband; and as she retained the vanity, though she had renounced the gentleness of her fex, a pearl necklace was efteemed an equivalent price for the murder of an innocent and virtuous nobleman ". The cruelty of Gallus was fometimes displayed in the undiffembled violence of popular or military executions; and was fometimes disguised by the abuse of law, and the forms of judicial proceedings. The private houses of Antioch, and the places of public refort, were befieged by fpies and informers; and the Cæfar himself, concealed in a plebeian habit, very frequently condefcended to affume that odious character. Every apartment of the palace was adorned with the inftruments of death and torture, and a general confternation was diffused through the capital of Syria. The Prince of the Eaft, as if he had been confcious how much he had to fear, and how little he deferved to reign, felected for the objects of his refentment, the provincials accufed of fome imaginary treason, and his own courtiers, whom with more reafon he fufpected of incenfing, by their fecret correfpondence, the timid and fufpicious mind of Conftantius. But he forgot that he was depriving himself of his only fupport, the affection of the people; whilft he furnished the СНАР. XIX. |