XXII.

CHAP. dreadful interval of suspense. Every rumour agitated the hopes and fears of the Antiochians, and they heard with terror, that their sovereign, exasperated by the insult which had been offered to his own statue, and more especially to those of his beloved wife, had resolved to level with the ground the offend ing city; and to massacre, without distinction of age or sex, the criminal inhabitants; many of whom were actually driven by their apprehensions to seek a refuge in the mountains of Syria, and the adjacent March 22. desert. At length, twenty-four days after the sed tion, the general Hellebicus, and Cæsarius, master of the offices, declared the will of the emperor, and the sentence of Antioch. That proud capital was degraded from the rank of a city; and the metropolis of the East, stripped of its lands, its privileges, and its revenues, was subjected, under the humiliating denomination of a village, to the jurisdiction of Laodicea. The Baths, the Circus, and the Theatres, were shut; and, that every source of plenty and pleasure might at the same time be intercepted, the distribution of corn was abolished, by the severe instructions of Theodosius. His commissioners then proceeded to inquire into the guilt of individuals; of those who had perpetrated, and of those who had not prevented, the destruction of the sacred statues. The tribunal of Hellebicus and Cæsarius, encompassed with armed soldiers, was erected in the midst of the Forum. The noblest, and most wealthy, of the citizens of Antioch, appeared before them in chains; the examination was assisted by the use of torture, and their sentence was pronounced or suspended, according to the judg ment of these extraordinary magistrates. The houses of the criminals were exposed to sale, their wives and children were suddenly reduced from affluence and luxury to the most abject distress; and a bloody execution was expected to conclude the horrors. But

the ministers of Theodosius performed with reluct- CHAP. the dance the cruel task which had been assigned to them; then they dropped a gentle tear over the calamities of the

people; and they listened with reverence to the pressing solicitations of the monks and hermits, who the descended in swarms from the mountains. Hellewith bicus and Cæsarius were persuaded to suspend the bians execution of their sentence; and it was agreed that

and Case

f the expe

proud of

and the

its printe

he hum

liction

heatres

and pleas

he dis

en pr

XXII.

of Theo

the former should remain at Antioch, while the
latter returned, with all possible speed, to Constan-
tinople, and presumed once more to consult the will
of his sovereign. The resentment of Theodosius had Clemency
already subsided; the deputies of the people, both dosius.
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 stern
menaces of pride and power.
power. A free and general
pardon was granted to the city and citizens of An-
tioch; the prison-doors were thrown open; senators,
who despaired of their lives, recovered the possession
of their houses and estates; and the capital of the
East was restored to the enjoyment of her ancient
dignity and splendour. Theodosius condescended
to praise the senate of Constantinople, who had ge-
nerously interceded for their distressed brethren: he
rewarded the eloquence of Hilarius with the govern-
ment of Palestine; and dismissed the bishop of An-
tioch with the warmest expressions of his respect and
gratitude. A thousand new statues arose to the cle- April 25,
mency of Theodosius; the applause of his subjects
was ratified by the approbation of his own heart; and
the emperor confessed, that, if the exercise of justice
is the most important duty, the indulgence of mercy
is the most exquisite pleasure, of a sovereign.

The sedition of Thessalonica is ascribed to a more Sedition shameful cause, and was productive of much more sacre of dreadful consequences. That great city, the metro

and mas

Thessalo-
nica.
A. D. 390.

CHAP. polis of all the Illyrian provinces, had been protected XXII. from the dangers of the Gothic war by strong fort fications, and a numerous garrison. Botheric, the ge neral of those troops, and, as it should seem from his name, a Barbarian, had among his slaves a beautiful boy, who excited the impure desires of one of the charioteers of the Circus. The insolent and brutal lover was thrown into prison by the order of Botherit; and he sternly rejected the importunate clamours of the multitude, who, on the day of the public games, lamented the absence of their favourite, and cons dered the skill of a charioteer as an object of more importance than his virtue. The resentment of the people was imbittered by some previous disputes; and, as the strength of the garrison had been draw away for the service of the Italian war, the feeble remnant, whose numbers were reduced by desertion, could not save the unhappy general from their licen tious fury. Botheric, and several of his princip officers, were inhumanly murdered: their mangled bodies were dragged about the streets; and the emperor, who then resided at Milan, was surprised by the intelligence of the audacious and wanton cruelty of the people of Thessalonica. The sentence of a dispassionate judge would have inflicted a severe 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 Theodosius was impatient of the dilatory forms of a judicial inquiry; and he hastily resolved, that the blood of his lieutenant should be expiated by the blood of the guilty people. Yet his mind still fluctuated between the counsels of clemency and of revenge; the zeal of the bishops had almost extorted from the reluctant emperor the promise of a general pardon; his passion was again inflamed by the flattering suggestions of his minister Rufinus; and, after

XXII.

Theodosius had despatched the messengers of death, CHAP. he attempted, when it was too late, to prevent the gal execution of his orders. The punishment of a Roath man city was blindly committed to the undistinguishdaming sword of the Barbarians; and the hostile pre

"eer as an

Come pai

carrison har

Italian u

reduced

eral form

eral

red: the

reets;

parations were concerted with the dark and perfidious N. The artifice of an illegal conspiracy. The people of Thesabsalonica were treacherously invited, in the name of he imports their sovereign, to the games of the Circus; and such dard was their insatiate avidity for those amusements, that her every consideration of fear, or suspicion, was disregarded by the numerous spectators. As soon as the The assembly was complete, the soldiers, who had secretly been posted round the Circus, received the signal, not of the races, but of a general massacre. The promiscuous carnage continued three hours, without discrimination of strangers or natives, of age or sex, of innocence or guilt: the most moderate accounts state the number of the slain at seven thousand; and it is affirmed by some writers, that more than fifteen thousand victims were sacrificed 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 supply the place of one of his two sons; but, while the father hesitated with equal tenderness, while he was doubtful to choose, and unwilling to condemn, the soldiers determined his suspense, by plunging their daggers at the same moment into the breasts of the defenceless youths. The apology of the assassins, that they were obliged to produce the prescribed number of heads, serves only to increase, by an appearance of order and design, the horrors of the massacre, which was executed by the commands of Theodosius. The guilt of the emperor is aggravated by his long and frequent residence at Thessalonica. The situation of the unfortunate city, the aspect of the streets and buildings, the dress and faces of the

was

мр

he sea

ted si

XXII.

CHAP. inhabitants, were familiar, and even present, to his imagination; and Theodosius possessed a quick and lively sense of the existence of the people whom ha destroyed*.

Influence

and con-
duct of

A. D. 388.

The respectful attachment of the emperor for the orthodox clergy had disposed him to love and adAmbrose, mire the character of Ambrose; who united all the episcopal virtues in the most eminent degree. The friends and ministers of Theodosius imitated the example of their sovereign; and he observed, with more surprise than displeasure, that all his secret counsels were immediately communicated to the archbishop; who acted from the laudable persuasion, that every measure of civil government may have some connexion with the glory of God, and the interest of the true religion. Theodosius was sincere; and, during the term of his residence at Milan, his affec tion for Ambrose was continually increased by the habits of pious and familiar conversation.

Penance of Theodosius.

A. D. 390.

When Ambrose was informed of the massacre of Thessalonica, his mind was filled with horror and anguish. He retired into the country to indulge his grief, and to avoid the presence of Theodosius. But as the archbishop was satisfied that a timid silence would render him the accomplice of his guilt, he represented, in a private letter, the enormity of the crime; which could only be effaced by the tears of penitence. The episcopal rigour of Ambrose was tem pered by prudence; and he contented himself with signifying an indirect sort of excommunication, by the assurance, that he had been warned in a vision, not to offer the oblation in the name, or in the pre

* The original evidence of Ambrose (tom. ii. epist. li. p. 998), Augustin (de Civitat. Dei, v. 26), and Paulinus (in Vit. Ambros. c. 24), is delivered in vague expressions of horror and pity. It is illustrated by the subsequent and unequal testimonies of Sozomen (1. vii. c. 25), Theodoret (1. v. c. 17), Theophanes (Chro nograph. p. 62), Cedrenus (p. 317), and Zonaras (tom. ii. 1. xiii. p. 34). Zosi mus alone, the partial enemy of Theodosius, most unaccountably passes over in silence the worst of his actions.